Thursday, August 16, 2012

Verve New Release Spotlight - Day 1





Welcome to our Anni-VERVE-sary Spotlight Hops!

As many of you know, Verve is celebrating its 5th anniversary this month and the party is just getting started! Come join us over the next 9 days as we showcase the 23 new stamps and dies releasing from Verve! We'll be counting down the minutes and revealing all the new sets in our forum from 9-11pm Eastern on Friday, August 24, so make plans now to join us for our release party!

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 and Guest 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 sets and dies. Check out the Verve Blog for all the prize details and deadlines.

Want even more chances to win? Head on over to the Verve SCS forum and play along in our Anni-VERVE-sary release challenges. Or hop on over to the Verve Blog to find out about our Verve Card Carnival, for a chance to win the entire new release (a $300+ value)!


1. Julee8. Andrea
2. Laurie S.9. Charmaine
3. Maureen10. Janelle
4. Teresa11. Betty
5. Tosh12. Christyne {Guest}
6. Amber13. Laurie W. {Guest}
7. Amy14. Jen S. {Guest}




Today's hop features a new set, With Love, a new Plain Jane, Birthday To You, and a new border die, the Pennant Trim Die. I've combined all three to create this cheery birthday card. The sentiment is the Birthday To You Plain Jane, which I inked up in three different colors and die-cut with the Curvy Bookplate Die. The sweet little paper-pieced cupcakes are from the With Love set. (By the way I'm really digging the variety in this set! A good all-around, all-purpose set is always a win, don't you think?) Behind the cupcakes and pom-pom trim is the Pennant Trim Die. I squealed when I first saw this and haven't stopped since! Here's a closer look at all the new goodies:



I used this week's Deconstructed Sketch for my layout (with maybe a few extras - I hope you'll still be able to find the sketch in my card!):


To play along, link up your sketch creation http://deconstructingjen.com/archives/6365. And for more sketch inspiration, visit the Deconstructed Sketch Girls:




  • Amber Hight
  • Arielle Gordon
  • Donna Wardle 
  • Jen Shults 
  • Jessica Diedrich 
  • Judy Rozema, Guest Designer
  • Kadie Ensley
  • Lori Boyd
  • Pam Varnell 
  • Sheri Gilson



  • Before I go, don't miss out on Verve's Anni-VERVE-sary sale!





    Happy hopping!


    Tuesday, August 14, 2012

    Zoom! - TCPTues223


    It's time for a brand-new COLOR challenge over at The Cat's Pajamas. Lori, our hostess this week, has put together this lovely combo for TCP Tuesday 223:


    I used stamps from TCP's Wheel Love and colored with Copics. The clouds, die-cut twice, were done with TCP's Cloud Border CutUps die, and hand-stitched to the card. The papers are a mixture of My Mind's Eye Lavender and Bluebell collections.



    TCP TUESDAY CHALLENGE 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 and/or upload to the SCS Gallery, using the keyword TCPTUES223 for this week’s challenge.
    4. TCP stamps are not required for this challenge, but of course we love to see TCP fans use their TCP stamps!
    5. There will be one randomly chosen weekly winner, announced on Tuesdays who will win a Gift Voucher for use on The Cat’s Pajamas website.
    6. There will be one winner, The Swanky Stamper, announced 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.


    Happy stamping!

    Sunday, August 12, 2012

    Hugs 5 Cents - TCPTues222


    Julie is hosting this week's TCP Tuesday challenge #222, and she has asked us to get out our stash of washi tape and use it! I'll be the first one to admit I've been buying lots, but then not using it enough, so I was really looking forward to this challenge. I created a kind of shabby number, incorporating lots of fun little embellishments. Sorry for the poor photo -- I can't seem to get the lighting quite right. The little pair of die-cut stamps were stamped with images from Love Letters and cut out with The Cat's Pajamas Stamp Trio CutUps die. Here's a close-up:



    I used two strips of washi tape, a black sriped and a yellow chevron, to anchor those stamp die-cuts, then rolled/curled up the ends to fit with the overall shabby design.



    The embellishment cluster at the top includes a piece of dark gray ribbon, a heart die-cut with TCP's Heart Trio CutUps, a spiral clip, yellow baker's twine (also from TCP), and a little jewelry tag stamped with "HUGS."

    I used two other TCP dies as well: the dark gray heart doily peeking out on the left is the Heart Rosette, and the ivory reverse scallop is one of the Queen of Hearts dies. 

    Hope you'll join us!


    Here are the details for this challenge:

    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 guestbook on Alma's Blog and/or upload to the SCS Gallery, using the keywordTCPTUES222 for this week's challenge.
    4. TCP stamps/dies are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp/die, like this week)
    5. There will be one randomly chosen weekly winner, announced on Tuesdays.
    6. There will be one winner, The Swanky Stamper, announced 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.

    Saturday, August 11, 2012

    Back to School


    It's the second Saturday of August, so half the SFYTT Sisters have some sketch inspiration to share with you today, in case you're looking for a little jump-start to your own SFYTT challenge creation. To play along, link up your creation HERE.

    Here's the August sketch again, sponsored by Verve Stamps:


    And here are the designers posting today:



    I went with a more creative interpretation today. Sounds so much better than non-compliant :D Actually, I think you'll see the sketch pretty clearly, even if I did bring the cloud borders forward one layer. This card began way differently in my head -- a almost all-white, very textured creation, but when I went in search of some colorful paper for the balloon paper piecing, I ran across this new school-themed My Mind's Eye 6x6 pad (School Daze Six By Six 2), and the whole "back to school" theme came together from there. The balloon is from Up, Up and Away by Verve. The "back to school" cloud and the vertical strip of crayons were both in the School Daze collection. The border clouds were done with the Clouds die by The Cat's Pajamas.

    With my oldest starting middle school in a few weeks, my youngest starting kindergarten, and my middle in a multi-age, multiple teacher structure, the hard part will be deciding which teacher or child to give this to!

    Happy weekend!


      

    Thursday, August 9, 2012

    DS64 - U Matter

    [If you're looking for the CASE Study Anniversary Blog Hop, 
    scroll down one post or click HERE.]



    Happy Thursday. Are you ready for a new Deconstructed Sketch? Jen has given us a beautiful sketch with lots of possibilities this week. Here it is:



    In my mind, my sketch sample is filled to the brim with all manner of elegance -- must be that big bow. Unfortunately, that sample is still in my mind - LOL! I waaaay overslept and didn't even start on my card until about an hour ago. Many of you will have heard me lament how slow a crafter I can be. A 45-minute card is unheard of for me! I'm just glad I somehow managed to create something passable, even if it's a little plain. All thanks go to my favorite Verve die-cut, the chunky letter "u" from the I Heart U Die Set. This time I mixed it up with a sentiment from Words of Wisdom. The papers are from My Mind's Eye's Bluebell 6x6 collection.

     The Deconstructed Sketch Girls have lots more inspiration:




  • Amber Hight
  • Arielle Gordon
  • Donna Wardle 
  • Jen Shults 
  • Jessica Diedrich 
  • Judy Rozema, Guest Designer
  • Kadie Ensley
  • Lori Boyd
  • Pam Varnell 
  • Sheri Gilson


  • To play along, upload your sketch creation to a blog or online gallery and then link it up HERE.


    Cheers!

    Monday, August 6, 2012

    Project Life, Week 24

    Your comments on my first Project Life post a little while ago were so sweet and encouraging (thank you, you know I was nervous!) that I thought I'd post more. Today, I'll share my Week 24 spread, which covers June 10-16.




    The colorful paper choices (from a retired Pink Paislee collection, Soiree), were inspired by my daughter's bathing suit in the photo to the right of the title card. The bright colors are WAY out of my comfort zone, but I ended up having a lot of fun with them (despite the fact that the hot pink may not have been the perfect color for my son's baseball pictures in the second half of the week!). Other than the papers, there's not a lot on the title card. The letters and numbers are chipboard. I added a spiral notebook border using MFT's Notebook Edge Die-namics die. The scalloped turquoise pieces were done with MFT's Medium Scallop Border die.


    This is the photo to the right of the title card, a sequence of my daughter jumping into the pool. (I put the three photos together in Photoshop Elements using a free template from Persnikety Prints,  6x4 Tiny Templates.) 

    I love seeing the nose-holding and her "all-elbows-and-knees" entry in the third photo. Today, less than two months later, the girl in these photos has been replaced by a much more comfortable, much more graceful, much more competent swimmer. And that observation is fresh fuel for my whole Project Life album (which I'll admit has faltered these last two weeks). I can't wait to have this whole year to look back on next year and the year after that and the year after that. Kind of reminds me of the saying, "the days are long but the years are short." Project Life is really helping me pay more attention to the days. 



    My older two were at our church's Vacation BIble School all week long, so that activity got a chunk of real estate this particular week. I didn't have any good photos since I wasn't there, so I searched on the internet for a photo of the VBS program the church used, Sonrise National Park VBS. I embellished one not-so-great photo of the opening one day and added an embellished 3x4 journal card to round it out.



    The next two journaling cards go with the photos that are above and below.

    On the left is some brief journaling expressing gratitude for our neighbors' generosity with their pool. The butterfly embellishment was done with more MFT dies plus some fuchsia baker's twine. At the top is a strip of black polka-dot washi tape.

    On the right side is a Chevron Bitty Bag from i{heart}papers embellished with a partial Project Life Turquoise journaling card, more black chipboard letters, and a washi tape arrow. Inside the bitty bag is a tag with some journaling about my son's home run. (I should mention that the pockets for these pages open on the front side. In order to have access that tag inside the bitty bag, I had to slice a small opening on the back side of that pocket.


    And here's the photo of the home run. Cole had already hit a few home runs by this point in the season, but to my dismay, I had not seen a single one. I came with camera in hand just wanting to snap a few photos; I was thrilled to capture this moment! (I'm thankful no photo has surfaced of me doing the happy dance from the other side of the backstop! I may or may not have looked like a complete raving lunatic.) The "moment captured" was done with an Ali Edwards digital brush.

    Here's the second page:


    Along the top are a post-recital photo of my daughter and her piano teacher and my oldest son's baseball team with their runner-up trophy from the American League/National League championship game. Just straight-up 6x4's, no embellishing.


    The left journal card goes with the recital photo above, and the right journal card goes with the photo below:


    "What I want to remember about today" is another Ali Edwards digi brush, available at designerdigitals.com. In the album, I added a strip of designer paper along the bottom, just to tie it into the rest of the spread a little more.


    This was the week Cole received his invitation to play on the All-Star team, so I had to do a little something for that. I added a digi sentiment to the photo using Karla Dudley's Stamp Sheet - Boy Brushes, available at Design House Digital) and colored the word "awesome" in red. On the right is a 3x4 card made with Soiree papers, black chipboard letters, and turquoise scallops to pick up on elements elsewhere in the week's spread.

    At the end is a 6x4 week in review card done with a Cathy Zielske's Frame Journalers digi template. (Sorry no close-up, I can't find the file!) I changed the font to Traveling Typewriter and the color to a lime green. I've been using these week-in-review cards quite a bit. It's amazing how much of the everyday can fit on these!

    That's it for Week 24. Thanks again for the Project Life feedback - it means a lot! I hope to keep sharing my album progress here and there.


    Hugs,
    Amy

    Saturday, August 4, 2012

    August SFYTT - Verve



    It's rather unbelievable, but here we are at the first Saturday in August already. Jen has a great new Sketch For You To Try and a fabulous sponsor, a very near and dear company to me, Verve Stamps! I can't say enough about Verve. Julee (the owner) is a true gem, and I feel honored and blessed to be on her design team. Verve is gearing up for an amazing Anni-VERVE-sary release at the end of this month. More info about new release spotlights and release parties to come, but for now, let's get sketchy, shall we?

    Here's the August sketch:



    And here's my take on it:


    I needed a sympathy/thinking of you card and chose this wonderful sentiment from Always On My Mind, along with a light and airy combo of colors and patterns from the new Tangerine 6x6 line from The Sweetest Thing collection by My Mind's Eye. I kept embellishments fairly minimal -- a random placement of clear rhinestones, a few dainty paper roses, a couple of die-cut borders and some black and white baker's twine.



    Be sure to check out what the rest of the SFYTT Sisters did with this month's sketch:

    Jen del Muro with Designer of the Month Peggy McCurry
    Amber Hight
    Becky Carafa
    Carole Burrage **taking a break**
    Jen Tapler
    Jodi Collins
    Kerry Johnson
    Megan Lock
    Susan Liles
    Tracy Schultz