Showing gratitude in your memory keeping doesn’t need to happen only one month of the year, and today design team member Steph Grimes is sharing how she did this during the month of December, using our newest November extras. Let’s take a look!
Many people associate gratitude with Thanksgiving, but I believe in practicing gratitude year-round. When I saw the November Merry Printables, I knew I wanted to use them to tell a story of holiday gratitude in my December 2016 album.
Supplies | Merry Printables, Documented 4 x 6 Inch Journaling Tags, Holiday Foodie Stickers, Very Merry Chipboard Stickers, Dark Green Puffy Alphabet Stickers, Christmas Tabs Stamp, Everyday Tabs Metal Die
This spread documents the details of a special weekend with my niece and my mom doing fun holiday activities together and my gratitude for this weekend. I started by printing and trimming all the 3″ x 4” journaling tags from the Merry Printables because they would work perfectly with my photos and stories. I paired the “Merry Merry Merry” tag with the photo of us at the Christmas parade and the gray plaid journaling tag to tell a little about that day’s activities. I topped it off with a stamped tab from the Christmas Tabs Stamp which I die-cut using the Everyday Tabs Metal Die as a placeholder for my date.
The cookies and sprinkles designs in this month’s kit are some of my all-time favorites and I knew as soon as I saw the 3″ x 4” journaling tag in the Merry Printables that I wanted to use it with the photos of us making cinnamon applesauce ornaments. I am so happy to have it as a printable so that I can print again in the future! On the tag I wrote a little list of all the fun holiday activities we did together this weekend and added “bullets” using puffy dot stickers from a variety of Elle’s Studio collections.
I wanted my gratitude journaling to be a feature of this spread because I am always just so grateful for time spent with my nieces and nephews and we had such a wonderful time together doing things from my childhood Christmases. But, I also had a lot of great photos I wanted to include, so I decided to include a 4″ x 6″ flip-up interactive element on my page to house my gratitude journaling and a couple extra photos.
I wrote out my story of gratitude for this special weekend on one of the Documented 4 x 6 Inch Journaling Tags and used a bit of washi tape to make a hinge which I attached it to the back of a 4″ x 6” photo of us with our candy houses. Then, I added another 4″ x 6” photo to the front of my journaling tag to complete the flip-up. I added an Avery index tab to the flip-up element to indicate that it flips and stamped a phrase from the Christmas Tabs Stamp inside the tab. I finished off the journaling tag by spelling out the word “gratitude” using the Dark Green Puffy Alphabet Stickers and another sticker from the Very Merry Chipboard Stickers.
It’s important to me to practice gratitude for the good things (and the not so good things) in my life all year long. I hope this has inspired you to tell stories of gratitude outside of November—especially during the holidays. Let us know what you’re grateful for this holiday season by sharing on Instagram using the hashtag #ellestudio or in the Elle’s Studio Facebook Group!
