Scrapnextras

Vive la Verve sketch and more Celebrating!

 

I made this card with two goals in mind.  The first is for the Vive la Verve sketch challenge, and the second is to support Jen Tapler's , my friend and fellow Verve Diva, efforts to raise money for Alzheimer's Association.  Jen is currently seeing and feeling the effects of this terrible disease as she watches her father sink further into it's clutches.  As she celebrates her one year Blog-aversary, she has offered up an amazing stash of blog candy and she is asking that you create and mail her a card, which she will auction off to raise money for the Alzheimers Association.  So I'm in.  Are you?  Check out her blog for all the details and trust me; it's pretty nice blog candy for a card.  And this is my card.

  I haven't done one of Verve's "Viva la Verve" weekly sketch challenges for March, so I figured I would do the final sketch of the month.  Now Amber always throws a twist in with her sketches, and this week it was to keep it clean...and simple.  Well, you might as well have asked me to stamp with my hands tied, because I have such a hard time limiting my layers and embellishments.  She suggested lots of white space...well, I got a whole lot of pink space that's really making me uncomfortable, so lets just get on with this!

Oddly enough, I had a circle that was a throw off from another project, pieced together with Riding Hood Red and Bella Rose designer papers, and since the sketch called for a circle, that was my starting point.  The card base is Pirouette Pink, and I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder. 

I called on Beautiful Kindness one of Verve's new releases, and stamped the butterflies on Very Vanilla, cut them out and attached them by their bodies only.  Then I masked off the brackets in the sentiment so I could punch it with the designer label punch and put it in the Vanilla hodge podge label.  Finally, I tied Riding Hood Red grosgrain around the belly and popped the circle up over top it.  Then I stared at it, trying to figure out what I could add, that wouldn't kick me out  of the clean and simple forum.  In the end I decided I had already pushed the limits with ribbon and hardware, and left it as is.  It really does make me queasy to see all that pink space, but what's a girl to do?

Don't forget that our 300K Celebration is still on!  To get in on the blog candy, all you have to do is find a card of mine or Julie's, case it, then link it up to us.

Case me(Laura), and link to this post on (my) Laura`s blog, or upload to SCS with the keyword CEL300L. 

Case Julie, and link to this post on Julie`s blog, or upload to SCS with the keyword CEL300J.

Remember to link the card you cased in your post or upload, and change at least two things, and yes, you can case as many cards as you like, and enter as often as you like on both days of our Celebration, before March 30!  And then, you can send your card to Jen, and link it up to her, and you're in for another blog candy!  Now that's gotta make you smile!

Make it a fabulous day!

Laura

Recipe:  Stamps: Beautiful Kindness (Verve)  Paper:  Pirouette Pink, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla, Bella Rose DP  Ink: Riding Hood Red  Accessories:  Scallop circle nestability (Spellbinders), Vanilla Hodge Podge, corner rounder, Riding Hood Red grosgrain ribbon(SU!), pop dots, Cuttlebug/Swiss dots folder(PC)

Stash Challenge Tuesday and Day 2 of our 300K Celebration!

 

It's time for another Stash Challenge, and this week, Holly Young challenged me to dig out my "collection" of epoxy stickers and put them to good use!  I'm embarrassed to say how many I have.  Some I collected back when I scrapbooked alot, but a lot of them have fallen into my cart as I pass by the dollar bins at Michaels.  How many of those do YOU have?  Well, I challenge you to dig 'em out, and show them the love!  Link your creation to this post by comment or upload to SCS with the keyword SXSC08!

  Check out Holly's creation!  Now how adorable is this?  Such a fun and sweet Easter card, and that sentiment just kills me!  The little epoxy flowers are perfect little embellishments, and I love the shimmery ric rac!

Holly did a second card, and I really love this spotlighting technique, and I even have the clear epoxy stickers to try it!  How cool is that?

You can find out all the details of Holly's card on her blog; Hogwild about Stamping.  Thank you so much for the challenge Holly!  I hope you got a bit of satisfaction putting a few of those little stickers into play!

Now, I have to confess, I found this to be the most difficult stash challenge yet, although you`d think I had a love affair with these little babies given the amount that I have!  I also added another element to my first card, in that since Julie cased herself for our 300K Celebration, I figured I should too!  So my first card is a case of this card of mine. 

While I have a lot of the stickers, they were all so diverse and colourful, I had a really hard time settling on one set.  I finally decided to go with the simplest image and pulled out Verve`s Seeing Stars set.  This is a classic favorite of mine, and I love that it works with my SU! star punches.

I kept it fairly simple, adding three epoxy stars on the left and some glimmer ribbon along the top.  The sentiment is from Starlight Starbright, and I was tickled pink when it fit inside the large star, making it a quick finish!

Now, I also wanted to use one of the epoxy slide mounts I had purchased...but so far had never used, so I did another card.  I kept it simple because it was getting late!  I thought the colours were a perfect match for So Saffron and Sage Shadow, and they were pretty close.  I was quite drawn to the split of the colours and wanted to create a reverse look on the card.  It`s pretty cool lined up like that.

The stamp set is Verve`s Floral Symphony, and I stamped it in Versafine Onyx Black and coloured it with my SU! markers.  The image is popped up on dimensionals with a ribbon tab and there is piercing all along the edges of the designer papers.  I finished it with three So Saffron brads and that`s all she wrote!  The sentiment is from Feeling Groovy. 

How would you like to win Floral Symphony..and more!  Well, yesterday I asked you to case me, and link your creation by comment to this post.  So today, you are going to check out Julie`s blog or SCS gallery and pick a card of hers to case.  This time you will link it to this post on her blog!  You have until midnight Monday, March 30, and we`ll select a random winner on Tuesday, March 31.  You can check out Julie`s blog to find out what she`s giving away, but I`ll tell you mine right now!  For Day 2 of our Celebration, Julee at Verve has graciously donated a Fun With Florals bundle!  That`s 5 stamp sets!  Both Julie and I will draw a winner from all the entries each day, so there will be four winners in all!

Case me(Laura), and link to this post on Laura`s blog, or upload to SCS with the keyword CEL300L. 

Case Julie, and link to this post on Julie`s blog, or upload to SCS with the keyword CEL300J.

Remember to link the card you cased in your post or upload, and change at least two things, and yes, you can case as many cards as you like, and enter as often as you like on both days of our Celebration!

Happy stamping!

Laura

Celebrating 300000 hits!

 

300,000 hits!  WOW.  Now that's a reason to celebrate!  And how cool is it that my friend Julie Koerber is celebrating the same milestone!  So cool, that we had to celebrate together...with you!   Details and info on how to play and what you can win are at the end of my post! 

In celebration of our milestone, I went through Julie's gallery and picked this card of hers, and cased it!

I just had to play with the March Key Ingredients kit, which are part of the new monthly subscription service that Taylored Expressions is offering. 

I started by stamping the branch from the newly released "Branching Out" on a scrap of designer paper from the kit; coloured it with my SU! markers, then punched the end of the branch out in a circle. The little squirrel from the Branching Out Coordinates was stamped, coloured, cut out and then popped up with dimensionals on the branch.  The image was layered on a scalloped circle punch, and tied to the stitched grosgrain ribbon (included in the kit) with linen thread.

The card base is from the kit; Papaya Puree dark, and Birchtone dark in the forefront.   The centre portion is one of the designer papers from the the kit and in fact they are both sides of the same paper!  I cut the paper in half, and the lighter side was scalloped and the dark patterned paper was cut down to fit inside.  I added some Cinnamon Stickles to each scallop.  The designer paper was too dark to stamp the sentiment direct as Julie did, so I stamped it on the light dp, punched it out with the word window punch, and popped it up with dimensionals.  I love this card...so cute and the colours and patterns are so rich and fun.

Recipe:  Stamps:  Branching Out & Branching Out Coordinates (Taylored Expressions)  Paper;  all from March Key Ingredients kit  Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black  Accessories: circle, scallop circle, scallop border & word window punch, linen thread(all SU!), ribbon(TE Mar Key Ingredients), Cinnamon stickles, foam tape

Because we are so excited to hit this blogging milestone, we want to share our excitement with you with a challenge or two.  All you have to do is CASE!  Just as I cased Julie today!

For day 1, all you need to do is page through my blog or my gallery on SCS, find a card you would like to CASE.  Put your own creative spin on it and then post a comment with a link to your creation on this blog post.  You can also upload to SCS using the keyword CEL300L (L is for Laura!). What can you win?  Well, if you are loving the Key Indgredient kits I've been sharing on my Taylored Expressions projects this month, then here's your chance to win one!  Taylor of Taylored Expressions has  generously donated Birthday Boy Key Ingredients kit.!  And, Flourishes is generously offering a stamp set of your choice!  Well, off you go to case me! 

Julie will draw a second person to win some goodies from her! She'll be giving away the fabulous Impression Obsession clear set that she used in her card today!  So, find your inspiration and let your creative juices flow! You have until Next Monday at Midnight (Mar 30) to make and upload your card! We'll announce the randomly chosen winners sometime on Tuesday (Mar 31)!

Happy Monday and happy stamping! 

Laura

Challenges, Candy, Just Rite and more Versamarker!

 

Oh boy, there's a lot going on here!  I have a double challenge card, blog candy and another idea for the Versamarker!  I hope you're ready!  Flourishes is getting ready for some amazing prices on their Just Rite products during December and to kick it off I have a card to share using the Just Rite Oval stamper and some Just Rite blog Candy!  In fact the entire design team has Just Rite Blog Candy...but I'll get to that later.  Let's move on to my card!

 

I combined this week's sketch and colour challenges on SCS to create this card.  These colours are the colours in Basic Grey's Ambrosia designer paper so although I wouldn't have put these colours together on my own...I do love them together!  I started by stamping the small vine image from Flourishes' "Birds and Vine" set in my old Pumkin Patch spectrum pad.  I really wanted the birds to pop out, but I sort of cringed at the thought of cutting them out, so I pulled out my Versamarker, and coloured in the birds and dotted the little floral sprays.  I poured Irridescent Ice embossing powder over it and heated it up.  The colour on the birds got richer and brighter and very sparkly! 

I did the sentiment with my Just Right Harmony Classic Oval and the Brayton font set.  I love being able to make my own sentiments!  The worst part is that you can mispell them....would you believe my first run at "Blessings" came out "Blessins"?  Go ahead and laugh...but just you wait til you have to spell it backwards!!!  

I stamped the border in Basic Grey ink and the word in Really Rust.  I punched them out with my SU oval punches...which match up very well with the size of the stamps!  I popped the words up with dimensionals and stamped the edge of the vine around it to add some interest.

The ribbon I picked up at the dollar store and the corner gems are by Darice. 

Recipe:  Stamps:  Bird and Vine(Flourishes), Just Right Classic Oval stamp, Brayton font set  Paper:  Really Rust, Very Vanilla, Going Grey, Basic Grey "Ambrosia" designer papers  Ink:  Pumpkin Patch spectrum pad, Basic Grey, Really Rust  Accessories:  Oval punches (SU), gems (Darice), Versamarker, Irridescent Ice ep, ribbon (Dollarama)

Finished card size:  Standard A2, 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", horizontal top fold

Now for some Blog Candy! As we kick off the holiday season, everything at Flourishes is Just Rite! We want to make it easy for you to add to your wish list or buy for that special stamping buddy in your life! So, starting December 1st, everything Just Rite in the Flourishes store will be 25% off. In order to build some excitement, the Flourishes Design team will be showing you all the fun ways you can use these products and we will be giving away some goodies of our own! Be sure to check the Flourishes Newsletter to check the winner’s list on November 30th!

  Courtesy of Flourishes, I am offering the Harmony Classic Oval Stamper 1 ensemble!  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite holiday tradition is!  I will leave comments open until midnight Friday (Nov 28), and I will draw a winner then.

If you want to double, triple or quadruple your chances of winning...make sure you visit all the design team members' blogs for more blog candy opportunities!

FAith-Sunday

Susan-Monday

Cindy- Tuesday

Flourishes Newsletter-Thursday

Latisha-Friday

Julie-Saturday

Sunday winner's round up on the Flourishes blog!

Best of luck to you, and have a fabulous day! 

Chirp Up

 

Have you ever wanted to create a card based on an embellishment?  You know I was digging through the massive amount of flowers that I have and saw this blue one, and I said to myself...that's Pacific Point!  I knew I wanted to use it on a card and when Emily posted colour challenge 192 with Pacific Point in a week or so ago, I knew I would finally get to use that flower!

  I picked up "Chirp" a sweet little set from Little Paper Shop and inked up the swirly tree.  I traced the branches in Certainly Celery and added some of the tiny birds in Pacific Point.

I layered my "Pacific Point" flower with a "Certainly Celery" one (do you see everything in SU colours too?)  I anchored it with a rhinestone brad and placed it atop the tree panel.

I ran a piece of Pacific Point cardstock through my old Sizzix with the swirly Cuttlebug folder and tied some Pacific point ribbon around it.  A strip of Prints DP in Certainly Celery and it was done!

Recipe:  Stamps:  Chirp (Little Paper Shop)  Paper:  Basic Grey Textured, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Prints DP Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black  Accessories:  Flowers (Prima),  Pacific Point striped grosgrain, rhinestone brad, dimensionals

Finished card size:  Standard A2, 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" vertical topfold

I wanted to mention that Flourishes is working to make your Christmas list Just Rite!  Watch each day as one of the Flourishes design team members offer's up some blog candy that I think you'll find Just Rite! 

FAith-Sunday (yesterday)

Susan-Monday

Cindy- Tuesday

Me - Wednesday

Flourishes Newsletter-Thursday

Latisha-Friday

Julie-Saturday

Sunday winner's round up on the Flourishes blog!

Happy Monday!  Here's wishing you a beautiful day, and thanks so much for dropping by!  I always love it when you do!

Blog Candy...Celebrate my one yr Blog-iversary!

Scroll down to see my daily posts!

WOW...a whole year, and I really must say it's been a wild ride and one of the most memorable I've ever had.  Blogging is a fabulous experience, a lot of work and so worth every minute!  I've enjoyed sharing with you and getting to know you!   So here's the candy you can win!

 

I asked each of the companies I design for if they would be willing to contribute to my Blog-iversary celebration and I received a resounding YES! from each of them, plus I added a few goodies from my stash too.  The winner will receive:

From Flourishes:  Stamp set of your choice (not pictured)

From Verve:  Artful Elegance

From The Little Paper Shop:  A Dream

From me:  Soft Subtles Watercolour crayons

                Aqua-Painter

                "Royal" 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (25 yds)

                Stampin' Spots:  More Mustard, Old Olive and Brocade Blue

                "Fresh Fruits" stamp set (new and unmounted)

So what do you have to do to win?  Tell me what your favorite post/card/technique I have shared on my blog.  I will leave this open and at the top until October 31st.  On Saturday, November 1st I wil draw a random winner using Random.org.  No restrictions on residence...I know I have a few visitors from across the seas...I know because I can't understand a word of your blogs, but you sure have pretty pictures!  You're all invited to play!

OK...the ball's in your court now!