Christmas card ideas | The Contented Crafter

Well hello there – it’s been a while hasn’t it. Two months since my last post and I’m amazed that there are still new folk following and liking and even reading – thank you so much and welcome, I’m very happy you are all here 🙂

So, please bear with and I’ll give you a quick catch-up and then it’s done and we won’t refer to it ever again. And if you just want to see what I’ve been making, just scroll down past all these many words to the photos – I won’t mind at all.

Because I have to admit this past winter has been a tough one for me – you know we have times when it’s not all roses and lollipops even though there seems to be no particular reason for it being that way. So it was this winter. It’s not that it was particularly cold – it wasn’t. July was the warmest on record and while I don’t know yet about August, the icy Antarctic winds that hit were pretty chilly, so maybe that lowered temps overall. It wasn’t particularly wet either, no flooding so far this year. But it was grey, endlessly grey and I don’t do well without blue skies and sunlight. I simply felt extremely tired and unmotivated.

And it was a shock when my dearest and oldest friend, an active and robustly healthy woman, was abruptly diagnosed with breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy. (So far so good, she has radiation treatment beginning soon, we feel positive!)

And then there was the personal issues going on. I have a heart issue, it’s nothing new I’ve had it for over twenty years and I manage it very well usually. But it gave me some problems in the lead up to my significant birthday earlier this month and for a while I doubted I was going to make it – but then I did. So that was good! 🙂 I have an excellent homeopath and she helped me get to the root cause and cleared the path to recovery with well prescribed therapies and I got on and did my own personal therapy. I had lost my last surviving sibling, my next youngest brother abruptly, five days after my last birthday. I found I was still mourning him and mourning all that we had, all five of us, gone through together. I was/am literally, the last one standing to bear witness. I had to let it all go, it was time. So, that’s my work and I’m doing it.

On top of all this I was having ongoing issues with being online – such a first world problem!! it was I thought initially, an issue with my wireless keyboard. So aged and well used the letters had all disappeared from the keys and typing was done by guesswork alone. It’s connection was erratic and odd things happened when I was online so a new keyboard was purchased. But the issue got worse. I announced to whoever was listening in at the time that Google Chrome was about to be replaced by a more reliable search engine – and voila! An announcement that an urgent update and reboot was imminent was delivered on-screen within minutes and all has been well ever since. You can’t tell me there isn’t a little man living in there listening to my every word 🙂

I celebrated my seventieth birthday quietly, in the company of my delightful daughters and with welcome interactions with friends both nearby and far away. It was a lovely way to spend a few days and I was quietly pleased that I had broken another immediate inherited taboo – that of living past the age of 69. Onwards and upwards!

So, that’s the catch up. Everything is fine and better than fine and spring is here. Despite all the challenges and the lack of painting, I have sometimes mucked about with inks and pencils and stamps and dies and made some bits and bobs. I even did some card designing and worked away with greater and lesser success at some Christmas cards. If you have a favourite do let me know….

(PS I don’t know why I always have a shadow at the bottom of the photos – clearly I’m doing something wrong, but can’t figure out what – so once again apologies for the less than stellar photography level and if you have a tip I’d be grateful if you wanted to share it)

I started with some luggage tags. I like these, they are fun and make great gifts.

I had purchased some dies and played around with them. The idea is to use my own papers as backings, only one is in use in this trial collection

Next it was time to start designing this years Christmas card. I started with not a lot of a clue – but thought the one on the left which uses a die of Santa and his favourite reindeer had potential

This came next

Swiftly followed by

Then I threw in a bit of Siddy with offerings

And finally, a couple of days ago I thought I’d better get Santa up off his butt and into the air

It’s a bit meh! but you never know where it will lead. And I have some more to show you too – but it’s been a long catch-up. So I’ll save my favourites for next time. If you stuck with me, thank you. Now, how about you, how are you? How’s things at your place, do share – and if I’ve missed anything, I hope to be popping in soon to catch up.

Oh, and just in case you need a bit of cute – here’s Siddy and his favourite reindeer wondering if anybody mentioned ‘elevenses’ ………………