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Documenting December: Story 24 of my 2024 December Daily Album


Beige background with a white tree and star on the left. Text reads "Documenting December twenty four, Story 24: Open House" in bold and script fonts.

Welcome back to Documenting December—my Christmas in July blog series where I’m sharing one story a day from my completed 2024 December Daily album. Each post offers a peek at my digital pages created in Affinity Publisher for iPad, along with tips, techniques, and creative encouragement for finishing your own album.


I’ve also included a link to the corresponding post(s) on Ali Edwards’ blog. I encourage you to open it in a separate window so you can see how my digital pages were inspired by the physical versions she shared.

December Daily Story 24: Open House

Here is a link to the post on Ali's blog that inspired this spread:


Every Christmas Eve, our friends, Jay + Katie, host a festive Open House—and it’s always a great time. I love that this layout includes a mix of candid photos that reflect the joyful energy of the evening.

Collage of Christmas Eve party with people playing games, exchanging gifts, and socializing. Text includes "24," "Make Some Merry."


Circles are usually a simple design element…unless I’m the one using them. I really wanted to incorporate the digital version of the circle die cut insert Ali used in her story, but I ended up fiddling with it far too long before realizing it would’ve been easier to just draw my own circles from scratch. I totally overcomplicated things when I sat down to create this page. Live and learn!


Collage of Christmas party photos with people socializing, playing games, and celebrating. Text: "Make some merry," "Reindeer Games," "24."

Here’s how this page came together:


  • Background: I layered the 10x8 “Ho Ho Ho” transparency over a large beige rectangle. The roundness of the letter O works so well with the circular photo theme!

  • White base shape: I created white circles using the Shape Tool and arranged them as a background for the photos and journaling. Once I had the layout just right, I merged them into one large shape and added a drop shadow.

  • Photo circles: A smaller circle was duplicated and used as a clipping mask for each photo. I also filled some circles with solid colors to hold journaling and word art.

  • Word art: The “make some merry” phrase is one of the hundreds of word art stamps I’ve collected from Ali over the years!

  • Segment shapes: Publisher’s Shape Tool has a neat “Segment” shape—I used that to make the half-circle sections for the “reindeer games” and “funny gifts” titles. If you're curious, I shared how I stretched text to fit these shapes in the first post of this series.

  • Centerpiece: For the focal point, I created a large red circle with a white outline and added the number “24” from the Numbers Are Awesome 7 Stamp Set. I clipped a gold foil texture to it and layered on a 3D effect to give it an embossed look.


Green background with white stars, "grateful" in bold letters. Holiday words encircle it. Photos show holiday decor and text "DECEMBER DETAILS".

That’s a wrap for Story 24! I’ll be back tomorrow to share the final pages of my 2024 December Daily album. Can you believe it?



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