Forever and a Day

Good morning!  Well, I survived the first day back!  The kids were well rested and happy to be back at it!  I even had the energy to stop at the gym before heading home.  After dinner, I checked out the new PTI Make It Monday challenge and was amazed that an idea popped into my head right away.  I’m wondering if going back to work helped wipe my brain clean and let the ideas flow freely again.  I love the rainbow effect of the hearts and the little love sentiment perfect for Valentine’s or an Anniversary card.

I’m loving the bursts of colour against the white and thankful my CAS studies are coming along!  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a lovely Tuesday :)

 

 

what’s in it?

stamps: pti signature series flower stamp set

ink: versafine onyx

paper: PTI white, scarlett jewel, autumn rose, summer sunrise, su really rust, kiwi kiss

accessories: pti heart border die, foam tape

Smitten

Aw, is it Monday?  The first day back to work after a glorious Christmas break? We really packed in a lot of visiting, celebrating and travelling into those 2 weeks.  I spent the weekend getting organized for work which always means a little inky time in the studio.   All the Christmas paper, poinsettias and {sniff} jingle bells have been put away to make room for everything pink, red, white and frilly.  I’m easing into the Valentine cards with just a little love on today’s project :)  If “Joy” is one of my favourite words, “Smitten” is right next to it.  I just love the way it sounds…crisp, fresh, fun and full of promise.  It reminds me of how I felt after meeting my husband for the first time.  I was smitten for sure (and still am!) ;)  I’m using this week’s Retrosketches #45  layout…what a fun one!  I reorganized some of the elements until I was “smitten” with the results.  Thanks for visiting and wish me luck on my first day back!  It’s always full on with those excited little 6 and 7 year olds…bless their hearts!

 

 

what’s in it?

stamps: paper smooches good gab, pti fillable frames

ink: versafine onyx, su going gray

paper: pti white, pink paislee secret crush

accessories: pti tag, fillable frames, double banner dies, twine and button, Michaels grosgrain ribbon, corrugated cardboard, spellbinders heart die, Ribbon carousel satin ribbon

Verve Diva Inspiration Hop

Welcome to our January Diva Inspirations Hop!  Today the Divas are dusting off some Verve favorites and putting on our monthly hop to inspire you with a fresh new spin on the stamps in our stash! So grab a drink and hop along as we share a little Verve with you! I’m very excited to share this card today!  The chalkboard technique is all the rage at this very moment so I thought I’d try it out using 3 Verve sets, 1 plain jane and one die.  First I saved Betsy Veldman’s Chalkboard Technique tutorial and read through it a few times.  Then I flipped through my Verve sets to pull out this  Love’s Flower sentiment…I knew it would be perfect for this technique. Then I started to add some flourishes and flowers.  I planned out everything first on a piece of scrap black cardstock and stamped the images in white to make sure it would look good and to see if I needed to change anything on the good copy…
You really need to try this!  It was so fun!  Now don’t stop here…visit each Diva’s Blog for the chance to win a little somethin’ somethin’… a random commenter on one of the hops will win a $30 gift certificate to VERVE, so be sure to leave a little love in the comment section as you hop about! You can find out all the prize details over on the Verve Blog today.  Thanks for visiting and good luck!

1. Julee        6. Amber

2. Betty        7. Andrea

3. Sankari     8. Charmaine

4. Sony         9. Maureen

5. Susan      10. Teresa

what’s in it?

stamps: Love’s Flower, Sweet Treats, Twitterpatted, No Matter What (coming soon!), Scroll Plain Jane (Verve)

paper: raspberry fizz, black (PTI), Raspberry Ripple (SU), Kissing Booth (Basicgrey)

ink: versamark (Tsukineko), craft white (SU)

accessories: From the Heart (A Cut Above by Verve), buttons, embossing powder (PTI), bakers twine (The Twinery), white pencil crayon, paper clip, washi tape (Recollections), Starbucks sleeve (heart)

Happy New Year ~ Dream Big!

Good morning!  It’s Friday once again and a new Viva La Verve sketch is up and running over on the VLV forum.  Diva Teresa is giving us lots of creative freedom with this fabulous sketch! 

 

I picked snowflakes for my round image as it’s Winter and I’m still not quite ready to bring out the Valentine stamps.  I hadn’t used any of the lovely Crate Paper Sleigh Ride paper I got last month, so I picked some wintery papers that didn’t say “Merry Christmas,”  lol.  I added “Dream Big” as a new year mantra to remind us that anything is possible with a new year here!  I was tricky with the Ribbon Banner die!  I die cut one banner, stamped “Happy New Year” onto it, then trimmed it down to be the perfect tag for the New Year stamp!  I hope you’ll play with us each week.  If you do, you could win $100 to spend in the Verve Store!  Check out the new January Sale…there’s a great selection of Love/Valentine stamps and dies on sale!  Thanks for visiting and have a great start to your weekend!

what’s in it?

stamps: Christmas in the Air, Holiday Greetings, Tag Time, Words of Wisdom (Verve)

paper: rustic cream, rustic white (PTI), Sleigh Ride (Crate Paper)

ink: onyx (Versafine), bermuda bay, sahara sand (SU), tea dye duo (PTI)

accessories: Frosty Snowflakes, Ribbon Banner, Curvy Bookplate dies (A Cut Above by Verve), snowflake die, scallop border die, limeade button (PTI), seam binding ribbon (Etsy shop), bakers twine (The Twinery), gem (Kaisercraft)

CARDS December Publications

Hello friends!  Well, the magic of Blogger and scheduled posts made it feel like I’ve been busy all week here, but really, I’ve been enjoying spending time with my visiting family AND helping my son move into his first place with his cousin.  I’m very excited for him as I LOVED living on my own at University and then again after he was born.  I’m back at home and doing some housecleaning in the studio.  I’ll have a new card tomorrow, but thought I’d sneak in an easy post with my projects published last month in the December CARDS magazine.  I’m so glad they picked another Frilly Flowers card…I LOVE those dies and stamps!

 

Okay, this next card had something go wrong in transit…can you find the problem?

What I think is funny is that they even did a close up of the broken peg!  LOL  But I’m not complaining!  Maybe it will start a new trend ;)  Have a lovely day!

Year in Review ~ November/December

  

November #1

Good morning!  Well, here we are at the end of my week long Year in Review!  It’s been so fun to see my favs all in a row :)  It just reminds me how much joy card making brings me :)  So without further ado, here are the cards… seems like I was also a little addicted to felt poinsettias as well as jingle bells this Christmas season :)

 

 November #2

November #3

 December #1

December #2

Oh this last card makes me smile.  I made a few very similar cards based on this one.  Blue, silver and white are divine!  Thanks for joining me on my trip down 2012 memory lane.  Do you have a favourite?  Have a great day!

Year in Review ~ September/October

September

The last few years after Christmas I’ve noticed many bloggers post their favourite cards of the year.  I thought that was a great idea and started to go through the 300+ posts to look for my favourites.  Not fun! HA!  So I vowed that each month, I would save the cards I loved in a file so I could do a 2012 Year in Review.  And I did! Whoohoo!  Some months have more than one favourite so I’m only doing 2 months each day.   My September card is probably my most favourite of the year.  It was for a CASual Friday challenge that asked us to make a card based on our Blog Banner.  It was so fun to create! 

October #1

October #2

Both October cards were made for PTI challenges, Make It Monday and the Blog Hop respectively.  The unexpected colours on the poinsettia make me smile :)  Okay, one more day of the Review is left!  See you tomorrow and Happy New Year!