Leah O’Neil's Blog Posts

12.14.16

Hello again crafty friends! Leah here to show you the beginnings of my December Daily album. I attempted this project a few years ago, but I failed a few days in. When I first started prepping for the project this year, I started with SUCH excitement and confidence. I had a ton of fun decorating the cover! I’m using the 6x8 Striped Holiday SN@P! Binder for my album this year.

Before I jump into my album, I thought I'd share an A-HA moment I had as I worked on this in the hopes that it might help YOU along the way :)

On December 1st, I started strong. I took a few photos and noted the story I wanted to tell for that day, even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to assemble my album pages on that day. As the December days continue to pass, I am trying to stay diligent in recording the details. As I sat down to start pulling layouts together for the first couple of days of December, I quickly remembered why I failed at this project before. I have this frustrating tendency to overthink everything. It is always a challenge for me to set aside my eagerness to keep adding more details until my layouts are “just right.” As much as I try to avoid the fact that I can be quite a perfectionist, that trait of mine rears its ugly head during daily projects like this. “Perfection” is a very relative idea that varies from person to person. For me, my joy and my demise are in the details. I need and love the meaningful details that I put into my layouts, but I can also spend a lot of time pulling those details together sometimes. I really enjoy the process, no matter how long it takes me but for a DAILY project, extensive time spent on every page of my album WILL eventually overwhelm me and burn me out. I thought I had learned this lesson the last time I tried to create a December Daily album, yet there I was again, as I sat down to start the first pages of my album, questioning whether I would actually be able to fulfill my commitment to this project. I am determined though, so I pushed through the self-doubt and told myself that I’m going to take this one day at a time and do the best I can. There is no time limit.

After my first couple of layouts, I started to find a rhythm. I figured out a few things about myself that are starting to help my layouts come together easier.

1) I MUST limit my products. I have chosen to use the Classic Christmas collection from Simple Stories and a few other supplies from my stash, but I have to make sure I never have too many choices around me or I will start feeling overwhelmed.

2) I need a special, organized space to work on my album. Before December 1st, I set everything up on my dining room table and organized my supplies where I could easily see them all. Now, this space most definitely does not stay clean as I start working. Try as I might, I am a very messy crafter. However, I have made a huge effort to make SURE that when I am done crafting for the day, I tidy up and put everything back in its designated spot. This has been critical for me because a messy space is not welcoming, and I need to come back to this space every day in December.

3) Something as simple as arranging my page protectors in my album stressed me out SO much. With everything else I have to think about in December, I was not about to let this be the thing that did me in. I read Ali Edward’s blog post on her foundation pages and she actually provides a link to the map of how she arranged her page protectors. If you are someone who tends to stress over details, I highly recommend giving yourself a pass on this one and mimicking the arrangement of Ali’s page protectors, or create a simple formula by laying out all the types of pocket pages you have and just arranging them in the same pattern over and over. You can make adjustments later if necessary.

4) Because I know that I tend to overcomplicate things, I tried really hard to keep it simple. I saw these beautiful, simple pages that all my crafty friends were putting together and wished I could do the same. I tried to conform to this simple style with the clean lines and beautiful design, thinking that’s what I needed to do so that my brain did not become overwhelmed with adding the decor instead of focusing on the stories I wanted to tell each day. Well, I couldn’t do it. This is the most important lesson I have learned from this project so far: you have to make your project YOU. Yes, I needed to find some balance. Realistically, I cannot spend hours a day making layouts for this album. However, I can make it more “me” by adding crafty details and giving it more of a “messy” and handmade vibe. That is not everyone’s style and that’s okay! Some friends I know are documenting their December memories as mini albums, or in a traveler’s notebook or planner. You really have to find a memory-keeping system and style that is going to work for you, because not only will you hit roadblock after roadblock if you try to conform to something that isn’t you, but the entire purpose of this project is to document YOUR stories. The memories will mean more to flip through in the future if you can connect with the perspective in which they were being documented - through your eyes, in your style.

So without further ado, here are the first few pages of my December Daily. I began with stating my “reason why” for this album, or my intentions for what I wanted this album to be. This year, I really want to focus on slowing down and enjoying the magic of the Christmas season. I typed up my journaling on this free printable from Ali Edwards, and then printed it out in a 6x8 size using Photoshop.

I cut down a patterned transparency from Michaels to use as a dashboard in the front of my album. I just traced a page protector to get the correct size and then punched holes for the rings. The gold cutout star is from my stash and I used the speckle patterned paper from The Reset Girl collection to put behind it. I LOVE the simplicity of that pattern so much and the cream and black colors coordinate so beautifully with the gold on the transparency.

Before I got into creating daily layouts, I decided to add a few more details to the front of the album. This calendar is from a set of Classic Christmas SN@P! Pages that I cannot wait to use throughout this album. They are going to add a lot of interest in between the pocket pages! I added some cream pom pom ribbon from my stash under the “December.” I then stamped the dates and added lots of Classic Christmas embellishments, such as stickers, die cuts, stamps, enamel dots and washi tape. As a planner girl, decorating calendar pages is my thing. I had so much fun with this!

One other element I added to the front of my album uses some of the free Classic Christmas printables Simple Stories offers. You can find and download them here! I used the “Making a List” pages and cut them down so I could add patterned paper to the background and a few other embellishments. I also printed another set of these list pages out separately for my planner. I scribbled the messy notes on those and then rewrote everything neatly in my album. I used gold glitter washi at the top of both pages and added my title using black foam Thickers on the left page, and the white letter stickers on the right are from the Classic Christmas Expressions cardstock sticker sheet. At the bottom of the left page, I added a couple of cardstock stickers and a small die cut from the Classic Christmas SN@P! pack. On the right page, the “Merry Christmas” is a chipboard sticker from the collection.

My layout for December 1st began with a large 6x8 photo of some festive peppermint mochas I made for my husband Patrick and I.

The story I decided to tell was about how Patrick and I assembled and decorated the tree while we watched Christmas movies and sipped on our mochas. After the tree was decorated, our cat Minerva, a.k.a. our resident tree inspector, gave it her stamp of approval.

On the right side of the layout, I chose a photo of Minerva with the tree and printed it in a 4x6 size. I chose a couple of 3x4 SN@P! cards for the top pockets and began embellishing. I used some washi tape, a word strip sticker, a couple of die cuts, and a chipboard sticker from the Classic Christmas collection. The gold numbers I’m using for my album are pocket pieces from the collection. I stamped the date on the journaling card and stamped the stitching pattern from The Reset Girl roller stamp in several places for a little extra detail.

As far as the album cover, I used one of my favorite patterned 12x12 papers from the collection on the front. I cut it down to the proper size and inked the edges. I used black foam Thickers for my title. Under the title, I used gold glitter washi tape with a couple of wordstrip and decorative stickers from the Classic Christmas collection.

 

The snowflake is a cheap wooden ornament I got at Michaels and I love the dimension it gives to the album cover. I punched a circle from one of the light blue papers in the 6x6 paper pad as a background for the year. The addition of the light blue into the otherwise traditional Christmas colors of this collection is one of my FAVORITE details. The icy blue really brightens the collection in a beautiful and unique way.

I lined the inside of the album using this patterned paper from The Reset Girl collection. I love how the bold pattern adds a modern spin to the Classic Christmas collection. I use bold black and white prints often throughout the album. The cute little red stocking adhered to the front of my album is from the Target dollar spot and I added a couple of chipboard stickers to dress it up.

I will be adding lots more pictures of my album to my Instagram throughout December, and maybe, just possibly…I might be filming a YouTube video or two for the first time. We will see how that goes! I’ll be sure to keep you updated on my Instagram. Head on over to the Simple Stories and Carpe Diem Planners Instagram accounts to see all of the other amazingly gorgeous ways the Christmas and winter collections are being used!

Supplies
11.10.16

Hello again crafty  friends! Leah here to show you how I am using one of my Doc-It journals as a gratitude journal. Did you know that gratitude boosts levels of dopamine and serotonin in your brain? Just the act of thinking about what you appreciate can trigger these “happy” chemicals in your brain, making you feel happier.  November is the month of the Thanksgiving (in the USA) and often inspires many of us to spend more time reflecting on what we are thankful for. This month seemed like the perfect time to start a daily gratitude journal.

In the past, I have tried to incorporate documenting gratitude into my daily routine, but I have failed time and time again with establishing it as a habitual practice. I am just recently realizing why that keeps happening. I don't know if any of you feel this way, but when I think about what I am grateful for, my brain immediately goes to BIG, general ideas, such as family or my health, or the roof over my head. While I truly am SO grateful for all of those more obvious things, thinking on such a large scale really limits my list. When you are trying to establish a daily gratitude practice, you start running out of ideas pretty quickly if you are too generalized. My dear friend Tiffany spoke to me a little about how she has been documenting her gratitude and I have found her method to be quite helpful for me.  At the end of the day, she reflects back on that day and asks herself, “what is the best thing that happened today?”  Then she writes it down. This practice has really helped me get more specific with what I am feeling grateful for, which makes the process a little more exciting because I now have more variety in my answers. This method has also become a wonderful way to document memories! You will notice how my daily pages so far have a scrapbooking vibe, which is making this project feel even more special, by including mementos and photos with each gratitude message.

For this journal, I started with the Posh Doc-it journal and covered it with one of my favorite 12x12 papers from the Hello Fall collection. I added watercolor to the background and then layered some gold glitter washi tape, tissue paper, a small square SN@P! piece, and a couple of those beautiful leaf die cuts from the Hello Fall collection. I used foam adhesive under the square to make it pop off the background.

The bottom is just torn pieces of patterned paper that I layered and inked to add a little dimension. In the corner, I inked a doily and added some Hello Fall stickers and twine.

The inside cover and first page of the journal act as a cover page. On the left side is an element from a page in the Hello Fall 6x6 paper pad. I felt it was appropriate because I am grateful for all of the things listed (which is why I love autumn so much)! I used some leftover paper scraps to layer behind the words. I inked the edges of the yellow paper to give it a burned look and added some string from my stash that reminded me of sweater material, which I thought gave the layers a “cozy” feel. Last but not least, I punched a tag out of some orange patterned paper and added twine and a clear sticker from the Posh collection.

On the first page of the journal, I used more of that paper I covered the front of the journal with, but I painted the leaves with different colors of watercolor paint. I also painted some of them with a gold shimmery paint. I drew a border around the paper with a fine point sharpie. On top is a Hello Fall SN@P! card and the letter and number stickers are from the Posh collection. 

 I then added a cluster of embellishments: a gold doily, enamel dots, a tab, word strip stickers and washi tape. 

The bottom part of the page has a picture of my entire family and the gather together words are fussy cut from a 12x12 paper in the Gather Together collection kit.

I am only documenting a couple of days from the end of October because my husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary over Halloween weekend. I wanted a chance to scrap those memories and express my gratitude on those special days.

The first layout in my gratitude journal is highlighting the date night that kicked off our wedding anniversary weekend! I documented the memories from that night with some photos, movie tickets and journaling. On this day, I was thankful for date nights! All the décor used in this layout is from the Happy Haunting Collection kit, except the washi tapes. I LOVE adding watercolor to my layouts because it adds so much vibrancy and interest! The paper in the Doc-it journals is very thick; it takes the watercolor so well and doesn’t bleed at all!

The next layout is from a trip to a Halloween event that my husband and I took with my youngest sister. Even though the event itself was not all that we expected, the spooky atmosphere and the company made this night a blast. On this day, I documented the experience and expressed gratitude for my sister’s wild, super goofy and amazing personality. She is one of the funniest people I know and we took so many crazy photos that night- this is only some of them!

All of the décor is again from the Happy Haunting kit. I fussy cut the date and the crossword pieces from the 12x12 elements pages to create die cuts. I added lots of watercolor to the background to allow the die cuts to pop off the page.

I really love how the crossword looks with the watercolor peeking through!

Instead of gluing the card at the top of the layout down, I stapled it onto the page so that I could add journaling underneath.

The next layout is really special. This one went a little against the grain in that I didn’t journal about anything from that specific day. We had to work on our actual anniversary, which is why we spent the weekend celebrating. So for this day, I printed out some of our wedding photos and journaled about how thankful I am that my husband challenges me and truly makes me a better person.

This layout understandably has a more romantic feel than the last few pages. I used the beautiful Posh collection for this one. I mostly used SN@P! pieces and die cuts from the collection and used several of my paper punches to punch different shapes out of the 6x6 paper pad to layer behind the photos. I used my scalloped edge punch a lot in this layout, which was inspired by the white doily that spans both pages underneath all of the photos. It is a large square doily from my stash with a scalloped edge. 

I really like adding ink to the edges of most of the layers because it adds dimension by creating some separation between the layers. In this case, it makes them stand out against the white background as well. I also frequently add faux stitching to my layouts, like I did to the vellum circle, because I love how it looks and am often too lazy to do the real thing.

How lovely are the clear stickers over the photos?! 

I really hope I am able to continue diligently with this gratitude journal! Many of my upcoming layouts are only going to be one-page, the two-page layouts will be reserved for special occasions. I hope you will follow along with me on this journey and try creating your own gratitude journal, or just use a notebook or your planner to write down something you are grateful for every day. Remember to stimulate those happy brain chemicals! Follow me over on Instagram to see my upcoming journal layouts!

With love and gratitude.

Supplies
10.15.16

Hello friends and hello fall! Leah here to show you how I’ve added touches of my favorite season to my planner using the Hello Fall collection. I cannot say enough just how much I love my Ivory Carpe Diem planner! I know darker colors tend to be more popular for fall and winter, but the warm neutral tone of the Ivory really compliments and emphasizes the beautiful colors in all of the Simple Stories Fall and Winter collections. Doesn’t the Hello Fall collection look so warm and cozy against the Ivory?!

The Hello Fall collection is full of adorable seasonal designs and sweet little woodland creatures!  My favorite design is the leaf with all the colors of the collection in it. You will notice the leaf design reappears several times throughout this post!

In my front pockets, I used several pieces from the SN@P! Pack: a couple of the 2x2 cards with fun fall sentiments on them, a couple of the 3x4 cards to provide patterned backgrounds, and several of the ephemera pieces from the pack. The larger leaf in the bottom pocket was cut out from a card in the pack as well. If I wanted to, I could decorate my entire planner with one SN@P! Pack because there is so much product in each one!

I also punched a tag and 3-inch circle from papers in the 6x6 paper pad for layering, and added some of the darling die cuts from the Hello Fall Bits and Pieces pack. How cute is that fox clip?! The decorative clips are one of my favorite products in all of the new Simple Stories collections!

Under the clear “Choose to Shine” dashboard that came with my planner, I made a fall-themed dashboard to peek through. When I saw the “Celebrate Fall” 12x12 paper with that gorgeous leaf design on it, I KNEW I wanted to do something special with it! However, the leaf was too big to fit in my A5 planner. So I found the same page in the 6x6 paper pad and cut out the leaf so I could turn it to fit on the page. I cut down the “Falling for You” 12x12 paper to use as a background to adhere the leaf to. I added very little extra décor because I didn’t want to take away from the beautiful design, but I love how the little details turned out!

I arranged some of the word strip stickers from the Hello Fall sticker pack into the white vein areas of the leaf. All the sayings are fall-inspired! I also added some enamel dots and cut a few floral stickers in half and tucked them around the word strips for a little more interest. Up at the top of the page, I added the die cut flags from the Bits and Pieces pack and an acorn sticker. The gold scalloped ribbon is from my craft stash.

At the bottom of the dashboard, the owl is from the Bits and Pieces pack and the little white flowers are from the chipboard sticker sheet. The letters that spell out “autumn” are from the Hello Fall 12x12 cardstock sticker sheet, and the green letters that spell out “Hello” are letter stickers from the SN@P! Color Vibe collection. Whenever I stack letters like this for a title on a page, I like to combine different fonts because I think the contrast creates a bolder statement that attracts the eye.

My October monthly pages were a blast to create! I love adding a little mixed media into my planner here and there. I mixed a few watercolor shades to create the light blue shade that you see under the big alphas that spell out “Autumn.” These alphas are from the 12x12 Cardstock Sticker sheet.

I decorated the rest of the layout with stickers from the Hello Fall sticker pack, the Hello Fall washi tapes, and die cuts from the Bits and Pieces pack. I brought more of the blue watercolor into the bottom right corner of the layout to create some balance. The acorns across the top of the pages are cut from one of the elements sheets in the 6x6 paper pad.

The next decorative fall element I made for my planner is a shaker pocket! It was SO easy to make! I started with a clear 4x6 pocket page, chose a few of my favorite SN@P! cards, and gathered a few sparkly things from my stash.

For the front side, I layered a few cards from the SN@P! Pack and just started putting various gold sequins and glittery hearts into the pocket, as well as couple of small die cuts. To seal the top, I used plain old, clear Scotch tape. I added a little more of that gold scalloped ribbon along the side as a finishing touch.

For the back of the pocket, I chose another one of my favorite 4x6 SN@P! cards and added some gold sequined string. I didn’t add any other bling into this side of the pocket, but some of the glitter came through from the other side and I love it!

Here’s what the shaker pocket looks like in my planner! How sweet, right?! 

I am really feeling inspired to use the Hello Fall collection throughout the season on all my weekly layouts! For the first week of October, I used lots of Bits and Pieces die cuts and the Hello Fall washi tapes. I cut all the flags from different patterned papers in the 6x6 paper pad. The notecard on the left is from the SN@P! Pack, as is the green card on the right with the flower. The flower itself is from Heidi Swapp and sprayed with her gold Color Shine spray. I cut about half an inch off the length of the card and rounded the corners so the card became part of the layout, rather than covering half the page.

On the other side of the green card, I had a lot of fun with lots of layering! I started with a 3x4 SN@P! notecard and cut it to be slightly shorter to fit the space better. I then used several scraps from 6x6 papers I had cut earlier to start layering behind the notecard. To add some dimension, I inked the edges of the orange paper scraps. I also used a 3-inch paper punch to punch out a vellum circle to tuck into the layers, and added some faux stitching around the edge with a black sharpie pen. I added a couple of die cuts and a decorative paperclip, and stamped the stitched pattern from The Reset Girl roller stamp. I then chose a fun Fall quote I found online and lettered it onto the card.

The right side of my weekly layout has more Hello Fall stickers, die cuts and washi tape.

The bottom of the page is a strip cut from a paper in the 6x6 paper pad. I used some washi along the top, added a die cut tab, a decorative brad, a couple of cardstock stickers and more of the paper flags I made with paper scraps.

I really cannot get enough of this collection! I will be happily using it all season! The designs are so beautiful, and all the quotes perfectly capture the magic of autumn. If you haven’t “FALL-en in love” with this collection yet, go check out the Carpe Diem Planners Instagram for some more deliciously fall-themed planner décor! You can also check out my Instagram to see more of my Hello Fall projects coming up!

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