I decided that today was a good day to look back over my favourite projects of 2019. Once again I have managed to keep up my daily blog, helped tremendously this year by the over 200 projects completed as a design team member for Claritystamp. I am so grateful that Barbara Gray asked me to join such a prestigious team.
This is my January favourite (see HERE for details). It was also my first project to make it onto one of the Clarity sample boards that are used for shows.
I was reminded about some stamps that I bought in the Gray Day sale recently by a blog post from Barbara Gray. I decided to have a play myself on a tag.
I made this Thank You card for my parents who hosted us all over Christmas. We had an amazing time. It also gave me an excuse to play with my new Clarity Mixed Impressions Texture stamps which arrived shortly before the holidays.
As I had used the Clarity floral alphabet to decorate my Mum's birthday gift, I decided to make a card to match.
I used the two of the Clarity floral alphabet stamps to monogram two candles. They fitted perfectly into a gift basket for my Mum's birthday today.
I made these all in one Christmas cards and wallets for gift cards as we decided to let the 'children' choose their own 'big' presents this year. I used four of the stamps from the 'Twas the night Before Christmas stamp sets from Claritystamp.
Just a quick join in with the weekly desk share today to wish all my family and friends a Merry Christmas. My desk this morning shows last minute Christmas card writing to give to family when we see them later.
I shall be linking in to The Stamping Ground and visiting our hostess Julia as usual for a Wednesday. The celebrations actually started yesterday with my husband's birthday and will continue until my Mum's birthday on the 27th.
I have cheated with this desk shot as the photo was taken early yesterday morning when I was working on a last minute card and gift for my Mum using the floral alphabet from Claritystamp. More will be revealed on Friday and Saturday if you'd like to pop back and see what I made. I posted 15 samples off on Monday so will have plenty of blog posts for the new year, starting on 5th January.
Wishing you all a happy healthy Christmas with family or friends and hoping that those who find this time of year difficult peace and warm wishes. Happy WOYWW for the last time in 2019! And finally... if you would like a laugh, our school made its own version of the Jump Around video this year. I was told to look miserable at the start of the video (I think I nailed it lol).
It is always a pleasant change to be making birthday cars at this time of year. As my husband's birthday is Christmas Eve and my mother's the day after Boxing Day, Christmas is always extended by further family celebrations. Happy Birthday Hubby!
I haven't joined in with the fortnightly challenge over on Tag Tuesday and it's my husband's birthday tomorrow. I decided to combine the current Shabby Chic or Vintage theme with a gift tag for his birthday present.
I have had a roll of plain brown paper in the shed for quite a while. This year I decided to make some of my own wrapping paper rather than using all shop bought which can rarely be recycled. As you can see I used stamps and a variety of Versafine inks to go with the tags that I had made previously (see HERE).
I needed some last minute Christmas cards, so decided to batch make a set. I made seven cards in under an hour using the Tina's Turtle Doves stamp set from Claritystamp!
I can never bear to throw out the left over scraps of Clarity designer papers. I decided to some of them to create gift tags using the two smallest Nested Dome Tag dies.
It has been rather last minute.com on the Christmas card front, so I was particularly pleased when I received Clarity New Design Die Club offering #11. It made a quick, but effective Christmas card to get into the post. I hope the recipient doesn't mind me getting a blog post out of it too lol.
So this time next week it will be Christmas Day: help! To be honest, I am nearly ready: only a few more gifts to get and a trifle to organise. I even got some last minute cards made yesterday.
Here my desk shows me in mid process, as I was trying to finish them before heading out for my annual Christmas lunch with crafting friends (no Eva unfortunately, as it is the week when she has to work on a Tuesday).
Just to prove that I finished them! Thank you to Shaz (and Doug) and LLJ for the Christmas cards. I have had no chance to post any in return, so here is a virtual card for you and all my WOYWW friends.
I know that many of you will not be joining in next week as you will be far too busy, so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and thank you for your friendship in 2019. To find out more visit The Stamping Ground, where Julia keeps us all in order!
If you can't think of a card idea, then a sketch is a good place to kick start your creativity. Maria Moorhouse made this observation at a recent workshop, where we used some sketches by Dawn Griffith as a starting point for play. I have linked to Dawn's page of sketch archives as they are a marvellous resource. Maria gave the OK to share what I did with one of the sketches, so thanks for that.
Here is my contribution to the December tag challenge over on Tag It Tuesday. The four prompts were 1) Use a doily, 2) Use sparkle, 3) Blue and 4) Add stars. I actually used all four although a minimum of two is acceptable.
A colleague at work became a first time Dad recently. He is an Aston Villa fan, so it wasn't too hard to come up with a colour theme for the card we all signed for him.
I used a favourite technique of mine, white embossing on kraft card, to create this smaller card. The sentiment wouldn't fit, so I used masking and stamping to add it to the card round the image.
This was a last minute sample for the new Mixed Impressions Texture stamps from Clarity but probably my favourite. It combines Oxides, white embossing and some amazing stamps on kraft card.
This time I decided just to use the night sky stamp from the Jayne Nestorenko Winter Bridge stamp set as the back drop to a simple and quick card.
Joining in with the weekly sharing of desks thanks to Julia at The Stamping Ground and What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.
My desk shows my latest attempts at organising my stamps into blank DVD cases. I managed to get hold of some more from Maria Moorhouse at her workshop at the weekend and finally stashed away the new stamps that I bought in the Gray Day sale at Clarity. While I was at it, I added some sets I already had from my larger folders to fit in with the new stamp sets. Top left: Tina's Flowers, top right: love, locks and clocks and bottom: hobbies. I still have a way to go. The next step is to trim some copy paper to fit into the sleeves and add a label along the spine.
While I'm mentioning organising, thanks to Shaz's tip last week I ordered one of the trolleys from Hobbycraft. It is the perfect size for sitting under the desk and has cleared a lot of clutter from my desk space.
Sorry I am unlikely to visit this week. I will be at work today and need an early night as #2 son needs to be at Stanstead for 5am tomorrow. By the time I get back, I will be voting and getting back into bed for a nap, before school work which needs my attention.
I decided to combine a frame made with the new Mixed Impressions Texture stamps from Claritystamp with some die cutting to make a shaker card.
Just because a stamp is large doesn't mean you have to use it all. For this card, I masked off a section and chose a suitable area of the stamp to create a panel card for any occasion.
The special day sentiment stamps in combination with Tina's Flower Spray stamps and stencil make a card which will fit most occasions.
I found another way to show off the dimensional potential of this stamp set designed by the late Jayne Nestorenko.
The new simple shape masks from Claritystamp make creating backgrounds easy. Especially in combination with the new Mixed Impressions Texture stamps. Here I used the diamond mask and the Rusted Metal Grunge stamps.
Just to show how versatile these stamps are, I made a Get Well card to follow on from the sympathy card (see HERE) and the new baby card (see HERE).
I have been taking things easy in the shed over the last week since my last samples were posted off. I am finding it difficult to motivate myself at the moment. Eva was working yesterday too, so unable to join me. Luckily some more crafting friends came to my rescue. They came over bearing cake!
They wanted to have a go at making a card that I had made following an idea seen by another friend in a magazine (sorry don't know which one).
So in place of Eva I have a close up of one of the ladies doing the beading on her card.
Far more interesting desks than mine can be seen at The Stamping Ground, where we meet up with Julia each Wednesday to celebrate more than 10 years of WOYWW. I'll be round to visit tomorrow as I'm off to work shortly.
This time I used the new floral spray stamps and stencil to create a new baby card.
For my second sample with the new Jayne Nestorenko winter scene stamps, I created a topper then extended the scene onto the card.
These new Jayne Nestorenko stamps from Claritystamp lend themselves to creating dimensional cards.
I love the large Mixed Impressions texture stamps from Clarity, they make such great backgrounds in combination with Distress Oxides.
The new range of texture stamps from Claritystamp are fabulous for all kinds of projects. For my first, I created a journal page with a magazine clipping as the focal point.
It wasn't long after Remembrance Day when I was working with the new Tina's Flower Spray stamps and matching stencil from Claritystamp. They seemed perfect to make a sympathy card.
I'll be brief this week as I am still catching up with school work and sample making having been ill again at the end of last week (hence a lack of visiting). I'd no sooner got over the flu symptoms than I was hit with a stomach bug, luckily of the 24 hour variety. All samples are now posted and I have almost caught up with all my marking so time to join in with WOYWW and link up with Julia at The Stamping Ground to share my desk. Great to see that Shaz is making such good progress and is out of hospital.
I was so busy making a new baby card for a colleague, that I totally forgot to take any photos of my desk until I was almost finished. The new Dad is a Villa fan so the colour scheme was easy.
Eva actually made it over to play after an absence of a few weeks. I thought I'd take a photo of her, as well as what she was working on, just to prove that she is still here!
She was stamping over previously created backgrounds using shaving foam, inks and stencils. As you can see, she was far more prolific than I was in the time it took me to make one card.
This week I will be round to visit (honest), although it will be tomorrow morning as I am at work today.
It seems so long since I joined in with the fortnightly tag challenge over on Tag Tuesday, but I couldn't resist the current challenge theme 'cats'.
A friend showed me a card that she had made from an idea seen in a magazine. I am sorry that I don't know who to thank for the original idea but I love this shaker card with a difference.
I am trying to keep up with the monthly challenges over on Tag It Tuesday, this is my offering for November. I managed to complete it before the end of the month for a change.
Rather than using a piece of ready made backing paper to create the Christmas tree, I decided to make one of my own.