Wow, November is half already half over! The holiday season will be here before we know which means it’s time for one of the scrapbooking projects I most look forward to every year: December Daily.
Back in 2010, I created a 7×9 mixed-sized paper mini book and I have to say I LOVED it. Of all the scrapbooking projects and layouts I completed in 2010, my December Daily album is the one I never stopped thinking about.
There is just something magical about putting together the foundation of the album ahead of time and then seeing it fill up with memories over the course of the holiday season.
But in thinking about my December Daily plan for 2011, I realized there were a few things about the album that didn’t work for me: the daily-ness of December Daily, the mixed-sized pages and the lack of any digital goodness.
So last year I came up with a new plan for my not-so-daily December Daily mini book which I lovingly called the Holiday Faves. It was a 5×7 hybrid mini album complete with foundation pages which I printed and then filled up with goodness over the Holiday season.
And I have to admit, I may have done a happy dance or two in excitement over it because it worked out even better than I’d hoped.
(You can find an entire video of my 2011 Holiday Faves album here.)
Which brings me to today’s Sweet Shoppe Saturday New Release!
The Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Templates Vol. 2
Yes, the Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album templates are back with an all-new more awesome design combined with the same hybrid 5×7-inch tree-saving style!
And I could not be more excited. Seriously, lots of oh-so-excited (and occasionally awkward, I’m sure) happy dances going on over here, haha. Especially knowing just how well the Holiday Faves worked out for me last year.
You can read about all the details of the Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Templates here at Sweet Shoppe Designs but here are a few specific things I want to point out:
- The mini album templates are 5×7 inches which for me is the perfect balance of size and at-home printability since you can print 2 5×7 pages on a single 8.5×11 pages. Woohoo for saving trees!
- I designed the templates to be a starting point for building your Holiday album foundations pages so I kept the design simple so you can dress them up or down depending on your personal style. The goal is to let your photos, memorabilia and memories take center stage.
- I will be going with a Holiday Faves theme for my album with my plan being to document my top ten favorite things from this Holiday season (with the backup plan being if I only get to say, 5, it’ll be ok). But if you’re not a Faves fiend like I am, haha, I also included a “Holiday Memories” cover and journaling option as well a list of the fonts I used so you can customize your own.
- One thing I missed from December Daily last year was capturing a few of the more broad holiday themes, like decorations, music, etc so this year I’ve included 8 additional more general holiday-themed journaling cards for documenting those stories.
What’s really cool about these templates is not only can you use these mini album templates for creating your own Holiday album but I will be using them to create my own album as well.
And starting next week here on the blog, I will be sharing more details on how I’m personally using these templates to create the foundation for my own Holiday Faves album and of course throughout December I’ll be showing how it all comes together as well. It’s going to be fun so I hope you’ll come scrap along with me!
The Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Templates Vol. 2 are available now at Sweet Shoppe Designs and are 20% off thru Saturday, November 17th.
So now’s a great time to get yourself ready to scrap your holiday heart out.
I am so behind with my PL pages already, I’m not taking any pictures and I’m working 60+ hours a week. So I really, really wasn’t going to even attempt a December album this year. But this one looks so great again, I may try nevertheless.
Do it, do it. LOL!
Bought it. Not sure, how well I will be doing though. Work continous to be super crazy, I am SO looking forward to the holidays!
But hey, it’s not like christmas goodies will ever go out of style, right?
I knew I wanted to do a Holiday/December album, but I could not figure out how I wanted to do it. I failed 2 years ago and didn’t even make an attempt last year. My format required me to be creative and do an entire layout everyday. By the 13th I was done. When I saw this post I knew how I was going to do my album. I just got my prints and I am super excited to start putting it together. So very excited. This project is what I needed to get my happy for this incredibly busy holiday season. Here is a link to my foundation pages: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stemsphoto/sets/72157632068990551/
Yay! SO excited! I love your pages – thanks so much for sharing and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
I plan to purchase the templates tonight and am excited to get started. However, I haven’t found a 7×5 album. Any idea where I can purchase one or can you explain how you make yours? Thank you!
Hi Rose! I’m working on a post that will have more details about how I’m making my cover this year but it’s really easy to make your own using chipboard or another sturdy paper product. This year I’m making mine using these 8×8 Cinch book boards which I trimmed down to 6×8 so my pages have a little room to breathe: http://store.scrapbook.com/wr-61245-2.html
But last year I used Watercolor Board which you can find in the fine art paint section in most any craft store (I bought mine at Michael’s). This post has all the details about that: http://modern-school.flywheelsites.com/2011/12/14/holiday-faves-album-update-cover-and-faves-3-4/ Once I finished the album, I added a fabric spine to make it look more book like. Step by step directions for that can be found here: http://modern-school.flywheelsites.com/2012/01/13/holiday-faves-mini-album-how-to-add-a-fabric-spine-my-final-thoughts-on-this-project/
Hope that helps and if you have any other questions, let me know!
Thank you so much!! That’s a big help. So, are your pages just the prints you make and then you hole punch them? If so, are you adhering the backs to each other or to another paper product?
Sorry for all the questions, I really want to make this happen this year!
Yep! I just print two 5×7-inch pages on a single sheet of 8.5×11 paper, trim them each to 5×7 with a paper trimmer and then punch holes in them using my Cropodile punch. I do usually create a hole punch template using a scrap piece of paper so it’s easy to make sure the holes are lined up on each page. Right now I left all of the pages loose, as in not glued together, but as I add things to the book, I will be either adding photos or memorabilia on the backs of the pages or glueing two of the printed pages together. So by the time the book is done, every page should be two sheets thick. But I like keeping them free when I start in case I decide I need to move pages around and such.
Hope that helps and if you have any other questions, let me know. I’m happy to help! 🙂