My Handmade 2022 Christmas Junk Journal Part 1

Every year I like to make myself a Christmas Journal to record the events covering the entire month of December up to New Year's Day. So, I thought I'd show you how I made my journal as I think it's a great project for someone who hasn't made a journal before and would like to start. 

Most of the decorated papers and images in this journal, were designed, drawn and hand painted by me. I wanted to create a personal journal that was unique and reflected my personal style. It was a lot of fun to make and I will probably create more decorated papers and ephemera for the journals I make in the future. 

Christmas Journal Cover Front

The cover is made from Christmas fabric. The ribbon closure is some cheap Christmas ribbon I bought from the discount store. It was coated in starch so, I washed it to get rid of the stiffness and was soft enough to work as a closure.

Christmas Journal Cover Back

The side pocket on the inside cover was made from some wrapping paper. 

Envelope for front side pocket - so you can write your letter from santa.

Autumn Leaves flip up with two tiny pockets behind.

Blue Christmas page with bottom pocket and Silver Bells journal card.

Red bubble page o the centre spread - stencil was made from a sheet of bubble wrap. 

A Trio of Pockets on the front of the centre spread.

Giant Xmas Tree Pamphlet with journal papers on back, in a side pocket with three Christmas flowers.

A green check side pocket and a trio of pockets with a Xmas tree cutout.

Church Doors - open the doors to reveal a trio of journal panels. 

Below, is a Triple Flip-out page with a ribbon closure

A trio of torn pockets made from handmade painted papers

A Belly Band - stack of hannd-painted Christmas presents 

Thanks for visiting! It was a fun project. 

Have a Happy, Crafty Day.

The Artsie Crafter xxx.

My Tree House Project 1

This is the first major craft project I have started in many years. I am building a 4 foot (120cm) tree house out of mostly household items, such as styrofoam, foil, cardboard, clay, glue and paint. 

I got the inspiration after watching Sharon Ojala's Youtube channel, Where the Gnomes Live. She has a complete series of building a tree house in her craft room. Her channel is one of my favourites because she is so very creative and talented and such a lovely lady. Go check out her channel, to see for yourself, all the fantastic things she has created. 

I started building my tree house towards the end of 2019 but had to put it aside in 2020 due to illness and family responsibilities. 

I live in the Blue Mountains, two hours from Sydney in Australia and we have been in hard lockdown for over two months now and still have a long road to travel out of this current crisis. Like many of us, I have turned to crafting to stop myself from going "Covid crazy". I've had a few other projects to keep me busy but just recently I decided it was time to get back to building my tree house. 

When I had a good look at it, I decided I didn't like the shape of the tree, the trunk looked more like a bulging bottle tree than one that was slender and sexy. 

Fortunately, the beauty of building with things like styrofoam and foil, is that you can can go ahead and make as many changes and adjustments as you want, which is just what I did.

I took off about a third of the tree and then began to rebuild a more slender trunk with a few minor adjustments to the original build. At the moment, I'm two thirds of the way through the process. There's still lots of work to do before it's completed but I hope to get it done before Christmas this year. 

I do have a couple of other projects that I'm working on at the same time. It will be interesting to see which of them gets finished first. If you're interested to find out what my other project is then click on the link to "My Christmas Village" project.

I hope you will come back from time to time to see how far my tree house house is taking shape. 

Thanks for reading 😉