Stampin! with Jaydee

Happy Sunday.

It's the fabulous Ann's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and it's theme week.  It's also clean and simple week.  I looked through my old stamp sets deciding I needed to give them some love and remembered a set that Lou bought me a few years ago down in Australia.  It's from a company called Paper Rose and the name of the stamp is Thanks a Bunch.  One of the reasons I love this set is that it features a plant that is native to South Africa and is a close relative to a group of plants - Proteacea - that are native to Australia.  The protea is front and center in this set and I wanted to celebrate that.  So, thank you Ann for giving me an excuse to give this set some love.  Here's a sneak peek:

Here's Ann's challenge:

I began by stamping the image onto my normal Neenah Solar White, but after spending a few minutes trying to get the right effect from the coloring, I realized I had to create this on Express-It paper.  It was the only way I would be able to add as much ink as I knew I would need, and not have it bleed everywhere.  I haven't colored for ages and I must admit, I got so into it that I got lost for a couple of hours!  It was so relaxing just focusing on the minutae of the stamp and letting everythiing else just melt away.  I wasn't thinking about packing boxes and all the other tasks I had to do, just how I was going to do this set justice.

This set also features Kangaroo Paw, Beechnut and Eucalyptus. Such fun elements to color!   I googled each of the florals so that I could be inspired and it really helped.  Once I had finished coloring  I die-cut the image 4 times.  Once to cut out the bouquet and 3 more usiing blank card stock.  I wanted to give the image a little space from the base of the card.  I added the little bow and the sentiment.  

Here's my card:

I hope you will join us and play along with Ann's challenge.  We can't wait to see what YOU create.  As always, the design team have some fabulous inspiration for you:

• Ann
• Claire
• Joanne
• Laurie
• LeAnne
• Anne Marie
• Suzy
• Fran
• Tara

On a personal note:

Well, thank you to all of you who wished us well for our move - I really appreciated each and every one of those wishes.   We moved on Thursday and are frantically trying to get everything sorted at the new apartment, and closed out at the old apartment!

Moving day was quite the experience.  The movers were due at 10am.  at 10.00 it started to bucket it down with rain.  Not so much a problem aat the new apartment as we were unloading in the parking garage, but more so at the old one, where there was no covered parking for the moving truck!  10am came and went - the movers were running late.  They finally arrived at around 12.30 (well one of the guys did!).  He valiantly started wrapping and cover all the furniture trying to get ready for when his colleagues arrived. 

Then the new apartment management called us to tell us the lifts were down.  Which, considering we are on the 14th floor, was a bit of a problem!  By the time we arrived at the new apartment 2 of three lifts were working.  They locked one of them down for us so that it was for our sole use.  Mmmmm..... it was now rush hour for those returning home at the apartment block - and there was only 1 lift servicing 14 floors.  By the time it was all said and done, and the movers had left it was 7.30 p.m.   We were over 5 hours late and I felt so sorry for the moving guys.  They had done a job before us and were now into their 13th hour of moving furniture!  For us, we had about 3 hours sleep the night before (on the couches I might add as we had to dismantle the bed and the mechanics of our sleep number mattress) and were exhausted.

When we had settled in and closed the door, the first thing we tried to do was set up our accounts on the new wi-fi system.  Ooops..... the router in our apartment wasn't working and it was way too late for the apartment management to get the provider involved.  So... no internet.

Lou went out to get a few provisions and I asked him to buy some beer.  For some reason, and I have absolutely no idea why, I felt like a beer.  Lou got back, plonked the bottles on the table and looked at me with a big grin - kinda like a dog does when it brings you the bone it just found and wants to offer to you.    Mmmmm... nice one, Lou.  why didn't you buy beer in cans.  Well, you can drink from the bottle, he says.   Well..... I could - but I ccan't get the tops off as the bottle opener is in one of the 80 or so boxes sitting iin the second bedroom waiting to be unpacked.  Consequently, we had dinner sans beer :-)

It was much too late to tackle trying to put the bed together, so another night on the couches!  Friday came and all I wanted to do was start unpacking and trying to find places for things to go.  We made a pretty good dent into the boxes, but it got so late and only then we realized that we hadn't put the bed together.   So, night 3 on the couches :-)

After two hours today, the bed was up and ready and the mechanics all working.  Next problem... where was the bedding!!!  I know I had marked the box "bedding" to make it easy to find.  I searched all the remainiing boxes in the second bedroom.  Nothing.  Lou looked - nothing!  after an hour of hunting, I found that Lou had picked up the box and put it in the master closet - and neither of us had looked there.  So, I am going to finish writing this blog post, take a shower, brush my teeth and go lie in a bed!

It's going to be several days before my craft room is assembled - but as soon as it is, I will be crafting.  I can't wait to do some crafting in a space with so much sunlight!  I'll be back as soon as I can.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

• Stamps - Thanks a Bunch - Paper Rose Studio