Favourites of the Year 2018

Almost the end of another year, so time for my look back at favourite makes of the year. One thing I did realise while looking back through my makes is that I made very few stamped cards this year, most were die cut or stencils. And I made far more Christmas cards than any other. In each of my selections, I've linked to the original blog post for more info.So, in no particular order, let's start.

One technique I really enjoyed was  adding foil to stencil paste with my laminator, and these Bauble cards, using a stencil called Damask Baubles, by Sweet Poppy, really made great use of the technique.

More foiling, and most of these were done using Tim Holtz layering stencils to apply the paste through. Not used many yet, but they will make great fast cards, as the background is so striking, all they really need is adding to a card base and a sentiment.

 Die cutting this time, and the die is a Tim Holtz Thinlits one, called  Butterflies. You get two different shaped butterflies in it,which come as a solid shape and an overlay. I  also used either a textured cardstock, or ran it through an embossing folder first. Again, nice and simple, and just need a sentiment to finish.











 One of my few stamped cards, using a Honey Doo stamp called Floral Corner Flourish, with the flowers stamped again onto white pearl paper, then layered on top.

















 This was one of my favourite Christmas cards, although die cutting & punching out all those snowflakes was ridiculously messy! I did  a few in either blue/white/silver, or white & silver.

This easel card was made for my DIL's birthday, and the majority of the colouring was done with Prismacolor pencils, which I admit have finally turned me into someone who enjoys colouring. Still struggling with the Promarkers, though! The sentiment was cut from a sheet of card I'd swiped stencil paste over, then laminated with some holographic foil.

Some more stamping appearing, these used mainly cardio stamps, and various Bauble stencils to ink & stamp through.

This technique, for using up card scraps by cutting into strips and sticking down onto paper/card, I learnt about from Jennifer Macguire, and had a lot of fun with.
 There are a few posts about these, so I'll link them HERE, HERE and HERE.

 
These were some more quick die cut cards, using glitter card, and a few different overlay dies with a die cut sentiment.

 Back to Christmas, and stamping. I'd made loads of cards, so for this Christmas Card Club challenge, I made tags. Really easy, and a great way to use those smaller stamps in a set, or stamps such as Card-io/Majestix.

And that leads me to my final favourite of the year, which I've never blogged. As WOYWWers know, this years crop had a very special guest, our own lovely ShazinOz. 
I thought it would be nice for her to have a keepsake of her visit,and wanted to do a photo triptych, but being mindful of the weight going in her luggage, I made a photo frame using photo mount inserts, covered in a silvery paper stamped with a flower stamp and heat embossed in a sparkly embossing powder.I added some acetate behind the panels, and added a back afterwards, leaving room to insert the pictures. I made a panel with the WOYWW in, plus the date & place, then added a group photo taken on the day, and an older one from a previous crop of Julia & Jan together, as Julia couldn't be with us for this one. Finishing touch was some Tim Holtz  corners, for protection.

So thats my round up of the year, I think my New Years Resolution must be to do more stamping!

WOYWW #499- The Full of Christmas Dinner Edition

Yep, 'cos we are. Full of Turkey, stuffing, sprouts, Pigs in Blankets, and probably most of all, cake. Joining Mrs Santa, aka Julia, over at The Stamping Ground, for the last WOYWW of this year! New Year, and the massive 500 for us all next week.
 Well, no crafting done, it's all about the crafty pressies this week. Santa did bring me a Big Shot, as a replacement for my poor 'Bug.














He also got me a hard case for my Prismacolour pencils. I'd have bought the bigger box if I'd known how much I was going to like them, but I went with the mid sized tin, and buying extra colours left me with no way to store them safely.

I also got a TH Travel platform, here it is alongside it's big brother for comparison.

A few stamps also appeared in my pressies, two Lavinia and one Card-io.

  A plush Baby Dragon, guarding my mug which reads 'Witches Brew' on it,lol.

Some crystal obelisks and a stand for them. They're about 2" high.

And a cauldron for my desk! It's quite heavy, being cast iron.

  
This one not a Christmas pressie, - Doug bought himself a new Gaming monitor, so I get his old one. Quite a bit bigger than my old one,feels like it's almost on my lap!
 I hope everyone had a fab Christmas Day, and can have a nice relaxing Boxing Day today.
To everyone going out to celebrate the New Year, have a fun, safe evening, and Happy New Year to you all.
 Which just leaves.....And Finally........

Because we all know how true this is! I know last year in Tesco, one side of an aisle had reduced price Christmas stuff, and the facing shelves had Easter Eggs!

WOYWW #498- The Almost Christmas Edition

Well, just a few days away now, so to all my blogging friends, a very Merry Christmas. We both send you all lots of love, and wishes for a peaceful Christmas with your loved ones. As always, linking up with Julia over at  Santas Grotto, The Stamping Ground, for the last before Christmas blog hop.

 Not much happening desk wise to be honest. Mainly been used for present wrapping the last few days.

Just some of them wrapped and bagged ready for delivering to family.

 After that, my desk got it's - probably annual,lol- clean up.

The blue mat is some of that rubber non slip liner- from Poundland- that stops my craft mat sliding all over the place.

Then it was returning all the important stuff back onto it. I must say, I love those revolving caddy things. Not something I would have bought at one time, but the white one I was gifted, and I was amazed at how useful it was. So amazed, I bought myself a second.In black.😀
 My laminator stood on top of a block of wooden storage boxes there too.

All ready for action again.

I did buy myself a couple of new Gelli plates, both off Amazon, and way cheaper than I found them in crafting stores.

    Bought a round one, and a 5x7 one. The one I have is a 6" square, and I really enjoyed playing with it, so looking forward to some creating time with these.  Again, it was only because I was gifted the square one that I tried it out, unlikely I'd have bought one myself, to be honest.





THIS LINK, is to a video that was on Facebook, making Christmas ornaments from glitter foam. They are absolutely fab, and well worth a look.

A huge thank you from us both to everyone for the wonderful selection of Christmas Cards that have been dropping through the letterbox.


 And so, thats me done for another week, and indeed almost another year.


Just leaves.....And Finally.......

WOYWW #497 -The Glittery Edition.

The desk in full mid-create! Been doing some stencil paste pieces- some backgrounds, and also stencilling onto a few of the Brusho sheets from the other week.

 An assortment of holly backgrounds, mostly with added glitter. Apart from the Black one, which I intend to foil.

This was a new stencil I bought at Happy Stampers- I quite like the one on the Brusho sheet, looks like a blizzard in the background.

These are some older stencils which I will probably foil too.

I don't often buy craft magazines, but I liked the  Embossing Folder with this one, and the Father Christmas stamps with the second one.

I also picked up the TONIC magazine/box, as you got the Embossing folder, plus a set of dies. It's an outer star that fits the EF, plus has an inner star you have a sentiment in, but that can easily be snipped out, and 4 different corner dies, which can also be used to cut the shapes into the outer star, so gives you a lot of options.

Not bought much in Christmas sales, but Craft Stash had a special one day of two EF's for a £5, so got these two Christmas and two Birthday ones. Good sizes too, 6"x6", and 5"x7".

While sorting through my photo files, I found this one, the stuff I got at the Motorcycle Museum Craft show.  That cardstock is awesome, a fab 'oil on water' look to it.



Off to leave my link over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground.







So that's me about done, just leaves......And Finally........

Some of you have probably seen this on Facebook, sharing here as it did make me laugh!

Christmas Card Club Challenge #25- Cute

Well, here we are at the last Challenge for this year, and it's been chosen by Sylvie, who wants to see Cute. I actually seem to have quite a number of stamps that fall into this category, and I admit they don't get enough use.

 Mainly because most of them need to be coloured, and until I discovered how enjoyable Prismacolor pencils were to work with, I avoided colouring like the plague. So we have 5 Christmas cards, and 4 more gift tags to the collection.

These two penguin images are by Whimsy Stamps. I've added Glossy Accents to the Candy Canes, and also used Inkylicious Fluffy Puffy Stuff for the fur on the hats. I'll share how I found it worked best further on.

This is another Whimsy stamps image, and Beloved Hubby bought me all three last year for Christmas. He couldn't find them in the UK, so got stung for Import Duty ordering from the USA, but when we visited the Papercrafts Show at the Motorcycle Museum recently, we discovered Dies to Die For, a UK company who stock many of the well known US brands of stamps and dies, such as Altenew, Lawn Fawn,Mama Elephant, Pretty Pink Posh, and Whimsy.
 I used the Fluffy Stuff on these too.

This is a Hobby Art stamp, bought at Happy Stampers a couple of months ago. Called Archie & 5 Pals.

Another Hobby Art stamp, Paws for Thought.
 Both of these are Rubber stamps.

These Penguin tags are also using a Hobby Art set, clear stamps this time, called Round Penguins.

 The Polar bear tags use stamps from Inkylicious, on the left, and a very old Woodware set on the right.  Laughing right now, as I just did a Google search to see if it was still available. The only two images that showed up are both from my blog, so I guess not!

So, I said I'd tell you about the Puffy stuff.
 It says on the bottle to apply a line of it, then heat with a heat gun. That works fine, especially if you are trying to line hills or trees for instance, but I found didn't produce the look I wanted for the fur.






So what I did was to add a thickish line of it onto the fur trim, then used a cotton bud to dab it all over.

I bought these cotton buds in Primark recently, you can find them in their make up/beauty section. They are great for crafting, as you have a thin pointy end, and the other end is flat. I used the pointy end to dab the Fluffy stuff over the fur areas, then heat set. You want a fairly even level, not too thick or it will puff up too far, but not too thin either, otherwise it doesn't puff at all. However, it's pretty forgiving- if you haven't got enough on, or have bare patches, you can just add some more and reheat.




If some areas puff up too far, you can flatten it down- the flat end of the cotton buds was perfect for that!

It's a really great little product for adding some dimension and texture to your Christmas creations.











And so we are done for another year, and I'd like to thank everyone for making this such a fun challenge. You've all provided so much inspiration, and often, reminded me of stamps I have that I'd forgotten about!

It's been great for taking the stress out of Christmas Card making, and made it something to enjoy through the year instead. As I wrote out and sent almost 70 cards earlier in the week, then another 30+ for work colleagues, and 20+ for family, I realised why in previous years-when I didn't start till November- I'd got heartily sick of the sight of them long before I was finished. So thank you ladies, and I hope you all have a quiet, peaceful and Happy Christmas, and thank you all for the lovely Christmas cards that have arrived!

WOYWW #496= The Writers Cramp Edition.

Yep. Writers Cramp. Because I'm way ahead of myself this year, and have been sat writing out- and posting- our Christmas Cards! Go me!
And this is part 2. Yesterday I wrote and posted 67 to the UK and abroad. Good job I'd been buying the occasional book of stamps throughout the year, so the only postage I actually paid yesterday was for the foreign ones. Think I'd probably have fainted at the price otherwise. Today I sat and wrote 33 for work colleagues of ours.
And finishing off with another 21 for family, that'll get hand delivered. Until names start popping up I've forgotten. Now I know why I used to get sick of the idea of Christmas cards when I left them till November.  I'm left with about two dozen, for any I've forgotten, or to go towards next year.
I'll be later visiting today, as I'm doing something I haven't done for more years than most of you have probably been alive,😁. I'm going to the hairdressers! I will still be red, purple & blue, but the purple & blue have gotten so dark now that the colours don't show properly, so it needs bleaching. And that's a job for an expert, having had a couple of close squeaks with it in the past, Doug won't go there now. The hairdresser I'm going to is Ellie, the lady whose wedding photos I showed a few weeks ago.Almost said girl, as I've known her since she was at school with my eldest, but as they are both in their 40's now, that would have been silly. The last time I set foot in a hairdressers, I was still in my mid teens!
 So no crafting yet. The Brusho sheets from last week have been sat under a glass mat, with the box of cards on top to flatten out a bit.

Our squirrels are quite tame really, and aren't afraid to come quite close- this one is about 12 feet away. We have what is obviously a pair, as they will both be here at the same time quite happily. Then there is another pair who visit, and if the two who have claimed our garden as their territory are here, then there's a lot of chasing the interlopers off up and down trees going on. They are funny to watch when they're annoyed about something. They sit on the fenceposts, stamping their back feet like rabbits do, and the tails are waving about like crazy. And I never realised they make as much noise as they do! They make quite a racket when they're annoyed, or trying to warn something off.
 So thats it from me this week, I'll be linking up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, and round to see you all later.



 Which just leaves.....And Finally...............