Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #33 and Stay-Cation photos

Hi there! First of all I have to apologize for the super long post with all the personal pics, but I'm back from my little Stay-cation at the Grande Wailea resort, feeling relaxed AND sunburned and so NOT looking forward to Monday!! (the photos of our mini get-away at the end of this post). I was dying to stamp something when I got home this evening and Karen Giron had posted a new Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge that I just had to play with, so here it is:

It wasn't until I was editing my photo that I realized Karen and I both used cupcake images and the Blossom nestabilities die on our cards. What can I say? Great minds? Anyway, I haven't used a Stampin' Up stamp in about forever, but it worked for this card and the papers I wanted to use. I used a Close to Cocoa base along with printed digi papers from Chasing Rainbows by Zoe Pearn (Sweet Shoppe). The cupcake, stamped in Bermuda Bay and Pink Pirouette along with Close to Cocoa and More Mustard on the candle is from SU's Big Bold Birthday.

OK, how about some Stay-cation pics? Sorry - couldn't resist sharing. We haven't been on a "real" vacation in like 3 years. Everyone always asks "When you live on Maui, where do you go on vacation?"....well, nowhere:

Here's Dean resting between waterslide fun:
2-year-old Dean showing off his fearless swimming skillz:Dean and I with Dean flashing his shaka (and concentrating REALLY hard to get it right!!):
Dean and I. This is Dean's fake smile that he gives us when we say "cheese":
And then we got rid of the kid and had some nice adult time:
Pretending to make-out (but unable because we were cracking up) like all the newlywed honeymooners in the hibiscus pool. I kept telling Joel "come on, just pretend like we're in love", which we both found hilarious:
The view from "our spot" by the pool:
Wailea Sunset last night:
So really it was a great little stay-cation. Yes, it's only 10 miles from our house and we ran into about 10 different people we know (including my good friend Sarah's brother) and instead of having a nice romantic dinner last night Joel went to the Sports Bar to watch the UFC fights (because Di - he totally has a man crush on Randy Couture - LOL!!) while I went and spent 2 hours at the Spa, which was a pretty perfect exchange if you ask me!! And sometimes it's nice to be reminded that we do live in paradise and experiences like this are right in our backyard while others may wait their entire lives to experience this for a week. It's important to be reminded of this I think. Sometimes we take it for granted.

Go Green & Exclusive Discount

Super Quick post while I'm basking poolside on my Stay-Cation!! I just wanted to pop in and share my card for Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I used the new Go Green set from My Cute Stamps, available at ABC Toys and Crafts. Want to pick up this stamp set and everything else at ABC Toys & Crafts for 15% off? Keep reading to the end of this post for an exclusive "Friends of Jen" Discount Code just from me!!

Isn't that cute? I used Garden Green, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, a little Chocolate Chip and of course Kraft. The tree image was colored with Copics (hint: you can even pick those up for 15% off using my discount code!!) and that awesome woodgrain at the bottom? That's from the Hero Arts Artistic Windows Set, stamped in Momento Rich Cocoa ink on Kraft CS. I just LOVE that look!!

OK, want the details on the Exclusive "Friends of Jen" discount?? (I totally made that name up BTW). The ABC DT is having a little friendly competition and the DT member who generates the most sales using their code wins a pretty sweet prize!! So help a girl out and head on over to ABC Toys and Crafts and do a little shopping. You know you want to!! :-) When you're ready to checkout, enter the code ABC15J to receive 15% off your entire order!! (this discount is off the original retail price, so cannot be combined with any current sales). Also, you must sign in, register or use guest checkout for the code to work (don't checkout through paypal). The code can be used as many times as you like now through Oct 10, 2009. But you better hurry while everything's still in stock - with these great prices things will sell out fast I'm sure!!

Here are some links to some of my faves and some of the top sellers in the store (in case you need a little help deciding...hee hee):
My Cute Stamps
Slice Digital Cutter - check out my recent projects using the Slice here, here and here.
Slice Design Cards & Accessories - I'm loving the new Holiday cards!
Martha Stewart Punches (many of the hard-to-fine ones!!)
Spellbinders
Copic Marker Sets

And yes - use the code ABC15J and you get 15% off your ENTIRE order!!!

OK, I've got some more relaxing to do so I gotta go. Have a fantastic weekend!!
-Jen

Viva La Verve August week #4

It's been such a crazy busy month that this is the only Viva La Verve sketch I had time to play with!! But there were some good ones this month, so I printed them all off and plan to use them eventually! The Twist this week was to use your favorite color combo with the sketch. Well, you all know that my fave color combo is pretty much Kraft + anything else - LOL - so I just went with this. It's actually a new combo for me, but I kinda like it!!

I used Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, More Mustard and Baja Breeze along with the new Party Time stamp set and my fave Bountiful Backgrounds from the latest Verve release. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!!

If you haven't already, be sure you stop by the Verve Blog and check out the Project Parade that kicked off a few days ago - the Divas have some amazing creations posted already!! And if you play along, you just might win some Verve goodies!!

Ok, I'm keeping this short and sweet. We're headed out tomorrow morning for a little Mini "Stay-Cation" at the Grand Wailea resort. Dean had so much fun swimming there last week that we decided to make a little vacation out of it. And yes, the resort is only about 10 miles from our house, but when you live on Maui and can't afford a plane ticket anywhere else - you do what you can!!! ha!! :-) Anyway, we'll be there for 3 full days soaking up the sun, playing in the pools and just hanging out. Dean will be with us Friday and Saturday morning, then he's going to my Mom's until Sunday night so Joel and I will have some super relaxing alone time too!! We're planning to use that time being uber lazy at the Hibiscus pool (no kids allowed - ahhh - do you hear that? It's the sweet sound of silence!!!), catching up on some reading, and probably having a few mai tais at the swim-up bar!!! I have a blog post or 2 scheduled for the weekend, so hopefully Blogger will cooperate! 3 Days is the longest I've gone in a Looooong time away from my craft room, so let's hope I survive!!!

Have a good weekend!
jen

Little Boy projects with the Slice

Hi there! Happy Wednesday!! Today I'm going to share with you a couple of SUPER easy projects for little boys I created using my Making Memories Slice digital cutter from ABC Toys and Crafts.

Just like with children's clothing, there's just not as much cute stuff out there in the papercrafting world for boys as there is for girls and I know many of us struggle sometimes with creating special gifts and cards for those special little men in our lives. Hopefully this will get the wheels of creativity spinning...

Here's a little piece of train-themed wall art using a train image from the Big Kids Design Card:

Isn't that cute? I have to admit I got the idea for this from my friend Sarah who recently made an adorable (girly) baby gift for a friend using these same frames from our local Ben Franklin store and some Slice images. These little white square frames are 2 for $8 I think and I'm actually planning to make a few more to go with this train using the Big Kids design card and coordinating papers - maybe one with a boat and one with a helicopter (to stick with the whole "transportation" theme, ya know?). Anyway, to create this little project I used printed digi paper from the Hey Guys paper pack by Sarah Jones (Funky Playground). I cut strips and used Mod Podge to adhere them to the front of the frame and then just layered some pieces to make the base for the train die-cut. I cut the train and glued him on and it was done. This adorable little gift literally took about 20 minutes start to finish!! And I think it would be just precious in a set of 3 (sorry I didn't have time to finish that up, but use your imagination - maybe next week I'll have it done).

And now on to a simple little boy card using the same Big Kids Design Card:

Once again, I used some printed digi papers by Sarah Jones, this time from her new Boys Rule & Girls Drool paper pack (Funky Playground). I threw in some Kraft of course (you know me - I can't stay away from the stuff!!) and cut out the little monster image using my Slice and layered everything together. I mini library clip and some screw brads tied it all together!

So what do you think?

Don't forget, there's still a Storewide sale going on through the end of August at ABC Toys and Crafts where you can save 10% off of almost everything in the store (including the Slice and all design cards and accessories!!).

Scrappy Sunday 8/23/09

Warning: Super long post ahead...

It's been awhile since I blogged a Scrappy Sunday post huh? I'm still hosting the Scrapbook Sketch challenge each week in the Scrappy Sunday Group over on Papercraft Planet - if you're a scrapper, I'd LOVE for you to join us!!

For this week's sketch I decided to use a digital template from the Gift of Gab template set by Connie Prince (Gotta Pixel). I just discovered Connie and LOVE her templates!! Here's a look at this week's sketch. If you're a digi scrapper, you can purchase the template and use your clipping mask tool in photoshop to make creating your sketch layout super quick and easy!! Or get creative and just use the image below as inspiration to create your own layout - all forms of scrapbooking (traditional, digital and hybrid) are welcome!!

And here's my sample for this week: (click on images to enlarge and read journaling if you're interested)

Credits: Gift of Gab templates by Connie Prince (Gotta Pixel); Just Beachy by Jennifer Fox (Funky Playground); Oodles of Tags by Julie Billingsley (Sweet Shoppe Designs); DJB Executive Font by Darcy Baldwin (Sweet Shoppe Designs).

And the rest of these are from previous Scrappy Sunday weeks that I keep forgetting to blog (Credits below each layout)...

Credits: Bottom Ups: Set 1 template by Traci Reed; Growin' My Own: Veggies by Sara Amarie; Apples on a Stick by Libby Weifenbach; Extra Large Painted Chippy Alphas by Libby Weifenbach (All availabe at Sweet Shoppe Designs)

Credits: Beep Boop by Kristin Cronin-Barrow & Lauren Grier; Layered Up in You Shapes by Lauren Grier; XL Chippy Alpha by Libby Weifenbach; Font is DJB Print by Darcy Baldwin; Teeny Type alpha by Zoe Pearn. (all available at Sweet Shoppe Designs).

Credits: Beep Boop by Kristin Cronin-Barrow & Lauren Grier; Layered Up in You Shapes by Lauren Grier; XL Chippy Alpha by Libby Weifenbach; Font is DJB Print by Darcy Baldwin (all available at Sweet Shoppe Designs).

Credits: You Rock by Zoe Pearn; Extra Large Painted Chippy alpha by Libby Weifenbach; Font is DJB Poppyseed by Darcy Baldwin; (all avail at Sweet Shoppe Designs)

Credits: Uses Forever Young digi kit by Libby Weifenbach (Sweet Shoppe Designs)

Credits: American Pie kit by Libby Weifenbach (Sweet Shoppe)

Credits: Heather Roselli's fun new Water Play Days kit along with the brush only from Black,White & Red All Overlay Alpha and Messie Amanda font by Darcy Baldwin (all avail at Sweet Shoppe Designs).

Whew! That's a lot of catching up!!

Thanks for sticking with that long post!!
-Jen

Back to School Template Challenge

Well, since it's already Saturday for most of you I thought I'd go ahead and post my My Time to Create Template Challenge project. I have to say - I absolutely LOVE the way this one turned out!! The challenge this month was to use one of the My Timeless Templates to create a Back-to-School themed project.

I used Lauren's new Tucked Away template to create a little gift box to hold some candies for one of Dean's preschool teachers, Sarah. (and yes, we have a lot of important Sarah's in our life. The fabulous babysitter is Sarah. And when Dean starts talking about "Auntie Sarah" it usually takes me a minute to figure out if he means his teacher or my good friend Sarah. Sarah must be the new Jennifer...LOL).

Anyway, I went hybrid on this cute little project using printed digi papers and elements from the It's Elementary digi kit by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe) combined with my old stand-by - Kraft CS!! I tied the whole thing up with some twine, using a button to loop the twine around as a closure, and added a chalkboard-esque tag (printed digi ellies). So what do you think? Cute yeah?

We'd love for you to play along this week! Just use one of Lauren's Timeless Templates to create your own Back-to-School project and post a link on Lauren's blog via Mr. Linky for a chance to be one of 5 "My Time to Shine" projects featured on Lauren's blog next week!

Be sure to stop by the rest of the My Time to Create DT blogs to see what the other girls have created:

• Dana
• Kendra
• Kristin
• Lauren
• Lisa
• MacKenzie
• Maria
• Odette
• Pam
• Tamara
• Tracey

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic weekend!!
-Jen

More Verve Goodness

Hi! Well, we had a super fun morning yesterday at the Grand Wailea while Dean played hookie from preschool!! Here's a few pics of him going down one of the many slides that connect the multiple pools at the Grand and then just chillin' (hopefully my blog readers don't mind that I sometimes share photos of my kid...what can I say? I'm a proud Mama!!)

Anyway, I wanted to share a few more of my Verve creations with the fantastic August release.

This first card used one of Julee's Anni-verve-sary sketches and the new Enjoy set, using the image as a butterfly instead of a flower (I still haven't decided which way I prefer to use that image!!). I am so NOT a technique girl and I tried to get fancy on this one by spritzing my inked stamp with water before stamping. It didn't turn out quite like I'd planned, but it works I think.

And this second card was super fun to make - I went with a classy color scheme of black, red and white to go with the girly stamp set Express Yourself. And that polka dot background on the large red panel? That's from my current fave Verve set Bountiful Backgrounds!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a great weekend! Tomorrow (Friday) is a holiday in Hawaii - it's Admissions Day and it marks the 50th Anniversary of Hawaii becoming a State - understandably a bittersweet day for some native Hawaiians as it was the final blow to the end of the Hawaiian Nation and Monarchy - one with a history so beautiful and rich with cultural tradition. We will be spending the day enjoying the natural beauty of our island and being glad for the Hawaiian people's hospitality and generosity and thankful that we are able to live here and share their native home.
-Jen

hi

Happy Wednesday!! You know what that means...time to share some goodies from ABC Toys and Crafts and this week I have some more super simple Slice creations. Check out these 2 cute cards:
ETA: Be sure to head over to THIS POST on the ABC Design Team Blog and enter to win Julie's Just Because Giveaway - there are some awesome prizes up for grabs!!

The idea for these designs came from this card by Andrea Walford - I just tweaked it a bit (Ok, not much really!! But why fix something that isn't broken, ya know?). Anyway, I used a font from the Fall Back to School Slice Design Card to cut out the letters for "hi" from textured white CS and popped them up on dimensionals. I realize that I could have used thickers or other sticker alphas, but man those get expensive and once you've used up all the h's and i's - they're gone and I'm always stuck with a bunch of x's and q's that I'll never use. The fonts that come on the Slice Design Cards can be used over and over again as many times as I want and there's no waste!!

If you've been thinking about picking up a Slice, now is a GREAT time to do it - everything in the ABC Toys and Crafts store is on sale (including the Slice - but hurry! I think she only has a few left!!). I'm amazed at how easy to use the machine is and how versatile the design cards are!! I'll be picking up a few new design cards during the sale - I especially have my eye on Fa La La (look at all those snowflakes and Christmas trees - do you know how many Sizzix dies it would take to get that many different snowflakes alone!?!?) and Halloween Spellbound (those jack-o-lantern faces cut out and glued onto a pumpkin would sure make "carving" a pumpkin a snap!!)

Here's a closer look at the individual cards:

Materials Used:
Stamps: NONE!!
Paper: Kraft, textured Real Red, textured Old Olive, textured Whisper White CS, retired DP (SU) - sorry I can't remember the names and these pieces were from my scrap stash!!
Accessories: Fall Back to School Slice Design Card (Making Memories); 3-d Adhesive; Filagree brads (SU)

Thanks for stopping by!! I'm playing the rold of "bad Mommy" today and letting Dean skip school to go hang out at the pools at the Grande Wailea all day!! (a friend is staying there this week so we're going as her "guests"). I figure it's only preschool and I'm a firm believer in taking advantage of opportunities for some super awesome family bonding time!! And let's face it - we gotta jump on the chance to hang out there for free!! Otherwise it means paying the $299/night HEAVILY DISCOUNTED Kama'aina rates with a 2-night minimum. Sorry, but letting my kid have a day at the water park isn't worth $600 to me!! I'd much rather give up a day of preschool education and do it for free!! Don't get me wrong, their pools are SWEEEET and the resort is unbelievable even for Maui standards (regular non-kama'aina / local resident room rates will run you around $550/night for the cheapest room they got). Anyway, should be a fun day!! I'll try to post some pics later!

Sarah is So Fabulous

Hi! So have you ordered your new Verve Stamps yet? What'd you order? Once of my favorite sets from this release was the new Bountiful Backgrounds set. I made this fun birthday card for my good friend Sarah - we attended her beach birthday bash on Saturday and had lots of fun paddle boarding and just hanging out. I even got to hang out with her awesome mom, Leslie, for a little while. Hi Les!! The white polka dots on this card are stamped and the sentiment is from the same set - fun, yeah?

Anyway, the card is pretty straight-forward, so I'll leave you with the recipe and head to bed. It was a long Monday and I'm super tired!! Have a fantastic week!!
- Jen

Stamps: Bountiful Backgrounds (Verve)
Paper: Kraft, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White CS, So Saffron DP (SU)
Ink: Versafine Vintage Sepia (Tsukineko); Fresh Snow (PTI)
Accessories: Chocolate Chip ribbon, scallop border punch, stampin' dimensionals (SU); buttons (Basic Grey); hemp twine

Clear and Simple Stamps Release

Happy Monday! I had a post with all of this information scheduled for Saturday and apparently Blogger has decided to act up on me again and I didn't realize until this morning that it hadn't posted!!! ARRGH!!

Anyway, in case you missed it...Clear and Simple Stamps had a release on Saturday!!

The School Days Collection is here!

Want it all?
Click here to order the entire collection in one single click.
This is a package valued at $165, including all
{11} newly released stamp sets.

______________________________

School Days / ABC123 / Teacher / Autumn Sentiments
Lacrosse / Basketball / Football / Baseball

CSS Signature Set
A+ Darling
SOTM Copic Bundle - add Copic Trio Red 2 and save $4.

Here's a quick peek at just some of the goodies the DT has created with these fabulous new stamps:

And here's another quick and easy card I made with the new School Days set:

I've gotta run to work, so I don't have time to post all the details now. I'll be back later with that. Have a great start to your week!!

My Time Color Challenge

Happy Saturday! Time for another Super fun My Time to Create Color Challenge from Lauren. Here's a look at this week's colors:

These colors scared the crap out of me - soooo NOT my typical colors (I don't normally do too many pastels!!), but I'm actually really pleased with my card. Man, that Pam sure can pick 'em!! LOL. (I'm really sorry for the bad photo. I didn't finish this card until almost 11:00 tonight and had to take it in really poor lighting. This is the best I could get even with lots of editing).

I was so distracted by the terrifying thought of having to use these colors that my MoJo ran off and hid and was nowhere to be found, so I decided to dig into my "To be CASE'd" files and this card is a CASE of a card by Lisa Johnson, but it's so late and I can't seem to find her post with the original. Sorry! The layout's basically the same as is the stamp set, but I used a different sentiment and umbrella top and chose to paper-piece my umbrella rather than color it and added a ribbon tab and button rather than a little flower. But the rest of it's all Lisa.

Well, I'm headed to bed!! (It's still Friday night here). It's been a crazy busy week preparing for the Verve Stamps release tonight as well as the Clear and Simple Stamps release tomorrow (well today for most of you). Tomorrow (Saturday) we're headed to the beach in the morning for my friend Sarah's birthday bash, then I have some more DT work to catch up on in the afternoon. Should be a fun but busy weekend!!

Be sure to stop by the rest of the My Time to Create DT blogs to see what the other girls have done with these colors:

• Dana
• Kendra
• Kristin
• Lauren
• Lisa
• MacKenzie
• Maria
• Odette
• Pam
• Tamara
• Tracey

Mahalo for stopping by!!
-Jen

Materials Used:
Stamps: Scattered Showers (PTI)
Paper: Plum Pudding, Sweet Blush, Lemon Tart CS, Aqua Mist Bitty Dot Basics (PTI); Whisper White (SU)
Ink: Versafine Black Onyx (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Sweet Blush button, ribbon (PTI); Scallop border punch, corner rounder punch (SU)

Today's the Day!! - Verve Release Party

I totally meant to post this earlier, but we had a fun-filled morning swimming at the pool in Kihei with my good friend Ellyn and her son Charlie. (check out the adorable pic of Dean in his new swim goggles below - I was cracking up laughing!). Anyway, the Verve Release Party kicks off at 8:00 pm Eastern tonight. There are a TON of giveaways being announced and the Verve Divas will be sharing all of our fab creations with the new stamp sets before they're available to purchase immediately following the festivities!! Stop by and join us for some fun times!!

Here's another Sneak Peek at one of my favorite projects with the new stamps:

I made a birthday gift card holder & cake slice gift box (basic instructions HERE) with the new Party Time set and some printed digi paper from the Forever Young kit by Libby Weifenbach. The cake slice box is a template from Kelleigh Ratzlaff that is part of her August Grab Bag (along with several other fantastic templates!!).

And here's a look at Dean sportin' his cool new swim goggles:
See you at the Release Party in a few hours!!
-Jen

School Days

Hey there! Just wanted to pop in and share another Clear and Simple Stamps sneak peek with you all today. Don't forget the CSS release is coming up on Saturday and believe me, you don't want to miss these new sets!!

This card I made for my son's AWESOME babysitter, Sarah (who returned to school a few weeks ago) uses the soon-to-be-released School Days set. I stamped the locker image, colored it with my Copic Markers and then popped it up on dimensionals. The papers are printed digi papers from the Spelling Buzz kit by Libby Weifenbach (Sweet Shoppe). I added a punched star and some screw brads for embellishments. I think Sarah will like it.

Here's a pic of Sarah and Dean on her last weekday babysitting gig of the summer. Dean LOVES Sarah:
Materials Used:
Stamps: School Days (Clear and Simple Stamps)
Paper: printed digi paper from Spelling Buzz by Libby Weifenbach
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Word Window Punch, Star Punch

Mahalo for stopping by! Stop back tomorrow for some new Verve goodies!!
-Jen

WINNERS announced for Battle of the Creative Teams

Well, it's over. And guess what!?!? The Libby Lou Crew WON Battle of the Creative Teams!!! I am so freakin' excited!! Thank you so much to all of my Blog Readers who helped us out by voting for us each week this past month!! As a special thank you to all of you, Libby is offering a very special 30% off coupon to her store! Use the code LLC2009 to get 30% off Libby's products. (Excludes 2Scoops & Triple Dip collabs). Head on over to Libby's Blog for all the details and then go shopping!! (but hurry! It expires tomorrow!)

THANK YOU!!!

P.S. - Sorry for all the multiple posts today, but I just couldn't wait to share this!!

- Jen

Beep.

Well, good news!! Tropical Storm Felicia has pretty much been dying a slow and painful death as she moves across Hawaiian waters, so all that preparation was just as I expected - for nothing!! Oh well. Better safe than sorry, right? We have been getting a lot of rain in Kahului today, but we needed it.

Anyway, it's Wednesday again already and that means I have another cute little project to share using product from ABC Toys & Crafts. This week I decided to make a SUPER simple card (shocking, I know) using my Slice digital cutter. Check it out:

Cute, yeah? I used the new Big Kids Design Card to cut out the 3 robots from textured Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and So Saffron CS, mounting them on a Kraft base with a little Chocolate Chip mat for definition. The sentiment, a simple "beep" (which in my mind is robot-speak for "hello") was also cut out using the Big Kids Design Card from Chocolate Chip CS. I love this clean and simple layout and it was so quick and easy to make, yet so effective and PERFECT for little boys (who are notoriously hard to craft for). I can see myself using the Slice and this particular card layout over and over again (with different shapes and colors of course) to create a whole series of cards. Be watching the ole blog for more like this soon!!

ABC Toys & Crafts has a HUGE selection of Slice Design Cards and Accessories. They also have a few good sales going on right now - with items like Inkadinkado stamps and Primas marked down. Head on over and check them out!!

Thanks for stopping by!
- Jen

Anni-VERVE-sary Week kick-off

Ok, I'm totally swiping the following from the Verve Blog, but Julee just has such a way with words, ya know!?!? LOL. Here are the details on all the goings-on...and I just have to mention as I've been busy crafting away with the new stamps this past weekend - you so do NOT want to miss this release!! I know I say it every single time, but REALLY!!! Total and complete AWESOMENESS!!!

And check out all of these amazing opportunities to win Verve goodies this week...seriously - Julee continuously amazes me with her generosity!!

Anni-VERVE-sary Sketch Challenges
Julee has designed five brand new sketches for this release. Play along by this Friday, August 14 at 6PM Eastern for your chance to win Verve's ENTIRE release! Check out all the sketches and the deets on this thread in our SCS forum.

Diva Giveaways
Throughout the week, our Divas will be posting giveaway threads in our SCS forum. Participate along with them (it might be a challenge, a game, a question or some other activity) and you might win $25 in Verve Bucks, good for anything in the Verve Store. A few Divas are scheduled to post each day Monday - Thursday, so there's 13 chances to win!

Sneak Previews
Sneak previews officially start on the Verve blog TODAY (Tuesday). Each day this week, the Divas will be bringing you some Verve-alicious peeks at the sets releasing this weekend! Plus there'll be more chances to win some stamps!

Anni-VERVE-sary Release Party
Last, but not least, our release party will be this Friday night (August 14) at 8PM Eastern. We'll be revealing the 7 new sets and 2 plain jane singles, as well as chatting and announcing all of our release week winners. Be there or be square! Oh, WHERE you ask? Over on the Release Party thread in our forum!

Take the Challenge - Get Sketchy

August is here and Clear and Simple Stamps is doing things a little different this month - since the first Tuesday of the month (Take the Challenge Tuesday) fell on the first day of the month, we decided to move TCC to the 2nd Tuesday of the month - Today!! This month for Take the challenge Tuesday we are going to Get Sketchy. Maria created this fun sketch for all of us to play with this month:

Join us over in the Clear and Simple Stamps Group on Papercraft Planet to play along in the Let's Get Sketchy Challenge!! Create your own card or project using Maria's sketch and upload it to the Papercraft Planet gallery (if you need help, HERE is a tutorial for uploading photos to the PCP gallery) using the tag TTC08.

Here's a look at my creation with the sketch using the soon-to-be-released ABC...123 set, one of my faves from the upcoming New Releases!

Stamps: ABC...123 (Clear & Simple)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Dusty Durango CS (SU); White Pure Luxury CS (GinaK); Teacher's Pet DP (Imaginisce)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Copic Markers
Accessories: Corkboard; Riding Hood Red ribbon (SU)

Be sure to stop by the other Clear & Simple DT blogs to check out what the other girls created with Maria's fabulous sketch!!

• Beth Matson
• Erin Bigler
• Kim Howard
• Lori Tecler
• Maria Levine
• Neva McMullen
• Robyn Weatherspoon
• Sue Berker

Thanks for stopping by!!
-Jen

Battle of the Creative Teams - Round #4

Well, it's FINALLY here!! The 4th and final round of Battle of the Creative Teams! That means this is the last time (and the last chance) I'll be begging for your votes in this fun competition! So, one more time - please vote for the Libby Lou Crew HERE before Midnight (EDT) Tuesday!! Thank you!

I've had so much fun during this competition the last 4 weeks, but I have to admit - I'm so glad it's just about over! It has been A LOT more work than I anticipated and the competition has been stiff!! You can check out my entries for the previous rounds below:
Round 1 - Family Time Organizer
Round 2 - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Round 3 - The Mathematical Cuteness of Dean

This week's Challenge, Inspiration Found, was to Scraplift 2 of our teammates. Each of us was only making one project, but had to take part of one temmate's layout and combine it with a part of another teammate's layout. Once again, this was really tough on me as a hybrid artist - I had to find 2 digi layouts that I could easily (or at least attempt to) carry over onto some sort of hybrid project. The Libby Lou Crew worked together and each of us was lifted twice. I set about the task of browsing through the galleries of Linz and Laurie and decided to lift Linz's Just Us layout and Laurie's Bee-a-utiful layout.

Here's what I came up with:

It's a little "Beach Treasures" Keepsake box for Dean to put all of his little beach finds in - he is always carrying home little treasures in the pockets of his board shorts every time we go to the beach. Of course, I wanted it to match his room so I used the fabulous Jen & Dean kit by Libby (you might remember that Libby used Dean's new bedding as inspiration for this digi kit, so it was the perfect choice for this project!!).

Here are a few more shots of the finished box:

You can check out the rest of my team's beautiful layouts (Laurie even used some super cute photos of Dean on her layout) using the Jen & Dean kit for Round #4 HERE.

And then don't forget to go vote for the Libby Lou Crew HERE!!!

On another note, we had a super fun family outing this morning on a nice little waterfall hike over on the North Shore. If you're interested, you can read about our adventures HERE on our family blog. Have a fabulous week!!

- Jen

My Time to Create Inspiration Challenge

Happy Saturday! Hopefully everyone's having a fun weekend!!

We're anxiously watching the progress of Hurricane Felicia, which currently is headed straight for Hawaii!! Most likely it will fizzle out once it passes over cooler waters sometime tomorrow and will only be a Tropical Depression or Tropical Storm when it reaches us sometime on Monday, but you just never know with these things. And unlike those of you living in hurricane-prone areas of the mainland who at least have the option of evacuating if things do look like they will get bad, there is nowhere to evacuate TO when you live on a tiny island!! So even though chances are all we'll get is some good surf and heavy rain next week, we do have to take this very seriously and take all precautions. So we have spent the last 2 days going through our "Hurricane Survival Kit" and throwing out the old out-of-date food and restocking it with fresh batteries, water, etc. We know where there are 3 pet-friendly shelters within 5-10 miles of us, we have a list of things we'll need to pack up on Sunday "just in case" if it Felicia does end up staying strong, and overall we feel prepared for the worst but are only expecting a little bit of rain excitement!! (It IS a little frustrating to have to do all this work knowing most likely it will all be for nothing, but at the same time REALLY hoping it IS all for nothing!!).

Anyway, sorry for the off-topic rambling!! Since it's Saturday, it's time for another My Time to Create Challenge and we have another super fun Inspiration Challenge for you to play along with this week. Here's a look at the Inspiration Photo:

And - exciting news!!! - Lauren is going to be showcasing the Top 5 challenge entries each week on her blog in a new feature called "My Time to Shine". So be sure to play along for your chance to shine!!

I just loved all the colors and the bright, summery feel of the inspiration photo. Here's the super simple card I came up with (loosely based on Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #29):

Materials Used:
Stamps: Everyday Button Bits, Polka Dot Basics II (PTI)
Paper: Spring Moss, Hibiscus Burst, Sweet Blush CS (PTI); Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White CS (SU)
Ink: Ripe Avocado, Fresh Snow (PTI)
Accessories: Scallop Border Punch, corner rounder (SU); Hibiscus Burst, Sweet Blush buttons (PTI)

Be sure to check out what all of the My Time to Create DT girls have done with this awesome little piece of Inspiration:

Alicia

Dana G

Kendra

Kristen

Lauren

MacKenzie

Maria

Odette

Tamara Harder

Tracey Cuccia

And then go whip up your own project and link us up to your creation using Mr. Linky on Lauren's post for a chance to be highlighted next week in the My Time to Shine feature!!