BACK TO CRAFTING!

 Hi everyone!

Coming in a bit late today. Actually, I hadn't planned on posting at all. Bob leaves tomorrow so I'm doing little things while he gets his bags ready.

So while he's doing his thing I thought I'd show you what I've been working on.

I didn't complete a single challenge with Dear Julie Julie last year. I'm surprised she still has me on her design team. I just couldn't get a foot hold last year. The studio was (still is to some extent) a disaster and not conducive to creating.

This year, I've already completed the first 2 mini challenges and am excited about doing journals. 

I have a plan.

This year, each of the challenge journals I make will be my personal journal for that month. Which means I'm going to have to jump into the challenge each month from the beginning. This month I'm lagging because Bob has been home and I've done very little creating - except for the two groups of tags above.

Each journal will be hard cover, using similar sized books from the $Tree.

For this month, I'm going with winter blues/ snowmen/ snowy theme. Incidently, we finally got our first real snow of the season last Saturday. GORGEOUS! I'll try to remember to show pics for PHOTO FRIDAY.

We are doing a JANUARY JUST JUNK JOURNAL CHALLENGE - Here's the video link to check it out:

For Mini challenge in the challenge 1.1 we were to make 4 tags using any size/ shape for our base. Add a journaling/ word/ playing card, a tiny tag, sticker sheet (preferrably from one that's been used from), washi tape, scraps from our kit and metal pieces such as bulb/ safety pins, paper clips, etc.   Anything left from the sticker sheet and the washi tape could be moved to our kit.

I made round tag bases to represent sowballs cut from Christmas cards in my kit. the word/ playing card is actually a round card from a game called 'Snowball' that I picked up in IA last winter (2020) when I went up to see Kassie before the twins were born. The mini tags were cut from SU Balmy Blue with a retired SU die. I used 2 blue and 2 white safety pins I'd purchased from Spectrum Art Creations live sale last fall. (psst.. I also bought red ones as I was thinking ahead to my July journal LOL)

So Mini challenge in the challenge 1.2 was to make 5 tags. I made 6 so that I'd have an equal amount in each of the 2 signatures. You cut out tags from (in my case 6) diffent papers then piece them back together with a different pattern on each tag base.  For this challenge we could use ANYTHING to make our tags... which means I could bring in some bling and scrapbook papers. I had some lovely patterned papers from a DCWV Holiday paper pad.

I used my Team Holtz tag die to cut the tags and the hole reinforcer from the same die set. The ribbon at the top is from scraps from my kit as is the darker blue puff in the corner. That's actually a body poof. Did you know when you toss those in the dryer, they get really shrinky? LOL You know, as you use them they get all loose but toss those puppies in the dryer and the edges shrink right back up! I used a dark blue pen to create faux stitching then added a blue snowflake confetti with a clear bling center. Anything we used, we could move over to our kit.

The rest of my week is about getting my planners in order - especially my social media planner. Rather than purchase 5 Slim Classic Happy Planners, I found a link for printables on Etsy so I need to print/ punch those out and put the planner together before I go too much farther. 

What are you working on? Share links in the comments below or tag me on Instagram @KellysCreativeDreams

Creative Blessings

~ Kelly

Christmas Decorating!

I LOVE to decorate for Christmas. And this year I finally figured out why. Yeah, it's a lot of work but it all reverts back to my love of color. Colored lights, colored ornaments, shapes, sizes, textures... Decorating is an ART!

I do miss decorating the 200 yr old, 11-room Victorian I lived in up in Illinois. And there are so many things I just couldn't give up when we moved to a much smaller single story ranch house here in Missouri. There are days I wish I could put that Victorian on this 25 acre secluded lot. But that's not going to happen so I work with what I we bought all because we loved the location LOL

My favorite room in this house is my bathroom. The kitchen comes a close second and I'll share it tomorrow. I finally got the bathroom I've always wanted. Linen storage, a nice vanity, a big window for light and fresh air and a bubble tub.

The wall board we used is a creamy white with what looks like brush strokes of color in a sea foam green. But if you put blues with it, then you get more of a bluish tone than a green from the sea foam. So for Christmas I went with powder blues, white, snowmen and snowflakes.

With the linen closets flanking the vanity and a huge mirror to fill the space, I went simple accents. You can't see them actually in the picture but hanging from the light fixture at the top of the mirror, there are three of these snowballs spaced evenly across. The center snowball hangs a bit lower than the 2 outside. I still want to make a snowman cover for the hand soap pump.

The snowball candle holder in the top right of the vanity and again on the back of the potty is actually an antique glass potting jar. It's textured like a snowball. I've placed a jar vanilla candle in each one.

I also collect Pooh Bear... well, bears in general.. but these two Pooh Bears from the Disney store dressed as snowmen found their way in here. I didn't even think about placement when I put them on the potty tank. Honest!

And then there's my favorite spot in the whole room. The BUBBLE TUB! I've surrounded it with snowmen. The white lights hanging down either side of the window also work as a place to hang beaded icicle ornaments. All of the beaded snowflakes and icicle ornaments are from swaps I used to do with a Christmas Notebook group I belong to. There's still room for more snowmen at the opposite end of the tub and I'm always on the look out on after-Christmas sales.

Tomorrow I'll have pictures of my kitchen. The kitchen is all about what else... GINGERBREAD!