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

A new challenge in town....Festive Friday Challenge #1

Hello,
It is Friday night and it seemed like the perfect time to join in one of the newest challenges in town the Festive Friday Challenge.  The design team is absolutely incredible!!!! - just go take a look - and they have completely inspired me with all of their GORGEOUS creations!  This is the very first challenge and it is a color challenge:  Here is the inspiration graphic from their website:

I hope you will decide to play along too!  I love these colors and was inspired tonight when I visited my friend Geri's blog "Paper Wishes".  She had just posted this stunning card: HERE.  I loved the silver embossing on her card and immediately wanted to try it....but guess what - no silver powder in my stash...just gold!  Ho Hum...but alas an idea did pop into my mind when I glanced at some red burlap I recently purchased at Hobby Lobby...and here is my card:

 

One of my very favorite Christmas sentiments is "Have yourself a Merry little Christmas".  It just makes my heart smile!  This sweet little stamp is from Lili of the Valley stamps in the UK and is from a set called "Christmas Grungy Messages".  It is set #33.  You can find it: HERE

I die cut 6 small rectangles into my white card stock (using this die from MFT) and then threaded the burlap through to create this ribbon decoration.  NOTE: I first stamped the sentiment in silver ink, embossed it with clear embossing powder, and added some red COPIC marker to dress it up.  I then ran the white panel through my vagabond with the burlap embossing plate from Cheery Lynn Designs: HERE   After these steps were done I threaded the burlap through the die cut holes in the white card stock piece.

To finish the card I matted the white panel on some silver metallic paper and a red card base. I then embellished with three little glass and silver heart buttons with some metallic red floss threaded through them. I sure love how this turned out.  The idea in my head translated well into the finished card!


Thanks for taking a look at my card.  I hope you get to join in the challenge or at least go and check out all the beautiful cards and leave some comment love!
Happy Weekend!
:) Jill

Hello Everyone,
It’s Wednesday and time for the Wednesday Stamp Club Sketch Challenge at MFT! Here is the sketch for this week:

I hope you have time to play along.  There is a wonderful prize up for grabs - a $15 voucher ($20 if you used MFT stamps) to the MFT Boutique. You can submit your entry using the keyword MFTWSC109 to the Gallery at Splitcoaststampers. Entries for this week’s challenge will close on Tuesday, February 5th at noon EST.  I hope you join in all the fun!

Without further ado here is my card:

 This picture was taken outdoors in the rain!  I stayed under the back porch overhang so it is not the best angle or view....sorry!

This one was taken indoors in my light tent. Isn't light fascinating when it comes to photography?!?  I could play all day if I had more time...LOL!!!  I am definitely still trying to get the hang of how to take the best photo for my blog!  It is a challenge!

I used one of my very favorite stamp sets for this card - "Clearly Sentimental About Teaching".  I have a big soft spot for all the teachers who work with my son each day.  They have a very important job and I think they are underpaid for it!!!  So I like to try and give them a little something extra on Holidays and special occasions.  This card is going to my son's homeroom teacher for Valentine's Day.  I had made another card for her but it was given to one of my friend's daughter's who is in kindergarten.  She asked to come downstairs to see my studio the other day and her eyes lit up like the 4th of July (she is 5 years old).  I ended up sending her home with a mini scrapbook album all ready for pictures, some embellishments, and a valentine card for her Kindergarten teacher.  She wants to come and spend the day with me and craft which tickles my heart!   

Here's a little close up of the sentiment panel.  Love that I found that sweet heart-shaped button in my blue button jar!  The papers are from one of my favorite paper collections of all time from The Girl's Paperie!  Love them!  Wish I could buy more or get it digitally and print it out whenever I wanted to use it!  I did alter the paper a little bit by filling in those pink lines you see next to the blue with a copic marker RV11 - pink.  I thought it needed a little more substance to compete with the red polka dots on this card.

Thanks for taking a look at my card!  I hope you join in this week's challenge!  It is also teaser time for the February 2013 release!  I am loving what I am seeing as I do each month.  See - I really, really, really DO need that $20.00 voucher so I can grab some new yummy crafting supplies at MFT!  LOL!!! 

:)  Jill

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop - January 2013

Hello Friends,

I am here with a couple of cards for the Papertery Ink Blog Hop.   The inspiration this month is all about Black Backgrounds!  Here is the inspiration photo from Nichole's blog:

 

  

I had two different ideas when I saw the inspiration for this month.  The first was to do a blackboard like card with stamps and drawing with a versamark marker for borders.  The second was based on the striped card in the middle at the bottom of the inspiration photo.  I had an idea to make a striped card with two colors of cardstock (red and black) and dry embossing for Valentine's Day.  Here are my cards:

The borders around the heart, the arrow and the borders around the "blackboard" are all hand drawn with a versamark marker and then embossed. The stamp is from "With All My Heart".

This card is embossed with the In Bloom impression plate.  And then I embossed a sentiment also from "With All My Heart" and added some bling to finish it off.  I will say that even with using some anti-static supplies I still had problems embossing on the black cardstock without having stray powder no matter how hard I tried!  I am going to have to do some research on how best to emboss.  It is very damp and wet here in Seattle and I wonder if the moisture makes it more difficult for me?  If anyone knows some tips or tricks I would love to know them too! :)

 Thanks for looking at my cards! 

I am ready to go and take a look at everyone's creations!

:) Jill

Frame by Frame...feeling a little trigger happy today...

Hello Everyone,
Well I finally made a card for a Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World.  I think this may be my first ever entry into a challenge in the lovely Moxie-Land!!!  Or my second???  I have watched for a long time, watched and hopefully learned a little bit of something....still learning all the time and having fun doing it.

Here is the trigger photo:

Image Credit

I love to crochet and how I would enjoy making these frames! They are so very sweet!!  For some reason when I looked at them I thought of snowflakes falling..unique shapes each...drifting down.  And soft texture....so I thought FELT!!!

Anyway...here is what I came up with...a birthday card for a very dear friend.  It is a dark, rainy, cold and ugly Seattle day so this is the best picture I could come up with - I apologize for the color and lighting in advance!!!:

 

The sentiment says:  "Wishing you a cozy Winter Birthday" and is from the Papertrey Ink set: On ice.

Buttons, Felt, Sweet Blush Cardstock - Papertrey Ink.  Teal Dot Cardstock - Bazzill I believe - from my stash of 12 x 12 cardstock.  Sew Mini machine from Janome.  The sewing is supposed to symbolize the wind tossing the snowflakes around....either that or you can chalk it up to sewing with a badly bruised finger....more on that later...

 

Thanks for taking a look at my card. 

Here is one other card I made today - for Christmas:

 

This card uses a new Christmas stamp set called  "Stitched Stockings" designed by Lisa Johnson of Poppie Paperie for MFT Stamps.  I am loving this set!!! So fun for very quick Christmas cards with lots of style!

 

That is it for me tonight.  I am in the process of re-covering my dining room chairs and I hit my pointer finger with the hammer a couple days ago so card making (and sewing on my machine) is a wee bit on the painful side right now...as is typing...

so...

nighty-night...

see you in blog land soon...

:) Jill

 

How much liberty can I take with a sketch?....

 

Hello and Happy Saturday!
I hope you are enjoying your weekend and if living in the USA I hope you also enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving Holiday!

I am here today with a card for the Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge #125

Here is the lovely sketch:

When I saw this sketch I wrote it down in my sketch notebook and then flipped it 180 degrees.
It then looked to me like two trees standing up in the forest...and my brain went...ahhh Christmas Trees.  I asked myself - just how much liberty are we allowed to take with a sketch before it is too much?  This may be too much!!!!  But as inspiration is such a wonderful thing and as as I am TOTALLY in Christmas Card and Tag making mode right now I quickly pulled out my Waltzing Mouse "Vintage Banners" stamp set and came up with this card:

The sentiment is from Seasons of Love tags and says "Hearts ALL come home for Christmas".  I love this sentiment - one of my all time favorites!

 

Anyway I am not sure if my card will count but there it is nevertheless!

And I still have all week to play with this sketch so you never know...maybe another card idea will pop into my head this week.

Thanks for taking a look!

:) Jill

 

 

Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh....

Hello Friends,
I have another Christmas card to share tonight.  This one combines Waltzing Mouse stamps, Papertrey Ink's one horse open sleigh die, and a spellbinders rectangle die along with some buttons and floss and some Papertrey Ink papers.

Note:  Creating the reins (sp?) for the sleigh was a happy accident...I added the button to cover up a line on the die cut that was an error during die cutting.  I was thinking it could be the horses saddle or traces.  I then got the idea to put thread through it extra long to make the reins.  I added stickles silver glitter glue for the runners and the horses  harness.

Thanks for taking a look at my card!
:) Jill

A little snowman love...FMS62

Yesterday evening I went through a container of Holiday papers and picked out an adorable snowman paper to make a card with.  I saw this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches #62 and decided to play along...I ended up flipping the location of the shape to the left hand side and moving the sentiment down to make the card work with the paper I chose...I was trying not to completely cover up the adorable little snowmen.

Here is my card:

 I used a icicle border die to add borders to my piece of pattern paper and "iced" them up with some stickles diamond glitter glue.  I then made another border piece to layer over the diamond pattern paper to place my sentiment and embellishments on. 

 The die cut embellishments are a pine frond also edged in stickles and a snowflake from the new Taylored Expressions snowflake dies with a small gem added to the center.  The sentiment is from a Waltzing Mouse Stamp set called "Very Vintage Christmas".  The snowman paper is at least 1 or 2 or more years old and is from "Best Creations Inc" and is called Winter Wonderful Item#GP441.  www.bestcreation.us


Thanks for taking a look at my card. 
:) Jill

Pinecones make me sooooo happy!

Hello Friends,
I took some time today to make some cards for "Make it Monday #89 - Creating windows for floating images" over at Nichole Heady's blog. 

I was wanting to use my new Peaceful Pinecones stamp set.  I ADORE pinecones and have them in several places in my home.  I have a wreath made out of varous species of pinecones in my bathroom and a glass of teeny tiny pinecones on my windowsill in the kitchen so I can look at them while doing dishes.  I also tend to have them in the pockets of some of my coats if I find a cool one when I am out walking around the neighborhood or at a local park.  I am especially enamored of the Deodar pinecones that look like roses when they open and have made many crafts with them throughout the years. One of my favorite Christmas ornaments is made with these pinecones and was given to me by my sweet friend Roberta back in the 1980's.  This beautiful ornament has held a place of honor on my tree for many years. Some of you know that garden roses are my favorite flower and I think of these pinecones as my "winter" roses.  They are gorgeous!!!  Here is a picture of them if you have never seen them before:

Anyway you now know (probably way more than you wanted to) that I love pinecones...and because of that I had to get the Peaceful Pinecones stamp set.  I just love it and love the projects I have made with it so far.  My sister fell in love with them too when I showed her the tag and card I made today.  I just love this stamp set - so thank you Dawn McVey and Nichole Heady and Papertrey Ink!  It is just sooooo beautiful!  I am in pinecone heaven!

I am also loving the "Winter Snow Globe Stamp Set" and used the little Christmas tree for the focal point on this very simple card.  I made a tag out of the die cut leftovers using some snowflakes left over from other projects that were sitting unloved on my craft desk.  The designer paper is from a 12x12 stack of My Mind's Eye Christmas papers from several years ago.

Thanks for taking a look at my cards!  What stamp sets are you loving the most right now?

:) 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 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 little Christmas Tag-a-long....

We had a busy weekend at our house as we were making some Thanksgiving cut-out cookies.  Some turkeys, pumpkins, acorns, and leaves all decorated up nicely for the upcoming holiday.  Now they are safely frozen away until the big day!  Because of all of the baking I didn't make any full cards but I did make some adorable christmas tags for gift giving.  Hope you had a glorious weekend!  Enjoy each moment!