Season's Greetings!

Dropping in to wish you all the very best... merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, and a peaceful, gentle, joyous festive season, however you celebrate it.

If you're looking for some seasonal playtime, there have been lots of lovely festive episodes over on my YouTube channel in recent weeks (not to mention another coming up this Saturday 27th featuring the layered PaperArtsy garland from the retrospective post).  I thought I'd drop a few links here, so that they're all in one place to be easily found... ending with today's Christmas Eve tag, with a very special guest star!

Put your feet up, wrap your fingers round a hot toddy or hot chocolate, and enjoy some Christmas creativity.  Just click on the episode titles to join in the fun...

Festive Berry Postcards 

Ten Minute Tags - Festive Greenery

Winter Candle Lanterns - two different methods

Ten Minute Tags - Very Merry Berry

Botanical Kraft Gift Tags

Winter Decorative Tapes

Ten Minute Tags - Christmas Eve Tag

If that doesn't keep you in the festive spirit, I don't know what will!  I hope there's some inspiration to be found here, however you celebrate and even if you don't.  Thank you all for your company on this creative journey - it simply wouldn't be the same without you.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...

Snow had fallen, snow on snow...
From In the Bleak Midwinter (1872) by Christina Rossetti

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold

From Winter Trees (1921) by William Carlos Williams

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

From A Visit from St. Nicholas (1823) by Clement Clarke Moore

My PaperArtsy Year

Hello all, and welcome.  December seems to be rushing away from me, so I'm just dropping in very quickly to let you know that I'm over on the PaperArtsy blog with a post celebrating and reflecting on the stamps and stencils I've created with them over the course of 2025.

As well as looking back at each of the three releases (three stamp sets and three stencils each time), I've created a special end-of-year project using a combination of the 2025 designs.

Head over to PaperArtsy to see how I managed to combine a spring release, a summer release and an autumn release to create this festive winter wreath!

I hope you'll enjoy this retrospective of my creative year with PaperArtsy.  I'm so proud of the work we've done together, and thrilled that so many of you have bought the stamps and stencils and have been making beautiful things with them.  Thank you for your incredible support along the way.

(I know it's a busy time of year, so do feel free to bookmark the post and enjoy it with your feet up once the main festivities are out of the way!)  Wishing you all the very best of the season, and happy crafting all!

What you want to ignite in others must first burn inside yourself.

Charlotte Brontë

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

Vincent van Gogh

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Dorothy Parker

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

Pablo Picasso

40% off Wanderlust 2026 (and other Everything Art courses)

Hello all, I just had to stop by to let you know about the amazing 40% off sale at Everything Art for the next fortnight.  From now until 8th December, there is 40% off all classes and bundles at Everything Art including - and especially! - Wanderlust 2026.  Use the code HAPPY40 at checkout.

That's obviously the one I'm excited about, since I'm one of the 35 teachers on the one-year mixed media adventure that is Wanderlust.  It all kicks off in January, so this is a great chance to grab a year of creative inspiration at a fabulous reduction.

Use my affiliate link to give my earnings a little boost, without costing yourself anything extra...

Sign up for Wanderlust 2026

And of course, check out all the other amazing courses on offer... you'll find lots of tempting possibilities!

I'm so looking forward to sharing my class with the Wanderlust adventurers who have already signed up.  I hope I might see you in the classroom too.

Don't forget... signing up via my affiliate link here makes a big difference to me!  For now, have a great week, and I'll be back soon.

(Sale prices last only until 1pm UK on the 8th December.)

Dare yourself to live the life you’ve always wanted.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

Helen Keller

Add Some Texture - Simon Says Stamp Guest Designer

This may be my favourite theme of all the October posts for which I've been in the Designer Spotlight at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this month... let's Add Some Texture.  And with Halloween fast approaching, my texture definitely has a spooky quality to it!

As always, it's been a delight to be part of the inspiration team at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this month, even as a temporary member!  

I'm so grateful to the team for inviting me, and it's been a joy playing alongside the fabulous creatives and crafters on the regular Design Team, especially this week as we Add Some Texture!

As ever, Simon Says Stamp are sponsoring the challenge, with a lucky prize draw to win a voucher for a shopping spree in their fabulous online store.

I love adding texture to journal pages, especially when I'm working in one of my altered hardback books. 

There aren't really any making-of photos in this post - though of course I'll talk you through what I did with some close-ups... but you'll be able to watch the whole process over on my YouTube channel from Wednesday.  (I'll come back and add a link here when it's live.)

So make a note in your diary, and you'll be able to see the layers of texture building on this page spread in all the detail you could possibly want!

For now, let me share some of the steps and the products I used to achieve them.

It all started with a layer of gesso to soften the book text and prepare the pages for the wet media to come.  I glued in some scraps of my PaperArtsy Printed Tissue PT08, leaving plenty of wrinkles, plus bits hanging over the edges of the page... lots of texture already.

Next, I used the Tim Holtz Shatter stencil to ink some cobwebs into the corners using Pumice Stone Distress Ink.  The little spider comes from the Mini Halloween 3 stamp set - though he had migrated onto my Apothecary set!  And the little bits of script detail are the text stamp from Apothecary, one of my all-time favourite script stamps.

I glued down some frayed linen ribbon and strips of Idea-ology Mummy Cloth next to Shakespeare (!), and used a spatula to add Ranger Distress Opaque Crackle Paste in various places.

Obviously, you need to leave that to crackle and do its thing.  Once it was dry, I added Pumice Stone DI and Distress Crayon over it to highlight the cracks.

Time for some collaging...  I had some snippets left over from the Add Some Text project in week two... typewriter letters made with the large Typewriter Embossing Folder and Black Kraft Stock.  I thought they would be great elements within the collaging, and also add some more dimension and texture.

Otherwise, I grabbed bits and bobs from various packets of Idea-ology Halloween ephemera that I've collected over the years - both paper and metal ephemera.  

I can't say for certain what came from which edition, but you can find this year's collection here (and of course you can also buy the packs individually).

And there's one of the Halloween Paper Dolls too, of course.  (Again, she's from a while back.)

She's the fortune teller who might take a hand in how your fate unfolds by using one of her poisonous potions on you.  You'll hear more about all that in the video when it comes out on Wednesday.

Once again, there are a few of the Curator Snippets labels in the mix... I don't know where I would be without them!

I think that's about your lot!  It's certainly my lot for this month in the Designer Spotlight for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  Head over there to see what the Design Team have got in store for you - it's bound to be inspiring.

They'll pick out a few favourite projects at the end of the week, and one randomly-drawn winner will go shopping at Simon Says Stamp with a prize voucher.  All you need to do is Add Some Texture!

I hope you've enjoyed this spooky little detour into the pages of my altered book journal.  And don't forget to pop back on Wednesday to get the direct link for the process video.  Of course, if you already follow my Words and Pictures YouTube channel, then you'll spot it when it pops up anyway!!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll have a wonderful week adding texture to whatever you are making.  Happy crafting, all!

There are poisons that blind you, and poisons that open your eyes.
August Strindberg

BELLADONNA, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
Ambrose Bierce, from The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Brand New PaperArtsy Stamps and Stencils

I'm ba-aaack! Two posts in one day... it's just like the good old days!  I'm thrilled to be here for the second time today, because the reason for it is so exciting... I have some new PaperArtsy stamps and stencils to share with you.

These are all about the changing seasons - designs which can work at any time of year.  As always, I've just got a couple of sneak peeks here to whet your appetite.  You can hear all about the ideas behind these new designs, and see lots of sample inspiration over on the PaperArtsy blog. 

As well as checking out the blogpost, I hope you'll join me  over in the PaperArtsy People FB group for an in-person introduction to the new products - three stamp sets and three stencils.

I can't wait to show you these new designs and give you a closer look at what I've been getting up to with them so far.  I hope you'll have as much fun with them as I am!

Thanks so much for stopping by today (maybe twice!), and happy crafting, all.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
George Santayana

When the seasons shift, even the subtle beginning, the scent of a promised change, I feel something stir inside me. Hopefulness? Gratitude? Openness? Whatever it is, it's welcome.
Kristin Armstrong

Use More Than One Stencil - Simon Says Stamp Guest Designer

This is the first of two posts today.  Yes - TWO posts... it's just like old times here on the blog!!  

What a joyous time I had with the new theme this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I'm having such fun in the Designer Spotlight this month!  This week, the invitation is to Use More Than One Stencil... I definitely did that.  Read on to find out more...

I'm always honoured to be invited to guest design for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge... it was one of the main challenges which really got my creative juices flowing when I first started out on this journey.

And creating alongside the fabulous Design Team is such a treat... as ever, you'll find oodles of great inspiration from them over on the blog.

And the usual generous prize is on offer from Simon Says Stamp - one lucky randomly-drawn winner will get to go on a shopping spree!  All you have to do is Use More Than One Stencil.  I've used three in this tag trio.  There's almost nothing I enjoy more than a tag trio!

The backgrounds for these tags use one of my favourite techniques with stencils, a bit of blending, flipping and printing.  I started with Tim Holtz's leafy Autumn stencil, blending Distress Inks in Pumice Stone, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs through the stencil onto a pair of tags.

I then added a hint of PaperArtsy Rusty Car Infusions powder to the inky side of the stencil, spritzed with a little water, and printed the result onto a third tag.

I loved the rusty splotchiness so much that I repositioned the stencil over the original blended tags and flicked a bit of Rusty Car mixed with water onto those inky leaves, as well as flicking the leftovers across all the tags for a bit more inky delight.

I added a bit of detail with the Tim Holtz Field Notes stamps and the text background from Professor 2.

My second stencil came in the form of this decorative tape, made with the Ornate Layering Stencil created as a by-product when I was doing some watercolour stencilling, and used up some leftover paint on the masking tape I had used to hold my stencils in place.  I have a sheet of tapes waiting to be used, and this was the moment for one of the strips! 

(If I remember rightly, I think the paint colour is a mixture of Indigo and Junebug American Journey watercolour paints, but you'd get something similar with Uncharted Mariner or Dina Wakley's Night and Peacock paints. In fact, I used a bit of Uncharted Mariner to add some echoing inking later on.)

I tore nice jagged strips and added them to the tags. I love the detail and texture this gives, and the contrasting blue really zings the tags to life.

Stencil number three comes in the shape of my own design for PaperArtsy - PS471, known in my head as "Grassy".  I blended on both of the grass stems from the stencil at different angles, using Scorched Timber Distress Ink for its really deep dark cool brown magic.

Okay, backgrounds done; three stencils used.  Time for a bit of minimal collaging so as not to lose all those deliciously complex stencilled and stamped inky layers.  The Idea-ology Photobooth snapshots are always perfect when I want a touch of vintage photo magic.  

I love layering them up over the Film Strip Ribbon - that way, you still get to see what's behind the acetate film frames.  The Snippets Curator labels may be my all-time favourite Idea-ology product...

... with the Snippets Number Strips a close second.  I hope they never discontinue them!  And the Small Talk Stickers always seem to have just the right words for me to use.  A little bit of wire adds a twisted, sculptural final touch at the top of each tag.

As you can see, I had a lot of autumnal fun with this tag trio... I love it when the autumn colours come into focus on the craft table.  I hope these tags will inspire you to get out your stencils and play.

If you'd like even more of a nudge, head over to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge to see all the amazing inspiration from the regular Design Team members... I promise you won't regret it.

Play with more than one stencil and you might find yourself in the spotlight as one of the designers' picks.  And if you're the lucky randomly-drawn winner of the prize, you could find yourself heading to the Simon Says Stamp store with a voucher in your pocket!

Watch out later on today when I'll be back with some VERY exciting news...

Happy crafting all!

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
George Eliot