When October rolled around this year, I kept thinking and thinking about December Daily. I kept thinking I wanted to do something more mixed media instead of the straight scrapbooking this year. I kept thinking and thinking but no ideas actually came to me.
For weeks.
And then as I was doing my morning sketch, I got an idea. What if I took another moleskine watercolor journal just like the one I was using for my daily sketches and turned it into a december daily album and sketched one holiday related sketch for every day.
Once I got the idea, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So I spent the whole weekend coming up with ideas, sketching, painting, and then using stickles for shimmer, and then scrapbooking/collaging all around my pages.
I finished the whole book in one weekend and I love the way it turned out. I have no idea what’s going to happen once I have the photos + stories but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Especially since I happen to be out of the country, alone, for the first 5 days of this December.
The cover, for now, is solid gold. I just put lots and lots of gold tape. I haven’t decided what else will go there yet and I think I will do it much later. That’s why you won’t see one today.
So with all that, here are my pre pages. Lots of photos to follow.
page one:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page two:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page three:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page four:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page five:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page six:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page seven:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page eight:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page nine:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page ten:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page eleven:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page twelve:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page thirteen:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page fourteen:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page fifteen:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page sixteen:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page seventeen:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page eighteen:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page nineteen:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page twenty:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page twenty-one:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page twenty-two:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page twenty-three:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page twenty-four:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
page twenty-five:
and here’s the sketch with the glitter:
So there we are. Trying something new this year. Let’s see if it works.
I love your December Daily idea!
Unbelievable. Unbelievably beautiful. And to think you did that ALL in a weekend?
It stunning. I love it.
thank you 🙂 let’s just say it was a loooong weekend 🙂
This is absolutely beautiful! I love how you used paper and cut outs, combined with the painting and glitter. Thank you so much for sharing this idea!
This is just stunning – what a wonderful keepsake it will be with your art, stories and photos.
How many years have you been doing December Daily? Every year is better than the year before. This year is absolutely, totally mind boggling…stunning…gorgeous. You have surpassed all the previous years together.
Wow! Amazing. You have totally inspired me. How did you come up with your image ideas? Each one evokes the holiday, but I wouldn’t have thought of some of them…
thank you so much for your kind words. I actually made a list of all the things I could think of and then took some items i had in the house (like the angel and the menorah etc.) and then went through my old December Daily books for more ideas (like the train which we take each year.) and then surfed Pinterest for a few more 🙂 Still with all that, I completely forgot about stockings!! no idea why 🙂 I figure this way, if i extend by a day or two, I have one or two more sketches I can do. 🙂
I’m sitting here scrolling through your pictures, saying “Wow.” This is so beautiful. It’s such a great marriage of art journaling/sketching and scrapbooking. You are inspiring me to be more dimensional with my 6×6 December Daily. I’m so left-brain with it sometimes, liking the clean and simple look, but I really like the look of the tags and papers overflowing the book — it makes it more inviting.
Your album is beautiful. Even if you left it as is, it would be an unbelievable keepsake!
Love your album! This is my favorite DD I have ever seen! Can’t wait to see you fill it with photos and memories! Thanks for sharing!
Love what you did for your pages! Great idea.
Aloha, Kate
I spotted your pins and wondered what you were up to. A great way to combine two mediums. Love it.
Really lovely to flip through all the pics. Thanks for sharing them all.
WOW!! Awesome!
These are beautiful!
What a gorgeous set of pages, Karen. I just love them. One after another, so colorful and whimsical and just lovely. You inspire me! Not that I’ll ever make a book like this, but I just so enjoy looking at your pages. Thank you!
I do love the idea of a different “something” about the season for each day. Might try that as a kind of theme for simpler pages, just with regular digital scrapbook pages. I’m sure that would be enough of a challenge for me. 😀
Hello Karen, I’m blown away by your album, it’s so beautiful and cozy and homemade like Christmas should feel. I can’t believe you got it all done in one weekend, that must have been so fun for you too. I love love each page, the clusters on the left side and the sketches and glitter, LOVE LOVE it all!!
I had a couple ideas for adding pictures but first about your being gone during it. I do believe Ali was gone one December too, look back at her DD posts and see what she did. I think she added in paper type stuff and just a few pictures of her. So you could do that or just write on those days about what you did and how your feeling being away from home. That is keeping it real and will be easy enough.
Ok, about adding pictures I have two thoughts: one is cropping them small to fit on the page and some journaling with it. Second idea will be tricky for some of the pages but using washi tape to hold the photo down in the middle or side of a page so that it can be lifted and do the journaling under it if needed or around it if there’s room. Hope that helps you.
Just seeing this is giving me ideas and wanting to do one like this, not as awesome but something like it. Thank you for always inspiring and sharing your ideas.
I also think your journal is so gorgeous that a lot of writing each day and some pictures scattered through it will good too. Truly love each page!!
Happy almost December!
Fantastic book, beautyful and every page breathes your love and joy creating it…
you are a friggin genius! what a talent beyond…
What a treasure for your children to look back on in years to come and even show their children. It’s amazing!!!
Stunningly beautiful. What a great idea.
I just have to say WOW! Wish I could create such beautiful art.
Love how you did it all!
Happy Holidays.
Your book is beyond amazing!!! Stunning. If you ever wanted to make a kit with your drawing mass produced I would so buy it in a heartbeat.
you’re so so kind Jennifer, thank you 🙂
This is simply awesome. So talented.