Celebrating Verve

Hi friends! It's the first of August and time for contest week at Mojo Monday. Play along this week for a chance to win a Verve Stamps set of your choosing. You can enter as often as you like and Verve stamps are not required (though I do love to see them getting inky). {grin}

Today is also the official 9 year anniversary of  Verve. A life redefined with the push of a button, I am forever changed and grateful for all the friends I've made through Verve over the years and the stories I've read behind the cards you all so lovingly make and share with your loved ones. Thank you for being a light in the world and also in my shy little introvert universe.

Today's card uses a timeless set that is one of my all-time favorites... Birthday Bash.  I love these swirly little balloon strings and the fun sentiments in the set that are great for masculine, feminine and kids cards. That's a lot to ask of a font combination, so it definitely makes the all-time faves list for me!

I used some new papers I picked up at Michael's during a birthday shopping spree, paper piecing the balloons, and adding lots of crisp white space with crumb cake matting.  A bit of twine and a little silver accent is my only embellishment.

I don't typically do measurements for my sketches, since I want everyone to feel comfortable adapting the sketch to fit their particular images and sentiments, but there are lots of layers here, so I thought I'd tell you what worked for me.  My vertical strips are all 5.25" long and 0.75", 1.75" and 1.25" wide.  My skewed panel is 2.75" wide x 3.75" long.  My sentiment panel is 2.75" wide x 1" tall.  And I used a 1-1/8" and 1-1/4" circle punch for my sentiment circle.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderfully creative start to your week.

Mojo Monday 459 Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: Birthday Bash (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Hello Today (Heidi Swapp)
Ink: black archival (Ranger), Copic marker
Accessories: twine, metal accent