Frames anyone? A little Valentine "Friendship Jar" tag on a card for my dear husband....

Tonight I made a little valentine of love for my sweet husband.  It has been a tough year for him and our family with his brain cancer diagnosis and I wanted to make him a special valentine.  I was reading Nichole's blog over at PTI today and the post is all about the new frame stamps coming out on the 15th of this month.  I decided to play along for the prize and incorporated a stamped circle frame from their "Love Lives Here" set into the tag I designed using the wonderful "Friendship Jar" set.  I incorporated some clear "cardstock" to make the jar appear "glass-like" by die-cutting the jar once out of cardstock and the second time out of the clear plastic.  I stamped on the cardstock and then stapled the clear jar die cut to the paper one.  After making the jar tag which holds my heart and includes the sentiment "My heart is always with you" also from the "Love Lives Here" stamp set, I decided to place the whole tag onto a card so that I could give it to my husband for Valentine's Day.  Since I was trying to make the tag masculine in nature I kept the papers and diecuts on the card fairly simple.  I like the way it turned out.  Here are a couple of pics...

Unfortunately I will need to restamp and reglitter the sentiment because I thought it was dry from the heat gun that I used to set the ink and glitter but when I tied the sentiment tag onto the lid I nicked two of the letters a bit.  I think I may also be stamping on the wrong type of cardstock so I need to order a stash of Papertrey Ink cardstock since I just love it.  The card itself is made with Aqua Mist cardstock from PTI (the only color I currently own) and has patterned papers and cardstock from Crafty Secrets and DCWV.   I also used an ek success heart punch to make the border of hearts in the middle of the card.  A white gel pen and some doodle lines and heart outlines on the punched border completed this tag/card.  I am off to bed as I have been fighting a terrible sore throat and stomach ache all day today....more crafting time tomorrow maybe...nighty night everyone!

Some Thank You cards...

Gratitude! Gratitude and Thankfulness!  That is my theme of the day today!  And I have some new cards to show for it too!

Wow - it has been quite some time since I posted!  I have been busy with lots of financial and insurance issues for our family over the past couple weeks since the New Year!  Today, though, I had time to make some cards to send as Thank You notes to some very special people who have been helping my family out during a difficult time.  I am so very grateful for my friends and family!  Here are the cards:

The sentiment on the front is "From my heart to your home" and on the inside:  "Thanks for giving me a helping hand".  Both sentiments are from a new set from Papertrey Ink which I will like too in my next card.  My son wanted to emboss the other night with the heat gun and embossing powder so I had him emboss the birdhouse stamp  in white and the sentiment too so it would match.  It turned out quite well for a 6 year old doing it!  Embossing can be a little bit tricky! LOL!

Here are some additional shots of the same card....

I colored in the birdhouse with my water-color pencils to add a touch of light color to it.

This next card uses the same sentiments and the small house diecut which are both from Papertrey Ink's December 2010 release titled "Love Lives Here".  Love Lives Here Stamp Set - with concepts by Melissa Phillips.  This is my current very favorite stamp set and I am using it a lot!!!

It has matching dies which you can see here:  Dies: Love Lives Here Collection.  I adore the butterfly and the hand too!  So cute and versatile! I love it!

I added the chimney with a piece of the same paper I die cut the house with and made "glitter" smoke coming out of it....a nice touch I think and makes it feel all snuggly and warm!

This card I made twice - once for my friend Julie and Skip and Family as Skip just lost his Father recently and once for my friend Leanna who just lost her husband Jerry.  Jerry and Leanne are Tim's adopted Aunt and Uncle and always send him the most adorable Hannah Anderson Christmas Pajamas each year along with lots of other goodies.  They are very generous and giving and sweet people and all I know is that heaven just received a wonderful new angel in Uncle Jerry!

 This last card uses an Inkadinkado set which is where the adorable polka dot heart and sentiment come from.  The die is from My Favorite Stamps and can be found here: Dienamics Decorative Doily Die


                                     
I just love the soft purple colors of this card....so fun to have something cheerful on a dreary morning...
This one uses a die from My Favorite Stamps:  Die-namics Decorative Doily Die.  I just love how this one die can totally dress up a card!  They have wonderful stamps too! 
Well that is it for cards today.  I have 3 more thank you cards still to make but this is all I am going to post for now.  I am still learning how to make good cards but each one I make allows me to get a little bit better at this fun craft!  Plus I get to send homemade cards to all my family and friends for different occasions.  Thanks for looking at my little blog!

:) Jill

A few tags and cards on a lovely Thursday afternoon....

Well I spent last week and weekend decorating for Christmas and having lots of company so not much card making got done.  The past couple of days I have had a little bit of time in the afternoon and did get some cards made.  One is a baby card for my friend who is due at the end of December and the rest are more Christmas cards...here are some of the pics...I will add the rest later when I take them...happy crafting... : )

A Saturday afternoon working on some Christmas Cards...

Well today was one of those days when staying inside was the only option - it was freezing outside and super windy!  Clear and cold and windy is not a good combination for working in the yard or taking a nice Saturday afternoon walk....sooooo.....since my husband was napping and my son was playing video games I opted to make some cards (of course!). 

Here are my results....
This first card is from a stamp by Pink Cat Studio (http://www.pinkcatstudio.com/).  I just discovered them while blog hopping and ordered some stamps.  I haven't had time to try all the wonderful stamps I purchased but I did try this one that was sent digitally:

The sentiment inside of the card says: 

"A handful of love and another of kisses 
An angel sent on a snowflake
to deliver winter wishes"

It is a sentiment stamp from Amuse Art Stamps.   http://www.amuseartstamps.com/   They have a lovely retail store near the Woodland Park Zoo if you live in the Seattle Area but do most of their business online.


By the by I am looking forward to trying the "Itty Bitty Christmas Stamps" set and the "Lily and Billy Winter Stamps" set from Pink Cat Studio too once I have some more time to make cards...


The second card I made today is a "Let it Snow" snowman card using a Snowman stamp I purchased last year from Inkadinkado. 

I had a lot of fun making this card.  I used my cuttlebug and embossing folders as well as spellbinders dies for the circles.  I made the little "let it snow" sign by hand.  And as always when making Christmas cards I of course used lots of stickles glitter glue to brighten things up.  Sorry it was such a gloomy day outside as the lighting for the pictures does not do them justice.  But with my husband having cancer I am finding that sometimes I do better to post a picture as is than try to wait and hopefully post it after taking photos in the morning hours.  Mornings are taken up with school and doctor's appointments these days. 

Well off to do some more crafting....Happy Weekend Everyone!