12 Months In View - The Finale

The 12 Months In View Challenge draws to a close.

Many thanks to Bernice and all her contributors for making this journey so special.

I now have a chunky, colourful Journal of the past year.

I have celebrated each season with art challenges and techniques. I made calendar pages each month depicting the flower of the month. I used the monthly giveaway papers to make tags with pockets and made up zines with poetry too.



I took a photo of my garden each month.

Here are my final set of photos. Also my final pockets and tags.

My posts are labeled, just click on the "12 months" label below to see them all.

WOYWW #247 - Replacement

Morning everyone. What a surprise I got yesterday.  A few days before my birthday I received a little box in the post and had no idea what it was, so I kept it for my birthday. Somehow my Valentine chocolates ended up on top of it and then it was surrounded by cards and it was only yesterday that I realised it was there and STILL unopened.

Anyway you should have heard my delight when I opened it as out rolled the 5 distress stain replacements for the ones which had discoloured or gone smelly. Yippee, thank you Ranger. It had been posted from the UK supplier - Personal Impressions and wasn't the USA package I was expecting. So glad that is sorted now.

Today on my desk is my 12 Months in View Journal drawing to a close. I did the last February page celebrating the Winter Olympics, with a washi tape frame. I am currently doing the "Winter in the Garden" pages, highlighted by raindrops to mark the wettest Winter in 18 years here in the UK. I have the pocket and tags page to do next and am then left with a spare page. Wondering whether to remove it or not?

You can see my little DLP diary is getting chunky after just 2 months with my abstract tip-in showing, which is really growing on me.

Perhaps you can spot the distress pens in their "covered" toothpaste box suspended under the other covered box too!

The only other thing I have done this week is my STRONG page for the Craft Barn Q&L challenge.


Oh and the JUG! Hmmm Shhhhh there is a PILE of ironing beckoning from half term week, really ought to get it done soon!

Happy WOYWW everyone, come join the fun.

WOYWW #245 - Big Tease

I have a significant birthday this coming Saturday, as can be seen by the beautiful card I received from Anne a week early and opened by mistake!










I thought I needed to mark this occasion with something a bit special and I took delivery of this package yesterday. Obviously I can't open it until Saturday, but thought I might get you all guessing. Such a tease. I have placed it on my desk the right way up, not upside-down like the delivery man had it! I'll reveal all next week, and maybe I'll post clues in the week too!

I have done a lot in my 12 Months in View journal this week. I used the giveaway papers for my flower of the month page and I made up the pocket and tag, the front of the tag became my Timmy Tag for February.

I also raised an issue with Ranger about some of my Distress Stains changing colour or becoming smelly and I await replacements.

I have been watching the Winter Olympics and have been totally taken in by the artwork they have been using. I did a page in my journal, diary (DLP) and my February zine using the designs.

I then made up all the 4 zines into a little book.






Do come and join the fun in what we lovingly call WOYWW at Julia's pad.

Happy guessing!

And the clues start

1) Going by the comments so far I can say it is NOT a visual craft as such although it will be something nice to look at in itself.

Twelve Months - Zine of Zines

Having finished my 4th and final zine yesterday, I now got to see how Bernice put them together on the 12 months blog.

I glued my bottom edges together as I had already taped up the other open edges with washi tape each season. Then I glued each zine to the next.








I didn't have any scraps of leftover sprayed card big enough for the cover so I just used some Kraft Card.

Then to decorate the cover? I used the bits and bobs I had left from the 12 giveaways during the year. A couple of sheets for the backing, a collage of the various yellow flowers, and the spare flower names cut up to spell out, "Twelve Months". I had to be a little inventive to make all the letters required.




What a great way to make a little book.

Thanks Bernice for showing us this technique.

12 Months Zine etc.

Well it would seem that I have bombed out on most of the challenges I started last month. I either couldn't keep up or they didn't inspire me. I have decided to plod along doing what I enjoy and just concentrate on the fortnightly Craft Barn and monthly Timmy Tags as far as deadlines are concerned.

Needless to say I am finishing off my year long 12 Months In View Journal and today I was totally inspired by Jenny Jones's Bronze medal win.

Also I was rather taken by the Russian Branding  at the different Sochi Winter Olympic events and had to look into that further. Apparently the look revolves around "the principle of the 'patchwork quilt' - a combination of 16 designs representing the most famous traditional Russian arts and crafts, ranging from Gzhel to Khokhloma."

Having watched the snowboarding slopestyle this morning I had wondered about the similar colours (shocking pink and purple) to our last Summer Olympics here in London, but it looks like just one of the colour combinations in the Russian branding.

So I have done a page in my 12 months journal, a tip-in in my Diary and my February zine too. I used the Charles Dance Sochi Poem we hear on the BBC Winter Olympic trailer for that.

Now that is better, doing what I want to do and not being dictated to - sigh.

Did I mention I LOVE colour?

12 Months February - Crocus

The flower of the month over on the 12 months in view blog is the Crocus.

We have been treated once more with some lovely giveaway papers featuring the Crocus.




I have added one of the larger designs, fussy cut and cropped a little onto my February calendar page.

I have made up the pocket and the back of the tag too.

Thanks Anita van Hal for a year's worth of amazing giveaway papers.

WOYWW #244 - Chinese New Year

Having spent the past couple of days rather active (A new Rock'n'Roll Class, Gardening and Badminton) and have the aches, pains and pulled muscles to show for it, I decided it was a REST day today and what better way to rest one's body than to do a bit of crafting especially on WOYWW day.










I wanted to do a Chinese New Year page in my 12 months journal and realised a tag in the pocket I made last time would be the perfect as it spanned January and February which the Chinese New Year tends to do.

(My Basking Shark Eats New Year!!)


Other accomplishments this week have been:-

1) Finishing the Blue & Green felt house from last week's post.

2) My Calendar for February in my 12 months journal.

3) Craft Club (swan card on desk)

4) The Craft Barn's Q&L challenge and Psalm 8.

5) Blue and Green cards for twin boys 12th birthday's.

6) Oh and my garden for February.










Happy WOYWW everyone.

February Garden

The last month of the year long "take a photo from the same place each month" challenge on 12 months in view finally comes to an end this month.

I chose my back garden as seen from my craftcorner and I marked the open window position to get a similar photo each month.


Yesterday I did a big cut back of the overgrown and half dead shrubs mainly on the right-hand side and really glad I took a photo before I did this a few days earlier.
Today I bought some more Primulas and Cyclamens to brighten the border up a little.


















Have to say my garden seems to be a month behind the "flower of the month" over on the 12 months blog as the snowdrops (January) are only just appearing but we do have a load of them, everywhere, can't wait until they are all out.


My crocuses (February) on the other hand are nowhere to be seen in the grass which is rather waterlogged at present (I planted in between hail showers this morning!) There are a few in this pot but still they are nowhere near flowering as yet.



STOP PRESS
Look what I spotted in my neighbour's front garden when I got back from badminton. YES some purple crocuses. Yippee.

More Blue & Green

Gosh, it would seem that Blue and Green are the order of the day for me at the moment.

Also I think my word for the year ought to be - amalgamation as I have done it yet again.

Here's the thing - I needed 2 birthday cards for my friend's twin boys who share my birthday this month and thought the Leftovers Challenge over on the 12 Months Blog would do the trick nicely.

I used my dies and various scraps of patterned papers and card. The arrows came from a diecutting session at craft club a few months back - knew they would come in handy.

It worked well for boys' cards as they are often a challenge in themselves.

12 Months February Calendar Page

Oh my goodness the last month in the 12 months challenge has finally come around. I like that it finishes in February as it is not only Valentines, but my Birthday (50) and Anniversary (16)  this month.

Here's my February calendar, I used a heart for the days as I even had a stamp which was suitable this time. I have gone with purple for my colour scheme, using distress inks and stencils. I used one of my new Glitter Paste colours for the first time and OH what a mess I made.



First it was the removal of the aluminium seal from the tub.

I hadn't had that much trouble with the Bronze previously but the Lilac this time! The aluminium was not only caked in thick paste but it kept breaking off in pieces. The paste had separated so it then needed a good stir. I have the Sage Green seal yet to do!


It also took me a few attempts to get the paste to work well through the stencils which were hard to lay flat. I made a mess of 2 of the 3 birds on my calendar page and thankfully the one bird I did on the round robin journal I was doing in the same vein worked quite well.

Yes I have loved the calendar aspect of this 12 months project and soon will have a year's worth of daily entries to look back on.