In the Making: 2011

Saturday, 31 December 2011

p52 | happy new year

With only a few more hours to spare of 2011, I thought I would squeeze in a last post. Life in the last couple of weeks this year has been brutal on me. With lots of overtime and preparations for the holidays, and then being hit with first a sprained neck, and then a stomach bug, I have just barely made it by.

So, for the last post of the year, what not to feature but the one thing that has been consistent troughout the year - my Project 52 photos. I have to say, P52 is the one thing that I can commit to and not feel stressed out by. It's become a part of me by now as I finish off my third year with the project. I toyed with the idea of trying P365 again in 2012, but quickly came to the realisation that it is just not meant to be for me. So next week I start all over again.

But to polish this year off, let's go out with a bang and do two weeks!
First, week 51, which was shot on Christmas Eve. Santa made a quick visit on his way to our family's house. Oh Santa, you are such a show off!

Then, the very last photo of this year's project. In celebration of today.

I will be back in a couple of days time with photos of some Christmas gifts I made, and some scrappy stuff as well. Until then, have a great end to 2011 and a Happy New Year!

Monday, 19 December 2011

white on white with doilies and lace

OK, so I felt the need to reshoot the Christmas presents. Here we go again!

So that's white on white with matte wrapping paper, with fabric lace, satin ribbon, paper doilies. I also used silver ink to stamp the initial of the recipient and the "God Jul" (which means Merry Christmas in Swedish), silver wax seals with a snowflake motif (can't leave the snowflakes out), and a sparkly silver pen to write the message.

Present wrapping is very important to me. I take it very seriously and always match all the presents. This year I decided to match the tree as well (and here's a hint - the decor for the Christmas Eve table). Overboard? Me? Nah! :)

p52 | heart bokeh

I was waiting all week for the weekend to arrive so that there would be enough light to take this shot. I love my country, but the darkness - oh the darkness is a pain in the butt. It's dark until way past 8am and then it's back again well before 4pm. So, being part of the working force, that means I am never at home during light hours in the winter. It's a pain I tell you.

But today there was a couple of hours around noon that made for a good photography session. The result gets to be photo of the week.

The image doesn't show it, but the snowflakes sparkle. I got them for a great deal of money in a posh department store in Milano and the husband rolled his eyes at me a little, but I had to have them. I have big plans for them this Christmas.

I also have to share a couple of shots of my little charmer of a nephew that I got yesterday. Now, they are blurry. But I choose to see past that because his personality shines in them.

What a ham! I just adore him!

Sunday, 18 December 2011

christmas cards | 2011

Seeing as all the cards are posted, and hopefully will arrive at the beginning of the coming week, I thought I'd post them here. Now, I always have plans to make the cards by hand. About half of the times I run out of time and have to quickly whip something up in Photoshop. I have this idea that Christmas cards should be handmade and so when I don't get to do that I can't help but feel a little bit like a failure. But there are only so many hours in the day, and I'm letting it go.

So I had originally designed something entirely different, but in the end felt it wasn't representative of us. So one night this week I promptly decided to remake them. Said and done, and in four hours I had designed three different cards, printed, cut, mounted (on cardstock), and adressed them all. I was kind of chuffed about that.

Alrighty, here they are:

(Do you see me huddling on the floor in the reflection of the ornament? Hee!)

I used the Be Merry Photocards for the second and third card (just changed out the papers on the second one with papers from the Frostbite Paper Pack). For the first one I used wordard from the Be Merry Photocards and paper from the Be Merry Paper Pack. You can find all of these in my shop at JessicaSprague.com

Monday, 12 December 2011

new(ish) in store | rockin'

Exactly one week ago I put up a new product in my shop at JessicaSprague.com. I was away and could not post about it since all my documents and images were on this little laptop, which was safely tucked away at home. So, let's take a look at it now instead!

(Click on the image to go directly to the product in the shop)

This is the quick page included in the pack

Let's take a look at what the fabulous creative team did with the templates.

by Lisa Breuer

by Jen Papadimitriou

by Antonia Krajicek

by Amanda Caves

by Sarah Horton

by Carol Johnston

by Barbara

by Lisa Breuer

Sunday, 11 December 2011

this year under the tree

After a full week away on a business trip, I have had a truly busy weekend to catch up with everything that needs to be done for Christmas - like presents to make, buy, and wrap, and decorations to finish, I haven't had a single minute to sit down in front of the computer. It has actually been a full week since I even opened it last. I can't even remember when that happened before this week.

Because of this, I haven't shared my latest new product, or our Christmas card, that I actually made last week, but haven't gotten round to printing yet (no, there is no time to handmake them this year, so a photo card will have to do). And neither have I shared photos from our Italy trip, which I haven't even finished editing yet. Man, do I wish I didn't need to sleep!

So today I spent almost the whole day wrapping presents. The husband was laughing at me as it took me 45 minutes to get the first one wrapped. But once I got going it went pretty well. I have about half of the load wrapped now so they will definitely be finished this week.

Please excuse the crappy photography, the light was rapidly escaping, but here's what our gifts look like this year. White on white with silver wax seals and stamps. All to match the tree, of course.

I hope everyone are doing well, and coping a little better than I am with all the stuff going on in your lives! Have a great new week!

Sunday, 4 December 2011

laying it out | countdown

Every year I decide to make an advent calendar. Every year I fail to actually get my butt in gear long enough before the start of December to be finished in time. So as a small compromise I created a layout instead.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Supplies: Be Merry Tags Pack, Sassy Season Elements Pack, Clippings Alpha, Postage Alpha, Charmed Alpha, Indulgence Elements Pack, Tabbed Alpha, Meet & Greet Labels Pack all by In the Making Design
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Saturday, 3 December 2011

new52 | 30 days of photography

This week I finished a project I have been working on for the whole month of November. I found a photo challenge on Pinterest with prompts for each day of the month and thought it would be cool to give it a go. I've done the photo a day challenges before, but never before with specific prompts and never with my phone, so it would be a new experience for me.
I got a little behind every now and then, especially on uploading to Instagram, as I was away for a week and then spent another one at home doing practically nothing. But I did my best to catch up and actually finished on the last day of the month.

I decided pretty early on that I would make a mini book out of the project, because really, what else is there to do with a project like this if you don't want to post a picture on your blog every single day? I went with a very simple design of the whole thing and was able to finish it tonight. It got me pretty excited but then I noticed that I didn't have enough 12x12 paper to print it. So instead of the finished product I will post each spread. Once I've got it all printed and assembled, I will get back to the project here on the blog.
I used papers and elements from my Get Happy kit for the whole book. I wanted a cohesive and muted look. As the photos are small and pretty straight forward - I mean, they aren't exactly masterpieces - I didn't want too much stuff on each page to take away from the photos. I might or might not add a little something once it's printed.

Front/back covers

Day 1 and 2

Day 3 and 4

Day 5 and 6

Day 7 and 8

Day 9 and 10

Day 11 and 12

Day 13 and 14

Day 15 and 16

Day 17 and 18

Day 19 and 20

Day 21 and 22

Day 23 and 24

Day 25 and 26

Day 27 and 28

Day 29 and 30

It was a fun project to do, even though some days were real challenges. But that's the whole point, right? I think I will try to do this again next year. Perhaps it would be cool to do on all the months that have 30 days? That would give me four really cool mini books to look back on once the year is over. I think it would be a nice addition to the P52 project.

Oh, and I also saw that there is a challenge for holiday photos up as well now. Could be an easy alternative to December Daily, which I always get really impressed with but never have the energy to do. I will have to think about this until tomorrow ... I know I could catch up with the two photos that have already passed for day one and two.