Happy New Year (and a free digistamp)

Happy New Year!  It's still New Year's Eve here in the UK and I'm on babysitting duty tonight, but I believe that 2014 has already begun in some parts of the world.

This digistamp is a tiny little gift from me to say Happy New Year to you.  Here's the link to download it.

I hope 2014 brings you much happiness, joy and the very best of good health.

Handmade Monday and Midweek Papercraft Party

This is just a quick reminder that both linky parties are open for longer over the holidays...

just follow the link to find the latest Handmade Monday

and the latest Midweek Papercraft Party.

And, for these extended version, it's OK to link up more than once if you want to!

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish a very merry Christmas to all my customers and blog readers...

hopefully most of your preparations are complete now, and all that's left is for you to enjoy yourselves.

I'm off to peel the potatoes and maybe make a start on the other vegetables for tomorrow.  There will be 12 of us around the table, which will be a bit of a squash (and extra chairs are being shipped in from my daughter's house) but I'm sure it will be fun too.  The youngest guest is almost three and the oldest is 86 - four generations will be elbowing each other for the cranberry sauce and stuffing!

Handmade Monday 148

Hello!  I don't know whether it's too close to Christmas for Handmade Monday for you, but I thought I'd put it up just in case you wanted to link up.

I'll leave it up longer this time, so if you want to join in over the holidays you can do.  It will be live from today (the 22nd) until New Year's Eve (and then we'll get started again on the 5th January).

If you haven't been around here for a while, you may not have seen my giveaway, which is only open until tomorrow (the 23rd).  The prize - a Kirstie Allsopp craft book - is being sent by an external agency and you can win it by simply leaving a comment.  Pop over there quickly before you forget!

Merry Christmas!

There's not much else for me to share this week, except to wish you a very merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy new year!  I hope you enjoy all the festivities and that Santa is kind to you!

If you want to join in Handmade Monday (maybe it should be temporarily renamed Handmade Christmas!) then you know what to do...

Free Craft Downloads and Win a Kirstie Allsopp book!

Would you like to win a Kirstie Allsopp craft book?  Or perhaps you'd like to download some free Christmas craft projects?

Yes?  Read on...

The Christmas elves from online ink company cartridgesave.co.uk have created six simple, free-to-download guides, to help you create homespun decorations designed to inject your house with festive glow!  

You can choose from Christmas crackers, multi-coloured garlands and a range of 3D tree decorations to give regular baubles a run for their money.  If the projects are a little late for your crafting projects this year, download and save them for next year.

All templates are available to download and print from the Cartridge Save website.

What's more, to celebrate their Crafty Christmas campaign, they are offering you the chance to win a copy of Kirstie Allsopp's craft book - to enter simply leave a comment about Christmas crafting at the bottom of this blog post by Monday 23rd December.  Good luck!

Midweek Papercraft Party (18)

Hello!  Welcome to the last papercraft party before Christmas!  Our theme is snow, but we'd welcome other weather themes - and of course Christmas themes!

Last week's winners are:

Ria and Stacey

Well done both!  If you would like to email me at wendy@handmadeharbour.co.uk  with your choice of three digistamps from the Handmade Harbour store, I'll send them over to you.  Please also feel free to grab the winner's badge from the left hand sidebar <---

This week there are just a couple of images to show you from the design team.  I think everyone else is busy with Christmas stuff!

Lynne made this gorgeous card with a snowman family taking centre stage.  I'm delighted to say that even though Lynne lives in Canada and I live in the UK, I've seen this card in real life - Lynne very kindly sent it to me as my Christmas card!  I was thrilled, and it's even more gorgeous in real life.  Thank you Lynne!

Rachel used the same snowman family for her card, too (I love how Rachel gets creative with her card shapes - they never seem to be rectangular!).

 This snowman family digistamp has been a popular one!

So, in the run up to Christmas, have you been making cards or other papercraft projects?  Are they Christmas themed or snow themed?  We'd love to see!  I'll leave this linky open a little longer than usual over the Christmas period, just in case you want a distraction from the festivities!

Handmade Monday 147

Welcome to Handmade Monday!

It's always lovely to get the new Craftseller magazine - if you've had this magazine from the beginning, you'll know how it's grown and developed into a useful and informative resource for anyone who sells handmade.  There are always loads of interviews, articles and case studies with designer/makers.

The issue that arrived this week is kind of the post-Christmas issue (even though Christmas isn't quite here yet) and my New Year cards are in there...

alongside those lovely free papers in the middle of the magazine.

It brightened up my week - a week in which I sewed up a bandage up to stop my dad (who has Alzheimer's) unravelling it after an operation to remove a cancerous lump on his hand.  Twice.  Then, in true handmade fashion, I made a label for his bandage and sewed that on too - to remind him to keep it on.  It seems to be working, as he keeps reading the label then accepting that the bandage should stay put.  But we'll see.

I've been kept busy again with painting over at 1st Unique Gifts.  Today's my last day for accepting orders over there for Christmas delivery (within the UK), although I expect some more orders will sneak in over the next few days - they usually do!

Midweek Papercraft Party (17)

It's time for another papercraft challenge!  Are you up for it?  This week's theme is:

Merry  Christmas!

Last week was such a quiet week!  Perhaps the theme was too far away from Christmas preparations for most people!  Here's hoping this week is busier, with a Christmas theme to play with!  Last week's winners are:

Shell and Teresa

Ladies, as usual please choose three digis for your prize from the Handmade Harbour store.  Email wendy@handmadeharbour.co.uk with your choices - thank you!

The design team has come up with some gorgeous cards and tags using the Merry Christmas theme this week.  I know you want to take a look...

Valerie used Christmas House for a Traditional 6"x6" Christmas card - she added a touch of 3D and a bunch of sparkle to this one - and it's just gorgeous, don't you think?

Mary Ellen used the the Christmas tags and sentiments digistamp to make some gorgeous tags.  

Connie made tags too - using the star snowman - don't they look gorgeous? In the second photo, you can see the texture of the paper, too.

Laura used Cool Penguin and went with black and white papers to match the penguin's elegant outfit! 

  

Anita used a non-Christmassy stamp to create a Christmas card.  I love that this cute cat digistamp got decorated in a Christmas style!

 If you've been making Christmas projects, we'd love to see them, so do join in and link up this week!  Don't forget, if you use a Handmade Harbour digi in your post, you'll increase your chances of winning!  

Handmade Monday 146

It's time for Handmade Monday again - hello!  If you're new here, click the link to find out more.

This week has passed in a bit of a blur for me, mostly a painting blur!  This time of year I turn into a one-woman factory, churning out personalised gifts!  Santa's elves have nothing on me!

But I did shoe-horn in a bit of card making time.  Valentine's cards, no less, for Craftseller magazine.  It feels odd to be so wrapped up in Christmas orders one minute and making Valentine's cards the next!

I got my sewing machine out for this one!

I'm keeping it short and sweet this week so I can get back to the sweatshop.  Well, it's actually more like a fridge than a sweatshop until the logburner kicks in, but you get the idea, I'm sure.

It's your turn now - what's been happening in your world?

Midweek Papercraft Party (16)

Yay! It's time for another papercraft challenge - a little later than usual this week (sorry, there are a million things getting in the way right now).  Anyway, are you up for it?  This week's challenge is...

Fur or Feathers, which you can interpret any way you like - images of birds or animals, animal prints, or real feathers.  I'd love to see what this inspires, and if you'd like to join in, you can link up at the bottom of this post.  We'd love you to join us so don't be shy!

Last week's winners are... (drum roll...)

Amy A and Very Belle

Well done both!  Would you like to email me - wendy@handmadeharbour.co.uk - with your choice of three digistamps from the Handmade Harbour store and I'll get them to you as soon as possible.  Also, please feel free to grab the winner's badge for your own blog.  You'll find it in the left hand sidebar <----

The design team has been working with the fur and feathers theme this week...but mostly feathers, I think!

Lynne made a gorgeous card with the robin family image and stamped on the inside - "Sending You a Christmas Tweet!"

Deanne also used the robin family - this is proving to be a popular image!  The owl made it for Christmas too, with his little hat on!

Rachel used the owl too...

They're all fab, aren't they?  It's always completely amazing to see what people make with my images!

We're waiting to see what you made too... feel free to add your link for your papercraft project.  If you'd like to use a Handmade Harbour image, you will definitely increase your chance of winning - no purchase necessary, there are free digital stamps for you to use!

Handmade Monday 145

Hello and welcome to another Handmade Monday!

Well, we're into December now and the frantic race to get all handmade-to-order clocks, plaques and money boxes out in time for customers to wrap them up as gifts is well under way.  My 1st Unique Gifts online shop definitely takes over my life at this time of year - I'm sure it's the same for some of you, too.

one of my hand painted Christmas plaques

I did take a day off this week though, to travel down to Birmingham with Anita - the second meet-up of the winners of Theo Paphitis' #SBS on Twitter took place and it was well worth taking the time out, even though I'm now playing catch up!  The day was amazing and there's lots more to come, the most exciting announcement of the day being a Dragons' Den style investment opportunity coming up for one or two lucky small businesses.  The investors this time will be one of the winners from Dragons' Den, which shows you how far they've come from their small beginnings (they're putting up £50,000!).

If you run a small business in the UK and want to get involved, there's some info on the #SBS website, including some tips on how to get noticed!  It's not just the benefits of getting retweeted on Twitter (although that in itself is huge) it's all the exciting things that are now being rolled out as part of this #SBS "family" - and will continue to be as #SBS grows.

I have only one photo from the event - if I had more, this one probably wouldn't have seen the light of day (I apologise to the man in front for displaying his baldness to the world)!  I took this one photo then my camera died.  It seems like the lens mechanism just stopped working and the lens is stuck in the "out" position, which has somehow stopped the camera from taking photos.  I did try a couple with my phone, but it seems either the camera on my phone is rubbish or I'm rubbish at operating it.  I think it's mainly the latter.

I'm gutted about my camera, but I think it's given Santa an idea of what to leave in my stocking for Christmas.

It's over to you now - what's been happening in your world?