December 2012 album

Simple Stories Album - front cover

I really like the combination of cardstock pages and
page protectors in the Simple Stories albums

Our city has Snowflake lights decorating
the downtown area during the holidays.  I used some snowflakes that were meant to be ornaments on the page on the left and cut a Hambly snowflake
transparency to size and added it to the left. 

The Hambly snowflake transparency covered a blurry photo on the right that I wanted in the album.  Its a motorized Christmas tree in our annual Christmas parade.

I added the program for a holiday pops concert we went to.  Fits perfectly!

 I originally set out to do a December Daily type of album.  Date card at top of page is one of Ali Edwards' digital items that I printed and decorated. Working full-time I did not end up with enough "daily" photos and had multiple event type photos so the album evolved into a December album.

I alternated 2 different page protectors throughout the album.  On the right I cut to size another Hambly transparency (reindeers).  I love how these look in the page protector pockets.  (Idea came from Ali Edwards) 

Added a Christmas card right into the album

Cut 4 x 6 photo in half to add to the top 2 pockets.

I've been working on this album since Thanksgiving on & off.  I was able to finish it on Saturday at a Crop.  I used Simple Stories Handmade Holidays and 25 Days of Christmas pieces throughout the album along with items from my stash.  I have a Christmas basket with all sorts of Christmas embellishments that works really well for me. Things I'll do differently for my next December album include:

• I'll not set the album up ahead of time.  This seemed like a real timesaver to me but ended up making me feel like I had to fit a mold that didn't work for the photos I had and stories I wanted to tell.  It felt forced.
• I'll definitely gather a variety of supplies and will probably use the Simple Stories album again.
• I'll set up a paper journal to write things down daily.  This year I just had a sheet of paper that I wrote notes on each day and then I lost it!  
• I'll try to save more memorabilia
• I'm not using a December Daily format.  I took Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas and will use that type of approach instead.
• I'll take more photos.  I'm not a big picture taker.  Probably a throwback to so many years of film photos.  I thought I was taking a lot of photos but when it came to pick photos for the album it didn't seem like many.  

So that wraps that project up - on to the next one!