Sites of the week

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!!

Happy Monday! If you have been keeping up with the Verve Stamps blog you may have noticed the Project Parade for this month is all about ATCs! I love doing ATCs because it is so much fun to see how much creativity you can pack into such a small space. When I started doing this ATC, I knew that I wanted to incorporate a lot of texture and depth. To accomplish this goal I used several different products. For the main panel, I cut and embossed a circle using Nestabilities dies. I then stamped the floral image twice and then colored and outlined it with Copic markers. The butterfly is mounted on dimensionals and is colored with Copic markers and topped with Niji Pearlesent Watercolors (very fun product). For the Kiwi Kiss panel, I embossed it with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. I then used the SU! Ticket Corner Punch on the corners, so that I could add brads.

Wanna win $15 to spend on Verve Stamps?

All you have to do to play in this Vervalicious challenge is create your own Artist Trading Card! Leave a comment with a link to your project on this post by 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern Time on July 31st, and you will be entered for a chance to win! Using Verve stamps is not a requirement, although it doubles your chance of winning. We will have two winners, one randomly drawn from a pool of all entries, the other will be selected as our favorite from all the projects using Verve stamps. Both winners will receive $15 in Verve Bucks. We will announce the winners later that day. If you upload to Splitcoast, please use the keyword VVPP04 so we can all see your creations!

***SCS FAN CLUB MEMBERS…TODAY STARTS “DARE TO GET DIRTY ‘08″ ON SCS! HOPE YOU WILL PLAY ALONG WITH US!***

From time to time, I like to make large tags rather than cards. I think that they are a fun addition to a gift package, or you can use them as a flat card and write on the back. Since the 20% off {and super cheap shipping} sale at The Purple Turtle is through today, I wanted to show off some more of the inque boutique stamps I’ve been using lately. This tag uses three sets: Jazzy Punctuation (cool, huh?!?), Retro Shapes and the sentiment is part of the Friends Word Search set. I am really big on stamps sets from companies being compatible with their other stamp sets, as well as jiving with anything else I own and these sets cover those bases easy peasy. Other cool stuff to check out on the PT site… Out Of This World Paper {this is on the top of my “gotta get time to use this SOON” pile} and the Spunky Alpha chipboard {I seriously {heart} this font!!}. Don’t forget to use the coupon code awesome at checkout to get your goods for a steal!
What do you think of this color combo? I’m digging it! I totally would not have thought of it, but my markers arranged themselves so that these colors were together and just screaming at me to use them together! As for my finishing touches, I used some ruby red emBELLAshments, Swarovski crystals and ribbon from May Arts {the fun guava and red one}.

Usually on Fridays I bring you a project on my blog. Today my project is on the JustRite Stampers blog where I have been blogging all week. Here’s a little peek into what you can make for your kitchen.

As for my very own blog, today I am showing off a product that I just picked up at my local stamp store. I really like using paper piercing as a way to embellish my projects, and many times it’s just that touch the project needs. So, when I saw this paper piercing and embossing template and let it jump into my basket. I actually picked this up before the class that I taught a couple of weeks ago. I ended up showing it to the gals in my class and I think that over half of them bought one!! Anyways, I’m keeping this short and sweet and just showing you a pic of the product, as well as a little teeny tiny sample.

ETA: After I little research, I have found these are made by Siesta, a company in the UK. My LSS found out about them at CHA in February. I do not know of online retailers, but you can check out their site HERE.

I used the scrolly floral template to show you. The last pic is a variety of different items that we can use for the flower centers, including using the template to emboss the center. **note** these templates use a piercer that is fairly thin, much thinner than my Tim Holtz one.

See you tomorrow for another Sketch For You To Try! Have a Happy Friday!

Happy Monday! I have created a template to go along with the project from Friday. Remember this one?

More pics are in Friday’s post HERE.
Here is the template. Just as a friendly reminder, this is for personal use, not personal gain ONLY. Thank you!!

Click on thumbnail for a larger view…

As I told you yesterday, I have been asked to blog this week on the JustRite Stamper’s blog. Here’s a teaser pic from my blog post today on the JustRite Stamper’s blog. Let me know what you think of the “big picture.”