Cozy Christmas Cottage Journal

(Completed July 30, 2016)

The Cozy Christmas Cottage Journal is the third Christmas journal I did in July, and is a continuation of the Winter Wonderland Journal.

The cover is made from a cereal box, covered with brown paper which was then stenciled with green acrylic paint and finalized with Christmas clip art cut from Trader Joe's holiday paper bags. I sealed it with a few coats of satin Liquitex varnish to protect the paper.

I was rather picky about my choice of green paint, wanting something foresty, like a pine tree. Most the tube colors weren't dark enough for my taste, but I finally found one that appealed. I mixed the acrylic with an extender jell to keep the paint wet for longer, then applied it using a paint knife to essentially spackle it over the stencil.

This gave the cover an interesting raised texture, and thankfully didn't peek through the clip art.

I used the largest O wire size there is (1 1/4'') to bind my book. This one had more matching contents compared to its relative.

On the inside I used some more brown paper for the inner cover, and created a border using garland strips from a very old set of  festive Trader Joe's paper bags. Candy canes and cookie squiggles seemed appropriate for this book.

The theme of this journal is a Christmas in the mountainous country basically, or a vacation in the mountains for Christmas, then a return home to more suburban territory. The papers I chose as part of my experiment essentially tell a story of their own, waiting for someones interpretation of the journey from start to finish.

His and hers hot coco cups with other festive mugs, I love this page for its colors and find it makes a great intro to the slightly stained page next to it.

What better thing to go with hot coco than part of a calendar and a box of Irish oatmeal, a warm breakfast before a day of tree hunting.

The oatmeal box has been in my stash forever, and at some point I need to add a tag to this heavy weight pocket.

A table full of pretty colors, dishes waiting for food, and a small pocket made from whimsical tree wrapping paper, underlining a silly picture of a pine cone hedgehog.

though the pocket is small, I found some little calendar sheets that fit in it just right.

The red door with an inviting light display, a fancy cottage entrance to invite the mountain visitors in.

Between pages I added a security envelope as a pocket for holding a note or tags for writing.

Inside the cottage, a full tree, and a paper bag pocket to match the rustic look, providing a place for writing.

Back to urban setting, this section is good for telling a story about the Nutcracker.

Another meandering page of squiggles to match the theme of childish bliss I sometimes feel when dreaming about the Nutcracker story. I added a small envelope as a pocket and enjoy the setting of the red stocking with ornaments.

I added some scenery pages for the sake of adding collage and text where desired, all part of telling a story of some sort.

I also slipped in some smaller calendar pages next to interesting flier images, like the wreath that looks good enough to eat.

One of my favorite pages, because the colors are so pleasant. I love green and teal, so this page had to go somewhere.

The whimsical tree wrapping paper envelope seemed nice with the rose image, and can hold another note or tags.

The section on lights has to be my second favorite, since I naturally love sparkly things.

The snowman image makes me feel happy, and the deck the halls page makes me laugh, added to pick up on the blue in the pages.

I continued the Christmas light snowman theme and threw in a few other color complimenting junk mail things.

Welcoming the glow and a very glowing hologram paper were no doubt the best choice. Headphone box scraps do come in handy, and this reflective paper reminds me of wrapping paper, ice, and the glow of lights on a frosted mirror.

A whimsical lit home, best thing about Christmas next to the food.

I added the other half of my holiday tissue box to this book, along with a matching color envelope.

This tissue box was also made to be a pocket, my favorite part about it being that you can see your reflection warp in the ornaments like you would when looking at real ornaments.

A vintage style page for creative garland decorating tips. A little vintage imagery just seemed fun.

Since the flier images are double backed, I got a few odd pages tossed in, like the amaryllis image, but with a colorful snowflake image I managed to balance the colors and get them to look alright together.

Another favorite section of the silver and white dining room, along with a close up image of bells on a white tree. More places to collage and write.

Back page is of simple ornaments, a gift, and a home decor piece, placed there to pick up on the colors of the back inner cover.

There's much more. Enjoy the flip through.