Santa is checking his list ...

Recently, my friend and next door neighbor asked me to make her some Christmas dinner invitations for her family and 6 Santa cards for her grandchildren.  I must tell you, I had so much fun doing those.  I was searching for an idea via Pinterest and came along a post card similar to this, but I can't locate it anywhere so if you know who did it, please let me know so I can recognize her.  I really love it and Debbie said everyone in her family loved it as well.  She is sending it off to her grandchildren tomorrow so they will be happy to see Santa has written them.

I will show you the other invitations I did for her tomorrow.

Have a great Monday

Janet

Supplies:

SU be of good cheer designer paper
SU whisper white cardstock
SU cherry cobbler and gumball green ink
SU Santa List stamp set
SU post card stamp set
SU baker's twine
Ho, Ho, Ho stamps - not sure where these came from
North Pole map via internet

Sweet Sunday Sketch

Happy Sunday everyone:

It's been a while and I hope all is well.  We have been dealing with illnesses and just so busy for words.  I did, however, get the chance to spend a great Thanksgiving holiday with my family in North Carolina.  I never get enough time to spend with them so it is always so special when I do.

I am starting a Christmas card making class at work this week and have been trying to come up with ideas.  My mojo, I do believe, decided to stay in NC with the snow, so I headed over to the Sweet Sunday sketch to see if that would get me started.  This is a great sketch, but it sure did challenge me :)

I hope you all have a great week and I'll be back soon.

Janet

Supplies:

SU whisper white and cherry cobbler cardstock
SU be of good cheer designer paper
SU holiday ornament stamp set and framelits
SU bells and boughs sentiment
SU rhinestones

Surprise - Happy Birthday Anne Marie :)

Today is a very special day for a wonderful friend.  Anne Marie is celebrating her birthday today and when I was asked to participate in the birthday link party for her, I was so excited and said yes immediately.  I was honored to serve on the Dynamic Duos design team with her the past six months, but I have know Anne Marie for almost a year now and I am very thankful we connected.  She is the sweetest lady, always so upbeat, helped out with any questions I had without hesitation, is EXTREMELY talented, and so very, well, wonderful.  

Anne Marie loves all things pink, girly and animal, so I had to create a birthday card for her that contained those elements.  Well, I sure did accomplish the pink part :), there are butterflies and I do believe this is pretty girly.

Anne Marie, I hope you have a FANTASTIC birthday my friend and I am truly blessed to know you.

Janet

I am back again :)

Hi again :)

I have enjoyed myself so much this weekend - can't you tell?  It has been a long time since I have created pretty much the entire weekend and it was so much fun.  I recently became a Stampin Up demonstrator (thanks Debbie) and I think that has a lot to do with it. I mainly joined as a hobbyist, but I am excited about doing some classes at work, so you just never know where it may go.

I got the theme for this card using The Paper Players challenge this week - Jaydee chose wildlife and thought the SU zoo babies stamp set would work perfectly.  Just how cute is this stamp set?  I say A LOT.  I have a friend who is going to have a baby next year and even though this will be her 3rd, I know she is beyond thrilled.  Since we don't know the sex of the baby yet, wanted to keep the colors neutral and was really surprised when I put these colors together and they matched really nice.  I just have to ink up my stamp a little bit better next time. 

I hope you can join in.  I think I may be finished for the evening because it is getting late, so I will see you tomorrow.

Have a great one.

Janet

Supplies:

SU more mustard, island indigo and going gray ink
Papertrey Ink ivory and gray cardstock
SU island indigo cardstock
SU zoo babies and cuddles and kisses stamp set
SU white ribbon (colored with island indigo marker)
Spellbinders scallop die cut
Lil'inker designs cloud die cut

Happy Birthday Tracey

Hi everyone:

I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday.  I know I am :)  Today is a great friend's birthday and they are having a linky birthday for her.  Tracey is such a wonderful lady and I had the wonderful privilege to work with her the past six months on the Dynamic Duos design team.  She is so sweet and such a fabulous creator.  

When I visited Joyce at Cards-by-the Sea blog today, I saw she is throwing Tracey a Happy Birthday linky party.  In her post, she was showing us some wonderful cakes and decided to use the colors she had on the owl birthday cake and I used the sketch from Clean&Simple.  I realized after I stamped the sentiment that I didn't have the correct punch (will have to get that soon) so I improvised and used the apothecary accents framelits instead.  I also wanted to put a different spin on the balloons and like how they turned out :)  

Tracey, I hope you have a spectacular birthday my friend.  YOU are a true inspiration to us all.

Janet

Supplies:

SU lucky limeade, island indigo and blushing bride cardstock
SU lucky limeade and island indigo ink
SU Label Love and A Round Array stamp set
SU apothecary accents framelits
lime and pink baker's twine

Playing along with Dynamic Duos today :)

Hi everyone:

Well this is the first Saturday in 6 months I am putting up a Dynamic Duos card without being on the design team.  I am so happy for the new members because I know they are going to have a great time.  My awesome friend Tenia Nelson made the team and I am so excited for her - she is AMAZING !!! and look forward to meeting the new members as well.

I have been energized these past few weeks and wanted to start getting more creative so here I go :)  Hopefully it will last a long time to come because I am having so much fun today.

This week's color at Dynamic Duo is Real Red and Bermuda Bay, which are beautiful together.  I used the Mojo Monday sketch challenge, but I wasn't paying any attention and cut all all my pieces and after putting them together realized it wasn't square, so I went with it and hope it will be okay to submit as is.  I couldn't find any design paper, so I decided to create my own by taking the smaller ornaments in this set and stamp across some whisper white paper and love it.  I also added some glitter around the top and bottom ornament - I distressed the one in the middle with crumb cake ink.

I hope you get the chance to play with this week's color.  Have a great day.

Janet

supplies:

SU bermuda bay and real red cardstock

SU bermuda bay, real red and crumb cake ink

SU ornament keepsakes stamp set

SU More Merry Messages stamp set

SU real red ribbon

SU dimensionals

SU crystal effects

Cuttlebug snow flake embossing folder

glitter

Today is such a sad day in one way and happy in another

Happy Saturday everyone:

Today is a sad day for me and my design team members over at Dynamic Duos because this is our last post for our six month term as creators for Dynamic Duos (wow, I can't believe it is already over - it just started yesterday).  It has been such an honor to be a part of this great team and I thank Lesley so much for the chance to showcase the color combos through my creations.  This week's color combo is a great one - I really love these colors and you can be so creative with them. 

The card I created today is to say how grateful I am not only to Lesley and Anne Marie, but to each of the team members for being such great friends that I know is going to last a life time and to all the new blogging friends I have made over the past 6 months.  It has also broadened my creativity to do things I wouldn't have thought of doing before.  Okay, here's my card - I'm going to start crying if I don't stop.

The happy part of this post is to say that Patrick and the Gilbert Marching Indians made it to State once again :)  The came in 3rd at lower state last week (out of 17 bands), and we are so excited to see them do well tomorrow.  I have a video I took last week that I hope to get up soon - still trying to figure out how to reduce it so I can get it posted without it taking four hours :)

Okay, I'm off to head off to bed - it has been a long tiring week :)

Janet

Dynamic Duos #75 - Happy Halloween

Happy Sunday everyone:

I am a day late and I apologize for that.  I meant to get it set up for posting Saturday morning, but with Patrick having lower state yesterday and a ball game on Friday, I ran out of time.  It was worth it though because they won the football game and Gilbert Marching Indians came in 3rd out of 18 bands at lower state, so it was a great day for sure.  We will be going to state next week, so keep your fingers crossed that they will do well - I don't think they will have any problems, they have been doing such a great job this year.  I will surely post pictures next week.

Okay, on to this week's challenge at Dynamic Duos, which is perfect for this time of year.  I have always loved these colors together and am sure it could be used for other creations besides Halloween, but I couldn't resist making a card to send out for Halloween.

I hope you will join in on the fun this week.

Janet 

Dynamic Duos #74

Happy Saturday

It's that time again :)  Time for the new color challenge over at Dynamic Duos and I really hope you join in this week.  We are using Calypso Coral and So Saffron and these colors were so fun to use.

I have been wanting to create a card for a friend who recently purchased her first house and was going through my scraps and came across a piece of the die cut from Stampin Up that you would typically use to make a flower, but thought it would do great as a fence for this card.  I also did some coloring with the SU markers and really have got to do more of that :)

I hope you all have a great evening and I'll be up again soon.

Janet

Dynamic Duos #73

Happy World Card Making Day :)  I hope you get the chance to participate in this fun day and even though Patrick has a marching band competition, am hoping to get in at least one card :)

Today, I am showing you my card using this week's Dynamic Duos color combo - Cajun Craze and Island Indigo.  At first, I thought I would do a masculine card, but then thought, you know these would be perfect for a Halloween card and since that is just down the road, went with it.  I have always loved the spellbinders bats die cuts and knew I had to use those.  I used the Unscripted Sketch from last week and really love both the sketch and the colors.  I took the bats and colored them (while they were still in the die) with the opposing color to distress it a little bit.  I used the island indigo ink on the ribbon to make it a little darker.  I really do like how it turned out.  I still can't believe we're talking Halloween already.

I hope you get a chance to join in this week and can't wait to see what great projects you show us.

Have a great Saturday

Janet

Supplies:

SU cajun craze and island indigo cardstock
SU island indigo ink
Basic Grey Pyrus pattern paper
Spellbinders bat die cuts
seam binding
Halloween stamp set - ?

Marching Band competitions have started :)

Hi everyone:

Well, marching band competitions have started, so I'm going to share some pictures today of Patrick and the Gilbert Marching Indians. We are so excited for this season because their program is wonderful. 

Our first competition was last night and Gilbert won first place for AAA bands and GRAND champions for all bands (we even beat out the AAAA band that usually takes all the trophies), so to say these kids are beyond excited is an understatement. 

They will continue to work hard because we can already tell it's going to be a tough season, but with the first competition under their belts, they'll continue to improve. 

Karen, Patrick wanted me to say hello and to let you know, he got a new trumpet and is so happy with it. This is the first time he played it in competition because he has been afraid to practice with it because he doesn't want it to drop :) Hope you are doing well. 

I hope you all enjoy your weekend.

Janet

DD #72 and a new stamp set

Happy Saturday everyone:

Today I'm bringing you Dynamic Duos #72 color challenge this week.  

I really like working with soft pastel colors with a pop of bright colors and this week we are doing just that with blushing bride and primrose petal.  They work great together, don't you think.

I recently purchased, finally, (I have been wanting this one for a while now and unfortunately waited until it retired, so it took me a while to get it at a reasonable price-I won't be doing something like that again for sure) the SU circle circus stamp set off of E-Bay and couldn't wait to use it.  I love it :)

I hope you head over and join in on the fun this week.

Have a great weekend.

Janet

Dynamic Duos #71, Dynamic Duos #70 and a big problem

Hey everyone:

I hope you are all well.  It appears that I have been MIA for the past few weeks, but I assure I am still here.  I received a message from my Dynamic Duos design team member, Michelle, this morning stating I haven't posted since September 7.  I was like, not that's not possible because I had prescheduled, I know, at least 6 posts for the month of September and some of October because marching band season has started and knew it would be difficult to post on Fridays and Saturdays and was hoping to get a jump start.  What an epic fail that was because none of the post from the past few weeks have posted :(  So, I'm going to delete them and post individually.  So here goes with the two Dynamic Duos challenges that weren't posted and I will post the others later today.

Current Challenge #71 - Basic Black and Kraft

This is the first time I have used these stamps out the Charming stamp set and really like them so I know I will be using them in the future.  I offer craft classes at work two times a month; however, I have a friend who refused to come because she states she is not creative enough, which I balk at because everyone does, even if just a little bit.  I thought this sentiment would be perfect to give her letting her know that we are all creative but we have to first "CREATE" to see it.  I really love how this card turned out and am going to try it with different colors.

I hope you will head over and give this color combo a try.

Dynamic Duos #70

the Stampin Up Postage Due and Post Card stamp sets are my new favorite stamp sets and look forward to playing with them more.

I hope you all enjoy your Sunday and I will see you soon.

Janet

Dynamic Duos #69

Well, here is something I haven't done in a long time.  Created a scrapbook layout and this one is digital :)  My fellow design team member, Hayley has been creating some awesome layouts lately using My Digital Studio by Stampin Up and had to give it a try for this week's challenge.  I still get intimidated by this software, but the more I play around with it, the more fun it becomes.  

This week's colors at Dynamic Duos are fun and knew that I had to use a few pictures with Patrick in them. When we picked him up from my parents' after his summer time with them, his hair was extremely long and at first he didn't want to cut it, but a week after band camp, he knew he needed to because it was getting too hot.  So, off we went :)  He was playing around with my phone on the way to the hair salon and took a few pictures of the before and after.  The larger picture is the after, but to be honest, I don't see a big difference :)  I do like his hair  longer than I do shorter (he used to get it cut military short, but he has a cowlick and it just doesn't look right).  These colors worked out perfectly for his pictures.

I hope you all get a chance to join in on this week's color challenge and have fun doing it.

Janet

A fun creation

Halloween Broom using a lollipop

Last week I saw a tutorial in Splitcoaststampers that I just had to try.  I like how my first time attempt came out, but I still have some work to do.  Here is the link to the tutorial and here is my version.  I didn't use an owl or bat, but will try those next.

Hope you are having a great day.

Janet

Perfect Plum and your choice - Dynamic Duos #68

Happy Saturday everyone:

This is a holiday weekend for us and I am looking forward to that extra day at home :)  Much needed rest and creating is required and I hope to get both in the next few days.

This week's dynamic duo challenge is so much fun because I love seeing what everyone comes up with when they have the option to chose their own color.  This week the color given by Dynamic Duos is perfect plum and you get the pick the other.  I chose a green color.  I know at first, I was like, no, that's not going to work, but I wanted to try something different and when I put them together, they looked really good together so I am glad I picked that one.  

I'm sorry for the bad quality in my photo, but my daughter has my camera and this is taken from my phone and even though I tried to get it to look better, it just wouldn't work.

I really hope you head over and join in on the fun this week.

Janet

Dynamic Duos #76

You are having trouble believing that we are getting ready to start the last week of August 2013?  I know that I am.  Where has this year gone?  It has been a busy week, with Patrick starting 9th grade :( but I know he is going to enjoy it (being in the marching band last year has helped the transition much easier).

On to the color combo at Dynamic Duos this week and what beautiful colors they are (I didn't have any crisp cantaloupe cardstock so I substituted it with blushing bride, which was perfect).  I can tell I will be using these colors more often.  I created several cards using this color (even did a Christmas card) but thought this was the best one out of all of them.

I hope you head over and join in on the fun this week.

Janet

Supplies:

SU calypso coral, blushing bride and whisper white cardstock
SU calypso coral ink
SU calypso coral ribbon
Prima Marketing flower
SU stripes embossing folder
SU bird builder punch
SU Kindness matters stamp set