A change from my Christmas journal today, as I share the layout I made for the December House Challenge over at UKS. The challenge was to scraplift one of 5 pages. I chose this fabulous one by PinkSparklyScrapper.....

I started by spraying some mist on my paper, then placing some paper strips horizontally across the page. I used the same photo placement, a similar paper cluster in the top corner and a tag on the opposite side. I added moustache embellishments and a title I found on the internet.

I am not sure that I did the original LO justice, but I am really pleased with my finished creation recording DD and her friends with their moustaches!

Journal Your Christmas days 9 to 12

Day 9
Sweet treats meant I could write about so many wonderful, edible delights, I mentioned a few but chose Christmas Pudding as the epitome of all things sweet and Christmassy

Day 10
I combined our family list of Christmas requests for Santa with a photo from my work Christmas do as I sit on Santa's lap to receive my secret Santa gift

Day 11
As I hadn't shared my Christmas cards in an earlier prompt I attached one to my page and included a photograph of some other cards I made inside with the journalling.  I think I will add a couple of this years Christmas postage stamps to the page too.

Day 12
Initially I wasn't sure what to do for the prompt on Merry Mentors then I thought about the children and how they join in with all my Christmas madness (well most of the time!) and last year they even let me take a photo of them outside the house in Christmas hats (yet to try getting any similar photos of the 2 of them this year!!)

Do you journal anything special during the Christmas period?  I actually wish I had been doing this for years as I would love to have more of the past Christmastimes memories recorded as I find I get more and more forgetful every year..... I think in the future I will use some of the prompts to record memories of Christmas past and will definitely make some 12 x 12 pages of some important Christmas events or traditions from previous years.

Journal your Christmas days 5 to 8

Day 5
I decided to go a little off topic and instead of talking about written communication in the traditional sense (ie journalling about Christmas Cards) I wrote about going to Great Ormond Street with my son (and husband) and how I felt as a mother about his illness and how amazing he has been

most of the journalling is hidden away on the inside....

 Day 6

I think one of  the coziest things we do at Christmas is giving new PJ's to the children on Christmas eve.... DD loved her onesie last year, as above (and we got another one for her this year!)

Day 7

There are so many tantalising treats for the senses during the Holiday season and I described a few I was experiencing at the time

Day 8

I used the sketch and weekly challenge from UKS for todays entry about buying our Christmas tree a couple of days before.

Journal your Christmas days 1 to 4

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas/ Happy Holiday.  We have had a great time and I am not looking forward to returning to work next week! Completing Journal Your Christmas certainly helps to keep the holiday feeling going whilst preserving all the details of the season.  I signed up for Shimelle's JYC several years ago but only completed an entire journal  (27 pages/days) for the first time last year..... I finished it in March!

I seem to have had a slower more relaxed pace this year, this may be due to in part to DS having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and us not making many plans to socialise which would tire him more. So, a quieter run up to the big day plus a bout of illness for me has meant less activities to document so I have used the prompts more this year.

Day 1

 this states my Christmas Manifest

Day 2

I had a fabulous Christmassy drink and asked for a spare cup that I made into a little festive flap.... 

Day 3

planning the lights (though I managed to hide the start of the title under my light bulbs!)

Day 4

.... telling the story of the best Secret Santa gift that I have ever had.  A gorgeous gingerbread house received last year and I don't know who it was from even now!

I have mainly been using Simple Stories Handmade Holiday with some odds and ends from the boxes of Christmas Stash I seem to have! The wonderful numbers were discovered via Pinterest and can be found here, perfect for printing off and punching out.

SJ Crafts 6 on the 6th

This has been the best idea ever for encouraging me to get on and make my Christmas cards this year.  In fact it has worked so well that I think I will end up with a few spare cards..... maybe a start for next year.

As part of the Red Ribbons Cyber Crop a few weekends ago we were asked to create a piece of mail art and send it to someone, I decided to try and make mine Christmassy themed... this was the front of the envelope ...

http://sjpapercrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/decembers-six-cards-on-6th.html

all very arty for me! Thought I would try something new totally inspired by someone called Lynda who I met on a recent crop.  She was using a similar technique (bubblewrap printing then lines with a credit card) I added stamped stars and a Christmas greeting with snowflakes punched from a vintage book and lightly painted white, a quick misting and I was done.  This then lead to the creation of a set of co-ordinating Christmas cards...

and another set of 6 cards had been made!

The last 2 sets I created were from ideas I had seen on pinterest here and here and adapted to make 2 sets of cards 

As you can see I used the negative and the positive snowflake shape and tried several ideas with both...... these are my favourite cards of the 5 sets I made this year.

Thank you Sarah, Louise, Jennifer and Lisa Jane for all your Christmas card inspiration over at SJ Crafts and I am keeping my fingers crossed you do this again next year!

Story Telling Sunday my most precious

Last year I joined in each and every story telling Sunday with Sian and her following of tale tellers and I loved it.  This year, each month was about 'picking your precious'....... sadly I decided I couldn't do it........ it just felt wrong to me, to be 'picking a precious' when I knew one of the most precious people in the world was going to be taken from me.

My Dad is a survivor, after being told he had a 20% chance of surviving a year after having a heart attack over 6 years ago. My Dad is literally living on borrowed time, he was given a terrible prognosis as cancer spread from his colon to his lung and liver. I am so grateful for each and every extra minute, hour, day and month.

Life is precious, time is precious, family is precious, health is precious, having you here for another 'last Christmas' is so so precious.  

My Daddy and Me xxx