I made my Christmas cards for 2012.   Strange?   Absolutely.  Wonderful?  YES!  I know I could just upload a picture to a template, type in a quantity and be done but for some reason I’m not ready to do that yet.  I still want to make my cards, but the past couple of years have taught me that my fall and winter season is always overcrowded and my cards end up being a source of stress (not until I’m half done with them, that is, when it’s too late to back out and upload a picture).  If I carried one thing forward from the holiday season we just enjoyed, it was  a determination to make sure that this year is better.  So I spent some time in January doing just that.

I’ll have a bit of work to do in the fall when I get them back out but it’s only to add the finishing touch.  All supplies for this, including envelopes and an updated Christmas card list sit in the box.   I made a list of notes to myself about what still needs finishing (add a greeting and a photo) and now I’m done.

There was something really nice about investing now in my emotional well-being down the road.  Something nice about preparing a gift for myself to appreciate in another ten months.  Something about doing it makes me feel more like I’m worth it, and it feels good.

Hopeful Homemaker

I’m working on being a better friend this year, and remembering birthdays is one of the way I intend to do it.  I also plan to make handmade birthday gifts this year for several reasons:  it allows me to be creative, it encourages to use my supplies and allows me to personalize gifts.  A box of handmade notecards was my first gift this year.

These notecards were made for an amazing friend, one who uses the art of the handwritten note liberally to bless the lives of others.  I wanted to make something she could use anytime she wanted to send a note in the mail.  I ended up going with ultra simple designs, letting them speak for themselves.

I was pleased with how the bicycle card turned out.  The stripes, the scallop edge and the image of a bike are all simple but happy.

I also made some little gift tags that can be used anytime, complete with baker’s twine and a little chevron bag to keep them in.

I bought a box for the notecards to fit in and personalized it on the front.

Then I tied the sets of cards with green and white twine and placed them in the box.  I like how it turned out and I hope that she likes them, too.  She is one of the best people I know.

A simple, but I hope a useful, birthday gift.  I finished the project with a birthday card and some ribbon.

What have you made lately?

Hopeful Homemaker

What a great idea, to punch holes in your cards and put them on rings, then add a cover.  If you view the original post you’ll find downloadable covers that are super cute.  Since one of my goals this year is to do something creative every day, making my own was a great idea.

I used leftover paper from my Christmas cards last year, which adds a reminder of the card I sent out in 2011.   I tried my hand at some paper rosettes, which were REALLY fun.  I’ll be making more of those.

I am thrilled to know what to do with Christmas cards every January from now on.  We can get these books out from year to year and see how people have grown.  I’m glad that I can take these little pieces of my friends’ lives and preserve them in a way that encourages us to look at them in the future.

So, even though today marks one month since Christmas, I hope you’ll find it helpful enough to file away in your mind for 11 more months.   {This was a project on my January to-do list.  I’ve had the cards on rings for weeks, but hadn’t sat down to just make the cover.  Hooray for a finished project!}

I was thinking that this would also be a fun way to corral all those valentines that come home from school and then float around the house for weeks.  You could use just one ring and let each of your kids have a little Valentine flip book of their own!  Wouldn’t that be cute?

I hope your day is great.

Hopeful Homemaker

Yay!  I’ve wanted to try this for SUCH a long time.  I know that the “real” way is to get a vintage press and so forth, but I don’t have money to sink into a hobby right now, so this seemed like a pretty simple way to still try and enjoy it.

I stayed up late the other night to experiment and here is my first Letterpress project:

This was a lot of fun to make.  More of a process than I anticipated (compared to rubber stamps, I suppose) but really cool.  Funny, I don’t even like purple, but this purple with the rich, dark navy blue looks so great to me!

Much as I’d like to play all day, for now it’s a late night project; I don’t want to see what would happen if my toddler had any clue there were tubes of paint somewhere in my office.

I’m excited to make more.  Really excited.  {And it’s nice to have things to be excited about, don’t you agree?}

Hopeful Homemaker

Done and in the mail.  For as much stress as I felt over them, and for as long ago as I purchased the paper and planned them, I’m a little amazed by how simple they look.  But I do like them.

Here is my 2011 Christmas card:

I cut each card by hand, which was a small project, but not an unpleasant one given how much I liked the paper.  I was excited to find the greeting as well.

I’m grateful I got them done, because receiving Christmas cards is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season.  Right now my kitchen counter card holder looks like this, front and back:

With too many of these people, once frequent communication has become rare, something I hope to improve next year.  But even only with annual cards I feel grateful for the reminders they are of remarkable people with whom I’ve crossed paths, people who have influenced me for good.  It’s a wonderful part of Christmas.

And as for you, from our family to ours, “Have yourself a Merry little Christmas!”

Thanks for reading along.  Merry Christmas!

Jennifer

Slow and steady must be better than not at all but I certainly wouldn’t mind it if someone rolled back the calendar a few days.

HH

It was really fun to sit down and make a few of them.  (I made a great little mess on my desk, too!)  I’m totally out of practice with little paper projects but am excited to do it again.  If you’d like to see them, head over here to check them out!

Now, if only I could get my Christmas cards done.  {Seriously, what is my problem?  I’m completely falling apart this month, I tell ya.  If you run into my lost brain anywhere, will you let me know?  I’m afraid that stomach bug hid it from me.  Ha!}

So today is the 10th.  Christmas is in 15 days.  Are you ready?  Here it comes!

Using this technique (again!) I made a rolled paper heart.  You can see the other things I’ve made with these flowers here, here and here.

Unlike the wreath, this project took just a little while to complete.  I still really like the look and feel of this technique.

Once it was done, I taped the back of the heart to a piece of pink cardstock paper that I’d cut to 8×10 inches.  I removed the glass from a large silver frame and put the heart in.

Right now it’s functioning as a simple piece of art above our bed.

It’s a nice twist on Valentine decor.  Neutral in color, understated, not too feminine, but still fun.  I like the three dimensional quality it has while not being too obvious.  And unique.  I’m big on unique.

I love projects like this.
Hope you’re having a great day!

HH

I had a few sheets left over from my book page wreath project.  I decided to try making just a few little flowers for a gift tag.

The cardstock I picked up at an American Crafts warehouse sale, 25 sheets for $1.  I thought it coordinated well with the gray tissue paper and green ribbon I was using.  I simply hot glued the flowers to the cardstock, and added a couple of faux suede leaves (a May Arts ribbon that I love).

I punched a hole in the top left corner behind the flowers to thread a ribbon through, then added a handwritten greeting.

One of my goals for this year is to re-establish the habit of thoughtfulness in my daily life.  Once upon a time (as in, back when I had 5 children) I felt like I did a really good job of being thoughtful.  It brought a lot of joy to my life and also helped me to nurture and maintain friendships.  Then the last 3 children came along and, like so many other things, small gestures of thoughtfulness fell out of my life in favor of plain old survival.

Taking five minutes to make this sweet tag made me feel happy.  It was simple, but gave me the chance to create something with a dear friend in mind.  It also cost me nothing because I used materials I have on hand.  This was a great way to make a few of those awesome paper flowers without committing to hours with a glue gun in hand!

If you’re interested, the flower tutorial is here.  Have a great day!

Hopeful Homemaker

I’m sure there’s a tutorial out there somewhere for making these rolled paper flowers, and if I’d hunted for one I might have saved myself an hour of time spent figuring them out.  But then, I might have wasted an hour on the internet looking at all the amazing things other people are making so… here’s how I make mine.

I tried rolling strips of paper but couldn’t get enough bulk.  Then I was peeling an apple for my daughter’s birthday pie.  I always peel my apples in a circle, leaving the peel in a long spiral.  As I looked at the long string of peel it dawned on me that I could cut my paper the same way.   I tried it and it worked, but still not enough bulk.  So I added a second paper and rolled two strips together.  Better, but not enough.  I settled on three pieces of paper for one rolled flower.  I was using my old dictionary, which has fairly thin pages, so you could probably get away with two sheets of thicker pages.

Ok, here goes.

Tear out three pages.  Lay them flat and with a pencil, draw a spiral on the page.  Begin in the center and try to make each ring about 3/4 inch away from the previous one.

Carefully cut along the lines you drew.

You’ll end up with something like this.

Now find the outer end of the spiral (the end that was on the edge of the page) for all three pages and line them up together.

Fold or pinch the ends a little bit so you can wad them up for the very center of the flower.

Now begin to carefully roll your paper around the center you just made.  Roll tightly and carefully.

When you get to the end it should look something like this (above).

Carefully turn the rolled flower over and add a generous dot of hot glue to the flower, being careful not to burn yourself.

Quickly place the flower in it’s intended spot and hold in place for a few seconds while the glue begins to harden.

Add more flowers, making certain to glue them closely together so the wreath form isn’t visible.  Keep going (and going, and going) and eventually you’ll have a unique wreath.

Have fun!

Hopeful Homemaker