DecDaily - magical

I am sharing a design team project I made as part of today's monthly block party at One Story Down. 

I used the awesome collab kit for most of this and a few things from the Retro Claus set.  They are both such fun kits to work with. I used a little gold glitter tape, a Crate gold foil chipboard ornament and a few Ali Edwards stamps as well. 

I added some digital elements to this picture and printed it out at 8x8.  I printed out the papers separately and glued them down in layers on some cardstock.  I actually think I like the look in the album better than as a single piece.  Now I just need to work on a plan for my 12.12.12 pictures.

Holiday Style: {plus, How to do Christmas Tree Bokeh Pictures}

I am sharing more pictures of our Holiday decorations.  I cut up a bunch of paper snowflakes and hung them from the staircase.  One of my favorite things to do. And so easy. I did this on Christmas eve last year and everyone 'woke up to' a white Christmas.

 We put up the tree at my parent's house. I love all the old ornaments from the '80s.  I took a bokeh (bokeh means out of focus light) picture with my dSLR and my camera phone.

It is simple to do with an SLR.  Just focus the lens on something close (like your hand) and switch the focus to manual.  Then stand back from your tree and shoot away.  Works ok at night, but looks really well in the day time.

For my phone, I swung it from side to side and took a picture when still slightly in motion.  I love how it turned out. 


 


In our apartment here, we still have all of our Diwali decorations up.

Paper lanterns, tissue flowers and some mini marquee letters I made.

I also bought a tiny real tree to decorate. It has been so long since we had a real tree.

I got this really cute fabric letter garland at Target.  I was going to hang it up, but it just looked cute on the tree.  Most of the ornaments are from the Target dollar spot too.  I did glitter them up for Christmas. 

I paired down a lot of knick knacks on our counter.  I did keep this tray out to fill with random things.  I put a vase of tree cuttings (I love that fresh pine smell), some candles and a few stray ornaments in there.  I filled a hurricane vase with more ornaments and hung up the more fragile ones on the branches (away from little hands).

I am also working on a fun scrapbooking project this month, called December Daily.  Check out my pages so far.
Linking up here and here.  

12.12.12: boys play football?

Love the twelve on twelve challenge, because it is an easy way to get a look into everyday life.  And, I have my camera out so often, it's not that hard to take a few extra pictures.   Nandini even helped and took a picture of me.  I went to a lovely girls' brunch in the morning.  We played games together after school.  We lit the menorah together.  Ryan let Avi light one candle while Nandini folded her hands and said Om.  I even made latkes (except I put chaat masala in them).  

Avinash went to his first dance trial class.  He absolutely loved it.  The studio is small, so we had to peek in through the windows.  He listened patiently but was eager to show off his skills in the 'circle dance'.  Each kid had a turn to dance with a scarf around the circle.  He grabbed it and pirouetted a dozen times around the circle with great care.  It was awesome.  He really tried to follow the footwork and ran back and forth on his toes.  He was the only boy, and he was a little worried before class started.  After he came out we didn't hear another word about that.  He did say, however, that he liked it a lot better than soccer.  He danced the whole walk home.  We are definitely signing him up for the new class session in January.  He is so excited and so are we!  I always did love the movie Billy Elliot..

I did not get much scrapbooking done today, but I did make a little insert for my December Daily.  I wanted to fill up the back of a chipboard page.  Just some ribbon, a die cut tree and a printed label.  First, I covered that chipboard star in glitter and tried to seal it with glossy accents.  The whole thing came out looking terribly tacky.  So, I just wrapped twine around it and feel much happier with it.

How was your 12.12.12?  Did anyone actually get a picture 12:12 too?
 

DecDaily - Hot Cocoa & Marshmallows

I guess this is the second marshmallow page in a row (after the s'mores picture).  I got this big bottle of mini marshmallows at Target.  When Avi and I started to make cocoa, Ryan was like, 'Oh, you are doing this for your December Daily?" Ha! Not exactly, I want to space out the goodies I give them anyway...

I did a different rendition of a grid again.  This time all at a slight angle.  I cut out some tags from this Crate Sleigh Ride paper, added a border sticker and some silver glitter tape.  That I stitched down with gold thread, but it is pretty sticky and didn't really need it.   And, yes, I included a picture of Nandini pretty much scowling.  We had some marshmallow drama.

I used grey chipboard and wooden alphas for the title.  Been saving that red ampersand from an AC sticker sheet.  I propped it up on some glue dots.  I love ampersands, but find it hard to use them as a pure design element so it is good when I can work one into my title. 
I got this bag at the grocery store yesterday.  I love how they made pink and purple stripes look holiday.  I stitched that into a little insert today too.

I love the bokeh lights page in the SC Christmas handbook insert, but I had no intention of buying one and it just felt more personal to use a shot of my own tree.  I turned on the manual focus and got the tree nice and blurry for this picture.  I printed it out around 8x8 and trimmed it a bit shorter to fit the saying on the bag. 

I traced a file tab on there and cut around it.  I stitched around the edge in that gold metallic thread again. 

Love how it looks all together in the album.

(Proof that my albums get handled a lot, like it or not.  I love that she is interested, but I have to supervise.)

DecDaily + Project Life

 We had such a fun time at the Houston Zoo Lights this weekend.  Unfortunately not many animals were out, but we loved all the lights and music.(Avi wanted to see which animals had eye shine apparently.)  We are so lucky to still have warm weather here.

And, treats of course.  Treats are always the best part. Nandini knew exactly what to do with the s'mores and waited patiently for me to roast her marshmallow before snatching it out of my hands.  I could have journaled about that under this photo, but the part I want to remember most is running around, playing tag on the grass under the lighted trees, while the Charlie Brown Christmas music played in the background.  I actually changed my mind about what to write and hand cut a half circle to fit over my messed up journaling.

For the layout the goal was simple and to repeat the design of day 2.  I used some ILS papers, with a strip of red airmail washi, grey seam binding and red glitter ribbon.  I used a silver glitter thicker to add the date.  The stamp (in white chalk, again) and journaling spot are from the SC kit.

I played around with the transparencies in the SC kit today.  I taped off some stripes with old washi and used acrylic paint to add lime green stripes.  I've been wanting to add more lime green (like on the cover) but was having trouble finding anything.  So I just painted my own!

I added a JBS sticker and stamped the date to give it some purpose.

An identical sticker on the back for symmetry.

DecDaily - dreidel games

I am realizing that there is a pattern to the way I work on this. Unlike the 'standard' december daily, I am mostly doing stand alone pages. They sort of end up like mini layouts, but I allow myself to be more simple. Having a pre-sorted box of stuff to work with helps speed up the process for me a lot. I am going back to cover November, but I am allowing myself to skip days in December as well. After I finish a spread and if there is still a little time before the end of naps I will paint a chipboard insert or print photos. I also work at least a day or two behind. Journaling is kept no fuss, on the page directly or a simple tag.

 

 

(I know this photo could be cropped better, but I like the look of my pages in the album as a whole.)
I cut the number one out with my cameo.  I sort of modified the font you see in my header to create the outline-less marquee look.  It is backed with some pow AC glitter paper.  I considered putting different buttons and papers in each circle, but decided to err on the side of simplicity.  I pulled out this JBS red label paper. Just perfect for this album. 
I hope you can tell it is meant to spell out '1st night'.  Avi was really excited to play dreidel, but the cutest part turned out to be Nandini playing along as she stuffed chocolate chips in her mouth.

 I stamped the Ali Edwards holiday stamp in white chalk ink here. Love how it looks against the dark woodgrain. I used to always emboss in white but I think I like the look of chalk even better. Paired with blue letter stickers and a few more enamel dots. 

I don't know why, but I made another page about december 3rd.  I just liked this picture of Avinash holding tomatoes from our garden.  Pretty simple patterned paper, cream/gold twine, MS label, OA washi, die cut title and wooden number.  I added some teal washi for contrast to the neutral/reds and to contribute to the color theme throughout the album. 

DecDaily - Open Me

 

Still having tons of fun with this project.  I keep making inserts from November too, can't stop!

 I'd like to tell you that we let the kids open the new doll house for Hanukkah but apparently it was actually the day before, doh.  Oh well, they loved it.  I used a new SC stamp, colored in with chalk inks and those AC stamp markers.  I really felt the markers were kind of dull in color so I had to go back over everything in chalk.   The number tag is from roadside design's at One Story Down. I added the wrapping paper Avinash brought home from school yesterday.  He made me a pencil case and it even has a section the perfect size for journaling cards!

Happy Thanksgiving.  Gold paint on chipboard. A crate paper label and Ali Edwards stamp on kraft, stitched in gold thread.  Can I say how hard it was to get a picture of these children all together not blurry.  Impossible.

 And, one more insert from November. Just Nandini, checking out the tree.  I painted the chipboard with gesso and misted it in gold using this star pattern mask.  The tab is Evalicious.  I added a few enamel dots and a bit of pink washi (from Target). 

We had a night out today, without kids and so fun.  How is your weekend going?

DecDaily 7

I worked on one more Diwali page today. I didn't take any pictures in the middle of the week and the few I took yesterday and today I'm still working on. 

We had so much fun at the temple.  I stamped a paisley pattern in gold on kraft. I added a lot of photos by sticking to a simple grid.  I used a couple pop dots to give extra dimension here and there.  

 I used the Ali Edwards DD kit stamp as a stitching guide and added a few fabric stars misted in gold here and there.  I used HS gold mist spray and splattered a few drops on the page as well.

I added the title with wooden letters and little glitter tape.  Love all the repetition in this album.

I used the same stamp on a white tag.  I added an extra picture on the front and lots more journaling on the back.