Just Us Girls #209 - Sketch Challenge

Happy World Card Making Day!  Isn't it great that we card makers have a day?  Love it!  Just Us Girls is celebrating today with a sponsor.  One winner will win a $15 gift certificate to A Walk Down Memory Lane!

 

 

This week is our sketch challenge and Maria gave us this cool sketch.

I'm in a fall mood, so I went with these sunflowers from Papertrey Ink and fall colors.  Don't you just love dies?  I remember fussy cutting before dies...ugh!  I stamped the sunflowers in Butter Bar ink and the centers in Latte chalk ink (Hero Arts ink) and the leaves in Old Olive (SU).  The kraft paper was impressed with the woodgrain impression plate and I added a piece of dp from Sugar Hill paper pack by Farm House.  The sentiment was cut from Crushed Curry paper.  I added shimmer to the sentiment and flower centers with a Wink of Stella brush.  Grosgrain ribbon and some crystals finish it off.

You can see more from our JUGs DT (please welcome new DT members Sharyn, Sue, Cheryl, and Sue) at these blogs.
 

JUGs blog

Cheryl Rowley

Maria Levine

Marisa Ritzen

Nancy Leppek

Sharyn Polesel

Sue Trembeth

Sue VanDeVusse

Vicki Dutcher

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Stamping!

 

Recipe

Stamps:  Simple Sunflowers

Paper:  Neenah white, crushed curry, kraft, Sugar Hill (Farm House)

Ink:  Butter bar, latte chalk ink (Hero Arts); old olive (SU)

Accessories:  Wonderful words: thank you die, simple sunflowers die, woodgrain impression plate, grosgrain ribbon, crystals, Wink of Stella shimmer pen, dimensionals

Just Us Girls #208 - Photo Inspiration Challenge

Hi all!  We have a photo inspiration challenge this week over at Just Us Girls.  Elise is our hostess and she chose these four fabulous pictures.  Elise is definitely a cowgirl, can you tell?

I picked out the pumpkins in the bottom two pictures and went in search of some pumpkin stamps in my stash of fall stamps.  I found this one from Our Daily Bread which has a die to match.  I stamped it in Jet Black Archival ink onto watercolor paper then die cut it.  I've had distress markers for quite a while, but haven't used them yet.  What was I waiting for?  They are so fun to use with water on watercolor paper!   I still have some practicing to do, but I like the outcome.  My leaves look a little muddy.  I added some orange to the green and I should have added more green to brighten them up.  I also added some Wink of Stella shimmer to the pumpkin.

I'm entering this into the Case Study challenge.  I used the sketch as my inspiration.



 

I'm also entering this into the Cas-ual Fridays challenge to use fall colors and a leaf.

You can see more inspiration from the JUGs team at these blogs.

 

JUGs blog

Elise Durenberger

Maria Levine

Marisa Ritzen

Nancy Leppek

Tangii Crain

Vicki Dutcher

 

We are also bidding a fond farewell to two of our JUGs design team members:  Elise and Tangii.  Elise is moving on to bigger and better things and needs time to do just that.  We will miss her bubbly personality and comments.  Tangii is also moving on and will be sorely missed by all, especially me!  We have been on three design teams together for quite some time and have become friends.  Best wishes to Tangii and Elise!  You were both such an asset to this team!

 

Check out the JUGs blog on Tuesday, October 1st to see who the new members to our DT will be!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Recipe

Stamps:  Pumpkin (Our Daily Bread), Mega Mixed Messages and Sew Simple Borders (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Vintage cream, Sugar Hill paper pack (Farm House Paper)

Ink:  Archival jet black, memento rich cocoa, distress markers

Accessories:  Pumpkin die (ODB), prima crystals, Wink of Stella pen, dimensionals





Happy Anniversary

Hi there!  Three posts in three days!  You would think I had a bunch of time on my hands this weekend, but I didn't!  I just needed cards this weekend!  This one is for my in-laws.  They celebrated their 59th anniversary!  Going to have to think of something big to do for them next year!  I cased my own card here changing up the die and colors (to match the JUGs colors).  I chose these colors this week and I just love them together so I had to use them on this card.  The roses look like they were stamped with black ink for the shading, but it's actually chocolate chip.  The new ink pad is so juicy and dark.  I miss the other SU ink pads!

Here's the JUGs colors.  You can play along here at Just Us Girls.

Thanks for stopping by again!

 

Recipe

Stamps:  Rosie Posie, Rosie Posie step 2, and Mega Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Vintage cream, chocolate chip, kraft

Ink:  Real red, chocolate chip, baked brown sugar

Accessories:  Trefoil die, Rosie Posie dies, red pearls, circle and circle scallop dies, dimensionals

 

Baby Christening

I had a Christening to go to today and needed a card.  I used the Case Study challenge as my starting point.

 

I liked the shape card idea, so I went with it but turned it upright.  I used the Spellbinder's die to cut the base of the card out of marina mist cardstock. The flourishes were embossed with white embossing powder on the blue cardstock, and the cross was embossed with silver powder.  I added strips of brush silver cardstock on either side of the shimmer white paper.  There are silver pearls added to the cross, and I made a double tailored bow from satin white ribbon.  It's for a boy so I didn't want to get too girly with the ribbon.  I also decorated an envelope with the flourishes and cross (which you can't see) in a gray ink.

Here's the inside.  (Please excuse my poor pictures!  I don't know what happened!)

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

 

Recipe

Stamps:  Everyday Blessings, Fancy Flourishes, Delightful Dahlias (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Marina mist, shimmer white (PTI)

Ink:  Versafine onyx black, Versamark

Accessories:  Spellbinders labels 8 dies, silver pearls, satin ribbon, white and silver embossing powders, glue dots 

Just Us Girls #207 - Color Challenge

Happy Saturday!  What a crazy week at school!  It's only the second week of school and already I'm wiped out!  But I'm so glad it's Saturday because we have a new challenge over at Just Us Girls and I'm the hostess!  Loving these colors I chose this week and I hope you like them too!

I had to do something quick because I was running short on time, so what do you turn to when you need to get a quick card done?  Dies and washi tape!  I used Ruby Rose dies and stamp set with riding hood red and baked brown sugar inks.  Easy peasy!    I added some shimmer with a Wink of Stella pen on the flowers and leaves.  It doesn't show up well in the picture, but it's very shimmery in person.  I'm finally using up the many rolls of washi tape I own too!  The red one is a Martha Stewart one I've had for at least 2 years!  First time using it (of course!).   Some pearls finish off the card. 

I of course had to use a sketch!  I don't think I ever make a card without following some sketch or another!  This one is from Clean & Simple sketches (last week's sketch...I made this card before that challenge ended).  I've always loved their sketches and use them often.

 

So hop on over to the JUGs blog and the DT blogs to see what they've created.  Here are the links.

 

JUGs blog

Elise Durenberger

Maria Levine

Marisa Ritzen

Nancy Leppek

Tangii Crain

Vicki Dutcher

 

Also, don't forget Just Us Girls is looking to add to our design team.  Make sure you check out the blog for details!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Recipe
Stamps:  Ruby Rose (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Vintage cream, kraft
Ink:  Baked brown sugar, riding hood red
Accessories:  Ruby Rose dies, Wink of Stella pen, pearls, corner rounder, washi tape, dimensionals

Just Us Girls #206 - Technique Challenge

Hi everyone!  We have a technique challenge going on over at Just Us Girls.  Nancy chose a great one, too!  It's the grid technique and it's a very easy yet really packs a punch!  You can find the tutorial for the technique here.

So I just want to say that I want to die and go to Tim Holtz heaven!  I joined the Chemistry 101 class over at Online Card Classes where Tim is the "professor".  He is just so talented and so knowledgeable about all these cool products that he has developed with Ranger.  Just in that one class, he introduced 25 techniques!  And now he's hosting another class called Chemistry 102 which starts in October!  Can't wait for that!

 

Let's talk about the grid technique first.  I took a piece of 3" x 3" piece of white cardstock and scored lines every 1/2" in both directions.  Then I stamped the background with Papertrey Ink's Background Basics: Morocco in Memento Tuxedo Black.  Then I used some distress inks (I should have put more color down cause it looks light) to add color and then covered it with Versamark and clear embossing powder.  It looks like tile!  Love that!  

 

Here's a close-up so you can see the shine.  And now for that butterfly (I added the pearls to the butterfly body and didn't retake this picture).  I used the Beautiful Butterflies die from PTI to cut out a butterfly from grunge board.  Then I covered it with Rock Candy Crackle paint.  I set it aside to dry while I was doing the grid and of course hit it a couple of times with various things (the lid from an ink pad, scissors, etc.), so I made a few more.  But once this dried it actually was ok.  When it was dry, I applied distress stains to it and heat set it.  So cool!  I have leaves made with the crackle paint drying and waiting to be inked up, so you'll see something with them on the blog soon!

I used the Monday Mojo sketch from this week for my layout.  I left out the panel under the flag cause I didn't want to cover up my grid pattern too much!

Stop by the JUGs blog to see some exciting news we have posted (hint...DT call!) and the design team's cards.
 

JUGs blog

Elise Durenberger

Maria Levine

Marisa Ritzen

Nancy Leppek

Tangii Crain

Vicki Dutcher  

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Recipe

Stamps:  Background Basics: Morocco, Butterfly Dreams (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Vintage cream, Neenah white, Boxer (Basic Grey)

Ink:  Distress Stains:  broken china, worn lipstick, fired brick, faded jeans; Distress Inks:  broken china, worn lipstick; Versamark, Versafine onyx black

Accessories:  Rock Candy Crackle paint, grunge board, Butterfly Dreams die, WPlus9 flag die, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, pearls



Just Us Girls #205 - Sketch Challenge

Happy Saturday!  Time for a new challenge from Just Us Girls.  This week is our sketch challenge and the ever talented Vicki created this great sketch that can be interpreted any way you want!

I was in a very fall mood today.  It's chilly and rainy here in Buffalo, NY and I am in my fleece top and sweats!  Ah, fall!  Love it!  It's just a great day to chill and stamp, which is what I did.  It was a busy week with school starting and getting up at 5:00 everyday (and sometimes earlier).  I had to wait until this afternoon to create my challenge card(s).

I was thinking about this Tim Holtz stamp set called Mini Blueprints last week and thought I'd pull it out to create some fall cards.  The first one is a leaf I colored with copics and added some Wink of Stella shimmer to.  I added some tea dye and vintage photo distress inks on the image when it was still in the die.  The background paper is from Fall Prints and Patterns by Papertrey Ink.  I added some texture to the paper with Tim Holtz's new stencils.  I used burlap with scattered straw ink and stripes with tea dye ink.  

On this one, the acorn was also colored with copics and some Wink of Stella shimmer was added to it.  I used the same pattern paper and this time used dotted fade stencil with vintage photo ink then stripes stencil with wild honey ink.  This card could definitely fit in the masculine category!

Stop by the JUGs blog and design team blogs for more inspiration.

JUGs blog
Maria Levine
Marisa Ritzen
Nancy Leppek
Tangii Crain
Vicki Dutcher

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe

Stamps:  Mini Blueprints (Tim Holtz); Autumn Foliage (Inkadinkadoo)

Paper:  Fall Prints and Patterns (PTI), vintage cream, X-Press It Blending Card, dusty durango, early expresso

Ink:  Versafine onyx black, Memento tuxedo black, tea dye, vintage photo, wild honey, scattered straw distress inks

Accessories:  Spellbinder dies, jute ribbon, Prima crystals, Tim Holtz stencils:  burlap, dotted fade, stripes