Favorites of 2012

Hi There!

Many of my blogging friends are sharing posts of their favorite cards created this past year, so I thought it would be neat to go through my own cards and share them too. It was fun to look all the way back and be reminded of the colors, designs, stamps and techniques that I used on my cards in 2012. So here goes - sit back, relax and hopefully you'll enjoy seeing these cards, even if you've seen them before.  :)

                                                                          January 

                                      
                                                                          February

                                                                            March

 

                                                                          

                                                                            April

                          
                                                                         Also April

                                                                              May

                                                                         Also May

                                                                             June
                                                     (Can ya tell I love this poppy die?)

                                                                              July

                                                                         Also July

                                                                          August

                                                                        September

                                                                     Also September

                                                                           October

                                                                        November

                                                                    Also November

                                                                        December

                                                         
                                                                    Also December

Thank you so much for all of your visits, comments and wonderful support this past year! I am still truly enjoying creating cards and blogging - mostly because of all of you who continue to inspire and encourage me! I hope you all have a safe, happy and healthy new year! :)

Needing To Create!

Hi there!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was lots of fun! Time spent with family is the best! Boy did we ever laugh!

I had yesterday off from work too, and really wanted to get crafting, but wasn't feeling any creativity. So, I looked through my little notebook of ideas and came across a technique shared awhile back from Shari Carroll called, Soft Shadowed Background.

I used the Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish and Music Background, along with Old Paper and Weathered Wood Distress Inks. A pretty silk ribbon and a couple of punched butterflies finish off the card.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fab weekend and Happy New Year! :)

ABNH Christmas-Travaganza!

Hi there!

Before I get to my post today, I wanted to mention Amber's blog again. If you'd like to help the community of Newtown, Connecticut, please check out her fundraiser! It's perfect for crafty people like you, and it feels so good to give something to others who are hurting right now!

Okay, I have a fun, little project to share for A Blog Named Hero's Christmas-Travaganza today, and it's NOT a card! 

 
Here's a little peek:

Can ya guess what it is? I'd love it if you'd stop on over and check it out!

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! I've been hard at work in the floral department selling a TON of poinsettias and gorgeous bouquets - such a fun time of year at the store! I work the next four days too, but am really looking forward to a wonderful Christmas with my family! I hope your holiday is a special one! Sending hugs to each of you! :)

We Can All Do a Little Something

Hi there,

I wanted to write a quick post about a wonderful idea from Amber at Damask Love. She's collecting supplies to make craft kits to give to the kids from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. It's a wonderful opportunity for those of us in the crafty community to do a little something for these kids who have lost their teachers and classmates.

 

Please check out Amber's blog post here. She's made a list of craft supplies needed for the kits but you can send a cash donation and/or a card suitable for a child, if you'd rather.

Thank you so much! 

Christmas Card Exchange

Hi there!

Are you ready for Christmas? Shopping all finished? Gifts all wrapped? Cards all sent out? I am so totally NOT ready! I still have some cards to create and mail out, and I've also got quite a bit of shopping to do! It all just snuck up on me so fast this year! Yikes! I've got Saturday off from work and next Tuesday too, so hoping to get it all finished by then!

I do have a card to share with you tonight. I created it for the Hero Arts, Flickr group, Christmas card exchange, organized by my friend, Anita.

I used the Merry Christmas Trees set and the Fabulous Flourish Stamp, both from Hero Arts. This photo shows the card closed.

  
I stamped the Fab Flourish, tone-on-tone on the red portion. The green panel was inked with Peeled Paint Distress Ink, then I stamped the Fab Flourish again, this time just using water, to remove some of the ink. The card opens in line with the white strip - see?

 
And here's a photo with a peek at the inside - also stamped with the Fab Flourish.

I sent my card to Deb and she let me know earlier today that she received it.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by! :)

Lots of Snow and Another Card For PDCC

Hey there!

I was very relieved this morning when the Sunday manager from my work called and told me I did not have to drive into work today! He said they had plenty of help and he knows how far I have to drive. I quickly told him how happy I was and thanked him over and over again! 

As of 5:00pm Sunday evening, we've received between 8 and 10 inches of snow and it's still coming down. Here's a couple of photos I just took - looking out at my deck and back yard.

 It sure is pretty! Thankfully, by the time I have to leave for work Monday morning, our amazing plowing system here in Minnesota will have all the streets cleared and sanded, so it'll be much easier to drive then! :)

Okay, enough about the weather. I do have a card to share. It's another one for the Play Date Cafe challenge #160.  

I love these colors and just HAD TO play with them again!

 It's a very simple card using a pretty Penny Black tree called, A Splash of Winter. I embossed it in white, added dark and light blue pearls, a couple of snow banks and a Hero Arts Sentiment.

Hope you are all safe, warm and cozy like I am tonight! Thanks for your visit! :)

Christmas Tree

Happy Saturday!

It's the last day of my week-off from work - I go back tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to driving there in the snow in the morning - we are suppose to get a winter storm overnight tonight - UGH!

I've been playing with some new goodies that arrived the other day from my Hero Arts November win. I couldn't wait to use their fun, Merry Christmas Tree, Stamp and Die-Cut set! First, I created a fun card. After stamping and cutting out the tree, I added some of the small die-cut images that come with the set, along with some red and green pearls. I added some plaid washi tape and tinsel-twine to ground my tree. 
 

Next, I used only the die shape, cutting it from green cardstock, to create a couple of tag-cards. Then I added some more of the cute, little stamps that come with the set, to decorate my trees. I know, I know, I went a little nutso this time with the pearls and gems, but I just couldn't stop!

I'm having such fun with this set!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Entering a Couple of Challenges!

Hi Everyone!

Hope your week is going well! The weather here this week has finally gotten colder but we are still without any snow. I'm not complaining though - the less shoveling the better!

 I've got a card to share today, and I'm entering it into a couple of challenges. The first one is the Play Date Cafe challenge.

Don't ya just love these colors?! I've been playing with them all morning. Here's the first card I came up with.

I used all three snowflakes from the Hero Arts, Stamp and Cut Christmas Snowflakes set. I first spritz some Perfect Pearl water onto watercolor paper, then stamped the Snowflakes with Distress Inks, in Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans. The die-cut one was created by heavily inking a piece of the same watercolor paper with Faded Jeans ink, then spritzing the snowflake stamp with only the Perfect Pearl water and stamping it into the ink. Love the effect it gives when the water removes the ink!

And since I added so many snowflakes on this card, I'm also entering it into the Simon Says Stamp challenge.

That's it for me today. I've been enjoying my time off work this week and getting lots of things done. I still need to make more Christmas cards and am so happy I found some mojo today - it's been missing all week! 

Thanks for the visit and have a great weekend! :) 

Colorful Christmas Lights

Happy Saturday!

Time is running out to get my Christmas cards finished, so I've spent a good portion of the day doing just that.

I have a fun one to share with you today. I found a Sizzix die-cut set the other day for 40% off and couldn't wait to play with it! It comes with a Christmas light, an ornament and a stocking. Here's my card using the light die.

I cut out four of them, colored them with Copics, added Glossy Accents and Frosted Lace Stickles, then used a string and dimensional adhesive to adhere them to the card base. The background is white embossed with Hero Arts' Tiny Flakes.

I had the day off today from work, and I am actually at the start of an eight day vacation. It'll be spent getting the tree up and decorations out and basically catching up with life before a busy holiday season gears up in the floral department.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! :)

My Last Week of Designing for SSS

Hi Everyone!

I'm back with one last card for my month of guest designing for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog. 

This week, the challenge is Anything Goes, and the design team are all using products from Martha Stewart. I love her new, Holly Craft Punch and her Brights Glitter, so I decided to combine the two on my card.

I punched out the holly three times from some double sided, adhesive sheets, then sprinkled on some green glitter and burnished each one. I thought it would be fun to adhere the holly in the shape of a flower, placing them inside the negative space from a die-cut, Spellbinders circle. It's difficult to see, but I also used Martha's Scoring Board. There are five scored lines running down the entire card from top to bottom. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear set called, Holiday Sayings.

I hope you'll play along this week! As always, the prize is a generous $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Store!

You have until Wednesday, December 5th, 8am Ohio time, 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in!

Thank you so much for your visit and all the wonderful support this past month! I also want to thank Lorraine, Steph, Heather and all of the gals over at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog! You ladies are THE BEST!! I had such fun guest designing with you this month! Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

Another Guest Design Card For SSS

Hi there!

It's my third week of guest designing over at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog.  

This week we are to create a card using Dawny's fun sketch!

The design team are all using stamps from "Stamps Happen" and I must admit, I had never heard of this company before, so I decided  to check them out and I fell in love with their stamps! I ended up buying three of them. My card uses their adorable, Chillin' Penguin rubber stamp.

Isn't he fun?! I colored him with markers, added some Glossy Accents to the dots on the gift, and some Orange Peel Stickles to his beak and feet. The patterned papers are all from the North Pole, 6x6 paper pad from Doodlebug. I have almost used up that whole pad - the colors and patterns are sheer delight!

As I said, I bought a couple more stamps and wanted to share another card using the Stamps Happen, Cheerful Snowmen stamp.
Aren't they a riot!? I had lots of fun coloring this one!

 As always, a random winner will receive a $50.00 gift voucher from the Simon Says Stamp Store, so why don't you play along this week? It's a fun sketch and you could be the lucky winner this time!

You have until Wednesday, November 28th, 8am Ohio time, 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in!

 I can't wait to get together with my whole family, (should be about 28 of us this time) over at my brother's house to celebrate Thanksgiving! I'm also looking forward to three days off in a row, after a very busy week at work! I want to wish all my friends in the U.S. a very Happy Thanksgiving! :)

My Second Week Guest Designing at SSS

Hi everyone! 

It's time to share another card for my guest design spot over at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog! Before I do that, I'd like to thank all of you for stopping by my blog last week. I was overwhelmed by the amount of comments I received and really appreciate all your support and kindness! It means so much to me! :)

This week's challenge is Thanksgiving/Thank you. The only Thanksgiving image I have is of a cutesy pilgrim couple, and I am not very comfortable creating "cutesy cards," so I went with the thank you theme.

 

The image I used is from Hero Arts and it's one of my faves. It's called, Three Sunflowers. As you can see, I only added two of them to my card, after stamping coloring and cutting them out. 

Some of you know that I manage a floral department in a grocery store, and during this year's fall season, we received some of the most amazing sunflowers! They were yellow and red striped and so gorgeous! I wish I would have thought to take a photo for you! That's why I colored my sunflowers with bits of red.

The piece of burlap behind my die-cut, scalloped oval is from Maya Road. I also embossed the yellow panel with a Cuttlebug embossing folder called, Leafy Branch and the sentiment is from Hero Arts' Thank You Messages.

I really hope you'll join me and play along with the challenge this week! As always, the prize is a $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Store!

  
You have until Wednesday, November 21st, 8am Ohio time, 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in!

  
Thank you so much for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your week! :)