Sparkling Florals

Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday. My back is still in pain, but it's lessening, so I think that's a good sign! :)

Today's card is one I made for Colleen's Thursday Throwdown Challenge. This week it was a sketch challenge with a twist. The twist being that the large panel in the center was not supposed to be the focal point of the card. The focus was to have been the area where I put the flower. Hopefully I didn't cheat by actually stamping inside the main panel, but I like how it turned out.

I started by stamping the Soft Sky panel randomly in Soft Sky and then in Chocolate Chip ink with two of the small flowers from Thoughtful Florals. I then inked the whole panel up with VersaMark and covered and embossed with Irridescent Ice for uber sparkle! :) This layer is matted on a chocolate chip scallop rectangle cut with Nestabilities. For the background of the card, I lined up the Happy and the Birthday stamp from Happy Thoughts on my acrylic block and then stamped them together in Soft Sky ink repeatedly across the card front. I then tied to Chocolate satin knotted bows across the panel and matted on a Chocolate Chip card base. My focal point is a flower stamped with two of the flowers from Fancy Florals Remixed (one in soft sky and the other in Chocolate Chip). I then cut out the flowers, covered in VersaMark and embossed with Irridescent Ice. For a little flair, I added a fancy decorative brad from Making Memories to the flower center.

I must say, it really does sparkle nicely in real life. Nothing's better than a little sparkle to start the day off right! :)

Mojo Monday Week #25

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was filled with migraines and back spasms, so not the best weekend ever. I did however squeeze in a little time to think up a mojo sketch for y'all. I was feeling like I wanted to make a card with some cool layers, so this is the sketch I jotted down before I headed up to my stamping room. Hope it inspires you to make some mojolicious creations this week. So, here's the drill... If you make a card with the sketch, just link me up in the comments of this post, so I can come check out your creation. Please, if you can, leave a link to the actual post with the card or the actual card in your gallery, not just a link to your blog or gallery. Sometimes it's hard to find the cards if you have a general link and I'd hate to miss anyone's cards. If you've got your link to me by Sunday at 8 PM Mountain time (6 PM ET), I'll include it in the slide show next Monday. If you happen to upload to SCS, please use keyword Mojo25, so we can see everyone's mojoliciousness all in one happy place.

I took my color inspiration from this Grasshopper Cookie paper by EK Success I found in my stash while I was having a cleaning marathon this weekend. It's always so nice to "find" new stuff when you clean! The paper has bashful blue and certainly celery flowers with a chocolate chip background. YUMMY! I stamped the solid larger floral stamp from Serenity in Chocolate Chip and then sponged around the panel with Bashful Blue ink and matted on Chocolate Chip. Next I stamped the Thinking of You sentiment from Fancy Florals Remixed in Chocolate Chip, inked around the edges with Bashful Blue and matted with chocolate chip. The green horizontal strip is the reverse side of the floral paper and I matted on Bashful Blue, sewed a zigzag stitch across the top and bottom and then tied a chocolate satin knotted bow around the middle. For the chocolate chip background I used one of the small Cuttlebug folders from my Fancy Corners set, and embossed it three times across the top and three times across the bottom of the cardstock for a cool background that I thought matched the paper really well. To finish I added two cheapo fake "baubles" that I got from Michael's.

And to start your week off right, here is the slide show with all of last week's mojo submissions. For even more awesome cards check out the fabulous entries for the Verve Visual Honored Guest Sketch Contest.



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She's an ANGEL I Tell You

Hey everyone! Did you have an awesome Valentine's Day? Hubby was sweet enough to surprise me by ordering and bringing home the heart shaped pizza on his way home from work. I must say it tasted even better in a heart shape. Definitely lived up to all my years of wanting one! LOL! And with it, Mark brought a bouquet of gorgeous tulips and the best chocolate in the world, made right here in Boise. It really is the best chocolate I've ever tasted. We don't get it very often because it's $24.00 a pound, but TOTALLY worth every penny and more.

Okay, so I have one more lovey card to show you, then I promise to move on to other stuff! ;) And it's a Sprinkle card, so Sharon in NE will be on cloud 9 , getting two Sprinkles in one week! When I saw this flowerpot and Angel Sprinkle included in the Loving Mew set from The Cat's Pajamas, I knew exactly what I needed to do. Anyone who owns a cat and has a plant has seen this pose a time or two! LOL!

I started by stamping Angel Sprinkle in Versafine Onyx Black and the heart flowerpot on it's side. I then colored in some dirt with prismacolor pencils and gamsol and colored the flowerpot and some accents on Sprinkle with Spica glitter pens. Next I added in some ground with a gray marker and finished off the image panel by stamping the tiny tracks stamp from Be Still, My Beating Heart several times in the "dirt". I used the My Angel sentiment and stamped the tiny tracks below it in Versafine Vintage Sepia. I rounded all the corners and matted with black cardstock. The background papers are from the Scenic Route Loveland Collection and are divided with some May Arts black satin ribbon. I finished off with a little Stardust Stickles and a tiny pink bow in the corner.

Well, today is hubby's birthday and we have a special day of fun planned. All our favorite things... bagel sandwiches, a movie, Borders, Tully's, Lily Jane's Cupcakes...sounds like a little bit of heaven! :)

Have a fabulous weekend peeps. And don't forget that today is the last day to enter the Verve Visual Honored Guest Contest, so if you're a procrastinator, now's the time to kick it into high gear! ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Does everyone have lovey dovey plans tonight? Mark and I are getting a heart shaped pizza from a local pizza joint. For some strange reason, I've secretly always wanted one. :) We usually go to a fancy place for Valentine's, but this year I told Mark I wanted a heart shaped pizza and a bouquet of Copic markers! LOL! The markers are on their way, and I'm so excited about the lovely colors I'll be getting. We purchased them through Carpe Diem {ETA.... THE LINK!!!}, where Mark got my other set of Copics at Christmas. They normally have a good deal on the markers and then you can email for an even deeper discount. Once our order was processed, the markers ended up only costing $3.56 each! And they ship fast and have all the colors in stock! Woohoo!

Okay, enough about my bouquet of Copics. On with the cards. I'm showing you two today, because I feel extra happy today. :) They're both cards I made for The Cat's Pajamas with the new Clearly Swanky Love sets.

The first card is a simple little number starring Poochie. I tried something I've seen Jen do a time or two and really love - Cuttlebugging just a portion of the card. Mine didn't turn out as dramatic as I hoped, but I still like it. I started the card by stamping Love Puppy from Puppy Love in Versafine Onyx black and coloring with Spica Glitter Pens. I then matted this on some mint Paper Accents paper, tied a pink satin bow around one side and lined up some BasicGrey two scoops buttons on the other side. Next I took a piece of Two Scoops paper and stamped I Ruff You from the Puppy Love set in the corner and then ran just one side of the paper through the Cuttlebug with the D'Vine Swirls folder. To make the swirls stand out a little more I covered them with Stardust Stickles. To finish everything is matted on a 4.25 x 5.5" Muslin Coral card base.

The next card is made from the Be Still, My Beating Heart set. For some reason whenever I see this set all I can think of is balloons. I just love going out on Valentine's day and seeing all those heart shaped mylar balloons floating around bringing joy to everyone! So I had to make some of my own in card form. For the first heart I stamped the medium dotted heart on crimson cardstock with Crimson Red Versafine ink. I then punched it out with a Marvy Mega Scalloped Heart punch and sponged around the edges with Crimson red ink. For the center I stamped the Loads of Hugs & Tons of Kisses heart on white cardstock, trimmed and colored in with Prismacolors and gamsol and then accented with a mixture of Diamond Glaze and Ultrafine glitter. For the second balloon, I punched out a Super Jumbo Scallop Heart and stamped around the edges with the Tiny Asterisk stamp and then sponged with Blue Lagoon ink. The center is the Love Ya heart stamped in Crimson Red and cut out. I popped both balloons up on pop dots for a little dimension. The patterned paper is from Bo Bunny and I used the tiny diamond stamp to stamps some strings for the balloons and then also added a little glitter to them. To finish I tied a black satin ribbon around the bottom and added some mini Doodlebug brads to the top and bottom.

Okay, that's it for now peeps. Have an awesome day!

Lovestruck

Happy Wednesday! Man the week is flying by! Sorry for the late post, I totally forgot I hadn't posted yet until I realized I hadn't gotten any comments. LOL! Today's card is another one I made for The Cat's Pajamas. I didn't want Sharon in NE to think I was neglecting Sprinkle again, so today my card feature's everyone's favorite cat.

I started by cutting and embossing some ovals in coordinating colors for my Sprinkle image. I stamped Cupid Kitty from Loving Mew inside the oval and colored with Spica glitter pens and Prismacolor pencils. And to give her a little depth, I added a little outline with my Tombow light gray marker.

The cardstock used is Muslin paper from Paper Accents. I love the texture of this stuff. I stamped the Lovestruck sentiment from the Loving Mew set in Versafine Onyx Black and then I inked up just the hearts and swirls portion of the Love Rocket from Puppy Love and stamped it on opposite corners of the sentiment. I colored the hearts in with a Spica Glitter pen and then added three Hero Arts rhinestones in the corner for some bling. To add even more sparkle I added a mixture of Diamond Glaze and Stampendous Ultrafine glitter to the dots in the American Crafts Cosmopolitan paper as well as to Cupid Kitty's wings. I set it aside, but it felt it was missing something, so I went back and added a knotted bow around the top with some May Arts black double-stitched ribbon.

Yes I Am the Muffin Man

Can you believe Valentine's Day is almost here? Valentine's is a big deal in my house, since my Dad is a Valentine's baby and my hubby was born on Feb. 15th. Somehow it seems like it was just Christmas, and now I'm realizing I have presents to buy and cards to make, like YESTERDAY! LOL! Oh, and I better hurry up and show you guys all the samples I've been making for The Cat's Pajamas before you're all Valentine'd out! :)

So here's my Love Muffin card. I was originally going to make this into a shadowbox card, but since my Marvy heart punches only give me about 1/4" clearance from the edge of the paper, I decided it would end up being too heavy to stand up with so many layers as a shadowbox card. So I adapted it to a regular card. I started by punching a Mega heart punch out of black cardstock and then a Giga Heart punch out of some pink Paper Accents Muslin paper. I then stamped the medium heart circle stamp from the Loving Mew set randomly over the pink strip with Versafine Crimson Red ink. Next I layered the black piece with the heart punch out behind the pink piece so I could estimate where I needed to stamp Angel Yappy from Puppy Love directly on my white card base. Next I made two strips of scallop borders using my corner rounder without the guide and glued them to either side of the pink strip and tied some black May Arts double stitched ribbon around one side. I highlighted Yappy with a light gray marker and then added some Stardust Stickles to his wings.

I stamped the Love Muffin sentiment in the corner and then decided it needed a little something else. So I pulled out the tiny flower from the Be Still My Beating Heart set and stamped a little flower trail across the top and bottom edges and colored each lightly with a blending pen. To finish off, I added some Liquid Pearls to the black inner mat around the heart.

Mojo Monday Week #24

Hey everyone! Are you ready for a little mojo? This week we're going for a three panel background, which is great for using scraps, adding variety with some different background stamps or embossing textures, or just going for a color blocked look. Hope you enjoy it! Link me up in the comments of this post with your card using this sketch and I'll include it in next week's slideshow of all the entries. If you upload to SCS please use keyword MOJO24 so we can all see your lovely creations in one place.

My sample card is created using stamps from The Cat's Pajamas. I started by cutting and embossing a rectangle and coordinating mat with my Nestabilities dies. I then stamped the frog prince from Puppy Love right next to the frog princess from Loving Mew. I then colored them in with some Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol and then accented with Spica Glitter pens. So they aren't just floating froggies, I added a touch of shading with a light gray tombow maker across the panel and around their feet. Next I stamped a heart and the Be Mine sentiment from Be Still, My Beating Heart directly onto the My Mind's Eye Kiss & Tell patterned paper, then cut out free hand and matted on white cardstock. The background panels are made with the same Kiss & Tell paper and the middle panel is from American Crafts. I added some May Arts double stitched grosgrain to each of the seams and finsihed off with some K & Company pearl accents down the side.

That's all for today, peeps! Catch ya on the flip side! :)

Mojo Madness Winners & Slide Show

Hi everyone! Have I kept you in suspense on who the winners are long enough? Sorry for the late post today - as my FIL would say I've been trying to pack 10 pounds of taters into a 5 pound sack. There just never seems to be enough time to do everything - even when I stay up ALL night! I just finished viewing all 59 of the fabulous entries for this month's Mojo Madness contest, and the judging was SUPER tough! Since I've made you wait so long, I'll just get right to it...

This month's Mojo Madness Honors go to...

Laura of Scrapnextras for this gorgeously soft and elegant beauty. I just want to sigh each time I look at it. Everything seems balanced, coordinated and perfectly executed - right down to the tiniest little pearl for the bird's eye.






Suzy of Paper Monkey for this mojolicious card. Suzy said she went for something funky, and she definitely achieved it with this little number! I love all the extra details she added like the fringe for the bird to walk on and the way that the tail feathers flow off the edge of the card so perfectly. Just a total treat for the eye!

So, congrats Laura and Suzy! Email me your addresses and your choice of Verve Visual stamp set and I'll get your goodies on their way! Thanks everyone for playing, I love seeing your work. Be sure to check out all of the fantastic entries in the slide show below.

I'll be back a little later with Mojo Sketch #24.



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!