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!

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!

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!

Penguin in a Floatie

 Hello!

Before we left for vacation, I had been working on a case of a Kay Miller card using some images gifted to me from a new Instagram friend(Thanks so much, Esther, if you ever read my blog). I had most of it ready to go. Yesterday I finished it.  For my background I used a alcohol inked background that I had created a few months ago. I love how it looks like water. I colored my images using Copic markers and added some Spectrum Noir sparkle. Unfortunately, the camera didn't capture that. I had fun creating this one.

I recently got a new light box in the hopes I can get some better pictures of my cards. I liked this style, which was recommended by a blogger, Debbie Olson, because of the LED light strips which help to brighten the box. I'm still learning with how best to take pictures using it. Haven't had much time to do much since I received it.

One of the highlights when we go to Sioux Falls is taking the Sculpture Walk in the downtown area. I love the small town feel of the walk and how pretty the main street is. They change the sculptures each year. This one is my favorite from this year. I adore Laura Ingalls Wilder and really enjoyed this one of her and Jack.

This Sea Horse was pretty cool, too. 

Another look at my card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Hope you have a terrific day.

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

Sharing a card and a bit of an update!

Hi There!

Long time no see. Oh my gosh, I'm sorry I've been absent for so long. My life has been a real whirlwind since mid-August. School started and we were short staffed in the kitchen. My assistant manager got a new job outside the school district. Yay for her, but not so much for us. My other co-worker was out for the first couple of weeks as she needed more time to recover from foot surgery she had right after school got out last May. We've had a couple of different people come in to fill spots temporarily until a new assistant manager could come in. I was going in early to help with breakfast, too. Busy times! We have our new assistant manager now and while she's a trainee, she's doing a good job. I think she'll be a good fit for our kitchen. Whew.

My dad arrived for a two week visit a couple of weeks after school started. Yay! That was fun and a bit hectic as well. He did get to attend Amy's first football game of the season and enjoyed listening to her band play. 

Back to school means back to Bingo and this next weekend competition season starts.

Amy's had more homework so far this year and a lot of it requires her to use the computer, so I've been bumped off quite a bit, too. No biggie, but it eats into posting time. 

Jessica has had a quieter start to the year, but is, as I type this, she's working on a 3-D rollercoaster project that demonstrates Newton's Laws of Motion. She has a classmate partner working with her. They are using tubing and dowels and other supplies to create a roller coaster that will hopefully allow a silver marble run the entire track. There's a loop involved! Fingers crossed it works the way it's supposed to when they get done. 

On Friday our family went to Elitch Gardens (our amusement park) for Employee Day through my husband's job. We had a good time. However, the evening was cut a little short due to a thunderstorm that passed over us. (The forecast was isolated showers...guess we know where they were isolated to). I got pinged on the top of my head with a pea sized (well a little larger than pea sized) hail stone. Those puppies hurt!

I thought I'd share a few photos

The girls on the gondola ferris wheel. 

The sunset was really pretty when we were at the top of the ferris wheel. 

Here we are waiting in line for the Twister roller coaster. We never did get on the ride as the storm was approaching with lightning and thunder causing the ride to be stopped until it passed. Being it was close to the end of the night, we just left. 

And finally...I have a card to share! Believe it or not, I started this card early last month and only got the critters stamped and colored, as well as the heat embossing. Then it sat until last weekend when I snuck in a few minutes to try to finish this past weekend. The design is a case from Tara Sell's card, but darn it, I cannot find it on her blog. I also looked on her You Tube channel and no luck. Sorry! Anyway, I pretty much cased it completely. I think the changes are that I colored with pencils and I added the thanks to a banner. I also used different Doodlebug paper. 

Whew, that's it from me for now. 

Hopefully I will be able to craft again sometime soon.

Thanks for stopping by. I do so appreciate the visit.

Hope your week is off to a good start.

Hugs,

Jeanne

Unexpected Visitors!

Hi there!

This is the view that greeted Amy and I as I pulled into the driveway yesterday afternoon. 

There are 10 turkeys there!

2 males and the rest females.

They were just hanging out.

I called my neighbor to ask if I needed to call anyone and she told me this little harem had been wandering the neighborhood all day. She figured they'd wander off on their own as they had been all day. It was funny watching cars drive by, slow down, stop, and phones coming out for photos. Amy even got a Girl Scout cookie sale out of this. Ha, ha. Jessica was still at school and missed out on the Turkey Trot. 

You just don't see this very often in the middle of suburbia.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I've not been able to get to my crafty space in so long. 

Hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to get back to it. 

Hugs,

Wintery Thanks and Snowpeople, too!

 Hi there!

Oh golly, it's hard to believe we are at the end of January, 2016! Happy New Year just a tad bit late. I hope it's treating you well so far. Life hasn't slowed down much since our Winter Break ended. From time to time I've managed to get a card or two made, but my computer is giving me fits these days and getting them edited has been problematic. Sometimes just navigating the internet has been an issue as well. I had some time today and edited them all at one time. I hope I don't have any problems posting this. We've tried a couple of fixes, but the issue remains so obviously those weren't actually fixes. Sigh. Gotta love technology.

Anyway, onto the cards. They are copies of cards that I have seen in blogland and liked. I've added my own little tweaks.

Here's the card I copied. (sorry it's so dark, I tried my best to lighten it up)

My tweaks: colored with colored pencils and the pattern paper. I sent this is in the mail and could hear the beads shaking. Wasn't sure if the post office would get all worried at the noise, but it got to the recipient, so all is good. :)

Here's the card that inspired these two cards.

My tweak: I used glitter paper from DCWV. The snowflakes and thanks die-cut are sparkly even if you can't tell in the photos. I softened the stripes big time on the top card. The second one, I was playing around with the color combo for a different card, but I didn't like the end result for that card, so I used it here and felt it worked really well. 

The new year has been pretty good to us. I never mentioned it here on the blog, but my husband got laid off from his job way back in April of last year. Anyway, after all these months, he recently  accepted a job offer. Yay! While he hasn't started just yet, he should be back to work soon.  The girls are as busy as ever. Amy's Winterguard had an evaluation performance last weekend. They got positive and encouraging comments from the judges on their show so far. We also worked Bingo last weekend. Jessica has been busy with clubs and is going to a dinner theater tonight with one of them. This week has been filled with Girl Scout meetings as well. It's always something. This mom is doing her best to keep up! 

:)

That's a very brief update on us. I thank you very much for continuing to stop by from time to time. 

I so appreciate the visit! 

See you again soon!

Hugs.