Winter romance

I am a creature of habit and ritual. I have this Penny Black stamp- Cuddle in Snow-circa 2005! Needless to say it has been retired, but not for me. This stamp gets pulled out and I make a Christmas card for my husband every year with it. It took him about 5 years to realize that I was using the same stamp ,just a new design. 

This year I paired the snow couple with a new landscape dies and a Tim Holtz snow fall embossing plate. To add shimmer I used glitter paper for one hillside and added glitter to the snowfall. I kept the card clean and simple and surprisingly sentiment-less.

Since one of my New Year plans was to enter more challenges, I am entering George's card in a few challenges. 

My girls at Just Us Girls have word theme this week- Winter. My card is all about winter!

The Friday Mashup has a winter theme with snowflakes.

Curtain Call has a photo inspiration with the theme of Winter Wonder. My colors might not be those rustic creams and browns but the card is all about the "wonder of a winter romance".

 Allsorts is looking for cold and frosty colors. I think my card looks and feel cold and frosty.

Lastly CAS on Sunday have a few weeks left for a Christmas challenge

It's fun to be stamping for no good reason and I hope to be able to show you all lots of cool things over the next year.  I am presently working on Valentine cards and will show off some in the next month.

Be sure to check out these challenge sites and show off what you are doing.

2014 wrap up

Happy New Year Everyone!  Another year gone! As I look back at my various blog postings I realize i was so busy. Between all the design teams I was on, finishing school and graduating, starting a new job, it is no wonder that by this past December I had to completely down sized my life.  That meant making hard choices about what I could and could not accomplish. I resigned from all but one design team. I miss all the challenges, but between work and graduate school I just couldn't get it all done. When something you love becomes a chore, it's time to reevaluate.

So as I leap into 2015, I will get back to the fun of stamping. There may not be as many blog posts because I want to spend time creating, but I will try to get at least a few in a month.

Here is a wrap up of  my favorite posts from 2014!

January

 February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

I hope you enjoyed the 2014 review. Wishing all of you a healthy, happy and creative 2015!!

House of Cards Challenge

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope that 2014 was a great year for all of you and that 2015 will be even better! 

It is a new semester at House of Cards and you will see some changes- all good of course. For January we are offering a glittery color challenge. How fun, I love glitter.

Look at all those blues, silver and gold. I forced myself to not make a holiday card. In fact all my Christmas stamps were stored away so I had to move on. 

My teen grand nephew has a birthday coming up and I thought I would go out on a limb and and send him a clean and simple glittery birthday card. It looks guy like even with the glitter- don't you think?

Please join us this month at House of Cards and get your glitter on!

MIA, but now I am back!

Wow.... it has been quite awhile since I last posted.The main reason for that is because I have been really sick. I have had a cold/?flu for the past 2 weeks. It has really put me out of commission. The last thing I have felt like doing was being creative. It was enough just to go out Christmas shopping and do all the things the holidays require, plus having to work. Well enough complaining, while I am not completely well, I have started working in the studio again.

First, I did what I do every year at this time, I purged. Boxes of stamps went to the attic and lots of stuff just got tossed. Once everything was cleaned, sorted and organized, I sat at my desk to play.

Just Us Girls is one of the few challenge sites not taking a holiday break. Just what I needed to get past my holiday block. They had a cool photo challenge.

I just loved the pink and grey colors with the fun polka dots thrown in. Since the Christmas stamps are put away  and the Valentine stamps are out, I had to make "love" card.

The image is an old StampinUp set stored without the name of the set. Gotta love the elephant especially since I just noticed there are elephants on the pillow in the photo.

I hope you will play along with my buddies from JUGS.

Peace on Earth

This is my last challenge with the Card Concept Wild Card team! I have had so much fun experimenting with the different styles. It forced me to stretch my wings in other directions. It is good to be tested. I think it makes you a better artist

The last challenge for 2014 at the Card Concept is a color challenge, using just soft neutrals. They can put you in mind of homespun krafty or elegant.

Today, I am staying in my comfort zone; clean and simple, but I have added a dash of elegant. How could it not happen since the dove die by Penny Black just reads elegant! I added the sentiment from Papertrey Inks wet holiday collection.

I have so enjoyed my time at the Card Concept and if they ever want me back, I am there.

I am wishing all of you the most blessed and joyous holidays and a happy healthy new year!

Year of the Christmas tree

I don't know if any of you have noticed, this year seems to be the year of the tree, Christmas tree that is. Everyone has tree stamps and some of them are really cool. Like this one from Clearly Besotted-Joy to the World. I have been just waiting for a few hours to play with this set and some of the cool new stitched dies I got during the Black Friday sales online.

Addicted to CAS is having a challenge using dots. I used this challenge word as my basis for my Christmas card. Instead of snow, I have a shower of falling dots. I layered my tree panel onto a card embossed with dots. I love the monochromatic pink that seems to be so popular this year. Addicted to CAS are also looking for new DT members so I am throwing my stamp into the ring. Wish me luck!

AAA Cards has one of my favorite ideas for a challenge, Blue Christmas. I love blue for Christmas cards.

Well I better get working on all the cards I have to send out this year. I think I need to make around a 100 cards. How about you all, how many cards do you make to send? 

Holiday Blog Hop at House of Cards

Hi everyone! Where does the time go? Can you believe we have come to the end of our third term at House of Cards? We are saying a fond farewell to some of our design team members and I am so thankful to those who are staying on. To say farewell and thanks, we are celebrating with a blog hop! 

This blog hop will run FROM DECEMBER 1 AT 6:00AM CST THROUGH DECEMBER 15 AT NOON CST, ANY CARD STYLE is welcome and please check out the gorgeous photo inspiration for the crafting challenge.

You should have arrived here from our awesome leader Mynn's blog. If you haven't and you would like to hop with us, please start at Mynn's blog and continue through the whole thing for the most chances to win.

Oh yeah, how could I forget- winning! Check out our amazing sponsors!

Here are all of our fabulous sponsors. Our team has used a variety of products from these amazing companies.

$50 gift voucher to shop

$10.00 gift voucher to shop

Gift card to the online store

Prize package of 5 stamps

$20.00 to their digital store

$20.00 gift voucher to shop

While these are all great companies, I went with this great reindeer image from Great Impressions. It just so fit the inspiration photo. The design is a taken from a card by Jennifer Maguire. 

Here is a peek in the inside of the card.

The saying is from Great Impressions too.

I hope you enjoyed my take on the inspiration photo. Now get hoppin'! Your next stop is my good buddy, Cornelia and I know she is gonna have something awesome to share. Don't forget to link up a project with us at House of Cards after completing the hop for an extra chance to win a mystery prize from one of our fabulous sponsors also!