Craftyduckydoodah! Review of 2021 - part 2

Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to the final part of my review of 2021!

July

Time for a Christmas in July Blog Hop!  Poinsettia Petals is my go to Christmas stamp set, I just love it and have used it a LOT! My project was coloured with water colour pencils and a blender pen.  I do like scuffed edges and splodges!

August

At last the long wait was over and I could rejoin Stampin' Up!  I was even able to take advantage of Sale-A-Bration 2 with an enhanced joining offer!  My crafty ladies and former team members had been so supportive during my absence, and I was pleased to achieve Bronze Elite status by the end of the month along with the following recognition.

August also marked the 40th Wedding Anniversary of my lovely friend and crafty adventures companion Lesley.  I used stamps and dies from the In Bloom bundle to create a card to mark the occasion.

August also saw the passing of a dear friend, the lovely Pat who was a resident at a local care home I visit to craft with the residents.  I was able to say goodbye to Pat and I was honoured to be asked to create the cover for her Order of Service.  

Pat's daughter Julie and two staff members from the care home joined me and we created these covers that Pat would have definitely approved of! Rest in Peace lovely lady - one day we will craft together again.

September

Autumn is my favourite time of the year and I just love leaves.  I have many stamps/die set featuring leaves so these Gorgeous Leaves were a must have for me.  I had fun using ink daubers to add different colours to each leaf.  

October

Crafting For Christmas.  A return of this popular event held at the beautiful All Saints Church in Hartford.  Lots of different projects on offer accompanied by a fantastic lunch provided by Pinnies - a local Mencap cafe.

Participants could choose to stamp a stack of cards and/or create home decor pieces.

This was the frame that Maggie decorated - when she got home she added some lights, it looked amazing before but even more so afterwards!

November

November is usually an exciting time in the world of Stampin' Up!  This year we were still unable to meet up for our Annual get together and we met up online again.  We got to see the upcoming Annual Catalogue which is always exciting and, we still managed to do a spot of crafting with new goodies featuring the upcoming Blessings of Home Suite which is available from the 4th January. The stamp set depicts some stunning floral images that can be coloured in many different ways.  The sample below has been coloured with Stampin' Blends. 

Although we missed out on the social part of the event, it was nice to be able to dip in and out of sessions, to grab a cuppa or answer the door etc!

During November I advertised a workshop showing different ways to use Gilded Flakes.  The workshop proved so popular that I had to add another date.  Following feeback from the event I will be adding more technique based workshops in 2022.

December 

My last workshop of the year was a special one - all the ladies wore Christmas jumpers and each got to choose either a pack of A4 cardstock or a stamp set not yet available as a gift from me.

Here is a special card I made for my daughter, unfortunately I didn't get chance to share before the big day!  Each side of this pinwheel card was in effect, a card in its own right.  It was fun to make and very easy, once you know how that is.  I may offer a workshop to make one of these so watch this space!

At the beginning of December I advanced to Silver, with my growing team I hope to achieve Silver Elite this year!  My lovely upline, Liz made this graphic for me taking inspiration from my Craftyducky logo - how clever is that!

As many of you will know, since the start of lockdown I have been running Godmanchester Community Timebank providing assistance for the elderly and vulnerable who live locally - this volunteer work continues in what I call my spare time!  At the end of October last year I accepted a part time position with Age UK as Service Manager for the Winter Pressures Team.  I soon learnt and am constantly being reminded as to why the team is called Winter Pressures!  Working to help to discharge patients from hospital / avoid admission is very rewarding but does sometimes mean that I have to work full time.  This has resulted in fewer blog posts but I hope to remedy this soon.

Personally 2021 has proved to be another difficult year; work on the kitchen extension is still ongoing but at least we have a working kitchen and a huge improvement on last year.  Christmas this year was joyful in the new kitchen!  Health wise, two serious issues arose but they are being dealt with and to top the year off, I was pinged by Track & Trace on New Years Day!

Looking back over 2021 brought back lots of crafty memories, thanks to everyone who has crafted and/or shopped with me in 2021 joined/re joined my team or attended an event either online or in person. I will be back in a day or so with my updates for January - as ever, there is a lot happening in the world of Stampin' Up!  including a fabulous new enhanced joining offer (I have been busy planning future events and making a few changes too)!

Don't forget to leave a comment on my facebook page telling which has been your favourite project of 2021 for a chance to win a little gift from me.  If you can share a photo, even better!

Well, that's it for another year.  I am looking forward to seeing what 2022 has to offer us - it surely has to be an improvement on 2021?

Happy New Year, stay safe and well - here's hoping 2022 will allow us to get back to some semblance of normal living.

Susan xx

Thank you so much for looking at my Blog today, if you don't have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and you live in the UK, I would love to be yours!  

If you need to order any supplies, simply use my “shop with me” button or click on the catalogue links on the right. Alternatively, contact me and I would be happy to place an order for you.

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