A Grand Re-Opening I'm Excited To Play A Part In!!

I am thrilled to announce there's a new show in town!  The Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge (formerly the Curtain Call Color Challenge) will make it's GRAND Re-Opening on July 15th and I have the wonderful honour of being a part of the Design Team!!

Stacey and Kim have been working hard behind the scenes to put this wonderful challenge together and I know you are going to love it!  The DT is being revealed daily over on the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge blog  through the 14th, and I know you will be blown away by the group they have put together as there is some serious talent on this team!!

This announcement holds a very dear place in my heart because back in February of 2010, Stacey (founder of The Curtain Call Colour Challenge) asked me to be a part of her Curtain Call Crew.  She blessed me with my very first design team experience, for which I will be forever grateful.  That wonderful experience lead to my being on other design teams, and my "dream job" of becoming a Verve Diva.  So, to say I am thrilled and thankful to be back on her team is an understatement :)  Hugest of hugs to you, Stacey!!

Make sure you check out the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge blog daily for announcements that will introduce the AMAZING Curtain Call Crew Design Team as well as other challenge details!  Then get ready for the grand-reopening challenge on July 15th.

Just Us Girls #196

This week's Just Us Girl's Challenge is brought to us by Nancy and she has provided us with this fun sketch to work with.  Perfect timing as I needed a masculine birthday card.

Since the birthday boy was born on the 4th of July, I went with a red, white and blue theme, and then added a teensy, red maple leaf to remind him of his Canadian roots {grin}.  Since I totally forgot about the sentiment in the circle, I added some red, white and blue twine and a little tag in lieu.  Note to self:  check the sketch more carefully next time ;) 


I used the The Pink Elephant's inspiration challenge and am playing along with Stacey's Birthday Linky Party for a chance to win some great prizes.  All you need to do is create a birthday card and enter it with the Linky Tool on her post.  A great way to celebrate :)

The rest of the  JUGS team has some wonderful samples to get your inspiration going, so head on over to the Just Us Girls blog, and check out what the Design Team has created.  Then put your creative genes to work and add your card/project to the challenge post on the JUGS blog for the chance to be chosen as the Chic of the Week. 

Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll be back tomorrow with an exciting announcement!

 

What's In It? 
Stamps:  Tiny Tags (PTI)
Paper:  Real Red, Night of Navy, White
Accessories:  Pennant Trim Die (A Cut Above by Verve), Tiny Tags Dies (PTI), Sizzex Star 2 Die (Stampin' Up), Crimper (Fiskars), Maple Leaf Punch (Michael's $1.50 bin), White Half Pearls, Buttons, Twine, Glue Dotswinery), Buttons, Glue Dots

I Treasure Your Friendship

Today's VLV sketch is brought to us by Diva Charmaine and the wide open space offers so many options!

I started off with some rather bold paper (for me anyway) and then spent the rest of my time trying to tame it down LOL!  Since it had a funky feel to it, I went with this wonderful fort and sentiment from Treasured Words.  Cut out a Wavy Heart and embossed it with the fun "XO" embossing folder for a little texture.  Just had to use the Pennant Trim die to add a fun border to the horizontal element and  then added "xoxo" side tab using the Flag It dies.
 

If you want a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to the Verve Store, all you need to do is play along with all the sketches for this month on load them on to the Verve Forum over on Splitcoast Stampers.  Here is the link to Verve's Splitcoast Forum which gives you all the sketches and challenge details.

We have survived our first week of summer vacation - just teasing.  It's been great having the kids home full time.  We spent an afternoon at the beach during the heat wave, but unfortunately we were there at high tide and the water was just too cold to swim in so we cut our visit a bit short.  That's what happens when you have to swim in the ocean at the 49th parallel LOL!  Give it a few weeks and I'm sure the kids will gleefully go into the ocean while I read on my Kindle while sun bathing on the sand wink, wink :)

Have a fabulous weekend!



What's In It?  
Stamps:  Treasured Words and Tag Time (Verve Stamps) 
Paper:  Bold Basics (Recollections),  Lovely Lilac, So Saffron, Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up)
Ink: Black 
Accessories:   Flag It, Pennant Trim and Wavy Hearts Dies (A Cut Above by Verve), XO Embossing Folder (Provo Craft), Heart Border Die (PTI), Button, Twine, Bling, Liquid Pearls, Glue Dot, Dimensionals 

CASED Shower Card

First of all, I want to wish all my American followers a very happy 4th of July!!  Think we may take the kids to the top of the hill that overlooks the bay so we can watch the fireworks across the line. 

Loved this card when I saw it on Pinterest so I decided to CASE it.  Here is the link to the original.   Since I didn't have the same embossing folder (darn it all anyway as I just loved the one that was used), I settled for Stylized Flowers instead and added the pearls to the scallops along the bottom.  I"Vervified" things by stamping this wonderful sentiment from Verve's Love Story in silver.  Looking back, I should have embossed it, but I was in a hurry to get it done so my mind wasn't fully engaged wink, wink. Good news: she loved it :)

Short and sweet today as the heat wave is over and the weather outside is simply glorious and calling our names loudly!  Oh how I love living on the West Coast in the summer :)



What's In It?
Stamps:   Love Story (Verve Stamps) 
Paper:  White 
Ink:  Silver 
Accessories:  Stylized Flowers Embossing Folder (Provo Craft), Scalloped Border Punch (Stampin' Up), Flower Punch (Mike's $1 Bin), White Half Pearls

Mojo Monday #300 - Time to Celebrate!!

Mojo Monday Turns 300!!

Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians out there and happy 17th anniversary to my wonderful hubby - love you!

While I'm on a celebratory track, HUGE congratulations are in order for Julee, owner and creator of Verve Stamps and Mojo Monday as today we are celebrating  Mojo Monday's 300th sketch challenge!!  Julee has been providing cyber world with Mojo Monday sketches for almost six years.  I remember when she first started the Mojo Monday blog, and I'm honored to be able to celebrate this milestone with her :)

If you know anything about Julee, you know she celebrates milestones with style, and this time is no different.  There will be thirty fabulous paper crafting prizes available from over 20 different companies!  All you need to do is create a new card using this week's sketch, and then link it up to the Linky Tools over on the Mojo Monday blog.  In addition, enter gift code 300MOJO and you will save 20% off your Verve Stamps order July 1 - 7th!

For my card, I used MME's Mother's Love papers and one of my favorite Verve flower sets,  Dream Big, along with the coordinating Scalloped Flowers and Dreamy Leaves die sets.  Hmmm, hmmmm, love me some Verve flowers :)   Of course, where there are flowers there has to be a butterfly wink, wink.  I finished things off with the birthday sentiment from Joyfu Blooms.

I also playing along with Stacey's Birthday Linky Party over on her blog.  Just create a birthday card, add it to the Linky Tool on her post, and you are eligible to win some great prizes!

You can check out all the challenge details over on the Mojo Monday blog and also get a chance to view all the wonderful Mojo Makers samples - as well as some guest designer's samples!  Should you wish more details on the Mojo Maker's cards, you can also visit their individual blogs noted below.

Carole Burrage

Debbie Carriere

Julee Tilman (Owner)

Marisa Ritzen (you are here)

Mary Fish

Sarah Biglow

Teresa Kline

Wanda Cullen

We are officially on summer mode here, weather included!! Yikes!! It is hot here (30C with humidex - ugh!!) and that is a bit hotter than normal for us, so I think a trip to the beach may be in order as well as a trip to the mall so we can  cool off in the air conditioning! 

Look forward to seeing all your wonderful creations as we celebrate Mojo Monday's milestone with style!

Challenges:  Simon Says



What's In It?
Stamps: Dream Big and Joyful Blooms (Verve Stamps) 
Paper: A Mother's Love (My Mind's Eye), Real Red, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Taken with Teal, So Saffron (Stampin' Up) 
Ink: Black, VersaMark 
Accessories: Dreamy Leaves and Scalloped Flower Die Sets (A Cut Above by Verve), Butterfly Punch (Martha Stewart), Doily Dies (PTI), Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Provo Craft), Button, Twine, Button, Black Half Pearls, Dimensionals

The End of an Era...

As I have mentioned a few times, we have come to the end of an era in our family as our ten years tenure at our neighbourhood school has come to a close....  We were blessed with an outstanding school just a few blocks away from our home, which blessed us in so many ways,l some of which include:

- Many, many, amazing teachers
- A great academic focus
- An endless supply of parents wanting to help out
- A PAC that was very active and did a great job fund raising so the kids
  could enjoy Hip Hop lessons, have a local artist come in regularly and work
  with each classroom, buying laptops and PC computers for a computer lab,
  putting on three amazing musical productions involving the whole school,
  fund raising and getting a new playground and many other wonderful
  benefits. 
- A school that wanted to teach children to give to others through supporting
  a Compassion Canada child and his village in Uganda, to adopting sister
  schools in low income districts and having food, warm clothing, sports
  equipment, book and Christmas hamper drives for them.
- There was an amazing sense of community in that school and we will walk
  away carrying many, many wonderful memories for years to come.


My son's graduation ceremony capped our experience at that school, and it was one of the best I have been to at that school.  You could not ask for a better group of kids or a better group of parents.  Here are a few fun pictures.

The grad posing in the VIP Photo Op spot.

 

Each grad had their picture in a star and they were interspersed between black silhouette images of people in various silhouette poses around the gym.  Totally forgot to get a wall shot of the silhouettes - silly me!

The seven recipients of the Service Award (the one bending forward is the teacher).  The number of recipients of this award speaks volumes to the caliber of kids in this graduating class.  Usually there are only one of two kids who get this award and this year there were seven!   Best part is two of my son's best friends also received one (they are on either side of him) so I'm thrilled he has chosen some great guys as buddies :)

Last but not least, my favorite picture.  Oh how I love these two!! I am beyond blessed to be their mother and ever so thankful that they are such good friends!  My heart is full :)

We do have some family pictures, honest, but they are on my daughter's fancy, shmancy camera and I have to get her to download them for me LOL!

Thanks for letting me gush :)

Marisa

Google Reader Becoming Extinct July 1st

Just a reminder that Google Reader will be defunct as of July 1st, so if you have signed up to follow me via Google Reader, you will have to resort to a different feed.

Feedly or Bloglovin are great alternatives which allow you to transfer all your existing Reader accounts with the click of a button or two.  I have done it with both options and my Reader list transferred like a charm.  Getting used to the new format is always a challenge, but I have found each of them rather easy to navigate.  Bloglovin' is pretty straight forward, and Feedly has a few more bells and whistles so it takes a bit more to figure out and get comfortable with, but well worth the hassle.

Most importantly, you have to transfer your Reader list BEFORE July 1st, otherwise that option no longer exists and you will have to manually add every blog you wish to follow!!!

Alternately, you can follow me on my my dedicated Facebook page Rosemary Reflections.

This paid announcement is now over wink, wink :) 

Just Us Girls #195

Elise is our wonderful hostess this week and she has brought us a very useful challenge -- to make four coordinating tags.  A perfect way for getting ready for Christmas, making tags to add to cards later or to just stock up on tags for various occassions.

I made some Christmas tags and kept them rather simple as it just breaks my heart to think of people just tossing them out once they have opened their gift!!  If I know someone will keep it, recycle it by using it for a gift they give someone else, or "up cycle" it by adding it to one of their own cards, then I'll dress them up a lot more.  Do you feel the same way, or am I just weird LOL!  Okay, don't answer the weird part, just the tag part wink, wink.

A PTI tag die, a Martha Stewart jumbo snowflake punch, a few buttons and some twine and various sentiments from Verve's Glad Tidings set made these a cinch to make.  A great tag for mass for mass production, especially if you leave off the button.

The rest of the  JUGS team has some wonderful samples to get your inspiration going, so head on over to the Just Us Girls blog, and check out what the Design Team has created.  Then put your creative genes to work and add your card/project to the challenge post on the JUGS blog for the chance to be chosen as the Chic of the Week. 

Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll be back on Monday with my card for Mojo Monday's 300th sketch celebration!!   There are going to be lots of prizes to be had so make sure you check back on Monday for all the details!!!

 

What's In It?
Stamps:  Glad Tidings (Verve Stamps) 
Paper: Kraft, Real Red, White
Ink:  Black  
Accessories:  Tag Die (PTI), Jumbo Snowflake Punch (Martha Stewart), Crimper, Twine (Twinery), Buttons, Glue Dots

Mojo Monday #299

It's round or square week over on the Mojo Monday blog, so that means I get to show you another round card.

Loved this sketch. SO many wonderful elements on it!  Julee truly knows how to work a layout :)

Kept with a black and white theme with a pop of colour as well as adding some of my favorite things to the card: Verve's Flutterby die, From the Heart dies, and polka dots via paper and embossing.  Yes, I' m a happy girl LOL!  The sentiment is one of the "thank you for your order" stamps Julee includes in your package when you order from Verve.  Just another wonderful extension of her fabulous client service and generosity!

You can check out all the challenge details over on the Mojo Monday blog and also get a chance to view all the wonderful Mojo Makers samples!  Should you wish more details on their cards, you can also visit their individual blogs noted below.

Carole Burrage

Debbie Carriere

Julee Tilman (Owner)

Marisa Ritzen (you are here)

Mary Fish

Sarah Biglow

Teresa Kline

Wanda Cullen

Busy weekend once again (I need summer LOL!).  My son had his grad ceremony on Friday and we have ended an era of ten years at that school.  It was such a fabulous ceremony, with all the kids dressed up and looking fabulous.  I was so proud of my son as he received of the Service Awards!  Two of his best buddies also received one, which is fabulous confirmation that he hangs out with some great guys :)   I'm beaming and grinning from ear to ear as my daughter received the Citizenship Award when she graduated, so what we have been working hard to instill into our kids seems to be catching - a true reward in of itself!

A soccer game and a wedding shower filled Saturday and teaching Sunday School and working on hubby's rush job took care of Sunday. I'm feeling like I've been sucked into a black hole these past few weeks and I can't wait for July as both kids will be out of school and we can relax a bit!  It will most likely be another week of slim pickings here on the blog, but hope to make up for it once this week is over!  Thanks for your patience!!

Have a fabulous week and if you have never made a round card, I double dog dare you to try one {grin}!



What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve Stamps
Paper:  Black, Pretty in Pink, Rose Romance (Stampin' Up)
Ink: Black
Accessories: Flutterby and From the Heart Dies (A Cut Above by Verve), Scalloped Circle and Circle Nestabilites (Spellbinders), Crimper (Fiskars), Seeing Spots Embossing Folder (Provo Craft), Button, Twine, Black Half Pearls, Glue Dots, Dimensionals 

Amethyst Deepest Sympathy

Loved Janelle's sketch this week. The perfect layout for a sympathy card I needed to make for a dear friend who lost her grandmother this past week.

I decided to use purple on my card as purple is her favorite colour, and I'm trusting it will bring a smile to her face amidst her sorrow.

Verve's Deepest Sympathy Plain Jane is such a fabulous stamp!  Love the size and the mix of fonts - Julee's forte :)   It fit perfectly in the oval and I added a touch of lace and some pops of yellow as well as a bit of bling to finish things off.

 

If you want a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to the Verve Store, all you need to do is play along with all the sketches for this month on load them on to the Verve Forum over on Splitcoast Stampers.  Here is the link to Verve's Splitcoast Forum which gives you all the sketches and challenge details.

I'm barley coming up for air after and insanely busy week - phew!!  Weekend is going to be a crazy busy one again, and I for one am very much looking forward to next Friday as the kids will both be out of school and I don't need to set my alarm for 6 a.m!!

Back tomorrow with my Just Us Girls card.  Vicki has a fabulous inspiration picture for us this week!



What's In It? Stamps:  Deepest Sympathy (Verve Stamps), French Script (Stampin' Up)
 Paper:  Lavender Lace, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, So Saffron (Stampin' Up  
Ink: Black, Almost Amethyst (Stampin' Up)   
Accessories:   Flag It Dies (A Cut Above by Verve), Scalloped Oval and Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Lace,  Leaf Punch (Martha Stewart), Crimper (Fiskars), 1/8" White Satin Ribbon, Paper Rose (Recollections), Bling, Glue Dots, Dimensionals