Deconstructed Sketch Guest Designer

I was selected as a guest designer this week for Deconstructed Sketches. I always love the sketches that are provided weekly. They are fun and versatile and easy to customize to your style and theme. Here is the sketch for this week and the card I created based on the sketch. I used a retired CTMH paper pack - the name escapes my mind at the moment but if anyone remembers please help! The stamp is from the school themed set, Good Work, also retired. I have many years of accumulated supplies, I'm trying to use some up!

Notice how I changed the circles in the sketch to squares with rounded corners. The sentiment was stamped using my Colonial White pigment ink pad.

I created some fun custom brads for this card. First I punched some small circles out of coordinating cardstock. Then I attached some mini sparkles. Last I covered the circles and sparkles with Liquid Glass - one of my all-time favorite products, I always keep a bottle handy! Super easy, customizable accent!

Click the following link to visit Deconstructed Sketch - http://deconstructingjen.com/

I hope you'll play along and create something fun with this week's sketch. I'd love to see what you create!

More Taste of Summer

If you're like me, you still can't get enough of this paper! It has been so much fun to play with! I had a few minutes again before I had to meet the kids at the bus stop the other day so I whipped out another quick card.

Contact me to get the paper for just $8.95 and the stamp set for $17.95.

I used the latest Deconstructed Sketch.

Last Day of School

Here is a frame I made a couple years ago. We use it on the first and last day of every school year. The top left star is interchangeable with Velcro so we have another one that says 'First' and I really need to make a star for the 100th day, too!  I created the frame with pieces cut using my CTMH Cricut Cartridges and a piece of black poster board cut for the frame.  

Today was the last day of school for us so we got some quick pics before heading off to school. We're so excited for summer!

DS Best Of - Simply Sublime

After I got home from work today and put away the groceries, I had twenty minutes before I had to pick up the kids from the bus stop so I decided to make just one more card for the Deconstructed Sketch Best of 200 sketch challenge. I'm still loving that Taste of Summer paper and stamp set and since it was still on my table and I was in a hurry, I decided to use it yet again! Here is the super quick card I put together. I didn't even cut the trim off the edge of the paper (the lemon border), I just used it to go along with the sketch. I topped my lemon off with a quick sparkle and it's good to go! 

I used Deconstructed Sketch #48

DS Best Of - more Typed Note!

Here's another card I made using last month's Stamp of the Month, Typed Note. I used the Jackson papers once again - perfect for a masculine birthday card.

I used Deconstructed Sketch #195 and I'm playing along with their Best Of 200 Sketch challenge.

Thanks for visiting!

DS Best Of - Typed Note

I love last month's Stamp of the Month. I am slightly obsessed with that typewriter stamp set! Here is a card I created with it using the Jackson papers.

I also used Deconstructed Sketch #46 and I'm submitting it for their Best of 200 sketch challenge.

DS Best Of - Taste of Summer

Here is another card I made using this month's exclusive papers and stamp set, Taste of Summer. I'm having so much fun with these papers that I ordered another pack! Get your hands on this paper pack for just $8.95. The stamp set is available for just $17.95. Contact me or visit my website (ctmh.com/jenabeestampin) to get yours now!

I also decided to play along with the Deconstructed Sketch Best of 200 sketch challenge. I used Sketch #198.

Taste of Summer

So here's a peek at one of my recent creations. This card uses this month's Close To My Heart Taste of Summer special. You can get the paper pack for just $8.95 and the stamp set for $17.95. I've had a lot of fun playing with both!

Contact me or visit my website (ctmh.com/jenabeestampin) to get a little Taste of Summer!

I used some 3D foam tape and Liquid Glass to give some added dimension to my lemon.

Here is the sketch I used on this card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Anybody still out there?

Well believe it or not, I'm still here. It's been THREE years since I posted last! Life has been busy! I am considering coming back to blogging, just wondering if anyone is still reading? I may attempt an update or two...we will see!

Jewelry Creations

Once I put away my sewing mess from my last creative buzz, I decided to get out my jewelry making mess ;-)  Thanks to some ideas I found on Pinterest (click HERE to view my Jewelry Board to see my inspiration pieces) I've had a lot of fun creating.

These ones are so simple and the possibilities are endless since you can use any paper and colors you want.  I ordered my glass tiles and bails from Amazon and used Liquid Glass to put them together.

I think I am going to turn these ones into magnets instead of jewelry.

Here is a simple birthstone bracelet that I made for my mom.  It has all of my family's birthstones plus my brother's family.

Kaylee wanted to make a birthstone bracelet as well, but she wanted to include grandparents and great grandparents from both sides of the family too, so hers can be a double wrap bracelet OR a necklace.

I also had fun with the nest jewelry that I've seen all over - I had a good variety of wires in my stash, so it's been fun to mix and match.  My pictures are not good but you get the idea.

Brianna loved these and wanted to join in so here are the rings she started with:

Then she wanted to make a matching set which turned out super cute.

I remember wanting to do these Washer necklaces a couple of years ago when I first saw them but then I forgot about them until I saw them pop up on Pinterest.  So fun and simple, and like the tile necklaces, you can really customize with the papers and colors you want.

I made this one for a friend's birthday last month, so I decided to make a little gift box to put it in. I cut the box using my CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  I kept the box simple, just sanded the cardstock and tied with a ribbon - here it is closed...

...and open.

For the inside piece I cut another box, just 1/4" smaller and trimmed off the half circle edges. Then I punched holes with my Crop-a-dile and cut to the holes to hold the cording.  Here it is before I put each piece together to give you an idea. 

Another thing we've been playing with are Shrinky Dinks - but I will share those pics in another post.  I have been attempting to make rings from it but so far no luck, they cool too fast and break as I'm bending them :-(

Sigh...where does the time go?

It seems like I say this all the time, but seriously?  I have been a poor blogger lately, which was more than obvious when I logged in this morning and noticed the changes to blogger!  I have just been staying busy, but since I use this blog as an attempt at a journal, I feel really bad that I haven't been keeping up with it.  I am hoping to do better.  I have some catching up to do with March happenings, and since April is almost over, I will have those events to record as well.  For now I will start with some of the projects that I have been up to lately, and then I found some old projects that I forgot to share so hopefully I will get around to those, too ;-)

Sew Busy - part 3 (if you missed them before, check out part 1 and part 2).  I got all my sewing projects done a while ago and put my sewing machine and serger away (for now) but I am finally getting around to sharing the rest of my projects.

I was determined to make something for Easter this year.  My Mom made Kaylee and Brianna matching dresses a couple of times for Easter, and I have attempted to buy the rest, but it is really hard to find coordinating dresses for all three girls plus something to match for our little guy there at the end.  Luckily my girls are good sports and like to dress alike, so I'll take it as long as I can!  Anyway, after some searching I found this fun bright paisley print that had each girls' favorite color in it.  I didn't have a pattern or even know what I was going to make when I bought the fabric so I just got 5 yards so I would be sure to have enough.  I found t-shirts in each of their favorite colors as well and knew I was good to go.  Well, as it turned out, I had enough fabric to make each of the girls a skirt, plus one for me, and then I even had enough left to make their older cousin Meghan a matching skirt.  She is always passing her clothes down to the girls and they were excited to be able to give her something for a change.  I just made up the pattern as I went - it's just a simple straight skirt with a fun ruffle at the bottom, and a black wide band elastic for the waist.

I found a fun Chevron pattern that had some of the same colors in the material I used in the skirts - I used that to make Trysten's tie.  I wish I'd had more of that fun chevron because David wanted one, too!  You can see Trysten's tie better in the first picture in this post.  Here we are on Easter Sunday.

I already posted the big girls' skirts that I made from old jeans - here is the one I did for Brailee.  Gee, I wonder if you can tell what her favorite color is ;-)

Another new project that I have been up to is canning.  I had never done it before until a friend taught me how back in January.  This was my first attempt at applesauce, tomatoes, and carrots.  This month I have done 15 quarts of applesauce, and 10 quarts of tomatoe sauce.  It's been fun and feels good, I can't wait to try more!

Okay, that's it for now - hopefully I'll be back with more soon!

February Happenings

Now that March is nearly over, I figure I'm way past due to update for the month of February.  Here are some pics and quick happenings from that month.  These may or may not be in order.

One lazy Saturday morning the kids put on a fashion/talent show.

Gotta love this little cowboy.

Rapunzel?

This girl can sure hula hoop - she just keeps going, and going!

Kaylee is the little piggy ;-)

This girl loves to wake up early (4:30) and help Daddy pack his lunch and help Mommy fix his breakfast.  She either has to go right back to bed or take a nap after lunch when she does this.

We have thankfully had a much healthier winter this year (compared to our first winter here) but we finally had our first bad bug go through our house this month.  We've had some minor sniffles before, and this one really wasn't that bad, just not feeling like themselves for a few days.  Once it got through everyone we were ready to get out of the house again and return to our schedule.  We spent lots of time building marble towers...

...and playing with Lincoln Logs.

Trysten informed me that his cowboy had a rocket - here he is flying ;-)

The big girls finished up their basketball season - it was a good learning year, they enjoyed it.

I don't know what's going on with Brailee's hair but I just love this picture of these two.

And these ones, too - they love each other (but do have their moments of course!).

We celebrated Leap Day by filling out information sheets and creating a time capsule - it will be fun to open up in 4 years and see how they've changed.  We also celebrated with a Leaping picture....

...which the kids wanted to do over, and over again!  Yes, I let my kids jump off the couch - just for one night ;-)

First Brailee stated that she was actually an owl, flying, so she'd say "Whooo, whooo!" as she'd jump...

...sao then Trysten decided he was a train and said, "Choo, choo, woooo!" as he jumped ;-)