My Best Of 2012

Hello, Blogland, and welcome to my Best of 2012 post. This is the first year I've decided to compile my favorite projects into one post. I've seen them from others and decided to take the plunge myself. These are not spaced one per month or anything quite so organized (though they are in order as to when they appeared chronologically). I just looked over the past year's (blogged) cards and pulled photos of my favorites. To be honest, many of them are from the latter half of the year (or at least that's when they showed up here) so they may look mighty familiar. Shall we get started? Great!

#1 My Home Card: I made this card to play along with a Make It Monday last January. I still love this card and have done a couple variations on the theme since then. Plus, this one has some stitching, which I really enjoy doing. I can't machine sew worth a darn, but I'm pretty decent with a needle and thread otherwise.



#2 Baby Bear Card: This one was part of a handful of cards I made for my mother-in-law. I love the coloring on the bear and the stamped pattern. And this card also shows my favorite ribbon/string treatment. Packs a visual punch and it's easy to mail.

#3 Wedding Cake Card: I cannot tell you how many techniques I tried in order to get a wrought iron patterned wedding cake. I don't even want to think about it to be honest. Several hours and a little cursing later, this card was born. It was worth it though. I still love this card.

#4 Fenced Garden Card: I had this idea from the moment I designed the stamp set and I was so pleased at how this card turned out. Fun fact: this is, by distance, my most-pinned card.

#5 Wishing You Well Card: The mug from Candy Cane Christmas may be one of my most favorite stamps ever. It's so useful for so many applications. This card also has one of my favorite stamped patterns on it too (which is sort of amazing because I am no friend of the color purple - notice how little purple is on this list).

#6 Christmas Pillow Box: This pillow box turned out exactly as I wanted it to when I started working on it. That alone would make it a favorite, but when you add in the sweet little bow with the button/metallic thread center and the medallion background...love.

#7 Gingerbread Gift Bag: I was so tickled with this gift bag from the moment I made it. I love the slight twist on the traditional Christmas colors, the layers of pattern and texture, and the sweet little gingerbread people (how could I not?).

#8 Christmas Bird Card: This bird was the first thing I colored (successfully) with Copic markers. I love the patterns, the layout that I seriously drew, like, three years ago and hadn't used yet, and the shimmery quality lent by the glitter pen. And look! There's that ribbon treatment again.

#9 Happy Holiday Tree Card: This card made me giggle and skip down the stairs to show Sean immediately. The adult equivalent of "Look what I can do! Look what I can do!" This card just makes me happy.

#10 Nerd Love Card: I believe the sentiment says it all. Plus, I used a stamp set that I designed. How cool is that?!

#11 Friend Bouquet Card: Same stamp set as the last card, but a completely different look. I really like this one (even if it was a pain in the tuchus to cut out those flowers). The threaded stems might be my favorite part.

#12 Bright Lights Card: The thing I love most about this card is a little hard to show on the interwebs. That being, the bulbs were all heat embossed with clear powder so they're all shiny. I also love the colors. They're all bright and cheerful and just right.

Well, that's all for me today. I now notice that there's a lot of Christmas on that list. What can I say, when you start thinking about Christmas in June these things tend to happen. I hope you've enjoyed my little compilation. Click on any of the titles for the original posts (and recipes). Pretty much everything is from Papertrey Ink though (in case that saves you some time). Take care and I'll see you in 2013!