Christmas Treat Boxes

~ How cute are these treat boxes? The files were designed by Shirley Clark of Paperthreads.com, who is another one of my favorite designers. I cut the boxes out with my Klic-N-Kut...then embellished and easily assembled. I used various patterned papers & cardstock, including shimmer paper by CutCardstock.com, Stickles, swirly background stamp by SU!, tag stamp & punch by SU!, and lots of inking for edges. What do you think? I love them!

Santa Treat Box

Present Treat Box

Snowman Treat Box (notice the tiny pipe!!!)

Tree Treat Box

Enjoy,

Jessica in Kansas

~ Birthday, birthday, birthday

~ I never have enough birthday cards ready to send, so I chose to take on the weekly challenge from The Cat's Pajamas, and create birthday cards this morning. The challenge was to use any cake image from the stamp line. Perfect...as I'd been dying to use this adorable penguin image! I also chose to combine the Color Inspiration #31 from the kwernerdesign blog. The colors are below...I wasn't sure what to think about the combination, but I love how the card turned out as a result of using them! Additionally, I followed Sketches! {by Tamara}'s Card Sketch #71 for the design of this project. With so much inspiration, I have to think less about what to create...and get to enjoy "playing" more!!! Can't beat that!

Have a great Saturday,

Jessica in Kansas

Little Fishy ~ a layout

~ This project has been a work in progress, and I finally finished it up this morning!! It's a layout about the fish and frog pond that we inherited with the purchase of our house. I love, love, love the pond and cannot wait to enjoy it with kiddos! When we moved in over the summer of '07, there were frogs (parents and babies) and goldfish calling the pond their home. Unfortunately the fish did not make it over the winter because our pump broke and the pond froze.

This summer, we purchased more goldfish and a few coy. One (or possibly more) of the fish had babies shortly after we bought them, so I enjoyed watching the fish multiply and grow over the summer. As my journaling strips illustrate, one of the highlights of my days has been to feed them. They were easily trained to feed in one spot of the pond. So much fun to watch...
This layout loosely followed Sketch #68 on Sketches! {by Tamara}'s blog. The banner, title, and adorable fish paper piecings were cut with my KNK and used Sam & Hailey Design's Itty Bitty Little Fishy file, found on Paperthreads.com. I also used some patterned paper by Sunburn Two Cool, a border ruler, and Aqua Stickles. This was my first time to use journaling strips, and it may be one of my new favorite ways to journal.

Enjoy,

Jessica in Kansas

Snowy Days, Frosty Nights, Warm Hearts

~ I am having a great time with the shimmer contest at CutCardstock.com and my new pre-cut cards I ordered from them!! I also love this sentiment from the Fairy Christmas stamp set by The Cat's Pajamas: Snowy Days, Frosty Nights, Warm Hearts! It was perfect for this snowy card following the sketch below from PageMaps, which was a swap challenge in one of my favorite Yahoo groups.

I also used a swirly flourish stamp from Hero Arts and white Staz-On ink, various snowflake confetti pieces in blue & silver, glittery snowflakes from Jolee's, patterned paper & ribbon from unknown sources.

Not quite ready for the real white stuff!!!

Jessica in Kansas

Fall is in the air...still!

~ I needed a fall card to send a friend, and I ran across a great sketch by 2 Sketches 4 You that I really liked and wanted to use. The Gold Leaf Metallic card back is from my new collection of shimmery pre-cut cardstock by CutCardstock.com, which I am LOVING to use! Aren't the transparent leaves gorgeous?!!

Hope you're enjoying the beauty of fall,

Jessica in Kansas

A little Christmas Kitty fun!!

~ It's a little early for me, but I created my first Christmas card last week! I love the shimmer of this fun project!!! This card was inspired by the Make it Glitter & Shimmer Holiday Contest at CutCardstock.com, by Color Throwdown #19, and by Sketches! {by Tamara}'s Card Sketch #70. I also used my new set of Pink Cat Studio stamps from My Little Stamp Shack. Materials:
- base: shimmery Curious Metallic Ice Gold pre-cut card from CutCardstock.com
- cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Bravo Burgundy, Bordering Blue (all SU!)
- stamps: Pink Cat Studio & Studio G (sentiment)
- dry embossing: brass snowflake stencils by All Night Media
- heat embossing: Rainbow Glitter embossing powder
- miscellaneous: 1" circle punch, ticket corner punch (SU!), silver shimmer ribbon, white gel pen, Not Quite Navy & Bravo Burgundy SU! markers

Meow!!!

Jessica in Kansas

Thankful ~

~ I'm feeling the holiday spirit!! I designed this layout for a page kit swap. It's quite metallic and shimmery, inspired in part by the "Make it Glitter & Shimmer" Holiday Contest through CutCardstock.com. The shimmery leaves are actually confetti, but I thought they were the perfect accent for the journaling strips and the large leaves, which were cut with my Klic-N-Kut (Maple Leaf & Acorn file, designed by Carrie's Creations). I added some shimmery bronze colored ribbon and used a leaf corner punch (EK Success) on the photo mats. The background cardstock is DCWV, the light and dark orange leafs are cut from Sunburn paper, and the shimmery bronze & tan papers are from CutCardstock.com. The layout design was inspired by Sketches! {by tamara}'s Layout Sketch #69. Thanks for letting me share!!!

With lots for which to be thankful,

Jessica in Kansas

From one chick...to another ~

~ I designed this card front in KNK Studio for a file swap hosted at Paperthreads.com. Instead of being assigned a theme, this time we were challenged to create a card front file...how practical, right?!! I got some great files, in return!! This is what I came up with. Of course, it was cut with my Klic-N-Kut!!

I love the bright colors...makes me think of spring! Before giving this card away, I'll probably add some brads or jewels to the flower centers...and maybe glitz it up a bit with some Stickles!!

Enjoy,

Jessica in Kansas

Thanksgiving Tear Bears

~ Below is the end result of my 4th attempt at creating tear bears or tear critters. I enjoy these so much, although they can be quite time consuming to make! One of my yahoo groups (MulberryMoms) is all about using mulberry paper in papercrafting. We had a Thanksgiving tear critter challenge, so I was inspired to create the Indian Princess and Pilgrim Boy below. The credit for the adorable outfits belongs to myscrapchick.com; from the Seasonal Dress-Up Collection. I paper-pieced and embellished the clothing after cutting with my Klic-N-Kut. Are they cute or what??!!!!! I just love the moccasins!!

Thankful for lots,

Jessica in Kansas :-}

A Whiff of Joy...

~ I just love my new Whiff of Joy stamp...isn't this image awesome?!! I love the detail on her jeans and the wispy hair! I used a sketch posted for the card contest on one of my Yahoo groups as inspiration for the layout. The top strip is actually a paint chip, which inspired my color choices. The blue strip was altered with a floral border punch. I used Golden Wheat ink, and the following SU! markers: Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, More Mustard, & Ruby Red. The cardstock is So Saffron, the brown patterned paper is Wild Asparagus, and the blue paper is from ProvoCraft. Prima Obsession flowers , and brads and fiber of unknown sources complete the embellishments. Ovals punched from the paint chip provided a great space to stamp the sentiment.

Enjoy,

Jessica in Kansas

Chunky Apple Cake

~ I love the way this simple recipe page came together! I used a great swirly tree stamp by Little Paper Shop, some fun embroidered collage paper, and cute little mini apples cut with my Klic-N-Kut (apple file by Carrie's Creations). Coral pink and lime green is one of my favorite color combinations...it just makes me happy!!! I used Fruit Punch Stickles to embellish the tree, which I stamped with a SU! Cotton Candy Kaleidoscope ink pad. Coral chalk ink around the edge created a nice border...again, pretty simple, but I love it!!!

It's a delicious recipe, too!!

Jessica in Kansas

myscrapchick ~ check out these adorable paper piecings

~ I have discovered another source of adorable paper piecing patterns: myscrapchick.com. I recently tried a few of them out for a paper-piecing swap I joined, and I'm so impressed with how cute they ended up being!! Don't you just love the eyes?!!! The designer used big oval eyes on her examples, so I decided to try a small egg-shaped punch I have; I think they turned out perfectly!!!











This black kitty is complete with a pink ribbon bow and whiskers created with Stickles. I love her adorable paws and fun eyelashes...and the great big eyes! Is she cute or what?!!!




Oh Deer!!! Aren't these great?!! I understand that Kristi, the designer of myscrapchick's patterns, uses her scissors to draw and create! What a talent!!

I have plans for these paper piecings on scrapbook pages, but I just couldn't wait to show them off!! I'll post them again when the pages are completed!

Fun hugs from Kansas,

Jessica