ColorQing My Mojo

Since I'm really enjoying (aka addicted to) making circle cards lately, I chose to go with the round version of this week's Mojo sketch.  For some reason, a snowflake came to mind when I saw the circle in the sketch!  Not sure why because we are having simply glorious weather right now!!  Warm temps and lots of sunshine - a fabulous last kick at summer :) 

Since there were going to be snowflakes involved, and I didn't want to use my same old boring go to colour combo of navy, brocade blue and silver, so I decided to browse through some colour challenges to see if I could find something that spoke to me.  I ended up settling on this ColorQ mix as it looked like a fun colour combination to use on a snowflake card.

Two neutrals were a bit tricky at first, but a bit of fiddling and I think it worked out okay.  However, now that I look at my card, I should have added a white mat between the gray and vanilla layers and maybe embossed the vanilla layer as it looks a pit plain...darn hindsight LOL!  May have to go back and rework it a bit :)

A morning meeting and then off to go mow my lawn -- one of the drawbacks of having such warm, sunny weather this late in the Fall!  Also a great chance to clean out the garden for winter.  Thanks for dropping in today, it's always appreciated and sure helps knowing I'm not just talking to myself out here in blog land LOL!  Have a fabulous day :)




What's In It?
Stamps: Memory Box
Paper:  Basic Grey, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, White
Ink:  Black
Accessories:  Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch, Marvy Snowflake Punch, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Bling, Dimensionals

Color Dare 78

Color Dare 78

Daffodil Delight

Chocolate Chip

Very Vanilla

After getting my butt kicked by last week's colours it was wonderful to be able to play with this week's colours LOL!   Wonderful Fall colours, and where there is Chocolate Chip, I am a happy stamper :)

Out came my October Afternoon DP and to work I went.  I used an OCC sketch that I've been wanting to get to for a while now.  I paired it with, you guessed it, some more of my new Verve!  This sentiment is so wonderful, even though it turned out a bit blurry in the picture - UGH!  It says "May your life be like a wild flower growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day" -- how true!  I over stamped the sentiment with a flower from Verve's Kind Words set  and finished things off with a bow and some half pearls.  Looking at it now, I am very tempted to go back and emboss or put some score lines on the cream panel as it seems a bit plain.  Will have to see what I come up with.

Until then, the rest of the Team has lots of inspiration for you.  You can check out their creations here:

• Glenda Wyatt at Paper, Scissors, Rocks 
• Heater Prince at Princess Scrapper Stamper
• Joan Jeffery at JJ's Creations
• Melissa Hubert at My Paper Obsession
• Nance Lempinen-Leedy at Canopy Crafts
• Riley Fitzgerald at Stampin' With Riley  (our leader)

We'd love you to join us!  Simply create a card using this week's colours and add your card to InLinkz on the The Colour Dare Blog.  If  you are uploading to a public gallery, please make sure to use the keyword CD78.   Each week, Riley will select a Featured Stamper and showcase your card on her blog, as well as noting two honorable mentions. 

What's In It?

Stamps:  (Verve) Kind Words, Feel The Sun

Paper:  So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, October Afternoon DP, Cream Linen

Ink:  So Saffron, Chocolate Chip

Accessories:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, 5/8" Brown Satin Ribbon, Button, Twine, Glue Dot, Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Butterflies, Flowers and Dots Oh My

This is Verve's last September challenge and I was in the mood for some bold colours today so this inspiration picture was perfect :)  In addition, I found some ribbon during one of my Micheal's ribbon bin diving adventures that was a perfect match so I was good to go! 

I succumbed to not only one dotted embossing folder but two!  Swiss Dots, my go to embossing folder, and Seeing Spots the large circle embossing folder.  Yes.....my addiction is getting worse LOL!  Not only that, but I also have butterflies and flowers (in the ribbon) on the card.  Happy sigh.....LOL!   Now the ever present waiting and hoping to see your name selected as the winner of the entire next Verve release :)

In the mean time, I get to enjoy wearing my ColorQueen crown for the week as this card was selected as last week's ColorQ winner.  My day just keeps getting better :)

Back tomorrow with my Color Dare card.  I'm much happier with this week's card as I'm still suffering from the butt kicking last week's colours gave me LOL!  Enjoy your day :)




What's In It?
Stamps:  (SU) Flight of the Butterfly, Amuse
Paper:  Going Grey, Basic Black, Real Red
Ink:  Black
Accessories:  Swiss Dots and Seeing Spots Embossing Folders, SU Butterfly Punch, 5/8" Ribbon from Micheal's, Black Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Fabulous Just The Way You Are

What a fun CAS sketch, and a great one to be able to create a background panel with.

Since my Verve stamps were still out on my desk, I just had to use them again LOL!  This is my all time favorite release by Julee and I am still madly in love with all these fabulous Verve flowers (just in case you hadn't noticed) as well as the wonderful sentiments that go with the sets.

Out came Great Friend, and I used the smallest flower outline image to make the background panel using last week's Curtain Call colours as they are fabulous flower colours.  I mated the flower panel in black and carried it over to the black scallops down the side (love those PTI scallop dies!).  I embossed the white background panel with the Nat embossing folder Kathy Jones sent me (still loving it,  Kathy - thanks again!) and the sentiment is from Love's Bloom (another fabulous Verve font).  I scalloped the ends of the sentiment panel so they tied in with the side scallops, added some black half pearls on a few of the flowers and finished things off with a red butterfly for a pop of colour.

Have another idea peculating in my mind for this layout and hope to be able to get to it today :)  However, my craft room desperately needs some clean up first - oh the chores one must do in order to be able to stamp LOL!   Have a fabulous day!




What's In It?
Stamps:  (Verve) Great Friend and Love's Bloom
Paper:  Black, White
Ink:  Lovely Lilac, Only Orange, Real Red, Old Olive
Accessories:  PTI Large Scalloped Die, Scalloped Scissors, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Half pearls, Nat Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

Dream Big Pals

This was a fun Pals Paper Arts sketch so I thought I would give it a go. Still playing with my new Verve flowers and loving them :)

Kept things pretty simple for this card. I used the Act 48 Curtain Call colours (and just realized I missed the submission deadline again!) as they were wonderful flower colours and there was green for the stems LOL!    I popped up the middle flower and added buttons to the centers.  Had to look high and low for a purple button, and this was the best I could do.  It' a very dark purple which almost looks black, but it is purple, I promise!  My purple issues continued when I realized I didn't have matching ribbon so I had to go with this one instead.  The sentiment panel is in lieu of the circle and a few black half pearls around it added a little "oomph".

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!  Thanks for sharing a part of yours with me (((hugs)))





What's In It?
Stamps:  (Verve) Dream Big
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Only Orange
Ink:  Only Orange, Lovely Lilac, Real Red, Old Olive
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Buttons, Twine, Glue Dots, Half pearls, Ribbon, Dimensionals

Fall Leaves Circle Card

I just love Fall colours, both to decorate with and wear, so this ColorQ challenge was right up my alley :)  My first thought was to pull out Stampin' Up's Season of Friendship tree, but then I realized there is no brown in the challenge and a green tree trunk just didn't sit right with me LOL!  Option B didn't take long as I'm still madly in love with PTI's Turning A New Leaf set and it fit this colour scheme perfectly.

Since I had so much fun making my  last circle card I just had to make another one (this could become my next addiction)!  The base is Old Olive and the leaves include all the challenge colours.  Some how Swiss Dots managed to get in on the action as did some ruffled ribbon -- looks like all my addictions are out in full force on this card LOL!  A buttoned bow and some butterflies finished things off.

Since I got no where near planting my pansies or cleaning up my craft area last weekend, it is back on the agenda this weekend.  Will see how far I get this time round LOL!  Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend :)




What's In It?
Stamps:  (PTI) Turning A New Leaf
Paper: Old Olive, White
Ink:  Old Olive, Real Red, Only Orange, So Saffron
Accessories:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, 5/8" Red Satin Ribbon, Double Sided Sticky Tape, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch,  Half Pearls, Button, Twine, Glue Dot

I Love You So Much

This Just Add Ink sketch was the perfect sketch to work with today as time was tight.

I decided to use hearts for the focal image on the right hand side and got to use my new PTI Signature Sayings set too.  Love the mix of fonts in this set :)  The hearts are embossed with one of the leaves from the Stylized Flowers embossing folder to tie in with the leaves on the hearts, and I added a button on each heart for a little something.  Had fun using the ruffled ribbon technique again too :)

Gotta run, lots to get done today :) Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!




What's In It?
Stamps:  (PTI) Signature Sayings
Paper:  Pretty In Pink, K & Company Smitten heart Stripe DP
Accessories:  5/8" Red Satin Ribbon, Heart and Scalloped Heart Nesties, Stylized Flowers Embossing Folder, Red Buttons, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

Color Dare 77

Color Dare 77

Tempting Turquoise

Poppy Parade

Pumpkin Pie

Not Quite Navy

Well, these colours got the best of me LOL!  I had one heck of a time putting them together - ugh!  Not totally happy with my card, but it will have to do as I can't go another round LOL!   I had to substitute with Real Red and Only Orange and the colour is turquoise but looks a bit more blue in the picture.

Pretty straight forward layout.  Got to use my new PTI Medium Scalloped die and pulled out my SU Butterfly die as I haven't used it for a bit.  Added French Script to the orange panel and embossed the butterfly with my Birds and Swirls embossing folder.  The white ribbon  needed something and another button wasn't working so I punched out a flower to put there instead.

The rest of the Team has lots of inspiration for you.  You can check out their creations here:

• Glenda Wyatt at Paper, Scissors, Rocks 
• Heater Prince at Princess Scrapper Stamper
• Joan Jeffery at JJ's Creations
• Melissa Hubert at My Paper Obsession
• Nance Lempinen-Leedy at Canopy Crafts
• Riley Fitzgerald at Stampin' With Riley  (our leader)

We'd love you to join us!  Simply create a card using this week's colours and add your card to InLinkz on the The Colour Dare Blog.  If  you are uploading to a public gallery, please make sure to use the keyword CD75.   Each week, Riley will select a Featured Stamper and showcase your card on her blog, as well as noting two honorable mentions. 

What's In It?

Stamps:  (SU) French Script Background Stamp

Paper: Night of Navy, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red

Ink:  Only Orange

Accessories:  Labels 4 Nestie, SU Butterfly Die, PTI Medium Scallop Die, Button, Marvy Flower Punch, Twine, Glue Dot, Red Half Pearl, 5/8" White Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Happy Birthday Circle Card

I have been inspired by the multitude of amazing circle cards Michelle Woerner recently made on this post (as well as some following posts).  She is the queen of circle cards I tell you!!  Thanks for the inspiration, Michelle  :)


I used an old Just Add Ink colour challenge because I just love these colours together, and they were a good fit for my daughter.  It's her birthday tomorrow and she is growing up into such a beautiful young lady, both inside and out.  She has a huge heart, loves to help people, is very creative and artistic (why didn't I get more of those genes LOL!), describes things in the most amazing word pictures, and has a wonderfully, wicked sense of humour.  She stretches me in many ways as she is much more emotional than I am LOL!  I have to work hard at being able to relate to her when she gets overly emotional about things and make myself think of things from her perspective rather than my no-nonsense, just make-a-logical-decision-and-move-forward kind of perspective LOL!  Some of our "let's work through what's bothering you" conversations wear me out, but in the end, they are always worth it as she very much appreciates them.  Needless to say, I love her to bits and am so blessed to have her as my daughter :)

I am also very proud of her for accomplishing the Grouse Grind yesterday (see this post for details).  It was pouring, and I mean pouring rain the whole time we were driving to the Grind (not to mention how hard it rained over night) and I questioned my signing up to be a class parent on this trip LOL!  Thankfully, the rain eased to a drizzle as we got to the trail head.

It was a very misty and wet hike up the Grind with little streams of water all over the place (insert, soaking wet shoes, shirt and baseball hat), but everyone made it to the top and can now proudly say they have done The Grind :)  One boy in my daughter's class did it in 44 minutes which is an amazing time!!  Most kids clocked between 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes.  My poor little punkin had a hard go of it and it took her 2 hours and 15 minutes, but she pushed through and made it!  True to herself she came up with a few great comments along the way:  "I don't think I"ll be talking to Mrs. R (her teacher) for a few days for her making us do this", "There is no way I'm smiling for the picture because it wasn't fun" (they took a picture of everyone as they got to the top), and the kicker, "Even if daddy paid me $100 I wouldn't do this again!" LOL!  She was spent, but a real trooper and can now proudly say she has done "The Grind" :)

As Murphy's Law would have it, on the gondola ride down the sun was shining and the view of Vancouver was spectacular.  I would actually like to see what my time would be on my own so I may venture up there some time in the next year just to find out.  Failing that, I'll be doing it again in a few years when my son gets into that grade LOL!

Thanks for popping in today and sorry for all the rambling.  Just enjoying a proud mommy moment :)  Have a fabulous day!




What's In It?
Stamps: (Verve) Kind Words, Great Friend
Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Kraft, So Saffron DSP
Ink:  Black
Accessories:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Martha Stewart Leaf Punch, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Green Button, Twine, Glue Dot, Black Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Verve September Week 4

As many of you know, I love the colour green so this picture was a shoe in for me.  I totally bypassed the zebra print chairs and focused on the wall paper with it's leaves, greens and pops of blue.

I pulled out my Verve Plain Jane leaf image and had some fun.  Blue leaves just didn't look right, even though there are some on the wall paper, so I used Celery and Olive on the leaves and added some blue buttons from my Michael's $1.50 bin score.  Sure hope they bring them back again as I'll buy them out LOL!  I used the black from the zebra chairs as my accent colour, added Swiss Dots to the green panels for some dimension and I'm happy to say I'm all caught up on my Verve challenges for the first time since May and it feels good!!

Today I'm joining my daughter's class as they do the Grouse Grind, and a grind it is!!  You are walking up to the top of one of our local ski hills (Grouse Mountain) and it is a an extremely steep and mountainous trail with an 800 foot elevation over a distance of approximately 2.9 kilometers.  For the average person, if you do it in under 1.5 hours you are doing well, under an hour is getting pretty impressive, and under 45 minutes is superb!  This summer, a university student set a new record of  27 minutes!!  Insane!!!

This is a picture of part of the trail.  It's a very popular "conditioning" trail, and many people do it 3 or more times a week.  The real bummer is you have to pay to ride down the gondola!  The first time I did it (over 20 years ago now)  I couldn't believe it!  After sweating away on the trail, I figured you deserved a free ride down LOL!  However, so many people do it on a daily basis I can appreciate why they have to charge for the ride down. You can actually buy a season's pass to save yourself some money.   I'll let you know how I make out as it's been over 10 years since I've done it!         

Thanks for popping in for a visit today.  It's always wonderful to have some company in blog land LOL! Have a fabulous day.




What's In It?
Stamps:  (Verve) Leaf Plain Jane, Savvy
Paper:  Brilliant Blue, Certainly Celery, Old Olive
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Old Olive
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Blue Buttons, Black Half Pearls, Black Ribbon, Dimensionals

ColorQing My New Verve Flowers

Sorry about the picture.  I had to do an indoor picture and didn't  have much time to take the picture so it's a lot on the green side LOL!  Will redo it in the morning.

Mercy provided yet another wonderful sketch and I decided to combine it with this week's ColorQ50.  I'm not totally sold on this card...the white needed something as it is a bit stark. My mind is saying I should have embossed the white background panel (yes, Swiss Dots came to mind, or at least some sort of pattern) and then stamping something on the celery panel rather than embossing it.  That's what happens when you are in a hurry.  May have to go back and change it up tomorrow LOL! 

I flipped the sketch so I could use more of my new Verve flowers....happy "sighs" continue LOL!  This time I cut and layered the flowers from the Dream Big set.  The rest of the card is pretty self explanatory.

Have a great Sunday!  I'm off to keep playing with my new Verve - hope you don't get sick of it!





What's In It?
Stamps:  (Verve) Dream Big, (SU) Fancy Flexible Phrases
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Real Red, Only Orange
Ink:  Certainly Celeary, Real Red, Black
Accessories:  Circle Nesties, Seeing Sports Embossing Folder, SU Border Punch, Button, Red Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Echos of Kindness

Loved this Colour Throwdown combo when I saw it and knew I wanted to use it.  I don't own any Razzleberry yet, so I substituted Rose Red.  Even more fun was getting totally giddy about being able to play with my new Verve flowers while making this card!!  I just love this gorgeous flower!

This Inkspirations sketch was a perfect fit!  I cut and layered the flower, but it seemed a bit dull so I added glitter to all the layers, and to myself LOL!  This got me laughing out loud because a few days ago Andrea Ewen was commenting about being covered in red sparkles after putting them on a Verve flower :)  We'd be a great, sparkly pair at a Christmas Party LOL!  In addition, it brought to mind a line from a great Veggie Tale.  It's the one about the story of Shadrack, Mishack and Abednego and the fiery furnace.  The line I am relating to right about now is when they have been tossed into the fiery furnace and Mr. Lundt says "Hey boss, there are four of them in there and one is reeeeeeeal shiny".

Julee has done an amazing job combining fonts on this fabulous Mother Teresa quote!!  I think we have all benefited from the kind words of others and it is a good reminder to be the one who shares kind words (not just thinks them) and touches the lives of others in ways we may never know.

My son's soccer team gets a bye this weekend and we don't have much planned - a lull before future weekend storms LOL!!  Weather permitting, I hope to clean out my summer planters and replace them with winter pansies.  In addition, I need to clean up my stamp!  Let's just say I've been having a bit too much fun with my new found "mommy time" and neglected the tidy up side of stamping.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone :)





What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve - Echoes of Kindness, Great Friend, (PTI) Turning A New Leaf
Paper:  Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Basic Great DSP
Ink:  Rose Red, Pretty in Pink
Accessories:  Scalloped Scissors, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Black Button, Twine, Glue Dot, Dimensionals

Verve September Week 3 Sketch

Amber found the most amazing vinyl wall are site.  You can see it here.  I had so much fun looking through it and had hard a hard time settling on which picture to use.  In the end, this one won out.  Flowers and butterflies, what more could I ask for LOL!

I used some October Afternoon DP and paired it with a bright orange that I VersaMarked with the flower image from Stampin' Up's Background Basics (even though it doesn't really show up in the picture).  The focal image is a combination of an image from PTI's Turning A  New Leaf and the small flower from SU's For All You Do set.  A bit of brown ribbon and a button and I am all caught up on my Verve sketches for this month - yeah!  Well, until today's anyway LOL!

Still reveling in my alone time....happy sigh :)  After this week I will have add a few things to the schedule - like a regular exercise routine so I don't lose out on all the wonderful things swimming laps this summer did for me!  Until then, I am going to play with my Verve order which finally arrived yesterday!! Yes, three and a half weeks of sheer torture waiting for all those fabulous Verve flowers and sentiments to arrive!!  It's my new US PO Box all the way next time LOL!  I'm getting giddy simply thinking about being able to use them!

Happy stamping :)




What's In It?
Stamps:  (PTI) Turning A New Leaf, (SU) Background Basics, (SU) For All You Do
Paper:  October Afternoon DP, Chocolate Chip, Only Orange, Black, White
Ink: VersaMark, Chocolate Chip, Only Orange
Accessories:  Circle Punch, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, 1/4" Grosgrain Brown Ribbon, Button, Glue Dot, Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Curtain Call Act 47

Absolutely love the colours Stacey chose this week.  Lovely neutrals with a pop of Artichoke.  Happy sigh...LOL!

I combined the colours with this week's CAS sketch FTL107 and cheated by using the sketch as my card!  I just love this tree image and will use any excuse to use it LOL!  It was a bit of a challenge inking the image with my Stamping Spots since I don't have markers, so it isn't as perfect as I'd like it, but it will have to do :)  Squeezed in some Kraft, oops I mean Crumb Cake, via the button and twine and switched the sentiment to the other side.  A simple card, but I quite like it.

Back tomorrow with another card - so fun to be able to say and do that again :)




What's In It?
Stamps:  (SU) Thoughts And Prayers
Paper:  Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, White
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke
Accessories:  Martha Stewart Border Punch, Button, Twine, Glue Dot