Just Us Girls #792 - Word Week

Carol Mc is the host for Word Week at Just Us Girls and has chosen this:

There are so many ways you can go with this word but I chose to use Pitcher-esque from The Greetery as my container. 

After stamping and cutting the pitcher, I filled it with flowers from Simon Hurley's Floral Stems and placed it on an embossed background using Altenew's Window Slats folder.  

What will you use for a container?  For inspiration, check out what the Design Team and our guest Jaydee have made.  

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Just Us Girls Challenge #787 - Die Week

Elizabeth is our host for Die Week at Just Us Girls and she would like us to use floral dies.

That's an easy assignment for me since I have so many floral dies.  The difficult is in choosing one.

I decided to go with my new Altenew Houseplants.  The flowers are cut from W9 Cashmere and C9 Grapefruit, the leaves from a green in my stash with a bit of gray for the pot. Everything was shaded with Altenew inks and the basket hung in front of Altenew's Masonry Wall.  

The Design Team has plenty of lovely inspiration for you.  I hope you'll take a look and then make a card for the challenge.

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Double D - Flower Pots

I don't usually post twice in one day but Double D is closing soon and I wanted to get a card entered.

Technically these are vases not pots but they still hold flowers so I'm going with it, especially since Judy used the same set. 😉  The vases are from Simon Hurley and cut from patterned paper.  The flowers are also Simon's, cut from scraps of cardstock and shaded with artist markers.  You can't see it very well but the background has been embossed with the Subtle folder.  

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Time Out #292 - Theme Challenge

This week's challenge at Time Out is based on a theme. 

There are so many things you can do with this prompt.  Here is my idea. 

Every summer we travel from our winter home in Ohio to our lake home in northern Michigan.  I know it seems a little crazy when Ohio isn't that far south, but this is a cottage that my parents have had since the early 80's and it holds a lot of memories.  While we discourage seagulls from perching on our dock, this is the general scene at the water's edge - minus the line up of pontoons.   

The nautical images are from Spellbinders Oh Buoy.  The dock is made from The Greetery's Shiplap Builder, leftovers from a previous whitewash technique.  Even the posts were cut from the leftover pieces.  The sky is Tumbled Glass DI over Rabbit Hole clouds and the lake is Salty Ocean.  

How will you represent travel on your card?  The Design Team has plenty of inspiration for  you over on the blog. 

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Just Us Girls #781 - Stencil Week

I'm your host for stencil week at Just Us Girls and I can't wait to see what wonderful cards you make with all the stencils available to you out there.

I need to say a big Thank You to Joanne James for being our guest designer this month.  Her wonderfully creative cards have been an inspiration to the team and our followers.  

My card started with one of the sprigs from the Hello Beautiful set from Altenew, colored with Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany, Evergreen Bough and Pine Needles Distress Ink.  Then it was time to decide how to display them.  I love the detail on the SB 4 Petal Frame Pierced Plate and cut it from white and layered the middle section over a Slate Gray 4 Petal die cut.  

Stencil Week is one of our most popular challenges so I hope your card will be included in our gallery.  

ETA:  I had every intention of adding my card to the Inkspirational Challenge and then forgot to do it until nudged by my teammate Carol M.  

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Just Us Girls #780 - Mood Board Week

Vicki is hosting our Mood Board Week at Just Us Girls and she picked this lovely scene to inspire you.

Here's a close-up view.

Of course I was inspired by the poppies, my second favorite flower, and I knew right away what stamp I would use. 

The stamp is another oldie, Poppy Gems from Penny Black, and is colored with Zigs.  I added a black border to finish it off and decided to not spoil the picture by adding a sentiment. 

You can be inspired by the flowers, the beach, the water, the colors.  Whatever your little creative heart desires.  Check out what the Design Team and our guest Joanne did if you need some ideas. 

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The Flower Challenge #103 - Reminder

There's still time for you to make a card for The Flower Challenge using either heat or dry embossing.  

I used dry embossing for my first card so this one features heat embossing.

The Mondo Sakura from EH (oob) was stamped and gold heat embossed on Hammermill paper.  The blossoms were inked in the center with Spun Sugar Distress Ink and masked to color the background with Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves and Hickory Smoke.  

We hope you will join us for this embossing challenge.

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AAA Colourful #17

Yes, that's right.  I was invited to be the guest designer at AAA Colourful after winning Challenge #14 with this card.

This is the colourboard I had to work with.  

All those colors gave me plenty of opportunity to do just about whatever I wanted.  While it looks like fireworks to me, I don't have any stamps like that so I did what I always do.  Go with flowers.

I mixed two sets from Altenew - Houseplants and Fresh Flowers - cutting them from watercolor paper and coloring them with Distress Inks.  The stitched panel from Pinkfresh Studio is layered and added to Altenew's Curving Leaves embossing folder. 

The Design Team has made some wonderful cards to inspire you and the gallery should be full of brightly colored cards.  I hope you'll check it out and make a card of your own.  I'd love to see your card there. 

 

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Freshly Made Sketches #690

Karren has a rather universal sketch for us at Freshly Made Sketches which means an easy one to use any of our stamps and dies to make a card.  I went with one of my newer sets.

It's Coastal Escape View from Spellbinders.  The sea was colored with what else but Salty Ocean Distress Ink that was spritzed and blotted.  The fish, seaweed and coral were colored with other various DIs.  The porthole and strip are gold foil and the background is embossed with SB's Corrugated and Castaway folders.  I don't have a sentiment with me that fits, nor do I have a printer to make my own so that will be added later.  

Thanks for dropping by.  Enjoy your day!

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Just Us Girls #774 - Word Week

Vicki is the host for Word Week at Just Us Girls and she has chosen fruit as her word.

I thought it was time to use my Spellbinder's Pomegranate die again. 

I used Sweet Blush and Pure Poppy from PTI for the fruit and flowers.  The leaves may be C9 Avocado and the background is Gina K In the Navy.  With such a busy card I decided to leave a sentiment off. 

What fruit will you use for your card?  Let's see what the Design Team and our guest Rosemary picked to inspire you.

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Double D - Springtime Flowers

With Springtime flowers in bloom and so many flower dies and stamps in my stash, I just had to make a card for Double D.  

Their mood board reminded me of the PTI pansy die that I have.  The petals are cut in white and the center is from a scrap of sprayed Villainous Potion.  The background panel is from The Greetery's Nordic Frame. I thought I had swatched all my cardstock but neither green is there so I can't tell you what I used.  I wish I knew because I love the combination.  

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Just Us Girls #769 - Die Week

Sue is the host for Die Week at Just Us Girls and she has a prompt, or rather an exclusion.

That's right.  No flowers on your card.  But we all have a lot of other dies so get them out and join the challenge.  

I used the Set Sail set from Spellbinders, cutting everything but the blue base panel from scraps.  Don't the striped sails give it a jaunty look?  

If you need inspiration you can find plenty from the Design Team.

  

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Double D - Birds

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  If it's a bird challenge chances are I will be making a card.  Birds are my joy, both in feeding them and watching their antics every day and including them on cards.  So when Double D had a bird challenge with four shown in their mood board my heart started beating.  I was enchanted with their red-headed woodpecker and knew I could turn Altenew's Bird of the Mountain into one.  

It took a little thought to know what color each layer needed to be and how to cut the red head but I think it worked.  I also cut the beak longer.  To give him something to perch on, I cut a strip of Kraft cardstock, ran it through a woodgrain embossing folder and dragged some Gathered Twigs Distress Ink across it.  The background was colored with Tumbled Glass DI.

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As You See It #342

As You See It has a perfect challenge for me.  For the birds!  I have a great love of birds and feed my friends every day.  

I'm not particularly happy when these birds descend upon my feeders though.  They are large and have a big appetite.  But I thought it would be easy to make Altenew's Bird of the Mountain into a red-winged blackbird.  Then I had to figure out what to do with him.  Enter Honey Bee's Fall Foliage.  These birds like to hang out along the roadside where cattails are growing.  I had to improvise with the leaves since none are in the set and the scene looked bare without them.  A look through some of my flower dies brought me the stems from Altenew's Cosmos.  It's all on a panel lightly inked with Speckled Egg Distress Ink.  

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Just Us Girls #764 - Stencil Week

Sue is the host for Stencil Week at Just Us Girls.

So many stencils, so little time.  I was lucky enough to find one already done in the package just waiting for the right challenge.

The image from PFS is called "The Best of Everything Floral" colored with Altenew inks.  To finish it off, I cut a frame from dark gray, embossed it with a wood  grain folder and layered it over the panel.

I want to thank Stephanie Severin for being our guest this month.  It has been a pleasure seeing all her wonderful creations.  She and the design team have one more card for you to see to inspire you to enter our stencil challenge.  I hope to see you there. 

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Inkspirational #335 and NBUS #71

Inkspirational has a beautiful mood board for challenge #335.

I saw hyacinths but since I don't have any I thought lilacs would work as well so that's the direction I took.  It's the first time using that die so my card is also going over to NBUS. 

The lilacs are from The Greetery, cut from white PTI cardstock and colored with Altenew inks.  The background is The Greetery's Shiplap Builder.  I've had it in my Bits box for quite a while after trying a technique I saw Betsy do on You Tube.  I can't remember exactly how I did it so I'm glad I have the video saved to try it again.  You may want to try it too. 

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great day!

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