Crafty Panic: Christmas is Closer than I Thought!
It’s December the What Now?
When crafters don’t see Christmas coming until it’s too late!
Hello again, it’s Sy here. Sy the crafter. Sy the cardmaker. Sy the busy. Sy the absent-minded. It seems that the Season of Giving has properly snuck up on me. The presents have been made, but the cards were forgotten under a pile of higher-priority tasks… and now, last posting dates are looming.
As of this past Friday, my total of handmade Christmas cards was at a record-smashing Zero. It’s some sort of record, but in the wrong direction. How did I get through the first week-and-a-bit of December without making a single Christmas card? Luckily for me, Saturday was my monthly craft day in Eastbourne with friends. I resolved to make some cards there and hastily packed a few piles of supplies.
On arrival at the crafty venue, I surveyed what I had brought: Mostly free stuff from craft magazine covers, including stamp sets, patterned papers, dies and those infernal die-cut topper things that I never really know what to do with.
You see, I have a problem. I seem to have trapped myself into thinking that if something doesn’t take ages to make, it must not be very good. If every detail is not hand-made and agonised over, then it must be phoned in. Well, with this collection of supplies, I was about to do a whole lot of phoning in!
Here are the first four cards from my session:
|
|
|
These cards follow a formula. Each of them has three patterned papers on them from the same collection, a printed topper image and a message, plus a stamped accent. In the case of the one all the way to the right, the stamped accent is actually the message.
This pattern continued a bit throughout the entire weekend, with the Merry Christmas text being used the most. I switched from random rectangle placement to a mosaic-style layout, sometimes swapping the topper out for a stamped and coloured in image or a fancy die-cut tree.
I enjoyed my cardmaking session. I have a few leftovers from previous years saved up, so along with the 14 cards I made this time around, I will manage a modest amount of greetings this year.
And if my card list is longer than expected, there’s always the shop-bought ones I have squirreled away for just such an occasion… but when you make cards, you soon learn who you can and can’t get away with giving one of those to!
While I’m here, some quick Unravel & Unwind news:
Holiday Closures:
Sunday the 17th of December is our last day until we re-open on the 4th of January! Personally, my last day in the studio as a volunteer (as opposed to a participant) will be Thursday the 14th. If you’d like to knock out some quick gift tags and have a natter, you would be most welcome!
New Crochet Workshops in January:
There are two new crochet workshops available to book, starting in the New Year. They are both for improvers and feature patterns from Rainbow Valley Crochet!
You can improve your crochet over 8 weeks with either the Secret Garden or Space Odyssey! Click your favourite to see a photo and to book your place!