2012 in Review

I can't believe that another year has gone by, and we are about ready to begin 2013!  I really wanted to take an opportunity to show you some of my favorite cards from 2012, so bare with me as I reminisce :)

January

I have to start every day with scripture, and so I made this bookmark for our daily devotional book.  I used a scripture set from Clear Dollar Stamps.

February

I made this set of cards as a part of a Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Kit challenge.  I love to make sets of cards to give to family and friends that don't make their own.  Plus, I usually end up using up old product to make room for new ;)

March

I used to do tutorials for Clear Dollar Stamps, and this was one of my favorite tutorials.  You can check it out in my tutorial page.  I would really like to make more of these, so maybe I should make that a goal for 2013.

April

The sweet pea is the flower for the month of April, and this set from There She Goes Stamps is one of my favorite flower sets.  April is my birth month, and my parents always used to call me sweet pea.  I love all of the white space from this card.

May 

The month of May was difficult, because we had to lay a pet to rest.  We ended up going on a small vacation shortly after this to take our minds off of it, and it was also a celebration of our son's birthday.  This card, using a Paper Smooches set, was made as a reminder that happy days are ahead.

June

There were a lot of cards that I enjoyed from June, but this card really stood out to me.  I had gone to a Copic Coloring Intermediate course and I colored this shortly after that.  Plus, I colored the dog and cat just like mine :)  The image is a Mo Manning digital image.

July

I bought my first Papertrey Ink set around this time, and so I had to choose this card for the month of July.  I really love the sentiment, and I stamped on vellum, which I hadn't done in quite a while. 

August

We found out we were getting another niece around the August time frame, plus August is the month of my daughter's and my niece's birthday.  The nieces and nephews know that they will usually receive at least one book from me throughout the year.  I made this tag for a one of the niece's using a digital image from Clear Dollar Stamps :)

September

I was pretty sick for most of the month of September with kidney stones, but the month was made amazing by being picked as a Top 5 for the Taylored Expressions Last Card Standing competition over at Splitcoaststampers.  That really did make the rest of the yucky stuff of September seem pretty small :)

October

Card making in the month of October is my favorite because of Hope You Can Cling To over at Splitcoaststampers.  This was one of the many cards that I made using a Simon Says Stamp set to send off for the challenges.  It so rewarding knowing that the cards you make will be used for something so good.

November

Some great things stamping-wise happened for me in November.  I joined the Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Kit Design Team, and I also joined the Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen.  Needless to say, I was on cloud 9 after all of that amazing stuff.  I made this card with my first kit from TE.

December

I was introduced to Tiddly Inks in the month of December, so I created this little card.  I do love to color.

The year was a blessed one, as they all seem to be for me and my family.  I look forward to seeing what 2013 brings.  Thanks for taking a small trip down memory lane with me, and Happy New Year!

December Taylored Expressions KI Kit

I hope you all had fun celebrating the Holidays with your family.  I know I did!  There are only a couple more days of December left, as you all know, and I wanted to show you another card I made using the Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Kit for December.  The papers are beautiful and wintery, but there are also some gorgeous flower prints in the We R Memory 6 x 6 paper pack as well.

I pulled out my Friendship Bloom set along with the matching Friendship Blooms Die and Leafy Branch Die. I also used the newest Stacklet called Label Stacklets 3.  These are amazing, and I love how they stack on top of each other.

If you don't get the kit on a monthly basis, here is what comes in December's kit:

It is full of goodies to make at least 10 cards, but I always get more than that out of a kit.  Check out the TE Key Ingredients Gallery for more ideas.  Check out a couple of the benefits of being a kit subscriber:  

-Kits are shipped via Priority Mail for US subscribers on the 15^thof each month (or the following business day if the 15th is a Sunday or holiday). Shipping charges are included in the monthly kit fee.

 

-You will receive your kit in a plastic storage case, with a color-printed supply list insert. This $3.25 value is yours FREE!

 

- Subscribers will receive 10% off everything at the TE Store during our monthly discount period (10th through the 13th of each month) along with FREE SHIPPING on additional orders placed during this time. You'll receive a coupon code in our monthly Key Ingredients newsletter.

Dies I used:  

Thanks for stopping in, and I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, my friends!

We are celebrating the birth of Jesus with our family, as I'm sure that most of you are.  I just wanted to drop in and say how much I appreciate you all.  It is a blessing to me to share my cards and for me to be inspired by all of you.  I pray you all have a blessed Christmas and the most prosperous New Year!

Paper Smooches stamps:  Swanky Snowdudes & Sentiment Sampler

Resolutions

It's a little early for those, I know, but I really wanted to use this set.  It's called Makin' A List from Taylored Expressions along with the Notepaper stamp, and the Notepaper & Clipboard Dies.  The papers are all from an older TE KI Kit. . .those things come in so handy.

Here is the sketch I used when making this card.  Jen always has the best sketches over at the Deconstructed Sketch.

I had these grand plans to make a bunch of tags with everyone's name on it that we give gifts too.  Sadly, we have all been sick over the course of the last couple of weeks.  We're rounding it out with me getting the last of it, but my daughter and I are suffering together.  This too shall pass :)  Thanks for stopping in!

Here are the dies I used:

Polar Pete & the TE KI Kit

 

Hey there everyone!  Like all of you, it's been crazy around here preparing for Christmas.  I'm struggling with the fact that I bought this awesome gift for my husband's family gift exchange and I REALLY want to keep it myself, haha.  Tell me I'm not the only one who has ever done that!

I have another card to show you that shows off the December Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Kit.  I comes with some awesome embellishments and an entire pack of We R Memory 6 x 6 paper.  This kit is packed with card making possibilities!

I used my darling Polar Pete set from Taylored Expressions with the kit and came up with a card that I am really diggin', hehe.

If you're not a subscriber to the monthly kits, you really need to take a look at it.  Here is what this month's kit looks like:

Not only do you get all of that awesomeness, but Taylor has an entire gallery set up for you to peek at inspiration to get those creative juices flowing.  I also luuuuurve that as a subscriber she gives you a 10% off code to use in the store each month :D

I need to get moving on a few more things, but I'm so glad you stopped in.  Here are the links to the products I used:

InLinkz.com

CDS Sunday Blog Hop!

Hello, my crafty friends!  Welcome to the Clearly Digital Stamps Monthly Blog Hop!  You should have made your way here from Vickie's Blog.  If you didn't, then you'll want to start at the beginning, which is the Clearly iStamp blog, so you don't miss a thing!

Our theme this month was Anything Christmas, and I knew I had to use the Jolly Joy digital set.  Isn't that set fun!  Like so many of the digital sets that Lori offers, this one comes with some digital papers as well.

Did you know that Clearly iStamp has a challenge as well?  They are our Clearly Inspired Challenges, and this month we are only having one challenge, and it's a sketch!  I love a good sketch, and we hope you'll play along with us!

I hope you're leaving comments along the way in this hop, because you could end up winning a pretty awesome prize.  Now that you're done here, you'll want to head to Sarah's blog.  I'm sure she has something amazing to show you!

CDS Release Day!

Release day over at Clearly Digital Stamps is one of my favorite times, because I finally get to show you the amazing new images that I've been working with!  This month I'm using both images from my dear friend Lisa.  Every month she always designs some gorgeous things for CDS!

For the new set called Java Minute, I made a gift card holder.  Most people I know love some coffee, so this will surely come in handy.  She designed this set a with some neat bold images for overlapping.  You'll neeeeed to check out the rest of the DT's stuff to be sure and see how amazing this set is.

I jut simply fell in love with this next set called Penguin Pals.  They just make me giggle when I look at them, and I had such fun designing this card.  There are a few other great images in this set that you'll want to check out too!

Be sure to head to the store, Clearly iStamp, and the other DT blogs to see all of the new release goodness that there is to see!

Come back tomorrow for our Monthly Sunday Blog Hop :D

A 'Warm' Hello

It's beginning to feel a bit cooler around here!  The 43 degrees it says we are experiencing is a far cry different than the 70's we've been experiencing lately.  I'll take it!  With that, I wanted to share another card I have using the Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients Kit.  I comes with an entire pack of  6 x.6 We R Memory paper along with cardstock, ribbon, and some gorgeous embellishments.

You'll notice that I used mostly dies on my card. . .Tall Skinny Alpha and Make a Snowflake dies.  In case you didn't know, Taylor just came out with an amazing new way to store your dies.  I happened to get my order in before the Magnetic Binder Box Inserts sold out, so mine came in yesterday.  I spent much of yesterday organizing, and I must tell you, those little magnet boards are simply amazing!  She's has more coming, so if you want to know when, be sure to get on the mailing list.

Here's what the kit looks like:

There are some great benefits to being a subscriber, and the gallery is filled with some great ideas for how to use your kit too!  Here is one of my favorite things about being a subscriber:

- Subscribers will receive 10% off everything at the TE Store during our monthly discount period (10th through the 13th of each month) along with FREE SHIPPING on additional orders placed during this time. You'll receive a coupon code in our monthly Key Ingredients newsletter. 

Here are the links to the products I used:

InLinkz.com

A Sketch

While the kids were studying this morning, I took the opportunity to get a little inky.  I used the sketch over at Splitcoaststampers along with my PTI set The Sweet Life.

I've been working on some DT projects, so this challenge was a fun little 'sidenote' in my craft journey today.  Later this week, we'll have the CDS Blog Hop, so be sure to come back.

Here are the links to the products I used:

InLinkz.com