A Clean and Simple Christmas Planner.

Hi everyone and welcome to my little blog.  Hope you are all enjoying your day.

Well, I can't believe it .. I have actually started on my Christmas projects and it's only the beginning of November!!!  I have actually made my first Christmas card!!  Not showing that just yet but it's a total miracle!!  I have amazed myself .. crikey, I might even get everything done before the end of the month!!  Whoops!!  I might have just jinxed it all by saying that.  LOL!!

Anyways, as the Title suggests I have a simple Christmas Planner to show you.  Having never had one of these before (I just wrote everything down on some spare bits of paper which would inevitably get lost and then I would have to start all over again and try to remember what was on the original list!!  LOL!!) I wasn't really sure just exactly what I wanted.  I knew I wanted something simple that would keep my lists safe and secure and which I could use from year to year.  Well, of course, the first place you look for inspiration is on the web but I couldn't find one that I thought was just right for me so, using some different ideas from different places, I came up with this ..

As I said, Clean and Simple!!!  The papers I've used are from Kaisercraft's 'Holy Night' 12" x 12" Paper Pad and this is how the Planner opens up.

Might seem a bit strange having the pages open out this way but I will explain shortly.

  
There is a small elastic loop attached to the spine to hold a pen or pencil and each of the inside pages is a pocket.
The left hand side holds a Card List and a Gift List ..

.. and the right hand side holds the Menu with a shopping list underneath and also an envelope for receipts, etc.  Any recipes, ideas for cards, ads for pressies I may be interested in, can all be slid into the pockets behind the lists.
The lists themselves I actually created in Excel.  There are three to a page so, after printing them, I just have to cut them out and staple them together.  Easy peasy!!
 

The reason why I positioned the pages to open from the inside out was so that I could see all of my lists  at once without having to turn pages to get to the next one.  'Cos I'm lazy!!  LOL!!  Actually it just seemed more convenient that way.  (My story .. sticking to it!! he! he!)

 This is how it looks without the lists in place.

 The back of the planner ..  the elastic band is the closure.  Wish I had used something prettier but I was too impatient to get it finished and this was all I could find.

The book is small, only 5" x 7", so it will easily fit into my handbag.  One of the reasons I didn't do much in the way of embellishment is that I knew I would want to carry it around with me and it would all just get damaged.  Or, of course, I only need to take out the relevant lists when I go shopping.

So, I now have all my Christmas info in one place!!  Now all I need to do is NOT lose this book!!  LOL!!

If you like this project, I will be posting a step by step tutorial on its construction in the next few days.  Would love to have you back to take a look and, maybe, construct one of your own.

Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.
Happy Christmas crafting!!!

Mini Papercraft Pack - Megs Garden #2

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day!!

If you had a look at my previous post you would have seen that Megs Garden has recently released a new product, namely the Mini Papercraft Pack.  This pack is ideal for making cards, tags, mini albums, off the page projects, anything really that requires smaller sized papers and ephemera.  The pages are slightly smaller  than the original Mini Card Pack (which is also still available) but it has lots of added goodies and you can get it in both the printed and the digital version.  How cool is that??

I'm sharing another two cards with you today made with the 'English Rose Garden' Mini Papercraft Pack and, as I said in my last post, I thoroughly enjoyed creating with it.

This is the full pack (each page measures 8.5" x 11") ..

 

So far, I have created four cards with this pack, but I still have quite a bit of it left over so there will be more creations to come!!
Here are the last two cards in more detail ..

Card 3
Measures 4.5" x 5.5"

Very much the vintage look here.  My base paper is one of the larger images from the ephemera in the pack which I've simply torn to size and then stenciled with Distress Ink and texture paste.

My second fave flowers ..  the Carabella Rose available, of course, from Megs Garden.

One of the vintage lady images from the ephemera tucked into a Little Birdie chipboard frame..

Some 2Crafty Chipboard coloured with acrylic paint, coated with Clear Rock Candy Crackle and dry brushed with gesso ..

.. and the inside, decorated with more of the paper.

Card 4 
Measures 5" x 5.5"
 

Triple paper layers on the front stamped with a script stamp and sprayed lightly with watered down 'Peeled Paint' Distress paint.  Tucked some gauze and some pretty ribbon between the layers too.

The clock was mounted on some chipboard for extra dimension and then I attached the metal clock hands with a small brad.

Sprayed the flower centers with more of the 'Peeled Paint' Distress paint and added some twine,  a strip of  lace and some beads.

I made the back part of the card wider than the front so that I could add this little greeting on the side.  Unfortunately my embossing didn't turn out as clean and sharp as I would have liked but that's what happens sometimes with handmade items.   You don't always have total control but I'll just say it adds character!!  LOL!!

A closer look at the layers and stamping ..

.. and the inside of the card.


The cards in this post and in my previous post are all I have made with this pack so far and I do hope I have inspired you to try the packs for yourself.  There are a few different paper designs to choose from, including two Christmas Packs which would be ideal for Christmas cards and/or mini albums and even some decorations. The possibilities are endless.
For more ideas of what can be made with the Papercraft Pack, my Team Mate Miriam Hagger has a post showing a gorgeous altered Printer's Tray and Team Mate Dana Tatar has a post showing some fabulous Christmas ornaments.  To see Miriam's post click HERE, and to see Dana's post click HERE.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog and leaving me some love.


Megs Garden Products used

English Rose Garden Mini Papercraft Pack
Old World Time Collage Sheet
Carabella Rose - Fairy Pink
Fantasy Blooms - White
3.5cm White Lace

Enjoy the rest of your day, take care and God Bless.
oxox  Marg

Mini Papercraft Pack - Megs Garden #1

Hello all you beautiful visitors and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are having a wonderful day!!

Megs Garden has recently released a new product, namely the Mini Papercraft Pack.  This pack is ideal for making cards, tags, mini albums, off the page projects, anything really that requires smaller sized papers and ephemera.  The pages are slightly smaller  than the original Mini Card Pack (which is also still available) but it has lots of added goodies and you can get it in both the printed and the digital version.  How cool is that??

I'm sharing two cards with you today made with the 'English Rose Garden' Mini Papercraft Pack.

This is the full pack (each page measures 8.5" x 11") ..

 

.. and, so far I have created four cards with it.
In this post I will show you the first two and then in the next few days I will share the other two.  Hopefully, you will enjoy this post enough that you will want to return to see those .. LOL!!

Card 1
Measures 3.5" x 6"

The background papers in the pack are 5.4" square so, to make a slightly taller card, I simply cut two of the squares to the width I needed, then tore them both diagonally across and layered them to create the extra length.

Added some machine stitching, stenciling with texture paste and some ink splatters. 

The strip cut from the side of one of the squares was used as a layer down the center of the card and I simply machine stitched it down the middle to secure it. 

 The birdcage label is from the ephemera in the pack and I've added a few seed beads as well.

The flowers are all available from Megs Garden.  The mini roses were sprayed very lightly with some acrylic paint and then everything was dry brushed with gesso.


Card 2
Measures 4" x 5.5"

No spraying or ink splatters this time, just some background stenciling with texture paste.

 All the ribbons used here are available at Megs Garden.  The raffia came from my stash.  I simply opened it out and shredded it.  Meg does have raffia available in her store but at the moment only has black and brown in stock.

 The beads and small green stamen clusters are from my stash and the frame is from Prima.

My fave flowers .. Puffy Paper Flowers!  Originally they were off-white and I've just sprayed them with different colours of watered down acrylic paint and then dry brushed them with gesso.  Of course, they are available from Megs Garden.

So, as I said before, these are the first two cards made from the Papercraft Pack.  In the next few days I will show you another two cards.  I'm really hoping you will want to come back to take a look.


I have left a list of Megs Garden Products used at the end of this post.  Simply click on the name and it will take you to the relevant page of the Web site.  While you're there, why not take a look at all of the gorgeous products available through Megs Garden.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog and do enjoy the rest of your day.

Megs Garden Products used

English Rose Garden Mini Papercraft Pack
Puffy Paper Flowers
Carabella Rose - Fairy Pink
Mini Rose Buds
Small Paper Roses
1.2cm White Lace
Natural Jute Ribbon
Camel Mesh Ribbon

Take care and God Bless.
oxox  Marg

Man Card #2

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I'm here to share the second of two male cards I created just recently.  If you haven't seen it, and you'd like to, the first one is HERE.   

This card, and the previous one, were both made predominantly with Prima's Engraver Collection.

I really love these papers .. my fave colour combo!!
This card was actually made first and took me a few days to complete.  Then I used the left over bits, and some things I decided not to use here, to make the other one and that only took an hour or so to make.  This one is a bit more involved than the other card but still ... not sure if there is a lesson to be learned here or not.   

 

I've never used staples before but thought I would give it a try and, I like it!!  A great way to attach the twine from the labels so they don't just dangle every which way.

Had to add some crackle and, of course, swipe some gesso as well.

Cut out the Happy Birthday with my Silhouette Portrait.  I actually cut two and glued them together for some extra depth/height .. whatever.  I also covered it in Glossy Accents, although you can't really see that here.

The inside .. of course.

The stamp is from the 'Pearls of Wisdom' Set by My Favourite Things.

A couple of closies showing the layers.

 .. and another front view (just in case you forgot what it looked like LOL!!).

So, that is all my 'man' cards done for this year .. Yayy! .. and now I can get started on Christmas!!
That's quite freaky actually, because I have never started my Christmas makes before the end of November.  Hopefully this means less stress!! ..  or not!! .. LOL!!

Thank you so much for visiting and special thanks to you sweet people who take the time to leave me some love.  I really, really appreciate it!!  Hope you all enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.