{SSSC} Amanda

Hey there- I've had this image coloured up for weeks, just hadn't had the chance (actually motivation) lately to put her on a card. I'm just in a funk I guess. Anyone else ever feel that way? I think mommy-hood has me so busy lately with the kids activities, that stamping is about the last thing on my mind! My middle boy started hockey this past week, so two nights at the arena for him during the week, and my little one started skating a few weeks ago, so add another night, at a different arena onto my week! Three nights a week at the rink….Sigh….But I do love watching them have fun and improve! I could do without helping him get all his equipment on and tying skates though!! My back is aching! ;) Throw in one night per week of winter swimming lessons for all three boys and I am cut out to have no life of my own in no time! 

This image was a little bit sad to colour up, and I had def been putting it off I think…Almost scared I wouldn't do it justice I guess. You see, one of my stamping friends tragically and suddenly passed away not to long ago. Although we had never met in person, we spent time on the same design teams (Kraftin' Kimmie for a large stint- we were 'hired' at the same time) and as most of you paper-crafters know, we can easily become friends with people we have only chatted with online. Some of my best friends are girls I've 'met' working in this industry! Geez, did that sound hooker-ish? LOL! 'Girls in the industry'!! Rest assured, all I sell are my cards! 

So anyhow, most of you probably know that I am speaking of the lovely Amanda Reed, who was oh-so-talented and just such a sweet and supportive person! She was a treat to work with and always there to listen and lift you up... one of those people who really are genuine and caring! One of the good ones, so to speak. She was far to young and my heart goes out to her hubby and her fur-babies. She was a real crazy cat lady (hehe! Sorry Amanda, I couldn't resist) and one of the artists whom she designed for (Mo Manning) drew up this sweet illustration, and sold it to raise money for one of the charities close to Amanda's heart. I believe Mo raised over $400 selling this digital stamp. She is still available in the store, at regular price now, and no longer for the animal charity. You can find her HERE. She is fittingly named Amanda <3 font="">

For the inside, I used more of the patterned paper and a sentiment that I adore from Verve Stamps. I think it can be applied to cats, don't you?

I followed this weeks SSSC for my card layout.

Check out what the other Sweet Stampers have for you!

• Barbara Anders
• Dana White
• Jackie Pedro- Taking the week off!
• Karen Giron
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Motz
• Lisa Henke
• Lori Tecler
• Lynn Put
• Sarah-Jane Kalé
• Tracy Clemente
• Vicki Burdick

{RC} Verve Blog Hop

The Ribbon Carousel Crewmates are teaming up with the talented designers from Verve Stamps to bring you a blog hop overflowing with crafty goodness and lots of "loving" inspiration!

Julee was so generous to our team of designers, sending stamps and dies to create with.  With Verve Stamps AND some ribbon and twine from the Ribbon Carousel, we're wowing you today with gorgeous creations!  

Here’s a little about Verve:

Verve Stamps is a clear art stamp boutique specializing in uplifting and faith inspired clear stamps and coordinating steel dies. Our products are designed by Julee Tilman and are available online exclusively through this website or in the Treasure Valley at the Inspiration Boutique. Verve stamps are high quality clear stamps manufactured in the USA.

And here are my two cards that I made for this amazing hop!

I've used some fabulous RC Seam Binding (in melon )....on this first card, I spritzed the bow with water and crumpled up the ribbon. It's topped with a button tied with black Jute Twine. The Verve set I used is Stronger Love and I used the Jotted Heart die.

For my second card I've used the Vintage Seam Binding as well, only this time in Black. I accented the sentiment with the Arrow  A Cut Above die. The stamps that I used for this card are from the set Wings of Love. 
Here's a closeup of those layered, glittery wings! 

Other Supplies: MFT dies, TCP dies, SU chunky glitter, SU rhinestones

Now, lets talk prizes!   

Hop along with us today and leave some blog love for our Ribbon Carousel Crewmates and the Verve Stamps designers to be eligible to win one of the 2 prizes up for grabs!  We'll select 2 random commenters from 2 randomly selected designer blog, so be sure to spread the love around!

The Verve Stamps prize is the ENTIRE November Release, and the RC prize is a NEW Ribbon Carousel with your choice of knob color! 

Ready to Hop?!

{MOJO240} Snips n Snails

Just a quick post this morning- I had made this card a few days back (almost a full week, actually) for the Mojo Monday 240 sketch....I seriously ADORE that sketch! Don't be surprised if you see alot more cards with that layout;) I uploaded the card to SCS so that I would be elidgeable for the prize (yep- It's prize week and I want it! lol), and now it's time to blog it;)

 
I LOVE Verve stamps and am always so inspired by what others can do with them (my bud Melissa is not to shabby;), but I don't think they entirely fit my style or comfort zone....I am a 'colourer' (of people and cartoony animal images in particular, and flowers TERRIFY me!!) I am not good at stamping bold, graphic images....I tend to draw a creative blank if I can't colour my little heart out. But I am really going to try to strive to try different styles of stamping (and I even bought some new Tim Holtz markers, because I am in the throws of a serious Copic addiction and I don't want to be the kind of artist that can only work with one thing and has no skills outside of that one thing....

Anyway, this was a really different card for me (and if you follow my blog, you've probably already identified that;). I am taking baby steps here. I did colour the bear with Copics, and he is my style....but, he is a very small portion of the finished card;) He (and the sentiment) are from the Verve set To The Moon (which is on SALE right now!)....This is probably my most FAVORITE Verve set ever- so many sweet sentiments (for girls and boys) and adorable little animal images to go with. The perfect mix;)
The flowers behind the wood button were cut from CS and DP using the Floral Circles A Cut Above Die set.

Dontcha just LOVE that green gingham ribbon? OMG- my new fave find! It's from the Ribbon Carousel, as well as the black and natural jute twine....which I have been hooked on lately as well;) lol! The paper is also from RC and it is called This & That 'Charming'. And they are having a 30% OFF Mother's Day Sale that ends tonight!! So go check that out!

You can see the original Mojo sketch, as well as the other entries here! And today there is a new sketch up as well! Thanks for stopping by! This week marks the beginning of Kraftin' Kimmie's newest release previews, so I'll see you back in a few days for that!

{VLVJUL2011} Welcome Baby Boy

Today I have a card that I initially made for the Get Your Diva On challenge for Verve Stamps, but I misread the deadline and didn't have it done in time. Luckily, I made it using the Viva La Verve sketch for July, week 3, so it still qualifies for something.
My mom asked me to make her a baby card for her friends daughter, who just had a little boy. The GYDO challenge was to use a gift card and make a fun project surrounding that. I LOVE BabyGap and have always had a soft spot for their little brown teddy, and I have been waiting for the right time to ink up To The Moon stamp set, so this was a match made in Heaven! lol
As I said, I used the VLV sketch for this one, making it a standard sized card with a spot on the inside to place the GC.

I used some old SU! dp and silver and shimmer white CS (the GC is sparkly white IRL). Floral Circles die set  flowers were cut from green and brown felt, and an SU! chocolate button threaded with hemp twine was attached. I used spellbinders tags to cut the sentiments in two different sizes and used them in place of the leaves on the sketch. The bear is coloured with copics (E25,27,29) and popped up on dimensionals to look like he is peeking out the window. A SU clip 'hangs' the frame.

I embossed the silver circle panel with a cuttlebug folder, matted it with Not Quite Navy CS and adhered the flower and tag embellie. Machine zig zag stitching with chocolate thread finishes it off.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessed Easter {VLVApr2011}

Happy Easter Sunday! I hope you are all having a wonderful day filled with friends and family:) My DH is away at work, and we were at my family's Easter dinner on Good Friday. We might head off to my hubby's side today, but I still have to finish marking so I can submit my grades to the college this week (I think the students are eagerly antcipating their marks!)...so we'll see if we make it to the family dinner. But I have my 3 lil bunnies to keep me company and we are planning to dye some eggs:)
I thought this card would be fitting for Easter, although I made it for my Great Aunt's baptism last week. I love my Verve stamps, but for some reason I rarely use them. I think that I might have to remedy that! They are so elegant...Hmph- maybe that's why I buy them and admire them in their pretty packaging? Elegant is not my style and I have a hard time making those kinds of cards. But I like the way this turned out! Even though the black lace might be a little risque for a card with scripture on it?? Hehe!!
I used the Viva La Verve sketch from April, week 1 for this one. I really do like verve's sketches...they are totally up my alley!
Here is the sketch:

And here is my interpretation of this fabulous sketch:

There you have it folks! Hope you have a great day and a yummy dinner:)

Jenny

Cinema Saturday~ Edward Scissorhands

Hi there- remember my previous posts rant? Well, that night my oldest woke up with the vomitting again!! Grrr! So there I am at 1am lysoling everywhere, cleaning carpet, and showering off my poor, sick boy:( But thank God, it didn't last and he was better by the next morning, just really weak and tired. Poor kid has missed so much school lately..good thing he's a smart nut or we might be in trouble! He was at school today and did great, so I think we are home free?! fingers crossed anyway:)
And...Craig comes home tomorrow! His mom and dad are picking up the 2 youngest and heading to Calgary in the morning to pick him up at the airport and I am heading to my weekend retreat. I guess I'll just have to see him when I get home sunday night..whats a few more days, right?
So this weeks challenge over at CSCC was to make a card based on the movie Edward Scissorhands. What a great film..I remember watching it when I was just a young one...I think it was made in 1990? Poor Edward, just trying to fit in somewhere....I love the mother....'Avon calling' lol....Dianne Weist maybe? She cracked me up! And Winona Ryder as a blonde...crazy stuff. Anyway, here is my take on the challenge:

So, I'll probably have to explain this one a bit to you:) I made the card base out of yellow CS to represent pretty lil winona's hair...I seriously could not get that bad bottle blonde out of my head, so I thought I'd just go with it and use the yellow one my card. The three black strips and buckles were inspired by edwards leather belts (?) around his neck....his outfit was fantastic! I distressed the edges to make them look like his worn leather clothes. One of my fav scenes in the movie was where he was in the yard carving the ice angel and she came out and was dancing around in the 'snowflakes', so I used black and white snowflake dp and I tore strips out of it (like edward cut everything that he touched) and I used a nice winter pastel purple dp behind it. This movie went from black and white to powdery pastel suberbia, so I wanted some kind of pastels in the card (yellow and purple). Oh, back the the snow, I used 2 snowflake dies and applied black glitter to one (Edwards- the misfit snowflake) and white glitter on Wynona's...what the heck was her name in the movie anyway? Each snowflake has a matching purple stone to show that they have the same 'centre' even though they are so different. The sentiment describes how she seemed to love him even  with his differences, and of course the glitter and rhinestones are inspired by the twinkling christmas lights and snowflakes in that scene...Got it all???

Recipe
Stamps: Verve (One Person)
CS: SU
DP: Cosmo Cricket (purple), BasicGrey (black/white)
Other: snowflake diecuts, glitter (SU), small rhinestones (TE), lrg rhinetstones (Dress it Up), stickles, hodgepodge hardware (SU), tag punch (SU)

A Sympathy Card

Good morning my friends....I finally had a chance to sit down and stamp a sympathy card for my friend who lost her dad about a month ago. I know- it's really late, but Between our 3 week holiday and getting back into the school grind, it just got pushed to the backburner:( I made her a batch of yummy muffins that I'm going to deliver. I used the same SSSC layout as my last post. It's such a quick and easy sketch and it flows nicely.

I stamped the tree in memento rich cocoa and the Verve sentiment in old olive (SU). The image is cut with a circle nestie. I used my brand-spankin new dimensional pearls and daubed each and every leaf with 'espresso', and then went around the circle with 'bottle'. Very simple, but elegant. I like to make my sympathy cards without alot of extras, just heartfelt and to the point, with a clean and simple design.

I love Verve for the fact that they have some really nice Christian sentiments. You don`t find that often and they are so beautiful and the fonts are absolutely gorgeous! And an added bonus, you can buy these individually rather than having to fish out for a whole set:)

Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers (SU), Proverbs 3:5 (Verve)
Ink: Memento rich cocoa, SU Old Olive
CS: SU
DP: SU
Ribbon: SU
Dies: Spellbinders
Other: Dimensionals, Dimensional Pearls (Ranger)

Love is the Flower You've Got to Let Grow

Hi all!! I don't know about you all, but I've been having a great weekend! Friday night my hubby went to the city for a CFL game and DIDN'T come home til 8am! Well, that part wasn't so good, but I did have the chance to sew my flapper girl costume for the wedding we went to yesterday, and I made the card. Then saturday morning I got the best message from Miss Sankari, telling me that I won the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge with my Sleepy Hollow card! That means I get to be their guest designer next week! Yay for me;) So, needless to say, I was feeling pretty darned important yesterday! LOL!! And, my flapper costume looked great to boot! I told my hubby that I looked so good that it's almost a shame that I'm not single! Not sure if he found that as funny as I did?? The theme wedding was so fun and it was neat seeing all the gangster guys and flapper girls zipping around the dance floor. And I love dressing up, so it was especially fun for me! I got to see alot of my cousins, uncles and aunties...so that was nice too:)
Here is the wedding card that I made for Chris & Jen:

I LOVE this Verve set!! I seem to always reach for it when I pull out my 'verves'...there's just something about it that I adore! There's not alot of 'fluff' about it, like some lovey-dovey sets. It's just purely simple and I like that. I don't go for the love sentiments where you think to yourself "seriously?? No one would ever say that! What a bunch of garbage that it..." LOL! I like real-life. period. love, simple and easy. John Lennon had this one right!
I used the little silver rhinestone stickies again. A few on the front and a long strip in the inside. The white circle panel was stamped, and then cut and embossed with my circle nesties and sponged. I love it!
Totally not my style ( I am cutesy, not elegant!), But I am seriously lovin' this card. Then I carried it to the truck in the rain before I stuck it in the envelope and it got raindrops on it:( Oh well, it still looked okay! Just bled the sponged ink a little....thats a Jenny-move for sure! lol
Supplies:
Stamps: Verve (Love's Flower)
Ink: Memento, SU! (rich razzleberry)
CS: Taylored Expressions
DP: Pink Paislee (Bayberry Cottage)
Ribbon: SU!
Other: Nesties, slver rhinestones, martha punch, corner rounder punch (SU), Bayberry Cottage Flip Notes (PP)

And here's a fun pic from last night:
My favorite cousins from Victoria (that we just went to visit) Christa (left), Colin, and me on the right:). Colin has his beer-eyes on! We had a blast!

And me posing before the wedding:) Pretty cute, huh? My dress had fringe and sequins along the bottom...it was pretty cool. Nothing like taking an old LBD from the back of the closet and making into a kick ass costume!! I made the headband and bought the feather headpiece. The flapper style hair was really quick and easy too....I think this might be my Halloween costume this year. I am having my annual Hallo-scream party. I LOVE halloween and this years bash should be a gooder!

Hope you enjoyed these! Thanks for stopping by~
Jenny