Busy, busy!

This is convocation weekend at Mount Allison University, which is located in Sackville - and oh my, was the market ever busy yesterday. Lots of new faces, and I *really* have my work cut out for me building my stock back up. Luckily, today being Mother's Day, we're off to Truro so I can poke around Carsand-Mosher and pick up some new crafty goodies :)
As usual, Sunday is catch-up-on-challenges day here on my blog, so instead of eleventy billion different posts, I'm going to combine them all into one gigantic marathon post. Bear with me! Let's start with Tuesday Morning Sketches #145, where we're working with this sketch (linky closes Sunday night!):

This week is their Judged Challenge, and that means a twist - this time around is to use die cuts. 

Supplies: kraft patterned paper from Basic Grey;
green & cream pp, and butterfly die cut from K & Co;
sentiment from The Cat's Pajamas; Vintage Photo distress ink;
Hero Arts lace, Offray ribbon;
standard small circle Nesties; brown rhinestones;
butterfly on envelope by Martha Stewart

The butterfly & circle are die cuts, and after seeing Sally at Cinnamon Sally make a wobbler, I wanted to try one too! So.Much.Fun. I used wire that I pulled from some wired ribbon - I have no idea of the gauge but it worked perfectly for me. Here is the link to the tutorial Sally posted, which is where I learned what to do!

Next up is the "Sweet Tooth" challenge at Simon Says Stamp, which is open until Tuesday night. I had lots of fun with this card - the first time using this fun crepe paper (which I had to go back & get in every colour...)

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Konnichiwa;"
Hero Arts sentiment; Palette Noir ink;
chipboard cake & present from Martha Stewart;
orange gems

I found the crepe (this stuff is thinner than party streamers - only about 1" wide) a lot easier to ruffle than ribbon, and even readjusting it on the double-sided tape wasn't a disaster. Score!

Next up, Crafty Creations Challenges #169 - Frame it! It's also open until Tuesday night. 

Supplies: all papers from stash; gold paint pen;
PSX sentiment; versamark & pirate gold EP;
Martha Stewart hydrangea punch;
Basic Grey number stickers; pearls

A friend's in-laws are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary - not an occasion I often get to make cards for! I purposely (lol, let's go with that) decided I liked the accidental stray embossing powder. For the frame, I punched eleventy billion flowers from some gold handmade paper, and then using an embossing stylus & foam mouse pad, made a little divot in the centre in each flower for dimension. The pearls & number "50" were coloured with the gold paint pen.

Shopping our Stash this week (#51 - next week is their first anniversary!) is to use 3 or more patterned papers. The linky there closes on Monday night.

Supplies: papers from My Mind's Eye;
moon chipboard from Fancy Pants;
stars from Martha Stewart;
Sakura Stardust pen; sentiment from Stampin' Up;
Mustard Seed distress ink; standard oval Nesties;
hand buttons from Dress it Up

Little Red Wagon #132 is to "Mist-ify Us" - I am a sucker for a fun pun ;) (Also, for lame rhymes.) I have a hard time getting a perfect 'splatter' spray, so I tend to go for as even a look as I can get.

Supplies: distress inks: Broken China, Dusty Concord,
Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans, Tumbled Glass;
standard small circle Nesties;
die cut flower from K & Co;
turquoise Ranger spray, Tsukineko Pssst spray (sparkle)

After inking, I dripped water on the paper for the droplets- the sprays just add shimmer

 Well, there's 5 cards & five challenges....to recap:

Tuesday Morning Sketches #145 ending tonight.

Simon Says Stamp "Sweet Tooth" ending Tuesday night. 

Crafty Creations Challenge #169 - Frame it! ending Tuesday night.

Shopping our Stash #51 - three or more patterned papers ending Monday night.

Little Red Wagon #132 - Mistify Us - ending Tuesday night.

And, if you made it this far, I have a question - especially for those coming via particular challenge links! - do you prefer individual posts for each challenge? Or this type of big post? Thanks in advance for letting me know.

If you celebrate it, I wish you a Happy Mother's Day - and with craft shopping capped off by the best Zumba class going, I'm pretty sure my day is going to rock :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Five hours left...

lots of time. Not last minute at all. To be fair (hah!) I finished my card yesterday, and then spaced out forgetting to photograph it, so it's practically like I was done early. Ahem.

Anyhow.

Over at Our Creative Corner (where, omg, this week they picked my card as a winner! Squeal!) the challenge is to use yellow, kraft, and white. You may think to yourself, has Jessi ever done a colour challenge? And the answer to that would be pretty much a no.

But, I did it (as long as a teensy bit of orange isn't cheating tooooooo badly):

Supplies: patterned paper from Basic Grey "Piccadilly;"
kraft paper from JJ;
sentiment from Studio G; flower from Stampin' Up;
Colorbox Frost White pigment ink; white EP;
brads from Basic Grey

Since I didn't have enough of any of the three colours of brads to do all the flower centres, I mixed it up a little. OK, so as mentioned, you have a whole 5 hours to join in the challenge...and now I must get back to my mad preparations. Friday nights are always a scramble :)

xoxo,

Jessi

PPC #66 - my turn!

This week at Playing in Paradise it's my turn to set the challenge....

Sackville is home to Mount Allison University, and they'll be celebrating convocations in the next few weeks - and high school graduation is right around the corner. So, I'm challenging everyone to share their graduation projects. If you don't have need of a grad card or layout, how about an encouraging card for a friend? 

Here's my card:

Supplies: papers & die cut quote, arrow,  & frame from Kaisercraft Chapter One;
Spellbinders butterfly die;
light blue pearls; Doodlebug Congrats sticker

The butterfly is cut out of plain scrap vellum - I cut four, and adhered them to the card by stitching along the 'body' - I started at the antennae, leaving the knot & thread ends to mimic antennae, then ended inside the card.

Remember, when you play along with us at Playing in Paradise, there is always a fab prize up for grabs - every single week! Make sure to head over to the challenge post to see this week's guest designer, as well as the nitty-gritty details on the challenge. Super simple - use what you want, make what you're inspired to make, share it with us by noon on May 17th  :) 

And don't forget to check out what the other designers have been up to!

Allison

Merlie

Angela

Nina

xoxo,

Jessi

Crafty Creations Challenges #168 - Mother's Day!

I'm  a new player with Crafty Creations Challenges, but I've jumped right in with both feet - whoever sets the challenges must be reading my crafty mind for what I feel like making :) This time around, #168, is to share Mother's Day gifts, cards, or other projects. Link up your projects before Tuesday! I have two to share.

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Indie Bloom" and "Little Black Dress;"
Barn Door distress ink; Gina K sentiment;
flowers & bee quilled by me
Sakura Stardust pen

I dabbed the glitter pen on my finger, and then swiped it onto the wings 

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Plumeria;"
Tumbled Glass distress ink;
Marvy vase punch;
Ranger crackle glaze;
flowers quilled by me

The crackle glaze is a new 'toy' for me - I put it on after adhering the vase to my project, which means that it does curl a little bit at the edges. I still love it, though. This second card is sort of a self-CASE of this card, which not only did *I* love, but so did Papercraft Inspirations magazine! Lookie here & see. I'm so beyond excited - I can't wait to be able to see it in print, in person. UK subscribers have it already but it's not available in Canada until the end of June. (I'm still flapping with excitement!) And yes, I've kept the card. It's my first publication, and it'll be going into a shadow box with the magazine :)

xoxo,
Jessi

No colouring allowed!

Oh, this challenge is one after my own heart...I'm not at all confident about my colouring skills, and I'm too big a fan of instant gratification to practice often. The current Young Crafters Unite! challenge (#9) is right up my alley. The challenge rules permit three entries per person, and I thought I'd put all of mine in the same post. You've got until May 15th to join in with your own projects that have no colouring.

Check out the challenge HERE!

I chose different 'not-colouring' techniques for my cards: first, stamping with coloured ink.

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Piccadilly;"
crocheted mat by me (using Lacy Circle nestie);
floral die-cut from K & Co;
silhouette stamp from Inkadinkado; 'Mom' from Paper Smooches;
Faded Jeans distress ink

 Second, not using stamps!

Supplies: patterned paper & stick pin from K & Co;
Antique Linen crackle paint;
vellum stained glass from Hot Off the Press;
button from Basic Grey;
seam binding from girls paperie;
greeting stamp from Gina K; Vintage Photo distress ink

 Third, embossing:

Supplies: papers all from Basic Grey "hello luscious;"
stamps from Paper Smooches;
Versamark & white EP;
lace piece (trimmed in half) from girls paperie;
resin flower from May Arts;
scalloped edges made with corner rounder;
white Liquid Pearls

xoxo,

Jessi

Do I smell CAKE?

Squeaking in at the last minute again for Tuesday Morning Sketches...this Sunday deadline gives me a false sense of having lots of time :) Here's the sketch (#144) - though since the linky closes in 5 hours, you'd best get cracking if you haven't already!

I pulled out one of my favourite characters from The Cat's Pajamas and got to work.

Supplies: all papers from Kaisercraft "Bubblegum Hill;"
all stamps from The Cat's Pajamas; Palette Noir ink;
buttons from Basic Grey; Sakura Stardust pen;1" circle punch;
yellow glitter paint; Stampendous fun flock (cotton ball);
white Liquid Applique

The scalloped pieces are from the die-cut sheets in the paper pad, and the circles are punched out of a piece of large polka-dot paper. The large dots are kind of big in scale for the quarter-fold size cards, but they were perfect for these elements.

(L-R) Sparkly, poofy, fuzzy (oh my!) 

xoxo,

Jessi

Playing in Paradise #65

This week at Playing in Paradise we're being challenged by Nina to make something inspired by these gorgeous cherry blossoms:

 

In my last order from Scrapbooker's Paradise I got a 6 x 6 pad of the new Konnichiwa papers from Basic Grey, and knew I wanted to use those!

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Konnichiwa;"
sentiment from Studio G;
versamark & Stampendous Embossing Powder (Carnelian);
Nesties Labels 4

 Look at the adorable birds tucked into the cherry blossoms! I had to cover up as little as possible of that pretty paper.

Remember, when you play along with us at Playing in Paradise, there is always a fab prize up for grabs - every single week! Make sure to head over to the challenge post to see this week's guest designer, as well as the nitty-gritty details on the challenge. Super simple - use what you want, make what you're inspired to make, share it with us by noon on May 10th  :) 

And don't forget to check out what the other designers have been up to!

Allison

Merlie

Angela

Nina

xoxo,

Jessi

A challenging Mother's Day recipe!

Have to run to get Riley in a sec, but wanted to pop in and share this card for the current Our Creative Corner challenge (open til tomorrow) to create a card using this recipe:

Now obviously, you need to include all the things in a recipe for it to turn out...but I kept ending up with cards that I was *done* with only 3 items from the recipe. But I persevered!

Supplies: floral stamp from Stampin' Up;
Colorbox Frost White pigment ink, white EP;
Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam paint (Rockin' on Sunshine);
paper from Echo Park "For the Record;"
buttons from stash & Basic Grey;
'mom' stamp from Paper Smooches; Mustard Seed distress ink;
crocheted mat by me; ribbon from May Arts

The Glimmer Glam has a marvelous shine - I used glossy paper to get the pooling effect

I embossed the flowers in white on glossy paper, then painted them liberally with a wet brush (nearly as much water as could fill the embossed areas), and then dabbed in the Glimmer Glam with the same brush. I think the rest is pretty straightforward - and I've got a dog dancing at my feet ready to go get her boy!

xoxo,

Jessi

I didn't forget!

I swear, I didn't forget to post yesterday - but I DID realize that I was premature in saying there would be other exciting news. *blushes* Next week. Silly me!

Now, I know you've been waiting with bated breath to find out how many cards I made in the month of April, and can I just say, the number surprised me too.

83.

Yeah, I know. Boggles me mind, it does. Here are two of them that I'm totally in love with:

Supplies: papers from MME (from Emily!);
stamps all from Paper Smooches;
Palette Noir ink; Citrus Adirondack ink;
Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Barn Door, Broken China distress inks;
standard small circle Nesties; googly eyes

The owl is paper-pieced and the head/wing are popped up on foam tape

Supplies: stamps from Paper Smooches;brads from Basic Grey;
Versamark & black EP;
Distress inks: barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed,
peeled paint, broken china, dusty concord, worn lipstick

This part is watercoloured using the distress inks

Me? Love rainbows? Just a little bit :)
xoxo,
Jessi

Shopping my Stash with the letter B...

Oh boy :) Last post today, I promise! Had to make time to play over at Shopping our Stash since I haven't in a few weeks....this time it's to make something that includes stash that starts with the letter B. How wide open is that? The challenge linky expires Monday at midnight, so hurry up & play along!

I went with butterflies & bling as my letter B items:

Supplies: Spellbinders butterfly dies;
silver paint pen; butterfly embossing folder; bling from dollar store

This was a huge stashbuster card - no idea where the grey patterned paper is from, but there was exactly enough to cut 3 butterflies (one to spare for the envelope!). The bling body & trail finished off a package of swirls, the silver paint pen hasn't been out to play in for-e-ver, and neither had the embossing folder. (Pats self on back). That's why I love the SOS challenges so much - I make a point of USING instead of hoarding (but don't worry, I still hoard. It's not a personality switch! lol)

*One more for the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp - seriously, if you haven't gone over there already, GO! What are you waiting for???*

xoxo,
Jessi