Tuesday Morning Sketches #174 - DRS Designs

Good morning! We have a great sponsor for this week's Tuesday Morning Sketch - DRS Designs!

They've generously provided images of our choice to work with for this week's sketch - and with Christmas fast approaching I chose a sentiment & a COMPLETELY ADORABLE penguin stamp. One of the best things about DRS Designs is that you can choose different mounting options for their stamps. I've gone with unmounted rubber, and you can purchase EZ Mount through their store as well.

Supplies: papers from Kaisercraft; buttons from Dress it Up!; Palette Noir ink; Liquid Pearls; clear glitter glue; greeting stamp & image from DRS Designs 

Look at those cuties! I've used a smidge of Liquid Pearls & glitter glue on the igloo blocks and snowballs for a bit of snowy shine. 

The arched greeting was a perfect choice to complement the shape of the igloo - and so rather than a tag I've used some fun mitten buttons for that element in the sketch. 

This sketch will be open until Sunday, December 2. Don't forget to check out all the samples from the rest of the design team - 

Angela 

Bonnie

Cheryl

Dawn

Debbie

Laura

Theresa

Melissa

See you in a bit with my Shopping our Stash post!

xoxo,

Jessi

DYSU #99 - Numbers! and the new hair :)

Of course I'm pretty mired in Christmas cards at the moment - but my friend's daughter turned 11 on Friday, and she asked me to make her a personalized card. No problem!

Supplies: papers from 12" and 6" Basic Grey "paper cottage;" spots embossing folder; Studio G stamp; coloured with Prismacolor pencils; foam thickers; standard small circle Nesties

Freya loves animals of all kinds, so a punny kitty card is perfect for her. 

This card is perfect not only for Freya, but also for this week's DYSU challenge to use numbers!

More crafty news before the hair - Scrapbooker's Paradise has a design team call open right now. It's the first team that I joined, and I love the sheer variety of challenges we play with. Check it out! I'd love to play with you :)

And now the hair - I'll have to share a before & after picture, because my profile picture is from last spring. There've been a few changes since then!

Here's a photo of me with my mom in September - very blonde!

And there's the new do - and my retro kitchen (although is it retro if it's actually vintage - as in, still that colour because it's been there so long it's BECOME retro? All we need are harvest gold appliances!)
With the flash it doesn't look too much darker than my natural colour, but it is. Leaving some of the blonde in with conditioned foils is what took 2 hours, but I love it!

xoxo,
Jessi

Playing in Paradise #94 - Inspiration Photo

Good morning, and happy Friday! Time for another Playing in Paradise challenge, and this week Merlie is our fabulous hostess. She wants us to create something using either this colour palette OR the photo as inspiration:

When working with a prompt like this, I first write down the colours of ink that I think are the closest matches. (In this case, I picked Tumbled Glass, Dried Marigold, and Spun Sugar.) Then I write down details about the photo - blue, weathered wood, keys. I find keeping it simple helps me not get stuck on what inspired me about the photo, and looking at the photo for too long can do that :)

I ended up using both of my prompts to create this week's card:

Supplies: paper from Bo Bunny;
Dried Marigold and Tumbled Glass distress inks;
Distress crackle paint - Broken China;
pink twine;
Studio G stamp;
key from stash

It turned out more subtle than I had intended, but I inked the sentiment with Dried Marigold ink and then dabbed it against the Tumbled Glass pad. I love the multi-toned look. After the crackle paint dried, I sanded it down a little bit to let more of the paper show through. 

How are you inspired by this week's challenge? Share with us by November 29 for a chance to win a fabulous prize from Scrapbooker's Paradise! Don't forget to check out what the rest of the team has to share with you:

Nina

Angela

Allison

Merlie

I'll be crafting my morning away, and getting my hair done this afternoon. Feels like a drastic change is in order...colour? Style? I'm thinking colour :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Shopping our Stash #78 - I'm Leafing it Up to You!

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

For this week's challenge at Shopping our Stash, we want you to dig into your stash & find a leaf (or many leaves!) and use them on your project. Leaf images are fine too - trees, leaves, punches, die-cuts, Prima-type....hopefully you get the idea! 

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Oxford;" square punch for notching banner end; leaves from Prima; birthday sentiment from EAD Designs; ribbon salvaged from product wrapping. 

It's a crazy sort of non-bow in there...you may remember the funky frayed bow I made out of thread on this card? 

This is the ribbon that was left over. It made a bow, but one that was way too small for this card. But the colours were such a good match...{insert crafty whine}...so I fiddled and played and glued and cursed until I got it looped & fluffed in a way I liked. 

This leafy Shopping our Stash challenge will be open until next Monday night, November 26 - and don't forget to check out all my awesome teammates:

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

xoxo,

Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #173 - Digital Delights

Good morning & happy Tuesday! I've finally dug out from underneath the big pile o' dishes, and am nearly through the laundry. Unfortunately, almost as much laundry has piled up in the meantime. How I hate that!

Tuesday brings a brand new sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches, and this week we're working with one designed by Bonnie - check it out!

We also have another fabulous sponsor - Wendy of Digital Delights by Louby Loo. You have GOT to check out the cute digi products available there!

Supplies: Wilton doily; paper from Basic Grey "Eskimo kisses;" die-cut deer from K & Co; Stampendous Fun Flock - Cotton Ball; Doodlebug letter stickers; tiny heart buttons from Dress it Up; pink & green buttons from Wal-Mart. 

Fuzzy antlers!

This card just gives me a happy :) I love how it turned out - I was stumped on the banner portion until I started playing around, and the final touch of tucking little hearts into the O's? I have to remember to do that again! I used a large oval Nestie to make light pencil marks for lining up the button banner.

This sketch will be open until Sunday, November 25. Don't forget to check out all the awesome samples from the rest of the design team - and remember, we also have a design team call! Details on that are available here. 

Angela 

Bonnie

Cheryl

Dawn

Debbie

Laura

Theresa

Melissa

I'll see you shortly with my Shopping our Stash post - and a change of seasons?

xoxo,

Jessi

DYSU #98 - Rainbows!

Holy moly, I almost forgot to link up my card for this week's DYSU challenge. And it's RAINBOWS. How could I miss out? I had to play!

Supplies: papers from My Mind's Eye; sun paper from Bo Bunny; buttons from stash; sun & sentiment stamps from Market Street Stamps; Memento Gray Flannel ink. 

That is the SADDEST little sun in the whole world. It's the eyebrows. 

This challenge ends this evening, so scurry over to DYSU and link up your rainbow project quickly! I'll be back soon with my Tuesday Morning Sketches post :)

xoxo,

Jessi

One more for Sewing in the Moxie Fab World

On Friday, in the midst of getting ready for my first craft sale of the season, I ended up deciding to stitch the accents on this card. I absolutely loved the final look, even though it wasn't fast to make.

Supplies: Memory Box papers; Penny Black sticker; EAD Designs rub-on (sentiment); embroidery floss in green & red; Sakura Stardust glitter pen; foam tape.

I pierced inside the grid design on the red patterned paper to make the cross-stitches, and the poinsettia sticker had a dotted border that I pierced for the green French knots. I've added a random-ish scatter of red French knots in the poinsettia centres, and afterwards wanted just a little something to help them stand out more...

I scribbled some random glitter with my Stardust pen, and then used my finger to smear it around for a more gentle (and even) shimmer. I love that the Stardust pen dries just slowly enough to allow for that! 

Now that I haven't done anything other than craft or sleep for a few days, my house has been taken over by laundry and dishes. My Google Reader is up into the hundreds, so I'll be whittling that down in between loads of dishes & laundry. We had our new dishwasher die (temporarily!) this week. It's only 4 months old, and suddenly it stopped draining. It is a portable dishwasher, one that you move over to the sink & manually connect to the tap. You know what the culprit was? Not using hot enough water, coupled with the pre-packaged dishwasher pellets. The combination clogged up the drain hose. It took about 5 minutes for the repairman to find & fix the problem, and I can't tell you how glad I was that the machine is still under warranty and at least we didn't have to pay to feel foolish ;) 

Seriously, just looking into the kitchen right now is giving me angina. There are dishes (and dirty cans?) all over the counter where I normally put the clean handwashed dishes...having to clean up before you clean up? Not right :(

I'll be back when I've dug out from under the mess!

xoxo,

Jessi

Playing in Paradise #93 - CASE Yourself!

Angela is our hostess this week at Playing in Paradise, and she has got a brilliant challenge idea for us - especially for the time-crunch of holiday projects:

How better to maximize your creativity than by referring to your previous projects? You've still got the same core supplies you used the first time around, but maybe you've learned a new technique. Or maybe you've got a favourite layout. Maybe you love the card, but need it for a different occasion. However you go about it, make sure you inspire yourself! (And hey, don't forget to show us your inspiration piece too - that's part of the fun!)

My inspiration card is from last year, one of my earlier Christmas cards of the season.

original post is here

and I've used a lot of the same supplies, but put a current twist on my style:

Supplies: papers from Cosmo Cricket;
Stampendous stamp - Fluffles!;
Sakura Quickie Glue Pen;
Distress Marker - Picket Fence;
Standard small oval Nesties;
coloured with Prismacolor pencils;
paper piercer, mat, needle & thread. 

You know me & my buttons!

I picked up the Distress Marker a few months ago - just the one - to give it a try. I really love the effect, but it's taken some practice to use it well. The white ink takes a moment to appear, so my first bunch of attempts involved me scribbling like crazy & wondering what was going on :)

So many fun projects from the design team this week - AND! - we are joined by the incomparable Emily Keaton this week as our Guest Designer! Make sure you visit everyone & check out what they CASEd :)

Nina

Angela

Allison

Merlie

This challenge will be open until next Thursday, November 22, with a FABULOUS prize up for grabs just in time for Christmas crafting! But of course, you can't win if you don't play :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Sewing at Moxie Fab World

Joining in with the Stitching & Sewing challenge over at Moxie Fab World was a given - I sew on probably half of the cards I make - after all, I can't abide those naked buttons ;) For this challenge I made several cards, and made sure to make at least one that was a little more involved than just stitching on buttons, though. I do all of my stitching by hand. I was MISERABLE in Grade Eight sewing class, and never tried again to learn how.

Luckily, my oldest son Connor seems to be bucking that trend - check out these awesome initial pillows he made this term! One for him, and one for his brother Riley - and a disinterested cat.

A really easy way to add hand-stitching is to use pre-printed die cuts - in this case, from K&Co - and pierce along some of the details. I've used straight stitches, French knots, and some cross-stitching here. I did a lot of cross-stitch projects before the boys were born, and I still have a great deal of embroidery floss at my disposal!

A close-up of the ornament stitching

Another card that shows my more usual stitching is this one - those button frames, they're just so easy & fun to do! And the House Mouse sticker totally steals the show - those mousies are far too cute!

The Paper Crafting Tips & Tricks challenges are open until the 19th, so if you have some time over the weekend to join in you should :) 

I didn't add in the supplies underneath each photo - I wonder, do you generally find it useful to know? Or would you just ask if there was something you wanted to know about? Let me know in the comments either way, if you would!

OK, back to panicking about getting ready for the first sale of the season tomorrow night...

xoxo,

Jessi

100 Shades of Grey...and a winner!

Tomorrow brings the first Midnight Madness of the 2012 season over in Sackville, which means that I am frantically creating and freaking out a little. So not much chit-chat! Without further ado, let me tell you that the winner of my birthday/Moxie Fab blog candy is....

Nance E Salkeld!

You should definitely pay her a visit over at her blog, Soul Stampin' - she's a super fun, crafty, crazy lady :) 

***

The other week I was the lucky winner of the 'secret' challenge at Drunken Stampers, and although I made a card for last week's Asian Inspired challenge, I spaced on posting it. Tsk, tsk! I was DETERMINED not to miss this week, and I ended up making two cards featuring Shades of Grey. I even gave myself an extra push to make them Christmas cards!

Supplies: papers from Cosmo Cricket;
EAD Designs rub-on;
standard circle Nesties;
Sakura Stardust glitter pen;
snowflake quilled by me

Supplies: paper from Memory Box;
Bazill cardstock;
Memento Grey Flannel ink;
EAD Designs rub-on;
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Pearl;
Stampin' Up trees

And just for fun, here's my Asian Inspired card from last week:

Supplies: paper from Basic Grey "konnichiwa;"
Barn Door distress ink;
square punch to notch banner ends;
sentiment from PTI

Drunken Stampers' 50 Shades of Grey challenge ends Friday night!

Be right back with some Moxie Fab challenges.

xoxo,

Jessi