Sites of the week

Announcements:

1. It’s Anni-VERVE-sary time!! Yep, Verve is turning one and you are invited to the party. You will want to check out the challenges and sneak peaks in the Verve Forum on SCS. I will be blogging tomorrow with a sneak peak of one of the new sets.
2. Did you see? My mini pizza box got chosen for Project of the Month over at the TCP site. THANKS!!
3. MFT is having a new release the Wednesday. Be sure to join us for some HOT summer fun, as we welcome in some cool seasonal stamps! BTW-I just happen to have an extra of one of the sets here. Hmmm…I’m thinking that a blog tart on Monday sounds like a great way to start the week.

I have been looking forward to Saturday for a couple days now. Susan and I are headed out to Mineral Wells {about an hour away} to the only scrapbook store left around here. She’s been out there before and says that the paper selection is de-lish, so I am pretty darn excited!
Around here, you know it’s time for another SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY and A NEW GUEST DESIGNER! Please give a super warm welcome to Bonnie Sharp!

A bit about Bonnie in her own words…
Oh my goodness, when I first received Jen’s e-mail asking if I would be interested in being the guest designer for August, I really couldn’t believe it!
But, here I a little bit of history for you– I have been very happily married to my high school sweetheart, Ron, for the past 28 years and he actually seems to semi-support my habit.
By that, I mean 50% moral support “Ohhhh that’s pretty, what’s for supper?”
Thank goodness he has his own hobbies so he doesn’t complain. It helps that I get the mail (Visa bill), pay the bills (Visa bill) and that our house has a separate entrance to the basement where my stamping room is located! (sneaky sneaky)
It all began (put your feet up) when my daughter, Marcie and my niece, January actually FORCED me to put together a few pages for my mother-in-law’s Christmas present –
I said “ Nooooo WAY!!! …..I can’t do that! I won’t do that! I hate cutting and pasting!……” They said, “blah blah blah…..whatever”
Long story short – there was wine involved……but the pages turned out quite amazing for a first try and after that day I was IN!!
Nowadays, stamping is pretty much my day’s fun, after gathering eggs, mucking about in the barn and the odd golf game - very odd!
Truly - I love stamping!…… I love stamping when I’m happy and I love stamping when I’m blue — because it makes me happy!!
I am sooooo looking forward to this month and working with Jen and her fabulous team!!
Thanks Jen!! YAY!

Here’s the sketch for this week…

My sample, using stamps from the upcoming release {this Wednesday} from MFT…

Bonnie’s cuuuuute sample, also using MFT…

My pals, Amy R., Amy S., Shannan and Susan have samples for you to see, too. Carole’s still my pal, but she’s taking this week off vacationing {and probably still stressing about all the stamping she *has* to get done}.

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!

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.

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’!!

YAY! It’s Friday, which means I get to show off an “Anything But A Card” project to you. This week, I’m also throwing in a card to this post. You’ll see why later

My bud, Susan, and I went to the Great American Scrapbook Convention last month. While we were at the Glue booth, we decided to duel. Okay, not really. We picked out a couple products to challenge each other with. {Note, these are not yet up on the Glue site}. I came up with a little project for Ellie’s room with pictures of Tony’s side of the family. Susan is still working on hers at this very moment, but she promises a very cute project to be completed later today. Be sure to check it out HERE.

First, here is the inspiration for this piece. It’s the bedding that I hope to get for Ellie’s room. Cute, huh?

It started out as a plain piece of wood. I added the paint, paper, ribbon and all the other embellishments that you see. The photos are on this do-dads, which I painted, covered in paper and then threaded ribbon through…

Here are some detail shots…

This part was created with a circle coaster covered in the orange polka dot paper. I then used the “negative” portion of a Bazzill chipboard flower that I have had forever and covered in with the green paper and dew drops. It is mounted on dimensional glue dots on top of the circle coaster.

So, it’s Anything BUT a Card Friday usually. Today it’s Anything AND a Card Friday. I am a little behind on challenges and such. Today is Julee’s {creative genius that IS Verve Stamps} birthday and I wanted to incorporate some of challenges that I have been “missing.” This card incorporates three challenges…

1. It’s Julee’s sketch for Mojo Monday #47
2. Laurie’s “Got Vellum?” Dare To Get Dirty challenge. I used the new Papertrey vellum cardstock here. YUM-O…I likeee!
3. Susan’s “Button, Button, Who’s Got The Button?” verve challenge

Shannan has a thread going in the Verve forum on SCS telling Julee HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Be sure to stop by {HERE}.

See you manana!