Alexander's First Valentines

It's been quite awhile since I've posted, and I'm so sorry for that. Life has had its up and downs in a big way over the past year. I'll tell a little bit more about things at the end of the post, but I'll begin with a craft I made. And this craft is a milestone of sorts too: the first valentines I have made for Alexander to give to his classmates. :)

 

Last September Alexander began going to a preschool for a few hours each week, and I imagine there will be dozens if not hundreds more valentines to make over the next few years! ;)

You might notice that there isn't any stamping on the tags. I love to stamp, but I got a Silhouette machine and it has been getting a lot of use. When you have a two year old running around everywhere, then minimizing materials, time and clean up is so important. Using the Silhouette helped me to start crafting again, when I went through a time that I worried I might never craft again. I will still post projects using stamps and dies too, and many will also now use the Silhouette.

I cut out a variety of tags. Here's another.

The Silhouette shapes were all bought from the Silhouette store: onlinesilhouettestore.com. I have a subscription there and LOVE their images. If you are interested, I could list which of the 6-7 cut files I used.

And here's another tag.

I taped a Smartees to the front using patterned washi tape. Who doesn't love Smartees? I discovered that my son definitely does. I had to hide them from him. ;)

And another with a different color scheme.

They were so much fun to make and assemble! A tip for making these is to use ribbon not glue to hold them together. Despite the layers, I didn't have to use adhesive because I tied the ribbon tightly at the top. It's really a time saver!

All of them lined up and ready to hand out!

I realize it's also been awhile since I've posted a pic of Alexander and me. He's doing very well. He is so genuinely sweet, loving (he constantly comes up to me, hugs my leg and softly says, "I vuve you, Mama."), friendly and smart too. At 2 years old, he knew his alphabet, phonics, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. His memory is amazing, and he definitely did not get that from me. :)

To tell a little bit more about what's been going on, last year both of my grandparents passed away. While growing up, they lived only a couple streets away from us, so they have really been like a second set of parents to my siblings and me. They were both truly amazing and caring people, and I'm so grateful they were in our lives. I'm also in the process of moving back to Florida. I haven't told many people about what's been going on, but it's a long, unfortunate story and without going into too many personal details, just Alexander and I will be moving down here for now. But after a long and hard year, I will say that things are starting to look much happier, so I have hope that things will get better.

Hope you are doing well and keeping warm in this cold weather wherever you are. May you have a truly wonderful, sunny and a great Valentine's Day!

Sweet Love

Hi everyone. I can't apologize enough for the delay in new posts and especially new crafty things. Truth is that there is a lot going on! Aside from the baby, we are also in the process of moving to a new city. So it's been very busy.

Even though it's been harder to find time to craft, and especially hard to be creative, I'm still trying to at least get the important things made. Like a Valentine's Day card for my hubby! Which is what I'm sharing with you today. It is super simple, but that is how it goes when you are crafting with a 5 month old. At least for me anyway! ;) Hope it's okay that I'm sharing this with you in March, but maybe we can refer to it as a love card, not just a Valentine's card?

I used the A Muse Studio stamp set, Sweet Love. It is one of my favorites and has the cutest sentiments and sweet treat images. They can be used year round too!

And here's the inside. The sentiment says, "You make life sweet!" Which also happens to be true. :)

And I realized it's been awhile since I shared an updated photo of baby Alexander. Thought it might be fitting to post this picture of him eating sweet potatoes on a post titled, Sweet Love!

He's 5 months old now and just starting on solids! I'll be back soon to post some more baby photos. Hope you don't mind. :)

I've not forgotten about the international giveaway I promised to do. It will be up within the next few days! Hope you are all having a wonderful start to your year. It is beautiful and sunny here today, and I wish the same for all of you. Have a sunshine-filled day!

Sitting Next to You...

Hi there!! So how was your Valentine's? :) We stayed at home and baked some homemade enchiladas and danced to old Elvis songs (our first dance at our wedding was an Elvis song). It was a great Valentine's!

One of the things my husband and I love to do is sit on the couch together after dinner and on Saturday and Sunday mornings. That time together is so precious and I treasure it. So when I saw the On My Couch set I knew I would make him a card. :)

The pearls were originally white. I colored them with a light brown copic and the shine of the pearl makes them appear gold. The paper behind the couch is a gold shimmer paper.

And here's the inside decorated. :) I added some score lines above and below the hearts strip.

I also made a coordinating envelope using PTI's Simply Valentine patterned paper and envelope liner die.

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's! Today has been a gorgeous day here and tonight I'm going to a cake decorating class. Should be fun. Can't wait! Have a sunny day!!

All supplies listed are Papertrey Ink unless otherwise listed.
STAMPS: On My Couch, Chair-ished (sentiment), Sweet Love, BB: Hearts
PAPER: Pure Poppy, SS White, Gold shimmer (Core'dinations Pearls paper line at Joann's), Simply Valentine patterned paper
INK: Red Brick, Midnight Black (Versamagic)
DIES: 2.5" Limitless Layers, Envelope Liner die, Double-ended Banners
OTHER: SS white envelopes, white pearls (from Michaels, colored gold with light brown copic)

Valentine's Day Card Swap

We had a Valentine's Day card swap at the Papertrey Ink Forum, and I sent a card and a few other things to Diane, who is so sweet and a forum regular. She is also a fellow member of the Papertrey Pals, which is a Papertrey Ink fan club and card making group.

Here is the Valentine's card I made, I Love You Rain or Shine. I used the PTI stamp set, Scattered Showers for the card. That set has the sweetest sentiments and is so fun to stamp with! Definitely recommend it. I stamped the outlined umbrellas on PTI patterned paper and trimmed them out. Then I added Red Poppy, Raspberry Fizz and Hibiscus Burst PTI colors behind the image.

I also sent a package of Papertrey Ink samplers. I decorated a paper mache box with PTI Valentine's patterned paper and filled it with a sampling of PTI cardstock, many of the ribbons and a boxful of PTI buttons.

Here are the cardstock and ribbons. Don't you just love the rainbow of colors all lined up?

And here is the heart shaped box of PTI buttons. I tried to include a variety of sizes in each of the colors.

Diane emailed me and said that she liked what I sent to her. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you all a sunshine-filled day! :)

Love makes all the difference.

Hope you all had truly wonderful Valentine’s Day! Did you do something special? We kept it pretty simple and made sure to just spend more time together. I woke up to a card, small box of chocolates and a sweet, smiling husband. :)

Today I’m posting a couple of cards I received recently. I’ve got much more to post in the next few days to catch up on some challenges and also to share with you some cards I’ve made.

Here’s the first card I received. One of my closest friends, Trish, mailed this beautiful Valentine’s card to me and my husband. She totally surprised us! It was so thoughtful of her.

Trish and I were roommates in college. She's a lot of fun and we’ve both been there for each other through a lot. We had been making cards together, but she just recently moved away and so she mailed me this card. Thanks so much, Trish!! :)

Also, I got this really sweet card from Peggysue for the Papertrey Ink Forum Valentine’s Day swap.

Thanks so much Peggysue for sending this. She also included some clear rhinestones for me to use. Very thoughtful!

In honor of Valentine's Day, here’s a short description about love. You may have seen this before. I hope this is a reminder of what love really means.

“Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.” I Corinthians 13:4-8

It really does seem that when there is love behind something—whether it be a genuine smile, a kind gesture or a thoughtful card from a friend—love is what makes it so special and real. Love makes all the difference.

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you a sunny and love-filled day!

Simply Sunshine

So I made a final decision about the blog name! I went through several different incarnations trying to decide which one fits best. (You may have even seen one of the other versions when you glanced here last.) After much deliberation and overthinking, I decided upon Simply Sunshine. That seems to best describe the place I live and also my style and attitude towards crafting. I like my cards to be simple and a little bit happy and sunny too! What do you think? :)

So here is the first card I have for you today.

I used PTI’s Garden of Life stamp set for this card (my favorite PTI flower set). If you look closely, there are green gems in the center of the flowers. I just love the card and it took me all of 5 minutes.

I’ve been reading tons of blogs lately and noticed there’s this trend going around where everyone picks one word for the year and that word provides focus for the year’s goals. It is an awesome idea, and of course I couldn’t just pick one. I picked two: Begin and Fast. This card really exemplifies my focus on that goal. Beginning is hard for me but getting it done quickly is even harder!

The sentiment is wonderful too—Friends are the flowers in the garden of life. Too true!

My next card uses PTI’s Heart Prints and Sweet Love. I think hearts leaning towards each other is one of the sweetest images ever. The position reminds me of a couple cuddling together. I want to explore that idea more.

Is that bow a little bit silly? I had a heck of a time with it. Did I mention one of my New Year’s resolutions is to tie a better bow? Seriously. I am really trying though!

How about this?

Is this better? Hmmm...Isn't it interesting how a bow can make the card look completely different?

That is all the cards for today! I am working on some challenges (including Ted's Valentine's Day challenge and Dawn McVey's color challenge) and I will post those within a couple of days. I am also starting a card project which I will tell you about soon.

Just a couple more things.

Someone asked about the kissing technique I used in my previous love cards. I'll post a quick tutorial at the end of the post. Sorry, no tutorial pics though. I’m not quite that sophisticated yet, lol. :)

Also, thanks to Ted for being my first blog follower! I welcome you to click the button to the right and become a follower too. It would make my day!

And thanks for all of the sweet comments you left. I really appreciate it! It is wonderful to hear from all of you. :)

I encourage those who haven’t started a blog yet to try it out! It’s really a lot of fun. A little tip: if you want to jazz up your blog and are just starting out (like me) a couple of great websites to try are www.shabbyblogs.com and www.thecoolestblogontheblock.com. They both have a whole bunch of free banners and backgrounds you can add to your site with simple directions on how to add it.

And now I will leave you with the Kissing Technique Tutorial (which sounds much more sexy than it really is, lol.)

Here is the Kissing Technique Tutorial:

1. Ink up the stamp you want to reverse.

2. Impress it onto any blank solid stamp (in this case I used a blank solid heart from Heart Prints, but you can use any stamp that has a solid surface like that).

3. Stamp the solid stamp on the paper. It works best if you lift it up slowly. The image might be slightly lighter than its regularly stamped counterpart, but it’s usually not too noticeable.

Have some fun with it! :) I really enjoyed that technique and plan to use it a lot more. Also, it didn’t occur to me until after I posted that card that I used the kissing technique to make the fish kiss. In retrospect, I thought that was kind of ironic and sweet. ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you a sunshine-filled day! :)

No. 1: Love

I can think of no better way to begin my first post than with the word love...love for my family, friends, and also love for card making, for the friends I've found through card making, and for Papertrey Ink! 


I just recently starting playing with this newly released Papertrey Ink stamp set, Tiny Treats. It is a blast to use! So many fun possibilities with this set. Without further ado, here's my first card, Love is in the Air. 

I'm still new to copics, but have to say they are fun to use. I need to practice though! I stamped the fish and then reverse stamped it by "kissing" it to a blank stamp. I just think these fish are made for each other! Their cute smile makes their smooch so much sweeter.


The next card uses the cats from Tiny Treats, Purr-fect Friend.

I thought that sweet cat needed a best friend, so I reversed the image too. I just love how their tails are curling towards each other. Too cute!


The inside of the cards.

I cut out a hearts nestabilities and framed the outer portion around the white embossed Happy Valentine's Day sentiment.

That's all the cards for today! I have more of these small Tiny Treats valentines to post later as well as some Heart Prints cards. 


Any thoughts you have about the new blog would be greatly appreciated, including constructive feedback. I am still not sure about the blog name, but I like the idea of sunshine, since I live in Florida, the Sunshine State. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks so much for stopping by to take a look at my first post! I really appreciate it. Have a sunny day! :)