December Daily 2012 | my plans and a few tips

Super excited that my little December Daily album was featured on Ali's blog. She is so inspiring and so generous. I've followed her for quite a while now and needless to say I was so honored she wanted to highlight it! Thank you all for your kind words too. It really means a lot to me.

For the past two years I have done a December Daily, which is an album that documents each day in December. There's no right or wrong way to do these albums. Some people do large 12x12 albums, digital pages, photo-books, smaller 8x8, 6x8, 5x7, 4x6, etc. Some do it in their Project Life albums. Again, there is no right or wrong way. Ali Edwards started it five or six years ago and it has grown to be a popular way to do a holiday album.

Tip #1: make it work for you! 

This year I'm doing a mix of projects, each kind of makes up a layer of my overall memory keeping this December.

1. December Daily in 31 Lists: documenting a little something each day with a photo and a list.
2. 12 December Joys | a Holiday Bucket List: 12 items for 12/2012. 
3. December in Project Life: my regular monthly set up of Project Life.

• December Daily in 31 Lists: I loved the 30 Lists project so much. My friend Stacey on Instagram suggested it would be a fun way to to December Daily. As I was trying to decide what to do this year, this idea kept coming back to me. Remember tip #1: do what works! I decided to alter one of the extra Moleskine journals I had extra to create my December Daily. Here I can do a list or a story a day and I've made up my own prompts for each day (see below if you want to use them too). Journaling can be a struggle sometimes but I found having a prompt and just keeping it in list form really works for me on a daily or daily-ish project. The design is the same each page. Just a photo, washi tape, maybe some stamps, a number for each day, my list and a little date stamp. *note if you use a Moleskine the pages are quite thin. I'm using chalk inks in mine. Here's a look at my album: 

A close up of the tags + here's one of my little date stamps I'm using.

To share the love this holiday season, I'm sharing the prompts I created: if you would like the prompts, please click here to get them from Google Docs. It's a pdf so it should be ready to print. Click on each link for each page.

I printed them on HP Brochure Paper in Matte and cut them out with my paper trimmer. I have the prompt loosely adhered on each page, but am making it so I can change it easily if I want to. I'm keeping the extras (there are quite a few prompts to choose from and both "favorite" and "favourite" spellings) in a little container on my desk to make it easy to pick one each day. Here are the prompts!

Prompts Page 1

Prompts Page 2

Prompts Page 3

My second way for documenting December:

• 12 December Joys | a Holiday Bucket List: I must really like lists! For this project I'm doing a more "crafty" 6x8 album using a Handbook from Studio Calico and a mix of a solid 6x8 page and divided page protectors. My husband and I have come up with 12 items that we want to do in December. Kind of a bucket list or manifesto, whatever you want to call it. Again, I looked back at what has worked for me. The bucket list pages I did this past summer worked great for me, so instead of trying to make each day crafty and doing 25 crafty days, I'm just doing 12. Twelve things we really want to do. It's 2012. The twelve days of Christmas. It just felt fun and felt like the right thing for this year. The pages are almost ready to share, hoping by this next weekend or keep an eye on my Instagram feed. What's cool and feels like a bit of serendipity is that my Moleskine fits perfectly in a page protector that I can add right inside the bigger album. Fun fun stuff!

And finally because I am already doing it anyway:

• December in Project Life: I have a monthly set up for 2012 and I plan to add more of my favorite photos and some everyday life stuff here. You can see how I set up my monthly 2011 album here.  Updated: I am using a Design F page protector and journal cards from Ali Edwards in my Project Life. Really fun! Check them out here.

So there it is! My plan for documenting December 2012. I'm really excited about it and it feels right for me this year. 

Tip #2: prepare as much as you can before December. Ali's templates and overlays are a great place to start. I'll be using her 6x8 templates in the bucket list album. Ali calls these her "foundation pages" and it's great because a lot of the design is already done.

Tip #3: have fun! This really should be number 1. Don't compare, it's easy with so much inspiration out there. Take it for what it is. Celebrate others and their creativity. My advice is to try something. You can always change it or try something else another time. It's all good! And realize what works for someone else may not work for you. It's doesn't make either way right or wrong. It's just good stuff no matter how you do it! And don't forget to live and just enjoy the season.

I would love to see how you are documenting the season this year: share on Twitter and Instagram using #decdaily. Updated: also use #decdailylists so we can share! :)

To see the awesome gals behind 30Lists, click here. (note I am not affilitated with them but definitely inspired by them!)

To see more about December Daily and Ali's past albums click here.

P.S. I have some exciting news to share tomorrow. You heard it--there will be a post two days in a row! 

Products used: here is a group of the products I used. I can't find the link but the canvas star is from Maya Road. I stitched it on with white thread. The little silver stars are from a confetti pack I found in the party section of Michael's. The red embossing glitter is actually some old Martha Stewart but I couldn't find any links for it. I've heard the Zing is fantastic and hope to get some soon! The paper I'm using as a backdrop is one of my current favorites from I Lowe Scrap. I used the white Brilliance ink on the cover. Initially I used white chalk ink but it was really really white. I liked this one more for the look I was going for. I also had to order another set of the journals because I messed up on the first one and it said "le twinkle." My husband liked it but I decided to re-do it. Anyways, hope that helps! Have fun with whatever way you decide to document your December!