UK Designer Joanne Allison and Mothers Day Poems!

I'm thrilled we have a new guest designer Joanne Allison ( Angelnorth) this month from the UK! Joanne entered a couple of Easter cards for a contest we ran and won first place! you can see all the entries if you scroll to April 25. Joanne's blog is approaching 10,000 hits, so to celebrate I sent her some of our products to give away on her blog http://angelnorth.blogspot.com/ with a chance for people in Europe to WIN! She will be posting the details for the draw later today.

Here is a little more info on Joanne:
One way or another, Joanne has been crafting since she was about three but has only discovered stamping in the last year or so. She was raised to believe that in crafting most 'mistakes' are simply creative opportunities and even now hears her mum's voice saying "Well, can you make a feature of it?" when something at the craft table goes awry.

When she's not playing with paper and ink, Joanne is a freelance proofreader and copy-editor and is married to a man who is very supportive of her hobby but has zero visual imagination - dinner table conversation about imagined crafty projects gets interesting!

Here is a pretty keepsake she created using a photo from her wedding day 10 years ago.

SUPPLY LIST:

Crafty Secrets Sweet Chips Heart Album and mini frame
Stamps: Sexy Numbers, Frame It and Rosy Wishes (Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps)
Ink: Versafine Vintage Sepia, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint, Versamark
Other: Other: Cream/Brass Hardware Stickers (Heartwarming Vintage), Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump, 1" silk ribbon, gold lustre powder, white, gold and copper gel pens, pearlescent watercolours.

Mothers Day is coming and I thought it would be nice to include some old poems from my collection that honor and celebrate Mothers. You can copy and paste any of these poems into a word document so you can change the style of the font and the size to use in a card, on a scrapbook page or even paste it in an email to send to your mom.
Please scroll further down to see more samples, cards and layouts

For those of you who have lost your Mother, this first poem is for you

Remembering Mother

Feel no guilt in laughter, she knows how much you care.

Feel no sorrow in a smile that she's not here to share.

Remember the good times, the ways you each cared.

The days you spent together, all the happiness you shared.

Let memories surround you, a word someone may say

Will suddenly recapture a time, an hour, a day

that brings her back as clearly as though she were still here

And fills you with the feelings that she is always near.

For if you keep these moments, you will never be apart

And she will live forever locked safe within your heart.

Dear Mother
God sent the birds and Sunshine to gladden all the world.

He sent the foliage and flowers in radiance unfurled.

He sent the June, the Stars, the Moon, the pearly dewdrops sweet

and then He sent you, Mother dear, to make it all complete.
- Maurine Hathaway 1924

M-O-T-H-E-R
"M" is for the million things she gave me,

"O" means only that she's growing old,

"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,

"H" is for her heart of purest gold;

"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,

"R" means right, and right she'll always be,

Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,

a word that means the world to me.

-Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

Mother
Because I feel that in the heavens aboveThe angels, whispering one to another,Can find among their burning tears of love,None so devotional as that of "Mother".

~Edgar Allan Poe

MOTHER of MINE

A mother's heart
holds many charms
And love is ever in her arms,
And in her eyes a faith divine;
And home is you, O mother of mine!
- 1917 Volland

Here are some fantastic past samples made for mothers I wanted to share again! Just click on the photos to see them larger.

Lisa Zappa from our design team created this Mothers Day Card as a gift card holder for last Mother's day. She used a Bazzill

Library pocket for the holder and added crackled wood paper from the "Radiant" pad to the bottom of the holder. She

mounted the seed image from the "Seasonal" booklet so that it hides the gift card behind it.

"Mom" is stamped with the letters from the "Artsy Alphabet" stamp set. The white flowers are colored in with a Sakura gelly roll clear glitter pen. She added Making Memories Pink Glitter around the edge of the seed packet image. She also used May Arts Ribbon, a corner punch and a slit punch for the insert inside the pocket.

I love this pretty card that Denise Dilman, a member of Spitcoast Stampers created, using an image from our Homespun Cotton Scraps on the Family sheet.

She said she frayed the edges of the cotton image before she matted it and added Prima flowers randomly with gold brads for the centres.

She found the perfect paper clip with a red rose to match our paper!

Design team member Vicki Chrisman decorated this mdf frame from Darice with letters from our Divine Alphabet Book to spell MOM when it first came out a couple of years ago but I still love it! All of our Heartwarming Vintage Alphabet Books are ON SALE NOW HERE to make room for new products. She cut the word 'Wonderful' from the images at the back of the book.

I think the paper was from K & Company.

Vicki created the scallop layout using pattern paper from our Pastel Paper Pad. The 'white lace trim' is actually paper she cut from the pad. The photo turns, ribbon holders and sentiment are stickers from our Greeting & Sentiment stickers.