Valentine Hearts

Tonight I decided to play along with the stampers over at Try Stampin' On Tuesday.   I figured since I WAS trying to stamp on Tuesday, it was the perfect challenge!  I love their sketch this week.  So many possibilities!

In an effort to use up some of my retired things, I've been making some Valentine's Day cards with it.   If there is ever a time to use up red and pink, it is this month, right? :o)   This paper comes from an old Simply Scrappin' Kit that I LOVE.  I'm a bit sad to use it, but I have SO MUCH STUFF and it really needs to get used.   I did  use some of my new heart punches, so it's not all old stuff AND I managed to sneak a few pearls on there too! 

Bookmarks!

In addition to creating something every day this month, my other goal is to get my area in a local shop well stocked.   Today I made up two bookmarks to take over.  This was my first time making them with the Fun Flowers die and I really like them!    

Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade

Tools/Accessories: Big Shot, Fun Flowers die, Boho Blossoms punch, Subtles glimmer brads, crimper, giant paper clips (Target)

CCMC182: Vintage Valentine

Isn't this a fun sketch?!  I'm definitely pinning it so I can use it again later!   It is this week's fun challenge at Create with Connie and Mary.    One of my goals for this month is to stamp something every day.  It might be a card for a challenge, a project for stamp club, or something to sell in my little space at a local shop.    Today I wanted to do a challenge because I love them and I do miss doing them.  I have club this Friday, so you'll be seeing a few of those projects in the days to come!

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know how much I love my Stampin' Up! and blogging friends.   As I was emailing with my friend Kathy this weekend, she asked if I had gotten the new stamp set and ribbon/brad bundle that's coming up for Sale-a-bration.  Well, I had but hadn't used them yet.    She inspired me to pull those out tonight and try to make a card with them.   I can tell by the way it turned out that I'm a bit rusty, but hopefully I'll be churning out works of art with it by the end of the month!  

Stamps:  Fresh Vintage (Sale-a-bration), Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Paper:  Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Whisper White, Everyday Enchantment designer paper (Sale-a-bration)

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Tasteful Trim die, sponges, color spritzer, Everyday Enchantment Ribbon & Brad pack (Sale-a-bration)

Remember that Sale-a-bration begins on January 24th and runs until March 31st.   

Year in Review pt. 2

Let's finish off those favorites from last year so that we can get to some new stuff soon!

August:  This card is now known as the million dollar card.   I made it for a birthday blog hop for my sweet friend Lesley and thought it turned out so awesome.  Well, others did too apparently!  It has been copied without credit a few times that I've found and someone even went as far as taking my picture and posting it as their own. I joking said it is obviously the best card ever made and for sale for a million bucks.  :)  

September:  August and September were good stamping months for me. I guess I must stamp better when I'm feeling sad?   I had quite a few cards during these months that I really like.   This next card was one I made for a Freshly Made Sketches challenge.  I love the colors so much and the snowmen from Snow Much Fun are some of my absolute favorite stamps!

October:  My other favorite Christmas stamp set and one I just might cry about in a few days when the Mini expires is Bright Hopes.  My favorite card for this month uses it and I love it!   It was another Freshly Made Sketches card that turned out way better than I could have hoped.

November:  This card was actually a card I made for a class.  I love the colors; I think purple and green look gorgeous together!   It was actually inspired by a card from the Idea Book and Catalog.  If you ever need a bit of inspiration, that's a great place to look!

December:  I didn't find much time to stamp in December, but I did make one card that I adore.  Again, it is using the chubby snowman from Snow Much Fun.   I combined him with some of the new designer paper that will be available later this month for free during Sale-A-Bration!   I wasn't sure about a distressed Christmas card, but I love it!

I hope you enjoyed my look back!   I hope this year will be filled with a lot of good surprises and much happiness!  Happy New Year!  

Favorites for the Year

I've noticed a lot of other bloggers posting their favorite cards of the year, so I thought I'd jump in and try it too! It is kinda fun to look back and see the creative highs and lows throughout the year.

January:  I love this card and it is one of my all-time favorites.  In fact, I still have it stashed away!  :)   I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, but I did love this creation. Maybe I will be nice and give it to my darling husband next year.  :)

February was not a good month, so let's skip over to March.  :)   I borrowed Inspired by Nature from my upline and had a blast with it.  I can't believe I still don't own it for myself!   I love the simplicity of this one and find it quite striking.  

April:  There are a few I love from this month, but this one is definitely my favorite.  I still can't believe I used that many peals on ONE card!!  It is gorgeous though.  The shimmery white card stock really adds a nice element and it truly says 'wedding' to me!  

May:  I'm still a bit surprised that this card is actually one of my creations!  It turned out so fun and absolutely perfect for a teen.   I love to challenge myself by buying a stamp set outside my comfort zone and this one was definitely one of those!

June:  I guess I really like the few wedding cards that I make!  :)  This was one of the cards from my time on the Creative Crew.   I had to borrow the bird punch to make it and was so happy with how it turned out.   

July:  Emboss resist is one of my favorite techniques and this card is my favorite I've made using it.   I love the colors of this one.  Island Indigo is so gorgeous and it has been way too long since I pulled it out!  

I'll save the other months for tomorrow, so stay tuned!  :)

Happy New Year to you all and thank you for all the kind comments over the past year.   It is so fun getting to know other bloggers and making new friends.  

FM39: Happy New Year

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :

1. Make a project that "Sparkles".
2. Or Make a project "Celebrating the New Year".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project "Celebrating the New Year that Sparkles" .

Time for a new challenge at The Friday Mashup!   Kasey has a fun challenge to make a New Year's project with some sparkles!   Who doesn't LOVE sparkle?   Now I must admit that I had to do something thinking for this week.   I started trying to come up with an idea and realized that I have no number stamps or dies AND I had ONE sentiment that said Happy New Year.   So, sparkly stars it was!   :)

What do you think?  Can it pass a fun sparkly card for the new year?   I hope so!   It definitely has a lot of sparkle.  I used black with the silver glimmer paper in hopes of the silver really shining.   I used a retired star stamp to emboss some small silver stars in the corner too.   My original idea was one big star on a black background, so you can see I kept adding more and more to finally get something that seemed complete. 

I hope you'll find some time between celebrations to play along with us this week!   

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes, July Fourth

Ink:  Versamark, Staz On Black

Paper:  Silver glimmer paper, Basic Black, Whisper White

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Stars #2 die, silver embossing powder, heat tool, basic rhinestones

FM38: Be My Valentine

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :

1. Make a project using the "Sketch".
2. Or Make a project using "Watercoloring".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project using the "Sketch & Watercoloring" .

With everything going on last week trying to figure out if we were going to go out of town or not, I wasn't able to do my card for the Friday Mashup.   My mind finally settled enough today that I thought I would at least attempt one.   I was hoping to watercolor, but my Aquapainter seems to be clogged up or something.   Anyone had that happen and have any suggestions?  I tried hot water, but it didn't work.   It is ancient, so it might just be time to buy some new ones.   Anyway, I decided to do a card with the sketch, but I probably should have looked at it again before I started my card.  I think it is still kinda close, but I'm not sure if my little envelope is close enough to the bottom.   I tried though...that's more than I've felt like doing for a while now.  

I was able to use a few new-to-me products and a much neglected one as well.   The scallop envelope die was one of the first I purchased, but I never seem to use it for much of anything.   I thought it would be cute to stick some of my new heart products in!   Thanks to all the wonderful sales of the past two months, I'm all set for Valentine's Day with new punches and I {heart} Hearts.  I also used my birthday present (the one I got myself), the Tasteful Trim die.   I love that thing already.   For my colors, I decided to play along with the colourQ challenge this week to use black, white, and one other color of our choice (red).   I even used my light tent that Jason got me for Christmas too!   I hope it will help my poor pictures, especially during the dreary winter days. 

I hope you like my card and will find time in the next week to play along!   Last week's challenge is still open as well, so you have lots of opportunities to create.  

Thanks to everyone who left comments and well wishes on yesterday's post.   Hugs back to you all.   

Before I go, I thought I'd share some of our baking.   I made some yummy cranberry orange scones and Jason makes homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.  

I used this recipe, but made my own orange glaze with orange juice and powdered sugar.  Yummy!  I'm addicted to anything cranberry/orange, so these were a perfect treat last week. 

I don't have the recipe for these as it is in a booklet that came with our bread machine.  I will just say they are delicious and leave it at that.   I'm sure I gained 5 pounds eating them!  

Ramblings...

Eli's rose bush has been gorgeous for over a month now, so I thought I'd share a quick picture of one of the beautiful blooms we've had to enjoy. 

It feels like ages since my last post; I apologize for that.    This time of year is just so difficult for us and I haven't had the energy to do anything in my craft room.   Last week on my birthday,  my grandma passed away.   She was a second mom to me during my childhood, so having that happen on my birthday and so close to the holidays was pretty hard.   The airline prices and timeline of the funeral did not work out so that we were able to get arrangements made in time to make the journey to Kentucky, so that didn't help things either.   

We did survive Christmas, but that's about all I can say about that.   When you have dreams of having Christmases with your child and then lose them, the holidays are really never the same.   Add in being so far away from family and it is almost just another day.   Jason did get me a photo light tent with all the bells and whistles, so I have my fingers crossed for better photos once I get back to stamping.   

Today is actually the three year anniversary of the horrible night we had to rush to the emergency room with Eli and Thursday will be three years since we first heard the words spinal muscular atrophy and fatal.    If you don't see any new posts before the new year, just know that I'm struggling with a lot of memories and getting out of bed can be a challenge.   My hope is that 2012 will bring some good news and joy will again return to our home.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to the new year.

Lots of hugs,
Rita