Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Happy Holidays

Hello, hello! How is everyone out there? It's been crazy-busy around here this holiday season. I guess that's why it's been so long since I last posted! Our weekends have been full of holiday events, family, parties, shopping, wrapping, more family. It's been wonderful!

While it's been horribly cold around here (think single digits) we haven't had much snow this year. However I had a couple of days off around the Christmas holiday and it did snow off and on one day. I was very fortunate to get a few pictures which I thought I would share with you today.

We are thinking about matting and framing a few of these and hanging them over our sofa in the Family Room.

Enjoy!




Happy Holidays Everyone! Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to post more frequently now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays are behind us.
-Janice

Sunday, December 6, 2009

2010 Calendar

Good Evening! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends. I know I sure did. I think we ate turkey for a full week afterwards! LOL We were fortunate enough to decorate for Christmas over the long weekend. Doesn't the tree look pretty?


Another thing I was able to work on over the holiday weekend is a calendar for 2010. It is actually a kit that I picked up at A. C. Moore. It came with stickers for the days of the month and other stickers to embellish the calendar pages. It also came with some beautiful designer paper. I can't wait to get it finished. Here is a page of the stickers before I created a calendar page:

And here is a picture of the month of October:

You can click on the pictures to get a larger view if you'd like. I began gluing the designer papers together to make the top pages of the calendar but I haven't finished them yet. I also need to figure out which pictures I will use on each of the 12 pages. Once I get some of them completed I will share them here on the blog.

In the meantime I hope you have a safe and healthy holiday season. Thank you for stopping by.

-Janice


Sunday, November 22, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

Good Evening! I bet you've been wondering what happened to me, huh? I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks simply because I haven't had anything to share. I've been so busy working and celebrating birthday's that I haven't spent any time in the craft room.

Last weekend was my husband's birthday. Unfortunately I had to spend some time working but Sunday night we went to see Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, NH. They were, quite simply, amazing to see in concert!! John described it as "intense" and he was absolutely correct. I was so energized when we got home that I didn't sleep very well and 5:30am comes pretty early when you go to bed after midnight.

Regardless I managed to get through the week without too many issues. I did spend some time this weekend simply relaxing and sleeping. I think I needed to catch up on the sleep! Now I'm really looking forward to a three-day work week. Yippee!!

Perhaps I'll have something crafty to share with you next week. I'm also hoping to see the movie 'New Moon' next weekend. Have you seen it yet? What did you think? I'd be curious to know if you liked it or not.

So until next weekend, have a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving.

-Janice

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween & Other Fun Stuff

Happy November to you all! I cannot believe how quickly this year is slipping by. I remember as a child thinking it took forever for summer vacation to come around. And then once school started again it took forever before Christmas break. Now as an adult it seems like I just finished shopping for last years gifts and here we are beginning to discuss what to get everyone this year. It's crazy!

Last night was Halloween here and we had fun giving out candy to all the little goblins! Here are a couple of pictures of our Halloween decorations. We purchased foam pumpkins a couple of years ago and carved a Haunted House in one and a Bat in the other one. This really makes so much economical sense to me!




John found these cute Ghost lights in the basement with some of the other decorations. They look so cute on our raised wall.

Now onto some papercraft pictures. I had mentioned in a previous post that I made a Memory Book for my sister after our summer vacation. Well I finally finished it and got some cool pictures with my husbands new DSL camera. Here is a picture of the front:

And here are two shots of the inside. I made all the pages identical but chose to only photograph two. I didn't want to put pictures of other peoples children on my blog. Some people are very particular about putting their children's photos on the internet and I really don't blame them. So to keep everyone happy I chose to share a picture of myself and my dog. Besides you really can't see me too well in the photo! LOL


If you want to see the photo's better you can click on them to make them larger.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful week!

-Janice


Sunday, October 25, 2009

Halloween

Good Evening! Another wonderful weekend has come and gone around here. It was quite productive in our household the last couple of days. My dh got a new camera and he has been reading up on all it's possabilities. I got some much needed items for my car, namely a new battery and new windshield wipers. Today John removed all the leaves from our yard while I cleaned the inside of the house. It was such a nice, warm day here today! I was so excited! It got to be over 60 degrees and the sun was shining brightly. I even made an Autumn stew and an Apple Crisp for dinner tonight. See, I told you we've been productive! LOL

Since the weather was pretty miserable yesterday, I don't think it reached 50 degrees and it rained all day, I spent some quality time in the craft room. I received an email from Scrapbook Trends which inspired the Halloween Triptych I worked on.

I cut a total of six tags from some old cereal and tissue boxes. In the end I don't think the cardboard was thick enough because the triptych does not stand on it's own. I painted both sides of all six pieces and then covered the front with the pattern paper you see below. Isn't it cute? I love the pumpkins! Then I painted each of the chipboard pieces using acrylic paints and covered the letters with Martha Stewart Glitter (onyx), the bolts on the Frankenstein and the cats eyes were also glittered with Martha's Glitter. The cat's eyes were John's idea and I must say I was so excited with how it came out. I just love it when he helps me!





You should be able to click on the picture for a bigger view. I'd still like to add some stamping or other embellishments to each of these but I simply ran out of time this weekend. Since Halloween is only a week away I decided to display it "as is" for now and maybe I'll get to work on it some more later.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

Enjoy the week.

-Janice

Monday, October 12, 2009

Baby Card

Good Evening! I ran into some computer troubles last weekend and was unable to post. Rather than post mid-week I decided to just wait and post this weekend. Then we got busy and I plum forgot!

We spent the weekend enjoying a friend's Baby Shower and a local agricultural fair. There was good food all weekend, I ate way too much! We have so much Kettle Corn I think we will be eating it until Halloween!!

Here is the card I made for the Baby Shower:




The background paper is from Nana's Kids pack, the two solid squares and circle cut out are paper from PaperTrey Ink, and the two blue brads are from Queen & Co Bucket of Boy which I picked up at a local scrapbook store.

When we were on our way to the Fair yesterday we stopped by a scrapbook store that I have been wanting to visit for over a year now. I'm kind of glad we waited because I could have spent a significant amount in there! Honestly they have everything. I got some cool paper and chipboard letters that I am anxious to use for Halloween. Hopefully I can complete this and get some pictures to show you next week.

Enjoy the week, it's getting cold around here.

-Janice

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Sister's Birthday Card

Holy Moly has it really been two weeks that I haven't posted? Where does the time go? I thought for sure I had made this posting two weeks ago but apparently not. I also knew that I would not be able to post last week. We spent the weekend getting ready for and then attending the NASCAR race in Loudon, NH. The weather was perfect and the race was a blast! I'll share photos of that another time as I haven't even downloaded the pictures from the camera.

Here is a birthday card I made for my sister earlier this month. Her birthday was on Labor Day weekend.

I've used this paper before and am running out of it now. I'm kind of disappointed because I really like it. The cat stamp is "Fluffles" but I changed out the word stamp which arches over it. This word stamp is from Around & About by PaperTrey Ink. The ribbon is from my stash but I used the backside of a satin ribbon as it was a bit darker and obviously not as shiny. I colored Fluffles and his gift with colored pencils. For some reason I always color the cat in gray, he just looks like a gray cat to me!

I wish that the words had arched better. I worked at this for quite a while and this was the best I could do. Unfortunately I don't think I would use this stamp in this fashion again. Oh well, live and learn.

I finially finished the Memory Album I had been working on. I even found some cute fuzzy yarn to use with it. Okay actually my husband found it for me! LOL I'll take some photos and share it soon.

Enjoy your week! I'll try not to be gone so long again.

-Janice

Monday, September 7, 2009

Happy Surprises and A Birthday Card

Good Morning and Happy Labor Day to all my US friends! I can't believe that it's September already. Where does the time go? I realized late last night that it was Sunday and I hadn't posted yet. I decided to wait until this morning since it's a holiday here!

We've had a pretty busy weekend so far, done some yard work, lots of shopping, visited my mom and took my sister out to dinner last night for her birthday. I've also spent some quality time in my craft room. I've made a couple of cards and began a small memory album for a gift. I still have to finish the album and make a couple more cards for Sept birthday's.

First I wanted to share a pleasant surprise. I was shopping at Michael's last weekend and I came across the following stamp set in their Clearance bin:


Well I don't have very many stamps like this (Valentine, love, romance type stamps) so I thought for $1.99 you can't beat it! I was checking over the receipt when I got home and to my surprise I was only charged ... ONE PENNY!! Can you believe it?!? I was so excited! Boy am I glad I didn't pass up that bargain! ;)

While I haven't inked the stamps up yet, I did discover that they needed to be put together. The rubber was separate from the wooden blocks. I thought that was pretty clever. I like it when a manufacturer gives you options. In the end I did decide to peel the backing off the red rubber and adhere it to the appropriate wooden blocks though.

Here is a picture of a card I made for a friend. The pattern paper was from a European magazine and I've always like it. I do need to play around with the settings on my printer/copier though because the colors didn't come out as crisp as the original.

In order to give the card some pizzazz I cut out three of the flower squares and "popped" them with dimensionals. I thought it made the card just a bit more interesting. You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it and see what I mean.

Well that's all I have for today. Lots to do so I can get back to the Memory album. I hope you get to relax and enjoy the day.

-Janice

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Floral Birthday Card

Good Evening! I can't believe it's Sunday night already. What a crazy weekend this has been. The weather has been extremely hot and humid here in New England lately and our Air Conditioner decided to break down yesterday morning. I'm not sure who is more upset, the dog or my husband! LOL Neither of them like the humidity very much. Although, truth be told, I'm not too happy about it either. ;)

I had some plans to work in the Craft Room this weekend. I needed to create a few cards for upcoming birthdays but when I went in to pull out my paper and decide what to use for supplies I noticed that one of the shelves had collapsed onto some tools! So between having to reorganize my supplies and being incredibly warm I didn't get any cards made this weekend. Not cool.

I do, however, have a card to share with you today. I started this card before we left on vacation and completed it earlier in the week. My niece Ashley celebrated her 19th birthday on Thursday! How exciting for her! Here is the card I made and mailed out to her.




I thought the colors and paper were so feminine. The pattern paper is from Sarapapers, something I found on sale at Michael's. The tag was part of the booklet. There are several coordinating tags. The scalloped paper framing the roses is Sweet Blush from PaperTrey Ink. I couldn't believe how well this color coordinated with the pattern paper. What a lucky break! The sentiment on the tag is from PaperTrey Ink's Birthday Basics. I am so in love with that font!! The strip of ribbon is from my stash.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by today, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

-Janice

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Back From Vacation

Good Evening All!

We are back from vacation and what a wonderful vacation it was! The weather was perfect especially since our summer here in New England has been far from "normal". We spent a great deal of time between the pool and the beach. Truly heaven!

Today was a pretty busy day getting ready to go back to work and all. There was laundry (and lots of it), dishes, vacuuming, and grocery shopping. Plus we got the camper cleaned out and moved back into it's storage spot in the driveway.

Since I don't have any "crafty" pictures to share I thought you might enjoy a picture of Danforth Bay. This is the lake we stayed on.

Beautiful isn't it?

Hopefully I'll be back next weekend with something more crafty to share. In the meantime, enjoy your week!

Janice

Sunday, August 2, 2009

More Birthday Cards

Hello! I have officially completed my first week back at work. It was kind of a long week! I really think that once I gain a better understanding of the project and the companies processes I will like working there. The commute on the other hand ... let's just say it's not quite what I was expecting.

Anyway, here is a card I made for my neice's birthday. She and her friend will be joining us on our annual camping trip to Danforth Bay in Freedom, NH next week. It should be a lot of fun! These girls always keep us laughing!


The polka dot pattern paper and the floral strip of bling are from the Nana's Kids pack by Die Cuts With A View. The solid papers and rhinestone's were one's I had on hand and the flowers are by Prima. The birthday sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages by PaperTrey Ink. This card is 5.5 x 5.5 and I had a hard time with the envelope, especially since I ran out of 12x12 white cardstock! So I've decided to just hand-deliver it and be done with it! LOL

Thanks for stopping by! I may not be able to post next weekend since we will be away on vacation but I'll try.

Have a wonderful week!

-Janice

Monday, July 27, 2009

Girl's Birthday Card

Good Evening, I'm sorry I didn't post this yesterday. I had intended to but got carried away with preparing to go back to work today. The commute wasn't too bad and overall I had a nice day. I'm just super tired tonight! LOL I guess that's to be expected after being home for the past 11 weeks.

The daughter of a very dear friend of mine turned 7 years old today. I can't believe that she's 7 already!! Where does the time go? She's a very sweet girl who loves to dress up and act like a little girl so I thought the pink and bling on this paper was quite appropriate.

The striped paper and the flower paper are from Nana's Kids by Die Cuts With A View. There are some Prima flowers in the upper left corner with a rhinestone in the center.

I just received my order from PaperTrey Ink today so now I have some Birthday Sentiments to use on the interior of my birthday cards. I'm very excited! Now I won't have to argue with the printer to print my sentiments. Inevitably I always had to ask my husband to help me out. LOL Fortunately he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Well, I'm off to bed. I have another early day again tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Janice

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Good News And A Card Share

Hello! Sorry for not posting on Sunday but I didn't have pictures of my completed cards to share with you. We finally saw the sun again today after a few days of rain/overcast skies so I quickly snapped some shots. Also we went to a couple of graduation parties this past Saturday and I forgot to get pictures of the cards I made (I'm smacking myself in the head).

Before I share a card with you I have some GREAT news! I GOT A JOB!!! Yes, it's official, as of next Monday, July 27th I will be employed again. It's a huge relief, I must say but I will certainly miss being home with my animals. I have a sneaking suspicion that they might miss me a little bit too. ;)

Okay, onto the card. I made this card as part of Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. It's the first time I've played along with a color challenge and I really had fun. Unfortunately I didn't finish the card in time to post it to her blog but I was still pretty proud of myself LOL





The challenge was to use black, soft grey, hot pink, grass green, and bright red. It seems like a lot of colors and it took me a little while to pull everything together but I did it. I used black for the base and then layered on the grass green. I stamped the A Muse Spiral Daisy image onto a soft grey with ColorBox Scarlet ink and then added the Prima flowers; red and pink with a black button from my stash to tie everything together. Hopefully it works! I left off a sentiment for now since I'm not sure exactly what I will use it for. Fortunately I think it could be used for any occasion.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week.

-Janice

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Another Graduation Card

Well it looks like summer has finally arrived in New England!! YEAH! I spent so much time outside this weekend and it truly felt wonderful. The weather has been in the mid- to high- 70's, sunny and breezy. Just perfect! I even broke out the "kiddie" pool for the dog today and spent some quality time soaking my feet while I read a book and soaked up some of the suns beautiful rays! :) Can you tell how happy I am? LOL

Last Monday I had my first in-person inteview since being laid-off back in April. While it was very long; I met with four people and had to take a test to prove my skills, it must have gone fairly well since they asked me to come back in tomorrow for yet another interview. This is the fourth time I am speaking with the hiring manager! I think they should be able to make a decision by now, but I have no idea exactly how many people they have to choose from. Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well as last week and I'll be offered the job by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, on to my card post for this week. In addition to the graduation cap card that I showed last week, I also made the following graduation card.

The background paper is called "Stardust" and is part of the Hello Spaceboy collection by Valerie Foster for Prima Marketing, Inc. The stamps I found as a set at Michael's and are from Hampton Arts. I stamped them in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The ribbon is from my stash and started out as a white satin ribbon. Since the card was given to a young man who just graduated from high school I didn't think white satin was very appropriate, so I colored the ribbon with my black Copic. Cool huh?

Can you believe I'm still making graduation cards? We have two more parties to attend this coming weekend. I'll post pictures as soon as they are done. Also I got some new Cuttlebug Border Embossing folders so I'm hoping to be able to play with those more soon!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful week.

-Janice

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Happy Graduation & 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends!! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My husband and I spent the day at my family's camp on Sebago Lake in Gray Maine yesterday. It was so relaxing and peaceful up there. True bliss!

Due to the time of year I have been making Graduation cards. There was a template and tutorial posted by Alicia Coulombe on SplitCoastStampers recently that I really liked.


Here is my first try with it. I made this one in neutral colors since I couldn't figure out what the school colors were for the recipient. I've made another one in Shamrock Green and Golden Yellow because that is the school colors which were appropriate for the recipient. I still have a couple left to create for a party in two weeks. When you open the cap there is a message and gift card that are tucked into the bottom of the cap. It's really cute!

We've finally seen the sun for the first time in almost three weeks! YEAH!! I spent quite a bit of time outdoors this weekend and I have to say it's felt WONDERFUL! We even got to grill our dinner tonight. Yummm :)

Tomorrow I'm going on my third interview for a job. I'm hoping for the best. The commute will be a killer for us but at least I'll have a job again. Please think good thoughts for me if you should feel so inclined.

Thanks! I'll post some more graduation cards next weekend.

-Janice

Monday, June 29, 2009

A Boy's Birthday Card

Here in New England we have been stuck in a bad weather pattern. It has been raining for about two weeks now! I feel like I live in Ireland or something. I'd like to see some sunshine for more than a few hours at a time. I know from reading other blogs that some people are having tremendous heat. It seems like the weather is crazy everywhere this year! I know I really shouldn't complain about the weather, it's cool here, only reaches 70 degrees on average each day so we haven't had to use the air conditioner yet. This is saving us a bunch of money which is a good thing since I haven't found another job yet. So I guess I just have to keep reminding myself of the silver lining. :)

The company my husband works for had their 'Summer Outing' this past weekend. We spent the day yesterday at a local amusement park. It was really fun! We went on some rides and ate all the great food that you get at those places. I especially like the Fried Dough ... yummmm. We were all thankful that the rain held off for most of the day. See, another silver lining!!

Here is the card I have to share with you this week. I made this for my husband's nephew. I seem to struggle a bit with cards for the 'male' gender. I find that this is common for a bunch of other people too.


I thought the paper was fun and certainly appropriate for either a boy or girl. It does have some glitter on it here and there but I don't think it comes across as being real girly. I stamped the slice of cake in Memento Rich Cocoa and layered it using the Large Oval Nestability. I only own two shapes of Nestabilities; the plain oval and the scalloped oval. I didn't want to use the scalloped as I was afraid it might appear too feminine. The stamp and paper are from Imaginisce. The ribbon is called Colorstiks by Strano Designs and the brads are by Making Memories.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying whatever weather is in your area!

-Janice

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Fun Birthday Card

If you're still taking the time to check back with me, please know how much I appreciate it! I really need to get back on track with posting messages. I promis to try and get better at it. :)

A few weeks ago I had to mail out a couple of birthday cards. Due to my recent unemployment issues I had fallen behind on making cards. I have saved quite a few templates from 2Sketches4You and decided to use this one to create one card.

The polka dot paper is from American Crafts and the solid colored circles are bazzil scraps. The ribbon was from my stash and is actually a satin ribbon but I turned it over and used the matte side, cool huh? The stamp is from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages set.

Hopefully the recipient liked her card!

I have a few other cards to share with you but I'm going to wait a few days and then post again. Thank you for hanging in there with me! :)

Janice

Saturday, June 6, 2009

A Few New Cards

Goodness, I can't believe how long it's been since I've last posted. Time certainly has a way of moving on, doesn't it? I've been spending a great deal of time revamping my resume and looking for another job but I have also created a few goodies to share with you. So without further ado ...

I created this card when I found out a friend is pregnant. I'm so excited for her! It was kind of a funny story because her husband had to go away on business and she was very concerned about leaving their two dogs home alone day since her husband generally works from home. So I offered to go over once or twice during the day and visit with the dogs, let them, etc. She was so happy that I volunteered! She had hinted that she had some exciting news to share with us but didn't want to go into everything in an email. Well, I kind of figured what she was going to say and then I happen to see her ultrasound pictures on her refrigerator! LOL So I came home and immediately made up this card. I left it next to the dog biscuts to surprise her but apparently I forgot to sign it! What a dope I can be sometimes.

The floral stamp is from a wedding stamp set by Rusty Pickle and the circular sentiment and heart are from PaperTreyInk's Around and About stamp set.


The next card was actually for the same couple. They were kind enough to watch our cats while we went camping over Memorial Day Weekend. Unfortunately I fell into procrastination mode in delivering it but I made it right away! Does that ever count? LOL

The flourishes are from the same Rusty Pickle stamp set as the flower used in the previous card and the sentiment is from PaperTreyInk's Mega Mixed Messages stamp set. I used an A Muse stamp and Memento Desert Sand ink to create the background paper. I noticed when I took the picture that the tan paper wasn't straight when I adhered it to the card base. I guess I'll have to make another one just to prove I can get it right! I hate it when these things happen!

The last card I have to share with you today is a birthday card I made for my mom. She is a big cat lover so I felt sure she would appreciate it.

I just love this layout. It was a sketch from Taylored Expressions. The cat is named Fluffles and the stamp is by Stampendous. It says "I coughed up this gift for you..." having four cats myself I knew I just had to own this little gem!! It's definitely not a stamp you could use for just anyone!! LOL I really like that this card is bright and colorful, not my usual style.

Well that's it for today. I made a couple of birthday cards this weekend but still need to get pictures. I also have a gradution card that I'll share soon. Hopefully it won't be so long between posts!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Janice

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Mother's Day Cards

I haven't posted for the last few weeks and I'm feeling a bit guilty about it. My goal when I began this blog was to post once a week. That shouldn't be a difficult goal to achieve but sometimes life just seems to get in the way. I'm disappointed to say that I have recently become a victim of the current economy. On April 30th I lost my job after 8 and half years. To say I am disappointed and scared would be a huge understatement. Initially I thought it might be nice to be at home and have more time to create but I seem to have lost my mojo. It's not surprizing I guess given the circumstances.

Anyway I have a couple of items to show today. First up I needed to send a "thank you" card with some money to my aunt. She let me borrow a few dollars and I just didn't feel right not paying her back. Since I know it's not a smart idea to send cash through the mail I thought I would make a small money holder to enclose the cash into.

The card is one I received from a swap on a painting group that I no longer participate in. The paper for the money holder is called Polka Dot Parade and is made by PaperTreyInk.



I also made another holder and sent it to a friend using a previously made card. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before I mailed it out.

Next I have the two Mother's Day cards that I made for my Mother-In-Law and my own Mother. In order to keep things fairly simple I used the same layout for both of them and just used different colored papers. The Designer Paper is a booklet that my husband picked up from one of the big craft stores. I think it was Michael's but I can't remember for sure. The booklet is titled Flowered "Handmade" Papers & Vellum and is manufactured by Hot Off The Press. The stamp is from Mega Mixed Messages by PaperTreyInk.

Well I think that's it for today. My husband took a vacation day yesterday and we spent some time in Manchester, NH at the Creative Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention. It was a very nice day and we picked up a couple of new items to play with. Hopefully this will be the push I need to get back into paper crafting and posting once a week.

In the meantime, please wish me well in my search for a new job!

-Janice

Sunday, April 26, 2009

No Projects This Week

With the warmer weather arriving in New England I have been spending my free time outside. We have started our garden, already planting some spinach, broccoli and a few herbs. We have completed our Spring clean up and spread the Lime on our yard. This weekend we dug up an area of our yard that has/had been overtaken with weeds. We will complete this process in another area of our yard next weekend and then plant new grass seed. It's very exciting as I have waited all winter for the nicer weather ... and it's finally here! I love being outside and pretty soon it will be time for camping season. YEAH!

I have been trying to stamp but ended up making more of a mess than anything else. I also considered trying out for a Design Team call that Lauren Meader posted but I decided that she has a very agressive schedule and I don't think I'm quite ready for it yet. I will, however keep trying and maybe apply to a Design Team in the future.

Thanks for reading and I'll be back with a paper craft related post soon.

-Janice

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter

Phew, it's been a busy week around here. I have three cards and two baskets to show you today!

The first card was given to my mom with the yellow basket. The card measures 4"x4". The stamps are all by Studio G and were purchased from the Michael's $1.00 bin. The images were colored with Copic markers in the following colors: G29, R32, R35, R39, Y06 and Y08. The beak of the chick was done with a Red Spica pen. I also double stamped the chick and used foam to make the image "pop".



The second card was given to my sister with the purple basket. This card also measures 4"x4". The image is by JustRite stamps using the 2" round stamp with 15 pt Times New Roman font. I used Copics to color this image as well and added a Clear Spica pen for the water and Martha Stewart Yellow Barite glitter to the center of the flowers.



The third card was given to my in-laws. I can't remember the exact measurements of the card but I think they were 5"x4" and the images were all by Studio G. I colored the images with Copic markers again and used the foam adhesive to "pop" the jelly beans. The buttons were tied with DMC floss, all of which I already had in my stash.



I made the baskets by creating a template first. There were a few versions of the template before I came up with one I liked. Each baskets was made using Bazzil card stock and "Happy Easter" image is from Studio G. I first stamped the sentiment with colored ink and then over-stamped it with Embossing ink and clear embossing powder. I liked the end result and so did my family. The bunnies which filled the basket are proped up on irredescent easter grass and were purchased from a Cracker Barrel Country Store. They play three different tunes when you hold them in your hand. Too cute!



Everyone loved their gifts today! Yeah! I hope you all had a fantastic day as well.

-Janice

Monday, March 30, 2009

Kids Cards

I wasn't able to complete these cards in time to post last week so I decided to just hold off until they were done. The next birthday's on our calendar are for Joshua and Abbey, twins who will be 4 years old this Friday. They are the youngest children that I have to make cards for and subsequently I don't really have any appropriate stamps.

The first card was made using a flower border by Nana's Kids card pack by Die Cuts With A View. The butterfly sticker was a freebie that was included with Papercraft Magazine. The pink cardstock was embossed with D'Vine Swirls and a Cuttlebug. Isn't it cute?


The next card was inspired by a layout from Papercraft Essentials Magazine. The polka dot paper and animal cut outs are from Nana's Kids paper pack by Die Cuts With A View. The inside flaps were edged with Memento Desert Sand ink for some dimension. The Partytime stamp is by Inkadinkadoo and was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black. The writing was done by hand with an Ultra Fine Point Black Sharpie marker. I was pleased with the end result.



I hope the kids enjoy receiving these cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Janice






Sunday, March 15, 2009

Additional Info & New Cards

First off I need to say that the cards I made from the previous post were inspired from the book "Susan's Journal of Paper Engineering Secrets" by Susan Cobb. I should have included this information in that post but frankly I was way too tired to go find the book that night!

The first card I'm posting today was inspired by a sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You. The flower and button have not been secured to the card yet because I'm still not convinced they are the right element for the card. I also plan to add a sentiment once I figure out who I will send the card to. I just love the purple swirled paper I used on this one but I can't find the name of it. Sorry.



The second card was something I came up when I got frustrated making the first card. The multi-colored paper is called "The Goods" from American Crafts and I'm pretty sure I got it at AC Moore. This is a double-sided paper with the back, or reverse, being solid orange. It's a really nice paper.


Now I'm trying to make a box without using someone else's template. I know there are plenty of free templates and even templates you can buy on the internet but I thought I could figure it out for myself. I must say that it's coming along pretty well. I just wish I could have found the specific paper I was looking for. Stay tuned ...

Make time each day to be creative.

-Janice

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Weather and New Cards

Well it's been an interesting week for weather up here in the NE. Last Monday we got over a foot of snow and this weekend the temp has been in the 50's! Tomorrow it's supposed to snow again. Ah well, I guess this winter's way of saying 'it's not Spring yet'!! LOL I was able to get outside for a while today and soak up some sun. It was so nice even though I was cleaning dog refuse from the yard. Probably a little too much info huh? :)

Anyway, my dh picked up this book a while ago and I found several cards that I wanted to try my hand at. I don't think they're too bad for a first try but I will definitely make some changes if I make them again. I really simplified this from the original instructions but am still very happy with the results.




This second card was one I really struggled with. It took me a while to find papers that I felt went together well enough for this one and the diamonds weren't as easy to cut as I thought they would be.




I still need to add the sentiment to each of these but since I'm not sure exactly what occassion I will use them for, I figured that part could wait until later.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy my latest creations!

Take time each day to be creative.

-Janice

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Valentine Cards

Sorry I missed last weeks post, I was under the weather which is saying something considering I live in New England and it is winter!

I don't usually make holiday cards but I became inspired by all the beautiful Valentine's Day cards I was seeing. So I decided to make a couple; one for my mom, one for my sister and of course one for my husband. I wanted them to be simple and I really wanted my husband's card to be more "manly". Here is what I came up with:




I think the red card was nice for a man. Just red, white and black, no pink! I saved the pink for the "girls" in my life. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts. All of the heart shapes were made with a Cuttlebug die, the ribbons were purchased at AC Moore and the red flowers were purchased at my LSS.

Thanks for letting me share! Make time each day to be creative.

-Janice

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Reserve Card Supply

A couple of years ago I decided to make an effort to send out birthday cards to each of our niece’s and nephew’s. We only see them all once or twice a year so I thought it might be nice to put forth some additional effort to touch base with them.

Well the first year went by and I did make a solid effort. We even received a couple of phone calls thanking us for the cards! Kids can be so sweet. Unfortunately though I wasn’t quite perfect and I missed a few birthdays. The same thing happened last year too. No matter how good my intentions are I always seem to procrastinate and then either send out cards late or not at all. I recognize this is an area that I really need to improve upon.

As the New Year was dawning I realized that I needed to come up with a better plan for sending cards this year. Fortunately for me I discovered blogs and the concept of “blurfing”!

In January of this year I noticed that a lot of the blogs I visit discussed organization. I guess everyone’s New Year’s Resolutions are pretty much the same; exercise more, eat healthier, lose weight and get organized! However since most of the blogs I visit are craft related the theme was organizing your craft room or supplies and in some small ways organizing your personal schedules. My ‘DUH’ moment was when I realized that most card makers have a reserve supply of cards on-hand to give when appropriate.

While some people keep a reserve supply for last-minute giving I realized very quickly that if I made Birthday and Thank You cards in advance I would (hopefully) have one less excuse as to why I just couldn’t find the time to send out the appropriate cards. Some people have cute little bags, boxes or baskets that they keep they’re cards in. These are then organized with separators identifying what each section contains; Thank You, Birthday, Anniversary, Wedding, etc. The final tip I saw that really made an impression on me is that those with the ability to enter important dates into their phone or computers use that as a reminder to mail out cards or gifts.

The cards below are ones I have made to begin my reserve supply. The first two cards did not have a specific source of inspiration. I think the ideas are just a conglomeration of different embellishments I have seen other people use. The last card was inspired by a sketch I saw on the Cuttlebug Challenge website. I have not put a sentiment on it yet as I think it could be used for a variety of occasions. I will add the sentiment when the need arises.



Thank you for visiting again and thank you for listening to my story behind the creation of these cards.

Make time each day to be creative!

-Janice