Happy Holidays!

A belated Merry Christmas and wishing a very Happy New Year to you all!

To everyone who has been checking out my blog only to find that I haven't updated since OCTOBER - I am very sorry! I had intended to get online and post pre-Christmas...however the lack of cards made and distinct lack of interest in pretty much anything on my part saw that it didn't happen.  With New Year just hours away, I have picked myself up and dusted off my laptop with the intention that this post will be published before the strike of midnight! Be warned...it could actually be a longer post than I anticipated...

Let's kick off the last post of 2014:

The first card I made since my last blog was a birthday card for a friend at work, as she loves glitter - I just had to add a little sparkle...

Next up, are two cards I made for some special friends in Turkey, personalised as much as I could with my limited language skills...Thankfully they were received well :-)

So... then I heard Lili of the Valley were retiring some of their old stamps...so I just had to buy a few that I've wanted for a while...and had a quick play as soon as they arrived (need to work on my colouring skills, especially pencil) Cheers Bear, James Wrapped in Tinsel, Jenny Bear Gifts Galore, and a new stamp - Annabel Saddle Up (not retired)

This led to three more cards using just two of the four new additions...

I love Cheers Bear because he can be used for male cards - which I am not particularly great at and definitely need to practice more in 2015! Also he can be versatile as to the reason for the card which is always helpful!  

I bought the Annabel Saddle Up stamp partly because as a child I loved horse riding, but also because my friend's daughter has recently taken up the hobby and I thought it would make a brilliant birthday card for her...then I had an idea that I could turn it into a boys card too - by blocking out the pigtails when I stamped the image...here are the results!

Before I move onto the Christmas cards of 2014, I have a couple more cards to share - 
For the Disney princess - unfortunately I haven't yet invested in a Queen Elsa stamp...nor have I seen any - surely they won't be long in development... but for now a Cinderella card for that special birthday

For the magical ballet princess...

Gift tags...for the boys! On the left was the work in progress...whilst I tried to figure out how to colour skin and blonde hair...on the right is the finished tag - worked out OK I think. The stamp Super Striker is another Lili of the Valley special (who else!) 

And now for the Christmas cards of 2014, which I finally started making...around 6th December!, and the intro pics which would have been posted if I had updated earlier...

From Six...

to Forty Six

I made 23 Jenny Bear and 23 James Bear cards, but after eventually getting the hang of how to colour in using promarkers a number of them were the same (I was running out of time!)...so here I've put together a collection of the different designs for each.

The Jenny Bear collection:

The James Bear collection:
I love this picture because it shows the various different stages of development...

However, here is the finished collection:

I also tried my hand with pencil crayon...on three cards only!

Last and by no means least, is a Christmas tag (which I actually forgot to take a photo of after I'd punched the hole and tied the string...but ssshhh no one will notice, oh wait!)

And on that note we draw 2014 to a close, I had hoped to be organised and start on my Christmas cards for next year whilst I was off work this Christmas and feeling "festive"...but surprisingly it never happened! Ah well, it's New Years Day tomorrow...1st January - Time to begin again!

Hope you all have a happy new year - see you in 2015!

Jenfie
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