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

gift tags, gift tags, I need a few more gift tags....

Made some gift tags for my sister to use for gifts to her staff for her business Natalie's Coffee on 3rd NW and NW 85th Street on the west side of the Greenwood Market in Seattle.  Here are some pics:

Tag mania for my sis is done!  I had lots and lots of fun!  Off to the next project!

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... : )

Feeling a little bit blue (or turquoise) today....

Well, I am back to post a couple more cards.  These were made for a birthday and a thank you note for a couple of my girlfriends.  I was in the mood to use turquoise today - such a bright and happy color and also one of my favorite colors!  (I think turquoise and red are my absolute favorite colors of all time - at least right now - it could change at any time!!) 

Here is the first card.  I embossed the envelope to go with it as I am giving the card in person with a gift.  The stamp is from Red Lead (redleadpaperworks.com) and is one of my favorite go-to stamps for birthdays for my sisters and girlfriends. 

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

The second card is a Thank You card with a Crafty Secrets cut from the Little Blessings Creative Scraps.
(craftysecrets.com).  I love this set of cuts...so many great sentiments for cards or home decor!

And life is heavenly when you have angels for friends which I do!  Yeah!

Well I am off to do some more cardmaking...Happy Crafting!

A Snowy and cold Tuesday in Seattle....and my son and I are crafting...

Hello everyone!  Today marks the second day of snow in Seattle which is still a fairly rare occurrence.  Unfortunately it is a dry snow and not so great for snowman building to my sons great disappointment.  However it was great for making snow angels and he did so last night with our neighbor Eric.  Today - since he had a sore throat last night - we are staying inside and crafting.  Tim is making ornaments and I am making Christmas cards....here are some from today:

This card is made using an Amuse Art Stamps card base and the bird diecut is from Crafty Secrets.  I used some spellbinders labels and circles and a martha stewart snowflake punch as well as a snowflake sticker.  I also used the cuttlebug and my new snowflake embossing folder from Tim Holtz.  And of course my staple of stickles glitter glue to brighten things up a bit and make them shine!  A day without glitter is a day I don't have fun!  LOL!

My next card also uses a die cut from Crafty Secrets and the same supplies mentioned above:

Sorry the photos are so blurry....need to retake them I guess!

And 1 last card using a Christmas Cut from Crafty Secrets...I love this one of the angel and his flock watching over the baby Jesus as the star shines down in the night sky....beautiful!  As I look at the pictures though this one doesn't look balanced to me so I may add some diecut shapes behind the image...hmmm I am never satisfied!!

Oops...I couldn't take it...I had to fix it so here is an updated picture of the card above....

I am still not 100% in love with the card but I sure love the die cut from Crafty Secrets...some cards are just harder to make than others...plus it was actually my first card of the day and I always start out slow and get better as I go on....especially since I don't get to spend much time in the craft room these days...

My last card for today is more masculine in style and uses Tim Holtz Embossing folders and a stamp from Ms. Theresa Collins.  I may send this one to my brother for Christmas as I know he would like the style of it... 

Well that is all for now...I am going to have to try and take pictures in the morning when the light is better...it is a dreary day today and the lighting indoors in my basement is not the best for photo taking....I will try and repost better photos tomorrow morning.  Happy Card Making everyone!  : )

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