Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Paper Sweeties January Inspiration Challenge #27 - "Winter Wishes"

Hello Friends,
Happy New Year 2015!  I hope you have all enjoyed a very wonderful Holiday with those you love most! Tim and I enjoyed a wonderful time with Family and were blessed to have my newly-wed sister Beth and Brother-in-law Jimmy staying with us!  It made the days so much fun!  And we were also thrilled that my oldest brother Anthony proposed to his beloved Gillian on Christmas Day!  We are so excited to be welcoming new family members once again!  What a wonderful blessing!

If that wonderful news wasn't enough already I have also been holding onto some exciting news for a couple of months now.  I am so excited and thrilled to announce that I have been asked to join the lovely Paper Sweeties Design Team for 2015.  Today is my very first official post as a Design Team Member.  I have enjoyed many guest designer spots with Debbie's lovely company over the past two years but now I am an official design team member joining a wonderfully talented group of creative women!  I am so excited and I hope you will follow along this year as I enjoy designing with all of Debbie's wonderful products!

On that lovely note....
Welcome to the Paper Sweeties January Inspiration Challenge #27.  This month's theme is "Winter Wishes" and here is the wonderful inspiration photo:




Here is the card I created for today using these lovely neutral colors:

I started my card by die-cutting and coloring the lovely "Emma".  The angel costume that Emma is wearing is from the "Christmas Blessings" stamp set.  I cut two pair of wings so that I could pop up one set so that they look like they are fluttering.  And I rounded her mouth so that it looks like she could be singing the sentiment "Hark the Herald Angels Sing Glory to the Newborn King" which is from the "Make the Season Bright" stamp set.  I also cut two halos and pieced them together to form a complete circle with two flowers.  I love this look!  So sweet and matches up well with the two flowers on her robe tie. 

This picture shows the dimension of her wings a bit better.  I also embossed the card itself with music notes and added a layer of vellum over it as well as some additional layers for her to stand on edged in some glitter so that she looks like she is standing on clouds while singing!

Thanks for visting and taking a look at my card!  Wait until you see all of the wonderful inspiration cooked up for you this month!  I know you will enjoy seeing all of the lovely cards created by our team!  They are all gorgeous!

                                        Our  MONTHLY CHALLENGE TEAM blog hop list:

                                               January Guest Designer:  Beth Johnson


Your next stop is the lovely Julie Tucker-Wolek!  I hope you will join in the fun at Paper Sweeties this month using this wonderful "Winter Wishes" inspiration!  There is a lovely prize up for grabs!   You can find all of the information on the Paper Sweeties Blog!


:) Jill









Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine Special Thanks! Blog Hop

Today I am joining with many other friends to say FAREWELL to our beloved "Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking Magazine" as part of a very Special Thanks Blog Hop!


It is so very difficult to believe that this beloved magazine brought to us all by so many incredible and talented individuals will be no more.  This magazine helped make me a card-maker.  It inspired me, it taught me - Thanks GO-TO Gals! -  and it made me part of an incredible group of individuals who love to create!  It is this wonderful and inspiring and hope-filled community that I love so much that I know will continue to thrive long after the last issue of this magazine is put to bed.

How we will miss the tremendous inspiration, spirit of friendship and love of card and paper artistry that was shared here in a wonderful gathering space!! I want to thank everyone that has been a part of bringing this wonderful magazine and all of its parts (printed, blog, and digital) to all of us!  What a true blessing you have been in our creative lives!  




It is snowy and freezing cold out here in Seattle so I thought for my special thank you card a snow-woman would be appropriate!   I used the lovely "Snow Friends" stamp and sweet cuts dies from Paper Sweeties.   I had to add some glossy accents to her wonderful top hat that she is wearing to wish everyone a fond farewell and she is holding lots of love in her arms for all of you that have been such a huge blessing in this lovely PCS community we are all a part of! 

There are so many wonderful and talented designers and companies joining in this hop so I won't keep you.

A special heartfelt wish for each one of you as you finish your last days at the magazine.....

As this door closes I wish for you a beautiful window opening wide....with lovely curtains billowing a welcome as the sun shines in and you begin new adventures!  God Bless You ALL!  And thank you from the bottom of my heart for the many years of inspiration!!!!!

Blog hop info:
If these links are working....
You should have come here from:  Meredith McRitchie's blog
You will be headed to:  Kelly Latevola's


If you get lost along the way you can go to the start of the hop at Jennifer McGuire's website here:  http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/?p=16417

I want to also say a special thank you to Taheerah who organized this special blog hop! And to Bethany who created a tribute video you can see here.




Thanks so much! Big Hugs to all!


 Jill









Monday, December 1, 2014

"House of Cards" Designer Blog Hop

Hello Friends,
Here today with Paper Sweeties to celebrate the "House of Cards" end-of-term Designer Blog Hop.  House of Cards is a wonderful card challenge site hosted by our dear friend Mynn!  She invited the Paper Sweeties designers to join her creative team for a BIG collective blog hop – so much FUN!   Here is the inspiration:


And here is the card I created:



Yes....I did take the picture in the snow!  We had a rare sighting of the white stuff here in Seattle the day after Thanksgiving!  My son was OVERJOYED!!!!!  For this card I used my new FAVORITE Paper Sweeties stamp set called "Homemade with Love".  Isn't that cup of cocoa yummy looking!  I love the matching dies too!  So easy to whip up a card or tag in minutes!

I clear embossed the mug stamp and love the texture and shine it added to the cup!  I also added some glossy accents to my peppermint stick! Then there is the glittery snowflake marshmallows!  Gotta have those marshmallows and lots of them in your cup of cocoa!  Or so my son says!

Here is a list of all the Paper Sweeties designers that are participating in the hop:

  If you get lost check in at the Paper Sweeties blog. Or at the link I shared above for the House of Cards challenge site.



Thanks for joining me today!  
:) Jill



Sunday, November 30, 2014

Paper Sweeties Inspiration #26 December 2014 - Happy Holidays

Hello Friends,
Here to celebrate the "Happy Holidays" theme of Paper Sweeties Inspiration #26 for December 2014.
Love these traditional Christmas colors!
(updated with new photo on 12-1-2014)
I used the new stamp set  "Homemade with Love" to create my sweet Peppermint cocoa card and tag set.  I love the matching Homemade with Love sweet cuts dies too! It made creating this set a piece of cake!  And I even used the snowflake die to create snowflake shaped marshmallows for my cocoa!  Yummy!  

I hope you will join us in this month's challenge over at the Paper Sweeties blog!  There is always a lovely prize to be won so come over and check it out!  We would love to see your Paper Sweeties creations!  And there are some free digital stamps on the Paper Sweeties sight if you do not own any of Debbie's wonderful stamps, dies, and goodies yet!  Here is the hop list for this month:
Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties <– you are here!
Jinny Newlin  *special guest designer*
Julie Tucker-Wolek – WELCOME TO THE TEAM!!!
Lisa Elton
Lysa Rohrer
Mackie Robertson – WELCOME TO THE TEAM!!!
December Guest Designer: Diane Hover
Jill Norwood (You are here)

Thanks for visiting me and taking a look at my card!
I hope you enjoy this lovely time of year!
Blessings and Crafty Hugs,
Jill

Thursday, November 20, 2014

A Hodge Podge of winter delights....and some Christmas tags too!

Hello Friends,
Life is moving at a very fast pace these days!  So...I am going to try something a little bit different here on my blog.  Since I just do not seem to sit down and write posts as much as I should I am going to do a "summary" post of some of the crafty and "life" things that I have been up to lately.  A post in photos mainly from my Instagram page "Greenwdgirl" so some of you may have seen these before.....if not...grab a cup of something hot and sit back and enjoy!

 I decorated inside and out for Autumn and Tim and I carved pumpkins for Halloween! ( I promised some of you a picture showing the new paint color from this summer when my house went from beige to this lovely light shade of blue.)

I discovered the "Project Life" App via my friend Brandy at Brandywine Designs.....and began loving to scrapbook again!  So easy to have the pages printed at Persnickety or at home on your printer...etc..
I began to crochet as the weather got colder for a special "Christmas Shabby Vintage" Swap with my dear friend Alease who blogs at "Pretties Please Crafty Corner" and makes videos as "Leasy46" on YouTube.  She is such a fun lady!  Here are some of the things I made for her:

I crocheted around the edge of a Papertrey Ink Limitless Layers Heart Die Cut....and added a crocheted rolled rose....
 Some more crocheted roses....
 Some simple cream thread crochet flowers...these take about 5 minutes each in front of the TV when I have time in the evenings....
 Note:  Butterfly and Ribbon Cards are from digital files available at Iralamija Shop on ETSY!  More crocheted flowers....and some felt bows using a My Creative Time die from Emma's lovely store.
 I made this turquoise crocheted flower up while playing around one night and made 3 of them before the evening was over....They were Alease's favorite out of the items I sent! :)
 Just a few of the items I sent out all grouped together....

Here is a picture of the items I received from Alease:

Aren't those Magnolia Doohickey Santa Faces adorable!!!!!!  Plus that sweet card with the Penny Black image!  Etc. Etc. Etc.!!!!  I am set for Holiday Crafting! Thanks again Alease!!!!! You are so generous!


 She made these embellishments for me too and I placed them in this glittered birds nest from Michael's...


Next I prepped some areas of my craft room with all of my Christmas Crafting goodies.  I do this each year so I have everything right at hand for tag-making, crafty projects, and gift wrapping.....here are some pictures:

I have a traditional section of red and green and white and cream items:

And a pastel vintage area too this year with lots of goodies from friends on YouTube:


Then I started some Christmas Tag making:
 Some pink candy canes using some lovely Tilda Papers....
 The "Little House" die from Magnolia and some more candy canes waiting for embellishments....
 The finished candy cane tags....Love those Lili of the Valley stamped tiny tags - I use them A LOT!
 I had to make some of these snow globe tags too:   Thanks PTI and Betsy Veldman!  The house and tree and reindeer are sitting on a quilted heart sent to me by my friend Rhonda Coleman.  Adorable!  Tiny snowflakes are from a Memory Box die.
 How about some stocking tags?  Also in a light pastel color scheme.....they look like sherbert ice cream to me....oops I must be getting hungry!
 And more of these lovely Waltzingmouse Stamps tags.....with some lovely fabric plaid bows....




And more little houses ready to be tied onto packages or anything fun!
 An entire village grew in my living room over this past weekend:
 And I also got started on a Christmas scarf for my family name draw gift....we are all making our presents this year!  What fun!

 Well did you make it to the end?  I bet your coffee cup was empty long ago!  Thanks for taking a peek at what I have been up to!  The most important and fun thing I have been up to is taking care of this sweet boy:

Love when he comes out of school with a smile this big from the fun he had in ART class!  He was so excited!  Love that grin!

Thanks for tuning in my friends! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Week!  My little one is out of school on break the whole week so we will be doing lots of fun things together for the hoilday!
Blessing to you all! Your friendship is a gift to me each day!
Hugs,
Jill


Sunday, November 2, 2014

Tag You're It! Challenge #9


Happy November Everyone!
Wow....it is officially the "Holiday" season and that means that I am making lots of Christmas tags and cards in my craft room!  I love the inspiration at the Tag You're It Challenge! Here is the graphic:

The lovely and talented Leigh Penner created these beauties!  I love the use of the word dies and the papers with the different size stripes.  Her tags inspired me to create these:

 I used my new Papertrey Ink Wet Paint Holiday word dies; some crochet flowers that I made with pink thread and some little angel charms as tree toppers.  The paper is digital and from Iralamija Shop on ETSY.

I have to say that mine are probably not CAS so I am not sure if they fit with the challenge guidelines?!   But alas it is where the inspiration took me. 


Thanks for taking a look! 
Crafty Hugs,
Jill

Friday, October 31, 2014

Paper Sweeties November Inspiration Challenge #25 - 'Holiday Joy'


Hello Friends,
Today I get to join the incredible Paper Sweeties Design Team as a guest designer as we kick off the November Inspiration Challenge #25 - Holiday Joy!  Here is the lovely inspiration graphic:

Red, white and turquoise!  Such a pretty color combination and with such a pretty picture to inspire!

Here is what I came up with:

I used two of the October release sets to make my card and an older stamp set called "Naughty or Nice" for the sentiment "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas".

To create my banner I actually used an upside down Christmas Tree stamp from the "Trim the Tree" stamp set.  I used both the back and front of the stamp to create the banner.  I stamped the back side twice in red and once in aqua.  Then I flipped to the front side of the stamp and stamped the actual image on top of each colored banner piece. This is a quick way to add color to your stamped images without having to use markers.  I then hand-cut the entire piece out and used a stamped and die-cut word "JOY" from the Sweet Cuts "JOY" set to create the letters for my banner. A piece of vellum and a thin strip of turquoise card stock finish the bottom of the card along with the black-embossed sentiment and a twine bow.

 There are tons of beautiful projects using this inspiration on the design team's blogs.  Here is a list so you can visit them all:
  
Monthly Challenge Team Blog Hop List:

                                                                               and
                                             November Guest Designer: Jill Norwood

Thanks for taking a look at my holiday card!  I hope you will join in this fun challenge.  There are free digital stamps on the Paper Sweeties blog under the "about" section if you do not yet own any of Debbie's incredible stamps!  And if you win the lovely prize of a $20.00 gift certificate you will be able to buy some of your own to love! :)
Happy Crafting!
Jill