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
This year 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 last year'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 didn't really take very careful note of just 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 this year 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 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 that 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 at Let's December Daily and my album cover was born.
This year 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 yesterday's 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.
Thanks for looking today, I do so appreciate your time. And keep crafting!
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