December daily day 11

Welcome to day 11...nearly half done!


Day 11 was a 3 page layout, and since my pages were simple I was able to tell 2 stories for this day.

Here is the 2 page spread


Page one- another full page pic...loved these! And I adore this picture of my 3 favorite little boys. I used one of the Ali Edwards December Daily 6x8 templates from Designer Digitals and turned off the picture spots and used the eraser tool to remove the text from the overlay. I dropped the full page photo in and turned the remaining border line white. I'm sure there is an easier way to make this little border line on my own, but I knew the template worked and would keep everything consistent, so there ya go. The cute outline wording at the top right is the "Tis the Season Outline" brush from the Ali Edwards Holiday Outline Word Art set from Designer Digitals.



Page 2- the dated over lay page. This used the "peace earth" template from the December Daily templates. I turned the over lay off this time and just used the template to size my pics. Then I made a text box to fill the rest of the large section of the dated page. The "merry" is a brush from the Ali Edwards Painted Christmas Words set from Designer Digitals. I "stamped" the word on its own layer and turned the opacity down to about 20%. (Another idea I took from Ali, sensing a pattern?) I messed with the small box at the bottom FOREVER and finally decided I liked this simple cut circle/paper thing. Lol. The paper is Christmas Morning from the Christmas Delight collection by Little Yellow Bicycle. The snowflake circle is from the Diecut Cardstock Pieces pack from the Jovial collection by Basic Grey.

Page 3 was the closest I came to designing the whole digital page by myself, haha! I just wasn't loving the way the page was coming together using the templates the way I had before, so I sort of made my own. I did the same border trick as page 1 (used an Ali template and turned the pics off) and then made a photo collage on the right. Text box in the bottom corner for the journaling. Finally, one of my favorite brushes this year: "Hello Santa" from the Ali Edwards Holiday Word Art set from Designer Digitals. I'm pretty happy with how it came together.

The journaling reads:Brecon got an email from Santa today. Santa checked his list and found his picture. He even knew Brecon had been to the beach, & was a pirate for Halloween. Santa was proud of Brecon for trying hard to listen to his parents and that he wants a camera for Christmas! Brecon couldn’t believe it! What a fun surprise!

Page 3 in the book with the intro page for day 12.

One of my simplest days so far but I really liked how it turned out.

PS...the personalized Santa email Brecon got was one of the coolest things we did this year. Bookmark http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/ for next year. We loved it and Brecon had a ball showing off his email to his Grammy and Grampy. And it was FREE!!!

DD day 10

Hello! another December Daily page to share

I loved this project because it allowed me to do little pages that focused on individual people or places in a festive setting! Day 10 was one of these...I decided to do a layout about a very important place to our family (Casa Mexico) and our wonderful friends there.


Day 10



Since day 10 had a transparency it was a 2 page layout. For page one I created a 5.5x6.25 doc in photoshop to fit the large box of the dated overlay. I dropped this sweet pic of all the kids in the top and filled the rest with a text box for the journaling. The "love" I just typed big in a new layer with CK Ali's handwriting font (available on her blog) and turned the layer opacity down to about 20%. Then I printed the pic on photo paper and the journaling right onto the overlay page. The small box is another photo from our night at Casa. Every year they hang a ton of ball ornaments from the ceiling and we've always loved that, so I wanted to include it.

The journaling here reads: Casa is a very special place. For the last 7 years we have come here nearly every Friday night. This was the first restaurant any of the grand kids ever went to. It was the first public outing for the twins. Devin has his own “button” for his special quesadillas. They miss us when we don’t make it. When we get takeout they label our dinners by name, They even write “hi Bubba” on his cheese taco. We celebrate and play here. We have wonderful friends here. They laugh with us, hug us and hold our kids. Lidia and Hector are our neighbors & the first people we think of to take “boo” treats and Christmas plates. We are all friends on Facebook. We’ve watched Adan grow up. Devin makes cookies to bring for special occasions. Hector wrestles with the boys. Lidia asks after every one of us. The family was invited to Devin’s graduation - and they came. Ernesto has brought us sweet & thoughtful gifts more than once from his trips home to Mexico. Iris and I talk about scrapbooking. Carlos jokes with Joe and talks football with us. We share news, talk about kids, cheer for BSU. This whole family have become dear friends & we love them.This isn’t a restaurant to us anymore. This is having dinner with friends every Friday night




Page 2 was made with an Ali Edwards December Daily 6x8 template from Designer Digitals. This one was "Holiday Traditions". I used the eraser tool to remove the text from the template and used the "family and friends" brush from the Ali Edwards Hand Drawn Holiday set from Designer Digitals. I used different layers to put the journaling around the edge of the page.

The Journaling here reads:Beki had her first real piano gig at Casa tonight. She played 3 hours of Christmas songs and even sang some. She was a bit nervous, which is unusual for her, but she did a great job, everyone really enjoyed it. She even made $ 78 in tips! Mel,Heather, Nan, Brady and Baby Jimmy came to see her too, so it was an extra treat! Ernesto says she can play any time!




Page 2 with the intro to day 11.

I really loved this page since it allowed me to capture a memory that was bigger than just Christmas or just this year. It's a part of our lives I want to remember and this was a great start.

Thanks for reading!

December daily day 9

Day 9 ended up being one of my favorites. I got such sweet pics of my boy for this day. :)



Another 3 page layout...here's the 2 page spread




Page 1 has a background of Home for the Holidays paper from the Merry Christmas collection from Echo Park. It was actually the back of my intro page paper and I loved it, so easy easy! The journaling block is from Ali Edwards Christmas Celebrations Element Pack from Designer Digitals. I created a blank doc in PS, dropped the journal block in, added the text and printed it on Cream Puff cardstock. The font is CK_ journaling, a free download from Creating Keepsakes

The journaling reads: Our advent activity today: hot cocoa by the fire. Daddy and Brecon went out together especially to buy marshmellos for our drinks. They even picked out the kind with holiday colors and shapes. We all made our own cocoa and Brecon chose the penguin mug (of course). Mommy and Brecon had chocolate with “smarshmarllos” and Daddy had caramel.Yum! We all cuddled up with our mugs in front of the fire to watch football It was a bit messy, Brecon had a hard time keeping his mug steady (he was too excited), but we had a fun time. Brecon liked seeing everyone get a cocoa “mushtash.” I wasn’t sure he’d like the hot chocolate, but he drank it right up. Loving these cozy times together!



Page 2: Another modified DD template. I think I used Peace and Joy for this one: turned off the overlay, and flipped the whole template vertically. I added a couple of digital elements at the bottom and printed the whole thing to fit the big box of my dated overlay page. The cocoa cups was a 3 step process: first I stamped 3 cups directly onto the cardstock page and added some red stitching for them to sit on. Next I stamped a cup onto 3 different patterned papers and fussy cut each of them out, cutting off the steam swirls. I stamped the 3 cups once more onto brown cardstock and fussy cut just the oval for the cocoa. Then I assembled the cups over the image on the cardstock and glued the cocoa ovals on top. Took a bit of time but I really love the result. Supplies: "celebrate" digital sticker from the Ali Edwards Christmas Celebrations Element pack from Designer Digitals; "most wonderful" word strip from the Ali Edwards Holiday Word Art set from Designer Digitals; brown cardstock from the Natural collection by DCWV; Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black by Tsukineko; red dot paper from Yuletide Designer Paper Collection by K& Co; Victorian Greetings paper from Christmas Past Collection by Graphics 45;
cocoa cup stamp by Michael's



a closer look at the cocoa cups

page 3 is one of my favorite pics from the whole season. Brecon loves that penguin mug! I used a DD template here (don't remember which since I erased the text) and added part of a brush from the Ali Edwards Handdrawn Holiday set from Designer Digitals (I just erased the part I didn't want to use here). I also added a little sparkly flourish brush, but I can't remember at the moment where I got it! I'll link it when I figure it out.

More to come soon!

December Daily day 8

Here's a look at day 8...another 3 page layout




the 2 page spread



page one is a Ali Edwards December Daily 6x8 template from Designer Digitals. I used "Merry and Bright" here. The intro page for day 8 had a diecut edge so I fussy cut the pic after I adhered it so they would match.

For page 2 I created a blank document in PS to fit the large box on my dated overlay page. I dropped my photo in and adjusted the width to fit. I filled the rest of the doc with a text box and printed the whole thing on photo paper. I filled the small box with a piece of Alpine Frost Foil paper from the Alpine Frost collection by SEI. The "bright tidings" card is a piece of packaging from the mini tree lights for Brecon's tree. I cut it out with decorative edge scissors and glued it down. :)

The journaling here reads:Brecon’s advent activity today was to get a little tree for his room. We went Christmas shopping in the morning and by the time we got around to looking for his tree he wasn’t too excited about it. Once we got it out at home though he decided it was “so cool, Mom!” We decorated it together with the tiny ornaments. He loved the little battery powered lights. He ran upstairs when we were done to pick the perfect spot for his “baby tree” and had to be sure Waddles got a good look at it. When it was all set up he wanted to keep decorating, so we put up his nativity stickers in the family room. We talked about the nativity story while we put it up and he loved hearing about all the different people who came to visit baby Jesus. He put the star up and was so excited. “Look, Mom. The new star in the sky, like Samuel!” Did I mention our kid is smart? He was a pretty happy boy today...we even got some snuggle time before bed.

On page 3 I added a couple of digital word brushes to the pics, printed them at 4x6 and adhered them to the back of page 2...easy! Supplies: Happy Holidays and Ordinary December digital brushes from the Ali Edwards Handdrawn Holiday set at Designer Digitals

December Daily day 7

Hello Day 7! Very very late!
This layout was really fun because I got to do something special to celebrate my sweet hubby. It ended up being a 4 page layout (sorta).


first 2 pages


this is the back of the transparency intro page for day 7...I measured my little journal spot and created a new canvas in photoshop to fit it, wrote my journaling and printed it on plain paper. Then I used masking tape to adhere the journal spot over the printed area so it matched up exactly and printed it again. Voila! Looks like I used a typewriter on this little paper. I was so excited at how well this trick worked. I was a little worried this first time, but it works like magic and I've done it on at least 10 pages in here since.



Page 2 is a mutated DD template again. Love these! I used the All is Bright template and turned off the bottom 3 photo spots so the grid would fit on my dated overlay page. Next I used the eraser tool to erase the text from the template over lay and replaced it with a brush from Ali Edward's Handdrawn Holiday set from Designer Digitals. Printed it all on photo paper, cut them out and arranged them on patterned paper. Supplies: Ali Edwards December Daily 6x8 templates from Designer Digitals; Handrawn Holiday brush by Ali Edwards; Christmas Morning paper from the Chrismas Traditions collection by Fancy Pants Design; Tis the Season tag from Jovial diecut cardstock by Basic Grey.

2nd half of the layout...all about Daddy :)

The new expansion set for World of Warcraft came out on this day so I wanted to do something to remember it for Joe (and me lol). I found a WoW font (called Morpheus) at dafont.com and found the Alliance crest at a free clipart site. This page was made with the "good cheer" template. I erased the text from the overlay and changed the color to purple and added my own text title. I added the lion crest and turned the opacity down on that layer to make it fade a bit.

This pocket is the cd sleeve from my copy of the game expansion. I thought it would be fun to include it as a little memorabilia piece and hide the journaling inside. Supplies: Dark Autumn Red cardstock from Colormates; office tab from the Jovial set by Basic Grey

Here's my little journaling block taken out of the cd sleeve...journaling reads:

Truth be told, today was Joe’s Christmas. After months of waiting Cataclysm is finally here. Joe went out just before midnight to pick up our copies and we waiting impatiently for the expansion to go live. Red, Star and Shad were all on too. It took forever for Joe to get logged in and we joked that after all Joe’s waiting and excitement I’d be able to get in first -I did. lol. We all ran around together (along with half the world...server was CROWDED!) and got into a new dungeon as fast as we could. First attempt on our first boss of Cata, Star and I get shot into lava and freeze up the game. Every time I logged back on it disconnected me. So much for all night gaming! Joe stayed up late and had his free day today. He played most of the day with Red, Star and Shad and got Axxell a couple of levels. And he was WONDERFUL since he came down to help with wild kids several times without being asked even though it was his one free day and I wouldn’t have been mad! The expansion is pretty crazy. Destruction and mayhem. Vanilla WoW was almost totally destroyed. It’s like starting over. He said it was a great day. It was nice to see such a big day long smile. He was like a kid at Christmas.


There we have it...more to come!

December Daily Day 6

Two days in a row! Crazy, right?


Day 6 "a day for warmth" ...another 3 page layout




Page one was made with an Ali Edward's December Daily 6x8 template. (Good Cheer I think) I turned the overlay layer off and just printed the pics and cut them out. Supplies: Mini mark rubon letters in Hildi by American Crafts; Jewelry Box Thickers in Chestnut by American Crafts

a closer look

page 2 is another DD template. This one is "Peace and Joy". I turned the overlay layer off again and flipped the whole template vertically then added a text box at the bottom just big enough to fit the largest box on my dated overlay page. Printed the pics on photo paper and the text on cardstock. Supplies: Ferris Wheel paper from the Carnival Ride collection by Scrap Within Reach (I used the back); open house paper from the Jack + Abby Collection by KI memories; Stickles in gold by Ranger

The journaling here reads: Today seemed like a day to be cozy. Spent some time doing the Birthday puzzle Brecon got from “Uncle Mel.” I need to be better about saying yes to this puzzle, he loves it. Comfort food sounded perfect. Joe was extra happy to have chicken parmesan since I don’t make it often. The advent tag today said “read about Samuel the Lamanite,” so I threw together a quick family home evening. Joe read part of Helaman 14 to us and Brecon held the picture of Samuel. With Brecon’s knight cape, the pool toy bow & arrow & some paper “rocks” we acted out the story of Samuel on the wall. He told “Daddy the Nephite” to be good, that baby Jesus was coming soon and there will be a new star in the sky! Daddy shot the arrows and threw rocks, but our Samuel was protected. Brecon loved it & insisted on acting it out 3 times. It has been so special to me watching Brecon learn more about the gospel lately & to see him interested in it. I love that he is learning the real reason behind Christmas. A very good day: warm home, warm bellies, warm hearts.

a closer look at this super cute embossed paper

page 3 love love love this pic - another DD template- good cheer again...this time I turned off all the photo layers and used it as a full page pic overlay instead. Love how this turned out.

Very happy with this layout. I think it captured (for me) a sweet memory of a really good day. :)

Finally! more december daily

Sorry! I so wanted to keep on top of this, but what can ya do? I'm still going to post my pages since I've had so many nice requests to do it :)


Here's day 5 "finding Fred". Since day 5 didn't use a transparency it was a 3 page layout







Day 5 is about our new "elf on the shelf" tradition. Page one is pics of Brecon finding our new elf friend. The pics were rushed, poorly lit and downright blurry, but I still loved them.

another complex page! I thought I was gonna do simple.../sigh oh well, i love how it turned out- this page has our letter from our elf on a page flap and journaling and a pic underneath.

Here is the page with the letter flap opened. Love this pic of Brecon lol.

Journaling reads: Aunt Hattie told us about an elf that comes to visit their house every year once their tree is up. Max, Hyrum and Tess have an elf named “Kenobi” that stays with them too. So this year Mommy and Daddy decided to ask Santa for a visitor for our house. After we put up our tree last night Brecon sat down to watch Diego with Daddy and the doorbell rang. When Brecon opened the door there was no one outside, but he did find a red wooden box. He picked it up and hauled it into the house. When he opened the box he found a funny little man and a letter. The letter told us the little man was an elf named Fred and that Santa had sent him to visit and keep an eye on things. Brecon was so excited to have his own elf just like Max and the twins have. (Max told us later that Fred and “Kenobi” might be friends.) After we read the letter Brecon wanted to put Fred and his box on the soft chair and to give Fred a hug and kiss. The letter told us that every night Fred flies back to report to Santa and in the morning hides somewhere new in the house. When Daddy got Brecon up for church this morning he wanted to rush down to find Fred’s new spot. He found Fred right off- in the Christmas tree. He told Grammy and Grampy all about his new friend when we sat by them in Sacrament Meeting. Brecon was very good at church and when he went potty before nursery he said he had to tell Fred how brave he was to go potty at church. Thanks to Brecon’s aunties for a fun new December treat!






page 3 of the layout is just a full page pic with some circle pieces added... loved this look on some of Ali Edward's pages this year and wanted to try it. The picture I took of the finished page is horrible! It's really cute in person.


Supplies for day 5: Sprinkle Thickers in white by American Crafts; Rub on letters in Periwinkle by EK Success; green square alphabet stickers from the Merry Christmas collection kit by Echo Park; Subway Thickers in cherry by American Crafts; Journaling Sprouts from the Christmas Chestnut Soup collection by Jillibean Soup; zig writer in black; fonts: georgia and Ali Edward's handwriting avaliable here on her blog.