Exciting News

I am so excited to announce that I am now part of the

Addicted to CAS Design Team!

What a wonderfully talented team this is 

and I'm so blessed to be a part of it.

Our next challenge will start on January 17th.

I hope you'll join us.

Enjoy!

My Five Favorites from 2014

I shared my 5 favorite Christmas cards of 2014 a few days ago.

Now it's time to share my 5 favorite non-Christmas cards.

Join in the fun at Debby's blog

A Scrapjourney.

May 20th

This is my favorite because the dove was cut from a piece of watercolor that my 3 yr. old grandson, Jack had painted. I loved the saturated colors and how the different colors defined the bird.

March 30

I did different variations of these chicks for a couple of classes.  

They were a BIG hit with the ladies. I doubt I'll be able to top them!

May 22

I love combining stamps and watercoloring.  

I've done several variations of these Stippled Blossoms and love them all.

July 28

I did this card for my friend LeAnne's birthday.  I knew she loved Baltimore Orioles.

I learned that I love the Blendabilities and Copic markers.

August 20

Another card using the alcohol markers. I tried blending different color families.

I used a lot of masking for this card and love the garden look.

{If you click on the dates, you can see the actual post.}

It's been a good year.

I'm thankful that I have been able to do so much crafting.

I'm thankful for all the crafty friends that I have been able to

share with and be inspired by, both in person and on the web.

Here's lookin' forward to another great, crafty year!

Happy New Year

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

Five Favorite Christmas Cards of 2014

Merry Monday is on vacation again this week.

We'll be back next Monday, January 5, with a new challenge.

Debby, at A Scrapjourney has challenged us

to list our 5 favorite Christmas cards of 2014.

I thought I'd join in this year.

Here's my picks.

Joyful Christmas

I enjoyed playing with watercolor techniques this year.

Jingle Bells

This is the card I sent to my Dad this year.

Ornamental Pine with Beauty of the Season

Branching out from CAS

Beauty of the Season

More watercolor! This time I used masking to mimic snowfall.

Going Rustic with Ornamental Pine

I finally did a distressed card that I liked!

I hope you enjoy taking a peek at these again.

It was fun looking back.

Thanks for all your visits and comments over the past year.

Enjoy!

Christmas Love

Wishing you

Peace, Love and Joy

Enjoy!

Frosty Friends and Family for ATCAS

I've been trying to get a card done for Addicted to CAS for nearly 2 weeks.

Time's almost up and I'm sliding in under the wire.

Here's the challenge

Edited to add:

CASology week 127

see the snowman with the Christmas tree lights?

and

TIME OUT Challenge #127

Christmas is Love with all the Trimmings

Thanks Sandie for the suggestion.

The stamp is called Frosty Friends.

Friends can be family 

and family can be friends.

Hopefully!

You, dear readers, have become my friends

and my crafty family.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Sending Christmas hugs.

Enjoy!

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All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Take Care with Love

Just popping in with a quick post to join in at

Addicted to Stamps and More

 ANYTHING GOES

with an optional twist of love

to celebrate DT member, Marina's upcoming wedding.

I like to do calendars for some special people

and DH likes that I keep one on my desk.

This was February's picture from last year.

Since this is a snippet from last year's calendar, I'm going to go play at

Pixies Snippet Playground

I hope you are enjoying holiday festivities.

We had our annual "Cookie Day" yesterday.

It's a day for all three of our daughters and our grandchildren

to spend the day with a sugar rush and,

as our oldest daughter says,

"making cousin memories".

This year the 2 youngest, Jack and Emmy,

were interested in doing some crafts.

We had so much fun!

I wish I had gotten some photos, but when the kids are here,

the camera is hidden.

I did get a photo of some of the ornaments they made.

Needless to say, I will be finding glitter well into the new year!

I may change my name to Sparkle!

The older boys found Pop's record player and old records.

I'm talking vinyl here.

They also discovered the speed button and thought it was great fun

to play the 33 1/3 speed records at 45 and 78.

It kept them entertained for hours!

Who needs new toys?

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

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All supplies are Stampin' Up!  Most are retired and I did this so long ago, I'm not even going to try to guess all the supplies.  If  there's something you really want to know, email me.

A Little White Christmas

Here's a bit of inspiration for the last Merry Monday of 2014.

There's still time to join in with a Winter Scene.

Here's a super CAS card with a bit of a winter scene.

Love this layout and it came from a botched job of stamping.

I cut off the bad part and used this tiny bit.

If you need more inspiration, be sure to check out the fantastic cards

my Design Teamies have done and the fantastic gallery!

We had snow flurries yesterday morning.

I love the snow!  Of course that's easy to say in NC

when the snow melts on contact!

Simon Says Monday Challenge

ANYTHING GOES

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

WINTER INSPIRATION

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  White Christmas

Ink: Basic Gray, Marina Mist, SU Marker (Real Red)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Whisper White, Marina Mist

Other: Kars Snowflake EF (Cuttlebug retired), White Gel Pen

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Happy Hanukkah

I missed posting this for the first day of Hanukkah.

Hopefully it's better late than never.

Here's three to make up for the lateness.

Happy Hanukkah for all my Jewish friends

and my dear sister-in-law.

Simon Says Monday Challenge

ANYTHING GOES

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

WINTER INSPIRATION

I used the first inspiration photo using blue, gray/silver and snow.

Enjoy!

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If you have a question about any of the product, leave a comment and a link to answer of email me at

bonklass(at)gmail(dot)com.

Beauty of the Season

Good Morning.

It's our last Merry Monday challenge of 2014.

The lovely and talented Karren is our hostess this week.

And this is what she chose.

I recently took a short watercolor class at our local senior center.

We used masking fluid which is something that had been sitting on my shelf 

as a NBUS for at least 2 years.

So I set out to try it on a card.

I definitely need some more practice with that stuff.

The first few attempts ended up with masking everywhere

 but on the watercolor paper.

I've since learned to use a box to do my splattering.

After stamping and coloring the stamped image from

Beauty of the season with my Koi watercolors,

I did a watercolor wash using

Soft Sky, Marina Mist and Blushing Bride re-inkers and my Aqua Painter.

Can you tell that my first attempt at stamping the sentiment went wrong?

I did some damage control using a snippet of watercolor paper

and colored it to match the background.

So I'm taking this over to 

Pixie's Snippet Playground

(This snippet actually came out of the trash basket!)

I used Kylie's sketch

from Happy Little Stampers for my layout.

Even if you've sent all your Christmas cards, I hope you'll

create a winter scene on a Christmas card and join us at

Merry Monday.

I'm so glad you could stop by during this busy time.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Beauty of the Season, Winter Memories (retired)

Ink: Black Archival, SU Markers (Basic Black, Real Red) 

Paper:  Watercolor (Strathmore), Solar White (Neena)

Other:  Masking Fluid, Koi Watercolors, Re-inkers (Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Blushing Bride), Aqua Painter

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Noel

It's been such a busy week here.

I'm sure it's been busy at your house too.

Tis the Season!

Addicted to Stamps has a photo inspiration this week.

I've taken the circle shape of the wreath

and the colors of green and red 

as my inspiration.

Cuttlebug Mania

is looking for Anything Christmas using a manual embosser or die cutter.

I've embossed and die cut with my Big Shot

Thanks for stopping by during this busy time.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Xmas (Cloud 9)

Ink: Garden Green, SU Marker (Real Red)

Paper:  Garden Green, Whisper White

Other:  Powdered Sugar EF (Sizzix), Woodgrain EF, Circles Collection Framelits, Stitched Circles (Lil' Inker), Real Red Taffeta Ribbon

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Joyful Christmas Wishes for Merry Monday

Christmas is almost here.

Are your Christmas cards already in the mail?

Mine aren't.

I think it takes longer to sign and address them than it does to make them.

Thanks to Merry Monday

I have plenty of Christmas cards to pick from.

Debbie chose a very elegant challenge for us this week.

I first made this card for this challenge.

I congratulated myself on a job well done.

(Love all the sparkle on that card.)

Then I noticed that I needed to add a 4th color.

I tried, but couldn't find anything that worked on that card.

So I grabbed a piece left over from my last class

and silver embossed this gorgeous poinsettia.

Since poinsettias are traditionally red, not silver, I used a red mat for my 4th color.

Gold flat back beads fill in the center.

I can't wait to see what elegance you put on your

Merry Monday cards this week.

I've seen the Design Team samples.

Be prepared to be wowed with their inspiration!

Addicted to Stamps

is having a CAS week.

This is my second entry for this challenge.

The lovely and talented, Kylie is holding a

Christmas Card Challenge

with a prize of a watermark and signature made especially for the winner.

This is such a generous prize.

I love my watermark!

The Paper Players

Is this fancy enough?

Pixie's Snippet Playground

Where all you need is to use a snippet on your project.

My white design piece was a snippet.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

Christmas/Holidays

Thanks for stopping by, and a special thanks for leaving comments.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Joyful Christmas

Ink:  Encore Silver

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Other:  Silver Embossing Powder, Stitched Mats Rectangles (Lil' Inker), Gold Beads (stash)

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Serene Lovely Tree

I was undecided whether to put this card on my blog.

But, here goes!

I stamped the tree a couple of times with Whisper White craft ink

and embossed with white embossing powder.

Then I sponged the background.

I've been practicing with my sponging and have had 

a lot of help and encouragement from a dear friend.  

Thanks, Loll!

I love this layout.  You'll be seeing it again.

I stamped some snowflakes with Encore Silver 

and embossed with silver.

I wish I'd left them off.

AAA Cards

Blue, Blue, Blue Christmas

Addicted to Stamps

is having a 

CAS week

Pixie's Snippet Playground

cuz I used some snippets on this.

Simon Says Monday Challenge

Holiday Cards

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

Christmas/Holidays

So glad you stopped by.

Enjoy!

    **********

Recipe

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, To You and Yours (retired)

Ink:  Whisper White, Encore Silver, Marina Mist

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Whisper White, Not Quite Navy

Other:  Kars Snowfall EF (Cuttlebug retired), White EP, Silver EP

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted