Stampin! with Jaydee

Paper Players 97 - LeAnne's Sketch Challenge

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

I'm late with my challenge card this week.  We were rushing around yesterday and I finally had the chance to make my challenge card about 45 minutes before I had to go get ready for dinner in St Paul with Lou.   Mmmmm.... I made the card.  I hated it.  I photographed the card.  I hated it even more.  It's not often that I make a card that I absolutely despise.  There are some that I shake my head at and think... what were you thinking?  But this one.... was dreadful.  It sounded great in my head... but was washed out and pale and just well.... lifeless!

So, it was back to the drawing board - I mean crafting table - today.   I can't honestly say that I am in love with this card either.  I don't often make children's cards and decided it was a good time to challenge myself.  I do love this monster set.  It's really absolutely adorable.  I did have fun coloring the images and then adding Cyrstal Effects to them.

Here's LeAnne's sketch - it's a great sketch btw!

And here's my take on it:

I decided to cut the pieces behind the focal image off center - as I thought they added to the chaotic, atomic DSP :-)

I'm not sure that you can really see that I put Crystal Effects on both of their bodies, but they are shiny IRL.

Here's what I used to make the card - all supplies SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Pacific Point.  Whisper White
• DSP: Celebrations
• Inks: Pacific Point.  Crumb Cake.  Monster's colored with Copics
• Stamps:  Make a Monster, So Happy for You, Wonderfully Worn (for the muddy background - after all, I just didn't feel that aliens would do anything other than kick up a whole lot of dirt and mud when they landed :-)...)
• Accessories:  Old Olive Button.  Silver thread.

Looking at it now, I realize it is a happy card and hopefully some young boy will appreciate it1

Don't forget to pop along to the Paper Players and play along with us this week.  We'd really love to see what you can do with his fabulous sketch.

You can also check out the great design team cards on their blogs:

Ann

Anne Marie

LeAnne

Nance - the birthday girl!

Jenn

Heidi

Narelle

On a personal note:

8 boxes unpacked today!  Massive storms coming overhead right now.  Winds up to 65 mph and heavy rain is forcast for this evening.  As if we hadn't had enough rain! We just noticed that a tree on our neighbor's property has been blown down with the wind.

We hope our little robins are OK.  We noticed today that they  have flown the coop.  I am so sorry to see them go.  Sadly, we didn't get to see the babies before they left the nest, as they must have done that whilst we had so much rain over the last couple of days.  However, I am so pleased that we were able to house the nest our first two weeks in our new home.   We removed the nest today, so that we can finally stain the deck.  Hopefully, once the deck is stained, the Robins will choose the same location for their next nesting round.

As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight. 

Hugs

Jaydee

French Foliage for Stamping 411

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

Hope you are having a great start to your week.

It was wonderful getting into my new stamping space this weekend and actually putting ink to rubber.  I checked out the challenge at stamping411 this week and it's a fabulous sketch challenge.  I couldn't wait to play along!  You really need to go along to the site and check out the wonderful design team and submission cards.  I know you will find lots of inspiration.

Me... as soon as I saw this sketch I knew exactly what set to use.  Generally I only use French Foliage for fall cards.  However, in our new home we are surrounded by the fabulous wetlands and lots and lots and lots and lots of green leaves!  I decided this was the perfect inspiration for my card. 

Here's the sketch from the operators......

Told you it was a great sketch :-)

Here's what I did with it

I love the different greens and must admit, that I will be sorry to see Pear Pizzazz go.  It really is my go to green.  However, I intend to buy up lots of card stock to ensure that I will have some for quite a while.

Card ingredients - all Stampin' Up!:

• Card stock:  Lucky Limeade, Whisper White
• Stamps:  French Foliage.  Sentiment: So Happy for You (retired)
• Inks:  Lucky Limeade, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Early Espresso, River Rock
• Accessories:  Old Olive button.  Hemp twine (colored with an Early Espresso marker)
• DSP:  In Color patterns pack (2011 - 2013)
• Tip:  to keep the knot on the twine from unraveling, I added a little Crystal Effects to the knot and then tightened up the tails and held them for a couple of minutes. 

On a personal note:

Every day sees a couple more boxes unpacked.  When you have lived in a house for 14 years, you really get accustomed to how the space works for you, and where everything goes.  The exciting thing about a new house is finding new spaces and discovering the new space.  We are loving the kitchen and the pantry, but I am still working out where things should go.

We are really enjoying discovering new things in our garden.  Today I saw a new bird.  One I certainly had not seen before.  Of course, he disappeared before I could get out my bird identification book.  So, he's one of three and the only thing that separates them is the amount of striping on the chest and a white eye.  Mmmm... why don't birds just hang around whilst I work out exactly what they are! :-)  Regardless of what he is... he was gorgeous and it was wonderful to spend a minute or so watching him flit around in the undergrowth.

Our Robins... well they have given birth to three little chicks and we are loving watching the parents go looking for food and trying to fill those empty mouths.

Before I got tonight, I wanted to share a picture of a very frequent visitor to our new feeder.  Everytime they flit in and out, it brings a smile to my face.

Isn't he gorgeous?  Now.. we put out oranges, dried meal worms and grape jelly.  the ONLY thing he is interested in..... the grape jelly.  He's ignored everything else.  I know Orioles are attracted to anything orange... but seriously, I think this feeder is so brightly colored it can be seen from space!  However, it worked... and that's all that matters :-)

As always, thank you for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Your visits and your comments really do mean a great deal to me.   Warm hugs and prayers for those who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Sketch and Cupcakes for the Monkey

HI Everyone.  Happy Saturday.  Hope you are all have a great weekend so far.

I was honored to be chosen as a guest designer across at alacardmonkey this week after this card was chosen as a winner.

The team have a fabulous challenge this week and I really enjoyed playing along. 

I didn't actually have a cupcake stamp - so surfed the net and found a fabulous digi image that was just perfect.  Using a cupcake also gave me a great excuse to use some more of the Le Pouf and add some glitter on top:-)

Here's my take on the challenge:

I printed the cupcake out on card stock and then colored it and adorned it with the Le Pouf, left it to dry and then heated it with my heat gun.  That gives it that fabulous puffy appearance - just like frosting.  I then added some Crystal Effects and sprinkled some glitter on top of the "frosting".  Here's a closer look:

 

Of course, I HAD to add a little Crystal Effects on the cherry, too!  The base of the card is layered with some of my new favorite card stock from Amuse.  I really do love the look of this venetian pattern and the color is the perfect color of hot Italian coffee - what better thing to go with a cupcake:-)

We hope that you will join us across at alacardmonkey this week.  I can't wait to see what all of you could do with this fun challenge.

On a personal note:

This week has been crazy.  The house is chaos.  Boxes everywhere.  10 years of paper work that needs shredding.  Cupboards opened, emptied and cleaned.  Bags of stuff to be tossed all over the garage.   It's CRAZY.  The cats are a lttle discombobulated by all of this and even Bailey, who is normally very calm and collected, is really not sure what this is all about.   We have guys coming to clean furniture this week.  We'd much rather clean the couches on our old flooring than on the new!  We have had electricians in, plumbers in, a handyman in and this week the builder is coming to replace a tiny little piece of siding that is peeling.   We know for sure that our house is in better condition when we hand it over, than it was when it was handed to us!

We were at the house again today planning out the patio spaces, the driveway and the walkway with the builder.  The painters are still in the house and there are cupboard doors and drawers all over drying.  All of the cupboards have been stained and they are covered up - as are the floors and every other surface!   Lou and I are debating not going to see the inside again until the day we do the walkthrough.  Because so much is covered and is still not complete, we think it will be fabulous to see it all together when it is finished.  We still haven't seen any of the countertops, backsplash tile, fireplace tile, stained doors, our front door - none of that stuff.  Let's see if we can hold out :-)

We were pleased to see that our little chickadees are still nesting in the tree in front of our deck.  We got our chairs out this afternoon and had a take away lunch on the deck and enjoyed the sunshine and peace and quiet.  Needless to say, we weren't looking forward to coming home to the mess that is our current house.

Oh... yeah... and the least said about Lou's speeding fine the better!  He got it on the way back from the house.  He was doing 72mph - and accelerating  - in what he discovered was a 55mph zone!  I don't know what it is about him when he's driving around the metro area..... as my regular blog readers will remember what happened at our anniversary dinner!!!!

Tomorrow its more packing, more sorting, more cleaning and doing stuff around the garden.  We need to wash the deck and lay down mulch and put some annuals in the beds - all to make the house look extra pretty!

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday night and that you will come back and visit with me tomorrow when I reveal my card for the Paper Players challenge this week.

As always, thank you for your visit.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a lift tonight.

Hugs
Jaydee

Card recipe:

Card stock:  Early Espresso, More Mustard, Whisper White.  (Stampin' Up!) Venetian patterned card stock (Amuse).  Stamps: - sentiment - So Happy For You (Stampin' Up!).  Tools/Accessories:  Le Pouf (Amuse).  Dazzling Diamonds glitter (SU).  Scalloped Border Punch (SU)

All you need is a stamp and some canvas

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.

I apologize for being absent yesterday but Lou's daughter flew in from out of country and we have spent much of the past few days with her and that has entailed some very late nights  and not much sleep!  It was so great to catch up though!

Before I show you my card tonight, I wanted to say thank you to Lesley for choosing this card as the showcase card for her first Merry Monday challenge.  I was so thrilled and so honored.  Thank you, Lesley!!!  Don't forget to pop along to her website and play along with the Merry Monday challenge.  If you do, you will be in good shape for Christmas cards this year!

I have a slightly different card for you tonight.  Yep... stamping on canvas.  I love the look of canvas on cards because you get such fabulous texture.  However, the stamped image isn't generally that great.  This technique uses an embossed flower and the embossed resist technique.  So, much the same as you do it on paper, but on canvas instead.  It gives a great image - here's a closeup

You can see the fabulous texture and how well the colors blend on the canvas.  Let's take a look at the whole card

You can see that I blended the green at the bottom of the canvas and then blue at the top to represent the sky.  The white embossed flower really pops off the colored background and the canvas really is a great change to paper.

I thought that the sentiment needed to be a little whimsical and the typeface in So Happy For You SAB set from 2011 is perfect.  (Once again keeping with my resolution to use stamps I don't use often enough!)  It also gave me the opportunity to use one of the non-SU wooden stamps that have been sitting around forever in my stamping cupboard!

The Night of Navy and Very Vanilla card stock were perfect for this color scheme.  All that was needed was an SU botton and a little bit of SU twine.  I did use an embossing plate to give a little texture to the Very Vanilla layer.  It needed just a touch of texture, otherwise it would have competed too much with the canvas.

So, what do you think?  Ready to give this a go?  It was really easy and a lot of fun.

On a personal note:

Getting back into work has been tough.  Isn't it always tough to go back after a few days away?  The beginning of the year is also when major changes occur at work and they have started to happen.  Some of them are really good changes though, which is great.  I am so pleased that I decided to go back at the end of last week because that meant a very short week :-)

The house should be back on track today, too.  The framer was due back on site to start to frame up the rest of the house.  Considering the weather has been unseasonably warm - up to 50 degrees again today, it means that the builders should be able to get more done than is usual at this time of year.  It also means that we need to get cracking on starting to sort things out and packing boxes.  Oh, as well as making a list of the things that need to get fix before the house goes on the market!  So, it's going to be a very busy few weeks coming up.  BUT... certainly exciting :-)

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

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Wisteria Concord Eggplant Butterflies!

Hi Everyone, happy Tuesday night.

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend. 

My card tonight was created based on the cleanandsimplestamping sketch, which you can find HERE.  It was a very different sketch for me and I was inspired to pull out a stamp set that I rarely use - Butterfly Prints.  Of course, it just felt right to pair it with So Happy for You.

Then, I decided it was a really fun idea to pair together the purples.  Now, this card is going in the OWH card drive and I thought it would be fabulous for a tween or early teen girl.  Most girls LOVE purple at that age!

Here's my card.... I would like to say that I put the sentiment at an angle to follow the flight of the butterfly.... however, that would be a little fib... I slipped when I was putting the sentiment on the paper.  I decided, though, that it was ok, because it did look as though the butterfly was following the progression the sentiment started!

The bottom Concord Butterfly was punched out of DSP.  All the others were stamped and then hand snipped.  Of course, I couldn't resist the pearls.  I also decorated the inside.  But... because I like to leave as much white space on the inside of the OWH cards as I can, I kept the inside nice and simple.

Here's a closeup of the Concord Butterfly.  You can see what I did with the double layers for this one - and get a good idea of how beautifully Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant work together.

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

• Card stock:  Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush
• Inks: Concord Crush, Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder
• Stamps:  Butterfly Prints.  Sentiment:  So Happy for You.  Background:  Confetti
• Accessories:  Basic Pearls
• Tools:  Butterfly Punch, Stampin Dimensionals, Paper snips, Paper Piercer

I have two last photographs for you tonight.  The turkey and her babies:

and who on earth is this interloper?  A little identity crisis going on here? :-)

A strange looking turkey in the background, me thinks!

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

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

Have a fabulous Wednesday

Hugs

Jaydee

 

Strength & Hope meets So Happy for You

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.  Very quick post for you tonight, I hope you will forgive me if I show you a card and then go spend a little time with my hubby who has just arrived home :-)

You may remember the card that I made for Friday Mashup - using a color and a sketch challenge.  If You can't remember it, or haven't seen it, you can see it at this post.  I decided I would make another card - this time getting back to my clean and simple roots.  I used the same colors and layout, but changed out the stamp set.

Here's the card I have for you tonight

 

Guess what?   I LOVE IT! Is it OK to say that you actually like, or love, something you have created?  So many times I look at it and become hypercritical and self-doubting.  This time though.... I really did like it. :-)

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

• Inks:  So Saffron, Cherry Cobbler
• Stamps:  Strength & Hope, So Happy for you (sentiment)
• Tools:  Modern Label Punch.  "D" Clear Mount Block.  Red Pearl (non SU).  White pearls are from the SU Basic Pearls set.  Paper snips to cut around butterfly.  Stamp-a-ma-jig for sentiment placement

The background panel was created by applying So Saffron ink to the "D" clear mount block and then placing it directly onto the card stock.

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

My next post will be Saturday when I will  have a new Paper Players challenge card for you.  I'd love to show you a sneak peek of it... but... errr.   I haven't made it yet :-)

Hugs

Jaydee

French Foliage for Simply Less is Moore

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday night.

I found a new challenge site... I can't even remember how I found them!  Anyway, if you are a clean and simple lover - then this challenge site is for you.  The challenge this week was a sketch challenge.

The only change I made to the sketch was to change it to an A2 instead of square. 

I LOVE French Foliage and was so pleased to see that it made it into the main catalog for 2011/2012.  I seriously love the leaves.  I generally do an autumn (aka fall!) themed card when I use this set, but wanted to push my boundaries and use the new Lucky Limeade.  It really is a gorgeous color.  It's just that little bit brighter than Old Olive.

Here's what I came up with:

I love the stamp set and the realism of the finished images.  These leaves really do look as though they have fallen off the three, brushed off, had a mini glue dot put behind each one - and finally mounted on the card!

Of course, the background needed a little something.... so I went with the Sanded background stamp.  Behind the focal images, I used the Confetti stamp set.

Here are the deets - all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.

• Card stock:  Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla, Old Olive (a thin layer was placed behind the focal Very Vanilla layer)
• Inks:  Lucky Limeade, Basic Black, Versamark, Old Olive, So Saffron
• Stamps:  French Foliage.  Sentiment:  So Happy for You

It's a really versatile sketch and, of course, I had to make a summer and autumn version of the card! :-)  I'm sorry.... I just couldn't help myself!

So, don't forget to pop along and check out this new discovery.  You can find the challenge site at this link.  There is an amazing array of creations from both the talented design team, and submission cards.  I am sure the team would appreciate it if you played along, too!

On a personal note:

Hubby is on his way home... oh yeah!  I am so looking forward to a long weekend.  I will be playing with some of my new goodies.  Hopefully, I will be as productive this weekend as I was last!  I hope to get some more challenges under my belt and still have time to enjoy some quality time with Lou!  He gets home late tomorrow afternoon, which is so much better than getting home late on Friday.  I suppose it is no surprise that we have been together for 17 years...mmmm... maybe we have only spent about 1 year in the last 10 in the same place :-)  Not quite, true... but you know what I mean!

So.... all my regular readers know that I am nuts about my hubby and he really is a handsome hubby and I love him dearly.  My regular readers also know that I am nutso about George Clooney.  Well, thanks to THE VOICE, I have a cougar crush on a new man :-)   Is it Carson Daly.  No.  Is it Adam Levine.  No.  Is it Ceelo Green.  No....   No... it's the very hunky, very tall, rather amazing, very talented country singer Blake Shelton.  What an absolute honey!  He hasnt quite taken over from my hubby or George.... but he sure is a gorgeous hunka lusciousness.  :-)   Talking about THE VOICE.   The right person won... but I still don't get the second place finisher.  Seriously.... why not Beverly?

Talking about Beverly..... Beverly, have a wonderful, wonderful, well deserved rest at the coast, my friend!  I will be thinking about you relaxing and having fun!

Over the past couple of weeks we have been thinking back to our childhood on my blog.  I found this snippet of a new website on msnbc.com today.  I wanted to share it with you.  I think it is the coolest idea.  Check out this story - and then check out the website.  Rach, I know you will appreciate this!

Prayers tonight for those who continue to be affected by the adverse weather across the country.  Hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight, too.

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

Hugs

Jaydee

Thinking of You - Beautiful Butterflies: For Cherie and my mother

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday night.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Today, two very special people celebrate their birthday.  Today would have been my mother's 89th birthday and today Cherie is..... well.... I'm not telling you :-)  There has to be something about this day to have created two such wonderful women.  Strangely, they share some very similar traits.  So, Mom, I know you are watching down upon me - happy birthday and thank you for all the things that you taught me.  Things that I only realized you had taught me... long after it was too late to say thank you face to face.  But... couldn't you have given me your metabolism! :-)

To Cherie, happy birthday, my dear friend.  I hope it was a wonderful day for you and I look forward to catching up with you and celebrating.

This card was made for the two of you.   I used the fabulous sketch across at stamping411.  I loved that there was so much "white space" and I immediately thought of my Beautiful Wings butterfly die.  I had to create an interesting background and didn't want to use DSP.  So, I made my own. 

I inked up the new Fancy Fan letterpress plate with versamark and ran it through my big shot.  I then took my clear embossing powder and heat set it.  It looks fabulous - well, I think it does.  TIP:  The letterpress plates work best with craft ink, as classic ink dries too quickly.  However, I no longer have craft ink, so realized that versamark is a wet ink.  Even if you use versamark without the embossing powder, it will give you a wonderful tone on tone look.  So, pattern, without having to invest in craft ink.

With the butterflies, I was inspired by one of our very talented Paper Players - you can check out her card right here.  I know she would appreciate it if you visited with her and gave her a little blog love on her fabulous card.  So, Nikki, thank you for inspiring me.

I used the wonderful new Beyond the Garden DSP, vellum and Daffodil Delight card stock to make my mult-layer butterfly.  TIP:  Vellum and the embossing folders can sometimes not be good friends - the embossing folders make too strong an impression on the vellum.  So, I put the vellum into the embossing folder, put it on to the floor on a piece of scrap paper, put another piece of scrap paper on top and trod on it.  There was the most satisfying crunchy noise as the holes popped into the vellum without cutting.

I then used my new Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch on the top and bottom of the sentiment layer.  I love that the rounded tops of the scallop echo the round edges of the Fan.  I am also madly in love with this sentiment set  So Happy for You.  It was a sale a bration set and I think one of the best we have made.

Of course, a card for two such wonderful ladies wouldn't be finished without a little bling! 

Don't forget to pop along to the 411 crew and see the fabulous design team and submission cards.  I know you will find inspiration.

On a personal note:

Another long day today, made worse by the fact that Lou is away again.  So, I am rushing around madly tonight trying to get everything done and finished.  However, I did stop to watch the turkey today.  She was scratching away at our mulch and I couldn't work out what she was doing.  She moved a fairly large area into a pile, squatted down, and had a wonderful sand-bath!  She was so happy.

Kelly, I am sorry I didn't get to take a picture of it!  Missy - I swear you guys NEED a turkey crossing sign :-)  Ruth Ann, I am jealous that you have babies... we haven't seen any yet!  Linda, yep.  50 species and counting.  It's pretty amazing what you can attract in the middle of suburbia.  It's really so satisfying.   TxJennyWren... you asked who won... the hummer or the turkey.  Well, surprisingly, the hummer won that showdown :-)

Prayers for those of you who need a lift or a warm hug.  I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday.

I have to say... Mommy, I miss you!

Hugs

Jaydee

Thinking of You

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday night.

Very quick post for you tonight... it's 8.45 and I still have a whole bunch of stuff I need to do!  What I want to do.... get back into my stampin space! :-)

Tonight's card is another one that I made for one of my blogging friends.  I enjoyed making this card.  It uses the Strength and Hope set as well as So Happy for You.  It gave me the opportunity to pull out my Smooch Spritz - something I don't often use. 

I wanted to create a batik feel on the card stock and used shades of the main colors of Peach Parfait and Concord Crush for the butterflies.  I really do love this butterfly image.

 

I stamped the butterflies first, and then spritzed with the Vanilla Smooch Spritz.  It gives an overall luminescence to the focal image, which I think is set off by the pearls.

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

• Card stock:  Peach Parfait, Concord Crush, Whisper White
• Stamps:  Strength & Hope, So Happy For You
• Inks:  peach Parfait, Concord Crush
• Accessories:  Vanilla Smooch Spritz, Basic Pearls
• Punch:  non-SU

Prayers tonight for those of you who need a little lift, or a warm hug.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday... YAY!!!! It's Friday!!!!

Hugs

Jaydee

Strength and Hope - Sneak Peek - Paper Players Challenge # 38

 Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday Night.

Tonight's card is for the Paper Players Challenge number 38.  Ann has a great color challenge for us all this week.  Perfect for Spring and I know you will love playing along with this color scheme.  The design team have some fabulous inspiration cards for you.

I decided to use a brand new set, soon to be released by Stampin' Up!  Now, you all know that I love stamping for a purpose, and this one is particularly dear to my heart.  Stampin' Up! will be donating $2.00 for every Strength and Hope stamp set or digital set sold between May 1 and August 31 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  It's a fabulous set and I will be showing you several cards before the release of the stamp set.

Here's my card.

 
Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up!:

• Card stock:  Very Vanilla
• Stamp Set:  Strength and Hope (available May 1), sentiment:  So Happy For You
• Inks:  Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso
• Accessories:  Iridescent Ice (covers the butterfly), Basic Pearls
• DSP: In Colors Patterns Pack (Hostess Level 1 set)
• Ribbon:  Blushing Bride

The butterfly (which is beautiful, I might add) is from the Strength and Hope set, as is the words of encouragement and support along the bottom of the card.  I stamped the words across the bottom of the card until I had covered the entire area.  I inked up the butterfly with Stampin' Write Markers and stamped onto a piece of scrap Very Vanilla card stock.  I then snipped around it and covered the butterfly with Versamark and Iridescent Ice.  I mounted the butterfly to the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals.  I then stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso.

My biggest problem with this card?  I couldn't get a decent photograph of it.  I tried several different times and it just wouldn't photograph well.  I promise, it really is pretty in real life.  So, what am I going to do with this card?  Well, Germaine sent me a great magazine from the UK called Creativity.  In the magazine they told us about a campaign to collect hand crafted cards that can be donated to any of the Cancer Society shops in the UK and they will be sold for 1 UK pound each.  So, I am making some up cards and will take them with me on our next trip back and donate them to the Cancer Society.  Cancer really is a disease which has affected my life on so many levels.  Giving back in any way I can is important.    For those of you who live in the UK, you might want to check out this cause - Craft for Life.

 Continued prapers tonight for Missy and for all those affected by the Tsunami.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday, filled with love, laughter and time spent doing the things you love, with those you love!

Hugs

Jaydee

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday Bird and Two Minute Video tip

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday night. I hope you all had a great weekend.

I have a card and a video for you tonight.

I saw the combined challenge across at the Play Date Cafe and Casestudy challenge.  Casestudy has an inspiration challenge and Play Date has a color challenge.  The colors?  Red, Green and Black!  Mmm. not colors that I put together often, hence the reason for me doing this combined challenge :-)  I still love the name "play date cafe"!  Y'all know that you should go check out the challenge sites.  Once again wonderful inspiration cards from the design team- and some amazing submission cards, too!

In keeping with my new year resolution to use tools/stamps that I don't generally use and do challenges that... well challenge me.... I chose to highlight the 2-step bird punch.   I have never used this punch before and it really is a pity!

I went with the theme of black, red and green.  I chose Cherry Cobbler for my red and Old Olive for the green. 

I also used a punch that I haven't used before.  The Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch is a punch that I bought when it first came out and, yep, it has sat there in my drawer all lonely! 

I decided that the image and the frame worked really well with the new So Happy For You stamp set.  I love the font from this set! I especially love the fact that I got it for free as part of Sale-A-Bration!

To carry the black of the base card to the front of the card, I added a black wing to the bird.  You all know that I like repetitions of shapes/items... so the circle of the pearls fits with the circles in the dotted border punch frame, which in turn fits with the circles on the background DSP!  You will also notice that I added a little pearl for the eye of the bird.

I made a quick video for you showing how to create this wonderful little frame.  All you have to do is click on the image below and it will take you to the video. 
Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Whisper White, Old Olive
• DSP:  Regals Patterns Pack (117154)
• Stamp:  So Happy for You (121853 wood, 123220 clear)
• Tools:  Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch (119275), 2-step Bird Punch (117191), Stampin Dimensionals
• Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding Ribbon (120992)

I popped the frame on Stampin' Dimensionals.  I glued the leaves onto the base and then popped the bird up on dimensionals to give a little depth.  The wing was adhered at an upward angle using snail.

I was really happy with the card.  What do you all think?  I love this frame and know that it will be make a few more appearances on my cards!

I hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday - one filled with love, laughter and time spent doing the things you love, with those you love.  Me... errr.... conference calls most of the day!  Looking out of my office window at the wonderful, fresh, new layer of snow courtesy of the storm this weekend!

Prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Valentine Defined meets So Happy For You

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

I managed to get off work at 4.30 tonight!  Yeah.. it feels like a half day :-)

My card for tonight combines a sketch challenge - the fall to layout across at cleanandsimplestamping with the color challenge across at colordare.  Both the sketch and the colors of Basic Black, Marina Mist and Daffodil Delight, took me outside of my comfort zone.... which is a good reason to do challenges, right?

As is often the case, I might have been challenged, but really enjoyed working with both the sketch and the colors.

I am LOVING this Valentine Defined set.  I really wanted to create something other than a love/valentine card and, once again, pulled out the So Happy for You set.

Here's what I came up with

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

• Card stock:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight (textured)
• Inks:  Daffodil Delight, Basic Black and Marina Mist markers for the tree.  Black StazOn for the sentiment
• Stamps:  Valentine Defined 123057, So Happy for You (sentiment) (121853 wood), 123220 clear)
• DSP: First Edition Speciality DSP (121878)
• Accessories:  Black Satin Ribbon (117285)
• Tools: 2 1/2 circle punch (120906).  Scallop circle die cut - nestabilities non-SU, Stampin' Dimensionals - the focal image is popped using dimensionals

I was really happy that I could use this great set for something other than a valentine or love themed card and think that the typeface from the new So Happy for You set work so well together.   The So Happy for You set is from the new Sale A Bration catalog - and I love that this came free with my order!

I also think that the newsprint helps to tie together the black and the white elsewhere on the page and that the black tones down the very strong yellow that is Daffodil Delight.  I was a little stumped by the horizontal element that is behind the focal point on the sketch.... mmmm... it took me a little while to realize that a piece of black ribbon would work well.  In the end, I was very pleased with the card.

On a personal note:

Hoping to get a little stamping time in tonight.  I am really starting to get to grips with my new space.  In fact, I think I will share a couple of sneak peek photos for you.  Then, next week, I will have a post devoted to my new space because I need you guys to help me "pimp my space"!  Yep!  I will be offering up chance to win a little blog candy if you help me "pimp my space".  In the meantime here is a sneak peek

Here's one side of my crafting desk.  You can see the chair that used to be a bar stool - its been sitting in our garage for years.... It works perfectly for little Charlie to sleep on whilst I work.  You can see him curled up on his chair!

The milk crate storage works so well for me and I have them on both sides of my craft space.  The work top is a wonderfully spacious 55" wide x 38" deep.  It is big enough for two people to work - one on either side.  The great thing is that I spend most of my time standing - its 38" high.  So, I do a lot of my work standing rather than sitting.  Also, this amount of space is a huge improvement over my L-shaped desk that I was using.  My desk is now used for my computer and doing my blog, etc.  No longer do I have to share my stamping space with my computer space.   LOVING IT.  The craft desk also fits perfectly with my storage cupboard.

My cupboard was my alltime favorite purchase - but I think my craft desk has now taken that place!  I love that I can work on all 4 sides of my craft desk and easily reach into my cupboard for stamps, DSP, embellishments, etc.  In the foreground you can see my old desk.. which is now my desk - but used to be my stamping space and desk!

That's enough sneak peeks for now.  I promise that next week I will show you the rest of the space, my Big Shot station - yes, my Big Shot has its own station! and I will also reveal my challenge to help me pimp my space!

Prayers tonight for Rose, Adelle, Jan A, Erin, Germaine.  For those of you who need a little lift or a warm hug tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee