I L.O.V.E. cards

I've recently had fun playing with some paper and stamps and actual ink - shocking, I know!  Here are some cards that I've made - I used the Wishes book and tried out my new Spray Pen - for my first time I stuck with a light color just until I get used to it - I used Baby Pink with a bit of Pearl Paint.  I LOVE this thing and can't wait to use it more!  I've also used it for some custom colored flower hair clips - click here to check them out!

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The following card uses the Cubed Collage pattern, Sweetheart paper pack, and retired February Word Puzzle, along with some fun new pink buttons and a bit of Black Waxy Flax.

I think the following card is my favorite of this bunch - that little Hippo is just too cute!  I used the Simple Expression pattern with the Sweetheart papers.  The Hippo came from the retired Life's A Jungle stamp set, the hearts and X's came from the So Lucky stamp set, and the thought bubble came from the retired set Leave Your Mark.  I got my rubber brayer out for this card since the thought bubble was going the other direction - I used the brayer to reverse my image (my girls thought that was the coolest trick!).

This card was for Kaylee's piano teacher - I used the Collage pattern, Sweetheart papers, and You Rock stamp set.  I even stamped the envelope.

This card uses the Framework pattern, Sweetheart papers, So Lucky stamp set, and retired February Word Puzzle

This is the card that I created for my Open House next week.  I used the Sentiment Secured pattern, new Wings Creative Basics paper, Friendship stamp set (this month's Stamp of the Month), and the new Kraft Color-Ready Borders.  Such a simple card but I really like how it turned out, I especially like those borders.  I am working on another option using Sweetheart papers.

I created this card to show that by using the back side of the papers you can change the look of the card - I also wanted to show how you can change the color of the Kraft borders.

Here are some more things I L.O.V.E. more than anything else!

Watching my kids together...

...playing the piano...

...reading...

...and just being goofy (and yes, eating graham crackers in milk - my favorite!)

Watching my STAR perform!

letting out some nerves ;-)

Our kids were thankfully SO good during this very long, late night at Stars of Tomorrow - we were there for 3 hours and they were angels!  Trysten fell asleep on the way there and Brailee fell asleep at the end, but nobody whined or misbehaved, even I was tired of being there after a while!

Making treats with my kids...

Thanks for looking - I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Studio J - working with embellishments

Here is yet another Studio J layout that I gave to my mom for Christmas.  For this layout, I played around with the embellishments and the different things you can do with those - I have a couple of tips to make them easier to work with as well!

I love that I can mix journaling with alpha Stickease easily - notice here how I used white journaling, you can't do that with a traditional layout, at least I've never been able to before!  It was so easy to get it in just the right spot and just the right size.

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For this layout I turned the half circle into a flower using brads.  On a traditional layout this would have been extremely time consuming, and even placing each brad individually digitally would have taken forever if I hadn't used the following tip.  First, I created one 'petal' - then I selected all the brads in that petal (press Ctrl to select a group as you click on each one).  At the top next to the Undo and Redo buttons, click Copy and then Paste.  I was able to do that 5 times and just rotate it and place it exactly where I wanted to - piece of cake!  The first time it didn't line up how I wanted it but it wasn't a big deal to just go in and adjust each group until it turned out just how I wanted it.

Another tip with the embellishments is getting them to line up - if you look at my stitches on both pages, I placed the stitches, then I selected them all (press Ctrl to select a group) and as I selected multiple embellishments, more options were available in the tool box.  Your options are 'Distribute Vertical', 'Distribute Horizontal', 'Align Vertically', and 'Align Horizontally', along with your option to change the color or delete.  With just the click of a button you can get them to line up perfectly straight!  The great thing is, if you don't like it, the Undo button comes to the rescue!

Check back soon for more Studio J tips and tricks - I will also be having a Studio J training at my Open House on the 21st - contact me at jvdevries22@hotmail.com if you want more information on that! I'd love to show you how!

And if you haven't tried Studio J out, yet, what are you waiting for?  It's free to try - you don't pay for anything unless you decide to order some layouts or become a member.  I never thought I would ever like digital scrapbooking, but Studio J proved me wrong!

Thanks for looking!

Valentine's Day

I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!  It was a busy day for us yesterday, so we had a nice Sirloin steak dinner (from the 1/2 cow that we just bought to fill our freezer) on Sunday night and that was the extent of our celebrating.  Kaylee had her last two basketball games last night and Brianna had her last practice, so it was a full night.  They sure enjoyed basketball this year - Brianna is looking forward to next year when she'll get to play actual games!  Hopefully we'll end next season on a better note for Kaylee, she had to leave last night's final game early due to a migrain :-(

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Anyway, to give you a break from the Studio J layouts that I've been posting, I'll do a quick post with a few of the Valentine's cards that we made - and I'll be back with more!

I made these quick cards for the girls' teachers - and when I say quick, I mean SO last minute, which I never fail to do.  We had planned on doing Valentine cards and treats on Saturday but then we had to make an 'emergency' trip to Casper to get a new hot water heater.  We tried to get it to last as long as we could but we had to keep resetting it.  After two days in a row of no hot water first thing in the morning, we decided we'd better just replace it, especially since David is leaving for a whole week and he didn't want it to completely go out while he is gone.  Anyway, Sunday we had church and then Kaylee's Stars of Tomorrow rehearsal so we didn't get started until after 4, and then we had dinner so we barely got the girls' class treats and cards done (which I didn't get pictures of).  So the next morning I got started and got the teacher's cards done just in time to head to school.  The girls each picked out some flowers for their teacher.

I used a pattern from Wishes called Middle Ground, the new Sweetheart paper, and this season's Petite Perks stamp set called Affectionate.  I just love how Brailee writes her name, even though she doesn't always like to write it ;-)

Here is the Valentine card I made for David - even though it looks more fit for St. Patty's Day!  I just wasn't feeling the reds and pinks and wanted to make it more manly.  Since his favorite color is green, I used the Wings Creative Basics paper and the So Lucky stamp set (that I've had my eye on for a while and finally got last month), along with another pattern from Wishes, and some new Wooden Buttons.

Thanks for visiting - it feels so good to be posting my creations again - I hope you'll come back for more!

Studio J - Click Click Click

Here are a couple more of the Studio J layouts that I did for my mom for Christmas.  Some of the Studio J techniques that I used were resizing the Stickease, changing the color of the photo, and rotating the layout.  This layout is of my brother and his little family:

On this left page I was able to resize the digital Stickease to create my title.  Another tip I used on the title - there is no apostrophe (') in the Stickease, so I added a text box behind the Stickease title just with the ' and with no paper mat - I made the apostrophe the size I wanted it and moved the text box to the right spot and it worked out perfectly.

On this right page I was able to shrink the border with the quote on it to fit only across the 8x8 picture - I would not have been able to do that with a traditional layout since it's a 12" border it would have cropped off some of the quote.  I was also able to change the color of the picture in the top right corner to Sepia directly through Studio J - too many times I have ordered pictures in black & white or sepia only to find once I get them that they would have been better in color or something else, sometimes it just doesn't go right with the paper I want to use.  With Studio J I can play around with it and change it back and forth to help me decide what will look best.

Here is yet another layout - does it look familiar?

It's the exact same layout pattern, called Click Click Click, that I used on the pages from above, I just switched it around.  This Duck Pond layout uses the original page orientation - I swapped the left and right pages and then rotated each one around for the Blessing Day layout.  I even kept the same toggle accessories, just changed the pictures, papers, and colors to get a completely different look!  Here I used the Jingle papers, which are Christmas themed, but by using the more versatile patterns from that kit, it doesn't look like a Christmas layout at all!

Check back soon for more Studio J tips and tricks - I will also be having a Studio J training at my Open House on the 21st - contact me at jvdevries22@hotmail.com if you want more information on that!  I'd love to show you how!

Thanks for looking!

Studio J - Knitted Christmas Treasures

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE Studio J!  One of the latest things that I've been playing around with is changing the paper color to fit my layout.  Check out the following layout that I made for my mom for Christmas - can you tell me which paper pack I used?

If you haven't figured it out, it's Evensong, a Christmas-themed paper from a couple years ago.  The paper's original colors are Cranberry, New England Ivy, Olive, and Sorbet, which just didn't work for my pictures of the girls in their new sweaters, but I wanted to use the patterns from this paper pack.  All you do is click on your paper once your layout has loaded and when the tool box has popped up, you select the 'Change paper color' button on the far left.  From there you can choose from any of the Recommended colors that will still coordinate with the rest of the paper pack, or you can pick from the Complete Palette and completely change things up like I did here.  Once you select your color, you can then change the percentage on the 'Change Background & Texture Intensity' to make it either darker or lighter.

Here is a close-up of each page - I also changed the ribbon, brads, and photo hanger - it's great that I can pick ANY color to really personalize my layouts!

Check back soon for more Studio J tips and tricks - I will also be having a Studio J training at my Open House on the 21st - contact me at jvdevries22@hotmail.com if you want more information on that!  I'd love to show you how!

Thanks for looking!

Bee Crafty!

Remember one time when I posted all those crafty things I was making and said I didn't know what to do with it all - I thought maybe I'd finally post something in my Etsy shop that I started years ago, but I'm still a little chicken and feel a little intimidated posting there, so for now I'm working on listing them on my new blog so check it out at

http://www.jenabeecrafts.blogspot.com/

Be sure to check back regularly as I will add new things every day!  I'd love to hear some feedback and suggestions!

Transitions

Last week at Trysten's yearly check-up, the Doctor asked about his sleeping habits.  Trysten's been really bad about waking up around 3:30 a lot of mornings - that's really hard when David and I wake up at 4:30 so he can get ready to go to work.  Because of this, he was still in a crib, we hoped it would make it easier to break the habit.  The girls had all moved over to a toddler bed by the time they were 18 months old, but not Trysten.  So, the Doctor warned me that sooner or later he's going to figure out how to climb out.  Sure enough, on Sunday after his nap we found him crying on the floor in his room - he had climbed out but it didn't end very well.  Then the next two nights when it was time for bed, he climbed INTO his crib.  We decided then that it was time to transition his crib to a toddler bed to prevent any injuries.  Wednesday evening Daddy changed it over - Trysten was so excited!  He did really well that night and stayed in his room, but shortly after David and I got up at 4:30 the next morning he started crying and we found him with his head stuck UNDER his bed - who knows how that happened!  So then I worried about naptime yesterday - he's always really good about going down for a nap, but he is just go go go until then.  We read a LOT of books yesterday before naptime and he laid down without a problem.  Then about 5 minutes later I heard his door slowly open and he peeked out into the hallway.  I reminded him it was naptime and he went back in.  He did it one or two more times and then I didn't see or hear from him for a while so I peeked in to check on him and he had climbed back into his bed, pulled up his covers and crashed!  It went much better than I expected!  Last night didn't go as well as he started with a fever again, so we found him wandering around the house in the middle of the night, crying.  Hopefully he'll get better and get a good night sleep one of these nights!

Anyway, here he is when Daddy was fixing his bed...

Once his bed was done he had to test it out - he was rolling and bouncing all over the place...

...and still quite the monkey...

While we're at it, here is the before and after pics of his room.  When we moved in this summer, we painted the entire upstairs - Trysten's room got the least amount of work.  This is what it looked like before:

We kept the border and the bottom half - the top half and ceiling we freshened up with a brighter white.  Trysten loves the animals on his wall.  So, it didn't change much but here it is now:

Thanks for visiting!