A Year in Review - 2015

  As I mentioned yesterday, today I am sharing my favorites of 2015. It was really hard to narrow it down but I managed somehow, so here they are, starting with the beginning of 2015. If you'd like to read more about each card simply click on the card title to get to the original post.

Share a Hug

 

Mixed Media Bookmarks

 

 

 Pocket Card with Tag

 

 

Lamb Hugs Just For You

 

 You're the Bestest

  

 Skunk with Rose

 

 You Make Me Smile

Pretty Flowers

 

  

 Wishing You...

 

 

Inspired by Heather

 

Card Front as Wall Decor

Woodland Christmas

 

Finally my favorite place I visited this past year:

Rocky Mountains National Park.

It's been a while...

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Kitty and Butterflies :-)

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I was lucky enough that my husband was home this year, he took a week of vacation and today was his first day back to work. And he already scheduled a week off for next Christmas too :-)

For today's post I am sharing another cute card made with Whimsy's stamp set "Critter Cuties". 

As with my  other critter cuties cards, I also kept this one clean and simple. The kitty has been colored with copic markers. Designer paper is from Stampin Up (really old), and I used a really old SU stamp for all the random dots. The sentiment is part of the Whimsy Stamps set. I added a couple punched out butterflies to finish off the card. 

I am playing along here:

Crafty Creations - Anything Goes 
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Crafting from the Heart -Always Anything Goes

 

Thank you so much for visiting! Enjoy your day and come visit again tomorrow, I am planning on doing a top 2015 post tomorrow :-)

More Critter Cuties

Happy Tuesday! Hope you're all doing good and are enjoying the holiday season! I'm happy to say that my husband finally will be home this Christmas. It's been years! But he now has enough seniority at work so he was able to take a week of vacation!! 

 A couple weeks ago I shared a card using the cute bunny from the Whimsy Stamps set "Critter Cuties". I had actually wanted to share all 3 cards at once, but ran out of time to make them all, so today I am showing you the card I made with the cute little puppy. He reminds me of Toto from the Wizard of Oz.

He's been colored with copic markers. The card was made in a CAS style. Sentiment is part of the set. Papers are from my stash, I think by SU and MME. I simply embellished with a button and and some twine to finish it off.

I now have also finished the card using the cute kitty from the set, but with the holidays almost here, I have decided to keep it for next week, as I most likely won't be making any cards this week. 

I am playing along here: 

Sweet Stamps - December -  Anything Goes
Craft-Dee BowZ -  - (December) Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow
Crafting from the Heart -  Always Anything Goes
Amusing - Anything Goes
Great Impressions - December Anything Goes
Inkspirational - Bah Humbug - Anything but Christmas

Thanks so much for visiting!!

Penny Black and More - Midmonth Creation

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

It's been a pretty busy December, but I did manage to create a card for this month's midmonth creation for the Penny Black and More challenge. Still time to come join us for some great prizes. Our theme is easy too, anything goes with stamping.

I made an "all occasion" shadow box card. The beautiful flowers are from the set blooming garden. They were colored with copic markers and a sepia pencil for more shadows. The beautiful sentiment is also from Penny Black, and I currently have it available brand new in my Etsy shop. 

Below is a top view.  

Instructions on how to make this type of card can be found here on SplitcoastStampers.

Thanks so much for visiting. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend with some fun Holiday activities planned. We're going to see a Christmas ballet this evening where my daughter is part of the cast. So excited. Then hopefully we'll get to make some Christmas cookies on the weekend :-)

Whimsy Stamps - 12 Days of Christmas - Day 4

Happy Wednesday!! 

Did you hear yet?? We're having a "12 Days of Christmas" Celebration over at Whimsy Stamps with new Holiday projects from the Design Team and fun prizes to win too.

 

Every day from 13th December to 24th December, a member or members of the design team will be sharing a brand new Whimsy holiday creation on the Whimsy blog.  Included in these daily posts will be a LETTER.  Visit the blog every day, make a note of each letter and keep them safe.  Once you have collected all 12 letters, you should be able to unscramble them and make a special 3 word phrase.  Email your guess to whimsystampscontests@gmail.com by 31st December 2015, and if you've guessed correctly, you will be entered into the draw to win a fantastic GRAND PRIZE! 

But that's not all!  We will also be running some fun SPOT PRIZES throughout the entire event.  The prizes could be hidden here on the Whimsy blog or on our design team members blogs, or even on some of the Whimsy artists blogs, so be sure to leave a comment here and on the other blog posts each day to be in with a chance to win!

Today it's my turn along with the very talented Vicki to post our creations to the Whimsy blog, and this is what I created. 

  I won't bore you with details how I made it, I simply followed this tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers. Then attached an easel style card to the top. 

The beautiful Snowflake Fairy Princess stamp is one of Crissy Armstrong designs for Whimsy Stamps. Snowflake sentiment is from the set Winter Letter Seals. I covered my drawer with designer paper by Bo Bunny and used some snowflakes to embellish. The hardware I used on the front is from an old SU kit.
  

Above is a closeup of the beautiful stamp. I used mainly copics for coloring, but added some shading on her hair with a Faber Castell polychromos pencil. 

 This little "drawer box card" is perfect for a little gift like jewelry or you can put $$ or a gift card inside. 

You can find the Whimsy products I used here:
Snowflake Fairy Princess
Winter Letter Seals
Snowflake border die 

Today is also the start of the new Whimsy Stamps challenge, and the theme is "Snowflakes". So if you're up for a challenge why not join us for another chance at a Whimsy prize? 

I am entering my box card to the following challenges:


2 Crafty Girls -Anything Goes 
Craft It Up & Link It Up Linky Party by Craftin Desert Divas- Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers - Snow
Our Crafty Corner - Anything Goes/Winter
A Snowflakes Promise - Anything Goes with a Winter or Christmas Theme (Week 1)
Creative Card Crew- Holiday Season (week 2)
Shopping Our Stash - Let It Snow
Sweet Stamps -  Anything Goes

 Unicorn Challenge - Winter Time

 

 

 Thanks so much for visiting! Hope you're enjoying our "12 Days of Christmas" event. If you missed the first 3 days of posts, just head on over to the Whimsy blog to see what the designers made and to collect your first 3 letters.

Fun and Easy Crafts for Kids

Happy Monday. No papercraft today, but I do have a couple things to show you that we worked on yesterday. The only thing I did was assist with the glue gun. (And burnt myself while doing it LOL.) 

My daughter's class is doing a "Secret Santa" gift exchange in her class, where they are to make something handmade, like draw a picture or a little craft. She already wanted to make the mickey mouse ornament before so that was her first thought, but then this cute snowman craft showed up in my twitter feed yesterday and then she wanted to make that one too :-)

 

This one was so easy to make. All we needed was this. 

She used a sharpie marker (not pictured) to draw the eyes.

And here is the cute snowman all finished. She wanted it to be an ornament so she tied some gold cord to the pipe cleaner. 

 This is where we got the idea from: Crafts by Amanda.

The second ornament is a cute "Mickey Mouse". Forgot to take a photo of the products before she started, but this is what she used:

plastic red ornament

2 styrofoam balls

black acrylic paint and brush

masking tape

buttons

hot glue gun 

She found this tutorial on youtube by LDshadowlady, there are idea for other Disney characters too :-)

Here there are both hanging on a tree for now.

Hope you liked these cute non-papercrafting ideas! I will be back again on Wednesday with a special project for our 12 Days of Christmas Event at Whimsy Stamps.

Somebunny Loves You

Hello and happy Sunday! 

I finally was able to finish a new card last night so I have something new to share. I recently colored all 3 cute critters from the set "Critter Cuties" from Whimsy's November release. I actually wanted to make all 3 cards, but it was late last night when I finally had a chance to play, so I only was able to finish one card.

A very CAS card to keep the focus on this cutie. She's been colored with copic markers. I used markers from the Neutral Gray's and B00 and B02  for the bow. R20 for the pink cheeks and ears. The cute sentiment is part of the set, and it also includes several other sentiments, and a row of paw prints, in addition to the other 2 cute critters. I think this set would be so cute for creating

I am entering my card here:

Challenge Up Your Life- polka dots
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Anything goes with a twist: add some buttons
Brown Sugar - Buttons
Creative Fingers - Always Anything Goes
Jo's Scrap Shack -Anything Goes
PDE Linky Party -  Anything Goes
2 Crafty Girls - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Creations - Always Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps and More - Clean and Simple

 

Thanks for visiting!! 

Penny Black and More - December Challenge

Hello and Happy St. Nicholas Day :-) Hope he left some goodies for the kids :-)

It's the first Sunday of the month and we have a new challenge for you at Penny Black and More. We know everyone is  having a busy month, so we're making it easy for you and this month our theme is Anything Goes with stamping. 

As always we have some wonderful prizes to give away, and don't forget you can enter up to 3 times for more chances to win.

I have two cards to share with you today. First up I made a card using "Snowy" which is a stamp my husband picked out for me a few years ago :-)

I did a water color wash for the colored background. I actually wanted to make a one-layer-card, but when peeling off my masking tape, some of the watercolor paper tore, so I just cut it into a square and mounted it onto purple then the white card base.
I stamped a few snowflakes from the set "Holiday Snippets" onto the background. "Snowy" was stamped onto xpress it blending card, colored with copic markers and fussy cut. The sentiment is from the set "Season's Gifts". I embellished with a few sequins to finish it off.

For my second card I used the stamp "Snowy Hamlet".

The card was very easy to make. I simply heat embossed the image on kraft card stock using versamark ink and black embossing powder. Then added some snowy highlights using a white colored pencil. The image was then framed using the negative of a nestabilities die cut, which I embossed using a polka dots embossing folder and inked with distress ink. 

I also embossed "Merry Christmas" in black on the inside, but forgot to take a photo of the inside.

This stamp is currently up on my ebay, if you are interested.

I am also playing along here:
A Gem of a Challenge- Christmas anything goes
Penny Black Saturday Challenge- Dec - Christmas /holidays
Sweet Stampin - snow time
Crafty Catz - Let It Snow
PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks - Winter
Creative Knockouts -Tis The Season
Crafting By Designs-  December Anything Goes
Fresh Brewed Designs - Anything Goes Christmas
Paper Shelter Challenge - A Christmas Card

Thank you so much for visiting!
 Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  

Sweet & Sassy

Happy Saturday!! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend so far! Busy day planned here today (that will probably also include decorating our Christmas Tree - the kids can't wait :-) , but first I wanted to share my newest Whimsy Stamps card, that I was able to finish last night.  

I used one of the new stamps from Whimsy Stamps latest release. This cute stamp is called "Lovely Tracy" illustrated by Mi Ran. She's been colored using Copic markers and Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.

I used a circle die to cut it out and framed it with a scallop circle. Sentiments are from the set Girl Talk, which was released a year of so ago. I think it's the perfect set for all the cute Mi Ran stamps.

No idea where this sketch originates from, it was in my notebook from years ago. 

Papers are from MME. I added a little flower and twine for embellishments. 

Here is a closeup view of the cute stamp. I always struggle coloring curly hair...so I used my pencils to color the hair. I also used a sepia colored pencil to add some shadows around the image.

Lots of Christmas challenges going on at the moment, but luckily I did find several non-Christmas ones to play along in :-)

2 Creative Chicks -Anything Goes 
 Card and Scrap - Anything Goes

Crafter's Cafe -Die Cuts and/or Punches

Crafty Time-Anything Goes
Brown Sugar – Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Creations - Always Anything Goes
Crafting With An Attitude - Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination -Always Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart - Always Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting. 

Snowflake Blessings

Hello and Happy December! Hard to believe the year is almost over...time flies!

I finally have a new card to share today using "Holiday Snippets". I just listed this stamp set (brand new) on my ebay and the card is included as a bonus. 

This CAS card was so quick and easy to make. I simply stamped the sentiment first, then randomly added the snowflakes using pink and turquoise distress inks. Added silver sequins to finish it off.
Stampin up tempting turquoise card stock was used as a card base to match the turquoise snowflakes.

I am entering my card here:

Crafting By Designs - W,F, 3E -  December Anything Goes
Crafting for all Seasons - 2W, 3E - #115  Brrr It's Cold Outside (Week 2 of 2 )
Crafty Gals Corner -  W, E2 - #48 Anything Goes
Fresh Brewed Designs - W, 5E - Anything Goes Christmas
Inspiration Destination - W, F- #62 Always Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - W, 5E - Let It Snow
Stampotique Designers' Challenge - Sequins
A Snowflakes Promise  - Anything Goes with a Winter or Christmas Theme 

Crafty Sentiment Designs -Winter

Papertake Weekly  Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart -  Always Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Always Anything Goes
Get Creative Challenges - Holidays 

Ooh La La Creations - Let It Snow

 Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Winter Tones
Amusing - Anything Goes
CAS on Sunday -   Christmas

Thanks so much for visiting!!

"Miss you" card and Whimsy Cyber Monday Sale!!!

Hello and Happy Sunday! 

Before I get to my card today, I wanted to let you know Whimsy Stamps is having their yearly

 Cyber Monday Sale - tomorrow 11/30.

Be sure to grab your favorites tomorrow while they are on sale and still in stock!!

For today's card I used the cute stamp "Mia so lonely" from the Lizzy Love collection.

I heat embossed the image on Strathmore Bristol Vellum card stock and colored with faber castell polychromos pencils. The edges were then inked with distress ink. I used some sort of color blocking sketch and embellished with a little diecut flower and hearts. Sentiment comes with the stamp. I used a paper piercing tool kit for the piercing and the holes for the twine. Flower die is from MFT and hearts from Cuttlebug.

Playing along here:

Crafty Friends Challenge  - one for the girls
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Anything goes with a twist: use a die cut
Brown Sugar – -Use Pearls
Crafting With An Attitude -Anything Goes

 

Thanks for visiting!!

Advents Wreath

Happy Saturday!

Hope you all had a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving, if you celebrated! I spent a nice day with my family, turkey turned out great too :-) 

Did you get any shopping done? I placed a few online orders and only went to Joann's to pick up a few things I still needed for my Advent's wreath. Not a fan of big crowds but by the time I went it wasn't that bad anymore. 

I spent most of the day yesterday finishing my Advent's wreath, and then did a little bit of Christmas decorating around the house.

This was the second wreath I've ever made, if you'd like to see my first one, click here. 

I used a pre-made wreath which I purchased from Lowe's. It came with a large red bow, but I removed that. I'm sure the wreaths they sell are meant to be hung up, but I turned mine into an Advent's wreath. The embellishments and candles were all purchased from Joann's. I wish they had prettier candles to choose from, but the ones that did look nicer were too wide to fit onto my holders (I bought those in Germany years ago.) 

 Side view.

Here is a top view. Love these colors!

This is probably my last wreath for some time, but who knows, maybe I'll make one for Valentine's Day :-)

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day!!

Thanks so much for visiting!!

Woodland Christmas and Let's Color Linky Party Info

Let's Color Linky Party delayed, 

coming January 2nd, 2016

I made a little set of Christmas cards using a cute hedgehog by Penny Black.

All stamps are from Penny Black, each image was colored using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.

Edges were inked and distressed, kraft card stock embossed. Embellished with glitter and a snowflake brad. And finished off with paper piercing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A little info about "Let's Color - Linky party" 

Who can join the linky party?

Everyone is invited to join, as long as you link something new you colored. This can be a finished paper craft, art piece, decoration, gift, colored image or even a page out of a coloring book. Please ensure your page/colored image or project is complete when linking here. Please note, if linking only colored image, it must be watermarked. You might also consider water marking your other creation to protect you and the artist from image theft. (You can add a simple watermark with picasa, photoscape, photobucket or other free photo editing software). 

A few simple rules and guidelines to follow... 

• Only new work may be linked
• You may link as many times as you want
• All project must include something hand colored 
• You must include a link back here in your post
• You may use any coloring medium 
• Combine with any other challenges or linky parties

Themes are always optional, and only posted for your inspiration 
(in case you can't decide what to color :-) 

Thanks so much for visiting!!

First Linky Party will be January 2nd.

Whimsy Stamps - November Challenge

I have another Christmas creation to share with you today, this is my second post for today, if you'd like to see my other one, simply scroll down or click HERE.

It's time for a new Whimsy Stamps challenge, and this month the challenge is "Christmas". We have a wonderful Whimsy prize to give away, so be sure to check out the post and take a look at what the rest of the team created. You don't have to use a Whimsy stamps to enter.

For my card today I used an new stamp from Whimsy's Lizzy Love designs - Stars and Baubles Background. It was just released last week. I thought it was perfect for a CAS Christmas creation.

The dark card stock I used is actually elegant eggplant by Stampin Up. No idea why it looks navy or black in the photo, no matter what I tried it just came out looking like this. 

I heat embossed the image using detail silver embossing powder. Cut it to shape and then added silver card stock strips next to the image panel. The sentiment was stamped using elegant eggplant ink by SU to match my card stock. I added a few sequins for embellishments and matted onto a white card base. 

Sentiment is from the set "Holiday Cheer" released a couple years ago, but always a favorite! 

I am also playing along here:
Inkspirational - anything goes with silver 
Brown Sugar –  No Patterned Paper
Crafting-With-Friends - Always Anything Goes
Creative Fingers -    Always Anything Goes (W2 of 2)
Simply Papercraft -   Always Anything Goes
Wags 'n Whiskers -  Embossing (not sure if this qualifies as I didn't use an animal)

Have a great day everyone!!

Crystal Drops

Time for our mid-month inspiration at Penny Black and More! Still some time to play along with us. Our challenge theme is "Anything Christmas". As always we have several wonderful prizes to give away! Be sure to check out the challenge post to see all the prizes up for grabs and the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the team!

For my mid-month creation I used the stamp "Crystal Drops". I colored directly onto the stamp with an Aquamarker by Letraset, then spritzed it lightly with water. It was then stamped onto Fabriano watercolor paper. I did not color in the extra little stars that are part of the stamp (you can see what I am talking about on the inside view photo.) To create the splatter on the card front, I just flicked some watercolor onto the paper. A pretty simple card front. I thought the trees were so pretty, so I just left it like that, matted onto yellow and golden brown card stock.

 

Below is the inside view. This time I used linen distress ink to stamp the tree onto the paper. You can see the little stars in the background here, that I left off on the card front. The sentiment is from the set "Season's Gifts" which I have available brand new on my ebay for US shipping (ending today 11/18).

I am also playing along here:

Alphabet Challenge - T is for Tis The Season
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long -   - Anything Goes
Crafting-With-Friends -  Always Anything Goes
Jo's Scrap Shack - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft - Always Anything Goes
C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
Crafting With An Attitude - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Creations - Always Anything Goes 
Brown Sugar –  No Patterned Paper

A Snowflakes Promise- Anything Goes with a Winter or Christmas Theme
Inky Chicks- Christmas 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!!