Thursday, February 3, 2011

What I Did At The Crop - Part 3 of 3

And last, but certainly not least...
Falling into the "better late than never" category...

I finished my JYC/December Daily album!

When I went to the crop, I had only the Manifesto and Days 1 through 3 finished and printed:

These pages are digital except for the cardstock backing and the "celebrate" sticker on Jay's birthday page.  I had created the template myself, trying to imitate Ali's 2010 December Daily templates, but was very frustrated because my outlines just wouldn't do what I wanted them to! And at some point Ali's templates went on sale, so I went ahead and bought them.


That was as far as I had gotten by mid-January.  I had lots of photos and ideas, but no more pages! I wasn't even sure I was going to finish the album at all. 

At the crop, I did all the digital work for December 4th through the 24th, but had to wait until I got home to print and assemble the pages:

These pages became true hybrid.  At the crop I resized each of Ali's templates (they are 6x8) to 5.5x8.5 to fit my album, then edited, cropped, and fit my photos and journaling into the templates.

My pages included a mix of the JYC prompts, Picture the Holidays prompts, and some of the stories I had written for Sian's Christmas Club.



In most cases I used Ali's daily dated templates.  And finished it off at home after the crop by adding a scrap of patterned paper, a title with sticker letters, rub-ons, or handwritten, and coloring in the date with markers.
 But in a few instances I used the photo templates, like this full page one of the Amaryllis bloom.

And this page with photos from our Christmas in Hawaii.

My favorite pages ended up being these two - where I highlighted the new Christmas song by Train, and showcased the beautiful card I got from Jacky!

I did manage to add a little bit of emphemera - but certainly not what I had in mind when I first thought of trying on Ali's style!

Love the Thickers letters and the Fancy Pants papers and rub-ons!

I found I ended up with a lot of pages with no journaling at all.  I really feel like I had fully answered the JYC prompts in my two prior albums and just didn't have anything new to say!

I had to create my page for the 25th at home because I hadn't even downloaded those photos to my computer yet!  And having finished this, I decided to end my album with the 25th and call it good!

To finish it off, I borrowed an idea from Karen and created a disclaimer page that covers the fact that I've skipped days and used so many different formats to create these pages.  But hey, I found a way to use one of the transparency overlays I had set aside for this project!

And a title page with some photos I had not used in the album.  These last two, created on January 31st. 

And with that, I'm calling it done!  Thus making good on my goal of finishing this album by the end of January!


I have plenty of room in this album still, so I plan to include next year's JYC in this album in the same size. 

But I've learned that Ali's style of hybrid doesn't work for me for a month long daily project.  I don't have the time or the patience to pull it all together the way she does!  I adore her style, but it just is not for me!

Next year's album will probably be all digital, without templates, just creating a 5.5 x 8.5 digital page a day.  And I'm going to have to figure out what pages I want to create before the month starts.  I may concentrate more on Shimelle's photo prompts, most of which I didn't even get to last year!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cheri, this is wonderful and your photography shines through. I always try to add emphemera, too, but I can never get it the way I want it. Ali makes it look so easy. I really like the page where it appears you've journaled on vellum and the Christmas lights shine through the journaling. Awesome. I also like the idea of focusing just on the photo prompts next year. 2011 will be #6 for me. I know I want to have a record of our Christmas, but I definitely need a new direction.

Sian said...

I am in complete awe of your work rate at the crop! Though of course it's not really work because it sounds like so much fun - but you know what I mean. It's a very satisfying project to get finished off isn't it?

scrappyjacky said...

Cheri...the album is wonderful....the photos a perfect record of your christmas.I feel honoured you included my card.
I'm amazed how much you got done at the crop....shows we all need a couple of days a month like that!!
I'm thinking of going with Shimelle's photo prompts next time as well....I hardly managed to touch them this [last] year.

Melissa said...

Your album looks great! Congrats on getting it completed and already thinking of ways to make it work for you next year.

quiltingfool said...

I LOVE it, and it makes me want to start on Christmas 2011 RIGHT NOW. Sad to say, the last thing I scrapped was Halloween 2009, so I have the rest of 2009 and all of 2010 to scrapbook, since I do an album of each year's highlights. Now that I have all my supplies in storage, I want to scrap more than ever and I can't. You inspire me to reach higher, try new things, and go out of my comfort zone. You have so much talent for so many things it's awesome!

Anonymous said...

Wow - you got SO much done! I maybe get one or two done over 4 days away! lol For real! Love your JYC, looks great! I think I am going to do the size again next year as well maybe less the middle date pages - it got a bit thick!

beccaf1970 said...

I love what you did with this! I'm still finishing mine, but I've learned so much about what I will/won't do next year!

humel said...

Oh, MY! Cheri, this is a thing of beauty. I would so love to be able to see it in real life and leaf through the pages, taking in all the details. It's *gorgeous* xx

Kelly Miller said...

You are so ambitious! I wish I had the stick-with-it-ness you do. This looks fantastic.

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

Oh, Cheri, I love the look of your Christmas album!!! I had fun studying the details of each page. Thanks for sharing it! xo