Happy 2012!

Looking back on 2011, I realize there are many "firsts" in the year.  My son finished his first year of college (yeah!) and I too my first pottery class- all my bowls are lop-sided!  I started stamping and cardmaking in earnst (I got into stamping a few years back and have many, many old SU sets).  I have been an avid scrapbooker for about 18 years and never had felt like I had enough time (or space) to do both.  Now that I am at a new place in life, I am thoroughly enjoying cardmaking.  A friend and fellow crafter introduced me to OWH this fall and I sent my first batch (a whole 12!) to OWH in October!  I tried to follow along with the Veteran's day blog hop, but found it difficult to do on my Blackberry.  I soon learned that stampers and crafters are also BLOGGERS! 
I bought my first laptop this Christmas (still need internet hookup) and started this, my first, blog.  I have discovered many new and woderful stamp companies, Our Daily Bread Designs and Sweet and Sassy Stamps being 2 of my current favs! 
Although I have barely enough cards that I sent to OWH this year to share on my blog (and even fewer that I have pictures of) here are my "TOP 10 favs" of 2011:



Have a Happ and Blessed New Year!  Here's to more stamping and cardmaking and to being a part of the crafting and OWH community!  Thanks for Looking!



Well, Christmas has come and gone, but it is not New Years yet!  Time to put a Christmas card or two on the blog.

This was one of my Operation Write Home cards made with my new set from Sweet and Sassy Stamps.  The image is on a certainly celery base and dp is from Stampin Up.  The snowman's scarf is paper pieced with the dp. A little bit of ribbon finishes this one off. 

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I have been wanting to try La Blanche stamps for a while, and when they showed up on the Blitsy website, I grabbed a couple.  I inked up this Santa with Memento black ink and colored his hat and face with copics.  I added a little bit of green to the background and then put lots of snowy glitter on the card, which unfortunately does not show up in the photo.  Then I border punched some old olive cardstock to back the image with, and then put it on a cherry cobbler card base.  I really liked the way this Santa turned out- I was unsure about such a large image initially. 

God is for Us-

 I wanted to try out my new toys and this card is the result.  I really like the spellbinders label 18 and also couldn't wait to get the fancy flourish die from Our Daily Bread Designs.  

I started with a SU pretty in pink base, layered it with 

SU very vanilla, heat embossed in gold using the SU sanded background stamp.

The larger spellbinder label 18 die cut is in chocolate chip and then embossed with a cuttlebug ef. 

The second spellbinders label 18 die is in pretty in pink and again embossed with the cuttlebug ef.  

The scripture verse is from ODBD and is embossed in gold ep on whisper white paper.  It is surrounded by the ODBD ironworks borders which is also embossed with gold embossing powder. The frame is cut out by hand and surrounded by the fancy flourish which is in SU's lucky limeade.  

The card is finished off with bronze pearls and chocolate brown organza ribbon.  TFL!
Edit 2/25/12- This card was Customer Card of the Day at Our Daily Bread Designs-