Just Us Girls Challenge #18 - Wildcard - MAKE A PENNANT BANNER :-)

Hello everyone! It's time for another challenge with Just Us Girls! ♥ ♥ This week is a wildcard challenge... as such I challenge all of you to make a pennant banner with an optional bonus challenge of a love theme for your banner. ♥ ♥ (The "love" theme is optional but the banner is not).

Banners have been popping up all over the place! They show up as home dec, in miniature on cards and scrapbook layouts, made of paper, fabric and anything else you can string along a line of ribbon, etc. The pennant part of your banner can be any shape whatsoever and each pennant may be a symmetrical match of its partners or treated as it's very own canvas. A little something for everyone right? So come on and show us your best banners! There is a wonderful tutorial on how to make these on the SCS web site. You can find it here.

Ready for some inspiration from Just Us Girls? I want to also take a moment to thank our January Guest Designer, the fabulous Gabby Arriaza! This is her final guest spot with us and we want to send her HUGE hugs and thanks for creating with us this month. She is an inspiration to us all! Gabby is dealing with some huge life challenges and all of the Just Us Girls design team want to send her our thoughts and prayers for strength.

Gabby Arriaza, January Guest Designer

Mona

Kristin

Pam

Running late today :[

Tracey

Lisa

Alicia

Maria

Dana

How to Play: Upload your project using this week's challenge to your online blog or public photo gallery. Leave a link that goes directly to your project in the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of this post. If you upload to an online gallery, please use keyword or tag, JUGS18.

Deadline to be considered for "Chic of the Week" will be 9:00 PM EST on Thursday, February 4th. Our "Chic of the Week" will be announced on Friday morning following the deadline. (You may still post to the Mr. Linky after the deadline, but your project won't be eligible for the "Chic of the Week" spot.)

Can't wait to see what you create this week with Just Us Girls!

Chic of the Week #17

What a fun week of templates it's been. We had a little glitch yesterday where we lost our Mr. Linky! Oh the horror that was, but it found it's way back fairly quickly. I had a blast going through all your entries this week and it's always so hard to pick just one for Chic of the week.

So, this week's Chic of the Week is Debbie who submitted this fabulous shabby chic style valentine house. Check it out:


I was drawn to this little house as soon as I saw it. I just love the colors and the shabby chic style it has. It's so hard to pick one but I kept going back to this little house. Thanks for playing Debbie and congrats! You can email me for your Chic of the Week badge.
As I went through everyone's fabulous creations there were a few that stood out to me that I wanted to share with you in no particular order:

Vladka: created this great little doll closet. With such fantastic details from a template she created on her own!

Kathryn: Kathryn used the "In A Pinch" template by Lauren. I loved the simplicity & elegance of it.

Christine: Christine created a lovely house for her mother from one of the My Timeless templates at Paptertrey Ink. She did a great job putting it together and I loved the colors & details.

Terri: Terri submitted a creation using Lauren Meader's All A Flutter template. Butterflies are always so much fun and I love how she decorated this one.

Charlene: Charlene submitted a fabulous pick me up set in black and red colors. Too cute and will definitely make someone smile.

Finally.... this week our amazing sponsor was Lauren of My Time Made Easy who so generously donated a wonderful prize of a $25 gift certificate to her store! I used Random.org and the winner is:
#20 Mandy! Congrats Mandy! I know you will find some fun things in Lauren's store! Please contact us with your details. (email is in sidebar)

If you get a chance you will want to take a swing by everyone's creations because they were all wonderful! Thank you to everyone who participated this week and we hope that you will come back on Saturday for another fun challenge with our hostess of the week Dana!
Till later....

Just Us Girls Challenge #17 - Template Challenge

EDITED:

Mr. Linky had gone missing earlier tonight but now he's back~ Thanks for your patience - the outage affected ALL blogs that had Mr. Linky on them - not just JUGs.

It's Saturday again and time for another challenge with Just Us Girls! This week we have an amazing sponsor for our template challenge. Many of you may be familiar with the amazing Lauren Meader, well Lauren now owns her own store called My Time Made Easy! In one fabulous place you can get Lauren's wonderful templates, digi papers and stamps. Lauren has one fabulous design team in place which include a few of our own here at Just Us Girls. Here is this week's challenge:

I hope you will take time this week to play along with us in this template challenge. If you don't already have one of Lauren's templates she offers a free one in her store called Cutesy Cover Template, so please check that out. We would LOVE IT if you would use one of Lauren's new templates if you have one. However, we want everyone to be able to play so you may use any template that you have. Please just share with us where your template comes from. 

BLOG CANDY!!! Lauren has also generously donated a $25 gift certificate to her store My Time Made Easy for one lucky winner. All you have to do is play along with us and link your creation to the Mr. Linky below. We will draw one lucky winner at random from all the qualifying participants and post the winner next Friday with our Chic of the Week. Remember your entry needs to link directly to your post or gallery photo of your entry. Feel free to also leave us a comment as we love to hear from everyone and what you think of the challenges.

And now "Just Us Girls" presents a little inspiration to get you started. All of the fabulous creations you will see are big sneak peeks for Lauren's February 1 release! So get ready for some fabulous eye candy! First up we'll show you what Lauren has come up with. Isn't this just too cute?!? Just Chickin' In! What a cute and clever sentiment!

Lauren

Alicia



Dana


Lisa


Mona


Maria

Pam

Kristin

Tracey

Gabby Arriaza - Our January Guest Designer

How to Play: Upload your project using this week's challenge to your online blog or public photo gallery. Leave a link that goes directly to your project in the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of this post. If you upload to an online gallery, please use keyword or tag, JUGS17.

Deadline to be considered for "Chic of the Week" will be 9:00 PM EST on Thursday, January 28th. Our "Chic of the Week" will be announced on Friday morning following the deadline. (You may still post to the Mr. Linky after the deadline, but your project won't be eligible for the "Chic of the Week" spot.)

Can't wait to see what you create this week with Just Us Girls!

Chic of the Week #16

Okay, can I just say WOW, loud and proud?!  I just went through every JUGS submission for the color challenge I hosted last week and my jaw was on the floor more often than not!  I thought this color combo was beautiful before, but you ladies showed me just how stunning it really is!  So, thank you for all of the beautiful entries!  I've been sitting here for the past 30 minutes filtering through all of my faves trying to figure out which ones I should highlight.  I LOVE and hate that you make it soooo hard to choose!  LOL  The card I chose for Chic of the Week #16 just grabbed me right away.  Every time I went back to it, I got a warm, happy feeling in my stomach so I knew it was "the one" ♥

Can I get a huge CONGRATS for Savannah O'Gwynn who submitted this beauty:

Love the vintage feel, the torn pocket with the 5 reasons she loves her man, the stitching, and the patterned paper she used with our gorgeous colors :)  Isn't it pretty?! 

I also finally managed to narrow my list of favorites to a Top 5...amazingly enough :]  Here they are...each one special and beautiful in it's own unique way.

Stephanie Kraft ~ You've gotta check out her gorgeous stitching and the clean look she achieved!  Oh and the pin she pierced through the bow!  Soooo cute :]

Kathryn B ~  Okay, check out her card and how adorable the little pony is!  Seriously...it LOOKS like a My Little Pony, doesn't it?  That took me back :]  Her stitched heart and the trimmed, embossed heart panel are so pretty and clever!  I couldn't resist ♥

Carol Lee ~ She made these flowers come to life by cutting them out and nestling them among the gray leaves!  The texture she added to the leaves just added to the elegant look of the card!  I just thought this was soooo striking, it warranted mentioning here ♥

Kathrin ~ I had to share this card with everyone!  The layering is fab, the sentiment is cleverly displayed, the coloring is AMAZING, but what about those snowflakes?!  She made the flakes look like a 3-D flower!  I just LOVE how this turned out!!

Teresa Kline ~ Oh Teresa...seriously, this lady always has me rushing to see her beautiful work as soon as I see her name in a challenge lineup!  Let me tell you, she ALWAYS produces something inspriational!  Her clean yet oh so elegant card had me drooling!  That ribbon is GORGEOUS and the beautiful main panel and coloring are spectacular! 

Do yourself a favor if you haven't already and check out all of our participant's projects!  You will dream about these colros if you do!  I cannot even believe the beauties that came out of this combo!  You all are one talented group of papercrafters and I'm happy to be crafting among you if even in a small way :]

Savannah, please email me and I will send your Chic of the Week badge straight away! 

Thanks to everyone who played along!!!  I sure hope we see you again this weekend for our template challenge!  Join us tomorrow when Maria hosts and we share a special treat and a special sponsor ♥

Have a great Friday!!

Just Us Girls Challenge #16 - Color Challenge!

elcome back to Just Us Girls for another awesome challenge!  This week I'm hosting our color challenge (JUGS16).  I chose this palette because I ♥ these colors together, but more importantly I thought they were totally appropriate for Valentine's Day.  Yes, I kept it somewhat "Valentine-typical", BUT, they're soooo pretty! 

Huge thank you to Mona for helping me find just the right photo for my graphic :]  I needed help this week!  I'm a little behind (as usual ;)  Oh, and speaking of Mona...what a FANTASTIC turn out we had for her stitching challenge last week!  We're so thrilled you came out with your needle (and thread or markers) in force!!  Stitching is one popular technique ;]  You all provided some AMAZING eye candy!!

How about a little more eye candy to get you inspired this week?  Check out our amazing Design Teams' projects...to include our fab January Guest Designer, Ms. Gabby Arriaza!

Kristin Bueter

Alicia Weiman

Dana Gustafson

Lisa Kind

Maria Levine

Mona Pendleton

Pam Imholz

Tracey Cuccia

Gabby Arriaza - Our January Guest Designer ♥

How to Play: Upload your project using this week's challenge to your online blog or public photo gallery. Leave a link that goes directly to your project in the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of this post. If you upload to an online gallery, please use keyword or tag, JUGS16. After you post to Mr. Linky, please also leave us a comment here. We ♥ hearing what you think of our challenges!

Deadline to be considered for "Chic of the Week" will be 9:00 PM EST on Thursday, January 21st. Our "Chic of the Week" will be announced on Friday morning following the deadline. (You may still post to the Mr. Linky after the deadline, but your project won't be eligible for the "Chic of the Week" spot.)

Can't wait to see what you create this week with Just Us Girls!

Chic of the Week #15

Hi Everyone! After combing through all the wonderful creations for this week's technique / stitching challenge, I had make an incredibly tough decision. First though, I would like to thank you "sew" much for playing along & it was really a lot of fun to see such an array of talent! I hope you all come back to play with Just Us Girls on Saturday :)!

So for this week's Chic of the Week, I chose this beautiful card designed by Stephanie Kraft!
Not only is the stitching amazing but I think this card is sweet & cheerful! There is a lot of detail in this card, yet Stephanie made it all come together so nicely! So Stephanie, please email me at mlpendleton@cox.net & I will glady send your JUGS Chic of the Week badge.

Just in case you haven't had the opportunity to browse amongst the other entries yet, here are a few others that really caught my eye! In no particular order:

*Sharon Wheet attached many gold teensy weensy beads by hand using a needle & thread. Absolutely beautiful beadwork!
*Juls faux stitching is simply awesome.
*Karla's hand embroidery is out of this world! Some super fancy stitches all by hand.
*Vladka's creation has some great stitching & it is a real piece of artwork.
& Katie used some faux stitching to frame her Masterpiece.

I could ramble on & on about all the incredible entries this week! Thank you all so very much for playing along with Just Us Girls! I am blown away by the number of "seamstresses" out there as Pam would say! I sure hope you join us on Saturday, as Kristin will be our lovely Hostess coloring our world with an awesome color combination! See you Saturday!

Just Us Girls #15 - A Technique Challenge

Hi Everyone! Well, I must say last week's sketch challenge was extremely popular! What a great way to start the New Year! I hope we can continue the enthusiasm with this week's Technique Challenge which is to Add Stitching to your project! So dust off your sewing machine if you own one, pull out your paper piercer & marker or a good old fashioned needle & thread & show us what you can do!

For an awesome resource, we have provided a link to a great Faux stitching tutorial on SCS: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/faux_stitching/

We continue to welcome this month's Guest Designer is Gabby Arriaza!

And now, "Just Us Girls" presents a little inspiration to get you started!

Dana

Pam

Mona

Alicia

Maria

Lisa

Kristin

Tracey

Gabby Arriaza - Our January Guest Designer ♥

How to Play: Upload your project using this week's challenge to your online blog or public photo gallery. Leave a link that goes directly to your project in the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of this post. If you upload to an online gallery, please use keyword or tag, JUGS15. After you post to Mr. Linky, please also leave us a comment here. We ♥ hearing what you think of our challenges!

Deadline to be considered for "Chic of the Week" will be 9:00 PM EST on Thursday, January 14th. Our "Chic of the Week" will be announced on Friday morning following the deadline. (You may still post to the Mr. Linky after the deadline, but your project won't be eligible for the "Chic of the Week" spot.)

Can't wait to see what you create this week with Just Us Girls!

Chic of the Week #14

Hello everyone! Well, girls, I have looked at each and every entry this week...all 84 of them at last count! My little fingers are so tired, I don't know if I'll be able to stamp for our next challenge! I must say that the entries were all FABULOUS once again, and that choosing only one is a very difficult job! I was happy to see that many of you joined us for the first time! I was so glad to hear that, and we hope you continue to craft with Just Us Girls!

So for this week's Chic of the Week I chose this lovely, fun card by Melissa H.!I think the colors just jumped right off the screen and grabbed me! And there is so much going on here to rest your eyes on! So, Melissa, email me at lakind@roadrunner.com to get your JUGs Chic of the Week badge.

There were many others that grabbed my attention as well.

• I loved the monochromatic card Stacey Shafer created. The images were so lovely as well.
• Stephanie's (Smilyn Stef) vintage image in blue and her color combination were so calming.
• Lea L.'s card was just so whimsical with the patterns and colors.
• Linda Cummings' cute little penguin made me smile!
• And Michelle Yager's Tote-ally Tess reminded me of Just Us Girls!

And the list could go on and on! Thanks so much for playing with Just Us Girls! The response to this sketch challenge was completely overwhelming! Come back on Saturday when our marvelous Mona Pendleton issues a technique challenge that you will sooo love! See you then!

Just Us Girls #14 - A Sketch Challenge!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! This is the first JUGs challenge for 2010...can you believe it's a new decade already? The JUGs girls have some fabulous things planned for you for this year, and we hope you continue to play and spread the word about us!

One new thing we have planned is a guest designer for each month! Yes you can be our next guest designer by playing along each week! Everyone has a chance at that guest spot. This month's guest designer is Gabby Arriaza! She has played along with us several times and has a very unique style! Welcome Gabby!

This week we have a sketch challenge for you. Remember that sketch challenges are just a starting point for you. It doesn't have to be exact. You may flip it, change it up a bit, etc., but try to stay somewhat true to the original sketch.


And now some inpsiration for you from the girls!

Lisa

Dana

Alicia

Maria

Mona

Pam

Kristin

Tracey

January Guest Designer, Gabby Arriaza

How to Play: Upload your project using this week's challenge to your online blog or public photo gallery. Leave a link that goes directly to your project in the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of this post. If you upload to an online gallery, please use keyword or tag, JUGS14. After you post to Mr. Linky, please also leave us a comment here. We ♥ love hearing what you think of our challenges!

Deadline: To be considered for "Chic of the Week" will be 9:00 PM EST on Thursday, January 7, 2010. Our "Chic of the Week" will be announced on Friday morning following the deadline. (You may still post to the Mr. Linky after the deadline, but your project won't be eligible for the "Chic of the Week" spot.)

I can't wait to see what you create with my sketch this week! On with the fun!