Christmas Journal: 2015

My first Christmas Journal was made in 2005, and I’ve documented December in some fashion every year since. Last year I added the pages to my Project Life album, but this year I wanted to go back to a separate journal. I signed up for Ali Edward‘s class and it was all the inspiration I needed to get going again. I haven’t had time to watch all the videos, but I have everything in order to get this year’s journal completed. Every year I put out a basket with the old journals. Even without children at home, every Christmas season has its joys and events that make it somewhat different from the previous years. Some years I did a December Daily (Ali Edwards style), and some years I followed Shimelle’s Christmas Journal prompts. My intention is for a December Daily album this year, but I’m super relaxed about it, so if there’s nothing to photograph and nothing to write about, I’ll just move on.

Here’s a look at the basket of journals sitting under the window in our living room.

I haven’t done a lot to prepare, but I did decorate the cover of my Simple Stories 6X8 album.

I found the “Merry & Bright” wooden sign at Michaels and painted it gold with acrylic paint that came with Ashley G’s mini-kit from Ali Edwards. The colors in that kit are primarily black, white, gold, red, and green which really appealed to me. I picked up the black and gold Thickers (American Craft) in Chicago. The glitter tape came from Michaels as well.

I pulled all my supplies together ahead of time, and put them in two separate boxes:

And spray painted a few wood veneer die cuts.

I never have much luck with what Shimelle calls a Manifesto, and Ali calls an Intention page. It always seems a bit over the top, but this year I came up with a three word reason why I create a Christmas Journal.

Just recently (through Pinterest, I think) I found Azzari Jarret’s blog. I knew about her work as a designer for Paislee Press, but had never gotten as far as her blog. She had a December calendar as a free download which perfectly fits my album this year.

It might seem to be a strange way to start a Christmas Journal, but my first page documents the memorial service and celebration of life for my friend, Jim. Actually, it was the most beautiful service I’ve ever attended, and a wonderful celebration. He loved Irish music and craft beers, so the celebration was held at an Irish bar downtown and the Dady Brothers performed Irish music. Three of his daughters sang a song they wrote for their dad on his 75th birthday.

I’m keeping embellishments to a minimum this year and doing all my journaling on white cards I cut myself. The “remember” sticker is from Pink Paislee and the number cards are all from the Ashley G. kit.

I decided yesterday’s post for Pairs could be the basis of Day 2 and added two more photos of flowers around the house.

My plan is to complete each day’s page the next morning. So far that’s worked, but I know for a fact, it will be impossible to do this weekend. Too many early morning commitments! Nonetheless, it’s great to back to documenting the holiday.