2011 Calendar Roundup

Hello! I hope you and yours had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas! Ours was nice and chill - with lots of baking, cooking, twinkling lights and family time. Jimmy now has all sorts of Thomas the Train things and so we've been playing with that every day :) And enjoying 7 or 8 inches of snow that started Christmas evening.

Spotty blogging lately - enjoying my hubby having a little bit of time off - yay for family time. Tying up loose ends around the house and getting ready to head out of town for New Year's :) I will be sharing the rest of my Christmas Art Journal soon- finishing up the last couple days - excited to share, excited with how it turned out :)

I've been looking around on etsy for 2011 calendars and found a bunch of wonderful picks - from planners, to desktop calendars, to hanging calendars, to print your own! So a roundup of some lovely 2011 calendars.

1. 2011 Weekly Planner by lilyjanestationery
2. Nella Designs Calendar by nelladesigns
3. Letterpress Printed Calendar by paisleytreepress
4. Hanging Wall Calendar Bright and Modern by InkspotWorkshop
5. The Cosmo Cricket Collection - 12 Month Planner by mylavendercottage
6. Pocket Planner by dozi
7. Mini Calendar w/ Easel by kittyrogers
8. Modern Design Calendar - Printable by pinkroses1220
9. Eco Friendly Hanging Wall Calendar by rethinkink
10. Mini Desk Calendar by emileerose
11. Winifred Studios Calendar by winifredStudios

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours today :)

Excited to be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ with loved ones today and throughout the coming week. Excited for a potential white Christmas today or snow tomorrow :)

Enjoy the twinkling lights, family and friends. Stay warm and cozy :)

Original source or artist unknown. Please let me know if source is found or known to give credit. :)

DIY: Free Printable Gift Tags

A fabulous assortment of free printable gift tags and DIY gift tag links. Have you finished wrapping your gifts? :) These tags will make a lovely finishing touch to any gift :)

Blush Printables

Sweet Jessie

Delight.com

Whisker Graphics

Martha Stewart
Orange You Lucky!
Scrapbook & Cards Today

DIY: Random Memories Book

So if you're like me, you probably have a ton of photos sitting on your camera's memory card, stored on your computer, or sitting in photo boxes.

This project is a great way to use some of those photos to create a "Random Memories" album or journal to give to someone for Christmas. A simple project, but super thoughtful, and of course, handmade. This is a great idea if you're having trouble coming up with a gift for someone special in your life - friends, family, etc :)

All you need is a 4"x6" photo album (which you can get pretty much anywhere for super inexpensive - I picked this one up at Wal-Mart a long time ago), your photos, some paper and a pen. You can go as fancy or as simple as you want - including stitching, labels, or you can just draw lines and embellishments!
I made this particular book up as an example of different approaches you can take - it's definitely not a cohesive book or anything. :)

Idea #1: Random-ness: Everyday happenings. All those random pictures sitting around that don't really have a particular category (special trips, holidays, family, etc).

I stitched around this photo and journal spot, but then hand drew lines to write on. Lines could be drawn in place of the stitching if you do not have a sewing machine (be sure to use a photo pen on photos!). I also stuck on a sticker with the date.Idea #2: Holidays spent together. This is perfect for family - especially if you have kids and there are therefore, grandparents. We all know there are always tons of pictures taken of the kids ;)
Idea #3: Trips taken, activities or events. I know I take tons of pictures on trips or special activities. Pull out a few photos from the trip, activity or event and write little blurbs about each one. They don't have to be long and in-depth, just random bits and pieces of memories you recall. It's amazing how one person can remember something that someone else had forgotten.
Idea #4: Different things you like/love about that person. This idea is great if you don't have a whole lot of photos of the person, but you want to tell them different things you like about them. You can use pictures if you have them, or do a combination of the pictures, magazine cutouts, journaling, etc. A good place to start with this type is to write down a list of 10 or so things you like/love about the person, and then make a spread or page for each.
Idea #5: Blank Book Decorated. Make a book with all the pages ready for journaling. Wrap it up, have the person unwrap it at your family's holiday gathering, and then have everyone there write a memory or encouragement about that person.

Idea #6: Scripture/Encouragement Book: Create a book full of Bible Scripture or encouraging words.

Any other ideas of themes for the Random Memories Book? :) Have fun!

Happy Birthday :: Shop Sale

Yay! Today is my birthday. My last year of being a 20-something (know how old I am?! :)). To celebrate, everything in the shop is 15% off when you enter coupon code happybirthday at checkout. Have a fabulous day!

DIY Tuesday :: Fabric Covered Binder

One of my sweet friends asked for a Food Planning Binder from her hubby for Christmas - I gladly said I would make them one :) I didn't know how to go about making the actual "binder" part - I wanted it to be unique, but of course, still functional. I tried taking apart a binder and putting it back together with booktape and gluing fabric and such, but it was a fail. So next I decided to try and just glue the fabric to an actual binder (a used binder in great condition- yay for reusing!), and glue sturdy cardstock paper on the insides. It worked quite well and was a fairly easy project.

Not much is needed to make your own- an old binder that still has functional rings, some glue and cardstock paper.

Supplies:
+ Old binder that needs an update (I used a standard size that holds 8.5"x11" paper)
+ Fabric
+ Spray adhesive (I use 3M Super 77 - once you spray this stuff, it is SUPER permanent)
+ 2 sheets of 12"x12" cardstock that coordinate with your fabric
+ Rotary blade, metal ruler and cutting mat
Optional: Fabric glue and 4 butterfly clilps (to reinforce the corners once you glue the fabric to the binder)

Start by cutting the piece of fabric down so that it is about 1" larger than the binder on all sides.

 Cut the corners off - this will make it easier when gluing.

Now comes the tricky part. Lay the fabric wrong side up on a large piece of paper or newspaper (or fabric) that you don't mind getting spray adhesive all over. I used an old remnant piece of upholstery fabric that I had no use for.

Spray the entire piece of fabric that you are adhering to the binder, taking care to get all the way to the edges (do be careful that your spray is even if you are using a lightweight fabric, as the glue can sometimes permanently make glue spots on the other side).

Carefully lay the binder in the center of the now-covered-in-glue-fabric, putting the spine part down first, and then each side. Pull up the top center and bottom center parts of fabric and carefully tuck them under the binder ring clasp (see picture below). Now work your way inch by inch pulling the fabric down over the edge of the binder.

I left the corners undone while I secured all of the edges-- then wrap the cut part of the corner onto the binder first and finish securing the sides on top of that (see picture below).
I decided to reinforce the corners to make sure they would stay put. I used a couple dabs of fabric glue and then put butterfly clips on to hold it for about 10 minutes.
Next, I cut down the 12"x12" cardstock sheets to approximately 9.5"x11.25" and rounded the corners - this allows for about .25" all the way around where the fabric is - so you can see about .25" of fabric on the inside. Be sure to measure the insides of your binder to make sure you are cutting down to the right size (the right side of the binder ended up needing about .25" more on one side because I glued the fabric a little off). Cover only up to the fold in the binder, otherwise it won't be able to shut properly (see one of the final close up photos below).

Spray with spray adhesive and secure to each of the insides of the binder.

(Paper goes up to fold so it will open and shut properly)

Voila! A *new* and cute binder! :)
I hand-cut divider pages out of 12"x12" cardstock sheets and put blank labels on them for her to label.

DIY Christmas Ornament Round-Up

Happy Monday! :) Well, if you're like me, your Christmas tree is up. But with one string of lights on it and no ornaments. And the other strings of lights are plugged in and sitting on a pile on the floor. On. LOL. My hubby finishes up with his semester today (!!) so we are planning on finishing decorating tonight. Yay!

I've been looking for fun and semi-easy DIY ornament tutorials to make (with all my spare time ;)) or to make with my son. There are SO many fabulous ornament tutorials out there. Yay! Here are a few that I really liked. Do you have any links to other tutorials?! Please leave a comment below!

1. Fabric Ball Ornaments (they look like artichokes!) from Knitty Gritty Thoughts
2. Cookie Cutter Ornaments from Martha Stewart
3. Make Your Own Adornament from Bower Power - a bunch of ideas to use plain Christmas ball ornaments, and a cute post - I laughed out loud :)
4. Pine Sprig Ornament from Better Homes and Gardens
5. DIY Modern Paper Ornament from How About Orange
6. Mod Ornaments from Your Heart Out
7. Petal Bow and Figure 8 Ornament from Martha Stewart
8. Book Pages Ornaments from Everyday Chaos
9. Holiday Card Keepsake Ornament via ScoutieGirl
10. Toilet Paper Roll Wreath Ornaments from Michele Made Me
11. Frozen Juice Box Gift Container Ornament from Michele Made Me
12. Upgrade a Plain Glass Ornament Ideas from Country Living

Christmas Art Journal :: Days 1-9

Days 1-9 of my Christmas Art Journal (December Daily). I'm really liking how it's coming together, loving the new approach, but still have some frustrations here and there (which I think can be a good thing... part of growing creatively!).

So this year I decided to take a different approach to how the journal as a whole would be. Last year, I had the entire album completed and blank, and just needed to write in it each day, print some photos and stick those in along with mementos gathered. While I really enjoy that kind of keeping a journal, I wanted this year's to be more fluid, more intentional, to include digital elements, and to basically just be different.

For me, this meant not necessarily having the whole album put together and ready to go, but more of putting each day together.... each day. I like being able to create a new layout each day. It also allows for my layouts to be flexible- some days take up 3 pages, some only 1. But it's also frustrating when I'm super tired and would rather just plunk something in the journal and call it a day. I think it's good though for myself personally - it makes me think about the day, makes my creative muscles flex. Although I do sometimes leave the day until the next morning or afternoon when I am more functional :). And I jot down ideas here and there for upcoming days.

So will I do it this way again next year? Probably. I will probably take more time to put together a base album like Ali Edwards and go from there.

Intro Page: I have a ton of paper hole punches from punching journals this year. I saved them to somehow incorporate them into the journal. Two pieces of transparency and some red thread later, I'm super excited about the confetti intro page. The punches move freely inside the transparencies, so the page is always changing.

I laid it over top of a cream sheet of cardstock to be able to see all of the punches.

I love Ali Edwards' idea of leaving a blank page at the front. At the end of the month I will go back and add photos in (all on the computer) and print out a nice photo page capturing different details of the month (So basically this page is a place holder). The back will likely have our family Christmas picture blown up to take up the entire page.

Day 1: I enjoyed using the computer for the journaling and then adding in different papers and the #1 paper round. I had a vintage dictionary page with the word "jolly" on it, so punched that - I thought it was fitting for the season :)

Days 1 and 2 didn't really have much going on, so I recapped us decorating a gingerbread house after Thanksgiving - the beginning of decorating. I also included a page about my shop sales and custom order sales since this season has been a big milestone for my shop.

Day 2: I did manage to capture this fun picture of us playing with Jimmy's train sets (one of our fave activities).
Day 3: This is the day we got our Christmas tree and I wanted to create 3 pages for it - 2 with pictures and 1 with journaling. I'm super happy with how these all worked together and worked well going next to Day 2's picture.


Day 4: All digital this day- with a few embellishments added for the day number. Love how this spread turned out.

Day 5: I journaled digitally about the day's happenings and then included some handwritten journaling talking about our friends from church and how much they mean to us. Just realized I need to add a number "5" for the day ;)

Day 6: Also love how this spread turned out.

Day 7: I tried to print the "Date Night" page on transparency and then on vellum. Fail. I would have liked to have had it overlay the other pictures and journaling, but I'm content with how it ended up turning out!


Day 8: I found an ad in one of my magazines (for a resort, lol) that I knew would go perfectly with making cookies.

I reused some packaging for one of pages (the green and white polka dot under the vellum).

Day 9: No pictures this day. I journaled instead about where we are right now in the month - it will be neat to look back about what was going on these first several days of December. I definitely plan to add more full sheet journaling spaces like this about happenings throughout the rest of the month. I printed the journaling out and adhered it to vintage school paper - which matched some of the text on the journaled page. I had been struggling with not using any found paper really yet, and since that is one of my big passions, knew it needed to make it's way into the journal.

So there you have it. Days 1-9. Any thoughts? Ideas? How yours is going? I can't wait to see how the rest of the album shapes up and will definitely be sharing more here and there of the progress.

Have a fabulous weekend! :)