Kiddy Mini-Coloring Book - MFP Tutorial Challenge

Hi, Friends.....

I am still catching up from Easter and then traveling to the Portland, Oregon area to see my Dad.  He's nearly 93 years old and his memory has failed him ["Your name is Janis?" he asked...."I have a daughter named Janis!" :) ] but he figured out who I was after a few minutes and we had a great visit.  :)

This dear man of God is frail, and he gets confused easily, but he has NOT forgotten how to pray!  As we were leaving, my hubby asked Dad if he would like to pray for us.  He stood to his feet and said "Yes!"...amazingly transformed.  In the strongest and most confident voice we'd heard at any time during our visit, he thanked our Heavenly Father for the solid rock of our faith, Jesus Christ, and prayed for protection and a safe journey for us.  I was so touched and blessed.  <3 <3 <3

Today, I am sharing a sweet little coloring book I made for the Mark's Finest Papers Wild Animal Hop/Tutorial Challenge.  They included a wonderful little tutorial on making this with a clever spiral binding, but I didn't have the tiny hole punch they suggested so I made a 3-ring binding with chenille stems.  I didn't have many wild animal images, either, so I made it a more general nature theme.  :)

I used a variety of Mark's Finest Papers stamp sets. Here on the front cover, you see stamps from these sets: Mark's Finest Papers - Nature's Brushstrokes and Mark's Finest Papers - Silly Shells. I used Tsukineko Versafine Ink in Onyx Black for all my stamping.

I started out with seashell images from: Mark's Finest Papers - Sand Dollar Mini and Mark's Finest Papers - Silly Shells stamp sets.

I did this two-page spread with florals from these sets: Mark's Finest Papers - Works of Art and Mark's Finest Papers - Lily of the Valley.

The last section, including the back cover, is the land animal section using stamps from these sets: Mark's Finest Papers - Hoppy Easter, Mark's Finest Papers - Above the Rest, Mark's Finest Papers - Year of the Horse.

I will give this to my little 5 yr old granddaughter.  I think she will enjoy it!!  Thank you to Mark's Finest Papers for this fun tutorial challenge!!!

<3 
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this little coloring book in the following challenges:
1.  Mark's Finest Papers Wild Animal Hop/Tutorial Challenge - mini coloring book
2.  Word Art Wednesday Weeks 224-225 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
3.  One Crazy Stamper April Challenge - Anything Goes
4.  Craftin Desert Divas April Linky Party - Black & White w/ a Splash of Color
5.  DL.Art April Linky Challenge - Anything Goes
6.  Little Scrap Pieces Show it Off Saturday Linky Party
7.  Crop Stop Linky Party #14 - Anything Goes using product sold by CS (I used Tsukineko ink) 

Biggest Boo-Boo ---- Birthday Party for Jesus!

http://www.djkardkreations.com/

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with my entry in Darnell's Big Fat Card Boo Boo Flop Hop.  I am making this a scheduled post because I am going out of town. I will have to make the links work and actually link this up sometime on April 1 while I am gone.  (Sounds like a trip to McDonalds with a hot fudge sundae and my computer!)  So please excuse the non-links if you see this before I get it all linked up on Apr. 1!  

My Big Fat Card Boo Boo is actually a story...and I hope it doesn't offend anyone.  Please take it in the spirit in which it was intended....which is to give us all a chuckle.  

Several years ago at church, our pastor's wife suggested we have a Birthday Party for Jesus at Christmas time for the children in the community.  It sounded like fun and I had all sorts of balloons and crepe paper for streamers to make the basement of the church look festive.  We went all out!


I brought confetti and things to strew around on the tables.  We wanted it to look like a real birthday party so the kids could relate to Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, being born as a baby and having birthdays....just like they do!



We put hearts and chocolates and other candies on the tables along with curlicues of ribbons.  It was so fun and so pretty and the kids totally LOVED it.


The children listened attentively to the Bible story of the Nativity and why Jesus came to earth to be our Savior.  Then they played party games and ate cupcakes. 

They were crazy over the confetti and were scooping it up by the handfuls at the end to take home with them.....to play with and to show their parents.

It was at that moment, as the parents were gathering up their children and leaving the building, that I noticed something horribly wrong.....and I mean HORRIBLY WRONG!!! 

In my haste to gather all the desired party supplies out of my stash, I had grabbed the wrong confetti.  Instead of my confetti that said "Happy Birthday"............

This is what I had picked up!

Yes.....Janis accidentally threw a Retirement Party for Jesus!!!!  Arrrrghh....double, triple, quadruple arrrrghhh!  I could totally have died of embarrassment.....if I hadn't been howling with laughter at my own blunder!!!!

I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed it while I was putting it out on the tables OR that the other adults hadn't noticed!!!  (Thankfully, I never did hear anything back from any of the parents, either! lol...)  Oh, my goodness......I laughed harder that day than I think I ever had in my life.  What a hoot!  I think even Jesus probably had a good chuckle over it himself up in heaven....as he waited for me to discover what I had done!  :)  :)  :)  I'm so glad He is our Risen Lord and is still working....and NOT retired!

In case you are wondering....I now keep the "Happy Retirement" confetti taped closed (instead of in a zippy bag) and clearly labeled!!!

Happy April Fool's Day from the biggest fool of them all!!!!  Me!!

<3
Janis

Thank you, Darnell, for the fun idea of this April Fool's Day Big Fat Card Boo Boo Flop Hop!  I am honored and delighted to be able to enter my story in your Hop.

And the winner is...............

Hi, Friends.....

I am here to announce the lucky winner of this Tea Party Ticket stamp from the Spring Coffee Lovers Hop:

 

Congratulations goes to: Sue D.

Sue, I have emailed you. Please send me your snail mail address so I can get this sent to you! Yay!! 

Thank you to everyone who participated!!!  Happy Easter to all!

<3
Janis

Waffle Flower Watercolor Card

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with a quick post to squeak an entry into the March Waffle Flower Challenge.  Here's the inspiration photo and we were asked to use the technique of the month:  Watercolor.

I used my Waffle Flower - Flower Circles stamp set and some Brushos that my bloggy friend, Karen Ladd, sent me on my birthday. (THANKS, Karen!!!)

This is my first attempt to do this kind of bow with a button. I used a fabulous Unity Stamp Company Quick Tip found here to show me how. (THANKS, Unity!!)

Other supplies used:
Darice - Checkered embossing folder
DCWV - Burlap Stack
My Favorite Things Die-namics - Stitched Square STAX die set
Distress Ink - Peeled Paint
Crayola Watercolor Pencils
Aquabrush

Dollar Store baker's twine and heart button

That's all for now.  I have a Good Friday service to attend, so I am cutting this very short.

Have a blessed Easter weekend.

<3

Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Waffle Flower March Photo Inspiration and Technique Challenge - Use Watercolor
More later....if I get time! :)

Coffee Lovers Hop - Tea Party + GIVEAWAY

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with a card for the Spring Coffee Lovers Hop.  I won't be able to participate a whole bunch this week, but I do have one card and a giveaway.  :)

For my card today, I went super formal with a lovely stamp based on the image from a vintage Tea Party Ticket for Good Friday in 1857.  So cool!  I thought it was quite appropriate for the Hop, since it is Easter time and you can make your project Coffee, Tea, or Cocoa themed.  This image even has cats on it.....although they got partially covered with the die cuts I used.  

I am sooooo proud of the pretty bow I was able to make from some totally delicious ribbon from Pat Garvin.  (THANKS, Pat!!)

Supplies used for this card include:
Crafty Individuals - Tea Party Ticket stamp
Versafine Ink in Smokey Gray
Spellbinders - Lace Doily Accents die set
Spellbinders - Heartfelt Creations - Raindrops on Roses die set
My Favorite Things Die-namics - Stitched Oval STAX die set
DCWV scraps from my stash
Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet
Prima Flowers
Adhesive Pearls

Okay.....on to the GIVEAWAY!!!!  I bought an extra one of these pretty Crafty Individuals - Tea Party Ticket stamps, which I am offering to one lucky randomly-drawn commenter.  This is open world-wide!  Yay!!  This comes as an unmounted red rubber stamp.  You can read more details about it on the link above.

Cats and a tea party!  What's not to love????

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post that includes the words "Tea Party Ticket" somewhere in it by 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, March 25, 2016.  That's all.  Easy-peasy.  I would love for you to become a follower, also, if you are inclined, but it is not necessary to be included in the drawing.  It also would help me a lot if you include your email address (in code) in your comment so I can contact you, if you are the lucky winner.  Thanks!  I will announce the winner here on my blog on Sunday, March 27th.  Good luck, everyone!

Thank you for stopping by today.  There is so much going on in blogland this week that it is impossible to do it all, so I very much appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog and leave your sweet comments!!

<3

Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:

1.  Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

2.  Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 221 - Use Snippets

I'll get some more on here later on!

Maybe a Little Bit Too Free.....Butterfly Art Journal Page

Life is all about being free to explore!!!

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with an art journal page to share with you today.  Anyone want to venture a guess at how what is originally intended to be a card turns itself into an art journal page?  Answer is a combination of two things:  (a) I can't bear to give it away....and/or.....(b) I can't bear for anyone to see it!  LOL!!!  I will let you figure out which is which for this project!  Ha.

It all started when two pieces of unrelated paper got shoved near each other on my craft table......a pretty scrap of K&Co paper with a butterfly on it and a birthday card envelope from my dear MIL.  "Hey, I like these together.  I could make a card!"  :)  

I covered up the handwriting with the patterned paper and should have stopped playing around right there.  I could have made a very attractive card with this nice, tidy, contrasting bit of background.

But, nooooooooooooooo.........

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I remembered Tim Holtz saying that he crumples up stuff and rubs it around in his distress ink........whaaaaat????

Oh, why did I even start this project???  And what did I just DO to that pretty background????  Oh, woe is me!

Distress Ink in Tea Dye

I flattened it out and clipped it to my craft sheet to dry with my heat gun.

When I began this project, I had in mind to make something for Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge - Butterfly + Buttons and/or Bronze. So I got out my bronze glittery embossing powder. I stamped a big arty Unity sun image with Versamark and heat embossed with Vintage Mahogany embossing tinsel from my Stampendous Encrusted Jewels Frantage Kit in Bronze.

The result was hideous! lol....  I stopped taking photos!!!!!

Somewhere between the above photo where I was totally despairing of this project and the photo below where things are starting to reassemble themselves into something interesting, I did the following:

1. Sponged Versamark ink in a butterfly stencil and heat embossed with clear powder. (You can see some of that in the center of the lower edge.)

2. Stamped and heat embossed a Serendipity - Floral Butterfly to go with the sun.

3. Sponged all over with Distress Ink in Rusty Hinge for an emboss-resist look.

4. Dusted Perfect Pearls in Perfect Bronze all over the entire thing and misted it slightly with water to set the powder. Then I wiped off the heat embossed places with a baby wipe.

You can tell that I kind of like what is happening with my piece now because I am starting to take photos again.  :)

Using Versafine in Vintage Sepia, I inked up some miscellaneous stamps I got in a thrift store grab bag.  They remind me of ancient engravings and such.  I stamped them willy-nilly over my piece.  Then I dusted some more Perfect Pearls over it to set the ink.

Bearing in mind that I still think I am making this for a card, I began my search for some buttons to go with it...and to qualify for the Butterfly challenge.  Nothing bronze in my button stash, soooooooooo.......

Time to heat emboss some buttons!!!

My new heat gun (Remember how mine died mid-project during my Cat Lovers Hop last October????) gets super-hot....like a bajillion degrees!  So I held my buttons with a unfolded paper clip.  I sponged them with Versamark and dipped them in embossing powder and zapped them.  This  photo is just the first couple of layers....I used all sorts of powders on them to get a weather-worn look.  :)  When the holes got embossed shut, I stuck a paper clip end in them while the powder was still warm to reopen them.

I die cut a glittery Serendipity - Floral Butterfly to add to my piece.  And, finally, at this point....reality hit me.  This is NOT going to be a card.  Nobody nobody nobody in my circle of card-receiving friends or family (especially family!) is going to understand this at all.  Their opinions of my ever-loosening grasp on sanity is only going to be confirmed.  I'm keeping it for myself.  As an art journal page.  Period.  No one else sees this.  Nope.  Well, no one except for you faithful readers.  YOU understand....(I hope!)....No one else does!!  :)

So at that point.......I was free to do whatever I wanted with it!!!  Hooray!! I still wanted to use the buttons and so it was still going to look kind of like a card, but I felt free to actually write on this in my own handwriting....which I rarely use!  lol...  I use printing for everything and really only pull out my cursive writing for signing things....like autographs.  Hahaha...not really!  More like writing my signature on checks and such.  :)   

I wrote out and outlined the word Free using Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Markers in black and white. The white was a little too bright, so I sponged over it with Distress Ink in Tea Dye. I tied it all with dollar store twine and put it on a bundle of glued together book pages. You can see a stray string from the cloth binding at the top right.

I wish you could see the shine and glimmer of that sparkly Serendipity butterfly better!

Well, there you have it.  What do you think?  I know you didn't really need all those photos.....but I took them just in case (by some rare stroke of luck) the project turned out fabulous!  Ha!.....  I decided to share the process with you, anyway. :)  Even though there are things I would have done differently, I really kind of like how it turned out.

Are there some techniques you have been wanting to try?  I always have backdoor options, in case things really go south on a project.  For instance, I figure there is almost nothing that heat embossing or Perfect Pearls can't fix.  (You notice I used both on this project!!  lol...)  That gives me the freedom to explore new things in my art.  Do you have some favorite fixes, too?  If so (or even if not!), give some of your new ideas wings and go for it!!!   

Thanks for taking time today to look at my project!  This is a busy time for a lot of us and I appreciate each of you who comes to visit my blog and leaves such encouraging comments.  Have a lovely weekend!!!

<3
Janis


Thank you for the honor of entering this art journal page in the following challenges:
1. Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge - Butterfly + Buttons and/or Bronze
2. Serendipity Stamps Challenge #53 - Circles/Dots
3. Die Cut Divas - Something Spring
4. Word Art Wednesday Weeks #222-#223 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
5. DL.Art March Linky Challenge - Anything Goes
6. Let's Play! at A Colorful Journey
7. Little Scrap Pieces Show-It-Off-Saturday Linky Party
8. Craft Stamper March TIMI Challenge - Take a Stamp (must stamp)
9. WOW! Embossing March Challenge - Anything Goes with Heat Embossing
10. One Crazy Stamper March Challenge - Anything Goes
11. Crop Stop Linky Party #14 - Anything Goes, Use a product that CS sells (I used Distress Ink)
12. Little Claire's Challenge #67 - Anything Goes

Lettuce Have Some Fun!!!

Core from some leaf lettuce left overnight to dry.

Hi, Friends.....

Call it spring fever or whatever you will, but Janis went a little bit crazy today stamping with a lettuce scrap!!!  Yep, you read it right..... LETTUCE!  :)

I was inspired by this post over at Design Memory Craft by Laura Bray that used Gelatos and Bok Choy.  When I saw the lovely pattern of this lettuce core.....I couldn't just toss it to my chickens!!!  I grabbed one of my pale pink watercolor marker refill backgrounds and smooshed some Distress Ink in Abandoned Coral onto my craft sheet and stamped with my lettuce core.  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!  Aren't those rose images just wonderful????  (Something tells me that the One who made roses...also is the One who made lettuce!)

I decided to go shabby with this card, so I found some pink and gray scraps in my bag and roughed up the edges a bit for my layers.

My sentiment is Thinking of You from Serendipity Stamps.  I adore this gorgeous font!!!  I inked it in Versafine - Smokey Gray and heat embossed it with clear powder.  Serendipity is having a Circles/Dots Challenge right now where I will be linking up this card.  Hope you pull out your Serendipity products and join in, too!!

Other supplies used on this card include:  thrift store pearl/lace trim, crinkly ribbon, and sequins from Pretty Pink Posh- Sweetheart Mix.

Hope you enjoyed my card today.  I had so much fun playing around with that piece of lettuce!!!  lol...  Maybe you will start eyeing your veggie scraps from a different perspective now, too!  Ha.

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:

1. Serendipity Stamps Challenge #53 - Circles/Dots
2. Twofers Challenge #15 - Organic (must stamp)
3. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #220 - Use Snippets
4. Let's Play! at A Colorful Journey
5. Design Memory Craft March Challenge - Handmade Flowers (I hope my hand-cut lettuce scrap that I used as a stamp counts as a handmade flower, since I got the idea off the DMC blog!)
6. WOW! Embossing March Challenge - Anything Goes with Heat Embossing 
7. One Crazy Stamper March Challenge - Anything Goes
8. Crop Stop Linky Party #14 - Anything Goes, Use a product that CS sells (I used Distress Ink) 
9. Little Claire's Challenge #67 - Anything Goes
10. Little Scrap Pieces Show-it-Off Saturday Linky Party
11. Craftin Desert Divas Linky Party - Photo Inspiration (I took my inspiration from the pink roses!)