December Daily in July
[ images from Janet @ thedailydigi.com using my 25 Days of December Photo Overlays ]
Inspired by a post about the December Daily project on The Daily Digi (the post is a great example of using digital supplies for paper projects, also called hybrid), I thought that today would be the perfect time to bring up the topic of December Daily for 2009.
Although I am totally not ready to be thinking about the holidays just yet, I love the idea of getting this project started even earlier than I usually do. I am especially interested in starting earlier since my Big Picture class will be running from October through December (my goal with that class is to make it simple to follow through the busiest season of the year for most people - look for more information and registration in mid-August). Even though that class will be happening during that time I will definitely be doing a December Daily again.
If you are new to my blog you may be wondering what in the heck is December Daily? Here's a post from last year with a good amount of information and here's a Q&A with even more information.
Basically it's daily documentation & celebration from December 1 through December 25 in the form of a minibook or small album. Some people like to do it from Thanksgiving through New Years, others the whole month of December, and others just a week or so in December. Those details are entirely up to you.
One thing you might consider if you aren't ready to work on the album just yet is to take some time to organize your holiday supplies. I store my Christmas papers and embellishments in one of these Art Bin boxes. I have found that storing them all together, separate from my other supplies, makes it really simple and easy when it comes time to work on holiday projects.
My initial thoughts for 2009: I think I am going to use one of Donna's canvas albums which would be a fun way to mix things up. The album comes with both page protectors (with a really cute zig zag stitch along the outside edge) and canvas pages and I think it will be big enough to accommodate all the days.
GET INSPIRED: Molly's version from 2008 is still on my mind. What I loved about her album is the simplicity of the design, the emphasis on words, and how she enlarged the photos and spread them across two pages.
Did you start one last year (or the year before) and not finish it? Was it because it was just too much to take on over the course of the month? Was it because you didn't get it ready in advance? Take a bit of time to assess what kept you from getting it done and potentially use that as inspiration for thinking about how you might approach the project this year.
Did you put together an album last year? Feel free to link it in the comments.
Just putting this post together is getting me excited for this project - I need to focus on some other stuff first but I hope some of you are inspired enough to get a head start and participate this year!
Yeay! What a great idea to get started early! I have been doing this for a while now. First, through your recommendation of Shimelle's journaling promts (which helped exercise older memories of Christmas past on many of the entries) and then through your own concept of December daily in the last few years. I love those holiday albums! Last year I was able to finish it all and was very happy with the results. Here is a link to all the pages on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/justmeagain2006/sets/72157612285726916/
I also followed Molly's album process and I loved it, too!
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Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell,s....... Oh well now I am starting to get inspired. Besides all the new Hoiday lines of paper are so darn cute! What a good reminder to start to collect our ideas and our scrapping supplies. Thanks Ali!
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I love my 2008 December Daily album! It was so fun to work on it. The daily journaling and photos really kept the Christmas spirit alive and well. I'm looking forward to doing it again this year. I will incorporate more hybrid scrapbooking in it, since I found that digital elements were the easiest and fastest way to get things done every day.
After showing the album to my friends, I'm sure several of them will join in this year.
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I think it's a great idea to start thinking about this now. I didn't finish mine last year, I think I got through the 15th or so and then jumped around. But it doesn't feel finished, which is unfortunate. I did have the book ready for December 1st, but I think I just wasn't ready for the rest of Christmas, the shopping, baking, etc. Maybe I should get started on the shopping now, and be done by Dec. 1st! And then focus on the fun stuff. :)
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Here's mine! I went for easy!
http://3peasinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2008/11/3-years.html
and
http://3peasinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2008/12/morning.html
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I have also started thinking about starting my album early this year. I have already gone through all of my christmas supplies in the clear box i store them in and have been writing down the new releases over the past weeks that i like and will fit in with this years album. Also a big factor in being organized this year is that we are going to be away in Australia on vacation for the entire Christmas period. So I want it to be easy to add to each day.
This year I have been thinking about either using a AC album (either modern in 8x8 or a cord 6 1/2 x 12 album) and have also looked into the fabric albums too. I have to think that this year my album can't be so wintery as usual as we will be in a hot climate for christmas!
Here is my album from last year: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31376166@N05/sets/72157621681769463/
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I love the look of this year's album! Very nice and I'm sure you will enjoy it.
I did a year-long 'Joy' (my 2008 word) journal which included every day of the year. I used a lot of Christmas photos for the December journaling so mine is combined into my year long journal.
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Hi Ali,
I completed a first December daily album last year and even though I had it ready prior to December 1st, I found this a tough project. I finished it eventually, but not until mid January and though I love the idea I am not crazy about my album. I think it might have something to do with the fact that my husband and I are newlyweds (two years) and we don't have any children yet and I found it difficult coming up with interesting topics for each day. Some days it was easier, if we went to a Chrstmas party or put up our tree or if we had a new snow fall, but a lot of the days I was thinking...what am I going to do a page about today! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! I love the project and would like to do another one this year, but am stuck for how to keep it interesting.
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I put a good amount of work into one but never finished it. I liked my design a lot but had planned to put 3 rectangular photos on a page which required me to resize them in Photoshop or crop them. I never did it. All the stuff is stuffed into the album waiting for me to finish it! That said, I was taking classes for PhD this year and anything that went undone by Jan 8 wasn't going to get done!
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Here is some of mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mandydake/sets/72157609079388902/
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I've done the December Daily for a couple years now. The first year, I got the book done, it was for all of December. but I was super overwhelmed. The next year, I did the 12 days of Christmas and it was more manageable, even though I made the book ahead of time.
I love doing the holiday books, I think NOW is a great time to start thinking about getting it started so it would be done by the time I want to get it going. (I might do the 12 days again)
Funny, I was already thinking of holiday cards and what to make. This year is totally going to be digi-made cards, print and send!
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last year i was so excited by this project - and i went out of my comfort zone putting all different pages and papers (inspired by you of course !!) and i LOVED how it came out - is a family favourite to look at too
http://mycreationsblog.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/dec-album-inspired-by-ali-edwards/
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2008 was my first year completing the December Daily album but I loved it. I really like the daily brushes to use as journaling blocks. I like the consistancy it would have in the album. How can I print those if they are png files? I have PSE7 but really do not know how to use it well. Do I print in photoshop? Very good idea to get ready now so the stress is not upon us while trying to put an album together.
http://masonfamilyblog-ky.blogspot.com/2008/11/december-daily.html
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I did do a Daily December album last year, and have almost finished it!! hehe, yep it's July and I still have a few pages to do. I don't mind, though- it's fun to work on a holiday project any time of the year.
I will do another one this year, plus I am going to make a smaller version for my boys to fill in. We're going to California for Christmas this year to visit my brother, so they'll have plenty to remember!
Thanks for the inspiration!!!
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I am determined to actually do this in 2009! Last year I bought a bunch of stuff for the project but never worked on it at all. Now I'm going to gather all the stuff and make sure I'm ready this year!!
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I also have all my Christmas goodies in one box. I purchased a cute 8 x 8 album from a clearance bin in January, so I'm ready to start. You have me in the mood to scrap Christmas this weekend! I'm going to do several years into the one album.
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It's funny that you post this today. I was telling my boyfriend last night that I'm going to get my album ready during my 3 week break between semesters. Working full time and going to school has really cut back on my scrapping time and when early December rolls around I'll be cramming for finals. I want to have this done way in advance so I can enjoy the photos and stories of December when it gets here.
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I started one last year and never got it finished. I couldn't do it with my three little kids and scrap every day. That's just not currently possible. SO my plan is to make my album into 25 traditions or things about Christmas that we do, we decorate with, we eat, etc. 25 things about our Christmas'. Then it can be combined even from last year into this year and it doesn't matter!
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I've been thinking about this too, after seeing all of the new paper designs coming out at CHA! It's a little too early for me as well, but I can't wait to make one this year. I realized that for me, I can't plan too much in advance, even though that's supposed to be the beauty of the album. I'll just make it as I go along this year, because I found that last year, I had to move a lot of stuff around to make it work for me, and it felt forced. I'd love some ideas for stuff to do at christmas time that when you don't have kids, since I'm only 25!
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Here is mine:
http://mz-cellaneous.blogspot.com/2009/01/christmas-week-in-life-at-ceases-house.html
I just made one for the week of christmas as I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up the whole month. I really wanted to do something more "Ali" but in the end, I had perfectly good albums that I NEED to use up (seriously, I bet I have 100 albums at least).
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Thanks for the inspiration, Ali. I am not one to think of Christmas in July, however, Molly's example that you shared makes me want to do this project. Getting started now is a wonderful idea since December will be so busy.
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I had such fun putting together my daily December mini book last year-I've looked through it many times this year and can't wait to get started on this years!
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I did an album last year. Used every size and shape of paper, cardstock, envelopes etc for my pages. I just did journaling, no pictures. I don't have a link, since I don't have a blog. It was alot of fun. I put it away with my Christmas decorations and will only take it out at Christmas time.
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I love the summer, but right about now I start to think about Christmas and begin getting excited, so this is the perfect time for me to begin my December Daily, which I've done for the past two years. I love the link to Molly's project...very nice.
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Oh no, I tried to post my links, but my comment was deleted? I'll just post ONE link!
I loved creating this!! I will definitely do it again!
http://crazyforcrafting.blogspot.com/2008/12/25-days-until-christmas-2008_31.html
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