Making of a card...

Alrighty peeps - grab a cup of coffee, tea, or a soda....or heck, a glass of wine if you so choose!!! THis is a long post today, as I'm going to take you thru the making of a card! Pretty much step by step....
First off - I'm using some Whisper White Craft ink and the daisies from the Upsy Daisy stamp set. I'm needing quite a bit of spring in my life - it snowed all day today (AGAIN) and we're suppose to have even more Sunday and Monday. It's all a big joke anymore - I think we've surpassed 50 inches for the season! So - all you'll see from me from here on out are springy cards!!!

This stamp I ink up upside down. I think I get better coverage this way.

I stamped several pieces of Kraft paper at a time. It's much simpler to make several cards at a time than one at a time.

I'm using designer paper from the Sweet Pea Pattern Pack - here is the So Saffron polka dot, and I'm distressing the edges with So Saffron ink.

I drug my ink pad over the edges quite a bit so that the white wasn't so white.

Then, because I'm quite anal and picky - I use my grid paper to line up my paper when I adhere them together. I'm a firm believer that the grid paper is a true nessecity - and a bargain too. I use my grid paper until it's really dirtied up before I pitch it! My four year old uses it when he's glueing so he doesn't get glue all over my table. Makes a great coloring paper for him too!

See how easy it can be to line up your paper. Each piece of the paper used on this project was cut 1/2 inch smaller than the one it's layered on - making it quite easy to line up. Just go in 1/4" and up 1/4".

Then layer those onto your card front - So Saffron here.

I'm going to use the Vintage Labels set from the Sale-A-Bration catalog - one of those great sets that you can earn FREE!!! Just contact me and I'll hook you up! This is a great set - lots of charm.

I'm going to use the image that coordinates with the Curly Label punch. Again - grid paper. good. I line up the image with the paper - well, because I'm, you know, anal....I wouldn't necessarily need to line this one up since I'll be punching it out.

Then I press my clear block on top really good.

Here you can see that the edges of the stamp has clung to the block, however, the middle of the stamp hasn't clung. If I were to ink this up, I'd get ink on that spot that wasn't "suctioned" to the block, and I'd end up with ink on my project where I didn't want it.

So, be sure to squish that spot onto the block, and get it to cling - here you can see much better that it's good and stuck.

I stamp those in Taken w/ Teal on pieces of scrap paper. ( A great way to use up all of those scrappy pieces!)

Then I picked the Happy Birthday sentiment from the same set - and line it up on that wonderful grid paper! This is more crucial, since I'll be stamping that inside the frame.

This time I'm going to test stamp it back onto my grid paper. You can't always get that image sticker to line up perfectly with the stamp - so I want to test it before I stamp it on my project in case it's off a bit.

I stamped it onto my grid paper, and sure enough, it's off just a bit - see it???

I simply compensate by twisting my block just a bit helter skelter - like so:

And viola! It's near perfect! I know just the angle to turn it so that it's not crooked on my project.

So, I finish stamping all of my frames and punch them out.

Next, I cut lengths of ribbon that are about 4 1/2" long - long enough to peak out of both sides of my frame.

I took one end and snailed it to make a loop.

Then I grabbed my linen thread - which I LOVE! and the little teal buttons out of the Playground Button collection.

Threading the button from the back, I leave a large loop.

Take the loop around the back of the loop of the ribbon on pull tight on the thread.

Tie that in a knot, getting the ribbon to gather up a bit. At this point, don't worry too much about how your gather looks, you can fluff it up in a second.

Tie a bow in the thread and fussy up your ribbon. FYI - I think this is the only way I can tie an actual bow! With little thread - or shoe laces!

There - now I'm pretty well set to assemble the rest of my card.

Here's a detail shot for you to see!

And the final gem!

I really like this color combo - plus it's really a simple card. I'm glad I added that touch of Old Olive ribbon - it really adds some pizzaz!

Want this card - find it on my Etsy shop!

Back 2 normal????

...whatever that means!!! I don't know that normal exists on top of our hill here in Iowa~~~~ but, I DID finally have some stamping/creating time yesterday! It was a struggle this week as both boys didn't seem to want to nap this week at all.....and that is MY crafting time!!! I just need that release every day, and without it, I feel restless. So, when I got the chance to finally sit at my table, I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

Here was one project I did:
I love all of the great paper flowers I'm seeing every where. And since we were snowed in (once again) on Monday, and part of Tuesday - I was really in the mood for some flowers! These little cuties fit the bill too because they are nice and bright and cheerful! Rose Red, Old Olive and So Saffron - one of my fave color combos!

Some of those flowers I "sueded" - a technique we'll be learning in my Stamp Clubs next month! You can see it best in that Old Olive flower on the lower right.

The completed card is clean and simple - yet bright and perky! What do you think of it?? Want one of your own - they are on my Etsy shop!! Click the link on the right!

Be prepared - tomorrow's post is long -might as well grab a cup of coffee, tea or soda - whatever perks you up in the morning!!!

Jen

Birthday time!

Howdy peeps! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, it's about time right??? Things have just blown up around here, and hopefully after this weekend, things will calm down a bit - even just a little bit would be great! My father-in-law is still in the hospital - with 2 broken vertabra, one that's cracked and a broken arm. They moved him to Omaha this week, and we are hoping that he'll get to come "home" next week sometime. Probably to a local hospital for a while til he can get up and around better.

In the meantime, I've had to get Valentine's made for Will's preschool class, have been deep cleaning my poor neglected house, and have been cooking for Will's 4th birthday party! I can't believe he's already 4. Time does fly!!! Here are the birthday invites that I came up with:

Detail shot:

I went really clean and simple this year. In fact, I used the sketch from this Clean & Simple sketch I used the Party Hearty stamp set, and my SU markers to do each of the hats individually, then punched them out. The 4 is die cut and popped off the page. The paper is from the Sweet Pea collection. Nifty, eh? I love this Sweet Pea collection of paper - plus, it's a HUGE bargain! It's like getting 4 packs of DSP for the price of two!!!! And it's so stinkin' cute!

That's all today folks.....more later......

Jen

Nobody said life on the farm was easy....

Sorry I didn't get to post anything yesterday....we had an emergency on the farm. The guys were here loading corn out of our grain bin and hauling it to town. My father-in-law was climbing the bin to take a look inside, when the ladder he was on gave way, and he fell about 20 feet to the frozen ground. He landed on his upper back/shoulder area. I was glad that my brother-in-law was at least out there with him, because the bin is far enough away from the house that I would not have heard him. My BIL did run up to the house to have me call 911, which I did, and then I frantically ran outside (in my slippers!) to try and be of assistance. The ambulance took him to the local hospital and after CAT scans and x-rays, it was determined that he's got a compression fracture in his middle back. While he will be very sore for quite some time, he will be fine. We are quite thankful, as it could have been much worse. We are also grateful for the many volunteer emergency workers that showed up to help him out.

While many people don't understand what it is that farmers do, the work they do can be dangerous. Climbing bins isn't fun, and they work with a lot of heavy equipment, and augers that will eat fingers if given the chance. If given the chance to know a farmer, you will likely meet a down to earth person that works as hard as they possibly can. I watched my Grandpa farm all of his life, and he was probably the hardest working man I know. He loved to farm - from raising pigs and cows, to tending to the crops.... he loved every part about it. Some of his cows, he even named, and I remember him being quite fond of a bull of his. We could feed his cows out of our hand, he was friendly to them, and they were friendly back (most of them anyway!) I find a lot of that same passion in my own husband. He takes pride in his work - I think that is just common nature for a farmer. We talk about some of our cows like they are our own children - we don't necessarily name them, but we do know them by their number. We do have a bull that we've pegged Nike, as he's got a Nike Swirl on his forehead. We care about our animals, we care about the crops in the ground. It's our livelihood and I feel deeply that everyone should respect the farmers greatly. They work extremely hard to create the food that goes on your table. Life on the farm is NOT easy!

Okay - so there is my rant for the day.....

I'm sure you guys are ready to see some creations! Back to my wedding themed week - here is a VERY simple invite to create. I didn't come up with much for coordinating products, but it would be pretty easy to do. I printed the invite on my computer, allowing for room for the Upsy Daisy stamp. That, I stamped with So Saffron (but first inked up my stamp in Versamark b/c I don't have a So Saffrom Craft pad), then I heat embossed it using Irridescent Ice EP. This gave it a nice subtle sparkle. I think it really helped "glam" it up a little but, but it still maintains the nice innocent feel of the daisies.

Here is the favor box - it's a little bit bigger than I would have liked, but it works. I used a texture plate and the Big Shot to create the polka dot texture on the Old Olive paper, then used the same technique on the daisies. Those were die cut with the Big Shot using Nestabilities dies.

Here's a better view of the invite:

Alrighty folks....I'm off to catch up from the lack of work I did due to yesterday's excitement....catch ya later!

Wedding Week....Day 3

Alrighty folks - I'm back with yet another Wedding Ensemble for you to see. This one is a Black and Red wedding, and I'm typically not fond of Red and Black weddings. That being said, I must admit that this is probably one of my favorite invitations of all of those that I came up with.
In the above photo you see: Invitation, Thank You card, favor container, cupcake holder and napkin ring.

Here is a better shot of the invite.....

and details of the black paper

and some details of the beading across the top! I think maybe that is what makes it my fave!

A very clean Thank - You card

And a cute little napkin ring with the couple's initial, some great silver beading.

Favor basket - repeating that beading trend from the invite!

What do you think? Love it? Leave me a comment!

Wedding Week day 2...

Continuing with my wedding themed week, here is a really clean and simple invite for you.
The base is basic gray cardstock, and is layered with Bride DSP, a square piece of Whisper White that I embossed with polka dots, and then the name of the couple, that was die cut using the Big Shot and some Nestabilities die. That is one thing I love about the Big Shot - it is very compatible with other dies. Everyone should have a Big Shot in their craft room. And, right now, if you were to order the Big Shot thru me, you would also earn TWO Sale-A-Bration items for free!!! Tack on another $50 in product, dies, embossing folders, anything, and you would earn hostess benefits PLUS another free Sale-A-Bration item. You don't get all of these add ons when you purchase a Big Shot at the box stores now do you?????

Here is a detail shot of the invite. The nice thing about this style - you could easily add a third color by adding a layer behind the polka dot embossed image. When talking with a customer at the Bridal Fair, her colors are gray (it's really on trend for proms and weddings this year), white and a light pink. We discussed adding a pink layer, and I think that would be fabulous. You could also change out the ribbon, and just depending on the person, it could be too much. That's the nice thing about doing your own invites - you can customize them to your liking.

I did a matching favor box....this is SUPER quick to put together. The lid is the Petal Card die from Stampin' Up!, which I cut out using the Bride DSP, the bottom is a simple square piece of Basic Gray CS. The bottom could be made as short or tall as needed. The Petal Card is held together with the Satin Ribbon - attached with Snail. I added the couple's initial by heat embossing it with Silver EP, and layered it with a scallop oval.

I think these would be adorable scattered on the tables with candies in them. It would be pretty easy to make other coordinating items with this clean and simple style too. Place cards, table numbers, thank you notes, save the dates....the list goes on, and on........

Okay folks, that's it for today.....

Any comments???

Beginning of Wedding Week.....

Alrighty peeps! Now that the Bridal Fail is over, I can post my creations for you to see!!! In other words, I spent all of last week creating, and very little time on the techie stuff - blogging, (did you notice?), my Etsy shop, etc, etc!!! So, I hope you don't get tired of seeing wedding stuff this week!

First up is a square ensemble that I CASED from the Stampin' Success magazine that all Stampin' Up! Demonstrators receive. I didn't have any dimensions, so just kinda "wung" it!!! The save the date card and invitation both will fit inside a Medium Square Envie that Stampin' Up! sells....
Going a little backwards here - this is the wedding program I came up with. I used the same image that is on the save the date and invite, except, I put it on vellum, and heat embossed it using clear EP. The strip of vellum is also a continuous theme throughout the ensemble. I would also continue with the vellum on any favors, thank you notes, etc.

The program opens with the ceremony info on the front, and the wedding party on the second page. A third page could easily be added if it was needed.

Here is the outside of the save the date card. The vellum strip slides off and the card can be opened.

And here is the outside of the invitation. I've repeated the square image that was on the save the date, along with the vellum. Here I added Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon.

This is the opened invite. The left side has a pocket for your reception card, directions, response card, or what ever extra you need to include. On the right is the invitation wording.

All of the stamped images are from the Wedding Sweet stamp set. Most are stamped and heat embosssed using clear embossing powder. All of the wording was printed using My Digital Studio. I love that option because it coordinates perfectly with Stampin' Up's cardstock. I don't have to try and guess what color is going to match.

One thing to remember when creating your own invitations and such, use GOOD QUALITY cardstock. This is really important even when printing the wording from your own printer - the better the cardstock, the more professional your invite will look. My printer is an average printer, and yet when I print on Stampin' Up's Whisper White or Very Vanilla, it looks like I sent them off to a professional printer. I did have to let the ink dry good before handling them; even so, the look wonderful in real life!!

So, what are your favorite wedding colors? I'd love to hear....leave me a comment!!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll have more for you tomorrow!

Jen

Wedding Ensemble for you to see....

I know you are all wanting something new to see - so super quickly, here is a sneak peak of one of the wedding ensembles I created for the Denison Bridal Fair which is this Sunday, Jan. 31st - 1pm - 5 pm. Stop and see me PLEASE!!!
This invite is CASED from the Stampin' Up! catalog, I just varied it with new, springy colors (Almost Amethyst and Perfect Plum), then created some additional pieces to match.

I really like the way this one turned out - it almost makes me want to get married again - to the same man of course. Well, that could depend on the day, but today is good...so he's safe!

There is a close up of the inside of the invite. FYI - all of the print is created in My Digital Studio, which is really nice because the font colors nicely coordinate with all of Stampin' Up!'s paper, and you can "stamp" right on what you are printing out if you want to. I didn't do this option on everything, because some things I wanted to heat emboss, and for some reason I wanted to really stamp!!!

There is the invite closed. The image is stamped in Perfect Plum, then I used a two way glue pen to add Dazzling Diamonds so it would have some great sparkle. I used the same technique on the favor box.

Here is the Thank You note that I did. It's a pocket card, and the front pocket is textured using the Big Shot. The pocket on the invite also uses this technique. It keeps everything in tune with each other....

So what do you think???? Super cute? Elegant? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Thanks -

Jen

Too too kind....

I know, I know, I've been MIA again....life just simply gets busy, and still icy....not only have we suffered an ice storm since my last post, but we've also had a blizzard (yesterday). I tell you what - weather in Iowa is always interesting!!! It does get my blood flowing when the weather gets exciting, and I do like a good storm (you have to when you live here!) During the ice storm, we were fortunate and didn't lose power for more than 3 hours at a time, but it was surging a lot over 3 days that I just shut the computer off for the most part. There were so many that lost power for DAYS - including my dear husband's hog barn - he finally got power back there yesterday after 5 days. And after yesterday's blizzard, we've got some awesome drifts again in the yard. They still amaze me, the way they can change thru the day.....
Alrighty....enough of that right???? You didn't come here to listen to me blab about the weather, and our lovely state.....
So, dearies - here is your eye candy for the day:

I used the Sale-A-Bration set, Whimsical Words. Yes, it IS a shiny little sentiment isn't it! Here's what I did - I die cut the Whisper White portion with a Nestibilities Die using my Big Shot, and while the paper was still in the die, I sponged it with Regal Rose ink. Then I inked up my stamp - clear mount to boot! - with Versamark, then before I stamped it, I inked it with Rose Red. Then, used clear embossing powder, and heated 'er up! A nifty look wouldn't you say? I did layer it on the next size Nestie Die. Then I took a button, threaded it with some Rose Red Grosgrain ribbon, and attached it with a glue dot. It needed it.

Here is the card in it's entirety:

Yes - that is paper from the Sale-A-Bration catty - Welcome Neighbor DSP. It is great - it comes in a 6x6 pad of 72 (that's right- 72!) sheets of paper!!! And the patterns are so adorable. Nice, bright, and SPRINGY!!! Oh, and another Sale-A-Bration item - that border punch....ah, I'm in love! It's a great punch, and oh so trendy right now. Plus, it comes in that great new punch style that's great on storage space.
So, really all of the items on this clean and simple card are from Sale-A-Bration. You too can earn these things FREE! A $50 purchase earns one free item out of the Sale-A-Bration catty. Contact me to find out more!

FYI - I've also been working like mad on Wedding Ensembles for the Bridal Fair and the Boulder's Conference Center this Sunday (the 31st; 1 - 5 pm) in Denison, IA. Stop by to see all of the great things I'm coming up with. Almost makes me want to get married again. Of course to the same great guy! I'll try and post a few of my creations here over the next few days!

That's all folks!
Thanks for stopping by -

Jen

ICE, ice, baby....

If you want exciting weather - just move to Iowa!!! I tell you what, this winter has been something else. It seems like every other week we've had something brewing up. Today - ICE - and a lot of it! I'm just thankful we only lost power for a few hours (knocking on wood!). One of the towns near us reported an inch of ice, and I really wouldn't doubt it. It's really something when you step outside and can hear tree limbs falling all around you. And yes, I did venture outside briefly today. Couldn't do much as I couldn't get traction to get far, and I didn't want Andy to have to come and lift the budda belly up off the ground! That was his warning as I walked out - DO NOT FALL! But, you guys are learning, I'm a nature lover, and after watching Mama Cardinal try and get to this:

....I knew I needed to come to the rescue. They couldn't get to the feeder at all. I witnessed a Blue Jay trying to peck thru the ice to get to the suet, and he wasn't strong enough either. So, I went out and broke the ice off for them to gain access. Unfortunately, as I type this, the feeder looks much the same. And, I watched Mama Cardinal again try and feed, but she couldn't get her feet on the perch because it was too icy. Poor things. While I was out there, I took a few pics of my yard. Well, I think I have a yard - I know the trees aren't having a fun day:

We've got a lot of clean up work ahead of us. And be aware - I took these photos this morning - it's now 5:30pm, things are much worse!!! The pics just don't do justice.

Okay - so, while Andy and Will headed out to check on the cows this afternoon, and Alex was napping, I did have a chance to stamp! Here's my card following the CPS Sketch 150:

I added a teeny, tiny bit of glitter to shine things up a little:

I KNOW - not a full force sparkling card from me - huh???? The ice has gotten to me! This card uses the new Sale-A-Bration set Happy Moments, and the super fun and funky designs from the Sweet Pea Paper Pack (my favorite bargain of the year!!!) I think this card would really brighten someone's birthday! If you want to earn the Happy Moments set, you just need to place a $50 order thru me or my website, and it's yours!!!

That's all for today peeps....