December Daily Album Cover

I'm so excited to share today's project! At the very last minute (like Monday) I decided I was going to do a December Daily album this year! At first I was thinking I'd make the cover from chipboard until I suddenly remembered a very old leather binder I have that was actually used at the bank I used to work at. I hoard anything and everything - always have - and when we were clearing old stuff out of a store room in the bank this was going to be thrown away!!! "I'll have it!!" I cried - desparate to get my hands on such gorgeous shabbiness LOL! That was oooooh probably about 18 years ago - I kid you not - and I've been hoarding it ever since thinking it will come in useful some day!! Well now it has :). Sorry about the awful picture - I created my album at night and needed a before shot.

As you can see it is very well used and worn around the edges - perfect for my distressed tastes without me even having to get any sandpaper out :)!

It has a really cool way of opening - I've never seen anything like it before or since. You press on that metal tab at the top of the binder and it pings open - it still works perfectly after all those years.

Here's how it looks inside. I'm not going to alter the inside covers as I feel it's a bit of history I don't want to cover up. So, that's what it looked like before.......

......and here it is now!!

The Noel pennant is by MME - I have used their Lost and Found Christmas 12x12 papers and die cut sheet for my album - love the gorgeous rich colours and all the glitter!

I used Tim Holtz' pinecone stamp and embossed it in gold around the top and left edges of the book to give it a rich look - so pleased how it turned out as I was unsure if it would take to the leather but it worked perfectly!

I then created a spray of flowers and leaves and other Christmas embellishments. The bow is one I had in my stash and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The bells are by Papermania.

The gold poinsettias are from a Prima Christmas bauble set as are all the gorgeous leaves. I added some metal snowflakes here and there like the one peeping out of the poinsettia. These are from the Hobby House.

The brad in the gold poinsettia is from Whiff of Joy and I added some berry sprays from Hobby Craft too.

I die cut the numbers using a Tim Holtz die.

I hope you like it and will check back to see the rest of the pages. I'm not really sure how it works as far as showing the pages but I'm figuring that as I haven't added anything to the first page yet (as today isn't over yet LOL) I'll show you the 1st's tomorrow and so on. Thanks for looking! x