MFT February Guest Designer Contest

Hello there!

Long time, no see... but guess what?!  It'll be that way no more!  The kids are all finally sleeping through the night, and all in bed early enough in the evening that I have time to play WITHOUT having to stay up until the wee hours of the morning!  YAY!  (Haaa.... Here's hoping I didn't just jinx that!)

Since I haven't made anything just for the fun of it over the last year, I thought it was high time that changed... and playing along with MFT was the perfect place to start!  I have quite a few of their stamps & dies (and have had them for some time now), and couldn't wait to get into them.

Want to see?  Sure you do; why else would you be here?! (hehe)

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  My Favorite Things "Who's That Birthday Girl", "Who's That Girl All Wrapped Up" (I can't find a link to that set - retired, perhaps?)
Dies:  MFT Mini Rolled Roses, MFT Sentiment Strips, MFT Leafy Flourish, Spellbinders Classic & Scalloped Ovals Large, PTI Small Scalloped Border
Paper:  Echo Park "Sweet Day"
Cardstock:  PTI Stamper's Select White
Copic Markers:  E00, E11, YR000, YR01, YR02
Other:  Buttercream Baker's Twine (the Twinery), Gold Stickles

I decided to combine the bottom half of the Birthday Girl with the present in All Wrapped Up (simple masking), and then paper-pieced the gift & her skirt.  Not much Copic action on this one - just her legs/hands, and a bit of shading on the gift & skirt.  The sentiment strip is wrapped around the edge of the card front for a bit of a different effect.  Despite having an entire cupboard full of flowers, I couldn't seem to find the 'right' ones, so I broke out the MFT Mini Rolled Rose dies and made my own; I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised there.  It was WAY easier than I was anticipating!  

I'm a little rusty, but it'll do.  (Haa... this is the most labour-intensive card I've made since...before I was pregnant the last time - like, before July 2011!)  Thank goodness there was a sketch to follow - I love having that little bit of 'stucture' to start out with!  (Thanks for the awesome one, MFT!)

I didn't have any small tag dies/punches, and the sentiment strip die was calling my name...hopefully my sentiment/flower/flourish cluster will be okay!

Well, I'm off... thanks for stopping by & have a great day!

  ~Steph

For the Children...

I know I haven't posted in a very. long. time... what can I say?  Life with three littles means crafting time is severely limited - unless I can find a way to survive with no sleep.  (Yeah, not gonna happen.)

I did come here to let you all know (if 'you all' actually still read this blog!) that Amber at Damask Love has had the brilliant idea to organize a fundraiser for the surviving children of Newton, Connecticut.  Her goal is to compile at least 50 creative kits to help the children affected by this tragedy to cope through art.

Please see Amber's post HERE for more details on her Drawn Together campaign.

Hug your babies tight, folks.
Steph

Go Confidently...

...in the direction of your dreams - Live the life you've imagined... (Thoureau)

That's what the quote says on this card.  I was just (finally) playing around with Echo Park's So Happy Together line, saw that sticker, and thought I'd make my sister a card.  She's just recently moved into her own home, and I'm pretty sure she will appreciate getting some mail that ISN'T a bill!

Supplies:

Cardstock:  Hawaiian Shores (PTI)
Papers:  So Happy Together Collection Kit (Echo Park)
Miscellaneous:  Hawaiian Shores Satin Dot Ribbon, Pure Poppy Button (PTI),  Lemondrop Twine (The Twinery),  Misc. Pearl & Stick Pins

 And look - no stamping.  Or colouring.  (Well, except for the pins - they were white, but I coloured them with a YG17 Copic)  All in all, a fairly quick card... which is really all I've been able to make since March!  (Boy, it's taken awhile to adjust to having 3 kids!)  I can honestly say, I'm happy the girls are ready for school - because I'm ready for it, too!  :)

Have a great day,
Steph!

Oh, hey - look!

Awesome - looks like a project I made for PSA Essentials last year is being featured on their blog today.  You can check it out HERE!

(I would have added a photo, but Blogger's being a pain in the arse today and won't let me.)

The Twinery Baker's Twine - SALE!

EDITED TO ADD:
Someone mentioned the links don't work; it appears they go to the GroopDealz offer for paper straws when I click them - to get to the twine, you need to scroll down a bit and click the 'view deal' button under the photo of the twine in the right sidebar on the GD site.  Hope that helps!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone in need of some yummy Baker's Twine from The Twinery, but not willing to pay $14.99/spool + $3.50 shipping (and an additional $1.50 per spool after that)?!

GroopDealz is offering 6 of The Twinery's colours for only $8/spool + $2 shipping (and $1 for each additional spool)!!!

(Photo from the GroopDealz site)

Colours Available:  Maraschino, Mandarin, Lemondrop, Peapod, Denim & Lilac

If you bought all 6 direct from The Twinery, you'd be paying $89.94 + $11 shipping - so, $100.94, or $16.82/spool...

If you bought all 6 through GroopDealz, you'd be paying $48 + $7 shipping - so, $55 or $9.17/spool!

How awesome is that?!

Happy shopping!
Steph

Party Favours!

Ooops - made these back in November for a friend.  She needed party favours for her daughter's 7th birthday party and didn't like anything at Claire's... so glad she wound up asking me to come up with something, because it sure was fun making these!

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  PTI Rustic White
Stamps:  PTI Button Boutique
Ink:  SU! Elegant Eggplant
Dies:  PTI Button Card, Tiny Tags, Leaf Prints, Signature Series: Flower, Star Prints
Other:  PTI Felt (Hawaiian Shores, Autumn Rose, Simply Chartreuse); The Twinery Caribbean Twine; PTI  Plum Pudding Vintage Button; Robin's Nest Dew Drop - Metallic Teal

Pretty simple - cut & stamp the button card, cut a slit to slip the hair clip in to...  I put the whole thing into a little open-top bag (pretty sure they came out of the Wilton-type aisle in HL or M's) and punched two holes through the top; threaded that with baker's twine, added a stamped Tiny Tag, and called 'er done!

Hope y'all are having a great day - I'll be back (hopefully sooner than later) with all sorts of new stuff!  Lots going on around here, both with the monsters and craft-wise... life is good!

Laters,
Steph

Two Posts in One Day?!

I know, right?!  I had a chance this afternoon to play along with Deconstructed Sketch #49, and it turns out they're doing a Guest DT call with this sketch as well, so I figured I'd throw my name in.  I love Jen's sketches & doing a guest stint is just the kick in the pants I need to get back into the swing of things!  (Anyone else have a hard time making a card just to make one?  If I don't have a reason/deadline to make something, I find it falls by the wayside - and that sucks! lol)

Anyway, enough jibber-jabber... here's my card:

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  Fine Linen (PTI)
Patterned Paper:  Summer Soul (Fancy Pants)
Stamp:  Sending You (PTI)
Dies:  Delightful Doilies, Wine Bottle Tag, Love Lives Here (PTI)
Other:  Rustic Jute Button Twine, Sweet Blush Vintage Button (PTI)

See the patterned butterfly?  I fussy cut a few of the surfboards out of one of the papers in the pad, and turned them into something I could actually use!  (Living in Manitoba = not a whole lot of surfing going on!)

I'm off to the in-laws with the littlest one as soon as she finishes eating... the two bigger munchkins are already over there hanging out with the cousins, and have been all afternoon - so it was nice & quiet here for a bit!  (Yay!)

Hope you're having a great Sunday!
Steph

May Workshop...

Time for another workshop... I'm calling it a 'Mother's Day' workshop, but really, all three cards can be used for any woman/any subject you want (and I actually went with a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment on the last one).

The Details:

Date:  Saturday, May 5, 2012

Time:  2:00pm - 5:00pm

Place:  Casa Jones

$15/person

Check it:

(This one is a blue version of the card is THIS POST by Maile Belles, with a little more layering.   Why  mess with perfection?)

Have a great day!
Steph

Announcing...

...the arrival of:

Sadie Rain Jones!!

6 Lbs, 14 oz - 20.5" long!

Miss Sadie was born at 4:00PM on Saturday, March 24 - just over 3 weeks earlier than we were expecting her!  (Can I just say, it's totally strange to think that technically, she's still not supposed to be here... not until next Tuesday!)

Everything went well, and if I had been allowed to, I could have happily gone home by 6pm that same day.  Talk about short and sweet; I wasn't sure, but I thought my water broke around 11am.  After a shower, a pb&j and some Google research, I decided that in fact, it had... so I woke up Mr Jones (who had gone back to bed in an attempt to sleep off the last lingering effects of a migraine) around 12:30, and we hit the road at 1:00pm.  At 2:15, we were admitted to the hospital via the ER (being a Saturday, that was the only way in), and I think the poor woman who admitted us was thoroughly confused.  I was perfectly fine, albeit uncomfortable because I was soaked (tmi? sorry) and Scotty was looking/feeling a little worse for the wear (thanks to the migraine, the abrupt awakening, and the stressful-for-him drive in not knowing if he was going to possibly be delivering a baby on the side of the highway because the hospital is roughly 140kms from where we live), so I was getting all the paperwork done, etc, and I don't think at first she really knew which one of us we were trying to have admitted! (LOL!)  Anyway, we headed up to the 4th floor of the hospital, and got settled in the pre-assessment room, where they hook you up to the fetal heart rate monitor, and the contraction monitor thingy, and they go over your chart (which I didn't have, since I was supposed to pick it up Friday - like, the 30th - ha!) and/or do whatever they need to do.  Since I didn't have my chart, we had to go through an extensive questionnaire, and while doing so, my contractions finally began - as in, at 2:29, I was fine, and when they started at about 2:30, I couldn't talk.  The nurse was funny; I think she thought I was over-reacting, since it started so quickly and I had been perfectly fine a minute previous, but then she looked at the monitor about 10 minutes later... and her eyes got really big.  (Keep in mind, we just answered the question about how long previous labours/deliveries were - about 1.75 hours for the first one, and 1.5 hours for the second one!)  She tells us that she's going to check me quickly, because I'm starting to freak her out - when the contractions started, they were already off the chart, and they were 3.5 minutes apart.  When she decided I was 5-6cm dilated, she ran out of the room and informed the other nurses that they were moving me to the delivery room NOW... and of course, me being helpful like I am, I reminded her that I never did make it out of the pre-assessment room with the FIRST baby! (lol)  Meanwhile, there were two other women already in labour, that were pretty much abandoned (lol) because I don't waste any time with matters like this!

So... I get moved to the delivery room.  It's around, oh... 3:10 at this point.  For the first time, I'm told that if I want, we can try an epidural - of course, no promises, since we were running out of time, but at least we could try.  (Which impressed me, as with the other two, I was told I didn't have time for any sort of pain killers.  I had the gas to help get through the remainder of the contractions, but that was it.)  Well, of course, I was all for trying, so we did.  They got the test dose into me... and then one of the nurses ran out to the hall to see if the Doc was on his way; upon spotting him walking casually down the hall, she yelled at him that he better get a move on! (lol)  Annnnnnddddd.... after one little push, and then one big push, Miss Sadie was born at 4:00pm.  The nurse was saying afterwards that if I hadn't gotten the test dose of the epidural, Doc wouldn't have made it in time for the delivery!

Yeah... all of you with horror stories related to your labours and/or deliveries, you can hate me.  Heck, I'd even hate me for you! (lol)  Before this, I thought my other two L&Ds were super quick and easy, but this just takes the cake!  I do have to say, though... with all the people who have commented that I'm just 'made for making babies', I'm thankful that we farm grain and not cattle... or else I might find myself put out in the barn with the heifers!  (haaaa!)

Needless to say, I haven't been doing much - readjusting to life with a newborn, and all that... I've been working on a card set for the last two days (thank yous, of course!), and it's going to be another day or two before I'm done, but I'll be sure to post them when I finish.

Laters!
Steph

PS -  Crap.  I forgot what I was going to PS!

From Kleenex Box to Card...

Yeah, sometimes us papercrafters find inspiration in the oddest places.... like this Kleenex box, for example:

(Ok, so it's Puffs, not Kleenex.  Whatever!)

As soon as I saw it, I automatically started thinking of PTI's Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores & Simply Chartreuse, paired with their Turning a New Leaf stamp set & coordinating Die set, and after an hour, this is what came out of it:

Supplies:
Cardstock:  PTI Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse
Patterned Paper:  PTI 2008 Bitty Dot Basics
Stamps:  PTI Turning a New Leaf, Damask Designs
Ink:  PTI Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse, Fresh Snow
Dies:  PTI Double-Ended Banners, Beautiful Blooms II - Collection #1, Turning a New Leaf, Mega Mat Stack 4
Other:  PTI Simply Chartreuse Vintage Button, 1/8" Silk Ribbon

Fun; one of those cards that just makes me smile!  What you can't really tell from the picture is how some of  the die-cut leaves are popped up for some dimension... looks pretty fun in real life, I think.   Where have you been finding your inspiration lately?  Leave me a link in the comments if you've got an oddly-inspired creation to share!

Cute... not that I'm biased or anything... (ha!)

Laters,
Steph