While working on a pocket page for this post, I realized just how perfect the graphic elements of Claus & Co. really are. The charcoal greys, clean/classic fonts and images all made this collection a huge hit in my book. A touch of retro, while not too vintage...the more I worked with it the more I wanted to use it!

When your daughter is 16, that means you've likely documented MANY 'traditional' Christmas topics...and it also means that things are a bit different. I chose a pocket page to remember a few of those things, and am glad to have gotten the photos + words into an album. Since two of the photos were of my daughter trying to wrestle with the strings of lights for our tree, I opted for the 'farm fresh Christmas tree' card to stand front and center. I wanted to keep this page simple, mainly because I loved the photos but also to allow the text + graphics of the cards stand out.

All I added were a few gold sequins from my stash...other than that, this pocket page is pretty clean and simple. I did layer the ledger side of one of the cards onto the polka dot card to allow for some journaling about my most awesome 'Mom' pin that was a Santa's Secret Shop gift from about 10 years ago. ;)

The left 2x12 pocket houses a title that I made by pairing the black alphabet stickers with the tone on tone black star paper. I like the subtlety of it, and it balances out the darker polka dot card that I used for the journaling I mentioned above. The little 2x2 cards that say 'trim' and 'hang' were mounted onto a piece of 2x4 cardstock before slipping them into  the pocket, just to keep them from moving around. Again, just a few simple phrase stickers were all I used to jazz up the photos.

While it's tempting to go overboard when working on holiday projects/pages, try limiting yourself to keeping it simple. I can't think of a better time of year to slow down and focus on the stories. :)