December Daily, the update.

For the first time ever, I have fully COMPLETED the December Daily challenge!?!?  In years past I'd gotten to right before Christmas then really never added a few pictures or details from Christmas into the album.  This year, while my mom was here, I sneaked down to the craft room to finish it up while I had a chance.

It feels so good to have another album done.  This year was my favorite for a number of reasons.  1) the size.  The 4 x 6 album format was easy to keep up with because it wasn't a ton of scrapbooking.  I didn't have the pages done ahead of time but I could easily slip away from 7-10 minutes a day and get that day completed.  That felt good  2) the use of more modern photo formats -- in this album I used Instax, Instagram, Printstagram and my camera to document our days.  It was fun and nice to have a variety of formats to choose from.  3) the comprehensive kit I had from Studio Calico was worth the investment.  I really only used thekit contents and supplemented with only letter stickers and odds/ends.  It was great (although I did keep wishing for number stamps in the kit) and fit in with my general style/vibe too.

As for the album cover, I was going for simple.  However, Noah got a hold of it with a marker.  I decided to make lemonade out of the situation (a theme in 2012 perhaps? yes!) and handed the album over to Bella with fabric markers and asked her to create a masterpiece.

Not only am a THRILLED with the outcome, it will forever be a piece of her art preserved.  Here is the cover, and a few more of my favorite pages.

(there were a couple of days that I only used my phone to take pictures then I was unable to access them ... so I took an actual photograph of the photograph on my phone!  go figure!  Modern photography at its finest!)

And that my friends, is another December Daily album completed.  I will wrap it with a bow and carefully put it with the others.  I really enjoy going back over them year after year and reliving the memories!  I hope that it is a teeny tiny love letter to my family someday ... when they the albums, I hope they can understand how deeply I love them, how magical Christmas is to me and how much I tried to do my very very best as their mama.

Happy Sunday friends.

Comments

[melanie]

absolutely LOVE the cover. i haven't finished mine yet - in progress - but here's to getting it done and packing it away with the holiday decor!

[gabby]

you are incredible!!!!!!!!!!
this is amazing.
and the cover???
BEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!
xoxoxo.

[Amy]

About your phone pictures...you can upload to Shutterfly from your phone (pick album to upload to, upload to iPhone photos, or create new album). This works for your Instagram photos if you save them to your phone. Or, there is iPrintagram (app) that will print Instagram photos for you. Stop me if you've heard all this...