Happy December Daily!

                                       
How many of you have heard of December Daily? If you haven't, it's an album concept created by Ali Edwards (www.aliedwards.com) to document your Christmas season. Over the last few years, her idea has spread, and people all over the world are now recording their memories in December. The best part of December Daily? It can be WHATEVER you want it to be. You can make it a journal. You can make a layout (or several layouts). You can make a minibook. You can make a special Christmas album. You can just take a picture. Or write a blog post. Whatever YOU want. It's all up to you.

I decided this year to use a Simple Stories Sn@p album as my base. This is a 6x8 album with various sized page protectors. Some pages fit 2 4x6 photos. Some fit 4x4 (PERFECT for We Instagram Lovers out there!). Some are 2x8. And some are 3x4. The album also includes some chipboard pages, as well as some patterned cardstock pages, to add variety to your project. Refill pages are available in all the different configurations, so you can customize your album however you like. There are some left in the store, but if they're out by the time you get there, it's still ok. Pick an album you like. 6x6 albums are great for taking a 6x6 paperpad and just slipping the papers into the page protectors. Or cut a 12x12 paper into 4 squares and slip them in. Embellish as desired, and you've got your album prepped pretty quickly! Or choose one of the awesome acrylic albums ScrapHappy has in stock! Play with inks. Play with paint. Learn a new technique. Or keep it simple. Whatever YOU want!

Over Thanksgiving, I prepped my album. I used an 8x8 patterned paper pad from October Afternoon and cut all the papers apart to set up my base pages. I also precut and inked some white cardstock cards in the various pocket sizes to use for my journalling. Now all I have to do during December is to take pictures, print them, stick them in my album, and write some quick journalling (if I feel like it). I can embellish each day if I want to, but if I don't, then it's still All Good. My Christmas is being recorded.

I know it's already December 4, but it's not too late to start a December Daily project of your own. Drop by the store. Pick out an album and some special Christmas paper (And YES! The Christmas paper has arrived at ScrapHappy! Echo Park! Fancy Pants! And More!) . Turn on 25 Days of Christmas, and cut and prep your way to making your holiday even more special. And if you want to see the rest of my December Daily pages as the month progresses, follow me on Instagram: cdpeck. I'll be uploading my pages on an almost-daily basis (I'm aiming for daily, but Life does get in the way sometimes...).

And now, without further ado, my December Daily: First up, my completed pages for December 1-3:

And here's a sample of the pages still to come, with my prep work complete:

Supplies:

Album - Simple Stories

Patterned Paper and Washi Tape - October Afternoon

Thickers - American Crafts

Stamps - Technique Tuesday, Stampin' Up!, Kelly Purkey

Ink - Stampin' Up!

Wood Veneers - Studio Calico

Embossing Powder

Using the B Side

Hello, World!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and I hope you all had some time to play with your scrappy supplies and toys! Christy asked me to use these Graphic45 papers this month, and sadly (for me), they were a little too 'busy' for the pictures I had printed to scrap.

So what do you do when your patterned paper isn't exactly what you had in mind? Flip them over. Many manufacturers these days are printing their papers double-sided: a bold, larger focal point on the front, and a smaller, more subtle, coordinating pattern on the back. These 'B-sides' often make perfect backgrounds and embellishments when used as bits and pieces.

And now, without further ado... this month's layouts, using these papers as both backgrounds and as embellishments. Enjoy!

 Supplies:
- patterned paper - Graphic45, Scenic Route

- cardstock - Bazzill
- washi tape
- die cutter - Silhouette
- punches - EK Success
- decorative brads
- letter stickers - Prima, American Crafts, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type
- metal embellishments - Making Memories (old - from my stash)
- spray ink

Using Up Your Leftovers

When you scrapbook, what do you do with your leftovers? Do you put them away? Do you slide them to the side of your desk to think about later? Do you add them to a pile? Or even better, do you actually use those little bits and pieces? If you were to see my desk, you would know that I am an infrequent scrap cleaner. I tend to push my leftovers into a pile and stack them up until I can't stand it anymore and decide to do something with them. Often, this means that I will compile these pieces into layouts and combinations I never would have planned for if I had thought ahead. So what do I do? I go to Scraphappy, pick up 2 or 3 pieces of patterned paper, some letter stickers (especially Thickers...I am on a serious Thickers kick lately), and combine that with what's on my desk to make some layouts. And the Bonus? My desk gets cleaned off without any effort!

For my first layout, I used Studio Calico and Lilly Bee papers that I already had, combined with the teal thickers and butterflies that I got at Scraphappy. The leftovers? The Amy Tangerine stickers and teal woodgrain washi tape.

This next layout uses some new Shoreline papers as a background, combined with leftover Amy Tangerine stickers, an Amy Tangerine pocket, Shoreline sunburst scraps, and Heidi Swapp banner pieces cut off from a previous project. The hexagons are from a Studio Calico stamp set and are attached with some brads I found in my drawer.

The only new item on this final layout is the background paper and the teal letter 'P.' Everything else on this page was leftover. The light blue strip of Shoreline with the hot pink splatters? Leftover from the Baby Turtles layout. The My Mind's Eye transparency? Scavenged from my Valentine's Day memo board. The Heidi Swapp disco heart? The last of a package from this past spring.

So what have we learned today? Use your stash! Use those bits and pieces of scraps. Use pieces from different manufacturers and product lines to make your own combos. Need some patterned papers, letters, or cardstock to pull it all together? Head on in to Scraphappy and buy what you need! It's all there!

End of Summer with Shoreline

Hello World!

How was your summer? Any days at the beach? Any fun travel? Any good family time? Any time to play? And now the important question...Any time to scrap? The last time I was in the store, Christy gave me some of American Crafts' Shoreline papers to play with, and WOW, they are perfect for bright, happy summer events (or anything else bright and happy you may want to use them for). The colors are uber-saturated reds, blues, and yellows with some dark hot pinks and pool blues to accent. I have had the most fun scrapping with these papers, hoarding every little bit and piece to tuck here and there as color bursts on other projects.

I was blessed this summer with the opportunity to go with my father on a medical mission trip to Peru. At the end of the trip, we spent a day touring Machu Picchu. The Shoreline bright yellow sunburst pattern screamed 'Incas' to me, so I used it as the background for this layout about how much we climbed that day. I used some old kokopelli stamps I had in my stash to stamp on some canvas in teal, then stamped the words in black over the person kokopelli. I added some Mini Market letters from October Afternoon and some brads to finish off the page.

This next layout is about a shopping excursion I took with my daughter last month. We were separately scavenging a clothing store for clothes to try on. When we met up in the dressing room, we had both picked the same dress! Obviously, as a scrapbooking mom, this had to be documented on my cell phone so a layout could be made. If you look at the layout, and think about my typical style, you'll notice that I am a B-side scrapper. I prefer the backsides to most patterned papers. They tend to be more subtle, less busy patterns that recede into the background more than their typical trendier, bolder A-sides. This shopping layout uses almost all B-sides.

And then we come to my last layout for today. I made the background of this layout by spraying various colors of yellow and green spray mist onto shiny white cardstock then blending them with a paper towel. The sunshine embellishments were cut out from a separate sheet of Shoreline paper, as was the strip at the bottom and the 'sunshine' label.

I hope you've been inspired to pull out your summer pictures and spend some time creating. If you want any of the Shoreline papers, go see ScrapHappy and stock up! I think I might be needing some more for my own stash...Maybe I'll see you there?

Supplies:
- American Crafts - patterned paper, Thickers
- letter stickers - October Afternoon, Lily Bee Studios
- spray mists - Studio Calico, October Afternoon, Tattered Angels
- disco starts - Heidi Swapp
- wood veneer stars and camera - Studio Calico
- chipboard stars, brads, teal stamping ink, canvas fabric

Heidi Swapp Memory Files and Color Magic

Hello World!
How many of you have seen Heidi Swapp's file folders and thought, "What am I supposed to do with that?" I know I did, so this past spring when Heidi taught a 12 week online Memory File class, I signed up to learn straight from the master. Depending on your mood, you can choose from her patterned paper files that coordinate with her paper lines or her DIY Color Magic Files. For today's project, I used Color Magic. I love that I can make these papers whatever color I want. Each Color Magic item has a trendy resist pattern on a white background. I wanted a bright, happy, yellow and green background to coordinate with the Vacation Bible School (VBS) embellishments and some American Crafts Shoreline papers, so I gathered my yellow, green, and teal spray inks and happily sprayed my blank file (You can use any ink or paint you want. The choice is completely yours). After spraying, I used paper towels to wipe off the excess ink and reveal the chevron resist pattern. Being the ink snob that I am, and given my refusal to waste any of my precious spray ink, I used the excess ink on my paper towel (baby wipes work well for this, too), and rubbed the ink onto the inside of the file to colorize the inside.

Memory Files are designed for those moments and times where you want to scrapbook 20-30 (or more pictures), but you really don't want to make 3 or 4 (or more) layouts all on the same topic.With a Memory File, all those pictures and embellishments can all fit in one 'layout.' If you read Heidi's blog or get to take a class with her, she teaches various methods of incorporating more photos into your file. For this file, I used a baseball card page protector and some orange washi tape to add an extra 'page' to my Memory File. I then added my patterned papers and phots, and then embellished as usual. I plan to add more photos to the page protector, but I have to collect the photos from my friends first ;)

This year's VBS theme was Amazing Wonder's Aviation and focused on flight and the Wonders of the World. I used Studio Calico wood veneers to highlight the travel focus and to tie my layout into the VBS ephemera I want to incorporate into my Memory File.

I hope I've helped you learn how to get more photos into one project. There are sooo many ways to use a Memory File in your scrapbooking life. If you want to learn more, please leave a comment, or tell Christy that you want us to teach a special Memory File class in the store.

- Cori

Supplies:

- Heidi Swapp - Color Magic Memory File

- Studio Calico - Mister Huey's spray inks, wood veneers

- American Crafts - patterned paper, rub-ons

- brads, washi tape, baseball card page protector

- VBS ephemera

Using Themed Products in a Non-Themey Way

Hello World!

Another month, another blog post from me! Or 2 or 3, as the case may be this month, since I found myself with an abundance of layouts I have made this summer for Christy that I have not yet shared with you ;) Today we are going to talk about using those cute themey supplies for uses that have NOTHING to do with the theme. Sacriledge, right? I know. I know. We buy the cute themed supplies BECAUSE they fit the theme we want to work with. But what do we do with the leftovers after we have scrapped the theme??? We use them anyway!

How many of you have actually scrapped your July 4 pictures from this year? And how many of you have leftover 'July 4'-specific supplies left? Or you just love the red, white, and blue combo and want to use it over and over again? Today's layouts feature some Pebbles July 4 papers that I found at ScrapHappy but decided to use for several non-holiday pages. Honestly, I haven't even printed my July 4 pictures yet, but I knew I wanted to use the papers NOW, so I used photos I already had printed.

The first layout actually doesn't even have pictures at all. Many of you know my family went on a Great American Road Trip last summer. One entire month of seeing our beautiful country. Since then, I've been scrapbooking our trip. I have already filled an entire album (I file all my pages chronologically. I scrap whatever inspires me on any given day, but then I put them in albums by date), so I decided I needed an official Title Page to separate this section of layouts from the rest of my pages. I've been pondering a Title Page for months, and when I saw this United States map paper, I knew I had found the perfect background. Since this is a 'busy' paper, with lots of graphics that I wanted to use, I opted to focus on the map and not use photos at all. Instead, I put brads and star stickers on the locations we focused our trip around and connected them with string. Next to each brad, I wrote the location and sight seen there (ex. Mt. Rushmore in Rapid City, South Dakota). I inked and glued the bar code strips from the collection as my accent papers, and used Studio Calico wood veneers to indicate our family and method of travel.

This next layout features the entire Pledge of Allegiance. I didn't want to obscure the words, but I still wanted to use the paper for a traditional layout. I used a small Instax photo I took of my Niecelets together in Tennessee and added small embellishments on the diagonal. I wanted to emphasize certain words in the Pledge, so I highlighted them with Stickles. I'm not sure I'm thrilled with the results, but I wanted you to know why part of the layout sparkles and why part of it doesn't. Lol.



My final layout for today uses some of my favorite Disney pictures from this past Spring Break. We were fortunate to be there when the 'new' Dumbo in the Fantasyland expansion had just opened. My Girls rode late at night (no lines then) while I took pictures. When I saw the photos on my desk next to these Pebbles papers, I knew they were made for each other.

I hope I've given you some ideas on how to use your holiday papers for non-holiday layouts. From photoless pages, to tiny pictures, to Disney, I hope these inspire you to pull out some of your leftover supplies (or go buy more supplies!) and make pages to be proud of.

- Cori

Supplies:
- patterned paper - Pebbles
- cardstock - Bazzill
- letter stickers - October Afternoon, Jenni Bowlin Studios
- wood veneers - Studio Calico
- transparency - Hambly
- Disco Stars and Instaframe - Heidi Swapp
- shaped paper clips - Amy Tangerine
- Distress Ink
- number stencil, brads, thread, white Uniball journalling pen

Amy Tangerine Day Books

Greetings!
Today I want to show you a great product Christy recently got in the store: Day Books. These are pre-made mini-books (by Amy Tan(gerine) for American Crafts) that are perfect for highlighting a single event or topic. Since I just learned how to print Instagram photos straight from my phone, I decided to use my Day Book to focus on all these pictures I've been printing lately.

First up, the cover: All Day Book covers come with an overlying transparency layer, perfect for decorating and adding a title. I used some letter stickers, Amy Tangerine Sketchbook tabs and stickers, and a wood veneer from Studio Calico (items which I repeated throughout the book to add to my book's cohesiveness).

Inside, the page sizes and shapes are varied for a fun, random look. If you have OCD tendencies (like me), then this can be hard to accept and work with, but consider it a challenge. Repeat your fonts, embellishments, and photo sizes, and that should give you the 'order' you crave (I used washi tape, Amy Tangerine labels, stickers, and envelopes, a package of Thickers, and more Studio Calico wood veneers). The pages are largely taken from her Sketchbook line, but there are other die-cut cardstock pages, envelopes, and ephemera added, as well. Below, you can see some of the pages in my book, which will be in the store for you to flip through and enjoy.

I hope you've enjoyed this month's project. As always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, or requests!

What Do I Do With That?

Hello, World!
You know those products that you see online or in the store that you absolutely LOVE and that you must have NOW?!! So you buy them. And then you get them home and think, "OK. This is awesome, but what do I do with it?" Well, these die-cut states from Studio Calico fit that description for me. I saw them at CHA and counted the days until ScrapHappy carried them. I'm a traveller. I'm a scrapbooker. You would think this would be easy, right? Sadly, it wasn't. I looked at them and pondered them for ages. I placed them on layouts (without adhesive, of course). I took them off those same layouts. I moved them around...and around...and around...and still they called to me. Until I had a serious BAM! moment, and I realized I didn't have to use them for layouts. I could use them all together as a map puzzle!
First, I had my Kid arrange them on cardstock (I still had hopes of making this a layout, but alas, they wouldn't all fit right on a 12x12 piece of cardstock). Then I decided to use a cork background and put my 'puzzle' in a frame - and you know what? It worked perfectly! After adhering the states to the cork, I added rhinestone stars to each state - bigger stars for where I've lived, and smaller stars for where I've visited. I then enclosed my puzzle background in the frame and added a title to the exterior of the glass with Thickers and Kaiser Craft letter stickers.

DIY Smashbooks

Hello, Scraphappy Fans!

How many of you know what a 'Smashbook' is? It's this really cool premade album filled with patterned papers that you can take your pictures and everyday-bits-of-life (aka ephemera) and just 'smash' them (or glue them) into. You can make it as organized or random as you want. You can fill it from beginning-to-end. Or you can open to a random page and stick stuff in wherever it makes you happy. The only problem with a premade book like this is that you have no control over what the actual papers are. What you buy is what you get, so I'm going to show you how to make your own. Now you can pick the papers and patterns YOU want inside your book.

First step: Pick your papers. I chose the new summery, tropical-themed papers from Graphic45. Now I don't know about you, but I always think these papers are beautiful to look at, but when it comes to actually USING them, my mind goes blank. Fortunately for me (and now you, since I'm going to share), at CHA the Graphic45 people demo'd how to use their papers in a DIY Smashbook!

In the center of the previous photo, you can see some blue rectangles. Those are clear acrylic sheets that I decided to use for my covers. There's several sizes available at the store, and they are all quite inexpensive. To use the acrylic, just peal off the blue protective film and decorate however you choose. I wanted the edges of my cover to stand out, so I mixed some spray mist with white acrylic paint and painted the edges.

Next, I trimmed my papers to fit in my book. I used several sizes, including some pieces that I die-cut into scallops to add some fun variety.

There are many ways you can bind your book - jump rings, ribbon, etc. I wanted to play with a toy I received for Christmas: a book-binding machine. There's a similar machine in the store that you can use whenever you want. Just buy the binding, itself, and have fun playing!

Follow the directions on the machine to bind your book, then add pictures, embellishments, and journalling to truly make the book 'yours.' Here's a look at my finished book and some of the interior pages:

Supplies:
- patterned paper - Graphic45
- clear acrylic
- white acrylic paint
- letter stickers - October Afternoon
- black washi tape
- Cinch binding machine and spiral binding
- Smooch spray mist
- Instax photos
- die-cutter - Big Shot
- scallop die - Spellbinders

Some Heidi Swapp Layouts to Share

I went to Scraphappy last week and was delighted to find the new Heidi Swapp line had come in. I immediately 'claimed' some of the papers and embellishments as mine to play with. Here is what I came up with: The first is what you're used to seeing from me. The second...well, let's just say I've been hanging around a certain other Design Team member/friend a lot lately, and she's rubbed off on me ;)

Supplies:
- patterned paper - Heidi Swapp, My Mind's Eye
- letter stickers - Heidi Swapp (neon), Sassafrass (blue)
- banners, word stickers, epoxy embellishments, label stickers - Heidi Swapp
- date stamp
- Stickles
- brads

Playing Catch-Up - Recycling on Your Layouts

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ways to save money. One of the ways I do this is by reusing items in my home as often as I can, especially in my scrapbooking and memory keeping projects. And I don't know if you knew this, but this coming Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day - a whole day dedicated to this hobby we love. To combine the two interests (recycling and scrapbooking), Christy gave some old books of upholstery fabric swatches to Ashley Horton and me and asked us to make flowers out of them. If you are coming to the store's crop on Saturday, you might find a few of these flowers lying around (hint hint hint)...and if you're not coming, then you'll just have to settle for looking at my pictures here on the blog.

First up: My Supplies...fabric swatches, my BigShot (Any manual die-cutter will work. You just need to adjust the thickness of your cutting pads to account for the fabric and whatever dies you are using), flower or scalloped-circle dies (I used Spellbinders Nestabilities), and brads, stitching, Glubers, or whatever else you want to hold your flowers together (I used brads. Ashley finished others with stitching and other decoration, but you'll have to come to the store Saturday to see hers!)

When you cut your flowers, try to put your dies as close together as possible so you can get several flowers out of a single swatch.

Once you've cut your flowers, take them to your desk and find some supplies and a photo to match (Sorry the photo is sideways. My computer is refusing to rotate my pictures today).

One item I found on my desk is some leftover embellishment packaging. Seriously, how awesome are those acrylic casings that embellishments come in? I save nearly all of them. What can you do with them, you ask? So many, many options. You can stamp on them with staz-on ink (so you can move a stamped image around on your page and not worry about 'messing up' the page). You can die-cut them and make clear embellishments (Anybody remember Heidi Swapp's old Ghost shapes? Now you know how to make your own!). Or you can adhere other embellishments to them to use as a shiny, clear background (like I've done here with some My Mind's Eye embellishments).

And here's how I put it all together. In addition to the fabric flowers and clear packaging (sorry about the glare), I also used the B-side of a product code strip from a piece of patterned paper on this layout. So many recycled bits and pieces on here. Makes me happy.

I hope I've given you some ideas on how to recycle and save some money on your projects. Please feel free to put a link in the comments to any projects you may make using these ideas. And don't forget to enjoy National Scrapbook Day!

Supplies: fabric, Big Shot die-cutter, Spellbinders nestabilities, brown ink

- patterned paper - Dear Lizzy, Studio Calio, Echo Park, Lilly Bee

- letter stickers - Studio Calico

- brads - Bo Bunny

- washi tape - Hambly

- 'jeweled' frame - My Mind's Eye

- butterfly stickers - Studio Calico

- staple - Tim Holtz

- yellow acrylic heart - Heidi Swapp