JYC2011: Manifesto and December 01

Happy December First! This is the start of the crazy magical amazingly craft time of year that we all love and stress out about. Today I worked for 16 hours on a very big and high visibility project. So that didn't leave a lot of room for crafting. Fortunately, since I'm trying NOT to stress out about being behind (and also the fact that I made these pages last year), I am happy to share the start of my 2011 Journal Your Christmas class book. I'm really not sure if I've shared these before, but I hope you enjoy them.

The manifesto: a reminder to find the joy in every day this time of year. 

I made this with die cuts from my Slice, a martha tree punch, the lovely  manifesto image from Shimelle and labels from Fontwerks and Jenni Bowlin.

And page one. Look at that journaling! Yay!. 

Red gaffer tape from 7 Gypsies, paper from Teresa Collins' line from last year. A chipboard snowflake, basic grey basics label (which I stuck in a vintage typewriter) and a felted making memories embellishment help showcase that photo of a christmas card I made last year.

So, TGIF. I have an event tonight and I'll be going to Urban Craft Uprising and tree trimmng this weekend... I'm hoping to get crafty, but if not, I won't stress. :)

Getting Ready for December

Just wanted to share what I'm planning to do to document the holiday season (aside from blogging, of course). And this may sound shocking to some, but I'm NOT doing a December Daily this year. Nope. Out of scope, as they say at work.

I'm almost done with my 2010 December book, which I will be delighted to share with you, once I can clean my scrap desk off enough to finish it. I got a lot of good work done at a girls' weekend earlier this month.

My already made book for 2011 is actually all documented here on this post.

Yup. Using a book from last year that I didn't finish. Huzzah!

The plan is that this year I'm going to focus on blogging daily, then batching photos to print weekly to put in the book. And also, focusing on the yummy class parts of Journal Your Christmas, because I totally wussed out on the LSNED for this year (though I mostly have a book totally assembled for that, which I will use next year).

I think it's a good plan. It's achievable. I can do it.

Here we go.

Holiday Journal 2010

Hurray! It's almost time to Journal My Christmas!

In fact, I have the first prompt for December sitting in my inbox right now. I am exercising extreme will in not tearing into it right now. I have a very good reason you see. Because right now, I'm sharing my very first holiday journal!

Oh yes, say hello to my little classic Christmas album. I used some delicious Making Memories red paint to pretty up a Maya Road binder. And then I filled it with patterned papers from Making Memories, Teresa Collins and one sheet from Girls Paperie.

I am so proud of myself for using up some of my precious "stash." I went with a really classic red/green Christmas look, because the book is very much focused on the holidays. This is in contrast to my December Daily book which has a totally different vibe (still editing photos on this one.. hopefully up later tonight).

Also, if I don't finish it this year it will still be totally relevant next year. I used up at least three different Making Memories collections in this book, and I'm quite happy to see they all go together. Note to Making Memories: keep it up. I like the fact that this stuff keeps coordinating.

The cover of my book is still unfinished, but I have a little done for now, so I'll call it good until I get some more time. Ignore the paint that got splotched on that front paper... I'll be covering it up later. ;)

4x6 is such a lovely and manageable size.  I'm super excited to get crafting with this thing.

Here's the plan. There will be no stressing. There will be mistakes, but I will work around them. I will have fun. I will celebrate the holidays and document them in this cute little book. I may or may not use pictures. I will use my own handwriting (and probably a typewriter) and really really focus on journaling.

Are you excited? I totally am.

Now off to get those photos of my December Daily book posted. Mwahahahaha.

Journal Your Christmas

Alright, so now that Thanksgiving is over, I can freely talk about Christmas stuff without getting in trouble with the Christmas police (Greg).


One of my favorite things about the holidays is a festive little online class called Journal Your Christmas hosted by the fabulous Shimelle Laine.

Here's a description from her blog:
"Every year, Journal your Christmas includes daily prompts from the 1st of December to the 6th of January, the twelfth day of Christmas. The 37 illustrated PDF files are delivered straight to your inbox so you can read them over your first cup of coffee and mull over each topic for a full day. There’s also an archive of the class materials online in case you can’t get to your email or in case something dreadful happens to your computer. And like every year, you can go it alone or be as social as you like, with a private discussion forum where you’ll find other Christmas journallers who will cheer you on and share your excitement, but if you prefer to stick to the prompts only, that’s completely fine too. And like every year, if you’re participated once, you can join us every Christmas for as long as you like at no extra cost."

I signed up about two years ago, and since then have only, shall we say, been auditing the class.

This year I'm feeling ambitious. I'm feeling good about scale. I learned a ton of stuff from completing my LSNED book (and looking at all of Alissa's past books). The key, I think, will be making it really all about the journaling and sticking to the prompts. I'm also super determined to use up some of my Christmas stash.

So, I'm hoping to get both my little JYC album and my December Daily book put together this weekend.

Right now I'm in the photo-editing mines... I got a deal where I can get a bunch of free prints from snapfish, so I want to get a big order in. :)

Hope you are well.