VLV

On Friday, Amber posted another awesome Viva la Verve June 2010 Challenge. I thought I could use the colors for a grad card for my cousin who graduates high school in two weeks. If you look closely, you can see the embossing of the white background paper to look like the walls of the inspiration photo (inspired to try it from Marissa's card here)

Stamps: Verve Great Expectations, Starring You

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Night of Navy, Scarlett Jewel

Ink: Night of Navy

Accessories: Gold Brads, Scarlett Jewel Ribbon, Scor-Pal, Swiss Dots EF, Ticket Corner Punch, Nestabilities

This was the awesome inspiration pic I used to get me going =)

The weekend was a wet one here with rain and even snow, but that didn't stop the City Chase challenge participants, so as a volunteer, I couldn't quit either on Saturday. As my 'volunteerism reward', I went with some friends to see Sex and the City 2, which was alright...nothing fabulous. Even the most hardcore SJP lover in our group had to admit it was more than a little silly in parts.

Sadly, no outdoor biking this weekend so let's hope for MUCH better weather next week!

Catching up with The Sisterhood of Crafters!

Hello friends! I've finally had some time to craft and I've used it to catch up on a couple of Sisterhood challenges. Last week, Micki had a Germany challenge and I'm using the red/black/yellow of the flag on this sympathy card for a friend who lost her Granny.

I've also used this week's challenge - wax paper resist technique. I'd never tried this before and I had so much fun making different colors using my paper. Head over to The Sisterhood to check out what the more obviously talented ladies created for Darlene's challenge! =)

I used a stamp set that just arrived with my latest Verve order - Forever in our Hearts and boy do I love the sentiments in it! I've also used the Mojo Monday Sketch #140 as my inspiration for the layout.

Stamps: Verve Forever in Our Hearts

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Glossy White, More Mustard
Ink: More Mustard, Basic Black
Accessories: Cuttlebug Spots & Dots Embossing Folder, Golden Rhinestones, Black Button, Black Ribbon

I've had a busy week and the long weekend was a gong show, as well. I did, however, get out for my first 12 holes at a small golf course with MrP and his friend and a 43K bike ride on Monday, which is good training for the MS Bike Tour I'm heading out on June 12 & 13, but it sure isn't the 93kms/day that I'll be doing. Oh well. I guess some training is better than none and my bootcamp is awesome, even being a tough class with a 3x olympic athlete. =)

This weekend I'm volunteering for the Edmonton City Chase and I can't wait to see what they have me doing. MrP's birthday is on Monday and I'm looking forward to taking him out for supper to celebrate (and my riding lesson that night since I missed it this week being a long weekend) Here's to one more work day before I get my scheduled day off!

Taylored Expressions Blast from the Past Blog Hop

In a previous Taylored Expressions update, there was mention of a blog hop and I was all for participating. I love the TE stamps and especially the Whimsical Wishes line, apparently, as every set I own is from that line =)

For this card, I used supplies from one of my Key Ingredients packages, which I believe was January 2010. How awesome to have coordinating papers, ribbons and accessories mailed to you every month. If you're not a KI subscriber, I'd totally recommend it. It gets me thinking outside of my usual comfort zone...and as a bonus, you get free shipping & 10% off any additional orders placed within the time period before your KI kit is sent out....sweet!

Anyways, this card uses the  Berries & Cherries set and all the rest was from my kit. I used some crystal effects on my dipped strawberry (YUM!) and sponged a little creamy caramel onto the masked off base of the image. I really love how it turned out.

This was the sketch that the super talented Sankari created for us to use if we wanted...and I'm all about sketches since I don't have a natural "here's where to start" ability.

Please continue along your blog hopping journey to see what the super talented peeps have created with the awesome TE stamps!

I'm a Nut

This week's challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters is something to create a card that cracks you up.  I LOVE what the other sisters have done, but I don't have any super funny stamps like they've got apparently. I learned this in my search for funny stamps - my pun-loving sense of humor is a little dorky!

So I instead went with this super cute Alfy Tinheart from PaperWorks Co. and used the sentiment that makes me laugh - "You're the bolt that holds us together" and on the inside I wrote "Because I'm CLEARLY the nut in this relationship!" I was planning on giving it to MrP, but since he saw this post as I was preparing it, I'll have to find a friend who can appreciate it and surprise him with something else. It is, afterall, his birthday coming up at the end of the month.

I used the sketch from SC279.

Stamps: Tinheart Family (Alfy)

Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Really Rust, MME Lil' Robots

Ink: Basic Black, Copics (yep - I used a whole three colors!), Real Red

Accessories: Amber Rhinestone, Dimensionals

Stamp Winner

Congrats Jodi!!

If you email me your address, I'll get these stamps shipped off to you!

SFYTT for Mother's Day

Using Jen's Sketch For You To Try from May 1st, I created this card with some of my mom's favorite colors. Sadly, when I showed MrP the cards for his mom & my mom, he found my mom's to be the more appealing card (I have to agree - I do love this one!), but he's happy as long as he can just sign his name in it.

I hadn't inked up this Taylored Expressions Discover Your Wings set yet and I just liked how the versamark'd moss turned out. I embossed the Pale Plum but it's barely noticeable and once again used the Rock N Roll technique for the butterfly, which is two layers of cut out cuteness.

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Discover Your Wings, SU! Well Scripted

Paper: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Mellow Moss, Whisper White

Ink: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Versamark

Accessories: Embossing folder, Purple Bling, Dimensionals

I'm Crazy for Emeralds

Can you tell? For some explanation, check out my post over at The Sisterhood of Crafters! Today's card is part of my challenge there - to created a wedding/anniversary/congratulations card with Emerald as the feature color! Green's my favorite, so I hope you'll play along and give it a try. And if you have it in by Friday, I'll give you an extra entry for my blog candy!

Plus, there very generous Heather from Digisparkle has put up a voucher for this week's winner!

I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch #67 for the layout and while you can't see much of the shimmer in the shimmer white paper, I know it's there ;) This was the first time inking up either the Verve Floral Symphony or SU! Well Scripted stamps and I do like the way they turned out. I used the Rock N Roll technique on the tulips and just love the saffron & pomegranate and the added dimension of the extra layers.

Stamps: Verve Floral Symphony, SU! Well Scripted

Paper: Garden Green, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, Shimmer White

Ink: Garden Green, Purely Pomegranate, So Saffron, Basic Black

Accessories: Buttons, Green Ribbon, Purely Pomegranate Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Snow Day!

I've always hoped I'd get a snow day, but this is the first time I've ever had one! We had a nasty, wet snowfall all morning with crazy blizzard-like conditions and our office lost power, so after a few hours of waiting around (thanks to intermittent power for about 15 minutes getting everyone's hopes up for finishing some actual work), we all bailed...and I came home to do what?! Relax of course!

That's consisted of some TV watching and crafting. I created a couple of Mother's Day cards. The one I want to show you today is the one I created for Mojo Monday 137 and the Curtain Call Color Challenge {Act 28}. I love what my friend Marisa, who's a design team member, did with the colors and wanted to take a spin with them. I haven't used Kraft a lot lately, but I really love how it looks on everyone else's cards and have been wanting to play.

Also with thoughts of Marisa, I used our favorite embossing folder, Swiss Dots! I used a punch for the squares and couldn't bring myself to recut them to make it more suitable for the sketch. I'm usually a fairly close follower of sketches, but I have to remind myself that they are JUST a guideline =)

Anyways, Kraft, Not Quite Navy, Rose Red and White all made their way into this card, as well as my Well Scripted stamp set and some white half pearls.

The other cool thing that happened today - our Yankees tickets arrived! Amazingly enough, even with a wrong name, incredibly misspelled city and partial postal code, Canada Post got it here. My faith has been restored (or maybe it's just arrived)!

Looks like the snow might be slowing down eventually - at least it's no longer a total blizzard, but that also means no more snow days....and a visit to the ol' dentist tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll remind you of my blog candy - an entire PaperWorks Co RAM new release set and tomorrow's hosting of my challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters. Hope you can join in!