Monday 26 November 2012

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

Monday 19 November 2012

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

Tuesday 13 November 2012

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