Ok, that's the single silliest thing anyone has ever said, right? Except... if you're a papercrafter who celebrates Christmas, you've likely just experienced the equivalent of the cardmaking olympics, otherwise known as "December". How did yours go? Did you sit down at the beginning of the month and spend a few leisurely hours writing notes inside a stack of gorgeous cards before mailing them off to your lovely friends and family? If so, well done, off you go to watch the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America!
If not, may we take five minutes of your New Year's Eve to say that the reason we (Stephanie and Lauren) started Jingle Belles in 2011 is that we'd both just experienced one too many of the *other* kind of December. The kind spent frantically mass-producing holiday cards, at the expense of actually experiencing the fun holiday activities said cards are meant to commemorate. Which, when you think about it, is quite a bit sillier than making ONE beautiful, individual card per week... even if the latter course does actually involve starting in January. Because for us, the success of "Taking December Back" lay in establishing the at-first-totally-weird-feeling habit of spreading the job throughout the year. And establishing that habit was infinitely easier and more fun when we did it together, in the company of all our lovely fellow cardmakers, giving and taking inspiration and --most importantly-- cheering each other on.
But do we really HAVE TO start on New Year's Day??! Well, no... but can you think of a better day in the entire year to symbolically inaugurate a brand new habit? Plus, you've likely still got all your Christmas supplies out, and you've maybe even received some cool new goodies that you didn't get to play with yet... do you really wanna wait until November to bust those out? ;)
Our first prompt of 2016 will go live at midnight, with new posts every Friday. And yes, you can jump in *any* time! So please consider yourself officially invited to come along and join us for as many or as few weeks of the year as you'd like. Meanwhile,
HAPPY
(almost)
NEW YEAR!
♥♥♥
I'm looking forward to another year of inspiration with all the Jingle Belles, have a wonderful New Year!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for another year of great challenges!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to joining you in 2016
ReplyDeleteSo excited! I love playing along with you gals at Jingle Belles!
ReplyDeleteHi Ladies, looking forward to my second year of fun and gorgeous inspiration with you! Happy New Year!!
ReplyDeleteWishing you a happy, healthy and creative year filled with beautiful Christmas creations! My December month was hectic (as was the entire year, actually). As usual, I did not manage to create enough cards throughout the year, so I needed to design and mass-produce another 20+ cards in December. The good news is that I have several partly finished cards for the next Christmas and I even managed to create a new card last night AND post it on my blog 4 minutes before the start of the new year in my corner of the world.
ReplyDeleteHappy New year, Lauren and Stefan! I am thrilled that you both have been taking December back for five years, but actually also inspiring hundreds of others to either do the same or even just inspiration from you both and the lovely participants.
ReplyDeleteHugs to you both, June Houck
I love this post, it is so very much you with its humor! I want to take December back and so I'm going to try and participate this year, I have missed blogging and getting together in the online community of fellow artists and crafters. Here's to a great 2016!
ReplyDeleteI've just discovered you (I know...apparently I've been under a rock!) and WOW! Talk about a friendly, engaging, welcoming place to play! After my Christmas-card-making-palooza this year (and last...and last...), I really need to *take back December*! Not putting away my Christmas stuff...no siree! Out of sight = out of mind, and that hasn't been working very well. Soooo aiming to join you when I can! Happy New Year...and happy me to have foun dyou so early in 2016!
ReplyDelete~c (carol)