Punch it Out! Shopping our Stash #46

Completely forgot that I had made a card for this challenge until this afternoon - luckily I'm squeaking in with a whole 13 hours to spare!

Supplies: rainbow paper from scrap basket (made with distress inks:
Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint,
Broken China, Dusty Concord, and Palette Noir ink for splatters);
rhinestone swirls & red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and black rhinestones
from the dollar store;
Sentiment from My Favorite Things "Hooga Booga;"
Martha Stewart Butterfly punch; Sakura Stardust glitter pen

I know I've said it before, but I do love creating with rainbow colours. Add bling (used up the last of several different swirl packages here) and a chance to use my Stardust pen? Yay!
If you have a card waiting to link up with the Shopping our Stash challenge, scoot on over & do it quick!

Several other items of note...my sugars are back to normal. A stomach bug has been going around, and even though I escaped the worst of it I think I was probably dehydrated. Glad that's over, though!

Last week I talked a little bit about how services are continually being cut for children with special needs- well, now our district has fired EVERY SINGLE LIBRARIAN. Every one. You can read about it in this article, including the ludicrous statement from a school board member: "libraries will still exist in the Chignecto-Central region, but there won't be any librarians working in them." That's 41 jobs - and just as an example, our local elementary school's librarian is shared amongst 3 schools, already a bare-bones situation.


I know that I will have to begin fighting, letter-writing, and putting energy into this situation soon, but right now I just can't do it. I am beyond discouraged that reasonable people would see this as an option - and if they are willing to slash an entire vital section of schooling, how in the world am I going to convince anyone otherwise? It's a whole new level of disheartening.

Well, that was a bummer. Go look at my cheery card again...I think I will too.
xoxo,
Jessi

Easter's TOMORROW?

Well, best intentions, and all that jazz..I have a whole bunch of Easter cards that I hadn't posted yet, so here they are:

Supplies: stamp from Inkadinkado;
paper from Basic Grey "Nook and Pantry;"
ribbon from Offray; Cuttlebug tag die;
handwritten sentiment; corner rounder

The image was 'watercoloured' with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam - awesome sparkle & dimension!

Supplies: Chick digi stamp from Tiddly Inks;
papers from Basic Grey "Piccadilly;"
felt rick-rack from the girls paperie;
letter stamps from PSX; Spiced Marmalade distress ink;
yellow Fun Flock (Stampendous); standard circle Nesties

Fuzzy! Googly!

Supplies: paper from Cosmo Cricket "Togetherness;"
rabbit scene from die-cut by K&Co 

I used two copies of the die-cut image, and cut out & popped up several elements 

Supplies: Inkadinkado stamp; Palette Noir ink;
Stampin' Up! watercolor pencils;
Offray ribbon, Martha Stewart butterfly punch;
scrap vellum; Tsukineko Pssst Glimmer Spray; corner rounder

Ooooh, shiny! Glittery! {happy}

I will be doing my level best to not indulge in any sweet treats tomorrow. My sugars have been all over the map the last few days - I'm having a lot of lows, in the 3s, complete with shaky hands & other less fun symptoms. It took me a few days to figure out what the problem was, and now I'll be testing 6-7 times a day to see what the trend is. Blech. I hate doing that, because I always end up with reduced sensation in my fingertips, and I'm pretty sure you all know I use those fingers for fiddly stuff!

Oooh, on that note: I ordered a bunch of new quilling paper to stock up on colours I'd run out of, so hopefully there will be some fun new quilling to share soon. I love blue, don't get me wrong, but I WILL be glad to see the end of that 'cadet blue' package I bought...lol!

Anyway, if you celebrate it, Happy Easter! And if you don't, happy weekend!
xoxo,
Jessi

Playing in Paradise #61

Guess what? My first week hosting over at Playing in Paradise, and we're playing with this inspiration photo:

Since Easter is this weekend, I decided to resist the urge to go Easter-y with my card, and instead went with the botanical idea I had. I just got the perfect images for this from the Scrapbooker's Paradise store, this Field Notes sheet from SEI. Perfect, right? So I chose a bird to work with, and voila:

Supplies: SEI Field Notes paper;
Fancy Pants paper;
studio G sentiment; Colorbox Chalk ink;
the girls paperie cameo; velvet K&Co leaves

Gorgeous cameo (ON SALE!) and shimmery velvet leaves

Love that cameo - and I scored the package for $1.80. Yep. My first stop is always the Sale section to see what goodies are in there - you will not believe the discounts. 

All the details & (if I did it right!) the linky tool for this challenge can be found over at Scrapbooker's Paradise Ponderings, and you have until next Thursday, April 12 at noon to play along for a great prize. Go check it out :)

xoxo,

Jessi

Moxie Fab 5 for $5

First, you guys are the best. Thanks for not only reading my rant, but responding to it & supporting it. It really does help to know that there's support out there :)

So, I have some more fun stuff to post for Moxie Fab's Practical Solutions week - this time in the 5 for $5 category. All of the Practical Solutions challenges end Monday April 9 at midnight. Luckily, in the cost accounting for the $5 category, we do not have to consider adhesives, inks, etc. That makes it a bit easier! Still, it's a heck of a challenge. So I did it twice, because that's how I roll.

Keep in mind I'm not a photographer...and the requested photo format is sadly beyond my abilities. Here's Set #1:

Supplies not considered in the cost: Memento London Fog ink

Cost for set #1: $3.36 (score!)

Studio G stamp set (all images and sentiment): $1.50

3 pieces of 6x6 paper: 58 cents

SEI Field Notes: used 5 of a total 15 pieces: 50 cents

pearls: 10 cents

envelopes: 50 cents

cardstock: 18 cents

The butterflies are stamped on scrap cardstock from cutting the card bases, fussy-cut and then adhered to the card.

Here's Set #2:

Supplies not considered in the cost: Palette Noir ink; clear embossing powder

Cost for Set #2:  $4.21

2 sheets of patterned vellum from the dollar store: 38 cents

Studio G sentiment: 1.50

HOTP Pretty Butterfly stamp set: 1.50 

rhinestones: 15 cents

cardstock: 18 cents

envelopes: 50 cents

I stamped the butterflies on each card, then stamped them again on scrap vellum (left over from cutting out the floral designs) and embossed with clear EP, fussy cut them, and adhered directly to the card. 

Since I'm not really happy with the group photos, here's my favourite card from each set:

There may be another post from me later - right now I need to finish the morning obstacle course and get everyone out the door!

xoxo,

Jessi

World Autism Day...and little red wagon #126

On my soapbox for just a minute - I know I say in my profile that autism will come up often, but honestly, I try not to have it take over. Frankly, autism is pretty much the REST of my life. Besides lighting the blue porch light yesterday for World Autism Day, I wasn't going to mention it, and then this morning I read Joan's post at Paperlicious. Empathy really is worth cultivating. The classmates who look out for my boys have hearts of gold. Only one of my boys has been accepted by his peers to the point of having friends over or being invited to birthday parties, but it's not the big events that matter most. It's the kids who help when the teacher can't, or the kids who stick up for my youngest when he's being bullied (sadly, a common occurrence).

New statistics have been released on the prevalence of autism in the United States - now 1 in 88 children. Five times as many boys as girls. That means 1 in 72 boys. That's nearly 2 percent of our boys, and although there's lots of research, there is very little practical help for any but the wealthy. And here I'm talking about Canada. In fact, schools are cutting more and more, and even though already both of my children are struggling with their supports being cut, there are more cuts on the horizon for the next school year. The emphasis is on early intervention, but to grow successful adults, development and intervention do not stop at age five.

As an example, Connor did not speak coherently until age seven. Everything I'd read prior to that spoke of the 'golden time' for language acquisition being before age 5. He didn't receive any speech therapy once he went to school, other than a yearly evaluation - and what I provided at home. Do you give up on your child because there's not funding available to provide the right therapies? My wish for Autism Awareness Month is that these kids receive the support and education that they deserve. It won't happen, because it's expensive. I must say, though, that I'm tired of fighting the same fight year after year, only to see more of the bare-bones services clawed away. It makes the teachers' jobs harder, it makes my childrens' lives harder, and it makes me angry. It's a lot less expensive to provide proper support during school years than it is to provide full-time residential care for an adult.

(OK, off my soapbox now. I think)

Supplies: cloud paper from K & Co;
standard oval Nesties;
parachuting bunny digi from MelStampz;
sentiment digi from lazy daisy

This week's challenge at little red wagon is "Up in the Clouds", open until tonight. I love this little parachuting bunny from MelStampz! I cut some clouds out of the patterned paper & popped them up for dimension, and there you have it.

Thanks for bearing with me!
xoxo,
Jessi

A Moxie-Fab Marathon!

I do love the Moxie Fab World for inspiration, and right now there are a big bunch of challenges happening there. I've got entries for 4 challenges, so I thought I'd combine them all into one gigantic Moxie Fab love-fest!

First up, this edition of the Tuesday Trigger: Happy Happy Joy Joy! It ends tonight, and the challenge is to create something inspired by this:

Credit: Orla Kiely

I knew instantly I had to use a particular stamp for this challenge - 

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Oxford;"
'happy' stamp from Daisy Bucket;
puppy & sentiment from Inkadinkado;
Palette Noir ink;
Versamark & black detail EP (for 'happy' sentiment)
bone flatback buttons from Dress it Up!
Mesh tape from Barb

Next up is the Fascination with Feathers challenge that ends tomorrow (April 2) - I have had a pile of feathers sitting on my desk that I swear I have tried to put on every.single.card. I've made since the challenge was issued. No dice. There was no forcing it.

Supplies: papers all from MME (from Emily!);
owls & sentiment from Pink Cat Studio;
feather from stash;
circle & lacey circle Nesties; toothpick

Turns out the feather 'bouquet' was just waiting for the right card! The polka-dot feather on top wanted to be on this card so badly ;) 

The Household Items challenge is open for another week (until April 9) and had me stumped! I've been inspired by other crafters, but of course the idea is to try doing something unique. One of the featured cards on Cath's post is a flower made with paper towel tube (by Teri Andersen) and I thought "OK, I could try SOMETHING with a paper towel tube." I tried stamping with the 'open' end, and thought before starting that it would make a neat background. Instead, what I noticed was that since my paper towel tube was a bit dinged up, the resulting stamped look was more like a coffee stain...and BAZINGA! Lightbulb! I poured some black coffee into a shallow dish, dipped the tube in, and went to town. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I flicked a couple of extra splashes on. 

Supplies: papers from the following Basic Grey packs:
Manila Basics; Little Black Dress; Nook & Pantry; Marjolaine;
teacup & sentiment stamps from Market Street Stamps;
Vintage Photo distress ink;
paper towel tube; coffee!

Black coffee ink!

What I learned? It dries lighter than I would have thought. Also, the watery nature of the coffee (as compared to ink) means that the paper warped quite a bit. Next time I would try drying with a heat gun to speed up dry time & hopefully avoid some of the warping. Still, I totally love how this turned out!

And, finally (for this post, anyhow!) is the DIY Embellishments challenge (also ending April 9). I have a feeling there will be another post or two from me for this challenge, because it's something I do all the time. 

Supplies: papers from Basic Grey "Sweet Threads;"
sentiment sticker from Doodlebug;
Spellbinders Butterfly die, standard small circle Nestie & lacey circle Nestie;
crocheted mat by me

The crocheted mat is one of my favourite embellishments - quick & easy to make, and it adds so much texture without adding a lot of weight or bulk. The butterfly is made from a cardboard box. A 'Kool-Aid Jammers' box, actually. I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the butterfly die four times, and still it was too thick to get a complete cut. I peeled off a bunch of the printed side of the box, ran it through again, and wah-la. I even like the distressed look the partial peeling made. 

Thanks for visiting!!

xoxo,

Jessi

Flashback Friday 22.0!!

***This is my second post for today - there is BIG NEWS down below! or click here***

This is pretty big news too - oh em gee. Check what I'm a part of!

Click here to go seeeeeeeee!

If you've never played along before, Flashback Friday is a super fun linky party, celebrating our very "firsts" as crafters. Do you cringe when you see your project? Or do you still love it? It may have been back when you first started blogging, it may have been a few weeks ago - but we want to see & share your firsts, and all of us can see how we've changed & improved. Make sure you're re-posting your project, not linking up to the original post - part of the fun is looking back & sharing your reaction! For Flashback Friday 22.0 we're looking back at our first cards using DIE CUTS.

Amy Tsuruta is the fabulous fun host, and I'm honoured to play along! This time around the format for Flashback Friday is a little different, and we're starting with a hop! First of all, I'll share the amazing prize details, sponsored by the generous Sylvia at Sylvia's Corner:

In Sylvia's own words, the prize details:

The prize is composed of a Stampin'Up! Sale-A-Bration package I put together. There is a Everyday Enchantment Tote, a 12"x12" package of Everyday Enchantment Designer Paper(12pieces), 10 card bases, two of each of these colors, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, and Wisteria Wonder, 20" of Baja Breeze satin pleated ribbon, 2yds each Everyday Enchantment Organdy Ribbon Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral, 10 Everyday Enchantment brads and 10 shaped clear buttons, and the Sale-A-Bration Fresh Vintage stamp set(wood mount, unmounted). This collection is sponsored by Sylvia's corner Etsy shop, where I sell my handmade cards, banners, gift bags and albums.

What a fun prize! 

Here's my first card using die cuts - just plain ol' circle & oval Nesties, but still awesome. I use those dies every time I sit down to create.

Click here to see the original post, with supply list

I still love my Nesties, and I do love that little chickie, and Liquid Applique for whipped cream? I don't love the photo, but hey, I was using a scanner way back in September 2010 (the olden days? lol).

So, without further ado - go hop! Check out everyone's first cards using die cuts, and then dig deep into your own archives & link up your own at the Flashback Friday blog before April 13. Oops! APRIL 20!

The blog hop starts at (SPOILER ALERT!)

the Flashback Friday blog

our sponsor Sylvia at Sylvia's Stamping Corner

Miriam at Sooner Rather than Later

****me!!! at OneCraftyMama***

Nance at Soul Stampin'

and last but certainly not least

Amy at Tsuruta Designs

Thank you SO much for visiting - make sure & say hello so I can come visit you too!

Have fun on the hop!

xoxo,

Jessi

Playing in Paradise is right :)

Hold on to your collars, ladies!

Today is my first post as....a design team member for.....

{squeal!}

You already know I love to shop there, and play along in their challenges, and joining this team of talented ladies, supporting a company I love? Pardon my flapping excitedly...it's been like that all week. Makes typing difficult ;)

So, you're going to play, right? RIGHT? 

This week, we're being challenged by the lovely Nina to make something inspired by this adorable baby bunny:

How can you not love that little face? 

There are no product restrictions for playing along with any of the Scrapbooker's Paradise challenges, so you go to town! Check out  today's blog post for information on this week's prize (trust me, yummy scrumptious prizes every week!) and to link up. 

So, finally, here's my card:

Supplies: papers from My Mind's Eye;
bunny reclaimed from an old greeting card;
lacey circle & standard oval Nesties;
digital sentiment from Lazy Daisy;
crocheted mat by me :)

So, as always, you have until next Thursday at noon (in this case, April 5) to play along & link up your card (BUNNY! You know you wanna play!), which you should do HERE. Don't forget to visit the other talented designers (ACK! I'm one of them? PINCH ME!) and leave some love for them on their blogs: 

Nina at Notes by Nina

Allison at Stampin' When I Can

Angela at Creativity Central

Merlie at Cherish my Fetish

xoxo,

(seriously, pinch me! I'm so excited!)

Jessi

TMS #139 - Happy Easter!

Two weeks in a row I've been inspired right away by the sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches. That, plus the white space going on the rest of this week? So very weird, but I like it :) Here's the sketch:

Go & check it out & link up your card here before Sunday night!

Supplies: papers from Kaisercraft;
green sparkle paper from stash;
thin ribbons from Offray, sheer & satin ribbon from May Arts;
carrot button from Dress it Up; polka dot embossing folder from Cuttlebug;
Easter stickers from Michaels

I first tied a bow with the 3 thin ribbons, then added the satin & sheer ribbons, and
decided it needed something else - so I tied the button on through the shank (loop) on the back

I have some more challenge cards to share, but I realllly have to get in the shower & get ready to go. And just wait until tomorrow. This has been a whirlwind crafty week, and I have LOTS to share!

xoxo,
Jessi

Playing in Paradise #59 - Meaningful Life Quotes

With this as the prompt, how could I not play along? Playing in Paradise #59 is this:

Now, being me, I've had the card made for days and am only now getting it posted! 

Supplies: papers and clock/lock stamps from Bo Bunny;
Emerson quote from My Favorite Things;
Vintage Photo & Old Paper distress inks; Versamark & Pirate Gold EP;
nifty button from stash

I wanted to keep the focus on the quote, so I tried to keep embellishing to a minimum, but it got away from me a little bit. Ahem. Anyway, I like how this turned out - I love using quotes on cards, and I want to do it more often. Thanks for the reminder, Merlie! You've got until tomorrow at noon to play along, so quick, go get inky!

xoxo,

Jessi