I’ve been having way to much fun making Valentines cards!!! I put together some more fun cards using the Kissing Booth line. I love the chipboard it looks so cute and adds such cute dimension. he colors and patterns are so cute in this collection!!!
The colors and patterns are so cute in this collection!!!
Hello friends! It’s Kylie with you today sharing some of my most favourite planning supplies. For January I am planning in my Blush Personal Planner for its cute and compact size. I’ve also teamed it with the new Kissing Booth collection by Simple Stories.
My first favourite supply I want to share with you is the Personal Divider Templates. This awesome tool also comes in the A5 size and is super easy to use to create dashboards and dividers for your planner.
All you need to do is place it on your paper, then trace, cut and punch.You can trace yours with or without tabs and use your hole punch where the ring holes are marked.They are fully reversible so you can turn them over to change the tab position.
Once you have cut out your dividers you can leave them plain or decorate them as I have.I love layering lots of different elements to them.
For fun I added a photo to one of my dividers using the Kissing Booth die cut.
I also used lots of the chipboard stickers and 4 x 4 elements.
The next favourite supply I like to use in my planning are the Season and Calendar Sticker tablets.
The cute icons and text are great for adding to your planner pages and note taking.Perfect for highlighting important events or reminders.
Another favourite supply are the Carpe Diem stamp sets. Not only are they adorable but serve such a practical importance for your planner.
The Home Sweet Home stamp set is perfect for adding all your domestic chores as a reminder. I also like to use the border frames from the Make a List stamps for highlighting important reminders.
A finishing touch of colour for my planning this month was my pocket divider. I cut down one of the snap pocket pages to size and added some washi tape to the side, before punching the ring holes to fit.
I love how all the colours came together and for the fun element it adds to my planner.
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed reading about my favourite planning supplies.
Warmest Wishes,
Christmas has come and gone…and the New Year has just begun. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner!! Jackie G on the blog today to share a fun and super quick project with you using the Kissing Booth Collection to help you get those Valentine’s treat boxes ready!!!
The first little box I want to share with you is this adorable 3x3 treat box with a built in card!! You can find the tutorial for this cutie over at My Sister’s Scrapper YouTube Channel. This little box is so incredibly easy and is perfect to store those little treats!! Great for those classroom Valentine’s!!
After creating this box I wanted something smaller that I could fit a giftcard inside…so I did some measurement testing and came up with this little holder. It’s the exact same thing as the treat box above but measures 2.5” x 3.5”.
For the box you will need a piece of cardstock measuring 3.5” x 9”. Score at 2.5”, 3”, 5.5”, 6” and 8.5”. To create the drawer you will need a piece of cardstock measuring 3 3/8” x 4.5”. Score at ½” on all four sides. Use the tutorial linked above to assemble the box. Tada!!
I hope you enjoy this fun little project to help you with those Valentine’s!!!
Happy New Year, Planner Friends! It’s Rachel and I am so excited to be on the blog today, sharing a special planner setup that I will be using for 2019! I am jumping on the One Little Word bandwagon and will be using the word ENJOY to shape the way I experience this next year! I decided to set up a Traveler’s notebook specifically for this project. I chose the Floral Typewriter Travelers Notebook Cover because I love the pattern and it has little typed sayings that put me in a happy state of mind!
With the start of the new year, I just had to use the adorable 2019 collection. Even though this collection is smaller than some of the other scrapbook collections, there was more than enough goodies to decorate four travelers notebook covers, the travelers notebook pockets, and several inside pages in the monthly insert.
I am a black and white lover at heart, so this color palette definitely spoke to me. For this setup, I used every inch of each 12x12 paper. The paper was used to cover my inserts, decorate the covers and as little pocket pieces inside the cover itself. I also incorporated the elements page on the covers and fussy cut a few of the cards to make bigger die cuts. Lastly, I added the stickers from the 6X12 Sticker Sheet and a few strips of washi to complete the covers.
I did a fairly simple pocket setup this month. To avoid a bulky travelers notebook, I am finding that I prefer a more minimal pocket setup these days. For some washi on the go, I chose a few of my favorite patterns from my stash and wrapped it around an old card.
Since this setup is specifically from more “One Little Word” project, I decided to keep the monthly layout pretty simple, so that I can go back and document something I enjoyed about each day of the month. For January, I want to enjoy feeling good (through exercise and some much needed routines), eating well, quality time with my husband, and some productive “me time”. Each day, I will document what I enjoyed that day that relates to one of these four categories.
For the monthly notes pages, I decided to make a mini ENJOY mood board. To do this, I used stickers from the 2019 collection, along with stickers from the Beautiful A5 Stickers Tablet. With its muted color palette, it was easy to incorporate these stickers with the 2019 collection.
The monthly dashboard page was the perfect place to include the four “enjoyment” areas, along with a short intention for this year. As someone who sometimes focuses more on obligations and outcomes, I want this year to be more about enjoying a full, healthy life and the journey this year takes me on. So, I will reflect on these areas of enjoyment this month. That way, I can look back and remember what I did to create enjoyment in these areas, and build on this knowledge in the following month. To make this page, I used washi to cover the labels for each of the sections. I also used word strips from the Fitness A5 Sticker Tablet to label the sections.
Thank you for stopping by to see my planner setup. How do you plan and prepare for the new year? Do you have a word or intention you are focusing on in 2019?
Be sure to check in on my Instagram to see these completed pages.
Hi everyone! Tara here with Secretbees Studio. I know Christmas has just passed and I'm sure you are ready for a break from all of the crazienss! And it's never a bad thing to be prepared for the next holiday! I'm here to give you some gorgeous inspiration for the holiday of love- Valentine's Day!
Since Valentine's Day is all about love I was inspired to create a sweet love letter mini scrapbook that can be filled with pictures, letters, mementos and sweet messages to your sweetheart. It's a pretty standard mini album on the outside- chipboard covers and spiral bound- but there are lots of adorable surprises on the inside!
Between the two chipboard covers is an accordion flap that holds eight envelopes and includes a couple of pockets and the beautiful and romantically themed 'Kissing Booth' collection is the perfect way to show off love and devotion! There are gorgeous patterns with traditional pinks and reds along with other bright colors and the sentiments will definitely put a smile on your face!
I made a variety of envelope sizes and pockets as well as an interactive pull-out made with a strip of the 3x4 journal cards. There are plenty of pages for photos and the envelopes can be filled with mementos or love letters.
Now you can create your own special love letter mini album for that special person in your life or even as a gift for that special couple! Visit my YouTube channel for an in-depth video of this mini and to get more inspiration! Happy New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hello creatives! I hope you all have been having a wonderful holiday season. Leah here with you all today showing you more into my December TN before I start transitioning my setup for the new year. If you’d like to see how I decorated the front pockets and the cover of the front notebook, you can check out my last blog post here. I’m excited to show you how I’ve been documenting December and using the Simple Stories free printables to help me keep track of holiday plans and December stories, and to capture more of “me” in my holiday memories.
I’ve been participating in the December Daily project for a couple of years now. The holiday season can get a little crazy and very busy, so I’m usually not very successful in sitting down to create every day. Sometimes I have a week or longer that go by where I may not have had time to work on my December Daily album. However, I always try to be as consistent as I can about at least jotting down the stories and memories so I don’t forget them before I can work on crafting the layouts. I’ve been getting a lot of use out of the December free printables to help me do this. I’m keeping the printables in a separate notebook behind my December Daily insert.
What I love about the free printables is that you can really use and customize them in any way you wish, but they are also cute and festive enough to use them exactly as they are. Not only are they helping me keep track of all my important lists and information throughout the busy holiday season, they have also helped me plan out some of my December Daily layout ideas and document parts of this season of my life that I want to remember.
I am planning to incorporate some of these planning pages and lists directly into my December Daily because they document so much of what I’m actually doing this time of year. These are great “filler” pages for those days in your album where you don’t feel like you have a particularly “document-worthy” story to tell. In reality, we all have days where we are really busy with work or other “boring” life things and don’t do anything eventful. I like to use some of those days to tell parts of my real, personal day-to-day story. While I absolutely love documenting extra special memories like time spent with family or doing fun holiday activities, an important part of this project is capturing the essence of who you are and where you are in your life during this time, and I feel that my lists and planning are a big part of who I am.
Because I plan to move several of these printables over into my December Daily insert eventually, I purposely chose not to glue them down into the notebook they are in now. I tucked most of these into this notebook and am holding them in lightly with a small piece of clear tape. I also used washi tape or non-permanent/repositionable tape under some pages, but I avoided using anything too sticky that would prevent me from easily moving the pages later.
I limited myself to using primarily just the printables to keep things simple and functional in this notebook for the sake of time. The goal is to have a notebook to easily jot things down in to plan and track my December.
Because I’ve been giftwrapping, I had a couple of doilies and decorative tissue paper laying around that I was able to layer into the pages for a little added flair, but these printables are really so cute on their own, I would have loved them either way.
Since this contents of this notebook are so simple and functional, I decided to amp things up for the cover. I’ve shared my process before on how to easily create removable covers for TN inserts, which you can check out here on Youtube, but I tried something new for this one and added an interactive shaker element. The glitter “snow” is such a fun detail to compliment the snowy/wintry theme of the Simple Stories Freezin’ Season collection that I used to create and decorate this cover.
This is the first time I’ve created a shaker insert cover so there were a lot of missteps and errors along the way, which I promptly found ways to cover up and conceal. ;) However, this is definitely a process video I’d like to film for YouTube soon. Let me know over on Instagram if that’s something you’d be interested to see.
Here is one example of where I’ve already incorporated the monthly calendar from the free printables into my December Daily. I always like to add a calendar in my album that just captures the “main events” from the holiday season. Since this is not where I keep my day-to-day plans, I can really add lots of décor.
You can see I went a little sticker crazy here… I think my favorite thing on here are the color Christmas bulbs which are a stamp from the Seasons stamp set that I colored in with my Tombow markers. The ugly sweater, holly leaves, and snowman are all stamps from the same set that I added color to as well. You’ll notice I don’t stress myself too much about trying to color in the lines. ;)
Anyway, I’m excited to get to working on more of the pages and layouts in my December Daily notebook. Have you checked out the free printables Simple Stories offers every month? You can check them out here, or via the “Project Downloads” icon on the Simplestories.com home page in the future. Stay tuned here on the blog or over on the Carpe Diem Planners Instagram to see the other fun ways people are using the printables.
Until next time friends, happy holidays!
Happy New Year (almost) everyone! Today I wanted to share a super quick album that comes together easily and would be a wonderful gift for a New Year's party hostess, or your own celebration photos.
Can you believe Christmas has come and gone and just like that, it's time to look forward to a brand new year in 2019! Hello friends, Linsey here today sharing some fun and easy New Year's decorations that are sure to make you the toast of the town (or at least, of your own home)! All you need is the Simple Stories 2019 Simple Set and a bit of inspiration to make this New Year's Eve a sparkling event, no matter how you celebrate!
There are so many ideas for DIY party decor these days and one of my favorites is paper rosette pinwheels! They are easy, quick and make for a fabulous showcase wherever you place them. Make them in a few sizes, then arrange on a wall behind a table or bar for an eye catching backdrop that will have everyone oohing and ahhing! Or hang them from the ceiling at varying heights to add pizazz to any area! There are lots of ways to incorporate rosette pinwheels into any party decor--your imagination is the limit!
Party photo booths are all the rage right now and so are all the fun props that go with it! You can buy them, but why would you when they are super easy to make yourself? Delight your guests with custom handmade photo booth props and save your money for the good champagne! Cheers!
What's a New Year's Eve celebration without party hats? Ring in the New Year right with festive hats for all to wear! When the clock strikes midnight, hats will be off to you!!
A paper banner always adds a festive touch to any decor. Make your own and hang from a mantle, wall or anywhere you want! A banner makes everything better!
And that's a wrap! Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you've been inspired by some of these fun and easy DIY decorations and will try them for yourself! Wishing you and yours a very happy, blessed and prosperous New Year!!
Hello friends! It's Jennifer on the blog today to share a page I created using the beautiful Kissing Booth collection! This line has the right combination of vintage and whimsical mixed with its classic prints and florals! Kissing Booth can be used of course for Valentines Day, but also for weddings, love, or any theme that fits your project! I actually documented a photo I took on a family trip to Michigan this past summer! We stopped to eat at a restaurant that had a large metal heart on the side; of course I bribed my kids for a photo!
I began with kraft cardstock for my background then layered the multi-print heart pattern of Love Day across the top third. For my title, I used a cut file from Just Nick with white cardstock and three favorite prints (I LOVE the plaid of Crazy In Love!). I then added accents such as the cute little hearts from the Puffy Stickers as well as a sentiment from the 4x6 Stickers.
I always like to utilize the Journaling Elements if possible...especially if there is a ledger/notebook print! This card from the 3x4 Elements was perfect to jot down information about my photo. I did layer another 3x4 card underneath for contrast as well as added a date stamp and sentiment. You can also see additional cute embellishments such as the xoxo tag from the Bits and Pieces and the "jar of hearts" found on the 6x12 Chipboard.
At the top left corner of my page, I added my own banner using a hand punch. I found my prints on the 4x6 Horizontal and Vertical Elements. After stitching through the top with my sewing machine, I added chipboard hearts and another cute sentiment.
Thank you for stopping by the blog today! You can see the entire collection of Kissing Booth by going HERE! Have a great day!
Instead of stringing garland on a Christmas tree, why not switch things up a bit and create a garland from Christmas trees? Hello there! It's Jana Eubank. My page today features a banner of Christmas trees across the top that I fussy-cut from a page of the Merry and Bright 6x8 paper pad.
I arranged the trees in a slight curve and then used my sewing machine to stitch them together.
After stitching them, I tucked thin foam squares behind each tree to lift them up a bit and then accented a few of them with phrase and flower stickers from the Merry and Bright Combo Sticker Sheet.
I used a journal block from the Merry and Bright SN@P! Cards to add the details about my photos. Cutting around the bracket shape of the journal block adds interest. I added some greenery and phrases from the Bits & Pieces and Combo Sticker Sheet as accents.
Another 3x4 Merry and Bright SN@P! Card makes a quick and easy title for this page, and the large fussy-cut Santa (Merry and Bright 6x8 Paper Pad) is so cute peeking out from behind the photos.
As you take down your holiday decorations this year, try looking at them with new eyes and see if there is an idea you can incorporate into your next scrapbook page. Creating a garland or banner on your layout is a great place to start!
Happy Christmas! It’s Emma here with you today and I’d like to show you how I’ve started setting up my Blush Carpediem A5 planner for 2019. I’ve used the new ‘Hello’ Monthly Inserts and the Freezin’ Season Simple Stories Collection.
Look how well the tab colours from the ‘Hello’ monthly inserts work with the Freezin’ Season Collection! It was as if they were made to go together! I also love how the splashes of colour on the monthly pages tie in beautifully with this collection!
You know how I love my pockets to be pretty and I haven’t scrimped on adding prettiness to them with this set up. I have literally used off cuts of papers to tie the colours in and then my favourite pocket accessories which are chipboard pieces and sticky tabs!
For the dashboard I’ve used one of the cutest images which is of the girl & boy, I cut this down from one of the large cut apart 12x12 sheets and then at the bottom I’ve put a row of the stinkin’ gorgeous houses which I fussy cut out from one of the 12x12 sheets. I used some foam sticky pads for a few of the bits & pieces to lift them and also with the ‘shiverin’ season’ banner.
With the monthly insert packs, each month there’s a ‘this month’ page where you can add birthdays, to dos, goals, important dates ect, I’ve choose to add decoration on this page covering those various titles as I don’t tend to use this page and prefer to have it more as an inspiration board, but it’s great to have the option there if it’s something you like to use.
I love to have a monthly spread that’s full of colour and decoration and I’ve used washi tape and stickers to achieve this look. This is where you can see those watercolour effect splashes of colour I was talking about before. Don’t you agree they look awesome with the Freezin’ Season colours?
If there’s one thing that’s an absolute must have item it’s the number Sticker Tablet! I would be lost without it! I enjoy choosing a colour that works well with that months collection and not only for the monthly spread but also for every page throughout the month!
You can see here on the first pages of January how I have used a teal blue colour for the number stickers and decorated really simply by dotting around the coloured circle stickers, over lapping them and having them half off the pages makes them stand out and I also go round each one with a black ink pen, which makes them pop!
You’ll notice on each page I have used washi tape up the sides of the pages and then used the A5 Carpediem punch to repunch the holes.
To add a little more fun detail to these two pages I’ve used my black ink pen to add little snowflakes which work well with the glorious snow globe stickers.
For these two pages I’ve thrown a little bit of everything at them! Why not ‘eh?! The super cute boy & girl stickers, houses, the colourful circles, hearts and my possibly all time ever favourite washi with the dinky little houses! I’ve even used some of the stickers to make a flag banner across the top of the page.
I hope I’ve shown you how decorating your pages can literally go from one extreme to the other, you can go all out and chuck everything but the kitchen sink at them or have a little more decorum and go for the less is more option! Whatever your style this collection will have something in it for everyone and with Carpediemplanners bringing out not one but three new monthly insert sets, you’ll definitely find one that’s right for you.
Enjoy the rest of the festive season and I will be back with you again in the new year! If you would like to see more pictures using Simple Stories products then checkout my IG account.
Hi there! Nathalie with you today with a new project that celebrates all the fun, cold and so very wonderful memories that Winter brings with it. The new Simple Stories Freezin' Season with its vibrant colors and cute designs is just perfect to document all those winter memories in a fun and colorful page.
To create this page all about this year's first snow fall in Toronto, I pulled a few cut files from the Silhouette store and Just Nick Studio. My idea was to bring snowflakes and a large title to tell the story of the day
I chose to cut the stars from white cardstock and back them with papers from the Freezin' Season collection. I also decided to hand stitched the title -cut from the Frosty Friends paper- to a white cardstock offset, so that it would stand out on the page.
Before starting to handstitch the title, i added a bit of white acrylic paint to the Snuggle up paper so that it would white/lighten a bit of the background, and let it dry while i completed the title work.
Once it all ready, I used some foam adhesive to adhere everything to the background. Then it was all about embellishing! First i added a few stickers at the bottom corner of the title, and then added a few snowflakes also cut from the Frosty Friends paper.
SInce the picture is nestle between the title and star, i just added a cluster made up of stickers and die cuts to the top right corner of the picture. I will be adding the lines of journal to the bottom of the layout in a later date.
I really hope this inspires you to pick the new Simple Stories Freezin' Season collection, it is colorful and so versatile, too. I cannot wait to see all your projects created with it.
Have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Jeanne here today! I’m so excited to share projects made with the Simple Stories Freezin’ Season collection! The weather outside might be frightful, but inside crafting is totally delightful!
The Collection has everything you need to make, make, make! The papers are pretty pink and coral, teal and navy with pops of yellow and green. It's absolutely wonderful!
The Chipboard Stickers, and printed die cut Bits and Pieces are easy to work with. Because they’re already cut out all you need to do is arrange them. I spread them out all over my work surface and position them on clear sheets of plastic the same size as my card base. It’s easy to pick up the arranged sheets and lay them over different patterns of paper to help me choose which one I like best.
You’ll love the snow theme and different elements that make creating a scene easy. To make hills and snowy drifts I cut waves with scissors. Mixing light and dark pattern papers for backgrounds adds depth and dimension.
I tucked the Bits and Pieces pine trees and mountains behind the drifts, and used the circle snowflakes as a sun in the scenes.
There’s so much to love with the Simple Stories Freezin’ Season Collection! The cuteness will make you smile and fill your hearth with warmth.
Hello! Iris here sharing another layout I made using the wonderful Merry & Bright collection. This time I was going for a clean, modern look, on-trend with the farmhouse style.
To do that, I started off with a white cardstock background. This one is a Swiss Dot texture from Bazzill. (You can get this on Amazon or at Joann's) Then I downloaded three separate Simple Stories word cut files from the Silhouette Store. (Peace: Design ID 67976; Love: Design ID 80540; Joy: Design ID 67980) I welded them together to make my title. I have been obsessed with buffalo plaid and it’s all over the place in Christmas decore, so I first cut my title from the B-side of the 4x4 Elements paper. Then I used the offset function in the Silhouette software to create an outline that I cut out of plain white cardstock and I adhered it on top of the buffalo plaid words.
I printed my photo as a 3.5”x5” in black and white because it was dark and reddish-brown toned. The black and white elevates it, and lets you focus more on the subject than all the color. Behind the photo, I layered a tiny bit of tissue paper, a sliver of the green plaid paper from the 6x8 paper pad peeking out on two sides, a doily, and a brown paper bag with a torn top edge. Then I added a cluster of stickers, chipboard, and puffy stickers at the bottom left corner. I concentrated on icons that felt like the farmhouse style - the tree which echoes the plaid from the right, the galvanized vase of foliage, a couple word stickers (love the mix of fonts), a puffy star, and the banner of lights to go with the lights you see in the photo. For interest, I tucked some thread under the layers.
Having the buffalo plaid in two spots, I completed a visual triangle by adding the last bit of the scalloped border sticker from the Combo Sticker sheet. I could use that on every layout and be happy! I’ve never been one for poinsettias, so I was thrilled to see this collection also has a lovely red flower that looks more like a peony, and I used that motif throughout my design. Another word sticker and puffy star complete a cluster at the bottom. And the “love” in that sticker repeats the “love” of the title, which ties things in even further.
The large cut title is a prominent focal point, so I kept things simple around it by adding just another flower, word sticker, puffy star cluster at the top where it intersects the photo, and another flower on the last letter. The flower sits atop a loop of thread. This decorates the area where the journaling is nestled in, and is complimented with a couple more puffy stars. I turned to one of my favorite journaling looks - typed on vellum - to keep this page looking clean, light, and airy.
I welcome you to check out my Youtube channel for the process video, which includes the steps I did to make the cut file title. There is a wonderful selection of words in the Simple Stories designs at the Silhouette Store that you can play with to match and compliment all the SS collections!
I can’t get enough of the Merry & Bright collection. You can make a layout with a classic feel, or one that looks completely fresh and modern. It’s such a versatile collection that will help you scrap tons of Christmas holiday memories!
Hi everyone, it is Kelly here and today I will show you how I have setup my December traveler’s notebook (TN). I used the Carpe Diem Cream Dot TN and the Merry & Bright collection by Simple Stories.
For my monthly spread I printed the monthly December overview from the December free printables at the Simple Stories website. I printed the two monthly pages on plain printer paper, cut them to size and glued them on blank note pages. I decorated the spread with washitape and lots of stickers from the Merry & Bright collection.
From the backsides of the 4x4 Elements paper and 4x6 Horizontal Elements paper I made TN covers for my monthly insert and weekly insert pages. I decorated the second cover with a 3x4 card and floral and word strip stickers from the combo sticker page.
I used a few pages from the weekly TN inserts and decorated the weekly spread in the Christmas theme. I used decorative stickers and pieces from the Merry & Bright collection and some red and green functional stickers from the Basics sticker tablet.
I also laminated a little 3x4 card and made a little Christmas washicard. I wrapped some of my favorite Christmas washitapes around it.
For the second weekly spread I used stickers from the December page from the Seasonal sticker tablet. These stickers match the free December printables!
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog! Check out my instagram for more inspiration Have a nice day!
HI! Odessa here with some very Merry & Bright pages! It feels like everyone is working on all things December and it’s so much fun. I just finished up my album from last December and I can’t believe how easy it was. I had about 18 pages left to do, sat down to do a couple and ended up finishing the whole album. It was so easy with Merry & Bright. Working with one collection makes it really easy to put together pages that work. Everything goes together! Merry & Bright is the perfect balance of a traditional Christmas look with a touch of fun that was just perfect for me.
This is one of the first spreads in my album. I just loved the print from the Merry & Bright 6x8 paper pad on the left so much that I left it plain in a page protector. It’s pretty great. On the other side is a page protector with some 4x4 and 2x2 pockets which I got busy filling up. My current pocket page obsession is photo flips and this page did not escape without one! I added a 4x4 photo flip to add some journalling under my photo. I filled up the 2x2 pockets with SN@P! cards and cute embellishments from the collection
I added the cute scalloped border sticker from the Merry & Bright combo sticker page and a tab on the edge of the flip, I really like how it turned out. It makes it a little more obvious and a lot more fun to flip.
Under the photo flip is some journalling in one of the frames from the Merry & Bright tags and frames pack along with all the cute embellishments. I just love those puffy sticker stars!
Here’s another layout I put together with Merry & Bright. I used a combination of SN@P! cards, stickers of all types and bits and pieces to embellish my pages.
The big Merry & Bright numbers might just be my favourite thing from the collection. They’re the perfect size to slide into a 3x4 pocket or add to a bigger pocket or page. Here I embellished a journal card with a big number, a phrase sticker that suited the layout and another cute puffy star.
Sometimes I have pictures that I really like but don’t tell much of a story, like this succulent one. This page goes with another page about a day at a greenhouse and I really liked the colours in it so I had to add it in. By adding a focal chipboard sticker and a word phrase it acts like filler journal card in my album and makes for a nice pocket. I’ve been loving seeing what everyone has been crafting with Merry & Bright! I hope you enjoyed this peek in my album.
Hello, my name is Cara and I’m a December Daily drop out.
I’ve tried, I really have. I have a few albums where I’ve documented my December, but mostly, my albums sit half finished. I’ve tried to finish them in January and that did work… a bit. For two years now, I just haven’t been able to finish.
I want to do it! I LOVE the look of a pretty December album, but most importantly, I want to have all those wonderful December memories documented. There are so many wonderful things going on in this fabulous time of the year and it all seems to rush by in a split second, so documenting it has helped me not only savour it more in the moment, but also to relive it again as I document it and then again whenever I look back at the album.
However, it’s A LOT OF WORK. Because there is a lot that goes on in December, it leaves little time for playing with stickers. In a perfect world I’d have prepared all the pages in November, but November is almost as jam packed with activities. That… and I’m a procrastinator ;)
So, the best alternative that I’ve found for me this year is to simplify, and here is what I’ve come up with. I’ve added an extra insert to my Dream TN (check out my last post HERE to find out more about that TN and the other inserts). This new insert is basically a fancy journal that magically takes away my December-Daily-dropout guilt and also takes away the pressure to make it perfect. Also without having to remember to take photos, editing, printing and sticking everyday, the process is quicker and so much less daunting. I can always use the photos I do take… or not. I love that there is no pressure or obligation.
Don’t think that it’s too late to start! There are still more than 10 days before Christmas, that’s a lot of memories you could record. So let’s get to it! I'll use the same simple design for each of the 25 days. Some pages have 2 days in the 2 page spread. I know we will have more going on some days, so I left the 2 pages of the spread for that one day. Regardless, the design is similar. Use a design that suits you and feels easy for you.
I started with the big round numbers from the Numbers Sticker Tablet, then I added a strip or two of Christmas washi, either a die cut (from the free printables, I’ll talk about those in a sec!) or a large sticker from the Seasons Sticker Tablet. Then, I layered smaller stickers from all the Sticker Tablets. I also added a cluster either next to the number sticker or in another corner or both! This design is quick for me to make, looks adorable and still leaves lots of room for writing, it’s simple and perfect for me this year!
I decorated the cover with patterned papers from Simple Stories along with some of the free printables…
Let’s just take a second here to talk about how stinkin’ awesome these printables are! Every month there is a set of cute printables that match that month’s page in the Seasons sticker tablet, you have A5, personal and TN options, plus you can resize before printing to fit your needs. Did I mention they are super cute, and FREE?! Amazing, right? There is also a bonus set this month for Christmas, You can find both of those sets HERE!
Ok, let’s get back to that cover! Washi and stickers from the tablets give the cover a finished, polished look.
I used some of the full page printables to fill some of the leftover pages. Simple and quick and that’s just what I’m looking for, creating this TN.
My printer messed up (or I set it wrong, more likely) and I had two that were printed on opposite sides of the same page, but one was upside down, so I used some washi to attach it to the top so that it could flip up, making it right side up!
If things get busy, and, come on it’s December, so being busy is pretty much a given! I’ll take notes either on my phone or on a sitcky note until I get a chance to write it in. And these ones from the Bloom collection are sooo pretty and they actually stick! Don’t you hate it when you’ve bought pretty stickies only to have them fall out of your planner and get lost? Not with these Carpe Diem sticky notes!
I’m going to be doing a live flip through of my December journal today at 10am EST, so whether you are a December Daily dropout or not, join me at the link here: Cara's YouTube Channel - The replay will be at that same link. Happy planning and happy holidays!
