Christmas Day

Nearly finished!! I have one more day I want to do in this album....Saturday two of our neices and their families came over for our Christmas get together. It was a busy but wonderful day and I have lots of photos to scrap.
Meanwhile, here is Christmas Day. Love this photo of some table decorations.

 

 

I stitched a 6x6 protector to make 3 vertical pockets. Into the middle one I placed a diecut Christmas tree and glitter. Into both side pockets I inserted patterned paper and glitter then sewed along the top to seal it all in. This photo shows the back side of the insert against the first page for Christmas Day.

 

 

And here is the same insert on top of the second page. This photo shows the front of the insert.

This is page 2

 

and page three....

 

 

 

and the final page

 

 

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve.....Debbie and Greg beside the tree....ornaments.......presents under the tree.

 

 

19-23 almost up to date

In this album I have used some great Christmas tickets and chevron tags. They are available free from http://uprintables.blogspot.com.au/
She has heaps of wonderful printables......and all free!!!

Day 19 was a fairly quiet day....I put the tree up and made the Christmas pud.

 

Day 21 was Mum's birthday and I decorated the tree.

 

 

Day 23...just found I have missed a photo for 22nd so I will do that one after Christmas lol. We picked Debbie up on 23rd and brought her home and now I am starting to feel like Christmas at last. Deb loves December because her birthday is on 6th and then it is Christmas! She has autism and lives in a special hostel where she goes out 5 days a week and is very busy and happy. We couldn't keep her so occupied and happy at home. Her pleasure at Christmas makes it a very special time for us. I have used an 8.5x11 page plus a 6x6. I had problems taking a good photo of this page for some reason so I took them both out of the protectors....and it is all a little crooked!

 

days 15-18....a catch up

Day 15 is a photo of another beautiful sunset out the back.

 

 

 

Day 16 Des and I had lunch in town then looked at outdoor furniture for our new patio and some storage ideas for my scrapping room.

 

 

 

Day 17, I did all my present shopping and decided that next year I am definitely going to start months before Christmas!. However it was a nice day as a friend came with me and we had a very yummy lunch.

 

 

Day 18, two friends and I had another yummy lunch in town and exchanged Chrissy presents. Then we went to see Pitch Perfect and finished the day off nicely with coffee and donuts!

 

 

 

Istill have a few days to catch up with!

 

 

 

Day 14. Break up day

Yesterday was break up day at school and it also marked my retirement.....something I have been looking forward to all year. So very nice to be able to plan the things I intend doing. They include scrapping of course, painting again because I have done very little in the last three years, patchwork, gardening, learning more about photography and Photoshop Elements and anything else that happens to take my fancy!!

The left hand page is 6x6 and the right side is 8x8. The 14 is a Silhouette file I bought this morning with a few others I am planning to use in my DD. I stitched a small pocket on the right page and inserted some gold snowflakes and beads.

Day 12

Well, I missed day 11....no photos and just a very busy day at work.  I wanted something to mark 12-12-12 so when a friend and I decided to go for coffee after school I had my camera handy.

All my pages so far have been 8.5x11 and I thought it was looking a little ordinary compared to all the gorgeous pages I am seeing each day from other participants. I found some 6x6 and 8x8 protectors I have had for several years. I used a 6x6 for this page and made a pocket with my sewing machine.Then it only needed a new hole punched with my cropadile to make it fit into my binder. I am looking forward to seeing it when I have other pages underneath that will be able to be seen as you turn the pages. I have some Snap protectors as well and may try them.

No photos for 13th and today is 14th.....a very special day for me as it is my last day of work. I am retiring  and have lots of plans for my art and craft!

Day 10

Monday is about starting a project to add a patio to the front of our house. I haven't had much Christmassy stuff as yet....no small children or grandchildren! I need to put the tree up and take some photos to get me in the mood.

Sunday in the park

We enjoyed a impromptu Sunday lunch and walk in the rose garden in Newtown Park. My page size is 8.5x11. I think I am starting to want to add more to the pages but at the same time, keep it simple....

December Daily catch up

I finally decided to include my DD in my second PL album, rather than a separate album because I have plenty of space to do this. Another reason was to save on doubling up doing December pages for both Project Life and a December Daily. I am happy with the decision and I am enjoying making the pages.

So far I have kept the design of each page the same to speed up the process and it is working well. I may vary it as I go along......time will tell!

I made a title page for the beginning of December.

my pages follow....I have missed two days but am fine with that. No stressing!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Project Life and some photos

Week 41 is all photos from my trip to Ireland....so hard to choose only a few photos for this week when I took over 2000. I still need to do an insert with journalling and perhaps a couple more pics. Never mind, I will have a chance to use them in my album!

Anyone one who was on the trip will know why I giggle to myself doing all these week 'forty' something pages...

Week 43 we spent a fabulous day at Queen Mary Falls and I filled both pages with photos from that one day. Once again I need an insert for journalling.

 

Week 44 has photos from several days although the second page is mostly about Debbie coming home for a few days. This time she went back a day early as she was going to a Melbourne Cup party on Tuesday and had a hair appointment on Monday.

 

 

and lastly some photos of a pair of wrens who sat on the side mirror of the car as soon as we parked at Queen Mary Falls. They were very obliging and stayed while I took some photos through the tinted window. I didn't dare try putting the window down!

 

A new blog

Today I have started a new blog Soonymary's Irish Jaunt where I am planning to post photos.... hopefully every day.... when I am on my trip to Ireland.

Only 17 sleeps until I leave.....woohooo!

Smiling!!!!!!!..........

For the past month I think I have had a permanent smile on my face.....so excited I can barely keep still......let alone sleep LOL.

The reason for the excitement is that I am going on a trip to Ireland in October. Now that in itself is exciting for someone of my age who has never been overseas before....but wait....there is more lol! I am doing a scrapbooking and photography tour with Ali Edwards and Karen Russell.

This is really a dream trip for me.....can you tell I am excited? It has the best of both worlds for me.....sightseeing during the day and some lessons at night.

Details of the trip can be found here if you would like to see what we will be doing.

I am so looking forward to this. Can't wait to meet everyone and start taking photos in Ireland. And imagine the scrapping I will be able to do when I come home again......heaven!!! lol!!!!

another page!!

Two posts in two days.....amazing for me lately!! Today I have used the July sketch from Scrapbook Supplies Online

The pink border is wider than it appears here but the scanner doesn't seem to like borders.

ScrapFriends sketch

I love this sketch from ScrapFriends and just had to give it a try this month!
Here is my attempt

It is much more grungy than I usually do.....but it came together quickly and was so much fun to do. I used a mix of old and new supplies. The background is an old piece of BG Recess, the other pp's are from a Crate paper Random 6x6 pad.....I am loving the small pads lately. I also used Crafter's Workshop stencils, Adirondack Colourwashes and a very dark brown inkpad. The camera stamp is a hand carved one of mine and stamped on cord cardstock which creates the striped look.

Not sure if you can see the white chevron markings on the background....they were done using a home made chevron stencil and Atellier Modelling Compound. I will most definitely be using that again....I can see so many uses for it!

a bit of a catch up!

I have been very slack with my blogging for ages so I thought I would post a few recent things.
First of all, some recent pages for Let's Scrap

this next one I did for the monthly sketch competition atHandmade by Suzanne

and then a layout and a card for the monthly competition at Scrapbook Supplies Online

 

                      also this month I have actually painted....just a small still life in acrylic

rubber stamp carving

I am taking Julie Fei Fan Balzer's stamp carving course and only one week left to go. This must be the best online course I have taken! Just loving what we are doing and all the ideas for stamps I have now.

We started with a heart stamp and I have used it here on my week 2 of Project Life.

Next was a clever interlocking striped stamp and I also made an arrow and some circles.

Then we carved a much bigger stamp with a chevron design. Here it is on a couple of tags and I added some stamped hearts from lesson 1. Love it!

Our next lesson was a set of smaller chevron stamps and there is no end to the list of possible designs and uses for these gorgeous stamps!

More complex and intricate designs followed..... a bracket frame and a damask design.

The last two lessons were a whole alphabet.....which I haven't started on yet, then a word. I am working on my word and enjoying doing it although I am finding all the curves a trifle troublesome....lol. Still two more lessons in the last week!