Basket, Sweet Sunday and Clear and Simple Sneak Peek

LOTS of stuff to share with you today!! It's the first of the month (WOW!! November already!?!? YIKES!) so that means it's time to start peeking the Clear and Simple stamps November sets for you. My project for today showcases one of the November releases, New Year, and it is so much fun!!
I incorporated this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch #42 by Karen for the matching card and used this month's Basket of Thanks Template by Sue Berker to create the little treat basket. The card's sentiment, the large "new year" on the basket handle and the little orange starburst thingies on some of the candies are from the New Year stamp set by Clear and Simple Stamps (releasing Nov 15). Here's a closer look at that adorable basket:
The DP is all printed digi paper from the Fighting Gravity digi kit by Scrapkitchen Designs and Melissa Bennett (Sweet Shoppe Designs). Here's a closer look at the card:

And here's a look at Karen's sketch for this week:Be sure to stop by the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers' blogs to see what they've done with the sketch:

• Karen Motz
• Laura Fredrickson
• Lynn Put
• Nancy Riley
• Sarah-Jane Kale'
• Vicki Burdick

And then be sure to play along, using the Mr. Linky on Karen's post to share your creation with all of us!!

The first of the month is always so exciting around Clear and Simple Stamps! In addition to that fabulous basket template, today marks the release of the new Stamp of the Month, and a new Copic Trio Bundle!

This month's Stamp of the Month is Fall Studio. Use the discount code DTBlog1109 at checkout to save $1 on the SOTM. Each month, in addition to the SOTM, CSS offers the Copic bundle. This month CSS is featuring the Copic Trio Yellow Green 1 {YG01, YG03, YG07}. Purchase both the Copic Trio set and the SOTM and save $4, an economical and fun way to build your CSS and Copic Sketch Marker collection at the same time. Don't wait any longer, start to TRIO today - you'll just love it! {HINT, HINT....use the SOTM discount code DTBlog1109 to save an extra $1 off}.

BLOG CANDY ALERT!! - The fun doesn't end here...CSS is giving away {1} Stamp of the Month - FALL STUDIO stamp set. Wanna play? Create a Basket of Thanks using the template and put a link to your project in the comment section of THIS POST on the CSS Blog. Be creative and have fun with it. A winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, November 4th.

And finally, head on over to the other CSS DT blogs to see the other sneak peeks today!!

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

More Awareness Darling

Well, I'm afraid my computer might be dying a slow and agonizing death!! I've had trouble with it quite a bit this week, which is why I haven't posted anything since Monday. (I really had intentions to share this stuff with you before now, the last day of October!!). But such is life. {sigh}. My car is also dying, as in it's actually probably already dead. I drive what the locals refer to as a "Maui Cruzer" (translation: complete piece of crap), but it's been paid off for years and my insurance premiums are practically free and it gets awesome gas mileage AND it has done a fairly decent job of getting me where I needed to go since I moved to Maui 6 years ago. Sadly though, my Maui Cruzer is going to be donated (most likely to the Alzheimer's Association) later this week. That means I will be shopping for a new car soon. But the thing that sucks the most is the timing - isn't that always how these things work?? Joel leaves tomorrow for a week on the mainland and he drives a standard. I do NOT drive a standard. I understand the concept and all, but it just doesn't happen for me. So we had to go rent me a car to drive for the next week - to the tune of $330 (ouch) - until he gets home and we can go car shopping. I must say though, after driving to Kihei this morning in my rental, it is quite nice to drive something that doesn't sound and feel like the tires are going to vibrate off at any second AND the air conditioner actually blows cold air. But guess what!?!? It even has this really cool thing they've invented called POWER WINDOWS and POWER LOCKS!!! LOL. (My Maui Cruzer didn't even have that!!).

Ok, anyway, enough of all that. On to the remainder of my Awareness Darling creations for Clear and Simple Stamps. All of these are Hybrid cards using printed digi papers from the Anticipation digi kit by Mandabean and Penny Springmann (Sweet Shoppe Designs). Complete Recipes are listed below each individual card:
Stamps: Awareness Darling (Clear and Simple)
Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip CS (SU); printed digi paper from Anticipation digi kit by Mandabean and Penny Springmann (Sweet Shoppe)
Ink: Berry Sorbet (PTI)
Accessories: Ribbon, Button (PTI); Scallop Border Punch (SU); twine

Stamps: Awareness Darling (Clear and Simple)
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White CS (SU); printed digi paper from Anticipation digi kit by Mandabean and Penny Springmann (Sweet Shoppe)
Ink: Versafine Vintage Sepia
Accessories: ribbon, button (PTI); hemp twine

Stamps: Awareness Darling (Clear and Simple)
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White CS (SU); Hibiscus Burst CS (PTI); printed digi paper from Anticipation digi kit by Mandabean and Penny Springmann (Sweet Shoppe)
Ink: Hibiscus Burst (PTI); Versamark
Accessories: Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Ribbon, corner rounder (SU); White embossing powder

So that's it!! I hope you all did something this month in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and if not, there's still time - go feel yourself up and give yourself a self breast exam!!! LOL. It's important!!!). Sorry I had to lump all these cards together in one post - I meant to slowly share them with you over this week, but as you can tell from my earlier venting, it's been quite the week around here!!

And I haven't forgotten about the promise of Blog Candy. I'll be sharing the details on that tomorrow (Sunday) night if all goes according to plan - it will be worth the wait, I promise!!

Awareness Darling

As most of you probably know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - and since it's officially the last week of October (is anyone else going Holy Crap!! Where did this month go!?!? or is it just me?) I thought I'd finally get around to sharing one of the cards I made using Clear and Simple Stamps' set, Awareness Darling.
I used a Kraft CS base for this card and designed the layout around Karen Giron's older Sweet Sunday Sketch #37. I stamped the main image in Momento Rich Cocoa ink and colored her with my Copic Markers (I'll try to remember to come back and edit this post later with the colors I used). I mounted the main image panel on Chocolate Chip cardstock and added some ribbon and buttons as embellishments. As a final touch, I added some fine glitter to the trim and pom-pom of her hat, which I just love!! It's really hard to see it in the photos, but it looks so cute in real life!!

I have a few more Awareness Darling cards to share with you over the next few days, so stay tuned!!

AND... I noticed that sometime while I was on Oahu this past weekend, my Hit Counter rolled past 100,000 hits, so I think it's time for a little celebration!! I'll be posting some info about some SUPER cool blog candy I'll be giving away (worth over $100!!!) in the next few days, so be sure to stop back by for more details. I'm still trying to figure out if I should come up with a creative challenge of some sort or what?? What do you guys think?

Believe Blog Hop

Welcome to the Verve Believe Blog Hop. If you’ve just happened across my blog, you’ll want to start back at the beginning on Julee's Blog and hop your way along. Today we’re hopping for the Cure, sharing projects from a new set Verve just released called Believe. This set was designed in honor of breast cancer awareness and Verve is donating $10 from the sale of every Believe set to the Susan G Komen For the Cure foundation. We believe that we can make a difference. We believe that each day should be celebrated, each moment cherished and that every little thing we can do in the fight to find a cure matters.

I created this card using 3 of the "layer-able" flower images and the "Treasure this Moment" sentiment from the new Believe set:

I used a Whisper White CS base along with lots of printed digi paper from the Anticipation kit by Mandabean and Penny Springmann (Sweet Shoppe). I included some ribbon and a button for embellishment (PTI) and used an off-set circle (Spellbinders nestabilities die) to highlight the flower image.

Thanks for hopping by! Next up on the hop is the fabulous Lynda!! Oh, and we’ve got a special gift hidden along our hop for one lucky commenter, so if you see something you really love, give a little shout out and you just might win a $30 gift certificate to Verve!

Tonight's the Night - Verve Release Party!!!

I'm so bummed I won't get to party with everyone tonight at the Verve Release Party!! Don't have too much fun without me!! While all of you are having a blast, I'll be sitting in a continuing education class in a PT clinic in Honolulu, probably bored out of my skull!! So be thinking of me! :-)

I thought I'd post a couple cards I created using some of the new stamps since I won't be able to share them during the party tonight. I've got to get busy packing for my trip, so I'm going to just list the stamp set(s) used on each card. If you have questions about any of the other products used, please leave a comment or e-mail me and I'll reply ASAP!!

Using Christmas in the Air and Frosty Flakes, DP is printed digi paper from Merry & Bright by Zoe Pearn (Sweet Shoppe):

Using Frosty Flakes:

Using Star of Wonder:

Well, that's it for me. You can see more Sneak Peeks of all of the New Releases over on the Verve Blog. I'll be back tomorrow with one more project using one of the new Verve stamp sets, so stop back by then. Have fun at the Release Party tonight!!

Verve Sneak Peek - Holly Jolly Christmas

Wooo Hooo!! It's Release Week at Verve Stamps!! Have you had a chance to check out the Sneak Peeks going on over on the Verve Blog this week? If not, be sure to head on over and take a look and read all the details about the many opportunities to win Verve prizes this week, including some fun Release Week sketch challenges!!

Today I'm sharing a card I created using the new Holly Jolly Christmas set, one of my faves from this release:
This set of 16 stamps includes 6 different ornaments "hanger thingies", a few sentiments, and a couple of other cute little goodies that I'll let be a surprise! For my card, I started (as usual) with a Kraft base and added some new American Crafts DP. I stamped some of the ornaments in Old Olive and Riding Hood Red ink on Whisper White CS as well as the small ornament in Momento Rich Cocoa on some American Crafts paper. The ornament hangers and the sentiment were stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with silver embossing powder. I cut each ornament and hanger thingie out and popped them all up on varying depths of dimensionals, then tied everything together with some silver cording around the top of the card.

A few of the other Verve Divas have some more peeks using the Holly Jolly Christmas set as well as the new Christmas in the Air set today over on the Verve Blog. And the Release Party is tomorrow night (9 PM Eastern). Unfortunately, as you read this, I've already flown to Oahu for continuing education in Honolulu all weekend so I'll have to miss out on the Release Party. But I do have a few blog posts scheduled for the next several days, so stop back by to see some more new Verve goodies!!!

Sweet Sunday Sketch #40

Happy Sunday!! Time for another one of Karen's fabulous Sweet Sunday Sketches! Karen came up with a super fun sketch this week and I've really been on a tall / long card kick lately, so this was right up my alley!! Here's this week's sketch:
And here's my sample (sorry for the crappy photo, I finished it up late Saturday night and didn't have good lighting!!):
I used printed digi papers from Happy Ending by Libby Weifenbach (Sweet Shoppe) for all of the papers on this card except for the Kraft base. I just love that fall-ish color palette! I kept it pretty simple otherwise, stamping the Happy Birthday sentiment in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink. The circles are punched out and popped up on dimensionals along with the sentiment strip.

Be sure to stop by the other Sweet Sunday Stampers' blogs to see what the other girls have done with the sketch this week:
so don't forget to stop on by to see:

• Karen Motz
• Laura Fredrickson
• Lynn Put
• Nancy Riley
• Sarah-Jane Kale'
• Vicki Burdick

And then be sure to play along, using the Mr. Linky on Karen's post to share your creation with all of us!!

Clear and Simple Stamps Autumn Release

It's the 15th of the month and that means it's time for another awesome release from Clear and Simple Stamps!! This month's Autumn-themed release is FULL of amazing stamps, so be sure to check them all out!Can't decide which set(s) you want? How about ALL of them? With the I Want It All package, you can order the entire collection in one single click.
This is a package valued at $135, including all {9} newly released stamp sets.

Spooky Sweets
Woodlands
Holi-Dazzle
Holly Jolly
Cookie Bake
Taste of Christmas
Autumn
Wheat

I worked with the Holly Jolly set this month and it is such a fun and versatile Holiday set!! Take a look at these 2 little "scraplings" that I created:Stamps: Holly Jolly (CSS)
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White CS (SU); DP from Scenic Route
Ink: Momento Rich Cocoa; Copic Markers
Accessories: ribbon, button, dimensionals

Stamps: Holly Jolly (CSS)
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White CS (SU); DP from Scenic Route
Ink: Momento Rich Cocoa; Copic Markers
Accessories: ribbon, button, dimensionals

I promise I'll have a few more projects to share with you between now and the holidays as I have more fun playing with this stamp set.

Be sure to stop by the other Clear and Simple DT blogs to see what the other girls have created with the other new sets:

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

Verve Project Parade

Today was my day to host the Verve Project Parade and I *almost* blew it!! LOL. I had my days completely mixed up and was super late getting my post up on the Verve Blog. But it's there now and if you head on over to THIS POST, you can read all about my "Encouraging" little project I created for Dean. Here's a look at the project:

And don't forget to leave a comment on all of the Project Parade posts - there will be a secret comment winner!! Then play along with us for a chance to win $35 in Verve bucks!!

Simply Halloween

Hi there!! Well, we're finally starting to get back to our normal routine a bit after more than 3 weeks of the sickies around here! I'm still hacking and honking and sounding like I'm going to cough up a lung any minute now, but amazingly I feel SOOO much better!! And I'm finally starting to crawl out from under my gigantic pile of overdue "to dos"!!

First on that list is a post for ABC Toys and Crafts. I seriously whipped up this card in under 10 minutes tonight!! I love these easily mass-produced cards that use great DP (like this new stuff from American Crafts) and a fun stamp. This particular Inkadinkado Happy Halloween stamp is currently 25% off along with ALL of the Inkadinkado rubber and clear stamps in the ABC Toys and Crafts store!!

So head on over to the ABC Toys and Crafts store and stock up on some Inkadinkado for a great price between now and Oct 24!!

Sweet Sunday Sketch #39

Hi there! It's Sunday and that means it's time for another fabulous Sweet Sunday Sketch from the very talented Karen Giron!! Here's a look at this week's sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I have to tell you that I LOVE this sketch!! I know I say that every week (well, almost every week - she DID throw in those tilted panels one time!! LOL) but really, this one is so super versatile! I pulled out one of my old favorite Verve sets, Floral Whimsy, and paired it with the newer set, Bountiful Backgrounds (used to make the polka dot DP). I used a color combo of Kraft, Rose Red, Old Olive and PTI's Sweet Blush - this is a much more girly color combo than my norm, but I love the way it turned out!! I added a die-cut butterfly (using my butterflies Sizzix die) with some hemp twine tied around the middle and popped up on some dimensionals to give the card some extra depth and interest (wink, wink - Sarah).

Be sure to head on over to the other Sweet Sunday Stampers' blogs to see what those fabulous ladies have done with the sketch!!

• Karen Motz
• Laura Fredrickson
• Lynn Put
• Nancy Riley
• Sarah-Jane Kale
• Vicki Burdick
• and finall, Karen Giron herself

We'd love for you to play along with us this week! Just create a card using the sketch and then use Mr. Linky on Karen's post to share it with the rest of us!!

SFYTT and some Verve

I have a couple of Verve Creations to share with you today. I'm going to keep this short and sweet since I'm still not feeling so hot!!

This first card (definitely NOT one of my favorite projects I've ever done) is an Asian-inspired card for Jen del Muro's Sketch for You to Try from last weekend. I was mostly inspired by that fabulous Japanese Washi paper and I do love that sparkly swan (look!! I used glitter!! {gasp!}) from the Swan Song set, but I'm thinking the red base has got to go. Oh well. My MoJo seems to be hiding under the cover of sickness!! LOL.Here's a closer look at my glitter...get a good look - it doesn't happen very often!!
And here's a fun little hybrid card I made using Verve's new You Rock stamp set along with printed digi papers from the appropriately named You Rock! digi kit by Zoe Pearn (Sweet Shoppe):
Ok, that's it from me today. I'm going to go watch Jim and Pam's wedding on the Office in a few hours and then head to bed early!!

Slacker - that's me!!

LOL. Seriously, I design for the greatest companies out there!! Between all of us having the stomach bug 2 weeks ago, then Dean getting pneumonia and now Joel and I both have some kind of nasty upper respiratory funk (I'm hoping it's NOT the flu and just a bad cold!!), I am so behind on everything and have missed more than a few DT deadlines.

A few of those deadlines were for some exciting Sneak Peeks for the October Release for Clear and Simple Stamps. Fortunately for me, CSS is AWESOME and has been really flexible with me and somehow decided not to fire me (yet!! LOL). Really, I love those girls!! But I wanted to take a minute to try to catch up a bit.

October 1st was Clear and Simple Stamp's reveal of the new Stamp of the Month - Spooky Sweets (along with a fabulous deal on the Yellow Red 1 Copic Bundle). Purchase both the Copic Trio set and the SOTM and save $4, an economical and fun way to build your CSS and Copic Sketch Marker collection at the same time. Use the Promo Code DTBlog1009 to save an extra $1 now through Oct 31 on the SOTM!

In addition to the SOTM, Sue Berker has designed another FABULOUS template this month - this adorable treat basket. Sue designed the basket to be a pumpkin-like trick-or-treat basket, but I tweaked it a bit to give it a Winter Holiday theme. Check it out:
I used the new Holly Jolly stamp set (releasing Oct 15) to create the little gift tag and filled the basket with some covered Hershey's Nuggets.

You can download the free template HERE.

In Addition, yesterday marked the start of Clear and Simple's October Take the Challenge, which I still haven't had a chance to play along with (sorry no sample yet!!). This month's challenge - "Let's Get Punchy" - is to pull out your punches and get creative with them for your Fall/Halloween creation. Play along with the Clear and Simple DT in the Clear and Simple Stamps Group on Papercraft Planet.

And finally, for more inspiration using Sue's basket template AND to see the non-slacker DT members' TTC posts, head on over to the CSS DT blogs:

• Beth Matson
• Kim Howard
• Lori Tecler
• Maria Levine
• Neva McMullen
• Robyn Weatherspoon
• Sue Berker
• Clear and Simple Stamps Blog

Thanks for being patient with me!! I hope to be back to my regular postings soon!! :-)

Sweet Sunday Sketch #38

Here we are - Sunday already!! And that means it's time for Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch #38. I have to tell you that this week's sketch just might be my fave Sweet Sunday sketch so far!! I absolutely LOVE it!! Here's my sample:
I used a Kraft CS base and some printed digi papers from the new Won't You Take Me to Harvest Town digi kit by MandaBean and Melissa Bennett (Sweet Shoppe). The main pumpkin trio image is from Verve's Tall Oaks stamp sets (still one of my all-time favorite Verve sets!!) and the "Blessings" sentiment is from Verve's Hello Pumpkin set. I used Momento Rich Cocoa ink and paper pieced the pumpkins (with printed digi paper). I added some old SU felt ribbon and lots of dimensionals to finish it up!

Here's look at Karen's original sketch:
We'd love for you to play along with us!! Simply make a card using Karen's sketch and use Mr. Linky at the end of Karen's post to enter your card. On Thursday at 10 PM (Mountain Time), Karen will randomly select one card to feature on her blog as the Featured Stamper!!

Be sure to stop by the other Sweet Sunday Stampers' blogs to see what they've created with this week's sketch:

• Karen Motz
• Laura Fredrickson
• Lynn Put
• Nancy Riley
• Sarah-Jane Kale
• Vicki Burdick
• and of course, Karen Giron herself!!
  

Have fun and Happy Stamping!!

World Card Making Day with CSS and PCP

Hi there! First of all, my apologies for being so MIA this week. My son Dean has been sick for almost 2 weeks now and it turns out he has pneumonia!! So we've been back and forth to Urgent Care, the Pediatrician, the pharmacy, etc as well as just dealing with a VERY cranky toddler at home all week!! He does seem to finally be feeling better this morning, so I'm hoping to get back in my groove this weekend!

Now, as most of you probably know, today is World Card Making Day! Clear and Simple Stamps is participating in a fun "Group Hop" over on Papercraft Planet to celebrate. The Clear and Simple Stamps DT has put together a fun little "Scavenger Hunt" type of challenge for you. Head on over to the CSS Group on PCP for full details and to play along for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Clear and Simple Stamps. And here's a little hint for figuring out the set I used on my card for the challenge (you can see the card in the challenge discussion HERE)...

One of the sentiments in this set always reminds me of one of my favorite Alice Cooper songs. You know the one....the one that goes a little something like this:

Well we got no choice
All the girls and boys
Makin' all that noise
'Cause they found new toys
...
...
No more pencils
No more books
No more teachers' dirty looks

So now that you've got some rockin' Alice Cooper stuck in your head all day, head on over to the Clear and Simple Stamps group and play along. FYI - we do have some confusion on the time of our challenge - it's either 9:00 AM or 9:00 PM EST, but I'm pretty sure as long as you post after 9:00 AM EST you'll be OK!! :-)