Happy Birthday Lois!

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday Lois - this card is just for you! As usual I forgot the date and I never seem to send my cards on time.... hope you'll forgive me? I put the real thing in the mail on Friday.

I had fun using these new purple papers from My Mind's Eye but it took a while to come up with the design for the card. I was first of all trying to work from a different sketch and a totally different color scheme but in the end I just had to set it all to one side and work with the papers that were catching my eye.

When I was adding extra detail I was trying not to make it too busy because of the striped paper so I just added some little buttons and a photo corner. The other 'extra' details were sponged ink around the pale purple mat, using a small scallop punch and some cream organdy ribbon to soften the center strip behind the circle.

Thanks for stopping by!



Stamps : Hero Arts (Sentiment and Leaves)
Paper : PTI Plum Pudding and Vintage Cream, My Minds Eye Perfect Posies DP
Ink : VersaColor Aloe Vera and Hydrangea, VersaFine Onyx Black
Accessories : Marvy Large and Medium Circle Punches, Small scallop border punch, SU! Cream Organdy Ribbon, Photo corner die cut using Quickutz Squeeze, Basic Grey Buttons, EKSuccess Small butterfly punch

Hello Neighbor

I am loving these gorgeous colorful papers from My Mind's Eye. I don't normally use orange, but this shade was just calling out to me to be used in large quantities! It is slightly glittered but unfortunately the photo doesn't show it too well.

The little house stamp is from a Whipper Snapper Designs set called 'Hello Neighbor'. I paper pieced the image together by cutting out the house and mounting it with pop dots on a circle cut of blue and green patterned paper. The green dotted paper is cut in slits across the top to make it look a little more like grass - I then tried to rough up the edges a little to make it look more natural. Here is a close up of the the main image :



I am getting back into the practice of coloring in my images this week and I enjoyed using my Prismacolors again with this card.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!



Stamps : Whipper Snapper Designs (Hello Neighbor), Stampin'Up! (sentiment)
Paper : PTI Enchanted Evening and White, My Mind's Eye New Home DP
Ink : Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Night of Navy
Accessories : Kaiserkraft green square rhinestones, Sizzix Scallop Circle Die, Marvy Large Circle Punch, SU! Oval punch, Prismacolor pencils

Thoughtful Hummingbird (Mojo #151)

I am just loving this new Tim Holtz vintage paper! I bought some papers yesterday and I fell in love with the dreamy blues, greys and pinks in this collection. There are some wonderful text designs and some beautiful scroll patterns mixed in.

The neutral cardstock is 'Smokey Shadow' from Paper Trey Ink and I used a new stamp set that came with the UPS man on Monday from Stampin'Up! called Elements of Style. The scroll and the embellished hummingbird seemed to work with the papers. When I was adding some extra bling I could only find white pearls in my collection so I grabbed a pink Copic marker and colored them to match.

My design is based on the Mojo Monday sketch this week (#151). Here is a look at the sketch :




Thanks for dropping in!



Stamps : Stampin'Up! Elements of Style (scroll, flowers and hummingbird), SU! Sillouette Sentiments (Sentiment)
Paper : PTI Smokey Shadow and White, Tim Holtz Vintage DP
Ink : VersaColor Burgundy Pigment Ink, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories : SU! Markers, Copic Markers, Spellbinder Label Die, SU! Small oval punch, Kaisercraft Pearls

Cute Little Bug

Good morning all!

This sweet little butterfly is from a wonderful company called Stamping Bella in Canada. They have some fantastic images. You should be sure to check out the Stamping Bella website to see the full range.

I enjoyed getting back into the swing of coloring using my Prismacolors after a long absence from them! Recently I have been using a lot of text only stamps and I thought it was time to use a more detailed image.

Hope you are are having a great start to your week?



Stamps : Butterfly from Stamping Bella
Paper : PTI White and Enchanted Evening, DCWV Sweet Stack
Ink : VersaFine Onyx Black
Accessories : Spellbinders Label Die, Chalks, SU! Small Oval punch, Prismacolor pencils, Copic markers

Rusty Chocolate Leaves - AnniVERVEsary Hop #3

This card was my final creation for the AnniVERVEsary blog hop last Sunday. The colors in this one are some of my favorites but I really think they are too autumnal for this time of year!

I included my favorite border punch on this along with some new chocolate ribbon that I got recently from Michaels. The leaves on the outer edges of the sentiment panel were stamped using a portion of a tree from an Stampin'Up! set called Thoughts and Prayers. The watermarked branch on the rust panel is from the same set.

Thanks for dropping in again and I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!



Stamps : SU! Thoughts and Prayers, Verve Plain Jane Scripture Verse
Paper : SU! Chocolate Chip and Really Rust, PTI Vintage Cream
Ink : VersaMagic Chalk ink in Jumbo Java, VersaMark
Accessories : Fiskars Sunburst Border Punch, Michaels Chocolate Ribbon

Razzleberry Verve Blog Hop # 2

**If you are looking for my original AnniVERVEsary blog hop post click here!**

Well, I promised you more Verve-y goodness this week and - here it is! This was another one of the cards that I created for the AnniVERVEsary blog hop but decided not to post on Sunday. I was inspired by a card that I saw on Julee's own blog, Poetic Artistry (the owner of Verve Stamps) and I wanted to use it as a starting point for my own creation. Julee has a wonderful way with texture and her use of color.

I was challenged to begin with, because I wanted to create a card without the use of any patterned paper - and that is tricky for me because that is usually where I start my design process. I love the Rich Razzleberry against the green with the pop of crisp white and so I created patterns using a flourish stamp and an embossing folder.

Stop by tomorrow for another look at my final Verve blog hop creation.
Enjoy!

Stamps : SU! Flourish (set name??), Verve Plain Jane Scripture Verse
Paper : SU! Rich Razzleberry and Kiwi Kiss, PTI White
Ink : SU! White craft ink, VersaFine Onyx Black
Accessories : Spellbinders Label Die, Michaels White Ribbon, Small scallop border punch

Anniv-VERVE-sary Blog Hop!!!

One of my favorite stamp companies, VERVE, turns three today and we are celebrating with a blog hop and prizes. If you've already been following along, you arrived here from Kathy'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 actually made 3 different cards for this blog hop and I had a hard time deciding which one to include today. If you want to see my other Verve creations come back later this week to check them out!

Thanks for hopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Leslie’s blog, to see her beautiful Verve creation.


Stamps : Verve Plain Jane Scripture Verse
Paper : PTI Ocean Tides and Vintage Cream, TCP Studios Ancestry DP
Ink : VersaMagic Jumbo Java Chalk ink
Accessories : Spellbinders Label Die, SU! Cream Organdy Ribbon, EKSuccess Tiny butterfly punch, SU! Scallop Border punch