Scrapping Christmas part ONE {Christmas in July}

It’s Day 2 of our week long CHRISTMAS IN JULY theme.  It’s nice to take a break from taking and scrapping pool and beach photos and let our minds go back to the days of evergreens, egg nog, and peppermint lattes from Starbucks. Ah….Christmas….my favorite time of year.  I love Christmastime so much that I even chose to get married just one week before the big day. Candles, presents, family, good food, and cozy fires…you really can’t beat it.

One major dilemma that many people have, though, is wondering, “How in the world do I scrap all of these photos?” I know I personally have hundreds of photos from each Christmas and it is easy to feel overwhelmed and lost.  Some people tackle the project head on and scrap every photo before New Years and many people (the majority I think) are too Christmased-out and too overwhelmed by the volume of pictures that they run the other direction and dream of warm summer days.  And then when those warm summer days finally come, Christmas still isn’t scrapped.  Sound like you?

I want to offer a few ways to help you scrap Christmas.  For those who celebrate it, it is one of the biggest days of the year and even for those “non-event” scrappers, Christmas is just too big a deal to skip out on. So where do you start?  I am going to give you my scrapping solution and then later today, offer a few suggestions/ideas from my team as well. I hope that in this, you can find a way to stop hiding from your Christmas photos and start enjoying reliving the memories of those magical mornings.

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Each year, I tackle Christmas scrapping the same way. I like to enjoy a guilt-free life, so I start scrapping Christmas with doing one layout (often a 2-pager) that summarizes the day.  If I can get a good overview of a years Christmas on one (or two) pages, then I feel like I have accomplished something major.  If, when that summary page is done, I still want to scrap more photos — I can.  But if I don’t want to, or if I don’t have time, I rest peacefully knowing that the day has been preserved and my kids can look back and see photos of each year.  Here are my pages from the last few years… (interesting to see how my style has changed and yet also remained the same):

2005

Credits: HOLIDAY MAGIC by Shabby Princess, template by Janet Phillips

2006

Credits: ‘TWAS THE NIGHT by Shabby Princess, template by Janet Phillips

2007

(here are the individual pages)

Credits: ‘TWAS THE NIGHT by Shabby Princess, template by Janet Phillips, Stamped alpha by Nancie Rowe Janitz, font is Printer Primer by Fontologie.

I love how I can see the day all wrapped-up (pun fully-intended) into one page/spread.  It liberates me and makes me want to shout, “I GOT CHRISTMAS SCRAPPED!” Of course, I have done other pages for Christmas, but they were as I was inspired and totally guilt-free.  Some of the other pages I have made a point of doing are first Christmas for the kids, Christmas photo shoots, meeting santa, and a few others.  BUT…and this is a big BUT…if I didn’t get the time to scrap one more page about a particular Christmas, I wouldn’t feel bad.  And that is a GREAT feeling!

Now, I have to admit.  While preparing for this week I starting to feel that sense of guilt start to creep in.  It is July and I had yet to scrap any of our 2008 photos (of which there were 225 from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well as another 394 from the timer/remote I had set to take one picture a minute). So, I took some of my own suggestions, downloaded a new kit, and got scrapping.

Here is how I did it:  I started by jotting down a few things that were important about that day so I would know what photos I needed to represent the day most fully.  After that, I looked through each of the photos and chose to edit a few that I thought best showed the feeling of the day.  I chose one or two pictures from each “part” of the day — sitting with Santa (aka dad), stockings, riding bikes, opening gifts, etc.  I was ready to narrow my selections down but when I counted, there we exactly 20 and I knew that was a doable amount for a two page spread.  I edited away (quick edits since the photos would be so small) and then do what I almost always do — I created a template for myself.  By creating a template first, I don’t have to worry about papers or photos — I could just concentrate on the design.

Then I starting adding photos, wrote down some journaling, prettied it up with gorgeous papers and a few elements, added my title and date and was DONE.  After just about two hours of total work, I have Christmas 2008 scrapped…and that feels SO good!

Credits: JOYFUL TIDINGS by Shabby Princess, brush strokes by Michelle Coleman, Hallowed Out Alpha by Kate Teague, fonts are Typewriter Scribbled and CK Ali’s Hand.

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So there you have it…my secret to a guilt free scrapping existence.  Well, maybe I can’t go that far, but still, I feel great knowing this special day of ours is preserved for years to come.  If and when I get the time, I would love to do some pages such as:

Reading the Christmas Story
Birthday Cake for Jesus
Four kids…same jammies for their first Christmas
Holidays away from home
Our Christmas Meal

…and more.

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Want to know MORE about scrapping Christmas?

Then come back at 3:00 p.m EDT today for a special Part Two of our scrapping Christmas…too much goodness for one post!