You're Wheely Great

I grabbed a few minutes just now to attempt some handmade tags for my daughter's roller skating birthday party favor bags. I'm really, really, really looking forward to the awesome paper-pieced wardrobe I can give this sweet little roller skater (My Favorite Things Pure Innocence - Roll With It). A different outfit for each party guest, naturally. But methinks Plan B is in order: re-purposing the tag idea into thank-you cards instead. The party starts in only a couple of hours and this is only the first of more than a dozen that I'll need. Whatever Plan B turns out to be, I'll be sure to share it here!

Have a great Sunday!



Stamps: Pure Innocence - Roll With It (My Favorite Things)
Paper: Papertrey Kraft, White and Aqua Mist card stock, Jillibean Soup Apple Cheddar Soup dp
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copic markers, paper piercer, white gel pen, My Favorite Things bracket tab die, The Cat's Pajamas grass die, Lil' Inker Designs cloud die, Papertrey button, May Arts burlap string, Cuttlebug Seeing Spots embossing folder

November SFYTT - Verve

As hard as it is to believe, here we are, folks, already at the first Saturday of November, which means a brand-new Sketch For You To Try, a brand-new sponsor, and a brand-new guest designer. Without further ado ...

... our sponsor is the one and only Verve Stamps! Having proudly designed for Verve for the past few years, I simply cannot say enough wonderful things! Fantastic designs, superb quality, excellent customer service, and an owner who is one of the classiest women I know -- Julee Tilman. As our sponsor, Verve is offering a set of choice to a SFYTT participant who uses Verve in her creation. The random winner will be announced with the December SFYTT.


Here's what we're playing with this month:

I took a more minimalist (for me) approach using the pumpkin trio in Verve's Bountiful Harvest. I paper pieced the pumpkins, colored the sky and grass with Prismacolor pencils, and added a stamped moon and stamped stars (all from Bountiful Harvest as well). For the horizontal band in the background I chose to add a subtle dry-embossed strip in the same chocolate brown as the card base.

For more sketch inspiration, visit our uber-talented Designer of the Month, Broni Holcombe

as well as the SFYTT Sisters:

Jen del Muro 

Amber Hight
Becky Carafa
Carole Burrage
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)
Jen Tapler
Jodi Collins
Kerry Johnson
Megan Lock
Susan Liles
Terri Moore

Many of the Verve Divas also have samples. Visit Jen's blog for a complete list. You might get to see some advance peeks at next week's release, too!

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1. The SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY {SFYTT} will be posted on the first Saturday of each month on www.iheart2stamp.com at 8am EST and will stay open to participants until the last day of the month, unless otherwise noted.
2. This is for fun! Interpret the sketch as you wish and embellish as desired. There are no vendor restrictions, but we would love to see you use the sponsor’s stamps!
3. Each month we will have a Designer of the Month that will be chosen from past month’s participants.
4. Come and play with us on each and every sketch! On Christmas Day 2011 a prize package worth over $200 will be given away to one very lucky and loyal SFYTT stamper that participates in EVERY sketch for the year.
5. To be eligible for the prize package, you must complete ALL of the sketches by each of the deadlines AND link your creation to the link system on that month’s sketch post (the first Saturday of the month). Everyone except for SFYTT Sisters are eligible for the prize package, including Designer of the Month and international players.
6. When posting your sketch creation on your blog, please post the sketch and link back to the sketch post on www.iheart2stamp.com. When posting to online galleries, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”

Stamps: Bountiful Harvest (Verve Stamps) 
Paper: Papertrey Dark Chocolate, Kraft, and Rustic White card stock, Jillibean Soup Cheddar Soup dp, Crate Paper Farmhouse dp 
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Tuxedo Memento Black, Ranger Distress inks 
Accessories: Distress Stickles, Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, sewing machine, Papertrey buttons, May Arts burlap string, Stampin' Up oval punch, My Favorite Things Medium Scallop border Die-namics, Cuttlebug Seeing Spots embossing folder, Scor-Pal, foam adhesive
Size: 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

From Our House To Yours

I'm thrilled to be hosting the Viva La Verve sketch challenge for this week. All of the participation details can be found HERE.

Here's the sketch:

The poinsettia image and sentiment are from Poinsettia Christmas, our current Stamp of the Month, which means you can pick this set up for yourself (or as a gift) at a sweet 40% savings!

Have a great day!

Stamper's Dream Store Closing Update!

Just wanted to pass this along.... Michelle at Stamper's Dream has upped the store closing discount to 40%! The minimum purchase before your discount is $25, and the coupon code to use on the checkout page is 40OffSale! All sales are final. Slight shipping delays are possible due to volume. Shop early for the best selection!

I've been enjoying a short, unplanned break from stamping and blogging, but I *will* be back tomorrow with a Viva La Verve sketch challenge, Saturday with a Sketch For You To Try sample, and most of next week, as Verve will be releasing new stamps and dies on Friday, November 11. Woohooo!!! Spotlights begin Wednesday, the 9th. You'll be tired of me by next weekend ;)

For now, Happy Birthday wishes to my darling daughter, who turns 8 today!

Happy Halloween

It's been very, very quiet on the stamping front lately, so I thought I'd share this teacher treat that a few friends and I put together for the PTO to give the teachers and staff at our kids' elementary school (we made nearly seventy of them!). This little guy is a lot worse for the wear, having been transported several times and handled quite a bit by my 4yo (safekeeping efforts, of course), but you'll still get the idea. I used to think, "What did we do before the internet?"; now it's "what did we do before Pinterest?" I seriously love that site for inspiration of all sorts! I found both this skeleton cuppie project (courtesy of Woman's Day magazine) and the tombstone free printable (thank you Elle's Studio) via Pinterest. Because of my compulsive need to stamp anything and everything {grin}, I embellished the tombstone with an oval stamped with "Spooky Treats" (from JustRite's Halloween Mini Sentiments set). The grass along the bottom was die-cut with a grass die from The Cat's Pajamas.

I will say the white fudge-coated pretzel skeletons were a bit more involved than it appeared from the recipe. I thought I'd simply thread the lollipop stick through the pretzels and stick on some broken-pretzel arms. Turns out the holes in the pretzels were too large and the pretzels spun freely and wildly around the sticks. To keep everything nicely in place, I used Wilton candy melts to secure the pretzels to the stick, quite time-consuming for such a large quantity. In the end, it was worth it, though. It always is!

Happy Halloween!

Color Throwdown #165 - Never Too Old

So happy that the family is on the mend. Harder to shake is that disoriented feeling of losing an entire day. We're all feeling loads better, though, and I'm certainly up for a good challenge. Here are the colors for this week's Color Throwdown #165:

Cool combo, huh? I worked with two of the patterns in Crate Paper's Farmhouse collection, two of the sentiments from Verve's Words of Wisdom, and this week's Mojo Monday sketch (#212):

Before I go, just want to thank the ladies at The Color Throwdown for having me as their guest this month. It's been an honor, not to mention lots of fun!

Check out all this scrumptious inspiration, too ....

Broni Holcombe - Splashes of Watercolor 
Barbara Anders - Paper Pursuits
Danielle Kennedy - Wild Dragonfly Designs 
Tammy Hershberger - Stamp Happy 
Kristin Beuter - Mindless Creativity 
Laura Pryor - Lil' Inker Designs
Carole Burrage - Mother's Little Helper
Keva Brown - How Now Brown Kow
Lori Tecler - Inking a Loud
Lynn Put - The Queens Scene
Wanda Cullen - Cullen-ary Creations
Joan Ervin - Stamping With a Passion

Thanks for stopping by!




Stamps: Words of Wisdom (Verve Stamps) 
Paper: Crate Paper Farmhouse collection, Papertrey Rustic White and Kraft card stock, Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight card stock 
Ink: Stampin' Up Old Olive craft, Ranger Old Paper Distress 
Accessories: EK Success punch, May Arts wide ricrac and natural burlap string, Verve Tiny Sweet Scallop Tag die set, Recollections brads, paper piercer/needle/thread, Pizzazz Aplenty turquoise 2mm rhinestones, foam adhesive
Size: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Color Throwdown #165

Laura is hosting this week's Color Throwdown challenge, and has come up with this beautiful combo for us:

Visit the CTD blog for inspiration from the CTD designers. So sorry, but I'll be posting my guest designer sample a little late this week due to an inconsiderate little stomach virus running through my house. Be back soon! [Update: My sample is posted HERE.]