An Oldie But a Goodie ❤️

Hi everyone, yesterday was of course Valentine’s Day, and I posted the card I made for my husband. A memory popped up during the day on my FB page from 5 years ago, of the Valentine card I made for him back in 2021. I was particularly interested as it included a Valentine sentiment that I thought I had but couldn’t find, so I started looking back on my blog to check it out. Much to my surprise I found that this must have been a rare card I made during the period when I wasn’t crafting or blogging; and having searched my blog as thoroughly as I can I have concluded that I’ve never published it before. So here it is! It is very different in style from what I make nowadays, but it really made me smile.

Naturally I can’t remember much detail about the process of making it, though I clearly decorated the stepper card with patterned papers, stamped, coloured and die cut my main image (I coloured James the Bear with Promarkers), then added other stamps and die cuts plus a ribbon border.

Stamps: LotV James Big Heart; Me to You husband sentiment; Valentine sentiment - unknown;

Media: Memento black ink; Promarkers; 

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Floral Ovals and Classic Hearts; Memory Box Cherish border die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

613 Avenue Create (February) - Anything Goes with option Animal Magic

Addicted to Stamps and More! #510 - Diecuts and/or Stencils  (2nd entry)

Aud Sentiments #334 - Dies and/or Love plus a Sentiment  (2nd entry)

Cardz 4 Galz #269 - Hugs and Kisses  (2nd entry)

C.R.A.F.T. #773 - Love  (2nd entry)

Crafty Animals #102 - Include an Animal

Crafty Calendar (February) - Love Is In the Air  (2nd entry)

Crafty Gals Corner #274 - Anything Goes with option Heart  (2nd entry)

Creative Creases #112 - Anything Goes with a Fun fold 

Die Cut Divas (February) - Red/Pink plus Use Dies

Dragonfly Dreams (February) - Fun Fold

Everybody Art #593 - Have a Heart  (2nd entry)

Fab ‘n’ Funky #630 - Love Is All Around  (2nd entry)

Girlz Makes Guyz #36 - Fun Fold

Girlz Rebel #49 - Ribbon, Lace or Twine

Heart’s Quest Challenge #82 - Anything With a Heart Goes with option Red or Gold heart (3rd entry)

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #2 2026 - Valentines  (2nd entry)

I ❤️ Promarkers #600 - Love / Romance

Inkspirational #361 - Visual Prompt - February Collage  (2nd entry)

Just Us Girls #810 - Valentine  (2nd entry)

Leigh SB Designs #49 - Hearts and Flowers

Let’s Craft and Create #228 - Anything Goes with option From the Heart  (2nd entry)

Little Red Wagon #845 - I’m Seeing Red  (2nd entry)

Pearly Sparkles #116 - Hearts (3rd entry)

Tic Tac Toe #286 - Tic Tac Toe  (2nd entry)

(I used Hearts / Die-cutting / Red or Pink)

Try It On Tuesday - All Loved Up  (2nd entry)

Unicorn #117 - Animals

Word Art Wednesday #738/739 - Anything Goes  (2nd entry)

I think that’s me all loved out now! 🥰🥰

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Be My Valentine ❤️❤️

Hi everyone, I have to admit I’ve not had much of either time or inclination for card making over the past couple of weeks, but of course I couldn’t possibly let Valentine’s Day pass by without making a card for my dear husband. I must also confess that I find cards for him the most difficult, primarily because I only have a limited variety of supplies for romantic occasions and I don’t want him to see the same thing over and over! 

I decided this year to go with a fairly clean design, utlilising some Craft Addictions UK slatted hearts dies I bought before Christmas and hadn’t yet used.

I die cut a large stitched square of white card and set aside. I then die cut a slatted heart from my very last snippet of red glitter card, drew round the die and cut out a solid heart shape in gold glitter card, and attached it to the back. I positioned the die cut heart on my die cut square at an angle, then positioned the inner of the slatted heart onto the card and used it to cut into the card. I then drew round the heart die again on my red glitter card snippet, and attached it behind the in-cut slatted heart. I stamped various romantic postmarks and words in the corners and did a little colouring with Zig pens, then stamped the main ‘Be Mine’ sentiment onto separate card and fussy cut out. I attached the red slatted heart and main sentiment using foam squares to add dimension, then matted the stitched square onto black and gold borders and a 7” card blank.

I also decorated the envelope to coordinate.

Stamps: Free with craft magazine;

Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens;

Tools: Craft Addictions UK Slatted Heart dies; Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched Square die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More! #510 - Diecuts and/or Stencils

Aud Sentiments #334 - Dies and/or Love plus a Sentiment

Cardz 4 Galz #269 - Hugs and Kisses

C.R.A.F.T. #773 - Love

Crafty Calendar (February) - Love Is In the Air

Crafty Gals Corner #274 - Anything Goes with option Heart

Daisy Chain #104 - Something New

Dream Factory #146 - Love Actually (2nd entry)

Everybody Art #593 - Have a Heart

Fab ‘n’ Funky #630 - Love Is All Around

Heart’s Quest Challenge #82 - Anything With a Heart Goes with option Red or Gold heart (2nd entry)

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #2 2026 - Valentines

Inkspirational #361 - Visual Prompt - February Collage

Just Us Girls #810 - Valentine

Let’s Craft and Create #228 - Anything Goes with option From the Heart

Little Red Wagon #845 - I’m Seeing Red

Love to Craft #90 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Love to Scrap #177 - Anything Goes

Make My Monday #271 - Use 2 Dies

Pearly Sparkles #116 - Hearts (2nd entry)

Sweet Stampin’ - No Designer Paper

Tic Tac Toe #286 - Tic Tac Toe

(I used Hearts / Die-cutting / Red ir Pink)

Try It On Tuesday - All Loved Up

Word Art Wednesday #738/739 - Anything Goes

That’s all for today. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

February ❤️

Hi everyone, January has been and gone already, so it’s time for me to share the February page on my Lavinia calendar. Last year I did a very sweet and cute February page of loved up wintry hedgies, so this year I decided to go in a different direction with my steampunk heart, and the theme ‘key to my heart’. This is vaguely inspired by a Jo Rice design though it actually turned out very different!

I cut a piece of white Pink Frog super smooth card 19.5cm x 14.5 cm, then stamped and heat embossed the focal heart. I masked the heart then stamped and heat embossed an arrangement of cogs down one side. With the mask still in place I created a smooshed background by applying Blue Lagoon Elements ink to acetate, spritzing with water then dabbing onto the card. I stamped the wooden platforms and mice, then stamped the key and heat embossed in gold. I coloured the heart with Zig pens with gold Posca for the cogs, added Stabilo pencil and Posca white shading to the mice, then stamped a texture stamp in red around the edges. To finish I stamped the word ‘love’ from 3 different sentiment sets randomly onto the background, then matted the finished piece onto my calendar.

Stamps: Lavinia Heart (Large), Cog Set 2, Cog Set 3, Tilly and Tango, Basil and Bibi, Hobbit Door Accessories, Key (Small), Texture 2, Heartfelt Verses, The World Is Full of Beauty;

Media: Lavinia Elements ink (Blue Lagoon); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Strawberry, Twilight); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Versamark; clear and gold embossing powders; Sakura Stardust pen (yellow); Posca pens (white, gold); Stabilo pencil (white).

Challenges I would like to enter:

613 Avenue Create (February) - Anything Goes with option Animal Magic

Crafty Catz #706 - Anything Goes

Country View Crafts (February) - Hearts

Creative Moments #278 - Love and Romance

Dream Factory #146 - Love Actually

Heart’s Quest Challenge #82 - Anything Goes with a Heart, with option Red or Gold Heart

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie #213 - Happy Hearts

Inkspirational #360 - Word Prompt

Krafty Chicks #805 - Anything Goes with option Embossing - TOP PICKS

Outlawz Anything but a Card (February) - Anything but a Card

Pearly Sparkles #116 - Hearts

Shopping Our Stash #566 - Love Me Do

Simon says (Monday) - Have a Heart

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin’ - All You Need is Love

We Love 2 Create #1 2026 - Anything Mixed Media / Papercrafting Goes

Word Art Wednesday #736/737 - Anything Goes (3rd entry) 

I’ve still not been finding much time for crafting with everything that has been going on during the past month, but I hope things may be moving into calmer waters, so we’ll see what happens! 

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Guest Designer ☃️

Hi everyone, I was delighted to be invited to do a guest designer spot for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge - I’m always behind with my Christmas makes so it is great to have a reason to get busy at the start of the year.

The 4th Saturday of January is a technique challenge, and this time it is

*** Easel Card***

There is lots of inspiration from the Design Team over on the challenge blog, so please do pop over to have a look and link up your entries here.

I hadn’t made an easel card for a very long time, so I decided to throw myself right into it and really ‘go retro’ with old and neglected stamps, designer papers, dies and even an embossing folder! Here it is. 

I created a 6” square easel base card using two pieces of Pink Frog 30cm x 15cm super smooth card, then cut 2 large stitched squares of snowflake designer paper and attached them to the base and the standing up part of the card base. I cut two rectangles of white card, embossed with a snowflake embossing folder, then lightly shaded with a pink/lilac ink. I attached 2 layers of ribbon to the wider embossed panel, matted onto silver glitter card and attached to the front of the card; then I wrapped one layer of ribbon round the narrower embossed panel,  matted onto silver glitter card as above, attached a sentiment panel heat embossed onto a die cut rectangle, and also attached a die cut snowflake border. This finished panel was attached to the card base to form a ledge to prop up the easel.

I die cut a smaller stitched square of stamping card, stamped the focal image and coloured using Zig pens and Spectrum sparkle pen with white Posca accents, then matted and attached to the card front with foam tape. I finished off by attaching a variety of die cut snowflakes in silver and white.

Stamps: LotV James and Snowman; Uniko Christmas Sentiments;

Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Spectrum Nir Harmony dye ink (Pale Fig); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Versamark; WOW Opaque White ultra fine embossing powder; Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear); Posca pen (white);

Papers: LotV Frozen Snowflakes; Pink Frog silver glitter card;

Tools: Hunky Dory Duo- Stitched square and rectangle dies; Memory Box Frostyville Border; various snowflake dies including Joy! crafts Winter Wishes, Whimsy Stamps Winter Jewel 1; Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder.

Challenges I would like to enter:

12 Months of Christmas #130 - Anything Goes Christmas with option Snow People

ABC Christmas - A and B are for …

(B is for blue, bear)

Alphabet Challenge - T is for Texture

As You Like It - Favourite Occasion (and why) - WINNER

(It just has to be Christmas … I love making Christmas cards!)

Can You Handle the Pressure? - Anything Goes with an embossing folder

Christmas Crafts All Year Round (January) - A and B

(B is for blue, bear)

C.R.A.F.T. #772 - Christmas

Crafty Animals #101 - Use an Animal

Crafty Gals’ Corner #273 - Anything Goes with option Snowman - TOP 3

Creative Aunts #109 - Snowmen and Glitter

Creative Creases #111 - Use a Fun Fold

Daisy Chain #103 - Use Dies

Four Seasons (January) - Winter (3rd entry)

Love Those Pretty Papers (January) - Anything Goes with paper + option Snowman

Make My Monday #269 - Use Paper with Pattern

Merry Little Christmas #66 - Anything Christmas Goes

Moving Along With the Times #185 - Use Stencils and/or Dies (2nd entry)

Neglected Stuff (January) - Use Your Neglected Stash

(Pretty much EVERYTHING on this card is neglected stash!)

Outlawz Christmas (January) - Anything Christmas Goes

Peace On Earth #104 - Anything Goes Christmas with optional Mood Board - TOP 3

Pearly Sparkles #115 - Use Patterned Paper

{PIN}spirational #333 - Blue and Purple

Sparkles #196 - Snowflakes

Word Art Wednesday #736/737 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

I’d like to thank Andreja and the Design Team over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown for inviting me to be a guest designer this time.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

I Spy With My Little Eye #33

Hi everyone, after our little break during December, it’s already the third Wednesday of January so it’s time for the first  I Spy With My Little Eye... challenge of 2026 over at Ellibelle's Corner. Thanks so much to everyone who joined in last time with the November challenge - please do check over on Ellie’s blog to see if you are one of our top picks. 

I chose the challenge theme this month, and it is

I Spy With My Little Eye 

*** New Beginnings ***

So think new home, new baby or new job … or you could always go with new stash or a new crafting technique. We look forward to seeing your makes! Please don’t forget to pop over to Ellie's blog to see her fab creation and link up your entries here.

We are also restarting our monthly guest designer spots for 2026, and this month are delighted to be joined by Carol and Helen - please click on their names to visit their blogs and see their gorgeous cards.

Here’s my card for the challenge. It is also my first card of the year, as I haven’t done any crafting for the past three weeks for various reasons that I’ll touch on later. I don’t really have any need for new baby or new home cards, and I didn’t receive any new stamps for Christmas, so I decided to take this theme in a different direction. I love seeing snowdrops as we enter the New Year, as for me they really do symbolise regeneration and ‘new beginnings’. So that formed the basis of my design - here it is.

I die cut a stitched rectangle of white card and stamped the focal snowdrop, which is a beautiful retired stamp by Tracy Evans for AALL & Create. I then masked the flower with masking fluid, and created a smooshed background by dabbing Elements inks onto acetate and spritzing with water. I added some background text and grunge stamping, then inked through a harlequin stencil in one corner and heat embossed with white powder. I removed the masking fluid and coloured the snowdrop with Zig pens and Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, then added a heat embossed sentiment which was stamped onto a separate snippet of card, and two stamped birdies with a teeny heart gem. Finally I matted the panel onto a teal border and a 7” x 5” card blank.

Stamps: AALL & Create #623 Elegant Spring Florals, #648 Friendship Florals, #756 Miniatures; Tracy Evans Boutique Designs TE30 Garden Elements;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Blue Lagoon, Pine); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Morning Mist, Very Peri); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen (clear); Versamark; WOW Opaque Ultra Fine white embossing powder;

Tools: Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched rectangle die; Darkroom Door small stencil - Diamonds.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Beautiful Blossoms #37 -  Anything Floral Goes

C.R.A.F.T. #771 - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz #705 - Anything Goes

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils are our Game (January) - Use a Stencil

Creative Inspirations (January) - Anything Goes

Dragonfly Dreams (January) - Floral

Everybody Art #592 - Anything Goes

Four Seasons (January) - Winter

Girlz Rebel #48 - Anything Goes

Heart’s Quest #81 - Anything Goes with a Heart

Moving Along With the Times #185 - Use Stencils and/or Dies

Papercraft #126 - Anything Goes

Path of Positivity #137 - Anything Goes Positive

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Emboss It

Triple B (January) - Birds, Blooms and/or Butterflies

Try It On Tuesday - Add Some Text

Word Art Wednesday #736/737 - Anything Goes

I have to say it’s been a bit of a difficult start to the year - problems always seem to come along in convoy like buses! I’ve been wrestling with one or two health niggles over the past few weeks, and since New Year we have been thrust into a domestic drama as our (only) bathroom shower stopped working: the solution isn’t remotely straightforward so is likely to result in a huge amount of expense, stress, inconvenience and mess! I think the stress of everything came together to create a perfect storm, as last week I started to feel unwell and ended up in A&E being checked over potential heart problems! Thankfully my symptoms weren’t down to that, but it seems that anxiety had got a grip of me! Now I’m trying to rest and hoping I’ll soon be feeling better.

The I Spy Challenge will end on the Sunday before the next challenge starts at 23:59 US Central Time - so this time that is Sunday February 15th, and the next challenge will begin on Wednesday February 18th.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Happy New Year! 🎇🎆🥳🎉

Hi everyone, I’d like to start by wishing all my visitors a Happy New Year, and best wishes for a happy, healthy and peaceful 2026.

Back in October I won a prize in a crafting challenge, so I went back on an earlier decision and selected a new Lavinia calendar to decorate for 2026. I loved decorating my 2025 calendar but it took a huge amount of work, so I had decided not to go there again … but when I won this prize I couldn’t resist! Fairly predictably, what with the run up to Christmas, not being well and being away, I haven’t found much opportunity to get ahead with it. However I sat down at the weekend to make a page for January, so at least I would be able to turn the page to the current month! I am pretty sure life will quieten down a bit now so I am planning on getting further ahead with it, but in the meantime here is my January page. It is based on a Jo Rice design here but with a few changes.

I cut a piece of stamping card 19.5cm x 14.5cm, and stamped the Berry Branches and Fir Cone Branches using Pinecone Versafine Clair. I stamped the robins Bobby and Jemima, then added berries to the branches. I masked Bobby and Jemima and used a large circle mask for the moon, then blended Della Blue Elements ink to make the sky, which I spattered lightly with water to add texture. I coloured the branches, berries, pinecones and robins with Zig pens, and the robins’ bellies with fine strokes of white Posca pen. I added white Posca snow to the branches and accents to the cones and berries, then added sparkle to the pinecones and snow with Spectrum Noir sparkle pen. I highlighted the fir branches with a Sakura Stardust pen to make them look frosty, and also outlined the moon. Finally I added a stamped sentiment in blue, then attached the finished piece to my calendar.

Here’s a ‘sparkle’ picture.

Stamps: Lavinia Bobby, Jemima, Berry Branch, Fir Cone Branch, Let Your Spirit Take Flight;

Media: Lavinia Elements ink (Della Blue); Versafine Clair (Pinecone, Medieval Blue); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Sakura Stardust pen (clear); Spectrum Noir sparkle pens (clear); Posca pen (white);

Tools: Lavinia acetate circle mask.

Challenges I would like to enter: 

Crafty Animals #101 - Include an Animal (or Bird)

Critter Crazy #196 - Anything Gies featuring a Critter

Four Seasons (January) - Winter

Girlz Creative Crafts #63 - Anything Goes

Girlz Rebel #47 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Lavinia Creative Challenge (January) - Frosty Dreams

Love to Craft #90 - Anything Goes

Outlawz Anything but a Card (January) - Anything but a Card

Shopping Our Stash #564 - Free Is Good

(2026 Lavinia calendar was a challenge prize)

Simon Says (Monday) - Sparkle and Shine (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Add a Sentiment (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #730/733 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

So it’s onward and upward for what will hopefully be another great year of crafting.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

I Spy With My Little Eye … 2025 Crafty Year In Review 🔍

Hi everyone, as 2025 winds to a close our thoughts turn both to the year that has just gone, and the year ahead. Like many of us I have had a year of mixed fortunes, and I hope both for myself and for everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful and crafty 2026.

My bloggy friend Ellie is hosting a Crafty Year In Review on her blog instead of our usual monthly ‘I Spy With My Little Eye’ challenge, where she is sharing her favourite cards of 2025 and inviting everyone to share their own favourite makes. You could share your favourites by month, or a top 5 or top 10 - whatever works for you! 

Looking at Ellie’s beautiful collection of cards encouraged me to review my own, so here are my favourites from each month.

January

(original post here)

February

(original post here)

March

(original post here)

April

(original post here)

May

(original post here)

June

(original post here)

July

(original post here)

August

(original post here)

September

(original post here)

October

(original post here)

November

(original post here)

December

(original post here)

Just like last year, I found my favourites weren’t very evenly distributed throughout the year - for some months I struggled to find a favourite at all, whereas for others it was much easier! So just for good luck, I’d also like to add my ‘overall favourite’ of the year (original post here).

Like Ellie, I also looked back to see which of my cards received the most views during 2025, and it was this one (original post here).

I’m not sure why this one was so popular, but for a period of about a month during the summer my page views went absolutely crazy at several thousand per day, before settling back down to normal! I never found out why this happened!

Overall my crafty output has been very similar to last year, with publication of 104 cards (108 in 2024), 8 calendar pages (5 in 2024) and 2 bookmarks//tags (2 in 2024). This surprised me for a couple of reasons: firstly because I have taken up a few other social activities and hobbies this year (eg. Creative writing and running my local history discussion group) which have left me with less time for crafting; and also  because I have gone through periods, particularly at the start of the year, when I didn’t  enjoy crafting as much for a variety of reasons. The main area where I have been less productive is ATC’s - in 2024 I made 78, but only 9 this year. I think that partly reflects the increasing cost of postage, my reduced crafting time,  plus I just haven’t felt motivated to get involved in swaps when my mojo went on holiday. 

Anyhow, I am currently feeling quite motivated craft-wise as I won a 2026 Lavinia calendar, and due to the Christmas card rush I have scarcely started decorating it, so I have a fairly large project to keep me occupied after New Year! In fact I’ll be back tomorrow with my January page, starting the New Year as I mean to go on! 

Huge thanks to Ellie for organising this fun review … do pop over to her blog to see her fab makes, and to share your own review of the year here.

Take care, Happy New Year everyone and see you in 2026.

Hugs,