December Daily : Day 3 (part two)

Here are some thoughts and tips that came about as I was putting this page together this morning:

Catalogs. How many catalogs did you get in the mail yesterday? Put those printed materials to good use and reuse them in this book as accents and patterns. The one I used here is from JCrew. (Note: if you are interested in receiving less - or zero - catalogs in the mail you can "take control of your mailbox" with Catalog Choice.)

[ Word Keys: Tim Holtz; Font: Baskerville; Paint: Making Memories Cranberry; "E" Chipboard: Basic Grey; Joy Mini Bingo Card: Jenni Bowlin Studios; Cardstock: Bazzill; Scallop Edge: Fiskars Threading Water Punch; Glaze: Glossy Accents ]

Blog posts can become layouts/content for your projects. My
journaling for yesterday came directly from my post this morning. I
copied them into a Photoshop document and printed on cardstock before adhering on top of the catalog page.

Not printing your photos at home? If you are not printing
from home, using your blog to record your daily observations and your
photos is great way to keep it all together in one place before working
with it creatively in your album.

Multiple pages & changing things up as you go. Today I ended up with four pages. Some daily
stories simply take up more space - don't worry about adding in more
pages to create room for more content and spreading one day over more
than a couple pages. Don't be afraid to change things up as you go
along. I trimmed
off the top of the green diagonal patterned paper so that it was the
same height as the photo (before page is shown below).

Simple works just fine. Maybe just one accent is all a page needs. I loved adding a single word key with rik-rak to that first page.

Here's a closer look and some how-to details:

Add a word key to patterned paper with Glossy Accents (this is quickly becoming a favorite liquid adhesive). Just squirt a little on the back and spread it with your fingers. I placed the rik-rak through the key before adhering and tied after.

To create the scalloped edges for these pages I used the Threading Water Punch from Fiskars. It's a simple way to add a decorative edge to any papers.

Journaling was copied from my blog post this morning and printed on white cardstock. I changed the color of a couple lines of text, rounded the corners, and inked the edges red. Added the little star with Glossy Accents.

The page from the JCrew catalog was adhered with rolling adhesive to the back of this photo. In Photoshop I added a line from my Holiday Word Art collection at Designer Digitals before printing.

To add a little something to this chipboard "E" from Basic Grey I painted it with cranberry paint from Making Memories and then added Glossy Accents on top for shine. It works great as an adhesive or to add some shine/dimension to accents (depending on how much you use).

And the before image:

[ Art Warehouse Mistletoe Ledger; Ali Edwards December Daily Photo + Journal Overlays; Fiskars Threading Water Punch (for decorative edges) ]

Celebrate the season. Read more about the concept of a December Daily Album and links to all related posts here. See many more examples from participants in the Flickr December Daily Group.

Back in 2006 I designed a "creative thoughts" monthly calendar for 2007 that was available through my Cafe Press Shop. I made a few small adjustments to that design and am re-releasing it for 2009. You can check it out, along with the design for each month, here.