My Hybrid December Daily® Plans | Special Guest Shannan Manton
We're excited to welcome Shannan back for the second post in her series on working with digitals for December Daily®! This week she's sharing her plans for her 2021 album. Let's dive right in!
I don't know about you, but 2021 turned out to be even worse than 2020 (who'd have thought?). Thank goodness for December Daily.
I'm planning to go hybrid this year, which to me means using digital supplies to make a paper mini book. My regular scrapbooking is very clean, minimal and purely digital so it feels about right that I get out some paper, scissors and glue to play a little this year. Nothing too wild, but a bit out of my minimalist comfort zone. If I plug my Silhouette in, you’ll know I’ve gone off the deep end.
My intention is to make a little handmade 4x5 mini book that I can add to as much or as little as I like and have fun doing it. I won’t call it an album because that’s a bit generous for two pieces of chipboard held together by binder rings. It will be a lot like my 2019 4x4 book.
I’m planning to use this year’s December Daily digitals kits plus some previous collections, as well as non-Christmas items for my everyday and summer stories (which I hope there will be a lot of). I’ll make most of my pages in Photoshop Elements and print from home (on my Epson XP-8500) - mixing in some transparencies and vellum if the printer gods allow it. Pages will be glued back to back.
This won’t be a ‘daily’ album - I’m not even using numbers on my pages this year. I might end up with 20 pages or 80 pages, it doesn’t matter. I’m going structure-free and moving away from the 25-stories framework that most of my previous albums have followed.
In the past, I’ve worked on my album daily because I really enjoyed writing in the moment, choosing my story and getting my spread made. This year’s more casual approach means I will probably work on it every few days rather than daily.
Throughout December, I hope to build my book as a collection of 4x5 photos, journal cards, patterned papers, stickers, lists, notes and thoughts all hole-punched bound together. A little book that celebrates December, Christmas and summer (which officially starts here on December 1st).
This book will be heavy on photos and journal cards because they just work so perfectly with this format. The small size and the idea that I don’t have to stick to a set amount of pages means I can add in more of our every day.
I’m so looking forward to working on this little book. I’m hoping it will be the perfect blend of simple and fun. Bring on December!
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Love this approach! It's very much along the lines of what I had been toying with for my December Daily this year - smaller format and not telling 25 "daily" stories as I have in years previous 🙂 I think seeing this has cemented my thoughts for my album this year. Thanks for the inspiration Shannan 😁
Thank you! I think it will be fun this way.
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LOVE your plan Shannan. I laughed HARD when I read the part about the printer gods because I can TOTALLY relate. Look forward to seeing your project come together.
Ha thanks Elizabeth. I always have my fingers crossed when sending odd papers through it :)
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"If I plug my Silhouette in, you'll know I've gone off the deep end". I died! That sums me up completely! I can't wait to see your project Shannan. You know I'm a huge fan!
Ha! Thanks Heidi :)
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Shannan, you always blow my mind a bit - love how you”re setting this up as a collection of stories and moments with no number attached. I am using the notebook this year, so I know I want to fill it, but I am also trying to keep the inside structure more loose. Thank you!
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