with a heavy {heart}

I'm posting today to share a project every card maker dreads: a sympathy card with an intended recipient. On Monday, a wonderful family and a close-knit community lost a loved one. John Stewart was my 8th grade "Central Subject" teacher at Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School (CS is basically social studies - history, geography, politics, a little language arts, etc.) He died suddenly of a heart attack on Monday morning. He was truly an amazing teacher, and a wonderful person - one of those people who helps shape who each of his students will become. Middle school is a tough time, and middle schoolers can be tough kids to work with. The thing that was so incredible about Mr. Stewart was his ability to relate to and connect with his students on their level, and on his. He held everyone to a high standard of academics, critical thinking, and living life. He approached every interaction with respect, valued our 14-year-old opinions (and taught us to back them up!), and helped us to always respect each other. And he had a superior funny bone.

So I hope you won't think me tasteless for sharing the card I made for the Stewart family. I know how much we all struggle with these cards, and it's cardmaker solidarity that made me want to share.

Thank you for visiting.

Make It Monday #3

This week's challenge: Using Scor-Tape to adhere glitter.

When I first saw the post this morning, I thought, 'Darn! I don't have any glitter!' But then I remembered some Martha Stewart glitter from a Christmas card kit stuck in the back of a drawer. Also, I got my box of new Papertrey goodies earlier this afternoon, so I decided to play with some new stamps! I had this whole plan in my mind, and, well... let's just say it was one of those projects where nothing went according to plan. I had decided to use Dawn McVey's new Delightful Doilies stamp set that I was so excited to receive. I can tell they put a lot of thought into this set to make it as user-friendly as possible, but there's definitely still a learning curve :) And you really need to be able to see clearly what you're doing when you use this set. I have a very small selection of colored inks, and most of them are chalk inks that stain clear stamps. So let's just say I made a lot  of mistakes before I was finally happy with my stamping! The card still isn't what I was planning, but I actually kind of like it. :)

 Supplies: Stamps - Delightful Doilies, Think Big Favorites #1 (Papertrey Ink); Cardstock - Lavender Moon (Papertrey Ink), Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!), grey (Bazzill); Inks - London Fog (Memento), Versamark; Misc. - Super Tape (Therm-O-Web), glitter (Martha Stewart), clear embossing powder, Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

Make It Monday #2

Happy Saturday, friends! I bet a lot of you have heard about the new Make It Monday weekly challenges going on over at Papertrey Ink. I've been thinking about this one all week, but just got around to making a card today. Actually, I was waiting, because UPS said I'd have my PTI February Release order in my hot little hands today. But they accidentally routed it to Western Mass or somewhere not near here, so they've updated the expected delivery to Monday. As I've said in the past, I don't have a ton of PTI products, but I was super inspired by the American Crafts Confetti goodies that arrived yesterday, so I decided to roll with the birthday theme for the 2nd Make It Monday challenge: Vellum sentiment strips.

American Crafts has adopted our favorite detail from Sassafras and started printing on the b-side of the barcode strip at the bottom of their paper! SO awesome! That's where that little line of cupcakes is from - and I love how it looks layered under the vellum.

Thanks for stopping by! Do you have Monday off? :)

new love meets first love

This fall I decided I wanted to try candle making. In December I ordered a bunch of supplies, but I just started getting into it recently. And when I say I'm into it... well, I'm kind of obsessed! :) It is SO much fun! I feel like a mad scientist melting, and mixing, and pouring away in my kitchen. I can't get enough! To save money, and keep things simple, I've been using tins to make 100% soy candles - glass jars are too expensive, and molds are just too fussy. But of course, plain tins are just that... plain. So, enter my first love: papercrafting. To make them look a little more "boutique," I'm using patterned papers and hand stamping to decorate my candles. This is one I made yesterday for my friend's birthday - and it's pink frosted cupcake scented! :) YUMMY!

PTI tags: day two

Papertrey Ink has started something very cool called Make It Monday. (They've also joined facebook and twitter! It's about time!) The first Monday challenge is all about using similar sentiments from a bunch of different sets - such a great idea, but I only have 4 PTI stamp sets and they're all really different, so I couldn't really play along this time. BUT I did take about 15 minutes this evening to whip up an uber-quick, very simple card with another of yesterdays freebie tags! :)

See ya!

a very Papertrey anniversary

The awesome folks over at Papertrey Ink are celebrating the 4th anniversary of their company! Congrats PTI! To celebrate, they're showcasing a lot of amazing design team projects, and having a few contests. The designers released an absolutely adorable collection of tags as a free download, and projects made with them will be entered into a contest to work with Nichole Heady to design their own PTI stamp set! WOW! These are truly some fantastic images, and I very highly suggest visiting the PTI blog and downloading them yourself, even if you can't get a project done with them in time for the contest deadline at 7am tomorrow! :)

This is a Valentine's card I whipped up pretty quickly this afternoon and I'm really thrilled with how it came out. I didn't have time to make more cards with the tags, but I promise you'll be seeing more of them soon.

Hope you had a great weekend! Did you watch the Superbowl?