I almost never go to London and today saw my second visit in a week.
This time we let the train take the strain and travelled up in a far more relaxed way - well kind of relaxed. we worked most of the time on the train, making good use of the time.
I have never been all the way to London on the train - what a sheltered life I lead.
The course was good, London is packed with Starbucks (what's not to like) and I only made a fool of myself at the very end. Just failed at the last hurdle. How was I meant to know you would need your ticket to get out. I could see Nij stood there smiling as I furtled everywhere to find a ticket.
This is my second page for my JYC
It seemed sensible to start with Advent as it was all about getting ready.
We have several advent calendars and this is our favourite.
The flap flips up so that you can see the tree we bought last year that gets hung with the little wooden ornaments inside the drawers of the house advent.
Today sees the first day of December and the start of Advent. The season of preparation, of getting ready ... not just for the celebrations of gifts and cards, carols and candles, food and fun, but preparing again for the Lord, making your heart and your life ready to welcome Him again ... as if he ever left.
Last night we celebrated Thanksgiving and enjoyed a super meal - just the two of us. It was delicious.
Today - today Christmas came. Our lights went on and I started to fill my prepared Journal for my 8th Journal Your Christmas.
I started - as always - with the manifesto. This year my focus is on the decorations we have in our home ... and they are many. It is difficult to think of something new each year, but I am pleased witht he box the album is in and pleased with the concept. I just hope I am as pleased when I have finished it.
This is the first page - my manifesto, my promise to myself.
and with the tag pulled out
and this is my page for 1st December.
It seemed fitting to have a page with the welcome you get at the front door as the welcome to the album.
It also marks a new change this year - a new front door. The wreath was new last year. We had had the same wreath for 25 years and we loved it - but sadly it really wasn't coping well the last few years and we struggled to find one we like. This is it.
Happy advent to you all - I hope it is a magical time for all of you and a time when you also have time to stop, take stock and think about the joys of the coming season.
I am usually not as well orgnised for Journal Your Christmas as I am this year.
It's just that this year I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
In February last year my mother-in-law gave me a box. Now many people give me boxes because they know I like to re-purpose them. I have a good old stash of boxes ready for mini book, albums etc.
But this one was really cute.
It was really thick and sturdy and a good size. I knew, from the first time I saw it, it was destined for JYC this year.
The trouble was, cute as it was, it was too ctesy for me and the back was heavily printed.
I don't do bright and funky Christmas really - I do vintage traditional, so the only thing for it was to recover it, which meant taking it apart, taking out the plastic front, off with the chimney etc.
The photo in the front - which just sort of worked - is of the front door of my dolls' house, all decked out for Christmas.
The box was a piece of cake - the roof an utter nightmare. And it isn't by any means perfect, but it is 'handmade and whimsical ' (code for a little bit scruffy!!!)
I also made the book to go inside it and so I am now all set for JYC this year.
I have decided that the focus is going to be photos of what we have at home in the way of Christmas decorations, ornaments, etc. The signs of Christmas in and around out home.
This will be my 8th Christmas Journal and so trying to come up with something new as a main focus each year is very challenging.
I will still follow along with Shimelle, but with my usual twist.
and just so you can appreciate how hard it is photographing ANYTHING in our house - this is a very very typical scenario
I wanted to share this project that I made for my slot at IACW and today is the perfect day as I can post this in advance as I KNOW I won't get to blog today.
I think I must have a bit of a reputation amongst my friends
for the person who hoards boxes of every shape and size to ‘alter’ and
transform. One of my friends brought a notelet box in and aid that as it opened
in a really unusual way she thought I would like it.
And I did.
It as a really unusual box – approximately 4 ½” square –
that opened by pulling the little ribbon at the corner to reveal three little trays, perfect for holding three little mini
books.
We have three favourite hotels that we have been lucky
enough to stay in many times and so that was the theme I went with – one mini
book for each hotel.
I made the three mini books as 10 page (5 each side) accordion
albums cut from cardstock.
I kept them simple but themed each one in keeping for the
hotel so lots of pastel coloured tropical flowers for the Caribbean Beach
resort and of course playing cards, dice and money for Las Vegas
You can see how the box opens in the picture with the three
books nestled in their individual trays.
The problem was how to decorate the box as due to the way it
opened, covering it with paper was not going to be an option. I knew that just painting
it would be difficult as the box was very shiny and that paper covering would
crack as it had to bend in several places.
In the end I coloured it with alcohol inks to try and give a
sort of tortoise-shell effect using five different colours and building up the
layers.
I decorated the top with a piece of leather effect thick
paper I bought a sheet of in Michaels years ago. I added a couple of stamped
images and a leather word strip and finished it off with some paper roses.
Finally I printed suitcases on glossy card, mounted them on
really thick chipboard and then stuck them to the sides using foam pads.
I'm glad people know they can give me their 'rubbish'.
Welcome to my part in the UKS Blog Hop. There are some amazing blogs to visit with such wonderfully creative idea and the possibility of prizes along the way.
If you are playing along with the hop you ought to have arrived here fromsarahjellybean
If you get lost or if you have just dropped in and now realise there is a blog hop and you would like to play you can find the full list HERE
There is a great prize to be won if you check out all of the blogs in the hop. You will find the rules in the thread above but basically comment on each blog in the hop and give your UKS user name.
So over to my creation for the hop - a very simple accordion album.
This is a very simple
accordion book to use as a display item at home. I used a Woodware base for
mine, but it would be just as easy to cut the squares from a very thick
cardboard. If you want it to stand up you need to make sure the card used is
reasonably thick and substantial.
The step by step here
is very simple as the design is very straightforward. At the end of the post there is also a PDF file you can download that has all of the instructions and pictures and makes for an easy reference sheet if you want to create this project. The supplies given are
for the book I made. Obviously you will vary them according to what you want to
create.
Supplies
Woodware accordion album (4 sheets of wood
with slots pre-cut) My ‘pages’ were
6” square.
K
and Co Amy Butler papers
K
and Co Amy Butler mat stack
K
and Co Amy Butler chipboard letters
Assorted ribbons, some of which need to be
sheer
Assorted blooms, stickers, die cuts
8 photos
Journalling pen
Stickles glue
Herma permanent adhesive
Double sided tape
Sewing machine
Hole punch/cropadile/sharp knife
Corner rounder
Step by Step
When making any sort of mini book I find
it is much quicker to assemble all the supplies before you start. That way
you have everything coordinated and ready and you can complete the book
really quickly.
Having everything coordinated means that
the book works as a whole thing. It doesn’t seem disjointed.
There are so many coordinated ranges out
there that the job is made even more simple, although there is a thrill
putting together your own selection mixed and matched from lots of
different ranges.
When making mini books I prefer to think
of each page as a separate scrapbook page, work on it as a separate page
and then assemble them all together as a final stage.
I cut all of my background papers first –
8 squares each 6” x 6”. This meant that I knew what colours my 8 bases
were and could ensure they were balanced before I started.
6” x 6” is a perfect size as it means you
get 4 ‘pages’ out of each 12” x 12” sheet.
One of the
things you can do to make a book work better together as a whole is repeat
ideas and designs throughout. You might want to have several elements which are
used on many of the pages. For this book I used doodled photo mats, doodled
flowers, glitter, scalloped edges and stitching as my repeated elements. Not
all elements were used on every page, but by mixing and matching them you get a
cohesive look at the end of it.
The
doodled mats are simple to do and quite effective when making a mini book.
Cut the
mat to the size you wanted
Using a black journaling pen draw two parallel
lines all round the mat.
You are NOT looking for perfection. The beauty of doing this is that it is hand
drawn and whimsical. You don’t want ruler straight lines.
Once you
have drawn the lines, use the pen to colour in small blocks between them.
Again, you are not looking for a regimented design of small small large etc.
Mix the sizes and spaces up so it is as random as possible.
Once you
have finished your mat add the photo to it and you are good to go.
I didn’t
use doodled mats on all of my pages and I did vary some of them using dots and
swirls instead.
One of the
ways of tying something like a mini book together as a whole is to use scraps
of the papers to make the embellishments.
In keeping
with the doodled theme I drew doodled flowers for many of the pages.
Again you
are not looking for perfection. You are looking for a freestyle where petals
are uneven and double lined.
Once you
have doodled them cut them out leaving a small border.
As the
letters I used had little bits of bling on, I added stickled glue to the edges
of the petals and to the centres of the smaller flowers. The larger flowers had
tiny felt blossoms stuck in the centre.
I love
sewing on pages as it gives extra detail. It is very easy to use a sewing
machine, but good effects can be achieved with hand sewing and with faux stitching
where you just draw or stamp the stitches on.
Faux
stitching is very simple – if you are going for a faux zigzag just stick the
shape to the background and use a regular journaling pen and draw the zigzags
over the edge of the shape to make it looks as if it is stitched to the
background.
Big simple
shapes make good background detail to the page. I used circles which were sewn
on for several of the pages and also used a large heart which was stitched on
to the background paper.
Once you
have completed all the pages it is time to assemble the book as a whole.
The album
I used had slots cut in the wood so that the book could be joined together. If
you are using a book like this then it is much easier to cut the slots in your
pages before you mount it all together. I marked where the slots had to be on
each page by using a pricking tool to prick through and then cut the slots with
a craft knife.
If you are making your own base from thick chipboard
then you could punch the holes with a crop-a-dile either before you mount the
pages to the base or after if they are not too thick.
You need
to make sure that your individual pages are stuck down very well to the album. I
prefer to use Herma permanent adhesive as it is just my glue of preference. I
lie the page on top of the base as I glue so that I can go right to the edge
each time and any spare glue only goes on the base – which is a good thing!
If you
have ‘lumpy’ pages, which I often do, or simply if you prefer to use it, double
sided tape is the answer.
Make sure
you lay the tape right up to the edge of the page as you want a good firm stick
right along every edge with no loose bits.
Once you
have assemble the individual pages to both sides of the base boards you need to
join it all together to make the display album.
I joined
mine with ribbons. I chose to use very sheer ribbons for joining the pages so
that if they were in front of pictures they would not detract from them. I used fancier ribbons on the ends.
A good tip
I was given, and always use, is that I burn the edges of the ribbons,. I keep a
lighter in the craft room and just flash the cut edge of the ribbon in front of
the flame. This seals the edge and stops it from fraying and is the most
effective method I have found.
Do be CAREFUL
though. It is a naked flame and the ribbons catch and melt very quickly.
I hope
that you enjoy making one of these.
If you
find these instructions at all useful and if you make one I would love you to
let me know and share it with me if possible. Just drop me a line on my blog.
If you want to download the full PDF which can be printed easily then you can download it HERE
Now - you should carry on your blog hop by visiting the amazing blog of ScribbleMonster
Remember to comment on each blog in the hop and give your UKS name if you would like to win the £25 voucher that is the main prize for the hop
Thank you for stopping by and do please visit again. I often have free downloads and classes on the blog.
Well you wouldn't beleive it was just a few days ago when it was icy cold and stunningly bright. Today is wet and windy and dark and quite foul actually.
BUT - let's look on the bright side.
It is ha;lf term so the weather can't spoil things too much actually.
Cyber crop is still going c=strong and so there have been a few more challenges completed - and more pages scrapped which are for the 2012 album so all to the good.
One of the things I did get done, though I have to finish the journalling, was a great mini book class. I love minis and there were some nice techniques in this one.
Needless to say I used it for Autumn things from this week.
and here is a page I made today too
and I ought to catch up on the photo a day pictures that have stacked up
and today's is Kira, esconsed on the radiator bed and indignant when woken. You can also see how much worse her eye is - very little iris left that isn't black. But it doesn't seem to bother her.
Today I am thankful for
being inside warm and dry
great classes and challenges
And my page a day calendar is lovely today
One day shortly before Halloween, I was standing in line at the post office when a mother walked in with her costumed four-year-old. The child wore no mask, but her face was fearfully painted; a black cape draped her tiny shoulders, and on her blond curls a pointed hat was perched.
“Oh, my, I’m scared!” I exclaimed. “I had better be careful. I’m sure I see a witch.”
I will never forget the sweetness, the absolute innocence and trust of those big blues eyes gazing up at me. Or the voice that kindly and gravely reassured me, “Don’t worry, it’s just a little girl in here.”
Just a little girl in here. How often I’ve thought of that when having to give orders to somebody … advising a teenager … criticizing a manuscript … teaching class … approached by someone who is obviously timid and nervous, thinking me far wiser and stronger than I really am.
I remember the simple child who lives within all of us behind the sometimes fearful costumes we seem to wear as adults. How nice if we could somehow reassure others as sweetly as that tiny witch did and say: “I really want to help you. I wouldn’t hurt you for the world. Don’t worry, it’s just a little girl in here.”
Lord, don’t let me ever outgrow that little child.—MARJORIE HOLMES
I have had such fun today making a mini book about our trip to Panther Ridge.
You may remember reading about the visit to this amazing place here
Panther Ridge, owned by Judy Berens, is just the most amazing sanctuary, caring for so many cats, many of whom had a tough start to their lives - and in some cases many many years that were tough.
You can read about the cats here on their web site and can even get involved yourselves by adopting one of the cats. We have - and are inclined to adopt more!
Anyway, Panther Ridge is just the most amazing place and I hope you enjoy browsing their web site and learning about the cats they care for. There are some great videos on the site too.
I wanted to record our special visit and so made a mini book all about it.
It actually started with an impulse buy at the weekend. I bought a reduced necklace and it came in the cutest box that I knew would be just perfect. The box, just the right colour, measures 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" and is 1 1/2" deep. Just perfect. £3 for a mini book box and a free necklace thrown in too. Not bad eh!
So here are the photos of the mini book. It is an accordion mini book but with lots of pockets throughout.
and these are the pages inside the mini book.
I am really pleased that we have a record of the day.
Do go and visit their web site. It is really worth looking at and maybe you, too, will adopt one of the cats.
I also used the book as my photo of the day today as we really haven't done much else.
Today I am thankful for
finding the photo frame I had lost!
That there are people in the world who work tirelessly to help animals of all sorts who have suffered too much. Animals only know how to love and trust and seeing that shattered by ill-treatment is heartbreaking.
And my page a day calendar page today is
My grandson, Cameron, loves to play soldier, so for his ninth birthday his mother, my daughter Jenny, decided to give him a military-themed party. The invitations were draft notices and my son-in-law designed an obstacle course for the ten boys who were to attend. My oldest son, Ted, who’d served as an Airborne Ranger, painted camouflage on the boys’ faces, and they ate MREs in the field. (For us civilians, that’s meals ready to eat.) The party was a huge success.
Later that summer, Cameron spent an entire day outside arranging his toy soldiers. When he’d finished, he insisted his mother take a picture, just in case she happened to meet a general. How or when this was supposed to occur was of little concern to my grandson. He instructed his mother to hand over the picture so that the army could make use of his battle plan.
I enjoyed telling my husband about Cameron’s exploits, and I have to admit that we were both impressed. Even at the age of nine, he felt he had something of value to offer others. We all do, I thought later, whether it’s a shared recipe or an unexpected birthday card to a shut-in or even what we’re convinced is a brilliant business plan.
So I’ve made Cameron’s message my own: Believe in yourself and in God’s ability to use your talents as He sees fit.
Lord, thank You for the lesson in self-confidence that my grandson has taught me.
Having had a very very lazy day yesterday, plopped in front of the TV for most of it, I have been busy today as I wanted to make a Jubilee book and get it done and dusted.
So I cracked on with what was actually a very simple little project.
I was especially pleased with the cover though. I downloaded an image of a crown from the internet and printed it on glossy photo paper. I then cut it out and added embossed red cardstock for the red velvet. I mounted it on chipboard but I 'stuffed it' with tissue paper first so that the crown really sticks out and looks padded. Well it IS padded.
I added loads of bling in the form of gems and stickles.
I was quite pleased with the finished effect and it went on to the pre-prepared cover I had made.
It has lots of pockets and tags and I have printed off mini versions of the invites, the reminder invite and the plan. On the evening itself Nij has printed a plan of the street and we got everyone to sign in their houses and then we have printed the plans off (and the group photo) and dropped it round to everyone today so we all have a record of who was who and what we did - which we felt was a really nice idea.
Anyway - here are a few of the pages - not all of them. The colours look a bit off. I used a very subdued colour palette as the photos were very bright and so it is largely Portabello Road and some Dawn Inskip papers and embellishments that I have printed out as accents.
Today has also been busy dealing with the itching.
We had an attack of the midges in the early evening of the street part and boy did we get bitten. It was one of those freak things and it affected everyone. Nigel has dozens of bites - as do many of the neighbours - but they are very small red pin pricks.
I, on the other hand, react very badly to bites. Always have. Mine are large, lumpy, fluid filled and very painful and itchy. I thought it may be fun to count them as I have rather a lot on my arms, legs, hands and neck. I stopped at 47!
pretty ain't they - especially decorated so beautifully with calamine lotion and tea tree oil.
My photo of the day is of the things I bought to stop the itching - and which don't work!
I also need to share my photos of the day for the last two days as I never did upload them and I would like to keep the blog complete for my own benefit.
Yesterday's was from the TV and was largely as I was totally smitten by the two beautiful dappled grey horses closest to the carriage. They were awesome.
and this was the one I chose from Monday
Today I am thankful for
brief respite from the itch - very brief!
and my calendar page from today
My first experience of God’s presence in my life occurred when I was six years old. My mother had put me to bed and gone downstairs. Lying quietly on my cot, I suddenly sensed an unusual peacefulness settle around me, and I began to hum a song I’d learned in Sunday school. As I hummed, I felt a love so profound that it removed all fear of anything bad ever happening. Everything seemed at peace in my heart and in my world. That loving presence stayed with me until I drifted off to sleep.
From that time on, whenever I felt the need for solitude, I would crawl onto the tall pile of quilts folded on a chair in the corner of the bedroom and sit with my back against the wall. At that age, I couldn’t have explained it in words, but somehow God was in the stillness of that little room, gently making Himself known to me.
Now, as a busy adult with lots of responsibilities, it’s hard to make time to quiet my mind and wait for that presence. Sometimes I wish I could crawl back up on those quilts and sit with my back against the wall, listening to the rain on the tin roof of our house, and hear God speak to me in every peaceful drop. Stillness doesn’t come as easily as it did when I was young and distractions were fewer, but if I want to know love, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness of myself and others—if I want to grow spiritually—I have to make the effort to rediscover that quiet within.
Father, thank You for always joining me in the quietness and speaking sweet peace to my soul.
I thought I would share the mini album I made of our trip to Bath. If I am brutally honest I didn't share it before because I hadn't photographed it for the simple reason I was sick of the sight of it.
I love making mini albums usually and this is a reasonably simple construction, but it too me longer than I wanted and I wanted to be doing other scrapping but as my desk was covered with all the coordinating stuff for the album I had to finish it first. And it has a lot of pages and tags to fill
To be honest, now I have gone back to it, it is much better than I thought it was. I absolutely hated it when I first finished it.
So feel free to skip to the other stuff as there follows quite a lot of photos - I think I am of the view that I stuck with it and finished it so I want to record it.
Apart from all of the pockets - there are 4 of those - most pages have pockets ont he pages too and reversible photo mats and tags.
The page above is a map I found in one of the brochures and I drew our route on it so we could look back on where we went.
As mini books go it is not very mini, measuring 6" square roughly
I used the same muted tones and warm golds and browns to tie in with the Bath stone that was obviously the colour scheme of the photos.
I also tied it together by using the same die cut shapes repeatedly and the same set of stamps and inks on most of the pages. It helped to unify it.
And you learn by your mistakes. The fancy edges on the pockets look pretty but are a nightmare and next time - Oh my goodness do I actually think I would ever make another one!!!! - next time I would punch the inserts only, not the pockets.
I managed to use up a lot of my 'heritage type' scraps on the project
The large beads you can just about see in the spine helped to keep the pages spaced as with the large number of tags and inserts it is very thick and lumpy
It does give a lasting record of the trip. And there you have it.
I have a photo of the day to share which is our clematis which is almost in full bloom and sadly, with the heavy winds we are having I am guessing the flowers won't last long.
Today I am thankful for
lazy days of scrapping
watching our birds enjoy their feeder
And I have to share this that Nigel sent me as it is utterly amazing
Enjoy!
And finally my page from my one minute devotional calendar today is
Mom’s funeral had been that morning. Now my siblings, stepfather, and I were all gathered around her dining room table, sharing stories about Mom, trying to distract ourselves from the pain of losing her.
My four-year-old niece Kim, too young to understand what was going on, sat in my sister Diana’s lap, a pencil in hand, scribbling furiously in a coloring book. Where did she get that? I wondered, sure her mom hadn’t brought it to the grave site earlier that day.
I sat at the table, too worn out to do anything but watch Kim making spirals in her book. Finally my niece got bored, laid the book faceup on the table, and slid down off my sister’s lap. I looked closer at the page. With the book lying open, I could see it wasn’t a coloring book—it was full of crossword puzzles.
Diana began going through the puzzle on the opened page while the rest of us talked. “Woman’s name, four letters,” she said, needing help with one of the clues.
“Enid,” my stepfather answered. Mom’s name.
I smiled sweetly at him. “I think there are more popular four-letter names than that,” I said gently. “Jane, Mary …”
“I’ll come back to it,” Diana said.
A few minutes later, after she filled in more squares, she looked up from the book. “It ends with a D,” she said. Then she had the second letter. “N,” she said. Finally Diana filled in the first square of the word. It was an “E.” “Enid” was correct. We all marveled at the coincidence. It was as if Mom were sending a message to us, telling us she was still with us.
“Thank God you brought that book for Kim to color in,” I said to Diana.
“I didn’t bring it,” Diana said. “I don’t know where she got it.”
Lord, thank You for Your comforting “coincidences.”
It's been a hard couple of days with long hours but actually both Nigel and I are pretty good about rememberingt he important stuff.
You may recall our very own 'Hello Kitty'. No, not the cartoon and no the CFH haven't learnt to speak ... yet! The Hello Kitty is a very cute chalkboard cat who frequently says 'hello' to us in all sorts of ways. He celebrates school holidays and weekends, he reminds us of dates and times and events and Nigel delights in putting things on there to make me smile.
Tonight I came home and the Hello Kitty made me smile. Nij knew I would be tired and frazzled and so Hello Kitty had an important message. I am healthy, I am home, and I am happy and ... it's Tuesday so actually three more sleeps till the weekend.
So he is my photo of the day. (and he genuinely does stand next to the calendar)
I have soemthing to share today I made ages ago (in December) but I never posted it. Pauline, my sort of surrogate Mummy, had had an accident with her Exploding Box. One of the cats had knocked it off and it was severely nibbled by one of the dogs and I had promised to make her a new one. She is Emily and Elinor's grandma (Bossy Nanny and yes we all call her that!) so I wanted to use some newer pictures of the girls and of her children too. She is a very special lady in my life and so I wanted to create soemthing she could treasure.
She was thrilled with it.
I have uploaded a file you can download if you have never made an exploding box and would like to try one. They are really simple, great fun to make and great little gifts.
It was actually written for this box here which was used in a magazine.
Today I am thankful for
Nigel keeping me focused
And my one minute devotional today is really poignant and Oh so true again (I am loving this calendar)
Noelle, my eight-year-old daughter, is in ballet class. She is learning relevés, pliés, and ronds de jambe. The little girls cross arms and join hands and then amble left to right and right to left. Tiptoeing, aware of their posture and position, with their heads held high, they create as much beauty as their little bodies will allow. Truthfully, it’s mostly a chaotic swirl of bodies in motion, but it sure is cute.
There is one girl in the class who, even though she’s dressed in a leotard that perfectly matches the others, doesn’t blend in. Lindsey is in a walker. Her hands clutch the handles tightly. Her legs don’t allow her to do even the simplest dance step. She is assisted by a young woman who moves her from place to place, and oftentimes that is simply out of the way of the others.
After class, Noelle sat on the floor with the other girls, chatting, taking off their ballet shoes, putting on sweaters, stuffing dance clothes into their bags. Meanwhile, Lindsey was being tended to by her caregiver.
Today, Lindsey might not have performed a soaring jeté. But in a sense, I think she did. She took an art form defined by the long lines of an extended leg, the poetry of a turned wrist, and a lighter-than-a-feather gallop across the stage, and said that that definition didn’t apply to her. And so, with a piano clanging in the room, her leotard on, mirrors in all directions, girls flowing all around her, Lindsey stood in one place, not moving an inch, and in a way known only to her, danced.
Lord, no matter what my limitations, give me the courage to try.
I am Scrapdolly - frequently answering to just Dolly. I live with my soulmate Nigel, two cats and a Fiki monster and I love to scrap. Scrapping is my creative outlet, my daily therapy, my sanity restorer and where I meet my friends. Come share it with me.
Lord, don’t let me ever outgrow that little child.—MARJORIE HOLMES
