Busy Saturday!

I have spent a productive Saturday today, as you can see from these photos. I have been making some Christmas cards over the course of this week, but today, I felt motivated to finish everything off as all my craft pieces were getting in the way on the kitchen table! After lunch, I went down to my local craft shop in the village and bought some special clear glue for sticking fine glitter onto card and also a little sponge applicator which makes spreading the glue an absolute breeze!

I got into the creative mood this weekend!

Also I did about an hour's stitching on my MB sampler, managing to complete the box on the left hand side and started stitching the border, which is going to get more interesting and colourful as I progress! I have been looking forward to stewing the butterfly - it was quick to complete but has started to make the border start to come to life and give it some movement!

Not sure about you, my crafting friends, but I haven't had any motivation to venture out on Christmas shopping expeditions. I think, like me, everyone is feeling the pinch this year and there seems to be a general feeling of "let's not go mad on presents this year, just send me a nice Christmas card". I think that is an excellent idea. In recent years, I feel people have gone mad buying for the sake of it, spending more money than they can afford and loading up their credit card(s) with debt. Whilst it is lovely to exchange gifts, and it is especially exciting for families with young children, it becomes meaningless and superficial when we know how much poverty there is in the world. This year, I have decided that I will make all my cards from scratch. As you can see, I have made them from a combination of die-cuts that you can buy or get free in Card/Craft magazines and some components I have made myself, with materials from my craft cupboard. I found a box of ready-made gold design cards (which I forgot I had!) which will be great for the people at work and everyone else will receive a home-made 'masterpiece'!

I'm not saying I am completely broke or anything, but I feel that now is not the time to go spending loads of cash (a) when I love making things for people and all the people who know me that I am doing it because its my hobby, so its not just because I am too mean to buy things (b) the general mood is heading towards moving back to the simpler things in life and not being quite so materialistic - well, at least it is in my circle of family and friends and that's because they are all so lovely!

Thats all for now

Happy Crafting!

Alison xx