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Distinctively Diana

Creating hand-designed touches for everyday life & festive occasions

Do you decorate your planner?

So the other day, Kraftin’ Kimmie of Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps challenged us on her Facebook Page to show her our decorated planner pages. And she showed us how she had decorated her planner. Beautiful!

I have used a planner ever since I was in high school.

I remember getting my wisdom teeth out in Grade 12 and the doctor looked at me in wonder as I said hang on, let me check my calendar and whipped out my planner. He told my mom he’d never seen a high school student do that before.

So, I’m a long time user of planners. And I never left the paper version to go to a digital version. Give me paper!! (More than one reason I went to Journalism school! LOL!)

So this whole resurgence, resurrection and love affairs with planners in the creative community makes me laugh a bit.

But, when Kimmie put the challenge out I thought hmm…

To decorate or not to decorate

I’ve stayed away from decorating my main planner as I take it into client meetings and workplaces and it just might not convey the level of professionalism needed. But then I thought, there’s the calendar I use on the fridge in the kitchen to plan and integrate the entire family life.

And then I did

And last night I decorated it. Oh what fun! I did it very quickly because it was late and I really needed to get to bed. I love it!! And when I came down to the kitchen this morning and saw it…it made me smile. And feel happy. How silly that a decorated calendar can do that. But what a nice little touch to my day.

I think this is something I will keep doing.

And it’s made me start thinking about creating my own calendar for next year…and maybe even my own planner pages….hmm…

 

 

 

 

 

I know it’s been awhile, but I couldn’t see my crafting table…

Holy cow! When did December sneak in the door??? What happened to November???

Ok, if I’m really honest here, I know exactly what happened. I’ve actually spent most of 2017 in Christmas mode.

Bringing Joy…christmasjoy.ca

As a part of the 2017 JOY Christmas Home Tour planning committee, I’ve spent most of 2017 planning, interviewing, writing, and just all round preparing for this tour of eight homes kindly provided to us by local homeowners. We then line up decorators, florists, designers and foodies with each home and by the tour date in mid-November, the homes are amazing creations of Christmas delight. I write the tour booklet which features each of the homes and all the businesses that are involved. The entire project is massive, but the volunteer committee of women does it all for the benefit of Hope House, a local community organization dedicated to poverty alleviation in Guelph. Last year, we raised $83,000 for Hope House. We set a goal of $100,000 this year, really challenging ourselves. And we blasted through that goal; with the help of all our sponsors, and business partners, we sold out again and we have raised $105,000!! We are thrilled beyond belief!!

And Cleaning…and Organizing

Somewhere in the midst of all that,  I had to sort out the portion of my basement that houses the furnace…and acts as storage. (Ok, my husband will tell you my entire house is storage for me, but that’s another story…) That led me to deciding my office needed a deep clean and that meant I’d had enough of the state of my craft studio next door. Everything stopped dead in there. I had to reorganize big time.  So that meant finding better ways to use all the boxes, and bins and tins and other items I had on hand for storage. I pulled everything out so I could see what I had. The entire basement was a disaster!

But, this is also where I store my 50 bins of Christmas decorations…I kid you not. In two different locations. A storage closet in my office. And under the stairs in the furnace area. So everything had to be organized before I could start decorating. Nothing like setting challenges for myself at a very busy time of year.

Oh and it’s exam time...

And add into all of THAT, I also proctor exams at University of Guelph at this time of year. That means I assist and oversee students writing exams through the university’s accessibility department.

Craft Studio Before

So…I haven’t been able to do much creating in my craft studio lately, because you kind of need a table to do that, and I couldn’t see mine. Or much of any other surface. But, I have accomplished the task I set out to do. My craft studio has gone from this:

To this:

Craft Studio After

Please tell me you can see a difference!!

Now onto Christmas decorating!!

My Christmas decorating is almost completed. Just the Christmas village to set up and the tree to decorate — it’s up, just not decorated! Maybe tonight. It’s amazing how my husband keeps missing the elves burning the midnight oil, decorating our home as he sleeps. Each morning he wakes up and discovers another room has been done! Funny how that happens!

So maybe, very soon, I can get into my really organized craft studio and tackle what I want to be doing, being creative.

My very first easel card

Oh…but before I go, I thought I would share my very first easel card that I did. It was a little challenging to figure out how to make the card work…setting it up to stand properly. I had to do it a couple of times. But I’m happy with the result. I used Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps Dear Santa. Love her stamps!!

My very first easel card

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and family!

We had 14 people for dinner on Saturday, and I set the table with a combined Harvest Blessing placecard/bookmark/card that I made for everyone to take home.

I started by creating plastic tag shaped bookmark placecards from old 12 x 12 scrapbook album pages I had on hand — those old ones that don’t quite fit any album properly. I used my Becky Higgins Project Life Fuse Tool to seal the new shapes of each tag, leaving the top open. It was a little tricky and I had to check each one to make sure the seal took.

I then took leaf-shaped Craft Smart tags from Michaels and used my “Happy Autumn” stamp from the Harvest Blessings set from Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps (KKS) to create the portion of the tag that I used to handwrite each person’s name on, turning it into a placecard. I used Versafine ink in Onyx Black.

Next, from the same KKS stamp set, I used the “Wishing you a harvest filled with blessings” stamp in Onyx Black again on a diecut tag with my Silhouette Cameo. I edged the tag with Jim Holtz Distress Ink in Old Paper.

I then used my Silhouette machine to cut out little tiny pumpkin shapes from burnt orange metallic paper.

I used my KKS stamp “Happy Fall Y’all” from the new September release and using Momento Potters Clay ink, stamped onto one sheet of Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock. Using Distress Ink in Antique Ink and Tea Dye, I sponged the tag areas and then cut each of them out.

Next, using a funnel, I put one of these tags, one of the metallic mini pumpkins, a number of Craft Medley sequins in “Dazzling Metallics” and an assortment of confetti I had on hand in leaves into the clear tag pockets. I used the fuse tool to seal the tops.

I used my We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite to punch 3/16″ holes in the top of each tag. I also punched an additional hole in the leaf-shaped nametags and threaded both tags together with My Mind’s Eye Indie Chic Ginger Twine in Relax, an amber yellow and white colour.

For the final touch, I used one 3L Dodz Medium Adhesive Dot on each of the “Wishing You…” tags and affixed them about a 1/3 of the way down the clear tag.

My guests were thrilled with their little greetings and couldn’t believe that I had made them!

I’m going to post this in the Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps “Fall/Autumn Colours” Challenge that kicked off on October 7th. I’m also very excited to be part of the Guest Design Team this month. I’ll keep posted on what’s going on!

Kicking Off Fall with a New Look!

It’s September and to me, that has always been like the start of the year in a lot of ways. Kids start school and adults get back into the routine of everyday life. It seemed to be a great time to get my Distinctively Diana blog in order too. Time to refresh and start anew. So I chose to go with a great new look for this site and a renewed commitment to posting about my creative journeys.

I’ve also kicked off a new Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest page and Twitter account all connected to Distinctively Diana. My goal is to explore the creative, lifestyle, decorating and entertaining sides of me through these pages. I hope you’ll join me as I share some of my thoughts, my creations and my finds.