sending love

goodness, is it Wednesday already?  is it February already, too?  sheesh!  i don't mind telling you that i'm feeling a little overwhelmed these days.  between trying to get the house organized and ready for the arrival of Little #2 (due one month from tomorrow) and then just the fact that we're ONLY ONE MONTH away from having a brand new baby...it's getting REAL and we aren't ready!  i keep telling myself that it doesn't matter if we're ready or not--the baby is going to come when S/HE is ready and we'll have to go with the flow.  but time just keeps going by sooo fast and it seems like our to-do list just keeps getting longer.  help!

relax, breathe...i have a few minutes to sit down and write for a bit so i wanted to share a couple of cards i made recently.  if you're asking yourself why i'm making cards and blogging and then freaking out because we have a lot of things to do before the baby comes...i'll just say that in my defense, a lot of stuff we need to do requires help from Hoss who's at work during the day.  i'll also mention that crafting and blogging are my creative outlets and if i didn't have them, i'd be really stressed!

so here we go...today's cards were inspired by Crate Paper's "Valentine" paper which features vintage envelopes in pinks and reds.  i love postal ephemera and so i dug through my product stash and picked out all kinds of postal embellishments to go with that theme.  

 my first card uses an array of products by everyone from Crate Paper to Glitz Design to Cavallini.  i didn't want to make a strictly Valentine's Day card so this is more of an all-occasion greeting for a friend.  

the scallop postcard die cut is from Glitz and i tucked it into a glassine envelope which is layered over a paper doily.  i love how vellum and glassine soften projects...i find myself using them almost daily.

   

i covered this tiny chipboard heart with washi tape--is there no end to what you can do with that stuff?!  i might be doing that quite a bit in the future.  the small cream envelope sticker with the red seals on it is a Cavallini label.  i love the vibrant pops of red compared with the soft pinks and creams on the card.

a couple of other layered labels from Crate Paper and Colorbok, plus a CP tape sticker and Tim Holtz word stickers...it's hard to tell in the photo, but the white twine is laced with silver tinsel, offering a sparkly, feminine touch. 

for this card, i used old and new CP Valentine collections.  the paper and chipboard elements are from the new Fourteen line and the blue label and border stickers are from last year's Paper Heart.  i still adore Paper Heart and i pulled it out this year to try and use some of it in my Valentine projects.

lace, doilies, and hand-stitching...the staples of my crafting faire.



the pink and blue zinnia postage stamp is from Fourteen and the pink stamp and envelope stickers are Cavallini.

i will be back very soon with more projects...if we don't have a baby before then, that is.  for some reason i can't shake the feeling that this baby will come early.  Mr. Bagubian was 5 days late and i was so ready for him to come out!  at every doctor's appointment, i was hoping that my OB would say this was it and promptly send us over to the hospital for delivery!  but Gooby was late and because i want this baby to stay in there as long as possible, i feel like s/he will come very soon instead!  fingers crossed that is not the case!