Christmas Journal - Day 17...

Stephanie left a question and asked about the page protectors I used for my Christmas album so I thought I'd list the supplies again for anyone else who wants to know too...

I used the Parisian Anthology album by Pink Paislee. It comes ready filled with the mixed page protectors but you can also buy them separately if you wish (link: refill pages). I mixed the page protectors up in my album and put them where they suited me. So larger (or ones with more pockets) page protectors for the days where I had lots to say or many photos, and smaller ones for days with shorter journalling blocks or less photos. Hope this was useful :)

Above is my page for December 17th - a very hectic day full of travelling and some photos of the packing mayhem that it caused LOL! And I managed to use some really, really old rub-ons... I think those snowflakes might be from when I started scrapping in 2004 or so - makes you feel great when you make use of something so old.

Christmas Journal - Day 16...

Just because it's a Christmas album... or maybe more a "December album" (as I make my album from the 1st to the 31st of December), doesn't mean it has to ONLY have Christmas related items in it...

For me it's more a way of documenting something that happens every day on the run up to Christmas. And it's not always something Christmassy. The 16th is a day that is never very Chrismassy in my yearly Christmas album...

...as it's Ross' birthday it's probably the least Christmassy day for us in December. But kinda nice to have a little break in, what's by that time, the usual Christmas rush. So there was lots of presents, fun and a yummy meal out. :) Definitely a nice day worth documenting :)

Christmas Journal - Day 15...

Got some more work done on my Christmas album. Having all the photos already chosen and printed is making this catching up business a LOT easier :)

And yes I decided on another page with no photos. It was a page that I wanted to have in my album yet I didn't really have any suitable photos from this day to go with the page. So journaling only it is :)

I've managed to get a lot of Creative Team work done this week so I hope to be able to concentrate a bit more on my journal for the next week or so and get some more completed pages on here. We'll see...

Nice To Get A Bargain... Or A Few...

I got the chance to go to Hull and do some shopping yesterday. Wasn't after anything specific but decided to check out the sales a bit. And did I get some bargains!!

A few weeks ago I regretted not having bought a scarf that I saw. I talked myself out of it as I didn't really need one that badly. As I said, on the way home I regretted it. Yesterday they had it at half price (£15, down to £7.50) so it felt like it was meant to be. And then I got to the till and it was only £6. Happy girl! :) Also I managed to get some really nice necklaces. I love long dangly ones. And there was a huge sale. I got 8 necklaces for £14... I later worked out that the price should have been over £65. Niiice! :)

Oh and then there was the Hobbycraft shop that I visited. They had a sale too! Got some bargain stamp packs (nice Hero Arts ones!) for £2.99 each... which had an rrp of £16.99 or something like that.

Then I decided I'd done enough shopping for that day LOL! But I'm sooo pleased with what I got :)

Leaving you for today with a layout done for the Lilypad Creative Team...

[Supplies used: Freeze Factor - Kaye Winiecki, Bugga & Frogger - Sara Gleaason, Amy Martin, The Lazy Dog - Heather Hess (all from The Lilypad)]

Christmas Journal - The Cover...

As I mentioned the other day, I realised that I'd completely forgotten to take photos of my finished Christmas album cover... (If you want to read more about the album I used or the start of decorating the cover, please check out this post).

So after all the playing around with the Cosmic Shimmers, this is what I created on the front...

The items are mainly by Doodlebug. The title (Christmas), jewels and snowflakes are all Doodlebug...

The "2010" are white fabric Thickers by American Crafts (looooove these!) In fact I love Thickers in general and use them a LOT. But more on that some other time LOL!

The tree sticker... I can't really remember for sure. But I believe it might have come from a larger 12x12 sticker sheet by Echo Park... actually the more I think about it, the more sure I am of it.

So that's my cover. Now I just need to work with my printed/ordered photos and get the pages finished too :)

Christmas Journal - Day 14...

Anyone else still playing along with me, finishing the Christmas album for 2010? I'd love to hear from you :)

I'm onto sharing day 14 today...

And yes (drumroll!) a page with no photo. That's totally okay in my book. Though I do prefer to have photos so I think this might be the only photo-less page in my album. We'll see...

It's about Christmas Eve (the day that Christmas is celebrated in Sweden), about Santa coming to visit (as he does!) and what I'm expecting for this year but also about my greatest Christmas present wish (something that I was really luck for Santa to later bring - a new camera).

I realised that I have not got my finished cover on here, so I'm going to try and take some photos of that soon and get a blog post up about that too :)

Happy Things...

Mmmm... happy things. :) The title? Only because of the title of the layout I've posted below LOL! But since I mentioned happy things... I'd love some new stash. And I'd love to hear what you have your eye on? Anything you could recommend? I've been considering the Scor-Pal "Buddy" now for a few months. Sometimes even think "I might order one later today"... and then I just end up thinking a bit more... So there's been no Scor-Buddy yet... but maybe one day!

What else do I want? Some good background stamps (think: background on cards). Seen any good ones? I have my eye on some Hero Arts Clings. Though the price puts me off a little to be honest. You get one stamp for what you can get a whole package for from eg Penny Black etc. Hrm...

So please share with me your latest stash purchases or stash "wants"...? :)

Now onto my layout with some new digital Lilypad goodies...

[Supplies: Bugga & Frogger - Sara Gleaason, Amy Martin, Garden Party Stamps - CD Muckosky, Happy Chips - CD Muckosky, Journal Junkie - CD Muckosky, Stinkin Cute - Valerie Wibbens, TinaMarie, Calendar Tidbits - Jenna Desai, Freeze Factor - Kaye Winiecki (all from The Lilypad)]

Frosty...

December is just full of rich colours to me... deep reds and greens. January? Maybe not so, it's much more pale... icy blues and wintry whites. So what more perfect to scrap with than a very pale wintry kit? This one's brand new this week from Kay Miller:

Having just recently returned from a nearly 3 week long trip to Sweden, where the ground was full of snow from the minute we arrived until the moment we left, I certainly had a huge selection of frosty photos to choose from...

[Supplies used: Frost Flowers - Kay Miller (from A5D), Grow With Love Marriage Edition - Sara Gleason, Crystal Livesay (from the Lilypad)]

Christmas Journal - Day 13...

This was a very easy day for me to work out the subject for. Something I do every year as it's a special day in Sweden... Lucia (or in English here). It always falls on the 13th of December every year and I still have lots of fond memories of celebrating it in school etc.

Every year, early in the morning (at 7-ish I think?), they broadcast a live Lucia program on TV (which is repeated later in the day 17:00-18:00-ish). Fortunately it's something that SVT Play (on the internet) let's you watch even from abroad. So we had a cosy moment watching this on "TV" and felt part of the day anyway :)

Christmas Journal Plans...

I mentioned quickly the other day that I was making some plans for catching up on my Christmas Journal and I thought I'd post a little about how I go about that in case you're in the same boat and want to join me. :)

First of all I'm lucky that I have a good memory LOL! Second, that I took photos every single day during December. Just looking at these photos make me remember what happened on a certain day in particular.

So what I started on just before the weekend want to go through my remaining days in the album (about 15 or so) and working out how many photos I wanted for each day. With using the Pink Paislee, different sized, page protectors I also had to work out what size I needed. So for example: Day 15 needs 2 "6x4 photos". Day 16 needs 7 "2x3 photos" Day 17 needs 2 "5x5" and 2 "2x5 photos" etc etc.

Once I had this information written down, I went through my photo folder on my computer and picked the photos for each day. These I re-sized (as needed) and then uploaded to Photobox to get printed. I got them in the post yesterday.

I would normally print the photos myself for my Christmas album but since I needed a bigger batch all in one go, it's much cheaper to do it this way.

Having all the photos ready, in the correct size, will make it SO much easier to catch up on this album and finish all the remaining pages. :)

Hope knowing my technique to catching up was useful to you too! :) I hope to sit down a little later this week and start on some of the pages. I'll add them here as I go along of course :)

Christmas Journal - Day 12...

I have been away over Christmas and New Year... And also away from my scrapping stash. So what has happened to my Christmas journal...? Well of course it's not finished yet. But since this is something I'm used to from previous Christmases, I have a plan. A plan that I will share with you soon, just in case you're in the same position. Maybe you were also away, or maybe you were just so busy over Christmas and some other things had to take priority...?

In the meantime, here's my page for December 12th...

Back...

We've just arrived back after spending Christmas and New Year in Sweden. We had such a great time there and loved spending time with family. :)

Lots of things to do now like catching up on the unpacking, washing etc. Not to mention the internet world... but that might have to wait until next week...

Leaving you with some frozen photos (and yes what we're out walking on is normally the sea!!) from Sweden...

Winter Wonderland...

A very, very quick post for today. A Winter Wonderland page which I have made as part of my Creative Team Work for the Lilypad...

[Supplies: Candy Canes - Kate Hadfield, All I Need - Amy Wolff, Soft & Subtle 4 - Karah Fredricks, Elfin Whimsy - Amy Wolff, Twirl Around - Lauren Grier, Knitted Crochet Snowflakes - Sahlin Studio, Grow With Love Holiday Edition - Sara Gleason, Crystal Livesay (all from The Lilypad)]

Christmas Journal - Day 11...

The lights... they were very much against us before Christmas and Day 11 was such a day... So I thought it's also "fun" to make sure something like this was featured in my album. Something to look back upon and maybe laugh about. The things that are trouble when they happen but something you often can laugh about in the future...

It's a along story (as you can see from the bottom bit of journaling) but basically light bulb after light bulb went for us this week. And on the 11th we went out for replacements. For the things that were possible. We had this cute little golden Christmas tree which was wired with lights. Lights that were impossible to change the bulbs on. So that was one of the things that was not possible to solve. And unfortunately it had to go in the bin :(

Can't Wait...

So did you have a great time on New Year's Eve? Hope so!! :) 2011 eh? Feels weird!! :) I'm sure I will write 2010 many times before I get used to it.

[Supplies: Elfin Whimsy - Amy Wolff, Grow With Love Holiday Edition - Sara Gleason, Crystal Livesay, The December BYOC Collection - Heather Hess, Star Swirls Whimsy - Jenna Desai
For The Record - Designs By Lili, What Holidays Mean To Me - PixelWorks, Knit Alpha - Sahlin Studio, I Heart Snowflakes - Valerie Wibbens (all from the Lilypad)]

This is a layout I did before Christmas (yes, yes I totally forgot to post it earlier!). Also using some of the BYOC kits from the Lilypad. I wanted to capture the feeling. The feeling of how much I love Christmas and that I really couldn't wait for it to arrive :)

Back to my Christmas album again tomorrow...