SU

Do More of What Makes You Happy

/ Jodi / 25 Comments

PP228 happy life

Time to get HAPPY!  Right?  Enough whining about the cold! 🙂  I’ve made the turn and thank so many of you for your support and great tips.

And it is Friday!

What’s making you happy today?

A while back I wrote my Top 25 List of Things that Make me Happy – and those are still tops and all still apply, but today in particular, let’s see….  What is making me happy today?

  • A good hot flash to take the chill off  (just thought I’d throw that in there, because my guys say it is all I ever talk about – – – AND it makes them crAAAAzy!)
  • Spoonfuls of molasses with black pepper, warm salt gargles, steam vapor, hot team with honey, lime jello (and all the other tips and home remedies you all supplied over the past few days… I tried ’em all!)
  • Hearing a “ding” on my iPhone that means I’m getting a note from one of you!
  • Mars Pizza delivery (it’s our Friday dinner tradition)
  • Movie night – will I get to pick – and will I stay awake?
  • The gift of another day – to be happy – and maybe make a few others happy too!
Marguerite's Mom's Cure for a Cough - spoonful of molasses covered in black pepper

Marguerite’s Mom’s Cure for a Cough: A spoonful of molasses covered in black pepper

I really enjoyed making this card for The Paper Players Challenge this week PP#228 (and just in the nick of time!).

While on the couch this week, I caught a great video tutorial for this watercolor technique by Kristen Werner.

I love how clean and simple it is – a technique I strive to excel at that I often struggle with.

The challenge this week is to make a card where the sentiment is the focal point and to keep it clean and simple.

pp228

I used the Stampinup Happy Life Stamp set, watercolor paper, some Tim Holtz Distress Inks and assorted sequins for this card.

pp228 happy life flat

So as I am writing this post, a song is running through my head and making me smile.  Music is so remarkable like that – right?  Almost everything reminds me of a song.  Can anyone relate?  So who remembers this one? Kinda silly, but hey – c’mon get happy! 🙂

Who’s wigglin’ with me?  🙂

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

When Life Gives you Lemons…

/ Jodi / 40 Comments

Friday Mashup Love Life Lemons FM193 1

Make a card!

Hi Friends – Yesterday was a “sick day” for me.

It doesn’t happen often, but this head cold has got the best of me right now.  I have a whisper of a voice (and for those that know me well know what a challenge this is for me – you know – my quiet, reserved nature… NOT!).  My throat just aches, and I am so sick of honey lemon cough drops I could throw up, but they help soothe and quiet the hacking cough.  My stuffed up ears are cracking and popping, and I would like to poke holes in them to release the pressure.  What a whiner – eh?!  Good thing I don’t get sick very often!!

I spent most of the day snuggled with Mikey on the couch watching the snow fall and binge watching crazy stuff on television between cat naps.

I was glad I had this card made and photographed and ready to go for the Friday Mashup Challenge (#193) for today’s post.

The challenge is to:

  • Create a project with the “Triple Layer Technique” (For my card-making friends, you can check out a Tutorial HERE for this technique)
  • Create a project that’s “Floral”. (I decided lemons with leaves were kinda “floral” – ok – maybe a stretch!)
  • or Mash it Up! and create a “Floral Triple Layer Project”.

FM193

I decided not to add a sentiment to the front of the card since it already has a lot going on, and this is the simple inside:

FM193 Inside

For my card, I used Stampin Up Old Olive and Very Vanilla Card Stock, the SU Love Life Stamp Set (same one that had the cute little bird I featured here), the SU En Francais Background Stamp, and had fun with the technique and challenge.  I colored the lemons in with a Crushed Curry Marker and the leaves with Old Olive, and some thin black lines and some accents with a white gel marker.  I finished it off with a button and some twine.

love life lemon flat

I really enjoyed the technique of triple layering, and besides being much easier than it looks, there are so many possibilities and variations you can do with this.

…. like life…. right?…

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

a little dash of Merry

/ Jodi / 10 Comments

little dash of merry

A little dash of merry on this Friday before Christmas!

(This card was made using StampinUp’s Endless Wishes Stamp Set inked in white on Night of Navy card stock and simply embellished with pearls.)

Cheers & Merry Hugs,
Jodi

Joyful Christmas (& ‘Smart Ass’ Trivia Answers)

/ Jodi / 10 Comments

Joyful Christmas FMS163

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.

FMS163Whatchya think?

Joyful Christmas FMS163

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

 

 

 

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

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

You Overwhelm Me with your Awesomeness

/ Jodi / 6 Comments

flower patch awesomeness with kinda eclectic

I had SOOO much fun making this card.

I stamped

and I punched out

and I glued

and embellished

and got a bit carried away…

A little overwhelming???….

I think the sentiment matches the card perfectly – a little overwhelming…

a little awesome….

flower patch awesomeness with kinda eclectic 3 inside

I can’t wait to share this card with someone who deserves to know how awesome and BeYouTiful they are.

Happy #FreebieFriday!  Hope you have an overwhelmingly awesome weekend!

flower patch awesomeness with kinda eclectic 2

Cheers and Hugs,

Jodi

PS   For my SU friends, I used the new Flower Patch and Kinda Eclectic stamp sets for this card, and it was inspired and CASE’d from Nance Leedy.