Hi there! It’s Jamaica. Instead of sharing my scrapbook with you today I thought I’d share a little bit of the prep work I’ve done for my December Daily and talk about the approach I’m going to take. This is the 8th year I’ll have made a minibook celebrating the season and I’m looking forward to it. Last year I spent all my time focusing on my mini rather than my project life album, which ended up pretty sparse. I threw in a few unused photos, some leftover Christmas cards and then, put it on the shelf. To be honest, by the time December was over I didn’t want to go back and piece together the missing month. This year is going to be different.

Here’s my plan: The mini will have one Instagram photo for each day paired with a piece of patterned paper and the date with a brief explanation, if needed. Similar to what I did last year, it should be quick and easy. That will allow me to focus on keeping my scrapbook current. There will probably be some overlap between the two, but I’m okay with that.

To help streamline the process of working on my mini this year, I pulled together a collection of papers in a set color palette. This will reduce the time I spend thinking about my options. Because I’m not a fan of the traditional red and green, I went with a non-traditional approach using black/whites, aquas, softer orange- or pinky-reds, and neutrals with lots of woodgrain and sparkle. The great thing about going the non-traditional route is that you can use anything, it doesn’t have to be holiday-specific. Here’s a closer look at the options I chose.

 Black/white: (left to right) charcoal gray Pow glitter paper from my collection, gray stripes from dec, you are a fav no. 2, plusses from more + less, black december from dec, you are a fav no. 2, and a piece of white textured woodgrain wrapping paper.

Aqua: (papers from these collections in order from left to right) road trip, the weekender, the weekender, outdoorsy, outdoorsy, and dear santa cut from vellum using december faves (cutting files)

Reds: (from left) red stripe from press cards no. 29, neon screenprint from LifeLovePaper, red on red pattern from my stash, red sentiment from happiness and joy holiday card template, red triangles from road trip

Neutrals: (from left) dark woodgrain from outdoorsy, textured woodgrain from my stash, trees from dec, you are a fav no. 2, woodgrain from woodgrain journaling cards, and gold Pow glitter paper

Here’s a look at them all together—some of my all time favorites, a handful of new holiday pieces and a little bit of glitter. Perfect. I will probably pull in a few other papers as the month progresses but this gives me a beautiful, coordinated collection to start with. If you’re planning to do a December Daily album this year, don’t be afraid to stray from red and green, and work in your favorite patterns like I did.

Happy holiday crafting!

xo, jamaica

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