December Daily: Title page and Dec 4

Gosh we had a busy day yesterday and when I shut the computer down I realised I hadn’t shared my Dec 4 photos so here they are.

On Friday I was only working a half day so I got home just on 1pm.  Mike was making himself some lunch before he had to get ready for work and the boys were quite happy playing in the family room.

Next thing you know Mike went to get his toasted sandwich and the boys heard him and shot off like the little scavengers they are!  As my Mum would say ‘There’s no Punch without Judy’.  Poor Mike had TWO little hungry faces watching his every move and being the soft touch he is he shared his toasties with them!

After Mike went to work I called around to see Krystal and we headed into town to do a few bits and pieces.  I went and got some photos printed off and Dougal decided to come and investigate.  I told him quite clearly that he was NOT to touch anything and he was actually pretty good… but he just had to get closer to the photo machine when he saw himself on the screen!

Later that afternoon I was in my art studio and the boys were both with me.  After not using this space straight away I’m practically living in it now!!  I was making some pieces for the title page of my album and I had everything laid out on my big table. 

Toby has made himself a space on the floor right beside my table and we’ve brought one of his blankets down to the art studio so that he can be quite comfortable.  Dougal on the other hand wants to be ON the table where he can see everything!

I had my Silhouette Cameo cutting a couple of pieces and Dougal was very intrigued.  He had to be reminded several times to keep his paws away from the inside of the machine in case he got cut!

And now for the title page!

I haven’t made my covers for this album yet… but I knew exactly how I wanted my first page to look!

I used lots of white… lots of embossing… and lots of die cutting… and then I went through the little collection of things that have been accumulating on my table for the past few days and this is what I came up with.

I’m pretty much using white as my main colour with hints of black and red… one of my favourite colour combos! 

The holy leaves, Santa, jolly holiday and countdown tag all came from the Heidi Swapp ephemera pack I found.  The swirly stag and hello December were both cut on the Cameo and the Christmas wishes and small deer were die cut with Tim Holtz dies.

I also found a couple of packs of cork stars which I decided to use… love how it’s all coming together!

So there you have it… another day AND a title page!

We’re going to be putting up our Christmas tree today… yippee!!!

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday xx

A little storage solution

You might remember that I’ve just started using my Tim Holtz Holiday Word Script dies when I was making my Christmas cards.  One problem I quickly encountered is that it’s a bit challenging to find the word you want in the jumble of the dies: 

I did a bit of an internet hunt to see what other people were doing and re-discovered Paula Cheney’s blog.  I really like her style of crafting and she did an entire blog post dedicated to this exact problem.  You can read her original post HERE.

Basically she used magnet sheets designed for covering air vents as storage panels for her dies… but when I went looking for those covers in NZ nobody had them.  Then came the hunt… I tried loads of office supply stores, The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Spotlight…. nothing happening!

In the end I went to AJ’s emporium and they had flexible A4 sized magnet sheets for just $3.20… PERFECT! 

Once I got home I measured up my die pocket and cut the magnet sheet with my guillotine.

I got two full size pocket pieces along with some extra pieces which will come in handy for other die sets I might buy.

The dies stick to them quiet well but are also easy to get off for use… plus they’re easy to keep track of!

I’m so thrilled with how this turned out!  It definitely makes my dies much more user friendly and that’s a good thing!

December Daily: My album so far & Dec 3

Hi again

I’ve definitely worked out the HOW of my December Daily album now!  One thing I have decided is that I’m going to ‘shop my stash’ which basically means I intend to use what I’ve already got in my art studio… and trust me… I’ve got LOADS of unopened stuff so I’m not even feeling slightly deprived about not having ‘new’ things to work with!

I’m using We R Memory Keepers pocket pages which I originally bought for another project .  The size is good to work with (8 1/2 x 11 inches) and I’m quite liking the size of the pockets.

Each page holds:

• TWO - 2 x 4 inch
• TWO - 4 x 3 inch
• TWO - 6 x 4 inch

It gives me plenty of scope to work with.  As promised, here is a photo of my page from December 2nd:

I’ve decided that I want to use lots of ‘white’ this year… not sure why, it’s just what appeals to me at the moment.  I’m also using the 2 x 4 inch pockets for some creativity.  Here’s a close up of what I’ve enclosed in those pockets:

I used some of the left over embossed card from my card making session and then made a Prima Christmas girl just like my cards.  In the second pocket I die cut a reindeer from silver glitter card and added a Tim Holtz ‘tidings token’ around it’s neck.  The black star with the number 2 comes from an unopened pack of Heidi Swapp Christmas ephemera… there’s 94 pieces in the pack so you’ll be seeing more of her die cuts over the next couple of weeks.

And now onto Dec 3!

Yesterday I was at home for the day and I heard a yelp coming from the kitchen.  It wasn’t a Toby yelp and it wasn’t a Dougal yelp… turns out it was a Michael yelp!  I suppose I should be grateful that Dougal lasted two whole days before doing anything naughty but it would seem that Mike wasn’t quite as prepared for Dougal and his antics as I am.

I went to investigate what the commotion was all about and it turned out that Master Dougal thought he would just help himself to Daddy’s chocolates from his advent calendar… oops!

Later on in the morning I found Toby and Michael both ‘heads down & bums up’!  Turns out the Mike was installing some new cable for the telephone in my art studio and he had fed the cable under the house.  Toby could hear him under the house and kept barking above where he was and when he reappeared Toby wouldn’t leave his side. 

When Michael got down on his hands and knees to pull the cable through, Toby went to ‘help’ him!  The photo caption should probably read… Can you see it Toby?  Yes I can see it Dad!  Hey my bone is down there too!

While the boys were all busy, I went and hid out in my art studio.  I love that I’ve finally started using it… and it’s fabulous!  It will be even more fabulous when everything in it is sorted but the main thing is that I’m actually using my lovely new space.  After making one card on Wednesday, I got onto a roll and made another FIVE cards!

I’m super happy with how they turned out and I have plans to make some more using less traditional colours!

Like I said before… I’m going to use stuff I already own in my album so I pulled up some digital paper and a word quote from Ali Edwards that was in my Christmas folder and I made this little filler card:

 

So that’s my photos for December 3rd.

p.s. This is my first blog post uploaded from my art studio… happy days xx 

December Daily: Dec 2

I’ve just had two of the best days ever! I’m loving December 2015!

Dougal came with me yesterday when I went to see Nicola at the chiropractors.  I’ve been having a couple of adjustments just to get everything back into alignment and Dougal said he wanted to come to see what Nicola did. 

I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him!!!  As soon as we got into the therapy room he started to whine about having a ‘twitch’ in his tail… and his back was sore… and his neck was a bit stiff… and on and on!  Nicola was very sympathetic to my wee boy’s complaints though and gave him a full adjustment!

Actually there is another photo from this set which is going into my Project Life album.  The photo is of me having my adjustment and Dougal has got his little mitts on the Activator… under Nicola’s strict supervision of course!

I also spent some time in my art studio… and not just sorting things out!  I finally got busy and made something!  I started off by getting out my Big Shot machine and putting it to work with fabulous results… especially after the disaster I had with these dies using my Cuttlebug.

Since the words turned out so well and I was on a roll I decided to make some Christmas cards.  Loving the results!

Last night I went out with Carey for dinner at Brew.  It’s a great little restaurant with fabulous food and the service is always pretty good.  I had mussels for dinner and they were fantastic!

I’ve pretty much figured out HOW I’m going to put my pages together for my album so hopefully it will all turn out the way I’m planning and I’ll be able to share a finished page with you soon.

Thanks for stopping by xx