Viva La Verve Week 1 meets Play Date Cafe Colour Spalsh

Hey there!

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend.  The sun is just starting to poke its head out from behind the bank holiday clouds - I'm not holding my breath mind you!

Poor weather + other half at work all weekend = peace and quiet time for crafting!  So that's what I've been doing :)

I am attempting to post this months' Viva La Verve challenges in order this time, even though I started off with Week 4's sketch!  One day...one day!

I was inspired by the colour story over at the Play Date Cafe this week.  It's been quite some time since I've entered a PDC challenge so I'm pleased that I've got round to it this week :)  I HAD to play along with this colour combination.  My best friend is getting married in three weeks time and I made all her wedding stationary.  Her colour scheme?  Black, white and lime!  I have a whole bunch of black, white and lime card around me so it would've been criminal not to enter this challenge!

So, here's my card;

I know it's not a 'splash' of lime per se, but I'm hoping that I'll get away with it :)  (I'm pushing my luck lately huh?!)

I have made this card for a dear friend of mine who lives in Australia.  We used to speak via email most days, but recently life has got a bit busy for both of us and we've lost touch a bit.  I got a wonderful email from her yesterday saying how much she misses our chats and so I thought I'd send her a card to let her know that I miss her too :)  Shame it's going to take so long for it to get to her!

Because I didn't want the bow to get ruined in transit, I have made this box for the card to go in;

I really hope she likes it :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend guys, whether it be long or short :)

Thanks for dropping by,

Supplies
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Lime
Stamps: Verve - Hope Blooms, Glad Tidings
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:    WOW! Green embossing powder; Crafty Ribbons - Ivory seam binding; Spellbinders -
              Standard Circles - Large, Scalloped Circles - Small; pearls

CASology - Green

Hey peeps!

I have managed to join in with the challenge over at CASology this week - woohoo!  I have also added another card to my Christmas pile, I love when challenges inspire cards that I actually need!

Now, I'm hoping the girls at CASology are going to let me off a little bit - cheeky I know!  :)  The inspiration word is 'GREEN'. 

Now, my card is green, however I have taken a liberty added a little tiny bit of red that I hope to get away with :)  I'm not how strict they're going to be, guess I'll find out soon!

Here's my card;

I sketched and cut out the little holly leaves - really should make a template, it would be much easier!  I heat embossed the sentiment with WOW! Clear Hologram embossing powder...I'm hoping you can kinda see it in this photograph, the light was absolutely terrible though!  It's bank holiday weekend in England in August, of course it's pouring with rain!

Can you kinda see the sparkles?!  Meh!

I hope that I don't get told off too much for adding my little berries :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Apple Green, Forest Green
Stamps: Penny Black - 'T' for transparent Crystalline
Ink:        VersaColor - Black
Other:    WOW! Clear Hologram embossing powder; Spellbinders - Classic Circles, large; Crafty
              Ribbons - Greenbrier seam binding; rhinestones; pearls

Card Carnival Pt III

Helloo!

I am sneaking another card in for Verve's Card Carnival!  (I have another idea floating around in my head, so there may be a Part IV, but I doubt I'll have time)

Here's an update of the rules;

 

Create a new card using Verve Stamps

Post your card to your blog or gallery

Include a link to the Verve store in your write up

Link your card here

 

 

I went CAS again this time (a real shocker, huh?!) and I was actually quite surprised it turned out as well as it did!  I kinda like it  :)

 

 

As you can probably work out, I just made a mask using Spellbinders Anenome Flower die and inked over the top to leave this white space.

Today is not the day for taking photographs of white cards (which are almost ALL of my cards!) it's too overcast to get a nice, white photograph - you'll have to let me off on this one :)  If it wasn't for the fact that I popped the focal layer up on foam tape, I guess this would be a one layer card, which I usually struggle with!

Verve release party tonight, it seems to have come around so fast?!!


Thanks for stopping by :)

Supplies
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White
Stamps: Verve - Hope Blooms
Ink:        Distress Ink - Spiced Marmalade; SU! Black
Other:    Spellbinders - Anenome Flower Topper; rhinestones



Card Carnival Pt II

Hi guys!

As promised, here is my second card for the Verve Card Carnival.  For those of you who don't know (or haven't seen my blog at all this week!) Verve is celebrating its 5th Anniversary!  Woo!  As part of the celebrations, there are five challenges to take part in on SCS with the potential to win some fantastic prizes.  Then there's the spotlight blog hop showcasing the 23 new stamp sets and dies (today is day 8 of 9)  And finally, another fun challenge to partake in is the Card Carnival!

Tomorrow is release day, which unfortunately I will undoubtedly miss as I shall be tucked up in bed as it will be stupid o'clock here at 9pm EST in the states!  Boo to time differences!  It's ok, I think I'll just peruse the SCS release party thread on Saturday morning in the comfort of my bed whilst my darling other half is at work - he he!

Anyway, enough jabbering!  The rules of the Card Carnival are simple -

Create a card using Verve stamps - check!
Post your card to your blog and/or gallery - check!
Include a link to the Verve store in your ramblings - check!
Link your card here - check!

Ok, so here's my card;

I've gone with a personal favourite colour combination - rainbow, black and white.  It always makes me feel happy to see all the bright colours together and accentuated by the starkness of the black and white - don't ask me why, it just does!! 

My inspiration came from this John Lewis gift card envelope that my brother gave me :)

I also tried to do something a bit different (for me) with my dies.  I have seen so many people layer up their dies, or use them in innovative ways and it always looks so awesome!  So, I thought I'd give it a go :)  I cut two of the four point fleur de lis circles from Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Motifs and placed one on top of the other.  I was surprised at how pretty it looked - like a flower meets a doily!  I then honed my inner Andrea and placed pearls around the edge of my die cut.  I'm not as good as Andrea, so I used flat back pearls, not liquid ones!  Then I just embossed the just-fancy-enough sentiment for some extra glam :)

So there you have it, my second offering to Verves' Card Carnival - hope y'all like it!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Supplies
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Bright Red, Orange, Daffodil, Ocean Blue, Grape, Lilac
Stamps: Verve - Hope Blooms
Ink:        VersaColor - Black
Other:    WOW! Embossing Powder - Ebony; Spellbinders - Fleur De Lis Motifs, Circles-Large;
              Crafty Ribbons - Ivory seam binding; pearls


Verve Card Carnival

Hello there!

This is my second post today, please scroll down for my Christmas post :)
As part of Verve's anniversary celebrations, they've put on yet another challenge!  Along with the five challenges over on SCS and the spotlight blog hop showcasing each of the new stamp sets and dies, there's also the Customer Card Carnival!  I'm loving all this Verve!

The rules are simple;

1. Create a new card using Verve Stamps
2. Post your card to your blog or gallery
3. Include a link to the Verve store in your write up
4. Link up your card here

Here is my card;

I think this is the only card I've ever made without a sentiment on!!  Shock horror!  I actually have my brother to thank for this design.  I made an envelope for a little card I had made as it was an unusual size. (I'll have to post that card another time so you can see what I mean)  The envelope I made was decorated with little blue flowers.  When I showed it to my brother, (he's the only person on this planet who actually gives his honest, and sometimes brutal, opinion on my cards!) the card was in the envelope.  When he looked at it, he thought that the envelope was the card!  In fact, he was kinda disappointed when he realised that it wasn't!  That is how this card was born!  I am going to make a set of these in different colours and give them to my brother in a little box as a thank you :)  As it doesn't have a sentiment on, he can use them for anything - great for last minute, forgotten birthdays!!

I really enjoyed making this card - it's so simple, but not too sparse - I hope!  All the Verve challenges have been great fun actually.  There is so much inspiration from the Divas and from all the other participants, it's fabulous!  Nearly time for the release (Friday 24th) of all the new stamp sets and dies, I'm looking forward to seeing them all.  It's going to kill me to not be able to get them all!!!  There is a sale on at the Verve store currently however, to tide us over before the release :)

Sorry that there's been a post drought and now a post flood from me recently!  I am planning to make more regular posts from now on :)

I have another Card Carnival card to post, but I think I'll save that one until tomorrow to give you all a bit of a break!!


Thanks again for dropping by :)

Supplies
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White
Stamps: Verve - Bllom and Grow
Ink:       VersaColor - Lapis Lazuli
Other:    Crafty Ribbons - Ivory seam binding; rhinestones

More Christmas!

Hey!

I am still on the Christmas card mission, albeit it has had to slow up a little!

Here are my latest Christmas cards.  I have a few to show you today.

First up, my personal favourite...

I love the Create-A-Flake 3 snowflake dies from Spellbinders!  They're so pretty and intricate and I can't help myself - I have to layer them up :)  I also like non-traditional Christmas colours (my Mum tells me off saying they're not 'Christamassy' enough!)  I don't know if you can see it, but I added some glitter to the tips of the snowflake to add a bit of Christmas magic :)

This next one is super CAS...

I simply formed some wire into the shape of holly leaves and then drew around them onto the green card to make sure that they were the same shape.  The sentiment is heat embossed, something else that doesn't show up in the photograph!

The last two were based on an idea from Blue Peter.  Me and my Mum used to make this sort of card for Christmas year after year when I was a kid... I'm sorry if you were with me last year and have read this story already - yawn!!  :)

Both of these snowflakes have sparkly edges to make the cards feel a little more Christmassy :)

After all my rambling yesterday on my Verve post, I've tried to keep this one fairly short so as not to bore everyone!  Let me know your thoughts...

Thanks for dropping by :)

Supplies

Card 1
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Sky Blue
Stamps: Papermania - Let It Snow
Ink:        VersaColor - Laps Lazuli
Other:    Spellbinders - Create-A-Flake 3; Crafty Ribbons - Ivory seam binding; rhinestones

Card 2
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Apple Green
Stamps: Inkadinkado - Holiday Doodle Frames
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:    WOW! Embossing Powder - Apple Red, pearls

Card 3
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Navy Sky Blue
Stamps: Papermania - let It Snow
Ink:        VersaColor - Lapis Lazuli
Other:    Spellbinders - Create-A-Flake 3, Labels 24; WOW! Embossing Powder - Clear Gloss Super Fine;
              glitter glue; pearls

Card 4
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Forest Green; gold mirror card
Stamps: Inkadinkado - Holiday Doodle Frames
Ink:         Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:     Spellbinders - Parisian Motifs; WOW! Embossing Powder - Apple Red, pearls; glitter glue

Verve Anni-VERVE-sary overload!

Hi guys!

I hope you're all good  :)

I shall warn you now - this is going to be a long post.  I have been on a Verve Anniversary challenge marathon - it's been awesome! 

I had already completed the card for Day 4 of the anniversary challenge - I think it's physically impossible for me to complete these things in chronological order!  Anyway, as the deadline is Friday 24th, I wanted to get all the challenges completed in time - I can't quite believe that I've got them all done and it's only Tuesday!?  Maybe I'll have tim to catch up on the other challenges I want to complete, that have fallen by the wayside due to my craft space dilemma  :)

If you would like to join in, visit the Verve forum on SCS and play along!

Ok, so here we go...get yourself a brew!

Day 1 - Colour Challenge

This card is very un-me!  As is my card for Day 5 actually :)

This is a close up of the heat embossing - it doesn't show up very well in the photographs though.  It's WOW1's Verdigris embossing powder and I love it!  It's so much more interesting than one flat colour.

Ok, Day 2 - Anniversary Card

I don't have any wood papers (although, you could argue that all papers are derived from wood - I didn't feel like putting that argument forward this time :)) so I went with the silver element.  I did add some brown paper however, as a gesture to the wooden theme.

Day 3 - Sketch Challenge

This card is exceptionally un-me!!!  I have tried my hand at using patterned papers (whoa!) and girly colours!  When I finished this card and it was sat on the table, I couldn't quite believe that it was me who had made it - do you know what I mean?!  This is sooo far out of my comfort zone, but I am fairly pleased with the way it turned out - surprisingly so in fact!  Let me know what you think..?!

I dyed the seam binding with Victorian Velvet and Broken China Distress Inks.  The photo actually makes the bow look like it blends into the card, it doesn't in real life - isn't that always the way!  :)  The sentiment is also embossed with WOW!'s hologram sparkle - something else that I could not get to show up in the photograph, believe me, I tried!!!

I made a little 'twizzly' thing to wrap around the centre of my bow - going all out with the girly!


I have already posted Day 4's CAS challenge entry - you can see that post here is you so wish/haven't already looked.

And, last but not least;

Day 5 - ABC (Anything But A Card)

I have been meaning to have a go at making a little set/box of note papers since I saw this tutorial on SCS.  It was a while ago that I saw this tutorial and I've just realised that I have actually used very similar colours!  It must've made more of an impression than I thought!  Anyways, here it is...

I made an acetate lid and added some little pearls in the top left corner so that it wasn't quite so plain. 


Phew..that's all of them!!  If you are still with me then you deserve another brew!  Thank you!

Let me know what you think of my Verve marathon, I always love to 'hear' your opinions on my projects :)

Thanks for dropping by :)

Supplies

Day 1
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Peppermint, Raspberry, Pink Sorbet, Dark Brown, Ivory; Parcel paper
Stamps:  Stampendous - Congratulations
Ink:         VersaColor - Brown; Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Other:     WOW! Embossing Powder - Verdigris; pearls

Day 2
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White; Parcel paper
Stamps:  Verve - Notebook Paper PJ; Waltzingmouse - Big Day Additions
Ink:         VersaColor - Silver
Other:     WOW! Embossing Powder - Silver; Crafty Ribbons - Lemonade seam binding; rhinestones; tin foil

Day 3
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Off White, Coral Pink, Sky Blue, Lilac, Sky Grey, Dark Brown;
               K&Co. - Best of papers
Stamps:  Verve - Kind Words
Ink:         VersaColor - Black, Old Rose; Distress Ink - Victorian Velvet, Broken China, Antique Linen
Other:     WOW! Embossing Powder - Clear Hologram Sparkle; Crafty Ribbons - Ivory seam binding; pearls,
               thread, jewellery wire, seed beads

Day 5
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Peppermint; Parcel paper
Stamps:  Verve - Bloom and Grow, Wishful Elegance
Ink:         VersaColor - Old Rose, Magenta, Evergreen
Other:     Crafty Ribbons - Rose Quartz seam binding; pearls