December Daily - 2011

Back in November, I attended a Scrapdoodles Weekend Retreat in Glen Allen, VA (near Richmond).  One of the best parts of this trip was the class I took from Nicole Samuels.  She is a great teacher and designed a fabulous December Daily mini-album using product from My Mind's Eye Merry & Bright line.   Here is her blog post about the kit she put together for her design.

I can't take any credit for the design - it all goes to Nicole.   I put the album together, learned some new techniques, used some new product, and embellished during that 2 hour class.  It was finished and ready to be filled with daily memories and activities for December when I left.

Last year I attempted December Daily (from Ali Edwards, read more here) for the first time and I had a really hard time keeping up with scrapping every day (mistake 1!) and creating the embellishments/design as I went (mistake 2).   I loved the concept of December Daily but needed a better way to manage the day-to-day stuff and make it work for me.    This year I found it and I'm so glad I did!

First thing, someone else designed the album (see first paragraph).  Since each page needs to be connected to the others, but unique and interesting, I worked hard last year to create...and then was out of steam by about day 16.  The last 9 or 10 pages showed that I had nothing left!  I also had very little creativity left to add to the pages when it was time to journal and write about my daily life...which made my 2010 December Daily much more of a journal, straight forward and very repetitive.   This year, I love that the pages are different sizes - some are small tags, some are full 5x7 pages, some are in between.  That works for me and helps remove some of the repetition!

Secondly, I didn't scrap this every day...that didn't work for me last  year.    This year, I saved ideas, photos, activities and thoughts and kept them jotted down (on my ipad) all during the month.  On Friday, December 23rd and during the day on Christmas Eve, I printed my pictures, scrapped and embellished.  It worked so well for me, and I am much happier with the outcome this year!  Live and learn!  

Third, I didn't stress about something every day.   I paid more attention to the thoughts and activities I wanted to remember for December.   And I didn't need a photo every day.   Day 7 is a great example.  I wanted to remember we have had really warm weather...but I was wishing for snow.  So I journaled that and added "snow" from pearl gems.  :)

Here are a bunch of pictures of my album  - again, the design is Nicole Samuels and the idea of December Daily is from Ali Edwards, but the photos, completed album and journaling are mine.