December Dailyn Questions

[marnel]

I honestly have never done this and I think I get the fact that your documenting what you do in the 25 days leading up to Xmas kinda like the 365 is that right?

[Megan Turnidge]

I'm going to do one this year... but I'm going digi this time. I tried hybrid last year and never even got close to finishing it!

[carriesmom]

Originally Posted by marnel

I honestly have never done this and I think I get the fact that your documenting what you do in the 25 days leading up to Xmas kinda like the 365 is that right?

Exactly. Alot of people plan things for certain days and then scrap about it.

[ColleenSwerb]

Originally Posted by marnel

I honestly have never done this and I think I get the fact that your documenting what you do in the 25 days leading up to Xmas kinda like the 365 is that right?

Yup! It's like P365, but just for December. It's a fun way to document the holiday season. Someone linked up to Ali Edwards who "started" the project. I've wanted to do one for FOREVER. Last year I started it and then was sick for 2 weeks and never got anywhere with it.

I joined Shimelle's "Journal Your Christmas" 2 years ago as well, and that can be SUPER helpful (again, I think someone linked up to it earlier in the thread). Ali's method is more organic (she has her album completed already, and then journals and tells the story as the month goes, and is totally ok with scrapping about something non-holiday in the album), so if you're a person that needs a guideline for each day, Shimelle's class can be awesome. She sends out a prompt for each day. I tend to not follow the prompts exactly, making them fit my needs. For example she always has a prompt about the weather, but it might come on the day that we go out and pick our tree. So I "save" that prompt for another day when I might not necessarily have something going on. I like to mix and match my project like that.

[Nettio]

Eeee, I'm so excited for this! It's one of my favorite scrapbook projects, despite the fact that I've yet to totally finish one, haha. My biggest obstacle has always been that we travel a lot at the holidays which makes it near impossible to keep up. But this year Adam and I are staying here for both Thanksgiving & Christmas which I'm really excited about since it might mean I'm actually able to do this this year.

I actually have my foundation pages put together but only because I put together a book for last year and then decided that with all the travel (I left the 6th of December), it simply wasn't going to happen. But that means I'm already a step ahead for this year so woohoo. My book is hybrid this year but even if you're planning to do a digital album, I'd really recommend putting together some foundation pages and paring down the supplies you'll use ahead of time. It really will make it easier.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by ColleenSwerb

Yup! It's like P365, but just for December. It's a fun way to document the holiday season. Someone linked up to Ali Edwards who "started" the project. I've wanted to do one for FOREVER. Last year I started it and then was sick for 2 weeks and never got anywhere with it.

I joined Shimelle's "Journal Your Christmas" 2 years ago as well, and that can be SUPER helpful (again, I think someone linked up to it earlier in the thread). Ali's method is more organic (she has her album completed already, and then journals and tells the story as the month goes, and is totally ok with scrapping about something non-holiday in the album), so if you're a person that needs a guideline for each day, Shimelle's class can be awesome. She sends out a prompt for each day. I tend to not follow the prompts exactly, making them fit my needs. For example she always has a prompt about the weather, but it might come on the day that we go out and pick our tree. So I "save" that prompt for another day when I might not necessarily have something going on. I like to mix and match my project like that.

This is me too. I use Shimelle's prompts some days and just do daily documentation other days. That's one of the cool things about this project - it can be really go with the flow and just feature whatever you feel like documenting that day. My books tend to be a mix of daily events and stories about family traditions, etc which I really love.

One big difference between Ali and Shimelle's methods is that Ali does her book only for Dec 1-25 while Shimelle does hers to include the 12 Days of Christmas so her's goes for 37 days total. I've found that once Christmas passes, I'm done so I don't plan to continue after the 25th, but I am thinking about possibly starting Nov 26 instead since that's when we tend to do our tree and lights and stuff. In the past it felt weird to me to not document those days too.

[ColleenSwerb]

Yes, excellent point Lynnette. I like to start Nov 26th too. It's only a few days extra, but that to me is the start of the Christmas season. We'll be going to a PSU game on the 27th, and I want to include that.

[Nettio]

Exactly. Plus it gives me an excuse to create a few new foundation pages this year.

[ColleenSwerb]

I really need to finish up some of my projects and get my desk cleared off so I can start on this. I promised myself I wouldn't start my DD album until I finished off the other stuff, but I'm ITCHING to get started!

[julifish]

Originally Posted by ColleenSwerb

I really need to finish up some of my projects and get my desk cleared off so I can start on this. I promised myself I wouldn't start my DD album until I finished off the other stuff, but I'm ITCHING to get started!

C
Colleen.
If you are itching to start your book then I would encourage you to just do it now while you have the enthusiasm. It's all too often I wait to the "right" time to start things and then that time comes and I feel blah about the project. Go forth and create!

Thanks everyone for their ideas. I tried to do DD last year but it seemed like we only did holiday things on the weekend so I was at a loss as to what to documennt but now I have a bette plan and a cute little binder to use as my album.

[nonnie]

Originally Posted by ColleenSwerb

I joined Shimelle's "Journal Your Christmas" 2 years ago as well, and that can be SUPER helpful (again, I think someone linked up to it earlier in the thread). so if you're a person that needs a guideline for each day, Shimelle's class can be awesome. She sends out a prompt for each day. I tend to not follow the prompts exactly, making them fit my needs. For example she always has a prompt about the weather, but it might come on the day that we go out and pick our tree. So I "save" that prompt for another day when I might not necessarily have something going on. I like to mix and match my project like that.

Hmm - I went to her site and she wants 35.00 to send you a prompt every day - Is it really worth it? Seems a little pricey for a prompt -

[ColleenSwerb]

I joined a few years ago, so it was cheaper then. BUT, once you join, you're in it for life and never have to pay again. Last year she also included a ton of photography tips, which were pretty worthwhile.

[MissKim]

Hmm - I went to her site and she wants 35.00 to send you a prompt every day - Is it really worth it? Seems a little pricey for a prompt -

Well, I think it's worth it for the lifetime access. She does give out a digital kit and templates (but I wasn't that impressed last year). I really like the community aspect. She has message board where people share their pages, etc. That's my favorite part. The prompts also include photo tips, which are nice.

[Nettio]

Yeah, I joined in 2006 so I think it was only maybe $25 at the most then. But I will say that they aren't really just prompts - they're like multi-page PDFs with examples and photo tips and other things. Plus I believe this year she said there would be a huge digi-kit involved too.

Ok I went and looked and this is from her blog post about it:

In addition to ideas for writing topics and styles and notes on photos not to miss, the 37 prompts include more than 300 scrapbook pages to inspire your crafting creativity.

Every year, I change it up a little to make sure there is something new for those of you who keep coming back. This year, those goodies include:
…By request, the return of the photography focus. 37 talented photographers share their tips and examples for taking your best photos throughout the holiday season.
…A brand new digital kit, including 50 papers, 5 full alphabets, 20 square and 20 rectangular page templates, 20 square and 20 rectangular quick pages and more than 100 embellishments. We’re talking crazy amounts of stuff, and this will be available for you to download on the 15th of November, two weeks before the start of class. If you’re a paper scrapbooker, much of this kit is suitable for printing out and adding to your book.
…A selection of step-by-step crafting tutorials for Christmas projects and journal embellishments.
…An online chat party to get things started at the beginning of December.
…Bonus workbook for bloggers with special holiday blogging tips and resources.

For those who are joining us again, the class outline remains the same but the prompts are refreshed with new examples and additional content, including tips for how to revisit a prompt you have written about in a previous year.

Like all online scrapbooking classes at shimelle.com, Journal your Christmas includes
…permanent access to all class materials
…private forum for discussion and sharing your work
…prompts delivered straight to your inbox
…ongoing membership — pay just once and participate as many years as you would like at no additional cost.

So yeah $35 might seem like a lot when you consider how cheap most digi-prices are but that's only like $1 a day and you get a lot of other stuff too. And no, I have no affiliation to Shimelle, I'm just a fan.

ETA: I do want to say that there is NO reason you can't do a December Daily type album without taking her class. This is just one option if you think you might want some more ideas/support for getting your album done.

[MandaT]

I'm starting to think a seperate Holiday Album spanning from Thanksgiving thru Christmas sounds like a fabulous idea.

Maybe an 8x10 book?!

Thanks for the inspirations.

[jewelz729]

I did this last year and loved it! I created all of my pages in advance, but I purposely chose a size that was different from what I usually scrap (I scrap 8x8, but did my DecDaily album 5x7). It's amazing how much more creative I was just by switching size!

I kept my pages pretty simple when I started - mostly using different configurations of blocks. That made it pretty easy to change if I found I needed 4 photos instead of 3 for a particular day. Each day, I probably only spent about 15-20 minutes dropping in photos and a bit of journaling.

I also sort of pre-planned out my album. I looked at the calendar and noted all of the activities we had scheduled for the month. I knew those days were automatically going to have photos. For the rest of the days, I made a list of random "fillers" and used those as I needed them (things like my favorite Christmas song, pictures of my holiday decorations, random Christmas memories from my childhood).

If it helps, here's a link to my empty pages from last year: December Daily Album
I realize now that I never went back and uploaded the finished pages, so I'll have to make a point to do that.

[jaylensmom]

Originally Posted by jewelz729

I did this last year and loved it! I created all of my pages in advance, but I purposely chose a size that was different from what I usually scrap (I scrap 8x8, but did my DecDaily album 5x7). It's amazing how much more creative I was just by switching size!

I kept my pages pretty simple when I started - mostly using different configurations of blocks. That made it pretty easy to change if I found I needed 4 photos instead of 3 for a particular day. Each day, I probably only spent about 15-20 minutes dropping in photos and a bit of journaling.

I also sort of pre-planned out my album. I looked at the calendar and noted all of the activities we had scheduled for the month. I knew those days were automatically going to have photos. For the rest of the days, I made a list of random "fillers" and used those as I needed them (things like my favorite Christmas song, pictures of my holiday decorations, random Christmas memories from my childhood).

If it helps, here's a link to my empty pages from last year: December Daily Album
I realize now that I never went back and uploaded the finished pages, so I'll have to make a point to do that.

Thanks for posting your album...I never thought of scrapping in a different size...I also like the ideas of "filler" pages...

[heathergw]

got a peek at what Penny has for this weekend and you guys are going to love them... just sayin'