a year in review - 2012

I love the "end-of-the-year" wrap ups and last year participated in a blog hop that consisted of folkes listing their fav cards they'd posted thruout the year. This year I've tried to keep it to one card per month for the most part, and here they are:

Jan -  My Wordle Valentine

Feb - I love you PB

March - You Are One Of A Kind


April - Easter Wishes



May - Happy Mother's Day

 

 








June - Happy B'day Joyce

July - It's Clear To See You're The One For Me

Aug - Happiness is a Way of  Travel

Sept - Life is Better with Friends

Oct - Congrats on Your New Bundle of Joy!

Nov - All Is Calm, All Is Bright

Dec - Christmas Peace

Do you have a favorite? I'd be interested in hearing what it is in your comment!

a CASE of season's greetings

Inspired by the lovely and talented Erin of Erin Taylor Designs blog fame, I made this card initially thinking of it for a thank-you but it's been called into service as a New Year's card. When I went to upload it on the Wplus9 challenge site I saw there was one almost exactly like it from one of their design team already?! Such is life. Methinks I'll still upload it ...

stamps: AmyR Stamps Snowflakes, PTI's Signature Christmas, TPC Studio Winter Collage; paper: Neenah Solar White card stock; ink: SU's Cherry Cobbler

I like red and white for a Christmas theme, as evidenced on my Pinterest Christmas board! I'd fully intended to hang red and white on my Christmas tree this year, but went w mainly red at the last minute. There are a small flock of cardinals nesting in the tree as well. Then there are half the glass icicles, and less than half the home-made (mainly needlepoint) ornaments that I normally put up too. We were definitely in a pared-down design mood when we put the tree up this year! But I like it! Sometimes I don't know when to stop myself, y'know what I mean?! And I haven't made it to Hallmark to pick up any ornaments this year (yet) either!

Speaking of which ... tonite I went to Home Depot w my DH looking at potential replacement kitchen faucet and main bathroom's toilet when I spotted some Martha Stewart pine cone ornaments now half off that I may have to head back for. At the time we didn't have anything in our cart and I thought we'd be walking out empty handed, but while I was calling in an order to Applebee's for supper my DH was still browsing and picked up some channel locks ... and by the time we hooked up together again, the pine cones were a distant memory. I DID get one new ornament this year, tho' - it's pictured here, and from a good friend of mine. We generally have a "gals nite out" and exchange presents and this was my uber cool cardinal present. She knows that my Mom and I collect them. Sweet, eh?! I love it!

JOY wall hanging

I don't make many home decorating pieces but mainly papercraft cards lately, so this was a nice change of pace. I participated in a wall hanging workshop held Dec 12th at my local papercraft store, Capture-A-Memory (link at right), where we used chipboard, DP, and letter dies to create our wall hangings. Many made multiples, and that was a good idea. Some made wall hangings using the words "HOPE," "SNOW," or "WISH," but for my first attempt, I made a single "JOY" wall hanging using the letters and some holly and berries from another die the store had on hand. It's currently gracing the inside of my front door. This was FUN and I'd like to make more though - maybe for gifts for next year!

stamps: n/a; paper: mainly Kaisercraft Twigs & Berry Collection DP; ink: Ranger asst'd distress inks; tools: asst'd store dies

sharing silliness

A silly video to share where whoever created it did a pretty nice job!

The Day After

The Day After

Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house,
Every creature was hurting, even the mouse.
The toys were all broken, their batteries dead;
Santa passed out, with some ice on his head.

And I in my t-shirt, new Reeboks and jeans,
Went into the kitchen and started to clean.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the sink to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the curtains, and threw up the sash.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a little white truck, with an over-sized mirror.

The driver was smiling, so lively and grand;
The patch on his jacket said "US Postman."
With a handful of bills, he grinned like a fox
Then quickly he stuffed the into our mailbox.

Bill after bill, after bill, they still came.
Whistling and shouting he called them by name:
"Now Dillard's, now Broadway's, now Penny's and Sears
Here's Levitz's and Target's an Mervyn's - all here!

To the tip of your limit, every store, every mall,
Now chargeaway-chargeaway-chargeaway all!"
He whooped and he whistled as he finished his work.
He filled up the box, and then turned with a jerk.

He sprang to his truck and he drove down the road,
Driving much faster with just half a load.
Then I heard him exclaim with great holiday cheer,
"Enjoy what you got, you'll be paying all year!"

~author unknown

on a red theme

Here's this year's Christmas tree. I realized recently that I'd not used these red ornaments from my initial trip to the local IKEA (maybe not SO local, at that! it's about an hour south of me) since 2008 so went in search of them this year. They were elusive but I remembered that the last time I'd used them I'd repackaged them into their original IKEA clear plastic 6x6"- 8x8" clear acrylic square box  and set them on top of the hutch to my computer table. Apparently they got nudged behind a row of books and were lost to me since 2008. So, here they are, unearthed at last! In keeping with the red theme, I added a few ornaments but kept it to those that are mainly red and white/ivory. I love these "word" pieces that I found a few years ago (tho' I can't remember where) - and have them in joy, Noel, peace, believe, it's all GOOD, and Merry Christmas. It was hard knowing when to stop ... (insert grin here) ...

It's strange, but I'm reading a novel on my nook lately where the main character's nickname is "Red" ... it was the past Free Fridays offering - From Notting Hill with Love...Actually by Ali McNamara. A nice read; I'm about halfway thru it now. I liked both those movies and the book's a romantic comedy about a gal named Scarlett (hence the nickname) with something of a movie obsession.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Here's wishing you and yours a merry Christmas and t'riffic New Year!

I made this card from a recycled store-bought one I'd received in years' past. I cut out the Santa from the card, then cut a couple of trees in similar shapes from some DP I had on hand, and just cut a couple of wavy snow mounds to layer the trees between and voilà! Easy peasy!

stamps: PTI's Signature Christmas; paper: Carta Bella's Christmas Day, and SU's Old Olive card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink

a cuppa Christmas joy

Happy Monday!

Here's an other-than-a-card that I made at a recent SU Stamp Camp outing. I opted to give it to a coworker this past week, but it would be a cute teacher present as well! I took a couple of pics so I could share w my stamping buddy Pat as she was busy with wrapping up the last of her Christmas presents. Me?! There's always time until the recipient is pulling into the driveway!

There's a couple of glassine bags inside the cup - one filled w hot chocolate mix, and the other filled w mini marshmallows - and a couple of candy canes tied up in soft Cherry Cobbler yarn. It really is soft delish stuff.

I love that SU's begun to package dies to coordinate with their stamp sets, a very welcome trend in the industry, don't you agree?!

fleas navidad

I'm just making a quick stop to share a card that I mailed to my brother this past week ... hoping that he doesn't think that I think that his pup's got fleas! I'd seen the sentiment stamp and couldn't pass up the opp to make a card casing it! My sentiment's PC-generated using one of the fonts from a set of 7 Kim Hughes fonts I'd purchased back in August from the kind folkes at scrapNfonts. I'm a professed fontaholic and probably have WAAAY too many on my PC, LOL!

Anywho, this card's winging its way to my brother, who just happens to have a pet mini dachshund named Pippin.  The DP's from a recent sketch workshop held at CAM (link at stores on right), and I'm not sure what the pup stamp is from ... and too lazy to go dig it up right now too!

Thanx for stopping by!

It's a CAS199 Christmas

I don't think I've ever made a card in stages as this one ... first used the Cuttlebug, embossing folder and word die on Thursday before heading to work, then located my string on Friday and cut out the holly ... and finally assembled it today! Lovin' the mainly white on white! This is my latest embossing folder and I got the coolest storage notebook for them at a Deer Hunter Widow scrapbook show at the Birch Run Expo Ctr recently!

I wonder how many crafters have their Christmas cards prepared and/or already out the door. I'm woefully behind this year, and don't even know for sure how many cards I've made this year! How about you?

stamps: n/a (haven't selected the inside sentiment yet tho); ink: n/a; paper: Bazzill Palo Verde and Neenah Solar White card stocks; accessories: white string; tools: Cuttlebug w Sizzix Holly Swirls embossing folder

S&CT Winter Issue's out!

The kind folkes at Scrapbook & Cards Today have published their winter edition, and and I'm just giving it a little shout-out that it's available (YAY!) before I go to review the issue! I especially love to check out what's new in the paper crafting industry thru their eyes! While you're at it, check out their blog as well, as they're celebrating every 100 comments on their announcement post by giving away not one but two copies!

Click on the cover picture to head to the download/viewing site!

the die-namic duo

my latest die purchase was the words collections from PTI - both last year's holiday stamp set, and this year's count my blessings set. as luck would have it, every time I logged in to the site to purchase the holiday set this year and last, they were sold out of either the stamp set or the dies of one or the other ... except for last week! let's have a shout out for perseverance! YAY!

today's duo CAS post is that of a positive/negative space one. I used the word piece popped out from the die for the first card, then used its negative space for the second one. voilà! easy peasy, and here's my first two cards of December!

stamps: PTI's Holiday Stamp Set; ink: SU's Not Quite Navy; paper: Neenah's Solar White, SU's Not Quite Navy card stocks; tools: Cuttlebug w PTI's Holiday Die Collection