A second post...this morning :)

Yep, here's a couple of more cards, using the same stamps on my desk.
For this first card, I stamped the magenta image in Memento Tux. black on PTI vintage linen and coloured with Copics and then added white enamel to the bells.  Glued onto black cs and closely trimmed, adhered to foam and mounted to the Labels One die cut.  I embossed the PTI kraft card front with a CB EF and made another for an extra center panel strip.  I made a wider panel with the vintage linen and used a MS border punch on either side.  The sentiment is Verve from the Great Friend set.  Love the simplicity of it!  I used SU seam binding for the simple ribbon.  I made this card for the SCS Spring challenge, the Card Patterns Sketch #107 (2nd entry) and also for the Verve "Get your Diva On!"
The next card is a CAS version using my little Lockhart chicklet...simple!

Verve's Get Your Diva On!

Good morning everyone,
Today's card is one of the many Thank You cards that I need to make.  It seems I never have enough on hand.  I saw that Verve is having a little challenge for guest diva and I am submitting this.  The "Get Your Diva On" link is here.  It's not too late for you to try too!
This Verve flower from the Great Friend set was just screaming to me to take out some silk ribbon and make some French knots in the center.  I have a stash of hand dyed silk ribbon in bitty lengths and used various colours for this flower.  I stamped the flower on two different patterned papers from the Graphic 45  Once Upon a Springtime 8X8 paper pad, cut out and then did the French knot sewing and layered the two flower sizes with dimensional foam.  Love stamping directly onto patterned papers, instant visual texture!  The center panel has distressed edges and I stitched two rectangular panels together.
  I layered the Verve Thank You from the Dream Big stamp set onto another Graphic 45 sheet from the same pack.  The lace is some that I have in my growing stash and I just ran a length of the tape runner over the card front, pleated the lace as I was positioning it and then ran the sewing machine over it.

Moxie Fab World Jewel Tones color challenge for Card Makers Week

Sugar Cookie, Sunshine, Pansy, and Blue Calypso

Another Moxie Fab colour challenge, the Jewel Tones and a MoJo Monday sketch!
First of all, let me tell you that I had a difficult time capturing this card.  All of the Sugar Cookie texture is just not showing up.  I tried to shoot this in a couple of areas in the house and also took it outside.  It may have been too late in the day.  I will try to get a better photo tomorrow in the morning and I may replace it, but for now, here are the details.
I am using the Mojo Monday #175 sketch and Verve Great Friend stamp set .  I could not find Blue Calypso at Archiver's last week, so I picked up Mysterious Teal.  It looks quite dark on the screen, oh dear.  I really did enjoy making this card with the great Bazzill textures, so lovely and easy to sew into.  The Verve sentiment looks beautiful in PTI Black against this Bazzill Sugar Cookie, a real classic look.  I added some stitching to the panels and hand cut the  Sunshine and pansy coloured Verve flowers that I had stamped onto the card stock.  
Another card done, I am on a mini roll ;)
Thanks for looking,
Chriss

MFW~Gray is the new Black

Here is an entry for the Gray is the new Black challenge going on at the MoxieFabWorld.  I have loved gray and yellow for some time now and I think it makes for an elegant Wedding card.  I used this Cosmo Cricket paper from Everafter and made the flower embellishment from a couple of PTI flower dies and a Spellbinder floral.  A lot of rdges on the card are sponged with craft SU Going Gray.  Some stitching here and there, the perfectly sized Verve sentiment from Love Story, a MS border punch and the gray pearls that I bought at Ellen Hutson's give it the elegant finishing touch (imho)

Here is a close-up that shows the gray button I have been itching to use.

Thanks for visiting and I hope your weekend involves family and fun and some stamping :)

Cheer!

Chriss

Mojo geraniums Thanks!

a close-up of the geraniums :)

Hello again!  I know...two posts in a day, a little unusual for me, but I have been keeping up with the housework and thought I could spend a bit more time in the craft room.  The result of course is that I now have to tidy that room up ;)
So here is a card that I made for two challenges, Julee's Mojo 150 and Ellen's Flower Parade.
I was a little intimidated working with this sketch, but really liked how it turned out.  Oranges and aquas are some of my very favourite colours to craft with and that's what I decided to use for these two special challenges.  The paper is all Kaisercraft "Peachy Keen" and the sentiment is a Verve Thanks that was an extra inclusion from Julee in an order to me!  
The geraniums are from Lockhart.  I have bought many Lockhart stamps from Ellen's shop.  I love the florals and fruit.  They are coloured with Copic markers and I did a little stitching here and there.  Pretty simple once I really looked at the sketch's curves.
You still have time to participate in either of these challenges, just click on my underlined words and they are linked to the place you will want to go to.
There are prizes involved !!!
Good luck,
Have a great afternoon and thanks to all of you that pop in and visit!
Chriss

A plum treasure!

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for stopping in today and I apologize for the lack of posts. I thought I would have had more time this 1st week of the year for paper crafting...well only in my brain.
My first challenge in the New Year...finally! I am so behind in challenges but have been busy, busy with organizing (not in my stamp room yet, I have a very dear friend that will be donating some of her very precious time to help me) a guest bedroom, emptying / painting the laundry room / the pantry etc. Last night was the first time I had found an hour to actually create a submission for Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenge. I really appreciate those of you that have been checking in, so here goes with this plum coloured "Treasure" card. I created the card base with some Bazzil textured card stock (the name of this colour is San Francisco) and I applied a 1/4" smaller K and CO. paper over that. I cut out a 3 1/4" square of PaperTrey Ink Lavender Moon card stock and ran it through a CB "Exotic Flowers" embossing folder. The Verve flower image was stamped in SU Elegant Eggplant ink and coloured with Copic markers, cut out and placed on dimensional foam and applied to various layers of the cs and papers used throughout the card. The patterned paper is a Basic Grey from the Indian Summer 6 X 6 pack. I applied some lavender rhinestones to "bling it up"
All images stamped are from the Verve "Believe" set that Julee created last year. I love this set! The lavender twill is from a Basic Grey package that I purchased at a local SBS last year. It is a perfect match to PTI's lavender moon. The teeny scallop at the bottom of the pattern paper is an EK punch.

I thank you for stopping in, peeking and leaving a comment! Have a great day,

I think I may have some more time today to create another card...

Cheers!

chriss

Shop, Sip, Share ~event~

Good day everyone! I have been busy working on getting some of my personal Christmas cards made so that I can get the Canadian bound ones in the mail by the end of the week! I kinda wish that December had some extra days this year...

I have also been working on some special cards for an event that I am participating in this Thursday, December 10th. All of the details can be seen

here . It is the Shop, Sip and Share event that is being put on by Renee S. Such a worthy cause. If you are in the local area (Austin), please consider supporting this event.

Now, for the cards I created so far, I ordered this beautiful Verve stamp set called Believ. It is gorgeous! Julee (Verve's creator and owner) has been donating $10.00 for each of these sets that are purchased, so generous! The above photo is a group shot and this next one has this great quote.
sentiments and would be something really encouraging to receive. I had fun making these and like the way the white embossing came out on the pink. I fancied up the edges using a new MS edger punch and will be using that idea some more in the future! I love being able to layer the edges in

different kinds of paper and colours. The papers I used are pink pirouette from SU and a beautiful SEI linen textured pattern paper from the Cloisonne pack. It has some beautiful pinks and reds in it and will be ideal for Valentine cards. The sentiments were stamped in craft white and heat embossed with white as well onto the pink card stock. I then used different Spellbinder dies to cut out the shapes and the layers beneath that. The flowers were made in the same way, but hand cut. It took me quite a while to cut them all out. I have a few left over and BELIEVE me, I will not be tossing them out. The embossing folder I used is a CB Damask. Love how feminine it is, especially with the pink, and with creams it looks quite nostalgic.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you have a great Monday! Thanks for stopping in for a wee peek. Cheers! Chriss

Sorry about the photos. It has been foggy and overcast and pink & white is harder to photo than ya might think!

Coffee + Friends~perfect!

Here we go for the Verve VLVSEP03 sketch challenge.  I am running quite behind on these challenges, but will hopefully catch up before Friday!  As you can see, Amber provided a great sketch and the twist was to make for a girlfriend.  I thought about this for a while and then the light grew from dim to bright...Julee had provided us with the perfect image/sentiment from the Delightful and Delicious set.  I have not clicked on to see other participant's cards, but I will as soon as I am finished with this post.  I am quite curious to see everyone's creation and to see what percentage of us peeps thought this to be the perfect stamp choice!  To make the card, I wanted to use these two colours, aqua and brown.  I love the warmth and found the two different dps from the K and Co. Wild Raspberry 8 X 8 pack.  The brown cs I used is from a textured Bazzill 12 X 12 that I had in my stash.  I first stamped the tropical flowers (small size and large) onto the dp with close to cocoa craft ink and cut out when they were dry.

I then cut and layered and sponged the edges of the 

 rectangular panels and placed them onto the card base.  I made the horizontal panel and used an 
EK Success wavy punch on the bottom part and layered these.  I then used my Blossom Spellbinder die to cut out and emboss the shape that I wanted to mount the flowers onto.  I arranged these and used a dimensional on the bottom flower and placed half pearl centers on the flowers.  I also coloured the pearls with a very pale yellow Copic marker to soften and match the yellow patterned paper.  The coffee image and sentiment were also stamped with the close to cocoa craft ink and I cut that out and adhered directly to the brown vertical panel.  That's it!  Really simple card and I love how it turned out.  Thanks for visiting and taking a peek!

Cheers,

Chriss

My Mojo 103 Delightful and Delicious

This is my Mojo card for this week's challenge.  I love how it turned out, in person, it did not photograph well, but I assure you, the colours are so rich in real life!  I wanted warm and rich for this great coffee themed stamp set from Verve, and my insoiration came from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love.  Such a great collection, really.  So to make this card, I started by stamping the coffee cups with a SU craft chocolate chip ink on a delightful sheet of the saffron coloured flowers in the CC Earth Love collection and let them dry and cut them out.  I also stamped the sentiment from the same set in the craft ink and sprinkled with clear embossing powder and heated it up.  I used a Spellbinders long rectangular scalloped die to cut it out and edges with a Copic marker (the sketch end, so as not to ruin the finish on the other finer end).  The card base is on so saffron card stock that I stamped an Impression Obsession "Cover a Card" bg stamp with the craft chocolate chip ink.  The floral dp is CC and I backed these with really rust.  The ribbon is from some packaging and the border punches are from EK Success (the flat ones).  The ribbon is a nice chocolate chip grosgrain and I added 3 light brown gems, but they are quite difficult to see. (again, sorry for the photo)  Well, that's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of the day.   Cheers ~ Chriss

Mojo Birthday

Another Mojo Monday contest!  I was able to sit down last night and make a card for Julee's Mojo sketch challenge.  This is her 94th !  To make this card, I selected the papers that I wanted to work with, my much neglected SEI Black Orchid DP.  I started with the layered background panel that I put through the CB with the botanical bg that I so love.  I made my panel really easily with a rectangle that I cut from the pretty black and white floral and double mounted with the same lime green and a coral colour (both from the same SEI pack).  The sentiment is from Verve and I stamped that with Memento Tux. black and used a Label Nestability die to cut it out and then mounted that on the coral colour and hand trimmed that.  The two border panel under neath are both made with punches and layered with more coral and one has this elegant lace over it.  The flower is a Prima and the center is a black fancy brad with white floral outlines (hard to see from the photo) and I finished off with adding some clear rhinestones to some of the centers of the de-bossed background panel because, after all, this is supposed to have some Mojo going on!

Thanks for taking a peek.  Hope you all have a great week-end

chriss

Purple Hydrangeas

Good morning everyone!  Another hydrangea card with more purples this time.  I love this little Lockhart stamp, fantastic detail in all of Karen Lockhart's florals.  I was having some fun with this card and experimenting with punches.  To start the card, I stamped the image on white with SU basic gray ink and coloured with Copics.  I cut the image out and popped it up on 2 sizes of the Labels 3 from Spellbinders and then on this fun polka dot from Papertrey Ink.  The white corners of this card are corner punched with an old SU scroll punch and then punched again with the SU curvy label.  That is all mounted on a very old Laura Ashley scrap(I liked the white it has in it) and a pretty purple ribbon (from my friend Yvonne) is tied around that.  The sentiment from Verve is stamped in SU elegant eggplant and all of the edges of the oval and the "corner" pieces are sponged in elegant eggplant as well.  The little flower is also a SU 3 flowers punch and I thought this really looked the same shape of a hydrangea flower.  I put a rhinestone from K & Co in the center to finish it off.  Thanks for taking a peek and hope that you have a great day!

chriss

~recipe~

stamps Verve sentiment, Karen Lockhart hydrangea

ink SU elegant eggplant, basic gray

paper SU elegant eggplant, PTI bitty dots, Laura Ashley patterned paper. Poppyfinch 

access. SU corner scroll punch, 3 flowers, curvy label, oval,  ribbon, rhinestone, Copics

Paper pieced hot air balloons MOJO89

Hi everyone.  I have been spending the last 10 days with a very dear friend that I get to see once a year.  She lives in the Toronto area and I am in Austin, so we don't get to have coffee dates on a regular basis, but we sure did make up for it these last 10 days.  I am so blessed to have a few very close friends, some near and some living far away.

My Mojo took a few hours to "come back" this morning after having not stamped for a while, and I have been dying to ink up the Verve newly released set , Up, up and Away!  It is just a darling set and as you can see from the 3 samples I made today, you can make a feminine or masculine hot air balloon. I really had fun paper piecing these and will be making a lot more of them with the different balloons.  The first one is my feminine version and my submission for Julee's Mojo 89 which happens to be a contest this week! I worked with the lavenders and purples from BG Wisteria. I used my labels 3 die to frame the balloon  and layered it onto the striped paper from Wisteria.  The flower is a Prima and I cut out a tiny circle of dp and added a lavender rhinestone for a little bling.  I love using all of the BG paper packs as it is so easy to match the colours and patterns and I so love that the patterns are teeny!  Here are a couple more using the same sketch with different Basic Grey papers to create a different feel.  Thanks for taking a peek!

chriss

Verve Release for May

This is my submission for the new release happening tonight on the Verve blog.  Julee and the Divas have been cooking up some pretty spectacular cards with sneek peeks of the new sets!  There is one with some hot air balloons!!!  I also see a fun tree on the banner, so I am quite anxious for the new sets to be revealed tonight!

I used a "Plain Jane" very elegant flower for the main image stamped in Memento Tuxedo black on a very sparkly Prima card stock.  I added some MS glitter to the centers and stamped extra flowers and cut out the centers to use on the scalloped border.  The beautiful "tiles" block from Wishful Elegance was stamped onto a textured white Neenah cs and I coloured in the little "petals" with a Copic.  The dp is from K & Co. and I like the freshness of it.  This card is to give to my husband tomorrow for our 29th wedding anniversary.  The beautiful sentiment is also from Wishful Elegance.  I hope my husband likes it, as I rarely give him cards because he thinks cards are for mailing and not for giving in person!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Inspiration found!

Inspiration really can be found all around us!

I had some time to play this morning before I had to leave for my work outside of the home and was inspired to start on the VERVE challenge for May's 1st week.  This is the sketch we have been provided for guidance on this Vive la Verve challenge with a twist, the twist being to create a card using an inspiration in your home.  Well, anyone that knows me, even just a little, knows that I love flowers.  I always have my windowsills dressed with a flowerpot or three and plants in them.  I love ferns also, but these little mini kalanchoes are currently in my family room window and I have been enjoying them for over a month now, so this was my inspiration for this first week's challenge.  Hope you are inspired today with the abundance that nature provides to us each and every day!

For the little flower pots, I free hand cut them from a coffee sleeve from WF and painted them with white liquid pearls and then went over the dried surface with a Copic marker for a bit of a yellow sheen.

~recipe~

stamps VERVE Floral Symphony, Wishful Elegance & a surprise SMILE stamp from Julee in my last order!

ink SU summer sun, pumpkin pie

  paper   SU so saffron, pumpkin pie

  access. linen brad from MM, coffee sleeve from WF, SU

taffeta ribbon, liquid pearls 

Mother's Day Mojo82

Here's the latest Mojo installment.  This came together very easily and I plan to use this sketch a lot!  Thanks Julee for another really good one!

~recipe~

stamps Verve Floral Symphony, Memory Box sentiment

paper         SU old olive, patterned 

ink         SU old olive

access.  MS lace doily punch, SU olive twill, dew drops, MS emerald jewel

Thanks for taking a peek!

ch{{rs!

chriss

Easter Seeds for Verve Project Parade

Here is my finished Easter project for the Verve "Project Parade".  It is not a typical Easter gift that we would think of at first, and believe me, I love chocolate!  It is a covered wooden tea box with seed packets inside to celebrate Spring and new beginnings.  Of course, you could fill this up with yummy chocolate eggs too ;)

The pics show the box before I covered with this yummy BG paper, a close up of the little card enclosure, an opened box with the seeds and the finished "all put together" for giving.  I used Julee's Floral Symphony as my inspiration.  Really easy.  I cut out my green BG solid paper to fit all of the sides of the box, glued with crystal effects.  The tiny strips on the edges are also BG Urban Prairie from the 6 X 6 pack (love the miniature patterns!)  I cut a wide band from both of my BG UP 6 X 6 sheets and glued together to make a longer band to fit around the tea box. Thanks for taking a peek!

ch{{rs, Chriss

       ~ recipe~

stamps              Verve Floral Symphony

paper                BG Urban Prairie

accessories         SU dimensionals for the cut out flowers, Copic markers

Floral Symphony Spring and Summer

I made these 2 cards for Julee's Mojo sketch, week 78.  I had a lot of fun with these new flowers of hers called Floral symphony.  This 1st card is my Spring card with the glittered butterfly and the other is my Summery card.  The papers used for both of the cards are from the BG Marrakech pack, very rich colours and I like them!  The chenille daisy border is a new product from me that I ordered from Ellen Hutson earlier this week (fast shipping with Ellen's company and SO carefully wrapped/packaged) and it is very luxurious.  All the flowers were stamped in SU! pumpkin pie and coloured with my Copic markers.  I haven't added any new ones to my collection, so I apologize if you are getting tired of the same family of colours. I love the font that Julee used to make the sentiments, just the right amount of a little flourish with some of the letters.  It's really a fun set and one that I will use over and over.  The flowers are just so much fun to colour in!

~recipe~

stamps Verve Floral Symphony

paper BG Marrakech

ink SU pumpkin pie, basic gray

Access. Spellbinder oval and circle dies, MS butterfly punch & glitter, SU riding hood red taffeta, Copic markers, CB ef

Thanks for taking a p{{k

Cheers, Chriss

   ~recipe~

Floral pink and green

Here is my very pink, green and red card for the Verve challenge for March, #2.  We were to use the sketch and had to use any shades of pink, green and red.  I really dreaded this combo and that is why I had not tried to make it before today, but I am really pleased with how it turned out!  The Prima and the ribbon match perfectly and I took inspiration from the tiny ferns in the floral dp by using the tiny fern stamps in Julee's Abundant Blessings stamp set to make the ruby red "veins" in the fronds.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Cheers, chriss

                 ~   recipe   ~

stamp        VERVE Abundant Blessings

paper         BG Sultry

ink SU Kiwi Kiss

accessories MS leafy punch & pink glitter, crystal effects, dew drops, SU pink taffeta,Prima flower 

ps I will hopefully be back later today with the Verve challenge from week 3!