My 2013 Favorites!

Happy New Year!  I started typing that ... I am late with this post ... but, you know what?  I am thinking I should start this new year off with a resolution ...no more worrying that I didn't get the post written on time, just glad that I am doing it now!  I looked back to see how many favorites I picked last year.  It seems that the last three years I gave you 36 favorites ... wow, that seems like a lot and if I am doing that many, we had better get to it.  You can click on the title below each pic and it will take you to the original post.  Here goes ... enjoy!

Hoppy Hello!

Home Sweet Home  (All Looks!)

Easter - Feb. Class

Love Monkey Spinning!

Victory

Sunshine Easel Card from March Class

My World

Easter Blessings

Daisy Time Tea Tote & Cards

Floral Birthday

BBQ Time - May Class

You're The Sweetest!

Thinking of You

Pram Girl (& Boy) - June class

Asters

I Salute You!

All 3 cards in the July class I love!

Smile!

Crazy for Daisies! (August Class)

Whoo's Thinking?

Get Well Thoughts

Owl Always Be

Left out April's class ... love all 3 of these too!

Love this Halloween Card!  - From Sept. Class

Praying for You

Penguin Shaker Card - October Class

Stop in for a Spell

They Shake their BOO-ties!

Special Blessing

Life is Just a Roll of Cherries!

Angel

Merry Christmas!

Happy Snowman!

Let It Snow, Man!

Created from Tag - Dec. Class

Wreath!

You didn't count them, did you?  Because if you did, you would know I went over ... if you count the two sets of class cards, the total comes to 40!  But ... it says I did 191 posts!  So ... narrowing it down to 40 is pretty darn good, don't you think?  

Happy Stamping!
Tina

Sunday Words of Wisdom!

Hello!  Hmm.... I bet you can guess what the kind of quote I would share with you today ... yes, you are exactly right!  I had to find the perfect New Year's quote!  I found several, but my pick for the day is this ... enjoy!

I picked it first because it looked "artsy" and then the sentiment ... perfect!

I am in the middle of cleaning my stamp shack so that I can get my stamping mojo going again.  It had gotten so bad that it was affecting my creativity!  And then I have to get January's class samples made.  So, when I do, I will have that to show you.  Also, expect from me, sometime this week, my annual favorites of 2013!  

Happy Stamping!
Tina

With Sympathy x 2!

Hello!  This is my second post for today.  I had to make a couple of sympathy cards for my stepdaughter's guy and mom a couple of days ago.  Even though the occasion is not a happy one, I still have to show you the cards I made.  And they are nice ones, at least I think so ... enjoy!

 

 

As you know, sympathy cards are the one time that I like the more simple look.  However, both of these cards still have "my look" and are not as simple as I have seen some people do.  They came out nice, didn't they?

Recipes:
Card #1 -
Paper - My Minds Eye Honey Cake 6 x 6 pad, Cardstock Natural White, Dark Brown
Stamps - Sentiment by Impression Obsession
Ink - Versafine Brown
Tools - Spellbinders Classic Circle, Border edge, Cuttlebug Diamond embossing folder, Stampin' Up Square Lattice embossing folder, Memory Box Prim Poppy die
Other - Ribbon by Creative Impressions, Brown Pearls

Card #2 -
Paper- Authentique Loyal Collection 6 x 6, Cardstock Natural White, Teal Blue, Olive Green
Stamps - Sentiment by Impression Obsession
Ink - Memento Black
Tools- My Favorite Things Scallop Edging border die, Spellbinders Classic Rectangle
Other- Ribbon by May Arts, Pearls

See you tomorrow for the words of wisdom post.
Happy Stamping!
Tina

Saturday's Sketch Share!

Hello!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  I have two awesome cards to show you for this week's sketch.  I went with a New Year's card and Debbie did one last Christmas card.  Let's get to it ... I will show you my card, Debbie's card, and the sketch we both used.  Oh, by the way, you will probably see that the sketch is similar to the sketch I used for one of the tags in my last class and one I turned into a card to send.  This is the sketch that I got my inspiration from!  Enjoy!

 

 

My Card

Debbie's Card

The Sketch

 

I love how they both turned out!  And, of course, you already know I love the sketch, this one and the variation that I did.  I see that we both added those little dots around the larger circle.  Wow, that really adds to the cards!  I am going to have to pin Debbie's card on my Pinterest Christmas board, as I think her card would make an awesome card to send next year!  I don't have that wise men stamp, but I have others that would work just as well.  What do you think of the last two sketch cards of the year?

 

I have another two cards to share with you.  I am writing that post now.  And then tomorrow, I will have the words of wisdom quote for you.  Also, Monday or Tuesday, I will work on picking out my favorites for the year.  That post is always a favorite!  On my agenda today is to clean my stamp shack room!  It is awful!  After that I can work on my next class samples.  I was at the store yesterday and they want me to have them done by the 1st!  Oh, by the way, if you are local, you should definitely go to The Crafty Scapper between now and Tuesday, as they are having a HUGE sale ... everything 50% off!  Believe me, I did my share of spending ... you should too!

Happy Stamping!
Tina

Merry Christmas! Treats & Gifts!

Merry Christmas!  I promised you a post yesterday to show you a couple of handmade treat bags, but didn't get it written, so I am rolling that post into this one and showing you treat bags and the last three cards I made for gift cards.  First up, it the treat bag that Donna and I made together to give to our friends on the last crop night.  Donna found this pin here on pinterest.  You will see on the right side of the blog post, there is a link to take you to the tutorial.  We had got these adorable solar elves and santas that we wanted to put in the boxes, so we needed a little space for them to fit.  I adjusted the measurements just a little bigger, but not enough that it changed the look of the box.  Let me show you our treat box ...

 

 

The Front

The inside

The decorations on the outside came about as I had a bunch of these snowflake pattern paper circles cut out already.  They were the left overs from the snow globe card that I taught in my October card class.  We decided on the Hero Arts reindeer, as it would be easy ... this set comes with a die to match, so no fussy cutting.  All the pieces were cut, and the box still needed "something", that is when we decided an embossed background would do the trick.  So, we just added one more layer of red embossed with a folder she had.  (I think it was from Lifestyle Crafts).  Then we went to the closure.  We first thought ribbon.  But quickly found out, ribbon was not the way to go, and when we added the simple red twine, we decided ... perfect!  I love how these came out!

I have one more treat box to show you.  I had the store order for me a stamp from My Favorite Things of the a girl holding a nail polish bottle.  So cute and I knew it would be adorable to make something for the lady that does my pedicures.  This is what I came up with!  Enjoy!

 

I just made a small box and used two Spellbinders dies for the tall sides.  One in cardstock and one in pattern paper.  She loved it and so do I! 

Next, I want to show you three more cards I made for the three older grand kids.  The two younger grand kids I sent their money in the gift holders I taught in my class ... I had kits leftover and I figured I might as well put them to good use.  But, for the three older ones ... here's the deal, we usually give them money, plus some kind of cd they ask for.  But, this year, we didn't find out what cd they wanted so we got them a Target gift card and I knew if I just had a envelope for them, they would immediately know what was up.   So, I decided to make the cards to perfectly fit in a cd case and then I would wrap it as a cd and they wouldn't know what was going on until they unwrapped it.  It worked ... I heard the 17 year old say that he didn't know what cd we got him, that he couldn't remember telling us!  Here are the three inside the cases ... enjoy!

And here they are individually ...

 

And here is the inside with the gift card slot.  I saw this tip on pinterest ... it was so easy to make a gift card slot with the Stampin' Up word punch.  Wow, you think I would have thought of that idea before!  The set I used for the cards is the new set I ordered from The Cat's Pajamas.  So glad I got to ink it up for more cards this year!

That is it for the holidays for me ... no more Christmas images to be stamped ... woo hoo!  My room is a total disaster!  I am ready to get it cleaned up and things put away, especially all the Christmas papers, stamps, and stuff. 

I do have to make a couple of sympathy cards for my stepdaughter's guy's dad who passed away early this morning, so when I get those done, I will have them to show you.  And, I must get this week's share card done for Saturday.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas! 
Happy Stamping!
Tina