For the Birthday Girl

Hi everyone.  This week has been a rough one for me.  My grandmother passed away, so I've been laying low, trying to process things.  And so I missed a very special birthday yesterday... my best friend, Laurie's!  I actually made the card earlier this week and squeaked it in under the wire for the February SFYTT challenge.  Jen's sketch got my creative juices going and I only strayed a little when making this little number for Laurie!

Laurie loves leafy designs... like crazy love... so I stamped the basic gray, cherry cobbler and basic black layers with the leafy sprigs (embossing the black on black, which is something Laurie does and I always think it looks amazing!).

Next I went for the flower.  I stamped all three sizes of the line art flower from Great Friend on white, then cut out, sponged with a bit of Pumice Stone, curled the edges and layered on dimensionals.  Then I added a little German glass glitter, a prima flower center and a nice coating of glitter/diamond glaze mixture on everything.  It's so super sparkly in real life!

For the little horizontal strip, I used an SU! border punch, stamped the For You sentiment from Great Friend across it three times, then added some German glass glitter, red rhinestones and some of that polka dot ribbon I love so much.  And since Laurie got me hooked on those tiny library clips, I had to add the sentiment circle (from Birthday Bash) with a silver library clip, then accented with a couple star trinket pins, because Laurie's such a star!

Okay, that's all from me.  Have a fabulous weekend!  And here's a refresher of what's going on in Verveland...
March Diva Inspiration Hop: Deadline to comment is Saturday night
Verve Fan Hop: Deadline to link up your creation is noon (Mountain) on Saturday
Verve Fan Hop Commenting:  Commenting is open until Sunday night
Viva la Verve! March Week 2:  Charmaine's this week's hostess

Enabler's List:
Stamps: Great Friend, Birthday Bash (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler (SU!), Natural White (Neenah)
Ink: Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler (SU!), Pumice Stone (Ranger Distress), Frost VersaMark
Accessories: circle punches, glass glitter, mini library clip, eyelet border punch (SU!), star stick pins (Maya Road), diamond glaze and glitter mixture, flower center (prima), rhinestones (Pizzazz Aplenty), paper distresser (Tonic), polka dot ribbon, file folder die

I'd Pick You

Happy Thursday, peeps!  Did y'all have fun taking our Diva Inspiration Blog Hop?  I know I got so inspired by all the projects.  If you haven't had a chance to hop around yet, you've still got until Saturday 2/5 to leave your comments.  Click here for my post, which also has the master hop list at the bottom.

When I was making my Mojo Monday 176 card earlier this week, I had another idea for just masking off the curve for a simpler one layer version and had to give it a go.  Of course I didn't stick to just one layer, but the concept itself is pretty clean and simple-ish.  This time I went with a square card and pulled out Dream Big.  I hand drew a curve, then cut out and lay down as a mask before stamping the greenery in Pear Pizazz and Wild Wasabi.  Then I pulled off the mask, stamped the large stem and the sentiment, then added a little Melon Mambo pompom trim to accent my curve.  Sorry for the poor photo - pinks and greens are always so hard to photograph.

I stamped the flower in Melon Mambo, then cut out and layered over the card, adding a button for the center and some pink liquid pearls to each petal.  The little flags are made with the fun Sentiment Flags die by Lil' Inker Designs.  I had some washi tape on my desk that matched the project, so I layered it onto white cardstock, then cut with the flag die and trimmed to different lengths, adding some 1/2 circles and some pear seam binding ribbon to accent.  My finished card size is 5" square.

Enabler's List:
Stamps:  Dream Big (Verve Stamps)
Paper: White, Black
Ink: Melon Mambo, Pear Pizazz, Wild Wasabi, Black
Accessories:  Sentiment Flags die (Lil' Inker Designs), washi tape (iCopic), pear pizazz seam binding, melon mambo pompom trim and 3/4" circle punch (SU!), button, liquid pearls

Cupcake Mojo

Happy Wednesday!  I've been crazy busy this week, but I thought I'd pop in and change up the scenery!  I did squeeze in a little time the other night to test out this week's Mojo Monday sketch, so here goes...

My card uses one of my favorite sets from 2010, Carpe Cupcake (currently 50% off), and some new Fairy Flora paper from Fancy Pants.  I paper pieced the cupcake onto a white circle, then added some liquid pearl accents and a little glitter on the frosting.   The sentiment is stamped on a Labels 1 die cut, then embossed with iridescent ice and one of the sprinkles stamps from the set (although I'm not sure you can see it in the photo).  I added a little Maya Road flower trim and some cute little star stick pins behind the cupcake.  Each square is matted with kraft and accented with some liquid pearls in the corner.  To finish off with just a bit more flair, I added three teardrop rhinestones from Pizzazz Aplenty to the right of the circle.  I just love the look of them!  I then just glued the whole thing to a white card base, punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

When I showed this card to Mark to see what he thought of it, he absolutely loved the colors.  In fact, he said they'd be great for interior decorating.  I love that man!  I can just see our next house all decked out with aqua, green and kraft!  :)

Okay, that's all for today!  Don't forget Verve's year end clearance sale going on through Friday, 12/31!  Everything is marked down either 15%, 35% or 50%, so there are lots of bargains to be had!


 Thanks so much for stopping by today! 

Dream Big

Hi there!  Thanks so much for all your warm anniversary wishes yesterday!  Mark and I had a wonderful anniversary dinner (fondue at the Melting Pot) and I even squeezed in a little time to stamp just for fun!  Hooray!  Today's card uses Amy's sketch for this week's Viva la Verve! challenge.  Someone who plays along with all 4 sketches this month will win the entire January release!!!

So, as I mentioned, I had a little free time just to stamp yesterday with no guilt steering me any one direction.  When I went to pick out a stamp set, Dream Big just popped out at me.  I was listening to a podcast the other day and the pastor said that a negative person can't believe that the best could happen, so they always expect the worst.  Now, I wouldn't consider myself a negative person, but I think we all get disheartened every once in a while, start listening to all the negativity in the world, and stop expecting the best.  But I do have big dreams, hopes and plans for myself, my business and my friends and it costs me nothing to believe the best will happen in any situation, to believe the best in a person or even to believe the best of myself.  So for any of you who feel downtrodden, disheartened or hopeless this morning, this card is for you!  DREAM BIG and expect the best!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope your day exceeds your wildest expectations!!!

---

Card Deets...

Stamps:  Dream Big (Verve)
Paper: Kaisercraft DP, Black, Ivory
Ink: Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler (SU!)
Accessories:  Paisley embossing folder, polka dot ribbon, linen thread (TCP), Sparkler (Webster's Pages), Circle Nestaiblities (Spellbinders)

Joyeux Noel

Welcome to another week! The weekend flew by and now it's time to start the week off with a Mojo Monday sketch. This one's a sketch I designed earlier this year for a Verve release and made a few modifications to for this week's Mojo 169. I thought the horizontal panel in the sketch was a perfect fit for the frame in Fabulous You and since the snowflakes in Glad Tidings coordinate with that frame, I thought I'd pair them together on my card.

I started by stamping the frame and snowflake in Cherry cobbler, then trimming out and rounding the corners of the frame and aging with a little Antique Linen distress ink. The snowflake is popped up over a couple cream circles embossed with the Swiss Dots folder and edged with a bit of Champagne Glitz Stickles.

The papers are from the Bo Bunny Noel collection, and I did a little faux stitching around the vertical panel. I accented with a bit of cherry cobbler seam binding ruffled across the panel and a super sparkly gold star. Then I finished off with the Joyeux Noel sentiment from Glad Tidings.

Okay, that's all from me this fine Monday morning.  If you can believe it, I'm STILL trying to get over that no good, very bad cold.  This year's strain is a doozy!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous start to your week!

Rosette Hello

Hi friends!  Can you believe it's already the last day of September?  This month flew by so fast!  Just a little reminder that tonight's the deadline to get your entries in for this month's Viva la Verve! challenges.  One lucky participant will win all the new Vervey goodness that's releasing next Friday!  Woohoo!  So for my last card of the month, I chose to do the September Week 5 Viva la Verve! sketch.

I've been making accordion flowers for a while without a die (just cut a strip of paper, score at even intervals (I usually do 1/4"), then fold back and forth on the score lines until you've got it all folded.  Connect the two ends with strong glue, then press things down, forming the circle and adhere something to the center to keep it all together) but when I saw the Rosette flower die from Tim Holtz, I immediately thought this was something I "needed" to save my little hands from carpel tunnel woes.  After using it, I'm still a bit on the fence.  I do love the little scallop edge and how super easy it was to do without needing to score.  However, I don't like the little perforated marks on the finished folds.  It's that age old convenience versus aesthetics battle!  LOL

I chose this room for my inspiration, love the black and white with a splash of color look.  It made me think of the Paddington Papers from 7 Gypsies, and I pulled in some color with Olivia BoBunny paper scraps that were sitting on my desk.  The stamping on this card is minimal - just the circle frame and sentiment from Happy Hello.  I also stamped the trio of open circles below the sentiment as little frames for my topaz rhinestones from Pizzazz Aplenty.  For holding my layers together on the accordion flower, I use either dimensional dots or sticky dots from texasjodylynn's store.  I love how they're already the perfect shape and they have a strong hold.  And if I get excited and forget to make my center piece before making the accordion, I can just slap one of the dots down to hold it together, then peel off the adhesive backing when I'm ready to glue everything down.

Okay, it seems I'm kind of chatty today.  I'll wrap things up now.  I added a little center-stitched grosgrain ribbon from Pizzazz Aplenty, and the border is an EK Success punch, which I accented with White Opal liquid pearls.  Hope you have a fabulous last day of the month!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thinking Vintage

Happy Wednesday!  Today I'm back with another card using one of this month's Viva la Verve! sketches.  This one is from September week 3.  I just love square cards, so I couldn't resist this super cute sketch! 

For the inspiration option, I chose this bedroom ensemble and it immediately made me think of my new Conservatory papers from 7 Gypsies.  So I pulled them out and started in on some shabby chic crafting!  Basically the papers are so pretty, that I didn't really have to do too much.  I sponged the edges with Antique Linen vintage distress ink and matted everything with some crumb cake cardstock.

For the stamped panel, I stamped a 2nd generation (ink up the stamp, stamp it once on scratch paper, then immediately on your paper without reinking) silhouette of the Kind Words flower in Soft Suede, then stamped the sentiment with full strength Soft Suede.

The ruffly bow is made with some scrumptious shabby wrinkled ribbon. I tied a normal bow, then wrapped another piece of the ribbon around the center of the first bow and tied a second bow over the top and adorned with a trinket leaf pin from Maya Road.  The embossing folder is a new one from Sizzix I found at Archiver's this weekend - Swirls #2 and I finished off with a little pierced edge on the green panel and three 4mm peridot rhinestones from Pizzazz Aplenty.

And for those of you who asked yesterday...  When I'm using Nestabilities as a stencil or mask, I keep it from sliding around on my paper by scotch taping the die to my scratch paper on all sides.  If you're sponging, you'll still want to keep pressure down with one hand on at least one edge of the die, so it doesn't wiggle with your sponging, but for masking or outlining it should stay put without much extra effort.  Okay, that's all my chitchat for this morning!  Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a fabulously creative day!

How Sweet

Happy Friday!  Today I've got a sweet little card to share.  The paper is from the Enchanted collection by Dear Lizzy and I liked the flower in the paper so much, I decided to cut one out to use as one of the elements on my card.

I stitched the two different patterns to some pink mats, adding a punched border to the bottom.  The sentiment is from the Happy Hello set and is punched out with the large oval punch and matted with a Spellbinders Fancy Tags die cut, then matted again with the large scallop oval punch.  To add to the frill factor, I added some shabby wrinkled ribbon and a little lace trim, then finished off with some super sparkly clear rhinestones from Pizzazz Aplenty.  Oh, and how could I forget the bit of diamond glaze mixed with glitter I used to sparkle up that paper flower and a few other accents on the paper!

Okay, that's all for today!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a fantastic weekend!  I know I plan to get some much needed R&R after an exhausting week!

---

What's In It?
Stamps: Happy Hello (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Enchanted (Dear Lizzie), Salmon card stock (American Crafts)
Ink: Regal Rose (SU!)
Accessories: Antique brads, oval punches (SU!), sewing machine, shabby wrinkled ribbon (Prairie Bird Boutique), lace trim (Maya Road), glitter/diamond glaze mixture, clear rhinestones (Pizzazz Aplenty), Fancy Tags (Spellbinders), EK Success Border Punch

Vintage Autumn Wishes

Happy Friday!  Today I'm sharing a little autumn goodness I cooked up with the leaf stamps from Great Friend and a sentiment from Harvest Blessings.

Ever since I designed Great Friend, I had an idea to use these leaves for a fallish background, so I pulled out some colors that I thought said fall...  cajun craze, cherry cobbler, and peach parfait.  First I stamped the three sizes of leaves randomly on a square of ivory, then sponged the edges with crumb cake and spritzed with a mini mister of water for an aged effect.  Next I cut a Labels 10 shape and left it in the die to mask off the edges while I stamped the leaves and sentiment, then used a Cajun Craze marker to outline the inner edge of the die.  For a little aging, I pulled out my air art tool and squirted a little crumb cake splatter on it, then inked up the edges and matted on a Cajun Craze mat.

The background is embossed with the regal flourishes texture fade from Tim Holtz, and I added a little sponged crumb cake and a curled edge to complete the look.  And to add just a bit of bling, I finished off with a trio of gold octagonal nailheads from Pizzazz Aplenty on opposite edges of the square.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Everlasting Love

Happy Wednesday!  I've been busy working on some things at Verve so I haven't had any time to stamp recently.  But this morning I remembered this card I made for the last release and never posted, so here's something new to look at.  :)  I can't help but sing that Everlasting Love song every time I look at it!

It uses the new Love Story set and the Doodle Labels & Frames cutting file from Kelleigh Ratzlaff.  I started by cutting the label shape and a coordinating mat with my Cricut.  While I was at it, I cut one size smaller, then used the negative of that as a stencil to sponge around the edges like I do with Nestabilities..  I just love that soft effect.  The paper is from Jillibean Soup and I added the borders in cherry cobbler with an EK Success punch, then covered my seams with some early espresso 1/4" grosgrain, pleated by laying down some sticky strip, then pinching the ribbon together in intervals as I layed it down.  My finishing touch was some brown swarovski crystals on the flourishes.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you're having a great week!

Vintage Hello

Hi everyone!  Happy Monday!  Did y'all have a good weekend?  I suffered through a few serious migraines, but luckily last night things loosened up enough for me to do a little creating.  It's Mojo Monday and this week's sketch was designed by Teresa Kline.  It's a great way to use up some old scraps, but I have soooooo much new paper right now (I kind of went on a paper binge last week!  LOL), that I had to cut into some of it for my Mojo card.

These papers are all from the Conservatory 6x6 pad by 7 Gypsies.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I love the patterns in this paper!  I really didn't have to do much else - the papers really steal the show!  I picked my patterns and then cut them in one stack with the Bracket edge die from Tim Holtz, then sponged each with a little Vintage Photo distress ink and layered together onto the card base.

Next up I pulled out the frame stamp from Fabulous You and embossed it in Metallic Bronze onto ivory cardstock.  I distressed the edges a bit and gave it a distressed kraft mat, then tied some scrumptious new very vanilla seam binding ribbon from SU! around the edge.  For the circle element, I embossed the circle frame from Happy Hello and added the Hello friend sentiment in Bermuda Bay, then inked up the edges and matted on a kraft scallop circle.  For my finishing touches I added a brown jeweled organza butterfly and some 3 mm shiny gold pearls from Pizzazz Aplenty.

That's all on the card front today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a fabulous start to your week!  Be sure to tune in to the Verve Blog this week for the final days of our Something Old, Something New project parade!

Apple Cider Thanks

Happy Friday!  I'm so glad the weekend is almost here.  I've been hit hard by seasonal allergies and the last couple days are kind of just a fog.  I'm hoping to catch up on some stamping and sleeping this weekend! Oh, and my nephew's 5th birthday party!   :)

I picked up some of the fabulous Apple Cider papers from Imaginisce at a local craft store the other day and couldn't wait to play.  But I love the paper so much, I didn't want to cover it up!  So I tried to use materials that allowed the paper to show through.  The sentiment from Dream Big is stamped on a Label 10 die cut and matted with an embossed vellum label, inked up with a little Vintage Photo ink.  The side border uses one of the Tim Holtz On the Edge dies and is matted with cherry cobbler.  To embellish, I pulled out a few goodies from Pizzazz Aplenty...some Sasha lace layered over a sheer lace from my stash, a gold mulberry flower over three cut out leaves from the paper, and some light coffee pearls to adorn the label.

Okay, that's all from me today!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a fantastic weekend!

365 Wishes

Happy Friday!  Today is Sankari's birthday and a few of my sweet friends on Facebook are posting cards to celebrate!  I knew I wanted to make a true "Sankari style" card - bright, cheerful, lots of cutting and of course lots of BLING!

Dear Sankari... how do I love thee?  Let me count the liquid pearls!  LOL  :)  In fact, this card has a year of birthday wishes on it... 341 liquid pearls dots and 24 stickles swirls, making up 365 wonderful wishes for you and your coming year!  I hope the sun shines brightly on each of your days!  Happy Birthday, sweet Sankari!

I'm headed out for a day of fun with hubby, so I'm not going to go into a lot of details on this card.  It's a whole lot of paper piecing with the balloons, stars and cupcakes from the Birthday Bash set,  a little accordion flower thingy, some ruffled ribbon and loads of liquid pearls and stickles!  Papers are from the Alphabet Soup line from My Mind's Eye.  Here's a little closeup of that accordion flower, sentiment thingy.  So much fun to make!  And I love that sparkly rhinestone star on the candle... another new toy from Pizzazz Aplenty!    Thanks for stopping by! 

Be sure to hop on over to Sankari's blog and wish her a happy day!

Butterfly Thoughts

Happy Thursday!  I'm looking forward to a loooong weekend.  We're starting a bit early, so I'll be hanging with my hubby Friday through Monday!  Yay!  Today, I'm pulling out another August VLV card {August Week 4} I made last week but didn't get posted.  This one combines the frame from Love Story with a sentiment from Kind Words.

I chose the third inspiration option for this sketch, loving the colors, the paisley pattern mixed with the stripes, and the graph look of the window panes.  The photo kind of reminded me of the new ABC's & 123's digi papers from Sugarplum Paperie, so I went with that, choosing the graph paper, some red diamond checks and some sagey aqua to print. 

The Love Story frame is stamped in Cherry Cobbler on the graph paper, then I lightly filled in the edges with a blender pen and stamped the Kind Words sentiment inside.  I then embossed just the bottom portion of the graph paper with a paisley Cuttlebug folder and inked up the edges for a little vintage effect.  The aqua piece is embossed with the candy cane stripes embossing folder and I added some riding hood red taffeta.  I punched the fountain fun corner adorner punch from the top two corners of the red paper, then punched again on early espresso and the leftover flourish shapes were fit into the corner punched paper.  I finished off with a trio of butterflies punched and popped up for the circles in the sketch and a few little chocolate pearl accents.

One Love, One Lifetime

Happy Wednesday and welcome to September!  I'm still recovering from whatever bug it is I've picked up, but last night I think I turned the corner and am on the mend!  At least I have more energy than I've had the past 2 days, so that's a step in the right direction!  :)  Since I haven't been feeling up to stamping, I'm pulling out another card from my stash today.  This is one I made for one of last month's VLV challenges {August Week 3} and haven't had a chance to post yet.  I've been waiting for a chance to use some cool specialty papers I got at Hobby Lobby, and as soon as I saw this black & gold bedroom inspiration photo, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the sketch.

I started by embossing the frame from Framed Wishes in gold on black cardstock.  Framed Wishes was a free gift with a $35 purchase August 20 - 31, but now that it's September it's available to purchase individually!  I love this elegant frame and I know you'll be seeing it often here on the blog.  :)  I thought these colors would work well for an anniversary card, so I embossed the one love one lifetime sentiment from Love Story in the center.  Next I took some gold specialty paper and matted the frame as well as embossed with a Tim Holtz Damask texture fades folder for the center strip.  It's punched on both sides with a border punch and I highlighted each joining loop with a 4mm black pearl from Pizzazz Aplenty.  Then it was just a matter of layering everything onto some Paper Studio gold studded specialty paper and adding a big satin bow.

Okey dokey, smokies!  That's all for today.  Hope you have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by!

Kind Words and New Toys

Happy Thursday!  Today would have been Mother Teresa's 100th birthday, so when I took some time to stamp last night I knew I wanted to use the Mother Teresa quote from the new Kind Words set.  That woman imparted so many beautiful pearls of wisdom during her lifetime and this is one of my all time favorite quotes.  Other than the stamp, I had no plan other than to have fun and use as many new toys as I could from a recent shopping spree!  :)

First out of the package was the new Sizzix 3D Flowers die.  I used some Seeing Red felt from TCP for the flower, rolled it up and then added a few prima leaves I found in the clearance bin.  The leaves were originally white, but I colored them with Copics to get a more realistic effect.  I think I'll be going back to pick up more of these little leaves! Love 'em! 

Next up was a new embossing folder set from BasicGrey I found at Jo-Ann's.  They have a collection of folders and dies for Christmas and I think this one is from the Sugar & Starry Night set.  I loved the look of it, so I just had to rip off the packaging and use it!  And once I started I couldn't stop!  I embossed two layers of Labels 11 dies, a silver specialty paper layer and the ivory card base!  To add a little interest I swiped some silver pigment ink on the black layers and some black on the silver layers.  Love the elegant feel this gives!

When I was browsing Viva la Verve entries yesterday, I saw this card by Maureen and just loved the way she stitched another panel onto her Labels 11 die, so I just had to try it!  And then the tutorial on SCS yesterday was ruffled ribbon, and if you can believe it, I had never even thought to stitch my ribbon to ruffle it!  I've been painstakingly gluing each little fold down!  So that was definitely a must try, especially since my sewing machine was already out!  :)  And to finish things off I added some 4mm ivory pearls I ordered recently from Pizzazz Aplenty.  Definitely a fun trip to the studio this go round!

Hope you have a fabulous day and that echoes of kind words ring in your ears all day long.  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Thoughts

Welcome to Wednesday!  Today is the start of a new Project Parade over on the Verve Blog!  Be sure to check out the Diva-licious eye candy over the next few weeks and play along for a chance to win prizes!

Today's card was a quick little thing I pulled together with leftovers from my Mojo Monday sample card that I posted earlier this week.  I had originally intended to use four flowers on the Mojo card, but when I got them all done, it was a little busy and covered up all the DP, so I set 3 of them aside for later.  The flowers are all from the Dream Big set, stamped in Baja Breeze and Daffodil Delight, cut out, layered and accented with liquid pearls, some cute little flower center punches and a brown pearl.  I just love the papers in the Greenhouse Gala DP, so I had to use up more of the scraps on my desk!   I added a little punched scallop border accented with liquid pearls, a strip of 1/8" daffodil delight taffeta and finished off with the modern label punched sentiment and a hand cut mat in early espresso.

The "happy thoughts" sentiment is the current customer appreciation stamp we've been including with orders since release night.  We've got under 100 left, so if you want this design, you'll need to order soon.  When they're gone, they're gone, and we move on to something else.  I recently re-designed the packaging for these "freebie" stamps, and love how they turned out.  They make me smile each time I tuck one in an order!  :)

Okay, that's all for today!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you're having a fabulous week and that all your thoughts are happy ones!

Best Day EVER

Happy Tuesday!  Last night I took a little "me" time to unwind after a full day of packing orders.  A week or so ago I downloaded this cute little A Sweet Day digi kit from Sugarplum Paperie & Ellie Lash, but  hadn't had time to play with it yet, so I printed out a few of the papers and headed up to my studio.  These papers were just begging for a little shabby chic treatment!

This card uses Framed Wishes, which is a FREE gift with a $35 purchase through 8/31 at Verve!  I love the fun little frame in this set and I find myself writing this sentiment a lot inside birthday cards, so I thought it needed to be a stamp.  Anyhow, I embossed the frame in white directly onto the A Sweet Day printed paper, then roughed up the edges and matted on some of the pink striped paper.  Next I made a little accordion thingy with a strip of 1.25" x 11" paper scored at 1/4" intervals.  I added a little beaded pin with some pink pearls and bunched up some shabby wrinkled ribbon to pin behind the sentiment, "Wishing you the BEST DAY ever".  The sentiment is cut with a Labels 4 die, sponged with some vintage photo ink and popped up over the accordion/beaded pin thingy.  I know, I'm SOOOOOO technical today!  LOL

To finish off the card, I embossed some white cardstock with the Victorian Wallpaper textured impressions folder (I can't stop using this one... love, love, LOVE!), then ruffled up some more of that seam binding ribbon, distressed the edges and matted on a blushing bride card base.  Here's a little close-up of the center of the card.  Give it a little clicksy to embiggen it!  :)

And there you have it.. a little shabby loveliness for this Tuesday morning!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have the best day ever!

Being Awesome

Welcome to the start of a new week!  I always love new beginnings, they remind me of that Anne of Green Gables quote, "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it."  LOVE that! 

It's the beginning of a new year for Verve, and I must say I'm so excited about the stamps we just released on Friday night!  I've been feeling beyond exhausted this year and was beginning to doubt myself and my creativity and then like a breath of fresh air, I sat down to illustrate for this release and the idea floodgates just opened wide!  Anyhow, I spent the whole weekend packing these babies up to head out to their new homes and couldn't wait for the first chance I could steal away to stamp with them!  So my sample for today's Mojo Monday sketch (designed by the uber talented Mary Fish - I SO admire her clean, beautifully modern style!) uses two new sets... Dream Big and Happy Hello.

I started by stamping the rounded square frame from Happy Hello onto some Greenhouse Gala DSP, then punching out with a square punch, rounding with a 1/4" corner rounder and matting with early espresso.  For the background, I ran a piece of white cardstock through with the Victorian Wallpaper textured impressions folder, then matted on early espresso.  The sentiment is also from Happy Hello, punched out with an oval punch and matted with the scallop oval punch.  The flower is the smallest flower stamp from the Dream Big set.  I stamped it twice in daffodil delight, then cut out the inner flower on one and layered it over the other one with dimensionals.  I used a circle punch of DP and one of the punches from the Punch Pack for the flower center, then totally copied Sankari's idea from this gorgeous card to accent each of the petals with some liquid pearls.  I just love the look of it!  The leaves are also from the Dream Big set.  I stamped them in pear pizazz, trimmed out and finished with some highlights with a pear pizazz marker to add a little depth.

Okay, that's all for me today!  I've got to get back to my shipping desk!  :)  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to head on over to the Mojo blog to see what the other gals cooked up with this week's sketch!

Endless Echoes

Wow!  Our release party last night was so much fun and I'm still kind of on cloud nine, partly from a fabulous release and also because of  this news that Susan's husband Eric is cancer-free and in remission!  Now that's something to celebrate, I tell ya!

I'm going to be busy packing orders for many days to come, so I thought I'd change up the scenery before I forget.  This is one of my favorite cards I've made in a long time and it uses a new set called Kind Words.  The title of the set comes from this Mother Teresa quote..

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."

Isn't that just a beautiful quote? It's so true that kind words ring in your ears long after they are spoken, often coming to mind just when you need them the most.

So I just had to use this quote as soon as this set arrived.  This card was actually my inspiration for one of the Anni-VERVE-sary sketch challenges - I just loved how the layout came together and had to turn it into a sketch.  I picked up some Jillibean Soup paper at the craft store a while back and just fell in love, so that's basically all the paper on the card, plus a little kraft.  I wanted a shabby feel to my card, so I added a little stitching and distressing.  The sentiment is stamped directly onto the ledger paper and the flower silhouette is inked up with bashful blue ink, then I just took an old olive marker to the stem and spritzed the stamp with water before stamping for a watercolor effect.  Then I used my air art tool with a Crumb Cake marker to add a little "dirt".  I finished off with some bitty buttons, backed with coordinating paper and tied with linen thread, plus a bit of vintage lace.

Okey dokey, I better get back to work.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope your day is filled with kind words!