I’m trying something new this year with Ali Edwards’ December Daily project. I’m using Becky Higgins’ Project Life format to tell the stories of each day of December. You can read about my approach in this post.
This means that I’ve had to dig out some long lost paper scrapbooking tools. Gasp!
My old Creative Memories corner rounder and tape runner. I also used my Provo Craft personal trimmer to cut some of the printed journaling cards I created. I won’t lie to you, I’m way out of practice with these things. I’ve been fully digital since 2005 and I’m ok to just bring these guys out of storage once in awhile. However, I’m excited about this format for December Daily because it will allow me to include the memorabilia of the season. That said, I really didn’t have any memorabilia from the first few days of December. Silly!
I ordered this 12x12 album to keep all my pages in but it still hasn’t arrived. I was hoping it would come today but the UPS man has already been here and I sit here without my bright red album.
Here are the pages I’ve done so far…
December 1st:
The breakdown of this page:
- 5 photos printed at Costco. I used the corner rounder on all of them. I trimmed down 3 of the photos to fit in the smaller pockets.
- A number sticker (1) from the physical Project Life core kit
- 2 digital journaling cards that I used in Photoshop Elements to add text and a photo. I used the Traveling Typewriter font – 11 pt. size (I’m hopelessly addicted to that font!)
- Ali Edwards word art
Because I’m so used to sharing digital images here, and because I like to see things up close, here are the digital components of the page:
Obviously, the story of the day for December 1st was getting started with our Lego Advent Calendars. One of our very favorite holiday traditions!
December 2nd:
The breakdown of this page:
- 5 photos printed at Costco. I used the corner rounder on all of them. I trimmed down 2 of the photos to fit in the smaller pockets.
- A number sticker (2) + a small card from the physical Project Life core kit
- 3 digital journaling cards that I used in Photoshop Elements to add text and a photo. On the card with the photo, I lowered the opacity of the photo to 70%. I used the Traveling Typewriter font
- Ali Edwards December Daily overlay on photo card
- A tiny bit of my own handwriting recording the ages of my kids
- I borrowed some of my journaling from this web site
Digital pieces:
Page 2 for December 2nd – this was a big event!
The breakdown of this page:
- 5 photos printed at Costco. I used the corner rounder on all of them. I trimmed down 2 of the photos to fit in the smaller pockets.
- A small card from the physical Project Life core kit
- 3 digital journaling cards that I used in Photoshop Elements to add text and photos. On the card with the photos, I lowered the opacity of the photo to 70%. I used the Traveling Typewriter font
- A tiny bit of my own handwriting on the red card
- I borrowed some of my journaling from this web site
Digital pieces:
As you can see, the story for December 2nd was all about the Festival of Trees. I didn’t mind devoting 2 pages to this event because it’s a big tradition for us. I also took a lot of pictures and part of the fun is seeing all the different holiday displays.
December 3rd:
The breakdown of this page:
- 5 photos printed at Costco. I used the corner rounder on all of them. I trimmed down 3 of the photos to fit in the smaller pockets.
- A number sticker (3) from the physical Project Life core kit
- 4 digital journaling cards that I used in Photoshop Elements to add text and a photo. On the card with the photo, I lowered the opacity of the photo to 70%. I used the Traveling Typewriter font. I also used the logo from our Toy to the World blog.
- Ali Edwards December Daily overlay on photo card
- Several of the photos on this page were taken by my daughter. A lot of the journaling is directly copied from my daughter’s writing on our toy blog.
Digital pieces:
The story I focused on for December 3rd was blogging since I spent the majority of the day working on blog posts for this blog and for The Daily Digi. My daughter worked on her paper chain and posts for our toy blog. It was a very bloggy day!
We also went to a party that night and donated a gift to charity. I could have included those things on this date, but we will be doing more of both activities (parties + charitable giving) so I’m just going to include those pictures and details when I document the later events.
My thoughts so far…
- I’m so used to digi scrapping that I had a harder time getting in the flow of using regular size photos and having to trim and corner round so many things. I know I could have done these pages in half the time using a digital template. I also wish I could just post a digital image of my entire page instead of having to photograph it. I’m a digi girl through and through and plan to stay that way for all of my other projects.
- I do believe this is a great format for a December Daily album – lots of flexibility and it’s easy to use. I’m also enjoying the look of this album so far and I’m especially excited to be able to add memorabilia if I ever get any.
- I’m happy that I can mix plenty of digital elements into this project. I LOVE being able to customize my own journaling cards! So happy for the digital version of Project Life!
- I’m really looking forward to Becky Higgins coming out with digital Project Life templates which she has said are coming soon. I feel like I could easily mix those in with this existing album and have a cohesive look.
- I like being able to mix different types of page protectors in this album. So glad I got the variety pack! I also want to use some of these half-size ones to add a little variety and to get some big photos included.
- My original plan was to share my pages here on my blog each Tuesday in December. I can see now that I will need to do a few extra posts throughout the month to be able to share all of the pages.
I’m excited about this album so far. I can’t wait to hear what you all think about it!
…
