hello december

I can't believe that it's December 1st already!! Wasn't it just Christmas?? The years are certainly going by faster and faster as I get older!! How can I make it slow down a little!!!

Last year was the first year that I did a December Daily. I combined it with Journal Your Christmas (the prompts from JYC helped me fill in any days I wasn't sure what to capture). I am taking the same approach this year, except I am not even going to try to keep up with it on a daily basis. There is just no way I can live life, enjoy the season, work full time, and keep up with this daily!! I am taking a no-stress/no-pressure approach this year!! I've got my holiday planner that I will be using to capture the memories of the days when I just don't have enough time to get crafty. Then I can finish and fill in sometime in January!! I have my cover and foundation pages done, though...finished these before Thanksgiving!! So if I do find crafty time this season, I am all ready to go with most of the prep work done!!

I wanted to share my cover today (am I am planning to share my complete December Daily 2010) sometime this month as well...will likely share it in chunks so no post is super long!! But on to the 2011 cover!!!

I was really inspired by Ali's cover (check it out here). I loved the creamy paint color she used and decided I wanted to use it as well, but go a different direction with everything else. I am using the Studio Calico December Daily Kit (from November...it's sold out now). I painted the cover with 2 coats of gesso, then went over that with 2 coats of Martha Stewart's Summer Linen Satin paint. Love that color!! I stamped the spine with sentiments from the November Studio AE set and 2011 December Daily set (both by Technique Tuesday). I used Staz-on ink in Blazing Red.

I then decided to cover the entire front with Kerri Branford's Subway Art: Christmas. Love the look of it with all the insides missing!! I used Neenah Solar White for the die cut and had my silhouette cut it twice (I usually do this if there are lots of corners and I want to ensure nothing gets missed), however it took about 30 minutes to cut. I just set it up and went to do something else!! I mounted this onto Papertrey Ink's Pure Poppy cardstock, then I mounted it all onto the cover using mod podge. I sealed in the whole cover with 2 coats of mod podge (3 coats over the front only). Then I tied it up with a nice bow using striped ribbon from Hobby Lobby. The bow helps hold it all together since it already has some bulk just from the foundation pages alone (without them embellished at all)!! Love the cover this year.

Hopefully I can share some of this as we go through December, otherwise I may just plan a big post sometime in January...to wrap things up from the season!! Hope you're having a great December 1st!! Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb