A Newsworthy Friday

Hi, All! I'm still behind on my photo taking so I don't have any eye candy for you but what I have is even better!

First, THERE IS A SALE AT JACKSONBELLE! Yes, this is the mother of all mother enabler alerts. Lindsey has lots of new goodies on the from CHA, so to make room she has EVERYTHING in the store reduced 30%! That includes brand new releases from Cosmo Cricket, the stamps and patterned paper from the Memory Box Sugar Drop line, the latest Lizzie Anne Designs release, Basic Gray Bittersweet- YES! All of it 30% off! So you know you want some and at these prices you need some- think of all the money you are saving! Be sure to use coupon code Feb30 to receive this awesome discount!

Next, today starts the Sneak Peeks for the Spring It On release by A Muse. My goodies are still in transits but be sure to check the A Muse News blog and some of the other gals on my blog list to your left! All I can is this new release is incredible! Some awesome new images and sentiments that as ALWAYS go so well with so many existing ones- one the things I love about A Muse! Wishing you fun Times and inky fingers! Take care!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday

Agh! I can't believe how long it has been since I lasted posted! I'd like to say something mysterious like I've been working on secret projects or something exciting like I've been traveling on vacation but the truth of the matter is day to day life has been extra busy AND to top it off my camera has been missing for about a week. Yesterday, I finally MADE myself go through the play room and low and behold, there is was. My little Rachel is quite the photo bug and has sticky fingers when it comes to my camera. Fortunately, it is not the greatest camera. But I will have to be more diligent with her when we finally get a new one. So for today's challenge, the Jacksonbelle DT was to CASE a card from the blog or gallery of our own Michelle Woerner! Wowsers, there was a plethora of gorgeousness from which to choose. I decided I had to CASE the LO of this beautiful card. I love the 3 panel background and the flowers in the corner! Instead of Primas, I die cut my own flowers using Sprout PP by Memory Box and this new Cookie Cutter die from Quickutz! I these dies in my Cuttlebug with a Spellbinder magnetic pad to keep everything and place and they worked wonderfully! After die cutting, I inked the edges with pink chalk ink then painted them with Angel Dust Shimmerz. The center are Glitter Dots by Jesse James- one of my most favorite forms of bling! My stamp is Duet by Inkadinkado, sentiment is A Muse, and ribbon is May Arts. I really enjoyed making those flowers and see this die set getting much use in the future. Be sure to stop over at the Jackonsbelle Embellishment blog for a cameo of Michelle and another look at her Shimmerz tutorial (perfect if you are wondering what to do with those little pots of glitter goodness.) Also, be sure to check out the rest of the DT blogs for some rockin' inspiration!

• AJ Otto
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jennifer Buck
• Jill Dunn
• Kim O'Rosky
• Kisa Peters
• Lynda Benden
• Lindsey Botkins
  
• Maren Benedict
• Melissa Bove
• Michelle Woerner
• Rachel Hope
• Shannon Teubner
• Taylor Usry

We would love to have you play along and if you do, please, either link your card to a comment on the Jacksonbelle Blog OR use JBE038 in the keywords to your SCS gallery- we want to see your beautiful creations! Wishing you fun Times and inky fingers! Take care!

Heather's Share Your Spark Challenge

Each Friday, Heather Meeson, Designer/Instructor/Photographer extraordinaire of the A Muse Creative Team, posts a Share Your Spark Friday Challenge on her blog, one little spark. These are some awesome and creative challenges and I look in at them every Friday. Unfortunately, stamping time has been limited to "must dos" lately and I have not been able to play along. One of my Goals this year, was to try to stick to purchasing items that I can use on DT projects or in my A Muse classes. Now don't think me too noble, I can really manipulate and justify plenty of purchases. I did have a moment of weakness when I enter my lss, Once Upon a Scrapbook, and saw this new to me line of stamps, Great Impressions! This sweet little flourish and oh so cute owl image were just too much for me to resist (not to mention the flourish was the "stamp of the month" and an additional 40% off)! I have mentioned before that my very most favorite technique of all times was paper piecing- and guess what Heathers Share Your Spark was last Friday- to create something using an image or sentiment that you have cut out!!!! This was too good to resist and I MADE time for fun stamping! I teamed my new stamps with my new Bittersweet PP from Basic Gray and another favorite kraft CS. The kraft cs was stamped using Boudoir Blush Palette ink. Next I stamped the flourish image on 2 different design of the PP and cut and glued some random little hearts. Finally, I went over a couple of the flourishes with my Sakura glue pen and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I added a strip of Bittersweet PP to a Regal Rose mat and tied a piece of bright pink May Arts ribbon. For the focal image, I stamped the owl outline on a piece of the PP but only colored in the hearts. I then stamped the owl again and colored with Copic markers. I then cut the owl out and adhered him to the outline owl with foam dimensionals. Isn't he cute! Be sure to check out Heather's blog this Friday for another super Share Your Spark Friday challenge. Wishing you fun Times and inky fingers! Take care!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday

It is Tuesday once again and time for the Jacksonbelle Embellishments Design Team challenge. This week's challenge was to use products from October Afternoon. OA has quickly found its place on my favorites list. The fun, whimsical designs are just right for me! As always, it just thrills us to have others play along with our challenges. If you do, please use JBE036 in the keywords when uploading to your SCS gallery OR link it to a comment in the JBE Store Blog. To get the mojo going, feel free to stop by the other DT blogs for some inspiration 'belle style!

• AJ Otto
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jennifer Buck
• Jill Dunn
• Kim O'Rosky
• Kisa Peters
• Lynda Benden
• Maren Benedict
• Melissa Bove
• Michelle Woerner
• Rachel Hope
• Shannon Teubner
• Taylor Usry

My challenge card today is more of a scrappy card. The only stamping is the little words in the background- "smile" and "just having fun" from the Detours clear stamp set. I so... wanted to use these cute little monsties from the Night Light line but did not have the stamps. So I got out my trusty Cutter Bees and sniped these 3 little guys from a piece of the "Louie" PP ("Louie Louie, oh no Me gotta go Aye-yi-yi-yi- yep now THAT is going through my head)! To give them a bit of a slimy look, I painted them with coordinating Shimmerz. After painting, I put the little guys to the side to make the rest of my card. To make the little scales, I simply punched out several ovals, then cut them in half. Next, I inked the edges and finally, added a bit of Peeled Paint Distress Stickles to the tips. I layered them onto my card base (Jack PP), stamped my words using Palette inks and foam popped this cute little trio to the front of the card. Since this will probably go to a little guy, I opted for no ribbon (it was hard, let me tell you) and used a few MM green glitter brads. With 2 DD, I don't need boy cards often but next time I do I'll be ready! Wishing you fun Times and inky fingers! Take care!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday

I'm on the run this morning so this will have to be a short post! Today's Jacksonbelle Challenge was to use any of our new products that we had received from Jacksonbelle. I am just in love with the new Imaginisce line "Twitterpated" and was so excited to receive the paper pack! Just adorable. I teamed it up with this little Inka bird for a Valentine's day card. The sparkly flowers- no other than white Primas painted with Shimmerz. Be sure to check out the rest of the DT blogs to see what else Lindsey has "in store" at Jacksonbelle (sorry for the pun)!

• AJ Otto
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jennifer Buck
• Jill Dunn
• Kim O'Rosky
• Kisa Peters
• Lindsey Botkins
  
• Lynda Benden
• Maren Benedict
• Melissa Bove
• Michelle Woerner
• Rachel Hope
• Shannon Teubner
• Taylor Usry

We would love to have you play along! If you upload to your SCS gallery, please be sure to use JBE035 in the keywords so we can see your beautiful work! Also, Lindsey is having super clearance sale so you will want to go by and see all of her specials! Wishing you fun Times and inky fingers! Take care!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday

Whahoo! It's the first Jacksonbelle Embellishment DT challenge of the new year! Lynda really started us off right with this awesome sketch:We would love to have you play along! If you do please either link your card in the comments to this post on the Jacksonbelle Embellishments Blog or if you add to you gallery on SCS, please, use JBE034 in your keywords. That way we can all see your beautiful cards! Need some super inspiration? Be sure to check out the blogs of the rest of the DT:

• AJ Otto
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jennifer Buck
• Jill Dunn
• Kim O'Rosky
• Kisa Peters
• Lindsey Botkins
  
• Lynda Benden
• Maren Benedict
• Melissa Bove
• Michelle Woerner
• Rachel Hope
• Shannon Teubner
• Taylor Usry

My card today features stamps and PP from October Afternoon. I absolutely adore OA- super cute images, acrylic stamps that leave a crisp image, coordinating papers, beautiful colors- IMHO it has it all! Both the tree and the paper pieced house are from the Home Sweet Home acrylic stamp set (I believe Lindsey is out of this set right now but I'm sure you could e-mail her to see what the status is of this cute set.) The paper is all from the Weathervane collection. All ink is by Memento if Rich Cocoa and Pear Tart. I ran the yellow panel through the Cuttlebug using the Paisley embossing folder to add some texture. Sentiment is by A Muse. This was truly a super fun card to make!

Don't forget, tomorrow is Release Day for the latest A Muse images! Be sure to check with you LSS to see if they have these cute stamps in stock. If not, the A Muse website will be able to hook you up! Wishing everyone fun Times and inky fingers! Take care!

Tickled to Share Another Sneak Peek!

As I mentioned, yesterday's Featured Stamper on SCS was no other than Her Royal Rubberness herself, Julie Ebersole! I have the honor of having Julie as the Creative Team Director for A Muse and besides her creativity and artistic talent, this gal is "good people." The tough thing about this particular challenge was selecting only 1 card as an inspiration piece. All of Julie's cards are filled with such wonderfully, simple detail (yes, that should be a contradiction in terms but this gal is talented enough to pull it off) that I could spend days perusing her beautiful gallery. But since I didn't have that kind of time to piddle away on the computer, I selected an image I wanted to showcase and went from there. I wanted to share this fun little lingerie shop that will be released by A Muse on January 7th, along with the awesome french lamppost and sentiment that are, also, included. With that in mind, I chose this card from Julie's gallery. What inspired me about this particular creation was the backdrop panel and matting the little boutique on black cs to really make it shine. I began my backdrop with a piece of a black argyle band notecard. After adding the French Lampposts, I air brushed a Warm Gray 2 Copic marker to give it a dusky look, added some yellow Copic around the light source, then painted the light source with Candlelight Shimmerz. A little yellow twinkle sticker was placed on the candle for a finishing touch. The Lingerie shop was colored with Copics. Once again, Candlelight Shimmerz was added to the "windows" for a glowing affect. Both panels were adhered to one of my new favorites- Chiffon Pink 4-bar notecards. If you get a chance be sure to check out Julie's Gallery. It is truly worth every minute (err, hour) spent! Wishing you fun Times and inky fingers! Take care!