Love, Love, Love...is meant to be shared!

O.K. remember when I told you that my family handmade me Valentine’s Day cards and I promised to share them? Well, I am coming through on that promise and posting the cards along with a few (behind the scenes) notes about them. You will be so impressed, as was I. See what can happen if you stamp enough...it eventually rubs off on the rest of the family! {big grin}

I am posting these in the order that I opened them! This first one is by my 14yo, Kai.

She stamped the top portion with a background floral stamp to create a

tone-on-tone look. She also used direct ink to paper distressing on the

type area and incorporated a punched flower and border...who says they

don’t pay attention to what you are doing. Maybe I should watch

and learn a few tips from them! Can you say talented? Is it

o.k. for me to proudly state that I’m her mom?!!

detail view of punched flower with button and stamped background...

This card is kind of a tag team effort. You see, several years ago I stamped this pretty 2 step stamping floral background for a friend’s gift. I had one long strip left and stashed it away for safe keeping to use on a special project. Truth be told, I was having a tough time parting with it!

Well, while I was cleaning out my supplies and reorganizing my studio, I put this strip into the patterned paper scraps file, and guess who quickly snatched it up — Ashley! I LOVE how she used it and LOL over the fact that I was saving it for something special, which it did turn out to be, only I wasn’t expecting to be the recipient!!!

How lucky am I that Ashley made me such a gorgeous Valentine card.

O.K., try not to get too jealous. My husband has only twice attempted to make me a card, both of which turned out great and meant so much to me. I am sure it is pretty intimidating for him in truly being out of his element (sort of like me on a bicycle, his specialty). He kept it simple and sweet. Doesn’t this rock!!! Poor sweetie discovered some little glue smears on it while we passed it around for everyone to ooh and ahh over. He was so heartbroken that it wasn’t perfect. Says who? Too me, it was perfect and appreciated more than any store bought card.

Think Pink!

Yup, you guessed it! Kelly and Chris had a baby girl and we are all over the top ecstatic to have a new baby in the family. Welcome lil’ Brooke Avery O’Connor! Such a sweet name. We just can’t wait to see photos. We hear she has a cute round face, strawberry blonde hair with light brows and lashes...fair like her mama with some of daddy’s good genes thrown in there too! Whe weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 oz. Not sure how long she was. I got the call around 11:30 am with the news.

Now grandmom Flossie can have a piece of cake for the both of you to celebrate the shared birth date. Will post a photo when I get one either here or on my facebook page.

I pulled this old card sample from my archives. It is one I made for my mom with the pink flowers. Thought it was appropriate in honor of the new mom, Kelly. May you and your baby share love always!

On this I embossed the rose and leaves in gold EP, bleached the areas inside the flower and leaves, then colored with an aqua painter and some ink puddles. This was from a set I designed for Inque Boutique. Talk about a flash back! The pattern is done with Clear EP and scrolly leaves from the same Aging Gracefully See-D’s set.

Hurry Up, Baby!

Today we woke to the excitement that Kelly and Chris are at the hospital waiting to deliver their first child...baby O’Connor. Chris is the youngest of all of us cousins and we haven’t had any new babies in the family in quite some time. Since the baby made sure during the ultrasound that it would be a surprise for all, we are anxiously waiting to hear if it is a boy or a girl. And guess what is even cooler? Today is my Aunt's 70th birthday! Happy Birthday, Aunt Flossie...we hope the new baby gets to share this day with you and turn out to be as wonderful a person as you, too!

I am just sharing a sneak peek of the card I made for Kelly’s shower, actually I made two, and hope to submit this one. I don’t often do the vintage look, but I was really happy with how this turned out. The buggy is from a See-D’s set and so is the text. The frame is an elegant Stampin' Up!® stamp and the ribbon is also from there.

I have been on a scrapbooking and stamping roll and plan to do lots of photographing today. Some I will post and some are for project submissions. Maybe I can share some bits and pieces of them like I did here. Hope where you live the weather is clearing and starting to warm up. It feels more like Spring in Florida, only today is dreary and rainy. I will share the baby news with you soon!

Love is in the Air, even if it is 40 degrees in Florida!

Oh, I know most of you northern girls have had your share of cold, snowy weather, but for us Floridians, we are just not used to waking up to temps in the 30s and 40s. Enough of this already! By now, I have usually purchased atleast a few new flowers for the garden to begin planting for spring. Instead, it is ground zero. Dan and Ash had to cut back most of our bushes and plants. They all looked dead, most dropped their leaves or showed severe signs of the cold temps. Even the palm trees are browned with only a little bit of green. Despite the chill in the temps, the warmth of Valentine's love is still in the air. Here are some cards I created for my Valentine's (aka my girlies and husband).

Hugs & Kisses Cupcake Card (for Kai)

detail shows bow and mini tag and that houndstooth digi paper I love from mygrafico.com

A Stylish Love (this one matches Ash's personality)

Check out the rub on flourishes used on this from

Basic Grey Wholy Cow rub ons

this shows inside the mini card on front panel with Valentine message

guess you can tell who this was for! Stamped the frame and mounted paper on inside, then used Versamarker to emboss name in Gold on the envelope. Cut and glued on hearts as accent.

You and Me, Valentine Card and env. set

Used scalloped border, scallop heart punch and brown pearls as fun accents. Yes, I used pink and brown again, sorry, but a personal fave color combo. This time I mixed it with gold Core' dinations paper, chocolate chip, ivory naturals CS and pp from Chatterbox found at JoAnns.

These two owls from Sassafras' Olivia and Pals set reminded me of me and my DH. See, he is 6'3" and I am 5'2 and a half inches! {LOL had to add the 1/2!} And this is what we look like side by side. We are pretty opposite in many ways. He likes to cycle; my butt has real issues with bicycle seats. He loves all foods; I am a picky eater. I love color; he prefers navy and green, but somehow we are a great match and have been married for

23 years and together for 25!

Note: on the frame, this time, I handcut the center and mounted contrasting CS behind the opening after stamping the verse You and Me.

Here is a fun technique to try with your punches...cut a strip of patterned paper or contrasting CS and place in your punch at the angle you want to mount on top of your solid punched image. Now you have matching edges to align and mount on top and your strip is an even width.

Not going to post my personal love letter to my DH, but this is what was inside the top portion of the card. He loved the distressed edges smudged with ink and the cut out hearts. The love you stamp was embossed in gold. Both it and the heart were from a Brenda Walton Inkadinkado stamp set.

Tomorrow I will post the cards my family made for me...what a treat!!!

Combining Digi and Stamping

Love & Friendship Card

My friend Lindsay is a designer on a site called www.mygrafico.com so I purchased some of her sets and a couple others to play with along with my other crafting and stamping supplies. I had some baby cards, birthday and valentine’s cards to make so I got busy doing some hybrid and digital creations. Here is a peek at some of those cards. I especially love the uptown houndstooth set of papers. I have used the black background and altered the brown in Photoshop to match the elements of Cocoa Studios Mod Nature set. The Baby Bingo set is a free download and I had fun changing up the colors to use the sweet bingo card on a variety of cards. I will post more cards this week. Wait ’til you see the cards I made with the Love Grows Here set. Too cute!

Your Family Has Grown (Baby Card)

Inside Detail (see coordinating gift card from Toys R Us)

A Little Birdie Told Me (congrats for new grandma card!)

(inside the card - plenty of space to write my message)

Houndstooth Hugs & Kisses Card ...Tri-fold card with heart tied into bow

Birthday Boy Bingo Card

So you ask how do you work with digi stamps/art? You can use the jpegs or png files to place directly in Word, Photoshop or a layout program. Print them as is, color them in, change their color, combine art, etc. You can scale them, edit them and have fun creating! Sign up on the site. It is free. Ooh, and they are having a 20% off Valentine's weekend sale! Don’t you just love sales?

Layers of Love

Today, my heart is a bit heavy after finding out that one of my former CCD students, a 14 yr. old friend of my daughter Kylie, has a cancerous tumor in her lung. Sometimes life just seems so unfair for someone so young and active to be dealing with something so difficult. But here is where those layers of love come in to play. Saturday night, I stayed up til the wee hours of almost Sunday wake up time to prep some ready to assemble cards at Confirmation classes. The girls and guys assembled their selected card and wrote messages to Kayla. It really warmed my heart to see teens reaching out and writing words to comfort and uplift a friend in a time of need. Who needs sleep anyway...it is overrated! (Actually, I caught an hour or two nap before Super Bowl commercials aired.) And some of the kids delivered the cards in person while visiting with Kayla.

Our church community has gone into their prayer warrior and super outreach mode to see that the family is equally supported with meals and an outpouring of love. Sometimes it is difficult to hear stories like this, but they do remind us how important LOVE and friendship is not only on Valentine's day, but every day. Today's scripture readings talked all about God's healing powers, which we all will be praying he bestows upon this beautiful young girl, and that is a great comfort at this time.

This card is called layers of love, and is one I am sending it to my SIL and BIL...oops, hope I didn't spoil the surprise. Beth is a talented jewelry designer and is always so supportive of my craftiness so I wanted to share a little bit of love with them. If you need a unique Valentine's gift, be sure and check out her site. The color combination is Cameo Coral and Melon Mambo. The Love stamp is from Rubber Stampede, and one that I haven't used very much. The outline flowers are from SU's 5th Avenue Flowers set. The technique used on the ribbon is so simple. I heated it with my embossing heat tool to create the vintage crinkles. Be inspired today to layer someone with your love!

Valentine Publication Alert!

If you are a subscriber to Cardmaker Magazine, you may have caught this project of mine published in the January 2010 issue as a bonus web project. The Love You Beaded Heart card was one I originally created for my DH and recreated, since the background paper was no longer currently available. (Hint: I sponged Pretty in Pink ink on the background of Whisper White CS to give it that light pink color, then used Chocolate chip ink and dots stamps to create the pattern - easy peasy!) Some other tips: I made the pocket of Regal Rose CS by scoring and folding. For added interest I scored a few nore lines across the pocket. Other stamps used are from an eclectic mix of sets. Check out Cardmaker for a complete list of supplies used on this card creation.

You know I have a second love affair with the colors pink and brown, but HUSH, don't tell my hubby, he might get jealous! So if today, you find yourself staring at a blank piece of chipboard, pull out beads, buttons and glitter and get busy decorating that blank canvas. Then use it as inspiration for a card or scrapbook layout. Happy Crafting!

Pull Out Your Winter Mittens

With all the cool weather we have had this winter in Florida, it made me dig out some of my old winter hats, gloves and scarves. In the spirit of the season, here is an idea for some indoor winter decorating to warm up your walls. Inspired by the cool holiday papers and embellishments from Imaginisce’s Polar Expressions collection, I created these mitten templates to create a fun wall hanging display. This project can be added to a winter basket along with a mug and some hot cocoa or coffee for a warm and wonderful gift. Or you can attach some metal clips to the flip side and hang these in your kitchen to keep your favorite winter recipe cards on hand. And if you want another clever gift-giving tip, just attach a pockets to the back sides of the mittens, one with a gift card and another to insert a personal note. Or turn them into a winter mini album. Use this template along with the winter hat one I designed to create coordinating winter mini albums.

This was a project I created for Glue Arts showcasing their Wall Art Decor Adhesive (used to apply paper to handcut mittens); High Tac adhesive (used to reinforce edges and small attach embellishments); Adhesive Squares to attach Poinsettias and bird die cuts. Note: diecuts and texture envelopes are from Stampin' Up!®.

The CHA Red Carpet

O.K. humor me a little. I had a blast in my whirlwind tour of the Craft & Hobby Association Winter trade show in Anaheim. What added to my whimsy was taking photos of these creatively dressed mannequins. I just had to share a few of these with you. Check out my albums to see all the photos from CHA.

Look a little closer. The Plaid model is wearing clear Christmas balls, the fillable kind, the red and blue dress is made of Pentel pens and pen caps and those cool rings are made from layered buttons. Which would make your best and worst dress lists? Just a post to help you decide what to wear and not to wear at the next CHA show.

Blasting Through CHA in a Day!

I'm back from the 2010 CHA Winter Tradeshow and want to give you the whirlwind 1 day sneak preview inside the show that I enjoyed. From creatively displayed products to unique product samples, you will be creatively inspired. There are also a few pictures with some crafting celebs. Hold onto your seat...we are about to take off into creative wonderland!

If you would like to view these images at a larger size, and pause them, double click on the slideshow to go to my picasa web album.

Valentine Hoot Box and Mini Card

Using my SU bitty box and envelope die with my sizzix big kick, I created this adorable gift box and card set for Valentine's Day. The owls are from Sassafras' Olivia & Pals clear stamp set, the flower petal is an older SU punch, the heart is a Marvy scallop heart punch and backround flower is also a Marvy Punch. The cardstock is a personal favorite collection called Classic K McKenna from K&Company along with Soft Vanilla from Stampin' Up!® and Tan CS from The Paper Co. Other supplies used: Brown satin ribbon, light and dark pink rhinestones, Chocolate Chip ink, Regal Rose Marker, stamping sponge (to distress edges), Glue Glider Pro with high tac adhesive, Glue Arts' ribbon adhesive and mini adhesive squares. I displayed this project at the CHA Craft SuperShow this past Saturday. This is a close up view of the gift card and box top. Scroll down for more photos.

Some design notes: I used mini adhesive squares to make & attach the ribbon loop under the punched flower. If you don't own this punch, you can substitute with a similar size flower. To create the 2 toned owl, I stamped once in chocolate chip, then once using the Regal Rose brush marker to color and stamp. I trimmed out the heart shaped face and adhered to stamped brown image. I trimmed around owl shape and mounted to layers on mini gift card. For edging on card, I used a stamping sponge dipped into ink pad. I drug along CS to distress. I freehand cut the mini pink heart from the wing portion of the owl I stamped in Regal Rose.

Don't forget to dress up the outside of the envelope. Here I used the scallop heart punch with a lightly patterned solid CS from the collection so I could write the name of the person I was giving it to inside the heart. Again, I edged in brown ink to make it pop!

This shows a view of the inside of the mini gift card with the ribbon wrapped around the inside. I added a tiny verse from a retired SU set, called Be Mine, but you can add in your own stamped verse or set up a message on your computer and print out. I edged Vanilla CS with rose marker.

My CHA Travel Experience

I am back from the CHA Craft SuperShow and retailers tradeshow in Anaheim inspired by the creativity that surrounded me. I had demonstrating Glue Arts' adhesives while leading make-n-takes at the consumer and retail shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is always great to see the wonderful Glue Arts gang and get to hang out together for a few days. Participating in the PJ Party Live event Friday night brought stares (at our pajamas & slippers) and fulfillment in showing crafters how to make a winter hat mini album. My experience at this year's CHA show ended with a day of walking the show and getting creatively inspired by the wonderful new products and talent that surrounded me. Here is a peek of my travel diary. I will post show previews later this week. If you want to veiw the captions, just click on the slide show to view at larger size in Picasa.