A little late

but life happens! On Tuesday, I took MrP to the hospital at 5am with abdominal pain and after three hours, they sent us home to wait & see if it persisted, stating they wouldn't do anything until it had been 12 hours of discomfort. Well 12 hours came and went and just as I was getting ready to glue this card together in the evening (nothing like last minute!), MrP asked if I thought he should go back or suck up the pain. I said I'd prefer he get it checked out, but that I'd support whatever he wanted to do. Back to the hospital we went. Almost 48 hours later, with MrP less one appendix and resting at home, I'm posting my Sisterhood color challenge card! Hopefully you've already checked out their fabulous creations!

I wanted to also participate in the Verve Ready, SET, Stamp Challenge since I have both Fluttering By and Petals and Stems. If you don't have them, they're currently 30% of though till August 15th, which is the challenge deadline. I used the Sisterhood color challenge of Orange, Red & Light Green to create this bright & cheerful card. I used Jen's SFYTT as it worked perfectly for the butterflies!

Stamps: Verve Petals & Stems

Paper: Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Certainly Celery

Accessories: Nestabilities, EF, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

Happy Anni-VERVE-sary!

Welcome to the Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop! Verve turns three today and we’re celebrating with a hop, hop, hop! If you've already been hopping along, you arrived here from Rachel's blog. If not, head on over to Julee's blog (owner of Verve), for all the info on how to win prizes (after all, what's a party without presents?), and to start hopping from the beginning. If there's a hiccup along the hop, you can always head to the Master Hop List to get the full list of links.


I created my card for today with my riding instructor's birthday in mind. The last couple of years, she's celebrated her day along with the students in her Cross Country Clinic, as it's on the second of August. It's my second year of the clinic and I'm loving every minute of it thusfar - and how better than to make her a special card with some of my favorite Verve stamps. I actually used three sets for the creation of this card.

I used the Mojo Monday Week 149 sketch as my base and the colors from Curtain Call Color Challenge Act 39, which I'd adored a two weeks ago. I started with the butterfly from Blue Skies and inked it up in craft white, then embossed with hologram highlights on the wild wasabi paper. I also used the smaller butterfly for the background white paper. The sentiment came from Big Wish - and oddly enough, I'd forgotten about it and thought "I really wish Verve had another birthday set with some Happy Birthday sentiments". Low & behold, I rediscovered my Big Wish set a moment later. On the inside, I used Feel the Sun and the smaller butterfly again from Blue Skies.

It's amazing how well the sets work together to create a cohesive card....I love it!

Thanks for hopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Chriss’s blog, for a little more Verve-y goodness.

    

Stamps: Verve Blue Skies, Big Wish & Feel the Sun

Paper: Kraft, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Certainly Celery

Ink: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White Craft, Certainly Celery

Accessories: Nestabilities, Dimensionals, Half Pearls, Certainly Celery Ribbon, Hologram Highlights EP, Divine Swirls EF

Subdued Friday

Viva La Verve! It's Friday - and I'm on a roll. Two cards in a row =)

This card was created using the VLVJuly2010 Week 4 sketch and I took my inspiration from the colors in the fabulous towels. I swear I thought I had a stamp with that pattern of leaves, but I couldn't find such a thing. I did, however, discover an old SU set that was given to me, so I used that since it was a little closer than my original plan of using my Verve leaves.

According to MrP, this is one of his favorites that I've done. He likes the simple color and design. The Great Expectations set is perfect for the promotion that my coworker received. Unfortunately for me, I won't have the pleasure of his sense of humor around the office much longer. Mind you, I can handle no more teasing me about how my Patriots are going to suck this year, so maybe it's a fair trade off!

I have my cross country horse jumping clinic this weekend and I can't wait. I'm just working on a couple of ideas for the Verve Blog Hop on August 1st! Yahoo - Vervey goodness!

Enjoy your Friday - we're off to Capital Ex tonight for some carnie food and see if we can find some crazy people on rides =)

   

Stamps: Verve Great Expectations, Old SU set

Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue

Ink: Brocade Blue

Accessories: Blue Ribbon, Dimensionals, Nestabilities, Snow Half Pearls

A whole lotta colors for my first CC Color Challenge!

It's been a while since I played along with Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge and I made time to play along with MTSC84 this week! I also incorporated the Curtain Call Color Challenge Act 40 since my friend Marisa is one of the DT and I'm always blown away by her creations.

The color combo, I thought, would work for my coworker who's last day is Friday. When I finished, I had my doubts as to whether the card was too girly, but MrP assured me that he honestly didn't think so, even with the sparkley fluff on the

flower, so off it goes.

I used my new Verve set Always on My Mind and the sentiment fits since he's leaving to do the work he's been training to do for 30 years instead of half-settling, which I'm glad to see - for him, but sad for me since we worked so closely.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Stamps: Verve Always on My Mind

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red Textured, Kiwi Kiss & Tempting Turquoise

Ink: Real Red, Kiwi Kiss & Tempting Turquoise

Accessories: Spots & Dots EF, Red Rhinestones, Nestabilities, Paper Piercer, Sparkley Fluff in Cherry, Glue Stick

While great cyclists in France finished up their world famous tour this weekend, a lesser known event, took place. The Tour de l'Alberta took place in Morinville on Sunday and around 1000 cyclists took part in 20, 50, 100 and 185km bike rides in what is considered Alberta's largest recreational ride. It tours the French communities north of Edmonton and is put on by the Edmonton Bicycle and Touring Club. I joined the club earlier this year and joined in the 100km Tour yesterday. What a great time!

I was a little concerned when I was reading on FB about the 20 and 50K likely being just fine for a mountain bike (which is what I have - with changed out semi-slick tires) and no mention of the 100km ride being recommended for a non-road bike. Well I was bound & determined I was going to do it - and luckily, I wasn't the only one. It is, afterall, supposed to be a recreational ride! So five hours later, with four rest stops, which included a lunch break, we completed 100kms of riding. Such a great feeling of accomplishment.

Here's the crazy exercise friend and I at our lunch break!

And when I got home...and fabulous treat. MrP had done up the cement blocks in front of the garage door without me. I was totally dreading that, but it turns out, now I don't have to. We have a little more landscaping to do, but with all the rain we've received, we've had no problems keeping the grass lush (mowing should've happened yesterday, but I was too tired, so I took the picture without it!) MrP did the brickwork for my little flower bed a few weeks back....I just love it!

I've got a couple of cards to make this week for coworkers - one who's moving on and another who's recent promotion is taking him to northern BC. Both of which have devastated me, so I figure I'll take out my frustrations in my craft area. =)

Be sure to check back soon!

Another Round of Blast from the Past

It's time for another Blast from the Past blog hop! Thanks for stopping by =)

At 11:30 last night, I was making the final touches on my card after a great riding lesson (this week - ON the horse) and when MrP came down, he said "Do you NEED to do that tonight?" Yes, I replied. I wanted to do it and I signed up - this ensures I'm using the stamps you so generously pay for..." and then no further questions. I guess I justified it - even if I was a little slow getting this card ready. I used the sketch by super talented Sankari as inspiration since I love a good starting point.

And I came up with this card for my sweet niece who visited me on the weekend and had the most adorable reactions to my cards in my craft area. "Ohhhhh...I can't wait to get this!!" (really - is there anything more rewarding for a simple paper crafter than a great reaction to your creations - even if they come from an almost four year old?!)

I can't wait to ship it out to her. It's got pink and sparkles.....while there's no butterflies, I know she's going to love it. I hadn't inked up TE's Fish in Love yet and I wanted to sparkle it up. I didn't have the fabulous Animal Love Sentiments that matched, so I partially inked up a sentiment from Berries & Cherries. I found these buttons in my latest Key Ingredients monthly subscription and I was thrilled to be able to use them on this card.

Be sure to stop by the rest of the blog hop participants - there's sure to be tonnes of eye candy with all those TE goodies.

How's she goin'?

It's my turn as host over at The Sisterhood of Crafters today and I hope you'll join in our manly challenge - because I'm offering up a $5 gift certificate to FireCracker Designs in hopes that you'll be able to snag yourself some of these fun images by Bonibleaux Designs....that's right - our very own Boni Boutelle-Jones!

It's been a while since I colored a digi - like a week! Wait - it's been a week since I had such fun creating my last Sisterhood challenge card and I haven't been able to find much time to craft. Between landscaping, falling off the horse, household chores and everything else. Wait - you noticed that falling business, hey?! I may have failed to mention that to MrP, who finds my horse jumping a little unnerving. It's the first fall I've had in the year and a half that I've been taking lessons at my barn, though, so I'm figuring it was about time. Anyways, a few bumps & bruises, but nothing a visit to the chiropractor and massage therapist won't improve. My goal is to get more stamping time, but the summer sure is quickly zipping by.

I made this card for a friend who's been feeling under the weather and the sentiment inside says "Feel Better Soon". We always make hillbilly jokes so it seemed fitting - as soon as I saw the image, I knew who I wanted to make the card for. I loosely based it on Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge (#82) for this week.

Stamps: Bonibleaux Designs Hillbilly Straw

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, More Mustard, DP

Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol, Twine, Eyelet, Nestabilities, computer generated sentiment

Be sure to check out what the other ladies have done over at the Sisterhood. Then give a manly card a shot for a little winning potential!