December Daily - page foundation

Only a few more days until December Daily starts!
I'm working on some last minute preparations: printing the page foundations so I'll only have to print out my photos and write my journaling on the day itself.

I'm using Ali Edwards' digital products from Designer Digitals  that she designed specifically for this year's December Daily (they had their quarterly sale recently, so that was the perfect moment to get them).

overlays                                           templates

Since the photo quality of my old printer wasn't what it used to be, I even treated myself to a brand-new Canon printer!  This project will be perfect for breaking it in ;-)

crocheted hat

After I finished my bedroom slippers, I had some yarn left over and I decided to use it to make a scarf. Then I ran short and had to buy some more yarn. When I finished the scarf I had leftover yarn again, so I thought I'd crochet a hat. You guessed it, somewhere halfway through I ran out and had to buy some more yarn...
Of course Murphy's Law was in full effect and my local store had sold out. So I went to another branch today and finally managed to get some more yarn and finish the hat...

I planned ahead this time and bought some additional yarn to make mittens - they will be posted once I've finished them ;-)

Anyways, I did not use a pattern for this hat. I crocheted a circle and when I thought it was wide enough to fit my head, I just crocheted until I could pull the sides over my ears - LOL.

{photo to follow}

December Daily - daily topics

Sometimes I have so many things going through my mind, that I need to write them down or I'll forget half of them. For December Daily, I plan to focus on 1 topic per day, and in order to clear my head I decided to make an overview of events that are already planned for this month:

Seeing it written down makes me realize I'm actually pretty busy this month!

Beijing a.e.

The 3rd LO that I started this weekend is finished: a collection of pictures of Beijing and environs.

Dancing in the Dark - um, PARK

Here's the 2nd finished LO that I started last Saturday, about a visit to one on the major public parks in Beijing.
While people would probably consider you crazy in many Western countries if you'd started to dance or belt out a song in public (flash mob notwithstanding...), it is very common to see people work out or play in Chinese public parks. However, it's mostly the elderly that spend their free time this way, and this phenomenon is in serious danger of disappearing as the younger generation don't have the time (or inclination) to socialize in the cities' parks.

Visiting the Tian Tan Gong Yuan (park surrounding the Temple of Heaven) was one of the highlights of the trip, in my opinion.

Highlights of China

Yesterday I visited one of my scrapbooking friends for a crop and started 3 pages with my China photos. I only brought limited supplies with me, so I wasn't able to finish them.
I spent some time today putting the finishing touches on one of them, and here it is:

Project Layout A Week 2012 (a.k.a. PLOAW)

When I started Project Life a few months ago, I also joined a PL Yahoo-group initiated by M., a fellow scrapbooker. Most of the participants are doing weekly PL spreads (whereas I decided to do monthly spreads) and since that proved to be quite labour-intensive, many found that they hardly did any 'regular' scrapbooking this past year.

M. came up with the idea to do a layout a week in 2012, instead of another Project Life album. I suggested that we could maybe incorporate a weekly challenge to stretch our creative muscles, so to speak. The idea was well-received and I was asked to be in charge of the challenges.

So the past 2 days I've spent collecting challenge ideas for PLOAW: Project Layout A Week. Starting in January, you'll see the results...

Knitted collar scarf

Turns out knitting is a lot like riding a bicycle: once you know how, you never unlearn ;-)
It's been a good 10 years since I last knitted something, but I had no problem picking it up again!

I was inspired by fellow China traveller N. to knit a collar scarf in the same wool I used for my bedroom slippers. She said hers took only 50 mins to complete (crocheting), but all in all I spent 3 nights on it.  (note to self: crafting is NOT a race!)

I didn't have a pattern, I just eyeballed it. I set up 60 stitches on no. 8 needles and knitted approx. 25cm K2P2 ribbing. I crocheted the seam closed and tadaah, another scarf done!


{photo to follow}

December Daily 2011 - album

These past few days I've been working on my December Daily album. I initially thought about making my own wire album using cardboard scraps, but then I remembered the cute little We R Memory Keepers 6"x8" mini album I recently used during a workshop, and decided to buy another one and alter it.

I figured the most efficient way to go about this was to spray paint the in- and outside of the album. So I bought a can of all-purpose white spray paint and went to town.

(spraypainting in progress)

Unfortunately the spray paint didn't work very well: for some reason the paint didn't take well on the canvas cover (contrary to the insides of the cardboard box...) It also took forever for the paint to dry. 

Time for plan B...

I decided to go ahead paint the album with off-white acrylic paint using a small roller. This worked pretty well, but both the inside and the outside needed several coats and still remained somewhat blotchy.

(spraypainted cover before rolling on the acrylic paint)

Time for plan C: glimmer mist! I checked my stash and decided to go with silver glimmer mist instead of pearl. I sprayed both sides of the cover with 2 layers of glimmer mist.

(you can barely make out the glimmer mist)

And here it is, both the before and after. I still need to add some embellishments, but the base is done.

Crocheted bedroom slippers

I found a pattern online to crochet really cute slippers.
However, since I used a thicker yarn and needle, I had to adjust the pattern somewhat and the end result is a bit more, um, robust, shall we say? ;-)
All in all, not a bad result for only a 2nd crocheting project, if I do say so myself!

the materials: 2 balls of yarn and a no. 6 crochet needle (US: J / UK: 4).

After 1 night.

After 2 nights.

After 3 nights. Tadaaah! All done!

ETA: to make the top a bit more snug so the slippers wouldn't slip off my feet, I wove some elastic yarn along the opening.

December Daily - gathering materials

December Daily is a project by scrapbooking guru Ali Edwards. For the past few years, she's made an album counting down the month of December until Christmas, documenting all the everyday things that make the holiday season special.

This year I'm thinking of doing a similar album, for the entire month of December (so up until New Year's Eve).

Today I spent some time on one of the most fun parts of scrapbooking in general: gathering stuff. Like any true scrapbooker, I have tons of supplies... The best part? I came across things that I've had forever, and seem perfect for this project! (Note to my mom: See? Hoarding is NOT necessarily a bad thing!)

Here's what I pulled out of my stash:

paper and vellum

other odds and ends: stickers, bling, ribbon, rub-ons etc.

Will I use everything on this project? Not likely.

Will I end up using additional supplies? Probably.

But that's OK, 'cause getting all these things together has already set the creative wheels in motion ;-)

Bag accessory

A while ago I bought this turquoise Nepalese bag (in Paris, France of all places...). Although I loved the bag, it had a hideous wooden key-chain-type hanger adorning it, and I've wanted to change it for the longest time.

At last weekend's craft fair, I came across little crocheting kits to make a bag accessory. And guess what? They had them in turquoise too!

So that's what I've been upto yesterday evening and this afternoon. It's - literally! - been decades since I last crocheted ANYTHING, so it took a bit longer than it would have taken a seasoned crocheter to make the layered flower. I had to check my newly purchased crochet guide several times to reacquaint myself with the different stitches... A great little project to refresh my memory, though!

 The kit's content.

Progress after day 1: the crocheting part is done.

The final result.

Project Life 2011 - October update

Project Life is a scrapbooking method that was developed a few years ago by well-known scrapbooker Becky Higgins. The initial idea was to take at least one photo each day and create a weekly overview in an album using divided pageprotectors.
Since its launch afew years ago, Project Life has changed into a versatile scrapbooking method that is not only used for creating weekly spreads anymore. Some people use it to document their children's school careers. Some use it to document the stages of pregnancy, or their baby's first year. Some people, like myself, use it to make monthly overviews instead of weekly overviews (my life is too uneventful to fill a 2-page spread each week - LOL)

I did not start my own Project Life (PL) until halfway into the year - which meant a lot of back log. I'm pretty much caught up with photos and memorabelia, but journaling is always a big obstacle for me.

Today I focussed on updating my PL for October.

What happened in October:

- trip to China

- visiting a Crafts Fair

- autumn walk with my mom

- dentist visit

- back to working regular hours

Spool-knitted scarf

And... we're off! My first project is finished and it took me 2 nights to complete.

Everybody remembers those mushroom-shaped knitting spools from when they were in school, right?
Well, apparently there are also hand-cranked spool-knitting implements (a.k.a. 'knitting nancys') that make spool knitting a breeze!
I had never seen one before, but last weekend I visited a craft fair and at one of the booths they were demonstrating a 4-needle knitting nancy. One of the projects that were shown was a scarf made of knitted strings. I thought it was very original and bought the knitting nancy and 2 balls of yarn on the spot!

So here's what I've been up to these past 2 nights:

The materials: a knitting nancy and yarn. Also used: scissors and a needle.

Progress after 1 night.

Finished scarf after 2 nights.

And this is what it looks like when worn!


You can find brief general instructions here. It appears a pattern of a spool-knitted scarf was featured in a Phildar knitting magazine sometime last year. You basically spool-knit 27 2-meter strings (as I only had limited yarn, I made fewer strings) of which you attach the ends together to make a circle. With a 28th piece of knitted string, you attach the other strings together, covering the sewn-together ends. Et voila!