It's a Wonderful Day!

To my husband of 2 wonderful years...

I love you for being the inspiring, admiring, encouraging, devoted, charming, romantic, sincere, passionate, driven, hilarious, attentive, intelligent (and sexy) man that you are!

To many, many, many more amazing years with you!

Happy anniversary babe!

xoxo wifey

Birthday Wishes!

I'm really proud of this card :)

I made it for my coworker...she's adorable, preppy and very sweet (and she loves pink).

I have had such a card-making blockage lately. This card took me over an hour. I just couldn't get the layout right..it's like I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I couldn't do it. Do you ever get that? Luckily, I finished the card

and was happy with it.

The birthday girl liked it, too. Which always makes you feel better about what you've made!!

I know I always say it...but I'm not good at layering. It makes me anxious. I never feel like it quite goes together. This card, for me at least, has a lot of layering -- and detail. I wanted to make sure I took pictures of everything...in case I felt the need to duplicate it later :)

For instance, I hand-stamped the Happy Birthdays at the bottom repeatedly..and sideways (on purpose).

This was stamped in VersaMark. If you've never used it, you definitely should start! It's perfect for

embossing...or like in this case, it makes a watermark effect slightly darker than the color of your cardstock.

I also wanted to use a few new die cuts that I got from PTI ( Papertrey Ink ) a couple months ago. Oh, and the felt. LOVE the felt. YUM!

Everything comes together to make this cute little birthday card :)

Hope you like it too!! Have a wonderful day!!

Hugs and Love,

J

recipe:

paper: PTI Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores; plain white cardstock; American Crafts Craft Fair

stamps: PTI Papertrey Ink - Mega Mixed Messages and Fillable Frames #1

ink: VersaMark, PTI Papertrey Ink - Hawaiian Shores and Simply Chartreuse

die cuts: PTI Papertrey Ink - Eyelet Lace Border and Fillable Frames #3; Sizzix Big Butterflies; Stampin Up tiny leaves

misc: Martha Stewart doily tags; PTI Papertrey Ink felt in Simply Chartreuse and Raspberry Fizz; Basic Grey Bling It pearls; Glimmer Mist; flower and pins from Michaels

With Sympathy - Butterflies

Good Morning!

I just wanted to quickly post a card that I made last night. It's always tough to create a sympathy card...especially when its for someone close to you.

Our friend just lost her mother a few days ago. I can't imagine the feeling. My heart breaks whenever I hear of someone losing a person close to them. It makes me appreciate everyone I have in my life and a reminder not to take anything...or anyone for granted.

So, with that said, whether I know you or if I've only spoken to you via our blogs...

I love you dearly!

Hugs and Love,

J

recipe:

stamps: Papertrey Ink (PTI): With Sympathy, Mega Mixed Messages;

Stampin Up (SU): Great Friend

paper: Papertrey Ink (PTI): Rustic Cream, Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse

ink: Papertrey Ink (PTI): Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse; VersaMark

misc: Zing! clear embossing powder; Basic Grey Bling It Pearls

punches: Martha Stewart border, Martha Stewart Royal Butterfly

ribbon: Papertrey Ink (PTI) vintage cream

Jardin Botanique de Montreal

Flowers are probably my favorite things to take pictures of. The vibrant colors, the textures, the intricate, dainty details. Ever since I learned how to use my camera as I mentioned in this post, I have been ever more excited to take pictures!!

We were just in Montreal last week and it was

gorgeous, especially when we visited the Jardin botanique de Montréal / Montréal Botanical Garden.

Here are a few beauties...straight out of the camera :) No photoshop!!

Inside the Botanical Garden, there was a rose garden with a collection of over 10,000 roses. It was incredible.

I really loved taking pictures of the pollen from each of the flowers I saw using the Super Macro function on my camera.

It always makes me nervous when taking my pictures because the screen on my camera is SO small. What looks good on that screen, may be blurry or grainy when I load them onto the computer. But in this case, I was just so thrilled when I came home and saw the pictures on my computer for the first time. They were perfect!

Another thing I loved was this Poppy!

Doesn't it look like crinkled paper? Sooo beautiful and delicate. What I thought was even cooler is that they were growing out of cabbage!?!

I could do a post on Poppies alone...they are awesome. And I took a TON of pictures of all the

different colors :)

I have no idea what this flower is...but how COOL is it? My husband loved this one the most, of all the flower pictures I took!

It's almost electric for me, in a way!

I love Dahlias, too. They're big and bold and they have so many beautiful layers. Just look at the colors on this one...a bunch of these yummies in a vase is a decorator's Heaven :)

I'm not quite sure what this one is...my guess is some kind of daisy with the way the petals are. I've never seen anything like this one. I love the stiffness of the pollen (inside of the flower...whatever you want to call it :) And I love the way the sun is hitting on the left side of it! It could look even been if photoshopped, but I really wanted to focus this post on the raw images, untouched!

Not sure what this one definitely is, either, but I'm pretty sure it's in the daisy family also....it almost looks like a sunflower a little bit, except the center is much more subtle than the normal black-center of a sunflower.

I had SO much fun taking these pictures and I hope that you've enjoyed browsing through them!

My husband was so happy with the way these came out and the way I took them, that he actually told me I should frame them and display around the house! What a sweetheart :)

Come back soon for some architectural and miscellaneous pictures that I took from Montreal!

Have a fabulous day!

Hugs and Love,

J

Happy 4th of July! (and a Birthday!)

Happy July 4th!

I thought this card would be appropriate to post today because the stars look like fireworks :)

My nephew (on my husband's side) turned 7 yesterday! I can't believe it...he is growing so quickly! He was only about 6 months old when I started dating my husband, wow, how time flies.

This card was super simple to make...just a few stamps, paper and my Sizzix Stars die cut.

The colors were inspired from the Transformers wrapping paper that we used to wrap my nephew's Nerf gun.

(Jim and I spent at least an hour in the aisle deciding which Nerf gun would be best. They all look exactly the same to me, lol, so I'm glad Jim was there to make the decision).

The birthday boy celebrated in Disney World this weekend -I know they are having a great time :) I really needed a little R & R time...so I did not join them in the festivities.

It's been a super relaxing weekend for me so far, I have the house to myself, I was able to make a couple cards, I've watched a good amount of tv :) and I'm planning on cleaning the floors....at some point...that's my plan, anyway!

Hope you all have a fabulous 4th and be safe!!

Hugs and Love,

J

recipe:

stamps: Papertrey Ink (PTI) Star Prints, Everyday Button Bits; Stampin Up (SU) Solid Stripes

ink: Versamark

paper: Papertrey Ink (PTI) and Stampin Up (SU)

misc: Sizzix Stars #2 die cut; brads

Giveaway Alert!!

More blog candy!!

Doesn't this make you so happy?

I'm in love... :)

And there's more where that came from! Leave a comment over at the DeNami blog [you should become a follower if you aren't already...]

They are giving away 2 stamp sets besides these rhinestones...be sure to check our their adorable new collection, too!! They are SO cute!!