What a Party, What a Night!

WOW! The forum was hoppin' last night...I couldn't keep up wtih Jackson in my lap for the first half, then having to sneak off and make/eat dinner then put Julia to bed for the 2nd half. But hey...it's almost 8am here and Jackson is still sleeping it off, so I can't complain! :-)

If you followed the blog hop, all the sneak peeks were revealed in the party forum last night, but if you missed it...here's mine! This little Sophia Ballerina is just so sweet. I truly love all the Sophias, and this is no exception. She is probably my 2nd favorite, after the Sophia in Snowflake Kisses - I just love snow angels!!!

Sophia is on some GinaK Pure Luxury White 80lb cardstock. I'm really liking this stuff...and I LOVE the 120 lb stuff!! She's colored in with SU! markers (gotta learn how to use Copics...then GET some!!) and cut out with my nesties. The scalloped piece is Pink Pirouette (perfect for our little ballerina!) as is the card base. The floral layer is from the Bella Rose DSP from SU!

I used WAY more accessories then I normally do on this card, but I wanted it to be "Fancy" (just like my sister, Nancy!) So I used 2 types of ribbon (May Arts polka dot organdy and SU! pink grosgrain) some flowers from the SU! pretties kit, and the metal bookplate from my silver hodgepodge hardware. Lastly, I used a tiny bit of stickles on the heart to give it a little shine.

This Sophia Ballerina is part of the Stamp of the Month club, and will be going out to all subscribers during the month of March! If you aren't a member, you'll have to wait until April 1st to order her...so bust a move and get on over there!!! Oh, and tell Christie I sent ya!!

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Sophia Ballerina by Paper Pretties
CS: Pure Luxury White, Pink Pirouette, SU! Bella Rose DSP
Ink: Black, SU markers
Acc: Grosgrain ribbon, may arts polka dot ribbon, HPH, stickles, pretties kit.

TFL!

Baskets of Happiness from GinaK!

Ok..I had to post another card today...because I love this one!! Baskets of Happiness is so much fun to color and play with...I really love it! And the new Bling and Dazzle pieces?? To DIE for!! Or should I say to DYE for?!? I colored mine with SU! craft ink just by pushing the flowers down into the spot. Worked great, although I didn't get total coverage...altho I think the white highlighting adds a little interest, right?

The pot is really certainly celery/old olive, but it turned out looking very light in my photos. Sorry about that...we need more sunlight here in Germany!! And I stamped it with a brand new Brilliance Graphite Black ink pad which was VERY juice...can you tell I got a little over-exuberant in my inking??

This card was relatively simple, but very fun to put together. I colored the image with my aquapainter and watercolor crayons, layering on the colors. First pale plum, then perfect plum, then a little elegant eggplant to add more depth. Then I want back and filled in with old olive for the leaves and extra spaces between blooms. Lastly, I gave the whole thing a yellow "glow" ala Debbie Olson, because, well, she's the queen of watercoloring and so I must imitate her style!

I used the SU! floral background on my pale plum layer...I like the subtle texture it gives! Then I added the black layer between the two plum layers to get some more contrast in there. Since I used my mom's nestabilities while still in Florida, I didn't have a lot of choice for CS colors, thus the Purely Pomegranate scalloped layer. If I were doing it at home, I would have had that layer be Perfect Plum...but I think the pomegranate adds some additional brightness to the card.

Oh, and for the flower centers...rhinestone brads from my SU! pretties kit. Gotta love em!!

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Baskets of Happiness by GinaK, Floral Background
CS: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Stamper's select white, purely pomegranate, basic black
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black
Acc: sponge, aquapainter, WWC, Bling & Dazzle outline Flowers, ribbon, silver cord, nestabilities, rhinestone brads from SU! Pretties Kit

TFL!
-Jana

Home again, home again...

German Phrase of the Day: Nein, ich habe keinen Hunger. = No, I am not hungry. Julia and I just got home yesterday afternoon. We went to bed at 7pm local time because we were exhausted...woke up for about 3-4 hours in the middle of the night, and then slept until past 10am this morning! So...we actually WERE hungry when we got up!!

Sorry I've been MIA for the last 2 weeks almost! For some reason, I couldn't login to Blogger from my friends' computers...so I finally gave up. Plus, I just didn't have a lot of time as we were busy catching up with all our old friends. We loved our time in California, but there's also something to be said for sleeping in your own bed again! Many thanks to all our friends who gave us a bed to sleep in, and so much fun!!!

This card was made for a one-on-one swap. Sorry you're getting a preview of this Sher...but all yours will be arriving with your other swap! The challenge for this swap was a color challenge. We could only use Basic Grey, Going Grey, and black and or white for this card...so I used all 4! The basic grey card was stamped with the linen background, then a smaller piece of going grey was layered on top (after clipping the bottom 2 corners and sponging on some basic grey ink.) For the central image, I stamped the polka dot background with going grey onto whisper white, clipped all 4 corners, then layered it on some basic black and clipped those corners. Then, I layered 2 flowers from the pretties kit with a half pearl in the center and adhered that with glue dots. I tied the black gingham around the card to hide the seem with the going grey cs, then popped the central image over the ribbon with dimensionals. Lastly, I stamped the Best Wishes greeting. I love that greeting because it can be so versatile!

Hope you've enjoyed today's card. I forgot to take photos of the few projects I managed to complete while in California, so will have to ask my friends to photograph them for me! And now I have to stamp some goodie bags and make some cupcake toppers for my daughters birthday party tomorrow. I can't believe she's already 5!!! Today is her actual birthday...and she is SOOO excited! I'll leave you with the first photo taken of her the night she was born...and a picture I just took today. She's come a long way from that sub 2-pound micro premie to the precocious 5-year-old she is today!!

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Linen background, sincere salutations
CS: Whisper White, Going Grey, Basic Grey, Basic Black
Ink: Basic Black, Going Grey, Basic Grey
Acc: Pretties Kit, Black Gingham ribbon

TFL!
-Jana

Princess Julia ready to hold court on her 5th birthday

Julia at birth, 1 pound 13.5 ounces, 13" long. Or as my dad said, she could fit in his shoe!