If you are an avid scrapbooker, whether it be traditional or digital, you may be familiar with Ali Edwards' Yearly Project: December Daily. It is basically an album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. It is something that I have never done before, and to the you the truth, I wasn't even going to attempt it this year. But I kept reading her blog about it and decided to dive right in. The Christmas season here in Europe is absolutely beautiful and the December Daily project will be the perfect way to document it. Dustin, Ryley and Becca won't arrive until the middle of December, so by me taking this project on and posting daily photos, they can read all about what we are doing here in Latvia in prepping for their arrival and celebrating the Christmas season.
Because I decided I was going to take on December Daily at the last moment, the kit Ali uses for her book was already sold out through Cocoa Daisy. But never fear, Ali mentions that this is a perfect project to use up some of the supplies we may already have on hand-which is exactly what I did. I have a ton of supplies that I purchased two, three years ago and all they are doing is sitting on a shelf! I have to stop collecting and start using. I made the commitment to use what I have and not purchase any consumable product for my version of December Daily. However, I know myself very well and knew that it would drive me crazy not to purchase something to use in the album that was new & modern. I ended up buying Ali's December Daily 2011 Stamp Set and her 25 Moments Stamp Set from Technique Tuesday, as well as several digital overlays and brushes from Designer Digitals. I am justifying these new purchases because technically they are not consumable-they are reusable! :)
This particular post is about how I created my album and the pages within in it. I love the fact that you create the December Daily pages before you actually put the photos on the pages! By doing all the prep work for the album prior to December 1st, it will be easy just to print off photos and journal on a daily basis.
I had an American Crafts 8x8 D-ring album with a red spine. I didn't have enough white paint to create the front of my album as Ali did. And besides, I felt it best to stick with the medium(s) I am most comfortable with-paper and a computer. So I printed an outline of the numbers 2 and 5 on cream colored cardstock (Bazzill's Cream Puff). I then took those numbers and traced them onto black cardstock (Bazzill's Raven) and cut those out as well. You can see from the photos below that I used the black numbers to shadow the cream numbers. I attached them to the front of the album and trimmed off the access.
I repeated this process for the back of the album... as well as the "dec" letters on the inside cover of the album (seen below).
Once my album cover was finished, it was time to work on the pages. Even though I did not have the kit that Ali used, I wanted follow her design as close as possible with the products I had on hand. I started with the "confetti pages." Ali used divided page protectors. Unfortunately I didn't have any that would work for my album, so I had to make them:
Of all things for me not to bring to Latvia with me, it was my sewing machine! I obviously wasn't thinking clearly! Didn't think I would use it over here and now I am totally regretting that decision. Anyways, to make my confetti pages I used my handy-dandy perforator to divide my 8x8 page protector in 4's. I then used a needle and thread and stitched up the middle.
After doing that to six page protectors, it dawned on me that I had a friend here who has a sewing machine! I borrowed it from her (thank you Angela!) to complete my confetti pages-using it to sew the middle perforation and along the top of the page. Obviously I didn't make a confetti page for each day. I only made them for December 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 & 25.
Ali used printed transparencies as a "divider" between her daily double-page layouts. Again, it was a product I didn't have so I made my own using clear transparencies. I added fabric, paper and other embellishments I had on hand to create them and am pretty happy with the results:
I was so envious of the letterpress number coasters Ali used in her album, that I created a digital version for my own book (the number 2 in the photo above).
My album is a different size than the one Ali uses for hers. This means I had to manipulate the December Daily Overlays in Photoshop in order to fit my needs. Odd numbered days are in printed in red and even numbered days are in black. They were printed on Bazzill Cream Puff cardstock:
All of the days (except for Dec 1), will be double-page layouts. The printed overlays above were mounted on either red or green Bazzill cardstock and are on the right-hand side of the double-page layout. It's hard to tell in the photo below but the area of the page where the number 22 is on its side is actually the transparency divider. So there is really a space next to the printed overlay that I intend to journal on.
The left-hand side of the layout contains a piece of Bazzill black cardstock. I purchased the December Daily Layered Templates from Designer Digitals. Each day I will drop photos into one of the templates, print and mount it on the black cardstock.
I am not posting all of the Foundation Pages in this post, but you can see them in the December Daily Album Link located in the left column of this blog. My posts for Decemeber Daily will be published one day behind. For example: December 1st entry will be posted the morning of December 2nd and so on...
I am looking forward to this month-long project! I hope you check back daily! I look forward to sharing this holiday season with you!
