my 36th birthday

On the eve of my 37th birthday, I want to have documented on this space here what turning 36 was like. It was pretty glorious, filled with all my favorite people, and not forced to be fun, you know? It just was. It was special and spontaneous, and unfolded over the course of three days the way a flower opens up and blooms.

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saturday, november 7th

First thing’s first: TRUMP DID NOT WIN THE 2020 ELECTION. I’m not even gonna sit here and celebrate that Biden won because that old guy is just…I don’t know…is he really going to be the leader of our country? I’ll believe it when i see it, but I am stoked Trump didn’t win. I’m sorry, Trump supporters, but you DON’T get to be the leader of a country when you’re a racist, misogynistic narcissist. …and shame on Trump because according to those of you who support him, he would do great things for this country, BUT…repeat after me: you DON’T get to be the leader of a country when you’re a racist, misogynistic narcissist. Anyway…back to my birthday weekend…

I attended a baby sprinkle with these fabulous ladies:

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…and afterwards, had dinner in Tom’s parents’ backyard.

Also worthy to note is that little Ryan O was born this day! Congrats, Kev & Gel for becoming parents!

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Sunday, november 8th

The next morning was Sunday and I woke up cuddled in bed with this crew, and Tom gave me my presents in bed.

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We got ready and drove to my mom’s for a celebration with a giant dinner table candle plopped inside a pumpkin pie. Ahhhh, fall birthdays.

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Monday, november 9th

My actual birthday was a Monday and after a day’s work, Tom took my out to Parkside in Corona, Queens for a quintessential Italian dinner out.

Tony Soprano watched up the whole time.

Read all about my 37th birthday here.

ode to the 3x8 December Daily

Hello, reader! I’m Amanda Zampelli, a member of the new December Daily Creative Team established this year, and I’m popping on the blog today with this post that expresses my love for the 3x8 December Daily.

I have been participating in December Daily since 2011, and most of my recent albums were completed in the 6x8 size. Last year, however - for 2020 - I was craving a switch up! The super cute 3x8 green linen album included in the 2020 release immediately stole my heart, and I got excited at the thought of using it to tell my holiday stories.

I was only a bit nervous about its size, thinking “Will I have enough room for the stories I want to tell?” and “Will I be able to have as much fun with product as I want to in the smaller size?” Both are legitimate concerns, but here’s what I found out: MY CURIOSITY AND DESIRE TO EXPERIMENT WITH IT WAS FAR GREATER THAN MY FEARS THAT IT WOULDN’T WORK OUT. I wanted to challenge myself and see how I could make it work, see what I would be able to do.

Well, I’m here to tell you I ROCKED IT. I’m here to tell you not only was I able to do everything I wanted to do from the Product Play class (which mainly shares projects with 6x8 in mind), but also that it was the MOST FUN I’ve ever had documenting. Here are some reasons why…

1) It requires less embellishments to make a statement page.

The statement foundation page I created for Story 7 (inspired by Story 15 from Ali’s 2019 album) is one of my favorite pages. I loved that I was able to create this collaged page of numbers without having to use my whole pack of embellishment to do so. You have less surface area to fill in the 3x8 - which means you can get more ‘bang for your buck’ when it comes to using up packs of products and other decorative items.

2) I enjoyed playing around with photo orientation.

You’d think the 3x8 would only lend itself to long, skinny portrait photos, but there were many times when I turned the album on it’s side to document a super fun wide shot. I feel like I’d never make this move with bigger sizes, and it added to the playfulness that came with this size.

3) It actually encouraged me to journal more.

I was surprised to discover that as December went on, I found myself journalling words upon words upon words. I was finding pockets and spaces I never originally thought existed to get my stories told such as behind a swivel photo above, or underneath a flip-up I’d create below.

The smaller size did not stop me in the slightest. In fact, I think this album might contain the most journalling of all my December Daily projects! Haa haa! Go figure! I got creative in how I could include a lot of words or photos in a little bit of space, and for the December 25th story of our quarantined Christmas, I created two-sided tags that slid into a pocket!

4) It was perfect for product play!

I think if December Daily albums could talk, the 3x8 would say to its bigger buddies : “Anything you can do, I could do better!” My cute little green linen albums filled with interactive, crafty pages are proof! I was able to do any and all Product Play workshop projects, only…smaller. Lots of things Ali and contributors created to fit on a full 6x8 page, I just made a flip out version like my circle craft for Story 13, or a skinnier version like my paper collaged tree for Story 10!

Ali had shown us in last year’s Product Play class how she painted over a ‘December’ die cut and then used texture paste and a stencil to add dimensional stars on top of it. It’s by far one of my favorite projects she’s ever done, so of course I wanted to try that too! I grabbed three card stock letters I had in my stash, tried Ali’s technique, and it end result is pretty FUN. (Pun intended.)

Another project from Product Play I loved that Ali had done involved cutting a tree transparency in half and opening them up like french doors to some journalling. I was able to cut the same full page tree transparency in half so that after I created my 3x8 french door page on the right of my spread for Story 19, I used the remainder of the transparency on the left, and slid it over a Paislee Press “doing my best” card. Love love love!

To conclude this post, I say to the 3x8 December Daily: I am your biggest fan. This year’s grey Starry Night 3x8 album is the size at its best, but whichever size album you choose, I hope you let your love for telling stories lead the way! I am excited to participate alongside you.