Just 12 Days

 It's the third of December today and I know many of you had thought to do a daily album in December and are saying, "Darn! I'm already behind." My answer is a "Just 12 Days album" copyright Karen Poirier-Brode 2014. It does not have to be Dec 25 to Jan 5 traditional 12 days of Christmas album at all. In fact, just pick any 12 days from Thanksgiving to Jan 7. Why the 7th of January? Orthodox Christmas could be a part of the mix too. This means those of you who celebrate other holidays like Kwanzaa, Solstice and Hanukah, as well as those who have no faith tradition, but celebrate the New Year and the change of seasons and celebration of love need not feel excluded from this custom of documenting the end of one year and/or the start of the next. Another option is to take 12 days in which you celebrate 12 things. I'll discuss that more in a future post. The purpose of a time frame is to focus on this end of the year and start of the next. One of the things that folk who do document in December like is taking out several years albums and seeing the consistencies and changes over time.

Now, to the nitty-gritty. Will I do videos of the process? Maybe. I do plan photos and idea prompts.

My first suggestion for those who are feeling overwhelmed but want to be a part of the annual documentation is to either purchase a mini album or make a simple ring bound album.
Here's a nice mini album at Scrapbook.com Basic Grey 8x8 album. Other sizes of minibooks or a Smash Book are options. For those who celebrate a traditional Christmas, here's a quick and inexpensive Smash book option at Amazon.com. Smash Holiday Journal Bundle

Making your own album is a very easy and inexpensive option and lets you work on that stash of yours. A simple ring bound album needs relatively sturdy covers like cardstock covered cardboard and the pages could be patterned paper but I'm going to suggest cardstock, the idea once again is sturdiness. You can, of course, cover or embellish the papers with patterned paper. Punch holes that you align on the left side of the closed assembled book and add rings. One to three rings should work. I'd suggest more rings if you plan a lot more than 12 pages. Here are some rings that would work well (and come in red, too!) Binding rings at Amazon.com
Add some bright ribbons with beads and charms to the rings if you wish.

If you decide to make your own album in 8.5 x 11 you can include standard card pocket pages if you want to include lots of photos. That's another inexpensive variation. I've found these on-line Coupon pocket pages and a large selection at Amazon.com: Amazon.com baseball card protector pages. Most craft and hobby or office supply stores will have these, too.

You can see a color scheme I've chosen for this album above. It does not include the gold that is popular right now but I think gold accents could be added to the mix easily and would work.

Here is some information for those who want to know more about my color choices. I've picked a true red and true pink. The green I've chosen is a shade of green that's a bit on the yellow-green side of the spectrum, what I think of as a nice evergreen. A warm silver/grey, a warm brown and a raspberry round out my choices. The raspberry is a not too deep shade of red with just the slightest move to the red-violet part of the color wheel. By shades, I do mean a color with a bit of black. Those of you who have played with mixing colors will understand these terms. If you have questions about color theory, you can google the topic and here is a site with some good basic definitions and explanations Color Properties at Workwithcolor.com.

I hope to work on my album this weekend and will be back with some photos, page suggestions and more through the month.