December Daily 2017- Part 1

Yessssssss.  I’m so happy to be able to share with you the first part of this years December Daily album!  I’ve been working on it day by day, and while it took a little longer to get into my groove- compared to years past- I’ve finally gotten into the swing of things!  (And loving it!)  As you’ll notice, the first pages aren’t nearly as, ahem, Marybeth-ish… but I still like the simplicity of them and the stories they hold!

Sooooo, without further ado, I present to you, DD2017:

I seem to always begin with a shaker pocket, huh?  😉  For day 1, I made a magazine-type of page using a free template on Canva.  I like how it starts off the album with hints on what’s to come.  Super quick, easy, and fun!

This next day, I typed out my intentions, which is to have a very hygge month.  I’m obsessed with hygge.  (I just wish my autocorrect would stop changing it to higgle every time I type.  Like, what the heck is “higgle”… other than something not nearly as hyggelig as hygge!)  😉

Here’s what I wrote, just in case you’re interested:

“I love this time of the year!  Everything seems so cozy and magical.  The air is crisp, but our hearts (and heaters) keep us warm.  The sky darkens early, yet the glow of candles and tree lights provide just the right amount of brightness to allow us to enjoy an evening curled up under a blanket reading a book with a hot beverage in hand.  The movies we watch are reminiscent of childhood and give us the nostalgia factor we strive for during this advent season leading up to Christmas day.  The oven is heated a little more often while it waits to be filled with a batch of cookies to bake or warm bread to go with our soup.  There are woodsy smells all around with hints of peppermint or cinnamon thrown in the mix.  And if you’re very lucky, you might even hear the crackling of a fire.  Oftentimes, the season of peace and togetherness is unintentionally replaced by a season of stressful busyness.  So this year, let’s do it differently.  Let’s make the days, weeks, even months ahead so hygge that even a Nordic would be jealous… or, at the very least, impressed.
Yes, it’s going to be a hyggelig Christmas, indeed.”

The next day was a bust.  Lol!  I mean, it was seriously just soooo bad.  So I opted to put in a recipe for the soup we made.  Again, I used canva.com to create this by simply using a photo I took and a free template.  (If you’re interested, the recipe is this one.)

I enjoyed playing around this day with flip-ups… and that big number 3 I cut from my Silhouette.



My friend Serena sent me this sequins mix in a package she mailed me, and I couldn’t resist using it any longer!

I had fun these next couple days- We did more decorating, and I had a hot movie date with my husband.  😉

I have been unnecessarily saving this acetate sheet with the trees, so I cut it to size, punched some holes in it, and *finally* put it to use!  (Just a side note:  Things look prettier in albums than they do hidden in drawers waiting for the “perfect time” to be used.)

On day 5, some of my friends and I got together and wrapped small gifts- it was super fun and something I hope we do yearly!  I wanted to play around with a mini scrapbook/smashbook layout for this page (because I was getting sick of things being in page protectors), so that’s just what I did!

I stepped outside my Christmas stash the next day and used paper from the Maggie Holmes Carousel collection.  I really like how the soft pink and yellow goes nicely with my photo on the next page!



I actually didn’t put anything on the back of that page protector, but instead clipped it to the next page- I have intentions of filling in some of the gaps on pages like that with artwork Nadia brings home or extra stories I wish to share throughout the month.  I’m doing my best this year to make an effort to write out more of my stories- writing is something that’s become very important to me recently, so no better time to do it than when I’m documenting my favorite holiday of the year!

That being said, the next page is one I made using one of the 6×8 pages that came in this old Snap Binder of mine, and I simply took a 6×6 sheet from the FaLaLa paper pad and created a pocket with it to fill with my tags that share the stories from the day.

The next page is an idea that was shared by Ali Edwards- I cut out the hearts on my Silhouette and then sewed the polka dot transparency sheet onto the back of it using my sewing machine.  I then filled in the hearts with cute embellishment and made sure to line up another heart behind the one on top… because, why not?  🙂

I’ve said it a million times, but I’ll say it over and over again- I LOOOOOVE that the Crate Paper Snow and Cocoa collection that came out last year had A-Frame house stickers and paper… ahhhhhh.  It’s my house.  😉

On day 8, I used the “Oh Deer” card because I was telling a story about how crummy it’s been for Nadia at school.  But, don’t you worry- things are looking up.  And that day, a surprise piece of happy mail stuffed with beautiful things for both Nadia and I arrived… and, well, that just made our crummy day beautiful!

The next day, I wanted to share a story about how it feels at home this time of year.  I really love my home in the winter- it’s so cozy and just feels like it belongs in the snow.

And finally, the last pages I have done.  There’s a bit of a funny part to this.  See that “5×5” card??  Wellllllllll, I put it there because I was documenting day 10.  And I thought, “Oh perfect!  5+5 is 10!”  Durrrrrrrr…

I didn’t notice until I filming my YouTube walk-through video that it wasn’t ADDING 5 & 5 but multiplying.  Like, you know, 25.  Christmas Day.  Good grief, Marybeth.  So anyways, I’m totally going to add that story to this album now that I’ve noticed my error.  Made me chuckle.  😉  Anyways…

If you’re on Snapchat, you’ll know that this is one of the filters right now.  I decided to save it, print it large, and then laminate it.  After that, I cut around the windows to make them flip open.

Then behind each window, there’s either journaling about what we did this weekend or another photo.  I really loved making this page. I’m all about adding interactive parts to my albums, and this just seemed like too perfect of an opportunity!

Finally, on the next page, I did another flip-up layout because I wanted to add two photos taken just second apart, but I didn’t necessarily want them side by side.

I still have to write on the journaling card, but aside from that, I’m all caught up!
If you’re familiar with my memory albums, it might be obvious that for the first few days or so, I wasn’t exactly in my element.  Honestly, we were just having some pretty rough days here that I quite frankly, didn’t want to document!  But, like I said, things are looking up, and I found my happy place-creatively speaking- soon enough!

If you’re a video watcher, feel free to listen to me ramble a bit here:

I hope you’re having a wonderful December!!!!!
XOXO, Marybeth