Sites of the week

This summer has proved to be a wee bit challenging for squeezing in stamping time, but fortunately it has been done! Not only providing me a little stress relief, but also checking off my to-do list. Anyone else counting down the days until the kids are back in school? LOL! I think that I might be going a little less crazy if the weather wasn’t trapping us inside most of the day. Geez, I break more of a sweat getting the kids in and out of the car at the gym than I do actually in the gym…at least it feels like it sometimes!

Back to that whole stamping thing I mention, though! This week’s TCP Tuesday challenge is a color challenge being brought to you by Hipster Hostess with the Mostess, Tori Wild. You can see her sample and more challenge details on her blog HERE.

Don’t you just love these summer colors? Just makes me crave an icy cold lemonade!

I set out to make a card, but when I got part of the way through making this large panel, I decided to keep it as a tag. I think it will be fun to either attach onto a bag front or hang from a gift bag handle…

I made this card by mixing and matching sets and dies from The Cat’s Pajamas. The sentiments come from the {new} Kick Some Grass and Bearing Flowers sets. I used both the Easy Rosette and Button Flowers CutUps dies. I love how well they pair together, but each is so much fun on it’s own, too!

Today, I have a few more stamping to-dos to knock off my list, as well as prepare for a Copic 3 class this weekend. Maybe I can squeeze in a little pool time, too. I swear it’s almost too hot to go to the pool! How can that be?

Have a beautiful {cool} day!

Just wanted to share some pics from Ellie’s 5th birthday party. I don’t really do themes, but all the decor was red, white and pink…with lots of polka dots!

“Photo Booth” pics…

A great time was had by all! We decorated crowns {designed by me in Make the Cut…woot woot!!}, colored cupcakes, played a bean bag toss game, took photo booth pics and, of course, chowed down on some cupcakes and ice cream! Not bad for weeks of planning for 2 hours on a Friday afternoon!! LOL!

TGIF Friends! I hope you all have had a wonderful week. It seems like I blinked and it’s Friday. On Monday I reported that I was on the up and up, but I ended up at the doc’s office. Finally, I really am feeling better! YAY!…and just in time for the long weekend.

Well, if you happened upon here randomly today be sure to take a moment to start at the beginning of this AWESOME Verve blog hop HERE on Julee’s blog {where you will also find a master blog hop list}. If you are already hopping along, you should have stopped at Dawn’s blog just before arriving here.

July is a BIG birthday month for Verve Divas {5 of them!}, so we are celebrating this month with a sale on the Verve set, Carpe Cupcake. It’s also Ellie’s birthday month, and I am in full swing {as much as I can be lately, anyways} planning birthday bash for my almost 5 year old!! Needless to say, I was slightly inspired by that to create this birthday wand…

In addition to Carpe Cupcake, I also used Bountiful Backgrounds {I reach for that one A LOT} and Birthday Wishes. The polka dots from Birthday Phrases were stamped in Pixie Pink {SU!} on the Raspberry Fizz cardstock base that is cut with a star Nestie. I layered a rosette and a pink circle before topping them off with the sentiment and the cupcake. The cupcake is topped with Diamond Stickles and then sprinkled with german glass glitter as “sugar.”

I added a second large star behind the pink star. At first I was just trying to make it so you wouldn’t see the hot glue and lollipop stick mess on the back of the pink star. When I went to add the white star it was a little wonky, and while it would have been easy to fix, I really liked the way it looked. I added the Swarovski crystals to the points of both of the stars for a little extra BLING BLING! As the final touch, I added some pink seem binding ribbon in a double bow. Viola…birthday wand!

Ok, I won’t keep you here any longer. Keep on hopping along to Jen Tapler’s blog where she definitely has something to WOW you!

Some detail you wanna know…
1. We’ve hidden a little mystery prize on one of today’s hop spots, so be sure to leave a little comment love as you hop around for a chance to win!
Comment Deadline: 11:59pm Mountain, July 5
Prize: $30 gift certificate to Verve

2. July is birthday time here at Verve, with five Diva birthdays, including my own! To start the celebration in style, our July Stamp of the Month is one of my absolute favorites… Carpe Cupcake! And at 40% off during the month of July, Carpe Cupcake is one SWEET deal!

3. A brand new month also brings along a new sale here at Verve! During the month of July, save 20% on all of our birthday stamps! Check out all the birthday goodness on our SALE page.

4. Our Gift to YOU! And what’s a birthday party without goody bags? We’ve gathered together some of our favorite things… doilies, My Mind’s Eye paper, tags, ribbon, plus a few other goodies and put them in brown paper packages! And during the month of July, if your order is $75 or more, you’ll receive one of these goody bags free! There’s nothing to add to your cart, we’ll just be sure to include it when your order ships!

***SECOND POST OF THE DAY! PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR FIRST POST***

Can you believe that the 4th of July in just 2 weeks {ok, a little more than that}? Weren’t we just battling snow and ice? Seems like this year is flying by…just like all the others!

After making the patriotic shadowbox the other day, I still had the Verve set, American Hero {currently ON SALE…a really good sale, too!}, sitting on my desk. Hmmm…what to do, what to do!?! Make a cute lil’ acetate tag is what you do…

I first cut the acetate tag with my Labels 19 Nestabilities die and then embossed half of it. The bottom portion is covered with pattern paper on both sides. The front side is stamped with the “4th of July” sentiment and I adorned the star with yet another {embellished} star…

The rosette was created with the Easy Rosette die and cut from some fabby Pink Paislee paper that has stars on it. I {heart} using pattern paper with simple designs to make these rosettes. I think it provided the “punch” for this project. The firecracker was a late addition, but I am glad that I decided to add it. It was just what this embellishment/sentiment needed…

I added a little bling bling to make it shine and then topped it off with some {very} thick hemp twine and linen thread. I was going to go with ribbon, but I needed/wanted something to complement the kraft cardstock on the tag. Subtle, yet effective.

Hope you all are finding fun inspiration for all your patriotic projects. I’m off to keep creating! Have a great weekend!

Howdy friends! Are you all {y’all} having fun with all of this year’s sketches for SFYTT {Sketch For You To Try}? I am so glad that I switched it up to a monthly sketch. There are just so many challenges out there and I know better than anyone that there are just so many hours in a day. We can’t spend them all stamping…even if we wish we could. The last couple of month’s have been hectic and I haven’t even been able to squeeze more than one sketch card in {tisk, tisk…I know!}. Fortunately, this month I got a couple extra minutes and came up with this fun creation using Stamping Bella’s You Perk Me Up PEEPS…

Psst~ I flipped the sketch and took a few creative liberties, as well.

Don’t forget, you can embellish as you choose. I went with a corrugated heart/button/baker’s twine combo here…

I {heart} coloring Bella images!!…

All of the details, as well as the entry link system, for this month’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY can be found on THIS post from the first Saturday of the month. Here’s the sketch…