Happy Christmas!

This is my last post until after Christmas, so I wish you....

...enjoy yourselves!

Fluffy and puffy (yarn and pastry!)

Now that all my Christmas projects are completed and everything packed away, apart from finishing off the gift tags which I've made, I can concentrate on making birthday and celebration cards which I need for early January. Hopefully I can get them made tomorrow and then my desk will be clear.
I spent some time playing with ideas on the Serif graphics programme....

...roses are the theme for one of the cards and so I've used pictures of roses in our garden....

....I've taken so many it's difficult which image to choose...

.....there will be co-ordinating background papers to go along with the main image, once I've decided!
I had a box full of these gorgeous yarns....

...and I've been knitting them into squares....

...they are going to be made into a throw. I could have just knitted it in long lengths, I know....

....but that wasn't the effect I wanted. It will be so much nicer in squares...

....I've done 68 so far....

...and I have enough yarn to make at least another 30....

......and the colours are just delicious...

.....It will be so soft and fluffy, just right for these long dark evenings.

Today has been baking day....

...I wanted to get it all done today. The mince pies, sausage rolls, lemon tarts are all done. I just have to make a Bailey's cream cake and a trifle. They'll be done on Friday.
I shan't get much crafting done over Christmas, I shall be too busy with the family. But the ideas will still keep coming and I shall note them down whenever they arise.
Now it's time for gift wrapping and we still have the tree to put up. That's a job for tomorrow too!

Christmas preparations!

Well, the knitting has come to a halt for a short while. This was so that I could finish off my Christmas cards. As you can see, I am not a tidy papercrafter....

... and I have to have everything out on the desk, so that I know what I'm doing ( I should add, hopefully)!
Last years' cards were of a traditional theme. But this year I decided to go more contemporary, with design and colour. This was partly due to the beautiful wallpapers which I was given. The colours I used for the cards were chocolate brown and black.....

..it's really difficult to see in the picture, but the brown textured paper has gold in it too....

...I used chocolate brown cardstock, and I stamped and clear embossed the snowflake backgrounds. I then used a Martha Stewart punch for the squares of paper and I used my snowflake Sizzix die to punch out some snowflakes. Just to top it off I punched some smaller snowflakes to top the larger ones off. I did the same with the black , the black paper was embossed and has silver threads running through it, and I also used silver holgram card too....

.. I then decided to make a fewcards with some dusky pink card and some velvet striped paper. The effect was great, and so I made a few in that colourway.
For my last few, I used one of my photos of mince pies.....

....and used them as toppers on cards, after stamping and clear embossing holly on the card. It worked very well, and I'm very pleased with the outcome.
When I told Mick what I was doing, he wasn't sure about the wallpapers, but when he saw them, he was impressed. (Breathes a big sigh of relief!).

... I've made sixty, I think I've made enough .....

.... I still have the special cards to make for family. I am sticking to the black/silver/ hologram and chocolate brown/gold theme for these. they will hopefully be finished in the next day or so.
I'm hoping to get started on my "springtime" knitting before Christmas, but at the moment there is way too many other things to do. I don't think there'll be much done over the holidays and for a short while beyond, as with family staying with us, my time will be concentrated on them. Besides, there's the grasndchildren to play with and that is more important!
I have a facination for kaleidoscopes, ( this comes from when I was a child and had a kaleidoscope telescope). Nowadays I use software on my computer, and once I get playing, it's difficult to stop...

...it is very addictive.....

...I have used kaleidoscopic images on cards, as background papers...

....and I they look great as tiles....

......

......maybe I shall use some for atc's....

......or frames....

....the possibilities are endless, as they say!
I still have one Christmas gift to make. It's actually going to be a collection of special pictures to be mounted into a frame. I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the week. Then it's the real countdown to Christmas. I've already baked two lots of mince pies....

....they've all gone already, but December is the month for them! But by the weekend there will be more. The brandied mincemeat is on standby!