Flowers #2 and Chris's birthday card

Happy New Year folks!  I can hardly believe it's 20 years since the hooha at the turn of the millennium!  I spent mine dosed with the cold but squeezed in a wee Baileys just for the sake of it and managed to stay up long enough to see the fireworks on TV.

Here's the remake of the birthday card I made recently with my new Clearly Besotted stamp and used watercolours this time.  Not a medium I'm overly happy with, give me watercolour pencils any day. Though it's all part of my 'be more adventurous' crafty resolution and to try new or different techniques.

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - something new
• Allsorts #553 - soft pastels
• Word Art Wednesday #420-421 - anything goes

I should know by now not to leave cards to the last minute.  My mojo tends to go AWOL and I'd no clue what to make for my brother-in-law.  I'd seen one like this on Pinterest a while ago using a big balloon die and thought I'd have a go at making my own, though I'm not sure if it actually looks like a balloon or not ... at least Greg didn't manage to guess what it was!  Maybe I should have had more of a curve on the edge?  Ah well, time's up, it will have to do.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - party time
• Cardz 4 Guys #235 - blue
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Floral birthday

I'm hoping my local craft shop has finally got their white cardstock in, I'm so not loving kraft card as my base!
This floral image was one of my recent purchases from Clearly Besotted.  I might get my watercolours out for the next attempt, I think they would work well with this one.   I might go over my leaves again, they're a wee bit pale looking here - though the days are so dark and my photos are rubbish so it's hard to tell really!

• Penny Black and More December - flowers
• Make My Monday #112 - female birthday
• As You Like It - favourite die - mine's definitely this set of square dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs  - I like how alternate sizes have a different edging

And a final outing for my favourite snowman - apologies I've probably overused him on my blog this season!  I've my Mum's calendar pages all made in advance this year, so thought I might make some for my own desk in work.  I'd a couple of wee snippets of white sparkly card that were just too small to go back into my stash and were destined for the bin, so used them up here for snowflakes.  I also added in some clear gloss dots + glitter for sparkly falling snow and I've inked in some snowdrifts but they're not really showing up in my pic.  Bye bye snowdude! 

• Pixie's Snippets Challenge #368  (Di has some AMAZING giveaways going if you join in with this callenge!)
• Crative Inspirations #December - festive fun
• Sparkles Forum Challenge #123 - glitter and sparkle

Here's to 2020!

Well that's Christmas done and dusted for another year.  We'd a great feast with the clan down in Mum's, and then back again today for round 2 of the turkey!  Elastic waistbands are definitely the way to go ;)

Anyway, as lots of you already know I usually make my Mum's calendar pages each month and 9 times out of 10 they're late!  So I got ahead of the game this year and made them all in advance as a wee Christmas gift.    I wrote out the little poem about the months of the year (in my awful scrawly writing) and stuck it to the bottom edge of each one.  I was going great guns but got a bit stuck on July (I'm not even sure what a gillyflower is!) and October was a bit iffy too as I only have 1 image of a nut in my stash and I couldn't think what to do with it.

• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes
• Moving along with the Times #113 - anything but a card
• Allsorts #551/2 - anything goes
• Stamping Sensations #December - anything goes

Greg's Christmas card

So here we are at Christmas Eve again, it certainly doesn't seem like 12 months since the last time!!
As per usual, the last card of the season is for my beloved, and of course I've used my favourite snowdude again.  I've inked up the background and added some falling snow - no sign of it here though, I think it's giving a mostly dry today tomorrow so it will be nice to see how many kids be out on their new bikes and scooters.  There's definitely less every year, they're all indoors playing on their new phones or computer games!

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all my blogland buddies!  We'll be off down to Mum's as usual with the clan.  Diet starts in the New Year ;)

• Your Next Stamp #129 - my favourite product this year is this snowman stamp
• Dream Valley Challenges #215 - Christmas
• Cupcake Inspriations #485 - holidays
• Tuesday Morning Sketches #535 - anything goes

Mum's birthday card

 Well the 25th is approaching at double quick time ... I still haven't finished my Christmas cards, Greg's always ends up being the last one I make.  Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow and then I only have a wee Christmas pressie to finish making and I'm done!   I escaped work on Friday and that's us till the 2nd, so it will be a nice long break that I'm more than ready for!

I bought this beautiful fuschia stamp from Clearly Besotted to use on Mum's birthday card as she has a few different fuschias growing in her garden in the summer and they are so pretty.  I LOVE how this turned out!

Coloured with polychromos with sparkle added to the purple petals and some clear, pink and purple bling to finish.

• The flower Challenge #39 - use a die
• Penny Black and More #December - flowers
• CASology #358 - branch
• Allsorts #551/2 - anything goes

O Christmas Tree

So here's a wee quickie Christmas card ... well, when I say quick it took me a few evenings to finish but I was making a rake of these little cards for my workmates and had a great production line going.

I've used this sweet tree from Purple Onion - coloured with polychromos; sparkle and clear gloss added to the bow, and clear gloss and glitter added to the tree decorations.  Little gold star added to the top of the tree.
My local craft store didn't have any white card (gasp! panic!) so I had to use some kraft as my base.

• Addicted to CAS #174 - tree
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - stars
• Your Next Stamp #129 - favourite craft product from 2019 - mine has to be my polychromos that Santa kindly brought last year
• CAS on Friday #170 - Christmas

Birthday Kitty

Typical, I've plenty of mojo and I've just done the unhead of .... I've run out of card!!! Emergency visit to the craft store tomorrow!

This card is another one for my Aunt's gift pack, I reckon this would be headed to her Great Nephew.  It wasn't the stamp I intended to use, but of course the one I had in mind is nowhere to be found.  So good old Penny Black to the rescue.  I've coloured my kitty with polychromos, adding sparkle to the balloon and the dots on his shorts, and glitter to the balloon ribbon.

• Penny Black Saturday December - anything goes, optional sparkle & shine
• AAA Birthday #8 - balloons 
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - stars
• Cute Card Thursday #611 - anything goes