Callaloo Soup

Tuesday To-Do: Last Minute Advent Calendar. And It's Portable Too!

I wanted to take some kind of advent calendar with us on the trip for Kieran. Last year we just did the basic grocery store one with bad chocolate (which Lucas and I ate), but this year I wanted something handmade. But it needed to be able to travel. I finally hit upon an idea yesterday: envelopes!

I remembered that I had these envelopes in a stationary set that I bought on clearance like three years ago.

There's a reason I never throw anything away.

I cut out patterned paper and number labels for each envelope. This is a hybrid project. All the papers were digital ones that I printed out. I made the number circles using a Christmas themed circle brush by Karla Dudley and the Hero font (which is a free download by the way)

Then bound them into a book with my Bind-it-All.

The covers are just red cardstock. I used a "rejected" number from my December Daily project for the cover.

As for what will go in the envelopes, well I am currently working on Christmas themed flashcards to add before tomorrow morning!

So that's two daily projects for December. Heaven help me. I think I will hand the Advent Calendar duties over to Lucas!

Are you doing an Advent Calendar this year?

 

 

 

December Daily Travel Journal

We are heading to warmer climes for the holidays, but I still wanted to do a December Daily album this year. So when I saw this idea for a travel journal I thought "Yes! A December Daily Travel Journal!"

Once I decided on the size of my album: 5x7 - not too big since I have to cart it around, but not too small since I need space to get it all down - I went into my stash and pulled out all my favourite scrapbook papers that I keep horading. Since I know I won't only be documenting Christmas activities I was free to use any kind of papers. Some are travel themed, but most are just papers that I love.

I decided on one page for each day, except for those days where I know that a lot would be happening. Like our travel and arrival days.

My numbers are these from Elle's Studio. They come in green and red, so I recoloured some to a more neutral colour for what I am sure will be the non-Christmasy days. Then I printed them out and used my 2" circle punch to punch them out.

I did use Christmas papers for the week surrounding Christmas Day.

I also allocated a few pages for December 25th.

The travel journal I linked to included an envelope for each day to collect bits and pieces. Since my journal is 34 days in total I went with one envelope for each week instead!

The envelopes I used were originally twice as long, so I cut them to fit the book, and machine stitched the cut end closed. I remembered I had these tie-clasps which are perfect for keeping them closed!

I really tried to keep the album as simple as possible. I plan to have a no-stress vacation so I don't want to be fussing with this while we are away. I made sure that it is as complete as possible, and all I will need to add are photos, journaling and daily ephemera. I will be taking along some extra stuff, like the extra numbers in case I need to swtich out a colour on a day that turns out to be Christmas related. As well as some stickers for journaling and a few holiday related embellishments. Oh and a glue runner.

Everything I used came from my stash, I didn't buy one single thing. Which makes me happy.  I'll put everything in a plastic pouch to carry along on the trip. I'll be keeping it close to me in my camera bag!

With December starting in two days do you have your December Daily ready? Are you doing the entire month, or just up to Christmas Day?

 

 

I too, have known autumn too long

Gift Idea: 2011 Calendars

Here are a couple of calendars I'll be giving as gifts this year. The first one features Kieran, one photo for each month

I used this calendar template by Karla Dudley, but resized them to 4"x4" to fit in the CD case. I have a tutorial up on the DHD blog with more details.

This second one uses the Monthly Bits by Kate Teague and photos taken by me

After printing out the months onto photo paper, I matted them on kraft cardstock. Check out this post for more details. Plus you can leave a comment to win the kit for yourself!

Are you making any kind of hybrid project as gifts this year?

A Little Something to Say Thank You

Callaloo Soup Designs on Etsy

One Set of Photos - Many Layouts

One of the ways that I am documenting Kieran's stories is to use photos from one photo shoot to produce several layouts. I promised a few weeks ago that I would talk some more about this. I realised that one occassion can actually capture more than one story; there's the overall main theme but also what I think of as sub-stories that you can tell. Here's an example. I took a lot of photos of Kieran one afternoon at the park late this summer, and was able to scrapbook four different layouts with them. Here is a mosaic of the photos.

You can see the individual photos here on flickr.

And here are the layouts I made.

This one is the overall story, basically, an afternoon at the park.

The journaling talks about how this is our favourite park to go to, and that we are there pretty often.

Now for the "sub stories".

Kieran loves to play football, so that is one layout I had to do. Ever since he learned to kick a ball it's like an obsession. He just might be the next Zinedine Zidane!

I also did a layout about how he likes to watch the other children playing.

and finally one about his love for these fruit bags

As you can see I didn't use all the photos I took. I chose the ones worked best with my stories and my pages. I plan to do one more page using the photos of him holding up the bag of puffed rice with his typical pleading "Please Mummy?" look on his face! And yes, I eventually gave in and gave him some!

Here are two more pages I've done where I used a smilar approach. You've seen theme before......

The first is one of those "just because you're so cute" moment layouts. The following layout tells a more detailed story about Kieran's oh so expressive face.

I've noticed myself using this process over and over again, and this is part of the reason why I get quite a bit a scrapbook pages done for and about Kieran. I don;t have a problem using the same or similar photos on several pages, since I'm more interested in the story that gets told rather than scrapping evry single photo. Which face ot is an insurmountable task anyway.

So tell me, what's your approach as you try to document and tell your stories?

 

Winner of the Ella E-Book!!

I consulted the oracle also known as Random.org and our winner is number 19!

Our winner is Nitasha

Congratulations Nitasha! Please send me an e-mail (callaloosoupdesigns [at] gmail.com) and I will let you know how to collect your prize.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. Look for a giveaway of another Ella e-book coming soon!

Tuesday Tip: Saving Paper with the Slice

Whenever I have to cut a lot of the same shapes with my Slice digital cutter, I find it frustrating not to know exactly where to put my paper for the least wastage possible. I finally came up with a way to save myself that little frustration (yes, it is indeed the little things).

Here's how!

1. Use scrap paper to cut the shape you need. Make sure to line the cutter up exactly on the edges of the glass cutting mat when cutting.

2. Leaving the cut out design on the mat, turn it over and use a permanent pen, like a Sharpie to draw around the shape.

3. Remove the paper and you're good to go!

Now you can position your paper over the shape and maximise your paper use! Just remember to always line the cutter up on the glass mat edges and it will cut in the same place. Since there are a few shapes I cut regularly, You will see that I used a different colour for each one.

Oh and the reason it is drawn on the back is so that it's not lost when you need to clean and reapply the adhesive. I learned that one the hard way! You can always do it that way if you'll be using one shape a lot for just one cutting session though.

So what do you think? Will this help you when using your Slice?

Let's Be Thankful

This week I am hosting the challenge on How Much is Too Much, and even though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in France, I think being thankful is so very important. Every day. So I based my challenge on that. Here is my page

You can see more details over on Two Peas.

Check out the challenge here to see what the rest of the team did!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the Ella e-book. Deadline is tomorrow at midnight!

The Road Less Travelled