Hi friends! Happy first Friday of 2013! (Technically it's Thursday night…shhhhh) Hope you had a fantastic week! I've been gettin' crafty this week making my projects for TE release next week. I also wanted to enter the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge for this week, so I made a fun coffee card for that!

Now, I LOVE me some java!  coffee, cafe, joe, java, latte, mocha, macchiatto! Call it what you want, I love it all!  And, I adore all the cute coffee stamps from Paper Smooches! Today's card is made with the set called Cyber Cafe. Totally, I mean totally, adorable. Whenever I make cards with Kim's stamps I keep it real clean and simple and graphic.

So, what's the buzzzzzz?

Little gingham coffee cups??? ACK!!!

I stacked 'em up high and added the sentiment, and some steam on the top. I chose some gingham scraps for my background and did some paper piecing. Easy peasy.

Here's how I built my tower o' cups….

Mask off the first one with a post it note….

And keep going….as high as you like!

I chose some complimentary Copic colors to color in the handles. I wasn't about to try to paper piece those! Can you blame me?

Here's a link to the stamp set! And here's the inside of my card. Isn't that TOOOO fun!

I can't wait to send this one out to a friend! I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Next week is going to be BIZZZZZY here on the blog! And then I leave on Friday for Anaheim and the CHA convention. But more about that later.  Thanks for stopping by! XOXO

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!  

Hi there! Did you celebrate yesterday? Are you drinking bloody mary's right now? LOL! We are usually a pretty low key couple when it comes to New Year's Eve. Sometimes we go out for dinner, and sometimes we'll go to a party, or downtown to watch fireworks. This year, we stayed home and just relaxed. We both had to work on New Year's Eve so there wasn't much time to get all dolled up and ready to go out. I hope that you are ready for the possibilites of a new year! Best wishes for a happy, healthy, crafty and prosperous 2013! Thank you very very much for all the blog-love on my last post! Wow, so many sweet and kind comments. Make a girl blush….

Here are my New Year's cards for this year:

I can't explain it…this bright lime green caught my eye. It seems fresh and bright, like starting a new year! I cut the numbers out of my Papertrey Ink numbers dies (the DH came in with an assist on the Big Shot).

Lemme tell ya, it was not much fun putting foam tape on all those numbers! The stamps are fireworks! I think of fireworks for new year's. Do you? I picked out some bright citrus colors and a pretty aqua for my images. This is so non traditional, but I like the feel of it.

Yes, that is a 4th of July stamp set!!! It's from Stampin' Up! Perfect size and shape of fireworks for my cards.

The assembly line in process on the work table…

Best wishes from me to you for a FABULOUS NEW YEAR!

Hello! Happy-day-after-Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your friends and family! We had a very nice day together. Peaceful and calm. I got a beautiful new Fossil Watch from the hubs and I love it! Did you get something fun? Anything crafty?

Now it's time to clean up and get re-organized. Whew. Saturday I spent the day in my crafty cave putting away and sorting through my Christmas stuff and then I made my 2012 Thank You cards too! It was a rainy day and perfect for hanging out. While sorting through my stuff, I came across a great Stampin' Up set from 2004 and I used that for my cards! It's kind of funky and retro and I still love it, after so many years.

Don't you always love kraft, white and red? I do! I stamped the snowflakes in white ink and let them dry while I cut out my funky sweaters and hats. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

Here's the set….LOVE! It's called "Bundle Up!" I stamped the mittens on the back of my card and the ice skate is on the inside. I wanted to use every image!

I have much to be thankful for…..

And here is my "assistant" who somehow managed to find a sparkly snowflake in all the mess. I don't suppose that would taste very good??!! Silly cat!

Best wishes for lots of good times to come as we finish out the holidays! Thank YOU for coming by to see me here today!  

Hi there! Happy Saturday! Hope you had a wonderful week! It's getting close to time to settle in and be done with the craziness of the season…and relax a bit… Each year, one of my MOST favorite things to do during the holidays is to have the DH drive us around in his big truck and go look at Christmas lights! Usually we get a hot chocolate or a latte first and then we put on the Christmas tunes and just spend some time together. In fact, that might actually be my favorite holiday thing to do! So, that's what inspired today's card.

Today's post is my last Taylored Expressions post for 2012! I'm happy to say that I renewed my contract with Taylor and I'm looking forward to more crafty fun with the Baker's Dozen in the new year…and CHA in three weeks! WOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!

Here's my Merry & Bright card!

I used the beautiful new Stacklets 3 dies for my focal part of my card. Then I got out the retro Tall and Skinny Alpha dies for the word 'merry.' The stamp set is called, appropriately, Very Merry! And the lights, of course are pretty dies from this set.  

I used a white pencil to color in my highlights on my light bulbs. Then I took some pretty Doodlebug twine and made it my string… Popped up the lights on some foam tape. I like the graphic nature of this one. So happy!

Here are my Taylored Expressions Supplies:

Hi Friends! It's that time again…time for another Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge! I really look forward to this each month, because I love it when the whole design team does the same theme. I love seeing everyone's creativity. Each month, Taylor comes up with a new crafty question for us.

The question/theme for December is: "Inspiration is all around us. Many of us learned to stamp by CASEing other stampers we admired. (CASE = Copy and Share Everything) We want everyone to know that not only is CASEing perfectly okay, it's actually pretty flattering and lots of fun! It can also be helpful in the midst of the busy holiday season when it's hard to think straight! So, take some inspiration from your fellow Baker's Dozen team-mates, and show us how you can turn a great inspiration into a fabulous holiday card!"

I am drawing my inspiration from Taylor for this challenge! Taylor has always inspired me with her bright and cheery color choices and her AMAZING card layouts! Her style is just like her – happy and pretty! I scoped out her gallery and found so much to CASE!

Taylor's cards are always bright and fun, and full of color. She almost always uses pink and is a master with the patterned paper. The other thing I noted is that she makes lots of fun shaped cards. SO… I tried to CASE her overall style with my color choices and my cheery mood of my card. I found THIS CARD on Taylor's blog and it got the ideas flowing… So I turned that card into a Christmas card!

I used the SUPER fun Woodland Winter Stamp Set and the Trim the Tree Dies!! A perfect, cheerful Winter combination!  

My card base was cut from a giant scallop circle Nestability!

Here are my Copic choices for this project…

Taylor loves blings and Copics….so I had to use those too! 

And here is a picture of Taylor's card that inspired me! The link is above. 
Some thoughts on inspiration… There are so many ways to get inspired when you're feeling low on mojo! The TE gallery has sections by designer or by stamp set! Check it out! Sometimes for me it's a color combination, or a certain stamp used a unique way, or a die I haven't gotten out in a long time. Or, if you're a new stamper you can copy exactly until you get your confidence up! Here's the main Gallery Page…and here's my Gallery Page! Have fun!

Here are the product photos for today's card:

Here are today's FUN LINKS to the rest of the Baker's Dozen!

• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

Well, hello there my crafty friends! How was your week? I hope you had a fabulous one! Another week is long gone and my to-do list is just long! I have more to-dos than I have time left before Christmas comes! I'm trying to slow down and enjoy the season, but who has time for that!? LOL. This weekend is time for friends and visiting and maybe some stamping too. What do you have planned?

Today I'm posting a card made with a new technique I discovered on Pinterest! It's called chalkboard stamping! I'm not quite sure if I love my card or not, but it might grow on me. CLICK HERE for an awesome tutorial by the amazing Betsy Veldman. She gives a nice walk through of her technique and her cards are wonderful (aren't they always wonderful?) She inspires me. A lot.

So here's my take on it….

The trick is to make it look like a little chalkboard! I stamped and embossed in white, and then stamped again a bit off center to look like a shadow. Then you smear some ink on it to look like something was erased!

I used my stamp positioner for this project. The Merry Christmas and happy new year stamps are two separate stamps. The pretty holly branch is from Penny Black.

At first I didn't put on enough smeared ink. After I added more, I thought it looked better. I also kind of smooshed it around with my finger. That's a hard task for this OCD stamper!!

Here's a good side view. I kept my color palette sort of vintage – by adding a pop of light aqua and some silver snowflakes.

Okay, so what do you think? Have you tried this? Are you going to? Lemme know. Have a super weekend everyone! Thanks for stopping by!