Saturday, December 31, 2016

Seasons Givings Blog Hop 2016


Welcome to the Seasons Givings Blog Hop!

As has become my tradition, I'm participating in this blog hop today
 because of you, my blog readers.
I truly appreciate each one of you.... that you take the time to come & visit my blog
& comment on my projects... it means so much to me!
And so, this blog hop is being held for you, as a way for me to say "thank you".

For those of you who are new to my blog, I welcome you to check it out.
I've recently posted my favourite cards (click!) that I made in 2016,
which you can see by scrolling down or clicking the link.

Each stop on the hop is hosting a giveaway. 
So make sure you comment on each one to be eligible to win each prize.

Here are the three prize packs that I'm giving away...




Each one consists of two or three stamp sets (from Waltzingmouse, Simon Says Stamp, Sweet & Sassy, Studio Calico, Pretty Pink Posh & Neat and Tangled), one or two embossing folders
and some embellishments.

To be eligible to win one of these prize packs, you need to leave a comment here
on my blog by Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017, at 9pm CST.
I will announce the winners on Wednesday, the 4th.

And here's the card I wanted to share with you....
a thank you to all of my wonderful readers!


I stamped my white cardstock panel using my Altenew Watercolour Wonder stamp set
in Altenew Inks (Morning Frost, Evening Grey, Mountain Mist, Volcano Lake, Buttercream,
Mango Smoothie & Warm Sunshine.
I stamped my sentiment using Simon Says Stamp's Many Thanks 
stamp set in Altenew Jet Black.


I diecut the panel using my Neat and Tangled Scalloped frame die.
I stamped a couple other pieces of cardstock with the same die and stacked
them back together, to raise up my stamped panel for a bit of dimension.

Before you go, I welcome you to follow my blog & click on the link to do so on the sidebar,
but it is not necessary for you to do so to win a prize.

Next on the hop is Margie Higuchi.

Here's the complete list of all of the Season's Givings Blog Hop participants:


Happy New Year!

Thanks for looking!
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Top 10 Cards of 2016

Happy New Year's Eve!

2016 was a very good year!
I spent lots of time with family and friends. 
I also spent quite a bit of time in my craft space, too.
In 2016, I made 478 cards.
I thought I'd share my ten favourites with you today.
(Note: You can click on the link beneath each card to see its original blog post.)











Thanks for looking!


Thursday, December 29, 2016

Little Tangles Challenge #75: Silver & Gold

Today, I have a card to share for 
I decided to use two Neat and Tangled stamp sets to make my card.
I feel like the end result is a bit of a "mash-up" of the two sets:
Warm Wishes and Very Beary.


With a bit of masking, I stamped the Warm Wishes in versamark and heat
embossed it in silver.
I stamped the cup a second time on watercolour paper and cut it out by hand.
I diecut the bear and stamped him in versamark and heat embossed him in gold.
I used my Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers to colour him and the mug in.


Here's a shot so you can see the embossing.
I just love how this turned out!

Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Ink It Up with Heidi Shafer -- Neat and Tangled's Beary Merry

Today, I've joined again with
Heidi Shafer of Mapleberry Musings for Ink It Up.


Ink it Up is a challenge where, on the second and fourth Wednesday 
of each month, Heidi and I share cards that we've made with new stamp sets
that we haven't used yet.

Today, I'm sharing some cards that I made using my 


I started by stamping the bear, present and sentiment onto a piece of watercolour paper, 
which I diecut using my Mama Elephant Femme Frames diecuts.
I coloured him in using my Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers and a water brush.


I stamped the present a second time and cut it out by hand, coloured it in 
and then adhered it to my card.
I also paper-pieced his scarf using some Studio Calico patterned paper,
which I also used to mat my card.


On this card, I used the same supplies and colouring techniques,
but I used the coordinating diecuts.
I didn't do any paper piecing, but I did blend blue ink behind the bear before
adhering him with dimensional adhesive, but it's hard to tell in the photo
(oh how I miss more hours in the day when it's daylight!)


I just think this bear is so adorable!

Before I inked up this stamp set, Sage did.
She made some cards for the 14 people she delivers newspapers to each day
(which I thought I photographed, but now can't find!)
She also made a cute tag for the secret Santa exchange she did with her choir.


She stamped him onto a Reverse Confetti tag
and coloured him in with my Zigs and a water brush.
Then, we rolled up a $5 bill and tied it with twine and adhered to the card,
so it looks like the bear was holding it.
Apparently, everyone could tell it was Sage's gift. ;)

Okay, that's it for us for today.
Don't forget to hop over to Heidi's blog to see what
she created for this Ink It Up.

Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Essentials By Ellen December Pin-Sights Challenge

Today I have a card to share for this month's


I love all of the beautiful red!
Here's my card:


I started by stamping the images from my Essentials by Ellen Mondo Peony stamp set
Strathmore watercolour paper and heat embossing it in clear.
I coloured them in using my Zig Clean Colour Brush Markers and a Ranger Tim Holtz Water Brush.


I stamped my sentiment (from Simon Says Stamps' Big Scripty Sentiments)
in Altenew Jet Black Ink, which is just as fabulous as all of the other Altenew inks.
I didn't order it originally, because I love my Versafine onyx black ink,
but finally decided to try it -- and am kicking myself for not getting it sooner.
I will use this ink all of the time now, and save my Versafine onyx black ink for embossing.

Thanks for looking!
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Monday, December 26, 2016

Papertrey Ink December Blog Hop

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
Unfortunately, I caught Sage's cold and I felt worse and worse
as the day progressed. 
I'm glad we didn't have people over or plans to go somewhere... ;)

I did feel well enough to spend time in my craft area, making
a card for today's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.

Our challenge was to use this beautiful photo as inspiration:


Isn't it pretty?
I love the fun colours!
The group of colourful trees on the plate
 inspired me to use my Winter Village set to make my card.


I stamped my scene using colours from the inspiration photo.



I added some bakers twine that came in one of the MIM mini-kits
and stamped my sentiment using PTI's Pedal Pusher.

Thanks for looking!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas!

I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas Day!

We attended the Christmas Eve service at our church last night
-- it made me so happy that everyone dressed up for the event!


It's tradition to take a photo of our family in front of the tree
at church on the 24th.
(By the way, I can't believe I'm almost the shortest person in my family!)

And it's also tradition for the kids to pose in front of our tree
on Christmas morning before opening their gifts...


They were all very happy with what they received, which made me very happy
this Christmas morning. :)

I had a couple of extra gifts to open under my tree this morning, too...
I had won a gift certificate to MFT stamps this summer for Camp Create
and decided to order some goodies. 
When they came, I thought it would be fun to wrap them up, with a tag
that said: "To Leigh, from MFT Stamps."
To make the tag, I used this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch 312:


Here's my tag (sorry it's a little blurry! 
I was going to retake the photo, but I think it got thrown out with all of the wrapping paper.)


I stamped the BG Scattered Surface in Altenew Morning Frost on PTI Soft stone cardstock.
I stamped my Snowflake Flurries stamp in Altnew Crimson onto its coordinating diecut.
I heat embossed the sentiment (from PTI's Holiday Folk) in white on a strip of red cardstock.

And here's what was inside my package:


I actually let Sage open it -- and was delighted with her excitement
over what I'd picked!

I had also won a gift certificate from Altenew for their video contest,
so I did the same thing with this parcel I received in the mail.
I decided to use CAS(E) This Sketch #202 to make it:



as well as Altenew's A Year in Review Inspiration Challenge:


I was inspired to use the pretty pinks and greys from the August Challenge.
Here's the tag:


I stamped the sentiment (from MFT's Hand-Lettered Holiday)
and the flowers and leaves from Altenew's Bamboo Roses in Altenew Jet Black ink.
(I just got this ink and I love it!)
I painted in the flowers and leaves using PTI ink that I pressed onto my acrylic block, water
and a paintbrush.

Here's what I got with my gift certificate:
  

I'm looking forward to playing with my new goodies!

How about you?
Did you get any stamps for Christmas?

Thanks for looking!
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Saturday, December 24, 2016

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to share the photo Christmas card 
that I sent out this year.


I feel a little badly.... in the past few years, I've made up cards
with my photos with cardstock, stamping, diecutting, etc.
But this year, with working full time, I just knew they wouldn't happen that way again.
Because of this, I almost didn't sent out photo cards... but I've done it every year
since Austin was a baby and didn't want to break my streak. ;)
So, I created my own card using Picasa and had them printed as 4x6.
For friends and family nearby, I gave them out as is.
For friends and family further away, I printed up some highlights of the year on
cardstock and adhered them to the back of the cards.

Would you like to know the highlights?
Here's what a wrote:

"Highlights for the Penner family this year include:
Lots of performances (Provincial Honour Choir in Winnipeg for Austin, 
Brandon Jazz Festival for Austin & Jonah, 
Festival of the Arts for Sage, Jonah & Leigh, 
parts in their school plays for Austin & Jonah, 
singing at church, recitals and the Tabor Home for Sage, 
Central Manitoba Youth Choir for Austin, 
Grade 9 Jazz & Concert Band for Jonah, 
Grade 7/8 Jazz choir for Sage),
Cameron and Leigh celebrated their 20th anniversary in April,
Leigh got her 3rd degree Black Belt in May,
Leigh, Austin, Jonah & Sage drove to Denver in June to visit family & 
go to Denver Comic Con (where they met Stan Lee!), 
Leigh’s family came to visit in June for her mom’s 80th birthday, 
Austin got a job at Coop & 
Leigh got her dream job of being a design consultant at Two30Nine by Decor, 
Austin started Grade 12, Jonah started Grade 9 & Sage started Grade 7."

2016 was a good year. :)

I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas!
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit my blog --
I really appreciate it -- and your Christmas greetings, too!

A big storm is coming tomorrow, so our plans to travel to my mom's have changed.
We will stay stay safe and warm at home.
A quiet, relaxing Christmas... I guess we'll see what that's like. ;)

Thanks for looking!

Friday, December 23, 2016

Butterfly Reflections Ink December Mood Board & Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge #4

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve Eve!
Only two more sleeps until Christmas...

Today, I have a card to share for
 Butterfly Reflections Ink December Mood Board


Isn't it gorgeous?
My card is also for Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge #4: Winter:



I decided to use both of my Concord & 9th stamp sets:  Flourish & Barnwood Background.


I started with a piece of vintage cream cardstock, on which I stamped my Barnwood
Background stamp, in Altenew's Morning Frost.
I stamped my flowers, berries and leaves using the Flourish stamp set
and Altenew's velvet, grapevine, evergreen inks and Papertrey Ink's Scarlet Jewel 
and Simply Chartreuse.


I stamped my sentiment (from MFT's Hand-Lettered Holiday)
in Altenew Jet Black ink.

Thanks for looking!