Goodbye 2020

 As it is New Years Eve, I thought I would quickly reflect on the year that we are leaving behind. I know it has been a really difficult one for many, and in lots of ways we have been quite lucky. Some of our closest friends have had it very tough and we have tried to help wherever we can. Although we haven't been able to see Meg and Grant much, we can still have regular skype sessions, which I am very thankful for. I don't want to dwell on the negatives, but celebrate some of the positives to carry forwards. 

Crafting has certainly kept me busy and I am loving every minute of being on the Crafty Individuals and Bee Crafty Design teams. Each month brings new inspiration and goodies which I thoroughly enjoy working with. As well as stamping, I've loved learning to crochet and although I am not very skilled, I am happy with the progress I have made. Something new that I am trying in 2021 is bullet journalling. There will be a post here on Monday with my progress so far. With all the uncertainty of the coming year, it was a much better option than a diary, and it is something I can adapt to suit myself.

We have just heard that Karate is continuing on Zoom, so after a fortnight break I will be working on my karate in the living room for 3 or 4 hours a week. Seeing and training with my Karate family has really kept me going, even when it has been reallly tough. We will also continue to explore the local area on foot (we are teir 4), finding more footpaths and keeping up our step count. 

My lovely friends Lynne, Sandma, Viv and Joan have been wonderful and have cheered me up no end. Our messenger chat often involves a good laugh as well as crafting know how and recipes. Thanks so much my friends.

Finally, Thank you to my followers. Your lovely positive comments make my day. I hope I can organise my visits to blog land to be more frequent rather than just trying to catch up once a week!  

Here is a whistle stop tour of some projects I enjoyed from the past year. I'm not saying my favourites, because choosing those would be much harder, lol. Hope you like them!

January had to be a crafty Individuals stag which was one of my Christmas presents

 For February I chose this Bee Crafty doodle Art flower

For March, here is the mixed media vintage collage with embroidery, stamping, painting and collage I made at a workshop at PDA at Langley Mill

April's had to be a Crafty Individuals kingfisher scene

For May I've chosen the Hobby Art Greenhouse I made for my nephew.

For June I chose the Crafty Individuals pincushion.

 For July this mini journal made with Bee Crafty goodies as I joined their DT was one of my favourites

August was very colourful with Jane Royston's Bee Crafty stamp designs. This one really reminds me of marbles, andI love that sentiment!

September featured lots of seahorses...so hard to choose a favourite!

October was when Sandma's gorgeous scene stamps were launched at Crafty Individuals and I became addicted to Kingfishers!

For November, I am choosing this Bee Crafty make featuring the winter journalling girls collection, and the perfect way to spend an evening!

and finally, December, where I just couldn't choose between that lovely boat...

and this Bee Crafty sample in my new favourite colour palette!

I do hope your New Year is an improvement on 2020 and that you have much to be thankful for and to enjoy.

Thanks for looking and All the best for 2021

                Sally x

Top 5 Christmas Cards of 2015

The lovely Debby is again hosting  Favourite five Christmas cards. Here are mine, although with making them throughout the year I had to search for them this year! First up is one of the snowy scenes like I made last year, using inkylicious stamps. I don't know about you, but I am pining for a bit of snow or frost. All these warm wet days are depressing!

This next one represents all the cards I made using white ink on Kraft, as I couldn't choose a favourite. It was so lovely to see this new Technique from Deby at Inkylicious.

The next represents my re-found love of colouring, especially this beautiful digi from Teri at Delicious Doodles, and using my wonderful Be Creative Markers

My fourth card was made with a stamp from Honey Doo Crafts, a company I was introduced to this year and I now own quite a few of their stamps, lol (Thanks Lesley!)

Finally a card made with a stencil, something I will be doing a bit of more of next year, as I have loved experimenting using different media recently.
Thanks for looking, and do pop over to Debby's blog and take a look at her beautiful cards too.

A bit of an adventure and my favourite 5 Christmas cards

Well, Boxing Day didn't finish the way we expected it to! It is the day we host family and cook our proper Christmas Dinner. We had a lovely day and were just enjoying our tea when Steve decided to check on the weather, only to discover that it was starting to snow. We quickly got both Dads organised and then set off to take them home. Steve's dad (now 94) was safely delivered home, but after a 3 hour 11 mile round trip we arrived back home with my dad still with us. Steve was a hero, pushing six cars up a hill with two other complete strangers so we could all get back home. It was a much improved picture this morning as you can see from the photo above and we did get Dad home safely and in time for his next medication. After a bit of slipping and sliding on our road we finally got home too. I think I will stay at home tomorrow!
I wanted to join in with Debby and share my favourite five Christmas cards with you for 2014. Several of these are getting their first airing today as I didn't get round to posting them before Christmas.
First is the card I made for Meg using all Inkylicious stamps.

My second was the card I made for Steve, using Inky Doodles stamps (including the background).

My third was my Dad's Christmas card, using Card-io stamps. When I saw this set I just had to buy it - love the bird feeders, tables and boxes.

 

My next card was made with Inkylicious stamps and a Chocolate Baroque sentiment

I am struggling to decide on my fifth card. It is another scene using the Inkylicious stamps, but I can't choose between these two:
The card I made for Lynne, using the thistle stamp to make a wreath...

 or Deer in the snow

some of these are quite similar and use the same colour inks and stickles etc, but I loved the variety I managed with just a few stamps.
Do pop over to Debby's blog and take a look at her favourites too.
Thanks for looking and stay warm xxx

Butterflies and Blossoms at Sir Stampalot

Good Morning and welcome to another fabulous challenge at Sir Stampalot! The Theme for May is Butterflies and Blossoms and I can't wait to tell you about the prize. Feast your eyes on this huge pile of Tim Holtz treasures!

Are you excited? One of the books is autographed too! I'm beginning to wish I could enter!

Anyway, if you are still reading and haven't rushed off to start your entry, I guess you would like to know how I made my card. I started with a panel of silk finish white card, stamped the Hero arts Cling engraved flower and coloured with promarkers. I went over it with a versamarker and embossed in clear EP. After that I added the hero leaf flourish in Versamark, then again in versafine olympia green and also stamped the hero long writing background before sponging with shabby shutters and peeled paint distress inks. I used a bit of black soot round the edges. I added some kaleidoscope EP to the stamens on the flower, but you can't really see it on the photo.

You can see it on the butterfly though (another hero arts stamp)! Again I coloured with promarkers and then went over with a versamarker before dipping in the EP. I attached it with 3D glue. The cuttlebugged card behind the image was made with the Victoria embossing folder.  Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you are able to join in this month.

My Favourite?

Following Gina's post on her blog Soul Glo I decided to dig out a few of those cards that I couldn't bear to part with. This is possibly my favourite. It has a box made of Cream parchment card with a green panel on the top (mirroring each panel of the card.)

The first panel has a shrink plastic green man (Non-sequitur stamp) and a judikins leaf over a panel made using a rollagraph stamp.

The second panel is a K and co. sticker with a computer generated quote.

The third panel features a picture (no idea who by/ where from!) and another stamped judikins leaf from the leaf cube.

The final panel features a fern leaf stamp by Rubber Stampede. I have kept the card for about 3 years, and I was quite pleased that I still felt a little pride when I got it out of it's box today. I think it will remain in my collection. A little bit of my soul went into it! Have you made anything you couldn't part with?