Christmas Journal Title Page

Well, I've managed to pretty much stay on track with making my Christmas Journal pages, but life has gotten in the way of me doing much blogging about my pages. I just HAD to make the time to share my title page, though, because I love it so much. Earlier in the month, I participated in a Christmas Inchie Swap through Christian Paper Artists. On Saturday, I received my 24 new inchies. Aren't they all wonderful??? I decided to use them to make the title page for my Christmas Journal, and I think the page turned out very well.

Maybe one of these days, I'll actually get the time to show some of my other pages.

Ali Edwards was the person who first pointed me to Shimelle and her "Journal Your Christmas" project, and now I'm trying another of Ali's suggestions: "one little word." You choose one word to focus on for the entire year. I've decided to focus on LOVE. Such a small word with such power! I want to increase my love for God; for my wonderful DH Mike; for my 3 amazing children, Jarrett, Kendra, and Keegan; for my extended family; for my coworkers and my students; and for myself. I think right now, the best way to increase my love for myself is by taking better care of my body. It's only 39 years old, but it's the only body I've got. I really miss working out; that stopped a year and a half ago when I went from being a stay at home mom to a part-time teacher. I hope to get back into regular workouts. So here's to LOVE. May you all have a happy, loving 2009!

Christmas Inchies and Christmas Journal

I made these inchies for a swap that Corbi is hosting on the Christian Paper Artists email group. I made 6 of each of these inchies, and I will get 24 different ones back. This was my first time making inchies for a swap, and they are addicting! The top left one is a Creative Memories Christmas sticker on some mulberry paper. For the top right inchie, I painted cardstock with Twinkling H2Os then used a rubber stamp to stamp a swirl design. I let it dry a bit, then put glitter around the edges. Obviously not all the ink was dry, because the glitter stuck to some of the swirls. Oh well - the more glitter, the better, right??? Then I put a Creative Memories ornament sticker on top. Bottom left: I started with a dark red cardstock square, cut patterned paper into a 3/4 " fancy square with a punch, then cut a 1/2 inch square of solid green, and glued a button on top. Bottom right: painted cardstock with emerald Lumiere. Cut circles out of some paper I had marbled using shaving cream and a few red nailpolish colors. I attached the circle with a gold brad, and wrote "J" and "Y" on either side of the brad, so it says "JOY". Then I attached a bit of gold German scrap paper to the bottom.

In other news, I've decided to do Shimelle's "Journal Your Christmas" project. I'm doing this in an 8 X 8 scrapbook. Most of the products I've used are miscellaneous things I have. I also used several new products from the making memories line, FaLaLa. Although I've managed to keep up to date with my scrapbook pages, this is my first chance to blog them. Here's Dec. 1:

Journaling reads, "I have always been a journaler. I got my first diary when I was 9, and 30 years later I’m still recording my thoughts, fears, and celebrations. Last year I started a visual journal to document the journey of buying, gutting, and totally rebuilding the inside of a house on 2.75 acres.

I was online over Thanksgiving Break and I came across Shimelle.com. When I first read Shimelle’s description of “Journal Your Christmas,” I thought it was a great idea, but where would I find the time? Besides the usual Christmas busy-ness, I still have a non-functional kitchen, laundry room, and master bath. And if I’ve got time to spare, I really should be painting some more molding for the half of the house that doesn’t have baseboards and casings yet. And painting the hallway from the foyer to the garage. And unpacking a few more boxes. And the list goes on and on….

That’s when I realized that this is EXACTLY why I should be doing this “Journal Your Christmas” project. I desperately need some me-time in the midst of a very crazy season of my life. I need to forget about the house for a few minutes each day. I need to sit back and reflect on why Christmas is so important to me: celebrating the birth of Jesus, my Savior.

So this is my Christmas present to myself: committing to at least 15 minutes a day, no matter how busy the season becomes, for reflecting, writing, and scrapbooking."

Here's Dec. 2. I cut out the snowflake and put some silver glitter on it:

Journaling reads, "I love the snow…in December. It’s the bitter cold of January and February that I can do without.

A fresh snowfall brings such stillness and peace, muffling sounds. It’s so sparkly on the trees and ground.

Yesterday afternoon I enjoyed watching the kids (along with Canyon and Immie) go sledding for the first time in our new backyard. Mike even got in on the fun, snowmobiling with Dean between our yard and his."

Here's Dec. 3, with a picture of my happy family on Thanksgiving and a picture of our house:

The journaling reads, "One of the many things I love about the Christmas holidays is the exchanging of Christmas cards and correspondence. We’ve been sending out photo cards for most of our marriage. We try to get all five of us in the picture, but there have been some years that we’ve had to use a photo of only the three kids. We also send a letter to friends and family who we don’t see very often. Each year my goal is to get the cards in the mail during the first week of December, but that is not usually my reality.

It’s always so fun to receive cards from others and catch up with them. I especially enjoy the pictures, seeing how children grow and how adults mature from year to year. There are some people who we haven’t seen in person in a decade or more, so those pictures are especially meaningful. We hang cards on our ornament-shaped card holder; letters go into a basket."

Dec. 4 (I really like the paper I used on the left side):

I took this picture 2 years ago, when my husband and kids gave me a digital camera for Christmas. I had fun experimenting with it. When I read Shimelle's prompt, I decided to print this out. It's just some beaded garland sitting on a piece of gold organza fabric. In the picture, you can see the shimmer of the fabric.

The journaling says, "My ideal Christmas would include:
All gifts bought by Thanksgiving
All packages and cards mailed the first week of December
Christmas Eve service at our church
Waking up in our house Christmas morning to a light dusting of snow: enough to make everything pretty, but not enough to make the roads dangerous
Family time seeing what Santa put in our stockings and exchanging gifts among the five of us
Christmas Dinner with the entire extended family
Reading the Christmas Story out of the Bible
Dessert: a piece of Mom’s apple-cranberry pie with whipped cream on top, various cookies, Mom’s homemade fudge and caramels, shishkie topped with apricot preserves and whipped cream (to actually eat that yummy Slovak pastry again would be ideal indeed!)
No-one expecting us to travel anywhere over Christmas break
Snow and still warm enough so the kids can play outside over break"

Here is today's journal entry:

The journaling says, "I bought this advent calendar before the kids were born. It looks like a book, but it opens to a pop-up scene of a Victorian Christmas. There are little doors and windows to open each day of December. It was in storage once the kids were born, until about two years ago.

This has been the Advent calendar we’ve used since Jarrett was quite small. Each day, someone takes the person, animal, or item out of its pocket and places it on the Bethlehem morning scene.

We received this beautiful signed book last year from Pam, John, and Ryan. Each day’s page has a door. Behind the door is a gorgeous illustration and part of the true Christmas story. This year, Jarrett, Kendra, and Keegan have been taking turns reading each door’s message."

I apologize if, when you double-click on the pictures, they do not expand. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I'm probably inadvertently doing something wrong when I upload, so if you know how to always make them expand when someone double-clicks, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks!

Vive le France ATCs

Anna with Christian Paper Artists is hosting another ATC swap; this one is "Vive le France." I was so excited when I first read about it, but then I didn't kow what to do. Mike and I visited France two and a half years ago, on the first trip we chaperoned through his high school. I fell in love with France: Paris, the countryside, the Cote d'Azur. How to translate that into an ATC? I decided to concentrate on Paris, using some pictures I took of some of my favorite Paris places. Going clockwise from the top right is Notre Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and Arc de Triomphe. I printed the photos in sepia tone to give them continuity and to make them look a little older, like memories.



I apologize for the slightly fuzzy picture; the brad in the left corner (from JoAnn) sticks out, so the ATC wasn't laying flat when I scanned it. I'm having issues with my digital camera, so I can't just take a photo and upload it.



For the base of the ATC, I painted a thin wash of Liquitex "Iridescent Rich Gold" acrylic paint over a page from a French book I picked up at the used bookstore in town.

I made five of the same ATC for this swap. Can't wait to get some from other artists.

Give Thanks

These ATCs are serving two purposes. I made them for the "Give Thanks" ATC swap that Donna is hosting at Christian Paper Artists. Then I saw that the current theme at SaltFaith Challenge is also "Give Thanks."

It's so easy to forget the wonderful gifts God has given us through His Son Jesus: eternal life, an abundant life here on earth, the Holy Spirit. I've loved this verse from the Psalms for a long time. God's unfailing love is what makes everything worth while. When I start to get bogged down with the things of this life, these verses help remind me of all the good things that I do have.

For this swap, we are each making 9 ATCs. Donna had said that if less than 9 people sign up, we would get more than 1 ATC from some people, so we might want to make some of the ATCs different. I made 4 of the first version, and 5 of the second.

I live in the midwest and we are in the middle of all the leaves changing into their glorious autumn colors. So I naturally associate leaves with the Thanksgiving holiday.

For the background, I mixed Lumiere in metallic russet and halo blue-gold to get the brown color. The text was printed on cardstock which I painted Irish Mist Twinkling H2o (gotta get some sparkle in there). For the leaves, I first painted a piece of watercolor paper with a wash of yellow, orange, and red watercolors. Then I used a small leaf punch to punch out the leaves. Finally, I added a "trail" of microdot stickers by a.muse, to look like the leaves are falling.

I'm back...and Going Green ATCs

We finally moved into our new house two weeks ago!!! We thought we would only live in our temporary house for about a month, but construction delays kept us out of the new house for three months. Actually, the new house still isn't finished, but it's far enough along to move into.

Since we didn't have internet at our temporary house, I've been unable to post in all this time.

While I was gone, I received these gorgeous ATCs from the Going Green swap that I participated in back in August:




This was my first swap, and I really enjoyed seeing the different techniques the other women used. I'm working on ATCs for my next swap with this group, Christian Paper Artists. I'll get those posted when I finish them.

I'm not sure how to get my pictures to expand when you double-click on them. If you know, please share the secret.

Going Green ATCs part 2

Last night I finished up my last 3 ATCs for the "Going Green" ATC swap through Christian Paper Artists yahoo group. Although they're not due until the middle of August, with our move next week, I don't anticipate having a lot of time for fun in the next few weeks.

For this first one, I painted the background with Mustard Green Twinkling H2O watercolor, then stamped over it with that new Tapestry stamp from Stampabilities (I told you I love that stamp!). All images are from ArtChixStudio. The girl originally had the words "Spoil me" on her forehead, but I thought that "dream" was more appropriate to the theme of recycling. I'm not sure if I like how her dreams are depicted, with the little dots going up to the nature pictures, but I don't know how else I'd do them. Text is all computer-generated.
For this second ATC, I used a photo that I took a few years ago of one of my home-grown roses (I can't remember if it was "Peace" or "Diana, Princess of Wales"). Either way, it's a beautiful hybrid-tea, cream colored with pink on the edges. I printed the photo on a transparency. Then I used another technique from Carol Murphy's "Tempting Techniques" online class through Joggles to use Therm-O-Web to adhere the transparency to cardstock, with glitter in between. The ribbon is 4 mm silk ribbon from my stash. I printed up "sweetest flower" on cardstock, and placed it in a label holder from making memories.The third ATC has a vellum pocket to hold a tag.

I used the same rose stamp (unknown maker) as the red marbled paper ATC I posted yesterday. For this one, though, I painted the whole ATC with Twinkling H2Os in Irish Mist, Blue Flame, and Cranberry. I used brads to attach the vellum pocket. I pianted the tag in Irish Mist, then printed the quote off the computer. As an added touch, I adhered a real rose thorn from my garden onto the tag. A brad and a small piece of silk ribbon finished this off.

It may be obvious that I love roses and quotes! In fact, I'm contemplating a project about the storms of life, so if anyone has a good quote about that which you want to leave in the comments section, I'd appreciate it!

These ATCs have been such a fun way to experiment with different techniques. I can't take all the credit for the ATC designs. A few weeks ago, I checked out a book from the library called Rubber Stamping Artist Trading Cards, which is chock full of examples (sorry, I don't remember the author). I've added my own spin - and my own stamps - to some of their ATCs. It was a great jumping-off point, though.

I'll probably be taking a few weeks off of blogging. Final packing, doing work at the new house, and unpacking will be taking up most of my time and energy for a few weeks. If you leave a comment that doesn't appear on here, that's the most likely reason why.

By the way, I am not affiliated with any of the companies I've mentioned in this or any other post.

Going Green ATCs

I've recently joined a Yahoo group called Christian Paper Artists (CPA). They seem like a great group of very talented ladies. Anna is hosting a swap of ATCs called "Going Green." To participate, you make 6 ATCs and will get 6 back. Each ATC must have green on it somewhere, and it must either have something recycled or have a nature theme. For the back of each of my ATCs, I'm going to use an empty toilet paper roll which I've flattened. I'll write my name and contact info on that.

I think this first ATC is my favorite of the three I've finished so far. The base is made of green fused Angelina. It looks SO MUCH PRETTIER in person ~ the sparkle and shimmer just doesn't show up on the screen. I saw this quote on a tag that Ros made. Hers looks like it's a stamp, but I printed it out on vellum. I do need to find a better way to adhere vellum. I used Diamond Glaze, but I don't like how, even after it's dried, you can still see the dark marks. The gold border and butterfly are both German scrap papers from ArtChixStudio.

For this ATC, I first painted cardstock with iridescent rich gold acrylic paint (Liquitex), then stamped over it with Colorbox gold pigment. I LOVE this new stamp I got from Hobby Lobby: Tapestry Pattern by Stampabilities. For this ATC, it adds just the right texture to the background. I used my ever-handy Susan Branch ABC letters to stamp the quote, and hand-wrote "Ralph Waldo Emerson." The mini flowers are by making memories.

For my 3rd ATC, I painted a piece of cardstock using Twinkling H2O "mustard green." I marbled a separate piece of cardstock using a shaving cream technique I learned about in Carol Murphy's online "Tempting Techniques" class through Joggles. I added drops of three different red nailpolishes to get the marble look. The stamp is an old one; there's no label indicating what company made it. Lace is from my stash.

That's it for now. I'd better get packing some more boxes, since we only have 9 days til the big move.