Christmas Celebrations

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas, I know that I certainly have. After a pretty rubbish year I have had an amazing Christmas and boxing day with family which made it all worth it.

Just before the festivities I received a new free gift from the wonderful magazine people. It arrived in one piece this time and was a very nice surprise. I am aiming to at least of opened the box within the next 3 months as I'm afraid it is one of those messier time consuming products which look fantastic but that you have to put the time in for but to be honest I'm more a cut and stick girl. I did however see a gorgeous flower soft me to you bear which looked and felt amazing as it gave the illusion of fur. I will try to have a play soon. 

I was lucky enough to receive Samuel Taylor vouchers for both my birthday and Christmas so the day after boxing day I went down to have a look. It was the start of their sale so it turned into quite a massive spending spree. I purchased a new guillotine as mine is getting abit blunt and with it only being a small travel one I thought I would splurge and get a 12 x 12 cutter. This should save on paper as at the minute I have to waste some of the pattern by cutting the card the way it will fit in the machine and not necessarily the way that looks best or is most efficient. I also got a craft tote in the hopes it will encourage me to craft away from home as I can stash all my goodies in it. They were my sensible spends. The rest of the money went on anything that took my fancy or that I had seen during the year and liked but for whatever reason hadn't bought. I was pleased that I was able to get a mix of card making and scrapbooking goodies. Yet again I have ended up with alot of stamps which seems to be a reoccurring habit at the moment even though I'm not really a stamper. This is something that will have to change in the new year as I now have quite a collection of stamps and so I will be having a play with stamping techniques and colouring in in the new year. Strangely I did not come home with any die cuts which is what I have tended to go for before and that I had actually gone to get. I am wanting a corner die cut, some sort of flourish, but just can't seem to find the perfect one so am going to leave it until the right one comes along. Any ideas on this please let me know.