Crikey where did December and January go!

Hi Everyone,

I just got a shock when I opened up my poor neglected blog and realised it's nearly 2 months since my last post so a very belated Happy New Year to you all!!!  To be fair to myself though there has been rather a lot going on in this neck of the woods but not much of it has been crafting.

The old year ended on a mix of highs and lows.  The high was our Son's fabulous wedding 3 days before Christmas which was such a happy day for us all and here's just a few photos.

Sadly, the lows were the loss of 4 members of mine and Hubby's families, 2 Aunties, 1 Uncle and most devastating, my lovely Sister-in-Law who passed away on her 59th birthday after a brief, brave battle with cancer. We'll miss you so much Pauline!

So, what with Christmas and New Year as well, I sort of got out of crafting mode and with my craftroom/conservatory being a tad chilly (mega understatement) it's been a bit of a struggle for my enthusiasm to resurface but I think I'm getting there now ;-).  All the fabulous new stamp releases from PaperArtsy not to mention lots of wonderful new products constantly popping up on my Facebook Timeline from Creativation, the trade show currently in full swing in Arizona, are really getting the creative juices working again. 

Anyway, I have my first share of the year for you today as it's my friend Lin's birthday and I know she has received her card.

I very roughly scraped gesso onto a square Kraft card base with an old credit card so that the surface was a little textured.  I then inked up Stampendous Crumpled Edge stamp with Archival Ink (Coffee I think) and followed this with a lightly stamped script in the middle, splatters and then flourishes in the corners using Potting Soil Archival.  These were all PaperArtsy stamps.

Next comes the very unintentional error!  I stamped the little quote upside down so I had to cut the front off the card base and turn it into a topper for a second base, lol!!!  Good job the background script is very light as this is now upside down ;-0.  I rubbed Treasure Gold round the edges of the card and stuck it to the new card base then cut and embossed the Tim Holtz/Sizzix butterfly from a piece of Fresco painted card, sanded and touched it with Treasure Gold before attaching just the body to the card.

I was really pleased with this fairly simple card and love the impression of lots of texture.  

I'm going to try to remember to enter more challenges this year (hmmm, wonder how long that will last) and this card fits three I think.

http://stampsandstencils.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/swirls-whirls-and-flourishes.html

http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/january-coffee-and-cream.html

http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/january-2017-creative-team-challenge.html    (theme is Anything Goes)

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I'll be back in a day or two.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx