2012 :: A year in review

Last January I wrote a post, New Year, New Projects, about the things that I hoped to achieve during the year. I started my blog in November 2011 with this post about my desire to start a new chapter in my life and get creative. I wrote about my crafty beginnings which sparked a list of things I wanted to learn over the coming year. I'm super proud to show you a summary of what I've managed to achieve this year.

I had a busy year of making...I learnt to knit a chunky scarf when I started my blog... 

I attempted to start crochet...I didn't have time to continue with it, but maybe this year!

I took the plunge and decided to start knitting a cable cushion cover

During a patchwork and quilting taster session I got hooked on patchwork and buying fabrics...

I said goodbye to my Mum's sewing machine and invested in my own new sewing machine...

I made a quilted patchwork sewing machine cover

Made my first patchwork quilt and wrote instructions of how to make the quilt...

I made a cushion for a good friend

 Designed and made my own Christmas Patchwork Stocking and made two just in time for Christmas!

I got back into paper crafting and made some cards...

I started gardening and planted some plants and flowers and watched the garden bloom

 With the awful weather during the summer we still had a little crop of fruit and veg to eat!

I was given my dream window boxes and added some summer and winter flowers to them...

I made a few things for our home...I created my own labels for our spice rack

...learnt how to make sloe gin

and did a bit of upcycling, making coasters from wall tiles 

I spent a little bit of time in the kitchen cooking and baking...

Well, what a year. I'm so very proud of what I've managed to achieve. There haven't been many years where I feel that I've developed so much, I've learnt so many practical things and achieved so much! 

Thank you so much for following my journey so far, I really appreciate all your comments and visits you make to my blog. I hope that you will join me during 2013 to see what I get up to, I've got some great things planned and I'd love to share these with you.

Handmade Christmas Cards

Over the past few weeks I've been making my own Christmas cards. I sourced some lovely papers, embellishments and clear stamps to use. I had the chance to use all of my scrap booking and paper crafting supplies to create the cards. I used a scalloped paper punch, circle punch, some gorgeous Christmas stamps from Elle's Studio, buttons tied with red and white bakers twine and some wood veneer snowflakes from Studio Calico and a variety of washi tapes.

 

New Baby Bunting Card

Making my own handmade cards is so satisfying. I find it takes me a bit of time to get inspired so making my own cards is sometimes a challenge. I made this new baby card a month or so ago but haven't shared it with you yet. It took me a while to decide on the patterned paper I was going to use for the bunting. I'm really happy with how the striped pattern looks and how the colours work together.

This card is similar to another bunting baby card I made earlier in the year but I've changed the shape of the bunting, colours used and have used pink and white bakers twine.

I've started making my own Christmas cards this year so I'll update you in a week or so when I've put the finishing touches to them.

Handmade Mr and Mr card

One of my close friends from university married the love of his life this September. Before the big day I spent a week or so trying to find a card to celebrate their marriage but I couldn’t find one that I really wanted to give. The range of Mr and Mr marriage celebration cards is so very small, so I decided to make one using my paper stash.

I looked for colours that I knew that they both liked and this formed the main inspiration for the card. I wanted something simple but bold. Using pinking shears I cut a rectangle of striped orange and white paper to form the background. I used my clear stamps and silver ink to create the Mr & Mr message on white card and mounted the message on blue paper. I finished the card off by adding a wooden heart button and a thin piece of off white ribbon. It was a really quick project and only took me about 20 minutes to make this card...it took me longer to write the message that was inside the card! 

On their big day I felt a huge sense of pleasure adding my handmade card to the pile of cards to celebrate their special day. 

Handmade Father's Day card

I spent an hour or so this week making this handmade card for my amazing Dad for Father's Day. I used a selection of blue papers I had in my stash and tried to find a few different patterns that worked well together.

I used alphabet stencils I had to create the big letters and cut them out using scissors and my small craft knife. Clear stamps and a silver ink pad were used to create the 'best in the world' lettering and the zig zag cuts were made using pinking shears. I was really pleased with the end result, and my Dad liked it too!

Wishing all Dad's out there a wonderful Father's Day!

Making cards using fabric and a touch of spotty bunting!

As well as getting stuck into knitting my cushion cover and starting my top secret project, I got stuck into making a few cards to try something a bit different…Spurred on by the fact that I couldn't find cards that I liked, I decided to make my own! On my commute to work I found the ideal time to plan out in my head my ideas for each card, I wanted each to be personal and special for those who were going to receive them.

Early this week the cards safely arrived at their destinations so I can now share them with you! I made two cards to celebrate two big milestones. My friends were celebrating the birth of their baby girl and another friend celebrating her 30th birthday. Having procrastinated over the draft designs I finally sat down and had a play with my paper stash!

The new baby card was created to match the colours of the nursery, green and yellow. I created the card with a dual purpose to say congratulations and as something simple that could be framed and added to the nursery wall if they wanted.

 So here it is....

I bought a set of alphabet clear stamps recently and used these to stamp a letter on each part of bunting. I knew that the colours would fit with the nursery so I added a birth date to the card too to make it even more personal. I love using confetti in cards so using a craft punch of two feet I created confetti in a range of pretty pastels.

My ideas for the 30th birthday card were a little different! I wanted to try and use fabric rather than paper. Purely for the fact that I had much nicer fabric in the colour I wanted rather than in my paper collection. I traced a '3' '0' and created templates to help me cut out the fabric. I used some iron on webbing to make the fabric stiffer so that I could easily cut out and stitch the fabric. I cut a rectangle of fabric to mount the 30 on and cut the edges with pinking shears.

I used hand applique to attach the '30' to the background fabric, using metallic blue thread. I then machine stitched using straight stitch the rectangle onto a white card. I loved adding fabric and paper together on a card so I will definitely try this again with other projects!

Here's the final card...

I was so pleased with both cards...I love adding a little bit of matching ribbon to cards I make to finish them off and make them look pretty. I just need to start making them earlier next time as I was a little late getting them in the post!

What cards are you making at the moment? Do you like using fabric to create cards?