Welcome back to the next step in getting your December Daily completed this year!  Today you are going to gather up all of your supplies into one central location.  Gathering your supplies is important because you might feel overwhelmed at some point in December (who doesn’t, right??), and you don’t want to hunt for that “perfect” thing to add to your album on Day 6!  Searching through your entire stash while trying to schedule in December Daily can really cause some serious frustration and you may end up with a dusty, half finished project!

Advantages of A Kit

By gathering your supplies, you actually free yourself up to be more creative, because your stuff is all together.  It enables you to create in your 15 minutes of free time that may happen throughout the day or just as you walk by your project.  My favorite perk about this process is that you re-familiarize yourself with the supplies you have already in your stash.  Don’t allow yourself to get into a rut, because you cannot decide what to use!  Creating a kit limits what you see in front of you and really helps with the decision making process.


The kit allows your supplies to get you excited about this awesome project again.  I personally love looking through my supplies, and I always get new ideas about how to use something when I’m building my kit for my projects.  Plus, hello - it feels like shopping! Shopping your own stash of really cool stuff!  Gathering your supplies can also involve gathering up sketches and inspiration to further encourage you.  You want to have everything you need to create when you have the chance to sit down and play. 

Don’t get bogged down!
Get an Iris container from Michael's or your local crafting store (if you don’t already have one) and put everything into the container that you think you might possibly use for this project.  It’s all at hand that way.  It’s so much easier when you can pull out your kit when you get 5 or 10 minutes to work on your project and get some work done.  Remember to simplify your process so that you can schedule it into your day!  Make this project work for you - not the other way around!  Remember - this is fun stuff! 

Wondering what to grab?  Ali Edwards has a great FAQ on her December Daily project page where she lists what you need to complete a December Daily.

My December Daily 2015 Kit

I like to include a mix of stuff.  I have patterned paper, embellishment stickers, alphas and thickers, along with a huge mix of other embellishments (chipboard, sequins, wood veneer, etc).  It’s actually crazy how much stuff I have gathered for my December Dailies over the last several years.  I actually have expanded from one Iris container to three and a tote basket!  Now it’s time to use some of that up, since I’m going to totally complete this year’s album!  I also like to have a good mix of pocket style cards, because I enjoy mixing up my albums and including 6x8 page protectors along with some interactive pages. 



Don’t forget these items:

• Writing Utensil - I like my black sharpie pen, but I also have a gold and a silver sharpie marker that I like to use in my December Daily.
• Stamps - any kind of decorative stamp, journaling stamps, alpha stamps, date roller, christmas themed, winter themed, sentiments, etc.
• Punches - December Daily is a great time to pull out your stash of punches that rarely get any use - snowflakes, stars, circles, christmas and winter themed punches.  Florals can also make some great snowflakes when layered up together and corner punches add great detail as well.
• Cardstock that coordinates with your main holiday line - This is one of the few times during my scrapbooking process that I go through tons of cardstock!  You can use cardstock for your tags, journaling spots, photo mats, backgrounds, pocket scrapbooking cards, and cameo/die cuts.  So make sure you include some with your supplies!
• Project life/pocket style scrapbooking cards - If you have any neutral themed 3x4 or 4x6 cards that you’re struggling to use December Daily is a great time to incorporate these elements into your pages.  Pocket style cards can be layered on, journaled on, photos added to, or used as filler spots.
• Album - this is a very important part of your December Daily kit.  Your album will decide what the largest page size you can include will be.  Also, depending on which style of album you choose it will influence what kinds of supplies you need to gather.  If you choose to do a pocket page album, you will obviously need more pocket page cards, and you will probably want to choose thin embellishments and less patterned paper than a 12x12 album would require.

 

Benefits to Shopping Your Stash

When you gather your supplies together, you see how much you actually have already.  Yes, the new collections are utterly adorable and perfectly delicious.  Yes I want to buy some of each one.  But, I know I have way too much stuff already since all of my December Daily supplies are together.  There is nothing that I really need in order to complete my December Daily album this year.

I’d love to hear what you find out about your own stash once you have all your supplies gathered up.  Did you find that you have a ton of wood veneer and you’ve never even used a piece?  Then it’s time to add wood veneer to every page while your working on your foundations!  Take advantage of familiarizing yourself with your stash so that you can make notes of what you actually need to buy and what you need to make a priority to use this year!