Documented December - Day Nineteen - Christmas Blessings

The prompt for today (can you believe it is day 19 already?!) is Christmas Blessings. I am not a religious person, but I regularly like to think about what I am thankful for, or to "Count My Blessings", as my Gran used to say!

This Christmas, at the very top of my list is "Dad". In February this year, he was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and neck. He started his treatment in April and has been very unwell as a result, not to mention all the associated worry that accompanies the diagnosis. I'm pleased to say that the treatment seems to have worked and he is doing well, although his body still has a long way to go to get back to normal!! But it is wonderful to acknowledge the good. (By the way, that's my mum and my nephew in the picture too.)

Originally, my layout was going to be all about my dad, but then there is just so much to be glad about, so I changed it to be one for each day of the month!! It mostly uses last year's Christmas kit, together with some more of those gorgeous turquoise gems from a previous kit.

So, what will your layout include? I'll look forward to seeing them.

Susie x

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Documented December - Day Eighteen - Christmas Present

Day Eighteen

Christmas Present! How do you plan to spend this Christmas? How do you divide your time between family and friends? Do you have more than one Christmas dinner or party? 

Documented December - Day Seventeen - Christmas Past

Day Seventeen

Christmas Past! What are your favourite memories from Christmases past? How did you used to celebrate as a child? what do you still do the same? and different? Include  a picture of a past Christmas.

Now I'll hand over to Claire who will be sharing her Christmas Past Inspiration...

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Hello thank you for joining me (Claire N) today.

This prompt can be, and will be interpreted so personally by everyone. Christmas of course is a very emotive time, and many many memories are at the fore front of peoples minds. Some thought about privately, some shared and remembered fondly with others, and some remembered by carrying out family traditions.
The post today has taken me the longest out of all the days so far for two reasons. Firstly, deciding on how  and which Christmas to journal about, and secondly being very very distracted by all the photos and videos I haven't looked at in a very long time.

I wanted to convey what Christmas means to me, and that is fun.
 I had a lovely childhood, and Christmas to me means family time at home, shutting the front door on the world and work for a good few days to relax altogether. With time to play games, be silly, eat, watch TV, and have quiet time. Mum's dinner was always a fabulous part of the big day (and good news for my sister there is one particular photo of gravy around her chops that I couldn't find)
The photo's I have added to the pockets, sum up our silliness and the giggles we have as a family (both as children and now grown up).
 It is the type of Christmas my husband and I now aim to have each year with our boys.

This prompted another memory, that I must journal in full one day. I moved to Ireland, my sister (Helen) is still in the UK and my parents are in Spain, so us all getting together happens very rarely. So one year,I decided (by whatever means) we should all be together. Mum & Dad are always with us at New Year, so I secretly arranged for Helen, her husband and daughter (Elena) to fly over. It was months in the planning and when the day came I was so nervous I felt unwell.
Anyway the plan was for my husband to go out to collect a Chinese takeaway, orders were taken and off he went.......to the airport to collect Helen...LOL!  They collected the Chinese on the way back, and it was decided that Elena would bring the food in from the car. Fortunately she is a gregarious child and had no problem bursting into the house (it was the first time she'd been to our new house too) announcing the arrival of the food. I tell you the look on Mum & Dad face was priceless, and it honestly took them a good 30-40 seconds to speak/smile/comprehend what what happening.
We had well and truly flummoxed and surprised them, it was fabulous and set the scene for a brilliant celebration to bring the New year in.

Onto my second page, and I really wanted to incorporate this photo of my Nan & Grandad, because when thinking of past Christmas's it popped into my head, and journalling about it here means that I it will always be easy for me to find in years to come. As I said Christmas will evoke all sorts of memories for each of us, but how about making a record of those special moments that make you laugh or smile. I will always remember with a smile how Grandad always asked if I'd seen the fairies - without fail, even as I reached my teens. I can hear my Nan too saying 'Oh Rich, stop it'.....the funny thing about that though, his name was Thomas - LOL! whats that all about?

There are so many things I could chat to you about about my Christmas memories, and as I said it was so hard pinning it down - and the more I think about it, I'm wondering whether I should have chosen something else.....perhaps I'll save them for next years Documented December. I'll make it my aim next year to gather photos of my other grandparents too, known affectionately as Nan & Gar (and that is another story!)

Thank you so much for taking a trip down Memory Lane with me.
Don't forget if you want to join in with us and share your stories/layouts use our hashtags #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley on your social media site.

Bye for now x

Documented December - Day Sixteen - Smilings My Favourite...

Day Sixteen

Smiling My Favourite! What is your favourite thing about Christmas? What makes you smile?
Now I'll hand over to Susie who will be sharing what she loves about Christmas...

*****

Oh my, there are so many things to love about Christmas, aren't there? Food, Christmas trees, lights, hot chocolate, Christmas jumpers, anticipation, magic, .......
But what I love most, is time together with my fantastic family. Hubby is off work throughout Christmas and New Year and the factory is closed, so he has less to stress about and nothing in particular to do (at least that is the theory!!). So we have time to watch those DVDs we've had for ages, play Monopoly, go for nice long walks with our border collie ALTOGETHER and there's always lots of eating too!!!!!

I am also loving these gorgeous papers and the snip & stick elements from this year's kit. And I've left plenty of room to add anything else I love about Christmas as I go along!

Susie x

P.S Please grab your badge from the sidebar for your blog, leave your links in the comments, hashtag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley so we can find and like your projects - we'd love to see!

Documented December - Day Fifteen - Christmas Cards

Day Fifteen

Christmas Cards! Do you make all of your Christmas Cards? Buy Them? How do you display those that you receive? Take a picture!

Now I'll hand over to Ria who will be sharing her Christmas Card Inspiration...

*****

 

 

Hello there! Its Ria here today?

 

I love sending out Christmas cards during the holidays. As I'm sending out cards mostly overseas, I need to make quick and simple cards that are not too bulky to be sent out to the mail.

 

So here's what I did. I used the Traditional Christmas Ornaments stamps and white heat embossed the ornaments. I colored them with colored pencils, layering light colors to darker colors.

 

I also stamped some stars from the same stamp set and added green twine to complement the ornament colors. I also put some shimmer using the Clear Wink of Stella glitter pen.

 

 

For this second card, I stamped the Christmas tree in different patterned papers from Sarah.

 

 

I also stamped some snowflakes from the Christmas Red Cups and Labels stamp set using white ink. I then added some gems to give some sparkle on the snowflakes, I also add a star with button for some texture.

 

Here's a closer look of the trees. I think the graphic look adds fun to this simple card don't you think?

 

 

That's it for now and I hope you'll get inspired to do more of holiday cards.

 

Till then!

 

Supplies used:

Special Edition Stamps - Traditional Christmas Ornaments by Jaine Drake

Christmas Red Cups and Labels Stamps 

Memento Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black

Sarah Hurley designer papers

White gel pen and embossing powder

Twine and gems

 

 

 

 

 



Documented December - Day Fourteen - Holiday Style!

Day Fourteen

Christmas Style! Do you dress up for Christmas? Have a favourite Christmas Jumper? or just wear your PJ's all day? Document it!

Now I'll hand over to Clare who will be sharing her Christmas Style Inspiration...

*****

If there's one thing I love and that's a Christmas jumper! So every year we go shopping to find the perfect jumper for my two boys and I might have bought one for me too lol

After looking on Pinterest for inspiration I found myself fascinated by hidden tabs. Which I think are perfect for the smaller layout because I have two boys pictures to show and it gives you more depth to your page aswell.

I created this layout first.

I used a Tim Holtz border die to craete the scallop. The sentiment is a Hello Kitty bigz die. I stumbled across these Tim Holtz label letters in Hobby craft a few months back, I can see me buying more! The circle date was cut from the snip and cut sheet which is part of Sarah's Documented December kit. The tage I made slot just behind the stripe panel which was propped up with foam squares.

Here are the hidden tabs.

The paper are from Sarah's older 'A Few Of My Favourite Things' kit which I thought was perfect for the snap shop of my boys. The tag die is from Sizzix and the Bakers twine was added for contrast. Again I used the label letters.

I finished the tags off with a picture of the boys on each of the tags.

Here's the finished layout....peek a boo!

Ria will be posting tomorrow with another fab theme, hope you come by soon.

Clare x

P.S Please grab your badge from the sidebar for your blog, leave your links in the comments, hashtag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley so we can find and like your projects - we'd love to see!

Clare x

Documented December - Day Thirteen - Christmas Wrapping

Day Thirteen

Christmas Wrapping! Are you great (or terrible!) present wrapper? do you match all of your paper and tags? do you disguise your presents to fool people? Take a picture of the presents under the tree.

Now I'll hand over to Jaine who will be sharing her Christmas Wrapping Inspiration...

*****

Wrapping is one of those jobs I leave to the last minute.  In the past the presents have been wrapped on Christmas Eve with a glass of something tasty to help things along and the stockings filled ready for the morning. In our house presents never appeared under the tree until the girls came down on Christmas morning and they'd magically appeared overnight. As the girls became older and wiser a few gifts made it under the tree before hand but I still held on to the tradition of the main gifts and stockings on Christmas Eve.  I want to keep the magic alive for as long as possible and even though the girls are all grown up I think they appreciate it still.

For this layout I've turned to my Christmas journal once again. I'm at the end of it so the pages have a definite bend to them making it difficult to put anything along the right hand edge of the page. The tags were a wonderful find from Ikea where they have the most gorgeous wrappings and tags ever! 

 

No doubt I'll be wrapping again this year on Christmas Eve.

Jaine x
 

Documented December - Day Twelve - Christmas Recipes

Day Twelve

Christmas Recipes! Do you cook anything special for Christmas? Do you have family recipes that have been passed down that you use? When do you start to prepare the food for the day? Include a picture of one of your traditional recipes or the recipe itself!

Today I'm handing over to Claire to share her Christmas recipes...

*****

I have many christmas recipes that I follow as tradition each year. The main one being for christmas cake. It is pure indulgence on my part, both in the consuming of, and as a memory of my childhood Christmas's. Now, since being married I am the only one who eats the christmas cake, fortunatly though with the huge amount of fruit, and a 'bit' of alcohol is lasts and lasts so I take take my time eating it. Its a similar case with mince pies, I don't buy shop bought ones, finding that they way too much sugar in the pastry for me. So I really love my pies with shortcrust pastry almost on the savoury side, and a really deep filling of minced meat.

However, I will be sharing more of those stories later on in December, and have opted to share with you today a super quick and super easy recipe for gingerbread.

I have written the recipe on the back of a tag, that fits into a little corner pocket within my album page.

We spent an evening at the beginning of December at a Gingerbread Workshop, and as a family we made the Gingerbread House that you can see on the front of the tag. It was a fab evening and one that we could all participate in. The boys had a great time, even my 13 year old, forgot his teenage ways and let his imagination run wild ...LOL!

All the papers are pre printed and I have used a mixture of Sarah's Christmas kits from this year and last year. Because of the colour palette Satah uses, collections from different times are able to co-ordinate

Amazingly we still the Gingerbread house, two weeks after first making it. I can tell you it is a major lesson in self control and patience on Tom's part (the said teenage) as his appetite has shot through the roof these last few months. Not sure how much longer it will last though, it may not last until I join you again with my next page....I'll keep you posted.

 Hopefully from the photos you can see that I have accented the designs with glitter, 

Thank you for joining us today. if you have any recipes that you stick to a Christmas time, please come and share.

Take care and see you soon x

Documented December - Day Eleven - Christmas Playlist!

Day Eleven

Christmas Playlist! What's on your Christmas Playlist? Include your Christmas playlist or your top 3 / 5 / 10 Christmas songs...

Today I have a Christmas Playlist Journaling card for you to use in your album...

Just Click, Save & Print!

We'd love to see what you do with yours, please leave us your links or hashtag us on social media #documenteddecember #sarahhurley

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Documented December - Day Ten - Christmas Shopping!

Day Ten

Christmas Shopping! Do you love Christmas Shopping or loathe it? Do you make an event of Christmas shopping or do it all online? What are the decorations like in your favourite place to shop? What is your favourite thing to shop for?

Now I'll hand over to Jaine who'll be sharing her inspiration for today!...

*****
Christmas shopping?  I can't say I hate it but it stresses me out too much when I'm in the big shopping malls with no clue what I want and about a million people all doing the same thing. I end up doing most of my shopping on line. I can do it in my pj's with a nice glass of vino, have it wrapped, posted off and a little tag added all without any stress at all. Of course I do end up having to go at some point into the dreaded shopping centers for bits and bobs but so long as I've a list and I know where I'm going I'm ok.

It's a different matter though when it comes to the Christmas markets which I love but then I'm not looking for presents I'm going for the atmosphere and the Gluhwein more than anything.

When I do hit the shopping center though I like to stand back and really appreciate the decorations. They really like to go to town with their colour schemes and lights and each year they're put in early in time for St. Niklaus Tag which is on the 6th December.

It's the decorations for St Nick which I've chosen to document in my Christmas journal. I have a journal which I only work in at Christmas mainly because it has Kraft pages which look gorgeous with white, reds and silver.

Here's the layout with the picture of the St Niklaus decorations. I journal in this book in more of a Smash book style, sticking things down and leaving some of the Kraft background visible.

The tag holds my journaling and is hidden in this little bag.

I hope you liked my pages of inspiration. Come back tomorrow for another inspiring prompt.

Jaine

Documented December - Day Nine - Christmas Films!

Day Nine

Christmas Films! What is your favourite Christmas film? Do you watch it every year? with family? alone? is it modern? traditional? Take a picture of the DVD cover, your family gathered to watch or a screenshot of the TV at your favourite point.

Today you can share your favourite Christmas film on this Currents journaling card download...

Just Click, Save & Print!

We'd love to see what you do with yours, please leave us your links or hashtag us on social media #documenteddecember #sarahhurley

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Documented December - Day Eight - Winter Wonderland!

Day EightWinter Wonderland! What is the weather like today? Is there snow? frost? does it feel wintery?

Now I'll hand over to Susie who'll be sharing her inspiration for today!...

*****

Well, yesterday we had a little flurry of snow, which was exciting. Today it's just wet and miserable and exceptionally slippy, but you never know, we may get more snow.

My family LOVE snow and we are, most definitely, hoping for a snow filled holiday - our Winter Wonderland! Sledging, skiing, snowmen, snow angels........endless fun!!

I had already decided on a rough plan and layout for today's prompt, but when I saw Sarah's beautiful paper, in my absolute favourite teal/turquoise colour, I HAD to use that as my background.

I snipped and stuck the Christmas tree 8 for my date and layered "Baby it's cold outside" and "let it snow" onto banners over my photos. The top photo was taken in 2010 during the most awesome winter I remember and the skiing one is of Scott at Aviemore this year. I had a Kraft tag from a previous kit and decided that I could see it becoming a sledge!?! So, I drew, shaded and cut as follows:

 

And to complete it, I did a little bit of journalling, following the shape of the snow and added some Stickles in Picket Fence and Stardust. I also added some gorgeous turquoise gems, from a previous kit, to the centre of each snowflake. Fantastic fun!!!!

Susie x

P.S Please grab your badge from the sidebar for your blog, leave your links in the comments, hashtag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley so we can find and like your projects - we'd love to see!

Documented December - Day Seven - Signs of the Holiday!

Day Seven

Signs of the Holiday! What are your favourite signs of the holiday? mince pies? bad jumpers? snow? advent calendars?

Today we have a printable for you to include in your album...

Just Click, Save & Print!

We'd love to see what you do with yours, please leave us your links or hashtag us on social media #documenteddecember #sarahhurley

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Documented December - Day Six - Christmas Treats

Day Six

Christmas Treats! What are your favourite Christmas Treats? Hot Chocolate? Mince Pies? Christmas Music?

Now I'll hand over to Ria who'll be sharing her inspiration for today!...

*****

 

Hello everyone! Its Ria here!

 

Christmas is a joyous time and I remember as kids, we always look forward to special treats packed in pretty holiday colors.

 

Today I'm sharing chocolate treats that I packed in inexpensive mini brown bags decorated with Sarah's beautiful paper packs.  

Inside these packs are random choco goodies that can make every recipient smile. I should have taken some snippets of what's inside but you get the picture inside right? :)

 

On this pack, comes assorted candies with fun bright colors.

 In front of this pack, I used Sarah's snip-n-cut sheet for my elements and stamped an additional ones for three the banners.

The red and white twine is the common accent I used for these 3 packs.   

Here, I folded the top a bit so the bag size is slightly small than the other two ones. I put mini chocolate nuggets inside for everyone to enjoy. I did again some stamping in front of the journaling cards and some embossing as well in the small circles.

 

 

Hot chocolate treats with mallows are perfect for this bag. I tucked some of them, ready to be made anytime during the cold winter. I did a very minimal stamping as I wanted to make the choco cup stand out in front of this bag.

 

I hope you'll be inspired to make your own treats using stamps that you already have and small mini brown bags to put those treats.

 

Until next time!

Supplies used:

 

Sarah Hurley papers and journaling cards

Christmas red cup and labels stamps

Christmas labels stamps

Charm Street Cuties Christmas Girl stamp set

Ranger mini glossy accents

 

 

 

 

Documented December - Day Five - The Meaning of Christmas!

Day Five

The Meaning of Christmas! What does Christmas mean to you? Can you sum it up in one word? or one picture?

Today we have a Journaling Card for you to download and include in your album...

Simply click, save and print!

Sarah x

Documented December - Day Four - Letter to Santa!

Day Four

Letter to Santa! Do your children write letters for Santa? What are you hoping for for Christmas? (it doesn't have to be gifts, maybe a relaxing day? someone to cook the dinner?) what did you used to wish for? how has it changed?

Now I'll hand over to Clare who'll be sharing her inspiration for today!...

*****

So we are onto Day 4 already of our Documented December journey and I'm so loving it! Have you started your Documented December yet?

Today's topic is Santa's letters

The boys are still dithering about what they want from Santa this year so we haven't started our letters. But I do have a layout from last years Documented December which is a favourite of mine.

Sarah had kindly offered to send the boys Letters From Santa *cue stalk the postman*and keeping it a secret from the children was so difficult!

As soon as I saw the bright red envelopes pop through the letter box I knew exactly what had arrived. Down side was I now had to wait patiently until the boys came home from school, not an easy task might I add.lol

Both boys knew almost immediately that something was going on, normally it's shoes off, jackets off and school bags tidied away, a quick change of clothes then snack time, but not today.We have important letters to be opened first!

Well the  surprise on their faces when they got mail was just wonderful to see because it's not everyday they get mail never mind letters from Santa *coughs* Oh to be a kid again lol

Hats off to Santa he did a great job, so huge thankyou to Santa AGAIN!!




These letters are still available to purchase in Sarah's online shop here.

Tomorrow we have a little something for you all which I know you will just love!

Thanks for stopping by.

Clare x

P.S Please grab your badge from the sidebar for your blog, leave your links in the comments, hashtag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley so we can find and like your projects - we'd love to see!

Documented December - Day Three - Making a List!

Day Three

Making a List! What lists do you make for Christmas preparations? Gifts? Food? Things to do? Take a picture of your lists or put them into your album (they may be useful for next year too!)
Now I'll hand over to Susie who'll be sharing her inspiration for today!...

*****

Wow, the first two days have been fab, haven't they, and a tough act to follow, but here goes!

I am most definitely a list person! On a normal daily basis, I have lists for chores, shopping, dinners, card orders, craft "needs" (ahem!), kid stuff, etc, etc, etc..... So for Christmas, I get to have even more lists: Christmas Cards (split in to those to post, neighbours, friends, work, school, other); Presents Required for birthdays as well as Christmas; Food, although hubby tends to do that and just "wings" it with whatever he can get!!

But for my first Documented December post, I decided that I wanted to make a more fun list:

This is the first year we have bought Christmas jumpers and it was exciting just TALKING about buying them, let alone the actual shopping! And I get to tick it off the list once they were bought - very happy Susie:0).

The letters (or first drafts) have been written and need to be posted.......SOON.......Santa needs time to buy the more unexpected stuff!!

I've managed to persuade the bairns to make a class card, rather than them writing one for each person - yay, although I've got a feeling Euan will change his mind!

I need to compose the annual letter, sent to faraway relatives and friends. This is most definitely viewed as a chore, until it's done and I get to eat all the nice things we've done and look through the year's photos.

And finally, I love the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha and their Gingerbread Latte, hence the use of the fabulous takeaway cup from last year's kit........mmmmmm, Christmas!

I have added my favourite Stickles in Stardust and Silver and a little bit of doodling, using the pen from a previous kit.

So, that's it from me today. I hope you have fun compiling your list, or lists, ready to help your Christmas preparations.

Susie x

P.S Please grab your badge from the sidebar for your blog, leave your links in the comments, hashtag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley so we can find and like your projects - we'd love to see!

Documented December - Day Two - Trim the Tree!

Day Two

Trim the Tree! Is your tree artificial or real? do you have a favourite ornament? one that means a lot to you, maybe one made for you or a family heirloom? a colour scheme? what are your tree decorating traditions? Do you listen to Christmas music or drink hot chocolate while you decorate?

Now I'll hand over to Clare who'll be sharing her inspiration for today!...

*****

Wow! did you see Claire's first post for Documented December  yesterday? I just loved her advent on the fireplace....so cute!

Today it's all about the tree or should I say the Christmas tree box!

As a child I loved decorating the Christmas tree with my mum, it was our 'thing'! Dad's job was to detangle and fix the lights which to me was just as important.

So when I had a family of my own I expected to follow on with the tradition. The boys and I decorating the tree and hubby sorting out the lights. Little did I know my two little boys had other ideas, if I'm honest I should have seen this coming. We all know how much children love boxes lol.

Here's what happened and still continues to happen in the Broon's hoose when it comes to trimming the tree!.....

I set the room up, music is on, Michael Buble of course hee hee,  there's a cheeky wee glass of wine for me (Rosie), hubby's got a beer and the boys have a non alcohol cocktail (J20). All boxes are scattered, even the cats are joining in being little rascals lol and the tree of course is standing proud in front of the lounge window. My face is beaming with excitement as we are about to decorate the tree.

I shout on the boys, they come racing down the stairs, I'm now even more excited because they sound as excited as me and then they..............jump in the Christmas tree box!!

I'm thinking it's ok they'll get bored, who was I kidding, they have no intention of helping. But hang on a minute why would they? They now have this HUGE box which turns into all sort of things, a dungeon, a boat, a castle and much much more. They are laughing and screaming, running and jumping, both having an absolute blast. I should point out the cats have now scampered off !lol

They continue to play with the box until bedtime while I decorate the tree. So it may not be the 'norm' and it wasn't what I had planned but it's just as much fun if not more and this is now become our 'thing' and I love that.

Here's this years layout of Lewis in our Christmas tree box.....

and here's a sketch I created, feel free to use it.

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to pop by again tomorrow for another December Daily post, this time by Susie.

P.S Please grab your badge from the sidebar for your blog, leave your links in the comments, hashtag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley so we can find and like your projects - we'd love to see!

Documented December - Day One - Deck the Halls!

Welcome to this years Documented December! Each day from now until Christmas, we'll be sharing a prompt with some inspiration or a download for you to follow along with us. We will be using a mixture of kits including this years December kit (available here) please grab your badge from the sidebar for your blog, leave your links in the comments, hashtag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with #documenteddecember and #sarahhurley so we can find and like your projects - we'd love to see!

Sarah x

*****

Day One

Deck the Halls! How do you decorate your house for Christmas? Every room or just certain ones? Do you have any special decorating traditions? 

Now I'll hand over to Claire who'll be sharing her inspiration for today!...

*****

A big big welcome to Documented December, the start of our festive series of blog posts counting down to the big day.

As a team we have been preparing for this for a while behind the scenes, and for me it will the first year that I participate full, and am really looking forward to having that daily record as the excitement gradually builds.

As I said as a team we have been preparing and I cannot tell you how excited some of the others members of the team are to get going....LOL! Be sure to check in with us every single day, where they too will be sharing and letting us in on 'little snippets' of their Christmas.

After all Christmas is about sharing and giving, and we invite you to join us as I  (Claire N) kick off and share with you today my family's advent calendar.

Now I have to admit that my decorations don't go up until about 10-14 days before Christmas Eve, and I can't tell you the ear ache I get from my husband every year wanting them up sooner....LOL! Its all in good fun, he knows I will never budge on that, and I expect the constant asking.
The wait is worth it though. We are lucky enough to have two family rooms, so that means two christmas trees......perfect for as I get to decorate a traditional tree in the golds and reds and a collection of olde worlde ornaments that  have collected and cherished over the years. The second tree tends to be a real tree because I love the fresh tree scent, and generally I decorate in a more modern style with cooler colours - this year I fancy icy blue and white......hehe actually the more I think about it the more excited I get.

 However, getting back to today, I do make a concession with the advent calender. Traditionally we have the same advent calendar out each year for the boys that decorates one of our fireplaces, and I fill it each year without them seeing so that they are surprised when they come down in the morning. They get a little something each day, and then a couple of random little surprises during the month.

I have used Sarahs papers from last years christmas kit, but I can't wait to get started using the new kit that Sarah has put together for us this year, you can find it here in the shop....just hope the postman hurries up and delivers mine soon.

Thank you for stopping by today, and be sure to join Clare tomorrow.

It's officially Autumn ...

Hello from me Claire N. it seems a long while since I have popped in to share anything with you, September has been a really busy month for us. 

With Autumn having officially arrived at the beginning of this week I thought I would share with you, a set of Documented 365 journalling cards I made, perfect for this time of year.

I had a great time making these because I mixed and matched lots of stamps from many different sets (there were stamps and inks everywhere) This is the way of crafting that got me hooked originally years ago.

Many of us look forward to this season, for a number of reasons, some because they find the heat and humidity of summer too much, and others (myself included) love the freshness of the sunny days and the stunning colours and fruits that nature has to offer.

The earthy and muted tones I've used here are my favourites to work with, and adding the accents of grey and stunning orange, I think has added a modern twist.

I created this set for Sarah's Autumn edition (edition 5) of the Lookbook, a free to read magazine, that we as a design team work on to showcase Sarah's latest product. Sarah herself shares her knowledge and experience in the business and teases us with little sneaky peeks of new projects. You can find the link to it HERE to have a read.

All the papers I have used have been accumulated from various paper packs and project kits from Sarah's website, as are the embellishments too

I've used a range of stamp sets (listed below), along with a couple of individual one off stamps, that have also featured in project kits.

Stamp sets used;

1. Woodland Wonders Megan Stamp Set
2. Today Stamps (Doc 365 range)
3. Embellishments Stamps (Doc 365 range)
4. Authentic Boy Stamp Set
5. Woodgrain background / texture stamp
6. Sentiments stamp set
7. Special editions stamps - Cupcake, by Jaine Drake
8. Block Alpha Stamps

Thank you for taking the time to visit and hope you can join us again.x