December Daily | Days 22 to 25

Sharing a ton of pages today. My album is not completely done, but it feels good to have all my pictures in there. The only thing missing is some journaling.  I have a few spots that would use a little filler because I switched between page protector styles on different days.  I'll just cut up patterned paper for this probably.

 Day 22 |

Our north pole train ride!  We've never done anything like this before and it was a lot of fun.  Not sure we'll do this every year since it was such a long ride, but it was good to experience once.

I had to cut a little notch in the page protector to slip the reindeer over the photo because the tail was sticking out too much to fit inside the pocket, lol.
ps. can you tell I ran out of S's?  I even had two packs of those letters and still.

Another Paislee Press die cut card.  I used a pencil eraser and gold brilliance ink to add some bokeh dots to the card.  Subtle but so pretty.  Love it.

The peppermint tag is a piece of vintage ephemera from my latest JBS kit.  I added another Target snowflake here.  Happy for the continuity they are giving my album (even though we have no actual snow here, lol.)

Journaling directly on the photo. Magical polaroid frame is from my SC kit.

Day 23|

Simple spread.  One photo and one journaling card.  Love those bark stars.  The small Heidi Swapp letters are a great size for pocket pages. 

Day 24|

Love this card from SC.  Such a show stopper.  Another gold glitter star here.

I also printed out a big photo for this day with those fun 'gingerbread' chipboard letters from WRMK.  Very inspired by Pam Garrison who I found in the SC gallery for this page. 


Day 25|

The first page is a lot of opening present photos.

I put in a full page photo of Nandini next and then made this quick little layout for the back.  I don't have this awesome stamp set, but my friend was awesome enough to let me use hers.  Major score!

Full spread.

I had an extra strip of this star overlay that fit the height of the wood veneer letters perfectly.  I added a few more Basic Grey metal stars and another red JBS star.  Avinash was desperate to have my pack of little red stars, but I was mean and didn't share.

I really liked how our Christmas card envelopes turned out, so I trimmed an extra one and slipped it in here (actually I messed up the mailing address on this one, but why let it go to waste?).
I had so much cute pictures to include, so I made a fold out insert for photos.  I lined up my photos and put a few paper strips on the sides.  I glued the photos to the strips, front and back and folded the strips.

I stapled a piece of ribbon to the outside photo to use as a tab and remind me to open it up and see more photos. 

I fully intend to add some journaling here but just haven't done it yet..

I have used every bit of this gold pressed paper from the SC kit.  I used every stamp from an SC add-on kit on a tag, just as is, and pasted it on here.

My album is super thick and I think I'm going to stop here.  Maybe add in one or two more little things.  I like how Ali Edwards finished her album off with a page of subway art.  It has been such a fun project and I'm happy to have it (almost) done!

Click here to enter my current giveaway from Pampers!

Fuss-free Savings with Pampers and CVS

I was so excited when I got the chance to work with Pampers and CVS on this post over the holidays.  Pampers has always been the number one choice for our babies.  With at least one child in diapers constantly for the past five+ years I always try to be careful and keep Pampers in stock.

I have written about this before, but Pampers (she wears Baby Dry) work the best for us at preventing leaks, especially overnight.  Nandini wakes up late in the morning and really tests this theory.  She pays us back by not going to sleep until ten at night, but the almost 12 hours in one diaper is amazing. 

We normally have a pretty hectic schedule consisting of driving Avinash back and forth to school and dance class.  Austin is a wonderful city but is also known for horrendous traffic.  I'm especially grateful for her absorbent diapers at those times when she ends up strapped in her carseat almost all afternoon.  Trying to keep her entertained and picking up the crayons that fall on the floor and singing along to the same ten Disney songs on CD is challenging enough.  If I had to worry about her diaper too, I think I would lose it.

more after the jump, plus don't forget to enter the giveaway below!

December Daily | Day 19, The Nutcracker

This page had me stuck for a long time.  I didn't have a ton of photos. I did snap this one at the end of the performance.

I switched things around a lot.  Originally I had the program in a page protector but it was just a tad small and looked awkward.  I used some BG attach me stickers to keep it in the book.

I put a full sheet of sequins paper in the page protector instead with a little SC printable and silver metal star from BG.  

 I ended up covering the back cover with patterned paper because I don't need a bank ad in my book.  Then, I stitched this title onto tissue paper and was going to place it on top of the sequins paper, but it wasn't translucent enough to let the sequins show through so I pasted it on to the back cover instead.  Hopefully the stitching will help keep it all in place.  I used a lot of glue too.

I used another printable label and more silver stars here.  I stamped the phrase on my journaling card with that big Pebbles roller stamp. I love the way Ali Edwards clips her number tags in half, so I did it again here. 

My family starts arriving here today.  I am excited and nervous to host Christmas here this year.  Avinash, Nandini and I made more decorations last night because Avinash doesn't want Santa to come to "a house with no decorations anywhere!" Since you know, we only have two trees up already.

Nandini is testing all her limits now too. She has to be tricked into eating.  The night before it the promise of face time with Grandma, last night it was feeding Avinash one bite and then feeding herself the next one.  HAHAHAHA.  (I made this fancy Mac and Cheese, which we all loved if you are curious).


Go here to enter my Pampers giveaway!

December Daily | Day 21

 Day 20.  I included our Christmas card here.  We spent the day running from a playdate, to an emergency dental appointment to me, to the grocery store for essentials and then to pick up Ryan from downtown.  Fun times and no pictures :)

Some messy (on purpose??) stitching around a date card. 

The Jingle card is a letterpress card I made. Silver and white, with room for embellishment but doesn't really need it.  They are available in my shop here.

 The card (I ordered ours from Minted) is adhered to attach me stickers from Basic Grey.  They are not super sturdy and I hope it stays.  If not I will just punch holes on the card.

 The following page is a picture from the 21st.  I just cut a 4x6 card from some sequins paper (from Michael's recollection line).  I attached some Target dollar spot chipboard letters with tiny staples.  Woodgrain star sequins are loosely sprinkled inside.  So decadent looking and I love it.

Here is the rest of the 21st.  I did three pages total for this day.  

This girl carrying packages is one of my favorite cards from SC this year. 

I really need to catch up on the rest of my album.  I am stuck on this Nutcracker page from the 19th. Working on addressing holiday cards and having fun with all my stamps. Plus a little washi tape because who can resist?

We are taking the polar express train today. Can't wait to put these photos in my album.

December Daily | Day 18, deck the halls

This spread has nothing to do with the actual day, and I'm okay with that.  We went to the museum in the morning and then out to dinner at night.  I took (very few) photos, but I didn't feel inspired.  I was going to skip the day entirely but I decided to make a 'filler' spread about making decorations.  Since we spend a portion of each day doing this, it fits any day really (no school = lots of arts&crafts time at home, I love it obvi).

 In the end, I'm glad I scrapped because I just love this spread.  Mostly because I was just playing around. 

 I filled one pocket with different flair and some printable circles from the SC kit. I love that they included a digital version of the fabulous chipboard stickers from the kit.  I stitched the letter stickers on a photo and called it good.  

Avinash was not a fan of this page, because (and I quote) "you know, string. And, if we turn it upside down everything falls out."  Why this child is already planning on turning my album upside down I don't know. 

I cut out this Kal B file with the silhouette and stitched it on as well.  Actually, I lost the halls part somewhere and cut out another one by hand because I was too lazy to make it over. 

Thank you so much for indulging me and coming back to read these posts everyday.  It helps me immensely to post about my pages here and unfinished mini album is never a good time. 

December Daily | Days 16 & 17

 Day 16 and still loving this project.  This was the day of Ryan's office party.  I wanted to make a mini layout type spread, with lots of layers and strips. 

 I used the other half of the washi strip on this Santa photo.  Our third for the month but only the second one to make it in to the album, hee.

 I think I have mentioned how much I love these DD cards from Neela, but my favorite is day 2.  I scraplifted her look here, with the same pink label and sequins. 

A look at my day 17 spread.  I still need to add the journaling, but I love how it is coming together.

Here is the spread with the journaling added in.  I have to tell you that getting this letter from the Postmaster about Santa basically made his year. Happiest mail ever. 

The AE die cut fills one pocket and still looks pretty cute from the back.  I felt kinda mean doing it, but I snipped the letter from the postmaster apart to fit in the page protector.  I then snipped off the return address on the envelope from the postmaster.  I added my journaling directly on top of the letter, mostly because it was easy and it was something different for me.  I realized that I have a lot of happy mail stamps, so I felt I had to use at least one here.  Probably not entirely necessary.

 I added a picture of Avinash hard at work on a color book.  The wood veneer is from Elle's studio.  I was playing around with depth of field in the photo and I like the way putting a heavier embellishment in the foreground really emphasizing that aspect of the photo.

 This page covers our trip to Trail of Lights that evening.   The KP sticker fit the rectangle on this AE journaling card perfectly.  Just snippets of journaling really, not the play by play account of our evening, but the highlights.   The best photo of the night made it's way into the album.  I added a filler card from the SC kit, with another wood veneer from Elle's Studio, and a die cut kraft card from Paislee Press. 

I used a printable tag from Ali Edwards as a mini insert (you can see how I used this tag set before here).  The kraft piece is self-adhesive and comes from the Target handbook meant for holiday cards.  I cut out the mail label, addressed to Avinash and with a Santa stamp from the post office, and pasted it on the back.  Not showing that part for obvious reasons..

Thanks for visiting! In my etsy shop, in addition to my washi tape samplers I added a holiday set as well.  This set is cool because it comes with red and gold glitter twine and glitter ribbon.  Check out the Christmas washi tape sampler here.  I really had fun with the colors here, lots of red, green, silver and gold with pops of teal, chalkboard and lime. Every order from now until the end of December also comes with a free gift. Use code WASHI for 10% off any order or code RAINBOWS for free domestic shipping.