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!

30 Lists Sept 2012 | Lists 9-30

Better late than never! I finished my 30 Lists project the first week of October and finally getting to posting the pics. I had so much fun with this project. It's inspired me to do it this way for my December Daily this year, but more about that to come.

For now, here are my lists numbers 9-30.

And there it is! Like I said, I had a lot of fun with this project. I think they run it twice a year, be looking for the next one in the spring. Of course you can always make up your own lists too! Which is what I'm planning for December.

To find out more about 30 Lists, click here. To see my other 30 Lists posts click here and here.

Products used: I used a Moleskine cashiers grid journal, an app on my iMac called Instant to make the "Polaroids", various washi tapes, sharpie pen. Font is Bebas. The map is from Mr. Printables. I printed out the photos on HP matte 4x6 photo paper at home.

Currents

Just a quick update to say I'm still here! Thanks for all the love for the summer bucket list. Really was a fun project. Fun to see it pop up on Pinterest! I'm adding in 1-2 spreads for each month June-August but keeping it really simple.

I'm other news I updated the blog header! Decided to try my hand at showcasing a bit of my work as part of the header. I kinda like it so far.

I've been working quite a bit, and just living life in general. I've been taking a few online classes. Really love them but it doesn't leave much blogging time. Learning a lot though which is good. I'm also working on quite a few projects. Bouncing around a lot. Lots of painting going on right now.

So as an effort to keep this update quick I thought I'd use the amazing Tina Azmus's Currents prompts. Here we go:

date: 10.28.12
location: my crafty space
eating: chili...lots of chili
drinking: diet coke...way too much diet coke
enjoying: spending family time today carving pumpkins
listening: to Taylor Swift's new album Red...really love it
wishing: I could do a Harry Potter marathon for Halloween...that would be cool
thinking: I should probably take some photos of my completed 30 Lists before nap time is over
making: a mess with misting today, but painted over it and now it's looking really cool
feeling: nervous/happy/excited about some upcoming projects you'll see soon
loving: twinkle lights...they just make me happy

my crafty play space + twinkle lights

you can check out Tina's currents at Life Love Paper here

Project Life Summer 2012: Bucket List Style

Finally finding time to share my Summer 2012 Project Life pages. I loved the Summer Manifesto by Ali Edwards as well as her templates for the Summer Manifesto minibook. When I saw the 6x6 pages I knew immediately I wanted to include this in Project Life. In fact, I love it so much it is all I have done so far to document Summer 2012.

I think it has done a wonderful job of capturing our summer.

Back in June I made a list of 10 items for us to do this past summer. I wrote each item on a clothespin and clipped it to a paint bucket from Home Depot--inspired by this. I knew it would be a stressful summer. We just had a lot going on and we needed to keep it simple. Yet I also wanted to create opportunities for us to get out and enjoy the summer. Thus, the bucket list!

Here's a look at my pages:

For my project I used Design E page protectors from Becky Higgins as well as the templates from Ali Edwards which can be found at Designer Digitals here. I printed the Life is Good overlay from Ali onto a transparency and placed it over a piece of white cardstock. I also stamped and embossed, then cut out a Happiness Right Here stamp from Kelly Purkey for a little extra fun.

I can't tell you how much I love these pages. I love that this project inspired us to enjoy the simple things, get out and have some adventures, and still be a great way to capture our summer. The best part is that it is done! No feeling behind. No feeling like I have to do this week or that week. It's interesting to me to do it like this because I have been sorely tempted to do 2013 Project Life weekly. I still haven't decided if I will try it that way or not. I absolutely love seeing it done that way and I know it would be a treasure. We'll have to see. Maybe I should just do a year in a bucket list format?!

I think regardless of how you choose to document it, it's awesome. I love the Project Life system and how it can be adapted to your own style and needs.

And overall, the most important thing is to remember to live! Becky Higgins Project Life system turned 3 this week and they had an awesome celebration. As part of the celebration, the creative team designed quote cards for free. You can find them here.

I love the quote card by Monica McNeill featuring a quote from Bob Dylan:

"If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them."

And just like that we are thinking about fall, pumpkins, and chilly weather. Summer 2012 you were just amazing and I am so happy we cherished you! 

Supplies used: also note I used the summer 2012 flair from Ormolu (no longer available).