{december daily} days 11 & 12

On Tuesday I was finally able to start wrapping up presents. I used THIS tutorial from A Beautiful Mess to make the ornaments that I'm using as gift tags for this year. The only thing I changed is that I stamped my letters with the medium tip sharpie paint pen and a foam letter stamp set, and then also used the extra fine tip sharpie paint pen for the embellishment around the initial. I have a very shaky hand so drawing around the initials was difficult for me.....But I'm happy to say I managed and am kinda loving how they turned out. Now I can't wait to finish up more handmade gifts so I can continue wrapping!

Yesterday I wanted to tell the story of the puppies and how much they love their new blankets. Ryan's Mom handmade and mailed two, one for each of them. It's one of my favorite things right now.....to watch Ponyo and Gatsby enjoy these soft gifts.  XO

You can see days 1 and 2 HERE.
Days 3 and 4 HERE.
Days 5 and 6 HERE.
Day 7 HERE.
Day 8 HERE.
And days 9 and 10 HERE.

{december daily} days 9 & 10

After taking a couple days off from blogging my December Daily I'm back with days 9 and 10! I always keep a small stack of movies by my bed, and so day 9 was all about watching some special movies with Ryan as well as one by myself (I almost always watch a movie in bed before falling asleep at night). Day 10 was all about how much Ryan and I are loving our Christmas tree. When I wake up in the morning, he has already turned the twinkle lights on and has the tree glowing with a happy good morning. So sweet.  XO

 

You can see days 1 and 2 HERE.

Days 3 and 4 HERE.

Days 5 and 6 HERE.

Day 7 HERE.

And day 8 HERE.

{december daily} day 8

Yesterday I got my wish and Ryan and I picked out our Christmas tree!  It's very quirky, which made it a little difficult to decorate, but I managed and the twinkle is on!  The photo of Ryan below is of him petting the tree....of course out all the photos I took of him this is the one that is not blurry, lol!  I'm hoping that today is a relaxing day where Ryan and I get to just chill.  Sounds so nice.  Sending you lots of holiday cheer!  XO

You can see days 1 and 2 HERE.
Days 3 and 4 HERE.
Days 5 and 6 HERE.
And day 7 HERE.

{december daily} day 7

Yesterday Ryan and I had a fun holiday date night at the Woodland Park Zoo for their Wildlights display so I have lots of photos of Christmas lights to share. I can't decided if I want the photo above or below as the main photo for my December Daily page.....right now I'm thinking about adding both, one on top of the other, but we'll see. Today I'm hoping we're going to venture out and find a Christmas tree. Keeping my fingers crossed. XO

You can see days 1 and 2 HERE.
Days 3 and 4 HERE.
And days 5 and 6 HERE.

{december daily} days 5 and 6

December 5th I wanted to tell the story of Ryan and the rekindled excitement he has for his comics. I wanted to remember his favorites and new routine of adding them in at night before bed. December 6th was all about gift giving prep and the cheerfulness going on right now. I'm actually going to use a real piece of the wrapping paper we bought in my album, but for sharing it here I took a photo so I could make it digital. And now I'm super excited for the weekend. Ryan and I have some festive stuff planned. Yay!  What are you up to this weekend?  Xo

You can see days 1 and 2 HERE.
And days 3 and 4 HERE.

{diy} our christmas card

As promised here are our Christmas cards for this year with a very simple DIY on how I put them together. I knew I wanted something with snow so I chose a photo I took while snowshoeing in Snowbird, Utah last. Then I found some cute little penguin embellishments at the craft store (Michael's), added a little sewing and used blank note cards to bring it all together. Simple and cute.

Supplies:

• Photo (I had 4x6" photos printed at Costco with the wording "Happy Christmas" in different colors to match my embellishments.  I added in the wording using Photoshop.)
• Blank Note Cards (I already had these white ones, but you can get them at the craft store.  Make sure they are big enough to matte with your photo and have white showing around the edge.)
• Embellishments (I found a package of cute penguins with different colored scarfs and hats at Michael's.)
• Thread (Again, I chose colors to match my embellishments.)
• Sewing Machine (This is optional because you can always embroider or hand stitch.)
• Scissors
• Paper Adhesive (I used a tape runner.)

As a fun little Christmas gift, you can download the "Happy Christmas" PNGs in all the different colors I used HERE.  The files are sized for laying over 4x6 inch photos, and set with a dpi of 300 for printing.  (Feel free to email me with any questions.)

Step 1: Pick out your thread, and thread it through your sewing machine.

 

Step 2: Sew directly onto your photo.  I chose to sew around the wording I added, but you could sew around any statement part of your photo.  I really like the dimension and texture this step adds.

 

Step 3: Trim the excess thread.

 

Step 4: Using your paper adhesive, attach your photo to the blank card.

 

Step 5: Add your embellishment on top of your photo/card.  All done.  XO

{december daily} days 3 & 4

Hello to December Daily days 3 and 4! Yesterday I put together our Christmas cards and have the finished product as the image for that day.  Above is the unfinished version in digital format. If all goes as planned I'll be sharing a simple DIY on how I put our cards together this year, and you'll get to see my actual cards then.  For now here's the rest of my digital images.  Just below are phone pics from Ryan and my awesome lunch yesterday at our favorite philly cheese steak restaurant called Pilly Ya Belly.  I forgot to add journaling about it on my journal card, so I think I'll add a little note to the back of one of the printed photos instead.....and now I'm hungry again.  Midnight snack here I come!  XO

You can see my December 1st and 2nd pages HERE.

{december daily} day 1 & 2

Today I've decided to join along with the inspiring Ali Edwards, and have my December Daily album in digital format to share with you. I am actually printing this all out and assembling it in a book, but am finding it difficult to take photos of the finished pages. So, I decided to share the digital parts now, and the handmade book a little later on. Each day has a template I designed to matte with a photo, a journaling card to match, and extra photos/inserts as I collect them. Here is my December 1st and 2nd.  Anyone else joining in this year?  XO

{paper garland} with melody of from scratch

Hi! I'm Melody of From Scratch. A great big thank you to Carrie for having me!

 

I have a very special holiday DIY to share with you all today, featuring the beautiful transparencies from Carrie's shop!

These are the transparencies I used:

I printed them onto unbleached brown paper (I buy the stuff by the ream these days. It's a sturdy text weight paper with a beautiful, natural color and texture that lends so much more warmth to every project than regular printer paper.) With four sheets of paper, I made a 15 foot garland.

 

Don't forget to print double-sided!

1. Using a compass, fill up your page with circles of different sizes. Be careful to avoid drawing any circles that intersect! A note on using a compass: Often, it is much easier to get a perfect circle if you spin you paper around, instead of spinning the compass.

 

2. Grab your scissors and cut them out! To save time, you can stack two or three sheets of paper on top of each other and cut them at once.

 

3. Now this is the fun part! Have all your cut circles in a pile next to the sewing machine. Start at the very edge of your first circle, and sew straight across the center. When you get to the other edge, simply feed in your next circle and repeat until you've used them all.

 

4. Hang up your beautiful new garland!

 

These are my suggestions for wonderfully festive uses…

And my personal favorite, for holiday and every day…

 

Best, Melody

 

Thanks so much for this fun holiday project Melody!  I just love the unbleached brown paper she used to print onto.....and I can't decide which is my favorite way to use this lovely garland (maybe the Christmas tree?), they are all so perfect.  Which is your favorite?  XO Carrie

 

P.S. Happy December to you! ;D