Quick Life Update and a Snowmanpalooza!

Hello there!

It's been a minute, hasn't it? Life sure has a way of getting in the way of doing some of the things we enjoy in favor of other priorities. I've missed you all though, and sharing. I'll give you a quick update and then get to the cards I want to share. 

It's been a busy fall season with school being back in session. The girls had their marching season, which is always very hectic. This is Amy's Senior year and I am trying to savor all the "lasts."

This is from Senior Night where the seniors who are in the band, on the football team or are cheerleaders and poms honor their parents. It's a nice tradition. 

Here's her Senior poster. I thought I had designs of a trumpet and treble clef to cut with my Cricut or Cameo, but couldn't find any. So, I used some Casual Fridays stamps instead. Amy loved it and we got lots of compliments on it. Yay for stamping!

And if you will forgive a very proud mama moment, Amy is still in Girl Scouts and is working on earning her Gold Award (the highest award in Girl Scouts). She had to come up with a community service type of project as one of the requirements. She planned a CPR training and first aid class/workshop to be held at her high school. It was open to teachers and students. She held the workshop last week. A local news station interviewed her and filmed the workshop. They aired the piece that night and to our surprise, they started the newscast with her story!

Here is a link, if you are interested in watching.

News Story

I'm very proud of her. 

As for me, work has been a challenge so far this year. Our school was one of several schools selected for an upcoming audit by the state department of education. Many people from the head office are coming in almost daily and many procedural changes are being made to make sure we are in compliance for the audit. I've never been through one before and it's quite interesting and a bit(okay, a lot) nerve wracking. A couple of more weeks til the audit and hopefully we do well and things will settle down. 

I have been doing some creating here and there, but not consistently and I miss it. 

The cards I have to share today were inspired by this card by Christy Gets Crafty.

I just loved how she colored the adorable little snowmen in the Mama Elephant Little Snowman Agenda set. The top card is a copy of her version, but I Copic colored all the images(and fussy cut them out) and used the rest for the second version. The little iridescent snowflakes are from a little bottle  that I found in the Target Dollar Spot a couple of weeks ago. The die with the square openings is from MFT and the sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. 

Thank you so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a lovely holiday season. 

I also hope to be back before the start of the new year. 

Crafty hugs!

Play Day!

Hello there!

I had a day off yesterday that I told no one about, just so I wouldn't get told...since you have the day off, can you...You know what I mean, right? I had such high hopes of getting all these cards made and wouldn't you know it, that didn't happen. but I did get one completed, so that's good. 

But first up...in my last post I mentioned that my daughter was working on a rollercoaster project and I was asked to share the completed project. Here you go! I did take video of the marble running through it, but there were some false starts and I don't know how to edit that out, so trust me when I say, the marble does go through the track with out jumping it...most of the time. Thankfully for the girls, it worked perfectly the first time the teacher tried it. Yay! :) They also shared a write up of what they learned about different kinds of energy (potential, kinetic and also friction). I think I said they were learning about Newton's Laws of Motion. Oops, I was wrong (not a surprise). That's the unit they have just started this week. I jumped the gun.

Anyway, the theme of their rollercoaster was Steampunk, which is why you see that fancy base. I think they did a great job on it. They had high hopes of making this even more intricate, but they realized it would take much more time than they had available to do that. They were very happy with the completed project. All the projects the class did looked amazing. I never did anything like this when I was in middle school (well, junior high is what it was called way back when...you know in the Stone Age).

I shared this on my Instagram account a bit ago, but never did get this up on the blog. I follow different colorists on You Tube and now on Instagram. As I think I've shared before, these colorists create tutorials or show what they are doing as they color. One colorist always attacts my eye because I just love the color combinations she uses. Her name is Julie and you can find her channel here. Recently she did a three part video series on the butterfly in Magical Jungle. It helps that she uses Prismacolor pencils. I absolutely fell in love with the colors she used on the butterfly and I simply felt compelled to color the butterfly. My hand is a little lighter than hers, but what really sets off the coloring is the use of the white pencil to fully blend the colors. I just bought another white pencil last week because I am using it so much. :)

I am so happy with how this looks!

Gosh, I wish I had more time to color.

And finally, here is the single card I was able to create yesterday. Oh my, I totally copied the one that inspired this. Karin, of Peppermint Patty's Papercraft, is mega talented. She creates and shares the most beautiful watercolors! And she makes fantastic cards, too. Oh, to have such talent to come up with these fantastic projects. You should check out her blog, if you have never been. Anyway, last month she shared this card and I was completely and utterly smitten. 

Here's my version of the card. 

Yep, a complete CASE, but colored with pencils and not Copics. I was also intrigued by the paper shaker bits. That die is also from Mama Elephant. I like the idea of picking the colors you want in cardstock.  Thank you so much for the inspiration, Karin! (if you ever stop by and read this) 

I have to say though, I didn't anticipate how long it would take to create the card when I sat down. There's inlaid die cutting. I colored a bunch of images thinking I'd make a couple of cards (snort) and then there's the frame. Oh, the frame about did me in. LOL I don't have frame die cuts so I was trying to finagle it with dies I do own and...well, it wasn't pretty. I was getting a bit frustrated. So, I ended up just cutting strips and using them. It worked. I should have added some interest to the strips, but at that point I wanted to be done. LOL If you could have heard me talking to myself throughout the making of the card, you'd be laughing your head off!

Okay, so my leaves are a bit different than hers. Well, I picked up some Spectrum Noir glitter pens at Hobby Lobby recently. (I went on a bit of a shopping spree with my first paycheck of the school year, if you can't tell). I thought the fall colors were so pretty. I tested them on some Lawn Fawn die cut leaves. I just had them laying out, so I added them to the card. They are pretty sparkly!  The sentiment is also from Lawn Fawn, as is the banner.  The cardstock is all Close To My Heart...Goldrush, Honey, Ocean and Cranberry. Some (or all) of them could be retired colors, but I don't keep track of that now. I saw on another card the use of a lighter teal with fall colors and I thought that was so neat. So that's why you see a bit of the dark teal color in with the others in the shaker bits. That's for you, Michele. (smile)

The girls and I have the day off today. Teacher inservice day. Yesterday was conferences, which are scheduled for all day in elementary, but after school only in middle and high school. If I can squeak in some crafty time you might see me back.

Promises, promises.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by! 

Hope you have an awesome weekend!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Hello You

Hi Friends!

I wanted to first say thank you all so much for your sweet comments on the cards I've posted recently. They do mean so much to me. Thank you as well for being so encouraging of my daughter's work, too. You are so very kind! :)

I've got another CASED card for you. I know. I've said it before and I will say it again(and again and again), I'm a total copycat. I'm not like my other crafty friends who can come up with fabulous card designs out of the top of my head. When I see a card that appeals to me, I want to try to mimic it and maybe add a tweak or two to make it my own(or because I don't own all the same supplies). That's what I did on the card I'm sharing today. I had seen and admired this card before, but it wasn't until this post that I understood how the gal created/masked it. She made a video tutorial. Love that!

I didn't have the sentiment stamp she used, but I did have a Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings that I thought would be fun to try it out with. And awhile ago, my dear friend Kay, was kind enough to send me some requested Mama Elephant stamped images. Some of them were of the very same sweet little girl! Squeal! :) I didn't have the pigment inks that Laura used, but I did have one of the newer distress ink colors (thank you Hobby Lobby for getting in some new colors). A search through my stamps brought me to a Close To My Heart set called Have a Happy Day. 

And here is my version of the card:

Makes me smile to be perfectly honest. 

Wasn't sure I was going to get to the smile at first. I thought for sure I messed up the inking with Cracked Pistachio and Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks. I kept pressing down too hard with the blending tool and getting hard lines. But the ink seemed to blend into itself over some time. Whew. I colored that sweet girl with pencils and odorless mineral spirits and cut the white border away. I just really like this look! 

Thanks so very much for stopping by.

I hope you have a happy day!

Hugs,