Scrapjourney: favourite 5 (or so) of 2013

I visited ShazinOz this morning, and she had linked to  A Scrapjourney, a blog by Debby, where crafters are invited to list their favourite 5 projects they made in 2013. She's not being picky over the number, lol, just that they are made in 2013. Which is good, because I had an extra couple I couldn't decide between. I actually found a few I enjoyed for different reasons- trying something new, came out better than I expected (always a bonus), or ones I really enjoyed doing.
 So, in no particular order, here are my 2013 favourites:








This is one of the simple, came out better than expected cards. Just a brayered background and silhouette style stamps in black.

This was a ' I wonder if this will work/came out better than I expected' card, using the SU Swallowtail Butterfly in a triple stamping format, with colour just sponged over & around the image, after it had been stamped in Versamark & heat embossed with white powder.

 
I really enjoyed making this one, for my eldest sons birthday,as we are both huge Edgar Allen Poe fans. It was a couple of new techniques tried, lemon juice heated to age the paper, and a Stampbord removable fridge magnet.




 This one was a real experiment, and definitely falls into the 'came out better than expected' category. I wanted to try using artists pastels, as I have loads, so really can't justify Pan Pastels as well. I stamped all the images in Versamark, onto a background of sponged Distress inks. For each image I grated artist pastels over it, using a nutmeg grater, then buffed off with cotton wool balls.




I was pleased with how this one came out, as I was CASEing a card seen on Pinterest, using an Indigo Blu stamp. I don't have the stamp, but had a fairly similar one, and was hopeful it would produce a similar effect, which it did.









 I loved the dramatic gothic imagery of this stamp, and simple black stamping on a background of various sponged reds really did it justice, I thought.

 Last, but definitely not least, as its probably my favourite, is the card I made for my Beloved Hubby this Christmas. The image, Snowy Postcard, by Stampendous, was stamped onto white pearl card then cut out with the Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments 2nd to largest die.The white backing was cut from the largest. I stamped the image again on a post-it, and masked the buildings & snow, then sponged an assortment of blues for the sky. Then it was sprayed with Crafters Companion Iridescent Spray & Sparkle, which is hard to see, but gives the snowy areas a lovely sparkle.To get the black matt for the bauble, I drew around the outside of the die, and cut by hand. The Poinsettias are a Le Crea die, which is smaller than most Poinsettia dies, and works well on cards. The two hearts are triple embossed, using UTEE over Anitas Blue Glass embossing powder- the one heart then having a texture stamp inked in silver pressed to it while still molten.So my Favourite 5 is actually a Favourite 7- but what's a couple of extras between friends?