Bec's December Daily Journey....................

Today I thought I'd show you my  past December Daily albums  which are different to what I'm creating this year, just to show some different ways of doing them and to hopefully help with inspiration.

2009

This was my very first album and went for an approx 7x9" cover and using my bind it all to bind the album. But as you can see from this first photo, the pages inside weren't all the same size as the cover, but a mismatch of all different sizes and shapes. 

On the left the inside cover was covered with sheet music paper. The first page was using acetate, shaped and inked along the edge with white Staz On ink. 

Full page photos and more acetate pages. 

Non christmas events also went into the album. 

And of course, photos of the ornaments/tree decoration that the children chose to purchase that year for the tree. 

2010

For this album, I went with a more shabby rustic cover with the doilies, the paint, white being the dominant colour with a hint of other colours like blue and green. The cover was a piece of corrugated card and I've taken off the top layer to reveal the corrugations and tied/bound with three ribbons. 

Again the pages weren't all the same size and a lot of acetate pages again. 

2011

 I decided to try a shaped cover with the pages following shaped as well and again used my bind it all to bind the album. I drew the shape myself and used the first shape to replicate the shape for all the pages and back cover.
This year I went with the traditional Christmas colours. 

Not all the pages were the large shaped pages. Some were smaller and different orientations. 

When I had LOTS of photos for the one day, for example Christmas Day..........

 I put them all on a piece of paper and concertina folded the paper, so when you undid the ribbon holding it down, the concertina opened up to reveal another 7 photos under the 1 photo. Such a space saving idea. 

2012

Last years album I went for a squarish shape, and again the pages are all odd shapes and sizes. The colours I chose was the red, white, blue with sparkle! Bound with two large rings. 

 And acetate pages again........

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2013 December Daily

This December Daily was my 5th and I loved it just as much as the excitement and eagerness as the first AND this was my 1st December Daily in a Project Life style.  But with that, there have been 'what ifs' and do's and don'ts that I have come across with this album as with all my other albums.

With my life being so much busier than my previous 4 albums, this Project Life style was sooooooo much simpler and easier to keep on top of. I'll definitely be doing it again with an even busier lifestyle this year.

But the changes I would make for my next album would be:

* Pre make more title cards, decorated cards, shaker pockets, words etc. I found this was the main thing that held me up, but with having some of the cards, embellies etc already done, was a great help and very efficient with being so busy.

* Not being so hard on myself if I forgot about "Tinsel", our elf every night and not remembering to take a photo. I was regularly taking pics at the start of the month, but as it was getting closer to Christmas, I was struggling to remember with all the things I had to do to get ready for Christmas Day.

* My past albums I have loved the full page or larger photos in my album. So my next album I want to include some full page photos cut down into 4 pieces to fit inside the 4 pocket pages.

* Sticking to a colour theme. - What made it easier was having ONLY my "christmas" coloured embellies, cards, ribbons and paints in a bowl all together. I'll definitely be doing that again.

* Deciding on a "colour theme" early on was a great help. Having those colours that I had chosen, readily accessible from the start made it so much easier. I didn't have to think to hard and waste time thinking about the colours when the focus was on the photos and the important journaling and memories that I wanted to record before I forgot them.

* Not worrying so much about what everyone else is doing and how AWESOME everyone else's albums look. I did this for me and my children and they LOVE it!! So thats all that matters. Once you start worrying about everyone else's gorgeous albums, then time is being wasted stressing about how you 'wish' yours was looking. I spent too much time doing that and forgot to focus on why I was really doing it and it's main purpose. Enjoy the process and the memories. 

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2014
Well, another year over, another December Daily done.
Boy did that time fly!!! But it was fun.
Here is my finished album..................................

I enjoyed making my album binder/cover this year. I had made it to suit my personal needs and wants and loves. It was a challenge I had set myself and I am very happy with the outcome of the final product.

My final addition was the year in the little metal frame on the front. 

Now it's complete........................

I still enjoyed, and found practical, the Project Life style as last year was the first in 14 years that I worked full time. Christmas is our busiest time at work and I still had time to complete my album.

These edgings on the pages I loved. But would make sure that I had a substantial stock of them pre made before December 1st so I wouldn't run out like I did this year.
Lesson learnt #1

I really wanted to do more of these list type cards but didn't have time. Next time I would have the ideas already and then have the cards chosen for each list so all I have to do is write on them.

Lesson #2 learnt

I wish I added more of these individual cards as a page, emphasising a special photo or day or moment.
Lesson learnt #3

 
I really LOVE these shaped pages and the added embellishments on top of the photos where I felt a little restricted with the pockets. So I would like to add more of these free pages but still have the Project Life pockets amongst them.

Again, I absolutely enjoyed my process of my album.

 My children love it and looked through it several times already.

My plans for my next December Daily???....................... Not 100% sure if I'll make my own binder again. Possibly! Although there would be a few changes to my structure of the inside pages and the presentation of them. I am thinking of an incorporation of my past Dec Daily's and recent Dec Daily's. More feature pages, more interactive pages. (I can't believe I didn't make a shaker pocket like last year!!!)

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2015

Here's my finished 2015 December Daily. I found that I didn't need to go back and do anything more as I created most of what I wanted on the days as I went along.

Although it has ended up fanning out a bit chunky even though I scrapped pretty flat it's not too bad, so I decided to leave the spiral on. Otherwise, I was thinking of lacing it with ribbon.

  I really loved the bits poking out of the side of the book, the tags and ribbons. I think I would like to do more of that next December Daily.

This format of December Daily I found great although wish to have done more with mixed media, but I found mixed media very time consuming and as it got closer to Christmas,
I was becoming very time poor.
I would definitely like to do this format again in the future. Scrapping flat was appealing, so maybe a flat book again or maybe back to my Project Life style with more
homemade pages and shaped pages.
I will also make sure that I get someone else to take some photos of me at Christmas time opening presents, baking, cooking, creating etc. and not just the posed photos with family members. (oh and to try and include photos of my camera shy 15yo son.)--------------------------