Love you so much!

Hello everyone!  I wonder how many of you have been given roses for Valentine's Day?!  Most people recognize the red rose as a symbol of true love and enduring passion.  My husband has given me roses for Valentine's Day quite often, and I have a big jar of dried rose petals that I've saved over all these years.  

This little Valentine box was inspired by some gorgeous Ink Drops Rose designer paper.  The rose stamp/die and accompanying sentiment on top are both from our Thinking of You Rose bundle.   

To make the box I cut a 5 x 7.5 inch piece of card stock and scored 1.5 inches from each edge.  (I had planned to put the entire die cut rose on the box top and designed it to size, but then I changed my mind!)  A few snips and a little glue and the box comes together quickly.  The bottom is the same but cut a tiny bit smaller so that it will slide inside easily.  

My husband LOVES chocolate so that is what I've put inside this box, but that's an obvious idea!  What's special for your sweetheart? Maybe a watch or a pen or some concert or sports tickets?  Some jewelry?  A love letter or some poetry?!  It's easy to adjust the box size if you need to, and to adapt the style to fit the recipient, although Valentine's Day is the one time you can probably get away with pink no matter their age/gender.

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Thinking of You Rose Bundle
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Tag Collection
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Rose 6x6
• May Arts 1.25" Silk - 32 yard spool - Pink
• Pink lace trim
• Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Celestial Copper

And hey, all of my fiber artist friends...did you notice that peek of pretty Ewephoric fiber tucked in there under all those chocolate coins? Guess what?!  An un-assembled Jenkins finch fits in there just perfectly instead of chocolates!  If you wanna give your beloved a hint of what you'd like for yourself and how it could be presented!  ☺️

Love You to the Moon and Back!

Hi y'all!  I hope you are staying cozy, warm and dry!  Even here in Florida the temperature dipped below freezing and took hours to make it above 40 degrees!   I've had lots of opportunities lately to pull out all of my handspun/handknit woolens!  

I'm back today with another card made with the adorable Echo Park Love Notes designer paper.  I had fun with this paper last week and wanted to find a way to showcase an assortment of these darling prints all at once.  Pinterest to the rescue with an accordion fold card!  

The base of the card is cut to a standard size 4.25 inches wide x 5.5 inches tall.  The accordion portion is 4.25 x 11, scored at scored at 3, 5.5, 8, and 9.5 inches.  The folds are held flat for mailing in a standard envelope with a removable belly band decorated with a pretty heart and Valentine's Day sentiment. 

Here's a peek at the inside.  I used a couple of circle dies to cut a crescent moon from pearly white paper.  The cute little clouds are from our new country church dies set.  

Just be sure that the sentiment you choose for the inside is narrow enough to stay tucked out of sight when the card is closed.    

Supples:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Typewritten Year Round Greetings
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Typewritten What You Mean to Me
• Echo Park Love Notes 6x6
• Luxury Pearlescent Metallic 105# Cardstock - Quartz White 6 ct
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Country Church (clouds)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Hearts
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles SM
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles LG
• Burlap string

Traditional Valentine: flowers, love notes, and chocolate!

Hi friends!  Waving to you from stormy, not-so-sunny Florida!  A couple of nights ago we had a supposed tornado form aloft right overhead, which touched down across the river a couple of miles from us as the crow flies.  They're saying we're in for another storm tonight/tomorrow so I am hoping we are not in for another wild ride!

My project for today is a traditional Valentine which typically includes flowers, love notes and chocolate!  I used a combination of Stamp Simply stamps/dies and a couple of Tim Holtz dies to make it, all inspired by this cute Echo Park designer paper with a postal theme.  

Anybody else having flashbacks of a long ago long-distance romance?  Such is life when you love someone in the Navy!  dh and I dated long-distance for ~ 3.5 years before we got married...and then we were still apart a lot of the time! 

The flowers are a stem of irises stamped and die cut from our Happy Day Iris bundle.  

I folded a strip of card stock and then cut the top and sides of it using the largest Tim Holtz tags die to create a little pocket tied with ribbon which holds two chocolate coins.   The tag is just the right width to slide into the envelope from the Postale die set.

I stamped a greeting onto a "love note" (another die from Postale) and added the xoxoxo from one of our Stick People stamp sets.  

The inside is embellished with a little printed tag from the Echo Parks Love Notes designer paper.  I included a zip code with the numbers from Postale to carry on with the postage theme.  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Happy Day Iris Bundle
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Stick Family Sentiments
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Stick Family
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Farmhouse Pierced Nested Hearts
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Postale
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Tag Collection
• Echo Park Love Notes 6x6
• red ribbon
• Copic markers

The Lord is My Shepherd

Hello friends!  Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  Today (January 4th) is the 11th Day of Christmas.  I'm here with a project and post that represent the collision of several of my favorite and most beloved things, including the 23rd Psalm, spinning (wool, the sheep and the Shepherd!), stamping/card-making, and growing up in  Louisiana!  

I recently had a conversation with a friend about a book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, telling her about how learning to spin has deepened my understanding of the words of the 23rd Psalm and of my relationship with the Shepherd.  She's a friend from Louisiana where preparations are underway for the arrival of 12th Night tomorrow night, which is the big kick-off of the Mardi Gras season. 

The book is wonderful, explaining the relationship of the sheep with the shepherd, much the way an infant is dependent upon its mother and father.  Then there is also the reverse, the shepherd and his family depending upon the sheep for clothing and even for food. Becoming a spinner has really taught me to appreciate natural fibers, of the renewability and sustainability of wool.  There is so much Life to learn here!    

Last week I mentioned the significance of 12th night and Epiphany in relation to my Louisiana heritage, but here is a little more to the broader story.  Historically women worked as spinners and took off the 12 days of Christmas, those days between Christmas and Epiphany, returning to work on January 6th, the day after 12th night, which was also called Distaff Day. (The distaff is a staff used for holding fiber from which it is drafted to spin with a spindle or wheel).  With a loaded distaff, a woman could carry her spindle and fiber supply with her as she went about her other daily chores.  Fiber preparation, spinning, knitting, weaving, and sewing were only a portion of the way she would spend her day.  It is really mind boggling to contemplate and comprehend!  

Here's a photo of my ready-to-be-dressed ring distaff (made by Enid Ashcroft) and my Mardi Gras support spindle (made by Allen R Berry).  The fiber is in Mardi Gras colors of purple (justice), green (faith), and gold (power).   

Modern spinners enjoy spinning as a hobby and often purchase special "12 Days" fiber sets. You can see some of mine in the background of the table-top photo above. I'm traveling on Friday to a Distaff Day weekend gathering in Orlando, and looking forward to hanging out with other spinners and knitters.  And can I just say...I am so glad that nowadays we spin for fun and not because we need/have to!  Being required to would take all of the fun out of it imho! 

OK, so that was a really long detour, but it explains why these words and images speak so significantly to me.  It was the convergence of all of these things that lead to the idea for this simple card.  I believe that the love poured into your card-making from the things that you love in your life will find its way to the ones who receive your thoughtful creations.  So put your heart into it!    

I used two Stamp Simply sets to make the card.  One is an older Sympathy set which includes the words of the entire 23rd Psalm, and the other a newer set which includes the praying hands image and the sentiment that I used on the inside of the card.  I stamped directly onto the designer paper with inks that could be used safely with Copic markers.  

Here's a peek at the inside.  

And here it is with one of my Turkish spindles (also by Enid Ashcroft) and a beautiful wool/silk blend of fiber from one of my 12 Days of Christmas fiber sets.  I've been spinning daily for quite a while, but for December joined some Advent and 12 Days spins, #spin15aday and #100daysofspindlespinning 

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Pray Without Ceasing
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Deepest Sympathy
• Craft Consortium Bloom & Wild 6x6
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Gray Flannel
• Petaloo Botanica Minis - Fuchsia
• May Arts 5/8" Faux Linen Canvas Ribbon Sampler - 27 yards
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Pearls - Pearl

My hope is that this post will prompt you to think upon the details and be reminded that the Shepherd cares so deeply about yours! The most basic and the most intricate.  There's something to look forward to in that for this new year!

So next week you'll find me spinning Mardi Gras colors, baking (and eating) gluten-free King Cake, celebrating the Shepherd/King and gearing up for the next holiday!  💜💛💚