December Daily® Storytelling | Special Guest Kristin Tweedale

Hi friends! I’m Kristin (aka rukristin: Feminist Scrapbooker) and I'm here to share my unique twist on the December Daily project for 2023. This year, I'm combining my love for December Daily with my everyday creative habit -- Daily Pages.

Daily Pages is a creative project that I’ve been doing and sharing for the last several years (you can see Ali’s Daily Pages here) and even more pages at #alpdailypages. Daily Pages, more than anything, have helped me integrate creativity into my everyday life. With that in mind, this year’s project is something I'm calling the December Daily Pages Art Journal.

Why I’m Taking a New Approach:

I believe in tweaking traditions to make them more joyful and manageable. That’s why December Daily and Daily Pages are a great combo. It’s not just a fun twist on either project, it's an easy commitment to make each day in December count creatively.

This year, I’ve already got a bunch of foundation pages ready. This is one of the ways I’m definitely still going the traditional route. By setting up a lot of my pages in advance, I’ve got the freedom to include lots of mixed media elements. Foundation pages mean I can take my time and let each layer dry thoroughly, which is essential when working with wet media -- and not possible in a single 20-30 minute time frame.

The Construction of My Art Journal:

I crafted the covers from last year’s December Daily packaging, adding a cool touch to this year’s album. The covers are slightly larger than the 4"x6" interior pages, leaving room for tabs and decorative edges.

For inside covers, I attached black felt to the inside of the covers for a tactile, cozy element. The album will be held together using a 6 ring binder system, starting with 1.5" rings, though we might need to upgrade to 2" as the project grows.

Inside the Album:

Already this season, I’ve prepared a bunch of different foundation pages, more of which you can see in today’s video. It's a sneak peek into my process, including fun and interesting supplies for this year.

The small page size is strategic; it encourages me to create during my regular Daily Pages routine, and makes this project very do-able for me, without ever feeling overwhelming. It’s also perfectly suited for the mini printer I just got for some of my recent travels.

See inside the full album set up in this video: rukristin's December Daily Pages Art Journal.

The Format’s Advantages:

This compact size doesn’t just make stories easier, it invites stories that may have been otherwise overlooked. Smaller pages challenge me to distill stories into their essence.

Plus, this year is all about the play—experimenting with paints, stamps, stencils, silkscreens, and more. This album’s format is a playground for mixed media exploration. I love that I can mix and match the various supplies to both play around and learn about what I like and what might not be for me.

Setting Up for Success:

For me, success is one two-page for each day in December, filled in any way that speaks to the moment. My goal is a completed album that holds a part of each day, no matter how simple or intricate the entry. I would love to make some intricate and interactive pages along the way -- but if I just wind up adding a few things to my foundation pages throughout the month; that’s great too.

To make sure this project is as successful as possible throughout the busy month of December, I’ve organized my supplies on a rolling cart, with clear dividers to make each of my cool little bits, bobs, and embellishments easily accessible. This makes it easy to pull out what I need and put it back so I can still see it all when needed.

Past Projects Informing the Present:

Small-format albums have been a hit for me in the past, notably in 2017 and 2020. They were among my favorite December Daily projects, giving me the confidence for this year's book. Returning to this format, my biggest goals are to just jump into the fun, creative process and enjoy every moment.

Here are a few pages from those albums, and what I hope to bring forward into this year’s project.

2017 December Daily

For my 2017 project, I used the same 4x6” size that I’ve got this year, also with the six binder rings. It’s such a cute, chunky, little album, and I can’t wait to play around in the same size again this year.

I’m also looking forward to using little photos in this year’s album. Having a small format printer makes it so easy to print little pictures in just a few minutes, right from my phone -- no need to head over to the computer and go through the whole photo process.

One of the coolest things from my 2017 album is how simple I let it be. This made it so easy to work on each day, even days when I had really bad headaches. This size felt doable, even on the hardest of December days.

This is still one of my favorite DIY albums I’ve ever created. It’s an early prototype of what my Daily Pages project would come to look like.

2020 December Daily

My 2020 album is 3x8”. This was also an incredibly fun size to play around with. This book has a lot more interactive pages and has a little bit more of a scrapbook feel than my 2017 album.

This size lends itself really well to journaling. There’s just a great amount of vertical space to fill up, and writing out your story feels very natural.

I also loved creating pages that weren’t exactly 3x8 sized. In my 2017 album, every page was exactly 4x6”. With this book I was able to experiment more with size and in-between pages. Both of which I hope to bring into my 2023 book.

Another fun thing in the 2020 album are all the interactive pages I was able to create. This page here has a pull-tab, letting me show off even more pictures of my cute succulents. It was so much easier to come up with creative ways of being interactive with these pages because I already decided on the small format, and this was just one simple way to step outside the box.

I can’t wait to create more interactive pages in this year’s December Daily Pages Art Journal. Flips, folds, pulls, and more. Playing in this album is going to be so much fun.

Join Me on This Creative Adventure:

I’ll be documenting my progress and sharing behind-the-scenes peeks on Instagram at @rukristin. For further inspiration, you can also check out my lesson (and everyone else’s lessons) in the December Daily Product Play class.

I encourage you to make your December Daily practice work for you and your life right now -- and most importantly, have fun with it!

Let's make this December one full of stories, creativity, and personal success.