When do you start your Christmas and holiday preparations? Sometimes I feel as if I am preparing all year long. I enjoy staying ahead of our celebrations.
The gift planning is year round for me as I am watching and looking throughout the year for items my family and friends will enjoy. Instead of a gift list, I ask them to give me a list of their ‘favorites’. Favorite snacks, colors, movies, characters, hobbies, etc., you get the idea. This list makes shopping easier and I know they will like what they receive.
Another way for me to ease into the Christmas and holiday preparations is to start making the Christmas cards early and to also make few extra to get a head start for the following year.
This year I am challenging myself to use up my older paper stash. This is the patterned paper that I noted in a previous post. Completing this batch of cards will use up all the paper I cut for stray envelopes. I am also using old music paper, which you already know I am a big fan of. And finally, the die cuts and other papers in my stash.
Now that I have these started I am well on my way to meet my usual goal of having my holiday cards in the mail the day before Thanksgiving.
I hope this gives you ideas to start your card preparations early for the holidays you celebrate, doing so helps to make it a less stressful time as the holidays get closer. Enjoy the process in discovering ways to use your supplies to brighten the day for others through cards.
After making these cards to show you I also ‘stamped’ some of the remaining background papers with bubble wrap for a wintery appearance. I’ll share those soon.
Visit my Facebook and Instagram accounts (links are on my home page) to see more photos of the cards in process.