It’s was a cold 36 degrees (F) outside when I woke up this morning! We may not have snow, but it sure does feel like winter is upon us. Beau is against decorating for Christmas prior to Thanksgiving so I’m satisfying my desire for all things red, green, and gold by readying my first December Daily album!
What is December Daily®? Several years ago, Ali Edwards created a memory keeping goal to capture the spirit of December. Each year she documents the stories leading up to Christmas and makes a beautiful mini-album to hold them.
Daily? Ali’s original idea was to document something each day leading up to Christmas, but obviously the idea isn’t set in stone. There are no real rules. This is my first year creating a December album and I already know I won’t have something holiday related to document every single day. Other days there will be several stories. I know I won’t be sticking to daily documentation.
What about Project Life? Yep, I’ll still be filling up my Project Life album with non-holiday related items I’m sure. And just as I don’t expect to document daily in my December album, I don’t expect to stick to weekly spreads in my Project Life album during the month.
What album? I’m not using a kit this year since I feel I have plenty of supplies to pull from already, but an album was one thing I needed to buy. I knew I wanted to try out the 6×8 size so I went for the kraft and red Simple Stories Snap album. The album itself came with red papers and chipboard, and I added a few extra sets of page protectors from both Simple Stories and Becky Higgins.
I decorated the front using a star silkscreen from the October Studio Calico kit with gold and white paint. For the label I watermark stamped the year onto kraft paper and used white embossing powder over it. I plan to keep this album (and future December albums) with my Christmas decor so the year felt sufficient as a title for the album.
What supplies?
There are some amazing Christmas themed kits out there this year, but back in August I started pulling out the reds, greens, and golds I had in my own stash and decided I’d do what I could to use up what I already had.
My curated kit includes lots of Project Life cards from various Project Life kits and the Studio Calico monthly kits. I chose primarily red and green cards/embellishments for two reasons. One, these colors just sing Christmas to me. I primarily decorate with red during the holiday and it just made sense to me. Two, I rarely use much red in my normal Project Life album so I have a lot of it sitting around.
Other supplies I’m using include white and gold paint and embossing powder, gold doilies, red/green ribbon, wood veneer, and assorted stamps.
Printing?
My biggest fear about completing a December album is that I won’t be able to keep up. Typically I complete my Project Life spreads 2-3 weeks after the fact. I don’t print at home so my goal in December is to print weekly through Costco, which might get tricky with all the holiday shopping around that time. But if I don’t get around to printing as frequently as I’d like, I’ll stick to my tried and true Project Life method of using sticky notes to keep track of what photos I’ll put where and how I’ll decorate around them. A good backup plan that may make for a fun January project if anything.
Prepping?
Many December Daily makers seem to create “foundation” pages prior to December so that much of the work is done with before the holiday season begins. This seems like a great idea to stay on top of things, but I don’t think it would work for me. So my biggest prep activity is gathering everything I’ll use and having the album ready to dive into.
Community?
Another big part of my plan this year is to stay inspired by a community. I’m sure Instagram will be filled with inspiration (sometimes it’s as fun to browse as Pinterest), but I also joined the 25 Days class with Stephanie Bryan. The class officially starts tomorrow, but I can already tell it will be loaded with inspiration and helpful techniques.
Are you getting excited for the holidays?
