Hi!  I’m so excited about this new journey in to blogging.  I’m Shanna and I’m half of for theloveofhandmadecrafts.  Billie is the other half.  We have been friends since 1^st grade and have remained friends since then.  We both have crafted since that time because we were in Brownies together where my mom was the asst. leader and my aunt was leader.  We have both done different crafts from each other (Billie was big into ceramics and I did a little of everything).   I will mostly be featuring paper crafting and Billie will be featuring that as well as plastic canvas and jewelry.   We don’t knit though.  Neither of us has learned yet.  That might be something we can get into later. 

A little about the two of us: We both have severe fibromyalgia and don’t work at this time because of it.  And we are a month a part in age which is in our late 30’s.

Shanna: I’m single and have no kids.  I do have a cat named Kaylee.  I live at home with my parents.  I do have a craft room in the house.  My Background is in fashion merchandising and retail.  I have work from the store floor to the buying office.  I have learned at lot of crafting for two of my aunts.  I would spend time with one aunt in the summer and we would work on different kinds of crafts.  I do mostly paper crafting now.  I can do a little sewing.  I have helped with a couple of weddings to decorate the chapel and reception areas.  I love taking photos of my family and pets as well as nature photos.  I have a younger brother who has given me 2 young nephews (5 and 16 month old).

Billie:  She is currently and newly separated from her husband of 12 yrs and has 5 children (3 of them stepchildren).  Billie is a grandmother to Elliot who is   months old.  She has a background in manufacturing and shipping.  She has lived in our hometown since she was born.  She is the proud owner of a pug named Chewie.  She is the youngest of 3 girls and is the aunt to a 20-something niece.  Billie is a Cub Scout Den Leader and is active in her church.

Billie’s and I’s plan for this blog:  We plan to feature paper crafting, plastic canvas and jewelry project for you to view and make yourselves with provided instructions.  We hope to have guest designers from our friends and new friends we make through this blog.  This is our first blog so we will be learning as we go along so bear with us if we make a few mistakes.  We will be featuring projects that we make for local hospitals and individual that we do on the side to make a little extra cash.  Check out our Facebook pg at For The Love of Crafts.  We mostly make diaper cakes and coupon holders.  I hope that you will leave a comment when we post our projects

Our first project is the Valentine’s Day cards I have made for my nephews. 

Instructions:  I used white cardstock for the size A2 card base.  I cut a piece of pattern paper to the size of the front of the card.  I colored my stamp images (Stamps with Sayings can be purchased at Michaels for a dollar a piece) with my Stampin’ Up markers then stamped the images on a separate piece of white cardstock.  I then cut a 3 inch red heart using my Cricut and Doodlecharm cartridge.  I adhered the pattern paper to one side of the card base then adhered the heart to the pattern paper.  I cut out my stamped images and glued them to the center of the heart.  With the card front finished, I stamped Happy Valentine’s Day in the inside of the card.  Hope you like our first project.  Please check in regularly to see what we are doing.