Hello, Dolly here.
OK ... be warned. I am going to mention the C word! And yes I know it is only October. But I have a message about forward planning for Christmas. There ... I said it.
I love taking classes and I love keeping monthly journals. I
have taken a great many of Shimelle’s classes and with things like Learn
Something New Every Day and Journal Your Christmas you get to do them year
after year once you are a member.
Time is often limited for me, both in September, when Learn
Something new Every Day takes place and also in December when, like everyone
else, I am frantically busy.
So a little planning ahead makes great sense.
I find limiting my supplies is the easiest way to operate
and this works for digital and paper both.
If I am working on a digital journal which will then be
printed out I select four or five collections in the colour palette I want to
work with and copy them into a separate file. That way I know I don’t have so
many choices to make and – if you are like me – it is the choices that take the
time.
This was my file for this year's September journal.

If I am doing a paper journal I select all of my supplies,
based on the same colour palette, and put them into a large box which can sit
on my desk. These supplies include
paper, embellishments such as ribbons, buttons, stamps and letters and also journaling
blogs and plain card for mountain.
With a paper journal I will often pre-make the pages … just
the bases with cardstock, background paper and maybe a journaling block. With a
digital journal I will do the same and make the background pages ready to have
photos, journaling and embellishments dropped in.
Putting in the preparation makes the project do-able. I
think if I didn’t do this I would find it way too stressful and time consuming
to make a page every day. But with the ground work done and limited choices to
make it is a really easy task.
This was a previous year's paper journal for September. You can see how the colour theme worked.

and this was a pre-prepared digital album showing some of the pages before printinga nd then the book made up


and a Christmas version


This year I used a selection of kits by Pickleberrypop
designers. I used one of the Pickle Barrel sets as they were all colour
coordinated – and I added a couple of random things as well. The alphabet was
an Atomic Cupcake one, but everything else was Pickleberrypop as below.
Every Day Miracle by Feli Designs
Dream Big by Fayette
Chlorophylle by Joey
Simply Green by Lindsay Jane
A Wonderful Feeling by Lorie M
Chirping in the Mint Garden by Sarah h Graphics
Who We Are by Dee Bee Designs
I haven't bound it as an album yet but you can see how thew preparation worked again this year

Maybe, if you have never done a monthly journal like this,
you will try something like Countdown to Christmas or Journal your Christmas
this year.
I will certainly be playing along again and will have my
Christmas kit ready and waiting for 1st December.
So - to be ready for the C word ... try and sort those supplies now when you have a little more time and then enjoy creating throughout december and recording those special memories the easy way.