I Can Do All Things

I needed to step away from all the Christmas cards I've been making and make just a "normal" everyday type of card. As much as I've enjoyed making Christmas cards this year, I need to get my regular cards stocked up soon.

I'm happy to say every piece of paper on this card came from the scrap drawer {{{loud cheering}}}! Every stitch of it is from the new Basic Grey collection called Urban. I {{{heart}}} this paper! It makes me happy to look at it. Do you have any papers that make you feel that way?

Do you see that funny pink strip of paper with the leaf punched out of it? Even THAT was scrap paper. I saw it sitting in the drawer unloved and figured I could use it for something, as is, on one of my cards. I just whipped all the pieces of scrap together until I came up with a layout I could love. No serious thought went into the creation this card. It just all came together on it's own.

The bible verse is from Verve, Philippians 4:13, one of Julee's single stamps that she creates. I am in love with the font on this stamp...it's beautiful! And it is one of my very favorite verses from the bible. I've read it alot this past year. It's a good one to commit to memory so you can pull it out at any time when you're feeling vunerable and helpless. Our strength doesn't come from ourselves, it comes from Christ. Always has, always will. Memorizing this verse helps keep the power where it belongs.

Well, the Hubster is home from his interview. He strolled in about 1030p last night. Apparently, it went very well. He interviewed with a number of people, so it was a loooong day. It sounds like they hope to make a decision in a week or so. They have a few more people to interview though. I decided a while ago to just let this rest in God's hands instead of trying to "will" the outcome to be what I want it to be. Wherever he sends us, we will trust and obey. Have you ever heard that song that goes...."trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey"....

Holiday Hugs,
Amy

Season's Greetings

Here's the other Verve project I promised you this past MONDAY. Yikes, where has the week gone? At this rate, Christmas will be here tomorrow. Thank heavens that's not really true, because if it was, my children would go present-less! I have purchased a total of 2 presents so far and that is it!

Remember I told you that Julee had sent me some of her new Verve Christmas stamps? I was so tickled to recieve them that I just had to ink them up right away. I had this little gift bag in my stash, and a stocking pattern in hand, so I got busy figuring out how I could use both.

The stocking was made from a pattern I found in a craft magazine. I enlarged it to fit on the outside of the bag. Then I cut out the stocking pattern using Basic Grey Christmas paper. I think it was from last years collection, but I'm not positive about that. You know how I'm into using what I already have, which leads me to believe this is from last year. I cut the top of the stocking out using Soft Sky cardstock, and then stamped 3 of the snowflakes from the Verve Snowflake Splendor set onto the cardstock using Whisper White craft ink. It's so hard to see on this picture though. My ink pad was a little dry apparently!

I also stamped the snowflakes all over the red bag, using WW craft ink. I glued the stocking onto the bag and then added a little pom-pom fringe to the top of the stocking for fun. For the tag, I used a pre-made tag, and stamped it with more snowflakes. This time, I stamped the snowflakes in a creamy brown ink so you could see them. I added a little gingham ribbon to the back of the tag and wrapped it around the handle so it looks like the tag is actually hanging off the handle, which it's not. The tag is actually held onto the bag with dimensional tape.

I found some really, really cute polka dot tissue paper to stuff inside my new fancy-schmancy bag. Now I just need to buy a present to put in it! That might prove to be the biggest challenge of all!


Holiday Hugs,

Amy

Kraft Obsessed!

It's finally my day over at the Verve Blog! That's right, for two solid weeks we've been Gettin' Krafty over at Verve and finally it's my turn to play! What the heck does "Gettin' Krafty" mean? It means it's time to play with that kraft cardstock you've been hoarding, as well as playing with any other natural embellishments you've got on hand!

If you play along with us, you'll have a chance to win some Verve Bucks! You have until noon Tuesday (that's tomorrow) to upload your entry to this post to be eligible.

Why don't you head on over there right now to read more about my card and learn about how you could win?

Hugs,
Amy

Some Bunny

Greetings!

I am valiently trying to get in the mood to blog this week, but so far, I'm not in the mood! Is blogging losing it's luster for me? Or could it be I haven't had time to stamp in the last week? I have zilcho stash right now...I sent all my cards off last week to my SIL, so I have nothing. And with no time to make new cards, what the heck do I have to blog about???? LOL!

Since I have nothing "new", I thought I'd share this sweet little card that I made with Verve's new tiny set called Some Bunny. Isn't he adorable? The set has just two stamps...the bunny and the sentiment. Even though it's small, it packs alot of punch. You could use this little guy for so many occasions! He'd be great on a baby card, or on motivating card for your son/daughter.

I filled in the bunny with Liquid Applique, and then I rubbed light pink chalk on his ears and feet with a little Q-tip. His little shirt (real men wear pink:)) is paper pieced with a scrap piece of designer paper. The black polka dot paper is from American Craft.

Things around getting really busy around here.....my SIL Jayne and her husband Ken are arriving today from Fairfax, VA. They will be here visiting for a week. Ken has lung cancer but has had a little respite from chemo for a few weeks now. If you are interested, here is a CaringBridge update on Ken. He is still very fatigued, but has been able to work a little bit. It will be wonderful to see them again since I last saw them in May. Doug leaves later this week for his ESPN gig in Auburn, AL. He'll be gone from Thursday-Sunday. That leaves me to do the schlepping for the rest of the week! We also started the college application process last night, which is daunting at best! I think everyone was applying last night because the U of Wisc. system was slow as beans! I was up early this morning to try and fill out more of the application before everyone got back online. I filled out all the pertinent family information, now it's Eldest Son's turn to fill out the meat of the application (i.e. activities, personal questions about why he wants to go to this particular college, etc).

Well, I'm going to sign off. I want to get a few cards made before we have to go pick up my SIL and BIL from the airport. Have a great day!

Hugs,
Amy

P.S. Be sure and check out the Verve Blog for Day One of the new Project Parade. It's called Gettin' Krafty, crafty that is with Kraft cardstock! For 10 or so days you'll be able to see all the fun things the Verve Divas have made using the new September stamp sets and Kraft cardstock. I LOOOOOVE kraft cardstock!

Artfully Elegant

I just realized that I never showed you this card....I made it for a challenge, I think, but for the life of me I can't remember which one. Maybe it was a Verve color challenge? Anyways, I thought you'd like to see it. I made another card just like this for the most recent Verve Project Parade last month.

It was made with Verve's Artful Elegance set, which is one of my favorites. I really like how it turned out.

I don't have much to say today because I'm exhausted. We had a huge weekend with lots of commitments. We were gone yesterday from 715am until 9p or so with church stuff. Scottie's confirmation was beautiful, such a touching service. The bad part is that it rained and was icky and cold all day! It was actually sprinkling when I took these pictures, but we had to get outside because the crowd inside was unruly! Insane. There were 144 confirmands, so the place was packed!

Here are a few pics of the big event. We are so proud of him!

This is my mom and dad on the left, and my FIL on the right.

This is Scott and his Godparents, Guy and Liz. Guy is my oldest brother. I was so thankful they were able to share this day with us!
This is my little family. I was just slightly stressed out at this moment, but I got over it pretty quickly and was able to put on a happy face! Have a great day!

Hugs,

Amy

Wanna See Some New Verve Stamps?

***Don't forget to vote over at the JustRite blog today for the JustRite Stampin' Champion!***

Last night was the big Verve release party over at the Verve Forum on SCS. There were five new sets that were introduced and today I'm going to share them with you! I think you're going to love them.

My favorite set is called Abundant Blessings. It's huge and beautiful! Here is a simple, but beautiful card I made with it! Can you believe I didn't use a stitch of designer paper on this one?

This card was made using Black Tie Birdies! There are two birds in this set, a guy and a girl, but I only used the girl for this card, LOL. The guy will just have to wait a bit before I get my hands on him, tee-hee!
Oh...aren't these bunnies the cutest things ever? You have to buy this little set called Some Bunny. It's just two stamps; the bunny and the sentiment. I just stamped him three times so there was NO mistake how much the recipient of this card was loved!

This card was made using both Abundant Blessings and another set called So Happy. It's a set that has words only that allow you to make your own sentiments for your cards! I love when I have the ability to create my own meaningful sentiments.....
Another must buy is this set called Birthday Surprise! Oh, it's fabulous! Another wonderful birdie to play with and some fabulous sentiments with beautiful fonts will make this set one you turn to time and time again.
You can buy all five sets for a special price of $56, a savings of $7! That's quite a bit when you realize that shipping is free on orders over $50! That's like a double savings!!! Some other news in Verve-land is that all of you wonderful blog readers in Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden & United Kingdom can now order online! It's a great day!

Hugs,

Amy

K.I.S.S (Keepin' It Soooo Simple) Saturdays

Can you believe this card has FOUR layers? Or would you consider it three? Either way, I know multi-layer cards are not typically considered "simple" cards, but I really thought this one, with it's tiny layers, absolutely qualifies for today's K.I.S.S card. Notice the lack of designer paper...I think that alone makes it a simple card!


I started off with a piece of kraft cardstock. The stamp set I used is from Verve and is called Grateful Elegance. See the Whisper White filigree design at the top and bottom of the card? That's one stamp. I colored in the little diamond area with a black marker to make it stand out a bit more on the kraft cardstock. The filigree square design in the middle is also another stamp. Again, I filled in some areas in the filigree with black ink to make it stand out. The sentiment was stamped on a piece of Kiwi Kiss cardstock and mounted on black cardstock. Finally, the little flower is actually two different sizes, each stamped with Whisper White ink, cut out, and mounted together with a silver brad.


Seriously, can it get any simpler? I hope you think this looks easy too, because it was! That's why I picked it to show you today. I am really starting to fall in love with Kraft cardstock and Whisper White ink. It's soooooo, primitive. I'm not sure why I love it, but I do.


Yesterday was such a busy day! We had lots of things to get done before Youngest Son's football team. He is on the 9th grade B team. That's where all the littler guys are. Well, most of them. There are SOME bigger guys on his team, but not many. That's the problem with this age...some boys have gone through puberty, some are just starting. My son is just starting. To show you the difference at this age, here is a shot from his game last week....



Yep, that's my boy on the right, standing next to one of the monster boys on his team! I am happy to share, however, that my little studmuffin had TWO interceptions in last night's game!!!!!!! Woo-hoo! The bad news is that we missed the first one. He told us the game started at 4pm, but it actually started at 330p! So we missed his interception and 50 yard run to the 9 yard line! Grrr. But at least we got to see his second interception, right?

After his game, we stayed for the first varsity home football game. We got to see Eldest Son march for the first time this season, which is always a treat. The weather was fabulous. We've been staying pretty cool here, in the 60's, so that was fabulous! We were packed into the stands like sardines with the rest of the parents, so I didn't get too cold.

Well, it's time to sneak some stamping time in this morning. I am hoping to hang out all day and finish up some design team work. Hubby works most of the day, so it should be pretty peaceful around here. The boys will just hang out recuperating from their first week back to school, so I'll have some time to myself. Yay!!!!

Hugs,
Amy

p.s. Be sure to check out the Verve Forum over at SCS for Julee's OSW (One Sheet Wonder) challenge going on right now! She's designed a template for you cut up one piece of 6x6 designer paper to make 4 cards (she's giving you the sketches too!)!! Two random winners will each win the entire September stamp release (that's a total of $63 worth of new stamps)!!!!!! Please check out the specific OSW thread for more details because I don't want to screw them up here by leaving something out, ok? I will be showing you MY four cards later this week because I made them using all the new stamps, so I can't let you see them yet, tee-hee!! Stay tuned!

Verve's Project Parade

Today is my day over at the Verve Blog. All last week the Diva's have been showcasing their work featuring the August stamp releases. Wow, these girls have really rocked it out. The projects I've seen have been amazing. Julee gave us an inspiration photo.... and we all got to work creating something pink, brown and delicious!

Here's what I came up with! You can head over the the Verve blog for more details about how I did what I did, ok? No need typing it twice, and by "forcing" you to go over there to view my details, you get to see all the other fabulous projects at the same time. See, I'm really just thinking about you...not myself:)! Oh, and you can win Verve Bucks if you play along with us. Details can be found on the Verve Blog, ok? Go check out the deets and all the pretty projects!

I'm happy to report the boys are now back at school. I can't say "happily" because, come on, they're boys...they AREN'T happy to be back at school. Who am I kidding? But they managed to put on some fairly decent smiles for my camera this morning, so I'm happy!

This little guy is my freshman. He is taking early bird classes this year, so he was out the door at 640am fora7a class. It's also called "zero hour". 1st hour starts at 8am.Here is my big, studly senior!!!! Isn't he handsome? Reluctantly posing for his mother, isn't that sweet?

Here he is admiring his brand new comic hero shirt! See, new clothes still get them geeked, even if they're seniors, LOL! Have a great first day guys! I love you!

Hugs,

Amy

Delicious Cupcakes

Happy Labor Day!

I'm sure you know by now that cupcake stamps are all the rage! Verve's newest set called Cupcake Affair is one of the cutest cupcake stamp sets I've seen out there. You are able to mix and match your toppings and wrappers to make all sorts of fabulous looking delights, large or small. Can you just imagine ripping into one of these delish cupcakes?

To make this card, I first divided my cardbase into three sections using my Scor-Pal. Then I punched nine 1 1/4 inch squares with my square punch and stamped a wrapper and a frosting on each one creating a finished cupcake. The polka dots you see on each frosting were hand drawn, they are not a part of the stamp. But it's soooo easy, anyone can add them.

After I put a cupcake in each square, it was a little boring, so I put in vertical and horizontal dividers using Pink Passion cardstock. I like the scalloped horizontal dividers! To complete the card, I stamped the sentiment at the bottom of the card. Yummy!!!! Cupcakes do make everything better, don't they? Do you want a great cupcake stamp set? Then consider heading over to Verve and picking up Cupcake Affair today. Your waistline will love you because you're not at the store buying real cupcakes or at the stove baking real cupcakes!!

Yesterday we had a great time at the zoo together. Outside of a few crushed toes due to errant, passive-aggressive strollers drivers, it was a perfect day. We saw lots of beautiful animals. My personal favorite was the butterfly garden, which I might add, Hubby and Youngest Son didn't go in to see with me because they don't like insects. A butterfly....an evil insect???? Come on!!! I forced Eldest Son to go with me, even though he has a terrible butterfly phobia. Can you believe it? I've never heard of such a thing. Have you? Jeepers. They were BEAUTIFUL! Here are a few of my favorite photos from our day....

Here are those evil butterflies I was talking about earlier.... aren't they stunning? I took this one because this butterfly is my favorite color. Doesn't it look great sitting there on the purple flower?

This zebra-like butterfly instantly caught my eye, since I'm a lover of animal prints! I'm amazed on how perfect the shot turned out...the fuzzy background, the colors, etc. I might have to frame it. This looks like a Halloween butterfly, what with the brown, black and orange markings. It looks like he's got eyeballs on his wings!! Maybe this guy is what scared my boys away...Here are those evil-butterfly haters.....
Aren't they cute? Maybe not as cute as the butterflies though, but a whole lot more lovable!

Here is the gorgeous tiger that woke up from his nap long enough for me to snap his picture. Isn't he stunning? Why aren't my butterfly-haters afraid of him???? Yikes!

These two little guys were having a great time playing with each other and causing trouble. Their behavior was starting to really getting out of hand, playing a little too rough, when all of a sudden the elder monkeys made an appearance and the two settled down almost instantly. Seriously, it must have been Mom and Dad who showed up, because all they had to do was show their faces and the monkeys got the message and were friends again. They reminded me of my own little monkeys!

This guy is a Gibbon monkey. His arms were about 10 feet long, I swear! At first, he and his friend were just lounging around, resting, being quiet. Then the two of them started putting on a show for us, swinging from tree to tree and making this loud, siren like call. Really, their call was SOOOOO loud. I think I'm going to do a little research on Gibbon monkeys to see what I can find out about them. They were so fun to watch!Yep, sometimes I feel like this flamingo here. Some days can get so bad all I want to do is stick my head in the water to make all the craziness go away! I told Julee that I am going to make this picture into a card with the Verve sentiment (from Feeling Groovy) that says "Mama said there'll be days like this"!!!! Don't you feel like doing this sometimes too??? LOL.

Well, the photo show is over. Hope you all have a great day. One last day of freedom until school is back in full swing. I have to make sure the battery on my camera is fully charged so I can take pictures of the boys in the morning!

Hugs,

Amy

A Great Discovery!

ETA: Don't forget to vote for your favorite JustRite Stampin' Hopeful today! You've only got till 9pm tonight to vote. Hugs!

Remember when I showed you my new inspiration journal a few months ago? I found the notebook at a place in Northfield, MN called Digs. At that point, my mojo was seriously lacking, and I needed something (pronto) to spur it back into action. Well, as you know, the amazing journal did the trick.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered recently that Archiver's now carries this amazing line of eco-friendly journals created by Ecojot! {{{{Squeal}}}}}!!!! Even more exciting for me is that I just found the Ecojot website this morning, which contains more amazing colors and patterns than you could EVER imagine! But wait, through the Ecojot website, I discovered that the designer and owner of Ecojot (her name is Carolyn Gavin) has her own blog called designer jots--{{{{double squeal}}}}}! Now I can look at her amazing designs ALL THE TIME! Seriously, you MUST check out these two sites....her product line and designs are AMAZING. They will inspire you more than you can imagine. Her sites are GORGEOUS!!! I plan on buying another journal from Archivers to use as my BSF notebook. The problem I'm going to have is deciding WHICH pattern to buy, LOL.

Moving on, I suppose you want to see a card, uh? Is that the only reason you come here, for the goods? OK, I'll give you what you want. Last week, I received a package of goodies from Michelle at Stamper's Dream. One of the things she sent me was the new Cuttlebug folder called Bird Call. Now, if you're anything like me, you LOVE all the new Cuttlebug folders, but are curious as to how you can use the ones that are not the typical "all over" patterns (like Swiss Dot and Houndstooth). I wanted to create a few cards to help show you exactly how you can use them, woo-hoo!

For the first card, I put a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock in my bird folder. Then, I merely painted the embossed image with my Aqua Painter! That's right, I used Kiwi Kiss for the reed grasses, and Twinkling H20's on the bird. That is it. Easy, right? Then I matted the image, mounted it on a Kiwi Kiss card base, and I was pretty much done. Except for the sentiment. My sentiment is from Verve's Artful Elegance stamp set (newly released!). I stamped it on Very Vanilla cardstock, punched it out with a 1" in circle punch, distressed it with Ranger Distress ink in Tea Stain (I actually distressed the whole bird image with the same stuff!) and adhered it to the lower left front of the card. I added a scrap piece of patterned paper (Basic Grey) underneath it horizontally to bring some of the teal color of the bird to the lower part of the card.


For the second card, I put a piece of Old Olive cardstock in the Bird Call embossing folder. I did it again with a piece of Basic Black cardstock. Then I cut out the bird from the black cardstock and mounted it on the Old Olive embossed image. I matted it with Very Vanilla cardstock and sewed a straight stitch around it. The sentiment I used is from Motivational Center, which I got at CHF. I stamped it with black Stazon onto acetate and then sewed it to the embossed image.

I hope my cards today helped you figure out how YOU are going to use your new Cuttlebug Bird Call embossing folder. I'm sure you'll come up with even more ways than me!

Still no news on the job front. Doug's search has stalled big time, and I haven't heard from the hospital yet. If anyone lives in this area and reads my blog, AND is hiring for a job, CALL ME!!!! I can do just about anything, I think:).

Hugs,
Amy

Beautiful You

This is a card I made using the sketch Julee is featuring over at the Verve Forum. You see, Julee is the Verve diva being featured this week in the ongoing thread called Meet the Verve Diva!

If you go over to the forum, you be able to learn all about Julee; how she and Mark got together, what her favorite foods are, what kind of books she likes to read, etc. In addition to learning more about her, Julee is also featuring a sketch challenge....if you participate in her challenge, you have the chance to win some Verve Bucks!Uh, free stuff? Gotta love free stuff, hmmmm? Get over there today to play along and learn more about the amazing Julee.

Well, this is my take on Julee's sketch. I used stamps from Beautiful You. Do you see the background paper? That actually started out as Very Vanilla cardstock, if you can believe it. I really wanted to show you how you can take one big image and use it to make your own designer paper! First of all, I stamped the flower from Beautiful You onto Very Vanilla cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink (BTW, if you haven't tried this new ink, you MUST! You'll never go back to another black again, especially if you use Copic markers). Then I painted the flower using my Twinkling H2O paints (and very bright colors at that....teal, hot pink, lime green, yellow). Then I outlined each flower with a gold gel pen, which took away the strong black line of the image. While I love brights and black, for this application, the black was too strong. At this point, I liked the bright look of the background paper I had just made, but it was just a bit much, even for me (ha, I never thought I'd hear THAT come out of my mouth!).

So the next thing I did was rub Ranger Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap all over the flower images. Doing that really took the brightness of the colors away (yet didn't take it away completely), and gave it a really antique-y look. You can see it a little better in this close-up shot:

I love how my background paper turned out! This flower image from Beautiful You is soooo fun to color. There are so many different sections to it that you can use as much color or as little color on it as you want to. Julee made a card with this image the other day, but she kept it all one color.

I had a very relaxing day yesterday, but amazingly, I did not stamp one thing! Akkkk! I just didn't feel like it, if you can believe it. I read alot. Right now I am reading a series by Karen Kingsbury, who is a Christian fiction writer. Her books are definitely tear jerkers, and definitely faith inspiring. So that's what I did instead of stamping. I read, which, honestly, I haven't done too much of for a very long time. I love to read, so I am relishing in the time I am taking to rekindle this love.

Today I plan on stamping (finally) and we're heading to the Newby's for Lauren's 17th birthday party. The weather we perfect yesterday, so I am hoping for more of the same today.

Hugs,
Amy

p.s. Please don't forget to vote for me in the JustRite Stampin' Hopefuls contest over on the JustRite blog! Here's the link to vote, and here's a link to my post yesterday explaining a little more about the contest....big HUGS to all of you who are voting!

A Cupcake Affair

One of the new August Verve releases is this set called Cupcake Affair. It's absolutely gorgeous! See what I did with it? I paper pieced it cuz I {{{heart}}} paper piecing, and I made it into a round card using my Nesties.

Even cuter is the inside of the card....since there was no space on the front of the card for a sentiment, I put it inside the card instead, making sure it looked as cute as the front of the card did! There is a great deal going on at Verve if you are interested in all 6 releases for August. Check it out the details here.



Well, we picked up Eldest Son from his last week at camp last night! He was up there with the rest of the High Leaguers for High League Retreat. Of course, he had a great time. Even better, He came home to a letter from the director of his church choir inviting him to be a Section Leader this upcoming year. It is a chosen position, so he is thrilled! Section Leaders are chosen because of their dedication to the choir and for their leadership abilities modeled so far. We are SOOO proud of Eldest Son and so happy he was asked to take on this important position in the choir. This will be Youngest Son's first year in Cathedral Choir as well. As a 9th grader, he is able to join and continue on with the tradition!

No word yet on the job front for me. I am *hoping* today is the day I hear that I got the job!!! Unfortunately, the 3 big things Doug had in the works for jobs stalled in a major way last week and we are so bummed. I can hardly believe this is happening. Three more jobs dangled....three more jobs ripped away.

I am doing much spiritual soul searching these days. Questioning my faith, or lack thereof. I read a great chapter last night in the book I've been nursing all summer (Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World), which helped put my mind back into the correct perspective. I plan on reading the chapter again and again until it sinks in. It questions us about "what do we do when God doesn't act or move the way we think he should?".....I am SOOO there! And what have I done????? I'm ashamed to say, I've questioned God's love for me/us!!! Yet In Luke 12:6-7, we are reminded we are not forgotten by God. His love is always at work.

The one quote in the book that spoke loudly to me was by a popular conference speaker named Martha Tennison..."If you're struggling to trust God, it may be because you don't really know God". Ouch. She goes on to say that you find out what you really believe in the darkest hours....you find out that the God you know is the God you can hold on to. Even when things aren't turning out the way you want or need them to. It has been a constant struggle for me to believe this, but in my heart of hearts, I believe in the promises God makes to me in the bible. Another wonderful quote in the book is that "God's ways are not our ways, but his character is still dependable".

"We might not be able to see the end of the story, but we can trust the storyteller." I will cling to that.


Have a great day. You know I'll be back if I hear about the job today.

Sweet Butterflies

So last night was the Verve Release Party over at the Verve Forum on SCS. I have to say....WOW!!! I've never participated in a party before on-line, but it sure was FAST and FUN! It took me about 20 minutes to figure out what the heck I was doin', but by the time I had to leave (the boys were fighting and I needed to break it up before things got out of hand), I had it figured out!

The good news is that Verve is releasing 6 (count 'em, SIX) new sets (and 5 Plain Jane's) this month and each of them is AMAZING, and I'm not kidding! Be sure and head over to Verve to check them out for yourself, ok? If you buy all 6 sets you can save $15 AND get free shipping!

Today I'm going to share my very favorite card of all-time that I made using the new Artful Elegance set. I just giggle with excitement every time I look at it, it's sooooo purrrrty! Do you see that medallian underneath all my Martha Stewart butterflies? OH MY, I love this little medallian! It's so versatile, yet sooooo elegant at the same time. I think I'll be using this over, and over, and over again. To make this card, I sectioned off my card into square sections using my Scor-Pal. To figure out how big to make each section, I first punched out my white square (1 1/4 inch), laid them out on the front of the card, and then made my Scor-Pal lines based on where I laid them. Make sense? Then I cut off the bottom inch or so of the card because it wasn't a full square. I added a scalloped border of designer paper instead. Then I stamped the medallian 9 times in Kiwi Kiss. I punched out 8 butterflies using the Martha Stewart butterfly punch and glued them on top of the medallians. I placed the sentiment in the center of the card, up on dimensional tape so it really popped. Hope you like today's card!

Well, today is a special day here at the Westerman abode. Eldest Son gets his graduation pictures taken! Wow. I can't believe this day is actually here, I can't believe he's going to be a senior this year. It really seems like yesterday that he was starting 9th grade at the high school and I was trying to manipulate his schedule so he could have the same english teacher he had in 8th grade to make the transition easier. That was the year the district changed from a K-6, 6-9, and 10-12 grade concept to a middle school concept (K-5, 6-8, 9th-12th). So I was having to send my son to the "big, bad high school when he was just a "baby"!!! I have to be honest, it was the best thing that could have happened. He was teased merciously in junior high, and had he stayed in the junior high for 9th grade, I think the teasing would have continued. Instead, when he went to the high school, it stopped! He loves high school and doesn't really want to even think about having to graduate! To him, that means the end of fun and good friends. I'm trying to tell him that the fun and friends thing only gets better in college, but so far, he's not buying into my argument. He'll realize it with time, I'm sure.

Hugs,
Amy

Special Delivery!

Back in July, a colleague asked me to make her a baby card for twin boys. This is what I came up with, and I have to say, I love how it turned out!

The stars are from the Verve sets called Polka Stars (the big stars) and Seeing Stars (the little stars). The onesies are from Rubber Soul, which you can find at Stamper's Dream.

You can see, it's such a simple card, I really don't think detailed instructions are necessary for you to figure out how to make this yourself! The stars are adhered to the front of the card using dimensional tape. You could do the same card in more girly colors for someone having twin girls. And the design can easily be adapted for the birth of a single baby only!

I wanted to let you know that my interview at the hospital went really well yesterday! I think my lack of hospital experience is giving them some hesitation, but overall, I know I did a great job and they liked me. The hours are wonderful.....the first week it would be W/Th 12-430p, and the second week it would be M/Sa 11-430p, Th/F 12-430p, and Su 11a-11p (yikes, a 12 hour shift!!). It would rotate like that every other week. It's a total of 41 hours per pay period. I have turned it over to God. If this is his plan for me, I will be blessed with the job. If not, it's back to the drawing board and waiting for Him to reveal His plan for me. I feel like it's the perfect job and am excited about the opportunity to start a new career! If you are a praying person, please add me to your list. At the latest, they'll have a decision by next week, at the earliest, maybe by the end of this week if all goes well.

Have a great day!

Hugs,
Amy

Celebrate

Hope you all had a great weekend! It was GORGEOUS here. The nights are fabulous...we turned off the air a few days ago because it's staying in the 70's during the day and diving into the high 50's in the night. So sleeping....let's just say it's been divine! There is simply no greater thing than sleeping with the cool breeze blowing through the windows at bedtime while you're snuggled under the comforter....heaven.

We embarked on a little remodeling project last week. I got a hankerin' to repaint the 1st floor powder room because it was in serious need of an update. So a good portion of the weekend involved that little room. The walls are going to be chocolate brown, and all the accessories will be cream with a tish of blue thrown in for good measure. Since our remodeling budget is next to nil, I am spray painting everything I owned previously and giving it a new life that way. I am hoping to get to the actual painting soon!

Last week, I'm happy to report my mojo was in-the-house!!! Since it's been mysteriously absent so much this summer, it was a welcome relief to actually be able to sit at my desk and easily pump out cards that looked good! This was one of those cards that just seemed to work from the minute I got started on it.

I found an awesome sentiment a few weeks ago that I thought would be perfect to use with my Cosmobella and of course, BeerFella. It is by Inkadinkado. I don't know if it's new or not, so you'll have to search online to see if you can find it somewhere. I bought mine at my LSS. Now, I'm not much of a drinker (I'd rather get my calories in the form of food rather than drink), but I sell lots of cards with margarita's and the like. So I snatched it up quickly before someone else could!

I have been on a joy-fold card kick lately. I think this is called a joy-fold....anyone? I must say, it was SOOOO simple! I just stamped my Bella, colored her with Copics, stuck her on the joy-fold, and stamped the sentiment on the inside of the joy-fold! I am so going to make more of these kinds of cards soon! Hope you liked it!

I want to fill you in on a bunch of fun stuff happening this week over at the Verve Blog and the Verve Forum on SCS. Here they are in bullet point form....

• There are more sneak peeks today and tomorrow on the Verve Blog! The big release of the August stamp sets is WEDNESDAY!!!!
• A Verse-a-day continues with the anni-Verve-sary set, Beautiful You, on the Verve Forum everyday through Tuesday. You can enter every day to win the set.
• Julee still has a few more Anni-VERVE-sary sketches for you to participate in! Remember, if you participate in each and every one (there will be 12 total), you will be entered to win the complete set of August stamps (it's something like a $114 value!!!!).
• Big news! There will be a big Verve Release Party on Tuesday night over at the Verve Forum!!! Be there from 10p-12m to join in on all the fun! I am excited, it will be my first release party EVER (I am an early to bed sort of gal....long asleep by the time all of you gals get to stamp partying!). Hopefully I'll be able to stay awake through the whole thing. I plan on napping that day!!!!

Well, it's time for me to run. I have a few errands to run today, and most importantly, I've got my interview over at the hospital! Be thinking of me at 3pm!!

Hugs,

Amy

A New Verve Sneak Peek!

Here's a sneak peek at one of the new Verve stamp sets being released Wednesday! It's called Fairy Tales and is a combination of 9 sentiments and 4 images. Just in case you think this is a wedding only set, let me just tell you that it's not! There are plenty of sentiments that aren't "wedding related". All the sentiments are inspirational in nature.

I'm sorry this isn't such a great picture of the card. It's sooooo much cuter IRL. I don't know what's wrong with my camera. I wanted to go bold with my wedding card, so I chose to make it red, black and white. Classy with a capital C, uh? I love weddings this color! It's a joy-fold card, and you can see, I included a sentiment on the

inside from an older Verve set called Wonderful Wishes (and yes, it's still available for purchase!). Pearls and a black and white gingham ribbon finish the look off perfectly! Be sure and head over to the Verve blog today to see what Charmaine and Bethany did with Fairy Tales, ok? And each day this week up until Wednesday (we actually started the sneak peeks yesterday, so click here if you want to see what they showed us yesterday), you'll be able to see sneak peeks of all the other new releases too! Don't miss it!

Well, it was a sad day here in Lakeville, MN yesterday after word got out that the two people who were savagely and brutally attacked in Beijing yesterday were Todd and Barbara Bachman, long time community members here. Todd was killed and Barbara was critically injured and it is unknown whether or not she will survive the attack. The madman who randomly attacked them later committed suicide. Their daughter, Elisabeth, a former volleyball Olympian (Athens), was with them when the attack took place. Elisabeth's husband is also the USA Men's volleyball coach. The Bachman Family is very highly thought of in this region....they are the owners of a century old floral and garden center called Bachman's. While I don't personally know this family, I have often bought my seasonal flowers at Bachman's, the most recent being this past spring. What brings it even closer to home than it already is (since they lived in the same town as me), is the fact that their daughter, Elisabeth, graduated from the same high school my son currently attends. She is a former Lakeville Panther, a star athlete, one the school is very proud of. It is all so tragic and makes me so sad. They went to China to support the USA Olympic athletes and their lives are tragically taken from them in the process. There isn't a citizen of the state of MN that isn't familiar with the Bachman floral legacy. In fact, Bachman's has supplied all the poinsettia's for the White House since 1984! I pray for God's mercy on this family as they navigate the government of China in the coming days. I pray for peace and comfort for the family, and even more so for the athletes that have been deeply moved by this tragic event. The women's volleyball team found out in a team meeting just five short hours prior to their first game. They all knew and loved the Bachman family. I can't imagine having to go out on the court and playing ball after hearing news like that and then winning!!! I hope they win the gold in honor of the Bachman's!!!!!

Hugs,

Amy

Beautiful You Preview & Giveaway--Day #5!!!

I told you I'd be popping in a few times this week from my self imposed "blogging vacation"! It just happened a bit soon than I thought it would.

Actually, I knew I'd be posting today because it's my day over at the SCS Verve Forum to showcase my card for the brand new Verve stamp set called Beautiful You, scheduled to be released August 13th (next Wednesday). Be sure you read through my whole post today to see how you can win this new set, ok?

To commemorate the 1st anni-VERVE-sary of Verve Stamps, Julee wanted to design a stamp set that contained just a tiny piece of each of her current Verve Diva's in it. So she asked each of us to give her a quote that has special meaning to us and she put them all together, along with a beautiful flower image, into one set called Beautiful You. Can I just tell you, this set is the most amazing set YET designed by Julee? S.E.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y.

The quote I gave Julee is this one:

"Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".

Why does this quote mean so much to me? Because it is a great reminder for me to live each day like it may be my last here on earth. I want to appreciate the beauty of the sky each day when I go out for a walk, and I want to remember with joy the smell of freshly cut grass and/or the precious scent of newborn baby. God gave us these precious things so that we might appreciate them AND Him!

I made two items using my Beautiful You quote; a card and a scrapbook page. And staying true to who I am, I made both as bright and cheerful as I could, LOL! I don't scrapbook as much as I should but I really thought this quote was perfect to use next to a special picture on a scrapbook page. Doesn't the look on Kemo's adorable face just take your breath away? It does for me!

Here's my card. I used paper from Making Memories and simply laid a bunch of scrap pieces out in a patchwork style. I sewed individually around each different color. I use my Copics to color the flower as vibrant as the papers. The quote is cut out using my rectangle nesties and matted with a scalloped nestie. Both the quote and the flower are popped up using dimensional tape.

Want to know how you can win this beautiful set for yourself? All you have to do for your chance to win is to comment on each day's thread (there will be a total of 12 days of threads for Beautiful You, August 1st-12th) before August 12 at 9 PM Central. That's it! We'll be picking a random commenter from each of the daily Beautiful You threads and will announce the 12 lucky winners during our release party on August 12! I hope that makes sense, if not, leave me a comment and I'll get back to you asap. Or, you can simply head over to the Verve Forum if you've got questions, ok? Don't miss the 1st ever Anni-Verve-sary Celebration over at the Verve Forum, going on August 1-12th!!!!

Hugs,
Amy

p.s. Eldest Son and I watched Evan Almighty and Sandlot together yesterday for the start of our Movie Marathon week! I loved Evan Almighty!!!

The Desires of Your Heart

All this week, Verve is celebrating their 1-year anniVERVEsary with, get this, 12 days of sketches over at the Verve forum on SCS! Everyone that participates in each of the 12 sketches will be entered to win a humongous prize....the ENTIRE August stamp release! Trust me, that is NOT a typo! What that really means is that the winner will the receive 6 stamp sets and 5 Plain Janes that Verve is releasing in August! Here are more details! What a prize! Woo-hoo!



Here is my take on sketch #2. These are not my typical colors (you know me, I gravitate toward the hot end of the color spectrum), but I really love how it turned out, colors and all:)! I tweaked a few of the sketch details a tiny bit (I made my diamond layer larger and my sentiment layer smaller), but other than that, it's pretty true to the sketch.

The 5.5x5.5 base is from We Are Memory Keepers. It came from a box of 20 or so card bases and envelopes. I bought it at Marshall's along with the metal alphabet I showed you on the canvas I made for Eldest Son. Just $3.99! The next layer, what appears to be peeling paint, is a scrap piece of Cosmo Cricket paper. I'm not sure who makes the paper I used in the diamond layer. The bible verse is the first Plain Jane stamp that Julee released last month. It was stamped on a pre-made tag using Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan. Here is a closer look:

Here's a quick shot of what I spent my day doing yesterday...watching Youngest Son play in an All-Star baseball tournament.
It was a beautiful day, but I made sure to watch most of the games under my umbrella protected from the sun. It was scorching hot! My fair skin can't handle it. Today the team is playing in the championship game, so we are excited!

Hope you have a great Sunday, peeps.

Hugs,
Amy