Prayers Card

This pin inspired this card.  I love the colored stamps on craft.

Materials:

Stamps:

• Hero Arts Prayers set and die
• PTI Done in Love set

Inks:

• Ali Edwards
• Stampin' Up!
• Hero Arts

Embellishment stickers:

• Starform

December Daily Base Album

I had such a great time with my December Daily album last year, how cold I refuse another one?  This year, I was interested in an album class at my favorite scrapbook store, The Paper Forest in Washington, Illinois.  I so appreciate a small business scrapbook/crafting store, and Melissa, the owner, does a great job with keeping it loaded with terrific supplies, tools, and papers.

The album uses the following supplies:

• 6 x 8 Sn@p Binder with 8 Sn@p pages, 3 chipboard dividers, and 10 pocket pages
• Simple Stories 12 x 12 Mistletoe Kisses Collection Kit
• Simple Stories Mistletoe Kisses Chipboard Stickers Set with foil accents
• 60 Simple Stories Mistletoe Kisses Enamel Dots
• Simple Stories Mistletoe Kisses Ephemera Bits and Pieces with foil accents
• 12 x 12 cardstock: Petunia (1), Carnival Red (1), Intense Kiwi (1), and Lagoon (2)

I got some adhesive on one of these and it would not remove smoothly, so I decided to make it look "authentic" and scrunch it a bit.

From here, I will make my December Daily days.  It's nice to have a roadmap.

Back in the saddle again

Oh my.  It has been a very long time.  My mojo went for a vaca.  And then, BAM!  It returned.  Over the last several months, moving, school starting, and anxiety have overtaken my life.  I think I finally regained the steering wheel.  And I caught up with my One Little Word album in all happy ways possible.  Some of what I am about to show you I have already blogged.  I will link to previous posts as needed.  Some was newer.  Just recently, I finally decided (and love!) what to do with the inside of the dividers.  So, I wanted to show the months in their entirety.

This is the first month divider.  At first, I have circled the word "real," but then one of my story kids had the word in it, and another had the acrylic star.  Both were destined for my cover.

On the insides of my covers, I chose to paint the backgrounds (Ali did this on one of her months) with acrylic paints.  On most of them, I mounted a meme from my "Real" Pinboard.  I drew a frame around them as well.  I love how the tabs look from the back of the album now.

I also used some of Ali's acrylics that I got with various things in the past.  OH MY GOSH!  Compared to the other acrylic paint I had, her paint was SUPERIOR. I had Karat (not on her website; must have been an exclusive kit thing) and Timberline, and they had this amazing metallic sheen to them.  So, of course, that prompted me to order her whole set.  Many of the other acrylics I had were completely dried up, which was sad.  It's been a long time since I touched them.

I wrote about the remainder of January on this post.  Here's how the pages turned out.

February and March were discussed in this post.  Here is how they turned out.

The message on the left is from my Get to Work planner from 2015.  Each month's cover page was removable.  I thought this one worked quite well with the month's theme of "Practice."

This photo was available online around the time of Muhammad Ali's death.  I loved it so much.  I got it printed with several other memes that I knew I wanted to use through the Shutterfly app, which was offering FREE unlimited prints.  How can you refuse that?

For April, I used the image of "real" that I created for different cards.  Ali charged us with looking for our word and how it is defined in our lives.  I liked this month a lot.  I kept a list in a note on my iPhone as the month progressed when something "real" dawned on me.  The transparency sheet that I cut into 3 x 4s was purchased at Michaels.  The meme was actually one that goes with our constant conversations about selling our house and being less financially burdened.

In May, Ali challenged us to choose photos that expressed our word in our life at this time.  If you are offended by foul language, avert your eyes.  This is where some memes made their entrance.

I had some 8 x 8 album page protectors with 4 x 4 pockets from Stampin' Up, so I cut them and used them as half pages.

I had two 6 x 4s that I wanted to include, but did not have a page protector that would accommodate my needs, so I just adhered them together and hole-punched them as they were.  I am debating whether or not journaling needs to happen for some of these.  

You can't really see the pic of my boys watching the fireworks very well.  It was a priceless moment for me.

June was halfway through the year, and therefore, time for a progress check.  

This, too, was from my Get to Work planner from 2015.

I wrote extensively about July in this post.  This is close to being my favorite layout of the year.  I was freaking out in July as we crept close to closing on our house, yet we had not sold our other home.

This was also the last layout I completed for a looooooong time.

For August, Ali said three pictures, but that was insufficient to express the true chaos that was August 2016.  So I went a little beyond.

These pictures are adhered using 6 x 4 Flip Pockets that I actually purchased for my first OLW class in 2012.

I used the 4 x 3 page protector with 2 x 2" shots and some of Ali's word art.  I also used number stickers from her Stuff Story Kit. (available here for a limited time, both the digital kit and the hard copies)

I did a quick write on the back of each photo with the date and the subject.  I also used more "Stuff" stickers.

More "Stuff" stickers.  I love that Story Kit.

Ali had us look at September using three "attention" lenses: joy, pace, and rest.  She had some health issues at this time, and I was having some strong anxiety issues stemming from the move and the non-movement of our house.  I actually wrote these cards recently, but vividly recalled my emotional September.

I think October is my favorite month.  I love using song lyrics, and I love the black and white effect of this layout.  Here was my song lyric page from back in 2012:

#stamplovin

And finally, November.  This is a completely Ali-inspired page.  I used some masking with  Stampin' Up rolling stamps that I had for forever and I always seem to forget about. I also used Lawn Fawn's Riley's ABCs for the words at the tops of the cards.  I used Ali's inks for this and they worked REALLY well.

And here is the cover for December's addition.

I am really, really pleased with this album on multiple levels.