Hey Homegirls!

Well I sure hope everyone had a great Christmas!! It goes so fast and I always get kinda bummed out after it's all over:( There's so much excitement leading up to the big 'morning' and within minutes it's all over!! I enjoyed watching my boys overflowing with joy, waiting for Santa to come and then the pure shock Christmas morning when they yell "He came, he came!!!!!!!!!!!!!", like they weren't quite certain that he would deliver them goodies!!! It makes me kind of sad that in no time at all they will start 'unbelieving' one by one....Ryan's already got alot of questions about how it can really be done in one short night, but we found this awesome website Christmas Eve...Santa tracker or something like that...and he was entralled with watching the sleigh buzz all over the world. The good ol' internet was enough to convince him for this year at least! lol
Anyway- I am knee deep in a bunch of projects, some I am finishing up and will be able to post right away and some that I am submitting for publication (YIKES!!!!! So nervous already!), so depending on how that pans out, I may have some new things to show you come mid-january when they get rejected (or not?) OR best case scenario, they like something and it gets published and you will see my stuff in an upcoming PaperCrafts issue! Wish me luck!!!!
Hope that you all have a safe and happy New Year!!!
Jenny

Naughty or Nice??

2 more sleeps!! Whoo Hoo!!!! Kids are super excited, and I am soooo not ready!! I have tons to wrap, I just last night started my baking...I didn't want to bake anyone treats when I could spread my germs! But I am busy making brownies, pumkin cookies, that yummy caramel sauce, butter tarts, cornflake toffee crunchies, and ginger cookies! Can you say 'calories'?? Tis the season to pack on a few! lol
I made this card for the gal that does my nails (which I had done today- so cute, she airbrushed little holly on the tips! Tres Christmas!)...she is a sassy mama, so I thought this card was fitting for her. It uses my very favorite Candy Cane a la mode from MFT. I used Mercy's tuesday sketch for this week. I love it!! I made a bday card for a sweet friend who just turned 3-0 a few weeks ago. I haven't seen her because of all the bugs going around. i still have to do the inside, so I'll be posting it in a few days, after the bustle of Christmas dies down.

I coloured her with copics, shaded a bit with prisma pencils, cut the panel out with a nestie, embossed and sponged the inside with chalk ink. Dazzling diamonds were applied to the hat and crystal effects to the candy cane. Here is a close up:



Recipe:

Stamp: MFT

Ink: Memento tuxedo blk, colorbox chalk ink in toffee

CS: SU (early espresso, cherry cobbler, always artichoke, chocolate chip), Choice snow white (TE)

DP: SU

Other: Copics, prisma pencil, blending pencil, ribbon (SU), dazzling diamonds glitter (SU), crystal effects (SU)

 I will leave you with the Christmas picture of my three little pigs (Jake on the left, Hayes in the centre, and Ryan on the right)! I photoshopped the pic to give it the aged look and added some text.....Aren't they sweet!!! I think so:) Merry Christmas to you all!

Jenny

Teachers Gifts

Wow- only 3 more days until Christmas Eve!! And I haven't even wrapped at thing! I thought that today was Ryan's last day of school, but I guess he has tomorrow too, but we are going to skip and go and see Santa! We had the school concert today..Ryan was good and Jake was, well, Jake. If you knew him, you'd know that he is a bit of a character to say the least! We got the Teachers/ Busdriver/ librarian gifts delivered today. I made them all cards (well, duh;) with coffee gift cards inside and homemade caramel sauce that Jen del Muro, the SFYTT girl, so  generously shared. You can find the recipe here. I printed out the recipe on cardstock and decorated it up a bit. I love getting the recipe too whenever I get something yummy!

So here's the inside where I fastened on the gift card sleeve which I jazzed up a bit with ribbon & eyelet and a sentiment punched and adhered to a PTI die. A rhinestone on each end of the die finishes it off.
I had a few more made, but already gave them to the busdriver and Jake's preschool teacher. I think they turned out so cute!!

Recipe:
Stamps: MFT a la mode (coffee girl), My Cute Stamps (cocoa cup), SU (sentiment)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU chocolate chip, early espresso
CS: SU
DP: SU (holly jolly)
Ribbon: SU
Other: Copics. Dies- spellbinders (circle, lacey circle), PTI, TCP(snowflake); punches: SU, EK Success, Taylors Tiny Twinkles (TE), dazzling diamonds glitter (SU), Crystal Effects (SU), clear rhinestone brads (SU)

Sweet Sunday

Hello friends! Hope that you all had a great weekend! I am feeling a little better as compared to Friday when I felt like '10 lbs of crap in a 5 lb bag' (quote my hillbilly BIL Jeff for that dandy little line of the day;)! LOL! Last night my sweet mama brought us supper and then took one of the boys home with her for a little sleepover. My oldest son Ryan bought us all gifts at the White Elephant Sale at school (if you're not familiar with that, it's where the kids get to shop for their family members and everything is a quarter....parents bring in donations of new or gently used items the day before and you simply send a list of names in the family and some change and they can shop like big kids!!) It's really fun to see the things that he buys us...such care goes in to choosing the right gift! Anyway, he bought Dad a belt buckle at the rodeo, me a little jewellery box for my dresser (I am a jewellery fiend, so thats appropriate), Jake a play-doh set and Hayes a little stuffed giraffe that he packed around proudly all day.....Ry was so proud to see his brothers loving their gifts!! He also bought both sets of grandparents gifts too (not sure about Craigs folks as he hasn't given them theirs yet) but he got my mom a duck ornament because she likes birds and it 'looks like a grandma thing' according to him and here;s the funny part- my dad a cookbook (my dad knows how to fry fish and thats about it)...he told his papa that it's so he can learn how to cook for himself and then grandma can have sleepovers here! bahahaha! I think maybe my mom is over-using the excuse that she always has to leave and go home to cook! Kids are the funniest!!!! I love those little guys! Today we had Craigs brother and his family over for supper and Mandi and I made some cards while the guys and kids watched a movie...I made this card for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge this week, as well as MFT's WSC (which is to make a christmas card using a PI stamp). I like this sketch because it gave me the excuse to make an odd sized card, which I rarely do, and if I do it's usually a square (I know- I'm really out there! lol)

As you may remember, this is the exact same Bella Road paper that I used on my last card (hey, it was on the desk still and I love it, so why not!!?) that I paired with SU's Soft Sky CS. I used this cute little My Favorite Things PI Wyatt and practically paper-pieced the whole guy (except the face, boots and mittens). I gave the snowman and snow a little shimmer with a sakura pen. I put some black brads as his coal buttons, some chunky SU glitter on Wyatt and Frosty's touques. The snowflake dies are SU sizzix dies that I layered and I hot glued some tinsel twine behind it. the enamel chocolate stripe brad is SU. The chain die is Papertrey Ink. I think that I'll give this card to one of my little guys for Christmas!!

The inside uses the same paper and PTI die. I am tinkering around with putting the sentiment somewhere other than the very centre (which is totally my comfort zone, hehe!) What do you think? I love this sentiment too, So cute:) Overall a very simple and quick-ish card to make, but I really like how it turned out!
Thanks for popping by!
Jenny

It's been 8 days since my last confession....

Uh, remember in my last post when I said something like 'cross my fingers I don't get any other affliction'...well, I definately have some kind of bad karma floating around me, cuz guess what I now have?? MONO!! I know! Crazy! The doc asked me if I have been tired lately, and I said 'I've been tired for 6 years'..not sure if it's any different than the usual tiredness, I can't even tell anymore! Oh yeah, and pink eyes back..now Jake and me again. Geesh! Oh well! So I am finally posting a card (I have been working on the boys' teacher giftys and cards and made a little mini-recipe album with my 12 disciples (stampers group members), so I have been getting my craft-on here and there. I'll post one of the teacher prezzies tomorrow- they are turning out really cute!
So this card is a TCP tuesday challenge, and it's a sketch challenge designed by Alma. I thought this sketch definately 'pushed' me a little, having the main circle image not centered and all;) But thats a good thing, right?

I used this little sweetie from TCP's latest release. She is coloured with copics, and paper pieced. I stamped her in memento ink and cut her out with a circle nestie, leaving her scarf hanging a little out of the circle. I sponged the paper while it was still in the die with SU soft sky ink. The snow is stickles dabbed here and there.  Around the red circle layer I glued some white tinsel twine from SU to give the layer an frosty feel. The sentiment was cut with a spellbinders tag and sponged as well. There is a few rhinestones added to the tag and on the card panels as well. The red vertical panel was cut using the TCP wave die (negative side) and I was going for a heart look, although I'm not sure that I achieved it! LOL. I ran the 'heart' strip through the big shot and embossed it a wee bit with a SU texturz plate. The main grey swirly panel is embossed with a snowflake folder and than I ran it through again with just cutting plates to make the embossing less noticeable....

Here is a close up of the little girl. You can't see it very well, but I added clear spica glitter pen to her hair ribbons, cheeks, steam, heart on the cup and crystal effects to the cup. It's super cute IRL!


















Recipe:
Stamps: TCP
Ink: Memento tuxedo blk, SU soft sky
CS: cherry cobbler, chocolate chip, whisper white
DP: Bella Road
Dies: Spellbinders, TCP
Other: Copics, taylors tiny twinkles (TE), brad (stash),  spica pen, CE, tinsel twine (SU), texturz plate (SU), snowflake embossing folder (SU), dimensionals (SU), stickles

Sicky Sickerson

Wow- 2 blog appology/excuse posts in one week?? Crazy, I know! But if you girls knew the state I'm in right now, you'd surely understand my lack of creativity....Firstly, this rotten cold/cough has attacked.me again and my weak immune system (blame the kidlets for that) just couldn't ward it off. Think that's it? NO! I am relatively new to my 3rd decade, and feel pretty young overall, so imagine my dismay when I found not one, but TWO deep crevace's on my sweet cherub face! Well, I consulted a local Mary Kay'er and didn't feel like forking out $180 for a face cream kit, so I headed over to the drug store and bought a $50 kit. Not really knowing what was what (it was in 'en francais', and my meager French 10 training 15 years ago let me down)...so I took a gamble and started using it with no direction. For all I know I was putting the cleanser on and leaving it on, or using the spot treatment as a whole face moisturizer..... Anyway, fastforward 2 days and I was left with an allergic reaction on my face that left me itchy, red, swollen and overall hideous. Even my 85 year old grandpa, whom is recovering from a heart attack and in the hospital, who had just had a hit of Nitro spray and is on oxygen and an IV, said to me when I was visiting "what happened to your face??"......Am I done? Not yet! Midway through this week from hell, my youngest son passed pink eye over to mom, so I woke up one morning with my eyes glued shut and burning like the bowels of hell. By this point in the story, I'm sure you have some kind of visual of what I might look like. Well, it's worse than what you came up with. I'll gaurantee. So far thats where I'm at for now. After all, it is only Friday and there is still plenty of time this weekend to add some new affliction to my list of problems!!

Putting up the star {TCP Tuesday}

Tuesday- that means another TCP challenge:) And although today another lucky lady was crowned Swanky Stamper, I am down, but not out!! lol....who could resist these great challenges?? Today is Sony's turn to be the hostess and she has thrown out a colour challenge (my fav!!!)..ice blue, aqua and lavender.

I used a new release that was a lovely gift from Alma over at TCP...he's really reaching for the top of that tree....looks like me a few days ago trying to get the star on my tree. Thought that I was going to fall and take the whole thing out!! I paper peiced the tree and coloured the bunny and stars with copics. I covered the stars and the bunny tail with a clear spica pen. The tree star has dazzling diamonds on it as well. I applied rows of 'garland' with the 3 colours from the challenge with SU glitter. I used my favorite white organza ribbon, some new cutup dies. I stuck pearls on the opening of the apron lace die to give it a more elegant touch. The snowflake die has some pearls and a lavender rhinestone.

I kept the inside pretty simple. Just used the same die with the sentiment stamped and a few stars in the corners. A smidge of ribbon accross the middle. That's it!!!

Thanks for looking!

Recipe:

Stamp: TCP

Ink: Memento

DP: Toil & Trouble (MME?), Kioshi (BG)

CS: SU (white, baja breeze, marina mist)

Dies: Spellbinders, TCP

Other: ribbon (SU), rhienstones (unknown), pearls (stash), glitter (SU), copics, spica,

Sketch: Cardabilities #16