Christmas Stories with Lorilei

Hello!  I am excited to share the start of my December album using the Christmas Stories 2019 Kit from Citrus Twist Kits!  It was like an early Christmas opening the gorgeous kit!  I was thrilled to see the Heidi Swapp Winter Wonderland collection mixed with Pebbles, Pink Paislee, Pinkfresh Studio and the beautiful pieces by Citrus Twist Kits!
This will be my third year making an album of December memories.  I have learned a few things along the way about what my needs are in the busy month of December and making the opportunity to start early will be helpful in the process of recording those stories once December hits!  I focused on preparation to start the process.  Some of the tips may sound simple, but they are not steps I have taken other years, and I think they will be a game-changer for being prepared!

I chose a quiet afternoon and went through the entire Christmas Stories kit to familiarize myself with everything included.  I downloaded all the extra digital goodies so that I would know what my options were as well.  Next, I picked out all the pieces that needed attention to be used.  I trimmed the papers with tags, banners and cards, printed a sheet of labels and trimmed them all.  I cut some snowflakes from white cardstock on my silhouette and die cut some stars from gold glitter paper from my stash.   I cut 3 Build a Poinsetta cut files from the Christmas Stories digital set and painted them with watercolours to match the colours in the Heidi Swapp Winter Wonderland die cuts.  I found a nice dish to hold all my bits and pieces so that they would be handy to add to my album!

Next up, I decided to add photo page protectors to my album.  I chose to include 25 "days" worth of the combination of one double 3x4 insert and a full-size insert.  My thinking is that I will add paper tag inserts and extra protectors as needed for the number of photos on any given day.  Having all the inserts ready gives me a jumping-off point!  I can also collage photos in photoshop to fit in the full-size protector and include more photos that way.  Once I had all the preparation finished, I began adding some of the cards, numbers and tags to my album.  The beauty of the Life Crafted album is that I can move items around easily to fit the photos and stories.  I made a tag using the pretty red paper and used a Heidi Swapp cut apart card, doily and one of my poinsettia's to decorate!  I love using tags to add more photos or journaling, and they make a nice textural page in the album!

I love the little banners from the Pebbles "Just for You" paper!

For even more preparation, I set up a full-size photo printing template in photoshop.  I can know just clip my photo to the template and print!  I did some test printing with a Christmas photo from 2009!  I am happy with how the album seems to flow with the page protector set up.  I can add a 3x4 photo, as well.  I love to have easy options!

In my opinion, the most fun in a December album is the embellishments!!  I haven't adhered any of my ideas so far so that I can change things up depending on colours in photos or particular stories, but I love being able to have a "play" and see how things look together!

Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you get your gorgeous Christmas Stories 2019 kit out and get to know it!