Pixilicous Verve

This is an old Mojo Monday sketch. But it was way long ago and I'm too lazy to go through and find exactly which one it is.

I recently saw Joanne Basile's video tutorial on how do use that rolled rose die. And let me just say it's fabulous. When I tried to do it only own, it came out lopsided and flimsy (from me unraveling and re-raveling too many times). But that tweezer thing she does to hold it in place - genius. And while my rose is still a bit lopsided and I still need practice, that tweezer trick is soo cool.

So basically I did the rose and didnt really have a card to put it on. So I put together one pretty much based around that rose. I grabbed some pixie-licious paper (and I totally love that line) and went for just a purple and green color scheme. Sponged around the sentiment while it was still in its die. I stamped the "thoughts" on some left over scrap paper to make it stand out a bit. And I still say this is one of my favorite fonts from Verve. Its so whimsical and pretty. Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Always on my mind
Paper: MB key lime notecard & dotty paper, Cosmo Cricket pixie-licious
Ink: Memento black & plum
Accessories: MFT open scallop border & rolled rose die, Spellbinders labels 2, sizzix flourish die, felt, kaiser jewel

Finally...VLV

One of my New Year's resolutions is to participate in the Viva La Verve challenge. I have sooo many awesome Verve sets, but I'm ashamed to say I rarely use them. But as soon as I saw the VLV week one sketch, I immediately thought of the square frame in the Happy Hello set.

I went through my Verve sentiments to see which one would fit into the square and came across the Always on my mind set. This set was a total impulse buy, didnt have anything in mind for it and thought the font was too pretty to pass up. But when paired with some cute MME beloved papers, I think it makes a pretty decent vday card. I stamped the little heart from the set and paper pieced it in red paper to mount on the senti panel.

I used some PTI pure poppy saddle stitch ribbon but the white was a bit too bright. So I colored over the white with an E41 marker to make it more creme like. And boy that was kinda alot more work than I expected...



The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Happy Hello, Always on my mind
Paper: PTI kraft, MME beloved
Ink: Brilliance pearlescent chocolate, rocket red, copics
Accessories: PTI pure poppy ribbon, divine twine, kaiser pearls

Surf's Up

Maybe its just wishful thinking for warm sunny weather...but when I saw this week's Club Anya Mystery Monday case I immediately thought of my Surfer Ian.

I used my new TCP wave dies to create a little ocean surf for this surfer boy. Then added a bit of glitter to the edges of the waves. I colored some clear stickos with blue copics for the jewels.

One stamp down...only forty-something more to go...

The Dets:

Stamps: TGF Surfer Ian, Verve Birthday Bash

Paper: PTI enchanted evening & simply chartruese, BG oliver

Ink: Memento black, Versafine black, copics

Accessories: dots embossing folder, TCP wave die, nesties circles & rectangles, ek success stickos, stickles

Autumn Whimsy Tree

If there is one thing I miss about not living in Hawaii anymore its not having to rake leaves in the fall. Of course, growing up, I never did yardwork, except to drown my mother's potted plants so she wouldnt ask me to water them again.


So in honor of the impending raking leaves of doom, I brought out my Whimsy Tree plain jane from Verve. I intented to finish the October's VLV challenge, but I never got around to making the last card. This is the sketch from Week #1. I colored Whimsy in both greens and golden yellow colors for a more autumn feel.


The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Whimsy Tree, PTI Daily Design Sentiments
Paper: MB vanilla bean notecard, PTI dark chocolate, SEI moonrise
Ink: Memento black, canteloupe, Versafine black
Accessories: ribbon, TCP flower die, PTI harvest gold button, spellbinder ovals, mb jewels, divine twine

Hello Pumpkin

So this weekend I had a brilliant idea to participate in October's Viva La Verve contest. Seriously, I think about doing it every month, its just as the weeks go by I think okay, maybe I'll start this weekend. And before I know it the month is over.

But this past weekend I decided to try. I started off with week two's sketch. When I saw it a few weeks back, I immediately thought of Hello Pumpkin. And since I already had my prismas out, after trying Jen's CA tutorial, I tried my hand again.

I ended up only finishing three of the four cards. Then realized that sketch two was to use Orange, Brown, Teal and White. So oh well. Maybe I'll try again next month.


The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Hello Pumpkin, Thankful Accents
Paper: MB mocha notecard, PTI summer sunrise, SEI dp
Ink: Memento brown, Prismas, Brilliance pearlescent chocolate
Accessories: Spellbinders labels three & circles, kaiser pearls, mb jewels

A long time coming...Mojo Monday

Have you ever had one of those cards in which you know the basic outline, how you want the card to look...but then it takes forever just to execute? Either the details just aren't quite right, or the mix of paper you chose isn't exactly what you first envisioned?

This card was most definitely one of them. I loved this week's Mojo Monday Sketch, MOJO155. So much so I actually started on Monday, seems like forever ago now. But I got stuck. Then of course I got distracted with The Clockwork Angel. And now it's almost a week later (the book's over) and the card pieces were still on my desk.

It came out to be fairly close to what was in my head, but I'm still not quite sure. I am excited b/c its been forever since I've inked up any of my Verve stamps. But this set, Thankful Accents, is definitely one of my favorites.

The Dets:

Stamps: Verve Thankful Accents

Paper: PTI true black & summer sunrise, SEI moonrise

Ink: Versafine black

Accessories: Spellbinder circles, MFT open scallop border, ribbon, felt, kaiser jewels

Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop

Happy Anni-Verve-sary! It's Verve's three year anniversary and I'm super excited to be participating in my first ever Verve Blog Hop. If you didn't start at the original Vervegirl Julee's blog, or come from Diva's Michelle W.'s blog, take a moment to start at the very beginning. You wont want to miss the fan-tastic creations.

My MiL needed another wedding card so I decided to break out all my faves. I decided to try experimenting with more white space (than I normally do). I embossed a white panel with my current fave embossing panel, polka dots. Then I punched three squares in my go-to PTI colors and stamped them with the flower from Meditations in Versamark. I stamped my all-time favorite Verve set ever- Wishing You. And I topped it all off with a pretty yellow ribbon and some jewels.


Enjoy the rest of the hop. Your next stop is Wanda, who I'm sure whipped up some spectacular eye candy for you all. If you get lost along the way you can always refer back to the Master Hopper List.

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Meditations, Wishing You
Paper: PTI true black, raspberry fizz, simply chartruese, hawaiian shores, white cardstock
Ink: Versafine black, Versamark
Accessories: square punch, spellbinder circles, cuttlebug polka dots, ribbon, mb jewels, stickles stardust

Mission Impossible?

I've set a goal for myself this summer. A mission really. I keep a list of every stamp set I buy and there's about a dozen uninked (both individual stamps and sets). So my mission this summer (and hopefully I'll succeed) is to ink up and make cards with every single uninked stamp. So here it goes...

I thought Jen's SFYTT sketch would be perfect for my Verve's Practically Perfect set. And when I got my brand new PTI Polka Dot Basics II, I just had to ink it up as well. (That's two of the dozen in case you're counting...) So I brought out a sheet of aqua mist I stamped w/ my pal's Vintage Labels at our last productive Craft Day. Well it was productive for me anyway, I think she just watched NCIS or something. I paired it w/ a lemon tart sheet I stamped w/ the largest polka dots in PDBII.

I stamped the little boy bunny and colored him in copics. Then I did Nichole Heady's super awesome loopy ribbon thingie, only I really really need some piking scissors b/c I wasnt digging the v-shape cut. I took some creative liberties with the sketch but yeah...

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Practically Perfect, PTI Vintage Labels & Polka Dot Basics II
Paper: MB vanilla bean notecard, PTI aqua mist, enchanted evening & lemon tart
Ink: Versamagic turquoise gem, Memento black, Brilliance sunflower yellow
Accessories: PTI ric rac die, Spellbinders rectangles, PTI dark chocolate ribbon

Wishful Wedding

I'm fairly certain that my all time favorite (Verve) stamp set is Wishing You. Its just so versatile and I love the font. So when I had to make a card for the wedding on a good friend from college, I pulled that set out.

Its a pretty simple card. I cut a scalloped circle and regular oval out w/ my spellbinders and layered it over panels of dp I got from the MM Wedding pack. I added a few black accent pearls to the corners. And I think the brides colors were some sort of pink and silver, I added a few pink primas. I have such a hard time using those flowers...I'm not sure why...

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Wishing You
Ink: Versafine black
Paper: MB licorice notecard, MM wedding pack
Accessories: tonic ticket punch, prima flowers, kaiser pearls, spellbinder ovals

Mercy Pumpkin Sketch

I'm continuing on with my "trying to get my stamping mojo back" with another sketch challenge. This time I'm using Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge, MTSC68, and, boy, do I *love* her sketches. The boy thought this looked very "halloweeny" but...esh...its a puppy in a pumpkin. How cute is that??? And besides, it (along w/ my MFT bunny butts) have been sitting sadly, uninked for months.

You may not be able to really tell, but the scalloped circle is die cut from a piece of dark brown felt. I found this "stiff felt" from Michaels for $.99 each. It cuts pretty well, but it's probably not as thick as 100% wool, but at $.99 where can one go wrong with that. I sacrificed a bit of sparkly stardream bronze paper and ran it through one of my c-bug embossing plates for the background. Then I mounted both panels for a little more dimension.


The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Hello Pumpkin, So Happy
Paper: MB licorice notecard, SU!, BG indian summer, Stardream bronze, brown felt
Ink: Brilliance pearlescent chocolate, Memento black, copics
Accessories: kaiser pearls, cuttlebug d'vine swirls embossing plate, spellbinder tag & scallop/standard circles, M's satin ribbon

Twinkle Twinkle Little SFYTT

Can I just say, it is very hard to get a good picture of a card with PTI's lemon tart. Its probably my camera but I was getting terrible images. Hence the black background. It seemed to give the best true color picture.

I used Jen del Muro's SFYTT for the layout. I found some pretty blue pattern paper in some Memory Box winter pack. I also used some sparkley blue paper & ran it through my bug using swiss dots. The sentiment is a Verve Plain Jane Little Star. I think its such a cute sentiment.

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Little Star
Paper: MB snow paper pack, Stardream malachite, PTI lemon tart
Ink: Versafine black, spica glitter
Accessories: PTI lemon tart ribbon, kaiser jewels, cuttlebug swiss dots

Peace Out

So this is one of the belated projects of my CD ("Craft Day") with Nina. Typically our CD's have ranged from super productive to just eating lots and watching the latest coolest TV show (which has included Firefly, Criminal Minds, NCIS, HIMYM...). And if we're being completely honest, this CD wasnt too productive.

But I got to use her super groovy HG Peace. I finally found a stamp to match my BG Lime Rickey. I've had problems using that paper pack. But HG's free spirit just begged for the psychedelic paper. I used some gold smooch on the flowers & part of her shirt. Then I edged the border with a multiliner pen and added some prima flowers.

The Dets:

Stamps: TGF HG Peace, Verve Bountiful Backgrounds

Paper: MB notecard, BG Lime Rickey

Ink: Copics, Memento Black, Versafine Black

Accessories: PTI pure poppy button, prima flowers, krafters floss

Miss Anya Dressy...*finally*

So I've been complaining and bemoaning to Nina about my difficulties with Miss Anya Dressy. Haha. Actually I've been doing alot of complaining...I think it started when I found out TJ's discontinued my beloved Tomato Chutney. Oh. My. God. No warning and I didnt even have time to stock up on like 27 jars. I dont think people quite understand how sad this is, I go through a jar like every two weeks. It was soo good...

But I digress.

I've been complaining b/c as much as I *love* Miss Anya Dressy, she's been the bane of my existence. I've tried multiple times to make a card with her, but just having found a color combo that I really like. Enter Pam's fabby dabby Wild Card Wednesday's challenge - paper piecing. I swear if had not been for her challenge, Miss Anya Dressy might still be sitting in my sad and discarded reject pile.

I colored her with my "other" blonde combo b/c my Y21 marker died on me. I paper pieced her dress with My Mind's Eye Be Loved paper. I know I'm a bit behind the curve, I think most people got this uber awesome dp months ago. But what can I say, I'm like the sheep that falls of the cliff hours after the other sheep have gone over.

Baaaaahhhh...(I think staying up late watching the Olympics has made me a bit batty...)

The Dets:
Stamps: TGF Miss Anya Dressy, Verve Thankful accents
Paper: MB Bayou, MME Be Loved
Ink: Copics, Memento black
Accessories: PTI aqua mist ribbon, paper piercer, nesties standard & scallop circles, kaiser pearls

Snuggly Hope

Nina and I are pretty sure she's the Hope in the TGF Hope & Grace duo. Grace seemed the bit more edgy of the two. Whereas Hope seemed sweet...and cuddly. Or something.

Or maybe it was the other way around?

Anyway, I used this past Friday's TESC sketch. It's the 100th sketch for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge. When I saw the sketch I new immediately that I wanted to ink up my new HG Snuggle. I found the dp paper at my LSS store and found it went very well with this week's Copic Challenge Colors of R29 (lipstick red), RV23 (pure pink) and B12 (ice blue).

I sponged the edges of the spellbinder circle with some Memento ink and stamped her in memento. And I even added some Doodlebug crushed velvet flock to make her bunny fluffy and snuggly. I was soo excited when I got it, showed my honey and he says, "You bought lint. Great."

Pffftt...What do boys know?


The Dets:
Stamps: TGF HG Snuggle, Verve Practically Perfect, PTI Polka Dot Basics I
Paper: MB notecards, MME dp, vellum
Ink: Memento black & angel pink, Versamagic pixie dust, copics
Accessories: DD crushed velvet flock, ribbon, spellbinders scalloped & standard circles, button brads

The Anti-Valentine

Okay so I dont know how anti a valentine can be if it's got hearts in it. But anti sounded better than non-trad.

This week's Monday Mania Challenge on Club Anya was to do a Vday card using no pink or red. Thus eliminating all my vday dp paper. So I decided to use a bit of kraft heart background from the Verve card I did earlier this week. And what better non-traditional, TGF-themed vday card would be better than an Edward-centric one.

I didnt feel like using any sappy If I could dream it'd be about you sentiment, b/c lets face it, its just not me. But this Kryptonite quote, perfect. I had to handwrite it b/c I was too lazy to get it printed properly. One day maybe I will actually use my printer for something other than printing airline boarding passes. One day...

The Dets:

Stamps: TGF Edward, Verve Sweet Valentines

Paper: SU!, MB notecard, PTI kraft

Ink: Memento black, Spica glitter, Copics

Accessories: MS punch, ribbon

A late mojo monday

I finished this card before the big game yesterday but had to leave for a friend's house. So I didnt have a chance to post this last night in time for the Mojo Monday deadline.

Anyway I went with a nontraditional teal, kraft and black color scheme for this valentines card. I inked up my Verve Sweet Valentine and broke out my new MS punch. I also went over all the hearts w/ a clear spica glitter pen, but it doesnt really come up in the pictures.

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Sweet Valentine, PTI Polka Dot Basics
Ink: Copics, Versamark, Spica clear glitter pen, Memento black
Paper: SU!, MB notecard, PTI kraft & black
Accessories: BG button, MS punch, prima flowers, krafters floss

A Valentines Verve Project Parade

My honey doesnt really eat alot of sweets. Or drink any coffee. But he does drink tea nearly everyday. So when this month's Verve Project Parade theme was Tags, Tins & Treats, I decided to make my own tea holder.

I took measurements for the teabag to make a base. Then stamped two panels for the walls of the holder. I used Spellbinder's label 9 to make the opening. Labels 9 seemed mimic an actual tea box opening perfectly.

I tried to make it not too girly. But really it only meant going with a blue theme rather than pink. He'll probably take off the bow before it goes to work with him, but I likes it.

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Bountiful Backgrounds, Sweet Valentine
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, summer sky, spica glitter pens
Paper: PTI spring rain & tuxedo black, MM wedding pack
Accessories: white ribbon, spellbinders label 9 & circle, dauber

Rockstars

Didnt I mention I was obsessed with Rockstar Anya?

Long ago, before I discovered TCP, which led to MFT, TGF, Bella and PTI, I used to mass produce my cards. But now my cards take way longer to finish and I get bored. So I dont mass produce as much anymore.

But I really liked the Rockstar Ian card. I loved Lynda's clean layout. And I've been on a "color things in" kick. So I made three more Rockstar Anya cards but I varied the colors. Basically it was a platform to practice more hair coloring. Plus its an uber quick & easy card.

I used spica glitter in three different colors to do parts of her guitar, headband and the accent stars. Here's a close-up of one.

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Starstruck, TGF Rockstar Anya
Paper: MB & SU
Ink: Memento black, copics, spica glitter pens

Testing 1...2..3...

I'm trying out this whole...delayed posting. But if it shows up at the wrong time, oh well.

I've been trying to make more of an effort to use the stamps that I buy. I know it may sound crazy, but I buy stamps and never use them for months. Some times ever. And in reading other blogs I know I'm not the only one guilty of this. So I do what I do best. I keep an excel list of the things I want (a very long list) and the things I buy. Once I buy them, I highlight them in red until I've made a card with them. Yes, I know, I'm a bit batty. But it helps me keep track.

This is a card I made using Verve's newish (okay well a few months old already) Thankful Accents set. I stamped it over PTI's spring rain cardstock in enchanted evening and cut out the four corner accents. Then for the background I used PTI's text background in enchanted evening again over soft stone cardstock.

This was a card for some of my christmas thanks, so I attempted to make the focal image look a bit like an ornament. I dont know if that came across very well...

The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Thankful Accents, PTI text background
Paper: MB, PTI soft stone & spring rain
Ink: PTI enchanted evening
Accessories: Nesties scalloped & standard circles, ribbon

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge, Take One

I gotta keep it short and sweet since its late and I pinched a nerve in my neck. Threw it out. Something. All I know is, this whole "aging" thing, really not my cup of tea.

Anyways, Dawn McVey had another Raspberry Suite Color Challenge and I decided to play along. She always has the most fabulous color combinations. I stamped each of the colored panels with a different background stamp. The aqua panel came out pretty light. Maybe next time I'll have to experiment with different colors to get it to pop a bit more.


The Dets:
Stamps: Verve Bountiful Backgrounds, PTI Say it w/ Style, Turning a new leaf and Polka Dot Basics
Ink: Versamagic aquatic splash, Memento dandelion, Brilliance pearlescent chocolate
Paper: PTI dark chocolate, aquatic splash & lemon tart
Accessories: PTI buttons & ribbon, krafters floss