OCC Crazy for Hearts

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! It's time for another great challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week, Jennifer challenged us to use two or more hearts on a card. Easy peasey! We hope you all will play along. Check out the OCC blog for all the details and the amazing samples from the rest of the Creative Corner designers.

Well, I've had an exhausting week and haven't had any time to even step foot in my stamp studio for several days. I fully intended to make a knock your socks off type of card for today's challenge, but time ran out and I had to substitute this humdrum card I made earlier in the week, but wasn't loving. This was my first attempt at playing around with my new Love is Sweet Stamp a Sweet Impression set. I paired it with the an older Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge Sketch {TECC51} that was printed out and laying on my desk. I stamped the little row of sweets repeatedly across the back and then colored with Copic markers. Can I say TEDIOUS? I repeat... tedious!!! LOL I like the look of the background, but I'm sure I won't be repeating the coloring of hundreds of tiny little cupcakes. LOL And then what do I do? Cover almost all of that hard work up! Silly, huh? And since everything's better when it sparkles, I tried to dress things up at the end with some bling and some stickles!

Okay, I've got a busy weekend to finish off my busy week, so I better hit the road. Hope y'all have a great weekend! Oh, and if you're looking for something to do this weekend, be sure to participate in the Verve Project Parade. Next Friday is the deadline for entries, and a lucky winner will win a $25 gift certificate. All you have to do is make a card or project with the A Kid at Heart theme and link it up. Whatever you want to make is fine with us, there are no challenge police grading you on your originality or theme execution. :) Check out the deets and link your project on the Verve Blog.

Catch ya on the flipside!

Using Up the Rejects

Hi everyone! Hope your Wednesday is turning out just fabulous. Today I'm sharing another little 10 minute card I made from rejects. Now, when I say "rejects", this isn't necessarily a bad connotation - it just mean things I stamped, cut, or attempted to use on a different project and maybe went another direction, or used a different color scheme. I've been collecting these rejects for quite some time. I keep them around because I liked them at one time, and they feel worthy of use on another project. Then they start piling up - just like that stash of scrap paper. As the pile grows, so does the guilt-o-meter. I eventually can't take it anymore and throw them in a box and start a new pile! LOL Well, today I decided to (gasp) actually USE my two most recent rejects. The first panel is the Urban Praire DP strip that was embossed with the flowers from the With Love Cuttlebug borders. This was my original plan for my OCC card on Saturday, but I just couldn't make the colors work and went with another designer paper.

The second reject is the stamped sentiment with hearts in the corners from the Hundred Hearts set. I originally planned this for use with the mojo sketch this week, but then realized it wouldn't work because the top square would cover part of the sentiment. I threw them both down in the pile and they landed on top of a scrap of chocolate chip cardstock that had missed the mark and found its way into the reject pile instead of the scrap pile two inches over. A glance down at the pile made the wheels in my head start a turnin'.

I told you that I found a few hidden treasures in my drawer this weekend, and the first are these aqua primas and aqua rhinestone brads. Now, I consider myself prima challenged. I continue to buy them because I think they looks so pretty in their jars - all lined up in a row. Or in a box all mixed together. Or strewn about around a photo, like the gals who take the artsy photos of their cards always do. However, I rarely find a way to add them to a card without it looking like an after thought. That is probably because that's what they are - an afterthought. Another guilt-driven use of an embellishment so I can justify the new package I just bought. LOL Anyway, when I found these aqua colored primas at the bottom of the drawer I just knew I had to use them, so I layered two sizes on top of each other, added the rhinestone brads to the center and arranged on the card. They still looked too boring and fake, so I added the fix all for everything - tons of Stardust Stickles. Now, they're super sparkly and I love the look. I finished off with some picot edge ribbon from American Crafts and a turquoise pearl in the center of my looped bow in the corner. Another quick and easy layout and another card done.

What's In It:
Stamps: Hundred Hearts, Sweet Valentine (for inside) - Verve Stamps
Paper: Chocolate Chip (SU!), Urban Prairie (BasicGrey)
Ink: Chocolate Chip Craft, Riding Hood Red (SU!), Copic markers
Accessories: Primas, Rhinestone Brads (Jo-Ann), ribbon (American Crafts), pearl (KaiserCraft, Clear embossing powder, With Love (Cuttlebug)

Tuesday Quickie

Hi everyone! Today's card is just a quick little 10 minute coordinating card I whipped up with the remaining supplies left on my desk after making my Mojo Box. There's nothing too remarkable about it, but I do love the look of the red pearls. I spent a few hours organizing embellishments this weekend and found these red pearls I got on clearance stashed away in a drawer. Actually, I found a lot of little hidden treasures tucked away in drawers that I'm sure will be popping up on my projects soon.

When I first showed the Verve Divas the peeks of our last release, Laurie commented that she loved the heart in Hundred Hearts because it looked like it was beating. Ever since I've had it in my mind to make a card pairing that heart with the My heart beats for you sentiment from Heart to Heart. I really love how this layout really just fell together on my desk and all I had to do was glue! :)

Oh, and completely unrelated to this card, but did you see the little write-up about Verve on the SCS@Cha blog?



What's in it:
Stamps: Hundred Hearts, Heart to Heart (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Black (SU!), Bo Bunny DP
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Riding Hood Red, VersaMark
Accessories: KaiserCraft pearls, Square Nestabilities, Black and Clear Embossing Powder, sponge, Hearts Cuttlebug folder

Mojo Be Mine

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope y'all had a fabulous weekend. It's time for a new sketch over on the Mojo Monday blog, and this week it's hip to be square! Check out this week's sketch and the fabulous creations by the Mojo Makers --> here <--.

For my sample, I altered a little paper mache box. I picked several of these 5" square boxes up at Wal-Mart a while back for 97 cents with the intent of altering them, and it's just never happened. Altering is something I love when other people do, but I generally don't have the time for. But since Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday, I decided to take a little time to dress up a box for hubby.

My idea was to have 100 heart candies inside the box to go with the verse, but when I went to the store these larger heart shaped Reese's jumped off the shelf right into my cart. And although I bought 3 bags (102 little hearts), they just didn't all fit in the box. (Hmmmm... guess I'll have to take one for the team and eat a few!) I think Mark will still get the point, even though there's not exactly 100 hearts in there. I made a big heart insert with my Heart Nestabilities dies to lay on top of the chocolates inside the box. So when you open it, you'll see the hundred hearts verse. Too cute!

This was my first time playing with micro beads and it was so much fun. I had ordered some in my last SU! order and have been staring at them all month wondering what to do with them. I finally had the idea to mask off a smaller portion of the white heart, sponge with Cool Caribbean ink and then run upside down through my Xyron with the mask in place. After adding the adhesive, I removed the mask and dumped on the micro beads. Doesn't it look cool? I love how the clear beads appear to take on the color underneath. It just makes me smile. I'm hooked! Anyone have any cool ideas for what else I can do with these little beads? I'd love to hear some suggestions.

What's in It:
Valentine Box -
Stamps: Sentiment and row of hearts for red panel from Wild Thing, heart from Hundred Hearts
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Bo Bunny Valentine DP
Accessories: May Arts taffeta, stitched red ribbon, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder, Clear Embossing powder, paper mache box from Wal-Mart

Hundred Hearts Insert-
Stamps: Hundred Hearts
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Cool Caribbean
Paper: Basic Black, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Heart & Scalloped Heart Nestabilities, Xyron, micro beads (SU!)

Inspired Smiles

Happy Saturday! I'm so excited that the weekend is finally here! It was one of those weeks where 2-3 hours of sleep was the norm and 6 made us feel like we were high on life! Mark survived the first round of lay-offs at Microsoft, though, so at least that big ole' what-if stressball has moved on its merry little way. Hooray!

Since it's Saturday, it's time for another Our Creative Corner challenge. This month's hostess, Jennifer gave us a fun sketch to work with this week, and here's what I came up with. I really love how it turned out, even though it took HOURS to finally get there. I kept changing colors, losing pieces on my desk, etc. Do you ever end up stamping something again because you can't find the one you JUST did? Well, that happened to me about 5 times on this card. I even cleaned up my desk a bit, and still don't know where those pieces went!

I drew my inspiration for this card from a couple places. A while ago Bethany sent me {this} gorgeous card. Ever since I first saw it, I've had it in my head that I wanted to emboss the flowers from Poinsettia Christmas in white and make a non-Christmas card. Heat embossing is one of those things I loved when I first started stamping, but really haven't done a lot of in the past few years. That was mainly due to the fact that I was getting less than stunning results. Then I got to thinking (insert blinking light bulb here), does embossing powder have a shelf life? Most of my powders are over 10 years old, and I don't know if they went bad or if technology has just made leaps and bounds, because embossing with my new SU! powders is a DREAM! What a huge difference a relatively small investment made! Three cheers for new EP!

My other inspiration was {this} fabulous card by Teresa. I loved the way adding the embossed flowers really dressed up her card, and had to go dig my With Love Cuttlebug strips out to try it. Isn't it funny how we all have stuff in our stash that we forget about, and then suddenly someone uses it and we LOVE it? I wonder what other treasures are hiding away in my studio! LOL I debated on whether to leave the embossing naked, but finally the sparkle addiction I have won out, and I painted the embossing, the ribbon and the swirly Sizzix die cut with Pixie Dust Shimmerz. Then I finished off with a little bling and a sentiment from All About You.

Okay, so be sure to head on over to the Our Creative Corner Blog to see what you can see today. There's a cool prize, a fabulous guest designer, and the oh-so-dreamy samples from the rest of the Creative Corner designers waiting for you. :)

What's in it:
Stamps: Poinsettia Christmas, All About You (Verve)
Paper: Urban Prairie (BasicGrey), Black
Ink: VersaMark Dazzle, A Muse Black
Cutting Tools: Curly Label punch (SU!), Long Rectangles and Scallop Circles (Nestabilities), Scribbles Swirl Sizzlet (Sizzix)
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, black grosgrain (SU!), Rhinestones (KaiserCraft), Pixie Dust Shimmerz, With Love Embossing Borders (Cuttlebug)

Viva Les Fleurs

Happy Today! It's Friday, and that means it's time for another Viva la Verve! twisted sketch courtesy of Amber. Be sure to check out the sketch and the challenge details for your chance to win some Verve goodies.

The other day I was bopping around the Internet on a break from hours and hours of mind-numbing QuickBooks data entry and I decided to treat myself to a few little things. Now, around the beginning of January I made this solemn vow with myself not to buy any more designer paper for a while. I have enough to last a lifetime. SERIOUSLY! It's an addiction. Some days I think I might be a stamper just so I have a reason to collect things! There's nothing as satisfying to me as looking at rows and rows of my Copic markers and determining which colors I get to buy next. I don't know what I'll do when I finally complete the collection. Will I ever use all 322 markers? Probably not, but the point is not in the practicality, it's in the fact that it makes me happy.

The problem comes when the collecting no longer makes me happy. As in... my designer paper stash. Having a few options is stimulating - having 50,000 options is overwhelming! That's exactly how I feel about my stash. I actually end up avoiding it more often than not because I can't make a decision which pattern to use. And then there's the guilt I feel for having all this paper stashed away when there are so many crafters out there who would LOVE to have even a tenth of it at their disposal. Isn't that silly? Thousands of little pieces of paper sitting in my studio making me feel GUILTY every time I enter the room. That's nuts! LOL So, I made this pact with myself... no more designer paper unless the design REALLY inspires me and I know I'll use it right away. And then I saw it... seducing me from across the computer screen, just glowing in ethereal beauty, calling my name...

The Prudence Collection by Crate Paper

Aquas and browns and linens, oh my! I was hooked, and even though I did NOT need another pack of papers, I CRAVED this one! So, to justify my purchase and quiet those 50,000 screaming guilt monsters, I opened the package, cut up this beautiful paper and used it on today's card. See, if you hang in there long enough, I'll eventually segue us back to today's card!

So here's what's in it...
Stamps: Beautiful You (flower), Fluttering By (sentiment) - Verve Stamps
Paper: Baja Breeze (SU!), Prudence Collection (Crate Paper)
Ink: Chocolate Chip Craft, Close to Cocoa Reinker (SU!), Walnut Stain and Antique Linen (Ranger Distress)
Cutting Tools: Classic & Scallop Rectangles (Nestabilities), Oval punches (SU!), Round-it-all
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Primas, Pixie Dust Shimmerz, D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder, Clear Embossing Powder

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

And now for something completely different....

No, your eyes do not deceive you! It's a scrapbook page on MY blog! Yes, I'm a card maker. No, I'm not a scrapper. What happened??? Well, I guess I'm going through what I would call creative growing pains. Have you had those? You know, where you're just the teensiest bit bored of doing the same thing day after day? That's how I've been feeling lately about making cards, so I'm just putting it out there. After coming up with a new card layout every week for coming on 2 years, plus all my other stamping commitments, I'm just itching for something different to stretch me creatively. So, over the next little while you'll probably be seeing some "different" things here at Poetic Artistry. And probably not quite as many posts.

But don't worry, everything is A-okay! Change is sometimes good. Without it we don't grow as artists. Without it we don't grow as people. And that's what I want to do...

Grow... Flourish... Thrive.

So, I'll be sticking my little crafting neck out into unfamiliar waters to see if I can bring a little spark back into my stamp studio. And while I'm doing that, you might just get a few more of my thoughts and a few less of my creations. I love to write. From the time I could print a complete sentence, I was always writing some sort of short story or poem. I started this blog to get me back in the practice of writing every day but somewhere along the way it just became an instruction manual for making cards. And that's okay, but it's like being forced to ride the ferris wheel again and again when all you really want to do is ride the roller coaster. Know what I mean? I'm looking for excitement!!! :) So, I hope you and your cup of caffeine will continue to join me for my creative journey, even if I don't tell you exactly how I made every little creation here. And I hope you'll take a minute or two today to think about something in your world that could use a little change. In the words of Sheryl Crow... "A change will do you good!"

Julee's Recipe:
1 old photo of Mark & me
Stamps: Hundred Hearts, Hearts on Fire (Verve Stamps), alpha snap stamps (Karen Foster)
Paper: Black and Basic Gray cardstock, BasicGrey Bittersweet DP
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette (SU!), Black (A muse), Copics, white gel pen
Cutting Tools: Scalloped Hearts and Squares dies (Nestabilities), Scallop Edge and Square punches (SU!)
Accessories: old rub-on from Jo-Anns pack, Black candy dots (Pebbles Inc.)

Mojo Thank You

Happy Monday! It's the start of another week, and time for another Mojo Monday sketch. Check it out over on the Mojo Monday Blog.

My sample card for this week uses a couple SU! sets I hadn't inked up yet - Live Like You Mean it and Curly & Cute (from the Curly Label Punch bundle). I inked up the stem and leaf with my Always Artichoke marker and stamped, on white cardstock, then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up and stamp the line art flower, which I then colored with Copic markers. I stamped the same flower directly onto the curly label punch that had been stamped with the curly label thank you stamp in Riding Hood Red. I added a little tiny gold rhinestone to the flower centers for accent. The long edge border is made with a Victorian Pieracabilites die and the circle is made from the Petite Circle Nestabilities. Both the red and saffron papers are from earlier versions of 6x6 Prints Packs and everything is matted in black. I added a little doodling to the main image and some Scattered Straw Distress Stickles to each of the scallops on my circle.

For the inside, I finally used my Top Note die and stamped the same flower from Live Like You Mean It and a sentiment from Sincere Salutations. I added a little coordinating paper from the front of the card, cut with the same Victorian Edge Piercability and a thin strip of black grosgrain.

Today is also the first day of the January Verve Project Parade. This month's theme is A Kid at Heart. The Divas have a couple weeks of awesome projects for you, so be sure to tune into the Verve Blog for some fresh ideas and your chance to win a $25 Verve Gift Certificate!

Life is Good

Welcome to the weekend! It's another fabulous Saturday morning, and time for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge. Our January hostess, Jennifer Meyer, challenged us to use the emboss resist technique. We'd love to have you play along. For the challenge details as well as the gorgeous samples from the Creative Corner designers, hop on over to the OCC Blog.

Well, not being much of a technique person, I had never tried this technique before. I had a vague idea of what it was, so I just sat down and stamped and then looked up the directions later. I guess maybe I should have read the tutorial, since technically you're supposed to use clear embossing powder and I used white. But isn't it cool how the white just pops against all the brown?

I started by stamping the flowers from Meditations in Versamark on Kraft cardstock and then embossing in white. I wanted a suede type feel, so I used Chocolate Chip ink and sponged it all over the stamped piece, then buffed with a Kleenex, so the embossed flowers were all white and shiny! Next I used a paper distresser to roughen up the edges, then pierced holes along the top and bottom edges and hand-stitched some linen thread over the edges. This layer is matted on a chocolate chip piece that is embossed in my Big Shot with a canvas texture plate. (I got these in a kit forever ago to use with my Cuttlebug, but they never really worked very well with it. Now that my Hello Kitty Big Shot is queen of my craft room, these puppies are getting a new lease on life!) This layer is also distressed with a paper distresser tool, and then the card base is Kraft, embossed with the canvas texture and sponged lightly with Chocolate Chip ink. I added chocolate chip stitched grosgrain with a jumbo eyelet for decoration. The sentiment is from the Artful Elegance set and is embossed in white. I framed it with some Vanilla hodgepodge that I embossed white so it wouldn't clash, then finished off the card with a few Kaiser craft pearls.

The inside of the card is simply three flowers and a sentiment (from Fancy Florals) stamped in Craft Chocolate Chip ink and embossed in clear. I added a few white gel pen accents to the flower centers to give it a little pop.

Viva la Sunshine!

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! It's time for another Viva La Verve! twisted sketch from Amber over on the Verve forum. Head on over to check out the sketch. This week's twist is to add some pink to the sketch.

I knew I wanted to use the flowers from Meditations because they keep calling my name. So I adjusted the sketch to a tall and skinny card (3.5" x 6.75") to accomodate my circles. The flowers are stamped in Purely Pomegranate, punched out with a Marvy jumbo circle punch and matted with Scalloped Classic Nestabilities. The pink pirouette cardstock is from the In Color Textured Pack (which I'm totally digging!) that I purchased simply because it was on sale! LOL I scored a line down both edges of the pink pirouette piece to add a little interest. The Purely Pomegranate piece is punched with my favorite edge punch - the Martha Stewart Doily Lace Punch. The next layer is Basic Gray cardstock embossed with the D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. The tag is cut with a Nestabilities die and the sentiment is from Artful Elegance. I finished of with some Worn Lipstick Distress Stickles on the flower centers and a little snazzy pink bling all around for some fun.

For the inside, I stamped the two smaller flowers from Meditations in Pink Pirouette and Purely Pomegranate on white, then matted with Purely Pomegranate. And there's that Doily Lace punch again....love it!

A Year in Verve

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing with you a project I made as a Christmas gift this year. I haven't posted it until now mainly because I've been too lazy to edit the photos! LOL! This is a 6 x 6" stand-up calendar bound with a Bind-It-All. I wanted it to stand on its own, but knew 12 sheets of cardstock and embellishments would be too bulky. So I decided to make it a double-mounted calendar, requiring only 6 sheets of 6x6 cardstock so that when you get to the end of June, you just flip the calendar around and start on the second half of the year. So Jan/Dec, Feb/Nov, Mar/Oct, Apr/Sep, May/Aug, and Jun/Jul each share one piece of cardstock. Never having done this before, I was a little nervous that it wouldn't work the way I imagined in my head, but I was pleased as punch when it turned out perfectly!

I used the A Muse square format calendar download that benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and printed the pages on lightweight cardstock. Each page in my calendar has a 5.75" square of patterned paper, a calendar matted with Chocolate Chip cardstock, chocolate grosgrain ribbon and a stamped Verve image matted on a scallop square punch and embellished with Liquid Pearls and in some cases, Stickles. I'll just list what stamps and paper I used for each month and then leave you with the pictures! Click 'em to see a larger photo.

January: Snowflake Splendor; BasicGrey Blitzen DP
February: Hearts on Fire; K & Company Smitten DP
March: Asian Flair, Floral Whimsy; SU! Bali Breeze DP
April: Easter Elegance; Crate Paper Sweet Branch DP
May: Petals & Stems; Pink Martini DP
June: Petals & Stems; Making Memories Noteworthy DP
July: Seeing Stars; Scenic Route Paper DP
August: Feeling Groovy; K & Company Wild Saffron DP
September: Artful Elegance; SU! Urban Garden DP
October: Tall Oaks; Paper Salon DP
November: Tall Oaks; Webster's Pages DP
Decmeber: Poinsettia Christmas; BasicGrey Wassail DP

The Bright Side

Hey everyone! Today's another fabulous day here at Verve HQ, with Katie sleeping on her chair and me picking and packing. :) I snuck away to make a quick little card this morning. This week's TCP Tuesday challenge is a color challenge to use Teal, Olive and Orange. Where's my TCP, you say??? I don't know! LOL Amazingly enough, I already had this Inkadinkado butterfly image colored in these exact colors, so when I saw the challenge I knew I had to use it. I had intended to use a TCP sentiment, but in the adrenaline rush of finally getting to stamp just for fun after a week and a half of non-stop work, I totally spaced and pulled out a Verve sentiment. Oops! My bad! Sorry Cat Pack! I'm hanging my head in shame!

So, as I mentioned earlier, the Inkadinkado Fancy That butterfly was already stamped and colored with Copics. I rounded the bottom corners with my round-it-all and added a black mat. The sentiment is from Verve's Fluttering By set and the papers are from an old SU! Bali Breeze DSP pack. I finished off with some glittery coal half backs from Stamping Bella and Stickles in Orange Peel, Lime Green, Eucalyptus and Black Diamond. Don't you just love glitter? I sure do!


For the inside I just cut a white rectangle, rounded the corners and added a doodled border. I finished off by stamping the butterfly again, coloring with Copics and cutting out to glue in the corner.

Heartfelt Thanks

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far! I'm working like crazy to keep up with orders, while Katie (my cat) sits napping in her cozy little office chair. At least someone is getting a little shut-eye! LOL

My card for today features the new Sweet Valentine set. I love this cute little set - especially the little heartfelt thanks sentiment. It just makes me smile. I started by stamping the double hearts on a white petite oval and then stamping them again on my dp and covering with a mixture of dazzling diamonds glitter and Diamond Glaze before popping up over the stamped hearts. I lightly sponged the oval with Baja Breeze, then matted on first Kraft and then Riding Hood Red ovals cut with Petite Oval Nestabilities. For a little accent, I added a jumbo eyelet and tied a little Kraft taffeta through it.

The beautiful designer paper is more from the A Little Birdie Collection of digi paper from Sugarplum Paperie. I'm totally hooked on digi paper right now. As a cardmaker, one of THE coolest things about digi paper is being able to scale the designs down to a size that looks good on a card. So many traditional 12 x 12 papers are so big that when you cut a piece for a card, you lose the design. Not so with digi papers - you can choose the size you want it to print at - and that is AWESOME in my book! Plus, if you don't want all the little digi embellishments, you can often just by the paper sets for cheaper! :)

Okay, enough about my new digi paper crush...on with the card! I matted the digi paper with Riding Hood Red and then wrapped a little Riding Hood Red taffeta around and tied on a little Nestabilities tag with some hemp twine. The tag is stamped with the heartfelt thanks sentiment and matted with Kraft. For a little texture, I did the letterpress technique with my hearts Cuttlebug embossing folder, inking up the bottom side with Chocolate chip ink and then running the folder through upside down to get an inky impression on my Kraft cardstock. I finished off with a chocolate chip card base.

For the inside of the card, I went really simple. Just a square of the digi paper stamped with a sentiment from the Thankful Blossoms set and then matted on a kraft scallop square. Easy peasey!

Urban Mojo

Happy Monday! The weekend FLEW by here, packing Verve orders day in and day out. I did sneak a little time in to make a sample card for this week's Mojo Sketch #69. To see the sketch and play along, hop on over to the Mojo Monday Blog.

This card kind of wandered all over the place before it finally became a card. I thought I knew what I wanted to do when I sat down, but then I spied this BasicGrey Urban Prairie paper sitting on my desk and I was determined to use it. Nothing too out of the norm on this card. I used Classic Nestabilities for the big circles and a combination of small punches and Nestabilities for the layers on the small circles. The double heart image is from the newly released Sweet Valentine and the rest of the stamps are from Hearts on Fire and are stamped with A Muse black dye ink on white cardstock. I colored with Copic markers and added a little Eucalyptus Stickles for some sparkle. The photo corners are from a Fiskars corner punch that I just cut the edges off so they could be little accents. Though mostly covered, I did punch the black mat with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch (love that punch!) and then finished off with some ribbon and small rhinestone embellishments.

For the inside, I just used the left over pieces from the original direction I had started and abandoned. The sentiment is from the Sweet Valentine set and I used the flourishes on the large scrolly heart image from Hearts on Fire to stamp around the edges of the circle. The two heart accents at the bottom are from Hearts on Fire and colored with Copics.

OCC Comfort

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday! I had so much fun at the Verve release party last night. It's always so much fun to chat with everyone. If you weren't able to make it, be sure to head on over to the Verve store to check out all the new stamps!

It's time for another Our Creative Corner challenge - this week we're focusing on projects that use 2 different shades of blue and a neutral. For all the scuttle on the challenge and to see the drool-worthy creations by the rest of the Creative Corner designers, head on over to the OCC Blog.

For my colors, I chose to work with Soft Sky and Baja Breeze. When I first designed Cupcake Affair several months ago, I had worked up this sentiment to go along with it, but it got cut from the final set, so I returned it to the drawing board (so to speak) for a while. This month I decided to go ahead and release it as an individual stamp, because it's one of my favorite sentiments for all sorts of occasions. I started by stamping the Comfort Plain Jane on Soft Sky in A Muse Black ink. I then lightly sponged with Soft Sky ink, then layered on a piece of Baja Breeze, that had been sponged with the same color of ink. I rounded two opposing corners, then used my Mat Pack and paper piercer to pierce a border around the panel.

Next I stamped the cupcake pieces from Cupcake Affair in black on white cardstock, then stamping the solid cupcake top in Soft Sky and coloring with Copics. I stamped one of the flowers in the set three times, then painted over all the flowers with a mixture of 1 drop of Soft Sky re-inker, a puddle of diamond glaze and a pinch of glitter. While still wet, I adhered tiny little rhinestones to each of the flower centers, then also painted a Baja Breeze Scribbles Swirl Sizzlet die with the same mixture. Once the images were dry, I cut out the cluster of 3 flowers I had stamped and placed them in the corner by the sentiment. The background paper is Soft Sky prints, and the border is done with the Martha Stewart Doily lace punch and matted on Baja Breeze. The ribbon is white taffeta that I heated with my heat tool and then painted with the dazzling diamonds and glitter mixture. I finished with some rhinestones ornamenting the bottom of the card, and a copper photo corner that I embossed in silver to match the card.

This card is so super sparkly in real life - especially the ribbon! Unfortunately my photo skills are just not up to the challenging task of capturing that sparkle at 1 AM, so you'll just have to imagine that the ribbon looks like it has fairy dust all over it! :) Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Hybrid Viva la Verve!

Happy Friday, everyone! Tonight's the big release, and I'm practically bouncing in my chair I'm so excited! I hope you can drop in and say hi tonight at our release party!

Today is also the second installment in the weekly Viva la Verve! challenge and our hostess, Amber Hight, has another mojo-riffic twisted sketch to get you stamping this weekend. The twist this week is to use some bling with the sketch. I actually had so much fun with the sketch, I totally forgot the bling at first. Can you believe it? ME???? Forgetting bling??? LOL! Well, I fixed it, although I kept it understated because I was going for a vintage feel. Want to play along and have a chance at winning a big pile of Verve stamps? Check out the challenge details in this thread... http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12648103#post12648103.

My inspiration was this gorgeous tag included in the A Little Birdie digi paper collection I've been playing with this week. To tell you the truth, this tag right here is the reason I bought the paper pack! I just love the birdie and flowers. My papers and tag were printed on regular white cardstock. The tag comes with angled corners, but I wanted a softer rounded look, so I used my Round-It-All to round all four corners of both the tag and its Baja Breeze mat. Next I did the ONLY stamping on this card - adding the My heart is with you sentiment from the soon to be released Hearts on Fire set. I then cut the soft blue diamond print paper, then pierced around the edges and did some faux stitching with a brown marker. The background is more digi paper embossed with the Script Cuttlebug embossing folder, and then lightly sanded. I sponged the edges of all my printed papers with Antique Linen Ranger Distress Ink for an aged look, and then matted with Baja Breeze. I added a copper jumbo eyelet to the tag, then decided to use gold edged ribbon, so I took my Krylon gold leafing pen and colored the eyelet (very carefully) after it had already been attached to the card. I used my heat gun to heat the ribbon to give it that aged, tattered look. I finished off the card, by accenting each point of the diamond print paper with a little bling.

Okay, that's all for today. I've got miles to go before I sleep! :)

Keep Me in Your Heart

Happy Thursday! I can't believe we're already at the final day of sneak peeks. That means tomorrow night is our release party!!! Hooray! We'll be hanging out on this thread in our forum from 8:00 - 10:00pm ET Friday night and then online ordering will open up right after the party ends. Hope to see ya there!

Today, we're previewing a set called Hundred Hearts. Hop on over to the Verve Blog for more sneaky peeks and a chance to win this set for your very own! When I sat down to design Hundred Hearts, I really wanted to have some sentiments that went along with a heart theme, but could be used year round too. I'm smitten with this set, so I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of it from me in the next few weeks. ;) The stamp is from a Winnie the Pooh quote. The whole quote is, "If there ever comes a time when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever." Awww, isn't that just sweet? I chose to only make the latter half of the quote into a stamp, so it could have a little more flexibility in its use, but I think it's just as sweet.

My card uses the final sketch in the Looking For Love release week challenge. I started by stamping the solid hart in Riding hood red and then stamping the sentiment over the top in A Muse black ink. Next I cut the Labels 2 Nestabilities shape and coordinating mat out and used the Nestabilities die as a stencil to add some soft Pink Pirouette sponging around the panel. Next I made my own patterned paper by repeatedly stamping the row of hearts background included in this set in Riding Hood Red on Pink Pirouette cardstock. This is matted on a larger square of Riding Hood Red and I used a strip of black grosgrain for a visual divider between the two layers. I finished off with a riding hood red taffeta bow in the corner and some black candy dots from Pebbles Inc. along the bottom.

For the inside of the card, I used the row of hearts stamped twice in Riding Hood Red along the bottom, then I colored each little heart in quickly with a Copic. The inside sentiment is from the Sweet Valentine set.

Hope you have a great day!

Hearts on Fire

Happy Wednesday! It's day 3 of our Looking For Love Release week challenges, and I'm back with another sketch for you. Over on the Verve Blog today, the Divas are previewing a set called Hearts on Fire. There's another chance to win some Verve just for commenting, so hop on over!

Hearts on Fire is one of my favorite sets this release. I've always been a huge fan of hearts and think you can just never have too many different sizes and shapes! I also love sets that coordinate with others , so I designed Hearts on Fire with the background elements in Artful Elegance and Grateful Elegance in mind, as well as a little scrolliness borrowed from the Fairy Tales set.


I started out by stamping the scrolly heart from Hearts on Fire in A Muse Black on a white Nestabilities Label 1 die cut and then stamped the solid swirly heart in Riding Hood Red over it. I used the Nestaibilites die as a stencil to sponge Pink Pirouette around the edges leaving a nice white mat without another layer of card stock. This is matted on Basic Black. The patterned paper is another design from the A Little Birdie digi paper collection from Sugarplum Paperie. I used my scallop edge punch for the border, then matted with black and added two strips of black grosgrain before popping up my heart panel. The be mine sentiment is also from the Hearts on Fire sentiment and for a little bling, I add alternating red and black Kaiser Craft rhinestones on each of the scallops. For the bow, I used the heated ribbon technique, making a bow, then holding my heat gun over it until the ends curled a little. I finished off the bow with a mixture of diamond glaze and glitter.

The inside of my card combines the Happy Valentine's Day stamp from Sweet Valentine (which the Diva's previewed yesterday) with a heart strip and tiny hearts from Hearts on Fire. I stamped the little hearts in black randomly, then went back over them with the solid heart in Pink Pirouette. The red hearts are colored with Copics.

Prosperous Plans

Hi Everyone! Today is day 2 of the Looking for Love Challenges over on the Verve SCS Forum and I've got a fun sketch for you. My sneak peek is of a new mini set called Jeremiah 29:11 (original name, I know! LOL). It will be available on January 10. Be sure to check out the Verve Blog today for more sneaky peeks of this set and another mini set called Sweet Valentine.


Inspired by Jen Tapler to test out some digi papers, I printed some papers from the A Little Birdie collection by Sugarplum Paperie. I stamped the cross in Soft Sky directly on the printed paper, then stamped the Jeremiah 29:11 verse over it with A Muse black ink. The panel is cut with the notched Nestabilities Labels and matted on Kraft cardstock. I used a paper piercer to pierce some holes around the edges of the mat.

For the background I cut another piece of the A Little Birdie paper and used a Piercabilities Victorian Border to cut the decorative edge and then matted with Chocolate Chip. I added a cute little knotted bow of Kraft taffeta to the bottom and then added some rhinestones for accent at each of the points on the border.

For my final accent I used my brand new Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly punch on the digi paper and then lightly sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip. I painted on a mixture of glitter and diamond glaze, then finished off with a couple itty bitty pearls for the butterfly body.

For the inside of the card, I used the negative of the butterfly punch as a mask and sponged Soft Sky ink directly on white cardstock. I added a sentiment from Here For You that I thought paired well with the verse to make this an encouragement card for a friend.