Happy Birthday Erica!

Here's a card I made for the MFT Guest Designer contest last week, and also for my old high school friend's birthday (also last week.) It's also going in for the Moxie Fab Card Olympics!I used the Who's That Birthday Girl set, and stamped her MANY times. Once for the base, 3 times for the cake tiers, 1 for her dress, then again to cut out her hands. She almost became the handless lady since those hands are so dang tiny and hard to cut out...but I persevered! I used my new Cosmo Cricket Material Girl for the paper piecing.The challenge for the guest DT spot was to incorporate sheet music or old book text into the card somehow. I printed off Happy Birthday from my computer then aged it with creamy caramel and chocolate chip ink. I cut her out with my nesties and mounted her on a so saffron scalloped oval and then added some half pearls to each "bump." Of course I had to add some lovely red taffeta ribbons as well!I finished off the inside with some more stitching, some more dp, and the top two layers of the cake again, with the addition of my girlfriends age (mine too in another month - YIKES!) Hope you've enjoyed this...I'll be back again tomorrow with more challenge cards!

PS Erica...it's on it's way!!

I am OUTTA here!

Hi everyone...I have more cards to share but they'll have to wait until Sunday night or Monday morning. I'm heading to Wine Country (Sonoma area) with a girlfriend for some seriously needed R&R (and some wine tasting of course!) We used to go twice a year back in the day, but haven't been since before I moved to Germany in '06 (unless you count visiting the Mosel River Valley and the Champagne region of France when I was pregnant and couldn't drink!!)

So, needless to say this is long overdue. Please send happy thoughts to my Dear, Sweet, Wonderful AMAZING husband as he deals with a not-yet-weaned 17-month old who is very attached to his mommy and has never been away from her for more than 6 hours. But, I know all will be fine.

Oh...and I rented Bottle Shock for us to watch in the hotel tomorrow night - anxious to see Snape not as Snape! ;-)

have a wonderful weekend everyone!
-Jana

Flopsy gets Nekkid??

Last week Kim of My Favorite Things challenged us to use her cute Flopsey, but leave him NAKED - meaning we couldn't color him in with markers, pencils, anything - except we could paper piece him. I decided since it wasn't coloring him I could cover him with flowersoft and fluff!I used Jen Del Muro's SFYTT from Valentine's weekend for the layout, and some fun Good Neighbor paper from SU! for the sky and hills. I also stamped the tree from Love Birds and after coloring it with my copics I added some ultrafine flowersoft to create the cherry blossoms which are very abundant here right now! Flopsey's tummy and ear centers were covered with sparkly pink fluff and the rest of him was covered with Koala ultrafine flowersoft.As usual, I finished off the inside of the card too - it takes just a few more minutes but makes such a big impact! Ok...finished watching the Idol results show, and I think it's time to head to bed! Thanks for stopping by!

PWC93: Another great sketch!

Good morning everyone, this is my second post for today, so be sure to scroll down after reading this one to see my La-La Land Crafts debut post! I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the great creations with the new Paper Pretties stamps, and that you've had a chance to swing by the boutique to pick yours up! Today's weekly challenge is another wonderful sketch from the amazing Frances! If you didn't arrive here via Julie's blog, then head on back to Christie's so you don't miss a thing. This week we're featuring Cuddle Me Sophia and Always In My Heart - so feel free to add them to your cart at a 20% discount this week! And we'd love to see what you come up with for this fabulous sketch, be sure to upload them to the Paper Pretties Challenge Gallery!I chose Cuddle Me Sophia - one of the first stamps Paper Pretties released. I love this sweet little girl with her teddy. after coloring her with my copics, I paper pieced her dress with paper from Cosmo Cricket's material Girl mini stack, then used some other papers for the background. I also cut out her arms and teddy bear to go on top following the advice of Joanne in her great tutorial.I added the three design elements to the side (I used some great SU! buttons with ivory burlap thread tied through them) and then added this luscious silk ribbon I picked up (along with the paper and the burlap thread) from LimeLight PaperCrafts. I ordered on Thursday afternoon, it got here on Monday -WOOHOO!I finished off the inside with a little more dp and the sentiment. Now keep on hopping along to see what Jackie has for you today...and have a great one!

La-La Land Crafts Spring Release Blog Hop

Welcome to the La-La Land Crafts SPRING Release Blog Hop! I'm so excited that my first post for LLC is a new release...and I love ALL the new images!!

You asked and we listened!! We are going DIGITAL!!! All of our images in this release are available as digi stamps!! We can not be more excited to move into this direction. No, we are not going to stop making rubber stamps. We are expanding our collection by providing you with more options for your paper crafting needs. Here you can see thumbnails of all the adorable new images!To celebrate the release of our new Spring Digi Stamps, we are doing a bunny trail blog hop! Along with the cards created by the Design Team and Guest Designers, you will find some clues (a secret word or two) on every blog. When you follow the order of the Blog Hop and get to the end, you will have collected all of the words to make a sentence. If you didn't get here from Lisa's blog, The Craft's Meow, be sure to head back to the beginning of the hop at the La-La Land Crafts blog so you don't miss a thing! When you are done, you will need to go back to our blog and leave your comment with the completed phrase there (but of course I'd love to hear what you think of the new release and my card right here!)I used the new Easter Bunny Rosy image. Isn't she just the sweetest? After printing her on whisper white cardstock (the only cardstock my printer will feed!) I colored her in with my copic markers then cut her out with a nestie (do you cut your images before stamping and coloring or after? I'm never sure when I should...curious how you all do it!)I used some SU! designer paper and new stitched felt embellies along with these great pearl accents and some ribbon. of course, since it was sitting right there, I had to sew on my card as well! That is geting quite addicting.Lastly, I finished off the inside of the card with a sentiment from my What's Crackin' set from MFT along with a little more DSP. That's another thing I've really gotten into lately - but it makes such a difference when you do it!So, now that you've seen my card - be sure to hop along to the next stop Kristine at her blog Ink Something. Oh...and remember my clue - Hippity - you'll need it at the end to win the wonderful Blog Candy that Irina has waiting for you!! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

What's Crackin'??

I've been really busy this week...as of Sunday I had 5 cards to finish before Wednesday, and I'm happy to say I finished the last of them this afternoon! I had several challenges I wanted to complete, along with my DT responsibilities. So...this one was for a few challenges. Joanne has a great blogaversary challenge going on, and this week's challenge was to get sew krafty! We had to use kraft cardstock AND sew on our card.

I decided to use this week's SFYTT from Jen del Muro as well, and use this as a Hello card for the Moxie Fab World olympics challenge, AND the Crazy for Challenges C4C26 It's all about Texture! I have many of those between embossing, flocking, stitchinf, satin, and twine!I used my new What's Crackin' set from MFT. I was so excited to get this set and start playing with it. after embossing the image on my new MFT One Sheet Wonder Copic Cardstock. After doing some initial coloring, I flocked my bunny and chick some some Doodlebug Designs flock, and my sparkly fluff from my Feb. VIP kit! Then I paper pieced the eggs with some old SU! dsp. I stitched more dsp onto a layer of white, the adhered them to my fossil scalloped note card. I cut out an oval with my nesties and sponged some green to one half and blue to the other for some ground and sky for my little egg buddies. After adding a buttony bow with my satin ribbon, I was ready to finish it off with the greeting stamped directly on the dp.Aren't these bun and chik just the cutest?? I'm so glad I got to play along with all these fun challenges. I'll be back tomorrow with BOTH my Prettie Wednesday challenge card, and the awesome new La-La Land Crafts stamp sets...so be sure to stop by!

Big News!!!

Happy Monday morning everyone - have you all checked out the new release from Paper Pretties yet?? Awesome, huh??

Did you all see the new badge I have over to the right here? I have some great news to share. I'm a guest designer for La-La Land Crafts for the months of March and April, and I am SOOO excited!! Below is a card I made a while back with winter La-La for those of you not familiar with this line of stamps. There are so many cute girls, and some adorable animals (I LOVE Maya the cow!)

More good news? La-La Land Crafts is releasing 6 new stamps on March 3rd - so be sure to come back and see what adorable new cuteness I'll have for you on Wednesday!

Paper Pretties Release day!!

Today is the day that Paper Pretties is releasing 7 new sets, 4 in rubber, and 3 digi images!! Here is my card made with the new I'm Sorry Cooper. Isn't he adorable? I'm sure I'll be getting this look myself in another year or two from my little Jack.I printed my digital image onto some whisper white cardstock on our laser printer, then colored him in with copics. Do you see the little polka dots I added to the bunny with my colorless blender? Sherrie has been making awesome patterns on her little PI girls lately and I had to try it too!The dp is from a bag of scraps that Susan Liles mailed to me last week - I was so excited to have some new patterns to play with...THANKS Susan! I layered it onto always artichoke and then some bashful blue.

Now be sure to check all the other Prettie Girl blogs today so you can see all the wonderful new sets that we're releasing, and all the cards will be on the front page of the Paper Pretties site as well. Have a wonderful day, and Happy Shopping!

Prettie Peak #2 - Cool Coffee!

I am so loving all the new sets Paper Pretties is releasing on March 1st. And the Prettie Girls have all been posting some amazing samples! This stamp is another in the Prettie Petites line by artist Jennifer Lambien - and it is so much fun! Jennifer created our other new coffee set that I previewed yesterday, so you can see her style goes from nice open images like this one to very detailed, dense images like yesterday's. Such great variety, I'm so happy she's working with us here at Paper Pretties!!I colored my image in with copic markers, just using a few different colors. I thought I'd use last week's Sweet Sunday sketch from Karen Giron (she's a super sweetie that I got to meet at CHA - seemed like everytime I was at Taylor's booth she was there and Jack was fussing!)I cut some strips of retired SU! dsp and mounted them onto a piece of chocolate chip cs, then stitched all around the outside with a straight stitch, then zigzagged between each of the strips. I added some chocolate chip satin ribbon, the mounted this onto a kraft card with dimensionals. Lastly, I added my image (layered onto a coral scalloped circle.) Now, head over to see what Jackie and Christi have to share with us all today!

I hope you enjoy this, and be sure to come back tomorrow for one more look at another new DIGI image from Paper Pretties, and on the Pretties homepage you'll be able to see samples using ALL the new stamp sets being released!

My Promised Prettie Peak!!

Ok everyone...here it is...one of the newest stamps coming from Paper Pretties which will be released on Monday, March 1st. It's called Brew Your Coffee, and it's TONS of fun!!This stamp has so many fun details to color, from the different patterned mugs, to all the cute little birds, and even the little houses in the background. Because there is so much detail in this stamp, I wanted to keep the layout simple, and not use any patterned paper which might compete too much with this adorable image. I stuck with nice bright colors (the houses in the background made me think of the beach we used to visit in the Netherlands) and just did a little dry embossing to keep the cardstock from being too plain.I colored the image with my Koh-i-Noor pencils and some OMS. I think I need new blending stumps because the one I was using is getting VERY short!! And I think I like my Prismacolor pencils better - so I think I'll be sticking to those next time!!

I hope you've enjoyed this little peak. Be sure to check in with Jules, Christi and Jennifer who all have peaks for you today as well. And I'll be back with another peak tomorrow...so I'll see you then!

Card set with crocheted flowers

A good friend of mine from my daughter's school is a fabulous knitter and crocheter...so I asked her to crochet some flowers for my cards, and in exchange I would make her some cards. When I saw the KSS Crew challenge for February (to make your own patterned paper with KSS stamps) I thought it would be perfect for making her cards. I was so happy to finally ink up this set which I got when I first moved back to the US.I stamped 2 full sheets with the hydrangeas and leaves using some memento ink spots. It was so much fun to build the flowers up...and watch as I kept adding the layers of colors. I used the two sheets to and some old olive and rich razzleberry cardstocks to decorate the box (from Taylored expressions - LOVE these boxes!) and the cards. For the box, I stamped the word "cards" using the Bling Bet from MFT.I made 4 cards each of 2 designs, and I used some of her lovely flowers on half the cards, along wtih some different ribbons and the fun Stampin' Up! SAB edge punch.I hope you all have enjoyed this project! I'll be back tomorrow morning with a Prettie Peak at a fun new set Paper Pretties is releasing on Monday night...hope to see you back here!

I've been busy lately with lots of fun things, but I wanted to go back and show you a few valentine's I made for Jackson to give to his friends and therapists. We made this card for his Occupational Therapist. I thought it would be fun to make a tri-fold card with Cooper peeking through to the front. I didn't want it to be square, so I cut an 8.5 by 11 sheet down to 5 by 11, then scored it for a trifold using my scorepal. I stamped Cooper on the inner flap and colored him with my copic markers, then punched the hole for him to peek out of.I added a scalloped ring of Bermuda Bay cs to the window, and some matching ribbon, then stamped the greetings (with the addition of Happy Valentine's Day from SWAK to the inside) to finish it off. I'm happy to say his therapist loved it!Don't forget you only have until the 28th (that's this Sunday) to enter all the challenges over at I Dream of Stamping. Each challenge has it's own prize, and we'll have select a grand prize winner from all those people who enter all 5 challenges...so get workin'!

Prettie Wednesday Embossing, PWC92

Happy Wednesday everyone! It's time for another Prettie challenge hop as we travel along to see what all the Prettie Girls have created with Heather's challenge to use embossing of some sort on a card (both heat and dry embossing count.) If you didn't arrive here from Julie's blog, then head on back to Christie's so you don't miss a thing!I'm using the Apple of My Eye set today, which is such a fun stamp in our Petite Prettie line of stamps. This set, and Apple of My eye Scripture are both on sale this week for 20% off, so it's a great time to add them to your collection if you haven't already. I embossed my apple bowl image with white embossing powder on watercolor paper, and then used a "wet on wet watercoloring" technique to color in my image. First I spritzed the paper with water, then using my aquapainter, I picked up some reinker and dabbed it into different parts of the image. The embossing contains the color, while the water encourages it to spread. It's a really fun technique!I used this week's Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #62 for my layout, and I think it worked perfectly with this image! I used some retired Bella Rose papers from SU! to complement my image, and finished off the inside with some more papers and the sentiment that comes with this great image!We'd love to have you play along with us. Please be sure to upload your creations with Prettie stamps to our gallery, we'd love to see what YOU create! Now hop along to Jackie to see what amazingness she has for you today!

The need for speed....

I love things fast paced. I walk fast, I work fast, and I like to stamp fast. So for the final Winter Card Olympics challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog, we're doing a timed challenge. Create a card in 10 minutes (or 15 if you're handicapped with a sleeping baby on one shoulder or similar situation!) It's really fun to see what you can get done in such a short period of time. I was surprised!For my card I used the new Good Neighbor DSP from the Stampin' Up! SAB catalog along with the Trendy Trees stamp set and some gorgeous satin ribbon. I wanted the trees to represent 3 of the 4 seasons, so the cameo coral is like spring blossoms, then the summer green, and lastly the autumn leaves. For the leaves, I inked them first with More Mustard, then tapped around with my Ruby Red marker for some variation. I also used some punches to make it fast, and the wonderful Sketch for You to Try from this week - still gotta go back and do last week's...hmm!We'd love for you to play along with all our winter olympics challenges, so go check them out! You could win some fun prizes...and everyone who enters a card for ALL 5 challenges is qualified to win the grand prize!! OOOOoooooh!!

Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

LaLa Land is all RED!

This week's LaLa Land Crafts challenge is to make a card with Red as the dominant card. I wanted to play along and had this Building snowman Maya image all stamped and ready to color. Isn't she adorable??She's stamped on an MFT Perfect Panel with brilliance black ink and colored with my copics. She was cut with my nesties and mounted on some real red. I used some old retired SU! dsp and close to cocoa for the panels behind the image and added some red satin ribbon and red corduroy buttons to finish it off. I did this one fairly quickly but I'm happy with the results!

MFT Monday - Jolinne

Jolinne, Jolinne, Jolinne Joleeeeenn. Sorry, whenever I think of this stamp set Dolly Parton's song Jolene pops into my head. My parents were big country music fans - so I was quite familiar with all the country stars in the 70's and early 80's.

I finally got a chance to start playing with my newest MFT stamps - just in time since I should be getting more in just a few more hours!! When I first saw these new images I wasn't so sure about them...but they grew on my pretty quickly. I managed to only buy one at the last release, but may have to add more since I'm really enjoying this one so much! Introducing Miss You Much Jolinne.This reminds me so much of Julia when we were living in Europe traveling around all the time. I stamped her on a white perfect panel twice (once just to get her legs, so it was on a scrap) then I stamped her 4 more times for the luggage and dress. I colored her with my copics then added some shading to the dress and luggage before cutting everything out and assembling.I used some of the same papers to create my background, and meant to stitch all the way around but I think I had too many layers of paper already, so the thread broke. I figured I'd just keep going on the machine and at least have the paper piercing all around, and just pulled out the stitches that were there. I used a greeting from my WTG Going Places set. I thought this might be cute to stick in DH's suitcase when he goes to Germany in a couple weeks for some meetings.On the inside, I stamped one of the sentiments that comes with Jolinne and of course added some more dp. The dp's are all Basic Grey except the teal, which is from my DCWV Green stack. Hope you've enjoyed it...I'll have more to share soon!

challenges galore!

I don't usually do this, but somehow this card just turned out to work for many challenges! I started it as my sample for the I Dream of Stamping blog's curling challenge (which starts Sunday morning so be sure to check it out!) and then decided to use Julie Masses' inspiration challenge from the Stamping Around blog. Of course, since I used one of my new Pure Innocence girls I had to paper piece her outfit, thus qualifying for Joanne's challenge here, and finally I used the latest CPS sketch #154! Whew!!To start off, I stamped this new little sweetie with her cute pigtails on a cream Perfect Panel. I then stamped her on 2 different dp's from MME's Be Loved paper and a second time on the perfect panel (to cut out her arms per Joanne's great new paper piecing tut!) Then, I colored everything (including shading on the dp) and cut it all out to piece it together. Lastly, I cut her out with my new deckle edge oval nestability die.I followed the CPS154 sketch, sponging distress ink and sewing on each of the different layers. I created the satin roses using SU! vanilla satin ribbon and following the instructions from Debbie Olson's recent blog post. They do get easier the more you make...and I discovered 12" was too long, so I ended up using only 8 or 9 per rose. After assembling everything it was still missing something, so I added that strip of lace over to the right side. That helped tremendously in my mind!I finished off the inside with a little more stitched on dp, the sentiment and the flower which the little girl is watering stamped inside (minus the little girl, can, and water!) I hope you've enjoyed this card as much as I did making. Be sure to check the details for the curling challenge on I Dream of Stamping on Sunday morning - I can't wait to see what you all come up with for this one!

Ice, Ice Baby

Sorry...I couldn't help myself. When Julia was little we taught her to say that because it was sooo dang cute! For today's challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog you need to have some ice and/or snow on your card - in whatever format you want! I've been trying to keep up with the olympics (only 2 days behind right now) and just watched Lindsey Vonn win gold, and Louie Vito miss out on bronze, so I'm seeing plenty of snow and ice!For today's card, I used a digital image I purchased from Heather Ellis, the illustrator of the adorable new Pure Innocence line of stamps Kim has over at My Favorite Things (all of which are currently in stock last I heard!) Since I obviously don't have enough of these cuties (I have all but 2 I believe!) I had to go in search of more and found Heather's etsy site with her digital images. As a general rule, I don't care for digital images because I don't have a printer that works with my computer and can only print from dh's laptop. So, when I print, I tend to print a lot at once!!!I did very little coloring on this little cutie, just her hair & skin, some shading on the tub, a little shading for the bubbles, and the heart. I then cut her out with my circle nesties and covered the whole bit with versamark ink. I embossed it with SU's iridescent ice ep, then set her aside (under something heavy so the piece wouldn't curl!) I wanted to use Mercy's tuesday sketch which I really liked, but I had to change it up a little to work with this round image. I didn't want to use squares, and when I punched some circles it looked off. Michelle was here and we finally agreed flowers were the way to go for those side elements. These (and the brads) are some from GinaK from 2 years ago. I'm really happy with the final result!!Oh...and did you notice the stitching on there? My husband finally had some time to take a look at my sewing machine last weekend, he cleaned it out and oiled it, and it works FABULOUSLY now! I'm so excited, you'll start seeing a lot more sewing on my cards, since my machine will be sitting on my desk from now on! WOOHOO! I added some more dp to the inside of the card (this is from the SU! Sweet Pea designer pack) and a sentiment from the Serentiy Now MFT mini set.

Now...go work on your Icy challenge card and link it up over on the I Dream of Stamping blog. you could win a great new stamp set!!

MFT Valentines...

I'm getting behind in all my posting. But the good news is I've been creating LOTS! Just haven't been getting them up here!

Here are 2 MFT Valentines I made recently for the Wednesday Stamp Club. The current inspiration is to create a basket...but I'm waiting for my new stamps before starting on that project!! However, last week's inspiration was to create a Valentine (or to use the new love birds set that Amanda Baird illustrated...or a few other things!) Since I had forgotten to buy the Amanda Baird set when doing my release night order, I stuck with Valentines (but don't worry, that set is coming in this new order!!)

This first card was for my husband. We moved to a house with a pool last summer - which included a pool maintenance company. However, I often tease him that he should take over the pool maintenance (not that he actually has time) just so I can tell everyone that I'm sleeping with my pool boy! LOL!!I paper pieced the wallpaper with some basic gray paper, and colored the rest with markers. I added a little crystal effects to the tv screen to give it some dimension as well.I finished off the inside with another strip of the dp, and another sentiment from the Maid for You set as well. LOVE this set!!My second card for you was for a good friend of mine, and I have to say she LOVED it! I used the Bling Bet alphabet set and the new Twisted Threesome both from MFT. I stamped LOVE with chocolate chip craft ink to get good dark coverage, then added the crystals. (I bought a cordless heat tool for adhering crystals at CHA and LOVE it! I actually finished this card in the parking lot of Starbucks while my daughter was at her German class last week!) I added a sentiment from Twisted Threesome to the inside, and that was the only part my friend objected too...she said cross out "next marriage"! It is now displayed on her desk - so glad she appreciated it!!Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next I Dream of Stamping Winter Card Olympics challenge - it's one of my personal favorites!!!