Season's Greetings

This is my last design team post for Jane's Doodles. :( It's never easy to leave a team and I would stay with all my teams forever if I could. Jane and Judith have been so sweet and when they invited me to join the team, I was very honoured. I'm so appreciative of what they've given me and I will miss designing for them. I know they will continue to impress you with their future releases!

For this card, which I designed for my parents, I used Vintage Christmas. The outline poinsettia was stamped and heat embossed twice, fussy cut and adhered together. Then I die cut the banners and stamped the sentiment in two parts. After determining the placement of all three pieces, I used the three tiny snowflakes to stamp a partial background and adhered everything on to the card base. Once I finished the card, I added some rhinestones and burlap string.

I hope you're all having a great time with holiday preparations! We are having the best time with my brother-in-law and eight-year-old nephew. They both think our little man is loud, which he is, but it's so cute to see my nephew patting my son on the head and looking at him with such sweetness! Considering the fact that they only met each other last night, they are getting along really well. :)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & white cardstock; SU Real Red cardstock; Jane's Doodles Vintage Christmas; SU Whisper White pigment ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Hero Arts Snow chalk ink; PSX Snowflake embossing tinsel; PTI Double-Ended Banner dies; May Arts forest burlap string; SU Basic Rhinestones

Jane's Doodles {Celebrate}

Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a week! I'm back 'til at least the 21st when we'll have house guests for ten days over the holidays. Then it might be ultra quiet here. Hopefully I won't go insane with the lack of time or ability to craft!! You know how that can be, right? ;)

Today's Jane's Doodles cards were made with the poinsettias from Vintage Christmas and a sentiment from Big Sentiments.

I don't heat emboss very often because it's messy and I don't think I'm very good at it. Maybe I'm just a messy heat embosser. ;) When I don't show the entire image or I can just punch out parts of it like on these two cards, I don't mind heat embossing. I love the impact it makes and I wish I were better at it!

I haven't mailed a single holiday card yet! Have you? I meant to stop at the post office today to buy a bunch of stamps but I forgot. The stroller was loaded with groceries and I was exhausted. I guess I should start addressing my envelopes soon or I'll be making a lot of New Year's cards! LOL

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white & kraft cardstock; SU Old Olive cardstock; Jane's Doodles Vintage Christmas & Big Sentiments; Memories Black ink; VersaMark Watermark ink; SU Whisper White pigment ink; PSX Red & Snowflake embossing tinsel; McGill 1 1/4" square punch; We R Memory Keepers corner chomper; foam tape

Jane's Doodles {Merry Christmas}

Happy Friday! I hope those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a wonderful time with your family and friends. My sister is up for the weekend with her husband and two kids so I'll be spending the better part of my time with them. I'm also going to do some holiday shopping at the One of a Kind Christmas Show and Sale. It is the most amazing place for unique handmade gifts and I've been going every fall for as long as I can remember! And, now, a holiday card made with Jane's Doodles' Vintage Christmas clear stamp set.

Jane's hand-drawn lines on this Santa are so amazing that I literally stared at it wondering if I should colour or paper piece him. Then I decided to show off the beauty of those lines by leaving it black and white. I created a drop frame for the sentiment. I purposely offset the frame so that it's heavier at the top than at the bottom. It draws the eye from the Santa to the sentiment. A simple card like this only needs a simple bow of holiday twine, from Divine Twine. (Please note: I've linked to the (k)Not spools because Whisker Graphics is sold out of the original single spools in this colour. You can still purchase the holiday twine at other stores such as Ribbon Carousel and from various sellers on Etsy.)

Don't forget! Jane's Doodles is having a 20% off sale on all clear stamp sets until November 30th. Check 'em out HERE!

Happy weekend to you all! I hope it's filled with good food, stamping and shopping. ;)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; SU Certainly Celery cardstock; Jane's Doodles Vintage Christmas; Memories Black ink; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 14; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; Divine Twine holiday twine; foam tape

Jane's Doodles {Believe} + Honouring Our Veterans

Just popping in to share a Jane's Doodles holiday card using the newest Vintage Christmas release. I love this snowman! The way Jane drew him with his arms outstretched almost makes him look so appreciative of snow. I love how relaxed and peaceful he looks, too, which is why the 'Believe' sentiment is so perfect for it. I just got the Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas papers and I thought the falling snowflakes and chevron 'hills' would be perfect backdrops for the snowman. I wanted him to have the layered look but not so much that this card couldn't be mailed easily so I used mini Glue Dots instead of foam tape.

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Honouring Our Veterans

Since it was Remembrance Day here in Canada and Memorial Day in the U.S., I'd like to take a moment to reflect on this important day. On the news tonight, they remarked that this is was one of the rare Remembrance Days in which Canada is not involved in a war which is pretty incredible. I believe in peace. If my mom hadn't escaped from the Japanese in China during World War II, I would not be here today. Every year, I wear a poppy pin for two weeks from Halloween through Remembrance Day. I didn't have time to make a poppy card this year but you can read my post from last year if you like. That is still one of my favourite cards. Thank you to all who have served and serve today to protect our freedom.

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Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas paper pad; AC textured white cardstock; Jane's Doodles Vintage Christmas; Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Ovals Large; Memories Black ink

Jane's Doodles New Release Blog Hop

This is my third post of the day. Please CLICK HERE for my Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge post and HERE for my big announcement.

Today, Jane's Doodles is releasing a new stamp set called Vintage Christmas and the design team is joined by two very special guest designers* to show off these stunning stamps!

I paired the outline poinsettia image with the 'Merry Christmas' sentiment. The poinsettia was coloured with Copics and embellished with gold glitter glue. I curved the sentiment to fit the snowglobe stand and wrapped it with Cappuccino baker's twine. I sponged the edges of the snowglobe and adhered it to a woodgrain base with foam tape. With this set, it's going to be so easy to make holiday cards!

Here's the blog hop order:

Jane Beljo
Kelly Booth
Mariana Grigsby
Joy Taylor
Agnieszka Malyszek
---> me <---
Courtney Kelley
Nichol Magouirk*
Betsy Veldman*
Judith Gowdy
Jane's Doodles Blog

Be sure to leave a comment on all the blogs for a chance to win Vintage Christmas for yourself. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & white cardstock; SU Old Olive cardstock; Jane's Doodles Vintage Christmas; Tim Holtz for Ranger distress inks in Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint & Walnut Stain; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; The Twinery baker's twine in Cappuccino; Gary M. Burlin gold glitter glue; a•muse snowglobe die; Papertrey Ink woodgrain impression plate; foam tape

Jane's Doodles {Hope Set}

I made a set of encouragement and hope cards for HYCCT1126: Send a Little Sunshine. These use three Jane's Doodles stamp sets: Little Miss Mia, Big Sentiments and Pretty Peonies. I left the image plain except for a little rhinestone to keep the focus on the beautiful Echo Park papers.

These cards are so easy to make with sweet Little Miss Mia and the variety of large sentiments offered in Big Sentiments. The single sentiment from Pretty Peonies works wonderfully with the floral paper. Leaving the images uncoloured on white allows them to complement the papers rather than compete for attention. A little rhinestone in the centre of the flower finishes them nicely.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I have a lot to catch up on. :)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Life is Good Collection; Echo Park Dots & Stripes Candy Shoppe paper pad; Jane's Doodles Little Miss Mia, Big Sentiments and Pretty Peonies; Tim Holtz for Ranger Walnut Stain distress ink; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; Papertrey Ink Double-Ended Banners die; SU Basic Rhinestones; Stampin' Dimensionals

Jane's Doodles {Eat Cake}

Happy Friday! I have a Jane's Doodles card to share with you today. This one uses Party Time which has lovely cakes, presents, banners and large sentiments. Last night, I made a completely different card using this set but that one won't be blogged. However, the scrapping of it resulted in the idea for this card. I realized that I hadn't stamped a background in a while which I really love doing so this card makes me happy. I came up with the colours on the piece of scrap that I was using to figure out the original card. It's great when random stamping brings about a better idea. This card is pretty self-explanatory so I won't bore you with another long post. :) Have a wonderful weekend!!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock; SU Pool Party cardstock; Japanese Linen Avocado cardstock; Jane's Doodles Party Time; SU Pool Party, Wild Wasabi & Old Olive inks; Tim Holtz for Ranger Shabby Shutters distress ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Fourteen; Stampin' Dimensionals

Jane's Doodles {All Things Grow With Love}

Happy Friday! Today, I have a Jane's Doodles card to share with you. It uses two of the newest sets, Pretty Peonies and Big Sentiments with the ark from Noah's Ark as a planter.

I stamped the peonies with three shades of yellow distress ink and fussy cut them. I layered them around the base of the ark and tied Charcoal baker's twine around it. In the close-up photos, you can see that I scored an X on the black card base to create the look of a wood frame. Then I used a paint dabber to ink up the edges of the kraft panel.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoy your day. :)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white, kraft & black cardstock; Jane's Doodles Pretty Peonies, Noah's Ark & Big Sentiments; Tim Holtz for Ranger distress inks in Antique Linen, Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw & Wild Honey; The Twinery baker's twine in Charcoal; Memories Black ink; Jenni Bowlin for Ranger acrylic paint dabber in Malted Milk; Stampin' Dimensionals

Jane's Doodles {You're the Best}

Happy Friday! It's my day to post on the Jane's Doodles Blog. I was up very late last night feeling exceptionally tired and having a beer. Well, I nearly gave myself a concussion making this card late last night - er, very early this morning - and you are going to laugh so hard when you read this story. I have a built-in desk with overhead shelves in my new house. Normally, I stand on my background stamps on the floor, on a magazine, to get a really good impression. Well, for some reason, I decided to press this one on the desk and when I threw my weight on the stamp, my head was propelled into the overhead shelves. I heard quite the nasty crack. Then I got scared when I touched my hand to my head 'cause there was a deep indentation and I ran to look in the mirror. I quickly got some ice and nearly froze my eyeballs while finishing this card. There's nothing like giving yourself a nasty bruise and a near-concussion while crafting! Lesson learned? Just stand on the stamp. Oh, and maybe stick to wine while crafting instead of beer. LOL

I used three Jane's Doodles sets to make this fun card! The large sentiment is from the wonderfully whimsical set, Big Sentiments, that was just released last week. The banners are from Party Time, also released last week, and the smaller sentiment which I stamped inside the banners, is from Little Miss Mia. The Envelope Pattern on the grey strip is, of course, Hero Arts.

It's not often that I use both a colour inspiration challenge and a sketch but that's what ended up happening here. I used the colourQ challenge #102 as well as Moxie Fab World's Vertical Sketch Challenge after I saw Emily Keaton's sweet submission to my Moving Challenge using the same colours and sketch. Thank you for the spark, Emily! I think my mojo might finally be returning, despite the hit on the head. :Þ The words on this card are for all of you who have left encouraging comments and emails! Thank you so, so much for the smiles and laughter. ;)

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Basic Grey, Poppy Parade, Certainly Celery & Tempting Turquoise cardstock; Jane's Doodles Big Sentiments, Party Time & Little Miss Mia; Hero Arts Envelope Pattern; Memories Black ink; Hero Arts Snow Chalk ink; SU Basic Rhinestones

Jane's Doodles Blog Hop

Jane's Doodles is releasing three new clear sets today and you are going to love them!

Pretty Peonies
Party Time
Big Sentiments

The design team is joined by two very special guest designers* for today's hop:

Jane Beljo
Kelly Booth
Mariana Grigsby
Joy Taylor
Aga Malyszek
---> Emily Leiphart <---
Jen Gallacher*
Wendy Sue Anderson*
Judith Gowdy
Jane's Doodles Blog

One lucky winner will win all three sets so be sure to leave a comment on all blogs to increase your chances.

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For my first project, I used one of the flowers and a sentiment from the Pretty Peonies set. This flower is so beautifully drawn, it's a piece of cake to colour. With very little shading, I was able to create enough depth in each flower that they look more dimensional than they are.

First, I stamped the sentiment at the base of the card. Then, I die cut a bunch of rainbows using the Rainbows & Clouds die from Lil' Inker Designs. Before adhering the bows randomly across the base of the stems to create 'grass', I determined the position of the peonies, stamped one on the card base and another on a separate piece of cardstock for fussy cutting. I coloured both peonies and adhered the top one before finishing the card with 'grass' and Buttercream baker's twine from The Twinery.

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This next project is a set of birthday cards that I sent to my sister for her birthday. I paired two of the banner flags from Party Time with a sentiment from Big Sentiments. You've already seen me use the round flag HERE.

After gauging where the flags will lie, I stamped the sentiment on all four cards and fussy cut all the banners from Basic Grey's Out of Print Collection. I adhered the tops of the forked flags under the sentiments and stitched complementary threads across them in a whimsical fashion. Then I trimmed little party hats using the triangular flag and topped them off with a gemstone.

Click on any photo to see the full size.

These cards are simple in design which means they can be given to men or women, and they are flat enough to be mailed with regular postage which my busy sister of two-under-two will appreciate. ;) I packaged all four cards in my favourite style using environmentally-friendly Clear Bags and baker's twine from The Twinery.

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Thank you so much for stopping by to enjoy this new release with us! All three sets are now available for purchase at the Jane's Doodles Shop.

Sources for Hope: SU Basic Gray cardstock; Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Candy Shoppe paper pad; Jane's Doodles Pretty Peonies; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copic markers; Lil' Inker Designs Rainbows & Clouds die; The Twinery baker's twine in Buttercream; Stampin' Dimensionals; Scor-Tape

Sources for Birthday Set: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Basic Grey Out of Print paper pad; Jane's Doodles Party Time & Big Sentiments; Memories Black ink; Gutermann thread in various colours; sewing machine; Stampin' Dimensionals; SU Basic Rhinestones; Clear Bags; The Twinery baker's twine in Caribbean & Cappuccino

Jane's Doodles {Sneak Peeks}

This is my second post of the day.
For details on the Last Days of Summer Blog Hop hosted by PSA Essentials and sponsored by The Twinery and more, please CLICK HERE.

Today, I'm sharing a couple of Jane's Doodles cards which combine previously released stamps with sneak peeks of new stamps that will soon be available to order!

This first one is a 3" x 4.25" mini that uses a pop of patterned paper for the 'flower pot' that holds the flowers from Garden Friends.

My second card is a standard-sized A2 card and it features Little Miss Mia with another beautifully hand-written sentiment and the cutest little flag which I stamped three times to create a banner.

Little Miss Mia is partially coloured with Copics and partially paper-pieced. I love the way this combination looks!

The designer papers used on this card are from Echo Park's Life is Good Collection. They were a gift from Jenny Johns who so generously sent them with an Ippity set I ordered from her. More on that later!

Sources for Thanks a Bunch: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Basic Grey Oxford Collection; Jane's Doodles Garden Friends, Party Time and Big Sentiments; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Riding Hood Red ink; Copics

Sources for Classy and Fabulous: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Life is Good Collection; Jane's Doodles Little Miss Mia, Party Time and Big Sentiments; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; SU Basic Rhinestones

Jane's Doodles {Love... endures all things.}

I'm popping in to share a Jane's Doodles card that is currently winging its way to my super sweet and talented friend, AJ Otto. This card features Little Miss Mia in different hair colours to show that she's not only cute, she's cool! Plus, I had so much fun playing with her arms!

On the purple and red versions, I stamped an extra arm and adhered it to the picture to make it look as if Mia's animated and enthusiastic about what she's saying which is the verse from Unity's July 2011 Kit of the Month, Better Together. If you click on the link to see the original design of the verse, you'll see that I aligned each line separately on my gridded acrylic block to get it to stamp on the very edges of the squares. 'Believes' ended up too close to 'all things' but I wasn't about to redo the Copic colouring. ;) The 'be brave' background is from the Melody Ross set She Sprouted Wings.

Thanks for stopping by this evening! I'm off to watch Flashpoint but I'll be back soon. Big hugs to you all!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Jane's Doodles Little Miss Mia; Unity July 2011 Kit of the Month - Better Together & Unity+Melody Ross She Sprouted Wings; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Crumb Cake ink; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals; SU Basic Rhinestones; We R Memory Keepers corner chomper

Jane's Doodles {Hello}

Happy Friday! I'm here to share another Jane's Doodles card with you. This one uses all but one of the animals in the Garden Friends set. I stamped them individually on white cardstock, coloured them in with Copic markers and fussy cut them. I wanted to make a collage but I couldn't figure out how to organize all the animals. That's when I called in my husband and he did it right away. I love that he's so good at puzzles. It's a very handy skill to have when cardmaking, too. LOL The animals needed a subtle background so I used the grass from Hero Arts' Whimsical Houses. The bee is the only one that I moved from the position my husband suggested, which was above the bird. I liked it flying toward the apple but that was the perfect spot for the sentiment so I popped the bee one level higher above the turtle's shell.

What are your weekend plans? Today, I have a lot of cleaning up to do to get the condo ready for showings again after the flood we had on Tuesday night. Then I'll be meeting Jen Wills for dinner and maybe some stamping beforehand if we have time! ;) Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Jane's Doodles Garden Friends; Hero Arts Whimsical Houses; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Wild Wasabi ink; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals; We R Memory Keepers corner chomper

Jane's Doodles {Welcome Baby}

It's my day on the Jane's Doodles Blog and I'm featuring the set Noah's Ark. I used the lion's face without the mane and turned it into a bear! I stamped, coloured and fussy cut five of them and adhered them on to flags to create a fun Welcome Baby banner. After attaching the flags to the cloud background, I used charcoal baker's twine to create little connectors which consist of double knots. They use the same concept shown in THIS post, about twine knot embellishments, except they are two knots side-by-side. Instead of trimming the ends off right against the knot, I left a bit of a fringe. Cute connectors? I think so. ;)

When my son saw this card, he just stared at it. Suddenly, he said, "Mommy! I want ice cream!" I burst out laughing. My husband came over and after a few seconds of absorbing the situation said, "Ah, the power of suggestion." LOL

Have a wonderful Friday! I'll be back this evening with another post.

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Cameo Coral cardstock; Jane's Doodles Noah's Ark; Hero Arts Clouds & Friendly Flags; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Crumb Cake ink; Copics; The Twinery Charcoal baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals

Jane's Doodles {Garden Friends}

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends and family at home and around the world! I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!

Today, I have a couple of new cards to show you using the Jane's Doodles set Garden Friends. This set is loaded with cute animals, flowers and sentiments so versatile for a host of occasions. I made this first card before the blog hop last week, saved it for my DT post today and I chuckled to myself when I saw that Jennifer McGuire had the same idea of putting the flower in the turtle's mouth!

My flower stem is turned upward and of course the rest of the card design is completely different. I stamped the turtle once on the card base and stamped the flower in his mouth using a mask of the turtle but that didn't matter because I decided to stamp him again, fussy cut him and pop him on for some dimension. The sentiment perfectly follows the curve of his shell. Then I trimmed a thin frame out of kraft cardstock and stitched it on to the card.

For my second card, I'm playing along in the Embellish Rainbow Color Trends Challenge. It uses the frog from Garden Friends in a rainbow of colours. I created a mask for him and stamped him in a pile starting from the bottom up (just like this card HERE). To enhance the rainbow effect of the stamped frogs, I stamped the sentiment in black and then cut thin strips of coloured cardstock, rounding various corners to create a pattern that highlights both the sentiment and the frogs.

To my American friends and family, I hope you enjoy your Independence Day celebrations this weekend, too! I'm sure there will be a lot of great blog posts for me to read next week!!

Sources for I Turtlely Love You: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Jane's Doodles Garden Friends; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Riding Hood Red ink; Copics; Gutermann red thread; sewing machine; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for Hoppy Birthday: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Real Red, Tangerine Tango & Wild Wasabi cardstock; Discount Cardstock gold & grape cardstock; Paper Reflections blue cardstock; Jane's Doodles Garden Friends; SU Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Summer Sun, Wild Wasabi, Ballet Blue & Lavender Lace inks; Memories Black ink; Fiskars Nostalgia corner rounder