happy new year!

My Flickr friend Deirdre made a cute card using some free digis from Torico's Digital Gallery. Torico generously shares her fun, whimsical images and I snagged a bunch of them. Thank you, Torico!

Here's an image called Gosuloli (Does it not sound like "Go Slowly"?) Girl. She's a little goth cutie and she was a lot of fun to color. I think she's stashing that little snowman and welcoming in the New Year.

The card base is a scrap piece stamped with Hero Arts' Classic Fabric Design. I colored her with Copics, and used Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers to form the sentiment. The seam binding was dyed with Black Soot distress ink, and I dyed the paper rose with some Copic (R83 & R85) ink refills. Although the photo doesn't show it, I applied some Aqua Lip clear glaze to the little skull, snowman, and her eyes for a bit of shine.

Thanks to all of you who visited my blog this year, and left such wonderful comments, too. Here's wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year!


Stamps: Torico digital image, Hero Arts
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Hero Arts shadow ink, Black Soot distress ink
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers, hand dyed seam binding, 
Sakura Aqua Lip clear pen, paper rose, pearls

My Top 10 2010 Cards Blog Hop

While visiting Tiddly Inks, Christy Croll mentioned a blog hop sponsored by Mrs. Weyremaster (Suzi) to choose and share 10 of your favorite cards that you created in 2010. It sounded like fun, to go through your past blog posts and revisit some older cards again. 

Here are my top 9: (Click to view larger size)

Top row (L to R): Hero Arts, Tiddly Inks, Simply Betty

Second row: Digistampcharacters, Greeting Farm, Stampin Up

Bottom row: Greeting Farm, Mo's Digital, Greeting Farm

My 10th wasn't made by me, but by the fabulous Amy Young--she won Farm Fresh Friday! I received this card for Christmas, and got to see it in person. It's truly awesome...Thank you, Amy!

You have until Wednesday, December 29th (7pm GMT) to link your blog post thru Inlinkz. Suzi is generously offering some prizes, too. Get all the details here, and hope to see your Top 10 faves, too!

Post Christmas 2010

Hello, and Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great Christmas and that Santa brought you all that you wished for.

I'd like to share a couple of gifts that I received--one cute, and one awesome! First the cute from my daughter from Urban Outfitters:

We had bunnies for 11 years and I miss them terribly, so naturally I squealed when I first saw these slippers. They're cozy and warm and give me a little height, too. ♥

My next share is "most awesome gift" from my sweet hubby! He presented me with a nicely wrapped box and I knew it wasn't jewelry because I'm not a glitz and bling kind of gal. When I opened it, here's what was inside:

Yep, my hubby bought me more workout sessions with my personal trainer, Allie!! I'm halfway to my weight loss goal (-26 pounds so far!!) and the 32 sessions should stretch out through March.

And thanks for your condolences to Frosty. He is definitely gone. The good news is, I'm probably going to resurrect him by changing the music button, or make a whole new Frosty. He'll make an appearance next Christmas....

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share...Hope you're having a great week!

Poor Frosty...

Well, I guess I spoke too soon. A few nights ago, it became apparent that Frosty's days were numbered. After 22 years of being perched on our tree and having his tummy pressed, he'll soon be just a hanging ornament.

I (sniff!) videotaped his last day of glory to share with you.

You might be able to hear me "shush" my hubby after he suggests that I perform surgery on Frosty and remove the music button or change his battery.

R.I.P. Frosty! You served us well and we won't be pressing on your belly anymore.  From now on we hope you'll enjoy just hangin' around at Christmas...

And on that note, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Thanks so much for always stopping by and for your sweet comments, too. 

MELE KALIKIMAKA!

Cheeky Cool Christmas

Just a quick share of a card that I made for Farm Fresh Friday at The Greeting Farm. I had several Cheeky gals colored--she's my favorite!--so this card came together rather quickly. On the Nestabilities Labels One shape, I stamped Hero Arts' Music Background and ink distressed with Broken China distress ink.

I used lots of Diamond Stickles on her outfit and some pearly snowflakes for the "Let It Snow" challenge theme. The "cool" sentiment is from another set from the Greeting Farm.

Note: This card was picked as a "Wednesday Wow" at Club Anya and Friends and I won a free digi of my choice! I'll share who won Farm Fresh Friday in an upcoming post.

Thanks for visiting today! Hope you're having a great week...

Stamps: The Greeting Farm, Hero Arts
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Memento, Tim Holtz distress ink
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, Diamond Stickles, ribbon, snowflake buttons

A card of Hope

Deborah Nolan coordinated a secret card drive for a Hero Arts Flickr friend who was battling a terrible illness. I wrote up this post over a year ago. It was published, and some of you commented, but I "unpublished" it because it was still a secret. And now, a year later, Deborah said it was time for the reveal.  So here it is, again...

Just wanted to share a card that I made for a Flickr friend who is going through a difficult time right now. Deborah is hosting a secret card drive that drew an amazing turnout, which just goes to show that stampers have the biggest hearts.

I am loving Hero Arts' new Friend Definition cling stamp. It's huge and covers a lot of card in one stamping, and it also stamps so crisp and clear.

I sponged Shabby Shutters on cream cardstock and stamped the definition in brown. Tore the edges with a metal edge ruler and finished up with some flowers that were colored and cut out, along with some leaves from my new favorite Sizzlits leaf die.

Here's hoping that our secret friend knows that she has our love and support and that there will be brighter days ahead.                                    --November 2009

* * *

Ruth, we're all so happy for your progress and the battle you've won so far. I hope that all the cards you received brought a little sunshine in your life and that you continue to be strong and always have hope. 

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Merry Christmas--Part 2

Happy Aloha Friday! Just wanted to share a few more Christmas cards using some "oldies but goodies" stamps that I brought out of hibernation.

After I bought Hero Arts' Classic Fabric Design stamp, I thought it looked so familiar.

There's a slight resemblance to Purple Onion Design's Vintage Damask background stamp--you think? I love them both.

I also dug up Hero Arts' Antique Flower Background and inked it up with the same colors, changed the ribbon and rose, and added some leaves.

And I did it again. Yep, sometimes it's good to give your old stamps some love...

Thanks, always, for visiting! Whatever you're doing, have a great weekend!

Stamps: Purple Onion Designs, Hero Arts
Cardstock: Gina K ivory
Ink: Hero Arts shadow ink, Tim Holtz Distress ink
Other: Nestabilities, paper roses, leaf punch, pearls, hand dyed seam binding

Naughty or nice?

Challenge #31 at Tiddly Inks is to create a card inspired by a Christmas song. This image reminded me of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" where Santa is "making a list, checking it twice; gonna find out who's naughty or nice".  

After coloring the image, I cut it out using the oval Nestabilities and tried to do the "out of the frame" method, to make her list appear as if it's coming out of the Nestie shape.





Alice made it look so simple here, and Rach's tutorial is so clear and concise. I just need a LOT more practice! I ended up printing out another list and pasting one over the other. The background was in my scraps bag--something that I stamped up last year!

* * *

And this note is for Tabitha, who won Tiffany Doodles' "Singing Birds" digi from my recent giveaway. Can you please email me so I can send you the digi? I couldn't find a link to your email address on your blog. Thanks! Hope to hear from you soon!

Stamps: Tiddly Inks, Greeting Farm sentiment, My Sentiments Exactly
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Gina K
Ink: Versafine, Papertrey Ink
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Stickles, ribbon

Our Christmas tree--and a winner!

A few days ago, we decorated our Christmas tree!  Just sharing some of our favorite ornaments from Christmas past. Our most favorite? The snowman in the second row. 

Top row, L to R: sleeping mouse in a walnut shell, temari ball, teeny angel

Middle row, L to R: Hello Kitty, our tree, musical snowman

Bottom row, L to R: Christmas lamb, golf tee snowman, stuffed Hawaiian angel

He's a handmade snowman with a musical button inside him that plays "Frosty the Snowman". He's over 20 years old and still works! Everyone who passes by the tree squeezes his tummy just to hear the song.

* * *

And, according to Random.org, the winner of Tiffany Doodles' "Sunshine Birds" digital stamp is Tabitha! Congratulations, Tabitha! I will email you to confirm your email address. Hope you have fun with this digi!

Hope you all have a great weekend! Don't forget to stop by the Hero Arts blog today, for a blog hop and preview of their 2011 stamps....See you there!

Christmas tags

Today is the last day of Tiffany Doodles' blog hop! Have you hopped your way through all the design team's blogs? So many wonderful ideas and so many chances to win some of Tiffany's awesome digis!

I've made some Christmas tags using two of the new Christmas digi sets found here and here. And several team members are having a giveaway of these digis, too!

The great thing about digis is the ability to resize them to fit your project, whether it's a card or some tags. I printed these out on kraft cardstock and colored them in with Copics. The sentiments are by Hero Arts, but you could easily print everything out on your computer, or handwrite them.

Thanks, again, for joining our blog hop. Visit here if you want to leave a comment to win my digi giveaway--Singing Birds. I'll announce the random winner tomorrow, December 10th. Hope it's YOU!