A Christmas Carol(e) - Days 10, 11, 12 and 13

Not sure what is different this year and why I'm not managing to actually do a page each day, but I am kind of keeping up in a funny kind of way!  Today I did another four pages, taking me up to yesterday, but by the time I finished this afternoon, the light was rubbish so I will have to take pictures when I can.  I do love how these little pages come together quite quickly though :)

I am happy to say that all my Christmas preparations seem to be back on track now, Alex and I even spent a couple of hours in the kitchen this afternoon (my only day off this week) where Alex made a batch of delicious chocolate chip cookies and I made two batches of mince pies, one for eating now (rude not to!) and one in the freezer ready to go nearer the big day :)  This makes me very happy!!!

Carole x

A Christmas Carol(e) - Days 8 & 9

For these two pages, I tried something different.  I tried something that I had a feeling I would love.  I tried something that I have been wanting to try for ages.  I used pocket pages :)  I love little clear pockets!  I have been thinking about buying and doing Project Life for well over a year.  On Black Friday I very nearly crumbled and purchased the whole lot until I saw the final bill.  I am going to have to do something similar because the thoughts and the feelings just won't go away ... so watch this space!

Back to my Christmas journal though, and little pocket pages:

I knew that I wanted to fill one of the pockets with Christmassy confetti, so that I did first.  I sewed the pocket shut so that the confetti stayed in place and decided to sew the title/kraft strips on at the same time. I had to work out how to incorporate some patterned paper, and also to keep the kraft theme going too.

The end result?  Two pages that I am really pleased with :)  Think I am going to love doing my own version of Project Life!

I have been naughty today, and instead of writing the rest of my Christmas cards, I have been playing catch up on my journal, and am up to date!!!  I am sure that it won't last long though.  Hopefully the light might be better tomorrow and I can get some good photos of days 10, 11, 12 and 13.

Carole x

A Christmas Carol(e) - Days 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

Finally, my photo/printer issues are sorted, and so, without further ado, here are days 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7:

Sometimes, getting stuck in a groove can help!  Once I got my head around the A5 size/shape of my pages, I managed to almost catch up today!  It was also my first proper decent session in my new craft room, and I love it!  I am keeping my pages fairly simple, but they are starting to look lovely all together in my binder!

Back soon with more pages!

Carole x

A Christmas Carol(e) - Day 2

Not liking this running behind with my Christmas Journal business, but hey?  What's a girl to do?  Never mind, I am still loving this project and WILL finish, one way or another!

For this page, I thought I would mention the weather (as us Brits love to do!) just in case we don't get any snow during December (and although parts of England today have had snow, we haven't down in the south).  Still hoping for a white Christmas though!  Fingers crossed!

Carole x

A Christmas Carol(e) - Day One

I have had a nightmare with this wonderful project so far this year :(  It is only because I so love doing a Christmas Journal that I have persevered.  Imagine only being able to do day one on 3rd December?!

My problems started when we moved almost all of our bedrooms around this past week, and consequently, we also moved my Crafty Corner upstairs into the new spare room.  So, on 1st December, my entire stash was stacked up and inaccessible.  Never mind, after a lot of sorting I had a lovely new craft room, this time with windows (my craft space before was under the stairs and dark) and a larger work surface (less storage space was the only down side, but after much sorting, it all fits!)

Once that problem was sorted, my next problem presented itself.  Printing photos.  In my previous two journals I have printed photos onto ordinary photocopier paper, but this year I wanted better quality photos. Earlier this year I inherited a little Canon photo printer which prints really good quality prints.  Perfect!!!  But, no.  I have stocked up with cartridges and paper and was ready to go.  I have taught myself how to create photo collages so that I can print smaller pictures more suitable to the size of my journal.  All good.  But, no. It turns out that there are two problems, (1) it is impossible to install drivers so that I can print directly from my computer and (2) even by uploading the collage picture back to the camera, the camera then won't read the file and print it :(

So, I have no choice but to get my photo collages printed every few days wherever I can.  So very frustrating.  Looks like I will be running a good few days behind in the whole journal.  However, I am very determined that I will finish.

So, after much stress, here is Day One:

Self explanatory really, my OH has been growing a moustache for the Movember charity and both he and I were very glad to see the back of it!  Makes a change from my usual day one of the advent calendars though!

I hope to be back soon with some more pages to share!

Carole x

A Christmas Carol(e)

Finally, I have decorated the cover of my Christmas Journal :)  Surprisingly, it turned out quite like I had imagined it might and had planned in my head:

Also, I cut into some of my brand new "Holiday Style" papers - a scary moment, because I love them so much, but I am really looking forward to using them and making a lovely Journal to treasure.  Love that pom pom trim and that glittery paper that I cut the star and snowflakes from - it's glossy and smooth and not like sandpaper (it's actually a sheet of wrapping paper that I found in John Lewis so there is loads of it and I intend to use it a lot throughout my journal!)

What do you think of my title?!  There is no point in having a Christmas themed name (even though I was born in April!) and not using it (well, just this once anyway!)

So, I think I am nearly ready to go.  I will make my pages as I go along, sometimes kraft based and sometimes patterned paper - so exciting.

Can't wait to see what everyone else has done so far/will do as we go through December :)

Carole x

Wooden Snowman Family

Meet my Snowman Family!!!

I saw something similar to this on Pinterest (whatever did I do for inspiration before Pinterest?!) and asked my OH if he had any wood suitable in his workshop ... he did (left over from when we had to have the workshop roof replaced).  My next question of course was whether he could cut the planks into Daddies, Mummies and Babies which he did, and while he was at it he sanded the rough edges and painted them for me.  My part in the process was to make the hats and scarves (with tiny little sweetie buttons sewn on for decoration) and stick on the buttons and noses.

I love how they turned out, and love that it was a joint project 

We were lucky to have enough wood for four families, so shall give three families away as Christmas gifts (to good homes only!!!)

I have been working on other Christmas projects so shall have more to show soon!  I also hope to get to work on my journal soon and may even try and do my cover tomorrow!  Watch this space!

Carole x

Christmas Journal 2012

* spoiler alert *  - warning - this post contains information regarding my Christmas Journal, so if you don't want to know look away now ;)

Today was the much anticipated day when I started my Christmas Journal 2012 :)  I have been mentally planning what I want to do this year and made a start today by making all the numbers.  I was hoping to maybe tackle the cover of my Journal too, but the numbers took most of the day, so will save the cover for another day (and it gives me a little bit more thinking time too!)

I was planning to use up bits and bobs of Christmas papers that I already have in my stash ... until I went to Daphne's for coffee and fell in love with a collection of beautiful holiday papers and just HAD to have them :)

I love how they remind me of Christmasses when I was a little girl, and I love the fresh yet vintage feel to the papers - slightly more modern colours for me too!  So, this is the collection I will be using, along with a kraft A5 binder from Paperchase.

So, my numbers.  I took a look at how I had done the numbers previously and wanted something a bit more detailed this year, so had a look on to our shared CCCCCCK board on Pinterest and found some inspiration (I have set up a Facebook group for anyone interested in doing a Christmas Journal, and we also started a group board on Pinterest for shared inspiration, so if anyone reading this would like to join too, then let me know!)  Since my journal is kraft and there may well be some kraft pages too, then I thought that my numbers should also be kraft.  So after much Cuttlebugging, here they are!

I selected and punched/Cuttlebugged a few more elements ...

then a few more and I was ready to start assembling:

Getting there:

Just a few final tweaks - snipping the ribbon ends, sewing through them all and adding a bit of bling and here they are:

and just because I love seeing them altogether:

While I was searching through my stash looking for bits, I was popping anything that I thought might come in handy into a box all ready for December 1st

I am now feeling decidedly excited about this years journal, and can't wait to make my cover and do a little more prep!

Carole x

I Love Tuesdays!

It's official, I love Tuesdays!  It is my one day that I try to keep free for me, and more specifically for crafting.  Of course, it isn't always possible due to family commitments, but when it happens I am happy!  Today was one of those days!  Not only did I get to craft but I got to craft with Emma who found herself home alone (and that doesn't happen very often either!)

Emma likes a challenge, and so rather than signing up for a class I volunteered to set her a daily challenge (for the record I would hate it, I am much too comfy in my comfort zone thank you very much!)  However, when our crafty Tuesdays coincide, Emma and I have often worked from the same sketch or prompt to produce a layout (usually totally different).  With this in mind, I was careful about what challenge I set for Emma for today (Ha!  I'm not as stupid as I look!!!)  However as she was a day behind, I actually ended up doing not only today's challenge, but yesterdays too (and I wasn't expecting that!)

The first one (the one I anticipated) actually caused both Emma and myself a few problems, but I ended up quite happy with it:

I will admit to a couple of unsticking and re-stickings with this one!  If you would like to see the original pin that inspired this layout, it is here.

The second layout of the day was inspired by this pin, and here is my take on it:

I challenged Emma to include at least three lollipop flowers (which she did) but I went for five and maybe it is a little bit too busy?  Never mind, it is another layout to add to my album!

Carole x

Beautiful Bridesmaid

I know I said in my last post how I have to stop scrapping wedding pics now, and I have, for the time being at least - this is actually the second one I did, I'm just not so good at blogging!  It might be a different matter if, and when, I get my hands on some of the official photographs from the wedding day!

I wanted to keep this one fairly simple, with just one embellishment, a huge sparkly flower like the one that all the bridesmaids wore in their hair on the big day (hope you can see the one in Alex's hair in the photo).  I wasn't sure where to place a title (come to that, nor what that title should be!) but then it was pointed out to me that maybe the journal card was enough, and when I thought about it, I agreed!  Thanks Emma :)

Carole x

Better Together

This is another layout that I did in conjunction with Emma (come to think of it, a lot of my layouts are these days - thanks Emma, I love our crafty Tuesdays!)  Again, we chose a sketch together and each did our own take on it, and here's mine:

This picture of Phil and I was taken at Jo and Jamie's wedding by my brother (also a Phil).  I have now had to stop myself from scrapping pics taken at the wedding ... for a little while at least ;)  I used my really pretty papers for this layout, Crate Paper's Pretty Party, quite an apt name for the wedding theme too!

Carole x

Mr and Mrs

As regular readers of my blog know, I have a lovely friend, Emma, who I met on the internet and who thoroughly inspires and encourages me to be a better and more adventurous crafter :)  I miss her if we don't "speak" for a couple of days, however briefly!  We don't get many chances to actually get together as we live about 2 hours away from each other, but we do Skype regularly!  In fact we try to have one day a week when we craft together via Skype!  It's an arrangement that works really well, other than if one of us has the perfect embellishment that would finish off a layout but it is two hours away ...

So, when Emma and I are crafting together, we will often pick a sketch (OK, usually it's me who picks the sketch, Emma is much more easy going and open to suggestions than I am!) and do it together.  This week was no different!  We are always amazed at how differently our layouts turn out.

Have a look at Emma's page HERE and you will see what I mean!  And HERE to see the sketch that we both used (one of us more than the other ;)  )

It was a funny old sketch this one!  It looked like it would be easy.  It looked like it had potential.  However, both Emma and I struggled like mad with it!  I even said that I didn't think that I would like the end result ... until I finished it that is.  Literally by placing the journalling strips on, it all came together, and now I have to say that I actually rather like it!  So that should be a lesson to me - don't give up!  Of course that isn't always the case ... and Emma didn't like it to such an extent that she took her layout apart and more or less started again!

The papers are Cosmo Cricket's Tea for Two - love them!

Carole x

Such a Perfect Day

While I was still buzzing about the wedding, and got my hands on the first batch of photos, I created this layout:

A very, very simple layout, but quite effective (I hope!)  Since the happy couple were sat at a table signing the register with a beautiful table arrangement in front of them, I simply continued the flowers out and over the photo.

The bow was made from the ribbon that was tied around the beautiful bouquet that I was presented with at the wedding:

See what I mean?  Very simple.  I used the last sheet of Bazzill spotty card that was left over from creating the wedding stationery - originally about 12 sheets of 12 x 12 (and in case you are wondering, yes, I have now also made the thank you cards!) and teamed it with kraft just like the invitations then just added lots of flowers :)

Carole x

Wedding Card

As promised, here is the wedding card that I made for my lovely sister and new brother in law for their wedding.  It was touch and go whether I would actually be able to find the time to make the card before the big day, and many times I wished that I had settled on a more simple, straight forward card :)  However, I made the time and I was really pleased with the result - I think the bride and groom were too, but they were a little overwhelmed at the time!

As you can see, I used supplies from the wedding stationery, so that it was totally co-ordinated (if you knew my sister, you would understand!!!)  It is a large, three fold (A5) card which I tied up with ribbon.

I was very brave (although I must admit to practising first!) and splatted with Mister Huey on the kraft card, just to break it up a bit and to let the words do the talking.  This is the first inside page of the card.

And here is the inside :)  Once open, the bunting hangs between the two outer sides of the card.

I used some photos that I had printed from when Jo and Jamie came down to visit us a while ago and stuck one on each inside page.  A pair of love birds a tag, a ticket and an appropriate sticker and the first page was done.

The middle page I kept quite simple and sewed a variety of small buttons in a heart shape around my favourite of the photos - time consuming but really effective and so pretty.

The third page is quite busy, but I love all the layers!  I wanted to include a glassine bag, and filled it with all sorts of hearts, some punched, some sequin type hearts and all the little circles that had come out of the tags that I die cut for the place settings for the wedding!

I nearly forgot to leave some space for writing the card, but stamped congratulations on the back and we all wrote a message to the happy couple!

Carole x

The Wedding!

Sorry for no blog posts for AGES but life has been a little bit manic around here, ever since we got back from our lovely holiday in Portugal in fact.  In fact, there were more blog posts while I was away because I took the time to schedule a few posts!

So, part of the reason that it has been so busy here is that the BIG day was approaching ... and I had tonnes of wedding stationery still to make before my lovely sister's wedding day!  Obviously I had made the invitations and the other bits that were sent out with the invitations way back in May, but other bits I couldn't make until the guest list was finalised (like the table plan and place settings).  I also had it in mind that I wanted to make Jo and Jamie a unique wedding card, but that was putting myself under even more pressure ...

The actual invitations consisted of a bundle of different cards (invitation, gift list, RSVP card) all tied up with string and with a label tied on.

The invitation was printed onto kraft card (and getting that to go through the printer was a nightmare all on it's own - thanks to Alex for helping me with that!).  The corners were rounded, a heart and bunting were punched out and all inked up, then out came the sewing machine to sew on the bunting.  The RSVP card was postcard size again with rounded corners and a punched heart, and the gift list was postcard size and again with a heart.  The little label was cuttlebugged and stamped with yet another heart - the inking alone of all the hearts and bunting literally took HOURS!

So, after our holiday we still had the table plan, place settings, table numbers, and order of the days still to do!  Alex very kindly helped me again with the printing then I set to work on the rest of the bits.

The Order of the Days were quite easy!  The place settings not so!

We printed the names onto A4 kraft card first then had to cut the tags out trying to centre the names on the tags - and another inked heart!  These were then tied around the napkins on the tables.

The table plan was nine cards like the one above, again with the bunting but also with a number and they were all stuck onto a gorgeous vintage mirror that Jo and Jamie will have in their home.  These table plans were what caused me the most stress - table 7 had to be done 4 times (for various reasons, only one being our fault!)  Every time I thought it was all done and dusted I received another distress call from Jo and duly had to start all over again and drag out the sewing machine!!!

The bride and groom presented me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers at the wedding reception which was just lovely, and I had many compliments throughout the day about the stationery :)

This post wouldn't be complete without a picture of the happy couple now would it?!

It was a fabulous, amazing, happy wedding day, absolutely perfect.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and was proud to have played a little part in making their day so lovely (might have cried a little bit too!!!)

Will be back to show you the wedding card I made, and also the mini album I made for Jo which we presented to her on her Hen Night ...

Carole x