Icicle Thank you!

Hello and Happy New Year's Eve!  I have a number of thank yous to get out to family and friends and I think this simple one will do nicely! 

My card base is kraft, then a layer of cherry cobbler.  The turquoise is PTIs Hawaiin Shores.  I tore my snowy hills from white card stock and stamped the snowflakes with white ink.
The bear is Icicle from Purple Onion designs-a new (ish) love of mine!  He is stamped on Xpress it blending card and colored with copics then fussy cut.
I stamped the sentiment in Not Quite Navy.
Edges of card base are sponged with Soft Suede. Turquoise layer sponged with not quite navy.  It adds so much depth IMHO.
finally, lots of stickles added to the snow!  We are expecting more of the white stuff today!  Not sure if DH and I will make it out tonight or not!  We are at the age when we realize being home and safe is worth a lot!

Hope your New Year is bright and happy and continues throughout the whole year~!
Cheryl

HEARTS!!!

Hi!  As much as I love these colors for Christmas and Winter cards I also love them for Valentine's Day cards!  And, it's time to get those started!  Today's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast offered the perfect information for me this morning.  The link to my splitcoast gallery is on the left bar if you'd like to check it out.

To build my card, I started with a cream colored card base, then a layer of cherry cobbler.  After that is a layer of Coastal Cabana (I love it as much as Pool Party!). Then a layer of kraft put through a Sizzix embossing folder and then sponged with soft suede.  The top layer of coastal Cabana is sponged with coastal cabana and soft suede on the edges.  Finally, I cut a bunch of hearts from my new VERVE heart die and then played it bit with how to layer them before gluing. 

That's it-a pretty easy card with mega layers!

Enjoy the rest of your day!!

Cheryl

(Remember the Just Us Girls challenge is a photo inspiration from Lisa-YOu can check it out below and join us!)

Just Us Girls #221 Photo Inspiration!

Hi there!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday!  Just Us Girls also hopes you have a little craft time tucked away and can open it and play along with our challenge.  It's a photo inspiration and you can see it HERE!

 Here is my little card.  For the base I used My Favorite Things Rounded Banner Stax.  I just love all the banners on cards I have favorited or pinned on Pinterest, so I got busy with my own combination. I used MFTS fishtail stax for the three on the front. My dotted dp is from PTI (canyon clay) and my cute bunny is from Purple Onion Designs-Stacey Yacula studio.  This is Birch (the bunny!) He is stamped on Xpress it blending card and cut out then glued to a water color paper circle.

 Here is the straight on view of Birch.  I don't think it's very obvious how I used the photo as my inspiration, but I really did!  I don't have any clock stamps of any kind so I used representational circles on my card.  The banners are inspired (in part) by the hands on a clock AND do you see any connection with TIME and the RABBIT?  I did! Think about it!

Finally, the inside of my card.  It will probably get a birthday sentiment stamped on it for a friend with a January birthday!  for the plaid, I used Impression Obsession's gingham cover-a-card and versimark watermark ink.  then sponged the edges with Cajun Craze.
Guess that's it!  Please check out the Just Us Girls blog for the inspiration photo AND to enter your creation this week! You have until Thursday,  9:00 pm ET Jan. 2 to do so.  We would love to see what you come up with!
Thanks for visiting!! Have a great day!  Cheryl

JUGS color challenge meets Purple Onion!!

Hello!  I've been a bit absent lately due to extreme holiday craziness!  I'm sure you all know what I mean! Anyway, school is finished for 2013 and I'll have some time for fun!!  For starters I've made this smaller card as a thank you.  The finished card is 3.5" x 5"~ a cute size, but still room for your note. :)

It's Saturday, which means a new JUGS challenge!  Please check out the inspiration HERE!

I've gone a bit crazy over Purple Onion design stamps lately, since seeing a board on Pinterest!
Here's the link to the Purple Onion Designs board.  I've mostly bought designs from Stacey Yacula at this point, but there are many, many other stamps that are really great!
I stamped my kraft card base with white snowflakes (retired SU stamp).  I measured white card stock to fit my card base and rounded all corners.  Then I covered each of my torn pieces (3) with glue and prima fine glitter. While that dried I stamped my polar bear and then colored him with copics. The edges of the card are shaded with soft suede and then a bit of twine (crochet yarn, actually) and DONE!

Please join us for this color challenge (reds, neutrals and browns) at JUGS this week!!
And do check the blog for all that inspiration!
Thanks for coming!! On to what I hope will be a productive day!! (And, for YOU, too!)
Cheryl

FS357 and High Ho Ho Hopes!!

I'm so happy to finish a card before another crazy week starts!  Seems there's little time to color and craft during the week!  

 I used Santa Portrait from High Hopes!  I just love this Santa face!  And, it was a pleasure to work with traditional green and red-Cherry Cobbler and Gumball Green, to be exact.  I made this card for the FS357 stamper over at Splitcoast

And, am also entering in the High Hopes challenge for the week-High Hopes Santa!
Thanks for coming by!! See you soon!
Cheryl

Just Us Girls #218 Sketch Challenge!

Hello and happy Saturday!!  I'm telling you I'm delighted that it is Saturday!  Work at home today!! There is so much to do!  Hope you are making progress on your list and you have time to join us in this week's sketch challenge!  Please visit here to see it:  JUGS CHALLENGE.

 The newest Magnolia collection is in at MAGNOLIA-LICIOUS . It has some real cuties!  This is the first one (of many!) that caught my eye.  She is #289 North Pole Tilda. I stamped her on watercolor paper and colored her with distress markers and a waterbrush.  I used Spellbinders' rectangle dies to cut her out and used a 1" stencil brush to add baja breeze to the space around her while she was still in the die.  Gives a nice border.

My snowflake die is from Papertrey Ink.  I sponged the snowflake with pool party and then covered it with GLITTER!  My papers are from Basic Grey..Eskimo Kisses 6x6 pad.  My card base is a burgundy card stock.
I'm not crazy about my photographs so I apologize for the poor lighting (or whatever it was that caused the problem!)  The colors are less red and more toward maroon IRL!
Anyway, won't you join us in the challenge this week for this sketch!  There are so many possibilities!  We are also working on our next guest DT member!
Thanks for visiting!! Have a great day and weekend!
Cheryl

Just Us Girls Challenge!!

Hello!! Let's be honest~~We have a tough (but very fun!) challenge for you today at the Just Us Girls Blog.
It's Winter One Layer!  Yep, ONE layer!! I know-you're thinking what about my background paper and stamps!?  Put them away for today!
I loved the challenge so much (once I got going!) that I made two cards!
                              This first one is Chinook from Whipper Snapper Designs.  I cut a piece of water color paper that was 4.25 by 8.5, scored it with my Scor-Pal and folded it for a small square card.  I rounded the bottom corners with a corner rounder and stamped my image right on the card base.  He is colored with distress markers and a water brush.  I wanted to just add some white embossed snowflakes around him , but they just didn't show up. Got out a sponge and pool party ink to make them show up.  Then I added some glitter to them with my stardust stickles.  I'm not sure you can tell but I also painted some pure white watercolor (in a tube) paint on his hat and on the snow below him.

 This second one is made with Whipper Snapper Designs Bestie Snowmen.  IMO these guys are pretty cute too!  I made a card base (once again, from watercolor paper). This time it is 4.25 x 11", so scored and folded it's a regular A2 card.  I colored with distress markers and water brush.  Went through the same process of wanted my snowflakes to show up.  I used the same stamps (retired SU), but this time used White Satin and Diamonds Embossing Powder.  They still didn't show up enough so I went to sponging-this time with Distress Tea Dye ink.  I also used pool party and a retired snow flurry stamp to place more snowflakes around them.

The funny thing is that both card looked pretty neat with just the colored images on them and the edges sponged.  With a sentiment stamped near the top they could be declared, "DONE!"  Sometimes you just have to keep going though, ya know?  I may make a few more and keep them very simple.  they would both make great 'thank you' cards.

Well, guess that's it for now! Hope you'll consider joining us this week for this "Simple" challenge!!

Cheryl

                                                                                   

Another tag card!

It's been coming since Halloween, but Holiday time is finally here!!  I have another tag card to show today.  You can see two others below on my blog.  This one uses Whipper Snapper Designs Holiday Penguin.

 He's really cute, isn't he?  The image is about 2" square and perfect for the center of my Impression Obsession wreath.  The little guy is stamped on water color paper and colored with distress markers and a water brush.  I used Impression Obsession's gingham cover-a-card background stamp to make the mat layer for my tag card.

Tiny snowflakes came from a Martha Stewart border punch.  I added sparkle to the hat and snowflakes.
Thanks for visiting!! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and are headed for an equally great weekend!!  (NO shopping for me today. How about you?)

Hope you'll return tomorrow for the new Just Us Girls challenge!!
Cheryl

Holiday stocking!

Good morning!! A quick post as I must get ready for work!  Here is another card inspired by the current Just Us Girls challenge-an inspiration photo.  I love the row of stockings hanging and, of course, the colors in the photo, so that's what inspired this one.   Won't you join us in the challenge?  You can click on the link above to see the photo and DT inspiration cards!

 I used a coral card base and a great EK success punch that I borrowed from a friend for the border!  The large snowflake is a die from MFT and the stamp is from Art Gone Wild.

Thanks for visiting!! I'm working on Christmas cards like crazy right now and have some to show, so I hope you'll return!  You won't want to miss this Saturday's JUGS challenge, but, in the mean time you have until Thursday evening to upload a card to the Just Us Girls blog for this challenge!
Have a great day!  Cheryl

JUGS Challenge #216 Inspiration Photo!

Hello!  Over at Just Us Girls we have a great challenge for you this week!  Christmas cards to make?  Thank yous to have on hand? Or just Thinking of you cards?  This photo inspiration is great for all of them!! Please make a visit to the BLOG to see the Photo Inspiration  that Vicki chose for us!  And, thanks to Nancy for the graphic!

 I have to admit I pulled out an older card to repost for out challenge this week!  I have another card in the conception stage, but this has been one crazy week at school!!  So, my new card will have to wait until the weekend.  Hope you don't mind this one!

 I used Tucked Tilda from Magnolia (#3077).  I always buy mine from Diana Crick at Magnolia-licious. She has the best prices and great service!  This one is from the Sweet Christmas collection of 2011-wow!  Two years ago!  She is colored with copics to match this My Mind's Eye dp.  And there's some Bo Bunny double dot in there too! And, of course, Papertrey Ink ribbon!

You really will want to visit Just Us Girls to see the graphic and for all the Design Teams fabby inspiration!!  We'd love to see what you create!  Upload to our site by Thursday, Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving!) at 9:00 pm ET.
Thanks for visiting!  I'll be back with another card for this challenge soon!!
Cheryl

Impression Obsession Challenge!

Hi
 ! I wish I understood Blogger better!  This post is giving me fits!  Here is another Tag card I made for the current challenge on Impression Obsession!  I used the  used their wreath die again (LINKED Here!)  and the Santa Head stamp (Linked Here! for this tag.I stamped the Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card background stamp on kiwi kiss in Ripe Avocado ink.  The wreath is cut from Kraft cardstock and sponged with soft suede and early espresso.  Santa is stamped on Blending card stock and colored with copics.  His beard and hat have Star Dust stickles for sparkle.  I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the tiny snowflakes.  They are also 'dusted' with stickles and then three of them have pearls added..I'm linking this tag card up to the Impression Obsession Challenge for this week. 

I'll be back to fix my post if it doesn't post right 'cuz blogger is acting weird!!!
thanks for looking!! cheryl

Snowy Portrait Tag!

Good morning!  I'm so sorry it's Monday because the weekend went by soooo fast!  But, I do have something I created yesterday to show you!  This is for this week's High Hopes Challenge-anything High Hopes Christmas.

 I used some precut tags that I have had for a long time to make my tag/card/ornament!  I love that it could have all those uses. I stamped Snowy Portrait on watercolor paper and colored with my distress markers and waterbrush.  Stickles (stardust) were added after it dried.  The snowman is mounted on a die cut grapevine wreath (IO).  The bg of the tag is stamped with dark green with a gingham bg stamp.  The small snowflakes are are from a MS border punch.  They are the pieces you would normally throw away!

Everything is raised on dimensionals.  Pearls were added to some snowflakes.  I think I could also go back and add some snow, but for now I think it's done!
Thanks for coming by!  Off to work!
Cheryl

JUGS215 AWEsome Color Challenge!!

                                                                                 
Hi there!!  The Just Us Girls team has a great color challenge for you this week!!  Below is a graphic made by Lisa to give you ideas!!  We saw red, kraft, white and chocolate brown in these cute pics! You can visit the JUGS blog for loads of inspiration!

                                                   

                                                                         And, here is my card!  It opens at the bottom.  That seems to be a favorite style of mine lately!  I used a kraft card base, then a layer of cherry cobbler.  The final two layers are some older Cosmo Cricket papers.  I ran the brown sheet through my Calibur in the snowflake folder.  My stamp is Whipper Snapper Designs A Snowman's Mitten.

My snowman is stamped on water color paper and then colored with distress markers. After that I watercolored  the image with a water brush.  I think the mitten came out looking like wool!  A happy accident! I cut the image with a spellbinder's die.  The next size die was too big, so I just traced the metal die itself and traced it on cherry cobbler and cut out for a size that is about 1/8" bigger. I raised the focal image on dimensionals.  then I decided I wanted a bow of some kind so I had to thread my twine through the dimensionals.  That was tricky!  I had red and white twine but colored the white parts (as best I could) with the tea dye marker.  I did add stickles here and there for sparkle.

Please enter your creation with these colors this week!  We'd love to see what you come up with!!

And, thanks for coming!! Cheryl

And...more words!

Hello and thanks for coming by!!  We have snow in Western New York this morning making it the perfect day to post another snowy card!  I used the JUGS challenge for the week to make the background!  Yes, it is the same as the card I posted for the challenge on Saturday! (see post below).  I just love the darker turquoise on Hawaiin Shores card stock!  

This time I used Bermuda Bay for my ink because that inkpad is wetter than my Taken with Teal.  I used PTIs Wonderful Words snow mini stamp set.
I made my Snowman in a Jar with PTIs Friendship Jar and Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers stamp sets.  Mason Jars are all the rage now (do you Pinterest??) and Nichole was ahead of the trend with this set since it's been out for awhile!  I haven't used mine enough!  I love, love, love it! The image was an easy one to color, too!  Could make a bunch of these!  I used copics in BG10 and BG72 for the jar.  I think I used Y24 on the lid and shaded the edges with a bit darker color, but I don't remember which color!  Sorry!  I added some Liquid Applique to the base for snow.  Let it dry then puffed it up with my heat gun.
The snowflake is another of Anna Wight's glitter glass, then red twine and a button finished off the card.
You have until Thursday, Nov 14 at 9:00 pm to join in our Just Us Girls challenge (words for your background!  All the details are on the blog!
I appreciate you stopping by!  Have a great day!  Cheryl

Just Us Girls Challenge #214 Words, words Words!!

Hello!! My good friend and fellow design team member, Lisa, has set a terrific challenge for us this week!  Use words to create your own background!  This was fun!!  Please see the JUGS blog for tons of inspiration and a link to a tutorial on how to do this.  Mine is not perfect because I just jumped in without marking my paper!  JUGs BLOG

 This card has so many things I love!!  And isn't what it's all about-using things we love?!?  I love turquoise and red for colors, whether it's a Christmas card or a winter card!  I love this High Hope Santa Claus face (so cute!).  Anna Wight's Diamond Dust snowflakes are also so fun to make and use!  I kept the layout simple and maybe you can tell it looks a bit like our (JUGS) sketch from last week!  Just flipped!

 I stamped my PTI words (a 5.00 set!!) in Taken with Teal on Hawaiin Shores cardstock.  I just stamped the word SNOW alternating it's placement and leaving 1/4" in between so I could add in 'Let it snow' afterward.  The dotted paper is from Bo Bunny.  Snowflakes are punched from white card stock, sponged with a little Coastal Cabana and then covered with glossy accents and Diamond Dust Glitter Glass. 
I leave these to dry for quite a while before handling.

My Santa is colored with my distress markers and then color was moved around with a water brush. I also added Stardust Stickles to Santa's hat for extra sparkle!
Please take a look at your word or sentiment stamps and see what you can come up with for this challenge!  We'd love to see what you do!
We also have a guest designer for this month!  Congratulations to Nancy at Artful Notions!  Please check out her blog too! Lovely creations!
Have a great day!! Cheryl

Celebrating Another Life!

Hello, friends!! A friend of mine has a birthday today and this is the card I made for her!  She is a cat lover so this Whipper Snapper Design image is perfect for her, though I don't think she'd let her cat get THAT close to her cake!!

I stamped my image on water color paper and colored it with Tim Holtz distress markers.  Then I used my water color brush to blend and move color around for the look I wanted. My card base is Hawaiin Shores (I think) and I stamped it with Taken with Teal using a plaid background stamp.  The dotted piece is Harvest Gold dp from Papertrey Ink.  The yellow edges are sponged with More Mustard and the Hawaiin Shores edges are sponged with Taken with Teal.  I  added Stardust stickles so that the card went with my sentiment-Hope Your Day Just Sparkles (Inky Antics).
This is a nice flat card that will mail easily!
Thanks for stopping by on this U.S. Election Day!! Remember to VOTE in your area!  I have to get out of the house a bit early today to do just that!
Have a great one!  Cheryl

Sketch-Just Us Girls #213

Hello!  Thanks for coming by my little blog!  The Just Us Girls (JUGS) challenge this week (the first Saturday in November!!) is a sketch challenge! This means I've been on the team a whole month!  Now you know we would love to have you join us in our weekly challenge so here's the link to the BLOG

 You know I've said I love our challenge because you can use ANY stamps you want!!  This week I've used some 'Oldies but Goodies from Stampin' Up!  The apple bucket is from Give Thanks (2006).  My backgrounds are Paisley (also retired SU) and Flannel (SU too).  I stamped Chocolate chip cardstock in Early Espresso and Kiwi Kiss cardstock with Kiwi Kiss.
I'm super excited to say I stamped the image on watercolor paper with Versamark Black and then colored it with my new Tim Holtz Distress Markers!!  I'd put off buying them long enough, so made my purchase from Amazon about 3 weeks ago. I loved coloring with them and then adding water from his brush for the watercolored look.  I hadn't watercolored in a long time and this was so easy!  Now I'll be torn between my copics and distress markers!
At first the sketch intimidated me, but once I decided on colors and image it was fun, fun, FUN!!
Remember you have until Thursday, Nov. 7 at 9 pm Eastern time to enter your creation!!
You DO have Thanksgiving cards, Christmas cards and maybe a birthday card or two to make this month, right?  Try our sketch!!
Have a great day!! Cheryl

Happy Halloween, but......

Not a Halloween card!  There's a nine year old girl at school who collects owls AND had a birthday this week!  Along with an Owl punch I made her this owl window card!  

 I used one of PTIs dies to make my card base.  I ran the front through SUs woodgrain embossing folder.  It's my favorite because the lines are close enough to tell that it is wood.  I sponged it with Soft suede to bring out the texture.  I punched a hole with a large circle punch -2", I think.  Inside of card is below:

This cute owl stamp is from Latina Crafter.  I saw a card on pinterest and HAD to have it!  Surprise to me-the sentiments that accompany the stamp are in Spanish! I have no idea what they say-I was a French student in school!!!  The stamp was worth it, though!

Hope your day is not to spooky!  And, the weekend is on the way!!  The JUGS team will have inspiration cards on the blog at midnight tomorrow (mine is not even started! Yikes!!) and the sketch challenge will be up for you to join on Saturday!  You still have until 9:00 pm tonight to enter in this week's photo inspiration!
Here's the link for the Blog!
Have a great day!  Cheryl

House of Haunts! FS351

Here's why I can't get rid of retired SU sets!! I love them and you never know when you'll NEED one!! Today was that time for me.  The featured stamper has some great creations on Splitcoast and I have to get a few treat boxes done for Halloween on Thursday!  So, instead of school work I got busy on this project!  You see the result-a treat box for a teacher friend which houses 3 small Heath bars~Yum!

 I started with a new (to me) treat box die from Papertrey Ink-Favor it box #3. I don't know if you can see it but the fence is an antiqued silver!  I saw this cool silver engraving board on Theresa Mombers blog a week or so ago and HAD to have that.  Here's the link-SILVER and here's Theresa's blog post  POST.

I used Martha Stewart's grass punch on the bottom and some Wink of Stella pen/paint on the house windows.  Lisa Kind and I enable each other ALL the time!!  She got be to buy this silvery pen that operates like a paint brush.  Lisa if you're reading this, I want you to know that some of this Langnickel silver board is on it's way to you as soon as I can get to the post office this week! ;) You'll love it!  Christmas ornaments?!  Can't wait to see what you do with it!
Well, that's enough for me-I've got to get supper and then crack open the school bag!
Hope you've had a great weekend and that yours didn't fly like mine did!
Cheryl

JUGS Inspiration photo challenge

Good morning!  As I post this Friday evening and have had a killer headache all day, Blogger is giving me fits and won't upload all my pictures!  I'll forge ahead despite the issues 'cuz I am tired!  Please click on over to the JUGS blog to see a fantastic fall photo to use as your inspiration.  I struggle with inspiration challenges, but I really enjoyed this one!

I fell in love with the table cloth in the photo and tried to recreate that as my background for Northwoods Mason Jar Bouquet.  I hope you can see a bit of it in my poor photos.  I stamped some leaves from an old SU set with bleach on black paper.  I use a meat tray with paper towels folded into it to pour a small amount of bleach into.  Then stamp away on your dark paper and watch the magic happen.  I had hoped for a bit more bleaching out, but this looks okay.

ETA; I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THESE PHOTOS STAYED SO LARGE!! APOLOGIES!!

 The image is colored with copic markers.  I 'had' to use some stickles on the flower petals and glossy accents on the water in the jar.  I used an SU white pen to make a 'table' grounding my cut out image.

 Here are some colors that bleached out more color when I stamped them.  A dark purple and not quite navy, I think.

One more shot in natural just trying to get a good photo!  No luck here!
Please DO take a look at our BLOG and join us in the challenge this week!  And, remember we are going to be having a monthly guest designer, so, please, check that out as well!

SU owl punch

Hi!! Sorry I haven't had the chance to post until now-it's been a busy week!!  I finally bought SUs Owl punch since a couple of people in my life are owl crazy!  Why did I wait so long!?  It's fun to play with it!

This is the first card (of many, I expect!) I've made with it.  I used the Coordinations paper from SU as well as the wood embossing folder.  There's a layer of Wisteria Wonder behind that to match the dp (also SU) on the owl.  The card base is Pool Party, but it's hard to see.  The leaves are from a memory box die. I think I used two of them and moved the leaves around a bit for the look that I wanted.

Remember we'll have a new JUGS challenge post up at midnight tonight! So, please come back then (or tomorrow!) to see our Inspiration photo!  You'll love it!
Have a great day!  Cheryl

Just Us Girls challenge #211

Hi there and welcome to the weekend!  I am so happy that I don't have to work today!  This week Just Us Girls has a color challenge for you!  Please visit our blog to take a look at the gorgeous color palette!  I saw baja breeze, pool party and sahara sand, so I pulled those out to create my card.

 I stamped images from Verve's Poppy Birthday on white card stock and colored them with BG10, BG72, and a color with a little more turquoise that I can't remember.  I stacked two flowers on top of each other with a dimensional in between.  The buttons are from my PTI box of Aqua Mist buttons.  They are threaded with thin twine.  The card base is baja breeze followed by a layer of Sahara Sand.  The dp is from MME, I think-it was in my stash!  The large ticket is stamped in black on Sahara sand and then I sponged with Soft suede to make it all vintagy.  I tried layering, but something was missing.  When I placed the doily, I liked it so much better!  I used baja breeze seam binding for my bow.  Below is an angled view so you can see the 3D layered flowers.

Oh, and the ticket in XL-do you love it as much as I do!  It's from Memory Box and has a matching die!!  Love that so, so much!  I got mine at Ellen Hutson.

And, one more picture!!  Please join us at JUGS this week and show off your creativity!  We have a guest designer position we are working on.  Details are on the blog, too!

Thanks all for coming by and have a great day!

Hugs, Cheryl

More Die-Inlay with PTI

Hello!  I had Monday off to celebrate Columbus Day and I was able to get some cards made!! Happy, happy!  Here are two of them!  I hope to inspire you to go to your craft table and try this technique.  Then head to the JUGS blog for more inspiration and to enter your card so we can see what you've created!!

For the first I used aqua mist (or pool party) to cut PTIs tree and leaf die.  I also cut it from white and stamped all the leaves.  I stamped by leaving the leaves right in the die cut so I could balance my patterns and colors. I wish I had taken a picture.  Then I glued them in place into the aqua die cut after gluing it to a kraft cardstock base  I was easy to figure our where to place the leaves because there was a bit of color left on the edges of the white die cut.  I just had to match my leaves to that piece. I stamped the tree trunk in soft suede and glued it in place.  This easy card is finished off with some orange jewels and SUs rustic ribbon.

I had stamped some pumpkin pie card stock with cajun craze ink.  I just cut the tree and leaf die again from kraft card stock. I glued it to the pumpkin pie piece and then to a summer sunrist (PTI) card base. I stamped the tree trunk again in soft suede and placed that back in the die cut.  I added some orange stickles to the leaf edges and tied twine around the card. Done!

I'm having camera issues lately.  I sponged both cards and they look okay IRL, but in my pics they look a bit overdone, I think!!
You have until Thursday at 9:00 pm Eastern Time to enter your card/project on JUGS.  I think you'll like this technique!  Then watch for a color challenge this Saturday!!
Thanks for visiting today!!
cheryl

JUGS 210-Die Inlay!

Hello!  I hope you had a great week!  Mine was full of school and meetings so there wasn't much time left for crafting unless I gave up sleep (which I can't seem to do anymore!!) KWIM??

Anyway, our JUGS challenge for you this week is to create something using the DIE INLAY technique.  Come on!! You know you've been meaning to try it! I know I had been for some time!  Please visit the JUGS challenge blog for LOADS of inspiration!

I pulled out some new and old Impression Obsession dies along with a new PTI set Two Feep Deep for my fun card!  It is just what I imagined and I love when a plan comes together! It doesn't happen often for me!!

I stamped the bg with Just Write designs lace (but I think it has a Nordic look to it!).  Then I cut two sizes of snowflakes from the stamped piece and glued them back in place on Aqua Mist cardstock.  I added some sparkle with Stardust stickles and let that dry (while I was at work!! (Ugh!)  But it is one way to keep my fingers out of wet stickles!!  I cut the sled from kraft and stamped in soft suede and black.  Then I went to work again-next day- while glossy accents dried on the metal parts of the sled.  Had also stamped the pine boughs for the sled. I tried the ribbon, but knew it needed something else so I added the IO pine bough and my new cats from IO.  They are cut from cream and sponged with Distress Caramel and Soft Suede.  I added pearl paint to the bottom for snow and threw some glitter on that as well as on the pine bow and called it done (finally!)

Finally, here is a bit of a side view. Not sure if you can tell, but the cats and sled are raised on dimensional pieces. I LOVE this card and plan to make a few more to mail out in the upcoming season.  I really hope you like it too!  More importantly, I hope you'll join us this week in the challenge to use die inlay on your cards and projects!!  You have until Thurs. Oct. 17 at 9:00 pm ET. to link your creation up on the JUGS blog
Thanks for visiting today!! Happy creating!  Cheryl