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

December Journal Project Life & Stampin' Up Style from Stampin' Up! UK Demonstrator Sarah Poulton

Thank you for joining me today. Be prepared for a lot of pictures today. I may have gotten a bit over excited about my December scrapbook. For those followers who have been with me over the past 5 years of crafting you will know the highlight of my crafty year is my Christmas Journal.

I look forward to creating my journal all year round. This year I have chosen to simplify my craftiness and work only with my Stampin' Up! Project Life album and Hello December kit. I sometimes get a little overwhelmed with my lovely Christmas stash. So limiting my materials to the cards and accessories kit is making my journalling a simple and quick daily activity.

Here is my front cover. This was CASed from a lovely fellow Demo Samantha. I saw her beautiful front cover using the Hello December Accessory Kit and wanted to give it my own silver and blue spin. It really got my creative juices flowing as I found the layering really inspiring. I inked the wooden Joy with my Encore Silver ink pad and used this as the focus of the cover. I then cut shapes using the Apothecary Accents Framelits from Vellum and the All is Calm Designer Series Paper and layered over silver embossing (the stamps are from the Project Life December Wonder stamp set).

 

Here is my covering page entitled 'Celebrate the Season'. I wanted to use the picture of my girls with their festive outfits as the focus of the page.

And here is my first official day of scrapping. I look a bit merry in this pic. We were having a December 1st Christmas party at my sisters. I promise it was just tea I was drinking *lol*

Previous years I have used Shimelle's JYC prompts as my day to day themes. But this year I decided to use the photo prompts below as my daily focus. I took this pic as my Day 1 'View'. All the Christmas-y things on my sisters party table.

If you are looking for Christmas inspiration. This list is a perfect daily prompt for those days you are stuck:

 If 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. 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-

A Summer-y Scrapbook Page

Welcome to my first scrapbooking Try It Tuesday ;0)

This week I picked a fab sketch from Shimelle's blog to get started with my scrapbook page (a fab blog for scrapbook inspiration a-plenty). I can honestly say that this is one of my favourite pages I have ever created. It is one of those moments where I feel like I did justice to the pictures I wanted to scrapbook. The papers and embellishments all came together to create a page I am 100% happy with ;0) Now if only I had remembered to turn off my flash when I took the pictures to blog!!

This page features some fab sneak peak items from the upcoming Stampin' Up! Spring Summer catalogue. The papers are the beautifully summer-y Sunshine and Sprinkles DSP. The whale embellishment is cut using the new Happy Whale Clearlits Die to match the paper design (it also cuts the mini anchor, heart & star). And one of my favourite new items from the catalogue are the new Soda Pop Tops and matching Itty Bitties stamp set (56 mini images that can be stamped to fit within the Soda Pop Top embellishments) which I used to create the little embellishment with baby feet. 

If you'd like to receive a complimentary copy of the new Spring Summer catalogue I am holding an Open House event on February 2nd at my home in Newport, feel free to pop by between 10am-3.30pm to try some of the new products and be entered in to a prize draw to win some lovely Stampin' Up! goodies ;0) Alternatively, please drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk to find out more about the new catalogue.

Here is a close up of the page title. I stamped the 'Beach' using my new Notable Alphabet stampset (stamped in Island Indigo) and the rest of the lettering is completed using bits and pieces from my stash.

 Here is a close up of the whale and Soda Pop Top.

 And here is another fab product to look forward to, the Sizzlets S Pinwheel Die. I'd never quite mastered making these Pinwheels by hand. This makes life so much easier ;0)

 I find using a sketch to get me started with my pages is sometimes the perfect inspiration to make life a little easier. Some of my favourite scrappy layouts have been inspired by a sketch and I find them a lifesaver when my mojo goes on holiday from time to time ;0)

Thank you for stopping by today. Please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249 to find out more about Stampin' Up! and their products, to place an order or book a party at home to try some of the new catalogue products (and earn fab hostess freebie products in the process).

Happy Scrapping ;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-

JYC Days 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13

Wow I seem to have fallen very behind with my Christmas Journal blogging. To be honest, I have fallen behind with my Christmas Journal crafting. Between working and living out all the festivities, there has been little time for actual photographing and making!!! But i'm getting there slowly. And have scheduled myself an impromptu catch up day over the weekend. So hopefully I wont fall any further behind.

In the spirit of not stressing I am not sticking rigidly to the prompts this year. I am dipping in and out of the class and simply choosing which prompts fit and which days I would like to chat about a subject. Mainly I am just capturing the everyday goings on through December through my little mini pages ;0)

Days 9 & 10

Hmm... think this page is getting a little on the 'busy' side. And not so much in the spirit of simplicity. But I love the layout all the same. And my JYC album would not be complete without some Stampin' Up! pages would it? The papers I have used for this are the gorgeous and sparkly Holly Berry Bouquet Designer Series Papers with Crumb Cake windows to embellish. Took me ages to precisely cut out that bow for the central embellishment too (taken from one of the page designs- I do so love these details that keep my pages flat and the overall album not too wide!). You can also spot a little square of the GORGEOUS new Red Glimmer Paper (coming to a Mini Catalogue near you VERY soon!).

These two days photos cover the works Christmas do- an empty plate of roast dinner!! And the second day was the crop and the Brighstone Christmas Tree festival. This was the British Legion tree decorated with rememberance poppies. I thought this was an absolutely lovely tree and it really stood out.

 At this point in my journal I had a moment of baby brain and had a numbering malfunction. I created my next three days pages completely omitting the eleventh of December. Goodness knows how that happened. But as a result I had beautifully finished pages which then needed some rejigging. The lovely number window I created for this page ended up (somewhat out of place I might add) on Day 12 which is a shame. But I still love the overall feel of these pages.

Here are two Day 12 shots showing the page with and without the journalling. This was Sam and I's big day out to Bath for the last day of the Christmas market there. It was tipping it down so photo opportunities were few and far between unfortunately. But I couldnt miss the chance to include a photo of me and my good NY friend Francesca (and of course the obligatory Starbucks Egg Nog Latte picture too ;0).

 Days 12 and 13

Here is where the numbering malfunction shows its ugly head. My lovely pink ticket that looked so lovely on Day 11 looks a bit weird here. But thats one of the quirks of pregnancy I guess. And it gives my journal character (I journalled about the mess up on another page). I created both of these halfs of the page and realised there was no room for journalling. So I punched holes down a long album insert and journalled on that instead.

Day 12 was a quiet day for catching up and writing Christmas cards after a busy day at work. So not much to report there. Day 13 was my trip to Whippingham's WI meeting to demonstrate for them. I've had this in my diary for a long time and was really looking forward to showing them 4 simple Christmas projects (two of which I have included in my journal as a memory spark). Mum came with me and we helped to Demo the projects within a fixed amount of time. I think the ladies all really enjoyed it and it was fun to do something different of an evening too. 

 Here is one of the projects I demonstrated for the WI ladies. A folded pouch for a Christmas Tree decoration or place setting. I have adapted it and jazzed it up a bit to use as a journalling pouch in my album. I used it to reflect on the Christmas Past/Christmas Future prompt. No prizes for guessing that i am looking forward to about Christmas future. There will be very little sense coming from me until after my scan on Tuesday. I am so excited!! ;0)

I've also been busy beavering away in some kind of manic 'collecting' frenzy. This week I purchased our little ones Maxi Cosi car seat as well as a beautiful second hand Mamas and Papas moses basket. I think the organisation hormones might've kicked in. Or maybe its just the practical side of my brain thinking that i should get things done while i have the energy ;0)

Right, I hope to be back soon with more pics of my journal and how it is coming along....

Happy Crafting in the mean time

(oh and keep your fingers crossed for me on Tuesday that our little one behaves so we can find out whether its a little Miss or Mr).

-XX- 

Explore Week Two

So now it seems I am having laptop trouble. The charger for my computer 'popped' over the weekend so I have borrowed my Mums for the day. This is going to make blogging a bit difficult for the foreseeable future. But please bear with me. Normal blogging service will be resumed just as soon as I can get the computer charging issue sorted.

Now on to Week 2 of Shimelle's 'Explore' class. Again I am posting a weeks worth of playbook pages and scrapbooking in one go as I've caught up with my crafting over the weekend.

Prompt 6: Sit, Stand, Sleep.

This prompt encouraged us to think about a self portrait in a new way and to consider where we spend our days (Sitting, Standing, Sleeping). I took photographs of three of my favourite spaces in my house. I found it a bit of a challenge to make my bed/pillow look exciting. But I tried a new angle on the space. I also created a little tag for my journalling which I tucked behind the photos.

Prompt 8: Embellishing and Crafting with Photos

This was a bit of a challenge for me. I struggle with writing or doodling on photos. So for this prompt I deliberately chose photos I knew i had doubles of. So if I creatively destroyed the pictures it wouldnt matter so much. But actually I really enjoyed trying out new techniques for embellishing photos. I had never really considered decorating the picture itself. So I tried out several pens to see which worked best on the glossy surface. I tried doodling, writing, sticking, cutting, tracing.  I think I've banked a few techniques to try using again in the future.

A sunny day at Carisbrooke embellished with drawn stitching, writing, jewels, transfer letters.

I lay a small scrap of vellum over my pic of Carisbrooke and roughly traced and coloured it.

Prompt 7: Memory Sparks

I took a blank piece of A4 paper for this prompt and a mixture of different coloured pens. I then just doodled memories all over the page and saw what things popped up. It was a fun exercise at seeing different perspectives on memory and things that i could be scrapbooking. I decided that rather than show the whole page I would include this kraft envelope in my play book instead. I embellished and tried out some new techniques (i've never used my glimmer mists before and tried them out for this splattered glimmer look) and included quotes/definitions that fitted with the ideas of the class as a whole. I then folded the A4 memory sheet and tucked it inside this envelope. On the reverse of the coloured diagram I also journalled about memories and reflected on the course so far. I also picked one specific memory (as the prompt suggested) and wrote the story out in more detail

More of Prompt 8: Embellishing photos.

I used a pic of a West Wight sunset. I enjoyed this photo even more. I felt like it had a bit more scope for embellishing. And the gold pen worked really well on the gloss surface.  I especially loved adding the boat and whale (dont see many of those in the Solent!!).

Prompt 9: A Day in the Life

I took a simple perspective on recording the details of a day in the life. I simply recorded the day on a blank piece of paper and then transposed these into my playbook. For visual effect I just started in the middle and wrote out. I wanted to include some visible handwriting in the book as most of my journalling has been tucked away in the book so far.

Prompt 10: Photos as Embellishments.

I followed one of the class prompt sketches today to create this scrapbook page. I used a larger print from my stash of New Years Eve 2010 and then printed out the smaller 1 inch square miniatures as embellishments for the page. I had other ideas to fancy the page up a bit but actually like the simplicity of the stars and the smaller photos so kept it relatively unembellished. I'm really pleased with this LO to finish the halfway point of the course.

Right, off to look at Prompt 11 and see what this week has in stores.

Happy crafting and I'll be back online as soon as I can

-xx-

Explore Week One

So here we go. I finally got my act together to photograph and finalise weeks ones prompt creativity for Shimelle's class 'Explore'. This class has been brilliant so far and each prompt is pretty workable by how much time you have in the day. By creating your own little playbook on Day 1 you have a portable little notebook for jotting down things about the day or sticking prompt related photos in. I have been using images a lot more in this class than journalling. But I am creatively challenging myself to not be such a perfectionist.

Perfectionism in my scrapbooking (and crafting generally) is something I struggle with regularly and I can often lose my mojo for weeks on end over a perfectionist paddy I have thrown (its not always pretty!! My poor old craft room looks so sad and dejected after I've thrown one!!). But this class so far is making me challenge my own notions of the creative journey. And I think I might be growing as a crafter as todays LO (last photo) is one I'm really not happy with. But I am going to proudly place it in my album and not beat myself up that it didnt go quite to plan.....

My 'Explore' playbook.

I kept this super simple with 6x4 chipboard cover and back covered in favourite paper scraps. I embellished with a few stickers and my trusty dictionary.

Prompt 1: A self portrait.

I wasn't at all happy with this picture till I started playing around with effects. I much preferred it in black and white/tinted.

Prompt Two: Postcard & Adventure

I journalled on the back of this Australian postcard about my definition of adventure.

Prompt 3: Scraps of maps

This prompt was about making circle embellishments and using maps. I went to the local charity shops and looked for old city guides and maps. I found an old road map really cheap and an old New York guide so I played with making embellishments and circles out of places that I love (New York, Isle of Wight- obviously, and Hawaii). I was trying to represent my lifes adventures through maps.

Prompt Four: Perfection

Rather than journal about perfection I simply stuck in one of my favourite spring time photos from this year. I took this is my Mum's garden of the apple tree. I also wrote out the 'perfection' quote from the prompt at the top of the page as a reminder to not get too caught up in my own issues with perfection.

And finally, Friday's creative project prompt was about using 9 circular embellishments on a main LO. I chose two pictures from my year in New York and I tore lots of pages from the old guide book I found. I created this page using bits and bobs and scraps that I found. I have actually changed it a bit since i photographed it to give a blue skyline behind the chipboard buildings to make them stand out a bit more. I think it ended up too busy. But like I said before, it is part of the process, so it is staying in my album all the same. I made all the circular embellishments out of buttons, maps, a subway map, my old dictionary, brads and photos. I created a mini collage of NY images.  My favourite element is the subway map title cut using my Cricut.

Thank you for reading this rather long winded post. I'll try not to blog a weeks worth of prompts at a time from now on......

Happy crafting ;0)