Sunshine Award

Vicki Dutcher over at All I Do Is Stamp gave me this wonderful Sunshine Award.  Just love the colour combo in this picture.  Thank you so much, Vicki!!

I have to in turn pass it on to six  other people.  Here is my list:

Stacey at Stacey's Stamping Stage (for bringing me sunshine via a DT position on the Curtain Call Crew)
Julie at Stamps and Taxes (to bring her some sunshine during a busy accounting season)
Julee at Poetic Artistry (for creating such wonderful Verve stamps that I enjoy so much!)
Amber Hight at ScrappingScrapbooker (for providing weekly sketches on the Verve Forum)
Karen Giron at the sweetest thing (for providing wonderful weekly sketches)
Mercy Kerin at Lord Have Mercy! (for providing wonderful weekly sketches)

Spring Break has been very busy, but hopefully I can get some time to stamp tomorrow or Friday!

Hope to be back soon!!

The Results Of My Reuse and Recycle Hunt

The final Verve Release Challenge was to reuse/recycle something.  I  had to go on the hunt for something to use because nothing came to mind right away.  It felt like I was going on an Easter eggs hunt without knowing what I was looking for :D  My search ended when I found a shoe box in the basement.  My daughter is in the "leave everything everywhere" stage so I thought I would make her a nice box to be able to put all her hair accessories in (at least that is my idea of what the box is to be used for, she may come up with a totally different use for it LOL!).  I dug into my slowly shrinking pack of Costco DP and found this lovely rose paper.  I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get through it all.  My mind obviously wasn't in Costco mode when I bought it....ahem, large volume store!  I will press on and one day it will be gone :D

My daughter is a very girly girl (unlike her athletic, practical mother) so this DP was perfect.  I covered the box and the lid with the DP and added a white trim around all the edges.  As you can see from the picture, I wasn't on the ball enough to think of using one piece of white paper punched on both sides to trim around the lid rather than using two different pieces and having a dividing line show on some of the sides - ugh!  A Project gal I am not LOL!  Next I ran some pink grosgrain ribbon around the lid and added a bow to the middle of each side for a little something.  Just before I finished, my daughter came into the room and asked who the box  was for because she just loved it - score!!

With this, my Verve Release Challenges are done - yeah!  Thanks for walking through these challenges with me.  It's been a busy weekend! Now all that is left to do is wait and see whether I get lucky enough to win some Verve.

Just to let you know, I may be a bit scarce over the next two weeks due to my kids being off on Spring Break.  My little guy has more energy than the rest of us combined and isn't one for sitting around much, so for everyone's sanity, we need to get out and about LOL! 

Thank you all for your your wonderful comments and visits.  They truly make my day.  Have a great week and hope to be back soon!





What's In It?
Paper:  Costco DP, White
Accessories:  SU Border punch, Double Sided Tape, Glue Dots, Tape

Ribbon Flower Tag

As you can tell by the picture, Verve Release Challenge #4 is to make a tag.  I saw a fabulous ribbon flower on a blog the other day (can't find the link right now so I'll go hunting for it and post it later) and thought this would be the perfect thing to put on a tag.  I used the larges Label 4 Nestie die to make the tag and just cut off the very bottom portion so it was flat.  The ribbon flower was made by cutting a pieces of ribbon about 1 1/4" long,  folding them over and sticking the ends together with a glue dot to make each petal.  I then placed a large glue dot in the middle of my white panel so I could adhere each ribbon petal to it. Once they were all adhered, I added a blue button with some twine to the middle with a glue dot.  I had a heck of a time with my Crop-A-Dile and my eyelets (it kept eating them and making my hole at the top larger - ugh!) so I ended up just threading my ribbon through at the top.

Four down and one last Verve challenge to go - yeah!  Now I have to go on a hunt for something I can reuse/ recycle into a project.  See you again once I find something and recycle it :D






What's In It?
Paper:  Pretty in Pink, White
Accessories:  Label 4 Nesties, 1/4" Lavender Grosgrain Ribbon, Blue Button, Twine, Glue Dots, SU Border Punch

Flowers of Today

The second Verve release challenge was to make a card with this sketch.  I don't know why, but this sketch gave me grief.  In all honesty, I think I'm in a post Olympic funk - ugh!  Nothing seems to be coming together for me without a lot of blood, sweat and tears. 

I started things off with a piece of DP and went from there.  Love this sentiment by Verve and tried my hardest to make this an all Verve card, but I didn't have the right Verve flower image to do so - bummer.  So, out came SU's Happy Harmony set.  The flower filled the sentiment panel up wonderfully, and most importantly it filled the top right side of the sentiment panel very nicely.  Of course, where there are flowers, there have to be butterflies so out came my new SU butterfly die.  I added a border along the bottom with the new SU border punch, put some soft green half pearls on the butterfly and tied it all together (no pun intended) with some pink, satin ribbon.  Off to work on a tag next.

Thanks for popping in.  Have a blessed day :D

What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve, (SU) Happy Harmony
Paper: Costco DP, Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean
Ink: Pretty in Pink
Accessories:  SU Butterfly Die, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, SU Border punch, Scalloped Circle and Circle Nesties, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Curtain Call Colour Challenge Act 20

This is my first attempt at my first official Curtain Call Crew Design Team card.  I love the colours Stacey came up with week and decided to pair them up with Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge.

Quite often when I see green in a colour combination I immediately think of flowers, my favorite thing to stamp.  Plus, I have no shortage of options since almost half my stamps involve flowers  LOL!  That being said, I pulled out my Verve Petals and Stems set and went to work. 

Since the red really "pops" against the other colours I used it for the flower colour and accented the middle with blue. Of course, where there are polka dots, a Swiss Dots embossing folder will be sure to follow LOL!  I used sheer red ribbon to tie in with the flowers and added a small, red, half pearl in each corner of the scalloped square to balance things off.  My final addition was a little happy birthday tag to fill in some of the space on that side.

The longer I looked at this card the less I liked it so I decided to make a second sample card as a back up (think I have some first time DT jitters here LOL!).  This time I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  I tend towards a lot of white space on my cards but this time red won out :D  I used a Marvy punch to make the daisies, embossed the centers of the flowers for some texture and finished things off with some blue satin ribbon.  I like this one better than the first one.  So, you get a twofer on my first Curtain Call Crew  DT colour challenge sample!  Just don't be expecting two cards every week, okay LOL!
 

The rest of the Curtain Call Crew have some wonderful samples for your inspiration.

• Amy White - Delvinwhite Designs
• Andrea Roose - Andrea's Scrap -und Stampel Blog
• Iwona Palamountain (Chupa) - Random Acts of Creativity
• Julie Smith - Paper and Such
• Lea Lawson - Cupcakes and Sunshine 
• Melissa Hubert - My Paper Obsession 
• Shelley Germann - Stampin' Garden 
• Sue Kohler - My Inner Reflection 
• Stacey Sohafer - Stacey's Stamping Stage (Our Director) 

We'd love it if you joined us too!!  Simply create a card using this week's colours and add your card to Mr. Linky on Stacey's blog.  If  you are uploading to a public gallery, please make sure to use the keyword Curtain Call.  Every week, Stacey will select a person to receive her "Curtain Call Show Stopper Award" which you can post on your blog, so come on over and join the fun :D

Just to let you know, things may be a little quieter than normal for the next two weeks.  My kids have had their Spring Break extended to two weeks this year because the district had a large budget deficit and are saving money by closing the schools for an additional week.  That means mommy gets to do lots of activities with the kids and most likely not spend as much time in my stamping room. 

Hope to post a card sooner versus later.  Until then, thanks for sharing a part of your day with me!

What's In It?
Stamps:  (Verve) Petals and Stems
Paper:  Bashful Blue, Real Red, Certainly Celery
Ink:  Bashful Blue, Real  Red, Certainly Celery
Accessories:  Oval Nesties, SU Border Punch, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Marvy Daisy Punch, 5/8" Sheer Red Ribbon, 5 /8" Blue Satin Ribbon, Tag Punch, Red Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Cherish Flowers

Verve's third release challenge is to make a card using these colours.  I decided to pair Wild Wassabi, Chocolate Chip and So Saffron with this CAS (clean and simple) Fall to Layout #76 that has been sitting on my desk for weeks now.  I have come across many cards made with this sketch and have loved every one of them.  The clincher that made me have to use this sketch today was seeing it yet again, this time showcasing one of Kristina's beautiful creations on her blog.  I flipped the sketch so everything would fit on my card and even left the background white panel as is. Very CAS indeed!  Two challenges down and three to go.

Off to mow the lawn now as we have had some amazing weather and the grass has decided to take advantage of it!! Think we passed about 25 people mowing their lawns today when we went out for our family walk/bike ride (kids bike hubby and I hoof it LOL!).  The cherry trees and magnolia trees are bursting into bloom, the sun is shining, the skies are blue, the birds are chirping - a postcard picture type of day :D  Hope your day has been as enjoyable.  Back soon with the next challenge.       

What's In It?
Paper: Wild Wassabi, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron
Accessories: Marvy Flower Punch, 5/8" Brown Satin Ribbon, Brads, Dimensionals

CAS Fan Flower

In the event you haven't heard, today is a Verve release day :D  That means some fun challenges that could win you some free Verve!!  All the challenges will be posted on the Verve Blog and you will have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, March 8th to get them all done.  Julee will then announce the winners on Tuesday, March 9th.  In addition, if you want to practice your typing and speed reading skills, you can join us at the Verve Forum on SCS for a one hour release party starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time.  The after party will involve a Verve Diva Blog Hop where the Divas will be strutting their stuff and showcasing the new Verve releases.

This is my card for the first Verve Release Challenge which was to make a CAS (clean and simple) flower card - score!!   I chose to go with a fan fold flower that was in one of the SU mini's last year.  Here is the SCS tutorial.  Just make sure you have a large glue dot to keep the flower together, especially when working with stiffer paper - don't ask me how I know LOL!

I used some DP for the flower and then pulled in a few of the colours from the DP for the rest of the card.  I punched a scalloped border on the left side and since the right side was a bit empty, I added a brown half pearl to each corner.  One down, four to go  :D  See you soon!





What's In It?
Paper:  So Saffron, Costco DPs
Accessories:  SU Scalloped Border Punch, Scor-Pal, Brown Half Pearls, Glue Dots

Still Trying To Catch Up!

I finally  had a chance to get to his week's Verve Inspiration Challenge and sketch - phew!  Amazing how taking three or four days out of a stamping routine to watch the Olympics can mess things up but good LOL! 

I chose this lovely kitchen picture as my inspiration because I just loved the soft colours.  Being a totally non-Shabby Chic type of gal, I stayed clear away from that option LOL!  As I continued to look for some "Option B" inspiration, my eye was drawn to the vase with flowers that is on the kitchen table.  I'm a sucker for flowers so I decided to use a vase with flowers as the focal image for my card.

To create my vase I used the largest Stampin' Up oval punch and just trimmed a bit off the bottom to make it look like a vase. A circle punch created the "hole" in the top of the vase, but it ended up getting covered up by my flowers LOL!   I used a combination of Marvy punches to make the flowers.  The larger flower is Blush Blossom and the smaller inner flower is Sahara Sand.  The rest of the card is pretty self explanatory.

Can't wait to see what Amber has in store for us this Friday :D  Enjoy your day!





What's In It?
Paper: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Mellow Moss, Blush Blossom
Accessories:  SU Large Scalloped Punch, Marvy Flower Punches, Scalloped Square and Square Nesties, Dimensionals

Curtain Call Meets Martha's Lily

This week's Curtain Call Colour Challenge colours are lovely together.  Unfortunately, I didn't own any Razzleberry so I had to substitute with Eggplant, but it works wonderfully with this combo too :D  

This gorgeous flower is a Martha Stewart water lily punch.  I used my 50% coupon to get it - score!  Bonus is I already have the small version of the same punch so it will be perfect for combining the two on a card.  The sketch I used was this week's Verve Inspiration Challenge sketch.  It's a wonderful sketch to work with and you'll be seeing it again soon once I make my card for the Verve challenge LOL!  I used my Nesties to frame the main image and added some pink half pearls to the middle of the flower over the holes the punch makes.  A pearl in each corner framed the flower wonderfully and also tied in with the pink satin ribbon.

Off to catch up on some more challenges and all the other things that got put on hold over the past two weeks!  Have a fabulous day :D

What's In It?
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Bashful Blue, Cream Linen
Accessories:  Scalloped Square and Square Nesties, Martha Stewart Large Water Lily Punch, Pink Half Pearls, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Seeds of Today

After watching somewhere around 40 hours of the Olympic coverage Friday through Sunday I have a LOT of catching up to do!! 

Think I'm having a bit of post-Olympic let down LOL!   I'm SO proud of what our athletes accomplished!! To think Canada had never won a gold medal at any Winter Olympics they have hosted (Montreal and Calgary), to now having set the all time record for the number of gold medals won by a country at any Winter Olympics!!!  You could not have scripted a better finish :D  This Olympics caused our usually subdued national pride to explode off the chart!!  From spontaneous outbursts of Oh Canada on various forms of transit and on the streets of Vancouver, to the great crowds that came to watch the events, to the fabulous group of volunteers that helped make it all happen.  The atmosphere at the events and in downtown Vancouver was simply amazing!!  Sure hope it sticks around for a while :D 

On to the card now!!  I kept things pretty simple.  Some fun DP from Mike's I got a long time ago, a Verve Plain Jane for the sentiment, and some bling and a corner tab with some flowers on it to bring things together.  I'll be back with more of my "backlog" soon LOL!

Thanks for visiting and I promise no more Olympic talk for a while LOL!





What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve Plain Jane
Ink:  Black
Paper:  DP from Michael's, Certainly Celery, Perfect Plum
Accessories:  Nesties, 5/8" Gross Grain Ribbon from Mike's, SU Corner Tab Punch, Mike's $1.50 Mini Flower Punch,  Bling, Dimensionals