Happy Birthday Blues

Just a quick post with a Verve-y card today. I liked the sketch Maureen challenged us all with for the third week of October's Viva La Verve on Splitcoast Stampers. I stretched the sketch taller into a A7 size card and what a difference that made in the balance of my card! I missed a layer in there somewhere too.

I used two different sets from Verve. I love that flower out of Great Friend. I think it's the easiest fussy-cut flower of all! I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Hope Blooms set and highlighted one stamp with Muted Turquoise Prismacolor marker.

After cutting out the sentiment circle it looked a bit bland so I found a scrap of black paper that I previously cut out a nesties bloom for this project. I cut out the trim with the same size circle and glued it in place. A bit of bling, sponge distressing and satin ribbon bow... I think that's it!

As always, I'm so glad you stopped by to see a bit of my creations.



Details:
Stamps: Great Friend, Hope Blooms
Paper: Neenah Solar Smooth White, Basic Black, Authentique Journey
Ink: Distress Ink Soot, Memento Tuxedo Black, Prismacolor Marker
Accessories: satin ribbon (Stampin' Up), circle and bloom dies (Spellbinders Paper Arts), Smoke Rhinestones, scallop edge punch (Stampin' Up), Sew Easy Tool, Button thread, 

Thank You Caregiver's in Greeley

I've been enjoying the little bits of time I've had this month to get in to my craft room. I thought I'd be able to handle all my obligations and still get a post or two in a week. It hasn't turned out to be that way at all, but I had to create when I returned home this weekend.

My card today is another Viva La Verve sketch Week 2 designed by Teresa Kline. She has a way with circle layouts, doesn't she you know. The theme of the card is for the SCS Hope You Can Cling To Challenge, Thank a Caregiver card with an attempt at the Try a New Technique challenge to stamp a border.

My father had many care-giver's in the last few years of his life. Life Care, Sterling House staff and most importantly my older brother and sister who took care of all the emergencies and "small" stuff that made a big difference in my dad's life. I mentioned in my previous post that he passed away this month from an injury resulting from his battle with Parkinson's Disease. While it isn't the focus of SCS challenge this month, I couldn't help but think of my dad and all the helper's he's had a long the way.

Some of my embellishments are from a RAK package Verve sent out a few months ago with my order. I've taken the dark brown trim and hand stitched it with some twine across the middle of the doily using old DMC embroidery thread. I needed to do a border on the card base and thought it would go quicker to use the sewing machine for the stitch holes and when I finished the holes on the back of the paper was a wonderful design so I left it alone and added a hand-drawn line. Some Cinnamon Stickles is dotted around the doily and the corners of the blank thread stitching to weight down my layout. The white tissue flower I made a while ago and saved just hoping I'd have a use for it. : )

The ticket is from the Lifestyle Crafts die set I fell in love with at my local scrapbook store. NEEDed it! LOL The stamped filigree is from the Verve set, Thankful Notes, that you can see around the circle pattern paper and the top of the ticket. "Thank You" is from the Words Cannot Express set from Verve also. The paper is from K and Company Ancestry.com pack. 

Details:
Card Size: 5 1/2-inch square
Stamps: Thankful Notes and Words Cannot Express (Verve)
Paper:  Pattern paper (Ancestry.com K and Company), Tissue Paper, White cardstock
Ink: Sage Shadow, Really Rust (Stampin' Up), Brown Bag, Parchment (CTMH)
Accessories: Sewing machine, Sew Easy Tool (MME), flower punches (EK Success and Stampin' Up), brown trim, hemp twine, embroidery floss, corsage pin, cinnamon and iridescent glitter glue (Stickles), paper doily, ticket die (Lifestyle Crafts)

Dream I Can Be

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I'm playing along with Amber's week 1 sketch for Viva La Verve Challenge this month.  I thought I was following the sketch fairly close, but now that I've finished I see it's got a few proportions askew.

This card is also for the Splitcoast Stampers Hope you can Cling to campaign of Challenges to Bling the Cling! Check out the badge in my sidebar and take the link to get really inspired with challenges and support a good cause.

The pattern paper is from a Colorbok pad I spotted at discount store and I cut out the flower from one of the pages as an accent. I dusted off my embossing folder collection and brought out some Red Rust paper in my stash for the left panel and then again with a Martha Stewart loop edge punch. It's always hard to photograph glittery accents so I'll mention that the tip of each petal has a bit of glitter from a clear Spica glitter pen. It looks pretty neat in real life.

The sentiment is from Verve's Believe set. I stamped it a long time ago for another card that I could never get the parts to work well together, so I'm made this card to fit the sentiment! LOL (This Verve set is specially designed to use for those who may need encouragement and awareness about breast cancer in and around their lives. If you decide to buy this set from Verve, they donate $10 to the Susan G Komen for the Cure.)

I finished this card last night between two very difficult phone calls from my family back in Colorado. One was that my father was in the hospital with a head injury from a fall and another that he was no longer in pain from the Parkinson's that took away his freedom to move around on this earth. I wish I was there to have been able to say goodbye, but that's not how it was suppose to be. He'll be missed, but I'm glad he's not struggling with his Parkinson's any longer.

Details:
Stamps: Believe (Verve)
Paper: Colorbok Neutrals Pad, white, black and red rust scraps 
Ink: Graphite Black (Brilliance Pad), Toner Gray Copic markers for flower petal shadows
Accessories: Martha Stewart loops edge punch and silver ribbon, antique ribbon from Lori Bowerman's tag sale finds, rhinestones (Craft Warehouse $1 bin), Sissix embossing folder

New Arrival: Look Out World

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Whoa! It's amazing how busy I've been since school has started up in my family. I noticed last week that I haven't come by with a project for over two weeks and I do miss having something to share.

Yesterday I etched out some time to put an image from DigiStamp Boutique that I had colored so long ago into a card. Now I have something to share with you all.

This is Rex and Roxy with their new little family member are "Out of this World" cute. I used my copic markers and practiced some texture techniques on the belly of the baby and also the underside of the dad. One item to note is that I made a deliberate attempt in leaving white cardstock on some of the colored areas for a shine and light effect. I have some ways to go before I come close to doing what I'm thinking, but just seeing these dino's colored makes me smile.

Since the card front is CAS I decided to use some color and layers inside the card. Here's a peek at that.

I know I missed saying Happy Monday, but I can still pay it forward for a delightful Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by today!

Details:
Stamps: Rex and Roxy (DigiStamp Boutique), "Look out World" sentiment from To the Moon (Verve)
Paper: Chocolate (Wausau Royal Fiber), Smooth White (Wausau Exact), kraft and green (scraps)
Ink: Laserjet, Tuxedo Black (Memento), illustrator markers (copic sketch)
Accessories: Pinking rotary blade cutter (Fiskars), sewing machine (beloved Janome)

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