December Daily® 2016 | Day 02

Welcome to  December Daily® 2016 | Day 02. 

I loved checking out your stories in yesterday's links and via so many shares in the  December Daily® Facebook group. Thank you for being a part of this community. 

Here's what my Day 02 looked like as a foundation page: 

Here's a look at what Day 02 turned out looking like:

Lots of little things happening for today's story. My album will end up being a mix of very specific stories (like I told for  Day 01) and others like today that are a fun mix of products and a story or stories. 

I knew that I wanted to include the photo of Simon working on his Advent calendar and after I printed it out and thought about what I wanted to include in terms of words - I just kept thinking about his awesome Christmas spirit. So rather than talk just about the Advent calendars I decided to pick some phrases/words/stickers that related to the overall magic he brings to the season and write a short note to him on a tag talking about how I love his Christmas spirit and how fun it was again to see him light up when opening his Advent calendar. 

As I was thinking about his Christmas spirit it also made me come back over to my computer to look up a photo of him from a Christmas past. I found one of him and Anna from 2009 that I turned to black and white and printed out and cropped to 2 inch x 2 inch to fit into the pockets. It puts a whole lot of things in perspective for me seeing that picture again. I loved including that along with a bunch of other patterns and word/phases that made me happy today. 

The white tag and the "Friday" pocket are from very old Studio Calico kits that I've been hanging onto forever. Today was the day they got put to use. 

Lots of gold embossing today. You can watch my embossing process in today's video below. 

For embossing you basically need the following: 

• Embossing Ink | I use Versamark. 
• Stamp | Today I used stamps from the December Daily® Christmas Star 4x6 Stamp Set (this has been restocked a couple times this season and at the time I'm posting this there are still some available) and from the December Daily® Christmas Phrases 4x6 Stamp Set (perfect words and phrases for prompting stories or stamping on Avery Index Tabs). 
• Embossing Powder | Today I used Zing Gold Metallic. This one from Tim also works great. 
• Heat Gun | This is the one I use. 
• Snappy Tray | This is an optional thing but I LOVE it for how easy it is to pour into and pour out of back into the embossing bottle. I've been using this same one for years. 

Here's a look at the pieces outside of the album: 

A couple things to note ( also covered in the video below): 

• The light green "magical" chipboard circle is from Pam Garrison's December Daily® Mini Kit. I adhered that piece on the outside of the page protector. I'm cool with a mix of embellishments and pages both inside and outside the page protectors. 
• I adhere the chipboard "1" to a piece of pattern paper and then cut it out with a craft knife and then embossed the word "traditions" on top. 
• I cut one of the kraft tags from the Main Kit to match the one from Day 01 and ended up including the "spread cheer" portion that was printed below. Love that those tags are 2 inches wide to begin with. 
• I adhered the small text pattern paper from the Main Kit to the back of the messy circle from Day 01 and added a gold chipboard star on top. 
• I embossed the large star from this stamp set and cut it out and added a small white "S" from the alpha set in the Main Kit. 
• I added an Avery Index Tab along the outside edge of the Friday pocket. I stamped "savor the moments" from this stamp set on the white paper inside. 
• I covered up a portion of a rolling date stamp with a small piece of tape to just be able to stamp "2009" onto the small 2 inch x 2 inch photo of Simon and Ann. 
• To figure out the correct photo size I used a ruler to measure the outside of the page protectors (a little less than 7 inches x 8.25 inches) and then cropped my image in Photoshop to that size. I used a Crop A Dile to punch the holes in the photo enlargement and the pocket.

Here's a closer look at the tag that I slipped into the day of the week envelope:

Also, I imagine there might be some questions about families with multiple kids and how I'm planning to incorporate all of us into this album. In my head, at least right now, my plan is to intentionally be on the lookout for at least one story over the 25 days that focuses on each kid. Maybe it will be a time I see them experiencing joy. Maybe it will be a time I overhear them say something. Maybe it will be a time I see them do something that is so representative of their personality right now. Looking, listening, watching, waiting and then capturing + documenting. 

I approach all my projects (this one,  Week In The Life™, Project Life®, One Little Word®, and traditional scrapbooking) from my point of view - as my story. My parents, my kids, my partners, my friends are all characters in the story of my life. I make these projects because I enjoy them (the writing, the photographing, the crafting), not out of a sense of obligation to make sure I record all the details of my kids lives. 

DAY 02 | VIDEO OVERVIEW

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