Bookmark and Update

Hi everyone! I can't believe this is the last post of 2009! I hope you all have a very safe and happy new year! I'm going to finish off the year by sharing a quick little bookmark I made for my Dad to go with the books I gave him for Christmas. It uses the cross from the Jeremiah 29:11 set and the Psalms 121:1-2 plain jane along with that Life Stories paper I'm so addicted to! The clear bookmark sleeves were purchased at Clear Bags (although mine are an older squared off version that they don't carry anymore). The stamping is embossed with Chocolate Chip craft ink and clear embossing powder.


Okay, on with a little Vervey update...

First up - today's the last day of our Good Buy 2009 sale and the last day to get your entries in for the Winter Mittens Digi Contest.

My 2009 has been so richly blessed, both with beautiful friendships and a successful business. I'm just overwhelmed by the response to the Good Buy 2009 sale (ends tonight {12/31}) and have been busily packing orders, while the stack of orders to fill just rises and rises. My little heart is just bursting with love for everyone who has ordered and is saving me from counting all those inventory items! Plus, it's going to make room for some fabulous new sets coming your way in 2010! Yahoooooo!

Unfortunately, our shipping system decided it needed a longer holiday and refuses to import any of the orders from December 25 - 29, so we've (well mostly Mark - have I told you I love that man?) been manually typing the shipping addresses for each package. Blech! As you can imagine, this slows our usual speedy little shipping process down to a slow and painful crawl, and also means that our nifty little automatic shipping notices are only going out to customers who have paid with PayPal. I'll update order statuses in the shopping cart when I can, but am putting my main focus on trying to get the packages out the door!


Thanks for all your encouragement and support this year. It's appreciated in ways you may never know. Many blessings for a bountiful 2010!

Party Time

Happy Wednesday! I got some new stamp pad storage units and shelves for Christmas, so I've been spending the little bit of free time I have organizing instead of stamping. So today you get a new to you, but not to me card! LOL Actually I made a set of cards to give to my sister for her birthday a while back, but I hadn't shown them here yet. The first card in the set was my mojo monday card, and the second one is right here...



This one uses Party Time (which is 50% off through Dec. 31 during our Good Buy 2009 sale!) and more of the Life Stories Collection dp from My Mind's Eye. I just {heart} that paper! The cardstock is soft sky and chocolate chip and I used some Scalloped Nestabilities, the Eyelet border punch and an Organic Flourishes Cuttlebug border. Oh, and I finished off with a soft sky bow, some rhinestones and a little liquid pearls.

Mojo Mojo

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! I'll be pretty scarce here on the blog this week, as I'm taking some time to enjoy family & friends that are visiting. But it's the last Mojo Monday of 2009, so I thought I'd pop in and share my sample card. Be sure to check out the Mojo Monday blog for this week's sketch and DT samples!


My card uses sentiments from the Wishing You set (sorry, this one's currently sold out) and the Elegant Flower Plain Jane. I used the Life Stories collection of papers from My Mind's Eye and embossed most of the panels with the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you're surrounded by loved ones wherever you are. We're lucky enough to have lots of family close by, so we'll be celebrating all day long with both of our families. Last night we had Christmas Eve dinner with my extended family and I made some little treat boxes for all the families in attendance.



I used the Pencil Box template by Kelleigh Ratzlaff, printed on some Christmas paper from my stash and filled with miniature Reese's peanut butter cups. I used a packet of Cloud 9 paper I got on clearance after Christmas last year, got the Reese's on sale (4 bags for $10), and found a gorgeous 25 yd roll of sheer eggshell ribbon at the Craft Warehouse for $3.50. So when I figured it out, including candy, the consumables for the entire project only cost $1.29 per gift. I'd guesstimate that's a lot less than most cards I make! LOL :) And they were a big hit!

The boxes hold 12 miniature Reese's, stacked 2 high. There's enough in each bag of candy to finish 3 boxes with a few to munch on for inspiration while you're putting things together! ;-) I punched little circles stamped with snowflakes to decorate the top row. For an example of what the inside looks like you can reference this earlier post from the first time I used the template, except I used snowflakes instead of letters.

For the circular tag, I stamped the circle from the Seasons of Love - Tags set by Waltzingmouse Stamps and then used a solid snowflake from Frosty Flakes and the Merry Christmas sentiment from O Christmas Tree.

Okay, that's it from the home front. Hope you're enjoying all the blessings of the season! Thanks for stopping by!

Peace on Earth

Happy Wednesday! It's getting down to the wire with all the last minute holiday to-do lists, so I didn't get a chance to stamp yesterday. Luckily I have a few cards still in the stash that I haven't shared here yet. This one was the inspiration for this week's Mojo Monday sketch and uses the adorable Penguin Christmas set from The Cat's Pajamas.


The image is colored with Copics and a gold gel pen and the designer paper is from the Nutmeg collection by Cosmo Cricket. Some sponged edges and paper piercing finishes it off.

Curly Curry Wonder

Happy Tuesday! Today I have a special card for you. Betty asked the Member Companies to create samples for the Splitcoast Color Challenge today in honor of the 250th challenge. Wow! 250 weeks of color inspiration! That's so cool! I was excited to play along, and then Betty emailed the colors and I saw Crushed Curry on the list. Eeek! Now, I don't dislike Crushed Curry, I just don't usually work with such bright colors, however, I'm glad this little challenge came along, because I love how my card turned out.


The challenge is to use Crushed Curry, Real Red and Sahara Sand (or similar colors). Check out this post on SCS for all the details and to play along! There's also a dessert option (sort of like a twist) of buttons.

To start off with, I knew I wanted to make a Christmas card, because I hoped I could make the combo give that opulant red and gold feel I get from our Christmas tree! I've found when working with bright colors, it's always best to mute them by doing a little tone-on-tone background stamping. I chose the scroll background from Bountiful Backgrounds and stamped it all over with Crushed Curry. Next I cut a rectangle with Sahara Sand, and used my Nestabilities die as a stencil to shade the inner edges of the rectangle with Sahara Sand ink. I embossed the Star of Wonder sentiment in Real Red and then matted on a real red panel, punched with the Fiskars Sunburst border punch. Next I added some buttons from the Playground Designer Buttons collection by SU! and then embossed the large star from Star of Wonder in Real Red on Crushed Curry. I trimmed out the star, popped up on dimensionals and added a red rhinestone to the center. The top bow is Real Red polka dot grosgrain, and I just LOVE this ribbon. So yummy! I added a little button and some gold cording. See those little curly-cues? In my last shopping outing I found packets of Bow-dabra wired cord at Michael's. They were in the ribbon section and were 99 cents a packet (for a good amount of cording) and come in both silver and gold. I love how the wire makes it keep the little curly cues if you wrap it around a slender dowel.

Okay, that's it for today! Hope y'all are having a fabulous week and keeping out of trouble! Thanks for stopping by!

Wintery Mojo

Hey there, everyone! Last night was my 12th anniversary and we went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant and reminisced on this wild and crazy journey we've been on. What a wonderful thing to know that my husband is my best friend and is with me every step of the way! I love this man! :)

Okay, on with the crafting. The busy-ness of the season has really zapped my motivation, and I really haven't felt much like crafting lately. Then I saw this fabulous little pack of free digi papers by Michelle Batton and 4 Shades of Blue and I just had to whip out a couple quick cards. I thought these papers would be awesome for a more masculine looking winter card for a couple of Mark's co-workers.



The sketch is this week's Mojo Monday sketch {Mojo118}. It's a fun clean & simple layout - perfect for all those last minute cards. I used the Winter Wishes digi stamp from the free Winter Mittens Digi stamp set. It's back for a limited time if you missed it in October. And there's a chance to win a Verve gift certificate if you make something with it, so head on over to this post on the Verve Blog for all the details!



The metal snowflake charms are from Making Memories and I used some Basic Gray cardstock for matting and Basic Gray taffeta for the ribbon treatment. Other than that, not much else to tell. An easey peasey design - just the way I like it this time of year! :)

With Gratitude

Hi everyone! What a crazy week this has been. I'm beginning to realize that if I want to accomplish one thing I have to give up another. Last night when Mark got home, I said, "We HAVE to get these dishes done tonight!" (pointing to the dirty dishes that have been piling up while we've both been working crazy hours the last little while.) Mark looks at me and says, "Why? Who's coming over tomorrow?" BWAHAHAHAHAHA! The little stinker! So that comment alone inspired me to clean the entire kitchen, including all those dirty dishes. Which means I didn't have any time for the crafting I had planned.


So, I'm pulling this little project out of the archives. I made it for one of the challenges at our last release, but I never posted it here on the blog, so here goes. It uses Tori Wild's cute little gift card holder template. The adorable paper is from the Be Loved collection by My Mind's Eye. I stamped the red Labels 1 in Very Vanilla craft ink with the polka dot background from Bountiful Backgrounds, then layered a kraft label on top, which I sponged with Vintage Photo distress ink and stamped the sentiment from Thankful Hearts.


Inside I added some coordinating paper, then stamped the pedestal and thank you sentiment from Thankful Accents in Riding Hood Red directly on the kraft. Simple & sweet! :)

All the Goodness

Happy Wednesday! Mark and I got new iPhones last night and we stayed up WAY too late playing with them, so this is going to be a short post. Be sure to check out the winners from our December mojo contest over on the Mojo Blog.



My card for today uses the VLVDEC02 sketch and some papers from the Heart of Thankfulness digital kit. I stamped the cup and sentiment from Delightful & Delicious in Vintage Photo Ranger Distress Ink on River Rock cardstock. The mug is colored with Copics and a gold gel pen.I added a little sponging and a dotted border, then tied with a wide bow and finished off with some wired cord and a white Sweet Blossom with some Champagne Glitz Stickles on it. Finished card size is 5.5" square and is on a River Rock base.

Viva la Joy

Happy Tuesday! Today I have a card that Mark said was my, "best one yet". Isn't that cute? I really do love how it turned out. I started with the first December Viva la Verve! sketch. {VLVDEC01} Amber always inspires me with her fabulous layouts, and this was no exception. I flipped the sketch on it's side to make room for my sentiment. When I designed the Star of Wonder set I imagined clean & simple layouts with elegant gold or silver embossing, but I still haven't found time for that yet. :)


For my VLV sketch card, I went for an old world feel, to match the gorgeous Winter Woodland paper by Creative Imaginations I picked up at Michael's this weekend. All the patterned panels are from the same sheet of designer paper. I embossed the sentiment and the star in detail gold, then matted with River Rock, which I sponged with Vintage Photo Ranger Distress Ink. I never liked River Rock when it was a current In-Color and still have an almost full package of it from a couple years back. But, oh my word, I think I might start using it more - it looks gorgeous sponged with Vintage Photo ink- reminds me of the color of gingerbread. Okay, I'm rambling. Time to wrap it up!


I even finished the inside. See that gingerbready River Rock? Yum. :) The inside sentiment is from the Blessed Christmas set and is embossed in gold. It reads, "Sharing with you the Glory, the Wonder, the Miracle of this holy season". Then I just finished off with a little strip of the same designer paper, punched with the loop edge punch from Martha Stewart.


What's In It?
Stamps: Star of Wonder, Blessed Christmas (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Winter Woodlands (Creative Imaginations), River Rock, Bravo Burgundy (SU!)
Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger), VersaMark
Accessories: circle punches, gold embossing powder (SU!), sponge, wired ribbon (Michael's), Textile embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Champagne Glitz Stickles (Ranger), Loop Edge Punch (Martha Stewart)

Vintage Christmas

Hi everyone! Did you have a great weekend? I'm proud to say I finally found the missing cord for the pre-lit Christmas tree so everything lights up! Hooray - that meant we could decorate the tree yesterday. I really love how it turned out this year. Well, on with the business at hand... it's the start of another week and time for a new mojo sketch! Head on over to the Mojo Monday Blog for the sketch and DT samples.


I took the inspiration for my sketch card from the colors in this Oh Joy paper from Cosmo Cricket. The stamps are from the Christmas in the Air set. I stamped the wreath is Sage Shadow, then stamped again in Bravo Burgundy, colored the bow with Copics and cut out and pieced over so the tails would hang down when I cut my circles. The Natural Scallop lace trim is more of my new stash from Webster's Pages. The half spiral border punch and a loop corner punch by Martha Stewart finish it off.

Christmas Trim

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! My card for today is another simpler (for me) card. The layout is simple, maybe the embossing, coloring and cutting are not, but it really came together quickly for me, and with all the straight lines, the poinsettia is pretty easy to cut out.



I'm so loving all the fabulous kraft based designer papers that are coming out. This one is from the Sierra collection by Anna Griffin. Just lovely, and although it's not a Christmas pack, it seemed perfect for the design I wanted to use. The lacey trim is Gold Netting Trim from Webster's Pages. I ordered a bunch of their trims and I was absolutely giddy when they arrived. They're even more beautiful in person. The trim is sheer, but I decided to put a strip of buttercream cardstock in the center, so I could add an embossed sentiment. The sentiment and poinsettia are from the Blessed Christmas stamp set and are embossed with gold detail embossing powder. The poinsettia is colored with copics, then trimmed out. I added just a touch of Holiday Glitzy german glass glitter to the center.

Winter Wishes

Happy Thursday! It's new release day over at the DigiChick and I got a chance to play with new goodies! My project uses the Candy Dispenser Template by Kelleigh Ratzlaff and the adorable Snow Friends Paper Pack from Daniel Engebretson. Be sure to check out the Digichick for all the new arrivals, which are 20% off on Thursday and Friday!


For the dispenser, I just clipped some Snow Friends paper to the template, printed and assembled. Next I cut a couple scalloped squares from Real Red cardstock and glued to the top and bottom, for a little extra support. It also gave me the perfect place for a little winter wishes greeting (from the Snow Wonderful stamp set) and a punched snowflake. I filled mine with m&m's and think it would be the perfect little gift for a co-worker or friend to set on their desk. Since I'm a cardmaker first, I couldn't stop with just the dispenser, so I finished with a really quick little matching card using more of the Snow Friends paper and the same sentiment as on the dispenser.


Okay, that's all for today. I'm headed to the eye doctor today in hopes that a new prescription will help with the insane headaches I've been suffering the last several months. Plus, I have to use up those flexible spending account dollars before the end of the year! :)

Simply Jolly

Happy Wednesday! This week is just zooming by. I haven't had a lot of time to stamp, but I did take a few moments to make another really quick clean & simple card. This one uses a sentiment from Holly Jolly. I embossed just part of the white panel with the Dots & Snowflakes Cuttlebug folder, then added a little ribbon divider and a sentiment. A couple rounded corners add a bit of interest, and I finished off with some white opal liquid pearls on the centers of the embossed snowflakes. Easy peasy! :)

Simplify

Around this time every year, my usual pile-it-on cardmaking style takes a little hiatus and goes into clean & simple stamping mode. Maybe it's my way of trying to offset all the sights, sounds and to-do lists that are coming at me from every direction. Or maybe it's my feeble attempt at trying to get more done in less time.



Anyhow, I love peeking my head out the door at the first snowfall, seeing all that white fluffiness, and basking in the calm peaceful quiet of a world covered in white. And since we just had our first snowfall, I borrowed heavily from all that whiteness for my most recent cardmaking session.



They're all super simple... one stamp set (Frosty Flakes), some buttons, ribbons and cardstock. I dry embossed a Nestabilities rectangle for a faux layer, then stamped the largest snowflake and sentiment from Frosty Flakes in the center. Then layered with cardstock, tied on a button accent and a ribbon, and voila! I love how just changing a few little details, like the colors and thickness of the mats can change the look and feel from modern to classic to feminine without much work at all. And a border punch gives a whole new look, to keep things interesting when you're mass producing.

Mid Monday Mojo

Hey everyone! I had such a crazy weekend! All those plans to have a break just didn't happen and I spent the whole weekend working. But on a good note, I'm almost completely ready for my year-end visit to the accountant tomorrow morning.

Anyhow, I was too tired last night to schedule a post, so my mojo card is a little late. Be sure to hop on over to the Mojo Monday blog for the sketch. It's a contest week, so there's prizes to be won! :) My card uses the adorable Penguin Christmas set from The Cat's Pajamas. I just love that little merry everything and happy always sentiment. I paper pieced the tree, cut the circles with Nesties, did some wonky stitching (because sewing around a circle is incredibly hard for someone who can't even sew a straight line! LOL) and finished with a beaded pin through a little polka dot bow.

What's In It?
Stamps: Penguin Christmas (TCP)
Paper: Cardstock (Prism), Peppermint Twist DP (K & Company)
Ink: Tattered Rose (Ranger Distress Ink), Onyx Black (Versafine), Copics
Accessories: Classic Circles (Nestabilities), sewing machine, ribbon (Creative Impressions), hat pin (Making Memories), beading & jewelry supplies
Sketch: Mojo Monday 116

Black White and Olive

Happy Friday! It's been a busy week, with lots of long nights and exhausting days of shipping, so I'm ecstatic to take a little break from everything this weekend. Maybe I'll even get the tree decorated and test out some baked goodies recipes for Christmas gifts. :)


I rediscovered my scrap pile the other day when I was cleaning up after the chaos of release party projects, and have a new resolve to remember to dip into it more often. So when I saw Karen's Sweet Sunday #46 sketch for the week, I decided to pull something out of the pile. This SEI paper (Black Orchid, I think) has been a favorite of mine, so when I saw a piece of it in the pile, I just had to use it! I just love black and white with a splash of color, so I kind of built the card around that, knowing I had lots of wide ribbon in those colors to accomodate the horizontal panels of the sketch.

I started by stamping the circle frame from Thankful Accents in black. Next I stamped the flowery accent in old olive, punched with a 1.25" punch, matted and matted with old olive. I poked a tiny hole through the center, and pushed in one of these darling little white Sweet Blossom paper flowers, so the stamped image would look like greenery. And, to make it sparkle, I added a little Stardust Stickles. The sentiment is from the Celebration of Thanks set. To finish off, I used a little wide polka dot ribbon for the horizontal panes and a big old bow in the corner, with a green Sweet Blossom wrapped around it.

A Quick Little Smile

Hi everyone. Last week Claire was posting little 5 minute projects over on her blog and since I've been busy, busy, busy all week, I was inspired to try it. Now, I had NO DELUSIONS that I would be able to finish a card in 5 minutes. That just ain't gonna happen - I'm usually still deciding on colors at that point! LOL But I set a goal of 10 minutes and I pretty much achieved it (I say pretty much, because I called time out for the 5 minutes that my border punch jammed and I had to go out to the garage to find a hammer and beat some sense into it!).



The DP was from the scrap pile on my desk (I think the orange is Heidi Grace and the aqua is October Afternoon. Since Claire inspired me to make the card in the first place, I paired her Very Vintage Labels 1 with a sentiment from my new set, Thankful Hearts. Some suede ribbon and an orange bead tied with some jute seemed quick and interesting enough. Then I punched the base of the card (took my little time out here), then added a chocolate strip behind it to make it full length again and finished off with some tiny Taylor's Tiny Twinkles rhinestones.

All You Do

Hi Everyone! Last week I ran across a bunch of leftover diecuts while I was straightening up around my desk. I was talking to Laurie at the time, and since she was stamping, I decided to see what I could do with my leftovers while we chatted.

Since most of the shapes were already cut, it was simply a matter of layering the fancy tag over the scallop circles and securing with square brads. Then I stamped the sentiment and accent from Thankful Accents on a Labels 5 die cut and did a little sponging with Soft Sky ink. The bottom layer is Kraft cardstock (I WAS talking to Laurie, so I think I subliminally HAD to use Kraft! LOL) Then I stamped each corner and matted with dark brown cardstock. The ribbon is some luscious stitched grosgrain I got in my freebie pack when I placed my last order with Emma's Paperie. I made a couple ribbon tails, then layered a prima flower over the top and finished off with some liquid pearls on my scallop circles.

Someone asked recently where I get my Liquid Pearls. Sometimes I can find one or two colors at my LSS, but I've found the best selection of colors online at Ellen Hutson and Taylored Expressions. They come in various colors but I use White Opal and Platinum the most.

Okay, that's it for today. I've been up to my ears in orders and haven't had much time for anything but shipping the past few days. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have caught up with things and can get back to stamping and such.

Hello December!

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's already December? Time for wassail, Christmas tunes, and late night papercrafting sessions - not to mention all those holiday goodies! Yum!

Today, I'm especially excited for it to be December, because my cards are on the cover of the Winter 2010 issue of Take Ten magazine that hits newsstands today! What a lovely surprise to find a complimentary copy in my mailbox, since after LOTS of rejection, I'd pretty much given up hope of ever getting picked up for publication. Hooray for life's little surprises! Michelle has several Verve-a-licious cards in this issue, too, so double woot!

Here's one of the cards from my card set that was published. The magazine scans don't quite capture the dimension and texture like a photo does. :)



What's in It?
Stamps: Hearts on Fire (Verve)
Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White (SU!), Tahitian Princess (Bazzill)
Ink: Onyx Black, Crimson Red (Versafine), Broken China (Ranger Distress)
Accessories: Labels 4 (Nestabilities), grosgrin ribbon (SU!), black rhinestones (Kaiser Craft), Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug)