Just Us Girls #502 - Photo Week

I'm the host for Photo Week at Just Us Girls 

and this is what I chose to inspire you.  

For my card I made a Ball jar full of flowers.

The jar from PTI is colored with Distress Ink and heavily coated with Glossy Accents after stamping the stems.  The flowers are all layered ones from Altenew using their inks.  I've been doing a lot of clean and simple cards and have been itching to add more backgrounds so I used a NBUS stencil I purchased at a craft store by the lake and inked it with Antique Linen DOX.  I did a solid strip for my 'table' and added shadows with a PolyChromos pencil.  With so much going on, I decided to leave it sentiment free.

What catches your eye in the photo?  Please come see what the Design Team and our guest Tristan Dawes have made and then create a card to enter in our gallery.  You may be chosen our Chic of the Week and have a chance to be a guest designer.

Color Throwdown #525

It's my second week in a row playing at Color Throwdown. 

I love the rustic look in the photo.  It's my kind of decorating but I strayed away from it a little with my card while still using the colors.

I pulled out this ancient houndstooth paper for my background and added the jar from Clearly Besotted, the flowers from Catherine Pooler and the sentiment from Happy Little Stampers.  I may get this color challenge thing down if I keep this up. ;)

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope your week is off to a great start.

Addicted to Stamps and More #273

The first challenge of the year for Addicted to Stamps and More is a Holiday Challenge.

I didn't want to do another Christmas card and I ran out of time to finish a Valentine I was working on, so here's a card I made last year that I never posted.  I thought it would be great for this challenge.

I have two friends whose birthdays are October 31.  I made this for one of them using PTI's jar filler stamps.  The sentiment was computer generated.

It's time for you to check out what the rest of the design team has done for your inspiration.  You can use any holiday to spark your imagination.

We hope to see your card in the gallery.

Time Out #94

I've seen some very creative cards in the gallery at Time Out based on this photograph.

I'm not sure how creative my card is but it does include some of the design elements.

The stamps are from PTI's Jar series, stamped on Bristol and colored with Zigs.  The sentiment is from Jillian Vance.

It's rainy here today which makes it a good day to do some crafting in between loads of laundry.  I'm off to check some challenges.  Have a great day!

Just Us Girls #380

Our host Vicki chose hearts for the Just Us Girls word this week.  Very appropriate since it's nearing Valentine's Day.

Do you make a lot of valentines?  I've been making a bunch of them but chose this one to show you today.

Are those enough hearts for you?  The jar and candy are from Papertrey Ink, colored with Zigs, and popped up on foam.

The design team and our guest designer Michele Greenwood have wonderful cards for you to see at Just Us Girls.  We hope they inspire you to make a card and enter it in the gallery.  You could be chosen Chic of the Week with the possibility of being a guest designer in April.

CASology #219 and Less Is More #298

I had this card made for CASology (Spooky) and it ended up being just the thing for the Less Is More challenge (Spiders).

What could be spookier than a jar of spiders, especially when they begin to crawl out.  Eek is right. A number of companies played together to make this happen.  PTI jar and spider, W&W web and word, and CP for the stripe background.

Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend.

Just Us Girls #341

It's Wild Card Week at Just Us Girls and Ina has chosen something different for us.

I used to do more shaped cards when I used my Cricut but I found a way to do one with my dies.

I cut two PTI jars and four of the hydrangea.  I embossed one jar to look like hobnail and stamped one of the die cuts with the hydrangea stamp, coloring it with Distress Ink.  The jar cuts are sandwiched between the flower cuts so the tops of the jars are hidden and the top of the back piece is scored and glued to the front.  I think this would make a great little gift card.

Now it's your turn.  Dazzle us with your folded or shaped cards.  If you are chosen as Chic of the Week, you will be eligible to be a guest designer in June.  Need more inspiration?  Check out what the rest of the Design Team has done at the Just Us Girls blog.

Just Us Girls #340

I'm the hostess over at Just Us Girls this week for a photo inspiration of my choosing.  I picked it because there are so many elements that you can use for your card.  What captures your attention?

I focused on the pink lemonade and pears.  Yes, there are pears in the picture.

The jar and lime are from PTI and the pears from WPlus9, all colored with Distress Inks.  The sentiment is from My Craft Spot.    I also added a little Pico Embellisher to make condensation on the jar.

Now it's your turn.  Head on over to Just Us Girls to see what the rest of the design team and our guest designer Angie Cimbalo have for your inspiration.  If you are picked as Chic of the Week, you may be eligible for a guest designer spot, too.

See you in the gallery.

Inspired by All The Little Things #10

You'll probably see a theme in my cards for the next week or so.  Thank You cards.  Even though the funeral home provides some, there are people that deserve one of my home made ones.  This one is for Inspired by All the Little Things.

I watercolored the jar and strawberries from PTI with Distress Inks.  The wood is from an Altenew stamp and the Rustic White card base is stamped in Fog.  I thought this picked up the flowers in the photo.

I'm finally getting back in the swing of things.  More tomorrow.

Time Out #52 and Muse: Christmas Visions #37

The sun is shining, oh happy day!  If often sing this song when the weather breaks and it's beautiful out.  So why am I on the computer?  Because I have two cards to show you.

This one is for Time Out using my new SSS Roses for You and inspired by this card by Marjan for the 'CASE with your own twist' challenge.

I used a TH stencil with Peeled Paint DI on Linen cardstock.  I told you I'd use it, Anita ;).  I stamped the flowers and did a loose watercolor with Altenew and Distress inks.  The sentiment is from CF. The wonderful Kim of Cupcakes, Cards and Kim celebrated a 'big' birthday recently and  Kylie has a link up at her blog, Kylie's Addicted to Stamps for us to send our birthday wishes.  This card will be going there.

Here is my card for Muse: Christmas Visions

based on this card by Emily Leiphart.

I used my PTI jar stamps and dies, coloring the snowman's clothing with DI and adding some white enamel accents to cover the stamped snow dots.  I'm not sure that was the best thing to do but it looks good from a certain angle.

Here's hoping you have a happy day.

Just Us Girls #334

Well hello and welcome to my first post as part of the Just Us Girls Design Team.  They were the first challenge I had enough courage to answer a Design Team call for some time ago and although I didn't make it, it gave me the confidence to accept other DT invitations.  I was excited when Vickie emailed me and asked if I'd like to be part of the team.  Heck yes!

It's Trend Week and the trend is

I've made a few shaker cards with varying results but I'm rather giddy about this one.

Ever since I got the PTI jar dies I've been wanting to make a shaker with it. I thought it would be fun to have it look like it was pouring out the contents, especially with the PB sentiment.  Oops, looks like one of the sequins got stuck in the bottom of the jar. ;)

Now it's time for you to head on over to Just Us Girls to see what the rest of  the Design Team and guest designer Stephanie Castro have for your inspiration.   If you win Chic of the Week in any of our MARCH challenges, you are in the running to be chosen as our Guest Designer for the month of MAY.  We'd love to see your shaker cards in the gallery this week.

Muse #147

Our darling Michele from I Card Everyone is the Muse this week and who could resist making a card inspired by this lovely punny Valentine.

I changed the orientation, used candy instead of popcorn and kept the black and white paper.  Jar and filler from PTI colored with Zigs.  I love the way this turned out.  Ouch, just dislocated my shoulder.  lol ;)

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a wonderful week.

Time Out #40 and OCC - Watercolor

It's day three of the Online Watercolor Class and I'm still watching the videos from day two.  Some of the things they're teaching I have already done but you can always learn something new and hints about how to do things better.  One of the techniques was watercoloring backgrounds which is what I did for this card for Time Out. We're to CASE this card by Tracey McNeely with a twist.

Isn't that Mondo Magnolia just beautiful?  I ran with the vellum flower (substantially smaller unfortunately) and my twist is using colored vellum.

I pearl embossed the flower from Tim Holtz and leaves from SSS onto yellow and green vellum.  I had a heck of a time finding an outline leaf in any of my stamps.  After fussy cutting them, they are mounted on a background watercolored with Twisted Citron DI. The flower details don't show well in the photograph but the card is scrumptious IRL.

This next card was meant for The Card Concepts challenge and it's been done for a week and still I missed the deadline. No worries.  It's perfect for Day 1 of the Online Card Class - watercoloring with markers.

The image is from PTI and colored with my Zigs.

I'm so glad you dropped by.  Have you tried watercoloring?

Curtain Call - Mason Jar, ATCAS #70 and SSS Wednesday

Yesterday it was three cards for three different challenges. Today it's one card for three different challenges.  It's not often that that happens for me.

PTI has a jar stamp and a ton of great images to fill them.  I picked the paint brushes to go along with all the school challenges and colored them with my Ziggies.  My daughter, who has been teaching 7th grade Language Arts for years, has switched to teaching Middle School art.  She's a fabulous artist, and a great teacher so I know she'll do well.  And it will give her time to work on her own projects.

Curtain Call

SSS Wednesday - Back to School     

Addicted to CAS

The Card Concept #36

Not only do I have a clean and simple card for The Card Concept but it's one layer, too.  Not something I do often.

The inspiration:

My card:

I think you can see what inspired me, although I turned the milk into lemonade. The images are from Paper Smooches, stamped in HA Soft Granite and Green Hills.  A little watercoloring helps the jar edges and lemonade come alive. The sentiment is a NBUS stamp set from Stamplorations done in Soft Granite.

Thanks for stopping by.