Special Christmas cards

I had ordered a small quantity of these gate-fold cards without any clear idea of what I was going to use them for. Then I had an idea of making cards with a Japanese theme, and thought at first of just having the torii gate on the front of a plain card. I then came across the gate-fold cards and realised that I could extend the Japanese theme a bit further. Because the cards were so complicated to make I only made a handful of them. I’m so pleased I can finally post these, as I am really happy with how they turned out.

Christmas postcards

For something a little bit different from the usual Christmas cards, I decided to have some postcards printed by Moo. I was delighted with the print quality of these, very bright and clear. I’m quite glad that there were a few left over to keep for myself!

Moo Christmas cards

My design for my Christmas cards was so complicated this year that I decided to have most of them printed rather than making them by hand. I was a tiny bit disappointed with how these Moo cards turned out – they are a little darker and fuzzier than I would have liked, and for some reason I had visualised them being bigger, but the shape of them is very stylish and the card they are printed on has a lovely finish to it.

Decorated envelope

I always enjoy adding a bit of decoration to my envelopes, but this is the most complex that I have ever done. This was for someone I met when I went to Japan, and I’d done a little doodle of a kokeshi doll for him before so I thought this would be an appropriate design.

Winter scene 2

I remembered at the last minute that I had been asked to make a Christmas card for my Dad to give to my Mum. Since I’d made my little winter scene earlier that day, I decided to use the same theme, based on the BBC2 Christmas idents.

Winter scene

This tiny scene (about 2 inches across) was inspired by the BBC2 Christmas ident, and by the cut paper work of Patricia Zapata.

Retro robins

I made these robin gift tags to match the retro wrapping paper I am using this year.

Movies notebook part 2

This is the back of the notebook - an image from another of my favourite films.

Movies notebook

I decided to decorate this Moleskine cahier with a picture from one of my favourite films. See if you can guess what film it is. I'm keeping notes in here of the films I have seen or want to see, and the DVDs I own.

NaNoWriMo

Well, my novel-writing attempt ground to a halt at just over 27,000 words. I still have one chapter to write, so I may manage to stretch it out to 30,000. Although I didn't make it to the 50,000 word goal, I'm proud of what I did achieve, which was the longest piece of fiction I've ever written. I also learned a lot about what goes into writing a novel and it makes me respect anyone who has managed to write a novel, no matter how bad. I might try again another year and see if I get any further.