CASology 37 - HOPE

This is going to be a hard post to write - even though it's got a funny (risque!) card. The current prompt at CASology is:

I'm not certain that my card really qualifies as CAS, but it was a card I'd been planning to make and sort of procrastinating on because of why I was making it. 

My oldest friend was diagnosed with breast cancer several weeks ago. She & I have known each other for over 20 years - and both of us went on to have kids with autism. We've always been the kind of friends that can pick up exactly where we left off, even when we haven't chatted lately. Being so far away while she goes through this is extremely hard. On April 9th, she's having a bilateral mastectomy & reconstruction. The prognosis is good - but this is still frightening. Cancer always is. We've joked as well as cried, and so I didn't want to send her a sappy card. 

Supplies: papers from MME; heart stickers from heidi grace; ribbon from stash; Milled Lavender distress ink; Versamark; clear EP; 'hope' stamp from Paper Smooches; letter stamps from PSX

I used Versamark & then distress ink so that I could emboss with clear EP.

Here's the inside:

I'll be sending her lots of cards during her convalescence - I can't do much from here, but I can at least fill her mailbox with happy mail.

xoxo,

Jessi

PS Sparks - Buttons!

As soon as I saw the inspiration picture for this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge, I knew I had to play. It took me the whole week to figure out what I wanted to make, though, and then it sort of got away from me. Here's the inspiration pic:

So, buttons. Obviously I had to play.

I was inspired by the canvas, the colours (pink, blue, white), the stacked buttons, the buttons (did I mention them?), and the floral shapes. 

Supplies: Paper Smooches sentiment; Grey Flannel Memento ink; Bo Bunny woodgrain paper; canvas; Making Memories flower brads; misc. pink brads; BUTTONS from stash

I actually found it a bit more difficult sewing buttons on to the canvas than I do sewing them on to paper - piercing holes don't WORK on canvas, darn it. There was some finger stabbing involved. I worked on the canvas layer before attaching it to the paper - and since I was worried about glue oozing through & the strength of tape for holding up the umpteen buttons, I used some hoarded floral brads to attach the canvas to the paper. The darker pink brads were in the same spot, and I liked throwing in a bit more of that rose tone, so they came out to play too. Then I attached the paper to the card base using my go-to Zip Dry - and it was perfect.

The Memento ink stamped really nicely onto the canvas - I love the texture:

The PS SPARKS challenge is open for another 10 hours or so - plenty of time to get crafty :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Happy Easter!

The current challenge at Papercraft Star is Easter - perfect for me to share a couple more cards with you :) The boys were up at the usual time (only because of being told that they couldn't get up before 7 AM...) and helped each other through the candy egg hunt. It was adorable to listen to the two of them chatting & pointing out where the other one could find more candy...they may be 14 and almost 13, but these are the things we missed out on when they were small.

Anyhow, a few Easter cards:

Supplies: pre-coloured digi lily from Doodle Pantry; Sakura Stardust glitter pen; Inkadinkado sentiment; Palette Noir ink; paper from MME; classic small circle Nesties

I've printed out 2 copies of the flower, and fussy-cut and layered the second flower with thin foam tape for some dimension, and added some glitter by tracing lines with the pen & smudging with my finger.

I'll be back VERY shortly with a couple more challenge cards for challenges ending today!

xoxo,

Jessi

Muse #10

**For my Drunken Stampers post, please scroll down or click here. Thanks!!**

OK, I lied....I'm back before tomorrow because I got a card made for the current MUSE challenge that will end before I get home. I was inspired by the bright colours, layout, and circles on Ardyth's card:

Supplies: Daisy Bucket sentiment; Inkadinkado circles stamp; Versamark; Kaleidacolor Fiesta inkpad; clear EP; green fibre paper from stash

I also wanted to incorporate the embossing that Ardyth did on the sentiment - I used the same Kaleidacolor inkpad as for the circles, but used Versamark first so that I could clear emboss it. 

OK, gotta run!

xoxo,

Jessi

Drunken Stampers #121 - Mr & Mrs Smith

**For my DT Throwdown #2 card please click here**

**To VOTE in the DT Throwdown please click HERE**

Thanks :)

Check it out - the Drunken Stampers are going all 'intrigue' on you this week!

As with each of the Drunken Stampers challenges this term, create a project inspired by the movie itself OR by the related theme given! Since I haven't seen the movie (and I tried - Netflix doesn't have it currently, and neither do any of the OnDemand channels we subscribe to...booooo) I went with "spy." That led me to this sweet image from Mo Manning that I've had for AGES but never used:

Supplies: digi image by Mo Manning; Spectrum Noir, Bic, and Sharpie markers; Bo Bunny paper; AC Thickers; 1/2" square punch for banner notches

The sentiment is actually the name of the file on my computer - and the OOPS came from Connor. I had the rest of the card assembled & wanted to put *something* up at the top, and upon looking at it, turning his head to the side, and 'hmmmm'-ing he decreed it should be OOPS. Done. 

We've got so many cool ideas to share with you - and can't wait to see what you come up with. Our linky will be open until next Friday night, April 5th. Check out what the rest of the Midnight Margaritas made:

Spike

Jackie

Barbara

Chris

Vicki

Barb M. 

Now to go & take some pictures of what else I've been up to - see you tomorrow :D

xoxo,

Jessi

Easter at CCC!

**For my DT Throwdown post, scroll down or click here**

**For my Playing in Paradise post, scroll down or click here**

Thanks :)

Of course I've been making last-minute Easter cards - linking these two chicks in their bonnets up with the current Crafty Creations Challenge: 

Supplies: papers from MME; chick stamp from Stampendous; sentiment stamp from Inkadinkado; Grey Flannel Memento ink; classic small oval Nesties; Prima bloom; Spectrum Noir markers

Supplies: Paper from Bo Bunny; chick stamp from Stampendous; Grey Flannel Memento ink; Labels 5 Nesties; Wilton doily; Spectrum Noir markers

And now back to the crafty salt mines!

xoxo,

Jessi

Playing in Paradise #110 - Embellishments!

**For my DT Throwdown #2 post, please scroll down or click here. Thanks!!!**

Now here's a challenge that was fun to play! Nina is our hostess  at Playing in Paradise this week, and she wants us to

Love that little ladybug :) I thought I would try NOT using buttons and see what happened:

Supplies: kraft & chocolate brown card stock; scrap of vellum; rub-ons from Bo Bunny; trim from Webster's Pages; birthday sentiment from Mrs. Grossman's

Vellum being the tricky creature that it is, I kept the piece of vellum much longer than it shows - it extends all the way underneath the brown trim. I used Scor-Tape to adhere the vellum (just one long strip on the left), then more Scor-Tape on top to adhere the brown trim, and another to adhere the aqua. I am continually impressed by how well Scor-Tape holds trims - and yet is forgiving enough to let them go if you happen to need to tweak it a little bit. 

This challenge will be open until next Thursday, April 4th.  To add your NEW project to the linky & see what the rest of  the team has created, click on over to the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog, and check out the DT on their blogs too:

Allison

Nina

Dawn

Linda

I will likely be back later on today - I've got lots of Easter cards to share before Easter! I'll leave you with a picture of Abby last night after a good hard play in the backyard...she was due for a bath anyway, and I figured she may as well enjoy herself beforehand!

It's a little muddy out there...

xoxo,

Jessi

Design Team Throwdown #2 - Faux Finishes!!!

Oh man, faux finishes? That's pretty much what my first thought was. After looking through the tutorial list at Splitcoaststampers, I remembered that Therese from Lostinpaper had done a video last year about faux metal. (Click here to see her video on YouTube!) As soon as I knew what technique I wanted to try, my card fell together.

Check out what Spike & Chris created too at the Drunken Stampers post - and don't forget to vote at the Smeared & Smudged Forum! They changed the rules for voting this time so you'll vote for the team you think did the best job (Drunken Stampers, naturally!)

Blah, blah, BLAH, not running on a full cup of coffee yet - here's my card:

Supplies: Moonstone EP from Stampendous; silhouette stamp from PTI; Versamark; medallion stamp from Stampendous; rhinestone strips from dollarama; vellum; classic small oval Nesties

I die-cut the size oval I wanted to give the silhouette a not-too-big frame, and then coated it in Versamark & EP. I lost count of how many layers I did - 7 or 8, anyhow - and then pushed the stamp into the still-hot last layer. 

The medallion stamp was embossed onto vellum, and then I attached the vellum to the card base underneath the cameo, and with a thin strip of Scor-Tape at the top & bottom of the card - covered by the rhinestone strips. The cameo is adhered with a layer of foam tape - it's not a heavy piece, but it wants to bend, so the foam tape was the sturdiest choice. And about the vellum - freaking hell, didn't I decide to try & reposition it? And didn't it rip? DANGNABBIT. Lucky score of the day, though, because the rip is right underneath the cameo. *whew*

I love it. I love it soooo much that I don't even really mind the large amounts of embossing powder still coating  the far reaches of my desk...the dog has managed to shake most of it off by now ;)

Don't forget to hop on over to the Smeared & Smudged Forum to vote!

xoxo,

Jessi 

Shopping our Stash #95 - Very Vegetable Fruity Fun!

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

(you really should. You know you wanna!)

So, it turns out that this week's Shopping our Stash challenge was a real challenge for me! I know I own more than one pear stamp, but could I find either of them? Nope. Apples? I know I have one, but nope. What exactly I've done with all my fruit stamps, I couldn't tell you. They aren't in my crafting corner, though. So, I went digging through old embellishments, and I found this GORGEOUS set of rub-ons that I've had forever and a day or twelve. They were produced by Tulip, with illustrations from PSX. (Yep, that's how old they are. PSX has been gone for about 10 years!)

Supplies: lemons rub-on from Tulip/PSX; Grey Flannel Memento ink; sentiment from Lawn Fawn

I had to let that gorgeous image take centre stage - I trimmed it down to show just a smidge of the green base, and ran the edges of the panel over the Grey Flannel ink pad to help them stand out a bit more. Then I stared at it for a while to decide what kind of sentiment to put. 

So, you wanna play with your fruits & veggies? This Shopping our Stash challenge is open until Monday April 1st (and that's no joke...nyuk nyuk nyuk!) Don't forget to visit my teamies!   

• Carla
• Leslie
• Alica
• Deena
• Paige
• Lauren
• Linda
• Michelle

...and now off to reschedule dentist appointments. I'm pretty sure they don't want my stomach-flu infested self in their office. *urp* Almost as much as I don't want to envision anyone with their hands in my mouth today....ooh, and one more thing: my puppy Abby turns 2 today! She's my constant companion & the sweetest shadow anyone could ever have :) 

The day she came home - about 4 months old. 

My very favourite picture ever!

Happy birthday, Abby :) 

xoxo,

Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #191 - Me!

Good morning! I've been all aflutter waiting for today to get here - not only did I design the sketch for this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches challenge, but I'm the sponsor :) Create a project using the sketch & link it up at TMS for a chance to win your choice of 18 crocheted mats - your choice of colours, shapes, and size.

Gender-neutral baby cards are in big demand at the moment, so I thought I'd get out some yellows & go to town:

Supplies: All Night Media footprints stamp; Stampin' Up sentiment; American Crafts chipboard hearts; Versamark, Grey Flannel Memento, and Mustard Seed distress inks; clear embossing powder; polka dot embossing folder; classic small & lacy circle Nesties; We R Memory Keepers washi tape & corner chomper; crocheted mat by me!

I heat-embossed the feet by loading the stamp first with Versamark & then with the Mustard Seed ink - use clear EP over top & you can easily customize your embossing to any colour of ink you have. I cut the yellow panel to size, rounded the corners, added the washi tape, and then embossed - washi tape holds embossing SO nicely. The double embossing fits in perfectly with this week's Crafty Creations Challenge, which closes tonight :) 

Glitter, shine, and look how crisp the embossing is on the washi tape! 

Here's my sketch:

Wait until you see the beauties my teammates created with my mats! Absolutely stunning cards! Make sure you leave them some love:

Angela 

Bonnie

Dawn

Debbie
Jenee

Laura

Theresa

Melissa

This sketch is open until next Sunday, March 31st. And, did you know - if you 'like' Tuesday Morning Sketches on Facebook, you can have access to the sketch the evening before it goes live?? 

I can't wait to see what everybody comes up with! 

xoxo,

Jessi

Easter at little red wagon

little red wagon is hosting an Easter challenge this week - and conveniently, I've been making Easter cards! Here are a couple:

Supplies: pretty much unknown! If anyone knows where this cute digi bunny is from (the file name didn't say) please let me know! And the papers are all scraps. The digi sentiment is from Pink Cat Studio!

Supplies: image from Stampavie; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; sentiment from Inkadinkado; washi tape from We R Memory Keepers; Stampendous Yellow Fun Flock; Spectrum Noir markers

Spectrum Noir markers. The pastel collection. Source of great joy to me this week as I play around with them & realize ZOMG ALCOHOL MARKERS are as AWESOME as everyone says! And 24 markers will of course not be sufficient as I keep playing...but they blend well with Sharpies & Bics, and we shall get along swimmingly. *happy sigh*

I also promised my husband that when I blogged I would share his comment about this chickie:

"Why is its butt in front?"

Cannot unsee it, can ya?

Oh well. I think it's cute anyway, and it's a chubby fuzzy belly. Let's go with that :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Seize the Birthday #11

Yesterday morning was a super productive crafty time for me - I am stoked that I've got all sorts of fun stuff to share this week :) Starting with (I think) the first sketch card I've made in weeks - this one for Seize the Birthday #11:

Supplies: Basic Grey rub-ons (floral patterns); EAD Designs rub-on sentiment; black & white cardstocks; black rhinestone strips from Dollarama

One of those crazy cards that just sort of made itself. I love it when that happens!

Here's the sketch - open until Tuesday if you'd like to play along with your feminine birthday card (next week is the masculine challenge if you're thinking ahead!):

xoxo,

Jessi

Playing in Paradise #109 - Banners!

Hurray for Friday! The wind is blowing again and we've got more snow to contend with - I'm sure the kids are dreaming of another snow day to finish off their week. I'm not entirely sure that *I* am ;)

Linda is our lovely hostess at Playing in Paradise this week, and she's challenging us to use banners on our projects:

I had about 50 bajillion ideas, and finally decided I had to crack open my new Echo Park Birthday Boy collection and play:

Supplies: all links to the Scrapbooker's Paradise online store:  paper and stickers from Echo Park; Cuttlebug birthday embossing folder; Cuttlebug machine; solid red twine

I punched small holes (1/8") in the embossed card stock so that I could tie the twine & have it drape naturally, and then adhered the banner stickers with some foam tape. Pretty straightforward!

This challenge will be open until next Thursday, March 28th.  To add your NEW project to the linky & see what the rest of  the team has created, click on over to the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog, and check out the DT on their blogs too:

Allison

Nina

Dawn

Linda

xoxo,

Jessi

Jingle Belles Neutral Noel - and blog candy winner!

I'm getting the hang of playing along with the jingle belles - although I must say, leaving Christmas things out all year has put a bit of a cramp in my storage system (nonexistent, *koff koff*). It's totally going to be worth it come fall when I realize how far ahead I am! Yay! This time around we're playing with neutral colours only - I've gone with grey & white:

Supplies: paper from Memory Box; sentiment from PTI; Grey Flannel Memento ink; pearls from Dollarama; snowflake quilled by me

This snowflakey paper is actually out of a spring-ish package from Memory Box, but it just says snow to me. You've got until next Wednesday, March 27 (!) to play along. 

And, a winner for the crocheted mats blog candy - Therese, of lostinpaper!! Oh em gee, Therese, I cannot wait to see what you get up to with them :) Email me at onecraftymama AT hotmail DOT com to let me know your preferences for colours & sizes! 

Don't fret if you didn't win - because there just might be another opportunity headed your way next week (squee! Super excited about THAT!)

Now back to the regularly scheduled spring card making....with 15 cm of snow outside. Freshly fallen. Kids on a snow day today. Somehow, even though it happens every year, it always comes as a shock to the system to get these storms in March!

xoxo,

Jessi

Shopping our Stash #94 - Spring/Easter!

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

**For my blog candy post, please click here**

Spring...March is such a fickle month. For most of it we've had temperatures above freezing - and like every spring, our backyard is under several inches of water. Saturday morning we woke up to a chilly -6C, and yesterday morning? The kids had to break out their long underwear for the first day back to school, since the wind chill was -23C! Brrr. After 10 years on the East Coast, I'm still missing the flowers peeping up in February - heck, nothing in my yard comes out until May!

That doesn't mean I'm not itching to get to spring any way I can - and of course that mainly means card making! This week at Shopping our Stash we want to see YOUR spring/Easter creations. I've used a colouring page that I shrunk to fit a regular card front:

Supplies: blue paper from Kaisercraft (Bubblegum hills maybe?); colouring page from Elizabeth Dulemba; watercoloured with reinkers; pastel buttons from stash; classic small circle Nesties

I love buttons. A lot. 

This Shopping our Stash challenge is open until Monday March 25th.  

• Carla
• Leslie
• Alica
• Deena
• Paige
• Lauren
• Linda
• Michelle

Don't forget to enter for my blog candy at this post :) I'll draw the winner late Wednesday!

xoxo,

Jessi 

Tuesday Morning Sketches #190 - Stamping Scrapping

It's the day of Easter bunnies on my blog today! I couldn't resist using this week's Tuesday Morning Sketch for another card featuring this sweet bunny belly :) Our sponsor this week is Stamping Scrapping - prepare to spend some time drooling at their site.....oh em gee!

Supplies: bunny from DRS Designs; watercolored with reinkers; Stampendous Fun Flock; Basic Grey brads; EK Success square punch for notched banner ends; Grey Flannel Memento ink for edging bunny panel

I printed out two copies of the bunny, fussy-cutting one so I could pop it up for dimension. His/her belly is covered with a light layer of Fun Flock :)

Here's the sketch we're working with:

Did you know that by liking Tuesday Morning Sketches on Facebook, you'll have access to the sketch the night before it goes live? Hop on over & check it out!

 This sketch is open until next Sunday, March 24th. Check out all the other designers' cards:

Angela 

Bonnie

Dawn

Debbie
Jenee

Laura

Theresa

Melissa

There's also one more day left to enter my blog candy!  

xoxo,

Jessi

Easter Lilies

It's a trifecta of challenges today - with a single rather simple card! I also wanted to show off another way to use one of my crocheted mats. White is by far my most frequently used colour.

The Pink Elephant has an Easter challenge on this week - it's open until next Sunday. Catered Crop is having a Flower Power challenge - open until March 30. And Doodle Pantry is having a challenge to use one of their images, not just a sentiment - open until March 24. I just *had* to buy this set, Lily Collection, while I was already shopping thanks to my TMS teammate Debbie.

Supplies: Doodle Pantry lilies, pre-coloured digi stamp; lacy circle & classic small circle Nesties; foam tape; Corner Chomper; ribbon from stash; yellow Stampendous Fun Flock; crocheted mat.

I printed out two of the digi images, and fussy-cut one of them so I could pop it up on foam tape for dimension. I also added a little bit of yellow Fun Flock to the stamens for texture. The ribbon is tied right through one of the loops on the die cut.

A closer look at the fuzz & dimension.

There's still time to enter my giveaway if you'd like to win some crocheted mats to play with - click here for that post!  It's open to anyone worldwide, and you do not have to be a follower to enter. 

xoxo,

Jessi

Pink Elephant Easter challenge

Catered Crop Flower Power challenge

Doodle Pantry image challenge

Drunken Stampers #119 - Grease!

Now there's a movie I haven't seen in ages - Grease! Who doesn't love it? John Travolta & his grease monkey buddies singing & jumping on cars...sigh...don't you want to play with the Drunken Stampers? 

I won a prize voucher from Clear Dollar Stamps a while ago, and had to add this fun car collection to my stash of 'guy' stuff. This is also the first time (I think?) that I've printed digi patterned paper - I can't see me doing it often, but I love how it turned out here:

Supplies: image & patterned paper digis from Clear Dollar Stamps; Nesties Labels 5; black cardstock; Paper Smooches sentiment; Palette Noir ink; Mrs. Grossman's sticker sentiment.

I printed out 2 copies of the car image so that I could add some dimension, and the label is popped up as well:

..our linky will be open until next Friday night, March 22nd. Seriously, you need to see what the Midnight Margaritas made! We all went with the same sort of idea & took it in 6 different directions:

Spike

Jackie

Barbara

Chris

Vicki

Barb M. 

Don't forget to pop over & enter to win some blog candy! 

xoxo,

Jessi

Playing in Paradise #108 - What's Your Favourite?

Good morning! Seriously, what could be more fun than using your favourite things on a project? It's your choice - favourite colour, technique, embellishments, and so on. That's what Dawn wants us to do for this week's Playing in Paradise challenge!

I have so many favourites that I really just went a little nutty...and once again ended up with a different card than I'd envisioned:

Supplies: papers from Pink Paislee; stamp from Stampabilities (from sweet JJ!); Faded Jeans distress ink; Versamark; white & clear embossing powder from Stampendous; vintage buttons; pearl strips from Dollarama

Some of my favourites used here - BUTTONS! of course, patterned paper, pearls, embossing, Distress ink. 

I love the shine on these buttons!

This challenge will be open until next Thursday, March 21st.  To add your NEW project to the linky & see what the rest of  the team has created, click on over to the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog, and check out the DT on their blogs too:

Allison

Nina

Dawn

Linda

Don't forget to pop over & enter my blog candy draw :)

xoxo,

Jessi