Thinking about December Daily

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I started really thinking about my December Daily plans in July this year! Is that too early? Maybe, but in the crazy year that is 2020, I’m looking for little moments of joy anywhere I can find them.

Thinking about the holidays just makes me happy–even though I know things will look different this year. So when I started seeing Scrappy Christmas in July posts on Instagram and then Ali Edwards sharing her 2020 products, it got me thinking about how I want to document my December this year.

Last year I took a daily pages approach to December Daily: I used a 3×4 micro notes Happy Planner and made it my goal to create something in it every day. I wanted to keep it manageable so that by the end of the month, I would have it finished.

I shared more about this process in my blog post December Daily Takeaways.

My initial plan

I want to build on what I did last year. I feel like this year I have honed my scrapbooking style even more, and I want that to be reflected in my December Daily approach.

Right now I’m planning on using a 3×8 album (and as a bonus I already have one I can use instead of buying something new). I want to do at least a 3×4 space per day, but I feel like with the 3×8 size, I will be able to do more than that as inspired.

I want this album to include my 30 Days of Lists project too. Last year I kept my lists in a separate notebook from my December Daily, but I think it will be fun to try to incorporate them together.

My overall goal is to not stress about this project. I have to remind myself: done is better than perfect. 

Gathering supplies

I’ve already started gathering some supplies for my project. (What can I say, I’m a planner!) Last year I put all my December embellishments and papers in a 12×12 plastic storage case. By getting it out and looking through it, it’s been a good reminder that I definitely don’t need to buy anything (but I probably will treat myself to just a few new things).

I started going through my digital supplies from last December too. I pulled things that I was drawn to plus some that seemed like they would be relevant this year, like “Some pieces of Christmas are awesome and some are just hard” and “Simply joys of holidays at home.”

Not all my digital supplies are Christmas themed. I made sure to add some of Ali’s free coronavirus words and the 2020 Day in the Life digitals. I love that with 3×8 cards in digital form I can easily recolor them to be more festive or trim them to be 3×4. I like having a sample of my digital supplies in one place so I can start to get inspiration for this project.

Prepping digital pages

I will be taking a hybrid approach to my December Daily album so I will definitely be utilizing Canva. It’s just such an easy-to-use website for graphic design. I’ve already started creating some sample template pages.

Under the elements tab, I really like to use the frames and grids. They are placeholders on the page that you can then add photos to (sort of like a Photoshop layered template).

I find the desktop website version of Canva is the best for designing these pages, but once they are created, it’s really easy to use the Canva app on my phone to insert photos. I plan on having a collection of these template pages ready so that during December, I’ll be able to quickly finish the pages on my phone and then print them at home for my album. 

Of course, this plan is subject to change! Have you started thinking about how you will be documenting this December?