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

Last Rudolf Days for 2020

 

Well here we are racing towards the end of November and things aren't very cheerful at the moment. It is definitely time to make some Christmas cards that will bring a smile to a few faces. Time for some brussel sprouts! I decided to make quite a few, but have just popped 4 on this post.  All stamps here are from Hobby Art and the stencils in the background are from Bee Crafty. I am entering these into Scrappy Mo's Rudolf day challenge in the hope I might cheer a few people up. 

 

I do hope you like them and they make you smile... 

 even the rather risque one at the end 😉

 

Thanks so much for looking and for all your lovely comments! 

August at Stamping Sensations

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for another challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our theme is

***Make it Masculine***

I used Hobby Art Sheep scene-its to make this card for my brother in laws birthday. He loves walking so this seemed perfect. I coloured it with watercolour markers.

Please remember we are a stamping challenge and the focal element of your work must reflect the theme (i.e. makes suitable for boys and men). Whist we prefer conventional stamping, digital images are allowed. You can check out the challenge rules here.

Do go to the challenge blog to check out the breathtaking creations from my multi-talented teamies. You can also find details of the fantastic prize!

Whilst I am here I will just take a moment to let you know that Jean from Crafty Individuals will be on Hochanda on Tuesday 4th August.

Here is a sneaky peak of one of my samples. Don't miss the Crafty Individuals shows at 7am (I know it is early, but worth getting up for!) and 1pm. You are going to love them! 😁

There are also shows on Tuesday from another of our lovely sponsors, Chocolate Baroque. Thanks for looking!

Green fingers and gardening...

I made this card for my SIL to give to my nephew for his birthday. He has been enjoying his garden recently. Stamps are all from Hobby art and are watercoloured with brush pens. the base card was inked with distress oxides and stamped in versafine clair.
I'm entering it into the Boys and Men challenge over at Penny Black and more and Anything goes at Allsorts. I'm taking it to The Male Room too where the theme is 'in the garden' ( thanks for letting me know, Faith x).
Hope you are all okay. I am fine, if a little green around the edges due to an accident with my brushos!!! I went to pull out the pin on the lid and the entire lid came off. I thought I'd cleaned it all up, but I keep discovering more. It mixes really well with handcream to give an all over green tinge, and I must have sprinkled a minute amount on the bath mat when I went to wash my hands again, as when I got out of the shower this morning I noticed green footprints. I managed to rescue the card I was making, but whether I can rescue the bath mat remains to be seen😂😂😂. Remind me never to try shampooing the craft room carpet!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments

Mid month inspiration for May

It is mid-way through May so time for our mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is

***Say it with Flowers***

 My mid month creation has a sentiment from Hobby art, and two recent woodware stamps - Vetch and Cow Parsley over an ink dusted background. I added a few highlights in white and silver pens. I do hope you get chance to enter the challenge. 

How are you doing? Hope you are okay and staying safe and well. I think we are all on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at the moment. It is important to realise that it is okay to not be okay at the moment, but equally, talking about it can help. I'm keeping very busy with various things including some really amazing new stamps from Crafty Individuals that are going to be on Hochanda, along with shows from Chocolate Baroque on 2nd June.  see if you can catch the shows - you won't be disappointed! I'm continuing with the craft sort out, doing some sewing and crochet, doing karate on Zoom 3 times a week as well as helping to manage the Crafty Individuals facebook group. We would love for you to join us there if you haven't already - just click the link. We have a project of the week award for a stamp prize, a monthly challenge (ATCs this month) for a larger prize and Jean also does giveaways on her Facebook Lives which are at 2.30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.  

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

 

January Rudolf Days and a digi from Dora

 Here we are galloping at speed towards the end of January and I almost forgot Rudolf Days! I have two cards that I made earlier that are ready in my box for Christmas 2020 though. The first is a very simple one using a Crafty Individuals image from one of their minature collections called Merry Christmas. I stencilled the background using a Dreamee's snowflake stencil. This literally took less than 3 minutes, lol. My sister-in-law asked for some Christmas cards that were 'simple' and easy for me to make for next year, so this will be for her to look at next time we meet up.

 My next card was stamped with Hobby Art stamps and coloured with arteza brush pens. Don't you love their expressions?
A huge thanks to Maureen for running Rudolf Days again. Hopefully I will be more organised next month. Do pop over to Maureen's blog for some Christmas Inspiration.

Whilst I'm here I will share with you a DT card featuring one of Dora's gorgeous digi stamps. I don't know about you but our snowdrops are on the verge of coming out and we saw some in full bloom the other day. It does seem a little bit early to me, but they are a perfect image for a winter birthday. You can find Dora's digis  and some more beautiful work from the DT on her blog here.
 Thanks for looking!

Happy New Year and a few favourites

So here we are approaching 2020. I am looking forward to starting the new year with crafting, karate, walking, cooking and enjoying nature at the top of my list of things to do.  I thought I would take the opportunity to share a few of my favourite crafty projects with you. It is a very quick and randomly selected top ten, that If I looked again I would probably change, lol.

 First up is one of my favourite Inkylicious tree stamps and that XL spatter,

 Next is a tree from Bee Crafty and that gorgeous sentiment. I made this after a walk in the woods when I'd decided that I was going to resign, so holds a special place in my heart!

 I invested in many hare stamps this year, but this was my first and I loved how well it worked on that background.

 More inkylicious stamps on this one. The wolves are great for male cards.

 This was my first foray into candle decorating, which ultimately led to joining Crafty individuals DT and craft fairs and tables, sales and lots of fun!  

 I've enjoyed having the time to work on my colouring skills, like this 'no-line' Hobby Art christmas wreath coloured with zig clean colour real brush markers.

 Whilst we are on the subject of Hobby Art, this little owl had to be on here somewhere. He flew off to a friend in Japan, and is going to be framed. A little owl is not just for Christmas!!! 😂

 My Crafty individuals robin and kingfisher candles were popular too.

 Here's more of my favourite inkylicious stamps on Meg's christmas card,

and finally this is the plaque I made for my lovely friend Lynne (we met in about 2002 or 3 when we taught together...I think we were boh dragons, lol!)
Thank you all for your continued crafty friendships and support.  I really appreciate each and every one of your comments and I look forward to visiting you all in 2020 to see more of your wonderful creations.
                                   Happy New Year! 

Mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations and a digi from Dora

Good Morning! Here is my mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is 'Anything Goes'. the background was made with distress oxides and shimmer sprays. I added the moon (which could have been rounder!) with gesso and a little starlights paint. Next, I stamped the owl and branch on watercolour paper, colouring with zig real brush pens. Then I added a bit of fluffy puffy stuff (inkylicious) to the branch before cutting both out. I stamped the trees and snowflakes onto the background then added the owl and branch with 3d glue gel. I glazed the owl's eyes and beak with translucent nuvo drops. All stamps are from Hobby Art.

I'm also adding my DT card made with a beautiful poinsettia digi from Dora's blog. I printed it onto recycled card and coloured with zig clean colour real brush markers. You can find Dora's digis here 
It is ten days since my last post.  My spare time this week has been mostly devoted to Karate (71/2 hours altogether since Friday!) as I approach my Black Belt grading. Wish me luck! I will let you know if I pass.
Thanks for looking!

Candles! (Tell me if I am boring you!)

 

Confession time - I've got a bit addicted to decorating candles! All have been stamped onto tissue paper in versafine ink and coloured with Zig real brush pens. The first one was my first attempt before I found out about using greaseproof to stop it from melting and dripping everywhere! It is a Lesia Zgharda stamp.

 Next is the gorgeous Happy Cat from Crafty Individuals, this time as a grey cat.

 The Hobby Art little owl also fits nicely onto a 15cm candle.

 

I had a special request for some Westie candles, so I bought this hunkydory stamp, and made two which sold immediately. This was a vanilla scented candle from the range, measuring about 12 cm.

 Here is another Crafty individuals stamp. Jean Hardy inspired me to use this one and will be on Hochanda demoing this on Tuesday 3rd December at 12pm and 4pm. Do tune in and check out their fabulous stamps! For those of you on Facebook there is also a new private group for fans of Crafty Individuals products where we can share our lovely crafty makes.

Finally, here is the Pink Ink Hare on a 20cm candle with a few tiny drops of liquid pearls.
If you fancy having a go, I can recommend IKEA and the Range for candles.
Thanks for looking!

Rudolf Days for November

 It is the last Rudolf day before Christlmas and I am here with quite a few cards. I have a good selection to add to my stock ready for the local craft fair where I have booked a table. Now I am no longer at work I have been having a ball making cards, candles and mdf items for my stall. 

My first six cards all used Hobby Art stamps and zig pens on watercolour card.

 For my last two cards I used a Uniko set that I won in their September/October challenge.

 They are both stamped over a round gelli plate background made with brayering and stamping Distress inks in Tea Dye and Bundled Sage.

So the grand Christmas card total is currently at 60, and if they all sell, I'll be making another thirty plus family ones in the next couple of weeks, lol. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Do pop over to Maureen's blog for some Christmas Inspiration and thanks for looking!