Many scrappers do a "December Daily", a scrapping trend of recent years where a journal style mini album is made to cover what's happening with you during December. I think it's supposed to be a lead up to Christmas type of thing, I don't know if they go until the end of December or stop on Christmas Day, I guess that's up to the creator.

I've never jumped on the DD bandwagon as I honestly can't see the point in making a whole mini album about just 1 month of the year, when it all goes in my regular album anyway. That's not to say it's not a worthwhile project for those who enjoy it, it's just not for me.

But it made me think that perhaps my future descendants might like to see what my lead up to Christmas was like, so I decided that this year I'd to do something similar (but a lot easier).

I'm making just 1 layout, my 'Christmas Countdown' - with 24 photos on it, one for every day in December, up until Christmas eve. Here it is to date. The opposite page will be my regular Chrissie photo layout.

It isn't strictly Christmas pics, there's some everyday stuff too - just whatever was happening on that day. BTW - the photos are 2" square.

Here's my card for this year. It might look like I took the easy way out by doing it on the computer but believe me, it took hours to edit all those faces from the original photo's, then resize them and put them into the baubles. Then there was the inevitable fiddling around to get the lines straight and the title done. But I think it was worth it.


I added names to a few, for my aunties who rarely see the kids. I thought it would be nice for them to put names to faces. The rest, for us who see each other all the time, I left plain because we all know who we are!

This one has the photos placed randomly, but the one I sent has each little family group in it's own line - so the Aunties can see who belongs to who.

Love their cardstock - nice texture, ideal thickness and good colour range including gorgeous bling.

Love their paper patterns - well, most of them. You can't like every single one from any company, but I'm pretty keen on most of theirs.

Love that my orders are home delivered - no wasting time and expensive petrol running around to shops - of which there are none within a 45 minute drive of here anyway, at least none that I know of.

Love that they're an Aussie company with paper designed specifically for us, not to northern hemisphere seasons or to traditions\holidays that we don't follow. And that it's a 100% Aussie owned company, so the money I spend stays in my own country.

Love their quality. I will not buy stuff from cheap shops - I don't trust it, especially as there are no regulations here regarding the acid free thing. Manufacturers can slap on the 'acid free' label, but we don't know for sure. I only ever buy from companies I know and trust, even if it is a bit dearer. You get what you pay for, and my photos are too precious to take the risk.

As to quality, I just found this info about Kaszazz papers. Thought I'd pop it in here. This is taken from their facebook page, I hope I'm not being naughty by copying it - here's the link.

[Did you know that all of our Kaszazz scrapbooking papers are printed right here in South Australia, on high quality, acid free, lignin free, uncoated paper. It is certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), is made Carbon Neutral and is Archival.

(Archival paper is an especially permanent, durable acid-free paper. The international standard for permanence requires papers to have a pH of 7.5 to 8.5, contain at least 2% calcium carbonate, and contain no ground wood or unbleached fibre). The term “Buffered paper” relates specifically to a buffering agent such as calcium carbonate, which helps increase the lifespan of the paper. ] Way to go Kaszazz!

Disclaimer - I'm not affiliated with Kaszazz and am not a consultant, although I have been in the past and no doubt will be again. I just love their stuff and am happy to get this added info about it. Justifies my confidence in their products, and its great to have our own home grown company that more than holds their own against the overseas market.

Well, that's a tongue in cheek 'quick', it took several hours to do them. Mum and Sis both wanted some photos of the grandies - great grandies\ nephews & nieces, so I decided to make them an album each. That's their birthday presents taken care of.

I still have several 4" x 4" mini albums from my days as a TLC consultant and they were perfect for this project.

I kept the covers very simple so they can be carried in a bag.

Here is the bare bones -

and a finished version.

Even though they're only 4" x 4", they still took just as long to make as a larger page. But they were well worth the effort, I'm happy with how they turned out and they were fun to make.

I'm posting a card I made for my aunty. The pic is pretty bad, doesn't show how nice the colours are. I got a bit too heavy handed with the inking but overall I'm quite happy with it. We send each other hand made cards every year, but sadly she's partially blind now,  so I don't know how much longer she'll be able to make her own.

I must admit that the basic design isn't mine, I got it from the latest Kaszazz catalogue. I copied the flowers - but the name plaque is my idea! lol. I'm not a card maker at all, so need inspiration from more talented crafters. Thanks to the Kaszazz consultant who made the original and shared it to help us less talented people. I love the ideas that are shared in company cattys these days.

Back again with more of my Life diary. This time I have more of my birthday lunch pages, I ended doing 7 layouts to cover it.

 

 

I'm still enjoying this style of scrapping but now that I've made quite a few pages, I'm finding it's really no faster for me than regular scrapping. I think that's because I do simple layouts anyway which are nice and quick, so there isn't a great deal of difference. But it's a new approach for me and that's a good thing.

I'm also still not too gung-ho on using my own handwriting for the journaling - if it was a bit neater I'd be a lot happier, but I'm trying! I'm so used to the neatness of computer journaling, and the fact that I can do spell check and change it easily is a bonus. But I wanted to have my own script so I can live with it.

I've done more of my Life Diary layouts. Now that I've done a few divided pages, I'm really starting to like this style of scrapping. It suits my simple style and it's pretty quick, even though I cut my own inserts rather than buying ready made kits. I can see myself doing more albums in this style, it would help so much in catching up with generations of stored photos.

But I'm still not sold on the 3 ring binders. I don't mind the gap between the pages because I'm doing single pages instead of the usual double layouts (another first for me). I have a good quality album - well known brand - but find as I'm turning the pages, they catch on the opening join in the rings. The rings themselves are tightly closed, nice and firm, but it would be impossible for them to meet exactly and it's just that fraction of a millimetre that snags the hole in the page protector. I'll persevere for a while longer, maybe there's a knack to turning the pages so this doesn't happen.


I never work on the front and back of the same backing sheet, but this time I did because I've used patterned paper and they're both so nice. Also, both pages are for the same topic, so 2 sheets wasn't needed. Yes - I've smudged out the number, I remember the old saying - a lady never reveals her age! To get the white title letters, I traced around some chipboard letters.





On this page I simply journaled the story - no added accents, I think the paper is embellishment enough, but I did ink around the journaling block - I LOVE inking!








On the divided page I border punched 2 mats, made the birthday mat in the subway sign style, and the month was done with some old stickers I've had for years and I went around the outline with my black SU pen. The 'm' was slightly smaller than the other letters, so I used my little date stamp and put the year a few times across the bottom of it.

I've finally made my first pages of the year.

Of course, every scrapper has heard of Becky Higgins and Project Life. I've resisted this style, it wasn't my thing at all. But after seeing some really nice pages I decided to give it a try for this album. I'm not going to be as diligent as Becky who (I think) does hers every day.

The main differences I see between mine and true PL are:

• I will be mixing full pages with pocket pages.
• It will be like a regular diary, but with photos and memorabilia added.
• Like my regular diary, entries will vary - daily, weekly or whenever. I will be adding everyday things, but not necessarily everyday.
• I'll be using my own stash rather than buying ready made product kits.

I'm calling my version - Life Diary.

As I recently had a milestone birthday, it's going to be "A Year in the Life". Starting with my birthday, I'll be documenting the next 12 months.

Boring? Probably. But I hope my descendants 100 years from now will get some enjoyment and fun seeing how everyday life was in "the olden days". I know I'd love to have something like this made by my gg grandmother.

Here are the first 2 layouts. 

I used fawn c\s for the base. The title is printed on teal and rough cut. I printed pics of myself taken every decade, starting with a baby shot when I was about 6 months old. The early ones were in black and white, so I did them all that way. The story block is an aqua colour which matches my shirt in the photos that will be facing that page.

I tucked in some strips of patterned paper to add some colour, and used a few skeleton leaves from my stash. That shows how long I hoard things - I've had those skeleton leaves for about 10 years! The story was done on the computer but I'll be handwriting the journaling on the slip in mats.

I think I'm going to enjoy this project.

Today I'm posting a couple of pages that I never imagined needing to make.

R.I.P.

STEVEN KENNETH SAVAGE

31st March 1993 - 17th February, 2013



Stevens parents and us were best friends 20 years ago. I was privileged to be their support person at the hospital when he was born, sharing one of the most special moments of their lives.

The three of us were together the day he came into the world, and now, next Friday, we will be together again to farewell him from it. It's going to be a tough day.

I wanted to do something special for them - something more than just a card, and a framed page was the obvious answer. On the backing c\s is a photo of his car, I washed it out a lot so it's only just visible. I used his favourite colours to mat a couple of the photos, and hand cut the title.

The small wording on the orange band says "in loving memory". I wanted to keep it simple and focus on the pictures so I didn't put the birth or death dates. That's something a parent will never forget, so they don't need to see it every time they look at the page (IMHO anyway). I made 2 pages and will give one to Stevens grandparents, who I've know for 25 years.

Wet weather and a bad country road combined to take this wonderful young man from his family and friends way too soon. Rest in peace Steven, you'll never be forgotten by those who knew you and loved you.