because I played along with a bunch of challenges! Haha... I'm so funny... NOT! I had a lovely weekend of nothing to do (except some marking) so I played along with a few challenges. It was fun because I tried a couple techniques I wouldn't normally have tried, and I used some products I haven't used yet too!

The first card is from last week's There She Goes challenge: stamp simply. No colouring in, just the stamped image.

I actually really love this one. No colouring and it's awesome! I used a set called "Happy Day."

This is from friday's Free For All challenge: island inspiration. I used the butterfly gardens on Vancouver Island for my inspiration:

I used a great little set called Wingin' It. It's lovely..

Another great little set called "Home Tweet Home."

I used an old Kim Hughes set.. I love the simplicity!

I used a large set called "My Little Princess" and only a few are available..

Every few months Splitcoast Stampers has two nights of challenges called Virtual Stamp Night. This time around I was able to finish 6 projects, two of which I shared with you yesterday. Here are the rest:

• There are 3 snowflakes in decreasing sizes layered on top of each other. They were cut with the Slice. 
• The patterned paper is by Lasting Impressions.. I LOVE this colour combo for Christmas... 
• Finished off with the *perfect* SRM sticker. 

• I bought a Crate Paper paper pack yesterday forgetting that I already owned it.. DUH! So I'm on a mission to use it up. I was also reminded that I have a bunch of Christmas sentiments that fit in the SU! Word-window punch, so I put that to use as well!
• That moose is from  Kim Hughes set by the late CHF... 

• I love this stamp and sentiment. I special-ordered the sentiment because it's so perfect for ME, and for this stamp... I gotta use it more this Christmas...
• This is more Crate Paper BTW...

• I also have a bunch of last year's Cosmo Cricket Christmas papers that I need to use up.. This card is a result of me throwing a bunch of scraps on a card and seeing where it goes.... 
• The sentiment is by Hero Arts. 

Over the weekend, my last weekend until school starts again, I decided to do something relaxing and good for the soul: MOVE MY CRAFT ROOM!! Yah, I'm crazy. You don't need to tell me that... But it was a move I have thought about for a while and pretty soon it will be ready for me to share some photos...

For now, I have a couple projects to share. I felt so inspired and invigorated by the move that I got busy!!


This is a very sweet image from Cornish Heritage Farms that I have had laying around for a while. It was time to make it into a card. The cuttlebug'd background added to the antique look I have going on with the image.

Reorganizing always inspires me to use old materials, do you do that too?? I have had these prima flowers for ages, and I bought that bright green Hambly overlay months ago and just never used it! Well the time is now, my friends! I love these products now, and may not in a year's time, so why not enjoy them on a layout instead of my shelf?

School tomorrow.. yay.. I am excited to get back to work again, but there is SO much to do. I just got a call and another one of my choirs was invited to sing at an Olympic event. It's only a month and a half 'til the Olympics and we are going to have to WORK WORK WORK!!

To all of you that are back to work tomorrow: GOOD LUCK!

It's my dear son's birthday on Wednesday, but we're having the party tomorrow and he absolutely LOVES a Kim Hughes stamp of mine, so I HAD to use it on his birthday card. It's going to be a pretty lean birthday and Christmas this year, so I hope this card and the couple things that we bought for him will bring him joy. 

Here's the card I made with this week's sketch, and Dawn's color challenge:

 So I used a piece of unlikely birthday paper, and that's the blue piece which is actually from the MME Christmas collection! The rusty coloured paper is also from MME but it's from the Bloom and Grow collection. Here's a close-up of the "Cuteasaurous" on which I used a technique called "Nasty Rag." 


The technique is simple. Colour the area of the image you want to "nastify" and ONLY that section. Grab a rag with a lot of texture (I used a very old bath towel) and spray some colourless blender solution on it. Dab your image with the rag and you will get the "Nasty Rag" effect. Cool eh? 

Here's the sketch:


Please play along and link your creation at the Jacksonbelle blog! 


Remember that Inkadinkado stamps and sets are 75% off at the store. That's crazy!! Check it out!. 

So I stole away for a few minutes this evening to make another card. I think I'm pretty much going to make Christmas cards from now on because I have so many places and people that I need to provide cards for. It's a good problem to have, but when you're too busy to sleep, not too much fun.

This layout was quick and easy, especially because I used punches to cut out the squares. After I cut out the squares I laid them on white cardstock, measured an 1/8 of an inch on all sides and cut the white. The finished card is 4x6. I hope you like it! I used Basic Grey patterned paper, and May Arts ribbon.

The boy is a Whipper snapper stamp, and the "hey dude" and the baseball is from a Kim Hughes set by CHF. Here's another Whipper Snapper design:


Sometimes even adding one line (in this case the "table") gives the main object some context. This is my most-used trick with a multiliner. I usually add a ground, or a table depending on the design.


I also wanted to remind everyone about our contest that we have running at Jacksonbelle all month long…You have a chance to win a $50, $30 or $15 Jacksonbelle gift certificate!   Just think of all the awesome stuff you could order…Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, Inkadinkado, Mary Arts…$50 goes a long way!  The contest rules are simple…participate in one or more of our Tuesday challenges during the month of September.  The only other requirement is that you use either Inkadinkado, Stampavie, Prima or Basic Grey stamps (all of these brands are carried at Jacksonbelle).  For the full contest deets, click HERE.

Watch for my Jenni Bowlin card in my next post. I just LOVE that product line.. Till then!

I had a special request from my student "B" to make a card for my student "J" who has made me a few special cards all by himself in the past... He's even taken my copic classes!!! So I knew it had to be extra-special. Here's the close-up of the main image of the card I made:


I did a little paper-tole action on this card.. So yep I coloured every layer fully, then cut out the pieces I needed. It's a really neat effect in-person, but man is it a lot of work. "J", if you're reading this, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY! haha... just kidding. Here's the card:

Today's Clean and Simple challenge was to choose a piece of art from www.art.com and use it as an inspiration piece.

I just bought an elephant baby stamp from the AMuse store, so I went looking in the Elephant category and found this adorable scene. I copied it! haha..

















I got most of my collection in the bucket, and when I counted there were about 160 markers in there. None of my browns and blenders made it in, but I was pretty happy that all of my colours fit EXACTLY, as in, I don't have more room for new markers, so I guess that means I'm set! haha..

Take care!

I was able to muster some energy to make a couple things between naps the last couple days, but only photographed them and uploaded them today..

This first project is a card I made for last week's CPS115 sketch:






















All stamps on the can from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Ian coloured the majority of the owl, but I just received this super cool-looking frame stamp from Unity and really wanted to use it and his coloured image was sitting there un-loved, and un-carded... SO.. I masked around the branch and stamped/coloured the frame, and added a little more highlights/shades to the owl... I really like this image (whipper snapper), and am loving this frame (thanx Unity!)...

I am really digging Ian doing the Copic thang. It's nice to just FIND a completed image all ready to go..

I used a wildly unpopular stamp by Stampin' Up called Park Ave Patterns for the background of the card. It's kind of bird-cage-ish so I thought it worked well...

I requested some new Ketto stamps from Stamping Bella at my LSS so I could teach some classes featuring these funky designs, and this is my first time playing. Hope you like her! I played along with Kristina's Color Inspiration. (Did you see she chose my card in the Top 10 last week??)

Here's what I've been cooking up this weekend. The easter-themed projects are all for a class I will be teaching at Precious Memories in Langley, BC in March! I have had "Clean and Simple" on the brain lately, and here's what's come of it. *Gasp* no Copic markers...
















If you're interested in this class and in the area, give Precious Memories a call.. I'd love to meet some of my readers.

I had no idea it was Mini VSN this weekend, but I'm glad there was because I had a little time on Saturday and all day today to stamp, so it gave me something to do. I hope to do a few more challenges before the day's over, but here's what I made so far: