The Shabby Tea Room - Week#200 "So romantic"

I am so excited to be guest designing for The Shabby Tea Room for the month of January 2014.  What a lovely way to start the New Year!  Thanks Debbie for inviting me!

The theme for week #200 starting on Monday January 6, 2014 is "So Romantic".  Here is the inspiration photo:

We were asked to create a card/project inspired by the photo using roses.  Isn't this a gorgeous picture?  I love the roses, velvet ribbon, and pocket watch as well as the different papers and decorated tin can at the top of the photo.  So much to be inspired by.

January, February, and March in our family includes the birthdays of all 5 of us girls plus one of my nieces too.  With all of those birthdays to prepare for I decided to work on a birthday ensemble since I need to create several in the next few weeks for gift giving!  Here is what I came up with:

 I created a large Medallion using a Brenda Walton Sissix die as well as a card and tag. 

 The card uses two sets from Paper Sweeties.  The sentiment is from the stamp set called "Occasions".  While the polka dot frame label is from a set call "Beautiful".  The die cuts for the card itself are from Cheery Lynn Designs.

 Here is a close up of the medallion.  It is so much prettier in person! 

 Here is the little tag with a sweet little rose covered cottage.  This die is from Impression Obsession and I love using it for house-warming gifts or really any occasion!

I thought I would take a photo of the medallion hanging on the handle of a gift bag outside too to see if the light was better.  I love how easy it is to dress up a plain gift bag with one of these.  

Thanks for visiting my blog.  I hope you will check out all of the beautiful projects from the design team in the tea room this week and hopefully come and play along with us.

: ) Jill

A card and tag for Cheery Lynn Designs - Challenge #30: For the Grad

Hi Everyone,
My nephew Cole - whose birthday was this past week - is graduating from High School this month.  So today I made a graduation card for him and a coordinating tag to add to the bag that his gift will go in.
I am linking them to challenge #30 at the Cheery Lynn Designs challenge blog:  HERE 

Here is a picture of my creations:

Unfortunately I didn't finish these until 10pm so the picture was taken in my studio with as much light as I could shed...sorry the quality isn't the best.  I used the Coved Rectangle-Scalloped Stacker Nesting Dies (XL-11) for my card and tag bases.  I also used the L-10 Coved Ractangle Classic Silver Stacker layers for additional layers on my card and tag.  I also used Cheery Lynn Designs Border Carnivale die - one of my favorites!  You can find Cheery Lynn's wonderful dies at www.cheerylynndeisgns.com.

Thanks for taking a look at my card and tag!  I hope you also found some time to do some crafting or other wonderful things this weekend.   I spent lots of time pulling weeds while admiring my garden full of blooms and watching for the humminbirds! Though it rained off and on (this is Seattle afterall) the sun did make its way out in the afternoon and early evening.  And I took advantage of every minute!

: )  Smiles,
Jill

Frames anyone? A little Valentine "Friendship Jar" tag on a card for my dear husband....

Tonight I made a little valentine of love for my sweet husband.  It has been a tough year for him and our family with his brain cancer diagnosis and I wanted to make him a special valentine.  I was reading Nichole's blog over at PTI today and the post is all about the new frame stamps coming out on the 15th of this month.  I decided to play along for the prize and incorporated a stamped circle frame from their "Love Lives Here" set into the tag I designed using the wonderful "Friendship Jar" set.  I incorporated some clear "cardstock" to make the jar appear "glass-like" by die-cutting the jar once out of cardstock and the second time out of the clear plastic.  I stamped on the cardstock and then stapled the clear jar die cut to the paper one.  After making the jar tag which holds my heart and includes the sentiment "My heart is always with you" also from the "Love Lives Here" stamp set, I decided to place the whole tag onto a card so that I could give it to my husband for Valentine's Day.  Since I was trying to make the tag masculine in nature I kept the papers and diecuts on the card fairly simple.  I like the way it turned out.  Here are a couple of pics...

Unfortunately I will need to restamp and reglitter the sentiment because I thought it was dry from the heat gun that I used to set the ink and glitter but when I tied the sentiment tag onto the lid I nicked two of the letters a bit.  I think I may also be stamping on the wrong type of cardstock so I need to order a stash of Papertrey Ink cardstock since I just love it.  The card itself is made with Aqua Mist cardstock from PTI (the only color I currently own) and has patterned papers and cardstock from Crafty Secrets and DCWV.   I also used an ek success heart punch to make the border of hearts in the middle of the card.  A white gel pen and some doodle lines and heart outlines on the punched border completed this tag/card.  I am off to bed as I have been fighting a terrible sore throat and stomach ache all day today....more crafting time tomorrow maybe...nighty night everyone!