My Favorites from 2025

Happy New Year friends!  As I say goodbye to 2025 and look forward to 2026, I reflect on all the good things that took place last year. God is immeasurably good, and He has great promises for our family for 2026.

  I thought it would be fun to ring in the new year with a recap of my favorite posts from 2025.  Here is a quick glimpse of my favorite projects.  You can click on the links if you want to see the original post. 

 

January  

The postage theme is still going strong.  I adore these spring pond stencils and all the fun stencils from Waffle Flower.

 

February

  

 As you all know, I love anything vintage.  The vintage Valentine rub-ons are so much fun to work with.

 

March 

 I enjoy making treat boxes of all kinds.  I love the rich texture on this vintage style book box.

 

April

 

 Vintage Easter on an egg shaped treat box.  What could be cuter?

 

May

 

 Tropical is a fun change of pace for me and one that I don't do enough of.

 

June

 

 Stash busting some patterned papers.  I'm always up for more of that!

 

July

 

 Loved the glitzy gold accents on this moody, floral card.

 

August

 

 I can't forget how much I enjoy using printables in my craft making.  There are so many free images you can find online.  These library cards are generic enough to use for any project.

 

September

 

 Creating my own background is something I don't often do.  I would like to get messy more often in 2026.

 

October

 

 More treat boxes... They're just too much fun!

 

November

 

 I do enjoy making these 3D lighted ornament boxes.  They're addictive, fun to make, fun to give and fun to receive.

 

December 

 

 Easel cards are a nice option when you want to make a card with that little extra something special.

 

I hope you enjoyed today's recap of 2025.  It's been a fun and creative year.  My wish for you all for 2026 is that you are blessed with health, happiness and plenty of time to do what you love. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Gifts From The Garden #2 ~ CCS

Hello my friends.  Sorry for the back to back posts.  If you're looking for my card for DD, keep scrolling down.  I'm back on the CutCardStock blog with my second installment of "Gifts From The Garden".

 I'll be sharing how you can make these sweet little boxes using just your score board and a pair of scissors.  The box is perfectly sized to fit mini loaves of sweet zucchini bread, hence the title "Gifts From The Garden".  

 

I do hope you'll stop in at the CutCardStock blog to see how this project came together.

Thanks for stopping by!

Guesting at Color Hues Color Challenge

Hi friends.  Today I'm guest designer over at Color Hues Color Challenge.  The colors Smokey Blue and Sage Green really tested me, but I accepted the challenge and hopefully you'll like what I came up with.

 

I stamped the background using a super old Heidi Swapp background stamp using brown ink on cream card stock as my neutral colors.  I added just a bit of distressing around the outside edges of the card front.

 

The flowers are from Concord & 9th.  I added a bit of glitter to add texture and sparkle.

 

I do hope you'll take a quick minute to pop over to Color Hues Color Challenge and see what their fine design team came up with to inspire you with.

Thanks to Nancy and the team for having me as a guest.  I sure enjoyed the challenge!
 

Thanks for stopping by!

Seed Folio ~ Gifts From the Garden ~ CCS

Hello my crafting friends!

I've got a new project up at the CutCardStock blog today, featuring a Seed Folio.

 

It's one project in a series I'm calling "Gifts From the Garden".

 

 If you want to see more detailed photo's of the creating process and finished project, head on over to the CutCardStock blog for more details.

 

I'll be adding this project to the following challenges:

Simon Says Monday Challenge ~ Stamp It in September

Word Art Wednesday ~ Anything Goes 

Thanks for stopping by!

Hi Friend

Hello lovelies!  I'm popping in with a card I made using up some scraps and a printable library card.

 

I had printed off several of these library cards on pink cardstock a while back.  You may recall this card I posted back in May. Well, in an effort to use what I have and use up some scraps, I came up with this card.

 

I had also printed a couple of these floral images for another challenge for the message board at ACOT.  I fussy cut the image out and glued it to the bottom of the library card.  The pretty flower on top is from Anna Griffin.  The colors matched really well.  

 

 

I don't remember where the embossed "hi" letters came from.  Were they from a past 12 Kits of Occasion or did I use a hot foil plate to emboss a scrap of Ocean Tides cardstock?  I honestly cannot recall!  I blame it on aging. 

 

Either way, I embossed a scrap of Ocean Tides cardstock with a different pattern, playing off the color palette of the greens in the printed flowers.

 I like how it turned out and love that no new sheets of cardstock were harmed in the making of this card.

 

Do you enjoy sitting with your scraps and seeing what comes from them?

 

I'll be adding this card to the following challenges:

Time Out Challenges ~ Friendship / Encouragement / Support  

Word Art Wednesday ~ Anything Goes
 Simon Says Wednesday Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

A Jar Full of Garden Joy ~ Double D Challenge

Good morning friends!  I'm here today with a fun shaped card I made for the new challenge starting up over at Double D Challenges.  This week the theme is "Butterflies".  

 

When I started making this card, I knew I wanted to use this sweet Mason Jar Card die from Honeybee Stamps.  I went searching through my stamps and stencils and found these oldies but goodies that seems to fit in the jar nicely.

 

  The stamped flowers are PTI "Flower Favorites", while the stenciled greens and smaller yellow flowers are PinkFresh Studio "With Love".

 

I was delighted when I found a vellum butterfly sticker in my stash from Spellbinders, adding the finishing touch to this card, and making it fit the requirements of today's challenge.

 

Flutter on over to Double D Challenges to see more amazing creations from the talented design team.  

 

Here is the inspiration tile to help get your creative juices flowing:

 

And here is what you could win when you play along.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's Sunflower Season!

Who here loves sunflowers, raise their hands.  I'll bet all the hands went up!

 

 

I adore sunflowers but have never been able to grow them because the squirrels either ate the seeds I planted or the ground hogs ate the flowers before they had a chance to grow tall. 

 

 

Well not this year... 

stick around to see photo's at the end of this post to see the sunflowers that are growing in my yard this year.

 

 

But first, let me share a set of sunflower cards I made using some really old (probably dated) design papers I've had in my stash that needed to be used.

 

I pulled out all the sunflower "things" to make this set of cards.  Dies from The Greetery, super old stamps from Kitchen Sink Stamps, (Do you remember them?) and a set from Sunny Studio.

 

The sentiments are all oldies as well, from PTI.

 

I packaged them all up in this sweet card box / organizer that I made using an Eileen Hull Scoreboards XL die from Sizzix.  I then wrapped them up in a cello bag and tied the tag on with a ribbon to gift to a friend for her birthday.  (She loves sunflowers too!) 

 

 As promised, here are some photo's of the sunflowers I've been growing this year. 

 

 This is a new set of four raised beds we added this spring. We purchased galvanized planters, but hubby trimmed them out with cedar and added a sitting ledge on top.  He thought that would be more comfortable for me as I get older. 😂 I filled one bed with different varieties of sunflowers.

 

I also planted them all along the inside edge of the garden that wraps around the south and east side of the greenhouse.

They are just starting to open up, but they're super tall.

 

Here you see two distinct colors.  Lemon yellow and the traditional orangey-yellow.

 

These smaller sized sunflowers are Teddy Bear Sunflowers.

 

Rather than having the typical elongated petals. they have very tiny outer petals and the inside is a big fluff ball... just like a teddy bear!

 

I love the darker ring of color on this sunflower.  The pollinators have had plenty to eat in our yard this year.

 

I've been a bit consumed by our gardens this summer.  I've enjoyed taking a short crafting break to spend time doing my second favorite hobby, which is gardening.  I've tried to keep up on commenting, but if I've missed some of your posts, you know why.  

The summer season is almost over and though I'm sad to see it coming to an end, I'm ready to get back to paper crafting once again.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer.  

 

I'll be adding one of these cards to the following challenges:

 

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge ~  Anything Goes optional mood board

 

Word Art Wednesday ~ Anything Goes

 

Thanks for stopping by!