Flippin' for Fifteen!

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Hello, friends!  Quick post tonight to share a card I made for a friend's niece's 15th birthday!  I was given simple instructions:

1. There must be pink.  Check!
2. There must be bling.  Check!
3. There must be glitter.  Check!

Beyond that, I was given complete artistic license.  ;)  I thought, what 15 year old doesn't own and love hundreds of pairs of flippies???  :)  I know I'm about three weeks away from L-I-V-I-N-G in mine!!!  

I was inspired by this week's sketch over at RetroSketches and the Color Story at The Play Date Cafe.

         

Hope you have a flippin' great Wednesday!  Muah!  :)

Mother Knows Best? *wink*

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Hello!

Ok, so I mentioned in my last post that my mother had quite the dubious reaction to the card I'm about to share with you…  She literally saw it sitting on my counter and said, "Huh (kinda high-pitched-like)….  Sooo... what did you do to this one?!?  I've never seen a card that looked like that before…"  (To her credit, she immediately started back-pedaling by asking me questions about color and technique…  but I saw through that!  :)

Now, I admit this one is a bit different, but that's ok every now and then, right?

I chose my colors based on the color palette over at The Play Date Cafe this week.  I love this combination -- it reminds me of the beach, for some reason!

Anyway, enough stalling…  Here it is:

  

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope the rest of your week goes by swimmingly!  :)

Color Challenged… Again.

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Hello again.

Tonight I'm popping in with a real quickie I made for the current color challenge over at the Play Date Cafe.  This one was a toughie for me because they were asking us to rock the neutrals, which I don't usually do too well… (Neutrals and I don't usually speak the same language.  At all.  Not even close.)

But it had been awhile since I'd linked up at TPDC, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I have a couple of weddings to attend this month and I thought these colors would lend themselves to that type of card, so there you have it..

Here's a look at the color palette we were playing with…  (I always think these colors look so good on Pinterest -- check my boards; they're littered with this stuff!  So where's the disconnect???  ;)

I'm off to bed -- been battling a stomach bug all day…  :(

Have a great Wednesday!  :)

Love "Shell" Lift You Up!

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Hello (and Happy Labor Day to all my American friends!)!  Just wanted to pop in with a quick share this evening!  If you've been following for a while, you know I have a serious affinity for Darcie's stamps and shadowbox frames.  You may remember a couple of cuties I posted a while back (if you'd like a refresher, you can find them here and here).  Well, today, I wanted to share one that I made for my youngest niece, Leighton.  Leighton is a tomboy gone girly-girl, and I knew these turtles would be right up her alley!

For this shadowbox, I used Darcie's "Talilah Turtle" set and created my flower embellishments using her "Fleurs Abondante" set.  

Seriously, how cute are these turtles??  (Though I must admit they gave me a bit of grief…  I am used to stamping and then coloring an image, but this particular set does not lend itself to that technique.  I initially tried stamping and embossing the image and then coloring with my Copics -- ruining a couple, I fear, in the process…  Then I tried stamping with Versamark ink and applying chalks (nice result, though super-tedious!)…  But none of these really gave me the look I was going for.  I had never tried direct-to-rubber coloring (mainly because all I had was Copics and I didn't think that was possible with them…), but decided that was just gonna have to be the technique for these images…  So, I bit the bullet and bought a handful of markers designed for direct-to-rubber, and….. voila!  Colorful Turtles!  :) 

I did come back in and color my gems and pearls with my Copics for some added bling…  Gotta have that!  :)  And the sentiment is all mine -- not a lot of pre-made sentiments fit for turtles stacked on top of each other!  :)

You'll want to check out this week's challenge over at The Play Date Cafe -- gorgeous color combo and beautiful inspiration board!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  I will be back tomorrow with a new card with lots of coloring on it that I can't wait to share with you!  Until then, I hope your week starts off with a bang!   :)

Hip to be Square!

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Hello, my friends!  Hope your week is going swimmingly -- literally, if it's as hot where you are as it is here…  whew!  C'mon Autumn!  :)

I just wanted to pop in to share a card I created for a friend who just had had a surgery and is facing a rather long recovery -- thought she could use a dose of sunshine right now!  :) 

These papers are from SEI's "Mimosa" line -- I thought they were appropriate for the color challenge over at The Play Date Cafe this week.  I used the sketch from RetroSketches and modified it to be a square card because Cas-ual Fridays demanded it!  :)

Anyway, I hope you like it…  Thank you for stopping by!  Here's hoping you're wrapping up your summer with friends and family and making the most of these last weeks before school starts up again!  :)  Be well!

Topiary-ally Awesome!!!

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Good morning!  I mentioned on my last post that I hosted the Hero Arts 90-Minute Scramble this past weekend -- soooo much fun!  My challenge was to use the "filler" stamps that come in almost every stamp set to create the focal point on your card...  Thought I would share the second card I created as an "inspiration piece" for the Scramblers...  (I am happy to announce that, in the interest of fairness, I created both of my cards in 90-minutes -- not the same 90 minutes, mind you, but 90 minutes nonetheless!  Turns out I can work within time constraints when the pressure is off!  Who knew?!?)

This card was so fun to make and I am super-proud of it!  The topiary is made using the filler stamps I have highlighted in the pics below.  I created a "mask" by punching my 7/8" and 1-1/4" circles in scrap paper and lining them up on my cardstock.  I then stamped the little flowers and just "masked" them with hole-punched paper pieces while I stamped the little leaves and branches.  Pretty darn easy!  :)

 See the little "filler" pieces I used??  Too easy and so fun!

I made this card with two challenges in mind...  I wanted to make a "Hello" card for Stamp It! Cards The Hello Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and I chose my colors for this card based on the color inspiration board over at The Play Date Cafe this week.  Love the pinks and greens -- has to be one of my favorite color combinations!!  Check out their color board:

Thanks for stopping by!  I am off work today -- woo-hoo! -- and plan to get a few necessary (ugh!) things done and then spend some much-needed time in my craft room!  Here's hoping life is allowing you some craft-therapy time, too!  :)

To Hex With It All! :)

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Whew!!!  What a week this has been!  Time is flying by so fast --- are we really half-way thru the year already??  Where has the time gone???  (Although, who am I kidding?  We're smack-dab in the middle of summer and these are the months I'd rather have just scoot on by... so stinkin' hot!!)

Anyway, I've been up to my elbows in not-so-fun stuff this week and have had very little crafty time -- until today!  So I knew I wanted to play along with The Play Date Cafe this week because they have a pretty amazing color story for inspiration going on...  Love those!  They seldom do four colors and I was excited to try my hand at it!

I was also equally excited to play with some new Papertrey Ink products I had just received (the Hexagon Cover Plate Die and Happy Hexagons Mini Stamp Set).  I think the possibilities are endless for these two products and I am genuinely stoked to try out some more ideas!  :)

For this card, I individually stamped all the colored hexagons and cut up the cover plate so I was left with some random "flowers."  I rather like it!  :)

Oh, and before I forget -- check out this wicked color story I was telling you about:

Pretty darn rad, right??           

I am also linking this card up to the Moxie Fab World's Stamp It! Birthday Card Challenge (I've realized I make far more "other" types of cards than I ever do birthday cards --  and why??  Don't we all need more birthday cards on-hand than any other type of card??  Silly, girl!!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  I promise not to go MIA for too long again!  For all my American friends out there, hope you and yours have a safe and Happy 4th of July!  :)         

Got the Blues

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Hello!  Just wanted to pop in to share a quickie I made for this week's challenge over at The Play Date Cafe.  Color challenges are my favorite kind -- and TPDC never fails to deliver!

Having said that, this week's palette was certainly a challenge...  It just felt weird to be playing with these colors in the middle of the summer -- (it reminded me of the year my dad thought it would be great to change out all our traditional Christmas decorations for blue and silver ones -- pretty in theory {and in the department stores} -- but just not right in our home!!)

Alas, this is meant to be a challenge, after all...  So, here's what I came up with:

   

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #137

Thanks for popping in!  I always look forward to and enjoy your sweet comments!  Have a great rest of the week!  :)

Thank You "Clearly"

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Seriously, have you seen the color palette over at The Play Date Cafe this week?? Simply gahhh-geous!  :)  How could I not play along??  And I had the perfect set of stamps I was dying to ink up just for the occasion!  :)

Just so we're "clear," (ha!) I have used acetate again on this card to create a window to house my sentiment.  So fun, but I didn't have the right color Staz-On ink, so had to stamp and heat emboss my sentiment on the "inside" of my card...  I like it anyway!  :)  Hope you do, too!  Thanks for stopping by!

But before you go, thought I would share some sage advice my mom passed on to me and my sisters, just for fun!  :)  You know, moms always know best!  

Thanks, Mom!  :)  Haha!

Just Because...

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***Before I get into today's post, I wanted to shamelessly plug, er, uh...  remind you about my first-ever giveaway I have going on this week!  You can find the details in this post, but really it's simple -- all you have to do to be entered is become a follower of this blog (if you aren't already!), and if you do, please leave me a comment so I can take some time to visit your blog and say "hi!"  I will run this thru 11:59pm CST Friday night, June 15th and announce a winner on Saturday, June 16th...  

Thank You and Good Luck!!!***

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming!  :)  


The card I'm sharing with you today is my take on this week's color challenge over at The Play Date Cafe -- which was a real bugger, btw!  :)  If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I heart my patterned papers and rarely do a project without them.  Well, the good folks over at TPDC must have had other things in mind when they chose this color scheme, 'cuz I had nuthin'!  I was gonna have to do a lot of stamping and coloring!  I also had in mind to use one of this month's sketches over at the Hero Arts blog as inspiration for this card -- Circles!

So here's what I came up with:

 Was hoping you'd be able to tell more about the different levels on this detail shot...

I'm pretty pleased with it, especially since (promise you won't tell anyone --  this is just between us...) this was my first time ever stitching on a card!  Ha!  :)

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!  I would be super-honored if you would consider following this blog -- again, the giveaway is still open for another couple of days!!!  :)  Hope your week is starting off famously!

  

Dancing in the Rain

Pin It Just wanted to pop in quickly tonight to share a card I made earlier this week for the challenge over at The Play Date Cafe.  The colors -- denim, cherry, and baby blue -- looked too fun, so I had to give it a go!

This cute image is from a set called Raindrop Kisses by Darcie's -- I think I have said over and over how much I love these sets!  So stinkin' cute!  :)

Now for the rest of the story:  I was all set to post yesterday and got caught up cheering my team to victory last night (during the NBA playoffs, I confess my priorities get all muddled...  Nothing else matters when the Spurs are playing!  :) and missed the posting deadline....  Oops!  Oh well!  Here it is anyway!

I added Glossy Accents to her boots and the rain puddles!  :)

the color story from The Play Date Cafe

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are having a great week -- only two more days till the weekend!!!  :)

To Mom with Love

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*** This is my second post today!  For my previous post, please click here or continue to scroll down.***

Ok, so I have had three -- woo-hoo! -- days off in a row this week and have managed to get an (almost) unprecedented amount of crafting time in!  What a great way to spend my time off!  Emmitt and I spent a great deal of time in my craft room today  -- check it out!

My crafting buddy -- faithful and supportive, but worthless for dispensing advice!  :)

Haha!  He sits in his chair across the desk from me the entire time I'm working -- like he has a vested interest in my projects!  :)

On to the goods:  I was inspired by this fabulous sketch over at RetroSketches and this color scheme from The Play Date Cafe.  How could I go wrong, right?  Oh, but wait!  Throw in this pic from The Shabby Tea Room (and the challenge to use a rose in your design!) and it gets even better!

Right.  It doesn't get much better than that, huh?  Well, here's what I came up with -- well, er... what Emmitt and I came up with:

Oh, my...  All these papers are from MME's "Dolled Up" line.  These colors just melt my heart!  Just totally swoon-worthy!!  :)  Hope you like it -- let me know what you think -- would love to hear from you!  :)

Love to you!

Jennifer (and Emmitt!)

A Tiny Taste of Alcohol (ink)

Pin It Ok, so like most paper-crafters, I am easily excited about new (to me) products and techniques and generally eager to "try my hand" at these at my very first opportunity.  I have admired (from afar) alcohol inks and all the ways they can be used, but have always considered them to be not really "my style..."

That is, until one of my blog-heroes, Virginia Lu, started posting cards like this and this and this on her blog.  (Pretty darn spectacular, no?  :)

So then, you guessed it, I just had to give them a try!  My first attempts were not so great, to say the least -- definitely not blog-worthy.  I learned that I needed to learn when to stop; I had a serious tendency to over-blend, creating murky pools of ink that dried into crusty pools of murky inks!

So, after quite a bit of practice, I decided to use my blossoming skill-set (ha!) to create a card for this week's challenge over at The Play Date Cafe.  I used the alcohol inks on vellum to create the layers of the flower and then heat embossed in pewter.  Here's my take:

The inspiration color story at TPDC

Anyway, I'm continuing to play with these inks (and have already extended my collection of colors!), so there will be more to come!  Have you tried them yet?  Would love to see what you've done with them!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Supplies:

• Stamps:  Hero Arts "Layered Flowers"
• Paper:  Neenah "Solar White" Cardstock, Vellum
• Sentiment:  SRM Sticker
• Inks:  Ranger Alcohol Inks - Purple Twilight, Sunshine, Gold Metallic Mixative and Copic Markers
• Pewter embossing powder, ribbon, adhesives

Speedy Smiles

Pin It Confessional:  I am not now, nor have I ever been, known for being able to turn out a card or a layout in a rather short period of time (witness: my near panic attack induced by a "90-minute scramble" hosted on the Hero Arts Flickr site a couple of weeks ago...  :) .  I have always marveled at ladies who can crank out several layouts during one crop session while my sister and I, often collaborating on our projects, could crank out one page in oh, say, maybe eight hours!  (Maybe that's why she has apparently moved on to other hobbies!  :)

Even now, as I have discovered a passion for card-making, I'm just not that speedy!  I'm dealing with it.  It's just who I am.  And besides, it's all about the process...  the journey, right??  Haha!

But newsflash:  Today, I completed a card in under 90 minutes!!  (65 to be exact!)  Woot-woot!!

It's not a complicated one, but it's complete!  

And I'm kinda diggin' it!  :)

I used the color inspiration from this week's challenge over at The Play Date Cafe:

and the sketch from Retro Sketches (super-helpful, saved me my most time-consuming step!)

Anyway, I hope you like it...  Thanks for visiting!  Here's hoping you are enjoying and making the most of however many crafty minutes you are getting wherever you are!  :)

And One More...

Pin It Ok, so I was so inspired by the colors in this week's Play Date Cafe Color Challenge (and had a few scraps to work with :) that I just had to make one more card!  And here it is:

I embossed with my favorite embossing folder ever and then used my Copics to add a little color pop to random dots for a background.  I also used various sized strips of colored papers to create the bottom border.  I think it turned out pretty cute...  Hope you like it, too!

A reminder of what the challenge palette looks like in case you want to play along, too:

Thanks for stopping by!  I appreciate your comments!  :)

Supplies:

• Basic Grey patterned paper - "Wander"
• Hero Arts "Hearts" Frame Cuts Die
• Neenah "Solar White" cardstock
• Sizzix Embossing Folder - "Flower Rings"
• Copic Markers - BG02, BG09, YG25, YR15, YR16
• Uni-ball Signo White Gel Pen
• Grosgrain ribbon, pearls, beads, flowers, adhesives

Color Challenged?

Pin It Hi, there!  I have been sick ( ech...  this thing that's going around is a real bummer!!! ) for the last two days and needed to do something to get myself going again...  I had so much fun with last week's Play Date Cafe Color Challenge -- and scored an honorable mention for this card here, thank you very much! :) -- that I thought I'd give it another whirl...

Only problem: I find this week's color palette much more challenging!  Oh well, all the better to pull me out of my icky funk!  :-/

Without further ado, here's the current challenge info over at The Play Date Cafe.  Individually, I love each of these colors!  Collectively, they had me flummoxed!

PDCC#123

And here's what I came up with (and I love, love, Love it!!!).  I'm super-excited about how it all came together and I hope you love it as much as I do!  :)

Don't you just love it when a project gives you all kinds of grief and fits and then turns out looking like you'd planned it that way all along?  And only you know the heartache it caused you throughout???  (I'll keep your secret if you'll keep mine!!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave me a comment...  Which colors do you have a hard time wrapping your head around???

Supplies:

• Basic Grey patterned paper - "Wander"
• Hero Arts "Hearts" Frame Cuts Die  
• Hero Arts stamp - "Everyday Sayings"
• Neenah "Solar White" cardstock
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks - "Faded Jeans"
• flowers, gems, brads, adhesives, white gel pen