My Cath Kidston Swoon...

In the mail on Monday

came a package

from Jane (my DIL)

who was working in London

for several weeks

Are you ready for the swoon part?

Even the packaging is wonderful and will be carefully saved...

That Jane...she sure is a peach!

xoxo

Joyce

Happy Valentine's Day with lots of Love!

I love Valentine's Day....always have, always will.

It started with my mother and "the red food".

We would always have a Valentine Dinner involving "red food"...

spaghetti, tomato soup, noodles & toast...

it had to be red.

For dessert...sometimes my mother's dark chocolate cake..

or something from the bakery.

We exchanged Valentines and there

were decorations of some kind.

When I had children of my own,

we always celebrated Valentine's Day

in much the same way that I grew up with.

I think my kids even still eat red food on February 14th

and exchange Valentines with those they love.

This year, I didn't get my Valentine's Day cards

finished in time to be mailed and I'm disappointed about that.

I've had a few issues that I'm dealing with right now but it will

soon be good again.

I did get my annual Valentine treats finished for my workmates.

When this came in the mail...

everything else stopped until I had a chance to peruse all of the Valentine pages...

so many lovely things...

I knew Elyse was going to have an article in this issue and as soon as

I saw it, I knew what my project for my friends would be...

I started hoarding collecting toilet tissue tubes...

for weeks and weeks, everywhere you looked in our home

there were empty toilet tissue tubes until I amassed quite a collection

which you have seen in several posts

Here, then, is what I made...

They are filled with a variety of chocolates, wrapped in

tissue paper because I couldn't find crepe paper anywhere...

decorated with doilies and vintage Valentine images and tied off

with red twine. I decided to fringe the ends of the tissue paper to make

them look more festive.

The basket is all packed up, ready to take to work tomorrow..

It looks like my little muse would like to go, too!

Tomorrow evening, David and I will have a "red dinner", although

this year it might be tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches as

we both have lunch engagements tomorrow.

Whatever our meal, we'll enjoy it together in our home...

with a fire in the fireplace and a new episode of

 Downton Abbey to watch.
He is my forever Valentine!

I will give David this card...using the above image I found on Pinterest

I wish all of my friends who are kind enough to visit here, a very

Happy Valentine's Day...with love

Eat red food...

and chocolate, of course



XOXO

Joyce

Finishing up some Valentines using Rhonna Farrer's art!

I'm trying to finish up some Valentine projects.

This is what my work table looks like...

(Notice that these are very tight shots..the rest of the room looks equally chaotic)

In the first picture, you can see a sheet of Valentine tags printed out and ready to use.

They came from a digital kit from this amazing artist

Rhonna Farrer

Rhonna creates and sells the most beautiful Digital artwork.

When I saw some things that were created with this set

the Kiss Me Bundle

I fell in love...((sigh))

If you visit Rhonna's blogposts for the past several weeks, she has featured items made by different crafters and herself , using her images. Some of the images are free downloads, too.

This is my favorite part of the kit...

The Garland!!! The picture above is from Rhonna's blog.

I haven't had time to play with all of the elements yet but I did use one of

the digital papers and a border to make the Valentines for my work pals.

I own Photoshop Elements 10 and I wish I could tell you that I've installed it and I'm using it but truth be told, I'm still using the Fred Flinstone Publishing program that I've used for 6 years.

Anyway, I'm no master at digital but I do love layering the elements to make cool designs.

I added the text...yes, Beatles lyrics....using the

Chopin Script font...I love the swirly fonts!

OK...that's all I can show you right now.

If you love Rhonna Farrer, she has designed two paper lines

My Mind's Eye, called Follow Your Heart

Click here to see all of the papers.

I pre-ordered some of the papers and they arrived this past week

(click on any picture to enlarge)

There are 12x12 sheets...the detail is unbelievable

and there are 6x6 books...

Both sizes work for me...

OK-back to work now.

Tomorrow, I'll show you what this...

has been transformed into!

 

XOXO

Joyce



A Garland for a Special Friend

Elyse Major is one of those "friends I've never met" but feel a special bond with.

I have been reading her blog for about 3 years and I've purchased a number

 of items from her Etsy shop.

Elyse loves the Cath Kidson look...

soft pastels with a dash of red...colors I love, too.

I read every post that she writes on her blog and on Facebook, but I don't always

 comment. She will mention a new article she has written in a particular magazine

 like Romantic Homes, Romantic Country or Cottages & Bungalows,

or that she has been featured in a magazine such as Artful Blogging.

At that point, I am up and out of my chair to run and find the magazine,

forgetting to leave a comment!

(this was swiped borrowed from Elyse's blog...isn't this an adorable arrangement?)

Elyse won my Birthday Giveaway and I decided to make a little something special

for her because she is special herself.

 I hope she enjoys this little "smooches" garland.

I used the red dots that she loves and even cut hearts from a sheet of

Cath Kidson stationary...now that's friendship! :D

(I really need to learn how to take better pictures!)

I hope you like this Elyse!

Now, what do you think about this?

Stay tuned!

xoxo

Joyce

Speckled Egg's Altered Journal Swap...My Offerings for Kim and Debra

In a previous post, I showed lots of yummy pictures of the journals that I received

from Deb and Kim in the Altered Journal Swap.

These are the journals I made and sent...

For Kim...

soft shades of lilac/lavender, yellow and green

a vintage image supplied by Abbey of Little Birdie Blessings,

just click on her blog name to go to her blog.

Abby is a collector of vintage images which she generously shares

with her readers. On Thursday, she uses images

that she has added scripture verses to.
The post using this image can be found here.

If you make something using an image she has provided, you can link back to her blog.
Thank you for your kind and generous spirit Abby.

The papers I used are all from Melissa Francis.

You always have to include some fun extras...and chocolate of course

Debra's journal had more of a Victorian feel...

The images on the cover all all done digitally.

The image of the girl is from a note card that I scanned,

The frame is an old cabinet card image and the

bird is a separate image, too. I love layering different

elements on top of each other.

I also used vintage seam binding and buttons to trim out the front.

The postcard was another vintage image and I added the "D".

All of my swaps are complete for now.

I must get busy creating things for a Spring Boutique that my

closest crafting friends and I will be having at my home

on Saturday, March 24. If any of you are readers from the Pittsburgh area,

 please email me and I will give you the details.

I am thinking about hosting a

Bits of Spring Canvas and Tag Swap

We would each use an 8x8-inch canvas board

similar to the board I made Sandy for Viv's Valentine Swap

only with a Spring theme.

Nine, 2-2.5 inch squares, each decorated like a small art piece.

You would also make some kind of tag...3x5-inch to

go along with the board.

It would be a one-on-one swap.

Let me know what you think and if there is enough interest generated,

I will work out the details and we'll try it. I'm

guessing the due date for this project would be around the end of April.

This board was so much fun to make.

XOXO

Joyce