Abundance

Today is Verve Release Day! Five new sets are available in the Verve Store, including Abundant Blessings, which I used for today's card. There's a special discount if you buy all 5 sets together, plus, we also opened up online ordering for Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Okay, on with the card. I can't arrange flowers to save my life, so I wasn't really sure what I was doing when I set out to make this card, but I really like how it turned out. I figured I'd just play around and see if I could get the picture in my head out on paper. I started by stamping the three sizes of the flower, coloring with Copics, trimming out and then layering. I added Orange Peel Stickles highlights all over the place and then set it aside to dry. Next I tackled the sprays. I stamped the fern leaf twice on opposite edges and then the spray a few times in Always Artichoke ink.

Next I wanted to use my new Martha Stewart branch punch that Cindy's been using like crazy. So much that I HAD to go buy one of my own. I punched the branch a few times out of scraps of Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive and Always Artichoke and then layered them behind the flower. I then very carefully (since I'd already glued down my leaves) embossed just one end of the paper with the Cuttlebug border strip. I sponged the edges with Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip and then tied a Nestabilities tag on with some chocolate satin ribbon from Target. The sentiment is stamped in Tangerine Tango. I finished off with some Stardust Stickles on the branch punches and across the embossed dots, then matted everything on a Chocolate Chip card base.

So, there it is, a beautiful fall card with the new Abundant Blessings set. I think just by changing the oranges to reds you could make a beautiful Christmas card as well.

Birthday Surprise Preview

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Tonight is the Verve Release Party over on our SCS Member Company Forum! We've got lots of fun planned, so be sure to drop in. Today the Verve Divas are previewing two more new sets over on the Verve Blog. These sets mark the return of our favorite little birdie, all decked out for a party. The sets are called Black Tie Birdies and Birthday Surprise and will be available at Midnight Eastern Tonight in the Verve store. There's a chance to win these two sets over on the Verve Blog today, so hop on over.

My preview card features the Birthday Surprise set and is for yet another challenge that can win you Verve Bucks! Bethany's our hostess this week for the Meet The Verve Diva challenge and her challenge is to use the Out of the Box technique. This is such a fun and easy technique that I often forget about, so I was excited to make a card for this challenge. Be sure to check out all the details and ask Bethany some get to know ya questions over in the Verve Forum.

I started by stamping the birdie in Memento Rich Cocoa on Classic Cream cardstock. I then used my Creative Memories Oval cutting system to cut an oval all around the birdie, except for the hat, which I then trimmed around with scissors. Y'all know how much I love party hats, so I was so excited to design this fun little party hat for Mr. Birdie. Aren't his tail feathers just fun? I colored him with Copic markers and then added a bunch of dot details with a brown marker, a few accents with my white gel pen and matted on a chocolate chip oval.

I also used the out of the box technique for the Birthday Surprise sentiment, cutting around the flourish that comes off the tail of the S. The cardstock is Gable Green and Cool Caribbean. I stamped the bottom half of the green galore with the square background from Grateful Elegance and then accented each diamond with Liquid pearls. I stamped the same background on the Cool Caribbean layer and then used the ticket corner punch for all the corners. The ribbon is 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain, which I wrapped around the back of the card and then trimmed on either side of the Caribbean layer.

That's all for now. I hope to see y'all tonight at the release party. I announced the winners and included the slide show of all last week's mojo entries in the post below this one, so be sure to go take a peek.

Mojo Madness Winners & Slide Show

Congrats to September's Mojo Madness winners:

Lynda of Stamp Act with this mojolicious entry. This monochramatic black, white and shade of gray card is anything but boring. I love the way she used the border strip stamp from Grateful Elegance to depict the scalloped border in the sketch. This card is sophisticated and classy while still leaving you a hint of edgy trendiness. Just beautiful, Lynda!




Maggie of Stamps in Hallways with this adorable little bird card. The coloring, the cute little button embellishments and that big beautiful ribbon really caught my eye on this card. All the extra little details just seemed to say "mojo" to me.


Congrats Lynda and Maggie, email me your address and your choice of stamp sets and I'll get your prizes in the mail. Feel free to wait until tonight's release to make your decision. Thanks everyone for particpating. The judging was super hard. I even had to call in back up from Mr. Verve to narrow it down. He's got a pretty good sense of style. He married me, right? :)

Okay, before you go, be sure to check out all of the mojolicious entries in the slideshow below. I'll be back a little later with a super cute preview of one of the new sets.


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!

Mojo Monday Week #52

Happy Monday Everyone! I can't believe it's already time for another Mojo Monday sketch. This week's sketch is actually based on this card I made a few weeks ago. I liked the layout and wanted to give it another go, so I made it the sketch for this week. I hope you have fun with it!

To play along, just make a card using the provided sketch and leave a comment on this post with a link to a photo of your creation. There is no time limit - you can play any week at any time. If you happen to upload to SCS, please use keyword Mojo52 so we can see everyone's mojoliciousness all in one happy place.

It's also release week for Verve, and so today the Divas are previewing two of our new sets, Abundant Blessings and So Happy over on the Verve Blog. (Pssst - There's a prize - so you probably want to check it out!) These sets will be available on Wednesday, September 10.


I combined the two sets they're previewing today for my mojo sample this week and started by stamping the cattails image from Abundant Blessings on white cardstock three times in Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I then brayered the entire piece with Soft Sky ink for a nice background, and then used my white Signo gel pen to highlight each of the cattails for a frosty look. The two patterned papers are from the BasicGrey Offbeat paper collection. The sentiment is made up of two stamps from the So Happy set and stamped on a petite Nestibilities oval. Next I added a jumbo eyelet, wrapped the 1/4" chocolate chip grosgrain around the card and through the eyelet and tied in a little bow. I finished off with a little Stardust Stickles on the image for sparkle.

Okay, that's all for today folks. You've still got until noon today to get your Mojo entries in for last week's contest. Winners and the slide show of contest entries will be announced tomorrow. And don't miss out on the OSW challenge in the Verve forum where you can win the ENTIRE september release for participating.

A Sprinkling of Presents

Happy Saturday! It's time for another Saturday morning Our Creative Corner challenge, only starting this week I'm officially an OCC Girl! Woohoo!

This week's challenge is in honor of this month's hostess, the fabulous Amy Sheffer. She turns the big 4-0 this week, and her challenge is to make a humorous card to keep her laughing instead of crying. We'd love to have you play along. You'll find all the details, along with samples from the other OCC designers (Amy, Cindy, Dawn, Denise, Jennifer, Laurie, and Lynda), over on the Our Creative Corner blog.

My card uses stamps from the new You Say It's Your Birthday set by The Cat's Pajamas. I started by stamping Sprinkle with her present on an embossed and matted Classic Nestabilities Oval. I then colored her with Copics and added some black dots to the scallops. Next I inked up just the first part of the sentiment and stamped on the yellow-orange strip. I then inked up just the Again! part of the sentiment and stamped on white and placed below the horizontal panel as a little tab. To finish, I stamped the presents across the blue cardstock three times then colored with copics and a white gel pen. It was really a simple card to make, but I love how bold it is.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend. If you're looking for some more weekend stamping fun, be sure to check out the OSW challenge over on the Verve forum. Several lucky winners will receive the new Verve sets that release next week, so be sure to give it a go before time runs out!

6 x 6 One Sheet Wonder Challenge

Well, today I promised a very special Verve challenge and here it is. It's a 6 x 6 one sheet wonder challenge to make four cards using one 6 x 6 sheet (plus coordinating cardstock), and you can download a printable PDF of the cutting template and four sketches --> HERE <--. If that doesn't work for you, I've also uploaded the template and sketches individually as photos in a special album in my SCS Gallery.

All the nitty gritty on the really cool prizes and the deadlines, rules, etc. can be found on --> THIS THREAD <-- in the Verve Forum. It's a limited time challenge, so be sure to check it out right away! Okay, there's lots of pics, so I won't bore you with all the details. I used Artful Elegance and two cards have a sneak peek at a new sentiment set called So Happy. The DP is American Crafts paper that is black and white on one side and silver on the other.

Hello Mr. Bright Side

I've just got a quick little card for you today and not a lot of chitchat. Lots to do and this is the first chance I've had to get to my computer.

This is another good layout for those artist trading cards (ATC's), as the image panel is 2.5" x 3.5". I used a long scallop rectangle (Nestabilities) for the black mat, and just cut the ends off to make it the length of the card. The papers are from the Junkitz Salsa collection. I stamped the butterfly from Fluttering By on classic cream and then again on the teal paper and paper pieced it, popping the wings up for some dimension. I added some green rhinestones to the paper and the butterfly's body for some sparkle, and then paper pierced the two corners of the image panel. The sentiment is also from Fluttering By and then I stamped the butterfly inside the card and colored with Copic markers. A really simple, but fun card.

Eat More Cake

Happy Tuesday! Today's card is another fun birthday card using new releases from The Cat's Pajamas. The You Say It's Your Birthday set I used includes the numbers 0 - 9 so you can personalize your birthday projects. I decided to use them as a little backdrop, so I randomly arranged the numbers 1 - 9 on an acrylic block, and then stamped a few times on my panel and colored with Copic markers. Next to it I stamped the cake on the cake stand, and to personalize the card, used the numbers 3 and 0 on either side of the cake stand. The cake is paper pieced from a piece of Cogsmo Collection paper from Cosmo Cricket. The other papers on the card are also from the Cogsmo line. For the sentiment panel I stamped the Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake sentiment and then surrounded it with the fireworks looking stamp. I added photo corners made from a quarter of a circle and then added some red rhinestone bling. The background is embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. The scallop edge is made with the Fiskars Threading Water border punch. I finished off with some thin black grosgrain ribbon and some Stardust Stickles on the cake.

Okay, this is a super busy week since the next Verve release is just a week away. Our release party will be next Tuesday, September 9 at 8PM Mountain (10 ET, 9 CT, 7 PT)! And I'll be posting a very special challenge you won't want to miss this Friday (Sept 5) on the Verve forum. There's a prize involved that will definitely be worth your while. And the Divas are still showing off their gorgeous pink & brown creations all week for the Verve Project Parade. Then on Monday we'll start our previews of the new Verve sets!