Poorly sick :(

My cold from Sunday turned into a full-blown monster illness that has wiped me out and kept me off work for the last two days. I haven't even been able to scrap or knit, which totally sucks. I am bored stiff here!

Oh well, it has given me time to surf the web and look for inspiration for Christmas crafts and gifts. This year, as well as making some of my Christmas cards (see picture below) and gifts, I want to take part in Instagram Your Christmas (#iyc) which is something me and a few friends in the photo iPhone app Instagram are taking part in. Each day in December we will take and choose a photo, print it off and include it in an album along with a small amount of embellishment, journaling, etc. I don't ever scrap Christmas, maybe because my photos are usually sub-standard, or I've never liked Christmas patterned papers or I'm always too busy. But the boys are old enough now to really enjoy the festive season and I think I'd like to put in the extra effort and record this lovely time as a family.

So my lovely Kraft ring binder album has arrived from Paperchase, I have page protectors to match and I have already prepared numbers 1 to 31 to go with each photo using my Cuttlebug and punches. I also have bought snd set aside some Christmas-themed papers and embelishments ready to go. Each photo will be printed 4x4 inches and used either on a 4x6 space with a blank strip for embellishing or journalling and the feature photos will go on A5 pages with more room to include more pics, journalling etc. I'm not going to pre-prepare my pages as although it would save time later I want to match what I have to the photo after it's taken and also I want to decide after whether to use a smaller or larger page for it. I'm hoping to do a bit each day, or most likely a few every few days. I'm hoping as I have all the bits I need ready in their own box it will be a nice quick project and not an over-commitment in an already hectic month! I'll pop by regularly to keep you updated.

If you're on Instagram, why not give this a go? I'd love to see links to your feed or album pages. Or, if you'd like to take it further, Shimelle hosts an amazing class every year called Journal Your Christmas (#jyc) that gives you a whole load of prompts, inspiration and help to create a Christmas scrapbook album to treasure - see www.shimelle.com for more info :)

xXx