I do not think I have included a formal introduction page on any album I’ve done.  Honestly, it really never occurred to me since most of my albums are either from a vacation or a special event.  My general albums are arranged chronologically, at least until 2007 when I fell off the bandwagon and now I just stack layouts into albums haphazardly…but that is another blog post.  anyway  I thought it might be a nice introduction to talk about why I make these albums, so Inspired by Ali, I made up a “why” page.  I made this page digitally using Christmas themed digital paper for the background, then lowering the opacity by about 50% so its faint in the background.  I used Remington Noiseless as my font and made it bold to stand out.   It was looking a little plain so I added a bit of Christmas washi tape and a “joy” button. The finished page is on the right in this photo, it will be the back of the title page for the album.

The text reads:

We record the holidays:

To stop time even for just the instant it takes to record an image. That moment will never come again, but we can relive it over and over as an image.

To honor the past as we trim the tree, we talk about the ornaments we have, where we got them, who gave them to us, the family stories come alive. At gatherings, we share stories and old traditions and start new traditions.

To dream of the future this time of year gives us pause to reflect and dream about what we can make manifest in our lives for the coming year. Because time goes far far too quickly and we want to remember every little detail.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas 2014

I like it.

You can learn more about Ali (an awesome person and inspiring memory keeper) and her December Daily project HERE on her blog.

This will be the 6th year I have kept a scrapbook album specifically about the holidays.  I have been inspired the last several years by Ali Edwards December Daily project.  You can learn more about Ali (an awesome person and inspiring memory keeper) and her December Daily project HERE on her blog.  I have included photos from my 2012 December Daily on my blog, that year was one of my favorites for ease and simplicity.  Hopefully if I get some time, I can get other years up to share.

This year I am once again participating in December memory keeping, I have decided to run my album from Thanksgiving to Christmas…and maybe to New Year’s, we’ll see.    I have been doing a lot of thinking about process lately and one place where I get hung up is on the beginning and ending of album projects.  I decided to solve the problem by doing the first and last page in one whack tonight and wanted to share them here with you…

The title page is on the left, the page behind it on the right.  Yes, the photo is crummy as it’s dark at 3:30 around here now and consequently, most projects are getting worked on in the dark!  I used some new paper that I picked up that I love…very vintage-ey…I colored it oh so slightly with colored pencil, tried some embossing on the tree in white and silver and used some new brads for the top, and number stickers for the bottom.  Simple. Easy. Done.

The back page?  I saw a beautiful wood cutout at Absolutely Everything last weekend and knew it was going to be the focal point of the last page… I embossed it with silver embossing powder, picked out a piece of beautiful paper, attached one to the other and voila!  Last page.  Simple. Easy. Done.   (note…working with these die cuts is tough they are very fragile so handle them with great care so they don’t snap…like mine did!)

There now, that’s better!  Solved the beginning and ending bits quite nicely I think!  Looking forward to working on this project more in the coming week!  Hello the Holidays!

Do you have a Holiday project you’re working on?!  I’d love to hear about it!