Viva la Verve! February Week 2-Simplest Things

Hey there! My post is going up a little later than I had hoped, but better late than never:)

The February Week 2 VLV sketch is up in the Verve Forums! This week, Amy is our hostess and has come up with the most amazing sketch! This one is full of possibilities!

I used a couple of the new January PJ's, Emery and Smallest Things! Emery is so adorable, don't you think? He's really fun to paper piece too, although I think I gave him Chicken Pox with the paper I pieced him with, lol! I layered Emery on a piece of paper I cut with my Vintage Oval die, so fun!

That darling paper is new from Prima and is called "Jack and Jill". I love the sweet papers, alot of fun patterns PERFECT for baby cards:)

I hope you can come over and play with us! Verve stamps are NOT required so if you don't have any, we still want you to play with us!

I'll be back in a few hours with the new February SFYTT!!!

Some People...

Hey there! I've been quiet, huh? It's not normal I tell you! Well I haven't been getting alot of crafting done, got my nose stuck in a book, lol! I did sit down today and make a couple cards though! One is for tomorrow's Viva la Verve! sketch though so I'll share that one tomorrow:)

This is one of those cards I created, just for fun! I love it when my mind is free to create whatever I want WITH whatever I want! 

It's a fairly simple card, but I didn't want this one too busy. I started by cutting a circle in the Harvest Gold cardstock, embossing the gold cardstock with my Seeing Spots Cuttlebug folder, and then stamping the flower from Great Friend in Tempting Turquoise ink. I stamped it off again and then cut the middle flower out and popped it up with on a dimensional. I cut a couple scalloped edges with my EK Success edge punch and then wrapped some Harvest Gold ribbon around the card front. The Harvest Gold piece was popped up on dimensionals as well. Lastly, I stamped a sentiment from Feel the Sun. OH! I forgot to mention that the decorative edge of the card base and the Harvest Gold cardstock was done with PTI's edger die.

So I also had a SUPER happy mail day today! Wanna see?

My Grand Calibur arrived!!!

I also got four Grand Nestabilities dies: Circles, Scalloped Circles, Labels 1 and Labels 4!

Some FABBY twine from The Twinery!! Aren't all those colors gorgeous?? Totally makes me want to go stamp, lol!

February's stamp of the month is Sweet on You! During the month of February, you can get this adorable stamp set for 40% off!! Click HERE for more SWEET DEAL$!!!

Some other fun news! 

The Verve Inspirations Team just had their first Inspirations blog hop! Click here to start at the Verve blog and hop through to see all the inspiration from the inspiration team! They're using our old favorites in new ways and I can't wait to see!

We also have THREE new divas to add to the Inspirations Team! A HUGE welcome to Sony Christoph, Dawn Easton, and Betty Wright!!! LOVE these girls and know they'll add a new spark to our team:)

Thanks for stopping by today! Remember, a new Viva la Verve! sketch is going up tomorrow! I'll be back here with my sample:) See you then!

TGF Release Day and a CHA Relay!!

**This is my 2nd post today! Please scroll down or click HERE to see my Sparkle Creations card and announcement! Arigato!**


Hey everyone!

WELCOME to The Greeting Farm's CHA RELAY!   Our Design Team is ready and waiting for you to hop onto their blogs and find out JUST who will complete today's "relay".  The Greeting Farm is in HIGH cotton as we are wrapping up CHA out in Sunny L.A. and we have made it to RELEASE DAY!!!   WOO HOO!

Here is how today will work:

This is NOT a race, LOL.  You will have through tomorrow (3 Feb) at NOON CST to complete your card, so our overseas friends have plenty of time to play, too!

***On EACH DT member's blog, they have highlighted a STAMPING ITEM that they used in their cards.   Once you have gotten through each DT member's post, you should have a list of TEN ITEMS to use on your card to enter into the "CHA RELAY" Release Day contest.   One RANDOM WINNER will be chosen out of the participants who decide to make a card today (up until tomorrow at noon!) to win the ENTIRE RELEASE for FEBRUARY!!! ****

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Here's MY card for today's relay!

I used one of the new stamps from the UBER fab Miss Anya "Hat's Off"! These are just the SWEETEST lil Missy's! She's very punk, I love that, lol! The papers I used are from BG's Bittersweet, my favorite paper of at the moment;) I did lots of *STITCHING* on my card (I also thought about Faux stitching or Paper Piercing...cause those would work too *wink*)! I always do, and I love the extra texture it adds:) I also used some PTI ribbon and buttons and my favorite silver pearls!

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Don't forget to leave your comments for the DT, too, because ONE lucky winner who leaves comments for them and then comes back HERE to the TGF BLOG to let us know they did will ALSO take home the ENTIRE RELEASE this month!  That's right!  There areTWO WAYS to WIN!

Well, let's get STARTED!   Here is the order of the Hop/Relay today:

TGF Blog

SARI

TANYA

EMMA

BUTTERCUP

SHAELA

PEGGY

JEN

AMBER

ANNA MARIA

KRISTY

back to TGF BLOG

Thanks for joining us today and GOOD LUCK, paper crafters!  We are SO excited to see who will play along with our fun new challenge and can't WAIT to announce the winners-both from those who played along and those who left their sweet comments-ALL tomorrow!

HAPPY RELEASE DAY, everyone!

SCRSC #28 and a FUN announcement!

Hey there my friends! Hopefully no one is annoyed with me this week, I've been chatty and have a post up every day if not TWICE a day! Today is one such day I'll have TWO posts up, so thanks for being so understanding:)

My SUPER FUN announcement is that I'm the February Guest Designer for Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps!! w000000000000t! I really love Sparkles stamps, they're so fun to color and the illustrations themselves are just adorable:)

Every Tuesday there is a challenge loaded on the SCRS blog and today's challenge is "It's a Girl Thing"! Just make your card GIRLY! This should seriously be the easiest of all challenges for most of us, what's not to love about girling a card up? Ribbon, bling, buttons, flowers, etc...NO LIMITS when it comes to girlie:)

Here's my card using the super fun Celebrating Chloe!!

Totally girly! I stamped Chloe in Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah cardstock and colored her to match these LUSCIOUS papers by Prima called Annalee... 

I finished it off by sewing it on a piece of pink cardstock and adding some pink ribbon!

Want to play along? Create YOUR "It's a Girl Thing" card and upload it on the SCRS blog HERE!

Here are the design team blogs, you definitely want to see what they've come up with for this challenge!

Alice Wertz

Kim Yu

Shaela Odd

Simonne Clay
Stephanie Kraft (DT Coordinator)

and Sparkle Smith (Owner)

TGF Sneak Peeks, Day 3--Cheeky Howdy!

Hiya, girlies! It's MONDAY! Time to get back into the weekly routine, right? I sort of like Monday's now that I'm not working, I can get up at 8:00, have my coffee, check the email and surf around for awhile, and do some reading! I'm reading a new (to me) series called Immortals after Dark and am on the 1st book (well the 2nd if you count the prequel book, I read that one already). It's good so far!!! 

So you didn't come here to hear me drone on about my day, did you? LOL! Today is another sneak peek at a new Cheeky! Meet Cheeky Howdy!

Isn't she sassy? I love her! She's very "Daisy" from Dukes of Hazzard, isn't she? LOL! In keeping with that theme, I colored her in Denim, I think she's fab:)

After I colored her, I embossed the image with my PTI Woodgrain Impression Plate. I love how it looks! The sentiment is from "Anya Says". I was wondering what I could use this card for and then thought it would make a fun "Congrats" card so when I find someone to send it to, I'll stamp a "Congratulations" sentiment inside:) The papers are from Wanted by Basic Grey!

**Okay, now for some DETAILS!

There are TWO chances to win some new rubber today! We have two simultaneous hops going on today. The TGF Farmers are hopping on the Splendid Stamping Blog and Team Anya is hopping on the CA&F blog! SO, if you want TWO chances to win, start at the CA&F blog and leave comments on all of Team Anya's cards, and then go to the TGF Blog and leave comments on all the Farmer's blogs! That's a WHOLELOTTA eye candy:)**

You have until 11:59 CST time TONIGHT to leave your comments! Good luck!

Club Anya Blog

• Peggy McCurry -- February Guest Designer
• Jessica Diedrich
• Anna Maria Nilsson 
• Amber Hight 
• Jen Shults 
• Kristy Young 

TGF Blog

• Shaela Odd -- February Guest Designer 
• Tammy Maxvill 
• Tanya Tahir 
• Emma Eads 
• Sari Hanninen 
• Buttercup 

Don't forget to stop back by tomorrow, both teams are having an UBER fun CHA Relay game, you don't want to miss it! In true TGF fashion, it will be a BLAST!!! See you tomorrow...same bat channel, same bat time!

Saturday Sketch with a PREVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi there friends!! Today is Sketch Saturday on the Club Anya & Friends blog but today we have a surprise!!! We're previewing a NEW Cheeky!!! I must say, she is super fabulous and SO cute! Meet "Cheeky Chat"!!

Isn't she sute cute talking on the phone? I imaging she's talking with her BFF, probably about boys...that Anya is so cheeky;)

The papers are from October Afternoon, I forgot if it was Thrift Shop or Modern Homemaker? 

The sentiment is from MFT's "Call Me"...I thought the sentiment was perfect, a great card to send to someone you haven't chatted with in awhile:)

So today, Team Anya AND the Farmers played along in the sketch and everyone is previewing this FABULOUS stamp that will be released with 2 other sets on Tuesday, February 1st!

• Peggy McCurry -- February Guest Designer *Team Anya*
• Jessica Diedrich *Team Anya*
• Anna Maria Nilsson *Team Anya*
• Amber Hight *Team Anya*
• Jen Shults *Team Anya*
• Kristy Young *Team Anya*
• Shaela Odd -- February Guest Designer *TGF Farmer*
• Tammy Maxvill * TGF Farmer*
• Tanya Tahir *TGF Farmer*
• Emma Eads *TGF Farmer*
• Sari Hanninen *TGF Farmer*
• Buttercup *TGF Farmer*

Thanks for stopping by today! See you tomorrow!

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Farm Fresh Friday-Hat's Off to You!!!

Hello everyone!   It's time for another Farm Fresh Friday and we are gearing up for CHA (tomorrow!) AND a bunch of UBER-fabulous NEW RELEASES at The Greeting Farm....all coming to you on February 1st!

Today is also our FIRST day of Feb. previews and we have some announcements to make here on the Farm.  Sadly we say goodbye to Tammy Maxvill as her term as Farmer has come to a close.  We will miss you Tammy and THANK YOU for all of your wonderful contributions, tutorials, and awesome 3D proejcts!  We also have a new addition!  or TWO!? Please welcome (back!) BUTTERCUP as a FULL-TIME FARMER!  We are THRILLED that she will be joining us through the month of June along with our other 3 new Farmers and are VERY excited about what she has in store for us!   As if that weren't exciting enough, please SHAELA ODD as our February Guest Designer for TGF!  Some of you may recognize the sweet Shaela from her term with our Critter Crew and we are very happy to have her back as our February Guest :)

Today we have Team Anya joining us for FFF as well, so it's without further adieu that we also welcome PEGGY McCURRY as our FEBRUARY GUEST DESIGNER for Team Anya!   Peggy has been a long-time fan of the Farm and has wow'd us with her amazing layouts (which we've CASED a few times, I think!) and we are glad to have her!

Always exciting here on the Farm!  And now onto the Challenge!  This week, we invite our friends and customers to join us in our "Hat's Off to You!" challenge!...use a HAT theme on your card or project!  You can cut one out/alter a stamp, use Hat paper, hat racks, hat pins, baseball caps, anything to do with HATS on your challenge card.  You can also create a 3d/altered item in the shape of a hat?  Whatever you fancy, it's hat's off to you this week!

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With that in mind, the DT has a sweet surprise for you today!

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   INTRODUCING...Miss Anya "Hat's OFF"!
 

As SOON as I saw this image, like .25 seconds later, I thought "OMG she looks like Fleur Delacour from Harry Potter!!!" 

Am I right or what?? I think she's one of my favorite images ever because I love Fleur's character! So graceful and innocent, just like Miss Anya:) I got some new Prima paper pads this week and this one, called Annalee, is my favorite! This pariticular pattern too! As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted Miss Anya to be sitting in this sweet little flower garden!

I called Fleur, I mean Miss Anya with Copics to match Fleur's colors, but it happened to work well with this paper too! I don't think she's supposed to have gray, but I didn't like the solid blue look so threw some gray on her to break it up:)

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Well, that's it for me today, but make sure you check out the TGF BLOG to see what the others have been up to and find out how you can WIN a Miss Anya Hat's OFF! by leaving comments TODAY!   In addition, one lucky winner of this week's "Hat's Off" challenge will ALSO take home a Miss Anya "Hat's Off" set!  TWO chances to win!  Good luck ,everyone!

Sparkle Creations Challenge #27-Love is in the Air

Hello! The weekend is getting nearer, can't you feel it?! Don't have any plans other than crafting the days away because it's supposed to be rainy and cold! That's okay with me, 90% of the time on this island its hot and muggy so I'll take the cool while I can get it:)

I played in the Sparkles Creations challenge again this week! The challenge is an easy one, whatever makes you think of love!

Valentine Oliver makes me think of Love! Isn't he precious??? Especially carrying these chocolates and flowers to his beloved:) I kept the layout and embellishing to a minimum so he could stand out in all his CUTENESS! 

I colored him in grays and reds and did some stippling with a W3 and W5 Copic. 

That's it from me today, I'm not super chatty! We're watching that SyFy show "Face Off" where the make up artists compete kinda like Top Chef only the create movie characters and stuff. Fun show! 

I'll be back here tomorrow with the first day of our TGF Sneak Peeks!!!!!!!! You do NOT want to miss this release, FUN STUFF in store for you, including a CHA relay on release day!! I sorta wish I could play, lol!

January Diva Dare--Smallest Things

Hey there, it's me again, lol! This is my 2nd post today, please scroll down or CLICK HERE if you want to see my MFT Sketch challenge card;) Thanks!

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If you haven't heard yet, we're mixing things up over on the Verve blog! You may remember our previous theme called "Project Parade". We've renamed it the "Diva Dare" to make it less intimidating and more fun! Basically, we're issued a "Dare" and we answer it with whatever we're feeling at the time:) Doesn't have to be a large project or anything, it can be a card, a tag, a bookmark, an altered piece, whatever your heart desires! It's ALL good! 

So come play with us, lots of goodies in it for the winner;)

I'm up on the blog today, and here's my project!

 I wanted to do something a *little* different, so I cut about 1.25" off the card front for some visual interest and then hung the sentiment panel off the side!

I colored the animals from To the Moon and stuck 'em behind the Smallest Things PJ panel, I think they're so cute!

It's mostly covered up by the animals, but the sentiment panel is built on top of the Classy Label die. The sentiment was cut out with a label punch by EK Success.

Like I said, this challenge is open to everyone so CLICK HERE for details on how to play!

Thanks for stopping by today:)

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Smallest Things Plain Jane, To the Moon (Verve)

Paper: White, Chocolate (PTI), Dreamy cardstock (MME)

Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento), Copics

Accessories: Classy Label die (Verve), circle Nesties (Spellbinders), Label punch, small scallop edge (EK Success), Baker's Twine/button (PTI), Gold Ice Stickles (Ranger)