2023 in Review

This week, I'm excited to be co-hosting the 2023 Year in Review blog hop where I and other co-hosts share our favourite papercraft creations of 2023 and we would be delighted if you join us!  

Here is a list of my co-hosts and I know they'd appreciate your visit and feedback!  

Alicia - Golden Goddess Designs

Debbie  - Secrets to Stamping

Diane - Nellie's Nest

Ellie - Ellibelle's Corner

Francesca - Percorsi di Fantasia

Helen - Made by Helen

Joanne - My Slices of Life

Lillian - Lillian's Crafting Blog

Tee - The Paper Layer

Or you can create your own "year in review" post and link it up below!  The linky tool will remain open for a week - plenty of time to review your creative year and pick one or more of your favourite papercraft projects to share!  

 

I decided to make it easier for myself and chose a favourite from each month, but you might like to just pick your favourite project of 2023 or your favourite top 5 or 10!   There are no rules other than that they are papercrafts projects and that they are your own work (not favourites you have come across online through the year)!   Any products and all styles are welcome!

These are my favourites for 2023, listed by month - you'll find a link below each photo to their blog post  in case you'd like to find out a little bit more about what was used and how (and sometimes why) they came about!

January

Scrapped Quilt (made up from pretty leftovers)

February

Like a Rainbow - a CASE of a Gina K creation!

March

Sending Hedgehugs (one of two cards in this post)

April

Style is Eternal

May

Hooray Squirrels

June

You're an All Star

 

July

Once Upon a Time

 August

 Hello Beautiful Peacock

September

Sweet Christmas Pudding

October

Fabulous Vintage

November

Poppy Hugs

December

Tis the Season to Sparkle - because Christmas really is the time
for paper crafters to sparkle and shine isn't it!

Well done if you made it this far because I'm giving away two die sets (see below) as a small prize to one lucky commenter on this post for the duration of the link up - and if you're a follower  I'll put your name in the hat twice!  I'll also post anywhere in the world!

Well that about wraps up 2023 for me.  I hope you enjoyed the recap of my creative year and hope you find some time to recap your creative year and play along with us.  

Wishing you and your loved ones health, happiness and good fortune in 2024!

Kate

Tis the Season to Sparkle!

 

Time Out Challenge #253 has just gone live and we're ending the year with a bling - we challenge you to be 

Sparkly

I'd like to thank our generous sponsor Picket Fence Studios who are offering a $25 store credit to our Time Out Winner as chosen by the Design Team!  

Our winner will also be invited to join us as a guest designer in a future challenge, so I do hope you'll grab anything that sparkles and join us!

I heard recently that the EU will shortly be banning glitter so I was determined to use as much of it as possible for my last card of 2023.  

I cut several Tm Holtz deer from white card stock and again from white glitter card stock and stacked them - this is the mini deer from the movers and shapers set.  Once stacked, I added a few coats of glossy accents - I love the way the glitter shines and sparkles under the glossy accents.  

For the forest scene I added birch trees (Impression Obsession) and a snow bank (Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Borders) to a background panel - all from various shades of white shimmer card stock.

The 'Tis the Season (Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas) was perhaps not ideal as a lot of the detail was lost with the Judykins White Diamonds Embossing Powder but it's still readable (only took me 4 attempts to get one that was readable LOL)!

"SPARKLE" was cut from white holographic card stock using the MFT Little Letters Upper alphabet.

It was devilishly tricky to photograph this white on white sparkle so I created a short video.

I ended up making 9 of these and ran out of the white holographic paper so I used silver holographic paper instead.  What do you think - the silver definitely sparkles more than the white but I think I prefer the white!  I'd love to hear what you think!

Be sure to check out the inspiration from my fellow team mates and the very talented Heather of Handmade by Heather joins us as our guest this challenge.  Heather is one of our regulars and is always a joy to visit! 

 I'd like to enter the following challenges

Die Traumfabrik Challenge #122 where Elliot the Littlest Reindeer is the movie of the month;

Bastel Traum Challenge #127 - Winter Landscape;

Four Seasons December 2023 Challenge - Anything Winter Goes;

The Alphabet Challenge - R is for Reindeer;

Shopping Our Stash Challenge SOS511 - Whatever the Weather;

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my crafty friends a blessed and sparkly Christmas and a bright and prosperous 2024!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Merry and Bright Lantern

 

Challenge #153 at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and this is my DT card.  I was cleaning up some Christmas left over boxes and found a panel I'd stamped ages ago with stamps from the Waltzing Mouse Stamps Bright Season set.  What a find, and there was a matching envelope made up stamps from the with the Little Lanterns set - I'd even added glossy accents to the red candles!  I reckon I must have stamped this prior to November 2016 - that was the last time I made up a card with this set and in those days I would usually make up multiple panels when I had a stamp set out and inked up.  Anyway, high time I used it!

So I cut a few lanterns from the matching die set, stacked them up and placed them over the candle and flame.  I added a large poinsettia (Sizzix Holiday Sketch) to the top and a simple "Merry & Bright" sentiment (Uniko Simply Said Blocks:Christmas) underneath.

I'd like to enter the Following Challenges

Snippets Playground Challenge #468 - Snippets of red for the poinsettia. gold for the poinsettia centre and black for the lantern;

Inkspirational Challenge #303 - Seasonal;

November Rudolph Days;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge +53 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #81 - If it's Christmassy link it up;

Kraft Chicks Challenge #691 - All Occasions;

Peace on Earth Challenge #52 - Anything Christmas Goes.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always bring me joy and are always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Time Out Christmas

Challenge #252 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have a theme challenge

Winter/Holiday

 

The end of the year is fast approaching so perhaps you'd like to create something to celebrate the many holidays that occur around this time - Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year -  or perhaps you'd rather create something to reflect the cooler weather we're experiencing here in the Northern hemisphere!   Whatever you're inspired to make, we'd love to see them in our gallery - but please limit the number of other challenges entered to 4 if you want to be eligible for Top Pick!  

Challenge #252 is being sponsored by Birch Press, and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design team a $20 voucher to their store.  The Top Pick will also be invited to join us as a guest designer in a future challenge!

Be sure to check out the inspiration from my talented team mates and Jennifer Elliot is joining us as our special guest this challenge!  You can find Jennifer's work on her Instagram account or on her blog Live.Craft.Repeat.  Do stop by and say hi!

 

I'd also like to mention that we're having a DT call this challenge so if you're looking to join a wonderfully supportive team, please add DT after your name to let us know you're interested!

I found this pretty patterned paper in my stash and it inspired this card.  Cut and stacked 3 of these Merry Christmas sentiments (Memory Box Posh Script Merry Christmas) from white card stock and then added gilding wax to the top layer and cut the shadow layer from pink vellum.    I wanted to add a Christmas tree so that the apex the tree replaced the "A" and this tree (Yvonne Creations Family Christmas Window set) was the perfect size - of course I needed a star for the top of the tree!

 Challenge #252 is being sponsored by Birch Press, and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design team a $20 voucher to their store.  Our Top Pick will also be invited to join us as a guest designer in a future challenge - can't wait to see your cards in the Time Out Gallery!

Be sure to check out the inspiration from my talented team mates and we are joined this challenge by

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Just Us Girls Week #706 - with this lovely mood board;

Jingle Belles Banner Inspired Challenge;

As You See It Challenge #312 - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year;

Week 755 Allsorts Challenge - Christmas;

 NBUS Challenge #56 - sentiment die is NBUS;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Festive Foliage

 

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #152 has just gone live and this is my DT card.  It was prescheduled before I left and by the time it goes live I'll be getting ready for my return flight from Australia.

I cut the base of these holly leaves (Sizzix Seasonal Sketch) from plain green card stock and the detail from green mirror card and I did the same for this sentiment (LDRS) and the holly berry.   I was going to place the holly leaf in the top left corner but I needed to hide a boo boo - a little of the mirror finish peeled off the "W" in the sentiment.  So I placed the holly leaf such that the offset detail just covered the this boo boo - a pretty good save if I do say so myself!  As an after thought, I added another offset leaf to the bottom right corner as well.

I'd like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #56  - Leaves and Sentiment were both NBUS;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #53 - Anything Christmas Goes;

12 Months of Christmas Challenge #106 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Happy Little Stampers November Christmas Challenge;

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And the upside of leaving a comment is that I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Poppy Hugs

 

Challenge #251 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and it's an Inspiration Photo Challenge!

Here's a closer look!

This challenge is being generously being sponsored by Kim of Running Stitch Design - most of you will remember her as a former Design Team member at Time Out!  Kim is offering this pretty bag to our Top Pick as chosen by the Design Team (inside USA only - thank you for understanding).  Our top pick will also be invited to guest design with us at a future date so I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule and come play cards with us!  

Poppies have long been associated with November 11 - Remembrance Day in Commonwealth countries and Veterans Day in the USA so you may be inspired to create something along those lines.  

I love poppies.  I love the splash of colour they add to fields and roadside ditches as they herald the arrival of summer  but mostly I love them because they remind me of my dear father who was always Poppy to his beloved grandchildren. 

I have a few poppy dies but for this project I thought I'd use an NBUS set (Memory Box Ruffled Poppy).  I cut my poppies from pink card stock and blended the edges with Candied Apple DI.  I cut a background panel from a sheet of pretty DP (from my many, many pads of paper) that best reflected the colours in the bag.   Initially I filled the whole panel with poppies before I considered the difficulty of adding a sentiment.  After some thought (and advice from my lovely team member Nonni) I carefully peeled off one of the poppies and was able to place this short but sweet "hugs" sentiment (Poppy Stamps Playful Hugs) in the spot vacated.

I'd like to enter the following challenges NBUS Challenge #56;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Thinking of You;

Triple B November Challenge - Birds/Butterflies/Blooms;

Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge for November!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Christmas Candy

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #151 has just gone live and and I'm expecting the gallery to be filling up with loads of festive inspiration - we're really getting close to December now!   This post was scheduled before I left to visit family in Australia - by the time it goes live I'll be enjoying the sunshine (hopefully)!

These peppermint candies (WMS Elf Made) were stamped last year but I never got around to cutting them out and putting them to use.  They resurfaced during a recent tidy up and I thought I'd have a go at making up some quick spinner cards.  I cut them out with a spellbinders circle slightly smaller than the diameter of the candy so I didn't have any border - nothing worse than having an uneven border around  an image IMO and these Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles (the only non-stitched circles I own) are very difficult to work with owing to their large inner border.  I stacked a few plain circles under the stamped image and then coated them with glossy accents for some candy shine and some were sprinkled with glitter for some sugary candy shine!   I found a 12x12 sheet of red gingham DP that made me think of festive table cloths and I cut it into 6 panels and cut spinner tracks into these panels.  I die cut some "Sweet" sentiments (Love2Craft Home Sweet Home set) from red card stock and stamped some "christmas wishes" on some plain white and cut these with a suitable frame (Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles was a perfect fit) ... and that was as far as my mojo was willing to cooperate!

   I wanted to make up quick cards, but this was waaay too plain so I added some boughs of holly (Sizzix Winter Foliage) to the bottoms half of the panel in an effort to break up the tedium of the design.

Not one of my more inspired cards but a lot of fun to play with!

After sleeping on it, I tried adding a little more holly around the upper sentiment  - it was already stuck down so not a lot I could do with it.

Better ... but still not happy with and I still had 5 other gingham panels, peppermint candies, holly and "Sweet" sentiments ready to go!  So I fiddled and slept on it and fiddled some more ... and this was what I came up with!

I added another two boughs of holly behind that "sweet" sentiment plus a few little single leaves to fill in empty spots.  I also added some shine to the "sweet" with some glossy accents so it didn't get lost in all that green. 

Lots of snippets of green here and even the white for the stamped and die cut sentiments were snippets left over from cutting card bases so I’d like to enter the Snippets Playground Challenge #466!  

I’d also like to enter the following challenges

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #53 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Peace On Earth Challenge #50 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Use Your Stuff Challenge #496 - Anything Goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And the upside of leaving a comment is that I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Tide of Love

Challenge #250 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight it's an Inspired By Words Challenge with this quote from Kristen Armstrong

“When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.” 

An Inspired By Words challenge works exactly as you would expect - you take the words from the featured quote and use them to inspire your creation!   You can use one word, multiple words or just the general idea of the quote and if it's not immediately obvious, please explain how you were inspired! 

 This fortnight we are generously being sponsored by Poppy Stamps  and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design team a $20 store credit. 

Our Top Pick will also be invited to Guest Design with us in a future challenge.  We're joined this challenge by the very talented Deb Horst as our guest!  Be sure to check out what she and the rest of my talented team members have made to inspire you.  

Where will these inspiring words take you - you can use just one or all of them to inspire your card? We hope you can take Time Out of your busy schedule to come play cards with us!

I was inspired by the words "tide" and "love" - and this lovely Wavy Heart die from Poppy Stamps fitted both!  I cut it from two different card stocks - a patterned and a plain blue and swapped alternate pieces so  I had two Wavy Hearts when I had finished - a real twofer!  

The first was home to a "Whittle Dolphin".  I cut him from white card stock and coloured his upper body, tail and fin with a grey Copic marker.  I then coated him in glossy accents so he had the sleek appearance of a dolphin!  I added a sentiment from Poppy Stamps Whittle Sea Life Sentiments stamped onto a Poppy Word Balloon die cut to make this birthday card.

For my Twofer, I cut some Whittle Happy Jellyfish from vellum  - firstly because jellyfish are translucent and secondly I didn't want to lose the detail of the Wavy Heart!   I stacked them for stability and coated them with glossy accents to give them some added shine and dimension - love how they turned out!  I added some smaller jellyfish (Alexander Renke) also stacked vellum and glossily accented.  Then added another sentiment from Poppy's Whittle Sea Life Sentiments Set - this time centred on the panel.  

I’d like to enter the following challenges

Make My Monday Challenge #212 - Funny/Punny Sentiment;

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - anything goes;

Krafty Chicks Challenge #687 - all occasions;

Inkspirational Challenge #301 - Cold (which is what I would be if I were swimming with these marine animals right now)!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And the upside of leaving a comment is that I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Vintage Christmas

Challenge 151 has just gone live at the Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge so I have a new Christmas card for you.  I'm off to Australia this weekend so the next two posts will be scheduled.  Fortunately, I have a good batch of Christmas cards to take with me to post while there.  And when I get back in November, I hope to focus on table decorations and other festive makes because (hopefully) I'll have enough Christmas cards for all my loved ones in this part of the world as well.

For this card, I thought I'd pull out some of my old Waltzing Mouse Stamps and I found this set that I am ashamed to say appears to be NBUS (Waltzing Mouse Stamps Opera Tags Christmas).  I'm not sure how I missed it because it really is quite stunning.  It's one of two stamp sets Claire Brennan designed for this die set (a special collaboration with Spellbinder and WMS) - I had used used the other set but not this one!  

Once I'd stamped, embossed and die cut the tag on kraft card stock, I added this large brad (added gold gilding wax to it first).

I wrapped a length of lace and a length of tiny grosgrain ribbon (both left over snippets) around this Burberry-ish tartan panel.  This tartan panel seemed like a good idea at the time but once assembled I realized it was perhaps too "cozy" for the grandness of the tag!  Ah well, it wasn't quite the vintage look I was aiming for but I don't mind it! 

 I had to add foam tape to the top and base of the tag so it would sit flush on the ribbon and lace and once assembled, I thought it needed a little something in the bottom right corner so made up a little spiral flower (Sue Wilson Spiral Pearl Flower - a prize from the Snippets Playground) using kraft and gold mirri card.  I went over the middle layer of the spiral flower with Gathered Twig DI and the top layer of the flower with Gilding Wax.  Here's a closeup so you can see the lovely detail in this gorgeous Spiral Pearl Flower and some of detail in this stamp and die set (and my imperfect embossing LOL)!

I'd like to join the following challenges

Christmas Craft Creations October Challenge - Monochromatic

Christmas Crafts all Year Round October Challenge - 10 Lords a Leaping

The brown tones make this card ideal for a male IMO

ABC Christmas Challenge - U is for Use it Up which is what I did with the snippets of lace and ribbon;

Peace on Earth Challenge #50 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Retro Rubber Challenge #217 - Anything Goes using old stamps and this set dates back to 2015;

We Love Stamping October Challenge - Anything goes with stamping as focal point;

NBUS Challenge #55 - NBUS Opera Tags Christmas Stamp Set;

Snippets Challenge #465 - Snippets of lace and ribbon and Kraft card;

Krafty Chicks Challenge Week 2 Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And the upside of leaving a comment is that I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Fabulous Vintage

 

Time Out Challenge #249 has just gone live and this fortnight we are challenging you to be 

Vintage

I'd like to thank our generous sponsor Doodle Bugs who are offering a $25 store credit to our Time Out Winner as chosen by the Design Team!  Doodle Bugs carry most of the popular brands and have years of experience in the paper crafting industry!  

The winner will also be invited to join us as a guest designer in a future challenge!

 I went searching for a definition of Vintage and it is more encompassing than I had originally thought.  Here are some definitions I found

• denoting something from the past of high quality, especially something representing the best of its kind:
• used to describe clothing, jewellery, etc. that is not new, especially when it is a good example of a style from the past:

I thought I'd start with ribbon - I felt that vintage definitely involved ribbon and bows and I was looking for a tool I have somewhere that helps you tie ribbons because my attempts without it were not great!  I didn't find it but I did find a packet of vintage photos which I must have bought a very long time ago from Crafty Individuals (might even have been a free gift)!   I was rather taken by this lass wearing a wide brimmed hat with a huge blue bow and finally I had an inkling of of an idea!  

To start with, I made her a frame from a snippet of blue card stock using two square dies.  I stacked a couple of these for dimension so the frame was higher than the photo.

Next I vaguely remembered I had an embossing folder or two that might work and happened upon this one.  I have no idea of the name of it because the packaging had long been abandoned and there is no marking on the folder itself.  I don't think I've previously used it because I was amazed at how deep and crisp the embossing was - I absolutely love it and will definitely be using it again!  Once embossed, I went over the panel with Antique Linen DI to highlight the pattern and to give the appearance of aged lace.

I wanted to add some real lace but wasn't happy with any of the laces I had in my stash. and instead used this border die (Spellbinders Doily Accents) that I had previously used to mimic lace.  Once cut, I distressed it with Gathered Twig and Broken China DIs.

I searched in vain for a button that wasn't too thick (in case I need to post it) but still a good size.  I was about to give up on this idea when as luck would have it, I happened to spot a box of dies I had open - I'd just finished a bunch of dinosaur cards and sitting on the magnetic sheet next to where the dinosaur dies should have been had I put them away once I'd finished with them - were some button dies I'd bought ages ago (PTI Bitty Buttons).   I stacked a few buttons and coloured them with Broken China DI.   

To finish I cut three of this "fabulous" sentiment (Honey Bee), stacked them and coloured them with Broken China DI.

I hope you'll join us and look forward to seeing your Vintage Creations in the Gallery.  If you're stumped, my team mates have plenty of inspiration for you and we're joined this challenge by the very talented Cynthia Olheiser of Stampin' In Alaska!  Do drop by and say hi from me!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Allsorts Challenge Week 749 - Vintage;

NBUS Challenge #55 - the Fleur de Lys Embossing Folder;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And the upside of leaving a comment is that I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate