Mandy: Preparation- Altered Vintage Books

Here's the start to what has been in the planning since last year...(in my head lol)

altering a vintage book - and in blue! For some reason that thought stuck at the end of creating last years December Daily to now - and am so happy how it's falling into place.

I have a favourite pre-loved books online store that I absolutely love love love!

 Brotherhood of St Laurence Books (here in Australia) very inexpensive! (a charity organisation)

So in the search box I typed 'Blue Cloth'  and it brought up all the blue cloth covers in the store which of course are hard covers, then weedled down to how many pages each had and anything up to 120pages is great:) 

So imagine my delight when this one turned up! 

And with 91 pages!  Beyond thrilled!

So merrily thinking away, picturing how this book will turn out, how I'd do the covers, how I'd probably stick two pages together to reinforce them even though this 1929 book possesses thick quality paper for its pages.... and still thinking what else when I happened across 

'30 lists of days'!

and for December! 

To explain: in my previous December Daily's, there is very little about me, typically I do all the photographing and proudly present Christmas along with my family - but its lucky if I get in one of the photos for the whole month...  not that I want my December Daily to be about me - but it makes me think what snippets I might not be leaving behind in the future.... 

What '30 lists of days' achieves is a no-fuss, everyday the page turns to make a list of what's to be done, or thoughts, or a stapled photo to represent what each day means directly to me. So, I need another little book (or you could choose any album genre) and no-fuss being the operative word!  

Then I thought:.... do I need to just do this little book and no December Daily?..... weeeeell that thought lasted a micro-second - that's just plain silly because what if I ended up not liking the '30 lists of days' and end up with NO December Daily!

Mind was made up! 

 This year, I'm going to do both together and see how I feel about it at the end.  An experiment! I'm not so mad (in my defense) - because at the beginning of December each year my work breaks until February (I'm the boss lol) - so do have time to give this a go....

So born is what I'm going to call 

'The Companion to the December Daily'

And trusty Brotherhood of Books coughed this little blue book up from its coffers too!

 I couldnt believe the title and only 90 pages!

And will be completely pre-prepared by Dec 1st.

They will be worked together!

And it will either work a treat - or never to be repeated again LOL!

Arent they special!

Okay with all that explained...

This is some of what I expect to work with:

A total joy to set out!

Now some links for you....

Brotherhood of Books 
(If you order 3 or more books, postage is free - and delivery is super speedy!!!)

(Australian book store)

30/31 Days of Lists:

http://seriousplay.typepad.com/cinback/2012/12/december-book-of-lists.html

http://annetteharing.blogspot.ca/2012/11/december-daily-2012-my-plans-and-few.html

http://mrscraftyadams.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/december-30lists-prep.html

There are propably many more but these links inspired me totally to give it a go

And maybe you might be one who doesnt have time or the inclination to do a full December Daily?

Maybe doing a 'December Book of Lists' might be the answer?

Most of all - have fun!

Mr Linky! So You Can Join Us Too!

Mr Linky!

We've got four Mr Linky pages if you'd love to show your December Daily creations for inspiration, ideas and weeeeell, plain sharing!...

Firstly:

 '2013 or earlier December Daily's'  (to show off any of your albums you have previously made for 2013 or before - by all means, link to your older posts on your blogs)

 Secondly:

'2014 Covers' (to 'show and tell' your newly created covers for your 2014 December Daily!)

Thirdly:

'2014 Pre-Planned Pages' (to give an idea of how you've pre-planned prior to 1st December!)

 And lastly

'2014 Completed Pages'  (to 'show and tell' your newly created  pages for your album

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All Mr Linky's will be opened for uploading until 31st January at which time  'Let's December Daily' will be put to bed until its 'woken-up' in November 2015 to start a new series of December Daily-ing!

It will always be available for a resource throughout the year.

Hopefully you will be part of it!

Mr Linky - 2014 Covers

Mr Linky - Covers
 

Please upload your newly created 2014 'COVERS" of  your December Daily  here by the 31st January so we can visit and see your progress!!

Could we please ask that you mention 'Let's December Daily' and link us back to us.

An InLinkz Link-up

Mr Linky - Pre- Planned Pages

Mr Linky

PRE-PLANNED PAGES
 

Please upload your newly created 2014 'Pre-planned Pages' of  your December Daily here by the 31st January 2015 so we can visit !

Could we please ask that you mention 'Let's December Daily' and link us back to us.

An InLinkz Link-up

Mr Linky - 2014 December Daily Completed Pages

Show us your COMPLETED pages!!

Could we please ask that you mention 'Let's December Daily' and link us back to us so we can continute to share, network and spread the word.

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Team Introduction and Sneak Peeks!

 

 Every few days during the month of November, we will share with you our December Daily stories, journey and thoughts.   As with past experience, sometimes creating a covers and pages don't always work out, or on the other hand, work out terrifically - yes, we experience it all!

Below is a bit on each  design team member who share a few thoughts on beginning their 2014 December Daily journey and a sneak peek at covers!

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Mandy

I cant tell you how excited I am starting my 6th December Daily!  This year I've got an added extension  as well, but will go into that in my next post to explain fully (very big smile).
Every year I try to do something different to the last so I have a wonderful array of December Daily's out on my coffee table at Christmas for everyone to reminisce about.  I love this!
 At the end of last year's December Daily journey, I was hankering to do a vintage hard cloth covered book - and in blue!  So I set about finding just the right book...and I have!  I'm also not great at sticking with colours, but this year, I'll try!  Blues, greens, with reds and golds will feature I hope!  

ALTERED VINTAGE BOOK
Here's a little sneak peek at my cover! 

I cant wait until December rolls around! 

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Julie

This year will be my fourth December Daily and like Mandy, I try and do something different each year so when placed out along with the Christmas tree, there is a colourful display of past Christmas memories. 

As I finished off my Christmas box-styled December Daily last year, I already had some thoughts on  how to attempt this year's, so picked up a red fabric-spined raw American Craft 6x6 album to use. Although I had decided I was going to go with a red, white and kraft with a touch of black colour scheme, until yesterday I was still unsure as to how it would be decorated tossing up between painting or covering it in fabric. The red and white gingham won out!

FABRIC COVERED ALBUM.

Can't wait to unroll that gingham and start dressing my album.

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Deb

I'm looking forward to quite a different approach to my December Daily this year.  There will be no particular colour scheme or paper range.  I have a couple of art journals that I like to have a play in from time to time, although probably not nearly as often as I would like, and unlike most art journalers, the ideas for pages don't come to me unless I'm challenged or prompted.  So what better way for me to get more into art journalling than to have the challenge of creating a page for each day in December.  It will be very different to my last year's pastel-coloured December Daily

ART JOURNAL

                                             and my cover looks something like this..........

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Bec

Woah!!! Christmas is here already and I'm ready to work on my 6th December Daily album.
This year I've decided to go with a Project Life style album again as I'm working full time and find it easy to do and get finished. This will be different to last year's Project Life Album as this year I will be making my album from scratch. Yep! The binder!
I've chosen to work with deep reds, shiny gold, white and Kraft with all colour coordinating embellishments and jazzing up the album inserts.
I've also decided to go with the 'what I want to do' from last year which is the use of full pages mixed in with the pocket pages.


PROJECT LIFE HANDMADE ALBUM

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There you are!!
Four very different styles of December Daily!

Stay tuned, in a few days we will set up
Mr Linky
so you can share with us what you've created or intend creating with!

Remember, if you share, this blog is a great resource - it is visited all year round and the most popular links are those on Mr Linky's!


We'd love to see you there!

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IT'S 1st NOVEMBER - Let's December Daily!!!!

We've woken the blog up and poised ready to start!!!

Are you ready to December Daily!!!

Join Mandy, Deb, Bec and Julie with your December journey!

So get those Christmas papers and embellishments out...

Take photos of what you've got to work with!

There will be some Mr Linky's set up soon for you to upload and show off your stash/December Daily's along with us...

And if you are a first time December Daily -er...

We'd love you to join us!

We have four very different journals....with four very different approaches to show you!

Every couple of days... we will update here with something new!

Say hello in the comments below. ... or if you like, let us know what you have planned this year.

Let's be as interactive as possible ....

bookmark us or become a follower....

and....

Let's December Daily!!