Just Us Girls Challenge #599~Photo Week...Make A Wish Butterfly Circle Card

Hello,

Welcome to Just Us Girls Challenge #599, where Lisa has selected this cool photo for this week's inspiration. You can see a close-up view over on the JUGS blog; it really does offer a diversity of interpretations.

We'd like to thank Claire Apostoloff for being our Guest Designer for August. Her creativity throughout the month has been wondrous; her finale, absolutely sensational! So, too, are those of my teammates; please, if you have the opportunity to drop in and leave them some love, that would be appreciated.

A new card circle die joined my collection and this photo was the perfect opportunity to mark its debut. I was inspired by circles, obviously, colours and whimsical flowers. The papers are from Cocoa Vanilla's Daydream; the sentiment from Tim Holtz. I decided the butterfly (from MCT) would be a pretty, added touch.

That's it from me; looking forward to seeing how the photo inspires you!

Thank you for dropping by!

TIME OUT Challenge #194~Running Stitch Design Inspiration, Seize the Birthday Challenge #221...Missees Birthday Card and Weekender Purse Ensemble

Hello,

It's been AGES since I've played in challenges just for the sake of playing, so when I saw the fabulous photo at TIME OUT Challenge #194, I had to join. Kim's tote bag is so pretty; exactly the inspiration to spark my 'feeling meh' creativity. 

First inspiration: the tote itself (Kim is sooooo talented!). I opted for a C&9th's Weekender Purse, using leftover papers from a Crafty Girls collections - a piece with girls and another, plaid - to reflect the different fabrics Kim featured on her tote. A sparkly loop, key and heart finished it off.

The photo also shows a mug filled with  markers, so I added some goodies to the purse: a set of Crafty Girls journaling cards. 

A complete gift ensemble requires a card, so I made on:  Missees-themed, of course! Her top is intended to reflect the Girl's Club Pastel Parade fabric on Kim's bag (yes...I did check out these beautiful fabrics!). Mine are neither 'truly' pastel nor metallic but...kind of close, design-wise. Or, so I hope! 

Here's the set...

Thank you, Kim, for the awesome inspiration....creativity definitely feeling an upswing!

Since this is a birthday-themed set, I'm heading over to the current Seize the Birthday Challenge #221~Anything Goes.

Thank you for dropping by!

Inkspirational Challenge #246~Photo...Slimline Critter Hi

Hello,

Welcome to Inkspirational Challenge #246, where we have this cool cups-and-saucers photo as inspiration for the next two weeks. Black and white...love it!

Black and white animals from me -Concord and 9th's Furry Friends - placed on a Mama Elephant slimline. The speech bubble and hi are from Studio Light. Of course, I *needed* a pop of colour, so two wee hearts happened. A crisp, clean card that I *hope* matches the CAS-ness of the inspiration piece.

Please check out my teammates' photo-inspired delights, then play along with us!

Marina, Shauna, Pia, Marlena, Lindsey

Thank you for dropping by!

Just Us Girls Challenge #598~Colour Week...Sending Sunshine and Rainbows

 Hello,

I'm delighted to be your hostess for Just Us Girls Challenge #598. We're experiencing cooler temperatures and shorter days here in Alberta; signs that Autumn is on the horizon. Before we embrace Fall colours (and clothes...bring out the warm sweaters and leggings), let's hang on to Summer a bit longer, by playing with a Yellow, Green and Pink palette this week. Feel free to use bright shades or pastels of these three colours - and anything in between! 

Once again, we're delighted to welcome Claire Apostoloff as our August guest designer; once again, she's dazzling us with her creativity! 

My Concord and 9th rainbow sets were calling for some attention, so I happily listened. I love that the arcs are separate pieces and so easy to stack/assemble. Hard to see in the photo, but I changed up the height of each one, inspired by a recent Jennifer M video I watched: four for the deeper pink, one for yellow, three for green and two for the the light pink. She's right: it does make a difference! 

That's it from me; looking forward to seeing how yellow, pink and green inspire you!

Thank you for dropping by!

Color Hues Challenge #24~Turquoise and Coral...Love Life and Be Girly (Missees)

Hello,

Welcome to Color Hues Challenge #24, where we're inviting you to play with hues of Turquoise and Coral. Sooooo pretty! 

Once again, a Missees makes an appearance; this time, she's a stamped version from the Anna and Bella collection. Like the die-cut Missees, the stamps are modular: a base body, face and hairline to which you add facial features, hairstyles, a neckline and accessories. Since fussy-cutting is not my thing, I stamped her on cardstock, adding turquoise and coral (very soft versions) as background panels and tags. 

Please visit the rest of the team, along with our guest designer,  Linda from Lin's Craft Corner; they've created quite the array of dazzling delights with Turquoise and Coral:

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

Karen

This challenge will be open until August 29th @ 9AM!

The winners will be posted an hour before our next challenge goes live.

The overall winner will have the opportunity to be a 

future Guest Designer!

Thank you for dropping by!

Perfectly Cas Challenge #18 (August 2021)~Stripes and/or Dots....Game On (MFT Level Up)

Hello,

Welcome to Perfect CAS Challenge #18, where we're inviting you to use Stripes and/or Dots on 1/3 of your panel. 

I brought out my MFT Level Up set for the challenge. Matchy-matchy stripes in the background and buttons on the console. Game on, indeed! 

Please be sure to pop by my teammates' blogs, leave them some love, then bring your Perfectly CAS Stripes and/or Dots creations to the gallery.

• A friendly reminder: For this challenge, we're asking you to use one-third (aka: the rule of thirds) or less on your card designs, leaving plenty of scrumptious white space (two-thirds of your panel) to draw our eyes to to your focal image. Kylie has included an easy-to-follow explanation on the challenge blog here.

Hope you're staying safe and healthy!

Thank you for dropping by!

Just Us Girls Challenge #597~Trend Week: Black and White....Black and White Missee Hi, How are you?

Hello,

Waving *hi* from sweltering hot - again - Alberta! The heat wave has returned! Yuck! All the more reason to stay inside and craft.

Welcome to Just Us Girls Challenge #598, where our lovely Vicki has selected Black & White for this week's trend. I'm anticipating a very creative gallery with this combination!

Once again, we're delighted to have Claire Apostoloff joining us as our guest designer. Her card and those of the team are absolutely fabulous!

Missees in action once again; this time, a card inspired by one of Karin Joan's talented designers, Miriam de Vos. I used 'most' of the LIMES technique, the brain-child of my talented,  innovative friend, Ardyth to create my version. The overall design is similar to Miriam's, but I opted for a die-cut hair style and scrunchie and no pops-of-colour, so as to be true to Vicki's theme. I'm pleased with the results, especially in getting the striped border and strip of washi more-or-less straight! Yayyy! And yes, she's sporting glitter paper glasses, alongside Wink of Stella-ed sentiment and hearts.

Turning the stage over to you.

Looking forward to seeing how B & W inspire you!

Thank you for dropping by!

Happy Little Stampers August 2021 Anything Goes with Dies Challenge...Phone Booth

Hello,

Welcome to Happy Little Stampers August 2021 Anything Goes with Dies Challenge; let's give our dies the spotlight!

I've mentioned, in previous posts, that I'm smitten with planner/journal dies of late, which came about for a variety of reasons, one of which was a while-ago-purchase of the Elizabeth Craft Designs Phone Booth kit. I left it sitting for quite a while before giving it a play so today marks its debut. This showcase features the booth as a journal page; the super cool thing is that it can also be made into slimline cards. I'm looking forward to giving that a try in the next while. Maybe that will be my September post....

All dies; no stamping! Love it!

That's it from me! Check out what my talented teammates have created, then bring out 

your dies and join us in the gallery!

Thank you for dropping by!

Inkspirational Challenge #245~Journey...Weekender Purse Trio

Hello,

Welcome to Inkspirational Challenge #245, where *Journey* is  our word prompt for the next two weeks.  Traveling, exploring new paths, directions...plenty of interpretations await! 

I've been waiting far too long to play with Concord & 9th's Weekender Purse and decided that this challenge was a delightful fit!  A weekend getaway calls for a weekend purse to house articles of clothing, toiletries and, of course, a few crafting supplies! While these are far smaller than the real things, they are sooooo cute and really quite simple to assemble.  

I used papers from P13's Sunshine collection, which have travel-related images: sunglasses with tropical themes in the lenses, stacks of pretty pink luggage and tropical leaves. Of course, a weekend away calls for sunglasses, so I made a matchy-match pair to go with each bag. More purses on my radar for sure!

Please check out my teammates' Journey inspired delights, then play along with us!

Marina, Shauna, Pia, Marlena, Lindsey

Thank you for dropping by!

Just Us Girls Challenge #596~Word Week: Harvest...Planting Journal

Hello,

Welcome to Just Us Girls Challenge #596, where our lovely Bobby has selected *Harvest* as this week's word prompt.  Fruits, vegetables, flowers, field crops...what will you harvest for this theme?

A new month brings new changes to Just Us Girls. First, we're sad to bid "see you later* to teammate, Maria Levin, who has been designing since 2009. We wish you all the best as you delve into other facets of creativity. Second, we're delighted to welcome Elizabeth Stewart, from papersweetness.blogspot.com to the team. Her “10 minute immersions into creativity” are guaranteed to inspire. Third, we're delighted to have Claire Apostoloff joining us as our August Guest Designer.  Lots of inspiration happening today over on the blog!

Okay...so I have fallen head-over-heels for the Elizabeth Craft Designs Planner Essentials collection and the wide variety of journals/albums that I've seen using them. At present, I have no plans to journal or create albums (not a photographer; not that interested in having pictures printed), but I *DO* have plans to play with pretty papers!  What started this was the little seed of an idea to create Advent Calendar journals (sort of like December Dailies, which I've never done) for my niece and nephew this year. The seed has started to grow...and so has my ECD collection. 

That said...I need to practice my journal/album skills before diving into the Advent project, so I decided to do so with this challenge. Below are a few pages of my 'playing around' with a variety of the dies and a patterned paper collection from Mintay, called Country Fair.  This ticks all the boxes for me: lovely vegetable-and-floral papers, pretty backgrounds (the pink woodgrain...swoon!), delightful chipboard stickers and a WHOLE lot of die-cutting/assembling. What I'll do with these pages, who knows. But...I've decided it's all about the process and for now, that's enough. 

Here's what I have so far...still a work in progress.

I can't even tell you how much fun I had putting these pages, even if several were 'left as is' because the images did all the work.  Next on the list: getting an actual journal to put these in!

Thank you for wandering through my babbling-and-photo-heavy post! Turning the stage over to you!

Looking forward to seeing how Harvest inspires you!

Thank you for dropping by!

Happy Little Stampers August 2021 Stencil Challenge~Anything Goes...Wishing You a Purr-fect Birthday (Stamplorations Stencil)

Hello,

Welcome to Happy Little Stampers August 2021 Stencil Challenge, where we invite you to use whatever stencils you want, in whatever style you want, to showcase in the gallery. Anything Goes!

Last month, I used dog stencils for my card; this month, to be 'fair', I have a cat! A rainbow cat, of course! This meow-velous slimline stencil is from STAMPlorations and is purrfect for all of you who are or who have friends who are cat-lovers.  Even my Lily gives her woofs of approval for this card (real cats...not so much LOL). 

What stencils will you dazzle us with this month?

See you in the gallery!

Thank you for dropping by!

Happy Little Stampers August 2021 Christmas Challenge~Anything Goes (optional twist: Wonderland)...Ugly Sweaters Merry Christmas

Hello,

Welcome to Happy Little Stampers August 2021 Christmas Challenge. Anything Goes, as usual, with the optional twist this month of Wonderland. Christmas is but 4 months away...just sayin'!

No 'true' Wonderland for me, but something you might (or not *grin*) want to wear you're out and about in the frosty air: an ugly sweater!  In fact, I'm giving you a trio of styles to add to your winter wardrobe. These fashionable delights are courtesy of Jillibean Soup...so much fun! 

That's it from me; please head over to the blog to see my talented teammates' festive delights.

Looking forward to seeing your Christmas makes in the gallery!

Thank you for dropping by!

Happy Little Stampers August 2021 CAS Challenge~Off the Edge...Thinking of You Butterflies

Hello,

And suddenly, it's August! Time for a new series of Happy Little Stampers, with the August 2021 CAS Challenge being "Off the Edge".  Off the edge of a panel, the edge of a part of a panel, the edge of...well, whatever you want an edge to be. As you'll see the DT have plenty of inspiration to guide you.

A duo of Altenew butterflies fluttering 'off the edge' of the panel. Sentiment from The Stamp Market. Simple...

That's it from me! Please head over to the blog to see how my talented teammates interpreted this month's theme. A reminder that we're looking for CAS designs.

See you in the gallery!

Thank you for dropping by!

Color Hues Challenge #23~Yellow and Pink....Today is a Good Day for a Good Day (PFS)

Hello,

August 1st...already. Time whooshes, doesn't it!  Let's not think about that; rather, let's celebrate the beginning of Color Hues Challenge #23, where our lovely Hannelie invites us to play with hues of Yellow and Pink for the next two weeks. Soooo pretty!

Full on Pinkfresh Studio products for my card!  I've been so wrapped up in die-cutting projects of late, that I'm out of practice with stamping. Poor neglected inks! Good thing these florals are simple to stamp *grin*! 

Please visit the rest of the team, along with our guest designer, Conil; they've created quite the array of dazzling delights with Yellow and Pink:

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

Karen

The challenge is open until 9:00 AM (EST) on August 14th.

 The winners will be posted an hour before our next challenge goes live (August 16st). 

The overall winner will have the opportunity to be a 

future Guest Designer!

Looking forward to seeing how this combination inspires YOU!

Thank you for dropping by!