Bethlehem

Hey peeps! Sorry I've been MIA for the past few days. I have a lot going on personally and just haven't felt the desire to stamp or blog, so I haven't. It's kind of a vicious cycle - I'm bummed and don't feel like stamping, but then I get even more bummed because stamping is my creative outlet that helps keep me sane. I finally forced myself to eek out a card last night with some of my new Elzybells stamps. My heart really wasn't in it, so it's nothing spectacular. But at least it gives all you blog stalkers a change of scenery. :)

When I saw these particular stamps a while back on the Elzybells website my little heart went pitter patter and I knew they had to be mine! I just love the rooftops! This card uses the Monday Mojo #13 sketch and I intended to use this week's SCS color challenge, but somewhere between reading the challenge and actually making the card, I forgot all about the Basic Gray part of the combination. I stamped the Elzybells Bethlehem and Little Town of Bethlehem in Palette Noir on Pearlized White Cardstock and colored with Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue Stampin Write markers. Next I cut out and embossed the oval and a coordinating mat with my Nestabilities Oval dies and then added Stardust Stickles highlights to the rooftops, windows and doors.

I stamped the two smaller stars from Verve Visual's Winter Wonder randomly on Bashful Blue with the same color of ink and then cut into two strips, pierced holes around the edges and matted with Certainly Celery cardstock. I then added some Stardust Stickles highlights to all the stars for a little more sparkle. I added two thin strips of Bashful Blue with Pewter Hodgepodge brads in the ends behind this layer and adhered to a piece of Certainly Celery dp from my SU Palette O Prints. Then everything is layered onto a Pearlized White card base.

Yesterday I got happy mail! Hooray! This one is from Dottie K. and is absolutely adorable - the snowman and snowflakes positively sparkle and the layout is cute, cute, cute! I love it, and it brightened a dreary day around here, so thanks so much Dottie!

And this card is a long over due post of a RAK Cat sent me with my last order from Cat's Craft Cupboard. Poochie always steals my heart, and now methinks I need a tag curler so I can add cute little metal tags to my projects too! Thanks Cat!

Mojo Monday Week #13

So how was everyone's Thanksgiving? I had a pretty good one, although I've been knee deep in shipping orders all weekend from the Verve So Thankful sale. Just remembered this morning that I had completely forgot about Mojo Monday! EEEEEK! Who could forget Mojo Monday? :)

So this week's sketch is finally here! Hopefully a sample card will follow soon. I have new stamps from Papertrey, Elzybells, Rubber Romance, Penny Black, Inkadinkado and Verve :) that all need to see some ink! But the fun will have to wait until after everyone's orders ship. Anyways, have a go at the sketch and let me know what you think. As always, the sketch is meant as inspiration, so let your mojo run wild. If you don't have an oval cutter, rectangles or circles will work, too. If you make a card, link me up in the comments by Sunday night (12/4) at 10 PM ET so I can take a peek. If you upload to SCS, use keyword MOJO13 so we can all view the entries throughout the week.

The winner of Mojo Monday Week #12 is Laura of Scrapnextras with her absolutely fabulous floral card. This card just has MOJO written all over it. I love it all - the distressing, the fabulous layers, the colors and especially the sentiment with hardware. Just gorgeous! Congrats, Laura - email me your snail mail address and I'll send you a RAK.


And to start your week off with a little mojolicious eye candy, be sure to check out the slide show below with all the fabulous mojo cards that were submitted this week. Enjoy and have a groovy day, peeps!



NOTE: If you get a message that says no photos found, please hit the refresh button on your browser or the F5 function key on your keyboard, and hopefully it will reload with the pictures!

Jen's Sketch Times Two

Hey everyone! I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving! We had a great time with family and pigged out on two Turkey dinners, complete with a whole slew of yummy desserts. My Pumpkin Spice cookie recipe turned out pretty good, but the Pumpkin Spice cake I decided to make to use up the rest of the ginormous can of pumpkin puree was phenomenal. I do believe it was the first time I've ever made a cake entirely from scratch. No cake mix box here. I almost felt a little tinge of desire to cook more often.... ALMOST. LOL! :)

Since I had a full day from sun-up to sun-down yesterday, I'll show you a couple cards I made earlier this week. I love this sketch from Jen, but for some reason the card just wasn't turning out the way I had planned it. So I made a second one, using the Fancy Florals set, and still no major mojo. Not sure if I was just trying too hard to make this paper work, or what. Anyway, here they are. The one flower is from an Autumn Leaves set, the sentiment and other flower are from the Fancy Florals set. The paper is K & Co and I used my Nestabilities circle dies for the cut outs. On the bottom photo I punched out each scallop with the 1/8" hole punch in the Crop-a-dile. My wrists are still paying the price - man that thing is HEAVY! Love the look, but will have to either use my small fiskars punch or forgo the extra holes all together. ;)

Don't forget to check out the big So Thankful Sale going on at Verve this weekend. Everything's on sale, plus you can use coupon code THANKFUL at checkout to save an additional 10% off any order over $50. The sale runs through Sunday at 11:59 PM mountain time, so hurry up and get your VERVE on. :)

Boho Thanks

Last weekend hubby wanted to go to Best Buy and since it's conveniently located next to Michael's I went along for the ride. Scrapbook paper was 4 for $1 and I couldn't resist picking up a few sheets of this fabulous We R Memory Keepers Boho paper. (Don't tell anyone, but I already had some, but love it so much I haven't wanted to cut into it!) LOL! But since I got a few more sheets at a steal of a price, I decided it was time to carve it up!

This card uses all TCP (The Cat's Pajamas) stamps and this week's Sketch Challenge over at SCS. I struggled a bit with this sketch, as every fiber in my symmetrical little personality wanted even mats all the way around all of my panels. The sketch, however called for panels that went all the way to the edge of the card. I think the top panel would have looked so cute cut in a large tag shape, but decided for once not to be a rebel and truly follow the sketch! LOL. See, there's a reason I usually make the sketches - I'm not so good at following them!

Okay, on with the details on the card. I stamped the Leaf Wreath three times off the side, the Acorn a little off center, and the Give Thanks stamp all in Ancient Page Chocolate on Pearlized Cream and then colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I added a little shading with a Grey Tombow marker and then sponged around the edges of the panel with Close to Cocoa and then Chocolate Chip ink. This layer is matted with Really Rust and then I tied a knotted bow of yummylicious Chocolate Taffeta ribbon around the side. The next layer is the Boho paper with the ticket corner punch and matted on Really Rust. The aqua layer is the back side of the Boho paper, which I stamped with the swirls from Poochie Christmas. I then ran these three layers through the Cuttlebug with the Textile embossing folder and matted on a Chocolate Chip card base. As usual, I finished off with a little Stardust Stickles accent on the leaves and the DP.

Today's the day I figure out if my new Pumpkin Spice cookie recipe is going to cut the mustard, or if I need to fall back on the old standby of Molasses Sugar Cookies for my contribution to the two Thanksgiving feasts will be attending on Thursday. I can't wait to smell that yummy aroma of cookies in the oven - one of the best smells on earth! Hope you have a happy day, peeps!

If you haven't already, be sure to head on over and check out the Verve Blog. The design team has been posting some great projects the last week.

Season Shift

It's been cold, wet and dreary around here, and I'm just not ready to admit that the holiday season is upon us, so I took a break from holiday projects and did a springy card for this week's mojo sample. I used the colors from this week's Color Challenge on SCS. Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi and Whisper White. I really have never liked pink and green together, but lately these two colors have been making their way into my cards.

Anyway, I got this fabulous new Inkadinkado clear stamp set called The Flourish Pack at Cat's Craft Cupboard **waving hi to Cat** :) and I just had to ink it up right away. I stamped the butterfly image in Palette Noir and then colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I colored the leaves with a blender pen and Wild Wasabi ink pad. Next I drew in some spots on all the butterflies to kind of match the leaves in the image and sketched a little frame around it. The sentiment is from the Starlight Starbright set and I colored around the sketched frame with a Pretty in Pink Marker. I then matted the image on Wild Wasabi, White and Pretty in Pink. The squares in the background are stamped in Wild Wasabit with another image from the Flourish Pack and matted with Pretty in Pink. I wrapped some 1/4" pink grosgrain around the image mats and used a BoBunny brad to secure it. To finish off, I added some Cotton Candy and Lime Green Stickles to the image.

Okay, hope you're all staying sane with Thanksgiving preparations and remembering to be thankful for all the little everyday blessings we have. Have a great day everyone!

Tea bag holders

I've been wanting to try a tea bag holder project for a while, but just haven't ever made time. When I saw that it was today's TLC challenge over at SCS, I decided it was time to dive in and test it out. And that's just what I did....dove in. I printed out this template, without even looking at the finished project to have an idea of what the heck I was doing! It all worked out, but I did a fair amount of scratching my head along the way! LOL! I didn't like that it didn't close, so I fastened some ribbon ends on the inside of the two teabag pouches so that the booklet could be tied closed.

The little twist to this challenge was that you couldn't use patterned paper, so I knew I needed to choose a set that could be used to make my own patterned paper of sorts. I picked Winter Wonder and stamped the snowflakes in Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue and Very Vanilla (Craft). The circles are made with my Nestabilities classic circles and scalloped circles dies and I used Fiskars scallop scissors to make the scallap edges on the Night of Navy band across the middle of the booklet. The inside pouches are made from Pearlized Cream and stamped randomly with the snowflakes in the same colors. I used a 1" circle punch to make the half-circle openings. For a little sparkle, I added Baby Blue Stickles all over the snowflakes on the cover of the booklet. It smells so yummy.... Tazo Earl Gray - my absolute favorite. Of course, I don't know anyone except my hubby that likes Earl Gray so I'll either have to buy some more tea or keep this for myself! LOL!

Mojo Monday Week #12

Hey peeps! Did ya'll have a good weekend? Hubby and I have been under the weather, so there hasn't been a whole lot of stamping going on at my house. I did think up a new mojo sketch for y'all, but haven't had a chance to turn it into a card yet. Have a go at it and let me know what you think. As always, the sketch is meant as inspiration, so let your mojo run wild. If you make a card, link me up in the comments by Sunday night (11/25) at 10 PM ET so I can take a peek. If you upload to SCS, use keyword MOJO12 so we can all view the entries throughout the week.

The winner of Mojo Monday Week #11 is Sarah with her totally mojolicious Sprinkle card. This card has some serious attitude! I especially love how everything is triple matted - it just has such a crisp look, and the accents are just perfect. Congrats, Sarah - email me your snail mail address and I'll send you a RAK.

And to start your week off with a little eye candy, be sure to check out the slide show below with all the fabulous mojo cards that were submitted this week. Enjoy and have a groovy day, peeps!



NOTE: If you get a message that says no photos found, please hit the refresh button on your browser or the F5 function key on your keyboard, and hopefully it will reload with the pictures!

Asian Flair

Well, I still had another cast off image from my mojo sample card on Thursday on my desk, so I made another card with the same supplies. I had thrown this image aside because my sponge was all chewed up (dangers of having a curious cat) and my sponging got a little streaky. Then after I chose the grey colors to sponge Thursday's card, I decided I could cover up the streakiness with Basic Gray ink and salvage my image.

I'm really pleased with how this card turned out. There's just something really satisfying to me about making Asian influenced cards. It's probably my favorite style, although I haven't had a chance to make very many cards like this lately.

The images are from the From the Garden set by Fancy Pants Designs. I colored it with Prismacolor Pencils and a Prismacolor colorless blender pen and then sponged around the edges in Summer Sun, then Cranberry Crisp, then Basic Gray. The flowers and blossoms are all painted with a mixture of Diamond Glaze and Crystal ultrafine glitter. I then used my Mcgill punch to punch out the symbol, which means Good Luck and then I used a Krylon Gold Leafing pen around the punch, the outer edges of the panel and it's larger basic black mat. The Basic Gray background is made with another stamp from the Fancy Pants set and the red and gold strip is a gorgeous silk ribbon that Dana sent me a while back. I had a hard time photographing this one. Wish you could all see it up close and personal, but I like it too much to send it out just yet. :)

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm hoping to get a jump on some holiday projects.

Wanted

Today's card uses Jen's Sketch For You to Try from last Saturday. I've been wanting to use some of the Cowboy papers I had on my desk, so I pulled out this Wanted set from Purple Onion Designs. I arranged the three strips of paper so that the plaid strip would look like rays shining off the star. Each panel is pierced using a paper piercer and my Mat stack and then sponged with Chocolate Chip ink for a distressed look.

The big star and the Wanted sentiment is from Purple Onion Designs and the little star across the twill is from the Starlight Starbright Verve Visual set. There is a hodgepodge ribbon slider below the little star, but I messed up the star stamping on the twill, so covered it up with a star punch out using my SU star punch.

Okay, that's it for this morning. Hope you guys have a fabulous final weekend before all the craziness of the holiday season sets in. ENABLER ALERT: If you're looking for a great SALE, check out The Cat's Pajamas! 25% off everything (online orders only) --but hurry, the sale only lasts through the weekend!!!

Thursday Mojo?

Well, better late than never right? Here's my sample card for this week's Mojo Monday sketch. I had a pretty relaxing day yesterday....stamping, planning my PaperTrey order, a little more stamping and a teensy bit of work. I made it a priority to finish up a sample for the sketch, and I've also been dying to use this punch and fabulous ribbon that Dana sent me quite some time ago.

I started by stamping the cherry blossom stamp from the Fancy Pants From the Garden set on Neenah Classic Cream paper in Palette Noir and coloring with Prismacolor Pencils and a Prismacolor colorless blender marker. Next I sponged around the edges with Going Gray and Basic Gray. For those of you who've asked about how I do my sponging, I use a small square cut from a sheet of Ranger Cut N Dry Stamp Pad foam and ink it up really well on my stamp pad. I then blot twice on scratch paper so there aren't uneven streaks with heavier ink, and then swipe repeatedly on the edges, starting off the paper and swiping towards the center of the card. For best shading start with a lighter color first and then repeat with smaller strokes in a darker shade.

So on with the card... I punched the good luck symbol McGill punch next to the image and then matted on black cardstock. The diagonal squares are embossed with the Stylized Flowers Cuttlebug embossing folder and matted with black cardstock. For the background, I stamped the big huge corner stamp from the From the Garden set in opposite corners with Basic Gray on Basic Gray cardstock. The center band is a piece of black cardstock wrapped with this amazingly beautiful red and gold silk ribbon that Dana sent me. It's really beautiful in real life. For a little sparkle, I added a mixture of Diamond Glaze and Art Institute Crystal glitter to each of the blossoms. So there you have it, a little bit of Mojo on Thursday. :)


Oh, and look at the fabulous RAK Lisa sent me. I didn't get a very good photo, but this is gorgeous in real life! And it has considerably less chocolate covered espresso beans in it than when I opened the package! YUM YUM! LOL! Thanks, Lisa, for this totally awesome surprise. I love how you stamped the snowflakes from Winter Wonder on the bag!


And be sure to check out the Verve Visual blog, Charmaine has a couple fabulous projects for you using the new sets today!

Amy's Sketch

Today's card uses a surprise sketch Amy posted on her blog on Sunday. I always love Amy's sketches, so I've been thinking about this one all week. This morning I just had to go for it. I even pulled some scraps out of my overflowing drawer to make the card.

The stamp is Clusters by Penny Black and I painted it with Twinkling H20's. It's so "twinkly" in real life - wish I was a better photographer. Anyhow, I sketched a frame around the image and the sentiment (Verve Visual Wonderful Wishes) also painted a bit of Twinkling H20's on the edges.

The paper is from the Crate Paper Avenue Collection, which I just love. So classy!. Everything is matted in black, and I used the teeny tiny Extra Jumbo Scallop rectangle punch to mat the sentiment. I laid down some black 1/4" grosgrain ribbon over the seam where the two papers meet and glued everything down. Then the card needed just a little bit more "fabulous" so I pulled out some rhinestones I got on clearance at JoAnn's and put them down the ribbon. I cut just the corners from a Mega Scallop square punch for the two corner accents and added a rhinestone in the center scallop of each. It feels a lot more finished to me now.

Well, I've got a "me" day planned today. It includes reading, stamping and generally doing whatever I feel like! LOL! I've been working non-stop for a very long time and decided to schedule in a day of relaxation, so today's the day. Yesterday the 11th and final book in my favorite series was released. I'm both sad that it's coming to an end but absolutely jazzed to finally find out how everything pans out for my favorite characters. So, my nose will be in a book all week probably. Such a fabulous way to spend time! :) Hope you are all enjoying a spectacular November day!

Wreathabella

I haven't had a chance to do Beate's Weekend Sketch in so long that I decided to just sit down and make time this week. This week's sketch is a pretty easy one, which gave me the perfect excuse to ink up my new Wreathabella stamp.

Wreathabella is stamped in Palette Noir and colored with Spica Glitter Pens. I then stamped the Wishing You Joy sentiment from the new Wonderful Wishes set in the center of the wreath. I doodled a little frame and colored around the edge with a Gable Green marker and then matted on a Real Red circle cut with my Circle Nestabilities Dies. I added a prima Poinsettia with a Bo Bunny Brad. The designer paper is from the DCWV Christmas Glitter stack and I sewed it to a Real Red mat with my Janome Sew Mini. The card measures 4.25" square and is finished off with some Stardust Stickles accents.

Mojo Monday Week #11

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! Things have been busy, busy here so I don't have a sample for you, but I do have a sketch. This one came to me at dinner last night and I scrawled it on the back of an envelope, but never made it up to my studio to stamp. I think it looks like a good one and I hope I find a little pocket of time to turn it into a card soon.

So you know the drill, if you make a card using the sketch, link me up in the comments by Sunday, November 18 at 10PM Mountain (midnight ET), and I'll pick the mojoest winner to RAK. If you upload to SCS, use keyword Mojo11 so we can easily see your projects throughout the week.

Since I don't have a card, I'll show you my loot from my late night trip to Target last week. Hubby and I walked in and I saw Hello Kitty in the Dollar Spot and proceeded to go a "tad" bit...well, okay.... a LOT crazy! Mark was laughing so hard because I was so excited. Anyhow, I came home with a bunch of Hello Kitty loot and probably more notepads than I will ever need, but how could I pass them up? So, SO cute and only $1 each! Hubby just rolled his eyes and laughed. Apparently I was a little "bouncy". ;)

And here's a pic of some of my loot, including a fluffy, feathered pink Hello Kitty pen - isn't it adorable??? ; Aaaaaah, I'm in Hello Kitty heaven! :) For those who don't know, I have a wee bit of a Hello Kitty fetish - I see her and go a little gaga! We all have a little bit of crazy in us, and Hello Kitty totally brings it out in me. So, what brings out the crazy in you?

Rockstar Sketch

In all the excitement of the new Verve releases I totally forgot to mention that I am the sketch artist for this week's Saturday sketch at Sisterhood of Scrap. This is the card I cooked up for my funky sketch, which I thought could be used for a card or a smaller scrapbook layout. If you want to play along, check the sketch out here.

I started by stamping Rockabella and coloring her in with Prismacolor penicls and gamsol. I then added a dotted border around the panel with a black glaze pen and set aside. The skewed panel is just a 1/4" Night of Navy mat for the image panel skewed behind the image. It's stamped randomly with some of the star images from Starlight Starbright. The DP is from American Crafts and I added a little piercing along one panel and some Stardust Stickles on the dotted paper. The background Real Red layer is randomly stamped with more stars from Starlight Starbright. I used the You're a Rockstar sentiment, which perfectly fits inside the smaller SU oval punch and matted with the larger SU oval punch. The star on the corner, is just the larger star stamped on Real Red cardstock and punched out with the SU star punch. To finish off, I added more glitz with Stardust Stickles on all the stars. Hope you like it. If you have a chance to play link your cards to the Sisterhood of Scrap post, so I can see them!

Have a happy day, peeps!

Mojo Monday Week #10 Winner

Wow! There were so many fabulous entries in this week's Mojo Monday contest! Hubby and I spent a good long time in the judging process, and finally decided on this beauty by Toni W as the Mojo Monday Week #10 Winner. I just love the peaceful vibe this gorgeous card exudes. Congrats Toni! Email me your choice of Verve Visual stamp sets and your address and I'll get your prize in the mail.

Thanks to everyone who participated! It's so fun to see all your projects! If you've got a few minutes, be sure to view all the fabulous entries in the slideshow below. Mojo abounds in these cards!



NOTE: If you get a message that says no photos found, please hit the refresh button on your browser or the F5 function key on your keyboard, and hopefully it will reload with the pictures!

Woohoo! Another Verve Release!

Today's the day Wonderful Wishes and Starlight Starbright release! They're available for $10 each at the Verve Store. And be sure to check out the sale page for some Veteran's Day steals and deals.

This card features Starlight Starbright, a set of 17 star-themed stamps. I just love uplifting sayings and wanted to design a set that could be used to celebrate all the stars in our lives. I started by stamping the oval star background (which fits the SU! oval punches, as well as the word window punch) in alternating colors of Brocade Blue, Old Olive and Barely Banana. Next I stamped the star in Barely Banana, cut out and layered on a black SU! Star Punch. I hand drew a frame with a black Zig pen and added Stardust Stickles around the frame and on all the little stars in the background and on the accent star. The patterned paper is from the DCWV glitter stack and everything is matted on black cardstock. This *might* have been someone else's sketch, but I can't remember now. There's too much going on in this little ole brain of mine to remember farther back than the last card I made. So if it's your sketch, I apologize for not remembering, let me know and I'll give you credit! :)

Remember today's the last day to get your Mojo cards in to be eligible to win your choice of any Verve Visual stamp set. Oh, and make sure to check out the Verve Blog today for the scoop on our two fabulous Guest Designers, Susan Liles and Cindy Keery!

Snow Bunny

Can you believe it's 7 PM and the first chance I've had all day to hop on and write this post? I meant to post a lot earlier, but the batteries in my camera were dead, and I had to wait for them to "juice up". And then I got distracted by my huge to do list to get ready for tomorrow's Verve Visual release and here we are!

Last night we watched Bionic Woman (LOVE that show!) right before we went to bed and I dreamed that I went on a trip to visit my friend Karrie (**waving HI!**), and we found out that when we are together we are BIONIC STAMPERS! LOL! Can you imagine??? We busted out 50 fabulously gorgeous creations a piece in less than an hour. Then we built a pyramid with the cards and her big huge dogs kept knocking them over and licking the glitter! LOL! Too funny! Anyways, on with my post...

Snowbunnybella and a few of her friends arrived in my mailbox today and though I really SHOULD have been working, I couldn't control the urge to RUN up the stairs and ink this little diva up! Isn't she cute? She's stamped with Palette Noir, colored with prismacolor pencils and Gamsol, highlighted with Spica glitter pens and Stardust and Baby Blue Stickles. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Christmas Glitter stack, which I added even MORE glitter to! A girl can NEVER have too much glitter, after all! ;)

The scallop corners are made with an EK Success scallop corner punch I got at JoAnn's the other day and the polka dot ribbon came from the $1 bin at Michael's. I used the oval frame and the Wishing you Joy sentiment from the Wonderful Wishes set that will release tomorrow. The frame is a double lined stamp, which I stamped in red and then used a Bashful Blue marker to color in between the two lines. It's punched with an Extra Jumbo Scallop Oval punch (the yellow handle) and then accented with Baby Blue Stickles.


Oh, and I'm TERRIBLY late with this thank you to my pal Kimmie. She sent me this fabulous card using Fancy Florals and some Pink Cat Studio stamps that I can't wait to ink up. This card is truly spectacular in person. There are so many textures, layers and fun things going on. Thanks so much Kimmie, you brightened my day!

Play it AGAIN, Sam!

Well, since I still had some extras on my desk from yesterday, I whipped up a second card using the same stamps and colors.

I used the same Autumn Leaves birds and swirls stamps. The same Verve Visual Wonderful Wishes sentiment and then inked up just the Joy from the Wishing You Joy sentiment in Wonderful Wishes and stamped it on Pretty in Pink. I then punched it out with a 3/4" circle punch, adhered to the circle in the stamp and covered with a clear page pebble. The patterned paper is BasicGrey from my scrap pile. I stamped the swirly on a Pretty in Pink small oval punch, matted on a Certainly Celery large oval punch and cut in half for the side tabs and added black brads and dots with a black glaze pen.

The black background is Cuttlebugged with the Textile embossing folder and the ribbon is Stampin' Up 1/4" grosgrain. In addition to the sparkle from my Spica glitter pens, I added a little Cotton Candy Stickles to the pink areas for some extra glitz.

Well, I'm busy, busy trying to get ready for the new release. Only two days, peeps! Be sure and check out the Verve Blog to see all the design team has been cooking up. They've really blown me away with their projects and posts.

Happy Tomorrows

Hey peeps, are you ready for another sneak peek of one of the new sets? Today's card features one of my favorite sentiments from the Wonderful Wishes set. This one says, Wishing You a Lifetime of Happy Tomorrows. The sentiments in this set were purposely designed to be petite. They are perfect for working with ATC sized (2.5" x 3.5") cards and also fit well in some of the smaller punches, like the Stampin Up oval punches and several of the Marvy Extra Jumbo punches. They also all fit inside the three frames included in the set.

For this card, I started out making an ATC, but couldn't stop myself and ended up making it into a 4.25" square card. This is a perfect layout for easily turning any ATC into a card. The bird frame stamp and the swirlies in the corner come from an Autumn Leaves set I picked up at Michael's a few weeks ago. The sentiment is from Verve Visual's Wonderful Wishes, releasing November 10. All images are stamped in Palette Noir and then I colored highlights with my new Spica glitter pens. The charm is from a jewelry charm set I got for a $1 at Wal-Mart and attached with a brad from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts.

To turn it into a card, I simple added two Celery photo corner punches in opposite corners behind the ATC. I attached this to a black square embossed with my Cuttlebug Textile folder and the matted on a Pretty in Pink 4.25" square card base. For the final touch I added a bow of organdy pink ribbon. There you have it. Easy, breezy, beautiful! :)

Caribbean Chocolate Cranberries

This was my absolute favorite color combo last Christmas, and with BasicGrey's new Figgy Pudding paper, Chocolate Chip, Cool Caribbean and Cranberry Crisp are back again, rocking my Christmas Card list. How could SU! have retired these two gorgeous colors? It's a crying shame!

Sorry today's post is a little late, peeps. This time I found my camera cord, but no camera, so I spent the morning on safari searching for my long lost camera. :) Today's card only took me 20 minutes (in five minute increments across FOUR days!). Yep, I started on Saturday and have only had about 5 minutes in my studio each morning before I've been pulled away. This morning I promised myself I'd finish the card and move onto something new. LOL! The layout is from Jen's Sketch for You to Try this week. I tweaked it a little because I didn't print it out and by this morning when I glued everything together, the sketch was a little (well, quite a bit) foggy in my mind.

I started by stamping snowflakes from Winter Wonder randomly in Cool Caribbean and Cranberry Crisp. I then sponged the edges with Cool Caribbean, matted on Cranberry Crisp and did a zigzag stitch around the edges. The paper and the chocolate layer are from the Figgy Pudding pad and are matted on Cranberry Crisp. I ran the chocolate layer through the Cuttlebug with the Snowflakes embossing folder and then sanded it lightly to show off all the snowflakes. On the vertical panel, I used my double circle punch and wove the May Arts polka dot ribbon through the holes for a flat bow. The sentiment is on an Extra Jumbo Scallop Rectangle Punch (the yellow handle) and matted on a Cranberry Crisp Super Jumbo Scallop Rectangle Punch (the blue handle). I again used the double circle punch on both ends and just wove the ribbon through for some pizazz. The final touch was some bling on the snowflake and some accents on the other snowflakes with a clear Spica glitter pen.

Have you been checking out all the fabulous sneak peeks by the design team on the Verve Blog? They're really rockin' the new sets. Only a few more days until the big release! Yay!

Mojo Monday Week #10

Wow! It's already week 10 of Mojo Monday? I think that calls for something cool for this week's prize. How about the winner of this week's sketch challenge gets a Verve Visual stamp set of their choice? (Thoughtful Phrases, Fancy Florals, Winter Wonder, Seasonal Circles, Wonderful Wishes or Starlight Starbright) For this special round of Mojo, I must receive a link to your square card using the following sketch by 10PM Mountain (Midnight ET) Saturday November 10. I will announce a winner on Sunday. To be eligible for the prize you must have a shipping address in the US or Canada and cannot be a current member of the Verve Visual Design Team. The rules: 1. Your card must be square. 2. You must follow the sketch. 3. Have fun! Easy enough? :)

My card uses my new set by Flourishes called Flourished Christmas. If you haven't checked them out, you should. Their stamps are even more beautiful in person than they are on their website. And they ship super fast and have been so helpful and supportive of me in my Verve adventure. And for $12.50 this set was a no brainer! I absolutely love this reindeer. Anywho, on with the card... I stamped the reindeer in Versafine Sepia Brown and colored with Prismacolors and Gamsol. Oh, and I added a hint of sparkle to the hooves with a clear Spica glitter pen. Next I inked up just the antler flourishes with VersaMark and embossed with Irridescent Ice. So sparkly! :) I then added a little shading around the animal with a grey tombow marker and sponged the edges with creamy caramel, close to cocoa and chocolate chip inks. Next I stamped Rejoice in Cranberry Crisp and sponged around the edges with the same three shades of ink. These layers are both matted on Chocolate Chip. The red background paper is from the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper pad and the partial Cool Caribbean circle is cut and embossed with my Nestabilities Circle die and then I inked up just the antlers from the deer with Cool Caribbean and stamped around the circle as a background. The knotted bow is tied using a wide satin May Arts ribbon, and the card measures 5.25" square.

Hope you have fun creating with this sketch. If you upload to SCS, use keyword Mojo10. :)

Mojo Monday Week #9 Winner

You gals are all the bomb! Really, I had a crazy hectic week and didn't get to check out everyone's mojo cards until much later than I had planned. I just love looking at each and everyone, and after a marathon of blog reading and ogling all your fabulous creations, I am super jazzed to start another week of Mojo! You're all so talented - thanks for your participation! :)

This week's winner is Shannan of Pink Tulle with Feathers and Sequins. Isn't this card just fabulous? I love the soft colors and flowers, mixed with such a strong sentiment. Totally mojolicious! Congrats Shannan! Be sure to check out all the mojolicious entries in the slide show below.



NOTE: If you get a message that says no photos found, please hit the refresh button on your browser or the F5 function key on your keyboard, and hopefully it will reload with the pictures!

Stamps Are In Da House!

Happy Saturday, peeps! Just a quick note to let you know that limited quantities of both Winter Wonder and Seasonal Circles have arrived and are available now in the Verve Store. :)

Ding Dong, The Cord is FOUND...

..the camera cord is found! :) Of course now I'm too exhausted from searching for it to go upstairs and take photos of all the new stuff. LOL! Instead we're gonna roll with what was already inside my little camera.

Today's card uses this week's mojo sketch and my new favorite paper.... Wonderland by Cosmo Cricket. I just love the colors in this collection, so warm and cozy! The images are from the A Rhonna Christmas Card set by Autumn Leaves. I stamped in cranberry crisp and close to cocoa and then sponged around the edges with creamy caramel, close to cocoa and chocolate chip. I used my circles Nestabilities collection for this one. Someone asked on my last card with Nestabilities what size I used. To get these thin mats, you need at least 2 of the sets (a collection has 4 sets in it). For this card I used the second from the largest circle in the Standard Classic Circle Small (the stamped layer for both cutting and embossing), Standard Classic Circle Large (the cranberry crisp layer) and the Standard Scallop Circle Large (the chocolate chip scallop layer) sets.

I've gotten some lovely mail recently. This first card is from Squirrellyshirley and she sent a gorgeous table runner for my new table. It's harvest print on one side and christmas print on the other, isn't that clever? Anyhow, I don't have a picture yet, but I'll take one later if I think about it.

The second card comes from Charmaine. This girl amazes me, she's so thoughtful and genuinely sweet. AND, she's about to have a baby any day now and she's still stamping away, sending out cards. And what a gorgeous card this is. Thanks Charmaine, you really brightened my day!

Happy November, Peeps!

It's November already! Can you believe it? And guess what that means... the next Verve release is only 10 days away! I'm releasing two new sets this month, Wonderful Wishes and Starlight Starbright. I had a lot of fun designing these stamps and am so excited for their release.

I had planned on showing you a different card today, but I can't for the life of me find the cord that connects my camera to my computer (ARRRGGH!), so I have to go with a photo that's already on my computer. Sorry it's not something that really "shows off" either of the new sets, but it does use one of the sentiments from Wonderful Wishes.

The main images on this card are from the Holiday Swirls set by Inkadinkado. I stamped the tree in Always Artichoke and then did some of the swirls around the edges in Cranberry Crisp and sponged all the edges with Creamy Caramel ink. If you look really closely, the goldish panel has been stamped softly with one of the swirly snowflakes in Creamy Caramel. I colored the ornaments on the tree with a marker and then highlighted with a clear Spica glitter pen that Lila gave me. (Can't wait for my full set to arrive!) The DP just rocks and is from the Wonderland pad by Cosmo Cricket. The hardware that frames the Holiday Wishes (Verve Visual) sentiment is from the Pewter Hodgepodge set and I added some Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon and a Prima for accent.

If you're waiting for Winter Wonder, I just received notification that they shipped to me yesterday, so they should definitely be back in stock by Monday if not sooner! YAY! The design team has daily sneak peeks lined up for you on the Verve Blog, so be sure to head on over there each day until release day.