Hello December Album from Stampin' Up! UK Demonstrator Sarah Poulton

So this weekend I suddenly realised that December starts this week! Which can only mean one thing- my December album! For those that have followed my blog for a while you'll know I have completed an album every December for the past 6 years. Last years is still half finished as I over complicated things and ran out of steam. So this year I am keeping things very simply - pictures and Hello December cards. That is it!

Well after realising how quickly December was upon me I spent some time yesterday designing and completing my album cover (the first time I have ever completed it in advance!).

For this cover I wanted a magical floaty feel to the stamping. So once I'd positioned all the elements from the Hello December Accessory Pack (including the gorgeous foiled 2016 acetate element) I added my Christmas Magic snowman in Crumb Cake Ink and then added snowflakes, stars and hearts flying above him. To give a little sparkly I added Clear Wink of Stella over all the stamped elements.

And to give you an idea of just how simple my project is going to be this year, here are all my supplies - Hello December Cards and Accessory Pack. I have a small shopping bag which contains a tombow glue, sticky tape, glue dots and a couple of festive stamp sets to go with this. But this is it! I will not spend 3 hours a day on one page this year. I want simply and lovely pages celebrating the season.

And best of all, if you want to join in and purchase your Hello December supplies, they are currently 30% off until the end of today as part of the Online Extravaganza! But all Online Extravaganza prices are only available until tonight. So get your order in quick. And if you use the hostess code for this month I will be able to send you an extra special gift next month to say thank you: 26JB7T6H.

Please let me know if you have any questions about Stampin' Up! and their products. I would be happy to help. All items can be purchased online via my shop or get in touch directly and I can order them for you to be delivered direct to your door. I'd also love an opportunity to Demo for you and your friends at a crafty party.  As the hostess you earns exclusive free products and all guests get to create a fun crafty project to take home too! Get in touch if you'd like any further information.

-xxx-

Product List

Emerald Envy 6" X 8" (15.2 X 20.3 Cm) Project Life Album

[142009]

£9.00

Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad

[126975]

£6.00

Christmas Magic Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[142119]

£18.00

Hello December 2016 Project Life Card Collection

[142004]

£10.00

Project Life Hello December 2016 Accessory Pack

[142693]

£16.25

A little Hello December craftiness from Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Sarah Poulton

Good morning crafty crafters.

As it is now officially Christmas season I can share with you my Christmas journal for 2015. I follow several of the online classes for inspiration for my album. The main focus is Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas Class as I have been following this for 5 Christmas's previous. I adore scrapping all the little details of my December each year. This year I have a little shopper bag beside my Selphy photo printer filled with Project Life cards and embellishments and I am limiting myself to only these otherwise I will get too caught up in every page and fall behind (the voice of bitter experience here!)

I indulged in a little creativity over the weekend and designed a very simple golden detail front cover for my 6"x8" Kraft Album (my perfect Christmas album size). I started with my Embossing Buddy to take out the static and prime the surface for heat embossing. I used my Stars Mask to versamark the stars across the cover. I then covered with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and heated with my Heat Tool to create these lovely shimmery gold stars. I added my Dec 2015 die cut from the Hello December Embellishment Kit as an extra glittery focus.

Gold is my theme colour this year. I think it will run through all the pages of my album.

I love these little tabs on the spine of my Christmas albums. They give a little insight in to what can be found inside. I used my Embellishment Kit again for my spine title tab.

And here is my first quick and easy page. Not a lot to report on December 1st so I simply printed pictures from my day and then simply embellished. I love not putting pressure on myself to journal unnecessarily. Some days I have lots to say and others I just like to capture little details like winning £5 on a scratchcard. 

Over the next few weeks I will share more pictures from my journal and I'm also going to be showing a few little highlights of my 5 previous journals. I love how different each year ends up being. But lovely to look back on and see how things have changed.

Thank you for popping by today. Please let me know if you have any questions about Stampin' Up! or our products. I would love to help. All items can be purchased online via my shop or get in touch directly and I can order them for you to be delivered direct to your door. I'd also love to Demo for you and your friends at a crafty party. As the hostess you earn lots of lovely freebies and you all get to make a fun crafty project too (no crafting experience necessary!)

 -XXX-

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

A quick Stampin' Up! and Project Life December catch up with Stampin' Up! UK Demonstrator Sarah Poulton

Good morning crafters.

I thought I would share a quick catch up on my Journal Your Christmas/December Album. I haven't quite managed to keep up to date with doing it every day. But I do have a catch up session planned over the weekend. And I have most of my pictures printed and ready to go.

So here is what I've done so far:

Children's medicines are sadly a daily part of life in this cold weather with both my girls being poorly so it was worthwhile capturing it. And I enjoyed creating the little shaker element to add to my page with my Shaker Frames and Star Framelits.

 I wanted to use the Cheerful Christmas stamp set to create my date feature on this page so I chose my Project Life cards (from the Hello December pack) in yellow and red and then coloured my stamp with the coordinating Daffodil Delight and Real Red Stampin' Write Markers.

I had a play with printing different sized photos for our trip to the Winchester Christmas marker. I really like the effect and with my Canon Selfy printer I can print multiple mini prints straight from my memory card. Project Life really is such a quick and easy way to capture memories. I am finding the process a lot easier this year now I have invested in one core kit and a printer I can use at home (rather than dragging to the instant printers at Boots everyday).

Here is one of my favourite pages- our Basingstoke Stampin' Up! group photo! What a lot of ladies there were that evening. Lots of faces old and new ;0) I used a swap I received as part of my page today. I loved that someone had thought to create a beautiful Project Life card as their swap! What a great idea. 

 And my final couple of pages for today use other Project Life cards I had in my stash. I used my Seasonal Snapshot cards and accessories for these couple of pages. They fitted my colours perfectly. I also added some embellishments from my (large) Christmas stash.

Thank you for popping by today. I hope you have lots of festive plans for the weekend. I will be welcoming my lovely ladies for the last of the years Card Classes. I am super excited to see them all. I just have to get myself organised to finish my prep this afternoon.

you have any questions about today's project or the products I have used, please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. You can order online direct through my store by clicking the product links above or the pictures below. I also have availability in the next few months for your very own crafty party so drop me a line to find out more and get your date in the diary.

Happy Crafting

-X-

Shaker Frames

£4.50

Stars Framelits Dies

£22.95

Hello December Project Life Accessory Pack

£12.95

Hello December Project Life Card Collection

£8.50

Project Life December Wonder Photopolymer Stamp Set

£13.95

Cheerful Christmas Clear-Mount Stamp Set

£15.95

Seasonal Snapshot Project Life Card Collection

£13.50

Seasonal Snapshot Project Life Accessory Pack

£8.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Journal Your Christmas Week 1

Good evening all.

A bit of a late one from me today. And not entirely Stampin' Up! either. For those that have been regular followers of my blog you will know I take part in an annual scrapbooking class called Journal Your Christmas. Each day I get sent prompts to reflect on for the days journaling or photo taking. Normally I stick quick strictly to the prompts. But this year I have decided to make a guilt free, no pressure December journal without the frills and over the top embellishments. I am just going with the flow and enjoying the prompts for a creative kick start but doing my own thing with my pictures and pages.

This year I have simplified. I purchased an album kit which I had shipped over from the US complete with album, inserts, embellishments and divided page protectors. I decided that not every day in December will be entirely journal worthy so I'll make the most of the days I do have things to share and just capture the fun of the festivities. I wanted to keep my supplies very limited so I didn't get overwhelmed with pretty sparkly things. I have been beating myself up about the simplicity a bit. But actually I am enjoying the process and know i will love the result in years to come when I reflect back on it.

So here is the album cover. I couldn't resist a bit of extra sparkle in the form of some lovely gold sequin trim. To be seen in a Stampin' Up! catalogue near you very soon!

Each December diary starts with a Day 1 Manifesto. This year I didn't really write a manifesto just more of a reflection on what I hope to achieve through the creative process. I used My Digital Studio to create my opening 8"x8" mini scrapbook page. I loved the ease of using the digital design software to put this together and get such a professional result. I simply saved it to a SD card and printed it off an instant printing machine in Boots to include in my journal on the same day!

Page 1: A simple calendar intro to my journal ;0)

Day 1:

Quick and simple pages capturing a walk on the beach last weekend to welcome in December on an unseasonably warm December 1st. I love the happy pictures we captured of Summer enjoying running around picking up stones and chasing the tide.

 Day 2:

Capturing my handmade Advent Calendar (hopefully I can add to this year on year to show my calendars development).

 Simple page to include the years postage stamps. It is a bit of a tradition now to pop along to the Post Office to buy some single stamps to include in my journal. I also included a handmade card between these two pages to journal about my week as I didn't have too many photos to share. The second page captures Summer enjoying a trip to Mothercare (her own personal playground it seems).

Day 7:

Festive treats and another walk on the beach.

I love the simplicity of the divided page protectors and how easily I can put my very simple pages together. Summer doesn't allow me much free time for scrapbooking on a daily basis so its lovely still being able to produce my pages in a time efficient way.

 Thank you for popping by today and visiting Stampin' Sarah. Normal Stampin' Up! service will resume tomorrow ;0)

Please get in touch if you have any questions or queries about Stampin' Up! or My Digital Studio, I'd be only too happy to help: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Festive Crafting ;0)
-X-

Finishing my Christmas Journal

So here it is!! My finished JYC album for 2011. I only had a bit of journalling to finish today and then bits to tidy away for next year. But it was more challenging than I had anticipated due to feeling so far from Christmas-y (after my birthday on Jan 1st I am overcome with the urge to remove all decorations and all things Christmasy from the house. Thats the price you pay for starting to think about Christmas is August!!!)

Here is a final shot of my album cover. I made an adjustment to the cover with the Stampin' Up! Red Glimmer Paper Heart.

 The album as a whole.

 Day 23: Light the Wight

Sam and I did our tour of the best Christmas lights. I love this nativity scene in Newchurch and it reminds me of being a child and nativity plays.

 Day 24: Christmas Eve

Sam and I indulging in a little Wii playing action on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely Waitrose buffet dinner at Mum and Dads followed by a Sam vs Sophie Wii tournament. I ended the evening by nodding off while everyone else was playing. Pregnancy and eating are both exhausting activities *laugh*

 A random photo I had taken earlier in the month and included here. A pic of the Grotto the girls had worked so hard on at the RSPCA Animal Centre. It was right next to my office and I loved sneaking out to have a relax amid all the Christmas lights when things got a bit too hectic or stressful.

 Day 25: Christmas Day

I had seen Paige use cards and jokes from a Christmas Cracker in her JOY album and I loved the idea of using these as page embellishments. So I kept a few of the bits from my Christmas Day cracker and used them on this page. The photo is a bit dark but it is of my dog Kala playing with her Christmas tube of treats ;0) Sasha has one also but she can't quite be seen in the background.

 Days 26 and 27: Sale Shopping

I was beginning to run out of steam by this point and was winding down my page detail. These pages are about things we bought in the sales. Slightly more exciting than the reality of most of Christmas week which was mainly me falling asleep on Mum's sofa ;0) In fact my hidden journalling details that I spent 4 whole days just sleeping mainly (and watching DVDs inbetween!) How lazy am I?

So here is our lovely fancy new camera and the bags of baby clothes I'd picked up in the sales ;0)

 Days 28, 29 and 30

Simple and plain page. I decided to use some of my favourite papers from my Christmas 2011 stash for this and let them speak for themself. Not really much to report as I was shattered for the entire week. Watched a whole load of films though....

 Day 31: New Years Eve

Sam and I spent the evening at Mum and Dads for a curry New Year. Mum and I had planned lots of lovely curry dishes for us all to share and tuck in to. The plan had been i would go round early in the day and we'd prep them together. Sadly I fell asleep on the sofa and when I woke up Mum had already done most of the work. Oops! But it was lovely all the same.

I didnt think there was much chance of making it to midnight so Sam and I headed home for an early night. But the cold drive home woke me up. We ended up watching the 50 Greatest Magic Tricks and waited till 12am where we let off HUGE party exploding cannon things (my poor Henry hoover had a fair amount of work to do in the morning) and watched the amazing London fireworks on TV.

 January 1st- My Birthday

Not a great pic but I couldnt flatten this one out for a better picture. I created this page within a birthday card i received. I used bits of every wrapping paper I received presents wrapped in to create this mini LO. I wanted to capture all the lovely pressies I received. I also scrapped the cinema tickets as I was very indulged for my 31st- we all went as a family to see Mission Impossible 4 and then after a bit of gentle persuasion, Sam took me to see Sherlock Holmes in the evening (one of my favourite pastimes as a teenager was spending afternoons in the cinema watching multiple films). The shiny stars and hearts on the page were from the exploding cannon from the night before ;0)

And the last page in the journal is this plastic zip wallet where I have put all my gift tags and photos and bits I couldnt fit elsewhere in the journal.

 And a final mention to this lovely card (safely tucked inside the plastic wallet) that my Mum made for my birthday. Love this technique ;0)

So thats it for another year. I love having a daily project to complete through December but do love packing all my christmas bits away again. Happy to return service as usual crafting from here on in. Currently working on this months scrapbooking and card class projects. Come back soon for more info on those.

Thanks for coming along for the JYC journey and happy crafting ;0)

-x-