February Card Kit Club!

So excited to share my creations from this month's Card Kit Club at Scrappin' Mojo! My lovely and talented friend Beth put our kit together this month and it was chock full of red, pink, hearts and all sorts of sweet little goodies. She took the time to die cut pieces for each of us and hand stamp sentiments. Take a peek at what she made up for the 9 of us girls playing along; adorable huh?

I added a little bit of pastel mint green and very pale pink card stock to my designs and love the different look it gave the brighter pinks and reds. The heart doily die cut Beth sent us is so precious; love how it creates such a focal point for this square card.

A simple little love banner card for someone special...



I wanted to make a little Valentine box and used a small heart box that has been hiding in my stash for a couple years. I covered it with the striped paper and added the red heart doily. Beaded trim and bitty flowers make this so sweet; love little details...

This little gift box contains a little Valentine ribbon bookmark. Made especially for my Mama.



And lastly, I took some 4"square coasters and made a very small mini book for my parents. Small picture of Desi, Cole and Ellie make up the pages. Desi added her little notes to grandma and grandpa.

Such a sweet and lovely kit! thank you Bethie for putting it together for all of us! For more inspiration, take a peek at  what the other girls made with their kits; so many fun ideas for you to tak in!

Beth

Diane

Jan

Joni

Kim

Mara

Mary

Terri

Enjoy, Nik

Still In Valentine Mode...

I do hope your Valentine's Day was filled with lots of love, hugs and kisses. It certainly was here in our little home in Minnesota. Even though Pat had to work the late shift at work, he surprised the kids and I by doing the grocery shopping on his way home and picking up an elaborate box of chocolates for his little love bugs to wake up to. Ahhh.... love........

I attended Cole's Valentine party at preschool and had so much fun watching cute as can be 4 year olds making heart bird feeders, Valentine headbands, and eating a yummy Valentine float with ice cream and Hawaiian Punch - so frothy, pink and cute! I made all of Cole's Valentines this year with the help of my Cricut and Papertrey Ink's Tremendous Treats Valentine stamp set. I LOVE this little set - so sweet and cute for the little ones. I stamped and colored each image with watercolor pencils and then attached the little tags to these cute library style pockets cut from the Cricut Artiste cartridge.

The little pockets were just the perfect size to fit a heart lollipop and a mini set of watercolor paints. Perfect combination for artsy 4-year olds. Cole has a very small preschool class; only 9 little ones which is great for him because of all the attention he gets! Of the 9 only two are girls. I felt like they needed a little extra special on love day and made their pockets slightly bigger to accommodate a couple Hello Kitty bracelets as well as the paints and lollipops.

For these I added lace and pom-pom fringe to the pockets, heart doilies and a little tag with their name. The adorable retro Valentine images come from the Crafty Secrets Vintage Valentine Kit. This is one of my go to things when it comes to Valentine's Day projects. These are the sweetest images, both retro style and vintage, complete with papers. You will love this one and use it year after year!

Off to spend some time with my Valentines. Happy Sunday All!

XOXO, Nik

Hello little lost blog!

What can I say? Life gets busy, real busy. There will come a day when I post often. I say it all the time, but I never seem to make it here as often as I want to. Maybe this year will be different, but I won't make any promises :) Just know I am here, still crafting away and being inspired by each of you out there in blog land.

2012 was a year filled with blessings and heartaches. So much has happened that has been so wonderful and I will start to share in coming posts. My kiddos are getting so big and learning so much each day. It is almost hard to see them growing up so quickly.

Here they are this past summer on the North Shore in Duluth, MN. We spent a a few days visiting my college age nieces as they took us around to all their fave spots. Love Duluth. TRuly one of Minnesota's prettiest areas. Visit sometime if you get out my way.

 I have been busy with Valentine projects and trying to stay on top of everything so I don't run out of time and cards before the 14th. Funny, I think that is where I left off last year with you all!

I have so many Valentine themed papers  that have piled up over the years and just love them; even if they are from 5 years ago. Mixing old and new can yield such pretty results some times.

What have you all been creating? If you love the lovey month like I do , I bet your projects are covered in hearts and x's and o's. I think my favorite new Valentine line is Crate Paper's Fourteen. Just love the bright colors and retro designs. More projects to come with that soon! Make your day sweet today....

XOXO,

Nik

Following Your Heart

February is coming to a close already. The shortest and sweetest month is almost come and gone. Creating for the love month is so precious. Hearts, pink, red, lace, i love yous - so scrumptious. I didn't get done nearly the projects that I started, but that's ok. They will always be there waiting for me to visit them again and finish throughout the rest of the year.



I love hearts. Always have and I suspect I always will. I love shabby hearts with little touches of pink and lots of layers. The above little pretties were made just have hanging around the house this month. Might just have to leave them up until  mid-March since they are so charming.

February is also a month of sorrow for me. This year's February 19th marked the 3rd "Angel"versary for my Ellie. Letting go of her has been the most difficult thing I have had to do in my life and I suspect always will be. I talk of her often and will on my blog. It helps me. It keeps her memory alive. And I want to continue to share about her with others. Ellie's story touched so many lives and changed them forever and what a blessing it is for me to begin to see God's plan. I will never know His full intention, but I trust. And I pray. and I believe He never makes a mistake. I miss you Ellie. Sending smooches all the way to Heaven....

I am often inspired by this little girl that lives with Jesus now. All three of my children inspire me in different ways, but February seems to center around Ellie and how she speaks to me through her pictures and my memories. She loved art. Any kind. Painting was a fave of hers. Scrapbooking, collage, stamping. She would mix elements and glue them all down on a piece of paper and be so delighted with the end result. I often wonder what her artistic abilities would have brought forth if she was still with us...

I have been taking the SheArt workshop online by Christy Tomlinson and thought I would share my first SheArt girl with you. Ellie inspired this little piece and it was fun getting messy and learning about the fascinating world of mixed media. I can see this becoming something that I will do more and more. I would encourage any of you who want to try something new and dabble in a little mixed media to give Christy's class a whirl. She is funny, and great teacher and very easy to follow. Below you will see my little canvas that I collaged together to start building the background for my project. I chose book pages, an old playing card and just a few pieces of ephemera. This is such a fun part of the process....

This became this....

Layering paint, stamps, paper, glimmer mist, rubons, doodles...so amazing that you can take a plain old canvas and create something so whimsical and fun. Of course, this is my first crack at this and I have a lot to learn. Be kind to me since this is a new process and oh so enjoyable. I like my little heartsy girl. She smiles at me and assures me to follow my heart, pursue my dreams and never give up.

What will you do today? Will you go where you little heart leads you? Follow your heart today and always sweet friends. You will not regret it.

Hugs and Kisses,

Nik

Welcome to Ellena's Paper House!

Hello sweet Blogger Friends! Hopefully you found your way here from my old blog and are here to join me in new endeavors of creativity. I have been away from blogging for some time and thought I needed a fresh new start. The obvious answer? A brand new blog!  I really wanted my blog to do several things: a place to share my love of paper arts, my creations, my faith, honor Ellie and share about my little family. I am hoping that this new blog will do all those things and more. It feels good to be back and journaling the antics of a busy, crafting mama. I hope that I can write more, share more and be inspired more here in this little place on the web that I get to call mine. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Soooo, I am just gonna get right to it and share my most recent layout and card with you all. I think this is the first layout I have completed in 6 months *gasp*! I have been crafting away, but not scrapbooking as much. We have had a very mild and snowless winter but I was able to snap a few pictures of the kids in December after a snowfall. This is Cole at age 3 1/2. He is turning into quite the little man and I love every inch of this little blonde haired, blue eyed cutie. He is my buddy each and every day while his big sis is away at school.

I did this page as part of January's sketch challenge at Mojo and I am smittne with how it turned out. I have been a lover of Fancy Pants for a llllloooooonnnnngggg time and almost everything on here is from their recent Saint Nick line. Love the colors they chose for this time around and it makes me anxious to see what they will come up with this Christmas. I have pictures of Desi by the same snowy tree that are still waiting to be scrapped; stay tuned for that layout *wink*.

Cards have never been my forte, but I am learning as I go. My pal Beth gave us a challenge at Mojo to create a card using blues and whites. I love winter and snowy themed products, so I got right to work on this one. I combined doilies with an old stamp from Stampin Up! that I just love. Such a cute little snow angel boy that reminds me of my little guy.

I have much to share with you all , but I am gonna keep my first post short and sweet. I hope to spend lots of time on here with you all and inspire each other. Mommy duty calls and I have kids to tuck into bed, prayers to say, kisses to give and crafting to do. 

Nite, nite -

Nik