A Few of My Favourite things of 2014

Hello there, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things after my huge holiday - 39 days away! So although I don't have anything new to share, I thought I would play along with my friend Lyndal and share some of my favourite creations of 2014.

In 2014 I continued my love of all things butterflies ...

and then I began a love affair with birds - especially Dina Wakely birds ...

and where there are butterflies and birds, there are usually flowers ...

I had a late start to creating Christmas cards last year, but became very inspired during and after a fun weekend with Lyndal, Cecilia an Chupa. Most of my Christmas Cards were non-traditional this year, which made it even more fun!

Throughout the year I learnt many new techniques and played with some new toys, including my Geliplate, stencils and Silhouette. I rediscovered vellum and experimented with some new and old media, including texture paste, gesso, Gelatos, perfect pearls, water colour paints, acrylic paints, distress paints, distress inks, Twinkling H2Os, Pan Pastels, Copic Markers and metal shims to name a few. I have enjoyed getting to know some other papercrafters better and have even been to 2 retreats and got to create with these new friends. 

Looking at these collages, I can see one main common denominator throughout most of my cards and that is colour! Colour makes me so happy! 

Here is one last collage to give you a glimpse of what I have been up to over the holidays.

Playing with Brushos!

I'm back! So sorry to have been MIA for so long! I've been travelling for 51/2 weeks and then recovering - more on that later.

I have completely lost my mojo - I  feel nervous about stamping and I decided the best solution was to use my new Brushos and get inky.  Bare in mind that this is my very first effort, so I hope I will get some better results in the future - I can see lots of potential!

I will enter this in the Craft Stamper Make it, Take it challenge (by the skin of my teeth!), which is all about stamping. 
ETA: I'm also entering this in the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - the theme is *NEW* to you - and Brushos are my *new* thing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hello there! How are we all feeling! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and brilliant celebration to see the New Year in.

And guess what, because it's the first day of the month, as well as the year, there's a new challenge up at the Mixed Media Card Challenge. 

I am actually in Scotland at the moment  having a double celebration for my Mother in Laws' 80th 
Birthday and Hogmanay (I wrote this post in advance)! I'll let you know more about my trip later.

Anyway the theme of the challenge is *NEW* with the option to use *tissue* on your project. I haven't managed to include the tissue, although a tissue was used in the making of this card!

As you can see by the inspiration photo, I have gone with a very literal translation this month!
I could have used masking fluid, but I'm nearly out, so I used a emboss it pen and clear embossed, before sponging my card with distress inks. I then stencilled the cityscape, sponged some more and then spritzed with water. When it was dry, I used an iron to take the embossing off the card. The chipboard numbers are from American Craft and have been coloured black with a Faber Castell Big Brush marker and the sentiment is from Altenew.

Don't forget to pop over to the Mixed Media Card Challenge to see what the rest of the design team have created.