Catching up on the journal plus 2008 review.

2008 review journalling reads:

Quite a positive year for us. Kevin finally completed and passed his Masters in Public Administration (MPA) Open University course. He also has successful visits to Nigeria,Thailand and Malaysia. Kitty has really come along with her reading and writing and has continued to enjoy school. In September she moved up into Mrs Bebbington’s year One class. She has started going to Rainbows and passed her level one in swimming. Zoe has had a very eventful year. She won a trophy at Co-Op band for being the most promising newcomer, and has continued to play her clarinet for the Co-Op at numerous concerts including the Crewe Lyceum theatre, Nantwich town square and the Dane Bank theatre. During the summer she started having private Clarinet and music theory lessons with Gwendoline. She has done really well and achieved distinctions in both her Grade One music theory and her clarinet playing exams. The biggest change for her has been moving up to high school. She was fortunate to get a place at her first choice school. There were a lot of leavers parties for her to go to at the end of year six - one of the most memorable being the one at Crewe Vagrants, where they had a talent show. and a very emotional leavers assembly at school. She seems to have settled in well at high school, and has been to Conway with the rest of year seven. I have been very involved with my digital scrapbooking teamwork and have had a few pages published in Scrapbook Inspirations magazine and Digital Artist Magazine (online). I have even been interviewed a couple of times! I got a new car this year to cope with my increased daily driving. I did another photography course in the spring. We also had new windows and fascias on the house this year and now it looks great!

Boxing Day

Christmas Day

Ok so I'm a day late, but Happy Christmas everyone. Here's my journal entry for yesterday...

Nearly Christmas!!!!

Phew, All Caught Up!

Been a hectic few days, DD1 has been playing here and there and I got a bit behind with my journal but I am all caught up now :)

Grateful

Todays journal entry. The photos are some I took during CJ's photography course, naturally the photoshoot fell into mayhem. Journalling reads - It may be chaos, but it's my chaos!

Oooh Inspired!

Finally I got my free heat tool set (from mag subscription). Was doing some blog browsing and re-visited the blog of Dan99 (link is in list of favourite blogger on the right). Totally inspired by his tutorials I had a go at a tag...

Its not at all perfect but its a real start. I see lots of experiments on the horizon :)

Cool effects!

Shimelle's prompt today had some inspiring photography by Beth Retro. So inspiring I had a go myself at creating some lighting effects using CS3. The photo is and old one of DD1 when she was 2 that I scanned.

If you've been here before you might also spot that I made a new blog header with the same techniques!!

Visitors?

Giving

My journal entry for today.

And I have to add... YAY! Alexandra Burke won X Factor wooohoooo :)

More Journal Entries

Deck the Halls

A page about our tree for my Christmas Journal

Wrapping it up

I've used my christmas wrapping paper today to make the small presents.

Tradition

Tradition is such a big part of Christmas, but what makes what we do become a tradition? I suppose you could say that when Christmas just isn’t Christmas without a particular thing then that something must have become a tradition. For me Christmas is not complete without the proper Turkey dinner, which we have at lunchtime so that we can have turkey sandwiches for tea, and we must have crackers to pull, and we have to wear the paper hats from inside. I have to watch ‘A Wonderful Life’ in the run up to Christmas, and of course the tree and the lights outside are a must. And keeping a journal. I guess we make our own traditions, some are unique to us and others are the same as other peoples, but without these things it’s just not ‘our’ Christmas.

More Journalling

Caught up now with my Christmas Journal...

The Countdown...

Page 5 of my journal.
We have a wooden cupboard full of tiny drawers. Each drawer contains a little ornament to hang on the little wooden tree. The girls take it in turns to do this, but both girls get an advent calendar in the post from Nanny Owl, and this year Kev bought me one too. Zoe’s features a cathedral with a market outside, Kitty’shas got lots of ducks on and mine is a night time scene with the stable in the middle.

Winter

Everything from... Cold Winter Days by Gisela B Designs at Scrapbooking-Heaven.de

Dream Christmas

Page 4 of my journal...

Journalling reads:

I dream of a perfect Christmas, filled with fun and laughter, friends and family together and wonderful food. There would of course be snow and singing and music, games and a great film on the telly. Everyone’s presents would be exactly what they always wanted and the day would be totally magical and happy.

Christmas Correspondence

Page 3 of my Journal,

the envelope contains one of this years cards and the journalling reads:

I’ve done it again. I bought cards in the January sales (when I still had some left over from last year) kept them safe in a cupboard all year and then went and bought some new ones. So now I will have some left over, then buy some in the sales and repeat the whole cycle again. I guess the moral of the story is that I like buying cards more than writing them!

Let It Snow

Page 2 of my journal...

Journalling reads:

We have had snow ! Both yesterday and today have seen snow flurries, though it’s soon melted away. I love to watch it fall, and even play in it - but I hate taking the girls to school in it , so my winter weather wish is that Iwould love it to snow for Christmas, but not until the school holidays start !

My Manifesto

Here's my first page for my Christmas Journal...

A link on Shimelle's class forum led me to THIS fantastic site where you can create your own font from your handwriting - and its free. Really useful for journalling as you can size your writing to fit and simply delete any mistakes before you print. It will also be great for digital pages too :)

The journalling reads:

I hereby declare that I will make the time to create a page of memories every day starting on December the first until Twelfth Night.I will try to capture the essence of Christmas in our household through memories of past Christmases, events of this Christmas and hopes of Christmases to come. Some of the events may seem smaller than others but will hopefully remain in our memories with the help of this festive journal- reminding us of our Merry Christmas 2008 !

Journalling my Christmas

My fantastic kit came yesterday from Shimelle's shop, bit of a splurge buy for me (being a digi girl) but wowee, worth every penny. So this morning I decided on my page size (8.5" x 6") and made up my book. The pages are all black to really make the kit's pastel colours pop and I bound it with my Bind It All. And now I've done my cover....

Z is For...

Zoe and Zebra!
More scanner bashing, this time some photos from the Isle of Wight 2002!
Everything from***Balance Is Beautiful***by Dawn Inskip and available here...
NDISB, TTS and Pickleberrypop
Except printer block alpha which is by Kim Hill

Journal Your Christmas 2008

Preparations have begun, stash is ordered and I'm already getting excited about the little daily prompts which will soon start dropping in my inbox. Once more I am all set to embark on Shimelle's Journal your Christmas class.

If you'd like to find out more, or even play along visit Shimelle's site here...

http://www.shimelle.com/classes/389/journal-your-christmas/.

If you'd like to see the album I made last year follow this link...

http://littlescrapsofjen.blogspot.com/search/label/Journal%20Your%20Christmas

Riding Sheep

The girls when we visited the Princess of Wales' Memorial Playground in London during the summer.

I Used... Holiday Solids, Evergreen, Happy, Flair Alpha, Journalicious Vol 2, Yuletide all by Michelle Batton at Mellow Butterfly. Funky Junky Alpha by Kate Hadfield.

L'Artiste

Me...
Mostly Parisian Holiday a collab by the designers at Oscrapswith frame from Cozy Moments by Gisela B. Designs at scrapbooking-heaven.de

Edinburgh Nights

A photo I took a couple of Decembers ago when we had a short trip to Edinburgh. It is of the German Christmas market they have each year and the fair.

I used...Glitz Alpha, Foil Snowflakes, Winter Blues Papers, Journalicious Vol 2, Yuletide, Tag You're It Alpha, all by Michelle Batton at Mellow Butterfly

Little Angel

The scanner bashing continues....

Everything from***Angels are Everywhere***by Gisela B. available at scrapbooking-heaven.de

Mona Lisa?

I took this photo of my friend when we had a night out last year and when I put it on my PC I laughed at how she looked like the Mona Lisa. It's sat on my hard drive until this perfect kit came out...***Parisian Holiday***a collab by the designers at Oscraps

Sleep

Our scanner conked out (so did the heating and hot water - but that's another story) and the new one is really good and so I've scanned a few of Zoe's (pre digi camera) baby photos for scrapping....


Here she is at, I'm guessing, about 8 weeks old...

The kit is Balance is Beautiful by Dawn Inskip (see store links on previous post)

And now (as promised ages ago) a photo of my new car...

And now.....the first festive layout of the season!

This is using Gisela B's brand new kit Angels are Everywhere. It's a massive stunner of a kit, go and buy it, I insist :)
The alpha is Glitz alpha (recoloured) by Michelle Batton at Mellow Butterfly.

School Disco

My fantastic month as a guest on Dawn Inskips CT continues. Here is my first page using her latest kit 'Passion' and new alpha 'Puffed Up'...

And my second...

(butterfly is from Cozy moments by Gisela B. )

Can you believe that these two layouts are of the same girl?

Dawns Designs are available at... NDISB and PBP

Grateful

Gisela B has a great kit out called Grateful, I used it here....



My DD2,Mostly Grateful by Gisela B. at scrapbooking-heaven.de, Alpha from O'ktober collab kit by the designers at Oscraps, Date from Make A Date by Dawn Inskip, available at Treasures to Scrap, Pickleberrypop and NDISB.
TFL xxx

Our Pumpkin

When Kev brought home this pumpkin I thought it was a funny shape but actually it really worked as a carved lantern. Its sat outside on Halloween night and was much admired!

I used 'Boo' and 'Date stamps' by Dawn Inskip, available at Pickleberrypop.

(Worn Photo Overlay 2 by Danielle at Catscrap)

Latest pages

Our building work is now well underway and the new windows are looking great and the fascias are coming along. The builders have struggled through gales, rain and even yesterday some snow!



Here are a few of my more recent layouts...





This page used 'Happy' by Michelle Batton at Mellow Butterfly. She made this kit for me!!! Its will be availabe at Mellow Butterfly very soon.





The neolithic village of Skara Brae lies on the Western coast of Orkney Mainland (an island off the north west tip of Scotland). Inhabited between 3100 BC and 2200 BC there are eight houses linked by a series of low alleyways. I used... Get Grungy and berries from A Taste of Autumn both by Gisela B. Designs at scrapbooking-heaven.de

Using: O'Ktober collab kit from Oscraps, Tag! You're It Alpha by Michelle Batton available Oct 16 at Christina Renee Designs and available at MellowButterfly.com in Nov. and Woodland Critters by Michelle Batton available Oct 9 at Christina Renee Designs and available at MellowButterfly.com in Nov. Also Worn Photo Overlays 2 by Danielle .

Everything from Get Grungy by Gisela B Designs at scrapbooking-heaven.de, except Together Alpha by Kim De Smet at Oscraps

Using Giving Thanks Papers by Michelle Batton available Oct 9 at MellowButterfly.com, September Days by Michelle Baton at Mellow Butterfly, Autumn Leaves by Milla Design, Enchanted Forest by Madame Mim and Milla, Frame Cherished Memories by Gisela B at Scrapbooking-Heaven, Worn Photo Overlay 2 by Danielle, Need Some Water by Jofia Defoe.

October Nights Papers by Michelle Batton available Oct 2 at Christina Renee Designs and available at MellowButterfly.com in Nov. Bird's the Word by Michelle Batton coming soon to MellowButterfly.com, Doing the Polka Alpha by Michelle Batton coming soon to the Authentic Artistry Blog at Christina Renee Designs and available at MellowButterfly.com in Nov. Blue Violet by Michelle Batton, available at MellowButterfly.com, A Taste of Autumn by Gisela B. Frames from Essentials by Natali, Flowersprays by Kim De Smet at Oscraps.

Made with Michelle Batton's portion of the Autumn Harvest Collab (Part 2) available exclusively at FaithSisters.com, plus September Days, Simple Pleasures Sequins both by Michelle Batton at Mellow Butterfly, Notes from Big Easy by Vicki Stegall & Paislee Press at Oscraps, Worn Photo Overlay 2 (Danielle), Word Art fom O'Escape collab (Oscraps), Metal Word tab from Freckles and Giggles by Kim De Smet at Oscraps.