Winter Jar Swap and Blog Hop

I was so excited when I saw the Winter Jar Swap on Glitter Tart's blog! I have been wanting to make a jar for a while now, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Here are the details she gave us:

What's a Winter Jar? 

Simple, a glass jar (minimum size 6 oz) that you fill with a winter scene of your choosing.

Decorations can be on the inside and outside but must be winter themed.

Think, snow, frost, winter animals, children bundled in coats, snowflakes, leafless trees etc etc...

She has some great tutorials on the original post if you are interested in learning how to make a winter jar. Click here to visit the ORIGINAL post.

I received a jar from my swap partner, artJOYstuff, and I love it!  The shape of the jar is awesome, and the Jello mold tin she used for the base, so cool!  Check it out!

For my jar I decided to use some birds in my jar, birds that I found on my February Gecko Galz products for the design team.  I loved the snowy birds and their orange breasts.  I decided I wanted them on snow covered branches.  Well, that turned out differently than expected, with the red berries bleeding through my puffy paint snow.  So, it became a romantic winter jar because I loved this happy accident!  

I put the spray of branches in a half styrofoam ball that I covered in those fake snowflake stuff you can get at Christmas.  That provided a perfect base, once glued to the lid.  I fussy cut the birds and adhered them to the branches, along with a banner, printed from Graphics Fairy, with Winter Romance written on it.  I slid my olive jar over and screwed it in. 

Next, I painted the candle holder white, and added a ring of heart glitter, source unknown, that I have been hoarding forever!  Added crochet lace to the lid, some pink vines around the "neck," and some flowers with rhinestones for centers.

Next I added some Zva Creative pearl flourishes to the base of my jar, some pink lace to the top, the other half of my snow covered ball, and a white bead held by glue and a pink stick pin.  Kind of looks like an ice cream sundae with that on top!

 Supplies:

Jar - Olive Jar
Candle Holder Base - Woodworks Ltd.
White Paint - DecoArt
White Heart Glitter - stash
White Crochet Lace - Really Reasonable Ribbon
Pink Vines - Really Reasonable Ribbon
Flowers - Prima
Pink Rhinestones - Studio G
Bird Images - Gecko Galz
Branches - JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts
Snow - Puffy Paint
Snowflakes - Wal-Mart
Bead - Darice
Pin - stash
Banner graphic - Graphics Fairy
Pearl Flourishes - Zva Creative
Pen - Stampin' Up
Pink Lace - Target Dollar Spot
Scor-Tape
Glossy Accents 

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

Winner!

How was everyone's Valentine's Day? Ours was great. This was my daughter's first one while in school and she was so excited! Between the goodies we gave her and what she got from school and ballet class, she made out like a bandit! She also got a pink rose from her Papa. So sweet! I put together a little area with their goodies and some decorations that I made.

Now onto the nitty gritty...I want to say congratulations to Kelly_Deal for winning my Gecko Galz giveaway during the Purple Valentine Blog Hop! It was a great hop, with a ton of talented people participating! Thank you to everyone who stopped by! Be sure to come by next month for another giveaway!

Valentine for Gecko Galz

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! Gecko Galz is featuring another Valentine Card that I made today, so please go check it out and the sale that goes with it!

 Supplies:

Cardstock - Stash
Script Stamp - Stampin' Up
Vintage Image - Gecko Galz
Bingo Card - Gecko Galz
Doily - Wilton
Pink Ric Rac - Wright's
Red Crochet Lace - Recollections
White lace - Really Reasonable Ribbon
Ink - Distress Ink Black Soot
Twine - Really Reasonable Ribbon
Felt Hearts - Stash
Gold Cherub - Stash
White corners - Stash
Rhinestones - Martha Stewart
Scor-Tape
Aleene's Tacky Glue

Instructions:

First I stamped my script onto the card with black ink.  Let dry.  Apply 1/8 inch Scor-Tape around card and adhere ric rac and corners. Add jewels to corners.  Lightly ink doily and images.  Adhere doily, then add twine. Figure out placement of images and add crochet laces then images.  Adhere hearts then cherub.

Happy Scrappy Savings!

Jess

Love Birds Card

Click here for the Purple Valentine Blog Hop post!

Click here for the Pinterest Party post!

Here is a 4th sample for this month's products at Gecko Galz.  I received the flowers in a swap from Kim over at artJOYstuff, and I just had to use them.  They are a bit unconventional in color for a Valentine, but that is why I loved them.

Supplies:

Papers - Gecko Galz
Pearls - Nicole
Heart Doily - Wilton
Flowers - Prima via artJOYstuff
Crochet Lace - Really Reasonable Ribbon
Birds - Gecko Galz
Banner image - Graphics Fairy
Ink - Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy
Pens - Stampin' Up
Glossy Accents

Happy Scrappy Savings!

Jess

Pinterest Valentine Projects

Click here to check out my post for the Purple Valentine Blog Hop!

Glitter Tart Designs is hosting a Linky Party called I Saw It On Pinterest & Did It. Every month you post your Pinterest inspired projects, making sure to link to the original creator as well, then link it to the Glitter Tart Designs blog. I have been wanting to do this for a long time, but I just didn't have the following for it.

My projects this month are all about Valentine's Day. I love decorating for any holiday, and Pinterest is such a great place for inspiration and know-how.

First is a yarn wrapped wreath, made to have an argyle look. The original source for this was Etsy, but another person made a tutorial, located on the Mine for the Making Blog.

I pick up wreaths at the thrift store to dissemble and make new. Wreaths can get very expensive here in Hawaii, so this is one way I try to be frugal. Wrapping a straw wreath is different than smooth foam ones, with its uneven texture, so the wrapping took longer. Once that was done, I traced some hearts onto felt, cut them out, glued them onto the wreath then wrapped the yarn in a criss cross pattern.

I wish I had done more hearts, and wish that the craft store hadn't been out of grey yarn because the wreath on Pinterest is so cute in grey! I may make another one, smaller, using foam disposable plates as the wreath, then covering with yarn, as seen on this You Tube video.

I also made a burlap banner that spells out LOVE.  I received a ton of burlap for Christmas from a wonderful family member, though she thought I was crazy! This is just one of the many things you can do with burlap! Here is the original pin that I found: Valentine Heart Banner

There doesn't seem to be a real source for it.  I just saw the picture and was inspired.  I found many others on Pinterest, but this was the original one that sparked my interest!

Here is my version of the Burlap Heart Banner.  I cut out the triangles first, then stamped with red paint, using foam stamps from Making Memories and Pebbles, Inc. I used to own a ton of foam stamps, they were the trend about 8 years ago.  But I sold most of them and only keeping my beloved Making Memories themed ones (Christmas and Valentine's Day), and my basic letters from Pebbles, Inc.

Next, I used Scor-Tape to adhere the lace. I don't know if that was the best move, but I didn't feel like dealing with any messy liquid or hot glue.  Once that was done, I decided to tie small pieces of twine between each triangle instead of one long piece.  I don't have my sewing machine up so this was easiest.  Then I added some long pieces to the end pennants and hang up! Easy and quick!

I also found some card inspiration on Pinterest, inspiring me to use my bright and happy paper pad from Doodlebug, called Lovebirds.  Here is the inspiration card from Two Peas in a Bucket:

Here are my cards that were inspired from this:

The Be Mine and Love cards were also inspired by cards I found online, but now, for the life of me, I can't find them again!  Don't you hate when that happens!

Anyway, that is all for now.  I have more "ideas" I want to explore but this week is pretty busy.  Too many holidays in 1 week! Be sure to check out Glitter Tart's blog to see more Pinterest projects!

Happy Scrappy Savings!

Jess

The Purple Valentine Blog Hop

Welcome to my post for the Purple Valentine Blog Hop, hosted by Dean's Designs! I am excited to participate in this hop, giving me the opportunity to meet new crafters and bloggers! Be sure to visit Tracie's blog, Dean's Designs, to see who else has linked up for this hop!  There is a lot of great artwork out there so check it out!

I have a giveaway today, a $25 gift certificate to Gecko Galz, a wonderful and inexpensive place for vintage images. I was supposed to have a giveaway back in December, but the holidays got in the way so my oopsie is your gain!

All you have to do to enter the drawing is to become a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post. On February 15th, I will randomly pick a winner from the comments and announce it in another post. Please be sure to have your email and/or blog linked to your name so that I can visit and notify you if you win.

Here is what I created to share for this hop, a sweet little Valentine to hang up, which is also one of my February samples for the Gecko Galz Design Team. I used some of the new February products from Gecko Galz as well as a few others. I am really into the heart doilies this year, see this post from last month for another example. They are fun to use as is, paint, glitter, cut up. Anything goes. This one I left plain, but to save the intricate inner parts of the doily, I cut them out before attaching the heart paper (from Gecko Galz). I stamped onto my background paper with a script stamp. It wasn't perfect, but shabby chic doesn't have to be, so I wasn't too stressed! I have a hollow table so stamping can be difficult.

The little flower was made from 2 flowers off of a hydrangea bush, using a green flower to wrap the pinched ones. I wrapped it with floral wire before adding the green one, then just glued the wrapper on. I put glitter glue on to jazz it up, and tied a bow around it. Looks like a little boutonniere.

Then I just layered on my other elements!

Supplies:

Heart Doily - Wilton
Background Paper - Gecko Galz
Little Girl image - Gecko Galz
Frame Image - Gecko Galz
Clock Image - Gecko Galz
Glitter Glue - Studio G
Butterfly Wing - Gecko Galz
Purple Lace - Fabric Mart Hawaii, unknown manufacturer.
Butterfly ribbon - Really Reasonable Ribbon
Script Stamp - Hero Arts
Ink - Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy
Flowers - from stash
Pearls - stash
Purple ribbon - Michael's
E-6000 Glue
Scor-Tape

Hope you enjoyed your visit! Leave a comment in order to enter the drawing! Winner will be drawn on February 15th!  Good Luck! Also check out the Gecko Galz Paper Crafting Group on Yahoo! There are fun challenges you can enter and plenty of chances to win more free products!

Happy Scrappy Savings!

Jess

Gecko Galz Featured

It is so cool to announce that Gecko Galz is being featured on a fun challenge blog called "It's All About Vintage and Beauty."

They are having an amazing challenge where the winner can receive a copy of the latest stamp set "Goddess Dreams" from Gecko Galz...but wait there is more!

If you pop over to their blog, there is a code for you to receive a FREE digital stamp courtesy of Gecko Galz! So what are you waiting for? Pop over to their blog and check out all the fun!

Happy Scrappy Savings!

Jess

Loads of Love

Lately I have been all shabby chic, all the time.  But I wanted to get back to basics, make a clean and simple Valentine card.  I pulled out my Loads of Love stamps from Stampin' Up, which I bought 2nd hand from a former consultant.  I have always wanted this set but it was down on my wish list so I never got to it.  I thought it would be great to bring this set back by using it in a more trendy way than before.

I used a white card, stamped the truck in black, stamped the hearts in red, stamped some extra hearts to cut out, used some glitter glue on one heart, then tied some twine around it.  Voila! I love the simplicity of this card.  I can't wait to play with this set some more, finding new ways to make it current.  Are there any old stamp sets you would like to revive?

Supplies:

White cardstock - stash
Black Ink - Distress Ink Black Soot
Red Ink - Distress Ink Fired Brick
Glitter Glue - Studio G
Black and White twine - from stash

Linking up to these challenges:

The Pink Elephant - Hearts TPE184
Paper Issues Fawning Over You
Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes
Brown Sugar Go Red/Hearts

Enjoy!

Happy Scrappy Savings!

Jess

Smell the Roses Card

Here is my sample for Gecko Galz February Products. I was looking around online for inspiration and decided to use some of the shabby chic elements in this month's goodies. The colors were so soft and dreamy, and this image of the little girl... I loved how they all went together.

First, I printed the background paper on cardstock to the size of my card. I inked the edges of all my paper elements, the background paper, the BINGO card, the label, and the child. I applied glitter glue to the flowers and leaves to accent the darker colors. I also applied it to the roses on the label, the cut roses on the lace, and the roses the child is holding. Let dry.  Next, write or print your sentiment.  Add glitter glue to the edges and let dry.  Once dry, layer pieces onto card: background, BINGO card, label, pearls, girl (add pop dots for dimension and to get above the pearls). Add adhesive tape to bottom of card and adhere lace in a ruffle.  Add cut roses on top of lace with pop dots and some glue.  Add photo corners, sentiment, and butterflies.

Supplies:

Background from Gecko Galz Pocket Full of Poseys Paper Pack, Ring Around the Rosey
Bingo Card from Gecko Galz Bits & Pieces Collection
Label and Roses from Gecko Galz Vintage Labels Collection
Image of child from Gecko Galz Children's Hour Collection
Pearl Florish - Zva Creative
Butterflies - Bead
Photo Corners - Martha Stewart
Lace - from stash
Glitter Glue from Sulyn Industries and Stickles
Pen from Stampin' Up
Distress Ink Brushed Corderoy

I am linking this to the Lots of Layers #46 Challenge over at Sugar Creek Hollow. I love their blog, which a fellow Gecko Galz Design Team member introduced me to.  Thanks Heather!

I am also linking this to the Simon Says Challenge for Anything Goes.  Love when they are open like that!

Enjoy!

Happy Scrappy Savings!
Jess