On The thirtieth of December,

We are relaxing with a double page spread of decorative paper, placed there to house some photographs, or perhaps, a special card or two.

Room for some last Christmas thoughts and memories.

Maybe some festive poetry or comments people have made over the holidays which you would like to reflex on at some later day.

I have to confess I do fine the days between Christmas an New Year rather sad, so I much rather think about the New Year and what that is going to bring. This year I am so excited, I have so many things I want to share with you fine people, but I think I will tell you more about that tomorrow. 

On The Twenty Ninth of December

We have a whole page pocket, which will be kept only for pictures of snowmen! This page is a celebration of the wonderful chilly creatures.

A few years ago we had wonderful snow and Maisie and Andrew made four or five of these characters going down the street! It was great people came out of their homes to offer hats, scarves and carrots for the snowmen and made hot chocolate and joined in the fun.

The Snowman making team.

The three pictures down the left hand side of the page are made out of gift tags, the rest are sticker and old Christmas cards, anything with a snowman on it.

On The Twenty Eighth of December

We have the back of the long thin pocket on the left hand side, decorated with nice paper and a caption. On the right hand side we have, background paper with a red card on it this card then opens.....

.....to reveal a flag card interior. The flags are made out of red card and paper chain strips.

On the Twenty Seventh Day of December...,

My book page looks like this,

Lovely double page spread with, yes you guessed it, Cosmo Cricket and My Minds Eye papers. The right hand page is folded over to create a thin pocket for a long thin tag, you can just see it's ribbon at the top of the page. Little captions were added.

All that glitters is potential treasure.

A heap of Christmas Cracker debris.  I only buy crackers with real ribbons on and interesting motif. All this can be reused in art. The ribbons for instants can be tied to the spines of books or stitch onto other fabrics to create fabric books or decorations for dolls. The paper can be flattened and cut up for matting and layering, and they call it rubbish!!!!!!

And On Boxing Day

I hope today finds you well, and looking forward to all the left overs! For the Boxing day page I have done allot of laying. All papers used are by Cosmos Cricket and only a tiny tag pocket today.

Tomorrow we shall look at some other Christmas left overs and see what we can do with them.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE

I just want to take this opportunity to wish you all the happiest and peaceful Christmas possible.

Double page corner flip pockets!

These pages are created by using two pages in the book to form one pocket. The back of the pocket is created by selecting a sheet of decorated paper and stitching around it. I did this twice , once for each side. Then I folded over the corners of the other pages to an angle I found pleasing and made a crease. I then measured this. Next I cut two pieces of contrasting paper slightly bigger than the folded edge. Stitch these too. Next glue the decorative paper to the pages in the book. Where the corner folds down make a hole and add a brad to secure. Glue the bottom of the folded page to the other page, to create the pocket Next add three brads to the edge of each page.

I stayed up and waited to see if I could catch a glimpse of the jolly old elf. So pleased I did.....

I was a little concerned as that fire was lit, whilst having dinner a few hours previous!

On The Twenty Fourth Day

I added a big page to journal on, so I can write in detail, about the traditions and hopes for the next day. Papers are from My Mind's Eye and Tim Holtz.

The right hand side has a Doctors pocket with a stitched detail. I also created an extra double page spread with photograph book on it, to place all those special memories.

See day nine for "How To"

On The Twenty Third Day Of Christmas...

..., I played with Cosmo Cricket paper, and gift wrap from Paper Chase.

Made a pocket and a large tag, ideal for family photos just like this one,.....

A few Christmas tunes from Maisie.

On The Twenty Second Day Of.....

...... I have another whole page pocket. The back ground paper for this in Docraft. The gorgeous ribbon is from Boyes York and I love it, but can't find anymore!, Sniff. The left hand page is Cosmo Cricket.

Only three more sleeps until Santa comes! Have you been naughty or nice?

On The Twenty first day of Christmas

I played with paper and captions from Cosmo Cricket. The lace detail on the doctors pocket was created with a Big Shot dye cutting system, Tim Holtz's range.

Lots of layering on this page layout and all edges are blacked for added depth.

Tag from pocket, with more paper lace detail.

On The Twentieth Day

I created a whole page pocket with paper by My Minds Eye and Cosmo Cricket. Ribbon runs along the front of the pocket, and captions are added.

On the left hand side of the double page layout, all kit used, except the tree brad, are from Cosmo Cricket. I attached the brad by creating a hole with a Martha Stewart ratchet style hole punch, which I adore, but a simple bradawl will suffice.

On The Nineteenth Day

I added a photo window. This was cut out with the Big shot.

Photograph will slot in from the top, where the red glitter band is.

On the other side of the layout we have yet another photograph opportunity or I would rather journal on these fold outs. To create this, I folded an A4 piece of black card into quarters, length ways. Trimmed the top to look like a tag, while the card is folded. Then on white card I cut seven pieces, slightly smaller that the black tag. The white card was decorated with chipped sapphire distress ink from Ranger and then stamped with a holly leaf. I attached a ribbon to the back on the concertina tag book. Then glued the tag book onto the page. Add some ribbon to the tag tops.

Great fun concertina book.

On The Eighteenth Day

We have a snowman tag in a Doctors pocket.
The paper is My Minds Eye. The MERRY Christmas, is cut out of a piece of gift wrap from paper chase. The gift wrap in question is on craft paper and can be coloured to match your layout, by using ink pads.

The ticket is a Rubber Stamp by, Tim Holtz, stamped, coloured and stapled onto the front of the pocket.
The back of the long pocket is decorated in paper and a length of ribbon glued along the edge. All this is mounted onto black card to make it pop.

Snowman tag.

On the seventeenth of Christmas.....

...... I made a long tag pocket, please look at page six for "How To."

The paper is from My Minds Eye and Cosmo Cricket. the long pockets has a Christmas tree brad as a fastener. Lots of space here for journaling and art, or photo's.

On The Sixteenth Day

We are having a swing tag!

The tag on the left, is pivoted on a snowflake brad.

The paper for the little tag pocket is by Docraft, the tag is shop bought, twelve for one pound! and the glittery "NOEL" was from The Range. The band for paper to the right of the page is just a strip from a bigger sheet of paper mounted onto black card.

See how it moves.

The paper on the left and on the right were bought as individual sheets. The "Joy" was from a card topper kit from a pound shop!

On The Fifteenth Day of Christmas

Is yet another full page pocket, Sorry if you think there are a lot of these but they are so useful when you collect quantity of effemira! Or rubbish as others may have it. It may look like rubbish to some, but give it ten or fifteen years and the same people go through the the book, and you will be able to hear the sequels of delight and see the smiles on their faces when they see things they recognized but had forgotten. This then leads on to memories and associations and a whole evening is lost in joyful reminiscing  My children aren't that old, Alice 21, Corrin ( a boy ) 17 and Maisie 14, yet they love pulling out the books I have created for them over the years, of all types of celebrations. I make a Christmas Album every year, not as big as this book we are doing, but big enough. Mainly photographs with notes and Christmas list, cards they have made me and the like, they love them, and it becomes part of the traditions to see what they were doing or looked like last year or ten years ago.
My lovely Mummy used to come to my house at least one day every week, for years, and we would have lots of fun and giggle all day. She would bring the children sweets and read to them. As the children got older, they would read to her, Grandmama things. We would all have dinner together, around a table no less, and generally have a great time.When I realized she was not well, I made a conscious effort to taking a lot more photograph of her with my babies and I am so pleased I did. Not only are these picture a big comfort to me, but my children love them too. Maisie was only seven years old when Barbara started to disapear under the shroud of Alzheimer's  and if it wasn't for those pictures she wouldn't know what her real Grandmama was like. Anyway that's you lot told why I am having lots of full page pockets, in my book, you however can have as many, or as few as you wish. x

Love the back ground paper.

The right hand side back ground paper, and little quote are from an Anna Griffins kit I believe. Some lovely ribbon added to the pocket and lot of stitch detail. The left hand side paper and quote are from Cosmo Cricket.
Thanks for coming, hope to see you tomorrow. x

On the fourteenth day

I made another Doctors pocket for the right hand side of the layout. The paper on this side is all My Minds Eye. Please see day four, for the "how to" on Doctors pockets.

A tag for the pocket with caption on it from a kit by Cosmo Cricket.

This side just has a piece of decorative paper from Cosmo Cricket, plus one of their captions. If you have access to computers and printer there is no reason why you can't make your own caption which of course can be more personal to you and your family. You can make back ground papers too, by just repeating text to fill a page.

On the Thirteenth day

I was lucky enough to make a little card to sit in the middle of a page.

Right hand side has the card, which is held closed by a gold ribbon which was glued onto the cards back before gluing that to the decorative background papers.

See how it opens.

The card opens to reveal yet more wonderful paper, which are all by Cosmo Cricket on this page.

Just love this paper.

This left hand page is from Tim Holtz paper pads. The paper was mounted onto black to give it an edge. With scraps of paper I made little tabs, just for fun.

Next Month I Will Be Starting Life Book 2013......

....., and I am so excited  I could wet myself, or is that three children and a bad cold?  What is Life Book, I hear you shout? Life Book was and is created by the fabulously talented Tamara Laporte, there is a button on my blog, go peeps find out more! Anyway, to try to stop myself exploding with anticipation, and talking incessantly about it which causes my children's eyes to roll back in their heads, which can not be good for them, I thought I would go and play with Life Book 2012 as I now have access to it. Oh joy and rapture unforeseen, What glorious fun, half way through January, just need to finish the text, and compiling arty stuff for February. But wanted to share with you, because I love you and art makes the world such a better place.

I will post again when I have finished. I itching to black the edges, but must finish the text first. There are things I would do differently now, but that's called learning. I am going to leave her alone and embrace the journey.
See you tomorrow for Christmas book.

On The Twelfth day of Christmas Blogging

I stamped a jolly old Santa,

Isn't he adorabubble?

The stamp is by Personal Stamp Exchange, in America. Which was stamped onto cream card in black ink. High gloss embossing powder was placed over inked image and excess removed and stored for another day. Embossed with heat gun. Santa image was stamped again on a scrap piece of paper and cut out to form a mask. This was placed over embossed Santa and then I stamped the background text in brown. The background image I believe was Rubber Buggy Baby Buggys, oh how I love that company. Santa was coloured with pens and glitter was added. Edges were blacked. The card then mounted to a piece of black card. This was then added to decorative Christmas paper, and I am not sure where that came from, which is a shame as I would like some more! All the above mounted onto black card and onto the page. Don't for get gel pens and glitter gel pens when it comes to journaling on black.

The right hand page is a whole page pocket, please refer to day three for the "How to", on that. The ribbon on this page came from Boyes in York. It is gorgeous and not expensive.

Just like to wish you a Happy 12th of the 12th 2012. x

On The Eleveth Day Of Christmas

I created a double page spread. This was made by adding one of the excess pages from the original book. The tab you can see there at the top of the turntable page was made by cutting a decorative shape label in half, and gluing it in place. I used the big shoot for to create mine, but you can get them, pre-cut at stationers or just try drawing one. Fold your paper in half and draw then cut a shape. This would then be your template for a card shape you can use again and again. The paper on the front of the page is Cosmo Cricket and Docrafts. The embellishment are from various card kits. The double page interior is covered in paper chase gift wrap. This can be used to display photos or other art or even more journaling.

Lovely vintage image

Lots of space for journaling

The left hand side of this layout is a cropped Tim Holtz paper. Blacked around the edges. The "Dear Santa" is from a Cosmo Cricket set. Please remember when you get a large space like this it doesn't have to be filled with writing. You could place a photo and write around it, or maybe some of your art. If you need more space, try stapling extra pages over the top of this one, experiment.

On The Tenth Day

I am playing with snow, granted of a plastic nature.

Plastic snow flakes.

This page doesn't have any pockets at all!. Just delightful paper and embellishments. The right hand side has paper by My Minds Eye. This is topped with a piece of black card which has a beautiful ribbon on it, from Wilkinson. Tiny scene of snowy landscape with tree and and deer. This cost a pound for two meters! The black card is completed with a white snowflake tree decoration, which I have had for sometime and have no
idea where it came from, but these are not hard to find.

The left hand page is covered in Tim Holtz paper, blacked around the edges. This is a great place for journaling. Please remember that just because there is a large space to journal you do not have to fill it. A few words that are special to you and your family, a quote from your favorite film, or favorite Christmas film.

Again we have a snowflake, black and glittery this time. The "LOVE" label was part of an inexpensive card topper set. The text tape at the top of the page is from Tim Holtz Idea-ology range.

On The Ninth Day of Christmas

I made a little album to place upon the page.

The right hand side page houses a little book.

The book contain just a few pages.

I selected a black cover and red inside pages. Cut the pages slightly small than the cover. Stitch the pages to the cover using pamphlet stitch.  Cut roughly a third off the back cover and glue to the page. Then I added a gift tag for decoration. This was held with glue. A hole was created at the top of the tree and a brad snowflake was pinned in place. The fastener for the book is also a snow flake brad. The front cover of the book just tooks underneath it. A festive picture, by Docraft was place of the front of the mini book with text by Cosmo Cricket. These little internal books are great places for the children of the household to add their stories of Christmas. Or it could be a mini photo album of the pets, not that we dress them up and take silly pictures of the cats at Christmas!

The left hand side consists of a backing paper with a shield shape cut using the big shoot. The paper used is the removed pages from the original book. "wish list", by Cosmo cricket. Jingle bells is a card topper  by Wilkinson's.

On The Eighth Day

We are going very red in colour!

The right hand side is another whole page pocket, please see page three for "how to".  The red flower is an inexpensive decoration, ten for £1.00. This is then threaded through the tag. The ribbon came from a company in Wetherby, Yorkshire.

On the left hand page we have a large envelope. I have had these so long I have no idea where they came from. The strips of paper decorating this envelope are intended for making paper chains. These came from Wilkinson's. They have such a lot of good value craft items, well worth checking out. Anyway, just glue the strips in place. I then mounted the covered envelope onto red card and glued this to the page. I then glued ribbon onto black card, which in turn was glued to the page. However if you can not get hold either of these you can always make your own, by cutting strips of coloured or decorated paper. You could even make your own decorated paper by using rubber stamps to decorated a sheet of paper then cutting it into strips.  The reindeer center piece was also from Wilkinson's  part of a card making kit. The envelope could house a letter or wishes lists, maybe photographs.

On The Seventh Day of Christmas

I have made another Doctors Pocket for the page, Please see the "how to" for day four. The background paper is from, My Minds Eye, as is the main paper for the pocket.

You can see Santa now.

The Christmas Car detail is from the Paper Chase gift wrap. Text is from Cosmo Cricket. The pocket is mounted on black card and contains a tag.

This is made from the excess pages removed from the original book. Heavily stitched on the sewing machine.  The paper is gift wrap. A gold ribbon is added to the tag. The reverse is decorated with small Christmas trees.

These trees were created by punching a row of Christmas trees with a hand held punch in waste paper. Then using my blending tool I sponge through this home made stencil with Ranger Distress Ink in Barn Door.

The left hand side of this layout is the back side of the long pocket from yesterday. I inked up a cream piece of card in Ranger Distress ink in Barn Door, Chipped sapphire and Vintage Photo. Once dry I stamp this page with text and swirls. Cut two piece to fit this page mounted onto black card. The Christmas tickets are by Tim Holtz, were stamp in Black soot onto some of the inked card. These were then cut out and added to the top card with a staple. Remember you can colour your staples with Ranger Alcohol inks.

Artefact A. T. C Group, December 2012

Day six of Christmas Book is under this note to the A.T.C Group.

Thanks ladies, as always wonderful work, We are at the end of another year of great art and friendship. I do hope you will join me for yet another year of creative fun. A quick note to the Artefact book swap members, the themes have been issued to the individuals, I just need to make the books and send them off to you. If more of you want to play let me know, we need groups of eight for each set of books. We start in January.

Some of the high lights of the year.

What talented girls.

Themes  for the new year are as follows. Themes are just an idea, they are by no means compulsory.

January          Faces
February        Love, (well it's got to be)
March            Festivals
April              Children's stories
May               Masks
June               Woman's suffrage
July                Text
August            All that glitters
September      Doodling
October          Bumps in the night
November      Mini journal
December      The first Noel

As always swaps due in by the last day of each month. Sent with a stamped addressed envelope, with a second class large letter stamp, for the return of your swap.
People wanting to join us just send me an email and I will send you information on the group. We swap by snail mail once a month.

All that remains is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year. A big thank you for all the Christmas cards I have received already, you are all so very organized, love Jo  xxx