Hello, Friends! December is here and, for some of us, that means the beginning of documenting the holiday season! In today's blog, we have some fantastic designs from our Memory Keeping team using the Cranberry Rose Collection and Christmas Bonus Kit. There are many ways to document this time of year. To record their December memories, our design team created 6x8 pages with interactive elements, pocket pages, and layouts in the Simple Dori Traveler's Notebook. First, we have Carol sharing a sweet spread, inspired by the perfect little stamp. "Every year my kiddos and I make a big batch of hot cocoa mix to last all through the holiday season. In the winter months, we even give some as gifts for neighbors.

As you can imagine, I am thrilled to have a “hot cocoa” stamp sentiment from the Cranberry Rose Traveler’s Notebook Memory Keeping Kit to use over and over again.

For this December story spread, I documented a holiday party from last year, one where hot cocoa was served and Santa paid a visit!

I had so many photos I wanted to include (don’t we all?). To maximize the space, I popped in a glassine bag and added tabs to my extra photos for easy storage and access. Using letter stickers to label them added a special touch. I also love the interactive bit of it too. I encourage you to keep that in mind when documenting all your holiday stories - bags and tabs equal more photo goodness!

 I’m looking forward to more holiday documenting this month, and yes, I’ll be sipping my hot cocoa whilst creating." We can relate to Carol's excitement in finding that perfect stamp! Carol's use of the glassine bag for extra photos is a great tip, especially while documenting all the memories this season. Next up, we have a traveler's notebook from April.

"I am keeping my December Stories simple and clean this year. For this page, I repeated a previous foundation to my spread with layered tags, stickers, and photos for a fun, fast layout.  I love that I took a moment to capture my biggest kiddo's excitement at his favorite hobby store, and can document the stories in my December traveler’s notebook." April’s spread is a wonderful example of finding a style that works for her, and is so lovely, too! Don’t be afraid to create “go-to” layouts. Simple and clean can sometimes be the difference between a completed project and an incomplete one! Take a cue from April and consider creating a few tried and true documenting formulas. You may even want to create a quick sketch of it and tuck it inside your notebook or album. Our final design is from Audrey sharing a few pages in her 6x8 album.

"Do you have traditions that you do each year? My husband and I trim the tree after Thanksgiving. This tradition signals a start to the holiday season.

I started this story with a patchwork tree. I used an old tree cut file from my digital stash and backed each line with a different paper from the Cranberry Rose Pocket Memory Keeping Kit and the Christmas Bonus Kit. When I was done, I embroidered around the tree. I finished this page by tying the ribbon from the Christmas Bonus Kit and adding a few embellishments including the number 4 from my stash.

 

For the second page, I backed the tree cut file with one of the beautiful papers from the Cranberry Rose Main Planner Kit.  On the opposite side, I put a full-page photo of me decorating the tree and a few embellishments. I am a huge fan of full-page photos in my December Daily.

I ended this spread with a 4 3x4 pocket photo page of my husband and I holding ornaments that are of our lost fur babies. I made this part of the spread super simple by just pairing it with 3x4 cards from the Cranberry Rose Christmas Bonus kit. I like to pair a really awesome knock-out page with a fairly simple one that highlights photos and the elements in Cocoa Daisy kits are perfect for this.

On the opposite page, I did my journaling. This year, I am writing in the style of a love letter, so this letter was to the 2020 Christmas Tree Trimming. I backed the journaling with three different papers from the kits. I am loving how this spread came together. You can see a full process video on my YouTube."

We love how Audrey documenting this special holiday tradition. Her mix of intricate and simple decorative elements perfectly captures the coziness of this yearly event. Whether you are documenting every day or just capturing the highlights, we hope you are utilizing your Cranberry Rose Kits to record your memories during this season. Let us know what your special traditions are by tagging @cocoa_daisy on social media or posting to the Cocoa Daisy Fan Page.