#donebydecember is the awesome brain child of some of my fellow Ali Edwards Creative Team members; Jess Forester, Jenny Theriault, and Lisa Varshine. This is a fun community project to spend time completing unfinished December Daily albums before December of the current year (2020) arrives. I don’t usually work on my album IN December, so this is the perfect time for me to get started on my 2019 album. Here’s where I’m starting from:
Let’s talk about intro pages. Do you do anything special to begin your album? Do you start with a title page, or jump right into the stories? I took a look back at some of my past projects, and it was so fun to see the evolution of my story telling over the years. There’s no “right” or “wrong” here. No rules for how it’s supposed to be done. And I like different things about each one.
2013 | From the very beginning, I was obsessed with layers in various sizes, ha! This little guy is about 2.5 inches wide and 8 inches tall (back before 3×8 was an actual thing!). I used my sewing maching to custom size the pockets in this album, mixed in some digital word art, and created a shaker pocket with sequins. Not a whole lot of story here, but it still sets the tone for “fun”.
On the back is a little story that kicks off December 1st, but it also feels like the perfect beginning for the stories ahead. I will always love including quotes in my stories.
2014 | Starting this year off with custom size pockets again and lots of different sized layers. This intro page pretty much jumps right into documenting the days/stories. The journaling strip down the side is still one of my favourites! I’d like to do that again.
The back holds journaling for the first day of December 2014. It’s mostly about the Christamsy things we had already done, like going to a Christmas party, pictures with Santa, putting up the lights outside. This was a good reminder that the story for each day doesn’t have to happen on that exact date in order for it to be in the album.
2016 | 3×8’s are officially a thing! This is beginning to look a bit more like what you might expect of an intro page. The quote is cut from digital word art with white vinyl and adhered to the outside of a 3×4 page protector. Pretty sure that picture wasn’t take on December 1st. It’s highly unlikely we would have had our tree up and lit and decorated at that point š The index tab on the side does not include a particular date, just the month of December and the year, so I think it’s safe to give this one “title page” status.
The back then jumps into December 1st stories. That little antler stamp was from a Paislee Press stamp set with that year’s December Daily release. It’s STILL one of my favourites!
2017 | This was one of the first years that I purposely waited until after December was over before I started working on my album. I knew that trying to complete my pages the way I wanted them to be done in real time would just stress me out too much, and who needs more stress in arguably the busiest month of the year?! I found this approach far more enjoyable, because I could take my time, include more details, and there’s always that matter of perspective. I still write and take photos during December, celebrating those stories in the moment. And then later, I can look back with a different perspective on how everything played out. This can be such a blessing, the opportunity to “reframe” a challenging or stressful situation; acknowledging it was hard, and also looking for the good.
That tree transparency has my heart in a big way! That was a photo of our Christmas tree that I printed onto an inkjet transparency at home. I trimmed it down to 6×8 and tucked it into a page protector. The at home transparencies tend to be quite a bit thinner than the ones specifically designed for scrapbooking. Putting it in the page protector helped give it a bit more stability. This was also the first year I started off my album with a letter, writing about my intentions and hopes for the holiday season. (Of all the years, I think this one might be my favourite!)
2018 | This was the year I got to go to the in person December Daily Prep Party in Eugene, Oregon! I shared a bit about my December Daily experience there (see my last post), and really spent some time defining my “reason why”. It felt like the perfect way to begin my 2018 album. I paired my journaling with a family photo from that year and some digital word art, fancied up with gold foil and my minc machine. I believe the “pay attention” digital stamp was part of Ali Edwards’ Digital Story kit, “Watch”.
The back of that includes another gold foiled quote from the “Watch” digital story kit, paired with a black and white photo of the kiddos. Then it’s on to the stories of December! I love how simple but meaningful this intro page is. It’s the words that make this one so special.
And that brings us to 2019, my current album in progress!
2019 | This “album intro” has 2 parts. First of all, I did a little something different to the inside cover of my album. That is an old school style library book pocket that came in Kelly Purkey’s 2019 December kit. I did some stamping on top with Kerri Bradford’s “Outnumbered (One) XL” stamps and Ali Edwards’ Crafter’s Ink in “Pendleton”. The pine branches are from Crate Paper’s “Snowflake” release, cork star from the 2019 December Daily main kit by Ali Edwards, and December chipboard from the Paislee Press Mini Kit (again, 2019 Ali Edwards December Daily release).
Inside the pocket is a custom made tag that holds my intentions for the year in the form of a letter to December. Letter writing is one of my favourite ways to get journaling started when I’m just not sure how to start. That tag is about 3.25 inches wide and 6 inches tall. I layered a few extra tags on top (calendar tag by Kelly Purkey, “holiday magic” flag from the 2019 December Daily main kit).
On the right side, I decided to include a more “traditional” cover page. I printed a digital file from the 2019 December Daily release (this digital transparency set), onto velum. I reinforced the left hand side with a strip of patterned paper and stitched it down before punching the holes for the album. I’m really loving playing with different elements of scale, so I printed a really small family pic, punched it out with a 1″ circle punch, and tucked it inside a metal rimmed tag. It reminds me of a little locket or trinket, and I think it’s a fun addition to this page. Just a few embellishments with a cork heart from the Paislee Press mini kit (2019) and gold puffy letter “B” from the 2019 main kit.
Here’s the process video:
Although most of the physical products I used here are no longer available, chances are pretty darn good that you can achieve the same effect (or very similar) with digital products.
I think this album is off to a good start! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and let me know if you have any questions in the comments below š
Pam
I love seeing your process Pam! Your intro pages are lovely!