Christmas junk journal/folio/mini-book thingy

I'm back with another Christmas journal. Yes, already! I had a blast making this one with so many of the goodies that I shared in previous posts. You'll see lots of tags, tabs, and pocket envies in this one. I used nearly everything I have made. I super love how it turned out. Big thanks to Toni for her amazing craft videos!! Have you checked out her channel yet? Toni's youtube  <--- GO

So this project is basically a use-what-you-have challenge of sorts. We hauled out our Christmas papers, washi, ephemera, and whatever we had in our stash and got to work. Some of the papers and washi tapes I've had for YEARS so I couldn't even tell you what some of these are, much less if they are still available anywhere.

I made these jumbo tags for what I guess you'd call the cover; the main pages of the book. They are 7.25x4.5 inches. Here is my finished journal. It just folds up, there is no real closure.

Front pocket flap, open with tags on the first page.

Tags, front flap and first page

  

Cover page opens to the right and this is what is next. Two more jumbo tag pages with more pockets and tags.

Here we have a tag inside of a pocket inside of a pocket, with 3 more tags in the 'special delivery' pocket at the bottom of the page.

This pocket holds two of the pocket envies I made in the previous blog post. These fit perfectly with this project and perfectly in this pocket.

The special delivery pocket page opens to the left and this polka dot pocket with another tag inside is what you see. On the 'bridge' between the pages is another pocket envie with a tag inside. 

To the right of the bridge are two more jumbo pages. The music page is blank for adding to later, and the plaid page has a belly band to hold, yes, another pocket envie with a tag. 

The last page, which is the back of the bridge, has two more pockets. 

Have you kept count? I haven't either! LOL I will have to count all the pockets and tags in this little book. It's jam-packed for sure!

Happy Thanksgiving...and a Christmas make

While the turkey cooks, I thought I'd share a couple of things I made this week. 

Christmas postage has been ordered and should be here tomorrow. I didn't even take pics of the cards this year as I made a super simple stamped tree design for some and the rest are cards I had on hand from earlier this year and leftovers from previous years. 

Once the Christmas cards were done, I had some time to play a bit and made these adorable little pocket envelopes. They can be added to a junk journal or scrapbook page or December daily, or whatever! The backs are unadorned so they can be adhered directly to a page, or even tucked into a larger pocket if you wanted. They all started as a piece of 6x6 paper. Perfect for the thinner papers I'm sure we ALL have in our paper stash. These are from some Bo Bunny and Life's Journey I've had for years and years. This project inspired by Margreth, of Seven Plaza.

Lots of washi tapes and ephemera embellishments I made, stickers and twine. 

Most of the stamps I used are from Crafty by Toni. She also has an Amazon shop.

and a couple of non-Christmas themed

Super easy to make; embellish or don't, add twine or don't, make a closure or not. Lots of ways to use these adorable little pocket envelopes. Check out the links above and make some for your Christmas album. 

Christmas mini book

Finished my first Christmas project of 2024. I know, I said I needed to get busy on Christmas cards, and I still do! But this little book was begging to be made and I had to oblige. :) It started with a piece of file folder I had left from the Halloween Junk Journal, and I couldn't stop myself. I love how it turned out and I hope it inspires you to create your own Christmas memory book. 

Before I even started on the book itself, I made the tabs, tags and ephemera with Crafty by Toni (see previous post) and enjoyed it so much. I thought it might spark ideas for this year's cards, but my creative brain wasn't ready yet for card making. Instead, this book is a result of that super fun, grungy, vintagey inspiration. 

The book itself is 7.25x4.5 inches. I used Simple Stories Vintage Rustic Christmas 6x8 paper pad and ephemera pieces from the Dear Santa collection, in addition to lots of washi tapes and my handmade tabs, tags and ephemera. The closure is a simple magnetic tab. 

Front cover

Back cover

Inside cover; first page 
Pocket with tickets and room for photos and/or journaling.

Second page with clear pocket, tags and tickets; room below for photo

Third page; pocket and flaps

Ticket with washi tape 'token'

Below are two fold outs that tuck under the flag to stay closed. More space for photos and/or journaling

Next page: Pocket with tickets; space above for journaling

More flap for photos and journaling

Santa, of course!

Last page and inside back cover
Clear, lift-up pocket with journal/photo tag (more space on the back for photo)

I hope you enjoyed this project. I'm now off to get busy on card making before something else overtakes the crafty part of my brain. hahaha. 

Have a crafty weekend, friends! 

I'm back ...

...with Christmas ephemera and tab clusters! I've been having such fun with some of the new stamp and die sets for Christmas 2024. So much fun that I have forgotten to post. My apologies, crafty friends. I'm sure you understand how that goes when you are in a zone. You don't want to stop! Well, that's me, anyway. LOL But now, let's get to it.

First I started by cutting out some tags, tabs, labels, etc. then I stamped a ton of images. Aside from maybe one or two, these are from the 2024 release by Crafty by Toni. I'm in love. The few that are not Toni's are Heidi Swapp from previous years releases. 

Here is the first batch I did. I have used many of the stamped images and cut pieces on tags, tabs, and even some tickets. 

A closer look.
The tickets and the "dear santa" and elves are from Heidi Swapp. 

In the second batch, I cut several of Heidi Swapp's ribbon slide dies and stamped on them directly. These will be so cute on gift packages.

A closer look.

Here you can see the cute ribbon slides are little better. 

For the third batch, I cut my own jumbo whale tail tabs. I have the smaller punch, which I used above, but then I made some giant ones from large die cut circles using just a pair of scissors. I think they turned out pretty cool. You can see the size comparison below; the regular punches are the few at the bottom of the photo.

A closer look

Here are more of the regular sized whale tail punches, plus a couple of "tokens" I made and another ribbon slide, which I made without a die.  

And again, more of the jumbo sized whale tail tabs I cut from circles. I really like how they turned out, and there is so much more real estate to work with for adding fun stuff! 

I hope these fun goodies were worth the wait. I am most certainly not finished with Christmas makes by any means (I still have to finish my Christmas cards - yikes!!) but you can see I haven't been sitting idle. LOL 

Also, part of these past weeks have had me redoing the studio once again. I needed a change and more worktop space so it became necessary to tackle a redo. It's not 100% just yet, but pretty close. I'm liking the new arrangement better already. Ok, till next time, toodles!