Seize the Birthday #260

Once I saw Kristina Werner's video making a balloon shaker I knew that's what I wanted to do for the challenge at Seize the Birthday.  

I have another photo that shows the glossy black foil from C9 better.

The balloon die is from SSS, the die cut sentiment from Penny Black, and the background paper from Honey Bee.  I had an ancient pack of sequins from Lawn Fawn and the little tail is from their String of Lights. 

I'm so glad you dropped by.  I love seeing your comments. 

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52 Christmas Card Throwdown and Christmas Kickstart #71

Week 8 of the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and AndrejaM wants us to use acetate.  Acetate means shaker to me so that's what I did.

The ornament die is from Gina Marie and the sentiment is part of the set.  It's cut in silver and glued to a Distress Ink background.  The main panel was partially embossed with the Pine Branches folder and the silver cap and hanger added.  I got a little carried away with the shaker bits (Moonshine from SSS) so you can barely see the "Joy to the World". 

Christmas Kickstart is asking for Baubles for their challenge so I'm sending this to them too.

I'm so glad you dropped by.  I hope you have a crafty day.

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Color Hues #56

I was honored to win the Navy and Cream challenge at Color Hues with this card.  Now I'm excited to be a guest designing for the current challenge. 

I knew right away what I wanted to do with these colors.  It's not long until Valentine's Day so that's the direction I took.

I love this little gumball machine from Concord and 9th.  I turned it into a shaker with heart and round gumballs.  The background was embossed with the SU Subtle folder and of course I couldn't resist the puny sentiment.  

I'm sure there will be a wide variety of pink and red cards on the blog from the wonderfully talented design team.  Let's go take a look.  I hope they inspire you to make a card for the gallery. 

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Just Us Girls #601 - Trend Week

It's the new gal on the block's turn to host Just Us Girls.  Elizabeth Stewart joined us recently and for  Trend Week she has chosen this:

I have a love/hate relationship with shakers but the newest trend is a full panel shaker which makes them a lot easier.  That's what I've made.

No I didn't make that background.  I wish.  It's patterned paper from Honey Bee Stanps.  The sequins are from the July SSS card kit and the die cut sentiment is NBUS from MFT.  

I hope you'll go check out the shakers that the Design Team and our guest designer Loll Thompson have made.  I'm sure they will inspire you to play along.

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Just Us Girls #570 - Word Week

Here we are in February and our host Vicki has chosen an appropriate word for this week's challenge at Just Us Girls.

I'm usually pretty good about using stamps almost as soon as I buy them but the one I used today is from last year.  I knew I wanted to use it for a valentine but had mine all made when I got it.  I ended up making several but this one is special.

It's a shaker. All the parts, except the paper, ink (Altenew) and acetate are from Concord and 9th.  It's their "I Chews You" set and being a pun girl I had to have it.  It even cuts the little door so you can see the gumball hearts coming out. 

Have you started your valentines yet?  The Design Team and our guest designer Leslie Turner have some darling ones to show you on the blog.  Why not check them out and make one for the challenge.

AAA Cards #139

Okay, I had to prove to myself that I could make a shaker card.  I tried one earlier for AAA Cards and their optional twist on a sketch challenge and it ended in the trash.  This time I knew better than to use fun foam and went with the foam strips.  Success!

I heat embossed the background stamp from CF on mixed media paper and selectively colored some of the flowers with Distress Inks after cutting out the MFT numbers.  I've  had those little flower sequins for so long I don't remember where they came from.  It took me a while to decide how to do the rest of the sentiment and I'm still not happy with it but everyone does the white embossing on black to ground the card and I usually like that look.  This card is for my granddaughter Abby.  I have triplet grandchildren who will be 21 on May 15.  I posted Kyle's card to AAA Birthday yesterday and you can see that here.  I'll post Emily's card tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by.

AAA Cards #127

I bought the Hero Arts Kindness set quite a while ago and I've only used one of the sentiments from it.  Today I used my favorite one for the challenge at AAA Cards.

I made a shaker including the letters KIND inside, cut from orange foil cs.  I also used that to cut the little confetti squares from an MFT die. The hearts are gold and you all know how hard it is to photograph anything gold.  Even at another angle they look black.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Merry Monday #276

So far I think I've only missed one Merry Monday challenge but then it's only six weeks into the new year. :)  This week is a photo challenge.

I was inspired by the frosty window and pine boughs.

Instead of just frosting the window panes, I made a shaker card.  When I reached for a bottle of glitter I found out it was micro beads which was even better.  I know the Christmas tree is a little hidden but if I had my tree in a window it would be centered and so this one is.  The TH boughs were heat embossed with Sparkling Snow and the sentiment from PTI is stamped with Altenew Evergreen.

This is the first shaker I've made in a while and I must say that the Scor-Tape worked beautifully to hold it all together.  Much better than the glue I had been using.  Instead of foam strips, I used extra thick fun foam which is a good depth, at least for these beads.

Thanks for taking a peek through my window.

Merry Monday #257

Merry Monday has a tall order for this week's challenge.  Add a tag.  That's easy.  I do tags all the time.  But you also need to include texture, bling and die cuts.  I think I came up with the perfect solution.

Tag and die cut: MFT tag die to make an ornament shaker.  Check
Texture:  Pine tree embossing folder.  Check
Bling: Stars and sequins in the shaker, plus silver ribbon and heat embossed tag holder, and the glitter paper on the ornament.  Check.
Got it all!

Thanks for dropping by.  I love it when you do.

12 Kits of Occasions - It's a Guy Thing

Michele asked me to be her guest for the July edition of 12 Kits of Occasions and of course I said "Yes".  She had talked about it and I had followed what they were doing so I was curious about how it worked and whether I could work within the confines of the kit.  I think I managed fine with the items in the "It's a Guy Thing" kit.

This first card came to mind immediately.

Any seagull likes his fish and so I used the little 'shaker envelope' in the kit to display his catch -  fish from EE.

This gull is thankful that there are plenty of fish in the ocean that was made with a die from MFT.

This one is going courting with some flowers from CP.  I added my own background paper and cut the gray panel with a die from N&T.

I'm sorry but I just HAD to do this next one.

I cut around the sentiment to match the clouds in the kit.  I had a white flower cut laying on my desk left from another card and it looked like a splat to me so "Watch out below!"

For this one I deviated from the seagulls and added my own EE bear with his party hat and cupcake to go with the included sentiment and background paper.  

Thanks, Michele, for inviting me to the party.  To see the rest of the party goers, go over to the 12 Kits blog where you will find links to everyone's cards.

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.

Tag You're It! #30

Guest who's a Guest Designer at Tag You're It! this week?  That's right.  Me!  I was excited when Tracey McNeely messaged me about guesting since I won a challenge with this card.  The inspiration this week is a darling tag by Nancy Penir.

I didn't think I had any kind of cupcake or cake stamp until I found a little one in a Penny Black set and used it as the background on my shaker tag,  Yes, you heard that right.  I made a shaker tag.

I used a tag die from SSS, stamped and colored the cupcakes for the background and added some die cut stars and hearts to the sequins and seed beads inside.  The word die is from Tim Holtz and the streamers from Altenew.

Why don't you head on over to Tag You're It! to see what the Design Team has done with Nancy's inspiration.  Then make a tag of your own.  Who knows.  Maybe you could be the next Guest Designer.

ShowCASe Your Style #12 and Just Us Girls #288

First I want to thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers concerning my eye surgery.   You're the best!!! Everything went as planned and once the dilation wears off I should be as good as new.

Now for my card.  This one saw quite an evolution until I ended up with the final version.  I started with the sketch from ShowCASe Your Style.

I didn't take a picture of the first try,  when the frame around the images was in dark brown, but here is my second take, with a layer of white on top.  The little cupcakes are from PB, white embossed and watercolored.

I liked it with the white, so I stamped my sentiment - crookedly.  Arrgh!   Then I saw the trend challenge from Just Us Girls and knew how I could resurrect it.  Make it into a shaker!

I trimmed the original frame from the first card, placed it on a new base and added a little foam, some acetate, and another white layer with the PPP frame.  I had some clear seed beads that resembled the sprinkles and cut some red with my paper punch to mimic the cherries for the filler. The NBUS sentiment from PB seemed perfect with the sprinkles inside.   (It's weird how the colors came out on these, both taken with the same camera and edited in Picassa.)

Thanks for stopping by today.  Your visits and comments are always appreciated.