Baby Boy Gift Set

~ Babies, babies, babies...everyone I know is having babies...and lots of little boys! Some friends of mine had one right before Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to meet him next week, and wanted to prepare a little gift. I had purchased the adorable baby clothes below for them and wanted to create a coordinating gift card and bag! I used the clothing colors as inspiration for the patterned papers I chose. You may recognize the box-bottom gift bag, a cutting file designed by Sam & Hailey Designs. I've used this many times, and it's one of my most favorite files!!! The quick baby boy card was also cut, using a file by Jan of Sam & Hailey Designs. I do not think it is available in the Paperthreads store yet. It came together super quick and easily!! I added little buttons to the tabs, and then I used the words "baby BOY" on the gift bag, as well.

No news yet for us on the baby front, but I'll keep you posted!!

Happy Saturday,

Jessica in Kansas

Little Christmas Helpers...

~ How cute is this card?? I created it for a challenge on my MulberryMoms Yahoo group, which specializes in the use of mulberry paper. The Christmas tree paper piecing was cut with my Klic-N-Kut; file designed by Carrie's Creations (Christmas Tree & Bells). The mice were torn from gray mulberry paper using the Mice Helpers patterns by myscrapchick.com...don't you just love the little scissors and tape dispenser??? They are also myscrapchick.com patterns and were cut with my KNK. The chipboard tag is from Colorbok. I also used fiber, lots of Stickles, and ink for embellishing the mice! The cardstock is Naturals Ivory from Stampin' Up!

Ho Ho Ho,

Jessica in Kansas

I'm back!

~ Sorry it's been awhile! I was first busy balancing work with preparing for the holiday...then I was busy trying to recover from several days of wonderful family get-togethers. Now I'm ready to settle back into my routine of work and play...papercrafting play, that is!!!

I finished a couple of recipe pages, but hadn't had time to post them. The first is a slow cooker recipe page, which follows a sketch on Page Plans. This was created for the Iron Chef recipe swap I host on a monthly basis. I love this ribbon and was excited to find these chipboard button pieces and the perfect-colored flowers to use with it.

The second is a more simple page, for which I challenged myself to use stickers. I tend to keep my stickers put away, but a special girlfriend sent me these fun cardboard cooking stickers, which I could not wait to put to use. I love the distressed look of them!! I also added a touch of ribbon and pulled out the Fastenator to staple it on.

It's nice to be back,

Jessica in Kansas

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