monthly moments: december

Welcome to day 3 of the Papertrey Ink  December release countdown! Today I am so excited to share this month's Monthly Moments: December collection with all of you.

All of the new stamp sets and products that I am sharing today will be available to purchase on December 15th, 10PM ET, at Papertrey Ink.

This month's color scheme includes: Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss, and Classic Kraft. This is a very classic yet a little bit rustic color combination for the holiday season.

Here is a peek at the Monthly Moments: December kit that includes the Monthly Moments: December stamp set, the Monthly Moments: December Journal Card collection, the Monthly Moments: December dies, the Monthly Moments: Journal Card 7 die, and the Monthly Moments: December digital download. Aside from the digital download, all of the items are available to purchase separately. The digital download is exclusive to the Monthly Moments: December kit. 

Now onto some Monthly Moments: December inspiration...

I have a few more layouts to share from my December Moments Mini Book that I have been working on.

Here's a look at the first spread in the book.

On the left side I did another 6" x 8" layout and created another shaker card with the Monthly Moments: Journal Card 7 die with a layer of acetate over one of the journal cards from the Monthly Moments: December journal card collection.

To die cut the acetate in the die cut machine: I layered a piece of cardstock behind the acetate so that it wouldn't get marked up by my die cut machine plates - this also acts as a shim, then the die to cut into the acetate, and the metal shim. Put this into your normal cutting sandwich that your die cut machine uses, and send it through. I had no issues die cutting the acetate with this method. It may vary with each die cutting machine (I use a Cuttlebug), so experiment a bit with what you have if this formula doesn't work for you.

Under the shaker, I typed up this little sentiment on my vintage typewriter. It's adapted from a quote that I found on Pinterest about documenting during this holiday month. I stamped the "'tis the season" sentiment under the typed sentiment and added a branch and some berries stamped with images from the Monthly Moments: December set.

Here is the right side of the spread. I have just been going through the photos I have, choosing my favorites, and adding them to my book. I am not doing any particular order, just memories of things that happened during the holiday season.

Sometimes, for me, committing to numbers, dates, and something every day puts too much pressure on getting things into albums. I tend to over analyze and stress and make too many rules for how I create my pages. Is it going to matter that I don't know exactly what happened every single day in December? Not really. It's the moments and memories that I am after. Letting go of the "rules" makes the process so much easier for me.

The "merry" circle element in the Monthly Moments: December set has a bunch of little companion words so that you can build your own sentiment. I added the "& bright" and then layered the punched out circle onto a striped circle frame from the Countdown to Christmas set.

This journal card is definitely on the decorative side. It started as a piece of white cardstock that I was die cutting snowflakes from and I thought it was looking pretty fun. I used the Monthly Moments: Journal Card 7 die and die cut out the journal card and then used some red and green embroidery floss to stitch up the fun border in the stitching holes.

One of the things that Tacy got to do for school is ring the Salvation Army bell at a local store. I added a photo of her ringing the bell and then added my journaling on the card next to the photo with the Type Strips & new Type Strips II sets. The "remember this" sentiment is from the Countdown Details set.

I am already in love with how this book is coming together with the Monthly Moments: December collection!

Here is the next spread in the book. The photos I added are from decorating our Christmas tree.

Here is the left side. I love documenting our holiday traditions. Photos of our ornament boxes and the cat curled up under the tree really express how important these traditions are for our family and how much we love doing them together. Being able to look back at that is priceless.

I love how you can see the snowflake journal card on this side of the layout too - such a fun feature to include in your album. The photo next to the journal card is of my girls ornament boxes. They each have their own and I added their names with cardstock letters years ago. I added a glitter stripe at the bottom of the photo for some additional festiveness and because I want to include this embellishment detail throughout my book.

There are several bitty sentiments in the Monthly Moments: December set and I included one here on this photo on a Countdown Details die along with a snowflake stamped in Pure Poppy ink.

I die cut this tree journal card from the Monthly Moments: December journal card collection with the Monthly Moments: Journal Card 7 die so it would have that fun border around the edge. The "joy" on the circle is embossed in gold and a few sprinkled snowflakes completed this card.

Here is the right side of the spread. I am in love with the little snowflakes that are included with the Monthly Moments: December collection. They add just the right touch and are perfect to sprinkle all over.

A bit of journaling with the Type Strips set and my typewriter. Tacy is so into the twinkle lights at Christmas. I think if she had her way, we would have the tree up year round. The "gather around the Christmas tree" sentiment is one that is included in the Monthly Moments: December set.

I added another bitty sentiment on a Countdown Details die cut to this photo of Tacy looking at the tree.

Here is one of my favorite cards in the Monthly Moments: December journal card collection. "Merry & Bright" has always been a favorite Christmas sentiment of mine and so I had to do something special with is for this collection. I did add a few extra snowflakes onto the card - you can never have too many ;)

If you have done any layouts or projects using my Monthly Moments collection, I sure hope that you will share with me! Add a link to your project(s) in the comments. Be sure to stop by the design team members blogs who are sharing Monthly Moments projects today: Ashley, Danielle & Melissa.

Also stop by Nichole's blog to see more about the Monthly Moments: December collection and link up to the whole design team - those not sharing layouts will have cards to share with you using Monthly Moments products.

Thank you so much for stopping by today - I will be back tomorrow for day 4 of the Papertrey Ink countdown with more projects to share!

Supplies:

all supplies from Papertrey Ink unless noted

December Moments Layouts

size: about 6" x 8"

stamps: Monthly Moments: December, Countdown to Christmas, Countdown Details, Type Strips, Type Strips II

ink: True Black, Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Smokey Shadow

cardstock: kraft, white, Monthly Moments: December journal card collection, Clear

other: Monthly Moments: December dies, Monthly Moments: Journal Card 7 die, Type Bits Strip die, Countdown Details die, gold sequins, gold embossing powder, adhesive sheet, 1 1/8" & 1 3/4" circle punches (EK Success), embroidery floss (DMC & vintage), red glitter (Martha Stewart), tiny attacher (Ranger)