A Year in Review 2017

It's hard to believe that we're in the last week of 2017. I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We received our first snow of the season just in time on Christmas Eve, which was really nice and helped put us all in the Christmas mood. I am still in "holiday mode" and enjoy having the kids home for a few more days before it's back to school. Winter break always seems to end too soon! Another week couldn't hurt! It has gotten so cold here right after Christmas, and we're expecting to start the new year with a high of around 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius). Hoping it will warm up a bit once school starts again...

This time of the year I usually take a break from card making, but at the end of the year I always like to look back at the things I created and choose some favorites. It's the perfect thing to do on this freezing cold winter's day! To make it easier I chose 1 card a month. As you can see, my Penny Black stamps were still my favorites to use, and I have a feeling that will continue in the new year as well :)
If you would like more information about any of the cards, simply click the month to go to the original post.

January - You Make My Heart Smile

February - I Carry Your Heart

March - Botanical Notes

April - When Life Gives You Lemons...

May - Where Words Fail

June - Christmas In June

July- Fancy Folds

August - Sending Love

September - You Make Me Smile

October - Halloween Greeting

November - Colors of Autumn

December - Clean And Simple

If you are doing or have done a "year in review" type post, please do let me know in the comments, so I can come check out your post too! I'd love to see your favorites!

Thank you so much for visiting,

wishing all my readers, friends, followers and blog visitors a very happy and healthy New Year!

I will be back again with a new post on Saturday, January 6th. 

Winter Flowers

Happy (Holiday-)weekend! Hard to believe we've arrived at the last challenge of the year at the Allsorts challenge blog! I hope you'll come join us, you have a little extra time as this challenge runs for two weeks.
Mervi is our hostess and she wants to see "Seasonal Flowers". We have two wonderful prizes this time around, sponsored by Stamp Addicts  and Sizzix. 

I feel like I cheated on this card. The beautiful artwork is actually a re-purposed old greeting card. I picked up a set of these at a thrift store (I love looking at cards at thrift stores because most of them are (almost) vintage and I love all things vintage). I used one of the cards to fussy cut the poinsettias (there are only two on the original card) and I placed it over one of the poinsettias using dimensionals and this way I was able to add a 3rd poinsettia to the card. I then cut around the rectable which includes the holly and pines to use on my card front. I wanted to create a vintage card front, so I stamped "A Christmas Carol" background stamp by Penny Black on white card stock, inked with tea dye distress ink and distressed the edges. The sentiment is from a set by Whimsy Stamps (Crissy Armstrong collection, but I think it's retired), and I added some gold cord to finish off the card. 

Below is a comparison photo of the two cards. Isn't that poinsettia image just beautiful!! It was almost too hard for me to cut into the card. 

 I very recently made another Christmas card and I thought I'd share it as well.

This card was super quick to make, I found this beautiful embossing folder by Darices at Joann Craft and Fabric and I knew I had to have it for quick Christmas cards. All I did was run it through my Big Shot machine using shimmery white card stock (sorry the shimmer isn't showing up in the photo), then inked the raised embossing and edges using broken china distresss ink and stamped the sentiment (from Penny Black's Season's Gifts set). I finished off the card by adding a button with some silver cord and mounted onto matching card stock. 

That is all for today, and this is probably also my last "new card post" of the year. I might do a "year in review" type post sometimes next week. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, 

wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

Merry Christmas!

Penny Black and More - Midmonth Reminder

Today I am sharing my card for the Penny Black and More Midmonth reminder. Our theme is "Clean and Simple", perfect for this time of the year. There is still some time to join us if you haven't already or maybe you'd like to enter again! I love a Clean and Simple theme, and find CAS cards so easy to do using the beautiful stamps from Penny Black.

The cute snowman is from the old clear set "Holly Jolly". I stamped him using memento ink on xpress it blending card. Copic markers were used for some light coloring. The sentiment is from the Penny Black set "Season's Gifts", also stamped with Memento ink. I simply embellished with some frosted lace stickles glitter and some "candy dots". Mounted onto the card front and was finished. We have some great prizes to give away again this month, don't miss your chance if you'd like to win some new goodies :)

And that is all for today, I hope you have a good week and are well prepared for the holidays. My Christmas shopping is about finished. Today I plan on starting to wrap the presents. I always want to start sooner, but never seem to be able to. Baking Christmas cookies is also on this week's agenda and I am looking forward to that :) 

Thanks so much for visiting!

Cold and Frosty Colors at Allsorts Challenge

It's Saturday again already, that means it's time for a new challenge at Allsorts. Our theme this week - chosen by Brenda -  is Cold and Frosty colors, so blues, lilacs, silver, white etc. They are some of my favorite colors and are perfect for winter themed cards.

I started out by masking the bottom portion of my card using a piece of torn printer paper and masking tape to hold in in place. Then I splattered some masking fluid onto the background and when it was dry I inked with Stampin Up's retired Lovely Lilac ink and Distress Broken China ink. Then I rubbed off the dried masking fluid to reveal the pretty "snowy" background.  The bare trees were done using a Penny Black die set. Can you believe this is my first time ever using these dies although I've had them for over a year...it's challenging for me to use dies, but they seemed perfect for this occasion. The sentiment (from Penny Black's Season's Gifts set) was stamped using versafine onyx ink. I love how the black sentiments stands out from the softly inked background. The whole card front was cut into a 3.75 inch square and mounted onto a 4.74 inch card base. 

This week at Allsorts we are being sponsored by Crafty Ribbons with the prize of the beautiful ribbon package below...

We would love for you to come join us in this fun challenge!

Thanks so much for visiting!!

Snowflakes for Allsorts Challenge

This week at Allsorts challenge our host is Helene and she wants to see Snowflakes. I hope I only see snowflakes on paper today, I have to drive out of town later this morning and we might be getting some snow. Hopefully it’ll stay north/east of us! I hate driving in it and I’m sure so does everyone else...

For my card I heat embossed "Snowy" from Penny Black and paired him with some pretty designer papers I picked up a year or two ago at Hobby Lobby. The sentiment is from the set "Holiday Snippets", also by Penny Black and also heat embossed. I colored with Zig Clean color brush pens. I decided to stamp a few snowflakes onto the image panel, the snowflake stamp is part of the set "Holiday Snippets". A punched out snowflake was placed on top of Snowy's hat.

This week we are being sponsored by Marianne Design and I hope you'll come join us for a chance to win!

Have a great weekend!

RetroRubber Christmas Colors challenge

I recently discovered the Retro Rubber challenge blog, a blog where older stamps are being highlighted, and I played along in a few of their challenges. One of my recent cards was a favorite and the team invited me to join them as  a guest designer (thank you so much!!), so today I am sharing my card for the Retro Rubber challenge. The theme is Christmas Colors picked from the inspiration photo below. 

This stamp was another oldie I found on ebay last year from PSX,  probably around 15 or so years old, no longer in production, but it can still be found on ebay or etsy. Stamp #K2431.

I heat embossed the image on bristol vellum card stock and used  my Zig Clean color markers for coloring. The sentiment comes from an old Stampin Up Christmas set, it is also heat embossed. I used gold twine and gingham ribbon as embelliments. I even used really old designer paper I still had left over from when I was scrapbooking. Yes, that's a long time ago!

The Retro Rubber challenge  runs for 2 weeks, so if you like to play with your older stamps why not link up there! The stamps don't have to be as old as the one I have used, but at least one year old.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Clean and Simple at Penny Black and More

Good morning, I am back already with my card for the December Penny Black and More challenge. We're making it easy for everyone this month and have a simple theme...

Clean and Simple

My card was really quick to make. I inked up the stamp Crystal Drops using Distress markers, stamped onto Neenah linen card stock. Trimmed around the edges and then mounted onto a white layer and a white card base. Stamped the sentiment from the set Seasons Gifts, also by Penny Black to finish it off. I was going to spray some glimmer mist over the card but I was affraid the ink was going to run so I left if un-glittered. 

As always we have some fantastic prizes to give away, so if you'd like to be entered into the drawing come join us! Our rules are simple, but please do follow them so you aren't disqualified from winning. You can find out more on the challenge blog. 

Our wonderful sponsors this month are Penny Black, Tattered Lace and Fantastic Ribbons.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A Thank You Card

Happy Saturday! December already ....how can it be!!!!! Not sure where the time went. Our weather has been pretty un-seasonal again I think, not that I am complaining, I love waking up to sunshine and enjoy temps in the 50's this time of the year! But that means I am nowhere near in Christmas mode and still have my fall decorations up, but it will come down today :) And I am just about done with Christmas shopping, which is great! 

This week at Allsorts challenge Brenda is our host and she wants to see "Thank You" cards. I know I never have any of those handy for when I need one, so this is a great challenge for me!

I don't know why, but this little mouse always comes to my mind when I think of 'thank you' cards. He's been heat embossed on bristol vellum card and colored with zig clean color markers. I kept the card simple and just stamped thank you right below the ink drip. Matted onto light pink and then onto designer paper. I tied some jute twine around the card front before adhering onto the kraft cardbase.

Our sponsor this week is DigiStamp Boutique  giving away a fun digi prize. They have lots of cute stamps to choose from, so hopefully you can come join us for a chance to win!

And that should be all for today, thanks so much for visiting. I will be back again tomorrow with my card for the December Penny Black and More challenge. Hope you'll stop by again!