Sweet Sunday Sketch #141

Hi there! Has it really been 2 whole weeks since I blogged? Sorry I've been so quiet - things have been hectic around here with work, school, and sadly we had a death in my extended family a few weeks ago that has had me a bit distracted. Anyway, I have a few posts I want to try to get in before the end of the month, so the next few days will be a bit of catch-up around here. First though, how about a new Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge? It's a fun one this week!


I made the last of my Halloween cards for the year, finally getting a new Verve set inky:


I couldn't get this one to photograph well and the ribbon ended up looking a lot darker / brighter than the orange in the DP - you'll just have to trust me that in real life, it's all nice and matchy-match. Aren't those ghosts cute? And the pretty font on the sentiment? Love it. They're from the new Boo to You set (Verve). There's also a really great pumpkin in the set that I can't wait to use on a couple of Thanksgiving cards!!

Be sure to stop by all the Sweet Sunday Stampers' blogs and see what they've done with this week's sketch.

• Dana White
• Karen Motz
• Karen Giron
• Lynn Put
• Sarah-Jane Kale'
• Vicki Burdick

Then play along with us and post your own creation using InLinkz over on today's post on Karen's Blog!

I hope I schedule this post correctly. Have you mainlanders had daylight savings time changes yet? We don't do that in Hawaii and I always get confused when that happens (and obviously don't even know for sure when it happens - I just know that at some point most of the rest of you Americans will "fall back", right?). Oh well. I guess we'll find out. Somebody tell me when daylight savings time starts (ends? whatever).

Sweet Sunday Sketch #139

Hi there! As I type up my post for Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #139, I'm realizing that I never posted my sample card for Sketch Challenge #138, which I DID finish but was unable to post on time due to internet outage and then things just got away from me this week - my grandmother is still here visiting (she leaves Tuesday), I have a sinus infection that is really starting to annoy me, and I started volunteering in Dean's kindergarten class this week (which was LOTS of fun, but will take away one of my 2 days off work each week. I'm planning to continue this on a regular weekly basis, so this will bite into some of my crafty time, but that's the sacrifice you make and part of the reason I cut back this fall on design team commitments). So anyway, yeah...I never posted that card. Sorry! Maybe I'll get to doing that eventually. Maybe not. We'll see how things go this week. But on to this week's sketch. I LOVE this sketch and I had lots of fun with it!!


I decided to get some new-ish Verve stamps inky for the first time and create a cute "hello" card to add to my Just Because stash:


I have to say I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out! Those cute little coffee cups are from the Better With You set (which is currently on SALE btw!!) and I paper pieced them with scraps to match the rest of the card. All of that paper is printed digi paper from the Birds of a Feather digi kit by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe). I decided to stray a bit from the sketch and instead of a banner I stapled a cute little tag to the top left corner of my card. And that tag is totally stamped too! The tag and the "hello" sentiment are from the Tag Time set (also on sale at Verve). For finishing touches I added some pom-pom trim, a little baker's twine and a button and was done!

Be sure to stop by all the Sweet Sunday Stampers' blogs and see what they've done with this week's sketch.

• Dana White
• Karen Motz
• Karen Giron
• Lynn Put
• Sarah-Jane Kale'
• Vicki Burdick

Then play along with us and post your own creation using InLinkz over on today's post on Karen's Blog!

Swimming for Katie Blog Hop

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by today. It's an important day as today I'm one of 125 stampers who are coming together over the next 3 days to support, encourage, and share a little aloha with fellow stamper and beautiful young mother and wife, Katie Renz. Battling terminal Stage 4 Gastric Cancer since last Christmas, in her most recent blog post Katie talked of shopping for cemetery plots and planning her own funeral. This blog hop is to raise funds to help Katie's young family as well as share some love with a talented young woman who's time here is limited. Katie's story begins HERE and the idea for "Swimming for Katie" came from a more recent post HERE.


The image used on my card, along with other images and cut files are available to purchase HERE. All of the proceeds go to Katie’s family. Donations are also accepted, the donation button can be found on each blog hop post, as it is here:

Day One Blog Hop List:

AJ Otto


Beate


Carolyn Mustopa


Dawn Burnworth


Deb Felts


Gretchen Belknap


Heather Jensen


Jen del Muro


Julie Ranae


Kate - i {heart} papers


Kendra Wietstock


Lisa Johnson


Loretta Lock


Lori Tecler


Lynn Mercurio


Marianne Walker


Michele Gross


Stacy aka Twinshappy


Tracy Schultz


Debbie Olson


Cindy Lawrence


Cindy Haffner 


Julie Koerber


Christine Okken


Tammy Hershberger


Danielle Kennedy


Barbara Anders


Makiko Jones


Ashley N Newell


Shannan Teubner


Taylor Usry


Jen Tapler


Jenn Balcer


Jenny Chesnick


Jess Larsen


Jessica Knutsen


Jimmi Mayo


Joan Bardee


Joan Ervin


Julia Aston


Julie Day


Julie Ebersole

Halloween Countdown Calendar

Hi there! I wanted to pop in and quickly share this super cute Halloween project I created a few days ago. Inspired by a project I saw on Pinterest, I created a hybrid Halloween Countdown Treat-filled Calendar using a mini muffin tin tray and printed digi paper and elements from the fabulous new Autumn Fun - Ghoul's Night digi kit by Jady Day Studio (After 5 Designs). Each muffin tin hole is filled with a small Halloween candy or toy and like an Advent Calendar, we'll use it to count down the last 24 days until Halloween.


Jady Day Studio is the Guest Designer in October over at After 5 and she has some FABULOUS stuff planned for this month! (you can her regular shop filled with lots of other amazing kits HERE at Scrap Matters). But that Ghoul's Night kit is seriously so cute! I just had to share. So many fun Halloween papers and elements. I love it!

ETA: I've had a couple of questions about what I used to attach the paper to the tin. I just used regular paper adhesive. Like the tape runner variety. I typically use the red E-Z Runner from Scrapbook Adhesives and I just put 1 or 2 strips in each corner of each paper square and stuck it on. They peel off easy enough from the tin and don't seem to leave any adhesive behind. If it does, I'll just scrape it off with a fingernail. That being said, I could make this more re-usable year after year by using something like magnets, but there's not much overlap of the paper onto the tin around the hole (if that makes sense?). I suppose I could buy the adhesive magnet sheets and cut small strips to put on the sides of the paper? It's definitely worth trying I think. Each paper square measures about 2 1/8 inch square. I printed them out at 2.5 inches, but ended up needing to trim them down quite a bit to get them to fit. They're just a little over 2 inches each.

OK, that's it from me today. My Grandma is still here and it's still Fall Break. We're headed Upcountry this morning to Giggle Hill to the playground to try to let Dean burn off some energy. I think we'll drive back down the mountain on scenic Baldwin Ave and end up in Paia and have a couple of Cinnamon Crepes for lunch (nice and healthy, ya know!) at Cafe des Amis. Sounds like a perfect way to start a weekend to me. We have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow - my Sooners game kicks off at 6:00 a.m. here. ugh.

Verve Diva Inspirations October Blog Hop

Welcome to the October Diva Inspirations Blog Hop! (Really!? October!!?? Unreal.) Our Diva Inspirations and Release teams are here to start your month off right with a little Verve inspiration! Take a little peek at each of the fabulous blogs below and leave a little comment love for their Verve-alicious eye candy and you just might win some Vervey goodness of your very own!

1. Julee 9. Charmaine 2. Betty 10. Sankari 3. Dawn 11. Teresa 4. Jen d. 12. Andrea 5. Lynda 13. Tosh 6. Shannan 14. Maureen 7. Sony 15. Amy 8. Susan 16. Laurie

We've hidden a little mystery prize on one of today's hop spots, so be sure to leave a little comment love as you hop around for a chance to win!
Comment Deadline: 11:59pm Mountain, October 10
Prize: $30 gift certificate to Verve

I decided to play along with this week's MoJo Monday sketch when creating my card for the hop. Take a look at the sketch (and a little side note: It's MoJo Madness Contest Week, meaning there are even MORE Verve Prizes up for grabs over on the MoJo Monday blog!!). Here's a look at the sketch:
I created a super clean and simple hybrid version of the sketch for my card using a couple of my favorite Verve stamps:


Pretty soft and feminine for me, yeah? But I kinda dig it. All of the patterned paper is printed digi paper from the Beautiful You digi kit by Zoe Pearn (Sweet Shoppe). I heat embossed the three sizes of outline flowers from Great Friend with detail white embossing powder on light pink cardstock and cut them out, layering them with foam adhesive. I added a little flagged sentiment strip from Accent Notes and was done!

A few extra things I don't want to forget...
- October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and we're doing our part to raise awareness. Verve has a special Think Pink SALE, with all in-stock stamps and dies 20% off October 1-16. And to sweeten the deal, Verve will donate 10% of proceeds from this sale to the Susan G. Koman For the Cure foundation!!
- A New month brings a new Stamp of the Month...Harvest Blessings will be 40% off during the month of October!! What a steal!

Sweet Sunday Sketch #137

Hi! It's Sunday and that means it's time for another Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge! I absolutely LOVE this week's sketch and will definitely be using it again and again!!


I'm keeping things short and sweet this week - my Grandmother arrived for a 3-week visit and we're spending lots of time just hanging out and enjoying her company, but things are a bit hectic. So I'll get right to my sample card this week:


I made a fun hybrid Halloween card using printed digi papers from That Old Black Magic by Dani Mogstad (Sweet Shoppe). I also used my new Halloween Treats and Sweets stamp set and coordinating dies (PTI). I LOVE the way this card turned out and think this is one that will actually get mailed!!

Be sure to stop by all the Sweet Sunday Stampers' blogs and see what they've done with this week's sketch.

• Dana White
• Karen Motz
• Karen Giron
• Lynn Put
• Sarah-Jane Kale'
• Vicki Burdick

Then play along with us and post your own creation using InLinkz over on today's post on Karen's Blog!

Hope everyone's having a fabulous weekend! It's still Saturday here on Maui - we went to the Maui County Fair today. Below are a couple of photos from our fun-filled day. It was lots of fun, but it was HOT and dirty. But living on Maui, opportunities to ride any type of ride (and get heckled by Carnies) are few and far between. Anyway. the first photo is so funny to me - I don't do spinny rides that go in a circle (not even a Merry-go-round) due to extreme motion sickness, so Joel is quite the sport. I love that he'll stuff all 6'3" of himself into one of these tiny helicopters so Dean doesn't miss out!! It was hilarious!

October SFYTT

Can you believe it's October!? Unreal. It also happens to be the first Saturday of the month and that means it's time for another fabulous Sketch For You To Try! One of my very favorite companies is our sponsor this month - Waltzingmouse Stamps!! So exciting!


I had lots of fun playing with a new (to me) stamp set and digging into my extensive WMS stash to create my sample card this month! But first things first, let's take a look at this month's fun sketch:


Now, I'll admit I struggled with this one at first. Mostly because I really wanted to use my new Compliments of the Season stamp set and I had a hard time figuring out how to make it work with that large main panel. Then I decided that nobody said that had to be a main image / stamp panel, right? Who said I couldn't add my own little layers to the sketch? So I did!


I think you can still see the basic sketch there, I just added a large sentiment flag using a stamp from my Compliments of the Season stamp set. And that fun musical notes patterned paper? Yep, made that myself using the Musical Backgrounds stamp set. All of the other patterned paper is from an old Girl's Paperie holiday line from last year (sorry I don't remember the name!), because I don't have any new and updated holiday paper! I added a mini rosette with button center and some glittery twisty things that I picked up last year in the holiday section at K-Mart (they come in a bunch and are supposed to be ornaments, but I just cut the individual branches off and use them as accents on cards). And that's it! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and proud of myself for creating my first holiday card of the year - I didn't send out a single one last year! ha!


Be sure to stop by the rest of the SFYTT Sisters' blogs to see what they've done with this month's sketch!

Jen del Muro
Amber Hight
Amy Sheffer
Becky Carafa
Carole Burrage
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)
Jodi Collins
Kerry Johnson
Megan Lock
Sony Christoph
Susan Liles
Terri Moore

Here are all the pertinent SFYTT details you should know...
1. The SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY {SFYTT} will be posted on the first Saturday of each month on www.iheart2stamp.com at 8am EST and will stay open to participants until the last day of the month, unless otherwise noted.
2. This is for fun! Interpret the sketch as you wish and embellish as desired. There are no vendor restrictions, but we would love to see you use the sponsor’s stamps!
3. Each month we will have a Designer of the Month that will be chosen from past month’s participants.
4. Come and play with us on each and every sketch! On Christmas Day 2011 a prize package worth over $200 will be given away to one very lucky and loyal SFYTT stamper that participates in EVERY sketch for the year.
5. To be eligible for the prize package, you must complete ALL of the sketches by each of the deadlines AND link your creation to the link system on that month’s sketch post (the first Saturday of the month). Everyone except for SFYTT Sisters are eligible for the prize package, including Designer of the Month and international players.
6. When posting your sketch creation on your blog, please post the sketch and link back to the sketch post on www.iheart2stamp.com. When posting to online galleries, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”