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!

Happy Anniversary to Papertrey Ink! Love, love, love your company and design team!

Today I am going to repost one of my favorite cards using papertrey ink products.  This is my first year using Papertrey Ink products.  I saw a card in a magazine using their stamps and decided to check them out online one day and I fell in love!  I love their stamps, their ink, their cardstock (which I just ordered for the first time a week or so ago and am just starting to use) and most of all their dies!  I am impressed with their service and the way they package their high-quality stamps!  I know I will be a customer for life!

This year my favorite product has to be the stamp set "Love Lives Here".  I love the verstility of this set!  There are so many uses for the stamps and the sentiments and the dies which have already made it onto several of my scrapbook pages too.  While I am still learning how to "design" and have a long way to go before I will feel that I am 'good' I still enjoy trying my hand at being creative.  It takes my mind off of my husband's illness and also allows me to make thank you notes for all of the people that are helping us out in our time of need.  This stamp set from papertrey ink along with the Crafty Secrets "Little Blessings" Creative Scraps which I also found this year have allowed me to send off some lovely thank you's to all the special people in our lives who are helping us right now.  So thank you Papertrey Ink and Crafty Secrets!  I love your products! 

Here are some of the cards I have made this year using Papertrey Ink's products...

I think the first card is my favorite of all because it seemed to turn out the best though I also like the last one.  I am still learning how to make cards so each one helps me grow a little.  The important thing is that I have fun making them and I get to send them to all my family and friends that are helping me out!  What could be a better reason to sit down and play with some ink, stamps and cardstock!  Again - thanks Papertrey Ink!  What a wonderful company full of amazing people doing what they love!  I am blessed to have found you this year!  Happy Anniversary!

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!

A little vintage mitten card sending warm wishes....

Ahhhh Monday Night Football...the men get together to watch sports and my son and I spend time crafting.  He was making snowflakes while I made this vintage-looking Christmas Card!  

I saw a challenge posted on http://cardiologycardsfromtheheart.blogspot.com/  for the ABC DT Challenge that requests that you use stitching on your card so I thought I would try it.  I spent a few minutes stitching the pair of mittens with some floss and then made this lovely card full of warm wishes.  It is my very first time trying a "card challenge" online and I am not sure if I did my entry correctly but I tried....Anyway it is time for me to run and put my boy to bed as it is a school night so here are some pictures....happy crafting!  : ) Jill