Guest Blogger Joan Bardee

Please welcome our Guest Blogger Joan Bardee aka Dear Paperlicious. Joan stamps, writes and humors us from her blog called Paperlicious. Here is a quick get to know you interview with Joan. Make sure you stop in throughout the week and see what Joan has created with her JustRite Monogram Stamper. Don't forget to leave her some comments too!

1. Where do you live? I live in Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC
2. Tell us about your family. I am married to Mike, who is a lawyer for the Federal Government (I am too). My son, Andy, will be a senior in high school this year and my Mom lives with us.
3. How long have you been stamping? I have been stamping for about 5 years.
4. Where do you do your stamping? I have taken over an extra bedroom, which I call my craft room. It is all mine!
5. What is your must have stamping too? My must have tool is my Japanese Book Drill — can punch a hole anywhere.
6. How long have you been blogging? I’ve been blogging for about 2 years, although I’ve had this particular typepad blog for a year.

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".

Keep Voting!

Keep the votes coming! So cool to see over 300 votes in the first 24 hours and such a tight race too. Make sure you tell all your friends to come and vote.

Gift certificate prizes have been emailed to all of you that have been chosen as a "hopeful" over the last two weeks. If you have not received your gift certificate via email by today (Saturday) it is because I haven't heard from you and don't have an email address to send it to. If anyone feels there is an error please email deniseb@justritestampers.com .....yes, that is the correct email address Lisa :-) and we will get it out to you. Oh and check your spam folders too....for some reason I have caught some responses in my spam folder and hopefully none of your certificates went to spam either.

Thanks for your patience and keep stamping! You have seen the competition and the caliber of stamping over the last two weeks..... each week is just gets better and better. With the long weekend you have an extra day to get creative with your JustRite products. Yeah!

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".

Let the voting begin!

As I said yesterday and last week....it is incredibly hard to choose as we love to see your creativity come to life with the JustRite products. Thank goodness the final vote is up to all of you out in the stamping world. Please take a look at this week's entries and then tell everyone to vote! Last week we had over 1,100 votes which totally blew me away! So let's go for 1,200 this week.

Here are the Top Five for this week. Make sure you come to the blog and vote in the poll to the right.

Hugs and Kisses by Barb Schram

Halloween Test Tubes by Lisa Somerville
Sewing Kit by Julie Koerber
Memo Board by Terri Dodd
Happy B-day by Andrea Hayes
Remember, voting is completely annonymous and we can't see your votes. Also, the poll will be closed Monday evening at 9:00 Eastern Time. Hurry....go vote...and tell your friends too!

"When it needs to be JustRite".....go for the Gold!

Thursday Hopefuls

Great entries today and every day! You all make it sooooo hard to pick. I thought I would share with you how we go about picking the final six.

1. Every day we go through all the comments and visit every link emailed to us including the blog links. We also browse the SCS gallery all day long compiling a running list of entries.
   
2. Each night we call each other and review our favs of the day and surprisingly we ususally have the same people on our lists. Then we post the agreed upon daily "hopefuls".
   
3. Every Thursday, after the Thursday "hopefuls" are determined the final list is emailed to our panel of 8 judges. By this time we have narrowed it down from approximately 100 entries to 12.
   
4. Everyone on the panel votes and the top six winners make it on to the Stampin Champion finals.
   
5. Then it's up to you, the people of the stamping world, to vote and crown the top three Stampin Champions.

So there you have it and I can assure you it is NOT easy at all. It is painfully difficult to critique the entries and only choose six out of 100 or more. Please don't take it personally and keep playing! Even if you don't make it into the finals you are still given a daily opportunity to win some gift certificates that will help pay for the items on your wish list. Either way you are still a winner in our book!

With that being said here are some projects that caught our attention today. This card is made by Andrea. I like how she used the monogram to spell out the word "Thanks".

Here is an altered candle made by ggsisco. I love how the personalized sentiment is a play on words that coordinates with the candle.

Tomorrow, this week's Top Six Stampin Champions will be listed and the voting will begin! It's a long weekend and you will have plenty of time to vote and stamp entries for next week. Next week is the final week and then all the finalist will have a "stamp off".

Congratulations to the following hopefuls. Please send an email to deniseb@justritestampers.com and include Thursday Winner in the subject line. All gift certificates from the week will be emailed on Friday. Any entries we receive over the weekend will be posted on Monday.

Jackie

Susan

Barbara

Cindy

ggsisco

Rachel

Dana

Lisa $15 **multiple winner**

Andrea

Michelle


"When it needs to be JustRite".....go for the Gold.

Wednesday Hopefuls

Another great JustRite day! I wanted to address a few questions first before we move onto today's "hopefuls".

1. It doesn't matter what post you leave your comment on. All comments are emailed to our team and we read each one.


2. You can link to your blog (and we do visit the blogs too) but we surf the SCS gallery all day and night for entries. It just makes it easier for us to see them all in one place.


3. Yes, I can tabulate your winnings for the week and send one large gift certificate rather than many $5 gift certificates. As a matter of fact, to make my life easier that is how it is going to be for everyone. All winners will receive gift certificates at the end of the week.

For today's inspiration piece we were wow'd by Lisa's test tubes filled with candy. She made one the other day with a Halloween theme and today a Christmas theme. I am guessing that Michael's is going to soon have a run on test tubes.

We were also impressed with Rachel's etched wine glass and matching polyshrink charm and monogrammed candle. This is a great example of altering items and etching the glass with the JustRite Special Occasions font is pretty awesome. I can totally see this on a honeymoon or first anniversary dinner table setting.

Use Lisa and Rachel's creativity as inspiration and we challenge you to alter any item in your stash. We all have a stash of alterables...right? Of course, use any JustRite product on your project. (Pssst...we are more than monograms.)

Congratulations to the "hopefuls" listed below. Please email deniseb@justritestampers.com with Wednesday Winner in the subject line and your gift certificate will be emailed to you at the end of the week. Thanks for playing along!

Dana

Rachel

Lisa $15 **multiple winner**

Barb $15 **multiple winner**

Stephine

Jackie

Cindy


Janet

"When it needs to be JustRite".....go for the Gold!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our very first Stampin' Champions! What an exciting competition and close finish.

Gold Medal and $100 Gift Certificate Michele Kovack
Silver Medal and $50 Gift Certificate Katarina Menzies
Bronze Medal and $25 Gift Certificate Amy Westerman

Congratulations to our Gold Medal winner, Michele Kovack, who will also be the JustRite Guest Blogger at the end of September.

Thanks to everyone that competed throughout the week and took the time to vote. But don't think this competition is over just yet! Keep playing as we are halfway through round two where you will choose another set of three Stampin Champions. Then in round three you will choose another set of Stampin Champions and then in the fourth and final round all nine Stampin Champions will compete for the Grand Prize...and it's good.

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".

Tuesday Hopefuls

It's late...very late but we have finally compiled a long list of hopefuls for Tuesday. It is great to see so many new names in the running this week. Keep playing and keep using the inspirations/challenges provided if you can.

It's just fun to get outside your normal stamping routine and try something that stretches your imagination. Just like Katarina and Stephine did today! We were totally wow'd by the use of polyshrink to make monogram charms. Great job girls!

For tomorrow feel free to dig up your polyshrink and make some charms!

Katarina's elegant necklace charm and hat pin with charm on the card.

Stephine's clever and creative wine glass charms.
Congratulations to the following hopefuls. Please email deniseb@justritestampers.com with Tuesday Winner in the subject line and your gift certificate will be emailed to you.

Katarina $15**multiple winner**

Jackie $15 **multiple winner**

Barbara

Stephine

Krista

Terri $10 **multiple winner**

Ashley

Julie

Lisa $10 **multiple winner**

Ansa

Katie

Tammy

Rachel

Moster

Dana

"When it needs to be JustRite". ....go for the Gold!

Round Two Tuesday

It's time to start thinking about Halloween. EEEEK! Can you believe that fall is quickly approaching? For today's inspiration/challenge I thought it would be fun to get into "scary" mode and make a Halloween card. If you are needing a little Stampin Champion inspiration try to make a Halloween project today and of course use ANY JustRite product on your entry.

Make sure to link any of your entries here in the comments so we can find your project. You can enter multiple times and you can win multiple gift certificates too! Again, I used the Small Letter Set to create my border sentiment but used the new "you're invited" center that comes with the Designer Centers and Borders set that will be released mid-September.

Here is a close up of the border sentiment that was made with the Small Letter Set. Also, as Margie commented yesterday, when loading your letters you have to load them backwards or you will end up with a funny looking sentiment.
Today is the last day to vote for the first Stampin Champion and it is a close race. I feel a Michael Phelps moment coming on and the winner is going to win by a fingertip. Sooooo exciting! Thanks for participating and if you would like to take one more look at the finalist before you vote click here.
When it needs to be JustRite".....go for the Gold!

Monday Hopefuls

Thanks to everyone that participated in our first day of Round Two of the JustRite Stampin' Champion contest. Lots of great entries and thanks to those that used the Small Letter Set and made a personalized card. This week we are going to share one entry per day as the Inspiration Card of the Day just because we want to highlight the work of some of our contestants that caught our eye.

Today, we are in love with this personalized card entered by Susan. She used the Small Letter Set to totally personalize this card for the University of Missouri football game {cough cough Go Illini cough cough}. Where can you find an MU stamp.....um...at JustRite of course! Great job Sue.

Here are the "hopefuls" for Monday and yes I am still working on the emails I received today and over the weekend. {I haven't forgotten about you.} Congratulations to the winners posted below. Please email deniseb@justritestampers.com with Monday Winner in the subject line and your certificate will be emailed to you.

Susan $10 Gift Certificate **multiple winner**

Andrea $5 Gift Certificate

Darlene $5 Gift Certificate

Stephine $5 Gift Certificate

Katie $5 Gift Certificate

Cindy $5 Gift Certificate

Lisa $5 Gift Certificate

"When it needs to be JustRite".......go for the Gold!

Round Two Monday

If there is any one JustRite product that I could recommend it would have to be the Small Letter Set. With the Small Letter Set you have the ability to create any sentiment or phrase on your card. Every card I have personalized with someone's name or a specific event has drawn such disbelief that I made the card just for them.

Little does the recipient know how easy it is with the JustRite Small Letter Set. I have to admit those tiny letters may appear to be a bit intimdating at first but after the first try you will be hooked and you will want to personalize everything. Oh and with a retail price of $4.95 you just might want to pick up two sets.

This card was made for a Quinceanera that I attended earlier this month. Granted, I don't speak Spanish and I looked up the translation on the internet. So if this doesn't say something along the lines of Happy 15th Birthday I am in big trouble.

Use this card as inspiration for your Stampin' Champion entry and use the Small Letters Set to spell out a personalized sentiment. Think of birthdays, birth announcements, Christmas cards, love notes....any event in your life worthy of sending a personalized card. I can't wait to see what you can do with those Small Letters.

Thinking outside of the box is what I am hoping to inspire here but using the Small Letter set isn't necessary if you have a different project in mind or don't own the Small Letter Set...yet!

Don't forget that you have until Tuesday evening to vote for your favorite Stampin' Champion. If you are reading this through Feed Burner you need to come to the blog at http://www.justritestampers.blogspot.com/ and vote! Tell everyone you know to help us crown our first Stampin Champions.

"When it needs to be JustRite".....go for the Gold!

Supplies:

JustRite Small Letter Set
Stampin Up white, black and grey card stock, silver organdy ribbon
Spellbinders Nestabilities circle and scallop dies
Sizzix scalloped card die

Stampin Champion Round Two

Although the Summer Olympic Games have ended we are going to continue with our Stampin Champion contest. Ss you can see by the poll to the right the numbers are still climbing and we are most definately going to surpass the 1,000 vote mark I mentioned in the last post. Whoooo!

As I said before, it was incredibly hard for us to narrow it down to the Top Six because we had over 100 entries and they were all so good. We can tell you love your JustRite Monogram Stampers and we love what you have done with them. You really wow'd us this week.

If you have projects that you linked on Friday they will go into Monday's "hopefuls" and if you have projects you worked on over the weekend you can start linking again {thanks for the weekend break}.

**The Rules for Week Two**

1. You MUST use ANY JustRite product on your projects.
2. You MUST post a link to your project in the comments. No email entries please.
3. You MUST load your entries to the SCS gallery using keyword JustRite (one word) or to your blog. (How To Instructions for SCS Gallery Loading)
4. Entries received after 9:00 PM EST will be entered the following day. {Unfortunately, we need sleep...LOL}

**The Vote for Week Two**

1. ALL "hopefuls" chosen during the week will be entered into the finals. You vote and choose the winners.
2. Top Six finalists will be announced on Friday and voting ends at 9 pm Tuesday.
3. Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists will be announced Tuesday evening.

**The Prize**

1. $5 Gift Certificate for any entry chosen as a Stampin Champion "hopeful".
2. All "hopefuls" will have their project published in the JustRite Gallery.
3. Gold $100 Gift Certificate, Silver $50 Gift Certificate, Bronze $25 Gift Certificate.

There is no limit to how many times you can enter or how many $5 Gift Certificates you can win. We will provide project suggestions/challenges throughout the week but you are not obligated to do them. It's just fun to step out of your stamping box and play along.

Any questions, please leave a comment or email deniseb@justritestampers.com Thanks and good luck!

"When it needs to be JustRite".....go for the Gold!

Keep the Votes Coming!

Wow...every time I check the blog the numbers surge more and more. Thanks for participating and make sure you encourage your friends to vote for their favorites too. We have until Tuesday evening and it would be awesome if we could get over 1,000 votes.

Speaking of votes, yes we know that the numbers are cut off and not completely showing. After doing some research on blogger the gadget has supposedly been "improved" to automatically adjust the pixels to any blog template being used. Obviously, they need to still work on it.

Visually the poll has issues but statistically it is working. If you click and roll your mouse over the the bar the number and percentage will highlight and you can see the full line of statiscs. As of 9:00 PM here are the numbers when I click on them.

Amy Westerman- 130- 17%
Michele Kovack- 177- 24%
Heidi Blankenship- 63- 8%
Suzanne Dean- 121- 16%
Lisa Somerville- 88- 12%
Katarina M- 148- 20%

"When it needs to be JustRite". ....go for the Gold!

On your mark, get set.....VOTE!

Take a look over to the right column and you will see the Top Six "hopefuls"...yes it was painfully difficult as there were so many wonderful entries to choose from and we settled on Six. The "hopefuls" are listed randomly in no particular order. You may click and vote for your favorite and the poll will be open until 9:00 PM Tuesday evening.

These Top Six "hopefuls" were chosen for many reasons and as you can see we chose a variety of different projects. Although, JustRite is known for monograms we were also looking for items that demonstrated unique and clever ways to use our stamps and accessories.


Bronze Medalist will receive $25 Gift Certificate
Silver Medalist will recieve $50 Gift Certificate
Gold Medalist will receive $100 Gift Certificate


The three Medalists will be entered into the the finals with awesome prizes being donated by our generous sponsors which we will be announcing with the winners of this round. If you did not make it into this round of semi-finals keep playing!


Good luck to all and let the voting begin!

Amy Westerman-Inspire
Michele Kovack-Thanksgiving Pie
Heidi Blankenship-Think Pink
Suzanne Dean-Apple Stationary Box
Lisa Somerville-Holiday Gift Card Holder Katarina M-Stationary Box Set


"When it needs to be JustRite".....go for the Gold!

Amber Turns 4

Day five with Lauren and we are sad to see her go. This week has been full of great inspiration and talent and we want to send a big THANK YOU to Lauren for the time she has put into bringing us all these wonderful projects.

Well it's my last day as a guest designer here at JustRite Stampers. It has been so fun. I hope you enjoyed my creations here. I saved the quickest for last! Things don't always have to be complex to be great. Sometimes SIMPLE is the key.

This next one was recently made for my daughter Amber. She just had her 4th birthday on August 13th. I wanted a quick and fun way to not only let people know she turned 4but create a card for a thank you with a nice a way to include a photo. Amber insisted that I use PINK!

I used just the fun borders from the large monogram stamper in a cotton candy spectrum ink pad, and stamped the circles randomly overlapping, on my white card layer. I added the # 4 from the number set, then put Amber's name using the small letter set. I found a cute photo of Amber, and punched it out to fit in the center of the border. I then punched coordinating cardstock in various size circles to also place in the centers making some dimensional. Layered that onto regal rose cardstock, and finished off with some ribbon.

This is a super cute design for the times you need to mass produce a card/announcement/greeting/invite or thank you!

Speaking of thank you................I want to thank everyone who has checked in and commented or emailed me over the last few days. Your support means so much to me.. I also want to thank JustRite stampers for allowing me to par-take in this week of fun! It has been great sharing my idea's here with all of you.

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".


Supplies:
Cotton Candy Spectrum pad
Circle punches in various sized
SU! cardstock in Pretty in pink, and rose red
Papertrey Ink White and sweet blush cardstock
Ribbon from Michaels Craft store.
JustRite Stampers Small Letter Set for the round monogram
JustRite Large monogram stamper
JustRite Large/Medium number set

Thursday Stampin Champion Hopefuls

**Edited** I apologize to Heidi Blankenship who was accidentally left of the Thursday "hopefuls" list. After going over the lists and reviewing my notes that I check over and over {for fear of forgeting someone} I caught my mistake this morning. Congratulations Heidi!

**FYI**Tomorrow is the big day for voting. If you are a Top Five Hopeful you need to let everyone know that you need them to come to the JustRite blog and vote for you! Voting will be open from Friday through 9 pm EST on Tuesday.

We will not be giving away any gift certificates over the weekend. {We need a little break and you need some stampin time.} On Monday we will resume with the next round of competition. That will give you plenty of time to reveiw the entries in our gallery and stamp your heart out over the weekend. Next week we will be adding a twist to the competition and providing some daily challenges.

Finally, thanks for all the entries and wow'ing us with your talent {we received entries as far away as Australia}. Narrowing this down to the top five is going to be brutally painful for us. If you don't make it this week you are still eligible next week.

Congrats to the winners below! Please email deniseb@justritestampers.com and your gift certificates will be emailed to you. Also, if you have been a winner during the week and have not received your gift certificate yet please send an email.

Julie $5 Gift Certificate

Nancy K $5 Gift Certificate

Gerri Johnnic $5 Gift Certificate

Lisa Somerville $15 **multiple winner**

Andrea $15 **multiple winner**

Dana $5 Gift Certificate

Armywife $5 Gift Certificate

AMY $5 Gift Certificate

Jackie Kelley $10 **multiple winner**

Chelemom $10 **multiple winner**

Joan Ervin $5 Gift Certificate

*Edited* Heidi Blankenship $5 Gift Certificate

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet....

It's already day four with our Guest Blogger, Lauren Meader and she has done some incredible gift sets this week. Today you get a "treat" with her fun Pixie Stix holder.


Can you tell yet how much I adore the JustRite Small Letter Set yet? I can't NOT use it.

We are all familiar with that fun saying "trick or treat, smell my feet................." Well that is certainly what inspired this next creation! You must remember Pixie Stix? This is a super cute, and super simple holder for them.

I used orchid opulence cardstock to create the holder.



Cut your cardstock to 3 3/4 x 11

Along the 11 inch side score at

4 1/2

5 1/2

9 1/2

10 1/2
Now, in that 1 inch space (9 1/2 to 10 1/2) use your word window punch to create an opening for the pixie stix.Put adhesive on that 1/2 inch strip along the (the 11 inch mark), and adhere it to the back of the holder :D

I then put a strip of patterned paper at the bottom. Tied around a ribbon.

I created my Halloween sentiment using my small letter set. I stamped in white craft ink, onto black cardstock, then punched out.

I stamped my witch on white cardstock, colored and popped her out, layering her in the center of my sentiment

I then put a strip of patterned paper at the bottom. Tied around a ribbon.

Insert the stixs and you are done! A super cute treat to mass produce for those little trick or treater's in your life.

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".


Supplies:

JustRite Stampers Small Letter Set for the round monogram

My Favorite Things Totally witchin

Stampin Up Cardstock orchid opulence, white, basic black, Word window punch

Ink Craft white by CTMH, Momento black ink, Copic Markers

Patterned paper by Autumn Leaves Mod Collection

Circle punches by EK Success

American Crafts wide grosgrain ribbon

Wednesday Stampin' Champion Hopefuls

**Edited** If you are a winner you have to email deniseb@justritestampers.com as we don't have the ability to find some of you. Please check the list and send an email that you are a winner.

Tell two friends and they'll tell two friends and they'll tell two friends.....um you all have a lot of friends that like to talk because today was an incredibly busy day in the JustRite Gallery. It is getting much harder to decide on "hopefuls" because you are all so incredibly talented. We had to recruit some JustRite Stampin Friends that are going to help us narrow down the "hopefuls" to the top five that will make it to the vote on Friday.

Congrats to the "hopefuls" listed below. Email deniseb@justritestampers.com and your gift certificate will be mailed to you.

Jami $5 Gift Certificate

Mustang Sarah $15 Gift Certificate **multiple winner**

Janet $5 Gift Certificate

Dana $5 Gift Certificate

Krista Wolf $5 Gift Certificate

Melissa Flieg $5 Gift Certificate

Katarina $5 Gift Certificate

Chelemom $5 Gift Certificate

Lisa Somerville $10 Gift Certificate **multiple winner**

Justansa $5 Gift Certificate

Jennifer $5 Gift Certificate

Julie Koerber $5 Gift Certificate

Andrea $5 Gift Certificate

Angie W $5 Gift Certificate

Jackie Kelley $5 Gift Certificate


Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".

Live For Today-Candle Box

Welcome to day three with our Guest Blogger, Lauren Meader. I just want to share that every JustRite product that Lauren has used so far is available on the JustRite WEB site and is listed under Best Sellers. These items are available now and will ship within 24 hours. Also, please note that these items will have a slight price increase September 1st and if you order now you will save 14%-25%.


OK by now you are seeing how much I LOVE gift sets! LOL!!! There is nothing better than a gift item that matches the card. One of the things I love about the small letter set is that you can create ANY sentiment or word combination you wish. I have had way too much fun doing that this week.
I decided that the sentiment would be my main focus today. So I created my sentiment-Count not the months, but the moments- using the small letter set . I punched out the circle, then also punched out the center of the sentiment creating an open ring. I took clear beading thread, and suspended my dual vellum butterfly in the center. Behind it I placed my co-coordinating patterned paper.

First my card....

I made my card using a scrap of the patterned paper along the side, then stamped some flowers & butterflies. Added my sentiment, and it was done.

Next my gift box....



I then created a simple little box from 2 covered chipboard coasters, and creating a lid to adhere on top to hold a simple candle in. The covered chipboard lid ties on with ribbon.

A very quick and simple gift idea for that special occasion.

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".

Supplies
JustRite Stampers Small Letter Set for the round monogram
Silhouettes
Flutter by Butterfly
Stampin Up! close to cocoa cardstock & ink, Buckaroo blue ink
Webster's Pages pattern paper Graham Cracker from the Cocoa Collection
Papertrey Ink select white, cardstock vellum
Nestabilities scallop/ circle set
Martha Stewart butterfly punch, and ribbon