December Daily 2020: Lessons from my first album
So this was my first year doing December Daily and what an amazing ride it was! I learned so much and really enjoyed stretching my creativity muscle to create this album. It’s so amazing to me that one little 6×8 album holds so much life and memories – ugh I’m obsessed. These lessons I learned along the way come from a note I started in my Notes App (utterly obsessed at the moment) to help me figure out my crafting style. If you are new to crafting like myself, I highly recommend keeping a list of your yes/no items!
Yes
- simple
- helps prevent perfectionism and decision fatigue from taking over (for ME)
- allows me to call a page “done” and move on instead of obsessing over “what it needs”
- journaling
- absolute must for me, journaling is who I am and adds more context
- imperfections
- because who cares? honestly. and I say this as a recovering perfectionist.
- all things transparent
- specifically: vellum paper
- glitter
- even though I didn’t use as much as I thought I would! still figuring this one out
- STAMPS
- OBSESSED
- glassine bags
- NEVER throw these out! I use them for storing photos and journaling
- Canva (referral link)
- digital pages for the WIN when I’m tired
- wrote my journaling in Canva (more fonts)
- did some of the pages/journaling cards from my bed
- table of December events/content
- kept in my Notes app
- planned out content ahead of time and while I am normally a pen and paper kind of gal, the digital aspect allowed me to remain flexible
- content first, embellishments and title page last
- I saw a lot of people lead with their title page and I love that they were able to do that, I just needed to do it last.
- I like to focus on content, then go back and add any embellishments
- colorful puffy stickers
- shocked how much I enjoyed these from Studio Calico
- stamping letters one at a time
- yes, more time consuming but WORTH IT. #ThisIsTheWay
- puffy heart sticker with the date at the bottom of my pics
- became a sort of “signature” and I love that journey for me
No
- fussy things
- I simply do not have the patience
- tiny things
- also no patience
- rushing
- see above re: no patience. working on this…
- Christmas themed
- this just did not work for me. I love a Christmas themed page but for me, December is so much more than just Christmas every single day so about halfway through the album I stopped trying to make fetch happen and just used whatever colors I wanted. I really enjoy non-traditional Christmas colors in the album
- perfectionism
- gross
- comparison
- I actually stopped looking at what others were doing and just started focusing on my own album
- alphabet stickers
- just not my jam, and I have so many of them??
- die cuts
- in the realm of small, fussy, just not really my jam
- label stickers
- 100% not my jam
Ehhh…Undecided for 2021 December Daily
- page protectors
- felt too restricting though I enjoyed the challenge of learning to print/use different sizes
- the front/back element made me feel stuck/forced to use a 2×2 pocket page because that’s what I used the day before when really I wanted to use a 6×8 single page
- I will always use these to some extent but not sure I will use them as often in the future
- embellishments
- see: fussy things
- I got a bunch of “flair” in my December Daily kit I bought and…it just…wasn’t my jam. everything is so christmasy and like I said earlier, December is more than just Christmas to me so trying to use all the Christmas flair felt forced
- mystery grab bag sales
- these are SUPER tempting! on the fence whether I will do these again next year.
- it’s a FANTASTIC way to try things out though.
I so enjoyed making this album and will definitely be doing it again next year. I may opt for a smaller album (I used 6×8 this year) just because I enjoy trying new things. I’ve been loving the Citrus Twist Life Crafted Albums so perhaps I’ll use one of those. Either way, can’t wait to see what 2021 December Daily brings!
