Congrats on Your Retirement

Hi friends!  Well, it was a very exciting weekend here!  First up was the retirement party for one of my favourite administrators.  I worked with her for 2 years at my current school and she was beyond amazing.  Having said that, I felt she deserved a classy and amazing retirement card.  I went all glam on this one!  The apple is cut from gold foil, really shimmery IRL. It’s the PTI apple die, but I cut off the “Thanks” so I could add the “Congrats” from the Wet Paint collection. Had to slip in some “school” paper.  Oh, I love that alphabet patterned paper!

The second reason this weekend was so exciting was that I finished my LAST course for my Masters!  WOOHOO!  Oh MY!  I’m exhausted! LOL  I only have my capstone presentation and oral exam left on the 30th and then I am DONE, DONE, DONE! 

Have a great week!  It’s also the last week of work for me!  EEK!  I can’t stand all the excitement!  

Verve June Spotlight Hop Finale!

It's the final day of our June 2015 Verve Spotlight Hops! All of the stamps and dies you've seen this week are available in the Verve online store now! Sit back and relax for one last inspirational stroll as our sneaky Verve spotlight lands on Diva's choice today. And to cap off this release, we're giving away the entire release to one lucky commenter along today's hop, so come along with us as we share one last look-see at our newest release!

Today's spotlight is on the entire June 2015 Release, so grab a treat and hop along!

I've long been a fan of the art deco look.  I wanted to keep it clean and simple and true to the art deco design so I used some gold luxe paper along with some gold embossing and a black sentiment.  It was difficult to capture the beautiful shiny gold of the foil paper and the embossing.  This is the best I could do to capture it...

 

Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win our ENTIRE June 2015 Release! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the shopping and prize info and deadlines!

1. Julee	8. Andrea
2. Stacey	9. Christyne
3. Teresa	10. Maureen
4. Amber	11. Amy
5. Laurie	12. Janelle
6. Marisa	13. Shantaie

what's in it?
 stamps: Deco Borders (Verve)
paper: luxe foil designer papers (PTI), white, black (PTI)
ink: versafine onyx, versamark
accessories: gold embossing powder

Verve June Spotlight Hop ~ Day 5 (Release Day!)

It's release day at Verve and we're celebrating with Day 5 of our June 2015 Spotlight Hops!  Have you enjoyed the spotlights we've been sharing this week? Well, the wait is over and everything previewed this week is available in the Verve online store now!

Today's spotlight is shining on The Sparkly Dreams set illustrated by Julee Tilman, as well as the Butterfly Dreams Die Set and the Flourished Tag Die Set.

This set has a very special place in my heart.  It all began 2 years ago at my son's university grad.  Seeing him cross the stage and then seeing the graduate students cross the stage gave me the last bit of nudging I needed to go back to school to get my Masters.  However, this time I would be OLD and working fulltime! LOL  Last year I was reflecting on my first year's journey and found some graduation quotes.  I sent the idea to Julee and voila, here are some of those quotes in this beautiful stamp set!  The great thing is, they are not just for graduation but for any occasion!  I'm also using the new Viva La Verve sketch by Charmaine...

 ...all this inspiration worked!  I graduated this May from Gonzaga University :)

Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win today's featured products! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog today for a little more about our new products and all the prize info and deadlines!

1. Julee	7. Charmaine
2. Stacey	8. Andrea
3. Teresa	19. Maureen
4. Amber	10. Janelle
5. Laurie	11. Shantaie
6. Marisa

 what's in it?
stamps: Sparkly Dreams (Verve)
paper: rustic white (PTI), Caribbean Cool (SU), Capture Life (Echo Park), Happy Day (Pebbles)
ink: versafine onyx
accessories:Flag it Die Set  (Verve), washi tape, tag die (PTI), button, twine (hemptique)

Verve June Spotlight Hop ~ Day 4

Welcome back to Day 4 of Verve's June 2014 Spotlight Hops!  The Verve Divas and special guests are back for another day of spotlighting the new holiday release! And the wait is almost over... everything previewed this week will be available in the Verve online store on Friday, 6/19. So come hop along with us and see our first looks at today's featured products!

Today's spotlight is shining on The Buzz set illustrated by Julee Tilman, as well as the coordinating The Buzz Die Set and Proverbs 16:24 plain jane.

I've always loved the saying "You're the Bee's Knees" so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see this new set, The Buzz.  I created a watercolour background using distress inks and the smooshing technique.  Once the ink was dry (with the help of my heat tool), I stamped the honeycomb image and the sentiment.  I stamped the bee hive onto patterned paper, cut it out and glued it onto the bee hive die cut.  The little tag was stamped with the smallest bee image and tied to a yummy bow.


Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win today's featured products! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog today for a little more about our new products and all the prize info and deadlines!

1. Julee	7. Charmaine
2. Stacey	8. Andrea
3. Teresa	9. Christyne
4. Amber	10. Maureen
5. Laurie	11. Shantaie
6. Marisa

what's in it?
stamps: The Buzz (Verve)
paper: white (PTI), watercolour (Tim Holtz)
ink: versafine onyx, basic grey, pumpkin pie (SU), spiced marmalade, wild honey, mustard seed distress inks (Tim Holtz)
accessories: The Buzz Die Set (Verve),  Holiday Sequin Mix (Verve),  Signature Ribbon Collection (Verve), tag die cut (PTI), twine (PTI)

Baby Feet ~ Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge

It's time for a new Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge!

photo source: scrap-pygovka.blogspot.com

Oh, what a fun photo!  If this isn’t a slice of summer, I don’t know what is!  I needed to make a baby card for the mom of one of my students.  She’s having a baby boy any time now and I have a little something for him.  So the flip flops have become baby feet!  I had the perfect paper to mimic the bokeh background too!  Here’s the inside of the card with my favourite baby card sentiment…

Make sure you visit each of the designers' blogs for more inspiration!

Flip Flops Designers

Amy Kolling
Amy Sheffer
Amy Tsuruta
Kim Singdahlsen
Laurie Willison
Lisa Henke
Marisa Ritzen
Maureen Plut
Monika Davis
Sarah Gough
Sheri Gilson
Stacey Schafer
Tenia Nelson
Tracey McNeely

Follow us!

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge Facebook Page

Curtain Call Pinterest Boards

Stop by the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge:  Flip Flops for the challenge details and to play along with us!

Happy Birthday to You ~ Viva La Verve

Happy Friday everyone!  There’s a new sketch over on the Viva La Verve blog so head over there for some more samples and all the details on how you could win some VERVE!  Have a super weekend!

stamps: Birthday to You Plain Jane, Small Packages (Verve)

dies: Cupcake Frame Die Set (Verve)

Thanks!

Hello friends!  So what does a busy teacher do when she should be writing report cards?  She sneaks down to her studio to play along with PTI’s Make it Monday challenge.  Can you blame her/me?  Especially since it’s a challenge from Dawn, my stamping crush for many years now.  I couldn’t resist CASEing her beautiful card with some of her stamp sets, Newsprint Background and Ruby Rose :)  The challenge is to use neutrals on your card…like my background and leaves stamped in various shades of grey. Thanks for stopping by!  How do you procrastinate?  LOL