Just Us Girls #318 Word Week challenge!

Hi !  It's Saturday again and that means a new Just Us Girls challenge!  Sue has a fun one for us this week! You can pull out that paper, background stamps or whatever else has sparked in your creative imagination when you hear (READ) her word~ STRIPES! Pretty great, huh?

                              

I thought of my background stamps right away.  I'm waiting for my order of new 'stuff' from MFT which will contain bold diagonal stripes, but I already own the thin diagonal stripes so that's what I went to for my card base.

 I stamped the striped background stamp in Versamark ink on Sahara Sand card stock and heat embossed with clearn embossing powder. The edges of the card are sponged with Sahara Sand.  My Snowman image (Whipper Snapper Designs-Baymont #MY648) is stamped in Archival Black on watercolor paper and colored/watercolored with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. I cut it out with dies from MFT.  The Watercolored panel is mounted on foam tape.  I used MFT's Handwritten Holidays for my sentiment-stamped in Archival black on Vellum and then clear embossed. I used some glossy accents behind the words so it didn't show when I glued the vellum, but...

the glue showed on the left edge of the card so I white embossed some MFT snowflakes on vellum to cover that up.  I couldn't leave well enough alone and tried to move my main image panel a bit (not centered!!) and stuck my fingers RIGHT INTO WET stickles!! Smeared red all over!! So, I had to use a 2nd snowflake in an effort to cover that boo boo up! You can still see a bit of the mess, so don't look too close, K?

Please check the JUGS BLOG for tons of inspiration!! And join in the challenge by Thursday, Nov. 12 at 9 pm ET! We'd love to see what you create! And, welcome to Louise our Guest DT member for the month!

Warm wishes to you today! Cheryl

JUST UST GIRLS #317 WILD CARD!

Hello!  I hope I'm past a noncreative spell when work has consumeed all my time and efforts.  Each evening I look longingly and lovingly at all the stamps and dies I've purchased....
Anyway, it's a happy Saturday because though I'm late I've finished a card that ALMOST fits Sharyn's Just Us Girls challenge for the WILD CARD week-ONE LAYER! That is definitely a challenge for me!  Please check out the JUst Us Girls BLOG for more law abiding (and talented) designers than I! And here is my almost one layer card:

 I could have masked my sledder in, but with the die right at hand I didn't. Well, the card itself is one layer, right? I did use masking paper (I got mine from Simon Says Stamp) to mask off 1" edges on a top fold watercolor paper card.  I stamped some snowflakes in Versamark ink and embossed with white embossing powder so I could ink with my ink applicators using a Hero Arts Ombre pad.  Then I wiped ink off the snowflakes so they were white again.

I cut my Dashin By die from the same watercolor paper and colored her with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens and mounted her on dimensionals. I love cards like this when I see them online (three umbrellas -BIG, BIG hero of mine!!) but when I make one I always think I should add more! KWIM? Well, I'm going to leave this one alone!! I did add stardust stickles to the snowflakes, girl's hat and Wink of Stella to the sled runners, but that's it!

Please join in our challenge this week and enter your card/project on our BLOG. You could win a chance to be our Guest DT member in January!!

Thanks for visiting! Cheryl

Just Us Girls #315 COLOR WEEK!

                             Hi there! It's color week at Just Us Girls and Chris has a great one for us! Use ORANGE, PURPLE AND BLACK on your card or project!  Very timely, me thinks!  Please check out our BLOG for loads of inspiration with these colors!  We'd love to have you enter!  You may win the chance to be a guest designer with us early next year!!

                                          
Here's my card:

I have been just crazy about MFT for a long time, but especially this year.  I love, love the Harvest mouse set and have made a few cards with these cute little fellows recently.  This one is stamped in Archival Black on watercolor paper and colored and "watercolored" with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.  I just love how his purple sweater and orange vest look so cozy!  My gingham background stamp is stamped in Cajun Craze onto Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  The "purple"  on my card is actually Blackberry Bliss (cut from an MFT die)-I just can't seem to pick up my other purples-I love this one sooooo much! I did use a thin frame of black and then mounted it all on a white card base.  I'm not sure the BOO! die fits the cute little mouse, but it sure fit my card perfectly!! haha

It's from L'l inkers and cut from Apricot Appeal (which some company should make again!!!) sponged with distress Spiced Marmalade.

Thanks for looking! You have until Thursday, October 22 to join in on this week's color challenge over at Just Us Girls!! So, I hope you can make some time to create this weekend!

Cheryl

Just Us Girls #314 TREND Week!!

It's a great new week at Just Us Girls!  Nancy has the perfect challenge for us now that it's TREND week again!  STENCILS!! Us a little or a lot-it's your choice! They're inexpensive, fun to use, great techniques and you can't get any hotter than stencils right now! There is so much inspiration on the BLOG! Check it out!

                          
And here's my project: (Sorry, I took just a FEW picks!) ;)

 This is a Ranger tag that I made in a class my crafty friend, Lisa and I took last Friday at our LSS-Buffalo Stamps! We had such fun learning techniques from Tammy Tutterow-who is an artistic genius and a great teacher!

 We laid the tag on our mat, the stencil on top and sprayed with distress spray for this one! How easy is that! But she had so many more great step by step techniques, if you ever get a chance, take a class with her!  See the red spatters on the left?  that was an accident! When I was spraying some other tags at home (distress ink -berries) this tag was a little too close by!  I decided I liked it, though!  It works with the dark rush wrinkly ribbon I used to tie at the top. Happy accident!

 My stamp is from Rubbernecker and I bought it at the local stamp and scrap show Lisa and I go to in August.  I thought it would fit a tag perfectly. It didn't, but with the little edge left over I took my gold paint pen-bought 2 years ago and still in package- to line the edges.  Loved the look when it was done.

Oh, the stencil is also from Ranger and is called flourish!  Stencils are so easy and fun to create with and we all hope you'll join us this week in Nancy's challenge! Details are on our JUGS blog!
You may have a chance to be a guest designer with us in the future if you win Chic of the Week!
Have a great weekend!

Just Us Girls #313 WORD WEEK

Sue has the challenge for us this week and the word she's chosen is Sympathy.  They are the cards we don't really want to make but, all too often, seem to need.   It's also World Cardmaking Day, so besides showing this card, I'm hoping to make at least one other card in honor of our great hobby!

                              

Here's my card for the challenge:

I fully admit to being in a creative drought at the moment and to CASEing Jan Tink for this card! Here's the link to her blog post:  THINKING OF YOU I love that she has purple in her card. I just wasn't sure about using it since my card is going to a friend who has lost her husband. I have a really juicy Black Archival ink pad so I glued the cloud to the card base and stamped the tree direct to paper.  I was pleased at how well it worked.  My cloud die is from Papertrey Ink.  My Hills are cut from dies by My Favorite Things from various Stampin' Up and PTI designmer papers.  I cut some 5,5 inch papers and then matched them up the way I wanted them to look on the card, glued them together and then trimmed off the edges to fit the 4.5 inch card front.  The piece was then too think to go into my corner punch so It is glued to the card front and then I hand-trimmed the corners.  The finial step was to sponge the edges-vintae photo distress ink.  The sentiment has two parts so I colored the part I wanted with a water color (not copic) marker, huffed on it and stamped it to the card front.

Thanks for looking today!  We sure hope you'll join in our challenge this week and Happy Worlk Cardmaking Day!!

Cheryl

Just Us girls #311-Color Challenge Week!

Hi! It's still warm in Western New York, but this is the last weekend of summer! Autumn is official on September 23 (or is it 22nd?)  Anyway, Maria has an autumnal color challenge for us this week! She wants us to use RED, YELLOW and ORANGE on our projects!  Great challenge, Maria!

Here are my cards!  I have an August birthday and I have NEVER been SO late with my thank you notes!  Because of that I've made 15 variations on this first card so that I can get them written and sent soon!  I'm showing you three of my cards, so I hope you like!

 First up, I used Paper Smooches "Best Buds" stamp set , stamped on water color paper and colored with clean color real brush zig pens and water on a regular paint brush.  This one got a little dirty when I used a stencil brush on the edges with soft suede and got to much in an area. I had to 'dirty' up the rest in an effort to hide my error! I used a black sharpie for the ziggy lines around and also used lots of stickles for sparkle and shine!  The 'thanks' die cut is from Your Next Die. A perfect fit!

Same card, different photo-see the sparkle?

 And, two different cards with an altered placement of the focal image.

We sure hope you'll join the JUGS team in the challenge this week!  LOTS of DT inspiration can be see HERE!  Link your card or project to the site by 9 pm ET on Thursday, Sept. 24!  You may also have a chance to be our Guest DT member for November!

Thanks for coming by today!

Cheryl

Just Us Girls-Trend Challenge! #310

Hello!  Now that we are back in school I sure welcome the weekend!  So happy that Saturday is here! One reason to ALWAYS be happy it's Saturday is a new Just Us Girls challenge! This week it's my turn to host and I picked BALLOONS as the trend !  They are every where lately, don't you think?!  In dies and stamps and in all shapes and sizes!

I used a new stamp set from Darcie's Heart and Home rubber stamps that I got when Lisa and I went to the Stamp and Scrap Tour show when it was in town. It's so much fun to see sooo many products in person! We spend the day and a few dollars there! I colored the duck with my Clean Color Zig Pens and fussy cut him out by hand. (I'm such a wimp-I want dies for every stamp now!).  The balloom is cut using a die from MFT. I used real twine to tie it in his open wing.

The background is made on watercolor paper using Ken Oliver's Colorburst Powders.  Lisa showed them to me when we were in our Local stamp store in August.  She is such an enabler!  I bought 3 or 4 that day. Before even using them I saw that Taylored Expressions was carrying all the colors and as long as I was ordering I ordered the rest of the colors!  Geez! Anyway, I tapped a little powder onto watercolor paper in a few areas (crimson, yellow and orange) and then spritzed carefully with water from a distance away.  Then I waited and watch the water work.  If the paper curled and water went to the edge I used a little paper toweling to wick that off.  I wanted it kind of splotchy so I dried it with my heat gun. I did the same with green and ultramarine blue on paper before cutting the balloon. I used a little clear wink of stella on the balloon to add sparkle.It picked up a little color.
I understand Ken Oliver has some You tube videos so I think I'll watch how he uses his powders before I play again! However, I kind of like how mine came out!

We, at Just Us Girls, sure hope you'll look over your crafty supplies and find balloons you can use (or even just circles!) and join us in the week's challenge!
Check out our blog for tons of inspiration!