celebrate the joy

"Skipping is just jumping for joy, step after step." Jessi Lane Adams

Love this quote! I have been trying to concentrate on my goals with JOY this year. Time to create has been precious and sparing, but I'm giving it my best!

One of my goals involves sending more cards to my friends. Before I can send them, though, I have to make them! Here are a bunch of cards that I have been working on.

Because I have been in a Valentine's Day mood,

Here is a beautiful Valentine's card. The sentiment reads "always on my mind, forever in my heart." This is Stampin' Up rose red cardstock, heart stamp image, scallop punch, sage shadow card stock and pink ribbon. The designer paper is from a pack of paper I bought at a craft store. Pretty, huh? Very girly, too!

Here is another version, but in more masculine colors.

Same Stampin' Up heart image, close to cocoa cardstock, pretty in pink cardstock and ink, close to cocoa ink, two sheets of designer paper and clear glitter. The pink ribbon is now retired, but I like how it looks tied on this heart. (Maybe I should have done it on the card above...?)

More girly! Beautiful designer paper from Stampin' Up..my favorite ever!

Kiwi green and pink pirhouette cardstock, five petal punch, riding hood red cardstock, flower fusion, silver brad, white organdy ribbon (retired) and stamped image from Stampin' Up.

I love this one! And we're going to make it at my next workshop!

A card for our family's college students: K and A. A went back to her college a couple of weeks ago. K just went back today. Ahhh, I already miss her! Here is a card I am going to send her tomorrow. {Shhhhh. Can you keep a secret? I sent cards several weeks ago so that they would be there in their mailboxes when they got back to school! Don't tell, OK?)

{cardstock by Stampin' Up, designer papers by ????, sticky letters, a circle stamp made out of a wine cork (!!!!), ribbon from Michaels $1 bin}

I was purely PLAYING when I was making these for our college girls. I started with the cool ribbon, and look where I ended up!

One more for today. This is another card we will be making February 6th. I have so much stuff for scrapbooking and card-making. So many tools, so much paper, ribbon, cardstock, stamps, stickers, etc. I love to layer, layer, layer all of this stuff on the cards, while trying to make them look super simple. Hmmm, it's a dilemma!

But sometimes (like with the circle from the wine cork above), I just like to stamp, stamp, stamp and watch the colors of the ink make magic on the page. Sometimes you just have to get back to the stamps. This is why I love Stampin' Up stuff!

{Stampin' Up banana cardstock and ink, apricot appeal ink and cardstock, regal rose and ruby rose ink, stamped off once, Simply Said stamps and my favorite Happy Birthday image from Voila. Also, scallop circle punch. All from SU!)

More soon! Time to create!

I've been itching to play with these block letters. They are NOT Stampin' Up, but they are fun to play with and cut out (I love cutting!), and they are the perfect size for a lot of projects. Here is this card:

{Stampin' Up ruby red cardstock, whisper white cardstock, ruby red ink, rose red ink and chunky glitter.)

I know that this is very "IN YOUR FACE", but I like its directness. It contrasts with some of the subtle cards that I have been making. And I LOVE THOSE LETTERS!