December Daily® 2021 | Start Here

Ali began documenting her December with this project in 2007. Many of us in the community have been following along for years, some for a decade or more. But, some of us have only been participating for a few years, and for quite a few people this might be your first year participating in December Daily®. First and foremost, welcome! We're so looking forward to telling these stories alongside you. Thinking back to my first year, I loved scouring these platforms for any tips and tricks that might make this project feel less overwhelming. With that in mind, we thought we'd share some project basics and some sage advice from a few of our December Daily® Creative Team members.  

What is December Daily®?

December Daily® is a December mini-album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day. Some people start their album in November with stories of selecting their Christmas tree or decorating their houses. Some people end their album on the 31st. Some people tell their stories by calendar days, meaning the first story in their album happens on December 1st. Some people work on their album every day in December. Some people what till January to get started. Some people finish their albums, some people don't. The important thing to remember, as with all of our projects, is that you are the boss. There are no December Daily® police. There is no right or wrong way to do this project. 

What products do I need?

Each year we release a collection of products designed to support your storytelling for this project. The collection includes a variety of album sizes, several kits, stamps, embellishment, papers, inks, and more. You can use as little as you want, or as much as you want. If this is your first year, we often recommend purchasing one of our main kits and an album of your choice. 

I need more guidance! 

You are in luck. We have a variety of resources if you are looking to learn more about the project, or dive deeper into storytelling, explore digital elements, or even specifically to play with product. Most of the resources are free. We recommend you start here on the blog. Ali has decades of blog posts available talking about every facet of December Daily®. Each year, she shares her process for every page she creates here on the blog. 

I want to take a class! 

We have a wide variety of classes available on this project. Feel free to scroll through our class selection! Here are a few classes that we consider core offerings:

Storytelling with December Daily®

Product Play: Back to Basics

Product Play 4

December Daily® Product Play Bundle (1,2,3)

I need more inspiration! 

We invite you to follow us on our December Daily® Instagram account or join us in the December Daily® Facebook Group. This community consistently astonishes us with their creativity and enthusiasm for this project. Also, check out Ali's YouTube channel for process videos for each of her pages and walkthroughs of her completed albums. 

We hope this post has provided those of you who might be new to the community with a good place to start. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and we'd like to wrap up our post with some advice from our Creative Team. 

Ashley Horton | Keep it simple. Focus on the photo/photos, story and add a few embellishments. 

Pascha Shepard | Search hashtags for inspiration, design for yourself, buy what you know you’ll use. Choose three main colors.

Neela Nalam | Stock up on basic supplies like adhesives, photo paper, printer cartridges to ensure continuity.

Yin Goh | Make a list of page ideas /stories to tell / photos to take before December rolls around.

Kari Stiles | Take your camera with you everyday in December. No matter where you’re going, or what you have planned. Even if all you do is take one photograph everyday you did a December Daily.

Emily Stebbins | Your pages do not have to be masterpieces! There's a fine line between finding inspiration and getting overwhelmed. Find one or two simple design formulas you can repeat (e.g. a full page photo + half page journaling) That way you can spend your energy on the stories rather than the layout of the page!

Nolana E. Lynch | Decide on your set up for the year - album, colour scheme, kits / papers, embellishments you'll need to set up album. Write a list of stories, events, traditions, you'd like to document this year. If there are specific dates for things that can be added to your calendar for December, begin adding them in to get an idea of what you will be documenting and inspiration for what your pages may look like each day. Design and Create Foundation pages early, but at your own pace - it should be fun and enjoyable (Pro Tip: play your favourite Christmas music and grab your favourite Christmas drink while you do this!) and it helps make documenting stories more do-able in December. Do Product Play lessons and Prep Day for inspiration- these really broaden your horizon and you get a brilliant idea of what projects are your style, what you'd love to attempt and play around with for your December Daily.

Jill Drangsholt | Let go of the expectation to finish your pages daily like Ali does. She shares daily to provide us inspiration, not as an example of the "right" way to finish the project. There is no right way. I like to start my project just taking photos for the first week or so. Then a week or two into December I will start putting pages together. This process works for me because by mid December I have a good number of photos and stories to pull from and I put them in whatever makes most sense for my album.

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1 thought

  1. bevwarnock says…
    10/02/2021

    I would like to add that this is very much a "You do You" project, so please stop apologizing for what your albums isn't. My first love is Quilting and I do December Daily because it adds to my Christmas season. DD is the only scrapbook project I work on all year. But that also means I don't have all the things. And my pages are NEVER going to be elaborate masterpieces! But they are my stories and I love them. And I still love looking at everyone else's albums.

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