Tuesday 17 December 2013

WOYWW - New Festive Friends !

Not much time for crafting with our Christmas preparations in full swing !

The house is starting to look festive - I love it when all the Christmas lights are hung up !


My hand is still sore & achy after my fall so stitching has been slow & laborious - but I was determined to finish my 2 new festive friends !



Meet Angelina - the ice skating angel - I really enjoy making up these Tilda patterns !
The fur on this pattern was a new challenge !
















Now here too is Herr Penguin - taken from the pattern I bought in Germany - resplendent in his Christmas hat !

















What little time I have found for crafting has been focussed on making sure I keep up each day with my Christmas Journal - I really enjoy my annual month of journalling !

So there is a collection of JYC pages on my desk this week ..

Although there are email prompts each day, I seldom stick to them in order and just write about whatever captures my imagination that day.




Here's my cover !
So far it has seen an eclectic mix of  subjects !
Here's a record of how I have wrapped my presents this year ..
My record of the most talked about advert of the season - John Lewis' Bear & the Hare ..
The phenomen-owl rise of the owl in every form of crafting, clothing, home-wear & accessories ...
And how a festive pie is bang on a whole range of consumer trends ...

And I never bind the pages to the end when the journal is finished - you just never know how dimensional & bulging the book will turn out !

Hope all your Christmas plans are going smoothly !
Have a festive, fun & stress free Christmas !
Love Ali xx

Tuesday 10 December 2013

WOYWW - Christmas Catch Up !

Hi
Many thanks to everyone who left a kind message for me after my accident last week - sorry I didn't get to visit as many desks as I would have liked but I was laid up pretty much for the whole week in a haze of painkillers & bruises !
Happily all is on the mend now -so the weekend was a frantic Christmas catch up !
I had a frenzy of wrapping to do, as I am meeting my side of the family this coming weekend to swap presents because we won't be together over Christmas :(
Then we had Christmas shopping to do plus putting up the Christmas Tree & decorating the house to look Christmassy as we are entertaining my "in laws" this year.
So a collection of Christmas clutter on the desk this week !


The one thing I have tried to keep up with is my daily Journal Your Christmas for 2013 - I have found that the secret to keeping to a daily schedule of journal pages is preparation !

So at the beginning of the month I had cut a lot of pages to 8"x8" (down from 12"x12"scrapbooking papers) which is my favourite size to work on for this project, then I cut a lot of Project Life sized cards from the off cuts - so I have them right on hand to journal before I go to sleep each night.
I find if I can just get the words down on paper each day, I can always catch up with photos or some relevant embellishments or stamping etc later on !!
I have some lovely Christmas stamps this year & would love to add some extra little crafted bits but time isn't on my side ! So only this one so far !















So here are a few Christmas cards I can now show as they are safely posted & with their intended recipients !
How cute are these guys from Lilli of the Valley !

These are Chloe's stamps - embossed with WOW Vintage Jade sparkling embossing powder - my favourite of this year - you can't see it very well in this photo but it a lovely colour & so sparkly !

 I liked the effect Jo Firth Young had done with this stamp of her's - stamp onto three types of papers - then cut & reconstruct the piles of presents with the different papers - a bit of red Stickles & voila !

This card was using a wooden embellishment plus some Christmasy ribbon !

Also here is my Scrapclub Secret Santa entry - Lynda gave us all a mini canvas and we each created a Christmas themed mini project which we then wrapped up, put in the centre of the table & each selected one as our gift !















And this month it was Lynda's turn in our ABC ATC challenge she had C - so here is her lovely vintage Christmas style ATC for December - great isn't it !

Have a great week & I hope your Christmas preparations are all serenely underway with no stressing for you ! Love Ali x

Tuesday 3 December 2013

WOYWW - Finnabair Fun !

Well after months of waiting, finally the day dawned for me to head off for my workshop in Derbyshire with the talented Anna - aka Finnabair or Finn.

I have admired her style on her blog & in articles from afar - so it was wonderful to have the chance to find out how she goes about creating her lovely highly dimensional designs !


The weekend was ably organised by Jamie & Sharon of the Artist's Trading Post and the venue an Eco Centre in the Peak District - we enjoyed good facilities & the room was just the right temperature all day which is always a blessing at a workshop !

The only small feedback would be that the space we had to work in was very cramped given how much glue, paint & embellishments were involved - but when so many people want to attend I suppose it is inevitable !

Our main project for the day was to create covers for a journal - we were given great big kits of goodies to play with - loads of dimensional embellishments from Prima & were free to choose our own colour schemes - just encouraged to make sure we had a bold colour & a contrasting a highlight colour.
As you can see I chose deep blues, greens with a hint of purple and gold as a background. I was very happy with how my designs came out considering it was my first attempt !!

I always much prefer this as it is rather dreary to work a whole project up in a colour scheme that doesn't appeal just because you have been allocated it !


Finn was a charming tutor & clearly explained each step before we set off to complete it .. we had a completely free hand to create our design exactly as we desired - and we were kept seriously busy all day !

It is always great to see how everyone in the room, whilst ostensibly creating the same project turns out a complete different creation - each composition was unique and every colour scheme completely & utterly different !

After we had created our covers we went on to create a couple of Finn style journal pages - it was good to have some inspiration on new ways to compose a page as it is so easy just to keep trundling round in a loop & getting stale - this is what I love about classes & workshops - as well as the fun of the day, you get the inspiration & spark of new ideas to take home !



So when Journal Your Christmas started this week & it came to creating a cover - are you surprised it is looking Finn style !!


Feeling a bit sorry for myself today as took a fall in the dark carpark at work last night !
So apart from going to an emergency appointment at the dentist to have the big cut inside my mouth checked out, I have been huddled in the house nursing black & blue knees, aching hands & arms & a swollen face that looks like the result of a bad botox session !!
I'm hoping the swelling will go down by tomorrow so I can get back to work - and eat something solid !

Hope you all have a great crafty week !
Ali xx