So Thankful For You card

  Hello! 

Whoosh! And it's November! This year is just racing by. Our last week of October was a cold and snowy one. We went something like 109 hours below freezing and broke records. School/work was kind of crazy, too, because of the cold and snow. Monday we had a late start. Tuesday was an early release and on Wednesday we had a snow day! On Halloween we were in the upper 30s, low 40s. We only had two small groups come to our house for trick-or-treating. Not sure if it was due to the weather or if trick or treating is no longer a thing in our neighborhood. 

I had some time on Saturday to work on cards and it ended up that I spent all my crafty time on one card. But, I don't mind. I really like how it came out. I was smitten with this card by Candice Fisher that I saw on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog. She was promoting Hello Bluebird in her card. I don't own those stamps, but I couldn't get the lovely colors out of my mind. So, I set out to mimic the card using my Lawn Fawn stamps.  I didn't have dies to go with all the sets, so I fussy cut the images out. I also don't own the Distress Oxide Inks in the colors she used, so I used regular Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin and Ripe Persimmon. I added some Brushed Corduroy to the trees. All the images were colored with Copics. This is what is called a slim line card. 3 1/2 by 8 1/2. I do have envelopes to fit it. You can find them at Hobby Lobby. *Ü*

And just for fun, here is a picture I snapped last week when the girls were going to go with their dad to take the dog for a walk. He is part American Eskimo (really!) and LOVES the cold and snow. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great start to the new week.

Crafty hugs,

Celebrate!

Hello!

Surprise! Two days in a row? How can that be?

Today is Jessica's birthday! 

She is 17.

Gulp

While checking out some You Tube videos I saw this lovely card being created and I thought it was beautiful and elegant and a bit more grown up. Kind of like my Jessica. :)

The stamp is from Concord and 9th and celebrate is a die from My Favorite Things.

She had a full day of school, came home for a bit to do some homework and then headed back to school to participate in the first Battle of the Books for this school year.

And, for the first time since she joined, her school came in first!

How's that for a wonderful birthday surprise. 

If you know Jessica, you know reading is one of her very favorite things to do. 

*Ü*

Birthday Girl

with Amy at Red Robin, Jessica's choice for her birthday dinner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Queen and Company Hocus Pocus Shaker Cards

 Hello!

I'm not sure if I have shared here my fascination with Queen and Company's shaped shaker card kits. My friend, Kristie Marcotte, is mostly to "blame." :) She is an enabler extraordinaire. She is on the design team for Queen and Co and makes the cutest cards using her 6x6 paper pad tutorials and card sketches. You can find her blog, The Best Things in Life are Pink here. Last month she shared the 29(!) cards she made using their Hocus Pocus kit. You can see that post here. Kristie donates a majority of the cards she makes to a retirement center. Those lucky residents! I have no need for 29 cards, so I work on her tutorials until I get my fill and feel the nudge to move on to another project. Squirrel! I see so many ideas and have so little time! LOL

Here are the cards I made following Kristie's inspiration. I do add my own tweaks to make them my own. I had a lot of fun. There are so many fun components to the kits and the shakers are really easy and fun to create. Thanks, Kristie for enabling and inspiring! I added some of my own paper and cardstock to the cards. Most of the pattern papers are from the 6x6 paper pad that comes with the kit. The spider web pattern paper (inside the haunted house and spooky card) are from a different company. The black glitter cardstock is from Hobby Lobby.

The yellow embellies on this card are from Hobby Lobby. Paper Studio brand. FYI, that brand is on sale this week. ;)

The embellishment on the witch's hat is from Making Memories from many years ago. 

The buckles on the witch's shoes are an embellishment I found at Michaels a week or so ago. They were part of their Halloween line this year. 

I added some foil from Queen and Co in the upper corner of this card. This foil is neat because you do not need a laminator to use it. It adheres to a sticky surface, like double sided tape. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Marching season ended on Friday, so hopefully, 

I'll have a little more time on weekends to create. 

Fingers crossed!

Fall Shadow Box Card and Fun Schtuff

Hello there!

Yesterday we had a real taste of winter here in Colorado. A storm flew through and dropped the temps significantly and a little bit of snow. Guess it's getting real. Today is sunny and 50s. I like those kinds of storms. 

I've also had a few days off from work. Believe me, I have enjoyed them. Work is a bit of a challenge and I am working hard to keep a positive attitude about it. Some days I'm more successful than others. But I knew I was going to do something for me these past few days and that means I spent time in my crafty corner. *Ü*

Lawn Fawn continues to be a favorite company of mine. When I came across this shadow box card by Valerie Ward, I fell hard. It was so cute! I made a shadow box card for spring/summer and put it on my mantle. I wanted to put a new one up and this fit the bill perfectly. I made a few tweaks to make it my own, but you can definitely see Valerie's card in mine. 

Though a wagon would be a fun addition.

I dressed up the back side differently than hers. 

And a peek inside.  I thought it'd be neat to ink blend on the three sides, instead of just the back. I cut those two corner corn stalks and glued them on each side. 

All my images were colored using Copic markers and I found  a nice fall Copic color combo post recently and decided to use those blends on this project. 

Originally I stamped all my lined images in a brown ink, but discovered upon coloring them, that it wasn't Copic friendly. Drat. It took me another day to restamp the images and start over. But, I think it was worth the effort.

I'm very pleased with how this turned out. 

And now, I thought you might like to see a few pictures of my girls. A week or so ago was Homecoming/Powder Puff week. Amy got a jersey her junior year and stood on the sidelines rather than playing in the game. We've heard the girls are really rough in the game and she didn't want to risk getting hurt right before a marching band competition.  Jessica got a jersey this year, too. And she ended up having to work Bingo the night of the powder puff game. But both girls loved showing off how "tuff" they are.

The theme for Homecoming this year was Hollywood. Jessica wasn't able to find a dress that really fit the theme, but she did find this fun music note dress and that's just as good! She pained her nails with music notes, but I don't have a picture of them handy. Here she is with her boyfriend. They had a good time at the dance. And bonus, driving children can pick each other up! Amy picked Jessica up after her shift ended at work. Sweet!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and can find some crafty time.

Jessica and I are going to a marching band competition tomorrow. Then the Regional Competition is on Monday night. If they do really well there, they could head to the State Competition at the end of the month. If they don't make that, they've had a fun year. The show is fun and Jessica has enjoyed having a very full pit this year. 

Hope you don't mind my sharing some "life" stuff. I enjoy getting to know people I follow and think it makes blog reading even more fun. 

Halloween Shaker Tags

 Oh my goodness! I had not realized my last post was at the end of January! Way to drop off the face of Blogland. Well, if you are reading this, you know that I am still here. I am still creating from time to time, although I do post more frequently on my Instagram account (@crafterjeanne if you are on that platform). I know many of you choose not to add another element of social media and I respect that. I've gotten a few questions recently asking if I was still posting. It's always my intention to post, but I have let life get in the way. I do have a couple of projects to share, but I thought I'd give a brief life update. If you'd rather scroll past to the pictures, feel free.

My older daughter graduated high school in May and turned 18 in June! Crazy how fast that time flew. It's like the line in the song by Luke Bryan called Most People are Good,... the days go slow, but the years go fast. She got her first job (working as a cashier, or rather, Guest Advocate) at Target. She started college at a local community college where she wants to get into their Nursing program. This college has an excellent nursing school that is very well respected. They are starting a baccalaureate program. So far she is enjoying her prerequisite classes.

My younger daughter is a junior in high school this year and is continuing in the marching band and all of the clubs she enjoys. I am still volunteering quite a bit. She is a section leader for the Pit members (the instruments like marimba, xylophone, etc). She is also enjoying her classes so far.

As for me, I am still working in the elementary school kitchen, where they keep me hopping! It's been a roller coaster of a beginning to the school year due to some personnel issues, but I am hoping things will settle down. I've been hoping for things to settle down in the kitchen for a long time now. It's a big part of the reason I've neglected this blog. I come home pretty tired.

I have made some personal goals to try to pick up on things I've been neglecting and posting here is one of the goals. I am really going to strive to post more regularly.

So, onto what I chose to share today. First up is a counted cross stitch project I made for Amy. She is my giraffe lover. In fact, just last night we were at the Denver Zoo for my husband's company employee appreciation day. Amy couldn't wait to stop by the giraffe enclosure. She was so happy to see Dobby and the three other giraffes they have in house. Anyway, I found this pattern on Etsy from Awesome Pattern Studio.

I'm currently working on a stitching project that I started way back when, even before the girls were born or not long after Amy was born! I think I put it away worrying that Amy would find the needle and poke herself. But over the summer I decided to update my wall decor in my kitchen area and this project felt like it would fit well with the new decor, so I'm trying to finish it. It's kind of slow going, but I'll get there. 

And now to a more seasonal project. I recently made these shaker tags after seeing them online on D Kirby Stamps blog here. Lawn Fawn just released these absolutely adorable mini village houses in a Halloween theme and I could not resist even though my girls are past the trick or treating age. 

I followed the inspiration project for the most part, but I did a little something different for the background, although you can't really tell here. I used some Nuvo Shimmer Powders to get the night sky. I think I covered up too much of it. I also used some wonderful iridescent embossing powder from Love From Lizi (a UK company) on the tags, but again, the area is a tad too small to get the full effect. Oh well.  I also used iridescent stars from Martha Stewart (they've been in my stash for years). The images are colored with Copic markers. 

That's it from me for now. Thanks so much for stopping by. I get so much inspiration from all of you crafters out there. Thank you so much for all the sharing. I hope you don't mind my CASE of your ideas. 

Til next time, crafty hugs!

12 Kits of Occasions Guest Designer!

Hi There!

Hope this finds you doing well.

I was invited by my friend, Jeanne Jachna (doesn't she have an awesome first name?) to be a guest designer for The 12 Kits of Occasions Challenge for January, 2019. I was very flattered to be asked  and surprised myself by agreeing to participate. The theme is Good Fortune and I received a lot of fun goodies with an Asian theme. You can see them in the graphic below. 

The challenge is very low stress and there aren't really many rules. I could create just one card if I wanted or more. I could supplement with my own stash if I wanted. The goal is just to have fun.

And I decided not to over think this at all and do just that; have fun. 

I came up with 4 cards and I still have supplies left to make more if I want. 

On this one, I colored the images with my Copics and added Distress ink in Mowed Lawn and Tumbled Glass to the punched circles to make it look like the outdoors. I followed sketch #33 from Reverse Confetti.

When I saw the blue embossed cardstock and the circular gold die cut, I knew I had to use them together. The animal/dragon(?) is colored with metallic watercolors from my stash. 

I loved the cherry blossom paper and I couldn't resist making a shaker with the die cut piece included. I added some Spun Sugar to the cloud like shapes. 

And finally, Jessica really like the little Ninjas, so I had to color them up. I had some fun making an night sky including  my poor attempt at adding "stars" with white acrylic paint "splatter." Jessica said some of them look like shooting stars. LOL I'll take it! Anyway, I had fun coloring them with Copics and adding some Wink of Stella to the headbands and trim. The mountains have some Winking, too, but you can't really see it. 

So there you have my efforts at the January 2019 12 Kits of Occasions.

Thanks so much, Jeanne  for asking me to play along. 

I hope you enjoyed my creations. 

I had a lot of fun making these cards. 

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

Crafty hugs!

Foiled Cards

Hello Friends!

During the Christmas season, I treated myself to a laminator and some Gina K Designs foiling products. The foils I chose where silvery iridescent and looked SO cool when I tried foiling for the first time. I also got a few Minc gold and iridescent foiling papers from the family on Christmas morning. Of course I had to have more colors. Gina K Designs was having a sale at the time on some toner products and I treated myself again to several colors of her foils. I now understand fully when cardmakers say that the foiling looks so much better in person. It's very hard to capture on camera.

So, I foiled this panel  after I cut the piece down. I used a Freshly Made Sketch #361 that Kristie Marcotte used in a recent 6x6 paper pad tutorial. She figures out the measurements (with permission) and shares them in her tutorials. Anyway if you scroll through the cards, there is a pink one where she created diagonal stripes with some Peel Offs. I thought the foiled panels would look great using that sketch.

What I didn't count on was it taking forever to find a paper to coordinate well with the foiled panels. Oh my, did I struggle. I think I went through ALL my paper pads that had red or pink pattern papers. I even tried solid cardstocks. But either the colors were off or the white in the panel stood out way too much. Finally I found two, with Jessica helping me decide. And I finished the cards. You guys, this is why I don't venture out on my own too much. It takes me WAY too long to figure out what to use! LOL I mean, it took an hour or more to find these papers. And I was ready to ditch the project, I was getting so frustrated. Just being honest! I'm okay with how they turned out in the end.

I found the paper in Doodlebug's Sweet Things 6x6 pad. The solid paper in the red card  is actually a shimmer paper from DCWV Holiday Jewels Shimmer pad. I found it at Joann last year (2017) at Christmas time. 

We (Jessica and I) liked the stripes in this pattern paper. The cardstock is from a Recollections package of pink cardstocks. I used the smallest stitched circle in a Lawn Fawn die set and the sentiment is also from Lawn Fawn, Simply Sentiments. Jessica is holding the card to help me try to capture the foiled look. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great day!

Crafty hugs,

Fun With Hello Bluebird!

 Hello!

First of all, I must thank those who responded to my previous post. You all are so kind and encouraging and I really appreciate your wonderful responses. You all are helping me to gain a new perspective. I also appreciate your wonderful comments about the cards I shared. 

Crafty friends are the best!💖

We had one day left of Winter Break and I was able to make the most of it! Both my girls had activities to attend today, so I had time to create. Yes! And I was able to make a couple of cards. 

I used stamps from a newer company called Hello Bluebird. They've been around a few years, but I just purchased from them late last year. The images remind me a bit of Lawn Fawn and you all know how much I love Lawn Fawn. 

My cards today were inspired by Hello Bluebird design team members Amy K and Gemma.

This card got a revamp in that I made it into a shaker card! I built up the frame by cutting several of them and gluing them together. The top frame is cut from glitter paper. The Sending sentiment is blended with Distress inks and then I spritzed it with some perfect pearls. I also built it up with a couple of layers. The shaker mix is a mix of a few things. One is a  Hey Beautiful sequin mix from Little Things with Lucy's Cards. I added some snowflake sequins I picked up at the Target Dollar Spot as well as some silvery bits I got from Michaels (Recollections brand). The images are colored with Copics. 

I pretty much followed the idea of Gemma. I switched the bunny and the penguin sitting on the snowbank though. I also cut the snow banks from cardstock, added Score Tape and sprinkled CTMH's Prisma Glitter to make it extra sparkly. I also added the scallop frame that is from a Hello Bluebird die set called Gallery Frame Die #2. The pond is blended with Tumbled Glass distress ink and I added a bit of Pumice Stone along the banks. Inside is where I put the sentiment as there really isn't room on the outside. 

Well, it's back to reality tomorrow. I hope I am able to find more time to create in the new year. 

Until next time,

Crafty Hugs to you!

Celebrate Winter Cards

Hello Friends!

Over my Winter Break from work, I've been working on a set of cards using Echo Park's Celebrate Winter collection. This post is very photo heavy, so grab a cup of your favorite beverage and hopefully enjoy what I have to share. 

I follow Kristie Marcotte's blog and You Tube channel. She is known for creating many cards using up a 6x6 paper pad. She is a big fan of adding layers to her cards, too. Back in the day, when I was a Close To My Heart Consultant, I loved to create multiple cards from one sheet of stamped cardstock and I loved to add layers. When I found Kristie's work, I was an instant fan. She is also very kind and generous in addition to being able to whittle away a 6x6 paper pad beautifully. I know I've shared about her a time or two already, but I thought I'd remind you where I am getting my inspiration. In November she shared her cards from the Celebrate Winter paper pad. She created 32 cards! I didn't create near that many, but over 20. Most are shown here. :)

*****

I'm going to be super honest here for a minute. Feel free to continue reading, or jump to the pictures if you prefer. I have long struggled with feeling like all I do is copy other crafters' ideas. And that doing so somehow makes me less than as a crafter. It's that feeling of being less than creative in coming up with my own ideas or designs that has partially kept me from sharing as much on my blog over the past few years. I mean, really, why would people want to see a recreation of someone else's work? Maybe they don't. Maybe I don't need to be sharing my creations. And not too long ago, a very well known cardmaker posted a video that said if you are not a beginner crafter, you shouldn't be copying other people's work. You should be coming up with your own designs. That seemed to validate the struggles I was having and I pretty much quit sharing so much. I let that comment take the joy away from my crafting and sharing. I was still creating, just not sharing all that much. 

I kept thinking maybe that cardmaker is right and maybe I should be coming up with my own designs, but so far, my attempts at doing so lead me to feelings of frustration and lots of stuff in the trash bin. I'm coming to the realization that with the crafting that I enjoy, I follow patterns. When I crochet, knit or do cross stitch, I follow patterns. When I used to tole paint and scrapbook, I followed patterns. I made lots of stuff, I maybe tweaked something here or there that I liked better, but I've long been a pattern follower. And so, why should that really be all that different in my cardmaking? I follow patterns. It's how I create. 

So, I'm going to try to share more once again. If you like it, great, thanks for sticking with me and if it's not your cup of tea, feel free to skip along to the next blog.:) One thing I am going to try to do, is add more of my own tweaks if I can come up with something different. You should know that I  always, always credit the person whose work I am inspired by. 

And so, without further ado, here are the cards I came up with following Kristie's tutorial. Some of the colors seem off in the photos, but that is operator error. They coordinate much better in real life, I promise. This post is long enough, so if you have any questions about products I used, please feel free to ask in the comments. You might notice thin strips of glittery tape. Those are Peel Offs and were a generous gift to me from Kristie. She's on Design Team for Love From Lizi, an artist from the UK. These Peel Offs are exclusive to her line. Oh golly, they are fun to use. 

This snowman makes me smile. It's a Darcie's stamp. 

This card and the next one are my own takes on the sketch Kristie used. 

I really like how they turned out. 

And that's it from me! Thank you so much if you got this far. What a marathon post. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have an awesome day!

Crafty hugs!