{Thinking of you today} with Just Us Girls #118, Papertrey MIM a la Carte and CR84FN45

It's the weekend!  Yeah baby!  Ours will be full of kid-tivities (basketball, party and 4H meetings), how about you?  Before you dive headlong into the first full weekend of 2012, I hope you'll take some creative time and join in on some great challenges.  To start it off, a fabulous sketch from Pam and Just Us Girls! 

  

 I drew my color inspiration from the creative ladies over at CR84FN....

 And added in some Papertrey Ink Make It Monday technique.  This week is a la carte...we can pick any of the previous techniques to use this time.  I jumped at the chance of going back to Week 13 for Make It Monday #13: Impression Plate Tricks 2...this is one I remember wanting to try so badly but just not working out the creative time to make it happen.  Well, no more!  I got some technique on amd can I just say *love*?!

Click on the top picture in this post or the one above to get a better look at how the oval die masked a perfect oval frame into the delicious Papertrey Ink impression plate woodgrain .  I was able to use Lacey Ovals silver Nestabling to frame the outer edge of the impressed oval and the inner edge of the white cardstock oval. This color scheme + the Papertrey stamps and impression plate woodgrain remind me of tea in a good friend's country kitchen!  I also used one of the floral stamps from Stitches and Swirls to stamp a "doily" for my teacup to rest upon.  I can see a long-lasting creative love affair with this stamp set coming my way.... Yowsa!

In the meantime, I am thinking of all of my friends today and sending this cyber greeting your way!  Especially to my gal pals over at Just Us girls:

Elise Durenberger

Pam Imholz

Maria Levine

Lisa Kind

Andrea Matthews

Kathryn Berthiaume

Lynn Magnan

Vicki Dutcher

PLUS, we have the honor of introducing our first Guest Designer for 2012...the talented Kylie Kueter!  Welcome to the land of JUGs, Kylie!  We are so glad to have you!

Ok friends!  Let's fire up those creative engines and let those ponies RUN!  Hope to see you around the challenge linkies.  Thanks so much for stopping by here!

Paper: Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Impression Plate: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Papertrey Ink and Stampin Up!
Button: Papertrey Ink
Bling:  Want2Scrap
Die: Spellbinders
Twine: The Twinery
Craft Supply: vintage bookprint and seambinding
Flowers

Happy Birthday Elise!

Once in a while a friend comes along who already KNOWS how to sing your song...  Today, the Just Us Girls DT, along with some special blog-o-sphere friends, are pausing to celebrate the birthday of a very special gal..... a purveyor of crafty blog-land YEE-HAWS and ranch life anecdotes....the JUG-heads very own singing cowgirl, Elise of Mamacow Creations!  SURPRISE!  Happy birthday, dear girl!  Today's post is all about lil 'ol you! 



I met Elise going on more than 8 years ago in our local scrapbook store.  We knew each other only in passing until one fateful weekend we sat across from each other for a weekend's retreat.  There the friendship connections sparked and fired as we discovered so many life similarities, it was uncanny.  From those first few conversations, we found ourselves each privately thinking..."hey!  I like this gal!".  It seems that now, years later down the road of friendship, through life's ups and downs, the careful weaving of our families together and the many conversations by phone and in person, I couldn't possibly imagine my life without my special friend.


If you know Elise IRL or virtually through her vivacious blogging you know that she is a bringer of optimism, creativity and care........and of course, the ever present YEE HAW!  I know all of our days are brightened with the enthusiasm she shares with us.  We hope that you will join us in wishing Elise a very happy birthday and if you'd like to link up a birthday card in her honor, we have a linky just for that purpose this week.  Check out the post at Just Us Girls for a list of all the friends in Elise's birthday hop!

Today's card for Elise was inspired by several challenges....

Waltzingmouse sketch 42
I used some fabulous Waltzingmouse stamps to capture the cowgirl spirit ...Back in the Saddle had a great horse and rider image that I was able to add a flying ponytail to!




Color inspiration from CR84FN


and the twine challenge from Wee Memories for my wee bit of twine tied to the black button embellie.

I hope you can join us for a rootin tootin time over at Just Us Girls!  Happy Birthday Elise!  One last card before I go....my youngest was inspired to join in the festivities too.....

loving the custom artwork!!!

Have a day full of YEE-HAW wontcha?

Stamps: Waltzingmouse
Paper: Papertrey Ink, sheet music and Making Memories
Ink: Staz on and SU!
Bling: Want2Scrap
Craft Supply: button and lace trim

Make it Monday 6, The Shabby Tea Room 53 and CR84FN 19..it's your day!

Hey friends!  I wanted to share a birthday card inspired by three wonderful challenges!  First, Make it Monday #6 with Papertrey Ink (impression plate trick#1), also to celebrate The Shabby Tea Room's 1st birthday and finally, using the cool colors from CR84FN#19 this week!

I rarely reach for the color steel blue but since it was paired with my old friend aqua mist, I thought I would go for it!

For the Papertrey challenge, we were to use an impression plate to emboss only part of our card stock and then finish the edge with a straight line emboss or two.  Not owning a PTI impression plate (yet!) I used a Cuttlebug Fleur di lis embosser.  The impression plates definitely have the advantage in the departments of being able to cover a whole card front and also, being able to place and orient the plate in any spot on your cardstock.  Nevertheless, I was happy with the way this technique worked....this has such a nice neat look.

I love playing up the little details of the embossed image with sparkly bling from Want2Scrap!  The silver gems are a nice balance to the silver tinsel I used in my bow.  I was very happy to ink up the brand new Very Vintage Labels 4 stamps from Waltzingmouse too.  It layered up perfectly with images from Papertrey Ink's Simply Stationary set.

I really appreciate you stopping by today.  If you are looking for a fun challenge (or three!) you'll find it at any of the three links above!  Have a great one!

Paper: Papertrey Ink and Vintage bookprint

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps Very Vintage Labels #4 ,

Papertrey Ink Simply Stationery, Star Prints and Polka Dot Basics

Bling: Want2Scrap silver bling

Dies: Spellbinders Labels Four, Standard Circles SM, Classic Scalloped Circles SM

Ink: Stampin Up!

Craft Supplies: tinsel trim, seam binding, vintage lace, Prima flower

Fun with fun foam flowers and CR84FN17 and how about some blog candy?

Oh boy!  Have I been having some fun with FUN FOAM!  Who would have thought this spongy stuff would lead to the white flowers I am currently IN LOVE with?  I am over the moon to have discovered how to turn fun foam into perfectly sweet flowers!  Thank you Papertrey Ink for challenging us to go outside the fun foam box this week!!  Check out the awesome fun foam creations going on at the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge for more fun fun foam ideas!  Also visit the pretty creations at the CR84FN17 challenge for a pretty color combo challenge.

OK, here's where I went with fun foam and light pink, bright pink and chartreuse...

Don't those fun foam flowers just pop?  I was able to use the Papertrey Ink Beautiful Blooms II #3 flower dies to cut fun foam like buttah!  I also used fun foam for the pretty Spellbinders fancy tag 2 that I used as a backer for the top of my tag.  Fun foam cuts wonderfully and has a great texture to it, is flexible AND when you carefully add a little heat to it via heat gun....you get THIS!

Kinda like shrinky dinks but the fun foam remains flexible even after heating.  This spells POTENTIAL to me!  How about you????

I also had fun integrating some of my latest supply obsessions....fabric and sewing oriented items! 

Fabric + Paper = Happiness!

I am so giddy with my discovery that I would love to SHARE some!  Please leave a comment to be entered in a random drawing to win a DOZEN FUN FOAM FLOWERS handcrafted by me for you!  If you are one of my sweet followers, please leave a second comment for another chance at these little sweeties.

I will draw a winner on Monday and post it here on the blog.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

SUPPLIES

Paper: Papertrey Ink, Cosmo Cricket and vintage sewing pattern

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Dies and punches: Papertrey Ink and Spellbinders Martha Stewert

Ink: SU!

Bling: Want2Scrap

Craft supplies: Fun foam, button, fabric, zipper, eyelet trim, floral spray stamens, embroidery floss