Sites of the week

A few of you caught me on Facebook yesterday saying how much I love the new Verve Stamps sets! I really do! They are classic Verve style with that stylized elegance that everyone has fallen in love with. Today I am showing you a couple of cards. The first one is from the new set, Just for You…

I really tried to channel the talents of a few stampers that have a gorgeous elegant style that I cannot seem to pull off on a consistent basis. Although, I would like to think that I did it here and I find that I am able to do this style much easier with Verve’s stamps. I know that sounds like a cheesy promo line, but I really do feel that way and I even said it out loud to Susan yesterday. I think it’s “funny” how certain stamps can turn on certain styles. Now that I think about it, I guess that’s why I design for the companies that I design for.

This second card uses the new set, Kindred Spirits…

I really like the images in this set. They are all based on the fluer de lis, which I think is Verve’s original answer to the damask sets {which I also love} that have been flooding the industry. The sentiments are perfect for those “just because” friend cards and RAKs. I think this set would be great for projects and ATCs, too.

Ok, let’s wrap this up before it gets too long winded. Here’s a few things you might want to take note of if you are craving these stamps…

Release Party is on Friday. All the info about that is HERE. If you have not been to one of these, don’t miss out. There are tons of giveaways and just general good fun to go along with it, too.

Sneak Peeks for the new sets can be found on the Verve blog HERE. Lots more eye candy for you, plus a chance to win these sets!

More chances to win these sets HERE!

Happy Wednesday! Have you noticed that I just haven’t been blogging as much as “normal”? Well, this summer is proving to be very busy and I find myself drawn to wanting to do other stuff rather than stamping, too. I guess that is why I am a little behind! Oops! I only need to create 4 or 5 cards TODAY to be on time with stuff…EEK! LOL! I can do it {hopefully}.

Today, I have a couple of Bella cards to show you. I have 2 favorite Kettos: Charlotte Ketto and MissMatch Ketto. This card features Charlotte Ketto, along with papers available at Stamping Bella…

This card is from last week’s Bellarific Friday challenge, and uses one of my favorite Huggabuggs, Monarch Huggabugg. This was a great sketch…

We are swimming today and hopefully it won’t be quite so blistering hot {not likely}. Note to Mother Nature…a breeze would be nice!

Have a great day! See you tomorrow when I have a Verve sneak peek for you!

I never thought too much about this statement until this weekend. On Friday afternoon, I went into a new store in town called Scrapper’s Boutique {super cute!} and talked to the owner about teaching Copic and project classes. I will be teaching my Copic I & II classes there, as well as project classes. So far the dates set up are July 25th and August 29th. I am hoping to squeeze in another project class in between those dates, so stay tuned. On July 25th, it will the 2 Copic classes back to back {well, there is a lunch hour in between} and then I will be doing a pennant banner class {cuuute!}. On August 29th, it’s the same deal with the Copic classes and then I will doing an alterable project {haven’t decided which one, yet} with a Glue product. Hope to see you there!

So that was my one door opening. Of course, one door had to close to make that happen…

On Saturday night, I went to the farewell party for Imprints, the last rubber stamp store on my side of the metroplex. It was a bittersweet farewell, as I know that the owner, Tina, is retiring after 14 years to be with her hubby. Of course, I am sad to see the doors close, as this was not only a fun place to shop, but a great place to teach, too. Of course, we couldn’t say goodbye without food! It was a potluck farewell party and OMG was there a TON of food! I brought Berry Peach Cobbler/Dump Cake with French Vanilla Whipped Cream. It’s a recipe that I modified from allrecipes.com. You can make this as calorie loaded or sugar-free as you like…

Ingredients:
2- 16oz. can of peaches almost completely drained
heaping handful of raspberries and blueberries (I used frozen}
1/3 packet orange jello mix
1/2 box French Vanilla Cake Mix {you can use yellow or white, whatever you prefer}
1 T. ground cinnamon
3/4 stick of frozen butter {sshhhh, it will be our secret!}
Heavy Whipping Cream
1 container French Vanilla yogurt
1 T. sugar

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375.
Mix together peaches, berries and jello mix and put into a 9×9 pan.
Combine cake mix and cinnamon and put on top of berry/peach mixture, pressing the cake mix lightly into the mixture.
Grate the stick of butter over the entire top of the cake mix.
Bake for 45 minutes.

For Topping:
Whip the heavy cream into a thick mixture with sugar and add French Vanilla yogurt. Mix until completely combined and serve on top of warm cobbler.

***If you are looking for today’s SKETCH FOR YOU TRY post, please scroll down. This is the 2nd post for Saturday***

***If you a DFW local, today is Imprints last day of business. The entire store is 75% off. There is a farewell potluck beginning at 6:30pm***

So, this is the creation that I made for ABC Friday, but it turns out the 20th is TODAY…not yesterday. Sometimes I wonder how I make it from day to day! LOL! The requirements for the Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients challenge this month are as follows…

Focus: June - create a card or gift item for a June event…wedding/graduation/Father’s Day/last day of school/etc….any June event you like.

Required - dimension - you can pop stuff up on Taylor’s foam tape, or do some paper tole, or use liquid pearls, or any other trick you can think of to create dimension

Restricted - no Copic markers. I know we’re all addicted to them, so let’s see what we can do without them…just this once! LOL!

This is how I dealt with these parameters…
I created a gift for a June birthday. Instead of doing a card and making it dimensional, I did an altered 3D project. No Copics…no problem!…I just won’t stamp anything that I have to color.

Here it is a bracelet in a tin…

The bracelet can be found HERE at Creative Imaginations. I used a 7/8″ circle punch to punch out the circles and then I adhered them to the bracelet with 3M glue. Here are a few more pics of the project…

Links to more projects featuring this Taylored Expression Kit of the Month COMING SOON!!

BTW…Did you know that Taylor is having a great moving sale in the TE store? Check it out!
Have a great weekend!

This is the first of 2 posts that will happen today. In case you came looking for ABC Friday yesterday, it’s gonna happen a little later today. I actually had my Taylored Expressions monthly kit project done for yesterday and realized that I wasn’t supposed to post it until today and the last minute…oops! Anyways, it will go live at 8 PST.

So, before I get started on this week’s sketch stuff, I have to say THANK YOU to each of you for participating each week! I know that I don’t always have a chance to comment, but I am checking out all the creations and you all AMAZE and INSPIRE me!! Thank you for that!!

SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY…

I sketched this card as square card, but then ended up making it a vertical card when I got to working on it. I just love the Flopsey line from My Favorite Things and I knew that I wanted to use my Valentine Flopsey from the moment I sat down.

Designer of the Month, Ashley Newell, has brought another wonderful design for us…

Want more samples? Check out the SFYTT Sisters…
Amy Rohl
Amy Sheffer
Susan Liles
Kelly Lunceford
Carole Burrage