Just when I thought this year would never end...

...here we are! I think I've been saying this every year since 2020, but I'm very glad to be saying goodbye to this past year. In looking back on 2023, it wasn't one of any personal traumas or losses in our immediate family, but there were some in the extended one and in the neighborhood and community at large. It gets harder and harder to find tranquility and ease in a world with so much disruption. I'm thinking I'll probably feel the same by the end of 2024.

But then there's cardmaking! What a great creative outlet for us to share with our international community of like-minded individuals. In this vein I went into my office/craft room this week, and in a creative frenzy, turned out several cards that I'll be showing in the next week. This first one was done as a general greeting to my followers, but then I saw that Inkspirational Challenges had a final Mood Board challenge for the year and decided to share this first card there:

So, Happy New year, all! The Mood Board features black and gold and elegant. Good thing, because I have completely run out of white card stock! So I started with a 6-1/4" x 5" black card base. I die cut a smaller stitched rectangle in black and heat embossed an old flourish stamp with Recollections "Champagne" embossing powder. I did the sentiment at the same time and thought to add a couple of horizontal lines with a bone folder and score pad, but then since I had to reverse the panel to score it, I put the second score in the wrong place. YIKES! Instead of just starting over, I re-embossed the sentiment on a strip and placed it over the screwed-up panel. Then I die cut a champagne glass from Tim Holtz out of some iridescent ivory card stock. The champagne in the glass is die cut from some glitter rose-gold cardstock. I used the same cardstock for a narrow mat behind the stitched panel and attached all to the black card base. A couple of small black sequins for bubbles completed the card. 

The available light today was pretty flat, so it's not apparent how shiny this card really is. This shot shows a bit more:

Here's the link to the Inkspirational Mood Board:

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #306 - Moodboard (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

Added January 20, 2024:

Here's a final 2023 photo to share. This is our beloved Tiger asleep yesterday right next to me on the sofa.