A Look Back At 2013

Now that we are into 2014 (I hope you all caught my “Thank You and a Happy New Year” post yesterday), I’ve been steered towards having a look back at my creations of 2013, and to choose “My Top 20 Creations”, from reading the blog posts of some of my online friends who’ve done something similar.

In fact, if you go to the blog “The Manic World Of Mrs McKenzie” you will see that she’s got a link tool where anybody who’s doing something like this can add their blog post where they are displaying their favourites of 2013.

I must admit to finding this very difficult – just choosing 20 out of all my crafting projects.  And I fear that if I was to do the same exercise tomorrow I’d come up with a totally different list – but I’ve got to stop changeing my mind right now and get this published.

I’ve tried to choose a bit of an assortment of different crafts, not just cardmaking, and I’m not showing them in any particular order.  I hope you like the items I’ve picked.

(Clicking on each picture will take you to the original blog post for each project where you should find details of what I used in each case – amongst all the other stuff I made the same time.)

1.  Made as a housewarming gift for my sister and her husband – they will hopefully be moving this month.

2. Made for a card swap, making everything other than the image white on white.

3.  I like buying cheap notebooks to decorate up as an inexpensive gift.

4. Made as a Christmas gift for a family member.  A cross between a birthday book and a card storage box.

5.  A beaded Kumihimo necklace with the magnetic clasp at the front making it easy to do upfor a person with dexterity issues.

6.  The image on this card was one I bought during the “Owl the Same … or Not Blog Hop” which was run by the Stamp Out Stamp Theft group to help educate people about copyright of stamps, both physical and digital, and the fact that it’s theft to make unauthorised copies.

7. This was the first tutorial I’d done for The Dragons Den blog (well the only one I’ve done so far really, but I hope to do more in the future), and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

8. People who visit my blog often will have seen that I love my Silhouette Cameo and the wonderful designs by the likes of Tina Fitch that can be cut out using it – even if lack of space means I can’t keep it out to use all the time, and health issues means I can’t drag it out to use as often as I’d like.  With the addition of some simple, punched, vellum flowers, this is one design that shows off the capability of the machine with minimal work on my part.

9. This creation I love, not just because it’s one of very few decorated candles I’ve made, but because I also made the display base and put together the simple bracelet that’s around it that makes a second gift.

10.  This selection of hand made and hand decorated cupcakes of all sizes makes it into my top 20, not because they were all made and decorated by me, but because they were a group effort with my sister having helped my sister-in-law make some of them, and my niece and my sister-in-law and myself being involved in the decoration, so it was quite a fun afternoon.

11. I was particularly pleased with how this wedding card turned out.

12. I like purple!

13. I just love the muted and rustic tones of this.

14. I put together the design for the topper in one of my graphics packages before printing off and doing traditional papercrafting with it.

15.  Another item cut using my Silhouette Cameo, but this time a fancy box, not a card.

16.  A little wrap I knitted for myself on one of my knitting looms to keep my shoulders warm in the spring.

17. I love the dimensional effect of decoupage, but don’t do it very often because my hands don’t allow me to cut out anything particularly intricate, so when I do get something to look quite good I’m always pleased.

18. I don’t often get out feathers, and charms, some buttons, some gems, die-cuts and Silhouette Cameo cuts, some glitter ribbon, etc., and throw them all at one card – but I did for this card and I love the results.

19. I’ve put together pictorial guides to making several different types of paper flowers during the year, and hadn’t intended to do any more in December, but I saw the diamond waste from die-cutting out cracker shapes and just had to do a few more flower styles using the waste.

20. And I’m finishing with one of my latest creations, because I like the fact that it has a lot of white background while still having some bits of pearls and ribbons and lace to decorate.

What do you think of my choice of top 20?  If you are regular, or occasional, visitors to my blog – would you have picked different items from my assorted creations?  Let me know what you think as a comment below if you’ve got a moment.

Thank you for reading this far – 20 is quite a lot isn’t it?!