birthday card

Snail Mail

/ Jodi / 21 Comments

snail mail watercolor card

Who remembers the nursery rhyme about what little boys are made of?

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails. (What is a snip anyway???)

Well – not sure about a snip, but I thought a snail would be fun to paint in watercolor, and I had a little boy I needed to send a birthday “snail mail” card to.

It was fun to make a colorful snail for a very colorful little boy.

Don’t underestimate the power of snail mail….

Doesn’t it make your day when you receive a card or note in the mailbox?  It is so rare anymore, but oh the joy – oh the appreciation we feel when we receive a handwritten – or better yet a handmade note or card.  Right?

Want to do something EXTRAordinary?  Send someone a handwritten “snail mail” note or card today?  I guarantee you will make their day!  🙂

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

It’s a “Back to” Kinda Day…

/ Jodi / 24 Comments

PP226 Birthday Butterfly Basics

I gotta say, it was a great “back to” kinda day yesterday …
Back to work…
Back to the gym…
Back to the craft room in the evening… and back to The Paper Players Challenge!!
Felt so good!

I need a birthday card for a special friend, so I was excited to use the Stampin Up Butterfly Basics Stamp Set and Framelit to make it.

Butterflies remind me of renewal and hope and change and that speaks January birthday to me and also this special lady.

The Paper Players first challenge of the new year #226 is “Everything Old is New Again – create a project using a recycle or re-purposed item.  This challenge is right up my alley and just the right challenge to get me back in the stampin’ groove!

PP226

For my card, the recycled/re-purposed items are craft paper packing material from my endless Amazon Prime Christmas gift shopping packages and a touch of  burlap ribbon from my dear daughter-in-law, Colleen’s wedding shower (we both love burlap!)  🙂

PP226 Birthday Butterfly Basics

I loved creating a rustic, but fresh and renewed look with the recycled/re-purposed materials and a bright butterfly.  And I adore the ferns that are in this stamp set and how great they work for the stamping-off technique to get a variety of shades.

PP226 Birthday Butterfly Basics Inside
I only used three colors of ink for this card – SU Mossy Meadow for the ferns, Stazon Black for the sentiments and a bit of Ranger Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink for the vintagy edges.

Hope you are getting “back to” your groove after the holidays and seeking cherished moments at lifeinbetween and always.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

P.S.  For my stamping friends, if you haven’t seen Deb Valder’s Youtube technique tutorial on dryer sheets for thinlits, I urge you to check it out.  Possibly life-changing for these challenging die cuts! 🙂

Tic-Tac-Toe 3x Three in a Row!

/ Jodi / 12 Comments

PP211

Remember playing tic-tac-toe as a kid?  Hangman?  Dots and Boxes?

tictactoe                              hangman                              dotsandboxes

Such simple pleasures and cherished smiles revolve around those less complicated, simpler times….

But life moves on….

Times change…

Do kids today still play tic-tac-toe?  On paper?

I love technology, but I also love paper – – –  For example – with books and reading … I sometimes read a book on my iPad, sometimes I listen to a book through Audible on my iPhone, and other times I love holding and turning the pages of a real book!  And sometimes I do all three with the same book – especially when I need to get through one for a book club deadline! 🙂

Anyway – we can dwell on the past reminisce or go with the flow and change with the times.

So it was fun to see The Paper Players offer a Tic-Tac Toe Challenge this week.  My first!  You had to choose any three items combined across, down or diagonal to make your card or project.

And my goal was to see how many ways I could get three in a row in one card!

Here is the tic-tac-toe challenge, and I got Three in a Row THREE ways with this card!

Can I get a WOOHOO?

pp211 tic tac toe

And here is my card challenge submission:

PP211I got:

Birthday – Yellow – Patterned Paper:  First Row Down

Birthday – Green – Button:  First Row Across

Patterned Paper – Ribbon – Purple:  Third Row Across

Fun stuff – eh?!?!  🙂

Ok – I know I know – I’m easily amused…

But the best part is that I get to send this birthday card to a very special someone who has a birthday coming up next week!

And to that special lady – I wish for her to know that you can never have too much happy.  I also want her to know what happiness she has brought to my life!

pp211 2

Love ya Joyce!  May you smile, giggle, laugh, and enjoy your day and year!  xo

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Birthdays are for the Birds

/ Jodi / 21 Comments

child birthday card punch art birds on wire

Birthdays were so much fun when we were kids – right?

And even more when my boys were young and we could do (what they eventually came to dread….)

THEME parties!

I recall parties themed with pirates and magic shows, and Barney the purple dinosaur………

jake 5 cake jake 5 pirates 2 jake 5 pirates

Oh the days….  (I can’t believe these were over 20 years ago now!)

Nick 3Nick 3 2

So I was excited to see The Paper Players Challenge #209 this week be a child’s birthday card.  Gave me a chance to be silly and fun.

pp209

Leanne Pugliese, of The Paper Players Design Team, is celebrating her granddaughter, Cassidy’s, 4th Birthday this week (Happy Birthday Cassidy!), so she chose a Clean and Simple (CAS) Child’s Birthday Card for #PP209 Challenge.

child birthday card punch art birds on wire
My card is a “punch art” card.  I’ve seen some amazingly creative critters created out of punched out shapes.  They range from puppies and turtles and hippos, lions, elephants, and monkeys to caterprillars and lambs and bears and birds – silly birds, angry birds, real birds.  There are some awesomely talented artists and designers out there!

I saw little birds similar to these somewhere at some point and thought they would make a fun child’s birthday card – especially for a “wee one.”  My “birds” are cut out using SU framelit circles and the bird builder punch for the wing and nose.  I sponged them with some pumpkin pie ink, glitzed their feathers a bit with #WinkofStella, cut out party hats from SU DSP, added some Crystal Effects to their beaks, and popped on a candy dot for the eye.  The background is done with a cloud embossing folder, the “telephone wire” is made from baker’s twine, and the Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Bloom with Hope stamp set.

I can’t wait to share this card with a wee one on their birthday.  As for me – no more birthdays please…  Birthdays are for the birds!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi