2012 draws to a close ...

Well it's been a busy busy busy crafting year, but just as I did last year, I wanted to finish off the year with a special post documenting my year, and sharing a few of my favourite creations from the past twelve months.

A year in review :

I've been honoured to be part of some amazing design teams and have made some lovely friends both in my fellow teamies as well as some of our regular participants.

I needed to cut down my DT commitments last December due to work commitments, but seven months later I was more settled again and was amazed to be asked by Jacqui to join the Lili's Little Fairies team.  This was shortly followed by my Top Tip Tuesday co-ordinator and blog pal Samantha convincing me that the only way I was going to get my Christmas creations organised was to join her ABC Christmas design team.  

Thank you girlies for loving my creations enough to want me on your fab teams.

In September I was honoured to be invited by the lovely Janet to guest design for her shop The Stamp Basket.  Her shop sells loads of my favourite crafting goodies like dies, stamps, embellishments, gorgeous ribbons as well as some stuff that I'd been wanting for ages like pearl brads which I now use on nearly all my creations (you may have noticed!!!).

I've also guest designed for a few challenges throughout the year, but a special mention also goes out to my lovely pal Chris and her team at Incy Wincy.  Despite me having to give up being a full time teamie at the end of 2011 due to increased pressures in my day job (the one that pays for my crafting addictions!!), she's continued to allow me to guest design on occasions this year.  Thank you so much honey for letting me play along with you guys.

Finally I've like to thank you for following and visiting my blog, reading my regular drivel and leaving me such wonderful comments. I read every single one and love knowing what you think of my creations.  I also like to visit as many fellow bloggers as I can manage to know what you're getting up to, what creations you have to share, and what tips and inspiration you have taken the trouble to share with us.

Thank you to you all.

You make this blog worthwhile and I'm grateful for every single visitor (except for those anonymous spam ones who keep leaving me messages about where I might like to purchase Viagra or plastic business cards!).

Warning :
I'm finishing off with a plethora of pictures being my favourite cards and creations from the past year.   I'd planned to restrict my choices to just 1 per month, trying to show my journey of crafting experiments and (hopefully) improvements over the last 12 months, but as per last year, I've been unable to restrict myself to just one per month.

Hope you bear with me while I share some of my favourites.

Happy New Year

Hope to see you all again in 2013.

January 2012 

I've always liked shaped cards, cute bears and the colour pink.  Therefore this has to be my top pick for January.

February 2012

In February I made this super-size tag, and immediately regretted doing the stitching around the fancy shape.  I liked it when I'd finished it, but the stitching was a bit wobbly in places.

March 2012

In March I used this cute Stampfairy image of (one of) my favourite bears, Jake.  I just love his expression and huge nose!  (he might feature again yet before the year is out!!!).  I was also experimenting with pencil colouring with Sansodor oil for blending.

April 2012

In April I made this adorable bag (which I haven't yet been able to part with yet) using Stampfairy's Toby bear.

May 2012

May was a bit of a LOTV month, with these two cuties on card bases shaped with Grand Nesties dies.  Both cards also use one of my earliest freebie sentiments.

And I'm sneaking another Stampfairy Toby card in. I loved the shape, colour and simplicity of this baby card.  Again the card base was cut from a die, this time from Go Kreate.

June 2012

June saw me get a bit adventurous with these two 'timely' creations (get it?  *groan*).

And yes, it's Stampfairy's Jake again in both projects!

And I did manage to get a couple of Tilda cards in this year, although not as many as I'd have liked.  These two were two of my favourites, where I'd used lovely papers, and taken the trouble to do some stitching (one of my NY resolutions is to do more stitching)

July 2012

This was one of my favourite Christmas cards this year, the papers are ones that I've useed often, and of course it's the adorable James bear from LOTV.

August 2012

August appears to be another LOTV month through and through. 

I ventured making another giant shaped tag (minus the stitching this time!) ...

... a baggie with a matching card ...

... and an altered hanging wooden plaque which is currently hanging on my wall for Christmas.  (Although I was planning on giving it away as a gift, in the end I couldn't bear to part with this one.)

September 2012

A couple more baggies with matching cards, but this time I made the baggies too rather than just decorating shop bought ones !!!

October 2012

In October I was off the baggies and back on the cards (and getting addicted to Tiddly Inks).  

November 2012

It was about November that I realised that I'd got nowhere near enough Chrimbo cards, and the panic started to set in ... 

December 2012

Yeah, I know I'm hopelessly failing on the one card per month task.

But I've started, so I'll finish, and if you're still with me, I promise that this is the last month ....

Thanks for staying with me through my trawl of highlights from 2012.
I hope to see you all in 2013.

Happy new year and happy crafting to you all.

Annette
xx