WPlus9

CASE Me A Christmas Card – Surprise Edition

October 1, 2023 Jentimko 1 Comment

For those of you who know Michelle Lupton, you know that she is both super talented and one of the nicest people! Over the last years, she has done a series of CASE Me A Christmas Cards where she will CASE (Copy and Share Everything) one of her guests cards and vice versa. You take a non-holiday card and turn it into a holiday card using the inspiration of each other’s work. It is always such fun. This year, Michelle has had some things happen where she was just unable to commit to the project. Soooooo….a whole group of stampers committed to do it together in honor of her!!! This is primarily an Instagram event and all you have to do is go over to IG and search for the hashtag: #casemeachristmascard2023

The hardest part of doing this for me is narrowing down the choice of what to CASE. I generally use the rule of three on a CASE where I change 3 things while keeping some of the main elements of the original. In this case, I chose a floral card with partial die cutting. Her original is posted below. I used the Joyful Poinsettia set from WPlus9 (I know you are super shocked) and found the die for the set worked perfectly in the partial die cutting. I used my Copic Markers to color the image with traditional colors.

I chose Artichoke Card Stock from Concord and 9th as my base once I had finished my coloring. Then I created a mini slimline card using the Sweet Stacks: Mini Slimline Dies. I heat embossed my sentiment in Gilded Embossing Powder on Black Card Stock by Concord and 9th. Oh, and if you have ever had trouble with heat embossing on black (I did and thought it was my powders…and I tried a lot of powders), this card stock changed the game. It is smoother and somehow the heat embossing stays crisper. YAY! I added some splatters with Gold and Irisdescent White and then some red pearls.

So here is Michelle’s gorgeous card. Things I kept: Partial Die Cut, Sentiment Placement, Florals and Gems. Things I changed: Slimline layout, Copic coloring, Raised sentiment, Image panel to edge.

I hope you like my version of her card. Please come over and celebrate with us all. Michelle is just beloved and I’m thrilled to be a part of this ode to her talent.

Twenty-two years

September 11, 2023 Jentimko 6 Comments

“No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” Virgil

As I approached today, as always, I feel the melancholy coming on. It always arrives. I think it always should arrive, truthfully. It has been interesting this year in that my youngest son has been studying the events of 9/11 in his government class and so it was a way to really talk to him about my experiences of the day. My stories have been told here over the years but very different when explaining it to my son. Harder, more personal. So I spent yesterday coloring, as I tend to do. I’m flying today, the first time in a long time that I have flown on the anniversary.

I used the beautiful new image from WPlus9 and stamped the extra full flower to color. Blues of course. I added a pretty script sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps and a few pearls.

If you would like to read more about my ponderings: 9th Anniversary, 10th Anniversary, 11th Anniversary, 12th Anniversary, 13th Anniversary, 14th Anniversary, 15th Anniversary, 18th Anniversary and 19th Anniversary, 20th Anniversary and 21st Anniversary.

In this time of great polarization and “other-ism”, I simply ask that you choose differently. Choose joy, choose kindness, choose love.

In memory of:

United 93: Jason Dahl, LeRoy Homer Jr., Lorraine Bay, Sandra Bradshaw, Wanda Green, CeeCee Lyles, Deborah Welsh

United 175: Victor Saracini, Michael Horrocks, Robert Fangman, Amy Jarret, Amy King, Kathryn Laborie, Alfred Marchand, Michael Tarrou, Alicia Titus, Marianne McFarlane, Jesus Sanchez

American 11: John Ogonowski, Thomas McGuinness, Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Karen Martin, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ong, Jean D. Roger, Dianne Snyder, Madeline Sweeney

American 77: Charles Burlingame III, David Charlebois, Michele Heidenberger, Jennifer Lewis, Kenneth Lewis, Renee May

Freshly Made Sketches #598

August 9, 2023 Jentimko 7 Comments

Hi everyone! Happy August to you! I am this week’s sketch designer at Freshly Made Sketches and I hope you will like this one. When I designed it, I had a floral in mind for the corner. I had this gorgeous poinsettia on my table from my last card so I opted to color the single image and go with Copics this time.

I stamped the image from Joyful Poinsettias twice and then colored. Dawn’s images have shading built into the design so I just followed her lead. I enjoyed spending a little time with my Copics! For the base I started with a light blue card stock and added Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide Inks.

I decided to add some splatters with white gouache and some red pearls. The sentiment comes from the same set. I love all the options this set gives and I suspect you will see it in heavy rotation for this holiday season.

I hope you are having a wonderful start to your August. Thanks so much for stopping in today. I’ll see soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #596

July 26, 2023 Jentimko 5 Comments

A cool new sketch idea at Freshly Made Sketches! Judy has us doing halfsies! Designs only on the top half of the card and the bottom is clean. I found it a bit of a challenge but happy with the final result.

Along with the new set from WPlus9 that I used last week, I ordered another set called Joyful Poinsettias. I like the background style design along with the single flower and sentiments in the set. Again with the watercoloring (because I know Dawn designs like a water colorist). I stamped the image in black then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I colored the flowers and leaves and tried to keep to a more vintage palette. After it was dry, I added a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink with a light hand to “age” the white spaces.

I waited until I was done coloring to choose the base and I went with Artichoke by Concord and 9th. I stamped and embossed the sentiment, going with a small one to keep it on the top half of the card. Finally I added some champagne colored pearls as accents.

I hope you find a bit of inspiration in this card. I had lots of fun spending a little time on the watercoloring. Thanks so much for stopping in. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #595

July 19, 2023 Jentimko 4 Comments

A beautiful sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches. Our designer, the lovely Amy O’Neill, gave us lots of options on this one.

I was so excited to get this new stamp set from the wonderful Dawn Woleslagle (WPlus9) called Darling Dahlias. It is just released to her shop even though she designed it a while ago. She certainly has a way with florals! For this, I chose one of the single flowers from the set and the leaves. Sadly, I need a sympathy card for someone at work so I decided that a blue dahlia might be appropriate. I played with a moody blue watercolor (Mayan Dark Blue) and added touches of a rust (Mummy Bauxite) for color variation in the flower. The leaves are a lovely gray (Shadow Violet) that has pretty ways of granulating. All colors are Daniel Smith Watercolors.

I used this pretty wood print from the Grain and Grunge paper pack and used a sentiment from the BEE Young: Blooms Free Bee Set (Honey Bee Stamps). After trying this whole combination on both white and black bases, I settled on a pale gray (Fog from SSS). I added a few matte black confetti pieces to finish.

I hope you will enjoy this sketch and find inspiration from the team. More amazing samples, as always, on the team blog! Thanks for stopping in. See you soon!

Hand painted tree for Christmas

December 2, 2022 Jentimko 4 Comments

My crafting lately has been a bit hit and miss. In order to preserve some of my days off needed, I have been on reserve (on call) for flying. It makes for a chaotic pattern and I have a hard time creating without a good schedule. Some days, I just watch videos of my talented friends and learn. Recently, the incredible Dawn Woleslagle (WPlus9) showed how to paint trees. And I don’t just mean color, but actually paint. Now I like to pretend I’m a painter sometimes but this is next level. I like to color OTHER people’s art! But she made this look easy so I gave it a go.

Using my Daniel Smith watercolors, I followed along with Dawn basically mimicking her every move. And you know what, I got a tree! I’m pretty excited about this tree, not going to lie. Enough that I’m going to try some more. We’ll see how that goes. I cut down the panel, in retrospect I wish I had left it longer for the sentiment, to create a card. In keeping with Dawn’s unique and truly special style, I even pulled out my sewing machine. I stitched around the edges of the colored panel and a paper print panel (from Honey Bee Stamps). My sewing is intentionally a bit wonky but if I tried to make it perfect, it would be wonky anyway.

I thought it needed a bit more so I added gold splatters to the back panel and a layer of vellum underneath. The sentiment is gold embossed (Honey Bee Stamps) and I pulled a gold button and thread from my stash.

So the lesson here is never say never. It takes a bit of courage to make art. A little of yourself is in every piece and you have to face “messing up”. I hope this encourages you to take a chance and try something new. And please go follow Dawn on all her social platforms. She is generous with her talents and a skilled instructor! Thanks so much for stopping in today. Wishing you a wonderful rest of your week.

Freshly Made Sketches #407

October 16, 2019 Jentimko 6 Comments

Hi everyone! Sorry for the quiet on the blog lately. I’ll explain a bit more at the end of my post. But for today, I get to share with you the latest from Freshly Made Sketches! Our sketch designer is the talented Lee Ann Barrett and she has a winner of a sketch for us this week.

I’m all in on Christmas cards now and I thought it was perfect to pull out an old favorite for this sketch. The Be Merry stamps and dies from WPlus9 are always a winner in my book. I stamped the sentiment onto Ivory card stock and then cut it out with the dies. I stamped some of the accessory images too for layering. I thought the sentiment needed a bit more oomph so I added a bit of the olive ombré on the Merry. The flowers and leaves were quick Copic coloring but they really add so much.

I seem to be drawn to plaid this year and I found this old Stampin’ Up patterned paper in my stash. Perfect! I added a couple of little pearls for flower centers and popped up all the elements with foam squares.

Now for the rest of the story. I never really share too much about my “day job” here but in this case, I wanted to explain my sporadic posting. This picture is from the last day of flying on my beloved Airbus 319/320. I have been in the right seat of that fleet for a long time and I needed to make a change for scheduling. Last week I started training on the Boeing 757/767 fleet. There is a lot that goes into training. Studying, of course, but we also come to our training center in Denver for over a month. Needless to say, I had lots to do to make that happen at home. So I did get a few cards made ahead of time (not as many as I had hoped) and will be posting those over the next couple of weeks. And then you probably won’t hear too much from me until I can get back home and in the craft room. Once I’m back home, I should be able to settle back into the routine quickly and get back to creating.

So with that, back to the Freshly Made Sketches challenge! Make sure you hop over and check out all the inspiration from the team. Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Freshly Made Sketches #397

July 17, 2019 Jentimko 8 Comments

I’m so happy to share the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches today! It is really fun and you are sure going to love how many options you have when creating with it. The amazing Kim Singdahlsen is the sketch designer and she really outdid herself.

I did try, at first, to make this in the vertical. In fact I had all the elements colored and ready when I realized it was WAY better to go landscape. Now these little Happy Birds from WPlus9. What can I say?! I saw circles and I just knew these birds were perfect. I mean seriously, you just have to love them. I had not pulled out my Copics for a bit so out they came. I admit that I really needed some time just coloring and these were such fun. The little stitched lines were a great way to stick with the sketch and I added some leaves from the set as accents. The sentiment is great with these little guys and I hope this really will bring a smile.

I’m going to share a little bit of a secret with you. Actually kind of a sneak “peek”, if you will. You can see from the number above that we are closing in on a big number sketch at FMS. And we have some fun things planned. Can’t quite let you in on that yet but you need to be ready for some August fun! Keep your eyes out for more details in a few weeks. In the mean time, thanks so much for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #368

December 19, 2018 Jentimko 8 Comments

So….how is your holiday prep going?! I’m going to say that things at my house seem to be a little crazy. Truthfully, it has been a bit difficult getting things moving for us with all the loss we have had over the last few months. But I keep telling myself that we have to focus on the real meaning of Christmas. We have so many blessings, the biggest of which is an amazing family. How lucky I am!

Today I have the last Freshly Made Sketches challenge for the year. The team always takes the holidays off but we leave our sketch open during the whole time so that people can play along. Hopefully you will have some time to join us! Our sketch is courtesy of the lovely Narelle Farrugia. She is one of the newest Artisan Design Team members for Stampin’ Up and I’m so thrilled for her! She has mad skills so it is no surprise that she gave us a great sketch with lovely layers!

With the layers on the sketch, I thought that this great patterned paper from Stampin’ Up would be perfect (Festive Farmhouse). I just chose a plaid that I liked (there are a few) and then two prints that went with it. Because the base of the plaid is vanilla and not white, I used some Thick Very Vanilla card stock (also SU) to stamp my sentiment and images.

I colored the little leaves and berries using Copic Markers to add a little bit of detail. But let’s face it, the sentiment is the star of the show! At first I had it without coloring but when I mocked up the card, it seemed a little too plain. So I added additional coloring to the letters to help it pop. And you know what else??? I think this is the last Christmas card of the year for me. I’ll admit that I didn’t make nearly what I normally do and I didn’t send out handmade cards to my entire list. But sometimes you just have to accept limitations and move along.

I hope to have some other cards to share with you over the upcoming weeks. I’m still playing with the new release from Picket Fence Studios and I have some unused stamps that have been calling my name to be used. Wishing for you that your last days before Christmas are merry and bright! See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #347

July 25, 2018 Jentimko 7 Comments

The summer fun continues around my house and we have been busy, busy! Hope you are having a great week too. Our sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches is courtesy of the lovely Kim Singdahlsen. I love her style…always something really special about her work!

I saw a circle and at first I thought flower (of course). But I thought maybe I should stretch a bit so I flipped through my stamp sets and came upon Happy Birds by WPlus9. It was PERFECT! So I colored up this little cardinal and pulled out a previously inked and cut out panel. I knew I was right to keep this stack of unused extras! I thought the sentiment was funny because the little bird has a slightly grumpy look to me (although my 15yo swears he looks happy). To add a little more interest, I embossed the base of my card with a circles folder from SU.

I hope you will enjoy playing along with us this week. Please stop by and say and extra thank you to Caly Person for all her inspiration this month. It has been such a joy to have her along! Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

Supplies (affiliate links included):

Stamp: Happy Birds (WPlus9); Paper: Thick Whisper White (SU), Extra White Watercolor (Fabriano); Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Squeezed Lemonade (Tim Holtz); Accessories: Big Shot, Happy Birds Dies (WPlus9), Misti, Dimensionals (SU), Stitched Shape Dies (SU), Daniel Smith Watercolors – Yana’s Palette (SSS)

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