Journal Your Christmas/December Daily

I decided this year to do my own version of a Christmas Album. I’ve done Journal Your Christmas for the past two years and have watched Ali Edwards do her December Daily with awe… this year, I decided to do my own combination of the two – a little of each. I think it will keep things fresh for me, both from a creative perspective and from a content perspective.

I started taking pictures on Dec 1, but didn’t really start on my album until yesterday. (just too busy) I have, however, a plan and a general approach in mind.

I began by listing things I want to be sure I capture – so far, I am at 25 things and that is without Shimelle’s prompts, so I know I will come up with plenty more thanks to her creativity.

Here’s my list in case you are looking for some inspiration yourself:

Letters to Santa
Letters to our Elf on the Shelf
Christmas Card (I plan to add in the cards we receive as well – maybe at the end of the album)
Baking & favorite recipes
Decorations (especially new ones or things that have a history or special meaning)
Holiday parties
Craft projects
Self portrait
Family picture
Visit by my brother & his family (this will be a big bunch of pictures, I’m sure)
Shopping & my shopping lists
Receipts & packing slips
the kids’ Christmas trees & the family tree
Grocery lists & menus for the special meals
Weather
Pinterest – things that have inspired me (and that I’ve actually done!)
Wrapping
Wrapping paper
Goodie bags for friends/family/teachers
Advent calendars
“Joy is…” and have everyone complete the sentence
“I’m loving …” things I’m finding special this year
Instagram photos/posts
TV Specials
Special events/traditions (like our annual trip to Lake Lanier Islands’ Magical Nights of Lights)

That’s it so far! But, with all of that, I’m looking at a pretty hefty album!

I’m planning to make a small album this year, size-wise. I have decided to do 5×8 as the page size. I have some extra 5×8 page protectors from a recipe book project and I will use those up. Not decided yet on the actual album, though. I had planned to use a 5×8 album I had from Staples (nothing fancy) but after coming up with my ideas I think it may not be big enough.

I may just end up binding the album with ribbon or clip rings… and coming up with a homemade cover.

I’m going semi-digital with some handmade/paper accents. I’m planning to print everything at home (note to self: buy ink!) and use white cardstock as my base and then go from there.

I bought the December Daily overlays that Ali Edwards uses and I’m loving being able to use those as the base for the page of the day. My plan is to have the left-hand page be journaling and smaller photos/memorabilia and then the right-hand page be the overlay with a full-page picture. We’ll see how that works, but here is a sample of the first two pages I have created.(still in progress) They will not be facing each other, but you get the general idea.

I plan to share more sneak peeks on the blog as I go. I’m hoping to work a little each day but I know that, realistically, I will probably end up doing like I have done in years’ past and do my journaling here (or on a file on the PC) and then catching up with multiple pages on the weekend.

Are you doing anything to capture your holiday memories this year? Even if you don’t do anything but keep a journal of your activities and thoughts, I encourage you to! As I said in my journaling above, these Christmas albums usually end up being my favorite ones to go back and look at later.

I’ll share more with you soon. Right now, I’m off to finish the Christmas shopping!

Scrapbook Tuesday

I didn’t get as much scrapbooking done during the holiday as I had thought I would. Actually, I just wasn’t feeling the creative burst to do so… That, and I know I’ll be doing a LOT of scrapbooking this coming weekend, so I focused more on other things (like knitting and reading and hanging out with the girls) than on scrapbooking.

I did manage to get one page done –

I think it turned out well – and it captures a sweet moment with Little Bit and me that I didn’t even know SuperMan took a picture of. This was at the cabin in North Carolina when we met my mom and stepdad up there for the weekend.

I’ll have lots more to share next week, I’m sure!

A perfect Saturday

I have had the “itch” to scrapbook for weeks now. But life has been too hectic with the beginning of school and the other things we’ve had going on. Scrapbooking, unfortunately, has taken a back seat to the rest of life.

The good thing about this is that there has been plenty of fodder for the scrapbook!

The bad thing is that there hasn’t been much time to capture those memories!

SuperMan helped me take care of that today, though. He knew I was dying to scrapbook, so he granted me a “retreat” day. I was able to sit at my computer for most of the day – organizing files, sorting through pictures, unzipping purchased kits, and finishing up some of the digi-scrapping classes I’ve purchased but never finished.

It was glorious.

And, I learned a lot, got a lot organized, and even managed to do some pages!

I’m really proud of myself because these are ALL from PSE. After finishing the classes, I decided I needed to challenge myself and put the new skills to work (before I forgot them!)

And I don’t think I did too shabby. I have a lot to learn, but PSE seems to be so powerful that it is enticing me to do more and more and more…

Learning the keyboard shortcuts sure makes things quick! That is one of the things that drives me crazy about the CM software. It seems to lack the shortcuts that an experienced digi-scrapper would look for. While it is a fantastic program for beginners (and is, indeed, how I learned to digi-scrap) I find it frustrating now because I can’t make it do some things I want it to do. Granted, I can’t figure out how to get PSE to do some things either, but I think that is more operator knowledge than software limitation.

I feel like I’m still wobbly – like I’m learning how to ride a bike again – but I know that soon I’ll be zooming along… especially if I can sneak a few more of these “retreat” days into my schedule!

Anyway, I’m sure you are curious to see my pages – or I hope you are, because I’m going to share them with you!

I’m planning to use 12×12 page protectors and just slip these in my 2011 Project Life album right along with the weekly pages. That is what I did last year and I think it worked out well. That way I get a little of both types of scrapbooking without feeling deprived either way! I tried my hand at using a template for this page (the others are all my own invention) I’m not sure if it was easier or not – It was nice to have the framework to start with, but then I had to get creative to make it work for me. I fiddled a little with it (they had the journaling where I have the title, for instance) but I think the overall result is nice.

I made a 24×12 page – for a double page spread. Of course, now I have no idea how I am going to print the darn thing. Do any of you PSE experts know what I can do with it to get 2 12×12 pages out of it? HELP!

Well, that’s it. My eyes are tired and my back is telling me it is time to sit in a different position for a while.

More fun next time, folks.

You aren’t going to believe this

But I actually scrapbooked this past weekend!

I know!

Big shock!

I haven’t done it in months and months. I had grand plans at the beginning of summer but they were washed away in a sea of other activities.

My girlfriend came over Saturday night and we hid out in the basement and scrapped and caught up on each other’s lives. It was so great. I really miss that time with my friends and the creative time.

I’m hoping I get to do more of that this fall once we get the school and activity schedules nailed down.

I have been challenging myself to do two things:

Work only from my stash. No shopping trips allowed.
Use some of the many inspiration page layouts I have filed away.

Here are some of the pages I worked on: (along with their inspiration pages)

Here is the inspiration page:

I need to go back and add my journaling to this one. I want to list all the books I’ve read this summer.

And the inspiration page:

Again, needs more journaling. The medicine I’m taking is making me a bit loopy, so I decided to wait and write when my head was more clear.

Inspiration page:

This was my own invention. 🙂 This two-page spread I tried just fiddling with some of the design principles I’ve learned in the past few classes I’ve taken.

This one is still a work in progress. Nothing is even glued down yet, but I love how it’s going so far.

Here is the inspiration page:

I can’t believe all these pictures are from LAST YEAR at this same time! The girls have grown so much. I’ll have new first-day-of-school pictures tomorrow that will quickly go in my pile to scrap.