Appreciation Card - Maja Design

~You Make the World A Better Place~

After taking a much-needed blogging break, I am here today with a Maja Design card I created recently...But it is not just any card. It is a part of a special new commitment I have decided to take on, and if you're interested in learning more, keep on reading :)
Otherwise, pass the mushy stuff and head straight to the project.

I appreciate so many of the blessings I have, but the thing I cherish the most is the relationships I have grown over the course of my life. I sometimes wonder if my life, or any or our lives, would have half the meaning without all of the people that hold a special place in our heart....Our relationships define us, help us grow, give us strength and love during the good times and the bad.

I am beyond blessed to be surrounded with family and friends who are always there for me.
 Their kind hearts  make this world a better place, and brighten not just my life, but the lives of so many others.

It is for this reason that I am starting a new self-challenge, to express my gratitude for all these wonderful people in my life, in the form of a special card each month. I hope you will join me in this journey and start your own list of appreciation cards that you'd like to send :)

I am kicking off my challenge today, with this card, created for a dear friend who has been one of the closest friends to me over the past 17 years. Through the happy times and the tearful, the big events and the quiet moments spent together in the wee hours of the night...Our friendship has been through it all. And after all these years, I am so glad to have my gal by my side.
It's true what they say...Every brunette needs a blonde best friend.

This is for you, blondie :)

I used beautiful Maja Design papers to create this card. The green paper is from the  Ska Vi Ta En Fika collection (Marsipanbakelse) and the lovely blue from the Vintage Summer Basics collection (1944).

For the top of the card, I used several layers of the green and blue patterns, starting with a bit of green paper which I distressed with white paint around the edges. I cut a smaller blue piece which I also punched along the bottom. Over that, I layered another green strip, and stitched all the pieces together. I added a banner (layered out of several papers) along with a stamped and hand-cut sentiment.

I added a scrunched vintage ribbon bow with a button and two teensy pennants at the very top of the card. 

Just below all the paper layers, I stamped the white base with lots of pretty little motifs.  I used this Papertrey Ink banner die to die cut the chipboard piece, onto which I stamped the rest of the sentiment from the PTI Stitched Sentiments set. Just below the chipboard banner, I stamped another banner, which I used as a guide when adhering the chipboard pieces. 

At the very bottom of the card, I added a splash of color, by adhering die-cut postage bits, which I colored with coordinating green and blue ink.

My dear friend loves the color blue, so this palette was the perfect combination for her card. 

Join me next month as I create another card for the next person on my list.

xo

*Ivana*

p.s. Have you seen the gorgeous Maja Design Mood Board for the month of May?

Hope you give it a try! For all the details, please visit the Maja blog.

All About Mom

~Cards for Mom~

Did you enjoy Scrapbook Day? I hope you had a chance to spend some time creatively.
There was a really big scrapbook crop here over the weekend. I thought about going, however, I woke up Friday morning with a not-so-fun cold, so I decided to stay indoors (as much as possible), and work on getting better.

 It was just a lovely couple of days here, filled with sun and fresh spring air, so we managed to sneak in a few little walks, too.

I promised myself that I would spend some time on NS day to craft without interruptions, and it was the perfect thing to keep me occupied and resting as best as I could..Otherwise, I think I may have been eager to spend all my time outdoors.

With Mother's day just around the corner, this is what I decided to work on during my crafty time :) 

A few cards that are all about mom,.
Not just for Mother's Day, but also for all the wonderful things that our momma's do for us every day.

I used pretty Papertrey Ink Stamps (Love Lives Here), PTI dies to cut out the tag (Tremendous Tags), and the circle Limitless Layers dies for the pretty felt and fabric bits.

The strip of fabric tape is a little handmade roll I whipped up just before I put these cards together and it served as my inspiration.
I love scouring local thrift shoppes for gently used fabric - be it in the form of old dinner napkins, tablecloths, or even baby clothes, such as this particular print was, and I give them a new life by re-purposing them into my craft projects.

I have been really wanting to give fabric tape another try, and so I used my new find to make this lovely floral tape. I love how a just a little bit of this tape goes a really long way.
I have one extra set available in my Shoppe :)

I used the floral fabric to make this fun and loosey flower, too. The fabric was already pleated {it was a lovely little girls' dress, with some holes in it, so being able to re-use it, was really great}, which made it super easy for me to adhere the strip of fabric to a cardstock base and secure the center with a button.

I added some pretty buttons, hand-rolled felt roses, and some stamped and cut bits.

My favorite part of this card is the 'o', which is a chipboard font from a Tattered Angels chipboard set, that I colored with a Copic marker (Cool Shadow).

I used PTI's Heart Border to cut all the pretty heart bits out of Limeade Ice felt.

The last project isn't really just for a mom - but I can't think of any one single person who appreciates something handmade more than a momma does...So it was only fitting to make a card that I know would be a perfect accompaniment to a homespun gift for mom!

I used a Spellbinders die, as well as the Limitless Layers Circle die from PTI to cut the felt, and some pretty plaid Cosmo Cricket paper for the top. The frame is a stamped image from Stampin' Up, and the sentiment is from the Love Lives Here stamp set.

I felt myself wanting to use the fabric tape over and over again, hence  all the little bits of it on this card. Do you ever feel so excited by a new product that you just can't help but add it to all of your projects? I can't be the only one :) 

Happy Day to all,

*Ivana*

National Scrapbook Day Giveaway and Savings Event On Now!

~Help Me Celebrate NSD~

**Edited to Add: Thank you to everyone who left a comment and helped me celebrate NSD!
I've randomly drawn a winner for the Sweet Berry bundle...Congratulations to Sue!**
{Sue, please e-mail me with you address at ivanacamdzic@yahoo.com}

Do you know that May 4th is just around around the corner, and do you know that it is the National Scrapbook Day? Are you doing anything to celebrate?
I am celebrating this wonderful day by devoting a few hours of uninterrupted craft time for myself and I am very, very excited :)

I couldn't help stopping in to share something with you all for this very special day. I promised I would do another giveaway, and I bet you didn't think it would be so soon.
But with such a fun day approaching us, I thought it was just the prefect fit. Simply leave a comment at the end of this post and I will pick a winner on Monday to receive one of the "Sweet Berry" bundles (see pictures below).

To add to that, I also thought a little savin' might be fun :)

During May 3rd, 4th, and 5th save 15% off on items like

Handmade Buttons and Embellishments,  Cards, Gift Tags and Gift Baggies

Hand-stamped Fabric and Felt Roses, as well as all of the brand new bundles just added to the Shoppe.

Simply use COUPON CODE 
NSD13 
during your checkout process and save 15% off of everything in your cart. 

Before I sign off for the weekend, remember all of this lovely stuff?

I really loved digging my hands into all my new stamps and creating pretty new papers to play with. Having everything pre-stamped made it so easy to pull cute cards together.

So what is a girl to do when there is a pile of pretty handmade papers that she knows she can't possibly use all on her own? Why, make cute, crafty bundles, of course :)

So, I have made up THREE precious little "Sweet Berry" bundles, each one complete with pattern paper bits, coordinating embellishments, card bases, crinkled ribbon, yummy buttons, washi tape, and some stamped sentiments. If you are looking for a little crafty kit for some quick scrapbooking or card making on the go, you'll find that these bundles have everything you will need. The best part is, all of the little embellishment pieces are not only hand-stamped for you already, but they are also pre-cut, saving you heaps of time. Each bundle makes roughly 2-4 cards (or more), depending how many elements you choose to add to a card.

You can now find these bundles in my Shoppe, and you can use the discount code on them, too :)
If you are not an Etsy shopper, simply e-email me at
ivanacamdzic@yahoo.com
and we can arrange another way of getting the goodies to you :)

 I've put one bundle away for a giveaway, so if you'd like to win, simply leave a comment on this post.
I also held back a couple little goodies, and here is the third card I've made with these bits:

Thank you for visiting my blog today and Happy National Scrapbook Day.

xo,

*Ivana*

A Little Bit More Colorful

~Maja Design - Sweet Birthday Wishes~

I promised to be back with more projects using yesterday's goodies, but I think that might have to wait until tomorrow, now that I've peeked at my calendar and realized I was a little bit behind on things. 

Instead, I am here to share my Maja Design creation with you, with a new take on the beautiful Vintage Spring Basics collection. Something a little less pastel-y, and a bit more colorful. 

Every now and again, I find that I creatively long for a splash of color, and this is ever more true as the weather gets nicer and nicer, and as I am reminded of all the treasures spring brings - like beautiful fields of flowers. 

Today's card is inspired by these colors, but slightly more muted, and bold...Shades that remind me of rustic, country charm. A perfect pairing for my proud lil' rooster. 

I fussy cut this little fella out of the beautiful '2nd of March' paper from Maja, and paired him with lots of stamped doilies in different shades. I also added a variety of PTI buttons, along with some doilies, die-cuts, and a sentiment from the Fresh Picked stamp set by WPlus9. 

I achieved the lacey layers by using two different punches and dies, PTI's Filigree Border Die and the EK Success Flower Burst punch.

I really love the way these soft, pastel papers can be transformed into entirely new creations with just a new color combination of embellishments. Really excited to try these soft and subtle papers with some other color ideas that are swirling in my mind...Stay tuned for more very soon!

Springtime Blessings, 

*Ivana*

Bountiful Weekend

~Spring Cleaning and Sharing Turned into Shopping and Creating~

I meant to share this post with you last weekend, but time got a little bit away from me, and with yesterday's exciting win-full post, I thought today would be the perfect day for a follow-up.
What better than a sweet & cheery spread to keep the fun going?

Today's post is picture-heavy and mostly about how my spring cleaning turned into spring shopping :)  

You'll find a few shots of all the new goodies I picked up,  and some new projects I made.

So much to get to, so grab a cuppa and enjoy! 

Last week I spent my time spring cleaning, shared some lovely bundles with a few readers, and then ended up finding many more treasures lurking around my crafty space, that were just too pretty to toss way. I realized that our LSS was hosting a garage sale over the weekend, and was able to sign up just in the nick of time.

I spent Saturday morning at the Studio, with lots of good friends, exchanging laughs and our lovingly used supplies. 

My intention was to de-clutter, although I had a fear that I might come home with just as many new things as I had planned to let go of. 

I wasn't entirely wrong. Although I did reduce my own pile, I also replaced  *some* of it with wonderful new treasures that were just too lovely to pass up.

I am really excited about this set of  CTMH markers, which color much like Copics - I contemplated for what seemed like an eternity on what colors to get - mostly because I couldn't remember what colors of Copic markers I already had. In the end, I settled with a few really lovely shades, and two neutrals. As luck would have it, none of the colors overlap with my current collection, so I am a very happy gal. Thank you to the sweet, sweet girls who were patient with me as I heed and hawed over all the colors of ink and markers...I am one serious shopper when it comes to buying new goodies for my stash :) 

Although retired, these are some of the most wonderful colors of ink, and I just couldn't resist. Most of them were sealed up and unused, so I decided to pick up all three color collections. Thank you, Meagan, for sharing these! It was so wonderful to meet you, I hope we see each other again soon.

The last few items I picked up were three sets of stamps, each so very lovely. 

They are already getting lots of use around here - I think you will notice some of these patterns in my projects below.
Thanks, Bonnie for sharing your beautiful stamps with us :)

{A very big thank you to the sweet gal who parted with her bbq stamp set at the last minute - I was so hesitant to pick it up because the only stamp I really, really liked was the pretty gingham pattern. I am so glad I did, though. It might just be one of my new favorites.}

There were a few more purchases among all of these finds, like a Maya Road Chiboard House and Mini Album, along with a Melissa Frances mini chipboard book, and a couple more little Maya Road stamps, which I am hoping to play with very soon. Thanks, Lori for all the fun little trinkets!

All in all, the sale was a fantastic success, both for letting go of and for finding new :) 

As if that wasn't enough shopping, the mailman made me smile from ear to ear last week with my WPlus9 shipment {if you haven't seen their beautiful products, I urge you to check them out - they are just lovely}.

Keeping with my love of all things country, handmade and berry-licious, I ordered two stamp sets and some dies, as well as their lovely Oatmeal Cardstock, which is a shade just between PTI's  Rustic White and Rustic Cream Cardstock colors. I really can't get enough of the heavy-weight of all of these three...It could be just me, but I really do find a difference in my stamping and die-cutting with these papers. 

I was so excited to dig into the new stamps and dies, but with the busy week I had last week, I didn't get around to testing these out until this week, so I spent some time Monday night with a hot cup of tea, getting lost in stamping...
I stamped several patterned papers (see: yesterday's post), and a pile of pretty little doilies, tags, sentiments and strawberries, inspired by the signature colors of Cath Kidston. 

Here are all the little bits - after some fussy cutting.

And here are a couple of the cards I promised to share. 

The first card is a combination of the lovely Quilt Print paper I stamped, the Stampin' Up Quint Essential Flower stamp, WPlus9 Fresh Picked stamped leaves and sentiments, some washi tape, and a shabby ribbon.

I added tiny little Papertrey Ink Mini Blooms leaves, and stamped them with the CTMH gingham print. I added clusters of liquid pearls throughout the card. 

Around the edges of the card, I stamped a border, using PTI's Stitched Sentiments stamp set.

The next card also uses most of the same supplies as the one above, except that I also added a tag from the Stampin' Up Baby Blossoms set.

I separated the Quint Essential flower that I had stamped, by cutting the center circle out of the image. I, then, used that part under the tag, to bring in a bit more of the green accent color. 

The tiny little heart by the sentiment is a die-cut, cut with Papertrey Ink's Love Lives Here die, and stamped with the Love Live's Here stamp set (I think the stripes are a design from one of the little houses).

I fussy-cut the quilt stamped paper for a fun finish to the bottom of the card, and stamped little embroidered flowers from PTI's Stitched Sentiments stamp set to fill the white space on the bottom of this card. The postage stamp die is from My Favorite Things. All the elements on this ooze cozyness and country charm...Which I adore more than I can express.

You can find both of these homespun cards now in my shoppe :)

I hope you all have a very lovely hump day, and enjoy the rest of your week. 

xo, 

Ivana

A Winning Sort of Day

~Not one, not two, but three...~

What a lovely day it is...Ever more brightened by the fact that I have not one, not two, but three giveaway winners to announce today :) 

I want to thank everyone who took the time to leave such kind comments on both of my posts. My only regret is that I cannot pick you all as winners. It really is my least favorite thing about giveaways. I am, however, very grateful to have the opportunity to host giveaways and I am so happy and excited for the three lucky readers today.

First up is the Maja Design giveaway - for the  12x12 Life in the Country Collection.

The randomly-drawn name for the Maja Giveaway is...

Lise!  

 I feel so bittersweet sharing the happy news with one winner, while letting down so many hopefuls...It just breaks my heart!

So, for the handmade button contest, I have decided to do two draws instead of one.

 The two random winners for a bundle of handmade buttons are

Jill!

and...
Rebekah!
Congratulations Jill, Lise, and Rebekah!Please send your address information toivanacamdzic@yahoo.comso that I can get the packages on their way to you.
 My mind is already swirling with the thought of hosting another Maja bundle giveaway from my personal stash in the coming months, as well as another button giveaway, and I hope that if you are not the lucky winner today, you will come by and try again.  I figure the only way to make giveaways not bittersweet is to have many more of them :)
Before I go, here is little sneak peek of the papers I stamped last night using some new goodies from WPlus9, as well as stamps and inks I picked up at the scrapbook garage sale at our LSS over the weekend. 

Gingham, cabbage patch roses and quilt prints are among my favorite :)

Throw in a handfull of strawberries, lovely labels and doilies....

And a sprinkle of my favorite colors...It really doesn't get any better than this :)
I will be back tomorrow with a full post on my shopping spree, and a card or two, but for now, just thought you'd like to see how I spent Sunday evening.
xo
*Ivana*

Who Would Have Thought...

~Old Turned into New~

If you're just tuning in, let me update you :)
I have been seriously devoted to cleaning and de-cluttering my piles of crafty things (read more: yesterday's post), but every now and again, I would get lost in the moment and stop my digging just long enough to create something lovely with the treasures I uncovered in my scavenger hunt. Things I never got around to using, which I found in the most unusual places, all of a sudden spiked a surge of creativity in my little mind that I couldn't resist. 

I made a few piles of crafty bits (sort of like the cute bundles I posted about yesterday), organized by color and theme, and before I knew it, I had several cards whipped together in no time.

I am not sure if it was the inspiration, or the procrastination of wanting to do anything but tidying up...But I am certainly glad for it, whatever the push. 

And of course I couldn't help popping in today to share what I created with all my little misfits :) Who would have thought that piles of mis-matched paper that seemed destined for the recycling bin, could look so cute?

I apologize, but I don't precisely remember what collections most of these little bits are from.  I will do my best to give more detail about what manufacturers *I think* they are :)

This first card is made out of some scrap papers I had (looks like a Graphic 45 print along with a Pink Paislee soft blue print), and a cute little button card I had stamped a long time ago but never used on a project.

The various chipboard hearts are little bits I had done earlier for one of my listings for my Shoppe, but then liked them so much that I decided to hold them back and use them on one of my own projects...Of course, they then went into the oblivion that is my scrapbook room, never to be seen or thought of again...Until today :)

The polka dot heart is cut from a piece of Basic Grey patterned paper, and so is the little multi colored strip of paper. 

The buttons, pearls and ribbon are just another find from my stash.

I hope you can tell from the photo that this card has two layers, and once you open the top, you reveal the sentiment :)

Next, I used a little pillow box cutout I had kicking around, and decorated it with more bits that I accumulated during my spring cleaning. 

The lace, buttons and ribbon are all from my own stash, the pin is from Maya Road (I painted it green once upon a time), the pink clay button is just one of the dozens of my little handmade buttons I found, and the patterned paper is from Basic Grey and Graphic 45.

The little tag is from a Papertrey Ink Tiny Tags, and the stamped sentiment from PTI's Tag It's #1 mini stamp set.

For the last card, paired the leftover bits of the pretty patterns, along with some crocheted vintage lace, onto a script-patterned paper from Teresa Collins. 

I also found this lovely little handmade clay frame in the softest shade of aqua - it was the perfect little bit to nestle my little white handmade felt heart into. 

I added a crystal pin and sentiment flag to the heart, along with a fussy-cut heart from a Basic Grey patterned paper.
I finished the card with two vintage buttons in different shades of pink.

How inspiring it is to use old items in a new way.

Now if I could only find the same inspiration to put my room back to the way it was :) 

Thanks for visiting today, 

Ivana

p.s. I want to thank someone very special for helping me with my crafty stash yesterday - I am so happy that some of these lovely goodies found a new home with you, Aneta and Danielle!

And one more quick thing, I have TWO draws that are open only for 4 more days! To win some of my handmade buttons simply check out this post, or to win an ENTIRE Maja Design Life in the Country collection, check out this post...Wishing you all the best of luck!