happy new year!

(If you're here for the Year In Review Blog Hop, scroll down)

Top 10 YouTube Videos of 2011

(If you're here for the Year In Review Blog Hop, scroll down)

I'll not repost the YouTube videos here but point you toward the link that the kind folkes at Website Magazine posted earlier this evening ... take a look at the most watched YouTube ads from 2011 here: Best of 2011 - Viral Video Ads (I LOVE The Force - VW and Samsung - Unleash Your Fingers videos ... how 'bout you?).

Top 10 Trendiest Stamp Sets of 2011

(If you're here for the Year In Review Blog Hop, scroll down)

Oooh! A year end list that's stamp-related?! Here's the Top 10 Trendiest Stamp Sets of 2011 compliments of Moxie Fab World. Visit her blog to vote on your 3 favs ... there's blog candy involved!

Fun{tache}tic from The Craft's Meow

Wonderful World by Lizzie Anne Designs

Farm Fresh from Ippity by Unity

Road Trip from Papertrey Ink

Perfect Pennants by Gina K. Designs

Hey Girlfriend from Cosmo Cricket by Unity

Life is Good by Technique Tuesday

940140 by Ruby Violet from Prima

Clear to See from Lawn Fawn

Say Cheese from Maya Road

a year in review blog hop

In keeping with the spirit of the season, Karin of With an "i" For Paper! blog fame has started a year in review blog hop to look back and high some of your favorite projects from the past year. Being the queen of lists, this was right up my alley, don't you know?! And so ... my fav cards of this year follow:



January - OWL37 meets CAS102 - Brrr!


February - Simply Sublime


March - Beautiful Day


April - Love is Just a Word ...


May - Welcome, Baby! (a case study)


June - Farewell to (Outgoing President) Stan & Angie



July - CTD151 Challenge


August - Dropping You A Line (oops! I'd never uploaded this one!)


September - For You, Friend


October - Black & White Challenge


November - Peace


December - Merry Christmas


This was a fun trip down Memory Lane! Hope you enjoyed today's post and the blog hop! There's blog candy involved, to one random commenter OR blog follower!

year end lists, part deux

I just rec'd an e-mail containing yet another year end list ...

Top 10 Highest Grossing Movies of 2011:
1) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, 2) Transformers: Dark of the Moon, 3) The Twilight Sage: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, 4) The Hangover Part II, 5) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, 6) Fast Five, 7) Cars 2, 8) Thor, 9) Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 10) Captain America: The First Avenger

More deets at MovieTickets by Martin Grove of ZAMM.com!

variations on a theme

... an FTL170 sketch theme, that is! Needing a wedding anniversary card for this weekend, I checked into the recent sketches at Clean & Simple's Web site and remembered that I'd MEANT to make one for this sketch challenge, now past the entry deadline. No matter! I took a few liberties with their FTL170 sketch, flipping it and running the ribbon under rather than over the top card stock piece. I wanted to dry emboss to pop up the hearts for an entry into Lifestyle Crafts' I Made This contest. These are a few from my 2x2" embossing folders of Lifestyle Crafts' QuicKutz GooseBumpz embossing dies. I used to belong to a QuicKutz club at my local paper crafts store and have amassed quite the collection. Now we just have to get it delivered to my brother-in-law and his bride by Friday! Can do! The inside sentiment's PC-generated: "Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart." and the inside heart stamp is stamped off so it's more like a watermark.

stamps: studio g's series 26 outside sentiment, basic grey's inside heart, and PC-generated inside sentiment; paper: A1 Neenah Natural White, SU's Cherry Cobbler card stocks; ink: SU's Cherry Cobbler and PC-generated; accessories: SU's Cherry Cobbler quilted satin ribbon

Lifestyle Crafts' I Made This Contest

Have you entered to win an iPad 2 yet? By participating in the I Made This Challenge, you could win an iPad 2! Upload a project to the community gallery by January 31 using at least one Lifestyle Crafts product and you could win the grand prize - a $1000 Lifestyle Crafts shopping spree, Canon 60D camera, Mac computer, and Canon Photo Printer! 'Nuff said?!

• 'I Made This' Enter to win an iPad2
• 'I Made This' challenge and ultimate giveaway

Jesus is the reason for the season

top 10 lists of 2011

I'm a list junkie ... always have been! So ... want to know what Internet users are searching for? The kind folkes at search-engine aggregator Dogpile make this process easy by combining results from Google, Yahoo, Bing and others to provide lists such as the following. Below are the top searches of 2011 (compliments of Website Magazine):

Top Ten Overall Searches:
1) Facebook, 2) YouTube, 3) NFL, 4) American Idol, 5) iPad, 6) iPhone, 7) Kim Kardashian, 8) Justin Bieber, 9) Casey Anthony trial, 10) Powerball

Top Ten Social Networking Sites:
1) Facebook, 2) YouTube, 3) Flickr, 4) Twitter, 5) LinkedIn, 6) MySpace, 7) Tagged, 8) Google +, 9) Meetup.com, 10) Orkut

Top Ten Online Diversions (at work):
1) Facebook, 2) YouTube, 3) eBay, 4) Craigslist, 5) Amazon, 6) TMZ, 7) Drudge Report, 8) Match.com, 9) Pogo, 10) Skype

Top Ten Retail Websites:
1) Walmart, 2) Home Depot, 3) Lowes, 4) Best Buy, 5) Sears, 6) Target, 7) Costco, 8) Kohls, 9) Staples, 10) Kmart

Top Ten Tech Gadgets:
1) iPad, 2) iPhone, 3) Xbox, 4) Kindle, 5) iPod Touch, 6) Nook, 7) Blackberry, 8) Touchpad, 9) PlayStation, 10) Android

Top Ten Online Games:
1) Angry Birds, 2) Webkinz, 3) Minecraft, 4) Mahjong, 5) Sudoku, 6) Runescape, 7) Farmville, 8) Solitaire, 9) Chess, 10) Poker

Top Ten News Stories:
1) Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, 2) Casey Anthony trial, 3) Hurricane Irene, 4) Occupy Wall Street, 5) Libya Battle of Tripoli/Muammar Gaddafi, 6) Royal Wedding, 7) Death of Steve Jobs, 8) Arizona/Gifford Shooting, 9) Death of Osama Bin Laden, 10) End of U.S. War in Iraq

Top Ten TV News and Talk Radio Shows:
1) CNN News, 2) FOX News, 3) Nancy Grace, 4) 60 Minutes, 5) The Howard Stern Show, 6) NBC Nightly News, 7) The Dave Ramsey Show, 8) Anderson Cooper 360, 9) The Daily Show, 10) The Rachel Maddow Show

Top Ten TV Shows:
1) American Idol, 2) Dancing with the Stars, 3) The Dr. Oz Show, 4) NCIS, 5) Glee, 6) Oprah, 7) The Today Show, 8) The Voice, 9) X Factor, 10) Big Brother

Top Ten Celebrities:
1) Kim Kardashian, 2) Justin Bieber, 3) Megan Fox, 4) Lady Gaga, 5) Katy Perry, 6) Charlie Sheen, 7) Selena Gomez, 8) Emma Watson, 9) Mila Kunis, 10) Adele

Top Ten Musicians:
1) Justin Bieber, 2) Lady Gaga, 3) Katy Perry, 4) Adele, 5) Miley Cyrus, 6) Taylor Swift, 7) Rihanna, 8) Amy Winehouse, 9) Nicki Minaj, 10) Eminem

merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm relaxing w my sweetie after having had the family up for Christmas dinner, and wanted to share a pic of this year's tree. A good time was had by all.

dinner w friends

I met up with friends for supper recently where we exchanged cards and gifts with each other. Two read my blog so I'd held off posting their cards 'til now. Here's Pat's one - she's all about pinks and I had this pretty DP with some non-traditional colors used in its Christmas trees ... perfect! And a perfect evening w friends!

stamps: SU's Christmas Greetings; paper: My Mind's Eye's be merry trim the tree DP, A1 neenah nat'l white, Su's regal rose card stocks; ink: Ranger's antique linen distress ink, SU's rose red; accessories: The Twinery's Pink Sorbet twine

peace on earth

I purchased a couple new Memory Box dies recently and used the Country Landscape one for this card, currently winging its way to my eldest brother in Virginia. A simple card of two colors - white and navy. I've seen some awesome cards made from the die in the blogosphere recently as well. We got a tiny dusting of snow the past couple days but it's supposed to reach the 40's (Fahrenheit) on Christmas day so I don't imagine we'll be seeing a white Christmas tomorrow unless I pull out some old DVDs!

stamps: Technique Tuesday's AE Good Cheer, SU's Christmas Greetings (inside), Branch Out (snow); paper: SU's Shimmery White, Not Quite Navy card stocks; ink: SU's Whisper White, Not Quite Navy; tools: Memory Box's Country Landscape die w Cuttlebug

play date cafe #112

After eats w some friends and exchanging presents, I returned home to neaten my PC desk, and this heidi swapp Christmas theme tape set was one of the things I'd left out, fully intending to make a Christmas card from it this year. So ... before putting it away, I made this quick card. THEN I started blog trolling and spotted this week's play date cafe PDCC112 inspiration and colorQ CQC116 challenges. Their colors look pretty darn close to my card, eh?! I still want to try my hand at a plaid using a new-to-me plaid stamp set I recently acquired!


stamps: SU's Christmas Greetings; paper: JoAnn's CraftEssentials' ivory A2 cards; ink: SU's Cherry Cobbler; accessories: heidi swapp's Christmas theme tapes

sweet sunday

I used this week's sweet sunday SSSC148 sketch challenge for a baby card for a friend whose niece is expecting a baby girl soon. The pretty DPs are from SU's Candy Lane collection, a DP package that I've been hoarding ... I LOVE the soft pinks and mauve-browns of this collection. We've done the "tag team" approach to babies' births in the past ... Susan makes a baby bonnet from elegant hankies to go along with the poem I place inside the card. Today's card is a 4.25" square one, so that it'll still fit into a standard A2 sized envelope. And the sentiment's PC-generated: "When a new life joins the world, new love blooms in your heart!"

stamps: JudiKins' Baby's Hands & Feet; paper: SU's Candy Lane DP, vellum and Very Vanilla card stocks; ink: PTI's Sweet Blush; tools: Marvy Uchida's extra jumbo heart punch

S&CT's winter edition's available!

hi folkes! just a quick note to let you know that the winter edition of Scrapbook & Cards Today mag is now available. You can EITHER download the digi version by clicking on the picture at left OR view the entire mag online - thanx, S&CT!

It's one of my fav scrapbook mags and Canada’s first FREE magazine dedicated to scrapbooking and card making. It showcases the latest techniques and products, presents interesting and easy-to-follow ideas and instructions, and displays beautiful photography and inspiring design. Try it, if you haven't already ~ you'll like it!

Leave a comment on their blog and you could be a lucky winner of the winter edition and some free Holiday Style from Bazzill Basic Paper!

happy b'day sue

I got together with friends for eats and entertainment this weekend to celebrate Sue's birthday. Rather than a movie, this weekend we took in a craft show at the Davison High School. Afterward we headed to Lucky's, a local steakhouse - YUM! - where I had a filet with sweet potato, sauteed onion and mushrooms, and hot bread 'n butter. At the craft show I found a really cute black wool hat ('cuz those who know me will realize I NEEDED another hat, right?!) complete with black feathers and bling for decoration, and got a cute cedar birdhouse for my sweetie. This crafty lady covers hand-made cedar bird houses with peanut butter and asst'd seed, then adds a bit of "bling" - mine's got a sprig of wheat and red berries by the entry.

Sue's favorite color is blue. Isn't it great that I had this blue 'n crumb cake card saved aside for her? I made it at a recent Stamp Camp with the lovely and talented Angie Jarman ... there's one coming up this week, if you're in the Flint MI area - see my "sites I visit" links in my blog sidebar! No deets today, as they were all supplied in class.