Each year I enjoy taking a walk down memory lane and picking my Top 10 Favorite Non-Holiday cards of the year (you can see my 2022 Picks Here & my Top Five Holiday cards here).
Here are the cards I've chosen this year in to no particular order.
1. This Mother's Day Daisy Card was for a Lawn Fawn Marbled Paper Challenge. I love that all of the elements except the white outline of the daisy were made with my Gel Press ... it's always so fun to be able to create my own papers. I also love how the background die cut texture and all of the white spatter helped pull the design together.
2. This card was for "the letter B" Challenge at Shopping Our Stash. I love it for several reasons ... it uses Ellen Hutson products (Ellen retirement of her store and stamps were one of the saddest things for me in 2023, but I also look back with great fondness on getting to enjoy drinks and laughter with her at Junkiefest, as well as how much I enjoyed designer with her programs) and that this card was one of the stars of my first (and likely only) card display at an art gallery for Valentine's Day. It was such a great honor and so fun to have so many friends come and enjoy my exhibit. Also, it's been another great year designing for Shopping Our Stash.
3. Another Shopping Our Stash / Ellen Hutson combo also made the list. This one was to make a card inspired by Pajamas ... and it turns out, also inspired by one of my favorite foods. I love the allover layered stamping that gives it the feeling of a childhood book illustration together with the punny sentiment.
4. This was my first year doing the month-long Index Card a Day (ICAD) Challenge. Lauren does it every year, so this year I thought I would join the fun. This one was for the X is for Xylophone Challenge and I was quite thrilled how it turned out like the Xylophone toy of my youth as well as the fun stamping with individual alphabet stamps. I absolutely loved playing that thing and ended-up playing a real one in Junior High Marchin Band (theme from Ice Castles anyone?).
5. I always love the artsy fun of building a collage, especially when I can incorporate lots of things that remind me of the recipient. This one was also for one of my favorite challenges, the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers S is for Steampunk Challenge. The gears were die cut from a rejected gelliprint, which helped me justify saving all of the "rejects" and the vintage Boy Scout book elements made me smile.
6. One of the highlights of 2023 was the opportunity to Guest Design for #staycraftychallenge with Hero Arts. I had a lot of fun using die cuts & stamping to create this fun little village. When I can find ways to stretch my stamps (in this case turning a flower into a shining sun) that always makes me happy. I do miss all of my faraway friends & family.
7. In 2023, I also had a ton of fun being the Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday. This card was for the Fall Colors Challenge. I die cut a large pile of leaves from my fall colored gelli prints and ended-up making quite a few of these clean & simple designs ... I just love when the perfection of CAS sings combined with the dimension of the gathered branches. That kraft cardstock is a favorite, and I also love the tiny twine bow.
8. This fun and snarky Miss Dee card reminds me of my wonderful trip to Alabama to finally meet my pen pal Beverly. We had a fabulous time floating in her pool, creating fun inky backgrounds, coloring stamped images and even a little shopping (with a stop at my favorite Sonic). I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people through this hobby of mine. Also, how can you not love Miss Dee.
9. I had fun making gift sets this year with this masculine abstract collage set that combined stamping, stencils and die cuts on my favorites list.
10. My final card to round out the top 10 was a Color Hue Challenge Red & Gold. I loved the effect of the tone-on-tone stamping in reds topped by glimmering gold including my favorite glimmer dots.
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