{Love U}

I had a lot of fun making the last clean card so I thought I'd go ahead and make another. I really love adding dimension through layering. For this card here, I started off with a white card as my base. I then use some black cardstock for framing and topped that off with another layer of white cardstock which I embossed to give it some interest and texture. I used one of my old Verve dies to cut out the U and put a piece of red cardstock behind that to make it pop. The final and very top layer was the little black heart, which went on top of everything.

Here is the final card:

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy crafting!

Sonja

{Sweet Holidays} Mojo Sketch 504

Hi everyone,

I did a little bit of christmas shopping for my cousin's family when I spotted some super adorable christmas themed patterned paper in my local hobby store. I loved the somewhat unusual color theme and that's what inspired me to sit down and make a card again. 

I then spotted Julee's sketch on her blog and decided to take that as my jumping off point for my card. You'll notice I took some liberties with this one.

I picked a pattern and then started to layer complimentary cardstock. A little trial and error ensued until I landed at something that I liked. I wanted to make a card that I could also use as a gift card holder for our local coffee shop so a coffee motive was a must. I decided on using the to go cup from Verve's Better With You set. I paired that with a saying from PTI's Petite Places Holiday Lane. I also used the little gingerbread man stamp from that set to add a little flavor to my coffee cup. 

Lastly I needed something that worked as a frame and anchored the card. I didn't really have any small snowflakes so I decided to use the flowers from Reverse Confetti's Toucan of Friendship. I feel like they can either have a tropical or wintery feel, depending on how you dress/stamp them up.

Some final touches with a copic marker to draw in some shadows, some glitter in shape of ribbon and Stickles glitter and this is where I ended up:

here a closer look:

Thanks so much for stopping by and Merry Christmas!!!

Sonja

{Perk up} TCP Tuesday 344

Hello everyone,

I'm back with a TCP Tuesday challenge card. This month's pick is the popular coffee/tea theme, which gave me a chance to pick up my Verve stamp set Better With You and pair it with the TCP's Watercolor Basics stamp set aka coffee spill set. :)

I used water color pencils for the to go cups and layered the spill spot using Distress Ink mixed with a bit water, works like a charm.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great start to your week!

Sony

{I Could Rule The World} Mojo Monday 500

Hi everyone,

have you heard? This week marks an anniversary and sadly a farewell as well. Julee announced that this will be the final Mojo Monday challenge sketch. It is the 500th sketch challenge - such an amazing accomplishment!! But...as she talks about on her blog...our lifes' change and with that, this will be our very last Mojo Monday challenge.

Life changes. As I ponder that thought I find myself getting a bit sentimental as I'm packing up my last 20 years of memories in the US and prepare myself for a new life overseas. Change is often bittersweet. It encompasses the excitement of something new but also the sadness of leaving something old behind. But we don't want to linger on those sad thoughts for too long because if we spend the majority of our time looking back, we miss out on all the wonderful things that lie before us. 

With those thoughts...I'd like to say farewell Mojo Monday!! Thank you for all the wonderful memories of picking color combinations, figuring out what stamps to use and how to adapt the sketch. It's been a blast!!!

And a very special thank you to Julee!! Thank you for inspiring us and encouraging us for so many years! You always had a kind word for everyone and please know, that is not overlooked and not forgotten. I feel honored to have had the chance to be on your Design Team and I wish you all the best!!! Enjoy your little ones!! Time goes by so fast!!!
PS: I do hope you will keep the blog as it is because I know there are some sketches I have not played with yet. 

The final sketch:

So...for my final Mojo Monday card I've chose the set Better With You. I've used the Distress Inks Rusty Hinge and Abandoned Coral to create the background panel. The little heart on my coffee cup received the sparkle treatment with the help of some Diamond Stickles. The stitched frames are dies by MFT and the coffee cups have been colored in with Copic Markers.

Here's a closer look:

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Have a great week!!

Sonja

{Happy Graduation} Mojo Monday 498

Hi everyone,

I'm back with a much needed graduation card. One of my friends from church graduated from college today. She's now officially an accountant!! Yay!!! I really loved last week's Mojo Monday challenge and decided to go with that sketch for this card. I was just a little late linking it to the blog. Oops.

For this card I decided to break out my good ole Verve stamps and I ended up using one of my all time favorite sets: Happy Days. I'm so sad to say it's now retired.  :(

I paired it with numbers from the set Calendar Countdown. This one is still available and on sale so make sure you get this one while you can. Everybody should have a good numbers set because you can always use those.

I wanted to give her a little money so I included a little pouch on the inside of the card.

I love the sentiments in the set Words of Wisdom. They can work for so many different occasions. 

For this card I went with the "go confidently in the direction of your dreams" sentiment. :)

This is the Mojo Monday sketch:

And here's a little closer look of the front of my card:

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sonja

{Winter Wonderland} December Diva Inspiration Bloghop

Hi everyone,

and welcome to our December Diva Inspiration Blog Hop. My Internet is currently down so please bare with me as im posting this from my cell phone. :) 

I'll be back as soon as i have access but in the meantime here's my  card and my inspiration. 

hi!!! Ok my internet is back up and running! Unbelievable how helpless you feel without it isn't it? lol Anyway, can you believe it's December already? 

It's time to break out the cookies, get the tree out and write those cards. I also like to take this time to think about the past year, the highs and lows and for me there were quite a few of those. 

I got lasik eye surgery a few weeks ago and no longer need glasses. It's an amazing feeling!! Especially when you don't even remember the last time you were able to see without glasses. I finished my very first project at the company I now work out and I'm extremely proud of it. It's called "Tomorrowland" and is a movie by Brad Bird that comes out next summer. I fought hard to get a raise at work so please keep your fingers crossed for me there. I moved into an amazing apartment - no more roommates for me so yay. I'm way too old for roommates anyway but with rents in San Francisco being as high as they are it's unavoidable unless you move 30miles outside of the city which I did. :) Gives me time to make those phonecalls in the morning. :) 

And lastly...my mom was diagnosed with cancer about two weeks ago. She has multiple myeloma, stage  3  and if you follow my blog you know that I just lost my dad to cancer two years ago so the diagnosis came as a shock and in some ways we're still dealing with it.

My mom started her chemo treatments this week and as anybody who has gone through it or has seen a loved one go through it you know there are good and bad days. There are days when she's full of hope and then there are days when she wants to give up. What makes it harder for us is that I live on the westcoast and she is in Florida but thanks be to God that I have such an amazing family. My uncle told my aunt to go to my mom as soon as she can and stay with her for as long as she wants. Did I mention the rest of my family all live in Germany? Yes so my aunt will fly in to be with my mom next week and will be there with her for the entire time. 

I can't even begin to describe to you how grateful and relieved I am. 

God is good!

So...let me tell you what this month's blog hop is all about:

It's the 5th of the month and that means it's time for the Divas to serve up some fresh inspiration with their Verve stamps! Leave some comment love along the hop spots for a chance to win a prize, then grab some stamps and play along with our December inspiration challenge for another chance to win!

This month's challenge is entitled O Christmas Tree:

Ribbons and sparkle and merry galore! Create a card inspired by the decorations of the season!

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!

This here was my inspiration for the card I made above - a little side note: that believe fence I actually made myself. 

	1. Julee	6. Karen
	2. Amy	7. Sankari
	3. Anya	8. Sarah
	4. Betty	9. Sony
	5. Jen	10. Susan

Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to you!!!

{One Lifetime} November Divainspiration Blog Hop

hi Everyone,

and Welcome to Verve's November Diva Inspirations Hop. I'm showcasing another card I made for my friend's wedding last month. I wasn't entirely happy with the first one I made so I decided to make one more and then see which one I liked better. I ended up giving her this one. I liked how it resembled a book cover in a way which reminded me of how my friend is opening a new chapter in her life and I just really liked the symbolism of that. 

Well that's all I have for you today...I'm in the middle of moving and boxes are everywhere around here. You don't even want to know how many boxes I had to dig through to find the hard drive that had the picture for today's post on it....last night. I built up a good sweat let me tell you lol but thankfully I found it and here it is. :) Yay!

 Be sure to check out what the rest of the Diva team has come up with for inspiration with their Verve stamps! Leave some comment love along the hop spots for a chance to win a prize, then grab some stamps and play along with our November inspiration challenge for another chance to win!

This month's challenge is entitled Naturally Navy:

Classic, bold, timeless...navy is naturally elegant! Go nautical or pair with neutrals for a creation sure to impress.

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!

	1. Amy	7. Sarah
	2. Anya	8. Sony
	3. Betty	9. Susan
	4. Jen	10. Maureen
	5. Karen	11. Stacey
	6. Sankari	12. Marisa

{Wedding Wishes} Diva Inspiration Blog Hop

hi Everyone,

Welcome to Verve's October Diva Inspirations Hop. 

I am SO sorry but I'm afraid I lost track of time this month so I didn't get around to creating a theme inspired card this month...instead I'm showing you one of the cards I created for my friend's wedding a few weeks ago. Stay tuned for the one I actually ended up giving her...but in the meantime:

It's time for the Divas to serve up some fresh inspiration with their Verve stamps! Leave some comment love along the hop spots for a chance to win a prize, then grab some stamps and play along with our October inspiration challenge for another chance to win!

This month's challenge is entitled Fall Fancy:

The air is crisp and the colors are warm – celebrate fall with a spook-tacular creation or a thoughtful thank you using Fall as your inspiration! 

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!

	1. Julee	7. Sarah
	2. Amy	8. Sony
	3. Anya	9. Maureen
	4. Betty	10. Laurie
	5. Karen	11. Marisa
	6. Sankari	12. Jen

Lucasfilm Sidewalk Art Show

Every year we have a sidewalk art show right outside our building. We have about a day to create a Star Wars, Indiana Jones and now Disney inspired chalk painting. It's always a lot of fun and this year my friends and I decided to participate. 

We had a blast despite the fact that we were helplessly ill prepared for it. Our tape measure to lay out a grid was too short and it didn't lock so it took all three of us to draw the grid. We didn't have enough brown chalk so we had to get creative with the colors. And I'm a little ashamed to admit it but I was actually sore the next day...just from getting up all the time. lol It was a lot of fun!!

Here are some pictures of some of my favorites this year:

and this cutie here was ours:

Interview

Check out my interview on the Gnomon Blog :

http://www.gnomonschool.com/blog/career/gnomon-alumni-interview-visual-effects-secret-projects-environment-art-industrial-light-magics-sonja-christoph

{A cupcake Birthday} September Diva Inspiration Hop

Hi everyone!!

welcome to our September Inspiration Blog Hop. This months theme: 

Sweet September

Sugar-high! Get sugary sweet with pastels, cupcakes or candy. Create a calorie free confection to delight the senses!

I went a bit more clean and simple with my card this month: using the Verve Carpe Cupcake stamp set and the sentiment from the Borderline set. I embossed the brown strips with a polka dot embossing folder - it's a little hard to see in the picture but it goes along great with the polka dot ribbon. :)

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!

	1. Julee	7. Sarah
	2. Amy	8. Sony
	3. Anya	9. Susan
	4. Betty	10. Maureen
	5. Karen	11. Stacey
	6. Sankari	12. Marisa

We've got some sweet savings in the store with all of our brand new releases marked 10% off and some of our sweetest stamps & dies from releases past marked 20% off!

{Birthday Wishes} August Diva Inspiration Blog Hop

Hi Everyone and Welcome to Verve's August Diva Inspiration Hop!!

 It's the 5th of the month and that means it's time for the Divas to serve up some fresh inspiration with their Verve stamps! Leave some comment love along the hop spots for a chance to win a prize, then grab some stamps and play along with our August inspiration challenge for another chance to win!

Our August challenge is Sequined Stunner:

Sequins are the perfect embellishment - sparkly, affordable and with lots of texture. Add some sequins to your project this month to make it a sequined stunner! Feel free to use the graphic as inspiration or not.

For those of us who don't have sequins just laying around the house..let me tell you about my scavenger hunt through Michael's to find some! I started off in the wool section thinking sequins are used on clothing right? Yeah not so much...I figured ok, next one up...might as well check out the scrapbooking/ribbon section. Nothing. I found plenty of glass glitter and picked up lots of other things I really don't need but no sequins. I'm about to give in and redirect my search to a sales person but then after a few minutes of no luck in that I give that up as well because I come upon the jewelry section. Hopeful I go through it two times...no sequins!! I'm about to give up but then resign myself to at least just walk the rest of the aisles..which mind you they are only a few at this point...aaand you're not going to believe where I found them: in the kids section!!! I was so overjoyed I bought a pack of sequins in every color!! lol

I hope you enjoy my hard earned sequin card!! lol
Happy Hopping!!!

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!

	1. Julee	7. Sarah
	2. Amy	8. Sony
	3. Anya	9. Susan
	4. Betty	11. Maureen
	5. Karen	11. Stacey
	6. Sankari	12. Chaitali

{Java} July Diva Inspiration Blog Hop

Welcome to Verve's July Diva Inspirations Hop.
It's the 5th of the month and that means it's time for the Divas to serve up some fresh inspiration with their Verve stamps! Leave some comment love along the hop spots for a chance to win a prize, then grab some stamps and play along with our July inspiration challenge for another chance to win!

Our July challenge is Red, White and You:

Red and white are always classic, pair this gorgeous color combo with a color of YOUR choice! Make a statement or keep it muted, it's all up to you! Feel free to use the graphic as inspiration or not, we just want to see you flash a little red, white and "up to you" color on your creation!

Need a little inspiration? Check out the blogs linked below to see what the other Divas did with the challenge! It's sure to be a treat, and speaking of treats, we've got a prize for one lucky commenter along the hop! Check out the Verve Blog today for all the prize info and deadlines!

	1. Julee	8. Sony
	2. Amy	9. Susan
	3. Anya	11. Maureen
	4. Betty	11. Stacey
	5. Karen	12. Chaitali
	6. Sankari	13. Amber
	7. Sarah	14. Marisa