Springtime Coffee

Hi friends! I'm back today with a quick little card I made for the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  I was the lucky winner of a prize from the Winter CLH blog hop and was so happy to receive a little bundle of coffee goodies from Impress.  hey included some sweet little coffee brads, a few fabulous coffee stamps and a couple of Fresh Ink pads. Thanks so much, Impress... they are so appreciated!

I just love this big coffee cup stamp, so stamped it in Chocolate Fresh Ink, then used a watercolor brush and water to color using the chocolate and cocoa colors.  I finished off with some white pencil and a bit of grey shadowing around the cup.

I had a leftover piece of water colored paper that I thought was perfect for spring, so I cut it down and embossed the sentiment from New Beginnings in white.  I then stamped two of the flowers from New Beginnings on crumb cake, embossed in white and cut with the coordinating Springtime Stitches Die Set.  I tucked in a couple leaves cut with the same set and accented with a pearl. My white panel is embossed with a stitched clouds embossing folder and then I tied some baker's twine around the panels and accented with one of the fun little coffee brads I received. Aren't they so cute?
Well, it sounds like my boys are about 15 seconds from civil war, so I'm calling it a post.  :)  Happy hopping!

Enabler's List
Stamps: coffee cup stamp with words (Impress), New Beginnings (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white, crumb cake
Ink: chocolate and cocoa Fresh Ink (Impress), Versamark (Tsukineko), white Marks All pencil (Stabilo), Magicals Powders (Lindy's Stamp Gang), watercolor pencils (Prima)
Accessories: Springtime Stitches Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), coffee brads (Impress), stitched clouds embossing folder (SU!), adhesive pearl, baker's twine

Golden Spring

Hi friends!  It's the first Monday of a new month and that means there are Verve prizes up for grabs for participating in the Mojo Monday challenge this week. The more entries we have, the more prizes we give away, so play along as often as you like.

Verve is also one of the sponsors for the current challenge over at The Card Concept. So, I combined the sketch and inspiration from the two challenges for my card today! All that black and white and text lettering had me pulling out the Enchanted BoBunny pad.


My stamping started with the flower and leafy stem from New Beginnings on a stitched circle die cut. I colored with Copics, then stamped the smaller flower on a scrap of cardstock and cut out with the coordinating Springtime Stitches Die Set. I tucked a couple of the leaf die cuts behind the flower, then accented the centers with a teeny yellow rhinestone. The sentiment is stamped on another stitched circle and then I layered it all together.

The papers are just black and white, so I added a few coloring details with some Copics to pull in the colors from my stamped images. Super quick and fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Be sure to check out what the other Mojo team members (linked below) did with the sketch, then play along for a chance to win.

Mojo Team:
Justin

Lori

Marisa

Mary

Sarah

Teresa

Wanda

Mojo Monday 442 Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: New Beginnings (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Enchanted (BoBunny), basic black (SU!), white (Neenah)
Ink: onyx black (versafine), Copic markers
Accessories: Springtime Stitches Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), stitched circles stax (MFT), chevron ribbon (SU!), rhinestones

Shiny Spring Day

Hi friends!  It's the first day of April and time for a brand new sketch over at Viva la Verve!  This week, I'm the hostess and the sketch is a super fun one (if I do say so myself), with clean lines you can dress up or down to suit your fancy.

I snuck up to my stamp studio yesterday afternoon (my favorite time to stamp) and made this little number. Blinded by all that gold?  LOL  Had a tough time capturing this one on camera, but it's super pretty in real life.

I started with some color splash paper I recently bought, embossing the sentiment in gold, then cutting a mat from the Mercury Glass paper pad.  Next I embossed the flowers from New Beginnings on different sections of the patterned paper then cut with the coordinating Springtime Stitches Die Set.  The Sprightly Sprigs Die Set just arrived back in stock this week and was on my mind, so I decided to cut some from the gold paper and tuck underneath my flowers.

For accent, I added a bit of gold thread wrapped around the embossed card base, then finished each flower off with a pink flatback pearl.

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

Enabler's List

Viva la Verve April Sketch 1

Stamps: New Beginnings (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Mercury Glass, Color Splash (Recollections), white (Neenah)
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Springtime Stitches Die Set, Sprightly Sprigs Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), gold detail embossing powder (JudiKins), scroll background embossing folder (Darice, pink flatback pearls

Easter Blessings Card Concept 51

Hi friends!  It's time for a brand new challenge over at The Card Concept, and this one is bound to have you dreaming of sweet Eastery things. I loved the pink polka dot eggs in the inspiration photo, so that inspired by paper selection and the Easter theme to my card.

I recently picked up the Utopia Authentique papers on a very rare trip to the craft store. I fell in love with the hula girls and gorgeous papers, and I knew there was a pink polka dot pattern.  In flipping through the collection, I also spied this beautiful lily paper which seemed to fit perfectly with my vision of making an Easter wreath with the flowers from New Beginnings.

So I got right to work on the wreath, stamping the flower 10 times in watermelon wonder, then cutting with the coordinating Springtime Stitches Die Set.  I sponged each flower lightly with antique linen distress ink and set aside.  For the wreath frame, I cut a sun shape from cream paper using the Partly Cloudy Die Set, then stamped the Easter blessings sentiment from New Beginnings in the center.  Then it was simply a matter of arranging the flowers around the frame, popping every other one up on dimensionals and then accenting with teeny flatback pearls.

The lily paper was so beautiful, I didn't want to add to much else to the card.  So I lightly distressed the edges and then wrapped it in a cross of vintage lace to make sure that true meaning of Easter was conveyed in the card.  I popped the wreath in the center of my cross and added to a distressed cream card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll find some time to play along with this challenge.  For even more inspiration, head on over to The Card Concept to see all the different styles the designers used.

Enabler's List
Stamps: New Beginnings (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Utopia Collection (Authentique), cream (Neenah)
Ink: watermelon wonder, soft suede (SU!), antique linen, brushed corduroy (Ranger Distress)
Accessories: Springtime Stitches Die Set, Partly Cloudy Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), vintage lace trim, paper distresser, pale pink 3mm flatback pearls (Pizzazz Aplenty)

Watercolor Field Day 5 New Release Spotlight Hop

Hi friends!  Welcome to the final day of Verve's March Spotlight Hops!  I've had so much fun seeing all the amazing inspirations from the Divas and guests this past week.  All the stamps and dies we've been spotlighting this week are available in the Verve Store right now and on sale 20% off!

Once again, I'm the first stop on the hop, so settle in and hop along with us as we take a closer look at at Rise Above, New Beginnings and the Partly Cloudy and Springtime Stitches die sets.

I had my Gansai Tambi watercolors still on my desk from yesterday's card, so decided to use them again to create a sweet little field of flowers scene.  I did a wash of yellow and green, then stamped the stems from New Beginnings and highlighted and watercolored the leaves with a Zig clean color marker.  The flowers are stamped in black on plaid lawn fawn paper and then cut with the coordinating Springtime Stitches set.  I love how easy it is to pop up that inner layer since the dies are exact cuts.

For the sun, I embossed the distressed sun from Rise Above in white onto vellum, then cut with the coordinating Partly Cloudy Die Set.  I embossed the thinking of you sentiment (also from Rise Above) in the center, then cut the stitched circle from the Springtime Stitches Die Set from the same plaid dp paper and layered it behind the sun.  Finished off with some distressed edges on a soft sky card base.  Easy breezy beautiful.  {grin}

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 the full hop list, a little more about our new products and all the prize info and deadlines!  I've extended the comment deadlines for all of our March Spotlight Hops to Sunday and will announce the winners on Monday, 3/14.

Thanks so much for hopping by today!  Next stop on the hop is the lovely Betty.  

1. Julee 6. Mackie 2. Betty 7. Marisa 3. Charmaine 8. Maureen 4. Christyne 9. Stacey 5. Lee-Anne 10. Vicki

Enabler's List
Stamps: Rise Above, New Beginnings (Verve Stamps)
Paper: plaid dp (Lawn Fawn), soft sky, vellum (SU!), fabriano watercolor paper
Ink: wild wasabi (SU!), versamark, Gansai Tambi watercolors, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers
Accessories: Springtime Stitches Die Set, Partly Cloudy Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), paper distresser