Since this new tagline is a big clue into where we’re headed in year two, I wanted to share some insight into what this whole idea of embracing your scrapbooking awesomeness is all about.

One of my goals since opening NettioDesigns has been to find an easy way to break down my personal scrapbooking process in a way that would be applicable to any scrapbooker. For me, it’s not just about sharing my tips & tricks for drop shadowing or how I mix and match papers, but it’s also about sharing how I approach scrapbooking from a big picture perspective.

Which is is where embracing your scrapbooking awesomeness comes in.

What it boils down to is this:

Embracing your scrapbooking awesomeness is all about finding your own style, telling your own story and learning to use all the tools in your scrapbooking arsenal in a creative way so you can embrace what makes YOU an awesome, unique scrapbooker.

 
These three things are at the heart of every scrapbook layout I do.

1) Find Your Style

Finding your style is all about learning the basics of design, embracing what you LOVE, and challenging yourself so that you can ultimately find a style that is 100% you. It’s about pushing yourself to step outside the box of what everyone is doing and create layouts that are so uniquely you that they make you want to jump up and do a that’s-so-me! happy dance each and every time you create a page.

2) Tell Your Story

I’m a firm believer that the number one most important story you can tell is your own. Your thoughts, your feelings, your words, your perspective.

I know, I know. The thought of scrapbooking yourself kind of terrifies you. And the thought of having to actually be in front of the camera scares you even more. But here’s the thing. Your spouse, your children, your family will all have their own memories of their lives: the birthdays, the Christmas, the trips to the park – but only  you can share your own unique story.

And you know what? Your story is pretty dang amazing because your thoughts, your likes, your dislikes: they’re what makes you, YOU. And that is definitely a story worth scrapbooking.

3) Learn to Love Your Tools

As digital scrapbookers we are blessed to have an arsenal of digital tools at our disposal: digital photography, Photoshop, and of course, templates.

But when trying to combine design+story+technology all together, it can sometimes get a bit overwhelming!

Which is why step 3 of embracing your scrapbooking awesomeness is all about learning how use the tools in your scrapbooking bag of tricks in an effective, yet creative way that not only enhances your personal style but allows it to take center stage.

Embrace Your Scrapbooking Awesomeness

Ultimately what embracing your scrapbooking awesomeness boils down to is this: your life isn’t cookie-cutter – and your scrapbooking shouldn’t be either! We each have our own stories, our own perspectives, our own views of the world and your scrapbooking should represent that.

When someone looks at my scrapbooks, I want them to feel like they’re getting a slice of ME on a page. Not just in the stories I tell or the photos I take, but in the design, look and feel as well. I want there to be no doubt that my scrapbooks are 100% me which is what embracing your scrapbooking awesomeness is all about.

So with one year under my belt here at NettioDesigns, this is going to be the focus for year number two. Showing you how to find your own unique style, tell your story in new and interesting ways and learn to creatively take advantage of all the tools in your scrapbooking arsenal so you can take your scrapbooking layouts to the next level.

I am beyond excited to get started so I hope you’re ready to step outside your box and come along on this adventure with me!

And to get things started, how about a chance to win a prize or two for showing off YOUR scrapbooking awesomeness…

Introducing the Show Off Your Awesomeness Contest

Here’s your chance to start embracing your scrapbooking awesomeness and show us what you’ve got by using any NettioDesigns template in a new, creative, awesome way. Shrink it, scale it, flip it, combine it – it’s totally up to you. What matters most is that you push yourself to step outside your box and create a layout that is awesomely YOU.

Here are the rules:

1. Choose any NettioDesigns template currently available in the NettioDesigns Shoppe (this includes the free Oh the Places We Go map template found here) and create a NEW layout showing off that template in a fun, creative way that is 100% YOU.
2. You may enter as many times as you like but you must use a different template for each entry.
3. Post your layout in any online gallery and then link us up to that layout in the comments section of this post. You have until Sunday, 2/26, 11:59PM ET to enter.
4. The NettioDesigns Team Awesome and I will select our favorite, most creative entries and the winners will be announced next Wednesday, 2/29 as part of the final day of the NettioDesigns 1st Anniversary Celebration.

I can’t wait to see what you create so don’t be shy! You never know which layouts might catch our eye!

That’s right! The NettioDesigns 1st Anniversary celebration is finally here!

Woohoooo, I’m so excited!

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been hiding last two weeks, well, I suspect the new look of the site may be a big clue, haha, but yes, for the last two weeks I’ve been buried under a pile of code working hard to spiffy up NettioDesigns for her very first birthday party.

As I’ve been telling my team, this was meant to be more of a revamp than a complete redesign but looking at it now, I’m realizing other than the background, the colors and some fonts, almost everything has changed in some way, haha. There’s still a few things that need tweaking (aren’t there always?), but I think she’s looking pretty good so if you’re viewing this post in a feed reader or email, be sure to stop by and check out the new look!

Of course the new design is only the kickoff to the 1st anniversary celebration so over the next two weeks, we’re going to be partying it up here at NettioDesigns with new products, a contest and more!

And to get things started today, I’ve got a much-requested NEW product up in the NettioDesigns Shoppe…

Photo Book Frenzy: A Week in the Life 8×10

Yes, that’s right, the modern, magazine-style design I used for my popular A Week in the Life Blurb photo book is now available in template form!

You can read all of the details in the shoppe but included in the template set are 18 two-page 10×16 page spreads, including 8 photo-style pages and 2 A Week in the Life highlight pages. Each photo spread comes in both a left and right version so you can mix and match the spreads to your hearts content.

And for all my square-loving friends out there, I also put together a 12×12-inch version of the templates…

Photo Book Frenzy: A Week in the Life 12×12

 

Both sets of the Photo Book Frenzy: A Week in the Life Templates are up in the NettioDesigns Shoppe now but before you pop over to the shoppe, I’ve got one more little announcement…

It’s time for the NettioDesigns 1st Anniversary Sale-a-bration!

That’s right, starting today through the end of the month you can use coupon code: 1birthday to save 20% off everything in the NettioDesigns Shoppe! Storewide sales aren’t too common around here so if you’ve had your eye on something, here’s your chance to pick it up and save a little $$$.

And of course, if you’re a NettioDesigns News email list subscriber, check your email for an exclusive subscriber only discount code. Want to get in on the subscriber goodness? Sign up here.

And if you want to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the NettioDesigns 1st Anniversary Celebration fun over the next two weeks, look for the image below at the top on the site. It will link you direct to all 1st Anniversary related content:

Well that’s all I’ve got for today! Be sure to stop by NettioDesigns tomorrow where I’ll be chatting more about what it means to “embrace your scrapbooking awesomeness” and how you can get yourself in the running for some free stuff!

I wrote about my 2012 scrapbooking resolutions, including some thoughts about the difference between busy vs meaningful scrapbooking…

Shared my completed Holiday Faves Mini Album (including my first ever video slideshow!) and even recorded a little podcast about it for Digital Scrapbooking HQ…

Wrote a quick tutorial about how to add a fabric spine to your completed mini album and shared my final thoughts on my Holiday Faves project…

Posted an update on my 29th birthday year Project Life album…

Posed the question: Is it possible digital is a little too perfect? and shared my thoughts on the subject…

Released a brand new set of goal-tastic templates into the NettioDesigns Shoppe…

Revealed my One Little Word for 2012…

Offered my top 5 tips for capturing your own A Week In the Life over at Tell Your Story Everyday…

And asked you all to share your thoughts in the first ever NettioDesigns Anniversary survey…

The survey (and prize!) will be live through Friday, Feb 3rd, so if you haven’t filled out the survey yet, make sure you do! I’d love to hear from you and this is your chance to let me know what I can do to make NettioDesigns awesome for YOU.

And in case you’d like a sneak peek of the fun coming to NettioDesigns in February, I hear someone is having a birthday…

Welcome February! You’re going to be an awesome month.

The 1st Anniversary of NettioDesigns is coming up next month and just like most moms, I can hardly believe my web baby is almost a year old!

In preparation for the big event, I’ve put together a 1st anniversary survey which I would love if you’d take a few moments and fill out. So much of my time here at NettioDesigns is spent rambling on about me that I’d love to have a chance to hear from you!

The survey is completely anonymous (I only see a timestamp) so feel free to get real and share any comments, suggestions or critiques about NettioDesigns you may have! I’ll be sure to put bring my thick skin to the party just in case, hehe.

But really, my goal with this survey is just to get a better idea of how I can make NettioDesigns even more awesome for YOU so if you’re a fan of the site, click the link below and fill it on out.

Take the NettioDesigns 1st Anniversary Survey Here

 
A little birdy told me there here might be a little prize for you at the end…

Welcome to One Little Word 2012.

If you’re new to the concept of One Little Word, the idea is rather than making a long list of resolutions for you have no intention to keep, you choose a single word to focus on for the year.

My word for the past year and half has been ADVENTURE.

I chose this as my word in the summer of 2009 when Adam was coming home from Afghanistan and we made the big move from Colorado to Texas. I figured new location+new job=new adventures and I wanted to make sure I was in the right mind frame to embrace all the change. And I have to say, I LOVED this word. It’s a word that I know will stay with me for a long time to come.

But after a year and half, it’s time to focus on a new word.

So the word I’ve chosen for 2012 is…

CONNECT.

I’ll admit this word kind of terrifies me a little bit. Ok maybe a lot, haha.

But I also think that’s a sign it’s the right word for me. Because it’ll push me out of my comfort zone.

And if I’m being honest, I definitely need that push.

A year ago when we moved here to Texas, I made the decision to give this little design business a real shot. And so in February I opened up NettioDesigns and for the most part I’ve really loved it.

But what I don’t think I anticipated was how lonely it can get working at home by myself all the time. I mean, it’s not like I’m a stranger to being alone – I’ve done two deployments! But add in the fact that this military base we’re currently stationed at is largely a training base where people only stay for a few months and well, it’s been a bit hard to get motivated to get out and meet people. Even more so when running your own business from home – there’s always something to be done.

Which is why I’ve chosen CONNECT as my word for this year. Because I want to focus more on connecting: with people, with life, and with myself, both online and offline.

And to keep myself extra motivated this year, I’m participating in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word class over at Big Picture Classes.

This month’s prompt was to fill up a pocket page protector with 9 cards – 5 word cards from Ali and 4 cards of our own making. Since I’m doing my layouts all digitally, I used Traci Reed’s 8.5×11 Slip Ins for my pockets and combined them with a brand new collab kit from Shawna Clingerman which will be being released this weekend. I really love how it turned out!

I don’t know where CONNECT is going to take me this year but I sure am excited (and a wee bit nervous) to see how this word-y adventure (like how I worked it in? ) pans out. Should be interesting for sure!

So what about you? Anyone else playing along with One Little Word? What word have you chosen for 2012?

Psst…looking for an awesomely easy way to capture your One Little Word for this year? Check out my It’s Goal-tastic Template Pack in the NettioDesigns Shoppe.

One of my favorite things about start of a new year is the possibility for new dreams, new goals and of course, new projects!

So in keeping with the new year theme, I’ve created this goal-tastic 3-pack of templates sure to get you inspired scrapbooking your favorite new year projects including Project 365/Photo-a-day, One Little Word and your 2012 Goals.

It’s Goal-tastic 12×12 Layered Template Pack

All three of these templates are based off layouts I created to document my own memories and like all NettioDesigns templates, these templates feature my signature clean & modern layered paper-lovin’ style as well as unique details guaranteed to make your layouts stand out from the crowd.

It’s Goal-tastic: 2012 Goals

Whether you call them resolutions or goals, we all have hopes and dreams for the new year. But how often do we actually remember them? This template makes capturing your goals quick, easy and fun thanks to the bold paper blocked design, layered details and room for photos and plenty of journaling.

My 2012 Goals for the year featuring Shawna Clingerman’s I Can kit:

It’s Goal-tastic: Project 365

Based off my own layouts from my Deployment 365 Project in 2009, this photo-friendly template features room for up to seven photos and two paper accent blocks, all of which can be transformed and rotated to create a variety of photo sizes and layouts.

In this layout, I’ve used the template as designed:

Here I’ve transformed and rotated the photo blocks to fit the photos I had for that week. This template is the perfect blend of versatility and consistency enabling you to adapt the design for your own personal photos while still maintaining a consistent look for all your pages throughout the project.

It’s Goal-tastic: One Little Word

One Little Word is one of my favorite new projects of the year and this template is the perfect starting point for sharing your favorite words, conversations or other text-heavy stories. In addition to including plenty of space for your journaling, this template features layered papers and elements and unique cut-out design sure to make your page pop.

The cut-out design was created using an Inner Shadowing layer style so all of the cut-out areas can be moved, transformed or adapted to fit your individual needs.

My One Little Word for 2012 featuring Zoe Pearn’s One For the Boys kit:

As always, the NettioDesigns Team Awesome has stepped up to show-off the versatility and ease of the It’s Goal-tastic templates. Check out this awesome eye candy:

The It’s Goal-tastic 12×12 Layered Template Pack is on sale for 20% thru Thursday so if you want to pick them up AND save a little cash in the process, stop by the NettioDesigns Shoppe and check them out today!

It’s Goal-tastic 12×12 Layered Template Pack

Happy Goal Scrapping!

If you read my first Holiday Faves album update post, you might have seen that my album and I got off to a bit of a rocky start…

I’m not going to lie – this little Holiday Faves album and I got off to a bit of a rocky start this weekend, due to some printing issues and my inability to punch holes on the proper side of the page, haha.

But despite that little non-digital reality check, I’m feeling good about how things are coming together so far.

Well the real story here is we didn’t just get off to a rocky start, we got off to an OMG-why-did-I-choose-to-do-this-as-a-hybrid-album start. The kind of start that seriously had me questioning why I didn’t just stick with my trusty Photoshop and digital scrapbooking since it certainly would have been whole lot easier.

You see, not only did I have to create this turkey page twice due to my not realizing that napkins are 3-ply and therefore would not actually stay glued down to the page…

But I also had to print and reprint…and reprint the journaling page on the right after my attempts at printing my journaling resulted in the text printing over the ribbon instead. Nevermind that my non-color test print came out just fine, of course.

Then there was this lovely photo of Adam which at one point ended up with text printed directly over his face. Not exactly the look I was going for, haha.

The final straw came when after finally getting all the printing, gluing and trimming figured out, I went to insert the page into the book and realized I had punched the holes on the wrong side resulting in the entire page being upside down in the album.

#hybridFAIL

Yes, give thanks indeed. I would have given a whole lot of thanks at that point to be able to crawl back to the safety and comfort of my beloved Photoshop.

But I pushed through and by the end I had completed one pretty sweet little Holiday Faves hybrid mini album.

Holiday Faves Mini Album 2011 from Lynnette Penacho on Vimeo.

Now let’s fast forward to this past weekend where as part of my Operation Home Sweet Home birthday goal, I decided to spiff up our office wall with some stripes, which seemed like a simple enough project…

…that it is until I actually started measuring, spacing, leveling and taping off the lines and realized this was a WAY more tedious project than I thought.

And as I measured and taped and fought with the level, the one thing running through my head over and over again was…

This would be so much easier in Photoshop.

Because really, how easy would it have been to draw out some shape boxes and fill them with the chosen color?! It would take all of what, 0.2 seconds?

But I pushed on with the project using you know, regular paint, haha, and despite some paint bleeding through the tape, which probably only I will notice (apparently I didn’t pre-paint over the tape quite enough), I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

And once we get the office all put back together I think it’s going to look really cool.

But as much as it I hate to admit it, it took me a couple of days to get to that point. Because my first reaction when I pulled the painter’s tape off and saw the bleeding lines was…

These lines would have been perfect in Photoshop.

Which is more than a bit crazy, no?

I mean, life is NOT Photoshop. Obviously. I know that.

Yet there’s a little part of me that has gotten so used to the ease of achieving perfection in digital scrapbooking, like clean straight lines, perfect evenly spaced squares, etc., that it almost irks me a little bit when I can’t get that all the time.

And it got me thinking…

Are we as digital scrapbookers possibly too used to perfection?

Has our love of Photoshop spoiled us so much that we now set an impossibly high standard for what is and isn’t possible in the non-digital world?

 
Because if I’m being really honest, I kind of think it has for me.

I mean, this isn’t the first time I’ve thought “This would be so much easier if I could do it with Photoshop.” Or wished I could Cmd+Z (undo) something for real. Or recolor something in real life (although wouldn’t that be amazing? Just think of the home decor/fashion possibilities!).

Then again I’ve also wished I could Google something when it’s gone missing in my house so perhaps technology and I are just a little too intertwined, haha.

So I’d love to know…do you think your love for digital scrapbooking and/or Photoshop has blurred the lines of perfection in your real life? Have you ever wished you could Cmd+Z something? Or google the mustard? (Not that I’ve thought that before, no, never, hehe.)

Please tell me I’m not the only one, haha.

Number 5 on the list is to document my 29th birthday year because as I wrote in this guest post over at Sweet Shoppe Designs, turning 29 feels like a pretty big milestone. A rite of passage. The last official year of my twenties.

And as any good scrapbooker will tell you, milestones are made to be documented.

So in July, after a mulling it over for a little bit, I decided jump into the Project Life pool and choose it as my method for documenting this year. I even wrote a post about my plan and shared my first spread.

With the start of the new year and the ensuing Project Life overload that’s going on right now, I’ve gotten a few requests to share an update on how my Project Life album is coming along. And so I’m back today with a little update…which you may or may not like.

You see…that one lonely little spread up there? That’s all I’ve completed of my Project Life album.

I know, sad.

But before you go assuming this is just another case of #ProjectLifeFail, here’s the deal.

I posted about my plans for Project Life on July 20th. And only five short days later, on July 25th, I embarked on another not-so-little project called A Week In the Life.

Having never completed A Week In the Life before, I didn’t really know what to expect. But I went into it with a plan and came out of it with an amazingly AWESOME Blurb photo book.

And what I realized once I had this book in my hot little hands is that this AWITL album achieves my goal of documenting my 29th birthday year.

Sure it doesn’t include each and every moment of every day the way Project Life might have, but it does exactly what I wanted to do with my 29th birthday year album:

It captures a snapshot of what our life is like as two child-free married twenty-somethings.

The places we go, the things we do, the technology, fashion, food and so much more we love.

And I LOVE it. I love it in a it-still-makes-me-want-to-do-happy-dances-everytime-I-look-at-it kind of way.

And that’s good enough for me.

So in keeping with my 2012 scrapbooking resolution to trade the busy for the meaningful, I’ve decided to call this goal done and let it go.

I may feel inspired to pick up my Project Life album again, I may not, but either way, I’m happy with my decision.

And with that I leave you with two little reminders:

1) It is OK to change your plans (and not feel any guilt about it).

2) Just because everyone else is doing something, doesn’t mean you have to stick with it too.

So what about you? Anyone else ever start something only to change your plans mid-way? Were you happy with the end result?

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post I have finished my Holiday Faves 2011 Mini Album. Woohoo!

My final task for finishing the album was to add a fabric covered spine to the mini book. I had seen this tutorial forever ago on Ali Edwards site but I hadn’t had a chance to try it out. Since the fabric spine has to be added after the album is finished, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

If you want to give it a try yourself, I recommend following the tutorial linked above since she includes more detailed directions, but below is how I did it. Excuse the less-than-stunning photos. I was doing this at night and the overhead light in our office is wacky, haha.

How to Add a Fabric Spine to your Mini Album

Materials you’ll need:

• Book cloth tape (like this) – I bought mine at Paper Source. It’s 3″ wide.
• Patterned paper for the inside of your album
• Super Tacky Tape – I bought mine at Michael’s.
• A glue stick or tape runner

Step 1: Measure the thickness of your completed mini album. Mine was 2″ thick at the widest part.

Step 2: Cut a strip of book cloth tape a little longer than the height of your album.

Step 3: Trim the width of the book cloth tape to be equal to the width of the album, plus 1/2″. So I trimmed mine my 3″ tape down to 2.5″ (2″+ 1/2″=2.5″) using my paper trimmer. I really expected this not to work at all but it was surprisingly easy to cut with the trimmer – only took one pass!

Step 4: Once you have the book cloth tape trimmed to the proper size, lay the tape flat, fabric side facing up and place your front and back covers overlapping the tape a 1/4″ in on each side.

The space between the covers should equal the thickness of your album from Step 1. I used a cutting mat and ruler to help line everything up.

Now we’re going to attach the covers to the fabric side of the book cloth tape.

Step 5: Flip one of your covers over and attach a small strip of Super Tacky Tape along the edge of the cover.

Step 6: Remove the plastic protector from the tape, flip your album back over so the right side is facing up and attach it to the book cloth tape 1/4″ from the edge. To help keep it lined up, I placed a metal ruler at 1/4″ and line my cover up with it as I pressed down to stick the tape.

Once you’re done repeat steps 5 & 6 for the other half of your cover.

Now that we have the two covers attached to the front of the book cloth tape, we’re going to add the paper on the inside of the cover.

The directions in the tutorial are designed for you to use one big sheet of paper to cover the entire inside of the album but since I didn’t have a big enough sheet of paper on hand, I cut two papers for the sides and a third for the spine. This will make more sense in a minute.

Step 7: Flip your album over so the inside of the covers are shown.

Step 8: Measure and trim to size your papers for inside the cover. If you’re following the tutorial, you’ll only have one sheet of paper but in my case I had three. Since I wanted a little of the red painted album to show, I trimmed my inside cover papers to 5″ x 7.25″ and my spine paper to 2.5″ (the width of the book cloth tape) x 7.75″ (the height of my mini album covers).

Step 9: Remove the paper backing off the back of the book cloth tape so the sticky back is exposed.

Step 10: Add glue using a glue stick or tape runner to the back of your paper and attach it to the inside cover of the album. I didn’t bother measuring for this step, I just eyeballed where I wanted to paper.

It’ll now look like this:

If you used one sheet of paper for the inside, you’re inside cover should be done. Skip ahead to Step 14. If you’re using multiple papers like I am continue to step 11.

Step 11: Repeat Step 10 for the right hand inside paper so it looks like this:

Now we’re going to add the third paper to cover the inside of our fabric spine.

Step 12: Grab the strip of paper you trimmed for the inside spine, flip it over so the backside is facing up and add a small strip of glue to each edge using a glue stick or tape runner. This will make sure the paper sticks to the areas that don’t touch the sticky book cloth tape backing.

Step 13: Flip the inside spine paper over and attach it down onto the sticky backing of the book cloth tape. Smooth it down firmly to make sure all of the paper gets attached to the backing. You want to make sure this paper is nice and attached since it’ll get moved every time you open and close the mini album.

Step 14: Once your glue is nice and dry (I let mine sit for a little bit to be sure), fold in the front and back covers one at a time to make a nice crease on the spine. The tutorial recommends scoring it but since I don’t have a scoring tool, I just used a ruler and folded it using that as a guide. I wanted my spine to be more rounded so I was fine with now having a super sharp crease.

Step 15: Punch holes for where you want the binder rings to go through. Since I already punched holes in my covers when I originally put my album together, I used a screw (a nail would work too) to poke through the paper on the inside of the album. It’s not the cleanest hole ever but since I didn’t have a hole punch that could reach the holes, it worked well enough.

Here’s what the album cover looked like with the fabric spine attached and the holes in place:

And here’s what the fabric spine looks like with the rings added back in. Pretty, no?

The fabric spine from the other direction. You can see how the spine is rounded:

I really love the way it finishes off the album. It looks like a real little book now.

And that’s my final completed version of my Holiday Faves 2011 Mini Album!

Since I know it’s kind of hard to see how it flows all together in the blog post photos, I put together a 1 minute little video of all the pages together:

Holiday Faves Mini Album 2011 from Lynnette Penacho on Vimeo.

My Final Thoughts On My 2011 Holiday Faves Mini Album

So now that I’m officially finished with this album, here are a few of my final thoughts on this project:

1) WOOOHOOO, I’M FINISHED!!!!!!

Umm *ahem* *finishes happy dance* *composes self*

Sorry about that, but after 3 failed attempts at December Daily, I’m really excited that I actually finished this album this year! Which brings me to thought #2…

2) Holiday Faves is WAY easier than December Daily

I have no doubt THIS is the reason I finished this year. As much as I love the concept of December Daily and the numbers and all that jazz, it’s just not realistic for me to do keep up with a page a day and to be honest, I don’t want to commit to that amount of work in December. I want to be able to actually enjoy the holidays and not be hunkered down in my scrap room every night, trying to stay caught up.

That’s what I loved about this project. I was able to include things when I felt like it but not worry about capturing something each and every day.

3) I LOVED this mini album size

In my previous attempts at December Daily, I had done an 8×8-inch album and a 7×9-inch album so I was a little nervous that 5×7 might end up seeming too small.

But I actually think it was the perfect size. Not too big to carry around but still big enough to include memorabilia and photos. I especially loved the full size 5×7 photos – they’re stunning. Plus I loved being able to fit two photos/pages onto one sheet of paper. Yay for saving trees!

And as much as I love the mix and match look of some albums, I have to admit, keeping all the pages the same size definitely makes the album a whole lot simpler to put together.

My Top Tips for Finishing a Holiday Album

If you’re wondering what my top tips for finishing a December Holiday album it would these two:

1) Be honest with yourself about what you can actually get done.

I know, we all love projects. Especially ambitious projects like December Daily, A Week In the Life and Project Life.

But you really need to really ask yourself whether a project fits into your life, and if it doesn’t, figure out a solution that works for you. Don’t be afraid to go against what everyone else is doing if it’s what’s best for you. Doing something different is better than stressing yourself out or doing nothing at all.

2) Start with a plan but keep it flexible.

Starting December with the focus and foundation of your album ready to go is key. Having a clear idea in your head of how much and what exactly you want to capture makes the documentation process so much easier because it allows you to say free yourself from feeling like you need to capture every.little.thing.

And if you find you have to adapt your plan a little along the way, it is ok. Don’t be afraid to let things go or change things up when something doesn’t work out like you had planned. Again, doing something different is better than doing nothing at all.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the 2011 Holiday Faves mini album adventure! I absolutely love how it came out! I did want to send an extra special thank you to everyone who left a comment or sent me a nice thought during this process. I know having people waiting to see what I was up to definitely kept me on track. : )

And with that it’s time to wrap up and move on to some new and exciting projects! Weeee, I can hardly wait!

Psst…if you haven’t shared your Holiday Faves or December Daily album in the comments, feel free to do so! I’d love to see what you’ve done!

Psssst…looking for more Holiday Faves inspiration? Check out all my Holiday Faves posts here.

Woohoo, I have done it! I have finished my Holiday Faves mini album.

That’s right, stick a fork in this baby because it is done.

And I’m quite thrilled with how it turned out!

When we left off at the end of my last Holiday Faves update in December, I had completed Faves 1-4 and was working on 5 & 6. I had been hoping to squeeze one more update in before we left for two weeks of holiday vacation bliss on December 19th, but Adam seemed to think packing was more important than me working on my album.

I know the nerve, right?

So instead I’ve got a nice big update for you today!

As a nice little recap, here are the Holiday Faves I’ve shared so far:

1. Thanksgiving
2. Local Events
3. Holiday Decorations
4. December Weather

Holiday Fave #5

For Holiday Fave #5 I chose our anniversary as we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on December 10th. Hard to believe it’s been 6 years already!

To celebrate our anniversary, we headed up to Austin for the weekend. Since I had a couple of extra memorabilia type items from our trip I wanted to include, I added them directly onto the foundation page:

The top card is a business card from the restaurant where we had dinner and underneath that is a post-it from the Westin where we stayed. We love staying at the Westin – their bedding is like sleeping on a cloud, plus they do nice things for anniversaries. Last year we got rose petals and chocolate-covered strawberries, this year it was wedding balloons, chocolate and wine.

On the right is an anniversary card my mom sent us. I totally agree that the 6 years have flown by!

The drawing on the front of the card is so cute. I especially love that it has “adventure” on it since that was my One Little Word in 2010 and ’11.

The back of the card and the accent page. The card is just added in between the foundation page and the accent page.

On the back of the accent page, I added a photo of Adam and I. We tried to do the whole mirror photo thing but it totally didn’t work (how do you get it to focus??) so this was a quick one we took using the remote on our way out to dinner.

I printed some text directly on the photo and then added a 6 using a foam alpha from American Crafts. Although I think I’ve officially decided I don’t love these AC foam alphas – they always go wonky on me when I try to stick them down. But I like the subtle dimension it adds to the page.

On the right side behind the text overlay is a photo of the Zilker Park Holiday tree in Austin. The picture really doesn’t do it justice because it’s seriously huge – like 150 feet tall! It’s made of all light strings and if you stand in the middle and spin around it makes crazy patterns. There were a bunch of people doing that and it was quite hilarious to watch.

On the back of the tree photo, I added a photo collage of our anniversary day’s events. It was a definitely a day of food bliss as we had Italian at Asti for dinner and then the Melting Pot for dessert. It was delish but we were definitely stuffed by the end of the night!

Christmas Highlights

In between Faves 5 & 6, I added some photos from our pre-Christmas Christmas. Since we were traveling to California for Christmas, we decided to celebrate early rather than lugging all our own gifts with us on the plane. Believe me we had enough stuff, like Adam’s ski boots, going with us as it was!

On left side I printed a journaling card from Cathy Zielske and wrote some bits about our early Christmas.

At the bottom of the card I added a scallop trim from Ormulu and stapled a little accent and word sticker from Making Memories.

In between the pages, I added a coffee sleeve from Panera. I thought the wording seemed fitting for the day.

As I was putting the book together, I did end up moving some of the printed transparencies. This numbers in this one seemed to fit better with our early-25th celebration. I added a little 25 chipboard bit from Making Memories onto it.

Behind the transparency I added another photo collage from the day. I really love the 5×7 photo collage pages because the photos aren’t too small but it’s simpler to print out than multiple photos at once. So glad I included all those photo-page templates in the mini album set because they really came in handy, hehe.

It was a good day filled with hot chocolate, Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls (so amazing!) and yes a Toy Story puzzle. (Adam bought me Toy Story legos last year so it’s kind of a thing around here, hehe.) Although I have to say it didn’t take us very long to put together that 100 piece puzzle, haha.

Holiday Fave #6

For Holiday Fave #6, I kept things simple and documented our favorite holiday movies.

This year we watched Meet Me in St Louis which I love but Adam had never seen. It’s not specifically a Christmas movie per-se but it’s hard not to feel Christmas-y when Judy Garland starts singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

And of course we watched our other fave, Elf! I’m not always a Will Ferrell fan but oh how I love that movie.

Travel Highlights

On the accent page on the back of the movie image, I added a few items from our flight out to California. Every time I fly Southwest I always save the drink napkins planning to use the map on them but this is the first time I’ve actually done it and I love how it came out.

*A tip when dealing with napkins, take the napkin apart (they usually have a couple of layers), glue the top image layer onto a piece of card stock and then glue the card stock into the book. If you don’t, the napkin tends to fall apart (learned that the hard way when dealing with the turkey napkin for Holiday Fave #1, haha)

Here’s a closer look at the map. I used an American Crafts Slick Writer and a ruler to draw our route and then added some word strips for the places we went. The Southwest tag was an extra luggage tag I grabbed at the airport. All of the journaling strips are from October Afternoon.

Holiday Fave #7

Cookie baking is a huge deal with my mom’s side of the family down in Southern California (although my aunt and uncle refer to it as “Cookie Gulag” which I think scared Adam a bit, haha), so for Holiday Fave #7, I chose Cookie Time as it’s not Christmas without cookies!

We were lucky enough to be there for cookie decorating day which in my opinion is the best day:

My sister with one of her super adorable cookies:

Holiday Fave #8

Adam and I ended up being in California for a few days before the rest of the family arrived so on our second day there, we decided to make an impromptu trip to Disneyland, which is Holiday Fave #8. Yeah, it was tough being in California for Christmas, haha.

On the foundation and accent spread, I added our tickets and the map from our day. I always love saving the Disney maps since things change every so often around there.

The back of the map and accent page:

Adam and I in front of the castle. This photo must have been a Christmas miracle because it’s the first time I’ve managed to hand over my DSLR and not get a blurry photo back. So a big thank you to the random guy who offered to take our photo! This shot came out way better than the hold-the-camera-out-try-not-to-squint-but-still-get-the-castle-in-the-background photo I was trying to take would have.

On the right is the giant Disneyland tree. I love Disney at Christmas, it’s so pretty and festive. Crazy crowded but the pretty and festive makes up for it. I’ve been several times at the holidays before but this was Adam’s first Disney Christmas trip.

On the back of the tree photo I added another photo collage. (Are we sensing a theme here?) I still feel a little bad about eating that gingerbread man. He was almost too adorable to eat. Almost.

Holiday Fave #9

After spending several days with my mom’s side of the family out by the coast, the fam and I headed out towards the desert where my 94 year-old grandma lives. The town where my dad grew up isn’t the most exciting place ever but it was Adam’s first trip out there so we had to show him some local culture, which on this trip included the local Holiday Lights Tour, which is Holiday Fave #9.

It’s hard to tell in this photo but the display in that bottom photo had a working ski lift full of super cute little animals and fake snow that would blow when you parked near the display. Considering the size of the town it was actually rather impressive!

Here’s the Holiday Faves #9 journaling card. On the right side is the holiday lights tour map from the local paper.

I’d say it’s a sure sign you’re in an old school town when they include a map of the lights tour in the local paper. It was really fun though and we saw some parts of town we had never seen before. We only did part of the tour and we were still gone for almost 2 hours.

On the foundation page on the back of the map page, I kept things simple and added a Christmas tag from Ormulu.

Holiday Fave #10

And finally we’re at the very final Holiday Fave, #10!

For Holiday Fave #10, I went with Family Time as getting to see both sides of my family was my favorite part of the holiday. When you live so far away all the time, it’s nice to get to spend time with everyone. Since Adam has been gone so often, this was the first time a lot of them had seen him since our wedding!

In addition to whale watching, cookie baking and decorating, family time included hopscotch with the cousins:

On the printed transparency I added a little holiday accent by Making Memories:

My final journaling card. I wasn’t so sure at first about the handwritten nature of the cards but it was definitely nice to be able to have my journaling completed as the month went on. Much better than trying to remember everything all at once.

Adam and I also got in on some bowling action. And yes the weather was gorgeous in California. We didn’t even need coats most of the time!

In between the pages I added a card from my aunt and uncle:

And as my final photo entry, another collage, this time of all the family. It was a fun time seeing everyone!

The final accent page and back cover:

And that’s the end of my Holiday Faves mini album! Since this post is already crazy long, I’ll be back tomorrow to share a little bit more about how I finished up the cover binding and my final thoughts on this project overall.

Now It’s Your Turn

In the meantime, I’d love to hear how things went for you!

How did your holiday scrapbooking go? Did you finish up your Holiday Faves or December Daily album?

Let me know in the comments!

Psst…looking for more Holiday Faves Mini Album goodness? Check out all of the Holiday Faves posts right here.