Sites of the week

Happy Saturday everyone! It’s been a busy week, and next week is looking just as crazy. But for now, we have Saturday, and that’s a good thing! This week we {Amy, Carole, Shannan, Susan and I} decided to use Bellas {or other lines offered by Stamping Bella} for this sketch…which lends itself very nicely to da Bellas! We won’t be doing this every week, but from time to time we might choose to incorporate and certain stamp or company into the Sketch For You To Try. I hope you like what we have come up with!! {click on their names to see their samples! ;)}

The sketch…

I have to admit that I had issues with spacing and not adding extra stuff to this. So, it’s not my favorite sketch. Fortunately, there’s always the others in the past and the ones in the future! I do love that lattebella, tho!

Detail shot…

I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Toni Whitnell for joining us this month as the Guest Designer!! Here is her GORGEOUS sample…

Don’t forget that Tony is here tomorrow. I sure he’ll be on some soapbox or have some wit for you to chuckle at…maybe both.

ETA: If you upload to SCS, don’t forget to use the keyword SFYTT. Thanks!!

Welcome to another installment of ABC {anything but a card} Friday. I {heart} making baby stuff. I go into the baby section of any and all stores to be inspired. What’s “funny” is that I wouldn’t consider myself a “baby person.” Don’t get me wrong, I love my own, but I don’t go all goo-goo when I see any lil’ darling. However, baby stuff…I go goo-goo for! Especially baby girl stuff. I wonder why in the world I am partial to girly girl stuff…LOL!

Yesterday I was sorting through all my alterables. When I say “all,” you can imagine me under a pile of tins, baskets, paper mache boxes and bags and anything else I can imagine will sit still long enough for me to alter. I pulled out this round paper mache wall hanging. Without getting out my ruler, I would say it’s about 6 inches in diameter. I used K & Co. paper, chipboard letters and stickers that I found at Michael’s {oh, how I miss Recollections!!}. The ribbon is Martha Stewart seam binding ribbon. I love this stuff and I love how perfect this color went with the K & Co. products I used.
The picture is of the project hanging from a door knob, but I think it would look great hanging on a wall, as well. Fortunately, I have a couple of friends that are expecting and this will easily find a new home. I’ll be back tomorrow for a “special edition” of the Sketch For You To Try, and don’t worry, it’s much easier than last week’s! Also, guess what Sunday is? Give up? It’s the first Sunday of the month, so Tony will be blogging here. {YAY!}

A color challenge has been issued!!

Like some other of my fellow Verve DT members have mentioned in their posts on the Verve blog, this color challenge just screams SUMMER to me. I love how they flow, yet also have wonderful contrast. I usually do not use so many colors in a card unless I am incorporating patterned paper, but I was actually **excited** when I saw all these colors together… just like I get **excited** about summer. When it came to the actual design, I knew immediately that I wanted to do color blocking and use black to make the squares “pop.”

I used the individual flowers from the Verve set, Floral Whimsy, to essentially create pattern paper to use for the blocks. By using the same color ink as the paper I created a subtle pattern that is not overpowering. For the focal point, I stamped one of the sentiments in black and then outlined the word “Flowers” with a gray Copic marker. It is mounted on a Certainly Celery mat and then popped up on glue dots on top of a scallop square. For my finishing touches I added the small butterfly, which I colored in green with Copics. I also put brads in the corners. The funny thing is, I meant to use the SU! ticket corner punch in the corners and then add the brads. But, I got on a roll with gluing all the squares together and completely forgot about it…OOPS! LOL!

As a reminder: To win $15 in Verve Bucks is easy! Just make a card, layout, or other project using the color challenge and link us up on this post before Midnight (Mountain time) on May 31st. If you have any Verve Visual stamps, please use them, but it’s not a requirement. The winner will receive a $15 shopping spree at the Verve store. What could be better than that?! And if you upload to Splitcoast, make sure you use the keyword VVPP02 so we can all see your Vervalicious creations! Also, if you do not have the SU! colors, colors from other companies may be substituted.

It seems like just yesterday that I got the call that let me know that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. There have been a few setbacks along the way, but she is doing well. Today she has her first chemotherapy treatment. While I am scared for her, I know that the prognosis is good and I must keep a bright outlook on the situation. My mom greatly appreciates all the cards that she has received from my friends and blog readers. If you would like to send a card {RAK} to her, please email me for the address.
When I first started thinking about the card that I wanted to do for today’s post, I pulled out Causabella. It seemed appropriate, but I just couldn’t get into it for some reason. This image is one that I have been itching to work with and it makes me think of my mom, as well. She greatly enjoys flowers and I have fond memories of being out in the yard with her when I was little.


As for the details, this is a 5″ square card {I LOVE square cards!}. The base is created from SU! Bashful Blue and it is layered with Chocolate Chip and Papertrey Stamper’s Select white cardstock. The bright green is paper that I picked up from Hobby Lobby. I stamped the larger green panel with the SU! Stitched background. The main image is colored with Copics and her wings have Sakura Stardust pen on them. Again, for this card I spread the glitter around with an aqua-painter. The sentiment is from MFT’s Can Ya Dig It? set, and I thought it paired very well with the image. As for finishing touches, I just added a couple of brads to the large green panel.
We are off to the library and to do some errands. I hope everyone has a great day. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers regarding my mom.

ETA: My head is kinda up in the clouds today. The main image is from Stamping Bella’s chichiboulie line. {Yes, these are wonderful. Yes, you need them…your DH even said so!}

Hello everyone!! I hope all my US pals had a wonderful long weekend. We had friends over yesterday and cooked hot dogs and chicken on the grill. I made fruit salad and fresh guacamole YUM-O! I am taking just one more day off. I am really on a roll with stuff for next week’s MFT release {I am giddy about this, I tell ya!}, so I want to keep working on it. I’ll be back tomorrow with some stampin’ stuff to show you. Until then, you can check out Toni’s blog for all the info on TCP Tuesday. Have a great day!

Here’s some pics of Ellie that I got this weekend! She is just the cutest, although I might be a **little** biased!

I’ll DEFINITELY be getting a frame for these two…

She got her “big girl sheets” this weekend and this is her testing them out with a fake stretch and yawn {while she was cracking up}…