Verve Holiday Spotlight Hop: Day Two

Welcome to Day Two of Verve's Holiday 2012 Spotlight Hops!

We're releasing four new sets and a plain jane this Friday, November 2. Please join us each day this week as we showcase the new sets and count down to our release. And be sure to join us Friday evening from 9-11 Eastern for our Release Party.

Today's featured set is Merry & Bright. If you love snowflakes, fantastic all-purpose holiday sentiments (especially ones you can build and customize), and Julee's amazing font combos, this set is for you! Below is the full hop list. Be sure to leave comments along the way for a chance to win your very own Merry & Bright set.

1. Julee 6. Amber 2. Laurie 7. Amy 3. Maureen 8. Andrea 4. Teresa 9. Charmaine 5. Tosh 10. Janelle

For my peek, I combined two of the sentiments onto a large pennant strip:

then added a sweet little "from all of us" along the bottom:

Each of the three sizes of snowflakes has been stamped in blue ink, circle punched, colored in with a clear Spica pen, and topped with a glittery pearl gem. I went a little crazy with the whole circle motif, offsetting patterned paper circles behind each snowflake, then accenting with buttons, pearls, and rhinestones. Along the right, I added a Pennant Trim border die-cut in a dark taupe color. The papers are all from Carta Bella's Winter Fun 6x6 collection, except for the card base, which is Stampin' Up's Soft Suede.

If you're going through the hop in order, your next stop is Andrea. Enjoy!

Stamps: Merry & Bright (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Stampin' Up Soft Suede card stock; Carta Bella "Winter Fun" 6x6 collection
Ink: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze, and Chocolate Chip, Tim Holtz Old Paper and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks, Versamagic Wheat
Accessories: Pennant Trim A Cut Above by Verve die, 1 3/8" 1 1/4" 1" and 3/4" circle punches, clear Atyou Spica pen, distressing tool, Papertrey buttons, May Arts string, Brown Sugar Divine Twine, Pizzazz Aplenty taupe pearls, glitter pearls, and clear rhinestones
Size: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Verve Holiday Spotlight Hop: Day One

Welcome to Verve's Holiday 2012 Spotlight Hops! We're releasing four new sets and a plain jane this Friday, November 2! Please join us each day this week as we showcase the new sets and count down to our release! All of the stamps you see featured will be available in the Verve store following our release party from 9-11pm Eastern on Friday, November 2!

In the meantime, we've got a fun filled hop for you today! So let your fingers do the clicking and peek into the creative minds of Verve's talented Divas as they give you a little tour of what's to come! Inspiration abounds, and so do the PRIZES!

That's right! We've picked a mystery blog from today's hop and hidden a prize! So be sure to give a little shout out in the comment section as you hop around to each blog on the list. We'll draw a random winner from all of the comments on the mystery blog to win today's featured stamps. Check out the Verve Blog for all the prize details and deadlines.

I'm sitting out today's hop, but do pay a visit to all of my amazing Verve teammates to see some gorgeous peeks at today's featured set: Peace On Earth.

1. Julee 6. Amber 2. Laurie 7. Andrea 3. Maureen 8. Charmaine 4. Teresa 9. Janelle 5. Tosh

See you tomorrow for our Day Two hop!

SFYTT Reminder + Verve News

Hello, my friends, long time, no post. I've been super busy in my off-line life along with chasing away some pesky fall germs, so not much time left for crafting. Hoping to get inky this weekend, though. I'll definitely have some new Verve to share next week. In case you haven't heard, new stamps are coming! Peeks begin on Tuesday and continue through Friday, which is also release day. I am super excited to show off these awesome new sets!

In other news, the end of October is rapidly approaching, and thus so is the October SFYTT deadline. Have you played along? Here's the sketch again:

And here are two different cards I did with the sketch earlier this month:

click HERE for the original post

click HERE for the original post

To play along, link up your creation HERE! 

Miss you!

DS75

Join the Deconstructed Sketch Girls for this week's challenge!  Here's the sketch:

I'm sitting out this week, but there's loads of inspiration from the team this week:

Amber Hight 

Arielle Gordon

Cresta Woodruff, Guest Designer

Donna Wardle

Jen Shults

Kadie Ensley

Lori Boyd

Sheri Gilson

Tracey Pickersgill

To play along, link up to Jen's post.

I'll be back soon :)

Vintage Chic Thanks - DS74

New goodies arrived yesterday, and I couldn't wait to dig in to Heidi Swapp's Vintage Chic 8x8 pad -- talk about gorgeous! And this week's Deconstructed Sketch (#74) was perfect for the card I had in mind. In fact, so perfect it's going into my go-to sketch book pronto. Here it is:

For the main oval panel, I started with a Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three die-cut. On top of that is a Verve Mini Bookplate die-cut that I stamped with a heart image (light aqua ink) and a sentiment, both from Verve's With Love set. I embellished with some white paper flowers from my stash and some May Arts ivory string. Inking, distressing, stitching, and buttons complete the overall vintage look.

For more Deconstructed Sketch #74 inspiration, visit my amazingly talented teammates:

Amber Hight 

Arielle Gordon

Cresta Woodruff, Guest Designer

Donna Wardle

Jen Shults

Kadie Ensley

Lori Boyd

Sheri Gilson

Tracey Pickersgill

Jen has all the participation details, along with the entry widget, over on her blog. Hope to see lots of your fabulous creations this week!

Sweet Caramel Apple Thanks

For this week's TCP Tuesday Challenge (#232), Julie Masse, our hostess, is challenging us to make a shaped card with a Fall theme. To the Silhouette store I immediately headed, where I found this darling caramel apple shape. To make it into a card, I cut two of the green apple pieces and adhered them together along the top (where the mini popsicle stick goes in).  I tied on some chocolate brown raffia with a red button and Cherry Divine Twine, then stamped up a quick "you're sweet" tag using sentiments from TCP's Honey Bear stamp set. So super quick I almost feel like I cheated! But a perfect way to say thanks to one of teachers at the elementary school for making my daughter's day with a "caught being kind" recognition last week.

We'd love to have you play along! Here are the details:

1. Each Tuesday we will give you a challenge.
2. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
3. Add your entry to the Inlinkz Gallery on Alma’s blog or upload to the SCS Gallery, using the keyword TCPTUES232 for this week’s challenge.
4. TCP stamps are not required for this challenge, but highly recommended.
5. There will be one randomly chosen weekly winner, announced when Alma posts the TCP Tuesday Challenge who will win a Gift Voucher for use on The Cat’s Pajamas website.
6. There will be one winner, The Swanky Stamper, announced around the 1st of each month. They will win several sets from an upcoming release and get to play along with us at our Pajama Party and Blog Hop.


Thanks so much for stopping by!

Boo to You - SFYTT

How about a little more October SFYTT inspiration today? Half the team is posting round 2 this week, so be sure to pay a visit to Amber Hight, Becky Carafa, Megan Lock, and Kerry Johnson as well. Next Saturday, the other half of the team will post their Round 2 cards. Here's this month's sketch again:

I pulled out Verve's Boo To You set because a) it's adorable; and b) it's the October Stamp of the Month! That means you can snag this baby for 40% off, now through October 31, while supplies last. And with Verve's super fast shipping, you'll still have it in time for this year's Halloween projects.

I also finally broke into my Echo Park Chillingsworth Manor 6x6 pad, which has been nicely "marinating" in my craft room for weeks now. Love this collection! I wanted to do something fun with those tilted panels on the sketch, and went with a pennant border that I die-cut with Verve's Pennant Trim die. It looked kind of funny sticking out behind a solid rectangle, so I went with Verve's Rounded Scallop Frame instead. It met the sketch requirements, while letting more of the banner show through. The "boo to you" sentiment fit perfectly in Verve's new Mini Classy Label shape (two dies come in this set; I used the larger one here).

Hope you'll join us for the October SFYTT challenge. Entry form and "rules"are HERE on Jen del Muro's blog. A big thanks to Market Street Stamps for sponsoring the October sketch, too!

Have a great weekend!

 

Count Your Blessings - DS73

Since it's already been Thursday for two days this week, how can it really be Thursday again today? Ever have weeks like that? Must be the Columbus Day holiday on Monday that's got me confuzzled. The upside to having a week of Thursdays is that my Deconstructed Sketch sample was done for one of those other Thursdays, i.e. early - woohoo! 

So here's the awesome sketch this week, designed by Sheri Gilson:

I took some liberties, a few more than I would have liked, but I think you'll still see the sketch in there. The maple leaf is a Spellbinders die-cut, the blue fringe trim and the velvet maple leaf trim are from my stash (maybe Making Memories?). The grass and the striped scallop were done with CutUps dies from The Cat's Pajamas (Grass and Big Scallop). The bear image is from A Beary Good Year by TCP. And the papers, including the word banner strip and the little "count your blessings" sentiment, are from the Simple Stories Harvest Lane 6x6 pad.

Take a peek at what the rest of the Deconstructed Sketch girls have come up with:

Amber Hight

Amy Sheffer

Arielle Gordon

Cresta Woodruff, Guest Designer

Donna Wardle

Jen Shults

Kadie Ensley

Lori Boyd

Sheri Gilson

Tracey Pickersgill

My card doubles as my sample for this week's TCP Tuesday Challenge (#231).

 Jen del Muro is our hostess, and has put together this inspiration board:

I was inspired by the overall Fall theme and warm earth tones. So cozy!

To play along with DS73, click over to Jen Shults's blog.

To play along with TCPTUES231, click over to the challenge thread on SCS.

Now remind me again ... what day is it?

Tween Boy Birthday

I haven't set foot in my craft room since Friday, so I've got nothing new to share today. However, I was tidying up my iPhoto library and ran across some cards that I made a while back but never shared here. Today's is a card I made back in April using TCP's awesome mustache dies and companion set. This was for my oldest son's birthday, which was at the end of August. Not only did I forget to post it here, but I forgot to give it to him until a few days after his birthday. Oops!

The mustache is die-cut from cork using The Cat's Pajamas Mustaches CutUps die. The sentiment stamps are from TCP's The Mustache Set. The papers and that tag element are from Echo Park's Times & Seasons collection. The striped piece along the bottom was die-cut with TCP's Big Scallop CutUps die.  Last, I added some personalization with the number flags, which I cut from one of the Times & Seasons patterns. I kept it on the simple side to fit that difficult recipient - the tween boy. Seriously, does card-making get any harder? Good thing it's for one of my own -- he *has* to like it. Or pretend to, anyway :)

Jillibean Soup Card Kitchen, Part 2

Today I'm sharing the remaining cards I put together with Jillibean Soup's October Card Kitchen kit. To see the first four, click HERE. Visit the Card Kitchen blog for lots more inspiration.

I really, really enjoyed working with this kit! Here's why:

• The fabulous product, of course!
• I have a LOT of stuff in my craft room. Hopefully what I'm about to say won't sound negative or ungrateful, but sometimes I believe you can have too much stuff. There are times when I've felt positively claustrophobic in my space and overwhelmed by choice. "Staying in the box," so to speak, the Card Kitchen box, was fun and quite liberating.
• Most of my crafting is done in my craft room, which is away from my family. I loved the portability of this kit box. I added my tape gun, a paper trimmer, some pop dots, and a handful of basic punches, and that was it. I could hang out with my family wherever they were, while making my cards. A beautiful thing! 

For more info on Jillibean Soup's Card Kitchen kits in general, visit the Card Kitchen website.

 All the little doodads on the sheets of die-cuts and stickers were perfect for my "she loves to layer" style.

The focal point sentiment card is from the Country Pumpkin Bite Size Bits, which is a 12x12 sheet of twelve different sentiments and journaling cards (I have lots of leftovers), and the rolled flowers are hand-cut.

I love the trio of little wooden trees (a Kaisercraft product) that came in the October kit! I used one of them here, along with two other trees that I cut out from the Country Pumpkin - Pumpkin Puree 12x12 sheet.

I thought this would be a unique way to tell someone they're #1. The "you" letters are stickers, and the plaid arrows (photo corners, really) are from the same sticker sheet. More of those cute little trees that I cut out of the 12x12 pattern, too.

Happy Turkey Day! Personally, I'm not really all that fond of Thanksgiving turkey, so yep, that cute little "where's the pie?" sticker works for me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Here's the Scoop ...

The teacher appreciation committee at my kids' elementary school held an ice cream social event for the teachers and staff last week. I suggested to the other committee chair that we put an actual invitation in their mailboxes the day or two before instead of just emailing out the details. I didn't find what I was looking for when I searched online for pre-made printable invitations, and didn't have the time or budget to order anything, so I decided to make my own using various digital scrapbooking materials and such. I'm usually such a frustrated novice with digital creations because I don't know how to do so many things. But this time I was thrilled with the final project and thought I'd share it here.

The ice cream sundae image is from the Ice Cream Shoppe kit at digiscrapkits.com. This was the only component that I had to pay for, and it was only $1.00 (for the whole kit, which includes other images). The colorful row of chevrons element came from the free Seasons of Change Mini Kit by Shannon McNab, and the button and twine bow elements came from the free In the Garden collection by Gennifer Bursett (both are from Design House Digital). And last, I did the polka dots with the medium polka dot overlay, one of a free three-pack that I found at digitalscrapbooking.net. I designed the invitation in Photoshop Elements at 2 3/4" x 6," so that I could print four on an 8 1/2" x 11" page.

For the toppings labels, I created a sheet of a full chevron background just by duplicating that single-row chevron element from the Seasons of Change Mini Kit, then added white rows and the names of the different toppings. The font is Henparty (love that name!). The labels were then punched out with a large circle punch. Some we used as tags on milk bottles and others we adhered to tent cards.

I also printed out a cute "here's the scoop ... you're sweet" design onto full-sheet sticker paper, punched them out with a circle punch, and stuck them on the cups for a sweet message. The "sweet" graphic came from another Design House Digital freebie -- the I Do Freebie. I just re-colored the letters to match my color scheme.

And just to be silly, I made a Keep Calm and Eat Ice Cream print  :)

We found lots of good display ideas on Pinterest, and we ended up making good use of all the antique/flea market/farmhouse-inspired pieces I've been purchasing from Decor Steals and Antique Farmhouse all year ... milk bottles in a wire crate for the sprinkles, a glass-top button box to hold some of the dishes we used for toppings, small galvanized buckets for the syrups and whipped cream, cute fabric-lined wire baskets for the cups, and a wooden yardstick crate for the napkins.

The teachers were grateful and we hope they left feeling a little bit spoiled!


Taking good pictures in a drab cafeteria with flourescent ceiling lights using an iPhone is way beyond my skill-set, but I'll share some not-so-great photos anyway.

Thanks for visiting!

October SFYTT - Market Street Stamps

Happy World Card Making Day to all! This is my second post today, so if you're looking for Verve's October Diva Inspirations hop, just scroll down or click HERE. If you're looking for the October SFYTT, stay put, you're in the right place :) 

This month, we are sponsored by Market Street Stamps. I've been eyeing their cute sets for a long time now, so I'm just thrilled to have them as our sponsor this month!

Here's the October sketch:

You'll find the entry form on Jen's blog. Can't wait to see what you create!

More inspiration from the SFYTT sisters:

Jen del Muro with Designer of the Month Stacey Shafer (welcome, Stacy!)

Amber Hight

Becky Carafa

Carole Burrage

Jen Tapler

Jodi Collins

Kerry Johnson

Megan Lock

Susan Liles

Tracy Schultz

I chose to work with Market Street's Gone Campin set. I love the whimsical style of the artwork, and the sentiments are fantastic. I used papers from the Simple Stories Take A Hike 6x6 pad. The campfire image is stamped directly onto a pattern from Take a Hike, then colored (sparingly) with Copics. The bottom was screaming for something, so I added a little olive hemp and a square button.

Have a fantastic day and weekend!

Hugs,