Mad challenges, yo!

Besides completing MAD CHALLENGES YO! I have finished watching season 5 (part one) of Breaking Bad this week. It took me so long because Rob had me convinced to go back to the beginning so that he could catch up - only to have him crap out about halfway through season 2. He still walks in halfway through an episode & wants me to catch him up, however. {boys} Not to give any spoilers if you haven't seen it, but the last 2 minutes BLEW MY MIND and I thought I'd heard all the big spoilers.

(Side effect of watching too much BB - I end up wanting to work the 'b' word into sentences. Ah, Jesse Pinkman.)

Anyway. I digress. I do that. First up: the current sketch challenge at Paper Smooches SPARKS - I modified the vertical sketch for a horizontal card.

Supplies: papers from Bo Bunny; Wplus9 banner die; Paper Smooches Party Posse; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Stampendous Fun Flock; Spectrum Noir markers

Fuzzy belly! And company's here, and supper's about to reach critical mass, so gotta jet! Back soon!
Here's the sketch:

xoxo,

Jessi

Monster Birthday Wishes

So I'm still learning how to best use my alcohol ink markers, and playing around with mixing Bics, Sharpies, and Spectrum - plus a Prismacolor blender pen. I like to mix it up. I can't believe this is my first time playing along over at Annabelle Stamps - "Anything Goes" this week, so you can hardly go wrong there. Since I think this monster makes a perfect little boy birthday card, I'm also entering it over at The Pink Elephant, which is challenging us to make "Masculine Birthday" projects this week.

Supplies: Annabelle Stamps image & sentiment; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; papers from Bo Bunny; Mod Podge Dimensional Magic; multiple marker brands; bling from Dollarama

After colouring my monster, I painted his balloon, his eyes, tooth, and toenails with Dimensional Magic. I love that stuff :) 

Not much to chat about, unless you want to hear minute details of a malfunctioning digestive tract...Riley is sick once again, after spending two weeks at home in April. The poor kid. It looks like he will need to undergo dietary sensitivity testing as a next step. As I keep saying, that's going to be a real blast since kids with autism don't already come with multiple food-based issues....insert sarcasm there. So, I'm going to go back to, uh, cleaning the bathroom. 

On a lighter note, my Mother's Day flowers came today! Rob ordered flowers for his mom, and for me. Her flowers arrived on time - mine, not so much. The florist that the national centre deals with here in town is about to close, and apparently my order fell through a billion cracks. Rob called at least 5 times on Friday, and countless emails and phone calls up to YESTERDAY still couldn't figure out what went wrong. So they're finally here, and now they're free. And, they came with a spectacular message:

Impossible to get a good photograph in my kitchen. Anyhow, it reads: "Feed the F*****G seals." That would be a Charlie quote from The Newsroom, the first season of which Rob & I have now watched 3 times. If he'd written something romantic I might have died of shock.

xoxo,

Jessi

Paper Hoarders Unite "In Bloom"!

So, Barb. She of the amazing talent & generosity...she who is SO much fun to shop with (now if only we could get Michaels  to let us back in...)  And we're both guilty of buying such pretty stuff, and then hoarding it. Because, well, you never know. They might stop making beautiful paper and stuff, and then what would happen? EEK.
She recently bought what she called the most beautiful paper in the world, and oh em gee, it is! She twisted my arm (so difficult to do with craft supplies) and then, since we had the matching stuff, we decided to challenge each other to use it. I got to pick the papers, and so both of us have made a card using these three papers from My Mind's Eye "In Bloom," which is a Michaels exclusive:

Supplies: Papers from MME; Nesties labels 5; letter stickers from Basic Grey (white, coloured with Spectrum Noir markers); buttons from Dollarama

I got a little funky with the label - it's adhered with a double layer of foam tape in the very centre, and then I sewed the buttons on overlapping the very edges to give it a curved look. And the chevron paper is of course fussy-cut along the pattern...I don't think I've used a chevron pattern yet without cutting it ;)

Now just wait until you see what awesomeness Barb has come up with - and what do you think? Should we do this again?  Make sure you leave her some love :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Shopping our Stash #101 - Scrap Attack!

**For my Tuesday Morning Sketches post, please scroll down or click here. Thanks!!**

Do we ever have a challenge this week at Shopping our Stash - scraps only. With the exception of your card base, you can't cut into any new paper!! 

Supplies: papers from Pink Paislee (mostly); circle Nestie of some kind; Memento Gray Flannel ink; Hero Arts lace; Paper Smooches 'mom' stamp

The polka-dot panel already had this offset circle cut out of it, and while flipping through the paper pad it framed this floral pattern so nicely that my idea was born. A bit of fussing around for some smaller bits for the side panel & voila! The polka dot piece is up on foam tape for interest & dimension.

This Shopping our Stash challenge is open until next Monday, May 20th - hop on by & leave the rest of my teamies some love!

Carla

Leslie

Alica

Deena

Lauren

Michelle

xoxo,

Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #198 - The Greeting Farm!

Good morning & welcome to the newest Tuesday Morning Sketch - by me this week :) Anyone else have difficulty creating a card based on their own sketch? The sketch came quickly, but the card took some time. This week we're sponsored by the lovely Greeting Farm (will edit later with prize details! Off to the dentist first...)

ETA: the awesome prize is one stamp of YOUR choice as the winner! WOOT!

This week is also TWIST WEEK, which means that you MUST use the twist in order to win! This time around the twist is Flowers, Flowers, and More Flowers. There are flowers on my patterned papers, on the washi tape, and for the main image :)

Supplies: papers from Memory Box; Jolee's vellum stickers; We R Memory Keepers washi tape; Labels 4 Nesties; 1" circle punch; Mrs. Grossman's sticker sentiment

The washi is layered over the patterned paper (on either side of the dark paper strip) and I like how it almost blends in to the pattern. 

Here's the sketch:

This sketch is open until next Sunday, May 19th.

Don't forget to visit all the other talented ladies on the DT:

Angela

Bonnie

Dawn

Debbie

Jenee

Laura

Theresa

Melissa

As I mentioned, we're off to the dentist this morning - both Rob & I are getting mouth guards made. Ah, the joys & mysteries of adult married life...not ;) I'm not looking forward to the molding process (gag!) but I cannot wait to have some relief from the jaw pain from grinding my teeth.

xoxo,
Jessi

Something Old & Something New

I think a great many of my cards fit into the current challenge at Crafty Creations Challenges - use something old & something new. After all, I never throw anything away ;) I have two cards that are VERY similar so I'm sharing them together. They both use K& Co acetate butterflies, Bo Bunny papers, girls' paperie seam binding, and stick pins.

Supplies: Wplus9 banner dies (my BRAND NEW item - just got these on Friday!!); PTI sentiment (borrowed from Barb!); Tumbled Glass distress ink; and ANCIENT beads that have been in my stash for at least 5 years. Probably more.

Supplies: Paper Smooches stamp (Mom); Memento Gray Flannel ink; PTI sentiment also borrowed from Barb. I suppose that also counts as new since it's new to me :)

So: old items are pretty well everything. Most of these items have been in my stash for over a year. The new ones: banner dies (SO STOKED) and the PTI sets that I borrowed from Barb :)

xoxo,
Jessi

*whew* I almost missed it!

So Papercraft Star lets you sneak a peek at their upcoming challenges... and when I saw this one in the lineup, I thought of an idea right away. AND THEN I nearly forgot to post it in time! There are 12 hours left in the linky, so *whew*!
 There's the inspiration photo - and the challenge is to include a sun in your creation: "Let the Sun Shine."

I got a little collagey:

Supplies: papers from MME; sun stamp from Market Street Stamps; Mustard Seed distress ink; buttons from stash; Yellow Daisy glimmer mist from Tattered Angels; ruler washi from Jen!

I've fussy-cut a bunch of the tags from a sheet of paper, and I left the end attached to some of them - the yellow striped bit. I liked the rough edge left from tearing it out of the pad. I did the yellow stitching (using floss & my handy dandy Tim Holtz ruler), stamped the sun, added everything...and then decided to flick the mist. That was nerve-wracking since I've ruined more than one card the same way, but *whew* once again, it worked!

xoxo,
Jessi

Seize the Birthday 16 - Doing it RIGHT this time :)

It feels odd to have been quiet over the weekend - I am still scraping myself around after the creative blitz prior to Mother's Day. I have a whole bunch to share, though, so hold on to your hats & prepare for a bunch of posts :)
Although I already created a Mother's Day card with this sketch, I wanted to play along properly too with a birthday card. Seize the Birthday #16 is open until Tuesday at noon:

Supplies: papers from Ruby Rock-it; May Arts jute ribbon; Spellbinders butterfly; Mrs. Grossman's sentiment sticker

 

xoxo,

Jessi

Drunken Stampers #127 - Porky's?!?!

I feel somehow like I've missed out by not seeing this movie - opinions? So I've created a card based on the alternate theme, FARM ANIMALS. As with all the Drunken Stampers challenges this term, feel free to create something inspired by the chosen movie, or by the alternate theme.

And what's my natural choice for farm animals? Paper Smooches!

Supplies: all papers from little yellow bicycle; Martha Stewart fringe scissors; sheep & sentiment stamps from Paper Smooches; sun face from Market Street Stamps; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; cotton ball Fun Flock; googly eyes; 1.5" circle punch; gems from Dollarama; cloud die-cuts from Barb :) 

Our linky will be open until next Friday night, May 17th. Check out what the rest of the Midnight Margaritas made:

Spike

Jackie

Barbara

Chris

Vicki

Barb M. 

xoxo,
Jessi

A special card for Lara

So now that this card has been received, I can share it. Finally! I had even looked ahead to the list of The Kraft Journal's challenges & knew that this one would be perfect. (Did you know that they publish their list of challenges for the whole year? Check it out here.) This week's challenge is "Just for Her" , and since Lara's husband wanted a super-special card for her birthday I went all out. Check it out - remember you can click each picture to view it full-size:

The super-sweet Emily sent me this gorgeous flower die, and it was dying for a BIG project to make its debut. Thanks so much, Emily :)

What a bear to photograph! This is a modified side-step card - rather than a 4.25x5.25 folded size, this one is 4.25x7. A rectangle of burlap was frayed on the edges, gathered in the middle, and then stitched onto the card front. Huge flatback pearls make up the flower centres. Long corsage pins from Michaels made the perfect base for some BIG pearl stick pins. I am still in love with this :)

I scored each petal partially on the scoring board, but most of the shaping was just done by folding & fiddling with my fingers until I was happy with it. 

This was never going to fit in an envelope, so I made a box:

Some of the pieces removed from the burlap for fraying make perfect twine for tying on the tag. 

Supplies: Memory Box dies: cherry blossom & meadow leaf; corsage pins; pearl beads; flatback pearls; Cuttlebug tag die; PSX alphabet stamps; Vintage Photo distress ink; burlap; AC Thickers letters; unknown birthday rub-on; Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

This particular Kraft Journal challenge is open until Sunday evening :) 

For those of you keeping track of how I wake up in the mornings, lol, we had yesterday's cat-adventure, and now today Riley was up at about 4:20 am. According to him, "I must have just woke up for some reason." I do NOT look forward to keeping that kid awake until bedtime tonight! 

xoxo,

Jessi