Stampin! with 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

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

 

Naughty or Nice?

Hi Everyone.

Happy Sunday.  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  I know I did.  It was wonderful just to chill with my handsome hubby over dinner last night, and today!  What a pleasure.  We both worked, but in between we got some quality chat time.

I couldn't resist making a couple of last minute cards yesterday.  I saw this great sketch across at cardpatterns.  It's a fabulous sketch.  However, to make it work with my stamp set and snowflake, I had to turn it on its side.   Here's the sketch

I used a new die called snowflake damask and a stamp set called "Around Christmas Time".  I used a snowflake for the background instead of a square, but kept with the circle theme.  In fact the round focal point in the sketch was what encouraged me to use this particular stamp set.  All I needed was some Stampin Up! Basic Gray card stock, some Basic Gray Patterned paper and some gorgeous Basic Gray Satin Ribbon.  I also decided to split up the "bling elements" on the top right of the card sketch, and place them around the card instead.  Of course, I had to mix pearls and rhinestones again!   here's what I came up with:

What do you think?  I love the grey with the Silver Glimmer Paper.  I LOVE this stuff.  I also love this sentiment!  It's a pity that the rhinestones weren't picked up by the light, but that's the problem with trying to photograph at night!  I know that the design team at cardpatterns would love you to pop along and see the fabulous design team inspiration cards.

Now... I guess you would like to see what Buzbee has been up to!  Well, I caught him outside again in the wee hours of this morning.  Honestly, this elf really likes to travel.  I think he is getting geared up for December 24th when he has such an important job to do!    You may have read that I love my Nutcrackers.  Well, I found this 5' guy years ago and absolutely LOVE him.  He stands proudly outside our front door every year and has done for about 7 years.  Last night, he had a little visitor!

Talk about riding high!  Don't they make a great pair!

On a personal note:

It's really great knowing that Lou will be home for two weeks.  We are both looking to finish work on Wednesday and not go back until the beginning of the year.  We have lots of things to do around the house to get it ready for sale in spring.  It's amazing how many small things need doing.  We are excited to go and see the progress on the house (well, the hole in the ground that is) and are hoping to do that this week.  I promise I will take a couple of pictures for you.  We were hoping we would get to see the lot with snow... sadly, our snowfall from yesterday has already melted.  It was 46 degrees today.  Someone seems to have forgotten to tell winter that she is supposed to be here in full by now.  It also means that we will have a green Christmas.  It just doesn't feel right when you live in Minnesota and have a green Christmas!

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight - especially at this time of year.  As always, thank you so much for spending a part of your day in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits and your comments are always much appreciated.

Hugs

Jaydee

3D with Jaydee: Hershey Snowmen

Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday.  This is going to be a quick post as my darling hubby has just returned home and, after he has had a little beauty sleep, we are going off to dinner!

I made these fabulous Hershey wrappers.  The snowman was created by the very talented Laurie Furnell and she has had this free wrapper layout on her blog every Christmas for the past few years.  A quick trip to Hancock fabrics and a rummage through the remnant table, produced this gorgeous blue and red plaid material for the "no sew" hats.  All that was left was to tie a little SU silver cord and a bell that jingles around the top of the hat and they were ready to go.

You can't tell me that these aren't just the cutest things you have ever seen?  I think they are absolutely adorable and am very grateful to Laurie for giving away this free image.  Check out Laurie's blog for the template.

Now.... as you probably heard from Cherie's comment on my last blog post...... we had snow last night.  Oh yeah!  Snow.  All our original snow had melted and none was in the forecast.  What a wonderful windfall to go upstairs last night and see that the world was looking magical again!  I noticed that Buzbee was not in the same position he had been in last night.... I also noticed the front door was slightly ajar.  mmmm... I heard little elf giggling noises.  So, I followed them.  What did I find?

Well, if that doesn't look like fun, I don't know what does!  No wonder he has such a huge grin on his face.  Cherie, I thought of Mr J when I saw Buzbee making snow-elfangels :-)  Who knows what he will be up to tonight when we have gone to bed!

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.  One filled with love and laughter.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Spritz Ornament for Cas-ual Fridays

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.  I am so close that we are on the other side of the countdown to the end of the week!

I found this great challenge across at cas-ualfridays.  It is a technique challenge on a clean and simple card.  The challenge was to create a CAS card using a misting technique.  Well, I immediately had this idea to create an ornament that had a feeling of a venetian plaster wall.  I realized that I could create this rich, opulent feel using my Gold and Pewter Smooch Spritz bottles.  Here's a closeup so that you get a feel of how gorgeous it really is.

Isn't that mottling gorgeous?  I overspritzed using the gold and then, when it was dry, I gave a couple of gentle spritzes with the Pewter for a little extra dimension of color.

I did create it clean and simple..... but then.... well... you can wait for that pic

If you look carefully you can see that I used an embossing plate for the Very Vanilla layer to add a little subtle texture to echo the texture on the ornament.  The background card stock is Gold Metallic Specialty - and I love it.  It works really well with the gold ornament.  Of course, I had to add some pearls to give it that little bit more zing.

I then decided...mmmmm..... maybe take it up one more notch.  I am so glad I did.  Here's the finished card:

Isn't that much better?  Well, I think it is?  I really felt the ornament needed something to anchor it.  I'm sorry the photos aren't better.... I had to lighten the exposure on this one and now we have lost the subtle texture on the background.

I did layer the Very Vanilla onto the metallic gold using Stampin Dimensionals - just to give it a shadow.  I then did the same with the ornament.  I think the mixture of the spritzing, the pearls and the ribbon against the vanilla and gold looks gorgeous.  It really does look much better in real life!

So, why don't you pop along to cas-ual fridays and check out the fabulous design team and submission cards, I know you will find lots to inspire you.

On to Buzbee watch.

Well... I don't know about this one.  He disappeared and I couldnt find him .... The only give away?  Charlie was at the front door looking up.  I saw that the door was slightly ajar and could hear faint bars of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" coming from behind the door.  So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, for your amusement, Buzbee in camoflage.

Seriously, I don't know who puts him up to this stuff.  But, I can tell you that this little escapade was more than just wreath riding!  He gave me the run around for quite a while and I will share the pics with you over the next few days!

On a personal note

Yay!  the house is finally underway.  So many last minute things to handle.... aaaaargh.  I thought I had everything finished when the builders sent me an email with 14 questions.  I had gotten part the way through the answers when another one arrived with another 5 questions.  STOP!!!! I'm in overload already :-)  I'd been on the phone since 7 - non -stop - and my brain was just mush.  I'vve been so busy, that I didn't even have time to think about the digger on the lot creating a hole that would soon be our new home!

I wanted to send especial prayers to Beth and Soozie tonight. 

Warm hugs and prayers for all of you who need a lift.  Have a wonderful Thursday

hugs

jaydee

 

Holiday Blitz for Friday Mashup and on the 10th day of Christmas Jaydee gave to me

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

Tonight's card is one that I made for the Friday Mashup challenge.  The challenge was to use snowmen.  Well... I can never resist a snowman.  As I needed so quick and easy cards, that were post office friendly, I decided to create another hybrid card.  I had seen this fabulous little snowman in the Holiday Blitz stamp brush set.  I colored him in Not Quite Navy and then printed him out with a sentiment. All that was left to do after that was add some bling and some sparkle.  Now, y'all know that I couldn't just leave him as he was :-)

Isn't he the cutest?  I love the fact that you can scale him to any size in order to fit your card.  I mixed up basic rhinestones and basic pearls where the snowflakes are on the original printed image.  I then ran some glimmer paper through my big shot with my snowflake die, stuck it down... and the card was good to go.  I love it on the Not Quite Navy base.   TIP:  When using the glimmer paper for your big shot or punch, remember to turn the paper over and tear off the plasticy backing that is on the paper.  This makes it much easier to go through your big shot.

Now, don't forget to pop along to the Mashup and check out the fabulous design team and submission cards.  I know you will find something to inspire you.

Buzbee has been a buzzy... I mean busy little elf and has drawn a name form the blog post here.  The lucky winner of the Jaydee give away - glimmer paper is ......

Lizzie Hernandez...... Lizzie please email me your snail mail address and I will get  your glimmer paper in the post to you.

So... before Buzbee lets you know what other wonderful goodies you can win on the blog post tonight, let's take a look at what he has been up to.

Well, he was missing for quite a while.  I couldn't find him, then I heard this munch, munch, mmmmm, yummy, munch, munch coming from the fridge.  Ah. ha!  Well, I have to say that he has good taste in goodies.   Panetone is a traditional Italian cake and this one is particularly scrumptious.  It has a rich chocolate on the outside and lovely gooey custard in the middle.  So... he knew what he was doing!    Can you believe that he even managed to eat it without getting custard on his face :-)

So.... what goodies can you win tonight?  Well, if more than 12 of you leave a special comment on this blog post, Buzbee and Bilbo will draw one name to win

ONE BRAND NEW PACKET OF SPICE CAKE DESIGNER FABRIC. You can click on the pic below to expand it.  You can find details on the SU website here

This prize has a value of over $11 and I will cover shipping.  All you need to do is leave a comment and tell me what you want for Christmas.  What is that one special thing you want for Christmas.  Something small, something big, something you wish for someone else... let us know.  You know that we all love reading your comments, so look forward to hearing what you want :-)  If more than 12 of you leave a special message, then Buzbee and Bilbo will draw a winner on Thursday night.

On a personal note:

I am so glad that the stories of Buzbee are being enjoyed by the kiddies.  That makes my day.  This all started with Rach!  Oh, and Beverly, yep.... I was a great story teller as a child.  I still have an overactive imagination, and all I need is a little nudge from someone like Rachel and I am off and running :-)

Tomorrow is a HUGE day for us.  Tomorrow they begin to dig the "hole", or more correctly, the foundations, for our new home.  We are so excited and cannot wait to get out to see it next week.  Lou is out of town, as usual, so is missing this major milestone, so we will be driving up as soon as he is back.   Of course, I will take photos and post them for you :-)

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Alleluia Angel for Casestudy

Hi Everyone. 

Happy Sunday night.  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  You will remember that across at the Paper Players, our fabulous Ann challenged us with Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla and Gold as our color scheme for our challenge this week.  I fell in love with it and, when I saw this fabulous inspiration card across at Casestudy, I immediately thought of another card to make. 

The inspiration card has a white base, but I was drawn to

• the bright red and the gold.  
• I also loved the textured background 
•  the multiple layers of nesties 
• the gorgeous ribbon
• amd the placement of the sentiment

All of this got me to thinking....  I have a Flourishes stamp set called Alleluia Angel that I absolutely love, but never used.  I thought of the gold and the red and the vanilla and decided that she would work perfectly and I could layer her and use my Copics to color her.  I also remembered seeing an inspiration card on Flourishes that was stunning,  so used that to help me compose this card.  I did change out the colors, the dsp, the image color, etc.   here's the card I used as my inspiration on Flourishes, btw.  it's fabulous!

I know the casestudy team would appreciate it if you popped along and checked out their fabulous challenge.

• I began by stamping the angel and then coloring her in reds and golds.   Oh... and of course, I had to give her the same color hair as me :-)
• My next step was to mask the image and overstamp her using Crumb Cake ink and a Christmas music themed background stamp.  
• I stamped the sentiment and then created a banner and  then created a backing to it using Cherry Cobbler.  I love the gold DSP on top of the SU Gold Metallic specialty card stock  backed with the Cherry Cobbler, it is  a rich and luscious combo.  
• All that was left was to cut her out using nesties and add the layered nesties underneath.  The silk ribbon was almost the final touch!  
• Of course, I had to add a little bling on her wings and the stars coming out of her hand using a jelly roller and a little gold thread to tie through the button.

So, what do you think?

Now.... Buzbee has been a very busy boy, he has promised me that later tonight he willl draw a prize winner from the comments on this card.  He is also providing a little Christmas elf magic and conjured up another gift that will be announced on tomorrow's post.

So... what has the rascal been up to.  Well, I'll tell you... he and the cats were playing last night.  I heard a ruckus and lots of elf giggles at about 3am this morning.  I immediately rushed down the stairs to find cats scattering everywhere, but all I could see of Buzbee... was. well... nothing, but I could hear him giggling he was having such a good time.  In fact, in between the giggles were gleeful "wheeeeeeeeeeee" sounds!   I looked around and I looked around and what did I see?

Well, I gave him a very stern talking to, I can tell you.  But then I realized, that we humans have merry go rounds and fair grounds and Disney rides and all sorts of cool stuff, and only little elves are small enough and weightless enough to have some fun on the ceiling fan.  

On a personal note

Thank you to all of you for your comments on your favorite Christmas/Holiday hymn/carol or song.  It was wonderful reading your choices - and the reasons why.  It never ceases to amaze me how music transcends the years and generations.  I can hear a tune and be instantly transported back to a special place or time.  When Lou and I saw the Monkees I was no longer a woman of nearly 60...but that young girl, with long hair and skinny legs and a whole future to look forward to.    So, reading your memories helped me be a part of each of your lives for a brief moment.

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

Jaydee

 

Paper Players Challenge # 74 - Valentine Defined

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

I am way late - again - with my Paper Players card.  The lovely Nance has a corker of a challenge for you all this week and I know you will have fun with it!

Now, I must admit that this challenge had me stumped.  I tend to be a traditionalist and find it hard to think outside of the box for such traditional occasions.  So, I really had to wrack my brain.  I spent ages deciding on non-traditional colors and decided they were taking me way outside of my comfort zone.  Note to self.  Have to get outside my comfort zone!!!!   So, I decided to go with a non-traditional stamp instead.

Finally, I decided to create a Christmas card focused on love.  Then, it was an easy transition into a non-traditional Christmas stamp.  I pulled out Valentine Defined, some pewter embossing powder, Cherry Cobbler card stock, opened up my MDS (for the sentiment) and I was finally away :-)

Here's what I came up with

I stamped the image onto Whisper White card stock, embossed it, and then fussy cut around it.  I added some Stampin' Dimensionals and popped it from the base.  A little metallic silver card stock was placed behind the horizontal layer and helps to tie all three layers together.  I took a red copic marker and colored three of the hearts red to add a little interest and emphasize the hearts themselves.  Thank heavens for MDS and the fact that I could customize a sentiment to suit!

So, what do you think?  Up for the challenge?  We'd love it if you would join us this week and show us your Christmas card made with non-traditional colors, or a non-traditional stamp!  The design team have outdone themselves again this week, so please pop along to their blogs and check them out.  Then pop along to the Paper Players and join us.

• Julie - Stamping Impressions
• Ann - Stampin Scach
• Rita - Rita's Creations
• LeAnne - Wee Inklings
• Nance - Canopy Crafts
• Lesley - Always Playing with Paper
• Tara - Tara Bee Ink

On a personal note:  

oh, yeah!  4.2 inches of the white stuff fell last night.  Oh...it made me sooooo incredibly happy.  At 1am the world looked magical and mystical and just astonishing.  I realized that I could get some amazing shots with my camera just using the light reflected from the snow and through the clouds.  Some REALLY cool shots.  Some of them looked as though I had taken the scenes with an old Daguerreotype process.  However, when you look in the bottom of this photograph, you realize that it isn't... even though part of the photograph may looked grey and green and fuzzy... the bright hues from the decorated Christmas tree take you to another place.  I was SO pleased with this photograph.

Isn't that cool?  Rach, I know you will appreciate it.

I took a couple more..... each one turned out differently depending on the light.  Very little shutter delay was deployed when taking these shots, as I really wanted a more grainy, natural effect.

Aren't they just magical.  I love it when it has just snowed.  The world is so quiet and peaceful.  Absolutely GORGEOUS!

Pammie, you would have been there, with your nose pressed to the window, loving this!

Hugs and prayers for all of you who need a little lift tonight.

Jaydee

Christmas Lodge meets Well Worn

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday.  Oh.... I am SOOOOOO glad it is Friday.

Quick post for you tonight.  Lou and I are going to dinner and I need to go and get ready to spend a little time with my honey :-)

Sometimes, I just need a masculine Christmas card.  I don't know.... I suppose it sounds odd, but.... I am a little odd :-)

Once again, I pulled out the good old MDS.  I needed to size the house from Christmas Lodge and I also wanted it to be a more muted color.  I couldn't find a masculine Christmas DSP and then realized that Well Worn might just work for me.  Changing it out from traditional Christmas paper and using the "celebrate the season" sentiment (also MDS), meant that it was a card that would fill a multitude of needs in our ever multi-cultural society.

Here's what I came up with

I really think the paper works.  It kind of reminds me of brick and therefore fits with the brick of the house.  It really is fabulous DSP.

On a personal note:

3 inches of snow forecast for tomorrow :-)  Yipeeeeeee....  Our house is almost decorated.  Not quite finished yet, but getting there.  We should be able to finish it this weekend. 

Today we had our realtor come around to check out the house and give us an idea of what she thinks the house could go on the market for.  We bought our house from her 14 years ago and she was so surprised to see what it was like inside.  In fact, she was so surprised by how well the house shows, and the updates that we have done, that she immediately upped the purchase price by 10%.  We were VERY pleased with that.  So, all that's left to do now, is to get those pesky little things done (like repainting the window frames) and then it should be good to go on the market in Spring.  It felt really good to know that asking price was going to be higher than we had anticipated.  It also looks as though the housing market in our area is picking up, too.  Which is also great!

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  You know I really do appreciate it

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Believe.....

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.

Oh... you have no idea how pleased I am that it is Thursday!  Last night I finished work at 10pm and was too exhausted to put up a blog post.  So, I do apologize for that.

However, I did read the comments on my post asking you all what your favorite Christmas decoration was.  It was wonderful to read these comments and realize that so many of the decorations were things that were so totally personal, many had been around for a long time, and many had memories of people long gone.  I really did enjoy reading them.  In case you missed these comments, I am going to list them at the bottom of this post, because I think you will enjoy reading about them too.  I really feel that somehow we have lost the magic of the real truth behind Christmas.  Not just the religious aspects, but also the positive secular aspects.  Somehow, Christmas has become one long road to commercialism.  So, reading about these traditions made me happy!

On the note of remembering the magic of Christmas.  Oh..... how I miss those days of waiting eagerly for Father Christmas to arrive.  How sad that we stopped believing :-)  When I saw this digital image, I couldn't resist it.  Not only is it a fabulous image, but I REALLY enjoyed coloring it, too!  So.... for all of us.... believe... believe in the true magic of Christmas in all it's wonderous, non-commercial aspects

Can you see the furry bits on Santa?  Around his hat?  The cuff of his sleeves?  His beard?  I couldn't resist some flocking powder.  It's really pretty cool in real life.   The silver blobs around the sentiment?  Well, actually, they are basic rhinestones, but the photograph didn't pick that up!  It was great to use Riding Hood Red and Always Artichoke for a Christmas card. :-)

Now.... here's all those wonderful favorite Christmas decoration comments:

• Rach:    You know, I'm not sure I could say what my most favorite Christmas decorations are. I suppose the ones from my childhood that bring back such wonderful memories, and my snowmen. I do love my snowmen. Oh, and my Willow Tree Nativity. Drat, too many favorites. :o)  Jaydee:  oh... and Rach does love her snowmen.  If you want to check out the pics - go here you can see Rach's snowman collection, along with all her other fabulous decorations.
• Sally:  I used to have a nutcracker collection. But 9 years ago when I moved to Florida, I sold them all. Now I am back in Ohio wishing I had some of them back. I can go to some of my friends houses though to see them. They bought some of them.    Jaydee:  Sally, I promise I will post some of my nutcracker photos, just for you
• Cherie: My favorite ornament is a little bear that moves his arms and legs when you pull his string. I gave it to Mr Jensen one of our 1st Christmases together because he loves to leave 6'2" snow angels around town.   Jaydee:  love the sound of the bear, but seriously, I giggled at the thought of Mr J leaving snow angels!
• Beverly:  My favorite Christmas decoration is the tree top . . . it is as full star, but stars are cute out in it so they shine on the ceiling and I have all kinds of little stars : ) Sweet! Then I love my card holder that goes on the fireplace manual and it holds about 100 cards.  Jaydee:  now, I love the sound of the tree topper.  A star that projects more stars on the ceiling... that's super cool.
• Linda:  I think my favourite decoration is a pair of kneeling, toddler angels. They were made for me years and years ago in a ceramics class (remember those?) by a neice. I felt so honoured that she had made something for me, and I still get that feeling each time I bring them out.  Jaydee..... isn't it wonderful to be able to remember someone everytime you put it out on a tree?  love it!
• Anne Marie:  My favorite decorations are the ornaments that I have had since I was a little girl. My Godmother bought me an ornament every year (and still does) since I was born. They reflect something special from that particular year. I always enjoy taking these ornaments out of their boxes and strolling down memory lane. Now that I have so many...and my hubby has his from his childhood, we do another "memory" tree just for these ornaments.    Jaydee:  I love the idea of a memory tree.  I thought it was amazing that Anne Marie's Godmother had given her an ornament that commemorated something special that year.  I think about handling those ornaments every year and reliving those special moments from years ago.

And... to make my day complete?  I awoke this morning to a coating of snow on the ground and 15 turkeys in the backyard.  I did snap a pic or two and will post them tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Friday everyone.  As always, thank you for visiting my little area of the blogosphere.

Pammie.... girl you inspire me.  I am so proud of you getting through the eulogy with grace.  It must have been so tough for you.  You are amazing.

Warm hugs and prayers to all of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Glimmering Peace

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.

I have a very quick card for you tonight.  I seem to be addicted to this silver glimmer paper.  I don't know what is going on this year, maybe it is because we still don't have snow!  Cherie, I know you are happy, but seriously, this is Minnesota and it is the end of November and I want some snow and I want it know :-)  Remind you of anyone, Rach?

I bought this Memory Box stamp a couple of years ago and I still love it.  This time I used the fabulous new Stampin' Up! Platinum embossing powder and mixed it with the SU Glimmer Paper.  A glimmer brad, a glimmer snowflake (cut using the snowflake die) and a couple of rhinestones are all that is required.

Sorry the photo isn't so great!  grrrr... anyway, I think you get the idea!  The great thing about this is that you can emboss it in any color that takes your fancy.

On a personal note:

Rach and Adelle, so pleased you liked the sound of the Cheese and Onion pie.  You know... I had never thought that there was anything wrong with those two ingredients together.  To me they go together like a horse and carriage (sorry about the ear worm :-)  I LOVE sharp cheddar cheese, raw onion together, especially when it is on a crispy baguette.  I had never thought that it would be an alien combination.  However, I was glad to hear that Rach became a convert when she tried a Cheese and Onion pastie in the UK and Adelle, I hope it is a good offering for your friends!   Rach, you got Lou's mouth watering at the sound of the custard slice.  Yep.  That is, without doubt, Lou's vice.  

Now... I am thinking, based on  your comments,  that Cheese and raw Onion is a little alien to some of you, probably about as alien as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are to me.  Yuk!  Seriously, that is one thing that I have never gotten my head around.  Oh... and putting fruit on a breakfast plate with bacon and eggs!  It's really interesting how different foods are combined and are so geographically specific.  I don't suppose that I should admit to eating banana sandwiches as a kid, should I?  Worse than a piece of watermelon with a steak or with bacon and eggs, I think :-)

The house is somewhat decorated.  We haven't quite finished yet.  I am finding it hard to get my head around the fact that this is the last Christmas that we will be putting up decorations in this house.  As I laid out the decorations this weekend, I was thinking about where they would go in the new house.  One of the great things in the new house is that we have a long porch - covering half of the house.  We are both sooooo excited about that.  Apart from the fact that I love the look of it, it is perfect to decorate.

So, are you all done with your decorations?  What's your favorite decoration?  (Rach, sorry to hear about yours....)   One of my favorite things?  A teddy bear that I bought the first Christmas we were in this house (14 years ago).  It is a teddy in a red waistcoat reading to a baby teddy on his lap.  I fell absolutely in love with this teddy and I bring him out every year.  They really make me smile  I could never part with them.  The other things?  My nutcrackers.  I have this THING about nutcrackers.  We even have a 5' 5"" nutcracker at our front door.  They also make me happy.  Anyway, let us know what your favorite Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa decoration is.

As always, thank you so much to all of you who visit.  I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight

Hugs

Jaydee

Christmas Joy

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

I hope you all had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving full of joy, laughter and zero-calorie pie :-)

I usually reveal my Paper Players card on Saturday night.  Well, I would have done tonight, too.... except for the fact that I haven't made it yet!!!  The last few days have been very busy and today we spent the day decorating the house inside and out.  We aren't quite finished yet, but it is certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Well.  It would be looking like Christmas if the temps weren't up in the high 40s and 50s and there was snow on the ground!  Snow?  I honestly don't think we are going to get any of the white stuff anytime soon.  

We did wake up to rain in the middle of the night.  After so long without rain, it was wonderful to hear the water trickling down the roof and hitting the windows.  It was wet, windy and cold today.  It really reminded me of England.  The kind of wet cold that gets into your very marrow!

Anyway, the fact that we were decorating and thinking about Christmas, is the reason you are getting a Christmas card tonight.

I saw this fabulous Hero Arts stamp and couldn't resist it.  It is such a peaceful scene.  I paired it with a digital sentiment from Pink Petticoat.  It comes from a set of fabulous Christmas messages, and I love the font.   All that was needed to finish the card was some clear embossing powder and some Dazzling Details.

A clean and simple, classic Christmas card with a modern touch.  Love it!  Are you getting the impression that Night of Navy and Whisper White are my favorite color scheme for Christmas this year?  I promise, I will show you different colors!

On a personal note:

For those of you who read my pre-Thanksgiving post, you may remember that I spoke about Nut Roast for Thanksgiving dinner.  Well, we actually had our Thanksgiving dinner last night instead of Thursday night.  (We were both so exhausted from clearing out the basement storage and garage for goodies to send off to Charity, that we ran out of time to cook!)   I have to tell you that I made  lentil, almond and cashew nut roast, roast potatoes, roast root vegetables and broccolini with lemon juice.  Yummy.  The nut roast worked out really well. 

I know that many of you are scratching your heads thinking, "what on earth is this woman going on about?"  Well, for us vegetarians, the good old fashioned nut roast is a replacement for the traditional meatlof.  It is cooked in a meatloaf pan, but is made with all sorts of vegetarian goodies instead.  I hope that clears up any confusion!

Now, I am off to cook mac and cheese a la jaydee.  It's the kind of day that requires comfort food and a glass of cold Pouilly Fuisse.

Thank you all for visiting me today.  Your visits are always appreciated.  As are your comments.  A big thank you to Ruth Ann, Beverly, Cam, Rach and Linda for your wonderful comments on my Thanksgiving post.  They meant a great deal to me!

Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight,  Have a wonderful Sunday.

Hugs

Jaydee

Jolly Jingles and Happy-Divisible-by-5-Birthday, Rach!

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

Before I get to tonight's card - a BIG SHOUT OUT to the Birthday Girl.  Rach, I hope you have a truly wonderful and blessed birthday tomorrow.  You truly deserve it!

For the rest of you, I bet most of you are enjoying the lead up to tomorrow's Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family.  We have so much to give thanks for and it is a perfect time to reflect on all the good things that have happened this year, big and small.  It is also the time to give thanks to those who toil in fields and factories every day to ensure that we have a harvest of wonderful edibles to put on our table.  

It is also a good time to stand back and thank those who have meant so much to us this year. I would like to say thank you to all of you, my regular blog readers.  Thank you for taking time to visit.  Most of all, thank you to those who visit and leave a comment to let me know they have been by.  Each comment you leave helps me to understand each of you a little better.

I have a very quick card for you tonight using the CAS and color challenge from the Paper Players this week.  I am absolutely in love with the Night of Navy, Silver and White color scheme for Christmas.  You can check out my original card here.  

I used the same layout, but changed up the sentiment.  The sentiment is from an MDS download and it is called Jolly Jingles.  I love the fact that I can print it in any color - and any size.  It was perfect for tonight's card.

Isn't that glimmer paper just awesome?  And don't you just love those little itsy bitsy snowflakes?

On a personal note:

Pammie..... my thoughts and prayers are with you and John tomorrow.  

Hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone.

Hugs

Jaydee

Around Christmas Time

Hi Everyone.

I know... I know... Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, and I'm stuck on making Christmas cards!

I wanted to make a Father Christmas, clean and simple card.  Cherry Cobbler was calling to me, as I think it is such a perfect change from Real Red.  It's also a fabulous color for Father Christmas.  I had seen a set from waltzingmouse with a Father Christmas in a circle.  I couldn't resist it.  It also seemed the perfect image for my card.  I added a Christmas embossing plate to the background, some gorgeous SU satin ribbon from the Holiday Mini and some Cherry Cobbler DSP from the Patterns Pack.

Here's what I came up with

Of course, I couldn't resist some bling! :-)  I like the fact that the SU Basic Rhinestones carry on the circular theme.  I colored Santa's hat with Copics and then went in with a piece of denim and created some texture on his hat.  I also used Opaque white paint to color in his beard and hat trim.

Isn't that cute?  It's also pretty quick to make.  The "hardest" thing is coloring, and even that takes just a few minutes.  The layout is flexible in that you can create the focal image in either square or circle.  Whatever best fits your image.  If you are worried about putting this card in the post, all you need to do is leave off the basic rhinestones and then it's a quick and easy fit into an envelope.

On a personal note:

I know many of you will be traveling to spend time with friends and family.  Travel safe and have a fabulous Thanksgiving.  For those of you who will be around, I will be posting tomorrow and Friday and will take a break on Thanksgiving itself.

I still have to decide what to cook.  Being vegetarian, no turkey for us.  Lou has said he doesn't care what I cook so long as it includes Roast Potatoes :-)  I'm thinking I might just have to do a nut roast.  I know it's not very 2011 to do a nut roast, but there is something fabulous rich and decadent about a savory nut roast with pureed vegetables, wonderfully crisp roast potatoes and gravy.  OK... yummy... now my mouth is watering!

As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  I always appreciate your visit.  Warm hugs and prayers for those who need them tonight.  Extra big hugs for Pam and John.

Hugs

Jaydee

Warm Wollen Mittens

Hi Everyone.  Bet you can all hear Maria singing... these are a few of my favorite things now :-)  Sorry to give you all an ear worm, but it is the perfect title for tonight's card.

Splitcoast had a challenge to use felt on a card.  Mmm... I don't have much with felt, but remembered that I had the little mittens from the holiday mini "Winter Wishes" stitched felt embellishments.  Perfect.  Next question?  What to pair them with.  Mmmm.. Well, what goes better with mittens than flannel!  Ah ha!

I pulled out the Frostwood Lodge DSP.  Next came the Snow Burst embossing folder, run through my Big Shot and then covered in Versamark and sprinkled with clear embossing powder.  Now the snowflakes looked like a frozen winter wonderland.  Now... what sentiment?  Mmm... ah... yes... Snow Much Fun has the perfect sentiment.  I have to tell you that this entire card came together in 45 minutes and that included working out the layout.  Now... I can NEVER normally do that.  There's something about these 45 minute challenges that really forces me to think quickly.   My next card?  Two hours.  Yep!  Two hours!

Here's what I came up with

I had to add just a little bling on the sentiment.  Basic Rhinestones were the perfect thing!  You will notice that I added a third to act as the "hook" for the mittens.

So, what do you think?  Looks like warm cozy woollen mittens and flannel sheeting?  I thought it did.  Can you see the shimmer on the snowburst?  Doesn't it remind you of the freshly fallen snow when we have had an ice storm?

On a personal note:

Talking about snow... are we ever going to get any?  None in the forecast for the next 10 days... oh... maybe a chance where a slight chance of rain will turn over to a little snow.  It's almost the end of November and we haven't had snow yet.  What is up with that?  Seriously?  I REALLY look forward to the first snow of the season and am getting impatient.  I can't put out my Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving unless there is some snow to put me in the mood!

Rach, glad to hear that your temperatures have dropped.  We have had to give in and put on the fires to warm the house.

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday, filled with joy and laughter!  Warm hugs and prayers to those who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

P.S. watch out for news from your Stampin' Up! demonstrators on Monday.  Check your emails early.  Our checkout Stampin' Up! early Monday morning 'cos it's

Old St Nick for Freshly Made

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

Hope you are all having a great week so far.

Tonight's card uses the great sketch from Freshlymade this week and was designed by the very talented Linda Callahan.

I knew I wanted to keep it fairly clean and simple, but really wasn't sure what stamp set to use.  Even after staring at my stamping cupboard for 10 minutes, I still wasn't sure.  Mmmmm... what is a girl to do when she doesn't have quite the right stamp?  Ah. Ha!  MDS to the rescue.

I remembered there was a great Christmas set included as part of the original software.  I opened up MDS, checked out the stamps and, lo and behold, there was exactly what I was looking for.

Old St Nick is a great digital set.  I then needed a sentiment.  Mmmm.... Ah. Ha!  MDS to the rescue again!  Jolly Jingles was used for the sentiment. The great thing about using MDS for both of these items?  I could scale them to the size I needed.

Here's my card

 

Isn't that cool?  It's such a great focal image and I love the sentiment.  I layered the card with an old piece of Webster's Pages DSP, some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine and put it all on Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla card stock.

On a personal note:

Thank you to Cherie and Rach for talking about their friends Brenda and Robin.  Close friendships can be so hard to talk about, but they cherish us and nurture us.  My thoughts and prayers go out to my best friend Pam and her hubby John tonight.  John's father passed away today.  It doesn't matter that intellectually we know the loss is coming.  It doesn't matter that there is time to prepare for the impending loss.  None of that intellectual analysis and readiness prepares us for the emotional impact of losing someone we love. 

As it seems to have been a reflective week for me, I dedicate this post to Pam and John and John's beloved father.  I'll finish with part of a sermon delivered by Henry Scott Holland, following the death of Edward VII.  To make it easier to read, it is arranged as a poem

Death is nothing at all.  It does not count.
I have only slipped away to the next room.I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

As John's father was a very talented musician, and John is a very talented photographer, I thought that it was fitting to see this put to music by Enya, with gorgeous photography.  You can find it on youtube by clicking on the photograph below

Hugs

Jaydee

CAS-UAL Snow Much Fun

 

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.  I hope you are all  a great start to your week.

I saw a fabulous challenge across at CAS-UALFridays this week.  To make a CAS card featuring a tag.  Now, y'all know that I cannot pass up an opportunity to use a tag on my card.

I've also been wanting to use the gorgeous silver glimmer specialty paper AGAIN.  My next decision?  What stamp set.   Mmmm... it was out with my new favorite Christmas set - Snow Much Fun.  As this was a CAS challenge, I decided to keep the color scheme monochromatic, with just a little color on my snowman.  This also happened to work for a challenge across at splitcoast to create a white card that had more than 75% white space.

Here's what I came up with

I know you can't see it, but there is actually embossing on the white layer beneath the silver tag.  I used one of my Christmas embossing plates that has lots of Christmas messages on it.  It really just doesn't show up on the photograph.

I was really tempted to put a ribbon on top of the tag, but as I wanted to keep it really CAS, I decided to go with a rhinestone brad instead.  This also gave my snowman a focal point - as he is looking upwards.  I think of it as the snowball that he has thrown from one hand and getting ready to catch in the other!

Isn't this glimmer paper gorgeous, especially with the turquoise blue!  I had to do a layer of silver glimmer paper between the two white layers, as this really helped to pull the card together.

I have to admit, that fussy cutting around his stick arms was quite something!  But I am so glad that I did.

I know that the team across at CASUAL Friday's would really appreciate you popping along and checking out their challenge.  It's worth it, cos there are some fabulous inspiration pieces out there for you.

On a personal note:

Cold here... sorry Rach :-)  Getting down into the 20s tonight.  So the days have been very brisk, but rather fabulous.  I love this lead up time to our first snow.  Many people in the street have already put up their Christmas decorations!  Yikes, we are nowhere near ready for that yet.  Maybe this weekend.  Have you gotten your Christmas decorations up yet?  Or are you still waiting to take down your Halloween ones?

I wanted to thank all of you who commented on my Poppy Day post and to also thank those of you who left words of encouragement for Pam's poem.  I thought it was beautiful and was so pleased that you had appreciated it too.  One day, I will write a couple of posts about my friend Pam.  We have known each other since we were 6 and 7 (yes, I'm older!)  It's astonishing to think that we have been friends for 5 decades.  Who would have known on that day when we moved into our new house that a friendship would be formed that lasted so long.  She's a very talented lady is Pam.  I have always been madly jealous of the fact that she is so artistic and I am not.  I have always wanted to be able to draw and paint. Unfortunately for me, it was my brother who got that talent.  Pam, however, was born with that gene, as was her husband.  They are both very talented artists.  More than that, though, I am so blessed to call them my best friends.

I'd love it if you would share something about your best friend.  How long have you been friends and what is the trait that you appreciate about them the most?  I read somewhere (I think on MSNBC) that most of us only have 2 true friends.  Lots of friends who are very dear and near to our hearts, but only 2 that are the kind that last a lifetime.  So, I'd love to hear about yours.

I wanted to close tonight with a story that I found absolutely amazing.  It's kids like this that make me realize that there is hope for us yet.  Check out this story - I know it will warm your heart.

Warm hugs and prayers to those who need a lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Beautiful Season for Paper Players Challenge #72

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday Night.  Now, y'all know what Saturday night means.... it's my card for the Paper Players Challenge.  This week our fabulous hostess, LeAnne, has a color challenge for you.

Well, I don't know about you, but these colors really felt Christmas-sy to me.  I then needed a layout.  Off to Freshlymadesketches to see what they had in store for us.

I then needed to find a stamp set....mmmmm... the stamp set I had in mind wasn't going to work with this sketch, so I flipped it.  Now... I was cooking!  I really wanted to use the beautiful Chickadee from Beautiful Season and thought it would work well with the color scheme.  Here's my take on the sketch and the color challenge.

I have no idea what happened with my camera, but it kind of has soft focus on it!

The River Rock was the problem for me.  So, I decided to incorporate it in two different ways.  1) as a frame to the Always Artichoke DSP and 2) to color the Very Vanilla focal layer.  I used an Inkspirations sponge to pick up the color directly from my stamp pad and sponged it all over the outer 3rd of the card, trying to leave the center with less color.   This really toned down the Very Vanilla and made it look more Crumb Cake, without being as dull.  (For some reason, I really find River Rock a little dull!)  I absolutely had to add just a touch of gray for the Chickadee.  Sorry, LeAnne :-)

We hope that you will join us for another great challenge this week.  I know that you will all make wonderful things with this fabulous color scheme.  So, don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players and check out the amazing inspiration cards from the design team, and join us for the challenge.

On a personal note:

The last two days have been pretty chaotic and I am really pleased it is the weekend.  I've been so busy, that I haven't even had time to think about the house and all the decisions that still need to be made!

The weather was 60 degrees here today.  Excuse me?  Isn't it the middle of November in Minnesota????!!!!  I watched about 100 snowflakes fall on Wednesday.  I got so excited thinking that this might actually be our first snowfall, alas, nothing.  We really need some moisture, whether it is rain or snow, we really need to break this drought.

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Peaceful Season

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

I have a quick card for you tonight.  Another Christmas card.  I seem to be addicted to the right now, and we haven't even celebrated  Thanksgiving yet!

I wanted something fairly clean and simple, but with lots of bling.  I LOVE the sentiment from SU's Peaceful Season (retired).  I decided to pair it with the tree from Christmas Lodge and the "twas the night before Christmas stamp from Waltzingmouse.   I know that this sounds a lot, especially when you pair it with an edging die using the fabulous Silver Glimmer Paper - and ribbon!  So, to keep it still somewhat clean and simple, I layered it altogether using vellum paper.  I also kept it to a very simple gray, silver and white color scheme.  Of course, I had to use a bell!  This time it was from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini - Mini Jingle Bells. 

Here's what I came up with

Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Basic Gray.  Silver Glimmer Paper
• Stamps:  Peaceful Season, Frostwood Lodge.  'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Walztingmouse)
• Accessories:  Mini Jingle Bell.  Ribbon (from personal stash). Silver elastic cord (retired)
• Tools:  Snowflake Die (sizzix).  Big Shot.  Pewter Embossing Powder 
• Inks:  Basic Gray, Versamark. 

• I began by stamping the poem onto Whisper White card stock using Basic Gray ink. 
• I then cut two layers of Vellum.  The tree was stamped in London Fog ink (non SU) and layered over the poem
• The final layer of Vellum was stamped with the Peace on Earth sentiment in Versamark and embossed with the Pewter embossing powder
• I adhered the layers together with a thin layer of snail at the top (this was hidden by the ribbon) and heavier layers of snail at the bottom, where it was hidden by the snowflake border.
• Tip:  When heat setting embossing powder onto Vellum, ensure that you fully heat up your heat gun before putting it anywhere near the vellum.  VERY quickly run the heat gun over the wording to stop it curling and "bumping".  I am sure that's a very technical term :-)

The layers look beautiful together, I wish I could have gotten a better shot for you.  It really is a pretty card, and the glimmer paper glimmers even without a bright light.

So, what do you think?  I've certainly shown you a variety of Christmas cards in a couple of different styles over the last week.

On a personal note:

Those of you who have been visiting my blog for a while will know that I am a "rescuer".  I rescue most things, with the exception of mosquitoes.  Even those I won't kill as we tend to use mosquito repellants instead of mosquito killing stuff.  Well, we were at the appliance store on Friday last week looking at appliances.  In the middle of this HUGE storeroom I heard a chirp, chirp, chirp.  I looked around and there was a little sparrow trapped in the store.  Apparently she had gotten in via the loading dock door, which had since been closed, and she was now trapped inside.

We walked around looking at stoves and   and all I could hear was this chirping.  It really bugged me that she was trapped inside, so I took a leave of absence from looking at appliances to see what I could do for her.  Luckily, she was a smart little bird.  She was sitting in front of this huge plate glass window on a lamppost (which was in the lighting display).  She could see the trees outside, and knew that she should be able to get there, but a huge pane of glass separated her from the tree - and freedom.  

Well, I am a pretty smart bird, too! :-)  and noticed that there was an emergency exit not too far from her.  I walked over, pushed the door open, managed to find something to prop it open and then went back to find her.  I managed to help her fly to the right area and she worked with me... smelled the fresh air - and off she went thru the door.   She stopped right outside the door and chirruped, before flying off to the tree.  I'd like to say that she was saying thank you :-)  I cannot tell you how much better I felt knowing that she was outside and out of harms way.  That was my good deed for last week!

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits really do mean a great deal to me, as do your comments.  Don't forget, if you can help out Pat with More the Merrier stamp set, please let me know.

Don't forget, if you are looking for other Christmas cards I have made - you can check those out here.  Or you can use the index on the left pane to look for stamps sets by name

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.  Lynn, continued prayers for the two of you!

Jaydee

Dasher makes another appearance

Hi Everyone.

Happy Tuesday.  Hope you are all having a great week so far.  Before we get to tonight's card, I wanted to clarify a couple of things on last night's post - oh... and I updated last night's post to show the inside of the card I made, too.  I don't know why I missed that last night!

The rules of CASEing.... When I case for a challenge (as opposed to CASEing for personal use, or in workshops, etc.), I follow the rules from splitcoaststampers Featured Stamper CASE challenge.  For that challenge they request that you change at least two things about the card and note what they are.  It became ingrained in me to do that, so I follow the same rules for other challenges, too.  So, I apologise if I confused everyone with the "rules of CASEing" and hope that clarifies it.

Secondly, a couple of you have asked me what The More the Merrier set looked like, just in case you can help Pat out so that she doesn't have to go the eBay route.  So, I popped along to splitcoast and copied the index card that features all of the stamps in the set.  It was a level 3 hostess set from the 2009/2010 catalog.  I used the snowmen a lot last year.  Here's the index card

Now.... on to tonight's card.  I used the sketch from FreshlyMadeSketches last week.  They really do produce some amazing sketches.  Of course, I had to pull out Dasher and my Mocha Morning DSP.  The sketch called for elements on the side of the horizontal element.  I thought... ah ha..... I have little reindeer from some ribbon that I have.  Can you believe it is actually ribbon? So, I used those for that element.

Then, of course, I had to add a few pearls.  Actually, I like the way the pearls pick up the circles in the Mocha Morning DSP.    I really wanted to "do" Dasher in flocking powder, but didn't have any brown flocking powder.  I do think he would be fabulous with a little texture.

As always, thank you for visiting my blog.  You know it means a great deal to me.  I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

'Twas the Night Before Christmas and desperately seeking The More the Merrier

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

I hope you all had a great start to your week.  Me?  Well, it was our first day back at work after two weeks vacation.  The less said about that, the better :-)

I cannot believe that this is my 750th blog post.  Yep.  750 blog posts!  It blows my mind!

Anyway, I saw a challenge across at Waltzingmouse this week.  It was a CASE challenge.  Now, I don't do CASE challenges often, but I find it a good idea when I want to step out of my comfort zone and do something entirely different style wise.  I saw this great card from Laurie Schmidlin using a stamp set I bought at the end of last year.  It's a vintage card, but still has fairly clean lines.  I decided it was an ideal card to case for two reasons.  1) it took me out of my comfort zone.  2) it used a set I had! :-)

As it needed DSP that had a vintage feel, I pulled out some year old Webster's Pages as the background layer.  I then used my Stampin' Up! Naturals Ivory and some Early Espresso ink to add some distressing. I also pulled out my Neutrals buttons and some Crumb Cake Seam Binding ribbon.  The sentiment, the poem and the santa all come from te 'Twas the Night Before Christmas set from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

As a child we really had very little money.  Well, no money, actually!  It was always Dad's treat to me to take me to see the Christmas lights in town.  It was also my opportunity to walk past the window displays and dream about what I really wanted for Christmas.  I remember one year really wanting a Barbie doll.  They were way out of the price range of what was affordable, so I made do with whatever my parents could afford.  You know what?  I didn't miss that Barbie doll.  What I remember most was the fact that my few meager presents were strung out the whole day and my parents made a big deal of the whole day, and not just the receiving of presents. 

From my earliest memories of Christmas, I remember opening up my sack.  In there were oranges and nuts.  Now, for many of you, you will be wondering what the heck was so special about those.  Well, this wasn't that long after the end of World War II and oranges were still pretty much a novelty.  Inside my sack were brand new, totally unused, bronze pennies.  I remember how shiny they were.  They might only have been pennies, oranges and nuts - but at least they weren't pieces of coal.  I knew then that I had been a good girl!  Somehow, sadly, I cannot imagine most children today being happy about receiving pennies, oranges and nuts! :-)

Anyway, I digress.  I got on to the subject of Christmas and childhood because of Clare.  Clare is the owner of Waltzingmouse stamps and she LOVES Christmas.  Her enthusiasm for Christmas, and the stamps she creates, takes me back to those times when life was just a little more simple.  When consumerism wasn't as rife.  When commercialism didn't rule Christmas.  When, even though we had no money, my parents made Christmas so incredibly special.  My Mother was ACE at eeking out a couple of presents and making that magic last the whole day.  When I couldn't open presents until after breakfast.  When I could only open one present every couple of hours.  When Christmas was all about family and doing something good.  I thank Clare for making stamps that bring those memories to the forefront.

Here is my take on Laurie's card.  I did change out the background DSP.  I changed the sentiment.  I changed the position of Santa.  I also changed the position of the buttons and the color of the ribbon.  So, based on the rules of CASEing to change at least three components, I think I accomplished that.  However, you can absolutely still see the fabulous card that I was inspired by. 

The bell came from my collection, also about a year old.  The great thing about this bell?  It actually rings!  I love it!  I strung it from my ribbon with a little silk yarn.  I distressed the edges of the DSP using the side of my paper snips and rubbed the edges with Early Espresso ink.  Early Espresso also formed my card base.

Here's the inside:

I don't know about you, but this card took me back to my childhood and still makes me smile!

On a personal note

Does anyone - anyone at all - have an SU stamp set called "The More the Merrier" that they would like to sell to one of our regular blog readers.  Pat is desperately seeking this set and would be very grateful to anyone who would like to part with their set.  Unfortunately, I have already donated that particular set to Ronald McDonald.  If you do have it, and would like to sell it, please could you let me know what you want for it, and I will put you in touch with Pat.

I cannot believe how quickly the last two weeks have gone by.  It's hard to believe how much - and yet how little - we have gotten done.  Unfortunately we did not win the lottery, so we both had to return to work this morning! :-)

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

Warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight.  Lynn especial prayers for you and your hubby.

Hugs

Jaydee

Christmas Tag - Snow Much Fun

Hi Everyone. 

The Paper Players have a recipe challenge for you this week, concocted by the talented Anne Marie. 

With recipe challenges I always need a sketch to get my inspiration going.  In this case, I saw the challenge across at Just Add Ink to add a tag or a bookmark to your project.  That got me thinking.....and the idea of the tag helped me to work out what to use for the recipe part of the challenge.  The toughest part was trying to make sure that I incorporated all the elements, but still kept it fairly simple.  Combining some of the elements together, helped me to do that

I love using tags on my cards and decided that I would make the tag my punch element as well as my glitter element.  The new Silver Glimmer Paper is fabulous and I thought was a perfect backdrop to my snowman.  Of course, I had to pull out Snow Much Fun for this challenge.  I was a little bit flummoxed by what to do about the three papers.  I then realized that the silver glimmer paper works beautifully with Night of Navy, and pulled out my trusty Patterns Pack and took two of the DSPs from there.  I counted my glimmer paper as another DSP and hope that Anne Marie will forgive me!  The two ribbons ... now that was more of a challenge... then I remembered some snowflake ribbon I had in my stash.  Ah, ha!  Light bulb moment.  Here's what I came up with for the challenges.

I stamped and colored the snowman, and then cut him out and popped him on to the glimmer paper using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Of course, a blingy card needs a little more bling, right? :-)  So, I pulled out the trusty basic Rhinestones and colored them with a sharpie.  I added these for his buttons and left some clear ones for the middle of the snowflake ribbon.

Card recipe, all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Night of Navy
• Stamps:  Snow Much Fun
• Speciality Paper:  Regals Patterns Pack, Silver Glimmer Paper
• Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, Night of Navy Satin Ribbon.  Snowflake Ribbon (May Arts)
• Tools:  Big Shot, Sizzix Tags die, Stampin' Dimensionals
• Inks:  Copic Markers

Don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players to join in the fun on the recipe challenge, and to Just Add Ink to join in the tag fun.

On a personal note:

It was good to get into my stamping space today.  Although I only had time to make one card, it felt good to get crafty again.  More time spent deciding on appliances... how on earth can it take so long to make these decisions?  One of the problems is that we have changed the design of the kitchen.  The cooktop was originally against the back wall of the kitchen and the sink in the center island.  The view from the island is so stunning, that I decided I would rather have the  cook top there!  That meant a whole change to the layout of the back wall, as well as what we were going to do to vent the stove!  That's what took all the time:-)  However, we both think it is going to be absolutely worth it!

I have a photo to share with you today.  I captured a couple of quick shots of the turkeys in our garden yesterday. 

Aren't their feathers in fabulous condition?  Doesn't the garden look as though it is definitely going to sleep and, doesn't it look as though a little raking is required :-)

As always, thank you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  You know I appreciate your visit.  Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight.

Have a fabulous Sunday

Hugs

Jaydee

Christmas Ornament for Pals Paper

Hi Everyone. Happy Thursday.  I hope you are all having a great day.

Well, I managed to get one card made tonight after spending the whole day on "new house stuff".  Honestly, I would never have thought it would take so much time to decide on a bath and a refrigerator and a shower unit!  Whatever did we do before the internet when it wasn't so easy to find out what people thought of a specific make or model, or manufacturer.  Before the days of the click of a mouse to do price comparisons and stock checks.  For those of you much younger than me, you have no idea how great it is to have these conveniences :-)

Now.  When I was ready to make a card, I really needed a push in terms of what to create.  One of the challenges that I haven't had time to play along with in yonks is Pals Paper Arts.  I mosied along to check out what they had this week.  It is a challenge to use ribbon.  Oh.... now.... you all know that it is very hard for me to use ribbon on a card.  Yep... Never do that :-) 

I had recently ordered the new nestabilities ornament die and decided that it was a great opportunity to bring out my Big Shot and the die.  I also had some old silk ribbon lying around and that dictated my color choice.  I pulled out a sentiment from Stampin Up's "Christmas Greetings" and a couple of embellishments from the mini catalog - the felt Winter Wishes holly and leaves and a few of the mini jingle bells. 

I couldn't quite find the right DSP to use with the ornament, so decided to bring out my sponges, Lucky Limeade ink, some Smooch Spritz and some Frost White Shimmer Paint.  Here's what I cam up with

I know you can't see all the detailing on the ornament, but it has "texture" from the sponges, the shimmer paint, and the smooch spritz.  It also has a little shimmer thanks to the latter two things.

I think the bow is gorgeous.  Silk ribbon is really beautiful to work with and I used a little tape to secure it in position at the top, and a little more for the "legs" of the bow.  I popped the ornament up using Stampin' Dimensionals. 

To create the ornament, I used the ornament die as my stencil and sponged inside the ornament die.  I then used my Big Shot to cut out the shape and that gave me the nice vanilla edge that allows the ornament to pop from the green Jolly Holidays DSP.

So, what do you think?  I pfaffed for ages trying to get the ornament the right color and used several different DSPs before I realized, it really just wasn't working for me.  I checked with Lou what he thought about the card, because I was not at all sure - and he loved it and said he would buy it!  those three little words, "I'd buy it!" indicates his approval :-)

Recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Old Olive, Very Vanilla
• Stamp:  Christmas Greeting
• Inks:  Lucky Limeade.  Sentiment stamped with Martha Stewart metallic ink
• DSP:  Jolly Holiday
• Ribbon:  don't remember :-)
• Accessories:  Winter Wishes felt holly berries and leaves.  Mini Jingle Bells
• Tools:  Big Shot; Nestabilities 2011 Heirloom Ornaments; Bow Easy

On a personal note:

Bilbo Baggins has asked me to send a personal message to Cindy.  Some of you may remember that Mr Bilbo had 3 teeth removed yesterday and is not quite feeling himself.  However, he was very pleased to find a little parcel delivered to him by the postman tonight.  I took a picture of the fabulous card, home made envelope, and his favorite yummy nummies that arrived in the post courtesy of Cindy.

Isn't that a fabulous little collection.  The card, using French Foliage, is perfectly matched to the DSP envelope.  Cindy, your card is really gorgeous and I appreciated so much that you sent Bilbo a little gift.  Cindy was our major prize winner for the latest OWH card drive.  Her name was pulled out of a little shaker box by my 4 legged, very handsome, assistant, Mr Bilbo Baggins.  Cindy was very grateful to Mr Bilbo Baggins and sent him these fabulous treats and card to say thank you for choosing her as the winner of the Stampin' Up! shopping spree :-)

As always, thank you so much for spending a little time in my area of the stamping blogosphere.  I know that there are so many places you can visit, so do appreciate that you spend a little part of your day here.

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

Before signing off, I wanted to send a link to a story about a very special man.  This story highlights how you can make such an enormous difference in the lives of others.

Hugs

Jaydee

Easy Events meets Silver Glitter Paper

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

Tonight, I have another card made using last week's FreshlyMadesketches sketch :-)  I really do love the sketches the team puts out.  My last card was a fall inspired card - this one is all about Christmas with lots of bling!

I pulled out the Snow Burst embossing folder, the Easy Events Christmas stamp, some of my newly arrived silver glitter paper and a few basic pearls.  I also used my nestabilities for the circular elements.  Here's what I came up with

Isn't that paper just gorgeous?  It really is so luscious in real life.  I can't wait to use it for some snowflakes!

On a personal note:

My poor little Bilbo was at the vet today and had to have three teeth removed.  He's a little loopy tonight, but seems to be doing OK on the pain meds.  He's just the most adorable, sweet natured, lovable cat and the vet techs just love him.  Luckily our favorite vet tech also baby sits for us, so he was very comfortable with her, but I don't think he was too pleased with her after she had pulled out his teeth!

Lou and I have spent the last two days up in Minneapolis meeting with the builder, going over the official plans, etc. and then, yesterday, we spent the whole day in the design center choosing finishes.  Oh, boy!!!!  We were absolutely exhausted at the end of the day and didn't get everything done.  We don't like the appliance, lighting or carpet packages, so we are waiting for our allowance number and then can go do some shopping.  We choose flooring, kitchen and bathroom door types, handles, tiling, grout color, paint color, ceiling color, window types, trim, exterior colors.... aaaarrrrghhhh it was exhilarating, exciting, exhausting and well.... really... exciting :-) Of course, I woke up at 5am wondering about the decisions and had we chosen the right colors, should we have gone with THOSE floors, etc.  In the end, once I had woken up and re-looked at everything, there is only a couple of things we will change.  Still so much more to do and decide, but it's wonderful.  Thank you to all of you who have sent me emails or left comments of encouragement..... we really do appreciate it!

Now... I am off to look at faucets in the brochures we picked up!  Lou is having dinner with a friend, and I am going to cuddle my Bilbo and make him feel loved :-)

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Winter Post - Christmas Greetings

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.  Hope you all had a great weekend.  We certainly did, except for one thing.  It was too short :-)  It really needed to have been about 5 days longer.  And...those 5 more weekend days would have taken us straight into our two week vacation :-)

I managed to make three cards yesterday - all using the same layout.  I had this idea in my head of combining the deer from Winter Post with the Mocha Morning DSP.  I played around a little and it wasn't working for me, until I turned the card horizontal instead of vertical.  Then, it all came together.

After I had made the card, Lou looked at it and said the paper was perfect, because the pattern on it reminded him of Christmas bells.  Now, I had never looked at it that way, but he was absolutely right.

Here's what I came up with.

So, what do you think?  Can you see Christmas bells in the Mocha Morning DSP?  I surely can.  I used some Dazzling Details on the focal element, but it's showing up really green in the photograph.  I promise you it isn't that green :-)

I love the CAS lines of the card, and I love that it showcases this gorgeous DSP without overpowering the focal image and the sentiment.  I have to admit, Christmas Greetings is one of my favorite typefaces.  It just seems perfect for Christmas cards and is just the right size, too. 

A great thing about this layout.... you can size the sentiment and focal layers to match whatever it is you want to pair up together.  I will have the other card I made using this same layout tomorrow.

On a personal note:

Gorgeous weather here in Mn this weekend.  Cool, crisp and clear.... and... even though our hummers and other summer birds have moved on to their journey south..... our JUNCO's arrived back today.  They seem early, but it has been cold, so I am guessing that they know something we haven't quite figured out yet. :-)  Lou coudn't wait to tell me that they had been sighted in the garden.  They are our constant winter companions and I love to watch them flit backwards and forwards all winter.   We also have a couple of late red winged blackbirds in the garden.  They have been hanging around with the grackles.  The grackles only ever visit us on their migration thank goodness :-)  But the blackbirds must have thought that it was a really good idea to travel in numbers.  I love listening to their call as they come in to land.  They so remind me of summer.

As always, thank you for visiting my blog.  Warm hugs and prayers to all those in need of a quick lift today.

Hugs

Jaydee

Paper Players #68 - Winter Wishes

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday night.  LeAnne has a great challenge for us all this week at the Paper Players.  To create a CAS card using the colors green and red.   Well, considering that I had a couple of new goodies arrive in the mail on Friday - it was the perfect time to pull them out and use them!

I had seen the Winter Wishes Stitched Felt goodies in the Holiday mini and decided they would make great decorations for cards.  All I needed was some card stock, a few rhinestones that had been "freed" from their housings, a little Seam Binding Ribbon and my brand new Simply Scored board (love the really clean lines it scores!

It seems forever since I pulled out Garden Green, but it was the perfect match for the Winter Wishes Stitched Felt.

Here's my card:

Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up!

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Garden Green
• Stamps:  Sentiment:  Christmas Greetings, 115448
• Focal image:  Winter Wishes Stitched Felt wreath, 124108
• Ink:  Cherry Cobbler
• Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding Ribbon; Rhinestones Fire Circles
• Tools:  Simply Scored, Glue Dots, Snail, Stamp-a-ma-jig

This was such an easy card to make.  I stamped the sentiment (using my Stamp-a-ma-jig) and then scored the lines above and below the sentiment.  I secured the wreath using sticky tape and secured the rhinestones using mini glue dots.  The ribbon was adhered to the wreath using glue dots, too.  That's really all it took.  I don't think it took me longer than 15 minutes from start to finish.   I love these felt embellishments, I can't wait to use the snowflakes, too!

We hope that you will play along with us.  I am sure you will be inspired by LeAnne's challenge and the fabulous design team cards.

On a personal note:

As my regular blog readers may remember, it has been a crazy couple of weeks.  These crazy weeks mean that I don't get any time in my stamping space.  It was lucky that this week's challenge was a CAS challenge! :-)  Lou and I left home at around 7.30ish this morning as we had to go up to the cities to do a few things at the garage with our car.  We took the opportunity to visit some furniture stores to get some ideas.  Of course, we also took the opportunity to go past our new lot and make sure it was still as gorgeous as we thought it was.  Well, it was/is!   The weather sure is colder up there than where we are.  It's amazing how much different 130 miles can make in Mn.  I walked the lot and the wind was blowing across the wetland and rustling the remaining leaves on the trees.  What a gorgeous sound!

It was great visiting the furniture stores and trying out goodies we know we could never afford.  It's always nice to dream though :-)  We used it as an opportunity to check out the holiday decorations, too.  As our new house will have a porch running along the front of the house from the garage to the end of the house, we are looking forward to decorating it for each season.  Many of the houses around the new house had put up decorations for halloween.  Yep.. it really is that close!

One more week until Lou and I get two whole weeks off work.  We ccxxxxx       8annot wait!  We will be sorting out our existing house, going through cupboards and cleaning out and getting ready to pack it all in a few months.  Rather do it now whilst the weather is still good, than wait until the depth of winter.

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

I hooep you al have a wonderful Sunday.  One filled with love and laughter and lots of time to spend doing the things you love - with those you love!

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Cardinal Christmas - Silent Night - Paper Players Challenge #66

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

I finally managed to get into my stamping space and had to whip up a card for the Paper Players Challenge this week.  The fabulous LeAnne has a theme challenge for us this week, and I know it will get your creative juices flowing!

Isn't that a cool theme!  Make a card inspired by your favorite song... or include music on your card.  Don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players to see what our fabulous design team have composed for you... ha. ha. ha.  I am so funny :-)  I must have had my Corny Flakes for breakfast :-)

Ok... enough of my terrible jokes... let's get back to the reason you are here.  This is my take on the challenge... You will noticed that I used some Christmas DSP from the 2010 catalog as the background.  The words from Silent Night are printed on the DSP.

I then took a piece of Vellum and inked up the Cardinal from Cardinal Christmas.  To get the variations in color, I used my Stampin' Write markers and huffed and puffed on the stamp as soon as I was ready to stamp onto my vellum.

It's critical to let the ink on the vellum dry before you do anything with it.  It takes a little while, but I fixed up the rest of my card, did some emails, etc. whilst waiting for it to dry.  Here's the finished card:

I'm sorry the photograph isn't that great!  It looks a little muddy, and it really isn't. I obviously had the wrong setting on my camera.

I do loive the simplicity of the image and the subtle wording in the background.  The fact that the background is stamped on a Crumb Cake color base, helps to soften the overall effect of the starkness of the vellum.  I added a little pop of Elegant Eggplant for the berries to lift the color scheme a little.

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Cherry Cobbler
• Stamp Set:  Cardinal Christmas
• Colors:  Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Elegant Eggplant
• Accessories:  Vellum; Riding Hood Red striped ribbon (retired)

I had all sorts of other ideas in my brain... like Monster Mash.... I really thought using the Make a Monster set on a Halloween card would be fabulous.... but, my creative juices just aren't functioning that well.  I really don't know whether it's because I'm tired, or whether sitting on my you know what on conference calls all day has just jaded my creativity.  Whatever it is... I hope my creative juices come back soon, cos the drought is bothering me :-)

Don't forget to visit the other design team members and check out their fabulous creations:

Ann

Lesley

Rita

Tara

Julie

Cindy

LeAnne

Nance

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.  As always, thank you so much for visiting my blog.  Warm hugs and prayers for all those who need a lift.

Jaydee

Christmas Frostwood Lodge for Case Study

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

It's been a while since I managed to play along with challenges, including Casestudy.  The inspiration for case-ing this week had a couple of distinct features that drew me..... the wood print, the red and brown, the extravagant ribbon, the patterned paper and the bright white of the focal layer.

Here's the inspiration card

I decided I really wanted to keep the color scheme but change out the sentiment to fit the Christmas Lodge stamp set.  Pairing it with the complementary Frostwood Lodge DSP was my next step.  When Lou saw this card his response was.... "it's great. and it feels so cottagey!"  Considering that was the feel I was going for, I was very pleased at his reaction.

Here's my take on Julie's card

 

Can you see the inspiration?  It's so rare that I focus on the sentiment, but thought that this was the ideal opportunity.  I couldn't help combining two matching colors of the seam binding ribbon, too.  I think it adds so much.  It's an unusual color scheme for Christmas, but does pull from the colors of the Frostwood Lodge dsp.  I am sure that the casestudy team would love it if you popped along and checked out the inspiration and submission cards.  It's amazing how many different cards can be made from one inspiration!

On a personal note:

Well, I must admit I got homesick today.  It was cold, wet, drippy, dull and gray... .  the whole day.  It reminded me of England in February!  Made me homesick for all the wrong reasons!  Yep.... it was one of those days where you want to cuddle up in front of a fire, with a cat on your lap, a mug of steaming hot tomato soup, and a really good book.  Unfortunately, I spent all of it on the phone!

I hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Beautiful Season - Paper Players Challenge #65

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday Night.

As usual, Saturday night is my Paper Players Challenge card reveal.  The fabulous Anne Marie has a great sketch for you this week.  We hope that you are inspired to come and play along with us.

I decided to change the focal layer shape to fit the stamp set that I was using.  I really wanted to use Beautiful Season and that called for an oval.  Instead of using DSP for the background panels, I decided to do a tone-on-tone Cherry Cobbler layer.  To add interest, I ran the second Cherry Cobbler layer through my Big Shot with the Snow Burst embossing folder.  (I am loving this folder!)

Here's my take on the challenge.

Of course, I had to bring out the Dazzling Details and cover some of the edges of the leaves and stems of the holly with a little bling.  I also colored some Basic Pearls with a sharpie and applied them as the berries.  The last thing I did was take a small Basic Pearl and color it with a black sharpie and add it to the Chickadee.  It really gives life to his face.

As I moved the sentiment, I decided to add a little scrunched Cherry Cobbler ribbon.  I like the softness that it gives.  So, what do you think?

Don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players and check out the amazing design team cards.  I promise you that you will find lots of inspiration.

On a personal note:

It was a glorious, glorious, glorious early fall day here today.  It was cold this morning - in fact, I wore a jersey!  However, this afternoon it warmed up a little and the sky was blue and clear.  Some of the trees are starting to color, but we are still a couple of weeks away from reasonable color.  I really do love this time of year.

I finally got to craft today.  I swear, it took me for ever to get going!  It's almost as though I forget how to compose a card, or use a stamp when I've been away from it so long!  I managed to get 3 cards and a couple of 3-D items made.  It felt really good.  Generally, when I stamp, I turn on classical radio.  Today, I just felt like something different.  I downloaded the new Barbra Streisand CD, "What Matters Most".  Played it loud, sang along, and just chilled with my stamps and the music.  I then upped the tempo and played Adele.  Both amazingly talented ladies.  Lou and I were so lucky to see Barbra Streisand in concert a couple of years ago.  A long time dream.  She didn't disappoint.  It was an amazing evening.  A couple of weeks ago we were supposed to go to see Adelle.  However, Lou ended up going to dinner with a client that evening.... so... the less said about that the better!!!!

As always, thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday.

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

Jaydee

Christmas Lodge for the Paper Players #64

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday.  I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.

Ann has a great challenge for us this week.

Well, it was a great challenge.  I got my card made - using a plant!  It was only when I was loading the card onto the challenge site that I read one simple little thing that I had missed..... it's a themed CAS challenge.  Duh!  Mmmmm... well... it was too late to change it.... my card is somewhat CAS - but not as CAS as I normally make it for a CAS challenge.  If I had read the challenge label first, I would not have added the snowflakes, bling and star on top of the tree!!!!  Anyway... eh hem! :-)

Here is my SOMEWHAT CAS take on the challenge.  Oh... and I used the fabulous sketch across at Freshly Made Sketches, too.  Another great sketch from the talented Lesley.

I am so in love with this Mocha Morning Paper mixed with the Metallic Gold and Shimmery White card stock.

Here's what I used to make this 5-1/4 x 5-1/4" card:

• Stamps:  Christmas Lodge, Perfect Punches
• DSP:  Mocha Morning
• Card stock:  Metallic Gold, Shimmery White
• Accessories:  Very Vanilla Velvet Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Star brad (retired)
• Tools:  Big Shot, Snowflake die, versamark ink, gold embossing powder

I fell in love with the Christmas Lodge set the minute I saw it in the new mini catalog.  I think it's going to become one of my favorite sets this year.

Now... don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players tomorrow and check out the fabulous new challenge and see the amazing design team inspiration cards.  Whilst you are at it, check out Freshly Made Sketches to see what the fabulous design team cooked up for you - there are some great submission cards out there, too!

On a personal note:

The last of the cards for the OWH card drive arrived today - thank you Anne Marie.  I will be opening the box tomorrow, prepping them and then gathering all the cards to post off to OWH early next week.  I know that this cause is dear to your heart and you, of all people, know what it means to receive cards from a serviceman!  You rock, my friend.  Thank you.

Talking about rocking..... a huge shout out to Robin K.  I received her check to send along to OWH today, too.  Thank you, Robin.  It means a great deal to me and it is much appreciated.  You, too, rock!

I'd also like to thank Rita W for standing in for me on the Paper Players challenge last week.  She jumped in because I wasn't able to get a card finished at the very last minute and completed her card with a sinus headache!!!  Thank you, Rita.  I really appreciated it - and loved your card, too!

As always, thank you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits really DO mean a great deal to me - as do your comments.

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

Jaydee

Snow Much Fun for Freshly Made Sketches - Challenge # 1

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.... 

yep.... you read that right, this is challenge number 1 for the brand new challenge site called Freshly Made Sketches.  Lesley was kind enough to ask me to be the guest designer for the inaugural challenged and I was absolutely honored to say YES!

Lesley created this new challenge blog to celebrate clean lined cards.  Now, that's not necessarily clean and simple - but a card with clean lines and not lots of frou frou (my words, not Lesley's!)  I think it's a fabulous idea, and Lesley's first sketch is GORGEOUS.   I really do hope that you will join us all this week and make the design team's first week a fabulous one.  I know that there are many of you out there who appreciate clean lined cards - so... come join us!

Here's Lesley's fabulous sketch:

 
Isn't that fabulous?  I told you it was!  So, here's my take on it.

Yep, you can see I used Domestic Goddess DSP again.... I LOVE this DSP.  I am also loving Pool Party as a color for Christmas cards.

I had seen a fabulous card made by the Artistic Avenger - this card and you can see the snow man is throwing snowballs.... I knew that I had to make a card with this fabulous snowman playing with snowballs, except I make them all icy and blingy!  Of course, I had to add to the bling, with a little Dazzling Details around the rim of his hat, along the right hand side of his body and, of course, underfoot!

To add more shine, I stamped the snowman onto Glossy Cardstock using StazOn ink.  Once it was dry, I colored the snowman with Going Gray and Pool Party markers.  I then added some more Basic Rhinestones, which were colored using a Sharpie marker.

The ribbon you see at the bottom of the card is the fabulous new Velvet ribbon from the Holiday Mini.  It's gorgeous!

Card details:

• Card stock: Glossy White, Pool Party
• Stamps: Snow Much Fun
• Inks:  Pool Party, Going Gray, StazOn
• Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, Velvet Ribbon
• DSP:  Domestic Goddess
• Tools:  Snow Burst Embossing Folder (holiday mini), Big Shot.  Dazzling Details.  Stampin' Dimensionals

So, what do you think?  I think its pretty... and I do love this cool, crisp, color scheme for Christmas.... how's that for a little alliteration!

Now, don't forget to pop along to check out Freshly Made Sketches and see what the design team has cooked up for you.  Then, we do hope that you will join us in this, the inaugural challenge.

Hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight and, as always, thank you so much for visiting my blog.

Jaydee

Paper Players Challenge #60 - Sketch Challenge

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

The Paper Players have a sketch challenge designed by the very talented LeAnne this week.  I had a sneak peek at the design team cards whilst I was loading my card onto the challenge site, and you are in for another treat this week!  It's a great sketch and we hope you will play along.

For some reason, this sketch inspired me to bring out my Pennant Parade set.  I also decided it was time to pair it with the Snow Burst Embossing Folder and bring out some bling.  In my cupboard I found my Dazzling Details and some Mica Flakes.  Perfect for what I had in mind!

Here's what I came up with:

I stamped the holders for the trees using Versmark and then used my Cherry Cobbler embossing powder to give them color, and texture. 

I ran a Cherry Cobbler layer through my Big Shot with the Snow Burst embossing folder and cut it down to 5-1/4" x 4" and laid it over the top of the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals.

I stamped the Pennant Parade Christmas Trees using Old Olive and adhered two directly to the card base and popped the middle one on Stampin' Dimensionals.  I stamped a little star using Gold Embossing ink, snipped around it and mounted it on a spare piece of Dimensional. 

The last thing I needed to do was to add some glue to the base of the trees and then sprinkle Mica Flakes over the glue.  I then liberally applied Dazzling Details to the card, over areas of the Mica flakes.  This helped secure the flakes to the card stock.

I used Sticky Strip to ruffle the ribbon and adhere it to the card base.  All that was left to do was to add the focal layer on top of that using Stampin' Dimensionals.

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
• Stamps:  Pennant Parade
• Accessories:  Quilted Satin Cherry Cobbler Ribbon, Mica Flakes, Dazzling Details
• Tools:  Big Shot and Snow Burst Embossing Folder, Stampin' Dimensionals, Paper snips

Don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players and check out the design team cards - and then play along with us.  We'd love to see what you create.

On a personal note:

It has been a long week this week.  Many hours of conference calls (up to 10 hours a day).  The worse thing about conference calls running all day, is that you have to find time to do the work that you should have done during the day whilst you were on conference calls!  Consequently, stamping time has been non existent this week.  I've also found it hard to keep up with personal emails, or even my blog.  It's unheard of for me to go two days without posting, but I hope you all understand why.

I am hoping to get some time in my stamping space today and tomorrow and just some time to chill.  The weather is gorgeous, and I would like to spend a little time sitting on the deck just appreciating the outdoors and our fabulous deck.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.  A Sunday spent doing the things that you enjoy.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Snow Much Fun and Frostwood Lodge

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.  I hope you are all having a great day.

Tonight's card showcases Snow Much Fun and, of course, I had to pair it with Frostwood Lodge.  I really am in love with this DSP - and this set.  Sometimes, you can look at a card and it's only when you see the photograph that you think.... what on earth did you do there?  Well, this is one of those times. :-)

I used my tag layout again - loving this layout - but at the last minute decided to add a vertical ribbon instead of my usual bow.  Mmm... that's where the problem came in.  It now looks as though the snowman as a ribbon coming out of his top hat!  Think I am going to have to re do this one..... but it has some very cute elements, so wanted to share it with you.

Isn't he just the cutest?  I colored him with my Copic markers and then applied Crystal Effects to his top hat and wellington boots to give that shiny feel.  It's a little hard to pick up in this picture, but it looks cool IRL.  I then took my Basic Rhinestones (what a deal these are) and colored them using my copics to match the blue in the DSP.  They make fabulous buttons.

Of course, I had to pull out my new Dazzling Details and apply a little strategic dazzle.  I also stamped the snowball and snowmen twice, once onto the tag and then again onto scrap card stock.  I cut around both of the focal images and mounted them onto the original stamped image using Stampin' Dimensionals.  I do like the addition of the sparkly buttons, the three rhinestones in the bottom corner, the Crystal Effects on the top hat and wellies... but really don't like how I positioned the tag with the ribbon!  I also think the tag should have either been straight - or tilted the other way.  On another positive note..... love this sheet of DSP.  Doesn't it look like winter flannel pajamas???!!

Card deets:

• Card stock:  Naturals White, Cherry Cobbler
• DSP: Frostwood Lodge
• Stamps:  Snow Much Fun
• Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Details
• Tools:  Stampin' Dimensionals, Big Shot, Two Tags Die, Paper Snips, Stamp-a-ma-jig

On a personal note:

Today was another glorious day with low humidity and reasonable temperatures.  So... loving the weather.   For those of you who have been kind enough to ask....My leg is progressing - the color is totally back to normal, no bruising at all.  It is still very stiff and I cannot put any weight on it, or do squats or lunges.  It's also tough either walking up hill or down hill and does tend to swell easily.  However, I still have another 6 weeks to go before we need to relook at it and see if anything needs to be fixed.  I'm hoping that over the next 6 weeks it continues to heal and I will be starting gentle exercise tomorrow to try to help it along.

We met with the plumber today to make sure that he could fit our new toilet and bath into the master bath.  Luckily the answer is YES... so we are very happy about that.  Our next meeting is with the electrician and the builder.  By Friday we should have everything locked down and then I can build a project plan of how all of this will roll out over the next few months. 

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

Have a wonderful Wednesday

Jaydee

Snow Much Fun

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday night.

I hope you all enjoyed our impromptu Birthday Blog Hop for Lesley!  If you haven't seen the card I made for her, you can click on this post.

I have been dying to use my new Snow Much Fun set and the sketch across at stamping411  seemed like the ideal one to try it with.   I paired the image with some brand new DSP from the new Holiday Mini.  I am absolutely in love with this new paper.  It's called Frostwood Lodge.  In fact, I made two cards with the same set and the same DSP this weekend.  Which shows you how inspiring a sketch can be!

Instead of the ribbon and bow, I decided to use some of the brand new Quilted Satin Ribbon - again from the new holiday mini.  It's gorgeous and rich and luscious.  Just like chocolate should be!  Instead of a bow, I decided to use a red Sharpie and color three Basic Rhinestones instead.  If you look closely, you will also see another new item from the holiday mini - Dazzling Details.

Here's what I came up with

You might be wondering what the background embossing folder is, too!  Ah... another new thing from the holiday mini.  It's the Snow Burst embossing folder. 

I know it's tough to see in this pic, but the Dazzling Details looks fabulous on top of the snowman.  I tried to put it in places where I thought snow would collect on him.  The top of his hat, the top of the brim. on top of his scarf, the tip of his carrot nose - and in the crook of the hand he's holding out for the bird.

Don't you love how the texture from the ribbon echoes the pattern on the DSP?  I do :-)

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
• Stamps:  Snow Much Fun
• DSP:  Frostwood Lodge
• Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones
• Tools:  Big Shot, Snow Burst embossing folder, Dazzling Details, wide oval punch for the sentiment

Don't forget to pop along to stamping411 and check out the fabulous design team inspiration cards - and I know they would appreciate it if you played along, too!

On a personal note:

Lou and I had a great weekend just relaxing and enjoying having him home.  Friday night we went to a jazz concert.  It was wonderful sitting outside watching the sun go down and listening to great music.  I must admit, David Sanborn, Marcus Miller and George Duke put on an absolutely fabulous show.  We then had a late dinner downtown and spent the night at a local hotel.  Much better than driving nearly 2 hours to get home.  Saturday was a relaxing morning doing some shopping and then we spent the rest of the weekend trying to avoid the humidity and heat.  Last night at about 11.15 it was only 75 degrees, but the humidity was 100%.  It still amazes me how the humidity can be 100% and it not be raining!  Thankfully, this morning arrived cool and the humidity had dropped considerably.  What a gorgeous day.  I hope some of this fabulous weather is coming your way!

To those of you who stopped by my blog and left a birthday message for my honey... thank you so much... he was absolutely chuffed by it!

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Paper Players Challenge # 57 - Dasher

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday night.  We have a fabulous challenge across at the Paper Players for you this week.  The very talented Nance has provided us with such a wonderful sketch.  I had tremendous fun working with this sketch.  In fact, the idea for the card came together in minutes.  Very unusual for me!  Here's Nance's sketch.  I told you it was fabulous!  We hope that you will be inspired enough to join us and show us what you can do with this sketch.

I decided it was time to introduce you to my favorite, all time, amazing, stunning, Stampin' Up! Specialty Designer Series Paper - Mocha Morning.  It is so rich and luscious - absolutely gorgeous.  It has a very formal side, and then a less formal side.  I am completely in LOVE with this paper.  As this particular piece has a really rich gold look, I decided to pair it with the Gold Metallic Paper and my favorite Christmas animal... Dasher!

Here's my take on the sketch:

  

I decided I liked this card so much, that it will be one of the Christmas cards I make this year.  Looks like I am going to need to buy more of the Mocha Morning paper :-)  It really is gorgeous paper.  The sheen on it is really hard to see in the pic, but it's subtle and classy.  I must admit, it was great to take out Dasher again.  The thing I love about this particular stamp is that you can use him on a fun card, or on something more formal like this one.

I know that Gold, Early Espresso and Vanilla are different colors for Christmas, but I like it :-)

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Gold Metallic, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso
• Stamps:  Focal image:  Dasher.  Sentiment:  Contempo Christmas
• DSP:  Mocha Morning Specialty Paper
• Inks:  Early Espresso.  Versamark
• Accessories:  Early Espresso ribbon
• Tools:  Big Shot.  Top Note Die. Gold Embossing Powder.  Stampin' Dimensionals

 On a personal note:

Before I start - a shout out to CINDY tonight.  Cindy sent me an email yesterday to let me know that she has 35 cards on their way for our Operation Write Home card drive.   WAY TO GO, Cindy.  This is wonderful.  That's another 35 servicemen/women and 35 of their family members that will be touched by your gift.  Looking for details on our card drive - check out this link.  You still have plenty of time to join in our card drive and a chance to win SU goodies courtesy of me.  It's such a great cause, so I hope you will join us.

Well, I may no longer be blond.  But I certainly had a blond moment or two this weekend.  Firstly, I was writing checks to put in the post yesterday.  I walked to the post box, raised the flag to let Mr Postie know there were goodies inside for him.  I went back into the house, cleaned the countertop and realized that I had forgotten to put one of the checks in the envelope.  Yep, I'd written the check, the envelope and stamped it.  Closed it.  Taken it to the post box.  Mmmm... but forgot to put the check in. 

Secondly, I saw the challenge for this week and got all a flutter.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the theme.  I scratched my head.  Contemplated my stamps.  Contemplated my navel.  Nothing.  Finally at around 9.30pm I came up with an idea and went with it.  I was going to put my card up onto the Paper Players blog and my own but it was going to be waaaaay late as I needed a Crystal Effects element to dry.  Imagine my absolute surprise when, this morning, I went to load my card -with the CE element now dry, only to find that I had made a card for NEXT WEEK!  yep.. NEXT WEEK.  Mmmmm.... oh dear.  Now I was really back to square one, because I hadn't even looked at the challenge for THIS week!  Luckily, as I said, loved the sketch, so it came together quite easily!

So, Lou is still in Hong Kong.  He tells me he is still on schedule to get back on Wednesday and I will certainly be glad to see him!  He's had a tough couple of weeks and I am sure he is going to be glad to get home for a week, too!

Don't forget to visit the Paper Players and check out the amazing design team inspiration cards - and then play along with us.

I hope you all have a truly wonderful Sunday.  One filled with love, laughter and the things that make you happy.

Hugs and prayers for all that need a lift tonight.

Jaydee

 

Paper Players Challenge # 56 - CAS Sketch and Moxie Fab Botanical

Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday night.  This is going to be a very quick post.

Tonight's Paper Players Challenge card was created using the fabulous CAS Sketch that the talented Nancy drew up for us.

 

When I saw the theme challenge across at Moxie Fab World, I had this idea on how I could use the sketch, combine it with the theme challenge using  one of my favorite new sets.

Chickadee's are one of my favorite birds and I loved Beautiful Season set the minute I laid eyes on it. The Chickadee's stay with us throughout the winter and they are always the first harbinger of spring.  Their see-saw call is heard in very early spring and, after the long Minnesota winters, it's one of the best sounds in the world.

I am in love with botanical this year and, in fact, have the two Pottery Barn pillows that are showcased on the Moxie link for the challenge :-)

I hope you like my take on the combined challenges

 

Card details - all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless noted

• Card Stock:  Shimmer White , Whisper White, Riding Hood Red
• Inks:  Lucky Limeade, Basic Grey, So Saffron, Daffodile Delight, Riding Hood Red, Tea Stain (a blending ink that comes with the Stampin' Up! distressing kit)
• Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones colored using copics (I had to make the berries look all nice and shiny :-) )
• Tools: Oval Punches, Paper Snips

Tips:

• I blended the tea stain ink into Whisper White card stock.  I then added Vanilla Shimmer Spritz (as I was layering it onto Shimmery White card stock).  I then inked up the image and stamped it onto my focal layer.  I stamped it again onto scrap card stock and colored in both sets of images.
• I fussy cut around the chickadee and layered him on top of the stamped image on the focal layer using Stampin' Dimensionals.  Doing this just adds a little dimension and really makes him pop off from the background image.  I cut the holly and adhered it to the top corner of the card.
• A small Basic Pearl was colored using a Sharpie.  The small black pearl really does add life to the Chickadee and is really easy to do.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Sunday - filled with love, laughter and cool weather!

Hugs

Jaydee

Paper Players Challenge #54 - Christmas in July - Pennant Parade

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

Hope you are all having a great weekend.  Happy belated Canada Day to those of you above the border!

It's my pleasure to host the challenge across at the Paper Players this week.  We have a theme challenge for you this week.

Pennant Parade was one of the sets from the new 2011/2012 catalog.  I know that most of you must have seen the catty by now!   I decided to use the punch and the stamps to create a very clean and simple Christmas card using card stock and DSP.  I combined that with the Many Merry Messages set and a glitter brad.  In less than 5 minutes I had a card. 

If I'd had the chance last night, I would have gone back and changed the card a little - like using textured Very Vanilla card stock instead of plain.  However, we had a massive storm last night and were without power for hours.  Considering how hot it was, it made me realize how much I love the airconditioning!  We only got power back after 2am this morning!

Anyway, here is my clean and simple Christmas tree card.  I got this pic late yesterday afternoon, so the light isn't that great!  I apologize for that.

Card recipe - All ingredients Stampin' Up!

• Card stock:  Very Vanilla, Old Olive
• Stamps:  Pennant Parade.  Sentiment:  Many Merry Messages
• Inks:  Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
• Tools:  Penant Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Scoring tool (for scored lines above and below the sentiment)
• Accessories: Basic Glitter Brads

I hope that you will play along with the PaperPlayers again this week.  The design team have created some gorgeous cards for you, so don't forget to go check them out.

On a personal note:

Oh...... two things of note tonight.    Both firsts for the year.

1. First firefly sighting... Yes, I saw my first firefly on Thursday night when fetching the post.  It brought a huge smile to my face.  They really are the most amazing little things!
2. Our first turkey chicks!!!!! Yes..... I couldn't believe my eyes when I went to get tea during a break from meetings yesterday.  Two females and a whole positive rafter of little turkeys.

It was really hard to get a photo - but I did manage to get this one

Can you see the way she is looking at that chick?  Isn't it amazing.  Anyway, I waited for ages to get this photograph - and was late for a conference call!  I didn't tell them the real reason, of course! :-)  I managed to see 3 chicks.  However, much later Lou saw both the females and counted 10 chicks between them.  What a fabulous sighting.  It's the first time we have ever seen chicks in all the years we have been here.  So, we were very happy!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and get to spend some time doing the things you love with those you love the most.  If you are traveling this weekend, travel safely.

Now... don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players and play along.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Cats, Christmas and Bows

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

I have been trying to convert my technique videos for those of you who have been having problems viewing the ones I put out on mobile me.

One of the videos that I did manage to convert is the bow tying video.  You can click on the photo below and it will take you to the video.

I hope those of you who couldn't see the video before can now see it.

I know some of you will think we are crazy... but Lou and I do exchange cards for each other from the cats.  Anyone else do that?  We were obviously channeling each other when we decided on these cards.

Here's the one that Lou bought for me.  I thought it was hysterical.  You can click on the cards and see them fullsize.

For Lou's card, I decided to use the fabulous "Fluffles", introduced to me by Lynn.

I thought that the image really called for the use of my MUSIC NOTES wheel.  It seemed the perfect thing to place behind the Fluffles image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, Fluffles had to be colored "ginger" as I know that he represents Bailey.  Bailey is our gorgeous Norwegian Forest cat who is into EVERYTHING.  I stamped the image onto the card base and then again on to Real Red and Garden Green card stock and cut around the letters.  Of course, I couldn't resist a little pearl!  For the inside, I stamped another stamp featuring Fluffles and colored him with markers.  Thanks, Lynn, for introducing me to Fluffles.  I think these two stamps may be taken out again next year.  I also think I will be using my music wheel again.  It really is fabulous.

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday.  A day spent with those you love, doing the things you love.

Don't forget, I really do love to read your comments and if you have any questions on any of hte projects that I showcase, or card making in general, just leave me a comment or send me an email.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

I'm late.... I'm late... for a very important date

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday. 

My post is very late today as we had no internet connection last night and I had not preset a post!

I have a couple of cards for you tonight.  Two more of the cards that were sent for the CASE jaydee for a cause card drive for Robin, aka the Sky Angel. 

Tonight's cards were sent to me by Cam and Adelle.   Adelle chose a card I made last year for Christmas.  When I saw this card I loved the fact that Adelle had taken the silver trees on Basic Gray background and warmed it up by changing the background to Night of Navy.  It really took it up a notch.

Here's Adelle's fabulous take on my card that you can see HERE.

Here's Cam's card.  Cam was inspired by use of so much Cherry Cobbler this winter.  She was particularly inspired by my use of Cherry Cobbler on this card.

I loved the snowflakes with the little bit of bling along with the confetti card stock.

On a personal note:

Lou and I are still not back at work yet.  YAY!  Unfortunately, no time in my crafting space, though.  That won't happen until the end of the week.  I do miss it when I can't get into my space. 

Did you all make New Year resolutions?  I certainly did.  I'm working hard to try to keep them!

Prayers tonight for Rose.  Adelle, Germaine, Pri and for those of you who need a little lift.

Have a wonderful Tuesday and thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere, you know I appreciate it.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Men

 

From our home to yours - Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hugs

Jaydee

Believe in the Magic

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.

I know you are all running around frantically (well, I guess I am not the only one:-)..)  So, a very quick post for you tonight.  A post, I feel, that needs very little explanation!

On this eve of Christmas Eve....... you should all....

Thank you for taking time out of your very busy day to come and pay me a little visit.  You know I appreciate it.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve

hugs

Jaydee

Welcome Christmas - Joy

Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday night.  I hope you are all having a great weekend. 

Lou arrived home today - finally and is actually home for the next couple of weeks!  Finally.  In fact, this trip home must have been his most uneventful yet.  Good job he wasn't trying to get out of Europe.  The weather there is crazier than our own!

I loved the Welcome Christmas set when I saw it in the new 2010/2011 catalog.   There is something about this set that you can make it vintage or modern.  That makes it an almost ideal set as far as I am concerned.  Two of the elements I loved are the wreath and the joy.  I also love the striped grosgrain ribbon, so decided to put them both together.

Here's what I came up with:

 

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

• Card stock:  Old Olive, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler
• Stamp Set:  Welcome Christmas (120597 clear)
• Inks:  Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive (markers and classic ink)
• Accessories:  Red Riding Hood grosgrain ribbon (from the clearance rack), Large button from the Deck the Halls Big Designer Buttons
• Tools:  Big Shot, Holly embossing plate (non SU), paper snips, dimensionals, Crystal Effects (to adhere the button)

I inked up my stamp using my Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler markersI stamped the wreath image onto the base Whisper White layer and then again onto a scrap layer.  I snipped out the one stamped onto the scrap layer and adhered it over the one stamped onto the base layer using dimensionals. 

I stamped the JOY in Cherry Cobbler classic ink and then cut around each of the letters and adhered those over the wreath.  I took the button and glued it onto the "O" of the joy, just leaving the decorations on the edges of the "O".

Tip:  Because the ribbon is really wide, I folded it in half and then wrapped it around the Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White layers.  This meant that it took up less real estate, but I still had the full effect on the tails of the ribbon.

On a personal note:

I have received a couple of wonderful little parcels in the post and some really cool hand-crafted cards.  I will take pics of the cards and show them to you.  I know you will enjoy them.

So.... what are you all wanting for Christmas?  What's on your wish list?  On mine... well, dinner with George Clooney, but I don't think that is going to happen!  Therefore, I have some SU stamping supplies arriving on Tuesday that will be wrapped and put under the Christmas Tree (that's a virtual tree, because we can't have a real one!  The cats just wouldn't let us!!!).  I also have a couple of nesties and a Copics Airbursh system.    Lou asked me if I wanted a hand-bag (purse to you Americans! :-)) and I said no... I really wanted stamping supplies!

What are you hoping will be under the tree?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear!

Prayers tonight for Rose, Germaine, Pammie, Adelle, Rach, Lesley, Pri.

Hugs

Jaydee

Wish for Peace and Snow Photos

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday night.

As I have asked you to CASE a card for me for a cause - see this post - I thought it was a good idea for me to CASE some of you.  I started with CASEing the fabulous Christmas cards that Germaine made for our last OWH card drive.

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Shimmery White, Cherry Cobbler
• Stamps:  WIsh for Peace
• Inks:  Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke - Stampin' Write Markers 
• Accessories:  Basic Pearls, colored to match Cherry Cobbler
• Tools:  Big Shot, Texturz Plate, Stampin' Dimensionals

  I love this color combination together.  I also love my Stampin' Write markers and that they allow me to color these intricate images!

Now, I promised you some snow photos.  When I took the first set of photos, it had already been snowing since Friday night.  So, we were already half way through the snow day.  There was almost no snow on any of these surfaces before the snowstorm last weekend.

Outside our basement window we have a  Buddah head underneath the bird feeder.  On the left is what he looked like on Saturday morning.   The one on the right shows you how the Buddah looked on Saturday afternoon.

 

 

 

 
Now lets take a look the right is what he looked like on on Sunday morning.  Yep.... same window... same position.... errrr.... you can still see the bird feeder.... but the Buddah has completely disappeared and half our basement window is covered in snow.

Let's take a look at what was happening on the deck.

On Saturday morning this is what our deck looked like.  A note on the parcels.  Lou had put the tree up along with the Christmas parcels the previous weekend.  He had cleared the entire deck in order to get the goodies onto the deck without being on the snow.   Picture 1 shows what the tree looked like on Saturday morning.  It had been snowing since Friday and you can see that there was a small portion of the presents covered. 

Now... let's take a look at what this same picture looked like by later Saturday afternoon.

You can see that the Christmas parcels were now almost covered.  Let's take a look at the same pic on Sunday morning

I took the pic above from a slightly higher angle so that you could still see the tips of the parcels.  You can see how deep the snow is by looking at the seat bench.  You can clearly see the base of the seat benches on the other pictures - but on the last one.... all you can see is the top corner.  These seats are 26".  So, that gives you some idea.  

My favorite shot.... is this one....

 

You can see the freezing rain on the ornaments, covered with the snow and sparkling in the sunshine!

I hope you enjoyed the pics.  I hope they make those of you who live in the parts of the country that don't have the gorgeous, white, fluffy stuff, feel a little more festive!

Prayers as always for Adelle, Rose, Germaine, Pri, Arthur, Lesley and Rach.

Have a fabulous Thursday everyone

Hugs

Jaydee

Snowy, Snowflake Sunday

Hi Everyone.

Happy Sunday.  Few things for you tonight.

The snow came down hard yesterday.  We set the record for a one day snowfall in December.  We beat the old one by 10 inches!  On our side of town we had 15".  Lou is very thankful that I made him by a snowblower last year!  It is gorgeous outside... I mean ... really gorgeous.  BUT... the windchills have us down near minus 30.  Many people were digging themselves out this morning - literally, when I went to drop Lou off to catch his flight.   I have some great shots for you - but had trouble uploading them tonight, so will share them tomorrow instead.

I did get to spend some time in my stamp space - as you can imagine!  I had seen the fabulous inspiration challenge across at Pals Paper Arts - and the case card across at casestudychallenge....mmm..... I finally had an idea for both challenges.  Must have been all that snow I was looking at today.

Here are the two inspiration shots:

  On the left you can see the fabulous pics for the PPA challenge - use winter whites and the card that was the one we were to case for the case study challenge.   You can blow up both pics to have a really good look at them.

 

Here's what I came up with: 

  I am having a little trouble with the pic - but hopefully you can see the inspiration from both photos. 

Card recipe - all ingredients SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Shimmer White, Metallic Silver
• Stamp:  Contempo Christmas (sentiment)
• Accessories:  Big Felt Flurry snowflake.  Silver snowflake cut from the Northern Frost decorative strip.  Rhinestone bling, Whisper White Organza ribbon.  Gold ribbon (non SU)
• Tools:  Big Shot, Versamark, silver embossing powder, stampin dimensionals
• note:  the big felt flurry snowflake is available on clearance at SU at this link

NOW..... TO THE VIDEO SAGA...

I know many of you - mostly those of you who don't use an Apple for your computing, have had some problems viewing my video.  I did some analysis and found that the problem (I think) is with the mobile me interface (where my videos are stored) and your internet browser.  I ran into issues with certain versions of Mozilla and Internet Explorer. 

I decided to try putting the video out on Vimeo to see whether you could access it or not.  I tried it with Mozilla, IE and Safari and it works with all of them.  Or at least the versions I have.  This was a huge step forward from where I was.

PLEASE... If you had trouble viewing my video, click the pic and link below and let me know if this one works for you.  I chose the last one that I did and converted that.  If this works for you, then I will work on converting the others.  If you view it, please could you leave me a comment letting me know that it worked... hopefully !!! for your!

 

Tomorrow, I will have pics of the snow storm for you and details of the blog candy running for the whole week.  So, please come back tomorrow.

Prayers tonight for:  Adelle, Lesley, Rach, Germaine, Arthur, Rose, Soozie, Pri.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday.  Filled with love, laughter and the things that make you happy

Hugs

Jaydee

 

 

 

Contempo Christmas Tree Trio

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.

Quick post for you tonight.

I only recently purchased this stamp set.  In fact, I bought it because it was part of the Holiday Bundles that SU was offering.  The Contempo Christmas set and Jolly Holiday DSP.  Who could resist a discount on these two?

Here's what I came up with.

 

Card Recipe:

•  Card stock:  Old Olive, Very Vanilla
• DSP:  Jolly Holiday
• Stamps:  Contempo Christmas
• Inks:  Old Olive
• Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones
• Tools:  Stamp-a-ma-jig, White embossing powder

This card was so simple.  It really is.  A layer of DSP, stamp the tree three times.  Add rhinestones. Stamp the sentiment with versamark, add embossing powder.  Heat set. Cut two matt layers.  adhere.  done!  I love the fact that you could do this with a red background instead of the Old Olive - and it would look gorgeous!

On a personal note. 

A quick - but very long - three day trip to upstate New York.  Long meeting days.  Lack of network connection.  Having to appear alert and engaged.... oh boy :-)  It was great, though.  Tomorrow I will be back home.

Continued prayers for Germaine, Pri, Arthur, Rose, Adelle.  Hugs and prayers for those of you who need a lift.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, filled with love and laughter.

Hugs

Jaydee

Winter Post for Casestudy

Hi Everyone.   Happy Monday night.

Tonight's card was created for the casestudy challenge.  I decided to create a fairly clean and simple version of the card using the Jolly Holiday DSP, Lovely as a Tree for the background and the lovely deer stamp from the Winter Post set.  I saw Nance's card for the Paper Players challenge last week.  She used the Lovely as a Tree stamp and Dasher - and I loved it.  I needed a slightly smaller image, so went with the deer from Winter Post instead.

Mmmm... the one thing I forgot to do before I stamped.... condition the stamp!  Consequently, not the smoothest deer you have ever seen!

Card recipe - all supplies SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla
• Inks:  River Rock (for the sponging and the trees.  Early Espresso for the deer.  Cherry Cobbler for the sentiment
• Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Winter Post.  Sentiment is from Short and Sweet
• Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding ribbon.  Vintage Brads
• Designer Series Paper:  Jolly Holiday
• Tools:  Big Shot.  Tag die (non SU), Stampin Dimensionals (the tag is raised), border punch (non SU)

This is a really simple card to make and can be tailored to fit any color scheme and use any DSP.  I  didn't add any iridescent ice, but was tempted to make another version with that!  Doing a light sponging of the Very Vanilla tag, toned down the vanilla and I like the finished effect.  The brad around the bow and through the hole in the tag works well.

Don't forget to pop along to the casestudy challenge site and check out the design team and submission cards.  I know you will find something to inspire you.

On a personal note:  I am traveling on business the next couple of days.  I'd rather be home :-) but it is rare that I have to travel these days, and I am grateful for that.

Continued prayers for Germaine, Pri, Arthur, Rose, Adelle.  Also for those of you who need a little lift.

You know I appreciate you stopping by and I appreciate your comments.

Have a fabulous Tuesday.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Red and White Cardinal

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

Tonight's card uses one of my favorite sets from the SU catty this year.  Cardinal Christmas. 

I combined two challenges - Lesley's Christmas challenge for the Paper Players this week - who could resist that challenge? Don't forget to join us this week.

I also checked out the challenge at Playdatecafe this week and they were having a color challenge.  So, I combined the two challenges.  I don't often just work with red and white, but actually had great fun. 

  

Of course, the red that I chose had to be Cherry Cobbler. I stamped the Medallion background stamp on the base of the card and embossed it with White embossing powder.  It's really subtle, but adds a little texture to the plain card stock.  You can see it better in the bottom of the photo.

Card recipe - all supplies SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler
• Stamps:  Cardinal Christmas, Medallion background stamp
• Accessories:  Basic Pearls colored to match the card, Cherry Cobbler Seam binding ribbon
• Inks:  Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Regal Rose
• Tools:  Versamark, White Embossing powder, Stampin Dimensionals, heat gun, Big Shot, Nestabilities Labels #11 (non-SU)

On a personal note: 

Lots of fabulous, fluffy white stuff fell yesterday!  It certainly is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  We must have had about 8 inches in the snow on our deck can be believed.  We are finally putting up the decorations and lighting up the new arbovitae's that we planted earlier this year.

Today, we went shopping for toys.  It is the annual local TV station toy drive for Christmas Anonymous.  It's the one time of the year when I am able to go shopping for dolls and trucks and skateboards and snowbards and hot wheels and lego.  All the sorts of things that I hope some deserving, under-privileged children around the area will love to find under their tree this Christmas.

As always prayers for Germaine, Arthur, Rose, Pri and Adelle.  Also for those of you who need a little lift.

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday - filled with love, laughter and time spent doing the things you love.

Hugs

Jayde

 

Welcome Christmas and Feel Good Friday

Hi Everyone.  Hope you have had a fantastic week.

Tonight's card is from the wonderful Stampin' Up! Welcome Christmas set.  I loved this set as soon as I saw it in the 2010-2011 catalog.  You will see a couple more cards from this set over the next few days.

I love Cherry Cobbler... it really is my absolute all time favorite red.  I didn't have Cherry Cobbler ribbon for this card, so used some of the Riding Hood Red striped grosgrain that I got on the SU clearance rack.

 

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake (aka Kraft) - although the card looks like Real Red - it really is Cherry Cobbler :-).  I wanted to take this shot with the snow in the background outside!
• Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Versamark
• Accessories:  Deck the Halls Big Designer Buttons, Gold Cord, Champagne (gold) Glass Glitter
• Tools:  Big Shot, nestabilities (for the family image), texturz plate, Stamp-=a-ma-jig, Crystal Effects, Stammpin' Dimensionals

Card instructions:

1. Cut card stock to A2.  8 1/2 x 5 1/4.  Score and fold on the top
2. Run front of card base through Big Shot with your choice of texturz plate
3. Cut a piece of Crumb Cake card stock to take the focal family image.
4. Ink up stamp and wet (heat) emboss
5. Ink up sentiment and stamp onto Crumb Cake
6. Cut around the sentiment with a pair of paper snips
7. Wrap ribbon around the card base and secure.  (Tip:  to make sure the ribbon and button are secure, I threaded a piece of gold cord through a crafting needle and put a couple of stitches through the ribbon by pinching the ribbon.  I then threaded the needle through the button holes and secured with a knot.)
8. Before placing focal point and sentiment on to the card stock, outline the focasl image with crystal effects and sprinkle the glass glitter.  Allow to dry for a couple of minutes and then adhere the focal point and the sentiment to the card using Stampin' Dimensionals

Note:  I was really concerned about buying the Glass Glitter.  I've seen glass glitter used on several ornaments that I bought from retail stores.  The problem with that - it really is glass and I find the little shards very difficult to deal with.  Don't let the name of this glitter put you off.  It's nothing like the glass glitter I've seen on the expensive ornaments.  It still has fabulous reflective qualities, is really easy to use - but isn't sharp.

FEEL GOOD FRIDAY

As we have a Christmas card tonight - and it's that time of the year.  I thought you might appreciate this Feel Good Friday wonderful story from a neighboring state - Iowa.

On a personal note:  We are expecting 5-9 inches by tomorrow morning.  The snow has steadily been falling since around 1pm.  It certainly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.   Now, I really need to get the Christmas decorations out!

Some of you have asked about Charlie.  Charlie is the kitten that Lou found abandonded on the side of the road about 3 months ago.  As a reminder, here's a pic of Charlie a couple of days after we picked him up.  When he was still living in the garage.   Well, Prince Pipsqueak as he is affectionately known, still thinks he is Christmas, birthday's, anniversaries and every other good reason to celebrate, all rolled into one.  In other words - the cat has 'tude! 

He's a dinky little thing and is never likely to grow very much.  But being pint sized doesn't ever affect his lordship.  He is much more relaxed and is slowly starting to understand that love and play don't have to be a scratch and bite fest.  Now he gives little love nibbles.  He loves playing ball.  In fact, his favorite place to play ball is wherever my feet are.  He loves to hide his ball under my feet, inside my trouser leg, behind my legs, behind my back.  Anywhere, really!  He is pretty much my constant shadow.  Wherever I am, you can guarantee that Charlie isn't too far away! 

Continued prayers for Germaine, Arthur, Rose, Pri.  Germaine it was so good to hear from you.  Prayers, too for those of you who need a little lift.

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Wish for Peace - Night of Navy

Hi Everyone.

Happy Monday night.

I created tonight's card for the 2sketches4you challenge last week.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to put up the card in time to meet the challenge deadline.  None of you have ever had that problem, right?

This card is also an illustration of having things that you don't use very often and then thinking....mmmm... something isn't quite right here.  I wanted to make the snow glisten with embossing powder.  When I was applying the embossing powder I thought...mmmmm... don't remember it being this coarse before!    Well duh!  That's because I was using glitter and not the iridescent ice embossing powder.  I thought you might want to see both versions - just in case you were wondering what it would look like with glitter instead of embossing powder! :-)

Here's the one using glitter

Then  here's the one with the iridescent ice instead

You might also be able to see that I used the Snowflake stamp from the Confetti set on the first card - over the image - and on the background card stock, too.  I decided not to do that on the second version.

When I showed them to Lou - he actually preferred the coarse glitter to the embossed iridescent ice.

I don't know whether it is my eyes tonight, but both of these pics look a little out of focus on part of the image.  I may have been staring at my work PC for far too long today!

I really do love this image.  There is something peaceful and serene about it and it is really easy to color using your markers.  A little bling helps to bring the image alive and look more wintery.

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
• Stamps:  Wish for Peace, Christmas Greetings (sentiment), Confetti (first card snowflakes)
• Accessories:  Whisper White Organza Ribbon
• Tools:  Versamark, white embossing powder, markers, (copic for the church), glitter for the first card, scallop border punch, stampin dimensionals, sponges
• Inks:  Night sky:  Marina Mist, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy.  Trees: Always Artichoke.  Cburch Steeple:  Basic Grey.  Church window: Copics

On a personal note:  I don't know about you, but I wasn't in a rush to get back to work this morning. I was ready for another day at home! :-)  Some of you got some great bargains this weekend - Adelle sorry to  hear about your storage.  It took me forever to decide what I wanted for storage - and had 3 different goes with various units before I got what I really wanted.  Sometimes, you just have to get it home and use it to know whether it's right for you or not.

Marge, congratulations on becoming an SU demo.  It really is a great time to join up right now - even if all you do it for is the fabulous discount on the starter kit.  It's especially beneficial because of Sale a Bration coming up.  As usual, great goodies on SAB and then, there is the additional 20% discount you get on top of the great deals because you are an SU demo.  If there are any of you who are thinking about doing what Marge did, do what she did and reach out to your demo to give you more info.  If you don't have a demo and would like more detail, leave me a comment, or send me an email, I would be very happy to let you have details.

Cherie, I saw the news on the state championships - WTG Lourdes!

Prayers tonight for:  Germaine, Pri, Rose, Arthur, Beth, Adelle.  And for those of you who need a little lift.

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  I know you have many choices of sites to visit - and am always pleased when you choose mine.  I also appreciate all your comments.

Have a fabulous Tuesday

Hugs

Jaydee

Not Technique Tuesday

Hi Everyone,

I know that some of you (those of you who have been able to watch my videos) are probably accustomed to my Technique Tuesday's by now.  Unfortunately, as many of you are probably aware, I was out of the country for nearly 3 weeks and then this week have been really tied up with catching up at work and trying to cope with the mess of the electric fire and flooded basement since I got home.  Consequently, I have not been able to record any videos for you.

Therefore, I have another card to share with you this evening.  I don't know why, but I have really been on a clean and simple streak since I got back ... and here is another example.  I used the sketch across at cleanandsimple stamping.  It's a really cool sketch and decided to bring out some retired goodies for this card.  You can see the sketch on the right. 

Here's my take on the sketch:

Sorry about the pic... I don't lnow what is going on technologically right now.... it seems everything is breaking on me....

Card recipe - all ingredients SU unless otherwise noted:

• Icicle Rub-ons (retired)
• Sentiment:  Signature Greetings Christmas (non SU)
• Card stock:  Whisper White, Metallic Silver
• Ink:  Encore Silver
• Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones
• Tools:  Eyelet Border punch, stampin dimensionals

This weekend, I will see if I can take a better picture - one that brings out the richness of the card and doesn't wash out the top of it! 

On a personal note:  It was wonderful to walk into the bathroom this morning and have the floor somewhat warm for a change... this last week I have walked in there and my toes have curled up from frostbite :-)  The new furnace is incredibly energy efficient and very effective.  It's also much quieter than our old one.  So, day by day little strides are being made to move things along and get things back to normal.  It will take a while, but we are getting there.

Tonight Lou is finally on his way home and should be back tomorrow.  Tonight, I also get to spend a little quality girl time with Cherie and Brenda.  I am really looking forward to that!  I am also looking forward to having 4 days at home with no work :-)  Now, I know.. I was on vacation for 2 and a half weeks... but you know... I always look forward to a little more downtime!

OHHHHH.... and one final piece of news for you...... remember "the" pink bow card that I made for the Moxiefabworld Tuesday Trigger challenge?  Well, blow me down with a whisper if I didn't get to hear that it had been chosen as a Tuesday Trigger this week!  I was thrilled.  The trigger this week is gingerbread and I have JUST the card in mind for that one!

I hope you will forgive me for not providing you with a Technique Video.  I will be working on trying to fix that problem over the next few days, too, so that more of you can view the videos.

Continued prayers for all of you who need them - and an extended hug, too.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.

Hugs

Jaydee