Time Out - Great News!

Hi everyone!  I have some news!



Yes, I made the team!  There's a new blog on the horizon and it's called Time Out.  You can read about the challenges and new design team here.  I came across the blog a while ago when they had a DT call.  I applied (twice!) and was accepted!  The challenges run every two weeks and there is a rotation of 4 different challenges.  Love those kind of challenges where I can use my own supply of stamps! 

 

Our maiden challenge will be on Thursday, March 13th, so stay tuned! 



Just Us Girls #229 - Photo Inspiration Challenge

Hi everyone!  I'm the hostess this week over at Just Us Girls for the Photo Inspiration Challenge.  I've chosen a photo I hope you'll get lots of inspiration from!

Here's a closeup.  I just loved the spools and how they were decorated.  I also loved the colors!

I had so many ideas running through my, but settled on this.  The spool dies are from My Favorite Things Sew Nifty set.  I cut them several times and glued them together to make them more substantial.  The top ones were run through the wood grain impression plate.  Then I covered them with some picket fence distress stain.  I covered the middle of them with pattern paper that looks similar to one of the spools.  The vellum piece was run through the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch.  I changed the sentiment piece a bit, but it still has the same feel I think!

You can see more inspiration from the JUGs team at these blogs.

 

JUGs blog

Cheryl Rowley

Maria Levine

Marisa Ritzen

Nancy Leppek

Sharyn Polesel

Sue Trembeth

Sue VanDeVusse

Vicki Dutcher

Melissa Hubert, February Guest Designer

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Recipe

Stamps:  Well Preserved (My Time Made Easy)

Paper:  Vintage cream, kraft, black, vellum, It's the Little Things (Fancy Pants)

Ink:  Archival jet black, picket fence distress stain

Accessories:  Sew Nifty die (MFT), button, twine, Swiss Dots embossing folder, wood grain impression plate (PTI)

 





 

 

Seize the Sketch

Hi friends!  I went to my LSS yesterday and purchased some more fun supplies to play with.  One of the purchases was this Paper Smooches set called Hooties (love that name!) and the matching dies.  Well, I'm a messy crafter and now can not find the die for this owl!  I guess it's karma because I just commented on someone's blog who said she misplaced part of a stamp she cut apart, but found it later.  I'm thinking it's in my trash can.  I've looked in there two times, but I think I need to do a better job in there.  I'm so mad!

 

Anyway, I cut the owl out of watercolor paper and stamped the image using Archival jet black ink.  He's colored with Distress markers and a water brush.  I added glossy accents to his eyes.  The branch in the stamp set has a paisley pattern on it and it didn't work well with my pattern paper.  So I stamped it, cut it out, and used Hero Arts latte chalk ink to color the back side of the branch.  I just used the ink to paper technique to color it.  Then I ran it through the wood grain impression plate.   The main ivory panel was also run through the wood grain impression plate.  To finish it off, I added the happy birthday sentiment (can you see it on the bottom?), button and twine, and the crystals. 

The sketch is from this week's Seize the Sketch challenge.

I'm also hooking this up with the Catered Crop birthday challenge.  This is a new challenge to me, so I'm hoping I'm legal in entering



Thanks for stopping by!

 

Recipe

Stamps:  Hooties and Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)

Paper:  Vintage cream, aqua mist (PTI), watercolor paper, Find and Dandy (MME)

Ink:  Archival jet black, latte chalk ink (Hero Arts), Distress markers: spiced marmalade, rusty hinge, mustard seed, old paper, walnut stain

Accessories:  Hooties dies (Paper Smooches), wood grain impression plate (PTI), button, twine, crystals, glossy accents



Just Us Girls #228 - Color Challenge

Hi everyone!  This week is color challenge week over at Just Us Girls and Sharyn found this great photo to pull the colors from.  I fell in love with the stripes!

Here's a close-up of the photo.

Like I said, I fell in love with the stripes!  And I have to tell you about my illness...I have stencilitis!  Ever since I took the Stenciled class from Online Card Classes, I've been hooked on them!  Actually, I was using them a little before the class, but I'm loving them even more and more!  The diagonal stripe stencil is from Simon Says Stamp.  I used Hero Arts inks with sponge daubers to get the ink onto the paper.  The dies were cut four times each with white cardstock and once in the colored cardstock and stacked together.  I added some shimmer with a Wink of Stella brush.  I added sequins and some pretty ribbon to soften up the harsh lines of the stripes.  In hindsight looking at the photo now, I would have swapped out the grape ink for a softer purple.  

Please stop by these blogs to see what the JUGs team designed as well as our Guest Designer.

 

JUGs blog

Cheryl Rowley

Maria Levine

Marisa Ritzen

Nancy Leppek

Sharyn Polesel

Sue Trembeth

Sue VanDeVusse

Vicki Dutcher

Melissa Hubert, February Guest Designer

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe
Paper:  Neenah white, Bermuda bay, regal rose
Ink:  Butter bar, pale tomato, bubble gum, tide pool, cornflower, grape juice (all Hero Arts)
Accessories:  Diagonal Stripe stencil (Simon Says Stamp), Tipped Tops and birthday trio dies (PTI), sequins, ribbon, Wink of Stella shimmer brush

Stencils + Glitter

Well Jennifer McGuire had my attention again the other day with this video.  I just had to try this technique and CASED her cards.  It's such a cool technique!  You have to watch the video to see how she did this.  It's too much to explain, but I used Glitter Ritz for the technique.  These cards use Ocean Spray and Cool Highlights glitter and the Large Lotus Pattern stencil from Hero Arts.  I built up the "thanks" die by cutting it out 6 times and then covering the top one in glitter. 

With the leftovers, I created this card.  I embossed the white base piece with a linen impression plate.  The pieces on the side were cut off the sides of the piece used on the card above.  I kept them to use somewhere and I thought they looked nice on the sides.   The "thanks" die was created in the same way as above.



 



These cards are so pretty and shimmery in real life.  That Glitter Ritz is some really cool stuff!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Recipe