Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Looking Back at 2013

I cant remember who I first saw do this, but the last few years I followed suit and have done a look back at my favorite cards of the year! Here is looking back at 2013.....A big thank you to the folks who have stopped by my blog this past year and have been kind enough to leave a comment, they are greatly appreciated.

January:
I made this card for a friend that lives north of me in Fairbanks Alaska and I just love the woodland scene and the papers used.

February:


I love the colors on this one!

March:

My favorite animal and pretty colors!

April:
The banners and the colors just make me smile.

May:
I really like masculine cards.

June:
Patriotic!

July:
I had never paid attention to this stamp until I saw some of my fellow Friday Mashup DT members using and I fell in love!

August:
I had never tried clear block stamping or color blocking before and this card just really came together for me, I love it!

September:
This card was something completely different for me. My cousin is a big Broadway fan and I wanted to capture one of his favorite plays on his birthday card.

October:

I don't make a lot of baby cards so I was really pleased with how this one came out.

November:
I love the papers and colors of this card!

December:
I didn't make a whole lot of cards in December, so I'm going to go with this card that's all about love!

Monday, December 30, 2013

Hung Up on You for FMS117

It's been a while since I made a project just for fun so I sat down yesterday with the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I wont lie, this sketch perplexed me a bit but I finally grabbed the Crazy, Mixed-Up Love set and came up with this card.

I had originally just pierced along the edges of the Whisper White but it looked plain to me so I grabbed some DMC floss that matched the yellow in the DSP and added that to create a stitched border.


Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Crazy, Mixed-Up Love
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, I Am Me DSP
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Real Red Ribbon, DMC floss

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!

I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day filled with love and laughter!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Warm Winter Wishes


We've got a new color challenge this week over at 'Tis The Season, plus a winter card challenge at Friday Mashup, to include embossing...which also happens to be our optional trimming at 'Tis The Season. My card is going live for TTS6 but you're also getting a sneak peek at the Friday Mashup challenge!

I used this sweet winter scene from the Winter Memories set. Its a great image because it can be used for a Christmas card or a nice winter thank you. I left the sentiment off so I can use it for whatever I need in the future.

The new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was the perfect one to go with both of these challenges! I hate the way the pic came out though. The polka dot banners behind the image panel really pop and look so pretty across the white embossed panel.

I hope you'll come by both 'Tis The Season and Friday Mashup and play along with us!






 
 

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Quilted Sketch for TTS5

Happy Thanksgiving to all the US stampers! I hope you have a wonderful day full of great food, love and laughter!Today we've got another challenge for 'Tis The Season and its a sketch with the option of using stars on your project.

I decided to take the pieces on the sketch and put them together like you might see on a quilt. I sponged all the edges of the Winter Frost DSP that I used with Pool Party, used a white gel pen to add some faux stitching and then I ran the piece through the Big Shot with the Square Latice EF.

I used the single stamp 'Christmas Star' and scored it so it would pop up a little bit. It's the first time I've inked up this stamp and I really like it!

I hope you'll come over and
join us at 'Tis The Season! Our challenges run for 2 weeks so there is plenty of time to join in :)



 


Friday, November 22, 2013

Christmas Gingham for Friday Mashup

Time for another Friday Mashup! Erica is bringing it to us and the challenge is going to last 2 weeks, plenty of time for everyone to still craft and enjoy their Thanksgiving holiday here in the US! So whats the challenge? Erica would like to see us use Gingham and pair it up with Kraft or Crumb Cake!

I decided to make a Christmas card using the Calm Christmas set from the holiday mini. The dove is stamped in Night of Navy and is popped up with dimensionals. The top half of the card looked bare so I added some pearls.

The sketch I used is from Seize the Sketch. I switched sides for the sentiment and image placement because it worked better for the stamp I used.

We hope you'll stop by The Friday Mashup and play along with us!

  1. Create a project with "Gingham."
  2. Create a project using "Kraft or Crumb Cake. "
  3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "with Gingham & Kraft."

I've been busy the last few days....not stamping, but with our new puppy, Nali!
 


 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Thankful Colors for Friday Mashup

Its time for another Friday Mashup and it's my turn to host the challenge. With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away I tried to think of some colors that remind me of that holiday, and this is what I came up with. I just love the earthy richness of these three tones, don't you? For the 2nd part of the mashup let's see some 3D items....I'm really bad about taking the easy route and not venturing away from cards so I thought it would be nice to branch out and try something outside of my comfort zone!

I don't have a lot of Thanksgiving decorations so I decided to make something I could put up in the living room. It completely morphed into something different than what I originally envisioned but I still like how it came out, and my husband liked it too, so it worked out okay!

It was really hard to photograph but I used some Sweater Weather DSP around the matte and the middle piece is Baked Brown Sugar DSP. I stamped the Magnificent Maple stamp in Crushed Curry and sponged the edges with the Baked Brown Sugar. The 'thankful' was cut out using the Expressions Thinlet die and some older Always Artichoke DSP I had.  The acorns are from the set Truly Grateful.


Make sure you come by The Friday Mashup and check out the great projects from the DT!
  1. Create a project with a "Baked Brown Sugar, Always Artichoke & Crushed Curry."
  2. Create a "3-D project."
  3. Or Mash it Up and create a "3-D Project with the above Color Combo."

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Deer Christmas for TTS#4

It's time for another challenge over at 'Tis The Season! This time we have some great colors for you.....Marina Mist, Cherry Cobbler and Baked Brown Sugar with an added option of twine.

I used last weeks sketch from Freshly Made Sketches as a starting point. I grabbed the Remembering Christmas set and used the deer for the main image. I know I've said it before but I just love this stamp! It will get plenty of use throughout the year, that's for sure.


Cherry Cobbler DSP was used for the background and my layers are Marina Mist DSP. I had trouble incorporating the twine and finally I decided on putting a little bow on my deer. I cut out my sentiment with a Bitty Banner framelit, popped it up with dimensionals and called the card good to go :)

I hope you'll come over to 'Tis The Season and play along with us, we'd love to have you!



Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Remembering Christmas
Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler DSP, Marina Mist DSP
Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Big Shot, Bitty Banner Framelits, Twine from Recollections, sponge, dimensonals

Friday, November 8, 2013

Wild Woods for Friday Mashup

I don't think I have been this happy to see Friday in a long time! I wont bore anyone with the details of my horrible week but I can say TGIF, and only a few more days until my husband comes home from the lower 48. It will be nice to have him home again!

Heidi has an awesome challenge for us over at The Friday Mashup. As soon as I saw it I grinned because its right up my alley....she wants us to use an image of a game animal, or another type of animal you'd find in the woods(turkey, ptarmigan, etc). She would also like us to use wood grain somewhere on our project.

Ok, honestly, who is surprised that I used the moose image from the Walk in the Wild set? If you've been to my blog before I'm guessing that you are probably not too shocked. Moose are my favorite animal and they can be found in the woods around my house(as well as right in the middle of Alaska's largest city, Anchorage!). I used colors that would invoke a fall feel with this image as your best bet to see a bull moose with a rack like this is during the fall rutting season.


I embossed some Sahara Sand card stock with the wood grain folder and sponged it with Chocolate Chip. I also sponged the panel with Sweater Weather DSP with Chocolate Chip.

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to check out all the great projects from the rest of the DT!

  1. Create a project with a "Game/Woodsy type Animal (Deer, Moose, Turkey, etc). "
  2. Create a project using a "Woodgrain look. "
  3. Or Mash it Up and create a "project with Woodgrain and a Woodsy animal image. "
 

 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Critter Christmas

Today's card encompasses 3 Christmas card challenges....Jingle Belles, Tis The Season and Merry Monday.

I've missed the last few Jingle Belles challenges so I wanted to sneak in today
before the current challenge closes. Stef and Lauren want us to use "creatures" on our cards. I'm very traditonal when it comes to my cards and images so I have a hard time breaking out from that. This is the closest I think I can come to an unusual creature....a beaver(at least I think its a beaver LOL).

My layout comes from the current sketch at 'Tis The Season. There is also an optional trimming of stripes and I went a bit liberal on that....the rows of circles on the DSP create stripes right? Well, today they do LOL

Merry Monday wants us to use the colors red, aqua, white and to also incorporate circles. Done!

I really hate the way this card photographed, it is SO cute in person! The image is layered on circles and popped up with dimensionals, and the banner is also popped up.



Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Merry Crittermas(retired)
Paper: Taken with Teal(retired, Ruby Red(retired), Whisper White, Holiday Lounge DSP(retired)
Ink: Black StazOn, Ruby Red, Sahara Sand, Taken With Teal
Accessories: Big Shot, Bitty Banners Framelits, Nestabilities Circles/Lacey Circles, dimensionals



Thursday, October 31, 2013

Sketchy Chevrons for Friday Mashup

Happy Friday! How many folks have a candy hangover? I know I sure do! We don't get a lot of kids where I live so I always make sure to buy plenty of candy that we just "happen" to have left over, hehehehe :)

Today's Friday Mashup is brought to us by Holly, and she is all about a sketch that incorporates chevrons. Some of you with a keen eye may recognize this as a layout from a card in the holiday mini. Because I'm not a fan of chevrons(I'm really trying to ignore the whole chevron craze) and because the sketch stumped me I went simple and CASE'd the card from the catalog. I changed up a few things, such as the card base, glitter, coloring in the image and the use of a banner in the top right corner.


This is also the first challenge with all of our new design team members so I hope you'll come by the Friday Mashup blog, check out their creations and play along!

I'm also entering this card over at Merry Monday, as the challenge there this week is all about Santa! I love Santa, he is one of my favorite things about Christmas!

Create a project with "the Sketch."

Create a project using "Chevrons."

Or Mash it Up and create a project "with the above Sketch & Chevrons. "
 
 
 

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Santa's List
Paper: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Season of Style DSP Paper Stack
Ink: Black StazOn, Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate, Old Olive
Accessories: Big Shot, Stylish Stripes EF, Aquapainter, Dazzling Diamonds, sponge, dimensionals
 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Stripes and a Sketch for TTS#3

It's Thursday so that means a new 'Tis The Season challenge! This week we have a sketch for you, with the option of using stripes on your project!

Even though there is an ornament on the graphic you don't have to use one...I did because it just happened to work well with the idea I had going in my head. I stamped the ornament in Bermuda Bay and then used the matching framelit to cut it out. It's popped up with dimensionals and I used silver stretch cording to act as a hanger for the ornament. The DSP is Winter Frost, which can be found in the holiday mini, and is perfect for the stripes option. For a little more visual interest I added some rhinestones on my ornament.

I'd like to thank those that are coming out to play with us at 'Tis The Season, we are having so much fun! Only 55 days until Christmas! However, since today is Halloween I hope you have a SPOOKTACULAR DAY!



Sunday, October 27, 2013

Baby Congratulations

My husband has a coworker that will be taking maternity leave soon and he asked me to make a card for her. I ended up using mostly retired items but I still really love how the card came out!

I started with Certainly Celery(retired) as my card base and then added some Delicate Dots(retired) DSP. Since my husband doesn't know if she is having a girl or boy I thought this was perfect paper for a gender neutral baby card. I embossed a panel of So Saffron with the Square Lattice folder and matted that on more Certainly Celery. The Two by Two stamp is also retired but I think its such an adorable image! I finished it off with some Certainly Celery across the middle and if this layout looks familiar to some its because it was
recently a sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Two by Two(retired)
Paper: Certainly Celery(retired), So Saffron, Whisper White, Delicate Dots DSP(retired)
Ink: Black StazOn, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Smoky Slate, So Saffron, More Mustard, Bashful Blue(retired)
Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Certainly Celery Ribbon(retired), dimensionals
 

Saturday, October 26, 2013

All About the Title on MDS Monday

Over at MDS Monday Joan has a great layout for us, and the focus is on the title.

I turned 40 on Oct.11 and for the first time in 20 yrs, since our oldest was born!, my husband and I went on a little getaway together. We drove down to Seward Alaska, a gorgeous little coastal town that is a must see for anyone that comes to Alaska. We stayed at the military resort and spent our days wandering the area and enjoying the solitude. It rained the entire time we were there, absolutely pouring at times, but that didn't hurt our trip at all. Rain or shine Seward is a fantastic place!

Have some fun with My Digital Studio and
go play with the gals at MDS Monday!


Thursday, October 24, 2013

Cake and Colors for Friday Mashup

It's Friday Mashup time again and this week we say goodbye to another DT member, Amy. She is the host of this weeks challenge and I hope you'll come over and play along, and say goodbye to her. You can follow Amy at her blog HERE so you don't have to miss any of her beautiful creations!

Amy has a color challenge for us, plus she also wants to see cake on our project. The colors to use are

Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate & Basic Grey.

This stumped me for a bit but since I needed to make an anniversary card for my aunt and uncles 20th wedding anniversary I grabbed the Love & Laughter set and used the cake from there. I used Smoky Slate and Crushed Curry markers to color the stamp. The Smoky Slate was embossed for one of the panels behind the image and then I used some Coastal Cabana DSP.

With this cake stamp I like more definition so I drew in lines around the cake and added some tiny pearls to the corners.

Make sure you come play along with us at The Friday Mashup and say goodbye to Amy!

  1. Create a project with the colors "Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate & Basic Grey."
  2. Create a project with a "Cake."
  3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "with a Cake using the colors above."
 

 

Monday, October 21, 2013

Home for the Holidays for MDS

My son has to be at work at 4am Monday morning so I figured I'd stay up and work on an MDS challenge. No sense in going to sleep when I stay up to 4am during the week anyway due to my work schedule.

Beth has a card sketch for us and I decided to go with a Christmas card, using the Jingle and Joy Kit. My favorite colors are blue and green and I seemed to have stuck with that a bit on this card, using Pool Party and Gumball Green with a touch of Calypso Coral and Very Vanilla.


It's a pretty simple card :)


Sunday, October 20, 2013

Autumn Birthday Wishes

My uncles birthday is this week and I needed to get a card done for him ASAP. The challenges at Sunday Stamps, The Paper Players and Freshly Made Sketches were perfect to play along with! It's been a long time since I've been able to combine 3 of my favorite challenge blogs so this was a fun card to make!

Sunday Stamps has a unique fall color scheme this week...Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie and Bermuda Bay. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to incorporate the Bermuda Bay but it ended up working quite well as the embossed panel behind the tree image. I embossed the panel with the Square Lattice EF and backed with some Pumpkin Pie. Since my uncle lives in Massachusetts I thought this tree would be a great image to use, not only because of October and New England fall colors, but because my uncle is strong and has been the roots that kept our family strong through the deaths of my grandparents and my father in the last few years.

For the sketch I used some burlap for the strip across the middle. It's the first time I've used the burlap since I ordered it and I rather like it! The panel with the tree on it is popped up with dimensionals and even though I *tried* not to do any sponging (my daughter says I'm addicted to sponging) I ended up using Chocolate Chip along the edges. It looked too plain to me without it!


The challenge at The Paper Players is to make a CAS masculine card....birthday card for my uncle fits the bill  and I think this card is pretty CAS!


Thanks for stopping by!



 
 


Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Happiest Birthday Wishes(retired)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Bermuda Bay, Very Vanilla, Sweater Weather DSP, Chocolate Chip DSP, Pumpkin Pie DSP
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Burlap Ribbon, sponge, dimensionals