Folio style December journal (video)

This is my completed December journal! It's full of pockets, pages & photo mounts, ready for documenting next month's festivities 

If you're not familiar with December journals, they're a lovely way to capture memories of a fun & busy time of the year, especially if you have a growing family. Here's a great introduction to them http://aliedwards.com/projects/december-daily although there are many different approaches you can adopt for your journal.

I've made it in a photo folio style, so that I'm not tied to making an entry a day during December or having any kind of coherent narrative running through it. At its simplest it will be a folder for keeping this year's Christmas photos, cards and memorabilia (receipts, present lists etc) together, although I will includee journalling for some days, should my children remove themselves from their computers & we, oh, I don't know, ACTUALLY GO SOMEWHERE AND DO SOMETHING!! Ahem. 

I used 2 ranges from Stampin' Up!'s current Autumn/Winter catalogue; the Home For Christmas DSP (& the cute matching Cozy Christmas stamp set); and the Project Life Hello December 2015 journal cards, accessories & stamps. 

I have taken many, many photos of it - you can wade through them all here - https://flickr.com/photos/123525749@N02/sets/72157660991604470

And here's a video walk though! Do leave a comment or a "like", it would make my day :)

I used a pre-made folio folder by Ranger, and these lovely Stampin' Up! products. You can buy them by clicking on the pictures:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Christmas folio journal (part 2)

Here's a short update video on my Christmas journal.

A little tip. Those neodymium magnet things? Holy moly, they are strong, even the tiny ones! The down side with this is they tend to want to stick to each other & not the page, so you need to make sure there is at least on layer of cardtsock between them, otherwise they will tear your page. Punch out a little circle and glue it over the magnet if need be.

Christmas journal (video)

By this time next month, Christmas will have you up against a wall with your arm twisted up your back, so November really is your last chance to get your Christmas crafting sorted; make those cards,  create those hand made decorations and put together a Christmas journal in which you can tenderly record all the misty eyed moments that December brings. Or, if you're like me, the date of your first Gingerbread Latte (do you know, I went to Costa for one last week and they didn't have them in yet. They were still churning out the summer menu! Outrageous!).

I've started making my journal but I'm not using a daily record format this year, as I've found it diffcult to keep up with in the past couple of years. Now my children are a bit older all the cutesy seasonal photo opportunities  have dried up a bit. And they have developed a fierce and eye role-y objection to having their every waking moment photographed and documented by their dear mama. Frankly, I've found it tricky to drum up enough content to complete an entry a day. So I'm hoping that the unstructured style of a file folio will allow me to create a collection of December 2015 memories, rather than a slavish countdown to the Big Day. And hopefully I'll feel more inspired to keep up with it, as there'll be no sense of falling behind if I have days without working on it. 

Supplies wise I'm using the Project Life Hello December cards, accessory pack and stamp set and I'm mixing them in with the Home for Christmas designer series paper which has a lovely 1960's retro feel about it. I'll post further videos as it progresses. Or, if it turns into a hot mess, there will be a pointed silence on the matter AND WE WILL NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN!