Belive it or not, but I followed through on my December Daily. I'm inspired by what Ali Edwards creates every year and am glad that I was finally able to make my own little album.
I knew there was no way I'd be able to scrap or even take a lot of photos daily, so I kept it simple to just one Instax photo for each day. Low pressure, is my style. I use an old version of the Fuji Instax 210 with the wide film. Great investment... although I kind of want a mini!
I also wanted a bit of journaling so I included a piece of vellum for each page. I embossed the vellum with my trusty Studio Calico Polaroid stamp, Versamark, and white American Crafts Zing powder. The inside of the stamp got cut out so you can peek through. After seeing my friend Nichol's album use the cool Technique Tuesday December Daily stamps, I snatched those up for adding dates to the vellum. And you know that I have a love for memorabilia, so some pages got a little piece added and attached with clear This to That adhesive + my Tiny Attacher. Plane tickets, business cards, a take-out bag, receipt, menu, etc.
The photo pages were pre-cut and put in the album, so all I did each day was take a photo, add a caption with an American Crafts Precision Pen, then added vellum tape. I used some Mixtape, Martha Stewart, and random stuff from my stash. The papers are a mix of Studio Calico, American Crafts, Basic Grey 6x6 pad, and Crate Paper. I didn't bother with the photo matching the paper, I just went with it. My Crop A Dile came in real handy for this album, let me tell ya.
Here are the photos...
The The Weinroth's Christmas tree, playing with Buzz + Evan, at the wave wall in Florida, Saturday night at a friend's, brunch at The Mermaid with Amanda, my messy desk
Milk and Joe Joe's, hanging with my friend Kary, Amy + her December Daily, Artichoke pizza for dinner, Raclette party at Chloe's, enjoying Pork Buns at Fatty Crab
Arriving in NOLA, walking around the French Quarter, on trolley to lunch, dessert with Amanda, seeing Next to Normal on Broadway, at my friends Mad Men holiday party
Girls dinner at The Mermaid, the view from my window, in the yummy cheese room at Whole Foods, custard from the Shake Shack, the pile of presents at home in Michigan, Christmas Eve dinner
New boots for Christmas (but no snow!), finally getting to hang with my best friends, modeling winter hats with my brother, all together with great friends at a fun holiday party, bowling with the best friends, good times the annual Matteson poker party
And a happy New Years Eve party hosted by the fantastic Lemons.
My favorite part of this whole experience is having all the Instax photos. I love using the film. You never know how it's going to turn out. And everytime I pull out the camera somewhere new, people are so entertained by it... "is that camera going to squirt water at me?!" It's perfect for parties. I hope to do a December Daily again next year and try the daily Instax again another month this year.
Thanks to Ali and all of who have posted their albums for wonderful inspiration. Lots of happy things on my Google Reader during December.
And mostly thank you to my fabulous friends who put up with not only me endlessly snapping their photos with my digital camera, but also holding their pose so I can snap just one more photo with the Instax. Angels. All of you.