Christmas in July III

I knew I forgot something. I have to give credit where credit is due and this guy was of great help.

Little Puffy loves to keep the paper warm and to make the paper cutter work only with the power of his curious gaze.

"What?! Is someone taking pictures?! I wanna be in them, all of them. And from there to the internet, and the whole wold... Are you ready? I'll go business-casual for this one. How are my whiskers?"








Just noticed that my bed spread matches my album theme. This should be great. Come on December!

Christmas in July II

"Time is up, stop what ever you are doing." a well known line for all the cooking/fashion/other competition show out there. It played in my head ever since I started this Christmas in July project. And now that is almost the last day or the last day for other time zones, I felt its power over me. The project was completed a few days ago, but the race is not over without a presentation. Side note: the spine and covers are still under construction but that is only because I needed some very special supplies to finish it.

One of the first pages that presented some sort of decision to be made. To fussy cut or not to fussy cut? The resolution came to me when I was in a terrible hurry to get this page done. One cut, one pocket. Will see how everything else will fit on the page.

Another Cream and Green duo. Should I add some red or dark brown for contrast or just keep it light?

Not short on color and pattern for this page.

Simply JOY. 

Holly and poinsettias are the traditional plants of Christmas (at least in the US). I wonder how that came to be? It will give me a research topic for this page.

More like a picnic cloth than a Christmas pattern. That means no guilt in covering it all up with photos and embellishments.

This I know for sure it will be December 25th page. Quite obvious.







That is all for this project. If you want to see more of it, come back on December 1st for a 25 days of Christmas marathon.

There will be no posts during August, or at least I have not planned anything. Will see where inspiration will take me this summer.

See you soon.

Christmas in July

I have no clue how this whole 'Christmas in July' idea has started. I could research it of course, but the truth about it is not that important. All I wanted was a chance to use a Christmas themed paper pad I got on sale in January of this year. It was a nice sampler of the Handmade holiday from Simple Stories. I got it as a 12 x 12in paper pack of 48 pages. Since there were two of each design, I gave half of it away. It left me 24 papers. About four became cards of different sizes to be used around  my album and one I cut out  for my cover. I also used several 8.5 x 11in craft cardstock and some salvaged cardboard from the box my bread machine came in. The adventure was not without trouble. One glue was too runny, the other glue dried too quickly. The spine was too tight and I had to take it apart. The binding is a little odd and does not allow much room for expansion. But here it is, short of a spine, cover and a few pages.

The theme will be 25 days of Christmas.
A little bit of everyday scrapbooking, advent and journaling. Quite ambitious for my record. But I feel confident, for now...

This will be my December 1st page.

 Since it will also be Romania's National day,

 and the start of the winter festivities it should be easy to put together.

Second day of Christmas, when I will lay out my plan. Then, I try to make it all look pretty.

December 3rd, 

when I hope something interesting will happen. Or not, I can always catch Mitzy and Puffy doing something funny.

I do not quite get the name tag for Santa Claus; I am more of a Baby Jesus Christmas person. The card will be used as a photo mat for sure, but I am more curious who will make it on my nice list.

 Have you noticed how I already lost count of my pages.

The brown and cream polka dot was one of my favorite pages.

I might just have to have some hot cocoa on this day, just to match the card.

What ever day this is, it will be the day my Christmas tree goes up. 

The corrugated cardboard heart accent on the wish list is just too cute. Hope I can find some way to make more hearts like it and decorate the whole page with them.

Will it snow on this day?! I hope so. A photo with a real snow man would bring the decorative elements together.

I tried something different for this background. What do you think? Too busy or just right?

Already made room for a photo on this page. Some journaling in white pen, a few snowflakes and page done.

Made from leftover paper. Surprisingly, looks quite nice.

Pretty and Simple.

Tags made out of the trimmings left from the base pages.I have quite a lot of those. Will make some tags for the other pages.

Too much pattern?!

Patched together from what ever seemed to fit on a page.

I got to have my polka dots.








This is it for today. Seems like a lot but there are more pages to be finish, and the spine of the book, and the cover and...

It looks like I will have a Christmas in August. :( I need a time loan to work on all my ideas. If anyone knows a reliable Time bank...

Albums from friends

Yesterday I finished unpacking all my craft stuff. I did not bring but a small sample of my ever growing paper collection so finding a place for everything was easy. All I need to get from the store is a new paper trimmer and some glue and I will be starting on a new album. So keep an eye on for July posts.

And to justify my title, here they are two cute albums I received as gifts from my dear friends. One will hold photos of my cats Mitzy and Puffy,  and the other is perfect for a short ocean vacation my husband and I will take. Not sure if/when the photos will complete their long and perilous journey from the cell phone to the album, but now I have an extra reason to make it all happen. Thank you again for thinking of me.

Albums for friends

Soon I will start on another journey. The packing is my least favorite part, sorting things that will be left behind, choosing only the necessary items. I get a little sentimental. I am once again reminded that I will never have enough time to put all my ideas on paper, scrapbook paper that is. So to distract my emotional mind, I picked up a few last minute Moon Bean orders. And while the beads are coming together faster than I remember, I decided to pile on some more stuff. One of them was this cute album for a friend. Here are a few photos. The pages are a little more simple. I left some room to decorate since she is also an artist and scrapbook fan.

I was not planning for vintage, but this fairy castle from one of Chateau Lavender paper collection, was a perfect match for a page that needed some interest.

Roses, purple and pink were meant to be on the same page.

Another one of the DCWV papers that was perfect for this project.

Very trendy in today's scrapbook society: the sequence. A little modern look for an otherwise vintage looking book. What is your opinion? Good idea or no?

Three more bottles found a perfect place to be glued down. A few more to go...

I never imagined that purple and that beige weathered looking paper would go together. In art, experiment is the only true way of knowing if something works. So go ahead try on your ideas, start with the ones you have the greatest suspicion that will fail. See what happens.

I am not much of a pink fan, but this paper, this particular shade of pink made me want to cover a whole room in it. Well done DCWV.

More castles, more pink.

Purple and vintage paper, once I figured out it worked well together, I could not stop playing with it.

Another try at using up all my Recollections flowers. The jars are more than half full, after giving half of it away, and using a hand full on projects. I am starting to believe in a scrapbook fairy...

Plain and Sequence...

And the flowers are still growing...

And the last page.

I hope I managed to put into this book all the things my friend likes: a little purple, some pink, vintage and some sparkle.

Take good care of it and put it to good use.

Happy crafting everyone.