MIM Modern Whimsey

Here is my last entry into the Make It Monday challenge for this week.  Since this style does not come easy to me, I had to conquer the challenge.  I saw a very similar card to this from a Stampin' UP! project blog and loved it and thought it qualified for the modern whimsey style even though it did not have banners or flags on it. I totally put my own spin on it by making it a holiday card and using different focal point elements on it.   I think the layers of the tag frame, the washi tape elements, the twine wrapped around, the stamping on the vellum layer, the snowflake, the candy canes, and the sweet little rhinestone accents all come together in a very whimsical way.  The chevron print adds a bit of the modern twist to this.  I whipped this up in less than 30 min. which I did not do for the other couple of entries.  They took way more time.  Wish my photography gave it more justice.  It is evening on a dreary rainy day, so lighting is not great.

It was fun participating this week.  Now off to make Christmas gifts.

Stamps: Holiday photo finishers, Candy Cane Christmas, Fancy flourishes

Paper: SU! kraft and Christmas designer papers, PTI vellum and shimmer white

Inks: SU! Cherry Cobbler and Baked Brown Sugar

Other: SU! wash tape, chocolate baker's twine, rhinestones, SU! Chalk Talk  and Festive Flurry dies, PTI Candy Cane Christmas dies

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge: Entry #2

Here is another card I made for the MIM challenge over on the Papertrey Ink blog (Nicole Heady blog).  I had visions in my head for how this would go, and, well, it did not really turn out as great as I had envisioned.    I made this to go with a birthday coffee ensemble I am hoping to create next week for a good friend of mine, whose birthday is coming up this month.  I am including two sets of pictures.  One is the before picture where I had a lot of blank space in the top right corner of the card.  The second set is my attempt to draw the eyes upward and around the card by adding something to that corner.  Not sure if that was a good idea or not.  Enjoy.

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge: Modern Whimsy

Here is my card for the MIM challenge this week for Papertrey Ink.  This was harder than it looks to create.  It was kind of hard to lay out all the elements because the card front doesn't stay closed flat.  I made two so I could lay out one and hold it in place with my scissors, and then put together the other one.  I  took all of Danielle's elements and put a wintery ice skating theme to it.  I like the way it turned out.  What do you think?  Oops, I just saw that I forgot the silver on the skate blade.  I will fix that and hopefully repost the new photo.  All my shimmery elements get lost in the photo.  I have shimmer snowflakes stamped on the vellum that are very pretty.  The silver shimmer paper and white shimmer paper for the snowflakes add a subtle touch too.  It is very wintery and icy looking.

Stamps: On Ice, Snowflake Serenade (on the vellum strip)

Paper: Aqua mist and Hawaiian Shores prints, soft stone (card base), shimmer white, white, vellum card stock, silver shimmer 

Inks: black, illuminate versa mark (snowflakes on vellum)

Other: half and half dies,  Martha Stewart snowflake punch, pool party twine, festive flurries dies (SU!)

(Here is the updated photo.  It helps balance the silver elements.  It is the rule of 3's)

PTI August Blog Hop

Whew!! What a crazy creative weekend.  I just threw this together in the last 30 min. so I could at least get one entry into the Blog Hop this month.  Got lucky last month by doing all 6 color palettes.  This month, hopefully between the blog hop and Stamp A Faire I might get some of my PTI addiction subsidized.  :)  Mostly just wanted to get one last creative attempt in.

 I love this card!!  I used the last sketch and color scheme.  Totally love my word and line stripes.  The fine linen mat stack die was left over from a Stamp A Faire card, so I put it to good use.  Love the earthy coffee feel of this card.  I know just the person I will be giving it to.

Enjoy.

Papertrey Ink Stamp A Faire 2013 cards

I did it.  I finished all 10 challenges by the end of my time to craft today.  I am listing them all here in one post.  Hopefully the InkList things will let me link from one post on all the different challenges.  I am happy with some of the cards, others not so much.  I wish I could have had more time to really put my all into some of them, but overall, I am just happy I got to do them.

I think my least favorite challenges was the salt one.  I did not really like how that worked.  I guess I need watercolor paper.  My salt didn't speckled much cause my paper dried too fast.  The shrink art challenge was the next least favorite.

Thanks to Nicole and the rest of the design team for such fun challenges and great ideas.  I have inspiration to last a couple of months just with yesterday and today's blog hop color schemes and sketches.


Here are my projects:

Limited supply challenge (used a Bake and Take sketch for this one)

Sugar Coated Embellishments  (The holly is frosted with glitter and this is my attempt at a CAS card.)

Gallon, Quart, Pint Challenge (gallon:harvest gold, quart: terracotta tile, pint: ripe avocado with fine linen as a neutral to anchor it all)  I really liked this challenge and hope to use it again in my card making.  

Shrink Art challenge (could have been great if my stamping had turned out cleaner)

Make your own spray mists challenge.  (sprayed the chevron pattern and splatters)  I think this needs a bow on the that orange strip of ribbon.  

My tea and coffee dyed fabric, felt and ribbons made into flower embellishment and pin.  Got my inspiration for this card and pin from Artful Notions blog.  Love Nancy's cards and projects.  

My failed attempt at the salt sprinkled challenge.  I really had a cool card in mind but I am not great with watercoloring, and I just didn't have time to do this again and get all the other challenges done.  I really wanted to make a sunburst pattern.  Next time I will use the Sunshine stamps and dies.

My most favorite project of the whole day that I wish you could smell.  I embossed the pumpkin with spiced embossing powder and it smells just like a pumpkin spice candle.  Yum.  I am going to fill these with pumpkin spiced caramels from Dove Chocolate Discoveries.

Bake and Take challenge.  I really like the idea of sketches and color palettes.  However, I have trouble modifying sketches and not being so literal to the sketch.  I also have trouble with color palettes that have more than 3 colors.  It is hard to incorporate them all.  I did get all the colors in this card, as the stamping is the last green color.   I guess a color palette is any grouping of those colors would go well together.  You don't have to use them all.  I will have to work with the rest and see what I can come up with.  Maybe combine it with the gallon, quart, pint concept.  

Paperclay challenge.  I glittered my clay like Heather and used her card and modified it to make a Christmas card.  

Thanks for looking.  Everyone created such pretty projects.  

September Childhood Cancer Awareness Auction

EDIT:  just thought I would post that we miraculously raised $563 through my Facebook auction.  Such a wonderful surprise.  The Alabama Children's Blood Disorder and Cancer Foundation sent us a wonderfully sweet letter thanking us for our donation and assuring us that every penny goes towards finding better treatments and a cure.  I can't wait to do another auction and a Cookies For Kid's Cancer Bake Sale this year.



Hi, blog hopping friends.  I wanted to make an announcement on my blog about my ongoing auction on Facebook to raise funds for Childhood Cancer research and treatment.  September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, and I hope to auction off lots of crafty and food items to raise money to go towards finding a cure and better treatments for childhood cancers and brain tumors.  Why am I doing this?

Well, last November my youngest son, John, was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumor after a routine eye exam showed swelling of his optic nerve.  The optomotrist said this was a sign of pressure in his head, so off we went to a neuro opthomologist in Birmingham.  He concurred that there was something wrong and sent us over to Children's Hospital to the ER to get a CT scan since it was late in the day and he didn't want us to have to drive back to Birmingham in the morning.  All the while we are doing this, a brain tumor is never ever on our radar.  Having the doctor come in and tell the boys to leave the room with the nurse was terrifying.  Hearing the words, "Your son has a brain tumor," about made me hit the floor.  To make a long story short, John's brain tumor was mostly removed a week later in a very long surgery.  After pathology did their tests, it was found that he has a type 2 atypical meningioma.  The biggest thing to know is that it was not malignant, so we have never had to look at chemo.  John had a radiation treatment in March called a Gamma Knife treatment and since then his MRI's show that the part of the tumor that could not be taken out and had started to grow back in just 3 months after surgery in November is shrinking.  Praise The Lord!  We are fortunate indeed.  In fact, if you didn't know all this about John, you would never ever know he has been through any of this.  God has been so good to him.

Why are we raising funds for Childhood Cancer then?   Well, we have met several children in our visits to our oncologist who is coordinating our post surgical care and MRI's  and online through Facebook pages who ARE battling cancer and malignant brain tumors.  One close to home already lost his fight just this past spring.  It is heartbreaking to see what the chemo treatments do to these little ones.  Most that we know of are less than 7 years old.  So while we are not going through some of the things they are, our hearts go out to them and we want to help.  I made a goal of raising $400 this year through selling my crafts and Jordan Essentials and Dove Chocolate Discoveries products.  I am no longer a Dove Chocolatier and my JE business is limited to close family, so I have only raised $200 so far.  I am so thankful.  This auction in September is my last push to try to get the last $200 raised.

Just about every day in September I will be posting items on my Facebook event page for friends and you to bid on.  I will be placing a minimum bid price to cover shipping costs.  You will need to bid higher than that to make a donation towards our goal.  When the bidding time frame is over, I will pick the winner from the top bid.  I will contact them to let them know they won and get them to send me payment.  When payment is received and cleared then I will ship out the goodies.   Super easy and fun.

I have lots of things on tap to auction off:  gratitude journals, coffee gift sets that include cookies and coffee, chocolate sets, Jordan Essentials skin care set, card sets, holiday gift packaging and decor, and lots more stuff.  I can't wait.  I just hope I have time to create all the things I want to.   Join me in raising money to help find a cure and better treatments for Childhood Cancer.  All proceeds minus shipping costs will go to Children's Hospital of Birmingham, AL and their research department.

Papertrey Ink Stamp A Faire 2013 Meet and Greet

Hi, fellow Papertrey Ink stampers and fanatics!  Tonight I am gathering a few supplies to try to get ready to participate in PTI's Stamp A Faire 2013 that will be held all day tomorrow.  While I only have a small time frame to craft tomorrow in between some obligations that came up, I hope to finish all the challenges by the end of the weekend.  Even if I have to stay up a wee bit late on Sunday.

I thought I would share a few photos of my craft area, the things I have all ready to start crafting and some projects I have been working on lately.  I share my crafting space with our school room.  As a homeschooling mom to two boys (9 and 12 years old), we spend a lot of time up here in our bonus room/school room.  They have their two desks along a wall and I can sit and craft or surf Pinterest and the PTI design team's blogs while they work at their desks.  Sometimes that works well, other times my crafting is a distraction for them.  Since they like me to be sort of at hand for questions and help, I told them to expect me to be working on something right along with them.    Here are the photos.

My view of the boys' desks from my desk.

A repurposed changing table from my youngest son.

Lots of white storage cubes.  I have been stamping for 11 years.  Believe it or not I continually purge, but alas new purchases take their place.  So much potential so little time.

My new dies and stamp sets ready to go for tomorrow.  I have two coffee sets I want to complete for my Childhood Cancer Awareness auction in September.  Thinking the scratch and sniff technique could be used for a fun tag on the gift set.  

Some pretty projects I made this past week and weekend.  

My paperclay rolled out, molded and ready to dry.  I got the new lightweight Paperclay.  It was a little sticky to roll out, so we will see.  Not sure if it will dry well on the silicone sheet, but I have another day to try tomorrow.  I have muslin dying on the stove (turned off) downstairs for the tea dying technique.  

My new Stamp A Faire stamp sets and my new coffee set ready to go.  Can't wait.  Excuse my messy scratch paper.  Wasn't willing to scrap it just yet.  :)

So anyway, I am ready to go.  Happy Stamping everyone.  I can't wait to see what you all create, what the Design Team cooks up for us, and if I can do all the challenges.  

My favorite Jordan Essentials products

I thought I would share a few of my top 5 picks from Jordan Essentials product lines.  My sweet friend Beth Ann introduced me to this wonderful company and their natural skincare products last fall.  I love them because they WORK, with the added bonus of being good for you.  I fell in love with the basic body care set and how wonderful my hands felt after my hand spa treatment.  Since then, I joined as a consultant and use their make up and face care lines as well as many other products which I am about to highlight.


Top 5 Body Care Products:
1.  Basic Body Care system, which includes salt scrub, body lotion or body butter, and lotion bar.  My first hand spa treatment using the foaming body wash and salt scrub was heavenly.  My hands get so dry from washing dishes in the dry winter months that they crack and bleed.  It hurts.  Last year I gave myself weekly hand spa treatments and used the JE body butter and lotion bar to seal in moisture and had no issues.  I think I got one crack in my finger.  Amazing.  During the summer I use these products to pamper my feet and keep them soft and flip flop ready.
2.  Essential oils Deoderant.  I used the regular JE aluminum free Deoderant first, but was feeling sticky under my arms.  The new essential oils Deoderant is so much better.  I still struggle a little bit cause I sweat so much and odor is just a problem for me no matter if I use antiperspirant or not.  Overall, I am sticking with it and like it.
3.  Happy Feet Foot Spa products.  Love the way my feet feel after a soak in the Dead Sea salts, foot scrub, and then cooling peppermint lotion and lotion bar.  Definitely do not need to pay for pedicures.
4.  Dead Sea salts.  This product is super therapy.  Great to help with feeling better when you have a cold.  I have helped my sons feel better when sick by making them soak in a full tub with the sea salts or just soaking their feet.
5. Body wash.  I use this at all the sinks with our foaming dispensers.  I like knowing we are washing our hands with good for you ingredients.  Our hands don't get dried out either.

Top 5 Face Care Products
1. Basic Daily normal skin care system, which includes foaming cleanser, lotion, and toner.  I love these products and so does my somewhat oily face.  I have very very few breakouts since using these basic products.
2. Anti-aging serum.  My face is even toned, soft and firm from using this serum.
3.  Dead Sea Salt bar soap.  I use this in the shower to wash my face, shoulders and back.  Helps keep me from breaking out with pimples, which my back is so prone to do.  I use the facial brush to apply the soap.
4.  Clay mask.  This is a miracle product.  I like it for spot treatment of blemishes, but the biggest use it has had is for relieving the itch from bug bites.  Who knew bentonite clay was such a wonderful detoxifier of bug venom...


Top 5 Mineral Make up choices
1.  Tinted moisturizer.  Not a base make up.  It is not heavy feeling.  Just a light tinted moisturizer that evens out my skin tone in the winter months.  I love this stuff.  I do not wear much make up, but I really like this.
2.  Mineral eye shadow.  Great coverage with their brushes.  I like the pretty colors and that they stay put and blend easily.
3.  Eye primer, which is the secret to great eye shadow coverage and staying power.  It lasts a long time.
4.  Mascara.  No flakes, smudges, or smears. Period.  Comes off pretty easily when washing.  Usually have to finish taking it off with eye makeup remover.
5. Mineral powder and blush.  Great matte finish and silky feel.  I use these in the summer to cut out shine.  Love the kabuki brush.

So there are my favorite products.  There are a lot of them.  I left out a few, and I have a feeling I am going to love the new Essential Oils line for natural remedies to headaches, sinus problems, and stress.

If you have questions about any of these products or are intrigued and want to try them, please contact me or visit my Jordan Essentials website.  I would love to help you learn how to take care of your skin with good for you products.  Your whole family will enjoy these products.  Mine do.

Summer Card Camp Week 3 Day 1 card number 2

Here is a second card I just whipped up after playing with the blues and purples with the shading on the new Delightful Dahlia Additions stamp set I just bought.  Fun.  I think this looks pretty neat, and I tied all the colors in together using sketch 3.  Photographing cards with rainy/cloudy daylight is pretty hard. Not a photographer either.  I am doing good to get a card made and put on the blog.  :)  My sentiment looks much sharper and crisp in real life.  I guess the camera focused on the flower and not the words.

What do you think?

Edited to add:  thank you for all your sweet comments.  I really struggle to come up with my own designs whether using a card sketch, color combo, or staring at a blank canvas.  I was really pleased with how this card turned out.

Summer Card Camp Week 3 Day 1

Here is a card I made based on Jennifer's card in today's class.  The color scheme for this week just said  wintery holidays to me, so I went with it.  The tone on tone background of snowflakes was made with my new Illuminate shimmer ink pad.  Love the look.  The colors I used are SU! Pool party, winter wisteria, kraft, and rich razzleberry.  That was the match based on what the colors looked like on my computer screen.  Dies and stamps are from Papertrey Ink.

PTI July Blog Hop part 6

Whew!!  I did it.  I used all 6 color combos.  Here is another card that I got the idea for from Dawn's release post, but I didn't want to totally copy it.  I am trying to stretch myself to come up with my own cards.  I am great at CASEing cards.  "Why mess with perfection?"  I say.   I am usually so short on time and overwhelmed with all my stamps and options, I just find it easier to use their designs as a starting point.  I stamp to relax and trying to come up with my own layouts and designs is really way too stressful.   Anyway, I digress.  This card did not turn out quite as nicely as I hoped.  It does have great dimension, but it doesn't pop and look polished enough.  I did spritz it with some shimmer mist after I photographed it, but I think that it will not be a repeat card.   This color scheme was hard.  That scarlet color just did not fit in right.  I think a banner label die cutout with a sentiment would have been a better choice too.

I am just proud that I completed all 6 color schemes and played along.  Enjoy!!

PTI July Blog Hop part 5

Okay so this little number did not turn out quite the way I had hoped.  The tag proportions were a little too big, but I am not one to waste what I have worked on so hard.  I went with it anyway.  I think it is not too bad and I will definitely use it.

I used the color palette of harvest gold, melon berry, summer sunrise and new leaf.  The melon berry is the smallest detail/layering part of the flower.  I love the way it blends with the two yellows.  It is soft and subtle.  Love those dahlias.

PTI July Blog Hop entry no. 4

Here is the 4th color combo.  I just got new goodies from PTI.  One of my new sets is the Delightful Dahlia Additions.  I loved the cards Dawn made during the preview week.  However, recreating those pretty layered designs with these stamps was not as easy as I expected.  Those little shading layers are hard to line up.  Kind of like the rose layers in The Sweet Life.  I had to experiment a lot to get this right and even then, it is not always perfect.  I found that on the larger flower I needed to stamp layer 2 first, then the third layer, and then the 1st largest layer.  It was easiest to line them up that way.  For the smallest flower, the smallest details were stamped first, then the 2nd and then the last layer.  Still had lots of trouble with the small flower, so I opted for just one shading layer on that one.  Sigh.  I will keep practicing.  Maybe it was the color combo, maybe it is just my 40 year old eyes.  ;)

I used the color combo of pure poppy, raspberry fizz, berry sorbet, and new leaf.  So pretty.

PapertreyInk July Blog Hop part 3

I am hoping to get all 6 color palettes in the blog hop.  I got new goodies from PTI today to help me out.  :)    Here is the third color palette:  scarlet jewel, melon berry, hibiscus burst, summer sunrise, and orange zest.  I totally used the photo to inspire my projects with all those stripes on the popsicles.  Yum.  I needed to make a sympathy card so I used that as the greeting on the one I like the best.  I again was inspired by some PTI designers:  Maile and Nichole.  I used Happiness in Bloom and Watercolor Wonder background for the cards.

PapertreyInk July Blog hop part 2

Here is another card I made for the July Blog hop.  I used the citrusy palette of lemon tart, summer sunrise, orange zest, limeade ice and new leaf.  Very fresh and vibrant color palette.  I used PTI set of Happiness in Bloom, Beautiful Blooms 2 die, Sending You die, and Background Basics gingham.  I subbed some SU! colors for the PTI colors because they match so closely and they are what I have.  Enjoy this bright and cheery card inspired by one Nichole did awhile back.

PapertreyInk July Bloghop

Here is one of the entries I made for July's PTI bloghop.  I don't normally participate in these blog hops, but I really have been trying to challenge myself in using color palettes and card sketches lately.  PTI posted some pretty yummy summery color palettes and I am trying to work my way through them for the blog hop.  I needed to make some birthday cards, so here are two using one of the color palettes:  raspberry fizz, hibiscus burst, limeade ice and new leaf.  I used SU! colors of pink passion, regal rose, and wild wasabi for raspberry fizz, hibiscus burst, and new leaf.  I used my new MFT wash tape dies and stamps and PTI wonderful words birthday for the striped card.    The other card is a CASE of Betsy Veldman's card she did using PTI Friendship jar.  Loved this card so I used the overall design and changed the colors.  Makes me want a strawberry or raspberry limeade drink.

Summer Card Camp Week 2 Day 1

Back again with another card for Summer Card Camp 2.  I am enjoying the card sketches and the color combos that this class is giving.  I also like the technique tips as well.  I have not been able to play along as much as I would like, but got to put this idea to paper last night using sketch 2 this week.  Might be my only card again this week, but at least I made this one.  I got my new MFT Washi tape background stamps yesterday so I got to use them with the dies.  Fun fun.  They are very cool and I can't wait to use them more.

I used my ipad 2 to photograph this card and it was late last night.  Therefore, the card is dark looking and the greens and aqua mist color do not show up well.