Just Us Girls #72 Color Challenge....{Happy Birthday to you}

Hey friends!  I'm back with a gorgeous color challenge from Just Us Girls!  This week we are hoping to inspire you with kraft, aqua and melon....yummmmmmm...sounds delicious doesn't it?

I picked up the Graphic 45 DP pack that I used HERE and HERE for another springtime inspired card. 

The stamped butterfly is one of my all-time favorites from Stampin Up!  (retried) Wonderful Wings!  *love*  The flower is made using the Beautiful Blooms II #3 from Papertrey Ink plus Glimmer mists and Martha Stewert glitter!  And, of course, bits of Want2Scrap silver bling!

Be sure and stop by our guest designer's blog for February....Lori! and all of the fabulous ladies from the Just Us Girls DT! 

Kristin Eberline

Pam Imholz

Maria Levine

Lisa Kind

Andrea Matthews

Kathryn Berthiaume

Elise Durenberger!

(psst! Did you see that???)  Just Us Girls has added a brand new JUG-ster and she is none other than ultra talented slinger of craft and blog-land YEEEE-HAWS!  Elise of Mamacow Creations!  A huge welcome to my friend!  I am so excited to see what she brings to Just Us Girls week after week!

Have yourselves a bright and sparkle filled day everyone! Thanks so much for stopping by my corner of blogland today!

Just Us Girls Challenge #3...let's get some color on!

I am thinking of YOU, my bloggy friends, and a new challenge at the Just Us Girls challenge site!  This week it's a color challenge hosted by lil ol me!  I hope you'll play along with us..

Yummy!  I love this color combo!  Red, aqua, and cream can be so many different genres when they play together.  I can't wait to see what you make with them.  Link your creation up on the JUGs site in the Mr Linky to be entered for a teeny bit of custom blog candy and the opportunity to be the next Chic of the Week!

Here's my shot at the color challenge.  Some Papertrey Ink products mixed with bling, a vintage button and a handmade fabric flower!  Do you like the flower?  I hope so!  Want some?  I hope so!  :)  All you have to do to earn a chance at a some of these babies in various fabrics is make something for our challenge.  You can see all the details at the Just Us Girls blog.

Mmmm hhhhmmmm, yep!  That is some FUN with FABRIC right there!  OK, perhaps I have been hanging out too near my stash of liquid adhesives, but I am just tickled by that sassy bloom :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  You can find all of the JUGs girls projects at the blog but for the juicy details, check out their amazing personal blogs as well:

Kristen Beuter

Pam Imholtz

Maria Levine

Tracey Cuccia

Lisa Kind

Mona Pendleton

Supplies:

Paper: Papertrey Ink

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Punch: Stampin Up!

Craft supplies: fabric, button and craft gem

PTI Blog Hop {text challange}

Woohoo! Blog hop time! It's a challenge to use text in your project. I chose to lean on the PTI Around and About Sentiments to create my text panel. I was out last evening so I couldn't link up but I'm here this morning with a project anyways :)

I inked up the single line of text "happy birthday to you" and stamped away. Each line has been inked in two colors. The way I like to do that is ink the whole stamp with the lightest color and then go back and ink random areas with the corner of the darker color ink pad. It's a fun and playful variation.

The top embellishment is also stamped and layered using the around and about set. The heart has been popped up on foam tape and also shined up with glossy accents. The orange glitter on this card provides just a bit more shine as well as the shiny satin dotted ribbon.

Thanks for hopping by! I can't wait to see what everyone did with text last night!

Supplies:

Paper: PTI

Stamps: PTI

Ink: SU!

Punches; SU and CM

Embossing plate: Cuttlebug

Other: corsage pin and ribbon

My Time to Create Template challenge

Hi all! Happy saturday! It's time for a challenge from Lauren Meader and the My Time to Create Challenge team. Here in the US, tomorrow is Father's Day. I am highlighting a project today that I made for my dad....one super special guy...a hero type you know?? The challenge from Lauren this week is to use one of her Timeless Templates, that you can pick up over at Papertrey Ink, and also to create your own background paper. For my project, I chose the Captured Card Case template. To make my background paper I used a digital kit from Elise Hansen at the Digi Chick What a Catch and stamps from Papertrey Ink. The juicy "I'm so glad that you're my dad" looks like a stamp but is actually a digital element I placed on the background paper as a custom stamp specifically fitting the dimensions of this project. I stamped the lines of stars to complete my simple background with ARound and ABout Sentiments from PTI. The blue star was stamped on white cardstock and paper punched with a fiskars star punch and added to the grouping. Once the template was folded up, I inked the edges with dark chocolate ink frm PTI. A little inking goes a long way don't you think?
A couple strips of cardstock to the edges and that's about all this little box for Dad needs. And what will I fill it with? Typically this box holds a set of A2 size notecards and envelopes but my dad is not much of a notecard writer ;) This year I will fill it with a letter from me, just to let him know how special his is to me and that I'm so glad that he's my dad!
For more inspiration, visit the my time to create DT for lots of amazing template ideas. And then we hope you make something and share it through the Mr Linky on Lauren's blog. Can't wait to see what you make.

Lauren
Alicia
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristen
Tracey
Pam
Jen
Odette
Lisa
Tamara

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Template: Captured Card Case by Lauren Meader for PTI

Digikit: What a Catch by elise Hansen at the DigiChick

Stamps: Around and About Sentiments and Star Prints Papertrey Ink

Paper: Georgia Pacific

Ink: SU!

Other: pinking shears, Microsoft Word

Thank you for your hospitality

Happy Wednesday everyone! Is it just me? I kept thinking today was Tuesday all day. But here it is Wednesday night! That's what happens when we go back to school I guess. I lose all sense of who what when and where. I'm sure I'll have it down by the time summer break rolls around. ha!So how about a little pineapple in honor of some great hospitality we received 2 weekends ago? Hubs and I had a fabulous dinner and visit with friends that had been a long time coming. As always, they were most gracious hosts! This pineapple stamp from SU! has long been awaiting such an opportunity for thanking some special friends. It's a nice, large image that accepts ink rolling for color variation very well. I chose more mustard and really rust for the pineapple and wild wasabi and kiwi kiss for the stem. The stem was stamped twice for a leafier look. I also used the stem stamp horizontally on the cream background that peaks out on the right end of the card.

The golden looking inked background behind the pineapple image was cream cardstock. I started inking just the edges with really rust and before I knew it, I was rubbing it on from edge to center in swirls. The cream cs is all but invisible but I loved the effect...very tropical golden sunset if I do say so :)

To finish it off, a simple sentiment peeking out from the edge and some lime green twistel tied around the fold. The clutter-maker in me wanted to add more but, really, I decided I loved it as is :) Cool!

Thanks for stopping by...I really appreciate it! Have a sunny day!

Supplies: (the shortest list yet I think!)

Cardstock: Georgia Pacific

Stamps: SU! and Papertrey Ink

Ink: SU!

Other: twistel

CPS108 and Card Casserole

Happy Friday everyone! I love Fridays, especially when they are the Friday starting spring break for my 2nd grader. She has 3 weeks to catch up on fun at home with her mom and little sister. This is when I LOVE the year round school schedule!

So today's card is what I call Card Casserole! My mom, thankfully, was not a mystery meat leftover veggie casserole maker when we were little. I don't know how we escaped that one but we did. Maybe we just had such good appetites there weren't any leftovers :) Anywhoo, back to the card...my craft tabletop is a disaster area! I am so ashamed I can't even show you BUT at least it's a mess because I've been busy making stuff! Love that. In the process of trying to clean up, I always find usable bits that are too fun to throw out, too little to put away so I end up with Card Casserole! Hey! That's pretty catchy! Maybe one day I'll start a challenge here called Card Casserole ;)My crafty concoction is made with bits left over from the PTI blog hop, a PTI GSS submission 2 months ago and some die cutting and inking I did at retreat a month and a half ago! I grabbed a handful of stuff and this week's CPS sketch and came up this...

Not bad for a bunch of leftovers ;)

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Dies: sizzix, SU!

Punch: Martha Stewart

Chipboard letters: KI Memories

Ink: SU!

Other: Zig Writer (black), button, dmc floss, felt flower (target $1 spot)

Papertrey March Blog Hop---stamped backgrounds

Hi all! Happy blog hop! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone made. Tonight's background is made with the line of hearts from Around and About Sentiments. (For a card using guidelines grid and Damask Designs...see here. ) First a look at the background before I used a die cut on it.

I admit, I am a child of the late seventies early eighties....and I loved wearing rainbow anything back then. I knew I wanted to try this rainbow heart background making the moment I saw the set two releases ago :) When I'm stamping backgrounds and I want things relatively "straight" I like to lightly tack my cardstock to a grid paper (love the SU! pad of grid paper for working on). This way I can eyeball and use the grid as a reference. And judging by the look of things, I need to change my grid paper soon ;)

And for the finished product....

A super cheerful "happy everything" card that would be really fun to get in the mail don't you think? The fine details: I stamped the happy everything sentiment on cardstock and then marked the approximate center of the sentiment with a pencil. I used a small punch to punch out the inner circle using the pencil mark as my guide. Finally, I punched a circle around the outside of the sentiment making a ring and inked the edges. The ring is just big enough to attach the single punched heart. I used dimensional dots to pop the ring up over the ribbon and then applied Crystal Effects to the heart for some shine and interest.

Thanks for hopping by!!

Supplies:

Stamps: PTI Around and About Sentiments
Ink: SU!

Die: SU!

Punches: SU! and CM

Other: ribbon and miscellaneous cardstock

So honored!

So if you've visited me before you know I am totally hooked on Papertrey Ink. I have become quite the slobbering fan of all things PTI and recently started entering their monthly Guest Star Stamper contests. There was some stiff competition for March and I was *truly honored* with an Honorable Mention mention this month in the best use of a previous stamp set category! Oh my! Am I ever excited??? Thank you Nichole Heady!! Can you say "jumping up and down" excited? hee hee! The card that was selected by Nichole was none other than the birthday card I made for my friend, Karen, that I talked about here.


And tonight, I thought I'd share another card that I had entered for the GSS contest. I just love the way it came together and the fact that I remembered to step outside the A2 box and try a different size. This card fits a business envelope size and conceals a pull out insert to hold a coffee or other gift card.

I used lots of dots and stitching to complete this card. I love the way the white embossed dots show up on the PTI kraft cardstock.

I also stitched the pocket by first pre punching the sewing holes with a paper piercer and then sewed with a coordinating embroidery floss. The *thick* PTI cardstock withstood all of the poking and paper manipulation to get this pocket sewed on. A lesser cardstock would not have been a candidate for this hand stitching project

The paper bow is a version of PTI designer Lisa Johnson's great style. I ended up trimming the middle on an angle which suited my needs perfectly. I also punched up a few of the appearances of red on my card with first red stickles and then, after they had dried, a layer of crystal effects to give it more of a 3-D look. Me likey the shiny stuff ;)

So the receiver of this card would pull on the scalloped edge of the card insert and then the magic happens! A coffee card to my favorite local coffee place!

If you know Johnny's coffee then you KNOW that you would be feeling the love to find this gift tucked inside this card :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Paper: Papertrey Ink

Ink: SU! and Papertrey Ink

Embossing powder: SU!

Scalloped punch: Fiskars

DMC Embroidery Floss, Stickles by Ranger and Crystal effects from SU!

Raspberry Suite color challenge #1 meets Caardvarks

Hey friends! Today I am excited to share a TWO cards made with colors from the very first Raspberry Suite color challenge hosted by Dawn McVey! She always has amazing color combos and this weeks challenge is one of my favorite go to color palette. My first card also uses the layout sketch from the Caardvarks Hero Arts challenge.

Here is my take on the combination of these two challenges....

I changed the sketch around a little to suit my card and Dawn's color challenge worked wonderfully on this thinking of you card. Can't you just feel love blooming?? :)

And because I couldn't stop at just one, I made another card for the color challenge. This one is inspired by all those shabby/hand cut/layered/inked handmade flowers you see all over the papercraft world. The flower stamp is from the Friends til the End set from PTI. I used the smaller of the two flower images, stamped in brown ink and then crumpled and layered the two to make a 3-D flower.

Other fun details are the Martha Stewart punched fence border on the card edge, some white on white embossed cardstock and hand drawn pen work. Super fun! Thanks to Dawn for such an inspiring challenge. Be forewarned...you may see a few more this week inspired by Brown, white, pink, yellow and orange!

Supplies:

Thinking of You Love Tree

Printed Paper: PTI Bitty Dots

Stamps: PTI Around and About Sentiments

Punches: Marvy Tree, SU! large heart, Fiskars small heart, SU! scallop punch, CM corner rounder

Ribbon: Michaels $1

Shabby Flower

Stamps: PTI Friends til the End

Embossing plate: SU Harlequin

Punch: Martha Stewart

Ink: SU!

Other: button, embroidery floss, zig writer pens, ribbon from a ribbon swap(thanks Kara!)

Ink: SU!

A happy birthday wish

This happy birthday card was made especially for Karen! Fellow retreater, fellow PTI lover and fellow blogger here at Time Crafted. I hope you go visit her blog...she's been up to some yummy goodness with cupcake stamps and crystal effects! My friend Karen is such a sweetie, I thought that these sweet treat ice cream cones would be just the thing to help celebrate her February birthday!It was super fun to combine some excellent stamps sets, ribbon and cardstock from Papertrey Ink in colors that remind me of rainbow sherbet. I always loved getting that when I was a kid. And of course, a little glitter just so Karen would know it was from me ;)

And a close up shot of the ribbon tied with a button and some twistel trick. This is a new technique to me and I just love the way it looks. Supplies:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Guidelines, Around and About Sentiments, and Love Songs
Paper: Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz and lemon tart, CM Orange
Ribbon: Papertrey Ink saddle stitch raspberry fizz
Ink: SU!
Scallop Punch Martha Stewert
Other: Stickles by ranger, button, twistel, zig writer

CPS106 and vintage school images

Happy Saturday! CPS106 challenge meets vintage school image...they play so nicely together don't they? This amazing vintage school image comes from Cora at Clearly Vintage. See the post here. Every Saturday Cora generously posts scans of authentic vintage photos and such to share with everyone. She recently held a blog candy drawing and asked for what kind of images we'd like to see...I said vintage school images....and I was a LUCKY winner of her blog candy stamp set Glamour Girls!! and these school images were posted at my request! How double sweet is she?!? I hope everyone takes a moment to check out her blog and Etsy shop. I can't wait to make something glamorous when her girls arrive :) Thank you Cora!

As for the CPS sketch....this is what inspired my card layout. There are some gorgeous be-ribboned and flowered examples over there but I took a less whimsical approach to this sketch...which is odd for me but I am liking the way my card turned out. I love how you can start with a sketch and turn it into something else! I guess that's the point huh? Supplies:

Vintage school image: Clearly Vintage at clearlyvintage.blogspot.com

Alphabet paper: made by lil ol me with Word and the font 1942 Report

Stamps: papertrey ink Around and About Sentiments

Die cut: SU! Top Note

Punches: SU! and CM

Ink: SU! Really Rust and Bordering Blue, Colorbox Chestnut Roan

Ribbon from stash

3-D Flower pop-up card

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by today :) I love having visitors!

So I have a little card share that was inspired by some junk mail! I love inspiring junk mail :) I used this mail to create a template for my card by simply tracing and cutting out the base on kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. In the picture above, you can see the detail on how I used the very awesome Around and About sentiments set from PTI to create a curved sentiment of "thank you so very much". Because these are acrylic stamps, I was able to bend the stamp to the shape I needed! Yay! Love that versatility! From the side, this is how the card looks when all four half circles are folded in on each other...like closing up a cardboard box...but prettier! :)

The last two pictures show how the card shapes up after it is opened. On the inside white cardstock, I placed a post it note in the middle as a mask and then randomly stamped with the dot and flower and then finished the edge with a marker line. I also lined the envelope with matching dot and flower paper. And ta-da! A cute little thank you for someone who deserves good snail mail.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides and Kraft, source of rose colored paper unknown
Stamps: Around and About Sentiments from Papertrey Ink
Ink: Papertrey Ink and SU!
Circle Punch: CM