Project December 2012...the products

Hey everyone, I've been working hard behind the scenes to get my December Daily and Project Life organized for December 2012.  I'm combining both into my Project Life album this year thus the name Project December.  Project Life + Daily December = Project December.  I'll discuss more of this concept and my reasons for this decision in my next blog post but for today I have all of my holiday product picks to show you.  These products have been selected from my stash and/or purchased specifically for this year's holiday projects.  If you remember my Inspiration Stations, this is kind of like that....all of my holiday product picks in one location.  Let's get to the products (with links provided where I could) + I'll also be showing you my storage ideas for this year.  

First things first.  Let's do some clean up.  I definitely needed to and I bet you're in the same boat.  Swimming in a sea of craftiness up to your eyeballs.  Maybe a 12" spot to work on...if you shove some things to the side.  I was right there with you.  But I knew that my holiday projects would come together easier and it would be so much more enjoyable to work in a tidy space.  It took me days and days to clean, I won't lie.  But now I have 2 full tables cleaned off and ready to go.  For my main table, I covered it with Kraft paper so that I don't have to work about clean up.  Ink stains, adhesive, coffee mug rings....no worries.  

October Afternoon...Make it Merry Collection

My most favorite stash of holiday goodies this year comes from October Afternoon's Make it Merry collection.  It's not in stores quite yet but it will be soon.  I'll be sure to link you up.  In the mean time you can look at the OA website here to get a glimpse at all the patterns.  It's all right up my alley...whimsical, vintage images...fun colors of red & green plus some aqua and yellow thrown in...great embellishments.  Love it all and you'll be seeing it all throughout my projects in December.  Plus, be sure to check my previous posts and the OA blog for lots of Make it Merry Inspiration.

Elle's Studio
Elle's designed some fantastic journaling cards, tags and stamps for this holiday season and I think I got just about all of it.  You can find many of Elle's items at 2Peas right now...and at 25% off!  That's the brand new stuff too! The Exclusive Christmas Stamp is fantastic!

Gossamer Blue
Lori from Gossamer Blue has a stellar line up of December Daily products this year.  All of the items below are pieces from some of the various kits that are mostly sold out now.  The Daily December Tags are still available and I just love the vintage images.  If my husband ever gets a big buck this, not including the one he hit a week ago with his car, I'm totally going to use those deer images.

Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday
I've already dug into this stash of Story Cards and they are a go to item...for the holiday projects and every day!  You need them.  You can find them at 2Peas here along with some of the stamps I have shown too.  The Story Cards are 25% off for a limited time.  The back sides of the Story Cards are similar designs but with no words so very versatile if you want to stamp in your own sentiments, etc. I've used and really love the December Daily stamp set and the December Joys stamp set.  Great designs this year, Ali.

Studio Calico
The Wonderland collection offers some great holiday designs.  Some of my favorite papers are the B side of Glad Tidings, Toboggan,  and Mistletoe.  I'm also using lots of wood accents this holiday season so the Wood Veneer Snowflakes and Trees are a must have item. I also got a 6 x 6 paper pad, some journaling cards, a sticker sheet and other various papers and such.  The entire line of Wonderland is on sale for 25% off right now at 2Peas right here.  Great sale at 2Peas so act quickly!

Banana Fish Studio
France, owner of Banana Fish Studio, designs the coolest tags, journaling cards, numbers and stamps.  You have to act quickly because like me, she is a one woman act and supplies are limited....and mostly sold out right now.  I just saw a tweet of hers and it looks like some new stamps are coming soon though.  Just let me get mine first then they're all yours.  :)

Mish Mash

That's my little shop.  I've pulled out some of my favorite, basic, go to items and gathered them all in one spot.  Tags of all kinds, clothespins, paper doilies, sacks....it's all being used this year.  Most items in my shop are very neutral in color and design so they work great for not only the holidays but all year long. I've got a few sale items there + the regular basic items.  

I've got other little tidbits of papers and embellishments in my holiday stash but the items mentioned above are the biggest part of my product picks this year.  Below, I snapped a photo to show you how I use my small clothespins to keep all like items clipped together.  I tend to get a little crazy once I get to working on a project but I really like to keep items clipped together for organization as much as possible. 

To jump start the holiday crafty season, I've been doing a little prep work ahead of time.  Not only will all of the supplies above be used for my Project December pages but they'll also be used for handmade cards, tags, gift wrapping and more.  For items that need to be cut apart like the October Afternoon numbers and images sheets, I went ahead and trimmed them all in advance.  You might have seen all the cards I've been creating already with the vintage images on the right side of the photo below.

I also did the same thing with many of the Elle's Studio sheets.  A total time saver to have them all ready to go come show time.

Washi Tape
Oh, the Washi tape.  You didn't think I'd forget about it, did you?  I tried to pair down my picks but this is as low as I could go.  Many are from October Afternoon, Freckled Fawn from 2Peas,  and some from Etsy shops.

Storage Units

So how do you store it all? This is the most fun part for me because I love digging out my vintage boxes, trays, cutlery boxes and tins. No plastic for me please, I'll take something old and worn for my goodies. I've got three main storage units this year that sit on a table next to my 2 big work tables.  This old cutlery drawer holds my doo-dads like the wood veneers in old jello tins, my Washi tape, all the small tags, buttons, twine, etc.  

This wooden cheese box was chosen for it's red and green holiday fonts.  It holds sticker sheets, chipboard letters, and some stamps.  Notice that I labeled each box with a tag that I added some lined paper to with red machine stitching.  That red stitching is going to be the signature look for my holiday projects this year.

Here, my third storage unit is an old sewing machine drawer.  It's perfect for all my patterned papers and paper pads.  A thick piece of cardboard in the very back helps to keep items upright.

And here's the handsome threesome all lined up.  There's a ton of product here...more than I'll ever use this holiday season....but I limited myself to the 3 boxes and just stuffed them full.  I have to say that I've been working behind the scenes a LOT to create some of my Project December inserts and pages + lots of holiday cards and I've been able to keep my products organized.  Each time I'm finished with a certain project, I've been cleaning up.  So the next time I need to work everything is neat and tidy.  It's really like shopping your own stash if you organize it this way.  I highly suggest you find some fun and unique storage pieces for your holiday goodies.  This way it just becomes part of the decor.  Fun!

Scrap Box
You might have noticed in my very first photo that I have this empty old in/out tray on my work table. This is where all the small scraps of patterned paper, doilies, old book paper, etc goes.  I can leave this sitting out to collect little odds and ends without a big mess piling up on my table.  Plus I love to dig through my scraps to find just the right pieces for a project.  Those little tiny pieces make for some great gift tags!

Sewing Machine
My sewing machine gets quite the work out.  I use this Audrey one from Baby Lock.  Red thread is going to be my go to color this holiday season so I have a spool ready to go at all times.  I might want to change up things a bit and use a green, white or cream so those are handy too.  Tip:  use a plain white or cream thread in the bobbin with any color.  It doesn't show, you can have lots of extra bobbins ready to go and it's a good thing.  Nothing worse than having to stop and wind a bobbin.

Typewriter
My vintage typewriter is my best friend in my work room.  I love to use it for tags, typing out journaling cards or pecking out the perfect sentiment on a greeting card.  Look for these at garage sales and thrift stores...or Ebay and Etsy.  I wouldn't pay more than $20 bucks or so for a good working model.

Okay Holy Holly, that was a long post.  Are you still here?  Good.  Cuz I'll be back with my next Project December 2012 installment very soon.  I'll actually be sharing Week 34 of my Project Life album so that I can give you visuals for how I want my Project December 2012 to look.  If you're doing Project Life and want to take on a December Daily this just might be the ticket for you.  I'm excited!  :)