2012 Favourites in Cards & Books

Before I begin, let me first direct you to the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog, where we're introducing one of our new design team members - an incredibly talented person I've been lucky to be a follower of for a while now: Dawn!   Pop on over & say hello, and make sure to check out her stunning projects on her own blog, Paper Stamp Scissors. It's her first turn hosting the challenge, so I hope you can find some crafty time to play along this week :)

I'm sitting out this week because I still haven't been able to get to my desk. Once I finish the massive stack of dishes I plan to give it a shot - this is the first time I've had to sit out on participating in any of my design team posts, and it bites. I don't like the feeling of letting the teams down :( Sitting at the computer forces me to sit up straight - and I am a terrible crafty sloucher.

Anyway, last year I did individual posts for each month of favourites in books & cards, and this time around I think I will just keep it one big long massive post. I keep track of the books that I read with a spreadsheet (nerd...I know). I don't rate them or review them, just note which ones. Several years ago someone asked me how many books I read in a year, and the answer this year is 222. Most of  them are books I forget instantly on finishing - murder mysteries and procedurals - but I read for entertainment. Life is too short to be reading books I don't enjoy! The funny thing is - most of my favourite books? Not crime books at all.

January: (all the month links will be to each card's original post)

and for books:

Sinead Moriarty, Me and My Sisters (all the book links will be to synopses so that you can read a bit about the books!)

February:

books:

Joshilyn Jackson, a grown-up kind of pretty

Patricia Cornwell, Red Mist

Charlaine Harris, an ice cold grave

March:

books:

Ami McKay, The Virgin Cure

Jodi Picoult, Lone Wolf

Sarah McCoy, The Baker's Daughter

April:

books:

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games trilogy

May:

books:

Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy

June: 

books:

Molly Harper, the Nice Girls don't Have Fangs series

Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

July:

books:

Rachel Simon, The Story of Beautiful Girl

Sandra Dallas, True Sisters

Alice Laplante, Turn of Mind

August:

books:

Leila Meacham, Tumbleweeds

September:

Jeanne Ray, Calling Invisible Women

Lynda Rutledge, Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale

October:

books:

Nancy Jensen, The Sisters

SJ Bolton, The Awakening

JK Rowling, The Casual Vacancy

November:

books:

Jenny Lawson (The Blogess), Let's Pretend this Never Happened

December:

books:

Val McDermid, The Vanishing Point

Lisa Genova, Love Anthony

John Grisham, The Racketeer - seriously, I haven't liked his for a while...the last half makes this book.

Lish McBride, Hold me Closer, Necromancer

Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior

If you made it this far, bless you :) I'd love to hear your favourite books - or even just what you're reading right now. As you can no doubt tell, I kind of love to read ;)

I hope to be back with some new cards shortly!

xoxo,

Jessi

ETA: I'm joining in with two year-end reviews - with the Recipe Swap at Catered Crop, and with Stephanie at Ingenious Inkling! Check them out & share your year-end review too :) 

Shopping our Stash #83 - All White & Cream

I am so sorry that I'm late - at least I already had a card done up for the team post over at Shopping our Stash. My Tuesday Morning Sketches card is still in my brain. (The rest of the DT rocked it - go look! I'll be joining in as soon as I can.)
The Christmas cold that everyone in our house suffered through has turned into bronchitis for me. I had about 6 hours on the weekend where I felt human, and then BOOM, the bronchitis truck ran me over. *insert sad whine* It's been a few years since I've had it, but it sucks just as much as I remember.
ANYWAY, this week the challenge at Shopping our Stash is to make a project incorporating only tones of white & cream:

This week our challenge is to create a card (project) that is all white or all ivory/cream/vanilla!  You can combine ivory and white if you like, and your image can be colored with skin/hair tones, and of course your ink you stamp with can be colored- but please stick with the theme!

Since I was working ahead (pats self on back) mine is a rather Christmasy card - 

Supplies: acetate doohickey things from Little Yellow Bicycle; corner rounder; Pearl Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels; Tombow glue

As pretty much everyone on the  team will say, it's hard photographing white on white! Give it your best shot :)

This challenge is open until Monday January 7th (my oldest son's birthday!),  and don't forget to check out what everyone else has been up to!

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

I'm hoping to catch up on commenting in the next couple of days too - sitting at the computer desk appears to be about as much activity as I'm up for. I'll be back, though :)
xoxo,
Jessi

DYSU #104 - Turquoise - Guest Designer!

How about cramming everything into the title? Not bad! Thank goodness for Barb, because spending the last few days sick in bed threw off my internal calendar and I CANNOT BELIEVE that I nearly forgot to post something I've been incredibly excited about for weeks!

Me! Guest designing with the DYSU team for their last challenge! I'm honoured & humbled to have been asked to help celebrate this fun challenge - because I have had a blast playing along with them :)

I received this SUPER sweet image from Sweet & Sassy Stamps to play with, and right away knew I wanted to make a winter hello! Here's Kiwi Koala's Cuppa:

Supplies: Kiwi Koala's Cuppa digital image from Sweet & Sassy Stamps; papers from My Mind's Eye;

standard small circle Nesties; Timeless Twine; Sentiment stamp from The Cat's Pajamas; Gray Flannel Memento ink; bells from Michaels; rhinestone strips from Dollarama; coloured with Prismacolor pencils; Mod Podge Dimensional Magic 

I had to glossy up the cup! And, drinking my own morning cup of coffee right now, I kind of wish I had a cup that was half my size to warm me up :)

There are 4 generous sponsors for this last DYSU challenge - which means 4 chances to win some fun crafty prizes! Head on over to the DYSU blog to check out what you can win, and the design team's beautiful projects. 

A FEW RULES 

• Our DT would love to leave comments on your blogs, please remove word verification to make this process easier (see right side bar for a how-to guide).
• Only 3 entries per person per Challenge.
• Make sure to link back to this challenge and mention it on your blog in your blog post.
• No back linking.
• Entries that do not fit the requirements will not be eligible for Winner or Top 3.
• Mr. Linky closes at 5pm on Tuesdays.

I know I'd love to see you play along this week - maybe with some new stamping goodies from Santa??

xoxo,

Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #178 - Anything Goes!

Do we ever have something crazy for you this week at Tuesday Morning Sketches!  Anything Goes. Sort of. We really want you to challenge yourselves - try something you haven't before, like a new technique or a new kind of project. The design team has pulled out all kinds of crazy stops, and I know I'm pretty excited to share mine with you. Melissa, our fearless leader, has assembled a fabulous prize package for the winner of this week's challenge, so show us what you've got! A few weeks ago Theresa was the kind sponsor of the TMS challenge, and my package was busy hitch-hiking to get to Canada. My stamps came JUST in time for this challenge, so I want to thank Theresa for her generosity - and the perfect stamps she chose for me!

For my something new, I tried a Side Step card  using the Splitcoast tutorial. I made two, for kids whose awesome parents get me to make them cards every year. Trouble is, I made my layers kind of chunky, so I couldn't fit them in envelopes. Enter my moment of brilliance: I figured out a box. On my own. (I'm still VERY excited about that!)

First, the picture you may have seen on the Tuesday Morning Sketches blog - this card is my favourite, since I do have a soft spot for the girly ;)

Supplies: Close to my Heart stamps - Flakey Friends; Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam- blizzard; Glimmer Mist - blue skies; Aleene's Glitter Snow; Stampendous Shabby Blue embossing powder (on the tree); AC fabric thickers - pink; Jolee's by You lights; EAD Designs rub-ons for the sentiments

I painted the Glimmer Glam & Glimmer Mist on a full piece of cardstock with a paintbrush. LOVE that stuff! It is perfect as a watercolour paint. The Glimmer Glam has some glitter in it as well as a fine shimmer. The snow paint is done the same way - it's very thick & messy, so I spread it on with my fingers over the whole sheet (of glossy paper) & let it dry. It's VERY sturdy, though, and after it's dry you can tear or die cut the paper without the snow paint flaking/chunking off. 

So, to make the card (after following the scoring/cutting instructions at Splitcoast), I cut the blue painted cardstock into the sizes I needed to cover JUST the front-facing panels. This allows the card to fold shut. Then I embossed & added the lights to the  tree die (from Barb's stash - love that girlie!) 

and attached it. Then cut out & coloured the snowgal, layered 2 strips of snow paper, glued the Thickers on with some Tombow Mono-Multi (and using baby powder as an adhesive neutralizer on the top parts of the letters that extend above the first fold). The EAD rub-ons are the perfect little something to add without overpowering the background.

The card folds shut, but it's chunky, like I said. Probably about a centimetre thick when folded, plus I let the tree hang over the top fold. So, what now? Make a box!

Here are the directions for the box, using a piece of cardstock 8.5" by 11" :

on the short side, score at 5/8" and 7 7/8"

on the long side, score at 5/8", 5 2/8", 5 7/8", 10 3/8"

on the long sides, snip along the score lines (4 of them) UP TO the short side score lines, for creating the folding tabs. Secure the folding tabs with some scor-tape, and ta-da! The box will need to be secured shut in some way, and twine is the perfect re-usable way to do that. I stamped a little tag to go on top with each recipient's name.

Supplies: Close to my Heart stamps - Flakey Friends; Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam- blizzard; Glimmer Mist - blue skies; Aleene's Glitter Snow; Doodlebug letter stickers; Salty Ocean distress ink; PTI snowball lettering, hand-drawn sign; 3/4" punch for snowballs; Dollarama bells; trees cut from Fancy Pants paper (from the sweet JEN!)

Since the construction is the same, I'll leave it there!

I really hope you find time to play along with us this week - push yourself to try something new, perhaps with some new presents?? We are maintaining a regular challenge schedule at Tuesday Morning Sketches, so this linky will be open until Sunday, December 30th, and a new special challenge will be announced on the 1st! 

Make sure to hop over to the design blog and see the amazing creations by all my teamies: 

Lee, the Best of the Best designer

Angela 

Bonnie

Cheryl

Dawn

Debbie

Laura

Theresa

Melissa

Merry Christmas!
xoxo,
Jessi

So many cards...

I learned a little bit from last year, realizing that there was NO WAY I was ever going to be able to blog all the Christmas cards I make. I didn't even bother photographing all my cards this time around, and I still have a bunch to share (and no more time). Here's a few more of them, and I'm linking up again with DYSU's "Anything Goes" challenge and Simon Says Stamp's "Merry Christmas" challenge.

Supplies: paper from Memory Box; washi tape from We R Memory Keepers (thanks to Lindsey!!); deer die cut from K&Co; Frost White pigment ink (Colorbox); standard & lacy circle Nesties; Fun Flock; sentiment rub-on from EAD Designs

Supplies: Fancy Pants paper ((from Jen!!); EAD Designs rub-on; bling strips from Dollarama

And I even have more challenge cards to share...last minute crafting burst last weekend :) I'll be back tomorrow with a new (fabulous!) challenge for Tuesday Morning Sketches, but I've already written that post - so for now I'll wish you a very Merry Christmas! Time to go wrap some presents...finally...

xoxo,

Jessi

Is it food? Well, there ARE olives...

The challenge home for all my favourite cards....Drunken Stampers' lastest challenge is Eat, Pray, Love. It doesn't mention drink, but how could I not share this?

Supplies: papers from Bo Bunny; awesome Stella image from Bugaboo; computer-generated sentiment inspired by the Appletini set from MFT; bells from Dollarama; Mod Podge Dimensional Magic; exasperated bird rub-on from Basic Grey; watercoloured with Glimmer Mists and Distress inks

You have until next Friday the 28th to enter!

I'm also going to toss this into these challenges:

DYSU #103, Anything Goes: because I totally feel like anything goes after swimming in a martini ;)

and 

Simon Says Stamp - Merry Christmas; because ELF! 

xoxo,

Jessi

Connor, in Thriller!

If we're friends on FB you've already seen this, but I got requests to share it more widely, so I hope that this coding works & you can view it :)

Playing in Paradise - Merry Christmas!

 Happy Friday & Merry Christmas! This time of year is so very busy that we wanted to have a just for fun Christmas challenge this week at Scrapbooker's Paradise.  Each of the design team is sharing a little something, and we'd love to see you join us. No prize this time around, but we'll definitely come visit!

I don't think it's any secret that I love patterned paper, and when it gets down to crunch time for Christmas creating that is my definite go-to for a quick card. I have two to share today, each of them made in less than 10 minutes!

(Remember, you can always click the picture to make it larger & see more details!)

 Supplies: paper and stamps from My Mind's Eye; Sakura Stardust glitter pen; blue pearls; Gray Flannel Memento ink; Pearl Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels

Supplies: paper from Memory Box; Pearl Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels; Making Memories rub-on; Mod Podge dimensional magic

To see what the other designers are sharing, click on over to the Playing in Paradise post - and don't forget to leave some love along the way :) The just-for-fun link up will be open for 2 weeks, and our regular challenges will resume in the new year with new designers & a big 100th challenge celebration coming up!

Allison

Nina

Angela

xoxo,

Jessi

Friends with Flair!

I have the loveliest friends :) Emily sent me this super-sweet Unity stamp for my birthday, and I thought it would make a fun Christmas card - especially because I often call little girls "dolly!"

Supplies: Unity stamp; paper & mini alphabet stickers from Kaisercraft;Palette Noir ink; coloured with dye inks; sprayed with Tattered Rose glimmer mist from Tattered Angels; snowflake stamps from PTI; Spun Sugar Distress ink; Martha Stewart snowflake punches; snowflake brad from stash

I spritzed the glimmer spray very lightly since I didn't want to have a blotchy look - hard to capture the glimmer, but this picture does a bit. 

Of course I'm linking up with this week's Unity Friends with Flair :) I'm off to make my very last Christmas cards for the year - a special order for a special family. I can't wait to share those - if they turn out as planned I'll be geeking out big time!

xoxo,
Jessi

Drunken Stampers - Stripes!

I was going to call this post "Drunken Stripes," but of course that brings to mind a whole different look, doesn't it? The current challenge at Drunken Stampers is to use stripes, and instantly I knew I *had* to play. I LOVE STRIPES!

Supplies: striped paper from Bo Bunny; image from Bugaboo; computer-generated sentiment; lacy circle Nesties; 1" circle punch; coloured with dye inks & glimmer mists; Dimensional Magic on her glasses

I shared this card previously on FB but HAD to link it up for this challenge...somehow I feel like the gals there will appreciate the snark! I've also got another yellow snow card - I TOLD YA it was my favourite!

Supplies: paper from Bo Bunny; standard small & lacy circle Nesties; kraft, white, and black cardstock; Palette Noir ink; puppy & sentiment from Inkadinkado; Liquid Applique; googly eyes; Tattered Angels glimmer mist- Yellow Daisy

I love that the stripes on this paper were wide enough to fit the sentiment perfectly. 

xoxo,

Jessi