Christmas Cards 2012

In these internet-dominated days there has been much discussion about whether or not to send Christmas cards any more.  A greeting on Facebook is instant - and free - and can reach friends and family around the world at the click of a mouse.  I'm a huge fan of this idea, having friends in several different countries, but a part of me is still extremely fond of the ritual of writing, sending and receiving 'real' cards.  So this year I've done it both ways!

Of course having a baby in the house provides all manner of excitement over the festive season.  Poor Ted has been subject to all manner of comedy dressing up - not that he seems to mind too much...

But he was more than slightly baffled when I plonked him in his Bumbo and starting painting his feet!

He soon began to enjoy it though; I suspect it tickled a bit!

In order to get good prints I discovered that best best thing to do was to use clothes-pegs to attach the paper to a hardback book.  You can then press the book onto the foot, rather than the other way round!  As you can see I also covered the floor with newspaper and had a bowl of warm water and a cloth within easy reach.  This worked really well.  He couldn't reach his paint-covered feet whilst wedged into the Bumbo, and he remained pretty cheerful whilst I covered at least 20 sheets of paper with his footprints!  Many were unusable, but I decided that if I did loads I'd get enough that were suitable.

 

Once the footprints were dry I cut them out and spent an evening in front of some festive television turning them into cards.  The reindeer ears and antlers are drawn on with felt pen, and the noses and eyes cut out of paper before being glued on.  The tree trunk is simply drawn with coloured pen, and the tree adorned with some sparkly stickers.  The reindeer are my favourite.

This was a fun project and a nice memento of Ted's first Christmas.  It seems that I'm not the only mum who had this idea:  here's Nic's Christmas card made by her little boy.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

 

A little bit of Inspiration...

I have a new addiction... browsing through people's blogs. It's like a never-ending world of ideas. For a long time I only looked at cookery blogs, as many of my friends blog on this theme, but I have recently started looking at craft blogs too, inspired by my Canadian friend Sandy who writes a lovely blog entitled By the Lakeside. Sandy makes me want to knit and sew. She modestly says that she can't imagine how anyone could be inspired by her, but anyone who has a young family, works full time, cooks wonderful meals and still manages to create beautiful things is inspirational in my book. I just love her sense of style. Sandy very helpfully has a 'blogroll', listing some of her favourite blogs (note to self, must investigate how to do this myself...) and it was through this that I stumbled upon another great blog, lovelydesign, written by San Francisco dweller, Sharilyn. Sharilyn has a sweet young daughter, Adelaide, and recently wrote this post about making invitations for Adelaide's second birthday party.

I thought these were gorgeous, and wanted to adapt the idea for my own use. So, a little more low-tech than the original, here is my Valentine's card for Rob:


The balloons were cut from the Cath Kidston catalogue. I adore these patterns and dream of furnishing my entire house in them... however for now I will have to make do with my CK bag, purse and iPod case. Oh and the gazebo! (Can't wait 'til Summer!)



The balloon strings and writing were done by me. With a biro. See, I said it was low-tech...



As I was in the groove, I made a thank you card for my teaching-assistant Bee too. Bee is fabulous and has been such a help and support during my first half term in this job, so I thought she deserved a hand-made card.




I am glad that I have rediscovered the fun of making my own greetings cards. I always used to do this, but somehow I just got out of the habit. At least now I don't have any excuse for being out of ideas...