Hubby's Birthday Card

I can't believe this is my last post of 2013. Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog this year, I hope you've enjoyed it.

I wonder what new Clarity stamps and things I will be blogging about next year?

As I mentioned in my last post, I really enjoy Barbara Gray's lessons. As well as watching the ones on TV I also have all of her DVDs.

When I saw this project on the new one I knew it would be perfect for my diving mad hubby.

I was so pleased with how it turned out. I did have a bit of a problem colouring the fish though as I only had a couple of Distress Markers but I've since bought some more. The next ones will be more colourful!

Well, I guess that's it for 2013. I hope you'll join me on New Year's Day when I'll be sharing my next project for the Claritystamp Challenge Blog.

DVD Used

Artful Crafting With Barbara Gray - Part 1

Lynne

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Family Christmas Cards

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, we did. After all that work, it's over so quickly though but before I move on to other things I have three final Christmas cards to share with you.

I love designing my own cards but I also love doing the In The Classroom with Barbara Gray lessons. It's nice just to have the fun of making something without having to think about the design.

When I saw Barbara make this card with the Lesson 20 Jigsaw Set I thought it would be perfect for our parents' cards. 

If you would like to have a go Barbara has a picture tutorial here on her blog. It's a fun one to make. I personalised mine by adding the text.

Mum also loves her crafting and this is the card she made for us. 

Maya wasn't forgotten. She got one too.

My Card - Stamps and Stencils Used 

Winter Wonderland Set - Lesson 14

Jigsaw Kit - Lesson 20

Letter Box Set 

Letterbox Sentiments

Christmas Stencil Set

Lynne

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Merry Christmas

Well, it's nearly here. There's only one more sleep until Christmas Day. I hope you've got everything done; I just have presents to wrap and mince pies to eat.

I've been saving this ATC for today's post so that I can wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

The snowman is made with white Angelina Fibres and his scarf and hat are coloured with ProMarkers. The snow is Shabby White Frantage Embossing Powder.

See you all after Christmas.

Lynne

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Penguins and Lily-May's First Christmas Card

I do love penguins!

I had a toy one as a kid and he went everywhere with me.

Now, as an adult, I can't resist a cute penguin stamp. Last year it was the Hobby Art Christmas Penguins and this year I just had to have Archie & Pals (also by Hobby Art).

I used it with the Claritystamp Letter Box stamps to make this card for my great-niece. I hope she will like them too.

A while ago I shamefully admitted that I'd bought a couple of cards but they were so cute I couldn't resist them. I have a M&S calendar in my craft room that has the most adorable little felted creatures on and I spotted that they had Christmas cards in the same design. One of them was perfect for my hubby...........

......but it had this on it.

That's nothing a crafter can't fix though and I soon had it looking like this.

Before I go I thought I'd share this too. I had a go at recreating the first photo yesterday (getting on for 40 years later). We haven't aged a bit!  

Lynne

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My 2013 Christmas Card - Maya The Chocolate Nosed Reindeer

Here it is..........

..........my 2013 Christmas card starring Maya. It may not be a stamping masterpiece but they were all made with love.

I took the photo way back in January when we had snow. I'd struggled to get last year's cards done and I thought it would a handy back-up plan in case the same thing happened again. I was right, it was! 

We've taken so many photos like this that we now have it down to a fine art - Hubby holds the treat and I snap away, quickly! These antlers are quite good though as they are actually for dogs and have an elasticated band to keep them on. They were bought in the Accessorize sale. I bought a little elf hat style one in Strikes Garden Centre for this year so maybe I should get some photos taken ready for next year's card!

I printed a load of the photos out and matted them onto brown card to match Maya. I then went through my scrapbook papers picking out all of the Christmassy red and green ones to give the background some variation. Then it was just a case of sticking them all together and stamping the greeting. So I suppose there was some stamping involved........

I hope they made people smile.

Lynne

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Christmas Postage Stamp Cards

If you read my blog regularly you probably know that I was struggling to find the time and enthusiasm to make my personal Christmas cards. I had the best of intentions but other things kept getting in the way.

In the end I thought that I'd create a few variations of one card and set up my own little production line.

The basic idea was to have the Winterland stamp, that I spoke about in my previous post, as the background, with different stamps (deer, snowman, dog etc.) in the foreground. This was the first one that I made using the Kids and Sledge stamp.

I then made this one for my sister-in-law as she loves her horses.

Then I realised that they weren't quite as quick and simple as I thought (even getting the postage stamp straight and central had a big potential of going wrong) and they were abandoned.

Next time I'll show you what took their place. It involves Maya, as most things do! 

Forgive me crafters, but I may have bought a couple as well.

Stamps Used

Kids and Sledge

Large Winterland

Horse from Remountable Farm Set

XL Postage Stamp

Round Christmas greeting is by Lili of the Valley

Lynne

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Christmas Winterland Bunnies

Things are finally coming along nicely here crafty-wise. My Christmas cards have all been handed out or posted, I've made my first two samples for January's Clarity shows, my next project for the Claritystamp Challenge Blog and I'm about to share with you my final card from December's shows.

It features the Large Winterland stamp and the cute little bunnies (love them!). The Winterland stamp is such useful stamp to have. It makes a beautiful, instant background that you can change the look of depending on what you put in front of it.

It's a really simple one to make - I stamped the scene and "Happy Christmas", then masked them off with Post-its so that I could stencil over them. The Clarity stencil brushes are perfect for this.

Some Glamour Dust on the roofs and trees finish it off.

If you like the Winterland stamp make sure you come back on Wednesday as my next post will be about my personal Christmas cards and feature it. More about that then though.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Large Winterland

Remountable Letterbox Sentiments

Snowflake Corner

Bunny 2

Bunny 5

Christmas Stencil Set

Lynne

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