Christmas Tree ornament

German Phrase of the Day: Bitte versteh' mich nicht falsch. = Please don't get me wrong. Let me tell you, this phrase is one of my pet peeves. My feeling is, if someone has to preface a statement with this or "Please don't take this the wrong way" then maybe they shouldn't be saying it. I can take constructive criticism, so long as it is that. Oh well..just one of my pet peeves. :-)

Here's an ornament I made as a sample for my ornament class I had last week. I used the holiday chipboard from SU! and covered it with real red craft ink, them embossed with Glassy Glaze embossing powder twice to get good coverage. I then sandwiched the photo between this piece and a solid square piece covered with some Dashing DSP. On the back I have Julia's name and the year. Now I've decided I have to go back and make one for every year out of her picture with Santa. Michelle...got any extra chipboard?? ;-)

I used some Red gingham to cover the seam, and I used my new crop-a-dial to set the jumbo eyelets (they are double set so it looks good no matter which side you are looking at! I finished it off with some silver cord and the wide celery grosgrain bow. Ok, can I say it again? Isn't she adorable? A total devil tonight, but still adorable!! :-)

Not sure if I'll post again until we get back from Nurnberg on Sunday, so everyone have a great weekend, and stay sane!! Christmas will be over soon. :-)

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: none
CS: Dashing (on back)
Ink: real red craft ink
Acc: chipboard, red gingham ribbon, wide celery ribbon, silver cord, pewter large eyelets, crop-a-dial, glassy glaze ep

TFL!
-Jana

Baby Kiyo

German Phrase of the Day: Bald gibt es wieder Kastanien. = Soon we will have chestnuts again. Soon equals now in our case...at least in London! Julia loved going to the park near our friend's home because she was able to pick up a TON of chestnuts right off the ground. Now what she will do with them I have no idea. She just tells her dad "They're for crafting daddy!" Now...where has he heard that before???

Today's project was "commissioned" by a friend of mine to give as a gift for a new baby. She wanted a name frame...and chose pink and brown for her color scheme. She's going to be here in 10 minutes...and I hope she likes it!! I used the Simon on board lower chipboard pieces, and a flower my friend in London gave me. The k and y are covered with some retired SU! paper (I think that was Rebbecca?) and the O is covered first with Regal Rose craft ink, then stamped on with the paisley stamp with close to cocoa craft ink, and the i is just covered with regal rose craft. All the pieces are then embossed a few times with glassy glaze ep to give them a nice shiny look. The flower over the i was covered with some of that wonderful Blonde Moments ultra thick embossing powder I talked about over here. The color is called Festive Berry, but it's a nice metallic pink in real life. I quite like it!

I used a variety of ribbons to finish off the letters and make them extra girly. For the base, I stamped the paisley from Polka Dots and Paisleys set and a flower from Polka dots and petals set with versamark ink. Then, I added a strip of close to cocoa cs, and some leftover ribbon from the winter mini ribbon originals set. The frame is about 7" by 9.5" and I bought it at a local store here for two and a half euros (about $3.50.) Tomorrow, I'll show you all the matching card!

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Polka Dots and Paisleys, Polka dots and petals, paisley background, retired SU! paper
CS: Pretty in Pink, close to cocoa
Ink: regal rose, close to cocoa, versamark
Acc: Glassy Glaze ep, blonde moments ep, simon on board lower, pink gingham ribbon, taupe grosgrain

TFL!
-Jana

Blonde Moments...

German Phrase of the Day: Die Liebe geht durch den Magen. = The way to a person's heart is through the stomach (or more literally, Love goes through the stomach - which is a little more humorous!!) We all know this is the truth...I mean...our husbands have to love us because they'd starve without us! (except you lucky women with husbands who cook...I envy you!!)

I took a little time this morning to play with my new toys from Stempel Mekka. One of the products I was most excited about it a new Ultra Thick Embossing Powder from Blonde Moments. It is a 2-tones powder that gives stunning effects. For this card, I embossed my chipboard frame with 3 layers of the Festive Silver powder. Since I'm a slow embosser, I have to use a layer of Versamark in-between layers because I can't seem to get the powder on quickly enough when it's still hot! Oh well. Oh this close up photo, you can see the cool crackled effect that happens with this powder. Honestly, I didn't make it happen...it just does!! So between my friend and I, we bought 6 different colors we were so enamored!

For the rest of the card, I used some of last year's Halloween DSP from SU! on an 8.5 by 8" card base folded in half. I sponged the edges of my designer paper with black ink to help it blend in a little better. I colored the images from Batty For You with my markers so I wouldn't get the words, then mounted the images to the back of my frame (it's from the On Board Blossoms and Basics set of chipboard) After mounting this on to the card with sticky strip, I decided I wanted the ribbon, so I had to gently lift it up and slide the ribbon under...but it worked! Lastly, I stamped boo on the right side of the card using my Big Deal alphabet and some white craft ink. Probably would have been better to emboss with white to make it really stand out, but I didn't think of that until it was too late. Oh well.

This last photo was taken at Stempel Mekka during the demonstration of this product. She did a lot of samples stamping into the still hot powder to leave the impression behind...but I like leaving it plain better...shows the incredible 2-tone effect much better I think! But...she sure sold a lot of the stuff!!!

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Big Deal Alphabet, Batty for You
CS: Basic Black, old Halloween DSP from SU!
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive markers, versamark, white craft ink
Acc: On Board Blossoms and Basics chipboard, black gingham ribbon, UTEP in Festive Silver by Blonde Moments

TFL!
-Jana

Christmas Ornaments

German Phrase of the Day: Kochen macht Spass. = It's fun to cook. Kochen (pronounced KOH-khehn) is to cook, Kuchen (pronounced KUH-khenh) is cake. So, I could also say ich liebe kuchen kochen meaning I like to cook cake! :-)

Today's project was SOOO much fun to make. I really love the new chipboard from the Holiday mini catalog. For this ornament I used the On Board Trimmings. I punched out the star from the center, then covered the remaining circle with real red craft ink. I like how the ink gives the chipboard a suede look. Then, I adhered some Dashing designer paper to the back of my piece...with the stripes showing through the star. You could probably use this for July 4th too...stars and stripes forever, yeah? (or I guess I should say Ja?)

Anyway...that wasn't all. On the back side, I decided to attach the star I had removed. So, I again covered it with the real red craft ink...let that dry a little, then covered it with Versamark and embossed on a layer of iridescent ice ep. Then, I put on another layer of versamark and did two layers of Glassy Glaze to seal it in and make it nice and smooth. Isn't it purdy?? I really liked this paper...and I love that I can showcase both sides so easily. I think I'll make a whole series of these and string them up like a garland across the divider between my living and dining rooms. Strung along on white taffeta ribbon, it will look simply perfect!! Can't wait to get a whole pack of this stuff...I just got a few pieces from my wonderful friend Michelle (Thanks Michelle!!) in the mail so I could play with them before I get to California. This is one of the fun projects (minus the embossing) we'll have available at our World Card Making Day event on October 6th! If you live in or near the Bay Area of California and would like more information about the event just drop me an email and I'd be happy to give you the details!

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: none!
CS: On Board Trimmings, Dashing DSP
Ink: Real Red Craft ink, Versamark
Acc: White taffeta ribbon, iridescent ice ep, glassy glaze ep

TFL!
-Jana

Don't bother me now...

German Phrase of the Day: Ich lese gerade ein Buch. = I am reading a book right now. So...go away! I mean really...I can't believe people are actually blog surfing today when the latest Harry Potter book just became available. Over 2 million Americans are getting their copy today from Amazon alone! So...what are you doing in front of your computer??

Ok, for those of you still here, this is a name sign I made for Julia last summer when visiting my wonderful friend and upline, Rachel before we moved over here to Germany. The new chipboard letters had just come out, and she was teaching us all how to cover them, stamp on them, and emboss them. Isn't this just adorable?? I really loved this paper, and the colors are perfect for my non-pink little girl. Well, she does like pink, but as she says, she likes ALL the colors. Oh...and have I told you her other recent saying? She told her daddy one day that the sun was shining like "100 glitter glues." She makes me so proud!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this...now I'm off to buy my book!

TFL!
-Jana

Pick a Petal fun

German Phrase of the Day: Der Wein schmeckt sehr interessant. = The wine tastes very interesting. I hope you all are memorizing these, because I will have a test someday!! And in the test I'll include ALL my favorite words, of which Wein is certainly one! :-)

So, like I said yesterday I finally sat down and played with my new goodies while DH and DD were riding their bikes to the pool about 5 miles away (and 3 "villages" over.) I knew as soon as I saw sneak peaks of Pick a Petal I would have to have it...but then I saw people struggle with what to do with it...and I got worried. I decided for this card I wanted to go simple, and stuck with just 1 layer (altho, looking at it now, I'm thinking I might scallop one edge and put a layer of color under it...what do you all think? And which color would you use? Wasabi or Apricot??)

I used Purely Pomegranate (the greatest color ever created!) for the petals, and then took a 1" circle chipboard piece out, covered it with Apricot Appeal craft ink, and embossed it with my iridescent ice ep (no, I actually DID put it away, but it was near the front in my drawer of ep)

Once I had the flower basically created, I realized I didn't have anything for the stem...and it will be a while before I get Stem Sayings...it didn't even make my first order, but it's in the "Must Order this catalog period" column. So, I pulled out my PaperTrey Ink Faux Ribbon set and used that to make my stem...and I LOVE it! Of course, I had to use Wild Wasabi ink! Then, I finished it off with a greeting from Hugs and Wishes. Such a fun and easy card to make! I love new toys!!!

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Pick a Petal, Hugs and Wishes, Faux Ribbon by Papertrey Ink
CS: White CS from Papertrey Ink
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Apricot Appeal Craft
Acc: Iridescent Ice ep, On Board Blossoms & Basics

TFL!
-Jana