Christmas Eye Candy

It never fails, before you know it, Christmas is just around the corner with thoughts of sugar plum fairies dancing in our heads, Through out this year I have been working not only on my hand quilting and cross stitch projects but on holiday junk journals for gift giving. I thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peak at some of the projects in the works and/or completed.

These first 2 are Charles Dickens themed. The covers are made from recycled cereal boxes and bound with 1″ rings. This one below measures 4.5″x 7″. She has 10 pages filled with tags and ephemeral for journaling on.

This one below is also Dickens themed and is slightly larger measuring 6″ X 8″. Most of the digital prints are from The Graphic’s Fairy and some from The Digital Collage Club. Music pages from old piano sheet music books from the Goodwill. I also use magazine photos I find, like the horse & sleigh above. Ribbons ties are from my fabric stash. Shhhh – and you might have noticed the December 20th, not 25th, this is for a daughter (her birthday).

This next one is an envelope style with journal pocket card placed in front of the envelope. Both was made using a file folder. Angel themed, it measures 8.5 “x 5” I am not entirely done with this one. I am planning on adding some glitter edging to some of the cards. It is filled with all kinds of angel ephemera. All of the gifts have an original vintage Christmas postcard inside.

Simply made using a legal size red envelope this one has a tuck spot for journal cards in the front. This gift is bird themed with most of the ephemera inside and out having some sort of winter, bird, or Santa picture. Red sari ribbon and taffeta lace embellishments. The inside is filled with Christmas eye candy.

All of my journals have been made with a person in mind. This one is for a childhood friend who I share a special bond with. Measuring 5.5″ X 7.25″ this envelope is packed with 12 journaling cards, one for each month of the coming year. I love the red and gold sari remnant. I have not added a closure but I am thinking some white dotted swiss tule for a wintery effect. I will of course add a personal note to each journal before sending them off.

This hold in your hand cutie measures 3.5″ X 4″ and is Angel and Madonna/motherhood themed. Lots of lace and wispy threads are poking out and it is jam packed with goodies. The cover was made out of a jello box and there are 5 signatures with 10 making 20 pages in each signature.

The last photo I’m sharing is of envelope style journal pockets. These were made with cereal box or file folders for covers and I have 8 of them ready to go. I mostly used pages from Little Golden books that were Christmas themed, as well as other collected photos and ephemera. These are mostly for grandkids and their young families. I will tuck in a gift check and a restaurant gift card.

I am making it a bit easier on myself this year with no big gifts to ship with expensive post office fees. I hope you enjoyed this sneak peak.

What crafty holiday projects have you been working on?

Holiday Gift Wrap Up

I have just about finished up on my holiday gifts for this year. Now to get them in the mail or delivered. I wrapped up my cross stitched cards with this adorable Santa and I have to say, I am having a hard time deciding what to do with him. I just love him! Would it be wrong to keep him for myself ?

I made two Hanukkah dish towels for 2 dear (sisters) friends. But with the holiday almost over I don’t think I’ll deliver them in time. As it turns out – not only friends but DNA revealed we are distance cousins connected abt. 5/6 generations back.

Skye (our mini schnauzer fur baby) will head for one last groom for 2021. I always give her groomer a monetary tip at the end of the year and something yummy for the staff. Her groomer, Katie will be getting married in the spring and I wanted to do something a little extra special this time. I decided on a wedding junk journal and I could tuck her tip into one of the pockets with wedding ephemera. Below Katies journal.

Here is the cover of the journal. I photographed the cover of this on a 1935 copy of the Delineator Magazine. How perfect, looks like a wedding reception party for the background. A luscious satin creme ribbon and gold sari fabric ribbon holds a gorgeous envelope in place. Perfect for tucking any gift checks/cash they receive. Below is a few of the pages that I created. I had so much fun with this project.

Stashed in a pocket, ads I got off of newspaper.com papers, a sweet envelope, and Journalling card.

I used wedding photo copies from my collection of family photos. The black/white opens into a card for journaling. I love the vintage pearl botton

Under the book page ribbon is a wedding reception announcement from 1929.

I kept the signaturen for this all in the same white pages. There are 12 pages for writing in. There’s an envelope and tag clipped to this page. I used my sewing machine and zig zag stitched around the envelope.

And in this tuck is two wedding ephemera also from newspaper.com

More stuff tucked into pockets. A vintage Valentine postcard proclaiming her love.

‘Your Words’ is another writing pad to journal on.

Below a fun Christmas Journal ~ darn word press – as hard as I tried I could not delete this grouping. I decided I just wanted to show you a few pages from a bunch of journals but for some reason I couldn’t do that. So this grouping is of 5 photo’s from 1 journal.

The cover will be wrapped up in red sari ribbon

In all the journals I put in vintage photo’s of the Virgin Mary, as well as a vintage Christmas postcard.

Adorable paper doll cut out peeking out from the next page. She has a few winter outfits as well. I clipped on a few plastic holiday goody pages.

Below are just some random covers and pages from a few different journals I worked on. All of these were created out of 2 lunch size brown paper bags. Just like our hand quilting/quilting community, there is a huge junk journaling community that can be found on you tube and the ideas are endless…….

There’s a Theo Chocolate bar peeking out of this one.

I bought a lot of junk Christmas pins off of ebay and added some to covers.

This one is a boho themed journal for my next door neighbor.

This is a photo of a group of children (1950’s) caroling. It is clipped on and opens up to whole bunch of children, found in a random magazine. Theres also some stickers behind the picture.

I used fabric from my stash and created ruffles on some pages. A match book cover ‘ignite your spark is peeking out on this page.

Photo of the woman is from my adopting ‘Brown’ family. She just looks so wintery in her fur lined coat and hat. Who wouldn’t want to go for a sleigh ride in that outfit.

One of the boho pages. I had these Freda cards in my stash for years, finally a use. I used that great red button for a closure for the envelope I made,

I hope this post sparks some new and exciting crafting ideas for you. These junk journals are a totally new art expression for me. And as I said you tube was a huge help in getting me started.