living artfully

december daily - journal your christmas: 17-31

The snow is just finally melting away here in Wisconsin. And as the last signs of the season disappear, I finished up my Journal Your Christmas album. There were a number of things I decided to change this year from my previous albums, like following JYC, keeping a consistent page size with flat embellishments, and including December 26th-31st in the album. The verdict? I loved it!

Here are my pages for December 17th through the 31st...

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I waited to bind the album until it was complete, so I could add photos and embellishments all the way to the inner edges. So glad I made that decision; I love the full page photos and couldn't have done this if the album had rings from the beginning.

 

 
click on any image for full-size
to see the full album, visit "dec daily / jyc: 2010"
for all december album posts, visit "december daily / jyc"

Is it crazy that I caught myself wishing for snow and Christmas again?!

hugs, sharyn

december daily - journal your christmas: 12-16

Between the baking and holiday parties this weekend, I found a little time for my December album. The more I add to this album, the more I love it. I love flipping through the pages and seeing what they make as a whole. 

Here are my pages for December 12th through the 16th...

 

 

 

 

 
 
click on any image for full-size
to see the full album, visit "dec daily / jyc: 2010"

Fingers crossed that I can get in a little more crafting time tonight and tomorrow night!

 

december daily - journal your christmas: 07-11

Can you believe next Saturday is Christmas?! We're staying calm and festive around here. And I'm still very much enjoying my December album. This weekend I'm working on the pages from the past week. In the meantime, here are a few more completed pages...

 

 

 

 

 

click on any image for full-size
to see the full album, visit "dec daily / jyc: 2010"

Tonight, we are off to a party at one of my dear friend's houses. Each year she hosts an "ugly sweater party." It's always an excellent time and it's become a favorite tradition to find the ugliest Christmas sweater possible. Here's a little sneak at what I'll be wearing tonight ;)

 

Hope you are enjoying your pre-Christmas festivities!

 

december daily - journal your christmas: 02-06

Can I just say how much fun I'm having with Journal your Christmas?! I love how the prompts are helping me to approach each day in a new way. Don't get me wrong; I also love December Daily. I think the combo of the two has been the perfect blend of themes and daily memories. At first, I wasn't sure if I should sign up for JYC but I'm so glad I did.

Here are my latest pages for my album, December 2nd-6th. It's fun having a few pages already done to flip through...

 

 

 
 
 

 

click on any image for full-size
to see the full album, visit "dec daily / jyc: 2010"

How are things coming along with your December album? I hope that you've been enjoying the process so far!

 

december album foundation - part 2

It's getting so close to December! I'm extra excited for my album this year because I'm following Journal Your Christmas and December Daily!

Yesterday I posted the first half of my December album. Today, I'm excited to show you the rest...

 
day sixteen: cream patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), journaling spot (Making Memories), 16 (Elle's Studio)

 
day seventeen: polka dot paper (My Mind's Eye), journaling tag (Katie Pertiet for designerdigitals.com)

 
day eighteen: green graph paper (Basic Grey), date overlay (Ali Edwards for designerdigitals.com)

 
day nineteen: polka dot paper (Basic Grey), journaling tag (liv.e designs for jessicasprague.com), santa (Making Memories), 19 (Elle's Studio)
day twenty: green patterned paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Making Memories), 20 (Making Memories)

 
day twenty-one: brown hounds tooth paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Making Memories), 21 (Making Memories)

 
day twenty-two: ledger paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Creative Imaginations), scalloped circle (Making Memories), 22 (Making Memories)
day twenty-three: snowflake paper (Making Memories), date overlay (Ali Edwards for designerdigitals.com)

 
day twenty-four: sheet music paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), journaling spot (Creative Imaginations), 24 (The Girls' Paperie)

 
day twenty-five: polka dot paper (Making Memories), journaling tag (liv.e designs for jessicasprague.com), 25 (The Girls' Paperie)

 
day twenty-six: reindeer paper (Basic Grey), journaling spot (Making Memories), remember this tab (October Afternoon), 26 (October Afternoon)
day twenty-seven: green patterned paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), journaling spot (Autumn Leaves), 27 (Elle's Studio)

 
day twenty-eight: reindeer paper (My Mind's Eye), journaling spot (Making Memories), 28 (Elle's Studio)
day twenty-nine: snowflake paper (Making Memories), journaling tag (Katie Pertiet for designerdigitals.com)

 
day thirty: sheet music paper (The Girls' Paperie), journaling tag (liv.e designs for jessicasprague.com), 30 (Making Memories)
day thirty-one: green patterned paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), journaling spot (Making Memories), 31 (Elle's Studio)


I'll be watching my inbox for the first prompt from Shimelle!! See you in December!

 

december album foundation - part 1

With the long holiday weekend, I finished the foundation to my December album. Now that the album is set, I can't wait to get started on filling it up! This year, I'm following Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class, with Ali's December Daily added in, too!

This will be my third December album and I learned a lot about the process and my personal preferences from my last two albums. Some key things for me this year...

cohesive color scheme = trying to go for a color scheme and style that makes the album come together despite having so many different supplies.
unified page shape = the last two years were an assortment of shapes/ sizes/ edges. It was fun in a way, but I'm ready to try something different.
journaling= larger journaling cards so there's plenty of room for words.
flexibility = everything is only lightly adhered at this point, so I can still move items.
room to grow= I'm using temporary jump rings so I can still add full-page photos and other items all the way to the edges. The Zutter binder rings won't be added until December is over.
more pages= the biggest change for me this year is that I've got pages set up through the 31st. With the JYC prompts, I want to be ready to keep going after Christmas in case I'm still inspired.

Here are the foundation pages for the first half of my album. I'm excited to share the second half with you tomorrow...

 
cover: acrylic cover (Zutter), reindeer paper (Basic Grey), calendar (Jenni Bowlin), journaling tab (Creative Imaginations), border sticker (The Girls' Paperie), alphabet (Basic Grey), 2010 (October Afternoon)

 

 
day one: green patterned paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), journaling spot (Making Memories), 1 (Making Memories)

 
day two: cream patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), snowflake paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Making Memories), 2 (Elle's Studio)

 
day three: brown hounds tooth paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Creative Imaginations), 3 (Elle's Studio)

 
day four: polka dot paper (Making Memories), journaling tag (liv.e designs for jessicasprague.com),  4 (Making Memories)
day five: sheet music paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), journaling spot (Making Memories), 5 (Creative Imaginations)

 
day six: snowflake paper (Making Memories), date overlay (Ali Edwards for designerdigitals.com)

 
day seven: reindeer paper (My Mind's Eye), journaling tag (Katie Pertiet for designerdigitals.com)

 
day eight: green patterned paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Creative Imaginations), 8 (Elle's Studio)

 
day nine: reindeer paper (Basic Grey), journaling spot (Autumn Leaves), 9 (Creative Imaginations)

 
day ten: green patterned paper (October Afternoon), journaling tag (liv.e designs for jessicasprague.com), 10 (Basic Grey) 

 
day eleven: green patterned paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Making Memories), 11 (Jenni Bowlin)

 
day twelve: polka dot paper (Making Memories), journaling spot (Creative Imaginations), 12 (Elle's Studio)
day thirteen: sheet music paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), journaling spot (Making Memories), 13 (Making Memories)

 
day fourteen: reindeer paper (My Mind's Eye), journaling spot (Making Memories), 14 (Elle's Studio)
day fifteen: green patterned paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), date overlay (Ali Edwards for designerdigitals.com)


Just two more days until we get started!! Are you making a December album? Please share links if you are; I'd love to check them out!

I'll be back tomorrow with the second half of my December album :)

 

green + cream

So excited to have my papers and color scheme for my December album...

 

Last year I used red and kraft; and I really liked how focusing my colors made the album feel cohesive. So this year I'm going with green and cream.

Left to right:
- Basic Grey jovial - nordic
- Making Memories noel - green snowflake
- Making Memories noel - brocade
- My Mind's Eye holly jolly - reindeer fly
- Little Yellow Bicycle christmas delight - christmas morning
- Little Yellow Bicycle christmas delight - merry mint brocade
- Making Memories paperie - geometric window greenhouse
- My Mind's Eye lost & found - cherish
- Making Memories mistletoe - icon dot
- Making Memories houndstooth
- Making Memories noel - green glitter dot

 

For accents, I'll be using die-cuts and journaling spots from the new Noel line from Making Memories, plus green journaling spots from last year's Noel line from Creative Imaginations. And of course, lots of other things I have on hand.

The one thing that has me truly stumped is how to do date labels. Last year, I found about 4 different sticker sets that had number stickers for days 1 - 25. This year, I couldn't find any in the stores, and just one option online: Elle's Studio vintage number tags. Thank goodness they're cute because they might be my only choice! How are you doing your dates?

And I have to say thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on album classes for December. You're very convincing! I'm all signed up for Journal your Christmas and can't wait!! 

 

christmas classes

Christmas is still on my mind. Early last week, I was dreaming about Christmas decorations. Well, I just couldn't resist temptation. So yesterday, I enjoyed a peppermint mocha from Starbucks and this went up...

 

Too early for most people, but feels perfect to me :)

The other holiday item I've been thinking about is my December scrapbook. In 2008, I followed Ali Edwards' loose December Daily structure. And in 2009, I followed Jessica Sprague's free Holidays in Hand class. I really liked how my 2009 book turned out, having prompts to follow... especially for those days when we didn't do anything especially holiday-like.

Without a question, I'll be making another December album this year. They are so much fun to pull out and remember the details of the holiday season, which otherwise could blur together year after year. And with a little prep in November, they can be totally manageable in December. So my dilemma? Which class to follow this year.

Ali Edwards is again taking us through her December Daily approach. There is no fee, so all you have to do is visit her blog for inspiration and tips. Generally, December Dailys involve designing a page per day with photos and words in mini-book format. There's also an active Flickr group for sharing your pages. Even if I follow prompts from a different class, I think I'll still be borrowing inspiration from the December Daily concept.

 

I'm also looking at Tracy Clark's class for Big Picture Scrapbooking, Picture the Holidays. This class gives you daily photo prompts for all 31 days of December. The downside is that there isn't as much of a focus on words, but I do like the idea of being challenged to photograph the holidays in new ways. Instead of capturing nearly the same images as last year, I think Picture the Holidays could really help me see things in new light.

 

And of course, I'm also looking at Shimelle's Journal your Christmas class. I've never spent money before on a class to organize my December album. But I do like that once you enroll in Journal your Christmas, you have permanent access, including access to years past plus all future years. This class gives you journaling prompts as well as a photography focus = best of both worlds! And in addition to the prompts, there's the message boards, a digital kit, an online party, a workbook for bloggers... gosh too much to even list! Go read about it :)  As you can probably tell, I'm super tempted to join in, but the practical side of me is saying I can make this album without paying a class fee. What to do?!

Any recommendations? And did I miss any other great holiday classes? I would love to hear how you're approaching your December album as well as your suggestions!

 

our finished december daily

We were blessed with a very merry Christmas this year and I hope you can all say the same of your holiday celebrations! We ate way too much, laughed lots, and completely enjoyed watching everyone open their gifts. My sweet husband and our families were so generous and I now have lots of fun new scrappy things to play with... which thankfully put me in the mood to finish up our December album.


Day Eighteen: Wish List
Day Nineteen: Attending Jill's Wedding


Day Twenty: Final To-Do List
Day Twenty-One: White Christmas / Holiday Decor


Day Twenty-Two: New Tradition - Baking Stollen
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite Christmas Bible Verses


Day Twenty-Four: Christmas Eve Celebrations


Day Twenty-Five: Christmas Day Celebrations  

Thank you for following along with our December Daily album. And thanks for all the inspiration you've shared by posting your albums, too!

another week of december daily

Another week has passed since I last shared some of my December Daily pages. I am still really enjoying the documentation process of this busy and festive month. This feels like a whole different experience than creating our December album last year and I think the two biggest reasons for this are:

1) the larger format: with my 8x8 album this year, I feel like there's room for plenty of photos and journaling
2) my approach to be okay with getting behind on creating the pages: I'm not stressing myself out or adding extra pressure. Instead, I've decided to be guilt-free about keeping up with the photos and then sitting down every few days to assemble the pages.

So I'm definitely having fun and am loving the simplicity of our album...

Day Nine: First Snowstorm


Day Ten: The Importance of our Holiday Tree
Day Eleven: Favorite Holiday Movies


Day Twelve: Anniversary Weekend


Day Thirteen: Holiday Activities / Ice-Skating
Day Fourteen: Counting Down to Christmas


Day Fifteen: Our 2nd Wedding Anniversary


Day Sixteen: Annual Girls Holiday Dinner 


Day Seventeen: Giving Tree / The Importance of Goodwill 

Can you believe it? Just one more week until Christmas is here! How are you doing on your December albums and holiday prep?