More is More

So, you may recall that almost 2 weeks ago I had a horrible case of food poisoning.  I was half way through making a card for the April DDA Challenge – which I was hosting and which was due 2 days later – when the nausea hit me hard and I could no longer concentrate on what I was doing.  I had been so excited to work on a card incorporating favorites and was so bummed out to leave it sitting there half done.

But then when I was feeling better, I just couldn’t seem to get back to that card.  It has been sitting on my stamp table, just begging to be finished for almost 2 weeks now.  Finally  yesterday and sat down and gave it a few simple finishing touches.

The challenge was to make a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day card incorporating current favorites and as well as long time favorites (techniques, or color combo or stamps or whatever favorites you wanted to showcase.)  This card displays lots of my favorites:

**current favorite cardstock color – Kiwi Kiss – I can hardly make a card without using it

**current favorite dp – Bella Rose – right up my alley.

**long time favorite – *Fall Back on Black* – use black for matting to make images pop!

**long time favorite – roses – always love rose images.  Here I used the SU hostess set Echoes of Kindness. Sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Fresh Flowers.

**long time favorite technique – watercoloring.  I so often use Copic markers now, so it was fun to stamp on watercolor paper and use ink and an aquapainter again.

**long time favorite – sparkle – for a little understated sparkle I used a Spica glitter pen on the flowers.  Unfortunately it doesn’t show up much in the photo.

**long time favorite – sketch challenges.  This was Lori’s sketch challenge WSC77 and Lori is one of my favorite people so that also worked into the challenge.  *grin*  I have always loved stamping with sketch challenges and color challenges and feel they have done more to stretch and improve my stamping over the years than anything else I have done.

So there you have it.  Finished at last!  You can see the other, more timely, entries for this challenge by clicking here.  Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you are having a great day!

-Jami

Phew!  I thought maybe my mojo had taken an extended trip and I was getting worried it was lost entirely.  It was such a relief to play with the SCS Sketch Challenge this morning and actually have some fun stamping!   The colors of this card are sooooo not me, but I wanted to play with my SU Rub-ons Bright Delight so that’s where the color scheme of So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss and Tangerine Tango came from.

The designer paper is from the SU Walk in the Park pack from the Ocassions Mini.  The owl is a rub -on on Saffron cardstock and punched with the scallop circle punch, then sponged with some Kiwi ink and embellished with Lime Green Stickles.  That was layered over a big Prima flower that was sponged with Tangerine ink.  The branch and flowers are from Cheep Talk, as is the pear which is cut out and popped up on foam tape and then covered with Crystal Effects.  The sentiment in the lower right corner is also a rub-on.  The rhinestones top and bottom are K & Co. and on the flowers are Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles.  The Kiwi panel was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder for a little texture.

I have another card on my table half done and I designed one of the cards for my class next week.  WooHoo – I’m back!  Now let’s hope I can keep this roll going!  Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Hump Day!

-Jami

I’m really sorry I missed the TECC this morning.  It seems like so much has happened since I posted last Friday.  Saturday my day started out great, but got ugly in the late afternoon/early evening when I began to exhibit symptoms of food poisoning or stomach flu.  It turned into one of the worst nights ever.  I won’t go into the sordid details, but I just have to say how thankful I am to have a loving husband who takes such good care of me when I’m sick.  I don’t know what I would have done without him!

I was better by Monday, but just completely wiped out.  Monday was the monthly DDA Challenge and I was the hostess.  I had a card half done when I got sick on Saturday and I was so sad not to have it completed for the challenge.  It’s still sitting half done and I still plan to finish and post it at some point.  As I began to feel better, I needed to focus on the Saints Alive Dinner at church this week.  It was last night and I was the event coordinator – my first time in charge of an event since we started attending this church.  This is a twice a year ministry for the senior members and I was really excited about it, but I was also very behind from being sick.  Tuesday night one of the gals who was working on the dinner with me, Veronica,  was coming over to help make favors.  I also called on my Club and two of them (Thanks Barbara and Carol!) came over and helped make quick work of the 50 favors.  Veronica had baked cookies and bought cello bags to put them in.  We stamped 2 different Bible verses from a retired SU set and punched them with the scallop oval punch.  We ran Glorious Green cardstock through my CB with the Top Note die and wheeled it with a jumbo wheel to form the topper.  This was an Italian dinner and our color scheme was red and white with a touch of green (based on the Italian flag.)  The favors were set in the middle of the place setting.  You can click on the photo below to see a full table setting.

On Wednesday afternoon several of us met at church to do some of the food prep.  My wonderful friend Darla was in charge of the food for 60 people and she had never done anything quite that big before.  She’s a great cook and I knew she could do it, but this was new territory for most of us.  Thankfully my friend Lori has lots of experience in this area and she had given us a recipe she uses often for a pasta bake.  So our menu consisted of salad, pasta bake, garlic bread and lemon cake.  Everything was super yummy!

 Here is a photo of the centerpeices.  Such a simple idea and it looked so cool.  It was just 3 different sized/shaped glass bottles filled with roses from clearance bin at the supermarket (what an awesome find!) and some tealights.  We had a little game going throughout the evening and the winner at each table got to take home the centerpiece.

I had worked with an initial team of 6 women to plan this event and each person took charge of an area (Darla and Stephanie on food, Denise doing table decor, Veronica the favors and Lisa handled ticket sales and the youth), then we also had 5 more women join us last night to help with execution.  Plus we had a dozen of the youth come to serve the tables.  It was such a blessing to be involved with such a wonderful team of volunteers and to see how well thinsg work when everyone is using their gifts.  Not only were we able to be a blessing to the seniors, but we were so blessed by the building of relationships and the joy of accomplishment.  And those of you who know me or have ever seen me at a StampMania know that I am never happier than when I’m running an event and managing a team!  🙂

LOL!  The girls told me I had to take a picture of my Tasks Poster.  I had a big poster in the kitchen listing all of the tasks we needed to accomplish and the order they needed to be done in.  We checked things off as they got done.  Of course I also had a typed up time line to use as a guide.  I was actually shocked at how close we came to it in the end. 

On Wednesday evening I had the idea that I would really like to have a little thank you gift to give each of the ladies on the volunteer team.  At that point there was only time to work with stuff I had on hand so I searched through my alterables and found a bunch of little note pads that I knew I could fix up quickly – see hoarding can pay off!  *wink*  I simply cut and scored some covers out of cardstock and added some dp and stamped images punched with my Marvy scallop punches.

Oh and I also found a package of mini gel pens so I incorporated those as well.  It was really fun to have a little token of appreciation to give each lady.  I just wish I would think of things like that sooner.  I am mean, I am a stamper afterall… why do I always think of stamped stuff at the last minute?  LOL!

 I took my camera to the event to take people pictures, but once I got the table photos beforehand we got so busy that I never got back to taking any more.  I really need to have someone in charge of photography!

Just when I thought I would have a day to catch up on bills, groceries, laundry and errands my sweet sweet hubby e-mailed to say that he could get off work early so we could use our Disney passes this afternoon.  So off we went.  All those chores (and hopefully not any late fees) will still be there tomorrow!

 So now you’re caught up on my week.  I hope you are well and having a fantastic weekend!

-Jami

Happy Friday! Lots to do today, but first on my agenda is the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge (TECC64).  If you’ve never played along with us, you really must give it a shot.  It’s a sketch challenge and in spite of the name, cupcakes are NOT required!  It’s a ton of fun and I know you’ll like this week’s sketch.  You can hop over to Taylor’s blog to get all the deets to play along.

My card this week features a super fun Whipper Snapper image “Birthday Chicken”.  Doesn’t he look excited about that yummy pink cupcake?  LOL!  I paired him with one of my all-time favorite lines of dp  – the 6×6 Salsa pad by Junkitz (too bad they aren’t around anymore!)  This is such a bright party-like color palette!  I used SU Summer Sun and Taken with Teal with layering.  The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Branching Out.  The chicken was stamped onto SU watercolor paper with black craft ink and heat embossed with Hologram Highlights ep.  This is one of my favorite tricks to use with watercoloring,  It makes the image sparkly and softens the look of the black outline.  It also makes watercoloring much easier as the embossed lines prevent the ink from running into areas where you don’t want it.  This is a great method for beginners especially.  I used ink from my SU markers scribbled onto a CD and picked up with an aquapainter.

I just had to use one of my new EK Success border punches – see it on the Teal layer under the yellow dp strip?  The whole image panel is popped up on foam tape, so although it’s hard to see in the picture, the little cupcake banner is raised off the surface of the card.

Now it’s time to see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up this week:

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

-Jami

I held a second Stampin’ Up! Class this month and it was yesterday afternoon.  We made the two cards I already shared below from my Friday night class, plus this card.

I used Taylor’s Friday sketch (TECC63) for the layout of this card.  It was perfect to showcase this beautiful sentiment from God’s Blessings.  The girls could also choose the wedding sentiment from the same set if they prefered.  The vine image is from Fresh Cuts.  The large fabric flower from the Pretties Kit was cut in half and we colored them with a sponge dauber and two colors of Stampin’ Pastels (Regal Rose and Rose Red.)  Card base is Regal Rose and the dp is Raspberry Tart.  We added Kiwi Satin ribbon (my very favorite ribbon!) and a pink square rhinestone brad.  The sentiment panel is layered onto Kiwi Kiss and Rose Red cardstock and is popped up on dimensionals.

I haven’t had a chance to blog all week, so I wanted to share a photo of Curt and I on Easter – especially since I had told you all about my sort-of-free dress and hat in this post.  Easter was such a lovely day.  We attended morning service at our church and Pastor Jeff delivered a very powerful message.  (You can download the message Christ the Risen Lord of the Church by clicking here.)Then we had family over for a lunch and managed to squeeze in a little nap before heading back to church for a Fish Taco Dinner (because you know Jesus ate fish – could’ve been fish tacos – to show the disciples he was real after His resurrection!)

As you can see, my dress is mostly white and if you’ve ever met me in person you know that I am very fair skinned.  I’ve been wanting to try a Mystic Tan for awhile and I don’t know if it was this dress or watching Danincing With the Stars that pushed me over the edge, but I decided to go for it before Easter.  I went on an internet search and found this Hollywood Tans just a few miles from my house.  Oh my!  What an experience!  Of course all I could think of was that episode of Friends where Ross just keeps getting sprayed over and over again on the front!  You are in a small shower-sized metal booth, where a female voice tells you where to place your feet on 4 numbered foot pads and then counts down a warning for the spraying to start.  You get sprayed all the way up your body 4 times, turning a quarter turn in between each spray.  That part was fine.  The hard part was holding my breath during the spraying.  Normally I could hold my breath just fine, but the minute I knew I had to I began to panic and feel claustrophobic.  At one point I think I snorted in just as the spray was nearing my face. D’oh!  And in between sprays the small booth is still filled with the mist, so you really don’t want to breathe too much.  I was so freaked out that I had to actually open to shower door for a moment to stick my head out and gasp for air as the voice is counting “Spray will begin in 3…2…1” QUICK CLOSE THE DOOR!  LOL!  What a dork!

As soon as it was over I thought “well, I’m never doing that again!”, however I was honestly so happy with the results that I have been rethinking that.  It really turned out great – darker than I expected, very even and a good natural color and has lasted well.  So we’ll see if vanity takes over for me to try it again.  They really need a booth that only goes up to your neck and leaves your head out to breath!

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be back tomorrow for Cupcake Friday.

-Jami

I can’t believe I haven’t stamped since last weekend!  I’ve been focusing the time I’ve had in my stamp room on some organizing projects and haven’t wanted to stop mid-stream to stamp.  Thank goodness for Taylor’s Friday challenge to make me snap out of it and create something!  I had started coloring this little downtown cuppie scene last weekend and was excited to see that I could make it work for the sketch if I would just make a large card.  So my card is the same size as the last one I posted – 5.25″ x 7.5″.

I used both of the newest Taylored Expressions stamp sets – Fresh Flowers (the table) and Downtown Diva (the shops and the cuppies) to build this little scene with a minimal amount of masking.  I colored the scene with Copics, using my colorless blender to create the cobblestone street.  The two cuppie’s liners are paper pieced with dp to match the rest of the card.  The dp is from a retired SU pack and I don’t remember the name of it.  I colored the table with a copper gel pen and also used it to outline around the image panel onto the choclate chip panel.  There was so much going on with the scene that I didn’t add much in the way of embellishment – some SU jumbo brads, vanilla taffeta ribbon and a few Tiny Twinkles.

So now the question is…are these two cupcakes out on the town for lunch and a day of shopping or are they the sweet treats for you and me to eat?  Hmmmmmm…..

To get all the info to play along with us, you’ll want to check out Taylor’s blog for all the deets.  And now it’s time to check out what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up for us. 

And this week’s Featured Stamper is Joan Ervin at Stamping with a Passion.

I hope you have a blessed Easter weekend.  We are looking forward to Good Friday service tonight as well my favorite service of the year on Easter Sunday morning.  HE IS RISEN!

It’s Release Day at Taylored Expressions and boy-oh-boy is there ever a lot of new stuff to check out!  I’m very excited about the two new stamp sets this month and I have a card to share featuring one of them – Fresh Flowers.  No doubt you’ve seen the sneak peeks shared by the Baker’s Dozen on Friday.  They really blew me away.  There are just so many possibilities with this set.  I have to say that working on this card was just one of those happy stamping times where I wasn’t quite sure where I was headed.

I started with the Easter Key Ingredients from TE (which I understand are now in final quantities).  This is probably my favorite KI to date – the colors are just so *me*.  I decided to build a window scene with flowers in the window box.  Once I really got going, my focal image was so large that I decided to make a larger-than-standard card.  I rumaged through my envelope bin and pulled out a nice big envie and then sized my Chocolate Chip card base at 5.25″ x 7.5″ to fit.

It was fun to play with this different card size.  It was also fun to play with lots of different *toys*.  The image was colored with Copic markers.  After coloring the window panes with a soft yellow to give the feeling of warm light inside, I covered the panes with Moonlight Smooch – a cool pearly look.  The flower box was cut out and popped up on foam tape and then I added a bunch of little extras – Sweet Pea Flower Soft, TE Raspberry Soda Glitter, Lime Green Stickles, Stardust Stickles, and Orange Stickles.  I love the scallop border edge on this dp from the KI, so I was excited to find a way to use a large portion of it.  I cut up the crystal flourish and used part of it at the top corner of the card and part at the bottom.  The stretchy pink accordion ribbon is another fun addition and also from TE.

 ETA:  I almost forgot to share this photo of the inside of the card – oops.  Sentiment is a random stamp I’ve had forever.  Flowers at the bottom are from Fresh Flowers.

It’s fun to just sit and play and see where it takes you.  Be sure to check out all the TE news today.  Taylor has a ton of info on her blog and I’d suggest you check that out and then hop over to the store.  Also the Baker’s Dozen will all have more fabulous projects to share today and Taylor will have links for you to all of them.

Taylor’s blog  – click here.

Taylored Expressions The Store – click here.

Taylor’s stamp sets are high quality, deeply etched pink rubber already die cut and on EZ-Mount foam – ready to just slap on an acrylic block and get to stamping.  If you haven’t purchased any of her sets yet, I’m not sure how you’ll be able to resist this month…but then again I’m not sure how you could have resisted last month either.  *GRIN*

I hope you have a beautiful, blessed Sunday.  We are off to church to celebrate Palm Sunday.  And in the evening service Curt will sing in the choir for the Easter musical.  It promises to be a lovely day!  Thanks for stopping by!

-Jami