If you want to make a song more hummy, add a few tiddely poms.
      ~ Winnie the Pooh

Every year I choose a word or phrase to be my motto for the coming year. Last year it was "Vigor and Vim in 2010." Well, shoot, 2010 was more vigorous than I had in mind. (We had a crazy-big move and started and relocated to new jobs. Gracious, that was exhausting.) So, this year, I thought I'd choose a slightly less ambitious motto, one of just gentle, simple joys rounded out with a fair measure of silliness. Tiddely Pom – just makes you giggle.

Another Catered Crop tradition is my annual review of some of my favorite projects. If you click on any of the pictures, it will take you to the original post for all the details.

January 2010 – Mo's Boughs for the Wreath. I was just learning how to use Copic Markers, but I love how sentimental Mo Manning's image is and how my paper pine cones came out.

February 2010 – Grandma's Bliss - Another Mo Manning image that won me a spot as the first guest designer of Mo's Digital Challenge blog. I think I danced about as happily as this Grandma.

March 2010 – For Goodness Sakes – In the Basket. I finally realized a dream of weaving a basket.

April 2010 – Oh Baby, Animal Magnetism. It's a simple card, but ingenious. The flat-back marble magnets attach and detach from the card. Oh, I'm so clever. This card won me an invitation to the DeNami Designs design team, but the timing just wasn't right.

May 2010 – You Are My World.  I made this for my Caitlin right before she moved to Costa Rica, so I'm pretty sentimental about it.

June 2010 – Pillow and the Peepster. June was all about moving from Austin to Waco – a crazy big move for us. But, I did manage to make this tribute to our canoe adventures.

Shew . . . that's enough for now, huh? More Tiddely Poms to come in the sequel, "Another Dose of Tiddely Poms."

Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by.
                    ~Carl Sandburg

Sometimes its fun to just get carried away . . . which I kind of did with this card. It looks like I tried to pack as much "joy" as I could into a 4-1/4" by 5-1/2" space. It might give you a little visual overload.

If you've followed my blog before (God love ya), you know I'm crazy about Mo Manning's digital stamps. This stamp, Soaking Up the Joy, was one of the very first images Mo created when she started offering her illustrations as digital stamps. It's such an amazing image to color – it just comes to life with each dab of ink. So, how cool is it that you can get this image now as a clear stamp. As much as I love her digital stamps, it's even more fun to ink up her images.

I cut out the face and upper body of the baby doll and attached her with 3D Foam Mounting Adhesive. Then I used a small paint brush to add Crystal Lacquer to the doll to help pop her off the page a little more.

The layout comes from Jen del Muro's sketch this week at i{heart}2stamp.

The color/bling inspiration came from this week's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge (CIC54) – love them cupcakes!

Here are the Copic markers I used and the rest of the recipe.

If that slide show is too hard to keep up with, here are all the markers assembled together.

• Embellishments – Ribbon from the Hearts Bloom Paper Kit (on sale at 20% off); tulle, Basic Grey Opaline half pearls
• Ink – Copic Markers (see above), Memento Tuxedo ink pad
• Paper – Neenah, Basic Grey Kioshi Paper Pad, Prism cardstock
• Stamp: Soaking Up the Joy
  
• Tools: Nestabilities
• Misc.: Crystal Lacquer, 3D Foam Mounting Adhesive

Maya Angelou once said: When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.”  Here's wishing all you dear folks all the joy you can stand.

Hugs,