2016 Year In Review

Happy New Year!!

There are two surprising things about this post: 1) that it's ON TIME and posted January 1st, and 2) that half of my personal favorites are Christmas cards.

Historically, when compiling these year-in-review posts, I've always found my personal favorites to be in the February/March/April time frame. That's my least busy time of the year, with no birthdays, major holidays, baseball tournaments, vacations, or lazy days of summer. Somehow, in the middle of Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, shopping, present making, and Christmas card making, I ended up producing my favorite cards. So strange.

Anyway, here they are, with links to the original post if you're interested:

 

5 Ways to Use the Essentials by Ellen All Inside Bear

5 Ways to Use the Essentials by Ellen All Inside Bear

 

Use a wood grain knot for a candle flame

    

Fill a word balloon with part of your sentiment, and layer the rest of the sentiment on top

     

5 ways to use the Sketchy Landmarks set from Altenew

     

Use the diamond die as a base (with sentiment) for several different 3D cards that fold flat.

  

Cut a solid mask (heart) and stamp around it to make a frame. Then stamp sentiment inside

  

Fold thin paper before die-cutting to make a mirror image sentiment. Makes a fun design all on its own!

       

5 ways for Mondo Hydrangea stamp - scribbles, fill a die cut, shaped card, stamp on patterned paper, make a background.

      

A scrapbook page with one of my goals for this year - shoot in my camera's manual mode

   

Shaker card filled with glitter and pears (from the partridge that knocked them all off the tree, hahaha!)

  

Love turning the sleigh stamp into a 3D version, that folds flat, with multiple uses

    

Five uses for Catherine Pooler's Merry and Bright set

   

Turn any star die into a funky Christmas tree

    

Mix sentiment phrases to make a card more custom. The more the better!

 

I just like all the tiny elements combined to make a scene, with a masked ground

   

Christmas cards from last year's Walmart clearance ornaments

    

Personalize your cards with different shades of alphas

   

Create your own punny sentiment, and modify a phrase with alpha stamps

  

 Hope you all had a 2016 filled with as many happy moments as possible, and that 2017 will be even better! A very sincere Happy New Year to you all!!

-Kelly

From OWL of Us

Hi folks! The inspiration for this card actually came from the title of Winnie & Walter's new Happy Owlidays with Evelin Tee Designs stamp set. I figured I could create my own play on words, using letters from another new set Typecast: Cary. Instead of "Owlidays" I went with "from OWL of us". And then stamped three owls. Hahaha, I crack myself up sometimes : )

  

 The owls are masked and colored with copics. I used the masks again to sponge some aqua ink (from Catherine Pooler's new ink set) behind the owls. You can easily multiply the owls for however many people the card is coming from to create a custom card. Finally, the "from all of us" sentiment was modified by replacing "all" with "OWL".

   

 

I'm always interested in a person's creative process, and how/why they modify specific details. Here is the first version of my card. The third owl originally had a beige and melon stripe scarf. After I colored it I started thinking I shouldn't have introduced another color on the card. No way I was going to scrap all that work and start over, so I just stamped another owl on a scrap piece of paper, colored the new scarf green, cut it out and adhered it right over the old scarf. So easy to change things up.

The nice folks at Paper-Garden invited me to participate in a Holiday Card making contest. If you haven't checked them out before, they have a large assortment of cardstock and envelopes, among other things.

Have a wonderful holiday season!!

-Kelly

A Bowl Full of Candies

Hi Folks! I've got a card on the Winnie & Walter blog today if you want to come and check it out! Thanks so much : )

-Kelly

DIY a Christmas Tree out of Simple Stars

    

Hi folks! I was so excited to figure out another use for the classic star shape ... funky Christmas trees!! What do you think, are these fun or what?! I had a blast putting several together for a card. 

 

 

And it couldn't be more simple ... I die cut the three sizes of Star Fri-Dies from different papers, and then cut the two opposing ends off. I didn't even get the trimmer out, just cut them off with my scissors.

    

Then I had a blast making different combinations of trees. Short, tall, crooked, straight, so many possibilities!

 

   

 Here's the card I ended up with! It reminds me of something you'd see in Dr. Suess. I used the circle from Funky Round Tag Dies to make the glittery, snow-covered world that the oversized trees are growing out of.

   

   

The "magical" sentiment from Snowy Sayings is just perfect for the style of thes trees, as well as the tiny dots and starbursts coming out from the world.
  

  

Feel free to use my code "KELLY2016" which will save you 15% off any purchases at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. There are several sets on sale already, and you can combine this code with the sale prices to get additional savings!

 

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you get to make some funky trees of your own!

-Kelly

Calling All Sistah's Hop

  

Hi Folks! Here's your 17th-of-the-month-reminder to check yourselves, and/or schedule a mammogram if you're due. It's a busy month of the year, for sure, but our health does not know that presents need to be bought, cookies need to be made, and decorations need to be put up (yikes, I still need to do all of those things!) This month's card features CAS-ual Fridays products, including half of a sentiment from You are Loved, a star die cut and a star outline stamp from Twinkle.

      

 
 Gold thread is tied around the "waist" of the star. But my favorite part of the card is the background created with the circle of mini hearts stamp from Calm and Loving. This stamp is originally intended to be the leaves on the tree, but it also makes a pretty neat background. You just have to slightly overlap the hearts so there are no gaps. Yay for multiple uses!
  

   
You may have come from Lori Kobular's blog. If you'd like to start at the beginning of the hop, head on over to the CAS-ual Fridays blog.

Should you be interested in purchasing anything from the Calling All Sistahs line, 50% of the profits  are donated to National Breast Cancer Foundation. You are also invited to participate in next month's blog hop. Check out all the details at CAS-ual Fridays, along with information on prizes.

Don't forget the discount code KELLY2016 to save 15% off your purchases! 

   

 
Your next stop on this hop is the charming Sandi Pressley.

   

Thanks for stopping by!

-Kelly

Christmas Thank You Cards - Fast, Faster and Fastest

Hi Folks! I'm back with another set of cards from Catherine Pooler's Holiday Wrap-Up Bundle. These cards all feature the Still Smiling set which is filled with sweet thank you sentiments, especially useful after the holidays. Even the name of the set is endearing ... "still smiling" after receiving your gift. Aww.

   

Lately I've been into using as many words as possible on a card to construct a sentiment that is more robust than our typical "thank you". I think it's a little more impactful to the recipient. Here I have four different sentiments, in different inks (colors to be released in January). The tiny snowflake and Christmas tree stamps fill in between the sentiments. I construct this kind of card much like a embroidery sampler where you combine several smaller items to make one big composition.

I really like this card, but have to admit the stamping did take me about a half hour to get everything lined up and situated the way I wanted. Practically, that doesn't match with how I use thank you cards. If I don't have what I need on hand, I'm usually in a rush, and just need something quick. So I came up with a few other versions. They all use the same main Thank You sentiment separated by a bright pink star.

Fast, Faster and Fastest.

 

   

This one is stamped on a panel, with masked lines made by blending inks in between sticky notes. And a brightly patterned paper for the base.

Fast: 10 minutes

This one skips the ink blending entirely and just uses the sentiment stamped on a panel. It's mounted on two patterned papers. 

Faster: 5 minutes

   

This one is just the stamped panel. I think having the pink star in between the Thank You is enough of a design element to allow it to stand on its own. And great for Christmas since you have the green and red/pink combo. This would be an ideal candidate for mass producing!

Fastest: 2-3 minutes

   

  

Here is the Still Smiling set, on the left, in the Holiday Wrap-Up Bundle. Don't forget, orders by December 19th will ship in time for Christmas!

 

 Thanks so much for looking!

-Kelly

Catherine Pooler's Holiday Wrap-Up

   
 Hi Folks, I've got a few cards from Catherine Pooler's latest Holiday Wrap-Up collection! This card features a pair of cozy winter mittens (look how the string coils up into an adorable heart shape, seriously clever) on a background panel of silver embossed snow flakes. These are all from the Holiday Mittens set, if you don't want to buy the full collection.


   
   Not sure if you noticed ... the mittens are felt, which is why they're cozy! The Holiday Mittens die set comes with two different sizes of cuffs to add to the ends. This comes in handy when using the thick felt, as you get a ton of extra dimension. I was also surprised how well the die cut the thin string out of felt. I added some love to the mittens with a heart shape from the new Still Smiling set and colored it in with a copic marker. I was not surprised how well the new Catherine Pooler inks worked on felt, such a crisp image!
 

 
Here are all the sets you get in the Holiday Wrap-Up collection.



This card uses the sweater border stamp to make another cozy card. I used several of the new ink pads that will be coming out in January to make it seem like a colorful sweater. Here I used warm reds and oranges to add to the cozy feeling, but you could alternate holiday colors, go monochromatic, make thick stripes by stamping the border twice in each color, endless possibilities.
 

  
 The sentiment is the Sending Blessings single stamp. I wanted to add the word "warm" to the sentiment, where "sweet" is now, but the version of "warm" in this set was a little too large. When you're doing your own sentiment, don't forget you can usually add to it and come away with a custom sentiment. The thick embroidery floss is tied around the sentiment, to enhance the cozy sweater feel.
    

If you need any gifts for the paper crafters in your life, feel free to check out Catherine Pooler's gifts section that would be shipped in time for Christmas if you order before December 19th!

Tomorrow I'll be back with another set of cards from the Holiday Wrap-Up collection.

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly