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Tuesday 3 December 2019

A sparkling new year

Hello crafting friends!

It was a wonderful sparkling frosty day when I started writing this post, which was all the more beautiful for following the dark, grey rainy ones of November. Suddenly those rosy-cheeked skaters, frost-rimed winter foliage and Santas arriving in a flurry of glitter seemed right - and I could even think of a shiny new year too! Come and see:


Letterpress Winter is a retired Stampin' Up stamp set that I'm SO glad I managed to hang on to! I use it all the time for all sorts of occasions and I think its vintage style is an enduring classic. Today, I've used it for a new year celebration card. Can you see how sparkly it is?!


The '2020' comes from another retired set that I find very useful, called 25 days, which was intended for making advent calendars but which I often use when I need interesting-looking numbers. For this card, I used the number 20 twice, inking up with versamark and heat embossing with gold embossing powder. The 'happy new year' greeting is from Clearly Besotted's Cityscape and fits the year rather neatly :)


The beautiful frame from Letterpress was stamped last using Memento black ink. I coloured in some of the frame with a gold marker and added gold Stickles for a really sparkly look. The panel was mounted on gold mirror card using dimensionals.

CHALLENGES
I'm enjoying joining in with the Festive Friday challenges - it's NOT about making festive cards (unless you want it to be) but more a device to give you an inspiration list to kickstart your creativity. Today I chose Vintage, CAS and Black and White from the list. I'm also linking up with another favourite challenge: CAS on Friday where the challenge this week is Black and White with one colour.


AND IN OTHER NEWS
The house diagonally opposite ours is home to several professional young people. They always decorate their house to the nines at Halloween, which amuses me,  but at the weekend, they showed that they could get excited about Christmas too. I don't think I've ever seen quite so many flashing lights, reindeer, icicles and fake snow in one place in my life! I was thinking of putting my simple red berry wreath up in the next day or two - but I'm not sure anyone will notice!

Thanks for coming to visit me today. Have you got your decorations up yet? Are you a 'Whole of December, got to make the most of it' person, or is your view more 'What do you mean? It isn't Christmas Eve yet'? Do let me know in the comments below :)

Hugs,

20 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful and elegant card Vicky, could have been bought in one of those expensive boutique shops.

    As for decorations, Christmas Eve would be too soon for me, but hubby has me help put them up at least a week before and they come down as soon as hubby is willing LOL. Only feeling like this since my Dad died on the 23rd December.
    Faith x

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    1. Oh Faith, I'm so sorry that you lost your Dad. It's so hard when you then associate the pain with celebrations. I think this will lessen over time and you'll allow the other memories to come through. Sending lots of love xx

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    2. Would you believe it's 40 years ago, I couldn't until I wrote it down. x

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  2. Wonderful New Year card Vicky.

    As it happens, I DO have my Christmas decorations up . . . but I've only done it this early because of a family get-together this weekend!!!!

    Hugs, Sarn xxx

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    1. Yay - partay!!! I like to get my decorations up in early Dec so that I can feel festive while writing cards and lists and wrapping presents. Also so that I don't feel that I'm taking them down almost as soon as I've put them up! Have a lovely time this weekend won't you!
      xxx

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  3. Super card! Simply elegant. Love it. Well done

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  4. Marisela Delgado said: Hola, Vicky! Your Purple Rain inspired snowflake card was awesome because I LOVE purple. ha-ha This is an awesome card also. =) My mother's friend went home to Mexico,which is also my mother's home, and he brought me a ceramic Nativity scene. When he gave it to me, it was topsy turvy, but when I took it out...well, it is the cutest thing. So I am excited for my new Nativity scene. Yay! I decorate for the whole month and then some. By Thanksgiving, my tree and decorations were up and ready. What about you? FELIZ NAVIDAD, VICKY!! A big hug to you and your family.

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    1. I'm glad you're enjoying your decorations in the run up to Christmas Marisela and the Nativity scene sounds lovely. I have my tree up but I've been busy looking after the dogs so the rest will have to wait until next week. It always takes me forever! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving x

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  5. This is a fantastic New Year's card, Vicky. I love that swirly frame embellished with gold, and the way it gives the new year center stage.

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    1. Thanks Stephanie! Fun to think of new year things in the middle of the Christmas craziness!

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  6. Gorgeous card, Vicky! I usually put my decorations up on Black Friday, but I'm late this year. Hopefully will do them this weekend though xoxo

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  7. Lovely Vicky! I am a ‘put up the decorations when I can’t bear the nagging from the children any more’ kind of girl, although usually that’s not until 2 weeks before. :-)

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    1. I bet they don't nag you to take them down again though! I like it all to be gone by the day after new year's day at the latest!

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  8. An absolutely beautiful clean and elegant card, Vicky! I am so glad you joined us at Festive Friday! I was always a "Day After Thanksgiving" decorator. I would spend the entire weekend decorating the house. I had five trees!!! Now that I have 5 Boxer dogs in the house, I string garland on the mantle, put out a little ceramic tree that has been in the family for decades, and place a candle in every window. Although I no longer decorate the house to the nines, we still engage in so many baking and candy making traditions...including treats for the puppers! lol

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    1. I love it Ann! So much fun decorating for the holidays :) But wait... you have FIVE boxers?!!! That is a lot of bounce right there! I look after a 12 year old boxer sometimes. She and Eva became friends as soon as they met and we all adore her!

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  9. Just gorgeous, Vicky! I love how that gold just pops on your clean design. Wow! Thanks so much for joining us over at Festive Friday!

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  10. Congratulations! Your project was selected as a Festive Fave over at the Festive Friday Challenge. As a reminder, you can hop over to the challenge to grab your winners badge for your blog. Thanks so much for joining us and I hope you will play along again really soon!

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    1. Oh wow! That's so exciting! Hopping over now...

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I'd love to know what you think. Do leave me a comment - it always makes my day! Vicky x


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