Christmas Cards - an explanation

I enjoy handmaking my Christmas cards, I want them to be a little bit different from the usual, to reflect my personality along with a bit of humor thrown in.

Inspiration doesnt normally hit me until mid november, I dont push it, I dont stress over it, I just wait, I know it'll come when its ready. I also tend to mass produce them, I say mass but this year will be the most I've needed to make in a while, a grand total of 28+2spare. I add a personalised message in each to show I'm thinking of the person. The 2 spare are just incase I recieve a card from someone I've ruled off my card list purely because our friendship has run its course & faded out.

Writing Christmas cards also gives me a chance to make sure all addresses are upto date, I shall be adding them onto my ipad this year & making sure I have a paper copy as well, just incase.

I always keep the card design a secret, though I did give a few clues away while out last weekend, until they've all been posted & in theory received, then I share them with you guys.

Heres last years...

Blogged about HERE

Blogged about HERE

I have made circular card holders for the cards I receive

More details about how I made them can be found HERE and HERE

Handmade ones are always my favourite & get kept :-)

I'm dreaming of a White Chritmas...

...just like the ones I used to know.
Really & truely my memories of white Christmasses here in Shropshire are rare, we're far more likely to get grey weather with the odd sprinkling of rain. I dont mind this though, a grey background makes the christmas lights shine even brighter, it makes the colours pop & creates a warm cosey atmosphere inside. Then theres the excitement if it DOES snow on Christmas day.

Today felt like the coldest day of the season so far, it is the first day that I really felt like I needed to put all the different winter woolie layers on. Of course I have multiple wooly hats to choose from because, as many of you know, I do like my hats.
Its suddenly feels like things are getting festive. I love curling up in my chair with a warm drink at the end of a cold cold day, or sitting at the kitchen table, craft items out, feet on my tigger hot water bottle.

I love it when it actually does snow & I can take my lads skiing, sledging, builing a snowman or simply making snow angels

I do miss the winters of my youth, maybe its nostalgia clouding my memory, but I remember the snow being deeper, & I dont mean just in comparisson to my smaller self. My dad used to build an igloo outside our house, it always seemed huge to us & we could crawl inside with a few friends. He would use a hose in the evening to water it which in turn turned to ice & strengthened it. The igloo would last far longer than any of the surrounding snow. I wish I had a photo of one of them.



Journal Your Christmas - Day 1

This is my first year doing Shimelles JYC. I've decided to start by doing a daily blogpost based on the prompts to find my feet, then turn some of them into Scrapbook pages.

So lets get started.....

Why did I join Shimelles JYC?
I've made a few Christmas pages in the past and they are starting to threaten being repetitve so I'm after a few new ideas, a different perspective and to learn, while recording the fun we've had.

What will I be journalling about?
December is a busy magical month for us, theres making the house look magical with decorations and the traditions that go with it, school plays & events, making & writing christmas cards, visiting family, having friends visit, birthdays, celebrating Yule & then Christmas....all the way into New Year & Zacks birthday. I want to record these special times, record the smiles & fun we've had so my children can look back with their children, to remember & see how times have changed, as well as what stays the same. Its a time that appeals to all the senses, the smell of baking, the sounds of carols & laughter, the sight of lights a flickering, the taste of spices and the touch of wrapping paper, I want to get these across on the paper, in the words.

Hopefully from all this I can come up with a nicely worded manifesto