December Daily | Days 1-12

I've been making steady progress on my December Daily album. Some days have simple spreads, while others are more involved. I even broke out my heat-embosser one day!

Here's my progress to date:

I have to print a better photo for this page.

Check out that heat-embossed "Let it Snow"!

I seriously love my heated steering wheel

I need to print photos and journaling cards for the rest of the month. Since my traveler's notebook had room for all 31 days, I'm documenting the entire month.

December Daily | Day 1

Today I finally had a chance to start putting together my December Daily notebook. I managed to finish one spread.

I didn't get any more spreads in the notebook because I spent the remainder of my craft time mass-producing some tags that I'll use each day. I knew that I wanted to use the Southport alpha stamp to stamp the number of the day, and I had a particular tag in mind. When I couldn't find the tags I was looking for, I made my own.

Luckily, when I got rid of some of my Stampin' Up stuff, I decided to keep a few items that came in handy. I used the tag punch, a small circle punch, and a small hole punch to make the tag. Then I threaded it with some red & white string and stamped the number of the day.

December Daily 2016

Every year I see amazing December Daily albums in my Instagram feed, and every year I think I should give it a try. However, I always have lots of projects on the go, so I usually decide to enjoy everyone else's posts. This year, though, I had major FOMO, and I ordered a kit and a stamp set at the last minute (as well as some other goodies).

Since I knew that it would arrive late, I started a Google Doc to keep track of what I'd include for each day and to jot down some journaling, and then I bought some digital holiday prompt cards, and I got my journaling up-to-date and cropped and printed photos, so by the time my kit arrived, I was ready to go.

I know I'll be behind, but I think this is a project that I can finish because I'm going to keep my supplies simple:

• One Little Bird December Daily Mini Kit
• December Daily Good Cheer Stamp Set by Kelly Purkey
• Southport Alpha (Kelly Purkey)
• Holiday Prompt Cards (In a Creative Bubble)
• washi tape
• Tags (hand-made with punches, etc.)
• Date Stamp & black precision pen

Progress on Weekend Projects

On Friday, I made some public goals for the projects I wanted to tackle this weekend because #makeitpublicmakeithappen

How did I do?  

1. Document our cat drama from the past week

Progress: Done

When I saw the Hot Mess kit, I knew it would be perfect for documenting the not-so-great moments. I didn't think I'd ever use it this way, though.

Supplies: 

Hot Mess Kit (monthly kit subscription)

Urban Inks

2. Add a Leonard Cohen tribute to my music traveler's notebook. 

Progress: not quite yet. My husband has a vinyl pic that we need to print, but our home printer needs ink, and I'm too busy to run out to get more at the moment. I will finish this layout this week.

3. Print more of my coffee pics and play with my new Christine Herrin stamps.

Progress: done - and I'm going to use this stamp set all. the. time.

Supplies: 

Caffeine Fix stamp set
Hoppy Hour stamp set from Kelly Purkey Shop (no longer available)

Urban Inks

Coffee and Donuts Inks
Tsukineko Brilliance Moonlight White Ink
Gray Alpha Stickers (monthly kit subscription)

4. Work on the cover of my shop local, eat local traveler's notebook. 

Progress:  *almost* done - my plans changed once I started working on it, and now I need to take a photo. The stamping is done, though.

Supplies: 

Around Town Kit (monthly kit subscription)

Greenpoint alphabet set
Urban Inks

Stampin' Up Sahara Sand Ink
Gray Alpha Stickers (monthly kit subscription)

5. Work on some spreads about our getaway to Winnipeg (which happened in August)

Progress: not done, but photos are printed and trimmed

When I grabbed my Weekend Getaways notebook, I realized that I hadn't actually finished any layouts from my past two trips. I had printed photos and stuck memorabilia in the notebook, but that was it. I need to work on this notebook more.

6. Keep making progress on our summer vacation traveler's notebook.

Progress: Umm, I glued a map onto one of the pages and stamped something on it :) That's about it for this weekend, but it's better than nothing! 

Supplies: 
Travelogue stamp set

Stampin' Up Sahara Sand Ink

  

Playing Catch-Up

After we returned from our vacation, I was hit with a virus that took me out of commission for about 6 weeks. By that point, we were back to school, and with several staff changes, it has been a busy fall. The students in the alternative program that I teach in do not do well with change. We've also had some cat issues in the house (i.e.: the older one isn't any closer to accepting the kitten and has developed health issues as a result of the stress, and the kitten ingested a foreign object and had to have surgery).

What does all of this mean? My creative time had to be put on the back-burner either because I had no time or because I had time but was simply too exhausted. 

This past week I've managed to find some time to work on our Traveler's Notebook from our summer vacation, and that has inspired me to tackle some projects on this long weekend:

1. Document our cat drama from the past week

2. Add a Leonard Cohen tribute to my music traveler's notebook. Thanks, Kelly Purkey for the quote. If you don't already, subscribe to her newsletter.

3. Print more of my coffee pics and play with my new Christine Herrin stamps.

4. Work on the cover of my shop local, eat local traveler's notebook. The Around Town set from Kelly Purkey Shop (kit subscription) will be the perfect addition - it must be why I waited to commit to a cover! 

5. Work on some spreads about our getaway to Winnipeg (which happened in August)

6. Keep making progress on our summer vacation #travelersnotebook.

#makeitpublicmakeithappen