Sunday, November 13, 2011

Doing It Digi

I couldn't make up my mind about this year's JYC/December Daily album.  Even though I deeply admire what Ali Edwards does with her December Daily, I learned last year that I have neither the patience, nor the time, to collect and assemble "stuff" into an album. I'm not much of a collector of daily ephemera anyway.

I knew that to be doable this year, my album needed to be mostly digital.  And this year I really want to focus on the photography aspect and get some great new photos.  I know that my decorations and the scenery around here do not change much from year to year. I just know in my heart that I can do a better job photographing them.

So I spent a couple of days organizing and purging my Christmas themed digi stash.  It is truly sad how much digi stuff I own.  In fact, after extensive purging of items I know I won't use, just the Christmas themed folder is 4 GB!  Yet, after all that organizing and purging, there was nothing in my stash that was inspiring me.  So what did I do?  Went shopping of course!

I bought Ali's 2011 templates (currently on sale over at Designer Digitals).  I used the same 2010 templates and decided this year to just finish out that album which definitely has enough space for another year.  I had to go through and resize all the templates to 5.5 by 8.5 to fit my album.  Although tedious, it is really simple.



I also bought Frosty Nocturne.  Miki Ferkul is one of my favorite designers over at Scrapbookgraphics and this kit is currently 20% off (because it is new this week).  I love that while it contains totally traditional red/green/cream Christmas colors it also adds in the blue and brown and has non-traditional elements.  I can borrow from other kits if I need to add a santa or christmas tree to something, but I'll mainly be working from this kit to limit my options and keep the whole project streamlined.

To make sure that I was fully committed to my choice, I went through the process of creating 31 days of digi page backgrounds.  These are now in my 2011 file, just waiting for photos and finishing touches! I used the same paper from the Frosty Nocturne kit for all the backgrounds. It will be mostly covered up with photos and additional elements anyway and it gives me a nice neutral base to start.

The interesting thing about working with Ali's template is that the space for the photo actually measures about 5 by 6.5".  Not a traditional size by any means.  Last year I either cropped a vertical photo to fit or added in two horizontal photos or one horizontal photo and some journaling.  I'm kind of curious to see how I will handle that space this year.  Who knows!

So there you have it - decisions made and the process begun. And I'm feeling a definite sense of calm knowing I have made it this far.  How about you?

11 comments:

scrappysue said...

Awesome choices Cheri! Last year I bought the same templates and re-sized them to 4 x 6, which surprisingly worked! I used that side for journaling and Ali's photo templates for the other side, it was such an easy project to put together! This year I have almost finished a 4 x 6 mini album, as I wanted a change. The trick was certainly to get it all finished before the 1st. I still have 2 years unfinished when I tried to create as I went along. Never works for me either!

quiltingfool said...

I love that kit you bought! That's my kind of embellishments and the look that I love. I will probably be doing regular scrapbooking for my Christmas & Thanksgiving layouts,since I have accumulated a zillion dollars worth of stuff I need to use up. But I discovered that Picnik, that I had signed up for who knows when, has a lot more options than I ever knew about, and am finding a lot to play with there. I still have to learn layering to be able to truly digi scrap, but I can use premade templates and pop photos in just fine. I can't wait to see your completed layouts!

Jo.C said...

I think you read my mind - after seeing Amy's digital LSNED I decided I would go digital as I don't think I will manage to scrap. I was wondering where on earth I would get the digital overlays. I am now going to have a peruse - won't copy but you have given me an idea. TFS :0)

Amy said...

Aaahhhh, you have hit on the exact thing that is the key ... making ALL of the templates so your choice is committed! Well done Cheri, I can just imagine now how beautiful this is going to look once you have everything together - because, of course it is your story and your photos which make it even better!

Ginger said...

Looks lovely Cheri! I cannot wait to see these as you are sharing them. You, Amy and Alexa are making me wonder if digi is the way to do this, although I have committed to a class at the end of the month that will surely have my album ready for Dec. 1, but you all are making me a bit antsy and thinking I should convert!! LOL! I love your kit choices too!

alexa said...

Looks lovely! and great to be so far ahead in preparation. Your kit looks rich in lots of interesting elements - it's going to be fun seeing how it all pans out!

Cheryl said...

Wow you are so organised looking forward to seeing your creations xx

Sian said...

You have been working hard! I'd say that that's quite a lot of the hard work done.

I've been thinking the same about my photography - so I have signed up for the Katrina Kennedy Christmas photo class at Debbie Hodge. I figure that the techniques - photographing food, low lighting etc - will be useful all year round.

Anonymous said...

You're way ahead of me this year although I know I'm going to stay with paper, I'll be using some photo templates. I just purchased some new ones from Keri Bradford which were on sale along with a digital cutting kit especially designed for December Daily. I also know mine won't be daily--can't keep up with that and since this is my fifth year of JYC I've already covered most of our traditions.

MonicaB said...

Wonderful buys! I really like the kit. the colors are great. I'm in the process of cleaning out my digi supplies and I might have to get me some new things to inspire me to be creative. Best of luck with December Daily. I think I'm going to wait one more year before I do it again.

Cheryl said...

Way to go, Cheri! That's great pre-planning! I decided to forgo the December Daily album this year because I'm FINALLY keeping a fall album that I've been dying to do for years (perhaps one day I'll blog about it, or actually, you know, BLOG, lol), and I know myself well enough to know that I can't do both. Looking forward to seeing your album come together!