Playing with Happiness

I love Sell-A-Bration time...have I mentioned that lately?? I mean, who doesn't love getting FREE stamps? This year's selection was particularly amazing...and I'm FINALLY getting around to playing with them.

Today (after some obligatory vacuuming!) I pulled out Happy Harmony because I've seen so many beautiful cards with these flowers and the watercolor crayons. The technique is called Expressionistic Watercolors, and it is SOOO easy! Simply apply the crayons DTR (Direct to Rubber) wet your watercolor paper with a spray bottle or an aquapainter, lightly spritz your stamp (that has been colored with the crayons) and then stamp your image. The extra water will cause the colors to run a little more than normal, giving your piece an "expressionistic" look.

For my flowers, I colored them with the Regal Rose crayon first, then went around the edges with the Rose Red crayon. The stems are Certainly Celery, but for some reason came out a little muddy. I stamped the greeting with Timber Brown Stazon so it wouldn't run with all the water.

I layered the piece on Chocolate Chip and then Regal Rose cardstocks. For the card, I stamped the Flannel background on Chocolate Chip CS with Chocolate Chip ink, then tied the Celery Organdy ribbon around the card. I mounted the focal piece over the ribbon using Dimensionals. Then...I still felt like the card needed something more. So, I used my word window punch to punch out some Certainly Celery tabs and attached them around the edge of the card, securing in place with some antiqued brads. I'm not sure how I like them...what do you all think?

Ok, and finally, here are some examples of my "mistakes" while making this card. The first one (while being a little TOO expressionistic) is an example of why I really don't like having to mount my stamps every time I use them. I have to pay very close attention to be sure I don't stamp my greetings upside down.

The second example also illustrates that point with the greeting being at such an angle (and in reality, not one of my cleanest stamped images.) However, this image will not be thrown out...it's not so bad that I can't ever use it...perhaps I can salvage it somehow! And, as I always said in my classes and workshops, it's handmade, so it isn't supposed to be perfect!

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and thanks for visiting!

Stamp Storage

Ok...here's my storage solution!!

I was talking with my upline last night just so giddy that my husband had finally been able to install my new CD rack over my stamping table. (He had to wait for me to clean the table off enough to pull it away from the wall!) In honor of finally have a place to PUT all of my stamp sets, I was finally labeling the clear plastic jewel cases I store the rubber in so I would know what is where. Easy to do with sets that came to Germany never having been mounted where I still had the stickers...going to be tougher for those sets that I ripped from their wooden blocks (which they really miss!) and stuck on waxed paper to get them here. Anyhow....I put the stamp set label on the spine of the jewel case, and then in a moment of actual thought, cut some cheap CS I bought for my daughter to play with into 4 3/4" squares, and stuck all the stickers on to there. Now, I can easily see what sets are inside each case (see the 2nd photo for a close up!)

I really do miss having my stamps all nicely mounted on wood. In my next post I'll demonstrate one of the problems with having to basically re-mount stamps each and every time they are used. Suffice it to say, it's a bit of a pain. However, if I truly wanted to bring the 100 or so sets that I absolutely COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT then I had to sacrifice my wood. I suppose for the good of all my stamps, wood was a small thing to give up, but I still miss it!!!

Big Blossom Kissed!

I got to play today! I just threw a few things into my bag as I headed out the door to stamp with friends here, and actually managed to design 3 different cards! All are using the same color schemes (since it was easier) but were lots of fun!

This card uses the Big Blossom Sell-A-Bration stamp. I was showing my friends how to "kiss" your stamps and ended up stamping this image. So of course, I then had to make it into a completed card.

I inked up my new Paisley background stamp with Regal Rose ink, then kissed my big blossom stamp to it, and then stamped onto Whisper White. I cut out my flower, then attached to Chocolate chip and cut out again (Can you believe I'm doing all this cutting??) I borrowed someone else's Creative Memories cutter that does wavy lines to cut out a stem from Certainly Celery and put it all on a Pretty In Pink card. I chose the phrase from my Love Matters set and stamped that in Basic Brown. Then, when I got home I pulled out my acrylic buttons and some brown grosgrain to do the flower center, and Voila! completed card! and SUPER easy!! I think I'll have to make some more of these!

Oh...and don't you just LOVE my new watermark? I got this from Cindy, you should check out her blog...and feel free to contact her about getting your own watermark!!

TFL!
-Jana

Love Notes...

I bought a little notebook at a small stationary store in Buderich the other day after taking Julia to the eye doctors - good news there is NO glasses!

Anyway, I wanted to do something fun with it, so started off by covering it with some wonderful paper from the Loves Me Designer Paper collection. (I just love the diagonal stripes!!!) Then, I wanted to use the Love Note die cut from my Sweet Nothings Accents & Elements tin, and for sure the wonderful phrase from Love Matters. I clipped the corners with me Ticket Corner Punch so I could put the Rich Regal brads in, and then stamped the Sweet image from Sweet On You into the Love Notes area. I tied the book closed with my pink gingham ribbon, and since it still needed something, I added the brown frilled ribbon from the Flirty Ribbon Originals collection to the spine!

CS: RegalRose, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Loves Me designer paper.
Ink: Regal Rose, Basic Brown
Acc: Rich Regal Brads, Flirty Ribbon, Pink Gingham Ribbon, Tag Corner Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, 1/16" punch, Sweet Nothings Accents & Elements.

Now, to figure out how to use this adorable little book. Perhaps I should start writing love notes to my hubby while he's away for him to read when he gets home. Hmm...shall have to think on this!

Oh...and there is a LOT of blog candy out there right now. Think I"m going to have to start giving some away! Maybe to celebrate getting to 2000 hits I'll have something!

Stampin' Class!

Today I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting another SU demonstrator here in the Dusseldorf area, Christina B. She's from Canada, and goes back there quite regularly to hold workshops and work her "day job." Today, she did a little mini class at the home of one of my American scrappin' buddies, and we made 2 fabulous cards! I just had to share them!!

This first card uses Bodacious Bouquet - one of my new favorites as several of you know! She paired it up with the retired Sassy paper cut and folded into a mini envelope. It was layered onto another strip of Sassy paper which was mounted onto a Real Red card. The flowers were stamped with Green Galore, Real Red, Only Orange and Pink Passion, but out and mounted (at varying heights) using SNAIL and either 1 or 2 dimensionals (it's hard to tell in the photo, but the green and one pink are flush with the cs, the orange and 2nd pink are with 1 dimensional, and the red has 2 dimensionals!) It was then finished off with a bit of black grosgrain ribbon. As many of you know, I really don't like having to cut things out, but it was such a beautiful card, it was worth it! :-)

The second card I just LOVED! I've been wanting the Happy Hearts stamp set for almost 2 years now, but have held out...but I got to use it today!! The card base is Chocolate Chip CS, with a rectangle of Rose Red on top (with the torn edge) then came the strip of Close to Cocoa with the antique brads. On top of this is a square of Bravo Burgundy and the stamped and (once again) cut out hearts. These were stamped with Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red and I think Regal Rose - but I'm not positive on that last color. Again, I have the hearts all at different heights! And lastly, we have LOVE stamped with alphabits and punched out with a little heart shaped non-SU punch. SOOO cute!!!

Thanks Christina for all the fun...can't wait for you to come and see all my fun toys!! :-)

TFL!
-Jana

Paint Can Fun!

Ok...so not exactly a brand new creation, but at least something different! One last project I created while visiting my wonderful friend Rachel in Claremont is this darling paint can. She was holding a class while I was there, so I got to make my own project as well! :-)

For this project, I used the Loves Me designer paper, Flirty Ribbon and the Sweet on You and Happy Thoughts stamp sets, all from the Winter Mini Catalog. In addition, I used Whisper White and Taken with Teal CS, and Regal Rose and Taken with Teal ink. I just love how the images from Sweet on You fit right in our circle punches...I used the 1 3/8" punch for this project because I wanted to keep a hint of white around the outside edge.

I used Mod Podge to adhere the designer paper to the can so it would be nice and smooth, and to give it a little gloss (and protection!) and then adhered the rest of the elements after the Mod Podge had dried. To adhere the ribbons, I just used SNAIL, which was perfect!

For the top of the can, I used the Coluzzle to cut out the circle of Taken With Teal CS, and then stamped it with images from Happy Thoughts by inking just the image or the word. I only used SNAIL for the top of the can.

I hope you have enjoyed this project...watch for more to come soon! With my hubbie traveling again this week, maybe I"ll actually get some stamping done in the evenings!! :-)

TFL!
-Jana

More Delightful Cards

Sorry for the long silence...life in Germany has been quite hectic the last week with Hurricane level winds and visitors from the US. But, I wanted to post another photo of my Just Delightful cards.

I really liked this card...I love things at a diagonal!! All of these cards are so easy to make. To do the basic layouts (minus embellishments) took about 1-1.5 hours, then doing all the embellishments & stamping takes another 1-2 hours. So, in less than 4 hours you can really make 40 cards!

Ok...I'm hoping to stamp again SOMETIME soon...and so my next entry will have some fresh projects to post!

Thanks for looking!

-Jana

Simiply Delightful!

I so love Sell-A-Bration time! There really is nothing better than FREE stamps - or Simply Scrappin' Kits as the case may be! While in California, my friend and upline Rachel and I each made 40+ cards from the SAB Simply Scrappin' Kit.

In addition to the kit itself, we used 20 sheets of Whisper White cardstock for the card bases. We still had 3 sheets of solid 12 by 12 and 1 sheet of pattered 12 by 12 cardstock left, in addition to the unused die cuts! For embellishments, we used Hodge Podge hardware (Pewter) Rose grosgrain ribbon, and some Soft Subtles brads. And of course, a little dazzling diamonds glitter with 2-way glue to add a little shimmer here and there.

I'll add some more photos of a few individual cards later so you can get an idea of how they look in more detail. Everyone on my newsletter mailing list will be getting a message this week about how they can get a full kit to re-create these beautiful cards, including cutting and assembly instructions!

Have a wonderful day everyone...more tomorrow!

-Jana

Back in Deutchland!

Well...so much for good intentions. I was hoping to get TONS of stamping done while in Claremont, and ended up getting very little done. But, I did manage to get lots of shopping done!! I so miss Target and Michael's!!!!!

So, I did get a few things done while I was there, including this cute and VERY simple little card using the new Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set Stampin' Up! was kind enough to send to all of their demonstrators...for FREE!!! Just love those FREE stamp sets!! And I've barely even begun to use my SAB stuff.

Anyway, this card uses a color combination that I've recently fallen in love with - Elegant Eggplant, Lavender Lace and Certainly Celery. I think they just look wonderful together. I also used a bit of Hodgepodge hardware and some ribbon (of course!) and a little Dazzling Diamonds to add some shimmer and shine - altho that's harder to see in the photo. You can see this new set in the Spring Mini catalog which will be available online starting March 1st.

Rach and I did manage to finish up our 40+ cards from the new SAB Simply Scrappin' kit, so I"ll be posting a few of those over the next few days. I'm putting together some great kits for SAB, so if you're on my newsletter email list, be sure to watch for them!

Thanks for looking,
Jana