Recording Your December

Hello, Practical Scrapper Alison here with some holiday inspiration!

I don't do Project Life as I just can't imagine keeping up every day with the mundane goings on of school drop offs, dance practice, soccer practice and commuting to work in rush hour traffic. Instead I choose to create layouts about special events and moments. However, for the past 3 years I've kept a December Daily - inspired by the great Ali Edwards! Okay, last years DD got put away unfinished when my hard drive crashed and took with it a lot of my December photos but ... one of these days ...

Do you do a daily album in December? Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out the link above for more info but basically you keep a daily documentation of the everyday and holiday goings on for the month of December. Today I want to share my 2013 album with you.

I am using a 6"x8" SN@P pocket page style album by Simple Stories - here's my cover.

My intro page - I talk about my expectations for the month and how we are introducing a new tradition in the form of an Elf on the Shelf.

And now the days that I've completed so far (I'm a teeny tiny bit behind).

December 1: 

For my pockets with only a photo I am endeavouring to embellish as if it were any other layout. Here's a close up of the bottom left pocket.

December 2:  

I had the privaledge of being a guest designer for Monica Bradford's Your December Inspired class and this was the page I did for one of my inspirational prompts - Scrap The Music. I created a cut file with my Silhouette to look like a musical score and then talked about some of my favourite Christmas songs.

December 3: 

It was unseasonably cold at the beginning of December so on this day I chose to document that as well as some of the fun we are having with our new Elf - Suzie McJinglebells. 

December 4: 

It was Parent Observation Day at my daughter's dance studio so I devoted one whole page to her.

Day 5: 

I love this giant picture of Suzie with her request for Candy Canes. When not a lot has gone on or perhaps the photos you took of the 'action' aren't as great as you'd hoped, choose something else to focus on!

Day 6: 

And then there are those days that a lot seems to happen! What to include? These pocket pages make it easy to include a little bit about everything. We had a Breakfast with Santa at our school for which I was on pancake making duty yet again. Plus Suzie was a bit mischievous with the dining room chandelier and some stickers she found laying about. And if that wasn't enough, my middle daughter lost a tooth!

Day 7:  

This was another busy day and I didn't even get to include photos from my husband's Children's Christmas party at his office (mostly because I wasn't there so the photos are on his phone!) but since the perfectly ordinary things like swimming lessons are still going on during the early weeks of the month, that was the story I went with.

I did also include a little pull out 'mini' documenting our wee Elf again. She got a bit cheeky and requested the girls clean their bathroom so she could take a bath and I felt that needed to be in the album!

 

This is the photo on the back of the journaling tag.

Then this and the photo below are back to back - this one shows Suzie with her note that was waiting for the girls when they got home from the party.

And then a close up of the note itself.

When you pull out this little insert you find this hidden photo.

Yep, that's my middle child!! Always pulling faces!

I hope you feel inspired by my peek and behind the scenes tips to documenting your holiday season. At the very least the fact that I am over a week behind should make you feel good, right? 

Have a wonderful week and Merry Christmas!!

December Daily 2012 - Are You Ready?

Hi there! Practical Scrapper Alison here. I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving Long Weekend. We've already celebrated our Thanksgiving (I'm Canadian so we celebrate in October) and turned our attention to Christmas! In that vein, today I'd like to show you my foundation pages for this years December Daily album.What is a December Daily, you ask? It is a project started by Memory Keeping Guru Ali Edwards designed to help you record the daily goings on during the Holiday Season. You can check out her blog for more information here and see what she's prepared to use this year here.

2012 is my 3rd year embarking on this journey with her (and thousands of like minded memory keepers out there!) I'd love for you to check out my previous albums. You can find 2010 here and 2011 here. Both of these albums use digital templates that I purchased from Ali Edwards and this year she is offering them again but I have decided to try my hand at making my own. I've downloaded a trial version of Photoshop Elements with the assurance from Greg that I can have the full blown version whenever I want (it was actually a birthday present that I haven't cashed in yet!) We'll see how it goes. I may break down and buy hers in the end!!

So, what have I got ready for 2012? I'm sure you're all dying to see some pictures, right?
Well, here you go ...

This is what I have so far. In previous years I have had every single page ready to go - all I needed to do was add pictures, journalling and some embellishment. This year I want to leave room for a bit more creative freedom so my pages are pretty unfinished (as you will see). I'm also hooked on the Art Journal look so a lot of my pages will be more art journal and less traditional scrapbook page.

This is a close up of my cover page embellishments. I am using mostly Echo Park papers from various Christmas lines (some have been in my stash for a while so it's time to use them up!) The frame was one I found in the clearance bin at Michael's several months ago. It was originally turquoise but a couple coats of some white craft paint and some brown ink distressing and voila! 

While digging through my stash trying to figure out what to use for the cover (by the way, the cover I went with was the same as last years - Teresa Collins Christmas mini album kit cover) I found these pieces of raw chipboard. They were almost the perfect size to fit into the Teresa Collins covers! They are also what prompted the art journal idea as they lend themselves nicely to being covered with all sorts of things!

These are the art journal-esque pages that I have started so far. Some are messier than others and to be honest I'm not sure where this is going to end up but the journey should be fun! Some of the back sides are covered in patterned paper, some are covered in more paint and some are still raw ... I'm leaving myself lots of room for play this year.

Here's a close up of some of the texture I've got going. 

As for my numbers, here is what I've done. Pretty simple. I felt that the pages themselves were going to be quite busy so the numbers needed to be bold enough to stand out but simple enough to let the artwork take centre stage. As you can see I have not attached them to any of my pages. I am determined to assemble as I go this year!

A close up so you can see how I popped up each star to give dimension.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this look into what I will be working on this December. I'd love to see your December Dailies if you are working on one this year. Please leave a link in the comments or come over to my blog and leave your link there. 

**Designer projects are not always linked in our posts, but you can always find their blogs in our sidebar or in the staff tab**