Gardening Journal put together

After printing out and cutting to size 48 pages and then adding 12 pockets on the seeds pages I was ready to assemble the final journal - apart from back and front cover. Then I just had to work out how to use the cinch. It still needs a little ink and embellishing around the edges but it's not bad. One design flaw was the brads I added to the pockets as it makes it very bulky in the middle. I used a variety of digital kits for this" Wilna Furstenburg Rain, Fly and Summer Dyes, Helping Hands Collaboration and numerous Owl Tree Studio Kits. The only thing is I forgot to write them down at the time ... I must do this next time.

Note to self... next year DON'T

Don't leave it until the week before Christmas to write the cards - fell into the trap that I had made them just forgot to write them.
Don't get carried away with ambitious plans for presents. I have now created 48 pages for garden journal - I have trimmed, printed and embellished them. I am now sticking them back to back - got to October pages and fed up...
Don't put up tree and lights and miss out the decorations - got that to fix later.
Don't ignore the huge pile of presents waiting to be wrapped
Don't decide to give up smoking the week before christmas.

Next year I wonder which ones I will be better prepared for?

Visiting the puppy

Our puppy is 7 weeks old and in 13 days we get to take him home. We could have picked him up on Christmas Eve but for his and our aged relatives sake we decided to wait until the 29th. He just so cute.

July and August under the belt and a medal for Lens Guy

I used the Owl Tree Studio August Collaboration kit for August

This one uses Wilna Furstenburg's Rain Kit

Another snow day. Lens Guy went beyond the call of duty today walking to nearest station waiting 90 minutes for a train to appear and then finding and digging out my car. He drove it home on some of the iciest roads out there and agreed we should not be out driving. It is so cold here the grit and ice is not working on the roads - a case of the wrong kind of salt I believe. I have actually done some work today as I would feel too guilty if I just scrapped...

June pages underway - loving these colours when snow is on the ground

Calendar/Gardening Book Present Progress

I have been hard at work creating another 8 pages in the calendar/gardening book present I am making for a family member. I used the helping hands kit  for these months as I love the colours and variety - but sticking to Wilna Furstenburg alphabet. Each month has a calender page, Hints and Tips Page, Notes Page and Seeds n Stuff page (with pocket to hold) seeds. It is going a little faster now as I have a template which makes the process a little faster - I just need to stop changing my mind and stick to my original paper and colour choices but then I try something else and before you know another hour has gone. Once I have digitally made all 48 pages I will print out, stick together, add pockets and extra bits and then bond using my new cinch. Still have to make front and back cover and another 7 months in next week or two...

Christmas Preparations

We are currently snowed in - first time ever - so I have been playing around today. I am so disorganised this year but did manage to make this card using Tim Holtz seasonal paper digitally stamped letters from Wilna Furstenburg's Rain kit from two peas.  Yesterday my normal 50 minute commute turned into a 6 hour marathon. After 4.5 hours in car I found a side street to park it in and then walked to a train station and was able to get a train some of the way home. Still can't get out to rescue my car and the schools are closed for a second day tomorrow.

Sweet Pleasures

I created this layout for a uks challenge using my latest December kits from Owl Tree Studios - all the elements came from the Joyous kit - apart from the birds that came from the Moments in the Morning kit. I changed the colours of elements and used text to create a background paper and had fun playing around with the title as the challenge title was simple pleasures.

Addicted to Tim Holtz blog and 12 tags of christmas and new addition to family

Currently totally obsessed with tim's blog and his 12 tags of Christmas. If you have somehow not seen this (highly unlikely) I strongly recommend a bit of a tim fix to get you in a crafting christmassy mood. His blog is at timholtz.typepad.com I am waiting for the arrival of day 4.
On a very different subject we went and chose the most beautiful yellow Labrador puppy last night. He is coming to live with us in 4 weeks time. Now all we need to sort out is a name. Youngest daughter wants to call him Baxter, youngest son favours jaune whilst eldest son keeps emailing from France about our menagerie. Lens guy wants something short with hard consonants as this good for dogs. Me? I like Ben. No doubt there will be much discussion and negotiation in our household.

Mixed media collages - if you can't see the wood for the trees

This has been a work in progress over a number of evenings but finally finished it today. I was thinking about my sister and the tough time she is having and the phrase (inspired by tunnel saying earlier) "if you can't see the wood for the trees ... chop them down" came to my mind. Not remotely eco friendly but sums up the predicament she is in just now. I think it also owes some of its inspiration to our current weather.
I began by inking the card and then using a dawn bibby mask roughly sketched on tree shapes and coloured them in with a sharpie. I then used a silver acrylic dabber to create more trees and another tree stamp in black and silver to build up feeling of trees. I had some twigs covered in white fluff from a flower arrangement and then I added them. I found a range of pictures in black and white in magazines and some birds from the graphic fairy website. I sewed on capiz shell discs (which had fallen off a light fitting) and added more images that sort of resembled cut logs. Finally I wrote out the saying, distress crackled and inked it and stuck it all together. It is a bit quirky and odd but I kind of like it.

My first ever snow day from work

A real first today - my first ever snow day from work. I tried to get to work but after getting stuck twice, skidding and quite frankly feeling terrified gave up and came home. Felt such a wimp. Delighted to find out when got home that all schools were closed and I needn't feel guilty about staying home. A crafting day at home, bliss.