seasonal and furry !

We all popped out to say Hi to FC’s (Father Christmas) reindeer, well Comet and Cupid at least, they were beautiful and very docile. even though I took this photo in November, all be it the last day, I may just have to use the photos in my Christmas Journal.

We also managed to put up the outside Christmas lights, it isn’t a long job round here just a couple of sets of icicle lights one set on the tree and a rope light thrown, I like to think artistically, into the shrubs !

It also helped that the boys pitched in with the untangling.

not quite December and a free printable

But almost – I am starting to gear up for the holiday season now.

70% of my gift and food shopping is done so now I am concentrating on decorating and my Christmas journal/album.

Tomorrow is pre prep day, we, the boys and I, are having an unexpected day off due to industrial action so we are going to do some decoration prep work.

The outside lights are going up ready for their big switch on, not until Thursday of course !

I am going to try and persuade the boys to abandon their games consoles and help me make some paper decorations.

These are what we are going to attempt, I have already printed off lots of music paper onto cheap white printer paper.
If you are going to attempt this project, remember to print your design on both sides of the paper, I know that sounds obvious but it didn’t occur to me to begin with.

Also just for the sake of my sanity, I have pre cut the paper too, the initial ones we are going to make will be from 5×5 inch squares and the cuts I have done are 1/2 an inch apart.

There is a basic tutorial here on cherished vintage blog.

The only other decorations appearing on Thursday will be the boys advent calendars and our traditional “countdown to Christmas” ornament.

we have had this since my eldest was a toddler, its a fireplace with a chimney that is filled with date sticks placed horizontally in date order.

FC sits on a large gift on top of the date sticks and each time one is removed he travels a little way down the chimney, until he reaches the bottom on the 24th.

Oh I almost forgot some printable freebies for you. These are sized to print out onto large luggage tags. ENJOY

You can download them in the usual place HERE

Nothing special this week

Well not here in the UK

I am fully aware that it is Thanksgiving in the U.S this Thursday

Things I am doing this week :-

1. WORKING

2. Submitting cards to Papercraft Inspirations

3. Cruising Pinterest – collecting more seasonal ideas than I will ever get to try

4. Thinking about My eldest Son’s impending birthday – Gonna have a Teen in the house !
(more on this thought, it may even warrant a scrapbook page)

5. Wondering why I haven’t done a scrapbook page in over 2 years!

6. Looking for 1950′s inspired clothes and dress patterns
(for my 1950′s shaped body !)

7. Hating this dark and dreary weather, even if it is unseasonably warm.

8. Creating some Seasonal, printable freebies for the blog during December

9. Looking forward to decorating the house for Christmas
(the weather is making me crave sparkle and lights)

10. Hoping to get a family photograph done
(nothing fancy just a relaxed self timer shot)

A shot of the fur baby – just because I don’t like to post without a photo !

Ta Da ! and the Winner is . . .

Number 11 is liptonteeTee

Well Done. Please contact me and let me have your name and address for postage.

( I put all the names in order of posting on an excel spreadsheet and picked the 11th poster)

For those of you that weren’t lucky enough to win but are interested in getting the kit I have limited packs of paper, dividers, journalling cards, tags and transparencies available.

Leave me a comment if you are interested or email me and I will email you back with the details.

Thanks for all the interest

Christmas Journal Give Away and 10 on the tenth

Here is the promised second peek at the Christmas Journal kit.

A5 Kraft binder with a three ring clip the rings are 1 inch (internal measurement)
Four tabbed festive word dividers
Four transparency/overlay pages
Four mini pockets (just the right size to hold the journaling cards)
Two large paperclips
Two mini file clips
Two white pearl star pins
and a partridge in a pear tree (just joking, that would be a nightmare to post)

OK, I hope that this gets those creative festive thoughts flowing, don’t forget to comment to be in with a chance of winning.

10 on the tenth, these are my ten things I like/don’t like about winter (5 of each)
you can check out lots of other 10 on the tenth blog entries by checking out Shimelle’s blog here.

1. Hate dark mornings and afternoons
2. Not being able to hang the laundry out
3. When the festive season starts in October!
4. Coats, gloves, hats all over the hallway
5. Grey, Icy and or mushy 3 day old snow
6. Fresh white snow, especially when it falls overnight
7. Christmas lights
8. cold bright sunny days
9. Starbucks Red Cups
10. When winter ends !

xmas journal Give Away

OK I got there eventually – here is a peek of the papers, journaling cards and number tags that are available with this kit, the numbers go from 1-31 so that you can document the whole of December.

Tomorrow I will be posting a peek at the binder, the dividers and the transparencies !!

Please feel free to comment on this post and tomorrows post to be entered for the give away.
comments accepted until midnight on Saturday GMT and the winner will be drawn randomly and announced on Sunday morning.

Get commenting

technical difficulties

sorry if you are visiting here for the Christmas Journal give away, I am still doing this but I have had some technical difficulties and now it is too darn dark to photograph the kit, it will definitely be on here tomorrow morning.

Thanks for being patient

UKS – guest designer

if you fancy getting my latest “winter” printables get on over to UKScrappers and download them, they are exclusive to UKS and absolutely FREE to members

These are very versatile, the calendar tag could be used on any scrapbook page, just highlight or circle the month and day you need. This would make a useful addition to the Journal Your Christmas or December Daily projects.

the circular elements are designed to be punched out using a 3, 2 and 1 inch punch.

Have fun with these and feel free to link to your projects in the comments if you use my designs on your projects.

I WILL BE LOADING A SEPARATE POST LATER TODAY FOR THE CHRISTMAS JOURNAL GIVE AWAY – INTERNATIONAL READERS WELCOME !

December Journal GIVE AWAY

YES it is happening I will be posting a SNEAK PEEK on Monday and the give away will be announced on Friday so it can be in the mail at the weekend, plenty of time for you to get prepped for December the first.

I can tell you that the colour scheme is White, Grey, Red, Blue and hint of orange, sound interesting ?
The album is an A5 Kraft Binder (spine measuresment 1.5 inches)

The kit will also contain 31 double sided 200gsm card pages, these will be a mixture of my exclusive festive designs along with some graph, music score and ledger style patterns.

Lastly there will be a collection of number tags

This is a great kit that gives you all the basics to build up your December Journal.

Please don’t be shy comment on next weeks give away post to win this kit.

here is a teaser – one of my paper designs

Preparing for C@£$%&mas

Sorry that word is not allowed to be said out loud in my house until Dec 1st

However it doesn’t stop me thinking about IT and making lists for IT or preparing for IT’s arrival.

I have purchased a handful of gifts, I have also started stockpiling food (so unnecessary but every year we do it again ! )Plans have been made for where and who we will be spending the holiday with this year (major milestone accomplished there !)

And as we speak I have just designed and printed off my C@£$%&mas cards too, if you know me at all you will realise that this is a huge tick on my to do list, most years I don’t send cards, it is always bottom of my priorities, so this year I am getting ahead of the game.

My card design isn’t going to win any awards, I just used a couple of quotes from one of my favourite seasonal childrens books. But it works and it is very “me”

Next – The Seasonal Journal preparations