Valentine Hearts

Well, I managed to sneak away for a little bit today to create a new sample card for this week's mojo sketch. I want to try to get back to the basics of stamping, so I decided to make a card using no embellishments or expensive tools. Just good old fashioned ink, paper and a paper trimmer.

Hubby really likes poker, so I was inspired to try and give the feel of playing cards to the layout. My ingredients list for this one is small, but the card still seems to have my usual flair, so I think I accomplished what I set out to do. I originally got the entire card done, and then dropped the card into my open Versafine inkpad! EEEEK! So I hurried and stamped another Valentine Be Mine square to replace the old one. And now that I look at it on screen, I notice my sentiment is a bit skewed. Guess I shouldn't have been in such a hurry! LOL

Stamps: Wild Thing (Verve Visual)
Paper: Basic Black, Real Red (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Real Red (Stampin' Up!), Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories: White Gel Pen, Pop Dots

Mojo Monday Week #20

Happy Monday everyone! Are you ready to kick off the week with some mojo? My weekend was filled with shipping, shipping and more shipping. I did do a little bit of stamping, but unfortunately nothing I can show you just yet. Hopefully I can pull myself away sometime today for some stamping therapy.

Since last week's card was a bit of a challenging layout, I decided to base this week's card on this simple card I posted the other day. Feel free to change the three diamonds to any shape or embellishment you desire. As always, everyone is welcome to join in the fun, regardless of how long you've been stamping! If you do the challenge, just post a link to your card in the comments of this post by Sunday, January 20 and I'll add it to the slideshow of all entries that I'll post next Monday. If you upload to SCS, be sure to use keyword Mojo20, so we can view all the submissions in one place.

I'll try to make a new sample to show y'all sometime today. Have a wonderful day! If you haven't already, be sure to check out the post below this one to view all of last week's awesome Mojo Madness entries. And be sure to visit the Verve Blog to read about Guest Designer Karrie Baker!

Mojo Madness Winners and Slideshow

Wow! The first Mojo Monday Contest of 2008 was a huge success. There were 44 fabulous entries for the contest, and the judging was so tough! Everyone turned the mojo on high this week. To start your week off with a little eye candy, be sure to check out the slide show at the end of this post to see all of the gorgeous submissions! This week we resume our regular non-judged Mojo Monday challenges. The next judged Mojo Madness contest will be posted on Feburary 4. Okay, on with the winners. Are you dying to know who was the mojo-est of them all?

My discussions with the mirror on the wall found Jan Tink and this beautiful creation to be dripping with the kind of mojo that just leaves you begging for more. Bring on the layers, Jan! I absolutely adore the way she did a little doodling on each of the mats to give a grounded framed look. The card is just stunning - ribbon, the colors, the embellishments - everything just seems made for each other. My trusty little mirror on the wall also found this card by Amy S. to be absolutely mojolicious! I love how she wove the ribbons through the jumbo eyelets, and of course how sparkly the card is! Just fabulous.

Congrats, Jan & Amy! Email me your pick of the new Verve Visual stamp sets and your snail mail address and I'll send your new stamps on their merry little way!

Thanks for everyone who participated! Your cards were all so lovely! Here's the slide show with all this week's mojolicious entries.


NOTE: If you get a message that says no photos found, please hit the refresh button on your browser or the F5 function key on your keyboard, and hopefully it will reload with the pictures!

RAKS and TAGS

Hey everyone! Hope your weekend is going fabulously! I was tagged a few days ago by Linda, so I thought I'd pop in and play today. I also am posting some fabulous RAKs I've rediscovered in my messy studio that I forgot to share with y'all.

1. Name your two favorite scrapbooking topics? I don't scrapbook...not even a little. But when I look at other people's pages, I really enjoy the autobiographical ones.

2. What are the two best places you've been to? We don't travel much, so this is a hard one. I guess I'll go with the two major vacations we've taken in the last 10 years - St. Thomas and Las Vegas.

3. Name two things you do every day? Check my email and pray.

4. Tell us two things that everyone pretty much knows about you? I make cards and am married to a fabulous guy!

5. Two places you wish to visit? DisneyWorld and The Statue of Liberty.

6. Two things you may not know about me are: I am really good at Boggle, so no one likes to play with me even though it's my favorite game. I love jigsaw puzzles.

7. Two nicknames you've had at some time in your life: Pookduke (my mom called me this when I was younger, I have no idea why. I didn't mind it until one day I was in a store and heard someone calling for Pookduke. I quickly put the kabosh on that nickname!!!). My other nickname is Jewels (only my closest friends are allowed to call me this - I'm pretty particular about not using nicknames).

8. Name two of your favorite drinks? It changes all the time, but Mr. Pibb always stays at the top of my list when it's available. I also like the occasional Mojito.

9. What are two interesting (in a good or bad way) jobs you've had in your life? Office Manager for a wholesale tree farm (not terribly exciting, but an industry I had no familiarity with and always kept me hopping). Graphic Designer for a corporate events & meeting planning company.

10. What are two things you would like to learn? How to watercolor and how to cook.

11. What two things would make your scrapping/stamping work space work even better for you? Furniture!!! I use a broken down old cheap desk, in which all the drawers are broken and a folding table. And better organization (which would be made possible by new furniture! LOL).

12. What are two of your best organizational tips for stampers that do not have a lot of space? Go up, not out! One of my favorite things in my stamp room is a little $10 shelf I placed on my table that gave me three times the space for storing things and still left everything at my fingertips. I also use a vinyl over the door shoe holder to store your punches - it keeps them all in one place and saves valuable space elsewhere in the room for my other toys!

13. And the question I am adding is..... What are your two favorite stamping toys? Right now I'm totally smitten with my Nestabilities dies. They make layering so easy! My other favorite toy right now is Liquid Pearls. I just love how it looks on cards!

Okay, now that I'm done with my answers, I'm supposed to tag two people to answer the above questions and then to also add a question of their own. The only requirement is that the question must be in twos. So, in honor of the fact that she's back in blogville, I'm tagging Dana and I'd also love to hear Sherrie's answers.

So now, I'll share my fabulous happy mail with you...

The first card is from Charmaine - an adorable little one layer thank you card that is simple perfection. I love the colors, and the little ribbon treatment on the side has me itching to try that as an accent on one of my next cards. Thanks Charmaine - love it!

The second card is from Bethany and was for my anniversary. (Yes, I'm really behind on posting this!) I loved this card when I saw it on her blog, and then my jaw dropped when I opened the envelope and saw it in person. It's just sparkly, shimmery goodness! All the little details make this one fabulously delightful card. Thanks Bethany!

And the last card is one I missed when I was showing you all the Christmas cards I received. This one cam from Monika, the M.A.D. Stamper and is so pretty, I just had to share it with you. I love the color combo, the fabulous ribbon treatment and the little dot in the center of each snowflake along the top and bottom edges of the card. Thanks Monika!

Wishing Star

Well, today I took a whopping 15 minute break for myself and sat down and made a card. It's not stellar, but it is a quick and easy layout and gave me a much needed sense of accomplishment. It's a rare thing for me to finish any project in less than an hour, but since I could only carve out 15 minutes, I'm pleased as punch that I was actually able to FINISH the card I started!

So, here it is. It's pretty simple. I started with a piece of Pomegranate cardstock stamped with the Tres Chic background and then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the D'Vine swirls embossing folder. While I was up, I cut and embossed two coordinating squares with my Classic Squares Nestabilities. Back at my stamp table, I stamped the Swirly Star form Verve Visual's Swirly Stars set in Purely Pomegranate on the white embossed square and then matted on the Soft Sky square.

Next I stamped three of the smaller swirly stars in Soft Sky on the scrap of Soft Sky left from cutting my square and then punched them out with the Stampin' Up! star punch. Next I punched out a Large Tag punch and stamped the Wishing You a Day Filled With Possibility sentiment from the Starlight Starbright Remixed set in Versafine Onyx black. Next I punched a hole in the top of the tag with a 1/8" hole punch and set a silver SU! eyelet with my 1/16" hole punch. I tied a bit of aqua organdy ribbon through the eyelet and attached to the card. Everything is layered onto a Soft Sky card base, and then I finished it off by outlining each small star and filling in the large star with Stardust Stickles. You can't really tell in my poorly taken photo, but this card is all sparkle!

Okay, that's it for today, peeps. Hope you all have a pleasant tomorrow! :) Be sure to check out the gorgeous eye candy Ana created for Verve over on the Verve Blog.

Blogoversary Winners & Verve Visual Release Day

I absolutely loved reading all 258 comments about your stamping goals for this year. 2008 is a blank slate - go out and make your dreams come true! So, I'm sure you don't want to hear my yipyap about all my goals this year, so I'll just cut right to the winner's list.... except, first I want to say a great big, huge thank you to hubby who patiently compiled the list of everyone's comments, so that I could finish up working on my last minute to-do's for today's Verve Visual release. You're the bestest, hubby!


Here are our lucky winners!!!
Libby - winner of the brand spankin' new Wild Thing set!
Carol Moore - winner of the Seeing Stars set!
MJ - winner of the Heart to Heart

Congrats to all of you! Please email me your mailing address and I'll get your sets sent your way!

It's the 10th of the month and that means it's Verve Visual release day! Hallelujah! I'm releasing 5 new sets today, so head on over to the Verve Store and check them out. If you've got to have them all, there's a really sweet deal on the Hearts & Stars Launch Pack that you won't want to miss. And be sure to check out the Verve Gallery, which has been restocked with loads of eye candy from my fabulous Design Team and special guest designers.

Today's card was made using the Polka Stars set that released today. I made it for Shannan's birthday a while back. She loves polka dots, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, ribbon and sparkles, so I tried to incorporate a little bit of all those things into the card. Not being a Guava fan myself, I was surprised how much I liked it when combined with Chocolate Chip. I believe the card is from this Sketch For You To Try by Jen from quite a while back.

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Polka Stars, Fancy Florals (Verve Visual)
Ink: Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip (SU!), Chocolate Delicious Desserts (Studio 8)Accessories: Hodgepodge Hardware, Ticket Corner Punch, Star Punch (SU!), Stardust Stickles, May Arts ribbon

Lucky Stars

I'm sure most of you are completely on top of things and already had all of your holiday Thank You cards made and mailed out a week ago, but I seem to be running farther and farther behind these days. This particular card is going to someone who sent me a very cool present and I've been meaning to send a card to express my gratitude for 2 weeks now, and the days just seem to fill up. Do you ever have someone you really want to send a card to, but you want to make them a very special one, so it ends up taking longer and longer and then ends up being embarrassingly late? Well, that's the story with this card. So this one's going out in the mail today to Alma, who I really do thank my lucky stars for! I wanted to make her a really cool Cat's Pajamas card, but nothing was working out as I planned in my studio (which seems to be the story of my stamping life lately), so I decided to go with a star theme.

The stamps on this card are from the upcoming Verve Visual release of Polka Stars and the already available Starlight Starbright Remixed. I just loved the layout of Colleen's Thursday Throwdown sketch challenge when I saw it, so I knew I had to try it out. It took me a little bit of thinking to figure out how she did the curvy part with the Nestabilities dies, but I eventually figured it out. I started by stamping the largest Polka Star in Blue Bayou on a circle cut with my Classic Nestabilities Circles. I then cut a coordinating scallop circle mat out of Blue Bayou. I randomly stamped the two smaller polka stars in Soft Sky on a 5.25" x 5.25" square of Soft Sky. Next I cut the swirl pattern from a piece of patterned paper from my stash. Sorry I don't know the vendor, it was in a Self-Adressed kit I got a few months back. I then pierced holes along the edges of the patterned paper and glued it to the Soft Sky piece. I stamped the star bracket stamp from Polka Swirls in Blue Bayou along the curves of the patterned paper and then used the 3 star stamp from Starlight Starbright for a border along the bottom of the card. The sentiment is also from Starlight Starbright and I stamped the 3 star stamp below it. It's punched with a 1 1/4" circle punch and matted with a 1 3/8" Blue Bayou circle punch. To finish I tied some Blue Bayou double stitched ribbon around the card and added some accents with a black glaze pen. And finally, I colored in the polka dots with a yellow glaze pen and then a hint of Stardust Stickles.

Okey dokey peeps! That's a wrap for today. Be sure to check out the Verve Blog for more sneaky peeks. The design team has really been hitting some home runs with these new sets.

Mojo Monday Week #19 - Mojo Madness CONTEST

Hey everyone, are you ready for some Mojo Madness? Today's the first Monday of the month, so that means it's time for our once a month Mojo Madness Contest. Just make a card using the this sketch and leave a comment on this post with a link to your project by Sunday, January 13 at 8 PM Eastern. Once all the entries are in, I'll pick the TWO entries that I think have mojo gone wild. Those two winners will each receive they're choice of one of the 5 new Verve Visual sets releasing this Thursday, the 10th!!! Sound like fun? Are you ready for the sketch? Okay, have at it! ;) Oh, and if you upload your cards to SCS, use keyword Mojo19 so we can all see them in one place.

Now, this isn't the card I had in mind when I drew up this sketch, but I couldn't find the set I wanted to use in my chaotic studio, so I decided to use the new Verve Visual Heart to Heart set instead. I love the classic elegance of this set. The two hearts stamps coordinate with the Marvy Super Jumbo (blue handle) and Mega (pink handle) heart punches, which makes it super easy to have all sorts of layering fun. And all seven of the sentiments fit inside the hearts, for even more possibilities. My color choice for this card was pulled from the Hey Sugar Cosmo Cricket paper. I first stamped the solid swirl heart on the aqua-ish patterned paper in Cool Caribbean, stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx black in the center and punched out with the Super Jumbo heart punch. Next I stamped the swirl heart frame in Versafine Crimson Red on Pearlized Cream cardstock and punched out with the Mega heart punch. I then used Chestnut Roan Chalk ink to ink up the edges and then layered the two hearts with pop dots. The heart rows are from the Wild Thing set and are stamped across the Pearlized Cream panel in alternating rows of Cranberry Crisp, Apricot Appeal and Cool Caribbean. I then sewed this panel and the aqua panel to cranberry crisp paper and inked up the edges with Chestnut Roan. I wrapped some gold cord around the top and bottom of the long panel. The background paper is run through the cuttlebug with the Hearts embossing folder and then inked lightly with more Chestnut Roan ink. And voila, a card is born. LOL!

Okay, that's all for today, peeps. Go forth and create! :)