2023 megaaa DECEMBER DAILY thread (ALL December projects)

I agree! Linda, Pam and Jill have all had such great, engaging videos. A little something for everyone! And we’re still in the pre-pre-planning stages of DD. Going to be a great season!

Tim Holtz and Stamper’s Anonymous has announced their Christmas stamps, and they’re up on ACOT for preorder. I have really gotten into art journaling recently about bought a watercolor paper book to use for a Christmas/winter themed art journal. Would I be insane to buy most of the stamps? And some stencils? With the preorder discount, it comes to $120. Normally, I’d just pull the trigger and do it. I’m going to miss school between Halloween and thanksgiving due to brain surgery and all but three days will be unpaid. I know I’d use the supplies. They would certainly be therapeutic to have while I recover. I’m just unsure what to do! I really need to win the lottery…

I’m so excited we were able to split this! What are the chances we split just about everything without overlaps!?!

My Lora Bailora papers arrived from Craftelier. They are beautiful, a perfect fit for my aesthetic. However the vellum I ordered was not packaged well and arrived badly damaged. The owner refunded me .55, yes 55 CENTS because they are “still usable.”There is actually one piece that I intended to use the full sheet as a cardstock overlay. So no, not still usable. I know it’s only $6 but the entire thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

I’m currently working on my 2021 DD album, and I’m trying to really pay attention to, and make notes of, the things that I’m reaching for the most, and the things that I’m not. Also, as I work on my album there are always things I wish I had, or had more of, but then I forget later. I already placed my order with Ali for this year, and I’m fine with what I’ve ordered, but I’m hoping it will help me to be even more thoughtful in my future purchases. It’s hard in the moment to remember that just because you like something, and you like how someone else uses it, that it doesn’t mean that you will actually use it 😂

Here are some of my observations..
I make a December album instead of the daily, or 25 stories approaches, and I use a 6x8 album. I am a pretty basic scrapper, I tend to focus more on getting my pictures all included, than having fancy techniques, and interactive elements. For me this means that I tend to mostly use smaller embellishments, I don’t really have room, or space for larger things. I don’t tend to use very many, only a few, 4x6 sized cards. I don’t use papers that have large patterns, or backgrounds. I don’t use very many numbers in my albums. I am also noticing that I prefer variety to the repetitive nature of buying large kits, or packages of things. I tend to work on a 2 page spread at a time, and I only care if those 2 pages coordinate, not necessarily the whole album (within reason, most of my Christmas supplies have a similar look, because that’s what I’m drawn to). An exception to the large embellishment rule for me is words. I will use larger words as a title on a page where I have a single enlarged picture, or if I’ve made a layout on a page instead of in pockets.

Some things I currently would like to add more of into my stash after working on my album…
More large words in the form of stickers, die cuts, and stamps. I’ve noticed that I gravitate towards buying stamps with lots of smaller words, and images, because it feels like more bang for my buck, but I think I want a few sets with larger words, and embellishments for easy titles, and also heat embossing (especially for making my own 3x4 cards, and tags). I don’t need a ton of colors for heat embossing, but I would like to add a green, white, and black to my collection(I currently only have 3 colors). I want to buy a couple more 6x8 pads of papers, I only have 2, but I enjoy flipping through those, and do reach for them. I wouldn’t mind a few more 12” sticker sheets to flip through. I want some more ribbons and trims. I reach for embellishments that are small little Christmas floral pieces a lot so I should look for those in my embellishment purchases. I like using 4x6, and 5x7 sized page protectors, and I’m low on those if I can still buy them.
So, basically as a note to my future self, next year instead of shopping with Ali, I should focus on this list more. I get sucked into the hype, and excitement, but I think overall, Ali’s stuff is too big of packs, and too repetitive for me. And, she currently has a lot of oversized embellishments that don’t work for me. I also think that even though I love her style, I tend to like a little more cutesy in my albums.
Sorry, this was a long ramble, but it was really helpful for me to really start paying attention as I’m scrapping, instead of just flipping through my albums which is also helpful. I’m hoping to shop a little differently next year.

My daughter and I went to Paige's December Daily class at Frank Garcia Studio last night. It was amazing! Paige is just as sweet in person as she seems on-line. We received the full Sugarplum Wishes kit, including the beautiful album, cut files, embroidery threads + needle, and lace/ribbon trim for each page! We breezed through 25 foundation pages in just 3 hours. Well, TBH, I had to skip a few in order to not get too far behind. But we each received a package with color photos and instructions for each page, including measurements. I do wish the class would have been 5 hours instead of 3...that would have given us time to breathe and enjoy it more thoroughly as well as keep our supplies more organized. I'd finish one page and throw the extras in a pile in order to find the papers I needed for the next page. "Where's my tape runner" was my mantra of the day as I dug through all my stuff.

Paige sat at a table demonstrating the process while a camera above her projected each step to a large screen. She also walked around in between pages to answer any questions one-on-one.

I'm so happy we went to this class! My daughter and I are planning to get together to complete our foundation pages next month. Besides the pages we each skipped, we need to do all the embellishing, embroidery, and ribbon trims.

Margie, that sounds like such a fun day! I hope you'll post your album when your finished.

pancakes, sahindesigns sneak peek looks like it could be trouble. I love her esthetic.

Sounds awesome!

I saw her instagram posts about the shop and I really want to go there.

I added it to my box as well. I actually bought the digitals of the notebook and printed 6x8s of some of the pages. I led the look but at $3 per page, it got spendy. I’m going to take apart the book and add to my stash. Stamp set is a bonus!

Thanks for the tip! I always use a backer on stuff like this. I treat the page more like a pocket insert, if that makes any sense.

I did a little prep. Every time I see these boxes butter comes in, I have been thinking about using it in scrapbooks. I'll probably attach them outside of page protectors just in case it's not acid free. My youngest came in while I was working on it and took it upon herself to organize my numbers. 🙂

These damn boxes need to close. I was so done. Today I added two things. I need to stop watching the blogs posts - what a great marketing tactic. Lol.

Yeah, for some reason Jill’s premade pages made me buy the dang stitched pockets I was totally fine without before today - it’s a combo of her video + boxes closes this week making me FOMO. I’m running out of things left I can buy since I’ve gotten so much. I also bought the sale red & gold sticker attacher things since they were only 1.99. I am totally going to use some of her background paper ideas. I already have that wreath transparency she used and the pockets from the hobby kit. I have the stencils from last year so I’ll use those with some of her ideas. Having the wreath stamp and paisley press kit sold out has saved me from Pam’s witchcraft. I already have a different tree stamp.