Just Us Girls 50 and Cards....{JustRite Joy)

Hey friends!  It's time for another challenge with Just Us Girls!  This week we are challenging you to try Cracked Glass.  We are also honored to have JustRite stampers as our sponsor this week!  The DT is working with stamps from their Christmas category and wooooowheee!  are these great stamps!
Not only is a Chic of the Week winner's badge up for grabs but JustRite has provided an amazing prize package!  Wish I could enter, check it out....

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


I used the JustRite set called Christmas Ornament.  This set has gorgeous details on classic glass ornament shapes along with four coordinating circle borders.  Sooooo many opportunities to customize the look of the ornament stamps with copics, glimmers, paint, or, as I did here...paperpiecing and GLITTER! 
I chose to use the cracked glass technique on a piece of sheet music that I die cut with the Stampin Up Top note die.  Various brown inks were used over the cracked UTEE to give it an aged look.  This was a fun technique and a first time try for me!

I couldn't stop JustRite stamping there, I had to try out my new set of Christmas Nested Frames!
The nested frames scream "instant tag" to me, which I love, especially at holiday gift giving time.  Check out the JustRite challenge this week to create a holiday tag.  I took a que from the current Cards magazine blog challenge and popped my JustRite tag on top of a folded accordion flower. Add a string or ribbon through one of the holes in the punched border of the accordion flower and you'd have a darling hang tag for a gift bag or package. 

I thought the JustRite sentiment would go perfectly with this red paper heart doily so instead of hanging my bag tag, I adhered it on top of the doily!  Lovin' it!  I am quite giggly with the fact that I used a "valentine's" supply on a "Christmas" project!  ;)

Thanks so much for coming by!  Be sure and check out all of the challenge fun this week at the JUGs blog and you just might win some Fabulous JustRite product!  Be sure and check out all the JUGs girls blogs and leave em a little love and don't forget our amazing guest designer this month, Lynn Mangan!

Color Cue {7}, City Crafter Challenge and Cards Challenge....{wish upon a star}

Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight.....
Hello friends!  Back with another three-fer (didn't I just say on the last post I don't try and combine challenges? Hmmmm I guess I DO combine challenges from time to time).  This week both the Cards blog and the City Crafter Challenge had a star challenge going.   Dawn at Wplus9 has a fab Color Cue going  and I needed a baby card....so perfect storm again! 


Now I love the idea of a shaped card, but many times, the shape makes it difficult for a piece to actually function as a card!  Take stars for instance.  They have 2 teeny tiny points to balance on and, if you want overhanging blingy swirls from Want 2 Scrap...well what is a crafter to do?  Hambly Clearly Heavy is your answer.  I began by cutting and folding a standard 4.25" x 5.5" card out of clearly heavy.  I then applied my star and my bling swirls.  After I knew I had the layout I wanted, I trimmed away at the clearly heavy cutting a close silhouette to the swirls and star sides, leaving the straight edge on the bottom of the card.

And then, it's all in the details...I used a stamp from Funky Flowers from Wplus9 to create a stamped pattern on my yellow cadstock star base.  I love the individual pieces of this set for creating custom patterns.  A simple safety pin adorned with seed beads in the challenge colors adds to the baby theme and scrunched seam binding gives the card an "all wrapped up" feeling.  Red thread border stitching was fun to do with my sewing machine.  I love how it pops against the yellow cardstock!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Don't forget, if you like Bloomers from Webster's Pages, check out this post to enter to win some!  :)

Supplies:
Stamps: Wplus9, Papertrey Ink
Paper: Papertrey Ink, Hambly Studios (clearly heavy)
Ink: Stampin Up! and Papertrey Ink
Cutting tools:  Cricut and SCAL, CM and SU! punches
Bling: Want 2 Scrap
Craft Supply: Sewing machine, button, embroidery floss, seam binding, seed beads and safety pin

Buona Fortuna in 2010! .....a Cards challenge and get sketchy all in one!

Oh my!  It's almost 2010!  Can you believe!?  That is so crazy!  I could wax poetic, and since this is my blog and you can excercise the right to skim...I think I will a little! ;)  First some business....this bottle tag is inspired by the challenges going at the Cards magazine blog (make something for new year's) and the gals at Get Sketchy(trash to treasure).

The "trash" is the plastic pocket that I filled with glitter and sealed as the background for my "2010" pinwheel.  That plastic pocket was emptied of it's Webkins online code by my girls and tossed towards the trashcan until I snatched it up.  It's a great way to capture the look of tossed glitter (think confetti at midnight) without the mess of loose glitter.  Thanks Get Sketchy girls for the inspiration to dig a little deeper ;)

The Cards challenge was to make a little something New Years.  Hubs and I are attending a gathering at Traci's and our sweet Traci turned me on to this easy drinking, not-too-sophisticated-for-the-girl-who- likes-WHITE ZINFANDEL (which is funny because I live in one of California's "wine country" areas home to many a fine Cabernet, Pinot, Merlot etc) Italian Chianti from Trader Joe's.  But hey, I'm 75% Italian so that makes sense, right?  But anyway, back to Cards and I'll revisit the Italian in a minute. 

I used a fab vintage New Years image I found at Clearly Vintage.  Cora shares wonderful images every saturday and right now she has been sharing Holiday images daily!  Sooo awesome of her.  You gotta check her out. 

Conveniently, the image Cora shared had a blank lable on the champagne bottle.  This was the perfect spot for a custom label or message.  I opened the vintage image in Word and layered TextArt spelling out "Buona Fortuna" or Good Fortune/Good Luck in Italian.  I also added a tiny star to the lable which is a shape that has long been a favorite of Traci's.  I felt a message in Italian was appropriate considering the wine bottle it will adorn, the wishes for my friend in 2010, my heritage and the fact that Traci and I are planning a trip to ITALY in 2010!!!!!!! 

Wooooowheeeeee!  This trip is a life long DREAM for me and I am beyond excited.  It's months away but the planning, the dreaming and the saving has already begun. Among many regions of northern Italy, we will be visiting the area that my family (both maternal and fraternal) is from, the Lake Como area.  There is even a street named for my family name (Via Garzelli)...now for a small town girl from Cali just knowing there is a street named for my family in Italy really gives a girl a sense of ROOTS...and they are pretty strong to begin with here at home.  Traci has been to many of the places we will be visiting (her travel pics on her blog are delicious!) so I am looking forward to her being our guide in many ways and also re discovering all of these places together.  There are also some new stops on the list.  I recently asked her "can we do all that in 2 weeks?"  (eeek! two weeks!!!) ...she is sure we can!  This is one of the many things I love about this dear girl...her OPTIMISM and enthusiasm for travel and discovery.

Well, I am sure I will be talking more about this trip as I go along in the coming year.  And you can for sure expect lots of photos and hey, maybe a scrapbook page or two??? LOL! 

I want to thank all of you for the wonderful birthday wishes for my little girl...she was feeling quite famous yesterday.  And I also want to wish each of you buona fortuna e felice anno nuovo...good fortune and happy new year!!!  THanks so much for coming by!

Supplies:

Digital vintage Image: Clearly Vintage

Paper: georgia pacific and paper pizazz

Ink: Papertrey

Stamps: CTMH

glitter; martha Stewert

punch: SU

Other craft supply: star trim, corsage pin, pearls, pinking sheers