Some Christmas Cards.....with Purple Onion Designs Stamps...

Hello Friends,
I finally got a non-rainy morning to take some pictures of some Christmas cards that I made over the past few days for gift giving this year. These two cards use stamps from designer Stacey Yacula with Purple Onion Designs.  I also used my brand new snowglobe stamp and die from Taylored Expressions!  LOVE IT!!!!!  And a puffy "snow" pen for the winter sky in my snow globe.  You hit the snow dots with your heat gun and instant 3-dimensional snow in your snow globe!  Too fun!!!

 The sentiment "You're Snow Special" is from a Paper Sweeties stamp set. The stitched rounded corners diecut is from Lil Inkers.  :)

 The embossing folder and the snow-globe stamp/die are both from Taylored Expressions.  I glued 5 diecuts together to make the snow globe dimensional like chipboard...see next photo:

Thanks for peeking at my cards!
:) Jill

Family Birthday Celebration....

Hello Friends,
Just here with a quick post of some birthday cards.  My Dad turns 75 this week!  He is such a great Father!  He and my Mother raised 7 children and are a wonderful example to all of us in all areas of life!  Most of all in how to lead a strong Christian life walking closely with God and loving everyone 20 feet around us each day.  I am so blessed to have them as my parents!  Happy 75th Birthday Dad!!!  I love you bunches!

We had a wonderful family birthday celebration this past weekend for my Dad and for my niece and nephew too.  Here are the 3 cards that I put together.  They are all similar because I had a limited amount of design time and was sick as a dog with a horrible cold when I was trying to get them made! 

This card was given to my nephew:

 This one was for my Dad - I wanted it to be bright and festive so I went with red, white, and turquoise for the colors:

And this last card was given to my niece:

The birthday themed dies that I used are from Taylored Expressions.  I love how fast these cards came together! 

Thanks for taking a look!
:) Jill

A few Valentines....just for fun...

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick post with some Valentine's Day cards using goodies from Taylored Expressions, Simon Says Stamp, and Sweet and Sassy Stamps.  Working on cards for teachers and friends...

Border Die:  Taylored Expressions; Heart dies:  Sweet and Sassy Stamps and Lil Inker Designs.  Stamps: TE and MFT

Taylored Expressions Stamps and Dies.  Love that sweet dinosaur!  And new baker's twine in my favorite color combo from Timeless Twine! 

Taylored Expressions Stamps, heart banner die - Simon Says Stamp!  Love it!

 3 down....and so many more to go!  And I am still in the middle of purging and re-organizing my craft room!  Built a big new crafting table (which I still need to paint) that is making a WORLD of difference in my crafting pleasure!  Yesterday was my first day putting it to real USE!!  YEAH!!!!   Love that you can build a crafting table with a hollow core door and some bookcases!

                                     :) Jill

A little pair of mittens to warm you....

Hello Friends,
Here today with a card I made just for fun - no challenge in mind I just wanted to play with some new stamps and dies called "Very Merry" that I ordered recently from Taylored Expressions for the start of Holiday card and tag making.

I just had to create that sweet little pair of mittens.  I added the little snowflakes in the center of each and the border of baby pink felt to create warm fuzzy cuffs. I apologize for the picture quality my normal computer is down and I am working on my laptop which does not have my normal picture editing program available.  Alas this appears a little dark to me so I apologize!

 A quick glimpse of the inside of the card:

That is it for me today.  I am off to get my little one from school and it is the start of basketball season tonight too!  Busy busy days!!!  Thanks for taking a look!  Do you have a favorite new holiday stamp/die set?  Would love you to let me know in the comments!
Smiles,
: ) Jill 

A few contest wins....

Many of you that follow my blog know that my husband is battling a grade 4 brain cancer and that I am not able to update my blog sometimes because I am busy caring for him and our son.  While I am often busy with the most important blessings in my life - my husband and son - I do find time (usually late at night or in the wee hours of the morning) to surf blogs and enjoy all the crafty inspiration that the web offers.  I love to scrapbook and make cards and I do so as time allows but more often than not right now I find myself upstairs away from my craft room with only my laptop available for a few minutes of time every now and again.  To this end I have done a few blog hops or looked up blogs of companies that I love and over the past couple weeks I won some lovely goodies...

First during PTI's fruit fusion release I won the entire fruit fusion set of stamps and the wonderful paper too! 
Thanks to Nichole and Jen and the entire staff at Papertrey Ink for this wonderful prize package!

Then this past week I also won a $10.00 gift cerfiticate from Taylored Expressions via a comment I posted during their recent blog hop for their July release.  I have several of their stamp sets and recently I made an adorable card for Tim's teacher using one of their stamp sets called:  Make the Grade and my son also made a card for his teacher with it.  Adorable!

Then today as I was surfing one of my favorite blogs "I'm just a girl" by -Margie Romney-aslett I saw that I had also won a product release from Authentique via a comment I had posted on her blog showing the gorgeous new papers from this new path that her life has taken.  Margie's style is one that I love - vintage in living color with fun patterns.  I adore her designs from the Girl's Paperie and am so glad that she is still going to be bringing fantastic products to the market with the wonderful team at Authentique Paper.  Wait till you visit their site and see the Halloween line called "Glowing" that is going to be released on August 1st!  Gorgeous!  As are all the other lines...Paper BLISS in livng color!

To say that I am overwhelmed by these winnings is an understatement.  At a time that our family budget is stressed with doctor's bills I am still receiving fun new things to play with as time permits.  I am so blessed by these contest gifts!  Thanks to all the companies that have made my heart smile!