Anni-VERVE-sary Release Spotlight Hop - Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of our Anni-VERVE-sary Spotlight Hops!  Are you drooling over the sets as much as I was when I first saw them?!!!

Today's set, Words of Wisdom, brings lots of wonderful sentiments and Julee has provided a co-ordinating Notebook Paper and Graph Paper Plain Jane along with a matching die!  This woman is beyond brilliant :)

I love the sentiment Carpe Diem (aka: seize the day) and squealled with delight when I saw it in this set.  I strive to live my life by this sentiment as you can never take back time and each day has so much to offer.  I'm not always successful in my quest, but it is a wonderful reminder to press into life daily, and by doing so grow as a person through facing the challenges, opportunities and even the quiet times that come your way.  Carpe Diem!!  

This card's sentiment is even more special to me than the previous one.  I almost cried when I read it because it is the very core of who I am.  I am a truth speaker.  I am not a status quo girl.  That means I'm not at the top of the popularity charts, and can sometimes be the lone voice speaking out in the crowd, but I have come to cherish how speaking the truth gives one strength of character.  In addition, speaking the truth gives me freedom.  Freedom from self denial, freedom to face issues in my own life so I can grow as a person, freedom to stand for what I believe in, and freedom to just be me :)

Sure that was a bit more than you bargained for on a Spotlight Hop, so my apologies!!  Time to move on in the Hop.  Noted below is the list of amazingly talented Divas who have some great cards to show you featuring today's sets.  

1. Julee	8. Sarah {Guest}
2. Charmaine	9. Marisa {Guest}
3. Tosha	10. Laurie
4. Andrea	11. Amy
5. Sankari	12. Shannan
6. Teresa	13. Betty
7. Jackie	14. Maureen

Don't forget,  one lucky commenter from each day's hop will win the sets and dies featured that day, so be sure and leave a little love in the Divasphere! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize details and deadlines

Back tomorrow with Day 4 Sneak Peeks!



Carpe Diem 
Stamps: Words of Wisdom and Graph Paper Plain Jane (Verve)
Paper: Flutter By (Kaiser Kraft), Real Red, Early Espresso, Vanilla, Rose Romance (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:Going Grey and Black (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Rounded Rectanagle and I Heart U Dies (A Cut Above by VERVE), Seeing Spots Embossing Folder (Provo Craft), Threading Water Punch (Fiskars), Notebook Punch (EK Success), Crimper (Fiskars), Half Pearls (Michael's), Hemp Twine, Dimensinoals 


Speak Truth
Stamps: Words of Wisdom and Notebook Paper Plain Jane (Verve)
Paper: Dots and Stripes (Echo Park), Black (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Black and Going Grey (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Rounded Rectangle Die (A Cut Above by VERVE), Scalloped Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Crimper (Fiskars), Scalloped Tim Border Punch (Stampin' Up!), Half Pearls (Michael's), 5/8" Turquoise Satin Ribbon (Michael's), Button, Silver Beaded Twine (Michael's), Glue Dots, Dimensionals

Anni-VERVE-sary Release Spotlight Hop - Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the Anni-VERVE-sary Release Spotlight Hop!  Today one of the featured sets is  this fabulous Nicest Thoughts Plain Jane, with a quote by Georgia O'Keeffe.  I decided to try a vintage/shabby type card and am actually pretty pleased with the outcome as this is far from my normal style.  I sponged the sentiment panel and managed to wrangle the seam binding into a multi-looped bow without it looking like a dead spider LOL!  The things one will endeavour to do when a Guest Diva.....and I wouldn't trade it for anything....happy sigh...



As you can tell, my second card is a very CAS masculine card.  I used the co-ordinating I Heart You dies for the You and I set, also being featured today.  I needed a card for hubby to remind him that we loved having him all to ourselves for the past two weeks while we were on vacation as a family.  That being said, he is a CAS card guy, so I kept things reeeeally simple for him because he has been known to say "men don't like cards",  and been aptly smacked by none other than yours truly on more than one occasion for said comment LOL!  I know....the shame of it!!!  Shouldn't all husbands of addicted card making spouses love receiving hand made cards?!  Funny thing is, I know he truly appreciates receiving them because he has kept every card I have ever made for him the big mush LOL!  Promise to have a more elaborate card with this set at the release party!! 

Below is the Hop List for today.  Be ready for some serious eye candy from the fabulous Diva Team!!

1. Julee	9. Laurie
2. Charmaine	10. Maureen
3. Tosha	11. Amy
4. Andrea	12. Jen d.
5. Teresa	13. Shannan
6. Jackie	14. Lynda
7. Sarah {Guest}	15. Jen T.
8. Marisa {Guest}	16. Betty

Don't forget, one lucky commenter from each day's hop will win the sets and dies featured that day, so be sure and leave a little love in the Divasphere! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize details and deadlines.

Back tomorrow with more sneak peeks :)






Nicest Thoughts
Stamps:  Nicest Thoughts Plain Jane (Verve)
Paper:  Brenda Walton Madeline Designer Paper (K & Company), So Saffron (Stampin' Up!), 
Ink:  Black (Stampin' Up!), Antique Linen Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)
Accessories:  Lacy Circle, Circle and Label 14 (Spellbinders), Lace (Fanny's Fabrics), Kraft Seam Binding, Paper Roses, Half Pearls (Michael's), Dimensionals


You And I
Stamps: You And I (Verve)
Paper: Early Espresso, Real Red, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: I Heart U Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), Heart Die (Spellbinders), Crimper (Fiskars), Half Pearls (Michael's), Lattice Embossing Folder (Stampin' Up!), Button (Michael's Dollar Bin), Hemp Twine (Dollar Store), Dimensionals

Anni-VERVE-sary Release Spotlight Hop - Day 1

 
Welcome to our Anni-VERVE-sary Spotlight Hops!  Hop along with the Divas all week long as we share our first looks at a few of the new products releasing from Verve on Friday night!  One lucky commenter from each day's hop will win the sets and dies featured that day, so be sure and leave a little love in the Divasphere! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize details and deadlines.

You are not going to want to miss a single day as Julee has totally outdone herself with this amazing release!  I'm beyond honoured to be joining in as a Guest Diva this month and still need someone to pinch me to make sure this isn't a dream :) 

Today's sneak peeks include a new flower set - oh  happy, happy, joy, joy!!  Loooove my Verve flowers, and to top things off, there is a coordinating leaf die - thank you Julee!!  Here is my sneak peak using one of the flowers from the set.

Today's Plain Jane is a wonderful sentiment, made all the more special because of my love for flowers :)   Flowers always bring me joy through their beauty and when the first crocuses push through the frozen earth each Spring, they provide me great hope of new growth in my own life.

Below is a list of the Divas participating in today's Spotlight Hop, starting off with none other than the Queen Diva herself :)   All I can say is, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!  

1. Julee	8. Marisa {Guest}
2. Charmaine	9. Laurie
3. Tosha	10. Maureen
4. Andrea	11. Amy
5. Teresa	12. Shannan
6. Jackie	13. Lynda
7. Sarah {Guest}

I'll be back tomorrow with my Day 2 Spotlight cards.







Life Is Beautiful
Stamps: Sunny Days (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Pink Small Dots (Making Memories), Itsy Bitsy Caramel Latte (Recollections), Early Espresso and Mellow Moss (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: VersaMark, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Leafy Springs Die (A Cut Above by VERVE), Lacy Circle and Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder), 5/8" Brown Satin Ribbon, Buttons, Twine (PTI), Bling (Michael's), Dimensionals

Where Flowers Bloom (Plain Jane)
Stamps: Where Flowers Bloom Plain Jane (Verve)
Paper: Orange Mini Dots (Kelly Panacci), So Saffron, Mellow Moss, and Creamy Caramel  (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Chocolate Chip and Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Leafy Springs and  Classy Label Die (A Cut Above By VERVE), Crimper (Fiskars), Buttons, 1/4" Moss Grosgrain Ribbon (Stampin' Up!), Bling and Half Pearls (Michael's), Buttons (Michael's), Twine (PTI), Edge Distresser (Stampin' Up!), Dimensionals

Inkspirations Sketch Challenge #81

The layout of this sketch gave me some grief so I flipped it horizantally in order to use this fabulous damask image from Stampin' Ups' Bliss Sale-A-Bration set, which sadly hasn't seen any ink yet!

I kept the tones neutral and used lots of white space in order to show off this fabulous damask image and also managed to get another bit of Costco DP to bite the dust along the way - yeah!   Love the tiny script on the butterfly and the elegant feel to this card.   It's going to be a fun set to use again :)

The rest of the Design Team has some fabulous cards for your inspiration.

Cindy Kirsty Makeesha Renée Brandi Carrie Helen Ilina Lee-Anne Marisa

Each week Keesh will select a winner and an honorable mention and post their cards on the Inkspirations Challenge blog.  We'd love to see your card posted as a winner.

Don't forget to stop by this Sunday because it is Day 1 of Verve's Fourth Anniversary Release Sneak Peeks leading up to the Release Party on Friday, August 12th!!  I have the wonderful honour of being a Guest Diva for this release, and let me just say you are not going to want to miss it as Julee has truly outdone herself on this release.   Get your wallets ready LOL!





What's In It?
Stamps:  (SU) Bliss
Paper: Costco DP, Black
Ink: Black, Sahara Sand
Accessories: 5/8" White Satin Ribbon, Double Sided Tape, Black Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Alberta Was Amazing!!

We are now home after being away for two weeks on vacation in Alberta.  We had an absolutely fabulous time everywhere we went and it was great seeing family and friends :)   The weather cooperated and 3500 kilometers later we are home again and sleeping in our own beds...aaaaahhhh....nothing better than sleeping in your own bed and without a child kicking you LOL!  With the kids being older now, we were able to do the 12 hour drive in one day each way, giving us two extra days of visiting.

If you are interested, I've blogged about and posted some pictures of our time in Alberta.  If not, no worries!!  I know it is not a card related post so feel free to skip it if you like.

Our first stop was in Edmonton to stay with some very dear friends who moved there a year and  half ago.  We got to go to the West Edmonton Mall Water Park one day and had a ball in the wave pool and doing every single water slide they had a few times.  Great work out, that's for sure, as you have to go up a loooong way sometimes LOL!   We also went to Fort Edmonton and we all absolutely loved it!!  They have four eras in the fort and the highlight was dressing up and having our picture taken.  I chose to be a saloon girl, hubby was a trapper, son was an outlaw and my daughter was a puritan.  Unfortunately hubby has to scan the picture at work before I can post it as it is a print.  I can't wait to show it to you!!!

By sheer fluke it looks like my daughter is holding the gun on her shoulder and my son is very happy to put his sister in jail LOL!

 

Just love this picture :)  My daughter still loves Little House on the Prairie so I had to take a picture of them in the covered wagon.

From there it was on to Drumheller where the Dinosaur Museum is located.  It is an absolutely fabulous museum and what impressed me the most is they have bones in the museum which they found just 10 years ago and they are still finding more.

The sheer size of these things was quite something!

From Drumheller we headed down to Calgary to visit hubby's sister and had a great time at the Calgary Zoo. It is one big zoo and very well done so the the animals can live in an area very similar to their natural habitat.

 

Loved these metal outlines of various animals at the entrance to the zoo.  Figured one was all you would be interested in LOL!

The log was hand carved with the animal images in it.

We all had fun taking a picture in the mama kangaroo's pouch :)  Being the mom of the family, I decided to post my picture in the kangaroo as I can relate LOL!


From Calgary we went back up to Edmonton to visit hubby's brother and his family and ended up spending the long weekend up at their cabin on a lake.  It was the perfect way to end our vacation.  We got to fish, Seadoo, water ski, build campfires, roast hotdogs and make smores as well as great fun with card games at night.  Mommy got some down time to just sit and read too :)

 As you can tell, my son has the relaxation part of fishing down to an art LOL!

Love the smiles on their faces - they never left and their joy and excitement were contagious.  Special mommy memories to tuck away in my  heart :) 

I'm posting fishing pictures as the kids just loved going out in the boat.  They each caught a total of nine jack fish each like the on in the picture (it's some sort of trout) over the three days we were there.  It was catch and release as apparently they are not all that tasty.

If you have hung in here until now, thanks :)   We saw many wonderful things, got to visit with family and friends, got spoiled with some amazing meals, and had many great family times together - the perfect vacation.

Laundry is almost done, grocery shopping is done, lawn is mowed and we have almost recovered from our 12 hour drive yesterday so I am very much looking forward to getting some stamping time in!!!  Hopefully my mojo didn't get left in Alberta LOL!

I'll be back on Friday with  my Inkspirations card and then starting this Sunday, I get to participate in the sneak peek blog hops as one of the Guest Verve Divas (somebody please pinch me!).  It is Verve's 4th Anniversary release and let me tell you, you'll want to come by and check things out as Julee has put together an amazing release to celebrate with :) 

I'm hoping to be able to get back into a more regular stamping routine - have missed posting and all of you too!

Inkspirations Color Challenge #80

This week's challenge provided a very rich, deep, colour combination.   I love how they look together but don't tend to gravitate towards darkl colours like Concord Crush, so this was a bit of a stretch for me.  Needless to say, I had to get some white in there quick LOL!


I based my card on a Waltzing Mouse sketch from a few weeks ago and white became my trim colour as well as the focal flower colour.

I started off using swiss dots on the flowers but they felt too "blah" so I ran them through my crimper for some extra dimension and liked the result.   A bit of French Script on the side panel and a button with twine on the flower and I was good to go.

The rest of the Design Team has some fabulous cards for your inspiration.

Cindy Kirsty Makeesha Renée Brandi Carrie Helen Ilina Lee-Anne Marisa

Each week Keesh will select a winner and an honorable mention and post their cards on the Inkspirations Challenge blog.  We'd love to see your card posted as a winner.

Thanks for stopping bye today.  Have a fabulous weekend :)





What's In It?
Stamps:  (SU) French Script
Paper: Concord Crush, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzaz
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: SU Border Punch, PTI Flower Dies Crimper, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Button, Twine, Glue Dot, Dimensionals

Inkspirations Sketch #79

Since I haven't used my big butterfly die for some time, and was having a few withdrawals after seeing butterflies in our back yard, I decided to pull it out and use it for this sketch :)  

My starting point was this Dream Street floral paper from which I pulled the rest of the colours.   I used a strip of orange paper and then added some turquoise ribbon for a bit of pop, and called it a card.

The rest of the Design Team has some fabulous cards for your inspiration.

Cindy Kirsty Makeesha Renée Brandi Carrie Helen Ilina Lee-Anne Marisa

Each week Keesh will select a winner and an honorable mention and post their cards on the Inkspirations Challenge blog.  We'd love to see your card posted as a winner.


Thanks for stopping bye today.  Have a fabulous weekend :)





What's In It?
Stamps:   (SU) Background Basics
Paper:Dream Street DP, Kraft, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Only Orange
 Ink:  VersaMark
Accessories:  Script Embossing Folder, SU Border Punch, (SU) Sizzex Butterfly Die, Button, Twine, 5/8" Turquoise Satin Ribbon, Glue Dot, Dimensionals

July's SFYTT

I decided I had better get this SFYTT card done before July sneaks away on me.  When in summer mode I don't pay that much attention to the calendar dates or even days of the week at times so best I do it now LOL!

The three circles brought to mind a group of three flowers so out came my Verve flower stamps and dies.  Have I told you recently how much I love my Verve flowers and the coordinating leaf and flower dies are amazing!

I started off with this scrap piece of Costco DP I tripped across and decided to  keep it on the black and white side with a pop of colour.  Lucky for me this also qualifies for the Play Date Cafe challenge this week - score!

I'm pretty happy with this card and it came together quite quickly which is always a bonus for me :)  Bonus: two posts this week!

Have a fabulous day and thanks for popping in for a visit.



What's In It?
Stamps: (Verve) Bloom and Grow
Paper:  Costco DP, Pretty in Pink, Going Grey
Ink: Going Grey, Black
Accessories:  (Verve) Elegant Leaves and Floral Circles Dies, Crimper, Twine, Button, Glue Dot, Half Pearls, Bling, Dimensionals

I'm Back....Sort Of....

Sorry to be MIA for so long.  The first few weeks of summer have been full tilt with not a lot of down time!  Our first week was spent camping with some very dear friends of ours.  She was my maid of  honor and her kids are the same age as mine and have known each other since they were born :)  Best part is they have a nice big fifth wheeler which made my dislike for camping (sorry camping lovers!) much more tolerable LOL! 

I love how the kids have so much freedom in the campsites. They were able to hop on their bikes and peddle around the campground, play walkie-talkie tag etc. - freedoms I had as a child and never thought twice about, but in this day and age many kids never get to experience.

The "big event" of the week was our 30 minute hike that turned in to a 4 hour hike since we took a wrong turn and ended up going to the far side of the lake rather than the near one!  The first hour and a half was some serious hiking - reminded me of the Grouse Grind we did last September only much longer LOL! Here are a few pictures - think we should have twigged in when they told us you have to get through a rock slide first by just following the orange spray painted lines LOL!
 

 The orange arrows on the huge bolders at the bottom!

Part of the rock slide we had to navigate up.

My tired daughter at the top of the rock slide portion of the hike.

At the back side of the lake - we could see it but we could not get to it as there were cliffs going down to the water.  This is where we decided to turn back - though it sure would have been nice to have been able to jump into the lake to cool off!!  Three hours up, one hour down!  Needless to say, we all slept reeeeally well that night LOL!

We also went up to the Whistler Village one afternoon.  The Olympic Rings were still up so we took a few pictures in them.  Love this picture of the kids in the rings.  A little butt push and we got the boys into the upper ones :) 

I am always blown away by the beauty of this part of the world.  Many years of skiing up here and it still takes my breath away!  Now if they could have just taken the skeeters away I would have been a really happy camper LOL!

Last week was our VBS and as always, it was a great week but very tiring.  This year was quite special in that both my kids were working for VBS rather than attending.  Best line of the week: "Now we know why you were so tired by the end of VBS, Mom".  There is justice in this world LOL!  Some very special mommy moments to treasure in my heart as I saw them serving.

Things will be quiet here for the next little while as well.  I am feverishly working on my Verve Guest Diva Sneak Peek cards and release cards this week before we head off for a few days and am not finding much time to do any additional cards...sorry...  This summer has been a very busy one and I treasure the time I get to spend with my kids as they are growing up soooo quickly.  Come August things should slow down a bit as we will be sticking closer to home and I am hoping to get into my craft room a bit more.  Until then, you'll most likely only be getting my Friday Inkspiration challenge posts. 

Thanks for sticking with me through the "drought".  Promise it will be worth it as my blogiversary is coming up in August :)

Hope you are all enjoying your summers (((hugs)))