Welcome to Part 2 of my Holiday Faves 2012 Mini Album update. If you missed Part 1, Faves 1-5, you can find that post here. In this post I’ll be sharing the second half of my album as well as my finished cover and a few of my final thoughts on this project.

For the cover of my album, I added a fabric spine to it following the same directions I shared here last year:

Since this album was a bit fatter than last year, the rings are a little tight but since it’s still easy to flip thru I’m not too worried about it. I’m not even sure I could find bigger rings since these are already 3″ I think!

On the inside of the cover I added a faux woodgrain paper – it’s actually leftover wrapping paper from Paper Source:

Holiday Faves: Decorations

In Part 1, I mentioned there were still a few themed sections I needed to go back and fill in. This is the Holiday Faves: Decorations section:

A little look at the decorated shelves in our dining room. All of these decorations are new this year and I loved how they turned out:

On the back I added a photo collage of some of the other decorations around our house and some journaling:

This was another foundation page I had left blank originally. I went back and added a photo from one of our nights on the Riverwalk:

Holiday Faves #6

For Holiday Fave #6, I chose one of our favorite holiday treats: apple cider from Jo’s Coffee in Austin:

It’s amazing! We love it so much we even stopped for one last drink on our way to the airport even though it was 90 degrees out at the time. (And yes, don’t talk to me about how ridiculous it is to still have that high of temperatures in December – it’s now in the 40s as the high today!)

On the back of the 5×7 photo, I added another photo collage. The word art is by me and the arrow brushes are from Ali Edwards:

Holiday Faves: Traveling

On the back of the journaling card, I added this 5×7 bingo card. I think it’s from Jenny Bowlin – I’ve had it forever! On the transparency on the right I added some letter stickers from American Crafts to signify our trip to California:

I love taking airplane photos (I have A LOT of these wing in the sky ones, haha) but this one is one of my faves ever since the sun was setting at the time:

On the back of the photo, I added a collage of a bunch of Southwest related scraps I’d saved:

On the map (the back of the drink napkin from Southwest), I drew a highly-inaccurate map of our flight path:

Holiday Faves #7

Holiday Fave #7 is one of my favorite San Jose, Ca traditions: Christmas In The Park. We’ve been going since I was a child and I still get excited about it, haha.

I started out this section with another two-page photo. I’m liking these a lot more now that the back of the album is all pretty woodgrain. Be Jolly brush by Ali Edwards:

Faves journaling card and another photo collage from the event:

On this foundation page I added another photo trimmed-like-a-polaroid – this time of our holiday drinks from Starbucks. Have to say, it doesn’t beat Jo’s!

A close-up of the card:

The Starbucks coffee sleeve I included was a little thick once I added the fabric spine to the album, so I just trimmed off the back of it. It’s not as pretty now but I’d rather be able to turn the pages, haha.

Holiday Faves #8

My dad’s birthday is December 23rd (and my grandma and Adam’s brother too – it’s super weird!) so that’s what I chose for Holiday Fave #8.

I kept it fairly simple – just another photo collage with journaling card:

Holiday Faves: Gift Giving

For the Holiday Gift Giving section, I added a little pocket from Studio Calico with a list of what I bought for everyone:

A closer look of the list. I love that it’s interactive but was super simple to put together:

This accent page is one of the only templates I pulled from my Holiday Faves Mini Album Vol 1 templates from last year. I love the bold splash of paper:

On the right side I added a decorative accent which is actually cut from an old Crate & Barrel mailer. I’ve been saving it for several years now so I was glad I finally found a spot for it!

Holiday Faves #9

Holiday Fave #9 wins the award for being the most happy accident of our trip.

When we flew into San Jose on the night of the 19th, I saw this huge Christmas light display from the air. I had no idea where exactly we were, all I knew was it was likely by a lake since there was a big dark blog right next to it.

Well, fast forward a week later. Adam and I had gone to the mall in San Jose and randomly decided to drive to Los Gatos to have dinner at the Los Gatos Brewing Company (which was delish!) and there it was – one exit before the restaurant! I was WAY excited and of course, how could we not go – it’s like it was fate!

It’s a drive-thru light show with over 50 light displays – it was impressive! The only downside was we’d borrowed my parents stick-shift Toyota Rav and poor Adam was having to work hard since it was like being in stop-and-go traffic the whole time. His leg was a bit tired by the end!

This page is from the program they gave us:

Back of the map and a collage of photos. The photos don’t capture it but all the displays moved:

If you saw my Instagram photo yesterday, this is what the printed photo was supposed to look like, haha:

My favorite part was the dinosaur section – complete with loud roaring and an erupting volcano!

Another two-page photo spread. The little elf was actually building the snowman with a hose, it was cute:

Holiday Faves: Good Eats

Another one of the Holiday Faves themed sections, this one about the way too many sweets we ate:

Holiday Faves: Christmas Day

The big day finally arrived! This is the start of the Christmas Day section:

Behind the transparency, I added a family photo we took of all of us:

Photo collage of the big day. It was clearly the Christmas of the San Francisco Giants World Series t-shirts – everyone got one but Adam and I – because we’d already gotten ours, haha! #SFGiantsfansforlife

The big blue bag I’m holding is the Clover teal camera+laptop bag from Epiphanie Bags. It’s ginormous but I love that it can hold my laptop and camera in one bag!

On the right side I added a gift tag from one of my gifts as well as a photo-pocket insert with photos and journaling about mine and Adam’s gifts for each other:

Since Adam and I both gave each other items that would have had to be shipped back home, we each gave each other paper placeholders. I think he wins the award for creativity – he bought me a Silhouette Cameo and this was his paper interpretation of it!

A close up look of the photo pockets. I just trimmed down a larger photo pocket page and added grommets to it (pre-TSA-took-my-Cropodile that is):

Holiday Faves #10

Woohoo, we’ve made it! Holiday Fave #10! For Fave #10 I went with one of my most favorite faves – California! We ended up doing a bunch of touristy stuff this trip we’d never done before (cable cars in SF anyone?) and it definitely made us a little bit homesick!

I mean come on, how can a view like this not? Photo of the lone cypress tree taken on 17-mile drive in Pacific Grove:

Seriously, I know Texas technically has beaches, but they just aren’t the same. Although they are definitely warmer – NorCal beach weather usually involves coats, pants and wind (which is why my hair is looking all kinds of crazy in that photo, haha) much like this. I think it was actually warmer than in the summer:

One last accent page and another peek at the woodgrain paper:

My Final Thoughts on Holiday Faves 2012

And that’s it! The end of my 2012 Holiday Faves Mini Album!

Since this was my second year doing Holiday Faves, here’s a few of my final thoughts on this project after year 2:

• December Daily: 0 for 3; Holiday Faves: 2 for 2 – I think we know who’s the clear winner for me in this one.
• Love that this format allows me to change things up as I go. My first fave started before Thanksgiving but since the foundation of the album isn’t daily or date based, it was easy to adjust.
• Loved having the themed pages mixed in this year. I did end up taking two of them out (Recipe Love & Music Faves) but I think they round out the album really nicely.
• 5×7 & 4×6 printable photo sheets make this album WAY easier – no trimming!
• I’m thinking next year I’m going to be ready to switch the format up some. Not sure what exactly yet – maybe a different size? Same size but landscape instead of portrait orientation? We’ll see I guess!

My absolute fave moment of this album – seeing Adam get all mushy as he flipped through the album and saw all the stories and photos. Made all the hard work finishing it up worth it and reminded me why I love this hobby so much.

And that’s it for Holiday Faves 2012! As I’ve said many times before, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this project. But I am definitely ready to call this one done and move on to some brand-new 2013 projects.

Holiday Faves is a yearly November/December mini album project celebrating the holiday season. Find all of my Holiday Faves posts here.

Can I take Levitra if I am taking other remedies at the same time