December Daily update-talking myself off the ledge

Assembling my December Daily did NOT go as I had planned.  I kind of freaked out when I opened the package the week before & realized there wasn't going to be enough room in the pre-loaded pages to do 2 pages for each day in the month like I have in years past & there is no way to load more pages. I took it on our Thanksgiving weekend away anyway, with a few supplies hoping to figure something out.  I did. I was able to follow most of the instructions, the good thing about projects like this, nothing is right or wrong so I just did what I wanted to; decorated the cover, put the pre-cut squares in the coin pocket pages, & laid the rest out to look at. I didn't end up sticking anything else down at the time but at least I have checked it all out & have an idea of what to do as far as what pictures to take & sizes to print, what to collect, etc. Sometimes limited options are a good thing but this had kind of put me into a tailspin. Ali may have read my mind when she posted this,

• "On the other hand, the limits might help you. You can definitely use the structure to MAKE CHOICES about what to include in your album. I always leave something out - I choose what to include - and I'm okay with that. As I work with my photos I do pick and choose, being mindful of the overall story of the week. Limits can be a positive thing as long as you don't spend too long agonizing over which photos to use to tell these stories. "

 I really needed to hear that from someone else!

Since I have felt so limited on space, I haven't taken a single picture yet & I am writing this on the 5th.  By the time it posts, I will have appropriately photographed the weekend.  I have to remember that there will be 12x12 pages scrapped for anything not included in this mini, I am just used to it being the other way around, in that the mini is the bulk of December scrapping & the 12x12s are just to 'cover' the holidays in the big book.

Looking ahead:

•  I did get my poinsettia last night, so when I take the plastic off of it, I will do some shots of it w/the big camera 
• getting my van back from the shop-normally that would go in, but not sure about it in the limited space
• Having our girls' shopping day tomorrow, so I should get some phone pics there.
• celebrating a birthday tomorrow evening 
• in 2 weeks I want to get pics of the couple I volunteer with for food coop
• my family is doing our gathering on the 20th
• not sure when Tim's side is
• there should be a couple or 3 school programs coming up
• if the box from amazon is as big as I think it might be, maybe a shot & story about that
• snow, if we get more
• ornament making, redbox movie renting, crafting with the kids during Christmas break
• if I go past 25th, document how I took the leap to took the Fridays following the holidays off this year
• cards received & sent -I really need to get on the ball
• new Christmas movie added to the collection
• document the few decorations used this year

So, I have plenty to document & yet not too much for the pages available, it will all work out, I just may not go with one of these albums again next year ;) 

Next week, I plan to have something of my own to share with you. 

How are you documenting your holidays? 

December Daily 2014 plans

I am so looking forward to this year's December Daily. Maybe the fact that I finished last year's in a timely manner, helped.  I have approached this project in  many different ways over the years....

2013 is here,  here, with a peek at the mess here, more progress here, and completed here. it took me until March to complete it since I waited until January to order the photos so they were good quality as no matter how great a printer boasts it is at printing photos, I am never happy unless they come from a developer.

2012 is complete. This year it took me through February to complete partially since I had finished/fixed/added to the 2010 album.

2011-I skipped this year as it was the month we lost a family member.

2010 is here.  Since I had skipped 2011, I guess in 2012, I figured I had skipped 2010 as well, so I started a new album, and I forgot I had started the album pages until I got about half way through completing an entirely new one, then discovered the beginnings of the other album, so I worked them together.

2009 is the last year that I worked on it IN December (as the days pass, as its intended) here, here, after I had prepped the pages ahead here, & here,  I loved the idea of prepping pages ahead, however, I struggled to have the pictures to coordinate on the right pages, so I decided that even if it takes a little longer to get the album finished, I will do the pages to go with the photos.

2008 is here, complete.  looks like this was my first year & I am sure I followed the direction given & created the pages ahead then used my home printer to keep the photos + pages caught up daily. 

I made the albums for 08 &10, used Creative Memories albums for 09, 12 & 13, this year I am using this Crush Book & kit, a consultants designed & got through Close to my Heart.  I saw hers this weekend & its ADORABLE! It has a super fun mix of pocket pages, tabbed, vellum & card stock pages. as well as the little goodies to put on them, and room to add more pages if I need to! of course I cannot use JUST the kit it comes with, I had to get some UBER cute wood veneer pieces from evalicious, as well as having the bag & pizza box full of leftovers from years past at my fingertips, throughout the process.  I plan to put it all together over our Thanksgiving weekend away & have it ready to share here the following week. Then I plan to work the pages as the month goes on, while leaving space for the photos as I will order them from Shutterfly to be sure I  am happy with the quality & plan to finish it at or before the January crop.

Done & Documented: April

So, I got the December Daily done last month -YAHOOOOOOO!!! I am sure I have mentioned it before but its worth mentioning again, I am not good at finishing a project. Any project. I have high hopes & good intentions but usually get overwhelmed or bored in the final stage & just walk away long enough that by the time I get back, there is no interest at all in finishing so I bag it up & put it in my unfinished project bin. Is that sad? So anyway, when I actually follow through with a project to the finish line, I am super stoked. So far, its only these little books & Tim's first hog hunting book that are finished.

So then next on my list is 2009 Christmas & Labor Day Weekend chapters in my 12x12 books.  I cannot wait to have them complete as that will mean that I finally have a whole year complete. UNHEARD of for me!! (or many scrappers, I hear)  Here is a collage of the first bunch of Christmas pages I completed following the December Daily in March.

top left to right:

1. the first 2 are a set from a Close to my Heart workshop I attended.  We had them constructed complete just waiting for photos & even after I trimmed the photos on the left page to fit, I was unhappy with it so I pulled the pieces off, reassembling in my normal non-linear, off kilter, clumped up way of scrapping & fell in love again.
2. the next 2 may not sit in that order in the book, but they are all the photos snapped in one session-out takes & all :) was pretty excited when I used those 3 pink love themed pieces from Elle's Studio, that are gathered together because they were the final pieces I still had from an old 2009 collection & happy to toss the empty packages.
3. middle row left side pair will NOT be across from each other but they were each an odd page scrapped so put them together for the collage. the left is a fancy die cut shaped paper that I had been hoarding for a bit & only wanted to minimally embellish it so I didn't take away from the paper itself.
4. the right one is a collage of me w/the nieces & nephews (at the time-remember this is 2009 & we have added another since then;)) Scrapping Christmas on brown was a little odd for me but then it just seemed logical when I tried pairing the photo w/other more 'Christmas-y' papers. Inked the chipboard letters to spell 'Aunt'. These photos are from the many they took when they were sharing the camera.
5. back to the left, bottom 2 are a pair that will sit across from each other in the book.  I had the die cuts leftover from a pack & pulled the matching papers out of a different pack & was amazed at how well it all fit together.  needing some texture, I used foam squares behind some of the die cuts, & white fuzzy yarn around some. The important parts were the photos & the journaling yet, I just couldn't stop w/a flat page.
6. the last set will also be together. These papers & die cuts came together in a pack (this is the pack the die cuts from the previous set was from).  More of the same as the previous set, fuzzy white yard & foam squares for texture, keeping the interest on the photos & journaling. 

1. this group of pages was created before the 12th when Mom & I went to a fundraiser crop for her birthday.  
2. Top 1 & 2 are going just like that in the scrapbook. They are using great Christmas papers & embellishments I have been hoarding for a while.  I love scrapping great 5x7s & thats what these pages use.  Some chipboard, metal & buttons, oh my!  
3. Bottom 1&2 are going like this in the book as well.  For some reason, I didn't enlarge any of J's family to a 5x7 when I ordered so I 'fixed' it by stacking 2 4x6s instead. Totally works for me.  More of the same cool paper collection, chipboard, tags, & some Close To My Heart metals.  I also designed these pages around the stamped images I received at a a crop a while back ('Joyful Tidings' & various stamped ornament embellishments on the pages).  
4. The Top & Bottom #3s are a matching set.  the bottom one, you saw in the collage above, but I felt the need to share it again when I shared its match.  another paper collection but lots of variety of goodies. 

the only other 4 I completed in April:

1. the top 2 are a set -the red on the right is really more red than pink as it shows-funky lighting when I snapped the shot.  Mom got all 5 grandkids felt cowboy hats & puffy painted their initials on them. HUGE HIT! 
2. the bottom 2 are also a set, some new Hobby Lobby goodies + some really old stuff. love the collages as a quick & easy way to get a lot of photos scrapped together.

ps. where did April go??????

you can see my January, February & March reports here.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Done and documented is series of monthly posts that highlights Jess's progress completing unfinished travel albums from years past. I will be following along by doing my December Daily 2013, then plan to finish 2009 (2 chapters) & start a new year. Feel free to play along! 

Done & Documented: March

I decided to document this month's pages with a series of collages, maybe it will be easier for you to view than individual photos with too much clutter around the edges & in the background. This page was so fun. its the first day of our Christmas Break. a collage photo of all the shots taken over the day by the various photographers in the house, a pretty satin ribbon behind, the star clip, the letter bottle caps, buttons, arrows, another hinge sticker & lots of cardstock stickers.

 here is a peek at our Christmas Day celebration.  We celebrated my side of the family on Christmas Day.  I was pretty pumped to finally use a cardboard CD case that had come in another kit but set unused on my desk.  I used it in the 2 right photos. (top shows it closed, bottom shows it opened) & then I have 2 pockets to put things in as I come across them later. the gift tags are creations of Mom's with her Cricut as she has done in the past few years.

 Here is the 3rd of 3 Christmas programs we attended this year.  Super simple, super sweet. then a great time playing w/the Arispe 3 (the way I often refer to my niece & nephews that live near Arispe)
love that music sheet paper with the love themed tags. The full pages are the square photos on the right. (I feel like I have shared this one...)

Here is the set pages for Christmas Eve, documenting our little gift exchange just between the 2 of us. 

He surprised me with a shot glass rack I have been drooling over at the Iowa State Fair for years.  I hadn't even unpacked my collecting when we moved in this house in 2007 for lack of space to appropriately display them. Not only did he get the shelf, had it personalized w/'Jackson Place' on the swinging doors at the top but he HUNG it that night! I had so much fun arranging my glasses around the shelves, so that the ones that came from certain people or trips were all together.  I got him some hunting gear from his list, all the journaling is inside the pocket on the right page.  Oh & I swapped out the white heart clip for a gold star clip after I had photographed it.

 Here is a pretty page using pink again.  I was determined at this point use up some supplies I have been hording.  the papers were actually 4" strips I pieced together then used the stickers to cover the seams, used up my blue buttons & then a lot of the pink stickers on 2 different sticker sheets. This was our pajama day that we made chocolate dipped cookie dough balls from pinterest & our annual applesauce + cinnamon ornaments.  Totally fun hands on day at childcare.  A few more pages & it was finished!!  check one project DONE!! :)

Then I got to work on Christmas #1 of 2 for 2009.  It just seemed logical to keep working on Christmas photos even though they are 4 years part. I am having a BLAST using up some bigger items I couldn't work into my December Daily.  This is the first time in a REALLY LONG time I have scrapped 12x12 Christmas pages. Below is a collage of cruddy phone pictures of the pages I have done so far. (all but the middle set on the left are matched as they will be in the book but the other 2 are not going across from each other)

I am so enjoying knowing that I 'have to report in' at the end of the month & I had better have something to report :)

you can see my January & February reports here.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Done and documented is series of monthly posts that highlights Jess's progress completing unfinished travel albums from years past. I will be following along by doing my December Daily 2013, then plan to finish 2009 (2 chapters) & start a new year. Feel free to play along! 

Work Space Wednesday

YAY!!!!!! I finally got one taken & posted on the right day!!!
here are some photos of my current work space. To say I am ready to do be done with this project is MORE THAN FAIR.

•  Yes I use (unused, clean) pizza boxes for my scrap paper storage & transportation.
• Yes, I am horrible about keeping my things sorted as I work on a project. 
• Yes, I am ready to call my December Daily book complete! Saturday will be the final day YAY!!! 

So tell me, when you work on a project, any project, are you a messy worker? does your space get worse before it gets better? do you end w/a bigger mess than when you started? if not, I am jealous. :) 

Done & Documented: February

 here is the day I shared a peek at while it was in process last month.
Normally, I am a pretty flat scrapper so doing these minis, I get to pull out my 3-D goodies like the ornaments I strung on some glittery fiber & the bulky buttons on the right

here is a simple 2 page spread that talks about Sam's vet check up. Not at all about the holidays, but the injury happened at the beginning of the month & its part of the month, so here it is.  I added a couple of metal items to this set of pages after I took the photos, since I didn't have to worry about the texture. 

  here is #2 of 3 Christmas programs I attended this year. Their program I attached w/sticker hinges (going to miss them when they are gone as they are OLD) & used some vellum music paper I picked up at Hobby Lobby this year.

 This childcare page is so boring, but documented the day we finally got the Christmas decorations up! I did use the fun foamy Thicker letters & numbers & folded a sheet of cardstock to make a flip up to make room for the journaling, those things sure helped dress it up. 

  what? no photos of the flower delivery? me? oops!! 

 I recovered by using the paper they came in, then tucked the journaling  box inside. 

Pink is not a normal color I use for a Christmas page but it really fit the photos this time, so I pulled out an assortment of pinks. It was fun to get out of the red-and-green box for a while.

I finished up the month of February working on Day 23 that didn't get finished until March.  I would love to show more photos of the days in between (which would probably bore you to death) but I cannot figure out how to load the edited photos from Picassa into the blog.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Done and documented is series of monthly posts that highlights Jess's progress completing unfinished travel albums from years past. I will be following along by doing my December Daily 2013, then plan to finish 2009 (2 chapters) & start a new year. Feel free to play along! 

Done & Documented

I started my DD (my D&D project) a few weeks ago while scrapping w/a friend but had forgotten the past years' books so I was a bit lost on my format as I want them all to be closely similar, so I struggled to get much done past start. :) I then got sick late that next week & recovered over the weekend so my bags were still packed for the next weekend's crop w/my aunt & her friends! 1 full day & another half. I was pumped to get this project rolling! & roll I did!  I got up to day 6 complete (w/the exception of one page needing hinges I didn't take with me.  here are some photos of the process.  

 looking really close, we can see that I was able to get all 6 in our group in one timer shot-YAY! even if there is WAY TOO MUCH CEILING. ;)

& here is my project in process for Day 5 (I think)


________________________________________________________________________________________
Done and documented is series of monthly posts that highlights Jess's progress completing unfinished travel albums from years past. I will be following along & plan to finish 2009 (2 chapters) & start a new year. Feel free to play along! 

December Daily-complete!

ahh I love the feeling of a completed project... a clean room, a chapter of photos scrapped, a completed mini album, a craft project on the wall, a recipe tried... whatever it may be, I love a completed project.  I am not so great on the follow thru on most things so I rarely get to see an end but the December Daily 2012 is COMPLETE!!!! YAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!

oh btw, this will be very photo heavy!! I still won't burden you w/the whole book since blogger is being a pain & won't let me shrink the second half of the photos...

here is the completed book from the bottom :) love a nice stack of pages.

31. New Year's Eve! (looks like we are working backwards through the month-hope you don't mind) Collage photo of the evening/flap over the journaling, CM(Creative Memories) Achievements paper background (think graduation) & some really old Eyelets.

29. more old eyelets, some even older money that was handed out at the Jackson family Christmas (I put in a plastic flip flap) that covers the journaling

 28. one of the lucky sledding trips

26 & 27. parts of Christmas Break in childcare... love those 3D candycane stickers!

25 (part 2). evening w/the Short Family.

 

25. (part 1) Horton family Christmas- mom's cricut made name tags, a card from a gift & a photo collage

24. Christmas eve, childcare ornament making during the day & our(Tim & I) gift exchange in the evening. yes I really did hand him the camera! an old tag w/letter stickers on the front & journaling on the back attached to the strap w/'rope' from one of my clothing tags, assorted tags from our gifts

 

18. Elementary Christmas program #2, this time I included the program, photo collage & single photo of the neices in it. got to use up some more old eyelets. 17.  The day my camera returned from the shop :)  & the first series of photos I took that I printed into a collage & hung one on the wall for the childcare & sent one home w/each of them their parents tell me they talk about it all the time. it really is the little things sometimes.

 

21.  out of order but I am tired of fighting w/blogspot so jsut going to go w/it :) LOVE these 'icicle letters' on this page! SNOW DAY= sledding!!!

13. our Christmas card we sent, a photo of the supplies needed.

14. our girls' shopping day, my annual starbucks cup wrapper & the photo collage. 11. I was absolutely giddy when I discovered this JOY chipboard in the donation pile after Scrap Pink! even more giddy when I realized it would fit on a page in here!  covered it w/December details but now wish I had left it plain :) you'll have that sometimes!!  the other side is just a photo & story of the shelf I use as a mantel.

6&7. no photo but used the note off the FFA fruit box & Kora became ours officially on the 7th. Loved using that line of buttons on the bottom.

 

opening page.  I like to use the calendar as the opening  or cover page for my DDs.  this JOY journaling page was great to help me kick of my check list of what I wanted to be sure to document.

I was horrible about getting some photos taken, I definitely was 'in' many of the moments therefore spaced off photographing them..

to do

feeling pretty ambitious today.. so making a list of goals for next month:

•  at the top is this no sew ruffle scarf out of a tshirt- I can totally handle that!
• thinking of these for Christmas gifts
• make this recipe
• keep eating from the pantry (& freezers) as much as possible
• keep decluttering the childcare
• finish my December Daily album

and love every minute of it all!! :)

December Daily 2010

Since 2012's pages are taking so long to complete, I decided to share some of  the 2010 album I finished this year.

here is the final completed product.

Long story short I forgot I had started the album pages until I got about half way thru completing an entirely new one, then discovered the beginnings of the other album.  Here is the picture of overwhelmed me taking it all to the bed for more spread out space to work it all in together.

some of the details on the pages: foamy snowman die cuts. yes please!

some layered Elle's Studio tags I have been hoarding.

Close To My Heart flip flaps to make more room-both pages open up this way.  chipboard tag shapes-yummm.

 

 photos arranged in a collage from Picasa3- one of my favorite ways to include alot of photos on a single page or layout.

The prettiest page I think I have ever done: beads threaded on eyelash fiber, sparkly 3D border stickers, & a circle clip w/'L' on it.

hinge stickers: another terrific way to include more space on the page. also I journaled right on this photo of my Starbucks coffee cup.

Hopefully I have 2012 ready to share by the end of January ;)