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
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
A Wonderful Feeling by Lorie M
Chirping in the Mint Garden by Sarah h Graphics
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.