It's time for the big news!

Do you ever need a card that isn't really sympathy, but it's not get well either? I often, more often that I like, need cards for the caregivers of seriously ill people. I know a mom who has a terrible cancer, not likely to get better. We have the RAK cards we do, where we just want the recipient, who we may not even know, to know that they are loved. I have friends who extend themselves so much I fear they will wear out totally. I have a hard time knowing just what to say. I usually have made them a nice blank card, with a flower or something like that, then written my own message. But I felt like there should be stamps that fit these topics better.



I talked to my mom, who purchases a lot of store bought cards. She said it's really hard to find these cards in stores too. Then I searched the internet for stamps that said what I wanted. No luck.



It's no secret that I love Gina K Designs. Gina has this extra special way of making everyone feel like they are special. I'm SURE that I'm her favorite customer. Totally sure of it. I'm sure you are her favorite customer too, she's like that. So I felt totally comfortable taking this idea to her. Making a stamp set that is for offering peace, comfort and support. Gina got back to me within an hour and we were on the phone dreaming up what such a set would include. She asked me to write a bunch of sentiments that I thought should go in the set.



I wrote a pile of them. My favorite idea was a broken sentiment that started with "In this difficult time..." then you could choose any of a handful of completing phrases. Gina used my ideas. Then she added beautiful flowers and worked out the font and editing. The end result is the set Comfort and Peace. I'm thrilled. Really honored, and excited to see this on the market. I think it's unique and needed.



Here are some cards I made using the set.

I also really wanted to let you all know that I was very serious working on these phrases. I thought a lot about how people would feel when they needed these cards. It was hard for my heart. I realize though that if we didn't extend ourselves in love we would never need these cards. And that's the magic of this whole thing. We do have pain and heartache, but the love we have is always worth that pain. I hope this is true for all of you, and I hope that love brings YOU peace and comfort when you find you have to pull this set out and make these cards.

Working on this project with Gina was fun. Really fun. I got to talk to the famous Gina K on the phone several times, which is always a pleasure. I got to see my ideas turn into stamps. I did have a big secret for a few months, which was so fun it was almost painful.

If I could, *and I guess I can, it's my blog* I'd dedicate my efforts on this set to Jill, whose trials right now break my heart.

ETA: The set will be included in the release that will be on the 20th. Thank you so much Donna for reminding me of this very important detail! Hugs,e

ETA AGAIN!: I TOTALLY forgot this. You can WIN this set. I have one with your name on it. Just post here and I'll pick a winner. No hard game or anything, just post and I'll draw a name. :)

ETA yet again: I will draw a winner sometime on Sunday. After church for me, which ends at 2, then I come home and get my tots down for a nap and all... So sometime on Sunday afternoon. I will try to contact the winner through their blog or email, but if there is no email I'll only be able to post it here. :) Oh and if you win it, but then also get it as your 1 free with 3, just pass it along to a stamping friend. Or have two, if that suits your fancy.

Eat Cupcakes.

Do you really need someone to tell you to eat cupcakes? I didn't think so.

This is another card I made for the April justjohanna sketch. I LOVE this sketch. It's my favorite sketch ever. This time I made another cupake and paper pieced it with the sprinkles paper from the Basic Grey Cupcake line. *I think it's called cupcake... I'm 90% sure* The phrase is made from the stamp that says "Life's short eat cupcakes" I just masked some off while inking it and then arranged it to just say "eat cupcakes" because I think that sends a strong pro-cupcake message. *which cupcakes need, I read on Cupcakes Take The Cake HERE that cupcakes have jumped the shark! Never let it be so!* Here is the sketch again, in case you don't get the justjohanna newsletter, or you forgot it, or you want it for any other reason.

ps, what program is used to make these 3D-ish looking sketches? I want to make some!

Don't forget, tomorrow night = BIG announcement from me. An announcement so big I felt I had to include candy with it! Candy you want to win. And there will be cards too, I know I've been heavy on the non-card posts lately. I've had lots of info to share... I'll try to do better about always including a card though.

Inspirational Blog

So tell me you all already know the Inspirational Blog right? What? Some of you don't? SHEESH! Ok, go look, then come back.

Cool isn't it? So the team rounds up awesome cards and other crafts from all over during their blog hopping and all. Then they get permission and post their favorites on the Inspirational Blog. And now I'm part of that awesome team.

Now I know, you already read 200 blogs, why do you need this one too? Well let me tell you, because I read 200 blogs and I find new stuff on this one every day. I know it feels like you are reading every blog on earth but you are not. So by reading this one in addition to your favorites you will be getting a huge variety of new inspiration. *hmmm, I bet that's why they call it that?*

So if you get an email from me, or a comment in your blog asking if I can feature you on the Inspirational Blog, please let me!

hugs,
e

Helpful Chipmonks

When I saw the preview of the Friendly Kritters line at Cornish Heritage Farms I knew I'd be buying this stamp. See Marcia, my awesome Mother-In-Law loves chipmonks. Look how cute they are.

So I colored them with my trusty copics, but I then showed Marcia my new fun flock. She wanted her chipmonks flocked! I went ahead and did it of course. Well the stamps might be too detailed for flocking. I had to draw in some lines of the dark brown, but you are still not seeing the full cuteness of these guys. They are still pretty cute though. The little "Embrace Happiness" stamp is by PapertreyInk. I don't think you can tell, but I put some gold stickles on the flower centers.
Thanks for visiting me.
e

Earth Day Celebration

You do not want to miss out on the justjohanna Earth Day celebration. It's all day Saturday. There will be challanges throughout the day hosted by the Design Team members. I will be having one, of course. I will be posting my challange here on my blog, and in the justjohanna forum at 9am EST. Which is 6am for you peeps on the west coast.



I'll let you know my challange shouldn't be terribly difficult, so please do play.

And you do not have to use justjohanna images to play. So if you got them, use them! If you don't, use what you got! I will be drawing one of the people who play my challange to win this stamp:Tell me you don't love him. I mean, it's an owl, in outter space, with the Earth in the background.

And if that wasn't enough listen to this part! Everyone who does any of the challanges will be entered in a drawing to win:

• One (1) grand prize of a $ 250 justjohanna shopping spree
• One (1) second prize of a $ 50 justjohanna gift certificate
• Five (5) third prizes of 25% off coupons for the justjohanna online store

note: to play you will need to either have a blog or a membership to the justjohanna forum. You can get a free membership to the justjohanna forum by clicking here. Forum access will give you all the info in one spot, a nice gallery to see the other entries in and the ability to chat about the challanges with other players and the jj Design Team. You can definately play along from your own blog though.

Shout out to another blogger!

I'm gonna start doing occasional shout outs to other bloggers. Just randomly, as I see fit. *because I'd never keep up with some sort of regular thing where I did it every Tuesday or something.*

Today is the first one and the blog I'm shouting out to is Lim's Blog. Lim is super talented at my very number ONE favorite thing to do with stamps, making scenes. OH MY HECK, she makes some hecken good scenes. *hecken is new, I'm starting it here and now, it's similar to hella, but more Mormon*

Lim is also having her first blog candy right now. She has three prizes you can win images, punchies and ribbon. And let me tell you one thing, you want Lim's immages. I rekon she's been spending her life savings on the most adorable stamps because I've never coveted a collection quite like I do hers. HERE is a link to her post about the blog candy.

ETA: Horrible news everyone! "Hecka" is already a word. It means just what I said "hecken" means. Then later I used "hecka" thinking I was using MY new word... I guess what I'm getting at is that there is nothing original about "hecken" it's just a wrong form of "hecka". Here is a link to the Urban Dictionary defination for "hecka". they gots nothing for "hecken" though, so maybe I can make THAT a new word. Sigh, I never get to make up new words.

La La La La!

Doesn't the cat on the left look like he's singing? And the cat on the right, she's maybe not impressed? HAHA. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig and first stamped this whole scene in my sketchbook. I didn't bother with making masks at that time. Then I looked at it and figured out what order the images should be stamped and masked. I came up with Cat's, Rocks, Pier, Grass. Although if that one grass had been in front of the pier it would have been nice too. Then I stamped the whole thing again, using the masks on Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper, which is my fav for copic coloring. I colored with copics. OH speaking of copics, I read somewhere that Ranger Adirondack dye ink was good for the copics. I got some and yes, I like it the best now. Ok, so after coloring I trimmed it down and assembled the card. All stamps are Eat Cake Graphics.
Next up is a card that has a robot family. I'm gonna tell you a family story that might let you know why this is such a funny card at my house. *might not be funny in the retelling though*

So we got to Epcot. It's awesome. They have this thing where you can build your own robot on a computer, then build one out of plastic parts. It's free and you can keep the robot. So we do it and the boys are in love with their robots. For some reason Stephen loves for me to say "I am a Robot." In a robot voice. Like all toddlers he loves the same joke over and over. Around the 500th time I say "I am a robot" Brian replies, "You are a huge nerd" in the voice of Triumph. *If you don't know who Triumph is, he's the puppet dog who insulted the rapper Emminem and, I kid you not, got in a feude with him for a while, yes, fancy pants rapper vs. puppet dog, we sided with the puppet dog, because dogs rock.* Hmmm. I knew that wasn't gonna be funny to anyone else.

Back to the card! This uses the adorable Cogsmo line from Cosmo Cricket. CUTE! I stamped the bots and colored with copic markers. This stamp is by Eat Cake Graphics too.

Look a new Blog Header

So I decided I wanted a new blog header. Time for a change. My friend Angie did my old one and she's all busy and stuff no so I didn't want to beg her for a new one, so I decided I could do one myself.

Um... wow. My brain literally exploded thinking about that. I know how to use digital elements. But I could not for the LIFE of me figure out if I was ALLOWED to use them for a blog thingie. Some sites were clear that the answer was no, some were totally vague about it causing me to get brain bleed. I am super psycho about copyright stuff so I didn't want to step on any toes, and I for dang sure didn't want to spend an hour making a cute banner that I'd get an email next week telling me I have to remove. *cuz I'm sure that my little site gets so much traffic that the designer of that kit would happen upon it?*

So I decided to make my own. Out of actual cardstock. And this is what I did. At first there was no yellow bird but EVERYONE who saw it said it needed a critter. So I added the bird. Tracey says the bird looks lonely, I say he looks like he's staying until I figure out something else! HA!

I did email two very cute designers of digi kits to ask if it was ok to use the kits on this type blog. I'll let you know if I hear back from them. I also hear that the pay kits at shabbyprincess are ok to use, but not the free ones. They are lovely. They are also shabby and I'm not a shabby girl, so I didn't select one. She has done ones too, they are like $2 and they are just ready to use blog thingies. You can add photos and your title. Very cool product. Lemme get you a link sense I'm talking so much about it. Ok HERE are the "blogware" downloads. They are really nice.

ANYHOW, what do you think of the banner I have now? Is it too narrow? Should it go all the way across? I dont want it to be so that anyone has to use a bottom side to side scroll thingie, I hate it when I have to use those on sites.

And I'll sneak this in here, in case you are actually still reading. Do NOT miss my post Friday (probably Thursday night actually) And Saturday. You will be sorry if you miss these posts. I have news and prizes related to the news. *WINK WINK*

Stephanie DosReis and justjohanna

First let me introduce you to the blog of an outstanding artist. Stephanie DosReis. The link is to her blog. She's awesome, mixed media type stuff, cutting cool bits of images to make other totally different things. YUM for that! She also designed a line called The Wonder Years for Daisy D's scrapbook/papercraft company. Johanna connected up with her and also liked Stepanie's artwork, so she procured stickers from the Wonder Years line for those of us on her Design Team.

And that is what I have to show you today, I used the stickers Stephanie designed, with the justjohanna stamps to make the following cards:


This one actually uses the April Sketch from the justjohanna newsletter *see sketch in previous post*

I had stickers to work with. They were really fun, they looked like they had real fabric on them and all this cool stitching and all. And the mixed up patterns were just really fun to work with. I looked on Stephanie's blog and it is an entire line, paper and all stuffs. I might have to procure some of that. Now really, go click the link I gave you to Stephanie's blog, it's fresh and fun and colorful and unique. Serious eye candy.

Big news!

Lots of justjohanna related news today!

First of all there is a new Design Team Call for justjohanna. Would you like to be on this team? Then click HERE for a link to Johanna's blog explaining all the details. I'm loving it on the team, and definately am applying for another round!

Next we have a justjohanna event coming up! If you are so inclined, mark your calendar for the 19th which is next saturday. The design team will be having challanges all day on their blogs with prizes, yes PRIZES. And there will be a Grand Prize, no not a Major Award, a Grand Prize of a $250 gift certificate to shop with justjohanna! I am definately doing a challange and I know already what some of the other girls' challanges are and they are going to be fun, perhaps get you to do something you've not done before! And all this is in honor of Earth Day, which is Tuesday the 22nd. The winner of my individual challange will win an extra special earth day limited edition justjohanna stamp! I don't even know what it looks like yet, it's so ultra insider and cool! teeheehee





Ok and now for a card! Have you hard of Cakespy? There are all these adorable, funny paintings featuring a cute little cupcake having adventures. (you can buy the paintings and they are reasonably priced! I may need one.) I was inspired by him to make the following card:



This stamp is the justjohanna "frosting only" cupcake of course. I used a post it note to cover the line part on the frosting so I could draw this face instead. I'm really happy with how this turned out!
The card layout is based on this month's newsletter sketch. Here's the sketch:

Don't you love it? I think it's the yummiest sketch ever. I have another one I'll be showing later using this sketch. You can see cards made by the team and other justjohanna fans for this sketch and past sketches HERE in the justjohanna gallery.

Ok that's all for this morning I have a whole pile of related projects to show you later, using stickers! But these stickers, they rock, they are not your normal boring stickers.

More owl stuff.

I'm so glad owls are hot, I love them! I made this card so simply! The paper is by making memories and it's a sheet from one of thier spiral journaling book thingies. This one is themed "Garden Party" and I just tore the sheet out, and stuck it on the card. The diecut is already done as well as the scallop edge. We all know how I feel about the office inspired grid pattern. Then I stamped my owl on it. Colored him with copic markers and added a greeting in the corner. Super quick. I think this card took about 5 minutes. Gotta love that!
I've been using my justjohanna stamps a bunch and I had tons of them out. I also unmounted a pile of stamps the other day. So I took these three that came apart really clean (most have icky stuff on them and I just tossed them, I try to be green when I can, but I'm not trying THAT hard to reuse stuff) and made them into blocks for my kids. My kids have a stacking fetish. So they will enjoy stacking these. I stamped them with my justjohanna stamps and then colored with copics. I made some a while ago and colored with tombow markers, but the ink bleeds onto my kids all the time. I'm too lazy to actually put a clear finish on them, so maybe this will work. If not I'll just toss them, they were intended for the trash anyhow.

ps,I know the dark gray on priscilla pretty much washed her out and took away all detail and generally was a poor choice, luckily my audience for these is a two year old and a three year old, so it doesn't matter. *wink*

Is this the end?

You may know I've been making cards where Michelle fish is in love with Jacques bird? Well last week I bought a new different fish and a new different bird. You know, the right size to be in relationships with Michelle and Jacques. I didn't ask them first though. Maybe they WANT to be in an interspecies relationship?

Do you wonder how they took the news? I'm sure you do, so I captured it in the form of a comic inspired card:

looks like this has potential.

all images justjohanna. I wrote the words and drew the speach and thought bubbles. Colored with copic markers. white accent on the red card with white gel pen.

Get Busy!

I've been busy today! FUN stuff too.

I further organized my craft area. Love it now. I mean I loved it before too.

Then I made this envelope. It's inspired by the awesome envelopes that my friend Kim is always doing and making me jealous. *kim, you DO have my address right???*
Next I have a card I made Brian who was having a stinky afternoon. He's ok now though because he knows owl always love him! :)
After that I made this simple card with this dancing lady. I love her all in pink. If I had a super fancy dress like that I'd want it all in shades of pink.
I tried a large art envelope too, but it wasn't as great as the small. I did put about a poud of glitter on it though. I'm sure the lady at the post office will love it.
I think I got enough glitter on it!


all images by justjohanna. all colored with copics. glittered with stickles

Garage Sale Find

Yesterday me, my mom, Jack, Brian, Stepen and Ethan went garage sale shopping. We got a TON of stuff. TONS. But what I'm going to show you is this shelf, it's for CD's.
I painted it the same color as the walls in my craft room.

Then I cleaned up a bit and put my unmounted stamps on it. I had plenty of room so I put all my Stampin' Up! stuff on there too. I'm thinking about unmounting all my other random mounted stamps too. But not my justjohanna ones, I have a special thing for them and they are happy there. So how cool is that? It cost me $5, I had to sand it a bit and paint it of course. I've been wanting something, my CD cases were just sorta piled in my huge black cabinet with doors. Now they are right beside where I sit. OH and the sun never comes right here, I hear that is bad for stamps to be in the sun, but these are protected.

Also I realize I only have 16 SU sets! I knew I mostly bought their stuff more than stamps but I thought I had more than that.

Pink Cat fun!

Here are cards I made using Pink Cat Studio stamps. I colored with copic markers and the paper is all the adorable new cupcake line from Basic Grey.

to do the ground on this one I put a slice of paper for the horizon line and then watercolored everything under the slice.
And here is Stephen "working" at my craft desk.

I bought a digital video thingie today, so I'll try to start including some video tutorials and stuff. I hope you enjoy them. :)

This month's special deal is SPECIAL.

Look at this Special Deal! A birthday owl! You gotta love that. These cards were done by other memebers of the justjohanna design team, not me. I will find out who and credit them properly, later today. *BECAUSE THEY ROCK!* Look how cute this owl is! LOOK. I, Erin, do not have any of these stamps, so we all know how that's going to go down. (buying this ASAP is how)

Look how this artist made the pendant thing out of the party hat. I love that!

Note on t his one how the hat becomes a tie!
Need more? Ok, how's about we put the owl IN the package?

Well then maybe in the package WITH the hat on?

working with the Ladies Dancing Kit

Here are the first three projects using my new Ladies Dancing kit.

First is a project for an assignment for the Design Team. I've never even considered doing something like this before. It took me HOURS *this is significant because I'm usually a 15-30 minute stamper* I tell you this because if it's totally garbage I need you to say nice things anyhow! teeheehee. I think I like it ok. I'm glad I added the owl on her hand, that was an afterthought. Course his wonderfully expressive eyes seem to say, "hmmm not sure about this outfit my friend!" haha. I colored her outfit with copic markers, the owl too.

Next is a really soft card that I like. I stamped a skirt again, this time as a flower. I stamped it once each of three sheets of vellum. Then I colored it on the reverse side with copic markers. I did it really bold. Then I layered it all together and sewed the top to secure it, but hid the sewing under the yummy gray ribbon. Stamped "thank you" on the top layer and added a pin. Oh there is a white layer under the vellum sheets. Otherwise the gray paper really dulls everything so much you can't see the bottom flowers.
And yet another flower! I'm a HUGE fan of big fat flowers, so expect to see these used as flowers pretty often. The bug is actually a ladie's fan from the set! The "antenna" are little dangly accent things from the fan. I made the center line thicker and added little dots on the "head" for eyes. I colored this with copics too. Of course I had to draw the bug flight patern and the stem of the flower.

And there you have it. These are from my new LadiesDancing kit from justjohanna.

Gardners are dirty

I made this for my mom who is a SERIOUS gardner. SERIOUS people. SERIOUS. *oh and for the record my mom is wicked skinny and would never EVER show her crack like this, although I do think she might rock a floppy pink gardening hat, also she will probably correct me on my flower color choices later* and the inside:

Image and word stamps by Hambo Stamps, the dot background stamp is by Cornish Heritage Farms. The paper is all by Stampin' Up! except for the white, which is strathmore smooth bristol, which is my favorite to use my copics on. Stamped with palette noir ink, glitter added to flowers with stardust pen.

Sorry if this is a bit too raw for you, I think it's WICKED funny.

Enabler Alert! justjohanna

Ok, mail came! I was on the fence fora while about the Ladies Dancing kit from justjohanna. Finally, after seeing the cute cards the other Design Team members made I decided I must have it. So I ordered it of course. It arrived today and I'm thrilled with the contents. I wanted to show you a photo.

Note the full sheet of rubber images. The white thing over them is an index of them so you can know what all is on the sheet. It's parts and pieces to build your own super fancy bird ladies. There are some completed ladies too in case you don't feel like building. And of course you can use the parts and pieces in that type of stamping where you put a vintage head on a body you stamp, you know what I mean right? There are a few other tricks I'll be showing you soon that you can do too, this set is very versatile. *also that ribbon is YUM, although please note other than the stamps your goodies will vary with each order, they will be stuff like this, but not necessarly this very same stuff*

There are choices for the kit. I purchased the Vintage Ladies Dancing Kit hence the vintage looking color scheme and papers and such. If you choose the Bright Ladies Dancing Kit you will get the exact same stamps but totally different accents and papers, bright ones, go figure.

Ok, soon I'll post projects. I'll give you a hint, I have an idea for some vellum layered flowers with this kit. Yes, flowers.