February 2014 Calendar

The background for these was again Dylusions, with a bit of stamping and paint.  I did snowdrops for February last year, so decided I would go for the red and pink and hearts this year!

january Calendar Journal

I actually managed to finish my pages in time for the start of the month, but didn't get around to taking photos until now!  Luckily the journaling I have been adding is hidden inside the little die-cut folders.


I used dylusions for the background, light ones for the base then darker colours sprayed over the top of some homemade masks that I got in a secret Santa from a team mate in the Secret Swappers over on UK Scrappers.   Once these had dried I used a large stencil and sprayed over the top again with white dylusions, before adding the mini folders.  I stamped faux stitching round the edges and added two little stamped and coloured houses at the bottom.





Kilt Pin for Tina

I have a very lovely and very dear friend in Ireland, whom I find it difficult to buy gifts for.  This is because she and her husband run their own stall on a market where they live, and whenever I see something I think I could get them I worry that they will already have it - on their stall!

If I can I try to make a little something for them, and this year I decided to make a kilt pin brooch for Tina, having made a couple for swaps and enjoyed it.

 



Chunky ATC for Gill: Santa's Workshop

This was the last chunky ATC swap of the year, and of course is the one with a Christmas theme.  I had to make one for Gill, and her chosen theme was Santa's Workshop.  I thought this was a brilliant theme, and spent quite a bit of time planning how I would do it;  I decided I wanted to hide Santa behind doors so you had to peek in and see him, so I decided to turn the chunky into a tiny little workshop, covered in frost and snow, with a ladder up the side to the roof where the finished toys could be stored waiting for their collection by the sleigh.

I made doors and a doorframe for the front, which sit over the top of a picture of Santa hard at work, which I covered in glossy accents to make it stand out better.

The sides were covered in fine texture paste with a good dollop of both silver and iridescent glitters mixed into it so it looked like sparkly snow.  I had a minor disaster when I dropped the dish of paste onto my brand new purple jeans, but an emergency dash into the kitchen for a wet sponge sorted that out with no lasting damage!

I added a section of the same Santa image on the back of the chunky so it wasn't too plain, covered it in glossy accents and some crackle medium round the outside and then spread the past carefully around it, hoping to give the idea of a frosted window wiped clear of snow to look in. 

I got a selection of dolls house toys, including a little sledge, plus a ladder and added these; the sledge was going to be glued against the blank side of the chunky but I decided it would be too fragile for posting and removed it.  It went in the box loose together with two white 'bottle brush' type Christmas trees to set the scene - unfortunately I didn't take photos of the chunky with the trees!

I think Gill is happy with her chunky, which I am glad about as I really loved it myself and would have loved to keep it!

 









December Calendar Journal

I had this mostly finished at the beginning of the week, but didn't want to put pictures up until it had the title on.  Originally I wanted to do a really bright, richly coloured page for December, possibly with baubles or presents or crackers.  For some reason though once I started I fell in love with the icy look of the background that appeared (Dylusions again)  and just went with it by adding icicles for journaling;  I even found a stamp with Santa on his sleigh, which went well, plus one of snowflakes that I used on the outsides of the pages in white;  this doesn't show up on the photos though.

Peg Loom scarf

I bought a peg loom a couple of years ago, and quickly got started making the fabric for a bag.  However, I wasn't happy with it and the loom got put away with the bag unfinished.  Yesterday I saw a lovely scarf in town, but couldn't find it in the shop (it was the last one it turned out, and they didn't have the label for it) 

I popped across the road and bought some lovely wool, came home and got the loom out, luckily I had enough unused pegs on it to be able to get started straight away, and in little more than an hour I had most of the scarf done.  I stopped only when I ran out of wool.  I have dashed into town today and bought more wool to finish this one and maybe make another, but here it is at the moment.  Sorry for the blurry photo!

November Calendar Journal

I was a little late getting my pages done for November, as it took me most of the month to decide how to do them.  My son suggested rockets as it is Bonfire night on the 5th, and I figured he was right - a simple rocket shape would make a good journaling spot.  Due to lack of time I didn't do anything fancy, they don't particularly look like rockets to me but the trail of stickle stars shooting out of them as they whoosh into the sky helps!

I did realise afterwards that the colour scheme is very similar to my October pages, I must make an effort to make December look different!