Stampin! with Jaydee

Moxie Inspiration

Hi Everyone.

Happy Sunday night.  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  Me?  It just wasn't long enough:-)

Tonight's card is one that I made on Friday.  I found the Moxie site... and they are hosting an inspiration challenge.  Well....... this image certainly challenged me - really!  In the end though, that's what challenges are all about - to grow us and to make us think outside of our little A2 box!  Here's the amazing picture from the Tuesday Trigger challenge.  You can run your mouse over the picture and enlarge it - and really have a look at the intricate patterns and REALLY bright colors.

The colors really felt to me like Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red and Daffodil Delight.  So, I decided to pull out my trusty Fifth Avenue floral and get to work.

Here's what I came up with:

 

You will notice in the inspiration pic that there is only 1 red flower, so I imitated that - and the two blue ones.  Also, even though the black is pretty prominent in the cushion from the inspiration pic, there is a white border.  So, I decided to create a small white border around the black base.  I was really happy with the final outcome.  Now, I would never have created this card if I hadn't seen the inspiration and decided to challenge myself!

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Basic Black, Baja Breeze, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
• Ink:  Basic Black, White Craft
• Accessories:  Whisper White Satin Ribbon, White embossing powder
• Stamp sets:  Fifth Avenue Floral, A Word for You (new with the 2010/2011 catalog)
• Tools:  Paper snips, heat gun,  snail

Card instructions:

• Card base is A2 - horizontal with the fold at the top of the card
• Stamp flower from Fifth Avenue Floral twice onto Baja Breeze and Whisper White scraps; once onto Real Red and Daffodil Delight using Basic Black.  Cut out the flowers using snips
• Cut the Basic Black to 5 3/8" x 4 1/8"
• Stamp the sentiment "For you from me!" using White Craft ink and emboss with white embossing powder.  Heat set.
• Wrap Whisper White ribbon around the black base and tie knot.
• Arrange and mount the snipped out flowers and then adhere the top layer to the base card layer using Stampin Dimensionals.  This is always a good thing to do when you have ribbon wrapped around a layer - as it gives the ribbon breathing room and stops the ribbon from pulling away from the card base

You are done!  You can create a card using any colors using this layout.  I really did enjoy challenging myself.  If you haven't checked out the MOXIEFABWORLD site, you really should. 

On a personal note: 

WOW... What an evening we had last night.  We spent the night up in Minneapolis as we had tickets to Orchestra Hall to hear Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto played so beautifully by Vadim Gluzman.  Before the start of the concerto, the conductor told us a little story.  Tchaikovsky dedicated this concerto to the great virtuoso Leopold Auer.  Auer, however, declared it unplayable and didn't do so until he had made revisions.  Mr Gluzman advised us that violinists who played this piece were very grateful to Mr Auer for making the changes!  However, what was so amazing about this is, the very violin that was owned by Mr Auer - was the one that Mr Gluzman was playing last night.  It was a Stradivarius, crafted in 1690.

The opening notes of the piece brought tears to my eyes - I looked at Lou and he had goosebumps all up his arms.  Never have I heard a sound like that.  Tchaikovsky certainly knew how to draw out every possible emotion during this 40 minutes.  A truly breathtaking night.  What an honor to listen to an instrument that is 420 years old, played by a virtuoso.  Amazing.  We left after that, we felt that listening to a soprano sing Mahler would not have lived up to the high that we felt from the violin concerto, so went to the Hotel Ivy for a fabulous plate of pasta and a glass of wine.  What a great way to spend the evening with my honey before he leaves the country again!

Talking of my honey.... he's going to murder me when he knows that I told you all this.... but I know that some of you may every well appreciate it... Cherie and Brenda, I know you will......    Lou went out to HyVee on Friday to get a couple of quick things.  He was walking into HyVee (our local supermarket) and noticed a lady walking straight towards him - directly in his path.  She came so close that he had to stop.  She said..... "Well, hello there!  Aren't you a handsome looking man!"  Lou's response?  "Well, hello there!  Thank you!" as he ran towards the center of the supermarket as fast as his legs could manage!  He was so embarrassed when he came home... now.... what made this story funny...  that the lady happened to be around 85 and was wearing glasses!!!  I screamed with laughter as you can all imagine :-)

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and have lots of wonderful things planned this week. 

OH..... and you need to go check out this link to find out which of our virtual friends were "cuts above" on the Paper Players baby challenge last week.  It told you that you were an incredibly talented bunch.

Continued prayers for Trish, Germaine, Jim/Lynn, Arthur, T, Pri, Missy and Rach.

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

Remember - smile at a stranger it may change their life.

Hugs

Jaydee

Guest Designer card and SU News

Hi Everyone.

Happy Friday night.  OK... so.. can someone please do an intervention.  I need a 12 step program to stop using Gray!  Some of you may remember that I was asked to be a guest designer across on splitcoaststampers clean and simple challenge.  Well, this week was my week!

It was a sketch challenged based on a clean and simple submission.  I had to make a card using this sketch layout.  I was uncharacteristically nervous about this.  Seriously.  I pfaffed and worried and pfaffed and worried, but in the end went with instinct about whether or not it was good enough to submit.

This was the card that we had to use as our inspiration and our sketch.   

You all know that I tell you how difficult I find these three element cards to be!  Don't ask me why... I really don't know.  Here's a link to the challenge.  I was so honored to be the guest designer for this week and thank Jen for making this possible - and for hosting the challenges every week.

In the end I decided to use Basic Gray, Whisper White and my Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set.

I was really happy with it.  I hope you like it, too.

SU has some news today.  They let us know some of the carryover items from the minis.  Here's the list:

Item #	Description	Price
116519	Charming STMP	$19.95
117690	Vintage Vogue WM	$23.95
118598	Vintage Vogue CM	$17.95
118882	Vague vinatge WM	$23.95
119109	Vague vinatge CM	$17.95
118091	Tiny Tags WM	$22.95
118592	Tiny Tags CM	$16.95
117535	DÉCOR ELEMENTS F IS FOR FOX CHOCOLATE	$4.95
117536	DÉCOR ELEMENTS G IS FOR GIRAFFE CHOCOLATE	$4.95
117529	DÉCOR ELEMENTS IS FOR BLACK	$1.95
117541	DÉCOR ELEMENTS L IS FOR LION CHOCOLATE	$4.95
117542	DÉCOR ELEMENTS M IS FOR MONKEY CHOCOLATE	$4.95
117544	DÉCOR ELEMENTS O IS FOR OWL CHOCOLATE	$4.95
117528	DÉCOR ELEMENTS SCALLOP FRAME BLACK	$6.95
117549	DÉCOR ELEMENTS T IS FOR TURTLE CHOCOLATE	$4.95
117552	DÉCOR ELEMENTS W IS FOR WHALE CHOCOLATE	$4.95
118072	PNCH CRNR PINKING HEARTS	$9.95
118870	PNCH CRNR SCALLOP TRIM	$9.95
117191	PNCH LG 2 STEP BIRD	$15.95
118073	PNCH LG FANCY FLOWER	$15.95
117649	PNCH MD BRDR PINKING HEARTS	$15.95
117190	PNCH MD JEWELRY TAG	$10.95
117193	PNCH SM SMALL HEART	$5.95
117310	SZX BIGZ L MINI MILK CARTON	$32.95
118138	SZX EMBSLTS BEAUTIFUL WINGS	$11.95
117332	SZX EMBSLTS SCALLOPED HEART OF HEARTS	$11.95
117335	SZX TI PERFECT POLKA DOTS	$7.95
120435	HEART TREAT CUPS	$2.95

The following products will not be featured in upcoming catalogs.

116772	RECIPES BY DESIGN	$24.95
118139	DS FOLK FLOWERS -SHELLI SIGNATURE COLLECTION	$12.95
117597	DS PAISLEY PATTERNS 2-STEP	$14.95

Adelle, reminded me that I hadn't given you some pointers on using the SmoochSpritz.  I'll be back this weekend to give you my tips.  I'll also be back with a picture of the blog candy!

Right now, Lou and I are going off to have an early dinner and to enjoy some time together before he leaves town again.

I hope you have a fabulous Saturday.  As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits and your support are much appreciated.

Fifth Avenue Inspiration Card

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday night.

This is going to be a quick post tonight.  My last work email was sent at 3.48 am this morning and I was back at my desk at 7.30.  Getting out of bed was really tough.  I turned over, switched off the alarm and went back to sleep.  Luckily Bailey decided he was hungry and woke me up at 7.15.  Otherwise, I know I would have still been sleeping at lunch time :-)  So... cats are useful for some things :-)

For tonight's card I used Fifth Avenue Floral.  Not a stamp set I use often - and I combined it with colors that I don't often use..... Pixie Pink and Orchid Opulence.  

So... why did I use this set and colors I rarely use???  Good question.  I decided to participate in the splitcoaststampers inspiration challenge.  The inspiration was to find something on the thymes website.  Well, I love Thymes goodies - so it wasn't too hard to find something that inspired me.   I found this oolong cassis candle and the box and the flowers on the candle glass inspired me.

I wanted to keep it clean and simple - and this is another one of the cards that I made using this great layout.  You have seen me use it several times including my blooper card  and last night's chocolate happy birthday card.  The only difference on this card was that I created the central image smaller and left more white space.

Of course, I had to use shimmer white card stock.  I used the masking technique to stamp the flowers to make sure that I didn't stamp over them. I also went with the white narrow ribbon as I wanted to keep the focus on the flowers and the sentiment.

I hope you like it.  I was really happy with it.  the little mini half pearls in the center, really add that touch of specialness.

I heard from Trish's daughter today.  She continues to recover and will be in hospital until probably Saturday.  So we all continue to pray for her on this journey.  

I'm off to go make some dinner and catch the last of the warmth of the day.  Today the temperature reached 75 degrees.  Oh boy!!! was it gorgeous! We haven't seen temperatures anything close to that since October.  The birds were singing and I could hear the trees and the plants begin to inhale the warmth of the air... :-)

Have a fabulous Thursday everyone.

Hugs

Jaydee

With All My Heart - winners showcase

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday night.  I have for you tonight a sampling of the cards that Hazel and he friends sent in for fromourhearts.  Hazel had read that they were looking for Mother's Day cards, so she got a couple of her friends together and they made Mother's Day cards for the troops to send home to their moms!  Love it!

So, with thanks to Hazel and the rest of your who participated, here is a sampling of the Mother's Day cards.  I know you will find lots of inspiration.

Here's the I {Heart} Heart stamp.  I love the way they positioned that hatch stamp over the punched stamp.  The sentiment is from All Holidays.

Love this Sending Love DSP.  The heart is from the I {heart} hearts and the sentiment is from All Holidays.  Love this pretty in pink and chocolate chip combo.  The little flower is from With All My Heart

Again, this gorgeous paper from Sending Love. The stamp in the middle of the flower is from With All My Heart.  The flower is, of course, the Extra Large Fancy Flower punch from the new mini.  I'm thinking I might have to get this one!!!  Sentiment from All Holidays.

Well, you all recognize the wonderful Fifth Avenue stamp.  I love the way this was done twice - the middle piece was cut out on the second image and raised above the first with dimensionals.  The embossing powder on the outer edges adds just the right amount of dimension.  I love this scallop border punch!  The sentiment is from Well Scripted.

Of course, you recognize the Beautiful Wings embosslit... I love these butterflies.  The background is the Perfect Polka Dot impressions folder

Lots of great inspiration for you tonight.  Congratulations again to Hazel on winning the Big Shot!  However, as you can see, Hazel has a Big Shot already, so has chosen to get Dies for her Big Shot instead!

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.  More inspiration cards to come from the wonderful ladies who helped with the card drive over the rest of this week!

Hugs

Jaydee

Fifth Avenue Floral - thank you

HI Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.  

I'm sorry I didn't do an update yesterday, but my visit to the Maxillofacial surgeon (doesn't that sound like someone that Alfred Hitchock, Wes Craven and Stephen King would just love!!!) and I had a meeting yesterday and I think I came off the worse.  Let's just say I was still having a side order of blood with everything I ate, drank or swallowed until lunchtime today!  "nuf said on that one!  My thanks to all of you for sending me your kind wishes - they meant a lot to me :-)  And my two female cats are at the vet having dental work done today, too! Poor things, we get to pick them up later today!   So, all the girls - human and feline - in the family are feeling sorry for ourselves. 

Before I get started on tonight's card I'd like to do a BIG SHOUT OUT to some amazing ladies Lynn H, Terri U, Beth R, Cam, Yvonne and Kelli.  You guys rock!  thank you!

Don't forget blog candy... 

• Blog Candy draw #1 leave a comment and I'll put you in the draw for free paper and free stamps!  
• Blog Candy draw #2 Send me 10 or more cards to support HugsandHope.org - cards for critically ill children, or fromourhearts.info - cards for the troops to send home ---- and I will enter you into the draw for a Brand New BIG SHOT... or product to the same value if you already have a Big Shot... courtesy of me
• You have until end of day February 14 to enter into both

Today's card continues my new year's resolution to use what I have and don't give enough love to!  I bought Fifth Avenue Floral when it was all the rage... and I think I have inked it up once!  But, I wanted to do a crisp, clean thank you card to send to a couple of friends, and I went through my stamps and thought... ahh.... about time I tried to do something with this.  I mixed it with Bordering Blue - a color I don't use very often!   The splitcoaststampers clean and simple challenge this week was to "cut it out" - so it was a perfect fit for the challenge... and you know I can't resist a CAS challenge!

 

I don't know what's going on these days, but my screen is really showing this overexposed.  I'm going to need to open up my PC instead of my Apple to have a look there once this post is done.  I hope you can see it.... I actually water colored the image and then covered it in Iridescent Ice embossing powder to give it sparkle, so it really does look pretty in real life.

Card recipe

• Bordering Blue and Whisper White card stock.  I used the Water Color paper for the flower.
• I used Basic Grey ink for the sentiment and the background flowers
• Basic Grey satin ribbon
• Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set
• Heard from the Heart (111644)
• Stampin Dimensionals, Bordering Blue classic ink, blending pen and Iridescent Ice embossing powder
• I stamped the image twice on my Bordering Blue matt in Basic Grey.  I then used StazOn for the flower and stamped again onto water color paper.  I used my blending pen and the Bordering Blue classic ink to give a soft subtle blue to the flower.  I colored the middle of the flower darker, as the middle always seems to look richer!  I didn't want to go too dark, as I wanted the flower to stand apart from the background matt of the same color.
• Once the water color flower was dry, I stamped over it with my Versamark and then added Iridescent Ice embossing powder (101930)
• It was very quick and easy to assemble.  I wrapped the piece of Satin ribbon around the card and then secured it under the flower.  I then mounted the flower using Dimensionals to give it, well... you know... dimension :-)

I love the fact that you can change out the color combination to anything you like - and the sentiment - so it's a card that can be made over and over and still look fresh!

So, if you liked my Abundant Hope card from Sunday - you HAVE to check out Gretchen Barron's Abundant Hope card.  It's stunning.  So, pop on over to Gretchen's blog, have a look at the card - and show her you like it too, by leaving a comment :-)  It's a stunning card using this same set.  Gretchen told me she made this card for a swap in December and it's simply beautiful.... a gorgeous swap card!

I was reading Kelli's blog a few days ago and part of her topic was having chosen a word for the year.... and it got me thinking about my word for 2010 - Go check out Kelli's blog to see what her word is! 

It took a lot of thinking, I might tell you!  Lots of words made it to my mental list and were discarded. In the end I came up with my own word........

GIVE

Why Give?  Well, there are so many things that I can give every day - here's a list of some of the things I committed to doing in 2010 using GIVE as my theme:

• a helping hand; a smile; some love on their blog or gallery cards; more of myself to those who need/want it; more tolerance to those that I'm not normally tolerant towards! :-); love; donate more to the charities that I support and find a couple of new ones that I don't generally support; random acts of kindness to those I know - and those I don't; myself a break... I'm so hard on myself and I need to give myself a break occasionally; more love to my DH; more attention to my health and wellbeing; more attention to my spiritual side; more time to enjoy the things I used to enjoy so much

So, my challenge to you today.... what would your word for 2010 be?

As always, your visit and your support of my blog is greatly appreciated!  I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday and get to spend some time doing the things you love, with those you love the most - four legged or two legged!

Hugs

Jaydee