Happy Christmas 2025

 

For those who celebrate, may I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  My photos are of some of the Christmas cards I made this year.

As seems to have become traditional on my Christmas post; here is the quote from one of my favourite Christmas carols, "It came upon the midnight clear", written by Edmund Sears in 1849.

 "Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not 

The love song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing." 

 

Again, this year, I wish the men of strife would hush and there could be some peace in the world.

To end on a positive, I quote from Desiderata (a 1927 prose poem by Max Ehrmann):  

"...And whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

May I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful festive season.

Wanderlust 2025 - part four

The final twelve weeks of the art journaling course have been full of challenges.  The theme was 'Leaps and Bounds' and a lot of the lessons involved working outside a journal, on canvases,  etc.  However, I didn't want to make 3D objects as I really don't have the space for them, so I had to think how to translate them to 2D, to be able to keep them in my journal. (I think I will be doing the same next year when the course is aimed more at intermediate artists and will be focusing a lot more on 3D).  Above was Kate Crane's lesson on inchies, twinchies, ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) and Moos (half a business card size), so working small.  This lesson took me more time to complete but I really enjoyed it.   

Making ATCs from a masterboard was the next lesson and I turned the page over to cut it out, so the images really were a surprise.  Adding gilding flakes to each card made them look even more special.

Making matchboxes and filling them with interesting little bits and pieces, based on a printers tray, was the next week.  My 'printers tray' is flat, but I was happy with how it turned out.  I added a stamped image from one of my hand cut stamps, a piece of paper I made a few years ago with flowers and foil added into it, cut into a heart, some leaves and flower heads from the garden, a key die cut, an old postage stamp, a tile cut from a magazine, a piece of my handmade felt cut into a star and a tiny letter. 

Working with and on teabags was the next week's focus and sewing the teabag and stamping on it was included, so I had a go. It was tricky, but I got there!

This was based on an assemblage in a rusty tin, with another tin containing lots of bits and pieces. I made my own 2D version using die cuts, embossing, texture paste through a stencil and lots of bits of ephemera. 

Making a wrap closure for our journals was the next lesson, so I altered this into making little fabric 'cards' in pockets instead. I kept the same four seasons idea.  I used calico as the base, painted, collaged and sewn on. The backs of the cards have book pages stuck onto them for added strength.  

You can see the 'cards' better here.

A canvas family tree with photos attached inside painted lids was what I transferred into a journal page.  I used an embossing folder to add some texture to the die cut frames.

Finally, something completely different.  There is a load of writing underneath the paint, but no-one can see it now, which was the whole idea. Reflecting on things that have gone well, or challenges overcome was one side and 'what if...?' questions on the other.  I kept this simple and was going to add some words but decided I liked it as it is.

I think next year's course will provide me with more challenges - we'll see how I get on!

Hellebores in December and a new purchase

As you may know, I do like hellebores. I have some in the border, but most are in pots.  I didn't mean to start a collection, but I might have done so.  They are perennial, easy care and flower during winter and early spring. The flowers stay on until later in the spring, so they are really good value plants.   These are all in pots and all bloom earlier than the ones I have in the border.    Above is Winter Princess Victoria, with emerging leaves and flower buds.

This is one of the Ice and Roses series, much further ahead than any of the others, which is one of its selling points, I think. 

One of the Credale series, (either single white or double pink picotee) just tentatively showing new leaves and the tips of other leaves or possibly buds poking through the soil.

Reliable Eric Smithii Winter Sunshine, with lots of buds.  This one probably needs repotting now.

Here is my latest addition - Winter Ballet Lulu.  This series has larger flowers and the plants themselves are about 45 cm once fully grown.  In pots, they all remain a little smaller.  These flower earlier than many of the others and apparently stay flowering for a longer period.  I am in good company with my purchase as on Gardeners World last Friday evening, Adam Frost was planting some of the Winter Ballet series, but the white ones, in his garden. 

The flowers are big, bold and beautiful.  I look forward to seeing them through the Winter and into Spring.  

New woodless watercolour pencils

I have been looking at woodless watercolour pencils recently and the Distress ones by Ranger and Tim Holtz seem to be all over the internet.  However, I couldn't really justify the price of those and of course, there are six different sets to correspond with all the different colours in the Distress range.  I looked at a couple of other brands and these came up in my search.  They are Koh-i-noor 'Woodless Coloured Sticks' and for the price of one set of the Distress pencils, I got double the number of crayons (24) in a good range of colours. (I have a large number of Distress products, I use them a lot and they are good quality, but I am trying to look after my pennies a little more carefully!)

So, of course, once the pencil crayons arrived, I swatched them. You knew I would, didn't you?  The pencils feel quite satisfyingly substantial in the hand, which is to be expected as they are pure pigment,  but not so heavy as to make them uncomfortable.  There is a cover around them to stop the pigment getting on your hands.  I haven't yet had to sharpen them, but I have no doubt they will sharpen well and you can keep the sharpenings, add water to them and use them too. There is a good selection of colours and they blended out with water very smoothly. I have been having a play with them and am really pleased with my purchase.