Post Christmas Catch-Up

Hello Everyone

And Happy New Year to you all.

My Christmas break stretched a few more days than planned but I was feeling, as many of us do at this time of the year, in the need of a bit more down time. We've tried to take advantage of any dry day - and if the sun was out, even better - by going for walks to enjoy some fresh, bracing even, air. Otherwise it can be too easy to just curl up on the sofa with one of the new books Santa left under the tree or, more likely, another Christmas film on TV. All very enjoyable.

However, I've not been slacking off completely. This blog needed a new header - the Christmas header with it's image of a sleigh, reindeer and the big man in the red suit no longer seemed right. After all, he'd done his job and was presumably back in the North Pole enjoying a well earned rest.

Instead, I wanted to welcome in the new year and the hotly debated new decade - I leave it to the pedantic among us to wait another year. As for me, it's a new decade, and hopefully better than the one just gone.

Supplies used: patterned paper,  'Christmas Cheer' from Heidi Swap's Winter Wonderland collection; 'Scenic Winter' border die set; scraps of white cardstock; American Crafts foam thickers 'Comfort'.

I use Serif Craft Artist to create the header these days since I gave up on MS Publisher when my old computer had to be replaced a few months ago. Buying the MS Office products would have been very expensive so it wasn't too difficult to decide to do without, after a great many years using it. I've been retired for ten years so just had to question why I still thought I needed it. Especially as I already had the Serif disc here. It does the job just fine. I'm happy.

Once the header was created and uploaded I was left with the panel. Usually, I'd make a card with it but, as it has the year 2020 on it, that wouldn't have been useful at all - 2021, yes, but not 2020!

So, I incorporated it into this layout featuring the first selfy the EM took of us just after midnight on the first day of the year. This page used up a lot of scraps of patterned paper - most from what was left from the December kit from Mind The Scrap. Loved the non-traditional combination of patterns and colours in this kit. The house and the robin were made from scraps of card and dies from two sets, 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas' (Cardmaking & Papercraft, Issue 202) and 'Card Making Magic' (Simply Cards & Papercraft, Issue 197). The letters used to create the word 'hello' are AC 'Picnic' gold foil stickers.

I still have quite a few photographs from December to scrap yet, and I see that it's the first day of the Christmas Card Club again today, so Christmas isn't quite over for me yet. But that's okay. I love Christmas and it's so sad to see the trees and decorations coming down ... a job the EM couldn't wait to get started on. Sigh. Am I the only one to feel like this? Surely not.

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, have a lovely Sunday. Take care.