Playing with Papers: New Cards

Hello Friends:

Happy June! It certainly feels like it here in Miami. The rain is back and the humidity is high. For those in the North East experiencing cooler temperatures, send some my way please.

Thank you for the lovely comments on my Sunflowers in Summer project on my last post. I do love the design. I just tend to work on it in spurts. There are a lot of little motifs in the design too which seem quick to stitch, but they take longer than they look.

Today was an exciting day as my little one graduated from the 5th grade. It was an adorable little ceremony. Some of the students wrote speeches thanking their teachers and parents. It was so sweet listening to them. Some made me teary eyed. I'm very proud of my son for his hard work this year. Now onto the new adventure called middle school.

A couple weekends ago, I decided to treat myself to some fun new paper stash. This promptly motivated to get out my neglected stash and play with it a little bit.

******

******

******

It was a nice creative change to play with my paper stash. I find that when I'm making cards I zone out everything else on my mind. I am so focused on the layout and design of the card that I can't think about anything else. It really clears my mind.

Thank you so much for visiting me today. I always enjoy your sweet comments. I hope you all have lovely rest of the week and weekend. I've updated my Etsy store with these cards and some other new items. Feel free to take a peak. ;)

**Hugs and Love from Sunny Miami**

Jen

Love and Fun in North Carolina

I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting Boone, North Carolina for the first time this past weekend. My boyfriend's best friend since childhood decided to get married in the mountains to his girlfriend of 7 years. My boyfriend was one of the groomsmen. I had never been to North Carolina before, and eagerly awaited for this trip for the last year and a half. To all my readers who call NC their home, I am green with jealousy. The natural beauty all around is just breathtaking. Miami is pretty with all of its beaches, but to me NC tops Miami. I tried to soak in my surroundings as much as I could between our busy schedule. I was trying to envision what this all must look like in the winter covered in white. 

I could sit outside and listen to the streams all day. We loved seeing the natural streams just rolling down the rocks as we drove through the mountains. The weather was chilly but lovely. It got into the 30's at night.

We found some time to visit Grandfather Mountain and the famous Swinging Mile High Bridge. It was windy and cold, but the views were amazing. 

My son had a blast and was the most adventurous of our group. He wanted to climb everything and see as much as possible. 

A view of the wedding area all setup and ready to go. They found a gorgeous country club in Linville for the cermony and reception. You would not believe how perfectly the sun decided to shine right when the bride and groom said their vows. It was so magical and something out of a fairy tale story. I cried at this ceremony.

Of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't give them a wedding card handmade by me. The card turned out lovely and was really quick to make. I covered the card with embossed scrapbooking paper and decorated it with 3-D wedding stickers, and rhinestones. 

It was so hard to say goodbye when Sunday came around. This was a trip we truly will not forget. It was full of new experiences including driving up and down steep roads, driving 20 miles in pitch blackness at night, watching out for deer that just decide to jump out into the road. Yea...we don't worry about such things in Miami. We just worry about snakes and alligators! 

I will say that one of the nice positives of the trip was interacting with very friendly locals. Everyone we encountered would greet us with a Hello and just make polite conversation about nothing. In fact, we stopped at a gas station for coffee one morning. I got distracted getting into the car and left my cup on the top of the car. A nice gentlemen knocked on my window with a smile and had my cup in his hand. These are little acts of kindness that you are not accustomed to seeing in South Florida. People for the most part of very self-absorbed down here and can be just down right hostile over petty things. You are lucky to hear a thank you from most for just holding the door open.

I hope you enjoyed my pictures. It was tough going back to work today, cause my mind is still in NC. I can't wait to visit again.

Enjoy your week. We are one day closer to the weekend.

**Hugs from Sunny Miami**

Jen

A Quick Birthday Card

Happy Sunday Everyone:

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend.

We were invited to a birthday party yesterday for two of our good bowling friends. It was loads of fun filled with good food, games, dancing, karaoki, and laughing. My son entertained the other kids, played in the pool and on the slip and slide. Thank goodness the weather was perfect as well. Not a drop of rain at all. Today was a different story though. It stormed with a vengeance earlier today.

This is the quickie birthday card I made yesterday before the party. I used paper and embellishments from a CupCards to Go kit. I tried not to over do the embellishments. I let the papers be the focal points. I decided to leave off the Stickles glitter glue since I was pressed for time. I didn't want to risk the glue not drying in time before we had to leave. Anyways, the green part of the paper that looks like grass was actually glittered paper. Just perfect enough. I love the bow don't you? It makes the middle look like a birthday present.

Today has been a lazy Sunday. I will now get back to working on the scarf I showed in my previous post. Truth be told, I actually unraveled what I started and started again. The scarf was actually too wide so I decided to start again. You craft and you learn right? Right...

Thanks for visiting me today. I'll be back soon. :-)

**Hugs from Rainy Miami**
             Jen

Enjoy the Journey and a Little Giveaway

Hello Friends:

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a day between Saturday and Sunday? It just seems like two day weekends are never enough. I had such a laid back weekend that I managed to finish not 1 but 2 books on my Nook E-Reader. I love Mysteries and I really enjoy the kind that has some Romance mixed in.

I purchased this book on my e-reader for .99. It was the best .99 I spent this weekend. This book was so good in fact that I went and purchased the 2nd in the series for $5.99 and finished that one today.

Quick Review: The series is based on a small town 30 year old mortician/county coroner named Dr. J.J. Graves who was forced to move back to her hometown in Virginia to take over the family funeral business after both her parents died in an accident. She works with her best friend, the handsome and single, town sheriff named Jack Lawson to solve the murders going on in their town. In the midst of everything, the two realize their true feelings for each other, although that mostly comes out in the 2nd book, A Dirty Shame.We also learn that J.J's family has a bad history and unfortunately she uncovers many hidden secrets about her family that she didn't know about before.

Both books were fantastic. They had a story line that just made you keep on reading to see what happened next. There were definitely no boring parts. I honestly think my favorite aspect of these books is how they are set in a small town. I'm talking a town of less than 3,000 people. The kind where everyone knows everybody and everyone is just all up in everyone's business. I personally don't know what that's like since I live in the big city so it was fun to read about it.

If you have an E-Reader, I highly recommend you sign up for this site: www.bookbub.com. At sign up, its asks what kind of E-Reader device you have and every day they send you e-mails about books available for free up to $3.99 for your particular device. Its a very convenient way to build up your little library.

The summer heat is definitely kicking into high gear down here in Miami. The rain visits us everyday and leaves behind a humidity that makes it miserable to be outside in the afternoon. I really do feel bad for the summer visitors. I know they come down to enjoy our beaches so I'm sure its quite disappointing to travel all this way and not enjoy the beaches because of the rain. If you are considering a vacation to Miami, plan it for either March, April, Oct or Nov for perfect beach weather. Just some local insider info!

Despite the rain, it has been an exciting week down here in Miami. Our Miami Heat Basketball Team became the World Champions for the 2nd year in a row. I don't normally watch sports on TV but this series against the San Antonia Spurs was exciting. Both teams played an amazing series. Thursday night got loud in Miami after the last game ended. People were out in the streets honking their horns, banging pots and pans in the streets, letting off fireworks...it was chaotic. I was smart and stayed home. Tomorrow is supposed to be a huge celebratory parade in Downtown Miami. It's going to be crowd crazy!

I didn't do much stitching the last couple weeks for any good pictures, but I did make a card. One of my co-workers resigned from her position of 9 years with the company. She decided it was time to return to school and complete her Masters Degree in Accounting. We took her to lunch and gave her a gift card along with this card I made. All of the girls signed it. Excuse the picture. I had to take a picture on my cell phone in my car and crop out the steering wheel behind it.

I wanted to make her something bright and cheerful. I used papers and embellishments from a card kit I bought from Cupcards to Go. I used some stickles glitter glue to give it some glitz on the flowers and around the edges. Everybody loved how it turned out including her. The greeting couldn't have been more perfect considering she was embarking on a new journey in her life. I sincerely hopes she enjoys the journey.

That is all for today. I hope you all have a fabulous week. A big thank you to those who read my blog and leave me a little note. It always brightens my day to read the comments from my readers.

With that in mind, I have decided to do a little give-away. It has been 3 years since I started my blog so I think its time to celebrate that. I've decided to give one winner a $25 gift certificate to 123 Stitch.com or to The Fat Quarter Shop if fabric is your thing. :-)

Please leave a comment here if you would like to be included. You don't have to a be a follower to win, but it would be nice to make some new friends. Only one entry per comment. I will draw a winner using Random.Org on July 4th.

**Hugs from Rainy Miami**
Jen

Words of Encouragement and Giveaway Reminder!

Happy Friday Everyone:

Just a friendly reminder that my Red, White and Blue giveaway of a $10 gift certificate to The Fat Quarter Shop ends tomorrow! If you want to enter, run over to this post and comment.

I also wanted to share a Best Wishes card I made for a dear co-worker who resigned this week. The card supplies came from a kit I bought from Paper Wishes. Rather than say, just "Good Luck" or "Best Wishes", I wanted to make a card with a few encouraging words. Something a little more meaningful. She loved the card and so did my co-workers.

That is it for tonight. Good Night my friends. I hope this weekend brings you much creative time.

Jen :)

Some projects to Share...

Hello Friends:

I'm back today to share some projects with you.

First up is a birthday card that I made for the February card swap over at the Paper Wishes Message Board. We are only allowed to use Paper Wishes products on our cards, so for this card I used papers and die cuts from the Cherry on Top Artful Card Kit. I was very pleased with the result.

In a previous post I mentioned I participated in a biscornu exchange on the Friendly Stitchers Yahoo Group. This is the biscornu I received from my partner, Lindsay. Isn't it fabulous?! She used a freebie design for this. Not only do I love that variegated thread she used, but I just love the buttons she used for the middle. They are so colorful and pretty. Just perfect!

Biscornu Top Side:

Biscornu Bottom Side:

Lindsay mentioned the bottom side was designed by her since the pattern she used didn't have a pattern for the bottom. I think it turned it great. Don't you?

In case you didn't see my biscornu to her, here it is again:

Finally, here is a picture of my weekend stitching progress. I had a bowling tournament Saturday afternoon, and I was exhausted by the time I got home. My stitching mojo was non-existent on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. I decided to work on my BAP project Little House Neighborhood. I'm loving this piece. 

Before Picture:

After Picture:

That's all for now friends. Thank you again for your sweet comments and notes of encouragement to me on my projects. Take care and have a great week. :)

Jen

Another lovely Friendship Card...:)

Hello and Happy Sunday Evening:

I made a card tonight for a contest over on the Paper Wishes Message Board. The message board members were challenged by the Paper Wishes designers to create a card using the new Chocolate Dipped Artful Card Kit. I had a lot of fun using this kit. It is only $9.99 and is definitely a great value. You get papers, die cuts, and greetings. A great collection to make a quick card for any occasion. The only extra I added was some gold stickles to give it some dazzle.

Thanks for looking! I just love reading each of the sweet comments on my projects. I hope you all have a spectacular week. I have Friday off. Yay! Something to look forward to. I also want to wish a big welcome to my new followers.

Good Night Everyone!
Jen

A Vintage Friendship Card

Friends are wonderful, yet it is amazing how most friendships don't last. I have had my share of friendship disappointments, but the ones I still have, I cherish each and every one of them. That includes all you bloggy friends who take the time to read my thoughts and encourage my creativity with your sweet comments.

                                                          (Click on Pic for Better Detail)

I made this card using materials from the November card kit from Cupcards to Go. I just love the vintage style of this card. I covered the card with a pink background first then layered the vintage lady paper on top leaving some of the pink peeking out on the two sides. I like how the lace ribbon has both colors showing through behind it. The sentiment came from a sheet of rub-ons that came with the kit. I just love that quote, don't you?

I hope you all had a great start to your week. Thanks for stopping by!
Jen

Season's Greetings!

Happy Friday Friends:

It has been a busy week for me let me tell you. Working until 8 or 9 at night is for the birds! Colleges should really forewarn Accounting students that once they commit to an Accounting career, they are basically giving up every January until retirement. Unless you persue doing taxes and audits, then you give up way more months than that. No fun!

I have a card project to share today. Amazing right?! I haven't posted any paper projects in a while. My paper stash was feeling neglected so I put my stitching down for a night to play with my paper.

I participated in the January card swap over at the Paper Wishes Message Board. The theme was Winter Holidays. It could be a card for any holiday that occurs during the Winter season. Since I am obsessed, in love with winter theme anything, I jumped at this challenge.

All of the materials to make the card are from Paper Wishes including the little stamp set and Dazzle stickers in the photo.

Enjoy your weekend! My Saturday will unfortunately begin with another 4 hours at work...**sigh**.

Bye for now friends. Thank you for taking the time to stop by. :)
Jen

Quilts, Stitching, Cards...Oh My!

I have some project updates to share with you all today and it is a little bit of everything and some more.

First, let me introduce you to my quilt. This is the quilt I was talking about in one of my previous posts. The one that has a deadline to finish date of 12/25/11.

I do not take credit for the color choices. I purchased a kit with the pattern from an Ebay seller; however the hours of piecing I take credit for! As you can see, a few rows need to be added before the top is officially done. The pattern is called "Tic Tac Moe". There is a story behind why I chose this pattern and color choices but I will save that for another post.

Next! Here is a "Hello" Card I made this last week. It will be included with my Exchange piece that I will be shipping off this Thursday. Papers and Embellishments all came in a kit I bought from Cupcards to Go. The little "Hello" is a Dazzle sticker from Paper Wishes.

Next! I did some stitching this weekend. I worked on a few projects. First is my "J" Fairy. I finished her left wing and did the back stitching.

I also worked on my "Tree of Stitches" by Abi Gurden from The Stitch Specialists Yahoo Group. I stitched the trunk in Crescent Colors - "Hickory Sticks".

I also worked on my Halloween Exchange piece for the Stitched with Love Exchanges group. It is a secret. :) Can't show it!

Next! I will participating in a blog hop next month starting on October 24. (Button on my sidebar) It is called The Ghastlies Blog Hop hosted by Madame Samm over at Sew I Quilt Now. What are "The Ghastlies" you ask? Well...it is a line of fabric. A really unique line of fabric. I call it fabric with a bit of "personality" (or maybe lack of). Personally, I think they are cool. They make me think of the Haunted Mansion ride in Disney World.

For this blog hop, we are being challenged to make sewing projects out of this fabric. Quilts are not excluded but the point is to see what other sewing projects can be made using this material. Can't say what I'm making...that is a surprise. Hmmmm, I've been saying that a lot lately. I have many secret projects don't I?? I will tell you all a little more about the blog hop when it gets closer to starting.

For you cat lovers!

Finally, I was bad this weekend. I stopped at Joann Fabrics for one particular thing and look what I walked out with: 

I just love the bats. What am I going to do with all this??? Not a clue right now. I have that disease called impulse buying. Have you heard about it? Is there a cure? Never fails, I go to Joann's or Michaels, I buy. I go to my LNS or knit store, I buy and we won't even go there about a bookstore.

With these two fabrics, I am going to make a bag. The top will be the outside and the orange will be the lining fabric. Next month, I am going to the Mickey Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. I heard they give out tons of candy. I don't think my son's little bag will be enough so I am preparing a bigger storage medium. :)

Okay! That is it, at least till next week. I am so excited right now. Friday can not come fast enough. My boys and I are going on a cruise this Friday to Monday to the Bahamas. It will be our first cruise. We are sailing on the Norwegian Sky and we have a balcony room. Can you say heaven? I will definitely report to you all my trip experience with a few beach pics. Here's hoping that the weather behaves. All projects are staying home in case you are wondering. I think I will be too busy staring at the sea while enjoying good food and a few drinks.

Happy Crafting and Stitching my Friends,

Jen

Midnight Card Making

I know I know...you are all probably thinking why am I up at 12:00am making a card?? I realize this is when normal people sleep yes, BUT on Saturday nights, I'm not normal. You see, I look forward to my Saturday nights because it is my craft time. My boyfriend is at work and my child is asleep. That leaves the house and more importantly the TV to myself without distractions! :D Plus I drink caffeine and that just gives me a boost of creative energy that needs to be let out somehow. So tonight's creative outlet was a card while watching Star Wars Episode One on TV. More like listening to it actually.

I made this card for my Christmas challenge over on the Paper Wishes Message Board. I challenged the forum members to make a Christmas card from Paper Wishes supplies that included a bow and real or faux stitching on it somewhere. Easy!

My card is a 5 1/2" X 6 1/2" using the following Paper Wishes supplies:

1) Papers from the Cardmakers Creative Christmas Pack
2) Image is Paper Tole Art from A White Christmas Paper Tole
3) Snowflake Dazzles and Sentiment Stickers are the Frosty Woodland Dazzles
4) Foam Squares for Paper Tole are these.
5) The Faux Stitching around the edges was made using the Easy Stitches Template
6) Ribbon for the bow came from my stash. It was a leftover piece I had laying around.

Thank you for looking! Now onto some stitching projects that need attention to.

Hope you all are enjoying your long weekends so far,
Jen

Trick or Treat!

Can you believe Fall is upon us and the kids are back in school??? Good grief this summer flew by. When I was a kid, summer felt like it dragged on for an eternity. By the time July came around, I was ready to go back to school. Now the weeks just fly by like nothing.

So with Autumn time comes what?? You guessed it...Halloween! A day when eating candy is your reward for enduring the stressful time of costume hunting. This year, Halloween is going to be extra special..for my son that is. Not on Halloween Day per se' but the week before. We are taking him to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in the Magic Kingdom. I've heard it is fantastic and Disney goes all out. I can't wait.

Now to get on to the point of my post, I have a Halloween card to share. Tada!

Through another blog, I found Cupcards to Go. The owner, Cassandra, puts together wonderful card making kits that include coordinating papers, ribbons, card blanks with envelopes and embellishments. She is having a sale right now on past kits and other items. If you are a card maker (I know a few of my followers are :D ), you should head on over and check out her site. Personally, I'm a huge fan of buying kits where all of the supplies are coordinated for me. Deciding on colors and coordinating embellishments is a stressful process for me. I would rather have that done for me. I'm the same way about quilt kits. I would rather buy those than pick out the colors for a quilt myself.

For this card, I bought the October 2010 kit from Cupcards to Go. All of the supplies were Halloween themed. I also purchase some extra papers with the chipboard embellishments for a few extra dollars. The supplies are a mish-mash of different companies, so I don't know what came from where. I can tell you the card is a 4 1/4" by 5 1/2", using 4 different papers, one ribbon, rhinestones, and silver stickles. I just love the papers. I hate spiders, but I love the spider paper. The moon, candy corn, stars and cat are chipboard embellishments. FYI: regular tape adhesive doesn't work with chipboard embellishments, you have to use tacky glue.

I'm going to enter this card into Fab's Making Halloween Cards Challenge. The theme is either Black Cat and/or bunting/banner.

Gotta run! My honey is waiting on me.

Happy Crafting!
Jen

A Stitchy Card, Some Stash and Other Updates

Grab a chair and a drink for this post my friends. I have a lot to share. :)

After five hours of reading on Friday night, I finished the 7th Harry Potter book. I was full of mixed emotions to say the least. It ended well, but being a big fan and knowing that it was over made me kind of sad. Needless to say, there went my creative mojo on Friday night. I posted my personal review on the book on my reading blog here in case you were interested to read my thoughts. If you have any of your own to share, feel free to comment over there also.

In brighter news, I sat down to make a card tonight...finally after a couple weeks of no cards. I had the strangest feeling like my paper stash was calling to me, like it was feeling neglected...no I'm not crazy I swear! ;) I had this design in my head for a while. It is a really fun card cause Why?? Well... because it is Christmas and it has stitching! (Click the pic for better detail)

Most of my stash is from Paper Wishes. I love their selection of papers and embellishments for papercrafts, cards and scrapbooking. They carry these stickers called Dazzles and they are fantastic. They add just the right glitz and final touch for your project. The gingerbread man, house and peppermints on this card are from a sheet called "Stitched Gingerbread People Stickers". The package comes with instructions on how and where to add stitching to give it the stitched detail. I did the stitching with DMC Color Infusions Metallic Thread. BTW my stitching friends, I would not recommend this thread for actual cross-stitching. I'm not even sure you can use it for that. It splits like you have no idea. I will take Kreinick any day of the week. I finished off my card with some more glitz by using Gold Stickles (glitter glue) in a stitch pattern around some of the papers.

Next I wanted to show off my stash I got this weekend at my LNS. Of course, I went there for something particular in mind, but left with more. I blame mother nature for that. It rained HARD while I was there forcing me to stay. Believe it or not, that is not the first time that has happened to me. So what else am I to do while waiting out the weather??? You guessed it...inspect the merchandise! It took a lot out of me not to walk out with more, but my Visa was sending me messages that it would burn up in my wallet if I dared to grab anything more. :D So here are my goodies:

The new Just Cross Stitch Halloween Issue, a "Listen Honey, Life's a Stitch" pattern, A Beyond Cross-Stitch Learning Kit by The Victoria Sampler (the pattern focuses on learning Assisi Embroidery) some Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts Threads, a piece of 28 CT Waterlily Evenweave, and some new Piecemaker and John James Needles. Now, my bill tab was running just fine until I found the pattern on the left. "J" is for Juggler by The Victoria Sampler. It is part of an alphabet series and I happened to see the leaflets sitting on a table waiting to be put on the shelf. I fell in love with this pattern. I kind of had to turn a blind eye to the $30.00 embellishment packet but Oh Well...

What I really love about this chart is that it includes Specialty Stitches. It will be great practice for me and I just so love the colors in it. Super pretty. For you sampler fans, I would look into these patterns. They are all beautiful.

In other stitch news, I worked on my Nora Corbett "J' Fairy this weekend but nothing worth showing. I worked on re-beading some areas. Just when I thought I was attaching the beads right, I found out I was still doing them wrong. :/ I was 0 for 2 in beading! So I made it my mission to fix them, not all of them though. I'll post a pic when I make more progress on this design.

I also joined my first stitching exchange over at The Rotating Designer Exchange hosted by Angela. My exchange partner is .................J/K! I'm not going to say. Now wouldn't that be a major faux paux on my first exchange experience. :P Our first designer is The Prairie Schooler! Very exciting and this is my first time stitching a chart by this designer. I already have the pattern and materials picked out.

I have also joined The Stitch Specialist's Group on Yahoo. If you have been watching others stitch the Tree of Stitches pattern, this is the forum of which they are a part of. In fact, the hand dyed threads and Waterlily Even weave fabric I bought was for this design. I was picturing the tree in Autumn colors. I hope I chose my colors well. I am really looking forward to watching this design grow and learn the new stitches. I am very eager to expand my stitching know how. The stitchers on this forum are very friendly ladies too. I'm sure I will get great feedback and help as I truck along stitching the design.

Till next time friends, Happy Stitching!
Jen

Some Christmas Card Challenges...

Happy Saturday!

I finally got around to making a Christmas card like I wanted. Unfortunately though some of the card challenges I wanted to enter are already over. But there are a few still open so Yay!

I've been watching Mary over at Cardz TV and I absolutely love her videos. She is so talented and I have learned so much. I decided to take a cue from her and make a smaller card base size. She uses 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card bases, which are much smaller than what I was using. I have to say that I really like the smaller card bases. Sometimes working on a smaller area is so much easier than a bigger one, unless you are someone that enjoys going embellishment crazy on your cards and need the extra space. Plus your papers go a longer way i.e. you have more to use on another project. I also practiced using my paper trimmer as a guide for my cutting. Before I was measuring and cutting in a different manner, but it seemed so cumbersome and my papers never came out quite straight. After watching Mary's videos, using the paper trimmer made a lot more sense.

Card Supplies:
4 1/4" X 5 1/2" Card Base
Christmas papers from Hot off the Press - Christmas Creative Pack
DigiStamp: Christmas Mouse with Mistletoe by Bug A Boo Stamps
Red Nail Head Stickers by Hot off the Press
Gold Stickles by Ranger
Snowflake Sticker from my Stash
Crayola Colored Pencils
Basic Markers

I would like to enter my card into these challenges:
1) Paper Sundaes - Christmas in July
2) Christmas Card Challenges - Any Christmas Card
3) Creative Inspirations - Christmas in July
4) Paper Cutz Challenge - Anything Goes

If any of you are interested in seeing Mary's video's, just click the button on my sidebar and it will take you directly to her blog.

Now time for some stitching! Stay cool and creative everyone. :)
Jen

A Best Wishes Masculine Card

Happy Tuesday Everyone:

First off I wanted to say Welcome to my new Followers **Hugs**. It is always so exciting to meet more people who share the same love of crafts and needle-arts as I do. Thank you for being a part of my little space in blog land. :D

Well I mentioned before that I was going to be back with a Christmas card, but it turns out I was asked to do another card. I was watching TV on Sunday night at 1 AM (having one of my insomniac moments) while also texting my dear boyfriend (he works nights) when he asks me if I could make his best friend a card for his going away dinner party this Wednesday night. His friend has decided to attend a college in Charlotte, North Carolina to finish his degree in Architecture and he is set to officially leave with his girlfriend this weekend. I know my boyfriend will really miss him. They are more like brothers than friends and the adventures of dumb things they did in their younger days could easily fill a 500 page book. Enough said!

So how thoughtful of my darling to tell me A) about the party two days before hand and B) ask me at the last minute to make a masculine card of all cards at the next to last minute. Because masculine cards are just so easy to make....? Of course he laid some ground rules for me. The card could not have any girlie froo froo or cutesy things like bows or flowers or glitz. Well duh honey! it is a card for a MAN. Too bad for him I got the Stickles on the card and it still screams man so he has to deal with that. I was very tempted to stick a flower on it for giggles but thought better of it.

I did one special thing for this card that I have never done before. The yellow on the beer mugs is actually a piece of paper behind the image. I did not have a good beer yellow colored pencil to color the digi-stamp with so I had to improvise by cutting those pieces of the digi-stamp out and backing the image on the yellow paper. Pretty clever I thought!

Card Recipe:

5" x 6" White Cardstock Base
Cheers DigiStamp by DigiStamp Boutique (Get it Here)
Papers - Hot off the Press - Earth's Palette CardMakers Kit. (The best papers for man cards)
Buttons - Hot off the Press - Masculine Embellish-Abilities
Silver Stickles
Gold and Silver Mini Brads - Hot off the Press
Martha Stewart Zig-Zag Border Punch
Colored Pencils
I made up the Sentiments for both the inside and outside.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Crafting,
Jen

A Cute Penguin Card

Happy Sunday Everyone:

Check out this cute Winter card I made this weekend. This cute little penguin is the freebie this week over at Pink Gem Designs. You can pick him up here. I love Winter cards and I really enjoyed making this one. Taking the picture was quite interesting too. Any person watching me on the floor trying to get a decent shot would have been laughing. It is not easy photographing cards with foil paper because it is so shiny. I had to use a little photo editing to make it look pretty to post.

Card Recipe:
5 x 5 White Square Card Stock
Winter Foil Papers and one piece of matching color cardstock by Hot off the Press
Winter Penguin Digi by Pink Gem Designs
Colored Pencils (Nothing Fancy)
Snowflake Dazzles by Hot off the Press
Border Punch by Recollections
Silver and Pearl Stickles by Ranger
2 Satin Ribbons in coordinating colors from my stash. The bow is a blue ribbon. The ribbon stuck to the card was a wider white satin ribbon.

I'm entering this card into these challenges this week:

1) The Beary Scrap Design Challenges - Sketch
2) Crafty Emma's Challenges - Recipe - 3 Papers, 2 Ribbons, 1 Image
3) One Stitch at a Time - Anything Goes
4) Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking and I really do love reading your comments. :)

Happy Crafting!
Jen

Pretty Tea Time Paper Tole

Its me again!

I have one other card I wanted to share. On the Paper Wishes Message Board, the June card swap theme was Paper Tole.

The Teapot and Teacup are the Paper Tole Image. I actually got these for free from Paper Wishes just for being a VIP customer i.e. cause I spend a lot of money on their products. LOL. All of the materials (except the punch) are from Paper Wishes. The paper is from the Floral Card Makers pack (which I believe was just discontinued). The sentiment came from a stamp set called "Fancy a Cuppa". The roses are handmade by me using the 3-D Roses template. The ribbon came from a Sheer Ribbon set. I love these ribbons. They are so elegant. You can't see the Gold Stickles well, but they are there. There is some on the roses too...just a little.

Hope you like it!
Jen

A Cute Winter Card

Happy Friday Evening!

Here is my newest card creation I made tonight. The sketch is from the Elisabeth Bell's World Challenge Blog. It is a monthly challenge blog and it is the first time I have entered a card into one of their challenges. The digi stamp is an Elisabeth Bell design. Isn't it sweet?!

All of the papers and embellishments are from Paper Wishes. The fan looking punch on the left side of the image was made using a Martha Stewart punch. I used Stickles to give some snowy shine to my card. I really did enjoy creating this card. The sketch was a refreshing challenge, not too easy and not too difficult.

So you all know, over at the Paper Wishes Message Board I am leading a bi-weekly Christmas Card Challenge using Paper Wishes supplies. If you are a fan of Paper Wishes and need to get started on those cards, come join us! The more the merrier. We are a friendly group. :D

I am entering my card into one challenge:

Elizabeth Bell's World - June/July sketch

Enjoy your weekend!
Jen

Baby Shower Projects

Hello Again:

I have more projects to share. My co-workers and I attended a baby shower luncheon today at The Cheesecake Factory for a girl we all used to work with. She is having a baby boy and is extremely excited. I am so happy for her. Since I am the crafty one of the department, I volunteered to make a baby card for her from all of us and I volunteered to make little party favors.

First the card:

It is a 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 square card. The papers are from a paper pack called Nona's Nursery "Baby Boy" by DCWV. The digi is from Sew Many Cards colored with colored pencils. If you look really closely, there is a punched border on the bottom that I layered over. It was made with a Martha Stewart punch. The embellishment that looks like a charm bracelet I bought from Michaels. It was in the scrapbook section and I believe it was a Jolie's embellishment. Funny enough I bought this for another card I made some time ago and never used it. It was sitting in my stash ever since. The pearls are from my stash. The ribbon is from Paper Wishes and Stickles were added for the final touch. I just love stickles, don't you? To me, they just turn a card from it looks nice to dazzling! We all know women love shiny things. :D

My next project are the party favors I made. I used the Picnic Basket template from Paper Wishes. I used papers from the same paper stack as the card because they were nice and heavy. I added stickles and a bow, lined them with tissue paper and added Herrshey's chocolate kisses for the treats. Everybody loved them. In fact, my manager hinted to me that she might make an order of these for an anniversary party. I was like "Huh, come again?" LOL.

Thanks for looking and I hope you all enjoy your weekend.

Jen