Hello, December.

Wow, I cannot believe it's December. The last month of the year! So many wonderful things happening this month - so excited to document it all in my December Art Journal. Want your own December Art Journal? I have a few left in the shop here.

Or, want to make your own December Art Journal? Rummage around your home for scrap paper and envelopes. A few ideas of papers you probably have around:
- Envelopes for mailing
- Envelopes that come in bills to return the bill (you could use these if you pay your bills online)
- Calendar Planner pages
- Pages from Christmas catalogs (!! These are fabulous backgrounds for pasting on mementos)
- Construction paper
- Christmas cards/envelopes (snag one from your stack of cards you'll be sending out to friends and family)
- Security envelopes from junk mail (cut these up and use these as pages- you'd be amazed at how many different patterns and colors there are for security envelopes once you start paying attention!)
- Find a pattern here to make fun handmade envelopes and inserts

A couple ideas of things you could purchase very inexpensively:
- $1 bin Christmas cards/envelopes at Target or Michael's
- $1 bin Christmas paper / lists/ Christmas stickers/embellishments at Target or Michael's
- Items from a dollar store - envelopes, paper, graph paper, any sort of fun paper you can find! Spools of ribbon, wrapping paper, writing paper, stationery

You can purchase binder rings at WalMart, Michael's, or AC Moore for less than $2 for 6 rings. Use a 40% off coupon at the craft stores and save even more (these usually come in the newspaper or you can sign up online to receive their emails and receive the coupon in your inbox) Or, use ribbon to bind your book.

Decide what size you would like your journal to be - I find that 5"x7" is a nice size and holds items and 4"x6" photos very well. Cut your papers to approximately that size (or smaller if your found papers are smaller than that - it's fun to have all different sizes!) For sturdy covers, cut the chipboard from the back of the construction paper pad, or a large legal pad into two 5"x7" pieces (yay for recycling!).
Next, punch holes in one chipboard cover - one about 2.5" from the top and one about 2.5" from the bottom and each 3/8" in from the left edge (see picture below). Use this as your guide to punch the rest of your items to make sure all your holes line up correctly.
Once you have put together the album, you can embellish it with ribbons (if you have some), staples, cut out items/pictures from catalogs, punching holes in a decorative pattern, etc. Have fun, make it your own!

Now, keep your journal handy to write down happenings and thoughts each day - the idea is to record each day in December. When you're out and about, collect receipts (I went to McDonald's this morning and kept the receipt!:)), ticket stubs, menus from restaurants that you eat at, shopping lists, business cards/brochures from places visited, fun packaging for items, wrapping paper scraps from presents unwrapped, Christmas cards received, whatever will spark your memories for years to come. Below are some things from my journal last year. It was SO fun looking back through this and remembering things I had forgotten about!
Journal in it each day even if it seems like not much happened. Journal your thoughts or ideas about upcoming plans and excursions. Journal each day something you are thankful for. Look online for journaling prompts. Have family members or friends write a note to tuck into the journal. Use your imagination! :) Once you develop or print your pictures taken throughout the month, add them in to the appropriate day (use the chipboard cover as a guide to punch holes if you are putting it directly into the album - or you can adhere them to a blank page already in the journal).

Label each day's date - you could use different color pens, pencils or markers for this. Or, cut out numbers from magazines! Yay for recycling again!

Most of all, have fun with it! Then keep it around to look at throughout the year, or pack it away with the Christmas decorations to be surprised each year with your memories. :)

Handmade Christmas: Christmas Art Journal

I started keeping a Christmas Art Journal in 2008 and get super excited to put mine together each year. The amazingly talented and inspiring Ali Edwards first introduced the idea of December Daily several years ago and has inspired many to document the holiday season in December.

"December Daily is an album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Many people start their documentation earlier and many people go longer. I have found that 25 days is just right for me.

One of the keys to success in this project is getting an album structure set-up in advance of December so that during December you can enjoy the season & enjoy the process of documenting your days without having to be putting the entire thing together at the same time. It is not meant to be stressful. It is meant to be a way to creatively celebrate the season and document you special holiday memories in one album." - from aliedwards.com. Go here to see her current posts on December Daily 2010.

+ Interested in keeping your own journal for December? I have kits available in the shop here - complete with all sorts of fun papers (new and vintage) as well as super cute embellishments and tags.

A closer look at some of the pages as well as the kit contents:

I am still in the process of putting my personal journal together, and have decided to make it a little bigger this year - 6"x8". I added in a few extras I've been collecting, such as a baseball card holder (cut to size - 6"x8" - 4 pockets), some glittery paper, and some designed and printed day sheets - these sheets will be a lot like what Ali has in hers this year-- mostly blank sheets, where each have the day printed at the bottom (December 1, December 2, etc.). These will be perfect for journaling on or adding a picture and then printing the sheet at the end of the day. I plan to attach extra pictures and labels and some of the journaling tags I designed (also in the kit) on the patterned paper, so each day will have 2 (maybe even 3) pages.

++ I posted last year on making your own journal at home, with supplies you might already have on hand or can purchase inexpensively. The idea is to keep it simple - your journaling and pictures are what is important!

An excerpt from last year's post and a link to the entire post: ...Want to make your own December Art Journal? Rummage around your home for scrap paper and envelopes. A few ideas of papers you probably have around:
- Envelopes for mailing
- Envelopes that come in bills to return the bill (you could use these if you pay your bills online)
- Calendar Planner pages
- Pages from Christmas catalogs (!! These are fabulous backgrounds for pasting on mementos)
- Construction paper
- Christmas cards/envelopes (snag one from your stack of cards you'll be sending out to friends and family)
- Security envelopes from junk mail (cut these up and use these as pages- you'd be amazed at how many different patterns and colors there are for security envelopes once you start paying attention!)
- Find a pattern here to make fun handmade envelopes and inserts

A couple ideas of things you could purchase very inexpensively:
- $1 bin Christmas cards/envelopes at Target or Michael's
- $1 bin Christmas paper/lists/Christmas stickers/embellishments at Target or Michael's
- Items from a dollar store - envelopes, paper, graph paper, any sort of fun paper you can find! Spools of ribbon, wrapping paper, writing paper, stationery

You can purchase binder rings at Staples, Michael's, or AC Moore for less than $2 for 6 rings. Use a 40% off coupon at the craft stores and save even more (these usually come in the newspaper or you can sign up online to receive their emails and receive the coupon in your inbox) Or, use ribbon to bind your book.

Decide what size you would like your journal to be - I find that 5"x7" is a nice size and holds items and 4"x6" photos very well. Cut your papers to approximately that size (or smaller if your found papers are smaller than that - it's fun to have all different sizes!) For sturdy covers, cut the chipboard from the back of the construction paper pad, or a large legal pad into two 5"x7" pieces (yay for recycling!).

++Go here to see the entire post.

Excited to get your journal going? Me too! Now is the time- Have fun! :)

New in Shop :: 2011 Holiday Journal Mini Album Kit

Holiday Journal Kit Pre-Orders are now available in my shop! I know, I know, it's only October, but it's good to plan ahead, right? :) 

If you are new to or thinking about documenting your holiday season, I can do nothing but highly encourage you to this year! This will be my 4th year keeping a Christmas Journal, or "December Daily". The amazingly talented and super encouraging Ali Edwards started the idea of "December Daily" - documenting each day in December leading up to Christmas. Documenting through pictures, journaling, saving momentos and such. Documenting about the daily happenings of the season - decorating, making cookies, being with friends and family. What a precious thing it is to look back each Christmas at what was happening in Christmases past! Go here to read more about the December Daily project.

These Journal Kits are perfect for documenting your Holiday Season. They are put together with carefully picked out papers, overlays, envelopes, and embellishments. Embellishments include buttons, festive ribbons and baker's twine, washi tape, vintage-inspired mini Christmas flashcards, journaling cards and more. 

Also to be included are number tags (numbers 1-31) to document each day, and a title tag that reads: Tis the Season: 2011 (Still working on these and will update with a picture this week :)).

The listings are for pre-orders, the kits will ship the first week in November.  

*EDITED 10/23/11: Thank you so much for all of the sweet comments and enthusiasm - I am SUPER excited about this year's kit and can't wait to start shipping them :) @Jenny Lynch: I have listed a bunch more Confetti Windows in the shop and will make sure to keep them in stock! :) 

Also available in my shop are Christmas Confetti Windows! If you would like one of these to go with your Journal Kit, there will be a 25% discount on the Confetti Window and it will ship free with the kit.

Christmas Art Journal :: Days 1-9

Days 1-9 of my Christmas Art Journal (December Daily). I'm really liking how it's coming together, loving the new approach, but still have some frustrations here and there (which I think can be a good thing... part of growing creatively!).

So this year I decided to take a different approach to how the journal as a whole would be. Last year, I had the entire album completed and blank, and just needed to write in it each day, print some photos and stick those in along with mementos gathered. While I really enjoy that kind of keeping a journal, I wanted this year's to be more fluid, more intentional, to include digital elements, and to basically just be different.

For me, this meant not necessarily having the whole album put together and ready to go, but more of putting each day together.... each day. I like being able to create a new layout each day. It also allows for my layouts to be flexible- some days take up 3 pages, some only 1. But it's also frustrating when I'm super tired and would rather just plunk something in the journal and call it a day. I think it's good though for myself personally - it makes me think about the day, makes my creative muscles flex. Although I do sometimes leave the day until the next morning or afternoon when I am more functional :). And I jot down ideas here and there for upcoming days.

So will I do it this way again next year? Probably. I will probably take more time to put together a base album like Ali Edwards and go from there.

Intro Page: I have a ton of paper hole punches from punching journals this year. I saved them to somehow incorporate them into the journal. Two pieces of transparency and some red thread later, I'm super excited about the confetti intro page. The punches move freely inside the transparencies, so the page is always changing.

I laid it over top of a cream sheet of cardstock to be able to see all of the punches.

I love Ali Edwards' idea of leaving a blank page at the front. At the end of the month I will go back and add photos in (all on the computer) and print out a nice photo page capturing different details of the month (So basically this page is a place holder). The back will likely have our family Christmas picture blown up to take up the entire page.

Day 1: I enjoyed using the computer for the journaling and then adding in different papers and the #1 paper round. I had a vintage dictionary page with the word "jolly" on it, so punched that - I thought it was fitting for the season :)

Days 1 and 2 didn't really have much going on, so I recapped us decorating a gingerbread house after Thanksgiving - the beginning of decorating. I also included a page about my shop sales and custom order sales since this season has been a big milestone for my shop.

Day 2: I did manage to capture this fun picture of us playing with Jimmy's train sets (one of our fave activities).
Day 3: This is the day we got our Christmas tree and I wanted to create 3 pages for it - 2 with pictures and 1 with journaling. I'm super happy with how these all worked together and worked well going next to Day 2's picture.


Day 4: All digital this day- with a few embellishments added for the day number. Love how this spread turned out.

Day 5: I journaled digitally about the day's happenings and then included some handwritten journaling talking about our friends from church and how much they mean to us. Just realized I need to add a number "5" for the day ;)

Day 6: Also love how this spread turned out.

Day 7: I tried to print the "Date Night" page on transparency and then on vellum. Fail. I would have liked to have had it overlay the other pictures and journaling, but I'm content with how it ended up turning out!


Day 8: I found an ad in one of my magazines (for a resort, lol) that I knew would go perfectly with making cookies.

I reused some packaging for one of pages (the green and white polka dot under the vellum).

Day 9: No pictures this day. I journaled instead about where we are right now in the month - it will be neat to look back about what was going on these first several days of December. I definitely plan to add more full sheet journaling spaces like this about happenings throughout the rest of the month. I printed the journaling out and adhered it to vintage school paper - which matched some of the text on the journaled page. I had been struggling with not using any found paper really yet, and since that is one of my big passions, knew it needed to make it's way into the journal.

So there you have it. Days 1-9. Any thoughts? Ideas? How yours is going? I can't wait to see how the rest of the album shapes up and will definitely be sharing more here and there of the progress.

Have a fabulous weekend! :)

DIY:: Advent Envelope Mini Book

Remember this sneak peek post the other day? Thanks to all who guessed! It is, in fact, an Advent Mini Book :) I am in no way trying to rush on through Thanksgiving, more so, I am incorporating the planning into my thoughts. I want to be prepared for the Christmas season, that is, have my Holiday Journal ready to go. And now, have an Advent activity ready for the season. 

Our sweet son (he's 4!) is understanding and asking more and more about our beliefs as followers of Jesus Christ and we want to cultivate and encourage that! In Christmases past, we'd do things like sing Christmas songs, open up the Jesus Storybook Bible and read the Christmas story and talk about baby Jesus, set up the Nativity, etc. We are wanting to go deeper now- to read more into the Christmas story, to talk about what Christmas is about. We want it to be a celebration and to be fun as we anticipate the celebrating of Baby Jesus' birth. We want to celebrate together as a family, do fun things together, love on others, and continue talking about our beliefs with our son.

Usually with the way the calendar falls, Advent starts before December 1 (4 Sundays before Christmas). But for this project, we will be starting December 1. After much thoughts and talking with Rob, we decided to have a Bible verse or passage about the Christmas story as well as an activity each day in December, up to and ending on Christmas. So we came up with 24 activities, 1 for each day (and one that says Happy Birthday Jesus! for December 25). Some of the activities are simple, like reading a Christmas book together, or driving around to look at Christmas lights. And some are more involved like making, baking and decorating gingerbread men, creating ornaments, wrapping presents, etc. But more importantly, we wanted to include activities that relate to loving on others, such as baking cookies and taking them to our neighbor, making ornaments to give to a friend, picking an angel off the Angel Tree, or giving a toy to a friend. 

After looking around on pinterest, I was inspired by these Advent activities - here, here and here. I wanted to somehow put those all together. And since I love mini books/albums/journals (can you see where this is going?), what better way than to put them into a mini book :)

So what will each day look like as we do this? Since this is the first year we've done this, we'll kind of see how it goes. We are thinking of opening the envelope each morning, reading the activity for the day and either reading the Bible verse or passage in the Bible and talking about it then, or waiting until the evening at dinner time to do that. Not quite sure yet! :) This Advent activity will be building on and in addition to what we have been doing each year during the Christmas season.

I wanted to make envelopes, not just buy them, so I started out by going to my local craft store and finding a ton of Christmas-ish themed paper. I already had some ready-made envelopes on hand, so I needed about 20 sheets of scrapbooking paper (12"x12"). I did put some money into this project (about $10-$15), but could have done it a lot cheaper had I gathered up the paper over time, using 50% off-one-item coupons (I bought the paper all in one trip). Some of the paper was $1.99 (ouch) but I loved the velvet accents on some, the shiny glimmer on others, so I decided to just go for it. Other sheets were on sale for $.20/piece, so it evened out in my opinion ;)

I took apart 2 envelopes I had on hand to use as a template, like I did for this mini envelope tutorial (I also used that mini-envelope template for a few of the envelopes). I started tracing (onto the back of the scrapbook paper so you can't see the pencil lines once it's cut and folded!) and then cutting and putting together the envelopes. For some, I simply folded the paper on itself, sewed up two sides and made a "pocket" (And for one pocket, I just stapled up the side).

Once I made all of the envelopes, I punched two holes in each and put the binder rings on. I then worked on the cards for each day. I typed out each activity and each Bible verse and printed them on regular white paper and then adhered them to red, green, cream or Christmas-y paper. The final size of each was about 2"x3.5" (business card size).

As you can see, it was starting to rain while I was taking the pictures of these ;) Don't worry, all of the cards were ok :)

I went through my stash of stickers and put numbers for each day. I also cut out numbers from paper here and there (the giant green numbers are from vintage flashcards. Love.).

And since no mini book of mine is complete without some sort of confetti, I made a confetti window from extra pieces of ribbon and snowflake punches. This is the last pocket -- for Christmas day. The window is all sewn up and then an extra sheet sewn to the back to make the pocket.

All in all, Rob and I are so incredibly excited about this activity. We hope Jimmy will be too (and Joshua as he gets older :)). We are excited that we will be able to put it away with the Christmas decorations and pull it out each year. Not sure if we will keep the same activity cards or if we will make new ones each year. To be determined :)

* Below is a template for one of the envelopes I made. You can also go here to find a template for the mini envelopes. Click to enlarge, save and then print. 

As with all printables I share here, these are for personal use only. Thanks!

Discover Paper | 2011 Holiday Guide

I am super excited to share that Donaville over at Discover Paper has released her first ever Holiday Guide. This gorgeous guide is chocked full of gift ideas, round-ups of decorations, calendars, journals, notepads as well as other fun things - all related to paper. And as if that weren't enough, there are a couple Moleskines up for grabs - a fabulous giveaway :) Go here to see the guide and more details about the giveaway.

I am also super honored to have my shop featured as well as be a contributor to the guide - there is a tutorial for a 3D Paper Garland by yours truly :) Below are a few excerpts from the guide, make sure you go check it out in full :)

In Other News:

+ I have restocked the shop with a couple more Holiday Journals. These are basic journals, NOT a kit. They differ slightly from the kits that are sold out, but equally as fun if you are still looking for a journal to keep for December. These are ready to ship and will ship within 24 hours after purchase (weekends included!) 

+ Also now in the shop: Holiday Journal Paper Packs: a pack of unique papers and envelopes (and 3 journaling stickers!) to add to your holiday journal. If you purchased a Holiday Journal Kit from my shop, these papers are all different from what is already in your journal, the only duplicates are a sheet of vellum and kraft cardstock. This set is designed to not only work with the Holiday Journal, but to work well with any journal! :)

+ I have a few other old school Holiday Journals from a couple years ago I found as I was cleaning my workspace. I will probably be listing these in the shop soon. Super different from this year's journal, but fun to see what I put together a couple years ago :)

+And last but not least: Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas Paper Rounds are also in the shop. These are great for holiday card making, adding to a journal or scrapbook. 

Now that I have shared all of this fabulous Christmas planning (it's good to plan ahead! :)), it's time to get back to enjoying Thanksgiving week :)