Posting Early For Christmas!

Well, here are my first cards of 2014! I have joined a challenge on SplitCoast Stampers and said I will aim to make 5 every month; last year my target was 8 and I managed it in only two months - January and December! Having had two poor years of crafting (and blogging) I really hope to do much better this year and despite being unwell since Christmas I'm happy to have made a good start. Actually, I've eased into it with a bit of cheating: the candle panel was stitched in November but then got forgotten until I mounted it yesterday. The purple card was the last-but-one made just a few days before Christmas. I was in a hurry to make 10 for my craft group meeting on the 20th - too much of a hurry, because I was using a lovely 'Merry Christmas' die by Cheery Lynn and managed to stick it on upside down on card number 9! In removing the diecut I damaged the backing paper in the middle so had to make the card again from scratch (since they were all the same except for colour I couldn't have an odd one) then I decided to salvage the damaged card with a solid centre using a fancy Nestie, a classic oval and a rubber stamp I've had for about 20 years. It turned out so well that I used the design for a birthday card for a member of the same group on the 30th, subbing butterflies for holly leaves.

The poinsettia card won't be duplicated too much - it took several hours to stitch but is, I think, very pretty. I have another pricked ready but may use a different colour for the flower and turn it into a birthday card. The decoupage motif came from a recent issue of Making Cards magazine and was cut out several weeks ago and then forgotten, until it emerged when moving stuff around to make room for the Christmas tree.

Since yesterday I've almost finished stitching two of the initial birthday cards that I enjoyed making last year. I'll make them up and show them ASAP even though one is for a crafting friend's birthday in February and the other our friend Mary's 101st in March. I don't have any to make for January (our son's was made to go with the birthday cake I sent to Canada last month - he was away over Christmas so had it a couple of days late on his return, but as I pointed out, he kept us waiting from 23 December to 2 January when he was born, so I was just getting my own back! )  I wish I had scanned the cards I made from September to the end of the year but my heart wasn't in it so I can't show them. Never mind, here's to a fresh start with renewed enthusiasm.