Busy Sidewalks Christmas Album | Jo Boland

Hey there! Each year I document my December in an album, a project I begin back in 2009 along with Ali Edwards. In an effort to get organised, I have been making foundation pages ahead of time. This is something that I’ve done for a few years now, it’s helped me enormously to get the album completed. This year I’ve chosen the Crate Paper Busy Sidewalks as my main collection, and added in some Elle’s Studio, Vicki Boutin and Simple Stories bits and pieces.

Busy Sidewalks December Album Details

I’ve used a Simple Stories Sn@p Album from the Make it Merry collection and added some chipboard stickers from the Busy Sidewalks. [The letter stickers are very old ones from my stash]

I decided to cover the inside of the album with this snowy paper and used some of the washi tape from the collection to cover the folds down the spine.

I used the specialty acetate for a front page with a cardstock label sticker and a chipboard holly sticker.

Behind that I’ve layered another chipboard sticker and put the year with numbers from the thickers pack.

I used the 12 x 12″ paper pad for the album. The paper pad is really good value and has 2 sheets of every paper in the collection. They are single sided which is perfect for making an album like this because I’ve adhered the back to white cardstock. I’ve made the pages in different sizes, just to mix it up from what I’ve done in previous years.

Each daily spread has a number stack which is made up from an acetate number from Elle’s Studio, a couple of fussy cut stars from the Vicki Boutin Warm Wishes specialty vellum and a puffy sticker from the Busy Sidewalks collection.

On the other page of the spread I’ve used the same paper and a strip of washi tape from the collection. I’ve also added a stamped label on vellum with a day sticker, both are from Elle’s Studio.

Each daily spread currently follows this design, with the exception of Christmas Day. For this special day I’ve used more of the lovely gold foiled acetate. I’ll add another cardstock page so I can add more photos as I don’t want to cover up the acetate.

In December I’ll be back sharing how this album is filling up. This is when I’ll add my photos, journaling and pretty ephemera and stickers from the Crate Paper Busy Sidewalks collection. Later this month I’ll be back with some more inspiration using this lovely collection. In the meantime, I’ve added photos of the daily spreads below.