Christmas Gift Boxes and WOYWW

 The Christmas preparations are done - the last of the cards and tags have been made and presents posted, and I've just finished two little gift boxes for my brother-in-law and nephew.   Now I just have to remember to put the gift card and cash in them, or that could be embarrassing!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

I hope you all have a happy, safe and creative festive season, and here's hoping 2021 will be a kinder year to us all.

October Birthdays and WOYWW

Not much crafting done lately I'm afraid, but I'll show a couple of birthday cards I've made this month - they were propped up on my desk waiting to be photographed for ages as I discovered a scratch on the lens of my camera and had to wait for a new one to arrive.  I was so disappointed to find that my 'new' camera was too old be mended but I've picked up an identical second hand one so I don't have to learn how to use a different one -  I'm soooooo lazy when it comes to reading instruction manuals!  

 On to the cards - this one has vellum leaves and stamped Tissue wrap which I adhered to a Khadi paper base for my sister's card...

... and this card for my nephew's 17th birthday is based on Dungeons and Dragons - he's a bit of a fan of it at the moment.   I cut and stenciled the D&D logo onto an embossed 'shield' that I edged with copper tape.  I made a small matching box to hold birthday money and gift cards, which is always preferable to anything I might go and buy him!!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Silver Jewellery Making

 I've recently discovered the joys of working with silver clay!  Basically it's a clay made of silver particles plus a binder, so you work with it like clay and then when it's fired the binder burns off and you are left with pure silver. 

I've been on a couple of fantastic courses lately, the ammonite pendant was made with Hilary Bowen back in November and I was so thrilled with the whole experience that I was given some clay for Christmas and made the two leaf pendants at home - there is some room for improvement in them but I love wearing them and imperfections are all part of the 'hand-made' look!  Last Saturday I went on another fabulous course with the lovely and super-talented Fiona Ingram who helped me turn my own design into a one-off piece of jewellery with gorgeous shades of autumn colours on the berries - it was such a fun day.   

I'm relieved to say I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week as I've had such horrible and seemingly never-ending computer problems lately.  We had a major crash during a Windows 10 update then big problems while changing our Broadband supplier - soooooo frustrating and quite an eye opener discovering how much I rely on my computer and how much I missed it!

Loving Red

I'm so enjoying working with red.

It's festive and wintery and I think I might turn some of these into Christmas cards!

Some garden inspiration

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Spring Garland and WOYWW #310

I needed to get this out of my system.

I've had the flowers and berries in my loft for several years and 

have been wanting to use them - but no idea for what.

Now I have no idea what to do with the finished garland!

But I feel better having 'scratched that little itch!'

I'm linking up with WOYWW - why not pop over and see what other people have on their desks this week.

WINTER IMAGES

I am so in love with Photoshop -

the house is a mess, washing needs doing, Sunday dinner was a ready-meal

BUT I produced these two pictures that I am very happy with!

The road to Stockbridge

Winter berries