oh december daily, here we go...

The little box holds extra journal cards and a few embellishments and the suitcase holds extra papers, stamps, ink, and my star punch

I'm diving into December Daily, for real this time. Each year I'm inspired by Ali and each year I never quite get organized enough to begin.

But this year, I decided to just do it. Here's a little peek in my preparation:

Each open spread is one day but because the pockets are clear and the photos aren't in yet, you can see through to other "days"

I'm not one to really be prepared for much when it comes to crafty projects, but I know this has to be my way right now. I want the journal cards already ready for me to use. And I knew I had to stamp all the numbers 1-31 because I have to be able to know what day it is. In many cases, I'm using my star punch and put the numbers right on it (with these stamps) so that I can staple it to a photo or journal card later.

I'm using a Simple Stories binder with several styles of page protectors so that I can easily move things around based on the photos I take. Meaning, if I have two Instagram square photos I want to use for one day, I can grab a page protector for that size and then just move the journal cards around a bit. But something tells me I'm just going to make it work each day with what is already there.

The journal cards I'm using include Ali's digital cards that I printed out, Ali's story cards in grey (that I'm also using in Project Life but I might have to get the red ones too!), paper from this paper pack and a few other random sheets that caught my eye at Two Peas, and a few of Pam's cute printables.

I'm going with a Project Life feel to it all to keep things in my "memory keeping" comfort zone. I also cut up a little shopping bag from Starbucks and plan to use their "rekindle" phrase (from this year's holiday campaign) as part of my cover page I haven't made yet. Because this is the first year in a long time I've felt physically, mentally, and soulfully ready to lean into the holidays this year and I truly do feel a "rekindling" inside.

the tiny attacher, Smash pen, washi tape, and tags cut from this paper are going to be my go-to tools and embellishments

One thing I've had a bit of a teeny panic about with page protectors with Project Life and now this album is how easy it would be for a toddler to pick up the whole album and turn it upside down and then there would go all the inserts and I would have no idea where they go. Though I have to admit that I think I might just start laughing because really I'm not being a perfectionist about any of this and it feels so freeing to just get the memories out of my camera and my head and somewhere else.

Anyway, I'm thinking about ways to deal with this because I really want Ellie Jane to be able to look through these journals whenever she wants to. In many cases, this isn't a problem because I've cut the inserts to exactly the size of the pocket and they can't really move. One thought I have is to staple certain pockets if I know I won't be pulling the insert out again. For now, with Project Life, I'm stamping the first day of the week date on the back of that week's inserts. For this album, I might do the same thing. I also think clear washi tape might be a good idea for some pockets. I'm guessing there might be a whole thread about this somewhere full of ideas that I just need to find. (And really, taking a quick iphone photo of each layout might be the fastest option.)

Are you joining in? If December Daily seems like too much right now but the idea speaks to you, one idea would be to join in on Instagram or on your blog and just share one photo a day. You could then print them out and have a little album full of December moments.

Learn more about December Daily at Ali's site here.