My Choice of Projects from 2011

Happy New Year's Eve! I've seen lots of blogs this week showing their top projects of the year so I thought I'd look back and show you some of the projects that I liked the most. Hope you enjoy the walk down memory lane.
January

My son, Dan's birthday card.

February

A card set that I created for Joan's Garden blog hop.

March

Card and matching envelope made with Just Rite stamps.

April

A fun scenic card made from digital stamps from Digital Delights by Louby Lou.

May

My son, Steve's graduation invitation.

June

Another scenic card with a mixture of Stampin' Up! and Gina K stamps.

July

The start to my Christmas cards. Just love this sentiment!

August

I'm not very good at sewing but I did buy a Sew Easy this year. I need to practice more.

September

This year I re-discovered crocheting. And it's something easy to take along when I can't drag all my card stuff. I really enjoyed creating this baby blanket and hat for a friend's new baby!

October

This card was featured at the Outlawz web site. Love the Designed 2 Delight image.

November

Here's another card that was featured on the Outlawz site. I really liked this one. The turkey is so adorable!

and finally December

I didn't actually photograph all the things I made in December. Many were not cards but used for Christmas presents. I'm not sure this was my favorite from December but I'll leave you with my wish for you for the New Year. May 2012 be your best year yet. May the Good Lord bless you with all good things and just know that if He gives you trials during the coming year He will be standing with you holding your hand through it all. Happy 2012!

Happy New Year!

Posting on a Friday is unusual for me but I did get a card completed last night that I didn't get posted. We are planning on traveling this weekend so I wanted to add this before we go.

I didn't quite get all my Christmas cards out this year so I thought I would make some Happy New Year cards to send those I missed. This was fun to make. I used the Outlawz Wednesday sketch challenge. And I also made this for the DYSU challenge which is rainbows: use lots of color. I love how the colors around the image turned out but they are slightly difficult to see in the photo. Here's the flower a little closer.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope your week was good and your weekend will be great. Take care!

Just a Quick One

I should have posted this card several weeks ago. At least that's when I made it for a challenge at Outlawz.

I liked the idea of putting the sentiment into the space between the background papers. Love the layers too. Thanks for stopping today. One more day of work and then a three day weekend. Won't have too much time to create though. We are traveling again. I hope next week is better. Have a wonderful weekend!

My Final Christmas Present is Finished

I finally finished my last Christmas present last night. I made a number of gifts this year and I didn't take a picture of any except this one that I finished last night. I did make two sets of these coasters.

These are made from plastic canvas and yarn. All the blues are the same color but the photo makes the coaster on the left look much lighter.

The coasters are stored inside the box also made of plastic canvas. I really like this pattern.
With Christmas now past, I'm hoping to get back to making some cards and I have some other projects in mind. I'm already thinking about next Christmas and what I could make ahead.
I hope that your Christmas was wonderful. I was so blessed to have all the kids home to visit. One of my sons has already returned home but my son Dan is still with us for another day or two and then he'll be flying off again. It's been great having them all here. I had to return to work this week. I usually don't mind working this week because it's usually very quiet and you can get lots done. But I'm going to try very hard to save time to be off next year. Hope your week is going well. I'm looking forward to the weekend. Take care!

Merry Christmas

I know I've been absent for most of December but I wanted to make sure to post today. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with family, friends and good things to eat!
To all the families missing loved ones, my prayers and thoughts are with you today and always. Blessing to all the armed forces mean and women for a safe return to their families.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Thank You

Happy Tuesday! One of my co-workers asked me to make some thank you cards for her. I used some images that I already had colored and just put the cards together.

The image is from a retired Stampin' Up set. I used the Garden Flower embossing folder and a couple of the border punches. All three cards use Stickles to embellish the borders, butterflies and leaves of the image. I made these cards for the Outlawz Sunday challenge: CAS with glitter.

Thanks for stopping by today. I have to get busy and write out my Christmas cards. I have no idea if I have enough made or not. Hope your week is going well. I'm so pleased to have my blog back. Have a wonderful hump day!

Donna

What a week

I so apologize that I haven't been posting lately. It's been a horrendous week and it's not over yet. Someone stole our credit card number and tried to charge several cameras from online companies. The companies had Google checkouts and because I had a Google account the invoice came to my email. We've cancelled the cards and gotten new ones but it didn't end there. Somehow Google has gotten me confused with my son, so Steve's name began appearing on everything that was supposed to be me. I still don't have that straightened out yet. So then because the Google checkout was messed up and I wasn't paying "my" bills, Google canceled my account and wouldn't let me sign in. Last night I couldn't get to my blog. So I think I might be headed in the right direction but I'm really not sure. If you've had any dealings with Google before and can give me some tips, I would so appreciate it. Hopefully I'll get back to normal soon. This time of year is stressful enough without all of this. Hope you are having a great week. I've got some things to show but it will have to wait until this evening. Take care.

Donna

Cool Yule!

This is my tag for a challenge at Joan's Garden. The snowman image is from Serendipity Stamps called Snowman and Fence. The sentiment is from Judi Kins. The background tag is from a glitter paper pack. The red borders and the blue snowflakes were cut from scraps.The snow on the tree, hat and snow posts is puffy paint.

Other challenges being entered:

• Joan's Garden Challenge: Christmas tag and anything goes
• Cuttlebug Spot: Use your left overs
• Do You Stack Up: ribbon or anything you can tie
• Designed to Delight: Snow with glitter or flocking

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your week is going well!

Donna

Special First Birthday

Welcome to the busiest season of the year! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our kids. All were in town for Thanksgiving and we celebrated our first Thanksgiving at Baby Creek, our lovely property east of Bloomington. Although the winter landscape has taken over it's still a beautiful place. So after Thanksgiving we made a quick trip and visit with the rest of the family on Friday. But on Saturday my two boys left for a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina. Out youngest, Steve, is moving there this week to begin his job there. He spent the last three months in Austria. He called today and he's found an apartment. So we'll load all his stuff up on Thursday night and Tom will drive to North Carolina on Friday and spend the weekend with him. I, unfortunately am out of vacation time at work so I can't go.

So, to my card tonight. My best friend's grandson is turning one this week and I wanted to make a special card.

The card is pretty simple. I used the negative of a Spellbinders inverted scalloped circle to create the frame. The image is from Mo Manning called First Birthday. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Gina K's Versatile Verses. I added a few rhinestones to the frame. The little guys favorite color is red!

And on the inside I used the cut out from the die and added a sentiment from Stampin' Up!'s Full of Life stamp set. The little dog is a digital stamp but I can't remember where I got it. I really need to be more organized so I can give credit where credit is due.
I love the way it turned out. I'm entering this card is the Outlawz Sunday challenge of a CAS card and to accentuate the negative. Also Speedy the Cat's Friend challenge for a masculine card.
Hope you have a wonderful week. Travel safely. They are calling for snow in our neck of the woods tomorrow and it's been raining since Saturday so when it turns colder tonight it will freeze over. Yuck! Stay well!

Santa's Pants

Happy Turkey Day eve! I can't believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And wouldn't you think that I'd have a Thanksgiving Day project tonight. Sorry, not so! I haven't had much playing time this week but I did get a chance to try this cute pattern I found for Santa's pants.

I'm going to make these for my co-workers and fill them with Hershey kisses. I made this for the Outlawz Saturday Paper ala Mode challenge.

Wishing all my U.S. friends a very Happy Thanksgiving! I will be gone a couple of days but hope to find time to get something created on the weekend! Have a great rest of your week!

Donna

Happy Holidays

Just a quick post this evening for a CAS card I made tonight.

The sentiment is heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I glittered the top of the stocking. The stocking is an image by Sandi at the Outlawz. If you make a card using one of the four free images you will receive four more free images. Great deal and fun to boot. I stamped the snowflakes along the edge with VersaMark ink. Besides the Outlawz challenge I am also entering this card in the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenge. The challenge is to use a stamp have never inked up. I actually used two stamps that I've never used before: the stocking and the background snowflakes. Have a wonderful Friday. I'll be training for the Girl Scouts on Saturday but hoping that I'll get a chance to create on Sunday. Take care!

Donna

Be Thankful

I love fall and fall colors. When we went to Austria in October I was slightly bummed that we would miss all the gorgeous fall colors but thankfully the week we returned it seemed to be the peak of the season.  So my card today has all the fall colors that I love.

Love the turkey! He looks like such a character. He is a digi from Karen's Doodles. The sentiment was free from Create with TLC. Love the woodgrain background paper and the polka-dotted paper to match. A few self-adhesive rhinestones as embellishments. The turkey is popped off the card.

This card is for these challenges:

• Outlawz Sunday Challenge: Use your favorite patterned paper
• The Cuttlebug Spot challenge: Use a turkey
• Scrap-Creations challenge: Thanksgiving

Thanks for stopping by today. As my week wears on I'm going to have less time. I have to do a science and math training for Girl Scouts this weekend. My handouts are ready to go but I have to get my supplies together. So the next few evenings will be busy getting ready. Take care!

Donna

Hang in There

Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I have a simple CAS card for you today. I used a stamp set by Teresa Momber and distributed by Gina K Designs called Hang in There. This is really a birthday card for my BIL. The inside says "It's only another birthday!" I paper pieced (one of my favorite techniques to use!) the koala with paper from an animal print paper tablet that I have. Abd colored the limb. I used the Scor Pal to add a few accent lines and added the strip of paper from the animal prints also.

I'm entering this in a couple challenges:

• Outlawz Monday challenge: Masculine card with sentiment
• Speedy the Cat's Friends challenge: Use a favorite technique

Tonight I'm having pizza with the "girls". Looking forward to an evening of chatter and catching up with all my friends. Hope you have a wonderful evening!

Donna

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

This Thanksgiving will mark the first year that I've cooked Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to stay home rather than travel for Thanksgiving and all the kids and their girlfriend or boyfriend will be here for dinner. So making some decorations for the table was something I could do ahead of time.

The turkey is made from fan folded paper and punches. The little sign is a stamp (too small to read) that says "Save a turkey... eat pizza this year." My son is coming home from Austria next Tuesday and one of the things that he's missed while in Austria is pizza. They do have pizza but they don't have the same kind of toppings. So I added the sign for Steve. The little pumpkin boxes are filled with M&Ms.
I'm entering thes in a couple challenges:

• Joan's Garden challenge: Use stamps and dies to think outside the box; create something for Thanksgiving/Fall; use fall colors.
• Scor Pal November challenge: Give thanks
• Sentimental Sundays challenge: Thanksgiving/Thank you

Hope you've had a wonderful start to your week. Make it a spectacular week! Thanks for stopping by!

Snowy Holidays

Happy Tuesday! I returned to work today after being sick yesterday. Feeling better today and still had a little time to play this evening. As the week goes on I get busier so I'm trying to get as much craft time in as I can! Tonight I was thinking Christmas and I was still playing with the double embossing backgrounds.

I double embossed the background using the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder and then brayered VersaMark ink and heat embossed Iridescent Ice embossing powder. The snowman image and sentiment is  from a Peachy Keen set. I added some ribbon and accented the snowman with some Ruby Slipper and Gold Stickles.

I'm entering this in a couple of challenges:
Delightful Challenges: Very Sparkly Christmas
Cuttlebug Spot: Anything goes
Outlawz Sunday Challenge: Emboss

That's it for today. I need to get some sleep tonight since my last two nights weren't very good. Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

So Grateful!

Well, it's Monday and I had to take the day off because I wasn't feel very good today. I am feeling some better this afternoon but don't feel 100%. So while I was sitting around I took some time to play. Here's a Fall/Thanksgiving card that I made. I was playing with making double embossed backgrounds. This one still isn't perfect but it was better than my other try at it.

First I embossed the background with the D'vine Swirls embossing folder in my Cuttlebug and then used irredescent ice embossing powder to heat emboss the swirls. I used a brayer lightly on the raised sections and then covered with the embossing powder. Can you see the sparkle? Maybe this veiw will bring that out more.

The wreath image is from Designed 2 Delight and paper pieced with Basic Grey Indian Summer. The sentiment is from Glitterbabe Greetings. And I actually finished the inside this time. So many cards I don't finifh the inside and when I need them in a hurry they aren't ready. But this one is set to go.

I'm entering this in a couple challenges:

• Designed to Delight:  Create a thank you or thankful gift for a hostess or anyone.
• Outlawz Monday Challenge: Give thanks and a sentiment
• Cuttlebug Spot: Anything goes
• Speedy the Cat Challenge: Fall or winter

That's it for me today. I'm going to go take a nap and check up on making dinner. It's getting to be that time of the day. Hope the start to your week was a winner. Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Box

Sunday has almost come and gone. It was mostly sunny today and we spent most of the day at Baby Creek and brought home a trailer full of wood for the fireplace. We're getting ready for a long winter's nap. Hehehe! Snow has already hit the east coast and it's just a matter of time before it arrives here. We often lose electricity so the wood keeps us warm. I did have time to work on a little project this evening.

This is a pizza box decorated for Christmas. I made this for a challenge at Joan's Garden. Here's another view of the top of the box.

Joan's challenges are always fun. Her's what you need to do. Create a box using the tutorial at Selma's blog. You must have a band around the box and it must be decorated. You must use Christmas paper. The angel image is from Digital Delights by Louby Loo and tied to the band with twine. The belly band has two layers: one with a Martha Stewart border and one with Christmas designer paper. I created a scalloped fan fold flower decorated with a button that looks like a green Christmas tree. I added a Christmas sentiment.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

• Cuttlebug Spot: anything goes
• CAS-ual Friday: Over the edge
• Crazy 4 Challenge: Wrap it up

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have an outstanding week. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Fall Thanks

Happy Wednesday! The weather was beautiful today here but a change is coming. Rain tomorrow so our fair weather is coming to an end. Work has been very stressful this week so I look forward to creating when I get home. I've been working on a thank you card to send to someone that I won a blog candy from.

I'm not much for sewing on cards so when I won a $100 gift certificate from Susana's Custom Art and Card Design from an Outlawz Party I decided to try the Sew Easy. I'm not an expert at the Sew Easy yet but it's so much easier than trying to get out my sewing machine and try to get things lined up. I need some more practice but I think with more practice the Sew Easy could be really fun to use on my cards. The image is from Carolyn King's Whimsical Autumn and the sentiment is from Melanie Muenchinger's Arranged With Love. The patterned paper is Basic Grey.
I'm entering this card into a couple of challenges:

• Outlawz Saturday challenge: sewing
• Mark's Finest Paper challenge: use your scraps
• Card Patterns: sketch

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday. Thank you for stopping. Please leave a comment. I so enjoy reading what you think. Have you tried the Sew Easy or can you give me any tips on how to use it? I'd love to know what you've been up to. Take care!

Fall Birthday

Happy Monday! Happy Halloween! How was your weekend? We had great fun at my MIL's birthday party. While I was reluctant to wear a costume they turned out to be lots of fun! We are allowed to wear costumes to work today. The first time that I can remember being allowed to do that. They did make the caveat that they had to be tasteful costumes since we are open to the public. So I thought I would share my costume. I have a really stupid look on my face in this picture but maybe you can guess what my costume is.

Can you figure it out. In the background is my DH's nephew, Henry. He was a ghost buster. Read to the end to find out what my costume is if you haven't guessed it yet. The shirt says "GO Ceiling" and those are pom-poms in my hand. Now on to my latest project.

I needed a birthday card for my BIL this week so this is more of a guy card I think. Kind of a fall theme. The image is from Designed 2 Delight.  The background stamp is from Studio G and the sentiment is from a set that has no name. I won it as blog candy a while ago. I used a lattice punch to create the border.
I'm entering this card in several challenges:

• CAS-ual Friday challenge: sketch
• Outlawz Sunday challenge: anything goes
• Designed to Delight challenge: use a pumpkin

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a fantastic week.
Oops! I almost forgot to tell you about my costume. I was a ceiling fan! Get it? "GO Ceiling!" Hahaha

Light up the Holidays

Happy hump day! Work has been so busy this week that I look forward to coming home and just do nothing. But I had a challenge from Joan's Garden that I really wanted to participate in. I haven't had a chance to do a challenge with Joan for a while. Between going to Austria and the busy family life I haven't found the time. But I'm thrilled to be creating with Joan's challenges. Let me tell you Joan's is definitely a challenge. My card:

Joan's challenge: Use a die; Use a Christmas sentiment; Use some kind of light (a candle, Christmas tree lights, etc); Use red and white and additional colors if you wish. The lights are from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Borders. The sentiment dies used are from Clear Dollar Stamps and the border at the top is a double punched border from Martha Stewart. I added the candy cane ribbon.
I'm also entering this into the Party Time Tuesday challenge of anything goes!

Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow night is shopping night for the big 80th birthday bash for my MIL. I have to check out some things I need for my costume. Have a wonderful Thursday!

Batty, Batty Bat

I wanted to share what I made for all my co-workers for Halloween. It's a dressed up sour cream container. You can find the instructions for the sour cream container at SplitCoastStampers.

I made the sour cream container from black card stock and added the features with white gel pen. The wings are a holly leaf pattern and cut a small "v" into the top to delineate the "ears." The tag is two digi stamps from My Grafico punched with a one and a half inch punch. I attached the tag with black and orange ribbon. Inside the bat are Hershey kisses for a special treat for my co-workers.

I'm entering this Halloween project in a couple challenges:

• Outlawz Saturday challenge: Use a tag on your project
• Ribbon Carousel: Halloween
• Sentimental Sunday: Halloween

Thanks for stopping today. This week we are getting ready for  my MIL 80th birthday party Saturday. We have a few more things to get ready here. The weather was beautiful today but the rest of the week is supposed to be much colder and rainy. Hope the rest of your week will be sunny inside and out. Take care!