Tuesdays Make Me Happy...

TWISTED Tuesdays Challenges make me happy!

Twisted Tuesday Challenge

July 31 - August 6

Fifth Tuesday Free For All

The challenge - Anything goes

The Twist - It's a Free For All....whatever you want to show us!!!! :)

 
 
I was rushing, getting ready for vacation, so had to go with a VERY simple card.
 

Here it is...

 

It doesn't show up in the picture, but I used some clear lacquer on the larger "dots" on the image to add some depth and shine. I like the way that turned out.

Here's the inside:

 

I told you it was simple. (UGH!)

 
 
I can't wait to see your lovely creations!
 
 
Image & Sentiment: A Muse Avian Notes and Harlequin Background
Ink:  Muse Currant & Latte
Cardstock: Paper Company Boysenberry, Ivory, and Kraft
Embellishments: Michael's Rhinestones and Sakura Crystal Lacquer

Christmas In July

Today is the 28th... time for a Calendar Girl post. YAY! For those of you who have no clue what that means, the Calendar Girls are a blog group that I am privileged to be part of. Each month one of us is hostess and provides the details for that month's challenge.

This month, Carol served as hostess and she challenged us to make Christmas (in July) cards. Isn't that fun!?!?!? THANK YOU, Carol, for a great challenge. Even though it was 100+ degrees outside when I was making it, I felt cool inside, as if there was a white Christmas just outside the door.

Here's my card:

I can't remember the last time I made a card without any embellishments on it (GASP!) but every embellishment I tried on this one just seemed to overwhelm it. I wanted the metallic gold and the true meaning of Christmas to be the focal point, so in the end without any embellishments. I think it worked.

... and the inside of my card:

I liked the way the card turned out - with the metallic gold highlights and combination of classic rich dark colors and soft ivory.

Carol also had this instruction for us: I would love to know if you have any very special Christmas traditions OR a special Christmas memory from years past.

Those of you who "know" me, know that I love love LOVE Christmas, especially Christmas trees. We put up many Christmas trees in our home (we've had as many as 43 in one year). Some of my fond memories include the search for Christmas ornaments when on vacation with our children throughout the years. My daughter often was very involved in the search, as we looked for an ornament from that "vacation spot" that would adorn our Vacation Christmas Tree every year. We even have a Mickey Mounse stuffed animal from Disney World and a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal from Disneyland on the tree. Every year when I decorate it, I reflect on the fun family vacations we have taken.

THANKS again, Carol, for a fun challenge!

Now, please go to the other Calendar Girl blogs and see what they came up with for Christmas in July! I'm sure you will be amazed at their creativity!


Images & Sentiments: A Muse Holy Night
Ink: Encore Metallic Gold and Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock: Paper Company Boysenberry and Stampin' UP! Black, Metallic Gold, and Very Vanilla
Designer Paper: Paper Studio Holiday Wonder Collection
Die: Stampin' UP! Top Note

Can You Dig It?

We have no pets... but I like animal stamps, especially cute dogs and cats. I know, it makes no sense.

I also like Barb's swaps, so I joined her Animal Whipper Snapper and Penny Black swap. Remember, that's the swap I made the jumping frog card for. Well, here's the Whipper Snapper card I made...

Woof! Woof!

Here's the inside of my card:

I Dig You!

Image & Sentiment: Whipper Snapper
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa\
Cardstock: Stampin' UP Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry, and Wild Wasabi
Designer Paper: Paper Studio Spoiled Rotten Collection
Embellishment: Paw Print Brad (vendor unknown)

Butterfinger Bomb Cake

I am going to card club today. It's held every week, but since it's an hour from my house, I don't go every week. However, I go every chance I get. I love card club!

Periodically, the leader hosts a recipe swap. Each woman who participates creates a 6 X 6" recipe card for each person participating and on the day of the swap, we are to bring the recipe cards, plus the dish that is on the recipe card. What a fun potluck idea!

I'm sort of excited and sort of bummed, though. I signed up about 2 months ago, and at that time didn't know that we would be out of state on vacation on the day of the potluck/swap. Soooooo... I've made my recipe cards but will have to forgo the potluck. That's okay, though. We're going to have a wonderful vacation.

Okay, want to see my recipe card???

I hope the ladies will like it.


This is a Stampin' UP! recipe swap, so all items are Stampin' UP! products. That was a requirement; they could be retired, but they had to be Stampin' UP!

Image: Too Terrific Tags
Ink: Basic Gray
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Calypso Coral, and Pool Party
Designer Paper: Domestic Goddess
Embellishments: Grosgrain Ribbon and Silver Hardware (brads and ribbon buckle)

Tie a Ribbon Round the Ol' Oak Tree

It's Tuesday... time for a new Twisted Tuesday Challenge!

July 24 - 31

Include a tree or group of trees on your creation.

The Twist - tie some knots on your creation. So, tie up your ribbons, twines, whatever just as long as we can see some knots!

 

 
The good news is, the trees can be the focal part of your card (check out some of the other DT member's blogs to see what I mean) or they can be a minimal part of the image, as in the case of my card...
 
 

 

Penny Black New York

 
I don't normally stamp images onto designer paper, but decided to give that a try this time. I kind of like the way that turned out.
 
 

 
Sooooooooo... now it's YOUR turn to Tie a Ribbon Round the Ol' Oak Tree and post a link on the Twisted Tuesday Challenge blog so we can see your creativity!
 
 

Image: Penny Black New York
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black & Copic Markers
Cardstock: Stampin' UP! Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie, and So Saffron
Designer Paper: DCWV Halloween & Fall Stack
Embellishments: Oriental Trading Co. Brads and Stampin' UP! Eggplant Grosgrain Ribbon

I ♥ to JUMP!

I have been attending a card club in a town about an hour from my home. I know... what some women will do to be able to craft with others, right?

Not too long ago, we made a jumping frog card. The frog was so cute! So I decided to design a card for the jumping frog and use it for my Penny Black spot in Barb's Whipper Snapper and Penny Black card swap. She said it was okay for me to do so, since I have a perfect Penny Black sentiment to go with the frog. THANK YOU, Barb!

Here's my card:

He really does move up and down!

Want to peek at the inside, too?

Stampin' UP! Punches used:

Head - Wide Oval

Eyes - 3/4" Circle, 1/2" Circle, and Circles from Owl Punch

Belly - 1 3/8" Circle and 1 1/4" Circle

Legs - Small Oval

Feet - Boho Blossom

Triple Heart Punch

Sentiment: Penny Black

Ink: Stampin' UP! Always Artichoke

Cardstock: Stampin' UP! Always Artichoke, Basic Black, Mellow Moss, Sky Blue, and Whisper White

Designer Papers: Vendor Unknown

Embellishments: lots and lots of brads! (10 per frog)

Little Pony

When I was a child, stores would sometimes have grab bags - you purchased a bag for a reasonable price, but you had no idea what was inside. Sometimes it would say BOY or GIRL on it, sometimes, it was appropriate for either one. I loved the mystery, not knowing what I would get when I ripped into the bag after purchasing it. Obviously, I liked some things better than others, but I was never really disappointed.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, today's card is something like that. See, I'm part of a Mystery Image group on SCS. Every other month we swap cards - but the images are provided by the hostess. We ALL use the same image....... and we have no clue what that image will be until we receive it (it comes with the swapped cards from the previous round.

This time Kate is the hostess and today is the day the swap is due. That means today we have permission to post pictures of our cards on our blogs. Until today, it is a "secret" or a "mystery".

Truthfully, Kate's image was simple, yet challenging! And it was sooooooo much fun!!! It was especially fun for me, since I don't have much reason to use images of this sort (my children are now young adults).

Want to see???

Of course you do!

It's Little Pony!

Isn't she adorable?!?!?

The image is from Stampin' UP! The name of the set is Pony Party. It reminds me of the Little Pony toys my daughter had when she was a youngster. So I colored it in the cheerful/bright colors that I remembered from her toys.

Of course, I had to add a little something inside, too...

I actually made a couple of  "extras" of this card (it's a 3 + 1 swap, but we get 6 images), so I'm going to be mailing one of the cards to a very sweet young lady that I just this week learned about. One of my SCS friends mentioned her and I found her on facebook. Her name is Adalia Rose. If you'd like to read her story (and perhaps send her a card, too), you can find the information here.

Thanks for checking out my blog... I really DO appreciate you!!!

Hugs,
Jeanette


Image: Stampin' UP! Pony Party
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers, and Copic Spica Pens
Cardstock: Stampin' UP! Green Galore, Pink Passion and Pumpkin Pie and Staples 110# White
Designer Paper: American Girl Collection by EK Success
Embellishments: Oriental Trading Post Organdy Ribbon and Buttons (vendor unknown)

Yummy Chocolate!

It's Tuesday...

time for a new

Twisted Tuesday Challenge!

July 17 - 23

Make a creation with chocolate in mind.

This could be chocolate card stock, patterned paper with chocolate on it,

an image with chocolate in it, etc.

The Twist: Use glitter on your creation.

 

*   *   *   *   *

 

CHOCOLATE??? I do like chocolate.... 

chocolate candy bars, chocolate chip cookies,

chocolate cake, brownies... you get the idea! YUM!!!

 

 

Soooooo.... I made myself a chocolate candy bar!

 

YUMMY!

Yes, that is real aluminum foil. ;)

 

In case you're having a difficult time seeing the glitter (the TWIST for this challenge), the pink hearts on the designer paper are glittery, as are the pink brads.

 

I made the candy bar using the 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" square Stampin' UP! punches. Easy!!! I inked the edges of each square, too, and then placed the 6 squares on a rectangle of the same cardstock.

Here's the inside:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go scrounge up some chocolate to eat while you create your own chocolate and glitter card so you can participate in this week's Twisted Tuesday Challenge!


Sentiment: Stampin' UP! For the Love of Chocolate
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa
Cardstock: Stampin' UP! Bravo Burgandy, Chocolate Chip, and River Rock
Designer Paper: Recollections Light Pink Stripe, scraps from my scrap file (glittery heart paper), and Reynolds Aluminum Wrap (tee hee!)
Embellishments: Glittery Brads (vendor unknown)

It's a BBQ!

I love love LOVE the theme for this month's Dueling Darlings! Darlene (the Dazzler hostess) and Tami (the Diva hostess) put their heads together and came up with a BBQ theme! And you should see the kit that Darlene sent the Dazzlers! WOW!!! (I really should take a picture of these kits before I start creating - I just never think to do so.)

Her kit included lots of designer papers from Karen Foster (Food & Family Collage, Ants on Parade, and Barbeque Bash) as well as designer papers from Reminisce (Picnic Parade and Grill Master), stickers from Reminisce (Backyard Bsh) and a little bag of embellishments (eyelets, brads, bling, bakers twine, wood pieces)... and then there was the cutest image - Art Impression's Golden Oldies series BBQ Couple. The only thing I had to add was the cardstock (Stampin' UP! Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, and Crushed Curry).

THANK YOU, Darlene!!! Your kit was such fun to play with - and I didn't use even half of the goodies.

Here's my card:

Have I mentioned how much I love all the designer papers Darlene sent!?!?!? WOW!!!

See that little something peeking out from inside - not the strip of designer papers, not the bling, but the little pointy thing up at the top. Have any idea what it is???

I cut the words Good and Times out of one of the designer papers and added it for the sentiment inside. What fun!!!

Now, that's not all - Darlene and Tami also asked us to post a favorite barbeque recipe, or a salad or side dish recipe that is a hit with your family when getting together for cookouts. Okay... sad story here.... (get your box of tissues ready).... we live too far away from family to get together for cookouts. Soooo no recipes to share. :(

My husband is grilling for us today, though - he does that often. We love grilled burgers, chicken, pork chops, you name it. And, of course, Brock loves grilled hot dogs. We ALWAYS have to have baked beans when we grill... Brock insists. Today we're having grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, baked beans, salad, and some leftover homemade cobbler that I made for dinner last night. Want to see a picture of it?

YUM!!!

Now you want the recipe, don't you? Okay, here it is...

Easy Peach Cobbler

(Don't you just love it when the word EASY is in the title of a recipe!?!?!)

4 cups of sliced peeled fresh peaches

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup milk

5 TBSP melted margarine

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix 1/4 cup sugar into sliced peaches and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the 1/2 cup sugar, flour, and baking powder. Stir well.

4. Add milk to dry ingredients and mix well. (There will be some lumps remaining.)

5. Pour melted margarine into bottom of 9" square baking pan.

6. Pour batter mixture over margarine. Do NOT stir!

7. Placed sliced peaches evenly over batter. Do NOT stir!

8. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cobber is nicely browned. 

NOTE: The "cake" will rise to the top during baking.

I prefer to eat my peach cobbler warm with french vanilla ice cream on top! YUM!!!

Okay, it's time to stop drooling over my cobbler and go check out the other Dueling Darlings blogs to see what they've cooked up....

THE DAZZLERS

April

Darlene

Debbie

Melina

Michelle

Paola

Terry

THE DIVAS

Barb

Carol

Jamie

Judy

Kelly

LJ

Tami

Have fun.............. and don't forget to invite me to your next BBQ! ;)

Lovely As a Tree with Snow

I love Lovely As a Tree... one of Stampin' UP's best stamp sets!

So I used a stamp from it for my second set of cards for Taryn's Trees, Branches, and Leaves card swap.

I went with soft/muted colors on this non-traditional Christmas card.

The quote I used inside is from an A Muse stamp set called Winterwood.

Image: Stampin' UP! Lovely As a Tree (tree on front) and Frosty (snowflake inside the card)
Quote: A Muse Winterwood
Ink: Stampin' UP! Night of Navy and River Rock and Versamark Frost
Cardstock: Stampin' UP! Buckaroo Blue, River Rock, and Whisper White
Designer Paper: vendor unkown
Embellishments: Michael's Pearls and Stampin' UP! French Blue Grosgrain Ribbon

Trees Are Trendy

I have wanted the Trendy Trees stamp set for some time now, and finally had the opportunity to get it (second-hand, which saved me some money). Soooooooo I got inky with it and had such fun creating this card for Taryn's Trees, Branches, and Leaves card swap on SCS.

I think it turned out pretty cute. (I know, I don't say that very often about my own cards.) I hope Taryn thinks so, too!!!

Here's the inside:

Images & Sentiment: Stampin' UP! Trendy Trees
Ink: AMuse Evergreen, Fern, French Toast, Sage, Sky, and Winter Sky
Cardstock: Paper Company Chocolate Brown and Stampin' UP! Very Vanilla
Designer Paper: Reminisce The Geat Outdoors Collection Arbor Green
Die: AMuse Scallop Border
Embellishments: AMuse Ribbon and Paper Studio Brads

Photo Op

As you might remember, we moved about a year ago to a much smaller house. Not only is it small, the inside lighting leaves much to be desired when it comes to taking photo's for my blog. I'm not complaining, I love our little... and it cleans up so fast! YAY! That leaves more time for creating. However, I was finding it very difficult to get a good picture of my creations.

Soooooooooooo I went in search of a solution.

You probably have noticed that most of my pictures have a white background and a white "floor" to them. How did I do that? How did I block out the unnecessary "stuff" that would  be in the background when taking a photo?

I don't have room for one of those fancy light boxes you've probably seen. I own one, but don't use it because there is no where to set it up. (I should probably sell that thing). So I went to our local WalMart and found a smaller version of the boards that are used for Science Fairs - you know the type - tri-fold cardboard. It works quite well on our kitchen table which sets in front of a nice natural light source (a sliding glass door). I use a piece of copy paper on the table and place the tri-fold piece on it to block out the "stuff" that otherwise would show up in the picture (since our kitchen is full of "stuff").

Obviously, I place the paper completely under the tri-fold piece, but in the picture I slanted it so you could get a better idea of what I was talking about.

Well..... yesterday (did you see my card yesterday?) I had a card with a lot of white. I didn't think it would show up very well on this white background. Soooooo I tried to think of a cheap (can anyone say "free) solution.

A T-Shirt!

I went to my closet and pulled out a plain black t-shirt and draped it over the tri-fold cardboard piece.

It worked perfectly.

Just in case you missed yesterday's post, here's a copy of a picture from it:

Photo taking just got more creative! And the good news is: I have lots of t-shirts in lots of colors!

Just imagine what you'll be seeing as the background in my pictures in the future?!?!?1?

Pick Two

I love to go to Panera Bread! If you haven't been to one, they serve amazing sandwiches, salads, soups, and bakery items in a cozy/warm setting. My favorite order is a Pick Two - my choices are half of a Turkey Bravo Sandwich and half of a Greek Salad. YUM!

You might wonder why I'm telling you that, since this is a crafting blog - specifically one devoted to stamping and papercrafting. This is not a blog that features, nor critiques, restaurants.

However, Melina (the owner of Twisted Tuesday Challenge) has made me hungry for Panera Bread! Why? Because this week's theme is a Pick Two theme.

Oh, and since I failed to mention it, the closes Panera Bread is about 1 1/2 hours from my house, so I can't indulge my craving. UGH! However, I can create a card for the Twisted Tuesday Challenge, which I did. ;)

Here's my card:

Twisted Tuesday Challenge

July 10 - 16

Theme: A Holiday Pick Two (any holiday of your choice) - I chose CHRISTMAS

The Twist: You must use two of the following items on your card - the color yellow, charms, twine, rub-ons, stickers, die cuts, lace, or Stickles - I chose twine and the color yellow)

Now it's YOUR turn to pick two and get crafty. I can't wait to see your Holiday Pick Two!


Image & Sentiment: Stampin' UP! Miracle of Christmas

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Embossing: Stampendous Clear Embossing Powder

Cardstock: Stampin' UP! Black and Whisper White

Designer Paper: from my scrap file

Embellishments: Foof-a-La Button (tied on with a piece of yellow twine) and Michael's Rhinestones