Just Us Girls Challenge #5

Happy Saturday everyone!!  Today I'm hosting the Just Us Girls Week #5 Wild Card challenge (JUGS5)! The Wild Card week is where the hostess chooses any challenge she wants, be it color, sketch, technique, 3-D/template...or any old thing that comes to mind.  Well, I actually didn't think up today's challenge...Alicia did!  I asked her if I could use her idea today and she agreed :O)  Sooo...here are the deets:

Fun right?!  Oh, and EASY!!!  I PROMISE. 

Here is my card:

Please keep in mind you can use a real photo of someone you know, a photo taken from a magazine, a picture found online, or one of those black and white staging photos from a new frame!  Whatever you choose!  You'll see the team changed it up and used different things.  I chose to use a school picture of my daughter...simply because I normally send her school photo with my Christmas cards to family and friends.  Now it has a sweet little photo holder on the inside of the card ;]

I drew the lamp post image and my friend, Chris Barr was such a God-send...he made it digital for me!  I now know how to create digital images (limited...but learning quick) so the next one you see will be my work :O)  I also created two sentiments to go with the set, and the very talented Tammy Hershberger wrote the "Happy Holidays" sentiment you see on the front of my card.  Her hand writing is so beautiful!!  Oh, and I DID make her written sentiment digital.  That was harder than it sounds :O)  LOL

I paper pieced the wreath and I printed the image twice and colored both bows.  I cut out one of the bows and popped it up just a little bit by layering my glue dots underneath.  I didn't want it too high, just a little higher than the other paper.  I colored the bow and the light in (and surrounding) the lamp with Copics.  I colored the lamp post with black ink from the ink pad lid and a blender pen.  I then highlighted the post with a white gel pen. 

Pretty simple really...just would be nice if I had a real collection of Copics so that I can stick with one technique!  I trimmed the Happy Holidays sentiment and curled the edges using my wire coiler from my jewelry tools and adhered it with glue dots under the curled paper.  Notice I left the middle raised gently for added dimension.  I think it turned out so pretty!

I really hope you can play along this weekend!!  If you DO play before the deadline (5 Nov @ 9 pm), be sure to link your card using Mr. Linky on the JUGS blog and send an email to Just Us Girls with a link to your card and your email address.  We'll send you your free, Happy Holidays digital stamp set!  Created by yours truly (Kristin Bueter) featuring Tammy Hershberger!  I hope you like it and USE it! I loved checking out the DT's projects using the set...it was so exciting for me :O)  Speaking of...make sure you check out their fantastic projects!!  They are SURE to get your creative juices flowing!

Dana

Lisa

Mona

Maria

Pam

Tracey
Our Guest Designer
Tammy

Use keyword JUGS5 if you upload to an online gallery.  Okay, now it's your turn.  Hopefully you understand why I've been MIA lately.  This computer work takes a lot of time and a different type of mojo!  I hope to learn how to do both without adversely affecting the other.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Just Us Girls Challenge #4 - JUGS 4

Hi all!  Today is the day for our latest and greatest JUGS....errr...challenge!  LOL  Challenge #4 to be precise (JUGS4) ;]  Today our challenge is a 3-D/Template challenge hosted by our dear Mona!

The twist to our challenge?  Well, just like the graphic says...create a 3-D flower!  Mona made an awesome video sharing how she created the beautiful flower on her card that landed her the Featured Stamper title on the Color Throwdown!  You can use her tutorial and make a gorgeous tissue paper flower with her method (like all of the design team did) OR you can create your very own 3-D flower to share with us!  We love learning new techniques!!  Please be sure to link your project to Mr. Linky on the JUGS blog either way!  We adore your eye candy ;]

I kept my card kind of clean and simple...yet not.  Meaning the flower wasn't clean OR simple and the stitching by hand (which is STILL for the birds!) is never simple, but the rest of the design is.  I have to say I was totally inspired by so many amazing entries in last week's challenge!  We are very fortunate to have generated so much interest already and we are always inspired by everyone else's projects!  For some reason the CAS cards really jumped out at me as I went through all of the entries this week.  Alas, my card was born!

I used the same technique that Mona teaches in her video, but I made my "flower" into a wreath!  I'm not sure it looks as much like a wreath as I had hoped, BUT I'm standing my ground that it IS a wreath!  LOL  I considered adding some "berries" to my wreath, but I didn't want to overdo it (or ruin it!).  Instead, I left it a fluffy green wreath with a pretty satin bow.  I used the Snowflake Cuttlebug ef for the white panel that I stitched to the pomegranate panel.

The layout is loosely based on the Crazy 4 Challenges (C4C7) sketch (though not to scale...as usual) and the color palette is from my dear friends over at the Color Throwdown (CTD65)!

I love the colors Danielle chose and was DETERMINED to use them.  I missed last week's challenge despite a couple of tries and it was a WONDERFUL combination.  BUT, my mojo took a hike in cyberspace and STILL hasn't returned.  All because I have been dedicating more time to graphic design (err...kind of) than paper design.  You will see the result of one of my projects next week when I host the Wild Card Challenge (that's a hint!!).  Oh and I should mention that everyone who plays along next week will be a winner ;]  Be sure to swing by the JUGS blog!!  I'm super excited about the challenge (and "prize")!!

Okay, on to the last chapter of this novel.  We really hope you can play this weekend!  You have LOTS of flexibility so hopefully nobody feels limited in their ability to play along...just make something with a 3-D flower ;]  If you do play along, post a direct link to your project on Mr. Linky over at the JUGS blog before Thursday at 9 pm!  Then you will be in the running not only to be the "Chic of the Week" but also for Mona's blog candy!!  You can read about it at JUGS ;]

Check out the wonderful eye candy the rest of the team has for you!!

Dana
Lisa
Mona
Maria
Pam
Tracey

Thanks for stopping by!  Can't wait to see what you create this week.  The diverse, immense amount of talent we have seen so far is INCREDIBLE!!  Thank you for making our new challenge such a success!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Just Us Girls Challenge #3 - JUGS3

Welcome back to the 3rd Just Us Girls challenge!  We are so excited to have captured the attention of 101 followers since we launched our blog just over a week ago!  That's fantastic!!  Everyone seems to be having fun with our challenges so far, which I'm so happy about!  Our group is so excited to offer diverse creations for our unique challenge line up.  If you haven't checked us out yet, be sure to hop over to JUGS and see what we're all about!

Today is a color challenge hosted by our sweet Dana Gustafson!  She selected an awesome combination of Aqua, Red, and Cream. 

I used Papertrey Ink's Aqua Mist, Pure Poppy and Select White (I don't own their Vintage Cream cs yet).  For some reason my card looks a lot greener than the other girls...I think it's just the lighting and the camera settings though ;]

I used red for my topiary thinking of a poinsettia....even though I turned this into a birthday card!  I really need focus in my life :O)  For the full part of my topiary, I punched five daisies x 2 different sizes and used the 3-D technique I used for my ornaments on this OLD card.  Lauren also posted a tutorial on this technique that you can view HERE.  Think basically of folding all but the base flower in half and adhering together.  Once 4 of the 5 are adhered together, adhere the bunch to the base flower.  Then just randomly move the petals around to make it even bushier.  I used glue dots on the centers only (not the petals).  My shadow was created using a VersaMark Pen.  I added some hand stitching, patterned paper and a LOT of dimensionals, and done!

I STRUGGLED with this week's card!  I think it was due to the shift in my mojo over to the graphics side of my creativity.  I had a HARD time shifting it back to paper!  My loss of mojo WILL be your gain though during the Wild Card week!!!!  Be sure to keep an eye out for what I have up my sleeve :O)

Hope you can play along with Just Us Girls this weekend.  Be sure to post a direct link to your card using Mr. Linky over at the JUGS site and use keyword JUGS3 in any online galleries!  Oh, and don't forget to check out what our fabulous team came up with!

Kristin
Dana
Lisa
Mona
Maria
Tracey

Thanks for stopping by today! It's so rainy and cold here, I think I'll craft some more and maybe organize my craft room this weekend.  OH, and help my daughter get ready for her Homecoming dance tonight :O)  Have a great weekend!!

Please VOTE!!! ...and another thank you :]

Before I bring you to my eye candy, I need to solicit your vote if you haven't already cast one.

SCS has selected it's finalists for the Scrapbox giveaway and wouldn't you know our dear friend and fellow DT member at JUGS, Tracey Cuccia, was selected as a finalist!  She has BIG, SELFLESS plans for her scrapbox that I can't disclose right now, but she's in third place and we REALLY need your vote to push her to the top again!  Trust me when I tell you that you will be PROUD you voted for her when you find out what she's doing with her Scrapbox!!  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote for Tracey if you haven't already voted:

You can vote HERE
Tracey is known as cuccicoo1002 on SCS
Deadline to vote is 16 Oct 09 at noon CST!!

Feel free to pass this along to everyone you know and/or post on your own blogs!!  LOL  We will announce her intentions with the Scrapbox over at the JUGS blog if she wins!!

Okay...onto my card.  Wow...well, I'm only a few days late in posting this card!  My intention was to do it on Monday, but I focused on commenting on our JUGS entries instead (we have way more than we expected which is AWESOME) :] Then Tuesday, may daughter had a Powder Puff football game that I attended (and froze my butt off at!).  So, it's now Wednesday and long overdue...as are my comments on the rest of the JUGS design team's cards!

I needed two more thank you cards to finish the batch I set out to make a while ago.  So, one more now that this one is done!  I used the Color Throwdown challenge (CTD63) for my color palette:

...and Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge (MTSC42) for my layout:

Which brings me to my card:

Clean and simple, but I love how it turned out!  You should see what I was working on for the CTD challenge before I finally tossed it aside and went with this.  It was ridiculous!!  LOL  I was trying way to hard to make a certain image fit the colors and it just wouldn't come together.  After multiple attempts I knew I was trying too hard.  So, I cleared my head and started over.  30 minutes later my card was done and I was pleased with it!  Funny how that happens sometimes, isn't it?

**Update 10.15.09: I meant to post that this card also qualifies for the Crazy 4 Challenges...uhh, challenge (C4C6), to create a card with a thankful theme!

So, that's it for today.  Please remember to vote for Tracey!!  Thank you so much!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Out On A Limb Revised; Stampin' Up! Short and Sweet
Paper: Papertrey Ink, Kraft, Dark Chocolate, and Select White; Stampin' Up! DSP
Ink: Stampin' Up! Crushed Curry, Old Olive, and Chocolate Chip
Accessories: American Crafts, Medium Brown Brads; Cuttlebug, Swirl Embossing Folder

Thankful Life...

Ahhh...a long three day weekend :)  I hope you have Monday off like I do!  I spent some time today stamping and ended up finishing a couple of thank you cards I needed to get to.  I'm sharing one today:

My layout came from Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge (MTSC41):

The sponged ink and the stamped plants make this eligible for Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply challenge (ssnotime106) from two weeks ago!  Yep...I'm a little behind with my challenges...but working hard to get back on track! **Update 10.15.09: I meant to post that this card also qualifies for the Crazy 4 Challenges...uhh, challenge (C4C6), to create a card with a thankful theme!

I have to say this card took FOREVER to finish!  Mainly because of my own indecisiveness but also because of the stitching.  I finished my panels a while ago and set it aside to await my hand stitching, where it waited, and waited....and waited.  Then finally today I stitched her up!

Thanks for swinging by today!  Hope you've had a chance to join Just Us Girls already ;)

Have a great week!!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Life and Background Basics, Text Style; Inkadinkado, Round Frames

Paper: Papertrey Ink, Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Select White, and Green Tea Leaves

Ink: Papertrey Ink, Pure Poppy; Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Mellow Moss; Tim Holtz, Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Accessories: Papertrey Ink, White Vintage Buttons; Primas, Antique Brass Brads, Craft and Sewing Thread from my stash

Just us Girls Challenge...JUGS2

Happy Saturday everyone!  Well, to update those of you who come to my blog looking for the My Time to Create Challenge by Lauren Meader, sadly she had to stop doing the challenges in order to keep up with her ever growing commitments.  On a HAPPY note, if she is getting busier, you can bet it will be to our benefit sometime in the future in the form of an amazing product to offer!  So, we wish her all the best in continuing to achieve her goals!! 

On an even HAPPIER note, some of us girls joined forces and decided to take our JUGS1 challenge from last week and create an official, new challenge site with the same name!  So, we have been hard at work this week creating a new blog, a blinkie for you to use on YOUR blogs, a badge for our "Chic of the Week", and lining up challenges for the next two months.  You can read a little more about how Just Us Girls came about on THIS POST. 

This week we offer you a technique challenge.  Here are the deets:

EASY stuff, right?!  Here's my card:

I paper pieced my fairy's dress.  Isn't she cute?!  This birthday card is for my friend's daughter who became a big ONE YEAR OLD recently!  They live in Hawaii where the first birthday is celebrated like the kid is royalty!!  So, I thought the "Birthday Princess" sentiment was totally appropriate.

I colored her with Copics and sponged the oval using Memento pink ink.  I added glitter to the end of her wand and a rhinestone to her pony tail for added interest.  I die cut a number "one" using my Sizzix and tied it to the flower and green panel with hemp.  The tag was a complete accident!  LOL I was trying to cut my cardstock using the other tag on the same die, but it wouldn't cut through the paper all the way.  The die I used cut perfectly, yet along the edge of the paper. I thought it looked cool so I added the sentiment, adhered it and stitched the top to the cs.

This card is also my LATE submission for Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply #107 challenge last week, AND I used our very first sketch challenge as my layout!  I did that purposely to direct you back to the sketch if you haven't played along yet...please feel free to do so at any time!  It could work to your advantage in the end!  **wink**

If you didn't catch wind of our challenge blog before today, you probably didn't notice our first "Chic of the Week" who was selected yesterday.  Please extend a warm congratulations to Tammy Hershberger!  Her card was amazing!  I just loved it :O)

Okay designers!  I hope you can play along with our challenge!!  We have some exciting things in store for YOU this month :]  Oh, and we will be inviting a monthly guest designer from our featured Chic of the Week designers.  So try to play along each week for a shot at that!  Our first guest will be invited to design with us in December!  If you play along be sure to use keyword JUGS2 in the online galleries, and post your project to Mr. Linky on the JUGS blog.

Hope you have a LOOOONGGG weekend like me and find time to create something!!!  Can't wait to see what you come up with :O)
 

Just Us Girls Challenge...JUGS1

Well, it's Saturday and normally that would mean it's time for a My Time To Create challenge, BUT this weekend we're not having a My Time challenge so we decided to offer a different challenge to you all! In honor of "Just Us Girls" playing along today and the fact that we are kicking off breast cancer awareness month, we decided to host a "JUGS" challenge :O) ...pun INTENDED! LOL

Today we offer you a sketch...check it out:

Fun and easy, right? I really like this one! Here's my card:

As you can see, I flipped the sketch (so I wouldn't have pink on pink :). I was kind of going for my typical clean look but also tried to incorporate a shabby chic feel...which isn't my forte. I like it though! I'm adding this one to my collection of thank you cards I'm creating.

I cut the flower using the Nestabilities Blossom dies and sponged white, acrylic paint around the edges. I added a punched circle of the PTI Green Tea Leaves paper for the center and used one of Martha Stewart's Flourish stamps for the stem.

I pierced around the oval, the dark chocolate middle panel and the base kraft panel then used a white, chalk marker to connect the holes and give a good, faux stitching look. I hand stitched the pink patterned paper to the cs and sponged the edges with white, acrylic paint also.

For the middle panel, I stamped the script text from PTI's Background Basics, Text Style using Tim Holtz' Antique Linen Distress Ink and then sponged the edges using the same ink. I adhered everything with either regular adhesive or dimensionals...LOTS of dimensionals!!

**Update:  My card also fits the Crazy 4 Challenges "Sew Happy" challenge today (C4C5) which is to stitch on your card, be it machine, hand or faux.  Two of three aren't bad!**

We soooo hope you can play along with our sketch!! We're so excited to be able to offer a fun and simple challenge on World Cardmaking Day! Be sure to use our totally appropriate keyword, JUGS1 if you upload to an online gallery so that we can view all of the beautiful creations in one place.

Also, don't forget to add a direct link to your creation using Mr. Linky below! We WILL be by to check out your work...and we ARE cooking something up so stay tuned for more news in the upcoming weeks :)

Check out the following designers' blogs for some great eye candy using this sketch...and a lot more inspiration!

Pam
Odette
Lisa
Maria
Dana

I'm so happy you stopped by today and would LOVE to know what you think of our "JUGS" challenge and our sketch! Oh, and if you have a breast cancer story you would like to share, please DO! My mother is a survivor :)

Hope you can play along this weekend!




**UPDATE 10.10.09**

All links from Mr. Linky have been copied and pasted to the Just Us Girls challenge blog. There is also a new Mr. Linky to add a link to your project if you still want to play along!