Hello

For our next Just Us Girls Challenge #784 our sweet teammate Carol has picked out a very pretty Moodboard for inspiration...soft shades of blue, green, peach and pink in light and dark hues. I tried to get all of the colors in the form of flowers and leaves. There are many ways to approach this challenge with the variety of flora and fauna in the moodboard.

I used the Concord & 9th Spring Print die for my card. I chose colors close to the ones in the graphic and added the strip across the bottom to kind of mat the sentiment. Using this die is like putting together a puzzle. I read somewhere that the best way to put it all in place is to start in the bottom right corner and move upward, and I agree.

We all hope you will join us this week with our moodboard colors and its elements. There is a lot you can take from it!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carol 

 

Ciao!

There is quite a story to my card today. It started with our Time Out Challenges #293: Your Favorite Song. I didn't know where to begin because I enjoy all kinds of music and have many "favorite" songs. But, I just got this die set in the mail and I was dying to make one of several cards I've had in mind.

First, I looked through the songs on my phone. Then I thought to go to iTunes, but then I thought I would look up Italian songs on the internet (because of "Ciao" in the die set) that have been popular in the United States over time. The song Volare popped up and I knew I had my song. My mother used to sing it in the house when I was a little girl. I picked up the many songs she sang and they remain among my fondest memories of her. Here is a link to it (sung in Italian with English written translation afterwards) and to one of my favorite versions of it by The Gipsy Kings, which is partly in Italian but mostly in Spanish, my second language. (You may have heard Dean Martin's version too!)

Our wonderful sponsor, Lawn Fawn, is generously offering a $25 prize to their store for our Challenge Winner, who will also get an invitation to join us as Guest Designer for a future challenge.

Products I used:

Spellbinders - Ciao Spaghetti dies, Notched Corner Frames Etched Dies (bowl), Rose Gold Pearl Metallic card stock (face)

Your Paper Insider - Holographic card stock (stars)

Ranger - Distress ink (cheeks)

Stampin' Up! - Stars border punch

I chose a blue background and sparkly stars because of these lyrics: (written by Domenico Modugno and Franco Migliacci)

But I keep dreaming of your beautiful eyes
Which are blue like a star-studded sky

I made her cheeks rosy by ink blending them with pink ink to match her lips. Then I die cut a lot of extra pieces of spaghetti and cut them down further into pieces to put in the bowl. The bowl is a notched corner frame cut off at the end that I saw on a card using this Ciao set. I think I'll give this to an Italian neighbor friend of mine who likes my handmade cards.

We sure hope you will have time to play along using your favorite song as your inspiration! Can't wait to see all the songs in our gallery!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Carol

Just Saying Hi

This is a card I just made for the CASE It July 2025 Instagram Hop. We are a group of cardmakers who have come together to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit) and share cards we have seen on Instagram. It's so much fun to see which cards the other participants chose and how they made those designs their own! I used a variety of pinks and matte gold metallic card stock with the Playful Pieces cover die by Concord & 9th to CASE Channin Pelletier's card on Instagram. I love how she used bold colors and swiped the color on. I want to try her beautiful method soon.

Channin's beautiful card below.

The die and stamp set has so many variations that you can make using the one die and the accompanying sentiments. My photos don't do the gold justice but I think you get the gist of the colors I used.

Our CASE It Instagram Hop is once a month on the second Saturday at noon eastern. You can go to my Instagran account to see all of this month's cards here: @sawithadtomakeit along with all of the other cardmakers involved in our hop. Stop by!

Thanks for visiting!

Carol

You Are My "Person"

Our Just Us Girls Word Week Challenge #783 is Water. A great theme chosen by our teammate Vicki for this time of year, right? I knew exactly what I wanted to make for it and grabbed some stencils and dies. Be sure to check out the cards made by the team and our talented guest Donna Mikasa on the Just Us Girls Challenge blog.

Products I used:

Sugar Pea Designs - Beach Sunset Stencils

Spellbinders - Oh, Buoy die set, Betterpress Friends sentiment

Distress and Distress Oxide inks

Stenciling came first, then a lot of die cutting and piecing together of the birds and nautical elements. The sand dunes were stenciled using the front and back of the stencil to have different shapes, then fussy cut. I decided to pop up the seagulls, sand dunes and pilings on foam tape. To me it looks like that after-sunset time of day when it is getting dark and the water is calming down. This could be a masculine card, but my next one will be quite different. Stay tuned!

We hope you will join us for some fun with water this week. Hope to see your creations in the gallery!

Carol

You Had Me at Sunscreen

Summer cards are my absolute favorite and that's what I'm having the most fun with right now. When I saw the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge 693 I tried to figure out a way to use the current sketch and keep it "clean" (CAS) in a summery way. Here is what resulted: 

I stenciled and die cut the umbrella, then die cut the ladies and bathing suits. It was like playing with paper dolls. I wanted a pool deck with a brick/paver pattern in it and remembered this cover die. I popped up the umbrella on foam tape so they have room for cool drinks under there and added a premade sentiment that goes with the reason they are lying under an umbrella. (I put seashells around them in the picture so we can assume the pool is by the beach!)

I'm also playing along at Inspired By Challenges IB 343.

Products I used:

Simply Graphic - sunbathers

Waffle Flower - umbrella

Concord & 9th - cover die

Ranger - Distress oxide ink

Card stock scraps

Rhinestone

Simon Says Stamp - sentiment

Can you imagine the fun and laughter with that many friends together in the sun? Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend!

Carol

 

Miss You Already

It's summertime and I am the hostess this week for our Just Us Girls #782 Die Week - Summer Things. I chose this theme because there are so many things you can die cut that are for summer: A sailboat, sun, sunglasses, seagulls, flamingos, lighthouse, pool/pool floats, beach, beach ball, beach tote, flip flops, ocean waves, ice cream cones, summer drinks and fruits, lemonade stand, watermelon, palm trees, bicycles, vacation items, suitcase/travel items, baseball, etc. And you can accompany them with summery sentiments!

Here is what I came up with for the challenge! I used the airplane window dies and tropical location dies for the view.

I used the Concord & 9th Plane Amazing stamp and die sets. I made this card for our daughter and sneeked it into her carry-on bag when she had to leave to fly "home" yesterday. This is her view when she leaves here...she does miss the tropical zone. So my airplane window (travel) and the scenery (tropical) are the summery things that I die cut for our challenge theme.

I'm also playing along at Insipred By IB343 with my summer card.

I hope you will join us this week and that you will visit the team's blogs to read about their cards! Our guest this month is Donna Mikasa and she has a wonderful card for you as well!

See you in the gallery!

Carol

Have So Much Fun!

Our Time Out Challenge #292 starting today is all about Travel, so I used my Concord & 9th Plane Amazing stamp and die sets to create moving window shades inside the plane. Making the windows isn't difficult and it's fun to have an interactive element on my card.

This Time Out challenge is wide open to interpretation - places to go, places you've been or dreamed of going, adventures to have, methods of travel, books about travel, songs about travel... anything travel related.

The first picture shows the windows open, the second shows them almost closed, and the third view is for you to see the shiny windows made with acetate. The stamping inside the windows is of clouds with a pinky-orange sunset. I took the liberty of making the plane's interior pink (maybe the sunset outside the plane is reflecting on the inside walls) and used gold for the window pulls and the little plane below. Pink and gold are one of my favorite combos!

I followed a video on the C & 9th website to learn how to make the interactive windows and now I want to figure out how to make the large window in the set have acetate and a moving window shade.

Our wonderful sponsor, Angie Blom Digital Designs, is generously offering a $20.00 Store Credit as a prize for our Challenge Winner. Angie's designs are all fabulous, and there are some wonderful travel related designs too! We greatly appreciate Angie's sponsorship of this challenge and support of Time Out.

Last but not least, we are joined by Sherri Schmidt, winner of Time Out #287, as our Guest Designer for this challenge. Sherri posts her work on Flickr as Sherrisonline. Even if you are not a Flickr member, you can still view her gallery. Sherri's designs are fun and her style is eclectic. Do treat yourself to a stroll through her gallery for some great inspiration.

We hope to see you in the gallery with some travel fun!

Carol