Drinking Chai and looking at ceilings!

I love these bellas, because they are doing something I LOVE to do, but rarely get to. Sitting together, relaxing with a cup of Chai tea (it's my fantasy, I can declare what they are drinking!)

Now if I HAD ever gotten to do this with a friend, I would know exactly who to send this to! But no matter, I'll figure out someone! :-)

I still had out some of those playhouse paper from my fishy card a while back (I know...I'm terrible about putting things away!) and thought the pink and green would be fun to play with. Makes me think back to when being Preppy was in, and I used to copy everything my older sister did! Hmmm...think I know who the card should go to!

Anyway, I watercolored the bellas, again, with my aquapainter and ink pads. I used the same ink as the papers...certainly celery, old olive, regal rose and pretty in pink, with some chocolate chip and summer sun thrown in for highlighting, etc. I stamped the Missing and then You from Fancy Flexible Phrases inking them with the chocolate chip marker so the words could be side by side instead of stacked. 24/7 was a little easier! I then punched the words with the word window punch, put everything together with a little celery grosgrain ribbon and Voila! Well, except it was missing something, so I added the hardware....I like the way this double swirl looks, but always forget to use it! Plus, I like the way it goes with the steam from the Chai!

Today I have another card, because I did the SCS sketch challenge yesterday. And this card does have a new owner, and will be on its way soon! I used the SU! Mostly Flowers stamp set, stamped in Cranberry Crisp ink on Whisper White CS. I punched them with the 1 3/8" punch, which left the barest hint of white around the edges, so I mounted them on 1 1/2" square cranberry crisp with roughed up edges. I put one of those beautiful MM jewels in the center of each image. Gotta get more of those babies, that's for sure!!

For the background, I used my BRAND NEW textile cuddlebug embossing folder. Since I have no cuddlebug, I used the rolling pin method, which works sorta ok. Not having a good water bottle over here, I actually wet my Going Grey CS with Stampin' Mist! It worked!! After embossing, I rubbed my white craft pad over the top to highlight it more and give it that old fashioned tin ceiling look that I love! I mounted that layer on Whisper White, tied it with the stitched cranberry ribbon (and added the pewter ribbon buckle) then adhered that to the cranberry card.

Lastly, I put on the white strip and carefully centered the 2 outer diamonds directly on the white, and popped up the middle diamond with a dimensional. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, and I hope the recipient likes it as much as I do!!

TFL!
-Jana

Back to the Bellas

And now...back to the Bellas!

This cute little bella is all ready to go to the beach. I wish I could say this is what *I* look like when going to the beach, but I won't lie to you all! Let' s just say it's been many years since I've worn a bikini.

When I saw this beach Bella, I thought of this wonderful paper from last summer's mini catalog. I instantly fell in love with this particular design because I LOVE diagonal stripes, and the colors are so wonderful together. I really thought it looked like a beach towel and would work well for her.

I colored this bella with markers (celery, bashful blue, and creamy caramel) then rounded just 2 corners. She's mounted on Certainly celery (also 2 corners rounded) and then I decided I should pierce some. I did this freehand, so they aren't exactly even! I added the flag to one corner with a silver brad and some celery grosgrain.

I stamped the Beach Babe sentiment with the teeny tiny Rough Edges alphabet set...and am quite proud of how well I lined it up even without using the Stamp-a-ma-jig!

Hope you enjoy these...we're just over halfway through our Bella-Rific week, and I have some great ones to come! And...I finally placed an order for some Bella's of my own, so hopefully I'll have them in just over 2 weeks when hubby returns from the US. Oh boy!!!

TFL!
-Jana

We interrupt this Regularly Scheduled Bella week...

I'm briefly interrupting my regularly scheduled Bella-Rific week to tell you all how very fortunate I am! Stamping women are some of the most wonderful women out there, and I belong to an online group of women (Stamping Divas) who are some of the best stamping women!

Moving to Germany has been a difficult adjustment at times, and one of the hardest things for me has been not being able to work at building my business for a few years. I love Stampin' Up! and I love teaching classes and doing workshops and meeting new people. Because SU! isn't selling in Europe yet, I am unable to do this on a regular basis anymore (I can only do it when I'm in the states visiting now) and am fortunate enough to have a customer base back in the states that help keep me active.

So, not only is there no SU! over here, there is no Michael's, or Joann's, or Hobby Lobby, or any other large craft store, or even small stamping and scrapbooking stores. At most, I occasionally can find a few (VERY expensive) stamps and ink pads at a small crafting store that mostly sells paints, yarn, material and other things. So far, I've only found 2 of these types of stores!

So, when I opened my mailbox on Saturday and got my Blog Candy from Cindy with the cuddled cardstock, and my stamped Bellas from Stephanie (a friend from my Diva's group) I was thrilled. Then, yesterday I opened my box to 3 more surprises! Firstly, my mom (hi mom!) sent me my Stampin' Succcesses, and included some chipboard she found somewhere along with them. Yeah!! Then, another packaged contained some cards for a swap I did (you send 3 different cards to the same person within a month - a Diva swap!) and my wonderful friend Yvette had also included some Making Memories jewels, some ribbon, rub-ons, and hardware! WOW, what a surprise!! And, I also had a beautiful RAK from another Diva friend.

So....thank you ladies! I cannot express how much your kindness really means to me. Having this blog is almost like being able to go do workshops and classes, because I still get to share my creativity (albeit in a different forum) and knowing that I have some wonderful online friends who are some of the most giving people I know. Thank you all!!! :-)

This second Color Challenge 103 card used some of my new chipboard and one of the jewels. I inked the chipboard with Certainly Celery craft ink, then used celery, eggplant and cool caribbean inks and cardstock (along with whisper white cs) and some celery and eggplant grosgrain ribbon. Sets used are Big Pieces, Little Pieces and Small Sayings. This card is for all of you who make me smile! :-)

TFL,
-Jana

Tuesday Color Challenge Card

I don't always pay attention to the challenges on SCS, but this morning I was browsing Emily G's blog, and she had 2 cards posted using this week's colors (for those who don't know, Emily does the weekly color challenge!) So of course, I HAD to try!

This week's challenge (CC103) uses Eggplant, Celery & Cool Caribbean - what amazing colors together! The dark of the eggplant perfectly offsets these 2 lighter colors. And, I was fortunate enough to find a piece of Cool Caribbean CS cuddled with the swirls folder in my stash from Cindy! I like the swirls with this image, because they are more like my insanely frizzy hair! Of course, if I was trying to straighten mine, it would look like Dryabella's! (Yeah, right!)

Oh well! I colored in this Bella with my aquapainter again, and the 3 inkpads for the color challenge. I'm not sure I like how her shadow turned out...but I guess it'll do. I clipped the corners with my tag corner punch, because I decided I've been using the ticket corner punch too much lately! And of course I had to have some ribbon!! Wish I had a stamp that said "Aren't you ready YET?" and I didn't have time to make one on the computer because I needed to go register my "grosse hund" (large dog) to make her legal over here. But...I still like it, and I hope you do to!

TFL!
-Jana

Here comes the Bridabella!

I MUST know someone getting married soon, but for the life of me, it seems everyone I know IS married!! I love this Bridabella, and I thought this mellow moss cardstock cuddled with the Swirls folder was just fancy enough looking to go with her!

I added small touches of color to the bride with my aquapainter and ink pads (even a little Regal Rose to her cheeks so she could be a blushing bride!) and then I added some sparkle to her gown with my 2-way glue and Dazzling Diamonds. I clipped her corner with the Ticket Corner punch, then mounted her on Regal Rose cardstock.

I mounted the cuddled piece onto an Always Artichoke card, then popped the bride up overlapping a little. Lastly, I tied some Wide White organdy ribbon around the top, because every bride needs some organdy!

I'm still having TONS of fun with my stamped bella images (gotta order some of these stamps!) and cuddled scraps. I've decided that cuddled is a better verb than cuddlebugged. What does everyone else think? Shall we start a new trend, just like they did with Tivo? Then we can all Cuddle our Cardstock, because really, what better to cuddle?? Ok...I think I've been stamping too much - but I haven't even had the Stazon out!! As I've said earlier, it's a REALLY good thing my husband never reads this site!!

TFL!
-Jana

I am NOT a morning person!

...so I can totally relate to this Bella! I loved Stephanie's card with this image, and was so excited to have her myself that I rushed to make a card with her. I've REALLY been wanting to make a quilt card as well, since I know I'll NEVER have the patience to make a real quilt with cloth - this seemed like a great compromise! Let me tell you...I think I real one might have been easier!

I started by punching squares from my patterned paper. I purchased a few extra packages of this Petal Patch paper last summer because I just LOVE the colors, and diagonal stripes are so much fun! Unfortunately, my 1 1/4" punch was NOT working well. Run down 2 flights of stairs to get some tinfoil (thankfully I had some! Can't seem to find Wax Paper here...may have to request that on my hubby's next US trip!) then back up! Sharpened that puppy and now it works. SO, I punched my squares from 4 different patterns, and laid them all out. Shockingly, the dimensions actually worked! The stamping gods were smiling on me!!

Next, Paper Piercing. Now, I don't pierce all that often. I like the look, but I'm really a lazy stamper! But, I got out my piercing guide (I don't think I can live without it now!) and my new Paper Piercer from Cindy and got to work - took about 20 minutes! Finally, I drew in all the stitches. I tried with my white gel pen (you can see the remains if you look in the upper left square!) but decided it was too light, and that chocolate chip would work better. So...off I go. I did smarten up enough to realize that Grumpy there was going to cover up some of the work so I didn't make all my X's, although my husband later pointed out I could have avoided lots of piercing too. Thanks honey!

Ok..finally finished my quilt. Now it's time to watercolor Ms. Grumpy. I've been practicing some of the techniques shared by Debbie Olsen on her Thinking Inking blog, and I do think my watercoloring has improved. I used my aquapainter and ink from my ink pads. Then, I wanted to shab her up a little....but not too much, so I lightly sponged some chocolate chip around the edges, then roughed up the edges of the Bashful Blue CS she got layered on. Finally, I stuck her on with some dimensionals.

I REALLY like how she turned out, but I feel like she's missing something...maybe some hardware? I don't know...what do you all think? I'd love any suggestions!

TFL!
-Jana

It's a Bella-Rific Weekend!!!

Ok...I've been bitten...and it's SERIOUS! Fortunately, I have 3 Cuddlebug folders on their way to me as we speak (right mom??) but no Bellas. I'm majorly hooked on both!!

I was the very fortunate winner of Cindy's Blog Candy contest just over a week ago, and boy did she get to the post office fast!! I got tons of cuddlebugged cardstock, and an awesome new paper piercer (which is great because my SU one from my crafters toolkit has a little tiny curve at the end - and I never called demo support about it.) In addition, my wonderful friend Stephanie (whom I of course have never met in person!) send me a card with MANY stamped bellas inside. Gotta get my order in for those before the hubby leaves for the states again, that's for sure!! THANK YOU LADIES!!

So, to celebrate, let's have some Cosmos!!

For this card, I have a base of Old Olive CS, stamped with Celebrate from Wonderful Words in Old Olive ink. The next layer is Rose Red, Cuddlebugged (that is a verb now, right?!) by Cindy, and then I swiped my White craft ink pad over the top to highlight the embossing more.

Next comes Cosmobella (click here to see all the bellas!). I watercolored her (sorry, the photos a little washed out!) with my aquapainter and Rose Red, Old Olive, Buckaroo Blue and Chocolate Chip inks. I clipped the corners with my much loved ticket corner punch, mounted her on Old Olive, and then put in some gold brads. She is of course popped up on dimensionals.

I think I may have to declare this a Cuddle your Bella week here in Meerbusch, so all week you'll see the creations I come up with using the wonderful supplies from my wonderful fellow bloggers!! Oh yeah...and Stephanie actually has a blog candy contest going RIGHT NOW, so be sure to check her blog out. And the Cindy I won from, is the same Cindy who designed my watermark...so if you haven't got one yet, check out her site too!

Birthday Best Fishes!

My upline's birthday is approaching fast...so I needed to get a card made and sent out to her. I hadn't played around the the Very Puny set much yet, so pulled it off the shelf and started playing around.

I really love the new designer papers in this year's IB&C, and was happy to have a chance to play with the Playhouse papers. I tend to hoard my patterned papers (who doesn't?!) and have to force myself to use them.

This was a VERY simple card. It started with the Certainly Celery base and the Playhouse paper on the lower 2/3rds. I tied on some wide Celery Organdy Ribbon (now retired) and then punched the scalloped circle from Pretty In Pink using my Marvy Uchida punches. I cut a circle of Old Olive using my coluzzle to layer on top of that. Lastly, I stamped the fish, colored it in with Certainly Celery and Tempting Turquoise markers, and punched it with my 1 3/8" SU! circle punch. The scalloped layer is attached with dimensionals, but all else is flat.

Super easy card, made in about 10 minutes or less. Can't beat that!!

TFL!
-Jana

Another gift from this weekend...

We have been very fortunate in our move to Germany that we've made some wonderful friends here already - both German and non-German! My husband's work colleague and his family very kindly invite us to join their celebrations often, and Karneval was no exception. Since my offers to bring food or wine are always turned down, I decided instead to make a candle for them, since I know how much his wife likes candles! And now that I have a heat tool...I can!! :-)

I used the Bodacious Bouquet stamp set along with Regal Rose, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal inks. If you haven't made a candle yet, it is SOOOO easy! I'm hoping to teach a class over here to some of my new crafty buds in the next month or two. First step is to cut some tissue paper (regular tissue paper used for dressing up gift bags, etc.) so that it covers the candle around and top to bottom. Next, stamp on the tissue paper with regular dye inks. Now, wrap the tissue around the candle holding it tight so there are no wrinkles, and start heating the candle. The paper will "melt" into the wax, giving the appearance of having stamped onto the candle! If you have some waxed paper it can help.

Next, I decided to make a band for the candle to dress it up even more. So I pulled out the oh-so-yummy Petal Patch paper from the 06 spring mini to make a small band. Then, I stamped some flower and leaf images on whisper white cardstock, cut them out (I know, I actually cut out some pretty detailed images...can you imagine???) and then I adhered everything together and popped it onto the band on top of some grosgrain ribbon. Check out the close up to see the details better.

Lastly, I made the card. Quite basic using Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal and Whisper white cardstock along with some grosgrain ribbon. For the scallops on the apricot layer I used the corner rounder with the guide removed instead of the slit punch. Since I wanted a large piece to layer with, I couldn't use the slit punch, and I like these smaller scallops a little better anyway. However, it works just the same. Punch, then move the punch over and line up the edges and punch again! And this way, you have VERY minimal waste!! I stamped the greeting with the Happy Everything set, and voila, a coordinating gift and card, completed in just under 1 hour (Have you ever SEEN me cutting out small detailed images?? I'm slow!)

TFL!
-Jana

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged at long last! My Diva buddy Yvette tagged me, so...here we go.

FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD IN MY LIFE:
1) Marketing Manager/Website devloper
2) IT Help Desk/call center agent (can't believe I survived that for 2 whole years!)
3) Shipping/Recieving clerk
4) Burger King - all positions! But I was mostly the burger Queen!!
And a host of others...including the never ending jobs of mother and wife (altho, that's kind of like being a mother also...just with a few added benefits!).

FOUR MOVIES I'VE WATCHED OVER AND OVER:
1) The Princess Bride
2) Ferris Bueler's Day Off
3) Dirty Dancing
4) Wizard of Oz

FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1) Bangor, Maine
2) Claremont, CA (The college years!)
3) Mountain View, CA
4) Meerbusch, Germany (where I am now!)

FOUR TV SHOWS I LIKE(D) TO WATCH: (anyone who knows me knows I really don't watch much tv, and now that we're in Germany, I watch NO tv!)
1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2) Smallville
3) Coupling (Brittish comedy, BEST sitcom EVER!!!)
4) Days of Our Lives (off and on since I was about 5!)

FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION:

1) Moorea (French Polynesia)
2) Singapore
3) Hawaii
4) Driving across the US from Maine to California
and a TON more! And now that we're in Europe that list grows monthly!!

FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1) Maine Lobster
2) Cheese fondue with lots of dippers
3) Anything "ethnic" i.e. Mexican, Indian, Thai, Chinese, etc...
4) Fudgy brownies warm with vanilla bean ice cream

FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1) At the beach
2) Paris (but I will be in just a few more weeks!)
3) at the Beach
4) Did I mention a beach??
I LOVE the beach. And even though I didn't visit the beaches in northern CA all that often when I lived there, I really MISS it!! Oh well.

Now it's my turn....so....I tag Rachel (guess I'll see now if you're actually reading my blog!) and Jenny who has just started blogging!

Buggy Gift...

My daughter was invited to a birthday party this weekend - her first since we moved here in October! So, we were well ahead of the game and got a present a few days in advance, but as usual for me, it sat ignored until 30 minutes before we needed to leave. All of a sudden I realized "We need to wrap this gift!!" Julia and I headed up to the craft room and pulled out my wonderful white wrapping paper from SU! and started flipping through my sets thinking "What would be good for a little boy?" As I mentioned earlier, I have ALL the bug sets, and I knew this was it!

I grabbed the Green Galore, Taken with Teal and Brilliant Blue ink pads, and Julia and I each took turns stamping bugs on the paper. Then, while she took that down to her daddy so they could wrap, I quickly made up this card. I had the patterned paper on my desk from another project (I covered an address book from Michael's dollar area) which fit perfectly. Just stamped the worm and a quick greeting, cut the mat, tied the ribbon and adhered the greeting with dimensionals! Whew...and I still had time to get my daughter into her costume and face semi-painted before we left! Got love color-coordination!! :-) And I must say, our hand-stamped wrapping paper is ALWAYS a big hit no matter where we are.

TFL!
-Jana

Black-Eyed Susans for Mom!

Sorry for the long silence...Karneval is upon us here in Germany and it has kept us quite busy! It being our first year here we didn't know what to expect, but it has been lots of fun!

Here is the card I sent to my mom for Valentine's Day. Not a traditional heart card, this features a black-eyed susan - one of my mother's favorite flowers. I had seen these flower cards on Splitcoast using punches and knew I had to make my own.

For this card I used both the large and small oval punches (large for the chocolate chip center, small for the summer sun petals) and I sponged some more mustard ink around each of the petals to give them some dimension. I decided to make this into a square card, so the finished size was 5" square. The top layer is Certainly Celery, then Chocolate Chip, and lastly Old Olive (which is also the color of the stem.) I finished the card with a saying from the Love Matters set, "all things grow with love" and on the inside I wrote to my mom "Thanks for helping me grow!"

I've had a few gift projects this weekend so will try to upload them tomorrow if I'm able!

Happy Stamping!

TFL,
Jana

French Notebooks

I picked some more of these fun little notebooks to cover, and finally got around to it yesterday. These are so quick and easy to make...I really love them. I used the lovely Enchante papers along with the Carte Postale stamp set and some Whisper White and Perfect Plum cardstock.

I only used 2 sheets of the paper, but flipped them over to get 4 different designs! I think in total I spent about 40 minutes making these notebooks...and they make wonderful little gifts.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

TFL,
Jana

Blog Candy Winner!!

Thank you everyone for coming and entering my blog candy contest! I really enjoyed reading everyone's Valentine memories (and I plan to be sure my husband reads a few to give him some ideas for next year!!!)

MY favorite valentine memory is how my mom used to make us all home-made Valentines collage style by cutting things out of magazines (she could NEVER throw magazines away!). She used to make such fun collages for everyone in the family.

So...the winner is...Melissa who said...

I found your site at Stephanies site and will be linking it on mine. My favorite valentine memory is my first date with my husband back when we were in high school. I wasn't 16 yet (2 days later I was) so we went out on a group date. It definately wasn't the most glamourous date ever but we're still together 10 years later.
Happy Valentines to you and your family!

Melissa, please email me your snail mail address, and your pick of notebooks (see the next blog entry for those!) by clicking the "email me" link on the right.

I hope you all had memorable Valentines' Days this year!! Just so you all know, my hubby did come through and got me a single red rose, and took my daughter and I out for a wonderful dinner. Jana Happy! :-)

TFL,
Jana

Happy Valentine's Day!

One last Valentine while I can still squeak it in! This card is similar to the earlier ones I posted with the Love Matters stamp set with just a few differences. This time, I put the friends image on a Love Note, and instead of doing a full card, I just used a card front. That way, I didn't have to write as much - I know - I'm awful!

I used Taken With Teal for my cardbase and stamped the Paisley background on it with Taken with Teal. Then, I layered on my strip of Loves Me designer paper with some faux stitching, and put a piece of the wonderful velvety Flirty ribbon on top of that. I stamped on the Love Note with one of the heart stamps from Love Matters in the same color for some subtle texture, then mounted that on top of the ribbon. After stamping and coloring the friends image, I clipped the corners with my handy-dandy ticket corner punch (I just LOVE that thing!!) and put a brad in the center of the flower. I mounted that on Chocolate chip, and put it on the love note. Voila...full size card for ease of mailing, itty-bitty space for message. Gotta love it!

Tomorrow I'll be picking the winner for my blog candy, so you all have one more day left to enter!! I'll also be posting the notebooks I just finished which the lucky winner will get their choice of to go with the rest! Good luck!

TFL!
-Jana

My little Love Bug

Anyone who knows me knows that my daughter's nickname is "bug-bug" Don't ask how she got it, because I don't think I could tell you at this point. And of course, this gets altered to Bugaboo, cuddle bug, and Love Bug! When this set came out last year I HAD to have it because of this (and yes, I do also have Cute as a Bug, and Bugs & Kisses!)

For her Valentine this year, I made this cute little card using the Love Notes from the Winter Mini. It was a super quick card (maybe 5 minutes?) but fun to make knowing how much she'll enjoy it.

I used the Olive You stamp set along with the Pretty in Pink Love Note card, some Loves Me designer paper, whisper white and taken with teal cardstock, black ink, and Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Taken with Teal and Creamy Caramel markers. Oh yeah...and some flirty ribbon, because I just can't seem to leave that stuff alone!!

And...if you haven't already, don't forget to enter my Blog Candy contest below!!

TFL!
-Jana

Blog Candy....FINALLY!

I'm sorry. I teased you all with the idea of Blog Candy a while back, but I'm FINALLY ready to give some away. I actually had to search through my supplies to find something that I could part with (since it's REALLY hard to find scrappin stuff over here!!) But I hope you all will find my offering worthy!

There are some metal edged tags (all vellum) some flower eyelets, some metal embossed squares from Scrap Yard, some adorable silk leaves perfect for autumn cards, one of my photo wallets, and a few more things will be added - such as some coasters from my favorite Bier Garten and a cute notebook I'm almost done with.

How to enter? Please comment on this entry and include your favorite Valentine memory, and how you found my blog! I will be drawing from all comments left on Thursday, February 15th around noon Germany time (Meridian time +1) so get to it!

TFL!
-Jana

Happy Almost Valentine's Day!

The various valentine's I sent back to the US have been arriving, so I decided I can start posting some here. First, I want to show you the beautiful card that inspired several of my Valentine's this year. It was created by my wonderful friend and downline Michelle. Be sure to check out her SU! site when you get a chance, she's a wonderful artist! Anyway, she sent me this adorable card that people made at her Sell-A-Bration open house last month, and I just love it!!

So, looking at that card I created a few of my own stealing a few of her design elements! I really liked the faux stitching and the inclusion of the flower with the brad. I wheeled a full sheet of pretty in pink CS with the Lots of Hearts wheel and a pretty in pink ink cartridge. So, I just chopped that up and used it to layer on a few cards. This card also used Taken With Teal for the card base, and Chocolate Chip CS for layering. And of course I had to add some ribbon, and I therefore used Chocolate and Rose grosgrain ribbons. The flower was punched using the Spring Bouquet Flower punch and the brad is from the Soft Subtles collection of brads. And, I just used markers to color in the friends image.

For the sentiment at the bottom I used the Small Sayings set from the Winter Mini catalog. I am really liking this set - the sayings are just perfect!

Anyway, thanks Michelle for the inspiration! I always know when I get something from you it will be amazing! :)

TFL!
-Jana

Accents & Elements Tin Album!

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Ok...this project was SOOOO much fun to make! I got the idea from my good friend Kallien who is doing a class on this...and SHE got the idea from Splitcoast (where else??) This tin was made by Staramaze which I admit I did case quite heavily! Be sure to click through to Sarah's blog for a wonderful tutorial on how to make these!!

Originally, I thought I'd make a cute tin album for my daughter of some photos I was planning to take over her decorating Valentine's Day Cookies with friends. Then...I saw my box of wedding photo proofs, and realized I really miss having photos from our wedding up here in our "temporary" home...and that they would be much more fun to work with. When I showed my husband his first reaction was "You cut up our wedding proofs??" to which I responded "Yes dear...that's why I brought them. We have the negatives in a firesafe in the US, so we can make more!"

I started with my tin, and belly band. I was too cheap to use one of my actual chipboard hearts, so I punched it out, then used the negative image to trace onto some thin cardboard and make my own heart to cover with our wonderful Loves Me paper. I swiped my heart across the Regal Rose inkpad to give it a little more shab. I measured my Pretty in Pink belly band, and layered some more Loves Me paper underneath just for the front. Then, I wrapped some brown Flirty ribbon around. On the heart, I added an oval of Pretty In Pink CS cut with my coluzzle, and I used one of the die cuts from the Sweet Nothings Accents & Elements tin. I stamped Celebrate Love using the Fancy Flexible Phrases set (I LOVE this set!!) Then I added some real chipboard colored with Pretty in Pink craft ink, tied with ribbons, and finished with a button from the regals set of buttons.

Lastly, I FINALLY got a heat gun, and so embossed on my tin! I first washed my tin (it's been handled a LOT) then rubbed my embossing buddy ALL over it. Then, stamped the Sweet on You image with versamark and embossed using detail Silver embossing powder. I think because I used the detail embossing powder, I didn't get as crisp an image - there was a LOT of extra powder that stuck, and I did try to wipe off as much excess as I could. I'll try again when I get more tins using the regular Sterling Silver powder to see if it works better.

For the inside, I used 4 pieces of Pretty in Pink CS cut to 4.5" by 5.25". I scored each piece at 1/2" on the long side to make the binding, then punched 3 holes with my 1/16" hole punch to insert the soft subtles brads.

For the cover, I added some Taken With Teal CS with faux stitching around the outsides, a square of Loves Me paper with the edges sponged with Chocolate Chip ink, and then stamped out names in Taken with Teal ink on Whisper White CS which I then punched out using my new Square Scallop Giga Punch. The ribbon is narrow white organdy, and I used a ribbon buckles from the Antique Brass hodgepodge hardware set. Finally, on the bottom is another die cut from the accents & elements tin with the date of our wedding.

The inside pages each have a strip of Loves Me DS Paper and the photos. I used the "Happy Today" stamp from Small Sayings to add a few words on the first two and last two pages with a Chocolate Chip marker. I thought about coloring the photos with chalks...but decided I liked leaving them as they are. Finally, for the last page, I again added some Taken with Teal CS and stamped the LOVE image from Love Matters, colored with markers, mounted, added some hardware and a little more flirty ribbon, and then stamped "the best is yet to be" from the same set at the bottom.

You could certainly do this much simpler than I did...but I wanted to put a lot into this one.

Groovy Giveaway!

So, I subscribe to a lot of blogs because there are so many wonderful artists out there! Today when I visited Stampin' Mama's blog she had a post about a Groovy Giveaway! So, I thought I'd post it on here as well so you all can go check it out if you haven't already. If you enter to win, please say Jana sent you! :-) And hey...it's such a great stamp set! Good luck everyone!!

Rebecca Paper for mom!

It's been a while since I've been up here and had a few minutes to myself, so I figured I'd better take advantage and update my blog while I can!!

I made this card a week or so ago, but since I was sending it to my mom, I had to wait until she had received it before posting, because she does check my blog daily!

My mom is one of my downline, and I wanted to send her a card along with the rest of my downline to tell everyone I was thinking of them even from afar! And I know she loves paisley! Altho, she really isn't a pink & brown person, I figured she'd like this one!! Plus...I got to use my new Marvy Uchida Giga Scallop Punch!!! :-)

For this card, I used the Polka Dots & Paisley set again, the Rebecca designer paper, and the Flirty ribbon! In addition, I used Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White CS, and Chocolate Chip and Regal Rose ink. I inked up the paisley with the Regal Rose ink pad first, then highlighted with the chocolate chip marker so I could get both colors on the image. As a final touch because it seemed to need something, I stapled on a bit of pink gingham ribbon and then stamped the greeting with chocolate chip ink in the bottom corner.

I hope you all enjoy this as much as my mom did!

TFL,
Jana

Splitcoast Color Challenge...

Ok...so today was the 100th Color Challenge on Splitocast. I'll admit, I'm not always great about posting to splitcoast (altho trying to be better!) But when I saw this color combo I KNEW I had to make a card! And, once I got to my stamp room and started thinking about sets, etc...I thought "Gee...I've always wanted to make a buckle card. Maybe I should try that!" and away I flew to Beate's AMAZING tutorial to make a Big Buckle Card.

This card was actually quite easy to make. Had I known how easy the buckle cards are I would have made them ages ago! I strongly encourage you all to try it if you haven't yet.

SO, for this card I used the Happy Harmony set. I just love all the different sayings, and the flowers are so delicate looking...perfect for Blush Blossom! I again did the expressionistic watercolor with the WW Crayons and watercolor paper. I lightly spritzed on some extra blush with my color spritzer, and then gently sponged the edges with some chocolate chip.

I stamped the front of the Cool Caribbean card with same color ink and the Linen stamp for some texture. For the greeting, I inked it up on my Cool Caribbean pad, then just colored the 2 words with the chocolate chip marker...a real time saver over doing the whole thing with markers - and great for when you don't have a certain color marker!

Oh yeah...last thing I did was I colored my organdy ribbon. I ran it over my blush blossom ink pad holding it down with a sponge...just gives it a hint of color! Now to figure out who to send this card to. Are there any card-worthy souls out there? :-) I'm sure I"ll find one or 2.

TFL!
-Jana

More Pink & Chocolate Paisley!

Since both DH and DD were gone for an entire day yesterday (they went to Amsterdam!) I got to stamp all day! Of course, since it's still Valentine's time, I made more valentines, and of course used more pink and brown. I promise, I'll put those colors away soon!!

For this card I used my Polka Dots & Paisley set again. I used Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White CS, and Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery inks. For the flower image, I stamped the center image first, then just kept stamping without re-inking for the other 2. I like the slowly fading look. After putting the card mostly together, I decided it needed a greeting, so Pulled out the Find Joy... stamp and stamped away. Oh no...not again! I stamped it upside down. Fortunately, my celery strip hadn't been on too long, so I was able to gently lift it up and flip it around. While it was supposed to be positioned closer to the top, it still works where it is, and I was able to salvage the card! Yeah!! Of course, I had already put the ribbon on, but it was easy enough to slide underneath. Phew! I hate to waste good cardstock, you know?!

So, this is one of the cards I created to send out to all my wonderful downline members. I actually made a card for each and every one (ok, so I only have 5 - not so difficult for me right now!) but I wanted them all to know I am thinking about them! Thanks ladies!! I hope you enjoy your cards!!

Later, I'll post some of the cards I made yesterday to send to friends and family in the States for Valentine's day. Have to download the photos still!

TFL!
-Jana

New Punch Holder

Ok, I have the most wonderful friend!! I never made it over to Bed, Bath, & Beyond when I was in the states, and so she went there for me, purchased the clear plastic over the door shoe holder (and went to Michael's to get me some "tack it again" to replace that which was confiscated at the Orange County airport because I forgot to put it into my checked baggage!!) and then sent it all over here to me. I mean, how many friends do you have who would do all that for you? (not to mention the other goodies she put in my box...thank you SOOOO much Michelle!!!)

So I was so very excited when my package arrived, I immediately ran upstairs (both flights) with my new shoe holder to put all my punches in. It's just so beautiful!! I love being able to glance over and see all my punches neatly stored and totally available. (see my new Marvey scallop punches in the bottom? Aren't they boootiful?!)

Now, the only problem with this, is I see I have 8 empty spaces. I mean...I just HAVE to fill them, right??? I'm so glad my husband doesn't read this blog... :-)

Now hopefully I"ll get my stampin' space cleaned up soon so I can take a picture of the entire thing for you all!

TFL!
-Jana

Photo Wallet

At Leadership conference in January, one of the make & takes was this incredibly cute Photo Wallet. And while I didn't get to go to the conference, I have seen several examples of this great project on Splitcoast. Since I have the directions, (thanks Rach!) I decided I needed to make one. (well, I actually made 2, one for hubby and one to give away as part of my blog candy drawing in a few more days!)

So, I started with a 12 by 12 sheet of Cool Caribbean CS (figuring, hey, that's kinda masculine, right?) And you can get 2 wallets from it because the outside is 12" by 4.5". I stamped images from Big Pieces in Cool Caribbean ink, then scored and folded my wallet.

The next step is to create the slots for the photos. This is achieved by adhering CS on each of the 3 rectangles with a 1" bit folded over, and then attaching a mini envelope sealed shut with one end cut off on the underside of the fold (see the photo for a visual "explanation." You can decorate the envelopes however you like, and they fold out, giving you space underneath for journaling. Then, you can create tags to go inside the envelopes onto which you can adhere photos, greetings, or anything else you can think of.

Lastly, create the bellyband from a 1" strip of CS scored and folded. I followed the SU! directions and added 2 brads and the circles with the heart for some additional color.

Now, to find some photos of my daughter and myself to put in my husbands...that way he'll have something to bring on his MANY trips and always have our beautiful faces to gaze upon! Hahahaha, I crack myself up!

Any of my California customers interested in making this project, send me an email and I'll get you hooked into a class!

TFL,
-Jana

Over 2000 Hits!

Ok...So I've finally passed the 2000 hits mark (since putting on my counter...but I can't remember when I actually did that!) That means....Blog Candy! Yup...figure I have to jump on the bandwagon too. So....check back early next week and I'll have a photo posted of my blog candy and how to enter to win.

Thanks for visiting!

-Jana

Friends Happen...

...with Stampin' Up!

I should really put a copyright after that line, since my upline Rach said it enough times at convention when I went with her in 2005! Friends Happen is the name of her group. And I don't think I could come up with a better name. It so accurately describes what happens when you have such a fun reason to get together with and meet new people. There are people in my life today who I probably would not have even met were it not for SU! and for that I am very grateful. So, I made this card, and then later when I was getting it ready to send (not telling to who...that is the surprise!) and I just wrote "Happen" on the inside. Actually, I was trying to figure out what stamp I have that I could alter to stamp the word Happen, but just needed to get the card out so didn't spend too much time trying. I need to now since I promised Rach I would make a few for her!

Yes, it is another pink and brown card I made while stamping with friends here. The base is Chocolate Chip, with some flirty ribbon and then the scallop punched Regal Rose. I colored the chipboard heart using regal rose, then stamped on it with Paisley in Chocolate Chip, and I REALLY liked how that turned out. Will have to do that again!! I added the Tempting Turquoise circle to better coordinate with the rickrack bit, and then decided to add dots with my Chocolate Chip marker to the scallops like I've seen so many others do. I like it! Lastly, I stamped "friends" from Love Matters into Whisper White with Basic Brown ink. After realizing that a rectangle just wasn't going to fit, I cut it out with my snips and then layered it onto more Tempting Turquoise. I colored it with Tempting Turquoise and Regal Rose, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal markers. I used dimensionals on both the scalloped circle and again on the heart, just to leave some room for those wonderful ribbons.

Have a wonderful day everyone...and the folks in my downline should be watching their mailboxes next week!

TFL!
-Jana

Lovin' Polka Dots & Paisly!!!

I really do love this set. When I was crafting with some other crafty englisch-sprechen women over here earlier this week I designed a few cards without even looking at Splitcoast...aren't you all impressed?? ;-) I've already posted a few of them, but I think this one is my favorite. As you can see, it is again using Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip. I mean, those are the colors I took with me, and once I had them out, I just kept using them! Anyway, I like this card layout because it's an easy one to use, and is one I tend to use over and over again when I can't think of anything better.

So, I stamped the paisley onto the Choc. Chip CS with Choc. Chip ink, then put a little white dot in the center of each flower with my White Gel Pen. The flower was inked with Pretty In Pink and Certainly Celery each time it was stamped, and the outline was stamped with Regal Rose. The Whisper White focal image was layered on Pretty in Pink, and then I tied some Celery grosgrain ribbon around it. Of course then, I had to tie on some Chocolate and Rose scraps onto that to tie all the colors together...get it?? TIE them all together?? Ok...It's been a long day, give me a break! Lastly, I stamped the Happy along the side with Regal Rose ink onto my Regal Rose card, and stuck the focal piece on with....you guessed it, Dimensionals!!

I hope you enjoyed this card...I've got another fun one coming next!

TFL!
-Jana

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