My review of 2018

We are into the last few days of 2018 and as in previous years I find this a really good time to reflect on the year that has past. I am so inspired by Mother Nature and always love to catch her at different time of the year in my photographs.

I think this is best shown as collages of the seasons I have lived this year...

Winter

...and yes we did have snow in February this year when the Beast from the East hit hard. Luckily it did not last too long. 

Spring

We had a cold start to spring but once April arrived things started warming up to produce some gorgeous spring flowers.

 Summer

I will never forget our long hot summer, the best since 1976. It surpassed the temperatures and hours of sunlight for that year too. We spent so many relaxing hours outside. My pots of flowers this year were magnificent thanks to the weather.

Autumn

 The long hot summer morphed into an Indian summer and we saw such spectacular colours during our delightfully warm, and sunny autumn.

Mother Nature really was at her best for 2018, it was a year to remember.

For my crafting I also put together a collage of some of my paper crafting projects...even I am a little startled at my stats because this is less than everything crafting I made. I also made quite a bit of jewellery at my silversmithing class.

I made;

348 one of a kind cards for Dotty's Teahouse where I sell my cards in Carshalton.
51 Christmas cards.
86 Design Team inspirational projects for my 3 Design Teams; Country View challenges, Visible Image and STAMPlorations.
2 birthday cakes: a tool box cake for Jack and a Unicorn cake for Daisy.
I was published 7 times during 2018 in 3 different crafting magazines, I made a least one project (for one I made 3 ) for each.
1 holiday album after our magical family holiday in Majorca.
At least 25 projects for TV, blog hops, Facebook lives, Creativation in the USA,  etc etc for Visible Image and STAMPlorations.
1 set of handmade Christmas crackers.

Gosh!

Here is a small collage just showing a tiny sample of my 400+ paper crafting projects during the year.

So my last project to share for 2018 has to be a card, as that is where my main crafting love lies. It is also a nod to Billy, my sweet cat who is my avatar and shares my blog and home.

I used the brilliant Curious cat Visible Image stamp set. I made a distress ink background and then coloured the eyes green and the nose pink, just like my Billy's.

Here's a close up

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Allsorts Thanks a bunch
Cute card Thursday 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes
As you like it 1/3 anything goes
Creative moments 1/3 anything goes

My card is also dedicated to you, my readers, as a thank you for all your support, visits and kind comments you have taken to leave me here during 2018. Some of you do this for every post I write 💕
My card is for sale at Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE. Dotty's is open every day other than New Year's Day.

I will be back on New Year's day as being the 1st of the month it's also time for my first design team post  for 2019 for Country View Challenges.

I will close with a very thoughtful quote from Edith Lovejoy Pierce;

We will open the book. 
Its pages are blank.
We are going to put
 words on them ourselves.

The book is called Opportunity
 and its first chapter is New Year's day.

See you on "the other side" and enjoy seeing in the new year in whatever way you enjoy. For those of you who have found 2018 challenging I hope that 2019 works out kinder for you. Life is definitely a journey and not a destination.

Take care.

Bye for now,

Jane x

When 2 crafts collide

My silversmithing class returned after the Christmas break and I realised I have not show you what I made during the autumn term. The brief set by our tutor was to make something with a hinge. I have made hinged boxes in the past so she suggested that I made a hinged "card" pendant, as she knows my papercraft addiction.

That set me off with lots of ideas. I had a copper metal clay heart which I made some time ago and thought I could use it as a "focal" just as I do on my cards. I wanted to have some writing on my "card".The only way I could do this without engraving, which we don't have the tools for, was to use alphabet punches. I designed the front of the card to show "love" and the inside would reveal the rest of the words.....

 I cut 2 matching pieces of silver sheet and filed the edges. I wrote the words on paper and stuck them to the silver sheet. Using the punches and a hammer I struck the words...it took a lot of patience to get the letters spaced and in a line.

 I also soldered the heart to the front of my "card"

 The hinge was made with thin silver tubing,  measured into thirds and partially sawn through. The middle third blanked out with rouge so that it did not solder and remained "free".

 Once in place I carefully sawed out that middle section

and this piece was them soldered to the front. This was a complex procedure.
It all got so fiddly and there are no more photo but a piece of silver wire was threaded through and then riveted off to make the hinge. Then I had lots of filing and adjustments to made the "card" close.
I added a loop and a jump ring to make it into a pendant. Then there was a week or 2 or filing and polishing.

So do you want to how it turned out.......here we go....if you  think photographing cards is tricky sterling silver is just ridiculous!

Hinge side view

The front

Opening the hinge to reveal the inside words 

Another front view

and to give an idea of scale here is my card pendant on an 18" chain.

It's much prettier and shiny in the flesh and I really love wearing it...it combines my silversmithing with my card making, infact I am wearing it as I type this.

So having combined silversmithing with card making my busy creative brain thought...why not combine card making with silversmithing! I seriously had been playing with foil techniques before Tim brought out his January tag challenge. I made a faux riveted card using snippets of foil and lots of tools including staples.

I added some black acrylic paint and then gave it a good rub with sandpaper to give a real grungy rusted feel.

 I added a lovely red embossed heart

 and a Dymo sentiment for a retro look. I put this card in my Etsy shop and it sold in 2 days! I plan to made another version soon.

*******EDIT: 12.1.16....A new version is available via the link here***********

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

WOW embossing challenge anything goes my heart is heat embossed with red embossing powder,
Anything but cute Ring out the old...bring in the new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous red geranium embossing powder
Crafty calendar something new   this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder
Rubber Dance Black white and one other colour....mine is black white and red.
Simon says stamp Wednesday something new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder.
Love to create anything creative/mixed media #27
Crafty friends something new this is a new concept piece for me combining silversmithing with card making.
Simon says stamp Monday something new this the first time I have combined card making with my silversmithing
Art with heart  Favourite things Combining my crafts is one of them!

I love how all my crafts....silversmithing, card making, art journaling, mixed media Moments, knitting, crochet and cake decorating all share some similar elements. It keeps me endlessly occupied and with so many ideas that if I live until I was 100 I would never exhaust them. I actually keep a notebook of light bulb moments so that I don't forget them.

Thanks for visiting me today. Have a lovely weekend and hopefully you will get some time to get creative. I hope to get some creative time on Sunday....and yes my brain is already ticking away with ideas.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x