2 More Challenges Done!

I have 2 more of the Verve Blog Hop Release challenges to share. I just went on the blog to link up my projects and the contest has been extended until tomorrow night, so you still have time to join in.
If you have time to make just one project it should be challenge #4, a pizza box. It is so cute, super easy to make, and uses just one sheet of paper. The Verve blog has a link to the directions, so be sure to check it out, along with the great samples. This will be perfect for a bit of candy and a gift card.The other challenge I finished is #5, a gift card holder. I went with this little boxy purse/bag. I found the directions here. Be sure to check out the link - the template samples have the sides scored with a clasp at the top and definitely look more like a purse. I wanted to fit a little more in mine so I kept the sides straight.I am hoping that maybe I find time to squeeze in another project now that the deadline is extended. Tomorrow I have jury duty and I am leaving my crafting at home. I have plenty of fussy cutting to do, but doubt that I will be allowed to bring my Cutterbee scissors in!
Smiles,
Julie
Details: SU Sweet Slumber PP, SU and PTI CS, Stamp Set - Verve Up, Up and Away, along with PTI buttons.

Thankful Challenge

My first card meets two challenges. It uses the sketch from the Verve blog party release challenge #2 and also answers the following question...What is the one tool you are most thankful for? The challenge on Fairy Creative Place this week is to use the tool, and only the one tool, for which you are most thankful. I have 2 tools that I am thankful for, my sewing machine and my Cuttlebug. I decided to go with my Cuttlebug because I received it as a gift and it helped reinvigorate my love for paper crafting. I received it for my Birthday last year (thanks again Jen) and at the time I was not buying anything new, I was stuck in a crafting rut. Once I had my Cuttlebug, I started browsing SCS again and then found blogs of a couple wonderfully talented people. The rest is history...the on-line crafting community is so incredibly supportive and I am having so much fun. I hope you are all having fun too!
My second card I made for the purse that I posted earlier today. I really like all the yellow, including yellow clouds.That is it for right now. I am working away at more of the Verve release challenges.
Smiles,
Julie
Details: Yes, you should know by now...SU Sweet Slumber PP, and the stamp set - Verve, Up, Up and Away!, plus CB swiss dots and swirls, CS PTI and SU.

Paper Purse

I have the PERFECT organizer to hold the set of Verve cards that I have been making for what probably seems likes forever!With all the color inside, I kept the purse super simple and utilized the preprinted border on the SU Sweet Slumber paper that I used. This is really heavy textured PP that is strong enough to turn into a "box". The closure is embroidery floss.This past summer I joined in the fun with a "UStamp with Dawn and Friends". This is one of the many projects shown that I really liked, but did not get to make during the month. I saved all the tutorials for the projects and now have a great reference library. This purse was designed by Tracey Old and she offers a kit to make the purse on her blog. I modified the directions to make my purse big enough to hold standard cards and envelopes.
Smiles,
Julie
Details: PP - SU Sweet Slumber, stash screw brads, stitching and lots of red tape

Warning: More Verve Follows

I plan on using today's card as the main gift card for the Up, Up, and Away card set (see this post). A card within a card was the StampTV potluck challenge from the week before last.This card was so easy to make and I like that the inside has a surprise. There are directions how to make it located here.
Now I figured I better take a break from Verve before you decide to take a break from me! I recently received a blog award from Jennie - she is just so sweet :>)
This award comes with a quiz (which is why it has taken me awhile to find time to post it!):

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your hair? a mess
3. Your mother? too far away
4. Your father? slowly fading
5. Your fave food? Dessert - I love sweets
6. Your dream last night? I rarely remember them
7. Your fave drink? Margarita (not that I have one that often, especially because 1 is enough to make me start giggling)
8. Your dream/goal? Be happy (and find time to make everything project I can think of)
9. What room are you in? Dining Room
10. Your hobby? Papercrafting
11. Your fear? That I will get arthritis
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? In my own crafting room LOL
13. Where you were last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? Bored
15. Muffins? Pumpkin - so happy Thanksgiving is this week, I love everything pumpkin and can not wait for my Grandma's pie :>)
16. Wish List Item? Lots of Nesties (seeing as how I own none right now)
17. Where did you grow up? Connecticut
18. Last thing you did? Put boys to bed
19. What are you wearing? work clothes
2 0. Your TV? off
21. Your Pets? 3 fish - Nemo, Dorie and a betta named Peanut
22. Friends? The best (but they could be even better if they started crafting more! - I miss getting together to craft!)
23. Your Life? non-stop
24. Your Mood? sleepy always
25. Missing Someone? Xandra
26. Vehicle? Toyota Sienna - so ironic, I always said I would never drive a mini van unless I had 3 kids. We got the van when it was just my daughter because it is so much better on gas mileage than an SUV...then the twins came along! Love those power sliding doors.
27. Something you are not wearing? jewelery, although I love it, there is just never enough time in the morning
28. Your fave store? Wal Mart - because it is close to my house and I realized recently that when I pick up adheshive or something craft related there that it gets lost in the list of purchases so I do not think of it as spending money on my crafts!
29. Your fave color? Blue - any shade
30. Last time you laughed? about 2 hours ago
31. Last time you cried? earlier today
32. Your best friend? Husband
33. One place that I go to over and over? My sons' bedroom
34. One person who emails regularly? My Sister!
35. Fave place to eat? This great Indian restaurant in town, yum, yum, yum
36. Facebook? I signed up and have even received friend requests, but I have never done anything!
I almost forgot...I am awarding this badge to Jen!
That is it for me today! Off to try to cure the sleepiness.
Smiles,
Julie
Details: Stamps - Verve Up, Up, and Away, PTI Handwritten Notes, PTI Everyday Button Bits, CS - PTI and SU, PP - SU Sweet Slumber.

Verve Joy

Since the Up, Up, and Away set is sitting out I reached for it to combine a few challenges. This card is based off the sketch from Everything But the Kitchen Sink - the blog's first sketch challenge. The sketch has a large circle in the center, so hopefully my rectangle with 2 circle shaped buttons qualifies. Regardless, I like the idea of the grid, but could not make a circle work in the center.
Splitting up the background qualifies for this week's StampTV Friday potluck challenge. The requirement was to use PP or create PP and split it up as a background and then only use a sentiment. Finally, the 3rd challenge this card qualifies for is Creative Clear Stamp's weekly challenge to make a non-standard sized card.
Hopefully seeing this stamp set again and again and again will make you realize that it is so easy to use!
Smiles,
Julie
Details - Stamp Sets Verve Up, Up and Away, sentiment - PTI Everyday Button Bits, CS - SU, Ink - SU.

Warning: I am on a Verve Kick Again

Last month I joined in the Verve release challenges and made cards using Up, Up, and Away with the same color pallette (here, here and here). Someone on SCS left a comment that I was making the perfect gift set, so I decided to do just that. I needed to keep to a standard size, so some of the cards that I made last month can not go in the gift set. No worries though, because I found plenty of sketches to keep me busy!
First up is Jen's SFYTT: Then we have Card Patterns:And finally this week's MOJO Monday Sketch.
Warning, this is not the last time you will be seeing cards using this set and paper...I need at least 2 more:>). Plus, I will be sharing the perfect way to store these cards that is beyond cute!
Side note: I kept the layers to a minimum and even eliminated dimensionals on all these cards. These are all part of a gift set and I need to keep them at the normal postage weight. I recently sent a Halloween card to my parents that I thought was within the normal limit, hmmmm, I was wrong! My mom had to reimburse her postman 39 cents!!!! Hopefully she thought it was worth it LOL!
Smiles,
Julie
Details: Stamps - Verve Up, Up and Away, CS SU and PTI, PP SU Sweet Slumber, CB embossing folder, and SU Ink.

Ready, Set, It's a Wrap

Today I am sharing "purses" that I made for a friend. She will be using these as gift boxes for jewelry she makes. Most I kept simple, but I had to at least change it up on a couple :>)
For this first one, I decided to go with purple, because it is my friend's favorite color and Plum Crazy is also the latest challenge from Cath on Moxie Fab World.
The flowers are layered circles that I distressed, with french knots made out of embroidery floss in the center. My embroidery floss was a little brighter than I wanted, so after all the flowers were put together, I used a blender pen with an ink pad and colored my knots and also created shading at the flower center. (This was so much easier than trying to ink up my floss before I made the knots - that was a little messy!) I dressed up the sides by adding stripes to form a plaid PP.

Next is a raspberry quilt - I tried out the Raspberry Fizz Mix PP sample squares from PTI and cut each into .75" squares.Here are a couple with patterned paper...This candy paper comes across as a tweedy fabric to me :>)And finally another with the Baroque Motif stamp set from SU which was at the start of my idea to make purses back on this post.I can not tell you enough how easy these go together. So fast and yet so cute! Head over to PTI to check out all the fun templates, including Ready, Set, Wrap. I will have more templates for you this week, so stay tuned.
Smiles,
Julie

Details:
Plum Purse - Stamp Sets - SU Best Blossoms and Perfect Plaids, CS - SU Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive, Ink - SU Old Olive and Eggplant Envy, circle punches, blender pen and embroidery floss.
Raspberry Purse - CS - PTI Raspberry and White and PP - PTI Raspberry Fizz.
Light Blue Purse - CS SU and PP Basic Grey Urban Prairie.
Green - CS SU Artichoke and PP Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses.
Red Purse - CS SU - Real Red and PTI White, Stamp Set - SU Baroque Motif.

Sketch Girl 9

It's time to play along with Sketch Girl. Sketch #9 is up today and it is another great sketch from Leigh Ann. I went the CAS route and decided to make a Birthday card. I stayed pretty true to the sketch. It took me awhile before I pulled out my CB for the polka dot stripes. I first tried stamping rose red polka dots on rose red paper, but it was too much. Then I tried stamping directly on the ivory, but still did not like it. Finally the CB. The funny thing is, I realized when I went to take a pic of this card, that I have the rose red polka dots stamped on the back...ooops, I meant to grab a new card base :>)!
Now, go check out what the rest of the Sketch Girls came up with this time around and be sure to play along!
Annie
Alyssa
Bonnie
Chris
Eve
Harriet
Jennie
Jessica
Katie
Randee
Sara
Tiffany

My blog has been quiet the past week, but I have been crafting away. I am focusing on Christmas items so this card was a welcome break. I promise to share more this week!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks for stopping by!
Smiles,
Julie
Details: CS - SU Very Vanilla, Ink - SU Rose Red, Groovy Guava, & Rose Romance, Stamps - PTI Holiday Tree and Handwritten Notes, plus the swiss dots CB folder.

Mojo Monday 111

Here is another card with, you guessed it, Ocean Tides. If you can not read the sentiment, click on the picture to make it larger. The goblins have stayed around since Halloween and for whatever reason this picture looks good only in certain sizes LOL!!I am thinking about doing my Christmas cards with Ocean Tides CS, which is why I have been reaching for it so much lately!
This card is based on the Mojo Monday 111 sketch. Super simple, the snowflake PP fits with the sentiment.
Smiles,
Julie
Details: CS PTI Ocean Tides and SU Very Vanilla, PP Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly, Stamp Verve Christmas in the Air, and stash brads.

Soft and Floral and Feminine

Soft and floral is the Friday potluck challenge on Stamp TV. My color choices are soft and muted, plus the stamp is 100% feminine - GKD Retro Boutique. All the PP on this card is Cosmo Cricket Early Bird, which I love, love, love! It took me awhile to find one on-line store that had all the pads that I wanted. I plan on convincing my LSS that they need to carry Cosmo 6" pads!
The layout for this card is based on Jen's latest SFYTT. I tweaked it just a bit :>)
That is it for me tonight! I am so tired I am not even staying up for Project Runway!
Smiles,
Julie
Details: Stamp - GKD Retro Boutique, PP Cosmo Cricket Early Bird, CS SU Ivory and PTI, PTI Button, Prima Flowers, and SU Ink Brocade Blue and Close to Cocoa for distressing.

Button Tree

Today's card keeps is clean and simple - buttons are ok on a CAS, right? I need to feed my button addiction after all.

I took the color challenge from StampTV - burgundy, olive green and cream and combined it with the CCS challenge to use buttons. The only stamp on this card is the polka dot strip, which meets the Papertake Weekly Challenge: Spots and Stripes!

Quick and easy!

The countdown to Christmas has officially begun for me - it is November 1st! I have calendars to make and gift card sets to start. I hope to put my crafting supplies to good use and make as many gifts as possible!

So happy crafting and gift making!

Smiles,
Julie

Details: Stamp - GKD Ribbon Stripe, Buttons - PTI, PP - Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, CS SU.