Quilt-y Baby Cards

I don't generally make multiples, but when I do a 'technique-y' card I sometimes decide to keep going if I like how things are turning out...or like with a bargello card I did yesterday, if I keep messing up badly enough but am too stubborn to give up...(that one I do like..still have to take a photo, though!). These are really similar, but besides the obvious difference in gender intention I still think they're different enough from one another. Go with me on this! lol

Supplies for both: scraps in coordinating colours;
Cuttlebug folders: swiss dots, polka dots, dots & spots, Victorian;
Nestabilities lacey circles;
footprints stamp from Stampcraft;
stamped with Versamark and embossed with white EP

The how-to is pretty obvious, I think, but just in case - I cut my scrap pieces to 1x4 inches, then embossed them each with a different folder. After embossing I trimmed to 1"x1," and began adhering them to a cardstock layer, staggering each row slightly. I trimmed each quilted piece to the size I wanted after adhering all the squares - too many times I've done it directly on the card front, and it never fails to look lopsided. Each envelope has a single row of squares in the different patterns. It only takes a minute or two to add something to the envelope while you're at it, but people comment all the time on how much they like that. Ah, it's the little things that make us happy, right?

Thanks for the kind comments about my friend's illness. No further news yet, but after the initial shock we've all sucked it up and are trying our very best not to panic until we need to. (Well, not need to, but you know what I mean).

On my own health - diabetes is a crappy disease. Not that you didn't already know that, but anyway...the past months have been a rollercoaster ride, and I don't particularly enjoy rollercoasters. Last week the doctor added a second medication to help control my high sugars, and for the past 3 or 4 days I have actually begun to feel like myself again. I haven't cried since Monday - hah! hopefully that doesn't jinx it - and talking to my mom last night, she said I sounded like myself for the first time in months. It's funny how many things are affected by high blood sugar. I never would have suspected that it would affect behaviour and emotions as much as it does. At least now I know - besides the physical signs, my indicators tend to be emotional. I mentioned this to someone last week, and for the next several days Connor watched me test my blood anxiously, finally saying, "Are you going to cry? It's only a number, you don't have to cry if it's a big number!" I've been so exhausted and emotionally drained with everything happening the last few months, and I've definitely noticed that I don't feel like creating. I do, but I had to force myself to go sit at my desk to create. Yesterday & today I've made about 12 cards - I don't remember the last time I made that many in a week! Maybe just knowing that I have a break on the way is helping too :)

Blah, blah, blah-de-blah, lol!
xoxo,
Jessi

Go-to Sketch...

Supplies: Paper from Basic Grey "Sugared;"
butterfly punch from Martha Stewart;
Fired Brick distress ink (butterfly edges);
ribbon & pink pearls from stash

Looking through Paper Crafts magazine a few weeks ago, I thought "Gee, I really like this sketch. I should give that a try! Butterflies would be perfect!" Well, here it is, just not quite how I pictured it. I gave myself the extra push to use up some of my ancient hoarded Basic Grey scraps - and I like that - I just feel like it's not a "me" card. Maybe it's the ruffled ribbon? Meh.
xoxo,
Jessi

Birthday Fishes & Oceans of Joy

Supplies: stamps from Hero Arts; Palette Noir ink;
All papers from Cosmo Cricket "Delovely;"
white gel pen; confetti balloons & happy faces; shrink plastic for window

 Hard to get a photo of a shaker card, but anyway - the whale is paper-pieced, and the flowers on the whale stamp are coloured in with white gel pen. The yellow flowers are on the patterned paper itself. I had a hard time getting my hands on acetate sheets (without buying a whole box for $30...that puts a serious dent in the craft budget!) so I tried using shrink plastic. I actually like it better - it's sturdier, still see-through, and less staticky than regular overhead sheets. It's a little bit more expensive, but since I can buy a year's supply for $5 instead of a lifetime's supply, I don't mind so much!

Supplies: All stamps from Hero Arts; Palette Noir ink;
watercoloured with ink pads;
Versamarker, clear embossing powder; Sakura stardust glitter pen;
paper from K & Co "Citronella;"
white banner tails from Martha Stewart banner diecut,
trimmed and tucked behind each end of the sentiment banner

Usually I don't bother creating scenes that require masking - I'm not patient enough. I usually end up trying to get away with cutting only one mask, and then trying to move it before it's dry and smearing everything. Or, somehow I don't align it properly & I end up with a white ghost shadow instead of a smooth line...I just find it a pain in the rear. I'm pretty impressed that I managed this one in only 2 tries (hah!) and even used masking successfully on the envelope. Ta-da!

The tempation to use my blog as a diary is overwhelming sometimes. Does anyone else get that urge to over-share? Things have been rough here lately, to understate it. Yesterday I got some really scary news from a close friend, who will need surgery shortly. Cancer? Don't know. It's hard to be supportive when you're busy freaking out yourself. It does put my problems in perspective, but it doesn't get rid of them. To add to that worry, I will probably be gone when the surgery happens, so I will be absolutely no help. I'm going home for my first visit in 5 years in 11 more sleeps, thanks to my family who are spiriting me away for a break. Alone. It's been a long time since I've gone away, so I think it will be easier for the kids than it was the last time.

Let's end with a funny, shall we? Yesterday Riley was goofing around, and Connor gave him a withering look and said "Riley, you're such a weirdo." Hello, pot, meet kettle? It made us laugh, anyhow :)

xoxo,
Jessi

Strength for Today - In my Beautiful Balloon Challenge

Supplies: Hot air balloon stamp from The Greeting Farm;
sentiment stamp from Kaisercraft; both stamped with Palette Noir;
papers from Cosmo Cricket "Togetherness" and
My Mind's Eye "Fine and Dandy - True Blue" (the clouds);
crepe paper "clouds" (sigh...); button from Basic Grey;
Labels 4 Nestabilities
Click image for larger view!

The sentiment is a little hard to read here - it really isn't as blurry in real life, I swear. It says "Wishing you STRENGTH for today and HOPE for tomorrow."
So, I decided to use this stamp because of a challenge at Moxie Fab World (no way!) to use hot air balloons in an innovative way...not sure this qualifies as innovative, but I gave it a whirl. I did try something new that I thought looked much better in my mind's eye than on the card - I folded crepe paper a bunch of times, and freehand cut out clouds, then stitched them on the card & crumpled them a bit. The button was meant to mimic the sun. The balloon is paper-pieced with patterns from "Togetherness," and a strip from the background paper is attached to the envelope to draw them together. (Pun not intended, but I like it, so it stays! lol)
Back again soon!
xoxo,
Jessi

Light it up Blue!

Just popping in briefly to let you know that Saturday, April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. The chosen colour for this day is blue - wear a blue shirt, put a blue light bulb on your porch, heck, maybe I'll paint my face blue. (OK, probably not). Even if your family isn't directly affected by autism, someone you know is. Everyone knows someone who has this disorder - and not every child is as lucky as mine are, to have benefited from early diagnosis and intensive intervention.

The statistics are scary, and you can find them anywhere. A more sobering statistic than the oft-quoted 1 in 110 children is to look at the statistic for boys alone: one in every 70 boys will be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. If you have kids, there will probably be an autistic child in the classroom. In my oldest son's classroom, there are 3 kids on the spectrum - in a mainstream class of 19. The entire school has probably 8-10 kids, out of a student population of about 225.

http://www.lightitupblue.org/

Have a look, share it with Facebook, Tweet it, raise some awareness. My kids & I would love to have some company on Saturday.




Supplies: Papers & brads from Basic Grey, "Hopscotch;"
vintage ad  & sentiment from Crafty Secrets;
butterfly diecut from K & Co;
flowers crocheted by me

Support really means everything - families can't do it without help. Thanks for reading!
xoxo,
Jessi

Birthday Tulips

Supplies: Tulip stamp from PSX;
stamped with Versamark & embossed with black detail EP;
coloured with Prismacolor pencils & Dove blender;
paper from DCWV "Mariposa Mat Stack;"
sentiment stamp from Inkadinkado, stamped with Palette Noir

I thought that colouring this detailed image after embossing it would make it easier to colour...and the answer to that would be NO. It was very difficult to avoid chipping off little bits of the embossed portions, and of course the paper underneath wouldn't take new colour. Live and learn - it took a long time to do, but I really like the richness and depth of colour achieved by colouring on a dark background. The envelope paper is too thin to withstand much blending, so I used a light hand & ended up with a neat shabby look. I can't get enough of this tulip stamp - PSX was my favourite company for stickers & their huge detailed stamps, and every once in a while I have to check out Ebay and drool over the few stamps that are still out there.
xoxo,
Jessi

Rainbow Butterflies





Worn Lipstick Distress Ink

Fired Brick Distress Ink

Dried Marigold Distress Ink

Citrus Adirondack Dye Ink

Tumbled Glass Distress Ink

Purple Twilight Adirondack Dye Ink

All of these cards use the same basic supplies with a different ink colour. The floral flourish & small butterfly silhouette are from Inkadinkado; the label shape is the second-largest Labels 4 Nestability; and the main butterfly images were created by running a sheet of scrap cardstock through the Cuttlebug with a Spellbinders butterfly, and then sponging ink on the negative. The edges of the label & the stamped mat are also sponged with the matching ink.

Not sure how this post is going to look when it's published - right now the pictures are gargantuan, and it took me 3 tries to get this far!

(Edited to add: and the pictures took over the entire page...so hopefully re-editing this fixed. Fourth time's a charm, right?? Right??)
xoxo,
Jessi

Another two Triggers for Citrus Celebration

This week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World is just awesome - I think I may leave it pinned up at my desk for a few more weeks. I made another two cards inspired by this photo yesterday morning, before ending up feeling so sick that I left the market early. Those of you who know me, know how utterly out of character that is. I also ended up staying home from a movie we'd pre-purchased tickets for...Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. Now, I can't say as I missed the movie itself, but it sucked having the kids resigned once again to me being too sick to do anything. Connor even asked me the other day if I was going to go live somewhere else until I get better. Ugh. Back to the doctor tomorrow - and with any luck, new meds that a) work! and b) don't make me sick.
Anyhow, I digress...hah! How out of character! Here are the cards:

Supplies: Papers & brads from Basic Grey "Lemonade;"
Labels 4 Nestabilities, edges sponged with Spiced Marmalade distress ink;
Sentiments from Hero Arts, stamped with Spiced Marmalade;
flowers from Recollections;
envelope stamped with Autumn Leaves flowers, with Spiced Marmalade & Adirondack Citrus

Supplies: Bella on a Cupcake stamp from Stamping Bella;
coloured with various Distress inks & black marker;
papers all from Basic Grey "Nook and Pantry;"
buttons & letter stickers from Basic Grey;
liquid applique for cupcake frosting;
yellow layer embossed with Cuttlebug folder & sponged with Dried Marigold distress ink;
standard circle Nesties, edges sponged with Dried Marigold

The first card was primarily inspired by the colours - and once again I reached for papers with a Citrus name, Basic Grey "Lemonade". The second card has slightly more muted colours, but within the same spectrum of orange/yellow/green, and I was also inspired to use the embossing folder to include the polka dots of the cupcake liners. They didn't stand out enough against the patterned paper, so I sponged them with Dried Marigold Distress ink to help them pop a little more. And, my choice of image was directly inspired by the liners as well.
The competition for this Trigger is fierce, with over 90 entries already (whoa!) and they are all incredible. So many people have entered more than once, which is fabulous - a true sign of an awesome Trigger. Way to go again, Cath!
xoxo,
Jessi

Moxie Fab Citrus Celebration!

This week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World is a fun and whimsical scene...to me it just hollers "BIRTHDAY!!!!!"

Supplies: Image & sentiment by Pink Cat Studio;
buttons from Basic Grey;
papers from K&Co "Citronella;"
Mod Podge Dimensional Magic on eyes & noses

I finally scraped together a card with the single image that I coloured this week...as soon as I saw this Trigger, I knew I wanted to use Unicycle Clowns by Pink Cat Studio. They have polka dots all over them - and they make me happy! It's hard to see, but I decided to trim the yellow strip along the lemon pattern to mimic the scallops of the cupcake liners, and then I outlined it with a Sakura Stardust pen. The Citronella collection from K & Co was a natural choice for the papers, since nearly every print features either citrus colours or citrus images...or both...and it allowed me to use up some of the skinny scraps since I've nearly used the entire pad. Must.Find.More.
xoxo,
Jessi

What do you mean, the power's out??

Oh, yesterday was a humdinger. The power went out at about 2 a.m, and stayed off until after 4 p.m. Nearly the entire town was affected, including all but 2 schools...the boys were NOT impressed that their school was open but our house had no power. I found it a rather heaven-sent occurrence, since judging from the level of shrieking going on at 7 a.m. it would have been a very long day. And, all that with no coffee. We drove around after dropping off the kids, but nothing was open - at least, nothing that served coffee. I was tempted to go get the coffeemaker & stop at the school to plug it in...I'm down to one cup most days, but that is a very important cup. Feeling crummy all week means I haven't made anything new - I did some colouring on Wednesday, but that was it - and I had intended to spend a few hours at my desk yesterday, but the natural light is poor there, and it was so cold in here that I ended up wearing my hat & several blankets on the couch reading instead. Oh, and no hot water either, so no shower until after the power came back on. No caffeine, no shower, no fun. What a whiner, I know, boo hoo.

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Curio;"
image panel from the packaging on the Curio buttons!;
scrap of velvet ribbon & Hero Arts lace;
corner rounder; Nesties labels 4;
'best wishes' rub-on from Kaisercraft

I love being able to recycle pretty little bits, and the packaging on the Curio buttons I bought was far too gorgeous to toss in the recycling, so I carefully cut the package open rather than ripping into it as usual. I love the scripty overlay and that big beautiful rose, and that teeny little bird hanging out...
xoxo,
Jessi