Year in Review Blog Hop

My friend and fellow former Amber Ink torchbearer, Karin, is hosting A Year in Review Blog Hop. It's fun to see synopses of other peoples' favourite creations; I decided to participate because two of my 2011 favourites haven't even been blogged yet! (Did December suddenly get really busy for anyone else, by any chance? :P There were cards and tags I photographed but never blogged, and at the end made but never even photographed!) 
Here are some of my 2011 favourites:

Original post here.

Love the Echo Park patterned paper!

Original post here.

Shakespeare, lots of fun little details, not-bad colouring. Happy sigh.

Original post here.

Someday, this will be my feeling exactly. In the meantime, a fun 60th birthday card for someone else. 

Original post here.

A little out of my box, in a good way. 

Original post here.

I just like this.

Original post here.

A more subtle age-related birthday card. 

Original post here.

These two snowmen, and the happy colours, make me smile. 

The only cat Christmas card I made this year! Magenta stamp, Cuttlebug faux letterpress background, Glossy Accents on the ornaments, Stickles, computer-printed sentiment on vellum. 

I love the expression on the face of this Ippity penguin. I also love how perfectly the polka-dot paper works for a snowy background! 
To join in this fun year-end review, head over to Karin's blog and link up a post of some of your favourites, too! (Oh, if you need more incentive... there are prizes!) And Happy New Year! 

Crafty Creations Challenges: Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Crafty Creations Blog Hop and Two-Week Challenge! You should be arriving here from Jaime's blog. If this is your first stop you can always start by going to Claire's blog.

The two week challenge is: A Card or Gift of Gratitude or Thanks. I decided to make one of each: a tag for a hostess gift as well as a card. First, the tag:

This was partly inspired by a bottle of wine friends brought to our house the other evening. It had a promotional tag on it, and I noticed the paper loop hanger at the top. I usually make a tag that ties on with ribbon, but thought it would be fun to try this style. Is this sentiment not perfect for the gift of a festive libation?

And my card:

Green glitter embossing tinsel is hard to beat for Christmas, and I thought it was perfect for this stylized tree. (As always, the shine shows up much better in real life, as does the lettering in the sentiment. Photography's funny that way, sometimes. ☺)

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to enter Crafty Creations two-week challenge for your chance to win one of the many sponsored prizes! Your next stop on the hop is Donelda's blog. If you happen to get lost along the way, come on back here or head over to Crafty Creations for the complete order list.  

1. Claire

2. Deena 

3. Bernie 

4. Dawn 

5. Juelmarie

6. Kaos 

7. Rudlis 

8. Jenni 

9. Donna 

10. Peggy 

11. Jaime 

12. Lindsey 

13. Donelda 

14. Kathleen
15.Crafty
Creations

Supplies: (tag) manila file folder, white & Stampin' Up real red & old olive cardstock, Amuse Studio wreath stamp, Unity/Jillibean Soup Christmas Eve Chowder stamps, Hero Arts Get Merry! stamp, Brilliance coffee bean ink, Stampin' Up old olive & real red inks, clear & clear glitter embossing powders, Spellbinders nestabilities circle dies, Sizzix holly embossing folder, icicle Stickles, red Liquid Pearls, Fiskars glue dots, pop-dot tape; (card) Stampin' Up very vanilla cardstock, Unity November Kit of the Month (All Seasons) stamps, Versamark ink, Ranger green embossing tinsel, Marvy corner-rounding punch, pop-dot tape

Blog Candy Winner!

The winner of my birthday blog candy from this post is ...
Jen W.! Congratulations, Jen! Please send me an email with your snail mail address so I can get the Inkadinkado stamp set off to you soon! 

Paper Crafts Magazine: Donelda's Turn

Here's my card based on Donelda's pick from the November/December 2010 issue of Paper Crafts magazine, Beth Opel's Rejoice card on p. 48:

Donelda told me she picked it both because it would be a bit of a creative stretch for both of us (um, yes) and because of the ribbon treatment on it. So I definitely wanted to try a similar ribbon style. I did delete a couple of the layers of the original card, because, well, I rarely do a lot of layers. I also don't do a lot of browns, so like yesterday, I went for red. I also used the same sentiment stamp as yesterday, but masked out the little poinsettia in the middle so I could use a circle of the patterned paper, instead. 
Can't wait to see what Donelda's come up with today, especially after her beautiful CASE (Copy and Share Everything) of my inspiration pick yesterday. You might also want to stop back here later today to discover the winner of my one-year-of-blogging blog candy winner! 


Supplies: Stampin' Up real red & very vanilla cardstock, (?) patterned paper, Hero Arts Joy stamp, Colorbox cranberry ink, clear embossing powder, Fiskar's threading water border punch, recycled ribbon, pop-dot tape

We're Back!

Donelda and I had such fun a few weeks ago picking Paper Crafts magazine cards that we would each CASE, we decided to do it again! I convinced Donelda to dig out last year's November/December issue -- I'd bought it last year, but in the holiday rush, I only had time to make a few tags inspired by all the projects in it! One of the reasons I picked up the magazine was the feature on music, so I decided to pick Kelley Eubanks' Musical Joy card on p. 67. Here's what I came up with:

I used the same layout as Kelley, but switched to a red card base instead of black. I used a strip of music paper from the Stampin' Up newsprint collection, and backed it with a strip of black. This plaid ribbon is one of my favourites to use at Christmas, and I'm going to be so sad when I get to the end of the roll! I coloured the rhinestone with a Sharpie to match the card base. I'm entering this card into the inspiration challenge at Ribbon Carousel (RCC32).

Don't forget to head over to Donelda's blog to see what she came up with! Tomorrow we'll be revealing her pick from this issue.


Supplies: black & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Stampin' Up newsprint patterned paper, Hero Arts Joy stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, $ store ribbon, Hodges & Lettau rhinestone, red Sharpie

Amber Ink Holiday Hop Winner!

*** Please scroll down or click here for this week's Crafty Creations Challenge.***


The elves are back on their shelves, and it's time to announce my winner for the Amber Ink Holiday Blog Hop. Drumroll, please:

Congrats, Sav! The elves at Amber Ink will be emailing you your own elf soon. Remember, there were 22 other chances to win, so you can either retrace your blog hop steps (hops?) or check in at Amber Inklings later today. If you didn't get a chance to hop Monday or Tuesday, you should go now to see all the fun creations! If you want your very own elf, just head over to the Amber Ink store. Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Sentiments at Crafty Creations Challenges

This week at Crafty Creations Challenges, we're helping you get your Christmas cards done! The challenge this week is to create a Christmas card and include a sentiment. Our sponsor this week is Lili of the Valley. I used their beautiful Advent Calendar image:

I started with the advent calendar on some oatmeal cardstock -- I thought the colour and texture suited the image. Then I paper-pieced the dates and Christmas tree, and used a bunch of different media to colour everything: watercolour pencils, gold shimmer paint, white flocking and red glitter glue. When I went to cut out the image, there was no way I could cut around the original hanger effectively, so instead I added some twine and a brad to hang it from. I picked a sentiment to reflect the warm cozy feel of the image. The twine qualifies this card for the challenge at Do You Stack Up (DYSU#48) to use something you can tie.
Play along with our challenge for your chance to win a £10 gift voucher from Lili of the Valley! 
I'll be back later today with my winner from the Amber Ink blog hop!


Supplies: white & oatmeal cardstock, Lili of the Valley advent calendar & Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month October (Take Time to Laugh) stamps, Versacolor green ink, clear embossing powder, watercolor pencils, gold shimmer paint, Studio G white fun flocking, Studio G red glitter glue, Twinery peapod twine, gold brad, pop dot tape

Amber Ink Holiday Hop Time!

Welcome to my stop on the second annual Amber Ink Holiday Blog Hop! This year twenty-two Amber Ink design alumnae are tapping into their inner elves to bring on some holiday cheer. I will confess... I had somehow missed the phenomenon that is Elf on the Shelf. Amber and Pam, the elves behind all that is Amber Ink, quickly filled me in. They also provided us with our choice of cute elf images to use for the hop. 

The inside says, "Good for you!"

This little guy looked to me like he'd been up to some mischief! He's dressed in some green snowflake lace iPaper, with a glittery collar and hat brim. (It's obviously December, because there is now glitter everywhere.) I printed the sentiment in Santa's Sleigh font. 
Now, let's talk prizes! One lucky person who comments on this blog post will win this elf image! And as they say on TV... but wait! There's more! The grand prize winner will receive an Elf on the Shelf gift set! So you'll want to be sure to comment on all the hop stops by Tuesday midnight EST, and on the Amber Inklings blog as well. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 7th. Good luck and enjoy the hop! 


Supplies: white cardstock, green snowflake lace tiny iPaper, Sharpies, Prismacolor pencils, Stampin' Up dazzling diamonds glitter, pop dot tape, corner-rounding punch

Happy Birthday x2

The super-talented Virginia is celebrating a, shall we say, significant birthday -- and has asked everyone to join in on her celebration! Well, not the birthday cruise she's going on with her family part, but the general festivities. So here's a card I've made with her in mind:

Virginia is a pro with her Hero Arts stamps, so I thought it was only fitting that I use some to make a card in her honour. Also appropriate -- I won the Hero Arts envelope background from her as blog candy! So I used it to make a sky-type background, and picked some fun Friendly Flags to make a birthday banner. When Virginia sent me that envelope background (and the cute snail stamp I won with it) she also generously included some fun SRM sentiment stickers. I thought this one, with the little flower, was perfect with the end pennants.
If you would like to join in on wishing Virginia a happy **th birthday, check out this post.
I'm entering this card in the current Simon Says Stamp challenge... I'm a big fan of their Anything Goes challenges! 
You may have noticed my title refers to more than one birthday... and that's because this little blog turns one today! So, as a long, proud tradition dictates... it seems a little blog candy is in order!

This cute little sentiment set from Inkadinkado can be yours! Just leave a comment on this post before Thursday, December 8th at midnight EST. I'll announce the winner Friday, December 8th. You don't have to be a follower of Bashful Blogging to participate, but I'd love to have you join if you're not! 










Supplies: white cardstock, Hero Arts friendly flags & envelope background stamps, Memento tuxedo black, Memories passion red & Brilliance pearlescent sky blue inks, clear embossing powder, watercolour pencils, SRM sticker, natural hemp twine, pop dot tape