Year in Review Blog Hop

Here we are at the end of 2022 and I am taking part in a year in review blog hop led by the wonderful Ellie. There are 11 bloggers taking part in the hop, plus a Linky for you to share your own favourites from 2022.

It would be wonderful if you could join us by writing a post highlighting the favourite cards or projects that you have made in 2022 and link that post to the Linky below or on Ellie's blog. I hope you will visit some of the other participants and join us in the Linky. 

I always make more cards than I share so I thought today I would share my favourites from that selection.

Here goes:

January

This succulent stamp set was a gift. Stamped on kraft and coloured with pencils.

February

Love the bold colours and silver highlights on this one

March

Love ink blending

April

For my grandson's 9th birthday, 9 little shaker windows

May

A little bit of colouring and embossing

June

A stencil with glass bead glossy transparent paste. Love the shine

July

A 3d embossing folder using green paper and coloured with pencils

August

You already know that I love turnabout stamps

September

This die was a prize from Allsorts challenge blog, inlaid and coloured

October

Love these sparkly fishes and the watery gel print background

November

A little hand painted khadi paper

December

A hand painted Christmas card for my daughter

Here is the hop list, do visit them if you can, and don't forget to link up your favourite/s. It can be one or many, but it must be your own work.

I have a small prize for a random winner drawn from comments left on this post between now and 5th January. I hope you will be able to join us.

Bonnie from Stamping in the Light

Brenda from Floral Fantasies

Debbie from Secrets to Stamping

Diane from Nellies Nest

Ellie from Ellibelle’s Corner

Helene from Mummylade

Hilary from Fiddling About - You are here

Joanne from My Slices of Life

Melissa from The Stamping Ninja

Rachel from Slow Down, Enjoy and Create

Sara from Sassy’s Cards and Gifts

Sue from Just Peachy Stamping

 Nearly forgot, here is a picture of my very festive Christmas cactus in full bloom

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Merry Christmas

Today I just want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and share some little tree decorations that I made as gifts for my family and friends.

These little decorations were inspired by Jennifer McGuire and are very easy to make using scraps and dies. They are little shakers, but that element doesn't show up too well on the photos.

My Christmas cactus was just coming into flower a couple of weeks ago when I was photographing them so I included it as a prop. The cactus is now in full flower and looking stunning. Sorry, I should have taken another photo of it, but things have been a bit busy recently.

You can see 5 in the photo but I ended up making two more as I used them for little presents to a couple of friends. I now have quite a large pile of round bits of card, which I must find a use for, as each decoration used 7 circle frames.

Wishing you a very happy holiday period. I will be back on December the 30th as I am taking part in a blog hop showcasing my favourite makes from 2022.

I am sharing this at:

Paper funday challenge 48 - Anything goes with optional twist Holiday Time

The holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge 130 - Anything Christmas goes

A Place to Start - Anything goes

Make My Monday #190 - Gifts stamped or created

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We Love Stamping December Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder for the current challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps and your skill at using them.

This month our theme is:

** I Love **

I am still loving turnabout stamps

I think this is my all time favourite stamp, I have used it so many times. You can see it here and here. In fact I have also used this basic design before here. Anyway, I hope you don't think that's cheating, I think I am just proving how much I love this stamp.

I do love the way this stamp creates a perfect circle and it is also quite easy to get it lined up. Some of my other turnabout stamps don't get used much because of the difficulty lining them up. The background stamps are the worst I find.

I mounted the panel on some grey craft foam and also popped the balloon numbers up on foam so that they show up a little bit.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize is a Gorjuss scrapbook kit and matching dies. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon on Wednesday the 28th December

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Nearly Christmas, I hope you all have a fabulous holiday

I am also sharing this at:

AAA Birthday #44 Embossing - My sentiment is heat embossed

Supplies:

Cardstock: Nina classic crest; Concord & 9th dove

Ink: Catherine Pooler wintergreen, ginger, apricot and sand castle

Stamps: Concord & 9th all season turnabout

Dies: Spellbinders hemstitch circles and rectangles; The Works balloon numbers

Other: Silver embossing powder; sequins

Simply Thanks

Today I have an embossed card to share. I used masking and ink blending followed by an application of perfect pearls to create this shiny panel before I embossed it.

The technique was showcased by Jennifer McGuire, but unfortunately I can't find the video to link it directly here.

It did go a bit wrong because I used so much perfect pearls powder that I completely covered the inking, which I think was blue! I decided it didn't matter as I really liked the bronze shine and so I went on to emboss my panel with this lovely paisley pattern. You have to love paisley. I found an old paisley stamp and decorated the insert and the envelop too.

The sun actually showed itself briefly as I was taking these pictures, so you can see the shine. Such a simple and yet effective technique.

Thanks to everyone that responded to my question about whether you listen to things while crafting. Several people said they were currently listening to Christmas music. That made me think about what my favourite Christmas song is and i am playing it as I write this. It is 2000 miles by The Pretenders. What's yours?

I am feeling good this evening as I have written all my Christmas cards and will put them in the post tomorrow morning when I am on my walk. It is going to be cold and frosty tomorrow though.

I am sharing this at:

Can you handle the pressure - with a twist of thanks

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We Love Stamping December Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps and your skill at using them.

This month our theme is:

**  I Love  **

I love so many things but today it is turnabout stamps

I have quite a collection of Concord & 9th turnabout stamps and a few weeks ago when we were just heading into autumn I got them out and made a bunch of cards. Look out for the others, I hope they will come soon.

I can't believe how easy this was to make and yet it looks stunning. I hope you like it too.

I finished it off with a few sequins.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize is a Gorjuss scrapbook kit and dies. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 28th December

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

The other day I learnt that I am lucky enough to live in the third happiest place in the UK, how anyone knows is beyond me, but I have always known that I am very lucky to live in a beautiful place in a beautiful county. I have lived in the county of Suffolk all my life and am the only member of my family to have stayed here. It seems that lots of people are now discovering what a wonderful place it is and it is becoming a popular holiday spot.

Yesterday, while I was busy trying to finish making my Christmas cards, I listened to the first of this years  Reith lectures. It was on freedom of speech and was a really interesting listen, so I thought I would share it. Every year there is a series of 4 lectures usually given by the same person, but this year it will be 4 different people who each take up one of the themes from Franklin D Roosevelt's four freedoms speech. The lecture was given by the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I often listen to podcasts while crafting and would be interested to learn about what others listen to. Do let me know if you have a favourite.

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; Hunky Dory adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Catherine Pooler apricot, ginger, terracotta and over coffee

Stamps: Concord & 9th Harvest Wreath turnabout stamp set

Dies: Stitched rectangles

Other: Sequins

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

November Card Chain Challenge Reveal

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 29 card makers took part and I sent my card to Kath in Devon UK. 

I thought I would try using the colour options this month, but I don't think I was very successful as my orange is really more like a red and my chocolate is actually black and my silver spray is pretending to be slate! It is just what happened when I started to make the card. Things have a tendency to change.

I also used the theme options of silhouettes and friendship and the product option of stencil.

I have recently invested in some re inkers for my Catherine Pooler mini ink pads and when they arrived I decided that I really need to find ways to use them for more than just inking my pads. I have discovered that you can make fantastic blended background with them. Here I put a few drops of ink on my glass mat and spritzed it with a bit of water, then I painted it onto my watercolour card panel to create a wash of colour. I used 2 colours and blended them, they dried to this gorgeous smooth blend.

I used a petal stencil to add interest to the background and cut my silhouette flower from black paper, which I then sprayed with cosmic shimmer.

I am quite pleased with the finished card. I hope Kath liked it too.

I am due to receive a card from Dee  in Kenya, but sadly it hasn't arrived yet, but never mind it will be extra special when it does show up.

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th to sign up here

Supplies:

Cardstock: 

Ink: Catherine Pooler re-inkers bellini and rockin red

Dies: Crafts Too (flower); Concord & 9th (sentiment); Lisa Horton (panel outline)

Stencils: Sweet Dixi petal burst

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Scarlet & Green

Today I have a hand painted Christmas card to share. I have been trying to practice watercolouring. I have been trying for a while!

Anyway the other day I painted this:

I am actually quite pleased with it even though the bauble isn't round!

I do have to admit that I was inspired by this card that I found on Pinterest.

I used some of my newly acquired Catherine Pooler re-inkers to paint it and found that they work really well. You can water them right down or keep the vibrancy of the rich colours.

I think I will keep practicing. I used a metallic gel pen to add the detail on the bauble and finished it off with some fine green splatters and a die cut greeting.

I am sharing it at:

Color Hues #53 - scarlet and green + a touch of bronze hope that's allowed.

Just Us girls #659 - red green and gold. My gold is really bronze, hope that is OK, please disregard or delete my entry if not.

Happy Little Stampers November Watercolour Challenge

Supplies:

cardstock: Daler Rowney watercolour paper; metallic card; white card base

Ink: Catherine Pooler re inkers rocking red, rouge, spruce, melon ice, garden party

Dies: Creative Expressions, merry and bright; Create a Smile stitched rectangle

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We Love Stamping November Reminder

Today is the 18th November  so time for a reminder for our current challenge over at we love stamping where the theme is:

** Christmas **

Can you tell that this is the same stamp I used for my first post this month? This time I stamped and gold heat embossed the smaller trees from the stamp set onto some coloured card. Then I inked the edges of the card with Distress ink festive berries (I think). I used a red fineliner pen to ink inside those lovely shapes on the trees, mounted it on a matt of the same coloured card and then mounted that onto a cream hammered card base.

The joy is a die cut which I embossed several times with the same powder. I think this stamp makes a lovely clean and simple card, what do you think?

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize the complete At Home with Santa range that will be split between 2 winners. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 30th November.

Here are a couple more cards using the same stamp:

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Adorable scorable, mattastic; Paperbox, hammer cream 260gsm

Ink: Distress ink, festive berries

Other: Wow embossing powder, gold pearl

Stamps:  Chocolate Baroque,  Christmas tree tangle

Dies: Nellie Snellen, double stitched rectangles; Sizzix thinlets, joy

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.