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 - Anything Goes

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,