December Daily 2013 // Supplies + Organization

The most wonderful time of year has arrived yet again! I love Christmastime and I love documenting the holiday season each year by creating a December Daily. This will be my 4th year making one, and I'm proud to say all of my previous books are complete (I won't tell you how long past December it took me to finish them though, ha!).

Since I am doing Project Life still, I've decided that this year's December Daily book will just focus on the festive and holiday-related events throughout the month of December. So I'm not necessarily making a page for each day of December, but this will be more like a holiday mini-book :)

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Supplies // There are two themes I am a sucker for - travel themed products and holiday collections. I love Christmas stuff! But I always resolve to use a mix of new supplies + old stash when I make this mini-album each year, or else getting new supplies doesn't make sense because the old will just pile up. This year, I'll be using Studio Calico's beautiful December Daily kit. It comes with a lovely star-embossed album, but after some indecisiveness, I finally chose to use the red fabric SC handbook from the Magical collection that I bought instead. The trees on the cover - swoon! I'll save the star embossed album for a future project :)

I'll also be using my own holiday printables + winter printables (coming soon!) for journaling cards and some paper embellishments. I've pulled together lots of things from my stash that I may want to use as well - wood veneer, flair buttons, alphas, stamp sets, supplies from past December Daily kits etc. I'll have plenty to work with and more than enough supplies, but I like having variety and the options right in front of me!

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Organization // I would much prefer to spend my money on supplies than on storage, ha. So instead of buying new boxes and trays and what not, I rummaged around at home to see what I could repurpose and use for storing my December Daily supplies. I'm happy to report that we had plenty of boxes at home that worked perfectly for my supplies! Japanese confectionery packaging ftw.

I thought it would be fun to show you how I'm organizing my supplies...I don't think I've ever done this before. Since I don't pre-make my DD pages, it is super helpful to have all my supplies gathered in one place and even better that I've gotten them all organized before December :) It'll definitely cut down time and I don't have to constantly dig through my stash to look for what I need!

01. Small Embellishments + Ribbon + Twine
This box used to hold Japanese confectionery, but now it's the perfect place for my little embellishments! There are two removable trays with little compartments that I've filled with Studio Calico wood veneer, flair buttons, sequins + gold paper clips from the SC DD, and some transparent die-cuts. I decided to cut the tray on the right side in half, so that the back of the box can hold my ribbons from the SC DD kit + SC DD class kit. The twine has a sheen of glitter gold and is from here.

02. Stamps + Washi Tape
I combined two boxes for this storage piece. The aqua box holds my assortment of stamps, the majority of which are from Studio Calico. The front stamp set is from the SC DD kit; it's super cute! I also pulled out KP's DD stamp set from last year, Mama Elephant stamps (Merry Greetings, Winter Wonderland and Remember December), and Elle's Studio Noel stamp set.

There's room at the front of the box to hold some washi tape. I have way more washi tape than this, but I picked out some metallics, reds, blues, and a few multi-colored ones that I know I'll reach for often. These tapes are all from my favorite brand, MT, and were purchased when I was in Japan. You'll probably be able to find them on etsy.

03. 12x12 Papers + Alphas

I have one thin vertical storage folder that I'll be using for 12x12 paper & alpha/thicker storage. I don't want an overwhelming amount of papers to choose from since there are already 6x8 papers included in the SC DD kit, but I chose a couple favorites and some basics from Studio Calico's older Classic Calico collections. The navy gold foil star paper? So. amazing. It's from SC's Blue Note kits, and you can also pick some up in the SC patterned paper set this month. As for the alphas and thickers, they're a mix of ones from past DD kits and a few favorites.  

04. Journaling Cards + Embellishments

Lastly, I re-purposed another confectionery box for embellishment + journaling cards storage. There is actually a tray with a few compartments, and I put that tray in a slightly larger box so that I could put the 6x8 patterned papers and larger embellishment sheets from the SC DD kit behind the tray. Hope that makes sense!  

The right half of the tray is empty/has no compartments. It's perfect for my journaling cards (I'll be using a combination of Studio Calico cards + my own printables), a little lacquer bowl with wood veneer alphas (from the SC DD kit), and a couple roller date stamps.

The left side of the tray has three compartments. In the back, I've put a bunch of the embellishments from the SC DD kit. The 2nd compartment in the middle is more shallow, and it perfectly fits the large wood veneer pieces and transparency cards. I also added some fun paper bags that I can use in my mini. The front compartment holds some miscellaneous embellishments I've found in my stash, Asian stationery (polar bears and penguins? yes please), and my printables in a ziploc bag that I've already cut out and are ready to use. 

That's pretty much it! This post turned out to be a lot longer than I expected, but I hope you enjoyed a peek into my December Daily thoughts, prep & supplies. I'll be back soon to share my album cover. If you're wanting more DD inspiration, sign up for Studio Calico's 25 Days class! Registration ends really soon - Nov 30. I'm excited to be a contributor to this class and will be sharing some of my DD pages exclusively in the classroom :) Thanks for stopping by today!