busy first week of january

Good morning!  How is your week going along so far?  Hard to believe we are at the half-way point.  Because I was off work on Monday, yesterday and today I woke up confused as to the day.  Looking forward to the weekend.  I have a crafting project I'm wanting to work on that involves spray paint.  It was too windy to work on it last weekend.

Anywho...just wanted to give you a heads up that I might not have any more posts on the blog this week.  A bit busy with work.  Not sure if I've shared this before, but I'm an Art Director for a furniture company.  This week we are having some catalogs printed and I have to be at the printer to approve the color as it's printed.  So lots and lots of trips to the printer, which means not so much time for crafty projects or blog updating this week.  I'll try to get some more posts up, but just wanted to let you know why I might be mia...

~ jess

01.01.2012 photo

i love to read.  i'm not sure when this love began, but it was definitely somewhere in early childhood.  that wonderful feeling of seeing the words pop of the pages of the book and turn into these magical stories.  for me, i'd probably rather read a book than watch a movie any day.  part of the reason is that when you read a book, even if the author gives you lots of details, you, as the reader, are able to take those and visually create your own interpretation.  with a movie, it's all done for you and there is no creativity you can add to it.

so my first photo of the new year is of me with my nose in a book right before bed. it's the time when i really have no excuses not to read.  the only downside is if it's a really good book i might not get as much sleep as i need because i can not seem to put the book down.  but i'm glad i'm back to my guilty pleasure.

in 2011 i didn't finish a single new book.  i think i must of started half a dozen.  looking at my bookcase i have over 30 books of fiction that i've yet to read and probably a dozen devotionals.  so one of my goals for this year is to work my way through these books and discover lots of new adventures!

~ jess

2012 - a fresh start

oh my goodness.  i'm a bit embarrassed at my absence.  you see, i was getting a bit obsessed with facebook/youtube/blogging for a bit and i decided to stop my youtube channel.  i was just going to focus more on my blog.  but then, when i stopped youtube, i found that i just didn't have the desire to really blog anymore either.  i was putting so much pressure on myself to get everything just right that i'd lost the joy of blogging.  so in the end, i just dropped it all.

and you know what, it was kind of what i needed for the time.  i've been busy at work and then i came down with a cold and i was stressing my body so much that i couldn't get rid of that sickness.  after having the cold for a month i finally went to the dr and after shots and meds i'm finally over it, thank goodness.

so here it is, a new year - 2012!  it's hard to believe how quickly time flies.  but with the fresh start of the year, i feel like it's time to give my blog a new start.  i have a lot of ideas for the new year of things to blog about.  one thing is i'm taking two classes this year that will prompt some blog posts i'm sure... studio calico's photo a day and ali edwards' one little word.  i'm pretty excited about both of these classes.  and the word that i've chosen for ali edwards' class i'm hoping will push me to see some goals through this year.

so if you have been following my blog for a while now or are just stumbling across it, i hope you keep coming back to share this experience we call life in 2012!

~ jess

...{...mass producing cards...}...

do you like to mass produce cards? i like that i can get a lot done is a small amount of time, but i don't like all my cards looking alike.  usually the only time i do this is for christmas cards due to always waiting to the last minute.

after i finished this stack of nine cards this evening i thought it would make a fun blog post.

first i started out by stamping the image of the wreath onto some cream and some white cardstock.  i used the two colors because it was the two pieces of scrap paper i had left on my desk.  then i pulled out my copic markers and colored them so each wreath was completely different color schemes.  i don't know about you, but sometimes i get in the habit of doing the same color combos...this really pushed me into using other combos i don't usually try...such as the blues, which ended up being one of my favorites.  i knew i had enough paper to be able to match the color schemes, so i didn't worry about that while coloring in the wreaths.

after they were colored and the cardstock base cut/folded i started going through all my paper stacks looking for coordinating papers.  after the first few, i realized i'd not even used my christmas stacks.  this got me thinking...could i do them all without using christmas papers!?!  i think sometimes i feel i need just the right patterned paper and this was also another push to think outside of the box for me.  also i used some of my really old paper pads that hadn't been touched in forever!

the sentiment was the same stamp, but i trimmed the paper a bit differently on a few and added some distressing ink to a few.

also pulled out the stickles, liquid pearls and glitter for the bows and "string" they are "hanging" off of.

all in all i'm pretty happy with all these cards.  each one different but yet basically the same.

do you have any tips for mass production?

~ jess

...{...get well card...}...

just a quick post late this evening. it's 11:33pm here and i'm headed to bed soon. tonight i've been working on some cards for a craft fair that i'll be at this saturday. all total i have nearly 50 cards completed. i didn't have any thanksgiving or christmas cards made up so that's what i was working on tonight. but then as i was looking at this lovely yellow paper i thought it would be great for a get well card. yellow is such a comforting color that i love to use it on sympathy cards as well.

just grabbed my little p+s canon, so image quality isn't the best...

~ jess