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

Brandywine Sketch Trio

I love Laura Fredrickson's idea to make card sets using the different weekly sketches. Once you get all your paper and embellishments decisions made on the first, the rest come together in no time. I started my trio of 4 1/4" square notecards with yesterday's Viva La Verve sketch, then used the overall theme to make my sample for Jen's Sketch For You To try and Taylor's Friday cupcake sketch. Here they are one at a time:




I thought Amber's VLV March Week 4 sketch yesterday was awesome, but she threw me for a loop wtih her "clean and simple" twist. She limited our embellishments to only one! WHAT?! {giggle}. Good thing punches and dies don't count as embellishments! The sentiment is from Verve's Beautiful Kindness. The Viva La Verve sketches are uploaded each Friday to Verve's Contests & Challenges sub-forum on SCS. Each sketch has a twist, which is just an additional requirement to follow. If you complete all four sketches in the given month, you become a Verve Sketch Champion and are entered into a drawing to win the entire next Verve release. Pretty good deal! You have until the 26th to complete all of the March sketches.





Next is my sample for Jen's SFYTT. I could see doing this sketch very differently with a full-size card, but I also love how it looks on this smaller scale. The scripture stamp is from Our Daily Bread Designs. As always, there's plenty of inspiration to get you started:

Jen del Muro, with the sketch and guest designer Jenn Diercks
Amy Rohl
Carole Burrage
Kelly Lunceford
Susan Liles

We love when you can play along, too. If you upload to SCS, use keyword: SFYTT.





Last is for the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #60. You can find the sketch and all the info on how to participate over on Taylor's blog. The flower image is from Verve's Miracles Blossom set.

Thanks for swinging by today!



Stamps: Beautiful Kindness, Miracles Blossom (Verve); Scripture Collection (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: Papertrey Vintage Cream; SU textured ivory and Basic Black; Memory Box Brandywine dp
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: clear embossing powder, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, SU ivory taffeta ribbon; Fiskars A-Fleur border punch, circle and oval Nestabilities, Blue Moon charm, K&Co adhesive pearls, Cuttlebug embossing folder, distressing tool
Size: 4 1/4" square

Celebrate MFT Day

Do you know that the 20th of each month is "Celebrate MFT Day"? Basically, it's just a day to show your My Favorite Things stamps some love! I hope you'll join us! Use keyword: CelebrateMFT if you upload to SCS.

I stamped the Who's That Girl walking her dogs (from Let's Go for a Walk), then hand-drew the sidewalk and grass. Everything is colored with Copic markers. The cloud images come from the set Hooga Booga. They were a bit of a desperate after-thought, as I had a little catastrophe with my red marker and had some booboos to cover up. Yes, I know she looks like she's holding a cloud in her hand, but trust me, it's way better than a random red blob. LOL! Should I show the before-clouds version (wink)?



Stamps: Let's Go for a Walk (My Favorite Things); Hooga Booga (MFT Presents)
Paper: SU Real Red and Pumpkin Pie, PTI white, DCWV "Citrus" dp
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: Copic markers, clear embossing powder, Spellbinders circle Nestabilities, SU red striped ribbon, foam adhesive, sewing machine

Fear Not

Our Daily Bread Designs is sponsoring this week's sketch challenge at Card Positioning Systems. The CPS designers have done fantastic things with this month's ODBD sets, both the pottery set I showed earlier in the month, and the new Scripture Collections #1 and #2 that debuted during Tuesday's blog hop.

Here's my take on the sketch (CPS #107). I used some designer paper I got from the ODBD Store - Sweetbay by Memory Box. I love, love, love the fresh, spring-like colors and patterns. You can find this and quite a few other Memory Box paper collections HERE. The verse, Isaiah 41:10 is part of the Scripture Collection #1 set. I added some other fun, new-to-me things, too -- brown corduroy brads from Stampin' Up (YUM!), blue/green trim by Making Memories, and a punched border using the Fiskars A-Fleur border punch.

I've had a lot of questions about the BossKut dies that I use (the brown flourish on this card is one of them) and whether they work with the Cuttlebug, and I keep forgetting to answer - sorry!! Yes, the BossKut dies work with the Cuttlebug. I'm usually just fine running the same sandwich that I use for my Spellbinders dies (A plate, C plate, die with cutting side up, card stock, B plate). Sometimes, for more intricate shapes, I'll add a piece of heavy cardstock between the die and the B plate as a shim.

Thanks for visiting!





Stamps: Scripture Collection #1 (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: Papertrey white; Memory Box Sweetbay dp
Ink: Ranger Walnut Stain and Antique Photo distress ink
Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 1 Nestabilities, BossKut flourish die, Fiskars A-Fleur border punch, Making Memories trim, Prima flowers, Pink Hedgehog Papercrafts brown brads, foam adhesive, Coffee Shimmerz (painted onto the brown flourish), Stampin' Up brown corduroy brads, 1/4" circle punch, and sponges,
Size: 9 1/4 x 4 (fits in a standard office-supply letter envelope)

MFT Blog Hop

Ready to blog hop again, MFT-style? I hope so! If you've haven't come here from Michelle Giraud's blog, you may want to start at the beginning with the MFT Lady herself, Kim Van der Sanden. Then just follow the links from blog to blog, taking in all the fun eye candy along the way, and eventually you'll work your way back here! If you did come from Michelle, thanks for hangin' out with us! I'm not the tail end, but pretty close. Once you're finished here, head over to our closer for tonight, Joanne Basile, who has not only her usual dose of gorgeousness but also the photopolymer pot o' gold!

Tonight, My Favorite Things Presents has released two stamp sets by a new illustrator, Sara Williams. Many of you may already be familiar with Sara's amazing web design work on some of your favorite and best-looking stamping blogs, including MFT's very own Susan Liles (Sara's sister, in fact), Joanne Basile, and Jen del Muro (and maybe some of the others, too). I'm so excited to see her venture into designing stamps now!

I've used some of the mix-'n-match flowers and vases from the set called Funky Flowers. I wanted to make this card fit with the funky, whimsical nature of the set, so I mixed in the zebra stripe paper and added some turquoise buttons for some extra pop. The vase is paper pieced using a celery green paper that I've touched up with some Prismacolor pencil shading. I tied some burlap string around it, from which hangs a vellum "You Rock" tag. The white trim along the bottom is something I picked up in the trims and lace section at my local Hancock Fabrics.

Be sure to stop by the MFT Member Company forum on SCS for our regular What's Up Wednesday activities. Susan has provided this week's HTDT ("How's They Do That") tutorial and and is hosting a companion WUW ("What's Up Wednesady") challenge. Both are all about masking, a perfect technique for working with flowers!

Hope you're enjoying the hop! Thanks for visiting, and don't forget to hit Joanne's blog next!




Stamps: Funky Flowers and Essential Sentiments (My Favorite Things)
Paper: Papertrey White, SU Basic Black, GCD Studios zebra print dp, Pebbles Inc green dp
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, SU Soft Sky
Accessories: Stardust Stickles, burlap string, Prismacolor pencils, Spellbinders tag die, SU turquoise buttons, Michael's ribbon, fabric trim, foam adhesive

Our Daily Bread Anniversary Blog Hop

Hi everyone! Welcome to the Our Daily Bread Designs anniversary blog hop. If you didn’t know about our Blog Hop and landed here by chance, be sure to go back to the beginning at Dina Kowal's blog, Mama Dina's Stamperia, and I'll see you back here real soon. There is blog candy along the way, as well as a fun game to play, not to mention some spectacular peeks at an amazing pair of new stamp sets, so I don't want you to miss a thing. If you came here by way of Sita Mahadeo, then you're right on track.

Today we're celebrating the first anniversary of Our Daily Bread Designs. Kelley (the owner) saw a need in the market for high quality, Scripture based stamp sets, and instead of saying, "Someone should," she said, "I will." It has been a true blessing to work with Kelley and ODBD this past year.

For a special grand prize, we are playing Scripture Scramble! Each blog has one or two words that you can collect at each stop and put together to make a scripture verse (NIV edition). Once you have collected all the words, send the verse in the correct order, along with the scripture reference by EMAIL to our DT Coordinator, Judy Rozema, at lidaroseroz@gmail.com. Correct entries will be put into a hat and the Grand Prize winner will receive a set of their choosing from Our Daily Bread designs AND a selection of cards made especially for this celebration by some of the Design Team members. How cool is that?! Entries must be received by MIDNIGHT CST on March 19th.

Here is my Scripture Scramble word: FALSEHOOD

Speaking of scriptures, today is the release of two new scripture sets. Each member of the Design Team chose a verse that is especially meaningful to them and Kelley compiled them all into special anniversary sets that are available for purchase today! My card for today uses the verse I contributed, Romans 8:28. This verse is one of many that Christians can turn to during rough times. It is a powerful reminder that even when things look grim, God is still at work for our good. That said, this verse was most powerful to me not during a trial, but instead when I had an occasion to look back at some major blessings I'd received during a time in my life when I was not following Christ and realize that even then, God was equipping me to serve in a big way almost a decade later. God is so good! I have another story to share about this verse, but I'll save it for a day when there isn't so much other stuff going on!

Right now, it's time for me to send you to your next stop on the blog hop:

Chris Olsen

If you haven't been to her blog, you're in for a real treat! Enjoy!!

A couple of quick card notes: The papers are all from Basic Grey's Porcelain pack, which is available from Our Daily Bread Designs. I cut my ovals with Spellbinders dies - a selection is coming soon to ODBD. The pearls on the flowers? Available at ODBD, too. Even the Flower Soft I used to make the stems! Are you seeing the pattern here? Kelley has been busy expanding inventory in her store so that ODBD is now a place you can look to for many of your favorite stamping products! I think that's fantastic!



Stamp: Scripture Collection #1 (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: Prismatics Herbal Garden; PTI white; Basic Grey Porcelain
Ink: SU Always Artichoke craft
Accessories: Spellbinders oval nestabilities, SU top note die, May Arts ribbon, Martha Stewart branch punch, Prima flowers (green); pink flowers from floral section of Michael's, adhesive pearls, fabric trim, foam adhesive

Floral Symphony in Gold

It feels like spring. Warmer temperatures, the smell of new mulch, birds chirping in the early morning, bulbs nudging their way out of the earth .... I love the rebirth and renewal of the season. I had a brief respite from deadlines these last couple of days, and used the opportunity to take a break from stamping. I know it's only been two days since my last post, but seriously, it feels like two weeks. Normally, even if I'm not posting, I'm still busy making things. This time, I I took a break and rejuvenated by doing some other things that feed my soul but I don't make time for as much as I should. Like playing the piano for one. I have a beautiful baby grand piano in my living room that is little more than a piece of furniture these days. My Rachmaninoff ended up a cacophony of crashing bass notes thanks to my curious toddler's wandering fingers, and my Chopin (yes, I love the romantics) was ousted by "I Scream for Ice Cream" thanks to my five-year-old. But that's okay. I played, and it felt good.

On to today's card ... Lots of aspects of this card are out of my norm, but I like the final result. The card was really built around the Que Sera Sera designer papers by K&Co. I picked up an 8x8 pack at Michael's quite a few weeks ago, and until now have had zero luck working with them. They're beautiful papers, don't get me wrong - I just haven't been able to make them work. Last week, I saw my blog friend Gretchen use one of the patterns on this beautiful card she made, and I was determined to get the pack back out and beat it into submission. The whole gold thing came about from the gold cord. I had fussed with some wide olive ribbon for a while before giving up and changing to something more narrow. A lot more narrow. Once the gold cord was on there, I decided to try heat embossing the image in gold, Jerri Kay-style. Then I couldn't get stopped. Gold embossed edges on the different panels, gold brads, flattened gold bead caps (jewelry making supply) on the buttons. I hope it doesn't look overdone or gaudy. You know, your own eyes start to play tricks on you after a while! The floral image is from Verve's new Floral Symphony, and the sentiment is from Fluttering By, also by Verve.

The layout is Jen del Muro's awesome Sketch For You To Try this week. Stop by her blog, i{heart}2stamp to see the sketch, Jen's sample, and guest designer Jenn Dierks's sample. Then show some love to the other SFYTT sisters: Amy Rohl, Carole Burrage, Kelly Lunceford, and Susan Liles. When you're ready to play along, go back to i{heart}2stamp and use Mr. Linky to add yourself to the list of participants. If you upload to SCS, remember to use keyword: SFYTT.

I also made this for today's Inspiration Challenge on SCS, which was to choose anything from Fitz and Floyd. I like to shop while looking for inspiration and hit the jackpot with the Bellacara collection. I've been thinking lately how nice it would be to get some new dinnerware, and this is SOOOOO me! My kitchen, breakfast room, and dining room are all done in these exact colors. I'll have to tuck this info away for "someday," and in the meantime be satisfied with making a card.

Last (sorry I'm chatty today), if you haven't been keeping up with the daily happenings at Our Daily Bread Designs, stop by the ODBD blog and catch up. Each day, a few members of the design team are posting projects and tutorials, plus there's new blog candy every day. It's all part of the one-year anniversary celebration. On stage today are Jane Wetzel and Judy Rozema. The show continues tomorrow and Monday, then on Tuesday, we will be doing a blog hop to showcase a most amazing pair of anniversary stamp sets. I can't wait for you to see what Kelley has put together to commemorate her first year in business!




Stamps: Floral Symphony and Fluttering By (Verve Stamps)
Paper: SU Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Ruby Red; K&Co Que Sera Sera dp
Ink: Encore Gold Metallic, SU Tangerine Tango
Accessories: Darice bead caps; SU Ruby Red buttons, brads, gold cord; Spellbinders Labels 1 Nestabilities and tag die; BossKut Vintage Tag die, #0834; Mark Richards bling; sparkly gold embossing powder (unknown); Copic markers (YR16, E09, YG95, G99); Martha Stewart border punch; Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder; foam adhesive

What's Up Wednesday? Paper Pleating

Today, I'm hosting the weekly What's Up Wednesday Challenge over in the My Favorite Things forum on SCS. Flutter on over and play along! My challenge is to do some paper-pleating and today's card is my sample. If you need a little how-to, I've got you covered there, too. Each week, MFT also has a How'd They Do That? tutorial, and today's is, of course, paper pleating.

The image, from MFT's Nite Nite, Ellie is partly paper pieced and partly colored with Copics. I added a little shading to her paper pieced pajamas with a Prismacolor pencil, too. The ovals and circles are cut with Nestabilities, the stitching is done by machine, and the ribbon comes from Close to My Heart. The lacy trim is something I picked up at my local fabric store (Hancock Fabrics). Patterned papers are from Basic Grey's Bittersweet line.

Thanks for stopping by!



Stamps: Nite Nite Ellie (My Favorite Things)
Paper: Basic Grey Bittersweet, PTI Vintage Cream, SU Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Adirondack Espresso, Ranger Old Paper Distress Ink
Accessories: Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, CTMH ribbon, oval and circle Nestabilities, lacy trim, Scor-Pal, foam adhesive, sewing machine

ODBD Anniversary Kick-Off

Today begins a super fun week as Our Daily Bread designs celebrates its first year in business. Each day for the next week, two design team members will be posting fun projects, tutorials, and loads of blog candy. Then on the 17th, we'll culminate the celebration with the release of a very special anniversary stamp set and a blog hop too. I'm lucky enough today to kick off the celebration with teammate Angel Wilde. Be sure to check out her blog, Angelosity, for a demonstration of Shimmerz and some yummy blog candy!

I'll be showing you how to create a lattice background using a Scor-Pal, but before I get to that, how about a chance to win more great prizes? Play along in the Bread Basket {aka Design Team} Scavenger Hunt! You'll find each of the following items on one of the design team members' blogs. When you have found all of the items, copy the list below into an email, and include which blog you found it on, then send your list to our DT Coordinator, Judy Rozema, at lidaroseroz@yahoo.com. Deadline is Thursday, March 12, midnight CT. All correct entries will be put into a “bread basket” (lol) and three winners will be drawn on Friday, the 13th! It could be your lucky day! Prizes and winners will be announced on the ODBD blog on Friday!

Here's your list of items (and remember the items can all be found on the main blog pages, not in the actual posts, so you only have to check banners, sidebars, and such)

A pink and green tree
A dancing giraffe
A NeoPod
A foggy river
A playlist with “Jesus Take The Wheel”
A snapdragon
A daisy with a ladybug
A duck
A red flower
A lemonade stand
A stamping sponge

And here's the full list of Design Team Members (you can also find the links on the lefthand sidebar of my blog):

Kelley Holland (owner of Our DailyBread Designs)
Angel Wilde
Angella Crockett (guest designer)
Angie Zublionis
Becca Feeken
Betty Wright
Chris Olsen
Dina Kowal
Holly McMillen (guest designer)
Jane Wetzel
Judy Rozema
Laurie Schmidlin
Lorelie Kim
Sandee Shanabrough (guest designer)
Sita Mahadeo

Good luck!!

Now, for a quick how-to on creating the lattice background in three easy steps using a Scor-Pal. This is not my idea -- I'm just showing you how to do it. The Scor-Pal and accessories are available in the Our Daily Bread Designs store. I held out on this gem of a product for a long, long time, but I can honestly tell you, I'm so happy I got it, because I use it every single day! I {heart} my Scor-Pal!

Today I'm working with one of my favorite older ODBD sets, Path of Life. The beautiful main image is large, so I chose to work on a 5 1/2" card base. I love the lattice look on white especially, as it is such a classy way to dress up the plain white background. I also love working with the Prismatics papers because of the nice texture. First you'll want to cut your paper to 5 1/2 x 11.



Step 1: With the texture side up (if you're using textured paper), use your Scor-Pal to score on the 11" side at 5 1/2" so you'll know where to fold to make the card base.





Step 2: Flip the paper over so the texture side is down and place your paper at an angle on the left side of the Scor-Pal bed so that the top right corner fits into the little notch at the 5" mark along the top. For this card size, the other corner should fall at approximately the 2" mark. Use your scoring tool to score every 1/2-inch.






Note: When your get to the middle score lines, you'll need to stop at, or even just a tiny bit past where your line reaches the middle of the card, as shown. Remember - you'll want the scoring to look perfect on the front of the card. If you go past a tiny bit, you won't even see it on the back once the card base is folded.



This is what it looks like after completing Step 2:





Step 3: Rotate your paper and move it to the right side of the Scor-Pal bed, lining up the opposite corner into the notch at the 7" mark along the top. Score at every 1/2-inch.



This is what it looks like after completing step 3:



Your background is done!



How easy is that?! Now you're ready to finish your card as you desire.

My main image was colored with Prismacolor pencils, matted twice and popped up on dimensionals. The Scripture was heat-embossed, cut out with Nestabilities and also popped up. I finished up with a simple ribbon along the bottom tied into a bow, a scallop border punched bottom, some Dew Drops, photo corners, and paper piercing.

Thanks for stopping by!



Stamps: Path of Life (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: White, Black, and Herbal Garden Prismatics, Georgia Pacific white
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (for image); Versafine Onyx Black (sentiment)
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, blending stumps, Gamsol; Scor-Pal, Offray ribbon, Spellbinders circle Nestabilities, SU scallop border punch, photo corner punch, and paper piercer; Robin's Nest Dew Drops

Bunnies, Butterflies, and Flowers - Oh My!

All that yummy new Verve I've been talking about for the last few days has now been officially released! You'll find all eight new sets and five new Plain Jane single images in the Verve store. Be sure to check out the bundle pricing, good through the end of the month (while supplies last).

Here are a few projects I showed at the release party tonight, but haven't posted here:

Practically Perfect:



I used Amber's Viva La Verve March Week 1 sketch with a twist. The twist this time was to use buttons. Think I got that part covered? LOL. I colored this little sweetie with Prismacolors and layered it three times - first the body, second the head and feet, and third the bowtie. Silly me, when I first started coloring I had a baby girl card in mind. When I got to the bow-tie, I said, "Hey, wait a minute, where are her pearls?" I had pulled out the wrong bunny, but you know what, he's just as sweet! This is an awesome set with both the boy and girl bunnies and some great mix-and-match sentiments, too! [Update: I've received a lot of emails asking for more info about the embossed buttons. They were done with a Cuttlebug embossing folder from the Just My Type collection (there are five borders in this collection). I did a quick search and was able to find them at All That Scraps. Here's a direct link: Just My Type Embossing Borders ]


Floral Symphony and Circular Sayings:



Y'all know I can spend for-EVAH on just one card, right? Well, with Mo and Jo (as Amy calls them) up and leaving for a few weeks this month, combined with sick kids this past week, I found myself a little behind on my Verve projects. So I had to speed up a little, and you know what? Making a quick card wasn't so bad! This one was finished in about a half-hour. I had sketched out most of my layouts when the stamps first arrived a month or so ago, so the hard part was already done. I don't know how well you can see it, but there is a very light hint of Soft Sky behind the flowers. I used a trick I learned from Ila at Artfully Ila, which is to mask the image and use a mop brush to apply the ink, kind of like stippling, but the mop brush is so much softer that it gives the sky more of an airbrushed look. I was just looking at the Copic airbrush system ($150) tonight. My mop brush was probably less than $10 :)


Beautiful Kindness:



Still lovin' the yummy colors of the "Chloe's Closet" line by Making Memories. When I used Beautiful Kindness for my Verve Release Sketch sample yesterday, I felt like such a cheater because I used just the sentiment and didn't stamp the beautiful butterfly at all! It's WAY to pretty to leave uninked!


Psalm 51:10 and Everlasting Life



A fun layout and cool papers I'd been wanting to try. The Scripture is a Plain Jane stamp, and the light blue flower behind it comes from Everlasting Life. For the buttom "ruffle," I punched white card stock with Stampin' Up's scallop border punch, then used scissors to make the slits between each scallop. I curled every other one up and the remaining ones under. This very well may fall into the "what was I thinking?" category at some point - LOL. It looked really nice when I tried it out with lightweight copy paper. Not quite the same with cardstock.


Thanks for stopping by! See you on Tuesday as Our Daily Bread Designs kicks off a fabulous week-long celebration leading up to its first anniversary the next Tuesday (March 17).



Practically Perfect:
Stamps: Practically Perfect (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Papertrey White, SU Bashful Blue
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Ranger Antique Linen Distress
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, blending stumps, Gamsol; SU clear button and taffeta ribbon; white button (unknown); burlap string; clear embossing powder; Cuttlebug button embossing folder; foam adhesive

Floral Symphony Thanks:
Stamps: Floral Symphony and Circular Sayings (Verve Stamps)
Paper: SU Basic Black and Soft Sky textured card stock, Basic Grey Urban Prairie, Papertrey White
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, SU Soft Sky
Accessories: Copic markers, mop brush, clear embossing powder, foam tape, paper piercer, Robin's Nest dew drops, Spellbinders Piercabilities

Beautiful Kindness:
Stamps: Beautiful Kindness (Verve Stamps)
Paper: SU Buckaroo Blue, Kiwi Kiss; Prismatics Medium Desert Coral; Making Memories "Chloe's Closet" dp
Ink: SU Not Quite Navy craft, Buckaroo Blue
Accessories: Spellbinders circle and square Nestabilities and tag die, Chloe's Closet button and ribbon, burlap string, clear embossing powder, foam adhesive

Psalm 51:10:
Stamps: Everlasting Life, Psalm 51:10 (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Riding Hood Red and Whisper White (SU); Dutch Girl by Cosmo Cricket
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Soft Sky, Ranger Old Paper Distress Ink
Accessories: Robin's Nest dew drops, Spellbinders Nestabilities, SU scallop border punch and Riding Hood Red ribbon, sewing machine, foam adhesive, sponges

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I love the Plain Jane stamp line that Verve Stamps introduced last year. Julee wanted to give Verve customers a way to pick up additional stamps at a very affordable price, so she began offering single images for only $3 each. There's nothing "plain Jane" about the stamps - the name simply refers to the fact that the stamps are packaged without the printed index on the acetate carrier sheet, which helps keep the cost low.

The Plain Jane stamps coordinate well with Verve's image stamps, but one of my favorite things is to build a card around just the single stamp. I used a PJ called Little Star, Jen's Sketch For You To Try, and some papers from the Nana's Nursery Baby Boy Collection by Die Cuts With a View to create this baby girl card. I modified Jen's sketch a tiny bit by adding the circle panel for the sentiment, but the basic lines of the sketch are still there.

Little Star will be releasing tomorrow, along with four other Plain Janes and a whopping eight full sets. The Release Party starts at 8 pm EST!

Check out what the rest of the SFYTT team put together this week:

Jen del Muro ... who has the sketch and a WONDERFUL new guest designer to announce!!
Amy Rohl
Carole Burrage
Kelly Lunceford
Susan Liles

A girl can never have too many sketches to work with, especially with so many awesome new Verve sets to play with, so when Julee announced a special weekend sketch challenge, I wanted to put together something for that one, too. Three random participants will receive their choice of a set from tomorrow's big release. You can find the sketch and all the details on the Verve blog!

Here's my quickie:



The sentiment is from a new set called Beautiful Kindness.

So glad you could stop by today!



Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:
Stamps: Little Star (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Papertrey White, SU Perfect Plum, DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy
Ink: SU Perfect Plum and Certainly Celery
Accessories: Spellbinders circle and square Nestabilities; SU hardware, ribbon, paper piercer, and dimensionals; Creative Impressions pearlized mini brads; sewing machine

Beautiful Kindness:
Stamps: Beautiful Kindness (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Papertrey White, Bazzill Rain and Blackbird cardstock, Basic Grey Urban Prairie
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punch and floral border punch, Spellbinders square Nestabilities, American Crafts Boutique ribbon, SU slit punch and clear embossing powder