What the Heck, Jayme!

.....That is the thought I had the other day when I realized that I hadn't blogged in probably a week!

ugh. "Thats how you keep your following!" Yikes!

The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind blur. I was doing great until we had an out-of-town bout, then that was it! My card streak came to a screeching halt, no blogging, minimal facebooking. Heck, just yesterday I thought "surely I have design team cards that are due... probably today!" 

Not to bore you with all the details, but you all know I play roller derby, and a few weeks ago we ended our lease agreement with the landlord of our BIG beautifully dusty practice space. Since then we've had games, moved out and have been seeking new space. We've been graciously invited to a neighboring league practice (THANK YOU!). Also, life and wrestling season is in full swing as well. 

Enough of the sob story. (Move on, lady! haha) Now I'll catch you up! 

Starting with Tis The Season Stamping's color challenge! 

Yikes! We are dark!

We do have a few challenge guidelines* we'd like to ask you to follow:

• Your project must be a new Christmas project created for this challenge.
• You may use any brand of product that you have in your stash. 
• If you combine challenges please limit it to no more then 4 including ours.
• Please provide a link back to our challenge or use the challenge graphic within your post.
• Have fun!!! 

The Challenge is open until Feb.16th @ 12pm EST. 

Next up is this Just for You card:

Supplies: Very Vanilla and watercolor papers. Primrose Petals, Coastal Cabana, So Saffron, white craft inks. Clear and white embossing powder, versa mark, aqua painter, enamel dots. Botanicals for You SAB stamp set. 

This card was a watercolor technique gone ALL wrong. I still like the outcome though! I found inspiration on Pinterest for a technique where the original poster used distress inks watercolored onto paper then once dried, lifted the color with a baby wipe. SU inks don't lift all that well and left me with a wear mark on the paper. So, I just grabbed some white ink and dabbed dots with a stencil. You can see all the dots if you look at the card in light and move it so they shimmer a bit. All in all, I still think it's pretty, just not what I was trying to do. 

Keeping with the watercolor theme, here's a watercolor wash card!

Supplies: Another Thank You Photopolymer stamp. Basic Black and whisper white paper. Basic black embossing power, versa mark, Melon Mambo, Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry Inks. Rhinestones. Done. :)

This card was inspired by the lovely Tami White and was SO easy. Literally 10 minutes (including drying time). I'll be making a BUNCH more of these. 

And last but not least, this adorable monkey waterfall card for Friday Mashup! 

A whole bunch of retired products were used to make this. Let me know if you want a supply list and I'll dredge on up :)

I love this card! It's so fun and you can play with it for hours! I made one a LONG time ago, then when this challenge came up for the Friday Mashup crew, I knew just what to do! (sorry, watching a lot of kids shows lately, haha) 

Alright, I think that about wraps things up. Phew! That'll teach me not to blog again. 

If you're not following me on Facebook and Pinterest, be sure to check me out! I love having new visitors! 

Thanks for stopping by and until next time (tomorrow), have a stamptastic day!!

Streak Day 13 & 14, A lesson in Simplicity.

Wow, what a busy few days!

Busy days call for FAST cards.  So fast that it's literally stamp, color done.

No time to fiddle with layouts,

No time to even look up the set on Pinterest for some inspiration. gasp!

Pure gut.

Day 13 was made while my daughter was in the bath. The only harm was that the dog could've been bathed by the time I got back. (It's happened before)

Cardstock: linen style, from my favorite print shop, she loves me and gave me a ton. Literally. 

Stamps: fabulous phrases (ret) and Flowering Fields (Sale-a-bration)

Ink: Primrose Petals (ret) and Old Olive applied with a blender pen. 

Accessories: wink of Stella pen, linen thread.

Day 14. Oh, how I love cows. I also love the fact that I am allowing myself to let the stamps make the statement. I love clean and simple cards, but the simplicity of these two particular cards scares the daylights out of me.

Is it enough? Yes, absolutely.

Stamp: Barnyard Babies
Ink: Early Espresso, Old Olive
Accessories: Naturals chevron ribbon, 1/4" wild wasabi stitched ribbon (could be wrong on the color) Target tinsel thick bakers yarn.

See, all you need is just a few minutes of creativity to keep the doctor away! I firsthand understand the feeling of the cards needing to be perfect and overly embellished. Get that feeling out of here. Make something. Anything. 

Then post for the whole world to see. Then (this is the most important step) send it to someone so they can enjoy it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a stamptastic day!

Streak days 11 &12

Hey friends!

Are you keeping up with my card streak? Hopefully you aren't thinking "This lady is crazy-ay!" Haha!

Exactly the opposite. Well........ maybe just a little ;)

The purpose of the streak is to get into my craft room EVERY SINGLE DAY. Even just for 10-15 minutes. This is a great timeframe for the busy crafter who may not have the luxury of time on their hands. When you spend the money to invest in a craft, you should get to play with your investment. That is exactly what I aim to do.

Also,  the fact that I'm aiming to do this daily means I have to be quick with my time. I'm throwing absolute perfection out the window. That's not the point of crafting anyway. Perfection is a HIGH rung to compare yourself against and unattainable. The nice thing about crafts are that they are handmade (subject to human error--that's why embellishments were invented) and their creations live in the hearts of their creator. My style might be different from yours, and that is okay because we can still draw inspiration from all creations.

So, I hope my daily streak is inspiring you to get elbow deep in cardstock and ribbon to make something that keeps your hears full. That's really what it's all about. Plus, doing a hobby reduces stress. So, it's totally a win. Even if the process causes a little stress. It'll eventually come full circle and make you happy again. :)

Day 11: I spent 2 hours trying to make a challenge layout work that I hated. So it was scrapped and I did this. You may notice where my 3 yo tried to help color the little deer pink... Future stamper

Stamps: In the Meadow
Paper: Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue (ret)
Accessories: Banner Punch, Linen thread, Aqua Painter pen, Wink of Stella silver, stapler

Add caption

Day 12: Thank goodness for that scrapped layout from yesterday, that's where the circle (in so saffron) came from!!

This card is made from FREE items earned from sale-a-bration!! (That's the only way you're getting your crafty hands on them!)

Paper: wildflower fields
Stamps: Hello 

Accessories: lost lagoon ribbon (Ret), rhinestone, banner thinlet, banner punch. 

Happy mail!

Treat yourselves to new Big Shot plates, friends! It's totally worth it!

Do you follow me on Facebook or Pinterest?  I'd love it if you did!  Tell me if you've started a streak of your own!

Thanks for stopping by and have a stamptastic day!!

Its a Zoo Mashup!

Finally a slow week in our household....time for craftiness!!! YAY! Yesterday was spent playing catch-up on my cleaning around the house. I forgot what happens when you are gone all day for the week. I feel for you full time workers! (I'll go back, one day)

So, this week's mash-up challenge is the Zoo. I used a CTMH 'It's a Zoo' set, but had a hard time really coming up with something.  Then when I did, I changed it all together. Funny how that works. Here is what I came up with:

 I'm loving this monkey, he's just hangin' around!









  These are a few cropped shots of the inside. I forgot to take a picture before writing in the card. I'll be sending this one away to my nephew in Louisiana.

 This hippo would've looked better in a solid color, but I wanted to make him look muddy....

 Have a scrap-tastic day!  I'm off to work on another challenge!!

A New Year's Resolution

SO, I know this is about 26 days late to be finally come up with a gonna-stick-to-it resolution for the year, but here goes. I am going to write on my blog more. That's it, easy peasy. Is it too simple? I think not. If it were any more difficult, it would be four more months before I wrote again. So, instead of any more boring rattling, I'll get on with the projects I've created over the months. Hope you enjoy!

Wish big was for my sister's 38th birthday! I love the colors!!! I love the template that I used for this card more. SO easy!! (I'll update with a picture of it) It is surely a no-fail card!

 LOVE the Christmas Cards that I made. I cased these from the 2010 SU! Holiday Mini catalog.

  A baby shower invitation for a friend. The back has a stamped image of a carriage. (Its hard to see)

 First time using pastels above, I think it went alright. The flower card couldve been darker, but I didn't want the black to over power the coloring.

 A favorite Non-SU! image. This one is Close to My Heart.

 This baby card was for the gift of the baby shower we threw. I LOVE how it came out, and matched her son's nursery!

 This butterfly card was cased out of the 2009-2010 catalog. This was for another friends baby shower with her gift.

This Journey card was cased with a slight change. I cased this from Sandy Laidlaw (http://www.stampinconnection.com/photo/sentimental-journey-7)

  Hope you all enjoyed today's post. I'll add some more as soon as I know what is already here! I have to get my swap cards started for tomorrow's club meeting at Kathy's house. I'll also post those beauties up (I've been waiting SO LONG to get in on her club, so I'm beyond myself!!)

Have a scrap-tastic day!!