Final card and completed book

As my book was looking so full this year I only added a 4x6" card to complete it along with added embellishments.

The journal itself is now done, with a mix of page sizes

and looking very, very fat! I only have a few 12x12 Christmas pages to do now, mainly for my Christmas day photos, then my festive stash can go away until next October.

Roll on JYC 2016; my ninth journal!

Tidying Away

We always leave it until 12th night to take down our main Christmas tree, buying a real tree I just feel I want to leave it up as long as possible! This year, I found lots of chocolates left on the tree which would never have been the case when the children were small.

I took a quick photo of them (before we shared them out!) and based my page on this story...did the children just not want to eat as many, or was I better at hiding them this year?

A Holly Banner

I bought a holly banner to craft from John Lewis in the sales between Christmas and New Year, knowing how busy December is, I decided to make up the set and stitch them ready for next year before going back to school.

It was nice to sit and make, sitting on the sofa watching the television, I don't get the time to do much sewing during term time, and it is so relaxing.  The banner looked great hung over the framed maps we have in our study, I think that's where I will put them next year.

Gingerbread Competition.

My girl is really growing up.  She has a graduate job, lives in a rented house without having to share with people she doesn't know and this Christmas her boyfriend spent the festive season with us.  Now, the girls normally decorate a gingerbread house every year, but as we would have 2 girls and two boys in the house, they decided to have a gingerbread house 'decorate off''!

I couldn't decide which house was best, the girls was more decorative, whereas the boys was more structural.  Loved them both.

Sale Shopping

My daughters love to go out shopping with me, and we took advantage of the sales at the end of the Christmas holidays.

We visited a new outlet centre near the NEC; being new it was not too busy and had an amazing tree made up of glitter balls and silver baubles...you can see my reflection  in them!

Hello 2016

As this page was the reverse of the fused New Year's  Eve page, it didn't leave much room for photos. The day itself was quiet as we spent it at my friends helping her tidy the house and chatting over coffee.

So I made a no photo, no journalling page to welcome the New Year.  I'm  not  one for resolutions so it got my January first page done. The lights are from the Shimelle's Christmas Magic die cut set, and the hello stamp is a freebie with the January DoCrafts magazine.  I can see it being very useful!

New Years Eve

Another fused page, this time a long vertical panel filled with circular punched shapes and sequins, I
thought the sparkle would match both the glamour of the evening, and the fireworks.  I love the way you can see the January pages through it!

We went up to Nottingham and spent the night at my friends beautiful Victorian house to celebrate the  New Year in style. A great evening.

A Mug Collection.

I have enjoyed using a collection of festive mugs this year, which seems to be growing day by day.

I wanted to record them before any got broken, sadly since I took the photo one has been chipped already. :( I'll just have to replace it in the sales!

A review of 2015.

I always enjoy this page in my journal, looking back over the previous year.

Printing the photos as squares and adding the month before printing using Phototshop makes for easier journalling.  I tried out one of my new brushscript pens to add the months to the journalling block.

A trip north

My husband's family (on his mum's side) are from Bradford; indeed Kevin was born there, and this year a family reunion was arranged on the 28th of December for this branch of the family.  As my MIL is one of 11 children, a large room was hired for the day, and we all had to wear name badges to help us work out who was who!

I did take a lot of photos, so a double layout was called for to squeeze them all in.

27th December.

Still keeping up with the journal, but it is very fat!

On the 27th I recorded how thankful I am for my favourite gifts this year.  Once my journal is done, I can't wait to really get going with more brushscript lettering.

Boxing Day

A couple of larger photos on this page, of our local family get together in the Jaguar club.

The stickers are Doodlebug and Shimelle's Christmas Magic.
Back to work today, seems sooo early this year and Katie has gone back to Uni.  Good job the term is short.

Happy New Year

Here we go again, another new year and the end of the Christmas holidays in sight (boo-hoo)
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My page for Christmas day, a week ago, also includes a pocket page made with my Fuse tool to allow for the inclusion of a photo of my sister's house which is where we spent the day.

The journalling is all about how busy the day was with 15 sitting down to dinner.

Christmas Eve

We had very silly pyjamas to open on the 24th and I had even sillier curly toed slippers to match my elf nightie.

Again, lots of photos, so I added an extra on to the centre of a 6x6" page protector using a Christmas present (a Fuse) to help.

Making the square in the centre of the page allowed me to add beads and sequins around the photo, and to see through to the Christmas day page. I had to embellish two photos and add embellishments to both before gluing them back to back and sealing them in the pocket I made.

Christmas Eve Eve

The 23rd is my brother's birthday, and we went out for a festive curry as usual, but I didn't choose to include this in my journal this year.  Instead, as Kev finished decorating the Christmas cake on the 23rd, it was this that features as I got a lovely photo of it in front of the tree.

The chevron paper is bold, so I followed an idea from Shimelle, and that was to add vellum over the top to mute it slightly.

Generations of Sisters

The ladies of my family go out every year just before Christmas, this year was no exception.  When I got home and printed the photos I noticed I had lots of photos of pairs of sisters across three generations, so my page for the 22nd (when we went out) records this memory.

A bit tricky to fit all four photos and the journalling on the page, but I couldn't risk adding another small page as my journal is getting really fat, and it isn't even Christmas yet!

A snapshot of the day.

On the 21st I was still getting ready for Christmas.  I had been given some pieces of fabric by my sister in law back in November, and because work was so buy I only had time to do anything with them once the school holiday started.

I made good use of my sewing machine an played with the range of stitches across the pennants to make the Christmas bunting, and sewed the jingle bells on by hand. The page shows the bunting just before I put it up, and in situ after my day sewing.

So much to do

This page is about listing what I still had to do before the big day! As I schedule this post before Christmas, only time will tell if everything was done in time. My list seemed huge despite the fact that we were at my sister's this year for Christmas dinner.

We had 15 for Boxing day, and my daughter and her boyfriend and my in laws are also staying for a few nights.  I am looking forward to the house being full.

Carols at the Cathedral

A very merry Christmas to all my readers.  I won't be scrapbooking for a few days (too busy enjoying myself!) but have a few pages in reserve to keep my blog up to date.
We were lucky enough to get tickets for the local BBC radio recording of a carol service at Coventry Cathedral on the 19th.  Although we had to queue to get in, it was well worth the wait.  The cathedral choristers were wonderful, as were the Jaguar land Rover brass band.
I added a copy of the front of the cover to a 6x4 card along with a photo of Kev and me waiting outside, and a picture I found online of the exterior of both old and new cathedrals in the winter.

It was a great opening to our Christmas holiday.

Father Christmas

Hannah and I found a knitted Santa at the NEC earlier this year, when we went along for our annual visit to the Christmas craft show.

Getting her to have a chat in his ear was something I just couldn't resist.. it made for such  funny photo!
The page has an extra 6x4 card facing it, I loved the die cut of Santa coming down the chimney from Shimelle's Christmas Magic range.