Journal Your Christmas with Simple Stories

Having completed my Christmas album last year....I wanted to make another one this year - most of my kit is Simple Stories Claus and Co, but there are a few other bits in there too like so Tiger punched number tags for an advent calendar and some sneaks of October Afternoon as well - basically anything in my Christmas stash.

The first page introduces our elf, which my youngest was really keen on last year.  I also photo'd the advent calendars for this year too.

Day 2 and some inspiration from Shimelle - using a half card piece of paper in amongst the pockets - love that idea for the extra journalling (I also love watching the videos it is, there is something nice about watching someone else scrap :)).  It was a regular day and I use my album as a diary so it is just all the regular stuff that happens.  I used some Simple Stroeis stickers and wood veneers as well as some Pink Paislee photo stickers too.

Day 3 and our Elf was playing a game - that was my main photo for the day as it was a regular sort of school day, but I documented all the bits and pieces we did.

Day 4 was a double page spread, lots of layering of stickers and trying to keep the washi tape throughout.

Another beautiful Simple Stories sparkly card that I just had to leave, and a little homemade pocket for my cinema tickets.

More layering and stickers and wood veneers.

So this is where I am upto and below is what the rest of my album prep looks like, I kind of make a judgement each day whether I want it to be a double spread or not.  Having a photo printer has made the project lots easier as you can stay on top of it and it's all in your memory.

Kaiser craft Timepiece with Indigo Blu

Here is my second class from the ATDML retreat - Jill sent me some Indigo Blu gilding flakes and they are just beautiful.  This page is heavily influenced from one in the Kaisercraft Ideas booklet by Elena Lishchenko with just a few changes, we used the gilding flakes and Kaisercraft stamp to make the background.  We also coated some Tando cogs with the flakes too.  Lots of tearing and rippint and distressing for this page.

Here is my second page - again a Kaisercraft stamp with some gilding flakes, and then lots of fussy cutting of the elements paper from this range as well as some drops of glimmer mist.

Baker Ross Tree decorations part 2

I also had a play with some acrylic tree decorations.  I started by using some printed text from my Simple Stories Christmas papers, put the wording beneath the tree and then used a glass pen to trace over the wording and let it dry - so I had love, joy, peace, cheer.  I then backed the trees with some papers - I used a clear drying glue and stuck the papers on, then went around with a craft knife to cut them to size.

I also thought it would be nice to have some semi-transparent trees too - so again I put the word on the front of the tree, and then I used a glass pen to colour in the back of the tree to give a layered effect.

Baker Ross and decopatch tree decorations

Just a quick and easy Christmas post - these tree decorations are really easy to put together and you could add glitter and pearls and all sorts of other embellishments on top, but I went with clean and simple.  This is my first play at decopatching and it is messy but very relaxing, I just cut strips of tissue paper, and glued each one and layered it up on my decorations - it would be a great one with kids too.

Baker Ross and Trees for Christmas

Baker Ross sent me some of their polysterene cones and with it being Christmas soon they just had to be made into trees.  I've tried a few different ideas - for the first I die cut lots of leaves from old book paper (I used the oak leaf from the Tim Holtz tattered leaves set).  I pinned them on in layers, then I added a sequin wrap and some pearls (again from Baker Ross).  The final step was a star for the top.

I was also sent some deco patch papers, so I decided to have a go at covering my tree, I then white washed it with some gesso and wound florist wire around the tree and made a little start with it at the top.  To add a bit of glitter I use some gems as baubles too.

For the final tree I used strips of paper and folded and pinned them in layers to then tree, adding another star on the top too.

Here are my trees on my mantel piece, I'm thinking of making a couple more and using them as centre pieces on our Christmas table spread.