Your Advent Calendar 🎄 Day 19

Hello my lovely friends 💕

It’s later than I thought 🙃 So let’s open this door real quick, and let’s see what’s waiting for you today 😊

A cute little Christmas craft 😍

Little Pinecone folk 🧙🏻‍♂️

Aren’t they adorable? For a link to the instructions (and more cute Pinecone crafts) click Here and have fun!

I wish you a wonderful, fabulous, sparkly Holiday season 💕🎄🎅🏼

Advertisement

Your Advent Calendar 🎄 Day 17

Hello my lovely friends 💕

It’s just another week of Advent Calendar fun. That went fast, didn’t it? 🤗 Let’s make the most of the suspenseful daily Door-opening nail biter 😉

Does this say ‘mystery awaits’, or what? 😁

And what did we find? Another awesome DIY idea from the category ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ 😃

Wilted, dried up chrysanthemums…we all have them, right? So…..

Ha…told ya! Snow spray and Christmas ornaments – a beautiful Holiday decoration created! 😍

I wish you a wonderful, fabulous, sparkly Holiday season 💕🎅🏼🎄

Your Advent Calendar 🎄 Day 12

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Quick, open Door #12, I’m excited to tell you more about the surprise you’ll find there 🤩

Here they are…Scandinavian Christmas Gnomes 😍

I made a few of the little fellas, and am completely in love with these cute guys. 😊

Here’s one before the beard 😁

I found the pattern here . There you’ll not only find the easy-to-follow pattern, Lizz also talks about the history of these mischievous little gnomes. 🤓

If you like a smaller version of these cuties, check out Lizz’s blog . Today she walks us through an easy pattern for gnome ornaments. 😍

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 😊

I wish you a wonderful, fabulous, sparkly Holiday season 💕

Your Advent Calendar 🎄 Day 5

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Today we’re looking at Door #5 🎅🏼 And what a pretty one it is! Take a minute to admire it…I’ll wait 😊

Ready? Okay – let’s look what’s behind this beauty

🎄🎄🎄Christmas Trees! 😃 🎄🎄

The instructions for this mini tree (and more) can be found here

~~~Or for a bigger, gorgeously rustic look… 😍

~~~When you don’t have a lot of space for the tree 🤩

~~~From a very inventive mind 🤪😅

I do hope you like these ideas, and maybe saw your next tree here 😊💕🎄

Have a wonderful, fabulous, sparkly Holiday season 🤶🏻

Your Advent Calendar 🎄 Day 4

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Isn’t this door beautifully inviting? 😍 Let’s open it, and see what surprise is waiting for you today…

3…2…1

A beautiful craft idea 😃

What a fantastic and easy way to make your home feel Christmas-y 😁

This one is already on my to-do list!

Have a wonderful, fabulous, sparkly Holiday season! 💕🎄🎅🏼

Your Advent Calendar 🎄 Day 3

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Oh my, where did the day go? 😳 I was so busy getting ready for the Leavenworth Christmas Market (happening this Saturday), that I almost forgot to open door #3 for ya 🙈

So, without further ado…let’s take a peek

What did we find?

A lovely idea for your home – ‘Floating Ornaments’

I made this yesterday 😊

For more ideas and (basic) instructions – click here

Have fun making your very own…as you can see the possibilities are endless 😊

Have a wonderful, fabulous, sparkly Holiday season! 💕

Your Junk Journal ~ 4 Ways to Make Pockets 🤩

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Pockets are just as important in your junk journal as they are in a dress 😉

There are four easy ways to create these little hideaways for memories, bits and pieces of a fun day out, ephemera, etc.

1. The double-triangle pocket

For this pocket you need a piece of paper twice the width of your page, and about 2/3 the height.

Fold the paper in half.

Cut diagonally from the top corner by the fold to appr. 1/2″ on the open side.

Cut it in half, pin and sew (or tape) in place.

Done! 😃

A little tip: You may wanna invest in a paper cutter. It’ll save you time and, in my case, a lot of hair pulling 😅 Since I can’t scissor-cut a straight line to save my life, I think a paper-cutter is one of the best tools ever invented!

2. The side pocket

This one is quite simple…

The side pocket is half the width of the page 😊

3. The pocket at the bottom

This pocket is 1/3 of the height of the page 🙂

4. The double-page pocket

I love this pocket because it can hold so much! In my Christmas journal it keeps wrapping paper scraps, gift tags, and ribbon safe and wrinkle free 😁

Find two pretty book pages (or you can make collages), and sew, or tape, them together on three sides.

Isn’t she adorable? 😍 And the pie looks really good… I may have to try that recipe. I will let you know how it turns out 🤓

You’ve probably noticed that I sew all of my papers together. I think it adds a pretty little detail to the page. And you know me…can never have enough of those 😆 Plus, you know it’ll hold everything together over the years.

I use a regular needle and plain, old sewing thread, and have not run into a problem yet. 🥳

Just remember to use a zigzag stitch. If you use a straight stitch you’ll perforate the paper, and it will fall apart! 😕

Well, that’s all I got today 😊 Are you a ‘Junk Journal Junkie’ yet? 😋

There’s more coming soon! I hope you will follow along 💕

A Booktalk ~ Using Vintage Books in Junk Journals

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Welcome to today’s Booktalk 📚 No, I’m not reviewing anything. I will just tell you about, and take the fear out of, using vintage books in making Junk Journals.

I admit, it sounds cringeworthy. 🙈 But it doesn’t have to be. As I mentioned yesterday, buying the books with the intention of cutting them up makes the whole endeavor easier (at least in my experience). And if they’re a bit – or very – tattered they would probably end up in the landfill. That would be a real tragedy. So try to look at it as giving those old, time-worn beauties a new life. Where the bits and pieces will be admired, and loved again.

Old books have wonderful illustrations you can use to spruce up a blank page or incorporate in collages.

  Of course, it’s not just the pictures that are useful. A poem can give a page meaning, scraps of pages that are written ‘old-fashioned’ style make a nice addition to a collage,  old dictionary pages make a nice background for some photos or stickers, whole pages of children books give your journal a little whimsy.

You see – a new life! 😍

 Once in a while though, I come across an antique book that ends up on my bookshelf.
I managed to make a little room for the newly acquired treasures. 😊

  Like this one…

 

It’s an illustrated Mark Twain book (Life on the Mississippi), printed in 1902. 🤗
It’s amazing. Really beautiful in all it’s shabbiness, and simply stunning!
I love to hold it, leaf through it, and imagine the people who held and enjoyed it before me. 😍

As you can see…it is quite tattered.
But I’m thinking, when I’m 117 years old, my spine will be brittle also, and my backside nothing to write home about. 😅

 Then there is this one…

 

A handwritten recipe-collection that found it’s way here from good, old Germany,
written in 1924  🤩 It’s written in the historical form of German handwriting, called Suetterlin. I can make out a few words here and there, but not enough to start cooking. I’d love to cook my way through this book.  👩🏻‍🍳 Now I wish my Mom had taught me this style of handwriting. 🤓

And last but not least – this beauty

 

  I love the raised lettering on the cover. I bought it to be used as a Halloween Journal, because it comes with it’s own awesome-spooky illustrations. 👻

 

But I don’t have the heart to cut it up. So it will sit on the bookshelf with it’s other gorgeous friends, and brought out once in a while to be admired (and dusted😆)

 That’s it for today’s Booktalk. 😊I hope you had fun, and that I was able to ease your anxiety about cutting in to books, because journal-making should be enjoyable! 🤓

Until next time  💕 Take good care of yourself!

 

 

 

 

So You Wanna Junk Journal? 😃 Where To Begin…

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Today I wanna tell you how to begin your foray into the junk-journaling world.

And what an exciting, wonderful, freeing creative adventure it is! 🤓

What is a Junk journal? A Junk Journal (or Smashbook) is a Journal, most of them are handmade, containing a vast variety of papers and embellishments.

These embellishments, also called ephemera, can be anything that can be glued, stapled, sewn down.

I’ve been making journals for only a few months now, so the beginning stages are still fresh in my head 😁 and I can tell you, before you start make sure you have a nice stash of papers and ephemera. Otherwise it can get boring real quick 😉

That’s where the fun begins – shopping! 😅 In Thrift stores! 😍

So…what should you look for? Basically…anything made of paper 😁

Here are a few examples…

Office supplies

Game pieces

Greeting Cards

Souvenir Postcards

Cut outs (these are not thrift store finds)

Vintage Books with illustrations

I can feel some of you cringe at the idea of cutting up books 🙈 Believe me, I do too (my husband still can’t believe I’m actually cutting and tearing into books!)

But I found when I buy the books with the intent of using the beautiful insides (and sometimes the outside too 😊) for my journals, it makes it easier. Look at it as a way of saving it from the landfill, and giving it a new life. 🥰 It will be loved and treasured again. This time a little scrap at a time. 🤓

Of course, that doesn’t always work 😅 More on that later.

Cigar Labels

Vintage (or new) Sewing Patterns

Once you start looking around you will see the possibilities in a lot of goodies out there. 🤓

You also wanna pick up some scrapbook paper, and blank art papers, like a drawing- or painting pad. Even though you can sometimes find scrapbook in thrift stores, you might want to get a pad or two at your regular craft store.

While there, take a peek at the die-cutters. The small one – like this one

I picked this shape because I thought it’s pretty versatile. And I was right. 😉
It makes nice cut-outs you can use as ephemera, you can use it when making pockets

and it came in pretty handy when I made a page featuring a cookie! 😅

 

Then, of course, you need something to put it all together.

These are the glues and tape* I liked the best. You might find some from other companies…just make sure they’re ‘no wrinkle’. Trust me 😁

 Alright…while you go hunting and gathering your beautiful things, I will start writing the next post – ‘What to do with all your newfound treasures’
I’ll meet you here in a day or two and we can start glueing stuff down. 😃

Until then 💕

*no affiliation with any products shown here

A Collage For A New Mom 😍

Hello my lovely friends 💕

I hope you’re doing well, and have a happy spring in your step on this lovely Monday!

Today I wanna show you the collage I made for my daughter, a new Mom 😊

You may remember…in January we welcomed little Georgia Mae to the world. I’m happy to report that she’s a very happy, smiley baby 🥰

Here she is with her beautiful Mommy

So, since January I’ve been collecting little Mom/Baby related snippets, with the idea of somehow combining it all into a memento. It was just an idea in the back of my mind…until last Thursday. That’s when I came across a canvas hiding in a closet in my craft room. 😁

That, my hodgepodge of calendar pages, pictures, poems, doilies, a vintage music sheet,tissue paper, and some ModPodge* came together beautifully for this collage.

Here’s a detail – I love these little poems 💖

I started by covering the canvas with one sheet of tissue paper, arranged and glued down the pictures, then secured and coated everything with ModPodge*. Done! Easy Peasy 😅

Did this inspire you to make your own memento-collage? Please let me know…I’d love to hear/read about it! 💕

Have a fabulous day! 😎🌻🌞

*no affiliation with PLAID