Retiring Stamp Sets at The Craft's Meow

Hi!  January's blog hop at The Craft's Meow is to showcase our retiring stamp sets.  These sets are already marked down as much as 50%, but for this week, Jan 7 through 11, you can take another 15% off!  The code to enter at checkout is Winter15.  And don't forget to leave a comment on The Craft's Meow Blog by Wednesday, January 9 at 9:00 PM Pacific to win a retired in-stock stamp set of your choice!

You should have arrived here from Karen's blog.  If you'd like to start at the beginning, go to The Craft's Meow for a list of all blogs participating.

Today I'll be showing you some cards I made using the Baggin' Some Rays set:

I stamped one of the suns on yellow dotted paper, cut it out, and added a big button to its center, and then added it to my cloud panel.  All it needed was a sentiment banner - easy peasy!

Your next stop is at Lindsay's blog.  When you're finished hopping, please visit The Craft's Meow store - now's your chance to scoop up these great sets at a fantastic price!  The 15% discount code, again, is Winter15.  Remember, the sale ends on Friday, January 11 at 9:00 PM, PST.   Happy Hopping!

Each moment......

And one more card made with the January 2013 Card Kit by Simon Says Stamp!

This time I played with the cute Tim Holtz tickets and also the woodgrain-embossed paper that are included in the kit.  I used 2 brown inks to stain the white woodgrain paper, then used the Oh Happy Day and Holiday Shapes to cut out my word and the hearts from it, and made some of the dps "intersect" to mimic the sentiment, which was stamped on one of the kraft circle stickers. The kraft card base and the little clothespin came from my own stash.

I think this would be a great card to send to a guy on Valentine's Day!

Color challenge at the CARDS blog

I love these colors together; this pleasing shade of grey reflects winter, and the aqua and chartreuse are for the promise of spring coming........These are the colors we are to use at the CARDS blog 2nd challenge.

I loved them so much I have both a card and a tag using them:

supplies: white cardstock, Lily Bee Designs Head Over Heels aqua chevron dp, unknown chartreuse dot paper, Hero Arts CG247 Edged Fabric with Flowers, CL527 Stitched Frame (flowers and leaves), CL490 Sending Smiles Messages, chartreuse buttons, aqua and green pearls

supplies: white and chartreuse cardstock, Jillibean Soup Blossom Soup (aqua butterfly), Hero Arts CL479 Dictionary Greetings, S5208 Designer Woodgrain, CL383 Antique Engravings, 657773 Antique Flowers & butterflies, CL188 SparkleClear Tea (sentiment), weathered wood, tumbled glass, and peeled paint distress inks, ivory seam binding, PTI tiny tags

Special to Me

I'm still playing with my January 2013 Card Kit from Simon says Stamp.  Here I used some of the stamps from the included "Very Special" stamp set, and also the little silver brads included in the kit.  Don't you love that font?  Having this set makes it so easy to whip up a card at the last minute!

Just playing.......

.....with the Simon Says Stamp January Card Kit!  This is my first time having the opportunity to play with one of these kits, and I am overwhelmed at the way everything is so nicely cordinated!  There are so many components inside my kit that the first thing I did was play around with the paper patterns and pulled out several that I thought would look well together.  Here are my results for today:

Everything on this card was in the kit.......I love this cloudy pattern paper, and it was so easy to pull some coordinating papers and embellies out to make this card up lickety-split!  I think the canvas buttons are a fun touch!

Don't you love this combination of lime, grey and white?  I love how this turned out!  I added some button embossing using a folder that I received as a Christmas gift and those tiny green buttons - everything else was included in the kit!

Simon Says.......Something New

Happy 2013!!  And welcome to our first challenge of the year at Simon Says Stamp!

Our theme this week is Something New.   You can make a card for a new baby, a new home, a new job, or use something new, like I did today.  Here's my card:

My something new is this new (to me) set of stamps by My Mind's Eye called "Cutie Pie", a part of their The Sweetest Thing line.  I masked off an area and stamped 4 of these doily stamps inside it using Hero Arts mid-tone Butter Bar, Grass chalk ink, and VersaFine Deep Lagoon inks.  After I removed my mask, I stamped the little stitches from the same set on either side of the doilies, then stamped my sentiment from Ali Edward's Simply You in black on a strip of vellum, and attached that along with some pearls and gems in the same colors.  

Heidi has provided us with another $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store for the random winner of our challenge.  I can't wait to see what you make!

When you visit our Simon Says Stamp challenge today, please don't forget to give our January Guest Designer Glenda Wyatt a nice welcome!

Cheerio!

And Happy New Year!  We at The Craft's Meow are starting out the new year with our monthly sketch challenge, provided to us by Nina.

My idea was to use the flowers from Hope Blooms to make a bouquet as a centerpiece on a paper doily, and it took on a life of it's own!  Put on your sunglasses!

        

    

After coloring and cutting out my flowers, I popped them above the doily, and added the Cheerio sentiment from Stitched Sentiments.  My background and sentiment papers are from My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose paper pads, and the butterfly is a Martha Stewart Monarch butterfly punch.

You have the whole month of January to enter our challenge; the random winner gets to choose a set of TCM stamps of her choice!  You do NOT have to use TCM stamps to enter.  However, if you are the winner and you have used TCM stamps on your entry, you will not only receive your choice of a TCM stamp set, but also a coupon for 15% off another additional stamp set of choice to be used one time within 30 days!!

Can't wait to see what you make this month!  

My Favorite Cards of 2012

I like the idea of a post at the end of each year showing my favorites.  We're having some light snow to add to what we got just after Christmas here - a perfect day to be retrospective!

This has been a banner year for me; being published for the first time in January's Paper Crafts has given me the confidence to try again, and every once in awhile, I get another one - so thrilling!  Look for upcoming cards in Create Stamping in February, CARDS in February and March,  CardMaker in March, and Paper Crafts in the March/April issue.  In April, Cath chose me as one of her Moxie Fabbers of the Week!  And as a door closed on my DT work at Lily Pad Cards, a huge one opened as I was one of the new DT members chosen at Simon Says Stamp in June!  I love this team!  Also, in October, I was chosen as a DT member at The Craft's Meow, and have been enjoying getting settled in there, too.

 So get comfy with a hot coffee or tea - I hope you enjoy my favorites from this year!  You can click on the picture to go back to the original post.....

 January

This one was part of the Hero Hostess Blog Hop last year, using new Hero Arts stamps:

Made while I was taking the Clean & Simple card class:

February

Made for a color challenge:

This one got me a Fab Five challenge shout-out at Hero Arts!  Love the colors together!

March

A card using Purple Onion Designs stamps as part of my DT work for Lily Pad Cards:

Made for a CASE Study challenge:

April

 Using some of my favorite Hero Arts stamps:

Love this darling Flourishes silhouette:

May

This one was for A Blog Named Hero:

For a CR84FN challenge:

June

I think this is my first use of tapes, using a Hero Arts sketch:

LOVE these Bo-Bunny papers:

July

The yellow and gingham here make me happy!  Made as a member of the Simon Says Stamp DT, a dream come true!

This may be my favorite of the year, made for another CR84FN challenge. LOVE Ali Edward's sentiment:

August

Hero Arts gave us some sketches this month, and this was my favorite.  When I'm stuck for an idea, this is my go-to lately:

This was a CASE of a card by Clare Buswell:

And this one made me a Moxie Fab World winner in the Minty Fresh challenge:

September

Another DT card for Simon Says Stamp - love these Amuse dotted papers!

And this sketch from Mojo Monday:

October

More Die-Namics Chevrons, using Crate Paper dps. I made this for World Card Making Day:

There's that Wallpaper Flowers stamp again, and I love the felt rose:



November
One of my DT cards for The Craft's Meow, using a Nina B sketch:



More Martha Stewart tapes:






Here's that sketch again!



December

Using my favorite Christmas papers, Basic Grey's Aspen Frost:





CASE-ing a Jennifer McGuire tag:

I'm happy to say that I am still loving this blogging and making cards; it is still a joyful thing for me.  Thank you always for your kind and thoughtful comments; it's the way we stay connected.  In the New Year I hope to do better visiting all of your blogs.

May 2013 be a fulfilling, wondrous year for all of us!

Anything Goes at Simon Says Stamp

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our regular mid-week Simon Says Stamp challenge!  I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas celebration yesterday, and are rested and relaxed and ready to create!

The ladies on the Design Team at Simon Says Stamp had a little gift exchange between us; the rules were that we should make a gift, and then add some crafty goodies to it.  Today we're sharing our gifts.

I had Joy Taylor's name, and I decided to knit her a ruffled scarf in her favorite color to frame her sweet face.  Joy lives in Australia, and it's summer there, so this little scarf will have to wait to be worn until it's a bit cooler.

Since she is on many design teams, I knew she probably has almost everything there is to have in the crafty category, but since we live half a world away, I thought I'd shop for her in our local stores here in Ohio, hoping that I'd find something she may not have access to there.  I kept everything in the blue family for them also.  Then, to give her a little taste of our Christmas here,  I wrapped them all in a thin snowflake/music patterned scrapbook paper, tied them up with natural twine, and added various snowflakes and the die-cut "Joy" from Wplus9's Seasonal Sentiments to all of them.

And finally, I used the same patterned paper and a die-cut snowflake for the card I sent along with everything.

The card base was the medium color from Hero Arts Pool Layering Papers, and I also used some of the Wplus9's Christmas Pretty Patches stamps, and Hero Arts Splash chalk ink for stamping.

Okay, so it's Anything Goes week here at the Simon Says Stamp challenge.  I hope you'll visit and see what everyone made each other, and then add something to our gallery this week!

Heidi has provided another $50.00 voucher for shopping at the Simon Says Stamp Superstore for a lucky random winner!

                        

A Merry Christmas

.....and Happy Holidays to all of my blog followers.  This will be my last Christmas card, and I'll be quiet now until my Simon Says Stamp post the day after Christmas.  Wherever you may be, I hope that you are surrounded by loved ones, have lots of yummy treats, and that Santa brings you your heart's desire!

supplies: white, green and red cardstock, Hero Arts CL630 Miracle of the Holidays, Adirondack cranberry ink, Darice snowflake embossing folder, Nestabilities circle die, Spellbinder's Poinsettia die, Hero Hues sunshine dot for center

Always.....

Ellen Hutson has several challenges going on over on her blog to celebrate the arrival of the new 2013 Hero Arts stamps.  Here is my card made for her Ellen Hutson LLC Hero Arts Wood Take 'n Make challenge:

supplies: white, kraft, and deep burgundy cardstock, Hero Arts K5185 Wallpaper Flowers, VersaMark ink and white embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils, CL163 Always Heart, fired brick distress ink

This woodblock stamp is one of my favorites.  I have used it many times, but I don't think I've ever stamped and white embossed it.  I love the look of colored pencils on kraft, so that's the direction I went this time.  Then I trimmed it out and placed it on a white card to pull out the white even more.  And since the flowers are actually little hearts, I went the Valentine route and used a sentiment to match....

Ellen has similar challenges for cling stamps and clear ones, and you have until January 1 to enter to win a fabulous prize for each one!

Peace and Joy

Good morning!  I'm here today with a card that is also featured at The Craft's Meow blog  today, made with 2 of our newest Christmas stamp sets.

I stamped and colored 6 sprigs of holly from the Hearth and Home set, then cut them out and used them to make a wreath.  They were popped above the peppermint stripe background paper from Authentique's Festive collection, and I added some red pearls to the berries for dimension.  My sentiment comes from our Holiday Foundations set, a lovely font, don't you think?  And I couldn't resist adding  these little jingle bells and lacy ribbon to finish.  

I'm sending you all my best wishes for a lovely Christmas!  Have a wonderful Holiday!