Every year I go through the same dilemma.
First I tell myself I’m not participating with Ali’s popular December Daily project — not because I don’t think it isn’t awesome (it is), but for these other reasons:
- Do I really want THAT many mini-books sitting around just for Christmas?
- Do I really want to add to the chaos and busyness of this time of year?
- Do I want ANOTHER unfinished Christmas mini (not one of my three are done).
- And these last two are statements, not questions: I don’t like non-Christmas stuff in my Christmas mini-book. “Daily” inevitably means a non-Christmasy page here and there. It works for Ali, but I don’t like it in mine.
- Also, I sometimes like my prepped pages better than my completed pages. That makes me slightly sad.
Every year since my first attempt I’ve decided to skip out. And then all those Christmas themed supplies start popping up, and people start sharing their prepped pages, and I start to feel the itch.
I do LOVE my 2009 mini-book, which is the most complete, most interactive, and most glittery. LOVE IT! (except for those non-Christmas pages!).
Why Simplifying Didn’t Work
Last year I was adamant. I decided I wasn’t doing it.
Then Ali simplified her book for that year and released digital templates. So that seemed less stressful and I decided to go for it.
But guess what? I don’t really love that book. It’s missing the things I love most about my first two albums — the surprising unusual pages types. And the glitter.
So this year I was adamant. I’m not going to participate this year.
And then…
I started going through my Christmas supplies for some layouts and I realized something. Christmas supplies and the idea of glitter make me happy. Like, really happy.
Great-looking numbers throughout a book make me happy too.
Who cares if I have too many mini-books. It’s just FUN!
So I re-evaluated why I do and don’t want to join the ranks and came up with a plan that feels right for me.
36 Merry Days
Yeah — I added eleven days to my book. Sounds crazy, right? But my book won’t necessarily be daily. Here’s what factored into my decision:
- I just want to capture stuff that either is Christmasy, or LOOKS Christmasy in the photos.
- I try to put our trees up the day after Thanksgiving, so it’s always bothered me that that day isn’t included within the December Daily album.
- We have three birthdays around the Christmas season. Mine is Nov. 26, Blake’s is Dec. 7, and Trinity’s is Dec. 31. They all feel like a part of the season to me, so I want to include them.
I’m not focusing on December or daily. For me it’s going to be about the 36 merry days of Christmas time.
So that’s it. I’ll be capturing my Christmas along with so many of you! Here’s my plan:
- I’ll be numbering the days on each page, just like Ali, but I expect to skip some numbers and days.
- I’m preparing piles of numbers, embellishments, pages of various sizes, but I’ll pick and choose and assemble each page after I’ve got my photos, ephemera, and journaling in hand. I think I’ll like my finished designs better.
- I’m excited to return to the mixed-up pages with lots of fun techniques that I loved so much before.
I’ll share some of those techniques in the first of next month’s video tutorials! If you want to get in on some fun interactive and dimensional ideas for mini-books, be sure you have your Paperclipping Membership!
So what about you? Are you doing a December Daily album this year? What will your approach be? Have you gone through a similar process of customizing Ali Edwards’s cool project to make it suit you?
