Which One?

I'm absolutely exhausted tonight, but it was one of those nights when the stamps were calling my name as I was thinking of going to bed. I can't say "no" to the stamps, so a new card was born! The first card is my submission for Beate's weekend sketch challenge. I also used the colors from this week's SCS color challenge. As I was putting the card together, though, I wondered how different it would look if I left off the Pretty In Pink panel.
This second image is the same card minus that panel. Which one do you like best?


The card base is 5" X 5" in Chocolate Chip. I stamped a piece of Certainly in Celery with the Boho Backgrounds stamp set in Chocolate Chip. I sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip classic ink before adding it to my card base. The flower from the 'One Of A Kind' stamp set was stamped in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla cardstock. I sponged the edges of that piece with Pretty In Pink classic ink. I also stamped the flower on Pretty In Pink and Certainly Celery. I cut both of those pieces out using my paper snips (that qualifies for the "Ways To Use It 163" challenge on SCS). The Pretty In Pink piece was layered over the image on the Very Vanilla and Dazzling Diamonds glitter was added to the edges. I stamped the small flower from the 'One Of A Kind' stamp set on Pretty In Pink cardstock using Chocolate Chip classic ink and punched it out using the 1/2" circle punch. That piece was used for a Build-A-Brad and added to my Certainly Celery flower. Those two pieces were added to the Pretty In Pink flower with Stampin' Dimensionals. The "You are one of a kind" image was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink and then I added a Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon. The entire piece was matted on a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock and then added to my card front.


Here is a close-up of the flower so you can see the dimension. This turned out to be a very elegant looking card. Let me know which one you like best! Toodles!

Long time, no post...

I've been slackin' on my bloggin', but that's because I've been organizin'. I have a "stamp closet" in my stamp room and I think the contents had been spontaneously multiplying when the door was closed. It was to the point that I couldn't find what I was looking for, although I had a general idea of where everything was. My stamp sets had no room in the closet and had migrated to a bookshelf in my stamp room. I would have taken "before" pictures, but the chaos actually looked organized. Everything was stored in neatly labeled boxes, but there was just TONS of STUFF... stuff I'll never use and hadn't thought about using in a year or more. I have downsized considerably and will be having a sale on Saturday, May 3rd. I've already notified all my fellow stamp addicts, and I can envision this turning into a stamp party quick, fast, and in a hurry. I am TOTALLY not against a stamp party, so come on over!!

Our little canine visitor has moved on. I absolutely didn't want to take him to a shelter, but we wound up taking him to a local no-kill shelter and making a donation to help with micro-chipping and neutering. He was just the sweetest little guy, but he was a nervous pee-er and you never knew which direction it was going to go. We have fairly new carpet and furniture so we tried putting him in the kitchen with a baby gate. The little guy was quite a jumper, though, and could bound over the baby gate in one leap. We put him outside, but he just cried to come in and tried to dig out under the fence. We never got any calls from anyone trying to claim him and couldn't seem to find anyone who wanted a loving, nervous, peeing, leaping, digging Dachshund. Ernie had had enough by the time the little guy left, too. He had a great time playing for the first 24-48 hours and then the "new" wore off. Ernie realized someone else was begging for my attention and he just wasn't going to have it. We're confident that he'll find a new home soon, if he hasn't already. The shelter was sure he'd be adopted quickly based on his size and age and the fact that he was so stinkin' cute.

I have some more big news... MY SEWING MACHINE IS HERE!!!! I had ordered the Singer Futura CE-250 sewing and embroidery machine through JoAnn's (it was out of stock when I went to buy it) and it arrived today! Curtis just doesn't understand my excitement, so if any of you would care to jump up and down while screaming and embarrass yourself with me, I would really appreciate it! I really, really want to take it out of the box and play, but I have to finish some other projects that I had already started. Like reorganizing my stamp closet and getting everything ready to sell. Hopefully, I'll find some time this weekend to get it set up and play around a little.

This card is a result of cleaning out the stamp closet. I had stacked all my patterned paper up next to a stack of "traitor" (that's non-Stampin' Up!) card stock and the floral piece happened to be lying on top of a piece of brown. I kept looking at that paper and saying to myself, "Self... that floral paper looks splendiferous on that brown cardstock and it kind of reminds me of the Doodle stamp sets". I used the "traitor" patterned paper with Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, and Blush Blossom card stock. The Blush Blossom was supposed to be cut 1/4" larger than the Certainly Celery piece all the way around, but I was on the phone with my sister-in-law and cut it the wrong size. It still worked and looks quite nice, if you ask me. I stamped the corner swirl stamp from "Doodle This" on the Certainly Celerly panel in Certainly Celery classic ink. The flower was made by stamping Ruby Red card stock with Whisper White craft ink and heat embossing it with detail white embossing powder. I stamped the flower again on Blush Blossom cardstock using Ruby Red classic ink. I used my glue pen to add Dazzling Diamonds to that piece, which you can't see very well in the photo. I stamped the flower again on Certainly Celery card stock and just cut three petals out to use as leaves. The stamped image is on the back side, so I just stamped it to have the shape to cut around. The center of the flower is a "Build A Brad". I used the 1/2" circle punch on Certainly Celery cardstock and then added dots with my Signo white gel pen. Once that dried, I added the acrylic topper on the brad. The flower was added to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Well, I guess that's about all I have to say right now. Hope you're having a fabulous week! Toodles!

Just Another Card

I started this card last night to challenge myself in a couple of ways. First was the color challenge this week on SCS. The challenge was to use Basic Gray, Cameo Coral, and Blush Blossom. Mission accomplished. The next challenge was to learn a new technique - watercoloring using Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write Markers. I did stray from the color challenge by watercoloring the leaves with Certainly Celery and Old Olive. I also embossed the Cameo Coral and Blush Blossom layers with the Swiss Dots A2 embossing folder. Each piece is embossed 1 1/4" from the top and from the bottom. That left a strip across the center of the card 1 1/4" wide that isn't embossed. It's hard to see that part in this photo. I tried to take it from different angles, but still couldn't get the embossing to show up very well. You may be able to see it a little better by clicking on the photo to enlarge it. The ribbon is Basic Gray Taffeta from Stampin' Up! Toodles!

Our Dog Has A New Home!

We put posters up today in our neighborhood, hoping someone would call about the dog I found yesterday. We haven't heard the ring of one phone yet, so we've decided that we're going to give it to Curt's sister and her family! Congratulations on the new addition to your family, Nicole!!

JUST KIDDING!! She'd KILL us if we gave her a dog! We'd be banned from ever visiting again! Actually, it would probably be worse than that!

We Have a Visitor

My parents would be the first to tell you that I have a soft spot for any critter that looks the least bit homeless. It started when I was VERY young and I've NEVER grown out of it... not even slightly. Tonight, on my way home, I saw this little guy standing right by the side of the street. He was dining, but it was far from fine dining if you know what I mean. He was scrawny (you can see his ribs) and was shivering and had no collar. I whipped my vehicle into the nearest place I could pull over and called to him. He came to me, although a little reluctantly. I brought him home where I introduced him to the back yard with a bowl of fresh water and some food. He ate a couple of bites and headed straight for the back door. It wasn't too long until those brown, pleading eyes had convinced me that he really needed to be inside. SSSSSOOOOOO... we brought him in and introduced him to Ernie, our Lhasa Apso, and Smith & Wesson, our two cats. He and Ernie have had the grandest time playing and are already quite comfortable with one another. Curtis is out in the garage now, cleaning our extra crate, so our little visitor will have a place to sleep tonight... in our bedroom... right next to Ernie's crate. I think all the commotion has given Curt a headache, but he sure is a trooper! When we got married, he didn't like the idea of indoor pets AT ALL. I wasn't going to part with Smith & Wesson, though, so he caved. That was in February 2004. In September 2005, he bought Ernie for my birthday. Tonight he really didn't have a choice since I just showed up at home with doggie in tow. I'll be calling the radio station tomorrow morning so that, HOPEFULLY, we can find his home. IF it happens that we don't find his home, he WILL be learning some manners. He seems to be very comfortable indoors, but lacks some much needed manners that Ernie learned in obedience training. He appears to be a Dauchsund mix, but we're not sure. With all the exitement tonight, I didn't get much else done, so I'll try to post some new projects in the next couple of days.

"B" Is For Bling

Well, isn't this just the cutest little card? Amy has me hooked on making all those little dots. It's time consuming but, boy, does it add some "WOW" to a card?! Actually, I should have made two of these... one with the dots and one without... just so you could see the difference.

This, my friends, is FREE rubbah! Well, maybe not completely free. It was a gift from Stampin' Up! to those demonstrators who attended Regionals this year. I just got it in the mail today. I inked my stamp up using Stampin' Write Markers in Taken With Teal and Pumpkin Pie and then stamped it on Whisper White CS. I used my glue pen and (yes... you guessed it) added some Dazzling Diamonds to the "b". I layered that on Taken With Teal and Basic Black CS before adding my dots with my handy-dandy Signo White Gel Pen. I cut two small strips from Bali Breeze DSP and matted those on Taken With Teal CS. Those pieces were added to my card base, which was Pumpkin Pie, Taken With Teal, and Basic Black CS (with dots).


My next card uses the "Time For You" stamp set and the "Afternoon Tea" Designer Series Paper from the Ocassions Mini Catalog. My card base is Chocolate Chip with a layer of Groovy Guava. I cut three strips of the "Afternoon Tea" paper and matted those on Chocolate Chip CS. The image was stamped on Very Vanilla with Jet Black StazOn ink. It was then watercolored using Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, and Basic Black classic ink pads and an AquaPainter. I punched the corners using the Ticket Corner Punch and then matted it on Groovy Guava and Chocolate Chip. "Vintage" brads were added to the corners. My ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

I also managed to get all my quilt blocks and backing cut for a baby quilt. Hopefully, I can get that finished by the end of the week. Toodles!

Handbag Question Answered

Beth asked if I sell my handbags. Yes! Please e-mail me (jen_barrett@sbcglobal.net) for complete details on the bag you're interested in. I'm working on getting a website up and running, but it's not quite complete yet. Once it's finished, I'll provide a link to it from this page! Thanks for all your great comments and encouragement!!

It's In The Bag!

I was hoping to get more done today, but it wasn't meant to be. I made three more handbags, all three identical to this one. Black and white patterns seem to really be "in", so I thought I'd give it a stab. I hope to get some cards completed tomorrow... we'll see!

A Little Behind...

I'm not saying I have one by any means, but I AM a little behind in posting projects to my blog.



This first card is one that was sent to me by my dear friend, Amy, earlier in the week. I had a slight medical scare late last week and Amy sent this as a "thinking of you" card. I LOVE it and now I think I'm going to have to purchase that stamp set. The skunk image is from the "Pun Fun" stamp set and reads "I stink you're sweet!". Thank you, Amy!!! I love you!








The next little project was my mom's idea. We were wandering around Michael's earlier this week when she walked up to me with these cute wooden letters in her hand. She wanted to make something with Emily's (my niece) name on it. A friend of mom's, who is a school teacher, said that Emily would learn to spell her name earlier if she could see it spelled out all the time. We found a piece of birch wood that worked great for the background and then found a piece of scalloped birch trim. Acrylic paints were on sale, so we picked up a couple of bottles that I thought would match the patterned paper from the Simply Scrappin' "Special Delivery Girl" kit. We covered the birch panel with the patterned paper, adhering it with Mod-Podge. The letters and the trim were painted with the acrylic paints. I HAD to add some glitter, so I used a can of spray glitter and added a coat to all of the letters. The trim and the letters were adhered using the new Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue from Stampin' Up! I added a bow to the top corner of the 'E' using a mini glue dot. A flower from the "Special Delivery Girl" Simply Scrappin' kit was added to the lower right-hand corner using Stampin' Dimensionals.



This card was made using the "Time Well Spent" stamp set. Each image, except the word "friend", was stamped with Jet Black StazOn and then colored with markers. I colored the "friend" stamp using a Basic Black Stampin' Write marker and then stamped the image. The entire image reads "Time spent with friends is time well spent", but I only wanted the word "friend". That image was also colored with the markers. Each image was punched out using the 1 3/8" square punch and adhered to a piece of Certainly Celery CS. That piece was layered on a piece of Tempting Turquoise CS that had been scalloped with a corner rounder punch. I used the 1/4" circle punch on it after making the scallops.
You'll never guess what I did next. I ADDED GLITTER!! That's right... I used my glue pen and applied Dazzling Diamonds. I thought you'd never guess! :)


This card was made using the "Tart & Tangy" stamp set. Each stamp was colored with Stampin' Write markers and then stamped on Whisper White CS. I covered each image in Versamark ink and added Iridescent Ice embossing powder before heat setting. The images were layered on Old Olive and then Real Red CS. This layer was added to a Pumpkin Pie card base and "Celebrate Good Times" was stamped in Old Olive from the "Celebrate Everything" stamp set.


















This card is the product of last weeks color challenge on Splitcoast Stampers, which was Real Red, Night of Navy, and Glorious Green. I'm not sure I like the bow, but I had an empty space there that needed to be filled. The toolbox image is from the "For Father" set in the Occasions Mini Catalog. It was colored using Stampin' Up! watercolor crayons and an AquaPainter. I added some brads to make it more manly and refrained from using glitter. Once I find a way to make glitter look manly, though, watch out... it'll be on EVERYTHING! The Real Red layers were embossed using one of my new Cuttlebug folders.












...And last, but not least... a card I made when I got home from work today. This card was made in response to Beate's weekend sketch challenge. I used the "Afternoon Tea" Designer Series Paper and some lace that I found at Wal-Mart. It was 6 yards for 99 cents. Yep... that's 18 whoppin' feet for 99 cents. I just can't pass up a deal like that! The card base is Groovy Guava and the image, which is from the "All Holidays" stamp set, was stamped in Chocolate Chip classic ink on Whisper White CS. I cut the stamped image out using my Spellbinders Nestabilities and then cut a slightly larger oval in Groovy Guava. My friend, Amy, inspired me to add the dots around that layer and I LOVE it!! They were added using the Signo White Gel Pen from Stampin' Up! I then cut a scalloped oval from Soft Sky CS, again using the Spellbinders Nestabilities, and layered my image and Groovy Guava ovals on that piece. Those three layers were added to my card using Stampin' Dimensionals. I really like the way this one turned out, even though there's not a speck of glitter on it. It's very simply elegant and SOMETIMES (I said sometimes) less is more!

Enough writing... I have to go make something! Toodles!

Sew Fun!

I had started this quilt within the last couple of weeks and just finished it up yesterday morning. All of the rag quilts I've made have been pastels, so the bright colors were a nice change. All fabric was purchased at JoAnn's.











My next little project, which actually went very quickly, was this handbag. I had purchased part of the fabric (the starburst pattern and the brown that was used for lining) knowing that I wanted to make a purse. The next week when the JoAnn ad came out, it showed this handbag using the same colors I had already purchased along with three other prints. Luckily, I hadn't started making my purse yet. They referenced the book that was used for this particular bag (Bag Boutique: Making Fabulous Purses and Totes by Amy Barickman) in the ad, so I jumped on Amazon and ordered it. While I was waiting for my book to arrive, I went back to JoAnn's to get the rest of the fabric prints I needed to complete the bag. I started it yesterday afternoon around 3:30 pm and was finished shortly after 7 pm. It turned out SUPER-DUPER cute. It measures 7 inches tall, 11 inches wide, and 3 inches deep - the perfect size for all the stuff I tote around on a daily basis. I LOVED making it, so there may be many more to come! Toodles!

Out of Control!!

Well, the layers on this card got way out of control quick, fast, and in a hurry. I sat down with the intention of completing a card using two challenges from Splitcoast Stampers. The first was the sketch challenge from last week and the second was the color challenge from this week. The colors were Creamy Caramel, Mellow Moss, Apricot Appeal, and Cameo Coral. My card base is Cameo Coral matted on Mellow Moss with the top left-hand corner being pierced. The flowers, from the "Bloomin' Beautiful" stamp set, were stamped in Jet Black StazOn ink and then watercolored using all of the above mentioned colors in classic ink. I used the Aquapainter for my watercoloring. I trimmed my stamped image so that the main part of it was 1 1/2 inches wide, but I trimmed around the flowers so they'd hang over the edges. This piece was matted on Apricot Appeal and Mellow Moss. The next layer has the blossom definition stamp from "Bloomin' Beautiful" stamped in Mellow Moss on Apricot Appeal cardstock. This image was matted on Cameo Coral and Mellow Moss. The next layer is a piece of Creamy Caramel matted on Apricot Appeal and Mellow Moss. The bee was stamped from the same set in Jet Black StazOn. I watercolored him with Apricot Appeal and then used my Basic Black Stampin' Write marker to give him his stripes. I cut the bee out with my handy-dandy Spellbinders dies (If you don't own any of these yet, all I can say is WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?? They're the bomb!) The bee image is matted on Apricot Appeal and Cameo Coral, both of which were cut using the Spellbinders Nestabilities. You should know me well enough by now to know that I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter... it's on both flowers and the bee. The second photo was taken at an angle so you could really see the bling. Well, this one has the record for having the most layers of any card I've made. It's absolutely smashing (way better in real life than it is in these photos), but not one I'd duplicate for swaps or just for the heck of it! TTFN!