Gone, Gone, Gone, I've been gone so long....

Hello Blog Friends,
Wow!!!  I have not posted in quite a while for me.  School started and I came down with a horrible cold which went into my lungs and has had me up at night coughing for a few hours for the past couple of weeks.  (My asthma and allergies tend to complicate colds every time!!!) So I apologize for sort of disappearing from blog land.  It has been all I could do to keep up with getting my son to and from school and attending a variety of school/church related meetings along with a lovely visit from my husband's parents over a long weekend.  It has been 7 months now since my beloved Stuart passed away and I am learning that being a single parent means that you have to keep going even when you are really sick, which in turn means that one doesn't seem to bounce back quite as fast.  Of course it may also have to do with the fact that I am closer to 50 years old than 40 now?! Naw, that can't be it!  LOL!!!  Anyway I am sure that I missed many, many beautiful cards made by all of you over the past couple weeks but I hope to start having some "blog" time to come and visit now and see all of the beautiful things that you have made!!!

September is a HUGE birthday month in my family and I need 3 birthday cards for tonight.  1 for my nephew Russell, one for my sweet Dad, and one for my neice Ruby.  So I decided to use the new Make it Monday #84 challenge over at Papertrey Ink for a little bit of inspiration.  Betsy did a wonderful video on "Reflected Sentiments" today and I made two masculine cards (so far) utilizing this technique.  Here are some pictures: 

Thanks for taking a look at my cards.  I have to make one more for my neice today and will hopefully have time to post it later.  I get to pull out some "girl" stamps now and get to work!

Supplies used on the above cards:
Cardstock:  Papertrey Ink:  Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, and Kraft
Ink:  Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Certainly Celery, Hawaiian Shores
Stamps: Papertrey Ink:  Boy Basics: Game On; Tag-its #1, Think Big Favorites #16, Star Prints, Say it with Style
Other:  Buttons: Papertrey Ink; Foam tape, Ad-tech adhesive, corner chomper from We R Memory Keepers


: ) Smiles,
    Jill
 

A stitch in time saves nine....

Hello all,
Here with a second post for today...this one for a challenge over at the Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge Blog.  It is Challenge #44 - "Stitch it Up" and you have to use stitching - faux or real - on your card. 

Here is what I came up with for the challenge:

 I used hunter green floss to stitch on the Mexican Tile Pattern Frame Die (FRM149) from Cheery Lynn Designs.  I stitched it over an evening of television while watching one of my favorite movies "Pride and Prejudice" - the 2005 version with Kiera Knightly and Matthew MacFadyen, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench.   I will definitely do this again as I love the way it turned out! 

I then stamped this lovely Pure Innocence Stamp called "Snow Day" from MFT Stamps for my focal piece and added a portion of a "2 of hearts die" (DL128) to the left edge to play off of the sentiment.

The ribbon is some red hug-snug seam binding positioned at each corner of the card and I added some snowflakes and a bling to the corner without the bow.  The hunter green card base as well as the red scalloped mat piece were also created with dies from Cheery Lynn Designs. 

Thanks for looking at my card.  I had fun with this challenge and cannot wait to go see what others have created.

:) Jill

Cloud 9 Blog Hop - September 2012

Hello,
Today is the 9th of September which means it is time for the Cloud 9 Blog Hop.  I am so excited and honored to be a guest member of the inspiration team this month.  Thanks to the wonderful inspiration team for their support!  I hope you play along with us as you could very well become next month's guest inspiration team member or win some wonderful prizes!

This month Suzanne chose a lovely photo from Pinterest for our inspiration: 

I loved this photo as soon as I saw it!  I was especially drawn to the beautiful flowers on the table!  I also liked the earth tones in the hillside, the dark colored trees, and the grayish blue tone to the sky.  I actually had lots of ideas and possible "jumping off" points for cards.  In the end this is what I came up with using the new Quilts Cuts 1 dies:

 

My card base is Oatmeal cardstock from WPlus9.  I ADORE this cardstock!!!!

  For my background I used the Country Charm stamp set and some versamark ink to make a grid pattern.  I then added the Pretty Patches: Apple gingham heart in grey ink to the spaces in the grid.

I wanted a "country" feeling to the background which I felt went with the gorgeous inspiration photo.

I then made my flowers and placed them each on a lovely WPlus9 "pinking square" die cut made from pink felt.  For those of you that would like to know how I created the flowers I have included a picture tutorial in this post below...if you are not interested please skip to the bottom of this post...

Here are my pictures and instructions for the flowers:

Using the Quilt Cuts 1 Die: Cut the "C" die 3 times and the "A" die 1 time out of your choice of papers.

 Take 1 of the "C" flower die cuts and leaving all of the pieces within the diecut place tape on the back to hold the pieces in place in the middle only.

 Then flip the diecut over and fluff up the petals with your fingers so that the edge of the diecut flower is visible.  (I love this look and you could add a center to it and stop right here if you want to!)

Next use 4 petals from one of the 2 remaining "C" diecuts and stick them to the top of the flower with a glue dot.  I used a "craft-sized" glue dot for this step.  The picture (above) shows another craft-sized glue dot added to the top of these petals for the next round of petals to be added...

 Repeat this step with another 4 petals (or as many as you would like for the "fullness" of the flower).
Here I am showing you a gray flower with 8 petals added so far to the original main flower (the one with the scotch tape on the back or bottom).

 Next take 4 petals from the 3rd "C" die cut and snip a portion off of the petals.  Arrange these in the center of the flower again using a glue dot.

 Finally glue the center circle from the Quilt Cuts 1 "A" die to the middle of the flower after distressing it with your fingers.  Then top with a mini rose flower and fluff all of the petals up towards the middle shaping them with your fingers until you have the desired look and dimension you want.  You can use the end of a paintbrush to further shape your petals if you want to.

 As a final step take the leftover outline from die "C" and glue dot it to the back of the flower alternating the petals so you get a nice look - see photo below:

This is the finished flower.  I will sometimes add ink, glitter or gloss to the flowers but for this particular card I chose a simple look which I felt was more in keeping with the inspiration photo.  After completing the flowers I stamped and fussy-cut the leaves from the "Fresh Picked" stamp set to finish my card.  I also chose a sentiment from "Spring Tags" and stamped it on a tiny tag I had on my desk.  I usually make "dimensional" cards for gifts that I will be delivering in person.  This card fits nicely in a pink paper bag that I ordered from ETSY and it going to a dear friend with a birthday gift.

I hope you join in the fun for this month's Cloud 9 hop!  In addition to the opportunity to become next month's Guest Member of the Inspiration Team, you could also win a $25 gift certificate to Wplus9 donated by the lovely Dawn Woleslagle! 

 I {heart} Papers is also offering up a $20.00 prize this month and they are now carrying WPlus9 products in their store. 

 I am looking forward to seeing what everyone creates this month!  There are always so many wonderful projects to enjoy! 

Thanks again to the Cloud 9 Blog Hop Team!  I so enjoyed being a guest member of the Inspiration team this month! 

Happy Hopping Everyone!

:)  Jill

Supplies: 

Cardstock: Oatmeal - WPlus 9; and blush

Designer Paper:  Kaisercraft

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio: Country Charm, Pretty Patches: Apple, Fresh Picked, Spring Tags

Ink: versamark, gray

Dies: Quilt Cuts 1, Pinking Squares clear cut stackers - WPlus9 Design Studio 

 

Joining in Mr. Bones Halloween Spook out....

Hello my crafty friends!
I decided to make a card to join in the fun event over at Papertrey Ink called "Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out".

My son Tim and I fell in great big LIKE with this wonderful stamp and die set by Heather Nichols called Mr Bones!  I love that it is a "smiley" skeleton and I saw so many cute cards and projects made with it that I broke down and ordered it for Halloween cards this year.  I always make some special cards for teachers with little treats and this will be the stamp/die set that I use this year.

I liked the way Betsy Veldman used three skeletons on a card during the last release: HERE and decided to try (the key word here is "try") to emulate the idea of her card.  I am still on my "negative" die cut kick also and love having negative pieces popped up on my cards.

 I die cut three circles from a piece of smokey shadow card stock and layered it over some of the plum pudding designer papers all from Papertrey Ink.  I used a Martha Stewart web edge punch on both sides of the polka dot paper and then layered some orange zest cardstock behind it. I rounded all my corners with the WRMK 1/8" corner chomper.  The sentiment and web stamps (covered in glitter glue) are from Friendship Jar Fall Fillers.    

Thanks for taking a look at my card!  Isn't Halloween crafting fun!!!!  I love all the holidays and making things for people to enjoy enriches the season for me too!  Such a fun time of year!
                               : ) Jill

Butterfly kisses....

9/4/12: Edited to add: this photo:

 

Hello sweet blog Friends,

I want to thank everyone that visits my blog and leaves me the most supportive and amazing comments! And welcome to those that have subscribed to my blog too!  I am enjoying participating in challenges and learning new things about this craft that I love.  Your blogs and projects always bring joy to my heart when I visit you!  I think creating is sharing a little bit of our spirits or souls with each other....the beauty within brought to life with our hands...it is an amazing thing to take an inspiration photo or color story and see all of the unique creations brought to life by those that link up!  I am truly loving the experiences I am having!

Last night and tonight I have had just a few minutes to create as I have been busy during my very long days with some house projects that I am trying to finish up before the Seattle rains return.  By the time I am done with my day I just want to rest at night and my mojo isn't humming when I am that tired.  But tonight I was able to finish a sweet little card for the latest CR84FN challenge.  Here is the inspiration photo:

I love this soft color combo but did struggle finding the peach color in my stash.  I do not have cardstock in this color so I went searching through my designer paper and finally found something that fit with the challenge colors in my Prima paper stash.  It is a very small amount of peach but it is there in the background paper. 

The background of the card was created with my favorite stackers from Cheery Lynn Designs. They are called the French Flair Scalloped Large Stackers Nesting Dies.   When I make a shaped card these are the dies that I reach for 9 times out of 10.  I just love them!!!

 I made these sweet little tags with a stampin-up punch.  I had adhered some linen type fabric to some cream cardstock for the owl I made last week.  These little tags were punched out of the leftovers from the owl die cuts.  I like that they are a little bit frayed and "shabby".  I wrote on them with black marker because I wanted this specific sentiment for this card.

 I also made 3 little butterflies using the Marth Stewart butterfly trio punch.  I punched twice and then layered them with hemp twine for antennas.

The Lace Flourish Butterfly die is also from Cheery Lynn Designs. I love the intricacy of it.  I actually have the wings propped up on foam tape in the centers but it is hard to tell from the photos.  I may need to take a side view shot tomorrow and add it.  The heart border diecut from the kraft felt is from Papertrey Ink.

Well that is it for me tonight. I cannot believe that school starts the day after tomorrow for my little one.
Wishing everyone a wonderful school year!
:) Jill