Showing posts with label JYC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JYC. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Christmas Journal 2018 Plus Embroidery Gifts


Well, I don't know about you, but I sure am glad 2018 is over!  I haven't blogged since 2017, and I thought that was a hard year!  2018 almost killed me!  It started with my daughter recovering from a second knee surgery, my husband selling one of his companies, and an IRS audit on one of our businesses.  It ended with me falling off a ladder, completely tearing my ACL in my left knee, spraining my MCL, hurting my elbow, shoulder, hand and back.  In between, my husband started a new company while simultaneously a company he started a couple of years ago started to take off as government licenses and labels were completed and approved.  Seriously, it was work, risk, and pain! 

So, here I sit without any New Year's Resolutions but plenty of things that need to improve, after two bad years, and one improvement needs to be finding time to create stuff!  I have missed being creative, making things, and writing about it!  In that spirit, I reversed my decision not to do a Christmas Journal this year and gave myself one day to do it.  I have been doing my Christmas Journals since 2012.  Typically, I work on that year's journal daily.  It really makes me focus on the holiday season and special Christmasy things each day.  This year, I didn't have it in me.  I had to move all the big family celebrations to my cousin's house due to my injuries, I didn't put up a tree until a week before Christmas (and even then it was just lights, garland, and a star!), I missed Black Friday, I did all my shopping on-line or at the gift card display, I made very few gifts, and did almost no baking.  We decided not to see the Nutcracker Ballet (my daughter danced in the Nutcracker at her ballet school in June and was Nutcrackered-out).  Despite all that, I am a serial picture taker with my phone and a list maker.  My Christmas Journal is heavy on both of those, plus journaling, so deciding to make one made sense because I was half-way done!

I decided to use only papers in my stash and to do a simple design that I would bind with my Zutter and wire o-rings I already had.  Some of my pages opened up and some had internal pockets to hold journaling tags.  I ordered my photos via app and picked them up.  Despite having my new Cricut Maker that I won from the company (my Christmas gift from the Crafting Fairy), my Christmas Journals have always been done on my old Expression using carts.  I used it for my tags this year.  The one thing my Christmas Journals always have is a Letter to My Future Self, a prompt from Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas that she sends each year.  Something about that is cathartic so it is a must but I do hide it in my journal in plain sight.










I stopped putting a CD of all the holiday's photos in the back of my journal since everything now is by date and duplicated on Dropbox.  I do, however, still keep all the Christmas cards I received by friends and family.  This year, our Christmas card was one of my pages.

The cover was simply acid free mounting board adhered with regular acid free scrapbooking paper.  I didn't have time for a complex cover so I picked busy paper for the cover and created a belly band (since I knew this thing would be fat and pop up).  I like the idea of a fabric-and-elastic belly band (instead of a card stock one) so that it will hold up with repeated movement as the album is viewed over time.  I used my simple Brother PE770 and Embrilliance software to do mine.


To do this, I merged the 'Lorie' frame from Lynnie Pinnie with BX format font 'Good Morning' from Applique Corner.  I deleted the text from a freebie by Sonia Showalter, leaving the Santa hat.  I moved the hat to the "0" of 2018.  I made sure the "Remove Hidden Stitches" was selected in My Preferences in the software.  I resized everything to fit the width of my hoop.  I stitched it on Vilene, using the same technique I explained in my patch-making post, which can be found by clicking here.  That technique includes adding a piece on the bottom of the hoop to cover all back stitches except the final satin stitches and wetting the finished edge to remove all trace of the Vilene.  I joined a piece of fold-over elastic and sewed it to the patch. 




Finished and final, my Christmas Journal was complete just as decorations were put away-- and I appreciated how little decorating I did once it was time to put it all away!  My husband said he was thinking the same thing!

I will say that I did create time to do a few projects for gifts before Christmas.  Nothing like the amounts of things I normally make, but I was trying to ease back into it and thought it would be easier but I didn't anticipate pain issues from my back.  That made these even more special to me to give.

The first thing I did was an applique project.  


My daughter is a ballet dancer and she gave this to her little cousin, along with a set of ballet student dolls.  I was trying to find something that seemed like something she would give.  This took me forever because the file had missing elements that I didn't notice initially.  Luckily, I always open my file in my Embrilliance software and print out a list of color steps so I can take notes while I watch the virtual stitch out.  I eventually found a format that had all the elements. I am not sure if this was a problem with the file or just my download.  I saw this artwork as a png on Etsy last year so I fell in love with it as a blanket stitch applique!  It turned out so cute with its million color steps!  This was from Alphalicious. It was personalized with Jolsens 231 in .5" size.  Embrilliance allowed me to size it perfectly and curve the text.


The next thing I made was a bed-sized reading pillow for a preschooler.  I just cut the fabric to the size of the pillow for the body of the pillow and for the pocket.  The peeker design was from French Frills/Sweet and Sassy.  The alpha was Itch2Stitch Closer to Free and is available in BX.  I used a 5x12 hoop for the name and Embrilliance split it for me so that I could stitch it nice and big.


Next I tried something new to me:  I opened up the leg on toddler pants to stitch near the hem.  It was quick and painless to serge closed.



I stitched a design to go with a larger design on the top.  These were from Lynnie Pinnie:  mini colorwork ballerinas and matching larger ballerinas.  




Hyperlinks of Things Discussed in This Post:
I have a few other projects from 2017 that never made it to my blog that I will try to post soon!  Until then, you are welcome to view my Embroidery Gallery with most of my projects and links to their posts.  My papercraft posts are on my Paper Gallery. I never posted my 2017 Christmas Journal but these are links to other previous Christmas Journal posts on this blog: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.

Happy New Year and thanks for visiting!
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Monday, January 2, 2017

2016 Christmas Journal Completed (with tips for doing them fast!)


Happy New Year!  2016 was crazy and super busy but I have to admit it would not have been Christmas for me without doing my Christmas Journal, which I just finished.  I have been on a bit of a journey to make things easier and faster.  Last year, after Christmas, I went through all of our boxes of decorations and tossed the things we never use, labeled everything left, and made sure that all the boxes were properly filled and sealed.  That really helped this time around when I didn't feel like making the effort to decorate.  I will say that I probably would not have decorated except that I have a kid and she was adamant that the house would be in shape, decorated, and ready to go before her annual Christmas party she hostesses for her friends.  To make it seem doable, I bought a new tree-- prelit and only three pieces. What a nice change from the old tree that required every branch to be hung in place on a 6-part base before several strings of lights had to be painstakingly added.  Even my inner cheapness felt that the purchase was worth it. The 7' tree that I put in my daughter's room had been replaced the year before with a similar style so I knew with the ease of that one, that our big family tree would have to be replaced.

My need to make Christmas easier and less time consuming got filtered into my Christmas Journal as well.  I have been doing these since 2012.  I love Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas for this, not because I do all of her prompts every year, but because she reminds me daily to think of the Christmas season and what makes it special.  Her JYC is a program where you pay once and then get the daily prompts and tips (and even a forum to connect with other JRC-ers) every year after that too! They just start December 1 of each year unless you tell her to stop (which I can't imagine doing!) They continue until January 6 but I typically end my journal on the 25th to keep it from getting too fat. The journals became instantly important to me the first year I did one because it helped me to focus on the meaning of the season, what was important to me, what we were doing right then, my memories of Christmases past and wishes for Christmases in the future, and ways in which we change each year. My daughter who is 12 loves looking at past years' journals. I love that they are important to her too.


These are my previous journals that are here on my blog:

Since starting them, I have found that I don't have to journal every single day, although I like them best when I have time to do that.  I always try to include one photo of myself, a suggestion that I learned from another on-line scrapping class that reminded me that I was never in any of my albums! Now, I make sure that there is at least a selfie of me and it has been fun to see how I change too and to know that I am in these memories as well as my fabulous family.  This is the kind of thing that I think will be important for the future.  I include a one page calendar so that the month is easy to see at a glance and to help with organizing when I get behind on doing pages for the book.  (I get them every year from a blog called A Stitch In Time.)  I include a CD of all the photos I took the whole season, not just the ones that made the journal.  (That is my expectation that someone will want to see the photos I decided not to include!)  I stick our ever-dwindling stack of received Christmas cards in the journal so that I can remember those and keep them.

This year, to make my Christmas Journal fast to do, I didn't worry about doing an entry for every day.  I just focused on what I wanted to include.  I take photos of everything all the time with my phone so there's always something to use.  I bought a small binder and protective pages from Staples instead of making my own pages and binding it myself.  I bought numbers, dimensional stickers, and envelopes from Michael's instead of making my own.  I bought one coordinated Christmas paper pack so I wouldn't have to worry about making sure it went together.

I used my embroidery machine to create a one-color (mostly) merged design using my embroidery software, Embrilliance.  I was able to set it up and go do other things with only one small and fast color change near the end. In this way, my cover sort of made itself.


The embroidery files I used for my cover were:  tree - Urban Threads, 2016 - Stitchtopia, tiny font used for the text Christmas Journal - Lisa Shaw's free Tiny font.

I printed out my embroidery design and used it with my lightbox to cut a paper border from the cover.


I pre-made a bunch of identical tags for journaling.  I used my Cricut Expression without software. For you dinosaurs like me that occasionally enjoy using your Cricut like a punch (cartridges and no software), my tags were from the discontinued Holiday Frames and Tags (a Creative Memories cart that you collectors like me will have) on page 42.


These are the inside pages of my 2016 Christmas Journal.

This year's calendar went right in the front.  I picked one from the free Stitch In Time printables that matched my paper pad.

On days that were true to the date, I added numbers.  I only did this for a few of my pages this year. I made journaling pockets for my tags using the photos. Using ribbon on the tags makes them easy to remove from the sheet protectors.

We did all our Angel Tree buying and stitching before December on Black Friday but it is an important thing to us that really makes it feel like Christmas so I include it.




For the first time ever, a cultural icon was included.  My daughter and I listen to the OCR of Hamilton or the Mixtape almost daily so it seemed appropriate to include. I used fan art that I found on line and saved as a screenshot on my phone.

I always make sure that I include one picture of myself so that I am part of the narrative (you Hamilton fans will get appreciate the choice of words there.)

I didn't do my own manifesto this year, and I didn't put it up front.  I found something to take its place though that I thought was fitting.  Another time saver for me and probably more meaningful.

This season was also overshadowed with political stuff for me.  I allowed it in my journal this year.  Another first.  I think ignoring what is most on your mind and in your heart is a mistake.  Including it will make it more poignant when looking back once this becomes a "past journal."  Some of the journaling is a bit hidden, as it is on other pages as well.      

Our date night for our anniversary was cut short due to a sick kiddo we had to pick up so I put our wedding photo in a phone app to make it different from the original.  I wanted to commemorate it even though I hadn't taken any photos of the evening.




My daughter got braces on this day.  I didn't journal it.  The picture said it all to me.

I used photo collages using phone apps to allow me to get lots of photos on single pages.  In past years, I have cut them apart just to have tiny photos in my journal, especially when my pages were tiny.  I had all my photos printed at Walgreen's every few days this year.  I just worked picking them up into my errand-running.  

I always like to add a page about Santa-- what my daughter wanted, what she got, what it looked like.  She "knows" now but I still have fun with this.  

I didn't add recipes this year but did still find ways to "hide" thoughts that I wanted to keep a little out of the way.  

Instead of a letter to my future self, I answered these questions posted by someone I follow on Facebook:
What did you create this year that you’re most proud of?
What did you invest in that’s most aligned with your destiny?
How can you respond to your setbacks & losses from this year so as to use them to fuel your vision for 2017?
What is no longer serving you? What are the patterns, relationships, structures, old beliefs or anything else in the way of your destiny?
Who do you need to forgive and what do you need to let go of to be free to shine your light in even greater ways?
What can you commit to in 2017 that will most support you to becoming the [person] you came here to be?
What is the most powerful intention you can set for 2017 that’s most aligned with the greatness of your soul and the needs of the world?

Christmas cards received this year (like this one from my mom) are in the back.

I embroidered my cover using fabric and thread to match the papers inside.  To the embroidery, I added a paper frame and added the same paper on the spine.
And now,  I did attempt a little video to show all my journals along with tips to make them fast. This is why I don't do videos very often.  Ha! You will notice my cover for this year's journal had an upgrade after I made the video.



Quick List of Links from This Blog Post (none of these are affilitate links):

I hope you will try your hand at a Christmas Journal or, even better, that you are preparing to thumb through your completed (or soon to be completed) journal!  Best wishes for a creative, happy, and peace-filled 2017.  
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Monday, January 4, 2016

On the 11th Day of Christmas....My Christmas Journal

Today, January 4th, is the 11th Day of Christmas.  It is our favorite because this is Eleven Pipers Piping from the Twelve Days of Christmas song...and we are partial to pipers.  (My daughter is named Piper).


Yes, our tree is still up until the Epiphany so it is still Christmasy here, but not for much longer.  So this post is Christmasy too!

I have been so preoccupied with embroidery that I almost let December 2015 slip past without doing my annual Christmas Journal.  I have done three on previous years, all started because of some of my Cricut friends introducing me to Shimelle's JYC (Journal Your Christmas).  Mid-December, however, my crafty genius friend, Sara Andrews, in her very subtle way, helped me to remember that I need to do this.

When I say "need," I don't mean it in the way we say we "need " a piece of fabric or that we "need" a paper collection.  No, I really needed it.

My Christmas journals do several things for me.  They force me to focus on the season.  They require that I live in the moment...and document it!  They give me something to look back upon.  They give me a memento.  Past journals, all those were done meticulously day by day, have been used as a record of when we traveled.  We have referred to them to remember early snows, plans with friends. I include each year's recipes I cooked and baked for Christmas.  I wrote private letters to my future self that I hid away in secret envelopes, sometimes painful, sometimes ominous!  I kept my journals real, though celebratory; honest while festive.  My Christmas Journal is my gift to myself each year.

The day that I admitted I would not do one for 2015 was the middle of the month in December.  No way to catch up as it got closer to Christmas... until I realized that I was actually feeling sad about it. I had been moving the daily prompts that I got from Shimelle to a December Daily/JYC folder in my emails, never opening any.  I knew I would not be using the prompts this year as much as I depended on them in the past.

Later that same day, on an office supply trip to Staples, I grabbed a small binder, a tiny one, and same-size page protectors.  I was going to do one and I was going to start that day. And I did!

Using Christmas papers I bought at a crafting retreat in Virginia (in September!), I filled my journal with my notes, photos (I take pics constantly so that was no problem), ideas, recipes, calendar, and memories.  And I did it in record time, spending only a few days on it as opposed to the daily morning crafting ritual I did on previous ones.

Just a silly, quick collage to fit inside the cover to make it look less like a binder and more like my journal.
I added stickers and cut outs and glitter tulle, nothing fancy, all very fast.  No die cutter used this year!  



I wasn't as good at filling in our calendar as previous years.  Instead of using one of the free printables, this year, I just used one in the paper pad I had.  My attempt to do this in record time shows, I guess!
This page included a pocket for the Christmas cookies we made this year.


I like hand-written journaling even in my more elaborate journals so I was happy to add it to this simple one.
This is the first journal also that I did not do chronologically.  This page is the for the Ballet Tea that is early in the month and I have put it in near the middle of my journal.  I like the freedom I got from this format.  Less rigidity.  It is just what I needed.



I used a collage app on my phone to get tiny photos, like this page on the right where I featured my little selfie project I did with all of my father-in-law's siblings on Christmas Eve.  If I don't think about it, I will completely omit photos of me in my journals.  My selfie project kept that from happening and using tiny photos meant that the whole journal wasn't a selfie project!


This page includes a pocket for the recipes  I made Christmas Day at my house for my whole family as well as my in-laws.  We had a couple of Moroccan dishes, a first for us, this year.  It was awesome.

Last year I started adding a photo CD to all my albums and journals.  It allows me to find photos fast when someone sees one and wants a copy.  It also allows me to keep all the photos that didn't make the book with the ones that did.  I think that when I am gone and my daughter gets these journals to keep, the extra photos will be a little bonus treasure for her.
I plan to put the Christmas cards we received in the inside pockets of the binder!  I have always wanted to find a way to incorporate them.  Surprisingly, this is the year!

I am thrilled that I got this done this year!  And I share it with you, even though it is not as fancy as previous years' journals as a reminder that it can be done and it is not too late!


List of Links Mentioned in This Post:

  • Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas.  You pay one time for prompts and videos to guide you to make your own and then, if you want them, you will receive them every year at no additional charge:  click here.
  • Sara Andrews' blog - this is a link to her Dec 25 December Daily entry:  click here.
Additionally, you can find my previous years' journals here:
Thank you for checking my blog post today!  To see my previous paper projects, check out my Paper Gallery by clicking the tab at the top of the blog or click here.  If you are here looking for embroidery projects, you can find all of them by clicking my Embroidery page tab or just click here.
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