My Top Ten for 2011

This has been a fun blogging year for me.  I was on my first design team (H2H).  Won several challenges, and tried all kinds of new things, creatively speaking.  I've seen a few other people doing Top Ten posts, and decided to do my own retrospective of favourite projects from the past year:

January 14th

January 24th

February 9th

March 7th

April 28th

July 9th

August 6th

October 31st

November 26th

December 8th

Wishing you all the Happiest of New Years!  Thank you for all the comments and visits to my blog in 2011, your kind comments are much appreciated :o)  I hope to see you all back in 2012!

Inspired By Challenge

I really loved Laurel's inspiration picture for this week's Inspired By Challenge... so I'm just getting this done under the wire!  I haven't used these Cosmo Cricket papers as much as I'd hoped, so when I saw her vintage Santa photo, I knew what I wanted to do:

Here was our inspiration photo:

Patterned papers are Dear Mr. Claus, Cosmo Cricket; Black cardstock, CTMH; Black grosgrain ribbon, Michaels.

Quick & Easy Gifts

My daughter & I have been busy getting a few little gift items ready for the last day of school tomorrow... Here are the spa sock cupcakes that she made for her girlfriends; she packaged them up in cello bags, then tied on chocolate dipped marshmallows on a stick:

And then for bus drivers, we wrapped a cute little sleeve around two pouches of hot chocolate, and hung a little tag around another stick of marshmallows (they're not quite as yellow as they look in the photos!):

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, see you in a few days after I take a few off to enjoy some time with my family!

A Cute card set

This is my first Paper Smooches stamp set - and I absolutely love it!  All of their images are cute and happy, which makes for some very fun projects.  Here is a set of four cards that I made to stick in with a Christmas gift for one of my friends:

Patterned papers are Six by Six, My Mind's Eye; Odds & Ends, Cosmo Cricket; CTMH; Cardstock is White Daisy, Topiary & Kraft, CTMH; Ink is Black; Stamp set is Vegtastick - Paper Smooches.

A Few more Tags

My daughter got a last minute cupcake order this weekend!  So instead of making cards, I'm flying around making sure we have ingredients (we've never baked red velvet cupcakes before!) and a few other things to take to parties this week... so I just have a few tags to share.  They're similar to a set that I did last year, but I made up sets of these to give to my sisters:

Patterned papers are Mistletoe; Cardstock is Kraft, Colonial White & Olive; Inks are Olive & Cranberry; - all CTMH.  Stamp sets are Vintage Ornaments, Waltzingmouse; Charm Uppercase Alphabet; Just for the Holidays by CTMH; Charming Oval stamp set & die by Verve.

Card & a matching Christmas tag

This was my first time using a digi-stamp!  I love Paper Smooches' cute whimsical images, so I downloaded this a few days ago, coloured it with my red Copics, and made up a quick card & tag:

Patterned paper is Holly Jolly, Echo Park; Cardstock is Black and White Daisy, CTMH; Digistamp, Paper Smooches; Baker's Twine, The Twinery.

Masculine Birthday Card

I needed a quick birthday card for my nephew... so I used this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch and some My Mind's Eye papers:

Patterned papers are Six by Six, My Mind's Eye; Cardstock is Cocoa, CTMH; Stamp sets are Damask Tiles & Happy Birthday, CTMH: Inks are Grey Flannel & Cocoa, CTMH; Pearls from Michaels.

Holiday Magic Tags

This stamp set was Close To My Heart's October stamp of the month... and it's one of my favourites for tags this year:

Stamp sets are Holiday Magic and A Holiday; Cardstock is Kraft, Topiary, Cranberry :& White Daisy; Inks are Holiday Red, Topiary & Black; Red button - all CTMH.

A Christmas Tag

I don't think that I'm quite finished with cards yet... but I'm definitely in wrapping mode, so I have a tag to share tonight.  I really love this vintage ornament Spellbinder's die - last year's version:

Patterned papers are Season's Greetings, Echo Park; Cardstock is Cranberry & Colonial White, CTMH; Stamp set is A Holiday, CTMH; Ink is Topiary, CTMH; Button, CTMH; Spellbinder's Die.

Heart2Heart Challenge & Inspired By

I've combined two challenges for today's card... both Heart2Heart and Inspired By have holiday inspiration photos in classic holiday colours, so I dug into my Believe papers and this is what I came up with:

Here was my inspiration:

The wreath is for Heart2Heart and the cake is for Inspired By

Products: Patterned papers are Believe; Cardstock is Topiary & White Daisy; Stamp set is Holiday Magic; Inks are Holiday Red, Pear, Topiary & Black - all CTMH; Baker's Twine is from The Twinery; Martha Stewart border punch.

A couple more things to share... I was named one of the monthly Top Ten for November on the Heart2Heart Challenge blog for this card!

And I thought I would share a little bit about my day job :o)  I work part-time for my girlfriend Teresa who owns a home staging/interior decorating business.  I'm generally involved in the staging side of things, not so much in the decorating end, but I am the company photographer, so when a design job is complete I get to go in and take photos of the finished project.  Here is what we worked on today, a fabulous condo in downtown Toronto.  I'm really proud of my photography, I still make plenty of mistakes, but am getting better all the time and hope to do a bit more of this in the Real Estate business.  The company is called Design To Go - check out her website!

Have a wonderful weekend :o)

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #76

I didn't want to pass on this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge, because I love the little ornament sketch... so I'm just getting this done in time :o)  Claire Brennan is also having a tag challenge on her blog right now - so if you love your Waltzingmouse stamps as much as I do, you may want to play along!  I stayed fairly CAS this week, with some vintagey patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket, and a wonderful Waltzingmouse label stamp:

My inspiration actually came from a card that I made a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to make a companion tag:

I have one more of these little 'Joy' die cuts sitting on my craft table, so stay tuned - I think there'll be a 3rd project coming soon!  Here was our sketch:

Patterned papers are Dear Mr. Claus, Cosmo Cricket; Stamps are Holiday Labels and Vintage Ornaments, Waltzingmouse Stamps; Inks are Black and Cranberry, CTMH; Cranberry ribbon, CTMH; Spellbinders die.

Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT)

I've been able to participate in the Sketch For You To Try challenges for November & December, and hope to do all 12 of them next year.  This is one of the first times that I've used my Copics to colour a card!  I'm fairly pleased with the result - practise makes perfect, so I plan to keep working at it on upcoming projects.  Here's what I came up with:

I added some clear buttons to my snowflakes, and sparkled them up a bit:

Patterned papers are Nordic Holiday, Basic Grey; Stamp set is Knit Happens, My Favorite Things; Ink is Memento Black; Copic Markers; Cardstock is Outdoor Denim & White Daisy, CTMH; Clear buttons, CTMH: Martha Stewart coarse glitter.

Mojo Monday #218

Can't believe that I'm posting two cards in one day!  I'm definitely in the mood to make Christmas cards, so I'm rolling with it :o)  I also can't get enough of my Echo park papers... so I paired it with my favourite Verve snowflakes:

Stamp set is Glad Tidings, Verve; Patterned papers are Season's Greetings, Echo Park; Ink is New England Ivy, Cranberry & Vineyard Berry, CTMH; Cardstock is New England Ivy & Colonial White, CTMH; Baker's Twine, The Twinery; Sweet Scallop Tag die, Verve.

Unscripted Sketches #135

I love this stamp set, which has 25 teeny little holiday images (perfect for an Advent calendar)... so when I saw this week's Unscripted Sketch, I thought that this stamp set would be perfect.

Patterned papers are Jingle, CTMH; Cardstock is Black & White Daisy, CTMH; Memento Black ink; Copic Markers; Stamp set is No Peeking, There She Goes;  Martha Stewart snowflake punch & coarse glittler.  Sentiment stamp is Holiday Magic, CTMH.

Happy 200th Birthday!

A couple of years ago, my sister-in-law & brother-in-law held their 100th birthday party (their ages totalled 100), which I thought was hilarious.  So last spring, it somehow occurred to me that my sisters & I would be celebrating our 200th birthday this year!  We tried hard to organize a trip to Vegas, but it was too hard to coordinate... however, I didn't want the occasion to pass without being acknowledged :o)  So I've knit them each a scarf, and made a fun 200th bday card to put in the parcel.  I'm using this week's Color Throwdown Challenge colours, and The Sketchbook Saturday sketch:

Patterned papers are Life of the Party, Basic Grey; Cardstock is White Daisy, CTMH; Buttons CTMH; Ink is Outdoor Denim, CTMH; Pinwheel die & Sentiment, L'il Inker Designs.

Simple is Good.

Sometimes a simple card is a good thing... at this time of year, with so many cards to make, I need to remember that they don't all have to have "stuff" on them!  So I kept this week's Heart2Heart Challenge card fairly simple, with just a touch of bling.

Here was our sketch:

All supplies are CTMH: Patterened papers are Jingle; Cardstock is Cotton Candy & White Daisy; Stamp set is Just for the Holidays; Ink is Juniper; Prisma Glitter.

New Challenge: Inspired By!

One of my favourite inspirational crafters, Laurel Seabrook, has started a challenge blog called "Inspired By" where she's given us an inspiration photo to get us started.  This is my version of a CAS card... no stamping and (gasp!) a few stickers.  Check out the new blog, it's sure to be a great challenge:

Here was our inspiration photo... I loved the colours!

Patterened papers & stickers are Season's Greetings by Echo Park; cardstock is Kraft, Cranberry & Colonial White, CTMH; Baker's Twine is from The Twinery.

Getting cozy for Christmas

I really love this cozy little Chrismtas card!  I've done this before, but I've never knit with Baker's Twine?!  I had a little burst of inspiration when all of my Twinery goodies were spread out on my craft table, and decided to use it to knit up a tiny little sweater to put on a Christmas card.  I took some decorative toothpicks and glued little pink beads to the ends to make them look like knitting needles.  And no - I didn't knit on the toothpicks!  Just transferred the stitches when I was done.

A card like this can't go to just anyone!  You want someone who will really appreciate it to have it, so I didn't even hesitate to give it to my friend Bonnie, lover of all things crafty.  If I'm not mistaken, it's sitting on her mantel as we speak :o)  Here's a closeup of my little sweater:

Patterned papers are Holly Jolly by Echo Park; Cardstock is Topiary, Cocoa & White Daisy, CTMH; Stamp set is Festive Frills, CTMH; Ink is Cotton Candy, CTMH.  Baker's Twine is Pea Pod from The Twinery.