Jane's December Daily Journey

Jane's December Daily Journey .....

My journey begins back in 2011 when I discovered Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class and immediately fell in love with the whole idea of keeping a daily record throughout December. I had  kept a random album of what I thought were significant photos from previous years back to when I first got married, but this every day thing was a new and exciting venture for me.

And yes I was totally overwhelmed! I didn't have a clue what format to use and the choice of colours and papers was all too much. So I just took one day at a time, followed Shimelle's guidelines to the letter and sort of muddled through the presentation side of the album as I went along.

 2012
For 2012, I thought I was better prepared and thought I knew exactly what I was doing
Note the use of 'thought'.

I'd discovered that I loved to journal and went with a format that would allow for extended writing, kept in pockets on the right hand page while the left side was all about the photos.

I still kept pretty true to Shimelle's prompts for the theme of each day's page,

 but I'd prepared all the pockets and page number clusters in advance.

So I started my pages confidently never giving a thought to an album to store them in. Half way through December I realised it would have been better to make the page size fit an album rather than try to find an album to fit my pages - bummer! And as you can see the pocket idea worked really well to store my journalling but made for very bulky pages. I had no choice really, loose rings and a homemade cover were my only option.

 2013
With 2012's album issue still rankling at the back of my mind, I started 2013 by buying the album first!  This whole December Daily thing is such a learning curve.  So what was this year's big mistake?  Well another size related problem.  I bought the album online and didnt really take very careful note of how big it was.  But hey, it was bought, it was red and it had to be used.

I was still following Shimelle, but I'd discovered Ali Edwards and wanted to use her format making this year's pages more relevant to what was actually happening to me on each day. I'd also really got into taking photographs and planned to put them everywhere!

I prepared quite a lot more in advance too. As I was becoming more comfortable and relaxed about my December Daily and knew what to expect, I found it easier to get things ready. In fact I'm the complete opposite to the rest of the DT who prefer to do things on the cuff - that is so not me! Best confess now, I'm a planner addict, super organised and find I can be more creative when the basics are already done.

 2014
This was the year I discovered Let's December Daily and began sharing my pages there and on my blog.  I actually purposefully chose colours and a format for the first time. I was inspired by all the DT's creativity and my album cover was born.

 I went back to the loose binder style - the result of another issue with not buying an album first - seems I don't learn from my mistakes!

I was into digital pages and short on time so a 6" x 4" size suited me perfectly. I was able to prepare all the base pages for my journalling and the photographs and a set of embellishment clusters in advance so all I had to do each day was hand write my journalling, add the embellishments and print the photos with digital embellishments. This worked so well for me and I found it relatively easy to keep on top of things.

And as I found spare moments I added in extra little bits peeking through between the pages along the spine like the sequin pocket above and snowflake acetate below.

And of course the best Christmas present for a dedicated December Daily-er was the arrival of a new grandson!

So now I'm wondering what lessons I've learnt - and will try to remember - to take forward to 2015.

• I've bought my album and know the format and size. 
• I will pre-prepare as much as I can - I'd have it all completed in advance if that were possible!
• I've chosen the colours and begun to shop accordingly - something a bit different this year, go see the sneak peek!
• There will be times when I change things up a bit and go 'off piste' and I'm happy and relaxed about this, but only because the basics will be done.

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 2015 album 

and kept it updated each day through December and stayed calm - well relatively - with sharing the process here at LDD.

I added a gold elastic tie round the album to keep it tidy - it's a bit bulky and I did begin to wonder if everything was going to fit.  And I made a little charm to hang from it.

A close up of the charm.

The last pocket in my album contains a collage of photos which didn't make it onto the main pages as the quality was not the best. I often use this method to include those wobbly, but favourite photos, the small format seems to disguise the imperfections.

And my final page is a simple goodbye to 2015.

 Here's my completed weather chart which is tucked safely behind the goodbye 2015 page.

I really love my golden album and the PL format was so easy to keep on track and not get overwhelmed and fall behind during busy times. I also loved that so much of the pocket contents could be made in advance or during quieter times.

Looking back over all my December Dailies I realise that, although all very different, they have one thing in common - every page is the same shape and most the same size. So maybe 2016 will be the year to break out of this format and go for something a bit more random. And I've also got my eye on some papers with a blue & brown colour scheme.

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Here's my finished, and bulging ever so slightly, album

And of course I stuck to my origninal plans of a mixture of paper, stamping, journalling and digi elements - that's just the way I am! This Christmas was supposed to be really quiet with all the sons either at their in-laws or hosting their own Christmas - didn't exactly work out that way and for that I'm both extremely grateful and thoroughly relieved that I prepared so many pages well in advance.

I've one last page to share - I'm calling it the final round up - and it fits in the back of the page protector that has day 31 on the flip side.

And I did say I'd let you all know how I protected my front cover with the moving parts - so this is what I came up with. I simply cut down a 12 x 12 page protector and sewed it round the cover before adhering to the album. Couldn't resist adding a few beads on the sewing thread ends and a ribbon tied round to keep it all tidy.

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