Another challenge

Since I had all my stuff out and had already made quite a big mess, AND was still feeling pretty happy and thankful about conquering my sewing machine dilemma, I decided I would go ahead and make a card for Christina's first challenge she just started. The colors for it are- chocolate chip, cocoa, color of your choice, white/cream, and the technique for it was using crystal effects or clear embossing. I didn't have any crystal effects, nor have I ever used it. Not sure how!? And the only embossing powder I have is some super old stuff that has glitter in it. There's hardly any of it left in the bottle. I never emboss because I don't have a gun, and well not much embossing powder either. And I hate having to use the toaster or the oven for doing it! Eeek! But I managed with it this time. For some reason it never turns out right when I do it. The embossing powder like melts and dries on too much and then doesn't leave it looking too glossy at all. Could be that the oven is too hot, or because the embossing powder is so old?? I really hope to be able to invest in getting an embossing gun one of these days.
So if you can tell, which you may not be able to, the flourish in the background was embossed with my really old clear glittery embossing powder! Haha! I tried!
What I used for this card-

• Card stock: Close to cocoa (base of the card)-SU, chocolate chip (scallop edge)-SU, some aqua paper I purchased from a scrapbook store a long time ago (I have a lot of older stuff, huh!?! Ha!), and some random white card stock, maybe from walmart??? Not sure.
• Stamps: Baroque motifs (background flourish)-SU, Song birds (the birdie)-SU, and the "From the heart" sentiment is from an SU stamp set too, I borrowed just the stamp from my mom and I don't remember what set it's from.
• Aqua colored satin ribbon from Walmart
• Rhinestone (for the birdies eye)
• Sewing thread
• Embossing powder
• Ek Success corner rounder (I use that on almost all of my cards!! So versatile!!).
• Ink: Versa Mark, Color box fluid chalk inkpad-dark brown
  

Okay, that's it for now! Hope you liked this one, I kept it pretty simple. I notice these days I like keeping my cards more that way. Who knows, maybe I'll change, but for now, less is more!! Haha!

It is LATE here, Nighty night ladies!! Guys too! ;)

Blessings

~Jessica

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #15

Hello there everyone! I haven't been posting much these days. I guess I've been trying to take care of my house and my boys and keeping busy with that. Although, I don't feel like I've been the greatest at that either. I think I've been dealing with more emotional things, and it's been hindering me from doing all the things I would like to do. I have been praying for the Lord to help me with this.Here is my take on Dawn's color challenge for this week. Aren't the colors she chose soo yummy looking?? I really like them!! Unfortunately, I didn't have any melon/coral color. So I had to use some orange I had. It's hard because I'm running out of so many colors. They usually happen to be the ones she has for the challenges. She's been having cream a lot, and I literally

only have little pieces here and there of it left. So I have to be creative when it comes to using it. Same with my green/moss color.

Ok, so this card was actually my third round of making it!!

I originally started this out as a skinny card, then decided on making a real small card. So I cut it down to make a 3 1/2 X 4 inch card. So cute! I actually had this idea in mind of how I wanted my card to look. The "mod" flower design is fun! I thought adding the button to the one would be cute, so I just stitched it on, stamped different images on each of the other "petals" and adhered them with some foam dots to give them that raised dimensional look.

So why did it take me THREE rounds to make my card?

I got my card all completed, sentiment stamped and all... EXCEPT, my stitching. I really wanted to have the zig-zag stitching to give the pink and green that connected look.

I put my needle down, and pushed the presser foot... AND my thread bunched up TERRIBLY and the sewing machine tried eating my card!! It totally destroyed the edge!! And because I had the birthday sentiment so close to the edge there was no cutting it down to salvage it and reuse it. I messed with my sewing machine for a while to try and figure out what was going on. I took the bobbin out and cleaned out the bunched up thread, messed around with it, still did the same thing! So I decided I would go on to cut more paper for another card. Made that one, got it together, and the sentiment didn't turn out right. So I tried salvaging it with putting glitter on it. That was a mistake! The glue pen let way too much glue out and making the glitter pool in big spots so you could hardly make out that it said "happy birthday"!

Ok, so I was pretty frustrated by now! And thinking about if the dumb sewing machine would have worked on my first one I would have a perfect card!! Grrr!! So I went to bed. It was getting way too late and I was too grumpy to keep going.

So, today I worked on my sewing machine some more. And, PRAISE the Lord, I got it working!!! So I finally got my card DONE!! It still didn't turn out as well as my very first one did (other than the stitching, ha!). But I am so thankful I was able to get the sewing machine working, I was afraid I would have to call a service place and maybe take it in somewhere to have it fixed. I remembered that a few weeks back, I found my sewing machine laying on the dinning room floor, on it's side!! Yeah, not so sure what my son was up to! I don't even know how he got the heavy thing down off of where I had it! And the fact that I never heard it drop or anything. So I was a little frightened that the inner mechanics of the machine could have gotten messed up from that little mishap.

I don't normally list the supplies I use on my cards. Mostly because I don't know what half of the names of it all are, due to the fact that most of it has been given to me. But I will try and start listing things as I can.

For this card I really don't know the names of the color of the card stock used. But I can say they are all Stampin' Up paper, except my cream color, I used some printed card stock I had (not sure what the brand is) and just used the back side of it.

• Stamps used are:
• Little pieces-SU
• Polka dots & paisley-SU
• Polka dot punches-SU
• Occasions collection-SU
• The happy birthday sentiment is from a set of three clear stamps from Imaginisce. Called Snag 'em stamps-All kinds of happy collection.
  
• Ink: Old olive-SU, Pixi pink-SU, Versa Mark ink, Yoyo yellow & Real red-SU mixed to make an orangy color.
• EK success corner rounder
• Colored buttons from a pack I bought from Wal-Mart.
• Cream colored sewing thread.
  
  

So I hope you enjoyed viewing my card! I do believe fall is in the air. We've been having nice cool evenings, and there's that familiar smell in the air that this time of year has. I love it!! As much as I felt like we really didn't have much of a summer, I am excited for fall!! Does it feel like fall where you're at yet??

Okay, I better get this posted before it's next year! Sorry about all the jabbering, guess I had a lot to say!!

Have a a wonderful day/evening! God bless!!

~Jessica

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #15- by Victoria Border

Victoria and her sister, Olivia (my nieces), played along with Dawn's color challenge again! I am so happy they did!! This card by Victoria is so cute and pretty!! Lovin' that bow!! And little piglet!! She made this card for her Aunt who LOVES everything Disney! So I thought it was sweet of her to do this card for her! What a beautiful display of these colors for the challenge!!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #15- by Olivia Border

My nieces wanted to participate in the challenge again. They made these at home. Their mom (my sister) emailed these pictures to me and asked if I could post them for the girls.

This one is Olivia's (age 10). Isn't that bouquet with the pink glitter on it beautiful?? I think she did a great job! I tell you, these girls are getting better and better at this!! I'm proud of them!!

Mr. Giraffe

Yup, we took our boys to the zoo this past Monday! It was VERY hot (91 degrees), but we had a great time! Hopefully, I'll share a little more on our family outing, but for now thought I'd share this guy (or girl, not sure!!) with you!! I need to write down the journaling from our day there before it all vanishes from my mind as it seems to do with me these days! Yikes!

Hoot & Night

Hello there to you all! today I wanted to share something a little out of the ordinary with you. As I have mentioned before, that my sister and her husband have a cookie cutter business (ecrandal originals). Early on when I first started my blog I posted pictures of Valentine cookies and Valentine's I made with their cutters. Today, I wanted to share with you something I'm really excited about! Their owls they just came out with!!! They are too cute for words and how can you not resist a cute owl in anything?? As owl's are so popular lately, (especially in the card making/scrapbooking world), I thought it might be to some interest to you crafty ladies. And even if you are not into making cookies, there are actually a lot more things you can do with these cute guys!! They would make for super cute templates for cutting out owl shaped cards or accents to your scrapbook pages! Or if you're into sewing, you have an owl applique ready to go! Not to mention the fabulously cute cookie (and yummy recipe they include with their cutters!) you can have while creating your lovely creations! Cookies, card making, scrapping, crafting, & sewing?? Yeah, I think that's a great combination!!

And let me tell you first hand, the quality of their cutters seriously are amazing!! Every single cutter is hand drawn/designed and created by my brother-in-law, Eric. He's very talented! Their packaging is beautiful and their cutters are guaranteed for life! Seriously, you can't appreciate these enough until you've owned one, used it, and handle it! I'm telling you, you definitely get your moneys worth out of these cute guys!! As well as all their hundreds of other awesome cutters they offer, AND they also offer custom cutters as well!!! Just thought I would share that info with you!! Do I sound like a sales woman now?? haha! I guess I am a little bias considering it's family!! ;-) But I'm not kidding when I say these are really great cutters and seriously endless possibilities with these! Check them out (and maybe purchase one or two *wink*) on ebay and their website!

This first guy is "Hoot"

Here is "Night".

Let me know what you think and if you end up ordering any of their adorable cutters! Hope you all are having a fabulous Wednesday!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #14

Hello everyone! Here is my take on Dawn's color challenge this week. I found that I had some more purple card stock on hand, and think maybe this shade is a little closer in match. My supply of cream colored card stock is sparse, so I had to use the back of some printed paper that I had. I kept it fairly simple, I had a real hard time with this challenge for some reason. And I'm still not sure whether I'm sold on my outcome. But I'm really liking this 3 1/2 X 7 card size, I've seen A LOT of people using this size lately, and think it's so elegant and a fun change from the standard size. Let me know what you think. Hope you're all having a fabulous Thursday!!

Book mark

I am part of a book club that my sisters and nieces started. Each month (I think it is) they draw names, and each person has to make or buy a book mark for that person who's name was drawn. I had my niece, Quinn, so I made this up for her. I wasn't too happy with how it turned out, but I just left it how it was. It didn't look good enough for me, but I know she'll like it anyway, not everyone sees or knows your imperfections, as we are our own worse critics of our selves! Ha!

Simple happy birthday

This card was inspired by Maile, "Hi Maile, thanks for your inspiration!". I really like how clean and simple it is! The colors are more bold and manly to me, so this may be a birthday card for a man! You know how much I have such a hard time with making good "manly" cards! ha!
I made this card over the weekend while my niece's were staying with me. I really didn't do a whole lot of stamping because I was helping them and doing other things around the house. Sometimes it's just fun to help and watch what others create!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #14- by Victoria Border

My nieces (ages 11 1/2 & 10) stayed over the weekend with me, and just left today. They made cards every day they were here (you can see their other cards they made on posts below).

When I showed them the color challenge Dawn just put up last night, they were all giddy and said, "maybe we can make a card for it before we have to leave tomorrow!!". So, today I went through my papers and what I had, to see if I had the right colors for the challenge. I didn't have a whole ton of stuff but I found what I thought was the closest matches for the colors.

So, after I set the stuff out for them, helped them cut their papers, then left them to create their cards while I did things around the house. They only needed a little help. But they totally came up with their own layouts and designs all on their own.

This first card was created by my niece, Victoria (she is almost 12 years old). I think she did a FANTASTIC job!! She's really good at detail and keeping a good balance on her cards.

It excites me to see my nieces (and little sisters) get excited over the things that I love and am really in to! They seemed to have a blast making things and I am happy they were able to make their cards in time before they had to head back home. They were saying before they left "I wonder if one of us will be picked!?!". I told them I would let them know!! Ha! They were pretty excited, to say the least!

The butterfly was giving us a bit of trouble so I had to help her with it. But this was all totally her design and idea! And she put it together all on her own!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #14- by Olivia Border

And this is the lovely card my 10-year-old niece, Olivia, created for Dawn's color challenge. Both of my nieces (Victoria's card is the post above this one) were really excited about entering cards for the challenge. This is her first entry ever. And she was so excited, she kept looking through the different cards lady's had already posted on Dawn's site. She asked me if I think she has a chance at getting picked! I told her, you never know, you could be!! She would get a big smile on her face!

I totally let the girls do their cards all on their own and come up with their own layouts and designs. They did such a great job! I apologize for my bad photography skills, I took these pictures in a hurry.

Olivia's cards

Here are the cards my niece, Olivia (10 years old) made. I could tell she really enjoyed making these and she just kept wanting to make more! Her and Victoria made a total of 5 each, including the ones they made for the color challenge. Once I showed her she could put glitter on the cards, boy, she liked that!! Isn't this a fun and elegant card?? Oh, and I showed them how to use rub-ons (the "Friend" image is a rub-on). I just showed them how to do it once and then they totally went and did these on their own! Olivia's cards are very creative and CUTE!

This one with the bear she made for her almost 2 year old brother, Asa.

This is a card she made for her friend, Samantha.


I really like this one! I think she really put it together nicely, and of course that glitter ;). So pretty! I can tell she likes to keep things simple, and that's so neat! It's really neat to see the different styles the girls have, Victoria I can tell really likes to add detail to hers and will take time to color things in and really add a lot of neat effects. They both did such beautiful jobs!

Victoria's cards

These cards were created by my niece, Victoria (almost 12 years old). She also made a total of five cards (including the one for the color challenge). I think she has an eye for making things look really balanced and elegant! Hope you enjoy looking through her beautiful cards! I had such a fun time having my nieces stay and watching them get excited over making cards, like me! They really did a great job with them.


She really wanted to use this bird. This is from the set of my clear stamps I bought awhile back. I have not yet used this one because I haven't gotten an acrylic block big enough for this bird yet. So I let her use it, we made it work! She wanted to do the bird with the pink and brown and I think she did a GREAT job! Isn't the glitter such a pretty touch!?
I think it's so neat watching what some of the younger girls come up with and seeing their different styles. They amaze me with their creative ideas! They got to making these cards so good I would just leave them while I was tending to things around the house or the boys, they'd asked for help here and there. They then would come and bring their cards to me and say "see! Do you like it?!" I was just amazed at all they did and how fast they whipped these out!

She also made a card for her little brother, Asa, who will be two in just a little over a week.

What a HOOT!

Remember those bird stamps I showed that I purchased a while back? Well, here is that cute owl I was so excited about!
Isn't he cute? He's so fun to use and cut out.

Here is another bird from that same set. They're so fun, and I really like using rhinestones to fill in their eyes.

Here is another anniversary card I made for a dear friend who had an anniversary awhile back. Most of the cards I've posted today I made a couple weeks ago or so.

Cards

My sister stayed with us a few weeks back. She always loves to make cards with me, so of course I don't hesitate to have some fun with her and make some!

This is an anniversary card. I don't have any anniversary stamps, so I have to use ones that work somewhat. Ha!

This card, I almost didn't post. It was suppose to be the anniversary card I intended to give, but instead I gave the one I posted above. I made a boo boo on it, and it's rather noticeable. I could not figure out what to do to hide it without it looking tacky or just dumb. I really liked the card other than my mistake!! I screwed up while sewing it and, well, you can see it! The area where the holes are, where I had to tear out my stitches. It shows up far too well. And we all know card stock ins't like material where you can't see the holes if you tear out the thread. Any suggestions?? Throw it away!?! Tear it apart??

These three cards were created by my little sister, Annie. I think she did a really good job! She really likes using my scallop punch! She will be 10 in October. It's neat to see her advancing as she makes more cards!


And this here card was created and designed by my 3 year old son, Isaac. He loves making cards!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #13

Hello there! I have been MIA for a while. Mostly due to our internet being down for about a week. Thankfully, a fix it guy came out (again) on Friday and got it going for us!! And, I have been a little under the weather as well, so haven't felt to up to doing much. So anyway, here is another challenge by Dawn, and I am SO happy I got to participate (on time, how be it last minute!) this time! I really love these colors that Dawn chose. For some reason it reminds me of when I was a little girl, and for some reason, strawberries come to mind. I guess because when I was little my sister and I would go in the field and pick and eat wild strawberries that grew, they were very tiny but very tasty! I kept picturing a card with strawberries on it even!! I don't have any strawberry stamps so i couldn't do that. I initially had a real hard time trying to come up with any thing decent looking, I think my brain was a little slow do to not feeling so great the past couple days. So, finally I think I got something I like. It's not perfect, and it's a little different, but I think I like it!

Most, if not all stamps I used on here are from my sister-in-law. I got a "goody" package in the mail yesterday from her. She's the reason I am able to have most of my stuff to make cards! Thanks, Christina!!