2019 Challenge Card Favourites

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

My what a treat I have for you today, a wonderful display of some of your favourite cards from 2019,

I have to say that I agree with your choices, you have made some incredibly beautiful cards over the past 12 months!

I have put a few of my favourites above (in no particular order), I enjoyed making every one of them!

So lets see what you have all chosen...….

Brenda

Cheryl

Janet

Karen

 Lilian

lynda

 Maria

Margaret

 Michele

Pat

Sue

WOW Ladies, just WOW, you are all so incredibly creative, just look at the different techniques you have all used and how amazing the results are.

It's so hard to chose a favourite, I think that I would have picked the same cards as you have.

Please forgive me for not commenting under each one, there were just too many and this post took long enough without adding descriptions, feel free to add anything in the comments below, I love reading your version of descriptions anyway.

Finally I just want to thank you all for making these cards for the various challenges and events and for allowing me to share them with the crafting world.  I think that you would all be surprised at just how many views we have each day and how far and wide across the world those views are spread, so sharing on the blog really does get your work out there for all to see and so it should, you are all incredibly talented crafters.  I feel blessed to call you my friends xxx

Now lets get on with making the favourites for this years review!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday Ladies,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday Review of 2019 (part 1)

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

I thought I would start the year with a look back at some of our 'Mixed Craft' posts that I have featured on our Saturday Posts, these particular photos are from January to June 2019, they feature crafts from Myself, Janet, Karen and Lynda.

The first two photos (above start the review of my Mixed Crafts)  starting with a boxed set of cards.

I then went on to make....

 These two items were made for a 'Bag Topper' Swap over on our Facebook Group

These were made for a swap that I did with Kay. I love how they turned out.

This project I made for a Covered Notebook swap.

This Covered Notebook was a gift i made for Danielle.  

Janet

This lovely Mixed Media canvas was the first of Janet's Mixed Crafts las year, (notice the blue)! Definitely Janet's colourof 2019!! 😉

I love how Janet decorated this beautiful cabinet, it would make a beautiful storage piece for any craft room, lets face it, we all need more storage, especially when it's as pretty as this .

Janet is definitely our Queen of Boxes and these are show why she holds that title! Absolutely stunning Janet. 

Thank you for sharing some amazing crafts throughout 2019 Janet xxx

Karen

Karen knitted this amazing Cable Knit cardigan for Alan, I bet he loved it, I love cable knit anything,  I made cable knit wide Hair Bands for my girls when they were little,  they loved them.

Dave the Seagull was one of many Crocheted creatures that Karen created last year, I love him, so different,  the good thing is he can't pinch your chips or poop on your head!!!

Laurence the Tiger was another of Karen's cute Kerry Lord animals.

Sophie the Flamingo is just adorable,  Kerry Lord has created some incredible designs. 

This is Bradlee the Squirrel, look at that incredible tail !!

Knothead, was one of Karen's quirkier creations,   they all have such lovely expressions though.

Thank you so much Karen for contributing so many projects to our Mixed Craft posts, I love seeing your creations and look forward to seeing many more this year. xxx

Lynda 

Lynda made this lovely Pocket Letter for a Swap on our Facebook Group,  I believe it was her first one, it was amazing, everything coordinates beautifully. 

I hope to see photos of your new projects soon Lynda, I bet you are itching to get back in that craft room xxx

Michele's Magazine Review 

Hi Sandra

Double feature the next 2 weeks to catch up!

Papercraft Inspirations has different free gift to the usual ones- a spinner card pack.

Here’s some ideas of what you can make using the free gift.

This article shows a different style of card-looks interesting.

Ideas for someone who loves golf!

I received a letter from the publishers saying that this is the last issue of Papercraft Inspirations as the sakes weren’t enough for them to keep printing it.

Cardmaking & Papercraft has lovely set free this month-Stamps, Embossing Folder & papers.

Here’s the first of 2 photos showing what you can make using the free gift.

Part two.

Interesting article on Technicolour cards.

Great free papers this month-ideas on how to use them.

That’s it for this week.
Happy Crafting.

Love Michele

Thank you so much Michele for the First Magazine Review of 2020, this feature is definitely here to stay, we all love to see what's featured in different magazines,  so thay we can decide whether the free gift and featured articles are something we would be interested in.

It's sad that magazines end up closing, but I guess there is so much choice, there are more die cutting magazines now

for definite, I was surprised how many new ones there were when Paul and I popped into Smith's the other day, then there are all the individual companies Quarterly Specials too, Chloe, John Next Door,  now even Phill Martin has one too!  So we are spoilt for choice.  I have noticed with my Creative Stamping Magazine some of the features are VERY similar to this time last year, so I was thinking of changing to a different one.

Thanks again Michele xxx

Michele mentioned Meeting up in March at the NEC Birmingham,  while the Craft Show is on, maybe booking a hotel so thst we can all sit and chat too,  the Craft show is on the 19-22 March, if any of you are interested please let me know and we will get into looking around for good Hotel deals etc.  I would love to meet up with as many of you as possible! xxx

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend Ladies, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx

Our First Challenge of 2020

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and are looking forward to getting back in to your Craft Rooms, I have been ina couple of times but seem to have been struck with a bit of 'Craters Block, I just ended up just moving things around! Hopefully normal service will resume soon !! 🤣😉

Next Week's Challenge 

I thought we would start our Challenges off lightly with a good old 'mojo' busting  TicTacToe!!

I chose this grid as I thought it was completely different to all of the Winter and Festive themed ones.  I feel like I want to make pretty floral 'Spring' like cards, with brightly coloured flowers  like daffodils and tulips or little Snowdrops and Bluebells.  

Spring brings a lovely feeling of brighter days, your garden bursting into life and new life in nature, so what's not to love! 

I hope you like this Challenge and that it encourages you to get into that Craft room and start your 2020 card making journey!

I am already excited to see what you all create!

Have a lovely weekend ladies,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

New Year Craft Trends and Pantone colour of 2020

Good Morning Ladies,

I thought I would do some research into some of the upcoming Craft Trends for 2020, the first thing I looked at was the 'Pantone' Colour of the Year which for 2020 is Classic Blue, I think that this shade of Blue is lovely and would work well with Card Making.

This chart shows some of the other colours that will be 'Key' in 2020, there are some lovely shades in that chart.

I also read that Green is going to be big this year, which is fine by me, I will add a piece here that I found when doing my Research.....

"Green with envy? Not us! But chartreuse green is a popular color for crafts going into 2020. "It evokes feelings of growth and harmony," Johnson says. On Etsy, there has been a 12 percent increase in searches for green items and a 55 percent increase in searches for neon green in the last three months compared to the previous year. Kelly green fine glitter has received 369 reviews on the site, and these Celtic Knot Green Jacquard Ribbons have more than 1,600 reviews. Finding ways to add green to your crafts will keep you on trend for the new year"

Quilting is going to be really big in 2020, there has apparently been a huge rise in people looking for simple Beginner quilting patterns to download, I have to say this is something that I have always wanted to have a go at but it is one of those things that looks really complicated to start.

Constellation themed crafts are set to be really popular too, so anything that features the Night Sky, stars etc, we will have to watch and see what Constellation themed papers and craft items 

Here are just two examples of Constellation themed papers I found on Google, I know SU did something similar a year or so back, they don't shout Spring and Summer to me I'm afraid, but we will have to wait and see it these predictions are right.

Another big trend that is predicted to grow is anything Stained Glass Themed, we have seen Sue Wilsons Stained Glass style Dies in this past year or two, this trend will continue we will also see Mosaic style kits that will give the same effects.

Art Therapy, Painting By Numbers, Colouring Books etc will continue to grow in 2020, this will branch out to other things like Rock Painting too, I have seen a trend where people Paint Rocks and leave them around for people to find, such a lovely idea.

I find it quite interesting to read about what the experts think will be popular, let me know if you have seen any predicted trends.

I hope you found this little feature interesting.

***************

We had a lovely New Year's eve, we cooked a lovely Dinner together and watched Avengers Endgame, which took us almost to midnight, we saw the New Year in with a Cup of Tea!  The fireworks started and Harley got himself all worked up, which took us a while to resolve, he did eventually settle.  The funniest story of the past couple of days is about Bella,  Harley got a lovely new bed for Christmas, it sits proudly in the corner of the lounge, Harley keeps coming in, sniffing it and laying by the sofa on the floor, we think it's because most of the time Bella is spread across the whole bed, I think she know she isn't supposed to be in there, if you call her she just spreads out even further! Little Minx! 

I hope that you all had a lovely New Years Day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Happy New Year 2020

Good Morning Ladies,

I would like to wish each and every one of you, my Very Dear Friends the very Happiest New Year.

I hope and pray that those of you that are struggling make major improvements in this new year.

I look forward to spending every day of the next year inspiring you to get go to your Craft Space and create, I would like to Challenge you all to try something New, we did one or two new things this year and you all conquered those. 

Michele your resolution on this day last year was to be more adventurous in your crafting, well you can tick that one off, you started stamping at your Card-io classes and you are trying Needlecraft in the New Year! Well done you xxx

If there are any features you would like to see or techniques,  please let me know, any ideas you can give will help me out.

Are you all up for continuing our weekly Challenge?? 

Thank you to all of you for making our lovely Blog what it is, it is truly a pleasure for me to write, knowing that atleast one of you may get a little help and support from it.

I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such a wonderful Blog Family.

Happy New Year Ladies,

Love and huge hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxxxx