... due to technical difficulties. (Or as I call them, damn computer viral issues.) I continue to photograph and take notes each day, but I'll have some catching up to do in putting the pages together. I'll be back again soon. Hopefully sooner than later.
xo
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St. Nicholas day is not something that I celebrated as a child. My daughters happened to have these amazing kindergarten teachers who introduced us to the custom. Since then, I've felt obligated to keep up the tradition with the kids. This is the first year that I've planned ahead and purchased anything more than those standard gold coins from the drugstore, and it has made all the difference. Each coin in the colorful bags has a different classical religious image. Some of the Christ child alone, others of Mary with Jesus. Rather than tearing into them, the kids spent so much time admiring each image and went off to school talking about the birth of Christ, and how we should sing happy birthday to Jesus. It made a difference; the kind of difference that I want to make for my kids in small measures throughout this season.
The chocolates, recommended by Grace, are from Emmanuel Books. The only digital element used on these pages is AE hand-drawn holiday brushes and stamps.
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Just a few notes from my day around town with Paul. Elements from designer digitals: AE holiday outline word art and holiday post marks no. 1.
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We hung lots of greenery today, including an enormous wreath above the fireplace, but I keep coming back to this quiet morning moment as my favorite of the day. It reflects something fleeting and special. There will be plenty of days ahead to feature seasonal home decor. I know these pages must look incredibly sparse in contrast to my previous albums, but that is entirely intentional. You'll just have to trust that there's an overall look I'm working on this time around, with a three-side photo bleed being a constant, enclosed in a mini-folio of sorts with a soft, bookcloth wrap.
Digital design element: Bergen ribbon is here.
We've been challenged around here with kids (and grown-ups) being sick and consequently weak, and super grumpy. So I've decided to limit my journaling to a short, sweet spot in the day, instead of a longer, drawn-out doctrine about the status of things. Perception is reality. These glimmers are the moments worth remembering over the years; not the rest of the junk. I questioned whether to use this photo because the poor kids had sun in their eyes, but you know what? I'm in it. And given how few photos there are of me ... well, I deserve to be in some pages of my little book too.
I've been printing and playing with the physical album pages this weekend. For the first time I'm going with a glossy stock. It's holding up surprisingly well to fingerprints, and I like the reprodution quality I'm getting off my old printer. Since this years book is lacking any sort of dimensional adornments, (the whole thing will close entirely flat) I thought it would be a nice little change from my normal matte finish images.
Okay, so I picked up new cartridges for my old HP today, and I'm all ready to start working on the assembly portion of this project this weekend. Until then, I'll just share the digital layouts. I'll photograph the actual book at some point when I can take several days together in good light. You may recognize (from a previous post) that these photos were taken before today, but they do represent my earliest holiday decor the way it looks today, and I like them. So in they go. [AE holiday outline word art available here.]
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Yeah! Today's is done. This part anyway ...
This year I'm formatting my pages to fit a 9"x9" square page spread, to cover two 4.5" narrow pages joined in the center with spiral wire binding. After looking over my books from the last few years I've decided that I want to see bigger photos, so I'm making them prominent throughout. I'm printing a couple of days at a time to make the best use of my hands-on time.
Elements used: AE Christmas twill, font: courier, circle date element: self-created in Publisher
The enclosure (or book) I'm using is a re-fashioned paper swatch book from Mohawk. I've adhered papers on the cover and the liner with 3M spray ment, and will secure with a ribbon when finished. Keeping it fresh and manageable! I'll share a few photos of that part over the weekend.
I've been listening to a great mix on Pandora simply found under the search 'Christmas Radio.' It's great accompaniment to measuring and cutting paper of all kinds. Enjoy!
