Wednesday, October 31, 2007

SCS Sketch Challenge 148

It's Wednesday which means SCS is having their Sketch Challenge. I love joining these. Although I'd love to sit & stamp something new, I thought a card I made last week will fit nicely! :) We've got a crazy day here as I head out to pick a couple *missing* costume items and drive this afternoon for a school field trip -- and what do you make for dinner on Halloween that only takes 5 minutes to cook & 5 minutes to eat!? LOL. Guess I should throw something in the crock pot.. hmmmm....

ANYWAY - :) Here's my card


- have a safe night tonight with all the munchkins!
.j.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The house.


I thought I'd share a pic of the house with you today. No stamping the last couple of days... when hubby is home we try to get as much work on the house done as possible. This time home he's finishing up the siding on the back & we're hoping tomorrow our hardwood floors will be done. We fell some trees on our land & are getting them made into flooring -- how cool is that? Anyway... I'm planning on doing a big run this morning so wish me luck. I've been s-l-o-w-l-y getting back into it after taking the summer off. *sigh* Let's just say running is NOT like riding a bike. After a few months you can't just slip on your sneakers & run a 10K.
hope your day is wonderful!
-.j.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Goodmorning Monday.

OOOh & it feeeeeels like a Monday! Kids were all tired and scrambling here before school, I was trying to type out & email my daughter's China presentation to her teacher (OK, at age 10 she knows WAY more than me about computers! LOL) and it was total pandemonium! They are now at school, I'm sipping my coffee & Ahhhhhh...getting ready to face the crazy week. Isn't parenting so fun? Countdown to costume readiness - TWO DAYS! *YIKES*

I thought I'd share the other boy birthday card I made. I did stamp a few images yesterday so maybe I'll get those made into cards today - we'll see. I have a sweet order arriving from Addicted to Rubber Stamps in the next week or two so then I'll be stamping like crazy. Love having new goodies to look forward to. I have so much more organizing & going through to do in my stamping area, but... isn't there always more to do?! :)

I'm loving my new zoofari stamp set! It's just such a fun set to play with...

Stamps - zoofari & Let's Party for the sentiment
Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black & Jetblack Stazon
Paper - Wild Wasabi, More Mustard, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Accessories - Linen Thread, Black eyelets, Prismacolor pencils, cuttlebug & embossing folder, white polyshrink
I love to make my own little charms using polyshrink (also called Shrinkydink). It's so easy to use with your heat gun - forget the oven!! Just stamp with your stazon & cut it out. Don't forget to use a large size hole punch & then use your heat gun & heat while it curls up & then lies flat. If it's still not "really" flat, then I just use the back of a wood block & press it down. Yes, it's that easy.
Well, off for a walk around the lake with my sister-in-law. Great way to start the day!!
-.j.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Sketches are everywhere. really.

Do you have stacks of stamping & scrapbook magazines at your house? I know I do. Love 'em & can't get myself to toss ANY of them. I can look at them months later & find something I missed last time. It's like that with the Stampin' Up! Fall-Winter collections too. I've been through that catalog SO many times - LOL! BUT, I decided to look at it differently the other day. I was not *shopping* (like I usually am!) but instead looking at ALL the sketches in there. In every book & magazine you can find a "sketch" for a card or layout. I sometimes look at samples and skim over them and try to decide if I really need a particular stamp set and totally miss the showcased project. Well as I was looking through the catalog, I really liked the card on page 30 "A is for Apple". Now I didn't have the Give Thanks stamp set, but the "sketch" caught my eye. After making a number of girl birthday cards, I thought I'd try & get a couple of boy cards done too. So, I took the layout of that card & made my own version here :)

hope you're having a sunny weekend!
-.j.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Friday has arrived.

Let the crazy weekend begin! LOL. Thought I'd share a card with you... we'll see if I can pop my head in here during this crazy but oh so fun weekend! :)
-.j.


Stamps: warm words {stampin'up!}, Let's Party {stampin' up!}, Canvas {stampin' up!}
Paper: apricot appeal, wild wasabi, whisper white, linen flowers DS paper {su}
Ink: Rose Coral {color box fluid chalk}, stazon jet black
Accessories: Wild Wasabi double-stitched ribbon, Sqare Eyelets {su}, mini pink pom-poms, sewing machine.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Daddy Day!!

Today is a great day because Daddy arrives home today. I tell ya, it sure is a yucky job when he goes and he's away, but there's always a countdown going on at our house (not *JUST* for Christmas), but a couple times EACH MONTH because Daddy is coming home! The excitement that grows is so fun to watch. When he steps off that plane I am so happy he's home & our little family is complete again :) It's a good thing! ;-)
Of course this is our *cRaZy* weekend with three soccer games & four birthday parties to get to. (No rest for Daddy when he gets home! LOL). This week I have been stampin' up birthday cards -- all four this weekend are for girls so I've made a couple of boy cards to have on hand too that I'll share with you soon. I ordered a couple of Stampendous stamps from Paper Pretties and finally had a chance to play yesterday. Still trying to figure out the whole prismacolor THANG, but I did try baby oil as Sarah mentioned in a comment (thanks Sarah!!) and it seemed to work much better than the strange liquid I was attempting to use. I'm still hunting for Gamsol, but.... for now.... baby oil it is! :) Here's the Card:

Stamps - Bee Party {Stampendous}, Party Punch {Stampin' Up!}
Paper - Barely banana, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Whisper White
Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black
Accessories: Cuttlebug & embossing folder, designer punch, white grosgrain ribbon, paper piercing & template from mat pack (love that template guide!!), linen thread, primsacolor pencils, stampin' write markers
-have a great weekend!
.j.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

A Challenge for you -- are you up for it?

I thought I'd try to make a couple of "teacher" cards to have on hand. I'd like to *surprise* each teacher throughout the year with a handmade card & a personal note from each child to express their own thanks & appreciation for their teacher. I had fun with this teachabella and tried (for the first time) doing paper piecing for her top. How fun is that!? Too cute.
My "Challenge" to you: Send a card to someone this week "just because" -- & not a stranger on a list of names you have from online groups. Someone you KNOW and maybe even live nearby. You'll be amazed at how much they are touched with your thoughtfulness :) And.... you'll get warm fuzzies knowing you helped brighten someones day! Leave me a message & let me know who you're sending to -- perhaps a little accountability will help (*smiles*)
-.j.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Sketch Challenge #7

Marie holds great Sketch challenges on her site & this was her seventh one. I've participated in a few now & I have so much fun. This weekend has FOUR birthday parties to attend so I've been making up birthday cards today as my littlest one is home sick. The sun is shining so brightly on this beautiful day! LOVE it :)
So to celebrate, I made a *BRIGHT* card :) And it's for an 11 year old girl, who doesn't love hot pink! ;-)

A couple items on my card are *retired* items from Stampin' Up! but I'm SOOOO trying to use up all that "older" stock. :) Sorry that the photo is a bit blurry -- not sure what's up with my camera today! :s
Recipe:
Stamps - Party Punch
Paper - Pink Passion, Gable Green, Only Orange, Green Galore, retired DS from SU.
Ink - Craft Whisper White
Accessories - Buds & Blossoms Chipboard (SU), circle punches, sewing machine (mine, lol) & retired rainbow ribbon.

Thanks Marie!
-.j.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Wrought Iron Punch Tip Sheet.

Monday is here. A new week. My oldest is off to Victoria for a school trip & is soooo excited (what fun!) and I'm sure she'll be buzzing with stories after school. LOVE THAT! She took my digi camera with her so she'll snap happy while she's gone. I have ONE MORE ROOM to paint so I think I'll prime it today & try to paint it tomorrow (hubby comes home this week so I best get *something* done! LOL). I don't think he'll be too impressed if I just show him a stack of cards I stamped while he's been away! LOL. Well.... he'd probably smile & be happy I was having some down time. We've been working really hard while he's home on getting this house done. Still a long road ahead of us as we hope to begin our flooring this shift home. YEAH - REAL floors which means we MIGHT actually get DOORS! To pee in peace will be marvelous! LOL. Or to simply shower and KNOW you won't have intruders! haha. Too funny -- what an adventure we're on.
In my blog surfing last night I came across this nifty little chart. Love how some people's brains work & they come up with these great ideas! So... if you're feeling like playing today, pull out your wrought iron punch & try something different with it!
-cause we love to play, don't we :)
.j.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

My new coffee maker & my gardenbella.

Packed up the kids this afternoon went to get a new coffee maker (and gum-boots for the kids -- we're livin' in a mud pit here!). Mine was dying a slow death until yesterday when it wouldn't do A THING. *{GASP}* I know. So my daughter & I went online looking at which one to get (she's only 10, but loves ANYTHING to do with computers... apparently even checking on coffee makers! LOL) and resorted to my favorite brand.... Kitchen Aide. Ahhhh. Love Kitchen Aide. The last house we built I put in all K.A. appliances and LOVED them.... this time, I tried something else (because I went with a full size fridge and a full size upright freezer side-by-side) and wanted everything matchy-machty. Not so pleased. NEXT house (I hope to pray it's the LAST ONE!!!) I'll switch back to K.A> -- especially for the dishwasher!! I hate having to *rinse* plates (which is what I have to do now) as I find it completely pointless... add soap & your done. :) LOL.

I joined the Copic Club over at Paper Pretties -- yeahhhhhhh... so excited & Christie is awesome. Check it out if you're interested. She has US prices, but she's ACTUALLY in Saskatchewan (so no worries about the border, customs, duty & hold ups if you're like me and in Canada - bonus!) BEFORE those babies arrive though, I thought I'd pull out my 'ol faithfuls -- stampin' write markers from Stampin' Up!. I do love how these match beautifully and I had fun coloring up my garden bella. Just had fun stampin' & coloring the other night. Sometimes I just like to be quick & grab a 2-step stamping set, and sometimes I like to watch the TV, and color :)


I hope you had a wonderful weekend.
-j.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Here it is :)

A sleepover

My computer had a sleepover last night - LOL. It was acting strange & then had crash-like symptoms, so off to my computer tech it went. Now it's all better - whew! And Al was even able to find things I accidentally *deleted* -- yah Al!!!!NOw that *I'm* back up & operating, Blogger is down for photo uploads... so I'll keep trying tonight & see if I can't share with you a new card I made. Finally cut out ZOOFARI (left it unmounted & just put cling on it...) and made a fun, simple card with it. Watercolored, used some brads & that yummy taffeta ribbon! I told myself I would not get the new in-colors this year. HOW MANY COLORS DOES ONE PERSON NEEEEEEED??? Well, just the basic grey. Who can't love that. Then I thought that River Rock was a beauty. Now I'm addicted to Wild Wasabi -- ACK! How does this *always* happen? I love the *muted* look these colors carry. They're not bright & in your face (although I love those colors for kid cards & pages!!)but soft & subdued. A little paper piercing & some corner punching & my card was complete. Can you visualize it? LOL.
-j.
hope to share it with you soon!! :)

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Hello Friday.


Can't say I love this card - LOL. Some cards just DON'T come together. This card is a little all over. I'm thinking it's the blend of pastels & brights -- just doesn't work. So, I thought I'd share my error with you :) LOL. And I'm hoping the 8 yr old little girl that gets this will LOVE her present! {nyuk, nyuk!}
-.j.

Here's my card :)

I played this afternoon with my covered chipboard piece & here's the card I came up with. Whatcha think? OOOH... and I finally figured out making a watermark for my cards - how cool is that. Here's an awesome tutorial that lead me EVERY step of the way! LOL.

Stamps: Warm Words (stampin' Up!)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, Marigold, Fall Flowers DS, Whisper White
Accessories: more mustard brads, EE Buttons, Chocolate Chip Taffeta, Ticket punch & word window punch (SU), Cuttlebug - flower template & embossing folder

a mini tutorial...

This was so easy!! Even finding my chipboard coasters was quick -- love those *easy* moments. So here's what you do....

1. Find some chipboard, designer paper & a die-cut.

2. Use gluestick to adhere the paper to the chipboard. I didn't use tape as I thought it would gum up in my cutter & didn't know if it would work as well.

3. Place your diecut over the newly *decorated* chipboard (you could even stamp it if you'd rather... or paint it or emboss... ooooh... lots of possibilities here)

4. Run it through your machine, in this case I used my cuttlebug (sorry about the flash glare... very poor lighting on this wet, wet, wet day!)

5. Now you have a smoothly cut out & decorated piece of chipboard to play with :). I know sometimes I have bought the all-ready covered chipboard pieces (especially alphabets) so how cool is it that you can co-ordinate it with your project so easily!

-have fun playing! .j.

What a great idea!

In my blog surfing this morning (it is POURING outside like only the west coast can & it's freeeeeezing cold -- you know that *DAMP* cold that chills you to your bones! yeah, that kind! so I'm hiding indoors today and completely ignoring my to-do list -- shhhhhh, don't tell on me. :) ANYWOOOO, I found this amazing site called: Craft Critique and she demonstrated an fabo idea using chipboard. Now I'm sure like me you {love} stampin' up!'s designer papers. So beauuutiful! You can use chipboard coasters or whatever you have... perhaps even a cereal box would work! how cool is that? (I'll have to play today and see...) but you COVER your chipboard with desinger paper FIRST and then cut it out using a cuttlebug, Sizzix or other *cutter* and template machine you have. I know I have a box full of chipboard coasters that I purchased from a lady & this is a great use for some of them! So check her out (I think if I copy & paste it here it's considered "blog theft" and I'm trying to avoid felony charges :) ) So check her out. :) Click here. Oh, & tell me what you think? Hopefully I'll be able to post something for you with this nifty idea... now where would I have packed those coasters.... hmmmmmmmmm.....

-j.

A birthday party.


We've got a couple of birthday parties coming up so I thought I'd try to get ahead of the game & stamp a card or two. This card is for my daughter's friend (she's turning 11). I thought I'd go *BRIGHT*. Kids at this age are so bubbly & fun that I thought this would be the perfect choice! I had this image colored up awhile ago (using Primsacolor pencil crayons) so I thought I'd put it to use. Not the best coloring (still trying to get my hands on some gamsol & try that technique out... looks SO MUCH better than straight coloring). I played with this card. Used my sewing machine. Pulled out the cuttlebug. Even played with polyshrink - yeah! I love using it to make my own little *charms*. The stamp set used was by MFT and the sentiment was by Stampin' Up!

On these gloomy, rainy dark days a bright card like this makes me smile :)
-j.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Amazed

Yesterday was a great day. I took a day to just breath. Catch my breath. FINALLY start running again (that's a whole other entry!! LOL). Stamped. Played with my kids. Helped my oldest learn a couple notes on her flute for her band class. It was a great day. Despite the rain & the blustery weather we were enjoying this day. Then I was reminded of the horrid news I heard of some dear friends. They have JUST found out that there baby girl has a rare disease. Of course there's second opinions to come & many prayers to be lifted & hopes for a miracle, but none the less - heartache. As I looked at my amazing day, I had to take pause to count my blessings & thank God for all that he has blessed little 'ol me with! Isn't it amazing? Please remember little Hannah (which means 'grace') in your prayers. Her middle name is Rose & my youngest always called her 'baby roses'. She is such a sweet baby!! Also her Mommy & Daddy... what news to have to digest & understand. So last night I pulled out my inks & papers and tried to create for them a card to let them know that they are in our thoughts & prayers.


I used the new Basic Grey cardstock. Wow, I love that color. It's such a nice deep color! I paired it with Wild Wasabi & Cranberry Crisp cardstock. The new flower set in level one from SU called Oh, So Lovely has this great poppy in it. I stamped it on another paper as well so I could cut it out & "pop" the flower heads on the card. I didn't want anything bright & flashy, so I thought adding dimension & some texture with the ribbon, brads & tearing would give it a soft feel. I used another level one hostess set - so many sayings for the sentiment. I'm in the processes of cutting them all out onto cling so they are unmounted. I hope to do this with a few of my sets as I'm running out of room & I do like being able to see through the acrylic block :)
I hope you find some stamping time today too.
-.j.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

woohooooo I stamped!

I think I'm back! I drove DH to the airport and after two weeks of complete and utter exhaustion, I think I'm due for a little slower pace & of course some stampin' time! MFT has held their FIRST ever card sketch & it was just the inspiration I needed to pull out my ink & papers and play! :-)
I worked on it last night and then took my photo and COULD NOT find my camera cord to download the photos. Hunted last night forever with no luck. FOUND it this morning... in a box marked 'bathroom'.... see, I'm not a great packer! LOL.

Stamps - MFT, "You take the cake." & SU - Circle of Friendship
Paper - SU - tempting turquoise, pretty in pink, barely banana, watercolor paper, whisper white, chocolate chip. BASIC GREY - Blush DS
Accessories - watercolor wonder crayons, moss taffeta ribbon, American Crafts Elements ribbon, circle punches, aquapainter, sewing machine :) and a button tied with linen thread!
This was such a fun sketch with all those layers & textures. YUM! Here's a closeup of the corner element:

I hope to play, play, play this week.... so hopefully I'll have regular posts again.
-.j.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Baby it's cold outside~


CRAZY here with the move & all the soccer and boy was it cold this weekend. My mom got a great shot of Sarah I thought I'd share with you. Very few photos are caught of her with a genuine smile! :)
Next week's goal -- TO STAMP!!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

moved & messy

Just wanted to let you know I am still here :) Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We spent ours MOVING. Yes, it's official... we have moved INTO the new house! Woooohooooo!! No, it's not done. No, we don't have doors. No, we don't have flooring. Yes we do have drywall dust and functioning toilets & a shower (although the no door thing comes into effect here again.... YIKES!) Over the next few days I will be unpacking & trying to get organized, so hang with me... I hope to get stampin' soooooooN! :)

Thanks to my MOM! her hubby and my younger brother who spent their Thanksgiving giving US something to me THANKFUL for! :) MWAH!

-.j.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Holiday GLITZ!


Stampin' Up! has a fabulous promotion for October: Holiday Glitz Promotion

October 1-while supplies last

Make your holiday cards glitzy this year with a little help from the Holiday Glitz card kit. With our precut card stock and Designer Series paper, festive zigzag ribbon, and Rhinestone brads, spreading handmade holiday cheer has never been this easy!

Each Holiday Glitz card kit makes 15 handmade cards and includes:

Precut card stock and Designer Series paper (15)
Whisper White Envelopes (15)
Rhinestone brads (15)
Real Red zigzag ribbon (15)
Full-color instruction sheet (1)
There are two ways to take advantage of this fantastic kit while supplies last:
1. Purchase one of holiday stamp sets (below) and get the Holiday Glitz card kit for the special price of $34.95, or
2. Purchase the Holiday Glitz card kit for $39.95 with no additional purchase required.

Qualifying stamp sets include:
Item Stamp Set Price
109234 Snowfall $32.95
106786 The Snowflake Spot $28.95
107612 Flocons piquetis $28.95
109266 Big on Christmas $25.95
110359 Love & Joy $32.95