Stampin Friends Lots of Love January Hop

Hear ye!

Hear ye!

I'm participating in a new {to me} blog hop sponsored by the Stampin' Friends Facebook Group. On the third Thursday of each month, we will "hop" from blog to blog, sharing handmade goodies from a central theme.

The theme for January is Lots of Love!

This month, we have three guests with us, participating in the Lots of Love hop. Check out their work too!

Siara Acdal

Mandy Reedyk

Steph Jandrow

If you are following the hop, you probably arrived here from Andrea Tracy - Tucker's blog -- .

With Valentines Day approaching, I've been crafting more than a few cards that fit our theme. I've been drawn lately to the very classically pretty cards and embellishments from Heidi Swapp's planner line and Project Life's Southern Wedding kit from Becky Higgins. Both have lots of pretty flowers and pinks and are super easy to work with together. 

I am loving the ease with which Project Life cards can become card-making elements. Creating (greeting) cards with the 3x4 cards designed for pocket scrapbooking is a natural progression. Certainly, I could stamp these images but since Heidi Swapp and Becky Higgins went to all this trouble to design such fabulous cards...why not make use of them?!

I love Valentine's Day! We don't do lots of presents or celebrate it really, but I like that for one day, people think about love a little bit. Joal and I have been together for more than half my life...hes the best thing that ever happened to me and has been since the day I met him. He makes my life right.

One of the current hot trends in card-making and scrapbooking is watercolor painting. It's everywhere. Perhaps that's why I was drawn to this pad of paper produced by Craft Smith and available only at Michael's a while back. 

This is not ordinary patterned paper--it's heavyweight and while it's not actually textured, you can see some of the texture through the painted images. (It's only printed on one side.)

Not only does it feature very pretty watercolor patterns, but also several sheets of elements that can be cut apart and used as additional elements or accents. I love the "all in one" aspect. 

I'm a scrapbook girl at heart, but lately there has been some struggle to put things on pages. Oddly enough, this page came together so easily I felt like I was somehow cheating. :) I've decided that for 2016 I am going to incorporate song titles into my page titles -- music is an integral part of our lives and I want to reflect that in my scrapbook pages this year. Love's the Only House is a song recorded by Martina McBride! I love the message it carries:

Love's the only house big enough for all the pain in this world

There's not much more to it than that. Love's the only house big enough for all the pain we endure in life.

There are many new participants in the 2016 hops, so you'll have many opportunities to be inspired. Don't miss out!

Elizabeth Jeanne

Leanne Johnson

Carolina Evans

Deana Benson

Melissa Thomas

Kirsteen Gill

Kathie Rotti

Lynn Streifert

Andrea Tracy-Tucker

Sarah Devendorf -- that's me!

Andrea Pancrazio

Kim Smith

To continue hopping, you can visit Andrea Pancrazio's blog --

Supplies

Papers by Stampin' Up!,

Memory Planner by Heidi Swapp, 

Southern Weddings Core Kit for Project Life by Becky Higgins

Watercolors paper pad by Craft Smith, available exclusively at Michael's.

Fresh Blossoms Bigz Alphabet Dies by Stephanie Ackerman for Sizzix.

Ribbon by Offray.

Wooden heart by Stampin' Up!

Don't forget --

Leave a comment right here on my blog and you will be entered into a drawing for all sorts of project goodies from the blog host collective. Leave a comment and add the hashtag #SFJANHOP for inclusion in the drawing.

Happy Stamping and paper crafting everyone!!

--Sarah