Cheri's Christmas Countdown Album, one of her most favorite books to date!!

Hey everyone, I am so EXCITED to share this with you!! I have been waiting for what seems like FOREVER!! I created this album for the CHA booth last summer. So if you did not attend CHA (the Craft and Hobby Association) you would not have seen this so I am excited to share it with you!!

I had my daughter help me take a little video of the book so please take a look if you would like.

I have to admit, this book is one of my most favorite books I have created, the JOY and CARE that I put into it... Details... like every page I added grommets, painted around each edge in cream to match the cover. Then I cut all of my page pieces/layers and painted those edges a lighter creamy white.

I love how it has the look and feel of old world charm with a fresh shabby chique (sp?) feel to it. The crisp white with the cream and pops of red... Like I had been dreaming it.

I don't think I could pick a favorite page if I tried!!

This will be my last post until after Christmas, so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!!!

Christmas Countdown with Jamie Harder

14 days until Christmas!  The countdown is definitely happening in my house and December is such a fun month!  I am beyond happy this year to be able to do a December Daily....it is my first!  And what makes this even better this busy season?  Teresa Collin's Christmas Countdown Memory Kit.  It has everything you need to quickly and easily record your memories this month.    I wanted to share with you what I have so far using this fabulous kit:

I hope you are enjoying this festive season and having fun recording your memories!  Thanks for stopping by!

Jamie Harder

Christmas Countdown Memory album kit by Cheri Piles

Woo Hoo, I am just loving Christmas books!! Yes, this is number #5 of six books that I have made this season. I tell you, I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite because I love them all for different reasons!

This countdown book is a kit, it's called the Teresa Collins Christmas Countdown Memory album kit and it comes with all of the pages, tabs, tags, die cuts (tons and tons of them), stickers, envelope and BINDER! It's so fabulous!!

Ok, so if you follow me at all I of course had to change it a bit so I started with some ink.... Imagine that!

So I pulled everything out and started inking in distress ink: Worn Lipstick - Now I did this lightly, just wanted to tint the outer edges of my pages and all of the die cuts. Then I went back and added MORE ink - this time I used brushed corduroy around all of the edges of everything.

But you know... It just wasn't enough for ME... soooooo... I went back again and added cream colored PAINT to all the edges of the binder and all of the pages and all of the larger die cut embellishments...

 

Then as I was layering I decided to start adding flowers, and I thought they were to plain for my soft pink but vintage book... So I glazed all the creamy white flowers using glossy accents - Yes, I had to wait overnight for them to dry real well. It was worth the wait!

I love the creamy papers combined with the reds and a hint of pink! The green sticker sheets with numbers were just the perfect touch for a little contrast! 

 

I'm a big fan of these pages in the book, There are so many fun shapes and edges!

 

I also used the washi tape on many of my pages from the Christmas Cottage. Such a great touch!

So, the next time you have a kit, don't be afraid to change things up and go for it! There are no rules!

Have a great week!!

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Christmas Cottage Coundown flip album by Cheri Piles Part 5

Well it's the final day! Thank you all so much for following along, it has been fun!! At the end I have cutting instructions for your base pages and how many sheets of each page you would need to recreate a similar countdown book. Some of these are my favorite pages! If you are just seeing this project for the first time, I have been showing each day this week all of the pages of the 25 days of Christmas Countdown that I created. You can see the past few days here:

DAY 1, DAY 2, DAY 3, DAY 4

I love candy cane striped paper! I paired it with a tag and another bakers twine bow just as I had done on page 13 from day 3. These button are so cute! I really like the one with the antlers! To keep the flow on this page I added a scroll dotted die cut border to the right of the tag and dotted washi tape along the bottom of the tag.

You can barely see this in the photo but stamped little stars on this page! I thought they went well with the star border die cut and the stars I cut from my scraps and layered to go on the tag. 

This is a fun page with the different washi tapes used as borders. I cut the "ticket" die cut border strip apart and used one of the tickets as a tab off of the page! It's fun to look at things for beyond what they are or what they are meant to be.

Here is another example of the layered flowers, I think they are so cute! Also on this ticket I added a clear rhinestone to the center of the snowflake. 

This is one of my most favorite pages in the book, it's one of the smaller pages 5 1/2 x 9. I created a tag then added a triangle for a tree off center from the tag. Here is the "trick of the eye" notice where the music notes has a clean break? I used the space to the left to help give the illusion of a tree trunk by adding the ribbon with the large brad, then the chipboard "Merry" under it, it appears to be a trunk!

And last but not least, Page 25! This is of course the highlight page for E opening up her "Santa" gift on Christmas morning, my favorite part of Christmas morning! I couldn't wait to use the long die cut border "Merry Christmas to all.." I kinda rolled/folded (a soft fold) the ends under each other and used pop dots to help it keep it's shape over years to come! I used A LOT of pop dots, lol! I'm pretty sure it will hold up over time!

Thank you again to everyone who followed along! 

SUPPLIES USED:

Papers used: Tiny flowers 1 sheet, Doily Tree 1 sheet, Countdown 2 sheets, Snowflakes 2 sheets, Medallion 2 sheets, Red snowflakes 1 sheet, Music 2 sheets, Sentiments 2 sheets, Red Damask 1 sheet.

Other: Decorative Brads, Trims, faceted rhinestones, paper flowers, stamps, washi tape, chipboard 1 & 2, border strips, buttons, Rhinestone medallion, 

How To: Cut all of your sheets 9" from the top. Take out one of the countdown sheets from your stack one top and one bottom piece. Then cut all of your 9" x 12" sheets 6 1/2" from the left side. This will give you all of your base pages to build from. Now, with the 9" x 12" countdown sheet you pulled out, cut one inch strips (so you will have 12; 1" x 9" strips.) I only used 8 of the strips as shown in the example photos. With the remaining countdown scrap paper I punched photo corners. With all of the remaining scraps I created the tags, banners, rectangles, labels as shown. So, save your scraps to create those fun layers, use your imagination and have fun!

Stop by my personal blog for a giveaway! I am giving this away:

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Christmas Cottage Coundown flip album by Cheri Piles Part 4

So what are your favorite pages so far? It would be hard to choose!! Wait until tomorrow, there are more great pages to come!! This has been so fun, I was in my lss yesterday and someone asked if I would be making this into a class... How fun would that be? Maybe next year, something similar??

If you are just seeing this, I have been showing 5 pages a day this week of this Christmas Cottage countdown book. If you missed the previous days you can see them here:

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

Have you played with the new flower die cuts yet? I am loving them in groupings like this, so cute!! Try adding pop dots between the layers to give them more depth. I also love that chipboard ellement on the left used as a border next to the dotted washi tape. 

Did I tell you that I was the last to the washi tape party? When I made this last July was the first time I had ever really played with it. I love that you can use it as tape or a border, as well as a decorative accent! The base page on this one is 5 1/2 by 9. I love how the sheet music paper from the next page looks so good with this page. I think that's why I like to make all of my base pages first then I can look at them and put them in an order that compliments the next page - or not having to many of the same pages right next to each other, lol!

More washi tape and a decorative boder off centered. I cut the embossed die cut that I made from a scrap piece and used one piece at the top and the other to the right of the border strips. I like that pearl in the center on the top!

I am a big fan of the glitter border strips, especially the scalloped ones! From scrap pieces I created a tag then layered another piece cut into a banner and tied the twine through them both and added a red brad bling to the center, I really like the look of them layered like that!

Another monochromatic page, can you tell I am naturally drawn to that? The piece on top of the photo is deeper than the one on the bottom, I like that they both have the matching washi tape to pull them together. Don't forget to corner round them to give them a finished look which draws the eyes in towards your photo.

The best is yet to come, I am excited about the next pages! I can't wait for you to see them! If you have any questions please be sure to leave a comment and I will answer as best I can. Thank you!! Till tomorrow!!