Long time, no see

Hello fellow bloggers. Well it has been a long dry spell on this blog site. I have been busy settling in to our AZ home and have not done much card making. I did, however, over the last week, try to use all four Viva La Verve layouts for February with varying results. I will be posting them over the next few days. I did not enter them into the Verve contest this month, but I will try to get more organized for March. No promises tho' - :) I do have company coming for most of March.

On to the first Feb.#1 VLV post. Here is the layout I employed....




.......and here is the result. Have I mentioned that I am loving these VLV sketches. I find them to be very inspiring.




 I began with a wonderful little pad of peel and stick designer papers by K&Company. I love the colours and the floral design called for me to use my brand new die set from Spellbinders, Carnation Creations.

The card base is a light turquoise shade of Bazzil basics - it is from my scrap pile so I am not sure of the exact colour. It has a lovely shimmer to it.

 I cut 3 of the largest and 1 of the second largest multi-petal flowers from white c/s and sponged them with 3 shades of distress ink: tattered rose, milled lavender, and dusty concord. The last shade was applied with the flowers set back into the die on the larger petals, and to the tips on the smaller flower. After punching a hole in the centers, I used a silver floral element and a rhinestone brad  (SU) to pull it all together.

Finally, I applied some lovely rhinestone swirls from Recollections, then attached
the flower element with sticky strip.

I just want to mention now that my brain was not in gear when I packed my craft supplies for this trip south. Having just returned from my father-in-law's funeral, I was a little distracted. One of the things I did not pack along was any sentiment stamp sets. You will notice this on my cards for the next few weeks. I only have what happens to be included in any image stamp set.

On this card, I decided to leave out any sentiment until I want to send it to someone.

Well that is it for the week 1 sketch. I am pretty happy with this one - simple and quick to put together. I must remember this layout when I need another quick card.

I hope to post again soon. See you then; meanwhile, get your fingers inky.