October's Viva La Verve sketches

I totally rushed through these and thought they would end up looking like it. With a second look at them, they are alright! My camera skills still need some development. What else is new? I have some plans for improvement. I just need some free time. This first card is the the week 1 sketch for Viva La Verve. Amber's sketches are always more challenging for me, but I made it happen. The task for this card was to make a shabby chic version of this sketch. Here is my interpretation of "shabby chic".
I tried to use soft colors, distressing and faux stitching! I also used some BG paper that I thought was already distressed and also was sweet.

This card was for the third Viva La Verve sketch of October and the challenge was to use fabric on your card. I feel like I cheated on this one because I used ready made fabric embellishments. I used a felt flower and a taffeta ribbon. I suppose it doesn't matter too much or they would have sent the challenge police after me!
I attempted to replicate the swirls in the patterned paper with the swirls in the card stock from the embossing folder. I like how bright and cheery this card turned out.

By the 2nd week of October's Viva La Verve most people are tired of brown and orange (so many fall cards), so that is the twist. No brown and orange, no problem! I went all kinds of Christmas-y on them! I have been trying to stock up on Christmas and birthday cards, as that is what is most requested and right around the corner!
To jazz up this card, I added Shimmers to the die cut swirls and stickles to the snowflakes! This is a new digi-set that Julee Tilman offered just before the last release! I used it on the next sketch too!




This was the fourth and last sketch for October's Viva La Verve. Amber is so tricky, her twist this time was "no twist". What a funny lady! (Don't worry, she more than made up for it with November's 1st sketch) Anyway, I had an easier time with this sketch than most. I broke into my new Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper for this little cutie. I also used the white flocking that has been sitting on my desk since forever. I flocked those cute little mittens. Fun and so soft! Beware my rookie stitching around the outside of the burgundy mat!



Sketch 1 -
Stamps: Beautiful You (Verve)
Paper: Very Vanilla, BG Two Scoops, BG Porcelain, Candy Lane dsp
Ink: Ruby Silk Color Box
Accessories: clear ep, heat tool, Kaisercraft latte pearls, mat pack, paper piercing tool, white gel pen, Nestabilities, MM edge distresser
Techniques: faux stitching, embossing, distressing

Sketch 2 -
Stamps: Winter Mittens (Verve)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Baja Breeze, BG Mistletoe & Pear
Accessories: Waterfall Stickles, Angel Wings Shimmerz, Swirls & Scribbles sizzlet, M's white organdy ribbon

Sketch 3 -
Stamps: Beautiful You (Verve)
Paper: Soft Sky, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Tinkering Ink Al Fresco
Ink: Melon Mambo
Accessories: TE felt flower, white taffeta ribbon, CB D'vine swirls embossing folder, ice circle rhinstone brads, mat pack, paper piercing tool, glue dots
Techniques: embossing, paper piercing

Sketch 4 -
Stamps: Winter Mittens (Verve)
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Bravo Burgundy, BG Eskimo Kisses
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: white gel pen, Nestabilities, glue dot, stampin' dimensionals, M's silver pearls, white embroidery floss, white flock, two way glue pen, Sakura clear star gel pen

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Who doesn't love a good challenge or 5?

Me, that's who!!! I can hardly resist a set of good challenges. Seriously, last week, I made 10 cards. The first half of them, I was seriously low on creativity but I pushed through anyway.
This was the first of five VSN challenges from last Friday's mini. The task here was to take one holiday stamp and use it to create a card for a different holiday! I love what I did as it was simple yet effective. I took my candy cane stamp and made myself a little old heart. Fun stuff, huh?
I was feeling a little low on creativity, so I just went clean and simple. It seems to work okay for me!


This next card was for the second VSN challenge from Saturday. The challenge here was to make a one layer card that looks like several layers, via the technique called masking. This one to me looks like the tan layer is under the pink layer. I'm not really sure how I made that happen, but I did. I was a little disappointed that the text in the center came up so dark over my floral image.

Mojo deficit? Probably!

Oh well, it's still pretty!



This was the hardest of all the challenges for me! The third challenge of VSN was to make a card inspired by the "Masquerade" scene from Phantom of the Opera. Of course, I have never seen Phantom of the Opera, so I did watch the video clip provided by the VSN hostess. I chose to be inspired by the heroine in this scene. She looked so sweet in her pale pink gown. I took my focal image from the flowers that she wore in her hair. I chose my sentiment as it seemed quite as proper as she!
I used a sketch from the Verve October Release sketches to flesh out this card. I try to always have an assortment of sketches on hand when VSN comes up. I find that this saves me some time!

Here is the card that I made for the fourth VSN challenge on Saturday. I had an idea in mind and made this card while watching cartoons with Sweet Pea on Sunday morning. The task was to use the technique called masking. I added to the challenge by working in the latest CAS challenge to create a sympathy card!
This was the fifth and final challenge of this mini-VSN. Ah, my favorite card of the bunch! The task here was to "create a card that wears a mask, one that enhances the main image without hiding it, an accent". This was super fun! I am certain that I will do this technique again.

There are so many details to list, that I have provided a link to each card in my SCS gallery rather than take up space here!

For the love of Limelight

Do you know about Limelight yet? And have you met Mandy yet? She is fabulous and she runs a challenge every other week. It's a sketch challenge with a product focus! This week's challenge has a product focus of ribbon. Everyone loves ribbon, don't they? For this particular card, I followed the sketch very literally. I added one more circle than the sketch because my circle were smaller than the original and I rounded a corner for interest. I placed my sentiment in the bottom left hand corner to try to achieve some balance on my card.

What do you think?

Here are the details:
Stamps: Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White, Ruby Red, ? dp
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: white ep, heat tool, M's white satin ribbon, glue dot, 1 3/8" circle punch, corner rounder
Techniques: embossing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

The Latest Bro Challenge!

I don't know, I think I like straight-forward designs. This one is pretty square and I have to say, I like it that way! This is for Week 5 of the Bachelor Bro challenge.
The challenge was to use something from your HOME that you typically would not use in a paper crafting project. So, I raided the medicine cabinet and found some gauze. It isn't terrible cutting edge, but I am following the rules! I wanted to use a band-aid, but I didn't have any Unity sentiments or images that I thought would work.
I ended up coloring this image with some gel pens (I had to be careful to not smear them) which were sparkly:) So this qualified me for Stamp Something's, Bling It Somethings. Fun stuff!

Here are the details:

Stamps: Folk Inspired (Unity)
Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Brushed Gold, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Brown, Chocolate Chips
Accessories: sparkly gel pens, Sakura clear star gel pen, red satin ribbon, brads, glue dots, gauze

All products used are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Pie for Bro

I made this card for this week's Unity Bachelor Bro Challenge, Dinner with Bro! Unity owner, Angela, mentioned something about Bro's recipe for Pants Down Chicken. Sounds interesting, eh? So, I thought that since Bro had dinner covered, I would go ahead with dessert. Sour Cream Apple Pie anyone?


Stamps: Hodge Podge of Happiness (Unity), Fall Festival (Unity)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Real Red, OA Cherry Hill
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: WCC, blender pens, versamark pen, clear ep, heat tool, mat pack, paper piercing tool, stampin' dimensionals, oval template
Techniques: embossing, paper piercing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Moxie Fab Wannabe

You know, I think this is a good idea. I need a little work on execution! My brayer and I have not been able to make friends yet. Perhaps I would like the results with a sponge better!

This is actually my second attempt. The first one was Gable Green, Yo-Yo Yellow, and Pink Passion. When I got that one done, I realized I had forgotten to ink up my stamp with Versamark first. Grrr...but the color result reminded me of Bob Marley. What do you do?

Even a wannabe has to start somewhere...Here is where I am! Find the details of the latest Moxie Fab challenge here.

World Card Making Day Fun

Just a little fun with Mandy from Limelight Papercrafts! She has a photo scavenger hunt going on for prizes. I played last year and it was a hoot!

Away we go!!! First up, some mismatched socks. This is a shot of my husband's sock drawer and this is the way he likes it. He works by himself with no one else to critique his work attire, so what is the point in matching?



Next, a card with no ribbon. My step-father never adds ribbon to his cards. He is perfectly satisfied with the way American Greetings manufactures their cards.









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Then,my favorite drink. Of course I couldn't get out to get one today :(









And next up, an item that begins with the first letter of my name. Well, the first thing that came to mind is twist ties for Toni:)






Then, some sidewalk chalk art I found. This guy is really amazing, check it out!







Finally, here is the funniest things that I could find in my reserves (wink). I don't know why my family member feel compelled to put things on their heads, but they do! Yep, that is a diaper on my hubby's head!

Thanks for looking!

While hubby is away....

at VSN I play. At least that is what I did last weekend. Boy, was tired though! I had a birthday party and monster chores to complete too. So I stayed up late each night.

I managed to do all five challenges for last week's mini. This challenge was called Good Luck Kiss and you had to do two things. The Kissing technique and include a "good luck/best wishes" type of sentiment. I used Beate's Weekend Sketch to flesh out this card.





This next card was for the challenge called "I wanna rock and roll all night...and stamp everyday!". Ha! The challenge was to use the rock and roll technique on your card. I also used a Fall to Layout from the Clean and Simple Stamping blog.

I love the way this card turned out. I am really not a huge fan of orange, but this one was fun. I jazzed my card up a bit by tracing the orange segments with my Sakura Clear star gel pen! Fun, I tell you!





This card was for the VSN challenge called Private Dancer. The challenge here was to use the Chalkboard technique and include a quote or saying on your card as well. I got out my Stamp-a-ma-jig and stamped my sentiment around the edges of my chalkboard and for the sake of simplicity, I embossed them in white. I did my flower with White Craft ink and my chalks :), so I didn't cheat! I ran out of sentiment, so rather than start over, I did a doodle/scribble line down the one side of the chalkboard.





I went a little crazy with the brads this VSN! This card was made for the challenge called The Hustle. Come on now, you remember this dance don't you?

The challenge had to do with the counts to the actual dance, so check out the link to see the moves with the counts. They were 4, 4 and 8. So you had to use 4 layers of paper, 4 colors and 8 embellishments. This was harder than it seemed at first. One of the embellishments I used with a Texturz plate, but my photo wasn't so good, so you can't hardly see it! I am in the process of working on better photos!



This last challenge about made me loose my mind! The challenge was called Chaconne - Dancing in Triple Time. Cool, I learned something here, but the challenge was to make a tri-shutter card. Another cool thing, but not for someone with only 45 minutes. I thought I had it licked by using matching dp, stamps and rub-ons. Then, my measurements were off and then my rub-ons didn't want to rub on easily! I was so frustrated that I just didn't want to make any more cards. I got over that soon!





This is the open view of my tri-shutter card :)


Too many details to post here, check out my SCS Gallery for more information on each card.