Birds & Blooms

 Another card using the Heartfelt Creations bird cage die. I turned it into a shaped card & covered it with the beautiful papers & handmade Lily’s .. I do love this collection…

Birdcage card

A simple birdcage card turned into a very heavily embellished one. I got carried away with the red cardinals, poinsettias & holly … 

Trying to get back into posting again, I’ve had no mojo but it feels wonderful to be making something & I have another card in the works. Thanks for stopping by. 

Janie
 

Test

 I’m trying to see why my blog isn’t sending out my posts. Here’s a quick picture 

Tea Time Easel Card

 I’m sharing an easel card I made awhile ago. I used the papers, stamps & dies from Heartfelt Creations Tea Time collection … Added a handmade rose flower & some leaves to match. I forgot how much I enjoyed posting. You can click on an image if you want to enlarge them.

i know it’s been a long time but I Hope some of you are still following me.

Hugs, Janie

Desk Set

 Hello my friends & family, I’ve been absent so long they shut off my blog. I just reactivated it & am ready to post again if only I can remember how it’s done. I’ve been using or rather PURCHASING” a lot of Heartfelt Creations papers, stamps & dies ...Now its time to share my newest addiction with you. 

You can click on the pictures if you want to enlarge them.

My daughter, Theresa has been asking me to make her a sticky note holder for her desk at work & now that she has it I’d like it to be my1st post of the year ...

The flowers were made from HC Vellum paper, stamps & dies.  

I used a couple small magnets so you can totally open the tissue box when you need to refill it. 

Hope some of you are still with me cuz I’ve missed you ....

hugs, Janie

Quilt Card

Good morning, friends & daughters & my dear husband, Jay who still loves me after all the money I've spent to continue this crazy hobby of mine. This is the first of many Quilt cards I'm sure I will be making. They are an addiction in themselves but so much fun & although they look quite difficult they are pretty simple to make. I added a button to the middle before I sent this one off to my good friend Ruth Ann for a late birthday. 

I’ve always loved & admired my daughter, Bridgette’s beautiful quilt projects so when I saw a quilt die that could be used to cut paper I popped it into my “cart” & sat twiddling my fingers until it got here ... Once I had it in my hot little hands, I started figuring out how I wanted to use it. It's a great little die & could be used many ways. I wanted to make some cards for my daughters & my very good friend Ruth Ann who is also an amazing quilter.

Here's a sample of how I "made my quilt"...

I started by choosing 3 or 4 solids & print patterned paper, placed the die on top of each paper & once I had them all cut out by just one pass thru the die cutting machine.  I chose the color over lay I wanted to use & started designing my quilt. It's SOOOO much fun & brought great joy to me.

I was trying to figure out how to glue all those tiny pieces inside my quilt square when I remembered watching Pam Sparks tutorial on using the Score-Tape. She is AMAZING... I cut a 4 x 4 inch piece of white card stock, placed it on my desk then put any color of the quilt block on top of that. Then begin inserting my tiny quilt pieces into the design using colors I liked best. Once I could see what I liked or wanted to change it was easy to pop any of the pieces out & rearrange them since they weren't glued down yet.  

Choose any color you want.

The finished card

Now that I have the pattern, colors & design to my liking I take a new 4x4 square of white paper (or any color you want) lay it down & use Scor-Tape to cover the whole white square so it's all sticky. I used 2 strips of 2" Scor-Tape and gently place a 4x4 paper quilt die-cut onto the sticky paper & you have your "puzzle layout" .... Use a Bone Folder to press it smoothly avoiding the sticky areas.  

Now you're ready to finish your design. 

Sorry this was a little picture heavy but it's been a long time since I've posted & I have a lot to relearn 

Thanks for staying with me this long. I appreciate each & everyone of my viewers. 

Hugs, Janie

A Mother's Love

It's been so long since I've posted anything I feel like I've forgotten everything I ever learned. My card today is for the Paper Shelter challenge #115 "Flower Power".
I've used one of the many adorable images found at The Paper Shelter called "My Sweet Mommy".
If you use any of their images the winner will get a generous $30 gift certificate to spend buying these wonderful digis. If you choose to use another image you can still win 3 digis of your choice. So grab your supplies & come join us ... We love to see what you can create.

I made this shaped card using a set of Go Kreate dies & one of my favorite new Cheery Lynn flower dies "Shasta Daisy" & inked the edges to make it stand out. Also used the Rose Leaf strip for the leaves. Both dies cut out 6 at a time ...

 

 

The sentiment is stamped & layered on a couple of Die-namics Fish Tail dies & displayed on a wooden rack I made ...

 

 This saying makes me smile & think of my beautiful daughters cuz I know no matter how old they are they will never outgrow their need for my love.  

 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hugs, Janie 

Freshly Harvested

Good morning on this beautiful day. I know a lot of you are still getting snow & that nasty cold stuff but here in sunny, warm Tucson, AZ it’s been 80 most days for quite awhile. I must say I’m loving it !!!
My card today is for the  “A” team challenge #105 at “The Paper Shelter” for the theme "anything goes". I hope you'll grab your crafting supplies & join us for a chance to win $30 to spend at the their shop if you use one of their images or 3 images of your choice if you use any other image. 
I’ve used one of the new digi images called “Freshly Harvested” & I think she’s just adorable. She reminds me of several of my grand daughters out picking a few veggies or a pretty bouquet of flowers they’ve grown. For my pretty background paper I printed out a sheet from their digi pack called “Distinguished” & chose my Copic colors from it to color up this sweet little girl.
Copics used :
Hair Y000 - Y00 - Y21
Scarf & shorts - BG75 - 72 - 000 
Top & Basket - E44 - 43 - 42
 
I used some new Cheery Lynn flower dies on this card & am really enjoying playing with them. They are so simple to turn a plain piece of paper into some lovely flowers of many different kinds & any color you need to match your project.
I chose to make 2 different sizes of the Fringe flower out of cream card & then swiped a little tan ink on the tips to make it go with the Coffee Filter Daisy I made to match. This was the most fun flower I’ve ever made. I was telling my daughter, Theresa I didn’t have any Flower Soft for the center of a Sunflower I had made so I had an “AHHA” moment and used what I had at the time, Fresh Coffee grounds. I put a little glue in the center of the flower & then added coffee grounds & it works great !!! I’m SURE it’s not acid free but then I do this for fun so once in awhile you just do what you gotta do, right !! While I was telling my daughter about the coffee grounds I used for Flower Soft she suggested I try making a flower out of a coffee filter. Hummmm, certainly worth giving it a try so I grabbed a couple clean filters, poured a little coffee in a bowl, crumbled the filter up & let it sit for a few minutes then turned it over & let it dry. Did it a couple more times till it was the color I wanted & it had some nice lines of darker colors on it. After it dried well I straightened it out & used the Cheery Lynn Daisy Strip die to cut the flowers & then just off set them a bit & popped a pretty pearl brad thru it to make it secure. I love how it turned out & think they make great accents on a project. I was on a roll & had the coffee grounds out & was using more filters & made a fresh pot of coffee to soak more filters for flowers. 
My husband looked over & grinned & asked if there was going to be any coffee left for breakfast.. I saved him a little !!! hehe


    
Here’s a close up of the adorable little gardener out harvesting & one of the Spikey flowers I made with another Cheery Lynn die from the “Build a Flower” #1 set. I LOVE these flowers, you just run the die thru a couple of times & you have enough to make several flowers using the different layers it cuts out. It also cuts a lot of different leaves but the one I used with this flower is another new Cheery Lynn die, a Flourish Leaf Strip that cuts & embosses 5 or 6 leaf branches out at a time. I also used a couple of Tiny tags nested together & a cute little bee but then decided the bee looked out of proportion with everything else on my card so pulled it off & then to my dismay it pulled a big chuck of my pretty designer paper that I had printed off.

Soooo I did what us card makers do & tried to cover up my mistake … Should have just put a couple of flowers on & called it good cuz after I started gluing flowers & little dragonflies & tiny pearls on it became toooo busy but by then it was too late. I was not about to try taking those off so like my daughter, Bridgette says, “it is what it is” … It’s just a card & I did have fun making this & do love these sweet little Paper Shelter digi images they give us to play with …
I’m always so pleased to know you stopped by.
Hugs, Janie

Happy Summer

I know summer is drawing to an end but I just love this sweet “Garden Tilda” & wanted to use her today … She was colored with Copics & made with a whole lot of love …  I made the little wood minitures & card display rack while I was working ... I am sooo NOT a wood worker but my "boss, who is a quadraplegic" can tell us how to do thse things & he maks it fun to turn a little piece of wood into a tiny wagon wheel or wood vase with his tools. Although he can't do them himself anymore he's a wonderful teacher & I'm so pleased when I look at the finished project & can say "I did this myself !!! Sure couldn't have done it without him tho. Thanks Al ...
Darlene from Dutch Paper Crafts asked me to do a few more samples for her & the die I backed Miss Tilda with is a LifeStyle Craft oval die … They are so nice to use & cut like butter. I stamped the sentiment on one of the 3 Memory Box Puffy Clouds that come as a set that Darlene also sent & used a leafing pen to make a little “silver lining” on the clouds …

I added a little Flower Soft for the “dirt” & the watering can is an old Sizzix die I cut out of a Pepsi can & then ran thru my Vagabond & crimped it with a wavy paper crimper. The flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts & the little cones are from my “gathering” outside. I LOVE to use things I find for little fillers … The leaves are a Cheery Lynn Flourish …  Gee, I sound like a salesman but I truly do love this crazy “addiction” hobby & just like to share what makes me happy.
And the inside done to match .. Looks like I forgot to add a little something to the right side of the sentiment but will fix it later. The papers are from the Nitwits “Petal Fresh” digit collection & I can’t believe how wonderful they print out. These beautiful “quilt” papers are some of my favorites …

There, I added a little Cheery Lynn butterfly to fill in the blank space …
The wonderful scalloped card base was sent to me by a sweet lady Eileen from "across the pond" ... She makes some amazing cards so go check out her blog when you have time. But I WARN you she uses some wonderful dies that makes you want to rush right out & pick some up. If you stop by to "visit" her tell her Janie says Hi ...
I wanted to use pale yellow filler flowers but only had white so I got out my nifty little Mini air compressor & a Copic marker & sprayed them to match. Quick & easy !!!
 


From white to yellow with just with a quick spray … I also sprayed a few leaves for another project.

Here’s a couple more samples I did for Darlene using the Life Style Crafts Floral Doily & the Nesting Squares & Cheery Lynn butterflies & Olive branch... when I order from Dutch Paper Crafts, Darlene usually gets it to me in about 2 days. Fastest service possible. If you don’t see something you want just e-mail her & she will get right back to you & let you know if she can get it.


This was a little long but I hope you enjoyed the post half as much as I did making it.
Hugs & happy crafting, Janie

Decorated Letters for MASON

My Granddaughter Ashley is expecting a baby boy next month & I made her a card & decorated some wooden letters to spell his name. They’ve decided to name him Mason but when he’s born if they decide on another name I’ll just make new letters ….




I used a digi image from Saturated Canary called “Ice Cream & Pickles” & couldn’t have found a more perfect stamp for a young ladies 1st baby. I colored her with Copics & then decided to paper piece her clothes to match the papers in the card … That beautiful ribbon was a gift from my sweet friend Sharon Caudle & I made the bow using a Bow maker that I made myself out of a pine board & a few shop tools. I saw one on Becca Feekins blog months ago but wanted to try making my own. It works great & really is like having another pair of hands.
I’ve never tried decorating letters but it was pretty easy & lots of fun. I’m afraid I went overboard on the embellishments but I couldn’t stop adding little ducks & buttons & bows. I want to remind her to not hang it to close to his crib cuz there’s a lot of tiny pieces that I sure don’t want to fall into his bed.



  This is how plain they were before I added anything.



This is what they look like after ….





I took pictures during the process so I could do a little picture tutorial next time I want to make them …
Here is the card my daughter, Theresa (Ashley’s Mom) made using the same digi image while she was here visiting … Isn’t it adorable !!!  A truer sentiment was never made …. Love how she finished it on the inside too …

 
Thanks for stopping by today to see what occupies my time & makes me happy …
I’m entering this in these challenges
 http://abc-challenge.blogspot.com/ for "Jazz it up"
 http://digitaltuesdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ for "use your stash"
 http://onestitchatatimechallenge.blogspot.com.au/ "Anything goes"
 http://thepixiecottage.blogspot.com/  "Anything but a card"  Masons decorated letters
 http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.com.au/ "in the garden
Cute Card Thursday "flower power"