Stampin! with Jaydee

Paper Players #140 - Theme from Nance and Cas(e)this sketch

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday.  I hope you are all having a great weekend so far.

The very talented Nance has a fabulous challenge for us this week at the Paper Players.  It took me a little while to work out what I was going to do.  In fact, I thought about it several times whilst we were out shopping this morning and couldn't quite work out what to do.  However, I had a brain wave when I walked into my craft room!  

However, I needed a sketch to help me along the way, so popped along to cas(e)this sketch and saw a beauty.   I thought it would be a great way to combine both challenges.  You know that I am always up for using a tag!

Here's the challenges:

Re-purpose or recyle.   It really had me stumped for a while.  However, when I went into my craft room I noticed an old card sitting on my table top.  It was one of the first cards that I ever made and gave to Lou.  Many years ago!  I always loved the little embellishment on it and decided it was time to recycle that old embellishment for a new card for Lou.

I also wanted to showcase the new DSP and stamp from the This & That bundle.  The minute I saw this new product being announced by SU, I knew that I needed it.  Not wanted it, mind you.  NEEDED it!  But, I knew that I wanted to use the elements for more than just the journal.

Here's the old card.  You can see where the cardboard heart used to be.  That's the element that I wanted to reuse.

So, I carefully peeled off the heart - here's a closeup of it:

It's a really pretty pale blue heart with a wonderful little metal heart embellishment.  I kept the whole thing in tact, including the ribbon.  I thought if I was going to recycle it, I might as well keep it together!

Here's what I did with it for the new card, using the cas(e)this sketch

I used the Sanded background stamp, inked up with Sahara Sand, to add some texture to the Pool Party base.  (So glad this color is staying around!)  I then ran a tag die through my Big Shot and ran it through again with the Charles dotted chevron folder.   (I really need an intervention for using this folder so often!) 

I sponged the edges of the tag with Pool Party ink.  I really needed it to stand off from the card base as they are the same color.   Inking the edges also allowed me to create a halo highlight for the sentiment.

You might notice this.....  if you look closely you can see it on the right hand side of the card base, just underneath the DSP and right next to the tag.

It's the date stamp from the This and That bundle.  I thought it would be a great way to include the date the card was made.  Which, was a great idea.  HOWEVER, I didn't notice until I was doing my blog that I had made it MAY 5..... and, if I remember correctly, it's still April!!!!  DUH!   It's been a very long week, but I hadn't realized I'd missed an entire month this week!    But, I think you get the gist.  It was a good idea :-)

What I like about the card:

• I love that the chevron embossing folder echoes, and follows the lines of, the This and That DSP.
• The blue of the cardboard heart was the inspiration for the use of Pool Party and I think the blue is masculine, but not in a way that would make the card unusable for either sex.
• The dots of the embossing folder echo the dashes on the dsp
• The Pool Party sponging on the tag really helps to focus the eye on the sentiment, even though it's on a busy background.
• The sanded background stamp helps to break up the brightness of the Pool Party

Now, it's over to you!   We'd love to have you play along with us, and I am pretty sure the cas(e)thissketch team would love you to play with them, too.   You could even do what I did and combine the challenges.  Even if you are not playing along, pop along to the Paper Players and casethissketch to check out the fabulous design team and submission cards from some great inspiration.

On a personal note:

Sorry I didn't post last night.  It was a very long and difficult week at work and by the end of the day yesterday (after a 14 hour day), I was absolutely spent.  I was physically and mentally exhausted and couldn't do more than warm up some food!  This week also seemed to drain me of my normally very positive frame of mind, and made it difficult to switch off and spend some time in my crafting room.   However, I always feel better when I have.   There's something very soothing about playing with paper and getting my fingers all inky.

Oh... and hearing a strange gaggling noise and catching sight of these two didn't hurt either!

It's a terrible photo... but you can make them out.  They were striding around at the back of our woods, where the woods meet the wetland.  They were moving pretty fast and it was tough to get them between the trees!

We have 4 robins and a whole flock of male red-shouldered blackbirds.  I also noticed that we had a couple of American Tree sparrows and some Juncos in the garden, too.   The junco's are on their way north for summer, but we think the sparrows, the robins and the blackbirds will stick around.   Soon, it will be hummer and oriole time!

As always, thank you for spending time in my little neck of the wetland! :-)  I do appreciate your visits and your comments.  Nancy, thank you for reminding everyone about the cornell website.  It's a really useful website if you are into birding.    Tracy,  I so get your comment about colors and no-one understanding!  Last night Lou and I were watching Fashion Star and I said to Lou... "oh, look!  the woman from Macy's is wearing a Summer Starfruit dress."   Luckily, he got my meaning and said: "yeah. it's a pretty color, isn't it?"   I think I trained him well!

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

Hugs

Jaydee

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

• Card stock:  Pool Party
• DSP:  This 'n That
• Stamps:  Sentiment:  Signature Greetings II (PTI).   Date stamp:  SU's This and That.  Background SU: Sanded
• Inks:   Pool Party, Basic Black, Sahara Sand
• Embossing folder:  Charles (Cuttlebug)

 

Sent with Love for Case this Sketch

Hi Everyone.

Happy Tuesday.  Hope you are having a great week so far!

Another one of the challenges I created a card for this week is Cas(e)thissketch.   Here's the sketch.... sadly, I missed the deadline!!! I hadn't realized it closed today!  its a great sketch, anyway!

It's a cool sketch!   Some of you may remember me saying that I had attended one of Jennifer McGuire's onlinecardclasses called Pattern Play.   The class is all about using up your patterned DSP and combining them.   That's really something I have difficulty with, so am trying to take the team's advice and play with some patterned paper. :-)

When I looked at this sketch, I realized this was an opportunity to put playing with patterns into action.   I pulled out the Sent with Love DSP and paired the Pool Party with the Calypso Coral.  It's really such a gorgeous pairing for spring.   I paired it with the sentiment from the Sent with Love stamp set and some Calypso Coral baker's twine.

Here's what I came up with:

I used a gelly roller to add a little bling to the dots on the heart and sentiment.  I know it's a little difficult to see in the pic, but it really does add that little bit of something when you see it in real life.

I'm loving this spotted chevron embossing folder.  In fact, if I use it any more in the next week or so, I might need an intervention!

What I love about this particular card:

• That the chevron embossing folder echoes the chevron DSP behind the focal image
• That the dots on the chevron embossing folder echo the dots in the DSP at the bottom of the focal image, as well as the dots in the heart
• That the chevron in the embossing folder echoes the sentiment.
• That I got to utilize three different DSPs from the same set on the same card!
• Oh.. yeah.. and the color scheme!
• All the while, it's still clean and simple as it has lots of "white" space and very little in terms of embellishment

So, what do you think?   Why not pop along to the casethissketch site and check out the fabulous design team and submission cards, and play along, too!  I know I had fun with it.  I really love doing challenges as they do push me to do things that I wouldn't normally do.

On a personal note:

Still snow on the ground and it has been cool today.  The red shouldered blackbirds are still here and I love the shrill sound of their call as they come in to feed.  This weekend we will be cleaning out bird houses and putting out cat hair for the bird's to add to their nests.  With Norwegian Forest Cats, hair is in abundance and we might as well put it to good use, right?

I'll be back tomorrow with another card.  In the meantime, thank you for visiting and warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card ingredients - all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

• Card stock:  Pool Party, Whisper White
• Inks:  Midnight Muse, Real Red
• Stamps:  Sent with Love
• DSP: Sent with Love
• Accessories:  Calypso Coral Baker's Twine
• Tools:  Big Shot.  Embossing folder:  Cuttlebug (Charles)

Woodland Folk

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday.

Hope you have had a good week.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am that it is Friday! 

For those of you who want to know..... No sighting of Archimedes today, but he was here yesterday - and I have a pic for you.   As for our feline visitor.  Yes!  He came past last night and ate almost an entire bowl of food!    Colleen left a fabulous insight into how owls are viewed in mythology and history.  It was fascinating.  If you didn't catch it, you can read Colleen's comment on this post.  I also appreciated the kind words that she and Ann R said about me :-)

So, as I haven't gotten into my craft room since last weekend, I don't have a recent card to show you.  I had to go dig one up out of the set that I created for the Enchanted Makeover card drive.  Lou bought me a really cute stamp set from Woodland Folk when we were in the UK a couple of years ago.  The card drive was the perfect excuse to get it out.   I paired it with the SU Woodgrain background stamp and some retired SU DSP.

You can tell that I had fun coloring it.  I hope it brought  a smile to some little face!  I just love this image and sentiment.

Just in case you didn't believe the stories about owl's being able to turn their heads 180 degrees.  Check this out!

Yes, siree.  Something behind him was obviously very interesting!

I'll be back tomorrow with my Paper Players card.  In the meantime, have a fabulous Friday night and thank you for visiting.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Card ingredients:

• Stamp:  Woodland Folk.  Background stamp: Woodgrain (SU)
• Card stock:  Whisper White, Poppy Parade

Cross my Heart for splitcoast and celebrations continue with a little spot blog candy

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.  I hope you all had a great start to the week.

Firstly, thank you to all of you who sent emails or left messages on my blog congratulating me on my 1,000 posts.  I really did enjoy reading all of them.  I will be responding to all of you in the next day or so.

Celebrations continue and the blog candy that was listed on this post is up for grabs for all comments left through this coming Saturday on any post this week.

In the meantime, how about a little bit of fun -before I share my card with you tonight? How about a blog candy gift of some Stampin' Up Botanical Gazette DSP?  It's fabulous DSP!  Here's a quick reminder of what it looks like.

What do you have to do to win this spot blog candy?   How about answering a question.  Something totally random!  Yeah...

Question for tonight:  What is the predominant color of clothing in my wardrobe?  So, if you were to take a peek inside the fabulous new closets my darling hubby installed for us, what color would you see the most of amongst my clothes?

I will pick a winner, using random generator, for those of you who choose the correct color.

Leave a message on this post with your answer, or send me an email and I'll choose a winner on Wednesday.  So that gives you a couple of days to play along.

Now.. I guess you'd like to see a card, right?  This one is for Kathleen!

I've been dying to try the chalkboard technique that you see everywhere these days.  However, I've been trying to work out how I can accomplish that look and yet keep it CAS.  Well, this weekend I finally hit on a way to do it - and find another way to use the Cross My Heart stamp!  I saw that splitcoaststampers had a technique challenge a few weeks ago, so I missed the challenge, but at least it inspired me to try it. :-)

I actually made this card with two different backgrounds - one using the SU Woodgrain stamp and this one, using the Sizzix brick wall stamp.  Both of them work really well as cards, except this one worked much better as a chalkboard card.  You can tell I had some fun with this one!

I really wanted it to look like street art (isn't that what we call graffiti these days)?  So, I ran the card stock through my Big Shot with the embossing folder.  I used a diffuser to make sure that I kept the oval part that would house my greeting free of any brick embossing.  

I then rubbed my embossing buddy lightly over the brick embossed area - and the area for the sentiment.  I stamped it with Versamark and heat set the white embossing powder.

To create a more "chalky" effect, I ran the embossing buddy over the sentiment area again, and shadowed the sentiment with a white pencil.  I love that the embossing buddy powder left gave an uneven coating on the card and that some of the raised areas collected more than others.  I think this really adds to the chalkboard effect

The heart was created using Cherry Cobbler sparkling details.

There you have it.  A CAS card using the chalkboard technique.  Cool, huh?

Before I sign off, I thought I would share some pictures from our storm yesterday.  Now, those of you on the East Coast probably don't want to see them considering you have so much of your own!!! but I know that there are some of you who might appreciate it.  I know Jeanne will appreciate them!

We have a flock of about 30 pigeons that have taken up residence in our woods.  I really felt sorry for them when I took this photo yesterday!

As always, thank you for spending a little part of your day in my neck of the woods!  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

p.s. don't forget the blog candy!

 

 

Cross my Heart for CAS(E) this sketch, blog candy alert and a celebration!

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

Before I get to the card for tonight, I'd like to tell you a little story!

999 blog posts ago I started to blog as I needed a place to load my challenge cards and I thought it would be easier to blog than try to wend my way through sites where you can share photos.  

999 blog posts ago, I never thought that I would still be blogging. 

999 blog posts ago, I would never have thought that I would get to know some amazing people along the way.  Many of you have been with me since the very early days.  Some of you are new.  All of you that have left comments or sent emails have helped shape this blog, my posts and my cards.

Doing challenges was something I undertook as a way to expand my newly acquired card making wings.  I still love doing challenges, but so rarely get the time.  My love of challenges also introduced me to the very talented Lesley and that led to an invitation to join the Paper Players.  A design team that I am so proud to be a part of.

My blog has become a way for me to share my creative journey with my followers; to occasionally honor those people who have been so important in my life; to occasionally celebrate events in history and to share stories and photographs of the fauna and avifauna that share our little piece of paradise. 

It has also been a place where some of my fabulous readers have helped to create over 6,000 cards for charities like Operation Write Home and Enchanted Makeovers.  That's pretty awesome for a little blog that started to showcase challenge cards!  Those of you who helped create some amazing cards for the charity card drives made the time it takes to compose these 999 blog posts worthwhile!

To help me celebrate this.... MY ONE THOUSANDTH POST..... yes, that is 1,000 posts!  I have a few goodies to give away.  More about that, after I have shared my card with you!

As my blog started as a place to showcase my cards for challenges, all my cards this week are ones that I made for challenges!   I begin the week with a great sketch from Casethissketch.  Here's the sketch

If you love clean and simple cards, you are going to love this (new to me) challenge site.  You really need to check out the fabulous design team cards.

I decided to go with a valentine's theme and the new SU Cross my Heart set.

Card recipe - all ingredients SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Red Glimmer Paper
• Stamps:  Cross my Heart
• Tools:  Big Shot, Vintage Hearts (Sizzix).  Heart embossing folder (Sizzix).  Itty Bitty Punch (small heart)

SO...... now that you have the card for tonight.  How about a little blog candy to celebrate my ONE THOUSANDTH post?

I have some great goodies to give away.   I will be posting challenge cards every night this week and all comments left on any of the posts starting tonight and ending next Saturday will be eligible for the blog candy.   There are some fabulous goodies up for grabs.  All you have to do is leave a comment!

So, what's on offer?

A brand new Edgelits set from SU - Adorning Accents

A brand new set of Sizzix Large Labels

A fabulous Stampin' Up! mouse pad:

A Stampin' Up! scrunchy, fold-up, rubbish bin.  Perfect for placing on your desk whilst crafting:

A box of fabulous Mica Flakes:

A box of Spice Cake designer fabric:

All you have to do to be in the running to win one of these great blog candy prizes, courtesy of MOI, is to leave a comment on any post from tonight through to next Saturday.

Thank you to all of you for your support over the last 999 posts!  I really do appreciate all of your visits and all of your comments and emails.   Warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

P.S.  Don't forget to leave a comment!

Love Potion for Cas-ual Fridays

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.  I hope you had a great weekend.  We certainly did!

I managed to get a couple of challenge cards done this weekend.  I saw this great challenge across at cas-ual fridays and couldn't wait to play along. 

It's so rare that I actually make anything other than an A2 card, that it was wonderful to take on a challenge that forced me to get out of that rut.  I had so much fun playing with a different size of card, that I made two different cards!

I really wanted to keep it clean and simple.  For me though, it often turns out that CAS cards are anything but simple!  It's so hard to hide any tiny little mistake with a CAS card.  It's also important that the elements are sized correctly.  Consequently, I often end up playing around much more trying to get it right!   This particular card has very few elements.   A very simple color scheme:  black, vanilla, cherry cobbler.   It also contains only a single sentiment.  In order to make it pop, I had to play around with horizontal lines and color.   Here's what I came up with:

It was hard to get a great photo of the card - especially as my camera battery ran out just as I was taking this shot!  So, once my camera battery is recharged I will take another pic and load it.

I used a set from PTI called Love Potion.  Want to keep it SU only? You could do something very similar with the sentiment from a set available in the new mini - the Cross My Heart stamp set.  Here's the link to that set, so that you can see what I mean.  The I love you stamp would be a perfect substitute for the one I used on this card.

The CAS-ual fridays team have some fabulous inspiration cards that you really should check out - oh, and don't forget to play along, too!

Now, I promised to provide you with the details for my Paper Players card.  I've updated this post with the details of the elements I used on the card.  Pam - you asked me what DSP I had used.  It's the Nursery Nest DSP from SU.

On a personal note:

Wanted to leave you with a photo that I took a couple of days ago at our feeder.

The pileated's still give me a thrill everytime they come into the feeder.  They are just amazing.   Oh, we also saw Mr Fox today.  I was really happy to see him as we hadn't seen him in the garden for a couple of weeks and, on a day like today - when it got down to -40, I am always pleased to see the animals and know that they are OK.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

 

 

Love is.... for alacardmonkey

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.  I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far.

I'd like to start off this post by thanking the wonderful design team at alacardmonkey for choosing to highlight this card in their challenge a couple of weeks ago.  I was so thrilled and honored and even more delighted that they have asked me to be a guest designer for their new challenge starting at the end of this week.  So don't forget to check back then :-)

I saw their fabulous sketch this week and couldn't wait to play along.  However, what made the challenge even more fun was that there was a theme attached to it.  the theme?  happiness.  Well, what says happiness more than people in love :-)

Here's the sketch and theme

Seriously, isn't that adorable?

Well... I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this sketch......

It was really difficult to photograph the very vanilla - all that white space.  It is a lovely card in real life though and I love the Real Red with the Very Vanilla.  Not a combo I normally go to.  Generally I would pair Very Vanilla with Cherry Cobbler, but I really wanted a true red for this card.  

I pulled out an old embossing folder and a sentiment from Wordsworth.  It's a beautiful sentiment and deserves to be center stage.

So, why not pop along to alacardmonkey and check out the fabulous design team and submission cards - and play along!

On a personal note:

No packing done today.  Nothing.  Nada.  I swear I can hear all those cardboard boxes screaming my name like the sirens and if I don't get packing soon, the boxes are going to feel more like the Three Witches from Macbeth portending chaos and conflict.  Surely, it will be chaos at the last minute if I don't get something done soon.

However... last night.... my sirens were the characters in Downton Abbey.  Thank you, Adelle.  On your suggestion, I found season 2 on PBS.... Ah...... yes..... Needless to say, I didn't get to sleep until 2.30 this morning.  The worst thing about all of this is that I have had instant gratification for season 1 and 2 - being able to watch them one after the other and now have to wait for months for season 3.

What is it about Downton Abbey.... certainly the era.  The topics it covers in terms of the Titanic, World War I, class distinction, the fall of class distinction, the raise of the Irish, the fight for the right for women to vote, the ridiculousness that surrounded women who were considered "feeble minded" and unable to form - or hold - an opinion of their own.  The birth of inventions such as the telephone, electricity, indoor plumbing.  So much occured during this time.  So much changed during this time.  The empire fell during this time.  Disease was rampant and Fleming had not yet discovered penicillin.  A time when countries were created and others destroyed.  It's a fascinating time in history.

More than the history though - and I'm a history buff - it's the fact that the characters are so fully fleshed out.  You might hate them - or love them - or find them tiresome, but they are truly memorable characters.  The sets and clothes are fascinating.  I find myself getting lost in detailed photography.  Oh.. and yes... I admit it... I'm entirely envious of that house!!!!!

Today... it was 63 degrees.  I cannot believe it.  The sun felt warm as it streamed through the window.  I had the door to the deck open and the breeze ruffled through the house and it was fabulous.  Oh... I love this time of year.

I also love that you visited with me today.... you know that your visits and your comments mean a great deal to me.   Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.  Beth - don't forget... we want a photograph of little Lucy when you get back!

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Artistic Etchings for FreshlyMade

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

Quick post for  you tonight.

I saw this great sketch across at freshlymade and decided I had to play along!

I wanted to make a masculine card... something I find pretty hard to do.  I also wanted to add a love element to it, without hearts.  Mmmm.... So, I pulled out my Artistic Etchings and, together with some of my favorite Mocha Morning DSP... I think I came up with something I quite like!

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

• Card stock:  Early Espresso, Gold Metallic, Very Vanilla (under the vellum sentiment)
• Stamps:  Artistic Etchings.  Sentiment:  Vintage Picnic Sentiments (PTI)
• DSP:  Mocha Morning.  First Edition.
• Inks:  Early Espresso, StazOn Black, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand.  I distressed the First Edition with Tea Stain to stop it being such a bright vanilla.

So, I think it's masculine.  Lou will be pleased that there is no ribbon to be found anywhere.  He really has an issue with masculine cards and ribbon. I thought a button and a little baker's twine was OK :-)

Why don't you pop along to FreshlyMade and check out the fabulous design team and submission cards.

On a personal note:

Well... we have 7 weeks until we have to move and as of this morning we had packed no boxes, sorted nothing out and have not organized the handyman to come and do all the little fix up things.  Nor have we ordered new carpet or ANYTHING.... In fact.  NOTHING!  Aaaaaarrrrggghhh :-)  Of course, my dear hubby does what he always does when things need doing - he left town for two weeks. Mmmmmm.... 

Anyway, I was in the middle of making a card and had a panic attack and decided that I REALLY needed to go start some packing.  So, between cards I taped up some boxes and started to pack.  I promised myself that I could only make a card IF I had packed a box.  I made 4 cards... and packed 4 boxes :-)   Well, it's 4 more than I had packed this morning, right :-)  I know that I am going to have to knuckle down and start getting this stuff done.  It seems to have snuck up on us so quickly.

The house is taking shape... really taking shape.  They were sheetrocking this week and when we went there yesterday they were about 3/4 done hanging the sheetrock.    I thought you might want to see a couple photographs of the progress.

Here's a look at the shower in the master bedroom.... I really wanted a rain shower... and got one...   you can see that they haven't finished hanging sheetrock here yet

The one thing that really struck us when we went into the house yesterday is how bright it is inside.  Considering it was a pretty dull day and the windows had plastic on them - and half the window was covered up with sheetrock stacked up against it..... it was pretty light in the family room.

Sheetrocking mostly hung in this area.   They won't start on the fitted cabinets until the wooden floors are in, but it's certainly beginning to feel like a house.  

When I uploaded the photographs I noticed something.... for every picture I took of a room.... I took 3 of the view from that room!   Guess I like the view, huh?

Here's a view from one of the sunroom windows.  We will be building a patio area just in front of the plastic... we can't wait.

Well.... the view is the reason we decided to build this house..... so I suppose it's good that we are still so in love with it :-)

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend and that you have a fabulous Monday.   Warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight.   As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.

Hugs

Jaydee

You're quite a catch

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday.

Before I show you my card tonight, I'd like to send a huge shout out to Kelly for her fabulous card. It was such a surprise and so appreciated.  Thank you, Kelly.  It did mean a great deal to me.

I have a card for you tonight!  I saw this great challenge across at cas-ualfridays.  The challenge was to make a clean and simple card using a technique I so rarely use - paper piecing.  For some reason, I saw this set in my collection and decided it would be ideal to use with this technique.

I pulled out some Patterns Pack in Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie,  two different pieces of Pear Pizzazz and set to work.  When I had finished I realized that the focal point needed a frame, so I did something else I NEVER do - I decided to hand draw a frame!

Here's what I came up with

Originally I paper pieced the bubbles from the fish, but decided that basic rhinestones worked so much better.  I also created a little texture on the top piece of Pool Party card stock using a texture plate from PTI.

So, what do you think of my paper pieced card?  Is it a technique that you use much?  You can sure see some fabulous inspiration across at cas-ualfridays - so why not pop along and check it out.

On a personal note:

Well, Mr Merlin got a clean bill of health from a very happy, smiling, vet today.  I can honestly tell you that I am not sure who was happier me... or our amazing vet.  He is doing so well (Merlin that is... not the vet :-))...that he is off all his medications and only has to go back in 6 months for a check up.  There is a chance of recurrence, so we have to watch him very closely, but for now, no more following poor Mr Merlin to the box everytime he goes there! 

The boys...not such a clean bill of health.  Sam and Bilbo are throwing up something in their specimens that the vet isn't so happy with, so they have sent samples off for more intensive testing.  We are hoping that they come back clean.  Really hoping!  Because these two are litter mates they are honestly just like twins.  Even their sample results, weight, everything is so similar it's not funny.  Even the vet says its really rare.  So, keep your fingers crossed on clean results for these two - an thank you so much to those of you who sent positive vibes Mr Merin's way.  They certainly helped!  Thank you also to those of you who shared your stories and your tips on getting them back to health.

I promised you an update on STAMPING ON CANVAS......  It's really simple and you can get something called "sticky backed canvas" and it comes in a variety of sizes.  If I get the chance this weekend, I will a video for you showing you how easy it is. 

Please would Ann, Sally, Darlene, Margaret, Michelle, Cam send me your addresses and I'll send a sample off for you to play with.  Kelly, I have your address and will send along a sample for you.  I promise you that I think you will all love it.

I'm going to leave the update on the house until tomorrow night for you.  I need to upload the photographs so will do that later tonight.  In the meantime.... I will share a sneak peek with you and Pammie - these are for you.

Pammie - here's the view from your room - well one of the views that is.  I have placed a chair in the corner for you (on paper for now!) and this is the view you will have... except it will be totally different outside when you get here.

Oh...and here's Lou hanging up some clothing (or at least simulating that move) in your walk in wardrobe

and here's the view that I will have sitting up in bed.  I sleep on the left side and, because of the orientation of the house, I get the good views!!!

Both Lou and I got very emotional when we drove up the street and saw the house.  I really was all overcome and welled up.  It was thrilling when we found that not only did we have a house... but we could get in through the door in the basement.  I don't think we will ever forget walking up the stairs from the basement and seeing it all come together.....   Oh.. and we saw our first real wildlife.  When Lou was at the bottom of our lot taking pictures of the house, we finally saw the deer!  They bounded across the wetland area when the saw him.  I could also hear the Chickadee calling - then I knew we were home.  It's a sound that I absolutely love!

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  I really do appreciate your visits and your support.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift today.  Marge, I hope Betty is doing OK.  It is so terribly hard knowing when to say goodbye and she will let you know when she is ready.  Big hugs, my friend. 

Have a beautiful Thursday

Hugs

Jaydee

Pammie, especially warm hugs for you, my friend!

Love - Happy Anniversary Pam and John

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

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

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

Here's looking at you kids :-)

On a personal note:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jaydee

Aviary for Freshly Made

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday.

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

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

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

Here's the sketch

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

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

 

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

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

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

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

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

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

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

Stampin' Supplies:

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

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

Buzbee Watch

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

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

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

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

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

SILVER GLIMMER PAPER

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Paper Players Challenge #69 - Artistic Etchings

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday

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

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

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

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

Here's what I came up with

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

Card recipe:

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

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

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

Julie

Ann

Cindy

Anne Marie

LeAnne

Lesley

Nance

Tara

On a personal note:

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

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

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

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Stripes for Embellish Magazine

Hi Everyone.  Happy Labor Day!  

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

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

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

Here's my take on it:

 

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

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

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

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

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

Jaydee

Love and Care

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.  Yay... it's almost Friday!

I hope you are all having a great week so far and managing to stay cool!  Tonight, I am SOOO late with my post!!!

I seem to be hooked on the layout for tonight's card!  I think I might just need an intervention. :-)

I really wanted to play around with Wisteria Wonder and the Love and Care set.  I love it paired with Elegant Eggplant and Lucky Limeade.  This was another card I made for OWH.

Oooooo... and talking about the OWH card drive.  I have a huge shout out for Beth tonight.  I received another packet of wonderful cards from Beth.  Beth has supported every one of our OWH card drives.... WAY TO GO, Beth.... you absolutely rock! 

Also, I heard from Andrea tonight... she also has cards on their way.... I can't wait to receive them.  Thank you so much to all of you who have already sent me cards.... and to those of you who let me know that you have cards in production :-)

Here's one of my contributions:

I love the striped paper with just a little border of the Lucky Limeade.  Since SU released Wisteria Wonder, I have discovered Elegant Eggplant!!! It wasn't a color I used very much, but I really love it with WW.  The other thing I have recently discovered?  Naturals White card stock.  Yep... How on earth have I gotten thru all these years without using it! :-)

Card deets:

• Card stock:  Naturals White, Lucky Limeade, Elegant Eggplant
• DSP:  In Colors Patterns Pack
• Stamps:  Love and Care
• Inks:  Elegant Eggplant, Lucky Limeade, Versamark
• Accessories:  Wisteria Wonder ribbon

On a personal note:

Well..we are really excited about the floors!  Now we just need to work out how long it is going to take them and just how much it is going to disrupt our daily lives.  In addition to the new hardwoods on the main floor, we are going to be finishing up our master bathroom - I am really excited about that, too. 

I don't know about you, but sometimes a girl just needs to revel in a warm bath, with dim lighting and just..... relax.  When I'm stressed there really is something incredibly relaxing about lying in a tub - it must be that who back to the womb thing :-)  So, I have new tiling to go around the bath (to match what we did in Lou's updated, snazzy, shower), a brand new spa tub and new faucets.  I really can't wait!!!  It's wonderful to get housing projects finished.  Rach and Jodi know all about that... Rach with her brand new laundry and updated bathroom, and Jodi with the great new floors she spoke about in her comment on last night's post!  Then.... there is Adelle, whose bathroom is, she tells me, a really good reason to stay put and not move!  I can absolutely understand that!

As always, thank you for visiting my blog.  Prayers and hugs to those who need a lift tonight.

Jaydee

Up, Up and Away - for Casestudy

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday

hope you all had a great weekend.

I did manage to get a couple of challenge cards made this weekend!  Yay!  I really do like doing challenges when I can as they stretch me and make me look at my supplies a little differently.

I saw the challenge across at Casestudy this week.  It's an inspiration challenge - as always with Casestudy.  The challenge is to take a card and create something different but take some element(s) from the original.

I liked the layout of the card.  The strong focal image, the vertical element, and the sentiment in an unexpected place.  I also took inspiration from the colors of orange and green.  However, I came up with something entirely different - and managed to use my new Up, Up and Away set, too!

Here's what I came up with.  (This card is another one for the OWH card drive.)

So.. you can see the strong focal images.  You can see the orange and green.  You can see the vertical element - and the sentiment stamped in a very different place for me... However, I think the sentiment works really well where it is, especially with these images.  You know.. up in the air :-)

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

• Card stock: Indigo Island, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Lucky Limeade
• Stamps:  Up, Up and Away
• Inks:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Indigo Island, Lucky Limeade
• Tools:  Big Shot, Stripes Embossing Folder, Punch (nonSU)

I double stamped all of the balloons and cut one copy of each out and mounted them onto the original using dimensionals.

I think its kinda cute and I love these colors together.  I really was tempted to go with a flower theme when I saw the inspiration card, but decided to go in a whole different direction instead, and I am so pleased I did.

As always, thank you so much for visiting my blog.  You know your visits - and your comments mean a great deal to me.

Hugs and prayers for those in need tonight.

Jaydee

Easy Events - Love

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday.  Oh... yeah!  It's Friday!  I have to work some this weekend, but right now, I am going to take some time and just enjoy this fabulous evening.

I have a card for you tonight made with the Easy Events.  This is one of the cards that will be going to the troop drive and I think it's just perfect.  It's another project that was provided to us by SU during convention.  I love the mixture of Pool Party and Wild Wasabi with a touch of Melon Mambo.  Not a color scheme I would have put together on my own, but I think it works fabulously.

You all know that I LOVE this wide grosgrain ribbon and I think that I need it in Wild Wasabi now!!!!

This card had a couple of tricks that I wanted to point out to you, as they are probably not that obvious in the photo. 

• The corners were cut with the Itty Bitty Bits circle punch
• White Baker's Twine was wrapped around each of the corners to make the frame
• The focal image was colored with blender pens and classic inks.  However... you will notice that the background to the stamp is green and not Pool Party!  Note to self:  make sure the blender pen does not have residual yellow ink when coloring with blue! :-)

Isn't that cute?  The envelope is stamped with the image, too.  I must admit, I am really loving working with the Naturals White paper.

I have a shout out tonight.... MARCIA!!!!  Marcia posted off 180 - yes, that's right ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY cards for the troops for our current OWH card drive.  I think that's pretty amazing.  That's 180 serving troops and 180 members of their family who will benefit from Marcia's tremendous gift.  So, Marcia.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!  YOU ROCK!!!

Don't forget, you still have until the end of August to submit cards for our troops.  For each 20 cards submitted - with envelopes - you will be put into a draw to win free SU goodies paid for by me!

On a personal note:

It has been a very long week this week.  I don't really feel much like working this weekend, but do intend to take some time tomorrow to do some housecleaning (well, as much as I can with my leg!) and some crafting.  Brenda brought around Harry Potter for me (thank you, Brenda!!!), so I think I am going to watch that tomorrow night after dinner.  Lou leaves town again tomorrow for two weeks and, as I am not able to drive right now, we went out and did shopping this evening and it's off to the Farmer's Market tomorrow to get some wonderful fresh goodies for me to munch on whilst he is away.  I am really looking forward to some fresh cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, summer squash and some freshly picked arugula.  Yumm..  I can taste them already.  I think a little Caprese salad with some fresh argula is on the menu for dinner tomorrow.

Beverly, I know you must be having a FABULOUS time at Niagra - hoping you are managing to stay coolish!  Your convention goodies - and those for Crystal - will be winging their way to you tomorrow.

Jeanne, thank you for your WONDERFUL card!  I am so pleased you you are enjoying your blog candy goodies.  I loved the card you sent, and was so honored that you shared it with me!

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

As always, thank you for your visit - and for your comments. Have a wonderful Saturday

hugs

Jaydee

Field Flowers - Paper Players Challenge #55

Hi Everyone, happy Saturday night!

Great challenge for you across at the Paper Players this week.  Lesley has a fabulous color challenge.

It took me a little while to work out what I was going to do with these colors, in fact I tried a couple of sets that I thought would work, but nothing turned out quite right.  

I was focusing too much on the Crumb Cake and not enough on the other fabulous colors.  I finally had an idea and went along with it to see if it would work.   In the end, I was very pleased with the way it turned out.  

Yes... I know you are all going to be sitting there saying... hub?  Is this really Jaydee's blog?  Is that distressing we see?  Are those edges all distressed?  Really?  And what's with the Color Spritzing?  Has she been channeling Ann Schach?   

Well.... I decided the stamp set did lend itself to something a little more distressed than usual.  However, I did keep clean and simple lines! :-)

 

I found that once I stopped focusing on what I was going to do with the Crumb Cake and realized that I can minimize it, things fell into place.  I think many of us get caught up on color challenges when we focus on a color that doesn't fit into our comfort zone.  

I decided to use the Crumb Cake as the background.  I inked up my En Francais stamp and pressed Natural White card stock gently onto the stamp.  This gave me French script in Crumb Cake.  I then took my Color Spritzing tool and my Crumb Cake marker and spritzed the Natural White layer, too.

I covered the Basic Gray and Baja Breeze layers with the En Francais stamp as well, and also spritzed them with the Crumb Cake.  This helped to tie the layers together and give them continuity.

I inked up the stem of the flower in Lucky Limeade then, using the "kissing" technique, I touched the stem with my Basic Gray marker.  You can see the stem change from green to gray, giving it a more aged feel.

I thought the Four Frames stamp set was perfect as a place to the put greeting and the "with love" fit inside it perfectly.  I punched out the frame then used my snips to take the frame down to where the stamped image finished.  This allowed me to create a Baja Breeze layer that fit so well behind it.  I inked up the stamp with my Baja Breeze and Basic Gray markers.  The Basic Gray was used for the curly bits in the middle of all sides!

All edges of the card stock were distressed using the sides of my paper snips.

For once, I decided to use my Bow Easy to create the bow.  I cannot make bows that small without it, and my "normal" size bow was just too big.  A few pearls finished off the card.

So, what do you think?  I LOVE this stamp set! I also think this is a perfect card for our Operation Write Home card drive.

All supplies Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.

• Card stock: Baja Breeze, Natural White, Basic Gray
• Inks:  Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, Basic Gray, Versamark, Baja Breeze, Lucky Limeade
• Stamps:  Field Flowers, Four Frames, En Francais
• Accessories:  Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon, Basic Pearls
• Tools:  Decorative Label Punch, paper snips, Stampin' Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Now, it's over to you.  Pop along to the Paper Players and join in the fun!  You have two weeks to share your creations with us.  We are extending our challenge # 55 to a two week challenge to give everyone more time to ink up some rubber and show us what fabulous creations you have made.

On a personal note.  ...

I have two photos to share with you tonight.... Another sleeping cat photo... this time little Charlie.  He knows exactly how to make himself comfortable on our couches in my stamping space.

Then...here's a photograph my camera took all by itself.  Well, with the aid of my floor!  Yep, I tripped in my stamping space.  I had just finished taking the pictures of my challenge card on the window sill.  I turned around, tripped over a wire, went flying towards the wall, pushed myself away from the wall so as not to bang my head straight into it, but managed, somehow to keep a hold of my camera!  The photo took itself as I hit the ground.  You can see my hand in the top left hand corner... that pink shiny thing!   I didn't realize the camera had gone off until I went to upload my photos tonight!

 Yes, the camera landed on it's head and took a picture of the world upside down.  Me?  Well, I landed with my all (not inconsiderable) weight on my right knee.  As of this minute there is no bruising, however my knee and the area below it, have an 8" egg sticking out from that area.  It's getting really stiff and I think is going to get bigger.   Mmmmmm....bit of a problem considering I am going to need to walk for miles next week.  Luckily, I managed to graze the wall with my head instead of slamming straight into it.  I did manage to twist my back though!  Charlie... heard me go down, I mean, I didn't exactly go down quietly!!!!  and came rushing to make sure I was OK.  He rubbed his head against my hand as I lay on the ground swearing up a cloud!   Ah... sweet!  He then proceeded to lick my hand, just in case I needed it :-)

Sometimes, all you need in life, is a little bit of love!  Charlie certainly gave that today with, I might add, Bailey in hot pursuit about 1 minute later!

I hope your weekend is filled with a little bit of love.  Prayers tonight for those who need a little lift.  Missy and Rach included!

Now, don't forget to pop along and check out the fabulous Design team cards on our challenge this week

Hugs

Jaydee

Iridescent Ice Heart

Hi Everyone.

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

I have a couple of things for you tonight.  Firstly, I found a new challenge site.  Tiffany Guam has started a challenge on Sundays.  I saw this challenge this last Sunday  and thought... ah.... mmmm... that might make a nice and clean valentine card.  I wanted to make a heart card and really focus on just the heart.  Of course, I had to bling it up a little.... and Lou and I are the opposites of each other... so I thought... one blingy side to the heart and one matt side.... anyway - this is what I came up with

I used Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla card stock.  The heart was punched for the XL Heart Punch.  I then used the negative space from the punched heart to sponge a heart on the envelope. 

I used Versamark on one side of the heart and some Iridescent Ice embossing powder and my heat gun.  Voila - a heart with two distinctly different halves... that make up one heart!  Quite appropriate I thought :-)

I loved the card and was really inspired by the sketch.

Now.... You might remember me asking everyone what they were doing for Valentine.  Linda left us this comment letting us know what she was planning. 

I'm going to my book club, spending the night with good friends generating great conversation. This month we're each 'selling' a book that we've read in the past month.

I then asked which book Linda would be "selling".  Here was Linda's response:

I'm 'selling' "An Inconvenient Elephant" by Judy Reene Singer, given to me by my daughter and son-in-law for Christmas. I spent two years in Thailand and fell in love with elephants there. There were two that sometimes camped with their mahouts (caretakers) in the field across from my apartment. Since there was no more teak logging work for the elephants, their mahouts would often bring them into the cities and take them around to outdoor restaurants. They would sell you sugar cane to feed to the animals.

I haven't read the book - but need to go check it out.  It got me to thinking though.... I am thrilled that logging was stopped in Thailand, but it did leave many, many elephants and their mahouts without jobs and without a purpose.  This struck a chord with me several years ago when I read an article about how these magnificent animals who, without a "job", were now being abused or put into circuses.  You can read a little introduction to the story of the painting elephants right here.  Right here.... you can see a painting by one of those elephants

Couple of things about this painting....

• it's in our dining room and, one a bright summer day, when the sun is lowering in the sky, the sun shines through our kitchen into the dining room and hits this painting.  It in turn lights up the entire dining room with a wonderful happy glow.  It wasn't intended that way, it just happened that way.   Also, I can see this painting from my desk and it makes me happy.  
• When we went to have it framed, I insisited it be framed in glass.  The woman at the art shop kept insisting it should go in a frame.  I told her that the Elephant had gone off the paper and I for sure wasn't going to frame it if she had gone off the paper... yep... she thought I was nuts.  She would not believe that it was painted by an elephant.

So, Linda, thank you for reminding me of my painting and for giving me an excuse to showcase it!

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Germaine.  For those affected by the floods - more floods coming - and fires in Oz.

Have a fabulous Thursday everyone.

Hugs

Jaydee

P.S. Linda - please could you send me your snail mail address to jaydeestamping@charter.net - I have a little something I want to send you

Valentine Defined - in Red

Hi Everyone

OK.. ... I promise, this is the last Valentine Defined card for a while!  When I made the pretty in pink one that I showcased last night, I also made a luscious red one, too.  I have played around with so much Cherry Cobbler recently, that it was wonderful to go back to Real Red.

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

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Real Red (textured)
• Stamps:  Valentine Defined
• Accessories:  Real Red Satin Ribbon, Glimmer Brads - Brights
• Tools:  Oval nestabilities (non-SU), Oval Punch

I love the smooth red satin against the textured card stock.  I know I MAY have said this before, but I really am loving this stamp set :-)

Now, I am always thrilled when you tell me that you are going to CASE one of my cards.  It is so flattering.  I love it even more when I receive photographs of the projects you made.  I hope Beverly won't mind, but she sent me this photograph.  She had taken my Awash with Flowers card and a few with different sentiments.  That's the great thing about a card you like, you can make several at a time and just change up the sentiment.  So, Beverly, thanks so much for honoring me by CASEING.

Here's what Beverly created:

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Erin, Jan A, Germaine.  For those still being affected by the floods and fires in Oz.

Have a fabulous Saturday, everyone.  I really hope you get time to do the things you love, with those you love

Hugs

Jaydee

Valentine - feminine and girly

Hi Everyone.

Quick post for you tonight. 

I really hardly ever make feminine, girly, cards.  But sometimes, you just need a pink and girly card for those precious little princesses in your life.  Again, this is one that will be going off to the troops.

I used Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz and Very Vanilla.  Such a soft, gentle, color combo.

  

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

• card stock:  Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride
• Stamps:  Valentine Defined
• Inks:  Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride - Stampin' Write Markers, Regal Rose Classic Ink for the sentiment
• Accessories:  Blushing Bride ribbon, In Color Glimmer Brad
• DSP: In Color Patterns Pack
• Tools:  Oval Punch.  Nestabilities Ovals Dies (non-SU)

On a personal note:

Loved hear what you are all doing for Valentine's!  Marge - 55 years.  that's pretty darn cool.  congratulations!  Linda, I love your idea of your girl bookclub and "selling" your book this month.  What book was it?  Beverly, Outback with friends!  What a cool way to spend Saturday evening.  Rach... yep.. dates at Barnes and Noble after dinner - that's a great night!  Especially precious when you get so little time with B.

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Jan A, Erin, Germaine and those still being affected by the floods and fires in Oz.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

 

Paper Players Challenge # 33 and Blog Hop Candy Winner!

Hi Everyone

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

I did get some time in my stamping space today.  Luckily - cos I was way behind on making my card for the Paper Players Challenge this week.  Lesley has assigned a great theme for us this week. 

Before we get to the challenge card though, I have a winner to announce for the Paper Players Bog Hop Candy!  Mmm.... thats beginning to sound like a song... How did that go... well... let's go for the children's version, shall we? 

There's a little white horse you can ride of course

You can jump so high you can touch the sky

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

Now... after that little diversion... sometimes I do wonder about my mind:-)

BLOG CANDY WINNER...... the requirements for the blog candy winner were pretty simple.  All you had to do was pop along to each of the blog hop stops and leave a little love.  A random generator tool generated..... well, a random number :-)  I then compared that number against the comments on my blog post and then checked each of the blog hop stops to make sure that the winner had left a little love.  In this case, LYNN had done exactly that!  So, congratulations

LYNN FRYE

Lynn, please send me an email with your snail mail address and I will get your Silhouette Sentiments stamp set and Basic Pearls in the mail to you.  Thanks to all of you who stopped by our blog - we really appreciated each visit.

Now, on to tonight's card.  I really wanted to use the new set that is in the New Occasions Mini that just arrived.  I love this set... it's so cool.  In fact, I made 4 cards with this set today.  Now, for my long time blog readers, this card will come as a bit of a surprise.   NO RIBBON.  NO PEARLS!  Nope... not a little bit of ribbon, nor one single solitary little pearl! :-)

Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up!

• Card stock:    Basic Gray, Real Red, Whisper White
• Stamp set:  Valentine Defined (121941 wood, 123057 clear
• DSP:  Love Impressions (121780), Glimmer Paper (121790)
• Ink:  Real Red, Basic Gray Stampin' Write markers, Real Red Classic Ink
• Tools:  Oval Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

On a personal note: 

I'm hoping to get a little more time in my stamping space tomorrow.  I have some more ideas for the Valentine Defined set! 

Thank you to all of you who send warm thoughts or prayers the way of those on our prayer list.  You guys must be doing something right! :-)  I heard today that Maria's tests had come back negative. This is wonderful news.  Congrats, Maria.  Continued prayers though for Rose, Adelle, Germaine and for those affected by the floods in Australia.

So, what will you all be doing whilst the Super Bowl is on.  I know what Cherie will be doing.... watching the Packers.  What about the rest of you?  Why not leave me a comment and let me know whether you will be watching the football, shopping, stamping - or doing something else altogether.  Me?  Errr... no super bowl watching.  I'll be stamping... I'm hoping that is the case.  I might have to work, but am hoping that I don't!

Have a wonderful Sunday, however you chose to spend it!

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Botanical Gazette meets Define your Life meets FYI

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.

Well, y'all know by now that I am really trying to use different stamp sets  - ones that really don't get enough love - and also trying different things.  It's great that one of my new year goals is on track!  Now, I have to work on the exercise one ! :-)

Tonight's card is another one for the troops.  I know that there are many men who really don't like giving really feminine cards to their wives.  Sometimes, their wives or family members just aren't into very feminine cards.  Sometimes men just aren't comfortable with all that pink and bling and all the stuff that I love.  So, I decided to try something entirely different tonight.  A little distressing, a little less feminine.  Colors I don't generally use.  Altogether - right outside of my comfort zone.

I saw this great sketch across at cardpositioning systems and decided it was an ideal one to use with the FYI set.  This set is such a great set and I really don't use it often enough at all.  You can see that I put the sketch on its side to make best use of the FYI.

I also decided that it was about time that I used Define Your Life.  I really wanted to feature it on the front.  Next thing I decided - I really wanted to show an empty bird cage.  I first started with stamping and cutting out the birdcage from the Nature Walk set, but it was just too small.  Then I decided to pull out the Botanical Gazette DSP and cut around one of the bird cages on the DSP.

Why the birdcage?  Well, I thought the I MISS YOU went really well with an empty bird cage. :-)

I used one of the antique brads for the attachment to the birdcage.  However, it was way too brassy looking, so I used one of my Copic markers to color it Early Espresso.

Here's what I came up with

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

• Card stock:  Early Espresso, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla
• DSP:  Botanical Gazette -the cage, the focal point backdrop and the script are all from the Botanical Gazette DSP
• Accessories:  Early Espresso ribbon, Antique Brad
• Tools:  Distressing Kit, Stampin' Dimensionals, Copic marker (non SU) to color Antique Brad, Oval Punch for the FYI sentiment
• Stamp sets:  FYI, Define Your Life

On a personal note:

looks like this week isn't going to be that much easier than last week.  I was assigned another project today that meant a 13 hour day today and will probably mean that for the rest of the week, too.  So, no stamping for me this week!  At least Lou is home so he can pick up a little of the slack for me on the household duties, which really does help a little. 

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Maria, Germaine.  For those Australians who are expecting yet another massive storm - a Cyclone with expected speeds of 175mph and expected to drop 3 feet of water.  For my readers on the East Coast who are dealing with yet another major storm.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

As always - thank you for visiting my blog.  You know I really appreciate it.  I also appreciate those of you who commented on my card last night.  Seems like a pretty even split on whether the card with the bow or without the bow is better.  I was surprised that it was such an even split!

Have a fabulous Wednesday everyone.  As Cherie would say - Happy Hump Day

Hugs

Jaydee

 

 

To bow, or not to bow - that is always the question!

Hi everyone.  Happy Monday night.

My thanks to all of you who visited my blog on the Paper Players blog hop - and for those of you who continued on the hop to the other players.  It was a truly fun experience for me and I am so appreciative of all of your visits and all of your comments.  It really does mean a great deal to me!  So - many, many thanks!

I managed to get a little play time in my stamping space this weekend.  Those of you who visit my blog regularly know that I have a few new year goals.  I'm doing better with some than others!  :-)  One of my goals is to use different color combos.  Consequently, I find myself being drawn to color challenges that have colors that I never use, hardly use, or would never generally put together!  I am also trying to join the color challenges with sketch challenges to push myself even further.

This weekend I saw the BOW challenge across at the Pals  and when I made the first version of my card tonight, using Flores Suaves, I looked at my finished card and thought about the Pals challenge to use bows.  Sometimes, a bow really does make a card. 

I used the initial colors from the 4craftychicks challenge (very vanilla, chocolate chip, crumb cake, wild wasabi), but decided to throw a spanner in my works and add cherry cobbler to make it a little more outside my comfort zone!

I saw the sketch across at waltzingmouse and as the Pals challenge had really made me think about using bows and that I needed to put one on my card -  decided it fits the Pals challenge, too.

So, what do you all think?  To bow, or not to bow?  What's your vote?

Here's the initial version.

Here's the final version.

A couple of things I like about the card.  1) The texture on the bow and the texture on the Cherry Cobbler paper work really well together.  2) The light Crumb Cake of the background stamp.  (unfortunately it didn't come out too well on the pic!)   3) the different size layers on the focal point.  I really wanted a very small border of the Wild Wasabi and then graduated out very slightly with the Crumb Cake and the Chocolate Chip.  4) I am loving the Basic Pearls - being able to color them any color I want saves me heaps of money on colored pearls.

Card recipe:

• Card Stock:  Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
• Stamp:  Flores Suaves, Tiny Tags
• Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding Ribbon
• Tools:  Copic markers. Tag Punch. Paper Snips. 

On a personal note:

It was a really good weekend.  I didn't work at all this weekend, so had some time to catch up on some sleep.  In fact I slept in on Saturday until 10am. I never do that!  As I went to bed at midnight, that means I got a full 10 hours of sleep.  Very interrupted sleep, but sleep none the less!    Lou got home Saturday afternoon and it was good to have him home.  I also got some crafting time in, some house cleaning time.. so all round a good weekend.

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Maria and Germaine.  For those of you who need a little lift, or a virtual hug.

Have a fabulous Tuesday everyone.

Hugs

Jaydee

The Paper Players First Blog Hop - and Challenge 32 - Anything Goes - and Blog Candy

Hi Everyone. 

 

Happy Sunday!I'm thrilled that you have popped in to visit me on the Paper Players Blog Hop.   
If I am the first stop on your trip around the Paper Players blogs, don't forget to visit the other players and check out their fabulous creations.  Some of them also have blog candy for you!

 

 

I have two projects to share with you.  A 3-D item and a co-ordinating card.  Both of these projects use items from the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Catalog. 

BLOG HOP STOPS

Before I share my projects with you, let me list the blog hop members.  You can click on any of their names to go directly to their blog.  

• Anne-Marie Hile
• Ann Schach
• Jeanne Kupsch
• Julie Gearinger
• LeAnne Pugliese
• Lesley Croghan
• Marlene Peters
• Nance Leedy

PAPER PLAYERS CHALLENGE #32

Also, don't forget to join the Paper Players Challenge #32 this week.  It's an Anything Goes challenge.  Yep... anything - a 3D project, a card, a scrapbook page.  You are welcome to use ANY brand of crafting supplies.  We love seeing them all!  All that we ask is that you create a new project for the challenge and put a link on your blog post or social media site back to our challenge post.  Link up your creation.  You are done!  We really hope you join us.

BLOG CANDY

My blog candy for you is a brand new, unmounted hostess set from the current catalog - Silhouette Sentiments.  Along with that is a brand new packet of the fabulous Basic Pearls. You can check out each of these fabulous prizes on the Stampin' Up! website.  All you have to do is click HERE to view the Silhouette Sentiments set and click HERE for the Basic Pearls.  You can't buy the Silhouette Sentiments, the only way you can normally get this set of 8 stamps is buy hosting a workshop valued at $150 or more.

How can you be entered in to win this fabulous blog candy?  Simple, all you have to do is visit each one of the blog hop posts on each of the stops and leave a comment.  That's it.  Visit 9 blogs, look at the 9 amazing projects made just for this blog hop and leave a comment on each of the blog hop blog posts (including mine!)  I will then draw a name at random and do a quick check that the winner left a comment on each blog.  I will cover the cost of the goodies and shipping and handling to anywhere in the US.

Here's my 3D project for you.

 

I decided that I really needed a card to tie into this and used some of the same supplies to create this clean and simple card.  Now, the great think about this XOXO set, is that it is perfect for Valentines Day, anniversary - or any time you just want to tell someone you love them!  It's also perfect for either gender.  A very versatile set.   As for the Glimmer Paper - LOVE THIS!!!!

   

Project recipes - all ingredients from Stampin' Up! - all item page numbers refer to the new occasions mini.  Clicking on the highlighted items will take you straight to the Stampin' Up! website where you can see all the details of the individual products.

3D Project:

• Card stock:  Real Red, Whisper White, Glimmer Paper (121790 - page 7)
• DSP: Love Impressions (121780 - page 7)
• Stamp Set:  XOXO (121909 wood mount, 121973 clear mount) - page 6
• Decor Blocks (set of 4 blocks 116829 
• Ribbon:  1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain ribbon (119768)
• Tools:  Paper and card stock were adhered using Sticky Strip.  The XOXO large heart was cut out using the Full Heart Punch (119883).  The small hearts were punched using the Small Heart Punch (117193).  Vinyl letters - from retired Christmas set

Here's a close view of the side of the blocks, showing the Love Impressions DSP

 Here's a closeup of the Glimmer Brad, Glimmer Paper, the key trinket - and the fabulous background stamp.  I love the Glimmer Paper and Glimmer Brads together. 

The key is just the perfect touch with this sentiment.  If you want to read the story of why keys have special meaning for me, you can pop along to this post.

CARD RECIPE:

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Real Red, Glimmer Paper (121790 - page 7)
• Stamps:  XOXO (121973 clear mount, 121909 wood mount - page 6)
• Wheel:  Language of Love (122069 - page 9)
• Accessories:  Key  - Trinket Keys (121892 - page 24), Glimmer Brads Brights (121006 - page 31)
• Tools:  Stampin' Around Wheel Guide (104834)

That's all folks!!! :-)

Don't forget to hop on to the rest of the players to check out their phenomenal projects.

  Click on the thumbnail to visit your next stop on the hop - Jeannie

Click on this thumbnail if you want to go to the start of the blog hop

Click on this thumbnail if you want to go back to the previous stop on the hop - Ann

 

Don't forget to visit all the stops and leave a comment to be eligible to win the fabulous stamp set and Basic Pearls I have on offer for you!

Thank you for your visit!

Hugs

Jaydee

I Heart Hearts and Blog Hop Alert

Hi Everyone.

Happy Friday Night.... oh... yeah.... jaydee is doing the happy dance.... yep... me... dancing... kicking up my heels, whistling, swinging my umbrella... you know.. the whole happy dance bit.  why?  well... IT'S FRIDAY!!!!! and, my hubby is on his way home!  On top of that, I got to make 3 cards today!  So, all round, a jolly good day!

Before we get on to tonight's card - a quick heads up.  The Paper Players are having their first ever BLOG HOP starting on Sunday.  A brand new challenge will be revealed and the Paper Players have gone all out for you this week.  Some of the Players are even offering up blog candy.  So, don't forget to check back in on Sunday for all the fun.

For tonight's card I used the inspiration across at the moxie tuesday trigger and I tied that together with the fabulous layout at cleanandsimplestamping.  Now, those gorgeous fudge hearts at the trigger are making me really hungry.  I don't normally use a lot of pink, but I thought about the cleanandsimple layout and decided that gradations of color would work really well with the trigger, and the layout.

All I needed was 4 different shades of pink card stock, a little versamark, some iridescent ice embossing powder, some gorgeous ribbon - and away I went.

Here's what I came up with.  I must tell you, I like it.  I really do!  What do y'all think?

   

This card could make me fall in love with pink! :-)

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

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Blushing Bride
• Inks:  Rose Red
• Stamp set:  I {Heart} Hearts. Sentiment  i love you, Wordsworth
• Ribbon:  Rose Red Seam Binding Ribbon
• Tools:  Versamark, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Stampin Dimensionals

I cut the stripes to 1 x 2 1/2" and stuck them on to a piece of Whisper White cut at 4" x 2 1/2".  Once all the pieces were adhered, I trimmed the edges and applied the versamark and the embossing powder.  I then stamped the sentiment and adhered the panel to the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Quick, easy and, I think, very effective.  In fact, I made another card using exactly the same layout.  You will see that later this coming week.

On a personal note:

I calculated that I had worked 72 hours this week - before I had even begun work today!  No wonder I was blown by the time I got to 2pm this afternoon.  I was completely exhausted mentally and couldn't do any more.  The only thing I could do is come down to my stamping space and wonder which stamps to apply to card stock!  Some time spent stamping was exactly what I needed.

Mind you, this week could have been worse.  I was supposed to be traveling to New York this week.  Well, in fact, I did.  Except, I didn't quite make it.  I got up at 5am on Wednesday to leave home at 7am to catch a 10am flight.  I caught the shuttle to Minneapolis, checked in, went through security.  Oh... mmm.. well, I actually had a full body pat down at security.  Not sure if you have had one of these recently, but no more wanding.  It's all hands on deck!  What was the cause of this full body pat down?  Ah. Well.  The underwire in my bra apparently set off the security sensor. 

After I finally got through security and it was determined that my bra underwire was of no threat to the airline crew or passengers, I was allowed to carry on my way.  I got to the gate with 10 minutes to spare.  I decided to pick up my messages on my cellphone.  Message from the meeting organizer...." if you haven't gotten on the plane yet, don't!  Major storm in NY."  Well, that was great, except they were calling my flight for boarding.  In fact, they were boarding first class passengers.  We waited for the guys up in the nice comfy front seats to get on the plane and waited....and waited... and waited... and waited... Mmmm.. something going on here, I said to myself!   Yep, about 7 minutes later they advised us that the flight had been cancelled and they were deboarding the passengers that had boarded.  I didn't waste a second, I turned on my heels and ran out of the building as fast as my legs would allow.  Luckily security don't stop me on the way out, so me and my underwire bra were allowed to leave the building unmolested.   I ran back to the shuttle station and was back home by 1pm.  Yippee!

Don't forget to check in for the Paper Players challenge this week.  My post will be later than normal tomorrow night, cos I don't want to post at my normal time and spoil all the fun!  So, my post will be scheduled to post in the early hours of Sunday morning instead of the usual time of around 9.30 pm Saturday night.

I was thrilled to hear that Madiba had been released from hospital and allowed to return home today.  But continued prayers for Mandela anyway for a full recovery.  Prayers also for Rose, Adelle, Maria, Germaine.  Warm thoughts and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Have a fabulous Saturday everyone

Hugs

Jaydee

Simply the Best - for my honey

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

I was really sorry to say ciao to my honey this weekend.  We managed to get a whole month together without him leaving town.  I am so used to him being gone so much, that I had forgotten how great it is to have him home for a period. 

I saw this great sketch from the operators across at stamping411 and decided it was the perfect sketch to make a card for my honey.  Before I show you the card though, I wanted to say a big thank you to the operators for chosing this card as one of their picks this past weekend.  I never, ever get tired of how wonderful it feels when a challenge card is picked as a fav.  I also owe a lot to the operators, as they were amazingly supportive of me when I first started blogging and entering challenges.  I always tried to play along with them as I really enjoyed their challenges and they are such a great group of talented ladies.  If you haven't played along with them recently, pop along to the website and make sure you check out this week's challenge.

So... why did my honey deserve a card?  Well, he really is pretty amazing.  I know I don't tell him that often enough, but he really is.  Not only is he the most handsome man on the planet... well... errr...maybe after George Clooney :-)!  He also tries to take such good care of me.  This weekend before he left, he ran around trying to make sure that everything he had to do was done, that he got my stamping spage ready for me to organize.  Filled up the car with petrol, just in case I needed to drive anywhere.  He fed the animals and the birds outside so that I could enjoy them at the feeder's whilst he was away and so many other little things that often go unappreciated.

It's hard to believe that we have been together for 16 years.  And you know what?  I still go weak at the knees when I see him when he comes home and he still makes my heart go pitter patter.  Now, all say..... aaaaaahhhhhh :-)

So, Lou - this one is for you.  Because... you simply are the best.

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

• Card stock:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Glimmer Paper (from the new mini)
• Sentiment:  Simply You (non-SU)
• Accessories:  Basic Grey Satin Ribbon
• Tools:  Heart Punch

On a personal note.

It has been madness around here these last few days.  I worked long hours last week.  I worked Saturday.  Sunday, I started working at 9am and finished at 11.45pm.  yep.  that was 9am to 11.45pm!  Then, I was on a conference call again at 6am this morning!  Consequently, absolutely no stamping was done at all yesterday!  Needless to say, my stamping space is no closer to being organized either :-)

And, on that note, I need to go feed the pussycats.  It's almost 8pm and they haven't been fed yet and I haven't had dinner!

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Maria, Vickie, Germaine.  Those affected by the flooding in Australia and Brazil.

Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone

Hugs

Jaydee

My life is so special because you are in it and feel good Friday

Hi Everyone.

Happy Friday.  I do have a feel good story for you today.  Courtesy of Rach.  In fact, Rach posted this wonderful story on her blog today, so I am just going to link you directly to it.  What struck me about it?  Well, hands up those of you who can remember being 8.  yep... see me waving... that's me... I remember being 8.  I remember it being an awkward age.  An age where I was not quite comfortable with myself.  An age where it was easy to feel embarrassed.  What I loved about this story?... that a group of people came together to make an 8 year old little girl overcome her shock and embarrassment at a crucial moment singing the National Anthem of the USA.  Rach, thanks for bringing us this story via your blog.  You can go read the story and watch the video RIGHT HERE.

I have another Valentine/love/anniversary card for you today.  I was really in the mood for Valentine cards this past week, and I was certainly in the mood for clean and simple.

I don't know about you, but I never seem to have enough sentiments. When I buy non-SU stamps, they are generally sentiment stamps and that's what I used on the card tonight.

I also brought out my itty bitty buttons and my gold elastic cord.  I couldn't resist matching the gold elastic cord to some Metallic Gold card stock and some Cherry Cobbler.  I swear, Stampin' Up! created the perfect color when they introduced Cherry Cobbler.

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

• Card stock:  Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Gold Metallic
• Hearts:  Scalloped Heart of Hearts embosslit die (for the first heart)(117332), Full Heart Extra Large Punch (for the gold heart) (119883), nesties hearts for the Cherry Cobbler heart
• Accessories:  Bitty Buttons (118761), gold elastic cord (retired)
• Stamps:  Heartfelt Basics (non SU)

On a personal note:

I promised you a couple of last shots of the Yorkshire Dales.  You can check last night's post for the details on the Yorkshire Dales and a couple more photographs.

The Dales are famous for their sheep.  I tried to capture a good shot and it was pretty tough.  Here is one lonely sheep in the meadow:

I loved this next shot.  The stone walls are so typical of this part of England.  Not only that, they are built without any mortar at all.  Stonewall building is really a dying art form.

It's a pretty remote place, and farmhouses don't appear very often.  I loved this view.  This photo was taken in color - although you wouldn't believe it. I loved the textures created by the natural landscape, the low lying grasses, the wall and the relief of the backdrop.

 

At the end of our drive, just before we stopped for tea and English scones, we came across the Ribblehead viaduct. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed our photos from the spectacular Yorkshire Dales.  I still have some more pics to share with you from our cruise in November, and I promise I will share those in the next week.

In the meantime, prayers for Rose, Adelle, Maria, Vickie, Germaine and Pri.  For those in Australia and Brazil affected by the floods and landslides.  For those of you who need a little lift today.

As always, thank you to all of you for your visit and your comments.  they mean a great deal to me.

Hugs

Jaydee

One Layer Valentine

Hi Everyone.

Happy Wednesday.  Hope you are all having a great week.

Sometimes, I just need to go back to my clean and simple roots.  Sometimes, I force myself to create a one layer card.  I really find one layer cards challenging.  What colors to use.  What stamps to use.  Where to position the elements.  It should be so simple to create a one layer card.  But I find it really tough.

A little while ago I found some amazing sentiment stamps from Wordsworth.  Tonight's card uses one of those sentiment stamps.  I thought it was perfect for Valentine.  It could work just as well for anniversary cards, too.

Isn't that quote just fabulous?

I'll be back tomorrow with another card and some more pics of our trip!

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Maria, Vickie, Brien, Germaine, Pri.  As Jan reminded me, I should also include prayers for all those affected by the terrible flooding in Australia

Have a fabulous Thursday everyone

Hugs

Jaydee 

Love you much with envie!

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday night.

I hope you all had a great day.  For me, well it was my first day back at work.  'nuff said :-)

When I was in my stamping space this weekend, I checked out some challenges.  Always a great way to try to get my mojo back after a break.  I noticed a great sketch across at Friday mashup and a challenge at justusgirls to line your envelope to match the card you make for the challenge.  So, I combined both challenges and decided to make a Valentine's card.  Yep, another one!  I couldn't wait to pull out the fabulous glitter paper again, as well as the DSP from the new occasions mini.  This was perfect, cos the Fridaymashup challenge had a twist - bring on the bling!  I think the glitter paper and the silver pearls constitute bling! :-)

Here's what I came up with:

I went one step further and did the inside, too!

This card is neither too masculine nor too feminine and the DSP is perfect for both genders.  The sketch was great to work with and the envelope challenge really forced me to think about something I generally pretty much ignore!  Don't forget to pop along to both the sites and check out the design team inspiration and submission cards.  I know you will find something to inspire you.

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

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Basic Grey, Glimmer Paper (121790)
• DSP:  Love Impressions DSP (121780)
• Stamps:  Love you Much (113756), Hodgepodge Happiness (circle in my thoughts 24 7) (120570 (c) and 117141 (w)
• Ink:  Real Red, Basic Grey
• Accessories:  Silver pearls (non SU)

On a personal note:

I promised to share a couple of pictures with you from our recent trip.  I will split them over three posts to show pictures of the three different regions we visited in the UK.  The first picture is one of my favorites.  It shows the bridge across the Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire.  It was taken fairly early in the morning and the lake was like glass.   Now, for you history buffs - especially world war II history buffs, this reservoir has great significance.  Anyone see the film :"Dambusters"?  Well, during world war II before the bombing of some of the major dams in Germany, the Lancaster bombers practiced dropping the bombs using the Ladybower reservoir.  In fact, filming for film took place at Ladybower reservoir in 1954.  So, it's pretty famous.  It's also positioned in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK.  I know I am pretty biased, but the Peak District National Park is just fabulous.  It's where my soul feels at peace.  It's also where I want my ashes scattered.

So, enough of the history lesson, here's my pic.

You will notice that the gray sky (normal for a winter's day in England - reflects perfectly in the water of the reservoir.  The bridge is perfectly captured in the glass-like surface of the water.

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Brien, Vickie, Maria, Germaine and Pri.

As always, my grateful thanks to all of you for visiting.  I really appreciated those of you who left feedback on my card for John.  It made me feel really good, especially as I was a little worried about it.  My thanks also to those of you who are making a card to help Sue reach her goal to celebrate John's 90th birthday.

Have a fabulous Tuesday everyone

Hugs

Jaydee

Key to My Heart - You're a Gem and XOXO for Paper Players Challenge # 29

Hi Everyone.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  It's the first challenge of the year across at the Paper Players and  it's a theme challenge.  No prizes for guessing that it is a Valentine's challenge :-)  We hope that you play along with us.  All you need to do is load your newly created Valentine themed card, scrapbook page or 3D project to your blog or social media site and link back to the PaperPlayers site. 

I must admit, it was really nice creating something other than a Christmas card!  In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I made love themed cards this weekend!

For the PaperPlayers challenge I decided to keep to the clean and simple theme that I have been on since we got back from vacation.  I used components from two of the new sets in the occasions mini as well as one of my favorite things from that same mini - the trinkets!

Here's what I created.

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

• Card stock:  Whisper White, Reall Red
• Stamps:  XOXO (I used the XOXO background stamp and punched out the heart) - (121909 wood mount, 121973 clear mount).  The sentiment is from the You're a Gem set (122268 wood mount, 122270 clear mount)
• Accessories:  Red Riding Hood satin ribbon (retired), Key trinket from the Trinket Keys collection (121892).  Sizzix heart die (non SU), Polka Dot embossing folder
• Tools:  Scoring board, Big Shot, Stampin Dimensionals, Glue Dots
• Tip:  Don't do what I did and guess that the sentiment is straight.... use your Stamp-a-ma-jig! :-)

The great thing about this sort of card is that it doesn't use the word "Valentine", therefore it cane be used for any occasions that calls for a Love card.

The sentiment had a lot of meaning for me and it's one of the reasons why I really wanted this set from the new occasions mini.  On the day of our wedding I left a card for Lou with a gorgeous key inside.  I kept the other part to the duo - the lock.  Lou has the key on his key ring and I have the lock.  So, now you can see why I would have definitely wanted this set!

On a personal note:

I was surprised and delighted by both Sue and Ann yesterday.  Sue sent me a wonderful card - thank you, Sue - I was very honored and very touched.  Ann gave me a Stylish blogger award.  Thank you, Ann.  As the blogger award comes with some instructions - I will share that with you later in the week!  Thank you to both Ann and Sue.

I got to spend some quality time in my stamping space yesterday.  Mmmm... the laundry didn't get done, though! :-)  I am sure y'all never do that... ignore laundry or other chores and stamp instead!  I had a little presence that kept me company for a while.  I work at a small L-shaped table and have a cushion on the side of my table for such visits.

He really is the dinkiest little cat.  He's not going to get any bigger.  Lou and I are still not sure that he would have survived our winter in the corn fields if Lou hadn't found him at the side of the road.  The other cats are trying very hard to teach him right from wrong and they are doing a fairly good job of it.  He still is trying to learn when a love bite is too hard though!  These kinds of issues are often found in cats that are taken from their mother's at too early an age.  Regardless of his little problems, we love him!

Don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players site and check out the fabulous and very varied design team inspiration cards - and to join us with your own creation.

Prayers tonight for Rose.  Rose continues to have some side effects from the radiation.  For Adelle.  For Maria.  For Beverly's friend Vickie and her family.  For Germaine and Pri.  Also, for those of you who need a little lift today.

As always, thank you for visiting my blog today.  You know I appreciate it and you know that I love reading your comments and answering any questions on my creations - or stamping in general.

Have a fabulous Sunday

Hugs

Jaydee

P.S.  I actually created this post and scheduled it to go live at 9.30 last night.  Imagine my surprise when I logged on this morning and found that not only did the post not go live, but my entire post had disappeared into a big black cyber hole somewhere!  So, I had to rush and re-create it again this morning.  So my apologies for the tardiness.

 

 

XOXO - sneak peek

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.

I am so sorry I was unable to post last night.  It was a chaotic night both at home and at work.  We had another 7 inches of snow yesterday and were expecting the delivery of our new furniture for the family room.  The poor guys making the delivery were supposed to be here at about 12.30.  They finally got here at 7.44pm!  They still had another two deliveries to go, including one in Wisconsin!  I felt so, so sorry for them.  Anyway, I ended up working until 7.30 and, as Lou was out clearing our neighbor's driveways, I was tied up with the delivery guys and doing all those things that need doing at night.  Consequently, I missed posting to my blog!

Tonight, I have a sneak preview for you of a wonderful new set - and also some great new card stock.

In the new mini is a set called XOXO.  I love it.  For this card I used the background stamp - which I stamped using Versamark and then used red embossing powder on it.  That gave me the shiny XOXOXOXO that you can see.  I used the circle punch to punch out a piece to lie over the wonderful new glittery card stock!  I LOVE this stuff.  In fact, I love it so much, that I used it on two cards this weekend!  

I then stamped the LOVE stamp, also from the same set, using Real Red ink and punched it out with a circle punch.  I used Crystal Effects to stick the heart shaped button over where the "o" should be.  A little Real Red satin ribbon and some pearls - and voila.

I used a sketch challenge layout - and I cannot remember which one!!!!! - but I love the layout anyway!

I was really happy with the result.  It has just the right amount of bling with the card stock and the embossed layer, then the satin smoothness of the ribbon and the pearls and the added interest with the heart shaped button.  It's a really cool new set and I look forward to showing you some more samples.

NOW... I have to share with you the two CASED cards from my CASE challenge for a cause for you.  Can't remember what it is about and think you might want to help - check this post  

Well, Sue, Rach and Cam have CASED me.  As is often the case (if you will excuse the pun!) the CASE is better than the original. 

Here's the card that Sue CASED (on the left) and the card that she made on the right.  You can see the inspiration, the three, the sketch, the ribbon, the scallop border,  but she completely made it her own and I love it!

You can click on Sue's gorgeous card to go to her blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, Rach decided to CASE my sunshine card.   My card is on the left - and the fabulous card that Rach made is on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved the crips black border and the dots on the page.  Rach also centered her medallion, whereas I had offset mine.  She also used a single rhinestone to great effect.  It's a wonderful card!

Then, Cam used one of my favorite colors for her inspiration.  Y'all know that Cherry Cobbler has become one of my favorite go to colors.  Cam made her fabulous Christmas cards using this same color this year.  I am hoping that Cam will upload the card to her gallery on SCS so that I can share it with you.

Brenda, Cherie and Bethany are also going to CASE me so that we can collect some cards to send to Robin (aka the sky angel) to send to the troops that she has adopted.  If you would like to join us, we would love to have you play.  You know that I will appreciate it, Robin, who works so hard for her troops will appreciate it, as will the troops who receive the card you donate! 

As Rach's wonderful daughter told Fr. Pete at church the other night when he asked  the kiddos about Christmas, what made it special.  Lil (who is 5) was raising her hand, about to dance out of her shoes, wanting to answer. Her answer? "The most important part about Christmas is the giving." The congregation melted on the spot, Fr. Pete said, "There you have it, folks, from the mouth of the littlest one up here," and everyone applauded.  And there you have it folks, from the mouths of babes.... that's why I'm doing this CASE me idea - not because of my ego - but because it is a way that we can give to someone else.  Someone who is far away from their families, their children, mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, spiritual home.... someone who will appreciate one little card that says thank you... or that they can send to a love one.  So, Rach and Lily, thank you for reminding us all!  You are an inspiration to us all. (You can read Rach's full post on her blog and see a gorgeous picture of Lil herself here)

Prayers tonight for Rose, Germaine, Pri, Adelle (still thinking about you all, my friend).  Lesley and Rach who I know are both still grieving.  For those of you who need a little lift at this time of year.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.  Back tomorrow with another card!

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Take a Spin - Anniversary - sneak peek

Hi Everyone.

Very quick post for you tonight.  I just got back from spending the evening with 3 of my most favorite people.  Brenda, Cherie and Bethany!

Tonight's card uses the Take a Spin set from the new occasions mini.  I really do love this set.  I decided to pair it with the DSP from the new occasions mini, too.  I love the colors from the new papers.  I also love that this card is neither masculine nor femine and could be used for both.

I decided to make the spinner circle look as though the Anniversary part moved and also stamped it in red.  I raised it using Stampin' Dimensionals.

I paired the spinner hand with a red glimmer brad to match the red glimmer paper.  Also new in the occasions mini.  So, a couple of different sneak peeks for you tonight.

On a personal note.

OK.  I did it.  I really did it.  I broke down on my way to dinner and stopped by the mall to buy myself a coat!  Yep, you gotta know that I have finally gotten cold for me to do that!  Of course, it made me late for my very important date, but at least I didn't freeze on my way from the parking lot to the restaurant and back.  I needed a warm winter coat and decided getting into my car tonight that my pea coat really just wasn't cutting it!

Prayers tonight for:  Rose, Germaine, Pri, Adelle, Lesley and Rach.  I hear that Arthur is on the road to recovery which is wonderful!

Have a fabulous Saturday evening.

Hugs

Jaydee

Take a Spin for Valentine's - sneak peak and feel good Friday

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday.

Now... if I said "take a spin for Valentine's to my hubby, he would immediately hope that I had won the lottery and bought him a Ferrari Testarosa.  However, that hasn't  happened, so he will just have to make do with the card for tonight, instead :-)

One of the sets in the new occasions mini that struck my fancy is the one called "Take a Spin".  Some of you will have been lucky enough to see the new mini - and the demo's may have already ordered from it.  Here's the first card that I made using the spinner embellishment, a glitter brad, the new Love Impressions DSP and, of course, one of the stamps from the Take a Spin set.

I decided to make a love card for the Moxiefabworld love card challenge.  You really should pop along to the moxieworld this week, they are having several challenges and I know you will find something to CASE or that inspires you.

Isn't that super cute?  And.... it's really easy to create.

Card recipe:  All supplies Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.

• Card stock:  Real Red, Whisper White
• Stamps:  Take a Spin (2011 occasions mini - 122015)
• Inks:  Real Red
• Accessories:  Game Spinner Hands (2011 occasions mini - 121893) , glimmer brad
• Tools:  2 1/2 circle punch, Stampin' Dimensionals (focal image is raised using dimensionals)
• DSP:  Love Impressions (2011 occasions mini 121780)

Card recipe:

• Finished card is 4 1/4 in diameter.  Cut Real Red card stock to 8 1/2 x 4 1/4.  Score and fold with the fold on the top
• Cut Whisper White card stock to 4 x 4 and adhere to Real Red card base
• Cut DSP to 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 and adhere to Whisper White layer
• Ink up the HAPPY circle from the Take a Spin stamp set using Real Red ink.  Stamp onto Whisper White card stock
• Cut out circle using the new 2 1/2" circular punch
• Place punched piece on to your mat pack soft mat and pierce using a paper piercer in the middle of the circle
• Position the Game Spinner Hands to point to the HAPPY occasion you want to highlight - in this case Valentine's - secure with the pieces provided, or, do as I did, and use a glimmer brad instead.  Secure the brad behind the circle
• Place Stampin' Dimensionals around the circle - don't forget to add one to the middle, and then secure to the center of the card.

Really easy and I think pretty cool!

FEEL GOOD FRIDAY

As many of my regular visitors will know by now, I try to share with you an uplifting story on Friday.  What I have come to term "Feel Good Friday".  I love it when you get involved and share a story with me.  This story was sent to me by Rach a couple of week's ago. 

It's a wonderful feel good story.  One about a couple with a wonderful heart and a whole lot of love! I hope that you will enjoy listening to the story of the Large's. 

Rach, thank you for passing this on.  You knew that it would appeal to me! 

I have another tip to pass on for you to.  This one comes courtesy of Marge.  S0 many of us have been touched by cancer recently and Marge wanted me to pass on this information about cleaningforareason.org.  Marge, thank you for passing this along, too!

If any of you have a story you would like to share on a Friday as part of our Feel Good Friday posts, please pass it along to me.

On a personal note:

Lou is getting ready to leave town AGAIN!  In addition, we are under a winter weather watch.  We are expecting rain, freezing rain, very bad winds and snow accumulations from 8" to 12+".  Temerature?  MINUS 30 with wind chill.......It's going to be quite a wild ride this weekend.  Looks like a great time to spend in my stamping space :-)

Thank you to all of you who have left such wonderful comments about my medallion cards.  I really have enjoyed creating them and, the best part?  Knowing that they will be going to a good cause.

Prayers tonight for Adelle.  I am thinking about you all, my friend.  Soozie.  Germaine, Pri, Arthur and last but not least, Rose.  For those of you who need a little lift.

Have a wonderful Saturday.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Love you Much, Technique Tuesday and shout out to Michele

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

UPDATE:  Video link is now working!

Tonight's card continues the love theme.  I saw this fabulous challenge across at casestudy and thought...mmmm... I wonder what I can do with this.  I pulled out some of my old DSP, Real Red satin ribbon, brights button, gold cord, gold embossing powder and metallic gold paper.  Don't forget to pop along to the casestudy site and take a look at the amazing inspiration cards.

Here's what I created.

I was really happy with it.  It has the clean and simple lines that I love, but the big bow, the gold and red - all add up to a fairly romantic statement.  mmm.. the sentiment doesn't hurt, either!

TECHNIQUE TUESDAY - Video

Now... onto Technique Tuesday.  Adelle, this one is for you.   Adelle specifically asked me how to create the flower on the Baja Wedding card on this post.  It's a really easy flower to create and needs nothing other than DSP, a scallop circle punch, a brad and a paper piercer.

Now.. I'd like to give a shout out to Michele.  Way to Go, Michele!  Michele, and her friend, contributed cards to our card drive - 100 cards in total!  YAY!!!!!  You guys are amazing.  Thank you so much for contributing, and for asking your friend to help out, too.  You know I appreciate it... more than that, though, you know that the troops and their families who receive these cards will really appreciate what you have done!

I love the fact that so many of you have participated in our card drive.  I also love the fact that many of you have told me how good you felt contributing.  You guys ROCK!

On a personal note.

Not much to report today.  It was a busy day.  It's always made busier by the fact that I have even more to do when Lou is away.  So, no card making for me tonight!  I'm hoping to get a little supper made and then sit down and watch a little bit of tv whilst I eat.  Then it's back to doing a little more work before I can call it a night.

One thing I do have to do..... say a very big thank you to BEVERLY.  Oh... yeah!!!  My goodies arrived.   Wonderful goodies.  Yummy goodies.  Gorgeous goodies and stamping goodies!  Beverly sent me this Longaberger goodies ... oh yeah!  I will be posting a picture of them for you later this week.  Additionally, some yummy bottled goodies - hand made -0f course... and three wheels and the In Wilderness stamp set.  I can't wait to use them all!  Thank you, my friend.  You really spoiled me!

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

Congratulations to Brenda's grandma who celebrated her 90th birthday this weekend!

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

Hugs

Jaydee

I (Heart) Hearts - Red, Black and White

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday might.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Me?  Wasn't long enough:-)

Tonight's card is one that I made from the color challenge across at the Paper Players this week.  Yep... it was my challenge and I decided on Red, Black and White.  It's a fabulous color combination.  You saw my card from Saturday - it was red, black and bling!  This time, I went the more traditional color route - but still kept the love theme.   Don't forget, we would love you to join us across at the Paper Players.  All you need to do is load your new red, black and white card to your blog - or social media site - and add the link to our webpage.

I used Riding Hood Red, Basic Black and Whisper White.  I also used the I (Heart) Heart set.  It's a great set, but I rarely seem to use it.

I also pulled out my size E acrylic stamping block.  I loaded up the stamps that I wanted, in the arrangement that I wanted.  Inked them up.  Stamped once!  Using the acrylics blocks like this is a great time saver.  Because there was "love" contained in the image, I decided to leave off a sentiment.

To pull the black together, and make it suitable for a male recipient, I added a little bit of black "hardware".  Ribbon.... but no hardware.  I was advised by my darling hubby that the hardware made up for the ribbon and made it acceptable for a man :-)

I kept to the crisp, clean lines that I love.

Now... the thing that struck me with this card.... I used the Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon with this card and it worked great.  I didn't have Riding Hood Red - and this was a good substitute.

If you wanted to make it a girlie card - for birthday, valentine's day - or any day - you could make this in pink.  I think its versatile and very easy to recreate.  As always, I layered using Stampin Dimensionals.

On a personal note:  Lou left this morning for Singapore and Australia.  At the airport they told them that the plane was too heavy and they were going to have to offload some people and put them on the next flight!  mmmmm..... anyway, Lou travels so much on this particular airline that he wasn't shunted off, but I can only imagine that the plane must have been packed - and it's a long flight in economy class!

I'm hoping to get some time to make some cards over the next two weeks - I really need to get some made and finished up.  I am way behind on MY Christmas cards for the Operation Write Home drive!!!

The landscapers finished the hardscaping today.  YAY... It looks fabulous.  Well, it will look fabulous when the plants grow in next year, and they come and put the plants in that they didn't have.  the planting looks really bare at the moment, but the rocks, slate flagstones and the fountain look wonderful.  The birds are loving bathing in it and drinking from it.  The Grackles are congretating before they go south and the line for a bath in the new fountain is like the line for a designer sample sale... LONG!!! with much pushing and shoving!

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  You all know that I greatly appreciate your visits, your support and your comments.

Prayers and positive thoughts tonight for Germaine and Pri.  Germaine... this is a tough journey.  I was pleased to hear there was a little step along the right road!  Cherie, pleased that T is making progress.  Sue, I hope John continues to improve.  For Rach, Adelle, Lesley and their furbabies.  For the rest of you who could do with a little lift

Well, I am off to throw some dinner together.. not sure what I am going to have tonight.. but probably some of the goodies that we bought at the Farmer's Market this weekend will be included.  We are almost at the end of the FM year.  I always get sad at this time of the year!

Don't forget - smile at a stranger, it may change their life.

Hugs

Jayde

Paper Players Challenge 16 - Lesley's Sketch Challenge

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

Lesley's sketch was a challenge for me this week.... I have ALWAYS had a problem with a card that requires little elements... except for my 4-up fall to layout.  I don't know what it is.... but I feel compelled to bring out my squares and start to play around..... I never seem to quite get it right.  Then.... I remembered what Lesley had said about the challenge.... USE ANY SHAPE.... mmmm.... that got my creative juices going and I played around a little longer before I suddenly realized that I needed to stop focusing on the shape - and focus on the card.  I know that sounds silly, but once I let go of my hang up with 3 squares and looking for three images that fit into a square, I let myself get into creation mode.

I can thank Rach for "making" me use Poppy Parade.  It really is a color that is a little "loud" for me.  BUT... Rach has done some really cool cards with it and, whenever I use it, I enjoy it!  So, that shows me that I need to get outside of my little color box and play around a little more often!

Once I had finished the card... I loved it!  I also had immense fun coloring the images!  So, thank you, Lesley, for pushing me out of my comfort zone!

Don't forget to come play along with us at The Paper Players.  We really do love visiting your creations and leaving a little love.

Here's my card

Card recipe:

• card stock:  Concord Crush, Whisper White, Poppy Parade
• inks:  Concord Crush, Poppy Parade
• Stamps:  En Francais (background for the vertical Poppy Parade element); Flores Suaves (one of my favorite stamp sets and it is available in our Spanish catalog), Butterfly Prints (sentiment)

Card instructions:

• Cut Poppy Parade card stock to A2 11 x 4 1/4.  Score and fold at 5 1/2 on the top.
• Cut Concord Crush to 5 1/2 x 2 and adhere to card base - leaving a little Poppy Parade edge on the right hand side
• Cut Poppy Parade to 5 1/2 x 1 3/4.  Ink up En Francais with Poppy Parade and stamp onto Poppy Parade strip.  Adhere strip to Concord Crush strip using snail
• Stamp butterflies onto Whisper White and color.  Cut out butterflies using paper snips and adhere to card using Stampin' Dimensionals.
• I added two little pearls on either wing at the top.  For the pearls, I used the Stampin' Up basic pearls, but needed to dye them.  To dye them I used an alcohol based pen.
• I inked up the fabulous sentiment from the Butterfly Prints set and stamped it directly onto the card base

Jaydee tips:

• When you have a strong focal point - like the butterflies, and need to stamp a sentiment - often the best thing to do is stamp directly onto the card base.  If I had used a piece of card stock and then stamped the sentiment and then punched it out, and mounted it, I would have created two very distinct focal points in a fairly tight space
• With the three butterflies, I created movement by putting them at an angle.  There is continuity, however, because the top and bottom butterflies are essentially facing the same direction.  This makes it automatically pleasing to the eye.... as our brain likes order :-)
• Want a clean and simple version..... This card could be recreated with the butterflies stamped directly onto the card base and stamped with either the same color, or coordinating colors.  It isn't necessary to color them. 
• With the En Francais background... I wanted a slightly uneven look.  I created this by putting the card stock piece on top of the inked En Francais and pushing down the card stock hard in some areas than others.

On a personal note:  Fall is definitely arriving here in Minnesota.  Some of the trees are starting to turn and the nights are definitely chilly.  It didn't quite reach 60 degrees here as a high today and the nip in the air felt fabulous.  I really love this time of year.  It makes me want to bring out the autumn/winter lampshades, cushions, curtains, bedding, etc. and clean and prep the house for the inevitable cold weather.  So, tomorrow, we will be doing our autumn cleaning and getting the house ready for winter.  I am really ready to change out the spring/summer colors for the warm, rich colors of autumn/winter.  In fact, I have even been planning some winter decoration crafting.

Lou visited the farmer's market on his own this morning.  As I had not been well this week, he was kind enough to leave me sleeping in a little.  He bumped into Brenda who let us know that she and Cherie are planning to run their next half marathon in tutus.  Yep.... tutus.  What Lou didn't find out though, was what color?  I can't wait to see the chicks running in their tutus.  We would go cheer them on, but we will be on vacation so will have to see pictures instead!  I think it's a terrific idea.  Way to go, girls!

Talking about the Farmer's Market, Lou brought back Butternut squash.  I'll be roasting that for butternut squash pasta, and also roasting some with root vegetables as an accompaniment to the nut roast I'm making tomorrow.  We got tomatoes (oh yes, the season is not yet over!)  some local apples, cippolini onions, garlic, herbs, arugula, cucumber, gorgeous potatoes and other goodies.  It really gets me in the mood to do a little cooking!  So, no crafting for me tomorrow... .just house cleaning and cooking! 

As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits, your support and your comments are always much appreciated.  I really appreciate those of you who comment frequently.  It does let me know that someone is still reading my blog.  So thank you to those of you who do come by and leave a quick comment.

Prayers tonight for Germaine (who is still in pain, and could do with a little help), Nichole and Bob, John and Sue, T, Pri, Lesley, Adelle and Rach (and their furbabies).  Arthur has finally been given his diagnosis and a procedure set up.  Bypass surgery is in the future.

Have a fabulous Sunday everyone.   I hope your day is filled with love and laughter, and time to spend doing the things that make you happy.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Clean and Simple - Words to Inspire

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.

Thanks for popping by to visit me!

Tonight's card uses the fall to layout #104 from clean and simple stamping.  (I actually made several cards using this layout!) as well as the theme from a new challenge site I found, Sentimental Sundays.  The theme for Sentimental Sundays was to create a card with a sentiment that inspires.  You really should pop along and check out the inspiration and submission cards.  I know you will find something case-worthy!

Well, I don't know about you, but I certainly find Mother Teresa inspiring!  I found some stamps called Wordsworth... well I guess it's short for "words worth remembering".  They are fabulous sentiments and this sentiment comes from one of the sets that I bought.  I don't often do cards that are focused on the sentiment - and, I don't often do cards that are primarily not SU - but tonight is one of those occasions.

I absolutely LOVE my SU, but occasionally find that there is something that I like and we do not carry something similar.  This card uses Webster's Pages papers, the Wordsworth sentiment and organic linen ribbon.  However, it is on a  base of SU card stock and uses SU inks.  I stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso ink.  It works so well with this paper.

Isn't that the most amazing sentiment?  I love the fact that the illustrations on the paper frame the sentiment so beautifully.

I also love this paper.  I love the natural elements, it reminds me of my garden (still a work in progress- the landscaper was here again tonight!) and, of course, the chipmunks that drive the cats crazy.  I swear one of the chipmunks sits on the other side of the screen door to the deck, about 3 inches away from the noses of the cats and goes "nah-nah-nah-nah-nah! you caaaaan't get me!"

On a personal note: 

Trish, I had never heard of your condition until I read your comment this morning.  It sounds terrible.  I did google it and found several references to it, but chose to read the one on the mayo clinic site.  I really like to go to trusted sites on these sorts of things.  Now I can understand why they sent you for an MRI.  As Brenda said, we are sending you even more prayers than normal.  Please know that we all care and are thinking of you.

Let's talk about the pipsqueak-with-an-attitude - Mr Charlie!  He might only weigh 7.5#s but boy, does that cat think he's Christmas, Easter, birthdays and anniversaries all bundled up in one.  He is so full of himself.  He really thinks he owns the joint!  The others are dealing with him in different ways.  The Norwegians think he's exceptionally strange - and a little pip-squeak.   Little being the operative word cos the wegies are pretty big bodied cats and Bailey and Sam love teasing him!    Chester... well... Chester doesn't think much of the pipsqueak at all.   Muffin just looks at him as if to say... yeah... right... and you are?  My old man Merlin decided to go off to his favorite spot on the couch and just go to sleep and ignore "it".  As I write, the pipsqueak is exploring every inch of my stamping space, chirruping as he goes.  Also, he has let us know - as only cats can - that he doesn't approve of his name!  The thing I have learned over the years is that cats will not respond to a name of which they do not approve!  So, we are back to the drawing board on that!

Today is cooler... oh yeah.... with very low humidity.... OH YEAH!!!  It is heaven.  I have had all the windows open and the breeze has been coming through.  Tonight it is set to get down into the 50s!  Trish, I hope this cooler weather is coming your way.

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!  As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.   Your visits, your support and your comments are always appreciated.

Hugs

Jaydee

BTW.... don't forget to join the paper players for our inspiration challenge this week.

Notably Ornate Love Swallows

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.

Tonight's card features the Stampin' Up! set, Notably Ornate.  I loved this set when I saw it in the catalog and really wanted to create a card featuring the swallow from the set. 

As there is a vintage feel to this set, I wanted to keep the colors darker.  So, out came Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Basic Black and just a hint of Real Red.

Here's what I came up with:

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Real Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla
• Stamps:  Notably Ornate.  Sentiment is from Artistic Etchings
• Accessories:  Black and White striped grosgrain ribbon
• Designer Series paper:  Love Letters
• Tools:  Big Shot with Finial Press embossing folder, paper snips, Heart and Oval punches, dimensionals, twine

Card instructions:

• Cherry Cobbler card stock - cut to A2 (11 x 4 1/4).  I scored and folded the 11 at the 5 1/2" mark and the fold is on the side
• The DSP was cut to 4 x 3 1/2 and the Basic Black is cut at 3 3/4" x 3 1/4"
• I stamped the image from the Notably Ornate set onto Very Vanilla using Basic Black classic ink
• Once the image was dry, I took my snips and cut around the ornate edges and adhered it to the Basic Black base using snail
• I then adhered the Basic black layer to the DSP using snail
• I ran the Cherry Cobbler through my Big Shot using my Finial Press embossing folder and used the debossed side for this card
• I stamped the swallow twice - once in Real Red and once in Cherry Cobbler.  I cut them both out using my snips.  I then mounted them both to the Notably Ornate layer using dimensionals. 
• I punched out a heart and placed it between the two swallows and adhered that using snail
• I took my Crumb Cake marker and colored the white sections of the ribbon, just to tone down the color a little.  I wrapped the ribbon around the card and tied a knot on the left.
• I then mounted the focal image over the ribbon using dimensionals
• Last thing to do..... stamp the Amour sentiment from Artistic Etchings in Real Red, punch out using the Oval punch and punch a background layer using Real Red.  I made a whole using my mat pack and ran a little twine through the whole and tied it to the knot

Tips:

• Don't do what I did..... remember to condition your stamp prior to stamping for the first time - otherwise you get the little white areas that you see on both my swallows.  There are several ways you can do that but here are the two that I normally use... you can take your sanding block and very lightly sand over the top of the stamp.  You can take Stampin' Mist and give your stamp a thorough cleaning and run vigorously on your Stampin' Pad.  There is a film on the stamp when it leaves the manufacturing plant, and it is important to remove that prior to stamping.  I really didn't do a good job and ended up with splotchy swallows!
• I used the debossed side of the Finial press, but it better echoes the Notably Ornate stamp.  The embossed side was a little too over powering.  Remember, to try both sides when assembling your card, sometimes the debossed side is softer and fits better.

On a personal note:

Several things to be happy about tonight... The furniture is arriving... oh yeah.... it arrives on Thursday morning.  So, we will finally have something to put underneath the coffee table cover that arrived over two weeks ago!!!!   

I was also chosen as a winner by two design teams in the last week.  It's always such a wonderful feeling when that happens.  The two cards?  The StampinRoyalty team choose this card and the Palspaperarts team chose this card.  So, I was very honored - and very excited!!!

Trish, it was so good to hear that your oncologist is pleased with your progress.  I know this is such a tough journey - but you are tougher than you think and you are doing better than you thought :-)  Your post brought such a smile to my face this morning!

My honey gets to come home today instead of being out of the country for the next week, so we get to go to the Opera this weekend!  Oh yeah... that makes me happy :-)  Having him home - and going to the opera:-)

I'd like to give a shout out to Missy and Beth tonight.... you guys rock my world.  There is hardly a day goes by without you commenting.  You have no idea how much I appreciate that... so thank you to both of you!

I am also coming up to a major blog milestone.   Nearly 100,000 hits.  I am gobsmacked by that number.  When I began blogging at the end of August last year, I never thought that I would get anywhere near those sorts of numbers.  I cannot thank you all enough for your support.  It really means a great deal to me.  It really is your support that keeps me doing this every day.  I had originally started this journey as a way to force myself to make cards.  I never thought that it would grow to be something else entirely for me.  I have met so many amazing people through my blog and have enjoyed getting to know you through cyberspace.  SO, big hugs to you all.

Prayers as usual for Trish - chemo day today!  For T and Pri.  

Happy Hump Day, Cherie.  I know you are off on a well deserved vacation, but wanted to let you know I was thinking about you.  Brenda, I hope you had a very successful open house on Monday.

Have a fabulous Wednesday everyone.  I hope your day is filled with love and laughter.

Hugs

Jaydee

Spanish Butterflies

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday night.

Tomorrow is Friday.  Oh Yay!!  It's the weekend.  I am so looking forward to it.

Tonight's card features a set that many of you may not have seen.  It's from the Spanish Idea Book and Catalog.  I saw this set and fell in love with it.  I love everything about this set - especially the butterfly/moth image.  The splitcoaststampers CAS challenge a couple of weeks ago was to create a card featuring things that fly.  This card certainly fits for this challenge.  It also fits for the SCS Dare to Get Dirty challenge for to use lots of white space...well, in this case - Very Vanilla space :-)

 

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Very Vanilla
• Stamps:  Flores Suaves; Short and Sweet (sentiment)
• Inks:  Crumb Cake (for background script), black StazOn for the moth/butterfly image
• Inks:  Copics.  Sentiment Cajun Craze

Card instructions:

• Cut Very Vanilla to A2
• Ink sentiment with Crumb Cake and stamp
• Stamp butterfly/moth with BlackStazOn with your favorite inks
• Stamp sentiment with Cajun Craze
• Adhere butterfly/moth with mini glue dots

A really quick and easy card, but one that I feel has a soft romantic feel.  I was really happy with it.  It's such a tranquil looking card.  It's a versatile layout and stamp set.  It could fit for a birthday, thank you or even sympathy card.  Of course, the color scheme can be anything you want it to be:-)

On a personal note:

Finally a cooler day.  However, I wasn't able to get out and enjoy it as I have only just finished work and it's 9.13cst.  That means no stamping for me either tonight.  But........ I will get time in my room this weekend.  I will get time in my room this weekend.. I will ... you get the picture :-)  I have so many ideas going through my head and a real need to put ink to paper!

As always a few prayers tonight.... Lynn, thanks so much for your update on Jim :-)  Germaine, pleased that things are going so well for you.  So prayers for Trish - continued prayers, T, Pri, Arthur and Rach.

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday... filled with love, laughter and the things that make you happy.

As always, thank you so much for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  You know your visits are so very much appreciated.

Dont forget to smile at a stranger - it may change their life.

Hugs

Jaydee

Strawberry Cobbler

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday night.

I am finally on vacation.  Oh yeah.... We have all sorts of things planned for the next week and a half, not least of which is spring cleaning.  Of course, I absolutely intend to get into my stamping room.  Cherie, Lou is hoping to get out on baby... but not if it's too windy, too sunny, in the slightest bit humid, dusty, or there is one cloud in the sky :-)  "Baby" is one of Lou's bicycles and he mother's this darn bike like I do my favorite stamps - except my stamps get more use:-)

Speaking of Lou... this was the card that I made for him.  Strawberries are a big thing for us - long story!  Anyway, I wanted to try to incorporate strawberries into a card, without using my strawberry stamp from the Tart and Tangy set, cos I've already done that card for him.  So, I thought about a strawberry vine and strawberries and this is what I came up with

As you can see, I used Real Red and Cherry Cobbler for the strawberries because every punnet of strawberries I buy seems to have different shades of red. I also used Cobbler for the background.  You can see that it is a much deeper, richer red than the Real Red.   So... that's how the title came to be.... Strawberry Cobbler... and I bet you were all reading the title and thinking.... she's forgotten the name of the new color:-)

I stamped the vine using a stamp from the Thoughts & Prayers set in classic Basic Black Ink.  I punched the hearts using Real Red and Cherry Cobbler paper.  I used the small heart from the Heart to Heart punch.  They were just the right size for this stamp.

The "Love" sentiment, was stamped in Real Red... I would have stamped it in Cherry Cobbler... but... as you know.... we don't have access to that yet.  Will June 1 hurry up and get here!  The sentiment is from the Fundamental Phrases set.  I'm hoping we get some great new Love/Valentine sets in the new catty!  So, there you are a quick and easy card.

Lou has asked me to say thank you to all of you for all your wishes and thoughts.  He really does check in every day to see how you are all doing!

We are off to movies tonight to see Letters to Juliet.  A romantic movie to kick off the weekend.  One of the reasons we wanted to see this movie is that it is set in Verona, Italy.  Lou and I got married in Verona - well, actually just a little outside of Verona.  So, very appropriate for us!

Tomorrow night.... details on the card drive - thank you everyone!  AND... the reveal of the design team details!  Plus, I am planning to show you a yin, yang and somewhere in between card :-)

I hope you all have a fabulous Saturday filled with love, laughter and time with those you enjoy.  Trish, I hope your bronchitis is improving and that you can finally start to fight off these infections.  Stay strong, my friend!

Hugs to you all

Jaydee

Celebrating Clean and Simple

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday Night!

A very quick post for you tonight  Tomorrow's post is all about celebration of Mother's everywhere and is dedicated to my dear departed Mother and Mother-in-Law, but it celebrates all you wonderful Mother's who read my blog and the Mother's who made you who you are!

Tonight though... I'd like to dedicate this post to my darling hubby.  Who is, yet again, on the road. I know he will be checking my blog update... so, my darling Lou.... I miss you... for goodness sake will you hurry home!  Travel safely today.

 


I hope you all have a fabulous Mother's Day and get to spend some time enjoying the simple things in life.  The simple things that can be the most fulfilling:  family, friends, food, nature, faith, love, music, hugs!

Hugs to you all

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 Valentine

Hi Everyone.  Happy Valentine's Day.

Tonight's card is dedicated to my darling hubby, whom I love dearly!  This Ever After card is one of the Valentine cards he will be receiving today!

I used the sketch challenge from stamping411 and the crazy4challenges challenge to make a predominantly red card in celebration of Valentine.  Why don't you click on the links and see inspiration cards from the talented design teams and participants!  I guarantee you will find lots to stimulate your creative juices.  You can see my other Ever After cards here

Card recipe:

• The base is metallic gold
• The next layer is Real Red.  I ran this layer through my Big Shot and used a texturz plate.  You can see the scroll detail if you look above the bow.  I'm still having trouble with my photo editing software and have downloaded a trial of another product and will try playing with that tomorrow! It's driving me crazy that it's washing out these rich lush colors! 
• I have a strip of the gorgeous paper from the Sending Love DSP pack that has hearts and glitter already on it :-)
• I stamped the heart from the Ever After set (113401) onto Very Vanilla using Real Red classic ink
• I attached the focal image onto a layer of Real Red using dimensionals.  I adhered this to the metallic gold using snail.
• I ran some of the fabulously rich and luscious satin Real Red Ribbon underneath the central image and around the back of the DSP and Real Red layers and adhered with snail.
• I stamped "4 you" and "love" from the Tiny Tags and punched them out with my Jewelry Tag punch. 
• I made the bow from the same Real Red satin ribbon and put 3 mini glue dots behind the bow.  I adhered the front of the tags to the glue dots behind the ribbon and then applied that to my card.

The gold of the card stock and the gold in the DSP look fabulous together and the Real Red ribbon and the DSP are just so rich..... I wish I could let you feel it and hold this card in your hand.  My photo really doesn't do it justice.

I hope you all have a day filled with love, laughter and get to spend quality time with those that you love the most.  Thank you for taking time in your day to visit my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits are always much appreciated.

Hugs

Jaydee

Jayne's Alphabet - Female Valentine

Hi Everyone

some of you may remember my Jayne's Alphabet Masculine Valentine.  Well, you did ask me for the feminine version - so here it is!

I used Jayne's Alphabet, En Francais background stamp and the heart from You and Moi (one of the freebies during SAB this year).  I also used the Sending Love DSP as the square matts.

• I stamped En Francais on the Real Red Card stock in Versamark
• I then stamped L, O, and E in Real Red craft and embossed with Iridescent Ice.
• I then stamped the heart from You and Moi in Real Red craft and again I embossed it with Iridescent Ice
• I used my 1" punch to punch out the L, O, E and the heart
• I used my 1 1/4" punch to punch out the squares of Sending Love DSP
• I then used my 1 3/8" punch to punch out the Real Red matts
• I put dimensionals behind the Real Red squares and adhered them to the card stock
• The pink satin ribbon is from the new mini - I just LOVE this ribbon.
• I used a hat pin and pearls from the Pretties Kit and, voila!  a feminine version of the 4-up Jayne's Alphabet masculine valentine.

I did try it with the fabulous red satin ribbon, but it just didn't have the same punch as the pink.  Also, the pink helps to tie in the pink in the Sending Love DSP matts behind the letters.  The Iridescent Ice gives just the right amount of bling.  I don't generally use the hat pins - in fact this is only the second card I have made with them, but when I put it on this card, it really just finished it off and gave it that extra feeling of "specialness" that I wanted.  Well, I don't know what is going on with Typepad... but I am still having these washouts on the photos.  Im my photoediting software the pic looks great, but when I bring it into typepad it looks less vibrant and more washed out!  Mmmm....  Anyway, it really is rich and vibrant with the Real Red!

Missy - this one is for you!

I am so looking forward to Friday... I really need this weekend and want to spend some time getting to know some of my new goodies that arrived for Valentine's Day.  I have all these ideas running around in my head - and that's never a good thing! :-)  I realized tonight when I started this post, that last night was my 200th post!  I was amazed when I realized that!  So, happy 201st post to my blog :-)

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday.  Stay warm.  Stay safe.  Have Fun!  As always, thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits are always appreciated!

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

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

Sweetheart Lollipop card and HugsandHope and FromourHearts showcase 2

Hi Everyone

little talking... for a change i can hear you all scream.  about time, too.  I can hear you all add.  

My card for the crazy4challenges.  A new site I found last week.  The challenge was to make a card featuring a lollipop.  Well, considering I don't have stamps with lollipops on them.... that left me scratching my head.  Which is the reason why you should do challenges, right?  So here's what I came up with using the Sweetheart set the I {love} Love wheel and a Tiny Tag statement.  Go check out the new great challenge site for some more inspiration and sketches to use. I promise you will find lots of inspiration.

I hope you like my card.  Then, scroll down for lots more inspiration for you on this visit.  I selected a few of Adelle's card's - at random - to highlight for you.  Two of them had me in stitches!  I hope you will leave Adelle a little love in the way of comments - to show her appreciation for donating these cards for the card drive for hugsandhope and fromourhearts!

 

Here are some of Adelle's great cards.  Such creative use of colors and all sorts of different sizes and shapes to get your creative juices going.  It was fabulous looking through the box of cards that Adelle supplied.  Lots of ooh's and aah's when I went through the cards. I know the recipients at the charities will be thrilled by them.  So a huge shout out to Adelle!  You ROCK!

And... as far as I'm concerned.. this card couldn't be further from the truth!!!

I love the black with the blue.  gorgeous!

love those cut out details and the strong focal image!

wait till you see the inside of this creative card!  Isn't that face too funny!!!

 

Very funny!  I laughed outloud!

That's all folks!  Have a fabulous Friday.... yay... it's almost the weekend.. I am so excited.  I really hope you enjoyed seeing so many different cards tonight.

Cam's cards will be showcased tomorrow.

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

I Heart Hearts Easel Valentine

Hi everyone

Firstly, to all of you who put Trish on your prayer list - thank you!  They worked!  Trish sent me an email today to let me know that she was back home and was on her way to recovery.  Which is such wonderful news.  Even though her recovery will take a little while, we are so glad to have her back with her crafting buddies.  So, thank you everyone!

Tonight's card is another card I made for the troop card drive.  It uses the I {Heart} Hearts set.  You know I love this easel layout - fall to layout I can hear you all say! :-)  This time I did something a little different.  I decided to decorate only the bottom of the front. You'll see what I mean.  Don't forget - the I {Heart} Heart set is a special set... for every purchase SU is donating $2.00 to the Haitian Relief efforts - more details here.

I wanted a very femine card with lots of hearts (mmmm... maybe that's why I used the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set :-)!!!  Don't forget, this set is available in both clear mount and wood mount... and is also available in French and Spanish! 

So here's what I used:

• Melon Mambo and Whisper White card stock
• Melon Mambo ink
• Pretty in Pink Ribbon (117289)
• I {Heart} Hearts (118571 clear mount, 117010 wood mount) and Well Scripted (118601 clear mount, 117072 (wood mount)
• I stamped the hearts and cut around them with my paper snips ( 103579)
• I snailed the outer hearts into place and then used my dimensionals for the middle heart.  I stamped two of the smaller hearts - punched them out with the Heart to Heart punch (113694) and glued them to the base of the easel.
• To create the easel, I used a piece of 4 1/4" x 11" Melon Mambo and I scored at the 5 1/2" and 1 1/4" positions.  I folded over the top piece at the 8 1/4" position and decorated only the bottom of the top half... I hope that makes sense.  
• For the middle of the card, I used Whisper White card base and cut it slightly smaller than the base.  I stamped the "love you much" sentiment and then snailed two of the hearts that I had punched out.  I adhered the Whisper White to the base of the card and then wrapped the ribbon and tied a bow.

Here's the side view

I hope you like the slightly modified take on the easel card.

Well... for those of you who have followed my husband's travels... and know that he was stuck for 48 hours+ trying to get home just before Christmas... well, Lou left yesterday morning for Argentina.  His plane left Minneapolis, but then turned around after about 30 minutes because the landing gear wouldn't come up.  So.. instead of going to Atlanta and then to Argentina, he went back to Minneapolis and caught a shuttle back home.  He spent last night at home instead of on the plane.  He left AGAIN this morning to repeat the process.... not realizing just how much of his trip he was going to repeat....... His flight to Minneapolis left without a hitch.  However, that's when things went haywire.  AGAIN....  His flight to Atlanta was delayed with Mechanical problems... get this... a flat battery!  How can a plane have a flat battery?  I mean, seriously!  So... they sat around and waited.  Eventually they cancelled that flight and he rushed to the next one.  He called me from the plane and left a message ..... I'm not the next flight and should make my connection.   Errrrrr... not so fast, honey.  About 30 minutes later he called me back.  Guess what?  Mechanical problems!  You are kidding me! 

So, his plane left 1 hour and 45 minutes late and he just called me from Atlanta - he completely missed his flight to Argentina.  So.. they knew he was going to miss it - as were several people who had been booked on the flight the previous day... but they wouldn't let them off!   So, the question is... what is Delta doing that they can have three aircraft - to the same destination - have mechanical problems ..... doesn't that make you worried about flying?  Now I know why DELTA was nicknamed, Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport!  So, what happens now?  Heaven only knows... Lou is on his way to the ticket counter to try to work out what is happening.  I'm beginning to think that someone is trying to tell Lou that he needs to stop flying!

I hope you are all having a better day than Lou!  :-)  Thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere... and again... Trish, welcome back! :-)

Hugs

Jaydee