Working on the December issue of the magazine has had me in the holiday spirit for the last several months. (We started working on the issue in July!) Now that holiday music fills the airwaves of Salt Lake City 24/7, that holiday feeling is getting even stronger.
That’s why I couldn’t help but do something festive for our inside look at the December issue of Creating Keepsakes—and the 12 days of Christmas continually came to mind. But rather than spread out this post for nearly two weeks, you get all 12 gifts in one post—a sneak peek at the 12 favorite layouts from our editorial staff. To add even more festivity to the post, you can always listen to this while you enjoy reading the reasons we love each layout so much!
Oh, and be sure to check out all the exclusive online articles for December we have waiting for you here. You can even enter to win a free advent calendar personalized with your own family members!
Without further ado, here are our team’s favorite layouts from the December issue.
“Holiday Home” by Ali Edwards in “Studio A”
“This layout from Ali Edwards makes me want to capture every holiday detail in my home—and I’m going to!” —Joannie McBride, assistant editor
“Ornament a Day” by Amanda Probst in “Monthly To-Dos”
“Amanda Probst has a great eye for fonts, and I can’t stop looking at her title treatment on this layout. The colors stand out. The fonts look great together and are readable but unique. It’s so clever how she uses a snippet of conversation to frame her title and photos on the left page of her layout.” —Lori Fairbanks, product editor
“Happy” by Jennifer McGuire in “Tools & Techniques”
“I love Jennifer McGuire’s simple design, nice color scheme and great photos on this layout.” —Janice Barfuss, art director
“She Says” by Lori Anderson in “Computer Tricks”
“This layout is so sweet and sassy. I can’t get enough of Lori Anderson’s adorable pictures and cute use of type.” —Neko Carrillo, senior designer
“Kitschy” by Cindy Tobey in “Tips & Tricks”
“The tree accent is so unexpected. Cindy Tobey made kitschy work for her! I love it.” —Erin Bayless, creative director
“A Few of Our Christmas Favorites” by Deena Wuest in “Festive Techniques for Trimming the Tree”
“Deena Wuest’s clean and simple design balanced with the clever tree made of photos is so fresh, festive and innovative.” —Jennafer Martin, editor-in-chief
“Playing with Snow” by Suzy Plantamura in “Mandy’s Challenge”
“Suzy Plantamura’s title treatment is so clever—she cut her letters by hand and then stamped on them with the letters ‘S,’ ‘N,’ ‘O’ and ‘W,’ respectively.” —Brittany Beattie, online senior editor
“January” by Kelly Goree in “Instant Gift Albums”
“I love how the design of this layout fits so many photos without sacrificing room for embellishments. Plus, each accent Kelly Goree used enhances the feel of the photos.” —Lori Anderson, online managing editor
“Christmas Bliss” by Jill Marie Paulson in “Seasonal Solutions”
“I like Jill Marie Paulson’s simple design with the focus on the photo.” —Brenda Peterson, editorial assistant
“Christmas Morning” by Julie DeGuia in “Seasonal Solutions”
“I like how Julie DeGuia fit so many photos on her layout and still kept it clean. I always take hundreds of photos on Christmas and then wonder how to scrapbook them all.” —Lara Penrod, senior editor
“Roll with It” by Kayleigh Wiles in “Reader Gallery”
“Kayleigh Wiles’s page has great flow despite how the focal point is in a small space. Plus, the beautiful script at the bottom adds charm to the flow.” —Dorathy Gilchrist, associate editor
"2008 Review" by Maggie Holmes in "Scrapbook a Year's Worth of Memories in One Night"
“Maggie Holmes managed to capture an entire year’s worth of memorable events on one layout while still creating a clean, easy-to-follow design—not always an easy task. I love how the white space balances out the fun patterns and whimsical details while still keeping her photos the focus.” —Megan Hoeppner, creative editor
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Prize Giveaway
What would this holiday celebration be without a gift? Leave a comment by Monday, November 16 at 9:00 a.m. EST, and let us know what your favorite layout is from the December issue for a chance to win this prize package or other December-related goodies.
—Brittany Beattie, online senior editor
Jill Marie Paulson’s Christmas Bliss is a beautiful layout! I love the color combo! You have no idea how hard it is to pick just one! Thay are all winners in my book!
My favorite layout is SNOW, I love the colors. However, They are all beautiful and hard to choose from.
Love the “Kitchsy” Layout–too fun!!
“Roll with it” will be scraplifted immediately.
This is a tough choice because each layout was unique & special but I have to say that Jennifer McGuire’s “Happy” just tugged my heart strings. Her little boy beams.
Her skill shines too!
Lovin’ pg 47 “My Cool Guy” and pg 51 “Hello, Snow”–they are both adorable and I may just have to scraplift!!
Happy by Jennifer McGuire is just too cute!!! I wish I had a million little boys with that cute smile to make a scrapbook of! I do love all the rest though–thanks for sharing such beautiful and creative layouts!
My fave is Elizabeth Kartchner’s: Gift of Love on page 65…love that tree!
my favorite is “christmas bliss” by Jill Marie Paulson. I love to see multi photo layouts because that is what I need, I have way too many photos of each event!
My favourite is 2008 Review, definitely inspired me. I love Maggie’s style of scrapbooking, it’s always her articles that I turn to first
My fav is “Christmas Bliss” by Jill Paulson, her layouts are always amazing! “Happy” comes in a close second tho!
I like Elizabeth Kartchner’s gift of love. Big fan of Elizabeth’s work.
“A Few of Our Christmas Favorites” is such an original and endearing page. Such an original idea for a Christmas page-love it! Of course they are all wonderful so it is hard to pick just one!
I am always amazed at the creativity and time that goes into putting together a scrapbook page. These are all wonderful, but my pick would be Deena’s A Few of Our Christmas Favorites. Photos in a tree shape just make the page along with the crisp and clear picture of the children.
Holiday Home by Ali Edwards is my favorite but it was a hard choice..I really love most all of them!
I like the Ornament A Day layout because it looked like an advent calendar.
I like Ali’s “25″ and the LO on p.117 “They’re the Best.”
I really love “holiday home” and “happy” the most!
I love the 2 page layout with the little hanging tags from the child’s gifts.
I really liked a number of them, but if I had to pick a favorite, I choose KIm Watson’s ” Sugar & Spice.” Beautiful colors and I love the unique border around it.
It is hard to pick just one layout from so many beautiful ones. But at the end I decided that my favorite is “Christmas morning” because that is something that inspires me how to make my Christmas layouts with many pics.
So much inspiration! Gorgeous stuff. I hate to name favourites… I was amazed by “January” by Kelly Goree – that clean, but not boring, look that I never seem to be able to achieve myself. Clearly something to aspire to.
Oh how can anyone pick just one favorite LO???There are so many gorgeous Lo’s in this months magazine but I guess if I was forced to pick just one it would have to be “Playing with Snow” by Suzy Plantamura.I’m a sucker for that red/bluish color combo and LOVE the way she did the “Snow” word!
Love ‘Happy’ by Jennifer McGuire!
They are ALL so inspiring !
I LOVE clean and simple…..my vote goes to Ali !!!! (Holiday Home)
I love 2008 review by Maggie Holmes. What a clever idea. I’m going to have to try that myself.
I love the SNOW layout! It pops right out to me.
I love all things “Ali”, so my fave LO is “25″ on page 90.
I love the colors and design of Jill Marie Paulson’s layout.
I absolutely adore “Playing with Snow” by Suzy Plantamura as the title is awesome and the whole layout is lovely.
I love what Maggie Holmes did to represent 2008 – really super layout!!!
Only one…. It would have to be Jennifer’s LO of her sweet son Colin. Super cute.
So hard to pick a favourite!!! I do really like the circular one by Jennifer and “A Few of Our Christmas Favorites” and I love the colours in “Playing with Snow”!
I really like a lot of them! Jill Paulson’s was great, as was all of Ali’s LO this month, and I really like the colors in Suzy P’s snow LO!
I’ve really grown to like Ali Edwards’ layouts! This month was no exception.
My fave LO from Dec is the “thank you for” one on page 55. i love the colors amd layout of it but most of al that is what we are working on as a family -to be more grateful and thankful in all things… This one is for a father but it could be perfect for Thanksgiving too!
love the Ornament a Day idea!