A Weakness for Swaps and Giveaways!

Just to let you know that PJ of Seens From the Back of My Eyelids is having a super teriffic can't be missed giveaway....run right over there and sign up. You never know when it will be your trun to be the lucky one!

I have signed up for 3 swaps this Spring!!!! I couldn't resist, they all sounded like  much fun!!!
A Swap for All Seasons is doing a Tussie Mussie Swap. I try not to miss any swaps with this group! Love the ladies who participate. I think sign-ups end on Sunday, February28 so there's still time to sign up

Then I signed up for Elizabeth's Retro Kitchen Tag Swap. (Now that's really innovative!)

I just signed up for Miss Rhea's Easter Basket Swap! Easter baskets from yogurt containers...

it's fun, it's small, it's "green". Sign-ups close on Friday, February 26.

Somebody...please stop me!!!

Sign up for the drawing at PJ's and read some of her posts while you're there.

She is a great writer and a really funny woman!

Then take a wander over to the swaps and see if you'd like to join me in the madness!

Take care!

XOXO

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow, I am leaving on a little trip. For 5 wonderful days, I will be in sunny, warm Mesa, Arizona.
I will be visiting my step-mom and I will also be meeting two of the nicest people in blogland. I won't give their names yet, just in case something happens and we can't get together but I promise I'll write about it when I get back. Our plan right now is to have coffee or lunch together and doing a little shopping. I am so excited about this meeting and I promise I'll be on my best behavior! I wanted them to have something to identify me by, so here is a photo of my cute Spring handbag I will be carrying when we meet....of course I'll also be the one with the big goofy smile, too!

Yesterday, a few friends got together for a little "I'm so sick of Winter I could spit" brunch and tag swap.

We feasted on an egg casserole, monkey bread, strawberry jell-o sald mold,

cinnamon bread, cookies and cupcakes. We talked, we laughed, we traded tags.

From Mimi, I received this adorable pieced and sewn tag with her signature buttons!

Michele made this tag into a magnet...

and then she also made this tag

Cute enough just as it is but when you slide the sleeve up...this is what is underneath

We all laughed about that one!

The back of the tag was as cute as the front....this is with the sleeve

and then this is the quote that was stamped on the back. I love it!

(click to enlarge)

For my tag, I used this image provided by Elizabeth. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use it on something. I loved the colors in the image and this is what I came up with...

I used my favorite papers from Making Memories...the Vintage line which is old, old, old.

Our tags were all 3x6-inches which is about the perfect tag size.

They were supposed to be done in our signature style and the

theme was friendship. My signature style must include a flower of some kind...

The flower is made by punching 4 flowers shapes using a Fiskars punch.

Each layer is crumpled again and again to soften the paper and make it fluffy.

The flower layers are stacked, a hole punched the center of all layers,

and a button shped brad inserted through the holes. I used a dimensional

glue dot to attach it to my tag.

The little gardner was mounted with dimensional foam squares.

OK-two blog posts tonight. That's going to have to hold you until I return from my trip next weekend.

I don't think I'll have any computer access at all while I'm gone...which will be hard for me.

I hope you all have a good week.

I hope all of my connections work and I can meet up with my friends.

I hope the snow continues to melt and I don't come home to "feet" of snow!

Take care dear friends....

xoxo

(scroll down to second post...I know, you're just trying to get over the shock of two in one day!)

Special Cards from Special People!

I know, I know...I'm always bringing up the rear but I wanted to show you some

 Valentine's Day cards that showed up in my mail this week..

My friend, Michele,  is the most faithful card maker and sender I know. She always remembers

and is not up until the wee hours, at the last minute making her cards.

They always come on time. I wish I could be more like her.

This is the cute cupid card she made...

My friend Elizabeth sent this one. I wish you could see the detail and the layers in this card. It is a beauty and one that I will treasure. Thanks sweet friend! (That's little Lizzie standing guard)

This card came from my blog friend, Michelle Rondeau, who lives in Quebec.

Her blog, Wood and Fabric can be found here. We became acquainted through her Etsy store

 (I've bought lots of neat things from her) and now we occasionally

email back and forth and have become friends. She knows how much I love

her fairy ladies and she sent me this large dancing fairy which is so much

more lovely in person. Michelle makes beautiful tags, cards, small memory

books and other art pieces. Please take a look in her shop...you will enjoy the trip.

(click on the piture to enlarge)

The last, and most special Valentine came from a boy I love very much.

you guessed who it was from....Charlie!

(seen here with his Mommy!)

Valentine Post No. 2-Vintage Valentine Card Party

My second post today and it's not even 8:30 AM yet! Yikes!

In addition to the Amour Valentine Swap photos following this entry,

I also signed up for Joan's Vintage Valentine Card Party.

Each participant is to show their vintage Valentines today. I don't have a huge collection,

 in fact, some have come to me recently as gifts from blogging friends,

but I scanned them so that you can use them in your work if you'd like.

If you go to Joan's blog...you can then link to all of the other participants in the party!

Have fun browsing and Happy Valentine's Day to all!

This last one is one I made to send to a friend far away in Canada.

(I'm sorry this is going to be late Michelle)

It was made using copies of vintage images and digital embellishments.

I want to say thank you to everyone who comes here to see what I've been up to.

 Your visits, and especially your comments, warm my heart and mean so much to me.

 I am so blessed that I've met so many wonderful women through blogging,

 and I enjoy our "chats" and visits. Some of you worry,

 that if you leave a comment once, it obligates you

 to leave one on every post and that's just not true.

Your time is very valuable and you have many constraints on it...

just stop in and say hi when you can.

I love hearing from you and I enjoy visiting you, too

xoxo

Cathy's Treasured Heirlooms Amour Valentine Swap Reveal

For Valentine's Day, I participated in Treasured Heirlooms, Cathy Scalise's Amour Valentine swap.  This was Cathy's first "gig" as a swap hostess and she had an amazing turnout of over 60 participants. My Partner was Lisa Hogan of Lisa's Craftique Boutique. (side note: I love to go there to listen to Michael Buble!!!) Our assignment was to fill a heart-shaped box with goodies our partner would enjoy and if you couldn't find a heart-shaped box, you could substitute another shape box. I couldn't find the heart boxes this year so I used a rectangle box and Lisa did the same. My gifts from Lisa,including the box, are the following...

Bits and bobs for crafting, a sweet teddy bear, notecards and a pen, candies, a candle, vintage handkercheif and a vintage card. The box was glittery and sparkley and was decorated with cute valentines. Thanks  Lisa, for all of the lovely gifts!  hope this was as much fun for you as it was for me!

My gifts to Lisa included a decorated candle in pinks, some truffles, some ephemera for crafting and a doily, a heart doorhanger (handmade but not by me). Everything was given in the painted and decoupaged box altred with some ephemera, vintage seam binding, crocheted doily and beautiful Anna Griffin scrapbook paper that looks for all the world like vintage wallpaper.There are additional pictures on my Flickr photostream here.

Thank you Cathy, for hosting this beautifully themed and fun swap! I'm sure you are exhausted after all of the matching and follow-up! Put your feet up and enjoy some chocolate!

xoxo

Two more Collages....sent with love

For my sweet, inspiring, creative friend Elizabeth, with love...

You bring so much joy to my life with your art and your writing. You have challenged me to be a better crafter and blogger....thank you for all of your inspiration E! Love you!

This for my loving, supportive and wildly creative friend Dee

 (luluathome on Flickr)...no blog yet but I'm working on her!

You are loved Dee!

If you love this little angel girl...she could be yours, too, if you just go to Sandy's (Sandy's Creations)

Etsy Shoppe; Blog Banner Queen, here.

I have been dying to use this little girl..I just love the way her hands are covering her mouth.

 Sandy-these images were a dream to work with! Thanks so much!

 Can't wait to see what you come up with for Easter!

I'm so glad my friends received their Valentines before tomorrow.

With the snow this week, there was no telling when they'd arrive!

Still more Valentine stuff to come...

xoxo

The First Valentines

I have been working on Valentine projects for weeks now. I was involved in two swaps, the first

 I've written about here and the second one we were asked not to post until Valentines Day.

There have also been Valentines to make for family and friends near and far.

Two weeks ago I had an appointment with my dental hygienist, Mindy,  for a cleaning (twice a year...like clockwork!) and I decided to bake some brownies for her. I wrapped them up and then thought I should make a tag. I had an image, from a digital collage sheet, of a woman that I had been wanting to use for a long time. I came up with this design using  a copy of a ledger sheet as a background and some stamped red hearts. The Valentine phrase, "Be my Valentine...or else!", just fit the picture somehow, don't you think?

 I was pleased with the concept but of course had to tweak it a bit and ended up with this finished product which became the Valentine card I sent to friends. I digitally added a cupid and stamped a flourish for Miss Kissy Face to stand on and I changed out the red heart stamp. Miss KF is mounted with dimensional dots.

I wanted to make Valentines for all of my workmates, 11 of them, but knew it would take me forever to do all that layering so I decided to scan the orignal card and then resize and print them out as digital cards.

They are the size of an ATC or playing card. I then made goodie bags for each of them

 with some sweets and added  the card. Unfortunately, the snow kept me home from work this week

 so they won't actually get these until next Tuesday when I go back to the office.

The people who know me well, know that I will always choose a funny, silly card

 over a sentimental one. I always go for the laughs! It's who I am.

On the other hand, this year I decided to go for a more tender card for my husband, David.

I wanted to use the two little children featured in my blog header. After playing around

with the image for a while, I decided to use the blog header itself.

I sized it, added just 2 words and cut it out and

 mounted it on a kraft cardstock 6X6-inch card.

Did you make Valentine cards this year? I used to be one of Hallmark cards best

customers. Now they send me coupons all the time for free stuff...I think they miss me!

I have two more Valentine collages to show you but

 I want to make sure they have reached their destinations first.

I'll be back soon.

xoxo

More Snow????

We are supposed to get 8-10 inches of additional snow this afternoon and tonight, on top of the 26 inches we got last Friday. The roads around here are still not very good from the last snow. Because the Washington, DC area might be getting 12-18 inches more, Eric, Jane and Sweet little Charlie will probably have to postpone their visit at the end of the week.. That makes us sad. We really miss them.
The only good thing about being snowed in is that I got a bunch of drawers and a closet cleaned out and reorganized. It's amazing what I found.

I have also gotten a good bit of Valentine crafting done. Cards for friends, goodie bags for co-workers and collages for some special people. Supplies for cards and collages were assembled....

I took a trip to the post office this morning to get my cards and packages in the mail. Here is one of the collages...can't tell you who it's for...it's a surprise!

I enjoy doing hybrid paper crafting. Some of the paper is vintage and some is digitally produced and printed out. Don't you love the tape measure? It was from a digital kit...

it looks very real and adds an interesting touch I think. I hope my friend likes it.

Are you making any Valentines?

xoxo