Saying goodbye to February

Ok so I am a little late in posting Valentine's Day cards but here they are anyway! I only made a couple...one for my son to give to his teacher which is this one"You rock"

 This one was for my daughter to give to her piano teacher:

Happy Birthday (below) was for Aunt Rita, who turned 87!!!! 

You'd never know it either. She's super spunky and has more energy than me! Lol!!!

 
My mom had such a major influence on my scrapbooking and card making. I knew when I made cards or mini books for her she appreciated and looved them so much. It made me feel good and also look forward to presenting her randoms projects.When I shopped for supplies I always thought to myself, oooh mom will love this paper or ooh this will look super cute in her house. Those of you that have been followers might know my mom passed away in 2009 and I'll be honest with you I have lost a lot of mojo. My passion is just not there these days. I create far less and even think less about crafting now that she is gone. Really, I do. It's sad. Her birthday was on February 21st. In preparation I went to Michael's to buy fresh supplies and thought I'd make her a beautiful card that I could frame in my craft room. If she were able to tell me herself she would say you have to make cards. You have to keep going, Jenn because this is your dream and passion. I'm struggling every day to create and get that feeling again. I thought shopping with her as my inspiration would help boost me. Would you believe after 2 hours of debating and browsing for the perfect combo of materials, my total bill came to the year she was born. I am totally serious!!!!! I almost started to cry while I was in line. Is that crazy. or. what?
We both love spring soo much. New beginnings. Birds chirping. Flowers blooming. Easter eggs.
Bunnies :  )
I saw the K&Co paper pad by Susan Winget (mostly purples) and just felt it represented her perfectly! Embellies like birds and eggs and nests and don't forget the butterflies that remind me so much of mom. I tried to make so many different cards once I got home. I was being too critical. I'm sure she would have loved any that I tossed aside. I still don't feel I got it. But here  is one I had to walk away from and call it complete.

 Can you see the bunny showing in the pic? I made that with her help many years ago! She taught me how to sew. I didn't like the lighting inside so I went outside to take another one(below)

Hope she likes it : )

The next one is also a tribute to my mom using her 2nd fav flowers. Lily of the Valley
No sentiment. have you ever been at a loss for the perfect words? I am with this one. So it will just be without one. Mom was a huge country lover. She collected pitchers and absolutely adored gingham anything! I do too :  ) Simple little country cutie here!

I'm still experimenting with my flowers but I could not put off posting again knowing tomorrow is March 1st!

I hope I didn't babble too much. Thanks for stopping by : ) Have a great week!

Play Date Cafe Color Challenge 117

Another challenge is up at the Playdate Cafe! I love these colors together so I decided to play along : ) this week.
I made a journal for my niece, Olivia. Her birthday is on Valentine's Day and I do not want to send traditional red and pink stuff! Hope she likes it!
I created a journal for her to jot down her notes, thoughts, dreams and wishes. I have another surprise for her going out in the mail tomorrow but don't want to spoil it so I will not mention what it is!!!! Just in case she sees this post : )

The inspiration photo had me at hello and this is what I came up with:

I turned a chipboard frame into a journal for her. I distressed it like the doors in the inspiration photo. I used creamy white acrylic paint to lightly cover the kraft color. I tied it together with satin cream ribbon. My absolute fav part is her initials in pearls on the tag. Totally personal now : ) I used my Cricut Heritage cart to cut out Journal and the quill as well.
(the colors here look a bit washed out but are so pretty in life-sorry about that) I added two shots of the cover so maybe you can see the true purple and blue in it. SO soft and vintage looking. Girly, girl for sure ! The shadow over the butterfly made me not choose this 1st pic originally but I think you can see the colors better?! Maybe?! It's has a little shabby chic style goin' on. I like that.

The pom pom fringe is one of my other all time favs! Oh so chic! I staggered teh pages to make dividers for her to flip through easier. Maybe she will have individual sections for dreams, inspirations, quotes, pictures or keepsakes. Who knows!

So now here is the photo we were to use as our inspiration:

Pretty right? I looove it : )

Have a great Superbowl Sunday!!! Hope your team wins!!! I'm going to order wings now from our favorite local wing place...yummm. Have you ever had old bay wings? Soo good!

Cheers!

Color Challenge March 22

Good morning and what happened to Spring?

Well, until it warms up again we can play along with this weeks color challenge at
The Outlawz and think Spring in our minds anyway, right? Right! : )

Here is the inspiration photo for this week chosen by Guylou

Bright, fun and funky colors! Blue, Green and Purple. "March Madness" this week is to add paint!

Here is my take on it.


Let's see how you interpret it!

Have fun with those paint brushes!!!!

Good morning and happy Sunday!!! Did you forget to set your clocks for DST too???? I sure did!
We are back on tract now!

There is a blog hop party going on and awesome goodies for some very lucky winners. The deets are below.

Butterfly Blog Linky Party!!!!!



I'm hoping I get lucky too : )

Usually the blog hops overwhelm me so I rarely enter them. This hits a special place in my heart, so I thought I'd play along for fun and maybe I'll get lucky and win something too!

The reason why is because my mom was Greek and we were very, very, very close and I miss her presence here on earth like I cannot even describe in words. There aren't any, that describe the kind of pain and loss of a parent passing.

The Butterfly in History

The Greek culture believed that when a butterfly released itself from its cocoon, a human soul emerged. They also considered the butterfly to be the soul of loved ones who had passed away. There are many links with butterflies in mythology from all over the world, many of which, in particular Greek mythology, link butterflies to the human soul. The Ancient Greeks also considered butterflies as the souls of those who had passed away. In ancient Greek the word for butterfly is "Psyche", which translated means "soul".

I could go on and on for my love of butterflies, which really intensified after my mom passed away in November of 2009. We had an extraordinary encounter with a butterfly that following summer.
My daughter and my mom had an extremely close relationship and I can remember at the time her missing Gram badly, then this happened.

Coincidence? I think not.

Have you ever held a butterfly like that, so close and not even fluttering to get a away? I haven't.
I tried to tell her, see. how the wing is broken ,maybe that is why she landed because she was hurt or just popping in to say hello to us. Let's put her in the pot to rest she she can fly again (in the pot of flowers my mom planted) We were on our way out and she didn't want to leave her there.
My daughter was worried she'd die and would not be able to fly or survive because she was broken on her bottom right wing. I said it is in God's hands now. I believe it's Gram and she came to say hello and let you know she is ok and that you should not be so sad. Remember all the good times you had with her and know she is peaceful now too.

Long story short,

We got home and the butterfly was gone. I believe it was a visit from my mother.

Well. enough about my history lesson on butterflies!
Here are 2 more projecst I made for her, my mom.

The butterfly tree

A lacy butterfly
Thanks for looking!!

Have a great day : )