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Happy December - we made it through week one. I've been working on my pages every day, keeping it simple and small. I don't have my album yet (ordered this one by Jamaica) so I'm just building up a pile of 4x5.5 pages ready to go. I'm making a two-page spread per day and numbering the pages this year. I didn't plan it that way but that's how it's ended up. They'll be adhered back-to-back then punched for rings to hold it all together. I'm making my pages in Photoshop Elements and printing out at home (on my Epson Expression Photo), sometimes adding letter stickers or minimal embellishments. My spreads are generally a full page photo on one side (on glossy photo paper) and a journal card with some text on the other (printed on matte paper). I love hunting for the perfect card from my digital stash to go with my photo of the day - I haven't bought anything new yet. I'm sticking with one font for my journaling - Oceanside. I like the continuity in my book and it's one less decision to make. These pages don't take long to put together so it's easy to keep up and I look forward to sitting at my desk and working on it each day. I don't like working on this outside of December so I'm motivated to keep up. Here's a look so far (apologies for the inconsistent lighting on the photos - it depends what time of day I take them). I've noted all products used but won't provide links as a lot of them are older and might not be available anymore. This is my title page - just a simple journal card with some text. The card is from the Paislee Press December Daily Minikit from 2019. My opening page is just a way for me to clear my head and get into December mode after being sick with Covid. I always like to just set a mood and intentions for myself for the season. The leaf card is also from the 2019 Paislee Press minikit. I had planned to decorate the tree for Day 01 but just wasn't in the mood, so I documented a regular Thursday working from home. The card is from Push Print Studio (love their cards) and I just journaled on it - I also used some gold letter stickers on the photo. Happy to have the tree done for Day 02 and thankful Eli was enthusiastic about it (someone has to be!). The digital stamp on the photo is from the Paislee Press December You Are My Fave No 8. The red journal card is from last year's In A Creative Bubble December Daily kit. Day 03 is a food photo. I love including those in my album. Potato latkes for dinner with all the toppings. (Recipe from the What's Gaby Cooking website). The card is an older one from the One Little Bird Hangry kit. Day 04 is a date-night selfie (my belated birthday dinner). The Me and You stamp is altered from Kerri Bradford Studio and I made the card with a 6x8 paper from one of the 2015 December Daily paper sets. Zara and I binge-watched (and LOOOOVED) Wednesday on Netflix so of course she was going into my album for Day 05. I looked around my stash for a TV themed card but found the perfect one in an old Paislee Press set. I handwrote on the photo via Procreate on my iPad (some lyrics). A city photo for Day 06. Zara came into the office with me for a couple of days. She does not do photos so a shot of this cool decoration on the side of Dior (my building is next door) would have to do. I used one of Ali's December Daily overlays (this set was 2017) over the photo for the date. The paper on the left is a 6x8 sized down from Paislee Press' December Your Are My Fave No. 6. The 'City Sidewalks' is a piece of chipboard from the 2017 Paislee Press December Daily Minikit. Last one for this week - Day 07 - is about Eli getting out his old Ikea train set after being bored Wednesday evening. This made me feel a bit emotional because he's 13 now, but I have fond memories of him (and Brett) playing with this for hours as a little kid. Time strikes again. The 'Sparks Joy' black sticker is from the 2019 Paislee Press December Daily Minikit. I made the journal card with a 6x8 paper from last year's Paislee Press December Daily minikit (recoloured from pink to blue to match Eli's shirt). The number 07 is from last year's December Daily Variety Number Set. I like the pops of black on the light backgrounds. So that's week one. It's looking very similar to my album last year and that is fine by me. I'm having fun with this little album and highly recommend going small if you are overwhelmed or feel like you won't have tonnes of photos everyday. I'm also enjoying the process of printing from home and seeing my finished pages after exclusively making photobooks this year. I was excited to join one of the Crafty Ass Female podcast December Daily Roundtable discussions this week - you can find the epsiode (199) here. I also have some new Christmas/December items in the shannanpages shop: template sets at various sizes and a journal card set that co-ordinates with one I made last year. Thanks for being here! S

Every year I say, oh jeez, I wonder how we got here? But this year it’s extra true. I was gobsmacked when I looked at the calendar yesterday and realised that December is Thursday. As in THIS Thursday. I’ve been so busy that it just didn’t feel like that could be true. Thursday? For the first time ever, I’m heading into December with zero presents bought, or even ordered, and no lists at all. I also have no idea about how I want to document it all. And the funny thing is, I’m not even stressed about it. I'm positively zen. I’m just not really feeling it this year. Last week, the day before my birthday (50!), I got Covid, after all this time avoiding it like some kind of smug superhero. It hit hard and I’m still not feeling great today, day nine. So that's the vibe I am taking into December with me. Blergh. But even before getting sick, I had asked the kids if it would be OK if we just did Christmas softly this year. Lights and ornaments on the tree but not much else by way of decorating around the house. Thankfully, they were fine with that. “Less stuff to pack away later” Zara said. Helps that they are both teenagers now. Clutter stresses me out at the best of times, let alone this time of year. Summer is also about to arrive and the thought of a home crowded with Christmas 'stuff' during stifling heat feels ugh. I want our December to be clear and bright. I’m already thinking about ways I can scale back our Christmas day too - the day I historically Martha Stewart myself into oblivion. List upon list, countless recipes, a table to ‘scape’ and a general compulsion to be way too ‘extra’. (In case you are feeling slightly sorry for me and my burden of doing Christmas perfectly and all by myself, I need to confess that I absolutely made it that way. I liked it that way. Monica Gellar would be so proud. "It's me, hi, I'm the problem it's me"). Do I sound Grinchy? I don’t mean to. I’m just making a very calculated pivot towards a quieter, simpler and more peaceful holiday. I’m having a moment of clarity and honesty when it comes to what I can - and want to - handle this year. It's a freaking breakthrough! Christmas will still be magical and beautiful and special. But it might not be perfect - maybe a little bit rough around the edges. And I think that will help me from getting, well, a little rough around the edges. Wonderful. OK, so let’s talk December Daily plans. I am in. Taking on this documenting project every year (my 15th!) is sacred, but I hope to bring my newly-found zen attitude to it. I was lying in bed this morning thinking about what kind of project I felt like making and kept coming back to ‘small’. It feels right. I was able to order one of Jamaica’s acrylic Christmas albums (I got the red one) and that made my size decision for me - 4 x 5.5. Perfect. A little paper book that I plan to keep simple and fun. This is the only actual physical paper project I make each year so I’m happy to get out the glue and scissors again. I have plenty of digital stash so will probably just use what I have (and now would be the perfect spot to plug my newly released Christmas digital templates in the shannanpages shop). I did a little handmade 4x5 book last year and loved working on it. This time I might go back to a more traditional story/photo a day structure. I think I’ll use this project to document the little pieces of joy that find me each day in December. I know they will be there. So here’s to calm and magical December days and capturing them all in my little book like fireflies in a jar. Here’s to new and old traditions. And here’s to bending the holidays to be the way you need them to be instead of the other way around. I just turned 50 - I can’t be bending. Merry Christmas friends - see you in the December Daily trenches Thursday!

I'm really looking forward to playing along with Ali Edwards' Week in the Life project next week (starts 20 June but you can do any week). I don't participate every year but I've done five albums since 2010 and they are such a treasure. The true value in these albums is showing the real rhythm of our lives at different times. In the first one (2010) I worked three days per week in the office and was home with the kids (Eli was a baby!) Thursdays and Fridays. My husband worked the afternoon shift so we had our days free for shopping, the park, lunch etc before he left for work at 3.30pm. So different and something I barely even remember without this album. Here is a quick look at the different ways I have documented my week. 2010 - 8.5x11 album with full page photos as well as pocket pages with photos and journal cards. I used Ali's digital products (cards and templates). 2012 - 8.5x11 album with full page photos, photo collages and journal cards (all digital using Ali's overlays and journal cards). 2015 - 8.5x11 album with full page photos, collages and two pages of journaling each day (these pages are all digital using some of Ali's word art and templates). 2018 - 3x8 album using pockets and mixing up full-page photos and photos and journaling in pockets (using Ali's 3x8 Week In The Life templates). For this one, I told a morning, afternoon and evening story then used the prompts Embracing and Loving each day. 2019 - 5x8 Tradebook photobook from Blurb. I created a simple formula for this one doing three photos and stories per day (morning, afternoon and evening) along with a currently list. I made a very simple design that included a black page with the day and simple embellishments like a time stamp and top and bottom border. This one was so easy and happened during a week when I knew I just couldn't do anymore than three photos/stories a day. This year I am coming out of a month of not scrapbooking as much as usual due to travel and lots of colds and flu in our house, so I am really looking forward to this project. I need it. This time I plan to go with another photobook (either 5x8 or 6x9). It just makes sense for an all digital project. I also want to concentrate on photos this year. I want to fill the book with them - small and large, colour and black & white - and take the time to photograph things in a different way to my regular scrapbooking (close ups, buildings, architecture, our home, plants). I'm going to do very simple embellishments and and use up some of the digital supplies I already have. I think my journaling will be brief this time too. My intention is to try for one of those 'we followed someone famous or cool around for a day to see how they live their life' magazine spreads (no, I am not famous or cool, but you get the idea). Here are a few of my tips for getting this project done: Take notes, even quick ones, because you won't remember as much as you think when you sit down to make the album. If you keep a diary or planner, fill those pages with as much detail every day. Write emails to yourself at different parts of the day if you are working on your computer. Even a sentence or two. Or start a notebook or computer document you can just add to throughout the week. Take some sneaky photos before the week starts. It's not cheating, it's just being well organised. I might take some photos of things in the house if it's particularly clean or if the light is great, some of my plants outside, my office when it's quiet and some city building shots. These will be great as filler photos and won't be any different if I saved them for next week when I might end up really busy and unable to get out and about. There are so many routine things in our life that look the same every day. Use a formula for your design or a kit so there are less decisions. A whole album of pages is a lot. Expect to have more photos some days than others. It's OK if you end up with less pages some days in your album. It's also OK if you give up half way through because life happened - at least you will still have a bunch of new, cool photos to scrapbook with. Spread your filler photos out over the album. If you took a photo of coffee or the kid's school backpacks on Monday but you have barely any photos for Thursday, use them there instead. I wouldn't put a Tuesday office photo on the weekend, but generic photos are fair game. Your photos don't have to look like anyone else's. It's your life. Know that this hard work is worth it. Life changes so subtly. Listen to the latest episodes of the Crafty Ass Female podcast for lots of Week In The Life talk, including a fantastic interview with Ali Edwards. I'm so excited about this project this year.

(Alternative title: What the Actual Font?) I get lots of font questions, so I thought it would be useful to make a post about the ones I use the most. I am a collector of fonts so I have paid ones, free ones and ones that came with my Mac. You can usually find something similar with a bit of googling if the exact one isn't available to you (I've found that "free font that looks like x" often does the trick). I think of fonts as either journaling fonts or title fonts and love using the same ones over and over so my projects have some cohesion. In the front of my planner, I have a taped sheet of paper with my go-to fonts printed so I don't have to go down the font rabbit hole each time I want to work on something (I'm sure you'll notice the one with the terrible name - it's a great stamp font that even has the edge ink parts but every time I've used it and people have asked what it's called I kinda die). The printout also gives me a good idea of how the printed sizes look in real life. Digital scrapbooking can be deceptive with font size if you haven't printed much so my tip when you are new to it or planning to use a few fonts throughout a project is to print some samples off before you get too far in. I should note that I always create the digital scrapbooking templates in my shop using boring-old Arial or Times New Roman because everyone has it and there won't be a missing-font error when you open it up after purchase. Of course I encourage you to change fonts out to your favourites. The beauty of digital scrapbooking is that you can make an amazing layout with just a photo and some fonts and nothing else. It's really quite magical. I like my type on the small side so I usually go for a 10 point with plenty of line spacing - old-lady Shannan may not appreciate that so much. Journaling shouldn't look cramped. I like to play with my kerning/character spacing because that can give a different feel to a heading. I also try and stick to one title font and one journaling font on most of my pages as a rule (they can be the same too). Fonts are fun but it can look confusing and hard to read if you use too many at once. Some fonts are only good for titles, they just don't read well for longer text, especially the ornate or 'fancy' ones. So here is my list - some of these may not be available anymore, sorry. JOURNALING FONTS This is my hands-down favourite journaling font. It's simple, tiny, uncluttered and works when you don't have much space for your words. This is a really lovely, clean serif font and I think it looks really good in all caps too. It's a classic for a reason. Invented for 'Martha Stewart Living' magazine. Perfect for journaling or titles. This is my go-to typewriter font. I also like Bulky Refuse Type for a messier typed look. This one reminds me of old, fancy typewriters. It's also a lovely, tiny font that fits in easily. This one is very similar to Script 12 Pitch but has a bolder, messier, inkier look. This is my go-to serif font - when I'm feeling a bit grown-up and serious. This is my fancy one, very nice for short prose. TITLE FONTS This one is just so perfect. Very advertising-agency. I use this a lot. It's clean and crisp. his one is great for longer titles and looks really good italicized too I don't think you can beat this old one for a clean, simple title. It looks excellent enlarged too and works really well as a lower case title. Always good for a digital scrapbooker to have a cool stamp font on hand. This one is very simple. This style of funky, seventies font has been very popular over the last few years. Great for headings. Another seventies-vibe font, reminiscent of 70's packaging. I've been using this one all year in my digital journal for subheadings. It's very cute and fun. This one brings all of my architect-with-perfect-handwriting dreams to life. I like to add this one to labels or captions here and there. This one's a new find and I've been using it as captions on my videos. I love it's quirky, cute feel and use it mostly lowercase. Thank you for reading! Happy to talk fonts over on my instagram post for this - comments are not working right here so I've turned them off.

I'm going to try and do a monthly recap here because the months are flying by and I need somewhere to mark the time and remind myself that life was being lived and stuff was happening, even if it feels like it wasn't. LIFE Brett got covid last week and we've reached day six without me getting it so I'm awesome. The kids had it last month and I also avoided it so I am feeling quite smug even though it's really just luck. I've worked from home the past week as a precaution and it's quite comical how I never seem to get to that 'back to normal' life I've been talking about since January. I also realised nursing sick people is my love language. I have been reminding the family to take note as I get my husband an extra blanket, medicine or something to eat in case I'm next. I want the full treatment and the bar is high. Autumn is here and so are allergies. That doesn't help when you are waiting for the covid shoe to drop. I'm loving the cool days and nights though. It really is my favourite season. I've bought new pillows and quilts for my bed and that has really upped my cosy game. I'm also back in the kitchen and motivated to cook. We have had so much rain already this year but the last few weekends have been glorious. This is my Sunday afternoon nap spot on the trampoline. PROJECTS I am continuing on with my 8x10 digital journal and love working on it. I usually spend a few hours a week doing a couple of spreads. I've struggled with what to call this project (you know I love a good name) but as I look at the pages together in Blurb, it has a very magazine-vibe so I think I'll go with Digest 2021/2022. I recently started a YouTube channel, something that has been on my to-do list for ages. As usual, it was much easier than anticipated and I don't know what I put it off so long. I've uploaded just two videos so far (both are about my digital journal project, including a look at the whole book so far). Yes, I am aware I am probably the last person to start a YouTube channel. I should be ready for TikTok in about 2026. I still have my Vimeo channel with lots of digital scrapbooking process videos but I am hoping to reboot a lot of those and bring them to YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, I am also late to being a viewer of it. Now I am all in. You can find me watching hours of cottagecore videos where young women forage, fossick and frolic (all the F's) in the woods, make tea, watercolour bunnies and dress like Laura Ingalls. Fascinating and absolutely no shade. If I could, I would. I am also addicted to 'what I eat in a day as a vegan' videos, studio vlogs by arty people and videos of random people reacting to films I really love. So yeah, YouTube, check out this new thing that I just found...I think it might catch on. FUN One of the YouTube people I am loving is Fran Meneses - an artist living in Brooklyn. On one of her videos, she talked about being in the middle listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone magazine's Greatest Albums of All Time. I could not think of a more suitable challenge for this record-loving, music-obsessed gal so I have jumped in too. I am following the 2020 version (which is the most recent, they update it from time to time) and my rules are: start at 500 and work my way down, no skipping, no shuffle and listen to the actual record if I have it (I'm listening mostly on Spotify). I am so excited. I also learned that Spotify has a lyrics option which is just the best. I recently bought a Bluetooth karaoke machine with two wireless mikes and swirly light so I am all set. It was an impulse purchase from Amazon and the brand is JYX. (Not so great was the time by son hid it in my closet while I was in bed and my husband started whispering "help me, help me" into the microphone from the other room). I cannot wait for our next party. No I can't sing, but yes I think I can. SHOP I've been trying to be a bit more consistent in adding things to my digital shop this year. Here is a quick look at what was new for April: Digest Template Set 01 (8 templates) - this is the basis of my 8x10 digital journal and designed for anyone who wants to make a grungy, magazine style book too. This Week Double Template - an easy way to document a week at a glance. Watching/Listening/Reading Cards - a little 3x4 journal card freebie. Graphic 12x12 Templates - document your photos in some interesting shapes. 4Things Single Template - document four things. It's in the name. Hand-Drawn Note Strips (10 stickers) - fun little stickers to add to layouts or photos. Seasonal Templates (6 4x8 and 6x8 templates) - designed to tell stories of the seasons. Monthly Planner Spread (10x8) - a remake of an older template to suit a landscape 10x8 album. So that's about it for April. Thanks for reading! S

Because concrete plans are for only the most optimistic of us right now. Today I took down the December calendar from my office wall and filled in the dates for January. As is a running theme around here, I am a few weeks late to the new year. December snuck up on me so of course January did too. I'm also in limbo-land as I enjoy some time off from work but also feel the need to stay in with my kids as we ride this Omicron wave like the rest of the world (or be pummelled with it - it's the metaphor that keeps on giving). Lots of TV, afternoon naps, reading, music, podcasts, crafting and shifting between intricate, convoluted recipes or no cooking at all and good luck finding something for lunch guys. I have no particular complaints and feel grateful for my home, health, family, job flexibility, swimming pool, grocery delivery etc but coming into the third year of the pandemic feels like a TV show that should have ended a few seasons earlier. I'm tired, bored, worried, grateful, happy and resigned all at once. So today I'm playing some records (Andy Williams Sings the Movie Hits), sitting at my desk and thinking about what I want this year (besides the obvious). MY WORD FOR 2022 It wasn't until yesterday that I decided on my word for this year - CREATE. Maybe not the most trailblazing word for a crafter but here we are. I want to spend more time creating and less time consuming, especially when it comes to scrapbooking. Instagram is a wonderful place to connect and share but with a lot of time available to me, I want to spend more of it making things rather than looking and being inspired. I want to make projects for me and products for my shop (especially templates) a priority. We have some home projects slated for this year and as my kids are getting older (12 and 15) I feel like it's so important to create the home that best suits us at this stage of life. Our open house just isn't great for loud groups of kids watching movies and playing Xbox so a place for them to hang out with a door will be very cool. I'm also planning a bigger, new kitchen and these home improvements align with my hope to create more healthy habits this year - cooking, prepping, moving more, organising. I'm also conscious of the kids getting older and making sure to create more family time, even if it's getting together to watch a new episode of Cobra Kai with some popcorn, putting a puzzle together or eating dinner together at the table. It's all about creating the life you want. SCRAPBOOKING PLANS I'm continuing on with my 6x9 digital journal (started in November and discussed here) and really enjoying that format so far - part scrapbook/art journal/visual diary/Project Life/bullet journal. Not too much to ask for one project right? Really it boils down to wanting to document my life in one place rather than making various sized pages, keeping journals, doing project life. A lot of that has to do with the finished product - if I can have an amazing look at my life for 2022 in one chunky photobook, that will be wonderful. I'm making a shift from individual, random layouts to a more cohesive book this year. With my kids getting older and life being smaller with the pandemic, I'm enjoying including a lot more of my own thoughts, feelings and notes about everything from our day to day lives to my love for punk music and sixties culture. It all goes in the book and I love that. I also have a digital writing-based project (also 6x9) to collect my longer thoughts and stories without having to become 'layouts'. I'm using a simple magazine style design and add to it gradually with no end date. Something else I started late last year was a 'real' paper art journal, totally inspired by watching Caylee Grey on YouTube. I have a 4.5x7 inch Moelskine Art Sketchbook to play in and love having a place to practice being not-perfect. I am still me though, so mine is neat and minimal with more notes, photos and words than drawings and paint but it's a great place to try new things and even art journaling for just a few months has influenced my digital documenting. So those are the three projects at the forefront right now. I'm really feeling much more like a documenter these days as opposed to a 'scrapbooker' with a lot less focus on products, embellishing and techniques. December Daily was a very fun departure for me but when I condense down what I want from this hobby this year it's this: > digital > pages printed as photobooks > a one-place-fits-all project for my main documenting with some side projects for writing and for art Thanks for reading friends! Appreciate you. S

Another December documented and in the books. Number 14. I had thought about continuing my album for the whole month of December but it just got too full and I really like the compactness of the smaller rings so I added my final Christmas Day/Boxing Day pages and called it done. This might be one of my very favourite December Daily albums ever. Having no real structure or daily expectation just made it so fun. I've talked a lot about how December Daily is really a December project for me. I love working on it most days as part of my festive season and then be done and packed away soon after. As we head into January, I'm ready to move onto new things. This is a looooong post as I wanted to add the rest of my pages which ended up being a lot! I also haven't linked all my supplies. I ended up using a lot of older Paislee Press and Ali Edwards Christmas digitals. Let's have a look... A full page food photo (my favourite) with some labels stapled on (something simple I've done a lot in this album) and a little Family Stone quote page I made as a foundation. I took a photo of my house to try and motivate me into cleaning (the label is an old one from Ali Edwards). I also wanted to document the return of Sex In The City (The Delight title is an older one from Paislee Press - December You Are My Fave No 9). I made this little calendar spread to jot down some of the things we had going on. I planned to do a second one later with the rest of the weeks but didn't end up doing that. The weekend before Christmas we finally got some hot weather and I was able to add in some of the summer-y pages I had been hoping for. (The Hooray For The Weekend card is from In A Creative Bubble). Pool day at last! (Paislee Press digitals). And the obligatory summer afternoon ice-cream cone shot (also Paislee Press, flower paper is from a pack I got at Kmart recently). A photo of my old, battered 45 of Do They Know It's Christmas and a little celebration of Meredith in The Family Stone (my choice for family movie night with Brett and Zara). I typed the lyrics on vellum and took a bunch of photos of the TV and made a collage. Cherries mean summer. On the other side is a little not about my Monday working at home (background paper is an old one Paislee Press recoloured). When I get to work early, I often take a walk down to Circular Quay. This day was magnificent but already getting hot at 8am. Last week of work for the year. Celebratory lunch for our final work day of the year. The next morning I got up early to brave Costco for a few things (digital print from this year's kit). I was feeling a bit unprepared this year - I normally have my food lists and everything done earlier. So I spent the morning of my first day off getting it together and reminding myself to take it easy (card is Paislee Press). Every year I make a cured salmon recipe by Donna Hay. Paired the photo of the recipe with the Cousin Eddie card from my shop (speech bubble added by me). December 24th is cooking/baking day around here. I used the mixer card from my shop along with one of the December Daily journal cards to tell that story. My lemon-blueberry pie! I also wanted to document Fairytale of New York which is one of my favourite Christmas songs and was stuck in my head this Christmas Eve. Living room photo for Christmas Eve with some Paislee Press word art. I actually took a few photos on Christmas Day (doesn't always happen) so I made a little grid and just wrote a little list (older Paislee Press digitals). I love to document our table every year and we had a lot of fun playing my singing Xbox game Christmas night. And to finish off, our mobile Aperol Spritz bar to document our Boxing Day pool party on the 26th. I loved making this little book. Even the annoying parts (for me) like cutting, glueing and hole punching. For a minimalist digital scrapbooker who mostly makes photo books, it's fun to change it up once a year and do something a bit different. So that's it - all done for 2021. Thank you for following along with me. A spritz for you if you got this far! S (My other December Daily 2021 posts: Plan for 2021, Part One of my album and Part Two)

Hey friends - today I'm sharing how my 4x5 December Daily is shaping up after week two. I'm just enjoying this easy, no fuss approach this year and not having to find a daily story is freeing. But first, a word on expectations. And the weather. When I conceived this album, I was picturing a nice mix of Christmas and summer photos and stories. Swimming pool, watermelon, beach towels drying on the line, alfresco dinners on the deck, drippy icecream cones. You get it. Instead, it's been cool, dark, rainy and not very summer-y at all. I've been in the pool once. December storms are usually the end point to a hot, humid and sunny day, not a daily occurance. So we are spending a lot of time inside, watching movies and TV and that's very much reflected in my album. We are also still in a pandemic and just trying to get to the final day of school unscathed so big and crowded outings are out right now by choice. I'm rolling with it, it's just not what I pictured. On a positive note, cool rainy weather is my very favourite and there is plenty of time for summer to rear its hot and sweaty head. (As I'm posting this a few days late, we did indeed get a huge taste of summer this weekend, which will be included in next week's pages). So, on to my week two pages.. Succession is the show I'm most into right now and an important part of my Monday (when it airs here). So I used a journal card from my shop (Days Are For) to document it. The other side is a photo of my lunch - I'm trying to remember to add more full-page photos because the 4x5 size is perfect for that. This little flip up tells the story of my kids getting into wind-down mode as school comes to a close for the year. The journal card is from my Christmas set and the label is from the December Daily main kit. The other side is one of my foundation pages - I printed the lyrics to Happy Xmas and put a photo of John Lennon underneath because I just love that song. This is a more traditional December Daily spread. I paired a photo of our tree and gifts (the label is an older Paislee Press one) with a journal card from the 3x8 transparency set to document gift buying this year. I had to document the weather of course, so I took a screen shot from the weather app and added it to an older Paislee Press patterned card with a digital stamp with a photo from our deck on the other side. We got some very strange fortunes at a family birthday dinner so I wanted to record those (the OK stamp is from an old Ali Edwards Story Kit). On the other side is my Emma Thompson page, using my freebie journal card underneath the photo. I am a huge Beatles fan and started watching the Get Back documentary this weekend. Simple double spread with some letter stickers. I had a lovely, relaxing Friday afternoon as I tried to get rid of a headache, so I took this photo of the television as I watched The Holiday and typed a little story on top with some letter stickers. The other side is a silly text exchange with my 15 year old detailing the saga of the Airpod. RIP. I had this photo of the city so I just added some text on top. The other side is the story of Zara and I watching The Godfather Part 2 on Saturday afternoon and deciding it was a Christmas movie. The patterned journal card is an older Paislee Press one. I used a selfie on this cute patterned paper (from a Kmart 6x6 paper pack) and paired it with a currently card (available for free download by Kristin at the Awesome Ladies Project) Another full photo with a label over the top and I paired it with the Brady Bunch card I made as a foundation, using a card from the In A Creative Bubble set in Ali's shop. I had to document the Succession finale, so I added a photo to some patterned paper. Another full page photo with a label on the other side. Simple and quick. It was the anniversary of getting Luna so she went in the book of course. It was a good but stressful week so I marked that with this cool Push Print card. I ended this week's pages by documenting Elijah's year six farewell dinner using a card from the Paislee Press Mini Kit as the title. I also made a cover for my book this week. I wanted something very simple and came up with this. I wasn't quite sure if I liked it but I overthink these things and I've decided it's perfectly fine. I printed the year on some white cardstock, added the letter stickers then put a clear transparency over the top and added the red felt star (which was a cut out from a runner I bought for our table). So that's week two. Thanks for reading. I'm still deciding whether I'm going to finish this book up on 26 December or continue through the month. We'll see!

Happy December folks! I've been happily working on my little handmade 4x5 December Daily album this week. I like to work on it in-the-moment so keeping it very simple and small is key. I love carving out some time each day and I find that making clean, simple and uncluttered pages aligns with the pared-down, peaceful mood I'm trying to cultivate this season. As I said in my planning post, this is the first year I am not telling 25 stories or making one spread per day. I am adding to my book as I feel like it and I'm really enjoying this more casual approach. I want this album to be a collection of my December photos, thoughts, stories and moments. A lot of silliness and pop culture is going into this book alongside our everyday lives and I couldn't be happier. I'm planning a weekly blog post to share the pages I've made during that week with links to supplies where I can. I did a lot this first week because I was just so excited to get started (plus I had a few foundation pages ready to go). I don't know if I will continue at this level but I'm going with it for now. I don't have any expectations about how many pages this book will end up - could be 20 could be 80, who knows?! My pages are also super simple and quick so I can do three or four in one sitting easily. Note: I'm making a hybrid project, so I'm using digital products in Photoshop Elements (mostly from Ali Edwards' December Daily collection) then printing at home on my Epson XP-8500 on matte photo paper with some vellum and transparencies mixed in. I'm then punching holes and adding binder rings to make my mini album. Here we go - week one: I wanted my first page to explain what this book is about so I used a stamp from the Paislee Press Holiday Stamp set with some washi tape at the bottom. I haven't decided on my covers yet so I just have some chipboard there right now to protect it. I was sad to miss out on Jamaica Edgell's acrylic covers this year because of the USA-Australia postage issue. A lot of people have asked about the font I'm using for journaling this year - it's Script 12 Pitch BT Regular. The first of December was a work day for me so I wrote a little note about how I was feeling like December had arrived too quickly. I added the text to my page then glued the 'a quick word with december' card (designed by me) on top as a flip up (that's about as crafty as I get!). I also found a wish page I had already made with some intentions and hopes for the season so I put that on the left side. This was the first year I had made some foundation pages in October and November so I'm adding those in here and there. (I have a guest post on Ali Edwards' blog about my foundation pages). I took a lovely photo of Sydney Harbour on the morning of 1 December so I added that with a story about how it was nice to see the sunshine after what felt like a month of rain, using a card from the Paislee Press Mini Kit with some gold number stickers. The D label on the photo is from an older Paislee Press kit. My son Elijah is 12 and about to finish sixth grade (high school starts late January) so there will be a few stories about his last few weeks at his school (which we've been a part of since 2012) and the various festivities around that. This was Christmas mufti (out-of-uniform) day and practice high school. The pattern behind his photo is a card from the In A Creative Bubble Journal Card set and I've journaled on the bottom. The opposite page is one of my foundations using the stockings from the Main Kit that I monogrammed, then I added some gifts we might want. All is Chaos All Is Bright is another one of my foundation pages (card is from the Paislee Press Mini Kit) and is a reminder for me to chill the heck out and expect the mess. Glennon Doyle recently had a Peptalk for the Holidays episode of her podcast and one of the rules was to stop being surprised. This hit hard for me because yes, the holidays are stressful, messy and chaotic so why am I always so shocked by that every time? I think I'll need to come back to this page over and over. The other side documents Spotify Wrapped. I listened to a lot of records this year and during lockdown I had our Google Home play the oldies radio station all day every day because it was perfect background noise. So my Wrapped was very weird (most listened to artist was Paul Simon? Most listed to song was Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic? Both excellent answers but definitely not what I recall listening more than usual). So I documented Australia's number one streamed artist instead by printing a little photo and caption and glueing them onto a piece of clear transparency. The selfie is my Thursday3 photo with some journaling strips about how I'm trying to rally enough to clean and decorate the house (the time stamp is from my shop). I did in the end, rally that is, so I added a photo as proof (the D label is from a previous Paislee Press kit). I always like documenting new ornaments and last week my mother-in-law sent the kids one each. As I say all the time, I am a sucker for journal cards with places to write and add a photo so I used the Holiday Tradition card from the In A Creative Bubble set to document my annual tradition of watching the bundled West Wing Christmas episodes then getting sucked in to a rewatch through December and January (I usually go with the whole Matt Santos season - makes excellent company during a day in the kitchen cooking and baking). This story has made it to a few of my December Daily's and I love that. The four of us went to see Dune - I loved it. Adding the movie poster is about the easiest way to document that. I also had this Spotify Christmas play list vellum page (card is from the Paislee Press Mini Kit) in my foundation stash that I added to the other side, backed with star patterned paper from the 10x8 paper pack. These two pages were in my foundation stash. The pool photo has a stamp from the Paislee Press Digital Holiday set and I made the Festivus card. Can't wait for the airing of the grievances this year. Last spread for this week - a school dad took the boys to the movies and lunch on Saturday (two movies for Eli this weekend) so I used one of the photos he sent then made a little weekend recap page on the other side. The Weekend stamp is by Kerri Bradford. So that's a week in the book. It has been fun so far to work on this little album. I totally recommend going small if you are feeling overwhelmed. In the spirit of Christmas, I have a free download in my digital shop of four cards that I have designed for this week's pages in both 3x4 and 4x6 format (with PDFs for printing included) - you can find it here: shannanpages shop This one will be going in my album soon - what the hell Alan Rickman??!! Thanks for following along!

During our lockdown in Sydney this past Winter, I have been getting my scrapbooks in order. I re-made a 2010 paper Project Life album into a photo book (it was the perfect mindless creative lockdown project - I wrote about it here) and set off to turn most of my digital layouts from printed pages in albums into photobooks (both for space and ease of reading). So far I have I have done my 2020 and 2021 8.5x11 layouts, my 2020 and 2021 travelers notebook layouts and the first of probably four books of 6x8 layouts, starting at 2017. You can see flip-throughs of these printed books on my Instagram TV channel. I've also been keeping up with my little 6x9 grid spreads which are my low-stakes version of Project Life for this year and a simple way to use my iPhone photos and journal cards. I will probably finish this one up at the end of the month (December will be documented in December Daily) and send it off for printing. Seeing all of my random layouts printed together as books has given me some perspective. I've grappled with the concept of making 'albums' over 'pages since this post I wrote in 2019: "What I think I'm getting at in this post is that I want my albums to make sense to me and to anyone who might look through them. I want to think about the best way to organise my work and for that to add to the story aspect of scrapbooking rather than just be a filing system. I don't have an answer but it seems that I really need to think about what I want my albums to be and then make pages that fit that. Put the album first perhaps". Layouts v Albums - Should Our Scrapbook Albums Be More Than Just A Filing System? So I wanted to find a way to document for 2022 that felt like I was making a book rather than just a series of one-off pages. A place for longer stories as well as Project Life style thing, but not following a repetitive template week after week. I've been doing some art journaling during lockdown (with a real Moleskine and actual paints and pens) and wanted to see if I could incorporate that vibe into a photo book to document our every day, while still following my minimalist bent. This is the very confused and convoluted brief I scribbled to myself: >> cohesive look (fonts, style) but no rules in terms of what goes in there >> a grungy, homemade feel >> a visual diary >> a home for my drawings and art >> not daily (but it can be) >> some pages will be dated, some won't >> digital (probably 6x9 trade book because they are cheap and I won't feel bad filling it with nonsense) >> a bit smash book, a bit bullet journal, a bit scrapbook, a bit art journal, a bit Project Life and a bit travel journal (if the travel was my everyday life) >> a place where a deeper, longer story can sit alongside something not so deep I've played around a bit and these are some of my pages. I'm starting now because I know from experience that leaving an idea on the backburner for 1 January guarantees I will lose all sense of it. I used to be a January-December stickler when it comes to projects but I've let go of that. As long as the dates are on the book spine and cover, I am good. If this project goes quiet over December I am OK with that too. Note: These are 6x9 digital pages. I've been going through my old digital stash and enjoying some of my finds like digital masking tape from Katie Pertiet, which is the perfect amount of hand-made grunge. I'm using my Agenda digital stamp set a bit because it works well for the diary feel. I'm also loving anything date or calendar related (I found a whole folder of digitals with that theme and think they will work well too). Thank you for indulging me as I once again overthink my scrapbook plans - it really is my super power (but it does help me to lay it all out like this). x S

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Hey friends! This year I am sharing my December Daily 2021 plans, thoughts and process over on Ali Edwards' blog. This will be my 14th year making a December Daily album and this year I'm planning to go hybrid, which to me means using digital supplies to make a paper book with some bits and pieces added in. My intention is to make a little handmade 4x5 book that I can add to as much or as little as I like. Just a little celebration of December which for us means Christmas, summer, a break from work and the end of the school year. I'm doing away with numbered pages and daily stories for the first time and just planning to throw whatever I like into this little book - it's all very casual and loose. I'll work in Photoshop Elements using the digital December Daily kits and products. I’m planning a good mix of of photos, journal cards, pretty patterns, stickers, lists and some vellum and transparencies mixed in. I think the main difference between my everyday documenting and this book will be a more intentional effort to capture the season. With my Project Life (or what I'm calling Project Life Lite this year after vowing not to take on a yearly project), I am just going through my camera roll each week and putting my photos and stories into my little grids. For December Daily, I want to think more about what we are doing in this season of life and make sure I capture that. You can find my first few posts on Ali's blog: My December Daily Journey My Hybrid December Daily Plans Making December Daily Digital Foundation Pages (with process video) So happy to have a plan and a start. Bring on December :)

All of the wonderful October Daily shares on Instagram had me FOMO-ing quite badly. Unfortunately, it is not fall here (Spring here is really just a prelude to Summer) and Halloween is not the huge thing it is in the northern part of the world (although it is in our little spooky-loving family). Tracie from The Scrap Gals had mentioned the idea of documenting her favourite scary movies and I thought that fit the bill perfectly. My husband, Brett, watches 31 horror movies in October so I thought I would document what my list would be (his are much higher on the gore scale than mine) and this little mini album was born. 4x4 is my favourite mini size and I was able to find a little black We R Memory Keepers album online. I made a simple template in Photoshop Elements where I could add in the movie, year, director and actors and space to write a little note about why I love the film. I felt like handwriting for this project, but I ended up writing my notes in Procreate on my iPad with the Apple Pencil because I just like to know how everything will fit (ah perfectionism my old friend). I work on a Mac so it's very easy for me to airdrop my Procreate file back to the computer to use on the pages. I set up a 4x4 page in Procreate so I had a good idea of the spacing, then wrote each of the 31 notes on a separate layer and exported the whole thing back to my computer as a layered PSD file so I could take each note and pop it on the card template. (This was a sample page before I decided to add in Director). I don't usually batch-create but this project worked best that way, so I did all the photos, then the notes and finally the cards. I printed my photos (just from google) slightly smaller than 4x4 so I could adhere them to the back of the previous card and keep a white border. Photos were printed on photo paper and the cards on 6x4 textured American Crafts cardstock that I then cut down to 4x4. I did most of it on a dark and cloudy Saturday afternoon with some music playing, a candle burning and lots of coffee, so it was quite fun. I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole a few times and learned some new things about these films. I also typed out an opening spread just to explain what this album was about, my thoughts on horror movies and how I chose these particular films. I've made this simple template available in my shop for free if you want to make something too (could be any topic really) - HERE. And I have a new set of book and film/TV themed Halloween stamps for sale in my shop if you are the embellishing type (HERE). Finally, I have a quick flip through of my finished album on IGTV (HERE). So happy to have this little collection documented. Not a bad way to spend a stormy Saturday afternoon at all. Thank you for being here! S