Documenting December with Close To My Heart

As soon as the evening get a little nippy and the leaves start to turn my Pinterest feed begins to tempt me with December Daily inspiration. I start to feel the familiar little nudge to dig into my Christmas drawer and see what gems I have leftover from last year and to wonder what new Christmas paper will be available.

I wasn't at all sure what I wanted to do this year. I have done one album with traditional 12 x12 pages, one 12 x 12 pocket page album, one 10 x10 full of very simple traditional pages, one 6x8 album and finally last year I did an 8.5 x 11 album. I really enjoy the challenge of a new format every year so I toyed with the idea of a very small album focussing on only one picture everyday but then I found out my sister and her family are coming to spend Christmas with us this year. I knew I would have far too many photos to be comfortable pulling off a small album. Luckily I found the new Heidi Swapp 8x8 albums and I got excited because it was a new size and I could still fit a ton of pictures in it.

Of course I choose the gold glitter one because I still have so much gold left over from last year.

The next step in the December documenting process is to choose the paper you are going to use. I like to start with a co-ordinating collection and then match that with a few bits and pieces that I like from other collections. This year I also wanted to make sure that everything I used was easy to get, either through myself at CTMH or Michaels. Due to the ever increasing exchange rate, shipping costs and limited quantities I am not interested in doing any online shopping right now.

As soon as I saw the new Christmas paper collection from CTMH I fell in love and knew that I would be using it as the basis of my album this year. CTMH even created a set of Picture My Life cards to go with the paper that had the numbers one to twenty-five on them! I also love that this collection will still coordinate with last years set of which I still have a few cards left over.

White Pines paper collection

sticker and die cut assortment

White Pines badge buttons

PML cards numbered 1 through 25 and every card has the same design on the back in the opposite orientation

clear photo overlays in silver and gold

Fundamentals stickers alphabets, titles, labels, and icons

Fundamental Assortment iIncludes 6 wooden stickers, 6 paper bows with gold or silver foil patterns, 8 plastic clips, and a 6" × 6" sheet of glitter stickers.

I will also be using a few goodies cut out with my CTMH circuit cartridges using some of the new red and gold glitter paper!

I will also be making my own pocket pages this year using the new fuse tool (love this!) and of course I will use lots of flip flaps of all sizes to add even more pictures and pretty paper to my album. 

Stay tuned for pictures of my foundation pages.

My next order will be going in on November 1st if you want any of these items for your Christmas scrapbooking projects.