December Daily 2010

For the third consecutive year, I am preparing to document December. Christmas and the all that leads up to it.

In 2008, I ordered a kit to put together a 4 X 6 chipboard mini book. It was delightful. And easy to use. One side of each chipboard page was for photos, and extra photos could easily be added by creating a new page of 2 back to back 4 X 6's. Fun, simple, and great for the road trip to Winnipeg for our fabulous White Christmas of 2008!

In 2009, it came time to put the book together for the coming Christmas season. Ali Edwards, who pioneered the idea of the December Daily, encourages people to have the book ready for the beginning of December, to lessen the time commitment at that already busy time of year.

I'm a collector and hoarder of scrapbook supplies, and even more of a sucker for all things Christmas, so I have quite the stash of Christmas supplies. I decided to order chipboard covers for my 2009 book, but to  use supplies that I already had on hand for the pages inside.

No problem, really. I didn't make much of a dent in my Christmas goodies, even with trying to share with Sandi and Peg when we got together last November for DD making. My post about finally finishing it can be found here

Fast forward to fall 2010. While I've collected more Christmas stuff since last year, much of it was on sale after Christmas. And of course I had to get some of the new BG Christmas papers, as well as a bit of G45. And I've also acquired some TH seasonal Sizzix dies and embossing folders. Can't resist those.

I decided my book's foundation this year would be a 7 X 12 acrylic number that was part of a Lisa B kit from a couple of years ago, when she was doing a kit of the month. Something else I had ordered and hoarded.

This year, I decided to put the basic pages together and not choose and affix any further embellishments on the pages. I did this last year, and found myself spending too much time working around those pages, having to make photos fit what was already there.  It may take just as much time this year to complete those pages, but at least I won't have invested as much time up front.

My cover for 2010.

Each year, Ali starts a new flickr group for sharing our interpretations and ideas for December Daily albums. I've posted mine to the group. If you'd like to see the set of photos of each page, they can be found here   Because I love when those who share their work on flickr provide sources, inspiration, and any other details, I try to do the same. So rather than repeat myself here, if you're interested in those details, follow that last link.

If you haven't before, make this the year you start the December Daily tradition. I'm on my third year and we already enjoy looking back at previous books. The current flickr group is a great source of support and inspiration. And there are groups for the previous years, if you have time to look.