One More Verve Card

Phew! The Verve release is over and we had a great time at the party last night. It's always fun to chat it up with old blog friends, new blog friends, and some incredible talent. Julee has an amazing collection of stamps being released this month and it has been so fun playing along!

I have a few more cards that I whipped up for the release, and I revealed them at the party last night. JUST in case you weren't there, here's a card I made using the new Plain Jane released today!

I used an older sketch from Mercy and pulled out some of my favorite dp. These colors just make me happy. :)

I'm off to Disneyland again today in honor of my roomie's birthday. She's officially older than me again, but I'll catch up in about two months, lol. Since we both have annual passes to D-land, in lieu of the one day free admission, they give up $70 gift cards to spend anyway we want in the park. So fun! I'm dreaming up all of the things she shoud get.

Other than that, the big plan for tomorrow is to sleep in and shake off whatever little bug it is that I'm fighting. Totally woke up this morning with full-on body aches, swollen glands, the whole shoot-and-band. Not fun! But I will WIN! I'm sure a nice, long night of sleep will help.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: 1 Chronicles 16:34

Paper- Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, Old Olive, Urban Garden dp

Ink- Not Quite Navy, Old Olive

Accessories- dimensionals, ribbon, sponge, buttons, twine

Verve's September Release Sneak Peak- Day 3

Good morning! I'm back with the third and last day of sneak peaks for Verve's September Release. I tell ya, Julee really outdid herself this month... These stamps are fantastic! I have had so much fun playing with all of them for the last few weeks!

Today, the Divas and myself are sneak peaking two sets: Harvest Blessings and Happiness Found. Both of these are the most gorgeous fall sets. They feature more gorgeous sentiments in Julee's beautiful font as well as lots of leaves to play with. There's even a polka dot one! Yay!

First up, Harvest Blessings. I had a lot of fun doing some sponging onto the sentiment to make it two-toned. I chose the swirly leaf, and stamped it several times in various fall colors. After cutting them out, I popped them up to give them a little more of a "falling leaves" feel. I clear embossed the polka dots from Bountiful Backgrounds and added a few little buttons to the corner. There are several different patterned leaves in this set that could be used as focal images, backgrounds, or embellishments.

All the release party fun kicks of TONIGHT over at Verve's Splicoast Stamper's forum. Be there at 9pm est for even more sneak peaks, full set reveals, and fun hanging out with the Divas and other Verve fans.

Make sure to also stop by the Verve blog for more previews and a little chance to win some stamps!

Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Harvest Blessings, Bountiful Backgrounds
Paper- Whisper White, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip (SU), Lemon Tart (PTI)
Ink- More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Accessories- Soft Suede ribbon, buttons (Basic Grey), nestabilities, clear ep, dimensionals, sponge

Verve's September Release Sneak Peak- Day 2

Welcome back! Only one more day until the new sets from Verve release! And I'm back with more sneak peaks for you! Today we're peaking two new amazing sets: You Rock and Starstruck. Brace yourselves for an epically long post! :)

I absolutely love BOTH of these sets and know I'll be using them a bunch in the future. I am dreaming of all the background possibilities I can create using some of the stars in Starstruck. And what a fun thank you card or for fun card the sentiment from You Rock makes! Fun, fun!

For my first card, I pulled out the new set, You Rock. I started with the fun fleur de lis covered star, stamped it repeatedly with Versamark and clear embossed them. I stamped the one sentiment in Taken with Teal, and then separately in So Saffron so that I could cut the little star out and pop it up. I also covered the little star in yellow stickles. One more fleur de lis star in So Saffron, and popped it up even higher than the sentiment. Some little white brads finished off the corners nicely.

For even more fun, I used Julee's release challenge from over on the Splitcoast Verve forum! I was slightly inspired by her sketch sample colors. ;) And you can play too!

To play along, just make a card with the provided sketch and upload to your SCS gallery with the challenge keyword {Sep09A} before 6 PM Eastern on Friday, September 18. This will get you entered into a drawing for a $25 Verve Stamps Gift Certificate! If you want even more of a challenge, just participate in all 5 of our September Release Week Challenges for a chance to win our entire release! Check out the Sep ‘09 Master Challenge Thread for all the details! Winners will be announced at our release party Friday night.

Verve Stamps are not required, but we love to see ‘em if you’ve got ‘em!

Phew! Are you still with me?

All of the release party fun starts tomorrow night at 9pm est! Come join us all over on Verve's Splitcoast forum for all of the celebration fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: You Rock
Paper- Whisper White, Taken with Teal (SU), Summer Sunrise, Bitty Box dp (PTI)
Ink- Taken with Teal, So Saffron, Versamark
Accessories- Summer Sunrise ribbon (PTI), clear ep, dimensionals, brads, yellow stickles

Verve's September Release Sneak Peak- Day 1

Good morning! And welcome to the first day of sneak peaks from Verve! I am still absolutely tickled pink that I get to bring you all these fun previews. Today, the Divas and myself are bringing you peaks of two new sets that will be released on Friday- Swan Song and Wishing You. Both of these are such beautiful sets, done in Julee's fantastic artistic style and beautiful fonts.

I loved having the chance to play right away with Wishing You. This is solely a sentiment set with the beginning words of "wishing you" and lots of phrases to end your wish. I can totally see myself using this set for everything from weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and get wells! So versatile! Love it!

For my card, I decided to feature the first half, "wishing you." I made a little 4x4 card to keep it simple and added some pretty layers around the sentiment to make it really pop off of the page. Can I just mention that I really like how simply I could incorporate other Verve sets into cards with these sentiments?! I whipped out my Beautiful Kindness butterflies (and a flourish inside) and added them to the card as well. Lots of stickles, both turquoise and star dust, surround and cover different elements of the card. You can't see it (it's inside and I forgot to take a picture of it before it got dark), the other half of the sentiment says, "the best day ever."

There's tons more being sneaked over at the Verve blog, even a little giveaway! And definitely make sure to stop by Verve's forum on Splitcoast Stampers for lots of Release Week Challenges! If you participate in all 5 of our September Release Week Challenges, you will be entered for a chance to win our entire release! Check out the Sep ‘09 Master Challenge Thread for all the details! Winners will be announced at o

ur release party Friday night.

Verve Stamps are not required, but we love to see ‘em if you’ve got ‘em!

Well, that's it out of me for today! More sneak peaks coming your way tomorrow!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Wishing You, Beautiful Kindness
Paper- Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Razzleberry Fizz dp (SU)
Ink- Taken with Teal (SU)
Accessories- Bermuda Bay ribbon, nestabilities, turquoise & star dust stickles, brads, dimensionals

An Exciting Announcement!

Woohoo! I'm a Verve Guest Diva! I think I almost fell out of my chair when Julee e-mailed me back in July asking if I would like to be a Guest Designer. Um, YES! I quickly e-mailed back and then screamed the news to my roomie. She must have thought I was crazy, lol! I love Verve stamps, and have for a while. I love their simple elegance, the beautiful fonts, and the gorgeous images. They really are my "go-to" stamps.

Along with the fabulously talented Divas, I'll be bringing you some sneak peaks of the stamps Verve will be releasing this month on the 18th. Our sneak peaks begin Wednesday and continue all week.

Now you know why it's been especially quiet around here for the last two weeks, lol. Between work starting up and creating cards that I couldn't show you, nothing was getting made that could be shared right away! :) A huge thanks to Julee for allowing me this amazing opportunity! It's been a blast getting to know the Divas and stamp away with Julee's beautiful creations!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you back here tomorrow!

Taylor's Sketch Challenge #82

Good morning! I'm back with another card to share with you. I used Taylor's Sketch Challenge to start this card off. Don't tell her, but I left off the circle. hehe You know how I feel about circles.... :)

I decided to replace the circle with a beautiful bow and a flower/button combo. This is a new one for me, but I figured I should give it a try since it's another great way to use my bows and buttons. I decided to work with my little moment of inspiration to make a few verse cards while I had out my Parisian Breeze dp. Out came Verve's Meditations set.

I popped up the entire verse, but otherwise kept this card very simple. Some more sponging highlighted the pretty script in the verse.

Oi vay, were my three little squirrels ever squirrely today! It's like they went away for the weekend and forgot everything we worked on last week! AHH! These first graders are so much more work than second and third graders. I definitely see some behavior contracts and parent meetings in my very near future. Ugh.

Guess that's about it for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Meditations

Paper- Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Parisian Breeze dp

Ink- Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze

Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, Petaloo flower, nestabilities, dimensionals, sponge

Mojo Monday on a Sunday

So, I'm a little late getting my Mojo Monday card posted. But better late than never! This month is a contest month, so there are a million entries going, but I figured, eh, what's one more?

I decided to keep my card clean and simple, like I like 'em. No background dp, just the cardstock itself. I did sneak a little bit of Candy Lane dp onto the card both as the vertical panels and at the very bottom. The horizontal panel took me a little bit... I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to go there, and it definitely couldn't be too tall or it would make the card feel off-balance. I finally settled on this lovely little sentiment and added some flowers to liven it up (and a few brown jewels!). I popped up the entire sentiment panel and the two flowers to add some dimension to the card.

I'm off to church this morning, and then running a few errands while I have the time and energy. Then it's home to do more stamping! Yay! I have a few more cards that I need to crank out this weekend before the work week strikes again. This next week will officially be my first full week with my new kiddos and they'll probably be just as tired as me by Friday.

Well, thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Because of You

Paper- Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, Candy Lane dp

Ink- Red Riding Hood

Accessories- scallop edge punch, ribbon, dimensionals, brown jewels

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #38

Good afternoon! It feels so good to be sitting and stamping after a long week. I sure do miss it on the weekdays, but I'm soooo tired when I get home from work! The good news is that my roomie and I have found a little house to rent much closer to both of our places of employment and should be able to move in within 2-3 weeks! Yay! No more getting up at 5:45 to beat traffic!

I'm trying to crank out multiple cards this weekend to help fill a few days this week with cards to share with you. Today's uses Mercy's Tuesday Sketch. This is seriously becoming my "Mercy's Tuesday on a Saturday Sketch" lol. But I can't not play! I'm an addict! :)

I pulled out some of my Parisian Breeze dp and started to work. I found a Verve Plain Jane that had yet to be inked and decided that I definitely needed to remedy that, and the sooner the better. Hmmm... I thinking I might make a series of Bible verse cards while I have all this dp and paper out....

I stamped the verse in Baja Breeze and then sponged on some Close to Cocoa to accent certain words in that gorgeous font. A little ribbon, a bow, and button and I'm calling this one done. Thanks for another great sketch, Mercy!

Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies- Stamps- Verve: Psalm 121:1-2
Paper- Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Parisian Breeze dp
Ink- Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, sponge

Sweet Sunday Sketch #34

Good morning! I'm back with another card to share with you.

My roomie and I had a blast at the fair yesterday. It was definitely crowded (thanks to it being opening weekend, a holiday weekend, and the $1 deal if you got there before 1pm), but we saw everything we wanted to and even some new things this year! We got our funnel cake, some lemonade, icees, tacos, and definitely passed on the chocolate covered bacon. Something about chocolate covered bacon just sounds so wrong! :)

We saw lots of animals- zebra, camel, zebu, cows, puppies, the cutest little baby goat, bunnies, and a just-born calf. The baby animals are always my favorite. I think we could have stood and watched those puppies play for hours.

We made sure to cruise through the endless buildings of vendors selling things you never knew you needed, or that they existed. And the buildings were air-conditioned, which was a definite plus!

On to the card! I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch to create this card. I pulled out some of my Candy Lane dp and pulled the colors from it. I popped up the entire back panel and the panel with the birdie. I colored the little birdie and the flower with my copic markers, and added some jewels to the scallops and the flower center for some bling. I had just enough Close to Cocoa ribbon left to make a little tiny bow and stick it on. :) Pretty simple today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- SU: Fun & Fast Notes

Paper- Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Candy Lane dp

Ink- Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories- copics, jewels, dimensionals

A Tripple Whammy

Wow. I'm not sure I've ever tackled three challenges at once. This may be a first for me. But that just goes to show you how crunched for time I am now that work has started back up. I had forgotten how moving to a new grade sucks up all of your free time, lol.

I tackled this week's Viva la Verve challenge. Instead of giving us a sketch this week, the twist was to create a "mini" card. It had to be smaller than the typical 4.25x4.25" card. Ok. Good thing I ordered some new small envelopes a few weeks ago!

Second, I took on Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. She gave us some awesome fall colors this week. I actually didn't use a fall themed card, but did embrace the colors. LOVE these colors together! I will definitely pull these ones out again and again. In fact, I do have a few more cards to crank out this weekend.... Hmmmm....

And thirdly, I took on Verve's Project Parade. The theme this month is Happiness for the Hostess. We were to make a little gift for a hostess instead of a typical bottle of wine, flowers, etc. I made a stack of cards and wrapped 'em up all pretty. I could easily slip these into a little gift bag with some tissue paper to dress them up even more.

I included three different sentiments on six different cards. They are nice and mini, measuring at 3"x3". Quick and easy. I think I whipped these babies up in

less than an hour. Yay me! I didn't have any thin chocolate chip ribbon, so I went with Kraft ribbon and added a chocolate button instead of a bow. I varied the twine up a little on each button for some variety. Hopefully the hostess that receives these will have a nice little collection to slip into lunch boxes, mailboxes, backpacks, etc.

I think my roomie and I are off to the Los Angeles County Fair today! Yay! They're having a special admission of $1 if we go before 1pm. Score! We love the fair- seeing the animals in the barn, cruising the vendors, drinking lemonade and icees, watching the horse races, wine tasting, funnel cakes (yum!), and the fun shows that happen. I always look forward to it every year.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy your long holiday weekend!
Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Circular Sayings
Paper- Kraft, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Bitty Dots dp (PTI)
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- scallop circle punch, circle punches, ribbon, buttons, twine, dimensionals