Your thoughts are currently on Halloween. I know that you're watching the leaves turn outside your kitchen window, you're running around gathering this and that for your kids' costumes, you're embracing the return of hearty soups and stews to your meal-planning repertoire, and you're thinking it's time to winterize: your car, your garden, and your house with all that caulking.
You're dreaming of cinnamon and apples and scarecrows and corn mazes. Candy corn, pumpkins, chrysanthemums, and football.
I know.
But when you're a paper crafter with holiday gift-giving just around the corner, AND if you 're a paper crafter who wants to have an enjoyable and therefore less hectic holiday, the work really begins now.
Which is why I've got some trendy inspiration for you from the frighteningly festive pages of our November/December issue. If you're a subscriber, I hope you've received yours in your mailbox by now. If not, it's waiting for you on the newsstands of your favorite grocery, book store, LSS, or craft store, and it's chock full of ideas for the holidays!
From creating beautiful gift wrap trios to paper crafting trendy treat containers to making holiday cards in every style imaginable, this issue is jam-packed with inspiration! Check it:
All Creatures Great & Small Card by Kim Kesti, p. 63
Moxie Fab Alert: This gnome-ish Santa reaching down to the bitty mouse is fairly heartwarming, no?
Moxie Fab Alert: Gingerbread men are everywhere these days, so are houses, but when you combine these motifs with this funky product from Sassafras Lass, moxie fabulessness ensues!
Moxie Fab Alert: This vintage Santa image is paired perfectly with the oval frame, the tender roses, and that beautiful green bow. Not only would this look great on my own tree, but it would also make a thoughtful gift!
Muffin for Christmas Caddy by Wendy Johnson, p. 58Moxie Fab Alert: This super cute treat container has a trendy home-spun, almost "primitive" look to it. And you know me, I love punny!
Moxie Fab Alert: These graphic treee images on the book print background are about as trendy as it gets right now! 'Tis the season for these, that's fo sho!
So even though it might feel like you're bobbing for apples right now, your holiday paper crafting projects are waiting to get started. Me? I'm a bit of a procrastinator and typically won't start my handmade holiday projects until sometime in November...as in after Thanksgiving. That doesn't mean a girl can't dream about taking a Martha Stewart approach to her planning, though. Besides, I'm the fomenting type. I like to see what ideas are out there, let them swim around in my brain for a while, then, when the moment's right, I'll sit down and make it happen.
How 'bout you? When do you usually start your holiday projects? Or are they already done? Are you a last-minuter, like me? If so, how does that impact your celebration? I'd love to hear all about your approach to projects of this nature. If anything, I might learn that I'm not alone in my process--and I'm sure we can all benefit from the processes of one another.
Happy fomenting,
~Cath
PS Some exciting news! On Monday and Tuesday of next week, we're having an online sale! 30% off your entire purchase in all three of our online stores--Scrap and Paper Corner, Quilter's Village, and Sewing District! Just use this code at the checkout: COLU-1492-1DAY. There's bound to be some killer deals...just in time for Christmas! :)
PPS This is the last weekend to put on the finishing touches of your Gradient is Radiant challenge projects! Get the details and link 'em up by Monday at midnight MDT!
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41 comments:
Ooooh I just love all your choices. It's beginning to feel like Christmas in my heart. :)
i love this issue! i start xmas projects early, i like to be done, so i can enjoy the 2 weeks b-4 xmas.
My issue came in the mail yesterday. What a great issue! This is the time of year that I start to get ready for Christmas. This is our Thanksgiving weekend in Canada.
GORGEOUS cards!! Brilliant!!
When do I start my holiday projects.....well, do you mean the planning stage or the actual get-it-finished stage...I great with figuring out what I want to do, but then I start to stew over the details or begin an impossible search for something I've invented in my head. The projects then seem to be put together at the last minute. Each year I swear I'm going to change, and each year I'm drawn back into the viscious cycle!!
OMG, I am SO last minute! It's not that I actually MEAN to be, it's just that the days and the hours seem to go someplace without me! It really doesn't affect my holidays - my family and I are pretty used to it after all these years! They just smile and shake their heads, and love whatever I do!
SUPER cute trendy little cards - and this issue of Paper Crafts is fantastic!
no matter how hard i try, i can't seem to get all my people accounted for with christmas cards. i make a list, plug away at my cards until i have something for everyone, and then i always come up short, having missed a few names, or getting a few surprises. i keep some generic store-bought packs lying around so that i can snip the fronts, stick 'em to some cardstock, and embellish to my heart's content - at least they're still getting something from my heart, rather than off a shelf.
I'm always late starting out on my Holiday projects. I'm reading to many blogs.
Eveline.
Love the cards and projects! I've actually started making my cards, which is a shocker for me! But, I know if I don't, I won't have time to make any of my gifts.
Yahoo! A sale just in time for my birthday next Tuesday! Yeah me! Thanks for the heads up Cath.
Happy Day!
Oh my!!! Super cute creations!!! Can't wait to receive my issue. As far as my holiday planning. This is going to sound terrible but I haven't planned anything in like 4 years!! I know, I've never been home nor have I been with family. I've usually been in some missionary endeavor. This year is still uncertain. Maybe I'll create a "To-GO" christmas party ;)
Love your featured items. I am a planner. I like to get my Christmas projects completed early so I can enjoy the holidays and not be stressed.
I haven't started yet, YIKES! I need to do that when life slows down, but when is that?!?!
love all the cards/projects. I am a last minute girl and say every year NOT NEXT YEAR! yeah right.
Those are some fun cards. I have already been working on my cards. Then I gave most of them away so I need to start again. Oh well, if I get busy, I'll have time.
love the gingerbread card...I haven't started except to buy some stuff to make tags/cards...that counts, right??? :)
I usually have good intentions of starting early - like now. But in the end its down to the wire!
Great cards.
Must say....I love your blog banner!!! Too cool!
well since I'm participating in a craft fair, I started Christmas stuff last month... usually I wait until after Thanksgiving since I think that holiday usually gets overlooked and it's my favorite! :)
As if there isn't enough to do with holiday cards this year (definitely special cause it's our first year as husband and wife) now DH would love it if I could get the honeymoon scrapbook done in time for the holidays! Lots to do!
As much as I like to be prepared, I am usually a last minuter. It gets in the way of celebrations sometimes, but I can't change me!
I can't wait to look through the pages of this issue to get inspired. I tell myself every year to start early so I don't get stressed out trying to get everything done.
Yummy cards!! I already started with some christmas cards, but I have to think about presents, soon! Don`t want to wait too long...
Oh wonderful sneaks of the issue! Will have to pick it up for some ideas. I've had the design for this year's Christmas cards in my head for a few weeks, but haven't sat down yet to finalize yet... plus I'm working on a couple projects for my 2 preschoolers that I HOPE I can finish in time - an advent calendar & a 'make your own snowman' set I hope works out... better get working on it!
Beautiful cards. I have to go and get this issue, my new subscription hasn't started up yet.
When I got my issue, I ended up earmarking almost every other page. LOTS of wonderful inspiration. Since I only made 5, count 'em, 5, holiday cards last year and sent 2, I promised to make all my cards and send them off...to my entire list. I started making at least one holiday card a day in the middle of August. Now I have a shoebox almost full of cards. The goal is to sit down after Thanksgiving and start writing and addressing them.
I love all the inspiration! I NEED that gnome! He is SO cute! Christmas is always hard here because they don't celebrate it. No lights, no music, nada! It some ways, though, it is nice to avoid all the commercialism... but then again, I may just be trying to find something positive to say! :-) I LOOOVE Christmas! Hope you have a great weekend! Hugs!
Sigh.....such beautiful inspiration you bring to our eyes!!!! I love visiting !!!!! I so adore your magazines!! When I go on trips I especially love to bring them along and I read them from cover to cover and then do it all over again :-)
I like to have all of my Christmas projects/cards/shopping done and in the mail just after Thanksgiving. That way I avoid long lines at the post office and I know that everything will reach the US from Germany in time.
I love Christmas! I try to have everything done (except my baking) by December 1st. I want to enjoy the whole month!
Absolutely lovely cards!
That gingerbread card is absolutely adorable! I try to get all my holiday stuff done before Thanksgiving, it takes the pressure off.
I typically start things after Halloween is over. I have a couple of orders I need to get hopping on so I have time for my holiday projects! We moved into our first house in May so I'm really looking forward to decorating this year!
LOL at 'you're getting muffin for Christmas' - that old Eartha Kitt song is one of my holiday faves :)
love these cards... i often think I should get going on xmas cards since I wait to last minute & wind up only making one for my mom & maybe my m-i-l if I am lucky :) Must start cards...bought all of these fab xmas stamps & ribbon so must use it this year!!!
I love seeing all the fun ideas- but I'm not really ready to start on those cards yet! The last couple of years I didn't even make cards (I know, *gasp*), but going to try to get back to it this year! I usually like to get them going in November....
Hey, Cath, great peeks from the new issue!! I start kind of planning my holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) cards in late August but have really kicked into gear now. I always keep making Christmas cards through the holiday because it always seems we find someone else to send/give one to!!
This issue was soooo fun and full of inspiration. Too bad I'm such a procrastinator. Probably worst than you, Cath. It was just by the grace of all the Moxie Fab card challenges out there that got me started on some Christmas cards this early - I'm usually scrabbling around the first of December! LOL
Last year, I procrastinated too long and could not enjoy crafting for Christmas. This year, I went Saturday and bought my stash, did some more online shopping and I am ready to get at it. I do NOT want to be a scrooge this year!
I am a big procrastinator :( I should be working on something now, but I'm....you guessed it....procrastinating!
I procrastinate so much, I end up planning for the next year. Ha! I love these projects! That gnome one is so cute!
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