Monday, December 25, 2023

Tidings of great joy

 
 Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers, I hope you have all had a wonderful day with family, 
good food, and maybe even a little time for crafting? 
I want to share my Christmas journal that I have made over the last month.
 

Christmas Bells



I have been gathering Christmas fabrics and ephemera for quite a while so I had a really nice collection of bits to work with here. I always start with some watercolour or mixed media paper that I tea dye and then add inks in whatever colours I'm working with. Then I added pages from several vintage Christmas carol booklets that I have found at estate sales. I also had some family Christmas cards, bits of wrapping paper and tags from gifts. I made the cover by taking apart a vintage velvety Christmas stocking that had sweet little brass jingle bells. I then layered on some Christmas Suffolk puffs, and some Prima flowers left over from my scrap booking days. I love how it turned out.



 

 I had so many lovely materials to work with to work with, I even had saved some candy wrappers from my favourite sweets, and they made cute little frames. Be creative and think about all the little bits of paper wrapping or packaging you can use, I added some gorgeous little vintage embroidered handkerchiefs, bits of lace to make pockets, pages from a vintage children's Christmas book, even the programme from our Candlelight church service. All these can tell your family Christmas story, your traditions, and what makes the season special to you.








If you're anything like me, I know you will have kept little notes, tags, cards, photos from your Christmas's past, all you need are some Christmasy fabrics, a few pieces of red quilt and you can sew together a journal to hold all your precious Christmas memories.


 
This back cover I sewed a vintage doily over a piece of pretty ribbon and attached a Celtic cross ornament. And below on the back cover I found this vintage brass reindeer pin at an antique shop.
 

I wish all of you a happy Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year! 
 
Thank you for visiting, I have so many exciting plans for the new year approaching, I hope you feel inspired to create your own Christmas journal, it was such a pleasure creating this one while listening to my favourite Christmas carols.
 
Love, Lisa xoxox 
 
 
                                                      A Christmas Carol by Emily Dickinson
Welcome, sweet Christmas, blest be the morn
That Christ our Saviour was born!
Earth's Redeemer, to save us from all danger,
And, as the Holy Record tells, born in a manger.

Chorus --

Then ring, ring, Christmas bells,
Till your sweet music o'er the kingdom swells,
To warn the people to respect the morn
That Christ their Saviour was born.

The snow was on the ground when Christ was born,
And the Virgin Mary His mother felt very forlorn
As she lay in a horse's stall at a roadside inn,
Till Christ our Saviour was born to free us from sin.

Oh! think of the Virgin Mary as she lay
In a lowly stable on a bed of hay,
And angels watching O'er her till Christ was born,
Therefore all the people should respect Christmas morn.

The way to respect Christmas time
Is not by drinking whisky or wine,
But to sing praises to God on Christmas morn,
The time that Jesus Christ His Son was born;

Whom He sent into the world to save sinners from hell
And by believing in Him in heaven we'll dwell;
Then blest be the morn that Christ was born,
Who can save us from hell, death, and scorn.

Then he warned, and respect the Saviour dear,
And treat with less respect the New Year,
And respect always the blessed morn
That Christ our Saviour was born.

For each new morn to the Christian is dear,
As well as the morn of the New Year,
And he thanks God for the light of each new morn.
Especially the morn that Christ was born.

Therefore, good people, be warned in time,
And on Christmas morn don't get drunk with wine
But praise God above on Christmas morn,
Who sent His Son to save us from hell and scorn.

There the heavenly babe He lay
In a stall among a lot of hay,
While the Angel Host by Bethlehem
Sang a beautiful and heavenly anthem.

Christmas time ought to be held most dear,
Much more so than the New Year,
Because that's the time that Christ was born,
Therefore respect Christmas morn.

And let the rich be kind to the poor,
And think of the hardships they do endure,
Who are neither clothed nor fed,
And Many without a blanket to their bed.


Saturday, November 4, 2023

October Journal

 Warm greetings dear readers, happy fall!
I finished this journal for October, but here we are already in November.
     Again I'm working with some antique fabrics that I found during my weekend scavenger hunts.

 Warm October

This grungy piece on the cover was salvaged from a needlepoint antique pillow that I tore up
into pieces, then discovered that I liked the look of the back more than the front! You
can still make out a flower, but I just couldn't resist the rough woolly texture.


 
I have definitely found a lot of joy in gathering bits and pieces of old fabrics, I have baskets of them sorted into themes or colours. I put on some calming dreamy music, light a candle or two, and then rummage in my baskets, trying not to think too much, letting my hands move unhindered. I start with a foundation piece of cloth, and then begin to build my layers, moving around little bits of material, lace and fibers until I like the composition, then pin it all together.
While making this journal it struck me that I am creating a collage, but with pieces of cloth instead of papers and paint.








                
         
I love using real pressed flowers on my pages, I happened to find some small antique crocheted swirls and thought they added a sweet little texture to my petals.


   
 "There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October." — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Thank you for looking.....xoxoxoxox
I am so happy to finally enjoy the crisp cool autumn air, this always make me want to bake!
Enjoy the season, I'll be back soon with another fall journal.
 
Love, Lisa 
xoxoxoxx


 

Friday, September 29, 2023

Plum Birthday Journal

 Hello lovely ladies. It's my birthday month and as I shared last September a journal I had made for myself, I'm back this month to do the same. As I go on my weekly scavenger hunts I often find random vintage textiles that are of wildly varying colours - but alas - there is a method to my madness (I think!) and these dusty forgotten lovely pieces of cloth come home with me where I wash them tenderly and sort them into baskets. Over the summer I gathered a few plum coloured fabrics and so they all came together in my new birthday journal. 

September

I created a collage of different bits of vintage trims and velvety flowers. I found this vintage silver plated leaf decoration in a thrift store that really made me happy, I thought it added the perfect touch to my cover of of fanciful flowers.


I made a trip home this summer where I had time to pull out some old family photo albums.
What a joy it is to see an old photograph and suddenly find long lost memories washing over you. This photograph of me as a little girl made me recall that my very first memories are here in this apartment on Eglinton Avenue. I distinctly remember my very young self looking up in absolute wonder at very long crystal clear icicles hanging from the eaves of the entrance. Winter is such a magical time when you are young. I also remember my Dad taking us to a nearby park where we would ride a toboggan down the icy hills into piles of fluffy snow.


    



    


                                          
 
          
 
         




I'm already playing with my next basket of fabrics in fiery colours of burnt orange, rusty golden browns and dark rich reds, in anticipation of my favourite autumn season. I'll be back with another share. Thanks for looking and I hope you feel inspired.

Love, Lisa xoxoxox

 

Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.

No faint and hesitating trill,
Such tribute as to winter chill
The lonely redbreast pays!
Clear, loud, and lively is the din,
From social warblers gathering in
Their harvest of sweet lays.

Nor doth the example fail to cheer
Me, conscious that my leaf is sere,
And yellow on the bough:—
Fall, rosy garlands, from my head!
Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance shed
Around a younger brow!

Yet will I temperately rejoice;
Wide is the range, and free the choice
Of undiscordant themes;
Which, haply, kindred souls may prize
Not less than vernal ecstasies,
And passion's feverish dreams.

For deathless powers to verse belong,
And they like Demi-gods are strong
On whom the Muses smile;
But some their function have disclaimed,
Best pleased with what is aptliest framed
To enervate and defile.

Not such the initiatory strains
Committed to the silent plains
In Britain's earliest dawn:
Trembled the groves, the stars grew pale,
While all-too-daringly the veil
Of nature was withdrawn!

Nor such the spirit-stirring note
When the live chords Alcæus smote,
Inflamed by sense of wrong;
Woe! woe to Tyrants! from the lyre
Broke threateningly, in sparkles dire
Of fierce vindictive song.

And not unhallowed was the page
By wingèd Love inscribed, to assuage
The pangs of vain pursuit;
Love listening while the Maid
With finest touch of passion swayed
Her own Æolian lute.

O ye, who patiently explore
The wreck of Herculanean lore,
What rapture! could ye seize
Some Theban fragment, or unroll
One precious, tender-hearted scroll
Of pure Simonides.

That were, indeed, a genuine birth
Of poesy; a bursting forth
Of genius from the dust:
What Horace gloried to behold,
What Maro loved, shall we enfold?
Can haughty Time be just!

September 1819
by William Wordsworth

Thursday, November 24, 2022

New Autumn journal

 Hello and a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers, and warm greetings to all those abroad! We feast on roast turkey and count our blessings on this day; family, faith, love and friends to share happy times with.
 
I wanted to share my latest book, inspired by the fiery colours of autumn, as the trees turn all sorts of warm reds, orange and gold. The size is smaller that I usually make, and I love it, it fits nicely into your hands, and can be brought along with you as you go for a walk or a drive in the countryside. It's so soft and lovely, I used some thick soft brocade and pieces of a beautiful gold and crimson Indian dress that I thrifted.

'Ode to Autumn'

 






This is a small collage I made using a vintage photograph, and little bits of the fabrics
I was using in my journal. 








I created the cover as a sort of tri-fold, where there is an extra piece of the back cover that is folded 
at the very front of the journal, or here, at the halfway point. On the under side of this flap is a 
lacey pocket to tuck a note or a photograph into.





 Many relaxing evening hours were spent ripping and sewing and piecing this journal together :)
I hope it inspires you in some way. I have most definitely found my joy in working with fabrics, 
and creating books that I will treasure over time has really brought me happiness.

Fall, Leaves, Fall

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; 
Lengthen night and shorten day; 
Every leaf speaks bliss to me, 
Fluttering from the autumn tree. 
I shall smile when wreaths of snow 
Blossom where the rose should grow; 
I shall sing when night’s decay 
Ushers in a drearier day.
 
- Emily Brontë
 
I'll be back in December for another share, I am working in navy blues, silver and gold.

Sending many blessings your way, thanks for looking!

Hugs,
Lisa xoxoxoxo




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