WE'RE DOING DECEMBER! Whether you pre-plan your December Daily or create as you go along in the Christmas month; make your own covers or decorate ready-made ones, use Project Life style with plastic sleeves and pockets or create your own pages. Maybe you havent made one before and ask 'I cant think what I'd fill a page with everyday?' We'll help with that! Whatever your style we'd love to see it! Here you will find a seasonal blog open from 1st November to 31st January each year. We hope that this will become a wonderful resource of sharing, prompts and inspiration. What is a December Daily? Its a mini-album recording your daily memories capturing the spirit of December. Bring it out with your decorations each year and remember Christmases past. Scroll down on the right side bar and you will find past December Daily albums of each Designer. Check their 'journey' link too, this will give you some great tips and scroll a little further down and you will see the albums categorised into types for easier searching :) Now - 'Let's December Daily'!

Tuesday 29 November 2016

Lizzy's Page Preparations

Hullo there! Today I'd like to share how far ahead I've gotten
on the inside of my daily.
Basically, I wanted to cover up the words on the pages.
They said 'date' and 'location'.
Fine for a TRAVEL diary....but not a December Daily!
And there were way too many pages. And they were quite thin.
Firstly I ripped out lots [kept some spare, that I can pull out
if I don't use by the end of December].
Then I used my glue stick & stuck 2 pages together for strength.
I used washi to cover the writing:
Then tossed up with just leaving the lines.
But to strengthen the pages a bit more,
& because I've a pile of odd Christmas papers,
I decided to use them up:
I've covered about 40 pages. And to be honest, haven't got much
paper left at all. GO ME using stuff up!!
From a full 12x12 double sided patterned sheet, I got 3 full pages,
plus 2 odd bits left:
At this stage, I had one of those 'DING!" moments.
Because I couldn't paste paper right to the edges of my diary,
because of the metal rings, 
I came up with the idea that I could
MIMIC the idea that the papers
I'm actually ADDING to my Daily look like they've been
RIPPED OUT from somewhere else.
Thanks to having an edge punch with that look, it worked.
Distressed the punched edges before gluing in:
I'm definitely thinking black & white photos now.
There is SO much colour and pattern in here already. EEEK!
Next thing was I needed to be able to identify each day easily.
I made some tabs!
I've only put day 1 in - as I'm not sure how many pages
I'll use for each day.
They were easy to make.
Fold a piece of paper in half:
I used a tiny banner punch.
Leave the folded bit FREE of the punch:
You can use the same technique with any punch, really.
Next, I stamped the numbers on them.
Remember, do all your '1s', then '2s' etc. all at the same time.
It makes it easier that way:)
And finished!
Here's a shot of the book once more:
Not super exciting, but ready to go!
How are YOU going?
Prep done?
Ready for December One?!!!
Remember,
we'd love you to share all your process and December Daily journey with us
below:


Cheers for now ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

Sunday 27 November 2016

Jane's Page Preparations


Page preparation! Oh yes this is so important to a like-to-get-ahead person like me! So I started by making my numbers.

All the outside and inner mats were die cut using the three colours I've chosen for this year.

The numbers were created digitally, printed and punched.

Bit of a production line going on here, one set of colours at a time.

Numbers all prepped and time to move on to the pages. I cut thirty-one 6" x 6" squares from patterned paper and popped them into the page protectors. I'd like to say randomly, but couldn't quite do that, so they went in a brown, green, turquoise order and the numbers were popped in as well.

Some days got extra bits popped in too - just in case you know - so terrified I may forget to use something if I leave it in my stash pile!

But of course I couldn't leave it there and actually laid the foundations for a few pages when I know life is going to get particularly hectic - got a few family birthdays in December.

And I'm thinking my pages are going to be a very comfortable mix of digital bits, paper bits and stamping.

One last thing to share before I say good-bye. I've decided to challenge myself to take a photo as my grown up kind of Advent calendar and I plan - could all go pear shaped -  to share each day on instagram. If you'd like to join in with me that would be wonderful - please use #janesadventchallenge and we'll countdown to Christmas together!

In the meantime, we'd love you to share all your process and December Dailys with us
HERE
We'd love to see them!
 

Friday 25 November 2016

Deb's Page Preparations.




Firstly I'm going to take the opportunity to share with you a couple of the gorgeous pages in the book........Some are black and white which gives me endless ideas.....hmmmm will I colour these???

 And this one is one of my favourites (well I love them all really)...........

and also SOMEONE (not me) must have done a little bit of scribbling on the pages as well but that is going to stay........


Anyways, after removing the staples from my book I realized the pages were in three signatures (and this is how I intended to leave them, popping in the new pages here and there)


BUT after some thought I decided to separate them........unfortunately they are way more fragile than I had first thought.  So I decided the binding edge of the page would have to be strengthened.  Something I hadn't planned on.  I cut some bindings (as small as I could manage) from the vanilla cardstock and INKED them.......yes you read that right.........I've already pulled out the inks and that wasn't in Plan A lol.  (It is just a soft colour though - sand beige).

and I've attached a binding to each of the book pages and punched the holes.  The edges feel much stronger now and I don't think I've taken away too much from the page itself.  


I still need to cut out the pages I will be adding from the vanilla cardstock and probably INK the edges of these as well now (so much for keeping things "clean").   I don't really want to go too far with this (just cut a few) because my plans could very well change again.

How is everyone going with their December Daily preparations?.........I hope you are all having as much fun as we are.  

We'd love you to share all your process and December Dailys with us
HERE
We'd love to see them!
  


Wednesday 23 November 2016

Mandy's Page Preparations


 

 Its time to prepare my pages, and have to say, this came together quite easily.
I've been asked why I go to the trouble, but I really enjoy making my own. 
And this year is an added treat for me, something I've always wanted to dooooo....
 will reveal just a little bit further down!
 (So excited!)
Now, back to the pages!  
It's just straight stitching with these, yes, its fabric but by all means... 
the pages still can be constructed by using strong glue and paper.
I'm trying to stay with a black base and a strong pop of colour! 
Really, really  need to add more blue and yellow yet 😊 and will!


 So its starts by measuring, cutting my Basic Grey (mostly Jovial) paper to the size of my covers (its not a standard size - its a 'I like the look of this size' and cut it so) 
 Using the good ole Crop-A-Dile, placed some eyelets too

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Okay... we need to do a little detour...... (did I say I was excited!)
 The fabric is Basic Grey 'Jovial' and it appealed because of its lovely bright colours with a black base in some of its patterns and this is something I've been wanting to do for a very very long time... 
 Make a quilt!!!!
And keeping in mind that I'm a complete beginner at this, I made the easiest choice possible.....
with a Basic Grey 'Jovial' jelly roll!  Isnt it gorgeous!

 Look at it's lovely patterns and colours!

 And sewn up!  YAY!!!!  (omg!! in love, in love!)


 So its left me with some wonderful bits of fabric to go on my December Daily
and the inspiration for my page edging and the 'Jovial' paper to go in my December Daily
Oh gosh... imagine that ... I'll have a matching quilt and December Daily!!
 But great to do something wonderful with the scraps!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

OKAY... back to the pages!! (again) LOL

Firstly, to make the pages stronger, I decided to 'back and front' them.  The stripey pattern will be on the inside.  This paper is Basic Grey's Oxford 'Letterman' it was a great 'light black' (is that a good explanation???)  for my 'hopefully' black and white photos later on!
 

 and then the blacks are on both sides of the pages





Time for the edgings... (those snowflake strips I actually took out of my quilt pieces cos I didnt like them and replaced them with black. They seemed too stark next to the rest of the patterns!  But I think they 'might' be okay in my Dec Daily... we'll see :)

So pick a piece of fabric, and iron over some of the edges of the fabric - the selvages were fine
and glue the paper and fabric edge together so they stay put while sewing....


And through the sewing machine a few of the pages go!




Even did a transparency (will definitely be doing more of these!)
This is an old Hambly Screen transparency that every now and then you could be lucky to pick up!





Even, cut out the 'Jovial' paper doily to form a page


Here's the covers and pages spread apart.

Just got to make some more pages with blue and yellow edging and some more transparency ones and it will be all ready to go!


Not long now until the 1st of December!
The Christmas decorations will come out, and my past December Dailys will soon grace the coffee table again.   I love how each one is so different and how each one becomes such a laugh and chat with friends and family.   So happy another one will be making its way among the mix!
 If you want another peek at my December Daily stash...
here's the POST
Or how the COVER was constructed.


In the meantime, we'd love you to share all your process and December Dailys with us
HERE
We'd love to see them!