December Daily® 2014 | Day Two
Welcome to December Daily® 2014 | Day Two.
NOTE BEFORE READING | Potential holiday spoilers. Some words might not be suitable for young viewers.
Some of you might remember reading my post from earlier this year called Goodbye Kids, Hello Holiday Helper. Well holiday helping season is in full effect around here and this is the story I most wanted to include in my album for Day Two because the joy is contagious.
I debated exactly how to go about including this story, knowing that Anna might try to read the words at some point before the time is right for her. I decided to write it in a way that was a little vague and to include it inside a folded card that not everyone would know actually included a story.
Unless you read my blog of course ( and who knows when she might start doing that).
The "S" can be for Simon or it can be for "Starlight" the elf.
It's an important part of our December story this year and it's significant for him. And man he is so awesome.
Here's a look at how it came together:
Between day one and day two I added 1/2 sheet of one of the transparent pages and attached one of the sticker tabs (see more about that from my Foundation Page post).
You might also notice that originally I had the "All I Want For Christmas" 3x4 card in the pocket for Day Two. I moved it to another day simply because it didn't match my story for the day and I like that it can almost be it's own story for the day so I'll save it for when I need it. Don't be afraid to move things around based on the stories you most want to tell.
Be the boss of your own album.
Here's a look at the page outside of the album:
The tree and the "S" are both floating inside the pockets which means I get to see through to the next page. I used my Brother sewing machine to stitch the top of the pocket closed (a great gift if you know a crafter who wants a multi-purpose machine). I don't do anything special with my machine - just run it through. This time there happened to be red thread in the machine so I went with it - if it was purple I might have changed it out.
You might be wondering, where are the words? Hidden inside that star pattern paper card of course - more about that below.
On top of the outside of the folded star card I added 1/2 of the gold foil circle and stamped "remember this" from the kit stamps. At first I thought I would fold the circle in half and then wrap it around the card - essentially creating a seal to make it even harder for little eyes to look inside without ripping it open but folding the circle didn't work as awesomely as I hoped - too many creases and my stamping was off a bit so I just cut it in a way that makes my stamping look more straight and added two little staples right along the edge.
The "spread cheer" card was made using the Christmas Rocks 6x8 layered templates - see a video on that process below.
Inside that star card is where I added the story:
A simple easy way to add more words to a smaller pocket (or hide from small eyes).
The truth is most of the time right now they are just looking at the photos and the pretty sparkly things.
Here's a look at it totally open:
I put together a very short video about working with the Christmas Rocks 6x8 layered templates (what I used to add Spread Cheer onto the 3x4 photo - simply resize and move the word art down) and the December Stories 4x6 layered templates ("this December story") - that one was printed on Epson Matte Presentation Paper and adhered to the gray star pattern paper.
I also added the "give love" stamp (from the kit stamp set) using Pistachio Memento Luxe ink.
Here's a look at the full page in the album.
I really do love the see-though pockets.
PS: I did end up embossing the back of the large gold "S" with white. You'll see that tomorrow.
Hope your December is off to a great start!
SUPPLIES
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TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY | CAPTURE YOUR 365
CaptureYour365 is a community for inspiration, ideas, and support for your everyday photography. Grab the monthly photo challenge list, listen to the CY365 Podcast, or take a class. Katrina Kennedy and the CY365 Team have helped thousands of memory keepers take control of their cameras with classes, community, and FREE daily email prompts.
SHARE A LINK TO YOUR DAY TWO
I'd love to have you share a link to your Day Two pages below. Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link.
Beautiful Ali ! Loving the see through pockets too :)
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Love the video.... I think I need all the template packs! I remember your blogpost about Simon graduating to Helper, a different Festive Season for Simon this year!
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bless! How wonderful to have a helper
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Love your story for today. The secret is out for my 11 year old this year and so he is my 'helper' too which I'm finding really helpful :)
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Honestly - what gets me out of bed in the month of December is knowing you'll have a new page posted, and a bunch of other links to check out everyone else's pages, too. I love starting the day off like this.
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I haven't done anything so far but I have at least written some things down and taken photos so it's a step in the right direction! Love the floating elements in the pockets. I definitely want to try something like that!
Thanks for posting your pages so early every morning for all of us to see!
I beg to differ. If you've done writing and taken pictures, you've done something.
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I missed your Holiday helper post back in April, so that was nice to read. I hope to have a few more years with my boy before he has to learn the "truth" but reading how Simon embraced the new role gives hope.
Love the hidden journaling. One of my favorite techniques! Great page, thanks for sharing!
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Words cannot fully express how much I love this! Simon is an AMAZING big brother and I think it's so awesome that he's a holiday helper! Such a wonderful gift for all of you. I hope one day when the time comes for my son that he will be a great holiday helper to keep the magic alive for his little sister.
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My experience has always been great with you Ali and your products. Thus, this is difficult to write. Selling an album as red and it not be even close - it is coral- is misrepresenting your product. When I contacted customer service, I was told they would ship me an off white album but I needed to pay for it. This is ridiculous - it should be exchanged at no charge to me. I am very surprised and disappointed as this seems in direct conflict with your personal brand.
I totaling agree with you. I love Ali, her classes and products but Studio Calico selling us a red christmas album and getting a coral/orange album & saying we can exchange it but it will cost you is ridiculous. It's too bad Ali couldn't do business with a better company.
C'mon, folks, can't we get past this? The situation has been explained, Ali has offered the white album as a replacement for the cost of shipping (and it has all the page protectors inside). If the coral album doesn't work for you for this project, get the white one, or go buy a red one and save the other for another project. There's really nothing more that Ali can do for you at this point, and to let such a small thing spoil your DD experience and to keep harping on it in the posts isn't very...merry.
The point is we trusted Ali when she wrote red, the coral is awful and while I tried to work with it and change it up I just couldn't use it. So after days of contemplation I felt I was left with no other option than to now pay the extra and buy the off white one. Red is my go to colour for Christmas, not orange/coral. Yes I will get past it but it has left me feeling disappointed in Ali and her brand and in future I will never order anything sight unseen. In fact I have decided not to continue with my monthly stamp set when my subscription is over in Feb as well. I don't like how I've been treated. It should have been specifically pointed out to us that it was more orange than red when we had the option to change colours, I would have done so, instead I trusted her and April and I'm just disappointed. Like the others I don't want to be negative because I love what Ali does but just feel sad about how Ali hasn't taken responsibility for the fact they sold us the wrong colour album. I'm sure deep down she was disappointed when she saw it too.
Ps I do love this page Ali and the story with Simon :) very sweet
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This is so touching, it's the perfect story for joy in December. michelle t
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Love this post, Ali. Love everything about how you are parenting your wonderful son. He is so lucky to have you!
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My oldest son, Alex, is Simon's age (and Jack, my youngest, and Anna are the same age, too) and is our holiday helper this year as well. It's so fun to watch him enjoy the magic of this season with a different perspective and help to make things extra special for his brother. Love the start to your album!!
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Love the see through pockets, love the sweet story hidden way, and love the spread cheer on the photo. Checking your blog is the best part of my December mornings. I can't wait to see what you do for Day Three.
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I just love this. The magic exists always. Go Helper Go. Beautiful memories Ali. x
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The page is beautiful, but the story is magic!
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I just read the story and my heart melted a little! How sweet! I love that he wants a holiday helper badge! And I love your first two pages. This past weekend, I was trying to put my foundation pages together but was feeling very uninspired and ended up not doing anything. This was partly because my album has gotten lost in the mail and partly just my mood, I guess. In any case, reading your first two days has totally inspired me again and gotten me excited to start documenting sometime this week when I get a chance. Thank you for the inspiration Ali!
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Hi Ali,
Sorry - another PSE question... Does resizing the templates work both ways? In this example you took a 6x8 and resized it to 3x4. Can you take a smaller template and resize it to larger proportions? Thanks!
Claire
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Tears in my eyes. So very happy for S.
Maybe you could turn that holiday badge idea into a holiday kids shirts with 'Holiday Helper' in your handwriting. FYI I've found Australia has a poor selection of cool, magical shirts for boys from about 7 years up. We might need one next year. = )
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I love that you have a helper this year.. My son has been my helper for the past 2 years and even though he is 19 I see that same magic and excitement about what he will do next with ours. Every day he waits for the excitement of my younger one to find what the elf did during the night. I think at any age it is nice to see our kids uplifted in the holiday spirit.
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Hi Ali! I really love what you do and have been following your blog since I saw you in one of the Brene Brown course lesson videos about a year ago! I decided to do my first December Daily this year after being so inspired by your videos, blog posts and photographs of your past albums. I began really excited and worked all last weekend to set up most of my foundation pages and was all set and ready to go for Monday... And my week has been just terrible so far. I've worked late every night and had issues with students, parents (I teach 6th grade) and coworkers all week. Long story short my album looks just as it did on Sunday evening. I feel so lost about what to put in my album for each of these days (I don't have children and most of my family lives far away...) I don't want to give up on my album but I really don't know what to do. Can you give me some suggestions??
Thanks!
P.S. I LOVE the color of the "red" album. I hesitated to choose red when ordering because I'm not much of a red lover but I'm so glad I did!
Katelyn - my album is completely empty, I don't even have the foundation pages set up. But I am taking pictures each day and journalling about what is going on around here. And when I get time, hopefully this weekend, I will sit down and work on some pages. Yesterday I spent literally the whole day out shopping with my sister. Not a lot to share there, so I will probably just make a little 3x4 card for day 2 that says something along the lines of 'and today we shopped' (haha). I think that is the beauty of this album. It has so much flexibility to do a lot or a little and still make it meaningful to us. The first time I did DD I didn't finish my album until the middle of January. Don't fret, and don't give up! Your album will be beautiful when you are done and it will reflect YOU and YOUR December season. :)
Hi - definitely don't give up! The first thing that came to mind was what if you simply did something you were thankful for each day. There are many people that don't work on this project daily. Do you have a smart phone? How about jotting down a note or two on your phone (or sending yourself an email) about what you might want to remember for the day - again, the idea of something you are thankful for is something simple and meaningful. It's totally okay to not approach this from the standpoint of doing something in it every day - sometimes it's just not possible :). What about writing something about what the holiday season means to you for day one, then for day two write about how busy you have been this week, and then for today think of one thing you are thankful for - it doesn't have to be complicated. You can do this!
How about things you look forward to during the holidays. Favorite movies? Music? Places you visit each year? Google images is my friend, when I don't have a specific photo that I have taken myself. It is so not too late to get started!
Definitely not too late! I highly recommend jotting the week down...even the bad stuff! It's part of your December. Sure, it's not Merry or joyous but it happened. Include it! Maybe even reflect on how it made you feel (all this negative during a time that's supposed to be so happy...but, sadly, it's reality sometimes!), etc.
I also agree that doing "filler" entries for days where not much happened or something so horrible happened that you don't care to relive it is a great idea! Favorite songs, movies, recipes, etc.
I don't assemble every day but I journal and take photos and I'll arrange everything once the month is over. It helps me since I'm so busy during the day and I don't have to worry about trying to "keep up" each night with the album. :)
Definitelt don't give up!
I don't have kids and my husband will be away for the next week so I get it! I will be doing what others here have suggested and be filling those days with favorites of the season. Yesterday I had a craptacular day complete with breakdown at work so I cheered myself up at lunchtime with a iced gingerbread latte at lunch time. That will be the focus on my day 3. On other days when nothing out of the ordinary happens I'll do pages on my outdoor lights, nutcracker collection, favorite ornaments etc.
I am not putting my album together as i go (I don't print pics at home so I'll do one order with persnickety at the end of the month) so I'm jotting down the pics I want to use, what size I am printing them, the page protectors to use and then any ideas of journaling or embellishments to use and then I'll put it all together when I get my pictures in.
Hope some of these ideas help you some!
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Love, love, love!
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