Ali Edwards's Blog, page 41

Story Play | Facts + Feelings 03

Welcome back to our 
Story Play | Facts + Feelings series! 

In the previous post we talked about using lists as a way to excavate facts + feelings. Today I want to invite you to start your storytelling from a photo. From one photo you can gather all kinds of facts + feelings when you are willing to take a closer look at (and once again excavate) the layers of stories within the photos. 

LINKS

The Emotional Lives Of Teenagers by Lisa Damour Feelings List 

You can 100% do this.

30% OFF CLASSES DURING SEPTEMBER

Looking for more inspiration related to getting your stories told? During September we are offering 
30% off classes (
excludes new December Daily® + the new Start Here workshop) with the code Fall30. Offer valid thru 10/1/2023 at 11:59pm ET on your purchase of select digitals and select classes. Must enter code at checkout. Cannot be combined with other offers. Not responsible for missed or forgotten codes. Offer subject to change.

WANT A REGULARLY SCHEDULED WRITING PROMPT?

We also have a monthly subscription that invites you to focus just on the writing piece of memory keeping. It's called Just Write and it's $5 a month for two writing prompts. 
You can read more about it here.

Story Play | Facts + Feelings 02

Welcome back to our 
Story Play | Facts + Feelings series! 

One of the best tools in my journaling toolbox is using lists to excavate the facts + the feelings of a story. Lists can be visually fun (they are such a great place to bring in embellishments) but they also serve an awesome purpose in removing academic writing pressures you may have internalized from your education. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love a beautifully crafted paragraph/story but what I love more is simply getting the facts + feelings of a story out of my head and heart and onto a page. Lists organize our facts and feelings and help us focus more on that rather than worrying about grammar and punctuation. 

In the video above I reference a list of feeling words. You can access that here.

START TODAY | PRACTICE

Simply put, practice and repetition can make you a more confident journaler/writer. You can start today by grabbing a piece of paper or opening the notes app on your device and following this prompt: 

Write down 3 facts from today/this week/this season.  Write down 3 feelings from today/this week/the season. 

Repeat daily/weekly/seasonally to practice telling more of the story (or getting more of your own feelings included in your memory keeping). The facts and feelings might related to each other (here's a fact and here's how I feel about it) or they might not be directly related. Both are perfectly fine. 

Another option/approach is to tackle your next storytelling project by simply listing out one fact and then one feeling and repeating that until you feel satisfied. Use numbers or bullets or stars or some other graphic element to designate each item on your list.

Write down a fact.  Write down a feeling.  Write down a fact.  Write down a feeling.  Repeat. Use the phrase "tell me more" to encourage yourself to add another layer to your story. Keep going (this is the process of excavation). 

You can 100% do this.

30% OFF CLASSES DURING SEPTEMBER

Looking for more inspiration related to getting your stories told? During September we are offering 30% off classes (
excludes new December Daily® + the new Start Here workshop) with the code Fall30. Offer valid thru 10/1/2023 at 11:59pm ET on your purchase of select digitals and select classes. Must enter code at checkout. Cannot be combined with other offers. Not responsible for missed or forgotten codes. Offer subject to change.

WANT A REGULARLY SCHEDULED WRITING PROMPT?

We also have a monthly subscription that invites you to focus just on the writing piece of memory keeping. It's called Just Write and it's $5 a month for two writing prompts. 
You can read more about it here.

December Daily® 2023 | Plan + Play with Linda 04

Hi everyone! It’s Linda and I’m back again for the fourth and final segment of the Plan & Play December Daily series. Today we are going to be talking about albums! Whether you already have an album selected or you’re still on the fence, today’s post will hopefully give you some ideas to decide which album size is best for you + adapt the products/projects to the size and style you are working with.

ALBUM SIZES

There are lots of album sizes that you can use for December Daily, really there is no wrong way to do this project! In the past I have done: 4 x 5.5 (vertical), 4 x 6 (horizontal), 6 x 8, 10 x 8, 7 x 7 photo book, a DIY cover that was roughly 5 x 8 and included the project in my 12 x 12 project life album. 

So whether you have already selected on a size or are still deciding, it’s important to consider how this project adapts to the album you are using. 

In the video above, I talk you through the various sizes I have done and considerations for each. Here are some things to consider if you’re still undecided:

(01) How much time do I have to devote to this project? Larger albums take more time. If you have limited time, you might want to consider using a smaller album.(02) Do I like to include multiple photos per day? The super small albums lend themselves well to one photo per day. If you don’t think you could limit yourself to only one or a few photos per day, you might want to consider using a larger album. (03) Do I want to use a lot of products? Smaller albums just hold less stuff. So if you want to use a lot of products, you might want to consider using a larger album.(04) Do I prefer vertical or horizontal photos? If you prefer taking photos in one orientation rather than the other you might want to consider using an album that is also that orientation so you can easily print full page photos to add into your album.(05) How large can I print photos easily? If you print at home and are limited to a specific size print, you might want to keep your album under that size so that you can easily complete this project.(06) Where will I store my album once it’s completed? If you have limited storage space, you might want to consider smaller albums. Alternatively, if you plan to keep your albums lined up on a shelf, make sure you’re selecting an album size that is conducive to that. (07) How do I feel about page protectors? Divided page protectors are great for many reasons, but there are also lots of benefits of not using page protectors. If you want to use page protectors for most of your pages you will likely want to select a size that has a lot of page protector options. If you don’t want to use page protectors, this would be less of a concern and you could go with a non-standard size.(08) How much flexibility do I want? I have never used a bound book as my album base (such as a traveler’s notebook or the art journal [https://aliedwards.com/december-daily...]), but I’ve always thought they would make a super fun album. If you want the flexibility of being able to move your pages around, this might not be for you.(09) Do I want to do a lot digitally? If you want to work with a lot of digital supplies, consider how you intend to put those into your album. Do you want to do a lot of hybrid spreads? Would you prefer to create your album digitally and have it printed after the month?(10) What inspiration am I hoping to find? If this is your first year, or if you really like to take inspiration from others literally, then you might want to do a 6x8 album as that is the most common when seeking out inspiration online. You also might want to consider 10x8 because Ali plans to use that size for her album. That said, your album should be what you want it to be, not what others are doing, so I would strongly suggest doing the size you are most drawn to regardless of what others are doing. 

For this project, I plan to use the green floral 6x8 album. I created a spine label for my album by cutting out the “DEC” circle from one of the kraft envelopes that the Stories by the Month kits come in and pairing it with numbers from this set.

In addition to thinking about what size you want to work with, you might want to consider other things, such as color. Do you want all your albums to match on your shelf? Or do you want them to at least coordinate? For me, I like that they don’t match and enjoy mixing up the size each year. I am working with a 6x8 this year partially because I haven’t done that since 2019. You can see in the photo above how most of my albums look on my living room shelf. 

USING THE PRODUCTS

The main kit was designed so it could be adapted to various album sizes, styles, and formats. But, sometimes it’s hard to see how supplies can adapt, especially if you don’t yet have them in your hands. Here are some ideas to help you translate the products to work for your project.

Patterned Papers

A lot of patterned papers have simple patterns that can easily be cropped to any size. But what about larger patterns and prompt papers? You can often make those work in smaller sized albums as well! 

In the video below I talk through some ideas for adapting the patterned papers in the main kit + add on paper pack to smaller albums.

Create a template. If you are using a smaller album, a great way to visualize how papers will fit in your album is to create a template. To do this, create a cut out in a piece of scratch paper so that your scratch paper has a hole in it to match your album page size (see photo below or video). Then lay this template over the papers to get an idea of how they will look in your album size. The template I made below is sized 4 x 5.5 inches, which matches the album size I used last year.

Consider rotating or cutting up the paper. Lots of the papers this year lend themselves well to being cut up, such as the tags and banner page in the main kit, or the circles and gifts in the paper add on pack. I loved the JOY vellum in the main kit but, because the type is so large, you really needed the full 10x8 to get a good visual of the pattern. But, that’s okay. I cut out the full letters of JOY and am able to use them in a smaller album.

Consider spanning two pages. If you love the large scale pattern on a 10x8 paper, consider cutting the paper to fit across two spreads. For example, you could turn a 10x8 paper into a 6x8 and a 4x8 for a 6x8 album. 

Consider flip outs. You can also use a larger paper in your album by turning it into a flip out. In the video above a created a foundation page using the 1-5 paper that will fit in my 6x8 album. If you are using a shorter album, you can cut off some of the numbers and make your list only 1-4 or 1-3. 

Consider pocket pages. Just because you are working with patterned paper, doesn’t mean that you can’t still use pocket pages. Even if you’re using a larger album, you might want to cut down papers to slip into pockets. If you are unsure how a page will look cut down, create a template like the one I shared above to match the pocket size you’re considering.

Pocket Cards

The main kit comes with an assortment of 4x6 and 3x4 cards. There are also some add-on cards. If you want to use these products, but don’t want to do divided page protectors, there are still a lot of ways you can make them work.

Cut out the cards. Last week I shared an idea for cutting out the documenting blurbs on the 4x6 card in the main kit to adhere on top of a full page photo. Lots of the cards in the kit can easily be cut out and adhered on top of photos or used as embellishments in layouts.

Create a grid. Pocket cards are really, at their most basic, just rectangles. You can create a lot of fun layouts with these cards as rectangles of patterned paper on top of your spread. I really love the nutcracker 3x4 card but am unsure if I want to use any page protectors in my album. I sketched out an idea to crop the card down to 2.25 x 3 and pair it with a photo + words + patterned paper of the same size in a grid.

Turn them into tags. You can easily turn most 3x4 cards into a tag by cutting off the top two corners at an angle, punching a hole, and adding some ribbon. 

Add pockets on top of photos. Even if you don’t want to use divided page protectors on their own, you can cut one of the pockets out and adhere it on top of a full page photo or patterned paper to add your pocket card. I first saw Ali do this in a travel album and have since used the technique myself.

Embellishments & Extras

Most of the embellishments are small enough to fit into most sized albums. But, you still might need to get creative! You can use the same techniques as discussed above to adapt the embellishments to your album.

Wreaths. If your album is too small to include an entire wreath, you can purposefully have it go off the page (see template above). You can also fold it over to create a flip up with the side of the wreath you cut off (similar to my 1-5 page above).

Kraft pockets. These are super fun and small enough to fit in most sized albums as is! But, there are lots of other things you can do with them besides add them into rings! You can adhere a pocket on top of a photo or patterned paper to create an interactive page. Alternatively, you can adhere a pocket on the inside of your album cover to hold your reason why.

If you’re not going to use the pre-punched holes you can cover them with washi tape, tie ribbon through them, or add brads in the holes to adhere it to your page. 

I used the JOY craft pocket to create my reason why and adhered it to the inner cover of my album using red line tape. To cover the holes, I used one of the red ribbons from this set and some metal tags from my stash (I believe they are from Tim Holtz). 

I hope that this post gave some ideas for ways you can use the main kit no matter the album size or style you decide to go with. I have enjoyed hanging out with everyone on the blog and on instagram each Monday in September. Even though the plan + play series is over, I intend to continue sharing my ideas and set up for my album as we get closer to December. You can find me on instagram & youtube @lindalovescreating to see all of my updates!

 I will also be over on the @decemberdaily instagram account LIVE today, September 25, at 4 PM EST to answer your questions and chat about the things we talked about in today’s post. Hope to see you there!

Story Play | Facts + Feelings 01

Welcome to the next installment of our 
Story Play series for 2023. 

This week I'm sharing all about why I love the concept of "facts + feelings" as a writing formula I return to again + again in my journaling/storytelling adventures. 

ADDITIONAL READING/WATCHING

Using Facts + Feelings To Organize Your Stories (more examples + another video from Ali on this topic)20 Journaling Benefits: Why You Should Keep A JournalSUPPLIES

Facts + Feelings Mini Kit (available in a bundle)30% OFF CLASSES DURING SEPTEMBER

Looking for more inspiration related to getting your stories told? During September we are offering 30% off classes (excludes new December Daily® + the new Start Here workshop) with the code Fall30. Offer valid thru 10/1/2023 at 11:59pm ET on your purchase of select digitals and select classes. Must enter code at checkout. Cannot be combined with other offers. Not responsible for missed or forgotten codes. Offer subject to change.

WANT A REGULARLY SCHEDULED WRITING PROMPT?

We also have a monthly subscription that invites you to focus just on the writing piece of memory keeping. It's called Just Write and it's $5 a month for two writing prompts. You can read more about it here.

In Case You Missed It | September 22

Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. So, let's get to it:

STORY PLAY | FACTS + FEELINGS
It's almost here! Mark your calendar for this Monday, September 25th for our next Story Play series featuring the Facts + Feelings Kit. ⁠ ⁠ During the week we'll be sharing thoughts, ideas and examples using the kit to celebrate storytelling through the combination of facts and feelings.⁠ Looking for products related to the week? We still have the Story Play Mini Kit Bundle of 3 available, as well as the digital version of the kit. Shop the kit here.

LET'S PLAY SERIES 

Plan + Play Monday will be led by Linda Jordan, creative team alum, Story Planning contributor, and the instructor behind Plan, Prep, and Play. Linda will be sharing how to set yourself up for success with the project focusing primarily on the main kit. She'll have planning and organizational tips and tools, guidance on selecting your format, streamlining your stash, finding inspiration, and more. Find her posts here.
Paint + Play Wednesday will be led by Jill Drangsholt, a creative team alum and frequent class contributor. Jill will be sharing her expertise as a mixed media artist, offering tips and inspiration on using stencils, silkscreens, acrylic paint, and more. Jill's posts will include fun ideas that can translate directly to our December Daily® spreads. Find her posts here.
Paper Play Friday will be led by Pam Baldwin, another creative team alum, frequent class contributor, and the instructor behind Playing With Paper. Pam will be doing what she does best: working her magic with products from this year's collection. She'll be demonstrating creative ideas for fun, easy, DIY and interactive elements. Find her posts here.

30% OFF SELECT DIGITALS + CLASSES 

Calling all hybrid scrapbookers! We’re offering select digitals and classes at 30% off all month long. This sale is designed to support the members of our community who enjoy telling stories in the digital or hybrid format. From now until September 30th at 11:59pm ET use promo code FALL30 and get 30% off most digitals in the shop. Excludes December Daily® digitals + classes and the Start Here workshop.

NEW CLASSES

2023 DECEMBER DAILY® PREP DAY. Join the December Daily® community for a fun online December Daily® prep day on Saturday, November 18th, 2023. Use this opportunity to finish past December Daily® projects or start working on your project for 2023. The first live video will start on Saturday, November 18th at 10:00 am Eastern. Cost is $5.
DECEMBER DAILY® PRODUCT PLAY | TRY THIS. December Daily® Product Play is all about ideas and inspiration for working with physical products from the December Daily® Collection. For 30 days in November, you'll receive one idea per day from the contributors to this class (includes Ali). Ideas in this workshop will focus on physical products from our 2023 December Daily® collection. Whether you are preparing to document 2023 or finishing up telling stories from past years, we hope these fun, creative ideas help you use your products to get your stories told.
2023 DECEMBER DAILY® HYBRID PRODUCT PLAY. Hybrid scrapbooking combines digital products with physical supplies to create paper (or printed) memory-keeping projects. For this class, our contributors will share with fun, creative ideas and inspiration for working with these digital products from the 2023 December Daily® Collection.

PRODUCT Q+ A WITH ALI ON INSTAGRAM

Ali has been answering a wide range of questions, sharing creative product ideas, and more over on our December Daily® Instagram account. All of her content has been saved as a highlight on that account to be enjoyed at your convenience. Find it here.

ORDER ISSUES

If you experienced any issues at checkout, or have questions about the release please reach out to our Customer Service team and they will be happy to help you! Contacting them ensures we are keeping track of these questions and answering them in a timely manner. It's difficult for our team to keep track of all of the questions left on multiple threads/posts on social media with all the excitement-- we are doing our best and we want to make sure your questions get answered! Click here to start a new conversation. 

As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!

December Daily® 2023 | Paper Play with Pam 03

Hello friends, happy Friday! This week I’m sharing 5 projects that came together thanks to the inspiration in this year’s Paislee Press Mini Kit. Although this kit is currently sold out, all of my ideas can be easily translated to projects of your own using the digital kit, coming to the shop October 13th. 

I’ve arrived at the point in this album where some of the 2010 stories are fuzzy and my brief notes are no longer providing much direction about what the story is. The good news is this kit is full of thoughtful and clever prompts to keep me going!

Here’s where I’m starting.

Project #1

The first project started out with just 2 photos. What brings this story to life is the “Let our hearts be light” sentiment and a little bit of investigative work to figure out the missing details.

Supplies: 

Paislee Press Mini Kit (4x6 journaling card, patterned paper, vellum stars, chipboard tab)Main kit (gold puffy stickers)Other: ribbon.

Simplicity is such a lovely thing, but I was excited to try a new technique using the journaling card and patterned paper to make a slider that reveals hidden journaling and one additional photo.

This slider technique was very much inspired by Heidi Swapp’s brilliance. She creates all kinds of cool interactive techniques in her Memory Planners and I love figuring out how to translate them to other formats. Highly recommend checking her out!

Here’s the process video to make a slider of your own.

Project #2

My second project is a very simple 2 – 4x6 pocket page. The inspiration for this story came from the postcard in the Paislee Press Mini Kit. I adore this card! I thought it would be fun to include our furry family members by writing a letter to Santa from our cat Pumpkin’s perspective.

Supplies: 

Paislee Pres Mini Kit (4x6 journaling card, vellum circle)Paislee Press “A very Merry Christmas” 4x6 stamp6x8 Number stampCrafters Inks (Redwoods, Black Butte)  

I added a fun little pom-pom trim to one of the vellum circles from this kit, adhering the altered embellishment to the outside of the page protector.

I opted to hand write the letter to Santa directly on the postcard/journaling card. I used the Numbers Stamp from this year’s collection along with the Paislee Press stamp set to add a few fun details.

Here’s the process video and thoughts on this project.

Project #3

This story of our Friends Christmas party gathering was one I knew needed to be in the album, and I was so happy to find some fun elements in the mini kit that supported it.

This layout features an enlarged photo base with a mini-book on top. Inside the mini book are additional photos from our event along with journaling to tell the story. 

The colourful text on the 4x6 journaling card is super fun and I was inspired to play it up a little bit more, adding some tiny colourful beads to make a shaker pocket mini-book cover. 

Supplies: 

Paislee Press Mini Kit (4x6 and 3x4 journaling cards, chipboard shapes)Main kit (gold puffy numbers)Other: rainbow mini beads, pom-pom trim

I looked up the dimensions of a mini instax photo and printed my own version of an instax for the mini photo insert. They “float” inside a page protector that’s been stitched to size, along with more of the rainbow beads (they’re just so fun!)

I had a moment of remorse as I applied adhesive to the back of the “spending time with my favourite people” 3x4 card.  On the reverse of this design is the same sentiment but sized slightly smaller with a vertical line that suggests adding details or a photo below. In retrospect, I wish I had used the back of this card instead and added the names of the people who were at our party.

I would note that this is one of the bulkier pages in my album. The beads make a fun little wooshing sound when the pages move!

Project #4

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few consecutive days at this point in my album that do not have a clearly defined story. This was certainly one of those days. The Paislee Press mini kit was the perfect tool to support some of the everyday stories and point me in the right direction to keep moving forward.

I paired a much loved photo with the 3x4 journaling card sentiment “Love this so much”, and the “all is calm” velum circle for this short and sweet memory.

Supplies: 

Paislee Press Mini Kit (3x4 journaling cards, vellum die cut)Main kit (gold puffy number stickers)Other: ribbon, tiny attacher, circle punchProject #5

Two of my favourite pieces in the Paislee Press mini kit are that beautifully hand scripted 6x8 paper and the chipboard frames. I couldn’t possibly end this post without incorporating them into a project. I decided to use them for the cover page of my album.

Supplies: 

Paislee Press Mini Kit (patterned paper, 3x4 journaling cards, chipboard frame)Other: Specialty paper gold polka dot transparency

You’ll see in the process video below that I originally intended to create another shaker pocket as the overlay for that beautiful patterned paper, but in the end I opted to use a transparency instead.

I plan to fill in a few details on the calendar when my album is complete. I’ve got 7 more stories to add yet for my 2010 album to be “complete”, and I’m determined to make it happen! Looking forward to sharing a full walk through when it’s all done.

Well friends, that brings this week’s Paper Play post to an end. I truly adore the Paislee Press Mini Kit! It will definitely be making an appearance in more of my projects. Next week I’ll be playing with a few of the shop items! Thanks so much for being here!

December Daily® 2023 | Done By December With Lisa

Hi guys! This is Lisa and today I’m going to share my starting place and strategy as I dive into completing my 2022 album. I’m feeling especially motivated to get my album done this year since I have really fallen behind in any kind of weekly/monthly documenting. In the absence of a family album this year, a completed December Daily® album becomes particularly precious.

The first scrapbook page I ever made was a December Daily® spread back in 2016. I have always joked that this project was my gateway drug. Since then this project has held a special place in my heart. Since 2016 I have completed a few of my December Daily® albums, probably half. I’m a big believer in the fact that there is joy in the process. That doesn’t mean I don’t begin every December with the goal of a finished album, it just means that I don’t carry around a lot of guilt if I don't.  

One unintended perk of NOT finishing my album, is that when the Fall rolls around I can take advantage of all of the excitement that inevitably happens around our December Daily® release and dive into finishing  the previous year. And I love that I’m not alone!  Throughout the years we’ve had some amazing guests here on the blog share their #donebydecember strategies and progress. Check out that hashtag for some great advice and beautiful pages. 

So, without further ado, here are some of things I'm doing as I get ready to finish my December Daily® album. 

Know thyself and lean into what you love. 

Before getting started, I like to manage my own expectations. Sort of like a pep-talk before I can fall into any kind of comparison trap. Seven years into this project, and memory keeping in general, I am becoming more confident in my style and my process. What I do and how I do it often looks very different from everyone else in the community. And that’s ok. It’s actually pretty awesome. One of the things I love the most about embarking on this project with the community is the wide variety of styles and approaches when it come to documenting our December stories. After lots of trial and error and experimenting with different styles and approaches here’s what I’ve learned about myself:

Simple + Graphic spreads for the win. That will always be my style. Is that boring for some folks? Yep! For me? Nope. I think simple can be beautiful. This is the project where I will occasionally step out of my comfort zone, but it will always be more important to me to get more stories told versus creating gorgeous, interactive spreads. But I sure do love looking at them! 

Big photos, always and forever. I love to take pictures. For me, photos often convey the feelings I’m not to able to express with words.  

I love to play with type. I enjoy using typography in fun, creative, and unexpected ways. Also, I apparently have a thing for the word joy. 

Take inventory of what's done. 

My next step is to take a look at what I've actually completed. I was surprised by how few pages I completed in 2022. Maybe half a dozen. In the beginning of the month I lost my godfather and had to fly home for his funeral and celebration of life. I remember it was hard to find my rhythm after that. But I’ve been here before. I know that it’s important to me to take photos and jot down the notes because I will come back to the project even if it’s a year (or several years) later. Here are my completed pages: 

Reconstruct the month. 

A year later it can feel overwhelming to revisit a project like December Daily®, especially when I have so little of the album complete. But even without a dedicated journal, it can definitely be done. And I’ve done it before. Here’s how I reconstruct my month: 

My phone. A quick search in photos will pull up all of my photos for the month. For me, that includes a lot of screenshots. Things like emails and text messages. I’ve gotten into the habit of taking screen shots so I know they will be in one place when I come back to the project. Your calendar/schedule is also a great resource for what was going on during the month.   Social media. I'm typically sharing updates over on Facebook for out of town friends and family and sometimes I can grab captions (or even photos) from there.  School calendar. With school age kids, the school calendar basically dictates my life. I make sure that I keep the physical copy the school hands out with my supplies when I pack them up each year.   Lightroom Catalog. This is where all of my DSLR photos live. I export and organize by year, then by month. You can sync your smartphone to your Lightroom catalog to simplify, but I choose not to for a variety of reasons.   My husband. I also do a quick search of his photos for the month of December. He will sometimes have photos of me or the kids that he never shared. We’re also in the season where we have to divide and conquer for practices or events, etc, so he will have photos I don’t. Additionally, there are sometimes photos I like to grab that share pieces of his life I’d like to include in our album. 

Once I've done all of the above, I sit down and make a spreadsheet of stories. I take inventory of the stories I have photos for, and those I don't. I have a column that is the chronological list of what happened each day in December. Then I make a list of the micro stories (or filler stories) that are not really associated with a date. Then I put together my numbered list of stories, 1 to 25, that will comprise the album. This is different from my chronological list. On occasion we have days where we have three events and I'd like each of them to be a story. Or, alternatively, we have a day where we didn't really do anything. Some people approach the project where story one is December 1st, story two is December 2nd. That's not the approach I take. I'm putting together an album of roughly 25-30 stories. I know a lot of folks in our community do the same. 

Pare down my supplies. 

Like most people, I pack away all of my December Daily® supplies at the end of each season. Since joining the AED full-time a few years ago, I’ve been lucky to receive the entire collection. That translates to a lot of product. Before I get started, I decided to go through and pare down my options to my favorites. I recently bought a little cart (really late jumping on that bandwagon) and I love that everything is organized and ready to go.

Revisit my albums. 

I love revisiting these albums and wish I did it more often. As I flip through each album I’m looking for a few things:

Recurring stories I want to be sure to include or look for. That incudes repeated pictures. I can’t go back in time to take these pictures, but it’s helpful as I get ideas flowing for documenting 2023.   Things that I'm missing or want more of. Also for 2023, but I can potentially still fill those gaps for 2022 by digging a little deeper.   Page designs I like and want repeat. Or things that didn’t hold up well. For instance, Minc on transparency does not hold up well. I love the look and have found if I laminate it, it lasts longer and feels more like our shop transparencies. Also, I hate glitter. It always seems like a good idea and I always regret it later.   Perspective. This may seem silly, but revisiting these albums and reminding myself that it’s the stories and not the pages that I love…keeps me motivated and focused on my goal. It’s also a great reminder that I am not looking at any imperfections…so stop stressing about the little stuff. I will also ALWAYS have typos. It is what it is. 

Linda has shared some incredible content that takes a deeper dive into this topic. I highly recommend you check it out here. 

I love how I included older photos in this spread. I rarely do that and it adds context to these stories. Especially for years where I have not completed an album. 

Always a goal to include more photos and stories about me, while also giving myself grace because I refuse to carry any guilt about it. 

More micro stories like these. Stories about the stuff and the things we're watching. Not enough of these stories in my albums. 

More stories about our spaces. Love seeing this view of the house in Florida. After we've been hit by a few hurricanes, some of this landscaping has changed. It's always the same until it isn't. 

Make space for "bad" photos. This is a page about a noodle fight Mike had with the kids and we were all laughing so hard we were crying. None of these photos are any good, but together they tell a great story. 

Look around. I stepped outside to take a picture of the gorgeous and weird purple sunset (that's not a filter!) but realized the story I really wanted to tell was this sweet moment between my husband and kids. My spouse hates being in photos, so I have to be creative. 

Make space for the hard stories. This is a personal choice. You may not want to include hard stories in your album. But I do, with certain constraints. 

Know your strengths. There are a few spreads that I've made in the past that turned out pretty cool, but that I would never make again. This may be somewhat controversial...but here they are. Maybe it's because they took too long to execute...or the final product looks great, but that comes at the cost of telling the story. But these are spreads that I learn from, too. 

Make a plan. 

At this point I’m ready to get started. I need to decide if I'll stay with the 10x8 size or change to 6x8. I had been thinking it might be easier to move through a 6x8, rather than a 10x8. I've completed more 6x8 albums than I have 10x8. I’m second guessing that. I’m also seriously contemplating a design formula. In terms of a specific series of page protector configurations to further simplify the process. There are currently 10 weeks till December 1st. That’s roughly two pages a week. I would love any opinions you guys would like to share regarding switching album size and also whether you’d consider a design formula for this project! 

You can find all of my December Daily spreads from the past seven years on IG: @frecklepickle

December Daily® 2023 | Paint + Play with Jill 03

Welcome back to Paint + Play with Jill! This week I am keeping it simple by showing you a few examples of how to create patterns with the stencils and stamps that have homes for journaling. My hope is that these projects will inspire you as a jumping off point to come up with even more ways to create journaling spots using this year's mixed media supplies! 

XO PATTERN

For my first pattern, I was inspired by the patterned paper in this year's collection with the tiny hand drawn red and green X's and O's. I thought it would be really fun to blow up this pattern big enough to fit journaling in the O's. Then I remembered that we have a fun 6x8 Circles stamps set that would make the perfect O shape! 

I chose to create this pattern in the Floral Art Journal because it perfectly fits a 3x4 grid of X's and O's and because it is an easy size to make a sample pattern in. But you could easily do this on cardstock to fit into your album. 

To create this pattern, I cut out a sample X and O to help me figure out the configuration of my pattern. Then I stamped all of the O's with red acrylic paint using my sample X for spacing. I did have to fill in the stamped O's with more paint after stamping them but that's just part of the process of stamping with acrylic. Then, I took a big round paint brush and painted green X's in between the O's. I tried to keep them loose (and not perfect) to maintain the painterly look. 

To finish off this pattern, I stamped the tops of the O's with "December Stories" in black Stazon ink and hand drew some black journaling lines. 

COLORFUL INKED ORNAMENTS

For my second project, I pulled out the large ornament stencil because it has a nice big surface for journaling on. I envisioned a page of colorful ornaments for my journaling spots, so I pulled out Ali's crafters inks so I could use the red, pink and all three of the greens. I created most of this one off camera so if you would like to see how to use the paper pouncers with the ink pads, check out Ali's example videos in the product blog post. However, it is a very similar technique to what I've been showing you with the makeup sponges and acrylic paint. If you do not have the paper pouncers or other ink blending tool, you could try the makeup sponges for a similar effect. 

After creating the ornaments in a rainbow of Christmas colors, I grabbed a white Posca paint pen and hand drew white journaling lines on all of the ornaments. Then to finish it off, I used the little "falala" stamp from the tab stamp set to add a little detail to the top of the ornaments. 

LARGE WREATH STAMP

For my last project, I grabbed the 6x8 wreath stamp set because it has a huge spot in the middle that is perfect for journaling. I loved the rainbow of Christmas colors I used in the previous ornament page, so I grabbed the same colors for a similar look. I chose to do this one on cardstock rather than in the journal, because it is much easier to get a clear impression on a large stamp like this when you have a perfectly flat surface. 

This wreath stamp is very large and will not fit most standard stamp blocks. If you have a stamping platform, that might be your best bet for this stamp (as Pam showed us in her first lesson). However, I do not have one so I grabbed the 4x6 block from Ali's shop and made it work! You can see that it just hangs over the edge a little on two sides so when I stamped, I just used my fingers to press down on those parts to get an even stamp. It worked out just fine, and I only had to do that for the first two impressions because the rest were just partial wreaths. 

After creating a colorful grid of wreaths, I stamped "merry everything" in gold ink at the top of all of the wreaths and hand drew black journaling lines. I trimmed a quarter inch off the bottom of my paper to make it an outside of the page protector size and punched holes to add to the 10x8 album. 

I hope this post inspired you to look at your supplies in new ways, and I challenge you to come up with even more ways to use this year's collection to make your own patterns with journaling spots! Let me know if you have any questions about my project and I will see you next week with more mixed media play! 

You can find me on Instagram as @jill.drangsholt

SUPPLIES
Wreath 6x8 Stamp Set Tabs 4x6 Stamp Set Circles 6x8 Stamp Set Paint Pack Holiday Stencil Pack Paper Pouncers Stamp Shammy 2.75" Ali Edwards Round Acrylic Stamp Block 4x6" Ali Edwards Rectangle Acrylic Stamp Block Crafter's Ink (Redwoods, Rose Garden, Willamette, Olympia, McKenzie, Gold) White Posca Paint Pen

Mixed Media Collage Ornaments With Ali | Creating Layers

I'm back today with the next video in my series where I'm making mixed media/collage ornaments. 

In the video I'm sharing how I'm building these ornaments using layers. I also photographed each one I've done so far so you can see them up close and see the magical mess! 

I think I'm at 37 on my way to 100 and I got out the gelli plate to make some more papers today. 

Here's a fun image of all of them together so far: 

Most of the ornaments above include our new paints, stencils, and silkscreens. 

Here's a closer look at each one I've made so far: 

Book paper + green paint + red paint on deli paper + white POSCA paint pen dots + word/phrase sticker (stitched on). 

Watercolor paper background + silkscreen on top of transparency using green paint + sequin mix.

Star stencil + red paint mixed with texture paste + Kraft cardstock + chipboard + stitching. 

Green painton white cardstock + red circles painted on deli sheets using red paint (adhered with gel medium) + canvas word strip + POSCA paint pen dots. 

Text silkscreen with red paint on white cardstock + pattern paper from 2022 December Daily® collection + Tim Holtz label maker sticker + Tim Holtz phrase sticker + embroidery thread down the middle. 

Cork paper + green stripe ribbon + painted 1/2 circle on deli sheet + stitching + cork star + Tim Holtz label sticker. 

Old book paper + green paint mixed with texture paste with stencil + sequin mix + pattern transparency + stitching + Tim Holtz phrase sticker. 

White cardstock + green paint and stencil + green Posca paint pen on deli sheet + white paint with silkscreen + felt star + glass star + stitching. 

White cardstock with messy paint + stencil with texture paste + dotted stamp + washi tape + stitching. 

Watercolor paper + red paint and stencil + silkscreen wreath with white paint + green paint on deli sheet + stitching + Tim Holtz rub on. 

White cardstock + fa la la tissue paper + silkscreen with black paint + canvas holiday phrases with stitching.  

Kraft cardstock + red paint mixed with texture paste and star stencil + circle embellishment + stitching. 

Watercolor paper + hand painted deli sheets with red paint and black posca paint pen pattern + star transparency to create the shaker page + chipboard stars inside. 

Red glitter paper + white cardstock stickers (stitched on) + washi tape. 

Book paper background + green paint with texture paste and stencil + Posca paint pen dots + gold circle sticker + Jingle All The Way stamp with gold embossing powder. 

Black paint on book paper + white painted strips on Kraft cardstock + heart chipboard + Tiny Attacher. 

White cardstock + dotted stamp + green paint on deli sheet + black paint + number stamps + gold embossing powder. 

Pattern paper + red paint + white star from transparency + canvas phrase strip + stitching. 

White cardstock + Tim Holtz label tape + green ball trim + stitching. 

Watercolor paper + red paint and texture paste and stencil + white Posca paint pen + "cheers to the season stamp" + gold embossing powder + Tim Holtz label sticker. 

Dark green felt + rubber embellishment (from a December Daily® collection a few years ago) + red embroidery thread. 

White cardstock background + red paint + green painted deli sheets + Tim Holtz white rub ons + painted Kraft circle + stitching + wood veneer stars + embroidery thread. 

Book paper + green paint with texture paste with stencil + white paint and silkscreen + "merry everything" stamp with gold embossing powder.

Watercolor paper + red paint mixed with texture paste with stencil + white paint circles + embroidery thread. 

Watercolor paper with green paint + white Posca paint pen lines + green circle paint on deli sheet + red stitching + green pom trim + Tim Holtz rub ons. 

Gold foil pattern paper background + red painted circles on deli sheet + strip sticker from 2023 Advent Calendar. 

Gold stripe pattern paper + glitter cardstock alpha + red star transparency + sequin mix + stitching. 

Watercolor paper + red paint mixed with texture paste + white paint and silkscreen. 

White cardstock + green painted lines on deli sheet + bright green paint + Tim Holtz rub ons + Tim Holtz label stickers. 

Watercolor paper + red paint with texture paste and stencil + white paint and silkscreen + red stripe ribbon stitched + washi tape + black Posca painted pen circles on deli sheet. 

White cardstock + a variety of washi tapes on top (so fun) + Santa from 2022 December Daily® collection. 

White cardstock + red circle painted deli paper + green painted circles on deli paper + stitching + Tim Holtz phrase sticker.

Book paper + green paint with texture paste mixed in with stencil + tree stencil with texture paste + felt heart + embroidery floss + Tim Holtz phrase sticker. 

White cardstock + Tim Holtz rub ons + red paint + star stencil with green paint with texture paste on book paper. 

Cork paper + white paint with star silkscreen + phrase stickers + stitching. 

Book paper with green painted words on top + red painted circles on deli sheets + Tim Holtz metal charm + embroidery floss. 

White cardstock + green painted circles on deli sheet + book paper with red painted lines + black Posca paint pen pie chart + stitching + Tim Holtz metal circle button. 

SUPPLIES
December Daily® Stencils

December Daily® Paints

December Daily® Silkscreens December Daily® Stamps Watercolor Paper (originally offered with One Little Word®) Watercolor Paper from a notebook (140lb) Dylusions Star Flurry Stencil (this is the one I called a poinsettia) Tim Holtz Rub Ons (similar) Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book (similar to the one from my stash)Tim Holtz Label Stickers Embossing Powders Versamark Embossing Ink We R Memory Keepers Hole Punch Texture Paste Deli Sheets Paint Brushes Matte Medium or Gel Medium (use either as an adhesive) POSCA Paint Pens  Gold Eyelets Crop A Dile Eyelet Setter Embroidery Floss Sewing Machine Sequin Mixes Felt Plastic Pots for Paints

December Daily® 2023 | Plan + Play with Linda 03

Hi everyone! It’s Linda and I’m back again for the third segment of the Plan & Play December Daily series. This project is tons of fun, and there is no “right” way to do it, but it can also be intimidating because it is a lot of work. That said, there are things you can do before December to get yourself ready for the project and make it more manageable. 

Last week we discussed how you can organize your products and come up with a plan to collect your stories/ideas during the month. Today we are going to be diving into creating with the products and setting up some ideas for your album. This is where the play really comes in!

FOUNDATION PAGES

One way that you can really set yourself up for success in this project is by creating foundation pages in your album. Before you say “foundation pages aren’t for me” and skip this section, I want to say, just like this project overall, there is no “right” way to create foundation pages. In this section I am going to go over 3 “levels” of foundation pages, from the most prepped to the most minimal.  And, even if you decide that foundation pages in any form truly aren’t for you, some of these ideas can be adapted for your album during the month of December as well! 

Before we dive into some ideas for foundation pages & using the supplies, let’s go over some basics.

What is a foundation page? The concept of foundation pages is the idea of creating a base page using products or other ideas that will serve as a starting point for you during or after December when you go to put your album together. 

Why create foundation pages?

So you can have fun playing with products now when you’re excited for it! To make putting your album together easier/quicker if your holiday season gets busy. To make putting your album together easier/quicker if you start feeling burned out by this project towards the end.

One way to create foundation pages is to completely design and create a page so that all you have to do during the month of December is add in your words + photos. This can be great if you expect to have a super busy month and/or you want to play off your excitement for playing with the products now. 

Creating a Full Foundation Page

In the video below I put together a full foundation page so that, in December, I only need to come back and add words + maybe photos. This will be a great one to put together on a day that I am busy and/or don’t have a day specific story. 

For this page I used the ornament pockets + some papers from the main kit to create flip up inserts for 3 of the ornaments. I added alphas from my stash as tabs for each flip up that represent the initials of my family members. During the month of December, I can use this page on a busy day when all I want to do is add a number + some words. Or, if I have more time, I can print photos to add under the flaps. 

For a lot of people, foundation pages like the one above don’t work because you don’t want to be so constrained when it comes to telling your story because you don’t know what is going to happen yet on any particular day. Personally, I can only do a few fully prepped foundation pages and instead prefer to work with loose foundations. You can see that, even with the page above, I didn’t glue the number down so I have some flexibility as to when I use it during the month. 

Creating Loose Foundation Kits/Pieces

If full foundation pages are too much for you, or you don’t want to make a ton of them,  you can also use loose foundation kits or pieces to help get a head start on your album without being too constrained.

To create a loose foundation, I will pair products together, collect ideas, and slip them into a pocket to store in my album or with my supplies. You can also premake pieces, especially if you want to work with something that will take more time/effort, like mixed media. Instead of a premade page, this is similar to making myself a kit to work with. When it comes to the day I plan to use the foundation kit, I will already have a page idea + products to work with, which will cut down on the time/energy it takes to put it together.

In the video above, I put together a few loose foundation ideas that I can work with in December. I also saved some inspiration images from Ali’s project last year that I can use to work with the products for this year.

Loose Foundation #1: Tags

For the first page, I am using this image from Ali’s 2022 album as my inspiration.

I am going to adapt it to my 6x8 size and this year’s products. Because the tags this year are a variety of shapes I plan to stagger them in a more random pattern. I also have a smaller album to work with, so I will do a full spread rather than just one side, so I have more space to work with. Here is the “kit” I put together. When I am ready to put this spread together, I will pull from these supplies instead of my entire stash to streamline the process.

Loose Foundation #2: Charms

For this idea, I started with this image from Ali’s 2022 album as my inspiration.

I love the cluster of charms that Ali added to the top of her page. I decided to create a cluster of charms from this year’s kit/my stash as a foundation piece. During the month of December I will decide where to adhere it in my album.

Collecting Inspiration

Finally, if creating anything before the month begins is too much, I encourage you to collect ideas. As I shared in my last post, I have a craft planner where I am collecting inspiration that I see online + sketching out some ideas. In the video below I talk through some ideas for using some of the pieces from the main kit.

And here are my sketches in my planner so far. I will also share more ideas for using the main kit in my post next week as we wrap up this series. 

PREPPING YOUR ALBUM

Whether you want to create foundation pages or not, there are still some things you can do before December gets here. Namely, there are a few pages you might want to include in your album before you get to the daily documenting.

Title Page

In the video below I am creating my title page for my album this year.

In some past years I have included a family photo as my title page and in others I have played with products to create a decorative title page. This December will be a little different for me. Although my daughter is a big part of my life and holidays, this album is going to be primarily just me because she won’t come home from college until more than halfway through my album. So, instead, I this year I wanted to create a decorative start for my album. 

If you want to include a photo, you can always create the rest of your title page and save a spot to insert the photo later.

Reason Why

Many people also include a reason why page in their album. Last year I included one with alpha stamping and I intend to make something similar this year closer to December. This is a great way to dig into your products and start playing before December! Here is my reason why from last year.

Index

Last year, Ali created an index in her album where she stamped out the story for each day as she put the album together. This was a fun way to tie the album together. Here is a picture of her index from last year.

You could create a similar set up this year with the circles from the main kit. Then, during the month, go back and add a note to each circle about what happened that day.

Sampler

Similar to an index, but slightly different is a sampler page. Instead of being a collection of your stories, this is a collection of the products/design you used in your album. Last year, I created a sampler page, and I intend to do that again this year. Instead of going in the album, this was a stand alone scrapbook page to basically document the fact that I was creating December Daily, which is a huge piece of my holiday season. 

To create the sample page, I added extra embellishments or pieces to a grid everyday that represented the page I had created for that day. Here is a picture of my sampler page from last year.

This year, I plan on using the circles from the main kit to create a sampler page. I think it will be a fun challenge to work with the circles and I hope to keep the numbers visible most days. Here is my set up sampler page this year. 

I used one of the papers from the main kit as my background and this page is 8x10. I plan to take a letter sized page protector and use my sewing machine to alter it to fit. I added a few embellishments to create a fun title and I adhered the circles down in a grid using temporary adhesive. The circles aren’t perfectly straight because they are temporarily glued down in case I need to lift them up when adding my design for that day. Once the day is completed, I will glue it down with permanent adhesive. 

I hope that this post gave you lots of ideas for ways you can begin setting up your album before December. Next week I am going to share even more ideas for using the main kit + adapting ideas for various album sizes. 

You can find me on instagram & youtube @lindalovescreating. I will also be over on the @decemberdaily instagram account LIVE today, September 18, at 3 PM EST to answer your questions and chat about the things we talked about in today’s post. Hope to see you there!