2010 Top Ten and New Year's Resolutions

Hello Everyone!! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready to ring in the New Year.  I'd like to take this time to thank all of you who visit my blog and are kind enough to leave me comments.  I hope we continue to stay connected by this amazing thing called the www and that we can continue to inspire each other in the coming year. 

New Year's Resolutions ~ the crafting ones.
Susan R. over at Simplicity is always going on about her New Year's resolutions!!  I believe her to be the only one in the world who makes resolutions and actually sticks to them for more than 1 month!  Last year she resolved to use all of the stamp images she owned and she has pretty much done it!  She talked about it all year long -- man, she is amazing!!  She was talking about resolutions again on her blog which got me to thinking that I should do the same.  So, what are my crafting resolutions????

1. To use, use, use the supplies I have!  (I am famous for buying "stuff" but never using it)
2. To use up the scraps as I make them (or at least use some of them)
3. To be more organized (both in terms of my scrap room and supplies but also in terms of getting cards finished and posted in time to enter them into the challenges they are created for - you all know how bad I have been at that over the last few years!! LOL)

Top Ten cards from 2010
Now on to the TOP TEN ... of course these were picked by myself and you may disagree and think some of these cards are not worthy of a top ten list ... but that is the beauty of a personal blog ... I get to decide what goes on here LOL!!  I have picked these 10 either because they were a fav of mine, because of some element, or maybe even because of who I gave it to.  I hope you enjoy this little "re-run".

Design Paper Tree (original post here)

Shaped Card(original post here)

Friendship(original post here)

Gold Medallion(original post here)

Elegant Birthday Butterfly(original post here)

Woodgrain Damsel Fly(original post here)

Summer Sunshine(original post here)

Decorative Doily(original post here)

White, Light Blue, and Kraft Lighthouse(original post here)



Apple Cards(original post here)



Well, there you have it ... the end of 2010!  I have really enjoyed blogging and getting to know many of you bloggers.  I wish you the best in 2011!!

Donelda

Holiday Break

Hi Everyone!! 

My mom arrives today to spend the holidays with us.  Therefore we will be busy, obviously, over the next few days.   I will be taking a break from blogging and will resume hopfully next week.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuakkah, or whatever tradition you celebrate.  I hope you get an opportunity to enjoy time with friends and family.  

See you all soon.
Donelda

Femine Flowers

I love, love, love this technique ... faux watercolor.  The image is actually one that I've had for a long time.  When I first started stamping I had taken this image from Petal Prints (Stampin' Up!) and created various colors using my SU! makers and watercolor paper.  These yellowish orange ones haven't been used .. until now.   The background green cardstock was stamped with Background Basics: Text (Papertrey Ink)  using Versamark ink for a nice subtle look.  The sentiment is from Wishing You (Papertrey Ink). 

Thanks for dropping by my little stamping world.  I hope you have a great day.

Donelda

Arnold's 50th

Well, it finally happened ... my big bro turned 50!!!  I love to tease him becuase he is quite a bit older than I am.  I do have to be careful though becuase he can always get me back!  LOL.


Here is the card I created for him.  The numbers are chipboard that are painted yellow and then covered with gold glitter.  The owl (Nature Graceful Journey,  Tattered Angels) was colored with my Copic markers. The letters are from Fresh Alphabet (Papertrey Ink), a perfect size for this kind of thing. 


Well, I'd better go and get ready for work.  Enjoy your week.

Donelda

Masculine Fern Birthday

As you know if you follow my blog at all I like to try to keep a good stash of masculine cards.  There are a lot of men in my life :-) !!!!

This one started out with the small fern stamp from Text Boxed (Papertrey Ink).  Then, I masked it and stamped the woodgrain over top (Hero Arts).  I cut a circle of the woodgrain and then hand cut the bottom edge of the fern.  The senitment is a piece of a bigger sentiment (Around and About, Papertrey Ink).  I love the size of the sentiment ... small with a clean font.  I seem to use it over and over again!

The rest of the card is pretty straight forward (made with scraps!). 

Many crafters find making masculine cards hard.  I think it is just that masculine cards need to be cleaner and simpler than female cards ... and if you are big into embellishing then keeping it clean can be difficult.  I like clean and simple so that makes it a bit easier for me!!  Additionally, I love earth tones which also make for great masucline cards. 

Well, I hope you have a spectacular day and enjoy your weekend. 
Donelda

Calendar Page - recycled

I had participated in a Calendar Swap a few years ago!  The end result was an awesome House Mouse calendar with some great images!  After that particular year was over I couldn't bare to throw away some of the images, so I have kept them and will create cards from them.  Here was the November iamge - the page I was responsible for!  I used this piece of image from the House Mouse stamp called "sleeping with the strawberries".  I hand drew the scarf and cut it out to add to my mouse.  I also hand drew the tree and colored it in by sliding ink pads directly tothe paper.  A few punched leave were added for some "movement" on the image. 

To create the card I took the calendar page and added it to this square of houndstooth from my scrap bin.  The sentiment (from Paper Tray, Papertrey Ink) was stamped with Chocolate Chip ink and then I inked aorund the edges of the paper.   Added the whole thing to a 4.25" card. 

What can I say, I like to recycle.

Have a great day!
Donelda

Christmas Gift Card Holder #3

Here is my 3rd gift card holder.  I like this one the best.  The colors are a bit dark in this photo, it was all a bit softer in real life. 

You might recognize this ... it is a total CASE of Nichole Heady's card HERE (scroll down, it's the 4th project down).  I loved it so much.  However, I had to be creative in making the tag as I didn't have the same stamps that she used.  Sadly the colors on my card are not true to life ... it looks less orangy and more subtle in real life ... sorry about that ... it is really lighting issues still when I photographed it. 

Well, that's it for Chrismas for me!  You'll have to go elsewhere for any Christmas inspiration!  Now I'm off to create some moer birthday cards :-)

Donelda

Christmas Gift Card Holder #2

Here is my next Christmas Gift Card Holder.  My friend really liked this color combo - it was fun to create something Christmassy with them! 

Supplies: Flourishes (Inkadinkadoo), sentiment from Take a Bough (Papertrey Ink); True Black twill (Papertrey Ink), black crochet yarn, dimensionals, Score Pal (see the scoring around the edge of the green paper!).

Have a great day!
Donelda

Christmas Gift Card Holder #1

I bet you were wondering where all my Christmas items were ... well, I have decided not to make Christmas cards this year!  Too much stress.  I have created a few and will simply keep them for next year.  I did, however, make a few gift card holders that I will share over the next few days!!  Here we go ....

Yes, my friend asked me to make a few gift card holders for her.  She likes non-traditional colors.  That makes it so much fun!!

Here is my purple snowflake holder.  The snowflake stamp was painted with purple Twinkling H2O and stamped ont the cream cardstock.  Easy peasy!!

Supplies: Stamps - Snowflakes (retired - Stampin' Up!), sentiment from Take a Bough (Papertrey Ink); Other - Twinkling H20,, Rhinestone Stickers (Recollections), dimensionals, Lavendar Moon silk ribbon (Papertrey Ink).

Thanks for dropping buy.

Donelda

Good Luck Trees and Circles

When making cards, I try to create a few cards for a specific occasion so I have a few on hand.  A few days ago, I had shown you a farwell card.  When I made it, I had also made this card. It is a more masculine good bye card. 

This card started out with that small circle.  It is actually a left over piece of copper embossing that I had used for an old project.  I had created a circle of copper embossing punched out a 1&1/4" circle, then realized I needed a 1" circle.  The left over was this great copper circle with some crackles in it.  I couldn't bare to throw it away!! 

I found a farewell sentiment that would fit inside the circle (from Mixed Messages, Papertrey - a must have set!) and started pulling the card together. 

I kept the card masculine and rustic.  Lots of sweing and sponging.  Trees always work for guy cards (Tree Cluster small from Stampscapes). 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!  I can't wait for today to be over and to enjoy my leisurely weekend! 

Donelda

Misted Frame

I purchased a package of Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels) and I wanted to play around with them.  This particular color of blue - electric blue -  is so beautiful (the color is a bit washed out in this photo).

I also am continueing to "use what I have" and while I was poking aorund in one of my craft drawers I found a bag full of pieces from one of those old Stampin' Up! sets where you pop out all the die cut shapes to create a mini album of some sort ... do you remember those??  Well, I have a ton of pieces in this bag so I decided to try using at least one piece up.  I took the frame and misted it with the glimmer mist.  Then, I stamped it randomly with this demask image (Demask Designs, Papertrey Ink).  I looked through my sentiments to see if there was one that would fit in the smaller opening and the birthday sentiment from Demask Designs fit perfectly!!  I laid the frame where I wanted it on the card and then stamped the sentiment (love clear stamps!).  Then I added dimensionals to the frame and adhered it back onto the card.  The butterfly was a little guy I've had in my scrap bin for a while, so I sprayed him with a little pink glimmer mist - viva pink - and added him to the card.

I am slowly but surely working through all my scrap bins!! 

Thanks for dropping into my little scrappy world!  Enjoy your day.
Donelda

Miss You Owls

There was a co-worker that was leaving and his team asked if I would make a going away card for him.  I instantly thought of Lucy Abram's card that used owls representing the whole group.  I only needed a team of 3 so I thought of using the Wise Owl set (Papertrey Ink). 

I stamped the little owls on some pink and yellow designer paper and then the big owl on some blue paper.  I added some googlie eyes which make them look so cute!  Finally, I added some branches from Rustic Branches (Papertrey Ink) and some spots from Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink).  The leaves are colored in with pencil crayons (Prismacolor). 

Thanks for dropping by.
Donelda

CAS Designer Paper Focus

Here is another card I created using more of that yummy Basic Grey designer paper (Phoebe collection) that my Secret Sister Banu sent me in a swap a while ago (thanks again Banu!!). 

This paper was a scrap piece from a previous card.  I loved that big white flower so I decided to use it.  I put it on a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 card base.  I added the sentiment (Round and Round exclusive stamp set by Papertrey Ink) on a white scrap that is popped up with dimensionals.  Finished the card off by rounding the corners! 

Can't get any easier than this .. it's easy when the paper does all the work!

Have a fantastic day!

Donelda

CAS Designer Paper Cards

These cards are a few more that I created letting the designer paper do all the work. 

The main images here, these birds, were on the designer paper (Basic Grey, Phoebe collection).  I cut the strip of birds out and adhered it to a white card base.  The scalloped bottom was also from a piece of the designer paper.  It had various layers of different colored scallops.  I trimmed out this strip of green and blue which matched the birds.  A bit more green paper for the top, some ribbon (Ocean Tides satin on front card, Ripe Avocado Twill on the back, both Papertrey Ink), and a sentiment (Birds of a Feather and Bird Watching) and the cards were done.

Since the designer paper is a 12 inch sheet, you can take one sheet and create two cards like I have done here.  Handy to increase the stash on hand!

Thanks for dropping into my small corner of the web.  Hope you enjoy what you see!  Leave me a comment so I know  :-)

Donelda

An Award

I was so honoured to be the recipeint of the Stylish Blogger Award.  One of my blogging buddies, Angela, was sweet enough to pass it along to me along with seven other great bloggers.  I will be forwarding the blog on to 8 others who truely have style!! I'm supposed to tell you 8 things about myself but truth is that I am not all that interesting :-)  Just imagine 8 exciting things about me, hehehe!!!

Have a great evening.
Donelda

Home-made Lace Sympathy

Godelieve over on her blog has done some awesome work with making 'vellum lace'.  I had tried some earlier HERE.  This time I decided to try adding some to a sympathy card.  (It is along the bottom edge of the blue panel - it appears hard to see as it is white on white.  Click image to make it bigger)

On this card, I also combined white, vanilla, and Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink).  Usually, if I use one neutral on a card I generally don't add a second.  However, I tried it an I really like it! 

The vines were stamped on a vanilla cardstock and heat embossed with clear powder.  Then the Ocean Tides ink was sponged over top.  The lace was made by heat embossing white powder onto vellum and cutting out the strip of images. 

Stamps: With Sympathy, Round and Round (exclusive), Demask Designs (Papertrey Ink).

Have a great day today!  Thanks for the visit, I certainly do appreciate it!!
Donelda