Cameron Crazy

I finally took photos of my December Daily yesterday, so I thought I would share the beginnings of it today. I will show it again once it is complete, but I will most likely be posting it to my Flickr gallery instead of here. Anyway, let’s get started!

I chose this Maya Road Sheer Tabbed 6×6 album. I chose 6×6 because I don’t really anticipate adding more than one photo to a page for each day, and I like the small size. I wanted the binder option so I could add in bits of life or even whole photos if I wanted to. I guess I could do the same thing with page protectors, but for this album, I like the look of no page protectors. When I insert photos into my album, I will either cover the back of the photo with cardstock or another photo.

Here is a look at the first tab in my album. There are 8 tabs total. I really don’t think I will use all 8, so I will probably take 3 or 4 out, and just use one of my markers to write week numbers. Since one side of Blake’s family isn’t doing Christmas until the week after, I will probably document until December 31. I will probably create a new project with the remaining tabs. I have some jump rings that could be used to keep it all together.

This is just a look at how thick the tabs are. They were thicker and sturdier than I expected, which is why I plan to use them to create a new project.

This is the first page of my album. It will be the title page. I plan on putting a horizontal 4×6 photo with some Ali Edwards word art on it. I do not have any of my pages numbered or anything yet. I would like to, but I don’t know how much journaling I will want to do so I am keeping my options open as far as that goes. I may even have a few two page spreads, who knows? ;)

I purchase this Fancy Pants Christmas Magic paper because I liked that it was double sided. I wanted to use both sides of the paper and not have to worry about adhering patterned paper to cardstock or to other patterned paper. I also like that one size has print, while the other mostly has one color. I also thought the paper was really beautiful. ;)

I actually saw this holly paper first, and it was what drew me to purchase this collection for my project. I didn’t end up buying every paper in the collection, but I came darn close.

This ornament pattern is actually my very favorite. It is just gorgeous. Notice that I put the patterned paper on the left and the solid color on the right. This repeats throughout the book. I mainly did this because I liked the repetition of it. I won’t lie though, It was a little tricky matching everything together. :)

This is just a peek at all those tabs. Like I said, I will most likely be taking some of those out.

I took most of these photos close up, so I decided I should take one displaying how the album looks just sitting on the table. Another one of my favorite patterns.

I have 8 of these envelopes. I got them in a card kit, but never used them because I thought they would be so cute for a special project. When I happened upon them last week, I knew they had to be used for my December Daily. I am not sure how they will be used just yet. I am thinking of three ways I can use them: use them as a whole day, use them as a supplement to a day, or use them at the end of the week to collect all my bits of life. It really just depends how much stuff I gather and when I gather it. I plan on making this album pretty flat, as you will see when you take a look at my embellishments. I am really not much of an embellishment girl.

I went “hybrid” with my “embellishments”. These are Ali Edwards’ 31 Days circle numbers. There are 31 individual files and I opened them all up in Photoshop Elements. I moved each one over to a 8.5×11 image and made sure they were all on their own layers. I ended up with two 8.5×11 images. After that, I colored each one individually. I think I used 4 or 5 different colors total. I printed them all out on white cardstock, and since I do not have a circle punch (I know, it’s amazing after 6 years of scrapbooking), I cut them all out individually. Let me just tell you that cutting out circles by hand is not as easy as it looks. ;) I managed though and I actually kind of like them more because I hand cut them.

I also printed out Ali’s 25 Days of December photo overlays. I did these a while back so I can’t really remember, but I think I made them each 3 inches tall. If I just feel like adding a caption and date to these, that is what I will do. I will either leave it that way or cut off the bottom. I also plan on using these sideways. I don’t plan on using these every day, so I may actually use one of the files on a photo when I get my photos printed.

Since there are only 25 of these, I may have to print out some more, and I decided I could cover the original number with one of my other numbers like this.

I also have a few of these printed out and on hand in case I decide I want to do a bit more journaling. These are Ali’s also and they are her Hello Today Journal Cards.

As far as photos go, I have decided that I will be getting them printed through Shutterfly or at my local pharmacy because I don’t really want to print them out at home. If there is a particular photo that I just cannot wait to print, I may, but I have no plans to at this point. :) If I go through Shutterfly, I will probably get photos printed two times, once after the first two weeks, and then again at the end of the month or beginning of January. If I go through my local pharmacy, I will probably get them done once a week.

I have had some friends ask what I am doing about these other holiday classes I am taking (Journal Your Christmas and Holidays In Hand). I am not doing books for either one. I am only doing this book. I really feel like I would be taking on more than I could handle by doing 3 books. I don’t want stories to overlap and all of that. I am just taking inspiration from each class to jump start ideas. Holidays In Hand already has me planning some cool craft projects, which is something I probably would not have done if I would not have had that class to challenge me to do so. Jessica made it super easy for us though. She gave us a great list of little craft projects that we can do every day. I plan on taking journaling prompts from Shimelle’s class and applying them if I have some kind of block or if we have a “boring” day.

So there you have it! My grand plans for my December Daily. :) If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or email me (lauraATcameroncrazymom.com)! Also be sure to leave me a link to your December Daily post! :)