The first few September SOTM swaps are in!

I know I haven't kept up with posting here at all like I had intended, but I'm ready to start over again and try to do better at keeping this blog up to date (AGAIN!) lol!

So here's the latest, I'm hosting and participating in an artwork swap with a few of my local CTMH consultant team members and friends. There are 8 of us participating and each month we will create 8 similar items each using the upcoming Stamp of the Month and a new coordinating My Reflections paper pack to swap with each other. So for September we are using the Magic Moments papers and colors with the "Treasure Life" stamp set. The swaps are due this week, and these are the first three swaps that were dropped off to me today! I am so thrilled with the beauty and creativity of each one and couldn't wait to share them with you all here!! The beautiful details are much better looking in person and up close, as scanning them sometimes distorts the colors and true dimensions of them a bit. GREAT JOB on these ladies!!!

I've posted these in the order I received them - 5x7 card by Katrina Sikora, 6x6 card by Nikki Kington, and a Standard size card by Staci Neal - these scans just don't do justice to the beauty of all of these cards. Staci used pearlescent paint tinted with hollyhock reinker to paint her flower and the edge of the paper around her stamped flowers. In real life they appear brighter pink and are nice and shimmery! I look forward to seeing the rest of the swaps that will be arriving later this week and will be sure to share them here as I receive them also!

Finally, some art!!

So I originally started this blog with the intention of sharing a lot of my CTMH artwork here, but as you can clearly see I've only posted about family related things three times since November! I guess it's obvious that with 5 kids, I'm quite a busy and sometimes overwhelmed mom, but I really will start posting more cards and other creations here in the near future. So I have a CTMH gathering I'm preparing for tonight and I've come up with two cards to make with my hostess and her guests.

The first card (top) is a 4x4 criss cross card (I just love the pull-out tag feature)! I used D1284 With Love (June Stamp of the Month) to stamp the fireworks (it's a flower stamped upside down), as well as D1289 July Word Puzzle, and D1270 March Word Puzzle (for the "happy" sentiment). Colors are Cranberry, Indian Corn Blue, and Outdoor Denim on Colonial White cardstock. I also used the striped paper from the Blue Ribbon paper pack.

The second card uses D1284 With Love (June Stamp of the Month) and D1280 Spot on Backgrounds stamps. Colors are Barn Red, Blush, Hollyhock, and Olive. Techniques I used here include masking (to make the stems look like they are coming out of the vase) and kissing with the dots background on the flowers.

I still have a lot to do to finish packing and prepping for my class tonight, so I'd better go continue preparing for now. I will be back to share more of my creations soon though!

Happy "half-way to a Birthday" Juan Steven!

Baby Juan Steven is exactly 6 months old today and half-way to his first birthday! So, of course I had to take a few photos of him on this special milestone day to scrapbook and to update my blog FINALLY! Juan has the most adorable giggle - so loud and cute - he really is a charmer. He loves to lay on the floor and roll around from his back to his tummy and then back to his back. I think he has just figured out that he can get somewhere by doing this - yikes! He sits up pretty well now, but still gets tired and falls over after about ten minutes of balancing himself without help. He is close to crawling too, so I know it won't be long now before I will be chasing him all over the house, lol! I just love those cute little chubby legs, cheeks, and arms.

He's the Juan!

Well, I haven't kept up with adding to my blog at all like I had hoped to - LOL! That's the challenge of having so many kids and a new baby in the house though, I guess. I think I'll do better at keeping up with this once our daily routine gets a little more established and I don't feel so overwhelmed like I have been lately. Baby Juan Steven turned three months old just yesterday, December 12th, and it's amazing how quickly he is growing. I just love how chubby his soft little arms and legs are getting! He has an adorable smile and a giggle that will just melt your heart . He hasn't been sleeping as much as he used to at the beginning, so I find that he is awake and I am playing with him a lot during the day, and therefore can't get much else done around here (but who would want to? - he's just so much fun!)

I finally finished and mailed off all of my birth announcements and thank you cards last week! It was a project I had worked on very gradually (off and on for over a month) and I am just so thrilled to have finally finished them (even if he is three months old already now LOL!) I'm very proud of how they turned out, so I guess I'd better share them here with you as well. I hope you like our birth announcement as much as we do!

P.S. - If you click on the photo, you can see the details up close!

Why Jen's Jewel Box?

It's my very first post (yeaaay!!), so I guess I should explain why I chose "Jen's Jewel Box" as the name of my blog. My grandmother loved to read and collect poems. When I was a teenager, she gave me a beautiful book of her favorite poems, all written in her very own handwriting. It is one of my most loved treasures, as I can consider it a little "piece of her" that is still with me (she passed away in 1997). The very first poem in her poem collection book is titled "My Jewel Box" and this poem means the world to me. Its sentiment and meaning is very dear to my heart, as it reminds me that I now feel just as my grandmother did as a young mother.

I have done quite a bit of research on this poem, trying to find out if there is an author out there somewhere and I am thinking that my grandmother might have even written this poem herself. I can only wish it wasn't too late to ask her about the poems origin. If this poem is familiar to anyone else who reads this and you do know who wrote it, please let me know. I would like to go on believing my grandmother wrote it, but would also really appreciate knowing for sure where it came from, if it wasn't her own words. Either way, I know that this poem was very important to her because it is the very first poem written in her beautiful penmanship within the collection of poems she gave me.

My Jewel Box

Some ladies have fine jewel boxes
of ivory and jade;
Some have theirs of platinum
With diamonds all inlaid.
Within these lovely boxes
They carefully hide from sight
Their costly rings and bracelets:
They're locked in the safe at night.

Now I have lovely jewels too,
Priceless and very rare.
My jewel box is a baby's bed,
How sweet to see them there -
Two sapphire eyes, two ruby lips,
Four tiny gleaming pearls,
The sun strikes lovely golden glints
From wispy silken curls.

I carry my jewels all around
For everyone to see,
Gazing at the gems I have
No doubt they envy me.
At night when heavy eyelids droop
And my darling is undressed,
I lay my treasure carefully
In my jewel box to rest.