December Daily: A Party to Make It Happen!

As we prepare for the busiest season for both our business and our family, we decided to squeeze in one more project!! December Daily was created by the talented Ali Edwards. She sums it up beautifully in this video on her website. Essentially, it is an album documenting each day in December leading up to Christmas.

We think it’s genius. So often December flies by in a blink of an eye and we often can’t remember anything that happened. When we first learned about it last year we had a 3-month-old baby boy! The idea of it seemed impossible. As December approached this year, just after we finished our Halloween Costumes, we knew we wanted to do it, but did we have the time? With the encouragement from a dear friend’s two words – “I’m in!” - we made the decision to make it happen. It feels like we have no time with two little ones running around, but the truth is if we want to do something we know we can find the time. It might mean sleeping less or not getting to the dishes right away – or, in this instance, not having all the food beautifully displayed when people arrived, but we can make it happen.

And that’s the whole point of December Daily! Life is busy – especially this time of year! By carving the time out to document it, we will now be able to look back and remember all those little moments instead of it all being one big blur. As with most things in our life – it’s all about pre-production, so we decided to have a party!!

I emailed several of my girlfriends and got a great response. We knew this would be a lot to ask people – considering how hectic life seems to be these days – so we made it as simple for them as possible. We would handle the supplies, creative inspiration, and coffee – all they needed to do was show up. Everyone wanted to chip in so each person brought something delicious to eat.

The Supplies:

We love shopping, so this was a win-win. We hit up our favorite craft stores in South Jersey and stocked up on beautiful paper, fun stickers, and holiday-themed stamps. We wanted everyone to have a good variety of styles to select from so we bought two pads of holiday themed card stock, as well as two Project Life Card sets. This way if people wanted to do this on their own one year, they could see some of the different options that are out there in the scrapbook world.

We bought a variety of albums, both Project Life Mini-Albums and Snap Mini-Albums - both are 6x8. We bought a variety of pocket pages to go inside. As with our Summer Mini-Album, since we couldn’t resist the different options of pocket pages on sale, we would have to custom cut a lot of the paper. Knowing this ahead of time, we just set aside the time to cut the paper and enjoyed the process. If you want it to be simpler, we suggest using only Becky Higgins’ Project Life elements. That way you won’t have to cut a thing!

The Party:

When people arrived – the room was ready. The food was not. In my perfect world I would have had it all laid out and people would have had place to display the food they brought. In reality – everyone just worked together and no one seemed to mind. My husband Chad and daughter Georgia also were a huge help!! Chad even served us up some bellinis on a tray!

The goal of the party was for everyone to prep their album. I’ve read online that this is the key to making your album a reality. Everyone chose their favorite book and selected a variety of pocket pages. We then selected card stock to go into the book and I custom cut the paper that needed to be cut.

Katie spelled out both her daughters’ names on one of the divider pages that comes in the Snap Albums.

Anushka used Washi Tape and some bubble stickers to decorate and spell out her dog’s name. “I can’t leave Ivan out of this book!”

Nina used a pocket page with two 4x6 spots to spell out her daughter’s name and left the space below to insert a picture of her daughter.

I decided for my book to fill up every spot with card stock.  That way I will have all the options I need and won’t have to cut any more paper at a later point – fingers crossed.  I kept it consistent by only using paper from one card stock pad. I know I will take many of the cards out and replace them with photos. I included a large amount of white cards because I know I want to tell a story in my own words and I would need the room to do that.

We listened to the Pandora station, Holiday – Mariah Carey, to get us in the holiday spirit. I read Ali’s blog post about 25 Story Inspirations out loud to the group and then we brainstormed different objects we could include in our album. Some of my favorites were subway maps, grocery bags, parking meter receipts, and packaging from the food we make throughout the month. Spoiler alert: our album might look like it’s sponsored by Trader Joe’s!!

We used stickers during the party and also divided some up for people to take home and use throughout the month.   We will help encourage each other all December long with an email chain while we individually work on our albums. Then we plan on getting together again in January to finish the album – getting all the photos in place and adding more embellishments.  We can't wait to see everyone's albums!! 

The party was so much fun! It was wonderful to catch up with everyone and find out what each person was doing for the holidays. It was the perfect way to carve out the time to make this album happen. We want to personally thank Ali Edwards for coming up with the concept and the other bloggers and instagramers who are sharing their process this year! We also want to thank the fabulous group of ladies who came out for a morning of crafting.  Love you girls!  If you want to create your own album this year, there’s still time. Ali sells a kit on her website if you want to simplify the whole process. This album has increased our excitement for the holiday season for sure!! Let’s do this, December!!!

...and if you'd like to get in the holiday spirit enjoy this festive Starbucks Commercial!! No, they didn't buy ad space. And Yes, the promotion is over. But, we think the two kids at 17 seconds in are pretty cute!!