Pinned Post


Please click HERE to join in "Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday" challenge.


Please click HERE to join in "I Spy With My Little Eye" challenge.


Dec 29, 2018

Year in Review 2018

Happy Saturday and thank you so much for visiting! I was going to get this posted tomorrow, but had some extra time and so I am posting a day sooner :)

This time of the year I usually prepare a "Year in Review" post to share some of my favorite creations I made during the year. Some bloggers do a top 5, but I am too indecisive to narrow it down to five, so to make it easier, I simply pick a favorite of each month. In case anyone else is doing one of these posts, I have added a linky tool at the end of the post and will keep it open until Saturday January 12th. I know some bloggers like to do these types of posts at the beginning of the new year, so I am leaving it up for 2 weeks. Or simply leave me a comment and let me know you have a "favorites" post, and I will come visit your blog.

By the way, if you would like to take a closer look at each card, you can simply click the link above the card.

So lets begin...

January: Butterflies
I just love how this background turned out, I think this was my first time trying the Splash Watercolor technique. And I really love the blue and purple color combo.


February - Happy Days
A cat looking after birds and smiling - of course I had to pick it. Again loving the colors I used and simple sketch.

March - Sweet You
I always had a sweet spot for hedgehog stamps, this one is no different and love the little scene with the die cuts. 

and this one (sorry I could not decide)
March - Sparkle 
Love the pop of black I added here and the suble details on the white background. 


April - All About Pets
Another cat scene I just  had to pick!


May - Fluttering By
Another fun background I created with the splash watercolor technique.


this one tied again with another one, so sharing both :-)
May - The Journey Is The Destination
There is something about these PB fashion ladies that I absolutely LOVE. And I really love  the shade of pink/coral on the paper and stencilling.


June - Life Is A Grand Adventure
Another cat enjoying himself! And another fun way to use this die!


July - Christmas In July
Something about these colors I absolutely love, and then of course a gorgeous stamp!


August - Sparkly Flower Trio
Love the simplicty of this card.


September - Signs of Autumn
I really like the design of this card and the background was so much fun again playing with watercolors!


October - Hope Is Never Lost
A beautiful autumnal scene.


November - Dance
I gave this one to my daughter for reaching a huge dance milestone - her first dance performance where she was allowed to dance on pointe. This ballerina was one of my favorite purchases in 2018.


December - Spirit Of Christmas
I love the winter sky here made with masking fluid and both the cute image and die were brand new. And cute scenes are always a favorite!



Looking back, I see I still have a sweet spot for all things cute, but this year I also enjoyed playing with more inks and creating inky backgrounds. It's also the year I finally purchased Lavinia stamps that have been on my wish list for a few years. Unfortunately I've only made a couple of cards with them and non of them made my top picks. But maybe next year...


So what about you, what blog posts of yours were your favorites this year? I would love to come visit your blog to find out. If you are preparing one of these "review" blog posts, please leave a direct link to it with the linky tool below, so I can come take a look at your blogging journey. It doesn't have to be papercraft related. If you are any type of blogger, you can share your year in review blog post link here, as long as it is family friendly. I am leaving the linky tool open for 2 weeks, so you have until Saturday January 12th 11:59 pm to link up and share your year in review post. Or simply let me know in the comments section if you've done a review post, and I will come take a look!

I want to sign off today by saying THANK YOU for your blog visits, kind comments and friendship over the year.
Have a safe and happy New Year, and I will be back again with a new creation on January 2nd. 

Dec 22, 2018

Allsorts 499/500: Thanks a Bunch and One More Christmas Card

It's Saturday and that means it's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge, and I am also sharing one more Christmas card.

We are finishing off the year at Allsorts with a 2-week long challenge and our lovely Tracy M. picked the theme  of "Thanks a Bunch". With our creations, we (the Allsorts team) want to thank all of our wonderful challenge participants and generous sponsors for making the Allsorts challenge blog such a success!

To play along this time, simply make a card following a "thank you" theme or make (a bunch of)  flowers the focal point of your creation. 


Stamped and heat embossed the Penny Black image (From Me to You)  on Bristol Vellum paper using Versafine Onyx ink and Clear Embossing Powder. Then I colored with my Zig Clean Color markers and  a Zig Detailer brush. Sentiment is from a retired set by My Favorite Things, this one by Altenew is similar. I found some matching striped designer paper in my stash and finished off with a bow of parrot green May Arts Twine and some Wink of Stella clear glitter.



This time our prize at Allsorts challenge come from Stamp Addicts. I hope you will come join us for  a chance to win!

Also sharing with these challenges:
Cutie Pie Challenge  Add a Little Sparkle
 Color My Heart Color Dare -  Bold and Bright or Soft and Pastel 
Paper Shelter Challenge - Anything Goes
As You Like It Challenge - Anything Goes 
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Penny Black Saturday Challenge- Anything Goes 
Challenge Up Your Life - 2Weeks - Thank You


Below is the last Christmas card I made this year:





Maybe you've seen this recent card I made with this Neighborhood Die by Penny Black. This one is very similar ... Masking Fluid was used for the falling snow, image was colored with Distress Markers and fussy cut with Cutterbee scissors. This time my image comes from the Penny Black set Holly Jolly, an older clear stamp set. The sentiment comes from the set Season's Gifts by Penny Black, same set as I used on the card I shared a couple of days ago. Mounted again onto some blue card stock by Stampin Up and used a white card base again.


Linking up this card here:
Little Red Wagon - Weekly - All Things Christmas
Mod Squad Challenge Christmas or Winter with a Metal Die
Sisterhood of Crafters - Create a Winter Scene
Double D Challenges - Let is Snow 
Through the Purple Haze  'Tis The Season
Pattie's Creations -  Winter/Christmas
Winter Wonderland -  - Anything Goes Christmas
Crafty Calendar MonthlyIt's Christmas Time
Send a Smile for Kids - Winter Fun for Kids


And that is all I have for today, as a matter of fact, this will be my last new creation post of the year. I do want to share a "Year in Review" post where I pick some favorite creations I made during the year, and plan on getting that one published on Sunday, December 30th. I also plan on leaving a linky tool with that post ... if you are doing a "year in review" post  - craft related or not -  I'd love for you to link up then so I can come see YOUR year in review post,  starting Sunday the 30th!


Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!


This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Dec 19, 2018

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - Another Inspiration Post

Hello and happy Wednesday. When I recently placed and order for some Distress Oxides, a few other things  ended up in my cart, and I made some time yesterday to get them out :-)

My card today fits my theme for Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge, so I am sharing it as another inspiration. Still plenty of time to join in for a chance to be entered into the prize drawing. If you are here to link up your creation, simply scroll down to the end of this post for the linky tool.

As a reminder, this month the theme is


Snowflakes, Snowmen or a Winter Wonderland.


Penny Black Holly Jolly Critters // Penny Black Neighbourhood Die // Penny Black Season's Gifts // Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid // Distress Markers // Distress Oxide Blueprint Sketch //  Versafine Onyx Ink // Wink of Stella Clear Brush



I splattered some Masking Fluid onto Neenah linen textured card stock using an old paint brush and let it dry competely. During this time I stamped one of the critters from the Penny Black stamp Holly Jolly Critters onto Bristol vellum paper, heat embossed and colored with Distress markers. The image has been fussy cut with Cutterbee scissors. After I made sure the masking fluid was completely dry, I inked up the card stock using Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide (where has this shade of blue been my whole life!!!???)  Next I rubbed off the masking fluid to reveal the "snowy" background. The  Neighbourhood die cut was lightly colored with Distress markers and I used a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush to add a little sparkle. Sentiment from the Penny Black set Season's Gifts, heat embossed using  Versafine Onyx Ink and clear embossing powder. The card front was framed onto some retired blue SU card stock then mounted onto a Neenah white card base.





Also sharing my card here:

Daring Cardmakers -  Snowflakes Falling Christmas with the Cuties -Carols and Songs (Oh Christmas Tree)Colouring in Scrapland -  Christmas CuteNCrafty Challenge Blog - Christmas Cutie Pie Challenge - Add a little sparkle (the sparkle is really hard to see but Wink of Stella clear glitter was used on the trees, roofs and stars) Stamps & Fun = Creativity -  Christmas

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes with a Critter Creatalicious Challenges  - Christmas with Snowflakes Card Mania - Christmas Happy Little Stampers Dies - Anything Goes with Dies 
Crafty Calendar  -  It's Christmas Time Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Winter or Christmas Brown Sugar - Winter Scenes  Crafty Catz - Anything Goes 

As a reminder, this month the prize at Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge is a gift certificate to Mo Manning's shop, sponsored by me. To play along simply link up your creation, following the this month's theme, below. Remember you may use any brand of stamps, combine with any other challenges, but please do leave a link back to my blog in your blog post.

Happy stamping :)

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Please remember: this is a public blog, meaning any papercraft you link up or any comments left on this blog will be visible and clickable by third parties. The blog owner is not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without permission. 


Dec 18, 2018

Midway Reminder for Penny Black and More challenge

We reached the halfway point at Penny Black and More challenge and today I am showing you two cards I made for our midway reminder post. This month we want to see "Traditional Christmas Colors", so reds, golds, greens, silvers, white - any combination of these. There is still plenty of time to join us if you haven't already and don't forget you may enter up to 3 projects to be entered into the prize drawing. We have some wonderful prizes again this month, so I hope you can play along!


I made this card in the same manner I made a recent card for Allsorts "Christmas Trees" challenge, masking the edges with washi tape before inking the background. I used Evergreen Bough distress ink. The pine stamp is from the Penny Black set Nature's Gifts, using my Stamp Platform I inked it up with Iced Spruce distress ink first, then a second time with Evergreen Bough ink. I practiced the placement on a scratch piece of paper so I would know where I wanted to stamp the pines, as I did have to move the stamp around 3 times for the placement. The little circles on the background were stamped with an old SU stamp and I no longer remember which set is came with. I have separated some of my Stampin Up sets. The shiny "gems" are really just large glitter that could be used in shaker cards, but I simply adhered a few of them with mono multi liquid glue to add some golden sparkle to the card. Oh, and not sure if you can see in the photo, but after stamping the pine with Evergreen Bough ink, I sprinkled some irridescent ice embossing powder (old from Stampin Up - this one I think is similar) to the card and heat embossed for sparkly pine boughs. After all the stamping was done, I removed the washi tape then mounted onto a white card base. The ribbon is from my ribbon scrap box.

Challenges entered:
If You Gave A Crafter A Cookie...
International Art & Soul -Sparkle 
Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenges - Anything Goes with sparkle, glitter or flocking (I used glitter embossing powder)
A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
Archiscraps  Anything Christmas
Artistic Stampers Christmas
Card Mania - Christmas
Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin
 - Anything Christmas / Last Minute Christmas Cards 






While deciding on where to stamp the pine boughs, I also ended up with this card. I wasn't sure I liked how it turned out with the golden embossed stars, and was actually just going to throw it away before turning it into a card. But then when I had another look at the card, I decided it is still worth blogging :-) 
So here it is, made the same way as above. I just added the stamped Falling Stars (wood mounted old stamp by Penny Black) heat embossed using Versamark ink and Gold Embossing Powder over the stamped pines. The sentiment from Penny Black's set Season's Gifts was also heat embossed this time using Versafine Onyx ink and clear embossing powder. On this card I removed the washi tape before stamping the sentiment. Ribbon is from ribbon scrap box again.

Entering my cards here:
Craft-Dee BowZ - Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges  -Christmas
The Corrosive Challenges - Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting today. Hope you have a great week! I will be back again on Saturday with my last card for this year, hope to see you then!

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Dec 15, 2018

Allsorts 498: Christmas Trees

It's already Saturday, time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge. This week it's all about Christmas trees. Hope you can join us!


The above card was super quick and easy to make. Washi tape was used to mask off the edges of my card front. Then I inked up the card with Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide. This ink was also used to stamp the image (Crystal Drops by Penny Black) with. Next I sprinkled some irridescent ice embossing powder over the trees and heated it up for some sparkle. The little sentiment from the Penny Black set  Holiday Snippets was stamped and heat embossed with Versafine Onyx ink and clear embossing powder. Mounted onto a white card front to finish off the card. 





This was a card I made a little while ago and never shared because I wasn't sure  I liked the inked edges on this one. But it fits this theme so well, and the cute hedgie deserves to be seen :-) Another quick card, simply stamped the image from the Penny Black set  Holly Jolly using Versafine Onyx ink, then colored with Faber Castell Polychromos Pencils. A Wink Of Stella glitter brush in gold was used to add some golden sparkle. Sentiment is from the Penny Black set Season's Gifts. Before adhering to the card base, I inked up the edges with  Forest Moss distress ink.


Please come join us this week at Allsorts challenge for a chance to win a set of  Distress crayons! 

Challenges entered:
Card 1: 
Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Winter or Christmas
Moving along with the Times -  Christmas 
Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Christmas
Crafty Gals Corner  - Christmas 
Little Red Wagon   - Black, White and One More color
That's Crafty! Challenge Anything Goes
Paper Minutes - CAS Christmas
The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Christmas Goes 
Crafty Cardmakers -Christmas 
Crafty Calendar  It's Christmas Time


Card 2
Sasayaki Glitter Challenge Blog - Happy Holidays
Crafting By Designs  - Holiday 
Shopping Our Stash - Tis The Season
The Crafty Addicts  Christmas
Cute N' Crafty Christmas - Anything Christmas
Fab 'n' Funky  Cute Christmas
Simon Says Wednesday  - Christmas
Colouring in Scrapland -Christmas
Cutie Pie Challenge - Add a little sparkle
Path of Positivity - silver, gold or other Metallics (I used gold glitter)
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - STARS
Crafter's Castle - Anything Goes with option: Christmas Ornament
Creative Moments - Always Anything Goes 



Thanks so much for visiting today. Hope you have a great weekend!

PS: This is off topic, but just wanted to let you know, Hero Arts is having FREE SHIPPING within the US TODAY ONLY (Saturday Dec. 15th)! If you have been thinking about getting the gorgeous December Stamp Kit, this would be perfect timing for it! I just posted a card made with the MMH December kit yesterday.  


This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Dec 13, 2018

A Fairy Wonderland with Hero Arts December Kit

Happy Thursday! A few days ago I received my Hero Arts "My Monthly Hero" kit and I finally had some time to ink it up! I am soooo loving this kit!

Zig Markers Pale Pink,  Flesh, Marker Green Gray all available in This Set //




It's never easy for me to create scene type cards, but today I decided to write up a "how to" so I can look back at this next time, when I forget again :-) Maybe it will be helpful to some of you too!

  1. Ink up mushroom from Hero Arts Set using Versafine Onyx, heat emboss with Clear Embossing Powder
  2.  Stamp mushroom on post it note, fussy cut and place as a mask over the embossed mushroom. 
  3. Place moon mask on card front.  (I used one of the nestabilities circle die cuts as the mask.)
  4. Ink up the complete card front using Worn Lipstick Distress Ink  starting at the outer edge usingan ink applicator.
  5. Add more ink to the card front, this time using Seedless Preserves ink, starting at outer edge, then add a little bit starting on the moon mask to add some ink around the moon. Use a light touch when inking, so you don't accidentally get too deep of a color.
  6. Use torn printer paper as a mask for the hill and ink up with Bundled Sage Distress Oxide, moving the torn paper to create more hills. 
  7.  Stamp dandelion from the  Hero Arts Kit onto the background around the mushroom using Bundled Sage Distess Oxide Ink again.
  8.  Splatter a few water drops onto the background to create an illusion of "orbs". I used a clean paint brush to splatter the drops onto the background. 
  9.  Stamp and heat emboss fairy on separate Bristol Vellum paper. Color with distress and zig markers. Fussy cut using Cutterbee scissors.
  10.  Remove mushroom and moon masks. Color Mushroom.
  11. Add fairy with pop up dots. 
  12. Add some glitter to the wings (I used the Sakura glitter pen that came with the My Monthly Hero Kit.)
  13.  Add "gems" - the ones I used came with the Hero Arts Kit.


The sentiment is part of the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero December Kit, it has been stamped with  Versafine Onyx and heat embossed with clear powder.

I finished off the card by framing it with deep purple card stock (from Stampin Up) and then a white card base. This card is larger than the standard A2 size, this one measures approx. 6.5 x 4.5 inches. 

Here is a look at the complete Card kit. Isn't is gorgeous!! I really liked the past 3 kits but this one is my favorite so far!

The kit is still available for purchase if you are interested. It's $34.99 and as you can see, matching dies are included along with some pretty sparkly papers. 



My card fits these challenge themes so linking up here:
Paper Shelter Challenge  - Birthdays/Celebrations 
Crafty Sentiment Designs -  Celebrate
Cutie Pie Challenge - Add a little sparkle
Incy Wincy Designs - Create your own background
Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenges - Sparkle or Glitter


And there are lots of Anything Goes themes so linking up here too:
Crafty Creations 
Creative Moments  
Word Art Wednesdays
Lemon Shortbread 
Through The Craft Room Door
Artistic Inspirations -F
Crafting from the Heart 
CuteNCrafty Challenge Blog
Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges 
Dragonfly Dreams 
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
The Corrosive Challenges
We Love 2 Create  
A Gem of a Challenge 
Catch The Bug  
A Bit More Time to Craft 
A Perfect Time To Craft 
Crafts Galore Encore
Creatalicious Challenges 
Love to Craft
 




Thanks so much for visiting. PS: Don't forget about my "Crafty Wednesday Challenge" that runs until the end of this month. I am giving away a gift certificate to Mo Manning's digi shop to one lucky winner. You can read more about it here.

Edited to add: Hero Arts is having FREE SHIPPING on all US orders Saturday December 15th only. If you have been thinking about purchasing this kit, then this is the perfect time for it! 

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!