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!!!

On the4th Day of Christmas...

...Four Calling Birds! This template was from a pattern Sid sent me to make a 3D bird, (I think HE got it from Gail!!) but I thought it would look fine in 2D. I cut them out and then used a stamp and black Stazon to stamp on the plain green and red cotton.

The rest is pretty much as before; machine stitched legs and feet, felt beaks and hand stitched notes, adding matt black beads.
So my next challenge is 5 Gold Rings.....I think I have the seed of an idea but this will be a tricky one. I am also starting to think about Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas which starts on Dec 1st....

My Blog Award....finally!

And this is it from Burnice.

So now five unknown or little known facts about me then...

1. I have an O-Level in Latin

2. My middle name is Margaret (OMG I have NEVER admitted THAT!!!)

3. I have been in two armed bank robberies; one as a witness and one as a hostage

4. When I was a child I was on TV on Jim'll Fix it.......(but only as a person sitting on the bean bags on the side of the stage)

5. I own a Blue Peter Badge!

My New CJ!

Yeay!! I am off on a new CJ journey! I love love LOVE CJs, especially the ones I have done on UKStampers where we send a stamp round with it. So here is mine....a PaperArtsy squiggly heart stamp is what I have chosen to send!

I made little envies (from an old copy of Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales) and added a tag in each. For my entry I found some anatomical heart drawings on the net and printed them off to add to the envie and tag. The quote says "Be still my beating heart" but I couldn't find out where that came from!

I stamped the heart on a burnt coke can (heated in the flame on the gas cooker....makes it go a groovy colour) then went over the squiggles with an embossing tool to indent them slightly.

This is the whole book...unbound for now as I will do it with the BIA when it comes home!
So off it goes on it's journey and I will see it in 12 months! Can't wait!

Now I have been lucky enough to receive a blog award from my pal Burnice...

...but I can't work out how to get it up so please just bear with me and I will show it to you in a day or so when I work it out!!!

On the 3rd Day of Christmas....

These are my Three French Hens! Or maybe they are just one three-headed hen! I am not quite sure! Still I assure you they are meant to be loosely based on a French breed called a Copper Maran (at least I think it is!).

Not very good photoes I am afraid but I was determined to blog as I haven't for so long! I just don't seem too have had two minutes to create ANYTHING, let alone blog it! Anyway back to my hens; They are made from scraps of black velvet (the sleeves off a ball gown from the charity shop), orange slub silk and red poly cotton with felt feet and corn! I added a sequin for the eye and stitched the beak.
Now I need to do 4 Calling Birds.....