Birthday and Senior Cards-Photo Heavy!

Hello!

I hope this finds you doing well, staying healthy and keeping busy. 

This post is very photo heavy, just to warn you. *Ü*

My daugher turned 19 last week! Oh my goodness, I keep saying I'm in denial. LOL 

She had a good day, in spite of the pandemic. We did a little shopping and a friend of Amy's stopped by. Then the girls went out themselves for a bit. We went out to eat and stopped at a new to me place that makes shaved ice. It was fascinating to watch the big blocks of ice get shaved down. 

Anyway, Amy has always loved giraffes and still does. But she's also enamored with llamas these days. Enter Doodlebug's new paper pad, Hey Cupcake, Icon sticker sheet and coordinating stamp set. 

She really liked her card. I was inspired by a card made by Kristie Marcotte.

My sweet daughter enjoying a watermelon flavored shaved ice. We liked that the spoons changed color with the cold. :)

*****

Next up, I made a new set of cards for the seniors where Amy works. My friend, Kristie Marcotte  did a video tutorial using Echo Park's America and I followed her inspiration for my cards. She uses sketches for her cards and figures the measurements and shares them in her coordinating blog posts to the videos. She works so hard making these cards, I have to give her a shout out. As I have followed several of her tutorials, I find that I am feeling more confident going a little out on my own, so not all my cards follow hers exactly. Just as it probably should be. :)

I've used many different products to make the cards. If you have a particular question about a product, feel free to ask away. I'm happy to answer any question you have. I don't want to make this post any longer than it already is. 

I hope you enjoy my cards. Feel free to click on the pictures for a larger view. 

I took a picture of the inside of the card and the envelope. 

The sentiment is from Reverse Confetti and the fireworks images are from MFT.  The happy mail stamp is from Mint Owl Studio.

Thanks, Kristie for the inspiration you so freely give.

And thank you for stopping by.

USA friends, I hope you have a wonderful Independence Day.

Crafty Hugs!

I Was Featured! And Cards for Seniors

Hello!

Something very exciting happened for me. It turns out that the slimline card I shared here and submitted for the Create A Scene challenge on Lawn Fawnatics was featured along with 8 other cards! I was completely shocked. And tickled that it garnered attention. Thanks for letting me share. 

Lawn Fawnatics Blog Post

😀

Next up, I have a bunch of cards to share. I have shared before that I follow Kristie Marcotte and she makes lots of cards from a 6x6 paper pad. You can check her out here. 

Since Amy started working at the senior center, I've been making cards for her to take for the residents in the area where she works.  Today I'm sharing the cards I am having her take to work this week. Half of them I made this week using different sketches from different tutorials Kristie has posted. It's very slow going for me to do this and I only got about 1/2 the number needed completed. I went through my card stash and pulled the rest from there. The papers are Doodlebug. The sentiments are from various sets. The stamped images are from Sunny Studios(Beach Babies) or Hero Arts (the green popsicles and the smiling sun on the envelopes. I couldn't find the set, called Beach, on the Hero Arts website, so it could be retired). At the end I took a picture of the inside of the card and the envelope. I have a set from Mint Owl Studio that you can find here. It's so reasonably priced! And I love picking different images to stamp onto envelopes. 

Enjoy!

If you have any questions about products, let me know and I will do my best to answer. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a great day.

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,

Christmas Cards Inspired by Kristie Marcotte

Hello!

Oh my gosh, it's been SO long since I posted here. I used to be so good at blogging. I've let it get away from me. I wouldn't be surprised if people quit checking this little spot on the internet. My intentions are good, but life sure has a way of getting in the way. I hope this finds you doing well. 

My mother-in-law loved that we showed up for her birthday party way back in August and she loved the hummingbird picture I cross stitched for her. Yay! 

Got home from that and school started for the girls. I have a junior and a freshman this year and both are in marching band. Once marching season starts my life is not my own. LOL In positive news, the band made it to the state quarterfinals competition. They performed at the Air Force Academy football stadium. While they didn't advance, they had a marvelous time. 

We adopted a dog in early September. His name is Ollie and he is a rascal. He's got cute going for him, and we'll leave it at that. 

I have had to work some extra hours recently, which sure puts a crimp in creative time. And over my Thanksgiving break I started working on organizing my stamps better. I moved the stamps and dies to clear pockets like Jennifer McGuire has done. That was a job! 

I have been able to make some cards over these past months, but haven't always gotten photos before giving them away or haven't posted here. 

Today though, I have decided to dust off the bloggo and share something! 

Several months ago I discovered a blogger named Kristie Marcotte. She has a blog and a YouTube channel. What intrigued me the most is she shares cards she makes using a 6x6 paper pad and sketches. Not only that, she shares how she makes them on You Tube. She is able to get 30+ cards from one 6x6 pad (along with solid cardstock). I remember back in the day when I was a Close to My Heart consultant, we'd have patterns to get 10 or 12 cards from a 12 x 12 sheet of pattern paper, stamps and cardstock. But more than 30?! Wow!

I have many 6x6 pads that I don't utilize near enough. This seems like a great way to USE up some of my stash!

So in the fall I tried it and loved the cards I made. I didn't get photos of them and have since used several of them. It was fabulous having a ready stash. Over the past few week or so I've been following her Milk & Cookies (Doodlebug) tutorial and while I didn't get 30+ cards from the pad (due to cutting errors on my part), I did make 19 cards and that's pretty cool! I had one full piece left and several small pieces, so I know I can make a few more cards from the pad if I want to. For a second time doing this, I think I did pretty well. 

Here's the post where she shares the individual cards and sketches she used.

And here are my versions. You can click on the photos to see them larger. 

I've been buying up some new tools and supplies due to some great sales recently. 

And thanks to Kristie's inspiration. :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I sure appreciate the visit.

Have a great week.

Hugs!

Jeanne

Valentine Cards

Hi There!

Happy Day After the Super Bowl. I cannot lie, I'm pretty dang happy that the Broncos got the big win! It was pretty satisfying, actually. I watched the commercials, too, but wasn't as impressed with those. And the half time show? Not that anyone really cares, but I couldn't hear the lead singer from Coldplay sing. Lady Gaga singing the National Anthem. That was beautiful. All in all a great way to end the weekend. :) This was after Amy had a basketball doubleheader on Saturday and we all went to the Father/Daughter Dance for Girl Scouts on Saturday night. The girls and their dad danced the night away while Mom helped at the snack table. Um, I felt like I was working another shift. Ha, ha

I also managed to get two cards made! Go me! I got the image I colored in my last post put onto a card and I futzed around with a second one.

Does inking up a background count as coloring for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge? If so, I did in a little bit of coloring. I think that's stretching it a bit, though. I was trying to channel Kay Miller with the inking of that background. I might have to leave that to the professional that is Kay! I tried it with Picked Raspberries and Festive Berries Distress Inks. The heart shaped sequins I found at Michaels in the kids Valentine section. The other sequins are sparkling clear from Pretty Pink Posh. Sentiment is from Close To My Heart. That little girl is fussy cut. The background paper is Doodlebug Sweet Things.  

My original thought with the little girl was that I wanted to make a shaker card. Only, I couldn't get it to look right. I had die-cut that heart, but the size of the heart with the size of the girl image just didn't mesh well. So I gave up on that idea and opted to put it on its own card. I found a blue glitter paper in my DCWV glitter stack that looked a lot like the blue hearts in the paper. I know you can't tell the scallop heart is glittered, but it is. I pulled out a Memory Box Heart flower die and cut it with glittered white foam. I snipped it off a bit to get it to fit. The blue sequins are from Hobby Lobby and the little iridescent hearts are Martha Stewart. The inking on the background is Peacock Feathers distress ink. The background paper is also Doodlebug Sweet Things. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great week. :)

It's So Sparkly, Too!

Hi There!

I hope you had a lovely holiday and are ready for the start of a brand-spanking new year. Our Christmas was quiet, but nice. It's been quite nice to have some downtime. Wish it was a smidge warmer, but it's winter, so I guess I can't complain too loudly.  Amy got a new Wii U game called Yoshi's Wooly World. It's pretty neat because all the graphics look like the things are created by being crocheted or knitted-if you watch the little video you'll see what I mean. The girls are much, much better at the game than I am, but I keep playing, dying, and laughing like a loon.

Today I managed to do a little playing in my crafty space. Here's what I came up with. I didn't "copy" anyone here (and you may be able to really tell). I pulled out a bunch of snowmen and snow related products and told myself to just play. This is what I ended up with. There's lots of sparkle!

The stamp set is Lawn Fawn's Ready, Set, Snow. The pattern paper (which you don't see used too often these days) is Doodlebug's Frost Friends (as are the snowflakes). The glittery base is glittered fun foam from Michaels. There's a Hero Arts background swirly stamp used. I remember being so enamored with that stamp a couple of years ago and I had to have it. Of course, I've not used it nearly enough. Today, I pulled it out, stamped it with Versamark ink and poured a silvery sparkly embossing powder from Michaels over it and heat embossed. Then I tried adding some distress ink (Broken China and Milled Lavendar) to create a sky. I probably should have done the inking first and then the embossing, but I was really playing and going with the flow. The images are colored with my colored pencils and today is the first time I played the purple pencil. It's gorgeous!! 

Edited to add: My friend, Carol, of Just Me:c left me a comment about a challenge on the Simon Says Blog here. She felt I should enter this card into the challenge. I decided to go ahead and try it. Thanks for the information and the link, Carol. We'll see what happens. There are a lot of entries. Great place for inspiration, that is for sure. :)

That's it from me for right now. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Floral Cards and Amy's Ow

Greetings from soggy Colorado! It's been very rainy here today and the high may not have gotten much above 60 degrees. Quite interesting for the end of July. We'll take it, but I sure wish California could get some of this moisture. :( 

I wandered into my crafty space yesterday and had enough mojo to make two cards! Yippee! One I actually stamped and colored last week, but I had to fussy cut the pieces out, which I did while watching TV. I was inspired by this card on Pinterest. Actually I pretty much just cased it using some Vintage Summer paper I had. I also used Lawn Fawn's So Much to Say for the sentiment. 

I colored the images with Prismacolors and blended with odorless mineral spirits. I also used some gems from Hobby Lobby and some from Michaels (two colors of red). I added a bit of Wink of Stella to the blue tips on the ends of the stamens. 

If I didn't have something to follow, my "cluster" wouldn't look near this good. LOL

My second card was my take on this card by Kay Miller. Her work is very inspiring and always makes me smile. Thanks, Kay!

I used the same arch looking Sizzix dies she did. The floral paper is Doodlebug (Fruit Stand), the green cardstock is Co'ordinations and the yellow is Buttercup from CTMH. The stamped flowers are from Girls Rock by CTMH and are stamped in Holiday Red, Watermelon and Sunflower. The tag is a Spellbinders die using a piece of solid red Doodlebug paper. That gingham is from Hobby Lobby. I popped up the flowers and the tag. How about that? I managed to pull a card together using a lot of resources. LOL 

I have to share something Amy made recently. She has really enjoyed using her Rainbow Loom and has created many bracelets, earrings, flowers and even a cover for her tablet. Last week she created this:

Isn't it adorable? She found the video tutorial on You Tube and followed along. 

So impressed and had to share. 

That's it from me today. Hope you are having a great week!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

*Ü*

Jeanne

Card in a Box Valentine

Earlier this month I came across a neat looking pin on Pinterest. It was a picture of something called a "card in a box." I was definitely intrigued. The pin led me to this blog post on the Serene Stamper's blog. I printed off the directions and got to work. I forgot to share this after I made it and I hope you don't mind seeing another Valentine project well after Valentine's Day. You could create any theme you wanted.

I took several pictures to show that I was able to fit the folded box into an envelope sized for a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card. Now I didn't write any notes on my sheet and I cannot remember for sure if I modified any of the cuts to make it fit. Something is niggling in my brain that I might have. So, I'm mentioning it, should you attempt this and wonder how I got it to fit in the envelope. 

I used Doodlebug papers and a Close To My Heart stamp set that was only available last year for a Whoooo's Your Valentine promotion. I cut the hearts using Spellbinders dies. 

Hopefully, I'll be able to head back to my crafty corner one of these days in the not too distant future. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you are having a good week so far. 

Jeanne