Stampin! with Jaydee

Artistic Etchings for Freshly Made

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.  Me... its been a little more uneventful that the last three weeks.... and I am very thankful for that.  In fact, I actually managed to get two cards made today.  Not a whole lot of cards... but two more than I have made in the last three weeks!  It was good to get into my crafting space and just switch off for a little while.

I saw the sketch across at Freshly Made Sketches and decided I'd like to play along.  It's a really interesting sketch and one that lends itself to just about any style.  I decided to keep it clean and simple.  I really wanted to use the Artistic Etchings set, but the Eiffel Tower in the stamp set wasn't quite big enough... so... time to bring out My Digital Studio again!  I sized the tower as I wanted it and printed it onto Very Vanilla card stock.  I wasn't sure what to do with the back panels and realized that they would be perfect for two panels of the First Edition DSP.  That led me to a very simple Very Vanilla and Basic Black color scheme and I decided not to introduce another color - very unsual for me :-)

Here's the sketch from FMS..... and guess what?  Yep... I missed the deadline for submission :-)

I took Lesley at her word on the "any shape here" - and used a rectangle!

Here's my take on the sketch

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

• Card stock:  Basic Black, Very Vanilla
• Stamps:  Artistic Etchings (stamp set and MDS version).  Sentiment:  Heartfelt Basics (Papertrey Ink)
• Inks:  Basic Black
• DSP:  First Edition

I know the fabulous team across at Freshly Made would love you to pop along and check out the fabulous inspiration cards - or - play along :-)

For those of you who were asking questions about stamping on canvas - I'll have an update on that for you tomorrow, too!

On a personal note:

Well... Mr Merlin is sitting on top of the couch, in front of the fire, watching me as I type up this blog post.  He's still got a long way to go... but I am so pleased he is still here with us.   I wanted to share a picture of him sitting in his favorite place last night.  He loves sitting on top of the cushion on the couch downstairs.  He kinda makes into into a hammock and gets all warm and cozy.  He's not a bad looking cat for 17 is he :-)

Yesterday, Lou and I took a quick trip (well... it is a 2 hour drive there and a 2 hour drive back! - so hardly "quick"!) to the new house.  BOY!  What a difference four weeks makes!  I will share the upates with you tomorrow night.  We were blown away with the difference.  It really hit us that we have a new home!!!

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

Hugs

Jaydee

 

 

 

PP82 - Thank you

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday.

It's the turn of the fabulous Nance to host the Paper Players challenge this week and she has a wonderful color challenge for us all.  If you weren't feeling summery before now, these colors will certainly take you there - mentally at least :-)

After all that has been going on the past two weeks, I really NEEDED a thank you card.  So, I decided to take these colors and create one!

I knew that I wanted to do a repetition of thank you, but decided to do it in multiple languages instead.  I used the colors in the challenge to highlight the different words to add interest.  As Poppy Parade was a little stronger than I wanted, I decided to use it sparingly and use the Soft Suede as my base color.

Here's what I came up with

I knew that the best way to create the text was to bring out My Digital Studio.  I could have done it in Mac's iPages, but it was so easy to get the text in the colors of the challenge with My Digital Studio and the multiple fonts provided in the package.

Once I had finished the card, I realized I should have said MANY THANKS.... which was the whole reason for doing the reptition of thank you!  Oh well.... It was too late by then!

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

• Card stock:  Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Pool Party
• Text:  My Digital Studio
• Ribbon:  Pool Party
• Accessories:  Basic Pearls
• Inks:  Pool Party, Soft Suede, Poppy Parade

We hope you will pop along to the Paper Players and play along with the challenge this week.  We'd love to see what YOU do with this color combo.

On a personal note:

Today was the first time in 2 weeks that I even felt like going into my stamping space.......

Merlin seems to be over the hump - thank heavens.  It has been a long two weeks and a very long road for the old man.  His cold certainly has not made things any easier for him.  Every two-three hours I have been giving a little "snot-spa treatment" and after a couple of days of trying to hold him over a sink running with hot water and a towel over his head, I decided to go buy a vaporizer machine!  That made a huge difference. I could put him in his carrier, put him next to the vaporizer, put a towel of the front of the carrier and the vaporizer and leave him there for 5 minutes.  This helped him soak up the steam and really helped to clear his little nose.  Once he felt a little better, he would smell his food and eat.

He's still not eating a lot, and is still a little unsteady on his little arthritic legs, but he is now urinating on his own and his kidney's seem to be functioning with the approximately 30% that they still seem to have available.  What a nightmare this past two weeks has been.  He's a fighter, the old man.  He's also been incredibly loving and, even though he hates the daily sub-q treatment, his 2 hourly "spa" treatment and his multiple pills daily, he has taken it in his stride.  Hopefully, we can continue to get him eating more now that his cold is getting better.  Oh, and yeah, maybe I can sleep for a little longer than 2 hours at a time, too.  But... I don't begrudge him the time and effort it has taken over the past two weeks.  It was worth every minute.  THANK YOU to all of you who sent me emails and left messages wishing him well.  We hope that he continues to gain strength and that his tests on Wednesday prove that he is, in fact, really on the mend.

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

Pammie... especially big hugs for you my friend.

Jaydee

A little work of art

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

I have a card to share with you tonight that I absolutely love.  In the class with Jennifer McQuire, she used this stamp with the embossed resist card.  I used a very similar layout, except mine is a larger size and the colors are very different.  I also used a different sentiment and  backed the canvas.  I must admit I LOVE stamping on canvas.  It gives such a unique texture to the card.  I also love the colors.   If you haven't tried stamping on canvas - I really would recommend it!

Here's my take on Jennifer's card

Doesn't the canvas give a great look?  I love the texture and the distressed edges.  All I needed was some white embossing powder and a stamp that has a fairly decent surface area.  I tried it with a fussier stamp and it just doesn't work on canvas.  This particular stamp does work because it is so graphic.

All that was needed was a touch of Early Espresso ink for the sentiment, a More Mustard button and a little bit of twine.  I used my square punch to get the "v" on my banner just right.  So much easier than trying to eyeball it with a pair of scissors!

So, have I convinced you to give stamping on canvas a try?  If any of the cards I have shown you have inspired you and you don't have any canvas and would like to give it a try.  Leave me a message and I'll send a little bit of canvas along to the first 5 people so that you can try it without having to buy a whole pack of it.

Talking about sending things in the post.... Lizzie H..... my glitter paper came back to me today.  It seems I had the incorrect address on the envelope.  So, if you are reading this, please send me an email and I will resend it to you.  Considering the rounds of the post office, it was in pretty decent shape when it arrived back to me.  I was a little confused when I got an envelope with my own handwriting on it! :-)

On a personal note

Mr Merlin is making little baby steps to improving.  If the poor thing didn't have this dreadful cold, I think we would be even more optimistic about his recovery.  We gave him the appetite pill and that thing sure does work.  The problem is, his cold has filled up his little nose so badly that he can't smell anything.  And, for those of you who have cats, you know that cats will not eat something they can't smell.  This afternoon, between conference calls, I had to run out and buy a little vicks vapor machine.  I'd been trying to hold his hed under a towel over a running tap, and he really didn't like that too much.  So I rushed out and got this vapor machine.  I put him in his carrier in front of the vapor machine and put a towel over the top of everything for about 5 minutes or so to help his breathing.   Those who have children know all about this process.... yes, Rach, I know you do! :-)

So, all we need to do now is get him to start eating regularly and get rid of this cold.  Then .... we think .... he should be OK  He's getting back to his grumpy self and really grumped at Jenni - our absolutely amazing cat sitter and vet tech - when she came to give him sub-q fluids today.  So, we  think he's starting to feel better.

I have to tell you... our vet and his staff are INCREDIBLE.  The minute I took Merlin in, they rushed him into surgery.  They looked after him all through that day and our vet spent until 3am with him, looking after him, expressing his bladder, giving him fluids, etc.  He went home for a couple of hours sleep and was back again at 6am.  I don't know any other veterinary service where that would happen.   I am so grateful to them!!!

Lou is still away.  The less said about that the better so we haven't been to see the house about 3 weeks now.  We did get an update from our builder this week.  We should be ready to close on May 9.  Later than we had wanted... but hopefully they might be able to bring it forward another week.  So, everything is starting to feel real now.

As always, thank you so much for spending a little part of your day in my neck of the blogosphere.  Your visits, your comments and your support really do mean a great deal to me.  Again, thank you to all of you who left wishes for Merlin.

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

Jaydee

Pammie... especially big hugs for you, my friend

 

Thinking of you

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

As y'all know, I haven't had much chance to make cards these past couple of weeks.  I did, however, find a couple in my stash that I had not shared with you. 

Tonight's card was made using a version of the embossed resist technique.  The difference here is that the image is mostly embossed, with only a few areas where the embossing does not cover the entire card.  These small negative spaces make for wonderful areas to add just a touch of color and I had great fun choosing some colors to go over this fabulous image.

It also gave me a great excuse to pull out River Rock - not my go to green.  But... I decided I really do love it.  The Crumb Cake ribbon is just different enough to add another touch of color.  The edge of the button was colored using a copic marker.

Now... many of you may be wondering where I learned all these cool techniques.... Well, I have been waiting to show some more of them before revealing my source.  When I was in my crafting slump a couple of weeks ago, I really just had no mojo and started to play around with techniques as a way to get out of it.  After a couple of go rounds with ideas, I stumbled upon a class being offered by Jennifer McGuire. Now, I had no idea who Jennifer was, (I know.. gasp!) but thought.... hey... let me check this out.  Well, I can honestly say that her on-line course was fabulous.  If you haven't checked it out, and are looking for some inspiration with techniques, or looking for another view of some of the techniques you have already used, check out this link INSPIRATION SHOWCASE. 

It was absolutely well worth the money and I learned some new techniques, as well as the ones that I had already played around with.  I thoroughly enjoyed the class and loved the projects that Jennifer showcased.

Now, on to tonight's card:

You can see that I used the Wonderfully Worn background stamp on the River Rock base.  It's a great stamp for adding a little distressed type texture and works perfectly with a clean and simple card.  I heat embossed the image and than used a sponge dauber and some inks to color in the negative spaces.  The residual ink was removed with a slightly damp paper towel. All I needed was  a little bit of twine tied through the button.  

Now, Jennifer has a great tip on securing buttons to the card stock.  After she has adhered them using the normal glue dots, etc, she adds just a couple of touches of Crystal Effects - or similar product - under the button.  This really helps to secure it before putting it in the post.

On a personal note

Merlin continues to fight.  He's not eating which is the biggest problem.  The vet looks to be putting him on an appetite pill tonight to see if that will help.  Right now I am force feeding him and he hates it.  We both end up wearing more of the food than he ends up eating!  Lets hope that this pill will help him.

Right, back off to work!  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a lift tonight and thank you again to those of you who have left messages of support for Merlin!

Hugs

Jaydee

Pammie... extra big hugs to you, my friend.

Kindness Matters - Paper Players challenge #79

Hi Everyone.

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

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

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

Here's what I came up with

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

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

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Love - Happy Anniversary Pam and John

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

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

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

Here's looking at you kids :-)

On a personal note:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jaydee

Awash with Flowers - Paper Players Challenge #78

Hi Everyone.

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

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

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

Here's what I came up with.

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

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

All supplies Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

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

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

On a personal note

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

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

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

I hope you have a truly wonderful Sunday.

Hugs

Jaydee

Friendly Phrases meets Sweet Floral

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

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

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

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

Here's what I came up with

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

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

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

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

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

On a personal note

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

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

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Aviary for Freshly Made

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday.

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

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

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

Here's the sketch

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

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Ring in the new

Hi Everyone.  Happy New Year!  I hope that 2012 is a year filled with love, laughter, health and happiness for all of you!

I have a quick card for you tonight.  I combined the sketch challenge across at Friday Mashup with the inspiration challenge across at Moxie.

       

I looked at the trigger challenge with all those stripes and my mind - obviously - went to making a striped card.  Then I thought... nah!  let's see if I can come up with something different that incorporates the colors from the stripes - and the stripes - but in a less obvious route than I would normally take.  (I tend to be very literal about things!)  I saw the sketch across at Friday Mashup and that got me thinking about making a New Year card.  It also gave me the opportunity to use the Top Note die for the first time.  (Yes, I must be the last surviving hold out for this die as I only bought it a month ago!)

I decided to use the colors from the inspiration photo and use My Digital Studio to create a base for the  card that used various font sizes for 2012.  I pulled in the colors from the inspiration pick and covered enough of the card stock to be able to cut out the top note die and incorporate as many of the color combos as possible. 

I then used my striped embossing folder for the background and the sketch was the perfect way to incorporate stripes again with the sentiment.  (Pity, I didn't cut the green layer straight. grrrrrr)

Here's what I came up with

Of course, I had to add 3 silver balls to mimic the drop of the ball in Times Square!  The ribbon is actually the Concord Crush ribbon (the same as the background card stock), but for some reason it really photographs much more blue than the card stock.

I popped the Top Note cut out using Stampin' Dimensionals.  All the other layers are adhered using glue.  The sentiment was created using MDS as well.

I know it is impossible to see it, but I did add a little shimmer and shine over the entire card with some pearlescent powder.  The card really does look much better in real life than it does in the photo.  Anyway, I hope you can see the inspiration from the photograph.

On a personal note

Lou and I will be spending a quiet New Year at home enjoying a home cooked meal, a bottle of Champagne and just celebrating the good and bad things about 2011 and looking forward, with great expectations, to what 2012 will bring for us.

We both thank you for your support during this past year.  Your visits, your support and your comments really do mean a great deal to both of us.  We have enjoyed getting to know you a little more in 2011.  Have a truly wonderful 2012.

As always, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift today.

Jaydee

Love and Care - Thank you

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday night.

I hope you are all geared up to kick off the New Year tomorrow!

I have a quick card for you tonight.  As my regular blog readers may remember, I have been in a bit of a stamping/creating funk recently and couldn't really work out how to get out of my rut.  I decided that trying techniques and doing something different might be the way to get my mojo flowing again.  Well, I am not sure if my mojo is flowing yet, but I sure have had fun playing around with different techniques,  techniques that I don't normally use - or new ones!

I decided to do the emboss resist technique for tonight's card.  I love the Love and Care set and don't often use it.  I needed a thank you card for my 2nd line manager.  She sent a Christmas card with a Starbucks gift card.  Now... there's a woman who knows what I need to get me going in the morning.  The Christmas card was hand-written, too and I really appreciated that she had gone out and done this for all of us that I wanted to make a thank you card.

I used a piece of Whisper White card stock (you can use glossy paper if you want to make it easier for the resist piece), but I wanted a matt finish.  I embossed various flowers from the Love & Care set around the piece of card stock and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  All that was left to do was to use my inks to ink around the embossed images.

I knew that I needed a flower and played around with making a flower from my scallop circle punch, but then decided I would create a paper fold flower instead.  I cheated and used my new die, but this is really easy to do with your Simply Scored board.  I sponge daubed the edges of the flower with Pumpkin Pie ink and added some Dazzling Diamonds to the inside of the flower.  The last step was to color a Basic Pearl and add a sentiment and mount my image onto Pumpkin Pie card stock.

Here's a closeup of the flower:

And here's the card

So, what do you think?  It's so rare that I use Orange, but was desperate to get away from red and green and the colors of Christmas!  I like the matte of the  card stock against the shine of the embossed image much better than the glossy card stock.  It takes a little longer to blend the colors on plain card stock, but there is something therapeutic about it! :-)

On a personal note:

Lou and I had a very busy day yesterday.  We were up early and drove the two hours to see the progress on our new home.  They have framed the basement level and cleaned up the site.  It really gave us a fabulous view of how things will look and the position of the house.  The views from the basement are fabulous - right onto the wetlands.  It was amazing to stand outside where the walkout patio is going to be and realize that this will be our view in a couple more months!

We then went and did a little window shopping up in Minneapolis and drove the two hours back.  I download podcasts from iTunes for some of our favorite radio programs and a couple that we discovered from the BBC.  History is a major passion of mine and I discovered that there is a program called History Extra.  The podcasts are fabulous and incredibly varied in terms of content.  It really does help the time go by very quickly on this 4 hour round trip.

We then went off to see yet ANOTHER movie.  Yep.... we have officially seen more movies in this last week than we have in 3 years.  It has been phenomenal.  Last night we went off to see the Adventures of Tin Tin.  It was a rollicking, good fun film that really took me back to my childhood.

Today, I managed to spend some time playing around with more techniques and making a couple more cards.  It felt really, really good to get my hands inky again!

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits - and your comments - are always much appreciated.  I hope you Saturday is a wonderful day.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Supplies used - all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Stamps:  Love & Care (retired).  Sentiment - Papertrey
• Card stock:  Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla
• Inks:  Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark
• Accessories:  Dazzling Diamonds glitter; Basic Pearls
• Tools:  Big Shot;Flower Die (Tim Holtz); Stampin' Dimensionals

Featured Stamper - Splitcoast

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

So, as part of my "get your mojo kicked into gear" stint, I checked out the "featured stamper" challenge across at Splitcoast.  The featured stamper for that particular week is Chupa aka Iwona Palamountain.  Now, Chupa has a fabulous style and it is very different to mine.  That's why I thought it was a greate idea to case Chupa - take me outside of my box.  I checked out her gallery and came across this fabulous card.  Which, it turned out, was a case of a card that had appeared on her casestudy challenge site.  So, this card is a case of a case!!!!

I loved Chupa's use of color and the negative side of a nestability.  Now, for those of you who are SU demos, or have the seen the latest upcoming mini, then you could use the new framelits instead of the nestability.

For my case of Chupa's card I decided to stick with the color scheme and the nestie label she had chosen, but changed out the sentiment, the flowers, forgo the embossing folder on the top layer.  I also added two silver pearls for a little bling.  My butterfly is from the First Edition MDS brush stamp set (again... I know... I am addicted!!!!!)  I sized it to fit and colored it using Copic markers. 

My blue background was created using a sponge dauber and Pool Party and Not Quite Navy inks.  I wanted a darker top and a lighter bottom.  The front layer is raised on Stampin Dimensionals.

Here's my version of Chupa's card.  I really apologise for the photo!!

 

I was really pleased with it.  I never think to use the negative part of the nestabilities and really need to do that more often.  I also like the blue and black - it seems to be a blue and black week for me!

Well, Lou has just called to tell me that dinner is ready.  He was very kind and decided to cook tonight as I was at my crafting desk.  As it has been a while since I have been so excited about creating a card, he decided to leave me alone and let me play!  Isn't he the greatest!  So, I am off to sample some fabulous Lou food.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

First Edition for Casestudy

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.

I hope you all had a truly wonderful Christmas.

I did actually manage to make three cards yesterday and today.  I cannot tell you how difficult it was to actually make them.  I generally don't suffer from a total lack of mojo, but it does seem to have gone south for winter.  I looked at challenge sites, tried CASeing a few cards and tried creating cards.  Nothing.  So, the fact that I actually managed to get three started - and finished - well, I am hoping that the drought might soon be over.

I saw a great challenge across at casestudy.  What a gorgeous inspiration card in white, blue and black.  With such strong colors and a very graphic design it was hard not to get inspired by it! Amy sure is talented!

I really needed a thank you note for my ex-colleague who has sent me some gorgeous, yummy things through the post.  She sent me fabulous chocolate brownies and a mug that says "good morning, let the stress begin!" that has two birds beak-fighting!  It's hysterical and, considering that we have often been on calls together at 5.30 a.m. and 7.30 p.m., we have gone through some stressful times this year, that's for sure.  She's a fabulous lady and I so miss working with her.  Consequently, I wanted to create a thank you card and this color scheme really inspired me.

I chose to print the butterfly from the MDS "First Editions" stamp brush set.  I sized it larger than normal.  This gave me lots of place to color.  After I had colored it, I attached some silver cord underneath the head of the butterfly for the antenae.  I did initially "fussy cut" around the printed antenae, but decided that it really needed something else and the silver cord really helped lift it.

I really wish the photograph had picked up the shading and colors on the butterfly!  I really need to get a better set up for photographing my cards in our new house!

Anyway, here's what I came up with.

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

• Card stock:  Basic Black, Baja Breeze, Whisper White.  X-press it for the butterfly
• Stamps:  My Digital Studio "First Editions".  Sentiment: Papertrey
• DSP:  Patterns Pack
• Accessories:  Polka Dot embossing folder.  Scallop Trim Border Punch, silver cord
• Inks:  Sentiment - Basic Gray.  Butterfly colored with Copic markers

I know the design team across at Casestudy would love it if you popped along and checked out the inspiration and design team cards. 

On a personal note:

Lou and I had a really relaxing Christmas Day.  We elected to cook an early dinner and then choose a movie to watch on TV.  I can never resist Bridget Jones and we noticed that Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason was available on demand, so we paid our 2.99 and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Mind you, who could resist 90 minutes of the gorgeous Colin Firth!  It was a great end to a day that had been relaxing and enjoyable.

So far we have seen several movies since we stopped work on Thursday last week.  We have seen :

• Young Adult (I'd give it a miss!) 
• Hugo (definitely a great movie and a wonderful reflection on how far we have come with cinematography). 
• The Descendants.  (Good movie, but I wouldn't put it on the best movies of 2011 list as so many critics have done.) 
• Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  (If you have read the book, then the movie is a must see.)  (However, it certainly is not appropriate for 9 year old children and I was stunned when a family arrived with their daughter - around 9 - and stayed all the way through the movie.  This is a murder thriller with some very graphic scenes, including graphic sex scenes!  It really left Lou and I shaking our heads considering the great choice of kid-friendly movies available at the moment.)
• Tomorrow... well, we are off to see The Adventures of Tin Tin.  I grew up with Tin Tin and cannot wait to see it in 3D.  Well.... I didn't "grow up" with Tin Tin in the physical sense... but I think you know what I mean :-)

Many thanks to those of you who left Christmas wishes for Lou and I - or sent us cards.  They were really much appreciated.  So, a shout out to Adele, Beverly, Brenda, Cam, Doris, Germaine, Rach for your fabulous cards.  (I will be sharing photos of them with you all.)  Thanks also to Kelly, Cherie, Rach, Adele, Beverly and Ann for leaving wishes for us on my last blog post.  It was wonderful to hear from you all.

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

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.  Beth, my thoughts and prayers are still with you and your family.

Hugs

Jaydee

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

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

Paper Players #76 - Ann's Color Challenge and on the 11th day of Christmas, Jaydee gave to me

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

Across at the Paper Players this week, the fabulous Ann has a gorgeous color challenge for us.  In fact, I was so inspired by the challenge that I made 3 cards using the same colors today!

Isn't that a yummy color scheme.  The gold, vanilla and cherry.   Oh, yes, it's a rich and luscious color challenge.   I bet you all know what type of card I created?   Christmas?  I mean, seriously, these are gorgeous Christmas colors, right?

Well.... let's see.... :-)

Nope...... I really wanted to do something different - even though I was oh....oh...oh... so tempted to create a Christmas card.  I decided that these colors also worked beautifully for a love themed card.  I also wanted to keep the design really clean and simple.

All I needed was Stampin' Up!'s Valentine Defined, a jelly roll pen, some gorgeous SU metallic card stock and some gold embossing ink.

Stampin' Supplies:

• Card stock:  Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Metallic Gold Specialty Paper
• Stamps: Valentine Defined
• Inks:  Cherry Cobbler, Encore Gold
• Accessories:  Basic Pearls (can you see them?), Jelly Roll pen.  I stamped the heart flowers and then went over the flower and petals with a jelly roller to give it a little sparkle and glimmer

The Players will be taking a well earned break for a couple of weeks.  It has been another amazing year and we thank you all for playing along.  We hope that you will play along with us over the next two weeks.  Yep, you have two weeks to load up your creations using this wonderful color scheme.

Buzbee Watch

Now... some of you may be wondering what Buzbee has been up to?  Well, I have to let you in on a secret.  I found him with  his hand in the jary.  Stealing cookies?  Stealing candies?  Getting cat treats for Bailey?  Nope... He was helping me pull names out of the jar.  Why?  Well, I was running my 12th day of Christmas and Jaydee gave to me challenge last night.......   the winner?

Doris D - who suggested that Buzbee may be visiting the Christmas tree and getting up to mischief soon.  Doris, please email me your address so that I can send you your brand new jar of Mica flakes.

Now.... Buzbee has been a very busy boy today.  I caught him inside - and outside - the house.  He was up to all sorts of mischief.  In fact, he was a very buzeee boy!  Finally, as I sat at my crafting table, warbling away to the Christmas channel on the radio, I realized that he had been very, very, quiet for a while.  I decided to go looking for him - and what did I see?

Poor little thing... he had such a tiring day getting into all sorts of mischief that you suggested yesterday, that I found him, stretched out on a spare bed, fast asleep.  I woke him up and he was so pleased to see me... you can see that cos he's smiling!  Now, if only I could wake up that chirpy in the morning!  Buzbee asked me to thank you all for giving him permission to get up to no good :-)

So.... on the 11th day of Christmas, what is Jaydee going to give to you?   Mmmmm.... Up for grabs tonight -

SILVER GLIMMER PAPER

Yep.... If more than 10 people leave a message on this blog post.... then one lucky blog message leaver will be drawn from the jar by Buzbee.  What do you have to do to be in the running to earn yourself one fabulous pack of silver glimmer paper?

Leave me a message telling us all what your favorite Christmas/Holiday song is.  It can be a hymn, it can be classical, it can be anything that has meaning to you.  Oh,  yeah... and one other little thing... tell us why it has such meaning for you.  Then, if more than 10 people leave a message on this blog post, Buzbee will draw a name on Monday and I will post the winner's name here on Monday night.  So.. leave a message telling us your favorite holiday song - and why it is your favorite.

I'll start you off.  My favorite Christmas carol is Silent Night.  Why?  Well, my mother used to sing it to me.  She had a beautiful voice and I still think of her everytime I hear it.

My favorite Christmas song?  I'll be Home for Christmas.  In a time when so many of us live away from our families, including us, it is a song that always makes me think of home.

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

Have a wonderful Sunday.  Warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift.

Hugs

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

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

First Edition Butterfly

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.  I can honestly say that I am very happy it is almost the weekend!

Tonight's card is for a friend who is off work on sick leave.  I wanted to make something bright and cheerful for her and used a color combination I can, quite honestly say, I don't think I have ever used before.  Confetti, Poppy Parade and Tempting Turquoise.  Yep.  New for me!

Now, I wanted to use my favorite butterfly from Flores Suaves.  Y'all know that I absolutely LOVE that butterfly.  Well, I now have a new favorite!  I downloaded this one from SU using MDS.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  It prints out beautifully, and is a complete joy to color.  If you haven't checked it out - you can see it at this link - First Edition Digital.   Oh... and in case any of you were regretting now having gotten Cardinal Christmas before it was retired, it is also available as an MDS download!

Here's what I came up with

I know you can't really see it, but there really is shading and color gradation on that butterflyl!  Isn't it gorgeous, though!  I mean, seriously!  It's a stunning shape and, because you are using MDS, you can make it as big, or as small, as you want!  I used my Copics to color it because of the printer ink.  

On a personal note:

Very long few days this week.  But I did manage to get a little stamping time in - and I always enjoy doing that.  So, I have some cards to share with you this week !!!! :-)

It got really cold here two nights ago - 20 degrees.  We came downstairs and the water on our fountain had frozen.  Solid.  Mmm... there are some little birdies who are not happy about that at all!  So, we had to turn it off and will bring it in this weekend.  I will miss having it to watch over winter.  I'm trying to think what else we can do instead.  We can't use a water heating element on it, because I am more concerned about the ceramic getting damaged in winter than anything else.

As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits really do mean a lot to me.  It also means a lot to me that you are sometimes able to stop and leave a comment.

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

Hugs
Jaydee 

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

Medallion Butterfly

Hi Everyone.

Hope you are having a wonderful week.  I used one of my new fall to layouts to create a fall inspired card.  Of course, I had to use my Medallion background stamp and use my Butterfly Bigz Die to create the autumn butterfly.

Then, it truly wouldn't be a jaydee card without a little bling!  I found some old pearls that were the perfect color and I used those to finish off the card.  So, what do you think of the More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Very Vanilla color scheme?

The sentiment is perfect for those of my readers who have been hit by storms across the country these last few days.  I hope you are all OK and have power restored.

On a personal note:

Lou and I spent the last few days out of town doing things for the new house.  I really would never have thought it could take 4 hours to choose light fittings for a house.  But it did!  Never before had I concentrated so hard on what a particular light fitting would look like in a particular area.  I mean, I've done it for other people..... but it is so different when you are doing it for yourself!  You will not be surprised to hear that I managed to squeeze a little bit of bling into a couple of them.  Lou was very reluctant, but then changed his mind and agreed.  I'm not talking mega chandeliers here, but just a little bit of bling! :-)

We then went past the lot to see if anything had happened.  Oh boy!  Had things happened.  The council had been and plotted the land and covered it with black plastic to show the buildable area.  Most importantly, there was a big SOLD sign outside.  Lou couldn't wait to get out of the car to go hug it.  That's when it really felt REAL.  Here's a pick.

Think he looks happy?  We both got warm and fuzzy feelings. :-)

Now, I have to go look for new light fittings for outside the garage, cos we just heard that the ones we chose are not available in the color we wanted.  Did I really need another excuse to go look at goodies for the house :-)

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a lift tonight.  Cherie a very big hug for you, too!

Hugs

Jaydee

Paper Players Challenge #69 - Artistic Etchings

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday

Today, I feel like the white rabbit.  I am late!  I am late!  I am late, for a very important date! :-)

I don't think I have ever not posted my Paper Players challenge card on Saturday night.  However, I only got the chance to make this card late in the afternoon yesterday and.... for some reason.... I just couldn't get this sketch to work for me.  It's not the sketch... It was just me.  Because I haven't had the chance to play with my goodies for a while, it really takes me quite a while to get back into things.  I tried 4 different cards (completed none of them), before I finally gave up and walked away for a while.

I came back and decided that I really wanted to do something with Artistic Etchings - the image shape just seemed to fit - only to find that it wasn't quite the right size.  Then, I had a brainwave.  My Digital Studio.  Yep.  AGAIN!  I logged on to Stampin' Up! and paid $3.95 and downloaded Artistic Etchings.  That allowed me to scale and print the Eiffel Tower the size that I wanted it.  You can see that it's a gorgeous quality printed image.  You would never tell that this hadn't been stamped with StazOn.

For the rest of the card, I used the physical Artistic Etchings.  You can't see it very well, but on the two layers of vellum, I stamped the crown, scroll and key images all over the first layer of vellum, and the underlying newsprint.  The second layer of vellum was left clean, and all I did was stamp the sentiment in Early Espresso.

Here's what I came up with

Isn't that image great?  I was really pleased with the quality of it.  Considering, I have always avoided MDS for cards, I certainly have made up for that this week!  I also downloaded some sentiments today.  For some reason, sentiment stamps just never seem to be the right size.  They are either too big or too small, but with MDS, I can create them any size to fit my card - within reason!

Card recipe:

• Card stock: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso
• Stamps:  Artistic Etchings physical and digital (Eiffel Tower digital)
• Accessories:  Basic Rhinestone (top of the Eiffel Tower), Satin flowers (retired)
• Paper:  Newsprint, Vellum

So, what do you think?  Do any of you use My Digitial Studio (or other digital software) to create hybrid cards?  What do you do about sentiments when you just don't seem to have the right one, or it's not quite the right size?

We hope that you will pop along to the Paper Players this week and join us and play along with Nance's sketch.  You can check the other design team cards, too:

Julie

Ann

Cindy

Anne Marie

LeAnne

Lesley

Nance

Tara

On a personal note:

Lou and I spent some time shopping for appliances yesterday!  One thing we decided.... we were definitely going to get another induction stove.  When we replaced our failing stove a few months ago, we opted for Induction.  I have always cooked with Gas until we moved here and love how accurate and responsive it is.  We would have had to pay to put Gas in and didn't want to do that, so we elected to try induction instead.  It gives me the same responsiveness as Gas and I love the fact that the top never really gets hot.  It cooks so beautifully and I am absolutely IN LOVE.  So, we choose an induction top instead of the standard gas top that the builder installs. 

We had great fun looking at new fridges and freezers and dishwashers and stuff.  Isn't it ridiculous to get so excited about appliances?!!!!  It's been 7 years since we replaced the refrigerator that was in the house and technology has changed a lot since then.  Our old fridge is working great still, but the newer ones certainly have some fancy features!

As this is the first weekend of our vacation, we also took the time to do "date night" on Friday.  We went to see Ides of March, with the ever handsome George! - and then stopped for a quick bite to eat before coming home.  It's great knowing that we have two whole weeks together to relax, do things around the house and just have fun.  We were supposed to be doing a cruise around the med to Turkey and Israel, but gave that up when we bought the house.  We decided to save the money and put that into things we were going to need in the new house.  Also, it has been such a very, very, long two months at work, that being at home relaxing was just what I felt like.

I did get time in my stamping space today!  YAY!  I actually made 3 cards.  Yep.  3 whole cards.  I am off to go and try and make another one.  It was great to "get crafty" again.  I have missed it a great deal over the last month.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday and that you have a fabulous start to your week tomorrow.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Sunflower Butterflies

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

I have a quick card to share with you tonight.  Continuing the theme of the layout that I have used over the last two days, I decided to mix things up just a little.  Still the same layout, except this time it's vertical and I used a background stamp instead of DSP.

My new Sunflower stamp arrived at the end of last week.  It took me a long time to order this stamp, but I do love it.  I also ordered the Kindness Matters set.  I love the butterflies in this set, but had always been worried about them being too small.  For my layout, I decided to use my markers and color each of the butterflies individually and then "fussy" cut around them and arrange them in place of the circular element from the cards I showed you the past two nights.

For some reason, don't ask me why... I decided to go with a purple theme.  Now, those of you who visit my blog regularly will know that purple is just not a color I use often.  However, I DO love Elegant Eggplant.  In fact, I hadn't realized how much I loved EE until the new Wisteria color came out this year in the In Colors.

Here's what I came up with

Cutting out the butterflies sure was relaxing :-)

I have one more card for you using this same layout and will share it with you tomorrow.  Hopefully, I have shown you that there are ways to take your fall to layout and change it up to create different cards and yet keep the same layout.  This layout is really quick and easy.

Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up!

• Card stock:  Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder, Very Vanilla
• Stamps:  Sunflower Background Stamp; Kindness Matters
• Inks:  More Mustard, Elegant Eggplant, Pale Plum
• Tools:  Stamp-a-ma-jig

On a personal note:

Those of you who visit regularly will know that animals are something near and dear to my heart. I have always had a very soft spot for animals, the aged, children, the disabled - any sentinent being unable to fight for themselves.  I don't know whether it is nature or nurture.  I think probably a bit of both.  My mother was the same. 

I abide and abhor keeping wild animals.  Keeping wild animals of any shape or size should NOT BE ALLOWED.  I cannot tell you how the debacle that unfolded in Ohio upset me.  Caged animals upset me.  Caged wild animals - beautiful beasts of the wild - upset me even more.  That someone was allowed to keep over 50 beautiful animals caged up and then to have many of them shot outside their own cages... well.... that whole situation just drives me absolutely demented.  I don't blame the police for doing what they did.  Do I like it?  NO!  Do I wish something else could have been done instead.  ABSOLUTELY!  In the end... no-one should be allowed to keep wild animals like that.  I hope that this situation now brings to the fore the need to set down laws - and enforce them.  Maybe then over 50 animals would have not died in vain.

Talking about fauna.... Our little avifauna are having a ball :-)  Kelly, we had talked about leaving our fountain in the hope that the new owners (hopefully we can sell the house!!!!!!) will get enjoyment out of the fountain and the creatures that visit it.  It's amazing that we have managed to create a little area of respite for the animals in our quarter acre.  It's taken time to create that environment.  Providing food, lodging, water, trees, shrubs and hiding spaces took some time, money and patience... but we have been rewarded over and over again.  Our backyard is chemical free and a safe space.  It is also a healthy space in terms of the fact that nature controls that space as it was meant to.  Many people are horrified when raptors visit their garden.  Us.... we are thrilled.  That is the way of nature and when raptors visit, the balance is restored.

Linda... I promise I will take some pictures of our fountain and its visitors when we are on vacation over the next couple of weeks.  It's going to be interesting in our new house, because we think we will discover some new birds as the terrain is so very different.  We did see our first wildlife whilst walking the plot a couple of weeks ago.  Well, Lou did.  A two and a half foot garter snake, just wending his way along to the woods.  I love it and was sorry that I had not seen him.

Warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight.  Rach, I hope that you are feeling better today :-)

Hugs

Jaydee

Button Buddies Thanks

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

Tonight's card is the other version of the layout that I used in last night's card.  This one, though, is very different in color, DSP and elements.  However, the layout is exactly the same.  I needed a couple of thank you cards, and this Spice Cake Pool Party DSP makes me happy just looking at it :-)  I decided to use Button Buddies as my circular element.  I played around with the sentiment choice for quite a while.  It really needed something happy and cheerful.  Looking through my stamps I discovered the retired Curls and Swirls Verses and decided that would be ideal.

Here's what I came up with

Don't you think that font seems to fit with this paper?  I love the Very Vanilla with the Pool Party.  I think this is my favorite of the 2011/2012 In Colors.  I stamped the flower from Button Buddies using Craft Whisper White ink onto Pool Party card stock.  I then covered it with embossing powder (an off-white) and heat set it.  A little fussy cutting was required around the flower. 

To secure the button onto the flower, I used a needle and Baker's Twine.  I pushed the needle through the first button hole and sewed it to the flower and then back again, tying it off underneath.  I then popped the button up on the sentiment using Stampin' Dimensionals.  My Pool Party marker colored in the flower in the sentiment, and all that was required was a single little pearl in the middle of the flower.

So, what do you think?

Here's what I used:

• Stamps:  Button Buddies, Curls & Swirls Verses
• DSP:  Spice Cake
• Card stock:  Pool Party, Very Vanilla
• Accessories:  Brights Buttons, Basic Pearls
• Inks:  Indigo Island, Pool Party, Versamark
• Tools:  Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Stamp-a-ma-jig

On a personal note:

It was wonderful watching the juncos at the fountain today.  There were several of them along the button, amongst the rocks, drinking.  We then saw the hairy woodpecker fly in, land on the side of the fountain and take a drink.  Really... this fountain is one of the best things we have done for the wildlife.  They just love it.  One of the young deer was caught licking the side of it last night!  An indication of how little rain we have had, and how little standing water there is around.  We have decided that in the new house, we need to incorporate a fountain at the back and one out the front - right outside my office window!

This week we were choosing colors for the exterior and we even found a chandelier for the dining room.  Oh boy... this is so exciting.  It's going to be a long wait over winter whilst they finalize the plans, we choose all our fittings and finishes and then they start digging and building.  Neither Lou nor I have ever built a house before, we have always bought existing houses, that this is a whole new ball game for us.  Lots of work on our old one to get ready to sell it.  Not least of which is doing a spring clean and sorting through 13 years of living in this house! :-) 

As always, thank you for visiting my blog... I really do appreciate it.  Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

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

Paper Players Challenge # 67

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday.

Sorry that I have been MIA the last two days.  It has been a really, really long week and I ended up working all day today, too.  Actually I got more done today than normal, because no-one was bugging me via IM at work! :-)   I did manage to get into my stamping space later this afternoon, though.

I realized this morning that it was my turn to host the challenge across at the Paper Players this week.  How on earth did I forget that!!!  So, I had to quickly rush and make a card using the colors that I chose for this week's challenge.

My immediate reaction had been to use my French Foliage set, but I decided to push myself to create a fall colored card that was not fall related.  I looked at one of my favorite sets - Friends 24x7 and decided that this would be ideal.  I really do love this set and could never get rid of it.

Then, I needed a layout.... so, I went along to FreshlyMade and used the sketch for this week.

Once I had made my stamp choice, I then chose a little piece of the Wonderfully Worn DSP to provide the vertical element.  The last choice..... what element would go in the corner?   mmmm.... sentiment.... definitely... what?  no ribbon?  seriously?  me... no ribbon???  never!

Anyway, here's what I came up with

So, I sneaked the Cajun Craze in the sentiment and the branch under the bird.  I also used it to pepper the background (along with Bravo Burgundy and More Mustard).

Of course, I had to give the bird a little bit of life and color a little Basic Pearl with a sharpie and add it as his eye.

We hope that you will pop along to the Paper Players and check out the fabulous design team creations - and they are fabulous - and we also hope that you will play along with us this week!

Have a wonderful Saturday.  Hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight

Hugs

Jayde

Nature's Pace - Blooper Night and views from our fountain

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

Sometimes....well.... I just amaze myself.  Yep.  pretty amazing, I am.  For all the wrong reasons!  Sometimes, I spend ages (and I mean forever) on a card and then look at it... think its OK...then I photograph it and think .... HUH!?????  what on earth!  Well, tonight's card is one of those... HUH... what on earth cards!

I decided to use the great sketch that freshlymade had from last week - you can see the sketch here and combine it with the Paper Players music theme.  I really was tempted to use the new Nature's Pace set and use soft, subtle, neutral colors.  I also thought it was ANOTHER great excuse to pull out my Mocha Morning DSP.  (Do I really need another excuse?)

Well.  I did all of those things... and I even tied it together with a music them.  Yep.  it all came together in my head.  Then.  Well, something just happened between my brain and my hands!

I do believe... I stamped the music notes upside down on most of the lines!!!!! grrrrrrrrr. 

Anyway, here's my card.

I love this set.... I love the sentiment.... I love the Mocha Morning DSP and I love the Seam Binding Ribbon.  The more I use it, the more I love it.  I also love this sketch!  You know that I have been using tags a lot on cards recently, and I really do think they add a great dimension to the card.  Normally I tie the ribbon at the top of the tag, but thought that a simple brad would be best this time and then use the ribbon as the "element" called for on the sketch.

Now.... I have to share these pics with you.  I was sitting talking to Lou watching our fountain.  I so rarely get to spend even a few minutes looking at it these days, but Lou is away (again!) and I happened to be getting water in the kitchen when he called.  So, I decided to spend a few minutes sitting on the chaise talking to him.  I noticed that Charlie was sitting on the window seat fascinated by something.  

I saw what he was looking at and immediately said to Lou, "gotta go get my camera. ciao".  I rushed down stairs, got my camera - and this is what I captured

Sorry about the glare..... but it was the best I could do.  You can see Charlie's ears and the top of his head in the bottom left hand corner.  It was a female and 5 poults.  These are the last ones to be born.  We had two lots this year, and these are the younger ones.  It is wonderful to see them back in the garden.  They were actually drinking from the fountain as it cascades down the side.  It was really pretty cool.  I am astonished by the amazing things I have seen at this fountain since we installed it.  I can't wait to see what comes visiting us next year.

Beth.... I had to smile at your daughter being incensed by the theft of the books - as well as the car.  Your comment brought a smile to my face, because I would have been the same way!  I love my books!!!! I remember when my house was burgled a decade ago  looking at the jewelry and CDs that they had left behind and wondering what on earth was wrong with them.  Why had they taken some and not others.  I was almost offended that they hadn't found all my stuff worth stealing.  How dumb was that reaction?   I also remember that they had stolen the microwave and that there had been a chicken in there from the night before.  they took they chicken out of the microwave and took the microwave.  the cats discovered the chicken, tossed it on to the floor and devoured it.

Well, the thing that comes next is a Keystone Cops routine..... we realized the house had been burgled, called the police.  The police came into the house, guns waving, rushed into the house in case anyone was still in there, rushed into the kitchen and both of them... yes both of them... slipped on the greasy floor!!!!  I was right behind them and saw them both skating around trying to find a footing and not being able to.  They both collaposed in a heap, amongst all the chicken fat and bones, in the middle of the kitchen floor.   I mean, seriously.  How could I not laugh!  The whole situation wasn't in the least bit funny... but that little vignette surely was!

Anyway, Beth.  I hope your daughter manages to get it all sorted out with the insurance.

Germaine, how wonderful to hear from you after so long!  I hope that you are doing well!

Adelle, you asked about the coasters... I got mine on amazon - they were a little bit more expensive than some you can get, because they came in a wooden holder.

Beverly, I had to smile at your comment yesterday.... I am so pleased that I still manage to surprise you.

Rach.... I still HATE GREEN PIGS!!!! :-)

Linda.... you know... reading (back to Beth's daughter, too!!!!) is really good for the mind.  100miles without flapping their wings once.  That's AMAZING.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.  I do hope that it is full of warmth, love and laughter.  Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Butterfly Thank You

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.

I had to make a thank you card on Sunday and it needed to be a little bit formal.  Of course, that ensured that I pulled out the Mocha Morning DSP.  I just LOVE this DSP.  I think it is one of the most gorgeous DSP combos I have seen from any manufacturer.  It appeals to my design sensibility and I love the rich color scheme.  It makes the Early Espresso look so warm and inviting and rich and smooth and glorious.  OK.  I think you get the message... I love this DSP.

It was one of the rare occasions that I didn't use an SU stamp set, too.  I bought this stamp set for some of the sentiments - just perfect for my OWH cards. 

The butterflies seemed the perfect contrast to the formality of the color scheme, and added just a little whimsy.  Of course, I couldn't resist a little bling in the form of pearls either.

This layout is a variation on one I have used before.  It certainly seems to be a fall to layout for me.  To soften the darkness of the Early Espresso, I made the focal layer a little wider than normal.  It also allowed me to capture a little more of the trails of the butterfly.

Well, I don't know about you... but I think it's awfully pretty.  Not adjectives I generally use when describing something containing such a strong, masculine, color scheme.  The gold, the butterflies, the pearls and the "trails", all work to soften the overal masculine feel and make it more feminine.

Here's the inside:

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

• Card stock:  Very Vanilla, Early Espresso
• DSP:  Mocha Morning
• Inks:  Gold Encore, Early Espresso.
• Accessories:  Pearls (non SU)
• Stamp:  Happy Trails (non SU)

Before getting on to the personal note for tonight......

Cindy and Marcia, just wanted to let you both know that your OWH winning orders are in the system.  :-)

Beth... I saw your post on Rach's blog and wanted to let you know that I was thinking about your daughter. 

On a personal note:

Gorgeous fall days here right now.  The colors are about 50%.  It never ceases to amaze me the wondrous color scheme that Mother Nature bestows upon us at this time of year.  The skies have been clear and blue, perfect backdrop to the greens, golds, yellows, reds, rusts of the falling leaves.  It makes me happy just thinking about it.

It seems our little hummingbirds took advantage of the incredibly strong winds a couple of days ago and began their journey south.  Soon it will be time for the Juncos to return to our garden.  The Oriole's came a couple of times and left us with a parting gift.... the sight of their beautiful orange plumage flashing through the trees.  I love the fact that we have 4 full seasons here.  It creates a wonderful rhythm to the year. 

One of the things that struck me when we first moved to the US, was the fact that people decorated to support the changing of the seasons.  Other than Christmas decorations, not something that we had ever done before.  I love it.  I love to see how different houses favor different times of the year and tend to do more around one or two seasons than others.  Other neighbors take advantage of any occasions to hoist a different flag; a new wreath on the door; new annuals on the front porch..... I think it's really incredible that so many of you get into the spirit of the season.  It inspires me to do the same.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday.  Filled with joy, laughter and love and time spent doing the things that you enjoy.

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

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

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

Kick Up Your Heels and Have Fun!

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

I'd like to start tonight by thanking all of you who read my Lest We Forget post and left comments, or sent emails, providing your own remembrances on 9/11 and how it changed your life.  I really appreciated you sharing.  Pammie, who had not read my post, sent me an email reminding me that she had no idea where I was on that day, all she knew was that both Lou and I travelled extensively, well, weekly and all she could do was hope that we were not affected.  She also reminded me that we should celebrate friends, as so many friends were affected that day.  I thought it was a wonderful idea.  I celebrate not only my friend of almost 50 years... Pammie... but all of you my cyber-friends.

I have a quick card for you tonight... Lou and I are still trying to enjoy a little down time at home where the weather is in the 90s.  Yep.  the 90s!!!

I made this card for the splitcoast clean and simple challenge.  As well as being a CAS card, they asked that you include images of footwear.  Well, as a collector of shoes... this set was a perfect set for me and I couldn't wait to bling it up.  Of course, this card was one of those included in the OWH box!

So.... for all of you... I hope that on Tuesday you, too, are able to do something that allows you to kick up your heels and have a little fun!

As always, thank you for your visit and warm hugs and prayers for all of you who need a little lift tonight.  As well as a warm hug for those of you who sent one to me!

Hugs

Jaydee

Button Buddies with Domestic Goddess for Stamping 411

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.

Very quick post for you tonight... I am frantically searching the house for a document that I have lost and desparately need.  I am a very organized person and it is driving me crazy that I cannot find this document...... grrrrrr..... 

I really did want to share with you a card I made using the Stamping411 sketch this week.  It's a cool sketch and I couldn't wait to give it a whirl.  You can check out the fabulous design team samples and submission cards by clicking on the sketch below.  Sadly, I missed the cut off for submission.  But you can still pop along and see the fabulous cards.

 

This is another card I made for our OWH card drive.  And, for something completely different, it highlights yet another view of the Domestic Goddess DSP.  Well, if I haven't convinced you of how fabulous this paper is yet - and I haven't shown you a single ironing board or baking implement - you haven't been checking out the great cards I have managed to use this DSP on.

Also... I love these new designer brads - don't they look as though they are just nestling beautifully in the polka dot layer?

I really wanted to capture the colors on the flowers of the DSP and put them on my focal point, too.  I had to use one of the retired brads for the center of the flower.

So, what do you think?  Like the DSP yet? :-)

Before I go..... a big shout out to Soozie tonight.  I received a huge box of cards for our OWH drive last night.  They are all stamped and categorized and ready to be packed in a big box.  Just one more lot of cards to arrive - from Ann Marie - and then we should be finished and I can give you the final count.  I spent another 4 hours working on the cards last night and had a ball visiting with all the wonderful cards created by Soozie.  Soozie told me that she had never heard of OWH before, but was so inspired by what we have done for OWH this past year, that she really wanted to help out again with this drive.  I know many of you have submitted again - and others who have submitted for the first time.... I am so thankful to all of you.

My hugs and prayers to all who need a lift tonight.  For my blog readers in Texas - stay safe.  For my blog readers on the East Coast - stay dry.  In fact.. .it seems that just about everywhere is having problems - so stay safe everyone.

Hugs

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

Stripes for Embellish Magazine

Hi Everyone.  Happy Labor Day!  

I hope you are all having a great weekend.  Me?  Oh, yeah!  This is going to be a very quick post as I continue to work on getting the cards ready for our Operation Write Home drive.  For those of you who submitted cards for this drive, I wanted to let you know that my trusty assistant, Mr Bilbo Baggins, will be drawing two names for the grand prizes tomorrow night.  So, I hope you will come back tomorrow night to see who are the recipients of Stampin' Up! goodies - of their choice - courtesy of moi!  It's always so exciting for me!

Embellish Magazine had a fabulous challenge this week - it's a color challenge with a twist.  The colors had to be used with stripes.  Mmmm... All sorts of ideas ran through my head and I finally decided to do something a little different... stripes, check.  colors, check!  (This is another card that will be going in the box for the OWH drive.)  

Here's the inspiration photo, you can click on it to make it larger.  It's a really cool photo!

Here's my take on it:

 

 
I used the white Baker's Twine as the stripes.  I individually colored each strand with Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Crumb Cake markers.  Once the strands were dry, I adhered them to the focal layer using snail and tucked them under.  

I then colored a single piece of white Baker's Twine in small portions and used that to feed through the button, hopefully managing to get most of the colors in the twine in the button to match the stripes.

To add to the stripe them, I stamped the Medallion background stamp onto a Baja Breeze layer and ran it through my Big Shot with the stripes embossing folder.  A simple sentiment, perfect for a serviceman/woman to send home to a loved one, was all that it needed.  I then secured the focal layer to the medallion/striped layer using Stampin' Dimensionals.

So, what do you think?  Can you see the inspiration?  Don't forget to pop along to Embellish and check out the design team cards, and the submissions.

I'll be back tomorrow with deets on the OWH drive winners.  In the meantime, hugs and prayers for those of you who need a lift.

Jaydee

Easy Events - Gender Neutral

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday....oh...yes.... it's almost a long weekend!!!

Before I post a quick card for you tonight, I wanted to give a shout out to KELLI, LORI and BRENDA.  YOU GUYS ROCK.....  3 more boxes of cards arrived today.  I cannot tell you how exciting it is.  Soozie and Rach also let me know that they have cards on the way.  I can't wait to sit down this weekend and start to package up and sort the cards.  I will also be taking photos of the cards that have been sent in and creating slide shows.   I promise you will have lots to oooohhhh and aaaaah about - and lots of inspiration is in store.  Thank you to all of you who have participated in the card drive.  I really appreciate the rest of you letting me know that cards are on their way, or about to be posted.  It feels like Christmas - only better.  Because the boxes that are arriving are full of goodies to pass cheer on to so many people.  Thank you!

As I have not had a single minute to get into my stamping space this week..... nor did I get the chance to stamp this past weekend... well, it means that I have no cards to show you.  So, I have to show you the gender neutral version of the baby card that I made.  You saw the baby girl card here, the baby boy version here and tonight... here's a gender neutral version for you

I've got to tell you.... I am in love with Wild Wasabi and Pool Party!  You will notice that I kept the polka dot theme going..... this time I reversed the base layer to be debossed.  The square layer embossed and, of course, I made the little dots on the umbrella white with the uni ball pen!  If I haven't convinced you yet, that this is the cutest baby card image..... you can't say I haven't tried:-)

Today, Stampin' Up! revealed the new Holiday Mini and it is full of wonderful goodies.  Really fabulous stuff.  You can click on the mini below and it will take you to the mini catalog on-line 

Let me point out a few of my favorite things from the mini for you:

Quilted Satin ribbon in either Cherry Cobbler or Early Espresso - both on page 30

 

• Pick your Poison DSP on page 10
• Mica Flakes on Page 21
• The Sounding Joy stamp set on page 23
• Frostwood Lodge DSP on page 28
• Christmas Lodge stamp set on page 29 (mine is on the way!!!!)
• Mini jingle bells on page 30
• Snow Burst embossing folder on page 33
• Stitched Stockings Stamp Set with matching buider punch on page 34
• 25 and Counting stamp set with the matching Peekaboo Frames Die - on pages 36 and 37

I promise you, there is something for everyone.  Not forgetting, of course, the fabulous Simply Scored!    

Don't forget....... please let me know if you have cards coming for the card drive, so that I can make allowances for that as I start to get them ready this weekend.  I will be drawing the names of the grand prize winners this weekend, too and packaging up my little thank you gifts for those who submitted cards but were not the lucky winners.  I do appreciate all of you.

Have a wonderful Friday everyone.  For those of you who on the East Coast who have let me know you are OK.  Thank you for letting me know.

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

Jaydee

Easy Events - Little Boy Blue

Hi Everyone.

Very quick post for you tonight.  Once again, I hope all my blog readers on the East Coast are safe and dry.  I continue to speak to colleagues who live out in upstate New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and hear their stories.  I hope all of my blog readers are OK.

I promised to share the other colors that I made with the Easy Events set for the Paper Players sketch challenge #61.  You can see my original card here.  That was the really girl version.  I also made a masculine version.  I know that Lou hates it when I use ribbon on "boy" cards, but seriously, for babies... the card is appreciated much more by the Momma than by baby!  So, I think a little bit of ribbon is way ok!!!!

Once again, I love the repetition of dots and stripes!  I know... I have some kind of disorder!

Here's what I used on the card:

• Card stock:  Pacific Point, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight
• Stamps: Easy Events
• DSP:  Patterns Back - Brights
• Accessories:  Pacific Point ribbon (retired).  Brights Button.  White Baker's Twine
• Tools:  Big Shot, Polka Dot embossing folder.  Stampin' Dimensionals. 

Now that you have seen the second of these cards... you know you are tempted to buy this fabulous set :-)  Funny thing... when I saw this set in the catalog I said... no way, Jose!  When I heard it was one of the sets from convention, I said. Oh.  No!  BUT.... I love it!  So... it shows that it's worthwhile going to a friend's house, or your demonstrator's house and trying something out... Or in my case, flying to Utah!

On a personal note

Thank you to all of you who left a message for me on yesterday's post.  I really appreciated your wonderful, warm comments.  It was the first - and only time I have actually submitted a card for publication.  I'm tempted to try again, but, it's really pretty stressful.  I know there are some people who really are amazing at knowing exactly what to design to be of interest to a magazine.  You learn what pops on a page and trying to think of what trends will be month's from now.  me... I get nervous enough just putting cards on my blog.  You would be surprised how many don't actually make it to my blog - never mind for submission!  Anyway, it was great and i really did like the card, and am so grateful to all of you.

Shout out to my hubby tonight who is, as always, on the road again!

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

Jaydee

French Foliage - My first publication

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

Before I get to my post tonight.  I hope that all of my East Coast blog readers are safe and dry.  So many people I spoke to on the East Coast today had been affected in one way or another.  Upstate New York seemed to have been hit pretty bad along the Hudson Valley.  One just doesn't think of Hurricane's that far north.  So, I hope you are all well and safe.  You were all in my thoughts and prayers this weekend.

Well, I finally did it.  I entered a card into Papercrafts for possible submission at the end of last year and was so pleased when I was advised that the card would be published!  I was so excited, but it has been a long time since I made the card and I haven't been able to show it to you.  Yep, I made this card sometime back in October last year!!! 

The card was created for the brand new Papercrafts special edition

This edition is chocablock full of ideas on how to use different layouts.  Of all the submissions, only 4 of each layout were chosen.  I loved this particular layout and had an idea on what to use immediately that I saw it.

It was so long ago, that I had only just gotten my French Foliage set and thought that the leaves from the set would work beautifully with the layout.  I also decided that I wanted to create a light and airy feel to the leaves, so stamped them onto vellum.  Once the ink was dry, I cut around the leaves with my paper snips and attached them to the square bases using plenty of mini glue dots.

I have to say, that the card doesn't look as vibrant on the page in the mag.  You really night the brighter lights that come with close-up photography to see that the leaves are stamped onto vellum.  You will notice that yes, I did... I did cut out the stems of the flowers, too!!!  The only thing that is not Stampin' Up! on the card is the sentiment.  The reason for that?  We didn't have a "thank you" sentiment that was just the right scale and my printer at the time wouldn't print on card stock.  So, I had no alternative but to use a different make of sentiment.

So... I loved this card.... what do you think?

You really should pop along to your local newsagent or bookstore and get your own copy of this special edition.  It really is so inspiring to see the various ways that the layouts were used.  So, for those of us (like me), who are often layout challenged - 288 cards based on the layouts, is a great way to find some inspiration.

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

• Card stock:  Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Very Vanilla.  Vellum
• Inks:  More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy (center of the leaves).  Both are Stampin' Write markers.  Cajun Craze was used for the sentiment.  Versamark was used for the background stamping
• Stamps:  French Foliage.  Sentiment: Papertrey Ink.  Background: Confetti
• Tools:  Stamp-a-ma-jig.  Paper Snips.  Mini glue dots.  Snail.

As always, thanks for visiting my blog.  You know it means a great deal to me.

Hugs

Jaydee

It's a Celebration for Moxie

Hi Everyone.  Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far.

Tonight's card was created from an inspiration photograph across at Moxie.  Cath always manages to find some interesting photographs - often very provocative.  This one was no exception.  The colors are strong.  The design statements very bold.  Always, there is one very unexpected feature.  Sometimes with images such as this, it is hard to find the features you want to focus on.

Here's the photo

My inspiration? This time... it was easy.  The pink background, the black and white carpet, the chartreuse stripe that literally (well visually) goes all the way across the middle of the room.  Finally.  bling.  Whatever happened, it was certain that this card had to have bling!

So, here's what I came up with

 

So, can you see the inspiration?  I even used up some of my exceptionally precious satin Kiwi Kiss and Vanilla ribbon for this card.  It really need the pop of green horizontally to pick up one of the key elements in the inspiration photo.  I decided to take some rhinestones and run them horizontally across the ribbon, and then wrap around the knot.  I thought that wrapping it around the knot helped pick up the chandelier from the inspiration picture.

Here's what is on the card - all components Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Blushing Bride, Basic Black
• Ink: Basic Black
• DSP: Timeless Portrait
• Ribbon: Kiwi Kiss and Very Vanilla satin ribbon (retired)
• Accessories: Basic Rhinestones
• Sentiment: Papertrey Ink

I also thought that, as this is supposed to be a girly card, a double bow on the ribbon was in order!

Don't forget to pop along to moxie and check out the fabulous inspiration and submission cards.  It's always interesting to see how others have interpreted these inspiration photos.

On a personal note:

Windy and warm here today.  The heat index certainly shot up and there were garbage cans flying everywhere up and down the road today.  It's always interesting when one lives on a hill, and its a windy day, and it's garbage day!  Needless to say, I had to go out during the middle of a meeting and secure the garbage can and pick up all sorts of flotsam and jetsam that had landed on the lawn:-)

Thanks to all of you who left such wonderful comments on our deck photos!  We really appreciated it.

Tonight, a huge shout out to KELLY.   Kelly let me know today that she is shipping off cards for our Operation Write Home card drive.  Kelly, thank you so much.  You know that it makes me very happy that you are contributing your time and creative effort to our card drive... but, even more importantly, you now how much it means to the troops and their family members that you have done it! 

Also, I'd like to answer Linda's question tonight... Linda wanted to know what "fussy cutting" is.  Fussy cutting, for me, is when I take a pair of paper snips and cut around every single piece of the image - including all the nooks and crannies and right up to the edge of the image, too.  It takes much longer to "fussy cut" an image, because you really are trying to get the entire image as free of "white space" as you possibly can.   Linda, I hope that helps explain it.

As always, thank you for stopping by my blog.  Your visits, and your comments, are greatly appreciated.  Have a wonderful Thursday, filled with love and laugther.  Hugs and prayers for those in need of a little lift.

Jaydee

Love & Care for Embellish

Hi Everyone.

Happy Tuesday.  I hope you are all having a great week so far.

The challenge across at Embellish Magazine was to create a card using a specific color scheme - and an embossed flower!   Here was the color scheme:

 
I really wanted to keep my image clean and simple.  However, I couldn't decide whether it needed an extra pearl or not... so... I photographed it without - and with - the pearl.  Which do you prefer?

 

The embossed element is, of course, the flower from Love & Care.  I finally got to use some of the fabulous Melon Mambo embossing powder that Brenda shared with me.  Thank you, Brenda!  I stamped the image with Versamark and then embossed it and fussy cut around it and mounted it to the base using Stampin' Dimensionals.  

Here's a closeup for you.  As you can see I placed the pearls onto a circle that I punched out of Very Vanilla card stock.

I stamped the background from Flores Suaves in Crumb Cake onto a Very Vanilla Background.  The sentiment is from Happiest Birthday Wishes, and was stamped in Wild Wasabi.  So, I managed to incorporate all the colors from the challenge, as well as the embossed flower, and still kept it clean and simple. 

Card deets:

• Card stock:  Very Vanilla
• Stamps:  Love & Care, Happiest Birthday Wishes
• Inks:  Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Versamark
• Accessories:  Pearls
• Tools:  Melon Mambo embossing powder; Stampin Dimensionals.

On a personal note:

I promised to share the rest of the shots that I took of our deck this weekend.  This is a continuation of last night's post.  Here's a shot from the other side of the deck, our dining section.

 

Then looking back over the dining section, to the relaxing section.

Then, back to where we started.... looking from the garden back to the deck

and I couldn't resist a photo of my favorite little bistro table

Now, all I need to do is show you the before picture.  I need to go trawl through some old photographs and find one to show you.  Then you will realize just how amazingly different the after is.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, filled with love, laughter and time spent doing the things you love.

Hugs and prayers for those who need a lift today.

Hugs

Jaydee