A bit of this and that...

Well, the first week of the new year is almost over already. All the decorations are packed away (except the fairy lights on the balcony which help to brighten up the dark winter evenings and which I just cannot face taking down just yet!) and Christmas feels like an awful long time ago.

And so I think it's time for a creativity catch up.

Before Christmas I had to get three commissions done for The Scrapbook Magazine, which although the time was tight, was a great excuse to just sit down and make time for a bit of scrapping. Obviously, I can't share the layouts with you just yet, but here are a few sneak peeks.

 

Then there was the epic journey that was my December journal. What a disaster! LOL! I mean, I'm happy that I did it and finished it and I think it looks kind of fun, but it's MASSIVE! And completely hopelessly fixed together because the format was completely wrong! But it's ok - I'll know better for next time. My main problem was that I decided on a 6x4 format with one side for a date title, one photo, one side for journalling and a "pretty" page. But over 25 entries and many days had more than one photo and you know me, all about the lumpy bumpy - well it has turned out about 7" thick and that's just not practical! I ended up using some complicated string fastening which looks rather ugly on the back spine but I am hoping that no one notices that!

On the positive side, I used up loads of stash that has been sitting around for ages (that feels good!) and also managed to incorporate a few bits of memorabilia from the month. I didn't worry much about colours and combinations, I just used whatever came in my hand so there is plenty of pink and red and green and blue which may not normally be put together - but hey, Christmas needs a bit of kitsch, doesn't it?!?

But it captures a slice of life which is what it's all about!

These were two hand-made tags that Liberty had put on our presents and I thoughts they were so gorgeous, I just had to use them as decoration.

 

This was one of the tags that Ginger had included in my Christmas card for the Nic H class Christmas card swap - when I opened up the envelope, it was stuffed full of gorgeous little hand-made tags - just such a lovely sweet surprise!

And proof that the Christmas crackers really did have paper hats that were worn! This was Christmas eve and yes, cocktails featured pretty heavily on the menu!

Apart from that, there's not much to report. I managed to sit down this week and make a layout for the magazine, only to find that it wasn't needed after all. But it's full of lovely spring colours and so, it brightens up my day and I am hoping it might have given me the kick start I need for creating this new year.

I didn't get around to doing any kind of 2010 round up so I think I will try to do this next week now that the dust of the holidays has settled. Watch this space!