A cameo appearance

My card today uses the sketch from Viva La Verve February week 1 challenge combined with the Off The Wall Craftiness color challenge to use black and white with cameos (see the inspiration photo below).

I always seem to not have the "right" item to use and have to alter something else to create what I need, but maybe that is part of what is so great about stamping and papercrafting: if you can think it, you can usually do it! I never have the "right" patterened paper for anything, this challenge included, so I had to make my own using a French-script stamp topped with a flourish by Inkadinkadoo. I haven't been one for distressing, but I am starting to see the beauty in it, so I also added a little tan ink to the edges to take away the stark contrast. I also didn't have a cameo stamp, so I taped off the body of this image from She's All That by SU! and voila, a cameo.

It might be a bit hard to see in the picutre, but I used some white dimension fabric paint to hightlight the pearl necklace and to complete the theme addes pearls in three of the corners around the image.

Verve Diva Dare

Verve has started a new challenge they are calling their Diva Dare; this month's theme is Baby Love--either celebrating a new baby or love (or both, I guess). My card is for my Mom (and Dad) for Valentine's Day. The image is from a fabulous package Jak Heath has put together to raise money for a woman named Katie who is battling cancer. You can visit this site to read the entire story and see the package of digital images from several fabulous artists/companies. I think this image is supposed to be Katie's three boys, two of which are twins. I adapted the image to fit my family of three girls (I also have a set of twins), by adding ponytails to the hair and pleats to make the shorts into skirts. I also stamped love into the center of the heart. My "ribbon" is actually two strips of paper that I added "stitching" to with a white gel pen and used a third strip to make the bow.

Lots of Verve

I decided to enter the Viva La Verve sketch challenges for this month, and this post holds all four entries. The first two I have all ready posted, but I wanted all four together, so, sorry if you have all ready seen them.
Viva La Verve week 1:
Viva La Verve week 2:

Viva La Verve week 3:

Viva La Verve week 4:

This last one is the Valentine's Day card for my husband. Love it!

Nontraditional Valentine

This card using the Our Daily Bread Designs sketch callenge and the Off The Wall Craftiness color challenge (see the inspiration photo below) is definitely not your typical Valentine's Day card. I originally intended to give it to my husband since it wasn't going to be all pink and flowery, but it just didn't seem right for him, so it will have to be for someone else. All the stamps and the scalloped border punch used around the square are from SU! and the other border punch is Fiskars "Upper Crest".

I love you!

The JUGS challenge for this week was to create a 3-D project. I was looking for something to hold a Valentine's gift (which I don't have yet, so it had to be versatile) for my girls. I ended up making my own box which measures 6" tall by 2 1/2" wide and deep. It should be good for a bit of candy and hopefully a cute little stuffed animal. This box is for my oldest daughter and her name starts with "J" so I decorated a chipboard "J" for the top. The "I love you" stamp is from Damask Designs by PTI (I love this set!!!)

Valentine's Day cards

Now that Christmas cards and thank you cards are over and done, it's time to start on Valentine's Day cards! I usually make and send out about 15 of them, so I need to get a head start. I love this sketch from Sweet Stop this week and I love this card, too. The background stamp and "friend" stamp are from SU!, the rose is from Inkadinkadoo, dies are nestabilities, and the border punch is Martha Stewart. I think I will be sending this one to my best friend.

And thanks again

I think this is the final "thank you" card I have to make and I am ready to be done! This card combines the Sweet Stop sketch with a twist: use dry embossing and the Off The Wall Craftiness color challenge: purple, lime, black (see the above inspiration photo). I had made a much prettier (at least in my opinion) card using the sweet stop sketch (see this post), but forgot to use any dry embossing, so I had to include it in this card.