December Daily Foundation Pages - Part 1

Hey, everyone, just a quick post to show you the foundation pages of my December Daily.  I've been hard at work all month, and still not quite finished, but I'm very pleased with how it's coming together so far.  I've kept my supplies consistent throughout, and it's made the whole process simpler.  My Silhouette Cameo's had a good workout, cutting all the numbers, tags and stars.  The patterned paper is all from Simple Stories' 25 Days of Christmas collection (I won it last year from a challenge!), buttons and brads are all Stampin' Up (donated by my lovely friend Alison - thanks, sweetie!), Studio Calico wood veneer trees, Maya Road doilies, Dylusions ink in Postbox Red and Fresh Lime, twine, and washi tape from K&Co and WeRMemory Keepers.  

Some of the trees are sprayed with Dylusions Fresh Lime (works great on the wood veneer).

The 6th is Jason's 40th birthday - not sure what we'll do, but that's why I added the "celebration" word (cut with the Cameo).  I used a Dylusions mask to make the green star background here, too.

Here I cut a background piece with the Cameo and used it as a mask on the Kraft cardstock.  I lost my number 7 somewhere, so if I don't find it, I'll just cut another.

I used the cameo to cut another background to use as a mask, just a different type of stars.

And same thing to make a chevron mask for the backside.

The mask I used on day 7 I glued over some green sprayed Kraft cardstock to make day 17 - I'm not sure, but this page might be my favorite so far.

And there you have it so far.  I'm not sure how I'll bind this all when I'm finished.  I think I'll just hole punch it and put binder rings through.  It would be nice to have an album, but...maybe next year!  I do have a bit of catch up to play with pictures and journaling, but having the base pages done will make that so much easier.  Okay, off to put the girls to bed, I'll have another post tomorrow to show what we've been up to these past two days!

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December Daily Day 16

I didn't really have much to say about December 16th, so I made this spread about the cards and pictures that we made and sent.

Here's the left had side:

Isn't Ailis cute making her cards? Everybody was very appreciative when she gave them out, it was really sweet!

And here's the right side:

I used a piece of vellum for this one, and at first I was kind of bummed that the card front I attached doesn't really go with my colour scheme, but it's kind of grown on me, and I felt it needed to be included in the album, so...

And here's the back side:

It worked out that the three wallet size photos fit perfectly onto the same spot as the card! I know I'm a bit biased, but I love these photos, I think my kids look just beautiful! (And I know it's virtually impossible to get them to smile into the camera like that, so kudos to the photographer!)

Well, I had planned to do some sort of New Year's Day post, to kind of sum up the year and lay out my plans for 2012, but I'm just not in the mood! So, thanks for looking, I hope everyone had a lovely New Year's Eve, and I will get to that more personal post soon - my Christmas tree is begging to be taken down, and seems like it's not going to do it all on its own! Virtual hugs to all of you, and thanks so much for making 2011 an enjoyable blogging year for me!

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December Daily Days 13 & 14

A couple more DD pages for you to peruse! We are all affected by teacher job action in BC right now (since the summer!) and our school's teachers decided not to do a Christmas concert, sadly. But, Ailis's teacher did invite all the families to the classroom so we could hear the students sing carols and read a French story. When Mme. asked for a volunteer to translate the story for the parents, Ailis shot her hand up right away! She had to come up to the front, and she spoke loud and clear while translating their story - I was very proud! She has beauty and brains!!! Meanwhile, Brenna was everywhere, I had a heck of a time keeping her from falling out of desks, etc. so after the presentation, we left pretty quickly! The snowman sticker on this page is from the goodie bag Mme. Buhler gave to Ailis: it was her idea to include it in my DD!

Another Ailis page here. She has judo 2 nights a week, and is really loving it! She's talked about going for her black belt before, so I hope her enthusiasm lasts that long. I didn't know a thing about judo before going to a couple of classes with her in the summer, but it's a very cool sport! I think it does wonders for a child's self-esteem and leadership, not to mention their strength and coordination.

Well, some of you wished me a happy birthday for the 27th (thanks so much, everyone!), and I just wanted to let you know that I had a fabulous 2 days, including spending a $50 gift certificate from my mom and dad at my LSS, Creative Accents, and getting my hair cut short! I will post pics soon!

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December Daily Days 7 & 8

After stalling on Day 6, Days 7 and 8 came together in a snap! Day 7 talks about how my mom has been coming every week to help me out (I love my mom!) and this week she gave Brenna a much needed trim - her bangs were getting in her eyes! I almost added a little banner of twine and snowflakes up top, but I'm almost out of little snowflakes and wanted to save them for later.

I cheated a bit on Day 8 - this was a photo I took on December 1st, shhhhh! It's true, though, we've been getting these beautiful skies every morning. I probably live further north than anyone reading this blog, so it must sound like I'm up super early every day, but our sunrise is at 7:30 a.m. Then the sun's going down over the hill by the time the kids get off the bus at 3:30 p.m. It'll be nice when the days start getting longer again!

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December Daily Day 6

Well, just a bit behind in my December Daily, as in life! Do you ever feel like you're stuck in the mud, with the wheels spinning and going nowhere? That's me the past few months, sigh! Haven't even started Christmas shopping, but let's not go there! Look at this beautiful page I made for December 6th!!! It's actually 3 pages, because it was Jason's 39th birthday. Wow, I can't believed I'm married to someone middle aged! (I just threw that in there in case he reads this, eh, ol' man? I like to get the digs in wherever I can!) Here's a bit of detail on the first page:

I have to say the page looks better in real life, you really can't see the details of the blue patterned paper and pretty pink ribbon on the right hand side, so just use your imagination! That photo of Brenna is just awesome - I pointed the camera at her, didn't say anything, and she gave me this big cheesey grin, model in training! (How do you spell "cheesey"? It's coming up misspelled! Wow, "misspelled" looks weird, too, how come that doesn't get a red squiggly?) The grungeboard "6" is painted white and then sprayed with silver glimmer mist.

Here's page 2:

I've got a little December calendar in the upper right that you can't really see. I found this chipboard "family" word (Maya Road) in my stash, along with a bunch of others that will fit well in this album - I just painted it white, then sprayed with silver. When that didn't show up well on the background paper, I sprayed it pink - hey, you can never have enough glimmer mist! I really like the border (embossed and sanded with a Cuttlebug folder) and the little presents.

And page 3:

Another embossed and sanded border, and a couple more little pressies (as the Aussies say!), and a painted and sprayed grungeboard "6" tied on with the twine. That photo in the bottom right is Jason's mom goofing around with Ailis, she was giving her and Brenna airplane rides! I didn't know Jason was making a face in the pic I took of us, but I had to include it because it's the only one with me in it (typical)!

Yesterday I managed to get some Christmas cards done, but I still want to do more, so that's what I'll be plugging away at today. Also, Ailis's class is inviting their families to school for a singing thing - no Christmas concerts due to teacher job action, bah humbug! At least I'll have some pics for Day 13!

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December Daily Day 5

I could have included numerous stories for Day 5, but I decided to keep it very simple and just use these photos I took of our puppy, Hunter. He was whining and looking out the window as the kids left for the bus, and then just slumped down when they were out of sight. Poor guy, he just had me and Brenna to play with that day!

I used Basic Grey papers for this page, and I really like how the die cut piece looks layered with the Grungeboard number, ornaments, and snowflake. Enjoy!

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December Daily Day 3

Hopefully I don't need to knock on wood for saying this, but I'm so fortunate to have my health. My kids and Jason are all really healthy, too. Ailis has a best friend from school, Sayler, and her family is new to the area, too. Her mom, Rebecca, and I met at Strong Start in September, and we've been trying to set up a play date since then, but for some reason or other, it hasn't worked out. When I heard that Rebecca had to undergo unexpected surgery, I thought now might be the time to get the girls together and give Rebecca a break (she has three younger kids, too, yikes!) I took the girls sledding at the park in town, then to Tim Horton's for a doughnut and drink, then home to our place to play for a bit. The best part for me was playing with my camera and getting these awesome action shots! I just love the look on Ailis's face - she's the one in the purple toque!

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December Daily Day 2

So the bad news is, I lost my purple camera card! I have no idea where it could be, it's not in the usual places!!! The good news is, I already had my photos uploaded to the computer, so I guess it could be a whole lot worse. The other good news is, my dad brought me some printer ink, and being able to print photos at home in the sizes I want makes me breathe a whole lot easier. Thus, I was able to quickly finish Days 1, 2 and 3 today, and I think I'll be able to keep up with it through the month, phew! Here's my page for Day 2:

Once again, I've decided to dedicate myself to eating clean in order to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I am at the same point now as I was a year ago, and I'm not liking it. Plus, I've decided it's a whole lot cheaper to just work my way into those 8 or so pairs of jeans that used to fit than to accept my body how it is and buy new stuff, and I'm all about saving a buck or two this Christmas! (Feeling the pinch in more ways than one, haha!) So on December 2nd, I spent the whole day at home, and a large portion of that time in the kitchen preparing food for the upcoming week. I find that if I have healthy options ready, it's much easier to resist temptation.

Supplies: Coredinations and Close to My Heart cardstock, Basic Grey patterned paper, Making Memories ribbon, Close to My Heart stamps and ink, Grungeboard number, DecoArt paint, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Twinery twine, Fiskars punch, Sakura pen

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The Moment You've All Been Waiting For!

Yes, it's here, the first installment of my December Daily album! I've had a heck of a time putting this sucker together because Brenna's getting so tall! What does that have to do with anything, you ask? Well, her grabby little hands are all over my stuff, so every night I have to put everything away again, and it's seriously cutting into my mojo! Why can't she just play with her toys and leave mine alone?

Last year was my first ever December Daily, and I decided to make it 7"x5", and mostly red & green. Partway through the process of making it, I won some sweet blog candy from my good friend Roz, and it was HUGE!!! And all full of Christmas papers, ribbons, embellies, and embossing folders. It was too late to use a lot of them at the time, but I vowed to use them in 2011. So, I stuck with the same size (hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) but changed the colour scheme to something more modern. Hope you like:

Lots of cool Basic Grey and glitter papers, Grungeboard and chipboard numbers, stamped embellies, misting galore (check out that doily on day 12 misted pink!), ribbon and twine, and some cute little snowflakes I bought from Graphicat Designs for $1 a pack. I won't go into full details right now (after all, it is date night, heehee!) but you'll be seeing more as I fill it in starting in December. And hopefully I'll finish the other foundation pages BEFORE December 1st, but it's looking doubtful - I'll try my best! For more info on this project (it's not too late to join in, I started late last year and hung in until the end!) visit Ali Edwards' blog here.

I'm going to enter these pages over at Scrapbooker's Anonymous for their A to Z challenge for November: "D" is for "December Daily". I'm also going to enter these at Scrap Your CRAP (gotta love that name!) - they want to see misting on your creations, and I've used three different hues of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist throughout this project.

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December Daily Day 21 and 200th Post!

So after the disaster of December 20th, I woke up with a new lease on life and decided that no matter what, I was going to have a better day with the kids. Part of my plan included bundling everyone up and going for a walk in the snow. It was only -10, but it felt colder, and poor Brenna's nose and cheeks turned pink pretty quickly, so we came back way earlier than I'd planned, but we had a fun time. I turned this day into a 3-page spread because I wanted to include the Tim Horton's wrapper. If you are not Canadian, you may not know that Tim Horton's is a donut shop/coffee franchise, and it's somewhat of a Canadian institution. Pretty much every town has one, Burns Lake being one of the exceptions! So, if ever anyone passes through a town with a Tim Horton's on their way to Burns Lake, it is kind of an unwritten rule (or suggestion) that they bring somthing from Timmie's for us, be it donuts, cookies, or muffins. This day, Jason had to go to Vanderhoof for work, so he brought the kids each one of these candy cane donuts home. (I was mad that he didn't bring me one, but he said, "I was only thinking of you, I know you're trying to 'eat clean'!" How thoughtful!!!) Anyway, with a couple of stamped journaling spots, the wrapper makes a unique addition to my album. What do you think?

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December Daily Day 17

I think the star of this page is the photo! Look at Brenna's cute smile! It's really hard sometimes to get her to smile for the camera, so I made the photo a little larger than some of the others in this album to allow it to shine. It was so cute on Friday, I found a whole bunch of old baby toys I thought I'd given away, and she just played the night away. It was like early Christmas for her!

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December Daily Day 13

This is my second post tonight, so make sure you scroll down to see my Day 12! This page took a while for me to complete, but I really love it. I decided to break out the Glimmer Mist for the inside page, which looks a lot more shimmery in real life. I also really like the round Heidi Swapp journaling spot - not seasonal but seemed to fit with the baby theme.

Do you ever have one of those days when you just feel really happy, for no apparent reason? That's me today! I must be getting into the whole Christmas spirit. Actually, I guess one of the reasons I am in an especially good mood today is that I received a beautiful package of blog candy from Roz! And just in time, because I was running really low on paper for this December Daily album, and she sent me a whole schwack of Christmasey papers!!! Here is the card she sent me; isn't it adorable?

Well, I'm off to do my workout. Jason promised he'd join me, then we'll hop in the hot tub. There was supposed to be a meteor shower last night, so I'm hoping I'll be able to see something tonight. Have a fabulous evening!

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December Daily Day 12

I really struggled with this spread, not least of all because none of my photos turned out. I tried every setting on the camera, and these were really the best shots. Maybe I should read the manual one of these days, eh?

Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Prima journaling card, Basic Grey patterned paper (fussy cut into ornaments), Creative Memories stickers, Close to My Heart stamps, Magenta letter stickers

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December Daily Day 10

I finished this one last night. Isn't it cute? I wanted to include all 3 photos, so I made this cute little flip flap thingey because I didn't want to cover the pretty paper. A bit of journaling, ribbon, and some sparkley grungeboard numerals and my page is done. And I'm so glad I caught this little glimpse of our daily lives!

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December Daily Day 9

I'm still hangin' in there with this project, and I must say I'm still lovin' it! Not much was going on around here December 9th, so I decided to document my new workout regime. Even though the holiday season is in full swing and we have a billion and one things to do, I still have to stick to my weight training, otherwise I won't be able to compete at Femsport on April 2nd. And why would I want to do such a thing, you ask? Well, I was in terrific shape before I got pregnant, and I miss that body and feeling so strong and healthy, so I decided that this would be an attainable goal for me. I'm not in it to win it, I'm just in it to get fit and strong and hopefully not kill myself trying! So far the training is going well, and I know if I can keep it up through December, then exercise will be a habit and it won't feel so difficult to keep up the routine. Wish me luck!

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December Daily Day 8

This is my second post today! Woohoo, haven't done that in a while! But I was getting a bit behind with this album, so I thought I'd better work on it a bit today. So on the 8th was Jason's work party. He's only been in this job about 6 months, so it was all new to us. The kids had a great time making crafts and playing with friends from school. They ate a ton of junk food, sang carols, saw Santa and were given a present. Lots of fun for them, and surprisingly they behaved very well! Even Brenna had a good time, despite her itchy dress, but she looked soooooo cute, I could not resist! It's probably the only time she'll ever wear it. She sat so nicely on Santa's lap, didn't cry or whimper or anything! I have some more photos I want to include on the back side of the 2nd page, but they did not print well, so I'll post that part once I get it all straightened out.

Anyhoo, the "Invitation" and "December" stamps are from Close to My Heart, the dark green patterned paper is Creative Memories, and the light green (you can just barely see Santa printed on that one!) is Little Yellow Bicycle. The "8" is Grungeboard inked with Distress Ink and sprinkled with Perfect Pearls (all Tim Holtz/Ranger). And the rest of the stuff is just from my stash. Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

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December Daily Day 7

I had originally planned to do a hockey practice page for Day 7, but what with the chaos of the two grandmas here and getting everyone to the rink on time, I forgot the camera! This was also the night of my monthly book club meeting at the library, though, so I just changed the plan. I did bring my camera to the library, but the battery died almost immediately, so the pictures featured are pulled off the internet and are not very good quality. Oh well, I'm glad I got the story down in my little album, because as I say in the journaling, this is the one activity I have (outside the house) that is for me and me alone, so it should be documented.

The patterned paper, poinsettia sticker, and pen are from Creative Memories, chipboard frame is Cosmo Cricket, rub-on is Basic Grey, and number sticker is Magenta. The star and ribbon are old stuff from my stash!

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December Daily Day 6

December 6th was Jason's birthday, so basically I ended up in the kitchen all day! It was a good thing I had my mom and Jason's mom to help out with the kids and cleaning, because I don't entertain all that often and I don't have it down to a science like others I know (and love, hee hee!) It all turned out great, and we had a lovely evening. Jason keeps thanking me and saying how it was the nicest birthday party he's ever had.

I wanted to include plenty of photos and journaling, so I added a small page with a Prima journaling card attached back to back with some Creative Memories patterned paper. I used stamped images from Close to My Heart (the ticket-type cards on the left and the presents on the bottom right). The numeral is Grungeboard inked with Distress Ink and then covered with Perfect Pearls.

And there you have it, Day 6. I'm getting a bit behind, so I'm off to do Days 7 & 8, and hopefully I'll have another post later in the day!

P.S.- The Design Dollies elements challenge this week is "candles", so I will enter this page. I wasn't about to put 38 candles on Jason's cake, so I just put the number 1 candle on and said, "This is because you're #1!"

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December Daily Day 5

December 5th was a pretty big day at the McCleary house! So for this album entry, I have three pages! The first is above, with the four small photos on a small cardstock page. I just stapled some ribbon on the upper right to give it a bit more sumpin' sumpin'! When you flip that little page, you get this:

Four more little photos with a page of journaling. The journaling card is one from Prima that I folded in half. If you flip that page, then you get this, voila!: Some more journaling and a photo of Ailis in the hide-a-bed with my mom. She was so excited to have a "girls" morning! The papers here are Basic Grey, and those are sequins all along the top that I glued on before December 1st (good thing, as there's no way I would have time lately!) Off to post this on Ali's site, then maybe print some photos from yesterday's birthday party - have to get December 6th done ASAP!

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