Sparkle Baby

Hi there! Old man winter has reared his ugly head around these parts!! It's been snowing and blowing and FREEZING! When we have had such a mild fall, getting used to this bitter temperature is going to be tough! Hayes and I were going to go into town with my mom and take my Grandpa out for chinese food while the other 2 boys are in school, but with the roads so icy, we have decided to stay in:( We are pretty bare bones in the fridge, so I will have to challenge myself in the cooking department;) I'll pick up some milk when I drop Jake off at preschool, but that's about all that rinky dink grocery store in the village has to offer! lol! We have a freezer full of beef that we just got done, so we'll get our protein fix, but our chances of not contracting scurvey might be another story!
On a super exciting side note, my card (balloon boy) was chosen as a winner over at ATS!! Whoo Hoo! Free stamp sets are always welcome around these parts! I love starting off the day as a champ, and I didn't even have to eat wheaties for breakfast:) hehe
This is a card that I made for the BasicGrey challenge, which was to use any BG products and use any 'winged thing'. I also used the SSSC as my layout inspiration.

I used this little cutie from CC Designs. Ain't she sweet?? She always reminds me of my niece Harley for some reason...maybe it's the round little tummy and piggy tails? I always seem to give her blonde hair like my muse. For the BG challenge, I used the Kioshi line. I love the colours and whimsical patterns! I crazy stitches around each panel and popped up the panel that the little sprite is on. I coloured her with copics and paper pieced her bodysuit, leggings (I usually make her legging-less, but it's darned cold out here this time of year!) and sockies. I applied 2 different glitters to her wings after colouring and added stickles and purple rhinestones brads to her antennae. I glittery prima flower finishes off the front:)

The inside has the sentiment 'sparkle' to go along with the sparkly cardfront. I stitched as well, punched out a strip of dp and added stickles to the center of each flower.

Recipe:
Stamps: CC Designs, Stampin Up! (sentiment)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black
CS: Stampin Up! (Black), TE (choice snow white)
DP: BasicGrey (kioshi)
Flower: Prima
punch: SU
other: stickles, glitter (SU), brads (SU), sewing machine, thread, glue pen (creative memories), copics

Birthday Boy and his Balloon

Welcome! Thanks so much for stopping by:) Today I have a card for you that I made a few nights ago. I was itching to stamp, but when I went downstairs, I found that 'someone' (read Ryan or Jake) must have turned down the underfloor heat REALLY low...now if any of you out there have that kind of heat in your house, you know that it takes a long long time to get the house warmed up! So there I was in my stamp room (which is the coldest room anyway for some reason) FUH-Reezing!!! You might notice that my colouring skills on this card are the pits, and that is why...my fingers could barely hold a marker. I kept having to blow my breath into them to try and get the joints to move! They were seriously seized up! lol! I almost gave up numerous times, and I hardly ever take more than one sit down to make a card. I like to have a done project when i call it a night!
Anyway- that is the distance I go for my 14 followers! Almost freezing my fingers off in the name of stamping! This card is based on Jen's SFYYT for this week....

As well as the sketch challenge, I am also entering this in this weeks challenge at All That Scraps. The challenge was to make a birthday themed card and the requirement was that you used a current stamp available in the ATS online shop. I went through the store (knowing that I wanted to use a CC Designs stamp) and found that this little fella that I happen to own, is indeed in the shop..YAY! I love him...he is cute and trying to be cool at the same time;) I coloured him (see above if you are wondering wtheck happened to my colouring;) with copics, cut him out and popped him up with dimensionals onto the card. If you are wondering 'Jenny- where on earth did you find such a small replica of the 12x12 dp pattern that you used to paper-piece his t-shirt', then wonder no more!! Ladies..I seriously think that I invented the wheel, or fire, or something equally as important and life altering here!! Ready....wait for it....here it comes................I used the page on the front of the kit that shows the dp pattern to size, and then right beside it, the dp if you saw it as a whole (which measures really small...maybe 1x2"). That teeny tiny piece is what I stamped the shirt on and cut out! Genius, right?? haha!

Sorry- didn't realize this pic was so blurry until now:( The balloon is covered with a layer of crystal effects. I used MFT's banner die to create the little HB2U sentiment (I put that in place of the heart embellishment on Jens sketch) I attached each banner together with a brad (the 'wings' of the brad were placed on either side of the string and then set, to ensure the string was somewhat centered and kept in place) and string along the top and clipped on both ends with mini library clips. I stamped the letters in memento using TCP's Coolvetica alphabet set. I left the inside panel empty, as I plan on stamping the lucky little mans name in there when I decide who this goes too;)

Recipe:

Stamps: CC Designs (Birthday Trevor), TCP (Coolvetica)

Ink: Memento

CS: SU, TE

DP: Crate Paper

Dies: MFT (banner trio), Spellbinders

Other: Brads (SU), string (unknown), Crystal effects (SU), Copics

Pumpkins, Witches and Dragons

Hi there!!! Well, I am on cloud nine tonight (except for the boughts of coughing fits every 2 minutes that practically leave me incontinent);) lol!! Here is why I am so darned happy in the midst of feeling crappy....drum roll please......I was chosen this month AGAIN as Swanky Stamper of the Month over at The Cats Pajama's!!! I am so honoured that Alma picked my card as the swankiest! Thank you so very much Alma:) I'm sure glad that I bit the bullet last night and got my winning entry in!

Here are those little Halloween cards that I worked on this weekend for the little ghouls and boys in my family;)

I showed you a witchy little card a few posts ago (I made 2 of those and still had my 3rd neice to make one for) and here are the final cards:

This one was for my nephew Brody.....a cute little dragon with red hair to boot;) Just like Brody's. I added stickles to the wings and spikes on his back and CE to the big eyes on the top of the 'costume'....the pumpkin on the bow also has stickles and a layer of CE to give it more of a 'buttony' kind of look. This was a SSSC layout from last week, but I didn't get it entered in time....

Next up we have baby pumpkins for my nephews Lucas

 (21 months) and Denim (12 months)....Denim is really blonde and Lucas is more of a reddish brown, so I made their cards to look like them...I added stickles to the pumpkin suit here and there and to the lil jack-o-lanterns that they are holding. Again I used CE on the pumpkin punched embellishment and dotted the edge of the panels with dimensional pearls. This is a SFYTT layout.
I don't know why the top picture photographed so green?? And I'm no pro at the old photoshop elements yet, so you'll have to just accept me for my flaws in the photography department;) I wish I had 24 hr technical support.....

Lastly, the card that I made for my middle niece Harley. She is 2 1/2 and would NOT be a witch this year..She had it in her head that she wanted to be a Cyanaur (dinosaur)! So cute:) Same as the others, I added stickles, dimensional pearls around the panels. I also put some rhinestones on the top and bottom of the spellbinders die. This was supposed to be a SSSC layout, but I mixed up the direction of the panels. LOL!

And you saw the card that I made awhile back for my other 2 nieces, Gracie and Elliot..Well, that about wraps up the halloween cards....And I tell ya, all that colouring was alot of work...they might not be as labour-intensive if more little people come along in the future;) Thanks for stopping by!

Jenny

Recipe: (for all)

Stamps: CC Design

Ink: Memento, SU

CS: SU

DP: SU, Reminscence

Other: Copics, dimensional pearls (ranger), spellbinders, punches (SU, martha stewart), ribbon (unknown), rhinesones (offray), sponges, stickles, CE

Happy First Birthday!!

Today was my nephew Denim's 1st Birthday party!! My brother and sister in law rented the swimming pool and party room, and we had a great time! Denim is not supposed to get much water in his ears, as he is very prone to ear infections, but try telling that to a one year old who just wants to dip his whole head underwater!
Here is a card that I made for him. I kind of mixed a bunch of sketches to get this 'hybrid' layout;) It is pretty clean and simple (which is not usually how I roll, but I like my boy cards to be pretty no-frills! If they are for my kids and I know I'll keep them forever, then I usually pull out all the stops:) LOL

The little birthday boy is by CC Designs. I coloured him with copics, cut him out and popped him up with dimensionals onto a sponged nestie layered panel. His cupcake is a new thing that I tried. I applied dazzling diamonds glitter with tombow adhesive, which is my norm....now here's the twist: I then let the glue set a bit and applied crystal effects OVER top of the glitter.....its a really neat look and more durable than plain glitter, with the same-ish sparkly effect:) The candle flame is glitter, no CE. I did alot of paper piercing on this one, which is something that I don't often do (blame my obcession with sewing), but it adds so much and is super easy and relatively quick (if you have a template to follow to keep the holes evenly spaced- mine is SU). Baby gold brads in the corners and a ribbon tie finish it off. I did decorate the inside, but I wrote a bunch in it before I remembered to photograph it, so I left it out:)

Recipe
Stamps: CC Designs
Ink: Memento Tuxedo black, cantaloupe, tangerine
DP, CS: SU (retired dp)
Ribbon: SU
Other: Baby braddys, copics, dazzling diamonds glitter (SU), CE (SU), Copics opaque white paint, dimensionals (SU), Spellbinders, bigshot,  paper piercer kit (SU)

Thanks for looking...I'll hopefully be back tonight with another 'think pink' TCP project to show you:)
Jenny

Feeling a little Witchy.....

Well, it goes without saying that I wasn't chosen for MFT's Guest DT for this month...but my favorite card in the gallery was, so Congrats to Eva! I guess I'll just have to buy what I want like everyone else;) lol!
Last night my SIL Ashley came over and we made some cards...she worked on Thanksgiving ones and I made 2 of these lil Halloween witch cards for my neices. I still have one more niece card and 3 nephew cards to make and of course 3 lil boy ones for my rugrats! Maybe I'll get on that this afternoon. I am heading out after I drop Jake off at preschool and Hayes and Mommy are doing some Stampin Up! Deliveries:)

 Here's the deets: No ribbon, No flowers, No buttons??? Gasp!! What has happened to me??? LOL! I used some crazy Halloween paper from Reminisce. I matted the little strips in black CS and then added eggplant liquid pearls around the perimeter for a little somethin-somethin;)
The sweet little witch is from CC Designs. She was stamped onto white CS, coloured with copics and cut out. I also added copper stickles to the owl and her shoe buckle. Diamond stickles were applied to her hat, dress and shoes (only in certain places and VERY sparingly- I didn't want to create complete sparkles, just in places, like shading:) She is popped up on dimensionals. I used MTSC for my layout on this card. Thanks for looking:)

Here is a shot of the sketch. I tipped it on its side to make it work for the image that I wanted to use:)



Recipe:
CS: SU
DP: Reminisce
Stamp: CC Designs
Ink: Memento tuxedo black
Other: Stickles, liquid pearls (ranger), dimensionals
Copics: Skin (E000, E00, E01, R20). Hair / Owl (E30, E31, E55). Hat/shoes (C1, C3, C5, C7, 100). Dress/tights (purple) BV01, BV04, BV08. Hat band/tights (green) YG23, YG25. Dress-yellow (YR08, YR15).

Retreat Time Baby!!!

Good morning all! TGIF!! As you read this, I will be packing my scrappin stuff and heading off for a weekend retreat! This is an automated post, so I hope it works :)
And guess what?? I was nosing around Mercy's blog (MTSC) and found that my card (see it HERE) from last weeks challenge was chosen as one of Mercy's Magnificent Musings for the week!! Yay ME! LOL! Made me pretty excited anyway:) My mom said she was proud even if there was no cash prize involved;) Thanks Ma!

Thought that I'd give you a little treat before I'm away for a few days....This card I made with my 3 neices in mind: Gracie, Harley and Elli. They are seriously 3 of the sweetest little things ever and I'm so lucky to be their auntie. And since I have no daughters of my own, I can predict years of spoiling them rotten ahead! lol
Not sure if I'll make them this exact card, but the stamp and the delicious papers are staying for sure! I am in love with this new christmas paper from Cosmo Cricket.....the purple and red combo is simply amazing!

Isn't she sweet?? Meet CC Designs newest Emma! I swiped her off a stock cart at my LSS..she hadn't even made it to the shelf yet when I stashed her quickly away in my basket of treasures! (and her little brother too! Well, I couldn't very well take one home and not the other! What kind of a person do you think I am?) Stay tuned for him in the next week:) He is a cutie too! I coloured lil Emma with copics and paper-pieced her santa suit and hat. Her belt and boots are coated with CE and her buckle is sparkling with stickles (man I am addicted to stickles and CE lately;) I glued a scrap of fuzzy yarn-type stuff to her hat and red pearls at the ends of her braids. I dabbed her cheeks with copic opaque white paint. She is popped up on dimensionals a top the nestie 'nest' of dp. The panels were all machine stitched. I added 3 sparkly green brads (reminiscence- Michaels) and the sentiment is embossed with craft ink and irridescent ice embossing powder (all SU). The green satin ribbon was found in my stash and the crochet ribbon is SU. This is the same Mojo sketch that I used on my last post.

I tried colouring her skin a little darker than I usually do, as my skin colour wasn't photographing good and it looked like I hadn't even coloured my people at all. It seems to be working better, so I'll keep doing that:) If you ever are curious as to which colours i use, just ask and I'll do my best to help you out. I don't always post the colours I use, as it takes longer and my time is scarce;)

Jenny

MTSC90

Hello! It's been a very bust week for us, as it was Ryan's first week of grade one, and I am finding I need to go to bed almost as early as him! LOL!! And as you may have noticed, most of my crafting and blogging is done at night....so....I haven't been getting much done in that department:) Next week Jake starts preschool, so I'll be down to one kid a few afternoons a week!
This is a card using Mercys Tuesday Sketch Challenge for this week. I kind of messed up the width of my panels, so it isn't exactly as the sketch shows, plus I added an embellishment, but chalk it up to creative freedom!

I used the Cherry Emma image from CC Designs and popped her up onto the Bench (also CC Designs). She is coloured with copics and cut out and added to the circle nestie. The nestie was sponged with ink after cutting and embossing. The paper is a mix of Thrift Shop and Fly a Kite from October Afternoon. I inked all panels and the main dp panel with chalk ink. I also zig-zagged machine stitched along the panels vertically. I paired a green sparkly brad with an orange and red felt flower and hand cut the green felt leaves. I added diamond stickles to the cherries and ruffles on her shirt and pants.

Here you can see a close up of Emma and see the stickles a bit better. I can't remember the specific copics I used, as this was an image I coloured awhile back:)

The inside was made really quick. I just die cut another nestie and flanked it with some butterfly punches from the dp. The sentiment is from MFT's Birthday Girl A la Mode rubber cling set.

I have to make a wedding card tonight, so hopefully I'll get that posted later...stay tuned!! It's going to be something completely not my style, so we'll see how it turns out;)

Supplies:
Stamps: Cherry Emma, Bench (CC Designs), Birthday Girl (MFT)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, cantaloupe, tangerine, Colorbox Chalk peach
CS: SU!
DP: Thrift Shop, Fly a Kite (OA)
Dies: Spellbinders, Martha Stewart
Other: Copics, felt flowers, brad (reminisence), Stickles, Felt (MFT), sewing machine, thread

MTSC85- Cherry Emma

Hi Mandi (hehe- my only follower thus far and coincidentally, my SIL:)
WhooHoo!! A post-a-day! I am meeting my goal (even though its only day #2, hehe)!!
Todays card was made using Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge.....I loved the layout, as I always seem to like cards with a round focal point. I seriously fell in love with this little girl with her cherry shirt when I saw her at the store, and bought her right there and then!! Seems like all my 'colouring' stamps are little girls...and I have 3 little boys? What gives? I think that companies need to start making more adorable little boy stamps for us mothers of boys! Maybe I should illustrate a few and try to sell them. I've got more than enough inspiration..my boys are the most adorable stinkers out there, and I'm not biased at all;) LOL!
Anyway, on with the card. I stamped her in memento tuxedo black (the ink that works the best with Copics- no smearing, bleeding, etc.) onto choice buttercream CS by Taylored Expressions and coloured her with my copics (thanks again Mandi for the birthday money that got me my first copics and hooked on them!). Then I cut her out, and paper pieced her lil pants with some dp. I popped her up on SU! dimensionals onto my spellbinders nesties (embossed and sponged with pink ink). The paper layers were all zig zag stitched together on my trusty old Janome sewing machine. I am all about the sewing on cards right now, and it's really not as time-consuming or as hard as one might think:). I used the RicRac die from MFT and embossed it with a SU! texture plate and my Bigshot ( I {heart} my bigshot and use it on darn near every project). To finish it all off I added a sunny yellow paper flower, and a pink button with twine bow! I really like the way it turned out!! The inside was pretty simple, just a little RicRac piece of dp and a punched sentiment~

Stamps: Cherry Emma- C.C. Designs;  sentiment- Jolinne, Just for You- My Favorite Things
Paper: CS- SU!; DP- Basic Grey, Lemonade Collection
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Pink Pirouette
Dies: Spellbinders, MFT
Punches: SU!
Button- MFT; Twine- SU!; Paper Flower- unknown from stash
Others: Copics, sewing machine and thread, dimensionals (SU!), Bigshot, texture plate (SU!)

That's it for tonight- Thanks for lookin'!