WOYWW #499: Advent Journal (Part 3)

I'm a bit late joining WOYWW today as I slept in - after all it's Boxing Day! I walked up the field behind our house with coffee in hand first thing this morning - it was one of those perfect moments when everything is right with the world! (There's a page in my advent journal inspired by those perfect moments, coming up further down.)

I couldn't quite finish my advent journal by Christmas Day - but I'm not far off. It's fine - it's not a race against time - I'll finish it when I get there. The photo of my desk was taken yesterday - have you spotted my Christmas present? It's a Sidekick! I figured I use so many tiny dies, it would be good to have a die-cutting machine sitting on my desk so I don't have to keep getting up. Plus, it's good to have a back-up if something happens to my Big Shot.

Here's a close-up of the background I was working on, after I distressed it with some gesso. I'm thinking of making a journal full of these weathered backgrounds as I enjoy them so much!

I managed to complete 5 spreads in my advent journal last week (December 15-December 19) - 5 more to go! My pages are loosely based on Kasia's Advent Calendar prompts - sometimes I had to bend them a little to fit my style of journalling. The main thing is that this project got me back into creating, for which I'm very thankful!

Kindness/Forgiveness

Your chosen colours

Christmas in your home

Priceless presents

Being grateful

I got this tiny deck of cards in my Christmas Cracker yesterday - it will be perfect for my projects!

Hope everyone's having a wonderful Christmas. Here are a few snapshots of ours.

Playmobil Advent Calendar (you're never too old for these!)

Oreo sitting on his Christmas present - a toy fish filled with catnip - he goes crazy for it!

Happy Boxing Day!

WOYWW #498: Advent Journal (Part 2)

I've been very busy working on my Advent Journal inspired by Kasia's Advent Calendar prompts. I managed to finish week two plus another page, so I'm only 3-4 days behind. I'm quite confident now that I will be able to finish it by Christmas Day - and if I'm a few days late, it doesn't matter. It's not a race against time - it's just meant to get us creating during the run-up to Christmas.

This was my desk on Monday morning, working on day 14. I did most of the other pages during the weekend, when I had more time.

I just have to show you a close-up of this background as I really loved it and had a hard time covering it up! 

Here are the pages from December 08 through December 14, loosely based on the prompts:

Found Words/Poetry (I do this all the time, anyway!)

Free writing (it is illegible but made sense while I was writing it!)

Make it simple (I simplified by adding a previous project - the tea bag!)

RAK (I used bits that Annie C sent me - I love this page!)

Senses (this page was inspired by the sense of touch)

Collage (instead of magazine images, I used postage stamps)

Mindful Doodling (not my forte - I just doodled on some die-cuts)

And here's a shot of my journal over half-way full now. I plan to add a few more bits to the cover later.

So that's it - week two of my advent journal. We're hurtling towards Christmas now! How did that happen? It was summer just the other day!

Some of you have asked about Oreo - he's fine - I just haven't been able to take good photos of him. I caught him in my craft room the other day surveying the mess on the floor. Yep, that's my cutting station! Almost as messy as my desk.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. I hope to be back for #499!

WOYWW #497: Advent Journal (Part 1)

I woke up at 3:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I finally got up at 5:30. At least I have some extra time to work on my WOYWW post for today! Not long to go till #500 - don't want to miss that!

I've been working on my Advent Journal inspired by Kasia's Advent Calendar prompts. I managed to finish week one and started week two. I'm working in a small notebook that I first introduced in this post two years ago. It was perfect for this project having the exact number of pages needed for an advent journal. Serendipity at its best!

I don't always have time for daily journalling, but I managed to catch up on Monday and hope to finish the journal in time for Christmas. This was just what I needed to get back in the game after a dry-spell and I'm really motivated to complete this project.

Here are my first seven pages. I've written the prompts in the captions. The page shown on my desk is for December 8, which hasn't been completed yet. I plan to play catch-up at the weekend and then I'll be up-to-date! Once I'm in the "zone", these pages come together very quickly.

Self portrait

Rituals

Something I know

Magazine collage

Go for a walk

Be amazed, tell about it

Favourite recipe

I've been the lucky recipient of one of Shaz Silverwolf's perfectly crafted Christmas cards, which narrowly missed out on being featured in my WOYWW post last week. I'm so humbled to even be on your Christmas list, Shaz, thank you so much! I hope these photos give it justice - I love those tiny little red gemstones!

302 words - not too bad - I managed to keep it short and sweet today. Happy #497! 

WOYWW #496: Book of Dreams (Part 2)

Well, I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. I've been too busy with work and life but I did make a special effort over the weekend to finish off my Book of Dreams. I woke myself up two hours earlier today, just so I can write this post for WOYWW before I set off to work.

So, here is Part Two - I shared Part One previously HERE. I took my desk shot on Monday morning - it shows the aftermath of my session as I forgot to take a photo during the proceedings.

I started out by trying to remember how I did the background on the other side of my recycled packaging so they would match. It's a combination of acrylic ink and some brayered on gesso for a distressed look: 

Then I realised that the flaps were in the wrong place and the design on the flip side would be upside down, so I ruthlessly cut them off and re-attached them with some washi tape the right way around, like so:

Here's the decorated layout:

some closeups:

and the finished journal, simply tied up with some waxed thread:

And for a bonus desk shot (since I missed 3 weeks in a row!) here's a preview of what I'm working on right now:

It's Kasia's free Advent Calendar course, which started on Saturday. It's daily inspiration and prompts during the run up to Christmas -  just what I needed to get back in the game! I'll share more about this project later. 

We're very much in the Christmas spirit now. We've had the tree up for weeks and bought this cute little Santa too. I half expect him to waddle across the room and who knows what he's up to when we're not looking!

I hope to be a better WOYWW-er and take part more frequently. Hopefully, I'll have more time over the holidays. I may not be able to visit until the weekend, but I promise to get around to everyone who leaves a comment! Happy WOYWW!