Festive [paper] foliage.

Greetings. And season's greetings at that. How's things going? Braved the town centre yet? We did. And we mostly survived too.

Granted, buying mysef some really lovely grey, studded-leather shoes helped me on my merry way ... but we did manage to squeeze a few Christmas gifts for others into our bags too. Now they need to be wrapped.

Following a blog post I did around this time last year I know I'm not alone in selecting a theme for my gift wrapping. This year I'm continuing with last year's purple and kraft-paper style and have splashed out on two rolls from ... Aldi!! So, seeing as how I've got my paper so cheap and mass produced, I've spent more time hand-crafting my gift tags, including these:

If you'd like to see the video tutorial which shows how I made the leaves on my tags then have a look here - where I've blogged the process, step-by-step, for the Gauche Alchemy blog.

As I promise over there, I'll show you a few more examples over here. [If you're anticipating recieving a gift form me this year, and don't wish to see the hand-crafted tag that'll be dangling from it ...then look away now].

Here's one made from items from my pink mixed media kit from Gauche Alchemy [now also available as a mixed pink + green kit called Funky Fa La La:

And another:

There's something about these wired leaves [made from the old dress-making patterns which Gauche Alchemy wrap their orders in!] which reminds me of the flowers which surrounded on a wind-up musical statue my Nana had of a Saint Bernadette when I was little!! So, I'm feeling rather nostalgic right now and simultaneously can't seem to get the 'Immaculate Mary' hymn out of my head!!

Anyway, enough rambling - here's another tag:

And a few more with green berries this time:

Finally, here's a still from my video tutorial - if you like the idea of wired-tissue-paper-leaves, then do give it a look [it's only 2mins long and has a rather festive soundtrack to boot!!]:

I'm definitely feeling in the spirit of the festive season [We've had our decorations up earlier than ever this year] and am planning lots of festive blogging. I mentioned yesterday that I was going to begin making my Christmas cards today and ...believe it or not ... I got ahead of myslef and made them last night.

In between watching the X-Factor final and nursing such an annoying pain in my arm [which is still hanging around from my 'falling-from-bike injury in Summer 08!] I managed to make the most important cards at least [you know? The ones for various parents and siblings.] Once they were complete, I realised how nice they are! I think I've impressed myself - it's nice when then happens isn't it? I'll do my best to remember to photograph and share them with you here soon.

I appear to be finished work now until the New Year [although if someone can remind me to go in on Wednesday morning I'd be pretty grateful...thanks! I've got a student to see in the morning and then a Christmas lunch with my colleagues and an end of term meeting to attend - so it's not all over just yet].

I'll see you soon. With some Christmas cards or a stuffed Santa or a festive Copy + Paste challenge .... whichever I get around to first!!

OK people - soonly.

J x