Hello! Can you believe it’s December?! I still can’t get over how fast this year went. I love this time of year, I love making Christmas cards, decorating the house, and have a couple of days off from work! This month’s Top 5 is a little different (if you don’t remember why, check out my last post.) November’s Top 5 is my “Why didn’t I put these items on my Top 5?” list. There have been a couple of times where I catch myself using something and think “Why didn’t I? What was I thinking?” So here they are!

1. Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink

This has become my “go-to” ink. Not only do I love the quality of the ink but I love this size it comes in. I always get nice, crisp images when stamping and this is perfect for stamping sentiments. Below you can see my Halloween cards I made using this ink.

2. Paper Smooches Uplifters Stamp Set

I just love Paper Smooches and I especially love this set with all the different sentiments. These pair up nicely with all of Paper Smooches images and are funny/sweet and random. Of course my favorite is “You’re kick ass”, but you can see below the sentiment I went with for the card made in this post.

3. Studio Calico Mia Alpha Stamp Set

You know I love me an alpha stamp set and Studio Calico happens to have the best alphas. I like to use the Mia Alpha set on my calendar refill in my traveler’s notebook. I love the look of brush script or hand written fonts and I would rather use this than to use my own handwriting.

4. Judikins Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder

One of my most favorite techniques to use on cards is heat embossing. I’m real picky on choosing embossing powders, I like for my images to look crisp and clean and I know I will get that with Judikins Embossing Powder. Not only is it a good powder but the iridescent sparkle powder is so pretty. I try to use this as much as I can because I just love how it looks once it dries. I used this powder on one of my favorite cards I made this year, you can check that card out on this post.

5. Wendi Vecchi White Embossing Paste

Another favorite technique of mine is embossing with paste. This jar has lasted me this whole year, and now I’m even using it to make my Christmas cards. I like how I can create different textures with it, how I can add a couple of drops of ink to it to make it any color, and I love how it dries. Before I used it, I always thought if you touched the dried paste it would chip off, but it doesn’t. Once it dries, it turns into a hard “gummy” texture, I always end up messing with it after it dries and it never messes up.

It is so easy to use and if I don’t have a stencil to use, I just make my own like I did below. I made the heart stencil using My Favorite Things’ Flamingos die set and the pear stencil with WPlus9’s Clear Cut Stackers: Pear Die.

I hope you guys enjoyed my Top 5, I had fun going through my old posts and seeing how I’ve used some of these products. I am working on getting my Christmas cards done and I can’t wait to share them with you! You will see that I used a couple of items from this list for my cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Links to items mentioned:
Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink
Paper Smooches Uplifters Stamp Set
Studio Calico Mia Alpha Stamp Set
Judikins Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder
Wendi Vecchi White Embossing Paste