Hand Crafted Memories

I have just managed to finish my pages for Shimelles 4 x 6 photo love for November, just in time before the December layout is released. I've had the photos ready for a while but I haven't had much motivation to scrap. I had promised myself that I would get plenty done over the Christmas holiday period, but for some reason today was the first chance I got. I even managed to get an hour in the garden at lunch time. The weather has been gorgeous so I grabbed the opportunity to do some tidying up. Anyway this page has all the photos from a trip to Arlington Cemetery in 1992, I was so impressed at how much the American military is respected and treated.Its not just their own military, they respect everybody. At the time we visited America my husband and I were civilians working for the Saudi Military Hospital in Riyadh. Each time we checked into a hotel and gave our address they asked for our ID, we were given discounts on everything and in many cases upgrades. The trip to Arlingt

Here is another pop up card, I have loved making them this year, can you believe only 2 days left to Christmas Day and in three days it will all be over with. I now have to think up ways of making some pop up birthday cards. I have a few ideas and after I finish work tomorrow, for 10 days I'll have plenty of time to make them .  

Oh I wish I was, its funny it doesn't matter how prepared we think we are, we always seem to end up rushing about. I have been to Kingston this week with work and those two days away form home seem to have thrown me into chaos. Although I posted all my cards for people I would not be seeing, the other cards remain unwritten. Tomorrow evening we have our works Christmas dinner and a couple of those cards need writing for that. I promise myself this weekend everything that I haven't done will be done. If it doesn't get done so what Christmas will still happen and I do not intend to spend it stressing over a card that perhaps I didn't write. Next year I'm going to be sitting and waiting just like this chap is on my card. I have really enjoyed making these pop up cards this year. I've already got ideas for birthday cards in mind, but lets just get Christmas finished first.

Why do I take things on that are so labour intensive? I agreed to make some wedding invitations and after several samples we came up with the one. I priced everything up and gave the final bill which was accepted. This weekend I have these to deal with these.   Three charms for each card and there are 150 cards. Yes 450 jump rings need adding to 450 charms, so if anybody wants me I'll be sitting on the sofa, dealing with these. Each year for our Christmas party we are invited by the Directors to a Christmas dinner. We choose our meal a few weeks before the event and every year somebody forgets what they have ordered. I make little cards for each guest with their choices in them so they can be reminded. Previous ones are here and here . These are the ones I made for this year. I've wanted to make a chocolate finger cake for a couple of weeks now, since my friend told me about it. Today as a break from threading jump rings onto charms I made this

It doesn't matter how early I start making Christmas cards I never seem to make enough. Today called for a little bit of production line card making. I had already made a few focal points with some stamps and had coloured them, this is something I do fairly regularly. I stamp and colour in, then leave them until I need to make up a card. I folded up some card stock and dived into the mountain of Christmas papers to make these. They are all now drying and will be written tomorrow. Here are three of the cards all variations on a them but perfect production line cards.    

I felt that I was almost ready for Christmas and was quite happy with how organised I was. Why then today do I feel I've taken my eye off the ball?  I managed to post all the cards that need to go in the mail but I haven't written the cards for people I am going to see. I also have a huge pile of photos to scrap but don't have any time. They will have to wait for my Christmas break from work. I have a few more of the pop up cards to make for my special friends who I will be seeing, but immediate task is to make some quick cards to hand out. A few more of these I think

A few weeks ago I made a pop up card at a Molly Bloom workshop at the Craft Box . Sometimes you make something and it sets you off on a creative path. This pop up card caused a real flurry of Christmas card creativity. I was asked to make a card for one of my friends at work to give to his lovely wife, so with this pop up inspiration I made this card, it looks pretty just like this with its matching box but then you open it up to see this lovely cold and frosty scene and the details This month over on the Crafty Calendar Challenge Blogspot their challenge is to create something with a cold and frosty theme. This card fits the bill perfectly.

This is going to be a really busy weekend for me, so I think getting organised is at the top of my list. I need a brake check on my car, groceries from the supermarket, the Christmas trimming s have to go up as well as the usual housework, and washing and ironing. Most of all I am so looking forward to another Molly Blooms workshop at the Craft Box . I'm treating my workshop day as a reward for doing all the other chores, better get my skates on. I was asked to make some cards for the parents and in laws of a friend of mine at work, I made them both the same and as the cards are coming from their grandson, picked this little boy image, what a great excuse to use my Promarkers.