Mid week blog#196 - Christmas day & end of year wrap up

 Hello & welcome to my blog!

My name is Alison & I live in beautiful Melbourne, Australia. 

For those of you who have previously visited my blog & are now returning, thank you. For those of you who are here for the first time, welcome! 

 Here's a little bit about me. I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies, embossing folders, projects & sometimes special DSP and Wednesday evenings when I highlight a technique, fun folds or tools & tips. I would love to hear from you if you have any questions or suggestions & my email address for that is craftedbyalison@gmail.com.

First of all Merry Christmas! For those of you who celebrate Christmas I hope you had a wonderful day surrounded by those you love & lots of lovely food.

Secondly, my apologies for the lateness of my post this week. We had some unexpected guests plus I was swamped with preparations for Christmas lunch at my home for 14 people. I had lots of help from my children & husband and all who attended contributed but the extra work & the visitors meant that my time was stretched just a little too far & my post was postponed.

We had an amazing array of beautiful food to share & ate to our hearts content. Here are some pictures of our feast.

Our table all set & ready for our guests...

Each place setting had a hand made name tag/tree ornament plus a cup full of fun things for the day...

We had a great selection of meats & salads to choose from...

Then dove into a fantastic range of sweet dishes that finished off our appetites & any chance of not putting on any weight! LOL

It was a wonderful day filled with friendship, laughter, teamwork & love.

Now to continue on with the original theme for my final post for 2025 & recap my year.

•  I have posted 102 times this year - 26 Mid week posts & 26 regular posts.
• During those posts I have shared lots of different ways to create using the Colour Wheel, Colour Coach cards & combining different colour combinations.
• There have been lots of funfolds shared, ways to add a little fun or WOW to a card.
• I have explored scrapbooking again after many years away from it & showcased some lovely page ideas using the new range of products available from Stampin' Up® that are perfect for memory keeping.
• Loads of beautiful DSP has been used in my creations, both for cards, 3D projects & memory keeping.
• A number of gorgeous kits were used to create both the original cards & home decor as well as sharing alternative ideas for the supplies.
• There were ideas for you to create simple gifting solutions for everyday occasions as well as the festive season.
• I showed you how to use a variety of tools, techniques to maximise them & which ones I liked to use the most.
• I experimented with new ways to use products - most of them were a success but some didn't work out as well as I'd hoped!
• There were also lots of fun sketches - card, tags & scrapbook spreads - created by myself as well as those provided by Stampin' Up® to help you with inspiration & ideas.
• There were a number of new innovations from Stampin' Up® during the year & these were explained as they were introduced.
• I shared the highs  - my eldest daughter's wedding, my youngest daughter moving back home, retirement & holidays - & lows - the passing of our beloved dog, Buddy after 17 years of love, fun & friendship - of my family.
• I also shared areas of my own personal growth - namely a Web page design course that I completed in the last part of this year. This has led to me launching my new web page which combines a blog, newsletter & shop for me to sell the products that I make in my posts.

I would like to thank all of you who have followed along on my journey of crafting exploration. I find working with papers, inks & design is very relaxing & provides me with much happiness as well as spreading a little bit of happiness to those who receive my creations.

It is now time for me to take a break from posting while I join my husband on a bowls trip to country Victoria followed by a quick trip to visit my sister in Canberra.

On my return I will launch my new site & continue to share my passion for paper crafting.

I hope you have enjoyed following my journey & will return in the new year to share my next adventure.

I will return to this blogsite to provide you with the details of how to get to my new site &, fingers crossed, all will go smoothly & you will find me there!

Til then, take care, enjoy some time with those you love & keep creating!

XX Alison