Blessed Butterfly

Hi there!  I hope you have had a great Monday so far.  I tell you we are having some crazy weather here in Central California.  A few days ago it was so hot, with the temps ranging from 105-110* and now the temps have dropped into the high 70's to low 80's.   I am loving these "springy" feeling days for sure.  I don't mind the heat, but 110* is even pushing it a bit for me. 

Today I am sharing a card that I made for a couple of different challenges.  I used the sketch from Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch for the great layout on this card.  I really like this layout and will tuck it into my files so that I remember to use it again.  Thanks Karen!

 

The second challenge that this card was made for was a color challenge for the Gina K. release last Thursday night.  Jessica was the challenge hostess and she asked us to use at least three of the following colors: 

 Red, Orange, Green, Yellow or White. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but when I saw the wonderful sketch layout above the rest fell into place.  I chose to use the Hope Grows and Thanks A Million sets from GKD to create this bright and cheery butterfly card. 

Hugs,

CSS Alumni Challenge Time

It's time for our bi-monthy challenge for the Gina K. Designs Center Stage Alumni Design Team.  This time Carolina has given us a limited supplies challenge.  She has asked us to use the following elements:

1 Neutral Cardstock

2 Solid Colors of Cardstock

1 Print Paper/Cardstock

1 Ribbon

3 Buttons

and as many Gina K images as we would like.

You should have arrived at my blog from the uber talented Melanie's blog, if not you can head back to StampTV and start from the beginning.

I am not sure what happened to creating fall cards, but here I am thrusting ahead to Christmas again.  I choose to use the sentiment and script image from the Blessed is the Season stamp set.  The print cardstock was layered to panels of PL Cranberry Tart and PL Ocean Mist.  I edged each one of the panels with some Vintage Photo Distress ink to mute the tones enough to coordinate with the print cardstock.  I used some braided trim in place of ribbon (a little creative license here) and layered it all to an Ivory panel that was embossed with my French Script CB EF. 

I played around for quite awhile with the buttons before coming up with the idea to stack them.  Brilliant, if I say so myself!  No really, the heart button just offered up the perfect spot for the other two buttons. 

Well, I should send you on your way to Melissa's blog.  I am sure she will have something beautiful for you to look at. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Betsy's Got Balloons

Hi there!  I have a bright and fun card to share with you today.  I have been playing with my new Betsy Bluebell set from Penny Black.   I stamped Betsy with her balloons on Neenah Solar White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored her with a mix of primary colored Copics. To get the texture/print of Betsy's sweater, I used the very tip of the Copic blender pen to add diagonal stripes.  I went from left to right and then again from right to left to get this cool pattern.  Try it , its lots o' fun!

The layout for this card was 100% inspired by a card I had seen while surfing in blogland.  The inspiration card used different prints/colors and a beautiful hydrangea image. I don't know who created the inspiration card as there is no watermark on it, if it sounds familiar to you, please let me know so I can give proper credit to the designer and a big thanks for the great layout!

I have a couple more Betsy's to share with you, just need to get them edited.  I love this set and think you will too!

Edited to add:  I just found some great Penny Black blog candy over at The Daily Marker.  Head over there and check it out!

CSS Alumni Challenge Blog Hop

Wow, here we are for another amazing Center Stage Alumni Blog Hop.  This time, we were given a great sketch to work with.  I am not sure why I chose to go with a Christmas theme as I am usually the last one to start thinking about making Christmas cards.  Maybe this year, I will get them done early! 

You should have come here from Karen's blog.  If not, you will want to go back and check it out.  Eye candy for sure!

I stamped the poinsettia from the GKD Year of Flowers set two times in Rich Cocoa Memento ink on PL Ivory cardstock.  The image was colored with Copic markers and cut out and layered for a 3D effect.  The center of the flower was embellished with a dollop of Glossy Accents that was covered with gold ultrafine glitter. 

I cut the half circles out of the top panels with my Large and Small Circle Nestabilities dies.  The card was finished off with some GKD Ivory ribbon and some MS Branch punchies.  I won't keep you any longer, so I am sending you on to Melissa's awesome blog for another treat!

The Scrap Factor #1

Hi there!  Today I am sharing a card that I created 100% from scrap. Hence the title Scrap Factor.  I am going to see how many of these scrap cards I can created throughout the remainder of the year.

Everything from the base card to the rhinestones were leftover from a previous card class that I taught. 

The dark aqua strip was leftover from cutting a Memory Box card down to create a square card.  I decided to use my EK edger punch on it and then I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots EF.  The print cardstock was already this width and I added the brown cardstock to give it a bit of a "pop".  I stamped the Wordsworth Mother Theresa sentiment with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto a Neenah White circle and layered it to a brown scallop circle Nestie.  I finished off my card with a bow and a flower (yep, they were leftovers too!)

Do you like to use your scraps when you create?  If so, I would love to see your Scrap Factor cards too, leave me a comment with a link and I will check them out! 

Oh my stinkin heck........thanks Verve!.

So, I just went and checked the list of winners from the Anni-Verve-sary blog hop and my jaw dropped.........I won the jackpot of all jackpots.    I won a $100.00 gift certificate to Verve, oh what fun it will be to pick out new stamps!   Deb Horst was the lucky commenter from my blog, and she won a $75.00 gift certificate.  You can check out her blog here.

For a complete list of winners click here.  You never know, you might find your name too!

Happy Anni-Verve-sary!

Welcome to the Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop! Verve turns three today and we’re celebrating with a hop, hop, hop! If you've already been hopping along, you arrived here from Jennifer Roach'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.

{click on picture for a larger image}

I am thrilled to be hopping along and celebrating Verve's 3rd Birthday with you all.   For my card, I pulled out one of my very favorite Verve sets called Beautiful You.  I chose the Oprah quote to be the focus of my card. I think it is such a great quote.  I want to keep this short so that you have lots of time to hop around so I will  list the recipe below.  

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

Stamp:  Beautiful You Set-Verve
Cardstocks:  Neenah Classic Crest Natural, Memory Box Seedling, Memory Box Stripe, Bo Bunny Double Dot
Inks:  Memento Rich Cocoa, Ranger Antique Linen Distress
Embellies:  Prima Flowers, Crochet Ribbon, Rhinestones, MS Butterflies Punch, Twine, Button