Miss Me?

Hey there! Wow - Sorry it's been so long since I've posted - it's been a busy week!! My MIL is still here and we're having lots of fun!! Dean is getting more spoiled by the day though, but I guess that's to be expected! We had a pretty good Thanksgiving despite the fact that my father (who has Alzheimer's) was having a TERRIBLE day and was extremely difficult. {sigh}. Oh well, what can you do?? I was able to snap a really cute picture of my son with my Dad while my Dad was having one of a very few "good moments" that day....I am sure I will cherish this photo forever.We also celebrated Dean's 2nd birthday a week early with a fun Pool Party at the Keali'i Ocean Villas in Kihei on Saturday morning. Here are a few pics from the party...

the Taplers (Jen, Dean, Joel):

Dean and friend Haley waiting not-so-patiently for me to light the birthday candles:Dean and friends enjoying the pool:

Anyway, I don't normally share personal stuff here (you can bore yourselves with my personal life on our family Blog - the Tapler Ohana anytime!!) but I wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive and I have been working on a few projects - just haven't had time to post! But I thought I'm jump on tonight and post a few quick pics of some holiday gift ideas and share a few things.

First the sharing...Have you been to the Verve store lately?? Looks like they're having an AWESOME sale this month with even some of the latest releases marked down as much as 20%!! WOW!!!

Also, Papercraft Planet is in the middle of their 12 Days of Christmas promo...Each day you have a chance to win some FABULOUS prizes from our sponsors!! I'll be hosting this friday with a chance for you to win some yummy Verve goodies (don't worry, I'll remind you Friday). But head on over to the Planet and check it out!

And finally, there's still a few days left to get in on Verve's Project Parade for yet another chance to win some Verve Goodness!!! (seriously...have you ever met anyone as generous as Julee!?!? I mean sometimes I think it's easier to keep track of when she's NOT giving something away!!!).

And speaking of the Project Parade....here's my little project while I complete my time as a Guest Diva. The challenge is to make Anything But a Card and I chose to make this little gift pack of Christmas Ornaments using the new Ornamental Christmas set (which is currently on SALE!!!). The project is pretty self explanatory (and it's midnight here), but you can read all the details in my post over on the Verve Blog, which includes instructions and a link to the original Project Parade post if you'd like to participate! (you have until noon Friday, Dec 5 - so hurry!!!).The last thing I'd like to show you is this ADORABLE onesie gift set I made with Libby Weifenbach's Have Yourself a Maui Little Christmas digital kit (from Sweet Shoppe Designs). I just LOVE how this project turned out!! I purchased a Commercial Use license for this kit and will be attempting to sell some of these onesies locally at a holiday craft boutique thing on Sunday (if you're interested in purchasing a onesie, they are $8 each or it's $15 for the gift set with box & tag - just shoot me an e-mail).
Well, that's all folks!! My MIL leaves Thursday (much too soon once again), and although I'm very sad to see her go, I'm hoping my MoJo will magically reappear once my schedule frees up a bit. Fingers crossed!!

Sketchy Saturday

I was able to squeeze in a couple of sketch cards this week despite the fact that we've been on the go with my MIL...she arrived on Wednesday and we're having a great time!! of course, we don't kid ourselves - we know she's really only here to see Dean!! :-) We had a fun girls' day today - we spent the morning at my LSS - Island Paperie - for their Customer Appreciation Day with good friends Ellyn and Sarah, then went to see Twilight. I have to say that I had pretty low expectations (I'm usually disappointed in movies that are based on books I love) but it was pretty darn good! I wasn't crazy about some of the acting and didn't love the guy who played Edward, but that probably has to do with my weird taste in men (I thought Charlie was the hottest guy in the movie!! for real!). But overall the movie stayed true to the book and I thought the girl who played Bella did a good job. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you read the book....but if you plan on reading the book, read it first!!

OK, on to my cards....

This first card uses Julee's MoJo Monday Sketch #61:I used Verve's new Snow Wonderful stamp set...LOVE that adorable snowman!!! Kraft CS base and the DP is from my new stash of Basic Grey papers from I {heart} Paper. This particular paper is from BG Granola collection. I paper pieced the snowman from the BG paper, embossed the snowflake border stamp, used my scallop border punch, and added some ribbon and paper piercing. I like the grunginess of this card!

This next card uses SCS Sketch # 196 and more Basic Grey Granola Paper paired with Chocolate Chip & More Mustard CS.I used Verve's new Tall Oaks stamp set and paper pieced the pumpkins out of More Mustard DSP and added some Chocolate Chip ribbon. Each of the panels is popped up on dimensionals, giving the card lots of depth!

Well, I gotta run...it's halftime and I need to get back to watching my Sooners kick some Texas Teck @$$!!!!!! BOOMER SOONER Baby!!! (For those of you who don't know I am originally from Oklahoma and my husband and I both graduated from OU where my husband TRULY was a Sooner - he wrestled for the Sooners!!).

Snowflake Splendor

Thought I would share a couple of quick cards I made for the Verve Holiday Release....I love both of these cards!!!

It's late, so I'm just going to get right to the pics and list the recipes underneath.

Stamps - Snowflake Splendor; Paper - Chocolate Chip & Baja Breeze CS, Vellum, Baja Breeze DSP; Ink - Chocolate Chip, Versamark; Other - detail white embossing powder, silver brads, nesties, sewing machine, chocolate chip stitched ribbon, corner rounder, Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder.

This next card was shared last week on the Verve Blog during my Guest Diva Spotlight...Stamps - Snow Wonderful; Paper - Kraft, Chocolate Chip CS; Ink - white acrylic paint; Other - Riding Hood Red ribbon, Little Felt Flurries, silver brad, nesties, silver cording.

PCP Sketch Challenge

Have you checked out the weekly Sketch Challenge over at Papercraft Planet? Each week a different one of us Papercraft "Super Novas" (Papercraft DT) will be hosting the challenge. This is Wendy's week and she created this beautiful sketch for us...When I saw the sketch I knew exactly what I wanted to do for those circles - use my sizzix Wedding Foliage die again with my new Verve Tall Oaks stamp set (they just go so well together!!!)....I also used Chocolate Chip, Kraft & Whisper White CS; Baja Breeze textured CS, More Mustard DP, and some American Crafts olive-colored textured CS. I paper-pieced the pumpkins and the middle pumpkin is popped up on dimensionals for depth (as are the entire center panel and the "give thanks" sentiment) and stitched on the center of each of the larger leaves. I stamped the little acorn on the inside corner for a little flair! I just love how this turned out!! Head on over and join the Sketch Challenge Group at PCP to see what everyone else has created with Wendy's sketch!

Scrappy Sunday

I have A LOT of catching up to do with my digi posts, so this will be a good start...

I'll start with my favorite project - this adorable Holiday Onesie gift set using Libby's new kit Have Yourself a Maui Little Christmas. Isn't it cute?? Libby released another holiday kit a few weeks ago, Cotton-Headed Ninny Muggins (I swear, Libby comes up with the BEST kit names!!!), which I used to create this next LO. This LO features one of my all-time favorite picture of my son, Dean. Dean was due Christmas Day 2006 but fortunately for me (because I don't think I could survive any more belly!!!) he decided to come a few weeks early. He was about 10 days old when we took this picture: (and yes, I'm channeling Fred Costanza in this LO - I'm curious how many of you get it???)I also used Cotton-Headed Ninny Muggins to make this cute little bit of home decor....my awesome MIL cut these letters out of scrap pine and I used white acrylic paint, digi papers and some physical embellies to fancy them up. I think they turned out super cute!!!Krystal Hartley's newest kit, Feelin' Frosty, released Thursday this past week and it was perfect for scrapping those pics of the Maui Snow I shared with you guys last week (my Verve project here motivated me to get those pics scrapped!!!). I added Krystal's Cover Girl alpha to the LO as well.One of my favorite new releases at the Digichick last week was Nathy's (Cinnamon Designs) Winter Wonderland Kit, which comes with this free quick album perfectly sized to fit a Cosmo Cricket Abby Blackboard Album. It turned out SOOO stinkin' cute!! And it was perfect timing...my Grandmother's birthday was Friday, so she received this cute little keepsake just in time to set out with her holiday decorations this year!!This next LO uses a few other new releases from the Digichick - Kelleigh Ratzlaff's A Little Warped template set and Happiness is by Lia Designs & Kaye Winiecki. I may have mentioned that I'm making a photobook for my BFF Brandi for Christmas. I had hoped to be finished with it by now, but I'm not. So you'll be seeing lots of adorable Balin (her son) pictures the next few weeks!!

The first page is the cover page of Brandi's photobook. Aren't the Fowlers such a gorgeous family? You almost want to hate them! For this page I used the Going in Circles template by Sya's Blueprints and Tomboy Princess by Libby. The alpha is by Katie Pertiet (Designer Digitals) and the staples are from Ghouls just wanna have Fun by Libby.The next several pages are actually meant to be 2-page spreads, but of course blogger hates me and won't let me line them up that way, so you'll just have to use your imagination!!!

These 2 pages use the Triple Threat templates by Sya's Blueprints and Under Construction by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe).And finally, these last two pages also use a set of templates by Sya's Blueprints - Dynamic Duo Set #3 this time. Most of the LO is from Ragtag Cowboy by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe) but I also threw in Libby's Tattered Cardstock, a staple from East Coast Girls, stitching from Southern Girls, and the frames are from All Worn Out Overlays by Penny's Miscellany (all available at the Sweet Shoppe).


OK, sorry for such a long post, but it's been awhile since I posted any digi stuff....I hope you enjoyed it. I know a lot of my blog readers don't do digi...keep in mind that you can still CASE my ideas or use my color combinations or other design elements on a traditional scrapbook page or other project. If any of my creations have inspired you in any way, I'd love to hear about it and see what you've created!!

Vervalicious SFYTT

Wow! 2 card posts in 1 day....I'm on a roll!!

Have you seen Jen del Muro's Sketch for you to Try this week? It's a fun one!!! Here's my take on it... my favorite part is the sloppy stitching around the edge and the hemp twine died with Chocolate Chip ink!!! Love it!

I used Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and So Saffron textured CS along with some yummy printed paper that my "Auntie Judi" (love ya Jude!!) brought me from the mainland the last time she came to visit (but unfortunately I have no idea who manufactures this paper - if you recognize it, comment and let us know). I used the awesome new Verve stamp set Ornamental Christmas and paper-pieced the ornament (I love this technique with this set!!!). And that's it!

MoJo Monday #60

I absolutely LOVE this week's MoJo Monday sketch!! I was excited to see Julee brought back the circles this week!! :-) This card doubles for the Papercraft Planet Design Team gallery theme for November - Gratitude. Be sure to stop by the Planet and check out all the other beautiful Gratitude-themed cards the other DT members have created for you so far this month. We'll be adding to it all month.

OK, I'll get right to my card....this card is WAAAAAY busier than my norm, but I *think* I like it?? My local craft store (Ben Franklin) FINALLY got some new paper in and I had a coupon so I did a little shopping on Saturday. I'm not a huge fan of Ben Franklin - it seems like their selection is always a season behind the mainland stores and it's always so poorly organized. I actually had to open up a box that was thrown in the middle of an aisle and dig through it myself to find the yummy ribbon that matched this paper! I'm so jealous of all you mainlanders with your Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Archivers, etc etc etc. Although, things are looking up. My favorite LSS (OK, my ONLY LSS here on Maui), Island Paperie, is about to launch their new online store and will be announcing some new product lines and great deals with the launch. I'll keep you posted as details become available (I'll be doing some design work for them, so you'll be seeing lots of tropical themed projects soon!!). Ok, sorry...I know I said I was going to get right to the card....here it is....

I started with a Chocolate Chip CS base and added a large piece of this American Crafts printed paper for the main panel. The sentiment is from Verve's Beautiful You and the butterfly is from Verve' Fluttering By. Fluttering By is my newest Verve acquisition (well, besides my Holiday New Release stamps I received for being a Guest Diva this month - yeah, I couldn't keep from mentioning THAT again!!!)...and I have to say I do NOT know how I survived this long without those adorable butterfly stamps!!! I want to put butterflies on EVERYTHING! Anyway, the butterfly is stamped in Versamark ink on Kiwi Kiss CS and embossed in detail white powder and cut out with my hobby knife. The scallop & circle panels were cut with my nesties and I added some SU Chocolate Chip ribbon layered with some new American Crafts ribbon.

Ok, that's it. I'd love to hear what you think, especially since this is such a stretch for me....so, be honest...too busy??

Today's the Day!!!

The Verve Holiday Release Party starts at 8:00 pm Eastern Time in the Verve Forum at Splitcoast Stampers! You do NOT want to miss this party - not only will you have a chance to chat it up with Julee Tilman herself as well as all the Verve Divas (and the guest divas!!!), but Julee will be revealing all of the new release stamp sets and announcing the winners of the many contests and challenges that have been going on this week.

I thought I'd take a minute to share one more Sneak Peek with you guys. This was a fun, silly little project I made yesterday after a visit to my local craft store. I had a few of these paint cans laying around and diva Jen del Muro's Sneak Peek project motivated me to use one of them. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, but when I saw these pom-pom things on sale a light-bulb went off. See, at first I struggled a little with a lack of MoJo with the snow-themed stamps - probably because it's just been SO long since I've been around snow and my mind no longer equates Christmas with snowmen and snowflakes....but I couldn't resist this....(and BTW, this set looks SOOO fab enbossed in white on vellum - just stunning!!) - and not worry - it didn't take long for the MoJo to start flowing with these stamps!!!

Stamps: Verve's Snow Wonderful; Paper: Chocolate Chip & Baja Breeze CS, Vellum; Little Felt Flurries; silver brads; nesties; Versamark ink and detail white embossing powder; ribbon; paint can)

And just so you know I DO know what snow is....here are a few pics of snow on top of Haleakala last winter. You should have seen the Maui people going CRAZY over this. It doesn't happen very often (maybe once every 8-10 years I'd guess), but when it does - WOW. People skipped work and school and sat in bumper to bumper traffic for HOURS on the curvy mountain road to the top of the volcano to get a glimpse of snow (the majority of these people have NEVER seen snow in their entire lives!!!!). People drove their pickups up there and were shoveling as much of the very dirty (and very sparse) snow into their truck beds or into ice chests and trying to get it back down the mountain and home to show off to their families and friends! It was so cute to see big, gruff local men excited as kids about the snow!!

This picture (sorry for the poor quality - I was FREEZING while I was trying to take this picture - it was only about 62 degrees that morning!!!) was taken from our front yard in Kahului looking up at the top of Haleakala - see? there's snow up there!!!
And this last picture was taken from Upcountry, at about 6,000 ft elevation (the top of Haleakala is a little over 10,000 ft elevation).

OK, well there was a Verve Sneak Peek and a little Maui trivia for ya!!! See you at the Release Party tonight!!

More Verve Sneak Peeks

I used a couple more of my new Verve Stamps that I received for being a November Guest Diva (yep, I kinda like saying that...could ya tell!?!?) for sketch #3 and #4 of the Verve Holiday Release Sketch Blitz. Here they are...

This first one is for Sketch #3:
I used the new Snow Wonderful stamp set with some Frosty Day DP, Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White and Bashful Blue CS from SU. I added some Alpine felt ribbon and distressed the edges of the main image panel. The image was stamped with black stazon and heat set, then I used a blender pen and SU ink pads to watercolor the image. The color scheme isn't my favorite, but that snowman sure is cute!!!

This next card is for Sketch #4:
I used the new Verve set Ornamental Christmas, stamped it once in chocolate chip ink on whisper white CS, then again on another piece of CS. I cut out the 2nd image with my hobby knife and popped it up on dimensionals over the first (did that make sense at all??). I added some paper-pieced DP from the I Wish Simply Scrappin' kit (SU) to the ornament center. I also used some Riding Hood Red textured CS and Chocolate Chip CS on this card along with more yummy Alpine ribbon and my distressing tool. I love how this card turned out - I'm imagining lots of possibilities with paper-piecing that swirly ornament!!!

VSHR2

It's Day 2 of the Verve Holiday Release Sketch Blitz going on over in the Verve Forum at SCS and Julee's drawn up another awesome sketch for us today! Here are the deets straight from the Top Diva herself: Each morning through Saturday, Nov. 8 Julee will post a new sketch and a sneak preview of one of the new sets. You'll have until Saturday at midnight to upload your entries to SCS using the keyword provided with each sketch. Verve Stamps are not required to participate, but if you've got 'em why not give 'em a little lovin?

Julee will be picking a random winner from each daily challenge to win the set she previewed for that sketch. Plus, if you upload all 5 sketches by Saturday night and let us know in the I'm a Verve Sketch Goddess thread, you'll be in a drawing to win the entire release! Two random winners who complete all 5 sketches will each win all 6 sets and the 3 plain janes - a $99 value!

OK, on to my card... I once again went with a Kraft CS base (but was able to resist the pull of the hemp twine this time!!) and added some yummy printed paper from American Crafts as well as Chocolate Chip CS and textured white CS. I used Verve's Grateful Elegance stamp set for the sentiment and the butterfly is from Fluttering By. Some American Crafts ribbon and a few half pearls were the finishing touches!

Tall Oaks

It's finally here! Day 1 of the Sneak Peeks for the Verve Holiday Release. You can check out projects from some of the Verve Divas (and yours truly) over on the Verve Blog today and each day through Saturday we will be sharing a little preview of all of the new stamp sets that will release on Sunday night!!! I can't say enough how much I love these new stamp sets - this is my favorite Verve release yet!! Ok, on to my Sneak Peek project....

As soon as I saw the Tall Oaks stamp set I knew I wanted to use this quote to make some type of keepsake for my son. The quote makes me think of my hope that Dean will grow to be a strong yet bending man, able to weather the many hardships life throws at us with grace and dignity - much like a majestic Oak. This is what I came up with:I used an On Board Book Basics small chipboard piece (SU) covered with Kraft CS, stamped the quote on Kraft CS and popped up the main sentiment panel on dimensional and set it off with Baja Breeze photo corners. I loosely layered die cut leaves (using a Sizzix Flower, Wedding Foliage Bigz die in my Big Shot) in textured Baja Breeze & Old Olive CS, More Mustard & Old Olive DP, and Earth Tones American Crafts CS around the main sentiment panel and added some stamped acorns as well. It's hard to see in the photo, but the larger leaves are actually sewn onto the background paper (I got that idea from the cover of the latest issue of Stampin' Success magazine for SU demonstrators). Finally, I added some Hodgepodge hardware and Alpine felt ribbon to hang the sign from a hook or doorknob. I just love how this turned out. What do you think??

Be sure to check out the other Sneak Peeks from the Verve Divas over on the Verve Blog and don't forget about the Holiday Release Sketch Challenge for your chance to win lots of amazing Verve stamps!!!

Verve Holiday Release Sketch Blitz #1, take 2

OK, I loved this sketch so much that I couldn't stop at just 1!!!!! so here's number 2: (sorry, I meant to post this with the last photo, but completely forgot, so here it is...).I once again used a Kraft base and couldn't resist some hemp twine (do I detect a bit of a "problem"???). I added some Chocolate Chip CS, Autumn Vines DSP and More Mustard DP. The stamp set is from the beautiful Abundant Blessings, one of my all-time faves!!!

Verve Holiday Release Sketch Blitz #1

So have you had a chance to check out the details on the Verve Holiday Release Sketch Blitz Challenge? Julee will be posting a different beautiful sketch each day through Saturday and everyone who participates has a chance to win some new Vervalicious stamp sets!!! (and trust me, you do NOT want to miss out on the new releases - they are AMAZING!!!) And get this...2 lucky winners will win the ENTIRE November Release!!!! WOWZA. You can actually download a pdf file with all of the sketches and get a headstart by joining the Verve Group over on Papercraft Planet!!!

Ok, on to my card...here's one of a few cards I did with Julee's first sketch. I LOVE this sketch!! It's so versatile and makes for such a quick and easy card! Details are below...
I used Kraft CS for the card base and added some cheery American Crafts printed paper, Chocolate Chip ribbon and hemp twine (you'll see over the next few days that I seem to have developed a new addiction to hemp twine....hmmmm....). I used one of my old favorite Verve sets, Fluttering By and stamped the butterfly in Versamark ink on So Saffron CS and embossed with detail white powder. The sentiment, from the same set, is stamped in Chocolate Chip ink. I just love how this turned out and I must say, the hemp twine really adds a fresh touch!! :-)

OMG OMG OMG!!!!

Seriously, I could NOT have kept this news to myself another minute!!! I am soooo excited to announce that Julee Tilman has asked me to be a Guest Diva for Verve Stamps!! If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I love my Verve!!! Well, there's a new Holiday Release on Sunday and let me tell you, Julee has outdone herself with this one! Six BEAUTIFUL new stamp sets and 3 Plain Janes. You can join us on Sunday for the Release Party in the Verve Forum on SCS and starting tomorrow, there will be daily Sneak Peeks on the Verve Blog.

To get the party started early, today is Day 1 of the Verve Holiday Release Sketch Blitz. We all know Julee is am AMAZING sketch artist and she's been at it again! You can read all the details about the sketch contest here - there are some SERIOUSLY RAD prizes up for grabs and 2 lucky winners will receive ALL 6 NEW RELEASES PLUS THE PLAIN JANES for FREE!!!! And if you want a headstart, Julee has generously posted a pdf file with all 5 sketches in the Verve Group over on at Papercraft Planet - just join the group and download the file to get started!

OK, I'll be back tomorrow to post my sketch card (it's done, but I can't let you see it yet...)

Happy DSD!!

Today is Digital Scrapbooking Day!!! I wanted to drop in real quick and let you all know about this...WOW!!! Head on over to the Sugarplum Store and check it out!