An argyle Thinking of you card.

Hey Everyone! I hope you are well!! I'm sorry I haven't been around. I guess I need to accept the fact, that blogging just doesn't fit in my schedule some days. Sad, isn't it?

We do have a few more batches of canning to do and then I can share a picture of the canning cellar with you. It sure is pretty! The end of canning means the end of the garden. We do have a few things still growing, but clean up of the rest of the garden needs to take place. The weather forecast looks good for most of the week!

A friend's friend's fur baby passed away recently. My friend asked if I could make her a card to give to her grieving friend. I told her absolutely. I will say it is much more fun to make happy cards, but I thought it was sweet she cares enough about her friend to send a card. (ok, ok, yes I thought it was cool she asked me to make the card! But you really already knew I thought it was cool)

I came home and was looking through some of my cartridges and consulted Google. I wasn't seeing a whole lot on Google that was inspiring. I didn't care for the cards that had dogs off of the Create A Critter cartridge. They seemed a little too cutesy for this situation. Awhile later I pulled out the Wild Card cartridge and was looking through it and found the PERFECT cut!!! The friend that asked me to make the card LOVES argyle!

The argyle card is the 2nd cut on the Wild Card cartridge and is on page 33.

I cut everything at 6 inches.

I used my Gypsy to make the cuts.

I have read that if you aren't using a Gypsy you should always cut the envelope first and then the other cuts.

This is the blackout feature and BOTH icon cuts!

Blackout card and both icon cuts layered together.

You can see I ran my ribbon behind the cuts.

The ribbon tied and sentiment attached.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up Sincere Salutations

Do you see the frog?? The pointy thing that is holding the card???

I now have two of them. One of my girlfriends went on vacation a month ago.

She was in an antique store in Illinois and saw them and brought them home for me.

The second one is much larger. I will share it soon.

The inside sentiment - I searched Google for quotes about dogs.

I decided on this one. I'm sorry the photo is blurry.

It says

"A good dog never dies. He always stays. He walks beside you on crisp autumn days when frost is on the fields and winter's drawing near. His head is within our hand in his old way" by Mary Carolyn Davies

I cut the envelope using the blackout feature.

The paper was onesided, which is perfect for an envelope!

The Created for you is a Stampin' Up stamp as well.

You didn't really think I wouldn't put anything on the envelope did you??

I love how the card turned out.

My girlfriend loved the card and commented on the argyle.

Jim thinks I should make Christmas cards using this cut.

SO, perhaps you will see this cut again.

This is part of why I haven't been around.

I'm making these coffins and selling them.

Some people are giving them to their child's teachers and others are giving them to the kids in their family.

I have an assortment of things to put in them. I have things for adults and kids.

Some people are buying them empty to fill with their own stuff and others like the one stop shop idea.

If you missed the post on these coffins, it is here.

I may need to do another post showing all the different ways they have been decorated. What do you think?

What kind of Halloween projects are you working on??

Thanks so much for stopping in.
Hugs! ~ Jen

Linking up here:

A bridal shower gift

Holy Moly! It says it has been like 12 days since I've posted! I have thought about you daily, but I was taking advantage of the sunshine and getting some work done outside. Then it rained. I needed the rainy day to catch up on the inside stuff! I love driving myself crazy! Somewhere in there I also went to a bridal shower for a friend of ours. Jim and I both had a hand in the making of the gift! Steph (yep the one I mention often!) was in on the gift too. We decided on what we wanted and sent Jim off to the shop! :) Don't let him fool ya, he loves having his best gal pal in the house, even if we do gang up on him.

We wanted a box our friend, Nicole, could set on her counter and set a cookbook on top of. We also wanted the box to open up. (we don't ask for much right?)

Downstairs he went, sketch in hand. He sorted through the pieces downstairs and found 'the ones' for this project. It turned out FANTASTIC!! So much so, in fact, Jim said he didn't want to see it go! I have that problem often. It turned out great! Let's take a look shall we?

the top

Jim's favorite part is these boards on the top!

the side

the back

the inside

the bottom

felt pieces were added to the bottom so it won't scratch the counter

Awesome isn't it?

We aren't done though. We can't very well gift an empty box can we?

Onward then!

Every girl needs thank you cards, especially a bride!

I pulled out these three stamps from an old Stampin' Up set.

The set is called Flowers.

There were three different designs...

I made a couple 'trial' ones and sent text messages to Steph.

We had preferences, but I still couldn't decide...

So Nicole received a handful of each design.

She can be the one to decide!

All bundled up!

If you have followed my cards, you know I like to put a stamp on the back of my envelopes.

The butterfly in the upper right hand corner was stamped on the back of the envelopes.

Let's take a peek inside the box...

Jim's Mom told me a girl NEEDS to have a napkin drawer.

Nicole's box has plenty of napkins!

Steeler napkins

Coca Cola napkins

Beachy napkins

Paisley napkins

Birthday napkins

She also received measuring cups and spoons.

A flour sack towel {LOVE THEM}

and some stamps for her thank you cards!

Pretty cool gift if you ask me!

What would a gift be without a card?

Nicole's colors are pink and green...

Sometimes it pays to have a paper OBSESSION!

I found pink and green paper!

I used the the new Stampin' Up Take it to Heart set.

This was one of the sets in that big box I told you about awhile back.

I stamped in pink and green.

I used my heart punch on the one that was the same size as the punch

and used scissors to cut the others. Nothing hard or tricky here!

I tied a piece of pink ribbon around the pink and green paper.

Adhered the pink and green paper to the card base.

Added foam dots to the backs of the hearts.

Adhered the hearts to  the card.

Added a sentiment. YIKES! That looks horrible!!!

Take two! 

In paper crafting there is almost always a way to cover up a whoops!

(oh shoot, the cat is out of the bag, now nicole will be taking her card apart to see if i am telling the truth)

I had nothing to do with the flowers...BUT!!!!!

Steph did!!!! She's getting her craft on pretty well isn't she?

A look at our lunch choices!

If you really need to know, I had the burger.

It was DELISH!

The bride to be reading the inside of her box.

It was stamped and signed by Jim and signed by Steph and me.

It was a nice time!

Our gift wasn't the only one that rocked, but it was close. (he he he)

It won't be long now Lady!!!

Congratulations again!!!

Partying here:

Changito the Monkey Birthday Cards

I am still amazed by how the fireplace wall looks!!! I will get some shots of it from a wider angle and share them either here or on the Facebook Page.

Today isn't about the fireplace wall though. Today I am sharing some cards I made for my Aunt for her birthday. I made her birthday card and then I made a set of cards as her gift. She SCUBA dives (interesting tidbit--I use to) and Changito The Monkey has a SCUBA stamp. When I saw it, I knew I HAD to have it and I knew who would be receiving the first projects made with it. The thought process went a couple different ways but here is where it ended up!

My original idea was having Changito in a fish bowl. When it came time to work on this, I didn't like the fish bowl idea. I was talking to Jim about it and had a couple ideas to accomplish the 'water' effect.  Jim goes to the miscellaneous office supply shelf and pulls out these old thin plastic report covers --- IN BLUE!!! Hello! and Yes please!!

I used the Stretch Your Imagination card frame found on page 41 of the SYI handbook. I used my Gypsy to hide the bubbles.  I put this report cover on the Cricut mat and hoped for the best! Here is what the cut looked like when it was done.

It cut PERFECTLY!!!

The other thing I cut with my cricut was some coral from the Life's A Beach cartridge!

I stamped Changito onto the card. I used the masking technique (still learning it too) to stamp the fish. There is one fish in front of Changito on the stamp. I glued down some of the coral. I used clear glue dots to adhere the 'water' to the card. The fish jumping out of the water has foam dot behind him to give him dimension AND to help me help him hold the Martha Stewart twine.  Changito and the fish were colored with Stampin' Up Watercolor pencils and blended.

The inside of this card:

The water here was just the 'other' end of the cut for the front. Kinda like two cuts for the price of one!

The fish and starfish are from and old Stampin' Up set. Colored the same way as the front.

The sentiment is part of the Changito set. If you noticed the SCUBA the fish on the front was carrying, it is the same SCUBA as seen here, just without the rest of the stamp. I used clear glue dots to adhere the water.

I think it turned out pretty cool, especially for not following my original idea. Definitely have to thank Jim for the report cover since that is what totally made this project!

Now let's look at the ones that I made for her to give away (which said she doesn't know if she can)!

I stamped Changito and then used a circle punch on him.

The one on the right I punched a black circle to give it a shadow effect.

The one on the left has more of the report cover. I ran it through my Texture Boutique with a polka dot like embossing folder. I think it looks like bubbles! I did use a pair of decorative scissors down the one side of this card as well. Both cute in their own way, or at least I think.

Same circle punch.

Same Changito.

Different paper.

Different sentiments.

I also made some that weren't necessarily girly so my Aunt could give them to their male SCUBA friends.

Same products and techniques on all three, but each slightly different.

These have the rest of the report cover and it was run through the embosser too!

Another look at all of them together:

I am quite pleased with how they turned out!

My Aunt loves them and isn't sure she can part with them. :)

What are your thoughts?

Partying here:

The Shady Porch for Rock 'N Share

Someday Crafts: Whatever Goes Wednesday

Have a great day!!! ~The J's

Stampin' Up Love & Sympathy cards

This past Saturday was a GREAT!!!!! day in my world! We went to our local craft supply store and came home with the spool of ribbon and the package of card stock I went for ...and... a bag full of rubber stamps out of the clearance bins. It doesn't end there! Saturday was also the day I received my Stampin' Up order!!! Huge grin!  The Stampin' Up order box rocked! I was the hostess so there was FREE stuff.  Woo hoo!

The bad part of all that, NOT KNOWING WHERE TO START!!!!! So many choices, someone please just pick one for me. ha!!!!

I started with the Stampin' Up Love & Sympathy set.

I made four cards. Any paper used on the card came from the scrap drawer. I seriously need to do more projects out of the 'scrap' drawer!!!!! (shh, there are actually two drawers)

I used the following embossing folder and embossed two of the cards.

This first card I used my VersaMark Pad to stamp the flower image.

The sentiment was stamped with brown StazOn.

The ribbon is from the Stampin' Up Beachfront collection

Same embossing folder. Similar scraps.

Repeated the VersaMark flower image and brown StazOn sentiment.

The inside of these two cards looks like this:

I wasn't sure I liked the embossing so I used a plain card base.

Since the paper was from the scrap drawer I had to use side by side background pieces.

Again stamped using the VersaMark pad with the flower image.

I also used foam dots behind the brown card stock so the card wasn't completely flat.

The fourth card was definitely an example of trial and error.

I stamped the flower multiple times, some of them without re-inking the stamp.

There are foam squares behind the sentiment box. 

For being outside of my comfort zone, I think this card turned out pretty well.

Here's the inside:

same sentiment as the others, just a different look

And all four again!

(with some welcomed afternoon sunshine)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you will leave some comment love.

~hugs Jen

I am linking up here:

Peanut Butter cookies using the Stampin' Up Cookie Press

Happy Valentine's Day a day late everyone!!!! Today is Valentine's Day for Jim and I though. He worked late last night. He's made a layered chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I think I am going to pair it with some of the red raspberries I have in the fridge.  He's also grilling steak and making crab cakes for dinner! Unfortunately the crab cakes will be all his since I have developed an allergy to some shell fish. *insert HUGE frownie face here*
I'm very much looking forward to our evening together.  It is also a hockey night in Pittsburgh so I am sure there will be a hockey game in our house tonight!

Anywho....back on track!!! For Christmas I was given the Stampin' Up cookie press holiday set. How cool is it that I can now use rubber stamps in the kitchen!!!!!! We (ok, really HE) made the peanut butter cookie recipe found on the back of the Jif jar. If you've never made it before, it is delish recipe. I tried taking pictures of the recipe on the jar but some combination of lighting and my camera and maybe even the user didn't work together yesterday afternoon. I promise it is the recipe straight off the jar.

Use a cookie scoop to put the cookies on the cookie sheet. This was the first time the cookie press had been used. We have a little cookie scoop and the ice cream sized scoop. Making these cookies taught us we need the medium size cookie scoop. (my co-workers will tell you this one worked out JUST fine)

Now comes the cookie press.

A whole tray of cookies.

Bake the cookies and this is what you get.

Since these were made with the large cookie scoop the recipe only made 10 cookies.  They were 10 delicious cookies though!!!!

Have a great night everyone! Thanks for stopping by!!!!

Linking up Here: