Amy Kingsford

How are you all coming along with your December Daily projects?

I'm scooting right along with this year's December Daily but what I have gotten behind on is sharing my progress with you!  So to give you an idea of how things are coming along--here are the first 8 finished pages of my album.

This first double page layout is for the week leading up to December 1.  My family participates in a lot of holiday activities during this week and I enjoy including these events in my December Daily.




And these are my individual page for December 1st-6th:

Have fun documenting your December! 

Hi everyone!  Time to check in with you on the progress I've been making with my December Daily album!

For the past week I've been working on my foundation pages--bases for my pages that I can make ahead of time and easily go back through and add my photos, stories and memorabilia to as I go.

My foundation pages...

In an effort to simplify my album planning process I've decided to use a set of fun templates by Amy Martin, called Project Grids.  They offer me simple grid-based designs which are easy to rotate, alter and add things to as I go. They are also accompanied by funky stitched grids that add oomph and polish with no work at all.

Here's a peek at a few of my finished foundations...

As you can see these blocked designs are perfect for designing pages ahead of time, as they offer me flexibility in my individual page designs, yet a cohesive look for my album as a whole.

A few things to consider...

• As I began piecing my pages together I made sure facing pages coordinated to a certain extent by using coordinating colors and similar textures, etc.

• I also kept a calendar in front of me so that I would have a better idea of what things I would have going on each day and how much space I might need for photos and storytelling as well as what kinds of word art and/or embellishments might work best.

• I rounded up all of the products that I wanted to use for my December Daily into one folder on my desktop, which made them easy to find and pull from as I was building pages. 

Next week I'll have my double-page layout for the last week of November ready to share with you--this is a great option for those of you who get an early start on celebrating the holidays in your home and want to make sure that even events that fall outside of the month of December are still captured in your album.

Last year I hadn't set out to do a December Daily--I had had trouble succeeding in the past and didn't want to set myself up for failure once again. But then as a result of the page prompts that I offered daily during the month of December last year on my blog, I ended up making a page a day for 26 out of 31 days in December.

Amazing right?!  I found that when I just let go of the pressure and hype behind the project and just focused on the memory-making that I was capable of creating something wonderful for my family.





This year armed with the help of Gossamer Blue's December Daily Bootcamp, I am excited to approach my 2012 December Daily a little more prepared and motivated.  And I'd love to share a little bit about my process with you along the way.

The Basics

What format/size will I be using?

I'm going to be making 8x8" digital pages for my album.  I have not yet decided if the finished album will be a photo book or a hybrid album--it really depends on what kind and how much memorabilia I gather this season.

If I end up having a lot, then I will probably print out my digital pages and make chipboard covers and bind all of my pages together with book rings so that I can add in my memorabilia here and there.  If I come away with a small collection of memorabilia or one whose contents can easily be scanned then I will probably go the photo book route.

After a few years of completed and failed December Dailies I've learned that the most important thing is too keep things flexible!

When will I begin?

Since we do a lot of our decorating the day after Thanksgiving--including buying and putting up our tree I will be starting my December Daily on November 23rd this year.  I may just do that extra week in a double page layout and then start with December 1--I guess we will see how full that week is.

What will I be sure to capture?

Below I've listed some of our regular traditions that I want to be sure and capture this year as well as a few new things that I haven't captured in years passed but am hoping to capture this year in my December Daily!

• Festival of Trees


• Jasper's Birthday


• Caleb's Christmas Program


• Collard Christmas Party


• Wilde Christmas Party


• Temple Lights


• Fantasy at the Bay


• Letters to Santa


• Christmas Village


• Sledding/Tubing


• First Snowman


• Buying and Decorating the Tree


• Christmas Day

Are you doing a December Daily this year?  If so I'd love to see your plans for your project and follow your progress--just link me up in the comments!

And keep an eye out as I share more of my December Daily plans, process and pages in the weeks to come!