Festive Friday Challenge #3 - Snowflake

Edited to add:  So excited that my snowflake card below received a shout out among all of the incredible cards posted.  Thanks Festive Friday Team!  :)Jill


Today I took a few minutes to make a card for the Festive Friday challenge.  The inspiration this week is an element challenge: incorporate a snowflake into your design.  Here is the graphic:

The Christmas season is one of my favorites to create for.  You can tell how much I like it by the tons of pins on my Christmas board on Pinterest:  HERE

Today's card was inspired by several different pins on my board so I can't take credit for the design.  I tried to link to a couple of specific pins on individual websites but was having problems finding the original cards - bummer....

The kraft, red, and cream color combo is a favorite of mine for Christmas cards and I use it a LOT!!!  I love the old-fashioned vintage look that can be achieved especially when you distress edges with some kraft ink too!

 I used some vintage thread in my Janome Sew Mini today and did not have good luck with it.  It kept breaking and after re-threading several times I opted to just zig-zag a bunch of holes around my card to add to the home-spun feel that I like so much.  The sentiment is from "White Christmas" a stamp set from My Craft Spot.

A close-up of the snowflakes!  The large one is from WPlus9 and the small one from MFT.   I also impressed my kraft layer with a snowflake impression plate from Papertrey Ink. 

Thanks for looking at my card.  There is some truly incredible inspiration from the Festive Friday team on their blog: HERE
And a lot of wonderful projects have already been uploaded to the linky tool!  I am off to take a look!
I hope you join in too!  The deadline is tomorrow - March 13th 2013.

Hugs,
Jill

Super Amazing Spectacular YOU!

Friday Morning:  Edited to add:  Based on emails and comments received apparently my card photos did not upload for my last two posts. I have tried several work-arounds with no success. I checked my photo storage and it is adequate in Picasa Web Albums so I am hoping that maybe the problem is with blogger/google?  I am hoping to get this post updated with the photo asap - thanks for your patience!

:) Jill 

Friday - 2:54pm:  Finally found a message on a help board with a workaround.  Apparently the problem is only with uploading photos using "Internet Explorer".  I switched to Firefox and presto - I was able to upload them.  Ahhh! Computers - I have a love / hate relationship with them! LOL!!!  Thanks to Dawn for letting me know about the problem!  I thought I would let you all know what occurred in case anyone else is having a similar problem this week with Internet Explorer and photo uploads in Blogger.

NOTE:  This post has been updated since it was originally posted...a second card was added on Friday afternoon....

Here with a card for the January 2013 Cloud 9 blog hop.  I just loved the inspiration photo:

And here is my first card attempt at a fairly CAS card: 

I used a silver gelly roll pen to outline the insides of the small stars surrounding the negative die cut and I used carboard to outline the star.  In order to fit the YOU on the bottom of the card I had to have the top star covered by the die cut and I wasn't completely satisfied with the outcome.  I am out of time for tonight but I will probably make a second rendition of this card tomorrow.  Time to put my little one to bed tonight...

Friday Morning:

I went back to the drawing board and created a second card using smaller star dies and a longer card size...

 

I couldn't decide which direction to do the banner.  I think maybe the straight one mirrors the sentiment at the bottom of the card better...but here is a picture of it the other way too... 

Maybe less of an angle?  Does anyone else second guess themselves - especially once they start taking pictures and looking at them?  

On this second card I added some washi tape along the bottom of the card to help ground the sentiment. 

I am thinking about giving this card to Tim's amazing teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week in May....once I settle on the design I like best. 

Thanks so much for taking a look!  I am off to take a look at everyone's cards!  So fun!

Hugs,

:) Jill

Supplies:

Cardstock:  Oatmeal, Black

Stamps: Super Star - WPlus9

Ink: Kraft, Black

Other: Gelly roll pen - silver; scissors, star dies, glue, corner chomper, washi tape

Have I told you how much I love to read?

This afternoon I spent some time in my craftroom playing around with the gorgeous inspiration in "The Shabby Tea Room":  HERE. 

Here is the creativity/inspiration photo from Lenet:





I love the picture of the old books, the soft neutrals, the white in the bedding, the cream and texture in the nubby blanket on the chair, and the touches of pale blues in the framed pictures.  Gee, I could move in to that photo and be perfectly happy!  LOL!

This is my first time actually linking up and playing with everyone at the Shabby Tea Room.  I have visited all of the gorgeous inspiration many, many times over the past couple of years but did not have much time to play due to the circumstances I was in with my husband's illness.   This week I saw my crafty friend Rebecca's lovely post on her blog (she is also this week's Guest Designer) and absolutely LOVED what she created!  After reading her post I visited the site and was determined
to join in this week-  which I was able to fulfill today. 

Here are some pictures of my project.

 I love this sentiment...."This is where I fell asleep"....as it is how I go to sleep most nights of the week.

 I sewed a lovely border of tissue paper scallops with some aqua thread and in the end covered most of it up...oh well.

I love how these old book page flowers turned out!  And some aqua felt leaves to go with them doesn't hurt!

 I made this card and matching bookmark for my son's school librarian who has been very supportive to me and my family over the past two years.  When school gets underway I find it hard to find enough time to make as many things as I would like to have to thank the teacher's and staff at school for all they do.  They are under-paid, over-worked and so dedicated to helping the future generation that I wish I could give them all a raise and a bonus!  I am glad that I can at least give them a handmade card and a treat with maybe a latte-card thrown in or a gift card to Barnes & Noble.  Our cousin Barbara is a teacher in California and she says - give them chocolate!!! Teachers love to receive chocolate!!!  I tend to give coffee cards because I think there are many days in rainy and cold Seattle where a cup of coffee is the perfect pick-me-up before school starts!  And a mocha latte is the best!!  What could be better than chocolate in our coffee?!?

That is it for me this evening!  Thanks for taking a look at my card and matching bookmark! I would love to hear what you think!  I wasn't too sure about my card's layout and the rules of three but I just went with it in the end....

:) Jill

Supplies:
Stamps: All Booked Up - Papertrey Ink
Papers:  Cardstock: Papertrey Ink; Old Book - from thrift store
Dies:  Cheery Lynn Designs: Doily Die; Papertrey Ink -Mat stack and Limitless Layers 1.5" set and sending you leaves; Stampin-UP/sissix - butterfly; MFT- border die medium scallop; flower dies
Impression Plates:  Papertrey Ink - lines/siding, Cheery Lynn Designs - burlap
Ink:  Papertrey Ink - Kraft, Aqua Mist,  Copics BG10
Sewing Machine: Janome Sew mini; Coats & Clark thread
Felt: Papertrey Ink - Aqua Mist
Other: scissors, fiskars paper trimmer, Vagabond, glue dots, ad tech adhesive, tombow mono multi glue