Happy Easter Everyone!!

  SPRING IS HERE!! 

    You know it's April, because it hasn't stopped raining! I'm not complaining though. I lived in Tacoma, WA for about 9-10 months back in 2005-2006. Living in Washington was quite an experience. It rained often, the sky always seemed gray and after a while, I just HAD to get over it. And I did! I can now say, I love rainy days and I am thankful for rainy days! I do however enjoy the warmth of the sun as well and I am so looking forward to absorbing some of it SOON! 

    I want to wish each and every one of you a very, Happy Easter! I feel truly blessed that God is a major part of my family's life! Ever since I was a little girl, I LOVED going to sleep as fast as I possibly could, so I could wake up to that beautiful, CANDY filled basket that the Easter Bunny would bring me. I loved dressing up in the beautiful Easter dresses my mother would buy. Yes, we had the hats, the gloves, the purses and those sweet little patent leather shoes to match! We would arrive at church and all around were smiling faces! We were all so excited to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! Back then, what I think it meant for my sisters and I was that we could finally eat the candy in our Easter baskets that we had not so willingly gave up for Lent. Little did we know how powerful this day would one day be to us! Now, Easter has such an incredible meaning to me. I'm just so thankful Jesus died so WE may live! 

I have been talking to my daughter, Layla a lot lately about Easter. I want her to really love this day and enjoy all the little blessings that are given to her. I want her to enjoy in her own little way for now, just as I did, because I know one day she will understand just how amazing Easter is! We would normally make Easter eggs with Layla and decorate them with stickers, glitter, dye them, color them with markers or with crayon. This year, I found this AWESOME little idea on Family Fun website and I just HAD to try it out. IF it didn't work, then I would take out the food coloring, and get to decorating those hard boiled eggs! This is the little project Layla, Brooklyn and I created for this Easter :     

 These are seriously one of the EASIEST things I have EVER made!! They take absolutely NO TIME AT ALL!! Here is how you make these adorable little "Nests." 

              Ingredients and supplies you will need:

                   1 Cup of Chocolate  

            (I used Milk chocolate, but I am sure Dark chocolate will do just fine)

                   1 Cup of shredded coconut

               a Piece of Wax Paper

                   Jelly Beans or Chocolate Cadbury eggs,

          which we used, or any other egg shaped candy

            Now: Heat your chocolate just as the directions on the bag suggests. After your chocolate is melted, stir in your cup of coconut. 

           Now you should have a lumpy mixture of chocolate and coconut. I created my "nests" using a tablespoon. I used a heaping spoon full of the chocolate/coconut mixture and placed it on the wax paper. I did this a little "messily" so that they would truly look like "nests." Then I took the same spoon and created a little dip in the "nests" for the "eggs" to sit. After the chocolate cools off a bit, place your "eggs" onto your little "nests" and... you're done! I stuck mine in the fridge so that they'd cool down faster. I think this literally took the girls and I, 15mins to make!

The tags I created for my little "Chocolate Birds Nests" took the longest to create! These tags were inspired by several tags I saw on Splitcoaststampers.com. I used the new SU! set Four Frames. Love this set! I used the large label punch that corresponds with this set to punch out the tag. I then used a little chickie from an old SU! set and to finish it off, I added a pre-made flower. Then I layered my punched frame onto Baja Breeze paper and cut around the frame to create another frame and then did that again using Sahara Sand for my base layer.

 

For this tag, I used the SU! set Four Frames and the I also used the set Easter Blossoms (for the little yellow egg). I used the label punch that corresponds with this set once again and then I layered the punched frame onto Sahara Sand paper and then onto Daffodil Delight. I also used some new White twine from SU!

Below, are the finished products in their cellophane bags made by SU! (We made a total of 5 of these nests with the above recipe). We then finished off the bags by adding some twine and some Very Vanilla Seam binding ribbon. (Can't get ENOUGH of that stuff!) Layla has asked me about ten times today, "Mom, when can we hand out our little nests? I can't wait, Mom! I just can't WAIT!"

I hope you enjoyed my post today. Again, if you have these few ingredients and about 15mins of time, I truly suggest making a few this Easter day! Again, they are super cute, super fun and best of all SUPER easy! 

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask!

Happy Easter, Everyone!

~jenna

**NEW** Stampin' Up! Goodies!!!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!

We are having a beautiful day here in OH. It's a little chilly, but the sun is SHINING!! :o)

I just recently received my new Stampin' Up! goodies. I was soo excited! I couldn't WAIT to ink them up!

The card I created this morning uses a new stamp from the SU! set called, "On the Grow." There's a Vespa and a beautiful vase of flowers!! I LOVE both of the stamps in this set, but my FAVE is this Vespa! I think Vespa's are super neat. IF I were to ever own one someday, I think I'd get one in this blue color... and I'd probably want a basket on the back of it and add a little houndstooth, too!?! :o)

As you've seen on several other cards of mine, I absolutely LOVE houndstooth! I think it's is so "chic" looking. I also used one of the new doily punches that will be available next month for you to purchase. At first I thought... "What heck am I going to do with a doily THAT size?" They re pretty small. But then the wheels started to turn in my head and VOILA!! I thought of using them as a border instead of just a doily!! Pretty neat, huh?? They are EASY to line up, too!!

Well, I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday!!

Til next time!

~jenna

BTW: If you have any questions about my cards, please do not hesitate to ask!

Finally BACK and with A Springtime Wreath....

Hey All!

I have been away for quite some time now! A few weeks ago, I had decided to go to NY for a couple of workshops. It took me a while to prepare and pack for my trip. Then, I was off! My mother took the drive with me from OH to NY. We had such a great drive out to NY! My girls were (are) amazing! They behaved so well. Neither one of them shed a tear! Couldn't have asked for a better 12 hrs in the car, then what they gave me that day!
My stay in NY was awesome!! The girls and I stayed at my mothers house with my sister and her family as well! My girls were able to be with their cousins, Gianna and Gavin. They had SUCH a great time! I will upload some pics soon of our trip!
The week went by SUPER fast. It really is incredible how time FLIES when you are having fun! Wish it weren't that way! :o/
My mom, once again, took the drive with my girls and I BACK to OH. You see, my mother lives in NY. She took a 17 hour bus ride form NY to OH just to get in a car the next day to drive 12 hours with me and my girls! (She couldn't stomach the girls and I to taking that 12 hour drive alone). Believe me, I was MORE than HAPPY to have her with me!! So, after the week was up, she then drove BACK to OH from NY with me and the girls and spent a day and a half with us, then went BACK to NY on another 17hr bus ride! In total, my mother spent 58 hours of traveling! That's 34 hours on a bus and 24 hours in a car! Isn't that INSANE!?! I KNOW she loves me!! :o) Thank you MOM!!!~
It's great to be back home and back into a routine again! It took me about a week to get fully unpacked and re-organized! Yesterday was the first day I started crafting again. I didn't feel like I had any "mojo." So I gave up! Then last night, my most favorite website, Splitcoaststampers.com posted the inspiration challenge. I do LOVE this challenge, so I took and peak and thought, "MAYBE i'll play tomorrow." When I woke up this morning, I realized there was A LOT to do around the house still. So, I got to cleaning and then jolted upstairs to my craft room and got to work! I had an idea before I started crafting and started to take that idea and put it on paper!
This is what I came up with:

I am pretty happy with the way this card came together! I was not a fan of the stamp set, "Nature Walk" because I was afraid of that bird, but no I just LOVE playing around with it and coloring it in! One of my favorite stamps to use now! :o)
Well, I hope you are having a BEAUTIFUL Saturday! So looking forward to the WARM weather to come!!

Til next time!

~jenna

A little chit chat and a "HOW TO!!!!"

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I last blogged. I have been super busy with my girls. My youngest, Brooklyn, had acquired a WICKED staph infection. When my husband and I took her to the doctor to get checked out, one of the staph's he had mentioned that he thought Brooklyn may have had was Mercer. Now, I was unfamiliar with Mercer at the time of her appointment. I had never heard of it before. The doctor proceeded to tell us that he was going to put Brooklyn on a strong prescription, he then took a culture and said he'd call us if it was in fact Mercer. Normally, after my girls leave the doctor, I go home and google their diagnoses, which only makes me sick, so I decided NOT to look up Mercer. I am very happy I did not. I do know now just how serious it is and I am THANKFUL that was not the type of staph infection Brooklyn had. It took about 10 full days for it to disappear. Shortly after Brooklyn had this ordeal, our oldest daughter, Layla came down with a fever and cold like symptoms. So, we were off to the doctor yet again. Layla had an ear infection. It's just starting to clear up now and then today, I notice Brooklyn wasn't behaving her normal self. She was really cranky, uncomfortable and was just sitting on the couch. Yes, a 2 year old who wanted to do nothing but sit on the couch and cuddle... Hmmm.... something wasn't right. So I checked Brooklyn's temp and sure enough, she had a low grade fever. I am telling you, it NEVER ends around here!! I will be happy when the spring air arrives and we can open the windows and be (hopefully) GERM FREE!!

I have had a couple tutorials that I have been wanting to upload here on my blog. One is a bow. The bow that's on my owl card here on my blog. I know MANY of you have requested it and I promise it's coming. As EASY as it was for me to create it that day, I thought it would a piece of cake for me to create it again. It ended up not being that easy for me to duplicate. :o/ I have created several, however they were created with lots of tweaking. There are several things I want to perfect before I post a "How To" video on my blog. I want to make sure it is as straight forward as possible. Please bare with me.

For my blog post today, I wanted to show those of you who asked, how I colored in the hydrangea from the stamp set, "Because I Care" on the cards below. I have had several people request it, and so I decided I'd upload some pictures that may help you.

Here we go!

The supplies you will need are:
Scissors
Blender Pen
Concord Crush marker (CC)
Bashful Blue marker (BB)
Pear Pizzaz marker (PP)
Gel Pen
Staz-on Ink Pad
Crystal Effects
Watercolor Paper

You can click on the photos for a better view!

Step 1. Using Staz-On stamp down your image onto the Watercolor Paper.

Step 2. Using your Concord Crush marker begin coloring in your image. You will notice that there are some dark lines on the image. This is where you want to place your darkest color. Try your best not to color in the center of you flower.

3. Using your blender pen after each time you add CC to the center of your flowers, blend the color outward. While blending, leave some spots untouched in each of the flowers. You will fill those spots with some Bashful Blue and Pear Pizzazz later.

Step 4. Continue to color in your image. 

Below is a better view of what it should look like....

Step 5. I know it takes a while, but after you complete coloring with CC crush and blending the color, this is how it should look:

Step 6. Using your Bashful Blue marker, begin to fill in some of the white spots you left after blending.

See how delicate it looks?? It really does give the flowers dimension.

Step 7. Now you will take your Pear Pizzazz marker and continue to fill some spots of you flowers with that. Again, this helps add dimension to your flower. 

Step 8. When you are finished adding the BB and PP, you can go back and add some more Concord Crush if you'd like. Now you will need your Crystal Effects. You only need  to drop tiny drops in the center of each of the flowers. 

Step 9. You will need to wait until your Crystal Effects are dry, but when it is, grab your white gel pen and add dots of the gel pen onto your dots of Crystal Effects. (This is a little trick my mother in law taught me... love it!)

Step 10. Now you will need to stamp down the leaves of the hydrangea and begin to color them using Pear Pizzazz and your blender pen.

Step 11. This is another little tip my mother in law taught me... Adding color into the leaves. Just a bit though... Be sure to use your blender pen to blend out the color.

This is what they should look like finished....

Step 12. Now it's time to cut your images out. 

Here are two examples for you to see....

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Bye for now! I do want you to know I truly enjoy reading your comments. They bring me such joy! It makes me love what I do even more! So thank you!

~jenna   

BTW: Thank you, Suzanne for the little "nudge!" Hope this helped you! :o)

Dreamy Vintage Blossoms.....

                 Happy Saturday Everyone!!

     Today, over at Splitcoaststampers.com was the Inspiration Challenge! The past couple of days, I haven't been in a real "stamping mood." In fact, this morning even after I checked the challenge, I wasn't really that inspired. However, after viewing the challenge gallery a couple of times the ideas started FLOWING! I REALLY wanted to create a Vintage style card today! And so I used the inspiration site that was given to us to create this card! Here's the site and my inspiration piece:
             WallTAT 

(you can click on the photo for a better view)

I first started to create this card by choosing the colors. Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand are my two MOST FAVORITE colors!! I just LOVE them! So, once I took those out, I grabbed a piece of Blushing Bride to go with them!! This is one gorgeous color combo!

Next I stamped down my image which is the Blossom branch from, "Easter Blossoms." I just LOVE this set! After I stamped down the image I colored it using Pink Pirouette and Blush Blossom. Then I added some pearls, lots and LOTS of pearls! I paper pierced the edges and then added some sponging with Sahara Sand and Pink Pirouette. Not too much though. I wanted it to have a soft look. Next I roughed up the edges as you can see in the photo above.

So, basically my brain begins to go numb and I just continue to add MORE layers and MORE sponging. Then I added some script to give it more of that vintage look! Sometimes I don't even remember creating a card! I get completely lost in it!

(click on the photo for a better view)

 A couple of days ago, while I was sitting in my craft room COMPLETELY stumped and uninspired to create a card, I grabbed some of my FAVORITE seam binding, then my needle and thread and started to sew these adorable little seam binding roses! Aren't they cute? I used Pear Pizzazz seam binding for the little leaves. Since I am a PEARL FANATIC, I stuck a sweet little pearl in the center!

(you can click on the photo for a better view)

Next, I made a little bow out of some crocheted lace and then added a vanilla seam binding bow. This will fit comfortable in a 5x5 envelope! The great thing about these seam binding roses, is that they are VERY forgiving! You can squish and squeeze them and they will still stay looking as pretty as if you hadn't squished and squeezed them! :o)

(you can click on the photo for a better view)

So here it is! My"Dreamy Vintage Blossoms" card! I hope you like it! It really didn't take me long to create it and it can EASILY be duplicated!

Enjoy your weekend!

~jenna 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!

 It almost feels strange saying that because it kinda feels like Halloween here in, OH. At least for me it does. It's such a dreary day. Every so often there are these strong gusts of wind. The weather has warmed up a bit, (so happy about that) so the leaves and branches are flying around out there.  Just looks like a windy fall day out my window.

 There a few things I would like to let you all know... If you have sent me an email and I have not responded, I apologize. I am still in the process of getting up to date with all my emails. Not having a computer for just one week, can really set you back! I also have my two ADORABLE little girls who crave my attention (and I theirs) so sometimes, cyber-space must wait...

Also, I WILL be posting a bow tutorial soon... I thought I would have time this week, but my daughter had a big project for school that I helped her with and that took up quite a lot of time! (We had to create a Valentine's box and make 30 Valentine's Day cards. Layla has really acquired the creative gene. Every one of those cards had to be PERFECT!)

 I wanted to upload some pictures of scrapbook pages I have made. As you might already know... I started out scrapbooking. When it came to making a card... I just plain DREADED it! Now, I just can't seem to stop myself from making cards. I will need to get back into scrapboking though, there are just a TON of photos that are SCREAMING my name! 

Here is a two page layout I created of my daughter Layla Paige. One of our FAVORITE books to read is, "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. It was the first book Layla memorized. Anytime we asked her to choose a book (and this was before she was two) she chose, "The Giving Tree." We still can read it without even looking at the book. It is such an amazing book, wether you are an adult or child. It is just so full of meaning. 

Anyway, as you can see I love that book! So... one fall day last year, I had a little photo shoot with Layla and took a TON of photos of her. I could SEE the scrapbook page being created in my head with each and every shot. 

It took me quite a while to finish these pages. But, it is Layla in a nutshell! She LOVES being outdoors. She collects all kinds of things like acorns, leaves, dirt, sticks, etc... She has such an imagination! She LOVED these pages when I showed them to her. I cut out the tree myself and texturized it and then sponged some ink on it. Then I used a BUNCH of buttons for the leaves and branches! That was fun! I felt like it looked a little "boy-ish" so I added a few flowers on the first page. For the second page, I left the flowers out focusing more on her and the rest of the quote from the book. If you didn't know, the book starts out with, "Once there was a tree, as she loved a little boy." Well, I changed it a bit to suit my little Layla girl... Hope you like these pages!

Below is a page I created for my daughter, Brooklyn Sophia. My husband had taken these photos of Brooklyn and I and to be honest I do not remember him doing so. When we got home and uploaded the pictures to our computer, I cried. He captured such an amazing moment. The room was quiet, it was just Mike, Brooklyn and I and she was beginning to really open her eyes and look around. Just amazing... Again, when I saw these photos, I just couldn't wait to scrap them! I think this one came out really great!

 Hope you like it, too! I absolutely LOVE these photos. My mother had a dinner at her house where everyone brought a dish that was made from a Julia Child recipe. After we all ate dinner, we watched the movie, "Julie and Julia." My mom bought these Tulips and placed them in the center of the table @ dinner. A few days after the party, I noticed they were starting to wilt. So... I dressed Brooklyn up in this cute little outfit, stuck a bow in her hair, and let her "play" with the Tulips.  At first, she was quite gentle. She had no idea what Tulips were and she was probably a bit confused as to why I would just prop her up on a table and let her play with these flowers! What you don't know is, when  my oldest, Layla was just under two years old, I have propped her up on a table where there were sunflowers and let her play with them as well. There is the sweetest photo of Layla smelling this HUGE sunflower. It is one of my all time favorite pictures of my Layla girl. Anyway, I was kinda trying to mimic that moment we had with Layla, with Brooklyn! I have added the photo of Layla with the sunflower below... take a peak!! It's a cute one!! :o)

I am so happy I got to share these pages with you. They are very special to me. I hope you all have a beautiful day filled with lots of love!!

Till next time...

~jenna 

Back up and RUNNING with a Blog Exclusive, too!!!!

Well, I  feel like it's been awhile! I had no computer last week. Last Sunday, after blogging, I turned my computer off and started some house chores that needed to be done. After I was finished I thought, "Hmmm... let me go online for a bit." I deserved it right? I had just folded AND put away piles of laundry, loaded the dishwasher, swept the floors, and was getting my girls ready for bed. So, I turned on my computer and there it was... a BLUE screen! "Blue?" I said. "This can't be happening!" I turned it off, counted to eighteen, and then turned it back on. Now the screen was black with a blinking curser. I knew my computer had decided to call it quits on me. I was devastated! I am still not sure whether I have lost everything on it or not. I spent a couple hours on the line with my uncle and we are pretty sure I haven't lost everything, but until I get that thing working again, I won't know for sure! 

 So, I went the week with no computer. Except, two days last week,  Karen (my mother in law) lent me her computer while she was at work. I had some side projects that needed to get done, so i was SUPER grateful for that. After many discussions with my husband, we knew it was time for us to get a new computer. So we went to Best Buy yesterday where my husband purchased a new computer for me! YAY!! I am so happy to be BACK UP AND RUNNING!! :)            

Here is a card I made for today's, "Technique Challenge." It's called a, "Sliding Pop-Up Card." Pretty neat, huh? It was a lot of fun to make. It took me quite a while, because I changed quite a few of the dimensions. I used SU! stamp sets, Flores Suaves, Elements of Style, and Just Believe. The colors I chose were, Soft Suede, Basic Black, and Very Vanilla (of course). I did start this card this weekend and had NO Idea WHERE I was going to go with it. So since I NEVER paste anything down, until I know for SURE that I am happy with it, this was quite easy for me to pull off! I cut out WAY to many butterflies, but my girls will have a blast using them. Brooklyn, (my almost two yr old), has already had fun playing with one of them! I am so happy Holly chose this technique this week! Now I have a new piece to display on my fireplace mantle! :)

The card above is a, "Blog Exclusive!" I made this for my mother. She has sent my girls so many beautiful items the past couple of months. I wanted to make her a really special card. She's not a big fan of bows on cards, so I wanted to make her a feminine card without a bow. I sent this out to her a week ago and she called me while she was opening it. She gasped when she opened it, so I think I nailed it! :o) I used a SU! set called, Baby Blossoms, and a SU! stamp Wonderful Mother. The colors on the card are, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, and Early Espresso. The ink I used was Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette, and Blushing Bride. I added MANY pearls (of course). I paper pierced around the edges gave it some texture and started to put it all together. Im so happy she loved it!

Well, goodbye for now! So happy I can catch up on all the emails and comments I have missed the past week!

~jenna