card

Gearing up… for Fall & #Writing101

/ Jodi / 28 Comments

white christmas fall hello ppa219

I know – for all of you literalists out there – it’s not officially Fall until September 22 (at 10:29pm)  – (remember – we already talked about this here?!) – still 8 more days of “Summer.”

But will you indulge me to share one more Fall card – BEFORE it’s officially Fall??

I had so much fun on Saturday just “goofing around” at home.  We had no plans this weekend, and I told Marty I just wanted to “craft,” especially since the weather was so Fall-like.  🙂

I made a few cards, and I wanted to share this one that I made for the Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge (PPA219). 

PPA219

The challenge was to use these three colors:  Crushed Curry, Always Artichoke, and Cajun Craze (Fall colors – right?!)

I used the SU White Christmas stamp for the trees and sponged a combination of only the three challenge colors to create other hues of oranges through blending.  I used the fun Flower-Soft again for the Fall leaves and a Wplus9 framelit for the “hello” greeting.

I’m really happy with how the card turned out, and its vibrant colors are helping me in my quest to embrace Fall!

white christmas fall hello ppa219 2

Tomorrow I begin a WordPress #Writing101 Challenge.  It will be a 30-day challenge that provides a daily topic and a twist to the topic to challenge a blogger’s creative thinking and writing.  I’m looking forward to sharing with all of you.  Not sure where this will take us, but glad to have you along for the journey!

Another new adventure at life in between.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

When things get blurry, stay focused!

/ Jodi / 13 Comments

geek is chic spectacular MFT

I’ve gone my whole life up until a few years ago without needing glasses.
I was always kind of proud to say I had 20/10 vision.  (not that I can take any credit for it)
Not 20/20 – – – but better!

And then it happened………
It seemed like overnight…
things got blurry…
I started moving things further out to focus in on…
I couldn’t read the “small print”…

I had laughed at Marty for years asking if I could hold the menu for him 10 feet away so he could read it when he stretched his arm out as far as he could to see it more clearly.

Payback is a bitch!

But it couldn’t be just that, I thought to myself.

So I went to the eye doctor telling him something was really wrong with my eyes, and that I suddenly seemed to need glasses.
We went through the whole rig-a-ma-roar of testing – and alas – he smiled and chuckled.
I still have 20/10 vision, he assured me…
For distance that is.

“But you see my dear,” he gently chuckled, “when people get around your age, they often need reading glasses.”

How did that happen?

Uh – Look in the mirror, Jodi! You are 51 years old!

Dang!

So – yep – I’m part of that club that has a pair of glasses on top of my head or the tip of my nose as I walk around, and then I have to pull them down or push them up to read my iPhone or computer, or a book, or a recipe, or basically anything that is not FAR AWAY!

I’m in that club that has a pair of reading glasses in every room of the house, 2-3 pairs in my purse, a pair in the car, in my briefcase…

I’m in that club that can never find a pair of glasses when I need them.

I am in that club where husbands and wives borrow each other’s glasses in a restaurant to read the menu because one of us forgot ours.

And wouldn’t it be nice if we could just leave them on…… but NOOO – then you can’t see the object or person 10 feet away, because now distance is blurry through the reading glasses!

So……. it’s up and down…….   off and on……..   in and out…….   round and round!

Oh well – I keep reminding myself that I was 20 once, and 30 once, and 40……

As my friend, Pam (aka Bub) would say, “Be glad to celebrate growing old.” As a cancer survivor, she helps me remember the blessings of the opportunity to grow “older.”

And so I embrace it, and I chuckle at it, and I loved this stamp set and had so much fun making this card to celebrate the “gift” glasses are to me at this stage of “the game.” 🙂

Life is SPECTACULAR, and I’m looking forward to sharing this card with one of my “club members.”

Because life does get blurry sometimes — right?

Literally and in oh so many other ways!!

stay focused MFT geek is chic

Happy Fall y’all!

/ Jodi / 23 Comments

Wondrous Wreath Fall PP212

I know – Fall doesn’t officially begin until September 22, 2014 at 10:29 pm…  (impressed with my precisional detail? – my own made-up word, “precisional” 🙂 )

There are still 12 more days until the Autumnal Equinox, and I can assure you I am going to embrace every last moment of “Summer.”

But  – – – in my quest to also embrace Fall, I’m going with it here folks!

And… The Paper Players Design Team has a “Happy Fall y’all” Theme Challenge  (PP212) this week, so I thought I’d play along.

pp212

And… I know exactly who I am going to send this card to!

She is someone I work with, who L – O – V – E s Fall.

She always puts her Fall wreath on her front door for the first day of school.

Not sure if Jamie even reads my blog, but this card is going in the mail to my Fall-lovin’ friend, and I hope she enjoys it.

For my card, I used SU’s Wondrous Wreath and For All Things stamp sets and had a little fun embellishing with Crystal Effects on the berries and some fluffy, fuzzy Autumn Flower-Soft on the bow and acorns.

Happy Fall y’all!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Tic-Tac-Toe 3x Three in a Row!

/ Jodi / 12 Comments

PP211

Remember playing tic-tac-toe as a kid?  Hangman?  Dots and Boxes?

tictactoe                              hangman                              dotsandboxes

Such simple pleasures and cherished smiles revolve around those less complicated, simpler times….

But life moves on….

Times change…

Do kids today still play tic-tac-toe?  On paper?

I love technology, but I also love paper – – –  For example – with books and reading … I sometimes read a book on my iPad, sometimes I listen to a book through Audible on my iPhone, and other times I love holding and turning the pages of a real book!  And sometimes I do all three with the same book – especially when I need to get through one for a book club deadline! 🙂

Anyway – we can dwell on the past reminisce or go with the flow and change with the times.

So it was fun to see The Paper Players offer a Tic-Tac Toe Challenge this week.  My first!  You had to choose any three items combined across, down or diagonal to make your card or project.

And my goal was to see how many ways I could get three in a row in one card!

Here is the tic-tac-toe challenge, and I got Three in a Row THREE ways with this card!

Can I get a WOOHOO?

pp211 tic tac toe

And here is my card challenge submission:

PP211I got:

Birthday – Yellow – Patterned Paper:  First Row Down

Birthday – Green – Button:  First Row Across

Patterned Paper – Ribbon – Purple:  Third Row Across

Fun stuff – eh?!?!  🙂

Ok – I know I know – I’m easily amused…

But the best part is that I get to send this birthday card to a very special someone who has a birthday coming up next week!

And to that special lady – I wish for her to know that you can never have too much happy.  I also want her to know what happiness she has brought to my life!

pp211 2

Love ya Joyce!  May you smile, giggle, laugh, and enjoy your day and year!  xo

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Love you Bunches

/ Jodi / 10 Comments

by the tide love you bunches 3

I cannot believe it is Back to School time already!  Where did the summer go?

And even though my boys are grown, I still get that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach this time of year…

When my boys were young, I was always a little sad to see summer end and have them go back to school.  Summer was so much fun!  I recall rushing to get our “chores” done in the morning, getting some semblance of a dinner started, even setting the table, and then spending lazy afternoons EVERY SINGLE sunny day at my friend, Barb’s pool.   Oh those were the days!   I was so fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom until Jake started 9th grade and Nick 7th grade.  There was no job I would have rather done when they were young.  (And I think that is why I can love my job so much now – because I have no regrets of time not spent with my guys when they were young – and since they don’t need me anymore – <SIGH!> – at least in the way they did when they were young – I needed more “purpose” to my days.)

I wonder if I’ll ever not get that feeling at this time of year?  When I hear my Dad tell me about the kids on the bus (and today is the first day of Kindergarten for the area where he is a bus driver – – – in his retirement after being bored staying home – – – hmmm – see any correlation there?! 🙂  ), my heart remembers those days of walking the boys to the top of the lane to meet the bus (and then take a walk with Tracy – who is still my walking buddy! 🙂 ) and passing the hours until they would come bounding home in the afternoon!

I sure did love those days and I sure do still love those guys – BUNCHES and BUNCHES!  And they both have terrific ladies they share their lives with now that I have grown to love also.   Marty and I are truly blessed.

Here is one of my favorite “First Day of School” photos taken at the bus stop, which is close to 20 years old!:

photoGosh!  How did I blink, and that turn into this?!?!?

JMW Nick Jake
Well – enough of that reminiscing!  Thanks for indulging me if you’ve read this far!  🙂

I hope you all are enjoying (or at least getting through) this back to school time of year!

The card I am sharing today is one I created for a new challenge to me – Freshly Made Sketches #151.  Here is the sketch we were presented with to create a card design from:

untitledSince I have lots of guys in my life, I need to come up with some more “masculine” cards.  For this design, I used SU By the Tide stamp set for the fish and seaweed, did a little watercoloring and sea salt technique to create my “ocean” background square, used some fun Neat ‘n Tangled “Punchinella” for an embellishment (cool stuff to repurpose the sheet that sequins are punched!!), a little fish scale look with my #WinkofStella brush pen (do you think I just love this brush pen because it is named after MY Grandma!? 🙂 ), and a couple of pearls for bubbles.

Enjoy – and Happy Back to School time!

by the tide love you bunches 3Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

 

 

Aint it Good to Know You’ve Got a Friend!

/ Jodi / 8 Comments

MOJO359 2
Happy Friday!

Today I am sharing a card I designed for the Sketch Challenge #359 at Mojo Monday (MOJO359).

This card was totally inspired by one I saw done by Mojo Monday’s Julee Tillman.

Mojo359SketchHere is the sketch we were challenged to design from.

For my card, I started with some Navy and White SU DSP, embossed a “friendly” sentiment on vellum with gold embossing powder, colored a flower from SU Bloom with Hope with alcohol markers, then fussy cut and embellished with #WinkofStella and glued and stitched it all together for this fun friend card.

MOJO359 closeup

If you have a few moments, enjoy one of my all-time favorite versions of one of my all-time favorite songs 🙂

Friends make the world a better place.

Aint it good to know you’ve got a friend?

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Birthdays are for the Birds

/ Jodi / 21 Comments

child birthday card punch art birds on wire

Birthdays were so much fun when we were kids – right?

And even more when my boys were young and we could do (what they eventually came to dread….)

THEME parties!

I recall parties themed with pirates and magic shows, and Barney the purple dinosaur………

jake 5 cake jake 5 pirates 2 jake 5 pirates

Oh the days….  (I can’t believe these were over 20 years ago now!)

Nick 3Nick 3 2

So I was excited to see The Paper Players Challenge #209 this week be a child’s birthday card.  Gave me a chance to be silly and fun.

pp209

Leanne Pugliese, of The Paper Players Design Team, is celebrating her granddaughter, Cassidy’s, 4th Birthday this week (Happy Birthday Cassidy!), so she chose a Clean and Simple (CAS) Child’s Birthday Card for #PP209 Challenge.

child birthday card punch art birds on wire
My card is a “punch art” card.  I’ve seen some amazingly creative critters created out of punched out shapes.  They range from puppies and turtles and hippos, lions, elephants, and monkeys to caterprillars and lambs and bears and birds – silly birds, angry birds, real birds.  There are some awesomely talented artists and designers out there!

I saw little birds similar to these somewhere at some point and thought they would make a fun child’s birthday card – especially for a “wee one.”  My “birds” are cut out using SU framelit circles and the bird builder punch for the wing and nose.  I sponged them with some pumpkin pie ink, glitzed their feathers a bit with #WinkofStella, cut out party hats from SU DSP, added some Crystal Effects to their beaks, and popped on a candy dot for the eye.  The background is done with a cloud embossing folder, the “telephone wire” is made from baker’s twine, and the Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Bloom with Hope stamp set.

I can’t wait to share this card with a wee one on their birthday.  As for me – no more birthdays please…  Birthdays are for the birds!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

Bloom with Hope – Always and The TOUGH MUDDER!

/ Jodi / 10 Comments
Bloom with Hope Always

StampinUp Bloom with Hope Watercolored in Shades of Blue

Tomorrow is THE BIG DAY!  Jackie and Matt’s Wedding!!

Hopefully she is much too busy to be bothered reading my little ole’ blog post (or she will see her wedding card!)

This card is my #FreebieFriday post for our #WheretheRubberHitstheRoad group, and I couldn’t be more excited for a Friday!

Tomorrow’s celebration will be followed by an overnight with some of our besties, Joyce and Rob, followed by the #ToughMudder Event on Sunday, where Jake and Nick are participating in a team with Nick’s best buddy, Jon and his sister, Kelly.  Go Team McKinney/Randza!

#ToughMudder is a 10-12 mile (18-20 km) obstacle course designed to test all-around strength, stamina, teamwork, and mental grit.  The idea of Tough Mudder is not to win, but to have a story to tell!

Check out this video:


Oh Boy!  Eh?  It sounds like a lot of fun (for us spectators!) and is for a great cause – the Wounded Warrior Project.

Hopefully, I will get some fun photos and have some good stories to tell, but until then, have a great weekend all!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

PS – In perusing some new bloggers and blogs, I came across a fun new challenge site:  Addicted to Stamps Challenge Blog and Laurie’s beautiful entry into the CAS Challenge #109.

CAS means “clean and simple” in the stamping and cardmaking world, so I thought I would give it a try with this card I made last week for Jackie and Matt’s wedding.

Clean and Simple can often be a challenge for me – I tend to want to over-embellish, but I think I kept this one pretty clean and simple 🙂 .

She left BEAUTY wherever she went

/ Jodi / 3 Comments

All Abloom DSP She left beauty wherever she went

Another little treasure from our trip to Hobby Lobby last weekend was this this little stamp set Janet found in the clearance rack.  It “spoke” to both of us, and I had to have it.  It reminds me of so many amazing women in my life.  I wanted to list them – starting with Stella Star all the way through life, but I am afraid I would accidentally forget someone…

I wanted to show pictures, but again afraid I don’t have all that I would want to post and/or forget someone.

But I think this sentiment should really speak to ALL women.

Be your own kind of beautiful….

Know that there are many kinds of beauty…

Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, and even senses….

Beauty can be visual or it can be something from the heart – the way someone makes you feel – maybe with the words they use – spoken or written…

Beauty can come from the way something or someone smells…  like flowers or freshly baked bread or cookies or a favorite perfume…

Beauty can be the way something feels – like a tight hug from a friend, your favorite slippers or comforter, your favorite sweater, or the warmth of a kiss.

Know that you have the potential to leave BEAUTY wherever you go!

Happy Friday!  We are off to “The Best Book Club Ever” tonight!  Woohoo!  “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks and lots of discussion and wine!  🙂

The layout of this card was designed from the Freshly Made Sketches Sketch #148:

FMS Final 148-001

Go out and be your own kind of beautiful!

All Abloom DSP She left beauty wherever she went

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

25 Things that Make Me Happy

/ Jodi / 7 Comments

never too much happy mojo monday 357

A Short and Random List of Just Some of the Things that make me HAPPY:

  1. Lots of people in my home
  2. The phone ringing at 7:03 am – and my Dad on the other end saying “Good Morning”
  3. Marty’s laugh
  4. Seeing my boys in love
  5. Seven Deadly Zins Red Zinfandel
  6. When my boss sends a reply email to a project I’ve done with a one word reply:  “Perfect”
  7. Mikey’s tail wagging and the greeting I get EVERY time I come home – even if I was only gone 10 minutes
  8. Girlfriends – deep conversations and belly laughs
  9. Sunshine and blue skies
  10. Bombay & Tonic with lime and lots of ice on a hot evening
  11. Sending a card to a friend “just because”
  12. My first cup of coffee in the morning with sweet Italian cream
  13. Text messages from Rob and Ella
  14. Brady Bunch songs
  15. The beach
  16. Tight hugs
  17. Smiles from strangers
  18. Christmas music
  19. The smell of Apricot Nut Bread – Grandma’s recipe
  20. Baking cookies for friends and family
  21. Thursday date night to John’s Bar
  22. Finding and giving just the perfect gift
  23. Allowing myself to get lost in a good book
  24. Marty snoring – because that means he is there beside me
  25. People saying “Love ya”

You can NEVER have too much happy – right?!

never too much happy mojo monday 357 flat

So I had fun making this card for Mojo Monday Challenge #357 and using this Stampinup Yippee-Skippee Stamp sentiment:  “You Can Never have Too Much Happy,” which I heat embossed with white on Blackberry Bliss cardstock.

This is the sketch we were to follow:

mojo357

I used some Park Lane DSP, some more of the new In Colors: Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist with some classic Old Olive, and stamped and cut out the flower and leaf from SU Flower Patch.  I embellished with a few of my homemade faux enamel dots, and the finishing touch was a spritz of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (which I picked up on our brief shopping trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend).  Fun!

never too much happy mojo monday close up shimmer mistI love how the light catches the Shimmer mist, but it was hard to capture in a photograph.  I can’t wait to share this with someone and hopefully make them happy.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi