Favorites for 2011

I saw Rita over at Rita's Creations post her favorites tonight, and she mentioned she had seen other bloggers doing it also, and I thought, why not! Its a quiet night in our house...my boys are watching TV, hubby is already asleep because he has to be in the ER at 4am for work and the daughter is with her boyfriend, so I might as well go back and look at my cards and see which ones I liked the best :)

January:

This card was meant to convey a lot of emotion to my step mom, as we had just lost my dad to cancer in Oct.2010. I love the bright cheery colors I used and the birds make me smile. My step mom loves birds, as do I, so I knew this card would bring a smile to her face also.

February:

I love the color combo on this card and while I know a lot of folks don't care for this sock monkey stamp I get a big kick out of him. A nice CAS card.

March:

Yep, a Christmas card! I remember I wasn't too sure about the sketch when I saw it, but in my opinion this card turned out very fun.

April:

Yes, its another Christmas card. I adore Christmas cards and make them all year long, what can I say. This is one of my favorite stamp sets(I just used it to make a New Years card!). For me its the combo of the colors and the serene scene that just makes me love this card.

May:

If there was ever a card I made that screamed "THIS IS TOTALLY LISA" then this card is it. Moose, green, outdoorsy....yep, this card is totally me!

June:

Ok, I can hear you groaning, but I am choosing another Christmas card. I love snowmen, I love the colors I used...I just love this card!

July:

Hey, look, its not a Christmas card! LOL I remember liking how unique this Splitcoast sketch was, and I like the DSP and colors I chose. I gave this card to one of my closest friends and she loved it, which made me happy :)

August:

Dang it, I cant help myself. I adore penguins and I think this card came out super-fun and super-cute!

September:

This is a card I made for a Friday Mashup challenge. This card was so easy to make, between using the Cricut and SU products, and I was really pleased with how it came out.

October:

I made this card for Pink Week, and it was for my step mom, who is a breast cancer survivor. I like it because I went out of my comfort zone for it...I am not a fan of pink or "girly" looking cards, so when I do a card with those themes and it comes out nice I am pretty surprised, and happy!

November:

I love the DSP, the colors, everything. I think it might be my favorite card of the entire year.

December:

Since its December its safe to pick a Christmas card ;) I made my first real shaker card and I just love this little scene I created. Penguins, I just love them!

Bird of Thanks

The days after Christmas are all about the thank you cards around here. I like to get cards made and sent out as soon as possible, so our friends and family know how thankful we are for them, and for any gifts that we received. My kids have had it drilled into their heads since they were little "thank you cards, thank you cards, thank you cards" LOL.

This particular one is going to be sent to my step mom, who lives down in FL, so I wanted it to have a spring-look to it, as she really isn't a fan of winter. It made me giggle thinking about that, as I stood outside in a temperature of negative 9, surrounded by snow, taking the picture :)

I played along with 2 challenges for this card. The first one was Stamping 411 and their sketch challenge, and the 2nd one was Shopping Our Stash, who wants us to use ribbon, twine, etc on our project. Go check out both blogs if you haven't already!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Language of Friendship, Petite Pairs

Paper: Pear Pizzazz, Watercolor Paper, Springtime Vintage DSP

Ink: Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Baja Breeze

Accessories: Certainly Celery Ribbon, Oval Punch, Bird Builder Punch, Aquapainter, dimensionals, sponge

Jingle Belles Guest!

Can I just say that I completely squealed with delight when I was asked by Stef and Lauren of the Jingle Belles challenge blog to be one of the guests for the first challenge of 2012? Anyone that knows me figures it out pretty quickly that I love Christmas and Christmas cards, so when I discovered the Jingle Belles blog I was instantly hooked...it was all about Christmas cards, creative challenges, wonderful owners and the people that play along are a friendly, talented bunch! What more could you want in a challenge blog? They also have something new for 2012....you now have 2 WEEKS to play along with their prompts!

So you ask, what does the first challenge of 2012 entail? Well, here ya go!

NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENTS



make a holiday card that incorporates GIFT WRAP: as a background, as an accent, or using motifs cut from your favorite wrapping paper


OR


make a holiday card with an image of present(s) on it!

For my card I went ahead and did BOTH of these things. I used some wrapping paper that I happened to have in my craft area as the background for the bottom half of my card, and I used one of my favorite stamps, which happens to be an image of a sleigh piled high with presents!

Make sure you head over to the Jingle Belles blog to check out all the great cards from this weeks guest stars, and then come play along! It's a great feeling when December arrives and you already have a nice pile of Christmas cards made up and ready to go!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Sleigh Full of Toys

Paper: Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Naturals White, wrapping paper

Ink: Black StazOn, Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Taken With Teal, Bordering Blue

Accessories: Marina Mist ribbon, Snow Burst embossing folder, Big Shot, Rhinestone Brads, Dazzling Details

Into the New Year with Friday Mashup!

It's the last Friday Mashup challenge of 2011, where has the year gone? I hope you've enjoyed the challenges that The Friday Mashup has brought to you in 2011 and I hope you'll come back for more in 2012!

Today's challenge comes to us from Kasey, and she wants us to create a project that sparkles, a project celebrating New Years or mash them up and do both!

I mashed them up but not in a traditional sense. I chose to use the very serene scene from A Scenic Season, one I've used quite a bit these last few months. I just love this stamp and its a reflection of how my family and I will be ringing in the New Year.....at home, surrounded by trees and snow, our own winter wonderland. We'll reflect on the year that has gone by and wonder what we will encounter in 2012.

The trees are covered in Dazzling Details, so in the light this card does sparkle and looks quite pretty! I also used this weeks color challenge over at Splitcoaststampers for my color scheme.

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :

-Make a project that "Sparkles".
-Or Make a project "Celebrating the New Year".
-Or "Mash it Up" and create a project "Celebrating the New Year that Sparkles" .

Head over to the Friday Mashup challenge to see the rest of the inspiration from the design team and then play along with us! Also, don't forget that challenges 37 and 38 are open until Jan.4th. With the holidays we wanted to give everyone some more time to play along!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: A Scenic Season, sentiment from Seasonal Sentiments

Paper: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Whisper White

Ink: Bashful Blue, Real Red

Accessories: CB Swiss Dots folder, Dazzling Details, sponge

Snowman Sketch for Freshly Made

Thanks to the holidays the time to get your submission in to the latest Freshly Made Sketch challenge was extended, and I got a chance to play along today, wooohooo!

I decided to make a card with one of the snowmen from the Snow Much Fun set. After the first half of  December brought some horribly warm, windy(as in hurricane force winds, one of the storms we lost power for 16 hrs. Thank goodness for wood stoves and ovens that run off propane!) systems up from Hawaii(we're talking 40* in southcentral Alaska, thats just WRONG for December) it finally cooled down again and we got more snow. It started snowing on Christmas Eve and continued all the way through yesterday, Dec.28. We ended up with over a foot of new snow, and I couldnt have asked for a better Christmas present! I definitely have snow, and snowmen, on the brain!

 Standing at the front door, looking down into the yard

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps:  Snow Much Fun

Paper: Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, AC Patterned Paper

Ink: Black StazOn, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze

Accessories: Watercolor crayons, blender pen, Snow Burst EF, Big Shot, Simply Scored, Modern Label Punch, Dazzling Details

Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to all of my crafty friends!

Friday Mashup Sketchy Watercoloring

Thanks for joining us for another Friday Mashup challenge. It's Dec.23rd, Christmas Eve Eve :), so I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I hope your day is filled with lots of love and laughter!



Because so many people are busy with the holidays right now I wanted to keep this challenge pretty simple, so I think I have an easy challenge for everyone. I dont know about you but I always like a nice simple sketch to give me a starting point, and I also like to watercolor my images. I thought it would be great to combine 2 of my favorite things for a challenge that people wouldn't have to think too hard about, because goodness knows this time a year our minds are already getting quite a work out!


I hope you'll join us and I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with! Make sure to check out all the great inspiration from the design team! This challenge will also be open until JAN.4TH! Like I said, we all know what a crazy time of year this is so we figured we'd extend the end of the year challenges, so maybe you can sneak away from the hustle and bustle for a bit for some stamping :)

All of my Christmas cards have been done and mailed for a few weeks now but what does that mean? That I need MORE Christmas cards for next year of course :0)  I grabbed the tree from the Christmas Lodge stamp set to make this card. I love this tree! I watercolored it with Garden Green and Always Artichoke, and added in some Early Espresso for an outline of a tree trunk. For a little extra sparkle I added ornaments with Stickles in red, green and gold(and boy, did that turn into a big discussion in my house...the hubby and daughter didnt want me to put it on, but I wanted too, and well, its my card so they were overruled HA!). I added in some Crumb Cake ribbon, some layers of Frostwood Lodge DSP and called it good.

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :


-Make a project using the "Sketch".
-Or Make a project using "Watercoloring".
-Or "Mash it Up" and create a project using the "Sketch & Watercoloring" .

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Christmas Lodge, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Flannel Plaid

Paper:  Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy, Watercolor Paper, Frostwood Lodge DSP

Ink: Garden Green, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Riding Hood Red, Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Top Note Die, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Crumb Cake ribbon, Oval Punch, Stickles--Candy Cane, Gold and Green, sponge, Aquapainter

Distressed Chipboard with Friday Mashup

LOL, that title makes it sound like the chipboard is having a mental issue! :)

Todays challenge is brought to us by Heidi and boy, did she pull me out of my comfort zone. I rarely use chipboard, although I have a ton of it. I see it in the store or the SU catalog and think "oh thats so cute, I could do this or this"....and then it just sits in my craft area.

Today I ended up grabbing some chipboard I bought from K&Company(like 2 yrs ago, see what I mean about not using stuff). I liked how these ornaments had an old-time feel to them, and the glitter accents were also appealing. To coordinate with the glitter on the ornaments I use shimmer mist on my cardstock, after sponging some Early Espresso and Cherry Cobbler along the frame. In the light this card really sparkles and looks so pretty. I sponged the edges with those colors to give it a distressed look, like the card had been around a while and colors were starting to fade or run together...not sure if I really pulled that off or not but that was my original goal.

I hate the way the card looks in the photo, because as I said above the card really shimmers nicely and the colors are much more warm and vintage looking in person. I guess I need to get my cards done earlier in the day. We only have 5 hrs of daylight right now and this card didnt get done until sunset so I didnt have much natural light to work with.

So here we go:

Make a project featuring "Chipboard (Precut or Diecut )".

Or Make a project using  "Distressing (w/ ink, scissors or the Cutter Tool Kit)".
Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Distressed Project featuring Chipboard"

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to check out all the other inspiration from the rest of the design team and then link up YOUR card. We want to see what you do with this challenge!

Snowman Fun with Friday Mashup

I just love this weeks Friday Mashup challenge, which is brought to us by Kim! She wants us to create a project featuring a snowman and use the colors Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze and Basic Gray.

I love snowmen, even though here in my neck of the woods our snow is usually very dry, its not the wet snow that makes the perfect snowman or snowball. I compensate by having snowmen decorations up in the house all year long, and during this time of year my yard has many snowman decorations also. Snowmen just make me smile, I cant help it.

These colors arent normally ones I'd grab for a winter/Christmas card but after seeing them together I think they combine wonderfully for a great winter scene! I used one of my favorite snowmen stamps, from the  Jolliest Time of Year set. I love how whimsical this little guy is! The layout is from this weeks sketch challenge over at Splitcoast. I'm also going to enter this card over at my favorite Christmas challenge blog, Jingle Belles...they are on hiatus until Jan but they have it so you can still link up any Christmas cards you might still be working on!

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :


-Make a project featuring "Snowmen".
-Or Make a project using the colors "Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze & Basic Grey".
-Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Snowman project with the colors Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze & Basic Grey".


*With all of our Challenges that have a Stampin' Up! Color Combo, you may substitute any colors with similar ones you have on hand.

Head on over to The Friday Mashup to check out all the great inspiration from the rest of the design team and play along with us, we love seeing the way you all interpret these challenges!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Jolliest Time of Year, Bright Christmas(sentiment on front of card), Snow Flurries

Paper: Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray,  Whisper White, Candy Cane DSP

Ink: Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Snow Burst Embossing Folder, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Aquapainter, Sponge, Dimensionals

Non-Traditional Christmas

This week The Paper Players have a neat challenge....Create something Christmas (or holiday) with non-holiday stamps or colors.  I don't know why but the minute I saw this challenge I immediately thought of the Aviary stamp set. Maybe its because I love to watch the birds in my yard all winter, but the Aviary set is different enough that it doesn't scream "pick me for a Christmas card"? I don't know, but that's the set I grabbed :)

I also used some DSP from last year called Candy Cane Christmas. For me these aren't very traditional Christmas colors, as I am more of the group that uses very rich, warm earthy colors for Christmas. Using a color such as Blushing Bride on a Christmas card is definitely not something I would normally do.

Go check out the design team inspiration, these ladies got very creative with this challenge!

Supplies(all supplies are SU unless otherwise stated):

Stamps: Aviary, Forest Festivities(front sentiment), Many Merry Messages(inside sentiment)

Paper: Naturals White, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze

Ink: Blushing Bride, Garden Green, Real Red, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso

Accessories: Paper Piercing Tool, Dimensionals, sponge

Thank you with Freshly Made

I haven't had a lot of time to stamp lately so I wanted to try and squeeze in this weeks sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. Why I chose Sunday, when my football team the NY Giants had a big game against Green Bay, is beyond me. I should have known better! Needless to say I spent more time jumping up from my desk and yelling at the TV then I did working on the card,LOL. The G-Men played a good game but alas, lost by a field goal to the still undefeated Green Bay Packers. Sure was a good game though and eventually I got my card done :0)

This is a busy time of year for me. Besides Thanksgiving and Christmas all 3 of my kids have their birthdays. My youngest just turned 13 Nov.20 and today is my daughters 16th birthday. They both received a card and gift from my step mom, so I needed to make a thank you card for them to send to her.

I went with the Forever Young set as I thought the male and female silhouettes would be perfect in representing my 2 younger ones.. The thank you sentiment came from All Year Cheer II.

Supplies(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Forever Young, All Year Cheer II, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Paper: River Rock, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Timeless Portrait DSP

Ink: Island Indigo, Versamark

Accessories: 1" square punch, dimensionals

Winter Shaking with Friday Mashup

Welcome to another Friday Mashup, and we're now into December. I cant believe how quickly this year has gone by, it's just insane to me.

This week our challenge comes from Rita and she has a great one...a winter themed shaker card! Now as much as I love winter and snow you'd think that I do this type of card all the time...nope! I think this is only my 2nd attempt at a shaker card, and it was um, interesting, LOL. I had some issues with the foam mounting tape I used to create the shaker area, it didnt want to stick to my cardstock at all, so I think I'm going to have to play around with it and see what the problem is. I did get my card made though so woooohooo for that, LOL

So here we go:


Make a project featuring "A Shaker Card".
Or Make a project with a "Winter Theme".
Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Winter Themed Shaker Card. "

Shaker card tutorial can be found here.

Dont forget to head over to The Friday Mashup Blog to check out all the great inspiration from the rest of the design team and then link up your card, we want to see what YOU do with the challenge!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Polar Party, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Punch Pals

Paper: Baja Breeze, Naturals White, Acetate

Ink: Baja Breeze, Real Red, Garden Green, Black StazOn, Tempting Turquoise, Wisteria Wonder, Close to Cocoa

Accessories: Coluzzle, Modern Label Punch, Rhinestones, Mica Flakes, Dimensionals, Mounting Tape, Sponge