Unity's FWF 6/21 - so this is love

Happy Friday! I'm so excited to once again be linking up with Friends with Flair over at the Unity blog! Last weekend I went to a local shoebox (card making) swap and since we had only 9 women, we had everyone make 2 cards so you could make one and take one from each person.

Last week I shared the first card I made; today is the favorite card reveal:

 Basic Grey Kioshi
Unity Stamp Co sentiment (so this is love set)
ribbon flower
PTI plum pudding card stock and ink
Gina K ivory card stock

Okay, I should clarify. We did vote on 'best card.' This was not the winner, but it is MY favorite and considering I taught several in the group how to make those ribbon flowers AND their own homemade glue dots I'd say this card definitely taught some of the group a new trick or two! And it's my favorite card. So there. :)

I made some with a different (non-Unity sentiment); this card showcases a much better ribbon flower. The above one I was clearly hyped on too much Diet Coke!

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

Drunken Stampers challenge 132 - Monty Python

Hello! Saturday has rolled around once again and I'm super excited for today... not only is it the new Drunken Stampers challenge, it's shoebox swap day! I'm headed to a local shoebox (card) swap where we'll make and take cards and eat some REALLY yummy food. I should know, I made my famous lemon dream cake for dessert. (Okay, it's not famous. But family requests it at least twice a year, which I think gives it total edge.) :)

The Drunken Stampers theme this week is Monty Python. Yeah... never seen it. All I know is they told me rabbits. I got those! They're even in my yard getting - as my seven year old says - "a free lunch" from our small container garden. Yeah. Not anymore, bunnies! I raised the containters and they better find a free lunch elsewhere! My children suggested catching them in cages so we could have bunny pets. Um, no.

I love how this My Favorite Things stamp set includes little sentiments that fit right in the heart. SO CUTE.

My Favorite Things stamps
Basic Grey paper
Gina K and Papertrey Ink cardstock
Nesties ovals/scalloped ovals
ribbon from stash

Thanks for visiting me today! Hop (haha, get it?) back to the Drunken Stampers blog to upload your own rabbitty creation and see all of the other inspiration projects!!

Jen

OWH MWT/Jen & Sarah's challenge, end of the month recap

Happy Good Friday, everyone!

I hope you are well and planning for a great weekend. This is my last post as we are headed out - very early - tomorrow morning to Orlando! If you are so inclined, please say a quick prayer that we all arrive in good spirits with all of our luggage. Because you never know how that will go! The girls are SO excited to meet their favorite princesses. :) Major kudos and thanks to my good friend Sara, who lent us her daughter's Ariel costume for the trip. :)

It's the end of the month and so it's blogger buddy challenge time with my good bloggy friend, Sarah! It's my challenge but since we are so crazed trying to get everything ready, I gave us an 'anything goes' challenge. Turns out my card also works for the OWH mid-week throwdown challenge to use stripes! Go figure. Be sure to hop over to Sarah's blog to see what she created as well.

Hero Arts/OWH stamp sentiment
the very end of this Basic Grey pad - do not remember the name
Gina K dark chocolate card stock

March - 8!

And as usual, here is my end of the month recap for ATG rolls. I know, it's silly, but I kind of like keeping track - I'm such a nerd! LOL  Not too bad - my daughter's school agreed to make some Operation Write Home cards this month, so this would be much higher had I been the ones assembling all of those pieces! I love that the teachers are enthused about supporting our troops and the kids are learning more about serving others. :)

Happy Easter!

Jen

OWH sketch 164 - happiness is

Hello and happy Sunday!

The sun is shining here in Wisconsin but they're forecasting more SNOW tomorrow. "Just a few inches" has translated into about 3" or so, they say. Good grief is what I say! I'm so tired of the cold. 

Today is sketch day at Operation Write Home and I really like this one! This is sketch 164 and here is my card:

MME Away We Go papers, PTI card stock
Basic Grey chipboard car
Unity Stamp Co sentiment
Momento Ink in potter's clay

I've been wanting to use that little chipboard car forever. I initially thought I had too many patterns going on in this card (the road background, the arrows, the cars) but I think it works. What do you think?

Thanks for visiting me today! :)

Jen

OWH ODBD scallop challenge; Feb recap

Hello! It's the first Saturday of the month and that means the Our Daily Bread Challenge for OWH! For every 25 cards linked; ODBD will cover the cost of mailing a box overseas (limit of 2 boxes). 

The challenge this month is to use scallops on a card. The mother's day deadline is quickly approaching, so I've been making 'mom' cards. (Truth - I very rarely make ANY 'happy x day' cards; I make generic ones so they can be used longer.)

Basic Grey Eva paper; Gina K card stock
Ali Edwards for TT sentiment, Worn Lipstick ink and edge punch

And a quick February recap. I've started a silly goal of saving my ATG rolls to see how many I use in a month:

Only 6! January was 10.

I only made these two lonely Christmas cards (and I made them on Thursday, LOL!) but I made kits to make another nine or so. I just need to assemble them.

Authentique scraps, Hero Arts sentiment

Thank you for visiting me today. Come back tomorrow; there's more awesomeness in store and a melt-your-heart and make-you-cry ministry to learn about.

Jen

Sarah & Jen's February challenge - fun fold kid card

Hello and welcome to our final blogger buddy challenge for February. This one is mine and I challenged us to make a fun fold card for a kid!

I recently discovered the "joy fold" card and I think it's super fun! I made two of these, one for a boy and one for a girl, but I forgot to take a picture of the boy one before I gave it to the intended recipient. Sorry about that; I was in a hurry! :)

Here is the girl card:

My Mind's Eye Lime Twist happy go luck dp
Bazzill strawberry splash card stock
Paper Smooches sentiment
Basic Grey butterfly, random flat pearl from stash
CTMH ink, gold pen

And kind of open:

And here it is flat (still okay for Operation Write Home!):

Thanks for visiting me today! Be sure to hop back to Sarah's blog to see what she made! She's super talented. :)

Jen

OWH sketch 157, the Paper Players sketch 130

Hello there on this snowy Sunday! We got sleet, some tiny hail, and lots of snow today. I'm headed out to shovel in just a sec; I put my girls to bed a few minutes ago and my oldest asked yet again if tomorrow will be a snow day. I don't think so, but you just never know! :)

Today is sketch day, both at Operation Write Home and the Paper Players. First up sketch 157 from The Stars and Stamps blog:

Basic Grey Hopscotch papers
Ocean Tides (PTI) and Dark Chocolate (Gina K) cardstock
unknown stamp set; glossy accents, foam tape
Divine Swirl embossing folder, Nesties labels 18

And then a new challenge for me, over at the Paper Players blog. I think I will become a regular there, I like their challenges a lot!! :) This is sketch 130:

Cosmo Cricket material girl papers
Gina K dark chocolate cardstock
Stamp: Unity Stamp Co
Sizzix button die, Twinery twine, We R sew stamper

That's all for me - gotta go shovel. :) See you later this week and thanks so much for visiting me today!

Jen

OWH sketch 156 - miss your face

Hi there!

I am kind of bummed today. I was just rejected from my first design team application. I know, I know, only a few get chosen. I'm going to try again, though! Onward and upward! :)

Anyhow, it's sketch day over at Operation Write Home. It's FRIGID here, so my eldest had her swimming lesson at the Y and then we came home and unpacked from the lake and Mommy made cards. :) This is sketch 156.

First I made this one.

Basic Grey Kioshi dp
Unity Stamp co "classic beauty" itty bitty
Unity Stamp co sentiment
Pearls from stash

I wasn't super excited about it (and I swear it's not crooked. I must've set it into the frog crooked!) So then I made this one:

Cosmo Cricket material girl dp
Unity Stamp Co KOM dress stamp and sentiment

And that one feels like it's missing something, too. I'm going to try again later! Thanks for looking, peeps!

(Don't forget the stuff for sale page up there ^^^, I added MORE stuff and free shipping for 2+ items to my OWH friends.) :)

Jen

Unity's FWF 1/4/13 - happy thoughts

Hey there! I wasn't sure I'd have time to link up to Unity's Friends with Flair today... it was a busy, busy day - but now the kids are with Grandma & Grandpa and the hubs and I are about to head out for date night. :)  Just enough time to make a card! 

I always try to beef up my 'general card stash' at the beginning of the year with several thank yous, birthday cards, and a couple of blank ones. I went to grab birthday cards yesterday and realized I only had ONE made. OOPS. So here's a pretty simple one, and the sentiment is vague enough that you could easily use it for something else as well. :) 

Basic Grey - Eva; Gina K cardstock
Unity's Feel the Joy and unk sentiment
pearls from stash, TH inks in victorian velvet, walnut stain, antique linen

On a related note, my husband bought me Unity for Christmas!! He checked all of my Facebook comments and then my stash (yay for organization, right??) and then bought some things he thought I'd like. I got all new-to-me stuff and he did a great job - AND he complimented Unity on their selection!! :)

Have a great weekend!

Jen

OWH MWT - flowers

Hey there! Can you believe tomorrow is Thursday already? I admit I'm glad; I had been sleeping in later than usual during my daughter's Christmas vacation and this morning's wake up was rather brutal. :o

Today's Operation Write Home challenge is to make a card with flowers. It's time to make spring cards already, given the time it takes for cards to be mailed overseas and then back here to family and friends. I will also admit that sometimes it's hard to project my mindset forward that far... I can play holiday music in the fall to inspire me but the winter wonderland and arctic winds outside my window don't exact scream, "spring!!"

One of my new-to-me and cheap Tim Holtz finds came in very handy on this card, which is also sketch 138:

Basic Grey Eva dp; Gina K cardstock (dark chocolate)
Unity stamp co "feel the joy" (flower) and random sentiment stamp
Tim Holtz victorian velvet and antique linen inks
random pearls from stash

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry! :( The sentiment reads "love you love you love you always". Thanks for visiting me today! :) Remember, my friend Sarah and I are teaming up to challenge each other in our crafting for 2013. We'll announce our first challenge soon!

Jen

Unity FWF 11/23 -time to gather the peeps

Hey there! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving yesterday. I finished my race and I'm glad - it was really fun! My husband and daughters came to cheer me on at the finish line. :) Here's my munchkins and I after the race:

Now I can go buy crafting stuff. :) Woot!!!!

 

Anyhow, yes, you came here for a card. Here it is; when I first got this sentiment I thought of it for Christmas. So there.

(Details: Basic Grey Jovial dp; Unity stamp co sentiment; Gina K cardstock, Tim holtz inks.)

 

Thanks for visting me today!

 

Jen

OWH MWT - thanks for being my friend

Happy Wednesday! It's one of those 'prop your eyelids open with toothpicks' days over here. My youngest was awake and ready for the day well before it was actually morning. YAWN. I ran the race route again yesterday - 5 miles - so I could've really used the sleep! 

Today's OWH challenge is to make friend cards. I took some cards I had been cutting pieces for and added sentiments.

The chipboard embellishments are some extras from a couple of Basic Grey card kits I have. :) Top sentiments are 2 different Unity stamps; the bottom is from Lizzie Anne Designs. All dsp is Stampin Up; cardstock is Gina K. 

Thanks for visiting me today!!

Jen

OWH funky fold tree tutorial, sketch 140

The new tutorial over at Operation Write Home for a funky fold tree today looked really easy, and quick - so I gave it a go! Luckily for me it was pretty easy and quick, and I multitasked by using this weeks' sketch 140 as well. :)

Lawn Fawn Let it Snow stamp set
BG Jovial papers
brown marker for stitching; pearl gem
Tim holtz inks: antique linen, walnut stain

This was the second card I made - like it even better! LOL :)

I turned the sketch on it's side and used a small ribbon scrap for the trunk, and a pearl gem for the tree topper. I didn't have a gold or silver pen so I just used a dark brown marker to make some dashed lines; with the paper I think it works well rather than something flashy. I also don't have any fancy scissors, so I just cut a circle. 

Lest you think I followed any of the instructions, I also made a smaller tree than the tutorial suggested. My largest die cut was just under 4", so I used that. I actually like it quite well, though I love the way the larger tree filled the tutorial card. I may have to dig for a protractor!

It's hard to see, but I used the small snowflakes from the Lawn Fawn Let it Snow set to stamp on the off white BG paper. I used antique linen ink; they are faint but just add a little extra.

Thanks for looking!

Jen

OWH sketch 139; birthday bash pic!

Sunday has come around again! Last night the kids wanted us to camp out with them on the living room floor. Guess what? I am too old for that. :)

Yesterday I hosted an Operation Write Home birthday bash party to make cards for OWH in honor of their 501(c)(3) status birthday this month. We had a small group but made about 85 cards. I know not everyone is on the Facebook page for OWH, so check it:

On the agenda today is making sure the box is packed and ready to ship to Kris. I've been adhering fronts to bases, stamping backs, and tucking on and off all day. Hopefully I can finish it all up tonight!

And since today is sketch day, and yesterday there was a Stamper's Best challenge for holiday OR love cards, I thought I'd multitask a bit. :)

This is sketch 139:

Sentiment: Lawn Fawn; DP: MME

 I wasn't thrilled with the holiday card so I grabbed this gingham, which made me think cowboys and the sentiment just hit home with me (sorry, couldn't resist!)!  :)

Sentiment: Unity/Jillibean Soup dutch mustard soup set; really reasonable ribbon for the burlap ribbon; SU for other ribbon, distress inks and marker for faux stitching.

And here's a bonus card, just for fun. I used up this scrap of Basic Grey dp to make this card with a fun Unity sentiment:

Thanks for visiting me today!!

Jen

OWH Sketch 138, MWT red & green; scrap fest review!

Yes, I know you are thinking it - it is going to be a long post. Just scroll and look at the pics if you are in a hurry! :)

Scrapfest 2012 was at the Mall of America this past weekend. A friend and I went and had SO MUCH FUN. Oh my gosh. We did make & takes and we took 4 classes. I met Jill of Jillibean Soup at one of my classes (that was taught by Kimber McGray!) and told her how much I love Jillibean Soup. And we met Kelly Marie Alvarez of Lawn Fawn, who is just the sweetest person ever.  My favorite quote of the weekend was from her - "there's no wrong to crafting. Any mistake is just an excuse to embellish." LOVE IT!!

SO MUCH FUN. We are already planning for next year! And I am so behind on challenges, so... I combined some. And then I dug through some of my stuff from Scrapfest, and thought I'd at least share the stuff that fits the OWH MWT challenge to use red & green. :)

So this is sketch 138 from Sunday, also using red & green:

Paper Smooches swanky snowdudes, MME paper

Basic Grey Jovial line stamps and dp

And then here are some Scrapfest things. These are from an Authentique class, in which I panicked because they gave us 12x12 sheets and I had a 6" trimmer! Luckily my friend had a bigger one, or I would've been the dork who sat and watched.

Here are a couple from TPC Studios:

And a super cute Lawn Fawn shaker card. This is going to be an awesome project for my kids this holiday season!

In other news, we have the heat on. YES, it's September. It's COLD. BRRR!

Thanks for visiting me today!!

Jen

OWH sketch 130

Monday, Monday... this morning has been one of *those* kind. My 6 year old is sassier than sass today... on the upside, she did pretty much all of my morning chores to make up for her attitude. Maybe we need an OWH t-shirt with a "let the kids do the chores" slogan. LOL 


I saw yesterday's sketch from the good folks over at Operation Write Home and liked it, but had no energy until today (and the free time from said 6 year old's doing my work). So I made two, and I didn't follow the sketch totally but I think it works. Artistic freedoms, right??

The papers are all by My Mind's Eye. The strawberry embellishment is from a Basic Grey kit and I thought the sentiment on that one made it work. 


Thanks for visiting me today!


Jen

OWH MWT - color challenge

Okay, so today is a day when I didn't have to 'think cool,' it actually WAS cooler (my kids went outside this morning and came in and asked for sweaters. Haven't heard that in a while!). Still, I went with some winter cards today. :)

The mid-week throwdown over at the Stars & Stamps blog is a complimentary color challenge, so I tried to focus on the red and green. Oh, quick story first! I found this Basic Grey Jovial line last year and LOVED this snowman paper, and then during the Memorial Day OWH bloghop this year Basic Grey had those card kits for $5, right? Which I just had to have, and I happened to click over to their stamps and found THESE Jovial line stamps on sale for $4. Which just meant they needed to come to my house, so they did. And how FUN! It's like paper doll dress up with stamps. :)

Thanks for visiting me today! :)

Jen

Ippity Chicks sketch 28; OWH MWT

Happy Wednesday! It's been hectic and I haven't blogged much lately, but I'm back with a quick card for both the current Ippity Chicks challenge sketch and the Operation Write Home MWT challenge, which is flowers. :)


It's been that kind of a week! :(

Ippity's All Things are Possible set - I broke apart the sentiment :)
Basic Grey Hopscotch paper, Really Reasonable Twill ribbon


Thanks for looking! :)


Jen

Unity's FWF 3/2/12 - motherhood's a VERB

Happy Friday, everyone! I am featured cardmaker today over at the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog, if you want to check it out. OWH sends blank, handmade cards to our servicemen and women overseas so that they can write home to their loved ones. If you aren't familiar with them, please go check them out here.

I was working on Mother's Day cards for OWH (because of the delay in shipping overseas, deadlines come early!) and I decided to make a mother's day card for my sis. I'll be sending her a box, so that big fluffy bow is perfectly ok. :)

I love this stamp from Unity! It came in the mail yesterday and I inked it up right after I got home. DH and I took a quick trip to the Mall of America yesterday - he's no longer wearing rags, thank you very much - and I got to go to Archivers. I stayed under budget - so far under, in fact, DH asked if I was ok. LOL!! it was fun to browse, I've never seen Unity on a shelf before!

Thanks for visiting me today. Be sure to go back to the Unity blog to see all of the other projects and comment to win free stamps!!

Jen

OWH sketch 110 - filled with love

So, fellow cardmakers, I have a dilemma. This week my husband and I are planning a quick day trip to the Mall of America (DH insists his clothes are falling apart. FINE, make me shop.). :) There's a huge Archivers there, and as many times as I've been to the MOA, I've never been in Archivers.

So, dilemma is not whether to go inside. Oh, I will. How much do I allow myself to spend, is the question? I am planning to mail my OWH box for my deadline 5 days early, which I think means I can allow this small trip, as long as I plan accordingly. :)

So, while I go to google Archivers coupons (are there some? someone tell me!!), here's my card for the new sketch over at the Stars & Stamps blog:

paper: Basic Grey's indie bloom, Unity Stamp co stamps, RRR jute ribbon and a whole lotta distress ink!

Did you notice my new holiday challenge ------> ? PLEASE join me in making cards each month that are holiday/winter themed for OWH! Each year the Christmas deadline sneaks up on me in the fall and I am woefully unprepared. Set your own goal - mine is 5 each month - and then we'll have something to mail to our shippers, even if that pesky deadline sneaks up again. :)

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen