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Slowly, slowly finishing these tags.....
Day 7:
Day 8:
Day 9: I did a lot of "flicking" before embossing a second time. I used Iced Spruce for the initial stamping, Crushed Olive afterward to ink the tag, with Vintage Photo after the final embossing. Instead of making a candleabra I wanted to use Tim's tree die. I covered chipboard in vintage dictionary paper before cutting, then coated the tree with rock candy crackle paint.
Day 10:
The first several days.....
Day 1 is a trading card transparency cut down to fit. I used the front and back, as well as printed out Shimelle's manifesto for the year attaching it with a binder clip. I created a pocket for our photo card from an American Crafts page protector and used part of Rachel's chocolate Advent calendar for day 5.
Another layout from the December DT kit at ScrapbooksPlus - Simple Stories' Year-o-graphy collection. These are photos from our Thanksgiving visit to Jamestown Settlement. Still can't believe people were brave enough to cross the ocean in ships that small.
And I found an old class picture from Thomas's first year in preschool, back when he was two. I layered a bunch of pieces at the bottom of the page, sticking in an old book page and using lots of stickers. Love the clouds.
This is my third year doing Journal Your Christmas. Last year I did a combined JYC/December Daily, focusing mostly on what we were doing each day than Shimelle's prompts. This year I'm doing the opposite - pretty exclusively focusing on the prompts. A crazy, hectic month, two cookie exchanges on the same day, and a very sick pet kinda drove me in that direction. As did waiting for materials to arrive....
I'm starting with a 6x9 Mistables wooden album from Pink Paislee. I used a variety of ink, Glimmer Mist, Glimmer Glam and paint on the cover and glued on a felt snowflake ornament I picked up at Target. The snowflake stamps are Hero Arts and I used the crackle stamp from Tim Holtz's Joyful Song set. A painted and embossed wooden "25" by Kaisercraft sits in the middle of the snowflake with a Maya Road pin.
The inside of the front cover uses paper from Simple Stories' 25 Days of Christmas line and chipboard from October Afternoon.
Supplies Used:
Catching up....
I've had these done for a while but haven't had a chance to post them.
Day 4 -
I really love this background using picket fence Distress Stain.
and Day 6 -
I decided I didn't want to use the metal wreath charm. This wooden Kaisercraft embellishment was really calling to me. So I decided on a faux enameled look. Love how this turned out - but it really looks better IRL.
Now, off to upload photos from the camera with more tags. Hmm... maybe I should work on our Christmas newsletter first?
... and I can't believe we're less than a week away from Christmas. This past week has found us spending a lot of time nursing a sick guina pig with me trying to keep up with Tim's tags, Christmas crafting, decorating for Christmas cookie swaps, scouting service projects.... and on and on....
At least I was able to spend a good two hours in nice weather hanging outside lights today. Which is glorious, because by the time the lights come out, get untangled and I find the extension cords it's far from the balmy 47 degree day we had.
So... I wanted to share a layout I did for ScrapbooksPlus with the Simple Stories line - the same one I used on the minibook. I'd had photos of Rachel from last year's Nutcracker waiting and waiting to be scrapped, but I could never find a paper combination with which I was happy. Until now.
Love the 4x6 transparency that's meant for photos (and how it helps cover up distracting backgrounds!). Really love the monthly calendar paper - I cut the "November" out for this layout.
Now, I finally got the rest of the supplies I ordered and I can start really creating my December Daily/Journal Your Christmas for the year. I'm really hoping for some quality crafting time next week, and a movie or two (a girl can dream, right?!)
Each year I like to put together a Christmas planner. It helps me organize what I need to do during the month - including holding wish lists, reciepts, etc.
This year I started off with some Simple Stories paper and a piece of Claudine Helmuth's sticky back canvas. I did an image transfer with the paper onto the canvas, which you can see in my video. I like this technique because you get a cool, distressed look. It's easy to do, but just be careful - you will get a mirror-image. So, any text will be reversed. In this case, I didn't care. I was going for pattern and texture.
Once I was done, I stamped both sides of the canvas with ink and paint. I folded up the bottom of the canvas to make a long pocket. Then it was off to the sewing machine - I stitched around the entire piece and up the middle (twice) to make two interior pockets.
I made two signatures for this book, including a pocket page for the middle signature. Once they were put together I stitched my signatures into my book.
Here's a video I put together to show you the image transfer, making the pockets, and the finished book. Ack! My first youtube video.
Steps for the image transfer:
There you have it!
This month's DT kit at ScrapbooksPlus is the Year.o.graphy collection from Simple Stories. As I was digging around in my bookcase this Fancy Pants mixed media album fell out. I had seen it at CHA several years ago and just died. It was beautiful. And as soon as the store got them in, I greedily grabbed it.
Then, like Shimelle's story of the special paper, I wanted to use it for the perfect project. Vacations came and went... and I contemplated using the book.... but didn't.
So, with a deep breath I decided that NOW would be the right time. After all, I can't enjoy this book if it's still in the packaging hidden in the back of my bookcase, right?
Pretty much everything in here is from Simple Stories. I used the remainder of some KI Memories glitter stickers and one wooden flag from My Mind's Eye.
And to put it all together I used the Best Glue Ever. This stuff is amazing - I glued paper and photos to felt easily. Just put a thin line of the Best Glue Ever around your items, let them dry until tacky, then flip them over and stick them on. It's really that simple. Even the stickers got a bit of glue.
And adhering paper to transparent pages? Piece of cake!
On the inside I decided I'd pick a photo from each month for my chipboard pages. On the transparent pages and felt I showcase some of my favorite photos from the year.
And since December has just started, I left a spot to add a photo....
Day 3 -
I still want to borrow Karen's texture fade to emboss this tag, and I took the photo then remembered I needed to spray it with Perfect Pearls mist.... but this was a fun one to make.
Meanwhile, I've got the pieces of Sunday's and Monday's tags laying around.....
Well, this year's tags have started with a bang! Every year Tim gets more creative. If you want to see his posts and directions, here's the links for day 1 and day 2.
And here's my tags - I tried to keep them as true to Tim's, as they are being displayed at ScrapbooksPlus. We'll be putting together kits at the store for the tags, starting Monday. And we'll be setting up some dates this month to help people assemble their tags.
Day 1 -
This was my first time using the pinecone die. I learned to make sure your glue gun is really ready (with new batteries). And I added a thin layer of Stickles over the glitter to keep it from dusting everything.
Day 2 -
I had to do a few substitutions here. I used Tim's regular kraft resist paper pack, then stamped an image with Archival ink in the corner. However, I picked up the Christmas pack today... so another tag may be in the works....
