Look ma, no papercuts!

Look ma, no papercuts!

I probably should have held off of saying that until after I had all of my Christmas cards made but I did manage to make the majority of them already without any mishaps.

I am not known for actually making Christmas cards or even for getting readymade bought ones out the door... I have this affliction of good intentions but by the time the end of January rolls around and they are still sitting in the box they came in, I give up & say "next year"... which until this year, has very rarely actually happened.

And the years that it has happened, I maybe send out a handful to close family and a couple of friends.

However, this year, I have made about 30 so far and have another dozen or so I will likely make. It began with one of the ladies I CT for, MaryAnn, asking for people's addresses for Christmas cards back in July to get hers ready. I decided back then it sounded like a good deal and that I really should try to do it this year... maybe that was the trick... thinking & beginning planning in July.

So whenever I had a coupon for Michaels and was there, I would pick up another piece. It started with a box of plain cards in September, then finding a rubber stamp which I ended up stamping & then scanning in & playing with digitally to print back on the inside of the cards & then most recently found some cute ribbon and packages of little poinsettias to attach to the front.

They are a pretty simple design but I am okay with that. I did it! and that was the accomplishment for me. The first 30 are even in addressed envelopes just waiting to go to the post office for mailing. The others I am doing up with family & we'll see if I actually get a letter written to include in those ones or not.

The best part of putting the cards together? using my rotary cutter & mat I bought recently for sewing to easily measure out & cut all the strips of ribbons & then the coolest glue thing ever! a glue runner like those dry whiteout cartridges. It was perfect sized for the ribbon I chose that I was able to just run it across places of the back & then just attach it simply & effortlessly.

And today, or rather the day that I haven't been to bed for yet, is December 1st so my Tiffany Tillman 25 Days of Templates has begun. I got the first set of templates and supplies today. I copied and duplicated the planner pages so that I would have 1 for each day of the month and then put them all in a combined pdf with the other planning documents. I put the December calendar at a glance page first and then used the lovely little ability in Preview to add annotation links so that when I click on each calendar date number, it will take me to that day's full planning page for page layout sketch, journaling and photo notes.

December 1st is planned out, photos taken and now to determine which kits I am going to use for the album and then I can begin putting together the first layout.

This is my first year attempting a December Daily type of album. I am hoping to be able to keep up with it and have ideas for the days as we tend not to do a lot of Christmas activities. Maybe we will change that this year & embrace the season more like we did when we were kids.

Have you done a December Daily album before? Planning on doing one this year?

What types of activities do you do for the Christmas season? Any special plans made?