Joy & Strength

Hi friends!  How is your week treating you?  Mine has just been busy, busy, busy!  I made this card last Friday and this is the first chance I've had to post it.  It uses Anya's Viva la Verve March Week 4 sketch.  Today is the last day to get your entries in for our March Viva la Verve $100 gift certificate drawing!  Have you been playing along?

If you can believe it, this card began in my head as a very clean and simple card using a left over butterfly that didn't make it onto my Mojo card for this week.  But then when I was searching for supplies, I discovered the Serenity set in a stack of things on my desk.  So I switched gears.  I wanted an earthy look to go with the silhouette, so I embossed a crumb cake piece and distressed with gelatos, baby wipes and a bit of gesso. The silhouette and sentiments are all from Serenity.  The little tab is cut using the Flag It Die Set.  I chose a prima wood cut that had just arrived in my Scarlet Lime mixed media subscription, and kept it natural by simply sketching in the petals with a pencil, then adding some glossy accents and glitter inside my pencil sketch marks.  Some fun black and white paper from my stash is beneath a strip of burlap and I wrapped some bakers twine around that.

That's it on the card front.  I hope you have a fantastic day.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Serenity (Verve Stamps)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Gumball Green, Black (SU!), index card
Ink: Gumball Green, Black (SU!), gelatos (Faber-Castell), gesso
Accessories: Flag It Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), honeycomb Texture Fades (Tim Holtz), burlap, baker's twine, flower woodcut (Prima), brad, paper distresser.

Smile

Hi friends!  It's Monday again and time for my favorite Monday of the month.... Round or Square week over at Mojo Monday!  I picked the round option this time and got right to work.

I started with the sentiment strip, embossing the You Make Me Smile Plain Jane in black, then embossing again in Gumball Green and cutting out the banner to pop up over it.  The butterfly from So Fluttery is embossed in black onto vellum and cut out with the Flutterby Die.  I added some Zva Creative flourishes, then accented the sentiment and butterfly with some rhinestones from Pizzazz Aplenty.  The banner is cut with the Banner Bundle Die Set and the little circle border is from the Scalloped Trim Trio Die Set.

I'm also wrapping up the Diva posts for our March Diva Dare over on the Verve Blog today.  Here's a little peek at my card.  Head on over there for the full card and check out the PRIZES we have up for grabs!

Enabler's List
Stamps:  You Make Me Smile Plain Jane, So Fluttery (Verve Stamps)
Paper: DP scraps, black, white, vellum
Ink: Black, gumball green (SU!)
Accessories:  Flutterby Die, Banner Bundle Die Set, Scalloped Trim Trio Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), circle nestabilities (Spellbinders), rhinestone flourishes (Zva Creative), firefly stickles (Ranger), flatback rhinestones and frosted pearls (Pizzazz Aplenty), clear embossing powder, Tim Holtz Texture Fades embossing folder

Airmail Pure Heart

Hi friends! I got a little much-needed recharge time during naptime this morning and this card is the result.  Today's SC428 sketch challenge totally made me think of the SU! Label Framelits and piercing templates I just came across when I was sorting through a few totes on my bookshelf.  And this Postale paper pad from 7 Gypsies has been calling my name for a while.

I picked the Psalm 51:10 Plain Jane, because this was a verse my heart needed today.  The twins have been absolute terrors the past few days.  They're whining and hitting and screaming and climbing and kicking each other and into EVERYTHING and they both want to be held all the time, but NOT together and the minute I set one down to pick up the other one, the whining begins again and today I found myself just lying on the floor crying wising I could be anywhere but here.  Some days are just pure misery and this has been one of those.  So when I miraculously got them to sleep at the same time, I went looking for a scripture stamp that would renew my soul and give me something positive to focus on during my stamp time.  Hopefully there was enough renewal to make it through the rest of the day. I'm going to attempt to take them out shopping, since they're usually much better away from the house than they are at home.

Not too much to explain about the card.  The sentiment is stamped directly onto the pattern paper in Midnight Muse and I added some piercing around the edges and distressed everything with a bit of Vintage Photo ink.  The flower is from Mitchaels and I added a bit of burlap behind it, then accented with some airmail divine twine and red and blue rhinestone hearts.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Psalm 51:10 Plain Jane (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Postale (7 Gypsies), Crumb cake
Ink: Midnight Muse (SU!), Vintage Photo (Ranger Distress)
Accessories:  Labels Framelits, piercing template (SU!), flower (Michaels), burlap, airmail divine twine (TCP), heart rhinestones

Baja Marina Muse

Hi friends!  I snuck away for a little time in my studio during naptime this morning.  The color challenge on SCS today was right up my alley.. marina mist, midnight muse and baja breeze.  I added crumb cake as my neutral and the dessert option of gems.  The stamps on this card are from the new Surely Goodness set from Verve.

I stamped the solid flower in marina mist, baja breeze and midnight muse on the crumb cake layer, added some faux stitching with a paper piercer and a crumb cake marker and then spritzed the cardstock with crumb cake and baja breeze using my air art tool.

The focal flower is stamped and then cut with the coordinating Goodness Flowers Die Set.  Then I stamped it again in Versamark ink and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder and popped up on dimensionals.  The flower centers are accented with rhinestones which I colored to match with Copic markers.  A little pleated ribbon treatment is my only other embellishment.  The baja breeze layer is stamped with the largest flower from Surely Goodness in Marina Mist and then I distressed the edges to finish.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a fantastic day!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Surely Goodness (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Marina Mist, Midnight Muse, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake (SU!)
Ink: Marina Mist, Midnight Muse, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake (SU!), Versamark, Copic Markers
Accessories: Goodness Flowers Die Set (Verve Stamps), flatback rhinestones (Pizzazz Aplenty), marina mist striped ribbon, paper piercer and air art tool (SU!)

Surely Goodness	Goodness Flowers Die Set

Mojo Smiles

Hi friends!  It's Monday again and time to start off another week with a new Mojo Monday sketch!  This week is another one that came from my sleep deprived brain.  I think I drew it on a napkin at the breakfast nook while the boys were trying to climb my legs.  (Yes, I now think I know what it feels like to be a McDonald's playland!)  {grin}

Anyhow, the sketch has a lot of layers and I hadn't made a card with lots of embellishments in a while, so I decided to just pile it on and make a girly girl card.  The papers are from the On Trend collection by Crate paper and the stamps are the new So Fluttery set and Smile PJ from Verve.

The butterfly from So Fluttery is stamped on the patterned paper and also embossed on vellum.  I cut the patterned paper butterfly with the Flutterby Die and hand trimmed the vellum piece to pop it up over the paper for a soft fluttery look.  It's accented with a coat of stardust stickles and some small pink pearls.  Other than that just lots of espresso mating, some seam binding from the Signature Ribbon Collection and liquid pearls and paper flowers to finish things off.

How was your St. Patty's Day?  We enjoyed a fun brunch out with friends at the local Irish tavern.  It was a wee bit different this year, since our friends also had their first little one this past year.  Our three babies were the talk of the restaurant and everyone had to come over and check them out!  We skedaddled before the bagpipers arrived because none of us wanted to see all three of them meltdown at the noise, but it was a great time had by all.

I hope you have a fabulous start to your week.  Be sure to check out the Verve Blog for the next installment in our Diva Dare challenge and if you haven't already... check out the Easter Sale at Verve.  Lots of goodies 20% off!

Enabler's List
Stamps: So Fluttery, Smile PJ (Verve Stamps)
Paper: On Trend (Crate Paper), Early Espresso, Blushing Bride (SU!), cream, vellum
Ink: Truffle (Mix'd Media Inx), Blushing Bride (SU!)
Accessories:  Flutterby Die (A Cut Above by VERVE), Signature Ribbon Collection (Verve Stamps), Classic & Scallop Circles Nestabilities (Spellbinders), pearls, liquid pearls, paper flowers, brads, embossing folder (Sizzix)

Shamrock-ing VLV

Hi friends!  Happy Friday!  It's time for another Viva la Verve! sketch over on the Verve forum and this week's hostess is our very own St. Patrick's Day baby... Maureen.

It's also an inspiration week, so you can use the sketch or the inspiration photo, or both.  I loved that yummy cupcake in the inspiration photo and did a little of both in honor of Moe.  She's getting an early peek of her card, which hasn't quite made it to the snail mail office yet.

I knew I wanted to use her birth date as the background of my card, so I put the march and 17 stamps from Calendar Countdown on an acrylic block and then stamped across the page two directions.  I loved how it turned out against the patterned paper.  Unfortunately, later in my crafting process I attempted to glue a bow down that I decided I didn't like, then when I peeled it off it tore the paper.  So the mixed-media grunge came out to cover up my boo-boo.

The shamrock is from the Lucky You set and cut with the coordinating Shamrock Die Set.  I colored it in lightly with a blender pen and a Gumball Green ink pad.  The sentiment banner is cut with the Flag-It Die Set and I stamped the Oh happy day sentiment from Remember This on it and added a bit of bling.

Okay, that's all on the card front.  The twins got their 1 year immunizations yesterday (6 shots and a finger stick), so I'm thinking it will be a cuddle up kind of weekend here on the home front.

If you're looking for crafty things to do this weekend, head on over to our forum for the Viva la Verve challenge as well as our blog to play along with our current Diva Dare!  There's a comment prize AND a challenge prize for our Diva Dare, so be sure to check it out!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Lucky You, Calendar Countdown, Remember This (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Black, Gumball Green, DP scraps (SU!)
Ink: Black, Gumball Green (SU!)
Accessories:  Flag-it Die Set, Shamrock Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), Classic & Scallop Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), rhinestones, flourish bling, twine and Stickles

Party Banner

Hi friends! Nothing stampy today, but I thought I'd pop in and show the party banner I made for the twins' birthday party.  I followed a tutorial by the oh-so-talented Kelly Lunceford.

Unfortunately, I only got a picture half way through the set up, not with the whole party spread.  The papers are all from the Abbey Road collection from Mind's Eye.  They were double-sided 12 x 12 papers from my stash that were just the right colors and manliness.  {grin}

Each rosette is made from the same papers and I distressed all the papers with Walnut Stain Distress ink.   The chipboard letters were from a blue and red plaid set of K & Co Boy Scout letters.  I painted over them with tan paint, then used pewter and bronze distress stains to make them look metallic for the robot theme.

The gear cut outs behind some of the letters are made using a Tim Holtz die and I added some metal mini gear accents (also Tim Holtz) and some Spare Parts arrows and Abbey Road brads to accent things.  There were little accents to hide the staples in between each letter, but a couple fell off in transport back home, so I need to glue them back on.  The party was robot themed, and I used the little robot design I had made for the party invitations and printables for the center space banner.

My robot theme was based off the amazing sculpture work of HerArt SheLoves.  I contacted her and commissioned a special robot cake topper keepsake with two boy bots, one green, one blue and she did such an amazing job!  Really, she was just amazing to work with and it turned out exactly like I imagined it!  I even forgot to tell her about our system where Kellan is always on the left and Trevor is on the right and she did it that way anyhow! {grin} Here's her completed project photo.  {I'm still looking through photos, but I'm not sure we got one that shows it amongst the party loot.}  It turned out so adorable and I thought it would be fun to use every year.

The Colors of Spring

Hi friends! It's Monday again already and time for another Mojo Monday sketch! This week's design is from my messy craft desk! {grin} Seriously, I spent most of last week's nap time and sleeping time planning the boys' birthday party and making all sorts of projects (water bottle covers, stickers for bottles of bubbles, treat favor bags, a happy birthday banner, cupcake toppers, noisemakers and table tent cards). Then we were running behind setting everything up, and people arrived and the party went so fast and I'm not even sure if we have pictures of it all. Might have to do a fake photo shoot of what's left. :)

Anyhow, amidst all of that I took a break early last week to do something with stamps (most of the party stuff was designing printables and assembling with die cuts) and this card is what came from that crafting session. These papers from the 5th and Frolic pad were calling my name... so springy and fun. I pulled out the Surely Goodness set and got inky! The banana layer and the white layer are randomly stamped with the largest flower from the set and I added the It is well sentiment in black. The flower is stamped three times. I cut the smallest by hand, die cut the middle layer (with the Goodness Flowers Die Set), then hand cut the largest layer and used a black Goodness Flowers die cut to mat it on. The border uses the circle scallops from the Scalloped Trim Trio Die Set and I used some of the circle punch outs from that die to mat the rhinestone trio in the bottom corner. A big fluffy double bow and the card was done.

I hope you have a fabulous start to your week. I'm going to take a little time to rest up from the sleepless week I had and then try to get back into the drawing room to design the next batch of Verve!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Surely Goodness (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Fifth & Frolic (American Crafts), Black, Barely Banana (SU!)
Ink: Groovy Guava, Pool Party, Barely Banana (SU!), black
Accessories: Goodness Flowers Die Set, Scalloped Trim Trio Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), rhinestones, ribbon

Hoppy Hopping

Hi friends!  Just popping in to let you know that I'm blogging over on the Verve blog today.  It's our monthly Diva Inspirations Hop (the first one with the 6 new Inspirations team Divas!!!) and I'm so excited to see what everybody has made.  Be sure to hop on over and see my full project, then check out what the other Divas have cooked up!

Happy Birthday Little Stars

Hi friends!  It's the first Monday of the month and that means it's contest week over at Mojo Monday!  This week's fun sketch comes from the mastermind of cool, Miss Carole Burrage, and prizes are sponsored by Verve, so be sure to sneak in a little time to play along this week!

It's very hard to believe that my little munchkins will turn one this Saturday! I'm knee deep in prepping for our parent survival party their one year birthday party, so I took this crafty opportunity to make their first birthday cards.

In the NICU, the nurses told us they were the most identical set of identical twins they'd ever seen.  Their cries are exactly the same and they share many of the same mannerisms.  It wasn't until they were about 9 months old and their personalities started shining through that we were able to tell them apart with any reliability.  So we've had a system since they were born.  Kellan in blue, Trevor in green.  So that's the same color scheme I used for their cards. 

The papers are from the Studio Calico Take Note Collection.  The little star sentiment is from the new Shining Star set.  I stamped the number 1 from the Calendar Countdown set on a star cut with the Starry Die Set, then matted on a crumb cake Large Star (SU!) punch.  The happy birthday sentiment is from the Small Phrases set and I stamped it onto a die cut from the new Flag It Die Set.  The Stars & Swirls embossing folder is one of my favorites and I lightly inked the edges of everything with a little walnut stain distress ink.  A little mini library clip and a tiny star rhinestone that I colored with Copics to match are the only embellishments other than paper.

As you can see, I rotated the sketch just a bit, but the inspiration is there.  I bought some little 6 x 6 albums for each of the boys to store the cards and little notes about what I was thinking when I made them so later on they can flip through and see them all.  I think it will be a fun tradition.  Okay, I'm scheduled for order shipping duties at Verve today so I better get going.  Hope you have a fantastic start to your week!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Shining Star, Calendar Countdown, Small Phrases (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Take Note (Studio Calico), Crumb Cake (SU!)
Ink: Walnut Stain Distress Ink (Ranger), Copic markers
Accessories: Starry Die Set, Flag It Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), Large Star Punch, Mini Library Clip (SU!), Pinking Circles Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Stars & swirls embossing folder (Sizzix)