step 1 - planning

Welcome back to the handmade Christmas series. Before we can even begin to start creating handmade goodies for lucky friends and family, we need to do a bit of paperwork - making a list. Planning/list making is something that is hard to avoid when it comes to Christmas don't you think? A few years ago I bought a small hard cover notebook, just for Christmas list making, presents to buy make, cards to send (although at nearly $1 per card I don't think I'll be sending too many of those this year). It seems to make everything more manageable once it's written down.

The totally amazing Stella from the golden adventures of a very dark horse has designed these great lists/planners for you to download and print to use for your Christmas planning! I know! SO cool! If this doesn't encourage you to find a few minutes this week to sit down and work out a present making/buying plan for the next few months - I don't know what will!

When I sit down to plan, I like to think what the person not only would like, but what they might need too. I don't like to gift something without a use, most people have plenty of ornamental type things, especially grandparents. Gardeners, for example always need gloves, but perhaps team them with a hand made kneeler (ok I may have just spoiled the surprise, it's true a kneeler tutorial is coming up) and some good soap or hand cream.

All you need to do is click on the list that you like and you'll be taken to a website where you can download it for printing. Then find a few quiet minutes to plan away! If you are uninspired for gift ideas, well I'm really hoping that I can help you out with that over the coming weeks.

I want to give Stella a HUGE thank you for taking the time to design the lists for us to use! Generous right? She's a gem.

I'm also setting up a linky so you can link up presents that you've made to encourage us all to make this Christmas a handmade one.