Seasonal Mojo

Hi friends! Monday has rolled around again and it's time for a new Mojo Monday sketch!  Verve has a Christmas in July sale going on, so I was inspired to pull out some Christmas goodies and get started.

I really wanted to capture the feel of warm candlelight, but it took quite a bit of trial and error to get there. I started by stamping the candle trio from Light My World in archival ink.  Next I masked off the stamped image and added a layering of squeezed lemonade and fossilized amber distress inks.  My masking wasn't perfect near the flames, so I tried to go in with a water brush and some squeezed lemonade ink to fill in the white areas near the flames, but ended up with too harsh of an edge.  Tried more distress inks to blend it, then some white paint, but for some strange reason the archival ink bled. {insert sad face} and I got some grayish streaks in the background.  I let that sit while I thought about it and colored the flowers and candles with Copics.  Next I tried adding a yellow distress crayon around the stamped image.  Still not the effect I was looking for, so in a last desperate attempt to fix things, I scraped white paint over the entire panel.  Luckily I had stamped the image originally using the MISTI, so could just line it back up and over stamp in black again to make everything look crisp.  Things still looked a bit plain, so I lightly stamped the Merry Christmas stamp in the background for some texture using antique linen distress ink, then distressed the edges of my panel.

Did a similar technique for the season's greetings panel (without all the trial and error).  Then I stamped the single poinsettia, fussy cut and layered it over some tangled golden thread.  The background is a couple scraps of designer paper that I glued together and then embossed and sanded to give an aged look.  Finished off with more distressing on all the edges and some golden pearls for the flower centers.

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

Mojo Monday 457 Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: Light My World (Verve Stamps)
Paper: designer paper scraps, cream (Neenah)
Ink: squeezed lemonade, fossilized amber, antique linen, vintage photo distress inks, black archival ink (Ranger), Copic markers, white heavy bodied acrylic paint (Golden)
Accessories: victorian embossing folder (Sizzix), gold thread, gold flatback pearls, sander, paper distresser, MISTI

Season's Givings Blog Hop

Welcome to the New Year!  I love that Anne of Green Gables quote, "Tomorrow is a brand new day with no mistakes in it yet." I love a fresh start and what better clean slate than a brand new year?  To celebrate this day I'm participating once again in the Season's Giving Blog Hop.

I am so thankful to all of you who have stuck by me over the past few years as I laughingly attempt to balance being a mom to toddler twins, running a full-time business in a part-time way, being creative, coordinating multiple challenges and blogging.  Some days I feel like I'm just all washed up and have nothing more to give. And then I log on and see a sweet comment from one of you that turns my day around.  Every kindness matters.  Truly.  As I struggle through hard days and tough times I have found how true that is in my own life.  One simple kindness can change a whole lot. A WHOLE lot.

I'm striving to take more time each day to make sure those around me know that I appreciate their efforts. To say thanks and comment on posts and do all the things that my struggle with depression has made so difficult these past three years. So thanks so much for joining this journey with me.  I appreciate each comment on this blog, every card made for one of my challenges, each post made using my stamps and every little note about how you told your friends about Verve or made something amazing and can't wait to share it. Thank YOU!  You may never know how much you have touched my heart.

As a way of saying thanks, I've put together two giveaways for this blog hop.  One is a package of papercrafting goodies.  The other is a gift code to my store, Verve Stamps.  To be eligible for the prize drawings, just leave a comment on this post before 2:00 pm Mountain on Jan. 5.  If you'd like to tell me what you're most looking forward to in 2015, I'd love to hear it.  I personally am so excited that Donna Downey is starting  her Inspiration Wednesday videos again.  Her weekly art journaling videos gave me something to look forward to through the horrific double dose of newborn/colic/acid reflux stage with the twins and I just can't wait for January 7, since this time around I'll hopefully be able to do some art journaling at the same time instead of just watching the videos with a screaming baby in each arm!

Giveaway 1: {winner must have a US shipping address}

Package includes Twitterpated, Calendar Countdown, Wings of Love, No Matter What, Flourished Trim Die and From the Heart Die Set from Verve Stamps and the Teresa Collins Something Wonderful collection: 12x12 papers & stickers, brads, wood chips, buttons, ephemera and washi tape, 

Giveaway 2:  {winner must have a shipping address in one of the countries Verve ships to... Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.}

$50 Gift Code to the Verve Stamps online store.

Comment deadline for prize giveaways is 2:00 pm Mountain on Monday, January 5.  

Please check back on Jan. 6 to see if you are a winner.

My card for today is a New Year's card using one of my favorite Verve products from 2014.... the Mask Die Set and coordinating Masquerade set.  I paired it with the happy new year sentiment from Light My World. The masks and handles are die cut in black, then stamped with Versamark and embossed in gold.  For the feathery accent at the bottom I stamped the image repeatedly in black, then lightly outlined sections with a blender pen and dusted some gold embossing powder on and heat set it.  Love the look with some of the black still showing through.  The side accent is a strip of black cardstock with a bit of gold cording wrapped around it.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  

If you're new and like what you see, you can hit the buttons on the sidebar to find me on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram as well as a subscribe link to this blog.  I also run the Mojo Monday and Viva la Verve sketch challenges, as well as the Verve Stamps Blog.

Next stop on the hop is Michelle Woerner!

Season's Givings Hop List:

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L 

Lawn Fawn 

Spellbinders Paper Arts 

Reverse Confetti 

Clearsnap

Ice Resin

My Favorite Things

Technique Tuesday

Paper Smooches 

Sweet & Sassy Stamps

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store

Avocado Arts

A Jillian Vance Design

Latina Crafter

Die-Versions

Unity Stamp Company

SplitcoastStampers

Verve Stamps

Latisha Yoast

AJ Otto

Vera Yates

Julia Stainton

Judy Hayes

Kim Watson

Yana Smakula

Chari Moss

Taheerah Atchia

Shemaine Smith

Emily Spahn

Kimberly Crawford

Lee Murphy

Lovely Linda

Laura Williams

Lori Tecler

Chaitali Narla

Darsie Bruno

Lydia Fiedler

Giovana Smith

Teri Anderson

Beth Pingry

Dina Kowal

Daniela Dobson

Lisa Adametz

Piali Biswas

Kelli Green

Keri Lee Sereika

Jocelyn Olson

Julee Tilman  {YOU ARE HERE}

Michelle Woerner

Lori McAree

Theresa Momber

Anita Autore

Melody Rupple

Sean Fetterman

Bunny Vance

Tricia Traxler

Lisa Arana

Lorena Cantó

Amy Tsuruta

Jodi Collins

Tenia Nelson

Kelly Klapstein

Jill Cornell

Emily Leiphart

Becky Williams

Margie Higuchi

Lee Ann Barrett

Lisa Hoel

Heather Campbell

Lisa Henke

Sheri Holt

Michele Kovack

Ashley Harris

Sharon Harnist

Lori Craig

Nicole Nowosad

Laurel Beard

Michele Boyer

Christiana Reuling

Laurie Schmidlin

Jennifer Priest

Stacey Schafer

Heidi Blankenship

Heather Pulvirenti

Anita Madden

Gloria Stengel

Sarah Gough

Rachel Kleinman

Natalie Dever

Lorine Mason

Loretta Lock

Meihsia Liu

Sarah Martina Parker

Angeline Choo

Christine Emberson

Karen Hightower

Sabrina Alery

Debbie Seyer

Dana Joy

Cat Tidwell

Deborah Saaranen

Ceal Pritchett

Lisa Lara

Colleen Schaan

Anabelle O'Malley

Megan Hoeppner

Monika Davis

Marisa Ritzen

Wanda Guess

Jenny Peterson

Annette Allen

Gracie Chavez

Christina Griffiths

Niki G.

Kristi Schurr

Jennifer Ingle

Karolyn Loncon

Camille Robinson

Lindsey M-P

Kathy Clement

Maria Levine

Savitri Wilder

Savannah O'Gwynn

Teresa Horner

Laurel Seabrook

Libby Hickson

Yvonne Van de Grijp

Alice Wertz

LeighPenner

Lisa Lee

TinaMcDonald

Nina Yang 

Angel Johns 

Candlelight Christmas

Hi friends!  I'm over on the Viva la Verve Sketches blog today posting a recap for our November Week 4 sketch.  You have until Thursday night (12/4) to get your November entries in to be eligible for our $100 gift voucher giveaway.  Head on over to the VLV Sketches blog today for all the sketches and to see who ended up in my little viewfinder this week!

I loved this sketch by Marisa.  Lots of fun layers and the perfect opportunity to use up some of the mountains of jingle bells I seem to amass each year!  I think they're my favorite embellishment. Anyhow, I started my card with the candle image from Light My World.  I loved this houndstooth paper, so decided to paper piece the candles in it.  I paper pieced the poinsettias in paper from the same pack, then built all my layers, being sure to tuck my sentiment panel behind the far candle.

Each layer is sponged with antique linen distress ink and then matted with black cardstock.  I finished off with a gold cording bow and some glitzy jingle bells up top, a few gold pearls on the poinsettias and some black liquid pearls to highlight each scallop.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you have a fabulous day!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Light My World (Verve Stamps)
Paper: 25 Days of Christmas (Simple Stories)
Ink: black, antique linen (Ranger Distress)
Accessories:  classic  & scallop circles nestabilities (Spellbinders), gold cording (SU!), jingle bells and rhinestones (Recollections), black liquid pearls (Ranger)

Silvery New Year

Hi friends!  Happy Friday!  It's been a super busy week here and I'm just now getting to share the card I made for last week's November Week 2 Viva la Verve challenge and it's already time for a new challenge to post! Be sure to head on over to the VLV Sketches blog to see Christyne's lovely sketch + inspiration for this week.

I just watched Tangled (one of my favorite recent Disney movies) again with the boys last week and totally had paper lanterns on the brain, so I knew I wanted to use the lantern image from Light My World. I started by embossing it in silver on pear pizzazz, then cutting it out by hand.  I used a cropadile for the hang hole, then threaded some silvery ribbon through and tied with silver cord.  The black panel is stamped with the small star image in jasmine Mix'd Media Inx, then matted with silver shimmer paper.

I used the same star for and a Versamark pad for some tone on tone stamping on the pear pizzazz panel, adding the Happy New Year sentiment at the bottom in black.  A silver doily is behind this layer and my main black panel is embossed with a chevron embossing folder and lightly sponged with the jasmine mix'd media inx.  I finished off with a rhinestone and silver pearl accent on the lantern.  A little hard to photograph because of all the shine, but sparkle-tastic in real life.

That's all for my card.  If you haven't had a chance to comment on my Verve Spotlight Hop posts, here are the links.  The prize drawing deadline is tonight (11/21) at 10pm Mountain.

Day 1 Hop

Day 2 Hop

Day 3 Hop

Day 4 Hop

The master hop lists are linked on each post, or you can view all of the cards in this week's spotlight hops on our November Spotlights Pinterest Board...
Follow Verve Stamps's board November 2014 Spotlights on Pinterest.

In addition to our new release being available, everything in the store is marked 20% off through November 30, during our Thanksgiving Sale.  Offer is good while supplies last, so hurry in for best selection!

VLV November Week 2

Enabler's List
Stamps: Light My World (Verve Stamps)
Paper: black, pear pizzazz, silver shimmer paper (SU!), doily
Ink: versamark, jamine (Mix'd Media Inx), black
Accessories: doily, ribbon, rhinestone, Cropadile

Verve Release Day Spotlight Hop

It's release day at Verve and we're celebrating with Day 4 of our November 2014 Spotlight Hops!

Have you enjoyed the spotlights we've been sharing this week? Well, the wait is over and everything previewed this week is available in the Verve online store now! Today's spotlight is on the November 2014 Release Collection, so the Divas and special guest will be sharing creations using whatever inspired them from the new release.  It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats we have another giveaway, but this one's the MERRIEST of giveaways... the ENTIRE release!  So be sure to give a little shout out in the comments as you hop about.

I'm the first stop on today's hop and am so glad you're here.  Stay tuned at the bottom of the post for the prize info and hop list.

First up is a little mixed-media card using the Light My World set.  This is the first card I made with this release and it was so much fun.  I created a background piece on gessoed watercolor paper with grey and yellow pan pastels, some gold acrylic paint, and a charcoal pencil.  I scribbled some of the words to O Holy Night over the piece, then added a bit more pan pastels and spritzed with Dylusions white linen spray and finished off by stamping the little star in white a few times.  Next I stamped the candle image from Light My World in Archival black, then again on cardstock and colored with Distress markers and a waterbrush, cutting the image out by hand and popping up over the stamped piece on dimensionals.

The Merry Christmas sentiment is stamped onto a Charming Oval die cut and matted in basic gray. The candle panel is torn by hand, and then I tore a basic gray mat for it as well, then adhered to an embossed panel of white, distressed the edges and tied some silver cording around it.

Next up, to bookend the spotlights, I'm sharing the last card I made for release.  This one uses the manger scene from  Weary World, embossed, colored and cut with the coordinating Starry Stable Die Set.  I also cut the smallest star in the die set from shimmer paper and popped it up above the manger.  The O Holy Night sentiment is embossed in silver onto vellum and then adhered to a piece of cardstock embossed with snowflakes.  I embellished with some lines of silver pearls, then added a fun little jingle bell ribbon treatment down the side.

Thanks so much for hopping along with me this week!  There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to pull off a release, and it's always this big bright spot in my very long release week days to read your lovely comments in between putting the finishing touches on the website and marketing materials.  I hope you enjoy these stamps and I'd love to hear which set is your favorite from this release.

Our holiday release came later than I had hoped and since it's so close to Thanksgiving I decided to start our Thanksgiving sale a little early.  That way I can spend some time with my sweet boys and family next week and only need to do one website changeover.  That means all of our products (including the brand new releases)  are 20% off  through November 30.

Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win our ENTIRE November 2014 Release! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! All of this week's prize drawings end on Friday 11/21 at 10pm Mountain, so you've still got some time to peruse all the fabulous samples the design team has shared this week.

Next up on the hop is Laurie! 

1. Julee 8. Teresa 2. Laurie 9. Andrea 3. Marisa 10. Christyne 4. Amber 11. Nancy 5. Diana 12. Maureen 6. Charmaine 13. Janelle 7. Stacey

Enabler's Lists
Candle card
Stamps: Light My World (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white, basic gray (SU!)
Ink: pan pastels, paint, gesso, distress markers, charcoal pencil, white linen dylusions spray, jasmine (Mix'd Media Inx)
Accessories: Charming Oval Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), silver cording, diamond glaze, snowflake embossing folder (Darice)

Manger card
Stamps: Weary World (Verve Stamps)
Paper:  pearlized card stock (Paper Accents), vellum and silver shimmer paper (SU!)
Ink: black archival (Ranger), VersaMark, Copic markers
Accessories: Starry Stable Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), lost lagoon taffeta, silver cording (SU!), jingle bells, silver pearls, snowflake embossing folder (Darice)

Light My World Spotlight Hop

Welcome to Verve's November 2014 Spotlight Hops!  Over the next few days the Verve Divas and special guests will be spotlighting 3 new sets, a plain jane and 2 coordinating die sets! Everything previewed this week will be available in the Verve online store on Thursday, 11/20.   I'm the first stop on today's hop, so grab a treat and hop along with us to see what's new at Verve!

Today's spotlight is shining on the Light My World set illustrated by Chaitali Narla and the new Holiday Sequin Mix.  And since it's Monday, I chose to use this week's Mojo Monday sketch for my card. I actually made two cards with the sketch (one with the Light My World set and the other with the new Psalm 119:105 Plain Jane that will be featured later this week).

First up, I stamped the candle trio image from Light My World on a piece of cream cardstock that had been happily splattered with some watered down ink when I was cleaning a stamp.  I liked the splatter, so decided to use it.  I die cut the circle and then sponged some scattered straw ink over the image before taking it out of the die cut.  Next I stamped the bottom portion of flowers on cream, watercolored with distress markers and popped up for some dimension.  And I stamped the candles on dp, then sponged with forest moss, cut out and paper pieced onto the image, coloring in the flames with a wink of stella marker.  The sentiment is stamped onto cream, then cut into a flag and accented with some gold cording and a red rhinestone.

Next up is my card with the Psalm 119:105 Plain  Jane.

I embossed the verse in early espresso onto cream cardstock, cut out and matted with a scallop circle die cut. On both cards, I used my paper corrugator to crimp a few lines on the left edge.  The papers I chose were shabby chic, so I distressed a bit, covering a wood banner with some of the DP and adding some paper flowers and iridescent leaves to finish things off.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  There's a little giveaway along today's hop with a chance to win today's featured products.  We'll see you back here tomorrow for another spotlight of our new release!

Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win today's featured products! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog today for a little more about our new products, an introduction of our 2 fabulous guest divas, and all the prize info and deadlines!

Next up on the hop is  Laurie!

1. Julee 7. Charmaine 2. Laurie 8. Stacey 3. Chaitali 9. Teresa 4. Marisa 10. Andrea 5. Amber 11. Nancy 6. Diana

Enabler's List
Candle Card
Stamps: Light My World (releases 11/20 from Verve)
Paper: Joyeux Noel (Glitz Designs), cream (Neenah)
Ink: black archival, scattered straw, fired brick, festive berries, forest moss, vintage photo distress ink (Ranger)
Accessories:  Classic Circles Nestabilities (Spellbinders), gold cording, rhinestone, paper corrugator

Mojo Monday 372

Thy Word Card
Stamps: Psalm 119:105 Plain Jane (releases 11/20 from Verve)
Paper: Devotion (Prima), early espresso (SU!), cream (Neenah)
Ink: early espresso, pool party (SU!), vintage photo distress ink (Ranger)
Accessories:  Classic & Scallop Circles Nestabilities (Spellbinders), paper flowers, paper corrugator, iridescent leaves (Pizzazz Aplenty)