We have reached the end of another year and it's time to do one of my favourite posts - top picks! It is refreshing to sit down and look back upon my blog over the year and even through my previous top picks posts from years past. This year has been especially long and crafting throughout it definitely helped keep my sanity! Here are some of my favourites projects from each month:

 Here are some tags I put together using some pieces I already had coloured up from the Lawn Fawn Yeti or Not set.

 Here are the Christmas cards I made for our family and friends this year. I was inspired this summer by Heather Nichols and her use of Taylored Expressions Toffee cardstock along with a strip of red Cherry Pop cardstock along the bottom. I used my sewing machine to stitch the panels together and stencilled on some Frosty Flakes using Ground Espresso ink and a stencil from The Greetery. My Mom took a festive photo of us on our porch when our son, Alex, arrived and it was the perfect touch to our cards this year. 

 It is a special little girl's 4th birthday this week and I couldn't wait to pull out my Lawn Fawn Build-A-Castle set to make something fun for her. I used the colours over at Lawn Fawnatics as inspiration to build my scene.

 This January I am excited to be teaching my first university course! It will be online given this unique time and is a course about how to teach reading in our local teacher education program. Since we cannot get together in person to explore our class material, I have been putting together a course kit for students. I wanted to create a welcome card for students to go along with their course kit. 

 I have been wanting to put together some thank you cards for the amazing doctors and medical professionals in my life. I found these awesome socks from Friday Sock Co. to go along with the cards.

 It was exciting to take out some Christmas décor today to stage photos of these cards! I got a fantastic idea from The Papercrafters Workshop Demo Days with Karen Day to use alphabet dies to create a shadow sentiment. I chose to use the word, "Noel," with this beautiful new Close To My Heart Jingle Joy paper. I was able to make 12 cards with this design - yay!

 It's the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and I have made a tea card to play along :). I do not drink coffee, but I love my tea...especially London Fogs! I set out to create a dark green teacup set amongst some shiplap and added in some fun new dies I just got from The Greetery. 

My son, Harvey, is 3 years old today! To celebrate his birthday this year we decided to have a s'more party with our close family. I loved the S'more The Merrier collaboration that was released this year by Lawn Fawn x Ellen Hutson and it was perfect to make up Harvey's invitation.

 Harvey's 3rd Birthday is on October 26 but I wanted to share what I have been working on these past few weeks for his party! Normally we would have family and friends coming over to celebrate, but this year we kept it to just a small family gathering given the times. We decided an outdoor s'more party would be appropriate. I setup this birthday table inside to take some pictures before the party started and will recreate it again outside. I found the perfect stamp set, S'more The Merrier, a collaboration between Lawn Fawn x Ellen Hutson, to tie in our forest friends theme. I used Lawn Fawn papers and dies along with my Tombow markers to create some fun cupcake toppers this year. Most of my supplies are from the amazing Canadian store, Papercrafter's Workshop!

 We have some very special birthdays coming up this next week including for our son, Harvey! When I first saw the Lift The Flap Tree Backdrop come out from Lawn Fawn I immediately started dreaming up Harvey's 3rd birthday card using the three trees.

 My Crackling Campfire distress oxide ink finally arrived along with the new Lawn Fawn Let It Shine papers! I knew I wanted to create a sunset scene with my Cloudy stencil and a few different inks. I am playing along with the "anything goes" Lawn Fawn challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and linking up with the current Lawn Fawnatics "awesome autumn" challenge for the fall colours that I used!

Today I finished putting together some cards for my cousins (and some for Lane & Meadow) to congratulate them on their new homes. I used the stitched square frames dies from Close To My Heart to set my scene and then used papers and cardstock from Lawn Fawn.

It's back-to-school in BC this week and I'm feeling for all of my teacher friends and colleagues during this uncertain time. Our nephew is starting kindergarten this fall so I wanted to make him a special card to go along with the book we got him - The Pigeon HAS to go to School by Mo Williams (read this book - it's hilarious!). 

 I was recently very inspired by Kelly Lunceford's post on The Greetery blog with these gorgeous sunflowers. I loved the idea of using yellow cardstock and adding detail with distress inks. 

 My talented Auntie Karen greatly inspired me recently to make this slimline card and create a tree canopy using the stitched cloud dies from Lawn Fawn. I used the Birch Trees dies on some woodgrain cardstock to make the trunks of my trees and stencilled in some clouds using Speckled Egg distress oxide ink. 

 Close To My Heart has launched a new core catalogue and fall mini-catalogue this month! Included are these beautiful sunflower papers that I just had to create with. I decided to make a card for a good friend of mine as she heads back into the school year. I am linking up with the "anything goes" challenge over at Heart2Heart.

I was asked to make a custom Paris-themed 40th anniversary card. The recipients were supposed to be celebrating their milestone anniversary this month in the City of Love, but of course like many things this year it was cancelled. This is a fully plantable card adhered together with a water-based adhesive from Studio Katia. I kept my colours mostly around the blue, white, and red of the France flag.

 One of my good friends wrote an amazing story called, Cornelius the Dragon. I really hope to see it published one day! In the months leading up to her daughter's birthday I couldn't wait to make a card inspired by her story with these Lawn Fawn sets. I was able to get most of the supplies for this card from The Papercrafter's Workshop and Cranbrook Photo - both Canadian shops, yay!

I diecut my Build-A-Castle out of Narwhal and Storm Cloud cardstock and used the Tim Holtz Bricked embossing folder to add some texture to the main parts of the castle. I chose some Woodgrain cardstock for my door and drawbridge and lightly inked all of this with Hickory Smoke distress oxide ink.  

My parents got the keys to their new home today in our city! We are so happy that they will be closer to us soon. To celebrate, I went into my craftroom this morning and put together this simple card.

I am SO excited to share my first slider card! It took some trial and error and more learning but it finally came together smoothly! We happen to have a couple of little guys in our lives with birthdays coming up in August who have firefighter daddies. When I saw this Village Heroes set from Lawn Fawn I knew it would be perfect and was so happy I could get it in Canada through Papercrafters Workshop. 

I wanted to create a simple birthday card with this beautiful lavender stamp from Old Island Stamps (made in BC!) that I got from my sister-in-law. I decided to use some a light grey cardstock, called Fog, from Lawn Fawn and stitched a panel of Lilac Close To My Heart cardstock for an accent.

I was asked to make a custom baby card for some Green Bay Packers fans. Luckily, this happens to be my husband's favourite team so I know a little bit about them! I used my Cricut to cut out a football and a piece of cheese and then had a random baby onesie die in my collection. I was able to cut out all of these from paper scraps in my collection.

I needed some retirement cards and had an idea in mind revamping a card design I used a couple years ago. I love this sweet little muskoka chair die from Taylored Expressions. This time, I decided to do the ink blending with my new Masking Stencils - Rectangles from Taylored Expressions. I used the smaller of the rectangle outlines and held it in place with the handy Pixie Spray. 

My sister-in-law requested a custom banner to celebrate her friend's 40th birthday this weekend. She asked for kraft pennants with wildflowers and dark letters so this is what I came up with.

A friend asked me to make a special birthday card she could send to her Mom who is far away. My guidelines were a bright, happy garden with yellows and reds.

It's July 1st which means we have a new catalogue live at Close To My Heart! These awesome plaids are part of one of the newest paper packs - perfect for masculine cards and maybe even to get a jump start on some Christmas cards! For now, I was inspired by my Auntie Karen and the masculine birthday cards she made up a little while ago that I wanted to make some using my own stash.

I needed to make up several thank you cards and thought I would try out the Alphabuds set from The Greetery. I decided to stamp the letters first to get them properly aligned and then diecut the letters out of some gold foil paper from Close To My Heart. It was so fun to build the flowers and vines around the letters afterward. I can't wait to play around some more with this set!

Here is a plantable wedding card that I made a few of for an order.

How do you make a card for someone who has lost their precious, beautiful, wanted and loved baby? Sadly, I guess I might have a better idea than many, but it still leaves me a bit breathless. I chose a daisy from The Greetery for this plantable sympathy card. In some cultures, the daisy flower is given to grieving parents. Daisies can symbolize innocence and purity. I purposely left this card blank and without sentiment so that the sender could add their own personal message. 

It was our nephew's 1st birthday last week and he had a (socially distant) farm-themed birthday party! I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of some cute Lawn Fawn farm animals but unfortunately they did not arrive in time. I was inspired by Tammy Stark's sweet barn using woodgrain paper over on the Lawn Fawn blog and decided to create my own using some of the colours from the birthday party. I decided to make a smaller version of the barn and use my new slimline die that I got from The Papercrafter's Workshop to make a slimline card for the first time! I paired this with some Gotta Have Gingham papers to complete the scene.

My package from Taylored Expressions arrived just in time the other day to make up some Father's Day cards. I just love all of the names that come in this Building Blocks - Him stamp and die set and think it will be great not only for this occasion, but for birthdays, too! The plaid stencils will be awesome for masculine cards - something I often struggle with! I was inspired by Taylor Van Bruggen's use of these products and set to work with some Chipped Sapphire + Pine Needles distress oxide inks and some Toffee, Earl Grey, and Blue Corn cardstock.

I was asked to make some plantable birthday cards and set to work with the Budding Beauties Spring blooms from The Greetery. I decided to try out some different colour combinations.

I finished another project to share for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop! This time I set out to create an iced tea card. I was inspired by Betsy Veldman's pink lemonade card that she made using the Just Mason Around set last year from The Greetery. 

It is the 2020 Spring & Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop today and I am SO excited to have a card ready to link up and some time to hop around. I decided to take out my Cozy Cup set from The Greetery to create some colourful mugs. 

One of my creative, card-making friends had a great idea this Mother's Day - let's make each other cards for our husbands to use! This was such a fun project to work on. Since we both love sunflowers I decided to take out my BotaniCuts Sunflower dies from The Greetery. Using tips from Betsy Veldman and Kay Miller, I diecut the pieces using watercolour paper and then painted them up with distress oxide inks.

I was very stoked to get a request to make a Canadian-made clothing company a batch of plantable thank you postcards to include in their spring orders.

I got a request to make a gender neutral plantable baby card. I immediately thought of this waterfront set, especially the lake and mountain stamps. I paired it with my favourite baby sentiment that I own.

My friend surprised me with these gorgeous tulips last week and I couldn't help but be inspired by their colouring. I pulled out my set from The Greetery that had tulips in it and set out to recreate this colour combination.

For my mother-in-law's birthday this year, I decided to create a set of cards for her with a wine theme. I wanted to keep the cards fairly simple and found some inspiration on Pinterest from Francine. I decided to use my MIL's favourite colours on each card - purple and green.

It's that time to start making Mother's Day cards, so I thought I would start with some plantable ones! I wanted to see what a group of daisies might look like on a single layer card, so I tried out two different colour combinations. I tried out black in the centre this time for something different!

I just can't get enough of that gingham this spring! Here is a spring card I put together using the cup of thanks from Studio Katia that I coloured up during our trip to Maui. I love this big 'happy' from Studio Katia and thought it paired well with this teacup bouquet.

This spring I decided to participate in the 1/Many Postcard event hosted by John Pedder. How it works is an artist releases a certain number of prints on a postcard size and will send them out worldwide for free in exchange for the recipient making a donation to a charity of their choice. This seemed like a great opportunity for me to focus on a project during this uncertain time, as well as take some time to work on my watercolour skills. I found an online course through Tombow (thanks, Auntie Karen!) that gave me some tips and techniques to enhance my blending. I chose to colour one of my favourite flower images, the Spring Bouquet from Studio Katia, because they are a Canadian company. I tried out a different colour combination on each card.

This Easter is going to be a different one, so I wanted to create some special cards to send "hugs" from a distance to family and friends.

When I saw this set to be released from Lawn Fawn earlier this year, I could immediately picture making the cutest bookmarks and tags for family and friends with it!

I had fun stamping out some daisies and eucalyptus sprigs from The Greetery the other day. I wanted to make up some special thank you cards for some family who really helped us out during our two-week self-isolation after we got back from our trip to Maui.

It is the one year anniversary of Lane & Meadow opening and I wanted to celebrate my sister-in-law's accomplishment with a card made especially with her in mind. I decided to use a sprig of eucalyptus from The Greetery to represent her 1 year. I made a matching envelope with a smaller sprig of eucalytpus, too.

I am so excited to finally put this card together! I am linking up with the Lawn Fawnatics birthday challenge. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge just so happens to be featuring Lawn Fawn products this week, too, with their theme of whatever the weather. I used some fun blue Gotta Have Gingham paper to convey a nice sunny day for this card!

I got a fun request to make up some "will you...be my bridesmaid" cards for someone I connected with through Instagram. She gave me a colour palette from Pinterest and asked that two be the same and one be a little more special to ask the maid of honour.

A friend requested a wordless black and white sympathy card from me. I was inspired a couple of weeks ago by Dawn McVey's clean and simple layout using Sketchbook Roses + Postal Frames dies from The Greetery and thought the layout would be perfect for this card.

All year through! Yes, I have started my stash for 2020 Christmas cards! I am making 8-10 of this design inspired by Amy Tsuruta's beautiful pink snowflakes

Valentine's Day can be sweet and plastic free! For a few family and friends I decided to make up some fun Valentine's themed tags and cards using the beautiful Oh My Heart papers from Close To My Heart.


I paired these tags and cards with some plastic free natural playdough from Little Larch and candy that I bought from Bulk Barn using my own glass mason jars from home.

This Eiffel tower die created a perfect silhouette for me to make a valentine for my husband.

Here is a clean and simple design that I made from the Love & Marriage set from Papertrey Ink.

These Sketchbook Roses from The Greetery are so beautiful and I thought they would look stunning simply embossed in white on black.

It is my birthday and I was able to find some time to finish putting together this gorgeous floral card featuring some new products from The Greetery!

I was checking out inspiration from The Greetery the other day and came across some gorgeous floral arrangements with the Fleur Impressions stamp set

I was inspired by the gorgeous Nordic frames done in blue

Sending out some koala love. I couldn't help but feel the urge to pull this sweet little koala out

These cute little yetis have been sitting on my desk all coloured up for awhile and I couldn't resist making some cards

We have been cloth diapering our son for just over two years now and I am so happy that we have made the decision to do cloth. We started when he was one month old and have done it exclusively because we were so happy with it. I started doing some research right before our son was born (there are lots of amazing blogs out there on cloth diapers!), and through trial and error and learning with other friends who cloth diaper, we learned some things that worked for us.

Why We Use Cloth Diapers

1. Safer and healthier for our child (no toxic chemicals, breathable fabrics = little to no rashes)
2. Better for the environment
3. Cheaper (Within 2 years of using new cloth diapers we are now saving money on diapers. All of our cloth diapers are still in excellent condition. If they are used for another child they are essentially 'free')
4. Easier clean-up (no looking for a trash can and cloth wipes clean up more mess than disposable wipes)
5. Cute

Lilly & Frank cloth diaper

Our Favourite Cloth Diaper Brands

AppleCheeks
Bummis
Funky Fluff
GroVia
Lilly & Frank
Omaiki

Our Favourite Places To Buy Cloth Diapers

BumbleTree
Calgary Cloth Diaper Depot
Lagoon Baby
Lilly & Frank

Our Laundry Routine

Every 2-3 days
Cold Rinse + Hot Heavy Wash + Cold Rinse
Tide Free & Gentle detergent
Hang covers + dry liners on low heat and then hang dry

Travelling with Cloth Diapers

I recently had the pleasure of writing a blog post for one of our favourite sustainable clothing brands, ROWE Kids, based out of Calgary, Alberta. In this blog post you can check out tips and tricks for traveling with cloth diapers and plastic-free snacks!

Is it possible to clean up your craftroom without playing with what you find? I don't think so...not for me anyways! I was in the mood to make a Valentines card with this gorgeous Rose Quartz paper I found and thought it coordinated beautifully with some Champagne foil paper. I blended a light hue of Spun Sugar distress oxide ink inside my card to add a sentiment. After some feedback both from my fall market and instagram, I am going to work on adding more sentiments to the inside of my cards!

I wanted to make up some winter birthday cards and knew I had the perfect winter birthday sentiment from an older set from Papertrey Ink. Thinking of a cozy image, I couldn't help but think to the cotton sprig set from The Greetery and how much I enjoy that image coming together.

Here is another item I got in my stocking this past Christmas! These intricate snowflake dies are a bit tricky but definitely have stunning results. I decided to make some white on white snowy thank you's to stock up some new cards at Lane & Meadow!

I finally got this beautiful set I have been eyeing up from The Greetery for awhile and it did not disappoint! I made a coordinating envelope, too. I cannot wait to create more with this cozy cup!