While I did participate in December Daily in 2010, it was on a totally-not-daily basis. I created an album that I loved, but it wasn’t a big undertaking. Thus, 2011 was my first year going whole-hog and December Dailying in full paper scrapbook glory.
I finished my album on my birthday, January 14. I am so glad that it is done and love how many album came together. The process taught me a lot about my own creative process as well as informed how I might undertake the project in the future.
In this post I will share days fourteen through twenty-five of my album as well as my top lessons learned from the whole shebang. You can see my first thirteen pages in A Simple December Daily: Days 1-13.
December 2011: Days 14-25
Lessons Learned from December Daily 2011
- The most simple spreads are my favorites and my plan to have controlled creativity through the grid design may have been unnecessary. Note for 2012: Embrace the beauty of more open space and wide swatches of patterned paper over too many details.
- I really enjoyed finding new ways to include the daily number, but I should have created all of those in advance. This project was the first time I really got into using a lot (for me) of embellishments, but by the end I was so ready for the project to be finished that I went back to my minimalist roots. Note for 2012: Prepare even more in advance.
- The 6×6 size is great for trimming 12×12 paper, but is inefficient for printing photos commercially. A 5.5×8.5 album would make full page photos even easier to trim. Note for 2012: Consider an alternate size and include even more full page photos.
- I had so many photos and so much to do creative-wise, that I was skimpy on my journaling (which was all hidden on shipping tags in pockets). Since writing is not a problem for me, I would have liked to include even more of my personal thoughts on the season. Note for 2012: Plan the album around the journaling, not the other way around, and intend to go hybrid for extra wordiness.
What did you learn from your December Daily experience? How will you change your approach this year?
Beautiful album, Jennifer! Loved the title you chose, too! Your baby is a beauty… Well done on all counts! :o) ~Ali
Thanks! =)
Lots of lessons learned from reading your “lessons learned.” Thanks for sharing! Beautiful family, beautiful album! And happy belated birthday! : )
Thank you Lori, you are too sweet!
I am not finished with mine, but that is Ok, as I will probablly not do another for a couple of years, so I will get it finished by then. My problem was because we have no children in the house and no grandchildren yet, there was really nothing to scrap. I spent most of the month trying to find things to do or take pics of. Some days there was nothing. I plan to put some kind of Christmas saying, poem, etc. on some of the pages as a filler. I also did not prepare enough a head of time and got caught up in not wanted to use the same paper on more than one page.
Love your Christmas album! I have to ask where did you get the music tape or is that printed on vellum? I really need some of that!
It is Tim Holtz tissue tape, got it at Michaels.
Your album looks beautiful! Depending on how my year goes with Project Life, I might go for a December Daily in 2012 too. I’m also thinking of having a similar book for the four days of vigil and wake we just had for the death/burial of grandfather, just don’t know where to start.
Jennifer, I want to thank you for the inspiration to begin and finish my December Daily project. The last 2 years I tried but only got the the phase to collect some stuff (lol). After reading your 1st article about your planning for December Daily I decided to take the challenge.
My Lessons LEarned from DD2011?
– I need to print #s ahead of time or buy some pretty numbers.
– Choosing a color squeme and collecting papers and embellishments that work with it, was a wonderful idea.
– My size was an odd size. 6 x 8 1/2. Am thinking in changing it to 8×8 or 8 1/2 by 11 for next year.
– As you I did not “created a page in a daily basis”. I did took pictures in a daily basis but created mostly in a weekly basis.
– Doing a list of photo ideas for the month worked wonderful for me. This allowed me to create in advance pages, because I knew what photo was going to be in it. This list was nor wrote in stone, I changed photos a little bit, due to day happenings.
Even that my album is “fully embellished and not simple”, your simple approach helped me decided to start and finish a project within the time I expected.
I just showed to my friends last Saturday and they were amaze and decided to give it a try in 2012.
Again, thanks for such a great inspiration…
That’s one thing I try to emphasize about Simple Scrapper Luisa, that my approach is not necessarily all about “clean and simple” style, but skills and shortcuts to get it done that way you like to scrap!
Hey Jennifer. What inspiration.. Check out my bog of my DD2011 progress. Yep made it like Dec 7 on my blog. I did get to Dec 12 actually in reality. I made my book in November and had it all ready to go. Just take a picture and a little bing, done right?? NO!! I had a hard time trying to figure out what to take a pic of… EWWW, UGH, FORGET it is what I ended up doing… I think I can print out some random pics from the Crristmas 2 weeks ends to finish it up. We will see. Congrats on your also.
I would print out what you have, grab some scissors, adhesive and a pen and fill up the book. Don’t worry too much about rules – just get it done!
I loved your book It looks very neat & is put together so nicely I like the 4-square pages & how you did your numbers Great Job
I really like your DD album.
I like that it focuses on the photos and journaling, even if you hid the journaling.