Sunshine Rainboots

Okay - I digressed as I was writing, so I'm going with the card details first and then if you feel like reading on you can...

I used an old sketch from Just Add Ink from quite a while ago and the colours are from Create with Connie and Mary - Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso.  I love these little boots - they're just so cute.  They come from a Hostess set that will be available....TOMORROW!  I almost added some "mud" to the bottom of one boot - but decided agains it.

Anyway...

What a wonderful day it has been.  At school I got to see a couple of women friends who I haven't seen in a while and the morning was full of hugs.  Then I had a fantastic lunch with my dear friend, Lori, who I hadn't seen in a while - Thanks again Lori ......so I'm living in the sunshine today - in colourful rain boots!

Gosh I wish we had rain boots like the ones I see the kids wearing sometimes.  I remember as a young adult having a pair of white gum boots that I wore when I took Brownies to camp.....

.....I'm pretty sure that if I had those white gum boots today, I'd be stamping on them with Staz-On ink!  Which reminds me - I never shared my iPhone cover that I stamped over a month ago.  Actually, this is the second edition.  I stamped the white case with Staz-On Black, but the images did start rubbing off after a couple of weeks.  So I took everything off, with nail polish remover, and started over.  This time, I added a coat of Crystal Effects overtop and it has endured a month of use.  I may put another coat on eventually.

I like it because it's just so - Me!

Thanks for stopping by to visit - Hope your day has been full of sunshine!

Joan

Spring is in the Air

As soon as I saw the challenge at Stampin' Royalty - "Spring Things", I knew I had to get busy with the project I had planned.....I was inspired by the photo on page 5 of the April Stampin' Success Magazine. 

 I have put this bird cage at our front door for the past two years.  Sometimes it's empty; last year I stuck a chickadee inside (ceramic of course).  When I saw the example in the magazine I knew I had to duplicate it.  I literally had to cram in  the wreath I used as a nest, and the eggs are drastically oversized, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

I've been using pearls or rhinestones as the bodies of my butterflies, but I like the added flowers too.  Linen thread was used of the antennae....it worked well.

The styrofoam eggs are covered with layers of the Blossom Bouquet Triple flower and then spritzed with Soft Suede.  I moistened the paper a bit to make it more pliable, and attached the layers with a hot glue gun.

These little flowers are standard....the Boho Blossoms punch - largest blossom in 5 layers.  Each layer was spritzed with water first before crumpling it up.  I used sewing pins through the middle to hold them together.

Finally, I used the left over butterflies for a card using the sketch from Stamping 411.

I've been babysitting Elliot the past three afternoons while his mom and dad get moved into their new place.  I'm bushed!  But I had a good time.

Hope your weekend is off to a good start.  Thanks for taking the time to visit.

Joan

Sailing out of Summer

 Well, it really sucks that the last two days of summer were spent nursing a migraine! What a complete waste of time.  I woke up today relieved of the headache before heading to school for meetings.  After school I made sure I got some stamping done!  I decided that for this week's Paper Players sketch challenge  I would use one of the Summer Mini sets (The Open Sea) which will be gone soon.

I brayered some Early Espresson onto the embossing folder to add that bit of depth before embossing.  What a wonderful sketch this is - one to keep in mind for workshops!


I had an Open House this past weekend, and re-did my Door Prize box with some of the new Mocha Morning Specialty paper.  To be honest, I may never redo this box - I love it!  I used the Lace Ribbon Border, put it through the crimper which made it bend around the edge of the lid easily.

It won't take long before the school routine gets set in, but I'm happy I'll still have time for stamping and sharing classes with my peeps!

Hope the summer is winding up well for you also - thanks for stopping by for a visit!  Joan

Halloween Webs & Pumpkins

 

Oh I had fun this morning with this creation.  It's for today's Friday Mashup! 

• Create a card using Lesley's sketch  OR
• Create a card using dry embossing  OR
• Mash the sketch and the dry embossing together on one card

I LOVE using my embossing folders so that was easy, and Lesley's sketch was easy to work with too!  Once I decided to create a Halloween card, I used the Spider Web embossing folder - but the "busy" part of the raised web was in the "wrong" corner for the sketch - so I turned the paper over, saw the valley's and thought - Dazzling Details!!!!  I tried doing the same thing with Two-Way Glue and Dazzling Diamonds, but I didn't get the same effect.   I did think ahead and placed the matting on the paper so I knew where I DIDN'T have to put the Dazzling Details.

Last night I created a paper pumpkin for display at my Open House tomorrow, and thought a little stick-out pumpkin would be perfect for this card too - so I took the smallest oval punch and punched 6 pieces using some left over embossed "matting";   folded them in half and glued them together using TomBow Glue.  I left the pumpkin "open" so I could use that flat area to attach it to the card.   For the leaves and runners I used the leaves from the Bird Builder punch (omiting all but the bottom leaf) and used a skewer to roll the "stem" and, again, attached them with TomBow.

It's been a productive morning - I'm anticipating more of the same for the rest of the day.  Hope things are working out for you on this fabulous Friday!  Thanks for stopping by.

Gearing up to get busy in the New Year. Here are some projects that I'll be doing at a workshop on January 5th. I've revamped the apricot one so that it was a little more exciting that my original plan.....glitter does do wonders.



I love the new butterfly set for the Big Shot....I'm sorry that I was in a bit of hurry to put the cover in the plastic - some of the glitter smudged so the butterflies have fat little bodies.

And for the clean and simple....I love this medallion stamp!

I'm hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that you are looking toward a wonderful New Year.

Thanks for dropping by - Joan
Note the address change to j-jcreations.blogspot.com

Gift/Party Boxes

During the summer I worked on putting together some of the little gift boxes which were created by BJ Peters from Stampin'Up! There was a photo of these cute little boxes on the demonstrator website and I thought I'd give them a try. I changed the pumpkin a bit by adding the vine and leaves across the front. I'm also using a different box base than was used in the originals because it was the only one I had.

Everything is made with the Big Shot dies and SU punches. There are a few more designs which I'd like to make and some others I'll share later.

Hope all is well your way - thanks for dropping by.
JOAN

Massive Migraine Meltdown....

Pretty creepy that even with a migraine pounding and my eyes squinting I can still lay down the alliteration. A bit sickening actually. Anyway, nothing new has been made due to last night's meeting and tonight's migraine...however, I finished making this booklet on the weekend for a family who has had to do a lot of traveling due to a family members' recovering from a stroke. I made up three CD's of my favorite Christian....sing it in the car at the top of your lungs, music and put together this book/journal. It's made from the On Board Journal; I have included the three pockets for the CD's and also within the pages included the lyrics for the songs and a note or two from me explaining why the songs are important to me. They've already listened to the CD's and enjoyed them. I usually have trouble putting journal fronts together but I'm happy with the way this one turned out.

March Specialty Workshop

Amy created this purse using the "Build a Flower" set. On March 19 Amy and I are doing a workshop where you will create this cute little purse and 3 cards using pieces from the set. This is a limited attendance workshop.....only 8 spaces are going to be available and you MUST register and pay by March 1. The cost will be $20.00 and we plan to be done in 2 hours. I've posted the purse today and will post the cards sometime this weekend..it's a busy one.....music workshop, card workshop...oh, and Riverdance on Sunday.

Still more than just cards

Amy allowed me to include this little sweetheart in our blog. She created this clipboard with a favorite photo of her nephew. There are so many different creative ways that you can give photographs as gifts, or keep them especially for yourself.

It's not all about Cards!

Amy created this fantastic pictures which now hang in her basement where we hold our workshops. Each of them is so unique, with it's own personality. For the "Celebrate" frame she used pieces from the "Build a Flower" kit - watch for a limited attendance workshop in March using this kit in another way. I love the playfulness of the "Fun" picture...the Zoofari stamp set has so much potential! Finally, I seriously love the "Embrace Life" frame. The flowers are perfect... All three of these would be perfect gifts for you to create and give to friends and family.....or keep for yourself.