Ghost Masking

Hello all,

I'm back today with a card I made all because of some awesome inspiration over at Nichole Heady's blog from Papertrey Ink. They had a Make it Monday video tutorial on "ghost masking".

I absolutely loved their sample and had to try it out for myself using stamps I had. I really like the way the window looks like you might be looking through frosted glass. Yeah, just stamp on some vellum and get the same result, right? Well ink sometimes doesn't ever dry on vellum, so doing this technique insures your images won't smudge.

I didn't have a good frame stamp either, so I just used one of my Nestie dies and a CTMH marker to trace around the die and create my own frame. Worked out perfectly!

Materials
Stamps: CTMH Aspiration and Card Chatter-Birthday stamp sets
Paper: CTMH dp and cs, and PTI cs
Other: CTMH inks, hemp, and ribbon, EK border punch, PTI button, Nestabilities die

Get Well Soon

Good morning everyone! I finally had time to get a bit creative this week and make a few cards. Hard to find time for anything these days, let alone crafting and blogging. I hope to set up a few posts for you while I'm here.

I made this card for one of my "girls" in the Job's Daughters group I help out with. Mary came down with "stage 1" flu which I guess is the worst of the worst. Poor thing, I feel so bad for her! Not the best way to get out of high school for a week. So I made this in hopes to cheer her up and let her know I was thinking of her. She's the glue that holds our Bethel together. All the other girls look up to her and all the adults appreciate all her hard work running meetings and being such a great example for others. That's what Job's Daughters is all about!

SHOCKER ALERT!! I actually made this card for a few TGF challenges too! It's been a long while since I've participated in any challenges! I used the sketch from the TGF Challenge Blog's Saturday Sketch and added a scalloped dp piece to enter the Monday Fun-Day #25 challenge of circles and scallops.

Enjoy your weekend. It's FINALLY sunny here for more than just a few hours! Two whole days so far! Hopefully winter is finally behind us (it snowed last week!) and the Seattle area can get back on track for spring weather.....which is usually a lot of rain. But hey, that's why I love living here! Makes for nice green grass and beautiful trees and such.

Materials
Stamps: TGF "Get Well" set, CTMH Say it in Style ss
Paper: Crate Paper dp, CTMH cs
Other: Copics, foam tape, EK border punch, CTMH ink, opaque pearls, and ribbon

Cards for sale!

Hello everyone! I recently posted these 5 cards for sale on my Zahoomi site. "What's Zahoomi?" you ask. Well it's like Etsy, but it's all artists that are local to the Pacific Northwest. It's a great way to buy local in an easy location where you don't have to filter through pages and pages of llistings. So go check it out!

Here are the 5 new cards I listed:

"Hanging by a thread?" $2.95 (+s/h)

"Let's hang out" $3.95 (+s/h)



"Happy Birthday Ketto" $5.95 (+s/h)

"How ya bean?" $4.95 (+s/h)

"Hello Ketto" $3.95 (+s/h)

Mention this post in the comment section and receive FREE shipping! And while you're at it, check out some of the other great shops and items on the site!

Bright yellow!

Hello all! Is this yellow bright enough for you?! Yikers! Well I thought, who better to pull off such a bold color than a Ketto? She's so fun and funky that I think she's right at home with these colors. This was another card that the shop just had to have. I wonder how long it will be until someone buys it....

Happy Monday! Can't wait to watch The Voice tonight! So far, Team Blake is looking pretty good. Still totally crush on Adam though!

Materials
Stamps: Stamping Bella Ketto, PTI Lily of the Valley sentiment
Paper: Basic Grey dp, CTMH cardstock and kraft strip
Other: Copic markers, Basic Grey button, Nestibility die, PTI ribbon, CTMH ink and hemp, Memento ink

Sparkles and Sunshine

Hello all! I'm back this week with a fun card using Bicycling Chloe from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps. I love adding a scene to this image. I added the grass for Chloe to actually have a ground to ride on. This card was one of the many pre-colored images I had in my big stack before I lost my mojo. So happy with the way it turned out! Do ya see the the stick pin? Yep, I made that too. :)

The shop loved it too and they snatched it right up! Hopefully it will find a perfect home. Enjoy your Saturday. I'm going to a WHL hockey game tonight to root on my Everett Silvertips against the Vancouver Giants of Canada. We beat them last Saturday, so I'm hoping for a repeat!

Materials
Stamps: Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Bicycling Chloe, sentiment is A Muse, CTMH Simple Stitches
Paper: Basic Grey dp, PTI kraft, CTMH cardstock
Other: Copic markers, EK border punch, ribbon, PTI button, AC rhinestones, CTMH ink, Memento ink, Nestibility die, straight pin and beads

DIY infinity scarf and flower

So while I was couped up in my condo for 5 days do to the snow, I did a lot of web browsing. I love the app "Craftgawker". It's simular to Pintrest, but it's all crafty type stuff and a lot of DIYs. I came across this gawk from Rebekah where she shows you how to make your own infinity scarf out of an old t-shirt. Super simple, except I didn't have any Rit dye handy, so I just made one out of a colored t-shirt.


And what about that cute flower attached to it? Another idea from Rebekah where she shows you how to make flowers out of a .....t-shirt again! I sat down and made like 4 of these! I decided to add a strip of t-shirt material to the back so I can tie it onto anything. I even made a small one that I can tie on as a ring. Cute! The centers are actually pushpins I bought at Office Max in their clearance section for a $1 for a set of six. Score!

So go download the Craftgawker app to your iPhone NOW! So many great ideas! And follow Rebekah's blog here. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

"Rotic" invites

So it was that time of year again....."Rotic" luncheon!

What is "Rotic" you ask? Well it's this fabulous word my dear friend Josie kinda invented (she makes up words a lot). Rotic is: Romantic without the "man". Get it?!

She has an annual Rotic Luncheon where she invites all of her closest girlfriends and cooks us all a fantastic multi course meal. She's an awesome chef that has worked with the likes of Tom Douglas, Holly Smith, and now works at Taste, the restaurant for the Seattle Art Museum where she's super close to becoming a Sous Chef. Needless to say, when you're invited to one of Josie's parties, you go!


This was Josie's 15th annual Rotic Luncheon! She started doing these just to let her friends know how much she appreciates and loves them. She also started them BEFORE she was formally trained. Josie was still working at Safeway (my employer as well) and worked all her way up to Assistant Store Manager before she realized that cooking was her true passion and gave it all up (serious pay cut) to go to culinary school in Scottsdale AZ.


As per tradition, or at least ever since I've been graced with a Rotic invite, I make the invitations. You might have seen the one I made for 2009 here. (I must not have taken one of last years...hmm..) Everyone said this was their favorite invites yet! Really?! But they are so simple and were a breeze to make?! I guess that is what catches peoples' eyes the most. I made them to fit in a standard A10 envelope that I also stamped on to coordinate with the invitations.



Here's a close-up of the banner detail. I have loads of old lace scraps (thank you Grandma!) and paired it with some simple hearts I cut using my CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. I stamped them using PTI and CTMH stamp sets. Sorry about photographing this one with the double image....I kept the "bad" one for myself and forgot to photograph one of the good ones before I gave them to Josie.

Materials
Stamps: CTMH Noted Backgrounds, PTI In Bloom
Paper: CTMH cardstock, vellum
Other: CTMH inks and Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, scrap lace, CB embossing folder, MM corner rounder, EK border punch, home printer

Faithful Friends

Greetings all! I'm back today with a Bella card. This was one of the images I've had colored up for awhile. Remember I mentioned a HUGE pile of colored images I had paired with dps all ready to make into cards, but lost my mojo to make them? Well here is one of the many that I finally turned into a card.

I love this Bella image. I think it's "DogwalkaBella" from Stamping Bella. Makes for great cards to send to people that have pets, or maybe lost a pet. The sentiment is from the PTI "With Sympathy--Loss of a Pet" stamp set. I just inked up the part of the sentiment I wanted to use for this card. This was also the very last of some CTMH paper pack that I've had hanging around forever. Can't remember what it was called....

Enjoy your Tuesday! It's been fabulously sunny here in the great Pacific Northwest for the last 5 days!! It's a winter miracle! These are my favorite type of winter days. And NO SNOW! Excited for another New Girl episode too. That show is soooo funny!

Materials
Stamps: DogwalkaBella-Stamping Bella, With Sympathy-Loss of a Pet-PTI, Flourish background stamp is Enjoy Life from CTMH
Paper: DP and cardstock--CTMH
Other: Copic markers, button, covered brad and inks from CTMH, Nestabilities die, foam tape, pearls also CTMH

Covered clothespins

Hello again,

Another project I did while cooped up was make some simple and fast covered clothespins. My friend Nona made some and I thought they were a great fun and easy project. These are a great way to use up some scrap paper. I think I might add some bling or a bit of ribbon to glam them up even more. You can also put a magnet on the back and use them that way too!

Enjoy your Thursday. I have the second of my two Card Classes tonight. (will share the sample later) I don't know what I'm going to do now that Catherine is gone from CSI. *sadness* At least Ted Danson is a great new fit!

Materials

Wood clothes pins from Michael's

Basic Grey Green at Heart and Curio dp

Fun bookmarks

Hello all,

It's been a crazy-busy week for me! Since all the snow FINALLY melted at my place a week ago Friday I've had something to do every day after work. I'm exhausted! ...and my poor house is a mess! Yikes!

I was supposed to train a new Dairy Department Manager at another Safeway store today, but when I got there I found out that he called in sick! Ugh! Good thing it was the store closest to my house. And since I've already had a full cup of coffee, I decided to run a few posts for the week.

So here is one of the MANY projects I did while I was suck at home for 5 days due to the 14" of snow and ice. I recently bought the "All Booked Up" stamp set from Papertrey Ink with the matching Mat Stack die. Made for easy bookmarks that are super cute!

I'm totally in love with kraft paper! I use it on pretty much every project. So I cut out a dozen bookmarks in kraft, and a dozen in plain white. I have a lot of friends that love to read, so these will make great little gifts. They're easy to add into an envelope when I mail a card too.

Well, enjoy your Tuesday. As I was finishing this post, I got a call back from the Store Manager that she'd like me to come back and at least set their department up for the next audit. Back to work I go....

Materials

Stamps: All Booked Up-PTI

Paper: CTMH Kraft, White Daisy, and Smoothie cardstock

Other: CTMH Chocolate, Cocoa, Pear, Smoothie, Lagoon, Sunset, Juniper, and Sweet Leaf inks

WHAT??! I'm back?!

Hello all,

Just popping in to say that I'm FINALLY going to get back into the swing of blogging!

I had quite the creative craft mojo slump after my Grandfather passed away this last June. He was a real important man in my life growing up in a single parent home. Makes me teary-eyed just now thinking about him. The whole family has been adjusting well. Grandma of course has had the toughest time, but she's really persevering and trying her best to move on. His death has really brought our whole family closer than before. Here are some pictures I wanted to share...

Here's one of me when I was around a year old with my grandpa. This is one of my favorite pictures. Love the slight smirk on Grandpa's face.

This one is of Grandpa and Grandma when we went to our favorite campground about a month before her passed. We went back after his service to spread some of his ashes down the river there. It's what he wanted since the campground was such a big part of our lives and memories. Its was such a touching moment for all of us. (do you notice his hat? Haha! Typical Grandpa!)

My other issue with blogging was my laptop. I think it's finally dying. :( I got an new-ish desktop from my Grandma's friend and have finally found a place to set it up and convert it to wireless, so I'm good to go now! To bad you can't work blogger with an iPad. You can format ad stuff, but you can't upload pictures. Now to try and save the pictures and files off my laptop before it truly dies!

Over the holiday season and these last couple weeks, I really got my craft mojo back and can't wait to share with you all what I've made! So excited! I hope you will embrace me back into your blog circle with open arms. I really miss everyone!

Hugs,

~Jenn