I COULDN'T WAIT . . .

I know I said yesterday that I was taking a break this week and would just be vegging out with hubby and son in the evenings until Friday. I JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT!!!!!! Not the husband and son part - the not being creative part. LOL! Being in my studio (as messy as it is right now) is my relaxation and enjoyment and I just couldn't make it another day without making SOMETHING. So I ran away during the national news broadcast and immersed myself in mess.

One of my sisters and I are planning a baby shower for our other sisters daughter. (Yes - that would make her my niece - and I could have just said that to make it easier for you to understand - but then you might have thought I only had one sister and I just couldn't HAVE THAT! lol!) We decided to make gift bags for the table centerpieces and fill them with baby items so that Amanda (my niece) could keep them as actual gifts after the shower.

She is having a girl and has decorated the nursery in Chocolate Brown, Celery Green, Pink and Cream so we stayed true to her color scheme for our decorations. She also loves polka dots so I wanted to incorporate that into the theme as well. I looked ALL over for polka dot gift bags in those colors but do you think I could find them???? Of course not. I found PLAIN pink gift bags and being the stamper/scrapper I am headed off to the scrapbook papers and found this WONDERFUL chocolate brown paper with polka dots in ALL the nursery colors. PERFECT!!!!! and best yet - it was on SALE FOR 50% OFF at one of my favorite large craft stores.

Also on SALE FOR 50% OFF was this beautiful celery, satin ribbon. Isn't the bow beautiful??? If you look closely you will see it is a DOUBLE bow and was so-so easy to make with a wonderful little gadget called the BOW EASY. I even figured out how I could attach the bow right to the ribbon while making it so I didn't have to use glue dots or glue to hold the bow to the ribbon.

I thought the stark brown against the pink bag needed a little softening so I punched white border strips for the top and bottom using a Martha Stewart Punch and since Amanda also loves buttons, I thought these cute pink heart-shaped buttons were just perfect. All that's needed now is to place the baby items so they peek out from the shredded paper and it's all set to go.

Quick and easy - just 10 minutes to make - and much better than a plain gift bag don't you think????


Thanks for visiting today and until next time -
Happy Stamping!


Jill

THE HOLIDAYS ARE UPON US . . .

and I don't have anything made to show you today. I've had such a busy couple of months with events every weekend that I decided I needed to take a break and just sit in the evenings and enjoy the company of my husband and son (on those rare occasions that he comes in to visit). Beginning Friday evening this week I plan on getting back into my little studio and getting busy. The real problem is - I have to re-organize the chaos in there from all the events before I can be creative. UGH!

I HAVE had a chance to do browse around the internet this morning though and found a few posts that I'd like to share with you. There are some really cute ideas floating around out there - so if you have the time follow the links below for some wonderfully, creative ideas.

There's this adorable little BROOMSTICK TREAT by Jeri Jimenez.

A sparkly, little SNOWFLAKE MEDALLION TUTORIAL by Sherry Cheever

For all of you into DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING: FREE JACK O'LANTERN PNG FILES

A truly elegant CHRISTMAS CARD by Betty Wright.

This cute little COFFIN TREAT BOX is a Martha Stewart original.

A PERFECT APPLE centerpiece/treat holder tutorial - or see this adorable PUMPKIN VARIATION with a stem made of buttons. TOO CUTE!

Need a gift bag? Check out this lovely little CHRISTMAS HOUSE idea.

That's it for today. I hope to be back next week with ideas of my own - or at least creations of my own - because I might have to "borrow" the ideas! LOL!

Thanks for visiting and until next time -

Happy Stamping!

Jill

DIGITAL FUN WITH SU! MY DIGITAL STUDIO

Woo Hoo! I am having fun with the new SU! My Digital Studio! I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first professinally printed album (due at my house tomorrow) but I have been having fun trying out all the capabilities of this program.

For example: my new blog header. What do you think? I have the actual Dasher rubber stamp - but wouldn't have been able to create this blog banner as quickly or as easily with the actual stamp & cardstock. Not to mention I would have had to scan it BACK into the computer, resize, etc before saving it to my blog.

At first I wasn't crazy about the card making feature of this program - but have sinced changed my mind. It took a little playing around with the print settings on my printer to figure out how to print the cards - but I have it worked out for my computer, programs and printer. The first card is one that is 100% digital. I made it a few weeks ago but am just getting around to posting it.

The second card is also digitally created but I left off all embellishments. Then, after printing it I added a thread-tied button and ribbon for added depth and dimension.

The third card is only partially created in My Digital Studio. I love this butterfly stamp set but don't own it in rubber. However, it is included in My Digital Studio. I created the Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink mats around a digitally created Whisper White square. Then I digitally stamped the butterfly, changed the color to Chocolate Chip, added a shadow for depth then printed it out on Whisper White cardstock. I then cut out around the mat leaving a border of the Whisper White and then placed it as the focal point on a Chocolate Chip Cardbase. The ribbon is pink velour.

This program is so versatile - I'm lovin it!!!! I especially love the hybrid cards - part digital - part traditional. It's truly the best of both worlds.

Thanks for visiting today -

and happy computing!!!! (you thought I was going to say "stamping" didn't you????)

Jill

ALL WRAPPED UP TREAT BOX

I was sitting tonight trying to get through several weeks worth of blog subscriptions when I came across this adorable little Mummy by Gretchen Barron. I had seen the Frankenstein faces made with the Stampin'Up! Top Notes Die - and even made a few last year about this time - but hadn't seen the Mummy idea before. It was too cute not to make a few.




You can't really tell by the photo but this is a little treat box. I cut wide strips of Whisper White cardstock, scored and folded along the two long sides and adhered them to the back of the Mummy to make the box bottom and sides. I then added a second - undecorated Top Notes cutout to create the back. The inside holds a plastic bag that will be filled with candy. Once I have the candy in the bag I plan to add a RAFFIA handle across the top from side to side. All products except the 1.5" circle punch is STAMPIN'UP! merchandise.

Ingredients:
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black
Soft Suede Ink
Circle Punches- 1.5", 1.25", 1/2"
Real Red Marker

That's it for today. Thanks for visiting. And in case you missed yesterday's post please be sure to check out the release of my digital clipart set: KANDY KANE KREATIONS.

Until next time -
Happy Stamping!

Jill

BELSHAZAAR BEAR & DIGI-STAMPS

My first digi-stamps are finished and are available for purchase.

Kandy Kane Kreations is a set of 9 black & white line drawings scanned at 300 dpi providing the best resolution and quality image available. THE IMAGES ARE NOT PRE-COLORED. Each image in the set is available for $2.50 or purchase the entire set of 9 for $14.95- that's a savings of $7.55 for the entire set of 9.

Here's a card I made using BELSHAZAAR THE BEAR and a variation of the MOJO Monday Sketch #84. I printed the image on my HP Printer onto Gina K Luxury White 80# Cardstock. (SU! Whisper White works just as well but I ran out because I use it most often.) The image was colored using Copic Markers - numbers G24, G85, G29, E15, E31, R39, R46, RV32, R000, C3.

To order send me an email at jhaddad59@yahoo.com. Make sure to put which stamp you want in the subject line and I will send you a Paypal invoice. Once payment has been received I will send you the file in .png format so that you can save it and open it in any photo editing software or in a word processing program such as Word.

The images for sale are:
Kandy Kane Kreations - Full Set
Miles the Mouse
Rupert the Reindeer
Giles the Gingerbread Man
Snippet the Snowman
Eli the Elf
Angelica the Angel
Penwick the Penguin
Belshazaar the Bear
Dangler the Dog

I hope you like the images. I LOVED making them. I even was up at 4:30 this morning coloring all of them - so you know they have to be fun to color if I gave up my beauty sleep to play with them! LOL!!!


Thanks for stopping by today.
Happy Stamping!

Jill

BABIES & BEARS

My niece is expecting a baby girl in early December and we had the first of three baby showers to attend last night. I had gone shopping earlier in the week and bought the most adorable deep, burgundy velvet overall style outfit with a bugundy & white toile longsleeve onesie. It was adorable. The best part about the outfit to me though was the gorgeous hooded, burgundy velvet jacket that matched it. It was extremely vintage appearing - and oh, so cute.

So, as I popped into the hobby store at the LAST minute to buy the gift bag it dawned on me that I hadn't made her card! I have made 40 invitations for the baby shower but here I was - a cardmaker - about to go to a babyshower with a storebought card!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I had picked up a sticker page to decorate the plain pink gift bag and decided to use one of the stickers from the set to make a matching card.


Isn't this bear adorable???? My niece has decorated her nursery with a floral print and striped bedset in pink, brown and celery so this little bear matched her theme almost perfectly. I also used the flowers from the sticker set and added buttons and embossed cardstock using SWISS DOTS and STYLIZED FLOWERS embossing folders to provide the dimension and texture.

Thanks for visiting with me today - and enjoy your day doing what you love to do!

Happy Stamping!
Jill

SNEAK PEEK: DAY TWO

I don't have a card to share with you today - mainly because I've been working on the Kandy Kane Kreations stamps and preparing for 2 upcoming workshops - so even though I've been happily stamping and coloring for hours on end, I don't really have any cards or projects to share.

With that said however, I do have another sneak peek at the upcoming release of my digi-designs: KANDY KANE KREATIONS.

This sweet little guy is Snippet the Snowman.

I hope you like him. He, like Penwick the Penguin, was colored with markers in traditional Christmas colors.

Have a wonderful day today doing whatever it is that makes

you smile.

Happy Stamping!

Jill

DIGI-DESIGNS & KANDY KANE KREATIONS

Good morning everyone. I'm excited this morning to share a couple of items of interest with you.



The first is this wonderful digital design I found HERE on the internet. Isn't he adorable???? I don't know if you've worked with digital designs before - but they are soooooo easy. Save them to your computer, open them in an application, make them whatever size you want for your project, print them, and then color them. Easy!

Depending on what coloring medium you use you might have to heat set or heat emboss the ink right after it comes from the printer - but the images in this post were colored with markers straight from the printer with no heat and you will notice there is no smearing of the printed lines.

I love digital images because of the flexibility to get just the size you want for a specific project and they take up absolutely NO SHELF SPACE unless of course you store them on disk.

Now for the next thing I want to share. My BIG announcement!!!

COMING SOON to a blog near you (ummm - wonder which blog THAT will be) - my own line of digi-designs.

Once I work out all the little details such as downloadability, pricing, payment options, etc I will be posting my first set of digi-stamps called "KANDY KANE KREATIONS". Here is a sneakpeek at one of the offerings in the set.

Penwick the Penguin. I know I created him so this may sound like bragging - and if so I'm sorry about that - but I think he's absolutely adorable!!! In addition to that, he was fun to color and to me that's what cardmaking and stamping is all about. FUN!!!!

And in celebration of my own line of digi-designs I'm offering all my wonderful friends and blog readers a "FREEBIE FRIDAY" special the 1st FRIDAY of each month.

I will post a design on my blog that will be yours for free. I know today is not the first FRIDAY of the month - but since I missed October here is a FREEBIE to get you started. To get the image simply right click on it and save to your computer.

All I ask is if you do download that you would leave me a comment here on my blog and if you publish it to a blog or online gallery that you link back to this post.

Thanks for visiting and

Happy Coloring!

Jill

MOJO MONDAY - (A LITTLE LATE!)

I saw this card sketch on a blog and loved it so I had to try it out.

I used mostly STAMPIN'UP! product - SOFT SUEDE, WHISPER WHITE & RUBY RED CARDSTOCK, CHRISTMAS COCOA DESIGNER SERIES PAPER, CHRISTMAS PUNCH SET, RUBY RED & SOFT SUEDE INK, SCALLOPED SQUARE PUNCH, SOFT SUEDE POLKA DOT RIBBON, SIGNA WHITE GEL PEN & the PETALS A PLENTY EMBOSSING FOLDER.

The circles were die cut using Spellbinders dies and the BIGSHOT. I added red gemstones to complete the sketch.

Thanks for visiting - and if you get a chance give the MOJO MONDAY sketch a go - there are prizes to be won!!!!!

Until Next Time -
Happy Stamping.

Jill

POP! GOES THE . . .

Christmas Tree! I know - you thought I was going to say "weasel" didn't you?????

I bought the SU! POP UP CHRISTMAS TREE DIE and finally decided to give it a go today. It's a little tricky - but now that I've put one together I think the next one will go together much faster.

I used a variety of products to create this card. The striped designer paper is non-SU! as are the shaped die cut-outs. The rest of the products are from Stampin'Up! and include RUBY RED, ALWAYS ARTICHOKE and WHISPER WHITE CARD STOCK, the POP UP CHRISTMAS TREE DIE, THE CHRISTMAS PUNCH stamp set, the LOVELY AS A TREE stamp set, OLD OLIVE 1/4" GROSGRAIN RIBBON, OVAL PUNCH, HOLIDAY TREASURES DESIGNER SERIES PAPER, BROCADE BLUE ink pad and markers in CHOCOLATE CHIP, OLD OLIVE, and ALWAYS ARTICHOKE.

The finishing touch was the addition of irridescent glitter glue to the pine tree on the front of the card (after the photo was taken).

Hope you enjoyed your visit - and if you've been thinking about getting this die - DO IT! It really is fun and like most things looks better in real life. You can still get it for only $10 (which is how I got mine) by holding a $250 workshop. In addition to your regular hostess benefits you can get ANY item from the Holiday Mini Catalog for only $10. That's a savings of $40 for this particular item. Well worth it.

Thanks for visiting today -

and as always,

Happy Stamping!

Jill

SNOW COVERED PINES

I live less than a block away from two of our city parks. They both have these HUGE, wonderful pine trees. In one of them the trees line the road that winds through the park and in the winter, after a heavy snowfall - mmmmmm - it's like a winter wonderland. Forest colored trees in soft, white snow - glittering like diamonds. Absolutely breathtaking.

That's what this card reminds me of. I used WHISPER WHITE and RUBY RED cardstock, and the LOVELY AS A TREE stamp set (one of my all-time favorites) I stamped my image, added sky & clouds behind it and a little DIAMOND DUST to the trees for sparkle and then glued it to the rim of a DIAMOND DUST filled SWEET TREAT CUP so that my trees were centered in the window.

The RUBY RED cardstock was partially enclosed in the PETALS A PLENTY embossing folder then run through my BIGSHOT. I then colored the dots using the SIGNA WHITE GEL PEN. The greeting is from the set FOUR THE HOLIDAYS and is stamped in WHISPER WHITE CRAFT INK. I added ribbon, punched pine branches and a thread-tied button to finish.

I hope you're not tired of Christmas cards yet. I love them and have about 50 to create for all the wonderful people on my Christmas card list.

Thanks for visiting today.

Until next time -

Happy Stamping!

Jill

O TANNENBAUM . . .

I haven't felt much like stamping the past several days - too tired I guess - but I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning and felt like playing. I had seen these cute little punched Christmas trees online and wanted to make one - so that's where I started with this card. All products are Stampin'Up! except the buttons.

I started by punching the tree branches from ALWAYS ARTICHOKE using the PHOTO CORNERS punch. Then I layed the branches in place to determine the size to cut the VERY VANILLA background. Once I cut the background, I took a scrap strip of CHOCOLATE CHIP and adhered it to the center of the VERY VANILLA as the trunk. I added a strip of adhesive to the tree trunk and placed the branches in place. Three big corners on the bottom followed by two of the smaller corners.

Next I used the TICKET CORNER punch on all four corners of the VERY VANILLA and matted with CHOCOLATE CHIP. From this point I was lost. I had no idea what I wanted to do with the tree - other than make a card. I chose the snowflake pattern from the CHRISTMAS COCOA SPECIALTY Designer Paper for the background. If you haven't seen this paper set up close and personal - you are missing a real treat! They're GORGEOUS!!!! One of them is flocked - the rest have a light metallic shimmer. Perfect for Christmas cards & gift items.

The cardbase is KRAFT cardstock and the ribbon is SU! Chocolate Chip. The finishing touch are the cute little star buttons I found in the craft section of a local hobby store. Don't they blend perfectly with the background paper??? The one on the ribbon is popped up on a round 4-hole ALWAYS ARTICHOKE button. Once I put on the buttons I had to go back an add the faux stitching to the branches and around the VERY VANILLA to match the buttons homespun look.

Thanks for looking.

Until Next Time -

Happy Stamping!

Jill