Verve Stamps Inspriation Hop June 2014

Welcome to Verve's June Diva Inspirations Hop. It's the 5th of the month and that means it's hopping time again! So climb aboard Destination: Inspiration for a fun trip through Verveland today. In addition to a comment prize hidden along the hop, we're debuting our June inspiration challenge as well! Play along for another chance to win!

Our June challenge is Winged Whimsy

Let your creation soar by featuring wings! Think butterflies, birds, feathers or related sentiments. Celebrate the beauty of flight! Whether you draw inspiration from the graphic or fly a solo mission, let's see some winged beauties!

If you have come here from Maureen's blog, you are right on track.  If you happened along the Hop, you can check out the Hop List below to get caught up. 

My favorite winged image is a butterfly (no surprise there LOL).  However, after digging through my stash, I could not find any papers to match the inspiration photo - doubly sad as I just love humming birds!  MME's Lime Twist had a few of the colours, or variations thereof, so I went with it.

I'm still madly in love with this big butterfly image from Die Sidekicks, and the sentiment is from Blue Skies.  Keeping your dreams alive is so important!  Your heart is the perfect, safe haven for them to rest, until they can be pursued, so you can then soar and take flight into new chapters of your life.

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines.

	1. Julee	8. Sony
	2. Amy	9. Susan
	3. Anya	10. Stacey
	4. Betty	11. Maureen
	5. Karen	12. Marisa
	6. Sankari	13. Charmaine
	7. Sarah	14. Andrea

Charmaine is next on the Hop List and she is sure to have an amazing creation for your viewing and inspiration!



 
 
What's In It?
Stamps:  Blue Skies, Die Sidekicks (Verve Stamps)
Paper:   Lime Twist (My Mind's Eye)    
Ink:  Black, Seaglass (Color Box)
Accessories:  5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon (Michael's), Button, Twine, Black Half Pearls, Bling, Glue Dots, Dimensioinals 

Mojo Monday #348

It's the first Monday of the month so it's contest time over at the Mojo Monday blog, and this is the fabulous sketch we get to work with.

I'm still in denial about the fact it is June!  Oh my!  Kids are out of school in three, short weeks - meep!!  So, I'm burying my head in some "card making sand" to forget about it for a while LOL!

Love this old, Lime Twist series by My Mind's Eye, and this this butterfly paper is one of my favorites (insert extreme hoarding wink, wink).  Paired it with two hearts and a button, and the sentiment is from Wishing You.  Love how you can build the sentiment you want in this set!

All the challenge details are over on the Mojo Monday blog and you can also view all the wonderful Mojo Makers samples.  Should you wish more details on the Mojo Maker's cards, you can also visit their individual blogs noted below.  

Debbie Carriere

Julee Tilman (Owner)

Marisa Ritzen (you are here)

Mary Fish

Sarah Biglow

Teresa Kline

Wanda Cullen

Have fun using the sketch, and I look forward to seeing your creations.  Have a fabulous day!

Challenge:  Simon Says



What's In It?
Stamps:   Wishing You (Verve Stamps)
Paper:   Lime Twist (My Mind's Eye), Always Artichoke, Night of Navy (Stampin' Up)
Ink:  Black
Accessories:  Heart Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Crimper (Fiskars), Corner Rounder (Marvy), Button, Twine, Black Half Pearls, Pastel Sequin Mix (Verve Stamps), Glue Dot, Dimensionals 

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Something Simple

This week's Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge is entitled "Something Simple" and our sponsor is Unity Stamps.

The LEAD of this challenge will receive a package of goodies from Unity Stamps!

Loved this inspiration photo and jumped at the chance to make a white on white card.  I matted the image from Unity's Countryside Blooms with vellum to mimic the clear plate the rocks are on, scored the background to pick up the wood paneling and stamped the image in Going Grey for a nice, soft image.   The stitched frame and touch of clear sequins helped add a bit of dimension.

Something Simple Designers

Unity Designer, Stephanie Muzzelin

Amber Kroening

Amy Kolling

Amy Tsuruta

Gayatri Murali

Kim Singdahlsen

Lisa Henke

Marisa Ritzen

Maureen Plut

Monika Davis

Sheri Gilson

Sarah Gough

Stacey Schafer

Tenia Nelson

Tracey McNeely

You have until June 10th to link your card up and the LEAD and Show Stoppers will be announced on June 14th.  We'd love you to stop by the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Something Simple and play along with us!

Have a fabulous day!

Challenge:  Simon Says
 
 
 
What's In It? 
Stamps:   Countryside Blooms (Unity Stamps)
Paper:  White, Vellum
Ink:  Going Grey (Stampin' Up) 
Accessories:  Scalloped Circle and Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Stitched Rectangles (Lil' Inkers), Scor-Pal, Shine Bright Sequin Mix (Verve Stamps), Dimensionals

Just Us Girls #243 - Wild Card

This weeks Just Us Girls challenge is to create a background for your card using the shaving cream technique.  Here is a link to the technique  
Shaving Cream background.  Here is the link to the Splitcoast Stampers tutorial.

I used Old Olive, Summer Sun and Only Orange as my reinkers. I scraped the saving cream off my paper and left it at that rather than going over it with a paper towel as per the video.  Must say, that saving cream has quite the potent smell (albeit a nice one).  I'll be smelling like it for quite some time I think as will the card LOL! 

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch as I wanted the background to be front and centre.  A Starbucks sleeve was used for my maple leaf and a few touches of brown with an orange button were added for contrast.

The rest of the  JUGS team, along with our last post by our wonderful May Guest Designer Barbara Campbell have some wonderful samples to get your inspiration going, so head on over to the Just Us Girls blog and check out what they've 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.  Plus if you are chosen as Chic of the Week, you could be invited to be a Guest Designer.

Forecast is for sunshine this weekend, so yard work it will be along with participating in the annual garage sale at my LLS.  Hopefully I can move my unloved goodies on to others and by doing so get some cash to spend on my wish lists.  Wishing you a fabulous weekend!  

Challenge:  Simon says

 
 
What's In It?
Stamps:  Happy Birthday (Amuse)
Paper:  Old Olive, Early Espresso, Sahara Sand (Stampin' Up), Starbucks Coffee Sleeve   
Ink:  Black, Old Olive, Summer Sun, Only Orange (Stampin' Up) 
Accessories:  Leaf Dies (PTI), Saving Cream, Reinkers, 5/8" Brown Satin Ribbon, Button, Twine, Glue Dot, Dimensionals 

Hawaii Part 3

Today's post is just family photos - mostly of us having fun with the underwater camera in the pool, so if that is boring to you, just pass on by :)

This photo is of hubby playing King Kahmehameha and wearing the lei my daughter made at one of the hotel activities.  Told him he was a few shades too pale for the part LOL!  He had the kids in stitches when he did this pose.  I am very blessed as he is such a wonderful dad and husband :)

 

The  hotel had three pools you could use - a family one with a net to play water volleyball as well as a basketball hoop, a "serenity pool" that was for adults only (where I snuck away to read on my Kindle), and a pool with a waterslide and many waterfalls and tunnels to enjoy.  Not to mention the amazing beach lagoon for some ocean swimming.  Totally. Amazing. Resort! Here they are in the waterfall tunnel.

A kind gentleman took a family shot of us in the waterfall pool - the selfies were touch to get everyone in on.  Did forget to tell hubby to remove his "old swim glasses" (he doesn't wear his good ones in the pool). Any guesses which decade these were from LOL!

Love this picture of my daughter.  She had so much fun in this pool and it shows :)

My happy boy.

Must teach hubby not to get his thumb in the way when taking photos.  Loved this photo of the two of us underwater.  My daughter gets upset when she sees this photo in that I am a lot more tanned than she is.  I brown up very easily in the sun and she tends to burn.  Poor thing has her father's skin
.

 

Hubby having fun posing for the camera.  He had to wear a t-shirt because he burned his shoulders really badly a few days before playing pool volleyball.

   

Guess who's visiting....Smiling Superman.

Oh how this child makes me laugh.  This is his version of holding on to our glasses while our daughter was taking underwater photos of hubby and I.

Best friends.  So blessed my kids get a long so well :)

 

Must explain these next two photos. Kids wanted to act out a scene so they decided it was going to be a proposal scene.  Here my son is opening the ring box and proposing to my daughter.

And here is her answer LOL!

And last, a photo of the family pool looking over towards the serenity pool. Such an amazing resort!  

 

I can feel and smell Hawaii in these pictures LOL!  Such an amazing family vacation with many great memories for all of us.  We are so, so grateful to our friend who gave us such a good deal on her time share there!  If all goes well, we will return some day...hopefully sooner than later! 

Hawaii Part 2

On to part two of our trip to Hawaii.

Here we are posing at the base of Diamond Head after we hiked to the top.  It was a good thing we went early in the morning as it was getting pretty hot by the time we got to the bottom.

Here is a photo of the trail up the mountain. Not the nicest scenery as it was really dry.  

But the hike was worth the view from the top! The beach you see in the photo in front of the tall buildings is Waikiki Beach.

 

Had to include this photo as I grew up in the tropics with tons of bougainvillea bushes around so this brought back many memories - along with many of the other flowers and greenery we saw. 

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and it was amazing!!! Worth. Every. Penny. Unfortunately my daughter got heat stroke the day before so we couldn't do the night time luau, but if we ever make it back to Oahu, it will be the first things we do! They have six main "acts" for the various Polynesian Islands (as well as crafts you could do but we ran out of time to do) and 80% of the actors and people working there are from the BYU University right next door.  This "actor" was my favorite as he was hilarious and quite the brat! He showed us how to weave a bowl from a palm frond. By the way, the body art is spray on - I asked LOL! 

Posing with the "mock wedding" actors

 

This guy actually climbed up the coconut tree and it was a loooong way up!

Me and my native Fijian buddies :)

Here is my lover of life again. Always having fun and making me laugh. 

 

They had a great boat parade, with each Island having their own boat and dancers.  All sorts of dancing and movement on those boats.  This is just one of the six, but I loved how the skirts were swaying from their amazing, hip swaying action.

 

Back tomorrow with the final Hawaii post.

Hawaii Part I

Well, it took a month, but I finally got some time to wade through our Hawaii photos.  Paired them down, but still too many for one post, so I'm splitting them up over a few days.  Warning: This is a picture heavy post and  has nothing to do with crafty things so feel free to skip it if you like.

As I mentioned a month ago, we had an amazing trip to Hawaii.  Our first touristy thing was to hit the Dole Plantation.  As luck would have it, it was raining so we got to enjoy some tropical rain and I think my curly hair absorbed every ounce of humidity in the air LOL!  Here is a photo of a red pineapple.  Have never seen one and didn't even know they existed (kind of like blue pumpkins)!  Not only that, learned there are around 30 varieties of pineapples.

Here are my kids having fun in the gift shop.   Missed out on the pineapple ice cream but it looked delicious!

We got a camera that you can use both above and under water, and the kids had a ball using it in the pools and ocean.   It is really hard to center photos while taking them under water and timing is everything since both bodies have to go under at the same time.  Being the camera operator is not easy LOL!  This picture of my son is so him.   He loves life and lives it to the fullest with a smile on his face 99% of the time. 

We took a catamaran trip out to see the spinner dolphins and then do some snorkeling on the way back and kids had a great time.  I was a bit disappointed as I grew up in the topics and am used to coral reefs with lots of small, brightly coloured fish versus the grey rock reef and large fish we saw here.  However, seeing the kids enjoy the experience was priceless.

We got fully equipped with, masks, snorkels, mini life vest you could blow some air into if you wanted to and flippers. A quick jump off the boat and then 45 minutes of snorkeling along a rock reef.

I think this next picture is my favorite photo of the trip. It's my daughter under all that gear and I just love her pose :) 

Here is the "me too" half  ;)

 

Pearl Harbour was definitely a highlight of the trip and a definite "must do" if you are ever on Oahu. Here is the family in front of one of the submarine missles they used. 

 

And here we are being patriotic on the bow of the submarine.  We did the audio tour (thus the black things around our neck) and it was amazing! You walk/climb through every part of the submarine and press the audio to match the number of the area you are in and it gives you a ton of information.  Needless to say, it is very close quarters on those subs! 

 

This memorial is for each submarine they lost. 

 

Love this photo my daughter took through the telescope on the submarine. This is the USS Arizona memorial that is set up over top of the sunken vessel.  

Each sub had it's own flag design and motto and on this one, each "feathers" represents a Japanese plane or submarine (sorry, can't remember which it is) that was shot down by that sub.

  

This is a portion of the marble wall with the names of all the men who died on the USS Arizona the day Pearl Harbour was bombed. 

I had managed to keep the tears a bay until I saw this, and then I lost it. It is the "add on" marble memorial for those who survived the bombing of the USS Arizona and have since died and are now entombed with their shipmates. 

This is a photo of the oil that is still leaking from the USS Arizona.   The vessel leaks a drop every 2-3 seconds,  for a total of 1-2 quarts of oil a day.  Hard to believe this is still going on after so many years!

Here we are goofing around in the gift shop wearing the sailor's caps.  My son proudly announced that he was the only one that did the right salute because his buddy in Cadets taught him how to do it.

That's it for day one. Back tomorrow with part two.