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Fa-La-La-La-La-La-La-La-La

I know that this stamp was intended to make visions of the 'Tis the Season song dance through our heads, but everytime I see it I just can't stop singing the theme song to the Smurfs! LOL! Crazy (and I'm pretty sure I just dated myself), but I just can't get it out of my head!
Today's card is the last of the designs I did for the Fall/Winter release of The Cat's Pajamas. Check out my swanky new watermark that Alma sent me. Cool, huh?
Nothing too much to jabber on about on this card. The paper is Basic Grey Blitzen and is Cuttlebugged with the Snowflakes embossing folder. All stamps are The Cat's Pajamas and are stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I used a white gel pen to go over the black parts of the candy cane and then I used a black glaze pen to do the dots around Sprinkle. The scallop rectangle is a punch.
Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween! Be sure your kids are safe and check their candy! There are some real crazies out in the world, peeps!

Wonderland Wishes

Wow! Can you believe it's almost Halloween? It seems like it was just Labor Day, the days are going so fast. Yesterday was a typical Monday for me - way too much work to catch up on to get any crafting done, so here's another card I made when I was over at Lila's last week. This one uses the Believe set by Papertrey Ink.

This was my first time playing with Copic markers, and I thought they were a dream to use. Maybe if I'm really nice Santa will bring me some of my very own to play with. The berries are colored over with a Spica glitter pen, so they just sparkle in real life. I also stamped on Pearlized Cream paper, so it's extra sparkly! :) I then sponged around the edges with Creamy Caramel ink. The patterned paper is from the Cosmo Cricket Wonderland pad and the ribbon is May Arts. Have a happy day, peeps!

Mojo Monday Week #9

Happy Monday, everyone! Are you ready for another Mojo challenge? This weekend I worked on some cards I'm sending for the troops and this is the sketch I came up with. It's a relatively easy sketch. Just take a strip of paper the lenth of your card, cut it into two unequal pieces and glue in opposite corners of your card. Then place a circle with embellishment in the center, covering up where the pieces meet. You can use any embellishment you want where the star is, and as always you don't have to use scallops if you don't have punches or dies. Hope you have fun with it. If you do the sketch, link me up in the comments by 10PM Mountain (midnight Eastern) on Sunday to be eligible for the Mojo RAK prize. If you upload your cards to SCS, please use keyword MOJO9, so we can all view your cards throughout the week.

My card uses paper from the DCWV Christmas Glitter Stack and the stamp is from A Rhonna Christmas Card by Autumn Leaves. The poinsettia is from a new bottle of Primas I got recently. I think they're so pretty and sparkly! The circles are made with my new Nestabilities dies, which I just love.

In other news, I've been receiving tons and tons of spam comments the past week or so (to the tune of 25 - 50 per day), so I'm going to turn word verification back on. I know it's a pain, but unfortunately, I think it's necessary.

Mojo Monday Week #8 Winner

I can't believe it's already time for another Mojo Winner! I survived my week without hubby, and he's back home safe and sound. Thanks for all those who participated in the sketch challenge this week. I just love seeing how creative ya'll are. It's getting harder and harder for me to judge these contests, because you're all so fabulous. This week's winner is Julie C. of Stamped in His Image. I just love the fabulous vintage feel to this card. It's a perfect blend of shading, papers and images. Just beautiful, congrats Julie! 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!

Simple Joy

Happy Saturday, peeps! When I was over at Lila's the other night I created this very simple card using Papertrey Ink's Snowflake Serenade. I didn't think I NEEDED another snowflake set, since I have a bjillion already, but I loved how this came together. Unfortunately, they're sold out, so I'll have to wait a little longer to get this one. Speaking of sold out, Seasonal Circles sold out this week. I placed a re-order the same day I re-ordered the Winter Wonder set. However, I only placed a rush on the Winter Wonder set, so the Seasonal Circles reinforcements probably won't arrive until a week after Winter Wonder.

Nothing much to say about this card, colors are Cranberry Crisp, Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip. Paper is from Cosmo Cricket and the ribbon is the wide Chocolate grosgrain from Stampin Up!

In other news, I was tagged by Karrie to tell y'all 7 random things about me. I love playing games, but I really am not a very interesting person, peeps. And since I've played variations of this tag game about 7 times in the last year, I'm plumb out of random facts about myself. In fact, y'all probably know more about me than my own family! LOL! I'll try to come up with a few that you don't already know.

Here are the RULES:

ONE - Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
TWO - Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog, we all want to know them).
THREE - Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

1. I'm a very private person. I don't feel comfortable talking about myself, so therefore I rarely do. I'm that gal that in high school you always thought was stuck up, but was really just a painfully shy gal wishing she could think of one worthwhile comment to strike up a conversation with you.

2. I LOVE my design team. They are the bestest, most talented, most giving group of gals I know, and I'm so glad I get to work with them! It's tough running a business by yourself, and they always seem to know when to hop on and refuel my excitement. Thanks girlies!

3. We just got an XBox 360. I am hopelessly addicted to Tetris. All these cool graphics on our High Def Plasma screen and all I want to do is play old school Tetris! LOL!

4. I love Thai food. YUM, YUM! When I was younger I was the pickiest eater. I would never even let foods touch on my plate, let alone eat a casserole or other mixed food recipe. And I only ate bland things. As I've gotten older and my taste buds have died I totally crave exotic mixtures of flavors and spicy foods. Thai is all that and more! One delectable piece of heaven in my mouth. :)

5. I've had a bind-it-all for several months now and have never used it. I just don't know what to do with it and I'm too lazy to watch the video to see if it has instructions! LOL!

6. I spend way too much time at my computer. Like probably 12-18 hours a day on average, peeps! I hardly do anything else. Sometimes it drives me crazy and I wish I could just leave the darn thing at an office and go home and enjoy my life, oblivious to all the emails that are pouring in.

7. I've never made a pie or cooked a turkey in my life. We're always invited places for holidays, so I've never had occasion to learn. Sometimes it worries me that I won't know how to do it when we're older and supposed to be the ones inviting people to our house!

Okay, now to tag 7 random people... Sorry if you've been tagged already. I know ya'll are busy, so just play if you have some time. :)

Dana of Kismet, Art and Life
Kim of Kraftin' Kimmie's Korner
Lisa of Caffeine Induced Musings
Kim of Card-E-Ology
Shannan of Pink Tulle With Feathers and Sequins
Colleen of Distinctive Touches
Julie of Stamped in His Image

Snowy Wishes

Today's card uses this week's color challenge over at SCS. I just love this Inkadinkadoo snowman and wanted to make a fun card with him. The circles are made with my new Nestabilities dies, which I just love. In fact, taking Shannan's advice that shopping would cheer me up, I just ordered the ovals to add to my circles collection. (LOL! As if I needed an excuse to buy more stamping stuff! Thanks Shannan!) :)

Thanks for all the kind words yesterday about Mark being gone. I did end up having a really fun night stamping over at Lila's. I got to play with Copics for the first time, and with the new Spica glitter pens. Unfortunately for my pocket book I loved them both. Lila and her house full of the coolest stamping gadgets and gizmos is quite the enabler! Oh, and I got to talk to Mark on the phone for a while when I got home and he promised to take me to the Melting Pot (my favorite fondue restaurant) to celebrate once he gets back into town.


Card Stuff...
Stamps: Holiday Swirls - Inkadinkadoo, Winter Wonder - Verve Visual
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Basic Gray, Pearlized White, Soft Sky Prints
Ink: Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Purely Pomegranate, Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: Nestabilities scallop circles, Stardust Stickles, White Glaze Pen, Blender Pen, sponge

A Broken Tradition

Eleven years ago today, Mark and I went on our first date. Every year since then we've done something special to celebrate. It's tradition. And I'm all about tradition. (And just a little about any excuse to celebrate! LOL) But this year he had to go off and go hunting for the entire week. I'm trying to be a big girl and not pout, but I'm really bummed about him not being here. Do you ever start bumming and just find it hard to be creative? I just sat and stared at my stamping desk for hours last night, then finally gave up and went and did some computer work. Isn't that terrible? I actually CHOSE to do work over stamping! It somehow seemed less daunting. So anyway, this is the card I worked on yesterday. I'm still not happy with it, but I took a picture to share with y'all anyway. The sketch is Beate's Weekend Sketch #24, which I flipped horizontally.

I started by randomly stamping three of the snowflakes from Winter Wonder in Always Artichoke and Certainly Celery on white cardstock. Next I layered a piece of vellum over the top and stamped Joy to the World in Always Artichoke and embossed with clear embossing powder. I layered this on Always Artichoke and added four pewter brads in the corners. Next I glued some Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon tabs to the back of the panel. The dp is Stampin Up, but I can't remember the name right now. I actually pulled out my Janome Sew Mini again and was able to change the thread AND the bobbin without even looking at the manual! Hooray! There's hope for the sewing challenged! LOL! I did a zigzag stitch on the edges of the horizontal panel and then added just a few stitches on two sides of the stamped snowflake panel. I wanted to stitch all the way around, but I had already added the brads and didn't want to attempt to take them out.

The snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch that I painted with a mixture of diamond glaze and a smidgeon of glitter. I love doing this, because not only does it make the punch super sparkly, it adds some thickness and makes it just a bit sturdier of an embellishment. Next I glued it all down and it looked a little too boxy, so I cut off the corners of a super jumbo scallop square punch and added them as corner accents to the card. To finish it off I added a few little rhinestones to each of the corner accents.

Perfectionist?

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I HAD to take this quiz when I saw it... The description states that I'm a total perfectionist, but then why did I only score a 96%? Why wasn't it a 100? Are they just trying to aggravate me, because it's working! LOL. Guess there's no suprise that I really AM a perfectionist.


You Are 96% Perfectionist

You're a total perfectionist. So go ahead and congratulate yourself on a "perfect" score. The truth is, everyone is sick of living up to your standards. And you're probably even sick of them yourself.

Brrrr!

Today I'm sharing another card I created with the new Clearly Swanky stamps from The Cat's Pajamas. This one uses Poochie's Christmas.

I just love how this card turned out. I stamped Poochie on watercolor paper and then stamped the swirl behind him and sketched in a little ice for him to skate on. His sweater is paper pieced with Bohemia Boulevard paper from My Mind's Eye. I wanted to give the effect of movement, so I rounded the opposite corners of the panel . To emphasize the Brrr! sentiment, I added a little liquid applique to make it look like all the tops were snowy. To finish off, I tied a little grosgrain ribbon around the bottom, and voila! A really fun and funky card.

Well, my nephew's in a Shakespeare play this morning, and I'm so excited to go watch him. Hope you all have a fabulous day! Oh, and be sure to check out the Verve Blog for another fabulous project from the design team. Oh, AND I added a form to be notified by email when Winter Wonder is back in stock, so if you're waiting on it, click here and sign up.

Hooray For New Stuff

I finally got to stamp with some of my new stuff! Yay! I totally spaced printing out the sandwich instructions for my Nestabilties, so I still haven't tried those, but here's what I'm showing off today... Blue Bayou paper and ink, scallop punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, chocolate taffeta ribbon, and Tres Chic all by Stampin' Up! The taffeta ribbon was not what I expected at all, but it ties beautifully and is really starting to grow on me. I love Blue Bayou and can't believe I didn't like it when it first released. And it goes perfectly with my new My Mind's Eye Out & About No. 2 Paper Collection! Bear with me peeps, I'll get to the part about the card. ;) Every once in a while a girl has to show off her new toys, especially since there's no one around the house to show and tell with!

I started out with Jen's Sketch For You to Try. I love sketches that split the space into triangles, because then you can make a quick second card with the leftover triangle. I wanted to sew on my card, but I didn't have any thread to match, so I settled for pulling out my Mat Pack and paper piercer and piercing around just about everything! I also sponged around the edges of all the panels with Blue Bayou. The sentiment is from the Hero Arts From The Heart Greetings set. To finish off I outlined each pierced hole with a clear Stardust gel pen and then added a metal photo corner from the We R Memory Keepers Hardware kit. As the card progressed I fiddled and fussed with the pieces and then fiddled some more. I finally decided I'd have to head into off-sketch territory. So I moved the main panel over and the embellishment piece to the opposite corner. Sorry Jen, I guess I was just feeling a little rebellious! :) LOL!
Hope you have a fantastic day!

Mojo Monday Week #8

Here it is! This week I've got another "simple" layout for you. Well, at least I think it's simple. I didn't want to disappoint y'all and not have anything to get your week started, so I took a 20 minute break to draw a sketch and make a card yesterday. I knew I wanted to use this swirly plant image from a Heidi Grace clear stamp set I picked up a few weeks ago at Michael's. The patterned paper is from the Enlighten collection by Memory Box. I stamped the plant in Versafine Vintage Sepia and then used a mat pack and a paper piercer to pierce holes around the edges. I finished up my faux stitching with a Chocolate Chip marker and then inked around the edges of the panel with Vintage Sepia and layered on Chocolate Chip cardstock. The Chocolate Chip panel and the Green Memory Box background are both embossed with the Cuttlebug Textile folder. I sponged around the edges of the green layer, to give it a more earthy feel. For the sentiment panel, I used Life's Simple Pleasures by A Muse and then inked up just the swirl from the plant image and stamped it on either corner of the sentiment panel. To finish off I added a hint of Stardust Stickles to all of the swirls.

So, take this sketch as inspiration and see what you come up with. Link me up in the comments if you're feeling the mojo. If you upload to SCS, please use keyword MOJO8 (no space in between mojo and 8), so we can all peruse your creations throughout the week. Just a recap for new players - you can do my mojo sketches whenever they strike your fancy, but to be eligible for the Mojo honors and a special RAK from me, you must have your link submitted by 10PM MT on the Sunday evening following the original post. For example this week's deadline is Sunday, October 28.

Well, that's all for now folks. My husband is gone for a whole week and once I recover from my sickness and sore head I just might be able to carve out a solid chunk of time to do some long overdue stamping therapy. Oh, and if you haven't already, be sure to hop on over to the Verve blog to see what the design team has been cooking up with Winter Wonder & Seasonal Circles. They'll be posting new projects every day this week.

Mojo Monday Will Be Late Today

What a weekend! I mentioned earlier that I was coming down with something. Then first thing Saturday morning, I came downstairs to print out some sketches to get back in the stamping groove. I bent over to plug my laptop into the outlet and hit my head just above my left eye SO HARD on the corner of our very sturdy dining room chairs. OW! The headache, the bump, the pain, the blurry vision! Needless to say, stamping never happened on Saturday.

Then I realized that I never received my tax reminder and my quarterly sales & use taxes for Verve are due today! EEEK! I've been planning to change my accounting software, but was waiting until I got the laptop, since my old computer had "issues". In the meantime, I'd been letting the paperwork pile up because I knew the new software could automatically download from my shopping cart. Unfortunately, with only about 24 hours notice, there was no time to start over with the new software, and I had to manually input a stack of orders about 8 inches tall. So after about 20 straight hours of staring at the computer with a splitting headache and blurry vision, my quarterly taxes are finally filed and paid. Hooray!

That being said, Mojo Monday is going to be posted later today. I did take a quick break on Sunday to draw up a mojo sketch and make a quick card, but it's 5:00 AM and I've been up all night, and I'm too tired to take a picture and make it all look pretty right now. So hang tight, peeps. Your challenge is coming. :)

Mojo Monday Week #7 Winner

There were so many awesome entries this last week, you all just blew me away with your mojo. It was so nice to see what everyone's been working on, especially since I haven't had much stamping time lately. After a long judging session, I declare Sherrie S. of Card Creme the winner of Week 7. Can you believe she colored this with Copic markers? It's amazing! I am way too intimidated by my lack of coloring skillz to even attempt a Kinkade with pencils, let alone markers! Congrats Sherrie! And thank you all for participating in this week's challenge. Be sure to check out all the mojolicious entries in the slideshow 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!

Another Sprinkle Card

Hey there peeps! Sorry I was MIA yesterday. I've just been so busy lately that there hasn't been anything creative going on at my house. And I feel like I'm starting to come down with something. There's that achey, splitting headache, tickle in the back of my throat thing happening and I'm NOT happy about it! I did get my Nestabilities circles in the mail yesterday and hubby is leaving on an extended hunting trip, so I'm hoping to have a little stamping time this weekend. Yay!

Since I haven't made it up to my studio in a while, here's another card I made for The Cat's Pajamas. Out of the seven projects I made for TCP's fall/winter release, this one was my favorite. I just love Skating Sprinkle and decided to pull out the watercolor paper and do her up right. I used Adirondack Alcohol inks and an aquapainter to color her in and then I embossed just the corner of the panel with the Snowflakes Cuttlebug Embossing Folder and highlighted with Stardust Stickles. The designer paper is from the Basic Grey Blitzen collection and is also embossed with the snowflake embossing folder. I'm pretty sure the layout was someone's sketch, but I can't for the life of me remember who. Guess I should start taking better notes, the older I get the less I retain in this little ole brain of mine! LOL!

Stamps: Kitty Christmas - The Cat’s Pajamas
Paper: BasicGrey Blitzen Collection, Bazzill Cardstock, Watercolor paper
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks – Pesto and Raisin, Tombow Grey Marker
Accessories: Cuttlebug Snowflakes Embossing folder; Marvy Extra Jumbo Scallop Rectangle Punch; Ranger Stardust Stickles; Aquapainter; May Arts Ribbon

Cool Yule

Things have been crazy, crazy around Verve this week, so once again I didn't get a stitch of stamping time yesterday. But have no fear, I still have a card I made for The Cat's Pajamas I can show you. For this one I went a little funky and non-traditional. I'm not sure what inspired the color combo, but I just went with it.

This card uses stamps from the Polar Holiday set. I stamped the Pile o' Gifts and colored with Stardust gel pens. For the sentiment panel I used a Mega Scallop circle punch and punched each scallop with a Fiskars 1/8" circle punch. I randomly stamped the large swirls stamp from the set and then highlighted them with Frosted Lace Stickles. The card base is run through the Cuttlebug using the D'Vine Swirls embossing folder.

Be sure to hop on over to the Verve blog and check out Lila's creations. Today starts the beginning of a series of daily posts with new projects from the Verve Design Team using Seasonal Circles and Winter Wonder.

Meowy Christmas

Today's card is one I made for Kimmie's Pink Cat Studio Contest . I figured that as busy as I've been that I'd only get a chance to do one card for her challenge. So I combined several of the challenges and now I have to decide which one to enter it for. The three challenges that inspired me were the pink & brown color combo, a winter/christmas themed challenge, and a supply challenge to use "sparklies".

All stamps are from Pink Cat Studio. You don't have to use their stamps for the contest, but I've never inked up these Christmas ones from the cat plate, so it gave me a good excuse! ;) I colored the images in with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol and then added some shadows with a light grey Tombow marker. All of the fuzzies (yep, that's the technical name) are accented with Stardust Stickles. I guess they're probably called pom-poms. They make me think of the cool socks I had as a kid with a little fluff ball on the back of the heel. They were SO COOL back in the day! LOL! Anyway, back to the card....

The paper is from American Crafts and I used an EK success photo corner punch with some major pink bling on it for an embellishment. Both images are stamped on Pearlized White cardstock and they absolutely shimmer. To add even MORE sparkle, I highlighted the dots on the patterned paper with Stardust Stickles.
So, I can only enter my card in ONE category. Which category do you think I should go for?

Mojo Monday Week #7

Can you believe it's already the middle of October? Time is just flying by! I didn't have a whole lot of time to stamp this weekend because I got a shiny new laptop. And it runs like a dream! Woohooo! I've been fighting with my old computer for so long I had forgotten how a "real" computer is supposed to run. I'm so totally excited about it! It's going to make my life SOOOOOO much easier not to deal with programs crashing all around me every 30 minutes or so! Yay!

I did carve out a little time in between installing all my programs to come up with a Mojo sketch for you all. So here's the sketch for Mojo Monday Week #7. What do you think? Is it doable? It really fit with the card I was trying to make. If you find time and are feeling creative, have a go at the sketch and link me up in the comments. If you decide to upload your card to SCS, please use keyword mojo7 (no space in between mojo and 7), so we can all easily view the entries throughout the week.

My inspiration for the card was really this fabulous paper from My Mind's Eye. It came in a paper pack called Out & About No. 1. I actually found 4 new gorgeous My Mind's Eye paper packs on my last visit to the LSS, so I went a little crazy. You can expect to see more MME in the coming weeks. I started by stamping the solid flower from Seasonal Circles in Cameo Coral on Very Vanilla. Next I stamped one of the flower centers from Fancy Florals in Ruby Red on each of the Seasonal Circles flowers. Then I stamped a different flower center from Fancy Florals randomly around the flowers in Old Olive to mimic the patterned paper. I then trimmed this panel, punched with the ticket corner punch and inked the edges with Close to Cocoa ink.

For the sentiment circle I stamped the solid flower and then dotted around the edges of each petal with a Ruby Red marker. I used a Chocolate Chip marker to ink up just the Joy part of a sentiment from Winter Wonder and stamped in the center of the flower. This is punched out with a 1" circle punch and layered on a Cameo Coral Extra Jumbo Scallop Circle Punch and a Chocolate Chip Super Jumbo Scallop Circle punch. The bling is from Me & My Big Ideas and I added some American Crafts ribbon and some Stardust Stickles as accents. I also did a bit of paper piercing around the layers of the cards. So therapeutic to poke all those holes! :)

Hope you all have a Happy Monday! Don't forget to scroll down to the next post and check out the entries for last week's mojo challenge.

Mojo Monday Week 6 Winner

Wow! You gals really turned on the mojo this week! I loved viewing all of your fabulous creations. This week's winner is Genevieve of 4 Some Reason. Her glittertastic creation just stole my heart. Look at the sparkles! :) Doesn't it just make you want to sing a little ditty? LOL! Anyways, congrats, Genevieve. Send me your snail mail and as promised, you will receive the "mystery surprise" which happens to be a new Heidi Grace Urban Acres Blvd. acrylic stamp set.

I hope you all have a minute or two to check out the other superb entries in the slideshow below. You all just have so much talent! Thanks for participating in my little challenge. I know there's a lot of challenges out there to do, and it warms my heart to think you'd take the time to use one of my sketches. Thanks for sharing your art! :)



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!

Hanna Smiles

My new Hanna Stamps But I Need It set has been sitting on the table feeling neglected all week while I shipped orders. Today I finally stole a little time for myself and inked her up. The layout is Beate's Weekend Sketch #23. The paper is from the Out & About No. 1 Paper Pack by My Mind's Eye. I paper pieced her bags and dress, colored her shoes with a Ruby Red marker and used Prismacolors and Gamsol to color in the rest of her. She's matted on Cameo Coral and then Chocolate Chip and I dotted around the edges with a Chocolate Chip marker. The ribbon is May Arts red sheer polka dot and I added some rhinestone bling with Diamond Glaze.

For the sentiment I used the flower and smile sentiment from PaperTrey's Text Boxed and then punched out, matted on ruby red and then on a Cameo Coral Extra Jumbo Scallop punch. Hope you like her! Thanks for stopping by, peeps. Have a great weekend! :)

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hey everyone, I've been busy shipping orders, so haven't had time for a new creation. But, so you have something new to look at, here's a project I did for The Cat's Pajamas fall/winter release. Love these Thanksgiving stamps!

Stamps: Pilgrim Poochie, Happy Turkey Day, Kitty Christmas (Small Swirl) - The Cat’s Pajamas
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Gretel Collection, Archiver’s Cardstock
Ink: Versafine – Onyx Black and Vintage Sepia; Sakura Clear Stardust gel pen, White and Clear Glaze pens
Accessories: EK Success - Corner Rounder; Making Memories Paper Piercer & Snaps; BasicGrey Notch Tool; May Arts ribbon

I've been getting a lot of questions about the Seasonal Circles set. The circles are approximately 1.75" in diameter. Here's what they look like using the Marvy Super Jumbo punches and the Creative Memories Cutting System.

Joy to the World!

Joy to the World! It's finally release day! There are so many exciting things going on at Verve today. Seasonal Circles and Winter Wonder are now on sale at the Verve Store. The Verve Gallery has been updated with fabulous projects from the Design Team. And we've added a fabulous new design team member... Charmaine Ikach! Woohoo! Oh, and check out the Verve Blog for some awesome Guest Designer projects by Taylor Van Bruggen! Are you excited? :)

Today's card uses images from Seasonal Circles and the Joy to the World sentiment from Winter Wonder. I started by stamping the snowflake circle on Mellow Moss with Handsome Hunter. Next I punched it out with my Mega (ETA: Oops, I mean Extra Jumbo - the blue one) scallop circle punch and matted on a Handsome Hunter Giga (ETA: Oops, I mean Mega - the pink one) scallop circle punch. Next I punched the center out with a 1" circle punch and stamped the flower in Ruby Red on Pearlized Cream. I added a Red Sheer Gold Edged Bow to make it look like a wreath and popped it up on foam tape. The paper is from the Cosmo Cricket Be Good line and is stitched together with a zigzag stitch on my Janome Sew Mini. The sentiment is punched out with the small SU oval punch and layered on the large SU oval punch.

Hello Pumpkin

The other day I was out and about and just happened to see this A Muse Hello Pumpkin sentiment I've been trying to find for a while now. I knew it would go perfectly with all the cool pumpkin $1 stamps I got at Michael's a few weeks ago.

I started out with Jen del Muro's sketch that she did for Sisterhood of Scrap the weekend before last. The dp is from the Making Memories Halloween Embellishment Paper Pad. I stamped the Pumpkins $1 stamp on heavy cardstock and colored in with Twinkling H2O's and and aquapainter. Next I drew in some shadows with a light grey tombow marker and colored the stems with Always Artichoke. I sketched a little frame around the pane and accented the pumpkins with Orange Peel Stickles. Next it was just a matter of layering DP with thin black mats. I used a corner rounder without the guides for a scallop border across the longest panel, but it's covered up, so you can only see the two edges.

Next I stamped Hello Pumpkin from A Muse and punched out with an Extra Jumbo scallop oval punch. I sponged this with Only Orange ink and added a little sketched frame on the scallops. Then I just offset two black punches of the same size of scallop oval and layered them behind the sentiment. The background is embossed with the D'Vine Swirls cuttlebug folder. Not sure where the ribbon came from, but it was a scrap in my drawer. Wish I had more of it, because it's really yummy.

Don't miss today's double dose of sneak peeks on the Verve Visual blog. Laurie and Kim have created some fabulous projects to share with you! And be sure to check back tomorrow for the big unveiling of the two new Verve Visual sets!

Mojo Monday Week #6

Were all of you as busy as I was last week? Seems like I was hopping from one thing to the next all week and didn't get a whole lot of stamping time. I did have a great weekend away and am ready to dust off the mojo, as well as launch the new Verve Visual sets on Wednesday! Oh, and if you're looking for the winner and slideshow of the entries for Week 5, scroll down to the next post. I decided to split them up to make it a little easier to see what the specific challenge for the week is.

For Mojo Monday Week 6, I've got another sketch challenge for you. This one says options to me - I can think of at least 5 different cards I'd like to make with this sketch, which is something I really like in a sketch. Hope you enjoy creating with this one! Link me to your projects using the following sketch by Sunday, October 14 at 10PM Mountain time for your chance to be the mojoest of them all! ;) If you upload your card to SCS, please use keyword Mojo6 so we can all see the entries throughout the week. This week's winner will receive a special mystery prize. I promise it will be good!


I really like how this layout turned out, although the photo really isn't showing it off very well. Just imagine ... it's sparkly and shimmery and has lots of texture and dimension. Sometimes I draw a big blank when I get to the embellishment stage on a card. I usually use so many layers and add so many other details that adding embellishments seems forced. For this card, I decided to go au natural! LOL! I used the soon to be released (only 2 more days!) Winter Wonder set from Verve Visual and stamped several of the stars and snowflakes on Pearlized White card stock in Chocolate Chip. I then sponged the edges with Close to Cocoa and matted with Chocolate Chip and Cool Caribbean. For the sentiment panel I stamped the medium star in Cool Caribbean with Cool Caribbean ink and stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip. I matted on Chocolate Chip and then with a Cool Caribbean super jumbo scallop circle punch. The dp is from the BasicGrey blush collection and the Close to Cocoa panel was run through the Cuttlebug using the Snowflakes embossing folder. To finish off, I added a little sparkle to the snowflakes with some Crystal Stickles.

Have you been enjoying the sneak peeks from the Verve Visual design team over on the Verve Blog? They've been kicking out the amazing projects, and today and tomorrow you'll get a double helping, with posts and projects from 2 designers per day! So head on over and check it out!

Mojo Monday Week 5 Winner

Okay, I decided it would be easier to break the winning entries and the new challenges up into two posts.

There were only 5 entries for last week's nugget box challenge, but they were all fantastic. Congratulations to Julie C. of Stamped in His Image. She's the Week 5 Mojo Monday winner with this darling nugget box! I just loved Julie's adorable spider box and the fibers were the perfect touch for this Halloween project. Congrats Julie! Be sure to check out the other entries at the bottom of this post.

Oh, and just so you know, you're always free to do these challenges whenever - even after the winner has been announced. So, if you're like me and it takes you a while to get to all the sketches and challenges you print out, feel free to send me a link whenever you finish your project. I love to see your fabulous creations!


Birthday Sneak Peek

Hey everyone! Are you ready for the weekend? I certainly am. Hubby and I are headed out of town later this morning and won't be back until Sunday evening. I am very much looking forward to a weekend away - although I just might go through withdrawals not having Internet access! :)

Yesterday was my grandma's birthday and this is the card I made for her. I think I've mentioned before that she's really into lavender, although purples aren't my favorite colors to work with. I took this color combo from the Making Memories Lauren paisley paper. The layout is CPS Sketch #27, which I've had printed out and taped to the shelf next to my desk since August and this is the first time I got a chance to try it out. I guess there's still hope for that big huge pile of sketches to try that keeps growing taller and taller.

This one's a sneak peek using two stamps from the soon to be released Seasonal Circles set. The set includes both an outline flower and a solid flower as well as 5 other stamps. I started by stamping the outline flower in Elegant Eggplant on Pearlized Cream and then stamped off once (2nd generation stamp) with the solid stamp to get a slightly lighter fill to the outline. I then punched this out with a 1" circle punch and matted on an Elegant Eggplant Extra Jumbo Scallop circle punch with a hole pierced in each scallop.

The sentiment panel is stamped using the solid flower in Sage Shadow on Sage Shadow and then the Happy Birthday sentiment from Fancy Florals is stamped in Elegant Eggplant. I attached this panel to an Elegant Eggplant mat with a zigzag stitch on my Janome Sew Mini. The Perfect Plum layer is stamped with the outline flower in Perfect Plum for a very light background. To finish off I painted a little Diamond Glaze mixed with Crystal glitter on the main flower and added a Creating Keepsakes rhinestone brad for the center. I tied two knotted bows with grosgrain ribbon around the front and matted the whole thing on Elegant Eggplant.

Okay, be sure to check out the fabulous sneak peek Shannan will be posting today on the Verve Visual blog. The design team has really been rockin' these new sets, so be sure to keep checking the Verve blog all weekend for more sneak peeks.

Blast from the Past

Well, I guess it's not the too distant past. I found this card when I was cleaning up some files on my computer. I made it right about the time the Papertrey Little Lady set came out, so about 4 months ago. At the time I made it, I remember setting it aside thinking it needed a little more pizazz. But then again, simpler is sometimes good, what do you think? I think it's definitely grown on me over the summer. LOL!

I started by stamping the Ladybug from Little Lady in Real Red and Versafine Onyx Black on Pearlized White cardstock. I then accented the ladybug dots with Black Diamond Stickles and matted with Real Red and two black Mega Scallop squares pieced together to form a rectangle. The DP is from the Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl collection and I used my slit punch to make a little tab for the image panel.

Next I wrapped some black grosgrain around the bottom and added two primas with a brad. I stamped the sentiment "a happy life is made of little things" directly on the dp and then used a black Glaze pen to make a dotted border all around the edge of the card.

Be sure and check out the Verve Visual blog today to see the gorgeous sneak peek Lila created with the second Verve Visual stamp set releasing October 10. This one's called Seasonal Circles. Oh, and isn't this new paper from Cosmo Cricket YUMMY? It's called Hey Sugar and it's available now at the Verve store, along with a couple new lines of paper from Webster's Pages. I can't wait to pull out my stamps and start playing! :) Have a great day everyone!

Polar Holiday

Today's card is one I made with the new acrylic stamps from The Cat's Pajamas. I was a little hesitant when Alma said she was introducing clear stamps, but once I got them and started playing I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of these acrylic stamps. Good stuff, peeps! :) If you haven't purchased them yet, what are you waiting for?


I started by stamping Knut from Polar Holiday in Versafine Onyx Black. I then stamped him again with Versamagic Night Sky chalk ink and used a blender pen to color the scarf with Aegean Sea ink. I then cut out the scarf and paper pieced onto the polar bear panel. I cut out with my Creative Memories Oval Cutter and then embossed just the corner of the oval with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder. Next I added some ice to ground Knut with a grey Tombow marker and added some Frosted Lace stickles to the embossed snowflakes. This oval is matted on two other ovals, the largest trimmed with Provocraft scallop decorative scissors. I stamped Think Snow from the Poochie Christmas set in Night Sky and then matted on another circle trimmed with scallop scissors. I then went dot happy all around the ovals and circles with my white Glaze pen. The white cardstock is run through the Cuttlebug with the Snowflakes embossing folder and then lightly inked with Aegean Sea. The knotted bow is May Arts double sided satin ribbon.


So today's the first sneak peek of the new Verve Visual sets over on the Verve Blog. Head on over there to see more of this card I created using the new Winter Wonder set. :)

Fall Florals

I finally found a tiny bit of stamping time yesterday. I'm still playing around with my Janome Sew Mini and am really loving it. My stitches are getting a lot better with practice, too - especially the turning corners!

I started this card by randomly stamping several of the flowers from Fancy Florals in Pumpkin Pie on Pearlized White Cardstock. Next I glued to a piece of yummy Paper Salon dp and zigzag stitched it with my Janome. I tied a bow of Chocolate grosgrain around this panel and set it aside.

Next I stamped Thinking of You and one of the flowers on another piece of the Pearlized White cardstock and sponged around the edges with Close to Cocoa ink. In hind sight I should have either done this to both or none of the two stamped panels, because it looks a little weird to have one "dirty" and one clean. Next I stitched around the edges and then matted on some more Paper Salon DP. The Chocolate Chip card base is embossed with the Textile Cuttlebug folder. For the final accent, I added a little Crystal Stickles to the center of the flower. It's nothing super elaborate, but I'm really happy with the final result of this card.

I received a couple fabulous RAKs yesterday too! The first was a beautiful card by Paula done with Verve Visual stamps. For me, the most exciting part of designing stamps is seeing what people do with them. This card by Paula is really gorgeous. I love the layout, it's like a tent topper - only the topper is a cut-out instead of an added layer. I guess it's called a Bib Card. Very cool - and she wrote the sweetest note inside. Thanks Paula, you really brightened a dreary and wet Monday!

The second card is from my buddy Shannan. It's a beautiful design with great colors and stitching and a special note inside to make me feel better. You're so thoughtful Shannan - I always love your creations! Thanks so much.
Starting tomorrow there will be daily sneak peeks on the Verve Visual blog of the two Verve Visual sets being released on October 10! Woohooo! The party has almost begun! Over on the blog you can also read about our newest Design Team member, Laurie Schmidlin, as well as view the list of winners from the September Verve Visual contest.

Mojo Monday Week #5

Can you believe it's Monday already??? I can't! I've been so busy I didn't even get to pick up a stamp the entire weekend. Oh well, at least I got to look at all your FABULOUS mojo entries!!! :) I even had to call in reinforcements to help me judge this week, because it was just too hard to choose. So many of you are just laying on the mojo. So, the announcement you've all been waiting for... the Week 4 Mojo Winner is Charmaine I. from Oodabug Alley! This party girl card just screams mojo, with the cool brads, faux stitching, paper piecing, the coloring, the cuttlebug slider on top of the scallop punch. Absolutely yummy! Congrats Charmaine! Be sure to check out the show at the bottom of this post - lots of beauties from Jan Tink, Beate, Dana S, and Kathie B to name just a few of my favorites.

As promised, this week's Mojo Challenge is a treat/gift giving challenge to make a nugget box. Nugget boxes are paper boxes made with a sheet of paper to fit Hershey nuggets, but the templates are in all shapes and sizes, depending on the number of nuggets you want to give. I think the one I used for this project would be perfect for some 3x3 notecards to give a little set of gift enclosures. The templates are all on this thread on SCS. I used the nugget_box_6_short.pdf template located on post #5 on that thread. Check out the nugget box tutorial if you need instructions. They're super fun to make! Okay, you know what to do - make me a nugget box! LOL! If you upload your creation to SCS, please use keyword Mojo5 so we can all view the fab creations throughout the week.

Okay, Isn't this box just darling? I've had nuggets on my mind ever since PaperTrey came out with their Avery Label stamps. I decided not to purchase any of their sets, but I thought these penguins from The Cat's Pajams just screamed, "I Want Candy", so I pulled out some labels and did my own thang! :) The See No Evil penguins come all together, but I just snipped each of mine to make three stamps (don't hate me Alma!). That's one cool thing about unmounted stamps - as long as you make a fairly straight cut it's super easy to stick them back together on the block if later on you want to stamp them together as they were intended.

To emboss the box, I ran the paper through my Cuttlebug with the Snowflakes embossing folder after I did all the cutting and folding (but before I glued anything). I folded the flaps that wouldn't show under, so that the important parts of the box would fit in the folder and be embossed.

Stamps: The Cat’s Pajamas
N-7477 Polar Holiday – Christmas Penguin, Cold Outside
N-7475 Kitty Christmas – See No Evil
D-5282 Large Circle Snowflake
Paper: Archiver’s Cardstock
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Sakura Stardust Pens; Zig Markers
Accessories: Cuttlebug Snowflake and Squares emboossing folders, Avery Address labels; May Arts ribbon

This week I decided to test out a a new photo viewer. I think it looks cleaner and less distracting, but you do have to click on each thumbnail to see the pictures. There are little numbers in the bottom left hand corner. These are page numbers - you start on page 1 and there are about 12 thumbnails per page. You can click on each thumbnail to view that photo until you get to the end, then click page 2 and look at those photos. I've got a poll up on the sidebar for you to tell me if you like this way or the previous weeks' slideshows better. Enjoy the fabulous talent that was submitted this week!