Hi everyone! How many of you get caught up in the Document Your December (DYD) excitement in early December, only to have the craziness of the season leave you with an unfinished album as the new year begins? That's me, each and every year... sigh. I do try to get a few pages done with some of the MOC challenges, but I never get enough done to finish my book. This year, I'm using our Christmas in July celebration to knock out those last few pages and get my 2018 DYD book printed and I would love for you to join me! My tip for day one is to get organized. Look back through the pages you have completed and see where your gaps are. If your book is by event, see which events need to be scrapped. If it's by day, jot down your missing days. I just went through my pages (thankfully, I had put them in a Shutterfly book as I finished them in December, so it was easy to flip through them). I am currently missing the following pages: title page, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 24th and 25th. Seeing this list puts things in a different perspective for me. Instead of the negative view of having an unfinished album, I have the positive view of only having 6 pages left to scrap! Next, I looked to see what photos/events I have for those days. And after doing that, I have my list to start working from! 1. Title Page 2. 19th - Gingerbread House 3. 20th - Daddy Daughter Christmas Shopping Day 4. 22nd - Christkindl Market and Zoolights 5. 24th - Sparkle in the Park 6. 25th - Christmas Morning I would love for you to take a look at your DYD project as well and join me in this quest to finish and print our books! How many pages do you have left? Keep track of your progress in our DYD Album Wrap Up Tracking Thread here. One random participant in the tracking thread will win a $3 coupon to the store. Please feel free to share your pages here, chat and ask questions. And keep checking back here as new tips will be added throughout the event (see direct links to the tips in the post below)!
7/20 - Jenn's tip of sticking with one page or spread per day 7/21 - Cheryl's tip about batching layouts 7/22 - Jenn's tip about using a collection like BYOC for a cohesive album 7/23 - Jan's tip about adding the everyday into your DYD album 7/24 - Tracie's tip about using challenges to finish up your DYD album 7/27 - Cheryl's tip about using album templates and single templates
Super over-achiever here. 2018 was my first Document Your December attempt. I planned on doing a page a day, ended up with 52 pages that I made into a Blurb magazine. They were done in TN style, 8x4" on an 8.5 x 11" page. I love how it turned out!!! But... the Disney (FL) trip from 1996 used for @jenn mccabe 's Christmas in July 2018 TN challenge is a possibility... I think I saved all of her prompts to resurrect and I could go back and finish up the photos that are scrap-worthy. Lots of Christmas parades, pretty decorations, etc., etc. I'd continue with the TN style that I absolutely love.
@umyesh Monica! I love your Christmas PJ book idea... what a fun album that will be to look back on I can't wait to see your pages! @mcurtt Maryilyn, your DYD book sounds amazing! Any photos of the finished product? I would love to see them. I'm so intrigued by the TN size, I would love to see what they look like printed. Your Disney Christmas album idea sounds fun!
@tkradtke I'm not sure if this share link will work. Let me know... It is my complete (and sometimes boring) DYD. LOL! https://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/8103384/9c148827c0dae4e92a37bde86e16e0264a88dcb6
Love this Marilyn!! And definitely not boring! I tried to capture a lot more of the "boring" stuff this last year... store displays, window decorations, random Christmasy things I crossed paths with. I love having them documented in my book.
Working my way down my list (skipping the title page because title pages always give me trouble... I really should commit to doing them first and get it over with). Here's my 19th of December... (as a refresher... I'm doing a faux 6x8 album to be printed in an 8x8 book... I like the look of sn@p albums and tried to replicate that look in digital).
I'd LOVE to see your Blurb Book too, Marilyn! I'm really thinking about trying them for some Christmas gifts. A magazine would make such a wonderful gift!
LOL! That's about all we have too. I took plenty of pics of our restaurant trips, window decorations, etc. But you have to realize that I live outside of a relatively small town (around 7,500). Not a lot happening here. When we get a horse-drawn wagon (not even a carriage) driving around thru town, it's a big deal.
@mcurtt I love your album that you shared! Gorgeous!!!! @tkradtke Your cover page is so lovely! Now only 5 pages left!
I Oh duh - you showed it to me after you had it printed. It's been a rough year. It's absolutely gorgeous, Marilyn!!!
I took one of the extra filler books I had for my Traveler's Notebook and made a separate little album starting with last Thanksiving. I did all of my DYD last year with 4x6 December Daily templates and then had them printed at Walgreens. They're a perfect fit in my TN and there's still room to write under each picture. Here are some pictures I just snapped my DYD book and a few of the pages. I'm planning to do this again for DYD 2019.
Hello! How did everyone like Tracie’s tip about organizing and finding the holes in your previous year’s DYD project? Good stuff right? Makes it so much easier to figure out which page to tackle next when you create a list/outline of what you are missing! I must confess, I really struggle with starting and finishing albums. I much prefer the freedom of scrapping what I want, when I want rather than scrapping albums for vacations, holidays, and events. BUT … the reward and feeling of satisfaction when a cohesive album is done – well, there’s nothing quite like it! (Just look at @mcurtt and @Cherylndesigns 's DYD books from the TN -travelers notebook -challenge last year! I love seeing these completed pages! You girls rocked it!) The good news about finishing up previous years’ DYD albums is THE PHOTOS ARE ALREADY DONE! Am, I right? No stressing over what to take pics of. You are now at a point where you have to work with what you have. My tip for today is – stick with one page (or one spread) for each day of your album. If you are a “one photo on a page” scrapper – then pick the one that really resonates with you. If you prefer a few photos on your page, then grab 2 or 3 of your faves and get the day’s story told. Don’t over think it. Keep it to ONE PAGE! Remember, you are the boss lady – the executive CEO of this project. Run with it and show that DYD Album who’s in control! It will feel amazing and freeing to get even one page done, I promise! And once that momentum starts, it will be hard to stop it. And here’s a little secret: Shhh! Don’t tell anyone, but you can always go back after you get a page done for each day of December and slip in a few extra pages if you feel your DYD album is missing things. But get the bones of your album done first! Ok, Boss Lady … go on! Get a page done and show that DYD Album how it’s done!
The forum from last year is still available and the thread with the prompts is HERE And the thread we started about other prompts to consider is in the Scrapping Pad HERE (so many of these prompts are universal - not just for Christmas/Winter - many scream AJ to me!)
