Saturday Xmas Cheer

Happy Saturday!!! Apologies about the recent absence, it has been a very strange few weeks for me as the first big university project finished, to reveal lots of more academic projects (horrible business plans with lots of difficult mathematics) which take up a lot of time. Plus I then really hurt my back so have been staggering around like the hunchback of Notre Dame.
I have been feeling very festive throughout though and had a lovely chat with my elderly neighbour this morning who popped round with a Christmas card and a tub of home made mince pies!! Absolutely scrummy!!!

The Christmas fundraising for my course degree show has gone really well, and we had a few decorations left over that I bought (for a reduced price!!) for the family tree. I think that so far, my class has made about £560 which is fantastic!!!

A few of these decorations are more special to me than the others- for example the triangle tree on the right (above) and the snowmen (below), as they are the ones that I personally designed.

I have been working on the latest set of ATCs as well- Winter Wonderland themed. I did struggle with this swap slightly, and the original plan was to have a kind of snowy view through a woodland but that didn't really work so I tried a different idea. The photos don't show it very well but these cards have several layers, the bottom layer is a patchwork of different fabrics with a sparkly ribbon and gorgeous lace trim, topped with a gauzy material that hints at those underneath. The final layer has tumbling hand stitched snowflakes with some sparkly beads. I think they are really pretty.

I was delving in the back of my wardrobe the other day and realised that I have more books full of ATCs than I thought!!! They are just utterly fAbUlOuS, no other word for it. The amount of time and effort and talent that goes into each little card is incredible and the joy that they bring (especially when you discover cards from a swap you had forgotten you participated in) is amazing. I can hardly believe that my first set of ATCs was made way back in January 2011!!! Here's hoping for many more years of postal art to come!