Looking back and forward

New Year's Eve and a time to reflect on the year and to look forward to 2020. This year has seen some changes for me which will continue into next year. Less craft fairs, less magazine commissions and more time to make what I want to make. I started cardmaking classes and they have been very popular so will be continuing with those in 2020. I rediscovered my love of cross stitching and discovered perforated paper allowing me to combine small cross stitched images with papercrafting to make cards. I also plan to make more cross stitch pictures to sell.

I have had my best year to date selling at Prima Rose, the local vintage tearooms/gift shop. In fact I have been the second biggest seller this year, the owner being the first. Some things like the tooth fairy pillows which I started making at her request have been very successful. One lady bought 5 just before Christmas!

There is a distinct change in social media this year. Many of my blogging friends have either given up blogging or blog but no longer visit or comment. I appreciate how much time it takes to comment and would like to thank everyone who takes time to visit my blog especially those who leave comments. I visit as often as I can but could do more so will try harder to find more time for that next year. Other platforms have taken over for some people ie Facebook and Instagram. I always put all my makes on Facebook in various appropriate groups and Pinterest but I don't do Instagram. I just don't have time for another platform and some of my blogging friends don't do Facebook so I need and want to keep on blogging.

Another change this year has been that I no longer feel the need to blog every day but blog whenever I have something new to share. I still love to craft but with doing less craft fairs I spend a bit less time in the craft room. I have so many other hobbies, including my new hobby of line dancing classes which we started this year, and like to have time for them all. One of the things I like about sewing is that I can sew whilst watching some TV programmes unless they demand my full attention.

I started the year well with scrapbooking but haven't done any for ages so I need to start doing more of that again as I have lots of photos to make layouts for. I also plan to keep making Christmas cards all year as I love to send people cards I have taken time over. I have no interest in making quick cards at the end of the year or batch making for speed. I also need to use more of my older stamps.

I look forward to another year designing for Lili of the Valley and my new adventure designing for Trimcraft. Who knows where else my crafting journey will take me.

Happy New Year and keep on blogging x.

My first So Suzy card

I made this card for a friend whose Birthday was a couple of days ago. It is always a challenge making her a card as she doesn't like cute. I bought this So Suzy stamp from a friend and stamped it in white. The paper is one of the new vintage lace ones from Crafter's Companion. Roses from Wild Orchid, sentiment is LOTV, butterfly from Poundland and lace from stash.

Fairy and flowers

I can now share this with you as it was one of my Mum's Christmas presents. The light reflected on the glass no matter how I tried taking the picture. I used a Go Create frilly  #10 large die to cute the mount. The frame is from Hobbycraft.

I really enjoyed sewing her and kept very much to the colours of the pattern just changing the rose from red to purple to fit in better with my Mum's colour scheme.

You will find lots of fairy patterns to sew on the LOTV website. This one is actually July fairy as the August fairy (Mum's Birthday was a fairy in a swimming costume which wasn't really appropriate).

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve Angel

I love Christmas Eve, it is one of my favourite parts of Christmas. After doing some housework this morning it will be time to relax, enjoy a glass of wine and a nice meal at home this evening.

Another stamp which hasn't been out before this year, this time from LOTV, now available as a digi. I coloured her with Copics and used a light blue sparkle pen on her wings.  I used the cross stitch circle die again. The paper is Wild Rose, poinsettias and foliage are Sue Wilson dies and I also used a snowflake doily die.

Enjoy your Christmas Eve, whatever you have planned. My Mum is coming over for the day tomorrow so we shall be enjoying a lovely roast turkey dinner at lunchtime. Will wait to see what the weather is like on Boxing Day but hopefully will get out for a walk somewhere.

Three snowmen

I volunteered to make a card for our line dancing class to give to the teacher and as she recently bought one of my PB Snowy cards I decided to use this cute PB stamp which I haven't used this year so far. I coloured them with Copics adding some glittery lines with glitter pens. I used some old LOTV papers, Sizzix snowflakes, Woodware holly punch, X Cut ivy punch, some berries and glittery poinsettias from Hobbycraft.  I used a Wink of Stella white glitter pen on the holly leaves. She loved the card, as did the class.

So last shop this morning for some fresh food and then some housework tomorrow.

Robin, holly and poinsettias

I am so glad I discovered perforated paper as it has given me a chance to combine cross stitch with card making. I used a free pattern from Durene Jones Facebook page, fussy cut the image and attached using strong glue. The papers are First Edition Perfect Christmas. I used a cross stitch circle die and some ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. The poinsettias are from Hobbycraft and I used a Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen on them.  I made this for our line dancing teacher as I knew she would appreciate it as she is also a crafter but she sews mainly bags.

Our new sofa is arriving this afternoon which is exciting. So pleased it will be here for Christmas. We should be going to a little party at Prima Rosa this afternoon (the tesahop/gift shop where I sell some things) but it depends on the time of the sofa delivery. 

I hope you are all organised. I like to leave the present wrapping until near Christmas so that is the plan for tomorrow.  We have bought most of the food and drink, just mainly fresh items to get on Monday.

Time for Tea Reindeer

One of the ladies at my line dancing class asked me if I would make a card for her to give to her Daughter. I do like this kind of order as when asked what she wanted she said I don't mind what as I know it will be lovely. I bought a set of reindeer from Time for Tea. I think they are so cute and decided to create a scene for her card.

I coloured them with Copics and diecut white glitter card using the MFT forest border die, one of my most used Christmas dies. The sentiment is LOTV and I used two sets of dies with green glitter card for the trees.  As a change from snowflake dies I had a rummage through some Christmas embellishments and found these gorgeous cabuchons I bought at the Peterborough show.

We are having a very social week as yesterday we went out for a meal with friends and then went to the theatre to see A Circus Carol which is the story of a Christmas Carol but with acrobatics etc. Today we are going to a line dancing party as our teacher has a Thursday Morning absolute beginners class and we, the Beginners class (soon to be Improvers) and the Improvers class are all joining together. So this morning we shall be line dancing, some to Christmas music, and then enjoying a buffet at lunchtime.

Merry Christmas Graham

Finally back with a card, this one is my hubby's card.  I think I have only used this gorgeous stamp, Christmas song, once before, so I decided to use it for his card as he likes the LOTV cute images. I coloured them with Copics adding fun flock to her hat and diecutting it with an old Spellbinders Labels 10 die. The paper was a freebie with a mag which was sent to me as I featured in it as designer for the day. It was just the colour I wanted. I diecut the trees using Marianne and Doohickey dies and some glittery striped card.

The stickers were an absolute nightmare to attach. They were supposed to be self adhesive. I bought them in America and thought they suited the card and colours so well. I tried pva glue as that usually works on adding a little adhesive to self adhesive stickers. Then I wiped them dry once I saw that wouldn't work and tried ds tape. That partly worked. I ended up using 3d collal glue which I use for things like flowers and buttons. Even that wasn't working that well until I laid heavy punches on top of the stickers to let the glue set.

I wrote a poem inside as I often do and we exchanged cards last night and he loved it.

Exciting news

I decided it was time for something new as I have made changes to my crafting by doing less craft fairs, only belonging to the one DT, which is LOTV, and doing very little magazine work. When I saw a post on Facebook inviting applications to join the Design Team at Trimcraft I applied. I had previously thought of applying a couple of years ago but it was quite a commitment at the time and too much for me. This time they have expanded the team and their range of products and part of the application was to say what type of projects you are interested in making. They will then choose who to send new products to based on this information and if anyone chosen is too busy at the time then that isn’t a problem.

They had over 100 applicants and I was so surprised to be one of the lucky ones chosen. So I look forward to working with some of Trimcraft’s new products next year.

Festive weekend away

We have had a brilliant weekend away at Potters Resort. We arrived on Friday and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. I had a manicure in the beauty salon then we gout ourselves ready for the evening meal and the show, Broadway and Beyond which is a celebration of many musicals. These shows are as good as a West End production. 

On Saturday we did two quizzes and then joined in a charity game. This was so much fun as the host is hilarious and it raised over £200 for charity. Amazingly we won! Then in the afternoon we joined in a line dancing class, played another game and then back to our hotel room to relax before getting ready for the evening for a lovely meal and the the Christmas show, panto and countdown. Another great night.

More fun this morning, then lunch and heading home. I will be back on here tomorrow with some exciting news.

I’m still here

I am still busy crafting but don’t have anything I can share with you at the moment. I haven’t had much time for cardmaking but have been busy sewing whilst watching TV in the evenings. I had a sudden order for a glasses case so that has been made. I am busy cross stitching something to make into my last Christmas card. I had a lovely afternoon in the craftroom making a commissioned card and Graham’s card. I will be sharing those next week.

Lots of odds and ends to do today and of course we will be voting. I am sure I will be checking my phone during the night when I wake up to see any results. 

Cocktail anyone?

I was asked by a friend to make 1 60th Birthday card. Knowing the lady in question I thought this image was perfect. She is from Pink Gem coloured with Copics. The paper is from a gorgeous new pack from Crafter's Companion, vintage lace. I used a MFT woky stitched rectangle, Creative Expressions sweethearts flowers, Joy flowers and leaves dies.  The glittery 60 I found in my scrapbook stash of alphabets and numbers.  Her Birthday was on Saturday so I can share the card with you now. 

Snowman bag

A friend asked me for three of these bags to give as presents with 2 jars of her homemade marmalade and chutney. I had 2 made so quickly made a third using a coloured simply print from LOTV. I used various snowflakes dies and my Hobbycraft tag die. The bags are quite sturdy and come in packs of 5 from Hobbycraft. I recently found some in there with coloured stars on each side too so bought some of those.

My last craft fair of the year today, just a small local one for 2 hours from 10-12 which will do nicely.

Snowy again

This is my last card for Crafts Beautiful this year.  

Image - Penny Black Snowy

Medium - Copics

Paper - First Edition Jolly Holidays

Dies - Marianne dune fence, Joy Christmas trees, Frantic Stamper tall pine trees

Sentiment - LOTV

Cross stitch and papercraft

There is a lady on Facebook called Durene Jones and every Friday she has a free cross stitch chart. I have a few of these and thought it would be fun to sew this reindeer on perforated paper and use it on my Mum's Christmas card. I gave it to her yesterday so can share it on here now as she looks at my blog every morning.  I am really happy with how it turned out.

I used some embossed card cut into hills and used glitter card for the diecut tree and layered snowflakes which are from MFT.  I kept the design quite simple with not too much colour to show off the reindeer. If you saw my cross stitch snowflake the other day then you will have noticed that was sewn on perforated paper. The trickiest part is the fussy cutting.

I am definitely going to try a few more cards like this next year, I have several cross stitch magazines so will be looking through them for more patterns.

Birdhouses

I have been working on several things I can't share yet but this is a quick card I made using lovely Mintay papes. All the main elements are from the paper pack, I simply added a wooden bird from Hobbycraft and some roses from Wild Orchid.

Graham kindly shared his cold with me so yesterday I was feeling rather poorly. Hopefully it won;t linger. There have been some horrible viruses but this seems to be just a common cold. Graham went to line dancing and Tesco on his own yesterday as I thought I should spend the day indoors. I wouldn't have had the energy for line dancing. 

Trying something new

One of my crafting friends has set up an Etsy store, Catkin and Lillie, selling cross stitch designs. As a newsletter subscriber I received a free pattern for a layered snowflake. It is stitched on 14 count perforated paper which I have never heard of before. It is really lovely to stitch on and I shall be using it for more projects. 

The trickiest part is cutting round the stitching but thankfully I have a pair of small scissors. It is one of the things you have to do a little at a time and taking your time. I layered each layer onto white felt and then of course had to cut round that. I used small foam pads to layer up my snowflake, stitched some thread through the top and it is ready for my tree. I will be buying the rest of the designs and making some to sell next year.

We are going out to the coast for Sunday lunch today as it is quite a while since we did that. Enjoy your day.