Christmas Cottage December Daily by Suzanne Sergi

We are in my most favorite time of year! I love revisiting old traditions, and this year the children, and I will be creating new ones! So, to help us begin the holiday season, I created a December Daily using Christmas Cottage. Pair this beautiful Christmas Collection with Teresa's December 25 Seasonal Cricut Cartridge, and you have a book perfect for documenting the magic of Christmas.

Designing the cover is perhaps my most favorite part of designing a mini album. The cover sets the tone for what is inside, so I always create this part of the book first. However, I never adhere the elements to the cover, until the back side has also been designed. I tend to add lots of texture, and dimension to the cover, so I do not want it to be disturbed as I cover the other side.

Here is the Cover of my December Daily:

One of my favorite items to be found on the December 25 Cricut Cartridge are the phrases. You will see them throughout a good portion of my book. Now, this time the cover of my book came together by an unexpected surprise. I did know I was going to cover it with the red damask paper. The Joy embellishment was designed on a 5x7 piece of vellum. I created this back in October, and cannot remember if I had to intended to use it on a card.  Anyway, it was in my mix of Christmas Cottage, and while I was searching for other papers for the cover, I laid down the Joy embellishment on the cover. I looked down, and loved what I saw. A few added details, made my cover holiday perfect!

Here I cut part of the Christmas border to lay across the word. I added twill ribbon along the bottom, and inked the word merry, using the Christmas Cottage Stamp set, right on top of the ribbon. I did pull from my stash, and pulled out the square metal rim tag. I forgot I add these. I pulled out the stamps again, and stamped right on top of the tag. Tip: The stamps are perfect alone, but by simply adding two together, you can create your own unique details.

Now, here is a peek of a few of the inside pages:

I always struggle with the opposite side of the cover. Not certain why this is difficult for me in the process. This time I kept it clean, and simple. I used a stamp, a few border strips, and one silver mini star!

Here is a closeup of the inking, and shiny star. I think this is my favorite image found on the Christmas Cottage stamp set. How perfect would that be simply on a card, or tag? 

A detail of the star embellishment, and more inking in the center of the stars. I do need to remind myself to add a tiny rhinestone to the center of the stamped image. It must have fallen off, while I was photographing.

Now, for me I can get lost in adding the details, and creating my own embellishments while designing a book. However, I had to stop myself, and add a few pages that simply stood alone. I want to be able to go back, and have enough room to add photos, and journaling. So, in the inside there is plenty of space to add them on all the pretty papers of this collection. Again, I turned to the December 25 cartridge to add the sleigh, and the word, sparkle. Tip: For the word sparkle, I used  two of the words to create it. I simply took the letter "S" from the word Santa found on the cartridge, and replaced it in the word, sparkle. Simple, and easy create a more bold title.

I love adding envelopes, tags, and bags inside my mini books. Here, I added a mini envelope that I inked, and added a brad from this collection to the top of the envelope. If you look closely you might notice a chipboard element from one of Teresa's older Christmas collections! On the right side, a simple embossed grid, with the addition of inking, adds a great place for a special photo.

Again, I turned to the December 25 cartridge for the phrase, and the beautiful ornament die cut! 

A detail of a festive bag to add photos, a recipe card, or journaling. On the left hand side of the page, I did add a strip of diamond dust to tie in the large glittered snowflake on the right hand side of the book. Tip: On the red label, I turned to the image I inked for the inside of the cover. However, this time instead of inking the entire phrase, I inked only the portion I wanted to fill the label. 

I am a gal that loves glitter, and will add it to any project, if I can. Here, I layered two snowflakes covered in diamond dust, and layered in between a circle of vellum. Tip: The best way to add glitter to your embellishments is to pull out your Xyron. I used this technique over, and over. Simply, run your element face down through the Xyron, to instantly add adhesive. Dust glitter, or diamond dust on top, and it is glitter perfect. Spray with hairspray to help the glitter set!

Here is the backside of the bag, and something pretty to look at on the opposite side. Felt, a doily, stamped vellum stars, and buttons add instant sparkle!

I wanted to use this Santa image, so I had it stand alone on a piece of 5x7 vellum. Again, it can be found on the December 25 Cricut Cartridge. If you do not have it yet, you might want to ask Santa for it this year!(; The Santa silhouette sits on top of the oval frame(again, from December 25 Cartridge) that I embossed using a snowflake embossing folder. Cut out the word Santa for the bottom of the page.

This transparency is from Teresa's Noel Christmas Collection. I am not sure if it is still available, but I was happy to find it in my Christmas box of papers. It is kind of hard to see from this photo, but the transparency sits alone. The added details are the tied twine around the transparency, and the ornament cut from, you guessed, it December 25 Cricut Cartridge!

 One final detail from the inside of my mini album. A combination of vellum, felt, snow, and a die cut word from the December 25 cartridge, makes this one of my favorites! I cut a large snowflake from black felt, and layered it on top of a doily. I stitched along two pieces of vellum to create a pocket. Perfect for more photos, or journaling. However, I wanted to add some snow inside, so I stitched at the bottom, after I filled it with snow, and the die cut Joy word. So now, you can still add something special to the inside, without disturbing the snow at the bottom.

Thanks for taking a peek at my December Daily. I normally document December 1-25, and you may have noticed that the days are not distinguished in my book. From years past, I am not certain if one particular day will need two pages, a simple tag, or one page. So, I add the dates of the month, as I begin to fill, and document our December days! Have a fabulous week, and I hope that I have inspired you to create your own December Daily!