JAMSquared

My mother-in-law’s birthday is this coming Saturday. Her favorite color is purple so I colored this little fairy baby image with various shades of purple. I received a print-out of this digi stamp from Robin Markowski in the OWH image swap I did back in April. I wish it had been sized just a tad smaller as it almost didn’t fit in my largest nestability. I have colored all 10 of the images I’ve received and this is the first one I made into a card. I have a bunch of ideas for the other images. Stay tuned for those. See this post for the card I made with the image I shared.

I used the Mo’s Dream Team May sketch. It would be neat if I was chosen as June’s guest designer.

Mo's Dream Team May Sketch

Birthday Card for My MIL

Stamps: Mo’s Digital Pencil Baby Fairy Flora; Stampin’ Up It’s Your Birthday (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Perfect Plum; the Paper Studio purple textured cardstock; Georgia Pacific white cardstock
Ink: Genuine Canon ink; Stampin’ Up Whisper White Craft (sentiment)
Accessories: Prima flower; purple brad; Basic Basic 5/8″ purple gingham ribbon; purple glitter (on fair wings)
Tools: colored pencils, Stampin’ Up Curly Label punch; Nestabilites Standard Circles Large; white gel pen

On a side note, I’m participating in Operation Write Home’s Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop. I’m super excited about participating as I’ve always just been a hopper, not a stop on a hop before. It should be lots of fun. Come back Saturday for the red, white and blue card I’m going to share. There might be something more to see.

I came across an awesome organization recently, Operation Write Home. OWH sends homemade cards to troops serving away from home so they can send missives to their loved ones. I recently put six cards from my stash in the mail to them. I’m going to make some more cards for OWH, but in the meantime, I found out about an image swap on the OWH Facebook Fan Page. Since the deadline for Erica to get our 10 stamped images is April 10th, it will be a while before I can make any cards with the stamped images I receive. However, I decided since I had this little bear out (he’s my stamped image), I might as well make a card with him.

I made this card for two challenges. The first challenge is for the Anyone for Anya Challenge #8, which happens to be a sketch challenge, one of my favorite type of challenges.

Anyone for Anya Challenge #8 - Sketch

The second challenge is for the All That Scraps Weekly Wednesday Challenge #23, which is to make a card with spring bling. Ice cream definitely makes me think of spring, since it’s starting to be warm enough to want some ice cream (although we eat ice cream year round). For bling, I used the atYou Spica clear marker, to trace the flowers and doodles in the patterned paper. Unfortunately as it is very subtle bling, it is hard to see in the photo, even in the close-up. However, the glossy accents I used on the ice cream, which I decided should be mint-chocolate chip, and the bear’s nose show up well and really make it look the ice cream is melting.

Life's Too Short Eat One Scoop

Stamps: C.C. Designs Sweet Treats; Stampin’ Up Weathered
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Paper Prints Certainly Celery
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Baja Breeze
Accessories: Michael’s Basic ribbon; Stampin’ Up Certainly Celery brads; dimensionals; Inkssentials Glossy Accents; atYou Spica Clear

Close-up

On World Card-making Day (Oct. 4th), I attended a Split Coast Stampers swap held in northwest Austin. When I first heard about the swap back in August, I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to participate, but I decided it sounded like fun and signed up. However, the swap had gotten full during my time of indecision and I was put on the waiting list. About a week and a half before the swap, I found out I had a spot if I wanted it. I planned to be out of town the weekend before the swap, so I would only have 5 weekdays to prep the supplies for 45 woman to make a card of my own design. I decided to say oh well to sleep and do it anyways. The Halloween card below was the card I designed for the swap. It was the first time I had inked up  my Pirate Riley stamp. The card came out really great, simple enough for a swap yet cute enough for all the talented women that would be at the swap.

Happy Halloween Card

Stamps: Hanna Stamps Pirate Riley, Stampin’ Up Canvas background (on black) , SU Weathered background (on pumpkin pie), SU All-Year Cheer III (Happy Halloween)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Whisper White
Ink: Stazon black; Stampin’ Up Pumpkin Pie, Craft White; Versamark (Canvas background)
Markers: Stampin’ Up Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Garden Green, Ballet Blue, Real Red, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Hobby Lobby Halloween ribbon

Another part of the swap was the door prize. Due to the short time I had to prepare, I could have opted out, but then I wouldn’t have gotten to take a great door prize home. So I took a Hobby Lobby paper mache bag, some Halloween designer paper, some Hobby Lobby Halloween ribbon, a candy corn decorative accent and put together the following cute package which I filled with some Halloween stamps, ribbon and lip balm.

Door Prize I Created (picture was taken before I completely finished)

The following are some of my favorites of the cards I made designed by the very talented swappers. This cute elephant card by stampinlibby that showed me the technique of using gamsol. This tree card. Isn’t the ribbon gorgeous? This good witch or bad witch card. The googly eyes on this card are just adorable. The  colors of this card by smileytexan are just beautiful.

The following is the door prize I won. I’m not sure who put it together, but I enjoyed it. The little tin had chocolate nuggest with stamped labels.

Door Prize I Won

Myself and Lexi

Best Fishes Card

Stamps: A Muse Fishing Boy and Gone Fishing; Stampin’ Up Very Puny (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Summer Sun, Wild Wasabi, Ballet Blue, and Bashful Blue
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Markers: Stampin’ Up Brilliant Blue, Summer Sun, Blush Blossom,
Accessories: yellow stickles; Stampin’ Up Brilliant Blue chalk and cloud template