eeek, what happened to December?

04:02 Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Well unfortunately December turned into a bit of a madly stressful month and JYC went out of the window - I do find it really difficult to persevere with a monthly type challenge if I don't manage to keep up with it. Anyway I'm not castigating myself about it - my kids had a fab christmas, their room is very nearly decorated and I'm a qualified change manager so I'm happy with that. Am planning to print off some christmas photos at some point and make a more complete 2009 album but that'll have to do for this year.

Have found a new challenge which I really love for 2010 which is to be creative every day - here - definitely appeals as its not only scrapbooking but a challenge to do something creative every day. I have acquired lots of inspirational craft books and a sewing machine in the last year so I have lots of things I want to try and do and I think it will fit in well with this challenge, also singing counts and with a concert coming up in February I think I'll manage plenty of that :)

Have a good new year's eve everyone...

JYC December 5th

12:21 Posted In Edit This 1 Comment »
Today we took the boys to see Santa so I veered away from Shimelle's theme to make this LO instead:




Apologies about the rubbish photo, will replace with a better one when I have time and the light improves! A very enjoyable day :)

13:47 Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »
Today's prompt was about the perfect Christmas - last year my page for this prompt was based on a picture from Ideal Home magazine which certainly represented a form of Christmas perfection which I will one day aim for. However it's certainly a long way off in the house we've just moved to – there’s a whole heap of decorating we need to do first. So I started to think about what really makes my Christmas perfect and the idea for this year’s page came into my head very quickly. Here it is:


What really makes Christmas perfect for me is seeing Charlie and Owen's faces as they see their stockings and the Christmas tree for the first time on Christmas morning. Charlie's at school now and I know the Santa Secret won't be kept forever, so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts...

December 3rd - ALREADY catching up!

12:47 Posted In Edit This 3 Comments »
OK I was already behind with JYC - Wednesdays are mad for me as I get the boys off to school and nursery, work a full day, nip home for some tea and then spend the evening singing at the wonderful Park Angels. So I had a mini catch up tonight.

First of all I did my LO for yesterday - Shimelle's theme was weather but I strayed from the brief as I really wanted to include a LO about how this is our first year in our new house.


This is the reverse of my LO for December the 1st which was on acrylic so I needed to make sure I covered those elements - a photo of the house will go in the little flap on the right hand side, but its always dark/raining when I am at home at the moment so I need to wait for the right weather to get a decent photo. The journalling is about how happy we are to be in our new house after 18 months of trying to move.

Today's LO theme was cards and I stayed a bit closer to the brief. Owen and Charlie both designed cards this year at school and nursery that we could buy prints of to send to our friends and family. I really wanted to incorporate them both but my album is quite small (6x6) so I had to think carefully how to do it. In the end I based the LO on an envelope which both the cards slot into - I love how this has turned out.

This is the front:


This is the back (I love Owen in his Santa hat and wanted to be able to see it:


And this is the LO with the cards taken out:



And this is how both LOs look put into my album:



My blog has changed templates again - one of my friends (thanks Jen) had said she couldn't leave a comment on my December 1st post so I am hoping that reverting to a simpler template should resolve this - so please leave a comment if you like what you've seen so I know it's working now!

December 1st means Journal Your Christmas!

12:32 Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »


Yay, am finally scrapping again after the house move - and in for a penny, in for a pound, it's Journal Your Christmas time once again. I did this class for the first time last year (it's from shimelle.com - link to the left) and loved the journal that I made, even if I didn't finish it until March! I had got myself organised before we moved and made my album during the October Cove Crop - I won the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly papers at a retreat in September so have based the album on those, supplemented by the christmas stash I acquired last year. The LOs are 6x6 and the album is from American Crafts.

I have done a few clear LOs this year and thought it would be fun to include some in my album - today's theme was manifestos and writing about what we want to include in our journals or to do this Christmas. I have concentrated on the christmas I want to have this year - it's been a very stressful time with the house move, Charlie starting school and lots on at work - so we are concentrating on relaxing, enjoying and remembering what's important. My only journal related aim is to get it finished in 2009, and I do want to blog about it regularly too. The journal card and sticker is from Cosmo Cricket and the number 1 is a thicker - had to include some glitter too as I love a bit of sparkle and wanted some more definition of the edge of the page - tomorrow will be the real challenge though as I will have to do the 2nd LO on the clear back of the first! Hope you like it...

Spain mini book