Shopping our Stash #160 - I can't put it down!

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

This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is a fun one! What items are you using allllll the time? What lives on your desk close at hand? What HAS a place to be put away but never gets there? Use that!

For me, lately I can't stop using my Spectrum Noir markers - increasing my collection a few weeks ago has made colouring even more fun, and ohhhhh, they blend like a dream! I'm also addicted to Tiddly Inks images, and for YEARS I've had a Sakura Stardust glitter pen close at hand while crafting. I must have used up at least 5 or 6 of those! 

Supplies: Tiddly Inks digital stamp, Magda & Sparkles; Spectrum Noir markers; Bazzill card stock; sentiment sticker from DCWV; Sakura Stardust glitter pen

I attempted pleats! To sparkle up Sparkle's mane & tail, I lightly traced the lines with the Stardust pen and then smudged it with my finger to spread the sparkle. I may have shoved this card in people's faces several times. *koff*

So what are your favourite crafty things at the moment? Come and play with us before next Monday, July 21! - and don't forget to check out what the rest of the gals made:

Leslie

Alica

Deena

Lauren

Donna

Chris

Barb

Since I'm positive that Magda and Sparkles are besties, I'm also entering this over at Tiddly Inks for their BFF challenge :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #258 - My Besties!

Good morning! We have a brand-new sponsor this week at Tuesday Morning Sketches - surely you've seen the adorable big-eyed girls drawn by Sherri Baldy, My Besties? She has a huge variety of images in her Etsy shop!

I chose the sweet Big Eyed Little Bakers Besties Big Head Dolls:

Supplies: My Besties digital stamp; SRM stickers sentiment; papers from MME; crocheted scallop die from Our Daily Bread; Spectrum Noir markers

Here's the terrific sketch from Debbie - love the diagonal sentiment!

This sketch is open until next Sunday, July 20th - be sure to hop around & see what the rest of the team created!

Angela

Bonnie

Debbie

Jenee 

Kris 

Melissa

 xoxo,

Jessi

Perfectly Pink

Oh, I had so much fun creating this card. So much texture, so much dimension! It's what I'm calling a keepsake card - 5.25" square, and I make a box for it to be delivered in. That way I don't have to worry about squishing it into an envelope & I can embellish to my heart's content.

Supplies: Prima floral spray & leaves; rose made with Martha Stewart paper clay kit; hand-dyed seam binding ribbon (Key Lime & Yellow Daisy glimmer mists); assorted bling from Dollarama; buttons from stash; Bazzill card stock

I shaped the floral spray, and placed it on the pink card stock to see where to place the leaves. I sewed the buttons on to attach the leaves, and then sewed the floral spray into place. I made the white rose using paper clay from Martha Stewart & a silicone mold. The rose was glued into place, and then I tied two bows using the hand-dyed seam binding, and sewed them into place so that I could "fluff" them the way I wanted. A bit of bling, and ta-da! 

This was my first time using glimmer mists to dye ribbon - I've used it to dip-dye paper flowers before, but it was sooooo easy to dye the ribbon! I just put a little of each colour into one of those small medicine cups (the kind that come with kids' liquid Tylenol, etc) and let the ribbon soak it all up. It gave the ribbon a grand shimmery look!

Thanks to Our Creative Corner for the inspiration to try a new method of dying ribbon - their July challenge is "Handmade Flowers & Hand Dyed Ribbon".

xoxo,
Jessi

Quirky Crafts Challenges - Reminder Post

Welcome to the mid-challenge post for the current Quirky Crafts Challenges Christmas in July challenge! (That's a lot of challenge. lol!) Besides making a Christmas card, we'd like you to use Dies or Punches when creating!

For my card this week I've used the 12 Days of Christmas - Day 4 digi stamp from Delicious Doodles, from Stitchy Bear Stamps, this fortnight's sponsor: 

Supplies: digi image from Delicious Doodles; paper from Memory Box; Spectrum Noir & Bic markers; PTI snowflake stamps & die; Versamark & clear EP; scrap blue vellum; Martha Stewart branch punch; Bow Easy; twine & bells from stash 

I've used both dies and punches this time, to create a little swag for the birds to nestle in. And I mean the decorating swag, not the ridiculous teenager "SWAG" that goes with YOLO and idiots. lol!

The bottom layer is three stamped, embossed, & die cut vellum snowflakes. I then added the punched branches, and topped it off with a loopy twine bow & some bells sewn in place. I love adding bells to Christmas cards :)

I hope that you can join in with this terrific challenge - and I thank the Quirky team once again for having me play along  :) You've got until July 19th to link up, and there are PRIZES! Just sayin' :)

xoxo,
Jessi

I'm sarcastic!

I finally got a chance to break into some fabulous new stamps that I won last month from Rubber Dance -  the amazing Sarcasm Superpower is going to be a really fun set to play with!  I've also used this Stamping Chef image for the first time - Demented Beauty. She was drawn to be paired with those sentiments!

Supplies: Demented Beauty digi from The Stamping Chef; sentiment from Rubber Dance; skull stamp from Inkadinkado; flower stamp from PTI; Memento Tuxedo Black & Gray Flannel inks; Adirondack Purple Twilight ink; Spectrum Noir markers; Sakura Stardust glitter pen

The Stamping Chef images are so much fun to colour - I'm having a blast practicing with my new markers. And of course, my wishlist has grown longer :)

Popping this in for the Anything Goes challenge at The Stamping Chef - you don't have to use their images to play along, but you know you wanna. They're so fun! 

xoxo,

Jessi

Merry Monday on Sunday...where it belongs!

All is right with the world, since I'm posting my Merry Monday card on Sunday where it likes to be, rather than on Thursday or some nonsense ;) Green & white is a classic Christmas combination that I use often, but once it was a challenge, it became a challenge for me to figure something out!

Supplies: floral rub-on from Royal Langnickel; papers from MME; classic small circle & Labels 4 Nesties; stamps from Flourishes; Peeled Paint & Mowed Lawn distress inks; adhesive pearls from Dollarama

Part of my trouble was trying to match the ink with the papers I'd chosen. I finally settled on inking first with Mowed Lawn, then with Peeled Paint, then stamping to get the best match. The frame around the sentiment hadn't seen ink before (but got a good workout for this card!). 

xoxo,

Jessi

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #12 - B is for....

(Shouldn't Edna look a little happier surrounded by Brads?)

The Snarky Sisters want to see you use brads OR buttons on your project this week - or hey, go wild & use both. We're good  that way :) I don't imagine it's any surprise that I decided to use buttons! 

Supplies: digi stamp from Sweet Pea Stamps by ching chou kuik; Spectrum Noir markers; Sakura Stardust glitter pen; bling from various dollar stores; buttons from stash (blue) and Dress it Up! (hearts & sea creatures)

The fish & seahorse buttons were all 'regular' buttons with a shank on the back - I cut that off with sturdy scissors & used a big glob of glue to keep them attached. Those & the little hearts have been hanging out in my stash for ooooh, at least 3-4 years. I added a little bit of sparkle to her eyes & even some eyeshadow.

I absolutely love these images - duh - but can I just say, if an octopus was hanging out that close to my face, I would NOT have a nice serene look on my face. Have you SEEN WHAT THOSE THINGS CAN DO? They can open jars, ffs. 

I'm also going to enter my card over at Open-Minded Crafting Fun, for their Water, Water Everywhere challenge :) 

So, you've got brads, you've got buttons:  You've got 2 weeks to link up (by July 25th) - and stop by & say hello to my sistahs:

Barb

Chris

Donna

Karen

Lee

Lindsey

Lynne

Michelle

And don't forget our fabulous guest designer, SUSAN! 

xoxo,

Jessi

Reminder post for Jingle Belles + Shopping our Stash!

A recap - the Jingle Belles & Shopping our Stash teams have a joint challenge going on right now, to create a Christmas card using supplies that are at least one year old! Link up with both challenges for a chance to win :)

Link up with Jingle Belles here.

Link up with Shopping our Stash here.

I was super late getting my card made due to this evil, evil flu. All four of us have it now, and as Riley said yesterday morning, "I think I'm going to die. Or get a coma." It's a doozy. I woke up with pinkeye to go with earlier in the week, so I must say eye ointment doesn't really help with the creative process. Anyway, each day is a little bit better - a very little bit - Rob is on day 14 now and still can't hear. 

Supplies: PTI stamps; patterned paper from MME; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Peeled Paint distress ink; Pearl Glimmer Mist; classic small oval nesties

By now you know I can't throw away paper, no matter how teensy. So I made a patchworky background out of the remnants of this paper pad. After I stamped & coloured the candy canes, I decided it needed "something", so I spritzed it with Pearl mist, and then immediately dried it with my heat gun so that the sentiment ink wouldn't run. (Water soluble ink + um, WATER, dummy. I blame the flu.)

All the supplies are approximately 2 years old - the stamps were a gift from Barb, the inks have lived on my desk forever, and the paper pad I remember buying in the fall of 2012. The Pearl mist I bought while I was on the DT for Scrapbooker's Paradise...so it's definitely in the 2 year range as well. 

Make sure you check out our reminder cards - 

on the Jingle Belles blog this week:

Lauren

Barb

me :)

on the Shopping our Stash blog this week:

Stephanie

Leslie

Donna

and link up by Wednesday July 16th :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Seize the Sketch #24!

**For my Tuesday Morning Sketches post, please scroll down 2 or click here**

**For my Shopping our Stash post, please scroll down 1 or click here**

Thanks so much!

This week at Seize the Sketch the talented Vicki is our sketch artist - and she's designed a grand simple one that's easy to dress up! I decided to spend some time colouring & thought this layout was perfect for a detailed fairy.

Supplies: digi stamp from Sweet Pea Stamps; Sakura Stardust glitter pen; yellow glitter fabric paint; patterned paper unknown; Spectrum Noir markers: blender; LG2; FS7,8,9; PL2; BT2,4, 5; PP2; CT2, 4; OR1; EB1,2; GB2; TN2

To create the background I coloured it in with a single marker (PL2) and then went over it with the blender pen, and then used the blender pen again to make dots. My first time trying that technique & I love how it turned out. I'm also happier with her hair than I have been lately - slowly but surely practice helps!

Her eyes & the hummingbird are glittered with the Stardust pen, and the lilies have yellow glitter fabric paint to jazz them up.

Here's the sketch:

The linky will be open for two weeks - play along by Sunday July 20th! 

Check out what the rest of the amazing DT did!

Cathy

Colleen

Jen

Jessi - that's me!

Katie

Lee Ann

Lesley

Lori Turner

Lori Tecler

Marybeth

Mona

Rose

Sandy

Sherry

Vicki

I'm also entering this in the Spectrum Noir July challenge on Facebook - Summer Theme (lilies and hummingbirds definitely say summer around here!) 

xoxo,

Jessi

Shopping our Stash #159 - Wooden Ships

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

This week at Shopping our Stash we're giving you a bunch of options! We want to see you use wood/veneer on your project - or a ships/sailing theme - or hey, you could use both :) I went through & found my oldest veneer pieces, butterflies.

Supplies: Studio Calico butterfly wood veneer; lilybee papers; PTI sentiment; Brushed Corduroy distress ink; Forever in time gemstone; Spectrum Noir marker (to edge banner piece)

Hopefully you can also recognize the sketch from The Challenge #10 at Always Playing with Paper :) 

You know you've got some veneer pieces you've been hoarding - or maybe you haven't dived into the nautical trend yet. Come and play with us before next Monday, July 14! - and don't forget to check out what the rest of the gals made:

Leslie

Alica

Deena

Lauren

Donna

Chris

Barb

xoxo,

Jessi