My December Daily album is complete and I couldn’t be happier! This is my first year doing Ali Edward’s project, December Daily, a scrapbook album documenting every day in December to help you remember the little moments in what quickly becomes a hectic holiday blur.
We started with a December Daily party to get everyone excited about making an album. We set up our layouts so it would be more do-able once the month got going. I essentially did the first part of the album over the weekend of the 13th & 14th. I was pretty happy with my progress, but the next thing I knew it was time to leave for my in-laws in North Carolina and I had hardly even written down a memory for one day in the second half of the month. I was definitely behind. In hindsight this turned out to be a good thing.
I packed a quick “December Daily On-The-Go” bag. I filled it with some stickers, extra paper, a couple stamps, and a few ink pads. I knew I’d have some downtime in North Carolina knowing there were two grandparents that couldn’t wait to watch our kids. It turns out all I had time to do was chose the photos and get them printed at CVS. Since I had done this for the first half of the month once already, I knew this process would take a while so I was happy to have the time to do it there.
I hit my stride during Christmas Part II of our vacation while we were at my parents’ home the weekend of January 1st. With the photos printed, I had everything I needed to complete the album. I set up a mini craft station on their dining room table and got to work.
I did have to make one more run to CVS for photos of Christmas day and since we were in the suburbs I hit up a couple of my favorite craft stores. At Michaels I found two packs of stickers I had to buy. The first pack included these glittery stickers that say “Merry & Bright.” I immediately knew they would be the perfect start to my album…title page done! The second set of stickers are made by Mambi. They are clear with white writing and they are made to stick on top of your photos. When I got home, I flipped through the album and used them as much as possible. I truly believe these stickers pull the whole album together.
WATCH MY VIDEO HERE
Inspired by Amy Tan, I decided to record a quick video to show you my album. You can watch her video here. When I started this album I wasn’t sure what my style would be. When I sat down with all of my supplies and was able to put my story on paper, my style emerged. It’s vivid and festive. By using one set of bright holiday cardstock, gold and glittery stickers, an ultra-fine sharpie, and the Mambi stickers my album is cohesive. Doing this album on January 1st and 2nd made it easier for me to chose the highlights of the month and not get caught up in recording every single thing. I enjoyed remembering the days and writing down the stories.
Below are a couple of my favorite pages that feature different techniques and ideas that I hope inspire you on your next album.
Title Page
I used the “Merry & Bright” stickers, plus a “December” Mambi sticker that looks great on regular card stock instead of just a photo, plus red glitter number stickers to write “2014.” There were a couple photos I wasn’t able to use in the album that I wanted to include on this page. The photo on the bottom left was taken at BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I love it so much.
Billy The Elf Carter Update
After I completed the album, I went back and upgraded this page. I didn’t love the original journaling, so I used some red glitter stickers and letter stamps to make the “fun facts” section more interesting.
Text Messages
This was the day my babysitter canceled on me and I had to scramble to find someone to watch Conroy so I could teach my art class. Without hesitation, two of my friends changed their plans to help me. I used a “thank you” stamp to wallpaper white card stock as a background. I took a screenshot of our text messages, printed them out on regular computer paper, and then cut out the bubbles so I could glue them in the album. I printed the photos they texted me of Conroy while I was teaching class. Seeing your baby happy while you are away is the best thing to calm a mother’s nerves.
Trader Joe’s Bag
I love the texture this gives the page. I also gave it a border with washi tape and added some stickers from the day. Finally, I printed out a photo of the outside of the store and a photo of Conroy eating a banana in his stroller.
Writing On A Photo
I’ve been wanting to do this since I started doing Project Life albums, but I never liked how it looked. I chose this photo because of all the negative space on the wall of The Little Gym. I used an ultra-fine point sharpie to write on the photo and made sure I let it dry before slipping it into the pocket page.
Red Sharpie Border
I chose to have some of the photos printed with a white border at CVS. For the page of Georgia’s Holiday Show, I drew simple diagonal lines with a red sharpie to make it reminiscent of a candy cane and therefore more festive.
Airline Ticket
I finished most of the travel page before I remembered I wanted to incorporate our airline tickets. I cut out both kids’ names and glued them over the photos of them making silly faces. I added their seat numbers next to the photos. I think it makes them look like comic book characters.
Music Sheets
On the 23rd we stopped by our friends’ home just before they were having dinner. They invited us to stay. They had cooked food Mary & Joseph would have eaten in biblical times: lentil soup, goat cheese, figs, and pita bread. It was delicious! The teenagers read the story of Jesus’ birth and we all sang a couple songs. I saved the lyric sheets they handed out at dinner and used it as a background for the page. It tells the story perfectly.
Christmas Day
This day ended up being a two-and-a-half page spread. Since it was Christmas, I was ok with it. I wanted to highlight some of the gifts the kids got from Santa, MaMa & PaPa’s favorite gift, and photos of all the family members who came to dinner that night. Thanks to MaMa’s photography persistence, that was easy. I printed these out as 4x2s using the same Collage>MiniPrints option at CVS. To fit them all on the page I cut them down even more.
I am so thankful I made this album. I will say it again…Ali Edwards is a genius for coming up with this concept. December always ends up being such a blur of holiday fun and now we have a beautiful album to look back at and remember all the little details. I can’t wait to do it every year!! If you made an album too, let us know. We love getting inspired and seeing what other are creating!
1 comment
FANTASTIC……..