Be an Honored Guest Designer!

Have you been wanting to try your hand at designing for a stamp company? Here's your chance! Julee is holding a sketch challenge at the Verve Visual blog to choose an Honored Guest for the month of March. The winner will get the same awesome design package as the rest of Verve's design team, and there will be additional prizes awarded to randomly drawn entries.

Here is the sketch:

Here is the link to the Verve Visual blog post with all the details and a place to include your entry.

Here is the gallery with all the design team members' cards for the sketch challenge.

And, finally, here is my own example:

Each of the slots for the ribbons were made by punching two holes side-by-side with the Anywhere Hole Punch. Then use a craft knife to make two horizontal slices, turning the two holes into one slot.

Stamps: Heart to Heart and Wild Thing(Verve Visual) Paper: Kraft, Purely Pomegranate, Certainly Celery, Groovy Guava, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!) Ink: Certainly Celery, Purely Pomegranate (Stampin' Up!); Pink Grapefruit (VersaMagic) Accessories: Anywhere hole punch (Stampin' Up!); corner rounder (EK Success); ribbon (Target); hobby knife; Cuttlebug stylized flowers embossing folder

New 'Do

I went and got my haircut today! I had her take about six inches off the back and I added BANGS! Well, sort of bangs. Now, I realize it actually looks longer than the picture you're used to seeing to the right, but that picture was taken about three years ago. So here's a picture from last week for comparison. Granted, it's not the best picture, but it will give you an idea.

Don't you love getting a new haircut? I feel so "new". You should have seen all the hair on the floor. An older lady walking past looked down and muttered with a somewhat sad voice, "all that beautiful hair." She made me giggle. I think it looked better on the floor than it had on my head.

Well, that's all for now. I just needed someone to share my "news" with. I hope to have some cards for you again soon.

Hitting the Creative Wall

What do you think is the one most asked question in the paper crafting world? I'm pretty sure it has got to be, What do I do to get the creative juices flowing again? Otherwise known as the dreaded SLUMP.

Well, my schedule had been quite busy with some deadlines quickly approaching, and I had hit the creative wall. Rather than stare at my stamps and ink any longer, I made a cup of tea and pulled out my pencil and ruler. Yep, a ruler, I do not draw well. Before long I had doodled out this sketch. From there, the card pretty much fell together. So, if you're stuck, try it from a different approach.

I stamped the sentiment, stars and swirls with Timber Brown StazOn (so that I could watercolor over them without smearing). Then I did just that...water colored with sage shadow, ruby red, and so saffron inks. Sponge the edges with chocolate chip ink. And the strip of stars also got lots of dots with the pen tip of a chocolate chip marker. With all of the papers from the Wanted line by Cosmo Cricket (on sale at Verve, by the way), I rubbed the edges along the Timber Brown StazOn pad. The little red photo corner tab is a punched circle, cut in half, then folded over the corner.

What's In It?

Stamps: Seeing Stars(Verve Visual)

Paper: Wanted(Cosmo Cricket); Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Timber Brown (StazOn); Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, So Saffron, Sage Shadow (Stampin' Up!)

Accessories: Brads (Creating Keepsakes); circle punch (EK Success); Coluzzle, dimensionals, sponge dauber, aquapainter

Wild Thing

Well, I'm home to stay for a while now. Vacations are over. I plan to post more regularly again, now that I can get back on a schedule. Today's project is something I've never posted on my blog before: A SCRAPBOOK PAGE. I'm not very good about scrapping my pictures. I'm probably about two year behind now, and all I scrap are our vacation pictures pretty much. So, I tried to get myself rolling with this little 6 x 6 page.

I think the only non-self explanatory thing may be the scalloped layer behind the picture. That's a large square Nestablities die cut, which I then cut in half diagonally and layered behind opposite corners. I think it's a really fun and colorful page...perfect for the picture. And the sentiment from Verve Visual's Wild Thing set couldn't be more fitting. Fun, fun, fun!

What's In It?

Stamps: Wild Thing (Verve Visual)

Paper: Basic Black, Bordering Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Pink Passion, Real Red (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Onyx Black (Versafine); Bordering Blue (Stampin' Up!)

Accessories: Large scallop square die (Nestabilities); Cuttlebug; Gemstones (Hero Arts)

Just Popping In

Hi Folks! I'm just popping in for a moment. Josh and I got home Saturday night from a week in Cancun, Mexico with friends. What a blast! Now I'm mining through a pile of laundry so that I can pack again and head to the Ft. Myers, Florida area with Josh's family.

I'm working on a few Verve projects that I want to finish up. So, hopefully I'll have a few more things to share soon. Here's a card I've already posted on the Verve Visual blog, but you may have missed it. It uses one of the January 10 releases. By the way, I hear they're selling like hotcakes, so be sure not to put it off if you were hoping to grab some.

Tomorrow I scheduled in to spend the day with my mom. It felt weird being away, not seeing her for a couple of weeks while I was on vacation. So I'm looking forward to it.

What's In It?
Stamps: Heart to Heart (Verve Visual)
Paper: Garden Gate: bellflower (Daisy Bucket); Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Jumbo Java (VersaMagic); Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Cheeky Flat Clip in neutral (Making Memories); Corner rounder (EK Success); ribbon (American Crafts and May Arts)

The Friday Funny

WHY YOU NEVER QUESTION A DRUNK

I was shopping at the local supermarket where I selected:

A half-gallon of 2% milk,

A carton of eggs,

A quart of orange juice,

A head of romaine lettuce,

A 2 lb. can of coffee, and

A 1 lb. package of bacon.

As I was unloading my items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind me watched as I placed the items in front of the cashier. While the cashier was ringing up the purchases, the drunk calmly stated, "You must be single." I was a bit startled by this proclamation, but I was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since I was indeed single. I looked at the six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about my selections that could have tipped off the drunk to my marital status.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I said: "Well, you know what, you're absolutely right. But how on earth did you know that?"

The drunk replied, "Cause you're ugly."

What an Experience!

This is totally non-stamping related. Just wanted to share with you a couple of pictures from Buffalo's Winter Classic. It was AMAZING. Buffalo was an great host city. Everybody was so friendly. We were surrounded by Buffalo fans, but they were so nice. One guy even high-fived me when Pittsburgh won in the shoot out!

It was actually pretty hard to watch the game because of the distance and the snow. But it was so exciting. The atmosphere was amazing. I'm so glad that I was there.