Stampin! with Jaydee

Happy Sunday.

It's another challenge across at the Paper Players this week and the fabulous Joanne has such a fun sketch for us.  At first I really didn't know what I was going to do with it and then I remembered I got a set as part of an online class I did with The Stamp Market that would work perfectly.  I had fun creating a birthday card with bright colors - most unlike me :-). 

Here's a sneak peek:

And here is Joanne's sketch:

I created a background with a stitched rectangle and then added another rectangle on top of it to create the background layer.  I stamped each of the candles with the different stamps from the set and added the flames.  I die cut them and then mounted them with foam onto the central layer and added a little sparkle to the inside of the flames.

Lastly, I stamped and die cut the sentiment and added that across the candles.  Easy peasy.  Oh... and.. yep... I used something other than white for the background.  SHOCKER! :-)

Here's my card:

I hope you will join us and play along with our challenge this week.  We would love to see what YOU create with Joanne's sketch.  As always, the design team have some fabulous inspiration for you:

• Ann
• Claire
• Joanne
• Laurie
• LeAnne
• Anne Marie
• Eliz
• Jen
• Stef

On a personal note:

Well, winter finally hit us this week.  Yep - temps down in the -30F - that's minus 34C for those of you who work in centigrade.  Whether it's centigrade or farenheit - at that temp your nose hairs freeze the minute you step outside the door and you are desperate to get back inside as soon as you can. However, unlike some parts of the country, we are desperate for some snow.  We haven't had a snowfall since a couple of days before Christmas.  It's tried a couple of times, but there hasn't been enough moisture in the air and it hasn't been quite warm enough to give us that really good snow fall.

As it's way to cold to go out, I've been having some fun in my craft room making cards, practicing my calligraphy and doing some coloring.  I keep telling myself that I need to practice my drawing and watercoloring.... but I know that needs a lot more practice!!  I've also been prepping for the next online Pinkfresh Studio class in February, so had lots of new goodies to play with including some wonderful new pressplates.  Once I took the betterpress class with PFS last year, I have thoroughly enjoyed using my glimmer hot foil machine.  Mmmmm... I think I need to get out the spellbinders betterpress and use that, too!

We've also taken the opportunity to continue to make changes around the house.  One of the things we really wanted to do was get rid of the massive - and I mean massive - drum light that was over the dining table.  It was so big that it was actually wider than the previous owners table!  It dominated the room and had to go.  It took me ages to find a light to go with the rest of the lights we had changed and finally settled on a slimline light fitting that was much more appropriate for the dining table.  It also went really well with the winter decorations in the dining area, too!  We ended up putting a narrow console table against the wall so that we could add some table lamps as that area was a little bit of a dark area.  Now it looks warm and inviting and the light is appropriate for the space.

As an engineer, I like things symmetrical and it always bothers me that we can't put the dining table in the middle of the area, and that the window placement means that anything between it and the sunroom wall will never be balanced!  But, I realized that there is nothing I can do to change that and I just have to deal with it :-)

We did finally manage to dress the tree - although not as I probably would have liked to!  But this year was a test to see what the cats would do with all the hanging doodads!  This photo of Charlie is a good indication of what the cats did with the tree!

YEP.... Nothing.  Except for one ornament that caught the eye of Chili - they completely ignored it for the rest of the time that it was up!!!!

One thing that did come out of storage was Norman!  Lou bought me this fabulous wooden nutcracker for Christmas several years ago and it was wonderful to have him out and taking pride of place.  He's the first thing that you saw coming through the front door at the end of the passageway.

And, yes, I do have a bit of a thing for nutcrackers!   He's not as tall as our metal nutcrackers that are in the sunroom, but he's beautifully made and I adore him.

One of the other things that Lou did for me over the Christmas break was to paint the back of the bookcase fitting in the family room.  It's painted a dark brownish-grey color and really makes things pop.  Like this fabulous scene that my bestie Pammie sent me for Christmas.    As you can see the shelves are great for decorating!

Oh.. and we had a visit from some of our local deer population, too!  Aren't they magnificent!  We never get tired of seeing them.

As a reminder, you have a chance to win a brand-new Alexandra Renke sentiment set.  All you have to do is leave a message saying what you would like to receive for Valentine's day and you will be entered into the drawing.  So far we have everything from time just to craft to chai latte's and dinner's out!

Here's the sentiment set:

Well, that's all for today.  I'm hoping to get to play along with some challenges this week, so should have some cards to share with you.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

card recipe:

• Stamps, dies:  A Little Birthday Wish - The Stamp Market