Merry Snowflakes

Well, with the temperatures outside today - this card is fitting!!! Yikes!  Although I actually think it's too cold to snow!!!  The Merry Monday challenge this week was a TicTacToe challenge - I love those....it's fun to decide which direction to go in...

I went across the top row using the Northern Flurry Embossing Folder and stamping the Snowflake Soiree onto a torn piece of Vellum cardstock.

Hope you are keeping warm in your little corner of the world.

Thanks for dropping by.

Joan

My Monster and Me

Happy Monday!...and we have a new sketch for you over at MDS Monday.  I'm the host this week, and, as you can see from the sketch below, I've changed mine up a bit.  When you play along, please feel free to use any punch shape, or stamped image where the hexagons are.

For this page, celebrating Elliot growing into his monster, I have used the chevron stamp from "Pencil It In"  to reproduce the afghan that I knit to go with the monster.  In order to create some texture on the chevron pieces, I used the Chevron Decorative Overlay - changed it to white - and left the background of the page white so that the rest of the overlay blended into the background.  I learned that trick from Heather Summers in a MDS2 class I took with her last summer.  It's a great way to add texture to punched images.

Here's the sketch...

Hope you play along with us this week at MDS Monday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Supplies for this page

Stamps
    _Designer Kits/Pencil It In/Pencil It In - chevron, Color = TEMPTING TURQUOISE 75,196,213
    _Designer Kits/Pencil It In/Pencil It In - chevron, Color = GUMBALL GREEN 105,132,51
    Decorative Overlays/Decorative Overlays - chevron, Color = WHISPER WHITE 255,255,255
    Splatters/A Split Second/A Split Second - splatter 3, Color = TEMPTING TURQUOISE 75,196,213
    Splatters/A Split Second/A Split Second - splatter 3, Color = GUMBALL GREEN 105,132,51

Punches
    Labels & Tags/Curly Label Punch, Fill Color = TEMPTING TURQUOISE 75,196,213

Bicycle Birthday

Welcome to  Sunday Stamps Challenge day - today it's a colour challenge!  We've got Perfect Plum, Raspberry Ripple and Crumb Cake for you today.  Sounds like a recipe for a baked good!  Yum!

I chose to keep the card fairly simple today.  I've distressed the edges of the Raspberry Ripple by using my Snips and adding ink.  The Perfect Plum section has been embossed and then distressed with ink.

I've found that the wonderful Natural Trim Ribbon accepts coloured ink quite well....that opens possibilities for decorating the lovely linen texture.

Give these colors a try and share your project with us over on the Sunday Stamps blog.  Here are a few things to keep in mind when you join us.

1. Please provide a Link back to us in your Post.

2. Please link directly to your blog post for the challenge.

3. Feel free to use any Brand of product.

4. Deadline is Friday February 1st @12pm EST.

5. Have FUN!!

I had a fabulous day stamping at Tamye's Extravaganza yesterday....lots of yummy projects that I will be sharing with you over the week.  Here is a clean and simple card created using the new Pinwheel Sizzlits Die that I COMPLETELY missed in the Spring Catalogue and now want to get.

Sure does help to make the small pinwheels easily.

Well, hope you have a fabulous Sunday.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Joan

Another quick post today - I made this card quite a while ago - I love how this butterfly works with this layering technique.  

To create the shading on the butterfly, I inked the whole stamp up with Wisteria Wonder and then sponged on Rich Razzleberry and Elegant Eggplant.

Hope you're having a marvelous day....

Time to share another Mandala - it's the one I created New Years Eve....

Hope you have a great end to your week -

Thanks for dropping by

Joan

Cherry on Top Mashup

Just a quick post tonight to catch up with things.  I had this card made up for the Friday MashUp!, but I missed the link deadline.  The challenge was to create a birthday card which included brads.

I used some of the Delicate Details Lace Tape - wow, was it fun to work with.  Stampin'Up! could come out with more of this!  I also liked being able to use some of my brads - I have quite a few, but I forget to use them.

I'm off to finish a couple more things before the night is done.

Hope your day has been productive.

Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Spring will come.....

We may have a fair number of Sunday Stamp days until we get there - but Spring will Come!

This week we have a fun sketchy at Sunday Stamps from Tara.  I should have thought more about the sketch before I started stamping though.  When I went to put my little flags on the card - and I tried a number of sizes - I decided that I had to adjust where they were on the card so that they didn't take away from the flowers.

I took the colours for my card from the Colour Throwdown this week - Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White and Crumb Cake.

I'd love to see what you come up with for our sketch challenge this week - Here are some things to keep in mind...

1. Please provide a Link back to us in your Post.

2. Please link directly to your blog post for the challenge.

3. Feel free to use any Brand of product.

4. Deadline is Friday January 25th @12pm EST.

5. Have FUN!!

Have a Super Sunday!  Thanks for visiting.

Joan

Stampin' up a storm....

Wow, I've gotten a lot done these last couple of days.  I have a 15 card stack on February 2 that nearly caught me by surprise.  I have room for 16-20 people, so if you don't get my newsletter with the information, and would like to join us,  just e-mail me to let me know.

February 2, 2013

1:00-4:00pm (afternoon sitting)

OR

6:00-9:00pm (evening sitting)

Joan's House

$30.00 for 15 cards (3 copies of 5 designs and you can decide the type of greeting you need to go on the front.

The above card is one that we will be doing on the 2nd.  I love that shoe so much better masked as a pair!  I used the little footprints from Daring Adventure.

Off to relax for what is left of the evening.  Hope you end up with a marvelous weekend.

Thanks for stopping by,

Joan

Butterfly Thanks and a Cover

Happy Thursday - Just about done the week - hope it's been a good one for you.  I've been busy, but I've had my share of lazy moments too.

Today I'm sharing a card created with a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches....I can't believe I used these two pieces of DSP, but I do like them together.  My father would be scolding me right now though - because the patterns aren't matched up to flow properly from one into the other.  (That brings back sewing memories!!!! Yeup - my dad taught me to sew)

I embossed the framelit pieces just to add a bit of texture, and of course the butterflies are "flying" off the page.

I'm also sharing my 1st Altered Book Cover that I finished the other night.  I had a lot of fun with it.  

1) I added an expired strip of DSP along the spine

2) I added Marina Mist reinker to Gesso to paint the cover and get rid of the original yeuky colour.  I painted over some of the DSP, but left the spine free of paint.

3)  I created a "gel skin" with Self Levelling Clear Gel and used some of our retired beads mircrobeads and glitter.

This is the piece I created and I've only torn off chunks to use on this cover.  That much glittery goodness needs to be spread around!

Here is a side view of the book - it's full of the Mandalas and Zendoodles that I've been doing over the past couple months.

Have a fantabulous day - Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Merry Monday Chickadee

I haven't used this chickadee for along time - I don't even think he came out to play during this past holiday season - so he's gearing up for 2013!  The sketch from Merry Monday was clean and simple and once I decided on the chickadee it really didn't take me long to decide on the rest - which is a good thing on a busy evening.  I used watercolour paper for the base of the chickadee using the aquapainter to colour him in.

Stamp Set - Beautiful Season

Paper - Very Vanilla,  Be of Good Cheer DSP, Watercolour Paper

Ink - Black Staz-On, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Basic Gray

Tools - Decorative Label Punch, Aqua Painter

Embellishments - Natural Trim, Designer Vintage Faceted Buttons, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Dimensionals

Here's one of my favorite mandalas in my altered book.  I sponged the entire page with Tempting Turquoise before drawing the mandala and I coloured in the spots with our white gel pen.  Let me say - I think our gel pens really are the best.  I have the most success with them!

I'm off to do more arting and crafting.  I'm almost ready to create the cover for this little book.  I'm a bit scared about it - but ya gotta jump in.

Hope your week is off to a great start.  Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Boxing Day Road Trip

This week at MDS Monday Heidi has a great sketch for us...I've changed it up a bit so I could include the three photos that I took in the van, sitting behind Elliot on our way to Airdrie on Boxing Day.  This week Heidi also is challenging us to crop an embellishment.  To help you with this part of the challenge this round, you can view THIS video, by Stampin'Up!, on cropping embellishments on MDS.

For the challenge, I took the road sign from the "Travel Log" embellishments and cropped out only the "Road Trip" portion.  When I cropped the sign, I couldn't completely eliminate the post  - so I added a tiny square punch at the top and bottom of the sign, to cover the exposed post, and filled it with colour to match the background. 

 I also cropped the Baker's Twine bow so that it wasn't quite so long.

The text in the suitcase is on a punch that then covers the words that are actually on that embellishment.

Here is Heidi's sketch

and here are some guidelines to keep things fun and fair for everyone.

1. In your blog post you must mention that you are playing along with MDS Monday - we'd love it if you went one step further and linked back to the challenge blog and posted our challenge photo!
2. Your project must be new and not posted prior to the MDS Monday challenge date.
3. Enter as many times as you like!
4. When linking your entry, please link directly to your blog post, not your entire blog. 
5. Entries must be in by 11:59pm EST the following Friday (that means you have 12 full days to enter!)
6. Have fun!

I hope you have fun with this - don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has come up with on the MDS Monday Challenge Blog, there's even an example of creating a double layout with this sketch!

Hope the beginning of your week is wonderful

Joan

Supply List for this page:

Background
     Color = SO SAFFRON 253,215,130

Embellishments
    _Designer Kits/Travel Log - embellishments/Travel Log - enjoy the journey
    _Designer Kits/Travel Log - embellishments/Travel Log - road trip
    _Designer Kits/On the Go - embellishments/On the Go - car (re-colored)
    _Designer Kits/Travel Log - embellishments/Travel Log - are we there yet (re-colored)
    _Designer Kits/On the Go - embellishments/On the Go - car (re-colored)
    Baker's Twine/Baker's Twine - Crumb Cake bow

Punches
    Basics/1.25 Square Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper/_Designer Kits/Travel Log - designer series paper/Travel Log - 6
    Basics/1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color = SO SAFFRON 253,215,130
    Basics/1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color = SO SAFFRON 253,215,130
    Basics/1.25 Circle Punch, Fill Color = BASIC BLACK 19,27,29
    Basics/1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color = WHISPER WHITE 255,255,255
    Labels & Tags/Lots of Tags - shape 2, Fill Color = 179,161,132
    Basics/1.25 Square Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper/_Designer Kits/Travel Log - designer series paper/Travel Log - 6

Photos
    Designer Series Paper/_Designer Kits/Delight in the Day - designer series paper/Delight in the Day - 5     

Umbrella Thoughts

Well - considering I was challenged outside my comfort zone, I'm pretty happy with the end result.  This week at Friday Mashup! half of Amy's challenge was to use different patterns.  Because I'm a GenX gal, this goes against how I was brought up - but a challenge is a challenge and I was up for it!

I took DSP from Patio Party, Summer Smooches, and the new Sycamore Street.   I guess I really didn't follow the guidelines I learned from Carrie Cudney in the "I'm a Pattern Mixing Pro" session at Convention this summer - one of her RULES was to stay with the same package collection.    But then she also said that rules were made to be broken.

The sketch comes from Freshly Made Sketches.

So here are the challenges

1. Make a project using "Different Patterns".
2. Or Make a project with the three or more colors from "Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango, Island Indigo, Early Espresso and Sahara Sand".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Patterned Project with the Challenge Colors".

If you want to join the Friday Mashup you'll still have time, but I've just sneaked in under the wire for the Freshly Made Sketch challenge.

Hope you are having a marvelous day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Ferris Wheel Celebration

Welcome back to another Sunday Stamps Challenge.  This week Hayley has a fabulous colour combination for us.  I was able to pull out one of the pieces  of DSP from the Print Poetry Paper Stack....both the Midnight Muse and the Raspberry Ripple are included in that pack - it was hard to pick.  

Because I chose the vintage looking Raspberry Ripple, I decided to use the Ferris Wheel image from the SAB Feeling Sentimental set.  Things have been kept pretty simple for this card - I didn't even include any distressing.  Amazing!

So - I hope you jump on into this challenge - pop on over to the Sunday Stamps Challenge Blog for some inspiration from the other Design Team Members.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you join us.

1. Please provide a Link back to us in your Post.

2. Please link directly to your blog post for the challenge.

3. Feel free to use any Brand of product.

4. Deadline is Friday January 18th @12pm EST.

5. Have FUN!!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

More Altered Pages....

One thing I'm enjoying about creating these altered books/art journals - is that I can use up bits and pieces of images or paper that I've kept....This "Favorite Teddy" - really was a favorite of mine.  I had done up a number of them for a scrapbook page a couple of years ago, and since then this little guy has been living in the bottom of a drawer, just waiting to be used.  

The "wet ink" marks were not there initially - I had spritzed this page with colour, and on THIS page I  added water making the inks bleed through.....

I love using the little bits of left over DSP on these pages too.....this book is only 5 1/4 X 7 1/4".

One of my favorite colour combinations for card projects is black, white and red......this is one of my favorite pages too.  I drew with Watercolour Wonder Crayons around the outside of the mandala and spread it with the aqua painter.  I will be journaling on these pages eventually so like having the empty space.

Well, that's it for today - gotta get ready for a class Friday afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by - if the weather in your area is cold, cold, cold I hope you are staying warm.

Joan

Noel for the future

I know - Christmas is over, but I'm going to try to join Merry Monday this year and get a jump start on unique Christmas cards for next season.

The Merry Monday challenge this week is to use these colours

It's hard to believe that a year ago today a precious, beloved, child of God was welcomed into our family - Elliot is a year today.  Wooooo Hooooo!

Love the baby, love the baby!!!!

Have an awesome day today folks.

Joan

Happy Birthday Phone Call...

It's a sketch week at Sunday Stamps and Melissa has a great one for us; very versatile!

I chose to use another of the fabulous images from the "Feeling Sentimental"  set - which will be available during Sale-a-Bration.  I  love these images.  The base of the card has been embossed and I used the Natural Trim with a Brushed Bronze button to top everything off.  The colours I've used are Riding Hood Red, More Mustard and Crumb Cake.

I hope you'll give the sketch a try - pop over to the Sunday Stamps Challenge blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has come up with for inspiration......

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you join us.

1. Please provide a Link back to us in your Post.

2. Please link directly to your blog post for the challenge.

3. Feel free to use any Brand of product.

4. Deadline is Friday January 11th @12pm EST.

5. Have FUN!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Joan

Love Heart

It's hard to believe it's the end of the week!  I could totally not go back to school on Monday - only because I've been getting a lot done at home.

I did a Friday Mash-Up Card today 

1. Make a project using the "Sketch".
2. Or Make a project featuring "Hearts".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project using the "Sketch and Hearts".

I love this paper - the colours are so cool - and it matches the embossing folder, which is a plus!

I had an unexpected opportunity to see Elliot today - I took his mom to shop for an outfit for his first birthday; which is coming up this week. WOW, this year has passed quickly!  So... I took some quick pictures of him playing with the toys.

Hope you were able to play with some toys today - craft like or other! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Joan

Wish Big Bow Ties

It's been a very busy day - cleaning, finally getting rid of the big fish tank and a bit of crafting.  Two challenges in one card - 

I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week - tweaked a bit and I've used the colours from the Colour Throwdown.... Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla and Kiwi Kiss.  

I like these bow ties from "Dapper Dad" - new in the Spring Catalogue.  They make me think of my husband who is working towards a different tie for every day of school.  I've also used the new Natural Trim Ribbon again - I just love it's texture.

I created this page a couple of months ago, in my altered book - I had started out with stamping the flourish from "Elements of Style"  It didn't end up stamping very well on the book pages because they were a bit bumpy from being glued together - so I sorta embellished the stamped images with more doodles.  For the colour I added some drops of re-inker to the page and then spritzed in with water.

I'm planning on making some little hand bound notebooks with our Stampin'Up! paper so that the ink acts "properly".  I never know what result I'll get  on published book pages.....but I have fun anyway.

Hope you're day was eventful - thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Birthday Balloon with Soda Pop?

It's sort of amazing how much crafting I can get done when I don't have to teach during the day!  I'm getting business stuff, challenges and "just for me" crafting done.  It feels good.  

Today's card is for the colour challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  I haven't joined these ladies in a very long time either.  Their colours this week are -  Pool Party, Primrose Petals and Black.  I added the new Soda Pop Top - thought I'd give them a try since I earned them.  Not quite sure what I think.....

Thought I'd share another Mandala...since I've been creating them every day, but not sharing them.

Before I drew the mandala I covered the pages of my "altered art journal" with a couple of our Lattice pieces and sponged various green inks onto the page.  Under the mandala I've used a spritzer tool with the matching markers.  I had the big wax paper butterfly left over from a scrapbook page I did in the summer.  I think this is one of my favorite pages.

Anyway - hope you are having a great week - it's the first hump day of the year.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.

Joan

Snow Boarding Birthday

Woo Hoo - I've done another challenge; and one I've missed for quite a while so it feels good to be playing along again with......Friday Mashup

1. Make a project using "Snowflakes".
2. Or Make a project with the colors "Whisper White, Pool Party, Midnight Muse, and Basic Black".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Snowflake Project with the colors Whisper White, Pool Party, Midnight Muse, and Basic Black".

I've also included the card in the SUO Challenges this week for their "True Blue" challenge.

Since I pulled out the retired Extreme Snowboarder, I decided to use the retired snowflake embossing folder too. Fun, fun, fun.

Off to create some more.....thanks for visiting today - Wishing you a FANTASTIC 2013!!!!

Joan