TSSC #85 Olive Snowmen

It was a long hard first day back at work, so I really had to relax and unwind tonight. I thought this sketch on the Technostamper blog looked nice and easy, so I gave it a shot.

The snowmen are colored to match the colors in the designer paper - Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive, and Garden Green. I had to add in Pumpkin Pie so I could color the noses. :-) The snowflakes are stamped and then punched out with a 1/2" circle punch.

If you've been reading my blog, you know I like to make cards as flat as possible for mailing. This is the perfect Christmas card - no ribbon, no brads, nothing bumpy at all to interfere with mailing through the Post Office. I hope this inspires you to create some Christmas cards this week. :-)

Supplies all from Stampin Up:

Stamps: The More the Merrier (hostess set), Snow Swirled
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Olive, Garden Green, Stazon black
CS: Olive, Chocolate Chip, Vanilla, Merry Moments dsp
Other: 1/2" circle punch, sponge

Strawberry Mouse

This is a card I created for a special summer challenge over in the CHF forums last month. This was a coloring challenge, and it was really hard to pick out which image to color. I decided to go with a fun and playful image with some summer-y colors.

Stamps: Strawberry Mouse, Motivational Centers (all from Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Memento Rich Tuxedo
CS: Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Rose Red, Raspberry Tart dsp
Other: nestabilities, copic markers, scallop edge punch, white tafetta ribbon

Snowflake Trio

This is another card I had done earlier, but didn't get around to posting. It's just a clean and simple card with a trio of snowflakes and a sentiment stamped below. This is actually a quick Christmas card, and you could probably whip out a bunch of these if you are in a hurry to get some Christmas cards done.

The snowflakes and sentiment are from Cornish Heritage Farms. I was trying out a new color - Bermuda Bay - and I really like the snowflakes in this fresh new color. Why don't you pull out a new color and experiment to see what you can do with it? :-)

Stamps: Joyeux Noel and Christmas Expressions from Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink: Bermuda Bay
CS: White, Bermuda Bay
Other: nestabilities

Belli Challenge #72 - water based markers

I had done this card over a month ago so it would be ready for today's Belli Challenge. I've been recovering from surgery, so I was unable to work on a Peachy Keen colored image for you today. To see what the other Belli Girls have created with their Peachy Keen images, please check out the Belli Blog. They have created some adorably CUTE cards with these sweet images.

Since I knew today's challenge was to create something using water based markers (no Copics!), I picked a solid stamp. I love inking up solid stamps with water based markers, huffing on them, and then pressing them down on cardstock. It's quick and easy, and the results are gorgeous. It's fun to blend two shades of a similar color right there on the stamp.

I hope you pick up your old markers and give them some love. Use them to color an image, use them to ink up a rubber stamp, or scribble them on a craft mat, mist them, and smoosh cardstock on it for a neat background. Pull those markers out and have fun! Share a link to your work on the Belli Blog and you could win a $25 gift certificate to go shopping at Peachy Keen !

Stamps: Penny Black flower, Paper Bag Studios sentiment
Ink: Mellow Moss, Artichoke, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip (all markers)
CS: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Basic Grey Porcelain dsp
Other: Top Note die cut, chocolate satin ribbon, flower buttons, linen thread

Belli Challenge #71 - wood

This week's Belli Challenge is to use wood. For two of my cards, I used the wood sheets from Stampin Up. For the first card with the wood frame around the tree, I made a faux wood frame.

The wood sheets from Stampin Up are really cool and easy to use. For the card with the wheat, I used some Stampin Up rub-ons directly onto the wood sheet. The card with the apples was a little bit harder to create. I stamped the basket with dye ink directly onto the wood sheet, and then cut it out. It's a little harder than cutting out cardstock, but it is possible. The ink tends to bleed or run a little bit because of the grooves in the wood grain.

The faux wood frame was a labor of love for me. The frame started out as mustard cardstock, and I covered it up with some distress crackle paint. After the paint dried, I smooshed some dark brown ink into the cracks, and let it dry. Then I rubbed some white craft ink all over the frame and let that dry. It turned out pretty realistic, and it reminds me of the old whitewashed wood that people collect.

Look in your stash and see if you have any wood you can use for your own project. You could peel some bark off your trees, you could use tiny little sticks that fell in your yard, or do a faux wood project. Need more inspiration? Go check out what the Belli Girls did over on the Belli blog.

TSSC #81 Razzleberry Butterflies

For this card, I kept it monochromatic in shades of white, orchid, and razzleberry. The Cottage Wall paper is gorgeous, and it's easy to stick with a monochromatic theme with these papers. I used the new butterfly punch from Stampin Up with some vellum and the Cottage Wall papers to make a couple of multilayered butterflies. To keep these in the purple theme, I used some purple rhinestone square brads in the centers.

The sentiment comes from the Friendly Words jumbo wheel. I actually bought two of these wheels. One is for wheeling, and I cut up the other one so I could have multiple sentiments to use by themselves. When you see a wheel with blocks of sentiments, buy two of them so you can cut one of them up. How else can you get 15+ sentiments for less than $10? That's a great deal!


All supplies from Stampin Up!

Stamps: Friendly Words jumbo wheel
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
CS: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Cottage Wall dsp, vellum
Other: butterfly punch, square brads, white organza ribbon

MOJO #98 - Ruby Suede Fantastic

I pulled out my Verve stamps and played along with the Mojo sketch challenge. These colors just came out of nowhere - Suede, Ruby Red, and Vanilla. I just happened to grab them and put them together and I loved this fresh new combination.

This is where the new Stampin Up markers for the new In Colors came in so handy. I colored the floral image with the Soft Suede marker and the Ruby Red marker. Those new markers for the In Colors are such a lifesaver - I'm so glad they finally came out with them!

The floral image is from Verve's Because of You, and the sentiment is from Verve's Fairy Tales set. I went over the Ruby Red flowers with a glitter pen, and they have a wonderful little sparkle.

Do you remember the color spritzer tool from Stampin Up? A little lightbulb went off in my head after using the Soft Suede marker to ink up the image. Why not use the spritzer tool and the same marker to spritz some random dots of color? This turned out just like I envisioned it. I love how the little spritzes add a little depth to the image. I spritzed some more on the larger background Vanilla cardstock to provide a cohesive look.


Stamps: Verve- Because of You, Fairy Tales
Ink: Ruby Red, Soft Suede
CS: Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Vanilla
Other: nestabilities, ivory pearls, sponge, color spritzer tool, glitter pen, Soft Suede grosgrain ribbon

Casing a Verve Diva

The Verve challenge this week is to case one of the Verve Divas. Well, I had the wonderful pleasure to actually meet Miss Shannan Teubner a few months ago at a shoebox swap, and she's just the sweetest gal. I love her clean and simple cards, so it was easy to pick her for this challenge. :-) The card I am casing is here: Shannan's card


I changed the colors, and I couldn't find my corner punch, so I left the corners square. I had actually stamped my images first, and then found out that only the largest oval nesty would fit to cut it out. ACK! What do I do for that layer between the image and the scallops??? ACK! I cut out the next smallest oval and used it as a mask and sponged Chocolate Chip ink around the larger oval. Whew........

The next challenge was to use designer paper if your diva did NOT use it, so I had to find just the right paper. That's how I happened to pick green instead of going with Shannan's blue layer. I used chocolate chip instead of black, and Cameo Coral instead of a pink color. I also used some of my much hoarded Chocolate Chip satin ribbon.

Thanks for the inspiration, Shannan!! :-)


Stamps: Because of You (from Verve)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss
CS: Chocolate Chip, Vanilla, Cameo Coral, Bella Rose dsp
Other: clear embossing powder, chocolate pearls, nestabilities, chocolate chip satin ribbon, sponge, aquapainter

Verve anniversary blog hop

Welcome to the first ever official Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop. Verve turns two today and we’re celebrating with a hop, hop, hop! The party kicked off over on the Verve blog, so if you’ve just happened along, be sure to hop on over there to start from the beginning! And to make this party a real shindig, there’s a mystery jackpot hidden at one of the stops along the hop. One lucky commenter on that blog will win Verve’s entire August release! But of course, it wouldn’t be a mystery if you knew which blog, would it? So if you’re feeling the love, give a little shout out to the bloggers in the hop and you just might have a reason to jump for joy!




I loved this sketch the first time I did it, and I wanted to do it again with different papers and stamps. So I pulled out the Basic Grey Porcelain paper and layered it with Mellow Moss and Whisper White cardstock. This sentiment from Verve's Beautiful You set is so lovely and it goes so nicely with this happy pink and green paper.

I didn't have any wide Mellow Moss ribbon, so I made my own by sponging Mellow Moss ink onto some white satin ribbon. Isn't that gorgeous? The crochet butterfly comes from my friend Leah.

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


EDITED TO ADD: So many of you have commented on Leah's butterfly, and several people have asked if she sells her creations. The answer is YES, she does. :-) You can find her crocheted butterflies and flowers at her etsy shop, Paper Blooms. Don't be afraid to email her for custom orders - she is so sweet and she is more than happy to do what you need in whatever colors you want. I'm not affiliated - I'm just a happy customer. :-)