Top 12 of 2012

2012 has been a wonderful year of crafting and meeting so many wonderful ladies, some in person but most on line. So many with so much incredible inspiration...just need to figure out how to add a few extra hours into each day so to have more time to be crafty or maybe reverse the work week, 5 days off and 2 days on...I can dream right? Joyce from Cars-by-the-Sea was so sweet last year to share this wonderful idea of a year of cards in review. I look forward to 2013 and all the crafyness it will bring. Thank you so much for taking time to stop by...wishing everyone a safe and fun Happy New Year!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Again, thank you for stopping by to take a peek.....

Serendipity Winter Birthday Challenge

One more day until the new year starts...have any big plans?? We don't, we usually stay home and finish up cleaning the house to start the new year off fresh and clean.  This will be my second to last post for the year, tomorrow I will doing a year in review, thanks to Joyce from Cards-by-the-Sea for giving me the idea last year. Today's card is for Serendipity's Winter Birthday challenge....I just love their sled stamp, it reminds me of the scene from It's a Wonderful Life, but they used shovels instead, I know the connection is a bit of a stretch but it's the truth.  I wanted the card to be on the feminine side and decided to pair pink with the ivory.  I picked up the beautiful pink ribbon from Britex when we went to San Francisco for Christmas Eve, they have the best satin ribbon you can find! Be sure to head over to the Serendipity challenge blog and see the wonderful creations that the design team created. You still have plenty of time to post your card and have the chance to win the Serendipity Winner's badge or $20.00 towards your next Serendipity purchase.  I was lucky enough to win the $20.00 last month, so be sure to get your card made and posted! Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a peek at my card.

Ingredients
Solid Card Stock: PTI - Ivory and Sweet Blush
Stamps: Serendipity - Sled and Birthday
Dies: Lil Inkers - Stitched Rectangles
Buttons: PTI - Ivory and Sweet Blush
Ribbon: Britex
Impression Plate: PTI - Simple Stripes

The 12 Kits of Christmas - December Edition

This has been an amazing year for The 12 Kits of Christmas challenge...I have met some amazingly incredible and talented ladies! Our wonderful and talented hostess this month is Sharron. She put together a fun winter themed kit that had so many fun ingredients.

This month is kind of bittersweet, 2 ladies will be moving on and 2 more joining the party. Cathy and Suzanne will no longer be sharing their cards on our monthly challenges, they will be missed so much and it is sad to say goodbye to them. Kelly and Tracey will be joining us starting in January, both of these ladies are so creative and I am sure you already have seen some of their creations.  We also have another fun surprise starting in January too! Be sure to come back next month to find out what it is.

I had so much fun making so many Christmas cards this year and I was able to use them as my cards to send out along with our family photo rather than the Costco Photo cards, it was a nice change and I hope to do this again next year. Thank you so much for stopping by and before you go I have added the links to the rest of the the ladies blogs so you can see what they came up with using this fabulous kit!

Sharron's Kit - Photo Courtesy of Kara

I was a little sad that I did not get the kit with the self assembling cards in it this month so I laid all of the supplies on my desk and moved things around until some ideas started popping in my head.  I still have plenty of supplies left over to CASE cards too. I was able to get 5 cards made plus one CASE card, so I guess it was ok that someone else received that kit this month.

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a peek!

This is the card that I CAS'ed for this month, one of Suzanne's card from a couple of months back.

...and this is my card

Renee of It's a Patchwork Life

Cathy of Empty Nest Crafter

Suzanne of The Card Yard

Marybeth of Marybeth's Time for Paper

Amy of Stamp-n-Paradise

Christina of Sea Glass and Sentiments

Kim of Cupcakes, Cards and Kim (that's me)

Kara of KandR Designs

Jessica of The Paper Parade 

Jeanne of A Kept Life 

Sharron of On Papillon Wings - this month's hostess

Joyce of Cards-by-the-Sea

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge - Picture Perfect

Happy Friday...it has been so nice to have some time to be crafty and get few cards made. For this weeks Paper Smooches challenge we are given a photo for inspiration, so much white and a little soft blue.  I love the clean look of the photo and tried to capture that in my card. I wanted to keep it clean and simple but a bit romantic for a Valentine's Day card for my sweetie. I am so happy with how all the hearts look going up the side and all the blue peeking in.  Be sure to head over to Paper Smooches and see the samples that the design team made, they are amazing! Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at my card!

Inspiration Photo

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Spring Rain

Stamps: Paper Smooches - We Connect

Dies: PTI - Heart Prints

Ink: PTI - Spring Rain

Bling: Stash

Papertrey Ink December Blog Hop and Retro Sketches #43

Can you believe Christmas is over, well I hope everyone had a wonderful day celebrating.  When I saw the theme for this month's Papertrey Inks Blog Hop card I have to admit I was a bit stumped...white on white, what could I do with that, wedding, Valentine's Day or baby maybe. I went through my bin of stamps and still came up empty then I remembered I had these beautiful white roses from Prima and wanted to use them for my card, so I made a wedding card and I really love the way it turned out, elegant. I decided to incorporate this weeks sketch challenge from Retro Sketches and it just seemed to come together.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at my card.

Inspiration Photo

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White

Embossing Plate: PTI - Damask

Stamps: PTI - Tag-Its #5

Pearls: SU

Flower: Prima

Embossing Powder: Stampendous

Twine: Stash

Button: SU

Die: SU - Big Top

Gift Card Set

In just a little less than 2 hours and it will be Christmas Eve! Do you have anything fun planned? Family traditions? We head over to San Francisco for the day, have lunch at Lefty O'Douls and maybe a bit of fun shopping. What ever you do, have a wonderful time.  I have just one more post for today. I wanted to make a set of cards for a gift and thanks to Joyce from Cards-by-the-Sea for sharing some inspiration, click on the link to see her fabulous set. The cards she made use Washi Tape and not too much else were so fun to make and very quick too. I changed up the sentiment on the front of each card, so all 6 cards are different. I think these will make a fabulous little gift.  Joyce was also sweet enough to send me my first rolls of Washi Tape and I now I just love the stuff, I even have an adorable penguin candy dish on my craft table to store it in and I have room for lots more.  Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a peek!

I used the Washi Tape on the top of the note card and the bottom of the envelope and then stamped both the back of the card and envelope. Quick and easy to make and so many possibilities with all the different patterns of Washi Tape that is available.

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White

Ink: PTI - Hawaiian Shore and New Leaf

Stamps: PTI - Grunge Me, Boy Basics Simple Circles and Birthday Bash Sentiments

Washi Tape: Michael's

Dies: PTI - Double Ended Banner

Paper Smooches Sparks Cool Shades Challenge

It seems like it has been forever since I have posted a card to my blog, but with the holidays getting closer by the day, I have been busy doing holiday type things.  I have been making cards, just none that I can post until the end of the month, which will be here before you know it! Once again my family headed out, this afternoon it is the movies and left me home watching Holiday Inn in front of a beautiful fire, perfect for a rainy day.  While watching the movie I was checking out blog challenges to see if I would be able to get a card or two made and found Paper Smooches and there was 3 hours left, plenty of time to whip up a card.  I love the colors for this weeks Cool Shades Challenge and it was fun to do a card that had nothing to do with Christmas.  I pulled out my Cyber Cafe stamps and some matching patterned paper and went to work...it only took about 30 minutes to put this together and I am going to need a few thank you cards for after the holidays are over.  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek at my card during this busy time of year...

To be honest with you I really had a difficult time telling if the top left color was bright pink or red, so I went with red after checking out the sample cards on the Paper Smooches blog.

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Yellow from stash

Patterned Paper: Pebbles - Seen & Noted

Stamps: PS - Cyber Cafe

Ink: VersaFine - Black

Dies: Lil Inkers - Stitched Rectangles

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #95 Layered Glitter Shapes

I love glitter and have to say this was one the most fun cards to make and a very clever and fabulous new technique.  You have to watch the video on Nichole's blog, Capture The Moment and see all of the incredible cards that have already been created here.  I have included the link for you.  I wasn't quite sure what type of card I would make and knew the die needed to be a decent size to be able to add another die and then all the fun glitter.  I used one of the mat stacks and added the number one from By The Numbers, I still can't get over how easy this card was to make and how fun it looks with all the sparkle.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Hawaiian Shores

Patterned Paper: PTI - Funky Town

Dies: PTI - By The Numbers, Double Ended Banner and Mat Stack 4

Ink: PTI - Hawaiian Shores

Glitter: Martha Stewart - Feldspar

Serendipity Blog Challenge #1

I was very excited to join in this challenge...it is a new one hosted by Serendipity Stamps...their stamps and dies are just amazing! So much incredible detail.  You have to head over to their site to take a peek! I have one heart die that Jeanne from A Kept Life sent me, so much beautiful detail, but I could not get this die to cut to save my life! Cathy from Empty Nest Crafter was just so sweet to cut me a bunch so I could make a card, the challenge was to make a "honeycomb" project, I have never made anything like this before but I have to say that I love the way it turned out. I am going to give my heart die another go round on my big shot and see if I can figure this thing out.  I got up early this morning and started playing with these beautiful lacy hearts and then thought I did not have a sentiment to go with them...should I make this a wedding card or Valentine's Day card, then I remembered the first set of clear stamps I purchased called 100 Hearts and knew I would find the perfect one. Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a peek!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Pure Poppy

Patterned Paper: Simple Valentine

Die: Serendipity - Heart Scroll Die

Stamps: Verve - 100 Hearts

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #127

This is my last post for the day...I was able to find a little extra time to sit down and put together another card, this one is for this week's WM sketch challenge, always a fun one to do and you can even win a free stamp set by posting your card to the Waltzingmouse blog. This week's sketch is by Teresa Kline and it was just so much fun to use for inspiration! Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White, Pure Poppy, Plum Pudding, Simply Chartreuse

Ink: SU- Real Red

Stamps: WMS - Santa's Coming to Town and Sewing Box Christmas

Ribbon: Stash

Jingle Bells: Stash

Dies: PTI - Chevron 

Patterned Paper: PTI - Sugar Plum

Cloud 9 December Blog Hop

Happy Sunday! My husband and daughter are out shopping and in between mopping floors and getting laundry done I thought I would make a quick card for this month Cloud 9 challenge.  We were given 2 inspiration photos and I choose to use the one with the fabulous snowflake pillows. I pulled out Folk Art Flurries and my large WP9 snowflake die and went to work. It really only took a few minutes to pull together since I already had the idea floating in my head.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by, I know this time of year is busy for everyone and I really appreciate all of you.

Inspiration Photos

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and WP9 -

Stamps: WP9 - Folk Art Flurries and PTI - In The Meadow

Die: WP9

Ink: SU - Real Red

Embossing Powder: Stampendous - White

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge

I'm so excited, this is my first time playing along with any of the Paper Smooches challenges.  I have been collecting stamps for a bit and finally broke them out to play with.  For this challenge I used one of the new PS sets, Flap Happy and one I have had, Sentiment Sampler, the first PS set I purchased. This week is a trend challenge and the trend is cameras/Polaroids.  Do your remember those fun camera's and waiting for the pictures to appear?  And then over the years watch the colors fade?  Well these shapes seem to be the latest thing for die cuts and they are so fun to use!

Inspiration Photo

I had to share a picture of a cake I made today. We went to a good friends 50th birthday party today and I was asked to bake the cake. I am not a fancy baker by any stretch but wanted the cake to be special.  I did a search for a chocolate cake recipe and found the most amazing one! Here is a link to the recipe on    Simply Recipes blog. This recipe was for a 3 layer cake and it looked more like 4 once it was frosted. I made 2 cakes for today, one was chocolate and the other a snickerdoodle cake, just in case someone does not like chocolate. 

Card Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Aqua Mist

Patterned Paper: PTI - Aqua Mist and Jillibean Soup - Neopolitan Bean Bisque

Stamps: Paper Smooches - Flap Happy and Sentiment Sampler

Pearls: Stash

Ink: PTI - Aqua Mist, SU - Real Red, VersaFine - Black and Memento - Dandelion