Sites of the week

Each Thursday one of the Verve Divas, aka Design Team Members, hosts a Meet The Verve Divas thread and challenge in the Verve Stamps forum over at SCS. This week Laurie Schmidlin is the featured Diva. You can go to this thread and get to know her some more. She has issued a “Tall & Skinny” challenge. Yes, I am challenged in both these areas as a person, but fortunately I can pull it off in a card. Here’s what I came up with…

Side View…

This card also utilizes Julee’s Mojo Monday #48. I obviously had to scale it down a bit, but it still fits the sketch. To create the base of this card, I die cut 2 “tall and skinny” Nestabilities rectangles. I then scored the one I was using for the back about 1/2″ down from the top. Then I glued them together. I like doing it this way a little better than the “clamshell” technique that has been demonstrated on several blogs, because you aren’t left with flat scallops on the top. The DP that I used is from American Crafts and the ribbon was a great find in the Target wedding section.

If you wanna play along with this challenge, be sure to link your card HERE. All participants will be entered to win a $15 gift certificate from Verve Stamps!

It’s that time…Back To School. Nope, not me. At least not this year. Maybe I will find my way back into teaching in the next few years. Right now, I’m a happy SAHM. Yesterday we went to Target and Tony had to get some school supplies {only one more year in the MBA program!}. All the back to school stuff got me thinking of the good times I had teaching. I thought that you might enjoy this story…

I used to teach 3rd grade. During a math lesson early in the year, the kids were to create a word problem from a picture. The picture they were looking at was 2 frogs sitting on a log and 3 frogs jumping off of that log. The answer I was looking for was: “There are 5 frogs on a log. 3 frogs jump off. How many are left?” This is one of the answers I got…

“5 frogs are on a log. 3 jump off. You do the math.”

Oh, did I laugh when I was grading that one! Kids come up with the cutest things!

I’m writing this as Ellie is watching Diego’s Dinosaur Adventure. She is OBSESSED with dinosaurs lately. She has some little dinosaur plastic toys and a couple of books (which we read 15 times a day). I think it’s funny how a 2 year old can be so fascinated with dinosaurs. I can’t imagine what 2nd grade will be like (when she will “officially” learn about them). We have already taken her to a dinosaur exhibit where she pointed out the T-Rex…”the meeeean one!” I’m on the lookout for a cute stuffed pink dino for her. Let me if you see any!
Well, it’s Tuesday and that means another installment of TCP Tuesday…YAY! The theme for today’s challenge is CHRISTMAS IN JULY…using any TCP Christmas/Winter images. I absolutely LOOOOVE the images from last winter’s release, so I quickly got out my clearly swanky Polar Holiday set and got to stampin’. Here’s what I came up with…

Don’t you love this color combo? It’s SU! Real Red, Old Olive and Baja Breeze. The white is actually Papertrey Ink’s Vintage Cream. I stamped the image with Brilliance Graphite Black and colored the images with Copics. The “ice” was highlighted with Niji Pearlescent Watercolors. The Baja Breeze layer is embossed with the snowflake Cuttlebug folder and the Old Olive layer is clear embossed using the Large Circle Snowflake. I love the punched snowflakes, too. This is a punch that I picked up from Hobby Lobby last year. I embellished the centers with some red Swarovski crystals.
Wanna play with us? Here’s some details that you should know…

1. Each a week one of the The Cat’s Pajamas DT Members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme/inspiration, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this week’s hostess’ challenge announcement. This week you will link your project HERE.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS, please use the keyword TCPTUES18 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

I recently got the Making Memories Animal Crackers Ella Embellishment Kit. SO STINKIN’ CUUUTE! It has a bunch of animals and other shapes, as well as buttons, chipboard letters and flowers. You’ll have to pardon the picture quality, as it was near impossible to get a great shot of this bag. Believe me, I tried (and tried and tried!).

You can see I used some fairly untraditional baby colors, but I really like the way that it came out. Here’s a detail shot of the hippo and some of the other embellishments…

I’m making this a short and sweet post, as I really don’t have much to yap about, but have a lot I need to do. Have a great day!!

Don’t read this first paragraph if you don’t want to be enabled!! I knew you would still be reading this!! The Cat’s Pajamas is having a HUGE sale!… 25% off EVERYTHING!!! Just think of it this way… You can buy 25% more now! Now, that’s what I call stamper’s logic!!

I swear, it doesn’t even feel like Saturday! All my days have been running together lately. I guess it’s just the hustle and bustle of summer and getting off our normal routine a couple times this week. Ellie had her 2 year appointment on Thursday and ***newsflash*** she’s… NORMAL!! LOL!! A VERY chatty 2 year old! Yesterday I put on her sundress and she did a little twirl and said, “I’m a princess.” Awwww!! She’ll always be my little princess!

So, here’s the SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY…

My sample, using Inque Boutique stamps from The Purple Turtle Stamp Shoppe. This set is called School Record. The background is from Cornish Heritage Farms. I think this would make a fun card for a teacher or someone you know that may have just been “caught” doing something…fun or not. LOL

This is a detail shot that didn’t quite capture all the detail that I wanted it to. The boy is stamped in River Rock, then stamped off, then stamped in VersaMark and then clear embossed. Same with the ruler {see pic above}.

Today is Jessie’s last day as the Guest Designer for the month of July. Be sure to give Jessie some cyber hugs, as we have LOVED having her here! Isn’t this just the cutest?

Don’t forget to check out all the samples from my fab friends… Amy R., Amy S., Carole and Susan. Shannan said she’ll be playing late {as if that’s something new!} because she had to make a quick out of town trip.

A little more about this sketch…
It is also featured on the Sisterhood of Scrap blog with another sample that I did. You can check out my Bella on her bike over there.

Want another sketch from me today? Be sure to check out the Dare To Get Dirty challenges for today. I have one that I **think** that you might like. You have to remember, they don’t call it a challenge for nothin’!!