December Daily Journal

Hello friends! Did you have a good weekend? I hope you got some crafty time. It is Monday again, and a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, this week our challenge is to make something that starts with the letter N.

I thought of 'Noel' and 'notebook' and decided to make the cover and inside pages for this year's December Daily journal. I love Ali Edwards' concept of documenting the month of December and I have done it for three years now. You can find my previous albums here: 2012, 2013, and 2014. The past two years, I have used two different worn journals by Tim Holtz as my covers, and I really like the flexibility of these, so I decided to use a third cover this year, the Journaler Worn Cover. 

I didn't add too much to the cover since I wanted it to be relatively flat so that it can stand easily on a book shelf, together with my previous December albums. 

You might remember my Christmas Countdown Calendar Tutorial from October. The countdown tags on the calendar will go into this album as journaling cards. I used similar textures and shades of green on both projects, so that they will go together. I will add some small photos into the journal, but it is mainly about the words. I usually do a few scrapbooking layouts about our Christmas as a complement to it. 

 

 

I used a piece of burlap on the cover, so that it would coordinate with the burlap panel made for the Countdown Calendar. I also used my favourite image from the Festive Ephemera Pack, slightly sanded and inked. Antique Linen Distress Paint was rubbed into the Christmas Typed Tokens.

I adhered a piece of gold Deco Sheet to grungeboard and die cut with Tim Holtz Handwritten Believe die. I love the large size of this word and it was perfect for the journal. The Deco Sheet gives wonderful glittery shine, without any mess.

 

The three stars were die cut with the Tiny Shapes set from leftover gold covered grungeboard. I also used an Occasions Small Talk sticker.

On the inside, there is a Large Ring Binder and I tied it with Linen Ribbon. Some fun metallic trinkets are hanging from the ribbon, giving a great detail to the spine of the book. Since I didn't want anything bulky on the front, I placed some bulky items here instead.

 There is a Swivel Clasp, a Trinket Pin, a key, snowflake, typed token and a Shield Charm.

Inside the book, you'll find a Tag Pocket for each of my countdown tags, as well as a bunch of other pages. I stamped the inside covers.

 

 

The stamping was done with the same inks as used on the Countdown Tags and I also added some ephemera pieces, Design Tape and more small talk stickers.

I love this new stamp of Santa playing the piano from the Christmas Magic set, and the 'joy' stamp. 'Joy' is one of my favourite words.

On the back inside cover, I used the tree stamp from the same Christmas Magic set, Santa and his reindeer and a Christmas Flash card.

Apart from the journaling tags, I wanted some extra space in my journal, and also more decorative elements. I used papers from the Pocket Cards set, as well as quite a few pieces of Festive Ephemera. 

 

The Pocket Cards are not meant for Christmas, but you can easily turn them into Christmas backgrounds with some stamping and embellishments. I stamped them with the same stamps and inks as used on the Countdown Tags.

I used a pack of Assorted Page Pockets, which have three different types of pockets with different sized pockets. I like the variation this brought to the album. All the papers were sanded, inked and stamped. I used the same snowflake background stamp and Cracked Pistachio ink as on all the journaling tags. 

Even though these sentiments aren't really meant for Christmas, they work perfectly in a December Daily album.

The tree was stamped three times, without reinking, with Mowed Lawn ink. This little tree is a favourite of mine, it comes Tim Holtz Mini Holidays 2.

Some of the cards are ephemera pieces, but most are from the Pocket Cards pack. These cards are double sided and a few of them had flowery images on the back, but then I simply placed another card there. 

I like the combination of neutral journaling cards and more decorative vintage Christmas images.

Even with the stamping and ephemera pieces there is still plenty of room for journaling.

Because of the clip binding mechanism, it is easy to move pages around, so I will use one of these patterned cards in between the Countdown Tags whenever I need one.

I hope you will join us in our Letter N challenge! As always you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

If you want to, follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

If you use instagram add #sssmchallenge to your challenge entry uploads, so that we can see them on there too.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope my post inspired you to document the month of December - or you could easily use the same concept to document any month or holiday of the year.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Sizzix HANDWRITTEN BELIEVE	Tim Holtz Sizzix TINY SHAPES	Tim Holtz CHRISTMAS MAGIC	Tim Holtz SCRIBBLY CHRISTMAS	Tim Holtz CHRISTMAS NOSTALGIA
Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS 2	Tim Holtz MINI WEATHERED WINTER	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS 5	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS	Tim Holtz MINI HOLIDAYS 4
Tim Holtz REINDEER FLIGHT	Tim Holtz Idea-ology POCKET CARDS	Tim Holtz GRUNGEBOARD BASICS PLAIN	Tim Holtz TEXTURED SURFACES	Tim Holtz Idea-ology DECO SHEETS
Tim Holtz FESTIVE Ephemera Pack	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival POTTING SOIL	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival FERN GREEN	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad CRACKED PISTACHIO
Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK MOWED LAWN	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PEELED PAINT	Tim Holtz Distress Ink GROUND ESPRESSO	Tim Holtz OCCASIONS Small Talk	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 75 JUMP RINGS
Tim Holtz Idea-ology TRINKET PINS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology LINEN RIBBON	Tim Holtz JOURNALER Worn Cover	Tim Holtz LOCKET KEYS	Tim Holtz LARGE RING BINDERS
Tim Holtz TAGS Page Pockets	Tim Holtz ASSORTED Page Pockets	Tim Holtz SNOWFLAKES Adornments	Tim Holtz Word Bands CHRISTMAS	Tim Holtz CHRISTMASTIME Flash Cards
Tim Holtz YULETIDE Design Tape	Tim Holtz CHRISTMAS Typed Tokens	Tim Holtz SHIELD CHARMS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology SWIVEL CLASPS	Tim Holtz Distress Paint ANTIQUE LINEN
Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Tim Holtz Sizzix BASE TRAY	Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP	Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET
3M Scotch PINK ATG ADVANCED TAPE GLIDER 1/4	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS

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