Sparkle & Glitter!! Napkin Cards

December 4, 2014December 3, 2014 / Jodi / 30 Comments

I went a little nuts last night with glitter and napkins!

When I first started seeing these glitter napkin cards, I poo-poo’d them thinking cards made of napkins take no talent, no effort, no creativity……

Then I went to a class where we made one recently. I almost didn’t go, because I didn’t want to make cards from napkins – being a bit of a snob about it I must admit…..

Well – now I am eating my words, because I had so much fun making these cards! It’s okay if something is a little easier, a little less creative sometimes….

as long as you enjoy it… and I’m actually kind of excited with how these turned out! All made from paper napkins!

I am excited to share this simple, but beautiful technique, because I think many of you might enjoy trying this method to making homemade cards that doesn’t require a lot of equipment and materials. And if you like do a “production-line” style of getting a bunch of the same thing done at once, one pack a napkins can make a ton of beautiful cards. In fact, each individual napkin makes four cards!

Besides some card stock and some pretty napkins you can get at the dollar store or craft store or wherever you might find paper products, the only other things you need are a VersaMark stamp pad, some type of adhesive tape, Heat & Stick Powder, and glitter (I used Stampin Up’s “Dazzling Diamonds” Dahling) :).

There is a great video tutorial on Youtube done by a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator from Canada, Tina Weller that you may want to watch if you are interested in learning how to do this:

Tina talks about using a specific type of Stampin’ Up adhesive sheets, but I just used double faced tape and/or the glue tape runner you can find at any craft or drug or variety stores and completely covered some white card stock with it to adhere the napkin.

I made all of these cards last night, and I pretty much love all of them! 🙂

If you haven’t bought, made, sent your holiday greeting cards, you may just want to try this fun and easy technique.

And if you are interested in purchasing any Stampin’Up products, just let me know, and I can hook you up. 🙂

And I think I am going to enter the snowman/snowflake card as another entry into The Paper Players PP224 Tic Tac Toe Challenge for White, Snowflake, & Glitter.

Have a sparkly, glitterly, dazzling day!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Green Acres & Christmas Cards

December 2, 2014December 1, 2014 / Jodi / 21 Comments

So it’s getting down to crunch time on Christmas cards, and one or two cards a week is probably not going to cut it at this point… (… but if that’s all I get to – that’s okay too! Too much pressure takes the fun out of it – right?!)

I did get around to making two last night. They are two completely different cards – which is the joy of hand creating cards to me. I rarely (if ever) make the same card twice. The fun is in the creating for me. And even more fun is individualizing them for the recipient.

The first one is a more elegant card with white glittery, silver, sparkly, shiny snowflakes in clean and simple simplicity.

I made it to enter into two challenges. It meets the requirements for 3 in a row down at The Paper Players PP224 Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge this week for white, snowflake, and glitter. It also meets the Friday Mashup FM187 It’s All About Weather criteria for using a metal embellishment (SU Frosted Finishes embellisment) and having a weather inspiration (snowflakes from SU Festive Flurry).

I just love this “Mingle all the Way” stamp sentiment and was dying to use it, so I came up with this simple, rustic, country design in brown craft and red with a big red bow. I distressed and sponged all the edges and added just a few tiny pearls for a little pop.

I used the SU Holiday Home stamp for the inside to continue the rustic classic theme on the inside.

holiday home inside card

So welcome into my mind….

this is the wacky way it works sometimes…

As I looked at these two completely different cards, all I could think about was the old classic television show from the late sixties when I was a wee-one, called “Green Acres.”

Anybody remember? (Take a moment to listen and travel down memory lane...)

So the first card is for Eva and the second is for Eddy.

Which is more your style? Are you an Eva or an Eddy?

Though I am FAR from a farm girl, country life is more to my liking – with visits to the city.

Green Acres is the place to be…

I dare you to try and get this song out of your head now! (No thank yous necessary) 🙂

So whether your holiday is in the “fresh air” or in “Times Square,” make it merry and bright!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Welcome

November 29, 2014November 29, 2014 / Jodi / 2 Comments

I’ve been blogging a little over six months now here at lifeinbetween.me, and I can’t believe how much I am enjoying it and how much I am learning…

about blogging, writing, technology, but most of all about MYSELF!

I thought it high time I build a Welcome (Home) Page for those that may visit and wonder what this is all about here.

It was fun pulling photos and linking them with the posts that I thought summed up my blog and my lifeinbetween.

Check it out HERE, and let me know if you think I hit the highlights or if I missed something important or should do something different. I did it very late at night and kept falling asleep in the middle of working on it! 🙂

I would LOVE your feedback, comments, questions, whatever you’d like to say or share – as I grow on this journey of blogging and the never-ending journey of self-discovery.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Thanksgiving Reflections

November 28, 2014November 28, 2014 / Jodi / 14 Comments

I hope everyone that celebrated yesterday had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
(It still blows my mind that people read my blog from all over the world, so there are places that don’t celebrate this American holiday!)

Today is a day of relaxing and reflecting for me – on an amazing day spent with this crazy coop of turkeys that I so adore!

My crafty and stampin’ friends might appreciate the table setting complete with hand-stamped fall wreath place settings :).

But… as much as I love to dress up the table, decorate, and prepare creative dishes, I have to say – Thanksgiving is no time for breaking tradition!

No messin’ with the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, canned jellied cranberry sauce (though Jill did cut them into adorable little stars that made them taste even better!), Pillsbury crescent rolls (or Nick would be seriously upset), pumpkin and apple pie.

A couple veggies took on a little twist this year – like my new favorite Roasted Butternut Squash with Rosemary, and the amazing Brussells Sprouts with Chorizo and Almonds that Joyce and Rob brought (still need to get that recipe!), but I did get in a bit of trouble with Marty (and only Marty!) for not making that disgusting green bean casserole with (GAG!) cream of mushroom soup…

We toasted family and friends, and of course Oh Rob had a story for us!

It just wouldn’t be the same if he didn’t! (Love you Oh Rob!) 🙂

and homemade Reflection Wine – for in wine there is life.

Colleen made this cute cheesey turkey – complete with brussells sprouts eyes straight from Jake’s garden, which was devoured immediately.

I also made this super easy, but TO DIE FOR appetizer: Bacon Wrapped Dates stuffed with Blue Cheese. Every single person L O V E D them, so don’t judge by the interesting combination of ingredients! I simply cut a slit in each date, removed the pit and replaced with a pinch of crumbled blue cheese, wrapped it in a half strip of bacon, jabbed with a toothpick to hold together and make for easy serving afterwards, and baked at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Even those that claimed to not like dates or not like blue cheese adored them! Highly recommend these for your next get together – just saying. 🙂

Sweet Jackie brought the most adorable gift. A print of a tree and a frame, to which we each stamped a fingerprint or two and labeled with our name and something we are thankful for.

I already have it hanging right outside my dining room. What an amazing memory I will always have of this day and these peeps I love. Thank you so much, Jackie!

And how cute are these? Isn’t this a fun way to take wine as a hostess gift? Dress them up for the holiday. Jackie also made these adorable bottles of red and white into boozy turkeys. I LOVE THEM!

Colleen and Jake brought me the most awesome smelling winter holiday candle – who doesn’t love a wonderful smelling candle – and Joyce and Rob brought a crock stuffed with bags of pistachios and a festive apron and hot mitt along with a Bountiful Blessings calendar with a note written on it saying, “Looking forward to spending more time together in the new year.” Now isn’t that a great idea?! Such creative peeps I hang out with – eh?

I share these for those looking for great ideas for hostess gifts around the holidays. Wine, candles, nuts, aprons, calendars – all very appreciated gifts!

And Jill handmade all of us these adorable turkey t-shirts. Is she amazing or what?!! And look how cute they all look.

They even had turkey feathers on the back!

It was wonderful to SKYPE with Julie, who if you look really close at the iPad Jackie is holding, is also wearing a turkey shirt that Jill sent ahead of time. 🙂 We only missed connecting with Jayme :(.

We ended the evening with board games, including Cards Against Humanity…

and laughed until our cheeks hurt!

We were even fortunate enough to have Marty’s 91 year-old Aunt Francie with us, who is such a good sport.

I am simply stuffed with thankfulness and reflecting on my many blessings.

Wishing you all the same!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

White Christmas Shaker Card

November 28, 2014November 27, 2014 / Jodi / 14 Comments

It’s the day after Thanksgiving…

What a wonderful day we had sharing with family and friends. I hope all of you that celebrated did also. We are STUFFED to the gills with turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie, and we have lots of leftovers to continue the feast for at least a few more days. I hope to share some more about that later, but for now I wanted to share another Christmas card I made, since we are now in full fledged Christmas season!

I made this SU White Christmas Shaker card after Linda Heller from Where the Rubber Hits the Road was kind enough to send me some SU shaker frames (from our #FreebieFriday random drawing contest). For this card, I cut and pieced two of them together to create a larger shaker to contain this scene that is reminiscent of this time of year – getting the annual Christmas tree. I stamped it all in Memento Black Ink and then colored in with SU Stampin’ Write Markers. I filled it with some sequins, wrapped it with SU DSP and sponged the edges to vintage it up a bit. Finishing touches were a linen thread bow and brown metal brad.

The SUO Challenge SUO#110 this week is “Marker Fun,” and this one was fun with markers, so I am sharing there.

I know just who this card is going to, and I hope they have as much fun shakin’ it as I did coloring it!

Cheers & Thankful Holiday Hugs,

Jodi

Thanksgiving Crack Snack Mix

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014 / Jodi / 7 Comments

Are you looking for a simple little way to give a little Thanksgiving gift to a co-worker or neighbor, as a hostess gift, something for your friendly delivery person or grocery clerk or…… (whoever you are looking to give a little gesture of Thanksgiving to)?

I came up with a quick Thanksgiving Crack Snack Mix. Easy Peasy Stuff Here!

Just grab a bag of Mini Pretzels, Bugels, Cheez It Crackers, Peanuts, Candy Corn, and Reese’s Pieces. Mix it all together in a huge bowl (and if you want to get fancier 🙂 – drizzle some white or milk chocolate or dark chocolate over it – I did not this time).

You can then package it up in cute jars or bags, dress it up with a cute tag and a bow, and a sweet little treat is created.

Easy, thoughtful, homemade, and yummy!

Hope your Thanksgiving is STUFFED with HAPPINESS!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Soon will be Thanksgiving Day….

November 24, 2014November 23, 2014 / Jodi / 25 Comments

I thought I’d share a a bit of Thanksgiving/Fall decor around the house before things get Christmas’d up around here soon.

For the dining room table, I used the box Matt made for centerpieces for his and Jackie’s wedding this summer, and I filled it with squashes and pumpkin gourds.

To accent, I used pint-sized wide mouth mason jars (purchased for Colleen’s shower) and filled them with fresh cranberries and popping corn and then added a votive candle, a rafia bow and some tiny hemlock pine cones Tracy helped me pick on our walk Saturday morning.

You see – you don’t have to spend a lot of money to decorate, and it’s even more fun when the things you use have special memories or are acquired during special times with friends.

This “Bountiful harvest” sign sits in the antique jelly cupboard our friends Jim and Mary GAVE US 🙂 that Jim found in the trash that someone was throwing away. He started fixing it up, Marty finished it, and he “loaned” it to us until he decides they have a place for it (fingers crossed that never happens – as it is our ongoing joke!)

A few craft store finds sit around on the sofa table behind the couch.

I love this little muslin pumpkin.

My friend, Rose, gave me this wooden pumpkin candle holder at least 15 years ago, and I bring it out every Fall. Thanks Rose!

When Pap died a couple years ago, my sweet cousins, Dawn and Jen, along with Aunt Gwen and Uncle Frank sent this beautiful Fall silk arrangement, so it goes on the kitchen table for the Fall.

I found this little coffee table centerpiece while shopping with Dawn on a vacation in Myrtle beach.

I’m pretty sure I got this wreath for the front door at the same shop in Myrtle Beach.

And a couple of signs hang at the back door entrance, where most of our family and friends enter. 🙂

I am enjoying the beauty and heart of Thanksgiving this week and so looking forward to sharing it with family and friends. We’re going to have a houseful – just the way I love it!

But then again………. a little touch of Christmas couldn’t hurt – right?! 🙂

I couldn’t wait to put out this little gem I got on our Shaker Woods trip this Fall (and Colleen bought one too! I wonder if hers is out yet??)

…Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Joyful Christmas (& ‘Smart Ass’ Trivia Answers)

November 21, 2014November 21, 2014 / Jodi / 10 Comments

It’s a Christmas Card TGIF Post.

And heck – before you know it, I’ll be mailing these cards out!

I love when I come across a sketch challenge, and it just speaks to me and a design comes so easily.

Such is the case with this week’s Freshly Made Sketches Challenge FMS#163. I just loved the design.

Whatchya think?

I’ve been itching to use my SU Joyful Christmas Poinsettia stamp (from last year) and also dying to do some water coloring. I wanted to do something different, and water coloring on newspaper print DSP was just the ticket to feed my creative Christmas card crazies for this week. 🙂

For this card done on SU Crumb Cake with Under the Tree Specialty DSP Paper, I heat embossed the poinsettia in white on the newsprint DSP, and then used my Koi Watercolors to paint it – not worrying about “staying in the lines.” A couple of pearl embellishments and a cheery pop of festive red with a cherry cobbler sheer linen bow finished it off.

I love it when an idea comes together easily. 🙂

So – anyone that follows my blog regularly is just dying to know the answers to yesterday’s Smart Ass Trivia questions – right? (Even though most of you “Smart Asses” figured them out already) 🙂

Well – How long did it take you to figure out the “What Am I” is a Tea Bag?

And the “Where Am I?” Well, that is the River Thames.

Wishing you all a joyous weekend!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Thanks & Giving

November 19, 2014November 19, 2014 / Jodi / 11 Comments

‘Nuff Said….

(This card was created for The Paper Players Clean & Simple Thank You Challenge #PP222)

Cheers & Thankful Hugs,

Jodi

New Birthday Balls

November 18, 2014November 17, 2014 / Jodi / 25 Comments

I have to admit. I love a good theme.
Party that is.

Birthday, holiday, any ole’ special occasion.

You would think I’ve had my fix raising my two sons, celebrating birthdays, creating Halloween costumes, being homeroom mom every elementary school year.

But nooooo – my boys are in their twenties, hubby in his fifties, and I’m still “theme”ing it up when I can. They always harass me about it, but “I’ll betcha a nickel,” (as Pap used to say) they would be disappointed if I didn’t….

So when Marty said all he’d like for his birthday this year is some new RED felt for a beautiful gently-used pool table Nick helped him find on Craig’s list for the “man cave,” I couldn’t resist going with it.

The kids came over one evening while Marty was at a meeting and did an amazing job re-felting the table from an ordinary green to an extraordinary burgundy red. (and saving me $300+ labor to boot!)

Going with the theme, the boys bought Marty some beautiful new balls (which we had fun with all evening) 🙂 and some other pool table accessories.

Of course I made a pool ball cake…

…which consisted of RED velvet cupcakes (they don’t make red felt cake mix) decorated as stripes and solids (even if not the exact colors and numbers to match as was pointed out to me – and THEY give ME a hard time about my themes!?!) with white Necco wafers I numbered with black icing.

And you don’t want to know how many rolls of those things I had to go through to get 15 whites – that were NOT broken!?! 🙂 I now have a pint jar full of all the other colors if anybody has any creative ideas for using these little disks of hard sugar that pretty much taste like nothing. (C’mon Jill – I know you’ve got something in you!!)

And by the way – no need to purchase all the different colors of sugar. Did you know you can simply add a couple drops of food coloring to a scoop of sugar in a jar, shake, and Voila! – colored sugar!

And, of course, I had to make a little card to go along with the theme too.

I got lucky and won ONE game of pool….

and ZERO games of “Smart Ass” – but we sure had a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Merv!

Cheers & Hugs & Lots of Love,
Gert

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the creative life in between

cherishing the moments and exploring my passion for creativity… through art, photography, food, and writing

Crafting

Sparkle & Glitter!! Napkin Cards

Green Acres & Christmas Cards

Welcome

Thanksgiving Reflections

White Christmas Shaker Card

Thanksgiving Crack Snack Mix

Soon will be Thanksgiving Day….

Joyful Christmas (& ‘Smart Ass’ Trivia Answers)

Thanks & Giving

New Birthday Balls

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