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September is the official beginning of Spring here. The warmer weather and change of season always brings feelings of renewal and fresh-starts. For me, it's a time for re-assessing and looking at what's working, what I want to change and what I want to do more of, in all aspects of my life but also creatively. I've been on a recent mission to reduce the physical footprint of my scrapbooking in my home. I've recently shared about re-doing my 2010 Project Life album as a photo book (HERE) and I've also been busy pulling out all of my printed digital scrapbook pages from my albums, finding the original files on various hard drives and putting them together to be printed as books. I've been a mostly-digital scrapbooker since 2010 and I've treated my digital pages in two ways: one-off layouts have been generally printed at home and placed in page protectors in my albums, alongside my traditional paper layouts, and theme pages that belong to a bigger story with a beginning and end (travel, PL, other topics) have been printed as photo books. (Except for 2019 when I printed my every-day layouts as 5x8 books too). So what does that mean going forward? I want to make digital pages and print them as photo books rather than print out at home and store in binders. There is something about the binders that reminds me of office files and I don’t enjoy flipping through them very much, especially the larger sizes. The pages in my older ones are starting to sag in the protectors and I just don’t have the space for these on-going. If you’ve been around here for a while, you will know that I’ve said this before. On my blog. On various podcasts. On instagram. So what happened? In 2019, frustrated by the lack of stability in being able to source albums and protectors, I decided to just make all of my pages at 5x8 and print as books (I did a January to June and a July to December). I loved it, they came out great. But I felt disconnected from the hobby having layouts only living on my harddrive and not being able to see anything tangible for six months. So for 2020, I decided to buy a Heidi Swap 8.5x11 album and just make and print pages at home again. It was great to make something and hold it physically in my hands. Filling my album as I went made me so happy. Adding in some hybrid layouts when I felt like it. But in the end, I remembered that I don’t really like the whole binder thing and as I continued on my second one for 2021, I realised I was right back where I started. This is the thing. I love making my digital pages, and I love my photo books way more than the albums, but I find myself disconnected from it all because I have to wait so long to see a finished product. That bit I’m just going to have to get over because I cannot keep adding albums to my meagre shelf space. My 2010 paper project life album has a 3.5 inch spine whereas the re-done book is about a half inch. It just makes the most sense as a digital scrapbooker. So let's have a look at what I'm working on right now: MY 6x9 DAILY LIFE BOOK Yeah, I need a better name for this. (I'll probably just keep the Life Catalogue name I used on an earlier project). It's a very lite version of Project Life - the photos off my phone, little things I've collected, quotes, journal cards and simple little notes-to-self placed into a 2x2 grid format to be printed as a Blurb 6x9 trade book. I didn't start this until April so I plan to continue it in 2022 and will just pick an end point somewhere (probably based on page numbers) then start a new one. I love this form of documenting. It's simple, doesn't take a lot of time, captures the daily stuff I want to capture and I never feel behind because I'm not making weekly or monthly spreads. I generally sit down once a week and make three or four pages. 6x9 WRITING JOURNAL I just started this one. A digital writing-based project to collect my longer thoughts and stories without having to become 'layouts'. I'm using a simple magazine style design and thinking of it as a journal. I'm enjoying this one a lot and figure it will be something I add to gradually with no end date. MY 8.5x11 ALBUM I've taken all of the digital files for my 2020 and 2021 8.5x11 albums (I have one for each year) and sent them off to print as an 8x10 book. I will still make these 'traditional' one-off type of digital layouts but I will now size them at 8x10 and save them up for printing. MY LIFE CRAFTED/TN SIZE LAYOUTS I love these little albums but I've filled a lot of them, so again, space. I've corralled all of the original 4x8 files and started putting them into a 6x9 book (I chose 6x9 because it will give some white space above and below compared to 5x8). I will put any future 4x8 layouts into that photo book as I go. I'm keeping my one-off projects in these albums though - December Daily, Week In The Life etc. LITTLE LIFE STORIES Oh this poor, neglected project (more on it HERE). I really thought I would dig into this while in lockdown, but again no. Turns out lockdown is not as conducive to productivity as I had hoped. Also, it turns out telling old stories is not easy. On the plus side, those stories aren't going anywhere so I can jump back in any time. Maybe I should just pencil in an hour per week to work on this? This will be an 8x10 book. So that's it. Feels good to take stock and think it all through. The other thing I've realised is that maybe I'm not a scrapbooker. I don't use a lot of products and embellishments and I think a non-scrapbooker would not see what I do as very crafty. But I am a documenter. A memory-keeper. A story teller. And while I don’t think we really need more labels in life, sometimes defining yourself can help you go more mindfully in the right direction. Thanks for reading, as always, any thoughts and comments will be greatly appreciated over on Instagram. S

I have long been a fan of printing my digital scrapbook layouts and albums as photobooks (see here). They just save so much space on my (limited) shelves and are easier for the family to look through than the hefty 12x12 ring bound albums. When I first started digital scrapbooking in 2010, I had all of my 12x12 and 8.5x11 pages printed at Persnickety Prints and then I would put them albums like regular pages. A couple of years ago I noticed how much sagging of pages was happening with those albums so I started going through my computer files to see if I could collect all of the digital pages and get them printed as photo books. Yes, it meant that I would be paying twice for printing but I felt like it would be worth it. Then this week, my scrapbook friend Tracey Holdyk posted about her 'insane' idea of redoing her old physical Project Life albums as digital books. Her reasons were very familiar - limited space and issues with the albums holding up. This is something I have thought of doing for a long time and it seems like I just needed someone else to say it was OK. It's also something my husband has been encouraging me to do for ages - he loves the books. (My 2015 12x12 Project Life photo book using Cathy Zielske's Life Basics template) I am not someone who would generally advise people to go and remake old pages. I am all about moving forward, scrapbooking the current stuff and enjoying my old pages for what they were. Whenever the question of re-doing layouts was raised, my advice was always to leave it and do something new. But I started going through some of my old, traditional pocket-page 12x12 Project Life albums yesterday and they were not in great shape. Lots of sagging and dodgy rings. My very first one (2010) had pages squished up inside. They are not very easy to look through and I don't think I have in years. So, inspired by Tracey, I thought I would just try a page or two and see how easy (or difficult) it was to recreate and I ended up doing six week's worth of pages in digital format. It probably took me two hours but I needed to find my groove/system. So here are some of my thoughts: My Project Life albums are probably my most valuable from a family-documenting standpoint. All of our day-to-day stories and photos are in here and I think it is the most well-rounded way to see a year in our lives. My photos from this period are not great. Some are quite dark and others have weird filters (ugh, edge blur). Editing photos in the re-do will probably be the thing that takes me the longest but I think it's worth it. All of my photos are in Lightroom and very easy to find using date filters. A few of the photos are missing from my Lightroom catalogue. Some I think I culled, others I'm not sure. There aren't too many so I'm not really worried about it, I've just switched in other photos from that week. I've noticed that sometimes I've used a lesser photo in my Project Life because I used the better one in a scrapbook page on its own (I always scrapbooked individual pages on top of my yearly PL). This time I'm swapping some of those out. In my original, I put a caption and date on every photo and while I've continued that in the digital version, I don't think it needs to be on every photo. I've started with my oldest Project Life album - 2010. It's the bulkiest. I also have 2011 and 2012 in 12x12 size using traditional pocket pages that would be next on the list if this works out. I have a blog post about of all of my Project Life albums here. I previously made a 12x12 printed Project Life book in 2015 using Cathy Zielske's Life Basics template (HERE) that is basically the Project Life Design A page protector in digital format so I'm using that as my base (all of my early PL albums use that design). I have various digital Becky Higgins PL kits in my stash already so I'm using the Fresh kit for this 2010 re-do (this is different to the actual album which I think was the very first Project Life kit, after it changed from Project 365). I'm basically producing the same layout in the new version with some editing to my journaling (which I handwrote as I went) for brevity. I don't have to spend any time organising what goes where except for choosing cards from the different kit. I have switched around some of the photo placement so I have a better balance between colour and black and white (something I didn't really worry about back then). I have a lot of ephemera throughout my old album so, where I can, I am photographing it to use in the redo or just replacing it with a filler card (some of the things I saved are not that important to me now like clothes tags and things, I just saved them because I had the pockets available and they were cute). I'm not planning to throw out the old album, I will store it away. I just love looking through my photobooks way more than my big albums, especially 12x12 page protector ones. So that's where I'm at. I will keep going and hope to make at least 2010 as a book. I have a feeling that I will be so happy to see that book that I'll be inspired to do the other two years I have in this format. One other thing I should point out - I'm in Sydney and have been in a strict lockdown since 26 June. I've had a lot of time at home to scrapbook but I'm just not feeling very motivated. Having a side project like this where I can be crafty, oooh-and-ahhh over my kids being so little, hang out in my space but not have to be super creative is a gift. And to be honest, there's not much going on here by way of stories or photos right now. I'm a very 'current' scrapbooker and that's not easy when you've been at home for over a month. Here's to side-projects. Thanks for reading! S

Happy New Year folks! I hope 2020 treated you well (ha, joke, it sucked). Time to take stock, make some plans and think about what I want to put on the scrapbooking to-do list. Back in September, I wrote this post on my blog - Making Plans for Making Stuff and I re-read it this morning because I have a tendency to feel invigorated in January and think I can take on all the projects (narrator: no she can't). These were my 'yes's' from that post: Yes to a clean slate and endless possibility every time I sit down to scrapbook. Yes to asking myself "what do I want to make today"? Yes to telling big stories, small stories, sublime stories, ridiculous stories, happy stories, sad stories, old stories, new stories and hard stories (and having fun doing it). Yes to being an artist, a crafter and a documenter rather than a project manager with a hard hat. Yes to scribbling a poem on the bottom of a photo and that being enough. Yes to going back to basics. Yes to simplifying. Yes to trying new things and messing up. Yes to worrying less about what the final product/album/book will be. Yes to being ok with making pages just for pleasure even if they don’t have an obvious home. Yes to all that. Lately I've been thinking a lot about telling stories v documenting. In my recent December Daily, I chose to focus more on deeper journaling than just reporting on what went on that day - telling stories over documenting. To me, a 'story' in my scrapbook is a longer, more detailed and richer exploration (what it's like shopping for gifts as your kids get older, how has it changed, what are my feelings on gift giving in general, how I choose gifts, where I shop) whereas 'documenting' would be something along the lines of "I finished my Christmas shopping today - thank god for Amazon Prime". As scrapbookers we do both and of course story telling is also documenting. But I like having a distinction between the two when I'm thinking about projects and goals. The other thing I'm thinking about is process v end product. Some projects are just fun to make even if they go nowhere, while some are hard work but the end product is so worth it (like Project Life). I want to find balance between the two. With all that in mind, this is what I'm planning to work on this year. LIFE CATALOGUE My little 5x5 project (to eventually become a Blurb book). Daily Pages in digital form. A way to document the everyday in little squares. A place for quotes, journal cards, photos, silly stories, drawings, recipes, pop culture and any other bits and pieces. A place to play. (You can read about it HERE) REGULAR LAYOUTS I enjoyed going back to 8.5x11 layouts last year so I'm planning to keep that going. Making mostly digital pages and printing them at home for an album. I'm also planning to keep adding to my Life Crafted albums because I just love the 4x8 size. I don't have any rules about what kind of page or story goes in which album - I will be going with the flow this year. Whatever feels right at the time. LITTLE LIFE STORIES I also want to give some attention to this album project. A very simple 8x10 photo book that tells stories of my life from childhood up until I started scrapbooking (in my 30s). I am OK with having no time line for this - I'm assuming it will take a year or two. Besides dividing the book by ages (childhood, teens, 20s and 30s) I don't have any structure and don't even plan to be too strict with the chronology, just a place for old photos and stories to live. (You can read more about this project HERE). I am not doing any kind of Project Life/year long project this year. I just finished up my planner pages for December and sent it all off to Blurb for printing. I will be so appreciative when I get that book back but I'm really happy to give weekly/monthly documenting a rest this year - I barely limped across the finish line on that one. So in summary? I'm just going to make pages without a definite end-game this year. I might fill one little 5x5 Blurb book or I might fill ten. As for my 8.5x11 and 4x8 pages, I can just keep adding them to my albums as I make them. I have a new 8.5x11 binder on the way because last year's is almost full. I have two Life Crafted albums ready to go if I need them. My One Little Word this year is DARE. (Oh, how I wanted it to be REST or RELAX or HYGGE, but DARE it is). I need a word that will challenge me this year, not a word I'm wishing for because I am tired and seeking comfort. This word is cheeky and will get me out of my own little box - I need that. So in scrapbooking, I'm going to dare to try new things, make up new projects, do things my way and not feel like there are any rules. Feels pretty good already.

Well, another December in the book. So grateful I have this little album to add to my collection. I decided to finish up on the 26th - sometimes I've done the whole of December but this year I was done. Not much to report in the last week anyway. I like that I did a deeper dive in my journaling this year but I also had days where I wished I could just write "we made cookies" and be done. I worked on my pages daily when I could - a few times I did two or three in a batch because of work. As a reminder, I used a Life Crafted album by Citrus Twist and printed my digital pages at home and added to page protectors. Days 16-20 are HERE Days 11-15 are HERE Days 6-10 are HERE Days 1-5 are HERE Day 22 was a simple list page - getting my to-do list down on paper. The journal card is last year's from Kelly Purkey. Day 22 was about the pre-Christmas COVID outbreak here in Sydney and how it cut short my last few days of work. The circle stamp is from the Best story kit by Ali Edwards. Day 23 - grateful for getting an extra day at home this week. The left page is one of my 4x8 templates and the All is Calm stamp on the right is Paislee Press. Day 24 - Christmas Eve. Liz Lamoreaux shared a poem on Instagram and I wanted to use that as my story for today. A lovely little mantra to keep in mind during a stressful few days. The template and star garland are mine, Twas the Night word art by Paislee Press. Day 25. I barely took any photos on Christmas day which is OK. It didn't really even occur to me. We had a nice small Christmas with the family. Merry Happy Everything is a journal card from a previous December Daily Mini Kit by Paislee Press. Day 26 - Boxing Day holiday here in Australia. The circle stamp is Paislee Press and the Magical Moments is an In A Creative Bubble journal card. And that's a wrap for 2020. Happy to be done and ready for new projects. Thank you for following along with me.

Sharing my Day 16-20 pages today. I can't believe I am 20 days into this project again. Once I get to this point I feel like I'm on the home stretch. There is always lots happening in the days leading up to Christmas so I know I will have enough to finish (enough stories, enough thoughts, enough photos). I have continued my book all the way through to 31 December before, but most of the time I stop at December 26th (Boxing Day holiday) and will probably use that as a good end point. I have enjoyed telling some deeper, more thoughtful stories this year but that is also hard work so I am looking forward to closing this one. Days 11-15 are HERE Days 6-10 are HERE Days 1-5 are HERE Day 16 is about the rain. We've had a wet week in Sydney (more forecast for next week) so I wanted to document my love for a rainy day. The rainbow is from Ali Edward's Play Story Kit and the Tis The Season Card is from last year's Paislee Press December Daily Mini Kit. Day 17 is about choosing recipes and a menu for Christmas lunch. This year I'm delegating (kind of). Food pages are my favourite and always have a place in my December Daily. The Yum stamp is by Studio Calico and the I'm Here for the Food is an old one by One Little Bird. You guys know food is my thing so I've put some links below to some of my favourite Christmas day recipes. Christmas means summer here so our menu has lots of chilled seafood, salads and cold desserts with some traditional British favourites thrown in. Day 18 is documenting summer holidays - the kids finished school for the year last Wednesday. I just wanted to make a few notes about their school year. The Here We Go stamp is by Kerri Bradford and I recoloured it to match with the photo and the red theme. Day 19 is about making a Christmas pudding. This is a family tradition and while it is a labour of love, I really love doing this every year. December rituals and routines are so important to me. For this page, I used a template from my 4x8 set (HERE). Day 20 documents my favourite Christmas movies. I include this in every December Daily but they change over the years and I love how my fave-fave this year might be different next year. For this page, I used a template from my 4x8 set (HERE) with some Google images. My next DD post will probably wrap up the final pages of my album - thank you for following along with me again this year! SOME OF MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS RECIPES: Nigella's Christmas book is my bible so there are a lot of her recipes in my arsenal, as well as Donna Hay. I learned years ago that making the same menu every Christmas created a really nice tradition and I could be confident that everything would work. It also meant I spent less time agonising over cookbooks. These are some of the things that mean Christmas day to us. Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova (HERE) This one is a family favourite. It ticks all the boxes because it's naturally gluten free (we have some ceoaliacs in our family), you can make it the day before (I use strawberries if raspberries aren't available), it pairs perfectly with my homemade custard recipe because one needs the egg yolks and one needs the whites, and the leftovers are great. Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake (HERE) You need something to have with coffee mid-morning on Christmas and this is what I like to make. Bonus because it's naturally gluten free. Nigella's Cranberry and Soy Glazed Mini Sausages (HERE) This is required as a pre dinner appetiser. You can mix the marinade and sausages in a ziploc bag the day before and just pour everything into a disposable foil tray to cook for no mess. Nigella's Crab Crostini (HERE) We always serve this alongside the sausages as an appetiser with drinks. It's delicious (and gluten free) on corn chips but also great with mini toasts. You can make this a day ahead as well and keep in the fridge. Nigella's Honey Semifreddo (HERE) Semifreddo is a set icecream dessert. It's pretty easy, make-ahead and great for a summer Christmas. Donna Hay also has a delicious Chocolate Hazelnut version (HERE). Donna Hay Christmas Pudding (HERE) As documented in my December Daily. A labour of love but worth it. Must be paired with homemade custard (HERE). Martha Stewart's Curried Potato Salad (HERE) This is a delicious and tasty spin on potato salad and its so easy. Makes great leftovers too, just don't store in a plastic container because of the yellow.

Sharing my Day 11-15 pages today. I'm sticking to my easy formula and getting my pages done most days. Sometimes I've done a few pages in a day when I know I might not get to it on a work day - most of my stories are not day-specific. Days 6-10 are HERE Days 1-5 are HERE Day 11 is about my love of The West Wing. Every year I watch the Christmas episodes that they bundle together and every year that leads to a rewatch. I used one of my 4x8 templates for the journaling page (HERE) and made the red card on the left with some word art from the Paislee Press December You Are My Fave No 9 4x8 Album Kit (HERE). For Day 12 I told an older story about my childhood Christmas memories. The colour of the seventies photo wasn't great and I thought about making it black and white, but I think it would have lost something if we couldn't see the funky curtains (even if it clashes with my red elements a bit). The 'Details' card is from the Paislee Press December You Are My Fave No 9 4x8 Album Kit (HERE) and the stars are from last year's Paislee Press Mini Kit (recoloured). One week I had not even thought about presents, the next week the tree was bursting with wrapped gifts thanks to online shopping and quick shipping. That's the story for Day 13. The 'All I Want for Christmas' stamps is taken from the Christmas tags in my shop (HERE) Day 14 is the story of our pool. A very handy thing to own in Australia during summer and something I am so grateful for. The Summer word art is by Paislee Press, as well as the red circle embellishment. The Embrace the Season journal card is from the Seasons Story Kit by Ali Edwards. Day 15 is a story about being in the city at Christmas time. It really is magical. The heart stamp is Paislee Press and the Big City Lover stamp is from In A Creative Bubble - New York stamp set (HERE). Third day in a row I've used a full page photo on the left - on a roll. Hope everyone is feeling OK about their projects - whether you are caught up, way behind or haven't even started. While I love this project and embrace being a little bit crafty every day, it really is the busiest time of year and daily scrapbooking is just not possible for a lot of people. It's OK to save everything for next year. It's OK to make pages in spurts. It's OK to have an album of mostly post-its and it's OK to pack it away and be done. There is always next year.

Still going! I'm in my December Daily groove now. For me, that means I don't need to worry about the design or 'look' of my pages anymore, I just need to find the story I want to tell for the day. The rest just comes together. Days 1-5 are available HERE. Day six is about our dog Luna and how much in love with her we all are. Corny but true. I used a full page photo with a label over the top and another smaller photo on the right side with an Ali Edwards label from the For The Love story kit. I added a little white border to the small photo and gave it a subtle shadow which I only do for white-on-white elements. For day seven, I used one of the prompts in Liz's December Pause class to think about the little joys that I've felt this week. I wasn't sure which photo to use so I decided to go with this beautiful red paper from In A Creative Bubble which fits perfectly with my red theme. The 'Joy' stamp is from the Paislee Press December 2017 Daily Mini Kit. Day eight is all about decorating the house. I love it, until I don't. I've used one of my 4x8 templates with a Kerri Bradford stamp 'Home' added. The star garland on the other page is from my December Digital Stamp Set. For day nine, I have messed up my red and white theme but I am totally OK with that. I wanted to document a few days Brett traveled into the city with me for work and this photo was just so perfect spread across two pages. I still kept my red theme and the You and Me are from Ali Edward's Little Things story kit. For day ten, I documented some of my favourite ornaments and talked about lightening up on what decorations went where. This left side is a template from the December 4x8 se, kept as-is for a change. The light stamp on the right is from my December stamp set. I'm enjoying the process of making these little spreads each day - keeping it simple for me is the key to getting it done. If I had to come up with a creative, unique spread every time I would be out of steam by about day three :) Thanks friends! Other notes: I'm using a Life Crafted album by Citrus Twist (its 4x8). I'm using the same fonts from my templates in my project for cohesion. The titles on the labels are Futura (I'm often switching the template titles out with my own) and the script journaling is Mrs Eaves Romantic (which was a free font but I've had it for years). My printer is an Epson Expression Photo XP-8500, a few years old now. My photo paper is Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl (I print two 4x8 pages on one Letter sized sheet and cut out).

This is a new project I've been playing around with - a little 5x5 future photo book I'm calling life catalogue. I've enjoyed working in my Daily Pages notebooks this year (with Kristin at the Awesome Ladies Project) but, as always, I've reached the point where I want to make it digital. This happens every time I do a hybrid project - I start off enjoying the paper aspect, then I get more and more digital with my pages until I realise I'm just adding steps by printing, cutting and glueing it in. I've also decided to skip Project Life next year so I want a place to document the little bits and pieces of everyday life that don't make it onto regular layouts. Last year I made a little 4x4 December Daily and I am still obsessed with those tiny squares. So I set out to find the smallest photobook I can have printed at a reasonable price. There are a few companies that print small, square photobooks - Persnickety, Artifact Uprising, Chatbooks - but I think Blurb's 5x5 Mini Square will work best for me in terms of international shipping and value. 5x5 is only available via the IOS app so I will make my pages in Photoshop Elements, airdrop to my phone and build the book from there. I'm not going to work chronologically (although that happens naturally) or do a set number of pages per month like I did with my 5x8 books last year. I'm just going to make a bunch of little squares until the book is full then hopefully move on to the next one... This book will be a place to gather all the bits and pieces of life right now: //Full page photographs //Journal cards //Practice graphics, sketches and drawings for shannanpages shop stuff //Fun text and type pages //Mini scrapbook layouts //Digital mixed-media play //Quotes, conversations & random thoughts //Things that make me laugh //Handwritten journaling (via my iPad) //Typed journaling //Everyday documenting that would have gone in Project Life //Social media stuff //Lots of pop culture stuff //Recipes & food photos So that's my life catalogue. I might add some small square templates to the shop now and then if anyone is interested in trying out this format themselves either as a photobook or mini album (I love those 4x4 We R Memory Keepers instagram albums if they are still around anywhere?). Let's be square together! I will still be making my regular 8.5x11 and 4x8 digital layouts but I'm so excited about this new project and can't wait to fill my first book. Thanks for being here, as always. S

Happy December friends! It's December Daily time again. I recently wrote about my plans for this years album (HERE) and so far I'm happy with the direction I'm going in - less reporting, more reflecting is my mantra. I'm not one for planning ahead or making foundation pages (I can't meal prep for the same reason - what if I just don't feel like that on Thursday?). I'm also not a batch processing kinda person, I just like starting each spread with a blankish slate. After a couple of days I always find my groove and a way forward. Here is a look at my pages - day 1 through 5. I'm using a red Life Crafted album, making my 4x8 digital spreads in Photoshop Elements then printing here at home and slipping into the page protectors. I've kept up with making my spreads daily so far (that's why I keep them so simple) but I could easily catch up on a few days at a time if I needed to. This is my front page - just a simple 4x8 paper straight from the Comfort and Joy Travelers Notebook Papers from In A Creative Bubble. I love this set so much. For my opening spread, I used another 4x8 paper from the Comfort and Joy set and wrote my intentions and hopes for December. I knew I would be using the 4x8 December templates from my shop so I used a red label to match in with that. The garland is also from In A Creative Bubble, I had this journal card set from last year (HERE). This is my template set, available (HERE): For day one, I used a selfie because I just wanted to set the intention that this would be an introspective project about my thoughts and feelings. I added a red label and I think from this moment I decided that the red labels (which match my templates) would feature on every spread. I wanted to focus on my journaling this year so I'm making the facing spread each day word focused. I'm using my handwritten dates (available HERE in my shop) to top each of the journaling pages then embellishing a little bit (the wreath is from Paislee Press' December You Are My Fave No 8 (from last year) which is HERE. My day one story continues with my intentions and feelings about this December and finding joy. Once I make my first spread I feel like I know what I am doing going forward. It sets my project up with some parameters that make it easier. This is my December date stamp set, available HERE For day two, I wanted to tell the story of summer here in Sydney, which officially starts on December first. I love documenting the way life and its rhythms change in the summer months. By this page, I already know a few things I am going to include on each page: a red theme the red labels with some kind of title related to the story the handwritten date stamp above the journaling Then I'm adding bits and pieces if I feel like the design needs it. The Love square stamp and the quote are both Paislee Press (from the 2019 December Daily Mini Kit and the December You Are My Fave Elements No 6). I'm trying not to overdo it on the red so I recoloured the quote stamp with green from the trees in the photo. My stories are not really related to a particular day, I am just choosing something that is on my mind or that occurred to me during the day. I have some stories in mind that I hope will come up in future pages but I'm not making lists or anything. The pool photo is one I already had on my camera roll (red towel totally by happy accident). I am happy to use older photos to tell these stories (especially if the photo I took on this day would look exactly the same). I don't want to get blocked if I haven't managed to take any photos on a given day - something that has been a problem when I've done a story-of-the-day type December Daily in the past. If you have this problem too, one tip I have from previous years is going around the house on the weekend when everything is tidy and the light is good and taking a bunch of photos for future days. I love having my own stash of photos to fall back on - personal stock photography. For day three, I wrote about taking pause in the mornings when I'm not rushing off to work. I am taking Liz Lamoreax's December Pause class (HERE) and while I am not making lists I am reading her prompts and emails everyday and letting some of those ideas into my journaling. I've used one of my 4x8 templates but changed the configuration a bit. I also added the All Is Calm word art from my December Stamp set (HERE) but lowered the opacity so it's more subtle. On the other page, I made the circle embellishment from an In A Creative Bubble journal card (from last year's Holiday Cheer set). Day four is about Christmas shopping and gift giving. I took this photo in the city earlier in the week and used a Paislee Press circle stamp and the mistletoe from the December You Are My Fave No 8 Kit. The So Thankful word art is from an Ali Edwards Story Kit. And that brings us to day five, documenting some of the little personal spaces I have created around the house. I used one of my 4x8 templates as well as some word art from Ali Edwards (I love going through my digital stash and finding things to use that are not Christmas related). I masked another photo on the right into a circle. So there you have it, five days in the book. Keeping it simple, getting it done each day. Not making it harder than it needs to be. Some days, when I have found myself tweaking my pages a bit too much, I tell myself "Hey, you have twenty more of these to make, that will do". Thanks for being here! Other notes: I'm using the same fonts from my templates in my project for cohesion. The titles on the labels are Futura (I'm often switching the template titles out with my own) and the journaling uses the same script font from the templates - Mrs Eaves Romantic (which was a free font but I've had it for years). My printer is an Epson Expression Photo XP-8500, a few years old now. My photo paper is Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl (I print two 4x8 pages on one Letter sized sheet and cut out).

So this will be my 13th December Daily. Wow. Just the BEST project. So grateful for Ali Edwards. The last few years I've kept my project simple so I can work on pages daily and get it all finished by January. Not because I think you have to, I just work better in the moment. Plus I'm one of those people that loves Christmas but also loves packing it all away and not thinking about it once January comes. Keeping it simple for me means doing my pages digitally, using templates, sticking with a formula and not feeling like I have to get too creative every single day. I just want a record of our Christmas and Summer to look back on later. I usually go with a single photo per day and stick with two types of journaling: today we did this/today this happened, or general thoughts about Christmas, summer, traditions, favourites, routines I love both kinds of stories. The 'today we did this' pages feel a bit week in the life-ish and I love capturing the rhythms of December and summer here in Sydney. But I also really like sharing deeper thoughts about the season and I think I'm leaning towards more journaling this year. Feelings more than facts. This has been an extraordinary year, in good ways and bad, so some reflecting will be good. I've signed up for Liz Lamoreaux's December Pause class with daily prompts and inspiration and I think something like that will help me take my project in that direction. I'm also a past student of Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas so I'm looking forward to those prompts and ideas too. I'm going to use a red Life Crafted album by Citrus Twist that I bought earlier this year and plan to use my 4x8 digital templates. I've also got my eye on some digital things from Ali Edwards, Paislee Press and In A Creative Bubble. I used to buy ALL the digitals in the excitement then end up not using much so I've learned to just buy things as I need them rather than having a big stash. I'm not great at planning ahead design-wise for projects like this - I need some real-life photos and stories to play with so it's usually not until I make my first page on December 1st that I feel like I know what I'm doing. Trusting in that process as I see all the amazing December Daily prep going on. But I'm definitely being pulled in the direction of deeper, more thoughtful stories this year. More reflecting, less reporting.

New to the shop this weekend is the Baby Book Collection. This is a set of digital products to help you tell your baby stories or make an entire baby album or book. There is a big template set - 15 templates with prompt titles to help you in your story telling. Just add your photo or photos, type in some journaling and you're done. You can build up your whole book that way. The templates come in 6x8, 8x10 (for a photobook) or 8.5x11 and 9x12 (these are sold together). There is also a set of three digital elements - patterned papers (12x12), journal cards (3x4) and digital stamps. I've also included a suggested colour swatch to help in choosing a cohesive colour scheme. You can buy each element separately or go for a discounted bundle. There is even a full album kit with everything. Available HERE Here's to getting our baby photos + stories into books (even if our babies are not babies anymore). S

This is the time of year I always start taking stock of my scrapbooking. What's working? What isn't? What do I want to do? What makes me happy? It's also the time of year when burnout with ongoing projects hits hard. This year especially - I've never felt so tired. I’ve scrapbooked consistently for twelve years and I always try make it work for where I am in my life. I’ve made a lot of pages and don’t have a huge backlog of projects on my to-do list (there are some). I also have older kids now (10 and 13), so documenting their everyday lives is just not a huge part of my scrapbooking anymore. So what do I want to do next year to make sure I'm invigorated and energised by scrapbooking? It’s easier to start with what I don't want. The 'nopes'. Nope to having projects going that I must contribute to each week or month to keep them alive. So nope to Project Life or any kind of year-long weekly project for 2021. I have made one almost every year since 2010 and I need a break. Project Life is a chore. A valuable, wonderful and worthwhile chore, but still. I'm taking a year off. Nope to a pile of projects that I MUST work on and check off each time I sit down at my desk before I get to the thing I really feel like working on in that moment. Nope to feeling behind. Nope to boxing myself in. And nope to self-imposed schedules and commitments. I am a perfectionist, an ideas-person and no quitter. It's an awesome super power but also terribly exhausting. So what's left? Where is my happy place? Yes to a clean slate and endless possibility every time I sit down to scrapbook. Yes to asking myself "what do I want to make today"? Yes to telling big stories, small stories, sublime stories, ridiculous stories, happy stories, sad stories, old stories, new stories and hard stories (and having fun doing it). Yes to being an artist, a crafter and a documenter rather than a project manager with a hard hat. Yes to scribbling a poem on the bottom of a photo and that being enough. Yes to going back to basics. Yes to simplifying. Yes to trying new things and messing up. Yes to worrying less about what the final product/album/book will be. Yes to being ok with making pages just for pleasure even if they don’t have an obvious home. I think it’s also important to head in the direction of fun and energy whenever we can. I can see, writing this all down, that I'm just feeling some burn out. One of my favourite motto's is "If you can't say hell yes, it's a no." Such great words to live by. I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts. Blog comments haven’t been working right so feel free to comment on my Instagram post or message me there. Thanks for reading!