JAMSquared

Category Archives: Crafty Goodness

September Sketch for You to Try

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I know that my family and close friends read my blog even if they don’t comment very frequently (although you make my day when you do), so if you feel like you might be one of the ten or so people I intend to send Thanksgiving cards to this year, don’t read this blog post. Unless you don’t care about being surprised. Granted, you may not receive this particular card, because I’m not sending the same card to everyone.

I had really wanted to finish this card up last night in time for the Designed 2 Delight Friday Image Challenge deadline, but alas I was five minutes too late. I should have just gone to bed and finished it today, but oh well. I really really like how it turned out and I got a better picture today with natural light than last night under my lamp. I used Jen del Muro’s September Sketch for You to Try. I almost always think the cards I make using her sketches are some of my best cards. And I’m 9 for 12 for the year in using her sketches.

The large background panel is homemade pattern paper using the leaf stamp in the Hero Arts November stamp set. I stamped it in three colors for a real fall look. And it was easy to make a whole sheet, enough for the four cards I made.

I’m entering this card in a few challenges:

Thanksgiving Card

Stamps: Designed 2 Delight Autumn Harvest; Hero Arts ClearDesign November (leaves and sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, So Saffron
Patterned Paper: Stampin’ Up Sweet Pea
Ink: Dell laser printer; Stampin’ Up Old Olive, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie
Embellishments: metal leaf brad
Tools: Stampin’ Up markers; atYou Spica markers; Nestabilites Classic Circles Small & Large; corner rounder punch

Have a fabulous day!

A Few Layouts

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On Monday, I posted a layout of Jessica looking up in the sky at a motorized paraglider. I mentioned that I hoped to do another coordinating layout with the rest of the pictures from that trip to the playground. Well, here is that layout.

Journaling reads: Jessica and our neighbor’s grandson Braydon enjoy playing together. The playground’s always more fun with playmates.

Playground Layout

Digikits Used: Connie Prince – Backyard BBQ, Chugga Choo Choo, Just Imagine, Strawberry Lemonade Freebies, Whale of a Good Time, Zoom Zoom Zoom
Fonts Used: Weathered SF

This next layout is for my parent’s Canadian Rockies trip album. I wanted to share it, because I’ve always felt it weird to do a scrapbook page with no pictures. Well, this page has no pictures and I don’t think it’s weird. Due to the fog, my Dad didn’t take any pictures, but I wanted to include the skyride tickets and some journaling so they wouldn’t forget they did try to see skyline views of Vancouver.

Top journaling spot reads: We saw a mountain lumberjack show in the outdoor amphitheater. It featured log rolling, a 60-foot tree climb, two-man peg and raker saws, axe throwing, and an exciting springboard chop.

Lower journaling spot reads: Fog covered the view during the skyride and it was like being in a cloud at the top. It was rather disappointing to miss seeing the Vancouver skyline and Pacific Ocean from such a vantage point.

Do you like my arrows? I made those elements myself using paper from the kit and punches in my software. I especially like the circles I punched out of the arrows to allow the map to peak through.

Grouse Mountain Layout

Digikits Used: Connie Prince – Just Imagine
Fonts Used: ArtBrush

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.

Look! Up in the sky.

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I apologize that I haven’t blogged much lately. I entered a digital scrapbooking contest and that is keeping me a little busy. Hopefully, I can share my round two entry with you Wednesday. (My round one layout is going to be a Christmas present for someone who may or may not read my blog, so I’m going to wait to share it.) In the meantime, here is another layout I recently finished.

It was a challenge to complete. I followed this month’s Bytes-to-Go challenge at Scrapbookbytes.com. My order was 3 photos, 5 papers, one of which will be embossed (can be used more than once), 3-5 stars, 10 or more flowers, 3 different ribbons/string, 1 frame, 2 different paint splats, glitter or scatters, a large title, stitching, and 2 word strips. The most challenging part for me was to use 10 or more flowers.

I also used Sketchabilities Sketch #54. It inspired me to do the Bytes-to-Go challenge since I felt that it would best allow me to use all those embellishments.

Sketchabilities Sketch 54

Journaling reads: Our after-dinner trip to the neighborhood playground ended with a sighting of a motorized paraglider. We heard it first and then Jessica pointed it out. She enjoyed watching it go up and down above the preserve. August 26, 2011

Look! Up in the Sky.

Digikits Used: Connie Prince – Backyard BBQ, Chugga Choo Choo, Just Imagine, Strawberry Lemonade Freebies, Whale of a Good Time, Zoom Zoom Zoom
Fonts Used: Weathered SF

I hope to do a coordinating second layout to scrap the photos from the rest of the trip to the playground.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.

Have a Purr-Fectly Delightful Day

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I decided to try out a new card challenge this month over at Designed 2 Delight. It is a progressive challenge, meaning we were provided this adorable kitty image for the first challenge of the month and each challenge we will be given another digi stamp. The only requirement was to use this kitty image, so it was a pretty easy challenge. Even though, the kitty is a Halloween kitty, I decided to go a different route. I decided to take my color scheme from the current Inky Impressions Challenge #23 to use brown and cornflower blue. I also decided to use the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches #110. I’m also going to enter this in Stamp Something‘s last digi-day challenge. They’re only doing one more challenge before closing the doors on the three-year old challenge site.

Purr-Fectly Delightful Day Card

Stamps: Designed 2 Delight Falloween Cat; TLC Creations Purr-Fectly Delightful (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa
Patterned Paper: Stampin’ Up Springtime Vintage
Ink: Dell printer
Embellishments: white ribbon
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up Baja Breeze marker; atYou Spica silver marker; dimensionals; Nestabilites Classic Ovals Small, Classic Scalloped Ovals Small

I also really wanted to add some dimension to the kitty so I printed him four times and cut out pieces and popped them up, so it would appear he was coming out of the card. This picture isn’t the best picture, but it shows the dimension.

Card Close-up

Have a fabulous day!

Jessica’s First Day of School

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Yesterday was Jessica’s first day of school. I was excited for her and scared at the same time. She hates the church nursery at SHPC and is not the biggest fan of Mommy leaving and even sometimes not the biggest fan of Daddy leaving in the morning to go to work. But apparently, I didn’t need to be worried.

I, of course, want to scrapbook this momentous event. I really liked this sketch from Sassy Lil’ Sketches and thought it would work really well with the best picture I was able to get of Jessica on her first day of school. You might notice she’s pointing at the Elmo on her shirt. That was the only way I could get her to look at me, by asking what was on her shirt.

Sassy Lil' Sketches 8/22/11

Journaling reads: This year, Jessica started attending the Mother’s Day Out Program at Abiding Love Lutheran Church on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM to 1 PM. Her teachers, Ms. Karen and Ms. Lacy, said her first day went great. She only cried for about 5 minutes after Daddy dropped her off. Another little girl came up and gave her a hug and said it was okay. After that, she enjoyed playing with the other kids in her class.

First Day of School Layout

Digikits Used: Connie Prince – Ready for School
Fonts Used: Pirates Writers

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.