Courage

Happy Friday!  This week has totally flown by and it's already time for another Viva la Verve! sketch to start your weekend off right!  This week's sketch was designed by the talented Amy Sheffer and it totally inspired me to get inky!

I pulled out one of my favorite sets from 2010, Blue Skies, because I wanted to use this courage quote.  The card is for a friend who I think has shown extreme bravery during the past year and I just wanted to let her know I'm thinking about her.  My batch of SU! goodies that arrived this week had some new papers in it, so I decided to play with them, keeping a neutral palette with just a pop of color.

My sewing machine and I are still on the outs, so I chose to go with torn edges instead of stiched ones.  The butterflies from Blue Skies are stamped on First Edition paper, then cut out and colored with a Copic marker.  Most of the layers on the card are sponged with Early Espresso ink, to give it an aged look, then I added a little ruffled twill before adding the butterfly trail of pearls.  I was only going to add a few, but placing the three sizes of chocolate pearls (from Pizzazz Aplenty) was so fun, I extended it all the way to the edge of the panel, then finished off with three pearls on each butterfly body.

Okay, that's all from me today!  I hope you'll play along with our VLV sketch this week!  And if you haven't had a chance, there's still time (until 2/5) to get your comments in for our Diva Inspirations Blog Hop prize drawing.  Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend!


Enabler's List:
Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve Stamps)
Paper: First Edition DSP, Botanical Gazette DSP, crumb cake, early espresso (SU!)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU!), Copic marker
Accessories:  Classic Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), paper distresser (Tonic), clear detail embossing powder (Judikins), 2mm dark chocolate pearls, 3 and 4 mm chocolate pearls (Pizzazz Aplenty), mini library clip (SU!)

Firecracker

Happy Friday!  I'm so looking forward to the long weekend.  My brother is here from out of town, Mark gets Monday off work, and it's looking to be a great 4th of July weekend around these parts!  To get myself in the spirit, I cooked up a little 4th of July card last night using the new American Hero set.

I started by stamping the 4th of July stamp on a Nestabilities star, then stamping the little stripey star and piecing it over the outline star.  For the little framey thing, I cut a 4" square, then scored at 1/4" and 3/8" on all sides and cut out the extra parts.  I stamped the center of it with the trio of stars in Antique Linen, then added four little square mosaic tiles to set accent the corners.  The bow is some of my favorite polka dot ribbon and I stamped, colored and cut out three little firecrackers to "burst" out of the bow.

Okay, that's my chatter for today.  I hope you all have a happy and safe weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

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What's In It?
Stamps: American Hero (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Kraft, Night of Navy (SU!), white CS
Ink: Fired Brick, Antique Linen, Black Soot (Ranger Distress), Copic markers
Accessories: rhinestone stars, polka dot ribbon (SU!), Stars Nestabilities (Spellbinders), mosaic tiles, Scor-Pal, dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), paper distresser

One Layer Butterflies

Happy Wednesday!  Have you had a good week so far?  It's been pretty a-okay here!  I even got some time last night to make a card that's been floating around in my head for at least a week now.  It's the first chance I've had to stamp without a sketch for a while and I'm so pleased that it actually turned out like I imagined!  First off, don't go clicking around thinking you're on the wrong blog!  {teehee}  It's still me, Julee,  {the not-so-clean-and-simple gal}, but I actually fooled my creative compass for a few minutes and accomplished an honest-to-goodness clean & simple one layer card!

The butterflies and sentiment are from the new Blue Skies set.  I stamped them with Black Soot Ranger Distress ink, embossed with clear detail embossing powder and then colored with Copics.  For the larger butterfly, I stamped an extra butterfly, colored, cut out and popped up, then added just a bit of Smooch Pearlized Top coat for some shimmer, and a couple black rhinestones for his body.  The base is A2 size, and I embossed a line 1/4" from the top and bottom, then finished off with some black grosgrain.  Easy, breezy, beautiful!  :)

Hope you have a fabulous day and get some time to create!  Thanks for stopping by!

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What's In It?
Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve Stamps)
Paper: White CS
Ink: Black Soot (Ranger Distress), Copic markers
Accessories: black grosgrain (SU!), Pearlized Top Coat (Smooch), black rhinestones (KaiserCraft), clear detail embossing powder (JudiKins)

Every One of My Thoughts

It's Tuesday!  And today I have a fun little card for you using the newly released Always on My Mind set.  I just love this sentiment.  It's the perfect thing to send when you want someone know they're on your heart.  I went clean and simple (well, at least for me!  LOL), for this card.

I started by stamping the sentiment on a Labels 10 Nestabilities cut out, then using the next size up Labels 10 to sponge some Tumbled Glass ink onto the Kraft cardstock and as a stencil to make the little dotted frame.  I stamped the flower from this set sideways on the Kraft, then stamped again twice to color and pop up on dimensionals.  The white layer is embossed with the Notebook Texture Fades from Tim Hotlz and I added a little bit of American Crafts ribbon to ground my skewed panel.  To finish thing off, I added some Oregon Rain Drops to the Labels 10 and center of each flower.

That's my card in a nutshell.  :)  Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a fabulous Tuesday, filled with sunshine and creativity.  Oh, and be sure to hop over to the Verve Blog today to see who our lucky blog hopper was!

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What's In It?
Stamps: Always On My Mind (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Kraft, White
Ink: Black Soot, Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo (Ranger Distress Ink)
Accessories: ribbon (American Crafts), brads, Labels 10 Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Oregon Rain Drops (Pink Hedgehog), notebook paper Texture Fades (Tim Holtz)

You Make Me Smile

Welcome to another Monday!  This week's my favorite type of mojo - round or square!  So head on over to the Mojo Monday blog for the sketch and some fabulous inspiration from the mojo team.  I hope you can play along!

For my card, I pulled out the newly released Blue Skies set and some pretty papers from The Girls' Paperie.  I stamped the You Make Me Smile sentiment on the yellow gingham circle, then matted with chocolate chip and added some yellow liquid pearls for some pizazz.  Some days I just feel I need a little pizazz, you know what I mean?  Next I stamped the notebook paper from Blue skies in Brushed Corduroy then stamped the flourish in pink pirouette on the paper.  I trimmed this out and matted on chocolate as well.  I subsituted a butterfly for the star shape in the mojo sketch, and this is the larger one from Blue Skies, which I stamped directly onto patterned paper, cut out and added a few chocolate pearls for its body.  I also stamped the flourish with a little Shabby Shutters ink on the green polka dot paper to balance things out.

To finish things off, I added a little punched border, some May Arts pink ruffled ribbon, more liquid pearls and hand stitched a few coordinating buttons onto the card.  The finished card is 4.25" square so it'll fit inside a normal A2 envelope.  Okay, that's all for me.  I've got to get back to shipping orders.  :)  Hope you have a fantastic start to your week!

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What's In It?
Stamps: Blue Skies (Verve Stamps)
Paper: The Girls' Paperie, chocolate chip, white
Ink: Brushed Corduroy, Shabby Shutters (Ranger Distress Ink), Pink Pirouette (SU!)
Accessories: Round-it-all, loop edge punch (SU!), buttons, string, ruffle ribbon (May Arts), chocolate pearls (KaiserCraft), liquid pearls (Ranger)

I need a HERO - Hopping with the Divas

Verve just released 3 new sets last night and the Divas are celebrating with a new release hop today! I'm the first stop on the hop, so grab a cup of coffee, nestle in, and hop on down, hop on down, hop on down the road. :) We’ve hidden a little prize for one lucky commenter along the hop, so be sure to spread a little comment love around as you hop! Okay, well, maybe the prize isn't so little. {grin} You could win the ENTIRE release, so let’s get hoppin’!

Here's my girl-licious card using American Hero….

I just fell in love with this font when I saw it, and this Hero stamp was the very first stamp I designed with it.  I just love the look of it, especially with the trio of shooting stars perched below it.  I used the same trio stamp to create a little border at the bottom of the card, and colored them in with Copics.  The top stars are also from the set.  The stars up top are actually the same size, I just used the small SU! star punch for the black stars and hand cut around the pink star to make to make it larger.  The pink paper is totally glitter-tastic.  I found a pack of glitter paper on clearance at Jo-Ann's and have been excited to use it.  I embossed it with the star Cuttlebug folder for a little texture, then added some star rhinestones for accents all along my punched border and on my stamped stars.

Oh, the sketch is my take on this week's Sketch For You To Try by Jen del Muro.  There's a little Verve prize if you participate in this week's challenge, so be sure to check it out!  And since Jen's the next stop on the hop, I'm betting you just might!

Thanks so much for hopping by today! Just in case the oh-so-reliable Blogger malfunctions, I'll leave you with the complete hop link list.  Happy hopping!

Wishing Star

Hey peeps! I can't believe it's Thursday already. I've been working every spare minute for the past couple weeks, but tonight Mark and I get to take a break and go hang out at the Shakespeare Festival, eat lemon cake {my favorite}, and enjoy a play. Can't wait! :)

So it's Day 2 of our New Release Spotlights, and the Divas are peeking a set called Always On My Mind  over on the Verve Blog.  This set has 7 encouraging/missing you sentiments and 3 little whimsical elements, all designed to coordinate well with the other sets in this release.

For my card I chose the "wishing you were here" sentiment and the hanging star, stamped on an EK Success punch. I filled the center of the star with liquid glue, then added some turquoise Martha Stewart micro beads and some glitter.  I had so much fun with the micro beads, that I decided to add a strip down the side of my card as well. The papers are all from BoBunny and I used the blossoms Nestabilities, with a little Texture Fades embossing. I accented the Fountain Fun corner punch and the black mat with a white gel pen, then added a few little black pearls and some ribbon.

Okay, that's all for now. Be sure to check out the Verve Blog for some fabulous eye candy and a chance to win today's set.

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What's in it?
Stamps: Always on My Mind (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Bo Bunny, Black, Bermuda Bay
Ink: Bermuda Bay
Accessories: Blossoms Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Bracket label punch, fountain fun corner punch (EK Success), 2 way glue pen, glitter, micro beads (Martha Stewart), black pearls (Kaisercraft), white gel pen, Textured Fades embossing folder (Tim Holtz)

Clear Blue Skies

Hi peeps! Today I've got a sneaky peek of a new set called Blue Skies that will be releasing this Friday night from Verve. For quite some time, Laurie's been dropping some not so subtle hints my direction that she wanted a notebook paper stamp, so that's where the concept for this set started.  Add a large and small whimsical butterfly, a few flourishes and some fun quotes and sentiments with a hand-lettered look and you've got Blue Skies coming your way.

I decided I wanted to make a clear card, and although you can't really tell from the photo, the base is a square acetate card.  This card is for the second Verve Release Week challenge to use a Viva la Verve! sketch from February 2010.  I chose another square card... the February Week 3 sketch.  Now that I look at the sketch again, it looks like I forgot a panel on the square and flipped the ribbon to the side, but the original inspiration is still there!  We're flexible here at Verve, so I'm going to say it totally fits the challenge! LOL  :) 

Okay, here's what I did... I stamped the stack of notepapers twice in basic gray ink, then cut out and layered on top of each other.  Next I pulled out the sun from Let it Shine and the clouds from Up, Up & Away, cut out, colored with copics and layered on dimensionals.  Next I added a bit of Sparkly Fluff from Our Craft Lounge to my clouds and some Lemon Peel Stickles to the sun.

To add a bit of blue to go with my Blue Skies are coming your way sentiment, I just highighted a bit of the notebook page with a Sky Copic marker, then stamped the sentiment in black.  Next I stamped the smaller butterfly from the set, colored in coordinating colors and popped up on the side.  The blue background paper is Going Coastal by SEI and I matted it with a black cardstock circle and added some ruffled May Arts ribbon and a few rhinestones to finish it off.

Okay, that's all for me today!  Be sure to head on over to the Verve Blog to see what the Divas have created with Blue Skies and to enter for a chance to win this set!  Have a great day!

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What's in it?
Stamps: Blue Skies, Let it Shine, Up Up & Away (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Going Coastal (SEI), white, black, acetate cardstock
Ink: Going Gray (SEI), Onyx Black (Versafine), Copic markers
Accessories: Zip glue, ruffled ribbon (May Arts), lemon peel (Stickles), Sparkly Fluff (Our Craft Lounge), rhinestones, Circle Nestabilites (Spellbinders), 2 way glue, dimensionals