Knitted Rose...

I picked up a book called 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet, by Leslie Stanfield, the other day and couldn't wait to start making some flowers. Here's my first attempt. Of course, it turns out, I had to start with an advanced technique, but it wasn't too hard. I learned some fun new stitches (well, new to me anyway). For a first attempt at knitting a flower and a rose to boot, this didn't come out too bad, I don't think.

Thanks for all your sweet comments about Jessica's butterfly. She was tickled to hear about how much you liked what she made. You are so nice!

Christi asked how I added the captions in the photos of the girls getting their hair cut. I type up my posts in Windows Live Writer and there is an option to type in a watermark. Usually I just type my name, but you can type in whatever will fit and it will show up on the photo. Plus, you can change the font and the font size. It's really neat. You can download Live Writer here if you are interested in checking it out. You have to register, I think, but it's all free. Free is good!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate your visit and your comments when you leave them. Have a great day!

Jeanne

Jessica's Butterfly...

Hi there!

Remember all that snow I showed you yesterday? All gone! It stopped snowing mid morning and then it warmed up and all of it melted. If we are going to get snow in April, that's the type of snow I like!

This morning I was making a quick card for the cupcake and Jessica saw my Basic Grey Butterfly on my desk. She asked if she could have a copy of it. I had already stamped it and gave it to her. She was excited to color it with her colored pencils. She did a great job...I believe she is a budding arteest...LOL

And you may notice, she's wearing her butterfly shirt today. It's the one that fills in with color once you are out in the sun. We're twins today as I put my butterfly shirt on, too.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jeanne and Jessica

Look At What We Woke Up To...

Sigh...before bed last night, I saw on the news it was going to rain and "some areas" would get snow. But I didn't stay up to hear which areas...Surprise!

I had to include the photo of Buster because he also got a haircut yesterday...maybe he's wishing he still looked like a Brillo pad about now...

The calendar does say the end of April, right? LOL

Have a good one!

Jeanne

Blog Candy Alert...

A super sweet blogger named Sarah has a blog called Sarah's Paper Tray. She's only been blogging a couple of months and has 2000 hits already! Awesome! She has a daughter named Amy as well, which makes her extra special in my book. :) Anyway, it's been SO fun getting to know her a little through her blog and comments.

She is offering some fun candy so go check it out here...and she told me I HAD to enter. I don't usually partake in trying for blog candy because I don't offer it on my blog. I don't think it's too nice to try for something if you don't reciprocate. But I don't want to disappoint my new friend, so I'm following the directions on her post.

Big hugs, Sarah! And really, you won't be disappointed when you go to her blog...she is very talented. You definitely need to check out her first "try" at a vintage card...it's gorgeous!

So...quit reading and go check out her blog already....

Jeanne

A Couple of Haircuts and Cards...

Hi there!

Yesterday Amy announced to me that she wanted to get her hair cut at the shop where I get mine cut (Cost Cutters...nothing fancy). Jessica piped up that she did, too. Now prior to this announcement, whenever you asked either of the girls if they wanted to go to a shop to get their hair cut they would loudly say NO...Mommy cuts our hair. I only want Mommy to cut my hair. And so I have (and probably not very well...). Then Amy kept saying she wanted it really short and would put her hand right below her ear. That'd be oh about 5-6 inches! Steve was nervous because his girls are the only chance he has to have a female in his life with longer hair (because if I grew my hair longer...it'd grow out like a bush, not down and pretty. Believe me, I've tried it a time or two in my life. So, not wanting to give them too much time to change their minds, I took them this morning...wielding a camera, since I've waited years for this happen. LOL
 

Amy immediately put on a headband, so you can't really tell how much healthier her hair looks. Jessica got the same bob type cut, so imagine that on Amy. Neither one had experienced a blow dryer on their hair before and thought it was tickly and neat.

And now for the cards...

This first project was inspired by this project on Jen Tapler's blog, (which I just recently discovered and added to my Reader) called Jen Tapler's Designs. Ohweee, she makes some cute stuff! Anyway, when I saw those strawberries I about drooled all over my keyboard and to boot, Kelleigh Ratzlaff is a buddy of mine from Jessica Sprague classes!! I'm SO thrilled to see her success-she's SO talented. Anyway...the strawberries are a template she designed and you can find them here (as well as other fun goodies) at the Digi Chick. I used a Martha Stewart red cardstock and the green is from EK Success Inspirables line (remember that octagon basket I made a while back...same line as that). I added some CTMH hemp and carried it over to the card, which is pretty self explanatory, I think. This was a fun one for sure! Thanks Jen and Kelleigh for the inspiration!

When I saw this card on Heather's blog, called The Best in Life, I wanted to make my own version. So, I pulled out my 6x6 Basic Grey Ambrosia paper pack and found a piece with the butterflies that would fit. I also used a new Basic Grey stamp set, which goes with the Wisteria line (Archiver's was out of the 6x6 paper, though) with my Koh-i-noor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I liked how it came out, except I thought the corners looked bare, so at the last minute I added a small image from the set in the corners...only I didn't season the stamp well enough. I think I'd have been better off leaving those corners plain. I ran out of crafting time though,  because I had to get Amy from the field trip to the Northglenn youth theater. She saw a performance of Beauty and the Beast (which she loved) this afternoon with her Brownie troop. I'm also not sure that the colors I chose for the image work as well as I thought they would. I added some Golden Wheat Shimmerz to some parts of the wings to dress it up a little, but it doesn't show up very well. Oh well, can't win 'em all. LOL The Sunflower cardstock is CTMH and the black is textured and from Hobby Lobby. The black brads are from a set of 6 neutral colors that I picked up at Hobby Lobby as well, from their Spare Parts line.

I think that is it for now. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to start another wonderful week. Tomorrow the girls only go to school for Assessments (meaning...for about 1/2 an hour-which counts as a day because the teachers have student contact) and then we might try to go to the Museum that we had to miss a couple of weeks ago due to Amy getting strep. Oh and they are off on Friday as well(teacher compensation day). It feels mighty rare that they go to school for a full 5 day week any more! LOL

Jeanne

Flower Soft Tree...

Hi again!

If you click to see this tree card on Cindy Lawrence's Creative Closet blog, I think you will understand my desire to make one for myself. Isn't it gorgeous? Because I'm not a "tree" person, I didn't have any stamps that had tree images, so I used the next best thing...a digital image! I found a nice looking tree on my Darcie CD called Fall Flurries and Winter Winks and printed it onto cardstock. I colored it fairly quickly using my Koh-I-Noor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I used my circle and scallop circle Nestabilities and some pattern paper from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie 6x6 paper set along with a bit of CTMH's Topiary cardstock. I bit of Dollar Tree white ribbon and the card is done. I added the Summer Flower Soft in smallish sections until it looked finished.

Oh....do you want to see the card I've just blathered about? You do? Silly me! Here you go...

Kim...I thought of you the whole time I was making this card because I know how much you like trees...hope you enjoy this one. *Ü*

Thanks again for stopping by!
Jeanne

Cupcake Gift Card Holder ~ Inspired by Tresa Black

Hi there!

When I saw this video tutorial by Tresa Black of Fabulously Artsy, I knew I wanted to try my hand at creating one for myself. I even got the supplies I'd need right away and they've been sitting there patiently waiting for me to get to work. Well, today was finally the day. Of course the birthday coming up (rather quickly) that I want to use it for, also prompted me to get busy...LOL

Anyway, here's how it turned out...

What do you think? I am pretty pleased with how it came out. Tresa's video is not only funny (because she's got a great sense of humor), it's very easy to follow. I ended up tweaking a few things. First off, because this is for a young man, I tried to select colors that were more masculine. And because a young man may not appreciate flowers, I used 1 inch circle punches cut in half. I did one layer of the crumpled cardstock technique and the rest are the gathered ribbon (just because I like how it looks). And the blue layer of ribbon is actually two, because I didn't want to see the edge of the cupcake liner. I think you might be able to use a wider ribbon and cover up the edge of the liner. And finally, instead of painting the wooden bead to make the cherry, I crocheted a cover for it! I had the pattern in one of my crochet books. Jessica noticed it yesterday and asked if I could make some for her, which got me to thinking that would be a fun way to make the cherry on top.

I still need to get the gift card, and a box for mailing, but aside from that, this one is ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by. I may try to get another project done before quitting today, so check back and see if I am successful...

Supplies:
Paper: Designer Collection (We R Memory Keepers from Hobby Lobby), chipboard (my stash)
Ribbon: Dutch Blue, White Daisy (CTMH) yellow (my stash)
Additional items: wooden bead, 10 ct crochet thread, size 5 hook, small binder clip, glue gun, 1 inch circle punch, needle, clear thread

And I want to thank Tresa and Sarah both for sending me this award. I really appreciate your thinking of me!

                                                   

Jeanne

Thanks SO Much and Let's Go Fly a Kite...

Hi there!

First off, thank you for all the sweet and lovely comments you've left for me! After I posted, I thought...well don't you sound like a whiney thing when you've got some awesome friends who are so generous with their time and comments. I didn't mean to come off as I don't appreciate you, for I truly do. Generally...I don't get caught up in stuff like this...I write what I write and share what I share because I feel like I'm talking with/to my friends. I picture us sitting around enjoying our favorite beverage and yakking up a storm. Maybe I'm having some PMS issues or something...whatever. Then I thought...well maybe they are switching over to Google Reader because it's so fabulous and as far as I know, there isn't a way to track how many people are using that. But in the end...it really doesn't matter, does it? I'm thankful to each of you for reminding me what's important and letting me know too, that you do enjoy my ramblings and attempts at being creative (even though I am SUCH a copier). I'm also extremely flattered to have been nominated for a blog award by THE Tresa Black, who is a fabulous artist! And Sarah...you are such a sweetie pie! Thanks!!!

We had a great time last night at the Earth Day activity. We made newspaper hats, some kids worked on building a recycle monster or some such thing. There was a maze of sorts to go through to find facts about recycling (some of which I had no idea about). The kids won door prizes and we even did a sort of a play. I was a student, as was Amy. Jessica was an aluminum can, I think. Steve stayed in the audience and cheered us on. Anyway, Susi walked us through our parts and there was much good will and laughter. Not a lot of people showed up, but it is spring and lots of outdoor sports are starting up. I heard several parents say their child had practice and they wouldn't make it. Those who came had fun and learned something, so that's good.

Now just a bit ago, I came home from Jessica's Kite Day at a local park. I took my camera and tried to get a few shots. Luckily the wind picked up a bit (it's 80 degrees today-whooo hoooo) and just about every single child had some success flying a kite.

Here are just a few shots....And believe me, I started singing Let's Go Fly a Kite while we were there. Yea, I'm a mom who gets "into" the activities. I wanted to try to get more photos, but the kids wanted me to help them get their kites flying or to fix the string or something...LOL

On this one if you look behind the person bending over, you'll see Jessica running with her ponytail flying. She has a pink Cinderella kite.

Doesn't it look just gorgeous out?? There's Jessica in her hot pink pants and if you look towards the black van and up, you'll see her pink kite. It sort of looks like it is in a tree.

This last shot is kind of funny because Jessica was tired of flying the kite. She wanted to go play on the playground for a few minutes and asked me to help her wind up the string. It got nice and breezy at that moment. She ran off and as I was holding the kite, the wind picked it up and it started flying as I stood there. So, I let the string out. I'm holding the string and taking the picture at the same time. I was also just hoping the kite was in the frame as I took the picture...it was pretty bright and I couldn't see what was on the screen too well. I got lucky with this one...that's for sure!

Thanks so much for stopping by...are you singing along with me now?  What a great day!

Jeanne

Flower Soft Butterfly Card

Happy Earth Day! Hope it's been a good one. The girls' school celebrated during the day today with activities/stations organized by my good friend Susi (Hattie's mom). I couldn't really help out during the morning as I had Jessica, but we went to school a little early so we could check out all the stations, which were all held outside. At one, the city trash truck was there and the kids got to toss empty milk cartons into the "scooper" after they heard about trash pick-up. At another they planted a tree (so cool) and a city employee was telling the group about trees. At yet another, the kids got to plant seeds in a little peat pot. There were a couple of other stations, but by then, I had to get Jessica over to her room to start her school day. Jessica's class wasn't left out...they got to plant geraniums in wine barrels to decorate a patio area at the school. All of this was organized by Susi and I'm SO impressed! She has worked really, really hard volunteering her time to start a recycling program at the school and now this awesome Earth Day event! Actually, the recycling program has been so successful that the district has sent representatives to the school so Susi could share with them how it all works. They are thinking of implementing a similar program district wide! THAT is awesome! Yea, Susi (who won't ever read this, but who cares, she truly deserves a shout out)!

I decided not to run around during my limited kid free time today (early release day) so I was able to make a card. Actually I worked on two, but the other one isn't quite finished, plus I'm not real happy with how it is coming along. But I do like the one I am sharing today...

I used the Summer Flower Soft today...similar to the Sweet Pea, but a little more bold in the color palette don't you think? AT one of the demos for this at the show I went to, the gal wrote an initial in glue and sprinkled the Flower Soft onto the line of glue. That got me to thinking how I could use it in a similar way. This is what I came up with. I ran my butterfly die through the Cuttlebug (thanks for the enabling Ms. Kathi...I could no longer resist the lure of the butterfly) and then ran it through again using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. (I personally like the wider spacing of the dots for this particular use-the die comes with a dotted embossing folder, too). I didn't buy any Flower Soft glue because the gal told me it was pretty much just like Aleene's Tacky Glue. I was told I could use any kind that would dry clear. So, I used my Scotch Tacky Glue because it does set really well and dries clear.

As you can see, the card itself is very simple as I hoped it would allow the butterfly to be the focus. The paper is from Making Memories' Flower Patch paper. The green cardstock is CTMH's Clover Meadow. The silver flower is a bead cap flattened with a glittery green Paper Studio brad. The sentiment is stamped in Clover Meadow and is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Message set. Oh and I added a couple of rhinestones on the antennae.

That's it for now...thanks so much for stopping by. I hope I am not boring people with my posts. I've been getting unsubscribe notices the past few weeks. Ah well...that's the way it goes, I guess. I'll just keep plugging along even if I do end up chatting with myself...

Jeanne

Progress on Teachers' Cross Stitch...

Hi there! I hope you are doing well this fine Tuesday! It is absolutely gorgeous here today!! A fine treat after the wild and wooly weekend. *Ü*

Did you know this week is National TV Turn Off Week? Yep, it is. The girls' school sent home a little flyer on activities to help support this idea. Last night they had a sing-along at the school. The girls really wanted to go, so we went and had a blast. Unfortunately for most people, we only found out about the sing-along yesterday, so not too many people showed up for it. The music teacher (she's so fabulous) led the activity and had songs ready to go with lyrics on a power point presentation. She projected the words onto the wall nice and big. So we all (yes, even the adults) sang and danced our hearts out for about an hour. So much fun! And they didn't chatter with each other near so much as they usually do when they go to bed. LOL

Tomorrow night we are going back to the school to celebrate Earth Day. My friend (who is organizing the event) asked if I'd be willing to help out at a table. I'm happy to help when I can,  so I'm going to co-man the paper hat making table. Should be fun. Then Friday night, we'll go back for the ice-cream social! Tonight is Brownie night and Thursday is Daisy day and we started another session of swim class this week. Oh and the kindergarten class is going to a near-by park later this week to have a kite flying day! That's going to be great as it is supposed to be sunny and warm (and hopefully, windy enough to get the kites in the air...LOL). Guess it's going to be a busy one for me again. But that's okay, they are all pretty fun activities.

Enough jabber. I was hoping it would distract you from the fact that I don't have a card to share today (or yesterday for that matter). Did it work? I've been running errands while both girls are at school and have given up my uninterrupted creating time in doing so. 

But I'm happy to report that all the stitching is done on the first cross-stitch project. I actually finished over the weekend and haven't cleaned or pressed it, but I wanted to share (so you wouldn't think I've fallen off the face of the blogosphere). LOL So, please forgive the wrinkles and hoop marks. Now before you get all worked up at how fast I got this done...this is a 14 count aida cloth (I prefer 18 count) and it's mostly full cross-stitches, meaning it goes pretty fast. It's definitely not an intricate pattern, either. I also pushed myself a little to work on it because I really wanted to have one done as soon as possible.

I added the close up picture of the hair, which was really fun to do. Those are not French knots which can be a pain in the patootie to create. Nope, these are Colonial knots which I hadn't done before and they were rather fun. There was a note in the pattern that cross-stitchers now prefer this Colonial knot over the French knot because it adds a great texture to the project and is a great alternative to the French Knot. Here's a link I just found in case you are interested in seeing how it is made... The fabric in the picture is what I am going to use to back the project. The directions for the project doesn't  have any back on it, so the recipient would see all messiness on the back side. I'm still not 100% convinced I'm going to make it a bell pull like the sample. I thought I might modify it to be a wall hanging, but without the fringe on the bottom. We'll see what I end up with when I actually put the whole thing together.

So, that's it from me today. Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope your week is going well and that Spring has finally sprung in your neck of the woods...

Jeanne

Finished Rose and Flower Soft Card

The sun is out in all its glory today and the past two cold, rainy/snowy days is but a memory. It's warm enough to be in short sleeves and most of the snow has melted. It definitely feels like spring again!

I worked on completing the two cards I started yesterday. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, although I don't think I will be able to send either one out in the regular mail. Guess they will have to be hand delivered or tucked in a box with a gift.

I used the Cricut cartridge called Wild Card to make the card base for the rose. I thought it looked reminiscent of a trellis. The rose is made with a pear shaped punch and the two leaves are a birch leaf punch. I think the rose came okay, given it's my very first attempt at creating one!

Sorry for the sun glare in the first photo. I'm too lazy to take the shot again. The swirly part is cut out by the Cricut. To offset the white and hopefully make the rose pop a little more, I also cut a liner piece out (well, the machine did) of Baby Pink cardstock (CTMH). The rose is a thin red cardstock I picked up at Walmart and the leaves are punched out of Topiary cardstock (CTMH). The rose is adhered with strategically placed mini glue dots. LOL

Now for the card using the Flower Soft bouquet I made yesterday...

I was completely inspired by this post on a blog I've recently found out about called All The Things I Love Cards by Bev. No, I don't have that stamp, but I had the papers! Well, all except the striped one...I apparently used that one all up already. And look, I even decorated the inside! I just love all the details Bev puts into her cards! I found out about it from this blog...Inspirational Craft Blogs. This team of ladies find some really great blogs, and I've only had it in my Reader for a week or so!

The papers are from DCVW Nana's Nursery for Girls. I also used CTMH's Blush cardstock to mat things. You can see I used that lovely Martha Stewart border punch. To make the corners I used an EK Success Corner punch for the main corner and a QuikKutz die for the inner corner (I got the die at either Archiver's or Hobby Lobby).

You can see I changed the ribbon around the bouquet because the pink I had was too bright for this card. This green sort of goes with the green in the paper. Why is it that I have TONS of ribbon, yet, not the color I want??? Sigh. The darker pink ribbon is Berry Sorbet from Papertrey Ink and the lighter pink is a velvet ribbon I found today at Michaels. (I think the roll was a dollar-there's great sale that started today and is going on this week). Finally, I added some pink rhinestones for bling. You can't really tell, but because of that velvet ribbon, I adhered the matted oval (used my Nestabilities to make) with pop dots.

Looking at the photo of the card, now I'm wondering if it needs something in the upper right corner? It sort of looks bare and Bev filled her card up with pretty flowers. Because of the Flower Soft, I chose not to do that, but maybe I should put one or two there? What do you think?

I put a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner tonight and it's making the house smell really yummy! I'd best go and get the oven heated for biscuits and the table set...

Thanks ever so much for stopping by. You will have to let me know if the finished product lived up to the teaser I posted yesterday....

Jeanne

I Got Some Flower Soft!

I went to a scrap/stamp show and there was a booth there selling Flower Soft. Kathi had used it recently and so have other bloggers. It looked intriguing so I was excited to see it demo-ed. I picked up a couple of containers, this one is called Sweet Pea. This is all I was able to do with it today. The booth was also selling paper covered wire. You put the glue on the wire, add the Flower Soft and set it aside to dry. I made 5 pieces. Then I tried to figure out a way to wrap it up like a bouquet because even though they sold the pieces to wrap it, I didn't buy any and now I'm sort of kicking myself. This is a triangle with the edge punched using a Martha Stewart border punch. This is as far as I was able to get before my crafting time ran out today. As I am typing this up I did a Google Search and came up with the Flower Soft website and even the project I saw demonstrated is posted! Very cool.

I hope to finish this project tomorrow. I also stopped by a booth that sold the punches needed to create the flowers as shown in this book and this book. I picked up a few punches and worked on creating a rose, but it's still drying, so it'll also have to wait til tomorrow to be completed.

We got invited to a friend's house for dinner, so I'd better scoot for now. The rain/snow has finally stopped and the sun is trying to peek out. Yea!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope to have something "complete" to share tomorrow...

Jeanne

Look What Amy Came Home With Today!

She thought it was just the songs from the show until I put the disc in and discovered it was a taping of the show! I knew her teacher videotaped it, and I was planning to send in a tape to get a copy, but this is even better (I suspect the grandparents are going to be getting a copy of this, too...)! Our seats last night were on the side where the ladybugs were standing and we couldn't see Amy much at all. The room was packed so it wasn't like we could just up and move our seats. I'm so tickled to have this, especially for Steve, who couldn't see much of her performing unless she was in the center of the stage and of course, for Amy to remember this great experience.

This is the fabulous music teacher who put this together...

Amy was eating some of those Nerd candies, so her face is a little silly looking, sorry. All the students got a flower for their performance as well which I thought was very sweet.

As I'm typing this I hear Amy singing along...awesome.

Jeanne

Goin' Buggy!

 

Well, I hope you'll indulge a proud mama moment! I know these pictures aren't very good. The lighting was low and I did my best to brighten the shots and get rid of the "white" eyes. I also blurred a few faces on the last photo since I couldn't crop all the kids out of it.

This performance was outstanding and I'm not just saying that because my kid was in it. These second graders memorized their lines and had lots of different movements and songs to sing. They didn't have any major goofs at all! I was so impressed. Some of the kiddos I haven't seen all year (because of where I have to wait to pick up Jessica after school) and to see how big they've gotten from when I saw them last year is amazing. I am so awed that the music teacher put this together! I found out she only works 4 days a week and these kids have only been practicing this for a couple of months. Truly outstanding. I can't wait for Steve to see it. Although I suspect I'm a little more sentimental about it than he will be. LOL

And guess how tickled I was that my girl was a butterfly....hee, hee

Jeanne

Jessica's Smile...Digi Layout

Happy Thursday to you! It's a cold and dreary looking day today and it's misting. I hear we are going to get some more snow tonight or tomorrow into Saturday. Sigh...

On a fun note...today is Amy's school performance of Goin' Buggy. The one I've been hearing about ...daily... for months. LOL They are performing for the school this afternoon and then for parents this evening. In keeping with the whole stereotypical waiting until the last minute scenario, as Amy was getting ready for bed last night she mentioned she didn't have a plain white t-shirt to wear. I didn't realize this. I thought she had one. She has white t-shirts, but they have writing on them. I guess it's my fault for not checking, but I was so sure! Sooooo...I had to make a quick run to Wally World to see if I could get one. And wouldn't you know I couldn't find one! Luckily the salespeople are always nice and helpful to me (I know that's not the case for all Wally World shoppers). The gal working there was happy to look for one. She found the last two  in the department (tucked under another color t-shirt) and one was Amy's size! Whew. I AM looking forward to seeing this production. I'm taking my camera and I hope to catch a few good shots.

Remember that layout I posted the other day of Amy with the faded picture? Well, Jessica wanted a layout like that of her. I was happy to oblige. And this morning, with a little chat assistance from my good friend, Erin (thanks, sweetie), I completed the layout.

I know I could have used the same layout and just swapped Jessica's picture in there, but I have been in a digi scrapping mood lately, so I wanted to create a new layout. I used another of Janet Phillip's templates from a ScrapbookGraphics Grab Bag. This page kit is also from NitwitCollections and is called Bunny Hops. The font for the quote (found via a Google search on smile quotes) is Sweetheart Script and her name and date are Pea Missy Cursive (from KevinAndAmanda free fonts website).

Sweet little Jessica has a cold, darn it. One she is denying that she has because she doesn't have a fever, so that means she isn't sick. Doesn't matter that her nose is running like a faucet or she's barking like a seal...she's only got a "leetle" cold. Behaviorally she is just fine, playing, eating, and being perky, so that's good. She just doesn't sound all that great! Knock on wood...I'm hoping she isn't as generous with this cold as she is with sharing other things!

On the cross-stitching front...I'm done with the stitching on the first project! I just need to do the back-stitching and put it together then #1 is done. I think I can ease up a little on working on them as I am pretty sure I will be able to finish up both in time. LOL I just wanted to get one done (or close to it) so I could gauge how much time it takes to get it done.

I hope you have a happy day! Thanks for stopping by....

Jeanne

Amy's Smile...Digi Layout

Hello! I hope you are doing well today. We're good~today. Yesterday the girls had the day off from school, I think for a teacher compensation day. The girls and I had made plans to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science because Amy really wanted to see their brand new Health Exhibit. Unfortunately, we couldn't go after all, because she had a fever! Sigh...I even took her to the doctor to be sure her strep hadn't come back and thankfully, it hadn't. It's just something viral. She didn't get to swim at swim class either. The funny thing was all weekend she had very pink cheeks, but was behaving absolutely normally, aside from her perpetual runny nose. Today, she is back to normal and made it through the school day. She was so upset about having a fever, not only because we couldn't go to the museum, but she has a part in the upcoming Goin' Buggy 2nd grade production later this week, and if she was sick, she'd leave a "hole" in the production (her words). I think she'll be fine, but she definitely has a flair for drama!

After my cleaning up around the house, getting the trash out for trash day and all that, I went to my corner to create something and realized my mojo had up and left. Grrrr...I tried a few different things to spark the creative juices but had no luck until I tried creating a digital layout. Here's what I came up with...

I used a template, but not a Kay Miller Designs one (are you shocked?). This template is by Janet Phillips and is called Brace Yourself. I think I got it from ScrapbookGraphics in one of her Grab Bags. She's not there anymore though. She now runs The Daily Digi. The papers and flowers are from Mary Fran's kit called Just Hatched. She owns NitwitCollections (so even though it's not Kay Miller, their sites are connected so it's not I strayed too far away from Kay's stuff~LOL). The font I used is called SuzanneQuillSH.

I was just playing around and added a second photo of Amy and enlarged it. Then I reduced the opacity to somewhere around 30% and moved the layer to be just below the flower paper. I also played a bit with the blending modes (I just checked and I ended up on Luminosity). I liked how it looked so I stuck with it.

Jessica saw this and asked if I was going to make one like this of her...guess that means I'll be duplicating this somehow, huh?

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day.

Jeanne

Back Again with a Digi Layout...the easter egg mess?

Hopefully you can see it okay. LOL I tried to size it so you could read the journaling if you wanted. I got this template for the layout (which is a 2 pager if you didn't guess) as a freebie from The Daily Digi blog. It sure was nice of Janet to gift us with such a great template! I didn't take quite that many photos, so I tried to zoom in on a couple of them to keep it sort of interesting. The kit I used is from Kay Miller Designs (big surprise) and is called Easter Joy. I used a couple of different fonts. The journaling is Century Gothic, mainly because it's easier to read. "the easter egg" is from CTMH and is called Noodge. The "mess" is also a CTMH font called Inkling. I had to really enlarge the size on that one (to something like 150 pt) to get it large enough.

I fiddle and futzed with maybe adding some more goodies but in the end left them off. Sometimes I should really let the photos shine, huh?

I did a little editing on the photos, trying to practice those skills. I had been letting myself get all worked up over how to edit without them looking like they have been edited. But I'm relaxing and just trying to get them to look a little more true to life. I don't know if I'm really succeeding as I think my camera (just a Kodak point and shoot Z740) does a fairly good job without a lot of tweaking. Or maybe I'm lazy. I don't know.

Thanks for stopping by once again. This will probably be it for posting today.

Jeanne

Happy Easter!

From our Family to Yours...

Jeanne

PS Guess where Steve took the girls yesterday? LOL

Revised Hello Card and a Witzy...

Happy Easter Sunday to you! I hope where you are you are getting more sunshine than we are. It's a dreary looking day outside, but nice and comfy warm in the house. I will be starting the cook-fest here in a bit, but wanted to share a couple of cards I "whipped" up today.  (LOL at the used of the word whipped...like it I did it so fast...ha ha, ho ho, hee hee).

What do you think? Does this look a little less glaring than the black flowers on the other hello card I posted? I think so. I kept the card next to me at my computer desk yesterday and the more I looked at it, the more distracted I became at the black flowers. I thought they overpowered the image. So, I tried again, this time using 2nd generation Petal for the flowers and full Petal for the centers. I also chose a darker ribbon. I think this looks better...

And here's Witzy...from Suzy's Zoo. I absolutely fell in love with Witzy and the Gang years and years ago. I even bought a set or two of foam rubber stamps and a couple of wood-mounted ones. And I've kept them all these years! Recently I saw this card on Hog Wild About Stamping and it made me wonder if I still had the image. A quick trip out to the garage and into a plastic bin and I found the stamp! I honestly don't recommend these foam rubber stamps as it is hard to get a good stamped image from them. They tend to leave ink marks because the foam curves. I had to try several times before I got an image I liked and even then, I had to color in the shoes because the ink was not even there. Ah....the things we do when we get inspired, huh? The stamps are from Rubber Stampede, but I honest to goodness don't know if you can find them in retail stores anymore. I did a search and came up with a link to the Suzy's Zoo website and they have an online store, but I don't see any stamps listed...

ANYway...I colored the image in using my Koh-i-noor pencils, odorless mineral spirits and blending stumps. I even tried to make it look like she was standing in the grass. I chalked the sky color using two colors of blue. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages (what a great go-to set that is). I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder and matted it all on Moonstruck cardstock (CTMH) and this super simple, but hopefully super cute card was done!

And I don't know if you can tell the different but I am trying to edit my photos now to get them to look more true to life. I'm still vErY new at this so if it looks wonky...it's definitely operator error! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great Sunday...whatever you are doing!

Jeanne

Hello and Friendship Cards

Hi there! I went to Archiver's yesterday...with a coupon in hand to see if they had anything that I just had to have. And as many times as I go in there and come out empty handed, this wasn't one of those trips. LOL I found a couple of stamps I couldn't leave in the store. And I inked them up right away!

This first one is a single image from Stampendous'  new Cling Rubber line. I could handle this because...a) it's only one image & I don't have to line it up anywhere, b) the company already put the image on the back (in the right place and with the correct orientation) so once I placed the image on my clear block, I could see where I was stamping the image. c) it peeled off easy peasy. And let's face it, who could resist that adorable snail?

I had an employee at the store make a color copy of both card samples that prompted my mini buying spree,  so that I could have the inspiration in front of me rather than trying to rely on my feeble memory. I recently found out you could do that, if you purchase the stamps in the sample. Of course, I changed it up a little in what I used from their sample. The images were colored in using what else? My Koh-i-noor pencils, odorless mineral spirits and blending stumps. (I have to say the purchase of this pencil set was one of my best...I just LOVE how they color-LOL)

After I finished my coloring, I random stamped the flower image from Verve's Petals and Stems set in black ink (CTMH). I then layered the image on black cardstock and Amethyst (CTMH) and added a bit of ribbon (my stash). Once the card was all put together THEN I added the Stickles (Lavender and Crystal). The Lavender color was too dark, actually, so I dabbed a bunch of it off so that you could still see the detail in the shell of the snail. I really like how it came out.

Now this next card has an image that one might think I wouldn't particularly care for. But the sample jumped out at me and I HAD to have the set. And I am thrilled at how this one came out!

The set is called Friendship Hand and it's by Stampendous. Unfortunately, for those of you who don't have an Archiver's nearby, the packaging says it's an Archiver's Exclusive. So, I don't think you'll be able to find it elsewhere. On this one I used some flesh colored pencils that I just picked up from Hobby Lobby. I'm not sure I like them though (aside from the color looking like flesh) because the color didn't lay down very easily. Sigh...

In the set you get the arm/hand by itself and the flower is separate. I made a little mask from a post-it note so that I could try to make it look more like the hand was holding the flower stem. I think it worked pretty well if I do say so myself. LOL

The cardstock used is from Archiver's because I had a coupon to get 5 free sheets of their smooth cardstock. I just looked and it's Bazzill Basics Paper in Berry Sensation, Apple Crush and Teal something (That paper didn't have a sticker on it-poo) I tried the Apple Crush because it looks very similar to my quickly dwindling supply of CTMH Sweet Leaf cardstock) and should I get desperate for more I can get something close to the color.

After I colored in the image (using those pencils again), I used some Inkadinkado chalk for the blue background. Then I used my CTMH Legacy Writer (size.03) to draw the lines.

I think that's it! If I've forgotten something and you have a question...please don't hesitate to ask.

If you are at all interested in the progress of the counted cross stitch piece I'm working on...I'm just about done with the angel! Yea!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a beautiful holiday weekend.

Jeanne

Would You Like to Meet Addison?

I finished her last night, much to Jessica's delight!

Jessica picked out the colors, based on the photo of the doll on the pattern, and what Mommy had in her stash. Had to take that second shot because the bloomers are just too cute to hide. LOL

Mommy's doll is going to have to wait for awhile...sigh. I've got a new project I'm working on, this time doing a craft I haven't done since Amy was a little baby...counted cross stitch. At that time I had all the DMC floss in all the colors available. I have unfinished projects to complete...maybe...someday. But what I am working on is/are for the girls' teachers for the end of the year, which happens to be at the end of NEXT month (How the heck did THAT happen???). Yea, I'm a glutton for punishment. Nah...it's fun! I guess I sometimes thrive on seeing if I can finish up something in a set amount of time. In this case, two somethings.

I got the idea from the mom that I've gotten to know at swim class. She found the pattern in an old magazine and it's of a teacher 'angel' with inspirational words about teachers. She's worked on her project while I've worked on various crochet projects and it's been fun. She kindly loaned me the pattern when she finished her stitching last Wednesday. I just started the project yesterday...wish me luck! I DO think that teachers are definitely worth the time and effort it takes to make something like this!

I may be a little absent from other projects as I work on this, so please forgive me in advance if that turns out to be the case.

Thanks so much for visiting and all your encouraging words!

Jeanne