Day 7 - The Blood-letting

I decided that for yesterday, I was going to colour a stamp I recently bought (a further deviation from my rule about NOT BUYING ANY NEW SUPPLIES). Yes, I carefully coloured it with copics, added dimensional snow and glitter, dusted it with chalk, and edged it with ink - it looked great. But, it had to dry overnight, so I finished it this morning.

Thinking it looked kind of plain, I dug out my Quickutz to punch out some letters to make a title. All was going well, until I somehow cut myself on the die! After washing the cut and dressing it, I returned to my mess, I mean desk! to finish the page. I then realized I had BLED ON THE PICTURE I HAD SO CAREFULLY CREATED!

I won't tell you what I said, because it wasn't very nice. I had to think fast about how I was going to hide the blood, which was a good sized splat. Unfortunately, I don't always think fast, so this ended up taking some time. And that is why there is a label above the reindeer's head. If anyone needs my DNA, there is a sample in this book.

Until the next time....

Day Six - Remembering my Dad

A little departure from Christmas, today's page is dedicated to my father, Ken, who passed away in 1979. He has been gone for many years now, but I still think of him often, and wish he could have known my husband and family. December 6th would have been his 91st birthday.

Paper choice today was Basic Grey, and Graphic45.

Until next time....

Day Five - Santa's Little Helpers

I was trying to get a bit of wrapping done... 2 little helpers arrived, and the present presentation took a lot longer than it should have!

Let me help you untie that ribbon!

Assisting in paper selection. I like the ones with the claw marks.





Present? What present?





Exercising the bows. Doesn't that adhesive taste great?

The tags on the page are removable, and I could journal on the backs of them. I haven't, but I could. If I wanted to. If I had time!!! The tags were cut with my Silhouette, coloured with Copics and inked with Distress Inks. The paper is Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses.

The last couple of pages I have had to remove my little reindeers and their numbers, further making me realize that I made MORE WORK FOR MYSELF by trying to save time. What I should have done is just prepared them, and then glued them on day by day.

Until tomorrow...

Day Four - Lights, Camera, Action!

We were very clever this year, and put up our Christmas lights on a dry day in November, avoiding the damp and chill and numb hands that come with a December house lighting session. And on December 1, the Christmas lights were turned on, and it all looked great. Until yesterday. Suddenly, one string decided to go out (and I don't mean on the town, either).

Now I'm all for new technology and saving enery, but I must tell you I don't really care for these new LED Christmas lights. They're not as bright, and the indoor ones make my eyes feel funny if I look at them for too long. And, if the lights don't work - well, you just throw the whole thing away and buy a new one, because you can't change the bulbs! (Somehow that seems wasteful to me..... aren't they supposed to be enery saving?)

So yesterday I went out and BOUGHT A NEW STRING OF LIGHTS, and here is my dear husband taking down the old strand and putting up the new.

This is a pretty simple page, but I must admit this paper was NOT IN MY STASH, I got it a couple of days ago on a little shopping expedition. Couldn't resist, and I'm glad I didn't. The foliage part is fussy cut, embelished with gel pens and stickles, and layered over top of the background and photo. I was very brave and actually journaled on the background.... I practiced this a couple of times before I did the real thing! I was also contemplating a title, maybe something like " Rigging up the lights" but the jury's still out on that one too.

Until tomorrow.....

Day Three - Knit Wit (or, Evidence of Procrastination)

While I was sorting through paper, etc, I came across these fingerless gloves that I started making for my daughter Emily for Christmas - last year. Ah yes, another project started with GOOD INTENTIONS that may never get finished.

I must tell you, it's not completely my fault. First, there was limited time to work on it, because it seemed Emily was always around when I thought of knitting. Then I got almost to the thumb gusset (more about that later) when I realized the pattern had an error in it, and so had to begin again. I restarted a second time when I thought I could mix a visit with a friend of mine and follow a complicated (for me, anyway) pattern. Not. Restart. And then, I got to the thumb gusset, confusion set in, and I haven't knitted a stitch since.

I should have known when I saw that this pattern involved using 4 needles. Imagine that, 4 needles for 2 hands! Impossible!

But I am very proud to tell you that although I needed black brads, I DIDN'T GO OUT AND BUY THEM. I used silver ones and painted them. (Did I tell you they take a very long time to dry?)

Until the next time....

Day Two

Day Two is all about my Christmas Village. I am happy to report no extra supplies were bought to create this page, and I managed to do it in one day!

In my CLOSET OF NO RETURN, I have a box labelled Dec. 1. It contains the deocorations I put up early in the month - the advent calendar(s), Christmas card holder, and my Christmas village that I always put on the fireplace mantle.

Until this year. This year Gracie, one of our very naughty cats has taken to jumping onto the fireplace mantle. I can just envision her doing this when my village is assembled, and my little houses and trees falling onto the fireplace below, bursting into flames and causing unimaginable disaster.

So I have moved to Plan B, which is assemble the village on a small table in the den. This was not without it's problems either. I caught Gracie chewing on a tree, and William (her accomplice) with his paws under the tablecloth, searching for I don't know what. Hopefully my village survives the season!

Last night I finally figured out how to print pictures with my printer! However, I'm not really happy with the colour saturation or clarity, so I probably am going to have them professionally done, unless I discover a MAGIC BUTTON that says "Press here for really great photo printing".

Until we meet again...

Day One

Day One - the Advent Calendar!

I know, how could this page have taken me so long to make? (See previous post). Well, there was a fair amount of agonzing over font choice, and flower placement, not to mention ink decisions and should I or should I not use ribbon (the jury's still out on whether or not I should have a bow attached to the ribbon somewhere!).

Until tomorrow....