My top 10 of 2011 -- sort of.

Hello again, all!
Now that the new year is in full swing (or as full swing as it can be on day two!), I figured it was time to take a stroll through last year's projects and pick my favorites.

My original goal was to pick 10 cards and 10 layouts...but as I was scrolling through a year's worth of blog posts, I realized I made a boo boo -- I think I might have deleted a couple of older Picasa web albums...not a big deal, except a few month's worth of blog photos were in them. Oops!

So, I'll just go with ten total projects instead, with a big date gap in the middle. Without further ado, here we go!

From February:

A layout featuring my pal's sweet dog. Read more here.

Jump to June:

Baby predictions, the old-fashioned way. See original here.

 The first card I had published. Never gets old. Read more.

In July:

Simon is about 12x this size now. Still cute. See details here. 

From my Growing in Unity week. Original is here. 

in August:

More kitten, with banners this time. Close-ups here. 

My sweet man's birthday. One-layer happiness here.  

October:

Still love this mini. All the pages are here. 

Stepped into a new style and surprised myself. Spongeworthiness here. 

November:

Got a little lost in an 8-layout post, but man, I love this one. And yes, more kitten. See them all here. 

So, what can we conclude? I definitely like to scrap animal photos, especially of Simon. (Dex got attention too...I swear!) Also, scrappy projects just barely outnumber card projects, which I'm pretty sure reflects my creative output last year. I like patterns a lot, but no one color dominates. Nor does a single style, which either makes me versatile or mildly schizophrenic. I'd prefer versatile, though ;) And I definitely shouldn't delete web albums willy-nilly! 

I can also say with some confidence that my December album (aka the Big Fun Christmas Project) will be one of my favorites as well -- but as I finished it yesterday, it's technically a 2012 project. You'll see it soon...and again in the 2012 year in review!

Hope you're having a great day!

A first for me...

Hi there, y'all! How's your summer going? 

I must admit, mine got a little bit brighter when I saw this:

Not necessarily because I needed to be reminded of the truth of that sentiment, but because of where I saw it: the July/August issue of PaperCrafts:

And not necessarily because it's on an awesome card (though I do think it's a pretty good one), but because I MADE IT. AND IT'S IN A MAGAZINE! Back in January, one of my New Year's resolutions was to get one of my cards published. So I submitted to the then-current call for PaperCrafts -- the July/August call. Well...they picked up three of my projects!! THREE! Whoa. Might be the first time ever I could check off a resolution before the end of January :) You can see more information on the current issue here.

As much as I like to play with techniques and such when I stamp, I'm pretty sure that clean, graphic, simple design is what I'll always come back to. Hence, this card:

Sentiment: Unity; Paper: Basic Grey; Cardstock: Papertrey Ink

Really, really simple stuff -- a fun edge paired with the simplest stamping of all. A marker swipe to highlight, and I called it a day. You can see this project, as well as my other two (!), in this month's issue, which has lots and lots of other fun stuff in it, too -- not just my fun stuff ;)

Also, submitting cards has become a bit addictive...you'll be seeing more from me in upcoming months, so stay tuned!