Verve Visual Inspiration Challenge

It's down to the wire on the Verve Visual inspiration challenge....entries are due by midnight MT and as I am posting it is 10:30! However, I did manage to complete a card today! Wish me luck as the winner gets 15 Verve bucks and I just love their stamps!

I was mostly inspired by the flourishes on the blue pillow in the bottom left corner. I also added some yellow and white as seen on the other pillows, but that one was my starting point. First, I stamped the flourishes from the Autumn Leaves Swirls V.2 set in Blue Lagoon Colorbox chalk ink on the two opposite corners. Then I picked out the patterned paper from my SU! Palette of Prints. I would have loved to use one of Verve's awesome sentiments, but I haven't got any yet....and I emphasize yet. So I remembered the pretty sentiments from this retired SAB set, Happy Harmony - I thought the Dreams sentiment fit the pillows perfectly! I wanted to add some flowers and I spied these wonderful shimmery flowers that I found at Michael's thanks to an enabling post on Lauren's blog. She's an awesome enabler! A rhinestone by Me and My Big Ideas on the center of each one adds just the right amount of elegance. Finally, I thought about faux stitching, the inspiration point being pillows, but I didn't want to overdo it - so I just added a little bit to the corners to "kick it up a notch."

An addendum - if you'd like to subscribe, I recently added that to my sidebar. Sign up today and get a notice every time I post!

-Christina

Supplies:

Swirls V2 by Autumn Leaves and Happy Harmony by Stampin Up stamp sets,

Colorbox chalk ink in Blue Lagoon and Versafine Onyx Black ink,

Shimmery flowers in Bride tin from Michaels, Me and My Big Ideas bling stickers,

Stampin Up mat pack + paper piercer and Signo gel pen for faux stitching

Local SWISS

No, I'm not from Switzerland...S.W.I.S.S. is an anagram which stands for SouthWest Idaho Shoebox Swap. This is the sixth time the group has met, but the fifth time that I was able to go. I had fun stamping and chatting with the ladies. I even met Jacksonbelle (a.k.a. Lindsey) who has graced the likes of the SCS Dirty Dozen! Here are all the fun swappers:

Hours of stamping...that's the way I like to spend my time! So you're probably wondering about my project by now. I finally got around to ordering a couple Elzybells a couple weeks ago and they came just in time!

I needed to keep it fairly simple and affordable enough for almost 20 swappers, so I used Stampin Up markers to color her in. In case you want the deets, they were: Brocade Blue, Close to Cocoa, and a dab of Summer Sun for the flower centers. Her skin was colored with a Tombow marker I've had for awhile. To avoid marker lines, I went over the marker with a waterbrush. Now I only used the Michaels clear "dew drops" that are really sold as decorative filler, so to get the bubbles yellow, I actually colored the center of the flower with my SS marker before attaching the "drop" with a bit of Crystal Effects and/or Diamond Glaze. I did nothing to the "drops" on the photo corner piece, though - they just appear yellow because of the paper. I think the card turned out pretty cute...and I hope all the swappers did too!

Supplies:

Elzybells Flower Girl by A Muse, sentiment by My Sentiments Exactly

Cardstock is Stampin' Up except for the white which is Georgia Pacific

and the patterned paper, which is by Chatterbox.

Ribbon, clear drops, and shimmery flowers from Michaels craft store.

Stampin Up markers and one Tombow marker. Clear drops attached with

either Diamond Glaze or Crystal Effects.

I started a blog! I wanted a place to share my love of stamping and hopefully connect with people in a new way! I'll try to upload some cards and other fun stamping info ASAP.