Welcome to the Mrs Brimbles Festive Memory Keeping project!
Now I warn you now that this post is loooooooong! Very long but it (hopefully) contains lots of useful information for you for starting your own festive memory keeping project. Please do read towards the end for the giveaway stuff.
This is an exciting project that I hope you will take part in even
if it is in part. I know a monthly challenge can be quite daunting at first but
once you get into it you will hopefully find that you are loving it and can’t
wait to do it the next day and the next. So what is it all about?
You
may have heard the term ‘December Daily’ banded about quite a bit. This is
actually the copyrighted term that the lady, Ali Edwards founded. She created a
whole community of documenting 1st – 25th December in a
pocket scrapbook type album. These days, whilst her community and business is
still going strong, many people use the term DD for all sorts of memory keeping
projects or indeed projects that they do daily during December. I call it my
Festive Memory Keeping Project (FMKP ) just to avoid any copyright issues and
because I actually do mine from 30th November (the day we write our
letters to FC) through to 1st January. In the past couple of years I
have done this in a travelers notebook insert but this year I am using an
altered children’s storybook. If you would like to see that and my past FMKP
why not check out the playlist that I have on YouTube.
Getting
started, what do you need?
All you will need is your album which can be a scrapbook or pocket
scrapbook style album or it could be a journal or travelers notebook. Anything
that you would like to create in really. Of course you could just write rather
than use photos so it could just be a lined notebook. It is entirely up to you
as to how deep you would like to go with this project. To create your project
you will need:
·
A pen to write your journaling not matter how
much you do
·
Scissors
·
Glue Stick or double sided tape
·
Your Photos
It is also really fun to add other things in like ephemera, washi
tape, stickers to decorate your pages but these are not essential. Don’t get
bogged down or overwhelmed about having ‘stuff’ whilst it is really nice to
have and lots of fun, the key here is to document your memories so
embellishments just enhance that.
Using Photos
In 2016 I used my iphone to take my photos and then print them out
using a Polaroid Zip (a HP sprocket is pretty much the same). In 2017 Jon
bought me a Canon Selphy so I used that in part last year and will be using it
again for 2018. I like to use the app ‘photo grid’ to print two 3x4 or four 2x3
photos per 6x4 photo paper as I find one 6x4 is just too big for my pages. You
may choose to print your photos out yourself at home or at a shop. Some days I
just have one photo per day and other days I have more. It all depends on what
we have done that day as to how much I want to document. I am a bit of a photo
taking nerd though so generally it will be multiple for me! So yeah some days I
have one photo on one page and then other days where we have a lot going on it
will be multiple pages.
Finding the
time & Inspiration
For the most part I do my pages every night sitting on the sofa
watching TV. It doesn’t take me very long as I collate all of the supplies that
I want to use in a bag which I put together before the project starts. Having
them all to hand is a massive time saver for me because I don’t have to spend
ages trying to find things and I also don’t stress over the perfect
embellishment or sticker. I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about
there. I think we have all spent longer than necessary deliberating over which
sticker to use. So pulling
everything together at the start I find to be such a time saver. I did a video
on prepping for it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgNY40aGSeo&t=436s
I prefer to document my day every evening or at least the next
night if we are out. I find it easier as the memories are really fresh in my
mind, if I leave it too long it kind of all gets forgotten. Do whatever works
for you though with the time that you have, if you prefer to batch process a
whole week in one go then go for it. The whole point of this project is that it
is supposed to be a fun way to document your Christmas. Don’t stress if you
miss a day, just do it when you can.
One of my biggest problems is that I struggled to narrow it down
some days as to what to document as some days there seemed to be more than
others. Some days it was hard but I always found something. I have had people
say to me on my journal videos in the past that their lives are boring and they
wouldn’t know what to write about. I can assure you that your day to day life
right now may seem that way to you but in 50 years time you will look back on
your right now and feel totally differently about it. Just imaging how you
would feel if your Grandparent kept a Christmas memory album and you found it
in the attic one day. I know I would be pretty excited by it. I would love to
know what a mundane day was like for them, what they ate, what they wore etc.
so please don’t feel this way. Not every day has to be all confetti and
lightning.
Prompts to
give you a helping hand
So you will probably have your own ideas based around the
traditions you have as a family and things going on around you so use your
daily life as prompts. Of course it might be really nice to look back on
Christmas of your past or childhood. You could journal about your traditions and
things that you did to pass along to your children.
1. What do you
do when you write to Father Christmas? Photograph the kids writing their
letters and maybe how lovely it is spending time together getting excited. Take
a photo of their letters to add to your journal. Maybe consider adding their
letter to your project (see the parents note under the prompts!) You get always
get your child to write their wish list into you project too.
2. Advent
calendars – capture your child’s excitement as they see their calendar for the
first time. What did they think? What calendar did they get?
3. Lights – go
for a walk and document and photo the lights in your street, village or town.
Who has the best, most tasteful and who has the craziest show. Do you have
lights outside your house, what and why?
4. Document
buying or choosing your tree – take photos in the shop. My Mum once bought a
6ft plastic tree home on the bus, luckily you had to put it together but the
box was still pretty big!
5. Document
trimming the tree, are your lights in a jumbles mess?
6. Do you have
a favourite ornament? Why is it your favourite? Does it have sentimental value?
Maybe a deceased loved one gave you it or maybe you bought it on an exotic
holiday. We always go away in November for our Wedding anniversary (except this
year lol) and we always buy a bauble with the name of the place we are at for
our tree. And of course fashions change too!
7. Document
your Christmas music collection or just talk about your favourites and why they
are that. Did your Dad always do Karaoke to Slade? Does good old Bing always
make you wish you had snow at Christmas?
8. Everyone
loves a good snuggly Christmas movie right? What’s your favourite? What is the
cheesiest one? You could draw your favourite scene or you could photograph your
collection of DVDs
9. Christmas
jumpers used to be a bit of a joke but now they really are a thing that a lot
of people wear in the festive season. A good selfie in yours would be fab or
maybe a family photo all wearing Christmas jumpers, PJs etc. I took a photo last
year and the year before of Miss B’s Christmas jumpers all drying on the
radiator. It was below a shelf with Christmas decorations on and it looked
really cute.
10. Take photos
of the decorations around your house. Why do you have those?
11. Document
your gift buying, you can take photos of the shops, your bags or your weary
feet. Do flat lay of the gifts you bought for each person.
12. Don’t forget
to photograph the gifts once they are all nicely wrapped. A nice staged shot of
your wrapping paper and tape or the presents under the tree.
13. Like most
people I love it when coffee shops bring out their Christmas cups. I don’t get
to those shops much as I don’t really go into town much but at Christmas time I
do like to treat myself and make a trip. You could consider treatingyourself
and photograph your cup and your tasty treat.
14. Take a photo
of your feet, where you are standing right now. Why are you there and what are
you doing? Bonus points for a Christmas chaos or Christmas prep you are doing.
15. Do you love
baking? Don’t forget to document the mince pies, Christmas cake or Christmas
pud being made. Show how messy you got the kitchen in the process or how you
burnt them.
16. Was your
child in a nativity play or did you go and see a pantomime or show?
17. What was the
last day of work like for you or the last day of school? Did you have a get
together with the girls for pre Christmas drinkies?
18. How about
your weekly food shopping? What does that look like this time of year? What is
the price of basic things like food, bread, petrol etc. I like documenting
things like that as it is good to look back on. Photograph your receipt
(thermally printed receipts fade!)
19. Do you have
any Christmas traditions in your family? Document those.
20. How do you
display your Christma cards?
21. What about
your wishlist? You could screen shot your Amazon wish list, or write your list
down.
22. Whilst we
are talking about screen shots, a screen shot of a text message to a friend or
special someone wishing them a Merry Christmas is a lovely addition to a
project.
23. As you come
to the end of the month do you have any reflections on the year. Goals or
aspirations for the coming year.
24. Document
your crafts and anything you made or your kids have made.
25. Find the joy
and the bliss in the ordinary and the snuggly. I like to photograph me
snuggling under a blanket eating popcorn or a hot chocolate with marshmallows.
Not every day has to be amazing the ordinary days are just as cozy.
26. Us Brits
especially like to talk about the weather. How was the weather for you today?
Were you all bundled up? Was it all frosty and icy this morning and you had to
defrost your car before you could go to work but actually whilst a bit annoying
it was really pretty. Maybe we got that elusive snow day. Hoar frost (Google it if you don’t know
what I mean…it’s very pretty!) is especially lovely to photograph on spider
webs and plants in the garden!
27. Christmas
Eve! Did you put a mince pie and a tipple out for FC? Did you go to church? Out
for drinks? Do you always watch Santa Claus the movie?
28. Christmas
Day!!! This is the big day! The day where you might want to use several pages
and I hope you have so much content lol! You have the presents, the meal, the
games, Grandad asleep on the sofa still wearing his cracker hat etc. Go to town
people!
29. 29. Boxing
Day. What is that to you? Do you do it all again, do you hang out in your PJs
all day watching movies and eating chocolate. The left over buffet. Whatever
you do document it.
30. New Years
Eve, do you celebrate? If you do document that. Maybe some screen shots of Big
Ben and fireworks. You could talk about the past year and close it down and
talk about the New Year coming in.
31. Did you
visit santa in his grotto this year? Don’t forget to add that!
OK so that is just a few prompts for you lol enough for everyday
of the month if you need to use them! Throw in what has being going on for you
and you have more than enough for your album or journal. Oh and it’s OK to do
more than one thing a day. If you are still stuck for ideas or just want a bit
of inspiration (because quite frankly who doesn’t like ogling at other people’s
creations) I have curated a YouTube list of videos as well as a Pinterest board
to help give you some ideas.
My Tips
A little tip and a heads up for parents… you need to have a think
in advance about whether or not you will be showing your journal or album to
your children either now or in the future. If your children believe in Father
Christmas you may want to not photograph the wrapping paper or presents that
are associated with the big man in red! You don’t want to shatter your child’s
Christmas dreams if they flick through your album and there are photos of you
wrapping the toy that Santa gave them that year.
Another little tip I would like to share with you: I have an app
on my phone called ‘catch Santa’. I love it and it’s a great little tool. You
just take a picture and use their app to put Santa in the photo. I have used it
for a couple of years to add Santa next to our tree on Christmas Eve with the
presents around it. It can look a little fake so I always make my photo in the
CS app and then import it into instagram or RD Magic by Rhonna and play around
with filters until it looks right in my eyes. Whilst we are talking photo apps
for your phone (p.s. I use an iphone so I don’t know if these are available for
android so don’t shoot me if they are not), I love to add text to my photos and
my two favourite apps for doing this are Rhonna Designs and Little Moments by
Fat Mum Slim. I think text on photos adds a little something and doing it on
your phone is very quick and easy especially if you don’t have photoshop or any
editing software.
Let’s get
documenting
Hopefully you have everything you need at your fingertips now to
create your amazing festive memory keeping project. If you do need yet more
tips, advice or help get involved in the Mrs Brimbles Happy Place. We already
have some great ideas in there on how to make shaker pockets etc with sequins
when you don’t have a Fuse tool.
Don’t forget to share how your getting on too so that we can all get
inspired by each other. You may be using an item in a way we hadn’t thought of
before so it would be great to see. Please don’t be shy, no one is judging you
at all, we are just happy to see your creations.
If you want to play along for fun
then start posting your photos of your completed project page(s) from 1st
December. Remember to use the hashtag: #mrsbrimblesfestivememorykeeping
(sorry it’s long lol!) so that we can find your photos
and see what you are up to. You can post anywhere on social media but if you
want to be in with a chance of winning the prize it needs to be on instagram or
in the Mrs Brimbles Happy Place group on Facebook (or
both of course). If you are playing along with this in order win the prize
please do make sure that you read all guidelines on how to enter and the
rules below oh and if you want to be in with winning the prize you
will need to register on the giveaway widget below too! To be in with
the prize you DON’T have to post every day BUT you DO have to post your
completed month of pages by the end of the challenege. Of course if you don’t
want to be in with winning the prize you can post for fun and we would still
love to see all of your photos.
If this challenge / project is a bit too in depth
for you but you still want something to push yourself creatively then I also
have the usual #mrsbrimblesdecdaily challenege
prompts for you to use. There is a prize for this too.
Check out ‘the rules’ below if
you would like to play along for the prize!
Well that is all from me! I really hope you enjoy your project!
Much Love
The Rules
I know, so boring that there needs to be rules
but there does so that everyone is clear on what they need to do and to keep it
fair to everyone participating!
The Rules for both challenges…
·
You need to be following me on
instagram: @mrsbrimbles please do not tag me in your photos as I will get lots of
notifications. I will see your photos on the hashtag!
·
The prompts are just that,
prompts, interpret them as you will, or if you are stuck for inspiration just
post a photo anyway! If you haven't registered on the widget you won't be
elligible to win the prize so you will just be doing the challenge for fun
which is totally fine with me if it is with you.You can register at any time
from now but photo posting on instagram and in the Facebook group starts on 1st
December 2018.
·
You DO NOT have to post
everyday but you do have to post all of your photos (see below) by the
deadline. You DO NOT have to post in numerical order, you can post any prompt
on any day and any number of photos on any day.
·
Once the competition has closed
a winner will be drawn by random using the giveaway widget, and emailed. The
winners name will appear on the giveaway widget once closed.
·
The winner will be emailed by
me to arrange receipt of the prize.
·
Your email address will be
added to my newsletter database - I will not sell this to anyone else nor will
I constantly be spamming you and you can unsubscribe at any time!
·
Open internationally
·
You must be over eighteen years
of age or have parental / guardian permission.
·
The prizes stated are the only
prize(s) - no cash alternative.
·
One winner for each challenege will
be chosen at random and notified by email. Winner(s) will be announced on this
page on the rafflecopter widget after the closing date.
·
If the winner(s) do not respond
to my email within 48 hours a new winner(s) will be chosen
Brimbles
Festive Memory keeping Project
·
You must post photos of all 31
of your pages on instagram or Mrs Brimbles Happy Place Facebook group (or both)
using the hashtag #mrsbrimblesfestivememorykeeping
·
You have until 7am GMT on 30th
January 2019 to register for the giveaway on the widget below AND to complete
the photo challenge on instagram / Facebook.
·
Prize: £30
store credit to spend in my shop
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Mrs Brimbles Dec Daily Photo Posting Challenge
· You must post 5 photos from the prompts that are inspiring you on instagram or Mrs Brimbles Happy Place Facebook group (or both) using the hashtag #mrsbrimblesdecdaily and #mrsbrimblesdecdaily2018
· You have until 7am GMT on 5th January 2019 to register for the giveaway on the widget below AND to complete the photo challenge on instagram / Facebook.
· Prize: £15 store credit to spend in my shop
a Rafflecopter giveaway
(All photos in this post are my photos I have taken in past Christmasses and have shared on my instagram feed
@mrsbrimbles this year I have a new feed
@thewhimsicalcloud for personal photo sharing like this!)
