2013 in Review

Hello, my friends.  Today is New Year's Eve.  The last day of 2013.  As I sit here, looking back on this year, I see alot of things.  Good things, bad things, sad things, happy things and every where in between.  This has been a hard year for my family.  We've struggled with deaths in our family.  My dad passed away on Memorial Day from cancer, my uncle passed away two weeks after that from cancer, and we lost my 23 year old cousin to a drunk driving accident in July.  We've struggled financially, emotionally, and physically.  During the first few months of this year I was recovering from a broken neck and neck surgery, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and for Christmas, I had the Shingles.

But, on the bright side, my husband and I have a stronger relationship, my daughter is doing great in 4th grade and I have three new design team positions for the new year.  I have been enjoying my current design team positions and have been stretching my boundaries with my card making.

I would like to revisit some of my most favorite cards of 2013.  These are the ones that I think turned out the best.  I hope y'all enjoy this trip down memory lane.

This one was made for Sassy Studio Designs PCP challenge

I followed a sketch challenge to create this card.

Using a new star burst technique

One of the cards made for Teapot Tuesday over at Splitcoast Stampers

Kenny K's wonderful talent just inspires me

I made this card for my dad's 65th birthday, but never got to give it to him.

Another beautiful Kenny K creation

I think this has to be my most favorite of the whole year.  I just love how this one turned out.

Using a Dustin Pike image.

I love sunflowers, and this Fred She Said set is just beautiful.

Beccy Muir created this amazing birdhouse.  It was one of the first cards that added all those flowers to.

This is one of my first tries at Gothic art.  Terri's image is just beautiful.

This was my design team call entry for Kenny K.

Using the same image from Delicious Doodles as I did previously shows the versatility of Teri's images.

My first Gothic inspired altered project.  I joined the 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop with Smeared and Smudged this year and this was one of the projects.

A wonderful image from Rick St. Dennis.  His images are so fun.

QKR Design Team entry during October

This beautiful little girl is a QKR Design Team entry that you will see next week, but I just love it and since I created it in 2013, I wanted to showcase it.

Thank you for taking this trip down memory lane with me.  There are tons more cards that I love and have enjoyed making, but I didn't want to burn out your retinas.  I look forward to seeing each and every one of you in the new year and being able to showcase my work for another year.  Thank you for being my followers.  I have made it almost up to 100.  I'm very humbled that I have that many people interested in my work.  I truly appreciate all the wonderful comments y'all have left for me during this past year and I look forward to seeing alot more.  I love reading them.  My New Year's wish for all my friends in blog land is:

May you always have sunshine in your face, food on your table, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, family and friends surrounding you, enough faith to sustain you, and may your crafting always make you happy.

Happy New Year!

31 Days of Halloween--Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop hosted by Smeared and Smudged. I want to thank each of you for stopping by my blog and leaving all the love.  I truly appreciate each comment that is left for me and I do read them all!  For this month long blog of Halloween goodness you will be able to find the blog roll on the right side of my blog. For a complete set of rules, sponsors and the clue to the daily image Scavenger Hunt, please see Terra's Blog.  And while you are there, please leave some love for Terra and Tori for all of their hard work putting this together.

For today's post, I have created a card using one of our sponsors, Delicious Doodles, images.  I just love these images.  I don't do alot of dark, Gothic cards, but I do love Delicious Doodles images.

I made this card into an easel card.  The first picture is from the front and the second is from the side.

I colored the image with Spectrum Noir, BIC Markers and Sakura Glitter pens.  I trimmed down the image and matted it onto Red and Black Recollections card stock.  The card base is Black Coordinations card stock.  The patterned papers are American Crafts.  I added some double sided satin ribbon from Hobby Lobby and the spiders are from a pack of Halloween confetti that I found last year at the Dollar General.  I stamped the sentiment, which is from Queen Kat Designs, onto a very light gray card stock from Recollections with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with Sakura Glitter pens and BIC Markers.  I used my Martha Stewart mini score board to add some score lines to the sentiment then matted it onto the same Red Recollections card stock.  I used two of the spiders as holders for the easel.

I hope y'all are enjoying the hop and will stick with us all month long for some amazing creations by the talent team of Wicked Bloggers.