December Daily

I first heard about the December Daily on Lacy's blog and checked out Ali Edwards' site. She is a professional artist and designs scrapbook goodies as well as amazing personal minis of her family.

Materials:

I designed the numbers myself in Photoshop. I saw some I liked, but didn't want to pay $10. I downloaded a 2" circle template and used a variety of fun fonts. Then I used a 1 1/2" punch to cut them out. I tried cutting them out by hand and they didn't look so hot, so I used a 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby and got the punch for $6. So much easier and neater, and I already have some other uses in mind for it.

I did order the journal tags from an etsy shop called ScrapBits. She sells all kinds of paper goodies, and I loved these lined tags. I have always had trouble writing on a straight line on unlined paper. However, I could have done these myself now that I think of it.

At the last minute I found these journal tags and incorporated several of them.

A Word document to serve as a journal

Receipts, coffee sleeves, business cards, etc. from daily events

12x12 pieces of coordinating scrapbook paper

1 1/2" book rings from itsalwaysfabulous

Photoshop templates from Sassy Designs. I love this site! They regularly have specials, sometimes up to 80% off. I got my templates for about $1 each. Some of their patterns are backgrounds on my digital pages.

Lots of photos - Thankfully we were home for most of December and my dad took tons of pictures. Otherwise, I probably would not be in any of them. Such is the fate of a mother.

Process:

Before I started, I read about Ali Edwards' process, and she likes to fully create and print a page each day. I don't think that would work for me. First of all, I don't think the photos would come out as good as I'd like them on our printer at home. Secondly, I don't like to feel like I'm winging a project, even though I often get impatient and rush it. I like to lay everything out and change things around instead of feeling locked in to something permanent. Here's what I did: Each day I tried to remember to take pictures of our ordinary moments. I saved receipts and memorabilia from errands. At night, I recorded our day's events in a running Word document. I tried to include funny comments, sweet moments, and any "firsts" for Raegan. For me, this was the most important thing to be diligent about. I knew I would not remember little things several days or weeks later if I did not write them down while they were fresh on my mind. There were a couple of days when I did not do a very detailed job of journaling, which left me with an uninspired page.

Some things I learned and will do differently next time:

1. For crying out loud, punch holes in the paper before attaching all the photos and goodies! Several photos and journal tags got punched through, and it was very difficult to punch through some of the pages that were already several layers thick.
2. 4x6 was not enough room for most of my days. I chose 4x6 pages because the prints are much cheaper than a 5x7, but it might be worth the enlargement next time.
3. I might use more digital pages. I love type fonts, but I think there's also something really special about your own handwriting (even if you don't like the way it looks), so it's a tough call.
4. Take more pictures with Ryan! I don't think we have a single deliberate picture of us together from the holidays :( There are a few where we just happened to be together and you can see our legs in the background or something.
5. I might experiment with a wider variety of papers. I get a little overwhelmed when I try to coordinate too many colors and patterns, so I kept it simple this first time around. I might get a little more crazy next time and mix things up.