December Daily 2018

The December Daily 2018 schedule has been released - two separate links there as one talks about December Daily in general and the other has the schedule.  I found out about this project last year and absolutely loved preserving our December 2017 memories in a 6x8 album.

I thought I would share a few photos and some of the details from last year's album so you can get an idea of what to include in a December Daily album if you're interested in joining in this year.  Bottom line, do what works for you.  Buy products, use things from your stash, unleash your inner artist or scraplift ideas from others.  Just get the stories down on paper with photos so that you will have them to enjoy for years to come.  There is no right or wrong way to do December Daily.  Some use 1-25 (or 1-31) for the days, some use 1-25 for the stories, some don't number at all, just try to get one story a day, Christmas-related or not, it's up to you!

There is a lot of inspiration on blogs, You Tube, and Instagram.  Be realistic, many of the artists are members of design teams and have been doing this for some time.  There is some incredible talent out there.

For 2017, I used a 6x8 album from Ali Edwards with page protectors in various sizes - some 6x8, some a divided page of 2 3x4 slots and 1 4x6 slot, some a divided page with 2 4x6 slots.  I also added some 3x8 protectors and some large tags.  

I made the spine label with a photo I took of a vintage silver tree in an antique store and I added December 2017 in Photoshop Elements and I'm still navigating my way through all of the things you can do with it.  The font is called Crushed.

I loved the idea of having things sticking out from and above my album.  Texture was something I explored my first year, using ribbon, chipboard, wood veneer, cloth, and stitching to add dimension to my layouts.

My cover page is two-part - the first is a transparent sheet with a very faint green diagonal stripe of print running across it.  The wording is a variety of Christmas sayings and greetings.  Underneath that is a 6x8 design of a Christmas tree made up of various sayings.  When I placed the transparency on top of the tree sayings, I adhered a wood veneer star embossed in gold over the star on the tree below and then placed the green strip on the bottom.  Almost all of the products I used were from Ali Edwards' December Daily 2017 release, the main kit and some additional items.  I also picked up extra items - tags and ribbon mostly - from Michaels.

I haven't included photos of all of the pages so I'll give you a quick rundown of what story I told each day.

Day 1 - Christmas Cards - our current card, photos of the albums of cards from years past.

Day 2 included a trip to Starbucks for a holiday drink.  I asked the barista for an extra cup which I cut to size and adhered a large photo of Vic and me with our drinks.

The second part of Day 2 was this spread which included a photo from our local Hallmark and journaling cards from Ali Edwards.  I bought the digital version of the cards so I could journal on them in the Crushed font in Photoshop Elements.

Day 3 was a busy day of afternoon tea and then a holiday party that night.

Day 4 was another trip to Starbucks while Vic was gone overnight so I got the cup with the fingers making a heart design and journaled that I missed him and that he has my heart.

Day 5 was five tags telling stories from five Christmases past.

This design below, totally scraplifted, was the lead-in to Day 6 (6 circles in the design) which was a photo from the gift shop where I volunteer.

Day 7 was Vic posing with a two-foot long box of cookies that said the length of the box complies with Elf and Safety.  It was so perfect because he is a safety inspector.  You can find these long boxes of cookies and candy at World Market during the holidays.

Day 8 was the theme of So Totally Loving These Things Right Now.

Day 9 was a story about ornaments I bought for the reunion I attended in June with my former MOPS pals from Florida (1997).  We called ourselves the Sisterchicks after Robin Jones Gunn's Sisterchicks book series.  I couldn't believe how perfectly these Hallmark ornaments fit our theme - "My sister is my favorite chick" - they may not be my biological sisters, but they are my Sisters in Christ.

Day 10 was three tags - one for each of us - with 10 things we were loving about the season.  The giant buffalo check C is from the Dollar Spot at Target.

Day 11 is a few of our favorite things - I cut labels from various Christmas treats and inserted them into the 12 2x2 slots of this page protector.

Day 12 was a photo of MudLynn in her winter doggy coat.  This will be so precious in the years to come as we lost her in June 2018.

Day 13 is more things I'm loving right now.

Day 14 was a holiday afternoon tea with my Lunch Bunch.

Day 15 is all about theater and concert outings with the covers of the programs reduced to fit in the 3x4 slots.

Day 16 was all about Together is our Favorite Place to be - it was a Saturday and I've included all the things Vic and I did together that day.

Day 17 was a puzzled Vic looking at his Starbucks cup with the text "Why is ordering a Starbucks drink so complicated?" and a list of all the options that are available when you order!

Day 18 is a View Finder reel with all of our favorite holiday movies.  I had to order the reel from Etsy because I don't have a Silhouette (yet!) that will cut a reel file.

Day 19 was a tree design made out of triangles.

Day 20 was a story about all of our ornaments and our annual trip to the mall to look at the decorations.

Day 21 was a story about winning a gift from an Etsy planner shop.

Day 22 was a Hallmark card for Vic with a P. F. Chang gift card and tickets to the Star Wars movie inside.  The little green striped circle on the edge is where you hold to open the card.  

I saved a photo of the movie poster and added the tickets and a 'tis the season square with some ribbon and twine.

Day 23 is a photo of Vic looking through our basket of Christmas cards.

Day 24 is our visit to a friend's open house during the day and the Christmas Eve service at church that night.

Day 25 is our tree - I cut a 6x8 photo of the tree down the middle, adhered it to a 6x8 sheet of patterned paper with thin gold washi tape on each edge, and added the Hello Story chipboard piece on the front for you to lift to see the journaling inside.

This is the back of the 6x8 patterned sheet with a wooden tag from Michaels.

I only included Days 1-25 in my album.  My final pages included this giant tag - it says Merry & Bright & FaLaLa on the front in gold and I took a photo of our new CD cover and that's a heart-shaped Starbucks holiday gift card at the top.

This pocket page is the end of the album - it has a 4x6 card from Ali Edwards adhered to the bottom with my ...and that's a wrap! added to it in Photoshop.

If you made it all the way to the end, thank you!  I hope you enjoyed the photos and the narrative gave you some idea of things to include in a December Daily.  There were just the two of us at home last year as Sophia was on the West Coast - if you have family nearby, work, have children in school, or are involved in your church or community, you will have LOTS of stories to tell in your December Daily album.  Don't make it over-complicated - it's a busy time of year.  Some people only snap photos and journal in a notebook what they did each day and then go back and work on the album through the following year.   Whatever works for you.