VC Rocks-Blog Hop

Welcome to the July Blog Hop for the VC Rocks yahoo group! This is the first blog hop I have ever been involved in, other than looking, so I hope you enjoy the projects I've made for today.

You should have arrived here from Carolyn's blog, Inking the Night Away.

As I mentioned in a previous post, when I first saw the new Level 1 Hostess set, Because I Care, it really didn't appeal to me and I figured I wouldn't use it very much. I am finding that I like this set a lot.

One of my new favorite color combos is Marina Mist and Early Espresso. It lends itself well to the vintage style, which I am so fond of, as well as bold contrast.

If you haven't tried using Smooch Spritz yet, what are you waiting for? That stuff is awesome. It gives quick color and shimmer for fast easy cards, or helps with a dramatic effect.

Here's how I made this card:

• Base card is a standard size 4.25" x 5.5" in Early Espresso
• Marina Mist mat is 4" x 5.25". I sponged the edges with Marina Mist ink.
• Using Log Cabin Smooch Spritz, I covered a 4" square of the Presto Patterns DSP and then misted over that with Vanilla Shimmer. I then tore two of the edges and inked all four sides with Early Espresso ink.
• The small Early Espresso mat is 2.5" x 3.75". I distressed and inked the edges.
• The Naturals Ivory piece is 2.25" x 3.5". I distressed the edges and then sponged it with both Marina Mist and Early Espresso.
• I inked up the Hydrangea with Marina Mist and Always Artichoke and stamped it on a scrap of Very Vanilla, cut it out, and then popped it up with dimensionals.
• The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso.
• The Mini Library Clip and Linen Thread just give it that nice little extra touch.

Here is a list of supplies:

• Stamps: Because I Care
• Ink: Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Always Artichoke Marker
• Paper: Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Presto Patterns DSP
• Accessories: Log Cabin and Vanilla Smooch Spritz, Mini Library Clips, Linen Thread, Distressing Tool, Sponges, Dimensionals
  

My second project features several items from the Summer Mini Catalog. You can keep this little Notepad Tin in your car or purse and always have paper handy for those things you want to remember.


Here is a list of supplies:

• Stamps: Tropical Party, Favorite Thoughts, Dreams Du Jour
  
• Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise
  
• Paper: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Island Oasis DSP
  
• Accessories: Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz, Rhinestone Brads, Corner Rounder, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Ruler, Exacto Knife, Metal Tin (This is one that SU used to sell, but any will work.)
  

Here is the inside of the tin.

How I made it:

Outside

• The Old Olive mat on the front of the tin measures 4 1/4" x 4 7/8". I cut the DSP to 2" x 4 1/4", rounded the corners on both pieces and then adhered the DSP to the cardstock.
• I then covered the seam with the Old Olive grosgrain.
• I used the sentiment stamp from Dreams Du Jour to stamp the word Life. I colored just that word with an Old Olive marker and then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to place it.
• I cut out the large Pumpkin Pie flower from a piece of the DSP and popped it up with dimensionals, then stamped the other flowers from the set and cut them out. I misted a couple of them with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz.
• I stamped the frond in Old Olive and cut around it. Using a tip from Jackie Topa, I then sponged the edges of the frond with ink to help cover up any white areas I didn't want seen.

Inside

• The DSP for the bottom of the tin (under the notepad) measures 4 3/4" x 5 3/8", the lid measures 4 7/8" x 5 1/2". Use plain copy paper to make yourself a template as you will need to play around with rounding the corners and measurements will vary depending on the type of tin you use. I rounded the corners on this project with my paper snips, usine a template I made.
• The bottom DSP is adhered with glue dots, and then the notepad adhered on top of that.
• For the lid, lay your pen on the DSP where you would like to place it, using a pencil draw a line on either side of the pen. Using a ruler and exacto knife, cut two slits in the paper along your pencil lines, just long enough to pull the ribbon through to make a loop. Place your pen in the loop, pull the ribbon tight enough to hold the pen. Flip the paper over and tape down the ends of the ribbon
• Next I stamped the sentiment from Favorite Thoughts in Cherry Cobbler on Whisper White cardstock and matted that with Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive
• The flower was cut from the Island Oasis DSP and spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer.
  

I hope you have enjoyed the blog tour so far. There are some very talented ladies on this hop and the next one is Nancy's blog at Fancy Nancy Kay If you should happen to get lost along the way, or there is a broken link, you can find all the blogs on the tour at the VC Rocks Blog.


Have a great day!

I'm Lost....

I have no computer at home. {hyperventilating here} :) We had a very quick but bad storm come through Saturday and even though I have a surge protector, something happened to my poor computer. I wasn't home to shut it down before the storm hit and had left it on because I wasn't going to be gone long and it was a beautiful sunny day out.

Anyway, I don't {can't} have my photo software on my work computer, so I won't be able to post any projects for a few more days.

The good news is that I had recently purchased a portable hard drive and backed up my entire computer, with a few exceptions of some recent photos and school documents. Hopefully my wonderful tech guys can retrieve everything, but if not, at least I will be able to recover most of it. {whew!!!}

If you don't have a portable hard drive, GO GET ONE!!! They are really inexpensive now and will more than pay for themselves, in the time and heartache you will save, the first time you need to restore something.

In the meantime, take a look at all the great new Color Renovation Color Kits you can purchase to update your supplies.

Well, hope you all have a wonderful week! New catalog projects coming soon!

Kym

Independence,,,,

...(n.) The state or quality of being independent; freedom from dependence thinkexist.com

Whether you are celebrating the independence of our country or a personal independence of some kind, I hope you have a fabulous day!


I saw this cute pinwheel card and thought it would make a great card for my 4th of July post.

I randomly stamped Night of Navy with star stamps from several different sets using white craft ink, then used the XL Bird Punch and punched out the bodies. [sounds kind of creepy said that way] :) I adhered them to the Cherry Cobbler circle, and then layered that with Whisper White stamped with a Cherry Cobbler star. Celebrate was stamped on the 5/8" satin ribbon in Night of Navy. The drinking straw was cut down to size and adhered with mini glue dots. The pinwheel was attached with pop-up dots.

!!Happy 4th!!

Because I Care

Here's another peak at the Because I Care Level 1 Hostess set.

Stamp Set: Because I Care
Paper: Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Ink: Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Stipple Brush, Dew Drops, Dimensionals

When I first saw this set I thought that it wasn't one that I would really like. The more I use it, the more it grows on me. I really like hydrangeas, but I don't generally use a lot of flowers in my stamping. What's nice about this one, is it is all one stamp; no trying to line up the stem with the flower, or the leaves with the stem.

Once again, I used one of my new favorite colors Marina Mist. I also used one of my favorite tools, my stipple brush. Stipple brushes give a nice soft effect on paper, and it's so easy to layer color with them. I used Early Espresso, another of the new Core Colors and added some Always Artichoke to soften and warm up the look.

This card only took me about 10 minutes to make. I need to learn to do more cards that quick! :)

Have a great day!

Perpetual Birthday Album

The original design for this album was done by Richard Garay. These are great little books to give as gifts, and if you use a Simply Scrappin' Kit, it makes it so easy to decorate.


I'm trying to use up some of my stuff on hand and get rid of older or non-SU items. I made this one for my Mom to give to one of her co-workers as a gift.


Here are some more of the inside pages.


Now that I have them down, these are pretty easy to make. I am working on a tutorial and Richard has given me permission to share it with others, so watch for that in the next few weeks.



Enjoy!

Something Old, Something New........

Something Borrowed, Something Blue.

Nope, this isn't a wedding card, but the saying really fits.
The something old is the Bird w/Leaves Bigz Die that will be retiring as of July 1st. This die has wonderful little components that can be used together or individually. Although I haven't used it extensively, I'm kind of sad to see it go.

Something new would be the Marina Mist cardstock I used for the bird, the Early Espresso cardstock for the mats and the Presto Patterns paper that is available in the Summer Mini. There is also a little Sneak Peak...the sentiment is from the new Level 1 Hostess set, Because I Care.

The Presto Patterns paper is so cool! There are 6 different patterns that are begging to be colored. (You can also leave them white for a nice tone on tone effect.) Each of the patterns is embossed onto the paper, so when you apply color the patterns resist the color and stand out. I don't have any of the new ink colors yet, so I had to play around a bit. I was able to get pretty close to Marina Mist by first misting the paper lightly with water and then brayering with Bashful Blue and then Baja Breeze, which is a returning In-Color. By misting the paper, the colors blended nicely.

Something Borrowed? Well, that would be the pearls, I had to borrow them from an old sample, as I didn't have enough for this card. My order will hopefully be here next week. :) The pearls are included in the SU Pretties Kit. This kit is being reconfigured for the new catalog and some of the items in the kit will no longer be available. So if you want it the way it is, order now!

And of course the obvious, Something Blue, would be the bird and the color scheme for the Presto Patterns paper. I love the new Marina Mist color. I have a feeling that I will be using it almost as much as Razzleberry. :) I ran the bluebird through my Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Textile Embossing Folder to give him a little more pizazz and then sponged some Baja Breeze over him.

Here is an older card I made using the Bird w/Leaves Die.

The card base is a transparency. The bird and individual components are adhered to the front of the card, while the cardstock is adhered on the inside front of the card to hide all the adhesive.


Enjoy!

Oasis Shimmer

I really like the versatility of this layout and have used it on several cards in the past (which have not been posted...yet). But if you look at the star card in my Versatile Class post you can see that I used the same layout for a different look.

For this card I used the new Island Oasis DSP and the Square Lattice Sizzix Embossing Folder on the Turquoise mat. I usually shy away from the bold-bright color schemes, but I really like this new paper. Very summery! :)

The large and small rose red flowers, as well as the small orange flower, are cut out from one of the DSP designs. The other two flowers were stamped and all were spritzed with the Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz. That stuff is awesome! It gives just the right touch of glitz without going over the top. I also spritzed the sentiment and added a couple of rhinestone brads for a touch more sparkle.

This card would be great to send just to brighten someone's day, as a birthday card, or even as an invitation to a tropical themed party, just by changing the sentiment.

Stamps: Tropical Party, Embrace Life (retiring)
Paper: Island Oasis DSP, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron
Accessories: Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz, Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain, Modern Label Punch, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Dimensionals

Have a great day!