December Journal

Hi friends! I hope you are well! It is time to share one of my favorite projects each year. My December journal, inspired by Ali Edwards concept of documenting the month of December. I have been doing this since 2012, making this my eleventh December daily journal. 

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

This year I am doing my journal a bit differently and decided to use a Tim Holtz Travel Folio for the journal. My December Countdown Tags will go into this journal, one at a time and some of the stamps are repeated so that they will fit well together. I love Tim Holtz Christmas Backdrops papers (well actually all his backdrops papers) and knew I wanted to use them for my journal.

This is what it looks like when you open the journal, lots of interactive parts and a booklet for journaling.

The Travel Folio looks like this and you will see some of the original papers peeking through here and there.

I cut Christmas Backdrops papers to fit the various parts of the folio that I wanted to cover.

Sand the edges to reveal the white core and then adhere to the journal.

Continue on the inside. 

For journaling and for sentiment stamps I stamped a whole bunch of Simon Says Stamp Mixed Labels in different colors. They were stamped on heavystock paper which had been colored with Distress Ink. 

Die cut with the coordinating Mixed Labels dies. I hold the die in place with Simon Says Stamp Very Very Low Tack Tape.

Stamp the title of the journal and a whole lot of sentiments on the labels.

I also used Tim Holtz Journal Cards, File Folders, die cut Framed Tags and Christmas idea-ology ephemera. Most of the papers were stamped with a whole bunch of stamps by Tim Holtz and Simon Says Stamp.

These Candy Canes are so cute!

The year was stamped with Tim Holtz Worn Text, which was also used for the numbers in my Countdown Calendar. The two smaller labels were stamped with words from Simon Says Stamp Document It.

The back of the journal looks like this.

Open the book and you'll find a mix of paper sizes.

This sweet scene was cut from a Christmas Backdrops paper.

The labels were adhered here and there.

This snowflake stamp from Tim Holtz Mini Holidays was stamped on many of the pages with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Surf ink. I also used it on the Countdown tags.

Try to plan the pages so that you get a peek of what comes next.

The star border from Tim Holtz Rock Star also appears here and there, stamped in red.

Some of the paper from the folio is still visible.

I used the same papers on the inside flap as on the cover.

The Journal Cards can easily be turned into Christmas Journal cards, with stamps and ephemera. 

The Tim Holtz Christmas ephemera that I used comes from a pile of ephemera from this and previous years. You might not find exactly the same pieces in the 2022 version.

Cover the white back of papers up with other ephemera pieces.

The big tag was die cut from Christmas backdrops paper with Tim's Framed Tags.

It is such fun to assemble the book, which can also be made for other themes.

Two tags were stacked together back to back, with the flap page in between.

One of my favorite sentiments had to make it into the journal too. It's from Simon Says Stamp Document It.

Lots of trees, both indoors and outdoors.

In the file folders I left space for photos.

Mixing stamping with ephemera is always fun.

The larger of the two file folders.

And finally you will find the booklet, which was also stamped to turn it into a Christmas booklet.

There is a bit of stamping on behind the booklet too.

The booklet can be removed to make it easier to write in.

More stamping. The red labels to the right were printed on the paper.

And a small winter scene at the bottom stamped with Simon Says Stamp Forest Scenery.

The pages in the booklet are perfect for journaling. I will add the Countdown Tags somewhere on the page to mark the date and as an embellishment.

Red wood paper on the flap, which can be folded both over and under the front cover.

Along the spine I added Christmas Remnant Rubs.

You can find my previous Christmas Daily journals here:

2021 - Snowy Hills December Journal

2020 - Peaceful Winter December Journal

2019 - Snowy Mountains December Daily

2018 - Birch Forest December Daily
2017 - Narnia December Daily
2016 - Winter Village December Daily video
2015 - Believe December Daily
2014 - December Daily
2013 - Christmas Daily
2012 - December Mini-book

Thank you so much for stopping by here today!

Happy stamping!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Winter Robin Tag

Hi friends! I hope you are well! Christmas time is here now and I spent yesterday working at a traditional Christmas market. 

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

This week we have a Freezing Cold Mood Board challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and you can see the lovely mood board that team member Zoey created below:

Don't miss the last project by our guest designer Joanne Travis, who has created such beautiful projects for us during November.

I was inspired by the robin on the mood board, as well as by the snow, ice, color combo, and berry branch. It has been a while since I made a project with a transparent background and the mood board inspired me to do a transparent tag with a glittery, frosty snowflake background. I love the look of dry embossed acetate/modeling film.

I just had to photograph the tag on actual snow too, since we still have quite a bit of snow here since last weekend's heavy snowfall.

Start by cutting a tag from a sheet of acetate of from Clearly For Art Modeling Film. You can also try Simon Says Stamp Clear Acetate Sheets. Different acetate surfaces will give different effects, so experiment on a small piece first. Emboss in the beautiful Simon Says Stamp Filigree Snowflakes folder.

Turn the tag around and apply Moon Dust Stickles Glitter Gel to the back.

Stamp the robin with AALL & Create Robin & Nuthatch on watercolor paper. The stamp set was designed by Tracy Evans.

Watercolor with Distress Watercolor Pencils, pick the paint up from the pencil with a paint brush.

Splatter some orange and brown on the bird to create a fuzzy look.

Die cut Simon Says Stamp Berry Stems from heavystock paper and ink two of the branches with Distress Ink. I really like this die set and have used it a lot lately.

I cut out the bird and inked the edges, adhere with foam tape.

This sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp Printmaking Birds and was stamped on a Tim Holtz Journal Card.

The dry embossed, glittery background is a little hard to photograph, but you might get a better idea of how it looks here.

I picked two small branches from the garden and also added Berry Branches. The berries were die cut from Simon Says Stamp Schoolhouse Red cardstock. I also added some sequins. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it inspired you to dry emboss some clear surfaces.

I hope you will join us this week in our Freezing Cold mood board challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.