Journal Your Christmas 2012, continued...

Well, I'm not sure 'continued' is exactly the right term. Stalled, might be a better one. I really wanted to keep up and get it all ready prior to starting the actual month of December this year, but I had a bit of trouble getting motivated. I did think about watching the previous JYC videos on Shimelle's site but I'd seen them several times before and I wasn't doing the number tags this year anyway, so it didn't really seem as if that would give me the impetus I needed to get started.

So, I was sort of already 'behind' before I'd even started! Not a great plan. I know we're always told you can't be behind in this hobby, and for the most part, I totally agree with that. It's not supposed to be a chore or a deed you must do, but on smaller projects like this, it's nice to keep up. I did make some notes every now and then through the month and took some photos. I didn't actually end up sticking to the prompts. Some just don't apply to me and now that I've finished the journalling, it's more a mix of the JYC and just a bit of an illustrated diary of Christmas - ie: we did this, we went there. And I'm fine with that. I'm more than fine with that, actually. It's more appropriate to our Christmas this year, and something I want to remember and document.

But at the moment, the journal itself is still looking a bit like this...

 

 

Not really what I had in mind for the state of it by this point in time, but there we are. I'm really hoping I'm not the only one who's run out of steam - or perhaps never got up a good head of steam to begin with for the project this year...or am I?



I really just need to sit down and put it all together. I've got the photos back and the journalling is all done, and printed out. I suppose it's just the enthusiasm that's lacking. If anyone has any good ideas about how to give me a shot of this, I'd be grateful!

Love, Maxi x

Journal Your Christmas 2012

This project is something I did for the first time last year. It's run by Shimelle Laine (who has all sorts of interesting courses both on her own website, and on the Two Peas site.

Journal Your Christmas is about taking Christmas back. Rescuing it from the avalanche of commercialism it has become buried under, and remembering what the real meaning is of it - for you. Once you sign up to the course, you are a member for life, so you'll get the prompts every year, without having to hand over any more cash - which is nice! You get prompts every day for 37 days, starting on December the 1st, and you can do every one, or just a few. You can take photos every day or none. You can journal every day or hardly it all. It's all up to you.

I definitely enjoyed creating my journal last year, even though it wasn't properly finished until (gasp!) June! I did learn from doing last year's, and am changing a few things this year. Which is apt as Shimelle has changed up the prompts.

Today was 'Manifesto' day. Whilst there is one in the handout, I created my own - mainly because I missed seeing the one that was there, but that's ok. I like what mine too.

 

 

I decided that this year I'd most likely just pick and choose which prompts to do, so I'm not numbering the days or anything. There were a few last year that didn't really 'speak' to me, and I struggled a bit with those. This way allows a bit more flexibility which I think will work better for me.

 

If you're fed up with Christmas before it's even started, thanks to supermarkets moving everything in order to make room for mince pies in September, I'd highly recommend joining Journal Your Christmas and start claiming it back.

 





Vintage Liberty

One of my plans this year is to sew a lot more. Included in those plans is to find something to make out of these fabrics. 

Fabrics!

They are all vintage Liberty fabrics. My nan was a seamstress and these were some of hers. My favourite is the white and blue and I think it will make a pretty skirt. I'm thinking perhaps a dress for the flowery one on the left as there's quite a lot of that.

My main thing is that I don't want to muck up! The fabrics are obviously special not just because they are Liberty (something I couldn't ordinarily afford!) but because they came from my Nan who got me into the whole sewing thing in the first place.

Have you ever had fabric that you are too worried to actually cut into? And if so, what did you do? (or is it still sat in your stash getting stroked every now and then?)

I'm on a bit of an organisation kick at the moment, which when I get to that bit, will include sorting out my patterns. I'm taking photos of the envelopes and am going to make up my own 'catalogue'. It's a fairly large job but I think it will be useful. Especially as I came home with the same blouse pattern as one I already had last year! I suppose at least it shows I was right to buy it in the first place, as I then bought it again later!

In the meantime, I've been finishing up my Journal Your Christmas album, which is finally nearly done. I've learnt a lot of things from this one that I would put into action if I did it again and which would hopefully mean I wasn't still doing it in the middle of January! Once I put the final touches on, I'll share some piccies.

I've also been sorting out my scrapbook layouts. Years ago I bought some American Crafts 12x12 ring binder style albums. I have just this morning got around to putting my layouts into them, having taken them from the post bound albums they were living in. Of course, I don't have enough page protectors, so they're not all in there quite yet, but that's the plan.

I'm putting everything into date order of when the photo was taken. I know some people don't like to do that because it means that obvious scrapping style changes show up as you flick through but I'm ok with that. It doesn't bother me. I'd rather have the photos in a more chronological order because I think it becomes more of a life story that way. But that's just my preference. It just would have been helpful if all the original page protectors from the other albums had fitted the new ones, but that would be too easy wouldn't it?

Journal Your Christmas - Part 2

I'm already way behind with this project. I haven't even read the last couple of prompts although I have downloaded them so that I can when I get a minute!

The prompts themselves are a good exercise in journalling if that's something you struggle with in your scrapbooking, but don't think you can't do this class if you really aren't one who wants to put many words on a page. I've seen examples of other participants whose pages don't have much journalling and they look just as fabulous, focussing on the image side.

I think in the end I'll probably end up with a fair bit of the wordy stuff, probably an off shoot of being a writer, but that's fine with me. That's assuming I get around to putting the remaining pages together and getting the words actually on them! For the moment, the earlier pages are done, but the last week or so isn't. I've been scribbling the journalling in a notebook for when I have time to transcribe it to its rightful place.

As for the photos, I've decided that it's going to be easier (not to mention cheaper) to put in an order for all of them once I'm done. I did think about printing them out at home in order to make it look a bit more complete as I went along but I've decided the more economical way is better. In the meantime, I've made a folder in my Pictures folder called 'Journal Your Christmas 2011' and am putting the photos I want to use in there. I'm putting the relevant day in the picture's title so that when I come to it, I can go through quickly and put them into the right order and get them on the right pages (hopefully!).

Journal Your Christmas

A short while ago I signed up with a class at http://www.shimelle.com/ . Shimelle Laine is a fabulous scrapbooker who inspires and encourages all who read her blog, take her classes and watch her videos.

Every year Shimelle provides a class called Journal Your Christmas. It was something she began originally as a private project several years ago to 'take back Christmas'. Like many of us, the commercialism of the whole thing had begun to sour things and this was her way of telling the Big Boys, "Err, actually, no, I don't think so. This is my Christmas and I'm going to do it my way, thanks very much." The following year she made it into a class, and has done every year since. And the cool - and very unusual - thing is that once you join, you can come back the following year and do it again for no extra charge. And the year after that, and so on.

This is my first year of doing it, and I'm excited to get involved. Like Shimelle, and many others, I'm not happy with what Christmas has become, starting in September and pressurising people to spend more and more on the latest toys, food and goodness knows what else. That's not how it's supposed to be. At least it's not in my book.

Every year, Shimelle writes a manifesto for the class. I've posted this year's below.

You can change the manifesto to suit yourself  but I think it pretty much says all it needs to just as it is. So it's printed out and ready to go in my journal.

I'll let you know how I'm getting along with the project and I'd love to hear your comments if you're taking the class too - or even if you're not! If it's the latter but you think you might be interested you can find it here

Have fun making memories :)