Stampin! with Jaydee

Spring Butterflies

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday night.  Another clean and simple card for you tonight.  I took the idea of using a shape on a shape from the clean and simple challenge at splitcoast again tonight.....  I've been wanting to do a Beautiful Wings embosslit CAS card for a while.... so this was perfect.  I'm loving these little butterflies.  BTW. I have hotlinked the Beautiful Wings for you, so that you can go straight to the SU website and take a look at it there!

I used Whisper White card stock for the card base and Shades of Spring DSP for the butterflies.  I love this DSP... but ....mmm... I think I love the Lovely Bundles even more :-)

 

I know you can't see that well, but I did score two lines above the sentiment to create a break between the butterflies and the sentiment.

To meet the "shape on a shape" requirement for the challenge, I cut a circle (also in the same DSP) under the larger butterfly and mounted the big purple butterfly with mini glue dots.

For the other butterflies, I stuck down one side of the wing with snail, and left the other unglued, to give the effect of flight.

I love the fact that the Butterfly Wings embosslit gives texture to the butterflies to add interest, especially on a clean and simple card.  I ran the embosslit - with two layers of paper - through my Big Shot.

The sentiment "you raise kindness to an art" is from Vintage Vogue (118598 clear and 117690 wood) and I stamped that in Orchid Opulence.

I used the 3/4" circle punch for the circle underneath the larger butterfly.

So... I hope you like your second night of clean and simple - and quick to create cards. 

Tonight... I'm off to play with my new "Awash with Flowers" set, which is the preview from the upcoming IB&C.  There's also a special for April on this set set.  I'm hoping to get some time in my studio tonight to create a couple of samples for you... otherwise I will do it this weekend.  If you haven't seen this set, have a word with your demonstrator about it.  I think it's fabulously pretty.. now ..... the test is can I do something with it :-)

Spring is almost taking a hold... and I say almost....  as Cherie noted in her comment today..... it was dull and gloomy.  However, Lou did notice a pair of nutchatches making mating moves in our front garden.... it's still a little cold.. but hey.. they must have felt that warmer weather was around the corner!

Have a fabulous evening my stamping friends.  As always, thank you for your visit and your support.

Hugs

Jaydee

St Patty's and Charity Final Card Count

Hi everyone.

Hope you all forgive me for not posting last night.  The girls and I were hard at work packaging and counting all the cards for charity.  Of course, it took longer than it should have done because we kept stopping every few seconds and saying... wow... did you see this one.  Hey, look how great this is!  Cool... why didn't I think of that!  So it ws a voyeurs delight getting to touch and admire all the cards that were sent one last time before they were sent off to charity.

Before we get to the count and the pics of the boxes, etc.  A card for you tonight - using Teeny Tiny Wishes and the Full Heart punch.

A few years ago I traced my genealogy and discovered that my grandparents on my father's side were Irish. Don't ask how I never knew that!  Anyway, I have been celebrating St Patty's day in earnest since then... especially as it also happens to be the day that Lou tried to propose to me in New York...but that's another story!  consequently, I decided to create a simple and easy St Patty's Day card for you based on the stamping411 sketch again this week.  It shows you how versatile the sketch is.

 

I punched the hearts out of Glorious Green card stock and covered them with Crystal Effects.  I left them to dry - they become really pliable.... stamped the sentiment, wrapped a piece of gold elastic cord twice around a piece of Naturals White card stock, adhered the hearts and voila.  My first St Patty's card.  Warning... the flecks you see don't mean that your screen needs cleaning!!!!  They are the flecks in the Naturals range of papers :-)

I wanted to show you some of the cards that we received for the drive.  These gorgeous cards are a selection from the ones sent in by Yvonne.  Please show Yvonne a little love and leave her a comment.

Yvonne used the Vintage Vogue and Well Scripted stamps for this lovely, soft feminine birthday card.  Creating a circle card with these elements works really well.

I love the tags on this :-)  really cute and the color combination works really well.  The scalloped edge helps to create visual interest and add to the feminine feel.

 

The use of the corner border punch, embossing, flowers and ribbon create a very special card.

Yvonne used great coloring to highlight the hat in the fabulous Garden from the Heart set.  You can really feel and see the heart that went into making this fabulous card.

I'll be showcasing a couple more of Yvonne's fabulous cards, along with others taken randomly from the boxes before we posted them.  Again... my thanks to everyone who participated.

NOW THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...... HOW MANY CARDS DID WE GET.... well.... thanks to the additions by Brenda - thank you Brenda... who donated almost 300 cards, I might tell you! the grand total of cards collected for the drive was

800 cards for fromourhearts and hugsandhope

It was a very emotional moment when we had finally finished and counted the cards.  Here's a pic of my great ... and I mean that in the truest sense of the word... friends Brenda and Cherie as we were on the final leg of getting the cards ready.  When this pic was taken we were literally on the final 20 or so cards and were starting to clean up.  Oh yeah..... and we managed to do all of this without spilling a drop of wine!

 

Here are the cards all ready to go.  There are 50 cards per ziplock bag... and there is 1 bag that made it to the boxes after this pic was taken.

My thanks to Bethany, Brenda and Cherie.  Your friendship means so much to me.

My thanks to Adelle, Cam, Kelli, Tonya, Yvonne, Lynn, Beth and Hazel....your support means so much to me.

My thanks to my darling hubby who cooked for us, kept us supplied with water and wine - and supports my hobby - and me.

My thanks to all of you for your support.

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Hugs

Jaydee

Peaceful Friends

Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday night. 

Tonight's card features the set Peace Within.

I'd bypassed this when the catty first came out.  However, when Lou bought me the watercolor crayons for Valentine's, I thought a stamp set that worked with watercolors was required!  Any excuse to buy a stamp set, right!!! :-)

The sketch challenge on 411 this week called for few layers and lots of space to create a focal image.  It's rare on a sketch challenge that we get that opportunity.  So, I decided Peace Within was what was required tonight.  I must admit.... watercoloring is like meditation!  You have to concentrate on what you are doing, so it takes your mind of everything else.

Pop along to the stamping411 page and see the amazing variety of cards made by the design team and the posters.  It's always amazing to me how people can take the same sketch and make it look so different.  I promise you will find something inspirational.

I used Chocolate Chip as the card base and white card stock for the main image.  I stamped the image in StazOn and then used a variety of colors to create the grass, sky, color the cat (had to be ginger, right!!! For you Trish.. I know he's not hairy.. but I thought of Magic and Bailey!).  I used a variety of browns for the chair and tried to keep the colors in the earthy tones to tie them altogether.

The orchid was colored in Old Olive, Barely Banana and Crushed Curry.

To make the stripes on the cat a little more pronounced, I went over the shaded areas with Basic Grey crayon.

I colored the grassy areas and the sky around the image, but left a white space between the image and the ribbon and tiny tags.  Watercoloring really isn't my forte, but I'm hoping to get better and yes, Mom, I know I wasn't always between the lines! :-)

I stamped the sentiment "peace within makes beauty without" in StazOn.  The two Tiny Tags - 4 you and friends, were stamped in Chocolate chip on Naturals White.  A piece of the Chocolate Chip satin ribbon from the new mini finished off the card.

It really is a gorgeous image - and does invoke peace..

have a peaceful, restful and fabulous Sunday.  I hope you get to spend time doing things you love with those you love the most.  As for me.... I will be meeting with my good friends Brenda, Bethany and Cherie tomorrow.  We are celebrating Bethany's birthday and will be packaging up the cards for hugsandhope and fromourhearts.

Hugs

Jaydee

Clean and Simple - Happy Birthday and charity card drive showcase #5

Hi everyone

Happy Friday.

Very quick post tonight - I want to get as many of these cards in this post as I can before my feed burns in 14 minutes!!!!  ohhhhhh the pressure.

Here's my card for the cleanandsimple fall to layout # 79.  As well as the splitcoaststamping thinking of spring CAS challenge.  You know I can't resist a CAS challenge.

I used one of the first SU stamps I bought just before becoming a demo... A flower for all seasons (111592).  I just love this set.  If you want to get this set FREE with Sale-A-Bration, contact your favorite SU demonstrator to get more details on how you can be stamping with this gorgeous set for NOTHING!

I stamped the image on whisper white card stock and colored the image using my markers.  I decided to give the little bird a red face :-)  Doesn't the basket remind you of a Longaberger basket..... hi Beverly!!! my fabulously creative supplier for Longaberger! :-)

I colored the image with my markers and my blender pen.  The flowers are Orchid Opulence, Pretty in Pink, Yoyo Yellow and Summer Sun.  The basket is Crushed Curry and Soft Suede.  The bird is summer sun and Ruby red.  The images in this set are just so fun.

I matted the image with Pretty in Pink, Summer Sun and Orchid Opulence.  The Happy Birthday piece is Orchid Opulence printed onto Pretty in Pink.  3 half pearls finish off that layer.

The card stock is Confetti White.  I don't often use this gorgeous paper... but I love the fact that the flecks echo the colors in the stamp!  It really is gorgeous paper.

I wanted to showcase some of the other cards that we received as part of the charity card drive.

As clean and simple is the theme for tonight... here are cards from Kelli and her friend Tonya.  Kelli and Tonya used bright, cheerful and clean and simple for their cards for hugsandhope.org.

This card uses the "too terrific tags" and Wonderful Words II retired sets.  I love both of these sets and set against the Pumpkin Pie card stock... it's perfect.  

Here's another Pumpkin Pie card using Wonderful Words II - mixed with the Real Red Polka dot ribbon. I love this combination.

This card - again using the Pumpkin Pie - uses the Hello Again set... ANOTHER set you can get FREE as part of Sale A Bration.

 

This next card continues the great clean and simple theme but uses Old Olive and Sahara Sand.  Another combination I have used together, but love!

These cards show you how creative you can be with a limited amount of supplies - either paper or stamps!  The flower image is from fabulous hostess level 1 set - Of the Earth.

I love this color scheme of Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant and Sahara Sand.  Again, the reuse of the image from the Of the Earth set, the oval scallop punch and the scallop border punch. 

And who wouldn't love this fabulous butterfly card!

My thanks to Kelli and Tonya.  You guys ROCK!  I really appreciate your participating, and know the recipients will love these cards.

Please could you show your love for Kelli and Tonya's efforts by leaving a comment - you know they will really appreciate it.  As will I!

Have a fabulous weekend, my creative friends.

Hugs

Jaydee

Happy Mother's Day

Hi Everyone

Very quick post tonight.

My thanks to the Palpspaperarts team for choosing my Dream Gardens card to be a pick of the week!  Also, to Trish for choosing my Vintage Vogue card as a CAS fav on splitcoast!  It's been a great week.  I'm always thrilled  - and honored - when one of my cards is highlighted.

I combined three challenges this week! One challenge was to make a transparent card!  I almost never make transparent cards!!!  On top of that They are really difficult to photograph!   Also... the PPA challenge this week calls for a CAS - KISS.. keep it simple, sweetie! card.  This certainly qualifies as Clean and Simple, which makes it perfect for the splitcoaststampers CAS - Wishing for Spring challenge!

I wanted to make a circular card - but have it fit in a normal A2 size transparent card base.  I used the Bloomin' Beautiful stamp set for this Mother's Day card.

I am really enjoying this Bloomin' Beautiful set.  The card was really easy, just a little putzy to put together.

• I used Certainly Celery and my Big Shot Scallop Circle Bigz Die.  I folded my paper over and placed the folded side just underneath the scallops at the top.  I wanted the folded edge to remain folded and not to have the scallops.  that way it fit into my transparent card base.

• ...stamped the flower image using StazOn black ink.  I then took my paper snips and cut the flower pot from the flowers.  I used white embossing powder for the pot and heat set it.  I used my classic pads and blender pen to color in the flowers.  I then adhered small half pearls to the flowers.

• ...stamped the "Happy Mother's Day" sentiment onto the Certainly Celery circle front. 

• ...adhered the flower pot just above the sentiment - also on the Certainly Celery.

• .. put snail above the flower pot - on the Certainly Celery, where I knew it would be covered by the flowers. 

• ....then slid the Certainly Celery circle into the transparent card base and stuck it to the card base.  At the back, I used Vellum glue sheet to secure the back of the circle to the back of the transparent card base

• ...then snailed the flowers... doesn't that sound strange!!! and adhered them, on the outside of the transparent card base, to fit where they would normally have been on top of the flower pot.

• ...stamped the bee onto So Saffron card stock and cut around him with my paper snips and adhered him, with a little dimensional, onto the outside of the card base

So... the flowers and the bee are on the outside of the card.... everything else is on the inside!  And no glue is visible through the transparent card base.

I'm sorry the photograph isn't so good... it's really tough to photograph transparent cards, you get the reflections of the tent and everything else!

Today is a bright and sunny day.  Temperatures almost 30!  Spring might just be on it's way!!

Not sure what you all did for Valentine's Day... Lou and I went to dinner at our local restaurant.  Now... my hubby is a truly wonderful man... but romance isn't really his strong suit and he's really not big on "days"... I don't know what it is, but it must be something to do with the fact that his family really weren't big on celebrating Birthdays, Valentine's Day, etc and consequently, they tend to be pretty much just another day... except for a gift and a card.  I'd complained to Lou about this at Christmas... you'd think after 15 years I would be used to it? :-)  Anyway.... we got to the restaurant on Sunday and Lou had booked a private dinner in the wine cellar.  He had gone there earlier in the day and set up the room with flowers and balloons and laid red rose petals from the door all the way into the room and all beautifully arranged on the white table cloth!  Champagne chilling on ice and a special dinner.  He'd spent the week scheming with the florist and the restaurant owner!

Needless to say I was floored!  It was so pretty AND ROMANTIC! and it made me feel really special.  It was fabulous!  So, everyone say.... AHHHHHHH! It really was fabulous :-)

I'll be photographing the last of the card drive contribution cards over the next couple of days and they will appear on my blog over the next few days.  On Sunday, friends of mine are coming over and we are going to put them in envelopes, get them ready and package them up for posting!  It's so exciting.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Tart and Tangy - Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Hi Everyone

Happy Valentine Night.  Tonight's card uses Tart and Tangy and was the second of the Valentine's I made for Lou.  Strawberries are a big deal for us.. it's a long story!  So, this was the perfect card. I had made another strawberry Valentine and Beth - welcome back Beth... so glad that your Dad is on the mend! - had suggested using chocolate.  It was a great suggestion and I kept that in the back of my mind for my Valentine card.

So, this one is for my darling Lou!

I used the sketch from the splitcoaststampers challenge number 267 this week.  The only change I made to the sketch was to turn it horizontal instead of vertical.  Now.... I might tell you that this card took me for ever to get right.  I first had it on a real red background with the vanilla and polka dot paper from the scrapping kit - Christmas Jingle.  I didn't like that... I then took the polka dot off... I still didn't like that.  I then couldn't make up my mind which color to use for the matt.  I had olive and red.  I had red and brown.  here's what my space looked like at one stage.  The mess on my cutting pad reflected the complete mess that was going on in my little brain!  What you don't see is the rest of the mess I created on the other side of my Mac!

As you can see, my punch got a lot of use yesterday!

Here's what the strawberries looked like with Real Red and Old Olive

OK... so discard that... lets try Real Red and Chocolate Chip

I played around like this for about 20 minutes!!! No kidding.  Finally a brain wave.....

Ah!  Ah! I can now make this clean and simple and get the effect I wanted....  Finalmente! as the Italian's would say!

 

Now... it looks like chocolate covered strawberries with Vanilla Ice Cream!  After my ah! ah! moment, I couldn't work out why I hadn't thought of this in the beginning.  I let the sketch lead me down the path of using DSP when I really didn't need to.  I added interest to the back of the strawberries by using textured paper for the matts and then running the Vanilla matt through my Big Shot with the Polka Dot folder- although you can't see it on this picture, I really did run it through the big shot!!  You can almost see the dots a little better on the top of the matt - top right hand corner.  I wanted them to mimic the dots in the strawberries.... here's a closeup for you.

Card recipe - FINAL card recipe..... :-)

• Very Vanilla and Real Red card stock
• Tart and Tangy stamp set (111514), "love you" from the Short and Sweet sentiment (115060)
• Stampin' Up! Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder from the new mini - (117335)
• Real Red, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip markers
• Clear embossing powder

I inked up the stamp using my markers.  The leaves in Old Olive and the strawberry in Real Red at the top and Chocolate Chip on the bottom.  I then cut around them with my paper snips and stamped my Versamark pad over them.  I left enough white space to be able to hold the paper.  I dipped them into the embossing powder and then used my heat gun to set the embossing powder.  I then cut around them with my paper snips and set them on top of their matts with stampin dimensionals.

I used my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig to ensure perfect placement of the sentiment.

I also used my Perfect Layers tool to create my matts.

So... tonight is the big night..... Tonight is the night that the winners get drawn - by my able four-pawed and handsome assistant Bilbo Baggins.  Two winners will be drawn tonight. The winner of the blog candy comment draw...... and.... the winner of the BIG SHOT - or equivalent value in SU! product provided by yours truly.  Several of you participated in my card drive - and I am so grateful to those of you who did.

So, Adelle, Cam, Beth, Lynn, Hazel, Kelli and Yvonne - you are all in the draw for tonight.  I am so excited to do the draw... but even more so, am so excited that we collected so many cards for hugsandhope and fromourhearts.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for the two draws!

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Ever After - Sympathy Trio

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday.  I am so pleased it is Friday.  Tonight's card uses the Ever After set.  Even though this set is actually a wedding set - I haven't used it as that yet!  Maybe that's because no-one I know is getting married!  You can see my other Ever After cards here.

Before I show you the card, I'd like to give a MASSIVE shout out to Adelle tonight.  Her second box of cards arrived for the card drive that I am having.  Now, the last time Adelle sent me a box of cards I was bowled over - there were 70 cards in the box and I was so, so, grateful.  Well, the postman arrived today and I swear he could hardly carry the box!  It was a 12x12 box packed full of cards!  WOW!  Adelle, You ROCK!  I know that there will be many troops who will be able to brighten the day of someone they love because of your cards!  Thank you!  Thank you to all of you who have sent cards to me during this card drive.  I am very, very grateful that you have helped to make this card drive a success for me. 

On Sunday night - after we get back from our Valentine's Day dinner, Bilbo Baggins, my able four-pawed assistant, will be drawing a winner of the Big Shot from the list of names of those who sent cards.  I will post the winner's name - and a sample card on my blog on Monday.  I am so excited.  I am truly grateful to you all!

Now, I said that I don't seem to ever need Wedding cards.. but we sure have needed an over abundance of sympathy cards of late.  I wanted to use the Lilies of the Valley from the Ever After set for a sympathy card.  They just seem to fit.... however, I couldn't decide on what colors to use.  I knew I wanted to create something very clean and ended up making three different versions.  I'd love you to leave a comment and let me know which one you preferred.

Also... Sunday is the drawing for the January blog candy draw.  So, any comments left between now and Sunday night will be entered into the draw.

Here's the first one I did.  Black, Basic Grey and Whisper White.  I love it's clean, strong lines...  The "With Sympathy" is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set.  Still one of my favorite sentiment sets.

Lou said he'd like to see it with a white background.  So, I accommodated him.  Again, I love the clean lines and the strong central image.  There's something very calming about all that white space.  Perfect for a sympathy card.

Then, I thought... well, what if I colored the flowers in a Mellow Moss color..  which, of course led to me creating a card with a Mellow Moss background.  I love the Mellow Moss.. it has a softer feel, but still has the strong focal image, the clean lines and lots of "white... well... Mellow Moss... space around it

So, there you have it.  Three sympathy cards.  All the same image and sentiment, but the different backgrounds make a huge difference.  You will notice that I did change the color pearls on the Mellow Moss one, too!

Let me know which you prefer - and hey, if you hate them, let me know that, too!

Well, tonight is the start of the Winter Olympics.  I always love the Winter Olympics.  Sad though that the games had to begin with the death of the Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.  The luge is such an exciting sport to watch, but his death reminds you all the more how dangerous sports that have the human body traveling at speeds of 90 mph are.  I'll be watching Lindsey Vonn to see how she does and cheering her on.  It really does bother me that the women are not allowed to ski jump in the winter Olympics.  I heard one of the Olympic officials say that it was not a sport women should be involved in because of their health!  Mmmmm... remember those days when women were considered the weaker sex at all things physical.  Well, Lindsey holds the record for the longest jump - by either sex - on the ski jump course in Vancouver!  So, even though she will not be allowed to compete in the ski jump, she will be competing in the downhills and Lindsey - YOU GO GIRL!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend... you know that I'll be watching the Olympics whilst I'm trying to do housework and craft this weekend!

Thank you to all of you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits are much appreciated.

Hugs

Jaydee

Vintage Vogue in Red, White and Black - Friendship

Hi Everyone

Very quick post for you tonight.  I finished work very late and hope you will forgive me for so short a post.

Fristly, I'd like to give a huge shout out to Hazel who let me know that she has posted cards for hugsandhope.... so thank you, Hazel.  You Rock!  Also... I'm pleased to let you know that you will be seeing more of Cam's fabulous creations.  Another box of cards arrived today and I had great fun oohing and aahing over her fabulous creations. I will be photographing those this weekend!

Tonight's card was made using the color inspiration from stampsrus... the challenge was to make a red, white and black card.  I made a masculine Valentine's using that same color scheme the other night.  I made a more feminine card that same night.  I used Vintage Vogue, the Very Vintage wheel (on the left hand side of the card) and I used Iridescent Ice all over the white focal image.  I was very pleased with the way that it came out.

 

It's pretty tough to see, but the Very Vintage wheel is on the left hand side of the card - I did it as a watermark using Versamark and the Iridescent Ice on the focal point looks like moonlight on a fresh snowfall, but it's really tough to photograph.  I used a Tiny Tags, a half pearl and grosgrain ribbon to finish of the card.  Mmmmm... the color looks fine in Aperture, but when I bring it across to Typepad it really washes it out... here's a closeup for you

 

Have a fabulous Thursday everyone.  I hope that you are all warm and cozy and for those of you who are having snow days and getting in some crafting time.. enjoy.... for the rest of us.. have a good day at work - or whatever you will be doing tomorrow

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Happy Moments & Unmounting Wood Mount stamps to be Clear Mount usable - tutorial

Hi Everyone

A tutorial for you tonight... and a couple of cards I made using the fabulous Happy Moments stamp set.  This set is one of the free sets you can choose as part of Sale A Bration.  I've been doing a "stamp a stack" for my card drive.  You can see these cards at the bottom of this tutorial.

I promised to show you how I have been changing my wood mount SU stamps into clear mount.  I didn't think I would do this... but I have grown to love the clear mount versions of my Stampin' Up! stamps so much, that I'm going to start moving most of mine that way.  I started with some new stamp sets that arrived last week and then started work on some golden oldies.

There are multiple ways you can do this, and I strongly recommend that you try a couple of different versions to see which works for you.  Some people use the EZmount thin strips to put over the rubber... some people use other glue solutions, like Aileen's.... for me... I found that using Tombow works for me.. so far.  If anything changes, I will update you on this. :-)  The key is, of course, that at some stage, I am going to have to re-apply the glue when the stamp stops connecting with the clear mount block the way I would like.

So... here's what I used for NEW wood mount stamp sets:

• Tombow glue (some use 2-way glue)
• A wooden lollipop stick (one I had left over from a rub-on set)
• A photocopier machine
• A CD case (orderable from SU (119105 $4.95 for a set of 4)
• My unmounted stamps

1. I took the transparent sheet that contains the images that you normally put on top of the wood mounts and photocopied it whilst it was in tact.
2. I then took one of the stamps and removed the backing paper and placed it on my worktop stamp side down.
3. I took the transparent sheet of images and placed the correct image over the stamp and tried to place it where the rubber image is underneath.
4. So, on this pic you can see the transparent images that are left in tact on the left hand side... underneath my stamp you can see my photocopied image (underneath the stamp) (more about that later) and you can see the glue glue....  You can also see the transparent image that I have placed over the stamp... let's take a closer look at that
5.  
6. Now... the placement for the hummingbird was pretty good on the stamp - and you can see that I placed it on the sticky part of the rubber.  I then took my craft and rubber scissors and cut around the transparency sheet that was left.  This left me with the stamp, the image on the back and now I'm ready for glue!
7. THERE's a TRICK to this.... DON'T put too much glue on.... you need just enough to make it tacky... not so much that it's gloopy...  I applied the Tombow in tiny little blobs to the image and then spread it - rather like spreading margarine on bread - and removed the excess with my lollipop stick.
8. I then placed the image - rubber side down into the plastic case that my stamps came in. 
9. I repeated this until all my stamps had been treated the same way.  
10. I kept... the piece of the transparency that has the name of the set... more about that later... :-)
11. 
    Here you can see my stamps in the original case.  I left them here to dry.... note... the humming bird has too much glue..... you can remove some with your stick...
12. Now... you have to leave this overnight to dry.  I put them into their cases because it was easier to stack overnight... and, more importantly, it kept little furry monsters from finding the rubber pieces and pretending they were real humming birds, or mice, or hamsters, or whatever it is that furry monster cats think about when they chase things like maniacs around the basement :-)

Now.... what about MOUNTED stamps.... OK.... so here's what I did... then I promise I'll get to telling you why you took a photocopy of the sheet and why you want to keep the sticky with the name of the set on!!!

1. Take your mounted stamp and place in the MICROWAVE for about 15 seconds.  No longer.. cos you really don't want to melt the stamp and set the wood block on fire :-)  Seriously, about 15 seconds is all you need.  This leaves the rubber in tact and just melts the glue enough that you can remove both the rubber stamp.... and the transparent image that is on top of your wood mount stamp (for those that have them, that is!!!)
2. You follow the same process that you followed with your mounted stamps.  Here's a picture of one of my old stamps that I bought at a yard sale years ago... what I realize now that I'm more experienced is that it wasn't exactly cut well when I got it!
3. 
   This was my guinea pig stamp... I wanted to make sure that my process worked before I repeated with my others.... I suggest you do the same :-)
4. You can see that I removed the transparent image from the woodmount and placed it over the sticky rubber.  I then applied the Tombow as noted above
5. I left all of my stamps overnight and voila... they worked.... However, a couple of them had too much glue... so I have a little trick... I am sure there are better ways of doing this... but this worked for me... 
6. If there's too much glue...I gently patted the sticky part of the stamp in my palm - over and over until it had just the right consistency.  Doing it on my palm meant that it didn't stick to anything permanently as the natural oil on my palms worked to remove some of the glue.  It actually wasn't a sticky mess on my hand either... I just washed and dried as normal afterwards :-)
7. So... what about the photocopied image - and the sticky name tags!  Well, they are for my CD case... I can't show you one... because my new cases haven't arrived yet and I won't get them until Feb 14 - they are part of my Valentine's Day gift, you see!  However, I am going to cut the photocopied image and place it on the inside front of my CD case and then run the sticky name part down the spine of the CD case
8. For my old stamp sets... I'm going to put the family of stamps on my photocopier and photo the back of the stamps and will have to make a spine cover for them.   OR.... you could do as Adelle suggested - which is the smart thing! and just stamp the images on a piece of blank paper and... if you have the stamp set name still on your old plastic case... carefully peel it off and then put it on the spine of the new CD case :-)

So, there you are.... sounds like a long process and it sort of is...  Just remember the tricks... and remember to keep furry paws away from them!

Here's the stamp a stack I have been doing with Happy Moments.  It's a really cute set and I can't wait to do some more fancy cards with it.... but I love the clean and simple cards they lend themselves, too.  I had to photograph my prototypes for you... because my real finished ones have been packaged up in a box already to send to fromour hearts.

Well... we've had about 5 inches of snow and are expecting about another 4 over night... the world sure does look pretty, but I think I'm ready for spring now.  Today we had 30 ducks in the yard... yep... 30... Aflac brought his wife and his entire family to eat at the feeders.  Then tonight, I counted 8 deer.  We also have a Brown Thrasher that seems to have decided to overwinter - he must not have been well enough to make the migration to warmer states.  He's been around our feeders for the last few weeks and enjoying the dried meal worms and other food we put out for the birds.    Sometimes, it's very hard to believe that we only have a 1/4 acre.  It never ceases to amaze me how lucky the US is to still have so much fabulous nature so close to built-up areas.  We have greatly enjoyed creating our little ecosystem in our yard and welcome the variety of animals and birds that we get through our little garden. 

Have a Happy Tuesday everyone and, as always, thank you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  I hope you found the tutorial useful and good luck to those of you who decide to make the change.

Don't forget, you can buy any of the products you find mentioned on my blog - by clicking the link at the top of my page :-)

Hugs

Jaydee

Jayne's Type Alphabet - Masculine Valentine

Hi Everyone.

Happy Sunday.  I'm guessing that many of you will either be stamping in your craft room, or watching the Super Bowl!  Me....  well, we are expecting about 8-10 inches of snow and it's gotten cold again.  So, after doing housework, I'm in my craft room hoping to find some inspiration.  I don't know.. but my Mojo seems to have been AWOL recently.  Maybe it went on an early spring break! 

 A quick card for you tonight- using Jayne's Type Alphabet which I have had forever and just never seem to find a use for!  Well, the challenge on ourcreativecorner was to creative a masculine Valentine's card and the color challenge on stampsrus was to use red white and black... so, I decided to combine the two!

Tomorrow I will have for you a photo tutorial on how I made my new wood mount stamps into clear mount stamps!  So remember to check back for that!

Before we see the card, check out the fabulous inspiration cards on both challenge sites - and don't forget to check the submissions. I promise you will find something that inspires you.

So, here's my masculine Valentine.  I ran it past Lou to see whether it fit the bill - and he loved it!  But then, he was probably just being nice to me!  Actually, I'm really lucky that he does provide so much support for my hobby.  He really is a very special man!

 

I wanted a clean and simple line, especially with the black, red and white theme.  I also wanted something that would be quick to replicate and easily changed to more feminine colors.  I also toyed with using a HEART instead of the V, which I think would work perfectly.  In fact, I might make a feminie version of this card doing just that... ok.. so now my mind has gone to stamping!  :-)

Card recipe:

• Basic Black, Real Red and Whisper White card stock
• Real Red classic ink
• Jayne's Type Alphabet (114401)
• the heart-u stamp is from the You and Moi stamp set (111716) - one of the ones available free during SAB
• Two pieces of gingham ribbon, the black and white and the red and white
• I used my 3/4" circle and 1" circle punches.  I used my 1" and 1 1/4" square punches
• I used my polka dot texture folder (117335) for the black
• All that was needed was to pop the LOVE and the heart-u with dimensionals.

Have a Happy Monday everyone.  I'm off to finish up the tutorial for the clear stamps and to try to get some more challenges done!

As always, your visits are much appreciated.  Don't forget just a few more days for Blog Candy give away - just leave a comment and you will be entered into the draw.  The draw this month includes two sets of card stock and a stamp set!  So, over $30 in free goodies up for grabs - and all you have to do is leave a comment!

Hugs

Jaydee

Bloomin' Beautiful in shades of purple

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday night.  I hope you have all managed to avoid the worst of this amazing storm that has plagued so much of the US this last couple of days.

Before we start on tonight's card - which uses - Bloomin' Beautiful, I'm going to ask you to add Beth to your prayer list right now.  Beth is one of the regular visitors to this blog and is currently with her Mother whilst her father has surgery.  So, if you could add Beth's Father to your prayer list for a quick recovery from his surgery, I would greatly appreciate it!  Beth - you and your Mom and Dad are in our thoughts and prayers!

I've had this set for a little while and haven't had the courage to use it.  Watercoloring isn't my forte, so I am always a little reluctant to use stamps that require it.  Lou has offered to buy me the set of Stampin' Up! Watercolor Crayons to make my life a little easier!  Isn't he amazing?  He know that to make me happy for Valentine's...crafting goodies would do the trick!

I love the little bee in this set.  We really should be very grateful for this industrious little creature.  They are responsible for the polination of so many of the fruits we eat, and flowers that we adore.  So, the next time you see them in your garden, welcome them and be thankful for all that they do for us!

Tonight's sketch was from a new challenge site that I found.  What a fabulous name... LordHaveMercy.  Mercy is a very talented young lady and does challenges every week.  Check out the website and see the wonderful inspiration and submission cards.  I know that you will find something that appeals to you and gets you running to your stamping space.  As though you need an excuse :-)

Card recipe:

• Whisper White, Perfect Plum
• Shades of Spring DSP.  I love the fact that the DSP had many of the shades of color that I wanted to use in my focal point
• Bloomin' Beautiful stamp set(111490)
• I watercolored the container and the flowers.  I wanted to have a few shades in the flowers themselves, as flowers never seem to all come into bloom at the same time and they take on slightly varying shades.  I hope I captured that in the flowers.
• I did the same with the container.  Various shadings and slight variations in color
• I colored the bee in crushed curry and basic grey. Black was too heavy, so I used the basic grey instead and it worked very well.
• Of course, I had to use some shimmer paint on his wings.  I stamped him on Whisper White and then used my paper snips to cut him out - including the legs!  I then adhered him with stampin dimensionals to set him above the flowers
• I stamped the sentiment in Perfect Plum and punched it out using my modern label punch
• I used small half pearls for the center of the flowers, and two slightly larger for the edges of the sentiment and in the top corners of the two layers, to bring your eye down to the flowers.

Have a fabulous Sunday everyone.  And for those of you who are watching the superbowl tomorrow and have a team that is playing... I hope your team wins!

Hugs

Jaydee

Love Bug - 4 up and charity card drive showcase #4

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday!   TGIF!!!!  Oh boy!  I was so looking forward to the end of the day today.  I had this idea in my head all day that I wanted to make a card using paper that had yellow honeycombs on it and I was going to combine it with the Just Buzzin By set...... Well, it was fantastic in my mind.  Really.  Fabulous!  Except... well... when I finally got to my stamping space and opened up my paper... it was pink!  Now, I don't know about you, but I've never seen pink honeycombs before!  So.... thud... that sound you heard was me falling flat on my face.  Back to the drawing board! 

Along with my card tonight - using the Love Bug set, I am featuring a selection of cards from Cam's submissions for my card drive.  I loved looking through Cam's cards - they are fabulous and I would like to give Cam a HUGE shout out!  You Rock, Cam!  Please show Cam a little love and leave her some comments.  It's a great thing that the ladies have done to donate their time and their goodies to send cards to the troops and to critically ill children at hugsandhope.org.  I am so grateful that they came along with me on this journey.

So, tonight's card from Jaydee features Love Bug (115233).  This set is a really cute hostess level 1 set.  I've been dying to find an occasion to use it - and somehow the layout on the cleanandsimple challenge site - a new site I found btw - dedicated to... well.... clean and simple layouts! :-)  My regular visitors know that I love me a clean and simple challenge.  The fabulous layout was to use 4 squares in the bottom right hand corner.  When I looked through my sets, the Love Bug seemed perfect for it.  It makes a great Valentine's card - and is perfect for sending along with the cards to the troops in my fromourhearts card drive.

Isn't this set so cute? I used the single bug and stamped it using StazOn.  I then took my blender pen and used Real Red and Pretty in pink inks to create the stripes on the bodies.  I punched them out with a 1" punch and then took my 1 1/4" punch and punched out 4 Real Red squares.  I stuck the bugs to the matts using snail and put dimensionals behind the matts.  I wrapped a piece of Red and White gingham ribbon around the card.  I then stamped the Love Bugs sentiment from the set onto Whisper White card stock and used my jewelery punch to punch out the sentiment.  A grey half pearl was added as decoration.  I didn't want the coloring to be perfect... I know... Mom... I can hear you screaming at me from Heaven.. but seriously, I thought it would have lost a little of it's whimsical feeling if the coloring had been perfect.  I know, Mom :-)

Simple, quick and, I think, cute!

Now, on to Cam's cards.  I promise you, there is so much for you to find inspiration from here.  Please leave Cam a little love with a comment.  Enjoy the show of Cam's fabulous creations.  Cam's cards have stamps that you haven't seen on my site - so lots of inspiration for you.

here Cam uses Eastern Blooms (111626) and the Trio Flower punch (110711) to perfection.  Notice the piercing at the bottom of the card

 

Here Cam uses the Messages from Mom set (117016 or 118580) and the fabulous Kaleidoscope DSP (115680).  Having seen this... I have to go by myself some of this gorgeous DSP.  Love the spotlighting technique.

Here Cam uses a set you never see on my site - the Beary Best Friends (118052) set! and Thoroughly Modern DSP (115673).  Love that water coloring!

 

Here Cam uses the Garden from the Heart set (117004 or 118568) - its available in French and Spanish, too.  It's such a beautiful set.  Notice the stamped hat at the bottom.

 

I loved this card stamped using Autumn Days from the last holidays mini.  Most of us have used Autumn colors for this stamp set - and Cam went outside of the box and made it fresh and modern by using these colors.

 

I've enjoyed sharing these wonderful creations from the very talented group of women who have so far submitted cards for the charity drive.  Each style has been different and I hope you have enjoyed viewing them.  I still have a couple more collections to share with you. 

Tonight, I spent some time making my wood mount stamps that have just arrived into clear mount stamps!  Oh... the joy... the freedom... :-)  I love the feel of the wood mount stamps from SU.  It was the reason that I became an SU demonstrator.  I found myself scouring recycling sales at my local scraping store to see who was selling their SU sets. Why?  Because I always found myself drawn to them and the quality.  I bought a single stamp at my LSS this last weeked.  $7.99 for a single sentiment stamp.  I love it... but seriously.. it was a lot of money for a single stamp.  It reminded me why I always bought SU!  Anyway, the thing I am loving about the new SU stamps - is that I can buy the clear mount version.  Not only do I save money, but there are serious space saving advantages, too.  I will be placing a tutorial on how I have converted my stamps to clear mount in a post this weekend.  So watch out for that.

Have a fabulous Saturday everyone.  Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and please leave Cam a little love in the way of a comment.

Hugs

Jaydee

Love you Much Sweetheart

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday.  It's almost the weekend and I'm so grateful for that!

Tonight's card uses a new set that I got - Sweetheart - it works great on it's own - or with the Sweetheart Treat Cups and I paired it with my Well Scripted set.  I paired it with the new - absolutely gorgeous - Sending Love Specialty DSP.  I am absolutely loving the textural quality of the DSPs that have been featured in the last two minis and am hoping that there are more in the new Idea Book and Catalog this year!  Fingers crossed.

Stamping 411 had a great sketch this week and, as you can see from the Design Team inspiration cards and submissions - it has a lot of flexibility in how you create a card around it.

I wanted to do another Valentine's/Love card.  You can see my other love/valentine samples here.

Here's the sketch   

You will see that I flipped the sketch for the ribbon to run vertical instead of horizontal and used a bow instead of the two brads.  Instead of a square element, I decided to use the heart from the Sweetheart set.  There are two stamps - one which has a scallop heart and the other which has repetitions of "be mine".  For this card I chose to use the "be mine" heart.

I love the fact that you can play around with the sketch.

Here's my card.  Again, this will be going in my card drive box for the troops.

Isn't this paper gorgeous.  It has such a rich feel to it.  Just love it!  Consequently, I had to pair it with the metallic gold paper - which shows it's not just for Christmas! and the fabulous Satin ribbon from the new mini.  I really hope that SU carries this ribbon through to the catalog.... I love the feel of it.  It ties beautifully - and it's just the right size.

So here's how I created the card:

• Real Red, Metallic Gold and Whisper White card stock
• Sweetheart stamp set - (120780 clear mount, 120415 wood mount)
• Well Scripted stamp set - (118601 clear mount, 117072 wood mount)
• Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  I stamped the "be mine" in Real Red Craft ink and then used the Iridescent Ice embossing powder to add a little glitz to it.  I used the masking technique to not ink up the area of the "be mine" heart that I wanted to stamp the sentiment on.
• I stamped the "love you much" sentiment in Real Red Classic ink in the gap that I had left when I stamped the "be mine" heart.
• I used my paper snips to cut out the heart and the sentiment as one whole piece.
• I wrapped the ribbon around the metallic Gold and DSP and secured it under the heart.  
• I attached the heart/sentiment using stampin dimensionals
• I then made a bow and applied it to the top of the heart - to make it look as though it was a locket hung underneath it - and attached the bow with a couple of glue dots.

Really quick and really easy.  The hardest part was masking the heart - and that wasn't hard!  But I think the card has a lot of lushness and richness that belies how simple it was to put together.

I'm off to try to do some stamping... I still have to make the twins card and a get well card....

Some of you may remember my post from a couple of days ago...... talking about Lou having left to go to Argentina... having airplane mechanical issues and coming back home. then going again and having mechanical problems on two different flights.... well... he didn't make it to Argentina.  But his baggage did.  He ended up coming back to Minneapolis from Atlanta, driving home in a snow storm and getting back home at 4.00am.  No luggage.  Mmmm... his luggage landed in Argentina yesterday!  It has since made the journey back home and arrived at our house about an hour ago.  I'm sure his luggage had a really good trip and will have sent us a postcard! :-)  With the trials and tribulations of Lou's trips these days, I'm considering changing the blog to describe world travels from the vantage point of Lou's luggage! :-)  How about Brotherhood of the Traveling Bags? :-)

I hope you have a fabulous Thursday.  As always, thank you so much for visiting me in my little area of the stamping blogosphere - where it is freezing cold, yet again!  I swear, my old man cat Merlin is permanently glued to the fire or the register under the kitchen sink garnering as much warmth as he can.  

Don't forget... leave a little love in the form of a comment and I will enter you into the blog candy draw.  Just a few more days left before the winner is announced!

Hugs

Jaydee

FYI - today is your birthday

Hi everyone.

Quick card for you tonight.  Another one of the cards I've made for my card drive.  I found another great site this weekend and made a card based on their sketch.  It's a site called stampinroyalty and the sketch really had me thinking, because I don't normally do tags.  So, out came my FYI set.  I decided to make Bermuda Bay my card base color - something else I don't normally do.  That meant going out of my comfort zone twice for this challenge!  You can see my other FYI cards here.  I've also used the Happy Moments set for the cake image.

Before I show you the card though, I wanted to show you a pic I took out of my family room window yesterday.  We haven't determined whether he is a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp Shinned Hawk.  Both of them occur in our range and they are very similar.  So.... all I can definitively tell you.... he's a hawk :-)

The cats ignore him through the window.... the squirrels don't mind him at all because they are too big a prey for him... the sparrows however, HATE him.  He's incredibly stealthy and comes swooping in at a rapid speed and dives into trees or bushes, or wherever the sparrows are hiding.  He's generally unsuccessful, but that doesn't stop him from trying.  The shepherd's hook normally holds bird seed and he loves to use it as a perch!  He sits literally 6 feet from the family room window and will pose for about 10 minutes or so.

isn't he gorgeous????  Talking about birds....I found a fellow crafter's site. She does amazing works with sponging and masking - you really should check out her calendar - and then browse around at her other works of art.  Clare is really a talented lady!  you can find her creations here. 

Anyway, back to cards and crafting.  I managed to take some pics of the cards that Cam and Adelle sent.  They will be featured over the next couple of days.  I'm so excited to share them with you.  So, remember to come back for some new inspiration from these talented ladies.

I was really pleased with it...  :-)

Card recipe:

• Bermuda Bay, Whisper White and Melon Mambo card stock - i picked up those colors from the DSP I used - you can see that on the middle layer!
• FYI (114365) and Happy Moments (119125 clear mount, 118664 wood mount).  The Happy Moments set is another set which is free during sale-a-bration.  For more information on sale-a-bration you can click here.  Basically, for every $50 you spend on SU product (excluding shipping and handling) you can choose a free set from the sale-a-bration brochure - this year that includes stamps from the main 2009/2010 Idea Book and Catalog.  Happy Moments is one of those sets and comes in both French and Spanish versions, too!
• Welcome Neighbor DSP - another sale-a-bration free choice!  It comes in 6x6 sheets and matches many great colors (pumpkin pie, crushed curry, bermuda bay, melon mambo, old olive, kraft and pretty in pink).  I'm loving using it!
• I used the Tag punch to create the white tag and stamped the cake image three times.  Once on Whisper White card stock and then twice on two different scraps of the Welcome Neighbor DSP.  I then used my snips and cut out the three pieces and layered them on top of each other. 
• I used two different sizes of half pearls to decorate the top layer of cake (in the original image there are little dots there).  I think I must have been watching too many episodes of Cake Boss on TLC!!!
• I then used my perfect layers to create two more layers - one in Bermuda Bay and one in Melon Mambo.  My perfect layers tool is one of my favorite finds.... unfortunately I bought it and it sat in my drawer for months before I remembered I had it.... what an amazing little tool it is!
• I then used some more of the Good Neighbors DSP to create the horizontal element and typed FYI  andthe "today is your birthday" sentiment in StazOn black ink.
• I used my new scallop border punch - yet another free choice during SAB! - with Whisper White card stock to create the lacy borders and backed it with Melon Mambo card stock.

A quick and easy card.  The "hardest" part was having to cut the pieces of cake out and assembling them... and even that is, if you will excuse the awful pun, a piece of cake!

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.  I hope you get to spend time doing the things you love with those you love the most.

Thanks - as always - for stopping by.  Don't forget - blog candy is up for grabs - leave a comment and you will be entered into the draw!

Hugs

Jaydee

Just Buzzin' By - inside and out

Hi Everyone

Quick post for you tonight.  This is another one of the cards I've created for the card drive.  It fits for either the troops or the children at hugsandhope.  I love this  Just Buzzin' By set.  You know you have seen this layout before :-)

I used crystal effects on the bees and the flower - and used Night and Day DSP for the scallop square background.  Although I have used this layout often before, I saw Michelle's card on splitcoast and thought it was an ideal layout to use for the bees!

Here's the inside:

For the inside - I used the Night and Day DSP and used my brayer to color the white and black polka dot paper to be yellow and black polka dot instead.  The inside sentiment is non-SU.

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday and have time to do the things you love - with those you love the most.  I appreciate you spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.

Hugs

Jaydee

FYI - You are Awesome

Hi Everyone.

My apologies for not posting yesterday.  It was a very long day and my time management was not what it usually is.  This morning we started off our weekend with a funeral.  Not a good way to start a weekend, but then not a good way to start any day!  I have to make a card to celebrate the birth of twins, hopefully that will get my mind into a better place!

Today's card is one of the cards that I'm making for the card drive for the troops.  I got the FYI set a little while ago and had never used it.  I really like the set and it has such great sentiments!  For this card, I decided to create a one layer card and use water coloring, a little shimmer paint and a few small half pearls to create the interest.

I found my stamp-a-ma-jig was very helpful for making this card :-)

• Whisper White card stock
• FYI stamp set (114365)
• Regal Rose, Rose Red and Old Olive inks for the flowers and Soft Suede for the sentiment
• I stamped the bunch of flowers twice using StazOn ink and then colored them with a blender pen and the two pink inks.  I added a little shimmer paint to my blender pen tip whilst I was coloring in the flowers.  This allowed the shimmer paint to blend in with the inks, instead of on top.  So, shimmer paint first, then the colored ink - then to paper.
• I stamped the FYI in Rose Red and the "you are awesome" in Soft Suede

Other sentiments in this FYI set include "you make me smile", "today is your birthday", "i'm really sorry", "i miss you", "i'm expecting!", "i care", "it will get better", and "i owe you big time". 

The shimmer mixed with the ink looks really pretty and the crisp clean feel of the Whisper White paper was perfect for this one layer card.

This morning, I received a box of wonderful home made yummies from Bev.  The bottles had been beautifully decorated and I know the contents inside the jars are going to taste delicious.  Bev is an extremely talented and creative lady and her box of goodies made me so pleased that I had purchased two fabulous Longaberger market baskets from her!  I mean, I love the baskets... there's something cool about going to the supermarket with my own beautiful basket, but receiving such a thoughtful thank you present was the cherry on the top!  So, thank you Bev!

Last night Bailey - my big wuss of a cat - jumped up onto the window seat to watch the birds (as is his usual want at around sunset), when up popped the head of a doe.  I don't know who got the bigger fright the deer or Bailey!  She had come close to the window to check out the contents of the bird feeder, which is positioned right outside the family room window.  It was really funny to watch them eye each other up through the glass!  The deer saw me and decided to make a quick exit.  Bailey then started to chitter at her as though he had successfully chased her away!  Oh it's so wonderful to have a guard cat!

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday and get time to do the things you love - with those you love the most.  Me, I'll be making cards for my card drive and taking Lou to the airport.  Yep, he's leaving town again.  This time he's off to Argentina.  So, I should get lots of time in my stamping studio next week.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Herb Expressions - Thank you for blessing my life with you

Hi Everyone

Tonight's card features Herb Expressions.  I really am loving the versatility of this set... and really didn't think I would like it... so there you go!

Before we get started, I'd like to give a huge shout out to Cam.... her cards for the charity card drive arrived today and they are gorgeous.  I'm looking forward to sharing Adelle and Cam's creations with you.  I'm so grateful to those who have participated in this drive - and just a reminder... you still have until February 14 to help out.  Anyone who sends me 10+ cards for either of the fromourhearts or hugsandhope charities will be entered into the draw to win their very own BIG SHOT... or SU merchandise to the value of the Big Shot.  It's a great opportunity to earn product and reach out and touch someone else's life.  The prize is being donated by me.

I think you are going to enjoy seeing Cam and Adelle's cards - I love looking at how other people develop their cards, the colors they use and the way they use their stamps/embellishments.  So this weekend I will be showing you those.

I needed to do a card for a friend hence the beautiful Lavender Lace and Lovely Lilac color scheme. Now, considering I never used these colors, I was very surprised that I fell so in love with them.  And they really are such a great change from the Christmas colors that I seem to have been using for so many months.  I love the versatility of both the images and the sentiments of this set.  So, if you haven't checked it out... take a look at it and seek out some other examples.  You can see some of my other uses of the sentiments in Herb Expressions at this link.

It's probably not that clear, but I actually used a rectangle frame and chalks in the blue range to create a background on which to stamp the flowers from the set.  This created a background that was softer for my flowers, but also provided a slight white border in which to frame the flowers.  It looks really pretty in real life.

Card recipe:

• Whisper White, Lovely Lilac and Lavender Lace card stock
• Herb Expressions stamp set (113224)
• I inked up the Lavender flower with Always Artichoke and the Lovely Lilac markers and stamped the image.  I then reinked using Always Artichoke and Lavender Lace - and did this twice more times. You can do them all the same color or mix up the colors.  I chose to create one lighter lilac flower and three darker ones... you know how I like my odd numbers when I'm "decorating" :-)
• I used my texturz plate on my card base and ran it thru my Big Shot.  This gave me a hatch pattern - which is one of my favorite's by the way!
• I mounted the white focal image onto the matt using snail and then used stampin dimensionals to raise the matt from the card base.
• I then stamped the sentiment onto Whisper White paper and used my wide oval punch to punch it out.  I stuck it down with snail at the top of the oval and a stampin dimensional at the bottom.  I had to do that because I had raised the focal image from the card stock :-)
• Four small half pearls helped finish up the framed feel of the image

I was very happy with it... it's feminine, definitely, but not overly so.  I'm hoping that Pam will like it... because she really has blessed my life for all of these years!  Err... let me think - nearly 50!!!!

Before I close tonight, please continue to pray for Trish.

Have a fabulous Friday everyone and thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits, your support and your comments are much appreciated.  Don't forget.. blog candy... leave a comment - get entered into the January free SU product (card stock, stamp set) draw!

Hugs

Jaydee

Tart and Tangy - Strawberry Valentine

Hi Everyone

very quick post for you tonight.  But before we get started, I'd like you to put Trish on your prayer list tonight.  Trish is one of our fellow crafters and a frequent commenter on my site.  Trish is going in for major surgery tomorrow and I'd like you to put her on your prayer list for a safe surgery and fast recovery.  Hurry back Trish - we miss you!

Tonight's card uses the Tart and Tangy (111514) set and one of the heart stamps from the I {Heart} Hearts set.  The Tart and Tangy is one of the sets that I got free with my Sale-A-Bration order.  Again, it was one of those sets that I hadn't considered - and can't imagine why I didn't!  The fact that it was free... well, makes it even more fun.  Want to know what you can get for free as part of your SAB order?  contact your helpful SU Demo, check out this link or send me an email and I will get a brochure into the mail for you.  And don't forget, if you want to add the Tart and Tangy to your SAB order as a free product - it has a different product number - 120237.  Don't forget that for every purchase of I {Heart} Hearts set goes towards helping the people of Haiti.  (More details here.)  The sentiment is from the Messages from Mom set (117016 wood mount, 118580 clear mount)

Strawberries have very significant meaning for Lou and I - so Pierluigi - this card is for you!

This card falls into the "fall to layouts" - you have seen me use this layout before on multiple cards - and I still love it. In fact, you will see another one of my Just Buzzin By cards later this week made with the same layout.  Don't those strawberries look juicy and luscious!

Card recipe:

• Whisper White and Real Red card stock
• Tart and Tangy, Messages for Mom and I {Heart} Heart stamp sets
• Scallop square punch - to punch out the Real Red matts
• Real Red ink for the hearts, strawberries and sentiment.  The leaves of the strawberries was inked in Old Olive.  (I inked the stamp with my markers)
• Red and White gingham ribbon
• Once I had stamped the strawberries, I used my Crystal Effects over the top of the stamped strawberry image.  Takes a while to dry - but looks luscious.

I'm off to try to finish making up cards for my charity drive.  I hope you enjoyed tonight's card.  Don't forget... leave a comment to be entered into the blog draw and please, put Trish in your thoughts.

Hugs

Jaydee

Herb Expressions meets Vintage Vogue

Hi Everyone

tonight's card uses Herb Expressions (11324)  with a touch of Vintage Vogue (118598 clear mount and 117690 wood mount).  The Herb Expressions was another set I passed up.... and have really appreciated playing with this weekend.  

Before I get started on the details of tonight's card... a MASSIVE SHOUT OUT to Adelle.  Adelle let me know that she had sent me a box of cards she had made for the card drive for the children and the troops.  However, what I didn't realize was that she didn't just mean a box... she meant a BOX of cards.  I'm waiting until after dinner to look at all the cards.. there are a LOT of them.  I am so grateful - as I know the recipients will be... so Adelle, thank you! you rock my world!  I'll be choosing a few of Adelle's cards at random and will feature them on my blog for you.

For tonight's card I re-used the sketch from the stamping 411 team again this week.  I told you in last night's post that I had used the same sketch - and that you wouldn't believe it was the same sketch.  But it is... I promise.  The challenge on the splitcoaststampers clean and simple challenge was to create a clean and simple card using Teal, White and one other color.  Now, I can hear you asking... how did you make a clean and simple card out of the sketch you used last night?  Well, that's the thing about a great sketch :-)  so my thanks to the operators at stamping411.  For the clean and simple challenge I opted to use Taken with Teal, Whisper White and Chocolate Chip.  However, I needed to downplay the Teal because it is such a strong color.  I made two versions... I prefer the first - but have added them both for you.

 

Card recipe:

Firstly I apologize that you can't see the polka dot detailing as well as you should... I'm still having issues with trying to work with my new light tent.. you can see more detail in the bottom left hand corner!

• Whisper White and Taken with Teal card stock
• Polka Dot Embossing Folder (117335), which I used to create the vertical strip on the left hand side.  I used only a piece of the embossed card stock and adhered that using snail
• I then stamped the "may happiness touch your life today as warmly as you have touched the lives of others" from the Herb Expressions stamp set in Chocolate Chip - this was my third color.  I wanted to subtly introduce the 3rd color and so opted to use it only on the sentiment.
• I then stamped the flower from the Vintage Vogue set in Taken with Teal and then rolled it using the "rock and roll" technique in the Chocolate Chip.  That helped me to tie in the Chocolate and Teal elements.
• I then cut a 1/8th" matt out of the Taken with Teal and mounted that behind the sentiment.
• It's so rare that you get to put the entire focus on the sentiment - and I really enjoyed doing that.  This set is great for that!
• I adhered the sentiment and the matt to the card base using dimensionals and then secured the flower (which I cut out using my snips) with mini glue dots -and adhered the pearl with 2 more glue dots

I was actually very pleased with it.  It certainly fits the clean and simple mantra, but still has a lot of detail with the white on white embossed paper, the two color flower and the pearl.

Here's the second version I did. This time, I put a Teal matt behind the embossed polka dot stripe.  I like it - but I preferred the version without the second matt treatment.

 

Now... I'm off to finish the 3rd.. yes 3rd .. sympathy card for this week!  3 is bad enough - but all of them were in their early 50s......  however, in the cycle of life, I get to make a baby card for twins!

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday and thank you for taking the time to view my post. Your visit is greatly appreciated.

Gentle reminder... blog candy still in play.  Leave a comment to be entered into the draw!!!

Hugs

Jaydee

Love you Much - Purple Cosmo Glitter

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday night. 

I must say, I am VERY sorry the weekend is over this week!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, too.

Tonight's card features Love you Much (113756) stamp set - and is part of my clean and simple Valentine/Love set.  You can see my love/Valentine cards here.

I got to spend a fair amount of quality time in my stamping space today.  It was a good day to be down there with the fire on, my kittykats keeping me company and.... my darling Lou making cards to help the card drive!  Well, that was a first for us - stamping together!  He was actually amazing.  I had bought a couple of the simply sent kits, as I thought they would be good for the friends who were supposed to help me yesterday.  Neither of them had made cards before, so a simply sent kit is an ideal way to make great looking cards without being overwhelmed.  They also make great gifts.  Lou, chose to do the more difficult of the two.  He chose to do the It's About You kit (114585) and he did a great job.  I'm so grateful that he gave up time that he was going to spend riding his Bianchi and helped me out instead!  He's pretty amazing, really!

So, for tonight's card, I used the Love you Much "Love" stamp, Elegant Eggplant and Whisper White card stock and lots of purple fine cosmo glitter! 

You can see I made this BEFORE I CHANGED MY BLADE.... grrrrr.... I hate the furry edges of a dull blade!

So.... here's the recipe - quick, clean and simple:

• Whisper White and Elegant Eggplant card stock
• Love you Much stamp
• Versamark marker
• Purple Fine Cosmo Glitter
• Teeny Tiny Wishes - "Happy Valentine's Day" sentiment

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday and thank you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits are always appreciated.  Have fun tomorrow - with those you love and, remember, send a card to someone - just because you can.

Jaydee

Abundant Hope - One Layer Easter Blessings

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday evening and welcome to Jaydee's SU stamping space.  Tonight's card uses Abundant Hope.

I know, I can't help myself - I'm in love with this set.  However, as part of my new year's resolutions (aren't you tired of this by now.... ???!!!) I'm pushing myself... and this time.... was to create a one layer card.  Always difficult for me.. you know I'm the queen of layering!

Before we get started - there are two things I'd like to do.  Number 1.......

Stampin' Up! announced today support for the people of Haiti.  SU has a record of providing support to those in need, and this is a cause that I think we can all relate to.  For every set of I {heart} Heart stamps sold - $2.00 will be donated to Haiti relief efforts.  Please, would you consider purchasing this set from your SU demo. I'm guessing that many of you will want this stamp anyway, and knowing that portions of the proceeds will be going to this humanitarian effort, gives us all even more reason to purchase this set.  In fact, I purchased my own set today.  Just in case you were wondering.... which set is this?  let me show you 

and don't forget - this comes in English, French and Spanish.  Here's the link to all three sets - including clear mount and wood mount options.  Here's the detail on the SU website - Haitian relief.  

On a personal note... I'd like to send a shout out to Robin.... and she knows why! :-)  I'd also like to give a shout out to Kelli and Tonya - they worked together to send me their cards for the charity card drive.  You guys all ROCK!

Here's the one layer Easter Blessings card made with the Abundant Hope set.

Card recipe:

• Whisper White card stock
• Always Artichoke and Crushed Curry ink
• Grosgrain ribbon
• I used an oval frame to provide an area where I could use my chalks to create the background in an oval frame.  I used a mixture of blues from my SU chalk palette to create the background.
• I then inked up the daffodil from the Abundant Hopes set with my Always Artichoke and Crushed Curry ink markers and stamped that into the oval.  I'm using the clear mount stamps, which makes it really easy to do placement :-)
• I then stamped the sentiment - and the border stamp under the sentiment - in Always Artichoke and stamped it - just into the frame
• I took a piece of grosgrain ribbon and tied a knot and a bow in the opposite corner to the sentiment.

A really easy card to create and a perfect one layer card.  I hope you like it and are inspired. 

As always, your visits are always greatly appreciated.  Your support and your comments are what keep me going and doing this every day.  I do hope you will support the Haitian relief and purchase a fabulous stamp set in the process.... and don't forget, if you spend $50 before shipping and taxes, you get free gifts as well.

Hugs

Jaydee

Ever After - Easter Blessings ?

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

Tonight's card uses the unexpected - Ever After (113401) - as an Easter card!  You know I love trying to use stamps in ways other than what they were intended for.  I did a little changing up of the Lilies of the Valley, though!

Before I get started tonight, I'd like to send a BIG - and I mean REALLY BIG shout out to Beth.  The cards that she made for the troops and the children arrived today.  They are gorgeous.  Absolutely perfect for both causes. The children's cards are bright and cheerful, with fabulously bright colors and cheerful sentiments.  The cards for the troops cover birthdays, love, sympathy, etc.  Beth... thank you... you brought tears to my eyes - and they are absolutely perfect.  With your permission, I would like to highlight a couple of them on my blog tomorrow.  You really rock - and the love that you put into those cards, was so evident!

For tonight's card, I wanted to do a quick and easy, clean and simple Easter card.  I love the Lilies of the Valley stamp from the Ever After set and wanted to use it... but decided to change it up and make them look like Blue Bells instead - some of my favorite flowers!  I used the Ever After set with my new Abundant Hope  set.  I used the clear mount set 118547.

Card Recipe:

• Whisper White, Certainly Celery and Lovely Lilac card stock
• Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder (117335)
• Ribbon - from the retired Holiday Mini - mistletoe
• Modern Label Punch (116630)
• Certainly Celery classic ink pad
• Lovely Lilac marker
• Scallop Trim Border Punch (118402) - one of the SAB freebies!

This was really simple - I stamped the lilies in certainly celery and then colored the flowers with my marker.  I ran the embossing folder and the Whisper White card stock through my Big Shot.  Then I punched out the scallop Trim Border with my punch.  Jaydee tip:  START IN THE MIDDLE... don't do what I did... otherwise you end up with uneven edges at the corner... just like I did.  GRRRR

I wrapped the ribbon around the Whisper White card stock, cut matts for the central image.  Mounted my central image onto the matts using snail, and then used dimensionals to place the matt onto th polka dot background.  I had adhered the polka dot background with snail.

I stamped the "Easter Blessings" sentiment, from the Abundant Hope set in Lovely Lilac and then adhered that with dimensionals.  Quick.  Very quick.  10 minutes - and you are done.  I also love the Lovely Lilac and Certainly Celery color combination.  Mixed with the Whisper White, it provides a crisp, really clean image.

Well, we are off to movies.  Tonight we are off to see Invictus.  I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday and get to spend time doing the things you love, with those you love the most. 

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

Just a reminder - any comments left automatically put you into the draw for January's Blog Candy!

Hugs

Jaydee

Clean and Simple Pixie Pink Of the Earth - Clean and Simple

Hi Everyone, Happy Saturday night and welcome to Jaydee's SU stampin space.  Tonight's Clean and Simple card uses the wonderful Level 1 Hostess Set Of the Earth and the "you're a friend who makes good times great" sentiment from the fabulous set Great Friend.  Before we get to the card though... we have some business to take care of!

Drum roll, please!  ................A winner of the December blog candy has been chosen!  Bilbo Baggins was presented with a bowl of little scrunched pieces of paper and he was encouraged to choose one.  After very little deliberation, Bilbo choose the piece that appealed to him most.  But before Bilbo and I announce the winner.... all of you who left comments on my blog were entered into the draw.  One entry per comment. 

What did the winner, well, win?

1.     1 packet Soft Suede in-color card stock (115318)
2.     1 packet Melon Mambo in-color card stock (115320)
3.     1 brand new un-mounted Font of You stamp set (113405)
4.     1 set of Sweet Pea Stitched Felt embellishments from the new Occasions Mini Catalog

And who was the lucky winner?????   MISSY.  Congratulations, Missy.  Please send me an email with your address, and I'll package up the goodies and send them off to you.  Thanks to all of you who left comments - I really appreciate it.

I'll be announcing details of the January blog candy.  Something very different for this month and I am really excited about it.  Hopefully, you will be, too!

So on to tonight's card.  I did a challenge... and for the life of me... I cannot find the details.  I spent 2 hours trying to find the card that I used as my inspiration and cannot find it!  It's so frustrating, because it was such a fabulous inspiration card.  I think it was part of the featured stamper challenge on splitcoast, but I cannot find the card.  If anyone recognizes the layout... please can you send me an email!  A couple of night's ago I did recommend doing the featured stamper challenge on splitcoaststampers.com.  When you are in a creative funk, it's a great idea to take a card you like and change 3 things about it.  So, if you haven't tried that, give it a try:-)

I really find one layer cards tough, because I'm so into layering, as you all know:-)  I don't ever think I have used Pixie Pink before.  However, I loved the combination of Pixie Pink and Old Olive.  My stamp-a-ma-jig was ESSENTIAL for this card, because I wanted to make sure that I had the flowers in exactly the right place so that they joined exactly at the base.  The white satin ribbon was the finishing touch.  Talking about satin ribbon, the new mini catalog has a whole lot more of the satin ribbon choices - and I am so excited.  I love the way the ribbon on this card frames the sentiment and the flowers.  The Pixie Pink is such a vibrant color, but you really can't pick it up as well on my photograph.  Hope you like it.  It's a really quick and easy card.

To answer Kelli's question in my comments yesterday..... Kelli wanted to know what I was ordering from the new catalog.  Well, like many of you, I was holding off on ordering until January 5th, so that I can take advantage of the Sale-A-Bration offers this year.  As you will probably all know by now, there are a couple of choices in the SAB brochurem but you can also choose items from the 2009/2010 IBC!!  I was REALLY excited about that!  So, Kelli, here's some ofwhat you can expect to see me using over the next couple of months:

• Pinking Hearts Border and Corner punches - LOVE the new punch style!!
• Scallop Trim Corner Punch (to match my border punch!!)
• Scalloped Heart of Hearts Emosslits Die
• Well Scripted (I love the sentiments - Whimsical Words - from the SAB) and I think this will be a great accompaniment
• Abundant Hope stamp set

and some other things, too!  :-)  I can't wait!

So, what are you planning to buy?

Asian Artistry meets Whimsical Words

Hi Everyone.

Happy New Year.  I hope you all had a fabulous evening.  Lou and I went to movies (we saw It's Complicated with the ever amazing Meryl Streep) and then went for a late dinner at our favorite restaurant, Sontes.  We got home at about 12.45 and could feel my age:-)  We have had many late nights this last week... 2.30 a.m. in some circumstances.... playing on our Wii, I might add!  So, last night was one of many late nights...  my vacation is quickly coming to an end, so I will be back to more normal hours for getting to bed. :-)

YAY!!!! The new Mini Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration brochure are available on line!  Unfortunately, Typepad is having issues tonight, so I can't sort out the buttons on my sidebar - so here are the links to the actual catalogs on-line at SU.  Here's the link to the Occasions Mini for 2010  and here's the link to the pdf for the Sale-A-Bration brochure.  I am really excited about some of the products in the new Occasions Mini - and the SAB.  I love the fact that you can choose certain items out of the 2009/2010 catalog for SAB this year.  I'll be adding more detail to my blog tomorrow, but you can check out the offerings in the pdf in the meantime.

Tonight's card uses a stamp I have never used before, as well as colors that I don't normally use.  This year I am determined to use all of my SU colors, and not just some of them!

I wanted to make a thank you card using soft, feminine colors.

 
 

Card recipe:

• I used Very Vanilla and Rose Red card stock.  I used Watercolor paper for the central image
• I stamped the central image from the Asian Artistry set on Black StazOn onto my watercolor paper.  I then took my Rose Red, Pretty in Pink and Mellow Moss inks and applied them to the Peonie flower and leaves with my blender pens
• To add extra dimension, I stamped the fowers and petals again and repeated the coloring.
• I then cut each of the pieces out and furled the edges of the flower (as Peonies have such a beautiful soft edge :-)) and then applied them to the original image using dimensionals.
• I took my very vanilla card stock and ran it through my Big Shot and used my polka dot texturz plate to add texture.  The reason I did this is because there is a little texture to the watercolor paper and I wanted to carry that through.  Unfortunately, you can't see the texturizing on the background paper in my photograph!
• I then stamped the sentiment from Whimsical Words onto Very Vanilla paper and punched out a circle with my circle punch.  I punched out another circle in the Rose Red to back the sentiment.
• Two pieces of grosgrain ribbon and a matting layer of PiP and RR finished off the card

Today was a really cold start to 2010.  A high of 4 and we are down to -15 tonight and -30 with windchills.  We went to the movies again tonight - 3 nights in a row I might add.. (oh, the joys of being on vacation!) and it was really, really blowing a freezing cold wind.  I still don't know how the animals survive in this weather.  We filled up all the food and water bowls for the animals and the birds today and the sparrows were even bathing!  I'm not sure about you, but I don't want to bath in -1 degree temperatures :-)

Tomorrow I will be announcing the winner of the December blog candy - as well as details on the January blog candy - something very different for January - and in the spirit of giving :-)

In the meantime, if you have any questions on the new catalog, or the Sale-A-Bration, just send me an email.  Remember, orders cannot be placed until January 5th - and I have a huge order planned for myself.... Like everyone else, I like free goodies :-)

As always, thank you to all of you for visiting my blog - your visits, and your support, are always greatly appreciated.

Cyber hugs

Jaydee

C is for a Grey Cat

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday night and welcome to Jaydee's SU stampin space.  Today's card uses the C is for Cat set.  You've seen me use this set before and, in fact, I made two cards with it this week. 

The last two nights I've posted about mojo and what to do when it goes on vacation.  One of the things I did this weekend was try the Featured Stamper Challenge (FS151) on splitcoaststampers.  It's a challenge where you view a gallery that is nominated by the moderator and you have to choose one of the featured stampers cards and make your own version.  So, I saw this card created by Smilynstef and decided to change it to a Jaydee card, but still keep a similar layout and the cats on the card inspired me to use the C is for Cat.

If your mojo is on vacation, why not try the featured stamper challenges - you don't have to upload a card, but at least you might find some great inspiration.  Change 3 elements on the card and make it your own.

Here's my version of Smilynstef's card.

Card recipe:

1. Whisper White and Basic Grey card stock
2. Basic Grey satin ribbon
3. C is for Cat - one of the sets you can earn free during SAB starting January 5th!  You can also get the D is for Dog one!
4. Basic Grey ink
5. Because I didn't have the Kraft version of the Basic Grey stamp pad, I inked and stamped with Basic Grey and then used Crystal Effects to give dimension to the cats.  If I had the Basic Grey Kraft pad, I would have used transparent embossing powder instead.
6. I used stampin' dimensionals to lift the squares off the base of Whisper White
7. A relatively quick and easy card.  The hardest part was applying the Crystal Effects, which I did with a very fine painter's brush, and then waiting for the Crystal Effects to dry!

I hope you are all looking forward to 2010.  We certainly are.  This has been a challenging year for us.  I know that challenges grow us, but we will be happy to move into the next decade and are looking forward to seeing what it brings.

Have a great Thursday.  One last post tomorrow night, to close out the decade.

As always, your visits, your comments - and your support - are greatly appreciated.

Peace and cyber hugs

Jaydee