Rainbow Celebration

100 challenges! Woohoo! That's a definite cause for celebration. I love playing along with CASology, and I knew I HAD to join in this week. My card didn't end up nearly as CAS as I'd have liked because I had a classic opportunity for embellishment.

Let's just say that WOOHOO! was not what I said when my marker slipped while edging the last side of the panel. *koff*

So now what? I had already worked on this baby for a half hour. I wasn't going to trash it & start again. 

Supplies: Paper Smooches cat & sentiments; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Versamark; Clear Detail EP; Bic markers; Tim Holtz stencil; Distress inks in Barn Door, Squeezed Lemonade, Salty Ocean, Seedless Preserves.

I tried all sorts of embellishments but finally decided on the punched circles - nothing else looked even close to right that close to the edge of the panel. But then it felt like there was a big hole in the design - and enter the nutty kitty! His full body was too much, so I decided to have him peek in on the fun.

My intention going into this card was to practice ink blending - I've just used red, yellow, blue, and purple. Rainbows say celebration to me :) Anyway, this was a bit of a gong show in the making, but I do love the crazy cat poking in, even if he wasn't part of the original plan!

Happy 100, CASology!

xoxo,

Jessi

Flaming Orange Fairy

It's no secret that I love fairies! As soon as I saw the inspiration photo at Our Creative Corner I knew I wanted to make an orange fairy card, and it's also perfect for the current Fairy challenge at Creative Card Crew. 

Supplies: fairy stamp from Sweet Pea Stamps; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Spiced Marmalade distress ink; Paper Smooches sentiment; Spectrum Noir & Bic markers; Wplus9 banner die; American Crafts yellow glitter; Martha Stewart coarse crystal glitter; Sakura Stardust glitter pen; MME paper

After colouring the fairy, I went over her eyes with the Stardust pen, and her cleavage - and then rubbed it with my finger to smudge it a bit. I coloured the sun & then used the yellow glitter. I find that works much better if using coloured glitter. However, as you can see on the upper right wing, even alcohol markers will affect your glue pen - and transfer some of the ink *facepalm* Scratch paper, Jessi, come on. lol!

Here's the inspiration photo for Our Creative Corner:

Be right back!

xoxo,

Jessi

Brace yourselves,

because I made lots of cards for lots of challenges, and so there will be a ton of posts :) First up, it's Sunday, and that means I'm ready with my Merry Monday card:

Supplies: Inkadinkado bird stamp; Stampendous sentiment & Moonstone embossing powder; Versamark; Worn Lipstick distress ink; Cuttlebug snowflake folder; pink dotted paper from Creative Imaginations

I love this colour combo & use it all the time for Christmas cards - especially combining it with more elegant/traditional Christmas imagery. 

Be right back :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Quirky Fairy

First of all, I've got to apologize to all my blog buddies - I marked my bloglovin' feed as read. The last couple weeks have been crazy town and I was never ever going to catch up. I figured a fresh start might help. June is the month of transitions, and kids with autism+transitions....well, you can imagine.

Anyway, onto the crafty bit. Karen (my Snarky Sister) is the guest designer this month for Quirky Craft Challenges, and they've got a great fairy challenge going - and I lurrrve fairies :) And since fairies have wings (whoa) this is also perfect for the current (for another 10 hours) Open-Minded Crafting Challenge, Things with Wings.

Supplies: Fairy & sentiment from Flourishes; cloud dies from Paper Smooches; Spectrum Noir & Bic markers; Broken China & Shabby SHutters distress inks; Picket Fence & Tumbled Glass distress stickles

OOOH, SHINY!

For the Quirky challenge, you also had to choose three items from the fairy ring:

I've added a punched circle for my sun, the clouds, and LOTS of sparkles with Stickles. Actually, I guess I used 4, since I also added a sentiment. 

xoxo,

Jessi

Shopping our Stash #156 - Oldest Die or Punch

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

Well, I had a brain fart. I made my card for today's Shopping our Stash challenge without thinking about when it would go live ;) So here's some inspiration for NEXT year! We want to see you use your oldest die or oldest punch - make sure you tell us what it is!

My oldest dies are the classic small circle & oval Nesties - and I bought them on the same day, so I wanted to use them both on my card:

Supplies: pre-coloured Tools digi image from Doodle Pantry; sentiment from Studio G; Fired Brick distress ink; papers from Simple Stories; classic small circle & oval Nesties

Nice & simple!

Dig our YOUR oldest dies/punches and  come and play with us before next Monday, June 23! 

- and don't forget to check out what the rest of the gals made:

Leslie

Alica

Deena

Lauren

Donna

Chris

Barb

xoxo,

Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #254 - Doodle Pantry!

Good morning everybodeeeeeeeeeee (you have to be picturing Grover in your head, arms waving, when you read that. Go back & do it again.)
The sketch that Melissa designed for Tuesday Morning Sketches  this week was so much fun to play with - and I love how my card turned out! Doodle Pantry is our sponsor this week, and I thoroughly enjoyed colouring this awesome parrot - I hope I did the fab illustration justice!

Supplies: Parrot Play digi from Doodle Pantry; Bic and Spectrum Noir markers; Cuttlebug embossing folder; classic small & lacy oval Nesties; pleated ribbon from Recollections; buttons from stash

As happens with a lot of my animal cards, I presented this to the kids for final approval - and got an enthusiastic thumbs up (and then a lecture from Connor on all sorts of scarlet macaw facts). 

Here's the sketch - I love the shaped edge! You'll see quite a few interpretations of it with the DT cards - this team is so talented :)

This sketch is open until next Sunday, June 22nd - be sure to hop around & see what the rest of the team created!

Angela

Bonnie

Debbie

Jenee 

Kris 

Melissa

xoxo,

Jessi

Happy Father's Day!

I've got one last Father's Day card that you won't see until Tuesday - it's a DT card that my brain farted on when it would be posting live ;) I have two for you today, though! The first one is for the Anything Goes challenge at Paper Smooches SPARKS:

Supplies: Paper Smooches Beboppin' stamps; Memento Tuxedo Black & London Fog ink; Versamark; clear detail EP; Distress inks in Barn Door and Mustard Seed; Doodlebug letter stickers

The Anything Goes challenge runs until next Saturday.

My second card is for two challenges: Doodle Pantry, where the theme is Make it Manly; and The Pink Elephant, which is specifically calling for Father's Day. 

Supplies: pre-coloured digi from Got Tractor? at Doodle Pantry; classic small oval Nesties; sentiment from Studio G; Vintage Photo distress ink; papers from Simple Stories; unknown woodgrain washi

The lopped-off edge of the oval wasn't my intention, but when it was done? I liked it, so I went with it. I think this layout would make a good sketch :)

Father's Day was a tough one for me for years - despite years of effort my father & I are estranged, and although I'm not happy about that, I've finally made peace with the fact that I have made every effort possible. You cannot change how someone else behaves, you can only control your own reaction to it. I feel sad that my kids do not have a grandfather in their lives, but I can't force that to happen. 

It's only taken me oh, 15 years or so, but finally I think I've managed to transfer most of my feelings about Father's Day to gratitude that my husband is a wonderful father that I am lucky to have as a coparent. He is an incredibly supportive dad, always there for the boys - and always there for me. I shared this picture on Facebook this morning - we really need to take another with all four of us, since this is from 2012 and the boys are both taller than I am now. Plus Rob's beard is much uh, manlier, and my tattoo is completely different. 

l-r: Connor, Rob, Riley, me :) 

xoxo,

Jessi

Santa Hats!

My Merry Monday card - it must be Sunday :) This week the challenge is to incorporate a Santa hat - how cute is the prompt picture?? 

Supplies: image from Whimsie Doodles; Spectrum Noir and Bic markers; patterned paper from Bo Bunny; seam binding & glitter buttons from stash; white fun flock; classic small oval Nesties

I'd printed this image out at Christmas, coloured her face, and then....never made her into a card. She was waiting for this one!

xoxo,

Jessi

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #10 - G is for...

I don't think the Snarky Sisters are alone in having a love/hate relationship with glitter - so messy, but OMG SHINY!

Supplies: Stamps from Stampendous; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; American Crafts glitter; Picket Fence distress stickles; Studio G clear glitter glue; Bic markers

OOOH, SHINY!

I coloured the image first so that any gaps in glitter wouldn't be TOO glaring, and then used a glue pen to fill in the different areas with different colours. I really don't want to talk about it.

I mixed the Stickles & clear glitter glue together and used a small paintbrush to paint the sketched rectangle for some extra OOOH, SHINY! 

You know you're dying to get messy and glittery! Besides, the dog's fur is looking a little blah lately. Couldn't she use some sparkle too? Come & play with us in the next two weeks. The linky will close Friday June 27. Check out what my sistahs got up to:

Barb

Chris

Donna 

Karen

Lee

Lindsey

Michelle

And don't forget our fab guest designer, Regan!

xoxo,

Jessi

Just us Girls & Jingle Belles

So the Snarky Sisters decided we needed to get out & about and play in someone else's sandbox for a change - and with an acronym like JUGs, well, it just made the choice that much easier ;) So it's my very first time playing along with the Just Us Girls challenge, and I have a feeling it won't be the last.

Supplies: Everything randomly from my stash except the SRM stickers I used (trees & sentiment)

When I thought about what to use for the four panels, I remembered that I still had lots of these SRM stickers, and hey, wait, the current Jingle Belles challenge was green & red...and ta-da.

Here's the JUGs sketch:

The linky closes tonight, so you'll have to hurry! Jingle Belles is current until next Wednesday :) 

I haven't been around to comment as much lately - I've had several big orders to work on, and so I've been trying to be good about MAKING stuff. I promise I'll be around eventually!

xoxo,

Jessi