Stampin! with Jaydee

It seems only fitting....

Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday night.

Tonight's card was created using the fabulous inspiration photo across at embellish magazine.   I loved the clean, fresh colors in the photograph and all the different textures.  However, there was a little twist with the challenge... you had to use paper piecing - and you had to use dark green, light green, kraft and yellow....

If you blow up the picture, you can see the fabulous inspirations.... and I love these colors, but have never used them together before.  I got to thinking about this picture.  Now.... I don't know about you, but when I see an inspiration picture, I sit down with a piece of scrap paper and start to write down words that describe this picture. 

For instance.... for this picture - texture (lots of texture here), jewels, sewing, ribbon, shop, mannequins..... then it hit me... I had Chic Boutique.... Oh... yeah!  Now we are off and running.  I pulled out the DSP packs (love these newly reconfigured DSP packs), my crumb cake plain and textured card stock, some Old Olive ribbon, some stampin dimensionals, my paper snips, some pearls and my Chic Boutique stamp set.

Here's what I came up with

 


Well, you tell me... can you see the inspiration in the card?  I really love these colors together.  I would never have thought of putting crumb cake (kraft) with the yellow - but it really tones down the yellow and, added to the Old Olive and Pear.... love it!

On a personal note....

I didn't get to do any videos today.  We worked on the house from mid- morning to late afternoon.  At the end of it, I was pretty exhausted.  Because I haven't been well this week, I found that I tired much more easily than normal.  I did get to make a card at the end of the day, but not do a video.  I will try and do a couple of videos during the week for you.

Now.... I have to say this.... RACH..... YOU ARE AMAZIING!   A few weeks ago, I was on Rach's blog. She had a one liner in her post about the fact that she had done some deep house cleaning and used a baking soda solution with some essential oils on the carpet in the basement.  I filed that piece of information away, because I thought the essential oil combination she had pulled together would smell good.  Well... it didn't just smell good.... it smelled A M A Z I N G!!!!  Oh... boy.... I got so carried away, that I even sprinkled some on the bed, rubbed it into the mattress, ready for vacuuming.  It really is fabulous.  So, the house has all been cleaned ready for fall, the furniture moved around in the family room, where the fireplace is now the focal point, cupboards all cleaned, everything scrubbed, duvet covers, lampshades, candles,  towels, are all now the fall/winter colors and I am really ready to start some winter crafting.

Which reminds me...... I will be running a little blog candy competition on my blog later this week.  'Cos, I need y'all's help in choosing a couple of photographs to put up in my stamping space.  So, watch out for that later this week.

Another reminder.... two weeks to get your Operation Write Home cards in.  This brings me to another shout out... WAY TO GO GERMAINE..... even though 1) she has been feeling absolutely miserable 2) she is in terrible pain and 3) she lives in England.... Germaine, has made cards for the card drive.   Way to Go, Germaine.  That is amazing!!!  Thank you so much!  I really was amazed when I read your email... (which I will be responding to tomorrow....)

Thank you to all of you who left comments about my paper players challenge card yesterday.  I REALLY did appreciate it.  Very much!

Prayers tonight for Germaine, Bob and Nichole, John & Sue, T, Pri, Lesley, Adelle, Rach and their furbabies.

Thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits, your support and your comments are greatly appreciated.  Have a wonderful Monday, filled with love, laughter and time spent doing the things you love, with those that you love.

Hugs

Jaydee

Inspired by Monmartre and Card Drive Blog Candy reminder

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday night.  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.

Susan's Simplicity site one layer Wednesday challenge was to use masking.  Now, making one layer cards is pretty tough I find, so I am trying to do these challenges when I have the time.  I thought a lot about this challenge and really wanted to use the Eiffel tower stamp from the new Artistic Etchings set.  This set was part of the pre-order preview.  You all know that I love my Chic Boutique set, which features an Eiffel Tower stamp, but the Artistic Etchings stamp has a very realistic looking Eiffel Tower.  Great, I thought, I can use the new stamp - the one that is due to arrive in my box... this was last Friday.

Errr.... mmmmm.... I opened the box this morning and guess what..... yep... I FORGOT to order the stamp set!!!! How can I be that asleep!  So, as I was all set to do the card, I decided I would just have to make do with the Eiffel Tower from Chic Boutique.

Why this card?  Well, many years ago on a trip to Paris, I was wondering around Monmartre.  There were artists everywhere with their easels and their art set up under trees.  It was a glorious afternoon and little brightly colored umbrellas were above each easel.

I came across one artist whose work was so simple.  Water color images of pastoral scenes.  Unfortunately his signature is indecipherable, otherwise I would love to give him credit.  Anyway, I was torn between two pictures - one he had just finished of a daytime farmyard scene and one featuring the same farmyard, but at night.  I really couldn't make up my mind.  The artist decided it would be a good idea to take the pictures into the light and out from the shade of his umbrella so that I could see the paintings better.

Great idea.  EXCEPT... well, I did say that the artists were set up under the trees, right?  Well, I think you can imagine what happened next.  Yes, Mr or Mrs Pigeon decided it was time to fertilize the ground.  Except, on this occasion, the night scene was right under Mr/s Pigeon.  Ooooooppppsss.  Considering the paintings have LOTS of white space and the scenes are just in the middle of the canvas, a large globule of bird poop was more than noticeable!    In fact, it was just about bigger than the painted scene! The artist didn't miss a beat.  He said "merde".  Then looked at me and said in fragmented English, "I guess the bird made up your mind for you!"

I tried to take a good picture of the painting for you - but couldn't as it is in an inside room and the lights reflect off it terribly.  So, I could only capture the scene in the middle - there is a lot of white space around this image.  The canvas looks yellow, but it really is white - I just couldn't get a good pic.  If you run your cursor over the little pic, you can blow it up.  You can see the sky and the grass in the foreground and the bright yellow sun.  That's what I tried to capture in my homage to the Monmartre for Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge.

I will remake this card when my new - and more realistic Tour Eiffel arrives after July 1.  However, the more cartoon-ish tower probably fits quite well with the inspiration images.

I masked the area with one of my nestability rectangles and sponged the sky, the sun and the grasses/trees and then stamped the tower in StazOn black.  The merci, from the Chic Boutique set was also stamped in StazOn. 

I had thought about placing the sentiment in the lower left corner, but it really unbalanced the card, so I decided to put it in the center of the image instead.  I had a lot of fun creating the card, and reliving my early trip to Paris and my time spent at Monmartre.

On a personal note - for something completely different, it was raining again today.  Yep.... no sitting on the deck AGAIN.  However, the garden needs the rain, so I will not complain - and it keeps the temperatures low, which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned. 

Lynn created a fabulous Lollipop card that I wanted to share with you tonight.  Pop along to Lynn's site and check out this fabulously yummy card .  I loved the bright colors and the way she created the Lollipop.  Oh... and Lynn let me know that she has packaged up 50 cards for our card drive.  YAY, Lynn.  That's terrific.  50 servicemen/women who will be able to make 50 of their loved ones happy when the receive a fabulous hand-crafted card. 

Don't forget, that there are still 17 days till the end of this card drive.  For every 10 cards you send, you will get one entry into the draw for $100 stamping dollars.  That's $100 dollars to spend out of the new Stampin Up catty.  You can donate cards for either Operation Write Home, or HugsandHope. 

Rules for the card drive

• there are no rules.  Just one reminder - please do not use glitter for either of the charities we are supporting
• No rules means you can make any type of card you like, use any brand of stamp, embellishment, paper, etc.  It does not have to be SU - it can be anything you have on hand
• You can CASE cards.  You can design your own.  You can make them all the same.  Whatever is easiest for you.
• All you have to do is let me have them by end of day on June 30.
• If for any reason you are running late, just send me an email and let me know.
• Bilbo Baggins will be doing the Independence Day draw on July 4th and I will announce the lucky winner on July 5th.

As always, your support, your visit and your comments are much appreciated by me - and by the rest of the blog readers!

I hope you have a fabulous week filled with laughter, love, time spent with family and friends and remember to say prayers for Trish, Germaine, Beth and Lynn and all those affected by the oil spill and those trying to help the animals caught up in it.

Hugs

Jaydee

Baja Springtime in Paris

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday night.  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and have lots of great things planned for the upcoming weekend.  I know that our Canadian friends had a long weekend this past weekend and here in the US we are planning Memorial Day.

Tonight's card uses one of my favorite sets... which I just know is going to retire.... I just feel it's one of those that is going to retire.  BUT... I will not get rid of it....   I love it.   So, tonight's card celebrates Chic Boutique.  You can see my other Chic Boutique cards here.

The card was for the splitcoast stampers clean and simple challenge #66.  It was an inspiration challenge.  The card I was inspired by is this one.  BTW.. I love the idea of the piercing for the butterfly antenna on the inspiration card!

I decided it was time to try some new color combinations, so pulled out my Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla and Basic Black.

You probably can't tell that it is Very Vanilla, but it is much softer than the Whisper White was.  The WW was too stark with the Baja Breeze and Basic Black, but the Very Vanilla is the color of Cornish Clotted Cream and works really well with the other two colors.

This is a very clean and simple card.  All I needed to do was cut the Very Vanilla into two sizes - 5 5/16W x 4 1/16"H and one at 3 3/16H x 1 13/16W for the matt.

The black matt is 2 7/8H x 1 7/8W. 

The Baja Breeze matt is 2 3/4H x 1 3/4W.

I stamped the Eiffel Tower using Black Stazon onto Very Vanilla.  It's rare that I use the Basic Black classic ink.  Why?  Because the Stazon dries really quickly, so I don't smudge the image!

I then adhered the Eiffel Tower onto the Baja Breeze matt using dimensionals. 

The horizontal layer is a piece of Basic Black 1 9/16W x 5 1/2 W.  I stamped the En Francaise background stamp onto a piece of Baja Breeze which is 5 1/2 W x 1 1/2H.

I really was going to put a piece of Black ribbon on the horizontal layer... but it looked very funereal when I did that.  I may have put a piece of Baja Breeze ribbon on... if I had any.... but I don't.... I'm hoping to have some next week though!   Cherie, I couldn't find anywhere that I could really put a pearl.  Can you believe that?

I put Very Vanilla card stock inside the card and stamped another Eiffel Tower using Versamark.

On a personal note... it is so nice to see some of you returning from vacations, sick leave, etc.  Trish you continue to be in our prayers.  Germaine, it was good to see that you were starting to feel a little more comfortable.  I do hope that they can find out the cause of the pain through this process of elimination.   Rach and Kelli, welcome back from your vacations.  Cam, welcome back! 

OK.... guys... we need to do an intervention for Dee in N.H.   Why?  She doesn't like Kiwi Kiss.  Adelle/Cherie, I'm thinking we go over to N.H. to show her what she's missing :-)

Well, it is day 3 of our vacation and we have done.... zero.  nada.  nyet.  nothing.  donut. zilch spring cleaning.  We have been running around like rabbits in springtime going from one shop to another to buy things to spring clean with..... of course, there is the occasional stop by the nursery (twice in two days), coffee shop breaks, etc. which really interferes with your ability to be home and spring cleaning.  Mind you, I guess sitting on the deck and just staring at the garden could account for the fact that nothing has gotten done!   Mind you, sitting on the deck and just staring at things has yielded a NEW BIRD SITTING IN JAYDEE's GARDEN... Yep.... a new species.  We were floored.  It took a little while to find him in our birding book, but we eventually did.  He sat around for 10 minutes whilst we oohed and aahed at him.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a great pic, but let me introduce you to him.

He's a great crested flycatcher and he is really much prettier than his picture shows.  He brings our total to almost 50 birds in our little 1/2 acre garden.  Pretty amazing really.  We haven't seen him since, so we think he was just passing through and decided to see what the other birds were doing in the area!  One of the things we learned about him, was that he places a piece of sloughed off snake skin at the entrance of his nesting hole.  Enterprising birds have been known to use a piece of plastic if snake skin is hard to find.  Can you imagine that?  And they insult people by calling them bird brains... I don't know about you.... but I think that's pretty smart!

I did get to make a couple of cards yesterday, several of them memorial day themed.  I'll be doing another post early tomorrow with one of them, so remember to check back again in the morning.

Well, I can tell you that there has been another sighting..... this one almost as rare as the great crested flycatcher...... a sighting of the 2010/2011 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog!  Yes, ladies, there has been a sighting.  Unfortunately no details forthcoming from the sighting.  So, we shall just have to wait another week until we get our own little preview!

We are both hoping that it is cooler than the 95 degrees it was here today.  It was hot, humid and just plain draining.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be 10 degrees cooler.  Brenda/Cherie - I hope it's cooled down by your 1/2 marathon this weekend.  Way to go girls.... you are so inspiring!

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits, your support - and your comments are much appreciated by me and the other members of our little blog family!

Have a fabulous Tuesday everyone... filled with love, laughter and the things that make you happy.

Hugs

Jaydee

Cajun Craze - Look Ma! No Flowers!

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday night.

Tonight's card uses Chic Boutique - a set I don't ink up anywhere near as often as I should.  It is also the first card that I have made using one of the new colors - Cajun Craze.

I used the fabulous layout from the design team at Crazy4Challenges and mixed it with the theme challenge from ourcreativecorner.  So, I loved the layout - and it will definitely get used again and again.... and I was really intrigued by the theme challenge.  To make a Mother's Day card without using flowers or blooms... What?  A Mother's Day card without flowers..... yikes... OK... so.... I decided to combine the two challenges.

I have to tell you... that I was not intending to use Cajun Craze.  It had been my intention to use Really Rust or Only Orange or Pumpkin Pie.  But....... the thing that went best with the paper that I chose (Georgia Peach and Haiku from the clearance rack)....  was CAJUN CRAZE.  I realized it went beautifully with the other Oranges and fabulously with the Old Olive.  So, the rich Cajun Craze made its appearance!

I really did have fun playing with both of these challenges...and yes... you know... you've heard this before, again and again and again.... but it is THE reason that I do challenges.  The challenges really stretch me and make me do things differently.

So, here's my Look, Ma!  No Flowers!  card.  I thought this card is perfect for a Mother who is - or was - fashion conscious.  You can make it in any color to suit the occasion.  The oval focal point was perfect for arranging three of the tailor's dummies.  

And... isn't the sentiment "It seems only fitting.... to wish you a happy day!" perfect for Mother's Day?  However, it's perfect for just about any special occasion.

 

Here's a closeup of how well the colors go so well with the Cajun Craze:

I must admit - I am in love.

A couple of details on the card.... I love the fact that the old olive and vanilla paper had the dotted stripe, which echoed the dotted stripe on the tailor's dummies  and the edging on the ribbon!  I decided to make one of the dresses have the beaded hem, but removed it on the two others.  

The pearls (yes.... AGAIN!!!!) match the dots on the beads and on the dummy stem and base :-)

I was really happy with the card and was very pleased that I had chosen to do both challenges.

Card details:

Card stock:    Old Olive, Cajun Craze

DSP:    Georgia Peach, Haiku (love them both and wish I had gotten more!)

Ribbon:    Very Vanilla Satin

Ink:    StazOn Black

Tools:    Nestabilities (yes, I broke down and had to get the Ovals).  Pearls - non SU - come already backed with little tiny mini glue dots.  We believe that SU may be bringing out individual pearls in the new catty - which is really exciting.

Card is A2 - and the only piece that needed cutting was the Old Olive striped DSP and I made that 5 3/8"H x 2 1/4"W.

On the personal front.....

Well, Lou's travels seem to be taking a familiar route..... His plane out of Minneapolis was late, so he missed his connection in Amsterdam.  That means he gets into Malaysia 9 hours late, and 6 hours after his customer event begins.  This is beginning to become a habit!  So... his travel time is nearly 40 hours (all in economy class) and then he has to get up and present when he gets there.... mmmmmm

It has been very windy here the last few days - really windy.  I sat at my stamping desk last night and really tried to find some mojo ... but nothing.  nada.  zip. zero. big donut.. zilch.  I pulled out stamp sets and put them back.  I pulled out paper and put it back.  I pulled out a couple of punches and put them back.  Eventually, I gave up and decided to watch television instead.  It doesn't happen to me often... but when it does, it's really frustrating.  I won't get to stamp tonight, as I have to go back and finish some work, but I am determined that I will go find my mojo this weekend.... it will come back... it will come back... it will come back....

Trish we are thinking about you as you begin this journey into chemo.  Germaine, good luck at the doctor, I really do hope they can find out what is wrong.

Oh.... quick SU update - get your orders in for retiring card stock as soon as you can.  Also, check out the clearance rack - they added new stuff to it today.  I'm off to order some DSP that has just been added to the clearance rack list.

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  I hope your Thursday is wonderful and full of love and laughter.

Hugs

Jaydee

Chic Boutique - Pink Bird in a Chalk Cage

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night and welcome to Jaydee's SU stampin space!  Tonight's card features my favorite..... Chic Boutique.  This has certainly turned into one of my "go to" sets.  (You can see my other Chic Boutique cards here.)

I saw the Stamping411 sketch challenge this week and was inspired to make 2 entirely different cards, tonight's uses one of my embossing folders and chalking.  The stamping411 team always manage to post some fabulous inspiration cards. I really encourage you to visit the site and see the inspiration and cards that have been posted.  I promise you that you will find something to inspire you.

I posted last night about my mojo having gone on vacation and several of you sent me emails or left a comment talking about similar problems.  Getting out of it can be tough and I find that the more cards that I make that don't work, the less inspired I get.  Doing sketch challenges is one of the ways that helps me get back into the swing of things.  Another thing for me.... I have to have a clean workspace...I have to put everything away, clean my stampin scrubs, etc. etc. after every single card and start with an entirely clean slate.  The more "stuff" I have on my table, the more distracted I am.  It's one of the reasons why I elected to stamp on a small table... that way I don't have much space and have to clean up.

Another thing for me, I regularly go through my stamps and do a clean out.  Sometimes I buy a stamp set and think... "oh yeah!  this is going to be my favorite stamp" and, guess what?.... I use it once and find that I really don't get that inspired by it.  However, if it hangs around in my stamping drawer, then I feel that I HAVE to use it because I paid for it..... and, because I don't get inspired by it, I get more despondent.  Consequently, I've learned to say.. enough and pass it along.  It's not that there is anything wrong with the set, I've seen fabulous cards made with that set... it just doesn't work for me. 

I'd be really interested to hear what the rest of you do to get out of the funk so that I can pass that recommendation along to my readers. 

So, back to tonight's card - one of the sketch challenges that got me back into things!  I used my Elegant Bouquet embossing folder as the base for my card and also stamped with two colors that I don't normally use.... pale pink (in this case Pretty in Pink) and pale green (Sage Shadow).  It felt very strange stamping with spring colors when it was -15 outside! :-)  I really tried to get a good picture of this card, but nothing I did shows how soft and pretty and vibrant it is in real life.  The pics look flat.  I played around with exposure, contrast and brightness and just couldn't get it to pop!

 

It turned out to be a color combination I actually rather liked - out of my comfort zone completely, but that's the thing about challenges and pushing yourself out of your box:-)

One of the key things about the card was that I wanted to add some color to the texture on the background, without using DSP.  To do this, I used my sponge daubers, and my chalks.  I also used the little applicators that come with the chalks as well as the eraser.  Before I go into details on how to do this, and the recipe for the card.  Let me show you a close up:

You can see the soft Pretty in Pink on the flowers and the Sage Shadow on the "leaf" details.  The colors are looking very washed out on my screen, I hope they are OK on yours. 

To create this effect,

1. I used two sponge daubers and chalked them up with the two colors I was using.
2. I gently went over the embossed areas with the sponge dauber.
3. I used the little applicators for the smaller areas, like the ends of the "leaves"
4. I then went over the areas I had chalked and erased between the flower petals and other areas that the chalk had accumulated.  I didn't get rid of all of the excess, just areas where I thought there was a little too much.

Next I stamped the image and colored in the details with my PiP and SS markers.  I then took the pink chalked dauber and went over the card stock all around the bird, both inside and outside the cage.  I also ran the edge of the card stock in my PiP classic ink pad.

Last thing, was to stamp a flower and use crystal effects on it, add crystal effects to the bird, and, when it was dry, I mounted the flower above the sentiment.  I also took a pale green circle rhinestone and "freed" it from its legs and adhered it with two mini glue dots.  I popped up the bottom matt layer using Stampin' Dimensionals and did the same with the central focal point and raised it above the pink layer.

I hope you like it and are inspired to use this technique if you haven't already done so.  I'm looking forward to trying it again.  It works fantastically well with the embossing folders and would work with some of the texturz plates.

Last night my friends Brenda and Cherie and I decided it was a girl's night.  However, we decided not to do the usual adult girl things.... instead we spent time playing with the Wii.  What a hoot.  It was fabulous to laugh until tears were streaming and share good times with good friends.  I didn't know either Brenda or Cherie before I looked up an SU demonstrator late last year.  How lucky I was to pick Brenda!  and how lucky that Brenda had such a great friend in Cherie!  So thank you guys... you rock my world.

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday and that you get to spend time doing the things you love with those that mean the most to you.  I really thank you so much for spending time in my area of the stamping blogosphere today.  Your visits and your support are very much appreciated.

Cyber hugs

Jaydee

Chic Boutique - Paris Runway Hello

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday evening and welcome to Jaydee's SU stampin spot.

Today's card features the Chic Boutique set.  I've used the Chic Boutique set before - but never the dresses.  I really wanted to use elegant eggplant, so saffron and add a little rich razzleberry.  When I took the picture though, I obviously had a spot on my camera, because there's a perfect circle in each one of the photos - it just moves around depending on the angle :-)  of course, now.... all I can look at is the spot!

I used Elegant eggplant card stock and the So Saffron paper from the Patterns Pack. 

I stamped the dress forms in StazOn on Whisper White card stock and then stamped the dresses again on 3 different pieces of paper - 2 from the patterns pack and 1 from the Rich Razzleberry DSP. 

I then cut out the dresses and stuck them over the original dress forms.

I stamped the sentiment in Elegant Eggplant and used two of my ever faithful half pearls to highlight the sentiment.

Notice the repetition of dots.... on the DSP, on the dress forms and in the pearls. :-)  I just can't help myself, can I? 

We are still travelling... and I'm really missing my pussycats and my stamping space. 

I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday and get to spend time doing the things you love - with those you love the most.

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

Peace

Jaydee

Merci - Chic Boutique - Stamping 411

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday and welcome to Jaydee's Stampin spot.

The design divas at Stamping411 have a very interesting layout this week and one that took some thinking about.  For some reason, I had to do a lot of thinking about the challenge cards yesterday.  Some days the mojo doesn't flow as well and it seems to take so much longer and yesterday was one of those days!

Here's the sketch.  I decided not to do a Christmas card, even though the layout was screaming Dasher for me.  So, I decided to use Chic Boutique again.  I've used this stamp set a few times now.  I really do like showing you different uses for the same stamp set.  For me, it's important to get the most use out of my stamps - even more important in today's economy.  You can see the Chic Boutique cards here.

So, here was my take on the sketch.

You can't see it, but I did use Crystal Effects for the bird and other aspects of the cage, as well as the "dots" on the sentiment border.  I used rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink card stock and colored the lines in the sentiment border in Pretty in Pink. 

Stamp set:

Chic Boutique (113744)

Card Stock:

Rich Razzleberry (115316), Pretty in Pink (100549)

Paper:

Rich Razzleberry Designer Series Paper (115685)

Inks: 

Rich Razzleberry classic (sentiment), Pretty in Pink marker (cage), Rich Razzleberry marker (bird) 

Ribbon:

Rich Razzleberry polka dot (115613), Pretty in Pink grosgrain (109032)

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  I also hope you have a fabulous Monday - with time to do the things you love - with those you love the most.  As always, thank you for spending time in my little stamping space in the blogosphere.  Your visit is always appreciated.  Questions?  email me or leave a comment. :-)

Peace and hugs
Jaydee

Chic Boutique - Night and Day

Hi Everyone.  PPA challenge 10 - thankful

I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.  I had a great time in my stamping space today and managed to get some challenges done.  However, some were much more of a challenge than I expected.  Ever have one of those days?

Today's card is for the 2sketches4you challenge and the palspaperarts challenge 10.  The inspiration cards and many of the submissions are in a style very different to my own... which is, of course, what makes it a challenge :-

The vertical element of the card challenge had me searching through my stamp sets and I decided on the SU Chic Boutique.  I'm really loving this set.  There are many examples of feminine and even whimsical cards. For some reason, they tend to lead me to the more formal look...

I love the black and white and decided to highlight it with Real Red.  It reminded me of the Moulin Rouge dancers - synonymous with Paris! :-)

Here's my take on the challenge.  

Can't you see the burlesque dancers at the Moulin Rouge in these colors?  I used the Night and Day DSP, the Grosgrain double stitched Real Red Ribbon and, of course, the Chic Boutique stamp set.  I used my scallop punch to create the divider between the polka dot papers and then echoed the scallop edge with the scallop oval punch on the sentiment.  I attached the sentiment to the ribbon using the Silver cord from the new mini catalog.  The pearls are from the Pretties Kit.  I did another card using this stamp set The Eiffel Merci Beaucoup as well as a thank you card using the Night and Day DSP .

Take a trip to my friend and fellow demonstrator Jean Fitch's website.  She does a fabulous job on Friday's with her Frugal Friday posting.  She not only shows you her frugal stamp set for the day, but also takes you on a tour of blogs that she has found showing examples using the set.  This week's set is the Very Thankful/Reconnaissance set.  It's for a great cause - Ronald McDonald.  I've used this set a couple of times already and can't wait to use it again.  I made a mistake and ordered the French version, but it was a serendipitous mistake :-)

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday and wanted to share this "messy desk" pic.  Bilbo Baggins is my companion when I stamp and update my blog.  I like to stamp in a fairly compact space - but Bilbo makes it even more compact.  You can see that I had to take a cushion and put it on the side piece of my desk.  This essentially cuts my stamping space in half!  However, I wouldn't have it any other way!

And that look on his face..... mother... will you stop this, already and get on with it... you've been putzing around far too long and what do you have to show for it?  Nothing!  You can see me with two of my must have tools though.... my black matt - I cannot work without it.  It really helps me position my elements.  The other thing... my stamp-a-ma-jig.  I don't think I actually create a card without it!

Have a fabulous Sunday everyone.  As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visit, comments and support are very much appreciated.

Peace and hugs

Jaydee

Chic Boutique - Bird in a Cage

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday evening!
Today's card uses SU's Chic Boutique and the MojoMonday 104 sketch.  I started out wanting to use one of the papers from the Christmas Cocoa set to show you that you can use "Christmas" paper for other things - hence the Suede color.  However, once I started to build the card, I changed my mind and went for a piece of script from the En Francais background stamp instead!  That's what I love about creating cards - the organic nature and the ability to change on the fly! 
This is an interesting layout, so I might be tempted to try another card with it.  Here's the sketch.  Two circles were interesting, but for this particular card, I decided to use an oval instead, because it fit my sentiment better.

Here's my take on the sketch.

I really love the Soft Suede color - it's rich and luscious - and a little softer than Chocolate Chip.  It reminds me of a latte... mmm... now I think I need a cappuccino.... I always horrify the waiters in Italy when I order cappuccino after lunch or after dinner.  Even if I ordered it in perfect Italian - which I don't - I'd still give away the fact that I'm not local.  The Italians only ever drink cappuccino as a breakfast drink.  Me... I can drink it anytime. :-)  Anyway, back to the card!

Here's what I used for the card:

Card Stock:

Whisper White, Soft Suede

Ink: 

Stazon (for the cage), Soft Suede, Soft Suede marker for the bird cage, Crushed Curry for the bird

Embellishments:

Whisper White ribbon organza and grosgrain ribbons, small pearls from the Pretties Kit

Tools:

Big Shot with the Perfect Details Texturz Plate, Circle Scissor Plus, Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

I love the soft swirls of the embossed background with the script of the En Francais background stamp - I think they really compliment each other.  I also love the pop of yellow on the canary in the cage.  I didn't put the ribbon on the top of the cage.  I kept looking at the card and thinking... something is missing and then I realized that the cage looked as though it really needed something on top!

On the personal front:  the weather has been really warm - in the 80s, humid and we are really in need of rain.  I've noticed that some of the birds who frequented our garden have already left - like the red shouldered black bird.  I love the way he arrives early in the year and visits our garden several times a day.  He always announced his arrival at the feeder.  The wrens have also left.  I miss the sound of both of them.  However, the call of the chickadee is guaranteed to bring a smile to my face every time I hear them.  The hummers are still around, so obviously the temps are not quite low enough for them to leave as yet.  I'll never forget the first time I saw a hummingbird.  It was in Jamaica.  I got so excited and people thought I was crazy, but seriously, I'd never seen anything so small and so phenomenally fast in my whole life and I've watched birds on 4 continents!  I feel blessed ever day with the little ecosystem in our garden.

Have a fabulous Thursday!  Your visit to my little area of the stamping blogosphere is always very much appreciated - as are your comments and emails of support.  If you have any questions on today's card, any project on my site - or SU products, send me an email!

Peace and hugs
Jaydee

Perfect Details                    Chic Boutique
115962                                113744

Chic Boutique - Merci Beaucoup

Hi Everyone - Happy Friday!
Today's card is one made from the new goodies delivered by my UPS man.  I told him that he must have a great job, as we SUers were always so happy to see him!  I loved the strong image and sentiments in this set when I saw it in the preview catalog,but decided to hold off purchasing it until this month... now I'm wondering why :-)  Stampin Up always creates such a wide variety of stamps, that I find it easy to take myself away from my normal comfort zone of "nature stamps" and reach out to something different.  Chic Boutique is certainly in that category.  I'd been wanting to do a Black and White card for quite a while, but couldn't until my new Night and Day Day DSP arrived.  This is from the new mini catalog and I think it has some really sophisticated designs. 
I saw the sketch on MojoMonday challenge 102 this week and the palspaperarts challenge 10 on 10/1 - how appropriate is that :-) the challenge was "thankful" and decided that this was the ideal sketch to try out my new set.   

Here's the sketch....and then my take on it 

With this card I liked the tying together of the sharp edge images (the tower, the tag punch, the background on the DSP, the v's on the ribbon and even the script on the background stamp), with the circles.  I popped the tower with Stampin Dimensionals, and then popped the En Francais circle with Dimensionals as well.  The great thing about the SU dimensionals is that they 1/16", so even though you add two layers of them, they still don't provide a high profile - which is exactly what I wanted.  Overall, I was really pleased with the card.  

Here's a close-up of the paper for you 
 In person it's a strong card, which, even though it uses traditional "masculine" colors, has a feminine touch with the ribbon, bows and the script of En Francais.   

Card recipe:

Card Stock:

Basic Black, Whisper White

Stamps:

En Francais (for the background), Chic Boutique, Reconnaissance (Ronald McDonald stamp for the 2009/2010 catalog - French version) (ordered by mistake BTW.... I took down the wrong code when I ordered, but boy am I glad I did :-)...)

Ribbon:

Whisper White Organza, Basic Black grosgrain

Paper:

Night and Day Designer Series Paper

Tools:

Key tag punch, 1/2" circle punch, Circle Scissor plus

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday night as you get ready to spend some quality time with the family this Labor Day weekend.  It's due to be up in the 70's here this weekend, so it should be gorgeous.  I'm hoping to get some play time, especially with my new Digital Studio software. :-)

As always, thank you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere, your visit is always much appreciated.  BTW, I added "Google Friend Connect" if you would like to sign up.  If you would like to buy any of the products you see on the card, then you can shop with me 24x7 by clicking on my button.

Have a fabulous day

Peace and Hugs       

Jaydee