JYC Days 3, 4 and 5

Good morning JYC-ers and festive crafters.

Oh how I wish for a better camera or at least some basic knowledge on how to get the best out of the one we have already (although my partner and i have put a shared pressie of a new camera on the Christmas list this year. So hopefully we'll get a bargain in the sales after Christmas ;0) So once again, these are not the greatest pictures (largely due to being taken at 6am this morning before the sun had reared its head so I could edit, write and schedule this post before work!).

Here is a picture of my Stampin' Up! stall from this weekends craft fair (it features again on my JYC page but in a much smaller form). I was really pleased with the fair and how it went and my Snowman Soup and Reindeer Food went down a treat ;0) Thanks to Angie and Fiona for hosting the day and putting it all together. A hugely enjoyable festive afternoon (followed by a trip to the cinema to see Arthur Christmas!).

 Here is my JYC for Days 3 and 4:

Again I have used the reverse page of the pockets insert. I like this style as it has taken a lot of the 'worry' out of my creating. How can 4 rectangles of pretty paper ever look bad? And embellishing each page with an advent window makes it all the more Christmas-y.

 I am especially enjoying creating the central embellishment for each page. This one features Arthur in all his Christmas jumper glory ;0) 

 Here are my two advent windows. I am trying to keep a bit of consistency across the days by using a felt embellishment and matching papers to cover the outside of the windows.

 For my journalling for days 3 and 4 I decided not to tuck it away inside the pockets as with Days 1 and 2. As the Dec 3rd prompt was about Christmas cards I decided to make a duplicate card of one I created for my 'Due in May Facebook Group' Secret Santa. We were all tasked with finding some lovely little Mum to Be bits for our recipient. I had seen a card similar to this on the Convention inspiration boards and knew it would be a perfect Christmas card for another May Mum. So I set up making two, one for my SS and the other for my journal. I love using mixed stamp sets in unusual ways. I would never have thought to combine Polar Party with Bundle of Love. But the effect of doing so is lovely and Christmas-y ;0)

I created this with Real Red, Garden Green and Whisper White cardstock and matching Stampin' Write markers. For the icy ground I tore strips of Whisper White card and then finished with Tombow and Dazzlin Diamonds Glitter. The sentiment is stamped from Polar Party. 

And finally, as I am very conscious of my last years journal ending up too thick and straining at the rings holding it together, I decided to create a smaller Day 5 on the reverse of the Christmas card above. A simple page that speaks more about the journalling than the embellishments (and yet another example that one should not craft when exceptionally tired as you end up with a rather mish-mashy result!! Still in the spirit of keeping things simple, I wont be beating myself up over it. Today is a new day and a new page so I shall move on and create something different which may inspire me more).

So thank you for popping by for another installment of festive craftiness. I am loving looking at all your creations too and will hopefully pop by to leave comments later ;0)

-XXX-

JYC Day Two

Good morning all. I hope you are having a fine first weekend of December. I do realise it is the 4th today and I am only now posting pics of my JYC Day 2. However, my days 3 and 4 are still works in progress and i wanted to capture some pics of my album so far in better lighting (the previous post didnt show the colour properly). As you read this I will be setting up my stall over at Newport Football Club for the Gifts for Girls Christmas Fair (pop on by and say hello if you are in the area) so will hopefully have lots of lovely tales to tell and pics to share for todays JYC page.

So here is my album so far. This is the complete page for days 1 and 2:

 My day two window:

 And a close up on just the day 2 half of the page. The prompt for December 2nd was about the weather. So I printed the local weather report for Newport and created several journalling tabs which I stuck to the back. I then folded this and tucked it into the pocket behind the pretty paper. My journalling reflected on the weather in comparison to last years snow and ice. By this point in last years journal i had pages and pages of photos. However, inspiration has yet to strike me this year. Bring on some snow I say.....

So thats my page 1 completed. I'll be back to share my weekends goings on once my pages are complete. I've also got a lovely Secret Santa card to share with you that I created using Polar Party for a fellow 'Due in May' Mum.

-XXX-

First JYC Day!!!

After much anticipation it has finally arrived!!!! December 1st is here which means one thing- Journal Your Christmas begins!! I've been so busy with Christmas crafting preparation (please come along on Sunday to the Gifts for Girls Christmas Fair at St Georges- you'll get to see that all my efforts have not been in vain!!) that i havent had a second for my own crafting (goodness knows where I am going to magic all my Christmas cards from this year?). I have been so looking forward to starting my Christmas  Journal and taking a few minutes a day to create something festive. There are so many things happening at the moment that I want to capture and remember that it couldnt have been more perfectly timed.

But before we get on to my JYC album.  Here is a little something Stampin' Up! for the day. I finally purchased the fab Petal Cone Die and couldnt wait to create a festive cone with my card class ladies. This was inspired by some beautiful Christmas bunting I saw on the Convention boards. I used the Pennant Die and the Holly Berry Designer Series Paper to create the embellishment. This would look lovely hung on a Christmas tree filled with chocolately treats.

 And now onto the exciting JYC photos. I'll have to apologise for the weird lighting in these photos. Wouldnt it be lovely to get home while there was still good light. I'll try and take pics again at the weekend which might reflect things a bit more accurately.

I quite like this 'atmospheric' photo. To some this might look like a messy craft desk. But actually I find this pic quite inspiring as you'll see all things that I'd been turfing out of my Christmas box to make a start- alphas, Starbucks cup, scissors (and weirdly my phone- not sure where that appeared from?).  Anyways, as you can see from my album cover, this year I have sworn myself to simplicity. With my little monkey growing ever stronger (starting to feel some flutterings now) and my energy levels not quite back to normal I made the decision to keep this album simple and not sweat the small stuff. Last year I put so much pressure on myself to create every page as a work of art.  This year I want to capture mood and emotion and people. The journey is the important thing not the endless hours of worrying about embellishments. So here is my simple black folder embellished with a lovely reindeer decoration and matching letters (I am just waiting on a SU order to fill the space under the 'C' with a red glimmer paper heart- a splash of glittery colour).

 Here is my Christmas Manifesto for the album. I took Shimelle's Manifesto as my foundation but personalised it for me right now and what i hope to  capture.  I have just stuck this to the inside front cover of my folder. I wanted my Manifesto to balance the seriousness of things with the fun and humour of Christmas festivities. And of course the excitement of what looking ahead to 2012 will bring.....

 Day 1:

I found in my Christmas box a series of these plastic wallets with sub divided sections (about the size of a business card or ATC). I thought these would be the perfect solution to simplifying my album for days when there is not so much going on. Today I had some  journalling that I wanted to capture and tuck away so this wallet gave me the opportunity to make a pretty page and still tuck away my writing. I am using the bottom two spaces for Day 2 so as not to overstuff my album like I did last year (simple and space saving- just what I need!!!)

For my numbers this year I am using a FANTASTIC Stampin' Up! die that I was given from the USA (sadly not available here just yet). It creates little windows and is perfect for making advent calender windows for each days number I have cut this from Crumb Cake and then inked with Old Olive to match the mood of the papers.

 Just a couple more pics to show a bit more detail....

This is my journalling envelope tucked away in the pocket.

So thats my Day 1 complete. I am so happy to have a simple solution and I am really looking forward to seeing where December takes me.

Happy Crafting

-XXX-



A favourite Convention card

There were a number of very inspiring presentations at Convention, but one of the most memorable was by a Scottish Demo now living in France who taught us all the partial embossing technique (you can find more info on her blog here). I fell in love with her card that she demo'd as it showcases three of my favourite new products from the 2011-2012 catalogue, the Brushed Gold cardstock, the Antique Brads and the Victoria Crochet Trim. I made a very hasty trip to the Convention Boards to take a photo of her project after she'd completed her stint on stage.

Here is Moira's beautiful partial embossed Christmas card:

 And here is my attempt (almost identical I know). I had to make a few slight amendments to the design to teach at my Christmas card class on Saturday. This card was a real hit with my card class ladies at the weekend and the brads and crochet trim were very popular too.

Such a lovely technique that I'll definitely be trying again (although you would probably have laughed at me trying to master it for this one card!! Oh the mistakes I made! I promise it is quite simple if you follow a tutorial which is what I ended up doing after MANY failed attempts *laugh*)

Products used:

Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Brushed Gold

Trim: Victoria Crochet

Embellishments: Antique Brads & optional Basic Pearls

Stamp sets: The Christmas is from 'Heard from the Heart' and the Happy is taken from a sentiment in 'Polar Party'

Punches: Small Oval and Scalloped Oval

Embossing Folder: Vintage Wallpaper

Thank you for stopping by today ;0)

Convention Catch Up!

Wow, where did that week go? Cannot believe i have been back from Convention a week now and I havent had a moment to update my blog with photos. I finally get a chance to schedule a post and now my photos are playing up. Hope you don't mind rotated pictures. I guess you'll get the idea!!

So I returned from Convention over a week ago now. And what a crazy couple of days we had. It was an inspiring and fun two days in Disneyland Paris surrounded by Demos and friends alike. I had a blast just catching up with team mates and meeting new people, and that was before we even began to think about crafting ;0)

I was so pleased that I chose to fly with fellow Pink Lady team mates earlier on the Thursday as it gave us all a chance to catch up and chill out before the main event got started on the Friday. We all went for a big team meal on the Thursday evening over in the Disney Village (just a hop, skip and a jump from the Sequoia Lodge where we were staying) followed by team swaps.  For some reason I must've had a total camera block as I didn't take any 'people photos' during these social meet ups. Think I was too busy chatting to think about my camera.

The main event started on Friday morning with a chance to register and pick up our fab SU craft bag (which I'll have to take a pic of for another day), start general swapping, check out all the lovely goodies for sale in Memento Mall, and just generally catch up. One of my favourite things about meeting up with fellow Demos is seeing the swaps people come up with. There was a team of German ladies all in traditional dress swapping German gingerbread biscuits (my kinda swapping!!) and there were card swaps, and chocolate swaps, card candy and 3d items. It is just a creative mash up of ideas. All of which I then had to fit into my swap box to carry home!! I'll try and get some good photos at home of some of the swaps I received. There are so many ideas and techniques used that I'll have to go through them all for inspiration for my upcoming Christmas journal (2 days and counting.....).

Anyways, enough jabbering. Here are a few Convention highlight photos. This first one is of my lovely Kala on the Convention inspiration boards. I was so pleased to see her lovely face up there. I made everyone nearby take a picture too ;0)

 The theme of this years Convention was 'Grow' so there were a lot of lovely papercraft displays of flowers and garden related items.

 One of Shelli's presentations on the main stage (she is always so well dressed!)

 A Saturday coffee break! What festive trip would be complete without a Starbucks Red Cup. The Parisian menu was different to ours at home. So I  ordered myself (or rather got a fluent French speaking Demo friend, Jenny to order) a White Chocolate Cranberry Mocha. Sounds weird. And in all honesty it was pretty strange (there was a strange jammy mixture left in the bottom!). But lovely to try something different. And another photo for my Starbucks of the World album ;0)

 And this last pic is a fun Pinkies photo taken in the New York hotel. Not sure my pregnant body was too keen on fitting in this little taxi. But fun to take time out with Sarah, Michelle and Jane.

So much more i could say about the weekend. But all in all it was just a fun weekend of Stampin' Up! related chatter and crafting. Now, how can I manage a 6 month old and my luggage to Mainz for Convention next year.... I'll have to have a think.....

-xxxx-

Convention swaps

Oh to live in sunnier climes where there is sunshine all year round for better picture opportunities.  Instead we have to battle the early evening light and flash rebound..... But you'll get the idea with my swap photos.

The first project I have to share is my Button Buddies/Nursery Nest inspired Card Candy.  The idea is to create card toppers that use punches or a particular stamp set in a variety of ways and to showcase the images. I fell in love with Button Buddies the first time I saw it. I love how Stampin' Up! create products that link with other items (such as this use of buttons within the image). I stuck with the DSP colour scheme and used several pots of Subtles Buttons to create my 10 matching sets of Card Candy.

 My second project today is my general convention swap- a shrink plastic wine glass charm. My lovely Mum sat and made these all for me as I just havent had the energy to create 87 (thats how many my wonder Mum made!! Thats a whole lot of shrinky dink plastic and jewellery wire) swaps. She is truly fab as she created her own little links for the charms and also raided her bead stash (not sure how I ended up photographing identical swaps as she used lots of different beads for these wine glass charms).  So for this Mum stamped the flower from Season of Joy onto shrink plastic and sat with a heat tool shrinking them (after cutting them all out and creating the link by punching a hole with my Crop-a-Dile). After linking the charm and beads onto the wine glass loop we mounted the whole charm onto Old Olive cardstock and finished with a small cello bag.

So these are my swap projects for 2011. I'll be back at the weekend to share some of the lovely projects I receive in return and tell you all about the Convention experience.

Happy Crafting ;0)

Off to Convention

If you are a Stampin' Up! regular, or you hop around a few Demo blogs, you won't have failed to notice that Convention fever is in the air. So as you read this,  I will be on my way to Paris for this years European Stampin' Up! Convention. Two days of Disneyland fun with fellow Demos from the UK, France and Germany. Stampin' Up! always know how to put on a good show and there is always a couple of fun crafting sessions too. But I'll share more on that on my return....

I've kept things a bit simpler on the swaps front this year and also had a great deal of assistance from my lovely Mum too. I just havent had the energy to do all the organised swaps like I did last year. I wanted to be involved in the swapping but also had to consider that I'll have to carry everything home on the plane ;0)  If you pop back tomorrow I'll share my Card Candy and general swaps. Todays project are the stamped candles I made for my two Convention roomies, Jenny and Anja. They havent turned out quite as perfect as I imagined (its been well over a year since i tried candle stamping) but I do love the embossed gold and silver against the red candle (which matches Stampin' Up!'s Cherry Cobbler ribbon and embossing powder perfectly).

So here are my Serene Snowflake candles.....

Thank you for stopping by today and come back tomorrow for more swapping and convention makes.

Happy Crafting ;0)
-X-