I know I’ve been quiet lately.. I’ve been really busy with work, Christmas concerts and parties, holiday baking, and my December Daily album. I am mostly caught up with it, even though I am missing a couple of bits here and there, but have not had time to take pictures and show it off. Since it’s December 19 and I still haven’t shown anything, it really is time for me to post something. 🙂 So here are days 1-9. More to come soon (I hope!). There is no cover at the moment – I need to see how thick the album turns out to figure out the binding and the cover. 🙂 I will add credits shortly. I printed everything on matte presentation paper, except for photos, which are on glossy photo paper, and a couple things on vellum.

I have printed a photo of our tree on vellum to go in front of my page 1. (note to self: use draft mode when printing on vellum!!)

This year I am featuring several full page photos. They make putting the album together so much easier, plus I love to show off some of my favorite photos from the season! I love this 2-page spread!

I had lots of pictures to add to this day. I always struggle with photo placement on hybrid pages, but I am pleased with what I did here. Digi is so much easier for me. (In case you’re wondering, I digitally erased a few words on the page on the right for privacy).

Saturday DH and I finally tried the new sewing machine I got on Black Friday. It works very well, for paper too! Of course, the one time it didn’t work properly was when we used it to attach the number to this page. I had to use a rhinestone to cover up a hole in the page. Oh well… 😉 I am still intimidated by the machine, but I do want to learn how to use it with confidence, since I’ve been wanting to sew on my projects for quite some time now!

As I mentioned earlier, this year my December Daily album focuses on Christmas events, and of course our dearest elf Jingle Ginger had to get his own page spread. I love how it turned out! 🙂

The tree element on the left was something I’d cut out for last year DD album but not used. I sprayed green and silver mists on the red paper on the left. Fun! I’ve had a hard time photographing these pages, since the glossy paper gets my own reflection in the way!

Here is how I made gift wrap this year: kraft paper sprayed with red, green and silver. And yarn to go around. 🙂

You cannot quite see the glitter on the 8 from this photo..

Unfortunately I cannot share page 9 quite yet because it’s using a new kit that my designer decided to wait a bit on, but hopefully I can come back to add it soon!

Now that I am done with one year of December Daily and have just started this year’s album, it’s time to summarize a few of the things that worked or didn’t work for me. Last year, my December Daily project was very ambitious. I decided I would only use Christmas kits; I bought a 6″x6″ D-ring album and decided to make a 2-page spread for each day, plus an insert with the date. So my album ended up being pretty thick. I decided I liked the look of pages with different shapes, and I used my Silhouette a lot to cut borders on pages and to cut out elements and alphas. I did not have any color scheme, and I wanted to use a different alpha for each date. A part from the first couple days of December, all the other pages were done ahead of time, but since I was traveling I couldn’t keep up with printing photos. I was hoping to get at least the journaling in, but that doesn’t work for me because I need to do the photo editing first to know how much space I will need to leave on the page. After adding a few pages and photos in January up to Day 13 or so, my album sat unfinished until this month, when I powered through, edited all the photos, printed them out and journaled. I am very happy with how my album turned out, but I put a lot of hours in it.

This year, I am way more unorganized. Last year I started working on my album in October. This year, I haven’t even decided several major things yet:

• Binding: I don’t know whether I will go with a D-ring album again, use binding rings, or maybe try to use wire binding with my new Cinch (it all depends on how thick my album turns out…).
• Size: I am not set on the size of the pages yet, but I have started making a few of them – all 6″x5″ for now. So I will have to decide whether I want to have all pages of the same size or not.

• Color scheme: unlike last year, I have a color theme for this year’s album. I will use traditional Christmas colors (red and green galore, but mainly red) with pops of aqua blue. I think this will give my album a really cool look.
• Inserts: I won’t have separate date inserts this year. Too much work to come up with a unique one for each day, plus they make the album thicker. I will have a different alpha date on each page and that’s that.
• Workflow: I will probably not have my album all done ahead of time – this way I can work based on the photos I have. I’d like to incorporate some full page photo too.

And now, it’s time to finally share pictures of my 2010 December Daily album. Be ready for a picture overload. 🙂

I covered the album with metalized tape. 🙂 Hard to photograph, but it looks so pretty!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6 – this is one of my favorite pages. 🙂

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10 – I love this page too. Too bad you can’t see the stickles on the owl and snowman ball.

Day 11

Day 12 – this is one of my favorites too! 🙂

Day 13 – I know, I am missing the number 13 on this page… 🙂

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17 – love this one too!

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26 – no number here, but I wanted to include the last couple days of our trip. 🙂

Day 27 – and you can also see a couple of bits and pieces I had printed out but ended up not using. 🙂

Forgive the blurriness of a few photos. I didn’t have the energy to re-shoot them. 🙂 Here is an almost complete list of credits (I’m sure I am missing a couple things here and there, but nothing major).
Day 1+2
Bundle Up by Kate Hadfield and SMJ Designs
Bingo number by Maya Road
Day 3+4
Crate Paper (Snow Day Collection)
Day 4
Snow Much Fun by Mari Koegelenberg
Line It Up: Templates v. 1 by Krisi’s Kreations
Day 5
Christmas Cheer by Jenn Barrette
Line It Up: Templates v. 1 by Krisi’s Kreations
Thickers foil sticker by American Crafts; tinsel; InkEssentials white gel pen by Ranger; baker’s twine by Martha Stewart
Day 6
A Retro Christmas freebie by Michelle Coleman
Day 7
A Chance of Flurries by Jenn Barrette and Mandabean
Line It Up: Templates v. 1 by Krisi’s Kreations
Day 8
A Chance of Flurries by Jenn Barrette and Mandabean
Line It Up: Templates v. 1 by Krisi’s Kreations
Day 9
Snow Much Fun by Mari Koegelenberg
Line It Up: Templates v. 1 by Krisi’s Kreations
Day 10
Happiest Season of All by Britt-ish Designs
Line It Up: Templates v. 1 by Krisi’s Kreations
Thickers foil sticker by American Crafts; baker’s twine by Martha Stewart; Stickles by Ranger; red gel pen by Reminisce
Day 11
Very Merry by DeCrow Designs and Britt-ish Designs
Foundations – Round by DeCrow Designs (retired)
Day 12
Hustle and Bustle by Britt-ish Designs
Day 13
Season of Giving by Sahlin Studio and Sugarplum Paperie
Day 14
Foundations – Square by DeCrow Designs (retired)
Holly and Ivy by DeCrow Designs and Studio Rebecca
Day 15
Counting Down to Christmas by Jenn Barrette
Day 16
Christmas Wonder by Kaye Winiecki and Cori Gammon
Bingo card from Vintage Charm by Jenn Barrette (retired)
Day 17
Christmas Wonder by Kaye Winiecki and Cori Gammon
Crate Paper (Snow Day Collection) – right Day
Gift from Counting Down to Christmas by Jenn Barrette
JOY word strip from Snipettes: Season of Giving by Sahlin Studio
Day 18
Christmas Wonder by Kaye Winiecki and Cori Gammon
Crate Paper (Snow Day Collection) – left Day
Word strips from Counting Down to Christmas by Jenn Barrette
Day 19
Noel – A Vintage Christmas kit by Mari Koegelenberg
Day 20
Cozy Christmas by Leora Sanford (retired)
Tree from Holly and Ivy by DeCrow Designs and Studio Rebecca
Gift from Counting Down to Christmas by Jenn Barrette
Crate Paper (Snow Day Collection) – right Day
Day 21
Crate Paper (Snow Day Collection) – left Day
Gift and “wrapping gift” word strip from Counting Down to Christmas by Jenn Barrette
Holiday Mixed Media by Sahlin Studio
Season of Giving by Sahlin Studio and Sugarplum Paperie
Day 22
Element on left Day from Holiday Cheer by WMsquared Designs
Christmas Doodles 2 by Leora Sanford (retired)
Cozy Christmas by Leora Sanford (retired)
Flip Flops alpha stamps by CD Muckosky
Day 23 and 24
12 Days the kit by Mari Koegelenberg
Day 25
12 Days the kit by Mari Koegelenberg
Santa and alpha from Very Merry by DeCrow Designs and Britt-ish Designs
Photo inserts: Falala papers by Rachel Young Designs
Day 26
A Touch of Winter by Erica Zane – left Day
Holly and Ivy by DeCrow Designs and Studio Rebecca – right Day

OK, in one week, I only worked on the album 20 minutes tonight. But hey, at least what I did is pretty important, it’s the cover! 😉 I need to find more time to get this done fast!
I simply used a reflective tape to cover the chipboard of the album. (Pictured: back cover)

Too bad the picture does not show how nice and shiny it is. On a whim, I inserted a tree shape cut out from a cereal box on the back cover before applying the reflective tape. So pretty!!

At this point, I’m not at all sure I’ll ever see this project finished… but it has begun, and I’m loving it! 😉

Although I must confess that at times like these I wish I were a traditional scrapper, so I wouldn’t have to go through all the printing & cutting… 😉
Anyway, I bought some new Distress Stickles today… very yummy! You can see them in action on the “19”. 🙂