2022 Wrap-Up: The Stories Behind 5 Favorites from 2022

Today is the last day of 2022 – can you believe it’s been an entire year since we last celebrated the last day of the year!? 2022 has been quite a year for so many reasons. I hope the year has treated you well, and I wish you loads of happiness and health in the coming year.

Every project I make has a story that goes with it. Whether that story is about how (or why) I designed the project or about what was going on in my life at the time, each project has a history. I love that I have created so much this year (and I love to share my projects with you). It’s also fun to review those projects like a little scrapbook of my year. I have my favorite projects, but I could never name one of them my favorite (because I don’t want to offend the ones that didn’t make the list). For today’s post, I’ve combed through my posts from last year to find five of the projects that are dearest to my heart.

You can click on any of these pictures to see the original post for each:

1 – Hello

I love when a mix of papers and stamps comes together in a perfect way. I don’t often work with flowers, but I was so happy with the simple arrangement I made with the Daffodil Daydream stamp set and coordinating dies. A quick coloring of these flowers and leaves and the addition of the butterflies made me feel like an artist. It’s the mix of patterns (with this gorgeous paper from the Sale-a-Bration offering) and the layering behind that pulls it all together for me, though. The Daffodil Afternoon Designer Series Paper was filled with dark, rich patterns – these are two of the softest, most graphic designs. I’m a big believer in framing panels and working with a smaller canvas. I remember playing with the colors and layers behind my flowers – and each layer made me happier than the next.

2 – So Happy for You

I remember this card because I “tossed and turned” about it for more than a week as the “Fancy Fold” blog hop approached. I have a lot of go-to techniques that I love to play with (like the ink pad dragging technique I used on this project to add a deeper color to the flowers and leaves), but fancy folds are not in my wheelhouse. This card makes me so happy because I stretched a bit to design a fancy fold card. I used some retired cardstock to build my all-pink prototype. Based on that prototype, I wasn’t sure I’d be happy with the finished product, but it came together better than I could have ever expected.

This card also takes me back to when the 2022-2024 In Colors were still brand new. Sweet Sorbet, Tahitian Tide and Parakeet Party are showcased here.

3 – Beauty in Everything

I love that Stampin’ Up! has introduced so many stand-alone dies in the past two years, and I was excited to play with the Rugged Dies, new in Stampin’ Up!’s 2022 Annual Catalog. I couldn’t image a little die-cutting (and a lot of patience) could create this card:

Purple isn’t my go-to color, but it was my friend as I made this card. I remember my long search for a sentiment for this card and how excited I was when I found this sentiment from the Simply Fabulous stamp set. What a pair!

4 – Your Happy Place

The Tree Lot Dies were VERY popular in Stampin’ Up!’s July-August 2022 Sale-a-Bration – and it’s easy to see why. I built this little camper with the dies (and a Naturals mix of cardstocks) but wasn’t sure what to do with it. It sat on the edge of my table for a while before I built the vacation getaway behind it with the Majestic Mountain Dies, Deckled Rectangles and trees from the Tree Lot Dies. Can’t you feel the mountain air?

I was so excited to share this mix of the scene I’d built with the camper, mountains and trees, but I needed the perfect sentiment to go with it. Lucky for me, the This Birthday Piggy stamp set arrived that week with a perfect saying in it.

5 – Thank You

My fifth choice for this 2022 look back drives home my earlier point that I like simple panels in beautiful frames. While it’s not showcased in the other four selections, you also know how much I love to color and/or stamp on Designer Series Papers. This card let me do what I love most. I cut this Perfectly Penciled in three panels, colored the backgrounds with Stampin’ Blends and then glued them back together. It’s such a simple technique, but I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

I wasn’t confident about the mix of Poppy Parade, Balmy Blue and Pale Papaya, but I knew I wanted to move from bright to soft. I couldn’t have been happier with this mix on the finished card.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back. I shared a similar post about my five favorite Christmas projects – if you enjoyed the stories behind these card, perhaps you’d like to read those, too? You can see them here.

All the best as we ring in 2023 tonight – I hope your celebration is amazing. I look forward to ringing in the new year and creating new projects to share over the next twelve months. ♥

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian

It’s not too late to sign up for my Product Shares!

Last week I shared my product shares from Stampin’ Up!’s upcoming Mini Catalog – and I hope you’ll take a look and sign up. Not only am I sharing shares for papers, ribbons and embellishments from the January-April 2023 Mini Catalog, but I’m also offering Designer Series Paper Swatch Books from the January-April 2023 Mini Catalog and from the January-February 2023 Sale-a-Bration Brochure.

Here’s a look at my Designer Series Paper Swatch Books:

I hope you’ll click on the image above to read more and sign up for my shares.

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