Lovely Color Challenge Combo

I was all smiles late last night when I saw today's color challenge on Splitcoast: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, and Chocolate Chip. I knew the combo would be perfect for some new stamps that Our Daily Bread Designs is releasing tomorrow, April 1. The one I was itching to work with first is a single stamp of a passage from 1 Corinthains 13. Is this not one of the most beautiful passages in the entire Bible?

I stamped it onto Prism's luxurious metallic card stock (Champagne), clear embossed, and cut it out with one of the mega curved rectangle Nestabilities. The designer papers are all from Basic Grey's Porcelain pack. I embellished with some Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red ribbon, the Fiskars lace border punch, and some self-adhesive pearls. Mine are a mix of brands similar to the ones in the ODBD store. Some were ivory and some were white, but after coloring each one with a R81 Copic marker (the closest thing to Pink Pirouette that I own), they look pretty uniform.

Here's another look where you can see the glimmer of the metallic card stock and the shine from the heat embossing:



If you like "pretty," soak this one in because tonight at midnight I'll be posting one of the wildest looking things I've ever made! I'm kinda skeered - really!

Thanks for dropping in!



Stamps: 1 Corinthians 13 (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: Papertrey Vintage Cream and Dark Chocolate; SU Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey Porcelain dp; Metallic Ivory (Prism)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Ranger Walnut Stain Distress, SU Pink Pirouette
Accessories: SU ribbon and 1 1/4" circle punch, Fiskars lace border punch, adhesive pearls, foam adhesive, Spellbinders mega curved rectangle Nestabilities, clear embossing powder
Size: 5 1/2" square

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Before I get to today's cards, check out my earlier post about an awesome challenge and blog candy giveaway that Jen Tapler is doing to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Association. Better yet, check out what Jen has to say about it!

I have a couple more projects to show that I designed with You are the Potter by Our Daily Bread Designs. For this first one, I colored the pots (with Copic markers) to coordinate with Basic Grey's gorgeous Marrakech line.



For this next one, I played around with the Cracked Glass technique to give the main panel the crackled look, and then created a raised square frame using a combination of Nestabilities and the pinking border piercabilites.



Thanks for visiting. Enjoy your day!



Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Stamps: You are the Potter (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: SU Really Rust, Papertrey Vintage Cream, Basic Grey Marrakech
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Baja Breeze, Night of Navy and Really Rust
Accessories: Copic makers, Spellbinders Mega Curved Rectangle Nestabilities and Pinking Border Piercabilities, Mark Richards bling, Fiskars lace border punch, SU ticket corner punch, ribbon unknown
Size: 5 1/2" square

Jeremiah 18:6
Stamps: You are the Potter (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: SU Chocolate Chip and Always Artichoke, My Mind's Eye Bella Bella French Flea Market, K&Co dp for frame
Accessories: Spellbinders square Nestabilities and pinking border Piercabilities, May Arts natural burlap woven string, Papertrey chocolate twill ribbon, hardware (Making Memories?), Prima flowers, distressing tool, sewing machine, SU linen thread and Earth Elements beads (retired), foam adhesive
Size: 5"x7"

Stamp Out Alzheimer's

You may have heard about this already, but if not, Jen Tapler, a fellow Verve Diva has put together a challenge to help raise awareness as well as much-needed funds for the Alzheimer's Association. There's more than $250 in blog candy up for grabs!! Check it all out on Jen's blog - Jen Tapler Designs.

It's a two-part thing. First, you make your card and link it to Jen's blog by 11:59 PM CT on Wednesday April 1 to qualify for the blog candy. The second part is the fundraiser. You mail Jen the card, and then in May, to kick off her Annual Stamp Out Alzheimer’s Event, Jen will be holding a charity auction where she will be auctioning off decorated Card Organizer tins full of everyone's handcrafted cards. The money from those auctions will go directly to the Alzheimer’s Association. I hope you'll join Jen and so many other fabulous stampers by contributing to such an important and worthwhile cause! You can find all the details, as well as a complete prize list, HERE.

You're Fantastic

I'm sure I've mentioned before how excited I was to meet Michelle Rodgers, owner of Stamper's Dream, at CHA back in January. She told me then that she was going to be expanding her selection of designer papers, and I have to say I absolutely love the choices she made! I finally got around to placing an order over the weekend, and by Wednesday, I had my new goodies. Love, love, love her super fast shipping! Cosmo Cricket's Everafter collection of designer papers was one of the things I was most excited to dig into. I'm head over heels in love with this soft, elegant, and totally modern color combo. (There's a really nice orange-red in the mix, too, by the way, just not on the patterns I chose to work with today.)

Today's layout comes from Jen's awesome Sketch For You To Try. You'll find the sketch, Jen's sample, and guest designer Jenn Diercks's sample all at i{heart}2stamp. For more inspiration, visit the rest of the gang: Amy Rohl, Carole Burrage, Kelly Lunceford, and Susan Liles. When you're ready to play along, link your project to Jen's post, and if you also upload to SCS, remember to use keyword SFYTT.

For the butterfly focal point, I first covered a Scenic Route chipboard butterfly with yellow dp. I used the chipboard to trace a second butterfly onto gray dp, trimmed it out, shaped it a little, then attached it to the chipboard one. The rhinestone flourish is by Zva, the sentiment is from Verve's Fairy Tales, and the punched border at the top is done with the Fiskars A-Fleur border punch. I think it's all pretty straightforward, so I'll go easy on the chatter today.

Hope you have an awesome weekend! It's pretty drizzly and dreary in my part of Virginia today. A perfect day for even more stamping!



Stamps: Fairy Tales (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Papertrey Vintage Cream, Cosmo Cricket Everafter
Ink: Antique Linen Distress, SU Basic Grey
Accessories: Zva rhinestone flourish, Heidi Swapp rhinestones (butterfly); Scenic Route chipboard butterfly, Cuttlebug embossing border, SU Ivory taffeta ribbon, Boss Kut Vintage tag die (I modified it by trimming off the bottom and making it more narrow), Fiskars A-Fleur border punch, sewing machine

Happy Birthday Dodger

Put on your sunglasses - you're going to need them for today's card! After seeing so many beautiful, elegant creations uploaded for yesterday's SCS sketch challenge (#221), I'm a little embarrassed to post mine, but what I needed yesterday was a birthday card that my kids can give to their grandfather (my Dad), who they call "Dodger." He turns 68 today! I've had these little monsters from Monsters Ink (by My Favorite Things) colored and ready to go for weeks, but they just hadn't made it onto a card. After the week my three little ones have had so far, monsters really couldn't be more appropriate. But let's not talk about that! The birthday hats and sentiment are from Let's Go for a Walk (also MFT).

Here's a look at the inside. (The sentiment is from Dino-Mite.)



So, his birthday is today. I finished the card last night. The only way he'll get his card on time is if he sees it online. Which is better than some other years. One year, he was at our house visiting on his birthday. When the celebration started, I said, "Oh Dad, your birthday card is downstairs. Hold on a second, and I'll go get it ........... By the way, um, what color and theme would you like it to be?"

Thanks for stopping by!



Stamps: Monsters Ink and Let's Go for a Walk (My Favorite Things)
Paper: SU Real Red, Summer Sun, Basic Black; PTI Vintage Cream; Bazzill Blue Bell; Imaginesce dp
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Ballet Blue
Accessories: Copic markers, paper piercer, foam adhesive, Spellbinders piercabilities (for wavy border), 1/2" circle punch, SU large oval punch, Michael's ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folder
Size: 5 1/2" square

A cup of tea, a shady tree ...

Lots of fun My Favorite Things happenings to share with you before I get to today's card details. First, have you been following along with the MFT Idol contest? The Top 9 contestants have uploaded their fabulous creations, and now, America, it's time to VOTE. The eight contestants with the most votes move on to the next round. The poll closes tonight (Wednesday, 3/25) at 10 pm EST. And don't worry if you can't pick just one favorite. You can vote only once, but during that one vote, you can choose as many contestants as you want. Does that make sense?

Next comes the weekly "What's Up Wednesday" fun. Michele has shared instructions for a fabulous removeable bookmark card in this week's How'd They Do That tutorial. We'd love to see your bookmark cards, so that's our What's Up Wednesday Challenge for the week.

Have you seen MFT's new Bubble Bin feature? Here's an amazing chance to pick up some of your favorite MFT stamps at a fraction of the cost! But you have to act fast. Each Monday new sets are added to the Bubble Bin and the current ones will be removed. Some will rejoin the store at their regular price and some will disappear forever. One of my all-time favorite MFT images, Annie La Point's Chamomile is in there right now for a mere $2.75, as well as a handful of other sets.

And last, the current Weekly Spotlight is Flopsey! From now through Friday, March 27, you'll find all Flopsey sets on sale for only $8 each. The card above is one I made using the new Tea With Flopsey. I think this is my favorite Flopsey ever. The sentiment is just so perfect for a "just because" or "I miss you" card. I stamped the image in Versafine Onyx Black, clear embossed, then colored with Prismacolors and Gamsol. The leaves are a mixture of Certainly Celery, Old Olive, and Always Artichoke craft inks. For the sky, I used Ila's mop brush technique. The papers are from the Sweetbay collection by Memory Box.

Before I go, I posted this little number on SCS yesterday for the color challenge. I'll share it here, too:


It's a quick 4 1/4" notecard using Sara Williams's Spring Sprouts by My Favorite Things. I resisted the urge to pair this sentiment with prego belly shots on a scrapbook page, aren't you glad? In this context, I think it would make an adorable birthday card for a little girl. In those early years, they change so much between birthdays. The flower center is popped up and topped with a green button, and the grass is just some Kiwi Kiss paper that I cut into a fringe and tucked behind the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today!



Flopsey:
Stamps: Tea With Flopsey (My Favorite Things)
Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, PTI white, Memory Box Sweetbay dp
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, SU Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, and Old Olive craft inks
Accessories: clear embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, blending stumps, SU clear button and Soft Sky stitched ribbon, burlap string (Pink Hedgehog Papercrafts), distressing tool, Labels 1 Nestabilities, corner rounder

Spring Sprouts:
Stamps: Sara Williams - Spring Sprouts (My Favorite Things)
Paper: PTI white, SU Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Pretty In Pink
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Making Memories button, SU linen thread, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, scallop border punch, Baja Breeze ribbon, circle Nestabilities, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, SU Pretty In Pink marker
Size: 4 1/4" square

Congrats!

Three days.

That's how long it takes for black Copic marker to come off a toddler's cheek.

In case you ever need to know :)

By the way, you should have seen the size of my 5yo daughter's eyes when I said, "Here, let's try this," and began to color her brother's face with the colorless blender. (Didn't work.)

Over the weekend, I finally got a chance to ink up Verve's adorable new Bunny Duet image. Aren't these bunnies just precious?! I stamped them on Papertrey White in Memento Rich Cocoa ink, then colored with a combination of Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils. Their bellies are paper pieced, and the bow and bowtie are popped up. The patterned papers are from the Poppyfinch collection by Memory Box. Sentiment is from Practically Perfect.

My beloved Marth Stewart lace border punch bit the dust recently, and maybe it was time. I wasn't sick of it, but I had begun to consider each time I used it whether you might be getting sick of my using it. So I wasn't exactly heartbroken when both of my local craft stores were out of that one. But those were some big shoes to fill to be certain -- it took two Fiskars border punches and this EK Success dotted wave punch to fill the void {giggle}. I really like the look of the staggered purple border peeking out from behind the punched dp. Kinda reminds me of a length of twisted ribbon. I echoed the same look on the inside:



If you haven't been to the Verve blog recently, you may want to tune in to this month's Eggstra Special Spring Project Parade. The fun began last Wednesday and continues into early April. As always, play along with us for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Verve store. Go HERE to link up your creation. This month, we're adding a fun, new chance to win free stamps. We'll be picking random commenters over the course of the parade who will win their choice of any Verve stamp set. We're not telling when we're drawing the names, so visit (and comment) often!

Happy crafting!



Stamps: Bunny Duet (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Papertrey White, Stampin' Up Sage Shadow and Lavender Lace, Memory Box "Poppyfinch"
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Ranger Old Paper Distress
Accessories: Spellbinders mega curved rectangle die, SU large oval punch and paper piercer, Michael's small adhesive pearls, K&Co large adhesive pearls, EK Success dotted wave border punch, Michael's ribbon, foam adhesive, sewing machine