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 #495- The Messy edition.

And this is nothing compared to the state of hands! I decided I'd have a play and create some more Brusho backgrounds. Built myself a blast shield from newspaper, lol.




This pile is pretty much dry.

These are getting there.




I also have the sheets of Paper Towel I was working on top of.

2 sheets together, so this is side 1.

And this is side 2.



The Papercrafts show on Saturday was quite good, the only downside, which I didn't realise beforehand, or I'd have found us another route there, instead of the M42, was that The Bike Show was on at the NEC. 20 minute journey under normal circumstances, took us an hour and a half, and the majority of that was the last 5 miles or so.
 Lots of exhibitors there, some favourites, like Honey Doo & Circa Design, and lots of others I'd not seen before. Didn't buy a huge amount, some of the last release of Oxides, a batch of glitter cardstock, a fab Dragon stamp by a brand called Pink Ink, and discovered Dies To Die For, a company that carries a huge amount of USA companies work. Some storage boxes and some sparkly embellishments pretty much rounded off the haul.

Just had to show these- in each case, it's only one colour of Brusho sprinkled onto wet cardstock.

Over the weekend it was the Christmas card challenge, and I think I've got more than enough cards now, so I made some gift tags.Details in the post below.




















And I'm almost done.  I'll be popping over to Julias at The Stamping Ground, and leaving my link there, so I'll see you all later.

That just leaves......And Finally.......

                                                               Best quote ever!

Christmas Card Club Challenge #24- All Wrapped up!

Sorry ladies, completely lost track of what week it was.  This fortnights challenge is set by Carol, and she chose the theme 'All Wrapped Up'. I've taken a bit of  a liberty with the interpretation here, as I think I'm overflowing with Christmas cards this year, so I've made a bunch of gift tags!

  I ended up making 7 designs, in a pretty random number for each. The tags are more or less 3" square. I used a lot of off cuts to make these, so there is a little variation.

 This one uses a Holly stamp from Lavinia Stamps, stamped in Versafine Clair Rainforest, then I added  Stampendous Crystal Embossing Powder over them and heat set. Then Liquid Pearls in Garnet for the berries.
 The sentiment comes from a Hobby Art set, Winter Wishes. That was stamped in the same green ink, but not heat embossed.

The Bells come from a Card-io set called Merrily on High.
 I stamped the first bell in Gold Encore Pigment ink, masked it, then stamped the second. Heat embossed both then with the same Crystal EP.

The sentiment is from a Crafters Companion set.

Afterwards I added the holly sprigs using an old Rubber Stamp Tapestry set.
 I used the Garnet Liquid Pearls for the berries again too.












 Quite a lot of Card-io stamps used for the tags, this one is called Christmas Greenery. Stamped in Versafine Spanish Moss, heat embossed with the Crystal EP, and then the sentiment stamped in Versafine Majestic Green. I added  White Opal Liquid Pearls to the Mistletoe Berries.

 Another Mistletoe design, this time using a Lavinia Stamps Mistletoe Branch. I stamped this one in Olympia Green, added the Crystal EP, then stamped the greeting in the same colour. The same Opal White Liquid Pearls used for the berries too.

 Christmas Trees next, and these are from a Visible Image set, and I used the medium one once, then the small one was stamped in both first & second generation images, using Versafine Olympia Green.
 For these I used a Stampendous EP called Rainbow Sparkle, and although it doesn't show in the photo's, it makes it look like the trees are covered in lights.
 I added a tiny acrylic star to the top of each tree. The sentiment here is from a Phill Martin set,Scribbled Christmas Petite.

This was the biggest batch I made. All Card-io/Majestix stamps, the branch is a partial stamping of a tree from the Christmas Breeze Collection. I stamped in Clair Rainforest, first and second generation images.  I added a mix of baubles from the two sets,Zendangles and Bells & Baubles, using Versafine Majestic Blue and Deep Lagoon. The strings were drawn in with a very fine Micron pen.Sentiment again from the Crafters Companion set.The branch and baubles were heat set with the Crystal EP.

Last set used two Card-io/Majestix snowflake sets, Winters Kiss and Winter Flurry.Stamped in Encore Metallic Blue, and heat set with WOW! EP in Glacier. Sentiment again from the Hobby Art set, and stamped in Versafine Majestic Blue.

Christmas Card Club Challenge #5- Robins

This fortnights challenge is set for us by Valery, and she chose Robin/Robins.
 I've had a lot of fun with this challenge, and to prove it, here is a whole flock of Robins!

 We have a shaker card, 4 cards and 4 tags too.


The main set of stamps used is called Round Robins, and is from Hobby Art.

The Robins were stamped In Versafine Clair Nocturne, then heat embossed using clear powder.


The colouring was done with Promarkers- Tan/Firewood for the browns and Lipstick Red/Crimson for the red.





 I masked them all off, and brushed Broken China and Faded Jeans across the tops, having placed a torn piece of paper to make the hills. A thin line of Stickles in Baby Blue defined the edge.

 I added a few glittery peel off snowflakes- they were actually 'waste' from the backing sheet!

The filler was from a package I picked up the last time I went to the NEC,called Crystal Snow, but I can't recall who I got it from.I think I overdid it a little!

 While I was waiting for the Stickles to dry, I decided I'd make a few tags too, and a smaller card. The robins stamped in Nocturne again, and heat embossed. The greetings, from top left clockwise, are from Phill Martin Scribbled Christmas Petite Sentiments set.Hobby Art Winter Wishes, Phill Martin  Snowflake Sentiment Corners, and the 'odd' one is from the Hobby Art Robins set.
 The 'odd' image is from a set called Winter Birds, by Inkadinkado.

Not sure if he really is a Robin, but sort of looks similar.😊








                   
  That one was heat embossed using Stampendous EP called Holographic, and is really cool, as the longer you heat it, the more the colours change. I just added some DI Broken China/Faded Jeans from the centre out, and used the same blues to dust around the other Robins. Punched a hole & added ribbon.

I was almost done, when I remembered I had an Imagination Crafts stencil called Singing Robins. So, I made them up using stencil paste, then left them to dry so I could foil them.










While they were drying, I went back to the robin with the letter in his beak.

Stamped his hat,then masked the hat to stamp him in place. I also stamped the letter first of all, so I could position his beak over it. Good old TH Stamping Platform!

I filled in the white parts of the hat with an embossing pen, then added Stampendous EP in Sparkle Puff. Don't know if that's available, I've had it for years, but you could get the same effect by mixing a pinch of glitter with any Puff Powder.

Added a few glittery snowflakes again, and stamped the sentiment, from a Crafters Companion set,called Festive Sentiments, in Encore Silver pigment ink. I think, along with a Gold inkpad and a normal black one, these were the very first inkpads I bought. Along with a reinker, which I think I've used once in the 15 ish years I've had it. Still works fine too.

I thought the 'snow' half of the card looked a bit bare, so I added some Embossing ink, then sprinkled on a WOW! EP called Snowfall.

So that's it  for this challenge, and 5 cards and 4 tags added to my Christmas Card collection!

WOYWW #235

Okay, so I lost a whole week somewhere.Someone must know where all the time goes- can you believe how close Christmas is?
 I must admit to being very pleased with myself this year- all my Christmas gifts bought online, just waiting for one final one to arrive. Said pressies are also all wrapped, as of last night.  Christmas cards, both batches, all made and stamped, just have to be written out. And its barely December. I'm usually just about starting! So, on to the reason we are all here, our Fairy Godmother of Desks, Julia, over at The Stamping Ground, requests the (dubious) pleasure of our desk pictures again.

 So here it is, in all its glory.
 Glittered cats waiting for the next stage (see previous post), Post it masks for the cats. Assorted ink pads, reading glasses,hole punch, shaving brushes- they were a real bargain from Poundland a couple of years ago, 6 for a quid! Make ace blending brushes, even if they do shed a bit. Heat gun, and a plastic and a wire pan scrubby.  Useful idea- if you are removing stamps from a wooden base, and some of the foam stays on the stamp, the wire scrubby takes it off fairly easily. Certainly easier on your fingers. I had a couple of Christmas sentiments I wanted to unmount before I used them- they have quite a lot of redundant rubber around the wording, and I always get ink smudges. Unmounting my remaining Christmas stamps is another job for the Christmas holiday. Now the box is down, I shall get them done.
Lots of other bits & pieces you can poke around in, if you feel inclined. One final pic, as I have managed to get so far ahead of myself this year, I thought I'd have a go at making some tags.
Love this owl stamp, he's from a set of clear stamps by Inkadinkado, called Winter Birds.Which is a couple of years old, lol.











He's stamped in Encore Metallic Blue, heat embossed with stardust powder again. I left them under an acrylic block with a weight on it overnight to flatten out after the heat embossing, and they came out fine. Hole punch the corner, and they'll be good to go.

Oh, and Julia, the cotton wool balls- dusting on/off chalks & micas, cleaning up icky stuff ,and cleaning scissors etc with Sticky Stuff Remover :)