Just Us Girls #70 - Sketch Challenge

It's Saturday! So happy about that...are you? I have two posts today, so make sure you see them both!Just Us Girls has a sketch challenge today and we are also being sponsored by Want 2 Scrap.
They have some great bling and accessories for scrapbooking and card making. I had some wonderful ribbon from them to work with. I made a shaped card with the largest Nestability in this set. I loved the simplicity of the sketch as it allowed me to get creative with this Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime paper. The flower was made with this paper and the Tim Holtz paper rosette die. I used some of the bling from Want 2 Scrap in the middle of the flower. The bling comes in a strip, and I cut it to make it into a circular shape. The sentiment is from Paper Makeup Stamps. And I just adore the pretty, delicate leafy ribbon from Want 2 Scrap.

You'll want to stop by the JUGs blog and see what the DT have done with supplies from Want 2 Scrap. We have Elise and Mimi from Want 2 Scrap joining us today and Lori, our new guest designer for February. Welcome girls!

Thanks for stopping in today! Please make sure you see the My Time Made Easy year in review post!

Happy Birthday PMS and an Announcement!

Happy Friday! This week went so fast because of our Wednesday snow day! Now I have a Super Bowl party to plan and get ready for! Who are you rooting for?

Tuesday was Paper Makeup Stamps 2nd anniversary and Katie is celebrating with this beautiful birthday fairy named Natalie. She's in the store only in digi form now, but may be rubberized soon.
Pretty, huh? I colored her simply in the PMS colors of pink and gray. The sentiment is from the Birthday Cheer set, and I punched it out with an SU scallop oval punch. I did lots of shading, added star dust stickles, and popped up the birthday cake. I purchased this cool Martha Stewart punch over the weekend and ran some gray taffeta ribbon through the holes. The sketch is from this week's Splitcoast sketch challenge.

We are having our monthly hop on Monday, February 7 to celebrate the birthday and all things we love about PMS. I hope you can stop by. Happy 2nd Birthday PMS!

Now for my announcement. I saw a design team call on the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog a few weeks ago and contemplated applying. I thought I really don't need to be on another design team, but I thought it would be fun to be on a team where I'll get my Christmas cards done! So I applied and MacKenzie Bruckler (the administrator of the blog) asked me to be on the team! I'm really excited because now I can use all those Christmas stamps that I never get to use. And I have soooo many wonderful stamps I've accumulated over the years. The other very talented girls on the team are:

Alyssa

Becky

Joan

Jodi

Judy

Kerry

Louise

MacKenzie

Patty

Taylor

Our first challenge will be on Friday, March 4 and will run every Friday. So I hope you join me and the other girls on our Christmas card making journey!

Thanks everyone for stopping in! See you tomorrow with a JUGs sketch challenge and a MTME year in review post from the design team.

Pucker Up with My Time Made Easy

Hello friends! I have another My Time Made Easy project to share with you today. I'm using an older template that I've always loved (and it's super easy to put together!). The template is Pucker Up and I'm using some new stamp sets that were released yesterday.I used a cardstock from SU which is Naturals Ivory (I think). I chose it because it pairs nicely with this paper from the new Brassy Botanicals digi pack. My photography isn't that great, and the colors are much prettier in person. Sorry about that! The notecard is from the Creative Card/Envelope 2 cut file that was also released yesterday. I love these little notecards! The cut file even has an envelope (which I didn't make this time). To decorated the box, I chose one of the new sets, Bold Botanicals. This set is perfect for creating a dimensional look. I stamped, colored, cut, and embossed the image. Then I stamped it again and cut out the two leaves and flower top and layered it on top of the first image using a silicone gel. I bent the pieces so that they look more dimensional. I did the same with the butterfly wings. To finish it off, I added some gold glitter dots, star dust stickles on the images, some green seam binding, and a tag created with the new Monograms Defined stamp set. You can see the dimension I created in this picture. Love that stamp set!

Lauren , Katie, and Kristin are positng samples on their blogs today, so make sure you stop by to see what they have created! You certainly won't be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by today!

My Time Made Easy Release Day - Make It Personal

Hi everyone! Today is February 1st (time's flying again!) and it's release day for My Time Made Easy. If you've been following the peeks, you would have seen that there is one template called Creative Card Candy and three stamp sets...Bold Botanicals, Framed Elegance, and Monograms Defined, and three cut files...Framed Elegance and two notecard/envelopes. My project today, making it personal, uses the template, two of the cut files, and Monograms Defined.

I chose to make a note card set for my friend, Cheryl Rowley. She's doing a favor for me next week (you'll just have to stop by to see what the favor is!), so I wanted to give her something special. We met up on Saturday for some stamp shopping and I gave it to her then. I think she liked it! ;-) Here's the set.
I started with the paper. MTME has some fabulous digi paper being released today, and I used this damask pattern from the Warm Serenity pack. I love this pattern and the cherry and sand colors. I made the box out of cherry cardstock, and the wrapper in sand. I used the cherry and damask paper on the top of the box.
Since I was personalizing the box, I used the Framed Elegance cut file to create the monogram. I stamped Cheryl's initials with the new Monograms Defined stamp set...I LOVE this set! It's just so pretty! I added some pearls and sponged around the edge. The Just Us Girls challenge this week is to make your own flower, so I used the Rambling Rose cut file from MTME to make these beauties. Lauren Meader has video tutorial on how to make them...easy peasy!Then, of course, I had to fill the box! So I used the Creative Card/Envelope 2 cut file for the note cards and matching envelope. I kept it simple by just adding her first initial to a circle punch. The envelope was cut using presentation paper (I bought this from Office Max and it's what I use to print my digi paper on also) and I stamped the leaf image on the flap of the envelope. The six cards and envelopes fit nicely in the box. The box is tied nicely with ribbon that's sandwiched between the wrapper and the digi paper inside.
I must say that this project did not take long at all to make. I love this template....it has so many uses, as you'll see from the MTME DT. We also have a guest designer joining us this month...Naomi Thompson. The links to their blogs are listed below.



Thanks for stopping in today. Stop by My Time Made Easy to see all the new products. Also don't forget to visit the Gallery while you are there. It's chock full of all of the projects the DT have created over the last year. Have a great day!

Doggone Cute! - CR84FN13 and Sweet Stop Sketch

Happy Monday everyone! I had a nice weekend, how about you? On Saturday, I went stamp shopping with my friend, Cheryl Rowley, and boy is she a bad influence! LOL!! (Only kidding, Cheryl!) Guess what I bought? A Grand Calibur! Cheryl told me she bought one and I had been debating whether I had to have one or not. Then guess what I saw at my feet on the floor of the stamp store? It was fate! So now I own one, but I have to find a permanent place for it. I see reorganization in my life soon! LOL!! I had a great morning/afternoon with Cheryl talking about teaching and stamping! We never have trouble finding something to talk about!

While we were at our LSS, Buffalo Stamps & Stuff, our very talented friend Debbie was teaching a class. She does the most amazing 3-D creations with all sorts of images. She showed us one she did with a Whipper Snapper dog image called Relax to the Max (thanks to Anna Wight for the link because I couldn't find it!). Well, I had to buy the stamp and try it out. Here's what I did.

I started with the CR84FN colors of red, turquoise, and brown. Such yummy colors and right up my alley! I found those colors in Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers paper pad. Perfect for my dog image! I stamped the image three times. I cut one of them out with the nestie, one of the dog and bottom part of the chair, and then just the dog. Each one was colored and two were popped up using a dimensional silicone gel. Here's a side view so you can see the dimension.

You can see where I cut part of the ear and hind leg for dimension. I hope Debbie sees this (she's not a blogger, but she really needs to so everyone can see her amazing work!).

The flower was made with a die from My Favorite Things and Papertrey Ink's felt. I used the smallest one and it's adorable!

I used the Sweet Stop Sketch from this week. It worked perfectly for my image.

Thanks for stopping in today! Tomorrow is release day for My Time Made Easy and the MTME team will all be posting projects. I have a fantastic project to share with you, so please stop back! See you then!

Recipe
Stamps: Dog (Whipper Snapper)
Paper: PTI white, Max & Whiskers dp (Basic Grey)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, tea dye distress ink, copic markers
Accessories: Nesties, MFT flower die, dimensional silicone gel, felt, star dust stickles, dimensionals

Love Notes - My Time Easy Sneak Peek

Hi friends! Do you ever leave love notes for your spouse/partner? Or even your kids? I have the perfect little love notes to share with you and a wonderful little box to store them in. It's getting close to Valentine's Day, so it's perfect timing! My Time Made Easy is releasing a new template on Tuesday called Creative Card Candy and it comes in a large and mini size. I'm using the mini size today.I love the new digi papers being released this month at MTME! I just love this music sheet paper...perfect for my "Love Notes" theme! I kept the top simple with a scalloped heart adorned with Martha Stewart roses and some silver pearls. The "Love Notes" title was created using the new Monograms Defined stamp set. It's a great alphabet stamp set and there are adjectives for every letter as well as some other words/phrases. The word "notes" was created using the "Just a Note sentiment". I just masked off the words I didn't want and inked it up. Then I masked all the letters except the "s" and inked it up and stamped it after "note". Easy peasy! I wanted the closure to be something other than ribbon and I found the perfect solution at my LSS yesterday.
This elastic band has metal ends on it and all I did was make a hole in the inside of the base and string them through the hole (the metal ends are inside the box) making a loop. I put a pretty brad in the center of the top lid, then looped the elastic band around it and it stays closed tightly! The love notes were cut using the Creative Card 2 cut file. I cut the mat with another new digi paper being released this month. This cut file comes with an envelope template as well. I stamped the hearts (from the You've Got Mail stamp set) on the envelope in Pretty in Pink ink.
This template is very roomy. I was able to get three love notes and 3 matching envelopes in there with room to grow!
I just love this little set! The paper is just so pretty and the box is really cute! You can see more sneaks from the team. Make sure you stop by their blogs to see what they have created!

Lauren

Katie

Thanks for stopping in! The MTME team will be doing a group post on Tuesday, and I've got another fabulous note set that I made for a friend! See you then!

Recipe

Stamps: Monograms Defined, You've Got Mail (MTME)

Paper: Black, pink pirouette, digi paper (MTME)

Ink: Memento tuxedo black

Accessories: Creative Card Candy template, Creative Card 2 cut file, nesties, brad, elastic band, silver pearls, dimensionals, oval punches

Just Us Girls #69 - Wild Card Challenge

I am so excited about the challenge this week at Just Us Girls! It's Wild Card week, which means the hostess gets to choose any challenge she wants. Maria has challenged us to make Tim Holtz-style flowers. I've had Grunge Paper for a long time and have yet to make one of these flowers, so I was really happy she chose this challenge.

I followed the tutorial Tim Holtz posted on his blog for these beautiful flowers. Being inspired by his style and the tag he made in this tutorial, I made a tag as well.

For the backgound of the tag, I inked up my craft mat with tattered rose, worn lipstick, broken china, and faded jeans distress inks. I spritzed the craft mat with water and placed my tag in there to pick up the ink. Then I dried the ink with my heat gun. I put the tag back into the ink again to ink up some spots that were missed and heated it again to dry. I learned this technique at a Wendy Vecchi class at my LSS over the summer. The butterfly stamp is from a Studio 490 set by Wendy called Botanical Art and the sentiment is from a Tim Holtz set called Just Thoughts. I added some flourished pearls and pearls on the antenna of the butterfly.Now for those pretty flowers. I followed the tutorial Tim posted on his blog using Grunge Paper. I used his Tattered Floral die and cut 6 flowers (you need three for each flower). I inked up three of the flowers in Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick distress inks and the other three in Broken China and Faded Jeans distress inks. When the flower was all put together, I sprayed it with Shimmerz Spritz in Baby's Breath. I adhered them with large glue dots and added leaves punched with a Martha Stewart punch and Always Artichoke cardstock. I finished it off with some seam binding run through the hole in the tag.

The flowers were really easy to create, and I love the outcome! I'll be making more of these for certain!

The Just Us Girls DT have some very pretty flowers to spike your inspiration, so please make sure you stop by the JUGs blog. Thanks for stopping in today and have a great weekend!

Recipe
Stamps: Just Thoughts (Tim Holtz), Botanical Art (Studio 490)
Paper: manilla tag
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, broken china, faded jeans, tattered rose, worn lipstick distress inks
Accessories: Grunge paper, Tattered Floral die, MS leaf punch, pearls, Shimmerz Baby's Breath Spritz, seam binding ribbon