Calendar Journal - Year Five

I'm beginning year FIVE with my calendar journal project.

Obviously I love documenting a bit of each day.  My struggle has been the format.  Yep, I have another new format going.  This might be the one...***have I said that before?...snicker***. 

Three months of 2017 are ready for the day's happenings.

It's pretty simple.  I just need this one template.

I photocopy my template and cut away the blocks I don't need for that month.  Then I number the days.  These templates will work for whatever month starts on these days.  From here I just choose a fun piece of scrapbook paper and photocopy the template to the scrapbook paper.  From there just a little bit of artsy/craftsy page deco is needed.  This is working for me nicely.

Depending how the days fall for the month, some months will allow for more deco fun than others.

I couldn't really wait for January to give it a try, so I began with December 2016.

Here's to the bits and bobs of the 365 days of 2017.

xxx

Annie

2017! Happy New Year!

Wow!  2017!  Where does the time go?!

I've got a good start on my 2017 handmade cards challenge.  January cards are done.

I was after a classy glitzy look for this New Year greeting.

The mail carriers did well delivering this envelope with the large bold year in their way of easily identifying the address.

I liked the subdued color scheme I used and it seemed a good fit for my Grandson's birthday card.  I also liked the big bold numbers on the envelope.  And I really love getting some extra mileage from a card idea.  

May 2017 be our best year ever for one and all!

xxx

Annie

Money Gift Wrapping

My most favorite gifts to wrap are money gifts. 

And I certainly had some fun with these!

It's all about the wrapping.

And the glitz!

Everything is ready.  It's now all about the coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream and enjoying the sights and sounds of this beautiful Christmas season.

Merry Christmas to everyone

xxx

Annie

Snowflake Christmas Card

I DID IT!  I made handmade greeting cards for the entire year for 2016!  Inspired by my daughter, who makes all her cards, I challenged myself to make the cards I would need all year, and I DID IT!

I wrote out a calendared list and kept to it.  It did get a little dicey from July on, but I managed somehow.  

This is my Christmas card.  I knew if I were going to mass produce, it had to be simple.  But I loved this simple elegant card as soon as I saw it on Pinterest here.  Having an Embosser/Die Cutting machine makes life much simpler and funner.  

I stamped, then heat embossed the phrase, then die cut the sentiment for the card inside.  That way I was free to mess up without ruining the card.  

To say the least, I am quite proud of myself for completing this self challenge.

May you all have a very merry, bright & cheery, happy little Christmas!

xxx

Annie

Christmas Postcard Swap

I wanted to join in Sheila's fabric postcard swap.  But one of her rules is that the postcard front AND back are to be fabric.  Although I started my postcards way back in the beginning with fabric backs, I quickly came to prefer paper cardstock backs.

I find that a paper back is more accepting of creativity.  

I finally let Sheila know that I wasn't joining her swap because I'm too old to spend my time playing in a way that I didn't want to.

Sheila is so kind, she offered to swap with me herself.  She was also curious about my cardstock backs and would like to see one for herself.  Sheila received this JOY postcard from me.

And I received this beautifully stitched Dove postcard from Sheila.  The music is a great background for Sheila's beautifully appliquéd Christmas dove.  Thank you Sheila!

Ho Ho Ho

xxx

Annie

November 2016 Calendar Journal

For November I played around with some lettering practice with a single word each day.

This style lettering is easy when the brush tip of the pen is new and stiffest.  Once you letter with it for a short while, the tip gets softer and I find it is harder to make nice looking letters.

No surprise here, I'm getting bored with covering the "notes" section and the blocks with the blank blocks at the beginning and ending of the month.  Why won't someone who loves doing that create these calendars as blanks for me to buy?!!!

I probably should have a little Tequila with that whine.

Happy Day!

xxx

Annie

Happy Thanksgiving!

These are some of my very minimal simplistic Thanksgiving cards.  

I underestimated the pressure of the automated postage stamp cancelling machine and the branches arrived broken.  **big ole sad face here!**   

But, no one to blame but myself.  I did add a sheet of plastic foam as protection, but it didn't protect anything.  I did consider walking into the post office for hand canceling of the postage, but I went with faith instead.  Well, live and learn is the lesson here.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

xxx

Annie

Small Fabric Boxes

I was so inspired by Caroll"s detailed fabric box post, I could hardly wait to make a couple...so far.

This tallish narrow one will be living on my table housing my quick grab tools.  I have a jar inside this box because I have my Xacto knife in there and I don't want it cutting up the bottom of the box.

And this squattier box loaded with chocolate liqueurs will be a Thanksgiving hostess gift.

These cuties make up so quickly and are such fun.  I think there will be some more for Christmas time too.  

I've got to get those liqueurs wrapped up before they begin disappearing from the box!  **wink wink**

xxx

Annie

Dinner Place Cards

I was asked to make place cards for the Thanksgiving dinner table.  My hostess was going to send me an oak leaf pattern.  There would be 12 holiday guests.  I thought about my lack of interest in mass production and how I was already dreading tracing and cutting each leaf.  

Tim Holtz and his Layered Leaf Die and Embossing Folder to the rescue!  I added some inks to the leaves, and cut tags with the Tim Holtz Tiny Tabs and Tags Die.  I tied the leaves and tags together with Hemp strings and gold thread.  

Pinterest inspiration came to my rescue again with these.  

Happy Fall

xxx

Annie

Quick Birthday Cards

I needed a couple of quick birthday cards for a late birthday party invitation.  I am not a quick thinker-upper, nor a last minute procrastinator, so this was stressful.  Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Both card designs are inspiration taken from Pinterest.

I wrote the names for the envelopes on scraps...in case I had to write them a bunch of times to get something presentable in public.  Otherwise a whole lot of perfectly good envelopes end up in the trash.

I then cut out the names, inked around the edges and glued them to the envelopes.

I was pretty happy with these card results.  And so were my recipients.  Whew! 

Happy Day!

xxx

Annie