Wrapping Up Christmas Cards --- At Least for Awhile!

During the weekend before Christmas I was frantically putting the house in order for my son's homecoming, decorating the tree, and making cards to fulfill my own list.  During one long evening I completed 30 cards!  The sketches were simple and usually laid out as I worked.  The images were a variety of Whiff of Joy and Sarah Kay.  I also had some beautiful vintage images from Dover Publications.  With Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, ribbons, and embellies I cranked out a variety of lovely cards.  Most were easily mailed; others, well, let's just say I kept the US Postal Service in business for another week or so. 

This year's crop of Christmas cards was, by far, my favorite.  So many wonderful images to color; glorious designer papers; amazing ribbons; and inspiring sketches.  I have decided not to put my Christmas card supplies away, but to keep making cards throughout the year.  I made close to 250 cards this year and I'm hoping to surpass that next year.  Guess I'd better get busy, huh?

To all my wonderful blogging friends, thank you for your inspiration and encouragement.  Happy New Year to you all!

Hugs,
Barb

In God We Trust

Christmas and Holiday Greetings from My House to Yours!

May the joy of the holidays warm your heart and enrich your life!

I feel so fortunate to have made many friends in this magical, creative land of blogs! The support, encouragement, inspiration and fun has gone beyond my wildest expectations when I started this blog.

We are just a few hours from the most beautiful day of the year. Thanks to the creative genius of all of you I have enjoyed enough Christmas cards to fill Santa's bag! To everyone who visits my blog, whether leaving comments or taking a look, you are so very important to me. Here's wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, happy holidays, and prosperous 2010.

I wish I could hug you all!!

Barb

In God We Trust

Sunday Sketch and Stamp Challenge #18 --- My Sketch!

Here we are at Sunday Sketch and Stamp Challenge #18 and it is my turn! Yeah! I've had this ready for awhile, but before I reveal the sketch and card, I want to thank everyone who participates in the SS&S Challenge. I didn't get to comment on all of them this month but I did take a look. Awesome projects, as usual!

On a sadder note we are saying "so long" and many thanks to our very talented guest designers: Mira, Claire and Vicki. They have added such amazing creativity and we love them bunches. Please take an extra minute or two to pay them a visit. I'm sure we will be seeing much more of them. Thank you, ladies! You are all spectacular!

Now, on to the sketch for this challenge. Since we are just around the corner from Christmas and New Year's, this challenge will be up for three weeks rather than the usual two. So, even with all the celebrations, family fun, and food, we hope to see just as many --- if not more! --- participants. Challenge #19 will be posted on January 10, 2010.

It is my pleasure to present the sketch for Challenge #18:

Does it look like fun? Well, I liked it when I did this card. I hope you have fun with it, too. Are you surprised it isn't a holiday theme? I've done close to 200 Christmas cards so far, so I couldn't wait to use this Sarah Kay stamp I bought last month. Isn't he just the cutest? I also have the new "Farmer's Market" stack from DCWV and love all the patterns in it. Also, this paper is 70% recycled materials. That's a good thing! The reverse side is a nice cream color.

List of ingredients:

Image: Sarah Kay

Coloring: Copics

Designer Papers: Farmer's Market from DCWV (yes, I believe those are beets, maybe radishes)

Border punch: Martha Stewart

Buttons and twine

I hope you enjoy the sketch. Most of all, I plan on seeing your project over at Sunday Sketch and Stamp. Thanks for stopping by my blog and the other designers' blogs.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to everyone!

Barb

In God We Trust

Busy, Busy, But Here's a Quickie to Keep In Touch

It's been a very busy week, with house cleaning, holiday decorating, and card making. Then I let myself get quite worn down and had to take a day to rest. I still have my cards to get finished and mailed out (some might be a tad late)!

My son arrived today safe and sound. He had a great drive from Norfolk, VA. Saturday we will take a drive up to Leavenworth, Kansas to look for his next home. I get to drive his little yellow Mazda Miata!! That will be a change of perspective from my 4x4 truck!

Anyway, a quick look tonight at another easel card that I gave to a dear friend. The lovely country church image is from Our Daily Bread Designs, colored with Copics and glittered for sparkle. The embossing is Cuttlebug folders and the dp is from K&Company. I love the shimmery card stock that I found years ago at an office supply store in Phoenix. I sure hope I can find more when this is gone!

Gotta run! I'll have more later, especially Sunday when Sunday Sketch and Stamp posts Challenge #18 --- and it is my sketch this time!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't get so busy you get worn out like I did. Take time to enjoy!

Barb

In God We Trust

Whiff of Joy Challenge #58 --- Sparkle!

Whiff of Joy has put out so many fantastic winter and holiday images this year! I've been coloring like crazy and a few nights ago just got carried away with the red Copics! So here are a couple of the new WOJ images carrying out the red theme.

The challenge this week was to add sparkle. That's easy this time of year! The first image is "Freezing Willow" and she does make me shiver just looking at her! I used shimmery white card stock for the card and the Nestabilities oval die cut. For more sparkle I attached a piece of my favorite holiday ribbon. The snowflake corners are done with the Martha Stewart punch.

The second card features "WOJ Santa with Gifts". He is such a jolly old soul! The dp is from a collection I bought last year and I added red rhinestones to sparkle it up a bit. The red ribbon has sparkle, too.

Like so many of us, I love the easel cards. The "door stop" on this one is a 3D sticker from K&Company that features a winter sleigh (kinda hard to see in the pic).

The Christmas countdown seems to be moving in light speed!! I am trying to cram in house cleaning and card making during the next week because my son will be here on the 17th. That's when my Christmas starts!! Thank Heaven for my mom (who lives two doors down) because she is the cook of the family. So after spending the day at the Silver Dollar City amusement park and going to Christmas shows, and shopping, we can come home to her good cooking! In the mean time, I have more cards to make, so I'd best be gettin' to it!

Thanks for stopping by! I've been out blog hopping and marvel at the incredible creativity everywhere I look! What a sensational community is this blogosphere!

Barb

In God We Trust

Interrupting the Christmas Cards for a Sparkly Birthday Card

A very dear friend of mine is having a birthday tomorrow. Her favorite color is red --- imagine, red at Christmas time! Well, I just happened to be in a red-coloring mood and did this image, and a few others while I was at it.

The image is from the Sophisticated Ladies at Rubberneckers. That collection is so elegant! This lady is called "Pearl" which was my grandmother's name. I could so easily imagine her in this classy gown.

The image is colored with Copics and accented with rhinestone swirls, red stones, and Prima flowers. The edge is trimmed with Martha Stewart border punch.

Along with the card we are giving her a delicious, decadent red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting. Yummmmm!

Like much of the Midwest we are experiencing very cold weather. Fortunately we are far enough south that we didn't get any of that heavy snow. It was strange, though, that we had just a few flakes of snow flying around even when the sun was shining through the partly cloudy sky. To all of you in cold and snowy weather, I hope you are hope safe and keeping warm.

Take care on the roads and stay well. Thanks for stopping by!

Barb

In God We Trust

Sugar Nellie Snowman Easel Card

I like snowmen. Round ones, cute ones, short ones, tall ones, cartoons and vintage. So when I saw this tall, somewhat vintage snowman from Sugar Nellie I couldn't resist. The bonus of a birdhouse really clinched the deal.

I made this card for my nephew and his family. The scrapbook paper has a great sketch of two boys on a sled and when you lift the top card the whole image is visible. I don't remember where I got the paper, but it is such a pretty blue. The poinsettia is cut from K&Company dp with the Nestabilities dies and a large clear rhinestone in the center. The "door stop" is three sparkly snow balls I found at Hobby Lobby.

Here's a close-up of the adorable snow man. Love that slouch hat! I colored him with Copics, using earthy colors for an old-fashioned look.

Just a quick post tonight. I've been coloring all afternoon and have a couple of cards to put together. I'm glad you stopped by and hope you come back often! Christmas is only a couple of weeks away and I have a feeling my cards will be just under the wire! I don't dare send out anything but handmade! You all know how that is, right?

Barb

In God We Trust

Willow and Poinsettias

There is just something about poinsettias that brightens the holidays, whether a live plant or a sparkly silk bloom on a special card. This card is another of the bunch I took to family members during my Thanksgiving trip. My niece-in-law was looking through some photos of my cards when she saw this one and mentioned it was her favorite. Well, it just so happened that was the card I made for them!

Lovely Whiff of Joy Willow is colored with Copics and graces a card made with papers from the Signature Christmas collection by My Mind's Eye. The large poinsettia is from silk stems I keep on hand and the small ones are Prima.

This image of Willow has been one of my favorites since I first saw her last year. Now I have all the new Whiff of Joy winter images for this year and they are just as beautiful! I hope to get those made up soon, too.

Thanks for stopping by! With all that is going on this time of year, I hope you are able to find time to create. What a perfect time to create gifts and cards that are made for keeps! ;)

Barb

In God We Trust

Sunday Sketch and Stamp Challenge #17- Arianne's Sketch

Another two weeks has streaked by! Every challenge we see such wonderful creativity from the participants --- and we get to meet many more crafters! Thank you for joining in and for telling your friends.

This fortnight Sunday Sketch and Stamp is happy to showcase adorable digistamps from Digital Delights. Oh, you just must see all the wonderful surprises they have for the holidays and dozens of other occasions! I am tickled to present Sleigh Ride Billy in a sketch by our own Arianne.

Billy is colored with Copics and the sleigh is adorned with Stickles gold and red. The red cardstock background is embossed with the ever-popular Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss folder and the white shimmery paper is embossed with CB snowflakes folder.

Here is Arianne's wonderful sketch. Please be sure to see all of the amazing creations by the design team and guest designers at SS&S.

We so look forward to seeing your creations so grab the sketch and show us your stuff! You could win delightful digistamps, too!

Thank you for stopping by. I'll see you in the comments over at SS&S!

Barb

In God We Trust

Busy Beauties Blog Hop WINNER!

Many thanks to everyone who hopped along with the Busy Beauties! It was so much fun! If you haven't checked out the new images it is never too late to do the blog hop! Just start here!

As promised, I have a winner from the commenters on my blog. She gets her choice of any one digistamp at the Busy Beauties Boutique. The winner is...........

Carol of Stamps Paper and Ink!!

Carol, please email Carolyn at BusyBeauties@nc.rr.com and let her know the digistamp of your choice. Enjoy!

Barb

In God We Trust

Two Sarah Kay Christmas Cards

It is Thursday already! Where does the time go? Especially this time of year when we are pulled in so many directions.

I could make Christmas cards all year long! In fact, I just might so that I am ahead of the game next year. The easel cards are also my faves! I saw many members of my family at Thanksgiving, so I hand-delivered their Christmas cards. This one went to my one and only baby sister. I just couldn't resist this Sarah Kay image.

The image is colored with Copics and the dp is from the Signature Christmas collection by My Mind's Eye. Prima flowers make up the big bouquet. My little Sis deserves bunches of flowers every day!

This card went to my beloved aunt and uncle. The vintage look is one of their favorites and the dp from K&Company was the perfect accompaniment for the sweet image. Don't ya just love that hat! The glittery gold poinsettia is from floral picks I've had on hand for awhile. I just removed the stem and replaced the center with a lovely pearl brad. The poinsettia on the inside was cut from gold metallic card stock with the Nestabilities dies.

The image is also colored with Copics. This little girl was so much fun to color.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope all your holiday plans are coming together with great joy and togetherness.

Barb

In God We Trust

Busy Beauties Boutique Blog Hop of New Releases

They're here!! More Busy Beauties digistamps! There are so many surprises in store for you when you take a hop through our blogs. Don't forget to visit the Busy Beauties Boutique for the full selection of images. You'll especially want to do this if you are a winner!

"Winner, did you say?"

YES! In fact, winners, plural! Here's the scoop: there will be a winner chosen from comments left on each of our 10 blog hop posts. Those winners will be able to choose one image from the BBBoutique. A GRAND PRIZE winner will be selected to win 3 images of their choice, but, to qualify for the Grand Prize, commenters must leave a little love on each of the blogs in the hop.

Now, let's get on with the hop!! I hope you started with a visit to lovely Grace's blog and if you followed along, you should have arrived here from our Danish Beauty Annita's blog. If you missed any you'll want to go back to see the fabulous creations, and be sure to leave comments to be eligible for the drawings!


Just in time for Christmas are the adorable Gingerbread Boy and Girl. I took two of each and colored them with Copics. Each is sprinkled with a bit of Twinklets Diamond Dust. (Who doesn't like a little extra sugar on their gingerbread?) The boys are decked out in little hat buttons, one a stocking cap, the other a Santa hat. These were in a bag of a couple hundred (really!) holiday embellies and buttons I picked up at Michael's. Mounted on Kraft paper from PaperTrey I edged all sides with red ink. The red buttons are from the bag of embellies. I found this so, so satiny rick rack at the Amana General Store in Amana, Iowa. I always find lots of fun surprises there!

Now that I am craving a gingerbread latte, I will stop here and point you to your next stop. I have the great pleasure to direct you to our Beauty-In-Chief Carolyn for your next visit.

If you missed any of the other Beauties blogs along the way, here they are in order:

Grace

Karen

Heather

Carmen

Rachel

Catherine

Annita

Me!

Carolyn

Kelly

Thank you so much for hopping along with us! Good luck in the drawings and have fun with the images. We sure did!

Barb

In God We Trust

Whiff of Joy Challenge #57 --- Christmas

Happy December, everyone! First of all, I hope all of you in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that everyone else had a terrific weekend. I just returned from six days of traveling and spending lots of quality time making treasured memories with family from age 16 months to 89 years old. Oh, the fun we had telling stories and watching the babies grow!

I did have some posts drafted and nearly ready to post, but just didn't get my computer out much. So, I'll be doing some quick catching up over the next few days.

Here is my Whiff of Joy Challenge entry, right under the wire. I have two cards here, both easel cards. The first card, given to my aunt and uncle, features Uru by illustrator Norma Fickel. Fun to color, sweet and cheerful. The paper is from the Signature Christmas collection by My Mind's Eye. The image is colored with Copics. Keeping this card simple (quite a trick for me!) reminds me of the simple joys of Christmas.

The second card features Henry Mouse by illustrator Alison Acton. I gave this card to my brother and sister-in-law. The plaid dp is from my scrapbook stash and the poinsettias from Prima. I colored the image with Copics. I just think this card is so warm and cozy. More marshmallows, please!

The holiday season is in full swing and I hope it is a joyous one for you all. I am excited to have my son home very soon. We are planning a "Back to Basics" Christmas, remembering that this is a celebration of Christ's birth and God's love for us. There's no greater gift!

Thank you for stopping by! Your visits are blessings that I treasure everyday.

Barb

In God We Trust

Busy Beauties Sneak Peek

Woo hoo! Busy Beauties will be releasing new digistamps very soon and we are releasing sneak peeks this week. One of my favorites is the Victorian Beauty. This is also the first image I did for the "chalk" challenge (see previous post). Isn't this just the classiest?

Stayed tuned for more in a few days!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Barb

In God We Trust

Busy Beauties --- Coloring With Chalk

The Busy Beauties are very busy these days! To give you a hint, there are some terrific new releases coming out soon! In fact, there is a sneak peek at the top of my side bar.

Our creative Beauty Grace gave us a challenge for November: to color with C-H-A-L-K. Eek! That's one medium that I have not used since drawing hopscotch on the sidewalks (Am I dating myself here?) Well, like I told Carolyn, I will try anything once. Actually, I ended up doing two Busy Beauties images in chalk. After I completed the first one I realized it is one of the sneak peek images. So, I did one more and placed her on this easel card (my new fave!)

The dp is Sera Fina collection by K&Company. Something about the bright colors and the embedded image of the 20's flapper girl just struck me as the perfect back drop. Then I found the sticker that says "The Perfect Day" and it all came together. Add to that a little sticker vase with some simple flowers for the final touch.

I don't know how often I will be using chalk, but it is part of my creative arsenal now. Here is a close-up of the image. I did add very fine accents with Copics for definition. Not too bad!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Keep an eye out for the Busy Beauties new images! They are amazing!

Barb

In God We Trust

Sunday Sketch and Stamp #16 - Sem's Sketch

All of us at Sunday Sketch and Stamp are so excited about the response to our biweekly sketches! Thank you for participating and I hope you join us for Sketch #16 created by our lovely Sem. We are happy to once again feature digistamps from the fabulous Crafts 4 Eternity (C4E). We have four nifty Christmas Cupcakes to play with.

First, here is Sem's very fun and very versatile sketch. You can use any image you wish, as long as it is a stamp/digistamp, of course.

Now for my card. When I saw the adorable cupcakes I couldn't decide which one to feature. So I featured all four!! You can never have too many cupcakes, especially yummy Christmas goodies.

On the front I made a little booklet starting with the Santa Cupcake.

Then we have the Snowman Cupcake.

Next is Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer Cupcake.

And who can resist a Strawberry with Cream Cheese Frosting Cupcake? (of course it could be chocolate, or coconut, or cherry)

All the images are colored with Copics and the papers I used are from my stash of Christmas fun stuff!

I'm very glad you stopped by and I hope you play along with us this fortnight at Sunday Sketch and Stamp. Hop on over to check out all the great designs by the talented ladies that make up the design team and the guest designers. You will definitely be inspired!!

Barb

In God We Trust

Believe It Or Not, A Non-holiday Card..........

I've taken a little break from the holiday cards. This adorable Sarah Kay "Picnic Time" image was just begging to be colored and placed on a sweet vintage card.

She is colored with Copics. By the way, I don't mention this often enough, but I use Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Papertrey cardstock whenever I use my Copics. No bleeding, no blurring, and no ink on the marker tips.

The papers are from my scrapbooking stash and the flowers are Primas. I used the Martha Stewart punch for the left side border and my treasured Nesties die cuts for the image background

Thanks for stopping by! Now, back to the beautiful holiday cards. Lots more to make!!

Barb

In God We Trust

Whimsical Wednesday Challenge --- Easel Card

As I was visiting favorite blogs this morning I stopped in at Sandra's at Paper Funtastics. She is a multi-talented artist; be sure to stop by and see her latest creations. One of her posts was an easel card for the Whimsical Wednesday Challenge. I like challenges and I love the easel cards, so, since I have a couple to post today, I thought I would join in this challenge and share it with you as well.

Both of these cards are made with the gorgeous dp Signature Christmas by My Mind's Eye. Pieces left over from one went into the other. No point in wasting such beautiful paper! The flower embellishments are all from a Prima collection. For the bases of the cards I used Bazzill 12x12 card stock, nice and sturdy and wonderfully textured.

The image on this card is the wonderful Sarah Kay Christmas Magic. I love the Old English look of this charming couple. They are colored with Copics and mounted on Nestabilities oval die cuts. And that exquisite ribbon along the bottom is from a box full of ribbons my mom gave me. (Isn't she sweet!) For the "door stop" I cut out the "2425" from scraps and 3D attached it.

The image on the second card is the adorable Henry Mouse with a Large Tea Cup from Whiff of Joy. I actually put hot chocolate in this mug and Henry is generous with the marshmallows! Copics was again my coloring of choice. The ribbon is a wonderful plaid woven that just happened to be a perfect match for the papers and Prima flower. Don't ya just love it when pieces just come together?

I am just crazy about the easel cards and folks I have shown them to love them as well. I think I will be making more in various sizes and shapes. I don't know who the original designer is, but I am eternally grateful!

Thank you for stopping by today! Please be sure to check out the Whimsical Wednesday Challenge and the fantastic designers there.

Barb

In God We Trust