Make a Difference

Share with God’s people who are in need, practice hospitality. ~ Romans 12:13

Several years ago, I purchased a starter kit for Southern Living at Home because I loved their decor items. The woman who was my ‘upline’  in my oh-so-brief career would send regular emails, and her signature contained this scripture…. ‘Practice hospitality‘. It touched me, not because it was free reign to go wild on home decor, but because practicing hospitality, no matter how small the gesture is a spiritual discipline. I’ve often thought the verse would make a beautiful ‘thank you’ card sentiment, and I melted when I saw Julee Tilman’s beautiful offering in Verve Stamps latest release.

The sentiment on a circular element worked perfectly with Taylor’s Cupcake Sketch for today.  Taylor was so sweet to ask me to be the TECC Cupcake Sampler. I’m always up for cupcake sampling. <wink> I paired my sentiment with shimmery ivory  cardstock and a piece of Bloom & Grow from My Mind’s Eye. Because I used the shimmery ivory cardstock, I wanted a ribbon with a soft, romantic feel, but there wasn’t really room for a full bow off to the left. I was pleased with the single loop and dangled tails of the ribbon, anchored with a pink button.  I think I’m going to head back to the stamp table while my supplies are tossed about and make a few more of these thank yous.

Speaking of Taylor, here is one of many favorite photos from CHA last month.  This is Taylor and her mom, Linda. Mrs. Linda helps Taylor a lot with the store, and when you order, there is a good chance that she has cut and packaged your ribbons or embellishments or possibly even prepped your package for shipping. We got to hang out on this trip, and that was so fun. Taylor and I have been friends for several years, and I just knew that she had a wonderful family, but hanging out with  her mom solidified the thought: Taylor had ‘good home training’.   Two beautiful women, inside and out…love you, girls.

Have a wonderful weekend!

• Stamps: Romans 12:13 & Bountiful Backgrounds from Verve Stamps  
• Cardstock: Poison Ivory (shimmery ivory) - www.cutcardstock.com, Turquoise Prism, Bloom & Grow patterned paper - My Mind’s Eye 
• Ink: Stream - Ranger 
• Accs: Wide silk ribbon, buttons, nestabilities 

I got the warm fuzzies when Michele told me todays Ways to Use It Challenge at SCS would be FUZZY STUFF. (Check out her darling dolly sample.) I knew immediately that I would use this sparkly white flock for clouds. I stamped the clouds with Black Memento on white cardstock and cut them out. Then I used Aleen’s Tacky Glue to cover the inside of the clouds and gently pressed into the flock that I had poured out of the container, glue side down. I love how the white pops against the creamy tone of the text patterned paper (Cherry Hill - October Afternoon). The vintage balloon image is from Verve’s Up, Up & Away. I stamped the balloon on patterned paper for the red and cream design. It’s accented with a tiny black twinkle and raised up with dimensional dots. I added a little bit of depth to the balloon with Copic Markers W0 and W1 - my favorites for shading. The basket is colored with Copic E35.

I stamped my sentiment in black pigment ink and embossed with detail clear embossing powder. I like to emboss when I’m stamping over patterned paper. Helps the image pop. Used another one of my stacked Prima flowers (I’m so glad I put so many of these together last weekend while watching tv. It’s too easy to grab and go.) Notice my linen thread is kind of FUZZY?

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Welcome to the Verve 2nd Anniversary Blog Hop this morning. If you are just dropping by, you can start the HOP with a master list of participants at the Verve Blog.

Here’s a quickie that I finished a few days ago. Julee, the head diva at Verve, has her way with sentiments, and I appreciate how her thoughtful phrases most often can stand alone for just the right message on any card. This beautiful sentiment is from the set Just For You.

I’m finishing up the last day of the CHA Consumer SuperShow today. It was very exciting yesterday, hundreds of Splitcoaststampers came by to say hi. Since this is the first time that we’ve been to Florida as a team for Splitcoast, Daven, Jenn, Beate and I had a great time meeting lots of new people. We hosted almost 500 people in our booth for make & takes - it was crazy busy and crazy fun. More on that later. Right now:

Please find your next stop on the Verve Blog Hop by going by to visit Deb at Scrapbook Czar. 

Paper is from October Afternoon. Buttons are PaperTrey. 

Thank you for all your well wishes for my anniversary last week. My husband and I had a fabulous weekend away. We had the chance to visit with some old friends, but more importantly to catch up with each other. I forget how important it is to do that, even with someone you see every day.

It’s early Friday morning, and I’m waiting on the dryer to buzz, packing the cooler for our final swim meet of the summer, typing a blog post and prepping the last few aspects of our final VBS craft today. Sunday I’ll move on to packing up for CHA. It’s been a little busy around here this week, but isn’t that what summer is all about?

Unfortunately, sorrow knows no season, and I find myself in need of a sympathy card today for a dear friend from my church. She lost her brother this week, much too sudden and much too young.  I used Laurie Schmidlin’s beautiful sketch as a jump off and two Verve sets: Because of You and Forever in our Hearts to create this sympathy card.  I like how the sets just work together, and you can’t really tell where each one starts and ends.

I know that you can find more sketch inspiration if you’ll visit Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Mary Jo and sweet Sharon. I love seeing how each of them puts their own flare to the sketch each week. I hope you’ll have a chance to peek.

I’m off to the weekend and to watch my favorite little 9 year old in the whole wide world give the breaststoke everything she’s got. She’s been working hard this summer, and she’s super excited.  Thanks for stopping by.

• Stamps: Because of You and Forever in Our Hearts - Verve Stamps 
• Cardstock: Pure Luxury Ivory - layering and card base weights - Gina K. Designs & paper from My Mind’s Eye 
• Ink: Tea Leaves VersaMagic - Tsukineko
• Accs: Nestabilities, brads - Queen & Company, sewing machine

Had a lot of fun pulling my sample for the Weekend Sketch together this week. This is for my husband. So, I tried to keep the fluffy stuff to a minimum. He’s not really a fluffy kind of guy.

We’re celebrating our anniversary this weekend. I know it might not seem like an anniversary sentiment right off the bat, but it fits. We both have different strengths and gifts that we bring to our marriage, and I like to think that I’m a better person for being married to him all these wonderful, blissful years. I hope that when people see me, that they see a little bit of him.

I used my Scor-Pal to score a lattice pattern similar to the pattern in my paper. You can see a tutorial here.  I accented each flourish on the patterned paper with little rhinestones from Adoro. I get mine in cute little pinwheel Tiny Twinkles tins from Taylored Expressions.  I like these because you get hundreds of little bling rhinestones for $3.99. I don’t feel like I have to hoard them. A little glue pen and tweezers, easy, easy.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

• Stamps: Because of You - Verve
• Cardstock: Mystic Dark - Prism & October Afternoon
• Ink: Black Memento
• Accs: black trim (Taylored Expressions), Tiny Twinkles, oval Nestabilities, Scor-Pal

So, I think I thought I was doing Weekend Sketch 87 last week. With these children home for the summer, I just can’t keep my wits. LOL! Well, whatever the number, Charmaine delivered a great sketch today for the Weekend Sketch Challenge. You can see the sketch on her sweet little blog. Other gorgeous samples can be seen by visiting Cambria and Sharon.

I have some new Verve sitting on my desk, and the time to play has been so short this week. But, I pulled out a sentiment from Julee’s new set, Just For You, and created a patriotic card for a special veteran in my life.

This is one of those hard to photograph cards. . . aren’t they all when you love glitter? The original sentiment has a set of fern leaves attached to it. As pretty as they were, I didn’t think they matched the theme of my card. I omitted them. (It was quick enough with a Memento Dew Drop size pad of Rich Cocoa. That’s why I keep both the full size pads and the Dew Drops in easy reach.) Then I used a sticky star from the Jody Morrow special to put a transparent, glittery star there on the right to anchor the sentiment. The popped up stars on the left were created with the Stampin’ Up! star punch and the Xyron sticker maker. The Xyron (the orange X model) is probably one of my oldest tools, and I use it frequently for adhering glitter to entire surfaces of small items. The tan colored filigree is a pieces of trim from a packet of Prima Voila trims. I colored it with a Copic Marker. The paper is Jenni Bowlin - Navy Dot and Red Wallpaper. Red trim is from Taylored Expressions.

We love the Fourth in our little Mayberry, USA.  Hope your weekend is full of good times, laughter and warm memories.

I don’t know how I would start a Friday if it weren’t to finish up the Weekend Sketch Challenge sample. This week the sketch comes from sweet Cami.

It was fun, though the star threw me. Alas, it was a great opportunity to try an accordian flower. I’ve drooled over Kelly Lunceford’s for quite some time. You can see her great tutorial here. The center for the flower is a cluster of pearls and then the gaps are filled in with Dazzling Diamonds.

I’ve got a busy day here making a 9 year old feel like a birthday princess. She’s finishing up summer school today with a field trip to the horse barn (she’s super excited!) and then the pool this afternoon. Both of my girls are all worked up about the Princess Protection premier tonight that they will watch at their aunt and uncle’s house with the cousins.  And they can’t wait to dig into the fabulous orange cake that their papa brought over for the big day. It should be a fantabulous time.

Make sure you check out other sketch inspiration. You can find plenty of it if you stop by to see Charmaine, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon.

• Stamps: Circular Sayings - Verve Stamps 
• Cardstock: Pure Luxury Chocolate - Gina K Designs, Rose and Teal Prism, Poison Ivory - Arjo Wiggins 
• Ink: Jumbo Java VersaMagic Chalk 
• Accs: Pearls - Mark Richards, Dazzling Diamonds, Pinking Circles Dies - Spellbinders,  Paper Trimming Buddy - Marvy (chocolate scallop), Ribbon - May Arts 

I’ve been delving into my stash of Core’dinations cardstock the last few days. Love the texture and the sandable surface. The paisley impressions were made with a Sizzix plates and my Big Shot. Then I ran over the surface with a sanding block to smooth off the top layer of cardstock color.

You can read a full review, see great samples and get some helpful tips about Core’dinations Cardstock by checking out this review (just published) from the SCS Product Focus team: Core’dinations Cardstock.

A really quick sentiment. I need to rejuvinate my stash of these. :)  I used the Frost VersaMark over the entire surface of white on the image panel. It gives it a nice shimmer.

 Because of You 

• Stamps: Circular Sayings - Verve 
• Cardstock:  Core’dinations - Marine Blue and Orange
• Ink: Sail Boat Blue - Memento 
• Accessories: Paisley Impressions folder - Sizzix, sanding block, crocheted flower, ribbon - Making Memories, vanilla hodgepodge hardware - Stampin’ Up!
  

 Thank you 

• Stamps: Because of You - Verve 
• Cardstock: Love Potion, Harlequin and February Gold - Core’dinations
• Ink: Raspberry & Sunset Yellow - Ranger & Frost VersaMark by Tsukineko
• Accs: Hello Kitty Ribbon Trim Dies - Sizzix

Weekend Sketch Challenge 79. You can see Jenn’s sketch here. Loved this one surprisingly, I usually don’t do angles. Jenn knows that, of course. It was a ploy to push me out of my comfort zone. lol…

This Everafter paper from Cosmo Cricket goes so beautifully with Because of You, a gorgeous new floral set from Verve.  I fell in love with the  incredibly thoughtful sentiments and beautiful floral images in this set. I used London Fog (gray) Memento ink on the soft yellow patterned paper.

The Prima flowers were airbrushed with a W5 (warm grey) Copic Marker. Labels from Spellbinders. Ribbon is Stampin’ Up.

I’m eager to see what the other ‘girl friday’ sketch team has done with Jenn’s sketch. You can check them out, too. See: Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, MaryJo and Sharon.

And, I’m off to get things pulled together for a weekend that won’t stop until noon on Monday. Hope you find some time to relax and paper craft this weekend. I’m afraid I won’t see my stamp table ’til Tuesday. Thanks for stopping by!

MaryJo Albright gave us a great weekend sketch to work with today. You can see the sketch here. Loved the corner accents to the frame. I pulled out some new Walk in the Park patterned paper from Stampin’ Up! and my new Beautiful Kindness set that I purchased from Verve’s most recent release.

You can see a host of inspiration from my girl friday friends: Sharon Harnist, Mary Jo Albright, Laurie Schmidlin, Jenn Balcer, Charmaine Ikach, Cambria Turnbow and Beate Johns.

Here is a second card made with Beautiful Kindness and the gorgeous, John 3:16 verse from Verve’s Everlasting Life.  Again, Stampin’ Up! patterned paper. Really loving their thicker, textured papers in the latest catalog.

Have a wonderful, wonderful day!