Happy Monday to you!
Louise is here today to show us some ideas to speed up our festive crafting!
Last
week Lisa-Jane shared her process for telling her Christmas
story in this post and this post! . She explained that gathering together and organising your
scrapbook supplies helps with the whole Christmas Journal process. I really do second this and for several Christmas seasons this is exactly what I have done.
This
year finds me restricted with my mobility. This limits the activities I
might otherwise have been involved in over December which means unlike other years I'm
unlikely to have a daily photo. It has also meant that I've not been
able to pull together all of my Christmas supplies.
It is still important to me that I record my Christmas however I didn't want the
structure of a daily photo or entry so I started to think along the
lines of a little book to hold some photos and record some stories in
December, along with the big day itself.
Once I'd
decided on the format for my little Christmas book - I found it a quick
and easy project to undertake. This is an ideal
project for a busy time of year, when lets face it most of
us feel there aren't enough hours in the day.
Today
I'd like to share with you five quick and easy steps to construct a
little book for recording your family photos and stories during the
month of December.
There's also another five optional steps with ideas to
help you add to your little book if you find you have more time
available to craft than you thought, or if you find that you have more
photos and stories you would like to include. Or you could add to it in January.
1.
Restricting your supplies for a project can be more productive. If you
are like me then you can spend hours looking for the right papers and
embellishments. To narrow down your supplies use a Christmas collection
Kit. I chose the gorgeous Echo Park's 'Tis The Season Kit perfect
for this project. Within the collection kits you have your co-ordinated
double sided patterned papers, including journaling cards, a sheet of
alpha's and a sheet of festive stickers.
2. Pick out just one or two tools that you will use for the book.In addition to this Christmas collection kit I chose one punch (yes just one!) to use throughout the book.
3. Next, you will need to cut your papers to make the pages of the book.
I knew I wanted a smallish book so I selected some
patterned paper from the collection kit for the pages and cut them to 6 x 7 inches. I liked the squarish look of the album and decided to
shape only the top cover into a tag shape. Of course, you can cut your pages to whatever size and shape you like.
I put a hole through the top of each page to hold them all together with a book ring.
4. Once you've got your pages and a front cover, you can use a few stickers to embellish. Try to limit yourself to using only the sticker sheets in the collection
kit or if you're not using a kit choose just one or two sheets. This will make the whole embellishing process quicker and easier. I used stickers to decorate the front cover of my little book....(with a
little help from the Teresa Collins Santa list sticker sheet, which in my defence just happened to be close to hand at the time!).
5. To complete the book you can add a page pocket to the back page of the book for somewhere to keep all of my Christmas memorabilia.
And that's all there is to it!
A little Christmas book all ready to be embellished and journalled in!
Optional Extras
Not
only does a project of this type fit nicely around your hectic December
schedule, it is also a superb project to add as many or as little
pages as you like, when you like. Next Christmas....even!!
6.
If you find that you have an hour to spare here and there, then you can
add inserts or overlays. For example while I was waiting for the next few
photos and stories to include in my Christmas book, I cross-stitched
(freehand) this
cute reindeer head from this pattern on Pinterest.
I framed the reindeer and now it sits on top of the front cover.
7.
Inserts can be in any form. Acetate pockets filled with confetti,
decorative tags, envelopes for that special journaling. If you have the
time and inclination these inserts can add interest and decoration to
your book. This time I chose to
include a glassine envelope to hold my
children's Christmas wish lists.
8.
At this busy time of year when we are trying to find the perfect
present, inspiration can be lacking. This is the best time to consider a
scraplift. I did it! I scraplifted a Christmas card (thank you Kandis Smith). It's a little inserted page that adds decoration to my book. Later on it will hold a photo and journaling.
9.
Another quick and easy way I like to add interest to a project, is to
add stitching. Hand stitching can be time consuming....so I dusted
off my sewing machine. I do love how decorative stitching can
transform a page.
10.
Finally, no Christmas project is complete without bling. A pack of gems or enamel dots is a quick and easy way to bling up your little book.
I
hope that this project has inspired you to put together a small book to
record your Christmas.
Please leave us a comment and let us know if it
has!
I will be sharing the finished book on my blog after Christmas when I've recorded and included photos from Christmas day.
Happy Christmas Scrapping
