Showing posts with label albums. Show all posts

My Christmas Album Pages for 2016


 


I recently finished up Journal Your Christmas, and wanted to show you the completed pages.  Please note that I am only sharing the pages right now...I figured I would do a separate post about getting the pages printed and into a book or album at a later date.

The key to getting an album like this done is keeping it simple.  As I mentioned in my earlier post about holiday albums,  I used a set of 6 x 8 templates and a set of Christmas kits I picked out ahead of time (I will provide links to these products down below).

When it came time to make each day's page, I just opened a template in PSE, saved it as a new file, plopped in any papers and embellishments I wanted to use, and added journaling.

A few years back, I made a font of my own handwriting.  This is pretty handy when you want to include your own writing, but are short on time.  This is another tool in my arsenal that helps me get my pages done quickly and easily.

If you are interested in turning your handwriting into a font, here are a couple of sites that allow you to do so.  One of the sites provides this service for free, and the site requires payment.  I included both so my readers could choose the one that suits their needs.

Paintfonte

Fontifier


Here's my latest video, with a slide show of each of the layouts I did for this project.  I hope you'll watch and get a feel for how the pages all tie together.




If you want to get a better look at each of the pages, you can find them at either of these two places:


JYC 2016 Photo Album on my Facebook Page
 
My Scrapbook dot com gallery


Here are the page kits I used:

DYD 6 x 8 Templates by Just Jaimee




Holly Days Advent Calendar Kit by Amy Wolff:

 


Holly Days Element Pack:





Holly Days Paper Pack:




List of Fonts used on my layouts:

Tangie Momraths: part of this font package
 2Peas Gift
LDJ Knuckle Type
Cry Kitty
Impact Label Font (I used a different labelmaker font that is no longer available, but this one is a close substitute for it)
Thirsty Script
Snowinter
Autumn in November
Penelope Anne
Outlaw
Pussycat
Bebas Neue
Sketchetica
Creampuff
Coolvetica
Stamp
Grutch Shaded
Blackhawk

Wow...that's 19 fonts!  I did warn you that I was a font junkie, right?

Anyhow...I appreciate you stopping by here, and I hope you found some inspiration you can use in your own holiday album or project.
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It's Almost Time for Holiday Themed Albums Again...

...are you excited abut this prospect?  Or overwhelmed by it?  I'm excited about it, and can't wait to jump in again.  I chose not to do Journal Your Christmas or any holiday themed album last year, simply because I was going through some stuff and was just emotionally exhausted.  So whether or not you are joining in with the crowds doing themed holiday albums this year, I feel you either way.  I hope however you choose to celebrate this season, you'll find a method that brings you a measure of peace and happiness.

Since I am doing an album this year, I decided to go hunting for a Christmas kit that would work well for Journal Your Christmas, which means I want more than just the standard papers and embellishments --- I also want to find a number set for each day of the holiday season, unique color combinations, some awesome templates to keep the process simple but still fun, and I want a decent mix of solid and patterned papers.  I made a video about the best kits I found that meet this criteria.  I hope you'll watch if you have the time:




Also, I decided that it would be easier to put the links for all the kits I featured (and some others that didn't make it into my video, but are still worth checking out) here on the blog.  I hope this helps you as you do your shopping for digital goodies.  I haven't started my foundation pages yet, which is unusual for me, but that's OK.  I will just jump in tonight or tomorrow with some new digital goodies. Here are the links to the stores/kits I think are best suited to this type of project.  Happy shopping!

From the LilyPad Digital Scrapbooking Store:

DYD 2015 6x8 Mega Template Album kit by Just Jaimee




Holly Days Kits by Amy Wolf

Holly Days Elements kit


Holly Days Advent Calendar


Holly Days Paper Pack




Merry & Bright Bundle by Lynne Marie


Other LilyPad kits to consider:

Krafty Christmas by Mommyish
Tinsel by Lynne Marie
Sewn Pockets by Valerie Wibbens
(has the look of stitched 6 x 8 sheet protectors --- so cool!)


Kits at the Digital Press:

12 Days: The Collection by Mari Koegelenberg



Once Upon a Christmas: Collection by Anita Designs & Wishing Well Designs



Honorable Mentions:
25 Days Templates by Wishing Well Creations (6 x 8 size)

25 Days of Memories 12 x 12 Template set by Anita Designs

31 Days in December 2011 by MEG Designs 
(8.5 x 11 templates; could be modified to fit the current year)


Kits at Sweet Shoppe Designs: 

Christmas Countdown Collection (Collab by three Sweet Shoppe Designers)


Days of December (Collab by Meghan Mullens & Becca Bonneville


Other great kits at Sweet Shoppe: 
Stories: Templates 6 
(while not technically a holiday themed template kit, it would lend itself easily to a December Album.  There are 15 - 6 x 8 templates for about $5 --- that's a great deal!)
From Digital Scrapbook Ingredients:
Xmas is Coming Labels
Xmas is Coming Word Strips
(Neither of these are full kits, but might work well with kits you already have)

Kits featuring other December Holidays: 
Eight Bright Nights Full Kit (Hanukkah)
Eight Bright Nights Journaling Cards
Festival of Lights (Hanukkah)
Kwanzaa Patterned Papers by Striped Elephant
Kwanzaa Digital Scrapbooking Elements by Poppydreamz


I'm so glad you stopped by today, and here's wishing that we all have an joyous holiday season! 



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Final Week - Journal Your Christmas Pages



While there are many who are continuing their journals until the first week of the new year, I've opted to finish mine up around Christmas.  I tacked on one more entry for the 26th, simply because I thought a list of things I forgot (or nearly forgot) to do might come in handy this time next year. I appreciate all who've stopped by to take a peek at my work.












Wishing you all a Happy New Year! 

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Week Three - Journal Your Christmas



Another busy December week, where I felt the pressure of the season.   Thanks to this latest round of entries, I was able to get rid of some of that stress.  I hope you enjoy looking at this past week's pages:








OK, ya'll!  We've got a week left before the big day.  I'm going to try and enjoy these next few days, and feel the joy rather than the stress of the season.  I hope you are able to do the same!
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Week Two - Journal Your Christmas



Here are my entries from the past week.  These aren't the fanciest or most embellished pages, but I enjoy doing them so much.  They are the perfect outlet for stressful December days.  Creating this journal is truly a form of celebration for me. I hope you enjoy looking at these layouts:








Whatever you are doing this holiday season, I hope you find your own small ways to celebrate it.  We are all busy with our work, so find a some time to do something that makes you happy.  Watch a favorite holiday movie, drink some cocoa, or dare I say it, sneak in a nap.

See you soon!
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Journal Your Christmas



For a few years now, I've watched many of my online scrapping pals take part in Shimelle Laine's Journal Your Christmas class.  I've always loved the idea of it.  It works like this:  once you pay for and sign up for the class, Shimelle will email you daily prompts for each day in December and a few in January.  Based on what you prefer, you can either write a simple journal entry, create a scrapbook page, write a blog post, etc. based on that day's prompt.  And, after you sign up once, you can keep coming back, year after year to receive Shimelle's prompts and the digital and printable goodies she provides.  It was a hard project for me to ignore. 

Most participants that I know did scrapbook pages, which were heavy on journaling.  Since I feel that scrapbook pages are the most complete when they have both photos and the story, I was drawn to this project.  I just wasn't sure I could commit to doing an entry everyday.  It seemed overwhelming.  Taking care of my kids and adjusting to motherhood was enough at that time, so I drooled over my friends pages and lived vicariously through their layouts. 

Last Christmas, things with my clan of small rug rats were starting to settle down enough where I could maybe consider a project like this.  And, since I'd already jumped into digital scrapbooking, I knew 2010 would be the year for me to try my hand at Journal Your Christmas.  I went and browsed over my friends blogs and message board posts, and saw that many of those who succeeded in completing their Christmas albums made up their pages for each day of the month of December ahead of time.  

Even though I was skeptical and nervous about the idea of doing a page for each day, I decided I would remember that it wasn't about pressure, it was about documenting the things that made the holiday my favorite.  It's about throwing the stress of the season out the window and enjoying Christmas again. 

With that in mind, I spent the last half of November creating my base pages, that I would eventually add my words and photos to.  It felt good to knock the pages out and have them ready to go before Journal Your Christmas started.  When December did roll around, I was able to enjoy journaling each day's entry, and adding in photos when I wanted to.  If I didn't want to, that was fine, too.  The end result was a Christmas album that I love, and that my kids have asked to look at several times since it came back from Shutterfly.  The two pages I posted the top of this entry are a couple of my favorites.  You can see the rest of album: here.

So, with the good experience I had last year under my belt, I decided to go ahead and try it again this year.  While some bloggers are posting their entries each day, I've decided to post a week's worth of entries here.  There were three days worth of entries for this first week, so here are my pages so far:





I made the choice to stick with a very simple page design, since I knew I could work on the base pages here and there when I had time. I didn't want it to be complicated or worry about heavily embellished pages.  This allowed me to get my pages done within about a week, and I could relax and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.

I used Ali Edwards' 31 Days Overlays, which you can find over at Designer Digitals.  I chose these over the ones Ali made up for this year, because these overlays are customizable and can be made to work with any year, not just the current one. And, the kit has bonus templates that work with the overlays, so that made it even easier to complete the base pages.  The next trick was choosing a couple of digital Christmas kits so that I could plop in paper and elements in the slots provided in the templates.  I chose two holiday kits by Jen Martakis, Holly Jolly Christmas and Holiday Story to jazz up my pages.  I love how everything is coming together so far.  

I'll be back soon with more pages from this project.  I hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far!





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