Mojo Monday Week #31

Happy Monday Everyone! Hope y'all had a great weekend. Mine was filled with taxes - much like the rest of this week will be. Yuck! That means I didn't have time to make a sample with today's sketch, but since I didn't want to hold y'all up in kickstarting your week, I'm posting the sketch first thing. Hopefully I can squeeze in some time later this week to get a sample done.

I figured it's been quite a few weeks since we had a circle as the main focal point of a Mojo sketch, and I'm itching to pull out my circle Nesties again. Hope you have fun with the sketch. As always, if you don't have scallops, feel free to use plain circles or improvise. :)

Okay, you know 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. 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 Mojo31, so we can see everyone's mojoliciousness all in one happy place.

Be sure to checkout all the eye candy in last week's mojo submissions slide show....



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And the Dots Ran Away With the Spoon

Hey everyone! I'm back today with a dotty little number. The dots definitely got away from me on this one - once I started there was no turning back! LOL! I used this week's SCS sketch challenge {SC169}, which called for a long panel only 1.5" wide. I spent a while trying to figure out what to stamp on that panel. I don't have many long stamps like that, and the ones I did were all long-stemmed flowers and I just wasn't "in the mood" for long stems. Eventually I decided to pull out the Build a Bouquet set by My Favorite Things and create my own design. I started randomly stamping in Soft Sky and then went back through and stamped flower centers and a few more accents with Taken with Teal Ink. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set and everything is matted with Taken with Teal cardstock. for the larger panel, I used a piece of Soft Sky Prints dp and embossed it with the Birds & Swirls cuttlebug folder. For a little embellishment I used some glass baubles from Michael's, a stamped flower which I cut out, some Soft Sky double Stitched ribbon. I added liquid pearls all over the place and a little Stardust Stickles here and there for some sparkle. The card base is Soft Sky and embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

When I was done things just seemed a little off balance, so I took a 1/2 circle punch of Taken with Teal cardstock and glued it to the card base. I used my rectangle hand punch to punch a hole for the ribbon to slide through, and then used a craft knife to slice a hole in the crease of the card (where the fold is) just large enough to feed the ribbon through and tie on the side. I think in the end I would have preferred to have a stronger focal image, but it still turned out all right.

Sanded

I have wanted the Sanded background since I first saw it first released. I really can't believe I waited this long to buy it - I love it just as much as I thought I would! For today's card, I thought I'd try a little different color combo than my norm - and no patterned paper, just to mix things up. Not too radical, as you can see, because it still has chocolate chip in it. After all, what good is a color combo without chocolate? LOL!

I just pulled out some scraps of Sage Shadow and Old Olive and liked how they looked together, so I went for it! I stamped both scraps with the Sanded background in Old Olive and then stitched a border around both pieces with my Janome Sew Mini. Next I used one of the Olive rub-ons from SAB on a white piece of cardstock and colored in the two white flowers with a Sage Shadow marker. This is matted on Sage Shadow and a Chocolate Chip scallop square made with my Nestabilities. The Chocolate Chip background is stamped with Sanded in White Stazon. I just love the look! Next I was inspired by this card by Amy, so I punched three little white circles, glued them down and attached some chocolate brads to each circle. For the center of the Prima, I set a jumbo eyelet and then added a green jewel brad. (Not sure if they're Fire or Ice, because Lisa sent them to me FOREVER ago and I lost the post-it note! Thanks Lisa - I'm trying not to hoard them anymore!) I finished off with some Stardust Stickles on the flower and a white card base.

Have a HAPPY day!

Sweet One

Today I'm sharing with you a super quick card (read 10 minutes) I made using Jen's Sketch For you to Try from this week. I absolutely loved the sketch as soon as I saw it and had to make something, but didn't have a lot of time. This is what I came up with. Hopefully I'll have time to make something a little more stampy with this sketch later this week.

Sorry for the dark shadows on the photo - I think my camera is starting to get sick. :( I used the same lighting and everything on my photos today and everything I took had dark shadows and I had to brighten it quite a bit in Photoshop. Anyways, I started by stamping the Sweet One stamp from So Many Scallops (SU!) in Crimson Red Versafine on Barely Banana. I then stamped the same image again, punched out with my scallop circle punch and sponged the edges with Crimson Red ink. Next I layered the trimmed image on top of the punched image and set aside. I punched three 7/8" squares from Some KaiserCraft Tudor paper and then matted on a 1" square of another paper from the Tudor Collection. I ran a piece of Barely Banana through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder, added a strip of the Tudor paper and the three squares and then tied some Bluebird grosgrain ribbon in a knotted bow. I added three burgundy brads from Pinkhedgehog and glued everything to a red card base. For that extra little sparkle I added some Stardust Stickles squigglies to the paper and some accents on the moon and each scallop. Not your traditional baby colors, but I liked the happy feel of the color combo.

Baby Watcha Gonna Do?

Hey everyone! Is anyone else a Zooey Deschanel fan? I totally love her in about everything she's been in and was so excited to find out she just released an album, She & Him. It's totally awesome - a bunch of oldies sung with style - kind of folsky, but very fun and original. Anyway, its been on repeat all morning and I can't get enough of it. :)

Anyways, I'm back from vacation and I have a sample card using this week's Mojo sketch and the slide show of everybody's Week 29 cards. I started my card by stamping the solid bird from Anniversary Birds in Pumpkin Pie and then stamping the stems and leaves from Thankful Blossoms in Chocolate Chip and Old Olive. Next I matted on Old Olive, added some pewter brads and matted on a Chocolate Chip scallop Nestabilities rectangle. The Old Olive Horizontal Strip is wrapped with chocolate chip wide satin ribbon and then run through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dot folder. Sentiment is from Serenity and stamped in Pumpkin Pie and matted with Chocolate Chip. Background paper is from the Ashville Collection by Scenic Route Paper. And for sparkle, I added Stardust Stickles and three Dew Drops from the Men's assortment.

Okay, here's the slideshow of all your fabulous Mojo creations from last week!



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Mojo Monday Week #30

Hey everyone! I promised I'd have a sketch for you, even though I'm gone so here's a little somethin' somethin' to jumpstart your mojo this morning. I'll have a slideshow of last week's entries ready for you tomorrow, along with (hopefully) a sample using this sketch. Here's the drill... if you make a card using the sketch, please link me up in the comments of this post so I can come take a look at your mojolicious creations. To be included in next week's slideshow, just be sure to have your link submitted by Sunday evening at 10 PM Eastern (8 PM Mountain). You're always welcome to do any sketch any time, the deadline is just for the slideshow. If you upload your card to SCS, please use keyword MOJO30 so we can see all your creations in one shiny, happy place. :) Okay, enough chitchat - here's the sketch....

Trash or Treasure?

Hey everyone! Welcome to the weekend! Does everyone have big Easter weekend plans? I'm leaving town this morning for a long weekend with hubby and friends. Should be nice to get away, but I'll miss being home with family for Easter Sunday. Somehow the trip got planned before we clued into the fact that Easter was so early this year.

I haven't had much time to craft lately, so today I'm going to show you a card I made a little while ago that I wasn't too thrilled with. It was one of those things where I really wanted to use some antique copper brads and a deco brad for the center, but at the time I couldn't locate them in the chaos that is my studio. So I grabbed the first thing I found - these white button brads and used them instead, and then hated it. They seem to stick out like sore thumbs to me. This poor card has just been sitting on the "junk" pile on my desk for a couple weeks now. I kept thinking I'd have time to re-make it before I posted it. But now I think so much time has passed I probably won't remake it. What do y'all think - trash or treasure? ;)

I think the card started out as one of Jen's sketches, but I flipped it on it's side. The paper is from the Wild Saffron paper pad by K & Company and I absolutely love it. I stamped the small and large open flowers from Thankful Blossoms in Versafine Vintage Sepia directly on the patterned paper and cut out. I then stamped another large flower on red cardstock, trimmed and layered behind. I stamped the You're Amazing sentiment with Versafine Crimson Red ink on Pearlized White Cardstock and then pierced a row of dots above and below it. I used the small photo corners from the SU! photo corner punch and added Making Memories white button brads to each punch and then one to the center of the small flower and hopped it up on a foam square for some dimension. I finished off with some Stardust Stickles on the flowers and as a highlight on the dp.

Oh, and I used the Floral Fantasy Cuttlebug folder to emboss the yellow dp panel and then rubbed it lightly with a So Saffron inkpad to give it a little depth.

Okay, I'm off like a racehorse. Hope y'all have a happy Easter! Catch ya on the flipside! :)

Soft Cocoa Thanks

Today's card uses Jen's Sketch For You to Try from this week. I love Jen's sketches, because her style is so different from my own, and it stretches me to try layouts I would never think of myself, but really like. This one's another great one - thanks for the inspiration, Jen!

I started by stamping the small flower from Thankful Blossoms with Soft Sky ink. I then used a blender pen and some Soft Sky ink refill to color the petals and matted on a 1 3/8" circle punch from the Soft Sky Prints dp. The scallop circle is punched from Chocolate Chip and for a little interest I stamped one of the small leaves on each scallop in Chocolate Chip. Next I cut three strips of the Soft Sky paper and matted with Chocolate Chip. I stamped thank you on the bottom one, then added hardware from the new SU Styled Silver Hodgepodge. The background is from the Close to Cocoa Prints pack and I used a corner rounder for the scalloped edges, and added a thin scallop mat with the Soft Sky prints paper. To finish off, I added a ribbon tab with some Soft Sky Double Stitched ribbon and then highlighted the designs in the Soft Sky paper with some Stardust Stickles.

Sorry not a lot of chitchat today. My hours and hours at the computer the past week, combined with little sleep brought my migraines back yesterday. Gotta keep the computer time to a minimum so I don't re-awaken the angry beast! ;) Hope you have an awesome day!

Mojo Monday Week #29

Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone! Sorry I'm so late with the sketch today - Monday morning happened to me in a big way! LOL! This week's sketch is rather simple, but sometimes simple is just the right thing. :) To spice it up, I'd like to see something other than a square or circle where the butterfly is and some stamping in the two corners of the background panel. Hope you have fun with it. 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. 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 Tuesday (I'll be out of town on Monday, so the slide show won't happen until Tuesday, but I'll be sure to schedule the Mojo Monday #30 sketch to post while I'm gone for all you Mojo Monday junkies! If you happen to upload to SCS, please use keyword Mojo29, so we can see everyone's mojoliciousness all in one happy place.


Today's card is a miniature card I made just playing around with one of my new Stampin' Up sets. The dimensions are 3 x 4" and I'm really not sure what made me make this size, but I really like it. It will be just the right size to tuck in with a gift. I started by stamping the flower in Vintage Sepia Versafine ink and then coloring with Copic markers. I then trimmed it out and set aside. Next I took a scrap of Polka Burst Paper Salon dp and stamped the flourish stamp in each corner and used a corner rounder on the edges. The sentiment is stamped on white cardstock. Something about the line up of the sentiment on the stamp just bothers me, so I used my chocolate chip marker to ink up just the first two lines, then used my Stamp-a-majig to line up the word Happy where I wanted it. Mats are all Chocolate Chip and I used a white signo gel pen to add dots around the edges, some accents to the flowers on the flourish and some dots on the flower petals. The flower is popped up on dimensionals and I used a cheap bauble from the Michael's candle section for the flower center.

Okay, back to my manic Monday! :) Be sure to check out all of last week's fabulous cards in the slide show below.



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Bang Bang.... On the Door, Baby

Bang, bang! Knock a little louder sugar!
LOL! I just can't get that song out of my head, so I thought I'd share with you, so we can all be singing Love Shack today. ;)

Just so y'all know I don't hate dogs (even AFTER the dog barking incident earlier this week), I thought I'd share a Poochie card. I used this week's Mojo sketch as a jumping off point and pulled out my It's a Western Thing set from The Cat's Pajamas.

I cut and embossed an oval and mat using my Classic Ovals Nestabilities and then stamped Shootin' Poochie in Versafine Vintage Sepia. Next I colored him with Prismacolor pencils & gamsol and then sponged the outer edges of the oval with Vintage Sepia ink. All of the patterned paper designs are from the Souvenir Collection by Cosmo Cricket. On the square panel, I applied eyelets to each of the corners and then tied and knotted some hemp through each one. The square layers are distressed with my Tonic Distressing tool. The half circles are punched with a 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punch, and lightly sponged with Vintage Sepia ink. I then took the aqua piece and randomly stamped the Bang! star all over it and then stamped the sentiment There's a new sheriff in town on a scrap of the same paper. I gave this strip an eyelet and then attached to the card with some hemp, and tied a few knots on it to get that "barbed wire" effect. To finish it off I cut out one little Bang! star and glued it on top of the ovals and then matted the whole thing on a 5.25" square card base of French Roast Muslin (Paper Accents).

Hope y'all have an awesome weekend!

Birthday Kitty

Happy FRIDAY, everyone! Today's a sunny, bright spring day here and I'm hoping it will stay that way for the whole weekend. For today's card I got to color with my Copic markers a little bit and had a little fun with some spring colors.

As I was blog surfing the other night, I noticed that Allison's Suggestive Sunday challenge {AFSS8} this week was to use a kitty image. So I immediately knew I needed to use this adorable image Charmaine sent me. It's from the Crafty Kitty collection by Pink Cat Studio. The card is pretty straight forward. I colored the image, giving my Parisian kitty baker a chic soft sky/chocolate chip outfit and added some white polka dots to her apron and chef's hat with my new Signo white gel pen. I cut and embossed the image panel, chocolate chip mat and For Peep's Sake scallop square with my Nestabilities Dies. I then embossed a piece of chocolate chip cardstock with the Swiss Dots CB embossing folder.

The sentiment is from the Wonderful Wishes set, which I punched out with the small oval punch and then framed with SU!'s new Styled Silver hodgepodge hardware and attached with American Crafts ribbon. For the finishing touches, I added some glass baubles to the ribbon, Stardust Stickles to the flowers and kitty's eyelids (LOL!) and then matted the whole thing on a 5 x5" Soft Sky card base.

Have a great day, peeps! :)

Cool Apricots & Pomegranates

Happy Thursday!

Today's card is one I made with last week's SCS sketch {SC166}. I had a finished, but rejected ATC prototype on my desk from the swap I was in, so I started with that. I also had a new pad of Urban Rhapsody paper from K & Company, so that's what inspired the colors. It's a different combination than I would normally put together, but I think I like it. It's definitely a color explosion. :)

So, the ATC was made with the Thankful Blossoms set stamped in Lagoon Blue Versafine Ink and colored with Copic markers. I then sketched a wavy border around the panel and matted on cool caribbean. The wavy border is the main reasons this prototype got rejected - I thought the black ink was too bold for the look, and sketching a border on multiple cards seemed like a recipe for disaster. :) So, since I had the ATC done, I decided to pick a couple colors from the striped Urban Rhapsody paper to create a quick card. The colors calling out to me were Apricot Appeal and Purely Pomegranate, so I jumped in. I layered the striped paper on Apricot Appeal and then a piece of Cool Caribbean and ran through the Cuttlebug with the new Floral Fantasy folder. Next I matted the vertical panel on Apricot Appeal and lined it up on the folder, so it would match up where I wanted to place it on the other panel and give a seamless look. (If you try to emboss too many layers at once, the top layer ends up really embossed and the other layers more faded, which was not the look I wanted).

Side note: Has anyone else used this Floral Fantasy embossing folder? Mine seems to be backwards, or maybe that's the way it's supposed to be? If I put it through the Bug with the Cuttlebug letters facing up, which is how all of my other folders work, it actually DE-bosses instead of embosses. This folder has to be flipped upside down for it to emboss for me. Anyone else notice this, or is it a defect?

Okay, back to the embellishments. I tied a knotted bow of that 99 cent Swiss Dot American Crafts ribbon and then added some Raspberry Baubles down the vertical panel. The rhinestones had already been applied to the ATC. I finished off with Purely Pomegranate and immediately sent the card off to Shirley. Hope it arrived safely!

Hearts & Clover

Hey everyone! How's your Wednesday? I woke up to the sound of barking. We live in a really quiet neighborhood, and although many of the neighbors have dogs we're lucky enough to rarely hear them bark. That being said, there is one dog behind us that every once in a while will get a bee in his bonnet and bark himself hoarse. I don't even know how he can breathe, he's so insistent and it's just a constant barking for hours and HOURS on end. And it gets on my LAST nerve! LOL! Anyways, when I can hear it through my silicone noise cancelling earplugs and with two pillows over my head, I get a bit cranky! Now, just as I finished typing that last sentence, he stopped! Hooray! Ah, the beauty of silence! He knows just the right way to remind me why I am a cat lover and don't have a barker of my own! LOL!

So in honor of my renewed love for my feline friends, I'm showing you a card from The Cat's Pajamas today! Can you believe it's almost St. Patrick's Day? Seems like just yesterday I was making all those Christmas cards I never got around to sending! LOL! I love making St. Patrick's Day cards. There's something so festive about shamrocks and an excuse to use shades of green that are all but relegated to collecting dust the rest of the year!

I created my shamrock using one of the hearts from the Be Still, My Beating Heart clearly swanky set. I stamped them in Versafine Onyx Black and then colored with Copic markers. Next I used my Copics to draw in a stem, and then stamped down the stem with the tiny asterisk like stamp from the set. I then outlined the image in gray to give it a little depth. The panel is cut and embossed with a classic Rectangle die and matted on a Scallop Rectangle (Nestabilities). The patterned paper is from Reminisce and is matted with black card stock. For the sentiment You're in Luck, I first swiped a little green with my Copic marker where I wanted the Luck to end up and then used my Stamp-a-majig to line up my sentiment. I then matted with a scallop rectangle punch and finished off the card with some piercing accents in two corners. I love the layout of this card. Simple and clean, with just a little funk. I don't often use a lot of white space on my cards, but it can be a very effective way of making simple images "pop".

Okay that's it for today! Hope you have a happy, quiet, bark-free day! :)

Smile Today ATC's

So most of you know I'm not much of a swapper, but every once in a while I see a swap and I think, "I should join!" All the while suffering a temporary bit of amnesia about the last time I joined a swap and said it would be my last ever! It's not that I don't like swapping - it's just that I always end up spending FOREVER trying to come up with a completely original idea and then wait until the night before it's absolutely got to be at the post office to work on it, so completely orginal goes out the window, and completely do-able is what happens! Each time I say I'll change, but everytime I'm up working feverishly the night before! LOL, I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks. That procrastination gene is in my bones for good! ;) So, all that to say, I joined in on an ATC swap a little while ago. I figured it would be easier, because they're smaller, ya know? Can you hear me laughing? LOL! Still the same amount of stress, but there were some really cute cards in my group, so it was still a lot of fun. Hope everyone liked what I came up with.

The ATC I created for the swap uses Thankful Blossoms. I started by stamping the large blossom off the corner in Deep Lagoon Versafine ink and coloring with Copic markers. Next I stamped the stem and the You Made Me Smile Today sentiment in Deep Lagoon and then painted the flower center and some of the petals with a mixture of Diamond Glaze and Dazzling Diamonds. For embellishment I added part of a Word Window punch in cool caribbean and added a row of three little aqua rhinestones for accent. The card is then matted on cool caribbean and Paper Accents High Seas Muslin card stock.

A Humbling Blogthing

I don't often post these little quizzes, but this one was kind of fun. I thought I could at least easily name 64 colors in 5 minutes, but I guess it's been a few decades since I memorized the crayola box and I'm a little "rust"y! LOL! If you take the quiz, be sure and leave a comment to let me know how you did! :)

57

Mojo Madness Winners & Slide Show

Hi everyone! I'm finally back with this month's Mojo Madness winners. There were so many fabulous entries that I had to enlist the help of Shannan as an impromptu Mojo Guest Judge to help me make a decision. Thanks Shannan, you're the bestest! :)

So, since I've made you wait so long in the day, I'll just spill the beans...

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

Bobbi G for this gorgeously designed explosion of color and design. I love the way she used the small flowers from Thoughtful Florals to accent the ribbon, and her bold color choices make a big impact, but the soft shading around the image gives a nice balance. This card just spells MOJO from top to bottom. Just gorgeous, Bobbi!




Amy S. of Pickled Paper Designs for this mojolicious card. Amy is one of those designers that turns everything she makes to gold and this card is no exception. I love the beautifully layered flowers, the ribbon/hardware attachment, the little bit of decorative edged white sticking out on the edges. I think details really make a card, and each one on this card is well thought out and perfectly executed.

So, congrats Bobbi and Amy! 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! Each time y'all make it harder and harder to judge! Be sure to check out all of the fantastic entries in the slide show below.




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Mojo Monday Week #28

Happy Monday everyone! I've been sick all weekend, so I don't have the Mojo Madness winners ready yet, but I'll be sure to post those and the slideshow of all the entries later today. But first I wanted to get this week's sketch posted, so you can all get a jumpstart on your week! :) So, you know 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. 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 Mojo28, so we can see everyone's mojoliciousness all in one happy place.

Today's card uses the butterfly from the Verve Thankful Blossoms set. I started by cutting and embossing an oval (For Peep's Sake dp), an scallop oval (soft sky CS), and a larger oval (chocolate chip CS) with my oval Nestabilities. Next I stamped the butterfly directly on the smallest oval and also on a scrap of soft sky in chocolate chip craft ink and heat set. Next I cut the two wings from the soft sky card stock and used sticky strip on the inner side and pop dots on the outer part of the wings, to to give them a more dimensional fluttering look. I added some Stardust Stickles to the wings, a couple tiny K & Company pearls to the antennae and some dots with a chocolate chip marker all around the scallops in the oval and also a soft sky SU scallop circle punch. I then punched a 1 3/8" circle punch out of the same DP, layered on the scallop circle and cut in half for the side accents. The striped pattern paper is also from the For Peep's Sake collection by Imaginisce and I separated the two layers with a length of wide chocolate chip satin ribbon. I finished off with the sentiment, you're on my mind, from Heartfelt Phrases and then matted on a chocolate chip card base.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll be back later with the Mojo Madness winners. :)

Sketching Along

Hey everyone! I had a little time to stamp this morning before I needed to run off and do all my errands, so I pulled out Jen's sketch from today and went to work! I've seen this BasicGrey Two Scoops yellow and rose paper used a time or two, and something about it just kind of frightened me. It is very pretty on the pad, but can be way overwhelming on a card, so I challenged myself to figure out how to make it work. Although these color are so NOT me, I think the card turned out pretty okay.

I started by cutting and embossing an oval and coordinating scallop oval mat with my Nestabilities. Next I stamped the cross from Easter Elegance in VersaMark ink and used a dauber to apply Pretty in Pink chalk all around the cross and then barely banana chalk on the outer edges of the pink. I think this technique is called Poppin' Pastels, but don't quote me! ;) Y'all know by now that I'm not much of a technique stamper, and most of the techniques I use, I didn't know had a name until I found SCS! Next I pulled out my Essential Glue Pad, gave it a fresh coat of glue refill and stamped over the cross again and then added Butterfly Art Institute Glitter for a sparkly cross. The scallop edges for the top panel are made with a corner rounder and I free-hand pierced holes across it to match the piercing I did below on the sentiment panel and also on the scalloped oval. I matted each piece with Cameo Coral and then added sponging around all of the edges with Colorbox Rose Coral Chalk ink.

Next I stamped the Happy Easter sentiment in VersaMark and embossed with white embossing powder. It didn't make as big of a contrast as I would have liked, so I sponged the edges of all the yellow paper with the same Rose Coral ink, which helped to tone down the yellow a bit. The back panel is also from the Two Scoops pad and I embossed it with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and then lightly used the Colorbox Chalk inkpad to lightly brush the dots with ink, to make them pop a bit more. For the finishing touches I added some white gel pen accents to all the piercings, added three pearls to the sentiment panel and attached the card to a So Saffron card base.

Well, back to my Saturday already in progress. Have a happy weekend - and here's hoping y'all find lots of stamping time! :)

Swiss Dot Bliss

Happy Friday, everyone! Woohoo - we made it to the weekend! Today's card was inspired by Beate's Weekend Sketch challenge from LAST Friday. I can't believe that Easter is just a little over two weeks away. Time to get "cracking" on those Easter egg cards! LOL! This card features two of the stamps in Verve's Easter Elegance set. I took my color inspiration for the card from the very pretty paper that I almost entirely covered up. It's from the For Peep's Sake collection from Imaginisce. It has tulips and scrolly flowers on one side, and the reverse is the gorgeous soft sky-esque dotted striped paper I used for the Happy Easter panel. I started out the card by embossing the Easter egg stamp with black embossing powder on Pearlized Bright White paper. I then painted the eggs with a fine tip watercolor brush and mixtures of Diamond Glaze and re-inkers (in Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, and Cool Caribbean). Once it dried, I colored over the pink sections with a Copic marker to get more of a guava color, since I didn't have a Groovy Guava reinker. I also highlighted the swirls on either side with a green copic marker.

Next I lined my image panel up on the very bottom of my Swiss Dots folder, so that only one row of dots was embossed. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of this from me, because I love little dotted borders, and this is SO easy! I'm afraid I might end up wearing out my folder, I love it so much! :) Anyways, I turned it around and did the bottom edge as well as the top and bottom of the Happy Easter panel. Helpful Hint: I'd recommend doing the embossing BEFORE you color the eggs, as with my first attempt, I ended up with more of a cracked glass look for the Easter eggs, because the Diamond glaze cracked a little under the pressure of the Cuttlebug. :)

The ribbon was a total impulse buy at the LSS the other day. I mean, these people really know they're stuff... put beautiful swiss dot ribbon on the counter in gorgeous spring colors for 99 cents and just see if anyone can pass it up! LOL! It's by American Crafts and is so yummy! So what else? Oh, the polka dot paper is from Paper Salon and called Polka Dot Burst. I added some Stardust stickles to every other row of dots because I wanted a little more pizazz. Everything is matted with Paper Accents Black Pepper Muslin and the two corners are made with just the corner section of a Mega scallop square punch with a 1/8" hole punched in largest scallop.

Okay, have a blissful weekend everyone! Oh, and be sure to check out this cute card Paula Goff made using the packaging from her Verve stamps. Too clever! :)

Mr. Birdy

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! Thanks so much for all the help with my SU! questions yesterday. Now I know what I needed to know - I need it all! LOL! I have such a hard time narrowing down my wishlist, so each order takes about 2 months to prepare. Crazy, huh? I started working on this one back at the beginning of January, so I'm more than ready to finally send it off and get those pretty new Sale-a-bration sets in my hands! :)

I 've made a few new cards this week, but amazingly enough, they're already in the mail and I'm waiting for them to arrive at their destinations before I show the world. So today I'm pulling this little cutie out of the vault. I made this card back when I first got my samples of the Anniversary Birds set, but couldn't show it to ya then. A girl has to keep some secrets, right? ;)

This card was the result of my just playing around in my studio and ended up being the inspiration for Mojo Monday Sketch #22. I started with the gorgeous Silver Lining collection of papers by We R MemoryKeepers and, stitched three of the panels randomly with my Janome Mini. Next I sponged each panel with Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink and matted on Chocolate Chip card stock. For the image panel, I stamped Mr. Birdy on Classic Cream card stock in Vintage Sepia, then stamped the branch below his feet. Next I curved the You Make Me Smile sentiment from Thoughtful Florals and stamped it below the branch. Next I stamped the branch and the bird again on the patterned paper and paper pieced onto the main image. I added a random scrolly stitched frame around the edges and then inked up with more Vintage Sepia ink and matted on Chocolate Chip card stock. For the ribbon slider, I was too lazy to run downstairs and get my horizontal slot punch, so I just punched a couple small circles in a row and slid the American Crafts ribbon through the hole and tied in a knotted bow.

Blossom Thanks

Hey everyone! Today's card is another one that didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned, but some days you just roll with the punches, ya know? This card started out as my attempt at last week's sketch challenge on SCS. Except I wanted to use this sentiment so I had to flip the sketch, and then it didn't look right, so I had to make the card a square. But then the square was too long, so I decided to use some Daisy D's swirl rub-ons in a tombow like dispenser that I bought a while ago to try out. Well, let's just say that I wouldn't recommend these little guys. Great concept, but definitely not easy to use. The dispenser was hard to start and then skipped quite a bit, and since it's a dispenser there's no do-overs, or re-aligning the rub-on to try and fix the skipped parts. So I ended up having to cover it up with a strip of card stock and some embellishments.

The stamps are from the new Thankful Blossoms set. I stamped the blossom with Purely Pomegranate on white and colored with Copic markers. I stamped the sentiment directly on the Ginger Blossom dp and matted with Soft Sky, then pierced all around the edges. The sparkly dp is from the K & Company Smitten paper pad. The card base is Purely Pomegranate and embossed with the stylized flowers Cuttlebug folder. I added a Making Memories deco brad to the center of the blossom and adhered it with foam dots for some dimension. To finish I tied a knotted bow with some May Arts ribbon and added some bling on either side.

Okay, now that I'm done with the nitty gritty, I have a couple questions for all you SU! experts out there. First off is the White Stazon pad in the catty the same as the White Opaque Stazon in the craft stores, or is it different? And second question, if I'm ordering vellum, should I get the paper kind or the card stock kind? Which do you prefer? Oh, and is that new chocolate chip poly twill ribbon something I MUST have, or should I pass on it? :) Enquiring minds want to know! LOL!

Misadventures in Mojo

Have you ever woken up and for no apparent reason, you just feel like you've been hit by a freight train? Sheesh! Today my body is screaming Heck no! We won't go! to my to-do list. It took my 5 minutes just to get my camera attached to the tripod this morning - something that I do without thinking most mornings! And I don't think I can even explain how many things went wrong in the making of this card - it was just a huge train wreck! I think the card still turned out all right, if you can overlook the smudges and an ill-placed sentiment. :) I used this week's Mojo 27 sketch.

I started by stamping the image, coloring it with Copics and then accidentally trimming 1/2 the image off when I was cutting a mat for it. (Don't ask - I don't really know how it happened!) So, I started over by stamping the image (prince of orange by Penny Black) and coloring with Copics, doodling a little border, only the cat jumps up on my desk and my line goes straight through the middle of my image! Eeek! Okay, third time's the charm, right? I stamp the image again, color with Copics, doodle a border with a Black Spica Glitter pen, mat with Certainly Celery, add a little more green to the leaves. Put the cap on the green copic marker, only MISS and the marker drops ink first directly onto the image!!! Double EEEK!!!There's no way I'm coloring this imae a 3rd time - I'll just have to move on and figure something out to fix it later!

So I stamp the sentiment (I'm praying for you from Serenity) on my very last scrap of Ginger Blossom paper, aiming for the right edge of the piece so there is room for the ribbon in the sketch. Oops, completely missed, and sentiment ends up more in the center. C'est la vie - no more do-overs! So, I add a scrap of Polka dot Chatterbox paper to the side, only for some reason no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the edges straight or the mats even. I fiddle and fiddle, and the piece gets smaller and smaller, but never right. By now, I just NEED to be done with this card, so I just glue it and call it good. LOL!

Next I pull out my brand new Swiss Dots embossing folder and emboss my very last scrap of Blush Blossom cardstock big enough for a card base. Oh, how giddy those little embossed dots make me feel! High on life, I tell ya! LOL! Everything's okay, since there are little polka dots all over my card! :) Until I get the great idea to rub some Cat's Eye chalk ink over the dots, and as I'm finishing rubbing the entire card, I smudge the very corner with extra ink. Eeek no where to hide smudged corners with this sketch, I'll just have to deal with it. Now, HOW will I cover up that big swash of green maker on my image? Do I have a tiny butterly anywhere? I search through drawers and drawers of stamps, and finally remember my big Fancy Pants From the Garden set, and find a butterfly that will work perfectly. So I stamp on a tiny little scrap of Blush Blossom and cut out. Well, apparently, there was a little extra ink on the acrylic block, and as I went to place my butterfly over my boo-boo, I burshed my hand against the acryic block and ended up with black smudges between my flowers on my main image! Grrrr! Oh well, the card is done! A little stardust stickles to detract attention away from my smudges, some double stitched May Arts black grosgrain and a black card base.

I guess what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, huh? LOL! Okay, enough with my Mojo Misadventures. Hope you all have a great day and better luck in the stamp room than I had today! ;)

Mojo Monday Week #27 - Mojo Madness CONTEST

It's the first Monday in MARCH, so that means it's time for another Mojo Madness Contest! Just make a card using this sketch and leave a comment on this post with a link to your project by Sunday, March 9 at 8 PM Eastern. Once all the entries are in, I'll pick the TWO entries that I think are the mojo-est of them all. Those two winners will each receive their choice of ANY Verve Visual set! Sound like fun? Well, let's get started! If you upload your cards to SCS, please use keyword Mojo27 (no space between Mojo and 27) so we can see them in one place.

I've been busy with the new release at Verve, so I don't have a sample made using this sketch yet. I promise to post one as soon as I find a little stamping time. So just spend the time you would have spent reading my ramblings about my card checking out all the fabulous mojo entries from last week 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!

Verve Release Day!

No card for you today, but here's what I've been working on... :)