Rollin'!

I seem to be on a roll with the new justjohanna stamps and have also been rollin' along using them with Flair Designs paper!

Here's another card that I rolled out during my hotel room stamping spree last week. This one features the ever-so-cute Michou, cookie dough, and the rolling pin.

In case you hadn't noticed, today's word is "roll"!

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What's cooking?

Lots of cards and projects using justjohanna's newest stamps! That's what's cooking!

This card uses plain stove, ladder, heart pan, priscilla mini, and priscilla le chef. "what's cooking" isn't available yet.

The stove was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The ladders and cats were colored with Prismacolor markers. The background was inked with Distress ink. The patterned paper is Picnic Table from Flair Designs' What's Cooking collection.

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What's moo?

I finally got a chance to play with some of justjohanna's new stamps. I totally love this barn and the polka dotted cows. They just amuse me. There are several other cows too, plus a barn stall, roosters, grass for the cows to eat, milk bottles, and pails for milking too. Be sure to check them out.

The other dt members have been busy playing with the new stamps too, so you should click on some of their names over there on your right under the justjohanna logo.

But back to MY card, because after all, it really IS all about me, right? Yep. The little scene is colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Xtra Mild Citrus Thinner by EcoHouse. Distress ink was used for the sky and the ground. The paper is Red Bandit Stripe from the Horsin' Around collection by Flair Designs. I do love me some Flair paper. It goes so well with so many of justjohanna's stamps. The sentiment is computer generated because I needed to add a punny one! In fact, I can think of several more, so be prepared to see more cow-related bad puns from moi! :-D I finished the card with some lovely gingham ribbon.

Anyways, thanks for visiting today!

Home again, home again

Jiggedy jig.

The teenager and I took a brief road trip to visit one of the two colleges under consideration. She shadowed a student volunteer, sitting in on classes, going to meals, getting the "real" tour, and staying overnight in the volunteer's dorm room. The hostess/volunteer was great. The teenager had a wonderful time and came away with a very positive experience and a very positive impression of the college.

While she was otherwise engaged, I stayed at a hotel and spent the day making cards. I should have taken a photo of my hotel room. I had one bed covered with crafting supplies! The table was adorned with four drinking glasses filled with colored pencils. I made a quick decision to bring my extra OTT light, which was fortunate since the room had inadequate lighting. Yay OTT.

Since the teenager slept in a sleeping bag on the linoleum floor and since I was entertained all night by exhuberantly vocal honeymooners, the teenager and I were really happy to return home.

We get to do another road trip in a week or so. Then it'll be decision time!

I used justjohanna's spring tree, sophie, and birdhouse to make this card.

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Was this bribery?

Last Thursday I had my first interview in two decades... Yep. I said decades...

The interview was for a freelance position with a local company. I was told to bring samples of my work, so I decided to get out my Bind-it-all, some coasters, some papers, some chipboard, some index cards, and some favorite justjohanna stamps.

These are what I made. I attached my business card to the front page of the notebook. Fortunately, the recipients liked the notebooks and thought the it was a clever way to present a business card.

I *thought* I used paper that was one of the company's products. Sadly, as happens all too often, I was confused. Ah well. Such is life.

I also put together a small scrapbook containing shrunken layout scans, photos of altered projects, and a ton of cards. The scrapbook easily was 3" wide!

They liked what they saw and I've gotten my first assignment to determine if my style would be a "good fit". Unfortunately, I won't be home all that much next week as the teenager and I will be going on a road trip to re-visit a college to help her reach a decision. However, ideas will be simmering, which is the usual start of my "creative process".

So, what do you think? Bribery or not?

Thanks for visiting today!

Spring!

Spring (allegedly) is in the air (I wish) and a bird's thoughts turn to love!
We were sent little wooden birds to use for a justjohanna dt challenge. Here's mine!

I was delighted because I really needed a break from card making! Plus, I had a bunch of stuff that I hadn't used in a while, so this was a great opportunity to break it all out and play.

First, I sanded a pre-painted wooden heart that I scored from Mike's. Then I painted it with a thick layer of Ranger's Adirondack Crackle Paint and put it aside to dry.

*Important note*
This paint will NOT dry if you watch it. For real. So, I showered, went to lunch, ran a mess of errands, and came home and it was still wet to the touch a full 3 hours later! So I moved on to the next step.

I used Ranger's Pearl Paint Dabber to paint the bird and a piece of 120 lb. water color paper. I stamped two paisley hearts and a flower curl heart with Brilliance Gold, then heat embossed them with Ranger's Queen's Gold embossing powder.

*Interjection*
I sure do love all the different gold embossing powders that Ranger makes!

I then cut out the hearts, edged 'em with my handy Krylon gold leafing pen, and stacked them to form the bird's wings.

I painted a chipboard swirl with brown acrylic paint, hastened the drying process with my heat gun, and then applied a layer of Ranger's Sepia accents. I set that aside to dry.

Meanwhile, I chose some flowers to use, but decided that I wanted a stamped faux acrylic center for them, so I stamped three flower powers in Sepia VersaMark, colored them with Prismacolor markers, and added a sparkly Spica pen dot for the flower centers. I punched the tiny flowers out with a circle punch, then added clear Glossy Accents to the little circle flowers.

Then I went to watch t.v. and let all the glue, paint, etc. overnight.

This morning, I decided that I didn't like the chipboard swirl color, so I added a tad of Latte alcohol ink to the dried glue surface. Much better!

I also applied a layer or two of Ranger's Brick Red Distress Ink over the crackled surface and put together the flower.

This description probably took almost as long to type as it did to create the wall hanging. hahahahaha

Thanks for visiting today!

March 17th!

St. Patrick's Day is a day for parades, special foods, people dressed in green, and celebration. The beauty of it is that everyone's Irish on St. Patty's Day! I have fond memories of my first St. Patrick's Day in Chicago. I was shocked to discover that they dyed the Chicago River bright green! The streets were filled with good natured revellers, though the "L" trip home was a bit dicey.

I stamped rolling hills, colored it with watercolors, and cut it out. I chalked the sky and rainbow onto another piece of watercolor paper and printed the Irish prayer onto it. Then I put the card together.

Have a happy St. Patrick's Day!

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A new favorite stamp!

work van right is one of my new favorite justjohanna stamps! It's tremendously versatile since you can add all sorts of images or sentiments to the box part of the truck to create a variety of cards. Nifty! Additionally, you can color the truck to be any color you want! Niftier and fun too!

This card is a moving card, though I'm not personally moving at the current time. I was just fiddling around to see what I could fit into the truck and discovered that with a wee bit of masking, I could make the ever-so-cute house short mini fit in there. I colored the house and the truck with Prismacolor pencils and Prismacolor markers to match the Basic Grey Mellow papers. The sentiment was computer generated.

This card qualifies for the transportation themed challenge at Caardvarks!

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March Newsletter Sketch v.2.0 & You're tagged!

Here's my second card for the current sketch challenge. Click here to see the sketch. You'll have to use your imagination to pretend that the plastic charm thingy is hanging straight. I should have taken a photo rather than scanning it, but both cameras had dead batteries. How does that happen? *sigh*

Anyways, this one uses my beloved sylvie stamps and little bumble with Basic Grey's Lily Kate papers. I unearthed the Junkitz spring charm thingy from deep in my stash and tied it on with a bit of ribbon.

***Abrupt subject change***

My friend, Donna, tagged me and a few others. I'm supposed to reveal seven little-known and odd facts about myself. Then I'm supposed to tag others. I'm not big on the "tagging others" part of the deal, so if you read this, consider yourself tagged. 'k?

1. I'm a germaphobe and hopelessly addicted to Purell. I've got bottles in my purse, a pump bottle in my car, and bottles in almost every room in the house. Sadly, I've passed my germaphobia onto the teenager. Poor thing.

2. I can't stand to have my feet touched by anyone other than myself. My first and only pedicure was last January and I twitched, jumped, and giggled like a lunatic.

3. I'm a night owl married to an early bird. The teenager and the cats are night owls. Fortunately, we're quiet night owls and rarely hoot and holler.

4. I'm a native New Yorker, but have never been to the Empire State building or all the way to the observation area of the Statue of Liberty.

5. I have my credit card numbers memorized. It's a nice party trick that amuses some, though not my husband.

6. My friends and my family consider me to be a grammar Nazi. They have me do a lot of their proofreading and some of their writing. The teenager does not.

7. I hate opera. Actually, that's not true. I like the music. I just wish they wouldn't sing. This was a huge secret when I worked for Stagebill — the publisher of the program magazines for the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC.

So, tag! You're it!

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Brightening a rainy, dreary day.

It's pouring here on the East Coast and is ever-so-gray and dreary. In fact, it's rained so hard, there's standing water all over my backyard and flood warnings for the entire area.

I thought the Fun in the Sun paper from Flair Designs was the perfect accompaniment for shady al. I found "you are my sunshine" ribbon in my stash and made a long tall card pairing the Flair paper with some older KI paper. I paired the same paper on the shorter card with Basic Grey paper from the Oh! Baby Boy collection.

***Newsflash! A ray of sunshine came to our house in the form of a "big envelope" from one of the teenager's top three colleges! Yahoo! She's now batting .500 with college acceptances. Not too shabby at all. We're happy dancing here!

Thanks for visiting today!

Spring card for the March Sketch challenge

Johanna's got a sketch challenge on her blog right now.

What can be more springlike than a cardinal with a nest? All stamps are by justjohanna and are charles cardinal, spring tree, curly heart, and nest with eggs.

The sky paper is by Cosmo Cricket. The other papers are by Fancy Pants.

I colored all images with Prismacolor pencils and then blended with Xtra Mild Citrus Thinner by Eco-House. The eggs were painted with Metallic Pearl paint by Ranger.

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Wow! New justjohanna special deal & a new release!

All this newness must mean that Spring is (almost) in the air!

The special deal for March includes some of my favorite justjohanna stamps! Click this link to see for yourself!



Special deal details:
• Flower Garland Really Wide
• Gigi Right
• Big Rosie
• Hello (Whimsy)
• Merci (Whimsy)

Price: $26.62 (25% savings)

Did you know that Johanna puts out a monthly newsletter containing info on the monthly specials, a sketch, and other cool stuff? Follow this link to sign up!

Did you also know that there's a message board and gallery? You should check it out here!

Would you like to swing on a star?

Carry moonbeams home in a jar? Well now you can with the new stamp by justjohanna! I'm especially excited because Johanna based the stamp on one of my cards!! Yahoo! Now al can swing whenever he wants.

Al on a swing is just one of the great new releases by justjohanna stamps! You can see them here!

Thanks for visiting today!

Another fast one.

Sometimes it doesn't take much to make an effective card. I really loved this paper from Basic Grey's Periphery collection and especially liked the bird. All I did was stamp the justjohanna scrolly border and a sentiment. Easy peasy. Done! Gotta love that.

Thanks for visiting today!