It’s that time of year again: time to get prepped for our December documentation projects. Whether you’re creating a mini album, documenting in your monthly pocket pages or creating layouts, organization and prep work is key to finishing off your project by the end of 2017. Today we’re going to take a look at how Laura Hager is getting her Elle’s Studio supplies ready for this magical project!
Supplies | Document December Kit, Holiday Plans Stamp, Document December Stamp, Cork Circles, Christmas Puffy Heart Stickers, Green Puffy Alphabet Stickers, Red Puffy Alphabet Stickers, Stanley Jr. Alphabet Stamp – Outline, Stanley Jr. Alphabet Stamp – Solid
I’m so excited that December is almost here! I tried doing a December album last year, but I ended up getting sick for most of December and didn’t have many cute pictures to document. This year, I’ve come up with a strategy to make the December album easier to complete.
I started prepping my album by gathering my favorite supplies from the photo above—I love how well all these products work together. After I had my stash of product, I decided to unpack my Document December Kit. Everything in the kit is so cute!
Unpacking pretty paper products is one of my favorite parts of scrapbooking! I sorted all the pieces of the kit into piles of paper, embellishments, and stamps.
Part of what made the project hard for me to complete last year is that I didn’t have all of my supplies together. This time around, I decided to make a little basket of all my December album supplies. This will make it so easy for me to print a photo and dive right into scrapbooking.
In my basket, I packed all of the Elle’s Studio products listed above, a white 6″ x 8″ album, pocket page protectors, my tiny attacher, roller tape, three ink pads (gold, green, and black),small scissors, and a date stamp. This is pretty much everything I think I will need to complete my pages! If I decide I need more tools or products, I will add them as I go.
Another part of what made my album difficult to complete last year is that I re-made too many layouts. Then the layouts didn’t end up matching my photos and I felt like I had to redo everything. After my mistakes last year, I had a better idea of what I needed to get started this time doing the project. I knew I needed a cover page, so I began sorting through the patterned papers from the kit.
I knew that I wanted to use the gray “December 2017” puffy stickers in the Document December Kit. To try out different papers with the letters, I cut them out so they were still on the plastic, allowing me to lay the sticker over different papers. I loved the pattern with the little trees and it was still easy to read the puffy stickers. I was obsessed with the wood veneer confetti from the Document December Kit and I knew I wanted it on the front page. To complete the page, I stuck the puffy stickers to the page and sprinkled some confetti into the pocket page. I sealed it by using my Fuse tool.
I wanted to prep a few more pages, so I looked through all the patterned papers and journaling tags to come up with combinations that I liked. I added a few labels and embellishments to those premade pages to make putting them together easy and quick during December.
One way to make documenting everyday in December a little easier is to prep layouts that you know are going to happen by thinking through your traditions. Peppermint mochas are one of my favorite things about the holiday season, so I made a specific layout dedicated to getting a peppermint mocha at Starbucks on December 1st. I did this last year and it’s a tradition I want to keep. I like reusing my holiday Starbucks cup, so I knew what colors I wanted use on the page. I thought the December journaling tag and the checkered green tag would match perfectly with my cup, so I put those into the page. The “deck the halls” wood veneer helped capture the excitement of starting the month with a peppermint mocha. Lastly, I knew I wanted to get one on December 1st, so I stamped a label with the date. Now, on December 1st, I just need to get a peppermint mocha, take a photo, and print it out! Prepping layouts for things you know you do every year makes daily documentation a little easier!
Lastly, I have one more tip for prepping your products. I love using labels and have one on every page I make. Sometimes I even have two! I knew I would be using a lot of the labels from the Document December kit, so I cut them all out now so they are ready to be stamped and added to layouts. Little things like that can slow down the scrapbooking process and I never have extra time in December.
After last years failure, I’m really excited to give documenting every day in December another chance. I’d love to know if you have any tips for a successful December album. Are you all prepped for this December? Let me know what worked for you in the comments!
Laura
Document December Project Preparation with Laura Hager