In my head, I’m a scrapbooker. In reality? Not so much.

I’ve taken tons of photos, bought a few Project Life kits, and jotted down some quotes from my kids that I want to remember. But when I try to pull it all together into a scrapbook, I feel totally stuck and can’t seem to create what I’ve imagined. In the past two years, all I’ve made are two decent title pages (2013 and 2014) and half a dozen layouts that are just OK.

So I have decided to jumpstart my scrapbooking aspirations with a smaller, more focused project. December Daily is a memory keeping project developed by Ali Edwards, and this year I’m going to join in the fun.

Throughout the month of December, I’m going to capture some of the images and stories of the Christmas season and compile it all in a small album. December is such a special time of year with unique decorations, food, celebrations, music, activities, traditions, and togetherness, and I want to record some of those memories.

The album I’m using is the 6×8″ faux leather album by Simple Stories, and I’m using photo pocket pages by Becky Higgins (Project Life) and Simple Stories. I’m not using Ali Edwards’ December Daily kit, but I have gathered some supplies that fit my clean and simple aesthetic, and will design the rest myself. I’ve also gathered lots of inspiration on my December Daily board on Pinterest.

I cut out the word “december,” the numbers, and the white frame with my Silhouette Cameo. The cursive font is Wendy LP, and the numbers are Open Sans Condensed. The background paper with white snowflakes is actually wrapping paper that I recently found at HomeGoods, and I added a few little white snowflake punches. I love white on kraft, and especially like the hand drawn look of the snowflakes.

I’ve learned that a lot of people prepare their pages in advance by putting in papers and embellishments ahead of time, and then add the stories and photos throughout the month. As an inexperienced scrapbooker, I find it impossible to anticipate how I will want each page to be laid out, so I’m just going to create the scrapbook as I go.

If creating a scrapbook during the month of December sounds crazy to you, let me assure you — it sounds crazy to me too! If I don’t finish it before January, that won’t bother me at all. (I’ve seen some people online recently talking about needing to finish up last year’s December album before this December begins!) I’m going to try not to feel pressure to change what we do just to make our life look good for a scrapbook. However… if this project helps to make the Christmas season more meaningful, and encourages me to live with more intention, more joy, and more gratitude, that will be a wonderful added bonus.