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'!

Wednesday 4 January 2017

Let's December Daily 2016 Design Team's Albums Completed and Afterthoughts


Here we are at the end of all four December Daily albums
for 2016
 

 We hope you've enjoyed the ride along with our journey from beginning to end :)

We've learnt a lot - we always do!

Sometimes we set out with solid plans - sometimes they work, and sometimes they dont!
It happened and no matter how experienced we may or may not be, we still learn!
Famous last words they say!   LOL.

So with our 2016 December Daily's all done and dusted....
here are a few words from our wonderful Design Team about their creative 2016 journey ...

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Phew!  This was a really different album to what I've done in the past. The wooden covers were experimental as I had NO idea if they'd turn out.  I enlisted my wood-machinist husband to help me with advice which was fabulous. It worked!!!
 

  I did stick to my original plans of basing the album around 'Basic Grey' collection 'Jovial' and other older papers as a tribute to Basic Grey.  This was fun along with the occasional transparency.  


Also stuck to the pop of colour too and edging pages in 'jovial' fabric and pompoms
It stayed relatively flat!  (surprised!)
Large eyelets and bendy large screw bands to hold it together (metal jump rings just didnt work well)


But what I could not stick with was.......
......black and white photos. 
 Yep that was the big plan and it went south real quick!
First I forgot (merrily printed out coloured photos and placed on the page)..... realised..... and then went back to the drawing board to rehash and I just couldnt do it - it felt like I was taking the colour out of Christmas!  So tossed the black and white idea to the side and carried on! 
Colour it was!
I think my original thought was perhaps black and white photos would have been too much with all the colour that was going to be used everywhere else.
 Anyway....turns out - it didnt matter! LOL

My favourite page would be Day 1...... 
All 'Jovial' including the fabric trim ...oh except the transparency (old Hambley)
I love that its of my loved kitty and being able to see through to the next page too.

 What to do for my 2017 December Daily?  
I 'think'  maybe fabric??... or along those lines. 
(unless some amazing product turns up in the meantime?? It's happened before!)
I've absolutely loved creating my 2016 album  to the finish and have leaned quite a lot!
 Time to rest!

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Well my treasured Little Golden book is now my 2016 December Daily and I love it.
  So glad I finally made the decision to give it a "new life".


It has stayed reasonably flat although probably a little bulkier than I thought it would be considering I tried to make the pictures in the book the focus and not add too many other embellishments.



After putting all my pages into the covers, I decided to add a strip of white ric rac alongside the red braid that I had used when I originally decorated my cover.   I also changed the rings.  Still the same type only in their original state.  Previously I had rubbed over them with black permanent ink and wiped them back to give them a blackish/red tone but found when I went to add them to the album, the black was still coming off on my hands.  So red they are and they look fine.  With some added bits [twine, ric rac (coloured with blue mist)  and gauze (coloured with red mist)].  Also a couple of little red plastic flowers fitted well onto the rings so on they went.



I was happy with how I was able to incorporate the gorgeous pictures in the book which was the plan.  This page would have to be one of my favourites.



As much as I enjoyed creating in my Little Golden Book and am so happy with the was it has turned out,  I felt almost like the pages were pre-planned for me and I'm not a fan of creating in pre-planned albums.  For some it makes things so much easier but for me, I find I get a little "stuck".   If the book didn't have any sentimental value to me, I would probably have created all new blank pages, cut out the pictures from the book and used them and the pages in the book as embellishments on new pages if that makes sense.  BUT because the book is special to me I wanted to keep it as is as much as I could.


NOW thinking, thinking, thinking......what to do for my 2017 December Daily.  Well my very first December Daily was small ( 6" x 4" ) and I said I would NEVER go smaller again.  BUT never say never, because I'm thinking mini for this year's December Daily.  I have a couple of ideas floating around in my head so we'll see how I'm feeling as the year goes on.  For now my 2016 December Daily will be packed away with previous years, to be bought out again in December.

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Here's my finished, and bulging ever so slightly, album

And of course I stuck to my origninal plans of a mixture of paper, stamping, journalling and digi elements - that's just the way I am! This Christmas was supposed to be really quiet with all the sons either at their in-laws or hosting their own Christmas - didn't exactly work out that way and for that I'm both extremely grateful and thoroughly relieved that I prepared so many pages well in advance.

I've one last page to share - I'm calling it the final round up - and it fits in the back of the page protector that has day 31 on the flip side.

And I did say I'd let you all know how I protected my front cover with the moving parts - so this is what I came up with. I simply cut down a 12 x 12 page protector and sewed it round the cover before adhering to the album. Couldn't resist adding a few beads on the sewing thread ends and a ribbon tied round to keep it all tidy.

So what's in store for my 2017 album? Well I've so enjoyed creating the digi photos this year I'm leaning towards mainly digi pages, perhaps matted onto paper - need that fix - and possibly A4 sized. Watch this space!

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I am happy with how my 'stash busting' album turned out. Towards the end it got a little fat, but not overly so.  The one problem I had was the back page fell away from the spiral rings. OOPS!
To keep the book all together, I simply added some trim to the spine, feeding it through the middle of the metal rings and tied it off:

The use of black and white photos was fine, but I did end up cheating, using colour ones in the plastic sleeves tucked in the back of the album for Christmas Day. The idea of using a 'thankful' list when nothing much was happening worked really well for me. This is my fave page because I enjoyed using the ephemera in a 'different' way by creating a flip up to reveal the photo:

Weirdly [or not] even though I had no colour scheme in mind, I've noticed it's mostly green and reds.
I guess that's because they are common Christmas colours! So it ended up matching more than I anticipated!
Totally happy with my 2016 December Daily!

As for 2017. Well, I really enjoyed seeing Jane's plastic binder folder idea. I've got an 8' x 6" one sitting in my stash.  Maybe I'll try pocket scrapping with my stash that I have left over from this year in that next year? And definitely going back to colour photos! I missed that a little this year;)

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So there you are!
We four, all had a very different outlook, purpose and end result.
Its been both a pleasure and a joy.
The blog is now going to 'sleep' until the beginning of November this year when it will 'wake up' again for our 2017 December Daily journeys!
 
In the meantime:
 Dont forget to become a follower and put us in your bloglists so you know when we will be back up and running .....November will return sooner than we think! Look how quicky this one came around!
It seems to be in a 'blink of an eye' these days!
 
We are sure this site will be used as a wonderful resource all year..... especially towards the end of the year along with your contributions in Mr Linky ( still open for your submissions till the end of January 2017) for everyone who visits to see, and visit your blog too....


Have an amazing 2017!!!!

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Jane's Days 29 - 31

 
Day 29


I'm impressed that I'm still going and keeping up to date, but if I'm honest the energy is beginning to flag and I'm so pleased I prepped so much in advance. A simple beginning to today's page ....


... that got jazzed up with a die cut tree, digi word strips, a snowflake and sparkles.


And then some word stickers and more gems once the journalling was written.


One of my favourite photos from the season, so I just added an ep digi banner and kept it simple.


Day 30


Another prepared ahead starter page using that gorgeous woodgrain paper from Simple Stories Bloom & Grow collection.


As this was a bit of a chill out, relaxing sort of day I chose a coffee cup and a cupcake sticker placing them on top of my journal card. I'm more than happy to cover over earlier bits like this if they just don't seem to fit the page any more. 


I used alphas to make an appropriate sentiment and stamped the little birds to create a border down the number card strip and linked it to the journal card with one more bird.


I used quite a few digi elements and brushes on my photo today, some Katie Pertiet, some Ali Edwards and the smudge behind the title strip is a freebie included in a Jessica Sprague workshop. And can I just say here that just about everything I know about using Photoshop is as a result of Jessica Sprague classes - can't recommend her highly enough!


Day 31


The last day of my album today and also the last day of a bonus four extra days with my Isle of Man grandsons - all due to their car break down.


Still keeping things very simple as I was wanting to the make the most of this last day with my grandsons. So I simply added a photo, a quote strip and some trios of enamel dots.


The digi elements today are from Katie Pertiet and ep and the photos reveal some very full mouths!


So now I'm all done for 2016 and my album is bulging at the seams. How about you?

PS: Remember!
 
We'd love you to share all your process and December Daily journey with us

 
We'd love to see them!


Monday 2 January 2017

Mandy's Days 25 & 26

 

 Here it is....
the last two days of my December Daily :) 

DAY 25
This is the reverse side of Day 24

The white Christmas trees on the transparency arent covered up as much on this side,
 the trim and doilies are still visable and the matching shaped date tag
which worked well this side too  



Christmas takes up a couple of pages... 
*Note for next year..... make sure I'm in photos!*
(you can see where I've been)
It's not until I scrap my pages that I realise, I'm probably not in many if any of them!

 The trim (which was just from the $1shop) folded in half and sewn along the edge.


The little line of Christmas trees are coloured here and there with a white 'jelly roll' pen. I've found this to be the best in white colouring and journaling there is and I've tried dozens and dozens of brands! Beware though... make sure the pen has 'O8' on the side of it.  It could be branded 'icecream', but dont accidently buy the 'glaze or souffle'  - they are clear or only just white.  I use the '08' jelly roll pen for my art work on other projects too.... LOVE it!

 Glad to use up very very old rubons!! And held my breath it would all stick smoothly (we all know how badly old rubons can go!) 


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DAY 26 
Green on this side... (all the pages consist of two papers together for extra strength)
Another older basic grey paper :)

A tiny star stamp (on the end of my finger!) was used to stamp all over the photos and paper 
finishing off with some bling!

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On the back cover....for the 26th

The front page of our local newspaper had a fabulous photo so used that to finish off 
as we fall into a state of 'holiday-ness' lol!

The background is just a few different Project Life cards cut up, switched around or shortened

 All finished off with some Basic Grey Jovial stickers.

Click HERE 
if you would like to see the first part to  my 2016 December Daily
We'd love you to share all your process and December Daily journey with us
below:
We'd love to see them!

Sunday 1 January 2017

Lizzy's Days 25-31


Oh my gosh. I do believe my life is flashing by in the blinking of my eye!
The month of December is a case in point.
ANYWAYS, I have managed to FINISH my DD!
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Day 25
Christmas Day.
A big one.
And I really 'had' to use colour.
Luckily, the ex-travel book I'm using had 2 plastic sleeves in
the back of it. I always knew they'd come in handy
for Chrissy photos:
Using the Becky Higgins' Project Life App again,
I've created collage style on my 4x6 photo paper,
then cut them down to size.
The writing is added with my Little Moments App.
This is basically what I did for all 4 pages, with some variations.
Here's another example:
This 'freed' me to use a black and white photo on the actual day
for Christmas!
We had it out front of our house:
I've got to the stage where my book is FAT!
So I'm trying NOT to do anymore 'flips'.
Instead, I added a journaling pocket at the bottom
and typed my journaling on vellum.
Got to use up a bit of trim along the top:

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Day 26 & 27

This is a very simple spread.
Once more based on my 'thankful' list.
Both days on one page, as it was R & R
time:
A bit of washi; still using up stars too,
& I even used a Christmas 'sparkle' word on Michael's
photo!
I popped both dates together on washi up top:

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Day 28

 I think this is the simplest, or most 'CAS' page I've done.
I used my phone app to write ON the photos,
& simply outlined them with a black marker:

Day 29:

Apart from the fact we're in the middle of a heat wave,
there was not much happening. The 'thankful' prompt
was about a 'surprise'.
Took a bit of thinking.
Once again, simple page, 'cos my book is
really thick now!!!
I'm not sure the Chrissy Bell has much to do with washi or
happy mail. But it looked nice!!!

Day 30

I used 3 small photos. Tilted to fit!
The background paper was already stuck down,
and it was too dominant.
So I added a tag to pop my journaling on.
Used up the silver glitter alphas again:

Day 31

Last day of the month!
And I've gone completely 'CAS'
[Clean And Simple]
Sometimes I think it's as important to show
how you can scrap quick, with no tricks like
flips & other clever things.
'Cos in the end, this is about getting December scrapped!

So, there you have it from me.
I hope you enjoyed going along on my DD journey as
much as I enjoyed making it:)

Cheers ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

PS: Remember!
We'd love you to share all your process and December Daily journey with us
below:
We'd love to see them!