Bye Bye 2020: A Sympathy Card

 This seemed an appropriate card to finish 2020 with as it has been such a horrendous year for so many.  2021 appears more hopeful...  I was inspired to use a Clarity Club die and stamp from 2020 by Deborah Wheeler's series of cards.

WOYWW 604: Goodbye 2020

 Welcome to my contribution to the last WOYWW of 2020, a year most of us will no doubt be glad to see the back of.  Here's hoping that 2021 will eventually bring a little more normality back to everyone's lives. 

My desk this week shows the start of my second sketchbook that I use for my daily drawings.  I have decided to keep this up into the new year and have now started following the #inktober2019 prompts that I didn't even start at the time.  I have swapped to the new prompts with the new sketchbook.  You can also see some of the crafty goodies that I spent my Amazon voucher on (thanks boys).  We spent a few hours on Christmas Day itself at the two elder boys' house. They both work from home, so it felt a safe enough thing to do.  Lunch was a joint effort and dessert, cheese and biscuits had to wait until early evening as we were all stuffed.  We were home again by 8.30pm.  Since then we have had two days of snow so glad to be staying in.

These are the last of the drawcember2020 drawings.

and here are the first of my inktober2019 drawings.  Not sure where I will look for prompts when these are finished, but I am sure I can explore pre 2018 prompts as that was the first time I participated.  If you are interested in joining a friendly bunch of crafters, led by Julia, please pop over to Stamping Ground, where plenty of links can be found.  Happy WOYWW and happy New Year.  Stay safe everyone.

Dee's Friends: Ideas and Inspiration

 I thought I'd gather together some ideas for using the Dee's Friends stamps (old and new).  Links to all step by steps below each photo.

Glitter Deer Card

I used a square die to create two rectangle shapes as they work better on this card.

Deer Panel Card

With a change of sentiment this could easily be turned into a card for a different occasion.

Colourful Tiled Trees with Triple Embossing

I combined one of the stamps from the Winter Landscape Scenes stamp set with a favourite stencil of mine to create this colourful Christmas card.

Stamp the tree negative from the Winter Landscape scenes onto Clarity stencil card using Twisted Citron, Shaded Lilac and Salty Ocean Distress Oxides. Heat emboss with clear embossing powder. Repeat.

Restamp with Versamark ink and heat emboss in the same way. Heat from below as before. Repeat for a smoother finish.

Die cut the image using the 2.5” x 3.5” nested rectangle die and cut a mat from black card using the 2.75” x 3.75” nested rectangle picot die. Mat the two together.

Lay the birch trees stencil over a piece of Clarity stencil card. Blend Twisted Citron, Shaded Lilac and Salty Ocean Distress inks through the stencil using stencil brushes.

Trim the image to 6.25” x 4.25” and mat onto black card leaving a narrow border.

Trim a 7” x 7” white card blank to 5” x 7”. Add the background to the front of the card.

Add the tree topper to the card.

Cut a 2cm strip off the remaining stencil image. Add one of Barbara’s Christmas sentiments in Onyx Black Versafine ink. Mat onto black card leaving a narrow border top and bottom.

To finish, add the sentiment to the card and trim the ends.

Clean and Simple Snowflake Christmas Card

Merry Christmas to all my bloggy friends and followers.  I kept it clean and simple with this snowflake card using one of the stamps from the Winter Landscape Scenes from Clarity.

A Card for My Husband's 65th Birthday

I made this card for my husband for his special birthday today. 

WOYWW 603: Happy Holidays

A brief contribution to the last WOYWW before Christmas courtesy of Julia at Stamping Ground.  I am sure you are all busy getting ready for Christmas even if it will be a much smaller, shorter celebration than usual.

Doodleology Stamps and Stencils: Ideas and Inspiration

 I love how these stamps and stencils from Clarity designed by Cherry Green work on all sizes of projects, whether used in their entirety or small sections only.  All step by steps are linked in uder the photos.

Safe Happy and Creative: A Mandala Tag

I finally got round to the December prompts over on Tag It Tuesday.  The prompts this month were 1) Glue down string or twine, 2) Add a mandala image, 3) Use cheese cloth or gauze and 4) Blue.  I was inspired by a tag by Nozomi Mochizuki. She used all four prompts, but I only used two.

Particle, Chain Link and Rings Mixed Media Stamps and Stencils: Ideas and Inspiration

 Having had a look back at some of my projects from last year, I thought I'd bring together some of the projects I created with the second lot of Mixed Media stamps and stencils from Clarity.  They are also available as dies.

Funky Foliage Stencils: Ideas and Inspiration

 I thought I'd share some ideas and inspiration for some cards and a tag made with the Funky Foliage stencils from Clarity. I had lots of fun playing with different techniques.  Links to the individual step by steps are below each photo.

Muliti Layered Thank You Card

 Things have been very challenging in 2020 for head teachers and it's been no exception for ours.  We wanted to say thank you for all the support given to us this year.  This is the card I made for everyone to sign.

Monochrome Funky House Frame for a Poetry Verse

Once again I used the Funky houses stamp set to create a frame for one of the poetry verses.  This time in monochrome.

WOYWW 602: Holidays Approach

 Welcome to the weekly Wednesday link up with Julia at Stamping Ground and the gals and guys at WOYWW.

A huge thank you to (from top left clockwise) Jan (LLJ), Jane, Shaz (silverwolf) and Margaret (Glitter and Glue) for the lovely hand made cards that I have received.  This is where I confess that I have made very few Christmas cards this year, apart from samples, and haven't posted any yet.  Sorry folks but the holidays seem to have snuck up on me while I wasn't paying attention.

My desk is all ready this morning to complete my latest daily December drawing.  The prompt is Reindeer so I may be a while lol. Here are the previous 7.

Off to work shortly for the last Wednesday of 2020 and really looking forward to two weeks off.  I'll be round to visit in the morning.  Stay safe and happy WOYWW.

Make A Wish: SHAC Doodle Blackberries on Kraft

I created an aperture in the front of a kraft card to frame this wishing well scene.

Bright Bubbles Butterfly Birthday Card

I decided to use the butterflies and one of the dragonflies from the SHAC Doodle Blackberry set with a stencil to create this bright birthday card.

Barbara's About Town Village with Poetry Background

I decided to use one of the poetry verse stamps in a different way, as a background for the About Town image.

Multi Panelled Card with Hare

I found this design a great way to use those offcuts of Clarity designer card that I can never bear to throw away.

Blank Focal Point against a Colourful Background

I decided to reverse my usual method of stamping by leaving the focal images blank, masking them off and creating a colourful background instead.

If I had a SIngle Flower: Poetry Verse Card

The new poetry verse stamps from Clarity work with so many other stamp sets.  Here I matched the verse with one of the Mixed Impressions Texture sets.

WOYWW 601: The Post Crop Flop

So here is my desk today as I get ready to do my daily December drawing as part of #drawcember2020.  Joining in again with the weekly blog hop and desk share at Stamping Ground.

It was so good to catch up with so many deskers at the two virtual crops on Saturday.  Also good to put more faces to names of people I consider friends.  Thank you Julia for organising these events.  About the only crafting I managed during the crops was my daily drawing, too busy listening, chatting and catching up otherwise - just like an actual WOYWW crop.

Neither crop fitted onto one screen.

And the evening get together was even larger.

With deskers joining in from the USA and Canada.

I thought I'd show you my December drawings so far. 

I'll be round to visit tomorrow morning as I have a meeting after school this evening.  Stay safe and Happy WOYWW everyone.