Planning for December Daily
Juli gives great tips for successfully planning and executing a December Daily album.
December is a magical month of the year for most families, and at some point, all scrappers get the urge to document the holiday season and all its festivities. From this urge, the concept of December Daily was born. December Daily, to keep it simple, is a small album that focuses on what your family does from December 1st through either Christmas, the 25th; or through the end of the month, December 31st. The concept is simple: create a single page or a double page spread to show what your family does in December.
Just the thought of making 1–2 pages a day can be overwhelming. It can leave you with questions in your mind: Do I have something planned each day that is “scrap worthy?” What if I miss a day? What if we only do fun holiday activities on the weekend? What if I don’t have kids? Not to worry! We have some answers and solutions to those very questions. It’s all about making the project work for you and your family. It’s your album, so make it what you want!!!
Planning: The key to making this project simple (or at least manageable) in December is to plan ahead. Decide what sized album you are going to use and if you are going to go paper, hybrid, or fully digital. A lot of scrappers choose to go with a smaller sized album for December daily, so they pick a 5 x 7 or a 6 x 6 size. You can find albums in the local arts and crafts stores that will accommodate prints of this size. With Project Life becoming so popular, you can also find drop in plastic pocket pages in most arts and craft stores (or order online), and they have smaller sizes that will help you make creating a December Daily album easier. For you fully digital scrappers, there are lots of great templates here at the Sweet Shoppe that will help you put your pages together faster. Most come in 12 x 12, but can easily be sized down to fit 8 x 8 or 6 x 6 plastic pocket albums as well.
Here is a peak at some December Daily pages we found in the Sweet Shoppe Gallery that show off the different sizes that people chose to use.
5 x 7 Double Page Spread by Neitis
Credits:
Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Vol. 2 by Nettio Designs
Digital Papers and Elements from Various Designers
12 x 12 December 21st by AJM
Credits:
Template: Half Pack 25 by Cindy Schneider.
Layered labels: December Daily by Cindy Schneider
Once Upon a Christmas by Kristin Cronin-Barrow
All the Stax by Robin Carlton
Fonts: DJB Miss Jayne Aire, DJB Dear Mrs Claus, and Bebas Neue.
Hybrid 5 x 7 page: JOY by HeatherGW
Credits:
Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Vol. 2 by Nettio Designs
Simple Stories SN@P 6 x 8 Red/Kraft Binder + Pages and Dividers
And various other designer supplies
Once you have your size and album figured out, then you can decide what your theme or focus will be. Some people just scrap what they do each day, like distresseddiva. Her layout below shows how she kept her design simple, and she just wrote a little blurb about what she did that day. Her size was 7 x 5 instead of the more popular 5 x 7.
Day 2 by distresseddiva
If that seems too stressful to you, then consider a few other ideas. If you do Elf on the Shelf, you could consider making an album to document all your Elf’s silly antics leading up to Christmas, like this adorable album by scrap2day.
December Daily Cover by Scrap 2 day
Credits:
Kit/Alpha: Who Let The Elves Out by Heather Roselli
Font: DJB Mandy by Darcy Baldwin
December Daily – Day 2 by scrap2day
Credits:
Kit/Alpha: Who Let The Elves Out by Heather Roselli
Font: DJB Mandy by Darcy Baldwin
If you don’t have kids or perhaps they are too old or too young for the Elf, then another popular idea is putting together a Holiday Favorites album. Here is a fun example of a Holiday Favorite album.
Holiday Favorites Album Pages (12 x 12) by Lynnette
Once you have your size, and your theme or focus, then you need to prep ahead. This could mean pre-making pages so you just have to place your pictures and write your journaling and then you’ll be done. Or you could make up planning sheets and plan out each page ahead of time so it makes it easier to scrap. Here’s a look at eranslow’s pre-made (or foundation) pages she made to help make her project go faster during this busy time of year.
December Daily Foundation Pages and Cover by eranslow
Credits:
This Life: December by Penny Springmann
Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Vol. 2 by Nettio Designs—modified
By planning ahead, picking a focus, figuring out your color scheme (any maybe pre-picking your papers and elements), putting together a December Daily album can be a snap, even during the hustle and bustle of the holidays, especially if you have some great supplies on the ready. Here are a few of the SugarBabe’s favorite December Daily supplies available in the store to get you started.
Holiday Faves Mini Album Vol 2 by Nettio Designs
Cindy’s Templates: Layered Labels: Dec Daily Vol 2
North Pole – The Collection by Mari Kogelenberg
A Merry December – Collection by Jady Day Studio and Meghan Mullens
After all the planning, the pre-making of the pages, the keeping a note book of what happens each day, etc. . . . don’t forget to keep it fun and keep it happy, just like Traci Reed did below.
Day 12 by Traci Reed
Credits:
All wrapped up by Melissa Bennett and Bella Gypsy
Layered Labels: December Daily by Cindy Schneider
Alphabitties No. 4 by Traci Reed
Rubber Stamp Alpha by Gina Miller
We hope this gives you plenty of eye candy to kick start the December Daily planning for this year!
