Show and Tell

fly!

I made this card for the final June Viva la Verve sketch challenge — this time with a twist of designer paper. The goal was to pick your favorite dp and build your card around it, using the sketch.

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I love this paper (double-sided cardstock, actually) designed by Heather Bailey for Autumn Leaves (and purchased at Emma's Paperie, although I just looked and it appears that they don't have any left — but it can be purchased directly from Heather Bailey here for 5 of the same sheet and here for an assorted pack). I had previously used it to cut some butterflies and decided to use my left overs for this card. I know butterflies are supposed to have the same markings on each wing, but I kind of like these all catter-wonky. Gives them personality — and freedom. Since that one butterfly is huge, though, this is one enormous card — 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" — in other words, a whole sheet of cardstock folded in half. To give the card a little more texture and visual interest, I dry-embossed parts of the yellow and cream cardstock using different embossing folders and my Cuttlebug. The pattern on the blue cardstock was stamped with VersaMark ink.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Verve (Medallion Plain Jane, Wishful Elegance, Starlight Starbright); cardstock is Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream) and Stampin' Up (Barely Banana, Soft Sky); printed cardstock is Autumn Leaves (Heather Bailey Pineapple Brocade); ink is Stampin' Up (Sahara Sand) and VersaMark; buttons and ribbon are Papertrey Ink (Aqua Mist & Sweet Blush; Vintage Cream grosgrain); natural hemp is from Stampin' Up as is the butterfly die, stickers are from Heidi Grace Designs, and Swiss Dots and Divine Swirls embossing folders are from Provo Craft. 

This is a busy week for me — teaching Vacation Bible School for three days and then leaving town for a family reunion weekend. If all went well for me over this past weekend, I've scheduled posts for throughout this busy week. Nothing really tremendous, just a few cards showing designs that I've played around with lately. I'm hoping that I can get my Thursday post linked up for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop — we'll be somewhere in Indiana that night.

I hope you have a great week and are staying cool wherever you are. It's blazing hot in North Carolina! See ya!

you're too kind

We are creatures of habit around here. Every Sunday morning you can find us at the Bojangles near our church. Ken has a sausage & egg biscuit and bo-rounds. I have sweet biscuits (used to be cinnamon, but I recently got wild and switched to bo-berry). Two cups of coffee — black. Sports pages for him. The crossword for me. Every Sunday. That's where we are. That's what we do. 

Fateama knows us now. She puts in our order when she sees us coming. She makes sure there are fresh bo-berries for me. Hot from the oven, dripping icing. (I have an insatiable sweet tooth!) She gives Ken extra bo-rounds. If we look like we've gained a few next time you see us — blame Fateama. She's our Sunday morning enabler. We love her. This card's for her:

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For this card I used the Viva la Verve sketch for the 3rd week of June. The twist this week was to have a lot of white — and a maximum of two colors of cardstock. Yesterday I really struggled as I was making this card — both with the sketch and the amount of white (although I love that look!). I had the yellow circle stamped, punched and mounted on the slightly larger red circle. Then I was trying to incorporate a yellow paper strip and it was absolutely not working.

I finally just went to bed and when I got up this morning my first thought was, "turn the sketch and make a flower!" Don't you love that! You go to bed and your brain continues to work on a project all night while you're getting your beauty sleep! (Or, it would be "beauty sleep" if you didn't stay up so late trying to figure out how to make pieces of paper work together when they obviously were not!)

For the flower stem (maybe I should call it a trunk! haha) I used a scrap of the paper I had leftover from yesterday's Classic Birthday Card. I also cut some leaves (freehand) from my scrap — so the scored green paper went from classy to primitive and whimsical all within 24 hours. Such versatility! By the way, I tried a thinner piece of the green and it was pretty, but I decided I liked this chunky look better. Hopefully, Fateama will like it, too.

ANDTELL:  stamps & cardstock are from Papertrey Ink (Mixed Messages, Simply Stationery; Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy, New Leaf); ink is Stampin' Up (Summer Sun) and PTI (True Black); also used the Spots and Dots Embossing Folder for the Cuttlebug and the Scor-Pal for the other scored lines, oh, and circle and circle scallop punches from Stampin' Up. I gave my precious Stampin' Dimensionals to Linda to finish her prayer folders so I used some monsterously thick foam squares for popping up the flower. (That puppy — or should I say "poppy" — is really popping!)   

Someday I'm going to write about the perils of re-starting papercrafting when your eyes are getting old. And another time I'm going to write about the mysteries of photography — how is it that everything looks fine until that picture is up on your screen?! We'll save all that for later, though. I've babbled on enough for today. But now that you know our Sunday morning schedule, show up and we'll probably buy your breakfast for you. And we'll even put aside our newspaper sections to visit. Oh — and we'll definitely make sure Fateama takes care of you, too!

Have a great rest of your day!

Jeremiah 29:11

I love this card more than I thought I would. We adopted this verse for Ian while he was in high school — and we still cling to it and pray it in regards to his life. However, I plan to send this card to our Army National Guard soldier nephew as he's making decisions regarding his near future (continue working? enlist? school?). Big decisions!

I know I said that I wasn't going to do any sketches this week, but I did decide to do the weekly Verve sketch on Splitcoast Stampers. If you complete all four sketches in a month and upload them to your SCS gallery, you are eligible to win free stamps. Now, how can I pass that opportunity up? As usual, this sketch included a twist:  a NEW twist — use something new on your card, something you just purchased or something that you've had for awhile but just never got around to using. I used two new things here — the Stampin' Up Spiral Punch that I finally broke down and ordered (must say, I love it's look!) and a Verve stamp, Jeremiah 29:11, that was in the order I just received last week. I finally have most of their scripture stamps now. It was just getting ridiculous — whatever one I needed to use I didn't have, so I decided that I had to take advantage of the big sale they had in May (I squeaked my order in on the last day — typical me!).

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AND TELL:  stamp is from Verve (Jeremiah 29:11); cardstock is Papertrey Ink (Lemon Tart), Stampin' Up (Brilliant Blue) and printed cardstock is from Heidi Swapp; ink is PTI (True Black); the button is also from PTI (Vintage White & Cream) and the ever-present Stampin' Dimensionals were also used.

The button was threaded with a very narrow strip of the red cardstock that I trimmed from the star layer and then securely attached to the card with a glue dot.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a wonderful Friday!  

Friend

So — OK — I did a card for yet another challenge. This particular challenge (VLVJun01) is found on the Verve Forum at Splitcoast Stampers. Each week there is a new sketch with a "twist" — meaning there is some special requirement that you need to incorporate into your execution of the sketch. This week it was a "twist of three" — use 3 different stamp sets, 3 colors of cardstock, or 3 different types of embellishments. I used three different stamp sets, all from Verve. (By the way, you don't have to use Verve stamps to play.)

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I actually had quite a bit of trouble with this one and am still not 100% satisfied, but I'm over it — and, as far as I'm concerned, it's done! I do like the three little rhinestones on the birds wings (my own "twist of three") and I like the clear embossing, but I have to get better at not "squishing" my stamps, causing them to rock and smear a little (like on the bottom embossed leaf) and my sponging skills need some definite work. On the bright side, I finally found my dimensionals! They were hiding in a drawer — the right drawer, but the wrong place in the drawer (it's a BIG drawer). I was about ready to go check the freezer and other odd places that I've absent-mindedly stashed things!

And one more bright note, I received a Verve order today so I have lots of new scripture stamps to play with. Yippee! Hope you visit again soon!

AND TELL:  stamps are all from Verve (Wishful Elegance, Anniversary Birds, Because of You); cardstock is mostly SU (Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, and Garden Green) with PTI Vintage Cream; the printed paper I picked up in a pack at Target; the ink is SU (Wild Wasabi & Positively Pink) with Versamark embossed with clear embossing powder; also used scallop scissors, a corner rounder, pink adhesive rhinestones, Stampin' Dimensionals, a sponge, and the SU Scalloped Oval Punch