Well, here it is. Christmas 2023 is upon us. And not surprisingly I have made a Christmas journal. I'm always working on a couple of things at a time and I'm still making those beautiful journals that I love so much.. This is the one I love the most!
I actually made three of the Christmas theme ones this year. I thought aqua and red would be nice colors for this year's journal so I did make one using those colors and graphics and I really liked the way it turned out. But looking back and comparing it to the others, I see that I'm not done with it yet. Here's a sneak peek at that one:
And then I ran across some beautiful papers with red, green and pink. Not the bright pink, but the light red shades of pink that actually look good with red without clashing. So I made a beautiful journal with the emphasis on trims and ribbons. That's the one I'm showing the pages of in this post.
Then I made an Anna Griffin journal using papers and ephemera from last year and this year. I have so many Christmas cards made up that I haven't sent yet and I really don't need a lot more so I decided to use up some of the pretty things I have by making a journal with them. Here's a sneak peek of that one:
And I also had time to work on my Marie journal too. Made a bunch of Marie Antoinette shoes and tiny shoe paper clips. Can't wait to show how cute they are! Here's a sneak peek at Marie:
But back to Christmas. More than any other kind of journal I've ever made, I love to make the flip flop kind of journals out of recycled throw away junk envelopes. I also like to add embossed die cuts where I can and fancy paper edges. These are pages from the red and green Santa journal at the top of the page.
I like to work with Anna Griffin die cuts and The Graphics Fairy images and combine them together with 3D ephemera like jewels, fibers, laces and ribbons. But I also like the themed paper packs I find on Etsy and this theme is one of them. It is from Lianascrap and it's called Patchwork Christmas.
I put six signatures into this journal and a lot of cards and pockets. It's a little chunkier than most of them that I do. I also used glitter glue on top edges of cards to give them a little punch.
I like to use the pom pom ball fringe sometimes and I found these at the dollar tree but I haven't seen them since. If you run across some, you better get them because they will go fast.
I use a lot of dollar tree craft items. I like the fringe, jewel stickers, dot ribbons and faux diamond ribbon that you can cut into single strips. I get a lot of edgings and strings too. I used to get ribbons and trims on sale at Michaels but I haven't been to Michaels in over a year. I quit going when they went all "Home Goods layout" and "JoAnn checkout" on us. They just don't have the craft stuff anymore like they used to. Since covid, their prices are just insane. I get better deals online.
Honestly, I don't shop the craft stores anymore because most of them did away with their coupon discounts. I think JoAnn's still has coupons for some things but you better read the fine print on them.
There were a lot of tags in this journal kit and they just got prettier with glitter glue edges and fiber trims. One of the tricks I learned for dimension is to print off two tags and fussy cut one of them out, say a flower or leaves and just foam tape it on top of the other one to make it stand out. I did that with the pink poinsettias.
So I got these completely done but most of the time I just get the bones put together and then I get another idea. I can always go back later and embellish and over-decorate. The more stuff the better on these. And I'm always getting new ribbons and trims.
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