A Festive Farewell

Hello all - it's a bitter-sweet day... we've a lovely new challenge theme for you at A Vintage Journey, but sadly it's the very final challenge.   Reluctantly, we've all agreed that it's time to bring the journey to an end.  The wonderful Brenda, who was the originator of A Vintage Journey, has written about all the reasons why in a lovely post over at the challenge blog, so I won't repeat it all here.  But we're going out in style, with a double helping of tiny delights.  

Each of the Creative Guides has created a pair of ATCs for the Merry Little Christmas theme, and also a Farewell ATC.  You can create ATCs of your own following either prompt - festive or farewell - and we'd love it if you would join us on this final leg of the journey to celebrate the years of inspiration and creativity we've all shared together, both the team and all the participants.

I'll start with my festive pair, and a rare sighting of the colour red here at Words and Pictures.  I was lucky enough to win a wonderful prize package from Tim Holtz recently, and it included the lovely Sketch Greenery stamp set in action in the background here as well as the ephemera collaged over the top.

The smooshing in the background is a combination of Distress Inks and Oxides in the new Rustic Wilderness colour and some Speckled Egg too.

The fir branches are stamped in Rustic Wilderness Ink and clear-embossed to sparkle in the light.

I adore this deer - a lovely element in the ephemera pack... and you can still see plenty of the background between his legs!

I needed another delicate image to balance him, and this wreath worked perfectly - again, you can see the background through the middle.

And for once in a while I can even deal with having that little festive touch of red involved.  It's a rare occurrence round here!

The words are also from the Sketch Greenery stamp set.  They're stamped in Walnut Stain on some card smooshed in a few droplets of Pumice Stone Distress Ink to soften its whiteness.

A touch of inking around the edges and a little bit of snow splatter and we're all done...

So now it's time to say goodbye (well, not quite - we'll be back for one final post at the end of this month to announce the Pinworthies) so here's my farewell ATC.  

I'm so grateful for the friendships forged ever more deeply within the Vintage Journey team - it's been a delight and an honour to have served right from the very beginning.  But rather than look back, my ATC is looking forward.

I'm celebrating the joy of the journey with my favourite colours - blue and brown (specifically mainly Stormy Sky and Walnut Stain)...

... some lovely white embossing and a touch of metal and, of course, a butterfly...

... some background text stamping... 

... so many of my favourite things to commemorate one of my favourite ever teams to work with.

And the words (Idea-ology stickers) are looking ahead to whatever comes next with a grateful heart and positive outlook.

I hope you'll hop over to A Vintage Journey to hear from Brenda about our decision and to see the glorious inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides, and I very much hope that you'll find time to join us somewhere down the road this month for one final time to celebrate a Merry Little Christmas and/or a very fond farewell.  It would be lovely to go out with a bang.

Stay safe, stay well all, and I'll see you again soon.

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
Winnie the Pooh