Looking Back

I nearly wasn't going to do a yearly review this year.  But I was inspired by another blogger to do it and I'm so glad I did!  Here are my favourites from 2013.


January
I joined Bronwyn Eastley to form Still Addinktive, a card challenge blog.
We had a great team and some great challenges too but our blog was short lived unfortunately.



February
Another card for Still Addinktive, this time experimenting with white ink and watercolouring.  It's great when you try something new and it doesn't turn out as expected but you still love it anyway :)



March
Using my copics for a sketch challenge at Still Addinktive.



April
A clean and simple brayered card.  I always enjoy making them.



May
This was a great month craft-wise.
There were a lot of cards I really loved (so I just had to add more than one :) )





June
My son got married and I made this card for them.  My most pinned card ever, by a long way!



July
Was a big "crafting" step for me.  I decided to resign from Stampin Up and I was extremely honoured (and lucky) that Whimsy Stamps asked me to be on their design team. I was so excited to be a part of their team - and I still am :)  This was the first card I made for them.



August
Another card for Whimsy Stamps.  I just had to make it "punny"!



September
Another Whimsy image.  I love being able to colour cute stamps with my copics!!!



October
Another great craft month!  I was asked to be a Guest Designer at Bunny Zoe's Crafts.  I've had so much fun working with this group of ladies and I have gotten to try out lots of different stamp companies too :)
I can't just choose 1 favourite from this month either .








November
Maybe because I started making a lot more cards, being on 2 teams, it is harder to pick favourites?
So 1 for Whimsy and 1 for Bunny Zoe's :)





December
It was wonderful having so many different Christmas stamps to use this year. I like to give everyone a different card.






 I have been very fortunate to work with different teams of stampers this year and they have all been wonderfully friendly ladies.  I have also got to branch out and use different stamps from various designers (very cute ones too!) and use my copics all the time, which I love!  Looking back has made me appreciate even more how lucky I've been this year. And I think my work has really improved too :)

If you've been a long-time follower of my blog THANK YOU for sticking with me and if you're new, THANKS too!  It's wonderful to have some friends in blog land and I love reading your comments :)

Here's to 2014!  Happy New Year :)

Kathy

Twinkle Toes

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are having a relaxing break now :)
I got quite a few crafty goodies for Christmas and I was very keen to use some of them and make a card, but firstly there was the dreaded job of cleaning my craft room.  It was such a mess!!!
Anyway after getting that done (it took me a whole day!!!) I decided to use this Jo Davies image and make a card for Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

Isn't she gorgeous!!!  It is a Whimsy Stamp called Twinkle Toes and it's on sale at Bunny Zoe's at the moment too.  Actually everything in the store is on sale :)

The sentiment is from a Whimsy set called Magical Mini Letter Seals .  The beautiful paper is from a pad by MME called Cambridge Court and I tried to choose copic markers to match.  I used one of the Christmas presents I bought myself too :) , the Magnolia Tilda Lace Die, and I love it! I am going to use that a lot, I can tell.  I also used some star dust stickles, web ribbon and acrylic round gems.

I think this card would be great for lots of occasions, birthdays, graduations, even New Years Eve!

Ingredients :

Stamps :  Twinkle Toes, Magical Mini Letter Seals
Card : x-press it, basic grey, Cambridge Court (MME)
Ink : memento black
Other : big shot, Magnolia Tilda Lace Die, star dust stickles, web ribbon and acrylic round gems.

Copics used :

BG 0000, 10, 11, 13, 49

Y 11, 15

E 000, 00, 50, 53, 55

BV 0000, 00

RV 21, 23, 25, 63, 66

R 20, 30

Wishing you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

Kathy

Sugarberry Bliss

Hi and welcome to Day 22 of the Whimsy Stamps 24 Days of Christmas Event :)

The Whimsy Stamps design team are holding a fun event on the Whimsy blog in the lead up to Christmas. Each day from the 1st to the 24th of Dec. a member of the design team will share a holiday creation with you and today it's my turn :)
We will be posting a letter each day.  You need to visit every day, make a note of the letter and keep them safe. Once you've collected all 24 letters, you need to unscramble them to make a 4 word phrase.
Then email your phrase to whimsystampscontests@gmail.com by Dec. 31 2013 and if you've guess right, you will be entered into the draw to win the fantastic Grand prize :)

For my card I've used the beautiful Elizabeth Bell stamp Sugarberry Bliss.  Isn't she gorgeous and her puppy is sooo cute too!
I also used Holiday Sliders 3 for the sentiment and the Large Leafy Flourish Die.

So here is today's letter :

We also have some fun Spot Prizes to be won!!!
The prizes could be hidden on the Whimsy Blog or on a Design Team member's blog, so be sure to leave a comment at both places :)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Kathy

Marshmallows and Coffee

 I have a card to show you today using some gorgeous Whimsy products.  The stamp is by Time For Tea Designs and is called Marshmallows and Coffee.  I really love this stamp, it's so beautiful!

I'm not much of a coffee drinker, I'm an Irish Breakfast Tea addict.  But I'm kind of imagining she's having hot chocolate with marshmallows instead.
The paper is from Whimsy too and is from a beautiful collection of blue papers called Winter Frost.

Ingredients :
Stamps : Marshmallows and Coffee, Birthday Letter Seals
Card : crumb cake, x-press it, Winter Frost
Ink : memento black, crumb cake
Other : copics

Copics used :

BG 000, 01, 10, 13, 49, 72

W 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

E 000, 00, 50, 53, 55

R 20, 30

These Whimsy stamps can also be purchased at Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

I hope you get some time today to enjoy a coffee, tea or hot chocolate and cherish the moment :)

Kathy

Sweet Penguins

I have made a couple of last minute Christmas cards with some cute stamps from Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

The penguins are from a set by CC Designs called Sweet Penguins, and they are very sweet aren't they! There are 3 individual penguin stamps in the set and I decided to make a tower with them :)
I used a brayer to apply blue and pink inks to create the background and also added a CC Designs Cutters die called Lolli.  I cut the Merry Christmas sentiment from a stamp in the Whimsy set called Holiday Sliders 3 and it does look a little like he might be sitting on a block of ice :)  The paper is from a pad by KaiserCraft called Sweet Pea and I have also used some light pink raffia lace.

Well I was having so much fun with these cute penguins that I decided to make another card.  This time I just used the one penguin with a cute sentiment stamp by High Hopes called Penguin Greeting. I also used the beautiful La La Land Ornate Snowflakes die and added clear acrylic flat gems to their centres. The gorgeous background paper is from an Authentique pad called Joyous and I also added rock candy stickles to the edge of the snow bank.

These little penguins are so fun and you can make a card so quickly and easily with them.  I reckon they'd make great Birthday cards too with a "You're Cool", "Hope you have Cool Birthday" or "Hope you're birthday's sweet" sentiment. They are on sale at the moment at Bunny Zoe's Crafts along with a heap of other goodies in the Christmas Shop at 25% off.  You could buy yourself a great Christmas present or be well prepared for next year ;)

I would like to enter my cards into these challenges:
Cas-ual Fridays - Let it Snow
Cute Card Thursday - Christmas Catch Up

Thanks for dropping by today
Kathy

4 Calling Birds

It's challenge time at Whimsy Stamps and this month the challenge is Party Time.

I decided to use the very cute Four Calling Birds stamp by Crissy Armstrong.

I don't actually know what type of birds Crissy intended these to be, probably robins I guess.  But I decided to make them peach faced lovebirds.  Their colours are so beautiful and Christmassy too!  I doubt you'd ever find one sitting on a snowy branch, as they are from Africa, but hey, you probably wouldn't see them using a phone to call their friends over for a party either :)

Ingredients :
Stamps : Four Calling Birds 

Card : confetti white, red, black, crumb cake, x-press it,  Delight (authentique)

Ink : memento black, crumb cake

Other : ornate snowflakes die (la la land),  stickles, bakers twine, vintage faceted buttons, copics

Copics used :
YG 0000, 01, 11, 91, 93, 95
R 000, 24, 29, 30, 39
BV 0000, 00
Y 13, 15, 21, 23
BG 000, 01, 05, 10, 13
G 24
C 1
W 00, 1, 3
E 33, 37, 50, 53
YR 14

Hopefully you can find some time to enter our challenge this month.  There are some great prizes to be won.

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Kathy

Iris

Today is the start of a new challenge at Bunny Zoe's Crafts and the challenge is Wings.
I decided to use a beautiful new release Whimsy stamp by Syvia Zet called Iris.
She's so sweet isn't she!

The paper is from MME and is called Cambridge Court. There are lots of floral patterns in the pad, but I chose this one because it looked a little similar to her flowers.  And I then took inspiration from the paper and coloured the image with my copics in similar colours. So I have this paper (and the designers at MME) to thank because there is no way I would have chosen these colours myself but I love how it turned out :)

Ingredients :
Stamps : Iris (Whimsy Stamps), Magical Mini Letter Seals (Whimsy Stamps)
Card : x-press it, black, crumb cake, Cambridge Court (MME)
Ink : memento black
Other :  Vines Die (Whimsy), flat backed pearls, light pink raffia lace, bakers twine, big shot, white pen, copics

Copics used :

R 20, 30

RV 21, 23, 25, 63, 66

W 00, 1, 3, 5

Y 21, 23, 26

YG 0000

BG 0000, 01, 10, 72

E 000, 00, 50, 53, 55

I hope you'll play along with us at Bunny Zoe's Crafts this month. There is a great prize to be won and we'd love to check out your Winged creations :)

Thanks for dropping by 

Kathy