2023 megaaa DECEMBER DAILY thread (ALL December projects)

Actually, this might work for me. My son loves Cookie Monster, so I'm sure there will be something Cookie Monster/Sesame Street happening in our house around Christmas. Thanks for the silly idea.

I'm going back and forth on what I want to order, too.

The thing I keep thinking about as I'm looking at the products is something I heard Brandi Kincaid say in a podcast years ago.

She buys some product, has ideas about how she wants to use it, but then when it comes to sitting down and starting her page, she says, "Oh look, here's a piece of white cardstock."

This is so me! I love having the product for inspiration, but when it comes to it, I have a lot of white cardstock in my albums. And cut files I made myself. And tags from Office Depot. And trims from Joann's.

I don't need anything, but it sure is fun to shop for and think about ways to use it!


*Clarifying about Brandi - I think she is brilliant and has done some of my favorite DD pages ever. She makes magic from a piece of white cardstock!

You didn't specially ask me, but what I did when my boys were small was have my DD album bursting and also have PL album -- but I didn't include the same things in PL as I did in DD. DD was the magic of Christmas stuff --- the lights, the wrapping, etc. PL was more everyday stuff like the traffic ticket I got, or the new recipe I made that month. And for Christmas Day in PL, I did an overview where as DD was more specific.

I’m another that does both and also have kids who finish school in December. December daily is about trying to capture what was different and what was the same about Christmas that year - I focus on family traditions we keep each year, and use the days without those stories to focus on stories specific for that year alone (do every year: family get together, kids opening gifts, end of year photo with teacher, movies we went to etc; do some years: swimming lesson photos, which friends we hung out with, random things that happened that December inc bushfire news etc).

Project life for me is more the specific stories and general December stories that didn’t make my dd album - pic of a weird bug I spotted, celebrities from childhood who passed, summer fun and school holidays photos

I just don't do December in my PL album at all. It seems my PL album is usually bursting full by December. So I make my DD album as an add on to PL. With that said, I am a very simple scrapper. And I don't take a million pictures. Just enough to tell the story. So I make some extra pages even in my DD to cover the entire holiday.

Much like mom said, I continued PL through the end of the year to put in the "every day" type stuff, but DD is for the December stories. ie: Elf on the Shelf shenanigans, Advent calendars, holiday baking, Christmas Day details. My PL would pick up the slack on the week after Christmas, too.

Sometimes there would be overlap, like when the kids were in school and had a Mystery Reader or party, I might mention it in my PL, but the details would be for that day in DD.

I also enjoy using more Christmas supplies, because I use my stash for the PL portion, but my newest DD stuff for my DD album. Then the next year that stuff could be used in PL and the new stuff in DD.

and @a7

I made a cut file last year for a square one. Happy to email it if anyone wants it.

It's not perfect but it cut fine. There is a line that looks thicker than the rest but it didn't cut any differently.

I did the math today and I’m around 250$ without international shipping.
My first picks will be:
Both extra paper packs
Speciality journaling card (super cute)
Canvas circles
Plastic tag shapes
Those 3 pouncers(?)
Stencils
Maybe: white 6x8 Album ( I really don’t need another one, because I have 2 unused fron last years)
The giant die cut pack
Red numbers
Main kit
Later, because no hurry to order stamps
6x8 number stamps
6x8 tag stamp like those with Embossing

I plan on doing a lot of mixed media this year, I’ll participate in artjournaladvent instagram hosted by raspberrybluesky and maraskreativstudio - i will do an altered Little golden Christmas book, that’s making me very excited about December right now.

Because I have enough paints, i will nou need any AE paints and those silk screens i only like half of the designs. But those pouncers look fun.

My weakness are stamp sets, because i like to stamp a lot, we‘ll see how much will hop into my cart 🤣
May be the tree and reef sets (thats fomo, for sure)

My PL is mostly 12x12 spreads and I would include all the normal life stuff in December. DD will have all the holiday stuff, I just roughly counted and I have around 18-20 standard things I capture every December, with room for new photo opportunities.
The one thing that might get duplicated is the tree(s), or more specifically, the cats with the trees.

OK, me actually prefer this in Cookie Monster speak hehehe

But rant incoming: this is a good example of how line breaks can mean something when we're reading fancied up text (insert familiar rant about splitting words in the wrong place here). If it had said December me / loves this / so much it would've been a lot easier to understand. Or maybe use a hyphen to join the words December-me. Right-now-me often leaves notes for future-me. Or August Me is shopping for December Me.

Ali also has appalling use of random capital letters that obscure rather than clarify the meaning. december ME loves THIS so much? The emphasis should be on the LOVES most of the time, although an argument could be made for THIS. But not ME, unless you are said Muppet. Design should make things clearer, not just pretty. I am no fan of Cathy Zielske but I feel like someone like her with an actual design education wouldn't have made something like this. 

This tag is why I am so frustrated with AE at the moment. The font, spacing, random capitalization, horrid. I adore the idea of the pockets, will probably make my own. No way am I buying hers because of the weirdness.

Someone talk me down from buying that $35 banner. It doesn't match my house style at all so I don't really have a spot for it, and I think it's spendy for what it is. But it's so darn cute.

Me too, please. 💝