Design Team Project for Scrap Our Stash: December 'Circles' Challange

This month all of the SOS DT members will be bringing to you layouts that are circular or have circles. 

Since Santa Claus will soon circle the world we thought it would be fun to create a layout this month which includes them.

 Be sure to come play along! 

We love to see and show your work too! 

Email groovydeb@yahoo.com with Circle Around in the subject line and she will get back to you with a date of when we can show it this month right on the SOS Blog.  

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I was late getting my page in *hanging head in shame*... The moving gremlins have been playing many tricks. My circle cutters got packed, even though I I didn't pack them. Opened 1/2 my packed Studio moving boxes and they were nowhere to be found. 

Then my printed pictures vanished and magically reappeared 2 weeks later. 

~curious~

 My (late) page is about the wonderful opportunity we had to visit a friends farm the Monday of (Canadian) Thanksgiving Weekend. Our 4 boys all got a chance to try Ax Throwing for the 1st time. My eldest, Arthur, is front and center for this lay-out.

Journaling reads:

1...2...3... THROW!!!

*Beautiful fall day spent at the Buchanan Farm... The Boys were thrilled to try Ax Throwing. Arthur is a natural !!!!*

I ended up going very 'old school' on the circles for this layout, Read: everything is hand-cut!

Was at a small local crop and no one else had a circle cutter there either, so I grabbed the only things I could find to use as guides. Traced  a wide circle around a Styrofoam plate for the biggest circle, when I cut that out and it was a wee lopsided BUT so was the log-slice target the boys were using. huzzah! I meant it be that way (uh-huh...) really. :) The blue circle was an exact tracing of the plate (much better form), the next white circle was traced on a large tin of Prima flowers and the red was the inside of a roll of adhesive.

Really wanted it to look like the target they used so I dragged a light brown ink pad down the 'target' before attaching it to the backing to make the wood cracks. 

Also roughed up the background paper with sand paper and ink. 

This month's mini-themes for me is 'mother-of-invention and rustic', lol. 

Added a 2nd picture with a close-up of Arthur and the target so you can see what I was going for. 

December Daily 2012: It's a Start...

December has rolled around again and that means it's time for this year's December Daily!

 http://aliedwards.com/december-daily

Last year I did my DD in an altered Reader's Digest book:

 http://keepsakescrafts.blogspot.ca/search/label/December%20Daily%202011

This year I'm doing a Junk Ring Book, using up bits and pieces held together with 4 binder rings. The covers are made from a cereal box cut and covered with pattern papers. Size is 7" tall 8" wide. The Snowy paper was 12 X 12 and I *really* wanted to use it for the covers but only had 1 sheet... so it's overlaid over another pattern paper (I had tons of from a class I taught). The same paper was also used to line the inside covers. Deer, Sparkly 'Snow' and BELIEVE are chipboard, 2012 is stickers and reindeer crossing sign was a lonely orphan sticker missing the post I re-created with card-stock.

Then I went to town filling it up with bits and pieces:

~Old Card or slices of cards backed with pattern paper (to cover the old writing/sentiments)

~Gingerbread House Packaging

~Ephemera 'Blocks' from a kit I had

~Postcard for last years play at a local church

~Used Envelope 

~Sliced up pattern paper blocks

etc...

BUT 

These are only the beginning! I like my DD to develop organically over the season:

Adding flyers snips, photos, tags and anything else that catches my creative-eye and helps it grow.

This... is a good start!

40 Days of Gratitude Journal: 11 Envelope Book

I signed up for a wonderful free program called 40 Days of Gratitude over at the ScrapShack.ning. Put on by Stampin' Dymonz, as I know her in my Art-ing communities, the fabulous Sumaiyah Dymonz Yates. 

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AWAKENING JOURNAL
40 Days of Gratitude
Link to Videos:  

http://scrapshack.ning.com/events/40-days-of-gratitude

Have you felt the need to revive yourself -- to renew your spirit and regenerate your energy?
Have you tried to shake off a feeling of uncertainty – a feeling of being “lost”?
Have you been soul searching in an attempt to find what’s missing in your life?
If “yes” is your answer to any of these questions, or if you’ve been feeling down and not quite sure why you have this feeling, then I invite you to 40 days of renewing self and spirit through creating an Awakening Journal…
What’s an Awakening Journal, you ask...
It is a journal which contains gratitude statements. It can be large or small. It can be a store bought journal, an altered book, or a hand bound journal. It is what you want it to be.
Each day for 40 days starting on Thanksgiving Day 2012, we will create a new page in our Awakening Journal.
The page will use mixed media techniques to design the background.
We will use alpha stamps and our own handwriting for the statement of gratitude.
At the end of the year, you will have 40 beautiful pages of artwork, which contain 40 statements of gratitude from your own heart. I cannot tell you what to be grateful for – you will be creating your own statements.
At the end of the 40 days, you will have awakened your spirit, renewed your energy, and revived your soul.
Come and take a spiritual walk with me. It’s the retreat that you’ve been yearning for – the self-care item that you can do each and every day without altering your schedule. Halfway through the workshop, you will have established a habit – the habit of performing gratitude daily. This is something that everyone needs in their life. There is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS something to be grateful for – if nothing more than being allowed to wake to see another day…
What are you grateful for in your life? What blessings from your Higher Power do you want to give thanks for? What soul searching have you done to realize the many many blessings that have been bestowed upon you – those which you clearly see and those which are not as obvious?
This is a journey to Center. A journey to awaken your spirit. A lesson in being humble… A walk similar to the one Buddha embarked on when he was seeking enlightenment. You too are seeking understanding. You too are seeking happiness. Let’s take this journey together and end the year refreshed and renewed…
This is a FREE workshop hosted online at the Village.

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This weekend while out at the Loonie4Scrapbooking crop I got my lil'journal ready to go.

I'm stunned at how well it turned out! It's made out of 11 envelopes, who'da thunk!

I didn't have the recommended size so I used what I had and improvised... 

These were 5 3/4" X 8 3/4" Quick-Strip Self-Sealing envelopes (Thank Gods! not having to lick'n'stick them all) I grabbed on clearance forever ago at Staples. 

Sealed them all, sliced them in 1/2, inked all the edges that would be facing out, punched holes through the 'closed' sides and bound them together with ribbons. Also added a strip of colored card-stock and mulberry paper wrapped around the spine, gotta have some pretty-pretty. Then cut pretty pattern papers for the outside and inside covers, all from the same 12 X 12 sheet since it was double sided. Punched the edges and used a wee off cut to bring the scallops out on the outside covers. 

That leaves 40 'pages' each for a day's Art work and 12 'pockets' for hidden journaling. 

Going to use the front cover pocket for a printed 'index' of all the topics, I'll make-up once the rest is all done. The back cover pocket, no plans yet but I'm sure something will pop up. :)

ALL the blocks and jhournal slips are cut, punched and ready to go. 

***BONUS***

 It fits, journal and all, in a sandwich size zip-lock baggie so I can carry it with me to work on!