Verve Project Parade time -it's my day!!

Well, if you head on over to the Verve Blog, you will see today's project is mine! The theme this month is ABC -Anything But a Card. Not really my thing, but I so love how this cutie patootie project turned out.

Here is a sneek peak, but you will have to hop on over there for all the deets!!

Featured Stamper day!!

Wow! Today's SCS Featured Stamper is Flowergal36 (Dawn). She has an amazing gallery and is a super sweetheart! Be sure to check her out, you won't be sorry!

I chose this cutie card to case. I kept the great layout and use of patterned paper. But, I changed up the colors and image. My sister asked me to make her a birthday card using Cosmobella (her favorite bella) for one of her single gal friends. The sentiment is from Verve's Birthday Suprise. I colored her with copic markers and pieced the shirt with a scrap from the background DP. All DP is from Basic Grey Sultry. Aren't the colors just YUMMY?! I always forget I have the mini flower punch (from Marvy). But for some reason, using Bella stamps makes me remember about it -go figure.

Here is a close up.

Card Deets:
Stamps: cosmobella, birthday surprise

Paper: pomegranite, wasabi, white, sultry

Accessories: copic markers, craft daisy punch, mini flower punch, Kaiser pink rhinestone bling, pomegranite ribbon, circle nesties

3 down, 11 to go

So, did everyone do some shopping yesterday?? Lots of tempting sales ALL over both brick and mortar AND internet stores!! I resisted all tempation and stayed home and didn't buy a thing -whew!

So, on to my monogram cards. This year, my sister is giving out sets of monogram cards to all her professional friends and co-workers. I am tasked to designing and making sets of 5 cards for 14 people. I am sooooo loving my JustRite stampers sets -really makes a sharp looking set of monograms. We chose to go with the Special Occasions Font , From the Desk Of border and minimal layers (for ease of mailing) for everything. Yesterday I got to work and came up with the first three.

The cards use SU! retired Spring Flowers, Blue Bayou DSP and Basic Grey Ambrosia for the DP and used my circle nestabilities. I have 11 more to come up with, not too mention making FIVE of each design! Eek, I got to get crack-a-lackin' -LOL!

Tomorrow is the last day of Heidi's FREE GIFT with every purchase at her Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts store! For all orders under $50, you will get a free goodie bag and with purchases over $50 you will get a free GRAB bag! All you need to do is put Michelle or sf9erfan in the comments section. Thanks Heidi!!

Card Deets:

Stamps - JustRite stamper Special Occasions Font

Paper - tangerine tango, choc chip, white, DP

Accessories - circle nesties, various mini punches, swiss dots EF, gray tafetta, mini orange bling

Elzybells Challenge day!

It’s challenge day at Elzybells Art Stamps! Every other week a fun new challenge is posted on the Elzybells blog. You play along and email your picture to Elizabeth and have your card shown with all the other entries. This week we have TWO challenges. You can find out all the deets the challenges and see all the design team cards by going to the Elzybell’s blog.
The first challenge (#7), is a Sketch Challenge by our lovely DT member Michelle Short (shown below). My card uses the adorable Baby Basket image. I stamped it with Adirondack Pitch Black ink and colored it with Copic markers. The DP is K&Co Small Wonders Girl paper pack. I pieced and popped up the baby blanket for some dimension. The sentiment is from Verve Stamps sentiment set Family Phrases.

The second challenge (#8) is to make and Christmas ornament or Decorative item. With all the Thanksgiving preparations, I didn't have time to make a sample for this challenge, but again you can click here to see some great inspiration and even a tutorial!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy Thanksgiving for all you US readers!!

Card Deets:

Stamps - Baby Basket, Family Phrases

Paper - Pale plum, certain celery, Small Wonders Girl

Accessories - Buttons, Circle nesties, paper piercer, white gel pen, word window punch

Today's SCS sketch

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Whew, it's such a busy time of the year!! I had time this morning to make a card for today's Sketch Challenge. I LOVE it! Really love it!

For the card, I used my go to Christmas set, Verve's newly released Ornamental Christmas. I found out from a thread on the Verve member company forum that you can stamp the ornament designs IN the blank ornament. It was a DUH moment for me. Seems pretty basic, but for some reason it didn't click. WOW! The possibilities of this set just tripled -LOL!

I stamped and embossed the blank ornament first, then stamped the snowflake design in soft sky and lastly embossed the sentiment. When I embossed the sentiment a bit of the gold EP stuck to the soft sky, I think it looks cool -kind of a hybrid! I then lightly colored the inside with a blender pen with soft sky ink. All the DP is Basic Grey Figgy Pudding (so love that stuff!). The gold brads and the AWESOME satin edged organdy ribbon are from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts.

Speaking of Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts, don't forget that Heidi is offering a SUPER free gift with any purchase for my blog readers. She is giving a goodie bag away with all orders and a GRAB bag with orders over $50!! Just put sf9erfan or Michelle in the comments section of your order!! Thanks Heidi!!

Card Deets:
Stamps: ornamental christmas
Paper: sahara sand, white, figgy pudding
Ink: versamark, soft sky
Accessories: gold brads, satin edged organdy ribbon, gold EP, sponge, blender pen

A couple of weekend sketches

I love what Laura (Scrapnextras) does each weekend, doing all the blog weekend sketches with the same stamps and papers making a lovely set. Well, I actually had some time this weekend to do the same (well kinda)!! I was able to do 2 of the sketches using Flourishes stamps. Each card has NO designer paper (gasp) -I made my own using Flourishes Damask background stamp. Since I need to stock up on my sympathy/get well cards, this was perfect.

This first card uses Jen's Sketch for you to Try layout. I just love the font of the sentiments in Flourishes Many Sentiments set -so graceful and elegant. The main image is from Flourishes Spring Ephemerals. I inked up the flower with baroque burgundy and colored the stem with my old olive marker. I then painted the 2 blooms with red Shimmerz. The background of the card is Flourishes Damask. I drug the edges of all the panels thru my old olive ink pad to soften them a bit.I used Jen's Sketch For You To Try for the layout. The organdy ribbon is Lemon Yellow and the bling is Mint Green, both are from Flourishes. I took my heat gun for a few seconds on the ribbon bow, I love the crinkly look it gives.

Here is a close up:

The second card, I used the magnolia flower from the Flourishes Lilac set. I colored the flowers with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday's Simple Sentiments set. The background of the image panel is Flourishes Damask. I drug the edges of all the panels thru my sweet blush ink pad to soften them a bit. I used Beate's Weekend Sketch #67 for the layout. The organdy ribbon is Lemon Yellow from Flourishes. I took my heat gun on this one too.

Card Deets (card 1):
Stamps: spring ephemerals, damask, many sentiments
Paper: baroque burgundy, so saffron, old olive, white
Ink: old olive, baroque burgundy, black
Accessories: green gems, ticket corner punch, SU! large and small ovals, organdy ribbon, swiss dots folder, shimmerz

Card Deets (card 2):
Stamps: lilac, simple sentiments, damask
Paper: sweet blush (PTI), barely banana, white
Ink: black, sweet blush
Accessories: organdy ribbon, paper piercer

TECC43 Single Poinsettia

After a day of errands, I had time to stamp! I used Taylor's Cupcake Challenge sketch and came up with this card. I used Verve's newly released Christmas Poinsettia - man it is so beautiful. I colored it with prismacolor pencils and gamsol (I don't have any Copics that match Cranberry Crisp!). For the center, I used a combination of pink and Christmas red stickles. BUT, my son put his arm on the image when the stickles were wet, hence the dew drop in the center!! I cut out the poinsettia and put it on dimensionals.

The DP is Basic Grey Figgy Pudding and the dew drops are from the Island Blossom bottle. I dragged the edges of the white panels in Cranberry Crisp and Artichoke ink to lessen the brightness. I really wanted to do something else to this, I don't know, maybe some piercing, but after fussing around with it for about an hour I settled on the tafetta ribbon.

Card Deets:
Stamps - Christmas Poinsettia
Paper - cranberry crisp, chocolate chip, white, Figgy Pudding
Accessories - dew drops, stickles, chocolate tafetta ribbon, circle nesties

A WINNER and a FREE gift with purchase

...and the winner is...

Ida P. Krause!!!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers: 43
Timestamp: 2008-11-20 18:48:05 UTC

A great big thank you to EVERYONE who entered and who visits my blog. I am so humbled!

Now onto the free stuff!! Because of the great response from all of you to Heidi's store (Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts), she is offering some FREEBIES to my blog readers! From now until the end of November, she is giving a free goodie bag with EVERY purchase and if you purchase $50 or more, she will give you a free GRAB BAG (like the one in the blog candy)! Just put sf9erfan or Michelle in the comments section to let her know you heard of the deal here!! How fun and generous is that?!? Thank you Heidi!

Ida, please contact me with your address and I can get the goodies to you right away! You can PM me on SCS if you like.

DDC catty case

The Double Dog Dare challenge this week was hosted by ME! My challenge to the girls was to case a card from the current SU! catty! What fun :-) There is so much inspiration in that catty and I overlook it all the time.

I chose to case the far right card on page 132. I was inspired to bust out my wheel and use it, but realized it was the jumbo size and wouldn't be right for the layout. So, I used some of the fabric tape that I have had forEVAH by Cloud 9 Designs. I didn't buy them here, but here is a link of what I used. I painted Shimmaerz on the flowers for some extra shine.

The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday Simple Sentiments set, the flowers are prima, the branch punch is from Martha Stewart, and the rust brad and shimmerz are from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts.

Today's the last day to enter for my blog candy. You can comment on this post here.

Card Deets:
Stamps: Simple Sentiments
Paper: sage shadow, very vanilla, really rust
Ink: really rust
Accessories: primas, rust brad, flower punch, branch punch, shimmerz

Color challenge -my krafty snowman

This morning I had the experience of bringing both my boys (ages 3 and 4) with me to the dentist! I hadn't planned it that way, but my DH unexpectedly had to go out of town and these dental appts are scheduled months in advance. I was so nervous I didn't sleep a wink last night. So, I brought them back with me (why?) and after about 2 minutes and seeing the absolute look of HORROR on my 3 yo face, they were ushered to the front to play with some building blocks! Then all was GOOD and they were angels! I am so proud of them. Just had to share :-)

So after that, it was quite relaxing for me to get to play today's SCS color challenge. Em challenged us to use kraft, real red and black. I decided to use this cute little snowman from Verve's newly released Snow Wonderful. He is the CUTEST! I stamped the long snowflake stamp in versamark and embossed it with white EP on kraft paper. The snowman is colored with copic markers with the hat and scarf popped up and painted with shimmerz. The red tafetta ribbon, burlap string and shimmerz from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts.

Don't forget to scroll on down and enter my Blog Candy giveaway (thanks Heidi)! You have until Thursday. Enter on this post.

Card Deets:
Stamps: snow wonderful
Paper: black white kraft real red
Ink: Adirondack pitch black
Accessories: red rhinestones by Kaiser, red tafetta ribbon, shimmers, large and small oval punches, white EP

A razzle dazzle wedding card

I love soft colors and sparkle on wedding cards! This card is for 2 challenges. Each month, WishRAK has 3 challenges -one is always a sketch challenge and you need to use something received thru WishRAK. I haven't played in forevah, but now that I am a Dirty Dozen Alum, I have more time on my hands! This month's sketch challenge was to follow SC159 -easy peasy. This is also for this week's DDC challenge. Charlene (LilLuvsStampin) challenged us to Razzle Dazzle you all. Make a card using Dazzling Diamonds and some embossing in silver or gold.

I received the image from SU! To Have and To Hold thru WishRAK. I just LOVE the simple and elegant bride and groom from this set. For the dress (since I don't own the stamp), I traced the shape (against the window) onto a piece of white paper and cut it out. Then embossed it with the Swiss Dots folder, lightly sponged it with soft sky, applied Dazzling Diamonds to it and glued it down. The rest of the image is colored with copics.

The sentiment is from Verve's Flirty Phrases set and is embossed in silver. I punched it out with the word window punch and layered it onto a ribbon slider and flowers CB die cut. All layers are on dimensionals. The ribbon is SU! white grostrain and the bling is from Joanns.

If you haven't already done so, don't forget to enter for my super duper blog candy (thanks Heidi)! Enter on this post from Saturday. You have until Thursday to comment.

Card Deets:
Stamps: to have and to hold, flirty phrases
Paper: baja breeze, soft sky, baja breeze DSP
Ink: versamark, unknown black
Accessories: bling, SU white grosgrain, word window punch, cuttlebug ribbon slider and flowers diecuts, swiss dots, corner rounder, glitter, heat and stick

Featured Stamper day!

I love Sundays! After making a yummy breakfast for the family, I had time to browse through today's Featured Stamper's gallery. Today it is Kendra! What a fun gallery she has. I was very inspired by this cute card. I kept the clean look, brads and layout. I changed the color scheme, ribbon placement, added an extra layer, and stamp set.

I used the inspiration to make a little gift set of cards. My sister is giving away my sets to some of her friends this Christmas, so I have to get crack-a-lackin'!! This set has 2 birthday (one masculine, one feminine), 2 thank you cards and 1 any occasion. I used different colors of cardstock, inks and ribbons for the set. I like how they came out. Cute, but not too overdone. Took me on and off all day to do the 5, but I was interrupted quite a bit.

For most of the cards I used Verve's Abundant Blessings for the images, Petals and Stems for the butterfly and various Verve sets for the sentiments. To get both colors on the flower/cat tail images, I inked up the tips and then used a marker for the stems. For the masculine birthday card, I used Verve's Polka Stars set which are punched out with the large and small SU star punches. The large and red stars are on dimensionals. The sentiment is from Verve's Happy Thoughts. The ribbons are from SU, Strano Designs and May Arts. The brads and burlap string are from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts.

In case you missed it, I am giving away some SUPER blog candy. Scroll down to the next post for all the deets!

P.S. If anyone knows how I can get my pictures to post bigger, please let me know. I have them load to the "large" size... I am thinking it's how I save them in Photoshop Element. I save them at 800 pixels. Any suggestions are welcome!!

Card Deets:

Stamps - abundant blessings, petals and stems, polka stars, happy thoughts

Paper - night of navy, bordering blue, banana, cranberry crisp, more mustard, artichoke, river rock, ridinghood red white

Accessories - various ribbons, brads, bling, swiss dots EF, large and small star punches, red brads, burlap string

BLOG CANDY time!

Woohoo! Some time last week I passed the 20,000 hit mark! WOW, a big thank you to all of you who have stopped by. So, in celebration, I have some amazing goodies to give away. Heidi from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts has GENEROUSLY donated the blog candy. A BIG thank you Heidi, you ROCK girlie!!

So what is it you ask? A grab bag (which contains 25 yards of ribbon, 50 assorted eyelets and 50 assorted brads -10 each of 5 different colors), a complete mini set of brads (which contains 10 brads of EVERY color in her store) a total of 590 brads, and 10 storage containers!

To enter, just leave me a comment on this post and I will pick one lucky winner on Thursday, Nov 20th. Good luck and thanks again for stopping by!!

Elzy challenge day

Today is the day we all post our Elzy challenge cards. This challenge was to use Paper Piercing. This is such a fun technique. I just LOVE piecing Elzy's clothes to match the card. I am SUCH a matchy-matchy person!! You can click here to see all the Design Team's piercing goodness. The next challenge has been announced, it's a SKETCH challenge! Yippee! Click here to see the sketch and find out how YOUR card can be shown in the challenge gallery.

For this card, I used Winter Girl. She is colored with Copic markers, has liquid applique on her trim and the ground and falling snow is stickles. I used some of last years Christmas paper from my stash and followed Jen's Sketch For You To Try. It is hard to see in the picture, but I use one of the Heidi Swapp's acrylic snowflakes. I covered it in stickles so it wasn't too transparent. I used some of my wire to wrap around it for some interest. I bought a HUGE set of colored wire about 2 years ago and never use it. Thought this snowflake would be perfect to bust out that box! LOL! The navy organdy and light blue grosgrain ribbons are from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts.

SOOOOO... I thought as long as I had all the supplies out, I thought I would make another card using the same layout and paper. Only, for this one I used Verve's newly released Ornamental Christmas. Isn't it cool how an identical card using only a different image can be so different? There is such an elegand feel to the ornament card and a fun whimsical feel to the Elzy card.

More Elzy news! There is a WINNER announced on Elizabeth's blog for the Christmas competition. I have to say, there were some AMAZING entries. A big thank you to everyone who played along and CONGRATS to the winners. Click here to see the results.

Card Deets:

Stamps - Winter Girl

Stamps - Ornamental Christmas

Paper - Night of navy, white, bashful blue, misc DP

Accessories - acrylic snowflake, wire, ribbons, silver EP (for ornament), liquid applique

SCS Sketch challenge #202

This card is for today's sketch challenge over on SCS. I flipped the layout to accommodate my hanging ornament. I did mention I am so in love with Verve's new set Ornament Christmas?? Hope you don't get tired of seeing these, cause I have another to share tomorrow!!

I embossed the ornament, cap and wire with Gold EP and watercolored the ornament and strips with Sahara Sand and Baroque Burgundy. I cut out the cap and ornaments and glued them to the paper, for a tiny bit of dimension. I stamped the tree branches in black and went over them with a copic marker. I got this idea from Julee's amazing card. The gold cardstock is retired from Creative Memories. The gold cord, brads and organdy ribbon are all from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts.

Card Deets:
Stamps: ornamental christmas
Paper: white, gold, cranberry crisp, wassail
Ink: versamark, black
Accessories: gold EP, copic markers for tree branch, fiji watercolor brush, gold cord, organdy and brads