CHRISTMAS IN APRIL?

Our member from York, England, Margaret Beech, knows how to plan ahead. Her motto is "it's never too early to make a start". She recently sent photos of her progress working on holiday cards for the December exchange. She decided to write down how many stages are involved in the making of one card...multiplied by at least thirty for the exchange. So far there are 17 stages including the signature. At a certain point she'll go into production line methods which will speed things up, but it's a while before she has a finished card. She writes "it's always easy to make one card, but I need to keep in mind how easy (or not) that will be to scale up". Here's a sneak preview of Margaret's holiday card...now get busy on yours!

Planning ahead for the coming year of exchanges can begin as early as November when the new themes will be revealed. While some people work best under pressure, others need to plan ahead without a deadline looming. Of course some themes remain the same each year such as Valentine cards in February, Project Page or ideas from the compendiums in May, and the holiday cards in December. But once the new themes are released, consider choosing your favorite (no matter what month it is scheduled) and begin work. It will feel good to be "ahead of the schedule" and perhaps it will even help to inspire you for your next book, maybe the one that has the most difficult theme.

Thank you Margaret for sharing your progress on your holiday cards and for being an inspiration for so many aspects of book art.