Stampin! with Jaydee

Paper Players Challenge #80

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

Firstly, my apologies for having been away from my blog for so long.  Lou and I were back in England and I didn't get to my blog for the latter part of the stay.  When we got back I went straight back to work and had to catch up on the time that I had missed.  Very long days, very short nights and absolutely no time to get anywhere near my crafting table!  I also missed the deadline for my Paper Players card - I think that's a first time ever!

I'd like to send a big shout out to Tracy.  Tracy sent me an email this morning checking in to make sure that I was OK and she was worried because I hadn't posted for a while.

It's the talented Anne Marie's turn at hosting our challenge this week and she has a sketch for us.  I ended up making two cards based on this sketch and you will see the other one a little later in the week.  Here's here sketch:

I really wasn't sure what to do with the sketch.  I had so many ideas and tried a couple of them before realizing that I was just thinking much too hard and consequently the cards were just not right.  I'm not sure that I'm happy with the final result!

I went with a very different color scheme for me - Bashful Blue and Early Espresso.... keeping with the theme for the year of using things I don't generally use.  Bashful Blue is NOT my go to blue, but it does work nicely with the Early Espresso.  The image is an MDS image.  All I did was print it out on to Whisper White card stock and color.  I used my nestabilities to create the square and left the nestie frame on whilst I colored the background with some Bashful Blue ink and a fine sponge.

Here's what I came up with

Card supplies - all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Early Espresso
• Inks:  So Saffron, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
• Stamp:   printed from My Digital Studio.  Sentiment:  So Happy for You.  Bottom sentiment:  Love and Care - both sets retired
• DSP:  Subtles Patterns Pack
• Accessories:  Button and Linen twine
• Tools:  Big Shot, Nestabilities classic square small.  Nestabilities scalloped classic square small.

So, why don't you pop along to the Paper Players and play along with us this week?

You can check out the fabulous design team inspiration cards at the Paper Players blog - or on their individual blogs below:

• Anne Marie - Stampin Anne
• Ann - Stampin Schach
• Lesley- Always Playing with Paper
• LeAnne - WeeInklings
• Nance - Canopy Crafts

As always, thank you for visiting my blog.  Your visits and your comments are always much appreciated.

Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift today.  Especially big hug for Pammie.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Kindness Matters - Paper Players challenge #79

Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday.  It's my turn to host the Paper Players challenge this week.  It's clean and simple week and the challenge is to create a clean and simple card using a tag.

I love the Kindness Matters set.  The butterflies really appeal to me.  This time I wanted to separate them and place them along the tag.  I really enjoyed coloring them and then fussy cutting around them. 

I so rarely use River Rock and decided that this card really needed the more organic feel you get from it.

Here's what I came up with

I cut the tag using Very Vanilla - a perfect complement to the River Rock.  I inked up an old grass stamp for the background with Always Artichoke and River Rock and spritzed with just a touch of water to blend the colors a little better.  I then stamped the Butterflies using Stazon and used my markers to color them.  All I needed was my SU paper snips and a couple of pieces of Stampin' Dimensionals to lift them from the tag.  I also popped the tag and the second layer using Stampin' Dimensionals.  I threaded some twine through the button and then softened the color using my ink pad.  I also used an embossing plate to add a little dimension to the second layer.  I LOVE the sentiment.

We hope that you will pop along to the Paper Players and join us this week.

As always, thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere. Your visits and your comments mean a great deal to me.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Notably Ornate Butterflies

Hi Everyone.   Happy Friday. I hope you are all having a great week so far.

I hope everyone is managing to stay warm, too.  It was very cold at home yesterday, the coldest day we have had so far.  Around -3 but because the winds were so strong yesterday, the temp was -29 with windchill.  We also saw the beginning of a snowstorm that is expected to finish today.  Snow totals will be around 3-6 inches.  Still much less than we have normally had by this time of year, but at least winter has finally arrived.  Cherie, I hope Mr J gets enough to make snow angels!

I have a quick card for you tonight using the background stamp from Notably Ornate and a couple of different butterfly stamps that were in my stash.  I wanted to keep it clean and simple.  It was only after I made the card that I realized I really should have just stamped the background stamp directly onto the card stock instead of cutting it out and layering it.  

The butterflies were easy.  I stamped those with Versamark and black embossing powder and then used my markers to color them in.  I adhered them with a little Crystal Effects on one wing and down the body of the butterfly.  I made sure that I left one wing loose from the card base.  This really makes the butterflies pop and addds interest.

So, here's what I came up with.

I love the Very Vanilla on Very Vanilla.  It really is such a soft color scheme.  Once again I tried to make use of stamps that I rarely use.  I cannot remember the last time that I used the Notably Ornate background, but it made me realize I should use it more often!!!

On a personal note:

Poor Sam.   We thought that we had the UTI under control, only to discover that it was only temporary.  He was back at the vet yesterday (our normal vet not the emergency vet) and they discovered that he has lots of crystals in his bladder.  They are not sure whether he has a stone which is shedding the crystals or not.  Right now, he has to continue the antibiotics, but is also having sub-cutaneous injections of water to make sure that he flushes as much out of his system as we can get.  He also has to go on a special diet to try to get his body back to a lower acidity level and hope that everything gets better in the next two weeks.  He's such a sweetie and so uncomplaining and we do worry about him.  So, thank you to those of you who left a message asking me how he is.  We really appreciate it.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Clean and Simple Butterflies

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday

Hope you are all having a wonderful week.

I have a very quick card for you tonight. I really needed a clean and simple card that I could put in the post and not have to pay extra postage.  I received a new die for Christmas and really wanted to give it a try.

I actually tried this card two different ways.  Tonight I am sharing the one I did using Pool Party, Very Vanilla and Basic Black. It is a combination that is crisp and clean and works really well together.  Well, at least I think it does :-)

Here's the card

 

I really do love the touch of black.  The hardest thing about this card was trying to cut a piece of cardstock so thin on my cutter!  I really never seem to be able to get them quite straight from end to end!  I mounted the die cut butterflies along the bottom of the card with little pieces of Stampin' Dimensionals that I cut into quarters.  I tried this card two ways, one using DSP for the butterflies and one with card stock.  I actually like the card stock because it is stronger and allows me to raise it from the card base. This creates shadows around the butterflies and emphasises them even more.  I will show you the other one in a couple of days so that you can compare.

The great thing about this sketch is that you could easily use the new edgelit dies, including the fabulous ones from SU in the new mini, instead of the butterflies.  It's also great to be able to make the sentiment the star of the show for a change.

As always, thank you so much for your visit.  You know that your visits and comments mean a great deal to me.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.  Have a wonderful day.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Love - Happy Anniversary Pam and John

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.  Hope you are all having a great week so far.

Tonight's card uses a variation on the embossed resist technique. I stamped the image for the background, underneath the sentiment,  using pearlized acrylic paint,which I applied and then dried using my heatgun.  Once it was dry, all that was needed was some ink over the top of it, just like normal embossed resit.  I used normal Whisper White card stock instead of the glossy, as I really wanted the glossy effect to be on the stamped image.  Once it was completed, I realized it was too bright a color, I really should have used Blushing Bride, so softened it using my age old trick with vellum!

I absolutely love this sentiment.... it was perfect for the card that I needed.  This card is dedicated to our dearest friends Pam and John who celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary this week!  I remember them when they were a young couple madly in love.  How quickly time passes, but they are still madly in love.

Here's looking at you kids :-)

On a personal note:

I promised you a quick update on the house.   Well, we drove up the road and saw that there was a crane in "our cul de sac".  Oh.... yeah.... oh... yeah.... PROGRESS!!!!!   Here's the picture I took

Isn't that progress amazing... I mean all the walls are up and the roof was being trussed as we arrived.  We sat and watched them hoist up the roof trusses.  

This is all wonderful, right?  Really wonderful?   you can hear the BUT coming, right?

Yep... it was the next door house.  No progress on ours.  No.  nothing!  Well, not quite true, they did lay the concrete in the basement.  So, for this week, we have to live vicariously through the excitement of watching our neighbor's house being built.  They were a couple of weeks ahead of us and great progress has certainly been made in the last two weeks and we know that our house will soon be at this point.  Maybe about 3 weeks!

Tomorrow I will share a quick video that I took whilst we were at OUR house.

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  You know that your visits and your comments mean a great deal to me.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.  

Jaydee

Merry Monday Challenge # 3

Hi Everyone. Happy Monday.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  We certainly did!

You may remember that my good friend Lesley chose this card as the card of the week in the first Merry Monday challenge.  I was thrilled when Lesley sent me an email this weekend and asked if I would be the guest designer for challenge #3.  It is such a gorgeous sketch and I couldn't wait to play with it.  I know that Lesley will be thrilled if you would pop along to her challenge and play along this week.  Remember... if you play along every week, then you will have 52 cards already to go for Christmas. 

Here's the sketch:

For my version, I turned it on its side.  I used the Alleluiah Angel from Flourishes and it needed just a little more space than I had on the vertical.

As per my resolution to use things I don't often use, I pulled out the fabulous Well Worn DSP.  Who would have thought you could use Well Worn DSP for Christmas.  But it certainly fit the bill.

I added a background Christmas Music stamp from Hero Arts over the DSP and also over the vertical River Rock layer.

I colored the Angel using Copic markers and used a little SU tea stain ink to distress the edges of the oval.  The oval was cut out using my nesties.

Here's what I came up with

I know you can't see it, but the angel wings and trumpet were colored using a jelly roll pen to give those areas lots of shine.  It really is such a pretty card in real life.

I told you it was a great sketch - and it is really versatile.  So pop along to Lesley's blog and join us this week.

On a personal note:

Poor Sam.  As though it wasn't bad enough having a urinary tract infection and blood in the urine, today he developed an allergic reaction to the pills he was on and now has diarrhea.  Sam is a Norwegian Forest Cat and the wegies are VERY hairy.  The hair is also very, very soft and sticky. Mmmmmm... not so great when you have an upset tummy! So we had to change out his meds and hope that this now fixes both issues!  He really is such an incredibly sweet cat and he is, as Brenda said, very dog-like in nature and because he is so uncomplaining it really makes me sad when he is not well.

Lou and I visited our new home today we also took some pictures.  But that's for another night!

As always, thank you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits and comments are always greatly appreciated.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Awash with Flowers - Paper Players Challenge #78

Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday.  My apologies for not posting last night.  I was getting ready to type up my blog post when I realized that Sam Ganges (Bilbo Baggins') brother was obviously not well.  So we ended up taking him to the emergency vet.  Why cats can't get sick during normal veterinary hours I don't know!  So, $300 and 3 hours later we finally got back home and then we realized we hadn't had supper.  We dropped Sam off at home, gave him his meds and then rushed out to get a very, very late bite to eat.  Luckily, he does appear to be feeling much better today.  He was an angel at the vet even though he REALLY didn't want anyone messing around with his nether regions.  He is the absolute sweetest cat.

Anyway, Saturday is the night that I generally reveal my card for the Paper Players and the fabulous LeAnne has a color challenge for us this week.

Now, these are not colors I generally put together, so it really was a challenge for me.  However, y'all know that's the reason I like to do challenges, to push me out of my comfort zone.   In keeping with my resolution to use stamp sets that I don't ink up often enough, I decided to go for a summery scene using Awash with Flowers.  It's been a very long time since I used that set.  It's really very pretty and I thought was perfect for this color scheme.

Here's what I came up with.

Once I had stamped the focal image I decided to add a little Vanilla Spritz over it.  It looks lovely when you actually see it, but it is really hard to photograph.

The sentiment is fro a set that I was given and seems perfect for the focal image.  I also happen to think its a true statement :-)

All supplies Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock: Calypso Coral, Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzazz
• Inks:  Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride, StazOn
• Sentiment: My Favorite Things
• Tools:  Heat Gun, Black embossing powder.  I embossed the sentiment to make it stand out a little more.  Vanilla Smooch Spritz.

Don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players and check out the fabulous cards from the design team - oh.... and play along with us, too.  We really would love to see what you come up with for LeAnne's challenge this week.

On a personal note

Winter has arrived.  Yes, it even got down to -4 with wind chill.  I know many of you think I am crazy, but I love the cold weather and the fact that we have very distinct seasons.  I have lived in so many countries and cities where the seasons just blend into each other, that I love the changing and very distinct seasons.

Well, I am off to go and make a couple more cards whilst I am in the mood for it :-)

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

I hope you have a truly wonderful Sunday.

Hugs

Jaydee

Friendly Phrases meets Sweet Floral

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

I am so happy.  It is FINALLY snowing.  Oh, yes!  The world is somewhat white and it feels seasonal!  I've had enough of these 50 degree temperatures.  We aren't getting much snow... but at least it is moisture!

I have another embossed resist card for you tonight.  I love the Sweet Floral background stamp, but have found it very hard to use.  I thought it would be a great stamp to use with embossed resist.

This time I stamped it into the First Edition DSP and embossed it with White Embossing powder.  I then took my spongers and sponged on Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz.  As the image is such a strong image, I decided that it needed to stand alone and I would not do anything to it other than add a sentiment and a button. 

Here's what I came up with

I wanted to make the print on the First Edition even more muted, so I used an acrylic paint dauber very lightly over the entire area to give it a faint whitewash effect on the newsprint.  I love the way it turned out.

I used the Blushing Bride ink around the middle of the flowers and then Pear Pizzazz everywhere else. Once the ink was dry, I applied the acrylic paint overlay.

The Early Espresso card stock works well as a backdrop to the image and the button and baker's twine help to carry the espresso through from the base of the card.

The sentiment is such a fabulous sentiment (from the Friendly Phrases set), and I thought it was perfect with the image.

I hope the cards that I have shown you using the embossed resist technique, will encourage you to retry this very versatile technique.

On a personal note

Getting through my first full week back at work.  I had so many back to back conference calls today (starting at 7am), that by the time I got on a call at 2pm and someone asked me my opinion on the subject..... I couldn't even remember why we were on this particular conference call and had to have someone remind me :-)  So, I am really looking forward to the weekend.

Lou and I will get up to see the progress on the house sometime next week, too and that is so exciting.  We aren't expecting a lot to have happened, but it will be wonderful just to see a little movement.

As always, thank you so much for spending a little time in my area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits and your comments are always much appreciated.

Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

All you need is a stamp and some canvas

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.

I apologize for being absent yesterday but Lou's daughter flew in from out of country and we have spent much of the past few days with her and that has entailed some very late nights  and not much sleep!  It was so great to catch up though!

Before I show you my card tonight, I wanted to say thank you to Lesley for choosing this card as the showcase card for her first Merry Monday challenge.  I was so thrilled and so honored.  Thank you, Lesley!!!  Don't forget to pop along to her website and play along with the Merry Monday challenge.  If you do, you will be in good shape for Christmas cards this year!

I have a slightly different card for you tonight.  Yep... stamping on canvas.  I love the look of canvas on cards because you get such fabulous texture.  However, the stamped image isn't generally that great.  This technique uses an embossed flower and the embossed resist technique.  So, much the same as you do it on paper, but on canvas instead.  It gives a great image - here's a closeup

You can see the fabulous texture and how well the colors blend on the canvas.  Let's take a look at the whole card

You can see that I blended the green at the bottom of the canvas and then blue at the top to represent the sky.  The white embossed flower really pops off the colored background and the canvas really is a great change to paper.

I thought that the sentiment needed to be a little whimsical and the typeface in So Happy For You SAB set from 2011 is perfect.  (Once again keeping with my resolution to use stamps I don't use often enough!)  It also gave me the opportunity to use one of the non-SU wooden stamps that have been sitting around forever in my stamping cupboard!

The Night of Navy and Very Vanilla card stock were perfect for this color scheme.  All that was needed was an SU botton and a little bit of SU twine.  I did use an embossing plate to give a little texture to the Very Vanilla layer.  It needed just a touch of texture, otherwise it would have competed too much with the canvas.

So, what do you think?  Ready to give this a go?  It was really easy and a lot of fun.

On a personal note:

Getting back into work has been tough.  Isn't it always tough to go back after a few days away?  The beginning of the year is also when major changes occur at work and they have started to happen.  Some of them are really good changes though, which is great.  I am so pleased that I decided to go back at the end of last week because that meant a very short week :-)

The house should be back on track today, too.  The framer was due back on site to start to frame up the rest of the house.  Considering the weather has been unseasonably warm - up to 50 degrees again today, it means that the builders should be able to get more done than is usual at this time of year.  It also means that we need to get cracking on starting to sort things out and packing boxes.  Oh, as well as making a list of the things that need to get fix before the house goes on the market!  So, it's going to be a very busy few weeks coming up.  BUT... certainly exciting :-)

As always, thank you so much for spending a little time in my area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits really do mean a great deal to me.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Word Play - All You Need is Love

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday.

The challenge across at the Paper Players this week is a theme challenge from the very talented Lesley.  The PaperPlayers theme? All you Need is Love!

As part of my ongoing resolutions to do more challenges and use stamps that I don't often use, I went looking for some additional inspiration for my theme card and came across two  great challenges - the "Map to Your Heart" Challenge across at Moxiefabworld and the sketch challenge from MojoMonday.  They really helped me to create a theme card around love - and as an added bonus use a stamp set that I have rarely used.

So, taking the theme, the inspiration and the sketch all together, I decided I really wanted to create masculine card and use a black, white and vanilla color scheme.  

Firstly, I really needed a map and copied an old map in black and white, scaled it using my photo editing software, cut it up for three elements from the MojoMonday sketch and had the base for my card all figured out.  

Once I had the map on the base, I decided it needed a little softening, so used the old vellum overlay trick.

On this closeup you can see the two elements where the map was left as is, and how much softer the background is with the vellum overlay. 

I stamped the sentiment in StazOn to give it a very crisp image and then made the flower.  I wanted to use Very Vanilla for the flower for a quick change of color.  I used a little of the black tissue tape that I got for Christmas on the flower and then distressed the top and edges with Basic Black ink.  All that was needed was something to finish off the top of the flower.  A little circle of black card stock and a silver pearl was all that was needed to finish off the flower.

Here's the finished card:

Initially I had a flat piece of Basic Black card stock behind the focal elements, but decided it really needed something.  So, I took the piece of card stock and ran it through an embossing folder with my Big Shot.  It looked much better with the pattern.  In the end, I was very pleased with my card.

So, don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players and check out the fabulous design team cards and play along with us.  Don't forget to do the same at Moxiefabworld and mojomonday. 

Supplies - all supplies Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.

• Card stock:  Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Vellum
• Inks:  Black StazOn
• Stamps:  Word Play
• Accessories:  tissue tape, silver pearls (non SU)

As always, thank you so much for spending a little time in my area of the stamping blogosphere.  I really do appreciate your visits and your comments.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.  I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Aviary for Freshly Made

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday.

Sorry I wasn't able to post a card yesterday, but as I sat down to update my blog, I realized that we had lost all of our cable connections.  So, no phone, tv or internet!  It turned out that we had an outage on our street and it took them quite a while to get it up and running.  Consequently, I am running behind, so this will be a very quick post.

I saw the fabulous sketch across at FreshlyMadeSketches this week.  I really wasn't sure what to do with the three central elements and stood in front of my crafting cupboard like Old Mother Hubbard..... I then hit upon using the Aviary stamp set.  This was great, because it kept in with my resolution to use stamp sets that I rarely use.  All that I needed to do was to find a way to incorporate them.   I hit upon the idea of using the cages without the birds and then finding just the right sentiment!

I also went with a black and vanilla color scheme, and found that I got the best results when I embossed the cages with black embossing powder.  All I needed to do was to "fussy cut" around the cages.  

Here's the sketch

Here's my take on it - pity I couldn't get a decent photograph!

I was really pleased with the way it came out, and it gave me an excuse to use a couple of new stamping items that I got over Christmas - tissue tape and a background stamp.  

As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits do me a great deal to me.  Warm hugs and prayers for all of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Just Believe for Stamping 411

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

I really enjoyed trying out some new techniques in my stamping space this weekend.  I saw this very versatile sketch from the very talented Stamping 411 team and decided it was the perfect sketch to try some emboss resit on watercolor paper.

As part of my on-going New Year resolutions, I pulled out a stamp set that I use so rarely, along with a piece of SU watercolor paper and some colors I rarely use!  I stamped the image three times using Versamark.  Each time I placed the image at a slightly different height to give more interest.  I then wet embossed the image using white embossing powder.

To color the background you can use your inks and daubers or water color crayons/pencils.  Once you have colored the background, take a slightly damp cloth and rub over the embossed areas to take off any color.  It's really easy to do and I think looks great.

I then took my Wonderfully Worn background stamp and stamped on the base card layer to add a little interest.  To tie in the mat layer, I stamped the sentiments onto More Mustard card stock as well.  The "Tiny Tags" sentiments are perfect for this layout as they do not detract from the focal image.  A Brights Button and some twine (colored with Pacific Point marker) was all that I needed to finish off the bow and sentiment.

As a final touch, I got out my Vanilla Smooch Spritz and gave a gentle spritzing to the entire focal image.  This gives it just a little touch of shimmer when you move it in the light.

 

Here's a closeup of the embossed flowers on the watercolor paper.  The watercolor paper really does give a fabulous texture to the image.  You can also see just a little bit of the spritzing.

I know the operators would love it if you popped along and played with them using this great sketch.  All you need to do is click on this link.

On a personal note:

Tomorrow it is back to work!  So no more lazing around making cards, reading books and watching movies.  Oh, well.  It was great whilst it lasted :-)

Lou has been very busy in his "crafting space"!  Well, the garage that is!  He has braved the cold garage for a couple of days to make some goodies for me.  He made me a bow maker and a storage container (that swivels if you don't mind) for my non-SU inks.  Way to go, Lou!!!!!  He's done a great job, too.  Mind you, it did mean multiple trips to Home Depot to buy things.  I did remind him that he never seemed to have the right tools when he makes something.  He reminded me that I never seem to have the right stamp or tools when I am stamping, too.  Ah.  touche!   And I shouldn't mind if he goes and buys goodies at the hardware store if they are for my benefit, now should I?

As always thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.   Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Supplies - all SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Island Indigo, More Mustard
• Specialty Paper:  Watercolor paper
• Accessories:  Brights Buttons, Very Vanilla Seam Binding Ribbon, White baker's twine, Smooch Spritz
  
• Stamps:  Wonderfully Worn, Tiny Tags, Just Believe

Merry Monday - A Wish for Peace

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday and a VERY, VERY happy New Year to all of you.  I hope that 2012 brings you all the wonderful things that you wish for yourself and your family.

I went along to check out what my good friend Lesley's blog and noticed that she has started up a "Merry Monday" challenge.  This week is the first week of the challenge and I thought I would play along.  The reason it is called "Merry Monday" is that it is a Christmas card challenge.  Now, I really thought I was all done with making Christmas cards, but I was wrong!  I realized I had not used one of my favorite sets this year"A Wish for Peace" and this sketch was a great sketch to use for the set.

It was also a great excuse to use some flocking and some Shimmer Paint.  I am challenging myself to use things that I haven't used in a long time or, in some cases, used at ALL! So, I got out one of my Stampin' Up! wheels and used that on the background DSP.  The "Music Notes" wheel is very versatile and was perfect for the card.

Here's Lesley's sketch:

So, if you pop along to Alwaysplayingwithpaper and play along every week, you will have 52 cards made by Christmas!

Here's what I came up with

I know it doesn't show up very well, but there is great texture on the focal point from the flocking powder and the shimmer paint gives a nice little bit of ... well.... shimmer along the bottom of the image.  Unfortunately when I photographed it, it just looked a little splodgy!

I'm dedicating this card to Rach.  When I saw this sentiment I immediately thought of the amazing amount of time and effort she puts into decorating her home (including 4 Christmas trees) and how gorgeous it looked on Christmas Eve.  (Rach also started the whole "elf" thing (I miss Buzbee)!)  Rach really does create magic at Christmas for her family and I was thrilled when she shared a little bit of that with us all via her blog.  You can check out her Christmas Eve magic photos at this blog post.

On a personal note:

Well, it is almost time to go back to work.  I have so enjoyed my short time off work.  I've managed to make some cards and spend some time in my stamping space trying new techniques.  In addition, Lou and I have seen several movies:  Bridge Jones Diary - Edge of Reason; Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Hugo; The Adventures of Tin Tin; Crazy, Stupid, Love; The Descendants; Midnight in Paris; The Help. 

Lastly, I spent 16 hours straight ready books.  Yep.... I started reading the follow-on books to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and didn't stop until I had finished.  I cannot remember the last time that I read through the entire night (except for 1.5 hours) and then read the next day.  It was glorious to just sit and READ.  Bliss.

Several of you have sent me emails and asked me to show you an update on the progress of the house.  So, here are a couple of photographs that we took on our visit last week.

We were so surprised to see a forklift parked in the garage -)

We then walked down the side of the garage and found that the entire basement was framed and there was a propane heater running in the basement to stop the ground from freezing over the Christmas period when the builders were not working.

The corner closest to the camera is where my stamping room will be and this is the view that I will have from the window.  What I hadn't realized when I took this photograph was that my finger had pressed the zoom button!!!!

Lastly, Lou decided to go for a walk over the plastic into the wetland area.  It's really gorgeous and we can't wait to see the change over the seasons when we move in.  We will be in at the very beginning of spring and will be able to watch it change all through the year.

We are planning to put in a patio away from the house.  This next picture is what the view will look like from the patio looking to the east.  This particular spot has a great 180 degree view and we really think it is the ideal place for a patio and a picnic table, firepit, etc.

If you look really carefully, in the middle of the picture, you will see a little yellow dot.  That's the yellow piece on the arm of Lou's jacket.  It really is a special piece of land and we feel so blessed to be able to call it ours.  the fact that it backs straight onto 70 acres of pristine, protected wetland, makes it even more special.  It feels as though the 70 acres belongs to us! :-)

Not much will happen to the house now for about another week as the framer's will not be back on site until then, so not much to see for a couple of weeks!

Well, I'm off to go cook dinner.  Well, if you can call it "cooking"!  Lou and I have decided that it is a perfect night for soup and sandwiches.

As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Supplies - all supplies SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla
• Inks:  staz-on; Always Artichoke.  More Mustard and So Saffron for the window of the chapel.  Soft Suede for the steeple.
• Stamps:  Focal image:  A Wish for Peace.  Sentiment: Holiday Spirit Sentiments, Papertrey.  Music Notes Wheel
• Tools:  Big Shot.  Nestabilities.  Flocking powder (Recollections).  Shimmer Paint.  Scallop border punch.  Basic Pearls.
• DSP:  Webster's Pages