We Are Ringing In the New at A Vintage Journey

Well I hope everyone has had a fabulous Christmas Day and the more relaxed (?) feeling of Boxing Day is upon you all. Today sees us launching a new challenge at A Vintage Journey and Brenda has chosen a fabulous theme based on Tennyson's wonderful words:

Ring out the Old, Ring in the New

Ring happy bells across the snow

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

The challenge is to focus on these key words - 

old, new, bells, snow, year and interpret one or more of them in any way you like. 

Just tell us what your links are to 

the key words of the poem.

Here in Scotland the last day of the year, Hogmanay, is very important to the New Year celebrations and much used to be made of getting everything in order for the New Year on that last day - it used to mean cleaning the house and clearing up all the old debts! But for those few minutes before the ringing of the Midnight Bells it is the time to wish for health and happiness for the year to come. As soon as the bells have rung, the visiting and partying starts!

I decided to interpret those few moments before midnight by making a New Years Card using one of my favourite Tim dies - the weathered clock - and the lovely sentiment Make A Wish from the Simple Sayings Stamp Set.

In order to make the clock stand out on the card I used a centre step design. There are lots of tutorials on the internet for these cards - I used this one from Split Coast Stampers.

I used papers from the French Industrial Stack and Texture Paste with a text stencil. The clock was made for a previous project and seems to have been distressed and crackled to the inch of its life! No idea what I used but probably Wendy Vecchi Crackle Paste and Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I am afraid I used the usual flowers, butterflies, scrim and pins for the decoration (New Year note to self - try something different !! ).

I really love this stepped card design as it does ensure the focus of the card is indeed the focus. My apologies for the dark photographs - we have had nearly a month of awful weather and given the daylight hours here in the North it IS dark nearly all day!

Thank you for joining me today and I hope you will find time over the next couple of weeks to celebrate the New Year and join us in our challenge. Hop on over to the blog as well to see the amazing inspirational pieces created by my design teamies - so many wonderful and individual pieces.

Don't forget too there is a great prize each challenge from our sponsor Country View Crafts and of course the winner has the opportunity to come back and join us as a Guest Designer.

Enjoy the rest of the Holiday Season!

Jennie x