Fabulous Mojo 434

Hi friends! It's Monday again already (I know, how'd that happen so quickly?) and time for a new Mojo Monday sketch.  This one has been sitting on my desk 5 minutes from being done since I left to pick the boys up from school on Friday afternoon.  I always think there will be time to stamp on the weekends, and then it doesn't happen.

So I finished up this morning and am going to rush through this really quick because Kellan has a Chinese New Year program at school today and I can't wait to go see his dragon fan dance!

I used those same Hello Love papers from my VLV card on Friday.  The stamps are from the Love's Flower set. I stamped the flower on patterned paper and fussy cut, using copics to add a little color.  I layered them together and added a fabric brad for the center, then layered some Sprightly Sprigs Die Set behind and added the fabulous sentiment.

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

Mojo 434 Card Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Hello Love (Crate Paper), basic black, white
Ink: black, copics, white gel pen
Accessories: Sprightly Sprigs Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), Shine Bright Sequins (Verve), circle dies, sewing machine, fabric brad (Amy Tangerine)

Wallpaper Love

Hi friends!  I'm popping in with another card I made with the first January Viva la Verve sketch.

I pulled out one of my all-time favorite sets... Love's Flower for this one.  Everything started with white paper and I used tattered rose distress ink for all the pinks and bundled sage for the green.  Added some random stamping to the background, which reminds me of a sweet shabby chic wallpaper pattern. Finished off with a bit of glossy glaze and glitter.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Viva la Verve Jan2015 Sketch 1

Enabler's List
Stamps: Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white
Ink: Black Archival, tattered rose, bundled sage distress (Ranger)
Accessories: stitched circles stax (MFT), glossy glaze, glitter

Chalky Love Flowers

Hi friends!  It's Friday and I'm here to share a sample for this week's Viva la Verve August Week 4 Sketch. It's the final sketch of the month, so be sure to get your entries in by Thursday 9/3 for a chance to be entered into our monthly prize drawing!

When I originally saw the sketch, I immediately imagined a chalkboard with a back to school theme in my head. But this morning when I finally got a chance to stamp, all I could think about was the Love's Flower set.  This set has been out of stock for almost a year and a half (that's a long story about forced vendor changes and lost files and toddler twins), and finally arrived back in stock this week!  It's one of my most favorite sets and perfect for the chalkboard look that is this week's Mix-Ability challenge on Splitcoaststampers.

I started with a piece of black cardstock, stamping the John Lennon quote from Love's Flower in Versamark and then sponging with white PanPastels.  I added a few highlights with some Prismacolor pencils.  Next I did the same with the heart bloom stamp, creating a fun little trailing border down either side of the panel, brushing with white chalk and then coloring with colored pencils.

I used the same technique for the flowers, finishing off with white gel pen accents to make the flowers stand out and then fussy cutting and popping up over a crimped old olive strip of cardstock.

For the background piece, I started with a piece of smoky slate cardstock and stenciled some whipped spackle (mixed with a couple drops of blushing bride reinker) over it using the Doilies stencil from Tim Holtz.  When that dried, I sponged some pink PanPastels on the edges of the smoky slate panel, and a bit over the stenciling as well.  I finished off with some black soot dots made with the Dot Fade layering stencil, and then distressed the edges and put it all together.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  Be sure to check out all the back in stock products, which are 20% off, along with the rest of our Anni-VERVE-sary sale!

Viva la Verve August Week 4 Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: basic black, smoky slate, old olive (SU!), white
Ink: versamark, prismacolor pencils, PanPastels, black soot distress ink, white gel pen
Accessories: doily and dot fade layering stencils (Tim Holtz), paper crimper, pink pearls, whipped spackle

Wonder Thanks

Hi y'all!  Happy Wednesday!  Today I've got a quick little card I made using Love's Flower and  a sentiment from Amazing Wishes.

A while back, I was playing around in my studio and I saw a stitched canvas rectangle on my desk and I wondered if I could stamp it and color it with watercolor wonder crayons.  Remember those?  I haven't used mine in years, but I was curious and decided to pull them out!  The flower is stamped with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I heat set it with my heat gun to minimize any ink bleeding, then colored with the wonder crayons and blended with an aquapainter.  To my amazement, it worked!  {grin}

I added some vintage photo ink around the edges, then frayed the top and bottom and wrapped the sides with some pretty washi tape.  I wrapped the same washi tape around a square crumb cake rectangle, then stamped a couple of the flowers from Love's Flower as a background, leaving room for the Thank You sentiment from Amazing Wishes.  I had a little frame cut out from a QuicKutz Nesting Label already cut, so I just threw it behind my canvas and then finished off with some liquid pearl accents and a flatback pearl for my flower center.  Finished card size is 4.25" square.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Have a fabulous day!'

Enabler's List:
Stamps: Love's Flower , Amazing Wishes (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Crumb Cake (SU!), Cream
Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger), Watercolor Wonder Crayons (SU!)
Accessories:  Stitched Canvas Rectangle, Nesting Label (QuicKutz), liquid pearls (Ranger), flatback pearls (Pizzazz Aplenty), washi tape (iCopic), aquapainter

Fabulous

 It's time for another Mojo Monday challenge, and since it's the first Monday of the month, that means it's a CONTEST week!  Play along for your chance to win a Verve set of your choosing!  Head on over to the Mojo Monday blog for the sketch and all the details, not to mention some fabulous eye candy from the design team.

For my sample card, I used some more of that Stella and Rose Mabel Collection paper.  I just love the colors and wanted to use this fun orange butterfly I found in my stash.  I had lots of fun with die cuts, using a flourish Sizzix die and the Notebook Edge die from MFT.  The little border along my triangles is the negative of that notebook edge.  So fun!

For stamping, I pulled out an old favorite, Love's Flower.  I noticed that the small flower fits really well in the flower punch from the SU Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack., so I stamped the small flower several times, colored with Copics, punched out, added some glitter/diamond glaze mixture and accented with orange bling from Pizzazz Aplenty.  I did the same with the larger flower, hand cutting a little border around it to match the others, then layered them over my circle and added the sentiment in Bermuda Bay.  A little bling on my flourish die cut and I was done.

Thanks to everyone who has left such sweet condolences on my grandmother's passing.  We spent the weekend surrounded by family, celebrating her life and putting her to rest.  Such a bittersweet time filled with much sadness, laughter and tears.  I'm still not feeling much like creating (thankfully I already had this card finished), so please forgive the silence here on the blog the next few days.

Enabler's List:
Stamps:  Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Stella and Rose Mable Collection (My Mind's Eye), Really Rust, Bermuda Bay
Ink: Really Rust, Bermuda Bay (SU!), Vintage Photo (Ranger Distress), Copics
Accessories:  Notebook Edge Die-namics (MFT), Classic and Petite Scallop Circles Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Flourish die (Sizzix), Butterfly (Prima), Tiny Attacher (Tim Holtz), Round-it-all (Zutter), light sapphire and orange flatback rhinestones (Pizzazz Aplenty), Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack (SU!), glitter, diamond glaze (Judikins)

{Somewhat} Simple

Hey y'all!  This morning I woke up with the idea for this card in my head.  Go directly to the studio, do not pass go, do not collect your mug of coffee... just stamp!  LOL  Can you believe I stamped before I was caffeinated?  Most days I can't even tie my shoes before the first cup of coffee!  I must have been energized by all that beautiful sunlight streaming through my window - it feels like life has begun again!  {PLEASE stay for awhile Mr. Sunshine!}  :)

Anyhow, this week's CAS (Clean and Simple) challenge on SCS was to only use a sentiment stamp and I'd been thinking about what to use yesterday off and on, and this morning the lightbulb went off.  I pulled out the title stamp from Love's Flower and my 365 Degrees paper by Pink Paislee and got to work. 

I've never been a clean & simple gal.  My favorite part of cardmaking is the finishing details.  I love deciding on embellishments, adding little doodles, punches, borders and whatnot.  It's my happy place.  So although this really could have been a 5 minutes CAS card, I made it a 15 minute CASS - Clean and {Somewhat} Simple card.  The layout is CAS, but I added a few extra details with my beloved toys that stay truer to my usual style.

The sentiment is embossed in Fired Brick Distress ink and clear embossing powder, then I colored the letters with Copics.  I die cut the label shape with the Tim Holtz Styled Labels die, then quickly hand cut a thin red mat for it.  The flower is built with the QuicKutz Nested Flowers dies, plus a sweet blossom flower in the center, accented with a little Stardust Stickles for sparkle.  The thin strip of 365 Degrees dp is punched with the loop edge punch, then matted with red.  The main layer is embossed with the Moroccan Screen Cuttlebug folder and then popped up on dimensional tape on a cream A2 card base.  The final touch were a handful of orange rhinestones decorating the punched border.

Okay, that's it for the card.  Remember that the Fun with Flowers Project Parade is still going on, and the Divas have been making me drool with all their flowery creations.  There's still a little time left to participate, too, so hop on over to the Verve Blog!

What's In It?
Stamps:  Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: 365 Degrees (Pink Paislee), Cream CS
Ink: Fired Brick (Ranger Distress), Copic markers, Real Red marker
Accessories: loop edge punch (SU!), Moroccan Screen (Cuttlebug), Styled Labels (Tim Holtz Alterations), Nested Flowers (QuicKutz), sweet blossom (Zva Creative), rhinestones (Kaisercraft), Clear Detail Embossing Powder (JudiKins), pearlized top coat (Smooch)

Fabulous Hello Kitty

Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but I'm so glad this week is almost over. It's been a rough one around here, and I'm sooooo ready for a little break. And since he's worked so hard following me around all week, I'd be overjoyed if my migraine would take the weekend off, too! Hear that, migraine??? Scram! LOL

Well, it's time for another Viva la Verve! challenge over on the Verve forum and one of the inspiration photos this week was especially for me! Isn't this Hello Kitty apron from Etsy just adorable? EEEK! I've been resisting the urge to buy one since Amber peeked the photos to the team earlier this week! And look at this one, the lace and vintage pattern of it just make me giddy! Hello Kitty heaven, I tell you! :)


Anyhow, I knew as soon as I saw the inspiration photo, that I needed to pull out the fabulous Hello Kitty Spring Set of embossing folders that Laurie gave me. I had to tweak the sketch a bit to accommodate my HK face, but it was totally worth it! She's embossed on white and cut out with Classic Circle Nestabilities. I inked her whiskers, nose and eyes with a black multiliner pen and then carefully colored her flower with Copics, adding a few polka dots to it with a colorless blender. The flowers on either side are from the Love's Flower set and colored with Copics and accented with liquid pearls and a mixture of glitter and diamond glaze. The black strips are a flocked zebra print that's just fabulous in person, but hard to see in the picture. I embossed both the hot pink paper {I promise it's not as neon as it looks - the colors just wouldn't photograph right!} from BasicGrey and the pink pirouette paper with a Cuttlebug folder, then added some bling and a ribbon up top to finish the card. Finished size is 5.5" square. And I chose the "fabulous just the way you are" sentiment from Love's Flower because it was something I really needed to remind myself of this week.

Hope you all know just how fabulous you are, EXACTLY the way you are today. Have an awesome weekend!

Friday Fun

Hey everyone! How's life? Things here have been super busy lately, but I'm really looking forward to a bit of relaxing this weekend. Over on SCS, the Ways to Use It challenge yesterday was to use something new. My studio is overflowing with new things lately, so I got right to work trying to use as many new items as possible.


I started with the new Kioshi paper from BasicGrey. I {heart} this paper. I stitched a little piece to an olive piece that is punched with my new Vine border punch from EK Success. Next I added a little black mat to set off the punch and then added two black punched shapes on either side with the fabulous new Fountain Fun Corner Adorner punch that Laurie surprised me with last week. Next I pulled out my new Labels 11 Nestabilities and cut and sponged with soft sky. After that I embossed the quote from Love's Flower in black, then colored with Copic markers.

For the flower, I pulled out my new Let it Shine set and stamped the three flowers on white cardstock, colored with Copics, then cut out and layered together. The leaves are from the flower in the Love's Flower set, and I just layered them behind my finished flower. For a little accent, I added a sheer black bow then, a new Jenni Bowlin stick pin with some new beady things I picked up on my last trip to the craft store. The soft sky card base is embossed with my new Ornate Flowers & Frame Textured Impressions embossing folder. I finished off with a hint of Pearlized Top Coat by Smooch over the letters in the word Love and the petals on my stamped flower.

See what I mean... that's a whole lot of NEW! :) And there's still plenty more to play with - hopefully I'll get to break some more stuff in this weekend! Hope you have a fabulous day!

Spring Fling Blog Hop

The new Verve sets are here and it's time to celebrate! If you haven't checked them out, bop on over to the Verve store to see the new stamps and the new deals. We've got 4 shiny new sets, plus 5 plain janes, so there's lots of new Verve-iness to be had!

After a fabulous day of sneak peeks, challenges and set reveals, we’re topping off our Spring Fling Blog Party with a blog hop featuring our new release. And to celebrate, we’ve got a very special treat hidden along the hop. One lucky commenter will win our entire release! So as you’re hopping along, be sure to give a little shout out in the comments if you see something that makes you smile. The lucky winner will be announced Tuesday evening, {March 10} on the Verve Blog. This is the first stop on the hop, so let's get started!


My card features the new set, Easter Joy. I was totally in a shabby chic mood {when am I not, lately? ;)} and wanted to play with this embossing frame I got a while back. It's the Medium Fleur de Lis & Vines Frame from Sizzix. I embossed it on Buttercream CS and then hand cut around the edges. Next I aged with a touch of Antique Linen and Old Paper ranger distress ink. The egg wreath is embossed in the center using Vintage Photo distress ink and then I pulled out my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an aquapen to do a little watercoloring. The background panel is paper from the Nature's Storybook Collection by Webster's Pages. I distressed the edges and curled the corner with a small dowel.

The sentiment is stamped on cream, then cut with Classic Oval Nestabilities. I wanted to make the sentiment look like one of the eggs, so I used one of the flowers from Love's Flower to stamp on the edges in Tattered Rose distress ink. Then I sponged around the edges with Tattered Rose and Antique Linen and matted on a kraft oval. To finish off, I added a sheer cream bow and coated the frame with some Pearlized Top Coat by Smooch for some fun shimmer. The card base is 4.75" square and aged with distress inks.

Thanks for hopping by! Next up on the hop is the uber talented and oh-so-sunny Sankari!

And in case you get distracted or there’s a bump in the road, here's the complete list of hops:

Be Still

Hi everyone! I've still been working with that unnamed Glittered Paper Pad from My Mind's Eye. The minute I saw this paper with the dragonfly, this card just kind of popped into my head. I love it when inspiration strikes and I have time to listen. LOL! I've been thinking about the great ministry behind the Dragonfly Card Drive and was glad I finally got to play.


I strategically cut the paper so the dragonfly would be on the side of my card, then carefully used a craft knife to cut out just the wings, so they would pop a little and I could slide a Labels 9 die cut under it.

Next I cut a smaller label in butter cream and lightly inked with Antique Linen and Tea Dye ink. I did a little subtle stamping on the edges with one of the flowers from Love's Flower in Antique linen, then embossed the Psalm 46:10 plain jane in Vintage Photo in the center. I finished off with some vintage lace trim, a few pearls and then did a light coat over the dragonfly wings with Smooch Pearlized Top Coat.

What's In It?
Stamps: Love's Flower, Psalm 46:10 Plain Jane (Verve)
Paper: Kraft, Butter cream (Prism), Glittered Paper Pad (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo (Ranger Distress)
Accessories: lace trim, pearls (Melissa Frances), Labels 9 Nestabilities (Spellbinders), sanding block, corner rounder, pearlized top coat (Smooch)

Just for You

Happy Thursday! Today I'm sharing a card I made for the February Week 3 Viva la Verve challenge. The deadline is tonight to get all your February VLV cards in to be entered for a chance to win our March release. And might I just add that this release is going to shine! ;)

Anyhow, here's the inspiration photo I chose to start from. I'm kind of proud of myself for not being so obvious for once! LOL I'm usually so literal when I do inspiration sketches, but in this photo I was really drawn to the repeated circle patterns, specifically the dotted ones on the chairs, which made me think of the Just for You set.

My papers are from a pad of paper I recently got at Hobby Lobby. It's absolutely gorgeous, but the packaging just says My Mind's Eye Glittered Paper Pad, with no collection name. Anyhow, it's all sorts of gorgeousness with aqua, brown and creamish glittered papers and totally up my alley. I KNOW you'll be seeing more of it. ;) I chose the dotted circular patterned paper to emboss the flower from Love's Flower and paper piece in layers as my focal image.

Next I stamped the circle frame from Just For You onto the aqua paper and cut out with Nestabilities. The cream square is dry embossed with a small Cuttlebug folder that looks really similar to the knotted pattern on the side table in the photo, however my flower completely covered it up! I lightly sponged the edges with Antique Linen, then embossed the Just for You sentiment on a square of cream, sponging the edges of that panel too. I added a little punched border on the designer paper panel and then tied my ribbon on. I was doing the sketch from memory and for some reason I thought the sketch didn't have the ribbon all the way across the main panel, so I worked hard at figuring out a way to accomplish this. I ended up using the SU! slot punch to punch a hole in the brown layer, then slid the ribbon through and glued to the back, then tied a separate bow and added with a glue dot to cover the hole. But this morning as I'm looking at the sketch I see that the ribbon should have gone all the way to the bottom. Doh! :)

What's In It?
Stamps: Just for You, Love's Flower (Verve)
Paper: Cream (Paper Accents), Glittered Paper Pad (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Chocolate Chip Craft (SU!), VersaMark, Antique Linen (Ranger Distress)
Accessories: Ivory satin ribbon (RibbonFX), Clear embossing powder, slot punch, border punch (SU!), Classic Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Cuttlebug embossing folder, chocolate pearl (Kaiser Craft)

Hello Sunshine

Hi everyone! The other day I needed a break from all this dreary weather, so I decided to create a little sunshine of my own. This orange American Crafts ribbon called my name from the Archiver's store window and I just HAD to buy some. So I built the card around the ribbon. I love the way the card turned out, but just as I told Mark when I showed it to him, "This is SO NOT going to photograph well!" It's so much softer and dreamier in real life.

The banana background is embossed with the QuicKutz polka dot folder and the Apricot Appeal background is stamped with a pendant from the Accent Notes set and then the open flower from the Love's Flower set. The main panel is stamped with the Accent Notes frame and cut out with Nestabilities Labels 9. I colored in the fleurishes with an Apricot Appeal marker. The sentiment is also from Accent Notes and is punched with a 1.25" circle punch. To finish off I added some liquid pearls accents and stamped and cut out the little flower from Love's Flower and coated with Spiced Marigold Distress Stickles and a rhinestone.

My Toys:
Stamps: Accent Notes, Love's Flower (Verve)
Paper: Barely Banana, Apricot Appeal (SU!)
Ink: So Saffron, Apricot Appeal (SU!)
Accessories: Spiced Marigold Distress Stickles, Liquid Pearls (Ranger), Labels 9 (Nestabilities), Circle punches (SU!), Polka Dots embossing folder (QuicKutz), ribbon (American Crafts), Rhinestone

Flowers in Distress

Hey everyone! TGIF! Today I have a card to share using the Viva la Verve January Week 4 At Home with Verve sketch & inspiration challenge. Wowee! Now there's a mouthful! Anyhow, I've been hyping the challenges all month and can you believe this is the first time I've gotten to play along? Check out the Viva la Verve! area in our forum later this morning for Amber's sketch and the other inspiration photos for the week.

As soon as I saw the inspiration photos for this week, I knew exactly which one I would use. I have candle holders in these exact colors in my front room, and I was totally loving the distressed darker edges of the flowers and wanted to see if I could re-create it with Copics and ink.

So I pulled out Love's Flower (big surprise - I'm having a hard time giving equal playing time to my stamps this month!) and set to work stamping the large flower 3 times, then coloring with Copic markers and cutting out. Next I shaded the edges of each flower with Riding Hood Red, So Saffron and Bermuda Bay ink and then attempted to achieve the darker edges by sponging on some Vintage Photo Distress ink. Each center is accented with Stickles in a matching color, then I set them aside to dry. To go with the distressed look, I chose Kraft as my neutral and sponged an oval with Vintage Phot then matted on a Riding Hood Red scallop oval, accented with gold liquid pearls.

Next up, I created the caribbean and saffron panels by stamping my own background with one of the square pendants from Accent Notes. I thought the little "feet" of the coat hangers in the photo kind of looked like the little triangle thingy from Accent Notes, so I stamped that in between each square to fill out the pattern, then inked with the same color ink and some Vintage Photo. The kraft panel is debossed with the Textile embossing folder and Vintage Photo, then I finished off with a red sentiment from Accent Notes, some liquid pearls and a bow.

That's it for me today. Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!

Sketchy Love

Happy Thursday! Today I have a card I made using yesterdays sketch challenge over on Splitcoaststampers {SC264}. I haven't gotten to play in many challenges lately, so as soon as I finished work yesterday I ran up to my studio and did a little stamping.


The card is pretty straightforward. The sentiment and flowers are all from the Love's Flower set, stamped in A Muse black ink and then colored with Copics. I added a few little pearls to the centers of the flowers, then matted with Basic Gray cardstock. The pattern paper is from the Addicted to You digital kit by Madame Wing. I bought the kit for the adorable robots, but LOVE the papers too!

To finish things off, I added a sheer eggshell bow and tied a little sweet blossom flower around the center, adding a little glitz with some Stardust Stickles.

My Toys:
Stamps: Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Addicted to You Digital Kit (Madame Wing), Basic Gray cardstock (SU!)
Ink: A Muse Black ink, Copic Markers
Accessories: pearls, paper flower (Zva Creative), ribbon, Stardust Stickles

Fabulous Wanderlust

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is going great so far. I've been busily packing orders, but thought I'd pop in to share another card I made for our recent release. This card uses the Love's Flower set and I paired it with digi papers from the Wanderlust Paper Pack by Quirky Twerp.


{Personal side note: At the beginning of this year, I made the very hard decision to step down from all my non-Verve design work. I adore The Cat's Pajamas, the digichick and Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs and will continue to use their products (and you should try them if you haven't ... the women behind these fabulous businesses are top-notch people with integrity and heart), but I was finding the need to simplify my "have-to's" so I could make time for more "get-to" stamping. You know what I mean?}

Anyhow, as soon as I saw the color palette in these digi papers, I just had to purchase and download them to paper piece the large flower in the new Love's Flower set. It's also a fabulous palette for shabby chic creations, a style I totally admire and hope to get a little better at! Practice makes perfect, right? :)

Okay, on with the card. I stamped the flower four times. Once on white cardstock, twice on the coral colored paper and once on the green paper. Then I just cut out, sponged the outer edges with old olive and cameo coral ink (this gives a lot of dimension without a lot of effort), then layered on the white cardstock image with dimensionals. I finished off the focal piece with a button center tied with linen thread.

The rest of the layers are all cut from the digi papers and I used the Floral Lace Martha Stewart punch. This is the third card I used it on, and it now will not work. I've tried all the little waxed paper and aluminum foil tricks. It's not stuck, it just won't press down to punch the cardstock. GRRRR! The MS punches have the cutest designs but are made with such poor workmanship. This is the fourth punch I've had this happen on. I've been repurchasing the punches because I love the designs, but no more! Hear that, Martha? LOL

Anyhow, for embellishment I added a little vintage lace trim, along with some pearls from Michael's. Then I finished off with a button tag embellishment, stamped with the fabulous {just the way you are} sentiment from Love's Flower.

Okay, back to the grind. Have a fantastic day!

My Toys:
Stamps: Love's Flower (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Wanderlust Paper Pack (Quirky Twerp)
Ink: Black, Coral, Soft Sky, Old Olive
Accessories: Floral lace punch (Martha Stewart), vintage lace trim, buttons, linen thread, Nestabilities tag die, mini pearls, dimensional foam, Stardust Stickles

Just a Note

It's Monday again already! And that means it's time for another Mojo Monday sketch. This week the fabulous Mary Fish stepped in for me with a gorgeous little sketch, so that I could keep working on shipping orders. I did take a little break to take the sketch for a little test drive and I love how it turned out.


I wanted to use the new Accent Notes set because I'm just in love with it right now. I stamped the square pendant in the center of the oval in Old Olive, then stamped the swooshes twice in Rose Red. I colored the center in with a Copic marker then stamped and colored the square one more time, stamped the tiny flower from Love's Flower in the center and punched out with a 1/2" circle punch to pop up in the center. I sponged a little pink pirouette around the edges and then started in on my other layers.

Both the rose red and the pink pirouette panel are stamped with the same square pendant and tiny flower in rose red. I added some old olive mats and then embossed the just a note sentiment from Accent Notes in white over on the side. I finished off with some liquid pearls, some tiny pink pearls, a ribbon and some little paper flowers covered in Stickles.

That's all for now, folks! Have a fabulous Monday!

All You Need is Love

Da da da da da. All you need is love.... Hi everyone! Happy Friday! And doubly happy because tonight from 9-11PM Eastern is our Release Party over in the Verve forum. Be there or be square! LOL

I spent yesterday evening stuffing stamps, then all night working on getting the website ready and now it's almost 5:00 am and I'm typing up my blog post and hoping to get a few hours of shut eye before my sister comes to help me package more stamps! So I'd suggest you grab a cup of joe, because the sleepier I am the chattier I get! LOL

I have a couple of things to show you today. The first is a sneak peek of the final set, called Love's Flower. This set was inspired by two awesome quotes Jen del Muro and Jackie Pedro submitted. Jen picked a John Lennon quote with the idea that it would be a great quote for wedding cards. And Jackie picked a John Lennon quote wrapped inside a Charles M Schulz (the Peanuts creator) quote. I love them both! And of course I had to throw in a few flowery things and all-around sentiments to round out the set.

My project was completely inspired by the Peanuts quote and also counts for Sankari's 3D Challenge. I knew I wanted to make a little holder for a big ole' chocolate bar. And I must have been truly inspired because I even designed my own little box for it! Now, those of you who've been around my blog for the past few years know that I'm not one of those crafty people who are engineering boxes and things in my sleep. I totally try to leave all those measurements to the talented people who create templates and share them with the rest of the world. But I don't remember seeing a template like what I wanted, so I set out to make my own box. Now it's not rocket science and I'm sure I'm not the first person to think it up, but it's functional and I like it.

Anyhow, I'm a little too tired to go into the specifics of the box making, but if you want me to, I can do that at a later date. I started by inking up just the top half of the Peanuts quote and embossing it with Chocolate Chip ink on a Labels 6 Nestabilities die cut, then cut in half. Next I sponged around the inside edges with some Tattered Rose distress ink, then stamped the flower silhouette in chocolate chip on kraft cardstock and added a strip of cardstock embossed with the Vines Sizzix folder and finished off with an epoxy button from the Artsy.Licious line by Chatterbox.

For the inside I stamped the other half of the sentiment in chocolate chip and then tucked in a Valentine's Hershey Chocolate Bar. The pocket is about 1/2" thick, so it could handle some of the thicker candies like Reese's peanut butter cups, Twix bars, etc.

Okay, on to the coordinating card, which is a long card to fit Tosh's Any Shape But A2 Challenge. There's something in my cardmaking genes that always has to make a matching card when I make a gift box. Since I still had some sentiments from the Regal Heart Digi sitting on my desk, I decided to use the Happy Valentine's Day one. I cut and embossed it with long rectangles and matted with the long scallop rectangle nestabilities. The cardstock is from the Tropical American Crafts collection. I lined the two pieces up, taped together in back, then stamped the row of hearts from Thankful Hearts across the top and bottom with Worn Lipstick distress ink. The bottom border is punched with a Martha Stewart punch (Floral Lace). I then stamped that row of hearts repeatedly on a scrap of the coral paper and then punched out the hearts with an SU! punch. I finished off with a little vintage lace trim and a couple rhinestones to disguise the seam of the two papers.

Okay, I'm ready for a catnap. Hope to see y'all tonight! :)

Sage Accents

Hooray for Wednesday! Today the Divas are peeking a new set called Accent Notes over on the Verve blog, and it's in the same vein as the Thankful Accents set we released in November. You'll see some familiar elements, along with some great background builders, another fun circular frame and a few sweet sentiments.

Although I'm a huge COLLECTOR of patterned paper, my first love is creating my own DP with stamps, and I've been finding myself getting back to classic cardmaking lately with just stamps, cardstock, ink and a few beloved embellishments. So I started my card with a sage shadow panel and stamped one of the square pendants from Accent Notes in Sage Shadow all across the panel. Next I pulled out the flower from another set releasing later this week (Love's Flower) and stamped it in chocolate chip in the spaces between each pendant. Once that was finished, I sponged with chocolate chip ink, rounded two corners and matted with chocolate chip.

I thought this printed ribbon I got from Michael's went really well with the motif, so I tied it around the panels and then got to work on my stamped panel. {Okay, so it looks like my bow is having a bad hair day. It's like those driver's license pictures where you swear you're looking good and then they click the button and you're stuck with a Medusa mug shot for another 4 years!} LOL Anyhow, I stamped the circular frame in chocolate chip, then colored with a sage shadow marker and added some chocolate pearls for accent. The thinking of you sentiment is stamped in the center and then I layered on petite scallop circles in sage shadow and chocolate chip. To finish off, I tucked a little Making Memories Shimmer Chipboard Flourish under my circles to qualify for Michelle's Release Week challenge to use chipboard on a project.