Spring Creation Self Challenge Projects #4-7!

WOW! I've been awfully busy the last few days! I have been creating up a storm! I have a little bit of everything for you tonight (or maybe I should say, "this morning"...I really need to go to bed!! lol) My wonderful friend, Aleana, took these pictures today for me! My camera was just NOT cutting it! Hop on over to her website to see her AMAZING work!

-- Project #4 of 30 -- "Miss You" Metallic Butterfly Card --

This card is a design of The Inspiration Station where I took a "Quick & Easy" Card making class the other day! LOVED it! Really, they are all quick and easy! :D I took the class for this card. I knew as soon as I saw it on their website who I was sending it to! The "Miss You" sentiment is a stamp from my own collection as they didn't have a "miss you" stamp there to use. This was my very first "ink job" (smile) using Vintage Photo Distress Ink by Tim Holtz. It turned out a little darker than I would have liked but it was a learning experience! I wish you could see how beautiful this butterfly is in "real" life! We used "Perfect Pearls" Pigment Powder (another first for me!) and I LOVED it! I can't wait to stock up! :)

This picture shows the dimension and a close up of the Pearls! Love those too! :)

-- Project #5 of 30 -- Flowery Stamped Note card --

Another Inspiration Station Design. What a beautifully simple card to construct! Would you believe there are THREE different stamps on this card?? Stunning! I have wanted the lacy punch for quite some time and I think I'm putting it on my wish list for this weekend finally!Showing a side view of the dimensions again! LOVE my pop dots!! (And my pearlies too!!)

-- Project #6 of 30 -- "Thinking of You" Butterfly Card --

This card was SO, SO, SO easy to make! We stamped the background image twice; once on the card and once on a white piece of card stock. Colored in the white card stock buggies with our choice of coloring utensils (I used pencils, as my Copic class isn't until next month!), cut the buggies out and pop dotted them right over top of there counterparts on the card! Added some blueish pearlies (smile) and ribbon and VIOLA! Finished Product!! Oh, we also distressed the edges with Vintage Photo ink. Definitely got the hang of it now! :)Close Up of my handywork! :)Lastly, a close up of the Dimensions and Sentiment w/ BLING! :)

-- Project #7 of 30 -- "Oh Happy Day" Squirrel Card --

This last card designed by Inspiration Station was a little more tedious as there was inking, actual paper distressing and coloring to be done! Not to mention wrapping the twine and making sure to have enough left over to tie the button on! lol ;) "oh happy day" is a stamp with the dots added in with a black fine tip marker. The squirrel (Isn't he soo cute!!??) and the logs are stamped and the "bounce" line is hand drawn with a black fine tip marker. REALLY like this card!

Well, those are the card creations for the last day or so...stay tuned for another post featuring some jewelry creations! Which card was your favorite? *Hugs*

Project #3 Spring Self Challenge & Polka Doodles Challenge Entry

Good evening to all! I hope everyone had a great weekend! It was a gorgeous, warm & sunny weekend here in Northern Connecticut. I'm sure it won't last long but I've been trying to enjoy it while it lasts! I have been super duper inspired this weekend by a lot of new (and treasured not-so new) creation blogs and many hours spent wandering around both Michael's and JoAnn's Fabrics! Because I can never remember what products I want or where it was I first found them, I have decided to make a visual wish list. So while I was meandering around the craft stores, I took pictures (sometimes with my cell phone camera and other times with the regular camera) of the things I wanted to purchase at another time. Just a way I have come up with to help with my Fibro-fogged brain! I would love to hear your suggestions for remembering or wish listing! I need all the help I can get these days! lol OK, now on to the Project!

"Gear Up For A Happy 5th Birthday Mason"

Have you checked out the Polka Doodle Challenge Blog? It's FANTASTIC and there are so many great crafters! Be sure to check it out! I have been working on this birthday card for my Great Nephew for quite a few days. Piece by piece and a little at a time...it's finally finished! :) He is turning 5 at the end of this month (bet you couldn't figure that out?! lol) and is obsessed with the movie "Cars". I saw a really cute collection of "Cars" chipboard shapes at Michael's a few weeks ago and knew they would come in handy!

The Polka Doodle Week 10 Challenge was to create a card to celebrate a milestone birthday or anniversary. So Mason's 5th birthday was the perfect milestone I needed! The background card stock is black and the large 5 on the front is cut out from the front card flap.

I used the Cricut Alphalicious cartridge and the Design Studio Software to make the "5". I cut it once in white using the shadow function and again in bright red using the base number. Added some yellow card stock to the left side and adhered the white "5" shadow first. Then added the red "5" with pop dots to add dimension. I added the Lightening McQueen chipboard image with pop dots as well so he would be as high off the card as the number 5. Just to be certain he wouldn't drive away (heehee) I adhered him to the bottom of the 5 as well.

One of the movie's tag lines is "Gear Up". I decided to bring that into the card as an added bonus for my Car's loving nephew! ;) I cut "Gear Up" using the Cricut Alphalicious cartridge. I did one cut in black card stock using the base shift letters and a one cut in white card stock using the shadow shift feature. I adhered them together and plopped them on the yellow strip. As a finishing touch to the outside of the card I added a little line/dot border with a fine tip black marker around the yellow section and around the red "5".

There we have the front of the card! I took this picture to try to show the "5" cutout. In hindsight it would have been great if I took these pics on something other than a black table so the card would have shown up better! Oh well! (sigh)

For the inside of the card, I adhered two strips of white card stock that would stay hidden behind the solid part of the front flap. Using the Alphalicious cart (again!) and the DSS I was able to get my letters small enough to fit in this small space. I shadowed the "5th" with black and used the same yellow card stock from the front to make the milestone pop again! (Five is a BIG accomplishment you know! It takes a WHOLE hand to show your age! lol) The other words were welded together (FAVE feature of DSS!) and cut on black card stock.

Here's a closeup of the inside wording. I like how the letters came out different sizes. Usually I'm a perfectionist about my sizes and positioning of things but for this card, I let myself be a little crazy! (woohoo! lol)

It feels great to be creating again and participating in some blog challenges along the way! :) Check out the great blog candy opportunities on the right sidebar of my blog!

Happy almost Monday! :)

Blog Candy Craziness!!

Hey all! Still working on my next few projects but in the meantime check out the new blog candy offered at the sites featured on my side bar! GREAT blogs with awesome inspiration and fantabulous chances to win awesome blog candy! Check them all out!

A few Scrapbook Pages from the Past...

My FibroFriend Vicky asked if I would post some of my Scrapbook pages. I will have to work on getting some updated pics this weekend but here I've posted some older pages I just happen to have pictures of already! Enjoy!
This was a really fun day! I took my GodDaughter, Kaitlyn and my Great Nephew Mason (best buds btw) to CT's Beardsley Zoo. Mason was a little young but Kaitlyn had a blast! One of my favorite days still! I need to get an updated pic of this first page as it's actually journaled now! lol My favorite part of this page is that the map is attached to the outside of the page protector so you can actually fold it out and look at the map of the zoo!

I love this layout because I LOVE B&W pics! This is my nephew Stephen and his date Abby (and friends) at their Junior Prom. I loved that Abby wore a red dress and it was a great color scheme to scrap! I love using black pages and metallic accents!

Sorry this pic is so blurry! The boys are Mason (my Great Nephew) and Davey (my cousin's son) who are exactly 30 days apart! I just loved this layout because I love the border of trucks and the amount of pictures on the page is almost like a little movie of the boys playing. (smile)

The rest of the layouts I have for you are from my college roommate's bridal shower and wedding! The layout above and below are from her shower. I try to use the actual invitations, napkins, favors, etc. from any event if at all possible. So both Mechelle's bridal shower invites and her wedding invites were used in these layouts.

The invitation on this one is adhered to the outside of the page protector so the "reader" can flip it open and read the details!

I used the wedding ceremony program in this layout.

It's been a look down memory lane as these layouts came from 2006! I will have to update soon with some newer layouts...of course, I'm so far behind, I'm not finished with my 2007 album yet!! (smile) I chose to make yearly albums with some special smaller albums thrown in (ie: Disney or other fun events that deserve their own books!) Some people make an album for each child, some make an album for each catagory (Vacation, Christmas, Birthdays, etc.). That's what I love so much about crafting! There are no mistakes, just variations! ;)

"G is for Girl" Welcome Baby Card

Project #2 of 30 -- Spring Creations Self-Challenge

I created this adorable "Congratulations on your new arrival" card for my friends Mechelle and AJ who have just welcomed their second daughter, Cassandra Lynn. This card was inspired by a sticker I saw at Michael's with little boy clothes all hung from a clothesline. There wasn't a girl themed one so I decided I'd make it instead! My clothesline isn't very long but I think it's cute just the same! I cut the outfit and booties from the Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls cart. The "G is for Girl" hanger is actually a 3-D sticker that I recovered so my papers would match! I outlined everything with black marker so each piece would stand out against the white background and sewed three baby buttons to the right bottom corner just for an added decoration. Aren't they cute??

This side view shows that the pieces are not flush with the card, but are truly hanging from the "clothesline" (made w/ twine btw!). I "tea dyed" the edges of the white cardstock just to give it a border against the pink card base.

OK, I have to admit for the inside of this card I cheated! My pink marker I wanted to use wasn't working correctly and my hands were very shaky SO I popped my cardstock in the printer, found a font I liked, typed what I wanted, hit print and VIOLA! :) The pink flowers were pre-made felt pieces and I attached them with small purple brads.

I can't wait to mail this off to the proud new parents (and big sister too)!

"For Your Little Monkey" Shaped Card

PROJECT #1 of 30

I created this Monkey shaped Baby Shower card for my dear friend Rebecca. She has chosen not to find out what gender her new baby is, so keeping with neutrals and her nursery "jungle" theme, I thought this Monkey cut from Everyday Paper Dolls would make the perfect card!
To begin with, I wanted my monkey to be fuzzy so I decided to use felt. Mind you, I've never used felt with my Cricut before so this was definitely a learning process! To make the felt less flexible and easier to cut, I adhered felt to card stock using a spray adhesive. I cut the monkey from dark brown felt first then light brown felt (for accents). I cut two more monkeys using dark brown card stock to create the card background. I cut one more monkey in white card stock for the inside.
After drawing on my monkey's accents with a black fine-tipped Sharpie, I assembled the rest of his accents using hot glue. I added a heart shaped felt nose and googly eyes. I also outlined the whole felt monkey using a regular tipped black Sharpie and blotted red Sharpie in his mouth for added color. When assembling was finished, I used a wire brush to "rough" up the felt to make the monkey appear more fuzzy. I used small circular movements to get the felt to "fuzz up".
Once the background card was assembled, I adhered the white monkey cut to the inside bottom portion of the card. I added a little ribbon to the top for a seamless fold. The phrase "For your little monkey" was penned using a Creative Memories fine-tip brown pen as well as the border around the monkey shape. After finishing both sections of the card (the felt piece and the card background/inside) I adhered the felt section to the front of the card using hot glue for a permanent bond. One last look to make sure all my pieces matched and the monkey was still fuzzy and (ta-DA!) he was ready to go!
This picture is taken as a side view to try to capture the "fuzz factor"! The pictures do not do this little monkey justice!

The monkey is now in his new home and waiting eagerly for the new arrival!

WOW! It's been a loooong time!

Welcome to my blog! Some of you may already know me from posting this blog last spring. If not, let me take a minute to introduce myself! My name is Jennifer Rose and I enjoy trying new types of crafting but scrapbooking and card making are my favorites! There are 123 days until my birthday (July 7th) and I am setting a goal for myself. I will create at least thirty projects (cards, scrapbook pages, etc.) by that date. A little lofty for me, I know it might seem like nothing to some crafters but I would like to start off slowly. Please help cheer me on! Creation number one is in the works as we speak (I'm waiting for adhesion spray to dry!) and I will post pics tomorrow!

I have Fibromyalgia as well as two other chronic pain disorders and after moving back to good old (cold!) New England from South Carolina in October, I realized the Northern winter was going to be pretty rough on my body. Though I've had my supplies all set up for months now, I have not been able to create much (OK, how about nothing!). I'm excited for warmer weather so I can spend more time OUTSIDE with my two year old Furbaby, Phoenix, but also so I will feel up to creating more projects and catching up on my scrapbooking!

I also love photography! I have eight nieces and nephews as well as my Goddaughter (pictured with me above with her older brother) who inspire me and give me plenty of photo opportunities. My father was a wedding and portrait photographer and the process and finished product always amazed me. Every once in a while I will take a beautiful picture (usually of some sort of landscape!) that I just can't keep to myself! Keep a look out!

I hope you enjoy my blog and I apologize for my rambling now as I tend to be long winded! (You couldn't tell that already, could you?? *smile*) Please check back often as I hope to be creating, creating, creating! Feel free to drop me a message or leave love on my posts! I would LOVE to hear from you!