Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Wanna Sketch? 15

Lisa's sketch for Wanna Sketch? 15 had me a little stumped - I've attempted it several times & the crafty process just never ended up being close to my original idea. Finally this morning, SUCCESS! Once I saw that the current little red wagon challenge was to make your own flowers, it all came together.


Supplies: PTI sentiment; bundled sage distress ink; quilling paper; all other materials from stash

I quilled the flowers & leaves, and set them aside to dry while I added yellow french knots to the patterned paper. I started out just adding them to the flower centres, and then went to town with it. After gluing on the leaves & flowers, I added 3 half pearls to the centre of each flower. 

Here's the sketch - there's more than 2 weeks left to play, so lots of time! 

DDWS15

xoxo,
Jessi

Sketches Galore

This is a sketchy week for crafting in my world - the ideas are coming fast & furious. I love it when that happens! First up, I finally was able to play along with Lesley's challenge:


Supplies: stamps from PTI; Bundled Sage & Barn Door distress inks; papers from Echo Park; twine & button from stash

This changed a little from my original plan as I made a boo-boo when I cut the red paper (too short! And the last piece!) but I got the brain storm to cut it again & make the white strip the horizontal element. Ta-da! 

You have until Sunday to play along, so head on over to Lesley's blog & check it out :) 

xoxo,
Jessi


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Seize the Sketch #19!

Thank you so much!

I'm extra excited for today's Seize the Sketch - because I designed it! I can't wait to see what you all come up with :)



Supplies: stamps by Unity; paper from Bo Bunny; Wplus9 banner dies; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Bic & assorted fine-line pens; Snow Writer; yellow glitter fabric paint




I just got this stamp set from Unity - LOVE it! I used a paintbrush to give a glittery glow to all those candles :) 

Here's the sketch:




The linky is open until Sunday May 11th - be sure to check out what all the gals have been up to!


xoxo,
Jessi

Shopping our Stash #149 - May Day!


Since this week includes May Day (holy moly, May already? We don't even have any leaves on trees here yet!!) the Shopping our Stash crew wants you to create something inspired by the May Pole - use ribbon, something twisted, rainbow colours, or something super tall & skinny. Lots of options! I decided to futz around with ribbon:

Supplies: stitched grosgrain ribbon; buttons from stash; leaf die from Memory Box; flourish die from Paper Smooches; sentiment stamps from PTI; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; burlap stamp from Market Street Stamps; black rhinestones from Dollarama


The flowers were made using the same tutorial from Laura as last week. Several of these flowers were already in my stash, and the others I made using 3" pieces of ribbon - in retrospect, slightly too short, so that's why they're layered as they are, to hide the not-so-neat edges. As for the burlap stamping....reason number 978 NOT to stamp the sentiment last? I dropped it. Cue bad words. So I added the burlap stamping, and the 'mom' in the upper right corner, and now I MEANT TO DO THAT.


I think you'll be amazed once again at the range of things the Stash gals came up with for this challenge -  come & play along with us until next Monday, May 5th!  Make sure you hop on by & leave the rest of my teamies some love!


xoxo,
Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #247 - sponsored by Melissa!

Good morning! Melissa, our fearless leader, is our sponsor this week at Tuesday Morning Sketches, and she's designed a fabulous sketch too!



Supplies: floral stamp from Flourishes; sentiment from PTI; papers from Basic Grey 'paper cottage;' Spellbinders label die, classic small oval nesties; Peacock Feathers distress ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Spectrum Noir markers; AC yellow glitter; black micro beads; Mod Podge Dimensional Magic; buttons & twine from stash


I've sponged the edges of both die-cuts with Peacock Feathers ink to help them stand out. The centres of the daisies were filled with Dimensional Magic, then a sprinkle of microbeads, and then a big blob of glitter. It's hard to tell in the photo but they are SUPER popped :)

Here's the fun sketch:


This sketch is open until next Sunday, May 4th  - be sure to hop around & see what the rest of the team created!


Jenee (off this week)

xoxo,
Jessi

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Gardening...on paper!

Anyone who's been to my house KNOWS I have a black thumb - but one place flowers stay alive here is on paper! The current CASology challenge is to be inspired by the cue word GARDEN, and with Mother's Day fast approaching I've been making lots of floral cards.


Supplies: floral stamp from Flourishes; sentiment from PTI; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Bic & Spectrum Noir markers; paper from Basic Grey


Supplies: tulip stamps from PSX; MOM stamp from Paper Smooches; American Crafts markers; Sharpie white paint pen; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Picked Raspberry distress ink; AC card stock; Black Sharpie


xoxo,
Jessi

Playing with Watercolour

The current Pink Elephant challenge is to watercolour - and I decided it was high time for me to hop on the bandwagon & play!


Supplies: sentiment from Paper Smooches; medallion stamp from Stampendous; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists in Pearl, Cherub Pink, Starfish, Blue Skies, and Turquoise Blue; Distress inks in Victorian Velvet & Peacock Feathers; Neat & Tangled crystal clear sequins; Versmark & Moonstone EP; AC silver card stock; Cuttlebug embossing folder; silver paint pen

First I used the four coloured mists to paint the background, and then I inked up the medallion stamp with two colours & spritzed it with Pearl mist before stamping on the still-wet background piece. Once it was dry, I cut the panel to the size I wanted & stamped the sentiment. I love how the inks bled into the background - this medallion stamp is truly one of my go-to stamps. 

xoxo,
Jessi

Friday, April 25, 2014

Mom & Baby Love

I've got two cards to share for the current Paper Smooches SPARKS Anything Goes challenge :) The colours on the first card aren't showing particularly well - the purple looks brown. Oh well.


Supplies: rainbow stripe stickers from stash; all stamps from Paper Smooches; Bic markers; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Versamark & black EP; Distress Inks in Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, Seedless Preserves


Supplies: all stamps from Paper Smooches; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Bic Markers; Mowed Lawn distress ink; Dress it Up baby buttons; Spellbinders die; American Crafts card stock


I've been crafting like crazy for Mother's Day, and now I have to get busy taking some pictures so I can show you!

xoxo,
Jessi

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Seize the Sketch #18, Part Two

Thank you so much!

We're halfway into the challenge for Seize the Sketch #18, and WOW you guys are knocking it out of the park! A few team members have some more creations for you today, including me:


Supplies: Penny Black sticker; MME paper; buttons & cardstock strip from stash

This was a crazy-quick card - I LOVE these Penny Black stickers, and the star element on the sketch just says BIG OL' BUTTON to me :)



xoxo,
Jessi

Shopping our Stash #148 - Happy Earth Day!


I am SO EXCITED to show you what I've made for the new Shopping our Stash challenge! In honour of Earth Day, we'd like to see you recycle or up-cycle something in your project. Use product packaging, die-cut embellishments from a cardboard box, find something around the house & repurpose it...you get the idea. 

So my crazy train of thought went like so. I was colouring this mermaid for the current Sweet Pea Stampers challenge, and I needed a place for it to dry after adding all the glitter & paint. I'd recently cleaned out my "market box" where I keep my paper bags, change, etc, and taken out this frame that I used to use on my table. Some of the gems had fallen off, the rolled paper flowers were crushed & dirtied, and I just didn't like it anymore. For lack of a better place to put it, I'd laid it down on top of my CD stack - and when I put the mermaid there to dry, I thought 'hey, why don't I put the mermaid in the frame?' (And yes, I realize that my craft area is a disaster zone. But then I wouldn't get cool ideas like this!)

Here's the back of the frame (I got too excited & started altering before taking a picture - I used the old insert as  the backing for the new piece of altered art!)


It was just a plain wooden frame, painted with gold acrylic paint. The rhinestone swirls were already adhered (although missing a few, which was easy to fix).  The rest:



This is going to hang on the wall above my desk, once I stop shoving it into people's faces and saying OMG LOOK I MADE THIS!

Because those swirls were already adhered and I wanted to keep them, I knew a complete repainting wasn't feasible. I used Broken China Distress Crackle paint (which had separated, giving some really neat colour variations) in dabs, and then sanded it lightly. After that had dried, I used Tumbled Glass distress Stickles and a paintbrush to lightly coat the entire frame. 



I broke out a lot of fun stuff - you can just make out the embossing paste bubbles, which I heat-embossed with Shabby Blue Frantage EP. The mermaid is coloured with Spectrum & Bic markers, and her tail was painted in with a mixture of liquid pearls & stickles. After painting, I sprinkled Martha Stewart crystal glitter all over for EXTRA SPARKLY! There's some sheer fabric that I frayed & treated with the heat gun, a corsage pin with a big gorgeous glass bead, the last bits of some May Arts ribbons, odds & ends of crystal swirls, and I beaded the ends of the wires that I used to attach the ribbon. I've also stamped some Hero Arts starfish & tucked them in. 

The three flowers on the frame were made by slip-stitching along the edge of seam binding & pulling the ends so that they gathered into a circle. Laura has a great tutorial on this technique here

I think you'll be amazed at the range of things the Stash gals came up with for this challenge -  come & play along with us until next Monday, April 28th!  Make sure you hop on by & leave the rest of my teamies some love!


xoxo,
Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #246 - Dies R Us!

Good morning! It's Tuesday, so time for a Tuesday Morning Sketch - and I have two cards to share with you today. First of all, though, we have a new sponsor joining us - Dies R Us, and you could win a $15 voucher (cool!)
I have two cards to show because when I was creating my first card, I forgot that the sketch was going live after Easter (whoops!) BUT I just love this cute little Tiddly Inks image - and this works perfectly for my first time entering the Tiddly Inks challenge! 


Supplies: Tiddly Inks Chloe and her Peeps; Spectrum Noir markers; yellow fun flock; WPlus9 banner dies; classic small circle Nesties; Fancy Pants papers; sentiment & chick stamp from Michaels; Evergreen Boughs distress ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink

I had a grand time colouring little Chloe, and her peeps are fluffed up with a smidge of fun flock. The chick/egg is paper pieced, and I bent up the ends of the banners for some extra dimension. 




Supplies: Paper Smooches pup; Unity sentiment; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Bic markers; DCWV papers; Wplus9 banner dies; classic small circle Nesties

Now I may be biased since it is my own sketch design, but I could keep going with this sketch - those banners are perfect for using up those little scraps of paper that I hoard!

Here's the sketch:

This sketch is open until next Sunday, April 27th  - be sure to hop around & see what the rest of the team created!



xoxo,
Jessi

Monday, April 21, 2014

Joy to the Earth!

I haven't forgotten my personal pledge to play along in all the jingle belles challenges this year - but being away for the month of March got me so far behind I can see my own rear end! Instead of trying to catch up with the ones I missed now (with Mother's Day breathing down my neck, lol) I figured I would jump back in with the current challenge & work on catching up over the summer. SO, here's my card using a recycled greeting card & some scavenged ribbon from some pajamas! My hubby knows that's my favourite gift - and he even knows to choose the one with pretty ribbon tied around it if he can't decide. What a guy :)


Supplies: recycled card front & ribbon; gold mirror paper; corsage pin & beads


I bent the end of the pin so that I could tuck it into the cardinal panel & tape it to the back to keep the sharp part covered. The birds were even pre-glittered!

xoxo,
Jessi


Sunday, April 20, 2014

Happy Easter!

Good morning & Happy Easter! I realized that I still had a few Easter cards to share (and three challenges to pop them in to) and so I figured I'd combine everything in one monster post :)



Supplies: Doodlebug bunny sticker; MME papers; Martha Stewart fringe scissors; Pink Cat Studio sentiment; Paper Smooches cloud dies; 1" and 1 1/8" circle punches



Supplies: Doodlebug bunny sticker; Fancy Pants papers; Stampendous medallion stamp; Inkadinkado Easter sentiment; Worn Lipstick distress ink; Memento Gray Flannel ink


Supplies: Stampendous chick stamp; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Bic markers; Corner Chomper


Supplies: Doodlebug stickers; classic small circle Nesties; Tim Holtz bubble stencil; Dreamweaver embossing paste; Corner Chomper



Still futzing with my camera - getting better with it, but I find it hard to photograph white still. To do the grass I cut out two partial circles and free-hand cut them, popping up the top layer and the chick for some fun dimension.

The challenges I'm entering:


xoxo,
Jessi


Saturday, April 19, 2014

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #6 - E is for...

...EMBELLISHMENTS! The Snarky Sisters want to see you use at least 2 embellishments on your project - you can use two different ones, two of the same kind, a billion or so of the same kind....we're easy that way :)


Supplies: Bunny stamp from Unity; sentiment from Cloud 9 Designs; Memento Gray Flannel ink; Spectrum Noir markers; ALL THE BUTTONS!

I was actually thinking I'd make something snarky this time around, but then I got sidetracked with a project that started as a card and turned into a mixed media/altered art frame - and thus ran out of time. I can't wait to share that with you, though :) And isn't it funny - I use embellishments on pretty much EVERYTHING, but when it came to a challenge to USE embellishments? Brain farts all around. 

Want to get embellishy? The linky will be open until Friday May 2nd,  and you should definitely go check out what the other Sisters have been up to:


And for our Guest Designer this challenge, we have the lovely Princess Judy, who rocked it! 

xoxo,
Jessi


Friday, April 18, 2014

Merry Monday on a Friday

I haven't forgotten about my New Year's resolution to play along in the Merry Monday challenge all year, but I did get really far behind after being gone for March - and I'm still behind, really. I plan to catch up during the summer & play with the ones I've missed, but thought I'd at least try to get back on track by jumping back in!


Supplies: Penny Black sticker; Paper Smooches twine; Cuttlebug embossing folder; Colorbox Frost White pigment ink


After embossing the kraft panel, I swiped the raised parts with the white ink, and let it dry. These Penny Black stickers are gorgeous - so much detail!

Here's the Merry Monday graphic:


xoxo,
Jessi

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Seize the Sketch #18

Thank you!

I just recently bought my first bunch of Tiddly Inks digis, and this SWEET little girl was perfect for Jessica's sketch at Seize the Sketch!


Supplies: digi image from Tiddly Inks; papers from Fancy Pants; classic small oval Nesties; Spectrum Noir markers; Doodlebug Crushed Velvet flock - white & pink; button from my stash; Tumbled Glass distress ink

After colouring this little cutie, I added flocking to her costume. I do love a touchable card :) I also sponged Tumbled Glass ink around  the edge of the panel to make it pop a little more.

Here's the sketch:

The linky is open until Sunday April 27 - be sure to check out what all the gals have been up to!


xoxo,
Jessi

Shopping our Stash #147 - Tax Man!


In honour of it being income tax deadline day in the US, Shopping our Stash is bringing you a number challenge this week! We want to see numbers on your project - I dug through to find what I think might really be the oldest number stuff in my stash. I won this collection as a prize in early 2011, and these overlays are the last of it kicking around (well, the last I can *find*)


Supplies: PTI sentiment; Brushed Corduroy distress ink; Simple Stories acetate overlays; staples

I stamped the sentiment on my white card base, and then stapled the overlays in place - one has the numbers, and one has the balloons & swirls. Easy peasy guy card!

 Come & play along with our NUMBERS challenge until next Monday, April 21st hop on by & leave the rest of my teamies some love!


xoxo,
Jessi

Tuesday Morning Sketches #245 - Sami Stamps!

Good morning! We have a fun new sketch for you to try this week at Tuesday Morning Sketches, and a brand-new sponsor - Sami Stamps! You can find Sami Stamps store HERE and her blog HERE.  The prize is a voucher for $12 which would equate to 3 digis of the winner's choice.  

I tried a new-to-me technique, inlaid die cutting, and made the eggy panel resting behind that sweet little chick (available here)

Supplies: Sami Stamps Easter Chick digi; Memory Box egg die; Wplus9 banner die' American Crafts cardstock & patterned paper; Bic Markers; Doodlebug flower stickers; Adirondack Citrus ink; classic small circle Nesties

I had some issues getting my coloured eggs to fit well in the spaces I'd cut, likely because I'd cut over the edges of the panel & so the white card stock piece became a little too flexible - I'm looking forward to trying this again. I sponged the edges of the Easter Chick panel with Citrus ink to give it a bit more pop.

Here's the sketch, designed by Melissa:




This sketch is open until next Sunday, April 20th  - be sure to hop around & see what the rest of the team created!



Because I used a whole whack of dies on my card, I'm also entering it in the April Challenge at Stamping Sensations: dies & punches! 

xoxo,
Jessi