Choice Words and Tasteful Doings

12 Tags of Christmas: tag 7

2011-12-09T11:06:00.000Z

I didn't have Tim's holly die, but i do have his holly stamp, so I stamped it onto glasseine with a mix of acrylic paint and distress ink, then spritzed with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls & cut out. The moon stamp is by Crafty Individuals.

Journal Your Christmas: Day 3

2011-12-04T12:58:00.000Z

Christmas cards

I included one of the cards I'm sending this year (design taken from this year's Holiday Card Bootcamp which I signed up for last month)

Twelve tags: day 4

2011-12-04T12:43:00.001Z

I absolutely loved making this one and I'm so pleased with the results!

I didn't have the snowman die that Tim used, so I stamped his retro Father Christmas instead and used the same technique for colouring him. I stamped a second image on white card, and cut out and layered his face and the white trim.

12 Tags of Christmas: day 3

2011-12-03T16:16:00.004Z

Day 3 of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas

This tag was not made with love & good cheer. It is mostly made of swearing and rage. I found the custom stamp pad technique really hard. I'm not terribly good at precision work and my ink bled all over the place. Then I lost the foliage I'd cut. Then I found it, stuck to the underside of the second craft tag. Then I knocked one of the re-inkers, which I'd neglected to re-cap, all over the first tag. Then I went and bought a cardy online, to make myself feel better.

Journal Your Christmas: day 2

2011-12-03T13:00:00.001Z

This time last year we had snow on the ground. It's gone cold here in the last day or so, but it's a drab, wet and windy kind of cold. The sort we're used to. Snow at Christmas is a relative rarity.

I thought I'd scrap this picture from this time last year. The cat clearly does not appreciate my need to document the minutiae of everyday life. The cat clearly wishes I would put the camera down AND JUST OPEN. THE FRICKIN. DOOR. Do not feel sorry for her. We are locked in an constant battle of wits, me and that cat.

Incidentally, here are some names I have for the cat, whose name is Heather.

Heather Bear

Heatherington Bearbatron (or simply "Bearbatron", on account of the odd robotic beeping noises she makes)

Smelly/Smellington Bear

The Smelly Ballerina

Pusstina Smellybeara (after we lined her litter tray with a picture of Christina Aguilera. Who, incidentally, I have nothing against)

Kittymittens

Twinkle Fancypants

Hairy fairy

The cat does not smell. I feel, in fairness to her, that I should point this fact out.

Also, I have a voice for Heather WHICH IS TOTALLY NORMAL, AND NOT AT ALL STRANGE. That voice is Hartley Hare, from Pipkins. She sounds like him and she thinks a lot like him.

12 Tags of Christmas: tag 2

2011-12-02T11:18:00.002Z

Another pretty slavish copy of Tim's gorgeous tag, but I don't have the time to exercise independant thought at the moment! It's so much easier & quicker when all the thinking has been dome for you.

I had the Kraft Resist, inks and Picket Fence stain. For the deer, I stamped one from one of Tim's seasonal silhouette sets using antique linen stain to get a softer look. I tried the splatter technique with the perfect pearls, but I only have gold and it doesn't show up as well as I expect the white does. The edging is a Martha Stewart punch painted in gold acrylic.

Really like the soft muted colours on this.

Thank you for your lovely comments yesterday, by the way. I am going to sit down tonight and make sure I visit each of your blogs x

Journal Your Christmas: Day 1

2011-12-01T22:28:00.002Z

My first entry for Shimelle's class, done in a rush with poor light & tired eyes, right before bed. Exactly what I promised myself I wouldn't do.

Tomorrow will be different! Well, I mean it might. It probably won't be. It never is.

12 tags of Christmas : Day 1

2011-12-01T14:57:00.007Z

So excited this has started. Never played along before.

This is my version of Tim Holtz's divine tag.

edited...

Sorry, I posted in a rush earlier. Here's a clearer pic.

I had Tim's Noel and pine cone dies, the rest I improvised.

My pine cones look a bit pneumatic. Madonna's conical boobed Vogue period springs to mind. I like it.

Pockets

2011-11-12T18:13:00.003Z

Shimelle has posted about the joy of pockets in your Christmas journal, and I couldn't agree more!

I am a pocket junky. I love bits that come out and unfold and then slot back in (The Jolly Postman is my absolute favourite children's book because of this). I've made five for my journal so far, but it may end up that pretty much every page has some sort of pull-out element.

This one is my favourite. It's a 12x12 bracket sheet cut into quarters and stitched together. A card or tag fits in the middle.

The ornament and Santa stamps are Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous.

I love this one too. A tag slots in behind Santa (a detail cut from Paperartsy paper). That tinsel's a bit wonky. Have to go back & fix that.

This one has a vertical pocket, that something will slide in behind (not the paper shown below, but you get the idea).

Finally, this is a 6x6 page protector, stitched down the middle to create two deep pockets. I've cut a single sheet of 6x6 in half and attempted to stamp a similar pattern on the plain back. It'll mostly be covered in journalling or by a photo anyway.

Numbers

2011-11-06T17:33:00.002Z

Numbers for my Journal your Christmas album

Journal Your Christmas - covers

2011-11-06T13:38:00.000Z

Better pictures. I'm pretty pleased with it, it's quite glittery which doesn't show up so well on the photos

Supplies: Tim Holtz - Kraft Resist paper, Distress Stain (white), distress inks, grunge board numbers and blocks, curio knob, tissue tape, christmas stamp, vintage Noel Die, Clear Rock Candy glaze. Prima Crystals

Journal your Christmas

2011-11-06T10:13:00.001Z

JYC album covers. They're a bit Tim Holtz-heavy this year. If you have a violent aversion to grunge, dinge & distress, best look away now...

I'll post better pics in a bit. Blogger's being a bit of an arse at the moment, this is my 3rd attempt at posting.

Patch an owl card

2011-10-15T12:54:00.000+01:00

Quick card using Woodware - Patch an Owl stamp set. I wanted to use it otherwise than just paper piecing (although I love the effect you get from that too) The papers are Cosmo Cricket, Nutmeg.

Oh! Oh!

2011-08-29T14:34:00.000+01:00

D'you know, I think I might start blogging again. I have creativity seeping out of EVERY orifice at the moment. Oozing with it, I am.

So. Stand by for more exciting crafting updates.

In the meantime, here are some Angry Birds I made. They are not as angry as the small child modelling them, clearly.

Angry Birds templates downloadable from here

Festive banner

2010-11-29T14:13:00.001Z

Hello. It's nearly Christmas. I made this reindeer banner.

As you can see, it looks delightful in a range of settings.

Words to use when looking at my festive banner: handcrafted; unique; charming; stunning.

Words not to use when looking at my festive banner: homemade; bum-sniffing horses/camels/dogs; therapy.

Key fob

2010-07-03T14:55:00.002+01:00

Right. Settle down, I made something.

This is a key fob for my locker at work. Delightfully, it features pictures of me. I used the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone. I'm using that at lot at the moment. You can only take so many pictures of the cat staring at you before it gets dull (I know! I wouldn't have thought so either, but it's true) so Hipstamatic perks things up a bit.

I took some of these tags, some ink, paint, book pages, crackle glaze and just a smidgen of wine (a lot of wine. It's mostly all made of wine, if I'm being honest) and made these.

Incidentally, this represents an excitingly subversive act for me, as I intend to leave it dangling from my locker & all personal effects have recently been banned from our office. I'm really sticking it to The Man. Regular readers, however, will recall that I have previous when it comes to guerilla crafting, having made (and subsequently been instructed to remove) a desk calendar which contravened at least three sub-clauses of the dignity at work policy.

PS Hello again! I've really missed you*

*I have not missed you

Pogo Printer

2010-02-20T19:54:00.001Z

I used my Pogo printer to print these photos. The print quality is kind of what you'd expect for under £20, but I like the size of the prints (sort of cigarette card size)& it's quite refreshing not to be able to fiddle and photoshop stuff prior to print out. What you take is what you get.

Stamps are are mix of Tim Holtz, Sassafras and Technique Tuesday. There are two splots of red wine on there, too. Lord knows how they got on. I do remember spilling wine once, but I'm pretty sure I managed to miss the layout - I checked. So I must have spilled wine twice then. Hey ho.

I realise this makes me sound a bit of an old lush...

(The boys had their heads hanging over the edge of the bed btw, that's why they look a bit weird.)

Busy, Busy, Busy...

2010-02-14T20:04:00.001Z

Look very carefully at this layout. Squint a bit, and sort of adjust your focus, as though you're looking into the middle distance - a picture of a woman and a boy will magically appear!! Trust me, I stuck it down, I know it's on there somewhere.

This is an example of not leaving well alone; of finishing something and then just having to go back and fiddle and add and titivate until eventually the whole thing becomes overwhelmed and at odds with itself.

I started with the photo and the fish backing paper, because - hur hur - we were at the Anglesey Sea Zoo. I threw in some more patterned papers, offcuts mostly, and it didn't look too bad. But I should have stopped there. Instead I carried on in some sort of Frankensteinian frenzy, piling more and more on. "Live! Live, damn you!!" Now it just makes my eyes hurt. There's entirely too much going on and I don't know what to focus on.

We've been to Anglesey Sea Zoo more times than I can count, usually at the insistence of the ginger ninja in the picture. Odd, because each time he's raced round it in about 20 minutes, barely registering anything on display. That's about twice the length of time it takes his dad to do IKEA though, so maybe it's just a man thing.

We are the cool kids, we are...

2010-02-03T13:56:00.001Z

'nuff said.

Snow mini book

2010-01-31T17:03:00.003Z

I made a mini book of my snow pictures!!

I know, I know - sit down, stick your head between your knees, breathe. You'll be OK. It catches me like that sometimes, too.

I finally got over my fear of photo picking, shut my eyes, jabbed my finger randomly and picked around 20 to do. It will ensure that the kids will never forget the Great Snow of 2010. That, and the constant banging on about it that I fully intend to do.

For the record, me and the Bind it All are still not seeing eye to eye. And all contact with the DreamKuts has been broken off after its shoddy behaviour with a piece of 7X6

I like this one, it reminds me of The Shining

This one makes me look like I have a big freaky hand (I don't)

So there you go. It's pretty simple, but it tells a small tale, which is what scrapping is all about innit?

2010-01-17T13:05:00.001Z

They say Inuits have 100 words for snow (although presumably that's 110 when the snow mobile won't start). Well, I have 143 photos for it. I took them when we went out to play in the snow last week. No, I took MORE actually, they're just the ones that made it through my rigorous quality control processes.

143 photos. And, as you can imagine, each one as fresh, exciting and inspirational as the last...

I think it was the conviction that this was the heaviest snowfall the kids would experience in their childhood that drove me on. I clicked everything they did from every angle. Over and over again. I was going to make a mini book with them, but, faced with so many to choose from, I'm paralysed by indecision over which ones to include/exclude. I'd have done far better taking just 10 and then stepping away from the camera, and working with what I had. Lesson for the future, I think.

Test

2010-01-16T09:30:00.001Z

Just testing. Can I blog from my phone?

Feel free to ogle this bag, by the way £15 in John Lewis.

...

Ok I can post, but can I edit?

All done

2010-01-05T16:36:00.000Z

So that's it then. Christmas done with for this year. The kids should have gone back to school today but the snow's kept them home. I think they'll be closed tomorrow too. That makes nearly three weeks in the company of the little darlings *strained smile*.

28th December - 1st January

2010-01-05T16:21:00.000Z

Boooooooring!!!!

This one's a bit weird. We went to the the Panto. I tried to recreat a Panto vibe. Failed. Neh mind, eh?

New Year's Eve Party. We were quite drunk, as you can see from Mr B's sweaty, lairy face there.

24th December - 27th December

2010-01-05T15:52:00.000Z

Anyway, to business. Here are my remaining Journal Your Christmas Pages.

I confess I lost heart a bit once the PC and printer broke down on Christmas Eve. My pages are generally photo based and so without that option I felt a bit lost. So they're more of a straightforward record of what we did on each day. Sorry if they don't inspire, but for completeness I thought I would post them anyway.

This was our dinner table. We gave everyone Lego to play with between courses, it kept them quiet.

Snow Day!

2010-01-05T15:38:00.000Z

The funnest day of the year!!!!.

Whilst all around me inexplicably lost the ability to get out of bed this morning, I battled on through the snow to get to work. It was dodgy at times, and I saw many cars abandoned or stuck or veering out of control on the ice. This being leafy Cheshire they were mostly 4x4s, Audis and even a Porsche. I had a nice smug feeling as I chugged past them in my plucky Fiat Punto, the little car that could.

I needn't have bothered, we got sent home from work at 11. The boss announced, "We are closing the office at 12, but if you need to leave before then, you may". The room was empty by the end of the sentence, save for a stack of papers wafting gently to the ground...

I have never had a snow day off. I got sent home once when the IRA bombed us in Manchester, but that didn't induce quite the same carnival atmosphere. We all ran out the door giggling and planning what were were going to do with the rest of the day, it was great!

I'm back...

2010-01-02T19:21:00.002Z

...sort of. The computer has been cobbled back together by a friend but it still seems out of sorts. My money's on it going down again faster than an old lady on ice, so if there's a suddenly another protracted silence from my end, that'll be why.

But it was terrible, reader, really it was! A whole week without a computer. Why, my family and I, we were forced to 'interact'!! Nobody should be put through that. And at Christmas too!

Anyway, I am plodding on with JYC, just catching up on printing out photos. I'll post the last pages when they're done. Apart from the having to spend time with each other quite a bit we did have a jolly nice Christmas & I hope you did too.

Quite looking forward to getting the decorations down but not allowed to do that until Twelfth Night on Wednesday. My husband, normally Mr Man of Science, transforms into some sort of gibbering flat-earther if I try to take it down earlier, believing we'll all be doomed to a year's worth of bad luck. So I've got to rub shoulders with all these reminders of excess and indulgence for aaaages yet, when all I really want to do is move on and embrace an ascetic New Year lifestyle.

*Sigh* what is a girl to do...

My computer crashed Christmas eve so no more posts til it's fixed.

2009-12-28T11:02:00.001Z

23rd December

2009-12-24T09:12:00.001Z

JYC prompt: Stockings

On this journal page last year I preciously droned on about how each of the boys have a stocking on Christmas morning. Not this year; we only managed to find one amongst the decorations we packed away last year. So one lucky boy gets a stocking tomorrow. The other gets an, ummmm... Tesco carrier bag stuffed full of Christmas treats! (Or "teats", as I appear to have written.)

In other news, I have a shocking cold and my sinuses are backing up something chronic. Feel like Silvio Berlusconi; aged, corrupt and horny... No, no, I mean as though I've just been hit in the face with a small novelty cathedral! Although...

22nd December : Still To do

2009-12-23T11:53:00.000Z

Shimelle made us a great printable 'Still To Do' list, which I skillfully bollocksed up when printing off. Three times. I messed up the print sizings and it kept missing the title off or rotating it so the title was half way off the page. In the end this was the best I could do with it. Me and my printer just do not see eye to eye, but to be fair I have accepted that and learned to live with it.

The shopping is just about done. We'll go out to the local shops tomorrow to get fresh veg and bread but otherwise we're fine. The boys were supposed to be at my mum's house today, while I made final preparations. It's not far, but it's cross country and I didn't fancy navigating those icy Cheshire lanes, so they're home today and I'm trying to work round them.

Still got the cleaning to face. Think I will leave that til the last minute tomorrow (on the grounds that it will only get messed up again, pretty quickly). I reckon get 2 Boost bars and a double espresso down me and I'll be whizzing round, cleaning like I just invented it.

21st December: Right Now

2009-12-22T13:12:00.000Z

I focussed on the messy state of my house and the amount of housework I still need to do before Friday :(

20th December : tales of the unexpected

2009-12-20T20:06:00.000Z

We had fun in the snow today, sledging in the field at the back. Before you start, yes I know I said in the 2 December entry that it never snows at this time of year, but this is the first time I can remember snow at Christmas since 1996. So there!

19th December

2009-12-19T13:13:00.000Z

JYC prompt: letter to Father Christmas

I made the envelope from a HOTP template. I've put my kids' Christmas lists inside. No letters to Father Christmas this year. My 9 year old has finally twigged the truth, while my 5 year old seems to regard Father Christmas as little more than a quaint folk tradition; he presented us with a list of demands in November and made it quite clear that, for him, the Wonder of the Season lay very much in our hands.

18th December

2009-12-19T11:07:00.001Z

JYC Prompt : Christmas Dinner

This year we're cooking for 10. It will be a fairly traditional menu. I did buy Nigella's Christmas book last year and it all looks very nice but, frankly, life's too short to stuff a mushroom. So it's roast turkey, roast potatoes, chipolatas in bacon, sprouts and gravy, followed by Christmas pudding. If I'm feeling adventurous I might do something to the sprouts.

Dec 17th

2009-12-18T11:59:00.002Z

First, look at my big bad bwoy!

And I'm only half way through, so it will probably double in size again. Will my Bind it All handle it or swoon at the prospect?

JYC Prompt: the perfect gift

I already have my perfect gift this year. Last Saturday, after just 18 months of protracted whining, bitching and moaning on my part, Mr B surprised me with 32 inches!

(F'nar f'nar.)

A new TV. There it is, peeking shyly out from behind the tree! We had been making do for so long with a beyond knackered 10 year old thing, with a wee screen and half the front falling off, and I got to the point where I thought "Sod it, I'm 41, I have two kids and a responsible job, I DESERVE to have a big screen tv!" *

S'wonderful. I love it. Am thinking of jacking in work so I can spend more time with it. It's particularly good because being, like, dead intellectual, me and Mr B watch loads of world cinema and we can now actually read the subtitles without inducing a migraine!! I can also make out QVC's p&p charges now, which has been a bit of a wake up call. Crikey! No more impulse purchasing for me from now on! Probably.

* see also dishwasher, car, non-leaking roof and wardrobes and curtains which weren't left behind by the owner of the previous house we lived in.

16th December

2009-12-18T11:35:00.001Z

Gratitude.

The Big C hit very close to home this year. The prognosis is currently very good, but even so, it changes lives forever.

14th December

2009-12-16T13:09:00.002Z

Forgot this one, so it's out of order.

Presents

15th December

2009-12-16T13:06:00.000Z

Visitors

Starting to find it a problem fitting journalling in on such a small space, and I'd wanted to do more journalling in my album this year. I mad this page so it flips up for jourenalling underneath, but I think i'm going to have to reduce my photo size or lose them altogether when I want to write a lot.

13th December

2009-12-14T18:21:00.001Z

Christmas songs

Reverse side of the acetate flap

12th December

2009-12-14T18:19:00.001Z

Christmas Past

These photos were taken 9 years ago. 9 YEARS!! How did that happen? Where did it go ? Do you know? DO you???

I made a fold out acetate page for this one. Will take a better photo in the light.

11th December

2009-12-14T18:15:00.001Z

O Christmas Tree

(If you follow me on Twitter you will know the trauma of my pop-up tree)

10th December

2009-12-14T18:12:00.004Z

Christmas wrapping - v quick catch up using Cosmo Cricket.

9th December

2009-12-14T18:11:00.001Z

This entry looks at Christmas traditions. We don't have many of them, but one that has crept up on us is the school Nativity. This year it was mt 5 year old's first Nativity. He was an angel. He didn't have any lines and was supposed to stand still looking holy for most of it, but once he'd spotted us in the audience he persisted with doing these really theatrical winks at us - turning his head fully to the right opening his mouth and scrunching his eye up in an exaggerated fashion (the bottom picture, although it's rubbish, catches him doing it). He must have looked like he'd got a twitch or something. I asked him afterwards what he'd been doing and he answered "My showtime wink".

Tuesday 8th December

2009-12-14T18:00:00.001Z

Christmas finally crept up and bit me on the bum this week, so I've fallen massively behind on JYC entries. I managed to get back up to date last night though. Photos are a bit rubbish, I'll probably re-take them later in the week.

8th December - Sights of the season.

I took these pictures at top Cheshire posh people's store Hoopers.

I felt a bit weird going round taking photos. Should have taken a clipboard with me. It adds gravitas. You can do what you like if you're carrying a clipboard..

Things to do

2009-12-07T20:27:00.000Z

December 7th : To do list

This is a loose envelope that I'll bind in with the other pages when I've finished the journal. There is a tag inside which lists the copious amounts of things still left to do, the worst and most dreaded being "Clean the house. Properly".

Me and housework are on nodding terms at the best of times, but I've been so busy lately that I seem to have got a little behind. One of my son's friends came round this evening and said "It's very dusty in here, isn't it" which I thought was a bit much. Granted, he was alternating between choking and wheezing at the time, I think his allergies were playing up a bit. But even so.

Bitter-sweet

2009-12-06T21:26:00.000Z

December 6th: good Christmas/bad Christmas

For this prompt I focussed on Christmas 1987, when I felt the bitter sweet pangs of unrequited love for the first time. It was simultaneously the best and the worst feeling in the world and made for a bit of a car crash of a festive season. Much weeping into cider and black at friends' parents' houses. Oh! the drama!

That's him, my first love. I met him in my first term at university in 1987. I was a tender young drama student, he was worldly 3rd year, studying international politics. I was smitten straight away and so was he - with my best friend (thankfully, she wasn't interested). I spent that first term determined to win his affection in the only way I knew how: by subjecting him to relentless, withering sarcasm. Oddly enough that didn't work and by Christmas 1987, although I'd wormed my way into his social group, I was no closer to being his inamorata. I was just a mate. A rather snarky, overly critical one.

My friend took this photo of him and I nicked it off her and took it home with me over the Christmas holidays, tacking it above my bed and gazing despondently at it. I got so far as checking the phone directories to see if I could find his parents' phone number and address (although we went to uni on the other side of the country, he only lived about 10 miles from me and had a distinctive surname). I think I found it too, but thankfully a friend pointed out that suddenly appearing outside his house could be interpreted as being just to the bunny-boiling side of erotomania, and I never did go. Probably for the best. I still think he was lovely, but on reflection he probably had a lucky escape.

Except no he didn't, he's in the kitchen right now, washing up and shouting at the cat. Yes, Reader, I married him! I went back to uni in the January, not really fancying my chances too much, but out of the blue I maneuvered him into asking me out the following month! We've been together ever since - 22 years next Feb (although he says it feels a lot, lot longer...).

Counting Down

2009-12-06T12:00:00.000Z

December 5th: Counting traditions

We've lost the counter in our countdown snowman :(

Perfect

2009-12-06T11:56:00.000Z

December 4th: Perfect Christmas

I focussed on the idea of perfection for this entry, because today I got really cross with a couple of people who I felt let me down. Then I took a step back and realised that they probably have a lot on their plate at the moment too, and that I really should try to take a more measured view of my interactions with others.

I tried three times to do an image transfer and failed miserably each time, hence the imperfect, blobby image in the corner of the page.

I used an inkjet snowflake acetate by Crafty Individuals and some Claudine Helmuth medium. I followed all the instructions I've seen online but each time the image sort of melted and then didn't transfer properly. Anyone?

Cross Cat

2009-12-04T13:30:00.002Z

My JYC entry for December 3rd: Christmas cards. The cat stamp is by Judikins. Can't remember who the bird one is - will update when I find it.

I have been making Christmas cards at school with my son's infant class this morning. Not quite sure how I ended up with that job, I definitely only offered to cut out a few Christmas shapes on my Cricut for the kids to use in Christmas projects & suddenly I'm running the show!

(One thing I have learnt over the last few weeks is that you have to be careful what you volunteer for at that school, they are very big on function creep. You offer to go in for twenty minutes to help the little ones get changed after PE, and next thing you know you're leading them on a potholing expedition down the Devil's Arse (proper cavern, look it up!) with Huw Edwards' baleful commentary ringing in your ears ("The boulders bounced off the children's soft heads"). I regularly hear my life, as reported by Huw Edwards, in my head, usually when whatever I'm doing is particularly dumb and/or dangerous. It used to be a local newscaster (Gordon Burns) who was lodged there, but with the expansion of my ego, nothing less than the gravitas of a Huw Edwards or (ideally) Michael Buerk will do.)

Still I can't deny I'm feeling sneakily festive now. The kids sang Jingle Bells in really hushed tones just before I left and it brought a tear to my eye!

I made up some more text pages for my journal last night and it's starting to look nice and fat.

Snow? Oh I REALLY don't think so

2009-12-02T12:50:00.000Z

My JYC December 2nd entry. Prompt: weather.

We get snow that sticks about once every other year here (just outside Manchester, UK) usually in Feb/March. I can't remember the last time it snowed even vaguely near Christmas, so we don't rely on the weather to get us hugely festive, although it's always nice to be able to have a good old moan about it.

This photo of my son in the snow was taken about 4 years ago (in April! I have a photo taken four weeks later of him in shorts and t shirt and bare feet, charging round the garden. Madness!). When I printed it out my printer was out of ink, and it came out with a weird purple tinge to it. So I took a scraper and scratched off the top layer where the snow was, and it really changed the photo from being frankly unusable to really quite funky! Well I think so, anyway. I often employ a similar technique with my cooking and my family don't tend to agree. Whatever.

The photo slides out from behind the acetate overlay and there's some journalling on the back.

OK. Let's Go!!

2009-12-01T14:42:00.004Z

My first entry for Journal Your Christmas 2009. I'm trying to use book text pages as a backing for each page ~~cos they're cheap~~ to tie it all together, thematically. Top layer flips up for journalling and there's a journalling tag behind the photo.

The photo is our advent calendar with the first door open. I came to print and found I was out of ink, so it's printed in focal black and white with just the calendar in colour.

"Dead, dead artistic and good"

2009-11-28T13:27:00.002Z

I've decided to take part in Journal Your Christmas after all. Here is my journal.

For the fact fans among you, I am embracing the oft overlooked 5.5 x 8 inch format. This is because I am experimenting with a more journally, notebooky sort of feel this year and consider portrait format expressly suited to a more textually biased approach. *strokes beard, sagely*

Meh, actually it's because I made the basic album two years ago, during one of my tedious grown up art stamper phases and, surprise surprise, never actually did anything with it. So I've titivated the front with a bit of Christmas stuff, et voila, one JYC album. Quick and dirty win, I think.

I expect 5.5 x 8 is going to open up a whole new world of pain when it comes to getting photos to fit right, but never fear, I do like a challenge*.

*No, I don't

Journal Your Christmas

2009-11-21T14:01:00.001Z

*cough* mydoublepagespreadinScrapbookInspirationsMagazine *cough*

This is last year's album. I've not decided whether to take part again this year (when you sign up for the class you automatically get sent fresh, daily prompts every year - pretty damn good value, if you ask me).

I'm feeling quite unfestive for some reason, not sure why. I'm usually rubbing myself up against Christmas in an unseemly fashion by November, but it seems to be passing me by this year. I do like looking at last year's album though. It captured a lot that I'd already forgotten.

If you're currently feeling less of an old misery guts than me, you can find out more about JYC & sign up here. If you REALLY can't contain yourself, you can view my Journal pages by clicking on the Journal Your Christmas tag below. Go on, I won't think any the less of you.

ATCs

2009-10-14T10:45:00.008+01:00

Jackie came to stay this weekend. We did a lot of scrapping, drinking and cackling, while the menfolk of the house hid in other rooms, looking nervous.

On Saturday we went to the Happy Stampers Festival at Port Sunlight. Man alive, it was busy! And hot! I must have had heat stroke or something, because I came THIS close to buying Magnolias (sorry if you're a Magnolia fan, but well....Moomins!!), but thankfully Jackie slapped me around a bit and I came out of my fug and bought a load of cool Stamp Camp stuff instead. (And some cheap Magnolia knock-offs by Kars, but I trust you'll have the good taste not to mention them.)

We bought way too much, and coming out, giddy on the heady combination of rubber and pheromones, giggled and snorted at the site of four nervous looking old ladies as they drove verrrrry sloooooowly and caaaaarefully round a roundabout. Smirk.

Then we got in our car and smartly drove round the same roundabout, the wrong way.

(I knew when we pulled onto it that it didn't feel quite right, but I couldn't figure out why. Hey ho. Instant Karma, I guess. )

Anyway some ATCs from a little fiddling session we had. The fairy stamps are by The Stamp Man, the text ones are Stamp Camp. Am determined to fill up my ATC spinner that two years ago I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE AND ABSOLUTELY WOULD USE, which currently houses about 6 ATCs.

Jackie made this last one. Good, innit? Go on her blog and bug her to start posting again. I miss her calm and reasoned take on life :)

Big. Letters.

2009-10-07T14:03:00.007+01:00

Mmm, big Christmas letters. Bought them in Hobbycraft, covered them in book pages and threw some stash at them. Stop me if I'm being too technical for you.

Love the "L". The "L", I can't get enough of.

Not so that "O", though. That "O" may have to go.

Am buzzing along on 3 hours sleep in 36 hours. 4 year old has some sort of chest infection and can't sleep for coughing, bless him. Feel a bit jitttttery at the mo. Expect I will start being able to hear my hair growing soon or something.

Ages since last blog post,. Been so long Twittering, appear to have lost ability to speak in full sentences. Like Geoffery Palmer. In Reggie Perrin.

Stress Free Scrapbooking

2009-08-03T21:20:00.003+01:00

This is the title page for Shimelle's Go to Press: Stress Free Scrapbooking on 2 Peas. You get a daily prompt and loads of stuff to print off on your printer, something I normally only use for photo printing, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

I've run the title vertically because I'm doing 8x8 and hope to bind it with the BIA I seem to remember buying a couple of years ago, so I've got to leave an indent on the left for wires.

BTW, it's resting on a packet of Eccles Cakes, which are undoubtedly one of life's small pleasures! Off to scoff one now in fact.

"Well thank you very much, Jerry!"

2009-05-08T19:21:00.008+01:00

I made this card for a wedding I'm going to tomorrow, using kit scraps from the ATDML retreat (ta for the extra butterfly, Jackie :)).

The reception is in a bedouin tent. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds a bit suspect. I trust that there will be no beardy-weirdy tree-hugging type nonsense expected of me.

The tent is pitched in a farm field up in the hills. Apparently the only toiletry facilities will be portacabin loos (shudder - I feel an attack of the Margot Ledbetters* coming on).

Made this card using some scraps from WRMK Nonsense pad - £12 bargain from QVC until they went and put the price up.

*no, that is not a euphemism for "the shits", thank you. Although actually, come to think of it...

More Promarkers

2009-05-07T13:10:00.004+01:00

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Anyway, yes, Promarkers!!!

I made a couple more cards with them. Bearing in mind that I am an absolute duffer when it comes to colouring in using any other medium, I'm really pleased with the results. I think as I get more experienced* I will manage to whack in a bit more shade and do a bit more blending. I've already learned that when it comes to blending you have to be ruddy quick - leave it anymore than a couple of seconds and you're done for.

I used the Letraset non-bleed paper. This stopped most of the ink bleed, although not all of it. The stamps are a new Hero Arts clear set, I got them from Sir Stampalot.

*This suggests future frequent use. Regular readers know that this will never, ever happen.

Is it hot in here?

2009-05-02T14:28:00.007+01:00

Happy National Scrapbooking Day one and all!!

Ladies, if your other half refuses to let you observe this most sacred day, tell them they are oppressing your cultural beliefs and can be sued under the Human Rights Act. Ha, that will show them!

I bought an iron today. Actually I bought an iron last Sunday but it was cheap and rubbish, so I bought a better one today. It's made me feel a bit wobbly inside.

Behold the Russell Hobbs Slipstream!! Or, as I like to think of it, The Beast.

2200 watts of throbbing power. Grrrrrr!! Look at it: proud, defiant. I don't dare put my delicate rosey-wosey ironing water in it, I think it would spit it straight out. It dominates the ironing board with its weight, its girth...

Am rather scared by it. And also slightly aroused. Hopefully this will encourage me to iron more.

Right...

2009-04-28T19:39:00.004+01:00

When I look back on my life it will be divided into two periods : Before Promarkers and After Promarkers. Basically, nothing I ever did Before Promarkers (i.e. last Saturday) matters any more. Nothing.

Promarkers rule. THEY RULE, I tell you!!!

Here is the first card I made with them. When I first did it I was v. pleased with the result, although now I think the shading is a little on the "meh" side. But it is OK, I figured out the problem. It's simply that I need more Promarkers. Many more. In every colour, shade and hue. I'LL HAVE THEM ALL, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Sorry, have noticed a tendency to get a bit hyper around them. Think it's all them boozy fumes they give off.

So anyway to conclude, buy Promarkers. OK?

That is all.

2009-04-12T15:35:00.005+01:00

This is a re-working of Suzanne Torr's canvas class at last week's excellent ATDML retreat. Suzanne's canvas was gorgeously shabby chic. Sadly, my execution of it was decidedly less gorgeous. More importantly, the glue I used didn't hold things on very well (Herma repo - durrrrrrr), so by the time I got it home and unpacked it, bits were bubbling up or falling off.

I couldn't re-do it in its original form because in getting them off I damaged part of the photo and some of the embellishments. So I abandoned the orginal design and scraplifted the canvas from the Foof-a-Life book, using the base cardstock from the class.

The one on the right is me as a bridesmaid when I was about 3. I look quite demure don't I? Twenty minutes later I told the vicar to shut his gob, I forget why...

Ribbon flower

2009-03-22T14:58:00.003Z

Made using this tutorial

Warning: Here be ranting

2009-02-24T17:25:00.004Z

I must apologise for yesterday’s bad tempered Tweeting about my birthday. I tend to approach my birthday in the spirit of Blackadder’s Queenie – selfishly and with threats of decapitation if presents aren’t up to scratch. And to be fair, I did receive some jolly nice presents – a new Mackinac Moon craft tote, some Decleor goodies, Hobbycraft vouchers, a lovely scarf, some home made buns – I am genuinely grateful for these. But they were from people who could have just turned up with a card and a few good wishes and I’d have been happy (no, honest, I WOULD!!).

No, the reason for my ire was the unreconstituted shitness of the offerings from my husband.

To be frank, after more than 20 years together I have come to expect a less than satisfactory response from him on the birthday front. But I am not a high maintenance woman and he spends zero money on me during the rest of the year, so I do kind of think I’m allowed to be indulged and treated like a bit of a princess on my birthday. You know, what with HAVING GIVEN HIM THE PRICELESS GIFT OF CHILDREN AND ALL!!!™

Anyway, experience has taught me that he simply doesn’t share this vision. To the extent that this year I decided to hold off opening cards and presents until I got home from work in the evening. I told him and the kids that it was because I needed to be in work early (which was true), but really it was because I wanted the inevitable disappointment and ensuing cold rage to be confined to the evening, rather than infecting my whole day.

It’s like this: two weeks ago my husband enquired whether I would like a DS lite for my birthday. Our eight year old has one and he knows I like playing with it. He also knows our son would like to have someone to hook up to play games with. Oh, and there is the fact that for the last 12 months I have been saying “I want a DS lite” roughly every 20 minutes.

So anyway, he asked, and I did the gracious thing: “Oh I’d lurve one, but it’s terribly expensive and can we really afford it and maybe we should be putting the money towards a new tv instead or buying an external hard drive for the computer etc etc”.

As any fule kno, this clearly means “Yes!! Yes buy me one! Or, if you’re feeling really flash, get me a new TV. Or better still, get all three!!”

The more I thought about it, the more I just knew that I was heading for a fall, so I did some pretty hefty mental preparation work along the “It’s the thought that counts” lines. But there must still have been some little spark of hope inside me that just couldn’t be doused, because I found it very hard to accept what I eventually received yesterday in a gracious manner.

In two weeks we went from DS lite to:

1 pair Tesco (TESCO!) pyjamas – they are the wrong size, horrid looking and I can sense an oncoming yeast infection just by looking at them. (Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of clothing from Tesco – practically my whole wardrobe comes from there these days. WHICH IS PRECISELY WHY I HOPE NOT TO RECEIVE MORE OF THE BLOODY TAT FROM MY HUSBAND ON MY BIRTHDAY!! There’s even an M&S right next door to the Tesco he bought them from, he could easily have nipped next door and bought something a bit fancier.)

An audio book. What, did I just turn 65 or something?? (Interestingly, it was his mum’s 65th birthday at the weekend. He bought her an audio book. Amongst many other things.)

A DVD – an 80s tv drama called “One Summer”, starring David Morrissey. This would actually have been a good gift, except he let slip a few weeks ago that he’d bought it for me at Christmas and then forgotten he’d got it. Rather than doing the reasonable thing and whipping it out one January evening when we were both at a loose end, he prudently banked it for a later date.

A memory stick. This is, so I am told “…EXACTLY the same as having an external hard drive. EX-ACTLY! In fact, better!!”

There was a thin line where my mouth used to be when opened that lot, I don’t mind telling you. Next year I am having cash.

Oh, one more thing, my birthday cake. I said this year that I would really like a birthday cake (see, I even have to ask for my own cake!). We have been together 20 years. I pretty much dislike fruit cake, while he loves it. I leave him to finish off all the Christmas cake for that reason. When we order in a café I always go for the chocolaty, spongy options - I am a sponge girl through and through, preferably with lashings of jam and butter cream in the middle.

OK, you know what’s coming, I really don’t need to spell it out, do I? Except to say that when he was shovelling it down he kept trilling on about how very nice fruit cake is, so much nicer than sponge and not at all sickly. Whilst I studied him through narrowing eyes.

Snarky calendar

2009-02-13T09:57:00.005Z

A couple of years ago I altered the calendar I have on my desk at work, in a subversive fashion (oh, I really know how to stick it to The Man!). Anyway, apparently it contravened at least three official Dignity at Work policies or something and I was eventually asked to put it away. In direct protest at this stifling of my freedom of expression, last year I REFUSED to make another one!!

Sadly, nobody noticed.

So anyway, I have made one this year.

It is very cunning in that to the casual observer it appears upbeat and motivational, when in fact I mean it in a meanspirited and snarky, sarcastic sort of way. So ha ha, I win.

Choice footwear!

2009-02-13T09:50:00.006Z

How about these for scrappers' socks? £1 from Tesco. Bargain!

Now then, where was I?

2009-02-04T10:13:00.009Z

Do you like my new template? I picked it because it reminds me of Trainspotting, which is not my favourite film however I did enjoy the poster.
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I'm Twittering now, do you see? It means I can communicate to you all the highly important thoughts I have during the day.
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Here's some stuff I've done recently.
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This one I did while drunk with Jackie. She came up to stay this last weekend and we had a riot - can't wait to see you again at the retreat ;). Lots of Scenic Route, which she has just converted me to.

This one I lifted from one in the We Dare You book.

This is my four year old looking all little and lost.

Here is is my four year old launching a Cato-style attack on me while I experiment with some daring up-nose shots. I used the November Scrapagogo kit for this one. The frames around the photo are Prima stamps - £1.75 from A Trip Down Memory Lane. Bargain!

Journal Your Christmas: 1 January

2009-01-02T13:26:00.007Z

New Year's Day entry. I have broken every last one of these bloody resolutions in the last 24 hours. It started badly - I seem to remember screaming at the kids whilst I was actually writing it. The irony was not lost on me.

This is my last entry for the journal. Although the project runs to 6th Jan, life is getting back to normal and I now want to move forward. Plus (and more importantly) Celeb Big Brother starts tonight and I want to clear the decks for that (Ulrika Jonsson! Coolio!! Steve Strange!!!!! O pointing and sneering, how I have missed ye!). I'm really pleased with the way my journal has turned out though, and I've enjoyed making it.

Journal Your Christmas: 31st December

2008-12-31T15:13:00.004Z

Another quick entry - I'm almost embarassed to upload these they are so basic, but for the sake of completeness I will. This is a pic of my foggy garden this morning. It mirrors my state of mind, I feel like I'm stuck in some twilight world of neverending buffets and mid-morning baths.

No giddy celebrations for us tonight, New Year's Eve has always been a quiet affair post kids. We'll probably watch a DVD and may even be in bed before midnight. We used to watch Jools Holland, but dh has never gotten over the shock and disappointment of discovering that it's pre-recorded and now he won't have it on in the house.

Journal Your Christmas: 28th-30th December

2008-12-31T15:10:00.002Z

Journal Your Christmas: 25th-27th December

2008-12-30T12:56:00.004Z

Still need to fill in details of the kids' presents.

Christmas card I made and then lost until it was too late to send.

Kelly Pannacci, Zettiology and Invoke Arts stamps. I think the celestial one and the pixies might be Stamp Camp? I picked them up from a US stand at Port Sunlight last year.

Journal Your Christmas: 23rd December

2008-12-23T14:50:00.004Z

Today's prompt: stocking traditions.

I made this one in about 10 minutes flat cos I have about a gazillion things to do and really should be doing them rather than faffing around with bits of paper.

My journal is getting good and fat now - feels really nice to hold.

Journal Your Christmas: 22nd December

2008-12-23T12:11:00.004Z

Mmm...blingy.

Today's JYC prompt was to document your To Do list. Mine is quite short, as somehow I seem to have got organised again. Of course, I forgot to include "Sit up with your four-year-old half the night, cuddling him while he coughs his guts up".

At half three this morning I went rummaging for cough medicine and found some at the back of the cupboard that had been prescribed for him on 21 December 2007. Every Christmas the same, sigh ...

Journal Your Christmas

2008-12-21T16:31:00.013Z

Right, I am bang up to date again, 6 pages in one day, magnificent progress!! Inspiration was running thin by the end (well, more by the middle really) and it necessitated the neglect of my family for most of the day, but damnit you can't let little things like spending time with your family interfere with the process of preserving family history I say, and I simply was not prepared to stand by and see precious memories such as the front cover of the Christmas Radio Times consigned to the scrapheap of oblivion. Trust me, my children will thank me one day (it's a clause in my will).

Day 16 - visitors. We're not having any on Christmas day, or so I believed until about half an hour ago, when DH saw this and piped up that actually he'd invited the in-laws for tea. Reader, I'll let you imagine how that little conversation played out.

Day 17 - the perfect gift. DS last year, with his ds.

Day 18: FOOD! I flicked through Nigella today and then went and bought all the equivalents of the receipes I was thinking of doing from M&S. Oh well.

Day 19 - tales of the unexpected. I'm suddenly in touch with people from the past.

Day 20: I went off prompt here because I lubs the Christmas Radio Times and it starts today. It's the only one of the year I buy, and I like to go through it with a highlighter pen so that I don't miss any of the gems of quality programming they serve up to us over the festive season.

(I was being ironic there, just so we're clear. Although not about the highlighter pen bit, I really do do that.)

Day 21: Pictures of my house today. I used the Picasa collage function.

Journal Your Christmas

2008-12-17T12:04:00.006Z

This time last week I was not so much on top of Christmas as had it pinned firmly up against the wall with its arm up its back, shouting "Christmas, you slaaaag!" Then sometime between me going back to work and Joe breaking his arm everything started to slide. I have yet to write a Christmas card, I'm still loads of presents short, and keeping up with JYC has gone out the window.

I had a catch up session last night and managed to pull back a few days, but they were all done at the gallop and under the influence so they are a bit skew whiff (and in one case a bit weird!). But I have to keep at it - if I fall too far behind I am doomed!!

Here is my fake tree. Sadly we have not yet bonded.

My 8 year old writing his annual list of demands. I'm not sure he truly believes in Father Christmas any more, or whether he's simply hedging his bets, but he insisted in writing a letter again this year. He also put a return address at the bottom, so that he could have it back to "check-off what he receives". Presumably he's planning a letter of complaint if he doesn't get everything on there then.

Small child attacking a pile of presents last year.

Now, I couldn't see straight by the time I did this one, let alone write straight, hence the wonky green writing at the back. I also struggled for things to be thankful for by the time I'd hit number 5. "The internet" was a serious contender at one point but I managed to dredge up a couple of other more traditional things I suppose I really should be grateful for. The writing at the back started out as a pious sermon on the evils of consumerism but ended up a bit of a ramble about how I do deserve to have a dish washer and a big screen tv actually and how shocking it is I don't have these things. It was late, I was pissed and being egged on by a friend who was working on her own Christmas journal and therefore, I suspect in the cold headachy light of day, probably did not have my journal's best interests at heart!!

Journal Your Christmas: 11th December

2008-12-11T11:17:00.004Z

I'm off prompt again. My youngest son fell off his scooter and broke his arm today, so I've focussed on that rather than the prompt. He's OK, bless him, and it seems like an uncomplicated fracture. Here he is having his plaster cast put on (which has since been removed) and charming the nurses.

Journal Your Christmas: 10th December

2008-12-10T10:55:00.013Z

I was a bit liberal with the interpretation of today's prompt, which was about wrapping paper.

Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses is my absolute favourite Christmas song - an overlooked gem of early 1980's New Wave cool. It makes me want to pick up my most jangly air guitar and Rock On!!

I feel quite strongly that this IS the best Christmas song ever and am prepared to fight anyone who disagrees.

Journal Your Christmas: 9th December

2008-12-09T10:43:00.004Z

Do you like my moody mince pie? We are on our third box already. I don't even like them that much, so I don't know why I eat them.

Journal Your Christmas: 8th December

2008-12-08T22:08:00.005Z

I managed to shake off my pre-teatime grump and do today's prompt. The bag was the only thing I photographed today, and it's not exactly brimming with festive cheer, so I've cheated and used photos of some decorations I've made in the last few weeks. I know they won't win any top crafting prizes, but I've enjoyed making them and I feel all Christmassy when I get them out and look at them (still haven't put our decorations up yet).

I used the collage function in Picasa to get all the pictures on one photo. The spotty black and white card is the back of a pack of Prima crystals.

2008-12-08T15:00:00.007Z

Reader, the hopeless slump of the bag roughly approximates the joyless slump of my shoulders: after nearly three months' sick leave with my slipped disc, I finally had to go back to work today :( :( :(

Today's JYC prompt was to try to capture something of the magic of the season in photography. I took my camera into work because I thought I'd take some pics of the cheesy decorations bound to be festooning the office. But when I got into work there were none to be seen. I work on a team of hep and a dudey young cats (how could I not?) who are far too cynical and cool to have anything to do with tinsel-based products, so they refuse to put any up. I remember this happened last year too, and I took a particularly dim view of it (although desperate to show that I was down with the kids, I went around with a permanently curled lip, saying things like "Yeh...bloody Christmas, like, who needs it, yeh?").

They don't give Christmas cards either. Miserable buggers.

Journal Your Christmas: 7th December

2008-12-07T16:54:00.005Z

We saw Father Christmas today, so I decided to focus on this rather than the prompt.

My youngest (4) clasped my hand very tightly as we waited in line to meet him and I felt very tender towards him. Then just as we were about to go in he turned to me and instructed me not to interrupt him when he was talking to Father Christmas.

When we got in to the grotto he stood at a 45 degree angle to The Big Man and refused to look at him, staring fixedly at some point in the middle distance. He did, however, manage to explain in some detail why he wanted a Dalek Voice Changer Helmet for Christmas (because when pretending to be a Dalek (which is most of the time) his two arms adequately perform the role of the eye stalk and the sucker, but he lacks a crucial third arm for "killing things").

Journal Your Christmas: 6th December

2008-12-06T12:09:00.005Z

Today's prompt encouraged us to consider past Christmases, good and bad.

I've generally had pretty good (if uneventful) Christmases, so I suppose I am pretty lucky really. The worst thing I could find to journal about was Christmas 2001, when my oldest son, who was about 18 months, gave everyone the winter vomiting bug on Christmas Day. And I mean gave EVERYONE - me, his dad, grandparents and uncles. It was pretty grim - the gift that kept on giving so to speak.

I separated out the page using little wage envelopes from Staples and then cropped a couple of photos to fit inside and journalled on the back.

We are off to see Father Christmas again today. I have promised my four year old faithfully that we will find him this time, even if we have to hunt him down like a dog.

Journal Your Christmas: 5th December

2008-12-05T19:18:00.008Z

Here's one for you. On any given day, don't tell your four year old that you'll take him to see Santa unless you know FOR A FACT Santa is actually going to be there and available to receive visitors. Apparently four year olds don't like to be misled about this. They take it very seriously. I speak from bitter experience.

Today's entry should have been a warm and fuzzy reflection on our trip to see Father Christmas at the local garden centre yesterday. However after promising my son we'd go, I found that Father Christmas doesn't work Fridays, either there or anywhere in the local area. My son flew into the sort of rage that, ironically, should ensure that Santa leaves him the bare minimum of presents this year, if the old Naughty/Nice equation holds true.

So I ended up staying on-prompt and focussing on the countdown to Christmas, specifically our advent calendar.

Personally, I love the sort of paper advent calendars we had when I was little, where you open up a door to find just a picture behind them, but I don't think that sort of thing washes with the current generation though, in fact I'm not sure you can even get them anymore can you? Failing that, given the choice I would plump for a bog standard chocolate advent calendar, but one of my kids is allergic to milk so he can't have chocolate. So we have one of the wooden ones that you fill with sweets yourself. Looks quite nice, but causes all sorts of problems. We daren't fill it in advance because the thieving little buggers would nick the whole month's worth of sweets if they could, and then go on a sugar-induced rampage. So we fill it each night before we go to bed, with a modest jelly sweet each. Or at least we're supposed to. Well, we tend to manage it for the first three or so days of Advent. Then we start forgetting, which usually results in 3am trips downstairs to fill it.

And the kids, mindful of the fact that they'll get sweets before breakfast, have started waking up earlier and earlier. My four year old is hopping out of bed before 6am these days, anxious for his sugar fix. Nightmare.

Journal Your Christmas: 4th December

2008-12-05T10:24:00.005Z

Today's prompt was to think about what would make Christmas perfect for me.

I have to be frank and say that the perfect Christmas for me would involve lots of food and drink and not having to spend time in the company of my relatives (big family argument last Christmas, still rumbling on), but I don't think that's very on-message really is it? This year though, after a few years of cooking for both sides of the family (around 12 of us in all) I'm having a year off and it will just be the four of us. I'm really looking forward to it and I've journalled that fact on a tag hidden behind the photo. (I thought I better keep it hidden in case the relatives get hold of it - don't think they'd take it in the right spirit somehow.)

I wish this tree was mine, but sadly it's just a stock image off the net. It's lovely though, just how a proper tree should be.

Journal Your Christmas: 3rd December

2008-12-03T13:01:00.005Z

Today's entry in my JYC journal.

I really enjoyed doing this one, it reminds me of one of my kids' favourite books, "The Jolly Postman". It has all sorts of pull out letters and cards and just feels really nice to look through.

The Christmas card is one that I made slightly too big to fit into a sealed envelope, so I don't mind using it here. I might add my Christmas card list to the inside cover of the card when I'm done with it.

Journal Your Christmas: 2nd December

2008-12-02T21:23:00.004Z

Today's prompt was to think about the weather in your neck of the woods.

There's been an awful lot of snow around over the past few days, but most of it has missed us. We woke up to black ice and sleet today, and it stayed all day. All a bit miserable really. The bluey picture is my garden under the snow. Our mental weather systems being what they are, that photo was taken in April this year! The dull, dank wet photo underneath is how it all looked today.

In an attempt to recapture some of yesterday's Christmas mood I have just had an Options hot chocolate drink - "Jazzy Ginger", I believe it said on the label. It tasted like hot, weak Dettol and is quite possibly the vilest thing I have ever drunk.

Journal Your Christmas : 1st December

2008-12-02T11:47:00.003Z

I decided not to go with the official prompt for this one and just jotted down a few thoughts about how I was feeling. I wanted to get in a picture of our little advent snowman. He comes out every year and really signals the start of things, so it wouldn't have felt so appropriate on another day.

I took the photo last night, so it's really dark. I'm fighting the urge to re-take it in the daylight and paste it over. The whole point of this project, for me at least, is to do a little something every day, and to not beat myself up if it's a little raw or isn't perfect and not to tinker with it afterwards. That way I hope I'll stay in control of it and not start devoting excessive time to it when I should just be enjoying the festive season itself.

The Most Magical Time of the Year!

2008-12-01T11:30:00.008Z

Now, I don't know about you, but to me nothing sums up the magic of the festive season quite like a photo of Runcorn Bridge on a cloudy day. Thankfully the ladies of the Cheshire Federation of Womens Institutes feel the same, as here is their calendar page for December. Look carefully and you may spot the petrochemical plant nestling quietly on the riverbank.

2008-11-30T11:01:00.004Z

Here I am, demonstrating that major surgery need be no bar to looking elegant and well turned out!

I slipped a couple of discs in my spine over the summer and they got worse and worse until in September one of them ruptured and I had to have emergency surgery. I'd heard all sorts of horror stories about the success rate of spinal surgery before I had it, so I'm very thankful that mine seems to have been so successful. I'm left with sciatic pain down my leg and in my bum, but compared with how I was before and what might have been, I consider myself fortunate.

There is one thing that continues to prey on my mind. I was most definitely sporting sensible drawers when I was wheeled into that operating theatre and I awoke to find myself sans them. Which means that the surgeon was treated to the sight of my rosy red rump poking cheerfully up at him. Charming. I thought that with my childbearing years behind me I would be done with such unexpected invasions of modesty, but apparently not.

Friends say I should try to put such thoughts out of my mind. Coincidentally, I bet that is what the surgeon is trying to do too.

Anyway, I now face the grim spectre of returning to work in the next couple of weeks. The swines, do they not know I have a Christmas journal to complete??

2008-11-29T13:42:00.009Z

Matalan bargain buy of the week: 12 wooden tree decorations for £3 (they have a 3 for 2 offer on decorations as well, if you feel like really pushing the boat out).

They come as plain wood, so I painted them black then coated them in black glitter (they are much sparklier IRL than they look in these pictures).

They look like ones that John Lewis were selling for £2 a pop a few weeks ago, but for a credit-crunching fraction of the price. Trouble is I now need a £45 white feather Christmas tree to display them on...

2008-11-28T17:36:00.006Z

Me and oldest DS messing about the other day.

Looking at this I am faced with some difficult truths.
.

While he has a skin like a peach, I have a strawberry nose.

Furthermore, I look like a lairy old auntie, rather than the hip and dudey chickster I am in my head.

Never mind. Wine and the application of Decleor Neroli Oil will help. Happy Friday!

Journal Your Christmas

2008-11-26T10:14:00.010Z

I am really looking forward to starting Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas project next week. I'm hopeful it will be a great memory jogger for a period when (for me, at least) each day can blur seamlessly into the next. The only recent-ish Christmas that stands out in my memory is 2001, and that's only because starting on Christmas Eve me, DH, DS and anyone we came into contact with came down with the Norovirus, in very quick succession. I'm hoping that this Christmas will lodge in my memory in years to come, but for better reasons.

(Obviously, having said that, I've jinxed it now. Something disastrous is bound to happen!!)

Oh my, though. How about this for a Christmas journal? Gorgeous, I wish I'd made it...

2008-11-23T09:44:00.005Z

I made the covers for my album for Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas project last night. It involved a lot of foul and unseasonal language, I don't mind telling you! Something to do with an acrylic album, Stazon and an unexpected chemical reaction. But anyway, it's done now.

I'm going for a mismatched look, so I'm not picking papers from any one particular Christmas range. Most of the things I've set aside to use aren't even Christmas papers anyway, although obviously these are (Cosmo Cricket and Papermania).

2008-11-22T09:26:00.005Z

I'm a guest DT member for Make the Moment Last this month. I got to use some papers from the Crate Paper Lemongrass collection, plus some other bits and bobs and a gorgeous glittery Fancy Pants mini transparency. I've never come across them before and was a bit unsure how to use it, but it really lifted the LO.

(It's great having a ginger boy. I'm never phased by orange papers!)

I used Fancy Pants Fresh Mod stamps on this one.

The stalks are Daisy D floral rub ons.

2008-11-21T10:11:00.006Z

I made this hanging for this month's UK Art Raffle. The theme was circles, so I used a Tim Holtz clock mask that I got at the weekend. My friend bought them by mistake, thinking they were stickers. Ha! As any fule kno, masks are used to create relief effects and of course you cannot use them as stickers!! Oh she may have appeared irritated, but trust me, one day she will thank me for pointing that out at length several times.

Rrrrrr, I'm getting well and truly in the Christmas mood though, so come on December! I've signed up for Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas project (a page a day between 1st December and 12th night) and am using acrylic 8x8 covers for it. I've made some of the pages in advance, but I'll wait to make the others up until I've got a few entries under my belt and I know what direction I'm going in. Or alternatively, if the whole thing falls into disuse by oooh, day 8, then I've not wasted too much paper on it. (But of course that is not going to happen because I am on top of Christmas this year and absolutely will find the time each evening to sit with a small alcoholic beverage and reflect on and record the day's seasonal events for posterity.)

I have also bought an artificial Christmas tree. I have mixed feelings about this, because I have always had a real tree at Christmas. When I was growing up artificial trees were one of my mother's key indicators for common-ness, (together with watching ITV and buying anything from the ice cream man) and while I have always fought against such nonsense I can't deny that artificial trees just don't seem right. Until earlier this year my FIL worked at a local garden centre and we always got a really nice, big tree for free from there, but he has retired this year (without so much as a thought as to our ongoing tree needs I might add!) and so we are left to fend for ourselves, tree-wise. I can't be doing with spending £30 each year on something that's going to shiver all its needles off by New Year. Plus the disposal of the real tree was getting to be a bit of a headache. My husband, invariably in a bad mood with Christmas by that time, always insists on chopping it to pieces to get it out of the door. By the end it's like that scene from Shallow Grave when Christopher Ecclestone goes mad and starts frenziedly hacking up the body. By contrast, wrestling an artificial tree back into the box in which it arrived will, I am confident, be a doddle.

So I got one from B&Q (WHOOP! WHOOP! - "common" alert!). It cost £30 (WHOOP! WHOOP!). Apparently it is a "Luxury" model and has "Cashmere fronds" (WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! etc).

2008-11-12T14:25:00.005Z

A couple of Christmas cards with my favourite stamp this year, Silly Reindeer by Rubber Soul. I got him from Sir Stampalot .

I bought this and a couple of Hero Arts stamps for this year's cards, but have struggled with the Hero Arts ones because really they need colouring in and I have reluctantly reached the view that I just can't colour in stamped images right. They look rubbish whatever I do, and I get really frustrated, so I think I am best avoiding them from now on.

This is a quick one using my cricut (Christmas Cheer).

2008-11-12T14:23:00.004Z

More felt Christmas decorations. Damnit, there's a credit crunch on, people!

2008-11-08T15:17:00.010Z

I made this, ahem, "charming", folksy Christmas felt star. Just to be clear, the legs and stitching absolutely are meant to be a bit wonky and bent out of shape. I think you'll find it's part of the piece's naive charm, actually!.

If I was Elsie you'd be lapping this up.
.

Anyway, I thought I would make a few of these, and then it is just a short leap to pretending to dh that I also made the wreath below, and that I have not been out blowing the heating budget on Christmas frivolities.

No, to be honest I don't think he'll buy it either.

2008-11-04T10:26:00.008Z

Look at this! Just bought it at Lakeland. It was £12.99 and it feels pretty well made, although check for dried glue and stray stuffing if you are buying one, because there were a few slightly dodgy ones on the shelf.

These wreaths will either :

a) fly off the shelves and I will be at the forefront of this season's hottest home decor trend!!!!! Yesssss!;
or
b) hang around like a fart in a spacesuit until marked down to £3 with still three weeks to go to the Big Day.

Hmm, judging by the success with which I've previously spotted hot new trends, I'm betting b). But I saw it and I liked it so I bought it. I try to buy only one new decoration each year, so I don't feel too bad.

Anyway, I'm making the rest of my Christmas decorations this year, so there! I got the Cosmo Cricket Christmas chipboard shapes and matching die cuts in a sale earlier in the year and I'm going to stick them together. Add a bit of glitter, add a bit of paint, punch a ruddy big hole through them and bish! bash! bosh!, instant heirlooms.

2008-11-03T15:46:00.005Z

I think this photo will make me laugh until my dying day :). It's not just my older son's expression, but the fact that the mask is so big on my littlest one that you can only just see the tops of his eyes peeping through the eye holes. Bless.

I used the My Mind's Eye Night Light collection, plus a few other bits and bobs. And yes, Jackie, even a flower snuck its way in there. Oh, the horror!!!!! :)

Gas man has still not been. Hat is firmly jammed on head out of necessity rather than vanity now. Am freeeeeeeezing.

2008-11-03T10:37:00.003Z

"And it's not even as though the heating is off or anything."

The heating packed in at 10.30 last night. I am waiting for the gas man.

That'll learn me.