Bah! Humbug! #1

The title of this post doesn't reflect my own feelings towards Christmas: it's merely to indicate that I've managed to complete a card for this week's challenge as set by the eponymous site! The given theme was Holly, or alternatively, Fairies, but I don't do fairies so holly it is. Yet another of the patterns from Stitching Cards and I like the finished result much more than I expected from the pattern; it was very quick to stitch, too, and not too taxing for my cold-befuddled brain.

It's a pity the scan doesn't show the colours properly. All the threads have a glitter filament - the lettering and candle are red, the candlestick is copper, and the flame and aura are gold, as are the long straight stitches in the border. Still, the good thing is that the holly takes centre stage ;)

More stitched bookmarks

I have a heavy cold so am staying indoors and stitching. I've made these bookmarks over the past couple of days from the Stitching Cards website but have now stopped production and gone back to making a stitched card for the Bah! Humbug! site's first Christmas challenge of the year. As usual I've left myself short of time because I forgot to check it out last Friday, but I hope to finish by Thursday lunchtime as it will have to be on show here by then.

Meanwhile, if you would like to win one of my bookmarks, read the post immediately below this one and leave me a comment there. You can see more like these in the post dated Saturday 8 January.

Belated birthday

No, not a card I've made for a birthday I forgot! Last Thursday was my blogging first birthday; I didn't post on that day so didn't bother to mention it. But I thought about it and had a quiet celebratory feeling within me. I'm pleased that I managed to set up the blog in the first place, and have learned how to tweak it over the past year - things like changing the header photo and positioning photos within the text are huge achievements for me :) I've also been thrilled at the lovely comments received and have a warm feeling towards every one of those wonderful people who takes the trouble to do so, especially the regulars. OK, I know no one is likely to make a nasty comment and bloggers work on a 'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' ethos, but I could so easily have been posting into a dark uninhabited world! My family and close friends are not regular readers here so it is the larger crafting cyberworld that has opened its doors to me, and I am both gratified and humble. I don't do brilliant work that makes everyone gasp in amazement; my artistic ability is almost non existent; I've never been asked to join anyone's design team.....I just do my own thing, and in the future my creations are likely to be very similar to those in the past, so thank you to those who are content with seeing what I do.

I'm going to have a blog Giveaway as a thank you. I'm still stitching floral bookmarks (see the post immediately under this) with great enjoyment and will send one each to three people chosen at random from those who leave a comment to this post. I'll leave it open until midnight GMT on Friday 14th, which is about midday Saturday in NZ and 4pm Friday in California (the rest of you will have to work it out for yourselves!) Check back here to see if your name has been drawn and if it has you'll need to send me your postal address. I can't promise to send a specific design/colour combination because I haven't stitched all the possibles yet, but pick a single colour from red-blue-yellow-orange-pink-purple and I'll do my best for you.

More stitched cards, but not for Christmas!

I am still working on Christmas designs but gave myself a break today by stitching 3 bookmarks. The designs came from Stitching Cards, sister site to Pinbroidery (same designer owns both), and were fun and very quick to make - about three hours each. I used DMC embroidery threads with 4 shades each of the blues and purples. They are made on a double sized piece of card which is folded in half and stuck to hide the back of the work and I think it would be nice to send them as cards and suggest the recipient sticks them together for a keepsake. However these particular bookmarks have been made as token prizes for a challenge I shall be setting in May. Each year we go to the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, for a week's holiday with a group of folk dancers. Last year for the first time I gave everyone a list of 'Things To Do' during the week, which ranged from climbing the highest mountain on the island to eating haggis, and from seeing a puffin to buying the local paper! There were far more things listed than could possibly be done in a week but the winner managed about 40 and was ceremoniously presented with the promised 'small prize' on the final evening: a miniature bottle of whisky no more than an inch tall! This year I plan to repeat the challenge and shall be making half a dozen bookmarks over the next few months for awards.

More Christmas cards!

The enthusiasm still burns brightly so here are 3 cards I mounted last evening. The stitched designs are from Pinbroidery (link in my sidebar); the IF pattern came from a seller on eBay about 3 years ago. And the pieces of white, red and green backing card all came from my pile of scraps!

Christmas Past and Future

Because my daughter came to stay over Christmas, and then again on New Year's Eve, the spare bedroom had to be cleared and much of the 'stuff' found a temporary home in my craft room. This meant no possibility of cardmaking until the 'stuff' was replaced once more in the spare room, so Julian's birthday card had to be made in early December and I've been waiting impatiently for a return to creativity ever since. Some of the time I was able to use productively by developing a new storage system for my Nesties and various stencils: they're now all standing up in a box separated by labelled card dividers, which looks just like a library card catalogue such as I used when I started work in the local library in 1963 - I felt quite nostalgic! I also now have my JustRite Stampers in a wonderful collection of boxes given to me for Christmas by one of my best friends.

Finally I sorted out all my patterns and threads for stitched cards, and made a start on my Christmas cards for 2011. We receive around 120 cards and have them displayed on the two doors in the living room so looking at them over the holiday period is when I'm most inspired. It's several years since I did any stitched designs (apart from one poinsettia design last year) and I've decided to prick out as many patterns as possible while I'm in the mood, then I can stitch whenever I feel like it throughout the year. Yesterday I actually completed one card, shown here, even down to the insert sheet and my stamp on the back, and I also have another two fronts stitched but not mounted. Don't worry, this level of enthusiasm can't possibly continue!

Some boys never grow up!

My son is an adrenalin freak - he once sent us a postcard from New Zealand which said 'I can think of nothing I want to do more than spend my life jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane at 13,000 feet with another fellah strapped to my back!' He had just done his first tandem parachute jump and went on to do two more. Forget bungee jumping - unless he can go and do the highest in the world, in South Africa, he's done all that he wants and they're all too tame. Having already tried skate boarding as a youngster, and then wake boarding (the same thing but on water and without wheels: that one gave him concussion and a permanently scarred head) of course he naturally gravitated in NZ to hurtling down mountains like dragons' teeth on a snow board. It's his birthday today (he's spending it snowboarding in Poland) and this stamp cried out to me for his card as soon as I saw it. Happy 37th birthday Julian!