Valentine's Day Inspiration

 Hello everyone!  Apparently I have Valentine's on the brain - BIG TIME!!!!

 Yesterday's challenge over at SCS was an Inspirational Challenge!  This week's Inspiration came from a very talented lady, Daphne.  She has an Etsy Shop - Octopurse.  She has beautiful coin purses, iPad covers and just tons of cute stuff!!  I actually combined two items for my card.  The heart patterned coin purse got me on the valentine's road and the iPad cover inspired the tri fold design! 

Valentine's Day Tri-Fold Card

Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Masculine Thinking of You

Today I have a Masculine Thinking of You Card I did for a WT Challenge over at SCS.  This week's challenge was to incorporate a Time theme into your design.  It could be calendars, clocks... whatever, as long as it had to do with time.  Well I bought CB's Clockworks embossing folder some time ago and have desperately wanted to play around with it but just haven't had a chance yet - until now!!  This card actually took a few turns during its creation but in the end I am really happy with the way it turned out!!

Masculine Thinking of You All The Time

 I double embossed with SU Daffodil Delight and inked a few of the gears with SU Old Olive.  I then matted it with green Core'dinations.  The woven ribbon is actually a gem of a find at the Dollar Tree - I bought all of it!!!  The buttons are SU and I used hemp cord to connect them together and attached with hot glue.  The sentiment piece is three layers.  For the top layer I hand wrote the sentiment onto vellum and then layered onto a cream colored scrap that I had inked the edges of with SU Pumkin Pie.  I matted that onto an orange colored scrap that I inked the edges of with SU Old Olive.  I punched the brads through all three layers and then threaded hemp cord through the brads and tied off with a little bow!


 Thanks for stopping by, Shabby Jo

Snowflakes for Christmas

WOW... Okay so it has been a ridiculously long time since my last post!!  Our poor little man has been quite ill off and on for the last three weeks.  I am sure everyone has decided I have just dropped off the face of the earth or something!!  Well, guess what.... I haven't and I have a great CASE project to show you today!  Today is Featured Stamper day over at SCS which deserves an automatic YIPPEEE!!  I love browsing through the galleries of these wonderfully talented artists!  Today's Stamper is Shadow's Mom!!  For those of you who don't know, the challenge is to look through the featured stamper's gallery and choose an item to CASE!! I chose her Noel Tree Card.  Here is my take on her wonderful creation.  I call it Snowflakes for Christmas!!

Snowflakes for Christmas Card

 I do not have a snowflake embossing folder so I created a similar look using a different technique.  I stamped the snowflakes with Versamark dazzle and embossed with stardust powder.  My paper is from TPS's Holiday Winter paper pack.  the blue glitter gems are from hobby lobby (I don't remember the manufacturer - sorry).  I distressed and inked the edges of the red snowflake paper and traced the edges of the christmas tree with a a blue glitter pen.  I also added diamond stickles to the white snowflakes in the tree cut out.  I attached the tree with dimensionals.

Well I know it is a little early for Christmas but I have got to get started early this year.  I am anticipating a lot more orders than I am use to and don't want end up in panic mode!!

I hope every one has a wonderful Thanksgiving and for those of you traveling.... please be safe!

Thanks for stopping by, Shabby Jo

Double the Challenge!

Today I am submitting a card for two challenges!  Woohoo!  It's not very often that one of my creations qualifies for more than one challenge but today it just worked out that way!  Maybe the goodness of the Liebster Award is giving me a hand.  Who knows, anyway here is my card for today...

Orchid Tile Card

Both challenges are over at SCS, the first being the 400th Technique Lover's Challenge (woohooo!!) Cut It Up! We were asked to take an image and cut it up any way we wanted - it just had to be cut up!  Well I am certainly not a 'Random' kinda girl so of course mine are cut into neat little squares!  (Me and OCD are close friends/enemies!!)  So The image I decided to use is this old tried and true stamp that I inherited from some one's getting out of the hobby give away.  It has no name or company on it so sorry I can't help with that.  Anyway, every time I use this stamp I have so much because I get to color - I always stamp the image in black and color the flowers what ever colors are in my mood that day!!  So I did just that today.  I stamped and started my therapy session oh uh I mean coloring session!  Then it hit me... wasn't there a challenge from last week that was about coloring??  I didn't have anytime at all to craft last week - the only thing I did was glance through some galleries and look at what the challenges were but I didn't have to do any of them.  So I got on mt computer and checked.  Sure enough last thursday's challenges was Ways To Use It - Crazy For Crayons!!!  How lucky is that!  So back to the card... there really isn't a lot to tell this time.  I stamped and colored the image as I said, then cut it up and mounted the pieces on to some scrap purple cardstock and mounted those pieces onto the card front.

Hope you like it!  I hope to get back to my regular crafting addiction soon!  These spur-attic moments of speed crafting is not cuttin it - - I need more I tell ya, I need MORE!!! 

 Well until then thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day,
 Shabby Jo 

Falling Leaves

Wow, I have been so busy I didn't realize how long it had been since I blogged!  Gosh has it really been over a week??  Time flies when you having fun right!!  Well I have still been crafting a little this week but I have mostly been working on getting myself and my life organized - HAH!!!  More on that later... For today, here is a card I did for this weeks Free 4 All challenge over at SCS - Fall Leaves

Falling Leaves

I bought several packages of these silk leaves last year at Hobby Lobby.  I have been itching to use them and kinda already had a card sketch in my mind but other things kept coming first.  When I saw today's challenge was all about fall leaves I jumped for joy and grabbed my leaves and went to work!!  I created the window using coredinations nostalgia cardstock in green and burgundy. The leaves are, as I said abive, from Hobby Lobby and the ribbon is from my stash (I save every piece of ribbon I come across!!)

As for my mention of the big nasty "O" word... organize... I am trying (once again mind you) to get a better handle on my household management and reorganize my studio to create a better work flow and hopefully cut down on the cluttery mess that always follows any project I work on!!  For my household arena I am employing lists galore!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LISTS!!!  When I have the right lists and use them I fell so much more at peace with the world!!  I am also employing a few tips and tricks from the good ole Flylady.  She has a ton of great ideas but there is also a ton of stuff that just doesn't work me so I am picking and choosing from all different resources and rebooting my Home Management Binder!!!  I might even post some results when I am finished - we'll see!!!  Well, none of this reorganizing is going to get done by itself so I am signing off for today and hope to be back sooner than a week this time!!!

 Thanks for stopping by, Shabby Jo

Anniversary Easel Card

Today's post is an Anniversary Easel card I did for my in-laws that I also submitted for today's Ways To Use Challenge WT393 -Fancy Folds over at Splitcoaststampers.  This was my first time to attempt one of these little cuties and I must say it wasn't the easiest card to make by far but oh did it turn out cute!!!  Just think what I could do if I actually practiced at these and knew what I was doing!!!

So it is 47th wedding anniversary for my Mother and Father in-law and I looked up what the traditional and modern gifts were and they both said BOOKS!!!  I am not the kind of person to buy someone else a book unless I happen to know about one they want - which hardly ever happens.  Plus both my MIL and FIL have electronic readers.  So anyway, while doing my daily check-in over at SCS I wnet to see what today's challenge was and oh my gosh... problem solved.  Check out the challenge to get all the deets but just know that this little Easel Card baby was one of the options!!!  How perfect is that - I get my card and a book all in one, yaaahhhh!!!  Now I don't have a particular site that I got my idea from.  I checked out the tutorial from SCS here.  Then I looked at probably a hundred different sites to get the hang of how they worked and the different styles out there and came up with this....

Anniversary Easel Card

Part of what made this card difficult for me (beside having never done one before!!) was that I do not have a die cut that makes this book shape so I had to design one in inkscape first then make an svg file for good ole Edward (my eCraft) to work with!!  The yellow DP under the sentiment card is SU! Bright Collection Patterns Pack is TPS Deja Blue.  The card and book base are actually from scraps box.  Is is somewhere between  SU! Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point but I don't know exactly the brand or name -sorry.  I inked the edges of the book easel with a blended combination of Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive.  For the book base I did a lot of soft sponging all over with SU! Daffodil Delight, Old Olive and CTMH Oak Brown.  I then went back over the edges with Tempting Turquoise and just a tiny bit of Old Olive.  For the inner white "page"  I created the wrap around text (also in inkscape) and printed it then using the hinge method I gave to Edward to cut out!!  The text is 1Cor 13:14 repeated all the way around.  Lastly, I created the sentiment in PSE10 and printed it out on Whisper White and inked the edges with Tempting Turqouise.  The ribbon for the 'book mark' is from my scraps. 

Well I hope you like it and I also hope to practice and get better to bring you more of these in the future!!

If you would like the svg files send me an email and I will send you the files!!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Count Your Blessings

Well, I am officially calling it the Fall Season at my house!!  Though I am in Texas and we really don't have such a season, still I am ready to bring our the beautiful fall colors!  Today's card starts off the season quite well I think!  I entered this card into this weeks Sketch Challenge: SC402 over at SCS.

Count Your Blessings - Thanksgiving Card

The dp all came from the Paper Studio's Natural Botanical pack.  The solid cardstock was from my stash.  The big beautiful sunflower came from Hobby Lobby ~ everything FALL if 40% off right now!!!  The leaves and raffia are from a large box of random "greenery" that I have.  I inked the edges of the background piece with SU! Pumpkin Pie and the horizontal piece with Old Olive.  For the sentiment piece, I used the Spellbinders Nestabilities - Big Scalloped Squares Large to cut and emboss the shape, inked the edges with Pumpkin Pie and stamped the sentiment (unknown designer) with Old Olive.

Don't you just love the color combination?  I certainly do!!  Now if only we could get a little more of what northern states know to be Fall down here!!!

That's it for today hope you enjoyed my little appetizer of Fall because there is more to come and wait till you see the main course!!



Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo

Butterfly Birthday

This is my second post for today so please be sure to scroll down to check out my really cool Snake Party Invitations!!

This card is for a sketch challenge over at Splitcoaststampers - the Sketch Challenge 401.
This is the sketch...

This was my first sketch challenge and I was excited to participate!  I actually found it kinda relieving... Half the work is done for me - the design of the card.  All I had to do was fill in the blocks - how fun is that!!

Well, a few weeks ago I was given the Inkadinkado Gem Stone Insects stamp set.  I thought it would be really great to make a card using those stamps and send it to the thoughtful giver!!!  So here is my card...

Butterfly Thank You Slider Card -Closed

Butterfly Thank You Slider Card -Open

First of all as you can see, I modified the large horizontal front piece (piece #4). I turned it into a message slider!!  It took my a little while to figure how the mechanics but I finally figured it out.  I plan on doing a tutorial and posting it this weekend.  The glitter white background piece was dry embossed with cuttlebug's Tiny bubbles folder then embossed with versamark and kaleidoscope translucent powder.  I promise the picture does not do it justice - I have got to learn how to capture the glitter in my photographs!!!  Anyway, the butterfly paper for piece #2 I created with the small butterfly from the set using CTMH Wild Flower.  The other stamped images were also done with CTMH Wild Flowers then embellished with glitter pens and small gems from Hobby Lobby.  I Love how this turned out - beautiful and elegant!

Okay, well that is all the time I have for today but hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to post about an awesome wedding card I did last night!!
 
Thanks for stopping by, Shabby Jo

Double Gate Card

Phew is it a whirl wind in my house lately!  This year when everyone started talking about starting again I was actually listening!!  My son started school this year - well sorta!  We decided to enroll him in MDO two days a week.  That is school enough me.  On our first day (oh I meant his first day!!), he did great - Mommy was the one who needed major amounts of Kleenex!  I was doing GREAT until it was actually time to leave him there :(  Then the emotions boiled up so bad I could hardly contain them.  Well my little man could tell his mommy was upset so that's when he got upset - I just had to walk away.  Don't you know I was told that after being upset for maybe two minutes he was terrific the rest of the day!!  When I picked him up he certainly very happy to see and ready to go home but he was also very excited to tell me all about his day and his new adventures!  Though I miss him terribly when we are apart - I know this will be good for him, for us for him to spend more time with other children his age and learn knew things from someone other than his SuperMommy!!

So how did I keep myself from getting in car and going up there and getting my son back, you ask??  Well I took the opportunity to spend some time in favorite Cyber house - Splitcoaststampers!!  I Love Love Love this place!!  If are into ANY kind of craft and want to meet some really awesome people, you have got to check this wonderful place!  It is full of Fun, Ideas, Tutorials, and beautiful Galleries Galore!!!  I have been participating in a few of their challenge and have really enjoyed it!  I decided I was going to started sharing my challenge experiences on my blog!

This week's Try a New Technique Challenge was to make a Double Gate card.  You can check out the challenge here.  This was so cute that I just couldn't resist!!  Here is mine...

Double Gate Thank You Card - Opened

 This is a close up of just the front when the card folded up!

Double Gate Card -Closed

I actually made this whole card from my scraps box, so no deets on the paper.  The Castle Stamp is from D.O.T.S - S162 Miss August Chelsea.  The inside sentiment is unkown - if you know, please let me know in the comments below!  I used the nestabilities big scalloped squares for the inside sentiment and outside tag.  I distressed the edges with CTMH Oak Brown and SU Melon Mambo.  A little hemp cord to tie it all up and walaa!  I absolutely love these cards!!  A thought occurred to me though...  Wouldn't these make adorable little birthday invitations??!!!  Now I just need to plan a party!! Thanks Judy for such a fun challenge!



Thanks for stopping by, Shabby Jo