Top 10 favourite cards from 2018

Hello everyone,

I do hope that you have had a lovely Christmas if you celebrate it, or at least had some time off with family and friends over the holiday period. Last Christmas for us was very chaotic as my husband had just had the second of two hip replacement operations and we had celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, Alice, just a few weeks before. This year has been a good year for us with my husband making a great recovery and we have been lucky enough to spend lots of time getting to know Alice who has brought lots of sunshine into our lives.

The period after Christmas always sees me looking back at my year, and here on the blog, I like to look over the cards I made and pick out my favourites.

The first post looks at my Top Ten picks of general cards in no particular order:-

I loved the colours in this card that I made with the Bloom stamp and dies from Neat and Tangled. I really like how the flowers frame the sentiment, and I always like to have a few thank you cards ready in my stash.

You can see the original post on how I made this card here.

I love to see kraft cards in blogland but I don't make many of them myself. I  made this one for a wedding and I really like the dusky pink of the autumn rose ink alongside the cream and kraft colours. Paper piecing the heart shape was a labour of love but I like the finished effect.

You can find the original post here.

I'm very partial to Penny Black critter stamps and this little hedgie from the Hugs stamp set is so cute. I masked over him to add the grass and the sentiment is from a favourite Paper Smooches set.

You can see the original post here.

I don't make many cards that are suitable for men but I really enjoyed putting this CAS card together. You actually build the burger with whatever layers you choose from the Papertrey Ink King of the Grill stamp set and I embossed the top part of the bun with clear e/p to make it look like a glazed bun. 

You can find the original post here.

I didn't use my Silhouette Cameo much this year but my neglected friend didn't hold a grudge and came to my rescue when I wanted to make a wedding card for an art deco themed wedding we attended. I created the background fan on the Cameo and the stamps came from a variety of Papertrey Ink stamps.

The original post can be found here.

I'm still in the very early stages of learning how to use watercolours, but I was really pleased with how this one turned out. It's the first time I've managed to add a reasonable background colour and I cheated by sponging the blue ink on before colouring the pretty Penny Black flowers with Zig watercolour pens. I need lots more practice before I could achieve a similar effect with watercolour.

The original post can be found here.

I received the Lawn Fawn pop up box dies for Christmas last year but I didn't get round to using it until November! Truth be told, I was a bit daunted by it but I actually had a ball putting everything together and adding bits and pieces from lots of stamp sets to finish it off.

You can find the original post here.

I had the Seaside Gulls stamp set from My Favorite things in my stash for far too long before I inked it up and made this CAS card. I've used an inked cloudy background many times this year and I masked off a circle for this one. That sentiment just makes me smile!!!

You can find the post for this card here.

Balloons and stars in bright colours make me happy and I made this card for the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge 6th Birthday celebrations. The balloons weren't stamped though - they were sponged through a Neat and Tangled balloon stencil. After putting the completed panel onto the base card, I thought it was too plain, so I added wonky layers behind it to finish it off.

You can find the original post here.



My eldest son experienced his first Father's Day this year, but as little Alice was not yet up to getting him a card, I created this one for her to give to him. I used the cute Clearly Besotted Love You Tons stamp set and experimented with making thin frames from my nested rectangle dies.

You can find the original post here.

Well, that's my little roundup, and I'll be back soon with a selection of my favourite Christmas cards.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Carol x