'Tis the season!

Ohhh I hate to say it....but I will anyway! It's pretty much less than 11 weeks until Christmas and if you've popped into the shops lately you'll find more Christmas than Halloween stock available to part your hard earned buck-a-roo's with!

We have the same argument every year, its too early, its too soon, there should be a law against putting Christmas stock out this early! The reality is, some people like to get festive earlier than others and some people enjoy being organised before un-organised people like myself complete the mad dash around the hectic shops three days before Christmas carrying un-human loads of presents! This.year.will.be.different! Why you ask? Well....ahem I've finished my Masters.....and I got myself one of those First Class Honours thingy-ma-jiggys, so straight away there's less stress off my back and more time to plan the right presents and of course, even better, lush Christmas stock, most of which will be on sale in the Limerick Craft & Design Shop which is opening soon!

To kick off the festive season, I've a simple yet pretty card tutorial for you. The paper I've used is from the Bo Bunny collection. Its packed with Christmas earthy tones and there is a tonne of additional embellishments and die cuts you can also buy to accompany the paper if your heart desires them! Let the Christmas crafty-ness begin!

01

Select your card size. For this card I'm using a card measuring 13.5cm by 13.5cm. I nearly always use the blank card templates, they're convenient and save you the hassle of measuring and cutting out card from scratch. Select a red piece of card and cut to 13.5cm by 13.5cm and adhere to your card. Your background is now complete and you're on your way.

02

Select a piece of paper with a festive pattern. I've chosen a piece with mostly green colours to set off the red background. I've chosen to cover most of the card, but have left a strip of about 0.5cm around the card which I'll use later. Cut the paper to the size of 13cm by 13cm and ahere using 3D sticky tabs. Love these tabs, they always made my cards pop out!

03

Select an alternative piece of paper with a different, but complimentary pattern. Use a border tool of your choice to punch out a pattern and adhere the piece to the card using 3D sticky tabs. Already your card is starting to take shape.

04

Select some twine, available from most craft shops or online and tie twice around the card making a bow on the right hand side.

05

Select some die cuts. For this card, I've selected three pieces in total and arranged them around the left hand side of the card and adhered them with more 3D sticky tabs.

06

Last, but not least, use a high quality white gel pen to sketch out some faux stitches all around the remaining red border and hey presto, you're done! Write your Christmas message, pop in an envelope and make someone happy!

Hey presto, a simple, but oh.so.festive handmade card for family, friends or someone special! Now that I've heaps more crafty time on my hands, I'll be sharing lots more crafty tutorials for you all to enjoy! Enjoy the rest of this rainy weekend!

There's light....

via here

 

In less than three weeks I 'll have not only my Masters completed but my Masters results....ohh scary and oh.so.grown.up! (or at least I think so) I have thourghly enjoyed the process of going back to Art college, working and learning with like minded and fascinating people and in particular, its been lovely to work a four day week! THAT I am going to miss, for sure! Most of all though, its been great to get stuck into something that I've been passionate about, to get creative once more, to talk about, live, eat, sleep and breathe all things art / creative related and as the quote above says "keep tremendously interested in it".

 

I will miss being a part time student, telling random people "oh ya, I'm in Art college!" and of course using student ID to get all those travel / clothes shop discounts, but on a more nervous front / level, I'm nervous to be back in the real world, especially the art world where I often (and I mean often) felt out of sync with what was going on and never really fitting in to what it was an artist was or even is meant to be. In fact, there is no real definition for this but the only way to find out is to get stuck in, make work, enjoy (and document) the process, test the waters and hey someone, somewhere might like it, write about it or even buy some of that stuff you call art....who knows! Perhaps the creative world is my oyster!

 

For now, I'm concentratin on getting my MA groove on and piecing every teeny tiny piece of research together for assessments as well as planning with the assistance of the class our group show! Wish me luck, the next three weeks are about to get hectic!