7/30/09

Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop

Welcome to the first ever official Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop. Verve turns two today and we’re celebrating with a hop, hop, hop! The party kicked off over on the Verve blog, so if you’ve just happened along, be sure to hop on over there to start from the beginning! And to make this party a real shindig, there’s a mystery jackpot hidden at one of the stops along the hop. One lucky commenter on that blog will win Verve’s entire August release! But of course, it wouldn’t be a mystery if you knew which blog, would it? So if you’re feeling the love, give a little shout out to the bloggers in the hop and you just might have a reason to jump for joy! 

One of my very favorite Verve Stamps is Up, Up, and Away. The air balloon is pieced. The clouds are cut out and popped up and I added a little glitter. I made some hills, distressed the edges with ink, and add a zip zag stitch on my sewing machine. The I added the trees. the larger tree is cut out and popped up, and I added a few rhinestone. Then I added some lace, ribbon, and a butterfly charm. The edge punch is Martha Stewart. All the edges are sponged with Tim Holtz distressing ink in Tea Dye.

Thanks for stopping by! Now it’s time to hop on over to Carolina's  for a little more Verve-y goodness.

Melody

Ingredients:
Stamps - Verve Up, Up, and Away, Whimsey Tree
Ink: Memento Black, Tim Holtz Distressing ink in Tea Dye
Paper: DP Graphics 45, SU black, very vanilla
Other: Copics, sewing machinge, rhinestones, glitter, lace, ribbon, charm

7/28/09

Sending You Sunshine

The is my take on this week's My Favorite Challenge in the MFT forum. The challenge was to finish your card inside and out. I used a combination of two MFT stamp sets, On the Pier and By the Seashore. These set are two of my very favorite MFT stamps. Living in California, and growing up at the beach, there is nothing better than a stroll along the ocean!

I colored with copics, pieced the shirt, and cut out and popped up the hat. On the twill ribbon, I stamped shells from By the Seashore in Memento Coffee Bean ink, highlighted them with a copic and heat set the images. I added a zig zag stitch around the edges. Then I added some twine and a seashell charm. All the edges are sponged with distressing ink. I also threaded the button with some of the twine. The twine, the twill ribbon, and the On the Pier stamp are all from this month MFT kit of the month.

On the inside I stamped the water from By the Seashore, masked a small part of the water, and then stamped the bird image.

Melody

Ingredients:
Stamps: MFT On the Pier, By the Seashore
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Coffee Bean, Tim Holtz Distressing Ink Vintage Photo
Paper: DP My Mind's Eye, SU Baja Breeze, chocolate chip, SU Perfect Paper Panels
Other: Sewing Machine, copics, nestibilities, twine, twill, lace, button, punches, charm

7/26/09

Beautiful Kindness

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend. I got a little stamping done, but spent most of the weekend with my family. My college age girls are getting ready to head back to their prospective schools so we are trying to spend as much time together as we can.

This my card the Verve week 3 sketch challenge with a twist. The twist this week is to use scored lines on your card.

On my pink background I scored lines using my score-pal in a diamond shape. I highlighted a lines a little with a copic marker and then I add Liquid Pearls in pink. I stayed with the vintage look of the paper and added lace, ribbon, and vintage looking brads. The butterfly is a charm I colored with a brown copic maker. I add some sewing and distressing ink to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by,
Melody

Ingredients,
Stamps - Beautiful Kindness
Ink - Memento Coffee Bean, Tim Holtz Tea Dye
Paper - DP Basic Grey, SU Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, PTI Brown
Other - Ribbon, Brads, lace, charm, nestibilities, Pearl Stickles

7/22/09

Sweet Little Boy

This is my project I did last week for My Favorite Challenge, to make something with a child theme. I chose to work with the MFT set Cuddle Me Carter. The papers are from Sweetwater. First I created my scene. I stamped the train and masked it off, and the stamped the main image. I drew in the wood floor. I used my score-pal to add some paneling to the walls. His pj's are pieced. Then I stamped the sentiment and hung it to look like a frame. I stitched around the card and on the ribbon.

Then I remembered I had a little tube for packaging. I wrapped some matching paper around the tube, made a little tag with the frog in the set, and tied in on with twine.

Thanks for Looking,

Melody

7/19/09

Celebrate MFT Customer Blog Hop

My Favorite Things has decided to start a Customer Blog hop each month - to recognize some outstanding contributions using My Favorite Things stamps. The natural time to do it seemed to be Celebrate MFT Day on the 20th of each month! Each month, between five and eight stampers will be invited to the Celebrate MFT Blog Hop – and the participants will be a secret until the day of the party!

So you can imagine my excitement when Joanne sent me an email asking me to included in the first group. I have had a smile on my face all week! If you just happened upon my blog, and want to start at the beginning, the hop is kicked off by Joanne!

One of my niece's is having a birthday this month and I want to get a little something off in the mail to her. So I pulled out my MFT set "The Poppies". This is just the cutest set! I stamped up two of the three little rockers and used one of the MFT 16 ounce squared jars.


For the card I used the drummer and stamped the cute skull on the middle of the drum. She is colored in Copics and I added a few rhinestones to her drum set and the bow. The pink section is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. After glueing down my layout I added some zig zag and straight stitching with my sewing machine. I added the sentiment, some polka dot ribbon, and some eyelet lace. Then I punched out some of the circles from the DP and popped them up.



A while back I had ordered this square 16oz square jar from My Favorite things. I can think of so many used for these cute jars! I used the second image I had colored and used my nestibilities to cut out the circle. The are lime green Stickles on her dress. Then I cut a band from the DP to go around the jar and added some matching ribbon. Then I decorated the top of the jar.

Here is a closer look at the top. Again I used my nestibilities to cut the circles and my punches to punch out the skull.

To continue on hop on over the Bonnie's blog, another talented MFT stamper!

If you would like to show your MFT Team Spirit and participate in Celebrate MFT Day upload your My Favorite Things stamped creation to the Splitcoast Gallery today using the keyword "CelebrateMFT0709". And remember that the entries to the weekly and monthly challenges on the MFT Member Company Forum might just earn you your invitation to next month's customer blog hop!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I am very excited to part of my first hop!
Melody

Ingredients:
Stamps: MFT The Poppies
Ink: Memento Black
Paper: DP Bo Bunny, SU Black, Pretty in Pink, MFT Perfect Panels
Other: Copics, Nestibilites, Cuttlebug folder, Ribbon, Rhinestones, Eyelet, Punches, Sewing Machine

7/13/09

Cupcakes Three by Three


I made this card a couple of days ago for the MFT mid month release challenge, to use three of something. I used three cupcakes and three designer papers. Well, this card made yesterday a "happy" day. First I won the challenge and the $15 MFT gift coupon. Then I received an email that my card had been included in a slide show in article about My Favorite Things stamps and it's owner, Kim. How exciting is that! If you would like to read the article written my Michelle Vocke for the on-line magazine Examiner.com to here.

The cupcakes liners are pieced, colored with Copics,  and the middle cupcake is popped up for some dimension. There is glitter on the frosting. Although I made the card below for the sketch challenge, I used the sketch again I liked it so much! Added some machine stitching, ribbon, lace, and some cherry rhinestones to finish it off. 

Have a good day!
Melody

Ingredients:

Stamps - MFT It's a Cupcake Kind of Day
Ink - Memento Black
Paper - Cosmo Crickett, PTI Ocean Tide, SU Real Red, MFT paper panel
Other - Sewing Machine, copics, cherry rhinestones, lace, MS border punch, ribbon

Sending Hugs


I hope everyone had a good weekend. It is back to work today. I got quite a bit of stamping done this weekend. My first card is the MFT sketch challenge in the MFT Forum. I like the sketch so much, I used it twice.


One of the reasons I love the MFT Who's That Girl stamps is that they are so great for paper piecing.  I pieced the couch, the skirt, and drew in the wood floor. The purse and shoes are from different sets. I stamped the shoes, masked them off, then the purse, masked it off, and then the main image. I colored the rest of image with my copics.

The border punch is Martha Stewart. I add some straight stitching with my sewing machine, ribbon, and mounted the sentiment on a series of punched shapes. This is one of my favorite MFT stamps! And I like how the card turned out.

Thanks for looking!
Melody

Ingredients:
Stamps- MFT E-Girl, Say Charge, Totally Fantastic
Ink - Memento Black, SU Red Rose
Paper - Basic Grey Lemonade, SU Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, MFT Paper Panels
Other - Ribbon, Sewing Machine, punches, copics

7/9/09

Birthday Fun

I have a number of very cute stamps for Stamping Bella stamps that I haven't had a chance to use for a while. My work has definitely been cutting into my stamping time lately! Emily posts a sketch challenge on her blog each week, and this week was my first attempt at the challenge.

The stamp is one of he Huggabugs, so cute! I'm loving this great papers from Little Yellow Bicycle. I used my nestibilities to cut out the main image. I sponged the edges of the papers in Tim Holtz distressing ink in Lavender and Peeled Paint. I used a ticket punch on the corners and added flower rhinestone, and a little lace, ribbon, and a charm to finish it off.

Yeah, it Friday! I have to do wedding shower invitations for a friend this weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Melody

7/8/09

Birthday Cupcake

This is the second of my new Verve stamps. The layout is this weeks sketch challenge in the Verve Forum at Splitcoaststampers. The twist this week is a Technique twist! You could chose one of two techniques , Poppin' Pastels or Burnt Batik. I chose the Poppin' Pastels to work with. There are step by step instructions in the forum. I used the Poppin Pastels technique to make my background paper behind the cupcake.

The stamp is "A Cupcake Affair". I cut it out and placed on the background paper. I added stickles to the frosting and rhinestones to the flowers. I used my sew machine to zig zag the edges and straight stitch around the middle panel. The edges are sponged with distress ink. The I added some lace and ribbon.

Have a great Wednesday!


Melody

Ingredients:
Stamps - Verve Cupcake Affair
Ink - Memento Black, Tim Holtz Distressing Ink in Tea Dye
Paper - DP Cosmo Crickett, PTI Olive, SU Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla
Other - Stickles, ribbon, lace, rhinestones, copics, nestibilities, sewing machine


7/5/09

Baby Shower Card

I had a baby shower to go to today. Do you find that even though you are always making cards you never have the one you need when you need it? I made this card this morning before I left for the shower. One of my closest friend's son and wife are having a baby girl in a few months.

I used Jen Del Muro's Saturday sketch for my card. Always a great site for inspiration! The stamp is from American Art Stamp and the sentiment from Impression Obession. The image is colored with Copics, a gold metallic Prism color pencil and a glitter pen. The lace trim I just picked up at my local scrapbook store. I added ribbon, a little heart charm, and a button. The edges of the papers are distressed with a sponge and distressing ink. 

Hope everyone one had a nice weekend. Gotta love SUMMERTIME!

Melody


7/3/09

Happy Graduation

Last month I purchased my first Verve stamps. I have admired the stamps and the beautiful work the design teams does for a while and finally decided to buy a couple of my favorites. I needed one more graduation card so I pulled out one of my new sets, Up, Up, and Away. I like how my card turned out. If I had to describe my favorite style of stamping, this card would be my example. I really like mixing a vintage papers, distressing, lace, vintage embellishment with different types of images.

The card layout is the Verve challenge in the Verve Forum at Splitcoast. The sketch challenge includes a twist each week. This week the twist is distressing. With that in mind, all my edges are distressed with Tim Holtz Distressing Ink in Tea Dye. To make my scene, I stamped the trees, clouds, and air balloon. Then and cut out hills from my DP. The paper on this card is Graphic Design. I just love their papers!

After coloring with Copics, I added some stitching to my hills. The larger tree and clouds are popped up. The air balloon is paper pieced. I did some more stitching around the edges of the papers. I added black lace and a metal flower from Maya Road and a few rhinestones.

Thanks for stopping by! To all my friends here in the states, have a fun Fourth of July!

Melody

Ingredients:

Stamps - Verve Up, Up and Away, Whimsical Tree
Papers - DP Graphic 45, SU Black, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla
Ink - Memento Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink
Other - Sewing Machine, lace, rhinestones, glitter, copics, flower Maya Road