A Sketchy Cupcake

Happy Friday!  Woohoo, it's practically the weekend and after a loooooong couple of weeks, I'm looking forward to some quality relaxation!  I just started a new book that's got me hooked, so I foresee some Kindle time in my future!  Hooray!  I multi-task and listen to audio books quite a bit when I'm packing orders and stamping, but there's something magical about actually sitting down to simply read and get engrossed in a good story!  One of life's simple pleasures!

Anyhow, I guess I should get on with the card for the day.  I used this week's SCS sketch {SC295} and pulled out the new Fabulous You and Carpe Cupcake sets to make this sweet card.

The frame from Fabulous You is embossed in Chocolate Chip craft ink on prism paper, then I trimmed it out and mounted on a Chocolate Chip Scallop rectangle.  I honestly think this is the first time chocolate chip has seen the light of day since Early Espresso came to live at my house.  I never thought I'd like a brown better than chocolate chip, but the times they are a changin'!  LOL  Next I embossed the sentiment from Carpe Cupcake in the center of the frame, then started in on the cupcake.

I stamped the cupcake a few times and pieced together with chocolate, aqua and kraft pieces.  The sprinkles are embossed on the frosting, then accented with Cinnamon Stickles and I sketched in a little loopy border on one of the stripes with a chocolate chip marker.  Here's a little close-up of just the cupcake so you can check out that loopy detail - super simple, but I think it adds the perfect touch of whimsy. C'mon and get a little closer, don't be shy! :)

The main kraft layer of the card is embossed with a QuicKutz embossing folder and I added a little ruffle striped ribbon and some liquid pearls to finish things off!  Okay, that's all for this week!  Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of blogland!  I hope you have a weekend filled with your favorite things!  And be sure to head on over to the Verve Blog today to see the next installment of our Something Old, Something New Project Parade!

Just Because

Happy Thursday! Today's the final day of the Verve New Release Spotlights and we've saved one of my favorites from the new sets for last... Great Friend.  Be sure to check out the full hop list at the bottom of this post and leave a little love for the Divas as you hop around the blogosphere for a chance to win this set! 
 

For my sample card, I used the flowers in Great Friend both as a focal point and to create a stamped background.  This set has three sizes of bold and solid flower images, perfect for layering, which I did with the bold images for my focal point.  Each is trimmed out, layered on dimensionals and I added a few leafy sprigs (also from this set) behind it.  For the background, I stamped several of the small and medium outline flowers in basic gray ink, then filled in the smaller flowers with the solid flower inked in Peach Parfait.    This card was my inspiration for Anni-VERVE-sary Sketch AVS2010E.  {You still have until Friday at 6PM Eastern to get your sketch cards in for a chance to win some new Verve!  Click that sketch link above for all the details!} 

Okay, on with the card... I layered some SU! poly twill ribbon in pear pizazz and peach parfait each direction, then made a sentiment strip by embossing the Just Because sentiment from Great Friend onto vellum cardstock, then sponging with Peach Parfait and layering onto vanilla cardstock.  My final touch was a Basic Gray mat, some rounded corners and a few Stardust Stickles highlights on the flower center.

That's all from me today.  Time to check out the final peeks on the Diva blogs...

1. Laurie	8. Teresa
2. Amy	9. Jen T.
3. Michelle	10. Tosh
4. Mercy	11. Julee
5. Susan	12. Jackie
6. Maureen	13. Lynda
7. Sankari

Be sure to leave some comments along the way for a chance to win!

A Happy Hello

Happy Wednesday! Wow, it feels like the week is just flying by! Today is the 5th day of the Verve new release spotlights, and today the Divas are shining their spotlights on two new sets... Kind Words and Happy Hello.  Be sure to check out the full hop list at the bottom of this post and leave a little love as you hop around the blogosphere for a chance to win today's sets! 
 

For my sample card, I chose to work with Happy Hello.  This Fall To Layout {FT102} from a couple weeks ago really caught my eye, so it was the main inspiration for my card.  I started by stamping the circle frame from Happy Hello three times in Cherry Cobbler on some Neutral Patterns paper (just love this text print paper), then punched out with a 1.25" circle punch and matted with a 1.375" circle punch in cherry cobbler.  The little primas were from a recent shopping excursion to Michael's. For my sentiment, I stamped the Hello stamp in black directly on the patterned paper, then stamped the A Happy stamp on cherry cobbler with whisper white craft ink, then cut out and pasted next to it.  There's a stamp in the set that is just a trio of little circles.  I stamped it on either side of the completed sentiment to give me perfect placement for my hot fix silver glam rocks that I applied.  A little Divine Twine, a notebook edge border punch and some distressed edges and my card was finished!

That's all from me today.  Time to check out more peeks on the Diva blogs...

1. Sankari	7. Julee
2. Lynda	8. Teresa
3. Charmaine	9. Michelle
4. Jen d.	10. Amy
5. Maureen	11. Jackie
6. Sony	12. Mercy

Be sure to leave some comments along the way for a chance to win!

Embrace Life

Happy Tuesday!  Can you believe it's already the 4th day of the Verve new release spotlights?  That means we're only a few days away from release!  Today the Divas are shining their spotlights on a new flower set called Dream Big.  Be sure to check out the full hop list at the bottom of this post and leave a little love as you hop around the blogosphere for a chance to win today's set! 
 

So last night at about 10:30pm I sat down to write up this morning's posts and realized we were scheduled to peek a different set than I remembered.  Uh-oh!  And since I hadn't stamped with Dream Big yet, it was up to the stamp room, do not pass go, do not collect $200.  LOL  Luckily for me, the stamps in this set make creating super easy.  I love the large size of this flower (about 2.25" wide) with three sizes perfect for layering or going solo.  I can't wait to have a little time to play around with stamping my own background paper with these bold blooms.

For this project, I started by stamping the three blooms in Blushing Bride, then trimming out with a thin white border.  I layered these together with dimensional tape and embellished with a SU! filigree brad and a metal flower from Making Memories.  I then set the flower aside and stamped some leaves directly onto Crumb Cake paper in Old Olive, then embossed the embrace life sentiment in white at the bottom.  The paper is from the 6 x 6 SU! hostess pack of in color papers and I added a little bow with some Blushing Bride striped twill.  To finish off, I wanted a little dangling somethin' somethin' from my ribbon, so I chose the mini vintage tags from SU!  The paper on the tags is actually a sparkly vanilla, which clashed with my project, so I used a 3/4" circle punch, glued it to the tag and punched a hole with my crop-a-dile.  The sweet little heart is also a stamp from Dream Big and is stamped in Blushing Bride to match.  My final touch was a few little pink pearls along the sides to add some pizzazz to the DP.

That's all from me today.  Time to check out more peeks on the Diva blogs...

1. Sankari	8. Laurie
2. Shannan	9. Teresa
3. Lynda	10. Amber
4. Mercy	11. Maureen
5. Charmaine	12. Julee
6. Jen T.	13. Michelle
7. Sony

Be sure to leave some comments along the way for a chance to win!

Cupcake Bash

Good morning!  It's Mojo Monday and the third day of the Verve new release spotlights!  Today the Divas are shining their spotlights on two fun new sets with a birthday theme...  Carpe Cupcake and Birthday Bash.  Be sure to check out the full hop list at the bottom of this post and leave a little love as you hop around the blogosphere for a chance to win today's sets!  And while I've been busy prepping for this Friday's release, Maria Gurnsey stepped in for me with today's Mojo Monday sketch.  I had a blast with it, and I hope you'll play along!

For my project today, I combined stamps from Carpe Cupcake and Birthday Bash.  The cupcake sprinkles and candle with star are all separate stamps in the Carpe Cupcake set, so I built my cupcake, then colored with Copic markers, using a white gel pen to highlight the little sprinkles and to add some diagonal stripes to my candle, then cut it all out and added a little swarovski crystal to the center of the star.

Y'all know by now about my recent fascination with Wild Wasabi, so it's not surprising that it's making another appearance today!  I cut the vanilla Classic Oval, then stenciled in the center portion with some Antique Linen distress ink and stamped the balloons so they'd extend past the oval shape.  Next I stamped the balloons from Birthday Bash again on a scrap of Cream cardstock, colored with Copics and pieced over the balloons on the oval panel.  This panel is matted on a Labels 10 die cut, which I accented with a few more swarovski crystals. (I say, there's no such thing as too much bling!  LOL)  I did a similar treatment with classic ovals and labels 10 for the "Happy birthday to you" sentiment, which is also from Birthday Bash.  The background papers are from the SU! Newsprint DSP.

That's all from me today.  Time to check out more peeks on the Diva blogs...

1. Julee	6. Teresa
2. Michelle	7. Maureen
3. Jen d.	8. Jen T.
4. Sony	9. Amber
5. Jackie	10. Tosh

Be sure to leave some comments along the way for a chance to win!

Framed and Fabulous

Happy Sunday!  It's the second day of the Verve new release spotlights, and today the Divas are shining their spotlights on two up and coming releases...  Framed Wishes and Fabulous You.    Be sure to check out the full hop list at the bottom of this post and leave a little love as you hop around the blogosphere for a chance to win today's sets!  When I was illustrating the new sets, I was in the mood to make some quick and elegant ATC cards and tags with Plain Janes, so I designed a couple frames that are 2.25 x 3.25" (which fit a majority of our Plain Jane line of stamps), then added some encouraging sentiments for quick little tuck-in notes and cards.

For my project today, I started by embossing the frame from Framed Wishes in white on Kraft Cardstock.  I trimmed it out and lightly sponged the edges with Vintage Photo.  Next I cut a deckled rectangle from Ocean Mist and stamped one of the flourish elements in the Fabulous You set around the edges in Cool Caribbean, then skewed it behind with a little peach parfait twill in between.  The sentiment is also from the Fabulous You set and is stamped in peach parfait along with the same flourish element, which I cut out and layered so it could extend past the edge of the circle.  I added some pinking circles to spice things up, accenting the tip of each point on the peach layer with a white gel pen.

And then there's that flower!  I've recently fallen in love with making my own flowers, using the easy technique in this handy dandy flower tutorial.  So, the other night while I was working away on a tax report, a light bulb went on, and I wondered what would happen if I tried this technique with the gazillions of old primas I never use anymore because they don't look very realistic.  Definitely worth a try, so I just layered them all together, then sprayed with water and crinkled the petals all up into a ball.  Then it was just a matter of letting it dry and pulling them apart!  I LOVE how it turned out!  And I'm so excited to put some of those bottles of primas to good use again!  Hooray!

That's all from me today.  Time to check out the other stops along today's hop...

1. Shannan	5. Jackie
2. Amy	6. Teresa
3. Amber	7. Maureen
4. Tosh	8. Julee

Be sure to leave some comments along the way for a chance to win!

Love Story

Happy Saturday!  Our Anni-VERVE-sary release is less than a week away and today we're kicking off our week of new release spotlights!  We've changed our format a little bit this month, and we've got 6 little mini hops planned for you between now and the release.  Tune in each day as the Verve team shows you what they've been doing with our 8 new sets!  We've hidden a prize on one of the participating blogs each day (the full link list is at the bottom of this post), so leave a little comment love as you hop around to be entered into a drawing to win that day's featured stamps!  Deadline for comment entries is 6PM Eastern Friday, August 20.  Winners will be announced at our Anni-VERVE-sary Bash Release Party that night.

Our first spotlight is shining on Love Story... my take on the Wedding/Anniversary theme.  This set is jam packed with traditional and heartfelt sentiments (both large and small) and some elegant imagery to match.  For my project, I went a little scrappy, so there's not too much stamping here, but I LOVE the way it turned out!  A friend of ours is getting married soon, and this was exactly the project I needed to house a little gift card.

I started with Kelleigh's Funky Bag #2 Cutting Files and cut the bag out of some Meadow Lark Dusk (My Mind's Eye) paper using my Cricut Expression and SCAL software.  While I was at it, I resized some of Kelleigh's Doodle Labels & Frames and cut them out along with the letters L, V and E for the card.  I stamped the small Wedding Wishes sentiment from Love Story at the bottom of the tag, then layered some heart punches, and some itty bitty buttons, then attached to the bag with a beaded pin through some wrinkled seam binding ribbon.

Once the bag was finished, I moved on to the card.  A few days after I sent Love Story off to the manufacturer, I saw an ad that used a double ring image for the word love, and ever since then I haven't been able to get the idea for this card out of my head!  I embossed the double ring image from Love Story in gold, then punched out  with a circle punch and filled in with Gold Stickles for some super shimmery goodness.   I embossed some white and cherry cobbler cardstock with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, then cut the heart with the Primitive Hearts Sizzix die and used decorative scissors to hand cut a scalloped mat.  I used a scrap from the same paper as the bag, punching the edge with the Iron Gate Martha Stewart punch, then adding a coordinating black mat.  I finished off with a black bow and some more wrinled ribbon to tie complete the ensemble.

Okay, here's the link list of today's spotlight hops.
Be sure to check out everyone's projects with Love Story!

1. Mercy	7. Julee (ME!)
2. Jen T.	8. Teresa
3. Susan	9. Amber
4. Sony	10. Maureen
5. Tosh	11. Lynda
6. Laurie

And don't forget to leave a little love along the way for a chance to win!