Musings from the December Daily

We both ran into some glitches this year with our December Daily, so in thinking back over it, we each have some ideas on how to make the process flow more smoothly. Maybe these ideas will help you through your next big project.

Maura's top 3:
1.  Don't worry if your photos are not perfect - use them anyway.  You can always make a hat to put on top of the head that's not there. These are part of your life now - it's ok if it's dark, blurry, etc. - make it work for you. Remember, it's the memory you want to share.

2.  Make a template for your pages.  This makes it easy to get all the pages done ahead of time.  Fill in the extras when you add your photos and journaling.

3.  Use a kit...it has everything you need, it's coordinated and it will save you time.

Sheila's top 3:
1. Design your album to fit your photos, not the other way around. For instance, if you know that your photos are going to be easiest to print at a 4x6 size, don't make pages that are more suited to 6x8 photos. Keep your template more to scale so that you are not spending all your time on the computer resizing photos. Even though I like the larger photos, I complained about this step each and every time.

2. Follow Maura's advice and buy that ONE kit that you just love. Then shop your supplies. You'd be amazed at what supplies you already have in your stash that are perfect for a December Daily. I spent time going through all my drawers and pulled out tags, labels, twine, brads, ribbon, journaling spots, embellishments etc. and put them all in a big bag and in the holiday decoration box to be pulled out each Christmas.

3. Design your foundation pages ahead of time. One year I had the page templates all done, printed out and ready so that I  just added the photos, the journaling and an embellishment or two and my day was complete. That was definitely easier than trying to catch up on December 10th this year.

....and remember to enjoy the season as you document it.