Happy Birthday Cards...

Hello,

Today I am posting a few Happy Birthday cards.  A friend asked me to make one for her sister's birthday that is coming up.  I made several different cards for her to choose from:





This first card uses the set "Sending You" from Papertrey Ink; papers from Authentique and a cheery lynn designs doily die and martha stewart edge punch.  It has 3 little grey pearls to lead your eye to the sentiment.

I used a hero arts envelope grid pattern stamp for the background of the sentiment piece.

This card uses scrap papers from my stash which I believe are Prima?  And Papertrey Ink dies and stamps.  A little lace separates the two patterned papers.  I used  a hero arts old script background stamp on the circle sentiment piece along with PTI's harvest berries stamp set for the leaves and berries.  Topped off with some diamond stickles for a little glitter.  Kept it non-dimensional for ease in mailing without extra postage.

This card uses Authentique papers; dies from My Favorite Things and Spellbinders and stamps from Hero Arts for the backgrounds and Papertrey Ink for the sentiment.  A little twine and pearls finish it up.

This card is done in all browns and kraft paper.  It is a 5" square card with paper

 from the Crafty Secrets creatingwith vintage patterns CD - the chicken wire backgrond paper -

and sentiment stamp from Papertrey Ink.  It uses a decorative corner die that I believe

 is from Heartfelt Creations and a doily die from Cheery Lynn Designs. 

The brad in the center of the flower is American Crafts Dear Lizzy line
and the rest are prima and paper flowersfrom my kraft room.
A little gold thread holds the sentiment tag in place.

And last but not least this simple card again fairly  non-dimensional for mailing, is made with Authentique

and Kraft papers; spellbinders and PTI dies and some KI Memories stickers from my craft room. 

The sentiment stamp is a wood-mounted one that I bought at Michael's many years ago when I first

 started card making.  It is still one I use frequently.

That is it for today....Happy Wednesday everyone!
Smiles,
Jill

Crafty Secrets - Creating with Vintage Patterns CD

Hello all - here with a quick post of a couple of cards I made using Crafty Secrets new "Creating with Vintage Patterns CD" as well as some Crafty Secrets creative scraps;  Papertrey Ink stamps and dies from both PTI and Cheery Lynn Designs.  These cards are both mainly pink in color and include some maya road trims and other various goodies from my craft room.

Here are some pictures:

On this card I added a little bit of sewing with some light pink floss and I used a crafty secrets image from one of their creative scraps sets. 

This shaped card was made using a set of scalloped label dies from Cheery Lynn Designs and the papers from the Crafty Secrets CD.  The leaves, pearls and rose trim pieces are from my stash.  Love the softness of this card and I am in love with all of Cheery Lynn Designs dies! 

Can't wait to give this card as a thank you note to one of my husband's cousins who just sent us a gift.  We are so blessed by all the family and friends that are supporting our family during my husband's battle with brain cancer.  

Until tomorrow, blessings to you all!

Jill 

So grateful....some thank you's to special people...

Today I made some very special thank you's to mail to some of my husband's extended family who have been so kind to our family as my husband continues to battle his brain cancer. 

I kept these cards really simple, elegant, and slim or non-dimensional, except for one layer of foam tape beneath the sentiments, since they need to be mailed not hand delivered.

Here are some pics taken with the best lighting I could provide in my basement on this dark and dreary day:

Off to cook sunday dinner for my little family....

Bye for now,

Jill

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink - Signature Greetings, BB Gingham

Ink:  Jenni Bowlin - Brown Sugar

Paper:  Aqua Mist Cardstock - PTI; Crafty Secrets vintage digital CD of papers;

Other:  Dies: PTI;

Be Strong Clear Stamp set from Just Rite Stamps...

Just logging on to share that Just Rite Stamps has come out with a beautiful set of stamps for those of us that need to make cards for family and friends that are fighting cancer.  It is a beautiful set designed by Amy Tedder who is a 6 year survivor of ovarian cancer.  I ordered this set yesterday and will be using it to make cards for many of my friends that are battling this disease. 

Here is a picture of this stamp set from their website:





Here is a color chart for cancer ribbons for use during your cardmaking...this is also from the Just Rite Stamps blog:


A health tip for all of us:
Remember to eat mostly fruits and veggies - especially green veggies - each day.  Eat only whole grains and very few bread/pasta/white foods overall.  NO processed meats at all if you can do so!  Organic chicken and turkey occasionally.  Eating whole raw foods each day is vital to staying healthy!!  And if you can, get a good juicer that doesn't kill enzymes and drink a green juice each day at least once!  If you put some cucumber in it the taste is quite fresh!  It is raw health in a glass!  My husband and I are really working on this in our efforts to beat his grade 4 primary brain cancer!

God Bless us one and all!
Jill

I like Rose Blossom Cottage....and Make mine PINK!

Just a very short post to say that I was blog hopping today and found some new shabby chic storefronts that I liked.  Check out:  http://www.makeminepink.com/ .   There are some great shops here!  Rose blossom cottage is one of them at:  http://www.roseblossomcottage.com/.  It was fun looking at all of the great things for sale at a variety of the sites at make mine pink!  Great idea inspiration for card color combos!  Fun! Fun! Fun! 

Make it Monday #24 - Dry Brushing

Edited on 7-18 at 9:18pm to add two pictures and:  ....  Back at my desk this evening I looked at the card with fresh eyes and decided to make the bow smaller so the dress form would show more fully and balance the card better.  I still think something is off - probably because the pink items aren't in a triangle but not sure how I will fix that yet....maybe a heart on the dress form and change the color of the button flower?.....here is a fresh pic tonight of how the card looks now.....always learning and tweaking my designs....

ORIGINAL POST FROM A.M.:
Wow it is Monday again and this summer is flying by and we still haven't had any "hot" weather to speak of here in the Seattle area.  To all of you suffering through the heat waves elsewhere we wish you some of our cooler weather!  Hope you are all drinking some ice cold lemonade as you read this.

This morning my husband had a rare day with no medical appointments so I decided to spend an hour making a card for this week's "Make it Monday" over at Papertrey Ink.

 I loved the dry brushing technique though it was the first time I have ever painted on a card before and I think I will do a better job next time.  But for today I went ahead and finished the card with my "original" take on the dry brushing teqhnique as for me these challenges are all about learning to make cards in new ways.  (edited to add:  I used PTI's Background Builders Twinkle on the PTI cardstock)  I am finding that as I make more and more cards I am slowly improving my skills.  I still bungle things frequently! For example it took me 3 tries to complete my sentiment piece today because I was trying to stamp the sentiment with two colors of ink and each time I tried to stamp the second color I ran into a problem!  Ugh!  I finally ran out of time and stuck with black for the entire sentiment and added a couple of pink hearts around it instead. 

Here are some additional pictures:

I made the dress form and butterfly "wings" from the "Signature Series Dressform and Signature Series Butterfly" stamp sets designed by Dawn McVey for PTI.  I just love these sets of hers and I loved combining the dress form with the butterfly and adding a little pair of silk wings that I got from Memrie Mare on Etsy - HERE

Here is a close up of the sentiment.  

And one last shot of the card overall! 

Supplies:  Cardstock, button, dies stamps - background builder twinkle; Signature Series Butterfly; Signature Series Dress Form:  Papertrey Ink; Paint Dabber:  Adirondack from Ranger:  Pearl (this is gorgeous in person - not sure pictures did it justice!)  Ribbon; pearls from my stash. Ink: Adirondcak Jet Black; and Versamagic: Thatched Straw.  Stickles: Diamond (edge of butterfly)

Papertrey Ink's "Make It Monday" #23 - Pockets with edger dies

It has been a while since I completed a Make it Monday challenge over at Nichole's blog with Papertrey Ink.  Today I decided I needed to take an hour for myself to do something fun and I decided to make a card after taking a walk with my family on this very cool and overcast morning in Seattle.

Here are some pictures of the card with the edgers die pocket that I made.  It is a scallop circle card using the second smallest grand spellbinders scallop circle dies which I purchased for 40% of from Cut at Home with their monthly coupon.

The papers are from Papertrey Ink (cardstock) and Authentique (patterned papers). 

I used several PTI stamp sets:  Tiny Tags, Flower Fusion #2; and Love Lives Here.  The little bird stamp is from Inkadinkado.   Here is a picture below of the card without the tag inside the pocket: 

Here is the tag itself.  The scallop circle die for the tag is from PTI's limitless layers set as is the circle tag on top of it.

Another close up shot.

The small tag is from the Tiny Tags die set from PTI. And the edge on the pocket is from PTI's edgers #2 collection.

This is a picture of the inside of the card.

And...

This last picture is after I fixed a problem with the little bird...it had gotten bent a little when the wind blew it off the table where I was photographing it outside and some of the foam was showing in the pictures above....this was an extra photo I ran and took after I noticed...ugh - details!

That is it for today.  I am off to play with my little boy and plant some pumpkin seeds we received from a friend while my sweet hubbie rests.  Hopefully we will have pumpkins to carve in the fall.  Happy Weekend everyone!

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! 

Some new cards I have made....

It has been a bit since I last posted.  I have been busy caring for my sweet hubbie and getting ready for his birthday.  Also getting my son through the final day of kindergarten for the year!  Wow those school years seem long but also go by quick.  Now we are finally in the sweet summertime break from school.  But since we live in the Pacific Northwest we still are not seeing summer weather - just rain and clouds with the occasional sun break for a few hours if we are lucky.  We did have a very nice sunny day on the last day of school which made for a perfect afternoon of celebration at a local spray park with lots of school kids after the day was over.  Fun! Fun! Fun!

Here are some of the cards I have been making recently:

This one above in pink was a thank you for a neighbor who gave us a wonderful gift of assistance with our garden.

This is a card I submitted for publishing that didn't make the cut.  I made the flower out of felt and a pipe cleaner and paper.  Love the colors of this one!

This is a thank you for a friend named Kara who taught the very first card making class I have ever attended.  She is fighting breast cancer so keep her in your prayers!

Don't you just love felt flowers?  They are so fun!

Here is one of the Father's Day cards that I made.  This one was given to my father-in-law.

 The banner dies and stamps are an older set from Papertrey Ink - love felt banners!

This is a thank you card which I haven't mailed to anyone yet....but I am sure it will have a new home shortly...

This is a sympathy card...

The flowers are felt, pipe cleaners and pearls and the sentiment is from a PTI set called "Sending You".

The butterfly is a die from MFT.

Well I had more cards to post including some I made for teachers at my sons school but blogger and my computer have decided not to allow me to upload anymore pictures right now so this is it for today...more another time!  Happy Summer everyone!

It's Birthday Card time for my nephew Cole...

This blog post is dedicated to my sweet nephew Cole who turned 18 years old on May 28th!  I was on a mini-vacation on his birthday and tonight I am going to bring him his gift.  I am so proud of this young man who is like a second son to me - or a first son since he was born before my little one!  He is even doing an event to raise money for cancer research and he dedicated his efforts to my husband Stuart!  This brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it - what a sweetheart!!!!

Here are some cards that I made.   The first couple are sympathy and thank you cards that I made at the request of a friend.  The rest are thank you and birthday cards that I made for my nephew and some friends that are helping me out. 

This next card is one of the possible birthday cards for my nephew.  I used the Star Prints stamp set from Papertrey Ink to make the background on the card base.  There is a close-up photo below....

Then I made a second card using the same background but with a Thank You sentiment for a dear friend who gave my son a gift recently...

This last card also uses the same stamp set for the background on the right side but with some patterned paper on the left side.  The star on the focal point was made with the PTI dies that match this set. 

The craft die cut is from a sissix die embossed with a stars embossing folder - from Quickkutz I believe - using my cuttlebug.  The majority of the products used are PTI.

Well that is it for todays post.  Hope you are all enjoying your week so far.  Just 13.5 more days of school and summer vacation will be here! 

:)  Jill