gossamer blue december memories preview

Oh, boy.  As December inches closer and closer, I'm happily popping in tonight to share a sneak peek at a project I'm making with the Gossamer Blue December Memories kit.  This kit is seriously FULL of Christmasy goodness--in both traditional and non-traditional styles.  I also want to let you know about another GB DT blog hop happening on November 30.  The team members will be showing you their December Memories albums and, given the talent on the GB team, I'm certain this hop is going to be nothing but inspiring!

As for me, I'm actually NOT going to be doing a December Daily album.  I'm making an Advent calendar with my DM kit instead.  While I'd love to capture the entirety of our December activities in a book, I just don't think I could keep up with it all and, quite frankly, it's just not that interesting around here!

But I think you know how much I love dressing up tiny packages and this kit is absolutely perfect for 25 days of little surprises.  (And then some!)

Since I've been working on my calendar, I've had a good chance to really explore all the contents of the kit and because there are so many embellishments and journaling cards, I don't think I could use them all on the calendar, even if I tried!  So I'd really love to make some extra tags, a few Christmas cards, and maybe even a piece or two of home decor---but we'll see how that goes time-wise!

I love these black/natural/wood embellishments here, for example, and may set them aside for another project.

If you're not into a neutral holiday palette, just look at all of these gorgeous, saturated colors!  This has got to be the coolest kit out there!  The other awesome thing about this kit is that it coordinates with GB's Get Happy Christmas collection so it's easy enough to pull in elements from that to mix with the DM kit.  (And vice versa, if you have items leftover from your DM stash--and I guarantee that you will! :)  

As for my calendar, I gathered together tiny silver tins, little kraft boxes, and small muslin bags from my own stash (they don't come in the kit) and mixed them with the gold-patterned glassine bags (from my favorite--Whisker Graphics!) that are included in the kit.  I've been seeing some really cool mis-matched calendar ideas this year and decided to go that direction, too, instead of using 25 of the same container.  There's a bit more freedom this way and I think it pairs well with the eclectic aesthetic of the kit, too.

The other thing I should tell you is that, selfishly, this is not an Advent calendar for my family.  This is all for me!  I'm filling it with crafty goodness--like bottle brush trees and wood veneer (my favorite go-to items this season)--and keeping it for myself!  Is that horrible of me?!

So be sure to stop back on Sunday, November 30, for the full reveal of my Advent calendar and to make the rounds to see the December Memories albums from the other gals on the team.  Also, I'll be posting photos all week on Instagram so you can see more on my feed there: @thurston_post

See you soon!