Wednesday Words

Already 3rd December and high time I started sharing my December Album. This year it's going to be a bit of a mash up between Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas, Ali Edwards' December Daily and  ideas from Let's December Daily blog.

I shared my cover here. So this is the inside of my cover:

And this is my foreword containing my hopes and intentions for this year:

And here's my journal page and photo for December 1st:

And a closer look:

Also today I'm sharing my last 1st of the month pages for 2014. 

And some close ups:

I've really enjoyed looking back over this album, but I've not decided whether to continue with this idea in 2015. It always seems such a pressure to remember and I'm pretty convinced it will probably just get very repetitive - but who knows this is the end of the year cynical me speaking and maybe the enthusiastic new year vibe may work its usual magic on my energy levels.

Well that's me done for today. Thanks so much for looking and my wishes for Christmas sparkle coming your way.

Friday Focus

So I've taken a little break from blogging this week, more about the reasons later in this post. But I have been busy creating and preparing my December album cover, pages and a set of embellishments.

For the past three years I've used Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas as the basis for my album, but this year although I shall still follow Shimelle I'm going to mix it up a bit with other things too. And I've found this inspiring blog - Let's December Daily - that's really got me in the mood.

So here's my cover, which was inspired by Bec's 2013 cover:

And a peek at one of my pages.  I've used a Katie Pertiet digital set - December Days Borders -  to decorate some lined paper and this will be where I'll do my journalling - and add the odd embellishment or two.

And here are some of those embellishments:

Another thing I've been doing is looking back at my intentions for 2014 - blogged about here - and I'm pleased I'm on track with most of them. The day trips have now turned into afternoon trips as my dad needs more help - life getting in the way of good intentions as so often happens, but I have come to ACCEPT this.

 

But it's the first one that I really need to take stock of. Until this week I've slipped back into daily blogging and manic card making, so it's got to stop! So now I'm reverting back to 'not every day' and making sure the challenges I enter are either multiple or the ones that really speak to me. It's just ridiculous to do anything else.

I've also caught up with my envelope calendar and the pages for my 1st of the month pages.

October's pocket:

The weather photo:

The inspirational quote:

My journalling:

A day in my life 1st November:

Thanks for dropping by my blog today. I do appreciate your time and am happy you spent some of it here with me.

Unscripted Sketches Game 5

Looking for a great sketch to kick start your creativity? Well look no further!  Unscripted Sketches Game 5 is perfect for a PL card, a scrapbook page, a card or anything you'd like it to be.  There is no right or wrong way, as long as you are using the Unscripted Sketch as the inspiration and basis of your creation!

My PL card is bright, bold and happy. I moved one of the three banners from the sketch to the top of my card and used the colours from the numbers as the basis for my colour choices.

A horizontal strip with a twine threaded button at one end is a bit of a favourite combination for me when scrapbooking.

And here's a peek at the page this card is slotted into.  More will be revealed next week.

Supplies:
Paper: doodlebug, Kraft in Color & Take Note
Card: Shimelle, diecut carstock sticker
Embellishments: buttons & twine from my stash

And I've just got time to share my 1st October day in my life pages.  The sky was just so amazingly beautiful early in the morning as I walked round to my dad's and I picked up a fallen leaf on my way too. 

Here's a better look at that sky:

And the brilliant freebie from Katie Pertiet:

Thank you for looking today, hope you'll join in with the challenge at Unscripted Sketches - we're still very new but working hard to grow our audience.

Wednesday Words

Less is More is one challenge that I try to enter every week.

So this week when I saw the theme - I do like to be beside the seaside - I was pretty much stumped. I don't have a single nautical or beach themed stamp. The thinking cap really had to be put on!

And this is what I came up with - not the most original thing to do, but I quite like its simplicity.

I started by stamping the waves onto a die cut and embossed circle of card  I also stamped two triangular shapes and cut them in half. I punched a half circle from corrugated card and adhered it to the circle. I drew a line for the mast and adhered the sails.

A few seagulls flying and a sentiment were stamped next. My card was finished off by attaching the circle with pads and adding a trio of sprinkle dots.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Modern Christmas, sentiment from Good Times; Lavinia Stamps, birds;  waves, unknown sorry lost the label
Inks: SU, tempting turquoise, Pacific point; Memento, London fog
Die: Spellbinders. standard circles small
Embellishments: doodlebug sprinkles, blue jean asst.

And just before I go here's September 1st Day In My Life page:

 Thanks for your time today, really love that you've looked at my blog.

Jane
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Tuesday Talk

A very simple little card to share today made for the double challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches.

 

Of course I didn't have the exact colours but rumaged through my stash and matched up as best I could. 

I used the explosion stamp in place of the main circle on the sketch and then added the movement splashes where the three little circles are. And I quite liked the card just as it was, but felt it needed a little more pizzazz and worked on adding dimension to the middle of the explosion.

The addition of a die cut grey spiro circle, a mustard button & loop of twine and a turqoise sprinkle dot and I was more satisfied. So to finish off I added a sentiment, sparkled up the explosion, added a border strip and rounded the bottom corners.

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio, EXPLOSION

Inks: SU, Bermuda Bay; Memento, cantaloupe, London fog

Dies: Xcut, spiro circle; Clearly Besotted, Tag Along

Punch: Xcut, corner rounder

Embellishments: doodlebug sprinkles, day to day asst; Wink of Stella, clear; button & twine from my stash

I'm also sharing my first of the month day in my life pages today. They're a bit short on photos this month. I'm thinking all the hospital visiting is getting to me and I completely forgot to take photos, so I've journalled a bit more than usual - which I actually think is not a bad thing.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today.  Hope you'll come back tomorrow when I've a bit of an exciting share.

Jane

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Thursday Thoughts

 If you're looking for the AAA Cards blog hop click here

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Another lovely sketch over at Once Upon A Sketch this month. I think my style is a little plain compared to the other pages I see there, but I do love their sketches and always find having a starting point such a help.

Their theme this month is to journal with a number as the theme. Well my number is two and about how the beautiful island where my two grandsons live gives them such great opportunities to have fun.

This page will go in my album on the opposite page to the one I blogged about here. I meant for the title from the original page to apply for both pages, but decided to add just a little sub-title for this new page.

Supplies:
Papers: Chatterbox, scrapbook walls; scraps from my stash
Alphas: Simple Stories, Handmade Holiday; Bella Blvd, Sophisticates; jenni bowlin, star banner green stickers
Die: Xcut, spiro circles
Punches: ek, notebook top; Woodware 2" & 1" circles
Embellishments: Mark Richards, nailheads
 
On the first day of each month I keep a photo check of what I do and produce a mini project life type of layout.  Here's what I did on July 1st - spot the beginnings of the page I've just shared.

The Breathe, Smile, Let it go mantra is just so perfect and I'm really trying to embrace it and make it part of my life - just love it!!

Thanks for visiting my blog today, it's been great to have you here.

Jane
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PS Just realised on 6th July that today was my one year birthday of blogging!!!

Thursday Thoughts

A bit late today, but snatching five minutes before I head off to the hairdresser. It's a scrapbook page today and my 1st of the month pages.

A new sketch up for June at Once Upon A Sketch. Just the sketch on its own looks amazing, so i kept pretty true to how it looks for my page.

 

So I started my page by inking the chicken wire through a mask and thenadhered all the paper layers and the photo. Next I added the circular embellishments, title and journalling. Lastly, and it should have been much earlier in the parocess, I added paint splashes. this meant it was necessary to cover the photo, so that's why I should have done it right at the beginning.

Supplies:

Card: AC, kraft; paper scraps from my stash

Mask: TC, mini chicken wire reversed

Ink: Ranger distress, brushed corduroy; Miste Huey's Color Mists, plum thumb, dark calico, sunshine

Stamps: Uniko Studio, Background Builders Round in Circles

Punch: Martha Stewart & ek success

Die: Xcut spiro circles

Flexmarker, light fawn

Embellishments: bttons & twine from my stash

And now for my 1st June day. As it fell on a Sunday I knew ahead what some of the elements would be - it's always strip bed day, helping dad with his washing and skyping my middle son. But then I got a few surprises too - unusually dinner was just the two of us with no family and then just in time for skyping my oldest and Murray the greyhound visited.

 

I'm making a note to myself to try to get my camera shy daughter-in-law in the frame next time.

Well that's all today, thanks for visiting.

Jane

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Sunday Slot

Just need to share a card and my 1st of the month pages today before everything goes bonkers with the release of the first game at AAA Cards tomorrow.

My card is for The Male Room's current challenge - Give Us A Giggle.  I went searching on the web for a suitable digital image as all my male themed stamps were not quite what I wanted. I knew as soon as I saw this image it was perfect, reminds me so much of how my boys used to tease each other when they were small.  Who am I kidding? It's how they still torment each other now!! Some things never change.  Anyway it makes me giggle when I think about it, so I'm hoping it will you too.

 

Supplies:

Image: freedeariedollsdigistamps.blogspot.co.uk

Promarkers: cool grey 5, leaf green, poppy, azure

Flexmarkers: blush, dusky pink, tea rose, nutmeg

Paper: doodlebug, kraft in color 

Die: Lil'inker, anytime tags

Embellishments: doodlebug sprinkles, day to day assortment

A day in my life - 1st May 

This month I decided to just go with the day and see what it had to offer. It may seem mundane at the moment, but maybe some time in the future a descendent of mine might find it fascinating to see what people got up to in the long ago distant time of 2014.  Also I find it quite fun to look back on myself, helps me appreciate and be grateful for my life.

Here's my pages:

And here's a close up of the butterfly button embellishment. This is a format I keep returning to in both scrapbooking and card making. 

Oh and in case you're wondering about the sheep each month I'm using the pictures from last year's Thomas Joseph calendar - far too cute to throw away!

Thanks for dropping by my blog today, your visit is very welcome.  Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Jane
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Friday Focus

Good Morning! Can't believe I'm posting again already, but I had a lovely morning crafting yesterday and decided to strike while the iron's hot.

Today's card uses the pretty colours from Color Throwdown and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches.  Initially I made the card to match the sizes on the sketch, but my CAS brain wanted me to shrink it down and I couldn't help myself preferring the smaller look.

The flower stamp is my favourite from Uniko Studio - it just ticks all the boxes for me.  I stamped it onto patterned paper - and yes it was from my doodlebug pad again - then cut it out and mounted it onto pads for dimension.

I also put the background card through a cuttlebug embossing folder to give even more dimension and some texture. The pool coloured card has texture too and is left over from a holiday scrapbook album.

Finally I added an olive coloured pearl and my card was done.

 

    

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio, Flower Power #3

Ink: Memento, tuxedo black

Paper: doodlebug, kraft in color; AC cardstock, pool

Embossing: Cuttlebug

Embellishments: doodlebug, mini pearls Spring assortment

So here we are in April already and I decided to make my 1st of the month journal a little more exciting by going out for the day.  Turns out it was a great decision as the weather was amazing and Kedleston Hall and its grounds really beautiful. 

Still ended the day with comfort television, but I'm always so impressed by the versatility and imagination of the sewers on the Sewing Bee. 

Here's my pages:

And yes James did eat maltesers for breakfast!

Thanks for dropping by today.  Have a great weekend.

Jane

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