I'm popping with some more tips on how to limit your photos from a big event like Christmas! As we all know, scrapping these big events can seem overwhelming, so I am going to echo one of Jenn’s tips and recommend that you stick to one spread per day or event and then limit your pictures to only that one spread. Leading up to Christmas this is a little easier, but on the actual day of Christmas… this can be a LOT more daunting. I don’t know about you, but I take a lot of pictures on Christmas Day. There is so much going on and I love to look back at those pictures and remember it all. I take pictures of breakfast (if I think ahead enough to make something special), I get pictures of the kids waking up and impatiently waiting for the grandparents to arrive so we can open presents. I take pictures of the tree and the pile of presents and I take a bunch of pictures of everyone opening all of their gifts. Then there are pictures of the mess after all the presents are open and everyone is tearing into their new treasures to play. Even just writing all of that seems overwhelming. Last year I took 168 pictures on Christmas day. Whoa. And yes, I’m still sticking to what I started with, this can be captured on a one page spread! Here are some tips to make that happen: *Pick only 1-2 pictures of the kids opening presents. A lot will be blurry or not capture the moment as well as others. Use a picture from the most memorable gift of the year or 1 picture of the pile before and after opening. *If you missed the perfect picture, add a spot of journaling about a specific memory instead *Utilize QR codes to include videos on your layout alongside your photos. If a photo is worth a 1000 words, a video is even better! *Cull, cull, cull! When I start a spread on a big event such as Christmas, I create a folder for that event and then I copy just the photos I want to use into that folder. That really helps me narrow down my choices from 168 to about 40 pictures. I still don’t end up using all of them in that folder, but it’s a lot easier for me to see visually which pictures I have left as I’m adding them to my layout. *Pick a template with lots of photos spots and then start dragging in your favorite pictures. I am very partial to Just Jaimee’s Ready to Go templates for these big events and I always look for the sets with the most photo spots and the ones with room to journal too. Here’s a look at my 2 page spread that covers the entire day of Christmas 2018: Page 1: [/URL ] Page 2:
Hey y'all! It's Day NINE! I'd love to know how much you've accomplished! Today's tip is one that is near and dear to my heart. One of the best ways I've found to complete cohesive albums is to use album templates. They are designed to go together from cover page to final layout, so it makes putting together a Document Your December album so easy. Even if you choose to mix and match products, the layout design gives you a cohesive look. Here are a couple of my album templates that you'll find on sale during our Christmas in July event: Remember, you don't have to use album templates that were designed for Document Your December, nor do you have to use just album templates. Any template is a great way to quickly create a layout and come that much closer to finishing your album. If you followed by tip from Day 3, grab one of your canvases with just photos and see how many photos you have. You can search your stash for templates that contain that number of photos, or find one that just appeals to you. Yes, you CAN add or remove photo spots from templates - it's totally allowed! LOL It's easy to drag the template contents onto your blank canvas or you can drag your photos onto your template canvas (just make sure you save your template with a different name so you don't save over it). I hope our tips and encouragement have helped you get more pages done for your special holiday memories. Sending out wishes for tons of creativity and mojo, as well as for you to enjoy reliving your precious moments while you scrap!
DONE!!! My 2018 DYD book is d.o.n.e., done! Here's my last page, Christmas morning... And if you want to see, here's the link to my finished book... https://link.shutterfly.com/e/ctgQQh5AFY How are everyone else's albums going??
And here we are, at the last day of the event! Did you enjoy working on your DYD albums? So, my topic today is how it's ok to call an unfinished album "done". Does that sound confusing? Let me explain with an example. In 2013, I set out to do DYD as a daily project. I did really well for a while and although I had gaps here and there, I thought I could come up with something eventually that would fill those gaps. Well, as the number of gaps increased, I ran out of things to fill them with. Discouraged, I abandoned the project. That is, until this year. I decided to just let go of my original daily expectation and enjoy the pages I had gotten done! First step... change my cover... "December Daily 2013" became "The Stories of Christmas 2013". This helped me let go of my feeling of failure for not having something everyday, and move on to celebrating those stories I had captured. Second step... fill the gaps... I didn't stress out about digging up photos or creating deeper content. Fitting with my simple layouts, I grabbed some fun word art (Just Jaimee's Christmas Hand Lettering) to fill those missing pages. I could have just skipped these spaces entirely and moved everything up a space, but I had some two page spreads scattered throughout the month that threw things off. Here's a link to what my finished book looks like... I don't even notice the missing pages that I once thought were dealbreakers! So, if you have an unfinished DYD book out there that didn't go quite as planned... don't worry! The stories you did get captured are what's important! And remember, no one else knows what your original vision was, but you
@tkradtke Your 2013 album is awesome! I love the addition of the word art pages! A great tip. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Marilyn! It felt so good to let go and just decide that it was "done". I'm excited to get it printed. I liked how the word art turned out as well... I definitely see myself using that idea again in future DYD books when my one and two page spreads don't line up quite right.
Working on a few more pages, now that the 10 Days of Christmas Challenges are done. From a nighttime parade on December 5, 1996 And here is another parade from the next day. The view from where we stayed:
I continue to work on this... I figure five or fewer layouts left... This will be a facing page to the layout listed above. And another...
