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:

Lawn Fawn

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Reverse Confetti

Taylored Expressions

Paper Smooches

Neat & Tangled

Technique Tuesday

Clear & Simple Stamps

Richard Garay

My Sweet Petunia

JustNick

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store

Sunny Studio Stamps

Inchie Arts llc

Scrapbook Update

Buttons Galore

 Latisha Yoast

Julia Stainton

ChariMoss

Cristina Nunez

Wanda Guess

Vera Yates

Amy Tsuruta

Mary-Ann Maldonado

Lori Craig

Lydia Fiedler

Jenn Shurkus

Lisa Henke

Dina Kowal

Libby Hickson

Emily Leiphart

Cindy Lawrence

Kelly Klapstein

Erica Houtghton

Elise Constable

Julee Tillman

Lee Murphy

Lisa Arana

Giovana Smith

Karen Baker

Lindsay Amrhein

Dana Joy

Marcie Sharp

Megan Hoeppner

Alicia Thelin

Asia King

Debbie Seyer

Yvonne Van De Grijp

Tenia Nelson

Michelle Woerner

Christina Griffiths

Lori McAree

Barbara Anders

Jill Hawkins

Veronica Zalis

Leigh Penner (me!)

Margie Higuchi

Amy Coose

Melody Rupple

Karen Letchworth

Heidi Ramsey Blankenship

Jennie Harper

Jodi Collins

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Gracie Chavez

Stephanie Klauck

Savannah O’Gwynn

Terre Fry

Neva Cole

Maria Levine

Misti Oblander

Ceal Pritchett

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!

In it, I got my third degree black belt

and my dream job at Two30Nine as a design consultant.

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.)

Created two days shy of a year ago for a Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink.

Created for the February Sketch for You to Try at Reverse Confetti.

Created in May for the Card Concept.

Created for the Muse Card Club Challenge.

Created for the May Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.

Created for the Altnew August Inspiration Challenge.

Created for an Inspired by All the Little Things Challenge in November.

Created for the November Butterfly Reflections Ink Mood Board 

& for a Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge.

Created for the Papertrey Ink Star Search Video Contest.

Created for a Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge in December.

Thanks for looking!

Little Tangles Challenge #75: Silver & Gold

Today, I have a card to share for 

Little Tangles Challenge #75: Silver & Gold:

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!

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 

Beary Merry stamp set from Neat and Tangled.

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!

Essentials By Ellen December Pin-Sights Challenge

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

Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights Challenge:

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

onto their coordinating diecuts in Versafine Onyx Black ink onto 

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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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!

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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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 20^th anniversary in April,

Leigh got her 3^rd 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 80^th 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!