Enjoy the simple things

This week at Just Us Girls we have a very autumnal photo challenge. As you know I have such trouble with photo challenges. I always read to much into them.

Why can't I just "enjoy the simple things"? When I finally put away the 10 or more stamps I thought might work and settled on 4, I was much happier and could actually take a deep breath and my pulse dropped below a 100!!

The wheel barrow was in the bag of StampinUp stamps that I was purging- another reason I am glad those stamps were still in my studio! The cute little bird is  such an old Memory Box stamp. I could never get rid of him and I am so glad I didn't.

So the moral of this story is to not sweat the small stuff and just have fun! Please join us this week at Just Us Girls!

The same but different

Hi everyone. Does this card seem like deja vu? Does it seem the same but slightly different? If you answer yes, then you must have seen last week's challenge card for Just Us Girls. 

I used the same technique on today's color challenge card that I used for the watercolor challenge last week. I really like the look of the watercolor through the stencil. I kept the card simple and let the background be the star.

Pink was always my mom's favorite color. She just loved it, so much so that when she died we buried her in a pink coffin and the family all wore pink to the funeral. I know my mom was looking down and smiling.

My mom would have loved this card. Please join us for this great color challenge at Just Us Girls!

Clean and simple, clean and simpler, clean and simplest

I have been waiting for this challenge since I was picked to be part of the wildcard team at the Card Concept. I have been through, classic and elegant, shabby chic and free style collage. Now I get to do what I feel is in my comfort zone- clean and simple!! 

We have a color challenge this week and what bright and happy colors we have. Lime, red and yellow, how can one be unhappy with these bright and cheerful colors.

So this week, I went with three similar cards. The first is the most clean and simple with each progressive card not quite so CAS but still with in the wheel house. The first just has a few flowers overlying the sentiment. The next I added a few more flowers.

Lastly, the same few flowers but I have added some popped flowers. All CAS but some just more than others.

What do you think? Which CAS card speaks to you? 

Please join us this week at the Card Concept for this great challenge!

Design Team call at Just Us Girls!!

This has been an absolutely crazy week. I have been busy working between two departments at work and staying late most nights and school is in full swing. ( I have just started grad school for my Masters in  nursing) Today was my day off and I ended up going into work to help out. The gist of this rant is that I have been behind in everything I had to do this week.

Luckily, this week's challenge card has been made for weeks. Remember my crafting weekend? I worked way ahead on many of my challenges because I knew September was going to be trying.

 This week at Just Us Girls, we have some exciting news- we are looking for a new DT member. Here are the details:

If you are interested, just play in this week's challenge and when uploading your card, put a DT after your name.  The Team will then discuss and vote for the chosen new JUGHEAD.  We will announce the new member on Saturday, September 20th.  The new member will officially start in the October 4th challenge.  Good Luck!

This weeks tend challenge by Vicki is right on point- water coloring! Most of you know I have been all over this especially since I took the online water coloring class with Jennifer Maguire and Kristina Werner.  My card today is a technique I learned from the class using stencils. 

The quick version is that you make a very wet watercolor wash and then press your stencil into the wash and let it sit till it dries and then pull the stencil off.

I think the saying is perfect for the challenge because- "Yes you all can do anything!!" 

I hope many of you will considering applying as a DT member. I am the newbie at JUGS. I have been with them for a year this month and not only are the challenges fun, but the DT are wonderfully creative and supportive women! 

I hope to see your watercolor creations this week at Just Us Girls!

Autumn Splendor

September's challenge at House of Cards is a color challenge. What beautiful colors huh? I made one card, but I just wasn't feeling it, so I nixed it for this colorful fall card. This card makes me happy, happy for fall and everything fall means.  

The leaves are Paper Smooches, Leafy Greens. I used a variety of inks, distress, Hero arts and momentos. Whatever worked. It was the old ink and spritz technique. The saying is from My Favorite Things, Vertical Greetings. Please check out all the CAS inspiration this week at House of Cards

Curtain Call is hosting a "lovely leaves" challenge and I thought my card fits right in with their challenge. So I am throwing my hat in the ring with them too.

I can't wait to see what you create from our inspiration colors this month at the House of Cards.

Simple simplicity

Cheryl is hosting the challenge at Just Us Girls this week. It is my favorite challenge- a word challenge. And the word is leaves. How appropriate since it is fall and the leaves are beginning to turn. For some reason I had trouble with this one. I think I was going to big and to complicated. I was working on this card on my crafting vacation. My friends were laughing at me because I just couldn't get it. Finally in frustration I said how about if I just stick a leaf in the corner with a saying!!! 

Wait- isn't this what they call an "aha moment"?!!? I did stick a leaf in the corner and added a saying, but it seemed just a bit to simple. Bevy B. suggested I use one of her background stamps. I t added just the right touch. the saying from one of her Papertrey Ink sets was perfect. I think you can figure out why!

I like it so well, I tried it with kraft paper and it gave this somewhat feminine card a masculine feel.

If you have ever been to the blog Simplicity? Susan is the queen of CAS. This card is so her- well only if you removed the background.

Don't let the idea of leaves overwhelm you like it did me, just have fun and join us at Just Us Girls this week!

Retro ornaments

Hi everyone, I am back with another card using the hanging ornaments die. It seems when I grab something from Memory Box in my stash, I become obsessed and have to play with it until I can't figure out another use for it. 

My last card using the hanging ornaments die showed up on the Scrap Mart website!! A fellow MB buddy sent me an email letting me know. I didn't know companies "borrowed" our art work!

Well, I digress, let me get back to todays card. I started by essentially creating a stencil from the die- I just used the negative of the die cut.

Do you notice what I did? I took the positive and cut out the snowflakes from the balls.  I didn't want them there- save them! Save the bubbles too! I gently laid the positive die cut back inside the negative.

Using copics, I stated filling in the ornaments and bubbles.

I colored the whole thing.

I added the ornament embellishments of the dots and stripes.

"Stencils" removed. Almost done. I glittered the ornaments and bubbles and adhered the positive image back over the colored area. I added the snow flakes and popped the bubbles. 

This might take a wee bit of work, but the results are gorgeous, the ornaments remind me of those retro glass balls from my childhood!

Come on back again and see how I can manipulate this awesome die cut!!

Back to School

It's hard to believe, but I am halfway through my time on the Wild Card team at the Card Concept! I was lucky because the styles I have the most difficulty are now over and I can move into the CAS styles! 

The challenge for me this time is free style collage, which doesn't sound that hard until you put a theme to it. Back to school! I have no kids, my nieces and nephews are to old for back to school cards so I had nothing except the odd apple stamp. That wasn't going to cut the paper for me! In dances my BFF, Patricia with a whole slew of BTS stamps!! Yeah!!

I got out my trusty Card Concept primer and read all about freestyle collage. It seems it can be just about anything with unrelated items in a collection. I have all related items- I mean there is a theme here folks! But I kinda added them here and there in a what I hope is pleasing design. I added the red banner strip at the last minute because it seemed more "collage like" with it.

I hope you see the collage here and I would love to see how you would interpret the photo inspiration, theme in a freestyle collage style. I am sure there are many of you who can "school" me on this! Please join us at the Card Concept for this "back to school photo challenge!!