I had tons of fun making them however. This is the reason why I have once again searched my paper scraps for Christmas-themed items this month and taken the plunge.
Previous projects:
- December Daily 2008 (cover + a few completed pages)
--> Soooooo... It all started fairly well up until the 5th. What happened then? My son Gaëtan was born a few days later so I guess I had my hands full and a lot less free time!!
- December Daily 2009 (cover + a few empty pages)
--> My biggest failure to date... and I have no good reason for it! I didn't even finish the cover NOR found a suitable binding for the minibook and I didn't complete a single page (although I kept pictures and notes in a dedicated folder!).
OK, moving on... it's embarrassing...
What I learned in the process:
My previous December Daily albums were fun to put together because I wanted to mix different page sizes, different textures, different formats, play with inks or my sewing machine... I really wanted every page to be unique! That was a lot of fun (and work!) to put together... but I realized when the actual documentation phase started that it made things WAY too complicated for me to complete: I just didn't know what to do with these strange page sizes... and trying to make every single page unique was just too much work (not to mention time-consuming) on a daily basis!
My December Daily 2010 book:
- Overview + a few pages
My December Daily 2010 album is - for all the aforementioned reasons - VERY simple at this point: 1 double-sided piece of pattern paper + 1 daily overlay printed on white Bazzill cardstock. Repeat from Day1 to Day25!
Ali's use of transparency pages appealed to me BUT I didn't want to spend ANY money on new supplies (considering this one may also end up empty... ahem...). So I used left-over Christmas papers from years past, only bought Ali's December Daily 6*8 overlays, repeated the same steps for each page and build my album fairly quickly.
It would have been even quicker, had I not (stupidly?) decided to slightly change the size of my pages: a bit more work now in order to save me lots come December (well, that's the plan...)! I slightly decreased the size of Ali's overlays so that one portrait-oriented 6*4 picture (printed on my home-printed) would fit in the upper section of the overlay (leaving a bit of room to the right to glue some pretty paper, add a title, a quote... you name it).
So basically, each page could now just be one 6*4 picture + a bit of pretty paper/a title/a quote to the right + some journaling at the bottom: I think even I can handle that at the end of a busy December day, even feeling exhausted and uninspired!!!
Moreover, if I DO feel a bit more creative, there is still room to add more pictures/create a photo collage, add more journaling or more pretty artsy things... PERFECT!
This is how it may look (in the simplest version, ie the laziest one!):
I didn't add any number on my patterned paper pages but am planning to do this each day. I just want that extra bit of flexibility, just in case!
As you may also have noticed, there is no binding at this point (I'm keeping my pages in a little kraft bag on my desk). I'm planning to bind it with my Bind it All when its finished (ha!) but may end up using book rings if it's easier... who knows?!
What else can I say: JUST WISH ME LUCK!!!! I may need all the good vibes you can send my way ;)
