5 in 5 - Melanie - December 2016

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part, so over to you Melanie:

"The 5^th of December saw me surrounded by a card production line so I thought I would use that for my December 5 minute photo shoot.  Certainly 5 minutes didn’t delay the production line.  One of my hobbies is card making and I try to make cards for all those I send out Christmas greetings to.  I have three groups of cards to make.  The first lot I posted out by December 1^st they were to all our family and friends that live overseas.  This is the bulk of my cards.  Then the next lot to hit the post went a couple of days later they were to friends that live in Australia whom we do not see very often.  By December 5^th  I still had quite a few more cards to make for those friends whom I hand deliver cards to so the cards in my collage are the ones destined to be hand delivered.  My card making at this time of year occupied two rooms in our house and the top photos left and right of the bauble card show the mess in these areas.  On the right hand side is my cutting area.  The overworked items in this area are my cutting machine and my guillotine. In the left hand picture is a table in our front room which was useful to assemble the cards.  There was lots of glue and sticky tape used here.  I also used a third room not in the photo which was our dining room.  I didn’t quite take over the dining room just when a pile of cards were finished I put them on the dining room table.  Later I would sit at the dining room table, write inside the cards and address the envelopes.  The two bottom photos show card designs which I made multiple ones of.  If I use the same design on several cards it is much quicker than thinking of a different design for each card.  Some cards are unique but I usually make at least two of one design.  Now with Christmas just two weeks away almost all my cards have found their way to their destinations.  My favourite part of the Christmas card tradition is the hand delivery side when I call in and have a chat with friends.  Unfortunately this past week several of the people I have called round to have been out so a catch up with them will probably take place after Christmas".   

Thank you for sharing these photos, Melanie, and as always, for taking part! 

I am impressed with Melanie's production.  I always mean to start my card making early and it never happens. I have just four more cards to make and will feel a huge relief when they are done. Sadly I have already missed the date for some oversea postings, best intentions sometimes don't work out. I hope your own preparations are going well and that you are getting into the festive spirit. Hopefully Melanie will be back next month and I look forward to you joining us. Thank you for popping by, it is great to have your company.

_____________________

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and join in please go to the original post where you will also find out how to link in.

And to find out more about this monthly photo challenge, and how this started, please go to this post.