December Daily 2009 : Step One • Gather Your Materials
Yes, it really is getting to be that time of year again soon.
And yes, I know that we haven't even hit Halloween yet.
And yes, what you see here in my office is my December Daily pile.
And yes, that's my progress so far.
WELCOME TO DECEMBER DAILY 2009.
You are invited to join me in what has become a favorite holiday tradition: December Daily.
December Daily is an album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Many people start their documentation earlier and many people go longer. I have found that 25 days is just right for me.
One of the keys to success in this project is getting an album structure set-up in advance of December so that during December you can enjoy the season & enjoy the process of documenting your days without having to be putting the entire thing together at the same time. It is not meant to be stressful. It is meant to be a way to creatively celebrate the season and document you special holiday memories in one album.
If this is your first time reading about December Daily I highly recommend you read my 2008 welcome post. It will give you a run-down of the basics and give you a better understanding of what's happening. There's also a Question & Answer post that my clarify things for you even more.
For the rest of you, let's get started!
STEP ONE: GATHER & ORGANIZE YOUR MATERIALS
Easy enough. Get all your holiday stuff in one location. Having it all in one spot and accessible makes the entire process that much easier. As you can see from my photo above I have it all in one place just not really in any order. My organizing for this project is usually just a box or basket - judging from the photo I might need a bigger box.
While you are gathering your supplies it's also a good opportunity to purge things you might be ready to pass along to someone else (think school, church, retirement home, shelter, etc).
Here's a look at my album before any December documentation was added last year: December Daily 2008. As soon as I have the bare bones structure for this year I will post it. Working on it a little bit at a time right now.
There are so many different ways to approach this project:
- Some people make it a game to use what they have on hand (all those years of stocking up on holiday products and then making one layout is paying off). If this is you, your goal over the next week is to get all your stuff in one place.
- Some people mix old products with new products (this is me).
- Some people do all digital albums.
- Some people do a mixture of digital and paper (this is me too)
- Some people do big albums and some people do really small ones.
You're also invited to join the 2009 Flickr group which can be accessed here: December Daily 2009.
A couple other things to note:
- Katie Pertiet has a great digital album coming out this weekend at Designer Digitals if you are looking to do all digital this year.
-
Cocoa Daisy will have a December Daily kit available on November 1. I coordinated products that I have been collecting with Tricia, including the Prima fabric album I will be using as my base.
I'm here to encourage, celebrate and cheer you on along the way. I can't wait to see how mine turns out - I'm trying a couple different things this year (including incorporating some fabric for my cover) and still trying to keep it simple overall.
It's totally possible that you are already making this more complicated than it needs to be in your head. Take a deep breath and do one little thing at a time.
My supplies are ready and waiting. . . working on the first pages of my base this week. My new idea with this is to go from November 25 (my birthday) to December 25. In most years Thanksgiving (hands-down, my favorite holiday) will be included as well. Last year I tried Dec 1-31, and really lost momentum after Dec 25. Hopefully 25 to 25 will be a magical and creative amount of time! Can't wait to see what sprouts up on the flickr group.
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Hurrah! So excited. Keeping my book simple again this year, as we are traveling.
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YEAH! My Mom and I are working on ours together! This is our first year to do it! We are both excited! I got my cover done this past weekend and I am thinking of ideas for pages, what fun and thank you so much for such a wonderful idea! Have a ceative week!
Staci
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I'm sad but, I think i'll be too busy for? I may end up with a journal however. That would be fun too :) Oh! I did a week in the life and I actually finished it!!! YES! If you would like to see it.. http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=2254844
Thanks for all the inspiration Ali :)
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I wasn't going to do this in 09, but I think I just got inspired.
I think I'm going to digital/regular. My goal is to get more comfortable with PSE and Copics through a set project.
Could you post a link to katie pertiet's kit...I can't seem to find it and didn't know what it was called?
Thanks Ali!
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Yay. I began gathering this past week. My pile looks similar to yours.
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I am SO READY to star documenting! I have have done a DD for the last 2 years, and I am so psyched to star my 2009 version!
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Hi Chris - it goes on sale this weekend. I will post a link next week :).
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Hi Amy - here is a link to the post that walks you through that: /2008/10/week-in-the-l-9.html
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So I've got step one already completed...Christmas is all together in one bin. I admit I never finished assembling last year's book. I need to decide if I want to get that baby done before I start yet another project, or if I want to go ahead and assemble this year's so I won't run into the problem of last year--not having it ready in time.
:)
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Last year was the first time I tried this. I was really surprised at how much I truly enjoyed the process. I can't wait to do it again this year and have already started gathering supplies as well! Thanks for the fantastic inspiration and super idea!
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I am so going to try this!
It seems to be harder with my son a teenager to do traditional things during the holidays....with him....so this year I have non traditional ideas......need to keep him involved....so need to document this....to see if it will be a success or failure...it will be documented. Thanks for doing this again this year.
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Woo hoo! I have been gathering for the last month and can hardly wait to start. This is my second year doing this. Last year's came out great and my family loves it! Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement!
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I have actually gathered and put mine together this weekend. I have it socked away with some other tidbits in case a page needs something extra. I ended up doing my pages from grocery bags ...sounds strange, but I wanted kraft colored paper and wanted to (well, HAVE TO, is more like it) save money. I figure it is a good way to recycle too. I have the holes punched for binding with my Bind it all, but not actually bound yet, I figure I will do that after I am finished. I have a feeling it will expand some!
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Hi Ali,
I did the December Daily album last year and I loved every minute of it. My kids LOVED it so much and it made our December so special. Thanks for the inspiration. Last year, I had already purchased a making memories mini album kit (Fa La La La), so I just made that work. This year I can't seem to find any kits similar to the one I did last year. Can you recommend some kits/products for me? I just feel like I need something like a mini-album kit that I can start with and then make it my own as I put the album together. Any ideas?
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Yay! So excited by December Daily. Bring on the holidays :)
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Ali, your blog has always been one of my 'happy places' to go...early in the morning with a cup of coffee..look at your precious family and enjoy your thoughtful writing...BUT, all the side bar flashing ads are ruining it for me!! any chance we can chance we can stop some of the peripheral activity? Just asking...i understand it means money for you...
keep up the great job!
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Make it more difficult? Moi? As in, I went shopping over the weekend for supplies to make a book for myself, DD, and DDIL? DD moved back to Australia and DDIL moved several hundred miles away - both moves this summer. I'm going to do my best to not wallow in self-pity and instead use these books to encourage us to stay in touch during the busy month. Thanks Ali!
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Hi Caryl - thanks for the feedback - it is appreciated. I don't have plans to make any changes to that right now but will take it into consideration for future changes I may be making to the blog as a whole :).
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Love your last 2 sentences. I think I need to take a deep breath.
Last year I got my book all ready to go, then couldn't keep up with the journaling and getting pictures printed professionally. I have a photo printer now, but do you have any suggestions for the partly finished book from last year? Combine it somehow with a book for this year? Or am I making things too complicated?
Thanks for your inspiration!
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Last year I just used some various tags and stuff around 3x4". I jsut journaled what we did that day that was Christmas-y. I would like to start my album in November and just write down the seasonal stuff. If we don't do anything that day, then skip it.
The reason I didn't include pictures is becuase I did a daily September album and found it was alot to keep up with. I had leave space for my photos since I have to get them printed in the city, when I get there.
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I am so excited to get started on this project. I wanted to do it last year but we traveled and I thought it would be too much to keep up with this project but this year I am ready!!
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Last year I didn't do this because of just having a baby. However, this year I'm ready to try it out. Such a fun concept! (And you little comment at the end about already making it too complicated in my head--yea, totally me. I'll try to relax :) )
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You're always an inspiration, Ali, and I'm sooo excited to do this project this year... so excited that i started it a while ago... lol
I've already posted the first part of my album (digi hybrid style...woot!) http://www.designsbymeganturnidge.com/blog/?p=503
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Hi Ali,
Love the December daily!!!!! did it last year and can't wait to get it started this year. I'm also doing your Yesterday and today class, will I have time for both????
Keep it simple.....
Annette
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