Green Bunny: December Daily - Getting Started

So here it is..."The one about building a December Daily foundation."

The first thing I do is gather, gather, gather...

I bought this Itso bin [pictured below] from Target and started collecting new & old embellishments, papers, stamps, etc. Anything and everything I think might be included. At this point, I don't stick too closely to a single theme or color scheme. I am open to the creative process and ALL my options. Once I have a pretty good pile of stuff, I look at what I have and start to narrow it down a bit. (But, I keep all items out in a pile just incase December 22nd rolls around and I need that perfect little piece that may have been rejected during round one.)

For this year's album, I decided to go with a 6x6 Doodlebug Designs Plain & Simple Chipboard Album. It comes with front & back cover, 10 pages, and 3 silver rings (I ended up having to use my own two-inch rings because it got a little bulky).

I know what you're thinking:
"But Lindsay, 10 pages isn't enough for the whole month of December".

You're right. I bought this album knowing that I was going to get creative with some variation of page size and type. I'll point out the pages I added as we go. I decided to do only 25 days this year. So, here's a look at some of my foundation pages. Once I start filling in the blanks in December, I'll show you more!



 



 



Day 1: I added this Kraft 4x6 file folder. It has been in my stash for a while and I have no idea what brand it is. Couldn't find anything similar online, but if I come across something I'll let you know.

Day 6: Zutter Bind-it-All 4x4 acrylic cover

 Day 9: This was just a piece of cardboard from a paper pack I purchased that I cut down to 4x6 and covered with patterned paper.

Day 10: Heidi Swapp 5x7 transparency.

Day 11: This is something new for me...Funky Flock! LOVE it. I just laid down two strips of double-sided tape to create my number eleven and covered it with red flock from The Rubber Cafe.

Day 13: Found this over-sized Christmas tag at a stamping store after Christmas last year. It measures 4x6 and fit perfectly in the book!

Day 18: Another Heidi Swapp transparency. They were originally 5x7 and I cropped them down for something a little different.

Day 22: Zutter Bind-it-All 4x6 chipboard cover.

 Day 25: This was a piece of thick cardstock from a pack of page protectors. I made a folder that will open out to the right for those extra special Christmas morning pictures.

I used the We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-Dile punch tool to add the various page types. I lined the pieces up using the pre-punched holes of the original album pages and marked where I needed to punch. The Crop-a-dile can punch through pretty much anything. It also sets brads and eyelets silently...no more pounding with a hammer...This was a must-have tool for a mommy whole typically works while the children are sleeping!

If you have any questions about the embellishments used, post a comment below (or click on 'chatter' at the bottom of the post from the main page)...there are so many different pieces involved that creating an entire list seemed daunting!

This project was so fun to create. I headed upstairs armed with a glass of wine and my favorite 'not-technically-a-Christmas-movie' movie, The Family Stone. Dan checked on me once, saw the twinkle in my eyes, and left me alone for the next couple of hours. Seems he knew we wouldn't be catching up on the DVR that night!

I'll post an update once I start to build the album in December!