A review of 2015 and my 5 favourite crafty creations 2015

Here we are at the end of the year......with a review of my year blogging and of my crafty creations. 

Grab a cup of tea as there is lots to see today. If you are just nipping in to see my challenge piece just scroll to the bottom of the page.

2015 has been a kind year to me and I have put a little montage together. My garden continues to inspire me and my little studio is such a perfect place to create in . I don't think any words are needed. I have shared all these moments with you on my blog this year.

2015 has been also been a very creative one for me.....I have continued to explore and expand into mixed media but I will never forget my cute origins either.

Debby of a scrapjourney kindly hosts her great 5 "favourites" challenges every year and I am very pleased to see she is doing so again this year. Thanks Debby and I hope 2016 proves an easier year for you.
 The first of her 2 "5 favourites" was for just for Christmas makes. You can see my post here for these.

 This is her second challenge which is for 5 favourite cards of 2015.
Here is the link to her post.
Now this really was a hard one....I have made so many different styles of cards this year. After a lot of deliberation this is my final choice....

My Hb's Valentine card

My Mum and Dad's Diamond wedding card

A special birthday card

The Mother's day card I made for my Mum

and my granddaughter's 2nd birthday card

Now I have made so many non card creations this year that I also decided to share my favourite 5 of these.

The mixed media picture I made for my darling son.

 The tags I made at the Wendy Vecchi workshop in the Summer

The rock pool niche I made for my Hb

The slashed canvas I made at Darcy's workshop

and the spell book I made for Daisy

While I was looking through my photos I also chose my 5 favourite art journal/Moments.

My Hb's birthday meal in January at Maze in London

My daughter's BBQ in July

 Our 34th wedding anniversary at Scotney Castle

Conker treasure hunting with my darling granddaughter

Pananging in the New Forest in October

and this final one below, which is new today. It is a Moment I have created for this Christmas... 2015.....using a gift tag given to my by my darling Hb as a focal. 

I had a lovely day yesterday in my studio, blowing off the cobwebs and I wanted to get my hands inked so I decided to make a festive page in my journal. I had lots of little off cuts from various projects this Christmas, including a piece of a masterboard I used. I decided to use some of these elements in my pages.

I stenciled some holly leaves first using texture paste and  then I chose some paints and got messy...

until I was happy with my background..... I added stamping and sprays too.

I stamped 2015 onto my little snippet of masterboard...click here to see this, if you don't remember it

 and then I had a play to create these festive pages.

I added lots of sparkle and the twine is from the other gift tags my Hb gave me.

They will remind me of the wonderful pressies my darling Hb bought me and of my Christmas crafting for 2015. My art journal is nearly full.....just one more page to go.

I would like to enter my 2015 Christmas Moment into the following challenges;

Frilly and Funkie 1/3 holiday hues I created my piece as a celebration of my Christmas 2015
As you like it anything goes 1/3 I love creating Moment of my year and my favourite piece of this one is my shiny 2015 created on a tiny piece of masterboard.
Simon says Wednesday  party I shall be partying tonight over at my parents' to see out the old year.
Art with heart Favourite things my journalling has been one of my favourite creative things this year.
Country View create a scene
A vintage journey a vintage Christmas Christmas 2015 certainly was a vintage one for our family
Bunny Zoe 3/3 sparkle
Love to create  anything creative/mixed media #26
Anything but cute you've got happy mail
Where the HeArt is Christmas colours

I hope you have enjoyed my review of 2015. I have really enjoyed sharing it, it's good to look back on a year's work.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my loyal followers, both old (not in age of course!) and the very newest 2 who joined me yesterday, who follow my creative journey here. Your visits and comments are so appreciated and I truly find joy in our blogging friendship. Thank you.

Tonight we see out the old year and ring in 2016............................................................................
I think these words from T. S Elliot are very apt to close the final page of Jane's Journal for 2015.

For the last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to  make a beginning.

See you in 2016,

 With love,

Jane x

I should be so lucky

Well Santa was very kind to me this year and I got some amazing presents including chocolates, flowers, crafting goodies, and favourite cosmetics. My Hb spoilt me and in my lovely haul from him were

yes I know very spoilt and one other thing he squeezed into my stocking was this

...an Instax camera. OMGoodness it is such fun. If you have never heard of them think modern Polaroid with credit card size colour photos. My son was completely in awe and spent most of Christmas posting images on his Instagram account. I was transported back to the 1970 when everyone owned a huge Polaroid camera. Daisy was fascinated that the photos get spat out of the side and develop before your eyes. My Mum had us in stitches as she was looking at the wrong side of one I took for her and told me that it hadn't worked...until I turned it around!

I will need to play with settings so I just put this on party mode for the holiday and obviously I have taken a photo of a photo so they are a little dark.

 They are the size of a credit/store card as I have shown below

I may even put some of these in a Moment at some point.

My card today is really a one which sums up how I feel about life. I don't share a lot of very  personal stuff here as I always believe blogging should be a positive and fun place to be.  I am very lucky and I am so grateful for everything I have but that does not say that life does not have its roller coaster moments. 2016 looks like being one of those for me job wise, I won't bore you with the details. I seriously do believe that everything happens for a reason. A new chapter perhaps in my life? Well it will certainly be change and who knows I may even find myself on a crafty adventure?

Here is my card

The stamps are PaperArtsy and I have coloured the sentiment with a Sukura glaze pen which gives a lovely glossy raised appearance. I have stamped on book pages and the bow is natural raffia. I am going to have a revamp of my Etsy shop in the coming months and this one is for sale here. I think the sentiment is perfect for so many occasion, even for a  just because card................

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Stamping sensations anything goes with a stamp and a ribbon
Allsorts 1/3 anything but Christmas
Love to Create anything creative/mixed media #26
 Cute card Thursday anything goes
Anything but cute you've got happy mail

I really enjoy the days between Christmas and the New Year. We have had some wonderful family time over Christmas but everyone has now gone home and my Hb and I have some time to relax, walk, read and for me of course....craft. The sun was out yesterday again it's still more like spring than winter here. However today the wind is really gale force and it looks like rain is threatening. I am thinking of those poor souls up North who have been flooded out of their home and more flooding looks set for today. Also over in the States blizzards and tornadoes have been reeking havoc too. Stay safe... be thankful if you are snug today....and remember to bloom where you are planted ;0)

Thanks for visiting,

Back tomorrow with my favourite 5 creations of 2015...my very last post of the year.

Bye for now,

Jane x

My 5 favourite Christmas projects 2015

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and had lots of good food and laughter. We certainly did and enjoyed our extended Christmas day over 2 days seeing all our family. The crackers went down well and here are a couple of shots of the table.

Debby of a scrapjourney kindly hosts her great 5 "favourites" challenges every year and I am very pleased to see she is doing so again this year. Thanks Debby and I hope 2016 proves an easier year for you.

 The first of her 2 "5 favourites" is for Christmas makes. Gosh this was a hard one for me to just choose 5 as I made a lot of Christmas things this year. After some deliberation these are my choices,after looking through them several times. I wonder if any of your favoruites are amongst them?

Below is my card which was published in the January edition of Craft Stamper

This one is a Funkie Junkie challenge entry

Below in my Hb's Christmas card which if I had to choose 1 card I would chose my Man in the Moon as my favourite Christmas card this year.

I loved the Moment I made of Daisy after our trip to Centre Parcs in early December

and lastly I had to choose my Christmas crackers.

Enjoy the time off  between Christmas and the New Year, I am not back at work until 4th January.

For my card challenge card today I thought I would share a last Christmas card for this year. It is simply made with my own mix of snowflake stack, a hand inked background and mounted on some lovely shimmer card. The dies are a mix of Memory box and sizzix and Cheery Lynn and the tag is LOTV

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;

Crafty Hazelnut anything Christmas

Inspiration Emporium 'tis the season

Papertake weekly favourite ever challenge it's the last one there and I will really miss it, it was one of the earliest challenges I entered 5 years ago. My favourite challenge for this entry is my all time favourite of anything goes.

                                                                  Noor Winter wonderland
                                        Simon says stamp Mondays 3/5 winter wonderland
                                          Love to Create anything creative/mixed media #26
                                                           Cute card Thursday anything goes
                     Cheery Lynn anything goes. The very central snowflake in my stack is CL
                                             season's greetings Memory Box the large snowflake is MB
                                     Crafty Boots snow and sparkle
                                                  Where the HeArt is Christmas colours

We are enjoying some family time and today I am off sales shopping with my daughter...our annual tradition. It will be so good and we will of course make time for coffee and lunch ;0)

Back soon to share some of my pressies....Santa was very kind and amongst them my Hb bought me an Instax camera....oh my goodness is it such fun !

Bye for now.

Jane x

The Christmas spirit

We had a lovely pre Christmas brunch on Sunday with our children, it was full of laughter and festive spirit as they will not see one another over the Christmas period.  I set the table up with shop bought (yes I know!) crackers, as my home made ones are saved for the Big day and Boxing day this year.

When she had finished brunch Daisy sat and watched "Room on the Broom" on my Hbs phone. Julia Donaldson's books are so delightful and Daisy loves them all but Room on the Broom and Stick Man are her absolute favourites.  For those of you who love Stick Man , there is a programme on Christmas Day which looks totally delightful. Daisy adores all the books.

Daisy loves looking at Nanna's Christmas ornaments. These are some of her favourites.

Daisy also adores the Snowman and Snowdog so I thought for my challenge card today I would share the card I made her for Christmas.
I bought a great set of stamps last year so I coloured up one of the images with my Promarkers

 made a little snowy scene...........

and ended up with this....

with lots of sparkle

which I am told she really loved.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Inspiration Emporium 'tis the season
Crafty hazelnut Anything Christmas
Papertake weekly favourite ever challenge it's the last one there and I will really miss it, it was one of the earliest challenges I entered 5 years ago. My favourite challenge for this entry is my all time favourite of anything goes.
Our Creative Corner wish upon a star
Country View Challenges make a scene
Crafty Friends 3/3 anything goes
The Artistic stamper Christmas
Noor Winter wonderland
Simon says stamp Mondays 2/5 winter wonderland
Vintage Stamping Winter trees
Fashionable stamping 3/3 make your own background
Love to Create anything creative/mixed media #26
Passion for Promarkers Let's celebrate
Whimsy Winter anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday make it sparkle
Cute card Thursday anything goes

Well we are here at last, just one more sleep until Christmas Day.
I have finished work until the new year and I got up this morning and loved seeing the trees glowing in the darkness. Old choc in the hall

 and our big tree

which has lots of lovely parcels stacked around it

I also opened the final window of my vintage advent calendar....perfect...

 Our fridge is stacked with festive food and Billy is keeping an eye on the parcels and the tree from his chair.

I would just like to end with some very special news; I am so proud that my darling doctor daughter has today been added to the GMC (General Medical Council) register and is now a fully qualified and registered GP. It has taken 11 years of hard work and dedication and we could not be more proud of her. 

Thank you for sharing my 2015 countdown to Christmas and for all the sweet comments you have taken to leave at such a busy time of the year.  I hope you have enjoyed reading Jane's Journal and that I have kept alive some of that Christmas spirit which I hold so dear to me.  

A very Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

I will leave you with my favourite piece of Christmas prose

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.  It may weave a spell of nostalgia.  Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.  ~Augusta E. Rundel

Back soon,

Off to make the mince pies.

Bye for now,

Jane (aka Mrs Christmas and a purr from Billy) xx