Challenge Day 20 Christmas Card 2

 

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Challenge Day 19 Christmas Card 1

 

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365 Week 51

 

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Will: Month 48 (aka 4)

 

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365 Week 50

 

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365 Week 49

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365 Week 48

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Challenge Day 18- More Blog Headers

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Challenge Day 17- December Daily 5

 

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Challenge Day 16- December Daily 4

 

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Challenge Day 15- December Daily 3

 

That right hand page is waiting for Les to tell me what he enjoyed about Scotland.

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Challenge Day 14- December Daily 2

 

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Challenge Day 13- December Daily 1

 

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Challenge Day 12- December Daily Intro

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Challenge Day 11- Tamas Stocking

I did actually finish this on Day 11 but only just got around to sorting my life out to blog... I have been working on my Daily December album pages as well so haven't quite fallen off the December crafting wagon! So here is the last stocking I will need to make for quite some time!

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Challenge Day 10- Sizzix 2

This is the second of the sizzix dies I got and I think it has a bit more potential than the other one as it has some cool geometric shapes. I cut two sets of two added stickles and distress stickles to them as then stuck them together in different configurations.The green one looks quite cool when I add it to the top of the button Bauble from yesterday- like a collar of greenery.

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Challenge Day 9 Bauble 3

I have to admit I hated this! While I was making it I absolutely thought it was terrible and I was gutted because I chose a bunch of buttons I loved and had been saving for 'a rainy day'- stuck them on first and then started to add the fillers and just thought- "what have I done?" And as my head got foggier and foggier from the fumes from the super glue I just hated it more and more. By the way the glue that normally sets in 5 minutes was drying in literally seconds in the Perth heat- not at all easy to work with!
That said now it is done and I have had some time to sit with it- it's not so bad and I think when it's been up on the tree a few days I might just grow to like it.

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Challenge Day 8- Sizzix 1

Recently I joined the Die cut machine owners ranks for the first time. I always held back on this because the dies are limited and expensive but I never got around to using my Craft Robo because I just couldn't get it to cut right and it was in the lounge- and when I was crafting I wasn't. I'll most likely just have Alphabet dies and a few basic ones like flowers that I can use over and over again but I also got a couple of Christmas Decoration dies with the machine so figured this is as good a time as any to have a play. (Sorry about the terrible photos but no time to retake!)

  

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Challenge Day 7 Bauble 2

 

I love the softness and texture in this project. The fibres look like a sweet little nest. It came together really fast because I brought the Fibres in a colour co-ordinated bunch from Carolann- they aren't on the web site but you should email her as she has more.

 

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Challenge Day 6 Scrabble Star

 
I spotted the idea for this decoration on Piniterest and just adapted it for my own purposes. Yes they are real scrabble tiles.
I love the little wooden stars- they are Jenni Bowlin.
 

 
And as I liked the idea so much I put together a little something for my scrap table at the same time....


 
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Challenge Day 5: Bauble 1

 

 I had some of these glass baubles over from making a ball for Tama and our across the road neighbour in NZ. So decided to try some different options for filling them for this challenge- no. 1 paper srtips rolled and pulled.

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Challenge Day 4: More Daily December Foundation Pages

This was my cosy nest last night and the early hours of this morning- and it was very cosy 28 deg inside our house and possibly a little hotter in this space! I had some success, some failure, and some middle of the road results.

Was absolutely rapt to find that the binding fits just fine and my plan is coming together.....

 And also very pleased to get all the foundation pages for my daily December album finished and ready to go.

You can see the details of that top left pocket below. And the page on the left in the middle row has another pocket.

I took my inspiration from Ali Edwards when I stitched these stars into one of  pockets. I'll add the number for that day into the other pocket beside it.

 The fact that my binding plan is going to work means I can hang stuff off the edges of the pages like the birds above. Another pocket on the pink and green page if I don't find anything to stuff in there I'll just cover it with a photo- but perhaps a good place for the docket from the Christmas food shop.

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Challenge Day 3

Thank-goodness there are no rules here! Creative progress is slow with a baby in the house and a sick 3 year old. I have some further work on my Daily December 'inside pages' to share and it's not much! I've had my sewing machine going on high speed and been raiding my ribbon stash!

I recycled one of the reject doilys from the cover.

I created a pocket on this page with transparency which I will use to hold some of my lists from this year. And turned a business envelope inside out to add a letter to Santa that Will wrote at Pre-school last week.

 And my binding turned up super fast so a big shout out to Bound To Impress in Melbourne.

Now I just need to mess around and see if I can get it to work with 3:1 holes! It's huge.....

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Challenge Day 2

I think the challenge for me with this challenge will be managing to scrap when Tama is asleep and get everything else done I need to around the place. And then staying up late enough to get the blog post done.!

So today for me was the making of the covers of my Daily December Album. My internal pages are 6x8inches but I have cut the covers 8x10 because I have a plan. I use chipboard for the covers and the papers are Cosmo Cricket and Teresa Collins.

After cutting the paper down with an inch or so of excess on each side. I spread glue over one side of the chipboard. A perfectionist would then spread the glue with a brush but I'm a get it done fast scrapper so I just flip it onto the paper as is and then brayer it hard to spread the glue. If you have a patterned paper that has some sort of symmetrical design be careful to make sure your paper is straight on the card. 

Use an offcut of the chipboard flush against the corner of your cover to draw a line to trim.

Use a bone folder to make the creases against the edge of the board before you glue- makes life a whole bunch easier.

Use your finger nail to squeeze a little paper in at the corner so that it will come up looking tidy.

Then apply the glue a flap at a time- this time I do spread the glue across the whole flap.

Do each flap using the brayer or bone folder to help ensure a neat finish.

 

Just a little tip- if you have to mess around like I did choosing a different paper for the inside cover or tend to a tiny human being- wrap your glue brush in a wet baby wipe to stop it from drying out.

For the inside cover use your cover to trace the outline onto your patterned paper and then cut it about 5mm shorter.

Apply your glue and place your paper carefully.

Brayer again to spread the glue and ensure no air bubbles or creases.

I used a strip of the flip side of this Basic Grey jovial paper as an accent on the inside front cover. I inked it with Pine Needles distress ink.

 And then ran it through my Xyron.

I used this card from Teresa Collins.

With a couple of stickers from Simple Stories ( a really great company I was pleased to recently discover).

I was particularly keen on the motif in the corner so I covered it up and added our details.

For the front cover another piece from Teresa Collins. It got lost on it's own on the cover so I messed around to find the best option... I tried an inked doily.

A Mister Misted doily which was nice but not quite...

Plain doily.

Which I decided to mount on some patterned paper with a similar green to the design on the Cosmo Cricket paper. Placed it with the aid of my centering ruler. 

And added the text on foam tape for a bit more dimension.

Front and back covers....

Inside covers....

This album ends up being pretty think and in the past I have used 3in book or hinge rings- this year I am hoping to wire bind them. I am currently waiting for some 38mm bindings to come from Melbourne as I couldn't find a source for them individually here in Perth. Problem is I'm not 100% sure that they will work as they are a 2:1 ratio (that 2 holes to the inch) whereas the smaller ones we normally use are 3:1- I am hoping I can fudge it as my plan depends on using the spiral binding- if not I'll have to get creative. These are the albums for the past three years- looking back through them I realised not doing this project this year (which I seriously considered) was not an option.

 

And these are my kits- to make life easy: Numbers, Embellishments, and Journalling supplies- each in a bag of their own.

  

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