Be Our Valentine ... The Twinery Event!

Happy Monday ! ! !

Welcome to The Open Window and a fabulous day !

That's right . . . The Twinery wants to be YOUR Valentine !

Our design team will be sharing inspiration with you

all week long with crafts that focus on a variety of themes.

Today it's Gift Tags!

These are bold, aren't they?

I love mixing bright colors, but it sometimes takes me awhile

to come around to them.

For these tags, I was totally inspired by our baker's twine.

Pink Sorbet

Strawberry

Cantaloupe

{doesn't that sound absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS?!}

I stamped the tag tops & sentiments using terrific stamps from Avery Elle,

then embossed the bottom section of the tag using this

beautiful diamond pattern EF from Lifestyle Crafts.

From there, I simply loaded up on twine and made the

tag full of texture.

For a completely DIFFERENT take on tags . . .

 I focused on our newest 'Platinum' Shimmer twine

paired with 'Ocean' to create a completely different look.

Staying with the stamp set from Avery Elle, I simply 'shadowed'

the images with my inks.

The gorgeous button brads are from The Paper Studio.

Just check out the beautiful metallic shimmer woven into the twine . . .

It's a fabulous celebration and I hope you will join us each day.

There have already been amazing giveaways & each day brings more.

Today's giveaway is a great 'GIFT TAG' PUNCH.

Make sure you stop by The Twinery blog to check out all

the details and to find more inspiration from our great designers.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Make sure to leave a little note before you make your

next stop.  I'd love to hear from you  :  )

Happy Valentine's Day Project Recipe:

Stamps: All Occasion Tags & Lots of Love by Avery Elle

Embellishments: baker's twine in Strawberry, Pink Sorbet & Cantaloupe

from The Twinery

 

Be Mine Project Recipe:

Stamps: All Occasion Tags & Lots of Love by Avery Elle

Ink: Memento Angel Pink & Teal Zeal by Tsukineko

Embellishments: baker's twine in Ocean & Platinum Shimmer

from The Twinery

 

Honored to be Guest Designing with . . .

Surprise !

It's usually pretty quite here at The Open Window during

the weekend, but I have some very special posts I'll be sharing

with you over the next few days.

I'm honored to be a Guest Designer over at

and it's Release Week with brand new stamp sets

that I absolutely adore !

Today, I am sharing a card I made using a new set called

'Lots of Love'

Another Clean & Simple design for me.

I used my Heart border punch from Martha Stewart

and glued a few of the tiny heart punch-outs

next to the sentiment.

This card would also be great using each one

of the three heart images too.

Here is a look at the set I played with . . .

It's absolutely terrific !

I hope you will make a visit over to the

Avery Elle blog

and tell them I said hello !

I'll be sharing more fun cards over the next few days,

so I hope you'll stop by again.

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Bazzill
Stamps: Lots of Love by Avery Elle

Tools: heart to heart border punch by Martha Stewart

Inspired by Others

Over on Facebook, I have been fussing about the fact 

that I have had a hard time transitioning out of

Christmas creations to what's next, whether that be

just general winter-themed card or even, dare I

say it....Valentine's?

I found terrific inspiration by way of two

different challenges.

Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger

and the

Scrappy Saturday Challenge

in which I CASED one of my favorite designers...

Savannah O'Gwynn!

I absolutely love the colors from both photos. The softness

of the cakes and cookies were reflected in the sweet

wreath from Heidi Grace.

The sentiment is from Paper Inspirations

and my favorite baker's twine from The Twinery 

wraps it up so sweetly.

The beautiful pink rhinestones in Sav's card came alive

in mine with the pink rhinestone hearts and of

course the 'themes' mesh as well.

Before I forget, Jenny over at Wee Memories

(host of Scrappy Saturday Challenge)

is having a giveaway of this fabulous storage 

cubby from Studio 3 Solutions.

If I were you, I'd go check it out!

What a great little Christmas pressie this would be!

Fingers crossed : )

Thanks again for stopping by!

I LoVe hearing from you!

Love is in the Air...it's a Private Blend!

 

This is a fabulous week over at The Play Date Cafe!

Not only do we have an open design team call going on at the moment, but we also have a new  

Cafe feature with a designer opportunity.

This week, I was totally inspired by The Play Date Cafe's first 

'Private Blend' Designer.

Before I tell you about that inspiration, I want to also thank my friend

Maria Medeiros from CozyComfyCouch Photography & Design.

Maria has graciously provided this fabulous inspiration photo

for this week's challenge.

 

Mona Pendleton of Cupcake's Creations is our first

'Private Blend' Designer and her tissue paper flowers are so beautiful.

I decided it was time to make a few of my own 

inspired by her terrific style.

I also managed a little 'Boo' with this project by using flocked DP from

Prima's Nursery Rhyme Collection, 

and this fabulous Paper Inspirations

stamp that I have had for over five years and had never inked!

The textured hearts were a part of a die cut package that came free with one of my British stamping magazines.

Hope you will take this opportunity to play with these great  

Valentine-y colors over at The Play Date Cafe.  

Head on over and find out how you can be a 

'Private Blend' Designer!

A Little Inspiration for Valentines

I don't have much to share today as I am working on a couple of fun projects that I look forward to sharing in the coming days, so I thought I would show you a few more 'peeks' of the cards
that I made for my mom.

I know in my last post I mentioned working outside the color 'box' for Valentines, but of course, it couldn't last forever.  Found myself right back into the reds, pinks and whites with a hint of
something 'extra' here and there.

Definitely getting some mileage out of my Sizzix Primitive Hearts die cuts, but once again, I have stuck to using papers that I have had for awhile.  The theme for me though, was to continue to keep these very simple so I could get a variety done in a short amount of time.

Love the new Martha Stewart punches for spring.

The 'eyelet lace' and 'pansy' punches will get a lot of use.

Also new for spring are the K&Company 'Ka-Zoo' foil sticker borders.  These fabulous hearts are from that collection and the tiny hearts in the photo before this one are the 'cutouts' from the border.

If you haven't entered your guess for the

'Use What You've Got Giveaway',

you have until tomorrow to do so.

Just click HERE for the details. 

It's been a lot of fun to see what you have come up with for guesses and I think you are going to be

TOTALLY surprised by the answer!

Using What You've Got...It's a Giveaway!

One of my so-called resolutions for 2010 was to do my best to use a little 'somethin' that I have had for a long time.  My priority is to use my paper stash first followed by embellishments.  Oh my goodness!  As I organize, it's like Christmas everyday as I find things I forgot I had!
I know...that's your story too, isn't it?!

My mom called the other day and said she needed 12 valentines, 
any style, any color.  PERFECT!

I immediately began to think of ways I could put my plan to use,
but make the cards quick and simple.

One way to accomplish this is to get out of the box color-wise.
So here is the result...

 This is just one of the cards I came up with.  The patterned papers came with a British magazine that Sarah sent to me.  So I used the Sizzix Flower Layers die cut and highlighted the edges with  

Stardust Stickles.

My friend Mona sent me the rhinestone brads from Making Memories and the border punch is Eyelet Lace from Martha Stewart.

The colors are a bit unconventional for a typical valentine, but why not?

While I had the Sizzix die cut out,

I decided to continue on with my plan...here's what I made...

I have had the polka dot paper forEVER!
It's called Penelope's Potpourri from SEI.

The pink flower was made from the same paper on the card,
but now for my favorite....

THIS lovely flower is my favorite!  Adorned with Platinum Stickles.

The contest...

What can YOU tell me about the patterned paper that was used?

Take a good look at the photos above and really zero in on the patterned flowers on the left.

1. Who manufactures this paper?

2.  What makes this particular 'sheet' unusual?

Leave a comment with your guess.  Feel free to try and guess both answers.  I will take all correct answers and draw a winner.  You have until 11:59pm EST, Tuesday, January 19th to enter your guess.

The winner will receive a package of papers from this particular collection AND a completed flower embellishment.

Vintage Valentine for Embellish Magazine.com

OK...does this just scream vintage valentine?  I hope so.

It's just a glimpse of my entry for
Embellish Magazine.com's New Year Challenge.

I took a bit of liberty with my shade of red, but I think it works.

I used a few of the papers from GCD Studios'
'Artsy Urban Collection' to get the job done.

You recognize the vintage foil hearts from my recent entry for  
The Play Date Cafe Challenge.

Love playing with that foil! 
The silver metallic is embossed using a Cuttlebug EF.

I 'pinked' up my white crepe paper rosettes with a little VersaMagic ink.

Nothing says vintage like lots of flowers.
thanks to Prima and Making Memories for these beauties!

Add a few satin pearls, gathered trim
and button brads for flower centers.

Speaking of GCD Studios, if you haven't left your comment for the
BIG giveaway, you still have time.

Just click HERE for all the details!

One more thing then I am off to make my husband his favorite
Italian Chicken dinner...

Julie's Open Window is now on Facebook!
I would LOVE it if you would become a fan.

Just scroll down to the FB badge just under my
followers beautiful faces and click.

When you get to Julie's Open Window on FB,
click 'Become a Fan' and that's it!

See you soon!

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #10

I am so thankful when it comes to a blog 'makeover', you get to try and try and try until you fall in love with what you've done.  Now the problem with all that trying is it usually takes up an entire day of being at the computer, but I think it's just another form of creativity.  I love shabby chic and the romantic colors, so I hope you enjoy it while it lasts....you never know when it might be changed again!

 

      So the sneak peek above is to whet your appetite for these luscious colors for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  I LOVE THEM!  The inspiration comes by way of The UK this week, so get on over and see what the fabulous PDCC Design Team
put together to inspire you.

I didn't use nearly as much brown in mine...in fact, it's just the base of my card.  But I thought the other elements of this Valentine's card worked really well for the challenge.

The focal point is vintage sheet music from the 1940's.  Also vintage are the foils that were recycled from very old baby shower decorations.  Remember the tissue paper garlands that pulled out to spell 'Congratulations'?  I managed to purchase a number of these awhile back and loved die-cutting them for these hearts.

I used the Damask EF for the silver metallic layer and fabulous turquoise glitter on a chipboard letter.

The die cut tag is from 'Snowed In' by My Mind's Eye.

In an effort to stick with the goal of using more of my older paper collections, I will do my best to share those by name, when I can.  This card uses pretty pinks from Making Memories' 'Sabrina' Collection.

That's one down...many, MANY more to go!

This card is currently for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Go...have fun with this challenge!

Let's see if we can get a record 
number of players this week!

Shifting Gears...Babies & Valentines...

 I have been having so much fun playing with two different paper collections, so I thought I would share these with you.

The first is Graphic45...'Baby 2 Bride'.

 

I used 3 different pages from this collection.

The base is 'Sentimental Baby' that I ran through

'The Bug' using the Swiss Dot EF.  I love this page because it has the verses to 'Rock a Bye Baby'

The next layer is 'Unforgettable'.  This page has a variety of squares that can be used together or can be cut apart.  I used 6 squares together.

The final addition was the sweet tag from the 'Tags' page.  This page has the most beautiful tags to choose from.

I distressed the edges of two layers and embellished with satin pearls, trim and platinum Stickles.

Now for something completely different.....

This Valentine card features the beautiful 'Artsy Urban' collection from GCD Studios.

I love the texture of all the collections from this company.  These papers are no exception.  The linen finishes and embossed glittered roses are so beautiful!

I die cut the scalloped hearts from Spellbinders and layered them using dimensional tape.  I added Prima flowers and centered one with an 'Artsy Urban' crochet flower.

The sweet angels were taken from 'The Book of Friendship'.  I love these chunky books that can usually be found in the Bargain Book section of Barnes & Noble.  They make great clip art!

Of course,
I couldn't finish without some vintage lace, vibrant rhinestones and icicle Stickles.

So there you have it....two VERY DIFFERENT creations.

Both will be available in my Etsy shop.

Before I go, I wanted to say thank you TO YOU!  I have loved getting to know so many of you through your visits to  

The Open Window.

I think 2010 will contain some very exciting months as we continue to communicate and share through this fabulous place.  My plans for New Year's Day is to play and create...I am making a deal with myself to use what I have.  Now, that doesn't mean that I won't be out there buying up the latest papers and stamps...that would be ridiculous!  No...my intentions are to try and use at least one thing I already have on hand in each of my projects and then share that with you.  So what do I have the MOST of that I need to use?  Paper...paper...PAPER!  Of course, many of us have things that we just don't want to part with...and I will hang on to those (and maybe share those along the way as well).  But I do need to start using more of my papers no matter how old they are.

So here is what I want to know from you?  What do you have the most of that you would be willing to try and use more of in the coming year's creativity?  I am sure we would ALL LOVE TO KNOW...so please leave me a comment....

Let's have fun with this!