March of the Snowmen

Wow I can't believe it's been a year already and it's time for the 2nd (annual!) March of the Snowmen blog hop. There is blog candy involved so be sure you read all the way down and leave comments :-) I'm showcasing a couple of ideas for you - one is a new post and one is a project I did earlier but I think you'll enjoy the snowmen anyhow.

I wanted to make some glass ornaments with the acetate images inside but didn't get around to it in time for Christmas so I used this opportunity to make a cute little snowman ornament. I MAY use these for the girls in the office next Christmas but at least I got to try out the technique. I think it turned out really cute :-) and it was easy to do!

The image is from JustRite - it's part of the set called Old Fashioned Christmas 3-1/4. I colored the image with Sharpies on acetate - cut out the circle with a Nestie and then it gets popped into a glass ornament that I filled with some fake snow.

In the close up you might be able to see that some of the "snow" sticks to the glass making for a softer effect.

Next up---

Here's my snowman gift card set. I used non-traditional Christmas colors for these groovy little guys.

This little gift box is made from an empty Laughing Cow cheese box. I decorated the top to coordinate with the contents and added some PTI ribbon to the edge of the top and bottom.

The inside bottom of the box is decorated, too, for fun! Once you lift all the cards out there's a sweet sentiment in the bottom from JustRite's All Occasion Nested Sentiements set.

I also added a nestie circle to the bottom to cover up the nutritional label ;-).

Here are the cards I made using JustRite's Groovy Snowmen set. I LOVE this set and used it a lot this year.

That's all for now - thanks for for stopping by - hope you like my GROOVY snowmen! I love these images. I foresee lots of snowmen in my stamping future!! :-)

NOW "march" along to the next blog - don't forget there's some great candy up for grabs as well so be sure to leave comments as you march. Look for specifics on each site.

Angella Crockett
Barb Foster
Deb Felts
Holly Brown
Jen Carter
JenMarie Taylor
Joan Ervin
Julie Ranae
Kim Sears
Laurie Willison
Linda Lucas
Lynn Stevens
Pam Imholz <- You are here
Patti Gilliam
Sue Pelletier
Stacy Rogers
Melisa Waldorf

Have a great week girls.

Hugs n smiles,

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,

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,

Sometimes You Try...

...but things don't turn out QUITE like you envisioned. :-)

I made this card for Joan's Garden challenge #23. The requirements were as follows
1. Create a window card  (done with a Nesties Labels 16)
2. Use a Christmas Ornament - (JustRite Christmas Ornaments 3-1/4)
3. Something gold - (my embossing)
4. Something fuzzy - (some red flower soft on the bow and around my "window")

So here it is.... my flower soft around the nestie opening didn't turn out quite like I wanted but hey - it counted for something fuzzy. I used it on the bow as well.

Here you can see the inside and can really see that I have a window cut in the front.

Detail of the inside image and the polar soft around the opening - it didn't go on quite as evenly as I would have liked.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week.

Hugs n Smiles,

Cherish the Memories

It's a JustRite Friday Challenge again - this time we are to show our support by making a friendship or sympathy card.  Sadly, I have been in need of sympathy cards recently and have depleted my supply. I decided to make a simple sympathy card that I can replicate easily to restock my stash.  My heart goes out to Becca with her recent loss.

Here's my card for the challenge. Traditional black and white but I can make this is several variations. I used PTI's In Bloom paper and it comes in so many soft and pretty colors that would be appropriate for a sympathy card. I don't have any of the specific sympathy stamps from JustRite but I LOVE this sentiment from Cherish the Memories Nested Sentiments and Verse. I stamped it on white CS the cut it out and cut off the corners.

I cut a black mat layer with nestie's Long Rectangle and mounted the sentiment with a few pearls. I then mounted the sentiment onto another nestie Labels 14 layer which I sponged with some black ink.
Added some ribbon and a flat bow and a few pearls as accents.

The inside of my card says "May they bring you peace and comfort now and in the future."  I printed it up on my computer since I don't have that specific sentiment to stamp.

Thanks for a challenge that helps us all to make the cards we need in our stash.
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,

JustRite Fall Colors

I've been super busy with work and haven't had as much time to play along with some of my favorite challenges lately. I was happy that I found a few minutes of time to make this fall card for the JustRite Friday challenge.

I used the beautiful watering can image from Autumn Blessings Borders and Centers set coupled with the  Joyful Hearts Borders and Centers sentiment.

I colored up the image with my copics then cut it out with a oval nestie. I recently came across my stipple brush when cleaning my stampin' studio so I did some stippling on the oval behind the image and on the golden layer of the card after it was run through the woodgrain PTI embossing plate. Used my MS punch on the Terracotta Tile layer. Added a few golden rhinestones to the sentiment square (cause I love a little bling). I finished it all off with a piece of some super fun fiber instead of ribbon. I also discovered that my colors work nicely with the Shabby Tea Room this week too. Not often I get to combine TWO challenges any more :-)

For the inside of my card I used a sentiment from the Autumn Blessings set. Just in time for the upcoming fall holidays! Thanks to JustRite for the inspiration and motivation.

And thanks to all of my cyber friends and followers for stopping by. I hope your fall is filled with abundant blessings and that you enjoy the days of Autumn.

Hugs n smiles.

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.

Merry and Bright

Just a quick post to share a Christmas card for my stash. I used JustRite's Friday challenge sketch as my inspiration.

Here's my quick and merry card.

I used stamps from Merry Little Christmas and some retired DP from Stampin Up! Nesties, punches, lace and ribbon and the final addition of a gold-edged pearl completed the ensemble. I love working with Just Rite stamps - this one went together in short order which is great since I'm time-challenged at the moment.

Have a great rest of the week.
Stampin Pam :-)

Bold Bright Colors

Hi gals - today is a color challenge for Just Us Girls brought to you by our hostess Lisa - GREAT summer color palette for you this week - Hot Pink, Lime Green and Teal! I've been working 12-14 hour days getting ready for the return of teachers and students so without further ado here's my card:

Super quick and easy this week - all of it started with this great ribbon that had ALL THREE COLORS!!!

Here's a close up of the JustRite image and sentiment I used from their Stitched With Love set.

I added sparkle to the pins and needle (hard to see in this pic) and some Glossy Accents to the center of the button for some shine and dimension. Nesties used for the shapes - CB embossing folder for the BG texture. Pearls as accents along with a couple of hat pins to keep with the "pins and needles" theme. I LOVE the senti - can give this to a friend OR I could give it to my DD who just returned from her amazzzzzzzzzing honeymoon in Fiji.... *grin*

Stop by the rest of the team and over to our Featured Designer Jo Westfoot too. Hope to see you playing along. Sorry for the short post - got to go for now.

Hugs n smiles,
Stampin Pam