Stamps, Paper, Scissors

This is a clean site!!!

But even I, yes, sweet little Episcopalian person that I am (okay, okay...maybe not LITTLE) occasionally feels the urge to say something a little on the naughty side.

Oh, nothing REALLY naughty...just a little, tiny, eenie weenie bit naughty, dontcha know.

It really is SU!'s fault. Truly. I would never have thought about making this card if it hadn't been for them! I can blame them and the effect of today's society and purge my guilt and shame over what you are about to see.

Last night, after a hard day in the kit mines, I was casting about for something to stamp. It needed to be a Christmas card, I decided. Looking at my stamp shelves, I spotted Holiday Lineup. I had used 2 out of the 3 stamps in the set, but I had yet to use the one with Rudolph and his buddies. I'd had this naughty idea ever since I saw it in the catalog, but I hadn't quite settled on how I was going to word the sentiment to go with it. Until last night that is.

So here it comes and if there are small children, they can't read and won't get it anyway. And older children definitely don't know what this means. Even teenagers have to think hard about it before they get it.

But Dan got it and he said, "That's interesting! You're going to get a lot of comments about that one!"

But if you want to shield more sensitive eyes, including your own, go right ahead.

Here it is...ready?

Ingredients: Stamps - Holiday Lineup, Woodgrain, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper - Soft Suede, Real Red, Old Olive, Very Vanilla; Ink - Basic Brown, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Really Rust, Real Red; Other - SU! Marker J Low font, Large Oval Punch, Modern Label Punch, Sleigh Bells ribbon, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, white gel pen, sponge wedges, dimensionals, gold brads.

What's so naughty about that? Well...heh heh heh:

Wait for it....

Well, that's it and now some of you are probably shaking  your heads saying, "That JanTInk! I'm SO disappointed in her!"

I'm sowwy...I just could. NOT. RESIST.

If it makes you feel better, I will probably never send it to anyone. I can't think of anyone for whom it would be suitable...it's not exactly a card I would send even to my parents, who appreciate the amusing. But it had to be made! It just HAD TO!!!

If you're wondering how I did the main image:

I stamped with Basic Brown, then colored the image with aquapainter and ink pads. Then I used the white gel pen to color in all the eyeballs on the reindeer. And then I sponged the color over the top and erased the gel pen. Rudolph's nose was highlighted with Crystal Effects which I sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

Well, there you are. This site will now return to it's previous "suitable for family reading" status.

Keep your ink pads wet and your pants dry and I'll see you around! Ta!

Double Delight Card

Welcome to November!

About now, you're probably still doing a bit of this

But it's time to stop thinking about Halloween and turn our attention to the holiday season now upon us. Some people are way ahead of the game when it comes to holiday spirit, having already put up holiday decorations and have been listening to Christmas music for weeks, while others, who shall remain nameless, view the advent of gluttony, overexpenditure, greed, and what is worse, the visits of friends and relatives whom they might rather forget they are acquainted with or are related to, with horror and dread. Most of the rest of us fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

I had some fun Thursday night with some awesome ladies who are known by the rather generic name, "The Craft Club". The Craft Club has about 10 members, some of whom go to my church and some who don't. We get together once a month, sometimes at our church, sometimes at someone's house, and share a meal and crafting time together. It's a chance to connect and see what every one is making and get something done. Some stamp, some scrapbook and one person even does beading (a money hole I have so far resisted!)

I don't always make it to Craft Club, but when I do, since I rarely have time to cook to contribute to the meal, instead I bring a project for everyone to do. This is this month's project:

Ingredients: Stamps - Delightful Decorations; Paper - Bashful Blue, Soft Suede, Whisper White; Ink - Bashful Blue, Soft Suede; Other - Ornament Punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, Word Window Punch, Bashful Blue striped grosgrain ribbon, silver cord, dimensionals, sponge wedge, paper piercing tool, silver brad

HOLY MOLY, but that's GOJUS!!! (YILM!)  The ladies really loved it!

And you can too, because I cut too many! I have 5 of the kits left from Thursday night and they will be available in my kit store, along with another card I made last year for a workshop that you may enjoy! I have decided to make these kits available for only $3 each, which includes the instructions, the pieces, hardware, and ribbons needed for creating them, an envelope, plus postage. You have to provide your own  inks, adhesives, stamps, and assorted other supplies if needed.

So if you've ever wanted to have the "JanTink Experience" (I know, I know, DOESN'T EVERYONE?!?!?) here is your golden opportunity. Once I cut the pieces for class or workshop kits, if there are a lot left, I just don't have the heart to circulate them back into my cardstock collection. I figure I'll get around to stamping the extras someday, and then I never do! So this way, you are happy and I am happy because I get these out of my house into a good home and then I have a little more money to stamp with myself! It's a WIN/WIN!!

I went through the box where I put these things and found a bunch! So they will be trickling into the kit store as fast as I can put the instructions together. Luckily, I have these already written out, for the most part, since quite a few of my workshops are designed to be self-directed. I've made the purchase buttons for the cards to be an "Add to Cart" button so you can easily buy more than one kit.

So hop on over to JanTink's Kit Store if you're interested!

Well, it's back to cutting for the Stamp-A-Stack kits that have been ordered already. I'm planning on shipping out a few tomorrow, once I get some more ink for my printer and can print instructions, and then I am going to stamp something new! And shiny! New and shiny! Yay! Eeeee! (sorry...just a little excited there!) Ta!

New Kit Options

I've got some good news and some irritating news! Good news first:

After I posted my 2009 Stamp-A-Stack kit here, there were some who were worried, 'cause they didn't have the stamp sets I used. Last year, I only used one, this year I used four. So I figured I'd do sumthin' nice for folks who may own not quite so many. Lookie:

 

Aren't these GOJUS?!?!? I think so! (YILM!) This kit is only available through the mail...won't be teaching this one! And you only need Winter Post and one stamp from Sincere Salutations (or a simliar sized greeting). Colors are Night of Navy, Rose Red, Garden Green, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla.

For purchase information, I've created a new kit store page you can reach here:

JanTink's Kit Store

You'll also find I have a limited quantity of last years' kit, something I discovered when I was moving some boxes around. So I have those for sale as well.

Soon, I'm going to be adding some more kits, with single cards and other items I've found that I still have kits for. So keep an eye on my Kit Store...there is a link in the left sidebar under "Services I Offer".

And now the irritating news: Real Red cardstock and Garden Green cardstock, which are used in these kits, are on backorder right now. I expect to get more Real Red by the end of this month. Garden Green has no fulfillment date at present, but I'm hoping it won't be any longer than Real Red. If you order a kit and I am not able to deliver it when you would like to have it, let me know and I will cheerfully refund your money.

If you've already ordered the Dasher/Tree Trimmings kit and you'd like to switch to one of the other ones, please let me know! And if you'd like to simply buy the instructions for one of the kits, I sell the PDF for $10.

It's Halloween, so must dash and start taking kids to the party they are going to! Ta!

Mastering Manipulation - New Seminar for Children Available Now!

Good day!

I come to you today to offer a unique opportunity for children aged 8 to 12 years old! At this point, parents please fetch your children to read the rest...you aren't supposed to know about how this works.

Okay? Ready? Hi, children! I'm here to tell you about an exciting opportunity: Mastering Manipulation, a complete course teaching children how to get want they want from those pesky people who are in the way of complete fun, parents.

This course is taught by the master himself, Mr. Will Tinklenberg, MAPM (Master of Parental Manipulation)

Mr. Tinklenberg will be teaching his 5-point Manipulation Mastery course, consisting of the following points:

• Threatening to run away from home.
• Complaining about how everyone at school hates you.
• Talking about how tired you are, how your head or stomach hurts, or better yet, how you are hungry and need to eat NOW rather than doing your homework or chores.
• Selective hearing, in which you learn to shut out demands for stupid activities like cleaning your room or working in the yard in exchange for your allowance, which every kid knows stands for "Money that a kid is ALLOWED to have", not "Money that a kid has to EARN." Duh!
• And last, but not least, FLATTERY, that is, telling parents how much you love them, bringing them packages of Milano cookies that you really would rather eat yourself, bringing them cans of Diet Coke without being asked, and making them unique and fun greeting cards that say "You Rock!" with whimsical illustrations drawn by you, the Master Manipulator.

All methods are guaranteed to work as long as parents are not aware of them. Once they twig to them, the jig is up and you will have to find other ways of getting what you want.

Please email William's mom with your Paypal account information or for an address where you can send a check for $40 to pay for this course. A Wii gaming system, Ninentendo DS or other gaming paraphenalia you are tired of can also be used as payment. 

Pumpin' out the pages

Halloween is really one of my very favorite holidays. This year it will be different than ever before, because our oldest child, Laurel, now 15 (15!!! How did this happen?!?!?!) feels that she is too old to go trick-or-treating. She is right, though I think part of the reason she has decided not to go is that Emily and William are going to a party in a different neighborhood and are going to trick-or-treat there.

So life has assumed a different aspect from the days of yore when they all went together and we passed out microwave popcorn, our feeble attempt to be different and unique...until other people caught on and started passing it out too.

This year instead of turning on the lights and passing out popcorn, I will probably end up taking Laurel to the mall, her consolation prize or celebration of passing the milestone of not trick-or-treating,  however you want to look at it. It's a real marker of the slow transition to adulthood. This process will not be complete until she buys her own underwear, which is the true mark of adulthood: the day when your mom stops buying underwear for you and you have to buy it yourself.

Amazing how I can go from Halloween to UNDERWEAR in just a few sentences isn't it? What do the two have to do with each other?

So ANYWAY we won't be passing anything out on Saturday night. I will miss that...at least seeing the little children at my door all dressed up. They are so cute! It's the ones that are Laurel's age, wearing a football jersey and a little blacking under their eyes as a pitiful attempt at a costume, that I don't like to see.

So this year, I've been scrapbooking, with My Digital Studio, those days of yore before all of this growing up happened. And then, while I was at it, I figured I'd make a whole scrapbook of the autumn of 2004. And then I decided to run all these layouts into a movie and post it here! Lookie:

 I am BRILLIANT!! (YILM!)

I added the page I'd already showed you with William, since those photos were taken in that same year. I am going to add more pages to this, because the minimum for a book is 22 pages and I haven't gotten there yet! I still have Laurel's birthday and maybe some other pages I can squeeze in there.

In the meantime, I am finished with the process of getting certified in MDS (no, NOT certifiable! One of my friends made this comment the other day...you know who you are!) For that process we had to create a card to upload and purchase. Here is mine:

 

I hope it looks as GOJUS in real life as it does digitally! (YILM!)

Well, I have some studying to do and, as ever, laundry, laundry, laundry. Ta!

The rest of what you missed!

Y'all are gonna cry, really you are!

 

'Cause you missed an awesome class! A class with ONE STUDENT! That's right! The rest of you mugs decided to give it a miss, dincha? Well! Your loss, eh? Not only did you miss these awesome cards, you missed these as well! Lookie:

 

Ingredients: Stamps - Scenic Season, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Heard from the Heart; Paper - Old Olive, Real Red, Ballet Blue, Whisper White; Ink - Old Olive, Whisper White craft, Ballet Blue, Real Red; Markers - Real Red; Other- Signo White Gel Pen, Silver brad, Mistletoe Ribbon, Word Window Punch, sponge wedges.

The photograph really doesn't do this justice. In the real card, the trees are a very nice dark olive without being too dark and the bird is red, but I couldn't get that captured in the photograph and none of my efforts to enhance it worked out right. It's GOJUS!!! (YILM!) AND YOU MISSED IT!!!!

And if that wasn't bad enough, LOOKIE!:

Ingredients: Stamps - Delightful Decorations; Paper - Christmas Cocoa DSP, Real Red, Whisper White; Ink - Real Red; Other - Ticket Corner Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Ornament Punch, Mistletoe Ribbon, gold brads, gold cord, sponge wedge, dimensionals.

Here, you! Get up! I'm not done yelling at you yet! I know, I know, it's GOJUS (YILM!) and you missed it all! But...but...quit crying! I'm still mad! I am!

Stop crying! Please? Oh, geez...now you're gettin' me all teary eyed!

After all, I'm the one that should be crying! I missed you! You didn't come!

I had to eat all this chocolate that Karen, my one student, brought plus the Oreo double-stuffs MYSELF! What I do for you!

And since these were pretty easy cards (I know the last one doesn't look like it could be, but it is, really!) and there were only two of us, we got done in record time.

So, let's go over what we learned:

1. If you live in Jan's area, you really need to come to her class. See what you missed!
2. Jan rocks! (YILM!)
3. If you don't live in Jan's area, you have to spend your life wondering why, OH WHY, don't more people take advantage of Jan's classes? Why?!?!?

Okay...I'm done ranting. I forgive you. Really! Just don't do it again!

Ta!

Merry Multiples Class

I have a class to teach on Monday, so as usual, I had to go through the torturous process of deciding what to do. Should we do techniques? Or concentrate on a holiday or theme? Or should we use all products from the Holiday Mini? Decisions, decisions.

Finally I decided we will do Christmas. Then it was a question as to what kind of Christmas we should do?

At this time of year, stampers start thinking about stamping lots of cards, so they are very interested in designs that are cool, yet don't take a lot of effort. Cards you wouldn't mind making multiples of, which leaves out a lot of really cool stuff. So that's what we're doing and that's why it's called Merry Multiples!

If you live in the Detroit area, the class is held at my house on Monday October 26 at 7 PM. It is $12 for 4 projects, $1 off if you prepay, $1 if you bring your own adhesive, and $5 off if you order at least $25 in product before shipping, handling and tax are computed. I have a limited amount of spots available so please email me at jantink at sbcglobal dot net if you are interested.

The rest of you who can't come are now feeling all left out and downhearted. I guess to help you feel better I should at least let you have a peek at a couple of the projects!

Ingredients: Stamps - Holiday Lineup, Happy Everything; Paper - Real Red, Bermuda Bay, More Mustard, Kraft, Naturals White; Ink - Basic Brown, Always Artichoke; Markers - Real Red, More Mustard, Bermuda Bay, Always Artichoke, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede; Other - 1 1/4" circle punch, Scallop Edge punch, Word Window punch, gold brad, Always Artichoke 1/4" grosgrain, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals.

STINKIN' CUTE!!! (YILM!) Normally, I wouldn't choose a set that had to be colored in as a set I would use for multiples, but with this spotlighting technique, you only have to color a very little bit for each card.

 

Ingredients: Stamps - Dasher, Holiday Best; Paper - Holiday Treasures DSP, Old Olive, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla; Ink - Real Red, Old Olive, Garden Green; Other - Sleigh Bells ribbon, Wide Oval punch, dimensionals, gold brads, sponge wedges

This card is GOJUS!!! (YILM!) Yet, it is also fairly simple, with the paper helping to bring it up to par. And, since this piece of DSP is exactly a 3" square, you can crank out 16 cards from one 12" x 12" piece! I'm SO clever! (YILM!)

Well, after lunch torpor has set in and it's getting more difficult to be as incredibly witty as I usually am. So I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead. Y'all keep your ink pads wet and your pants dry, y'hear? Ta!

Freaks Rock Christmas!

 

It's that time of the month again! Time for we Controlfreakswappers to rock your world with our amazing talents (YWLO! (yes, we love ourselves!)) If you've been proceeding along the tour, you just came from Kimberly Morris' blog. But if you are starting here, fear not...you can make the complete circuit just by following the links at the end of each post.

And what better theme could we have this month than Christmas cards?

"But Jan!" you exclaim, "We're not done with Halloween yet...do we hafta start looking at Christmas cards so soon?"

Well, here's the deal: it gets here awful quick and when it comes to your Christmas cards, you want to make decisions as to just what you will make fairly soon. Because you want them to be winging their way to your friends and relations in plenty of time to get there by December 24th, dontcha?

So the idea this month was to have at least one card that was somewhat complex, a "one-off" as you might say. Something I'd probably only make once.

But before I show you that one, I have to show you the OTHER one. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Scenic Season, Four the Holidays; Paper - Night of Navy, Ballet Blue, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Shimmery White; Ink - Whisper White, Night of Navy, Rich Razzleberry; Other - Snowfall Printed Window Sheets, Small Star Punch, 1 3/8" square punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Whisper White Taffeta ribbon, silver brad, dimensionals, sponge wedge, brayer

Isn't this GOJUS?!?!? (YILM!) I used my Gradiant Glow technique to produce the subtly shaded background, using Night of Navy on Ballet Blue. Then I stamped with Whisper White and once it had dried, I layered the window sheet on top. It's adhered very subtly, with a strip of adhesive under where the greeting will go and with the brad in the upper left that goes through all the top layers. Clever, eh? (YILM!)

And now for the more complicated one. i don't know that I'd  never make another one of these, but it isn't your average card (but then when have I EVER made an average card, eh? EH?) In the course of making it, I unvented a new technique! Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Holy Family, Four the Holidays, En Francais, Sanded; Paper - Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, More Mustard, Shimmery White; Ink - Versamark, Brocade Blue, More Mustard, Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy; Markers - Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, Bordering Blue, Rose Red, Rich Razzleberry, Taken with Teal, Dusty Durango, Really Rust, Soft Suede; Other - Black EP, Versamarker, Basic Black 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, Square Fire Rhinestone brad, aquapainter.

Don't it just make you go

It's GOJOMACIOUS!!! (YILM!!!) I am calling this Faux Stained Glass. Here's a closer look:

 

I will be doing a video tutorial on this quite, quite soon, fear not! It might be a few days because I have some stuff to do for medical transcription, but I hope to have it done by the weekend.

And now that you've got an eyefill of my total artistic rockiness (YILM!), you get to proceed onward to my very good friend, Wendy Weixler's blog! Ta!

Just for fun....

How long has it been since I have been able to make a card that wasn't:

• For a class
• For a workshop
• For a blog hop
• For a swap
• For publication?

TOO DANG LONG, that's how long! It seems like it's just been forever. So last night I rebelled. I stomped my foot and said, "KREATURE WON'T!" or rather, WOULD. Stamp for fun, that is!

So I pulled out a set I knew I would probably never get to use for the above purposes...I bought it just because I liked it. And I hadn't used it yet, so this was a perfect opportunity!

Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Gifts of the Earth, Itty Bitty Backgrounds; Paper- Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, Old Olive, Confetti Cream; Ink - Versarmakr, Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, Old Olive, More Mustard, Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand, Brocade Blue, Rich Razzleberry; Markers - Basic Black; Other - 1 1/4" Old Olive striped grosgrain, 1/4" Pumpkin Pie grosgrain, Photo corner punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Jumbo Antique Brass eyelet, Vintage brads, Aquapainter, dimensionals, sponge wedges, Black EP.

Isn't this GOJUS!?!? (YILM!) And it really expressed everything I feel today. Today I got up early on purpose to make chili for church, since we were having a Soup Sunday. I decided to make a double batch and I wanted it to cook for a bit so it was nice and mellow by the time it was eaten.

Chopping onions at 7:30 AM is no joke, let me tell you. Especially when you take your Synthroid as soon as you get up, which means no food for an hour. Not that I want onions first thing in the morning, but just the smell makes your stomach wake up and say "Feed me, Seymour!"

But, like any good Episcopalian, being hungry makes me think of how others around the globe are hungry every day...and how my being hungry for an hour wasn't such a hard thing. I feel very fortunate to have enough to eat, clean water to drink, and a clean, dry, and especially in this season, WARM place to live and clothes to wear. What good gifts I've been given! I should be more mindful of them and more thankful for them.

At our Soup Sunday, our regular supply priest, Father Iwick, gave the blessing as usual and ended up with the part he never leaves out, "and make us mindful of the needs of others." I'm going to try to carry that with me today and maybe I will get the opportunity to help someone not so fortunate as I.

In the meantime, it's back to work! Practice transcriptions to do, children to ferry out to buy science project fixings, and, that ever present burden in times of every day living, LAUNDRY beckons with a finger puckered from being waterlogged. Off I go...behave yourselves now! Ta!

Back by Popular Demand - JanTink's Christmas Stamp-A-Stack!

I had several people asking me if I was going to do another Christmas Stamp-A-Stack this year, so I decided, "Oh, why not?" I am SO NICE that way! (YILM!)

I thought about using a different template, but the one I used last year works so well and is so easy that we are just going to repeat it, but with different Designer Series Paper and different stamps. So without further ado, here is JanTink's Christmas Stamp-A-Stack 2009:

 

This is a One Sheet Wonder class using a template that I adapted from one that was on the Stampin' Up! website a couple of years ago. I tweaked the layouts of the cards and made some improvements on the template. Here's some close ups of the cards:

There are a total of 16 cards. The class includes all the cardstock and ribbon to create the cards plus 16 envelopes. Participants will need to bring their own adhesive, a sharp pair of detail scissors, and a paper trimmer (there will be some trimmers available to borrow.)

Cost is $25 and the class will be held Saturday, December 5 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am at Scrap & Yap in Livonia, MI. Your payment is your registration. Registration must be paid in full by November 27th. You can Paypal using the convenient payment button below:

Or you can email me at jantink at sbcglobal dot net for alternate payment information.

"But, but...Jan!" you wail, "These cards are GOJUS!!! I live in (insert your location here) and no way can I come!!!"

Well, for all of you people so unfortunate not to live in the Metro-Detroit area, since I feel so sorry for you not to be living in this wonderful, thriving metropolis (yes, I am being sarcastic, LOL!) I will be putting together kits for those who want to simply order one. Availability will be close to when the class is held. Let me know if you are interested. Cost will be the same and includes priority shipping.

Today is Saturday and it's time for the usual bulletin run and organ practice. Ta!