Review of the Year

As 2009 draws to a close, it's time to look back to see what this year has meant to me. What did I learn? What new techniques did I try? What did I enjoy making?


SCRAPBOOKING
I have continued with scrapbooking, using photographs to create memory pages of special days &/or favourite images. My favourite page uses photographs taken in March on a lovely sunny morning by the coast.

Something Blue

DIGITAL COLLAGES
This year has mainly been a digital one. No inks, no paper, no mess to tidy up!
Self-taught, I have learnt how to create png images, how to manipulate & layer images, learnt how to adapt my own photographs to create digital stamps & so much more. I love most of the pieces I made. As always there are some I am not so happy with, but they were all part of the learning process.

My favourites are:-

Joys of Spring

Memories

On Parade

Fish Got to Swim

I have also taken part in the Collage Play with Crowabout group challenges this year. I have enjoyed the challenge of bringing all the elements provided by Nancy Baumiller into a cohesive collage. For more information, please click here.

My favourite Crowabout collages are:-

Acting Up

A Fairytale Ending

GREETING CARDS
I struggled with cards this year, but I have four favourites. Loved for various reasons.

A Birthday card because it used my own photograph of daisies.

A card for my parent's Wedding Anniversary, because it took time & patience to make. Using decoupage & mixed media for a lovely textural card.

A Father's Day card taken from a digital collage, because it used old family treasures; photographs, postcards &
a fob watch inherited from my Great-Grandfather.

A Christmas card because it took inspiration a long time to arrive!
And I got very inky making it.

ARTIST TRADING CARDS
I've not made many ATCs this year. My favourites have to be Pumpkin & Aubergine enjoying Halloween. I enjoy decoupage; developing my own decoupage layers, the quiet time needed to cut out all the elements & ink the edges & finally, the dimensionality it gives to the finished card.


INCHIES & MOOS
I always enjoy making Inchies & Moos, because of their small size. I love my inchie alphabet set.


Sadly the Make a Moo challenge blog is on an extended break (I'm still optimistic that they will restart!). My favourite Moo is Looking Back, the Sarah Kay one. A very cute image & it was a labour of love to cut out all those small pieces.


ALTERED ART PROJECTS
My favourite altered art project has been the Christmas mandala, which was only made this month. I enjoyed adapting an old idea into a new project.


I think I will be making more of these throughout 2010 & I already have a stash of old cd's to use.

AND FINALLY
What will 2010 bring?

I have some blank canvases to play with & cds to alter. I am sure there will be more digital work, as it has brought me so much pleasure this year. And I must remember to make more inchies.

Art Creations Friday

The challenge for the next two weeks on Art Creations Friday is to go back over past images & backgrounds they have provided & create something using images we may have missed.

I chose the background from week 46 together with the image from week 12.



I added a butterfly image from Crafty Computer Paper, sheet music from Craft Stamper & a FREE texture from NinianLif

Christmas Greetings

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas
&
a Happy New Year

Using a photograph I took earlier this week, I added snowflakes from the Shabby Princess Winter collection, a FREE texture from NinianLif & a fabulous image from The Graphics Fairy.

Let it snow

The challenge this week on Art Creations Friday was to use the image provided in our project.



I added text & adapted snowflake elements designed by Jen Allyson. The digital kit called Winter Wonderland was from Two Peas in a Bucket.

Shabby Christmas Decoration

I've recently been organising my various craft areas & looking through past craft projects I've made.

One which I really enjoyed making was my Mandala, which can be seen here.

I decided to use some of the lovely Cosmo Cricket Christmas papers

to make a shabby Christmas flower decoration to hang up.

An old cd was covered in paper, front & back, then edged with a Krylon 18ct gold leafing pen.

I punched a hole through the top, using a Crop-a-dile, then added the ribbon.

The flower shapes (using templates from Inspire Me) were cut out,

then scrunched & edged in Distress Ink (peeled paint).

I drew black lines around the edges to give each flower definition,

then the layers were built up using Pinflair Glue Gel.

I added a gold coloured brad to the centre before securing to the cd base.

Being me, the reverse had to look as good as the front,

so I used a Cosmo Cricket chipboard greeting to secure the ribbon, using glue gel.

I cut freehand the holly leaves & made the berries using a small circle punch.

Edges were inked as before.

Postal Thanks

The challenge this week on The Three Muses is Mail Art.

Please click on the postcard to read the message.


A digital collage using elements from Crafty Computer Paper.

Thank you Ladies xx

How to keep Snowflakes

The challenge this week set by The Three Muses is Bottles & Jars.

I'm rather late completing this challenge, which I started last week, but only managed to complete today! I altered an old lidded jar into a Snowflake Jar.


I used an old lace coaster to cover the lid & an old lace place mat to cover the glass jar.


I made a flower to decorate the top of the lid, using silver glitter wired ribbon. Thanks to Annabel Lewis & Kirstie Allsopp for the inspiration for this.


Inside the snowflakes will be safe until next Christmas.


The original empty jar.


The ingredients & contents.

Noel, Noel

A Christmas card using paper & elements by Cosmo Cricket.


I added gold organza ribbon & two gold eyelets. I used Distress Ink (peeled paint) & my stardust pen by Sakura.

Shabby Christmas Tree

A Christmas card made using paper & elements from Cosmo Cricket.

The three tree shapes were torn freehand, then crumpled to create a shabby look. 

The white edges were inked, then mounted into the backing paper using Pinflair glue gel,

to retain the dimensionality.

Three baubles were cut out from the backing paper to decorate the main tree.

I used Distress Ink (peeled paint) & my clear stardust pen by Sakura.

Have a Merry Little Christmas

A Christmas card using paper & elements by Cosmo Cricket.


I used Distress Ink (peeled paint), 18ct Gold Leafing pen by Krylon & added a touch of Christmas sparkle from my Sakura stardust pen.

Let it Snow!

A Christmas card made using paper & elements from Cosmo Cricket.


I used my 18ct Gold Leafing pen by Krylon, gold Stickles & a white eyelet.

Christmas Letters

Christmas cards made using paper & elements from Cosmo Cricket.


I used Distress Ink (peeled paint), eyelets & added a touch of Christmas sparkle from my stardust Sakura pen.

Christmas Part 2

A Christmas card made using paper & elements from Cosmo Cricket.


I added a little Distress Ink (peeled paint) & a touch of Christmas sparkle from my stardust Sakura pen.

Holly Christmas

Christmas cards made using paper & elements from Cosmo Cricket.


The Holly leaves were cut freehand from the paper & the berries made using a circle punch. I added a little Distress Ink (peeled paint) & a touch of Christmas sparkle from my stardust Sakura pen.



One also has gold organza ribbon.

Christmas Card

A Christmas card made using paper & elements from Cosmo Cricket.


Adding a little Distress Ink (peeled paint) & a touch of Christmas sparkle from my stardust Sakura pen.

Shabby Christmas

I found a new challenge blog today called Let's Get Shabby where they set a challenge theme for the month, which is currently a Christmas Inspired Project.

Well making my Christmas cards this year has certainly turned into a project!

Here is a Christmas card inspired by the lovely examples on the challenge site.


I used papers by Cosmo Cricket, a little Distress Ink (peeled paint), decorative gold corners & a large gold brad for the centre of my Christmas flower.