WOYWW 865/85: Happy New Year

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?), the brainchild of Julia, who kindly entrusted it to me to continue after the first 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch.  Welcome to the last edition for 2025.

My inside desk shows some reminders of 2025, a programme from a musical I saw, some souvenirs from Disneyland Paris (the skull belongs to #3 son to aid with his digital sculpting), my laptop, a beautiful parchment angel from Eva and, on the wall, a pottery plaque celebrating 100 years of Stoke on Trent made by Alex Allday whose workshops Eva and I have attended this year.

The desk in the shed shows the ATC backgrounds I have prepared for January's #dailyatc2026.  This will be my daily challenge starting tomorrow.

The prompt was actually lighthouse but that was a repeat so I changed it.

I thought of my Dad's favourite Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Shades of revisiting primary school as an adult.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas with family and friends.  The youngsters did a great job of cooking Christmas dinner while my sisters and I did the clearing and washing up.  Mum had a lovely birthday with a full family get together later for a meal at a local pub.  Family breakfast on Christmas Eve at Trentham in memory of Paul was also good.

It only remains to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Creative New Year and hope that 2026 is better for everyone.  Sending special hugs to Neet.

Groovi January Calendar Page

Even though the Clarity 2026 parchment calendar blank comes with sheets of parchment, I decided to work on a piece of Rainbow River designer parchment.

Inky January Calendar Page

I have two calendar blanks for 2026 - an inky one and a parchment one, as well as a journal - all from Clarity Crafts.  For my first January page, I worked in the inky journal.

Happy Birthday Mum

 My Mum is a small lady with a big heart so I thought this would be an appropriate birthday card for her.

Mum's Gift Tag

 The mid month challenge for December over on Clarity Crafts Mini Makes and ATCs is to make a tag that can be put on a gift for your best friend. It can be any theme but should have a small amount of silver on it.  It is my Mum's birthday today, so I made a tag for her gift.

Coaster Gifts

 I decided to make a coaster for each of my sisters' Pauls for Christmas as an extra gift, and used the Pergamano coaster blanks for them.  Yes all three of us have / had Pauls in our lives!!

Favourite Festive Projects - Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is just about ready for today.  I thought I would share some of my favourite festive makes today.  As usual, links to the projects are below each photo.

 For Christmas jumper day! (see HERE).

A favourite winter art journal page (see HERE).

A winter wonderland (see HERE).

A festive tag (see HERE).

A scene within a stencilled frame (see HERE).

A quick and easy card (see HERE).

Festive die cut card (see HERE).

A row of rainbow reindeer (see HERE).

A split card scene (see HERE).

For a secret Santa? (see HERE).

A seasonal card (see HERE).

A vintage look (see HERE).

Traditional images (see HERE).

Less traditional (see HERE).

A tag for today (see HERE).

And finally, an art journal page (Flanders and Swann for Dad). See HERE.

Wishing all my blog readers and supporters a very Merry Christmas.

WOYWW 864/84: Merry Christmas to All

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?), the brainchild of Julia, who kindly entrusted it to me to continue after the first 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch.  Welcome to the Christmas edition for 2025.

As promised, my desk shows a Christmas card for you all in lieu of posting any.  I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and hope that you all enjoy a restful time as far as possible.  Thinking of Neet especially and all those struggling with illness / difficulties.

I admit to cheating a little and finishing the advent puzzle a day early so that I could share it with you today.

I thought I would give LLJ and Twiglet a good laugh with this last drawing.

Off to meet up with my boys and my brother- and sister-in-law at Trentham.  Today would have been Paul's 70th birthday.  Later, I will wrap presents (always my Christmas Eve tradition) ready for seeing the family over a Mum's tomorrow.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy WOYWW.  Can you believe that next week will be our last meet up for 2025?

Elephant Family Mini Make - Never Forget

It would have been my late husband's 70th birthday tomorrow and I wanted to create something to remember the occasion.  I adore the Family of Elephants stamps from Clarity Crafts and decided to combine them with a small alcohol ink / gel press background from a recent workshop with Barbara Gray.

Alcohol Gel Print Panel Card

 I am still using up the multitude of backgrounds made in the Alcohol ink / gel press workshop with Barbara Gray.  Here I used an offcut of a larger background to create a panel card.

Batch Making Mini Christmas Cards

 I had some die cuts left over from my Make and Take at the Anglo German Club (see HERE), so decided to batch make some mini Christmas cards on 4" x 4" white card blanks.

Art Nouveau: Ideas and Inspiration

I thought I would showcase some of my Art Nouveau projects using the stencils and both the full size and Bijou stamps from Clarity Crafts.  As always, the links to the projects are below each photo.

Bijou on designer card (see HERE).

Gift Tag Batch Making

 I needed some tags for Christmas presents and decided to batch make a set using some of the Landscapes by Barbara tags as a starting point.

Winter Cottages

I kept things simple with the last Clarity New Design Stencil Club offering of 2025, although I loved both projects that accompanied it.  As the larger infill elements came with it, I was able to use them to mask and add different colours through the apertures.

WOYWW 863/83: Manic Time

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?), the brainchild of Julia, who kindly entrusted it to me to continue after the first 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch. Many apologies for not leaving messages last week - I managed a quick round of visits, but between rehearsals, sample making, family time and yesterday's concert I didn't manage to leave messages.

I have got as far as finding a couple of empty boxes for my new stamps but that is as far as things have gone.

My advent jigsaw has sometimes been completed very late - this is as far as I have got.

I have only kept up with my #dailyart2025 by being ruthless about a maximum of 15 minutes - and mostly 5-10.

The concert went well yesterday afternoon - I took Mum along having been over to take her out for breakfast first.  This afternoon I am having my hair cut then going into school to drop off a tub of chocolates and a card for everyone.  I am determined to do visits this week - even if it means leaving a generic comment.  Stay safe and Happy WOYWW - Here's wishing Neet a speedy recovery and home by Christmas!