Joy and pink jingle bells

Hello my friends,
Today I was painting some items a lovely shade of "Peony Pink" in my studio.  One of those items was a bag of jingle bells.  Some pink paint and a wee bit of glitter and they were all ready for a Christmas Card.  Which brings me to the "Pink, White, and Silver" Color challenge over at the Festive Friday Challenge Blog.  So here is my entry into FFC13:

 I die-cut the WPlus9 snowflake out of my doily and then cut it again in pink, stamped it with a gingham background and inlaid it into the silver shimmer doily.  It is hard to tell in the picture but I really like the inlaid look in real life!  The heart tag is stamped and embossed in silver with a WPlus9 sentiment and tied with some cheese-cloth and pink jute twine with a lovely sparkly jingle bell added.  I struggled with the bottom section of the card and am not sure about the felt heart strip even now...but will let the card ruminate over-night and see if a solution presents itself in the morning.  I think my mojo is gone as I am super tired!!!!!  Too much has happened this week and sometimes being a single parent without my beloved Stuart just wears me totally out.  That is why I was crafting tonight - for some "ME" time! 

Thanks for taking a look and I apologize for my lack of comments in blog land of late....it has been a long couple of weeks!
Hugs,
Jill

P.S.  For those of you that were asking Tim is better finally! And Mommy is very relieved!  There are sure some nasty bugs going around...what happened to the 24 hour and 48 hour flu bugs of yester year?

SUPPLIES
Stamps: WPlus9
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink and Silver Shimmer from Thrift store find/stash
Other:  Felt, Cheery Lynn Doily Die; Papertrey Ink hear border die and heart tag die; WPlus9 snowflake die; cheesecloth, jute twine, jingle bell, stickles,

I believe in Angels....

Hello Friends,
It is 7pm on Monday evening and I am finally over my migraine! Yeah! I have a card to share that I made earlier this week and a tag too...

I used a new Cheery Lynn Designs tree die and border die that I purchased from their summer release that just came out.  I love the little star and swish cut outs that are on this tree die.  So pretty!  I added some glitter glue with gold highlights in it so I can enter it into the latest Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge #90 - Silver and/or Gold.  I love the way the gold flecks sparkle in the above photo!  They are even prettier in person!

The card also uses some trendy twine in the color "Posy" (soft pink and cream) which I won on a recent Facebook giveaway!  So sweet!   

Here is another picture which shows the gold glitter effect on the tree better.  And also shows the tag again with the tiny angel wings that I created from the "leftover" cutouts in the Sofia's Heart Border Die.  Now I can make baby angel wings any time I want them.  The Sofia's Heart Doily Die makes slightly bigger angel wings  so you can depict a mother/child or family of angels if you want.  Love this!

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

I believe in Angels.....Mixed Media Wall Art

Hello Friends,
Well I finally did it....I faced my "fears" and have been working on a Mixed Media Wall Art piece for my bedroom over the past few days.  I recently purchased a new turquoise quilt (with green stitching) for my bedroom and when I saw the colors for this weeks Mixed Media Color Challenge #3 I knew I would make a "FAMILY" piece to hang in my room.  Here is the inspiration photo:

For me this became a very personal piece representing our family. Our beloved "Papa Stuart" is represented with a pair of glittery wings way up in the sky and the saying..."I believe in Angels!".  Today marks 1 year and 5 months since he passed away from brain cancer.   When someone who is such a huge part of your life is no longer present it changes absolutely everything!!  I hope that the personal nature of my post doesn't bother anyone.  For me making this type of mixed media canvas is very personal and therapeutic.  These past 3 years have truly been the hardest of our lives as we journeyed through cancer with him and lost him in February of 2012.  I thank each and every one of you that has offered support to me and my son when I have shared some of the things he is going through and that we have had to face together. Your warmth, kindness and empathy are truly a blessing to me!

Here are some process photos of my canvas - you can skip to the end if you are not interested... : )

 Getting started was the hardest part....all that white space staring up at me. (In hindsight I wish I had gessoed a bunch of background papers to the canvas to get it started and then painted over them before adding my house etc.

 After creating my house from patterned paper and the fence from a die I decided to work on the sky.
I started with some cheese cloth at the top of my canvas and over-layed it with die cut clouds.

 Here you can see that I have added a tree made from tissue paper and some green cardstock leaves that I had trimmed by hand from some stamped cardstock.    I have also added gesso and some brown, aqua, and green paints with my finger and paintbrushes to several areas to begin to create dimension.  A scalloped border helps to define the roof of the house more. 

 This photo shows how I have added some roses with dimensional paste as well as some stamping using the chicken wire distressing stamp created by Mona for MFT.  I have also used some Glitz roller stamps and started adding some rub-ons too.

 

I couldn't find an angel charm or my stash of tiny silk wings in my stash last night so I hand-cut a tiny pair of angel wings to represent my sweet husband Stu as I know that he is watching over us in spirit.  I will probably change these out when I find them.

Here is Mama Bird watching over her eggs...next time I will distress the cheesecloth and color it before gessoing it!  Oops!  I need some PITT artist pens or something like them....

 I printed my sentiment on a piece of digital gingham paper because I couldn't find any stamps the right size for my canvas.  I smeared the word "where" when adding some gesso and aqua glimmer paint over the top today to seal the canvas one last time.  But really it is just distressed - right! :)

 Here is Papa Bird standing on the roof line of the house made out of buttons with some diamond Stickles added.  I may add some more shading to him as I think he still needs more dimension!

A close up of my "paste" roses.  I unfortunately don't have the right kind of "paint" markers yet for mixed media and couldn't draw in my flower between the roses because the aqua glitter paint by Martha Stewart still wasn't dry yet.  I opted to stop and take my pictures as I wanted to get this posted today.  I will finish the flower later tonight when I fix a few other shading/doodling issues.  My son's fever spiked again today to 103 degrees so we are headed to the Doctor this afternoon after a talk with the nurse.  He has been sick for 8 days now.....and Mommy is a wee bit on the worried side!

Thanks for taking a look at my first ever Mixed Media Canvas Wall Hanging.  I created a wired hanger from some trim I got at Michaels and hot flued it to the sides of my canvas so I can hang it.  I then added a beloved gingham bow to finish it off.

I learned SO SO much during this process.  I know what supplies I need to buy now and have a list of what NOT to do next time!!!!  LOL!  I made a lot of rookie "mistakes"....though there are truly no mistakes when playing at mixed media art from what I have observed on the You Tube videos I have watched!  It always comes together in the end - and most importantly it has meaning in my heart!

 I would love to hear what you think of my very first attempt at a canvas/wall art item!  I never think of myself as doing anything truly artistic with paint as I have family members who are very talented in this area.  I am more of a stick-figure girl myself with a lot of "crafty" in my heart.
 
Until next time...thanks so much for looking!
:) Jill

P.S.  The woman and boy pictured in the house's windows are my son and I.  They were hand cut from a roll of Prima Washi tape if you were wondering.....
 

Hi Sweetie!

Edited to add:  In re-reading my post this morning 7-10-13, I discovered that a paragraph regarding PTI's Make it Monday challenge was missing for some reason.  I am adding it back in.
Hello Friends,
My little one has been down with a horrible flu or possibly sick from something he ate for the past 48 hours.  He is finally feeling a bit better tonight and I whipped up this little card and envelope for a couple of challenges while trying to tackle the mountain of towels and sheets in my laundry room that have accumulated the last two days.

I needed something bright and cheerful and easy and decided to play along with The Shabby Tea Room's Week #174 - Cherry Pie challenge. Here is the inspiration photo:

 

 This week Tracey is our creative host and she has chosen the theme of 'Cherry Pie' along with this beautiful photo for inspiration and Tracey asks that we who choose to play along create a card or project inspired by the photo using RED, WHITE (or CREAM), AQUA AND TWINE and/or BURLAP!

 I used some hemp twine to sew the cherry stems on my focal point.  And I made the cherries out of coaster board from PTI with a layer of red gingham die cuts so they would stand up more.  The stamps are Fruit Fusion: Cherries by Melissa Bickford for Papertrey Ink.  I just love this sweet little set and was so happy to have the Tea Room inspiration to cause me to pull them out!

I chose to stamp my sentiment on a piece of velvet ribbon from Michael's.  The ribbon is photographing darker than in real life for some reason. It actually matches the aqua gingham paper quite nicely in reality.  I tried adjusting the photo and re-taking it but could not get it to show differently.  Perhaps the brown ink of the sentiment is making it show differently.


I am also linking up to Nichole Heady's blog Capture the Moment for Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday #124.  This week Melissa Phillips posted a lovely video about decorating our envelopes.  I decided to try it with this card using some dry embossing and some leftover die cuts created while making my card design: 

 I also created a little gift label for the person I am giving this card to.

Thanks for taking a look at my card and envelope.
Hugs,
Jill

Supplies:
Stamps:  PTI: Fruit Fusion: Cherries with matching die
Cardstock:  PTI - white
Paper:  Digital gingham pastels - pink and aqua; Digital gingham brights - red.  Digital Floral paper
Ink: Memento Lady Bug, PTI Hawaiian Shores, Chalk ink - brown
Other:  Lil Inker stitched circle dies; coaster board - PTI; small doily dies; oval die: PTI; edge punch - EK success?; embossing folder: Anna Griffin; pop dots; tombow glue; hemp twine - Michael's. trendy twine; and pin.

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From Me to You....

Hello Friends,
I was inspired today by the beautiful inspiration photo over at The Shabby Tea Room: Week #173 - Glorious Flowers:

This week Rebecca is our creative host and she has chosen the theme of 'Glorious Flowers' along with the beautiful photo above for inspiration.  Rebecca asks that we create a card or project inspired by the COLORS FROM THE PHOTO AND INCLUDE FLOWERS, RIBBON AND NEWSPRINT!

 I used the beautiful Spellbinders Grand Labels 4 and Decorative Elements Labels 4 to create my card base and mats.  My mat is made out of some old book paper that I had on hand and this is my "newsprint" element.  My ribbon elements are the two ribbon "leaves: attached to the left side of the large flower.  I actually created 5 various sized flowers out of floral paper.  Then after playing with the layout on the card I opted to combine them together to create one large bloom with a small rose at its center.

Here is a picture of the inside of my card:  

 I apologize for the color of my photos...I was really struggling with getting these colors to photograph well.  I think the very first photo is the only one that really shows them accurately.

 Thanks for taking a look at my card.  I have company this weekend so I am making this short and sweet!
Hope you join in the fun at the Tea Room!
Hugs,
Jill

Supplies:
Cardstock/Papers: Winter Wisteria; Rustic Cream - PTI; Old Book Paper; Office Depot - white cardstock
Stamps: WPlus9; PTI
Dies: Spellbinders Grand Labels 4, Decorative Elements - Gold Labels 4; Flower Dies: Simon Says Stamp, PTI, Sentiment die: PTI; Tattered Flowers Die - Sissix
Other:  Ribbon - PTI; Tombow Mono Multi Glue, Score tape, glue dots, copics,old lace curtain fabric die cut into flowers,

Have A Very Merry Christmas in almost July...

 Here with a little Victorian Country Christmas spirit in almost July.  For the first time ever I am trying to make Christmas cards all year around so that I will have less to do come December and can relax and enjoy family and friends more during the season.  To this end I have a card this week for the Festive Friday Challenge #11.  It is an element challenge and here is the inspiration photo:

I have a ton of ideas for using tree elements bouncing around in my head tonight.   But I have to say that this card took me a while to pull together as several of my ideas did not pan out (yet!). Needless to say my spare parts box has lots of extra diecuts tonight for future Christmas cards! LOL!  The one thing that did work perfectly was the gorgeous sentiment from Verve that I wanted to use:

I finally settled on using a pine cone stamp and 3 small Magnolia tree diecuts in cardboard and cardstock for my tree elements.  Here is a close-up:

The heart dies are from both Cheery Lynn Designs and PTI.  The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

Thanks for taking a look at my card!
Happy Weekend!
Jill

For Your New Nest....

Hello again,
It is once again raining in Seattle....though nice weather is supposedly on its way for Friday and next week....it may even hit 80 degrees which is warm for Seattle.  I will be excited if it really is sunny and will definitely be outdoors to enjoy it with my little one.

Because of the rain we are inside this afternoon and I decided to play with a new Paper Sweeties stamp set that I recently won via a challenge.  It is called "Sending Springtime".  A big thank you to Debbie of Paper Sweeties for the prize!  I love my new stamps!  I am linking this up to The Shabby Tea Room Week #172 - Summer Breeze Challenge once again.  Here is the inspiration photo:

This week Starr is our creative host and she has chosen the theme of 'Summer Breeze' along with this beautiful photo for inspiration and Starr asks that we create a card or project inspired by the COLORS IN THE PHOTO AND ADD A FABRIC ELEMENT!

My fabric element is the lace piece at the top of the card.  This photo also gives you  a little peek at the inside of the card....I stamped the birdhouse in pink and added a white scalloped mat.  I made this card to have on hand for when new neighbors move into our neighborhood.  I love the sentiment!

Thanks for taking a look at my card.

If you are interested I am also going to share some photos of my house/garden on this post for a friend who wanted to see some photos of the clematis etc. that I grow in my yard.  Please feel free to skip to the end if you want. :)

I live in a 1920's charmer that I bought when it was practically falling down while I was still single and in my early 30's.  The house is very similar to the one that my Grandparents owned and means the world to me.

There was nothing here but dandelions when I bought it and EVERYTHING needed to be fixed inside and out!!!  The day that I painted the front of the house at least 20 people stopped by to thank me for buying it and fixing it up as apparently it had been the "eyesore" of the neighborhood for many, many years.  I have learned a lot since I purchased it 16 years ago and when I married my sweet Stuart in the year 2000 he moved from his property to mine and joined me in working on it. 

If you asked me what my favorite hobbies are I would say gardening and paper crafting, with hiking in the mountains as a close third - especially if it involves a waterfall of which there are MANY in Washington State.  I spend time in my garden everyday even if it is just for a few minutes and the kids in the neighborhood are in and out of my house all day long in the summer and throughout the year which means the chairs in the front and back yards get a lot of use!  So fun to have lovely neighbors!      

 The picture below is the front of my little saltbox house...and the garden that I have cultivated over the years...it is all perennials and comes back each year with no help from me!  I love that!!!  This photo was taken in May before some of the roses bloomed but it shows the clematis vines in bloom:

This is a Nelly Moser Clematis - one of my favorites!  I don't have a close-up of the other one and cannot remember the name of it either! :)

Here is the view as you walk into our backyard....

I added these sap buckets to the fence about 8 years ago and plant annuals in them each year.  This photo was taken just after filling them this year and the flowers inside of them are now at least 3x this size and trail down the fence beautifully! 

Another clematis....

One of my newer "Knock-out" roses...they bloom and bloom and bloom and need little maintenance unlike the majority of my hybrid teas which were not in bloom yet when I took this photo.

Love this rose - it was a gift from a friend when I bought my house.  I  would have to look at the tag to tell you its name though.  I love that it is usually one of the first to bloom each year!

One of my many shade tolerant perennials...these flowers open up in the morning and fall off in the evening and new ones bloom the next day.  Isn't God miraculous in his creations!

Well that is it for this post....I didn't want to post too many photos though I have more LOL!  If you are still here - thanks for bearing with me on this long and picture-filled post!  And if you are curious if I grow any food - yes I do....blueberries and raspberries and a few veggies and herbs too.
Hugs,
:) Jill

You are the most wonderful little SISTER!

Hello Friends,
Happy Monday night to you all!  I am here with a card set for The Shabby Tea Room: Week #172 "Summer Breeze".   Here is the lovely inspiration photo:

This week Starr is our creative host and she has chosen the theme of 'Summer Breeze' along with this beautiful photo for inspiration and Starr asks that we create a card or project inspired by the COLORS IN THE PHOTO AND ADD A FABRIC ELEMENT!

I love this photo!  And I would love to have that light aqua blue quilt in the bottom of the photo for my bedroom!  So pretty!!!!  My cards were inspired by all of these sweet and soft colors and the roses laying on the top of the pile!

 I started this card with Paper Sweeties "You are the most wonderful" stamp set.  I added the word "little" from a Papertrey Ink baby set.  I love this paper sweeties stamp set!  I am hoping that Debbie will add additional words to a 2nd set in the future....like niece, nephew, cousin, baby, teacher, doctor, nurse, etc. and maybe another sentiment like "Happy Birthday to the most wonderful...". I sure love the fonts in this set!!!!  For this card which will be given to one of my 4 sisters I used some digital papers and some oval diecuts.  I added some felt roses and lace as my "fabric" elements.  And I embellished the oval with some background cloud stamping (Unity Stamp Company) and some dimensional paint dots in a light pink.  I added the light blue color in the photo into the bottom half of my oval diecut with a digital paper and a sno-cone button.  LOVE  that light aqua color! 

This cupcake card is for a very dear cousin who celebrates her birthday today!  Happy Birthday Stacey!!! 

I love the soft roses and peaches of this card....I added embossed vellum over the top of the patterned digital paper to lighten it somewhat.

On a personal note:

Yesterday would have been my dear husband's 56th birthday.  It is the second birthday that Tim and I have celebrated without him.  Last year I decided that I would take a picture of Tim and I together on each of Stuart's birthday's to keep as a special keepsake for Tim as he grows up.  I hope to add some words about his Dad into the book for him as I know he will have lots of questions about who his Papa Stuart was as he grows up and becomes a man. 

Here is this year's photo of us:

 

And a few goofy candids....

We took the pictures before going to place flowers at Stuart's grave site.  The roses are from our garden and we decorated the jar with Happy Birthday sentiments and wrote little notes to Papa Stu too.  God surely placed peace in our hearts that day and we felt joy for the many blessings we have in our lives even as we miss our Stuart so very much.   

A friend sent me this poem to commemorate Stuart's special day. Many of us have loved ones that we miss on their birthdays so I thought I would share it....

 Thanks for reading my little blog and looking at the cards that I make.  My spirit is fed by all of the beauty I see on your blogs and in the world around me.  Life truly is a blessing...even with the heartaches that we all experience!
Hugs,
Jill