December Dailies Day 1!

Hey everyone! It is finally here!!! December has begun and with it the opportunity to document all of the wonderful-ness of life in December!!! Here is the intro I have made for my album this year:




I want to give you a few suggestions for taking photos through the month - you really want to have a photo each day to help you document ( or a piece of memorabilia works, too!!) So dust of the camera and have it handy - you want to capture both the special and everyday moments of this festive month!



Here are a few ideas to capture:



Decorating your home ( how about "before and after" shots??)

Your favourite decorations

Christmas baking

Opening the advent calendar

wrapping gifts

Christmas shopping

watching your favourite holiday specials on TV

Holiday concerts and other special events

Your pet all decked out for the holidays

Your kids all decked out for the holidays ;)

Favourite holiday foods

Snow ( if you have it, or how you feel about NOT having it!)

YOU ( get your kids/friend/spouse to take a photo of you at least 3 times!!!)

Writing letters to Santa

Writing or making holiday cards



As you can see, there are lots of ideas of things you can be thinking about to capture your month!

So all that is left is to get out there and take a few photos today - jot down some thoughts to go with your photos and then get busy putting the album together.



Some people do there album a week at time - I do mine everyday because I have a printer at home. I will be posting my pages each day - hopefully to inspire you to play along - and to inspire me to keep going, as well!!



Happy December - I can't wait to hear how you are doing with your album!

Almost ready??

December 1st is fast approaching!!! I have spent some time in the last few days going through my Christmas stash so I can be all ready for my Daily December Album! I went through a lot of my small embellishments, buttons and ribbon scraps and put them together in jars, so they are easily accessible when I am ready to embellish my little pages! This really streamlines the page making process - which is critical if you are actually going to complete the album!

Above is a photo of some of the pages I will be using in my album this year - and I will be adding a few as I go along, or switching them up, depending on the daily page theme.

I am working on my front cover right now, and should have it up and posted very soon. How is your hunting and gathering coming along!??

Stay tuned for more album ideas, as well as suggestions for journaling, photos, and other fun stuff in the upcoming weeks!! I love to have my friends creating right along with me!!

If you have a blog or gallery where you are posting your album pages, please put a link in a comment so we can all see your wonderful work, and get inspired by all of our collective creativity!

Happy Day, everyone!

Daily December Prep Week - Day One!!

This is the countdown week - just 8 days until December begins and we get to begin documenting all of our fantastic December moments ( and the not so fantastic ones, too!).

Hurray for everyday and holiday moments!

Today we are going to look at the "bones" of the album and you can begin to search your stash for what you need! I like to use up what I have on hand - but you may wish to purchase something special for your project, particularly if you prefer a more unified look!

My albums tend to be really eclectic, with pages from a lot of different sources and made from a wide variety of materials. I use a combo of chipboard, acrylic, envelopes, fabric, transparencies, journal pages - you name it - you can use it!!! Others prefer to use a chipboard mini, or a 6 x 6 or 8 x 8 album with page protectors - the choice is up to you! You will need 25 - 31 pages, plus a cover and back - the number depends on whether you are scrapping only until December 25th, or the whole month through.

To bind your album I recommend rings - the largest you can find - because when you begin to add in your various thicknesses of pages and ephemera and photos from your December life, it will get very thick. Two are usually sufficient for an approximately 6 x 6 album.

This is really the "hunter/gatherer" stage - hunt through your stash to see what you can find for these base pages. They can be all one colour, a mish mash of everything, or something in between - it really is up to your imagination and personal scrappy style.

Once we have everything gathered - we can look through the week at numbers, layouts and designing your cover!! So head into your scrappy area (whether it is a bag, a box, a cupboard or a studio) and see what you can find!

Happy Day everyone - keep checking back for more tips, hints and ideas to make your Daily December album YOUR favourite album!

Daily December - Are you Playing???

It is that time of year again everyone - my annual Daily December Album prep time and supply gathering!!! If you didn't play along last year, or if you don't know what I am talking about here is the 411!!!

Daily December albums capture the little moments of each day in December. I think it was Ali Edwards who began the tradition a number of years ago and she still does one each year!! It is a great way to make a mini book that really focuses on and celebrates the holiday moments and other cool stuff that happens in December. I have been doing this now for 3 years, and my Daily December Albums are by far my favourite albums!!!

I prep my album in advance so it is ready to add a photo(s) and some journaling each day in December . Other people prefer to make a page a day - whatever works for you. Last year one fabulous woman did an entire 12 x 12 album!!! ( Dawn you are a rockstar!) Here is a sample of a blank page from last year:

The process is fairly straight forward once you have your book assembled!!! You just add photos AND journaling ( very important!!! ) and a few embellishments and you are done!

Beginning next week on November 22nd, I will be posting each day of my Prep Week - to help you (and me) get ready for Daily December!

Watch for your supply list coming tomorrow!!! I hope you will join me!!

Happy Day everyone!!!

More December Dailies

How are your pages coming along??? I am now caught up and enjoying getting into the spirit of the season with a whole bunch of fun activities. My favourite photos so far have been of the kids making gingerfriends - they had so much fun and really did a fantastic job on the cookies - too good really - they are just too tempting!!!!! How are your December Dailies coming along????

Always Playing Catch Up!

Well, after a week of computer issues, time issues and general chaos, I am playing catch up with my December dailies!!!! I have posted day 3- 7 and will post the rest of my pages tomorrow!!

I have been keeping up with a photo ( or 20) a day and making notes on journaling so putting the pages together hasn't been too tough!!!

Hopefully you have been able to be a bit more diligent than I have been - I promise to keep up with it from now on - after all there are only 11 more days til Christmas!!!!!

December 1st and 2nd

How is your album going? Here are my first two pages - I have so far managed to keep up - but we will see how it goes when I travel home to Calgary for the weekend!!! Remember - the most important thing is to take a few photos, and jot down some journaling points on a post it or in a little notebook - that way you can fill in the blanks even if you get behind!!! Have fun - leave a comment and post a link to your pages - I would love to check them out!!!

DAILY DECEMBER IS HERE!

It is time to get started on your Daily December Album! If you haven`t been following along at weScrap, click the image above to go to the December Dailies forum for all the info - there is still time to get started and join the fun!!! remember to take your photo today - here are some tips and links to help you!!!

I wanted to give you a few photo tips and some links for more "professional" advice for improving your holiday photos! Many of these will be familiar to you, as I know scrappers are often some of the best photographers around!!!

MY TIPS:

TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS:

Really. LOTS! And that doesn't mean 5. More like 50. If you have digital camera take as many as you can and delete the ones that you don't like - or better yet, print off collage of your worst, funniest, whatever holiday photos first - put it in your book, and then delete them! The more photos you take, the better your chances of getting a great one!!!

TURN YOUR CAMERA:

Make sure you get both horizontal and vertical shots! This seems obvious but sometime s we forget this and it makes your scrapping a ton easier if you have a variety of horizontal and vertical photos.

BE SNEAKY:

Take photos when people aren't looking - doing the everyday things that make life what it is. This album is all about the everyday, so catch people doing what they do!

GET CLOSE:

Close ups of things like a plate of cookies or your special ornament can be wonderful additions to your album. Check out the links below for tips on lighting and framing inanimate objects.

BACK UP:

I love close ups, and sometimes forget that the big picture is equally important. Don't just take close ups - sometimes the larger picture has a lot to say - for example your living room on Christmas morning!!

TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES:

Oh, did I say this already - then it must be important!!!

GIVE THE CAMERA AWAY:

Pass around the camera so others have an opportunity to share their point of view. This also means that YOU will be in some of the pictures!!! This is a good thing - you are part of the story, too and need to be included - I mean it - and I am the person who hates having my photo taken more than anybody!!!

RANDOM PHOTOS ROCK:

Take photos of random stuff like signs, funny perspectives, coffee cups. . . they really do add to your album and make it interesting. They also can tell the day's story from a fresh perspective. My kids always laugh at me about this, but it sure brings back memories when they see them in our albums!

CHECK OUT THE ARTICLES FROM THE PROS:

The links below all have really great tips for improving your holiday photography - be sure to check them out!!!

MOST IMPORTANT TIP OF ALL:

Don't stress about getting the "perfect" shot! While we all know that getting a great shot is cool and makes for fabulous pages, don't let getting the shot take over the moment - remember we are about creating memories and enjoying the moments - not just documenting them!

Fa-la-la-la-la! May your pictures be jolly and your holidays filled with joy.

http://www.usa.canon.com/app/html/Scrapbooking/tutorials_holiday_photos.html

http://www.snapfish.com/holidaycardphoto

http://www.digitalphotoacademy.com/Home/Instructors/Tips_And_Tricks/params/page/11/menu/12/default.aspx

Numbers game

OK, today is all about the numbers - numbers for your December Dailies Album, that is! You need to make 31 (yup, one for each day!!) little number tags! These can be random sizes, shapes and numbers, or they can be fairly uniform!
Here are a link to the Kaisercraft site - which has some great number downloads that match their Christmas Paper lines! Check it out HERE!

And here is a free pdf download for you of numbers in different fonts - you can punch these out and adhere to chipboard or cardstock tags - all ready for your pages!

HERE it is!! It looks better after download, as it uses a bunch of different fonts! Give any of these a try!

Tomorrow I will have some tips for supplies and construction!!

Welcome to December Dailies!!

Today is the day!!! If you haven't heard already - I am hosting an online class at weScrap called December Dailies! Based on those great daily albums of Ali Edwards, I will help YOU complete your daily December album with ideas, hints and general enthusiaastic motivation!!!

If you have always wanted to do this, but never quite seem to get it done - this is YOUR year!!!

Join me for all the fun and creativity at weScrap!

Here is the link to the forum which has all the info DECEMBER DAILIES FORUM !!!

This week is Prep Week - we will build the bones of our album and get ready to start doing a page a day in December!!! This can be a mini album, or a full size album with any page size you like. It is up to you! I like a random style mini book, so that is what I will do, but you can do what you like! How great is that? And you can use up all those bits and pieces of Christmas scrap supplies that I KNOW you have kicking around!!

Be sure to check back here daily for all the details, links and inspiration!!

Ho Ho Hope you'll join me!!

Catch up Time and a fun December Project!

Well, after 10 miserable days of H1N1 ( all the kids got it - luckily I did not!!), I think we are finally well and back to living a normal life! Being stuck inside for over a week is NOT fun, and even the kids were getting sick of TV!!!



On a positive note, I was able to do a bit of scrapping while everyone was sleeping, and I managed to get a good start on my Christmas cards, as well as getting the planning done for my December Dailies Project over at weScrap!



What is the December Dailies Project, you ask??? Well, it is a terrific mini album project based on Ali Edwards' Daily December Album. Some of you will remember I did an album like this last year, and it really has become my favourite mini album ever!!! Basically, you create a page a day in December, documenting the big and small things about your life in this festive month!



If you want to join in, please check out the details at weScrap here, it will give you an idea of the project, which will officially start on November 23rd! I will be posting links to weScrap, photos ,and updates here as well, and I hope you will join in. It is a terrific opportunity to scrap a snapshot of your life this December!!!



Watch here for more details!!!