PTI Blog Hop

Time for yet another PTI Blog Hop - what was I thinking??? The day before Thanksgiving!!?? Ok - this month's assignment was quick and easy wrap or tag. Well, when I think quick and easy along with WRAP I immediately turn to My Timeless Templates.

This month I used the petite version of the Take Along Tote. I whipped up three of them in no time using the Rustic Snowflake paper. Each one can nicely hold a gift card or some sweet treats, a small lotion, etc. I've packaged up one of them with two packages of hot chocolate mix, some chocolate covered peppermint sticks and a tube of Burt's Bees lip gloss. Since I'll be popping these gift boxes onto my co-workers desks I didn't even need to make tags - can't be any easier than that! I will totally miss Lauren as part of the PTI team and wish her ALL the best in her new venture. I look forward to what else is in store :-)

The button detail on these totes makes them fun and cheery.

And the backs are just as cute as the fronts. I've made my co-workers several gifts using the templates over the past year and most of them still have the adorable boxes on their desks - when I say - "Why don't you take it home?" they reply - "Cause they are too cute!"

Happy Thanksgiving all. I won't get all the hoppin' done tonight but I will get around.

Just Us Girls Challenge #8 - Color

Wow, can we say FUN color challenge for you today, brought to you by Just Us Girls and hosted by none other than our lovely and talented Lisa Kind!! Lisa picked some great traditional fall colors with a twist - you are to use Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust and then the twist is to add some Bashful Blue (you may use similar colors if you don't have those exact colors.)

Here's my card with these fresh and fun fall colors:

I wanted to continue making Thanksgiving cards (thanks, Lisa!!) so I will have enough to send to the family.   I didn't have the exact colors Lisa called for so I used PTI's Orange Zest and Spring Rain plus SU!'s Really Rust! If you click check out the detail (below) you'll see that I also used some pieces of PTI's Autumn Abundance DP (LOVE this paper). To bring in more of the blues I used my blue copic #21 and outlined all the leaves and stems right on the DP - nice subtle effect eh?

A layer of Spring Rain which I ran through the dotted swiss CB really helped bring out the blue I had added to the DP.  For a final accent to again highlight the blue I added a blue button on the cork flower. My sweet friend, Hanne, from The Netherlands, sent me some of these cork flowers punched out - they have adhesive backing so it was a piece of ribbon, add button, stick to cork flower with large glue dot - peel off adhesive backing then stick the entire cork flower, ribbon and button embellishment to the card. THANK YOU Hanne for this LOVELY idea and gift!!!

Please play along with us with these great colors. Be sure to link to the Mr. Linky on the Just Us Girls blog. Also - check out my sidebar for the other Just Us Girls Team members - you'll surely see some GOOD ideas. Have a LOVELY weekend.

Gina K Blog Hop

Time for a new kind of HOP over here with Gina K Designs. This time the hop is open to all members of StampTV who want to play along.  We had to use one of this month's new release stamp sets - that was the only requirement. Since I just received my fabulous Festive Frames by the "Oh so talented Melanie Muenchinger", here's my card for tonight's hop:

This close up will show you more about how I did the poinsettias - I stamped and colored the entire image then I stamped the two corners again on a 2nd sheet of Pure Luxury Ivory CS and colored just the flowers and then cut those out with sharp snips and popped them up over the first layer. I added pearls to the centers of the flowers and the berries have each been dotted with Crystal Effects for that shiny glossy look. I also colored the oval "frame" (pink) and the outside of the overall frame (Green) with my copics to give the illusion of more layers.

Thanks for looking! Have fun hopping and have a GREAT WEEKEND!
Hugs n smiles...

StampTV Challenges!

Here are several cards I made recently for some StampTV Challenges. I LOVE StampTV and don't get to play the challenges as often as I would like. SO - in no particular order...

Madonna and Child - using Split Negative technique (Gina has a video on how to do it on StampTV)
Features a stamp I have owned for more than 20 years and it's mixed with two NEW stamps from Nina Brackett's Vintage Borders set, available from Gina K Designs.

For this week's StampTV Sketch challenge - again using the new Vintage Borders plus some Gina K papers which I LOVE. I really like the deep brown with the red as opposed to black. A touch of gold embossing makes things pop.

Finally, this project was the Potluck Friday challenge this week to make a card ON a card.

The little flower opens up to reveal a simple sentiment on the inside...

And then the WHOLE card opens up to have another sentiment and image on the inside....

That's it for now - I've got more Just Us Girls to work on, an upcoming Stamp TV Members Blog Hop, and a surprise and FUN special Blog Hop soon that you're going to LOVE!

Just Us Girls Challenge #7 - Technique!

Good Saturday morning, Stampers! It's week SEVEN for Just Us Girls. It's also a SPECIAL DAY for our DT girl, Dana - can y'all give a BIG shout out to Dana for a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Today's challenge is a technique challenge with a twist and it's one that you will all be able to do. Tracey is our hostess this week - you need to use DRY EMBOSSING somewhere on your card. SO get our your Cuttlebug, Big Shot, Wizard etc. OR your light box and do some dry embossing. Now we said "with a twist" - the twist is to make your card a BIRTHDAY card. Yea, Dana - sorry girl we changed it up on you so we could all wish you a happy birthday!! (We told Dana the twist was to make a thankful card!) 

Here's my card  - details on how I did the embossing to follow.

And here's the detail shot of the cupcake and icing with "sugar sprinkles" (aka glitter.)

Ok - now on to the details. I have a great friend, Selma Stevenson, who recently posted a tutorial on her blog on how to do double embossing. I have always wondered how she did that so I finally got around to trying it - it worked like a charm! THANKS, Selma. Here is a link to her double embossing tutorial if you want to try it too.  First I embossed my white CS with my CB birthday folder, I dry embossed the center using a nestie oval.  With the nestie in place, I then sponged with PTI Lavendar Moon and Plum Pudding. Then I used two other oval nesties and I cut them out (and embossed them) to create the center focal image ovals. I made another card with this same technique as well and was also pleased with how it turned out.

Once you have made your card, then enter up your project on our Mr. Linky on the Just Us Girls site. Remember you must provide a DIRECT LINK to your project  - not just a link to your blog or gallery. Give us your best work - you'll have a chance to be our top pick stamper called "Chic of the Week" and a special badge to wear on your blog. Can't wait to see what you emboss for us. Be sure to hop over to Dana's blog (see list below) and wish her a happy birthday :-)

Here are the other Design Team blogs - I'm sure you'll get lots of inspiration here as well.

Dana (the birthday girl)
Kristen
Lisa
Mona
Maria
Tracey

Have a great weekend. Hug the ones you love.

An Angel for a Special Cause

By now I am sure that many of you in the stamping community have heard of the tragic loss that a fellow stamper has suffered recently. Sarah Anderson's 3 year old son, Henry,  passed away from a virus on November 2. It has been devastating for the family. In an effort to help raise money for a memorial tree at the local Zoo in Henry's honor (he loved the zoo),  Paper Makeup Stamps has designed a special stamp as a tribute to Henry.

Just Us Girls is conducting a special challenge to all of you out there who want to help this cause. Please purchase the Henry the Snow Angel Fairy digital stamp (it's only $3.00), then make a card with it and post it to the Mr. Linky on the "Just Us Girls" blog (be sure you are on the right Mr. Linky since we have one on each challenge.) We will randomly choose one participant from our Mr. Linky to receive a $15 gift certificate to Paper Makeup Stamps when the week is over. You have one week to do this special challenge. The "Henry Challenge" will be running concurrently with our regular challenge for part of the week since we will have a brand new Just Us Girls technique challenge on Saturday hosted this week by Tracey.

Here is my card made with this digi stamp:

I worked with Gina K's Cranberry Tart and PTI's Kraft and Spring Rain papers. I had printed off Henry onto my GKD Pure Luxury CS then set out to color him with copics. Finally, I added some 3D snow effects with my new Glistening Snow Writer pen (JoAnn's) and a light dusting of glitter. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Snowfall Additions set.

 
If you want to help further, you might also pop over to Pink Cat Studio website. Sarah is a Design Team member for them. Pink Cat Studio has also created a digital stamp set to help raise money for Henry's family. You can find out more about it here.

Thank you all for supporting this worthy cause. My heartfelt prayers go out to the Anderson family.

Just Us Girls Week 6 - Sketch Challenge

Wow this is already challenge #6?!?! I must say - again - that you girls are really rockin' our challenges.

We are thrilled that so many of you leave comments about how much you are enjoying these. We are trying to make them fun but also somewhat challenging to help each of you (and certainly us, too) to grow in our stampin' abilities, styles and techniques. And besides all that - it's just plain FUN!!!!

This week we bring you another SKETCH challenge for the oh-so talented Maria. Maria cooked up this new sketch just for y'all and we truly hope you will use it this week. I just LOVE to see the hundreds of ways that girls interpret sketch challenges. :-) REMEMBER: every participant who posts a direct link to their project by the Thursday deadline is eligible to be considered as our TOP PICK stamper which we call "Chic of the Week".  You get your own special blog badge, too! We plan to then select one gal from our Chic of the Week winners from each month to become a Guest Designer with Just Us Girls for a future month! SO - come out down and play with us! Show us what you've got!

Here's MY take on the sketch - ever since Dana's color challenge for Just Us Girls, which kicked me into a winter mode, I've been resisting going to winter.... BUT I really wanted to do a winter theme this week so I gave up and went with it LOL.  This precious snowman (I LOVE snowmen) is an old, old CTMH I think. BUT he's super fun to color - used my copics. I modified the sketch to use an oval nestie instead of a circle cause I wanted lots of Mr. Snowman to show.  Some simple sponging while the image was still in the nestie gave the soft, subtle "sky" BG.

Here's a close up of this adorable little guy. What you can't see are the stickles on his hat and button. BUT you can also see a close up of the snow flake embellishments. I found these after winter on clearance last year and was SO excited when I saw Maria's sketch - I just knew I HAD to use these flaky embellies :-)

Now - the double layers on Maria's sketch I chose to go with some "snow" hills using one of my EK punches. Each of the two "snow" layers is popped up on dimensionals and there is, of course, glitter on the mounds - I really wanted to use some white Flower Soft for the snow - but, alas, the stamp store is out.  I kept the rest of the card simple - no ribbon *gasp* because of all the other elements I have on this.  I'll be sure to send this card to one of my California friends in January LOL.

Be sure to hop over to the rest of the Just Us Girls team. Everyone has some fun takes on the sketch. Once you make YOUR card - be sure to go back to the Just Us Girls website and link up your project to Mr. Linky.

Just Us Girls Team:

Dana

Kristen

Lisa

Mona

Maria

Tracey

I'll be looking at and commenting on your projects! Ciao and thanks for playing along with Just Us Girls.

A Loonie Stamper Birthday (and Mojo Monday)

Happy Birthday Char!!! I am honored to have been asked (again) by the Lovely Loonie Ladies to help celebrate a birthday! This time for Charlene Austin - you may know her blog, Willow and Paisley (and if not get OVER there and check it out!)  Char, I understand your actual birthday was a couple of days ago but gosh - if it's not on a Friday then it can't be a Loonie Challenge :-)

So - here's to you, girl. I guess by now some of you have figured out that I just rediscovered my Stamping Bella stamps that I got on the cruise (and that I had forgotten how much I LOVE!) I pulled out the mini version of the "Content -to-be-a-Bella" (the big one was too big.) I would almost rename this one Chillaxin Bella!  I decided to work with this week's Mojo Monday challenge for my layout and I am loving the Basic Grey Lemonade DP (I refuse to give in to winter just yet LOL) so here's a colorful, girly card to help you celebrate - the real one is, as they say, in the mail! Hope this was one of your best birthdays EVAAAHHHH.  Muuuaaahhhhh! (Said in my best Bella voice LOL) The sentiment is Verve and the dots under the word come from one of my PTI sets. (LOVE those dots.) I decorated the inside too but forgot to photograph it (geeesh) and it IS in the mail. LOL

Be sure to get to all of the Loonie's blogs AND they will take you to the rest of the girls who are hoppin along to wish Char a fantabulous birthday.

The Loonies:

Dee
Jewels

Maria

Regan

Wendy

And friends of Loonies:

Ashley Newell

Sue Pardue

Char Cundy

Steph Day

Carly Robertson 

Dana White

Jessica Diedrich

Michelle Woerner

Nancy McKinney

Christie Ortman

Krissy

Ciao ladies - thanks, as always, for stopping by.

You Totally Rock! (CTD & Mercy)

I've been a posting fiend these past couple of days (unusual for me!) so...
If you are looking for my Gina K CSS Christmas Blog Hop post please click here.
If you are looking for my Loonie Stamper Birthday Blog Hop post, scroll down or click here.

If you're just here to see what's new or to check out the CTD and Mercy challenges then read on...

Today's card was designed for both the Color Throwdown Challenge #67

and Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #46.

AFTER I got my card 80% done I realized that Mercy's sketch was a square and mine was not! AAACK -  but sketches are supposed to just be the general guidelines right!?!? (ok you would think by now I would be better at reading the fine details!)

I made a congratulations card for a special friend of mine who is celebrating a wonderful achievement. I wanted to make her something totally FUN and even a little wild/whimsical.

The happy mouse is from one of my favorite older SU! sets (can't remember the name and I'm too tired to climb back upstairs and look it up) - the sentiment is from GinaK's Tag Lines. The accent stamps that coordinate with the Vintage 4 nesties comes from WaltzingMouse Stamps - I LOVE them!  I didn't have any Durango paper but I had the kraft, sky and artichoke. I substituted GinaK's Pumpkin Spice for the Durango - hope it's close. I used my PaperTrey Guidelines set to create some DP of my own to go with this week's colors then I found scraps of some sky and artichoke DPs for my accent pieces.  Used a colorful brad on the focal image "frame" and added some pearl accents for the Mercy sketch but because I didn't make it square I was out of room and couldn't put all 3 at the top.

I hope my friend gets a BIG SMILE from this card. Thanks for visiting. I hope to see all of you on Saturday for our next Just Us Girls Challenge - we have a fun sketch for you this week.