Christmas Journal 7th, 8th and 9th!

Catching up now! I DID the pages on time...well almost...but I haven't had a moment to put the pics on! Day 7 was a day for making lists of what still needed doing. Mmmmm quite a lot!

Day 8 was about taking my camera everywhere and taking photos of the preparations that are already going on for Christmas around me. I have to confess I didn't take the pics on that day, they came from a collection I had been taking of shop windows etc in the previous few days!

Final catch up page for now. Brief was to write about the traditions that you have in your family. I think the pic is probably a bit small for you to read them but once you start to think about it I was suprised just how many we have that I am sure may not apply to lots of other families!

Off to cook some jacket spuds to go with Coronation Turkey for tea now and get ready to see the New Year in! I would like to say a big thank you to all you kind people who make the effort to drop by and leave such lovely comments, even when my blogging is so intermittant!
Happy New Year to you all and your families. May 2010 be a fantastic year for you all.

Next CJ Entry

For once I am actually ahead of myself! This CJ entry isn't due to be done until Jan 15th! However I woke up this morning with a really good idea pinging round my brain! The stamp was a rather lovely open wooden door and frame and it just made me think of "Alice In Wonderland". You know the bit where she is in the hallway and she finds the tiny door. Then she drinks the potion to make herself small enough to fit through.....

Rather spookily my sub copy of Craft Stamper arrived yesterday too with a great tutorial on image transfer. Now I have tried this technique several times in different ways and have yet to be successful! So today I found some pics of Alice on the net and armed with the article away I went! Well I can report that FINALLY I got it to work using acrylic paint!

The doorway just HAD to be shrunk in shrink plastic which I then coloured with distress inks. I was going to paint the view but my art skills are minimal and I thought it would spoil it, especially as there is a fantastic hand-painted entry in the CJ already!

For the BG I tried another new technique on my waiting list; stamping in gesso. I painted it thickly over the acrylic paint (used for the transfer remember!!) and stamped with a flourish. Once it was dry I overstamped the same flourish in green. I am quite pleased with the subtle image which shows up better IRL!

Right, that done I am off to catch up with my Christmas Journal......only 2 days behind so I will post some more pics of that when I get a mo!

CJ Entry

Yes it's been a while, but life and that event that happens each year in December have taken over rather! I have been crafting away merrily, just not blogging it as I haven't had the time so there will probably be a series of catch up entries now! I am also trying to keep up with doing Journal Your Christmas and not suceeding very well!
Ok so here is the first entry in a new CJ that I am in and started in November. This is Alisons CJ and she had a cobweb stamp. I have to say that I was feeling rather anti-housework when I did this, having just done the Christmas clean-down and waged my own personal war against the mounting tide of cobwebbage in my house!

I started with turquoise core-dinations card that I embossed and then sanded (to get the 50's styley spots) I wanted a bit of gingham about the thing so I painted with gesso and acrylic paint. I then collaged 50's images that I had stamped or printed and/or hand coloured. I ended with the cobweb over all the household appliances and the text from my stash.
Well off it went and I hope she likes it!
Can I just now wish everyone a very Merry Christmas; please all stay safe and warm and have a lovely time!

Days 5 and 6

Ooo sorry dodgy photes today! But using the flash just "whited" everything out"! Ok Day 5 is about out Advent traditions. Behind doors 5,4,3,and 2 are photoes of the fabric advent calendar we are using this year and journalling is behind door 1! The calendar was made by my Mum and I fill it with pressies for the children who take it in turns to open the pockets!

Day 6 is about two memories; one good,one not so good. Well my lows aren't really that low so I just journalled about how sometimes my OH has to work on CHristmas Day and how we deal with it. My high is Christmas in 1997 when EVERYONE came here for dinner.....

Day 4

Day four was all about the Perfect Christmas; this year I decided to think about how much time we spend striving for perfection. The journalling reads;
"What does make a perfect Christmas? Is there such a thing? Should we worry so much about whether our mince pies are homemade or shop ones; whether we sent a card to everyone who sent us one; whether our tree is decked in the latest colour trend?
Or should we focus on the REAL Christmas? Being able to spend time with loved ones; being thankful that we are safe and warm and fed? Maybe we shouldn't strive for perfect...just good enough..."
On the tiny pull out tags are things that the family said made their Christmas perfect!

This was just 3 Sissix snowflakes cut and layered together.

Day 3

The third entry in my journal is about cards. We reflected on how many we send, what sort, do we make them etc. My page is 8x8 but with an inch to the side to put into an American Crafts album without plastic page protectors. I decided that I want pockets and tags and you can't do them in plastic pockets! Today we also received our first Christmas card through the post. So I chopped the top strip off the envelope! The journalling is on a tag that you can just see poking out of the brown envie! The rest is bits and bobs that I have collected together in one place to dip into as I go through the days. I have tried to keep them all togther so I can just create the pages in and hour or so. Tonight I was distracted by the TV so it seems to have taken me aaaages for such a simple page!

My new project!

Well I haven't blogged for a bit..busy as usual! But I have been crafting, scrapbooking and cards etc! This is my latest project (as you can see from my side bar).... Journal Your Christmas. Once again I get daily prompts with ideas of how I can journal important things about my Christmases. I managed to complete it last year so I am optimistic that I will do this year too.....I hope!
Page 1 is my ideas about the project; what I hope to achieve, why I want to do it etc!

Last years book was done in red and green mostly so this year I went for a different colour scheme. Page 2 is about Christmas weather. Well as you all know, we are currently suffering with excessive rain and wetness so I REALLY didn't want to journal about that! Besides I think that last year I moaned about how Christmas is usually grey and dull! So I found a picture of what we SHOULD wake up to on Christmas morning; this is the view from my bedroom window, but in February this year!
Do pop in tomorrow to see how I get on!!!