The end of 2020 and a very different christmas

Usually about this time I’d be stressing about decorations, food, drinks and everything else which goes with this festive time of year. I’m a total Christmas control freak, everything has to be perfect. Turkey dinner is sacred. Even when we lived in the Middle East, I insisted we sourced a turkey, had stuffing and bread sauce sent from England and the year we were invited to have BBQ lobster on the beach, I made us go home afterwards to eat the obligatory turkey!

This Christmas will obviously be a very different one all round. Having a large family used to gathering together for sunday lunches, the rule of two visitors only is proving challenging. We’ve had to work out who is available when, so we can see each other over the holiday period. It’s all put a bit of a different spin on the festivities. I’m thinking we’ll break with tradition on Christmas day and all eat vegetarian. I seem to be the only one these days eating meat anyway so what the heck! I’m not sure yet what it’ll be but it won’t be a nut roast and it may involve a lobster!

With Christmas in sight that means a shiny new year is dawning and finally we get to draw a line under this dreadful year. In anticipation of this awaited event, I’ve started preparing my planner for the January hand over by creating the first dashboard. After a few months ago switching back to my ringed planner but using bullet journal pages, I’m sticking with this hybrid formula excited to start a brand new year in it.

I hope everyone has a good Christmas and a stress free journey into 2021.

Jaine xxxx

Christmas in a Tin

Hello again, here’s another post from me. This time a very cute (can I say that about my own project?) little Christmas project using some fabulous metal embellishments from Mitform Castings.

Mitform were generous enough to send the Craft Stamper office some of their castings to try out and we had a brilliant time creating with them. My little sardine tin scene is a project I’ve had in my head for ages now, ever since I brought the tin back from a holiday in Portugal. As soon as I recieved the castings I knew this would be the opportunity I was waiting for to create my diarama. With everything given a little wipe of gesso and texture paste snow, I sprinkled on some WOW! glitter to give it some sparkle.

The street is actually created from my own house stamps which I shrunk down using shrink plastic! I was absolutely amazed at how well they fitted in the tin. The tree or pine cone was found and the little car comes from a Monopoly set (an old one from the recycling centre). It all sticks so well using E6000 glue. That stuff is good!

As Mitform were so generous, we’ve decided to have a giveaway on the Craft Stamper Facebook page which you can find here. Or the blog post is on the Craft Stamper blog here. You can find my house stamps here.

Have a lovely day,

Jaine xx

Christmas Journal And Mini Albums

I’m still keeping up with my December daily journal although I might not exactly be to the day. It’s that busy time of the year don’t you know (smiley face).

I did wonder how using a junk journal with some very thin pages would work out but so far it’s not been too much of a problem if at all.

If anything shows through from the other side I’ve just covered it up with a picture or paper.

I’ve been working flat out to make mini books and albums for an artists Christmas event coming up in a weeks time. I’ll be showing and selling various different types of mini album including these accordion books. They’re just the right size for a few photos and messages for a last minute gift idea. I’m hoping they’ll go down well on the stand.

Looking at them here maybe I need to make a few not pink ones, I think my girly side took over.

Have a good weekend and if you have snow, stay safe and warm.

Jaine x

Friday In The Studio – December Daily

This is where I was a couple of weeks or so ago, all happy happy and totally prepared to fill my December Daily with lots of mixed media goodness and Christmas cheer but after filling only the first 3 pages I left it and pushed it to one side.

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The reason was hard for me to admit to but I simply didn’t like it. I really didn’t like anything about it. After all that work and all that expectation that my tea dyed pages would look aged and wonderful, in fact they left me feeling disappointed and let down. The pages were too stiff being water colour paper, the look I was going for wasn’t an antique one but bright white and clean like the robin paper on the left. I just pushed it to one side and left it not knowing whether to go on with it or not. Several times I opened my travelers notebook and wondered whether I should carry on in that instead.  The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea sooooooo…..

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last weekend I started to deconstruct my original DD and use the photos and some of the stickers I could rescue and start from scratch in my TN.

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Now I feel so much better. I love how the pages which have been painted on go all crinkly once they’re dry and I love the size and format of the whole thing.

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I’m now up to date with it and much more content.

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Have a good weekend everyone.

Jaine x