This Year's Christmas Shopping Book Is Done

 I finished up this year's Christmas Shopping List book tonight.  Can you believe Christmas is just two months away?  It rolls around so fast anymore.  Time for me to get busy picking up on the ideas I hear when the family is around.  If you read my blog a year ago you might recall last year's book.

This book is a little smaller, just 4"x5", and also made from a saved Christmas card.  I didn't do the brochure binding this year.  I just used my sewing machine to stitch down the center.  The graph paper is something I picked up at a thrift store one upon a time and it is old and fragile so I doubled up the pages and glued them together to give the pages a little more body.  It only has to hold together for two months but, trust me, it will be pulled in and out of my purse dozens of times by then!  The vintage seam binding ribbon is stitched across the back cover and just wraps around to tie in a bow and keep it closed.  A small envelope is glued inside the back cover to hold receipts and it covers the stitching.  I don't stamp much and don't have any Christmas stamps so I just used some flourishes to decorate the pages.  The names are handwritten with a felt-tip calligraphy pen.  My handwriting is so bad anymore and that pen always makes it look better!
I already have a stack of little notes so I'm set to get busy now and transfer them into the little book so they don't get lost.  Before I know what happened I'll be buying spring flowers!
I am linking up with Abundantly Thankful Monthly Craft Craze.  Be sure and pop over to check out the other creative ideas!