Coloring Time

Good morning - is anyone counting down the holi-days? I'm in semi-panic mode... but not too bad.

It's time for a JUGS color challenge - since I am CHALLENGED by TIME right now I decided to show you a few QUICK and EASY cards I make at this time of year.

The JUGS color challenge this week is to use Cherry Cobbler (Red), Old Olive (Green) and White or Kraft.

Here's what I do every year... I always need a ton of quick, easy and simple thank you cards for the holidays.) I SAVE all of my holiday cards from the previous year. (I get a lot of cards from businesses, too and they are always gorgeous.) I simply cut up the old Christmas cards and make them into simple thank yous for this year... Here are three I made using these colors. I love the beautiful embossed backgrounds and the gorgeous images - why not re-use them? My friends always comment on how fun my thank you's are :-)

Now, for a little holiday inspiration from the team...

♥♥ Just Us Girls Design Team  ♥♥

Andrea

Elise

Kathryn

Lynn

Maria

Vicki

♥♥ Be sure to stop and visit our Featured Designer for the month ♥♥

Lenet

Hope you will be able to play along with us. In the meantime I wish all of you a joyous holiday season!!

Hugs n smiles,
Stampin' Pam

All that Glitters... a JUGS challenge

Ok girls - get our yer glitter! Maria has a technique challenge for you for Just Us Girls. It's to try the stained glass technique.  (See JUGS' post for full details).

I am late getting this done and I do admit that I had to "cheat" with this one. I normally work ahead of schedule and as of 5:30 Friday night I had not even started - then unexpected company dropped in - so at 10:00 when I tried to do the technique I just wasn't having luck getting my glitter to stick. SO I stamped on paper instead of acetate but I've got a LOT of glitter for you! LOL

I used one of my favorite Christmas sets from JustRite - Christmas Ornaments 3-1/4. I got out my fine tipped glue pen and my Martha Stewart glitter and glittered in small sections. The mid-section is covered with Dazzling Diamonds. Its really pretty IRL.  Here's a detail shot:

Once my focal image was all glittered and cut out with Nesties I assembled a very simple card using some fantastic glittered CS I found at my LSS. I wasn't sure it I would even use it for anything but this was a perfect opportunity.

Here's a final look.  I also stamped the inside with one of JustRite's Christmas sentiments and embossed it with silver (but I forgot to photograph it - ooops).

I do hope you'll carve out a few minutes to play along this week. Be sure to swing by the JUGS post and leave some love for the DT girls AND for Elise (Mamacow), our Featured Designer.

Have a great weekend!
Happy holiday hugs,

Sweet Christmas Treat box

Greetings to all My Time Made Easy fans! It's December first and the MTME team is showcasing Lauren's fabulous new template called Wonderfully Wrapped. It's just adorable and SO versatile.

I have a friend who loves peppermint candies so I made this sweet little gift box filled with them for her.

 I assembled the Wonderfully Wrapped template using red and white card stock. Then I cut out the decorative layers and stamped them with the peppermint candy images from Sugar and Spice stamp set. Here's the back and sides of the box. I added red buttons and white twine to the ends. This template is SO easy!!

Here's a close up of the label/focal image I did for the front.

I used Killer Curves stamp set in combination with Sugar and Spice. I also used the Killer Curves cut file to make a perfect mat for the label.

I finished up the ensemble with a sweet little tag. The sleigh is from the adorable Secret Santa stamp set. A few ribbons and some Baker's Twine and I had my little peppermint gift set completed.

I hope you will stop over at the My Time Made Easy Gallery and see lots and lots of wonderful inspiration. Then hop over to the store and pick up some goodies to make YOUR time easy, too!

Supplies from My Time Made Easy LLC:

Pretty Packaging Templates:   Wonderfully Wrapped

Pretty Impressions © Stamps: Sugar and Spice, Killer Curves, Secret Santa

Pretty Pieces © Cut Files: Killer Curves

Check out all of the Design Team Member's below for some fantastic ideas!!!

Hugs n Smiles,

Another JustRite Christmas

Oh goodness - do you ever have your blog post DISAPPEAR from Blogger? I am a Mac user and a common keyboard command is Command-Z for undo (to undo typing, for example). Well... if I use that command in Blogger it deletes my entire post and unless I IMMEDIATELY close the page without saving it's GONE. Arghhhhhhh.

So here I go again...  it's time for another JustRite Christmas card.

I used two images from Hearts Come Home set and colored the bells and poinsettias with Copics. I punched out the images and created my simple tiled layout then adhered all the elements. This set is so versatile. The images make for super cute tags OR they can be used as multiples for a different style.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs n smiles,

Pretty Poinsettia Basket and Card

Good morning - did you survive Black Friday? I was heading out by 3:30 am - met up with my daughter and best friend in the 18º COLD. The line at Target was WAYYYYYYY too long so we headed to the mall and hit up Macy's, JC Penny, Carsons, Bath and Body plus a few of our other favorites THEN we went to Target and by then it was more than manageable!!  It's a great tradition. I only with my daughter in Germany could have been with us :-(

Anyhow - quick post for today - lots to do. Today's challenge is to make a 3D embellishment of some sort for your card or for a template.  I first made up a small little gift box using PTI's Favor It 2 die. I stamped the front and back panels with the poinsettia from Melanie Muenchinger's A Year of Flowers from Gina K - embossed in gold then colored with Copics.

 To accompany my gift box I chose the Perfect Poinsettia cut file from My Time Made Easy as a focal point for a super simple card. It's an easy way to make a stunning 3D embellishment.

The card needed to be simple so the focus was on the Poinsettia. On the card and the template poinsettias I used varying sized gold beads for the centers of the flowers.

Here's the whole set. I'll fill this sweet little box with a few goodies for someone on my gift list.

Can't wait to see what you come up with. Be sure to check out the Design Team (sidebar ->) and our Featured Designer, Cheryl Rowley for some additional inspiration.

Have a great weekend.
Hug the ones you love,

Poinsettia Star Made Easy

It's the final day of the November My Time Made Easy release and the entire team has projects to share. See the end of my post for the DT list but meanwhile come along while I share a super fun and very versatile template this month called Star of the Show. Although I'm featuring this as a holiday gift box, it could be used for a student, a friends, for a sports fan etc. Lots of photos today so go all the way to the end to see the card, too.

I started by cutting my template with my cricut. I assembled the lid then I assembled the base only to realize that OH OH - I had sized my lid to 95% of its original size but I forgot to resize the BASE to the same 95%. So my two gold pieces didn't fit together.  I had used some spectacular gold paper from the PaperTemptress but I had just cut my last piece. Hmmm - what to do - AH HA! I cut another base at 95% from GinaK Pure Luxury ivory CS. I then stamped then embossed the ivory with one of my favorite MTME stamps sets, Fanciful Flourishes. Ok so far so good. No one will ever know (tee hee).

Here you can see the embossed sides and the ivory/gold sheer ribbon I tied the box with.

Oh yes - and the tag - I started out with the new cut file Trendy Tags Set 3 and when it came time to stamp and emboss the tag - sentiment from Secret Santa - I tried to emboss only to realize my SECOND heat gun just quit working - ACK - this was heat gun #2 in just a month - what is going on!!?  So I stamped in gold metallic ink and did not emboss. *grin*

 Here's a shot of the star template from the back/bottom.

As for the poinsettia - I knew I wanted to make an elegant star box so I immediately thought of a white poinsettia. I cut the pieces of this fantastic new cut file called Perfect Poinsettia from ivory and dark green CS. I ran each of the leaves through my crimper (lightly) then rubbed out most of the crimps. I scored a center vein and bent up the petals. I put it all together with a small brad and then adhered the entire poinsettia to the top of the box with dimensionals - the ribbon can be removed without removing the poinsettia. I lightly glittered some of the leaf tips with MS gold glitter. Reminds me of the white poinsettias I see in the florist at Christmas time. I added some gold beads to the center.

Finally here is the card I made to go with the box. Again, since my heat gun died I couldn't emboss so I just stamped in gold ink. I stamped on ivory the jingle bell, bow, sentiment and tiny flourish from Secret Santa! and then cut it out with the new Trendy Tags Set 4 and matted in gold.

Some fun ribbon treatment with a few gold beads to go with the poinsettia center on my star.

Here's the whole set.

Hope you have enjoyed this month's new goodies - Please top by the rest of the Design Team to see what they have for you today. Thanks as always for your kind comments and for taking a look at my projects.

♥♥♥♥♥
My Time Made Easy Design Team:

Lauren Meader (owner)
Kristin Bueter
Catherine Doucette

Katie Shawger Cotton

Tracey Cuccia
Pam Imholz

Tammy Hershberger
Lisa Kind
Tangii Crain
Debbie Marcinkiewicz
Monique Hansen

Supplies from My Time Made Easy LLC:

Pretty Packaging Templates:   Star of the Show

Pretty Impressions © Stamps: Secret Santa, Fanciful Flourishes

Pretty Pieces © Cut Files: Perfect Poinsettia, Trendy Tags Set 3, Trendy Tags Set 4


Other Supplies:
Cardstock: Gina K Pure Luxury Ivory, PaperTemptress gold, Pinefeather
Ink: Versamark, Gold metallic
Embellishments: Gold half pearls, ivory and gold sheer ribbon, MS gold glitter, gold twine

Hugs n Smiles,

JustRite 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hop 9

Hi all - wow do we have a treat for you today. Just Us Girls is teaming up with JustRite Stampers to bring you some Christmas cheer! 

Welcome to the 9th week of JustRite Stampers’ Wednesday feature, 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hops!  Every Wednesday until Thanksgiving some of your favorite designers are joining members of the JustRite design team for a series of Christmas blog hops, showcasing JustRite’s entire Christmas Collection of stamps!  JustRite has some Christmas stamps in their newly released CLING line of stamp sets, too -- you can find them HERE.  

For the month of November, the JustRite team is also including some holiday gift ideas using JustRite stamps, so be watching for those on November’s hops!  In celebration of JustRite’s 9th and 10th weeks of Christmas Blog Hops, they have a huge surprise for you -- take 25% off  All JustRite Original Christmas Stamps  now through November 15^th with free shipping within the U.S. Don't forget to tell Santa!!

Ok let's get on with it... Here's what I have for you today. I started out with holiday bookmarks in mind and once I was finished I realized they could also be beautiful tags for those extra special gifts. SO it's your choice - bookmark or tag? I did make them with my office girls in mind - I have more to make but I have a start now.

This first one is intended to be a bookmark since I'll be packaging it up with a little paperback book for my assistant - wanted to say an extra thank you to her for working on a big project for me. She loves to read and she loves snowmen... need I say more?

I'm featuring a terrific JustRite font set for my bookmark/tags. It's called MyriadPro and it's a 95pt font so it's nice and large. Great font for scrapbooking or to create big bold words that really make a statement. I cut it out with Labels 8 Nesties and added some sponging to soften it a bit.  I colored with Copics, added some Dazzling Diamonds for sparkle and then added some Polar White Flower Soft to the snowmen's bodies. Here's a close up.

My second bookmark/tag combines the same MyriadPro 95 pt font with the dove image from Hearts Come Home Christmas set. I stamped the letters in gold ink then embossed them with fine gold embossing powder. After inking up the dove image I wiped the ink off the square border that is part of the image so I would get just the dove and rays. (Thanks Selma for that tip!!) The individual letters made it easy to stamp along the shape of the nestie! Cut these out with Labels10 Nesties - added some ribbon to the top.  The gold paper is from Gina K Designs and it's the most beautiful gold paper! I love it!

My last bookmark/tag is cut from the Large Long Rectangle Nesties. Once again I featured the Myriad Pro 95pt font set along with the poinsettias from Hearts Come Home Christmas set. Traditional red and green colors for this joyful one.

I stamped images in SU! Handsome Hunter ink then colored each of the poinsettias with Copics. The JOY was stamped with Pure Poppy ink. Finished the centers of the flowers with MS gold glitter and sponged some Antique Linen distressed ink on the edges. Snippets of ribbon made an easy finishing touch.

Here's a final look at the first three of my bookmarks/tags.

I hope you are being inspired by these amazing blog hops from JustRite - I'm sure your Christmas mojo is flying high right about now. I was very honored that our JUGS team was asked to participate. Thank you JustRite for allowing us to help showcase your beautiful stamps.

Please visit these designers’ blogs to see what fabulous JustRite Christmas inspiration they have for you on the hop today!

JustRite Inspiration Blog

 

JustRite Design Team:

Debbie Olson
Sharon Harnist 
Heidi Blankenship
Kazan Clark
Stephanie Kraft
Barb Schram
Michele Kovack
Angela Barkhouse
Kathy Jones 

Just Us Girls Design Team:

Alicia Weiman
Andrea Matthews
Dana Gustafson
Kristin Bueter
Maria Levine
Kathryn Berthiaume
Lisa Kind
Pam Imholz

Hugs n' Holiday Stampin Smiles,

Christmas Cards - Made Easy!

Greetings fellow stampers. Today is the official group post for the My Time Made Easy release day. That means that everything is now officially on sale through the store and it means that the Design Team has all come out to share some fun and easy ideas for Christmas cards. Since everyone is busy, our assignment this month was to showcase cards for you that are easy to duplicate. Instead of a set of matching cards I chose to make four different cards so you can see the diversity of styles you can create with this month's new stamps.

First up ... Featuring stamps from the beautiful new Dashing Through the Snow stamp set is my card I call A Sleigh Full of Wishes...

Stamped in a rich burgundy ink and embellished with silver balls, this little sleigh full of goodies is fast and easy to make. The BG is lightly embossed then the burgundy layered sleigh is adhered on top. A little scoring above and below the silver balls adds a little bit of dimension without being complicated or time consuming.

My second card features a classic CAS layout with snowflakes in threes...

Snowflake embossing with my CB on the main card - dotted swiss embossing on the blue layered strip. The main images were stamped on white CS then I did some simple scoring and a little paper piercing. Popped up this layer with dimensionals.  I finished off the card with a few rhinestones for a bit of bling. You could easily whip up a whole set of these in different colors if you wanted to make a quick set of cards as a gift.

A little bit of whimsy with the reindeer for my third card.

I created a simple winter scene with the reindeer and the snow hill stamps. Added some "heart shaped" snowflakes and a simple sentiment for this one. More simple scoring on the main CS layer for texture, an interesting corner punch and flat shiny red embellies for fun. A tiny red rhinestone nose lets you know that this is one special reindeer indeed!

My final card uses stamps from the new Secret Santa stamp set.

Classic red, white and black for this one.  CB embossing, rounded corners, accent strip of black CS. The Santa hat is coated with Polar White Flower Soft for a realistic look and feel. The big bold word Believe and a simple Santa Hat image lead you to the simple inside which says...

That's all for now folks. Four ideas, any one of which can be created in minutes and easily mass produced. I hope you are inspired to design and make your holiday cards. Be sure to drop me a line when you do so I can take a peek at what you do to make Christmas Cards - EASY!!

Be SURE to stop and visit the rest of the team. Each of the gals will have more card ideas to share with you.

♥♥♥♥♥
My Time Made Easy Design Team:

Lauren Meader (owner)
Kristin Bueter
Catherine Doucette

Katie Shawger Cotton

Tracey Cuccia
Pam Imholz   <-- That's me

Tammy Hershberger
Lisa Kind
Tangii Crain
Debbie Marcinkiewicz
Monique Hansen

 
Supplies from My Time Made Easy LLC:

Pretty Impressions © Stamps: Dashing Through the Snow, Secret Santa

Have a great week!

JustRite 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hop #3

Welcome to JustRite Stampers' newest Wednesday feature, 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hop #3!   Every Wednesday up until Thanksgiving some of your favorite designers will be joining some of the JustRite design team for a series of Christmas blog hops, showcasing JustRite’s entire Christmas Collection of stamps!  So mark your calendars for Wednesdays at 9am Central for great Christmas gift, card & project ideas, starting at the JustRite Inspiration blog!

Here's my contribution to the hop. I wanted to do something just a little different so I chose this striking image from the new Back Yard Birds set.

You might not traditionally think of this as a Christmas image but I live in Illinois where the cardinal is our state bird. Every winter these striking red birds visit our backyard and are such a fun and welcome site.  I love seeing their brilliant red plummage against the white snow.  I inked up the stamp with memento black ink then colored with Copics. I added some 3D glittery glue for the snow on the branch. I cut the center image out with nestie and lightly sponged some Ranger Distress Ink. I popped up the stamped ribbon layer with dimensionals to add some depth. Finally I added a couple of sprigs of evergreen topped off with a button.

As for the inside I am featuring one of my favorite new JustRite sentiment sets...

I try to keep a bird feeder out to attract these beautiful birds to our yard and so, just like my sentiment says, hearts come home for the holidays! This image in part of the Christmas Nested Frames set. These are sentiments and frames you will turn to again and again. I colored the branches with copics and added a few red berries to compliment the colors I chose.

Here's a final look from the side so you can see the dimension on the card.

That's all from me - please visit these designers’ blogs to see what fabulous Christmas projects they have for you on the hop today! I promise you will be inspired :-)

JustRite Inspiration Blog
Debbie Olson
Becca Feeken
Sharon Harnist
Jeanne Streiff
Michele Kovack
Mona Pendleton
Heidi Blankenship
Beate Johns

Sankari Wegman
Selma Stevenson
Kellie Fortin
Angela Barkhouse
Pam Imholz --> You are here!
Kazan Clark
Liz Weber
Stephanie Kraft

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are inspired by the team and the marvelous Christmas stamps from JustRiteStampers!

Hugs n smiles.

Cracked Christmas

It's technique time with Just Us Girls and today we're challenging you to try the Cracked Glass technique on your project. It's SUPER cool and makes a really wow focal image!

Here are a couple of links to tutorials.

• Gina K and Stamp TV video of Cracked Glass
• Cracked Glass on SplitCoastStampers

The one from Gina K on StampTV is a video where Gina shows you just how easy it is to do this and
Beate Johns does a great step by step AND video on Splitcoaststampers site as well. 

This week's challenge is being sponsored by JustRite Stampers! (and they have a WOWZA prize package to offer too!!!) We are SO tickled that they have enjoyed the JUGS team efforts and they graciously asked us if they could sponsor us again (how could we say no to such a great company?!?!).  JustRite asked us each to make a Christmas project so get ready to be inspired for the holidays!!!

I am just in love with JustRite Stamper's new Christmas Ornament 3-1/4 set. Probably because I grew up with this style of tree ornament and they were usually made from delicate but beautiful glass.  I opted for very traditional colors on this one. I started by embossing my ornament and circular border with fine gold embossing powder. I then colored with Copics (JustRite now carries Copics in color-coordinated sets) THEN I went to work to make the cracked glass. You can't really see the gold embossing here but it's there IRL.

I was totally thrilled with how wonderfully mine "cracked".  (But remember if you don't like your crack pattern you can reheat and cool and crack again!)  I also used a bit of distressing ink to add to the vintage look of the cracked glass and I used it on my vanilla CS for a vintage flair as well.

An easel card was the perfect way to show off this beautiful new sentiment from the stamp set called Christmas Nested Sentiments and Verse. I love this sentiment because I believe that it IS the amazement and wonder of children that is part of what makes Christmas so special. The frame around it is the larger of the two frames from Victorian Nested Frames. I simply stamped with Gold ink (SU!) and then embossed with the same fine gold embossing powder that I used on the ornament. I added an organdy bow and some red pearls as accents to finish off the project.

I really, really hope you will try this technique. I was a little scared when I first did this several months ago but it's SUPER easy and really kind of fun. In fact, here's a link to a photo of my first cracked glass project.

I hope you will pop over to the JUGS DT (in my sidebar) and see what they have created - It IS all it's cracked up to be (tee hee a little punny humor).  ALSO stop by our Featured Designer Lynn Mangan and leave her a little love, too.

OH YEAH.... JustRite is offering a SWEET prize package to one lucky winner.....

The prizes will be: (so you WILL want to play along!)

2 JustRite Christmas Collection stamp sets of choice
2 JustRite coordinating stampers/mounts
5 Copic Sketch markers of choice, from JustRite’s offering
2 Memento full-sized ink pads of choice

In case you don't know too much about JustRite here's a little info...
JustRite Stampers has a huge collection of Christmas and holiday stamp sets from which to choose.  Their entire collection can be viewed here.  They also offer the full line of Memento full-sized ink pads and now a selection of 96 expertly-chosen Copic Sketch markers which may be purchased as singles, trios or quads!  The number one question people have about Copic markers is which colors will work together nicely to give a great shading of color.  Now the JustRite design team has done all the work for you -- their quad and trio sets are designed so that you can be assured they will work together to give you a perfect blending group! JustRite has a great 2-page reference guide you can download her.

NOW - before you get busy, take a peek at the Design Team cards. (In my sidebar) They are going to thrill you as well.  ALSO - be sure to stop and see the beauty Lynn Mangan has for you this month. Lynn is our Featured Designer for this month.

Thanks for stopping by - I look forward to seeing YOUR projects too!!!

Hugs n Smiles.