Last Day To Play

It's the last day to play along with the You Make My Heart Sing VSN!  It's been such a good time with great participation.  If you choose to play along today, it will be like icing on the cake!

I made this card for Linda's Heart On Your Sleeve challenge.  Linda asked crafter's to do some embossing on vellum.  I love to heat emboss on vellum and then color on the back side.  This turned out much better than I had hoped.  Would you believe that I used plain old markers and not Copics.  I haven't made that leap yet!

Sooo.....I was think about other challenges when making my samples for VSN.  I thought I would enter this card into the Stamping With Markers Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.  I am hoping that this is unique enough to net me some recognition in the MFW.  If I am lucky, maybe it's unique enough to net my a little prize too (Copic Markers, folks!)  Crafter's on SCS seemd to like it well enough!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details: Stamps: Fast & Fabulous, Just Believe; Paper: Versamark, Pear Pizzazz, Bermuda Bay; Ink: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Vellum, Thoroughly Modern dsp; Accessories: white ep, heat tool, blender pen, mini brads, scalloped oval punch, large oval punch, M's self adhesive rhinestones, Olive sharpie, Pear Pizzazz seam binding, glue dots, stampin' dimensionals, Swiss dots ef; Techniques: embossing.

Fun Is Good, For Sure

Now, this is fun!  My daughter even loved it and she loved it all because of the glitter!  I ran that little star through my Xyron machine and glittered it up!  Then I took my quickie glue pen and ran it around the outside of the circle and then glittered it up!  I used Teresa's fabulous sketch from the third week of February's Viva La Verve and voila, a card is born!

There is some more fun to be had, though.  Tonight, at 6 PM EST, You Make My Heart Sing VSN starts.  There will be 17 challenges in all and surely, something for everyone! There will be plenty of crafty talk and goodness.  I hope you will make it.  Personally, I am hosting the first and last challenge on Saturday. 

I get to be at home again today due to another snow day at work.  I was very surprised and thought we would only be two hours late today.  But no, it's a 1 day work week for me.  We'll have to make these up in June.  That's the way it goes!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you at VSN tonight or tomorrow!

Details - Stamps: Beautiful You (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz, Perfect Plum, PTI dsp; Ink: Basic Brown, Perfect Plum, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz; Accessories: Large star punch, small star punch, xyron machine, Dazzling Diamonds, quickie glue pen, 1 3/4" circle punch, Nestabilities, stampin' dimensionals, glue dots, Seeing spots ef, pear pizzazz seam binding.

Another Snow Day

I'm home again as school is cancelled due to all the snow we received yesterday afternoon and last night.  Holy buckets, it just doesn't snow that much around these parts!  Since I was home yesterday, I went ahead and created this card.  I used Amy Sheffer's sketch from this month's Viva La Verve.  I had the sketch and then fleshed out the rest of the card based on that plaid piece of paper you see behind the focal image.  I don't know why, but the paper really spoke to me! 

I have been on a bit of love theme lately.  It's mostly due to Valentine's Day which recently passed and then also the upcoming VSN which is called You Make My Heart Sing.  I'm a hostess for a couple challenges on Saturday.  It looks to be a ton of fun!  I hope that you will play along!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Details - Stamps: Text Objects (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, Basic Gray, SEI Madeline; Ink: Basic Gray, Regal Rose; Accessories: MS arch lattice punch, MM edge distresser, Prima flowers, M's self adhesive rhinestones, glue dots, aquapainter.

Knotted Corners

Hello there.  Today I'm having a snow day off from school.  It was  a pretty scary drive in to work, only to find out that school needed to be canceled to protect the safety of students.  It was a good thing too because there was plenty more snow that fell later in the day.

I made this card on Monday for Theresa Momber's release challenge on Stamp TV.  I received this wonderful Gina K Designs set from a new friend, Lee, as blog candy.  It was so generous of her and I really love it!

I'm hoping to get a bit more crafty time tomorrow.  I don't think we will have school as the weather forecasters are predicting a load more snow!
Have a happy day!

Details - Stamps: Gifts From The Sea (GKD); Paper: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Blush Blossom; Ink: Basic Brown, Crumb Cake, Blush Blossom, Pale Plum; Accessories: wide oval punch, linen thread, aquapainter, stampin' dimensionals.

A Diva Card and An Award

Got Your Diva On?  Well, I had to give it a try!  Verve stamps is soliciting guest designers via an inspiration challenge this month.  Charmaine is the Verve Diva who has chosen this challenge and it couldn't be a cuter inspiration picture!  Oh my, what a dream come true it would be to design for Verve.  I am happy just using Julee's stamps and sketches! 

I also worked in a Technique Tuesday challenge to use pink and/or red on my card.  I went with pink! 

My card isn't too technical.  I used liquid pearls which I hard ever use and I did some hand stitching (because I am afraid of my machine!)  I also used some pearls and some white wrinkled ribbon I received from Limelight.  I'm pretty sure it is May Arts and I need to get my hands on some more of that, as I just used the last bit of it!

I recently received a couple of awards.  I'm new to this, so forgive if I don't quite get it right!  Fiona sent me this award:

Conditions:

1) You have been tagged, do you want to accept? YES! then create a post on your blog and post the love blog photo.
2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.
3) Choose 3-5 of your favourite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have been tagged.

As the aim of this award is to bring unknown good blogs to light, please don't tag somebody with 3000 followers.

So...my nominees for this award are Keva, Debbie, and Melissa. These are lovely ladies that I have discovered through my own love of Verve. 

I'll save the other award for tomorrow or this will be a crazy monster post!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Love Notes (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Pirouette Pink, Bella Rose dsp; Ink: Sahara Sand, Versamark; Accessories: Jotted Heart Die (Verve), Embossed Oval Die (Verve), scalloped scissors, white wrinkled ribbon, M's self-adhesive pearls, needle & thread, white opal liquid pearls, stampin' dimensionals, glue dots.

So Many Challenges...

...so little time!  I have so many ideas floating around in my tiny little brain.  I just don't have enough time to sit with my crafty stuff.  Here is a card I made for the mini VSN.  Michelle challenged crafters to "slim down".  That meant that crafters would have to make a card with two layers of card stock, an encouraging stamp and her favorite color, kraft.  No problem....a card was born. 

I had a wonderfully crafty weekend and then my mojo took a little break!  At the same time, the kids ramped up at work and so that leaves me no time to plan out cards in my head. 

For this card, I used a background builder type stamp for the hearts and then used rub-on clouds.  Have I ever mentioned that I love rub-ons?  I pierced some holes and knotted some red embroidery floss.  I seem to recall seeing some of this from Lisa Johnson first.  I punched out an oval and stamped my sentiment on the card base!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve), Lovely Bits & Baubles (Unity); Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake; Ink: Crumb Cake; Accessories: SU rub-ons, embroidery thread, stampin' dimensionals, large oval punch.

Thinking Big

This is really big for me!  I rarely get bigger than A2 and this chipboard frame extends beyond the regular A2 sized card.  I have had this frame for what seems like forever and a day.

I finally used it for a challenge.  Nichole Heady challenged her readers to "think big" and create a project with something mega-sized.  this is my interpretation of the challenge.  Again, I used my adored impression plate to add some texture to my plain white card base. 

I'm not sure that I am going to send this one.  I think it may have a special place right on my desk to remind not to be so hard on myself when I goof!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Sunday!

Details - Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve), Pocket Silhouettes; Paper: Whisper White; Ink: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo; Accessories: Chipboard frame, Linen & Canvas impression plate (PTI), score-tape.

You Have To Start Somewhere

That is my excuse and I am sticking to it! 

This is my post for Flashback Friday 8.0.  This time around Karin is challenging us to post our first ever 3D project.  I am fairly certain this was my first.  I don't have an exact date for you either.  I certainly wasn't blogging then and they aren't in my SCS gallery either. 

The set is called Kanji and is in the very first catalog I purchased from Stampin' Up!, circa 2004.  I think my girlfriend owns the set and I had borrowed it, so I can't even look at the set to see when it was released.  I know that I made them before I had my daughter, so I will guess that I made these sometime in 2005.  It was probably during the summer as I had a lot of time on my hands that summer.

I still had them in my craft room, yikes!  I think it's high time I burned these bad boys!  I hope to shout that I have a learned a thing or two since then.  I hope you got a little chuckle or a little walk down memory lane from this post!  Enjoy your day!

Details - Stamps: Kanji; Paper: tissue; Ink: Versamark; Accessories: Marcasite ep, heat tool, candles. 

Another Emery?

Yes, I just can't help myself!  That little elephant is just too cute!  This time I loosely cased a card from the Papercraft's Stamp It issue that is current.  This card is also from the Stamp 2 Spend challenge to use up some old scraps. 

I made short work of those scraps with this card.  I pieced Emery with a couple of cute papers from my scrap stash and then used up some more of the same scraps by building them into the layers of the card. 

I popped up Emery's head and the little heart on his chest.  I stamped sentiment in light blue to match my designer paper and then colored the hearts pink.  I did a whole lot of paper piercing and called it good!

It's sort of surprising to me that I could do this while watching a movie.  I have heard that others are able to do this, so I gave it a try.  It worked okay for me.

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Emery PJ (Verve), Love Notes (Verve); Paper: Whisper White, DCWV, Summer Picnic dsp; Ink: Basic Gray, Bashful Blue, Pretty In Pink; Accessories: paper piercing tool, pink taffeta, paper snips, stampin' dimensionals.

How About Some Warm Weather?

Doesn't this look like fun?  I immediately think Hawaii or maybe South Pacific.  Honestly, I don't know if there is such a thing as yellow hibiscus, but I went with it.  This card is for the Flourishes Winter Thaw challenge, which is an inspiration challenge.  The photo inspiration is some gorgeous purple and yellow crocuses peeking out of some iced over snow.  So spring!

So I went with yellow (flowers) and purple (sky) on my card!  I colored my image with water color pencils, moved the color around with a blender pen and then clear embossed the whole works.  I kept the card sort of simple to leave the focus on the image. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: Window to the World (Flourishes); Paper: Whisper White, Early Espresso; Ink: Basic Brown, Early Espresso, Versamark; Accessories: clear ep, heat tool, watercolor pencils, blender pen, stampin' dimensionals.

A Word Collage, A First

 Here's today's card meeting the new PTI Make It Monday challenge, a go-to sentiment card.  I'll call it a word collage.  It was fun and I can't think of another time when I used some many sets and so many colors all of the same card.  In order to play along and be eligible for a most gracious prize, you need to use at least one Papertrey Ink product.  Well, I have one lonely little impression plate that didn't photograph here so well.  I did use it however as the canvas impression plate gives such a nice texture. 

I tried to get a close up shot of the texture, but I'm afraid my skills are lacking!

I hope your day was fabulous!  I ran errands on my day off due to daycare being closed.  I'll be behind tomorrow at work, but what else is new!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details - Stamps: So Happy For You, Much Appreciated, Thank You Kindly, Kind & Caring Thoughts, Short & Sweet, In The Spotlight, Seeing Spots, Live Your Dream, Heartfelt Thanks; Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black; Ink: Almost Amethyst, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz; Accessories: Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (PTI), Corner Chomper, M's rhinestones, stampin' dimensionals, SAMJ.

Designing for PTI in 2011

That is what is up for grabs in today's anniversary festivities at Papertrey Ink.  Check it out here.  You have 9 tags by 9 designers to chose from or you can use them all.  I chose Heather's tag, as I just love the colors that she puts together. 

I used a slight variation on this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch.  My second panel is quite a bit taller than the one in the original, but it's made.

I am finally getting over this rotten cold and it looks like I will get one more day off.  Daycare just called and is closed tomorrow as my daycare provider is sick now!  I think everyone at daycare has had it and I hope to be back to work on Tuesday.

Take care and have a wonderful day!

Details - Paper: Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Patterns Pack III dsp; Ink: Sahara Sand; Accessories: PTI 2011 designer tag download, Sissix Scallop Circles 2, M's rhinestones, Olive Sharpie, stampin' dimensionsals. 

One Day...

I will have more Papertrey Ink product.  For now, I have a fabulous impression plate that serves me very well!  I love, love, love my linen and canvas impression plate. It gives a simple little clean and simple card so much more interest!

Perhaps this is my chance to increase my Papertrey products.  This is PTI's 4th anniversary and Nichole really knows how to throw a party.  She asked her design team to go back and highlight their favorite creation from 2010 and then offered customers to do the same for a chance to win the "ultimate card kit".  You'll just have to check it out to really believe it!

I made this as part of a set for the head cook in our school kitchen.  She's such a sweet lady and cares so much for the children who attend the school.  It's pretty simple, but sometimes that is how I like my cards.  You can see the impression on the card base in this photo.  Sometimes it is hard to capture that detail in white.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Superbowl Sunday!

Details: Stamps: Watercolor Trio; Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip; Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Poppy Parade; Accessories: Nestabilities, MAMBI baker's twine, stampin' dimensionals, linen and canvas impression plate (PTI).

Jotted Heart Flowers

I made this sucker flower for my daughter to give as Valentine treats at daycare.  I saw a Martha Stewart flower/treat tutorial and knew it would be just right with my new Verve die!!!  I absolutely love my Jotted Heart die.  I know if I play with my other Verve dies, I will love them just as much.

For my flower, I die cut 4 hearts, stacked them and used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the bottom.  I separated them and inked the edges and then threaded them onto my Tootsie Roll Pop.  Too bad I had it upside down in my photo (what a goober I am)!  I used mini glue dots to keep my petals spaced appropriately and then tied a rose ribbon around the sucker stick, adhering it with a bit of scor-tape!  I finished it off with an SU tag that I stamped with the heart trio and sentiment from my Verve set called Love Notes.  Finally, I printed my recipients name on the tag and glue dotted it down!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details: Stamps: Love Notes (Verve); Paper: Sweet Always dsp; Ink: Craft White, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip; Accessories: Jotted Heart Die (Verve), rose grosgrain ribbon, SU tag sheet, mini glue dots, scor-tape, tootsie pop, stampin' sponge, crop-a-dile; Techniques: sponging.