December Daily 2011 – The Before Pages

As December approaches, I wanted to get ready with my album. My goal this year was to do my version of the Shabby Travel Journals that Mary Ann Moss makes. I signed up for her Remains of the Day class a few months ago, watched the videos and spent a while (much longer than I’d hoped) putting my book together.

Here’s how it looks now. As we get closer to December, I will talk more about some of my decisions and plans this year. I apologize in advance that many of the photos are not 100% clear. My lens is for portrait shots and has a shallow depth of field so it’s not the best to take these kinds of photos. My book has about 80 pages so, after a while, I got bored and just wanted to get it done. 🙂

I also added a movie in the end so you can see it a bit better. Feel free to ask any questions you might have. You are forewarned, there are a LOT of photos in this post:

Here’s the cover. It will likely change a bit but I kept it simple for now.

Here it is without the ribbon:

and the back:

the book has 2 signatures. Each signature has 10 pages that go across so it’s a total of 40 pages per signature and 80 in the whole book. I checked the last 3 years and I average about 75-80 pages each year.

Here’s the first page:

I didn’t put any numbers this year. Wanted to leave it more free form. Some of the pages are photos I took in the previous years. You can see one on the right side of the this next photo.

here are more pages:

here’s one with an overlay. You can’t see it but that’s a pocket so I can put something under the overlay.

and here’s another photo on the left and an overlay flap on the right.

more pages:

middle of the first signature:

more photos and pages:

and the end of the first signature:

beginning of the second signature:

more of the same kinds of pages with photos and overlays:

some of the pages were coming apart due to my bad stitching so I taped them:

middle of second signature:

and more pages:

and here it is on the table:

And here’s the video I promised. I apologize in advance for my yucky computer fan that would not quiet down:

And there you go. I have mixed feelings about this book but I am grateful that I finally got to try to make one of these shabby journals. Let’s see how it works.

21 comments to December Daily 2011 – The Before Pages

  • This is amazing!!! I wish I could stop by and flip through it. It is so beautiful!

  • Oh, wow, Karen! This is absolutely gorgeous!!! You really did a great job! I love the vintage, shabby feel to it!

  • Karen, it’s STUNNING!!! I really like the pages that are photos from last year. Looking forward to seeing what it looks like when it’s filled up!

  • Hester

    Wow! I love your album,i thought about mixing different papers this year, but was a bit worried it would not look good, but now I see it is all possible. Thanks for sharing your creativity!

  • Stephanie W

    Karen you have outdone yourself. Absolutely gorgeous can’t wait to see the finished product.

  • Mel

    Karen this is wonderful. So different and really lovely.

  • dawn

    Karen it’s beautiful and fun. That is a lot of pages, will you fill them all. Now I might have to give this a try too. My DD is looking boring next to yours. Thanks for sharing and have fun filling it up.

  • Stacy Hart

    love love love

  • Just to let you know the fan noise didn’t bother me at all. I love these things: all the pictures you took of your album, the video you shot to get an inside look and the beautiful cover!!! I noticed a pp with the bird & wreath on a soft blue background, I have that exact paper as well as in digital form!! You made me laugh during your explanation of the clear Hambley Overlays as you specifically mentioned the slot for your hand. ; >. Karen the album looks great, you gave me a lot of ideas. Now I know what to do with my small pieces of clear overlays left over from last year’s DD. THANK YOU for all the work you put just to show us a peek into the album.

    Questions: How often do you replace needle & is it regular or special needle? (Might be a repeat question)
    How did you bind the album together?
    What is the size of album?
    Is the fabric (cover) from a collection your family gave you or did you purchase it locally?
    Is the sleigh a rubber stamp and can you provide source?

    Thank you!!!

    • karenika

      thank you so much 🙂 ok, answers:

      1. i don’t replace the needle unless it breaks 🙂 i use the needle my machine came with, nothing special
      2. it’s 8.5×5.5 or so. I used 8.5×11 pages and folded them in half
      3. do you mean the red one?i bought that at a store in LA a few years ago. the other fabric was one my sister gave me 🙂
      4. The sleigh? I don’t have a sleigh stamp so I’m not sure which page you mean but it must have come with the paper 🙂 If you tell me which page I can tell you the source of the paper (at least I can try!)

  • Wow, I think it looks beautiful! Love how you combined the remains of the day type of journal with december daily project… two birds with one stone (sort of!)

  • These are fabulous pages. I love how you put it all together. It should be lots of fun to journal in. I would love to try something like this sometime. Right now I am working on my first Junque journal – it is fun to experiment! Great job!

  • This is absolutely gorgeous!! I’ve really been wanting to make one of these lately after seeing so many amazing ones online. I just don’t think I have the time for it this December. I can’t wait to see how it looks once you fill it up!!

  • This is a very cool project, Karen! I can never pull off the mix-and-match of different textures, papers, sizes, shapes, etc., but I love how you did it. CanNOT wait until December to see it as (or after) you fill it!

  • Love this – looking forward to seeing how it looks filled.

  • Melanie Kiser

    What an awesome book! I have made two of Mary Ann’s books … I so should do one for my DD journal! Too late now, but there will be next year!

  • I don’t actually … if I get around to it I will post one of them (the other was a gift).

  • Michaela from Germany

    This is so beautiful!!! I also took this class, but my book is not finished yet ….
    I am looking forward to see the pages getting filled

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