Just Us Girls #143 - Stars and Sparkle

It's time for another challenge from Just Us Girls.  This is the 5th Saturday of the month and that means it's Wild Card week.  For this challenge, our sweet Maria has challenged us to use stars and sparkle on our cards.  It's close to Independence Day (Fourth of July) here in the USA, so it's a perfect challenge for those celebration cards.  Or not, if you so choose.

 I chose to be patriotic.  I just love our stars and stripes!  I chose this paper from Bo Bunny called Liberty.  The sentiment is one that my friend and former Paper Makeup Stamps DT member Shaela Odd created a few years ago.  I saved it because I just loved it.  I printed it on white cardstock and distressed it with Antique Linen distress ink.  The stars were cut out with a cut file that will be released tomorrow from My Time Made Easy called Magical Birthday Wishes.  I layered the small star onto the larger star and it made a cut out.  I cut the stars out of red and navy cardstock, ran them  through my Xyron machine, then covered them in Glitter Ritz glitter in Canadian Blue and Poppy Orange.  This glitter is very fine and burnishes to a smooth almost velvet feel and it doesn't stick to your fingers and face!  Love that!  And it really sparkles too!

I used this sketch from Card Patterns.  I'm so sad that this will be their last challenge, so I just had to play along for the last time.  

The JUGs design team has some great inspiration for you.  Stop by their blogs to see for yourself.  And I'd like to give thanks to Hannelie Bester for being our guest this month.  We hope you enjoyed her designs as much as we did!

JUGs blog

Andrea Matthews

Elise Durenberger

Lynn Mangan

Maria Levine

Vicki Dutcher

Hannelie Bester, June Guest Designer

Thanks for stopping by today!

My Time Made Easy July Release- Preview Day 1

 Hi friends!  Today begins the previews of the July release from My Time Made Easy.  We have four new templates and one is more amazing than the next!  The template I'm previewing today is called Lil' Cupcake.  It's a really cute little container!

Here is a close up of the template.  I cut the main part of the template out of Close to Cocoa cardstock.   The bottom of the cupcake (the liner) was cut from new digital paper called Blushing Birthday.  It's one of several designs in this paper pack.  I love the colors!  Orange is one of my favorite colors, so I was giddy when I saw this paper pack!  The top part of the cupcake (the frosting) was cut from an older paper called Taylor's Teeth Sunflower Squash.  I wanted it to look like it had some sprinkles on it and this paper with the stars did the trick!

 

The top of the template, the cherry, has two slits on either side that slide in together to keep it closed.  I topped it off with an orange circle to make it look like a cherry.  I also added some dotted scalloped ribbon from SU.   From this view you can see what the box looks like.

This is all the items I put inside.  I just went to Bath and Body Works yesterday because they had a great sale.  I bought a bunch of the antibacterial lotions and soaps and such.  I also had these tissues that matched nicely too that fit perfectly in there.  I was thinking that those cupcakes made from socks that Lauren makes would be adorable inside as well!

The balloon card was made with the Magical Birthday Wishes cut file.  There are a bunch of other items in this file, like stars and banners, that work with the new digital stamp set called Magical Birthday Wishes.  This is what I used for the sentiment on this card.  It was cut using the banner from Magical BirthdayWishes cut file.  I used the same starry paper and tied some floss around the bottom of the balloon.

On the inside, I printed this sentiment from the same digital stamp set.

Some of the other MTME designers are sharing their previews on their blogs.  You can see them here.

MTME Gallery

Lauren Meader

Kimberly Morrow

 Lori Kalus

Pattie Goldman

Tangii Crain

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back soon with more of the MTME July release!

Pretty Palette #65

This week's Pretty Palette color challenge are taken from the Bee Mine digital paper pack from My Time Made Easy.

I used one of the designs from the paper pack that had all the colors in it.  I used the My Bee Loved cut file to cut out the yellow bees.  The hexagons were punched with a Creative Memories punch I've had from my scrapbooking days.  The zig-zag design was created with pinking scissors.  I cut the flag out using a die from WPlus9 Designs and stamped the sentiment from the Bee-Loved stamp set.  I added a blue grosgrain ribbon and a yellow button threaded with some black and white baker's twine.

This is the sketch I used from Clean and Simple sketch challenge.

You can see more color inspiration from our Pretty Palette design team.

MTME blog

Jackie Randolph

Mary Vogel

Romaine Rancier

Thanks for stopping by! 

A Jubilee Celebration

My mother-in-law asked me to make a card for the priest at her church, Father Larry, who is celebrating his Jubilee as a priest.  In the Catholic Church, once a priest reaches the age of 75, he has to retire.  Father Larry has reached this age and his parish is celebrating with a party today.  I wanted to make something special to commemorate this special occasion.  I purchased this pretty shiny gold paper from AC Moore and used almost the entire 8.5"x11" paper on it.  The cross is from PTI's Everday Blessings and it was embossed in detail gold embossing powder.  I cut it out using MFT's Vertical Greetings die.  I added some gold crystals around it and in the middle of the cross.  I found this ivory rick-rack with gold glitter on it which was the perfect accent for the card.  The roses are Primas.

Because of the roses, the card was too bulky to put into an envelope.  So I used one of the clear boxes from PTI and decorated it with a gold ribbon and bow.  My MIL loved it!  I once again forgot to take a picture of the inside.  I used a sentiment and a decorative stamp from the Everyday Blessings set embossed in gold as well.

 I used this sketch from Sweet Sunday sketches again.

 And here's a picture of my niece Maria at her graduation.  We are so proud of her!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great day!

You Made It!

Hi there everyone!  I have lots of pictures to share with you today.  My niece Maria graduated yesterday (I'll have pictures tomorrow) and this is the card I created for her.  I purchased this A La Modes stamp set from My Favorite Things called Grad Girl a while ago just for this card!  Maria's school colors are purple and white and she loves green, so I think adding the yellow was ok since I had all the other colors in there!  I colored the image with copics, and since Maria is wore a white gown for her graduation, I kept it white but colored her hat purple.  Maria also earned the honor of wearing a gold tassel on her cap because she graduated with high honors, so I colored the tassel with a gold Spica pen.  The paper is an oldie but goodie from SU called Uptown.  I love how soft the colors are in this card.

I used this sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  Love these sketches and I use them all the time!   I of course decorated the inside, but I forgot to take a picture.  It says, "The tassel is worth the hassle.  So proud of you."

 I have pictures of Maria's prom, which was this past Wednesday.  If you don't want to look, I totally understand!  Thanks for stopping by!

If you want to see my beautiful niece, thanks for staying!  Here is a back shot of the dress.  She had a little train on the dress with sequins coming up the back.  Hard to see it here.

This is Hector, her date for the evening.  Handsome couple!

The hair!  Maria has really long hair and next week she is cutting it to donate it to Locks of Love.  Her hair looked so pretty all done up.

Here's another shot of her hair.

 This was taken at the hair salon.  My husband's cousin, Linda, created this up-do.  I think she did a fantastic job!

This is my favorite picture!  The prom was at the Harbor Club at our First Niagara Center in Buffalo, NY.  This is where our Buffalo Sabres host their hockey games.  This is a great shot of part of our skyline in the early evening.  Such a cool picture!

Well, thanks for sticking with me on this long post and for allowing me to brag a little about my niece!  I don't have any children of my own, so I live vicariously through my nieces and nephews!  See you soon!

Just Us Girls #142 - Inspiration Photo Challenge

Happy Summer!  Today begins Day 1 of my summer!  I wrapped up my classroom yesterday for the summer and didn't have to get up at 5:00 am this morning!  Although I have a busy day today.  My niece Maria is graduation from high school today and her party is today as well.  We are so proud of her!  She wants to be a doctor and I hope she can endure the grueling studies ahead of her.  But she is a very determined young lady, so I don't doubt for a minute she'll achieve her goal. 

But I digress.  Today begins our 142nd Just Us Girls challenge.  Vicki has generously taken on the new inspiration photo challenges and she's come up with a great photo today.  Great for the beginning of summer...a picnic with hot dogs and chips!  Yumm-o!

 I went pretty literal with the photo.   I knew I wanted to use PTI's Vintage Picnic and Vintage Picnic Sentiments stamp sets for this card.  I used the die to cut the picnic basket out of white cardstock, then colored it with copic markers.  I stamped the flowers on a Spellbinder's die and colored that with copics as well.  I also used some Antique Linen ink to distress it.  The red checked paper is from Rosy paper pack by My Mind's Eye and the stripe from Basic Grey's PB&J.  I used a SU punch and Riding Hood Red paper for the border.  The ribbon is SU's Crushed Curry dotted ribbon.  The flowers are Prima and I added a silver and crystal flower in the center.  The banner is a die from WPlus9 Design Studio that seems to be getting lots of use lately!  I did add some Star Dust Stickles to the centers of the flowers in the basket that is hard to see, but it just adds some sparkle.

 The sketch is this one from Card Patterns.    Loved it!  I'm also entering it into the Moxie Fab World gingham challenge.

We have some great inspiration for you from the JUGs design team.  We also are bidding a fond farewell to our much loved Dana Gustafson.  She will be sorely missed, but life is getting busy with her family and it was time for her to move on.  We wish her well!  But you can still see the rest of what the team did at these blogs.

JUGs blog

Andrea Matthews

Elise Durenberger

Lynn Mangan

Maria Levine

Vicki Dutcher

Thanks for stopping by today!  I'm hoping to get some more stamping and posting in now that I'm on vacation!  I need to start playing for fun!  See you soon!

Maria Levine's Got {ippity}? Summer Themed Blog Hop

Maria Levine's Got {ippity}? design team is hopping in their monthly blog hop.  This month is a summer themed hop.  If you came here from Vicki's blog, you are on the right track.  I'm the last on the hop, so make sure you start at Maria's blog and hop along.

I'm using this set called Pain and Strength.  I decided I liked the tree in black and white, and decided to make a black and white card.  But I wasn't thinking about the "summer theme" here as I was makind it.  But as I look at it, it does have flowers on the tree, flowers on the dp, and silk flowers, so I think it can be called summer themed.  The dp is from DCWV called All Dressed Up.

This is the great sketch I used from Sweet Sunday sketch.

Here is some important information regarding our hop.  If you leave a comment on all the DTs blogs, you will have a random chance to win an {ippity} prize from Maria.  We are looking for our July guest designer.  All you have to do is upload your card to our Facebook page here to enter.  If you see anything you like and want to order, you have to do it through an Ippity girls.  Go to this post and choose Maria Levine as your {ippity} chick!

Here is the hop lineup in case you get lost.

Maria Levine

Julie Hoffman
Martha Pineda

Becky Litz, June Guest Designer

Vicki Dutcher

Lisa Kind (you are here)

Thanks for stopping by and hopping with us!

Pretty Palette #64

We changed things up a bit over at the Pretty Palette challenge.  Our challenges have changed to every other week and we changed our posting date to Thursdays.  You will have two weeks to play.  On the opposite Thursdays, you can participate in the Pretty Pattens challenge which will also run for two weeks.

 This is what I came up with for this week's color challenge.  I used the Seas the Day digital stamp set and colored it in GIMP.  I shaded some bashful blue ink around the image while it was still in the die.  A little darker on the bottom to mimic the water and lighter on top for the sky.  I also distressed it a bit with some tea dye distress ink.  The sentiment is from the So Sentimental acrylic stamp set.  The paper was the perfect fit for these colors.  It's from My Mind's Eye called Blink of an Eye.  I used the flag die from WPlus9 and an SU scallop border punch for the side.

This is the sketch I used from Card Positioning Systems.

You can see more from the design team on these blogs.

MTME blog
Jackie Randolph
Mary Vogel
Romaine Rancier

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Just Us Girls #140 - Technique Challenge

Hi friends!  This is technique week here at Just Us Girls, and our fabby Maria chose this great technique called Acrylic Distress.  She found the tutorial here on SCS.

 I used the technique on the circle in the middle of the card.  I used soft suede for the card stock and the acrylic paint I used (the only one I had!) is Pearl.  I thought I had many bottle of the Ranger paint dabbers, but apparently they are all distress inks!  So Pearl it was.  It looks like tin to me on this paper.  I first ran the circle through the embossing folder, then painted on the Pearl paint and dried it with a heat gun.  I sanded it with a Tim Holtz sander.  I didn't have to do the next step in the tutorial, which was to apply a distress ink over the sanded parts to make it look more distressed because my paper color did that for me.  Then I just put the card together.  The paper is SU's Everyday Enchantment, the dies are Simply Jane and Beautiful Blooms from PTI, the brad is SU too, and the cardstock is soft suede and poppy parade.  The sentiment was created using a Spellbinder's die and the sentiment is from PTI's Blooming Button Bits.

This is the sketch I used.  I generally don't care for middle panels turned on an angle, but I saw some cards made with this sketch and I kind of liked it!

 The JUGs design team has some great inspiration for you.  Please stop by these blogs to see for yourself!

JUGs blog
Andrea Matthews
Elise Durenberger
Lynn Mangan
Maria Levine
Vicki Dutcher
Hannelie Bester, June Featured Designer

Thanks for stopping in today!  Have a great weekend!

My Time Made Easy - A Year in Review

Hi friends!  Today the My Time Made Easy design team is posting our montly Year in Review projects.  This is where we use old and new products.  I'm using three cut files (one new, two old) with new and old paper and old stamp sets.  Let's begin.

Last month I created this template called Blue Collar for my father-in-law for Father's Day.  I put some cotton handkerchiefs in them.  You can see the post here.  I always give him gift cards to his favorite restaurants around town, so I decided to make this gift card holder called Wallet of Wishes to go along with it.

I started by recoloring this woodgrain paper from the new Camp Out digital paper pack in gray.   Then I created the label using A Vintage Day for Day digital stamp set in marigold.  I added a button on the tab and threaded it with some marigold baker's twine.

Here's the inside where you put the gift card.  He's not getting this Target card...I just haven't gotten him his restaurant gift cards yet.  This one is mine!  You can see how there is a slot for the card to sit in.

There's another pocket behind the gift card slot, so I created a tag using the same images from the front label.  You can write your message on this label.  This wallet can be used in so many ways.  I can't wait to make it for a girly girl!  Maybe a Coach or Chanel wallet!

I decided to use another cut file for a little gift for a friend.  This is a new cut file called Paper Bag.  These are so easy to cut and assemble and would be terrific shower favors or just a little something to give as a hostess gift.  I put two small bottles of lotion from Bath and Body Works inside and they fit perfectly.  I used the Darling Dots digital paper for the bag. It's printed on white cardstock, then cut out.  The label is another cut file called All Tied Up Rectangles.  I stamped the sentiment from the Sign It acrylic stamp set.  The frilly details on the label is a stamp from Killer Curves Fancy Frames.

I tied the label on with some white satin ribbon and tied a pretty bow in the side.   So pretty!

That's it for me, but the entire MTME team is posting today, so make sure you stop by their blogs!

MTME Gallery
Lauren Meader
Debbie Marcinkiewicz
Farida Rone
Kimberly Morrow
Linda Hammerton
Lori Hairston
Lori Kalus
Mara Campbell
Pattie Goldman
Tangii Crain

Thanks for stopping in today!  Have a great week!