December Week 1

Okay, so every year I see lots of friends in the digital galleries and on Facebook, that have made December Daily albums and I have always admired and been inspired by them. A December Daily album is just what it sounds like; photos and a layout every day in December! Kind of sounds overwhelming, doesn't it? I never felt like I would have enough photos, although you know I have tens of thousands, just not necessarily anything for December, except of course, Christmas Day. I also knew that our kids were grown and didn't live with us anymore (sigh), so I wouldn't have all those cute kids' photos, like sitting on Santa's lap, etc., that are found in many December albums.

However, this year, I really wanted to give it a try; a daily December album. I have several projects I'm working on but heck, that's the beauty of being retired, right? Talk of  making December albums has been all the buzz around the forums; I'm inspired; I'm ready; here I go!

First I chose a wonderful Christmas album template by Studio DD at Designer Digitals. The layouts are simple yet filled with flourishes and lots of elements, AKA elements.  Then I chose 2 papers from Katie Pertiet's December Woods, also at Designer Digitals, to use as the backgrounds for every page. This would give my album a cohesive look all the way through and it would make starting new pages every day very easy. After that, I made a list of all the possible ideas for photos and pages during this month. Wow! I was surprised. I really had more than I could do. Cool! My thinking was done and I knew there would be plenty of photo ops as December marched on and the countdown to Christmas was underway.

Week #1 is over and I managed to complete 7 layouts! Woo hoo! I'm actually loving working on this a little bit every day! I think my December album will really be a wonderful treasure that my family will enjoy this year and hopefully, in all the years to come. So, without further ado, here are my first week's December layouts.

Other projects I have been working on: making all my own Christmas cards again this year. I love pulling out my Christmas stamps and embellishments, embossing powders, glitter and markers, etc. I'm changing them up this year; I'm making a variety of different styles instead of all the same. That has really helped to keep me inspired! Here are just a few I've made.

Also, I'm always working on creative team layouts for my dear friends, Nancie Rowe Janitz and Liv Esteban. Nancie has a gorgeous new Christmas collection that is a collaboration with Melanie Ritchie. It's appropriately named, Silent Night. You can find this at Jessica Sprague. Here are 2 layouts I've made so far with Silent Night.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope maybe you will be inspired to create a daily December album or some keepsake project for your family. Happy December!