Dec. daily 18 - 25

Before I get started today let me just say one thing, Downton Abbey. 

OMG!  Its even better than last season......and longer.  2 hours!  I'm loving it!

Okay, let me say one more thing, Matthew.........sigh.

Alright I'm done.  Go watch it.  Trust me, you'll love it too.



Day 18

Day 19

This page is a slightly different size.  I wanted to scallop the edge and use the round tab punch but didn't want it to stick out farther than the other pages.  So I cut off 1/2".  Since I didn't have a picture for the day it worked just fine.

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

 

Day 23

Day 24 left side

 

Day 24 right side

 

Day 25 left side

Day 25 right side

Day 25 backside

All pages use a variety of these products:

Classic Numbers (retired) and Fabulous Phrases.  Garden green, riding hood red, crumb cake and natuals white cardstock.  Riding hood red and garden green inks.  Big shot, label framelits, hemp, round tab punch, black journaler, scallop border punch, 3/4" and 1" circle punches, wide oval punch, and dimensionals.

This is what it looks like from the side.  I used book rings to bind it. 

So what did I like this year and what do I plan on changing for next? 

• I liked the size, 5.5 x 8.5.  I like being able to make one cut and have 2 pages.  No waste that way.
• I like that I stuck to just a few colors.  
• I'm not so sure I like using just 1 pic per day.  Then again, there were quite a few days that I took no pics.  
• I didn't like how so inconsistent I was in keeping up with it daily.  

Next year:

• I plan on journaling EVERY DAY.  No matter what.  This year I did write down a subject to write about but not the story.  Since I had to go back and play catch up, I know I missed out on a bunch of stories I would have liked to tell.  bad, bad, bad.
• I'd like to be a little more creative in adding more pics.  This will take lots of pre-thinking/designing on my part, but it will be worth it. 

Overall, I love this project.  I really do.  Even though I didn't get to tell as many stories as I would like, it will still be a family treasure.  

I hope next year you join me.  

Thanks for stopping by.  I have some non-holiday projects up my sleeve coming soon.

Blessings, b. 

Dec. daily, days 9-17

Okay, lets continue shall we? 

For those of you who didn't do this this year, I hope my little album inspires you to try it next year.  Not that mine is all that wonderful but when its done, its a magical little slice of life that you will treasure. 

Promise.

day 9

I sewed a pocket!  I didn't even cuss at the sewing machine!  Again, see that groovy die cut?  That is one of the Label Framelits in the Occasions Mini.  Love them!

In the pocket are everybody's wish lists.  And my final list of what I bought everyone.  I have to keep track or I WAY overspend.

day 10

Since this is the backside and it already had the stitching on it, I thought it would be cute to stitch a little date tag.  Nifty eh?

day 11

Oh the garden.......I have loved my garden again this year.  I just last weekend cut back the cherry tomato.  The onions are the most delicious onions ever!  I only like onions when they are cooked to smithereens and these ones are like onion candy.  So good.  We are getting ready to plant the broccoli and more carrots. 

day 12

This picture is so HIM!  He hates for me to take it. 

day 13

Big big day for Grace.  She made that star last year and I've kept it  just waiting for the perfect use.  There ya go..........

day 14

day 15

day 16

day 17

All pages use a combination of these products:

Classic Numbers (retired) Headline numbers (retired) and Fabulous Phrases sets. 
Crumb cake, naturals white, garden green or riding hood red cardstock.
Black Stazon, garden green and riding hood red inks.
Big shot, label framelits, 3/4" and 1" circle punches, round tab punch, dimensionals, bakers twine, hemp, black journaler, scallop border punch and Frostwood lodge DSP


Thats it for today.  I will have my final thoughts on this years process when I post the last pages.  Its always a changing and growing experience for me.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

back in the saddle again..........

Hey there!  I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Day!  Ours was a sign of times to come.  Both big kids went to parties where they slept over.  So it was just me and the Mr. and Grace.  Talk about quiet! 

I've been thinking about resolutions and what I'd really like to focus on this year.   

Most importantly I want to quit procrastinating so much.  I don't even realize I'm doing it half the time.  Simple things like, paying the bills on the day we get paid, cleaning the toilet before I see its getting a little...........you know, sweeping and mopping the kitchen at least weekly, etc.  

Can anyone relate? 

Hello?.........hello?.......moving on.....

Alrighty then, I know its already January but I still want to show you the completed Dec. Daily.  I'll just do 8 pages at a time so I don't bore you to death. 

The cover:

  Grace said she wanted to do the cover.  I like it.


Inside the front cover:

Do you see that groovy die cut shape?  Thats the new Label Framelits.  Super neato dies in the Occasions Catalog.  Love them!


Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

I didn't get permission from my friends to post their pics.  Really, they have beautiful faces.

Day 4

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

Day 8:

All pages use a variety of the same supplies: 

Classic Numbers (retired) and Fabulous Phrases.  Crumb cake, naturals white, garden green, riding hood red cardstock.  Riding hood red and garden green inks.  Round tab punch, 3/4" and 1" circle punches, bakers twine, hemp, black journaler, Forest Lodge DSP, scallop border punch, leaves #2 die, big shot, and dimensionals.

The pages are 8.5 x 5.5, just 1/2 a piece of cardstock.  No waste that way.  I'm all about making things simple. 

Alrighty then, its back to work tomorrow.   

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking in. 

Blessings, b.

Are you there?

Once again I'm sorry about disappearing on you.  Things got super hectic again and I got caught up in too many things. 

So I slowed down....................well, as much as the kids would let me.

I played LOTS of Christmas music (love my Johnny Mathis) and cooked and shopped and visited and ate way too many goodies.  Way too many.

I hope you were able to enjoy the holiday with your loved ones.

Now a new year is going to start and I'm thinking of what I want to do differently this year.  There is so much room for improvement.  Leave a comment here or shoot me an email and let me know what your 2012 goals are and I'll share mine as soon as I narrow the list down. 

So for today I want to show you a few things I worked on for Christmas.  The Dec. Daily is really behind but I will be showing you that also in the next few days. 

Delicate Doilies.  Garden green, crumb cake and poppy parade cardstock.  Versamark ink.  Whisper white embossing powder, simple letters die, big shot. 


Remember 17 had that Secret Santa thing in yearbook?  Well this was another little gifty for the girl. 

Quick, simple and cute.  I used the Coluzzle to cut out the circle. 

Loads of Love stamps.  Crumb cake, whisper white, old olive and riding hood red cardstock.  Black Stazon ink.  Leaves #2 die, big shot, 1/2" circle punch, cropodile, Brights Patterned DSP, old olive striped ribbon, cherry cobbler bakers twine. 

Teacher gifts.  I had some really old kraft boxes that SU! used to sell and are selling again in the Holiday Mini, to box up some crackers and cookies. 

The tags have a Starbucks gift card in them.  We had the idea to make the leaves look like holly but I kept thinking they look like antlers.  I didn't tell Grace that though :). 

Loads of Love and Woodgrain.  Crumb cake, riding hood red and whisper white cardstock.  Garden green and choc. chip markers, crumb cake ink.  White taffeta, Frostwood lodge DSP, Designer frames embossing folders, big shot, wide oval punch and dimensionals.

Here is THE Christmas card.  I really like them.  They seriously only took me a half hour to design.  That is super fast for me.  I don't send that many out so I got about 18 of them done in a few hours.  WooHoo!

My desk was too messy to take a pic on. 

This was the first time using the Designer Frames embossing folders.  I kinda dig them!  I don't have any Christmas stamps so I searched around for what would work.  The tree from Loads of Love fit perfectly!

I used markers to ink up the tree.  I sponged everything, which I don't normally do.  Too much work.  I've become a lazy stamper. 

Loads of Love and Delicate Doilies.  Crumb cake, riding hood red and garden green cardstock.  Garden green and choc. chip markers, whisper white craft ink.  Frostwood Lodge DSP, wide oval punch, Designer Frames embossing folders, corner rounder and dimensionals.


This is a gift card holder.  Super easy to do!

I made a belly band to go around it to hold it closed. 

And here I am working hard to get things done.  Just keeping it real................

Thanks so much for keeping the blog cozy while I was gone.  I have plans to be much more consistent. 

Blessings, b.

Dec. Daily?

Nope, not yet.  I did get my pics printed out today and started with some journaling but then, 17 needed some help.

She is doing a Secret Santa thing in her yearbook class and needed an idea of what to give tomorrow.  They are supposed to do a little something everytime they meet and then a bigger something on the last day before vacation. 

So I suggested a cute little packet of fruit snacks. 

She didn't like that idea.

What if I make a cute little tag and ribbon, like a present?

Yep, that would do. 

She picked out the bow and so I tried to match the color.  Welcome in Pear Pizzaz! 

Holy Cow!  I thought this would be a cute/fast/easy tag to make. 

HA!  I was wrong.  This sucker took me 2 hours!  I just wasn't feeling it.  Or I should say, I could think of things to use.........things I didn't have. 

So here is what I came up with.

Elements of Style.  Crumb cake, whisper white and pear pizzaz cardstock.  Crumb cake ink.  Big shot,  scallop square duo die, simple letters die, rhinestones, brights patterned DSP, 3/4" circle punch and dimensionals.


It measures 2.5 x 3.75.  I'm happy enough with it.  Considering I don't know a thing about this girl and for all I know she'll chuck it in the trash. 

And here she is all gussied up.  I'd be happy to receive this.  Wouldn't you?

Alrighty then, its past my bedtime.  Everyday I get one step closer to getting the Dec. Daily done.  Tomorrow I should have something to show you. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I love it when you do that. 

Blessings, b.

Oh Geez!

Nothing ever goes as planned. 

I have no December Daily pages together........yet.  I do have pics, well, except for one day (ahem....Michele, just when you get around to it ;)) and stories picked out, I just haven't had time to sit down to do it. 

I'm going to "getRdone" tonight........I hope........I think.......I'm going to try.

But, I do have another Christmas card to show you.  This one was fairly quick.  I got 3/4 of it done in about 25 min. while waiting for a buddy to come pic me up last night. 

Now see, I did sit down to work on the Dec. Daily today but, this card was sitting on the desk unfinished so I had to finish it first.  And of course I got nothing else done.

NO STAMPS!!!   Whisper white, old olive, pear pizzaz, wild wasabi, garden green and real red cardstock.  Bird punch, cropadile, hemp, jewelry tag punch, black journaler and misc. button. 

Cute eh?  I saw an idea like this several weeks ago.  I don't remember what they used exactly (because of course I don't remember when or where I saw it) but I thought the wing from the bird punch was perfect. 

With a pencil I lightly drew a circle and used that as a guide.  Then I just went for it.  I used the large hole punch on the cropadile to make the little holly berries.

I decided to wrangle some hemp to do my will.  Hemp is not always user friendly.  It started out looking like a hemp spider on my wreath....but I tamed it.  I found a red button in my stash and used the jewelry tag punch for a little "joy".  I had no joy stamps so I had to wing it. 

After I was done, I decided it needed a little something something.  So I drew the black line around the border.  Now it seems finished. 

Alrighty then, thats it for today.  The Boy just came home on his dinner break and announced that we had to go to Target when he gets home from work because he needs something for school. 

Yeah, great.

So, no, I won't be working on the Dec. Daily tonight.  But, tomorrow is another day....................

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

today..........

......is the day. 

The first day of the December Daily journal.  Did you get at least 1 picture today?  Have you thought of 1 story to tell?  I will get my page together tomorrow and I'll show you then. 

Tonight though, I have a card to show you.  Can you believe it?  I stamped!

I wanted to make a Christmas card.  I have our family card all sketched out but I need a family pic........that may take an act of God. 

So I got out all my stamps that are Christmas related.  Yeah, I have 2 sets.  Not much to work with here. 

So I started with Tree Trimmings.  I don't like this set.  There, I said it.  I don't like it. 

Stampin' Up! sent it to me to create display samples with a few years ago.  Because I don't really like it, I thought about how I could use it for non-Christmas things. 

When I opened the box tonight I found that I had started a project but didn't finish.  So I decided to finish it.  I did make it Christmasy though.

Tree trimmings and Teeny tiny wishes.  Very vanilla, red riding hood, crumb cake and garden green cardstock.  Riding hood red, garden green, black Stazon, and Versamark inks.  Clear embossing powder, big shot, top note die, stripes embossing folder, antique brads and stampamajig.

I made a poinsetta! 

Nope, this would not make a good production card.  I made the striped flower a few years ago and I remember it was a challenge to get the petals lined up.  I had to use my favorite tool; the Stampamajig.  Love that thing! 

The stripes embossing folder is new to me and I think its pretty groovy.

 HA! Get it? 

Groovy?

I bought these antique brads during the summer and this is my first time using them.  They are so cool!  They are pretty heavy duty and I love how big some of them are.


Alrighty then, I guess thats it.  Unless you want to see what an A+ state report looks like. 

 A big cookie in the shape of New Mexico.  She even labled Grampa's house.  

Okay, thats all.  I be back tomorrow with my Dec. 1 page to show you.  See, you're going to get sick of me now. 

If you are doing the December Daily, I would love for you to link up a pic in the comments section here.  Or you can email it to me since the comments section has been having problems.  I would really like to see your project. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.