Bright & Cheery Chef

How about something nice & bright for a Monday morning? Fake it 'til you make it, right? (In which case, I LOVE MONDAY. ahem.)

Supplies: Chef Duck stamp from Pink Cat Studio;
coloured with Prismacolor pencils & markers;
Duck 'feathered' with Stampendous Fun Flock;
papers all from K & Co 'Citronella;'
ric-rac paper trim from Doodlebug

The temperature has risen quite a bit in the last two days - the snow is melting, slowly but surely. I hope a little more slowly, since there's probably a uniform 2.5 feet across the backyard, and drifts high enough to cover the fences all around, and the banks in the front yard are taller than I am. I do want it to all stay outside, after all. I fell asleep last night to what sounded like an honest-to-peanuts waterfall outside the bedroom window.
Today is report card day - yikes - those should be interesting to read. Riley cares about marks that he gets on tests & projects, but neither of them reads their own reports yet. That's probably a good thing :)
xoxo,
Jessi 

A Pair of Tuesday Triggers

I didn't get around to last week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger challenge in time, but the inspiration photo sat on my desk all week. This week I was determined to get it in under the wire...but I'm not all that happy with what I came up with. It just didn't match up with the picture in my head, but here it is:

Supplies: Butterfly stamp from Autumn Leaves;
butterfly paper-pieced with Basic Grey "Nook and Pantry" paper;
stamped with Wild Honey Distress ink;
tiles and background paper from My Mind's Eye Fine & Dandy "True Blue"
rhinestone swirls from dollar store, coloured with Bic Mark-It.

Here is the inspiration photo:

I knew I wanted to work with yellow, and the window panes inspired my tile pattern...and then it all fell apart ;) Oh well, can't love them all. Check out the challenge & the GOOD entries here.

Now, on the other hand, the card that I made for the last week's challenge turned out better than I imagined, and I love it - and I sold it first thing in the morning. Nice!



Supplies: flower stamp from Stampin' Up Fifth Avenue Floral;
stamped with Versamark & embossed with white EP;
coloured with Prismacolor pencils & Dove blender;
"Happy Birthday" embossing folder from Cuttlebug;
edges of the embossed panel inked with the Fiesta Kaleidacolor ink pad;
flowers on the envelope stamped with Purple Twilight adirondack ink, broken china & spiced marmalade distress inks.

 I found myself coming back to white space in the photo again & again while overthinking what to make...and white space is a big challenge for me. My inspiration came from the flowers & the colours.

And, I realize now that I added the badge but didn't actually SAY anything, but I am the luckiest duck - I was one of the two guest designers chosen to work with Pink Cat Studio's Saint Patrick's Day release!!! Yesterday meant a trip to Michael's & a hearty investment in some fun Saint Patrick's Day embellishments...and I've been quilling shamrocks this morning already. I am beyond excited - this is my first time submitting anything for such a position, and it's one of my favourite companies. So, that green sparkly person you can see from outer space? That's me the next few days as I feverishly do my best to create some adorable cards for Melissa & Pink Cat Studio!

xoxo,
Jessi

Well, this stinks.

I debated whether or not to post about this, since it's not exactly my news, but I'm sharing it anyway. This Saturday will be the last time Andrew & Star Dust Farms will be at the farmer's market. Running a small farm is not for the faint of heart, and there comes a point where even the most idealistic and hard-working person has to look at the big financial picture, and I guess this is that point. I hate that he's forced to make this choice, and I hate that operating a small farm is not sustainable without operating at a loss. And selfishly, I hate that it means one of my friends won't be spending Saturday mornings hanging out with me at the cafe.

On an unrelated note, how about a card? Hopefully tomorrow I get some photos taken of what I've been working on - if I say so myself, being cranky seems to be working for cardmaking.

Supplies: Papers from K & Co;
rose stamp from Stampin' Up! Fifth Avenue Floral;
thank you stamp from Hero Arts;
Versamark ink & white EP for the rose, Palette Noir for the sentiment;
Rose coloured with the floating reinker technique, with Adirondack Eggplant

I made a few more cards with this rose this week - it is a really fun technique, if a little messy. Sometimes it feels really good to get your hands covered in ink.
xoxo,
Jessi

Celebrating Pink Cat Studio!

Some of these photos will be familiar from earlier posts, but Pink Cat Studio is having a guest designer call, and I LOVE their whimsical stamps. My favourites are probably the animals, but honestly, they're all adorable. Anyhow, here's some of my cards made with both their digital and rubber images....


 




Supplies: Sheep with cupcake stamp from Pink Cat Studio;
alphabet stamps from PSX; all stamped with Palette Noir ink;
coloured with Prismacolor pencils & Dove blender;
sheep is covered with Stampendous Cotton Ball Fun Flock;
papers all from Basic Grey "Sugar Rush"





Supplies: Cow with gift stamp from Pink Cat Studio;
This is an older card so I'm unsure of the source for the rest
of the supplies. The sentiment is handwritten. The cows are all masked
(image is a single cow), with the "front" cow popped up on foam tape.





Supplies: Owl with birthday hat stamp from Pink Cat Studio;
coloured with markers & coated with Stampendous Cotton Ball Fun Flock;
white mat embossed with D'Vine Swirls cuttlebug folder;
brads from Making Memories;
decorative paper & "scene" from Cosmo Cricket "Hey Sunshine;"
star buttons from Dress it Up!; handwritten sentiment




Supplies: Clowning around owls & sentiment digital stamp from Pink Cat Studio;
coloured with markers; flower border from Doodlebug;
papers from K&Co; rhinestones from $store







Supplies: animal stack & circle sentiment stamp from Pink Cat Studio;
coloured with markers and (shocker) fluffed with Stampendous Fun Flock;
paper from Cosmo Cricket; buttons from stash;
My favourite part - the sun stitched around the sentiment with yellow embroidery floss



Supplies: Fairy Lily digital stamp from Pink Cat Studio;
watercoloured with reinkers;
Studio G clear glitter glue on her wings;
rhinestones from $store;
papers from Basic Grey "Hopscotch" and "Wander;"
sentiment stamp from TAC; circles cut with standard & lacy circle Nestabilities.

 Here goes nothing :)
xoxo,
Jessi

Is winter over yet?

No. No, it's not. Sigh.
Friday we had a huge, messy, disgusting rain-sleet-snow combination, and today we're supposed to get the same thing. Gross. The sidewalks have been plowed, but no sand or salt put down, so today's walk to school was much more of a 'skid' than a 'walk.' Connor even fell once - all of us had some close calls. And I imagine I'll be listening to the radio all day waiting for school to be cancelled mid-day if the storm starts earlier than expected. District 2 in New Brunswick is closed today, and honestly, it feels like such a rip-off when they're cancelled and we're not! I can't imagine we'll have school tomorrow, though, if there's as much of a mess as there was after Friday night.

But, for now, I'm comfortably set up at the computer with my jammies back on, and a dozing, purring cat across my arms. She keeps lazily looking back if I move too much while I type!


Supplies: fairy image from Graphic 45;
papers from Basic Grey "capella;"
die cut Nestabilities lacey circle sponged with Peeled Paint distress ink;
"Make a Wish" stamp from Studio G 
 stamped with Peeled Paint & traced with Sakura Stardust glitter pen



Supplies: images all from Cicely Mary Barker fairy book;
medallion made from old book page;
Basic Grey button with a glitter brad in the centre;
Fairy wings glittered with clear micro-beads;
"Just for You" stamp from Hero Arts, stamped with Palette Noir ink

Not springtime yet, but at least I can play with fairies & dream about it, right?
Stay warm - and safe - and upright, if you happen to have to walk around out there!
xoxo,
Jessi

Earring Cards!

I haven't taken many photographs of earring cards yet, but realized I had a couple that turned out that I hadn't shared yet. Cheryl Mosher makes fantastic jewelry, and I am lucky enough to "shop" her goodies & take them home to play with!

I adore these wine cork earrings!

As usual, quilling is a bit tricky to photograph well - and the earring hearts are incredibly sparkly in real life, which just does not come through in this picture.

xoxo,
Jessi

Rainbow cards!

I haven't posted anything for the 30 Days of Creativity in a while...I haven't forgotten, just keep getting sidetracked with life piling up around me. But today I have a two-fer!

Day 12: Look at a child.  See how connected they are to their creative self?  Pretend you are a child and make something.

Day 14: Make something to give away.  Send a card to a friend or make a little gift for someone you care about.

Anyone who knows Connor, knows his love of rainbows. He colours nearly every picture with rainbow stripes - or at least uses the entire rainbow in each picture. One wall of his bedroom is painted with vertical rainbow stripes, just like he colours. He wears a rainbow striped scarf, and a matching hat until he outgrew it. He LOVES rainbows. One of the aides at his school calls him Mr. Rainbow. His fifth grade teacher was at the school to cover a maternity leave, and today is her last day. This is very sad, as she's excellent - I really wish there were some way to at least let her finish out the year so that there wouldn't be such a disruption for the students.

At any rate, of course we had to make her something! So, since the gift is from Connor, it may as well be inspired by him as well. He picked butterflies for the theme, and so armed with the idea of rainbows & butterflies here's what I came up with:

A rainbow of notecards...





...tucked inside a handmade box

My favourite.

Supplies: Good grief, I'm not listing them all! The flowers are from Recollections;
the butterfly die-cuts are Spellbinders;
the paper is from Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, K & Co, and Making Memories.

Connor brought this up to her this morning, and she took a picture with him & thanked him. I don't imagine her class is going to get an awful lot done today...and boy, are we ever going to miss Miss Lewis.

As an aside, I was thinking I might do up some similar themed packs for the market...I know I like to give packages of thank you cards when I go to a shower, and maybe I'm not the only one who thinks it makes a nice gift. As with most things, it might have to wait until I have the time. Hah! I'm almost done with 4 crafty kits, and that took me probably 4 hours yesterday with all the cutting & folding & sorting. Good thing I had several episodes of House, Grey's Anatomy, Glee, and Private Practice to catch up on. Now I'm down to one each of the last three.

Batten down the hatches - it's supposed to be pretty messy out there tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow morning everyone will be cleaned up & ready to come out to the market. The winter months get pretty lonely there!

xoxo,
Jessi

The Mysteries of Word Verification...

So, I didn't realize that in order to leave a comment people had to enter the lame-o word verification. Sorry about that! Luckily in my blog reading I came across instructions how to turn it off, and it made me wonder if mine was inadvertently turned on (get your mind out of the gutter). Anyhow, unrealized problem solved. Here come the spammers!



Supplies: Digital image from Squigglefly;
papers from Basic Grey "Curio" and by me;
Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint Distress Inks;
"Happy Birthday" stamp from My Favorite Things

I printed out four flowers to work with. I used a Quickie Glue Pen to trace over the lines of the flowers, and then embossed with clear EP. Then I used the 'floating reinker' technique - spraying the paper heavily with water, and then painting with reinkers. Then I cut out one flower (my favourite) to pop it up on foam tape for dimension, along with the upper leaves, and part of another flower to pop it up further. The orange background paper is made the same way as the mermaid card from the other day - ink applied directly to the paper, and then the paper is sprayed with water to blend.  

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Hopscotch" and "Wander;"
Lily fairy from Pink Cat Studio;
sentiment from The Angel Company;
standard circle and lacey scalloped Nestabilities

I love this sentiment - every day should have a little bit of whimsy in it! This is another digital image, which I coloured several times & cut out to pop up on foam tape. I was going to cut out the antennae, but {ahem} had a scissors malfunction, so the edge of her hair is glued down along with her itty-bitty arms and legs.


Supplies: Papers all from Basic Grey "Hopscotch;"
Sunglasses girl stamp from CC Designs;
"Celebrate with Style" from Hero Arts;
Labels 4 Nestabilities; brad source unknown;
flowers crocheted by me, blue flower dyed with Broken China distress ink

This girl is fun to paper-piece with funky clothes. I also embossed the blue label mat with the Swiss Dots folder, and swiped the raised dots with the Broken China ink.

I posted this on Facebook already, but thought I'd share it here too. Riley is really just starting to figure out the whole 'boy-girl' thing...the kids in his class are starting to talk about crushes and that sort of thing, and he has a lot of questions. Connor has basically ignored the whole thing (thank goodness). Anyhow, Riley comes up to me yesterday and says, "I want to tell you something true. Most men like to look at butts."

I had no response - I was too busy trying not to burst out laughing. Good grief. It may not always be fun around here, but I guess at least it's never boring!

xoxo,
Jessi

Make a Mermaid Wish

Supplies: Cuttlebug embossing folder, D'vine Swirls;
Mermaid image digital freebie, source unknown;
coloured with reinkers & glitter;
"Make a Wish" from My Favorite Things;
shell button from Dress it Up!

I wish I had always kept track of where I found things online - most people attach their name or company to the file name, but this is one that I should have noted myself and didn't. It's a beautiful image. I coloured two, and cut one with the circle Nestabilities, and fussy-cut the other one so that I could pop it up for dimension. For stability I glued her hands directly to the bottom layer - it would seem a little gruesome if one of her hands fell off!

I tried something new with this card - the background began as white paper. I used the direct-to-paper technique with Broken China, Peeled Paint, and Faded Jeans distress ink, and spritzed it with water. After it was dry (and curly...too much water!) I ran it through with the embossing folder to give it some swirly waves. Definitely messy, but fun, and I like how it turned out.

xoxo,
Jessi

I love this card!

I don't mind if it's not all that polite to toot my own horn...I DO love this card. It began with an image drawn by Mo Manning that is too precious. Then there was a happy accident of sorts - my printer's ink smears when I paint or colour over it, so I spray all my printed images with a clear acrylic sealer. This time I overdid it, and there was such a layer of sealant that the ink and paint pooled and some areas resisted it. This wasn't what I'd planned, but the unexpected effect is dappled and I think rather nice, especially on her cutie-pie overalls.

Supplies: Image and quote by Mo Manning;
coloured with every Distress ink I own I think;
papers from Basic Grey "Hopscotch,"
"Just Because" rub-on from Kaisercraft;
gorgeous two-tone sheer ribbon from May Arts

The fantastic quote was part of the set, and I wanted it large enough to read, which made it hard to fit on the card. And so the image turned into a hidey-hole for the quote's tag. If you look in the first picture, you can just see the edge of the tag peeking out next to the bow. You should be able to click on the picture to make it bigger, but in case I haven't done that properly, the quote reads,

"If we are ever to enjoy life,
now is the time.
Not tomorrow or next year -
Today should always be our most wonderful day." Thomas Dreier.

It sounds to me like a lovely reminder to treasure each day we have...something I don't always do, and so it's a timely reminder for me.

xoxo,
Jessi