so that was december...

From right to left...

*December was kicked off with a cute and edible blogging social organised by my pal Aspiring Kennedy and held at Biscuiteers in Notting Hill. Proseco and piping made for a fun evening.
*One 'Freelance Friday' started with a brutal scalpel injury and was followed with a visit to a walk in clinic and lots and lots of waiting around. Needless to say that was not a fruitful day of work! Never fear!...Santa Claus popped some nail glue in my stocking.
* We had such a lovely Christmas back in that place we used to call home. I scored big time with Christmas gifts this year. Not a questionable gift in sight, just pure pressie gold!
* A very happy December Sunday, when my friend Camille was baptised, cheered on by the TW family.
* Trinity West's first public carol service. I did a bit of decoration which mainly involved instructing big strong boys up ladders in the art of hanging giant baubles. A highlight was the kid's chance to get involved in a song, aided by the beautiful sound of clashing percussion instruments.
*Our second London Christmas has been and gone and I'm sure London is the best place to be in the run up to all the festivities. Unless you don't like crowds that is.

Well Happy New Year to you all! Hoping the year has lots of great things in store for you. I spent the last day of the year working on a bit of a blog overhaul so I'm looking forward to getting that up and running in 2014!

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Merry Christmas

John 3:17 // Original photo from The Collective Quarterly

Why are we celebrating? Do we ever really stop to think for long? Today we celebrate God breaking into this troubled world with a plan to save us from ourselves. He stepped into human history; a real living, breathing, feeling man, destined to live the perfect life we couldn't and pay the price we should have. What an amazing truth to celebrate! Have a very Merry Christmas however you're spending it and I'll leave you with some words from my little bro who puts all this far more eloquently than I'm capable of. 

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merry christmas

In amongst all the frills and thrills of Christmas day it's easy to lose sight of what we're celebrating, when in fact it's the best news ever to hit this world. God came to this earth as a man, giving up the glory of heaven for a humble life as a human named Jesus. He shone his light into this dark and corrupt world on a mission to save us. By nature we have all rejected and rebelled against God, but in Jesus at Christmas God sends the remedy. He restored the relationship that we broke and gave us new life in him if we just believe.


Photograph sourced from Bonjour Tristesse

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falalalalala

I was recently asked to design a flyer for Aberdeen University  and Robert Gorden University Christian Union’s carol service. I pretty much had free reign, which always means more thinking time to start with, but much more fun in the end!

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count down

I know I said I wouldn’t be back for a month but I’ve been designing an advent calendar on and off for a little while and thought it made a whole lot of sense to post this before advent started, incase you want to have a go at making it. I decided to well and truly ditch a typical Christmas colour palette. Perhaps I’m feeling a little jaded by all the reds and greens that saturate the shops. Each box can hold a chocolate, sweet, toy, message or anything you like.

Download the printable A4 versions here. There are 9 pages worth! Print them onto card and cut around each box. Score along the lines marked below and stick the flaps to the sides of the box with double sided tape or strong glue. I would whole heartedly suggest strong glue. Some of my boxes sneakily popped open after a night’s sleep. Leave the edge marked below, to use for keeping the lid closed. You could also buy some sticker dots to hold the lids closed until they need to be opened.

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it's in the name

This has been a long time coming! Every year I say I'll make some Christmas cards that are about Jesus and what we're really celebrating, but I've never got around to it. If you're a Christian then you might well struggle to buy Christmas cards, as lets be honest there aren't many decent ones out there. Most of the token 'religious' cards in the shops look like they're stuck in a different decade! As a result many of us younger folk end up gravitating towards the cards with cute reindeer, cozy mittens or jolly little snowmen on the front. They look nice but they don't celebrate Jesus coming into the world to save us from our sins. 

These may not look typically festive, but i thought I'd offer some free printable cards for you to download. Simply download, print onto A4 card and cut and score. Each one has the full bible verse on the back. 

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i spy christmas

It’s less than 2 months until the stockings go up and the turkeys come out. You might be one of those scarily organised people that bought all their Christmas presents back in June but for most of you, I’m sure the thought has only just crept into your mind. Last year we made all our Christmas presents which turned out to be really fun and I’m sure most people enjoy receiving handmade gifts. I had a conversation with a friend the other day about DIY Christmas presents and she said she couldn’t make them because she wasn’t creative but here’s an idea which doesn’t require much artistic flair at all, especially as I’ve designed the labels for you to download. Excuse the poor camera phone photos, but you get the idea. We tried two simple recipes to fill our gift jars....

To assemble you’ll need kilner jars or any jar with a sealable lid, ribbon, brown paper, card, spray mount/glue, a hole punch and scissors. Print the fudge and shortbread tags onto brown paper (matt side rather than shiny to avoid ink smudging). Then mount the sheet onto card using spray mount or glue, cut each one out and hole punch. Fill your jars with the sweet goodies and then thread the tags on the strips of ribbon and tie in a neat bow at the top. Both these recipes keep quite well, so you could make them up to a week in advance.

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