Christmas Cards

 Well I finally got my Christmas Cards done.  So far they seem to have gone down well with the recipients who opened them in front of me.  I tend to make simple cards because I prefer making them that way and I generally need to get them done quickly.

I used the fabric that I remembered following the dream where I had not sent cards, and finally found hiding very nearly in plain sight.  This gave me 18 different designs, and I had 6 panels which gave me the 54 cards I needed. 

 

I needed to fold the cards myself and need some easy way to quickly score 54 cards so I jerry rigged the following from a thick piece of card and some spray adhesive and it worked really well with the scoring line drawn on…

As I couldn’t find my bone folder I scored with a size 3.75mm blunt ended knitting needle – they are so versatile, the things you can’t do with one aren’t worth mentioning.

I cut around the edge of the individual squares very carefully following the outside gold line.

Then I foraged in my machine embroidery threads and found the perfect gold thread with which to zig zag stitch the fabric squares to the card. 

I cheated and printed the whole of the message, including the love Paula, Bernard & BUDDY! The paper inserts in either white or cream, to match the card, nicely cover the reserve side of the stitching and ta da…

just in time for last posting tomorrow.

Unlike sewing fabric to fabric, the card is a tad unforgiving so if you go too far (completely out of character for  me) you can’t just unpick it and do it again on the same card however I discarded two and then realised that it wasn’t a lost cause and just ran the stitching on and added some more…

And of course after I realised that – I didn’t need to do it again!

Don’t worry I’ve not put paid to popping the antlers on Bud.

 

Henry Cole

Henry Cole it has materialised is the bane of my life!  Who? Exactly I’d never heard of him until recently and yet every year at this time he gives me a headache (not literally).

I have been reading Bill Bryson’s At Home – emphasis on the have been – I stopped not a quarter of the way through.  Normally I like Bill’s stuff but not this one and not A Brief History of Nearly Everything nor actually Made in America – although I did read far enough into that to discover that the Pilgrims did not actually step ashore at Plymouth Rock! And I didn’t get very far with The Mother Tongue – but did learn that Shakespeare invented words, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Since that now looks like I don’t really finish Bill’s books I did however love A Walk in the Woods (and laughed out loud at the bit about the ‘bear’ and the tent) and in preparation for our trip to Australia in 2007 read Down Under, I also watched Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Australia and you know neither of them let us down.  The Lonely Planet Guide however was a different story resulting in a few days right next, or rather RIGHT NEXT, to the Red Light district of Sydney! And I liked The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and The Complete Notes.

Anyhoo back to At Home and Henry Cole.  Before I gave it up as a bad job I found out that Sir Henry ‘invented’ Christmas Cards back in 18 something or other.

Now I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Christmas through and through except for the card bit.  I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE writing Christmas cards.  Over the years I have tried it sober, I have tried it tipsy, I have sat at the table and done them, I have lounged on the settee, I have done them in one go, I have done them in instalments, I have fed them through a printer (at work about 19 years ago – so my HATE relationship with Christmas Cards has been going on for sometime) to avoid having to write…

To (insert name/s)

Wishing you a

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year

Lots of love/With love/Best wishes (delete as appropriate)

Paula & Bernard

xx (or no xx again as appropriate)

One year about, ohh maybe even, 10 years ago I happened to buy family Christmas cards in the after Christmas sale and spent about £20 and I was horrified at spending so much at sale prices – on something that B’s mum certainly would have in the bin before New Year.  So the following year I made the family cards and as usual bought some form of charity card for the others – my card list hovers around 50 – some friends send more than a 100!  They moan about it regularly every year but they send them anyway and generally start writing in November.

So for the first few years I made just cards that I would have bought with a title on eg, Auntie, nephew, in-laws, and then maybe five or six years ago I started making them all.  And I actually prefer this to writing them out – even though I usually end up writing something in the card anyway – crazy I know but somehow it’s less of a chore!

I actually had a dream a few weeks ago that I hadn’t sent my Christmas Cards and fortunately it made me remember that I bought some fabric in Australia that I intended to use for cards – I was going to add that I don’t know where it is but it’s just dawned on me it may be with the Christmas stuff in the loft!

And I don’t mean to panic anyone but did you know it’s 1 December today, I’ve committed to a Handmade Holiday and Christmas Eve – that possible time to spend all day catching up this year falls on a working day!

Well if push comes to shove a photo card may be quicker – I’m thinking Buddy in a pair of antlers – a red nose may be pushing it though.

Oh, and I do have to buy one card – for Bernard – he thinks my handmade ones suck – well not in some many words but the one year he got one – not a happy bunny – he likes a slushy verse too!