December Daily | Day 17 the Best Time of the Year

 
Today is the story a Monday around the house and running errands.  We took the kids to school and Ryan to work. We stopped by Lakshman's school for  a bit.  I have tons more teacher gifts to prepare and I am still working on it.  14 more!

While I work on my December Daily and Cocoa Daisy projects at home, Lakshman putters around the room with his toys.  And I find my daily story. 

I have this bright and colored numbered tree advent calendar which you fill yourself.  It is turning into a family tradition at this point and the kids eagerly awaited it again this year.  I fill it with sweets or little toys, erasers or marbles. Anything small enough to be a choking hazard next year basically. 

I slightly enlarged the canvas of this close up toy shot to include space for my journaling.  I printed the picture slightly smaller than 6x8 so I could back the page with patterned paper.  This paper is from the Cocoa Daisy kit, Pen and Ink. 

I also included some older number and star stickers.  

Lakshman posed for a picture with his animals and I had to include that too.  I actually made a pretty neat slide out photo.  You simply grasp the tab and pull.  I lined the area under the larger photo with a glassine bag so the photo could glide easily. 

I still ended up with part of the photo sticking out from underneath even when it was pushed all the way in so I put a strip of gold washi along the edge. 

A quick video of my photo slide in action. I love the real pop up book feel of this.  It makes me want to try some real pop up stuff next.  

Have you ever tried something like that in your December Daily? 

Thanks for checking out my pages again!

I hope your holidays are filled with love and magic! 

XOXO,
Niru

ps. You can see all of my December Daily posts here

Some of the supplies I am using:

American Crafts Hole Reinforcer Punch

6-Hole Paper Punch

DD Main Kit

Great Gift Giving Guide for the Kid who has Everything

March Scrapbook Projects | 4 Projects and a Layout Process Video

I am always ready for spring time and am totally in love with all the butterflies, flowers and purple in this kit! 

All projects created using the Cocoa Daisy March Silver Lining 12x12 Memory Keeping and Pocket Memory Keeping kits. 

I know that purple gets a bad name in crafting circles and I am not sure why.  The same goes for brown but people change their tune as long as you call it kraft or woodgrain. I find both colors to be lovely and am all for it.  

My daughter's most recent Faerie Tea Party pictures were just perfect for this kit of course.  

I really wanted to create flight trails behind the butterflies.  I used simple machine stitching for it.  I just worked slowly and slightly rotated my paper as I went to make the curves. 

The best part was after making this page she asked to keep it and hung it up in her room.  I guess not every page has to be tucked away in an album! 

This is the video to see how I put this layout together step by step. 

And, how fabulous is this washi tape in this month's confidential kit.  It is like getting a blind bag every month and I love it! I have been biding my time to share this, but I finally can! 

This is a hybrid layout I put together.  Just a lovely little time capsule of the days recently. 

 And finally a few Project Life spreads to share.

Shipping tags + die cuts. I try to add some typed journaling to at least a few photos before printing. 

I stitched all these cut apart flags to make another rainbow card for the spread.  Lakshman spelling words with play-doh is my favorite. 

Adding a little black and white with all this colors helps balance it out for sure.

Thanks again for checking out my projects this month! Go to the Cocoa Daisy page to shop for the full kit and see the rest of the designs.  

You can see all of my Cocoa Daisy Projects here. 

3 Projects and 5 Cards with November Cocoa Daisy Kit Fair Isle

The November Cocoa Daisy Kit is so cozy and festive, like it's namesake a Fair Isle sweater.  I used the 12x12 Memory Keeping kit and the Pocket Memory Keeping kit.

A picture from Christmas Day last year inside Mickey's House. It was so cold for us Austinites in Tokyo we really had to bundle up.  I love how cozy they all look gathered inside Mickey's living room.  

I love the die cut wreaths in this kit.  They can be dressed in so many pretty ways.  Here I added a felt bow on one half and a poinsettia flower. 

I didn't have many leftovers but I used what I had to make a set of Christmas cards. The bears are just too cute but I really had fun making this little house card.  I thought the "meet me under the mistletoe" from one of the sticker sheets worked perfectly with it.  

I used the Pocket Kit mixed with some of the papers from the 12x12 Memory Keeping kit for this project. 

I took the striped patterned paper, cut strips, sewed them and turned them on a diagonal for a fun custom card.  Love the layering and texture it adds.  I also layered die cuts on top of several of the Pocket Kit cards.  

The dark pattern and the script pattern were two more of my favorites.  My Tokyo Disney album is a 9x12 and I am looking forward to filling it up. 

The gather together acrylic piece is probably my favorite part of the kit.  It is so bright and colorful.  I adhered it with mono tape (think vellum adhesive, but it doesn't have to be) so the adhesive wouldn't show through the back.

I used another Christmas day pic.  This time one of us all together.  I must have asked somebody to grab the camera for us.  The people at Tokyo Disney couldn't have been more friendly and helpful, even though we did not speak the language.



Thanks again for checking out my projects this month! Go to the Cocoa Daisy page to shop for the full kit and see the rest of the designs.  

You can see all of my Cocoa Daisy Projects here. 

Memory Keeping: Cocoa Daisy October Projects

Sometimes I look back through my blog and find the most amazing gifts to myself.  Last year I wrote what felt like a long random and rambling account of our trick or treating experience.  

Re-reading it now I see a beautiful snapshot of our family and the kids at their ages.  Behavior that probably felt every day and normal, now stand out as precious to that age.  Lakshman still more baby than toddler, Nandini a sweet little girl and Avinash testing his independence at every turn.  

I thought I would maybe edit the long post, but I ended up keeping it all.  I copy and pasted the whole post and formatted it for a page.  

I made my own embellishments by cutting patterned paper and cardstock to make leaves.  I crimped them or added a deep crease down the middle.  You know I love to add dimension when I can.  

The ombre blue and brown ribbon in the kit was the perfect color match for the papers I had.  Love how the yellow and oranges in the photos complement the embellishments so well.  The October "Comfy Cozy" Memory Keeping Kits are just that.

For this Pocket Memory Keeping Page I was lucky to find a very good story already recorded for me.  This time on Instagram.  

I remember this day, I remember how fun it was.  But I definitely don't remember half the details I had already written down.  

This time I used the mark up feature on my phone to add text directly over a photo.  I printed a text free photo as well and placed it underneath.  I added a little succulent tag to the top photo so people will know to flip it up if they want to get a better look at me and Lakshman on the train together. Lol. 

I am so glad I had that story available and now it is recorded somewhere other than the computer. 

And I had to include a picture of the rainbow succulent box I put together.  All the lovely succulent cards and embellishments were just too perfect for it.  

I made one more Pocket Memory Keeping page. I always take so many pictures on Halloween that it helps me to have a place to put them all together.  

I loved how the oranges worked really nicely with the teal accented cards.  I fussy cut some of pumpkins off one card and popped them up on a new card.  

The stamps this month are an awesome alpha and numbers set.  I cut out a leaf and crimped it to create a backdrop for my stamped date card. 

I also took some inspiration from the pocket memory cards.  I loved those stacked pumpkins in planters!  

Luckily, the mini pumpkins at Trader Joe's are less than a dollar so I bought a whole bunch and got busy stacking. Nandini loved the pumpkin snowmen.   I'm just in awe that any of my flowers have lived this long.  

Thanks again for checking out my projects this month! Go to the Cocoa Daisy page to shop for the full kit and see the rest of the designs.  

You can see all of my Cocoa Daisy Projects here. 

Remember, social media can be a great way to record your story and an awesome resource for your scrapbooking layouts.  Happy creating this festive season! 

4 Projects to get you excited for fall with the Cocoa Daisy Early Sunset kit!!

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Neglected Garden// Nandini and I love listening to this Studio Ghibli song, it is on almost constant repeat these days. I have been wanting to put the lyrics on a page for a while and this gorgeous patterned paper was perfect for it. I fussy cut the large flowers out but I wanted to create a definite space for them to occupy on the oage. I went through so many ideas in my head but eventually settled on a water color and stitched border.  

Autumn// This page came together as a little bit of an elaborate grid. I balanced out all the different colors and oatterns with the plain white bubbles die cut, a version of the design on this month's stamp set.

 PL spread // I love the garden theme in this month's kit. Which of course to me meant faerie garden. The foxes were too sweet and reminded me of Lakshman so much, even though he wants to be a big boy, not a baby and he now wants to be a gecko.

Eclipse // This is definitely one of my favorite projects in a while. I will post a video with more details of how I created this shortly. The shiny sequins and constellation rub ons were just so cool!  

Cocoa Daisy June Kit Under the Sea | Layouts and Project Life Video

Here are all of my Cocoa Daisy Scrapbook projects for June.  I also have a project life spread with process video for you to watch if you are interested to see how I put everything together! 

Love the bright colors this month and I had a lot of fun cutting out big letters for my titles, but my favorite has to be that baseball layout.  Just a little bit of stitching really made the whole thing pop! Scroll down to see all my projects below.  

Thanks again for checking out my projects this month! Go to the Cocoa Daisy page to shop for the full kit and see the rest of the designs.  

You can see all of my Cocoa Daisy Projects here. 

Cocoa Daisy Layout Process Video and May Kit South Beach Projects

Lets Go | I am loving these dreamy colors and get such a California vibe from them.  Check out my video to see how I added lots of hand lettering to my page and ended up adding a pocket behind my photos to hold my journaling and an extra quote from John Muir.

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” - John Muir, Mountains of California

Captured | I made a hybrid layout because I was so inspired by that exclusive acrylic piece.  I added a little bit of type on the large photo to go with the embellishment.  I typed my journaling on the right hand page as well.  

May the Fourth be with you | I used a fun spray of stars for this layout.  I used an older Martha Stewart background punch on white cardstock.  I layered yellow tissue paper from the kit behind it.  I used the acrylic piece from the other kit here to make a mixed media title.  So many fun letter stickers in this kit! 

Lakshman and I made a fun little unboxing video of the DITL.  Check it out if you want a little chuckle.

Thanks again for checking out my projects this month! Go to the Cocoa Daisy page to shop for the full kit and see the rest of the designs.  

You can see all of my Cocoa Daisy Projects here.