Busy over the weekend

Hey everyone:

I was real busy Sunday - I was sick Friday and Saturday so I was ready to hit my craft room for sure Sunday morning.

Here are a few things I created:

  

I didn't use any sketches, which is unlike me, but I came in my craft room and just went to town. It was so much fun.  I did, however, forget to keep my supplies out or written down so I can't provide the supplies I used - sorry.

I hope everyone is ready for the holidays - I know I am.  I hope to write another post one day later this week.  Have a great one

Janet

Happy Birthday for a friend's 3 children

I have a wonderful friend who has been asking me the past few years to create birthday cards for her 3 children and I am always so honored to do them because they have some of the most unique birthday themes. This year I was very late in getting them created and to her, but I finally finished last weekend. I really had fun creating these.

Have a great day

Janet

Freshly Made Sketches 267 and a Happy Retirement

Happy Wednesday everyone :)

We have an abstractor at work who has retired and we are having his luncheon this coming Friday, so I wanted to create him a special card.  I recently used a Freshly Made sketch, so knew I had to go back and try the one for this week.  This is the sketch and even though I can't enter this in the competition (it's not really a clean card pursuant to the requirements), I really liked this sketch, so continued on.

and here is my creation using this sketch:

I really enjoyed stepping out of my box creating this card and it's a masculine card, which is always a challenge for me.  I don't use texture paste much, but I have to keep reminding myself how much fun it is to use.

I hope everyone is having a great week and I hope to be back soon.

Thanks

Janet

Supplies:

Cardstock:  Neenah dessert storm 

Patterned paper:  Paper Loft Hooked on Fishing

Stamps:  Paper Smooches Simply Said "best wishes", Stampin Up Teeny Tiny Wishes, Stampin Up Touches of Texture; Stampin Up The Open Sea

Ink:  Stampin Up Early Espresso, Stampin Up River Road, Distress Ink gathered twigs, Distress Ink vintage photo

Accessories:  We R Memory Keepers hole punch; LawnFawn baker's twine; Tim Holtz stapler; Stampin Up oval punch; Tim Holtz texture paste; 

A shiny Christmas card using Retro Sketches #249

I know you are probably tired of me by now, but I am so afraid if I don't keep this up, I'll lose my mojo again, but I do believe this will be my last post for the day, but I'm not going to promise.

My friend Sheri Gilson posted the Retro Sketch for this week on their Facebook page yesterday and knew I had to use this sketch because it looked like so much fun.  I was looking through Christmas paper and came across this paper from Stampin Up and had to use it.

I hope everyone has a great day

Janet

Supplies:

Paper - Stampin Up Holiday Fancy Foil; Stampin Up real red cardstock; Stampin Up heavy Whisper White cardstock
Ink - VersaMark
Stamps - Come to Bethlehem sentiment
Accessories - Stampin Up silver 1/8' and 5/8' silver ribbon; Stampin Up baker's twine; PPP silver and red sequins; Stampin Up Christmas trinkets.

It's beginning to look like Christmas ...

... cards that is :)  I am finally starting on some Christmas cards and even though I try doing this every year, I tend to fail on getting them out and really hope I will do so this year.

I am using Tuesday Morning Sketch 379, which I will be using again because it is GREAT.  I found these vintage looking papers in my supplies and like I was saying yesterday, I'm using them up. I love this paper - it is so pretty and was difficult to cut up, but it had to be done.

I'm going to be working on more throughout the day, so I will be back :)

Thanks

Janet

Supplies:

paper - Stampin Up Dusty Durango; Christmas themed patterned paper (I think it is from Graphic 45 but not 100% sure)

ink - Distress Ink Vintage Photo; Stampin Up Early Espresso

stamps - Stampin Up Christmas Magic; Heidi Swapp date stamp

accessories - Stampin Up lace (I distressed this with the Vintage Photo ink); Stampin Up neutral candy dots; Santa's Express embellishment (not sure)

Color Throwdown and Mojo Monday

It's me again with another card using several challenges.  Like I stated in my last post, I'm going through my craft room and cleaning out patterned paper and when I saw this paper from Melissa Francis, knew the Color Throwdown would be the perfect color challenge and you can never go wrong with the Mojo Monday sketch.

I used peerless watercolors on my flowers and have to start using them more - they are some difficult watercolors to use (well, they are to me anyway), especially when I have gotten familiar with my zig clear brush markers, but I'll keep practicing.

I hope everyone enjoys.

Janet

Supplies:

stamps - Penny Black blooming garden; Unity Stamps ... I consider you special sentiment

ink - Black onyx Versa mark ink; Versa mark ink

paper - Neenah solar white 120 lb cardstock; Melissa Francis patterned paper; Tim Holtz watercolor

accessories - Hero Arts clear embossing powder; Peerless watercolors - cadium yellow, chrome yellow, olive green, Stampin Up daffodil delight ribbon, Avery Elle Basic Set die, PPP clear sequins

Freshly made Sketches #264

 

Hi everyone:

I made a decision a while back to redesign my craft room and while I clean, I am going to use the patterned paper I have. I got an idea from a lady on YouTube who takes a paper pad and uses it up by using sketches. Even though I'm not using a paper pad I am going through paper that I have and making a least 4 cards per sheet (a lot of these started out as 12x12 sheets and I cut them down). I used the Freshly Made Sketches for these.

Here is the sketch and card I'm using to submit for that challenge:

Here is a picture of all the cards I created with the paper and this sketch.

I hope everyone has a great day

Janet

I actually created today

It has been a while since I created anything (I did a birthday card recently, but that's been it really) and have had this Tim Holtz flip frame forever and wanted to finally take advantage of it and luckily, November isn't too far into the month yet.

It was really fun creating this and went ahead and did December's page, but am going to wait until December to show it :)

This is going to be a short post but hope everyone is doing well.

Janet

supplies:

Tim Holtz flip frame
paper - Stampin Up patterned paper
calendar - One Lucky Day blog
ink - Distress inks:  vintage photo, spiced marmalade, festive berries, ground espresso, wild honey
accessories - Stampin Up project life festive holiday kit, PPP festive sequins, Stampin up twine; Stampin up pumpkin pie ribbon, Stampin Up fine-tip glue pen

One more time

Well, I promise I am finished for the weekend, but boy, have I had fun.  I am posting another creation using several challenges this time (I was going to wait and post this tomorrow, but realized that one of the challenges ends today)

The first is the Freshly Made Sketch (I used the correct one this time) and Simon Wednesday Challenge which is "Anything Goes" but use an Avery Elle product if you have it.  Here is the sketch and if you look closely at my card, you can see there are four shapes in the corner (the two small butterflies are laying on top of the larger butterflies).

I didn't use watercolor this time, but did use Ken Oliver's color burst, which is so much fun.   I am really please with how this turned out, even though I sit here and keep going man that panel is really dark, but I'm going to leave it alone.  I have some ladies at work that has been a tremendous help to me lately and I'm planning on getting this out to them letting them know how much I really appreciate their help.

Have a great afternoon

Janet

Supplies:

paper - Neenah white cardstock, ranger watercolor

ink - Ken Oliver's ultramarine blue color burst, Stampin Up Tempting Turquoise

stamps - Avery Elle Oh Happy Day

accessories - Pretty Pink Posh stiched diagonal die cut, Papertrey Ink butterfly die cut, Martha Stewart's butterfly punch, Stampin Up pearls, Tombow power tabs, Tombow glue tape

Happy Labor Day

It's labor day here in the US, which means a day off for me.  I have been creating in my craft room all weekend, so the extra day is sweet.  It's still a little warm outside for me, so I am okay with staying inside a little bit.  My skin is extremely fair, so the sun and I just don't get along.

Today, I am using the Freshly Made Sketches sketch, which was a little challenging for me, but that's the whole point, correct?  I didn't realize until it was too late that this was a challenge that was done back in April (I need to learn how to refresh the page to home when coming from a bookmarked page) - Oh, how funny :)  That's okay though, I needed a challenge, so here it is.  This is image of the challenge I used - I am going to head over and attempt to use the new challenge.

I worked on this card 3 times and finally came up with this final creation.  When I was water coloring the image from Unity Stamps, I made an error and instead of throwing it out, keep on going.  After I finished, thinks it wound up looking like it has a morning haze to it and has an autumn feel to it.  

I was almost finished with putting the card together and while putting things away, my walnut stain mini ink pad fell on the corner of my card (talk about a little upset), so I had to come up with something to put on top of it.  Since the image had butterflies, I pulled out my Martha Stewart butterfly punch and used the scratch paper I had when distressing my panel and put it on a portion of that mistakes (I think it looks a little like the wind is coming from the butterfly while in flight).  I am going to send this card out to a friend who I haven't talked to in a while and want to let her know that I'm thinking of her and sending my love her way.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Janet

Supplies

Stamp - Unite Stamps Sending my Love

ink - Hero Arts Cup o Joe shadow ink

distress ink - wild honey, tumbled glass, pumice stone, squeezed lemonade, peeled paint, vintage photo, broken china, walnut stain, ground espresso, black soot, barn door, weathered wood, hickory smoke

paper - SU early espresso card stock, ranger watercolor paper

accessories - Tim Holtz paper trimmer, ranger ink blender, Stampin Up oval punch, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Stampin Up rhinestones, glue dots, copic marker 0.1 and 0.5 multiliner

Another challenge creation

As I stated yesterday, I have been doing a lot of coloring lately and am putting them on creations.  For this creation, I used The Challenge #76 sketch.  

While I was coloring this image from Unity Stamps, I was thinking of our daughter, who teaches 9th grade language arts and puts so much of herself in how she teaches her kids. You should hear the stories this girl tells us and by viewing her Facebook page, those kids (new and old) seem to love her, so she is doing something right.  I believe this sentiment in this stamp set is perfect for her.

I really enjoy coloring this image and can see myself using it often :)  I used Daniel Smith watercolors again and the FineTec gold watercolor for the light of her wand.

I hope you are all enjoying the weekend and I hope to see you soon.

Janet

Supplies:

Stamps - Unity Stamp Company dragonflies and fairies

Ink - Stampin Up pink pirouette

Watercolor - Daniel Smith and FineTec gold

Paper - Stampin Up whisper white, Crafter's companion Pink Pearl and Rose Pearl shimmering cardstock

Accessories:  WeR Memories gemstone embossing folder, MFT blueprints 22 die cut, Stampin Up swirly scribbles die cuts, fun foam, Ellen Hutson vellum, black versamark ink, Hero Arts clear embossing power, Milwaukee embossing heat tool, 

Hi everyone

It's been too long since I have visited my blog to post anything and must say I have missed it, but I just haven't had time or the mojo to do anything; however, I have been coloring a lot, so thought I would take some of the images I have colored and put them to use on some creations.

For this card, I used two challenges - Color Throwdown and CAS(E) this Sketch.

As I have stated before, when I lose my mojo, challenges always seem to help me and when I saw this weeks The Color Throwndown challenge, knew this image would be perfect.  The CASE(E) sketch was exactly what I was looking for as well (I used the flower sequins as my three elements shown on sketch to the right of the mat).

I have a friend who just found out she has cancer and started treatment this week and when I saw this Unity Stamp and sentiment, knew I had to get this to make a card for her.  She has told me many times how she is putting everything in God's hands and that every day will be a blessing.  I took an idea from Amy over at Prairie, Paper & Ink and decorated the inside of my card as well.  This sentiment is to let her know that she is a blessing to me and that I am sending them to her as well (I didn't color the image, but I really like how it turned out and will be stamping on the inside of cards from now on - thanks Amy).

I hope everyone is doing well and hope to catch up with you all soon.

Janet

supplies:

Stamp - Unity Stamp Every breath

Ink - Hero Arts black die ink

Watercolor - Daniel Smith Cad. Yellow deep hue, Quinacridone Gold, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Minnesota Pipestone genuine, Hematite Burnt Scarlet Genuine, Seprentine Geniune

Paper - Archives Coldwater press, Stampin Up Very Vanilla, October Afternoon Schoolhouse patterned paper

Accessories:  MFT stitched mat rectangles, The Ton Courture sequins, American Crafts ecru baker's twine, fun foam, multi medium matte glue, Elizabeth crafts tape, wink of stella clear glitter, Ranger watercolor brush

Busy little bee :)

Hi everyone:

I have been a busy bee this weekend and can't wait to show you all that I have done.  A few months back I tried to participate in the 30-day color challenge and while my intentions were good, they didn't work out :(, but the good news is I have all these images that I needed to paint or put it into a card creation.

This is  my first one and I think may be my favorite :)  I took some shaving cream and re-inkers to create the mat (I love doing this technique) and die cut the flowers using the SSS partial die cut and the cut off some of it to make that larger flower pop up a little more.  I then placed that on top of the mat.  

I had so much fun doing this one.  I really love the sentiment as well and I hope you all have a BEAUTIFUL day.

Janet

supplies:

SSS partial flower die cut
Hero Arts sentiment from their monthly kit
Shaving cream panel
   archival reinkers - aquamarine and daffodil
Mama Elephant ocean ink and cardstock
Stampin Up whisper white cardstock
WOW extra fine clear embossing powder
Jolee's boutique aquamarine rhinestone
Stampin Up rhinestones
Fun Foam

Poppy happy birthday

Hi everyone:

This is going to be a very short post, but I hope all is well.

I have a friend who celebrated her birthday this week and wanted to get a card together for her.  You know how much I have been enjoying water coloring, so did another one.  This is a stamp that I got while at a stamp, scrap and art tour recently and just loved it.  It was my second try at a layered stamp (I still have to practice a little more to get them lined up correctly).  sorry for the poor photo quality - I took it late at night so was too lazy to get out my photo box.

I hope everyone has a great Monday.

Janet

Color Throwdown challenge using distress crayons

Yep, it's me again :) Three times in one day.  I have to create a list of when the challenges begin and end because the last two are ending soon.

For this card, I used the Color Throwdown color challenge and have to say, I love these colors, but I'm not happy with this card; however, I am not going to trash it.  I made a promise to myself that I will not do that and keep on working on it until it's finished. This card needs something and I just can't put my finger on it (I even took my scor-buddy and made a line above the sentiment to see if that would help), but oh well, it's going up.

Not only have I promised myself to not throw any projects out, I promised myself that before I sell any of my stamps, dies, etc., I would use them at least once to see if I can see myself using it again.  I have been purging over the past few weeks and this is one of the stamps in the possible sell box, so had to give it one last try.  When I went to the Stamp, Scrap and Art Tour held in Columbia, SC back in February, I saw the new distress crayons and had to grab them and give them a try, but am just now getting to use them. I have to admit, they are going to take some time to get used to, but boy oh boy aren't they vibrant.  I added some wink-of-stella at the end to add some sparkle too :)

I have a family member who is going through a tough time at the moment and thought this would cheer her up a little - these colors can surely do that - they are so cheerful.  

I look forward to seeing the new colors coming up for this challenge so I can get started.

Have a great one

Janet

supplies:

cardstock:  SSS fog cardstock; Ranger watercolor paper

ink:  Black Versamark ink

stamps:  LawnFawn Blue Skies

accessories:  LawnFawn Blue Skies dies; tim holtz distress crayons peacock feathers, festive berries, spiced marmalade, mustard seed; fun foam (added behind the big balloon and cloud); Scor-buddy; Elizabeth Craft double sided adhesive; Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins; MISTI mini stamping tool; Ranger multi medium adhesive; Hero Arts clear embossing powder; Milwaukee heat tool; 

Mojo Monday challenge

Hey again:

This is the second challenge I participated in today and this time it was a sketch challenge from Mojo Monday, which I just love participating in.  The ever talented Julee Tilman created this fun sketch and it took me no time to figure out what I was going to do with this one.  

I have a friend from work who is celebrating his birthday this week and since we have an office of approximately 50 people, had to create two cards so everyone could wish him a happy birthday and this is my second creation.  I wanted to do some type vintage design and when I came across the DCWV Timeless Type paper stack, knew that would be where I started and then, of course, I had to look at my Tim Holtz stash :)

I really enjoyed putting this card together and it made me realize that I need to start using patterned paper more when I create because it really came together well.

I can't wait to see what the new sketch is tomorrow because I am positive I will be joining :)

Hope you have a great afternoon

Janet

Supplies:

cardstock:  SU early espresso
patterned paper:  DCWV Timeless Type paper stack
ink:  SU early espresso; distress ink ground espresso
stamp set:  Reverse Confetti lots to say
accessories:  Tim Holtz journaling cards; MFT die-namics stitched circle and square dies; MISTI mini stamping tool; Tim Holtz trimmer; PRIMA distress tool; American Craft bakers twine; multi medium adhesive

Less is More Challenge

Hi everyone:

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things here and am so excited to do so.  I decided to look at the current challenges to help me get started and since it's been so long since I have done a challenge, found a few new ones (for me that is).  This first one is just that - Less is More looks like such a fun place to be and am excited to participate this week.  

I have a friend at work who is celebrating his birthday this week and of course, masculine cards are the hardest for me to make, but when I looked at this challenge, knew it would be perfect.  When I first looked at it, I only noticed the challenge as being a one layer card, which is something I haven't done in a VERY long time, so thought I would go outside my box this time and do that.  It wasn't until I compiled all my supplies I was going to use that I realized that the other part of the challenge was to have geometric shapes or patterns and I figured since I was making a masculine card, these chevrons would be perfect.  That was surely a sign I was suppose to join in on this challenge.  How funny is that. 

I blended the distress inks using the stencil, spread distress clear crackle over the design before removing the stencil; however, you can't see that :(  I stamped the ship journal images on each corner, the happy birthday sentiment, added a few enamel dots and that's it.  It was so simple and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

I hope you can join in with the challenge this week.  I know I'll be back.

Janet

Supplies:

cardstock:  SU heavy cardstock
ink:  Distress ink chipped sapphire, ground espresso, walnut stain; SSS smoke; SU basic black
stamps:  SU The Open Sea; SP& Company Mustache Madness sentiment
accessories:  SSS lined chevron stencil; Distress clear crackle; distress collage medium brush; Studio Calico enamel dots; ADtech crafters tape; MISTI stamping tool