StampinUp

The little things

/ Jodi / 38 Comments

PP241 Clean and Simple Watercolor Butterfly

Long walks on country roads and chats with neighbors along the way.
Raspberry lemonade sipped from a straw on a chaise lounge in the sunshine.
Sunday boat rides with your lifelong partner and a furry companion.
Simple suppers of sausage and potatoes and salad.
Red wine to sip while painting and creating.
Cool breezes and light showers at bed time.
These are the little things,
That are really the big things.

It was a great weekend….  full of “little things.”  So I ended it late Sunday evening by creating this Clean & Simple Watercolor Card for The Paper Players PP241 Challenge this week.  How could I resist a watercolor card?!  🙂  I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

pp241

I’ve been dying to do something watercolory with the SU Swallowtail stamp.  I’ve had it for a while.  It is a very large stamp, and just begs to be watercolored.  I envisioned it offset a bit, and the watercoloring loose and abstract.  I kinda love how it turned out.  A few splatters in blue and the sentiment from the SU Hello Life stamp set that says “the little things” just added the perfect finishing touches.

So Happy Monday!  Enjoy the little things that this day and week brings.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Oh Happy Day!

/ Jodi / 25 Comments

PP240 CYCI65 Oh Happy Day Starburst Sayings

Oh Happy Day – It’s Friday!

This is just a fun, happy card that I created for The Paper Players Color Challenge #240 and the Can You Case It #65 Clean & Quick Challenge.

pp240

CYCI65-300x206

I love the happy colors Joanne chose for the color challenge – truly some of my faves – StampinUp’s Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, and Pistachio Pudding.  They are so springy and tropical.

PP240 CYCI65 Oh Happy Day Starburst Sayings 2

For this card, I used the StampinUp Sunburst Sayings Stamp Set & Die, some candy dots and linen thread, and Best Day Ever DSP (Designer Series Paper).  It was quick and simple, but makes a happy punch.

Oh Happy FRIday!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

PS 4/18/15:  Thank you Marisa for choosing my card as a winner at CanYouCaseIt!!  And thank you Nance for choosing my cards as A Cut Above at The Paper Players!  Woohoo!  It surely was a happy day!  🙂

Winner-001Cut Above Badge

‘Tis the Season

/ Jodi / 41 Comments

charrie shower card artisan embellishment and hello life

Tis the season…

For showers and weddings that is.

And you might know I love a good theme.

charrie shower invitation
So when I received this invitation to our family friends’ shower, I thought it would be fun to repurpose some of it for the card I made.

I gently removed the lace bow and added it to the card I created with vanilla and kraft card stock, a tiny watercolor, and the SU artisan embellishment floral cutout.  A simple “love” sentiment was added from the SU Hello Life Stamp set.

charrie shower card artisan embellishment and hello life

I then continued the theme when wrapping the gift.

Charrie Wedding Shower Gift Wrap 1

Instead of wrapping with paper, I used burlap which can be repurposed and was from our son and daughter-in-law’s similarly-themed shower and rehearsal dinner.

I made a big bow with some new kitchen towels that were on the registry, stuffed in a couple wooden spoons (they go with the gift inside), and tied it all together with lace to match.

Off to the shower today to celebrate Charrie and Corey and wish them many years of love and happiness.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

PS  I received a very sweet note and invitation from the HUGELY talented Leslie Mahon at InkPaperScissorsStamp.com to enter my card into The Paper Plunge #29 April Showers Challenge.  It is a less-known challenge that I am super happy to learn about and participate in.  For my card crafty friends – hope you will check it out.  If you have created a baby or wedding shower card, take the plunge and play along with us!

The Paper Plunge

 

Celebrate Today

/ Jodi / 25 Comments

PP238 CYCI64
It’s Friday!  Reason enough to celebrate – eh?

PP238 CYCI64 2

The card I am sharing today, however, is in celebration of a special couple’s anniversary:  my Dad and “Mom II” Carole.

It is such a joy to celebrate their happiness.  They are such great role models of a truly caring, loving married relationship.

Though my biological parents divorced when I was young,  I am happy for both of them that they have found loving, lasting marriages on Round 2.

(And for those of you that weren’t around when I was a new blogger close to a year ago,  I’d love to share one of my favorite posts with you from back in July of last year to read the story of my reunion with my Dad.)

PP238 CYCI64 3

So Dad and Carole, I join you in celebrating your upcoming special day.  I thank you for your love and example.  And most of all, I love you dearly.  Celebrate YOU!

For my cardmaking friends, I am submitting this card for two of my favorite card challenges:  The Paper Players, which is hosting a Die Cut Challenge this week, and Can You Case It, which is hosting a color challenge this week.

CYCI64pp239

And here are the “Ingredients” for my card:

StampinUp’s Crazy About You Stamp Set for the flowers and leaves
StampinUp’s Perfectly Penned Stamp Set for the sentiment
Lil’ Inker Designs Stitched Mat Rectangles for the Die Cut stitches and cut out rectangles
SU Whisper White, Black, and Crisp Cantaloupe Card Stock
Inks:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistsachio Pudding, Memento Black
Boho Blossoms Punch
Wink of Stella Clear Brush
SU Pearl Embellishments
Old Olive StampinWrite Marker for leaf veins
Adhesive

Celebrate today and EVERY day – at Life in Between.

Cheers & Happy Friday Hugs,
Jodi

Happier than a Bird with a French Fry

/ Jodi / 29 Comments

Hey There

This card I am sharing today is a quite a diversion from my “usual” (if there even is such a thing), but oh how much fun it was to make!

I needed a birthday card for a special 14-year old boy, so pretty posies and sappy sentiments were not in order.

hey there inside

Remember last week when I shared my watercolor painted petals card and entered it into a new challenge, Can You Case it (CYCI#62)? 

Well…. lucky lucky me – I won!  Woohoo!  Happy dance!  🙂

So I was excited to see what the next challenge is, and this card is an entry for the CYCI#63 challenge.  It’s a sketch challenge, and here here is our sketch:

CYCI63-232x300

I tried to stay pretty true to the sketch.  What do you think?

Hey There

For this  card, I used the following materials:

  • StampinUp’s Just Sayin’ Stamp Set “hey there” stamp
  • StampinUp’s Just Sayin’ Framelit Die Set bubble die
  • StampinUp’s Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set “ink blot” stamp
  • Jillibean’s You’re Tweet Stamp Set “little bird” stamp & “happier than a french fry” sentiment stamp
  • StampinUp’s Pumpkin Pie Orange Marker (for birdie’s beak)
  • StampinUp’s Adventure Bound Designer Series Paper “brick wall” paper
  • StampinUp’s Very Vanilla and Black Card Stock
  • Inks:  Stazon Black, SU White Craft Ink, Versa Mark, SU Tempting Turquoise
  • White Embossing Powder
  • Wink of Stella Clear Brush

Have a great day – in fact, I hope your day is Happier than a Bird with a French Fry!

By the way – have you ever seen a bird with a french fry??  I can say I have first hand!  A couple of years ago, a friend took me to this very specific “special” french fry place on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland.  We got a batch of fries and were walking along talking, when out of nowhere and in no time at all (I hadn’t even tasted one fry yet), a bird swooped in to grab a fry, startling me to the point of throwing the fries in the air.  When they fell to the ground, about 50 hundred gabillion birds appeared, and the fries disappeared in about 1.5 seconds.  And to top it off……… the stinkin’ bird POOPED on my shoulder in the process.  So after that fiasco, I went to the ladies room to “wash” off my top, and back we headed to buy more fries.  When we arrived at the shop, it had closed for the day…..

I never did get to try those fries.  But the birds sure were happy!  🙂

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

PS  Happy Birthday Aaron!  With love from Aunt Jodi ❤

Chicks & Rubber Duckies

/ Jodi / 15 Comments

rubber duck 1

I’m going to a baby shower this weekend, so I had fun using the same technique I used for my Watercolor & Painted Petals Note Card to make this little bitty Rubber Ducky card.

rubber duck 2

I used the rubber ducky stamp from StampinUp’s Something for Baby stamp set and embellished with a white gel pen and pearl for the eye.

I can’t get enough of this fun technique and know I will be doing more of it.

And speaking of having fun and making cards, I had a few chicks over one night this week.  We ate chicken fajitas and Cadbury mini egg blondies, washed it down with some wine and G&Ts, stamped, and made…

chicks stamping

some CHICKS!  (Easter Chicks that is!)  So here we are… Chicks making Chicks!   Thanks to Head Chick Stacey for leading our “class.”

chicks and chicks

Aren’t they cute?!

Easter Chick

Here is a video tutorial on how to make one similar done by Deb Valder.

We made ours a just a little different by adding a little holder for a Cadbury Egg.

Easter Chick side

Happy Friday from this crazy Chick!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Watercolor & Painted Petals Note Card

/ Jodi / 44 Comments

mini watercolor painted petals

I really enjoy trying new techniques in creating handmade cards, so when I saw a tutorial done by Jill Foster for Penny Black featuring water coloring combined with stamping to create these mini watercolor creations with a clean and simple white on white background, I couldn’t  wait to make one.

mini watercolor painted petals 1

The technique includes masking off watercolor paper to create the “frame” and then watercoloring the background.  I used some golds and greens from my Sakura Koi Water Color Pocket Field Sketch Box (actually the only watercolors I own right now).  After drying, I stamped the flowers on using StampinUp’s Painted Petals stamp set by coloring them with my Stampin’ Write Markers in Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow and then gently spritzing the stamp with water to loosen the look before stamping.

mini watercolor painted petals 2

I then used those same marker colors and added a little water to them in my watercolor tray to randomly tap splatters all over from a paint brush.  The last step involved using a Penny Black Footnotes stamp with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in “tea dye,” which I smudged for the vintage imperfect look before stamping on the top edge and corner.

mini watercolor painted petals 3

Once dry, I simply removed the masking tape (blue painter’s low-tack tape is easier to remove and less likely to lift the paper too), put some dimensional adhesive tape on the back and adhered to a white card base.

mini watercolor painted petals 4

I loved this technique and plan to try it with other colors and stamps, and I can’t wait to share this card with somebody special.

Wishing you a wonderful day and week.  Spend some time doing things you enjoy with people you love.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

PS  I am submitting this card for a new challenge I just learned about at canyoucaseit.com where this week’s challenge is “Designer’s Choice.”

Designers-Choice-001

I won!  Thanks to the CYCI Designer Team for the great honor!

Winner-001

Hello There in Watercolor Bokeh

/ Jodi / 18 Comments

hello there bokeh 1

Hello There Friends!  It’s Friday!  Thanks for visiting today.

For this week’s Friday card, I had fun experimenting with an abstract watercolor and bokeh technique Diane Dimich featured recently here. 

For the blues/greens, I mixed some stamp reinkers with water, and I used some watercolor paint for the red/oranges – just to try a couple different ways.  Once I decided on my color palettes, I brushed my watercolor paper with some clear, clean water using a water brush, then began randomly dabbing the colors all over covering the entire surface.

watercolor bokeh 2

Once it dried, I daubed white inked circles in multiple layers overlapping from a template I created using a piece of acetate cut with the Stampinup Circle Framelits to give the bokeh effect I love so much in photography.

watercolor bokeh 3

Once I was pleased with the effect, I mounted it onto cardstock with a white border, stamped the Hello There greeting in black and embellished with a few simple rhinestone gems.

hello there bokeh 1

I haven’t finished the rest of the painted sheets yet.   I think I will save them for when I need a particular card that I can add just the right greeting and message to.

So here’s to Friday, the weekend, creativity, sharing, and all the wonderful things to enjoy at life in between.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Just Sayin’

/ Jodi / 15 Comments

Just Sayin Blended Bloom and Crazy about You 3

Just Sayin’…

I’m ready for Spring.

I’m ready for flowers.

I’m ready for sunshine.

So when I saw this week’s Paper Player’s Challenge (PP236) was to make a “Clean and Simple Floral” card, I couldn’t wait to play along!

 My Card Recipe:  I heat embossed the StampinUp Blended Bloom floral image in black onto Whisper White card stock.  Using a sponge dauber, I sponged Crushed Curry ink in the middle, then light to dark shades of “orange” (Crisp Cantaloupe, Tangelo Twist, Tangerine Tango).  For some extra pizazz, which is so hard to capture in the photos, I added a light brush of Wink of Stella on the petals.  I then “fussy” cut the flower out and adhered it to another white layer using an antique brad (to which I stamped the image with Memento Black ink underneath just for some extra dimension).  I used my favorite new Lil’ Inkers Stitched Rectangle Border Die Cuts to create the edge of the white piece and to the front of the Tangerine Tango card stock base.  I adhered the white to the orange using foam tape to add extra dimension.  The final step was to stamp “Just Saying” in Memento Black ink using the Crazy About You Stamp set.

I love this simple stamp and how this card turned out, and I can’t wait to share it with someone.

Just Sayin Blended Bloom and Crazy about You 2

So today, I’m “just sayin'”…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy Spring!

Happy Birthday #25 Nick!  Thanks for bringing such joy to my life and making every March 17th one of my favorite days of the year!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Celebrate Today

/ Jodi / 17 Comments

Happy Birthday Nick Celebrate Today

Celebrate today!

Celebrate every day!

Hey – it’s Friday…

and it’s a birthday weekend around here!

My “baby” turns 25 in a few days.  How did that happen when I am only like (ahem)….  Hey – I just realized as I am typing this I am the exact reverse number…. 

In my current “clean and simple” (CAS) mode, I made this card using the StampinUP Celebrate Today stamp set.  It is so fun and festive!

After stamping the birthday balloons in Pear Pizazz and Marina Mist, I heat embossed the stars inside the balloons, as well as the birthday greeting, with silver glitter.  A few star sequins and some white baker’s twine for the balloon strings finished off this card.

I am so looking forward to spending time together with my family and celebrating.  I’m not sure how I got so lucky having two wonderful sons, an amazing daughter-in-law and a dear girlfriend, and a hubby that puts up with my shenanigans… but I’ll take it and run with it!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi