Wednesday, December 31, 2014

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

Join me on the 30th December

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.


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!


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


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.


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!


Monday, December 29, 2014

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.

Join me on Christmas Eve

I thought I'd join in this year.

Here's my picks.



I enjoyed playing with watercolor techniques this year.





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





Branching out from CAS





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





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!














Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Love




Wishing you
Peace, Love and Joy



Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

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:

see the snowman with the Christmas tree lights?

and
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!
    **********

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted





Monday, December 22, 2014

Take Care with Love

Just popping in with a quick post to join in at
 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

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!
    **********

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.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

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!

ANYTHING GOES

WINTER INSPIRATION

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!
    **********
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


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

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.

ANYTHING GOES

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

Enjoy!
    **********
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.



Monday, December 15, 2014

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 
(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

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

Enjoy!
    **********
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


Saturday, December 13, 2014

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.


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!
    **********

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


Monday, December 8, 2014

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!



is having a CAS week.
Addicted to Stamps and More!
This is my second entry for this challenge.



The lovely and talented, Kylie is holding a

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

Customised Watermarks just for you

This is such a generous prize.


I love my watermark!


Is this fancy enough?





Where all you need is to use a snippet on your project.
My white design piece was a snippet.




Christmas/Holidays
Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog


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


Enjoy!

    **********
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

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

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.

Blue, Blue, Blue Christmas
AAA Cards

is having a 
CAS week
Addicted to Stamps and More!


cuz I used some snippets on this.
Pixies Crafty Workshop


Holiday Cards
Simon Monday Challenge Blog


Christmas/Holidays
Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog

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