Last mention of the "C" word!

I am the first to admit that I am a little strange!  Every year I break my neck to get my Christmas cards out in the post on the 1st December.  I adore my photo cards and I take a lot of time to find the right one for me and get the shots of the kids done and sent off for printing.

Anyway - once my cards are gone, the received cards start arriving and over the last few years I have always played the game of guess who is sending the card by the handwriting (see I am strange!!) and then read the card, and put it with the other cards strung between the door frame on the sitting room.  This year I took the string down, and tried to put the cards up on the Radiator cover, but the kids kept knocking them down, and the garlands were on the fireplace so that didn't work either!  My DH never got to see the cards either as they were put high up on the string, so he really never noticed who sent us cards or what they said.  So this year, I gathered up all the cards, got the kids to punch them with the 2 hole punch and made up two very plain corrugated cardboard covers so that when I got a moment I could decorate them.  

The book sat (eeek! with no lovely decorated cover!) on our coffee table and everyone looked at it, the kids  had great fun punching the cards when they arrived and were able to file them away in the book, DH actually got to look and read the cards, and I had a joy of not having to pick them up every day when the kids knocked them over!!  Works for us!

Just after Christmas I found this post from one of my favorite blogs!  They had these lovely downloadable covers for storing Christmas cards.  So pop over and download them if you feel like storing your card like this for next year, or even taking all the cards you got this year and keeping them safe for posterity!

Normal crafty service will resume next week! LOL, storing up all the projects now!

Thanks for popping bye!

Nearly finished with Christmas!!! - Promise...

I really hated putting away some of my Christmas decorations this year, I really enjoyed having the garlands with lights on the fireplaces and the teal and white theme I picked for this year.

Here are some of the photos of it all just before it came down....

Fireplace Garland in dining room

Front Room Garland

White Ameryllis - fab!

No name cards - so I made up these little flowers with name for the table on Christmas day.

I made a lot of sweets, cookies and cakes for Christmas, but by far the most popular was the Chocolate Marshmallows for Christmas Eve.  3 Marshmallows stuck on a stick, then dipped in chocolate and then drizzled with white and red chocolate and sugar sprinkles.  All wrapped up and ready to be enjoyed just before bed on Christmas Eve.

I have 1 more Christmas related project to show you and then I promise I won' mention the C word again till November!!!

Whew - so glad it's over and back to normal!

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but OMG it's so much hard work!  Shopping, cleaning, baking, wrapping, lists, planning and cleaning up - Seriously, it's a good thing it only comes around once a year!

We had a lovely Christmas eve at my mums house opening presents, and home to just put some Reindeer feed out and cookies too, and then the hard work started with prepping veg and getting ready for the big day.  Santa came and was really good the girls - it was a bit of a worry if he would come as the Portable North Pole video said that the girls had not made it to the good list just yet.

We hosted a little present opening for my DH's family, 20 people for a little mulled wine and appetizers, and then we waited and had dinner later on.

From St. Stephens day on were were all sick - sore throats, coughs and sinus infections and we trundled off the the doctors, and 3 of us on anti-biotics, so the bit between Christmas and New Year were spent quietly.

I am sick of Christmas now, the house was de-christmased on New Years day and the tree not long after, and it's nice to have my normal house back now, and it's all clean and light.  Here are some of the last projects I wanted to share.

My Ribbon Reel Tree was picked up by Crate Paper Blog and I waited patiently for it to be shown, but in the end they didn't use it.  Made from Crate Paper Peppermint Collection and some empty ribbon reels.

While I was taking the photos above, this little man was sitting under the tree just waiting to be told off for being there!  Cute or what!

This card was made ages ago, but again held off as I it was for Making Memories blog, and I had to wait to see if it got used before I showed it.

I have not even looked at any Christmas photos I took, not bee out to take any or even try and edit any I have waiting to be finished - I've been that sick that all I did was sit on the couch every night and try and get over this dose.  

So finally - here is our Christmas card, I took the photos of the girls and found a template that I liked and Viola - a family Christmas card!!!  I loved it this year and will have to work hard to get something good for next year.

Happy New Year to you all and I am looking forward to finding some inspiration in 2012.

Shameless copying!

I hold my hands up and say that last Saturday while at our all day crop - my friend made a set of these and I was enthralled....  On Sunday while out food shopping I strolled by the yogurt aisle and found some little jars of layered yogurt and bought 3!  (should have bought 6 LOL!).

My home decor this year is this teal shade, so I selected some MME papers (swoon!) and some Crate Paper stickers.  The felt was cut with my BigShot and added some twine - Simples!

I LOVE THEM!!!  Can't wait to light them up!

Really this is just a form of recycling!  So let's all eat lots of yogurts in glass jars and make something with them!!!!!

Christmas is HARD work!

Every year I start with great intentions.  Start shopping early, start wrapping as I go, make and freeze what I can and even start buying the non-perishable groceries in advance.  I plan the made gifts, and try and have them ready before the start of December...  Every year I have a huge panic attack that I won't be ready, that I have forgotten something huge (and generally have) and this makes the last 2 weeks stressful.

This year, I did all the above planning, and here I am in the last 2 weeks still in the same state!  What does that teach me - well no matter what I have done, or plan to get done early, the last 2 weeks are HARD work and nothing you do can make it any easier!

So out come the lists - divide my nights out to complete one task, and make the time work for me.  I am so glad that the X-Factor is over cause I just could not waste another hour on the couch watching it.  My Saturday and Sunday nights were just taken over with TV and not crafting.

Here is a card that I made for the Crafty Bloggers Challenge blog - I love the simple design of it,

The papers and ribbon were left over and sitting on my desk from the kit I got from Handmade Hannah, and I had the leaf punch out for another project.  So the card just fell into place.  The little birdie is from a Myra Road set, and I inked it and covered it with Glossy Accents.  The NOEL was from a Making Memories Alpha set.

See the little leaves sit up and surround the ribbon, but after being squashed in an envelope it won't look like that!

I have a lovely project I want to share with you, but just waiting on a quiet moment to photograph it and post it here.

My new motto will be Stress Less, do More!

Making Memories (for me!)

Way back in August I received a message to ask me if I would be interested in doing a guest design spot for Making Memories!  OMG I did not have to think twice about that one, and I replied with as much reserve as I could muster,"Yes, that would be great!"  Translation - OMG OMG OMG YES YES YES!!! Can't breath!,  Jump around, run around, and then try and explain it my family who say...."Is that good?"

So it's been ages, the projects have been hanging in my home since September but here you go....

This is the link for my guest spot - and I am a tad excited, but not too happy with the photos, as they don't really do either project justice, but the light is cruel in this part of the world in the winter.


http://blog.makingmemories.com/2011/12/guest-designer-michelle-la-grue-.html

Must be rusty!

For the last week it has been one thing or another that prevented me from getting to my craft room.  There was a card on the desk half made for nearly 10 days and by the time I finished it, the reason for making it was gone!

So I FORCED myself out the office last night, and had a fab creative time....  These cards fell into place....

This card was one I did not expect to have to make.  I had just made one for a lovely older gentleman who died and just over 3 weeks later his wife suddenly died, and this has been devastating for the family as she was a very robust, lively woman.  The card will go in the post tomorrow.  A doily coloured black, one of the new EK success flower punch flowers, and PTI die cut and PTI stamped sentiment.  The patterned paper is a small bit left over from the Handmade Hannah Christmas kit, that worked perfectly.

This card is really lovely in the hand, but hard to photograph.  I use my fav Spellbinders Die's to cut the snowflake apertures, and then layered some more white snowflake die cuts on the inside of the card and the red background is embossed. The card is simple, but very effective.  The best way to probably show you it, is to lay it flat.....

My final card tonight is one that I loved, it was super fiddly, but I was so happy with it all the way till the end, when I suddenly felt it didn't look like what I wanted it to look like. That's what I get for leaving it sitting for nearly 10 days.  It was a card made with a challenge in mind, but as I ran out of time, I can show it here!

I know I am using the same die again!!! BUT really this is the only time of year I can get to use it and OMG it just oozes fabulous!!!!!

I cut loads of the snowflakes and glued them into a 3d shape and ran a thin nylon string thru the middle and suspended it on the top of the card.  Added a few white gems and ta-daaaa!  Instant hanging snowflakes!!!  LOVE it, but not sure of the final impact...  Probably nicer in my head!

So that's it, one night's work, 1made from start to end, and 2 finished, more nights like that would be great.

Back soon with news!!!!