Sunshine card

Hi peeps. Hump day!! Only two more days of being on pins and needles before we can find out about who's going to the Top 15. LOL. Have you vote? There's tons of inspirations at the Gallery Idol. Go here to get inspire & vote! And I just want to say I love my brothers so much! Their encouragement & support means the world to me. I adore them & love them to pieces. :)

Last night, I was struggling a bit. Wasn't feeling very creative. I started with making card for Hero Arts color layering challenge, messed that one up. Started another one and again messed that one up. I started to get frustrated, so I switched gear. Trying to save this poppy that I already stamped.

I ended up creating a card using Mojo Monday sketch for this week. And, I loved, loved this cheerful card. Granted, at first, I am debating whether to follow the sketch exactly. I have problem of mounting anything slanted. I like things straight. So, at first, after I glued it slanted, I kind of move it back to straight, then finally told myself to break out of my mold and just do it slanted. :) Entering this for Paper Play Challenges as well.

I love the graph background. I think the symmetrical of the lines mix well with the cheerfulness of the smiling sun. And that graph paper somehow reminds me of elementary school, of younger days. I don't know how to explain it. This card simply makes me happy. I ended up taking it to work, just so I can look at it and feel cheerful. Below is the close-up of the card.

Lots of yummy sparkly goodness on this card. I sprayed the sun with perfect pearl, so it glistened just like real sun. Created the pink graph background using Stampabilities stamp, then I stamped the poppies on top of it and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils. Popped some of the poppies with pop-dots and added glitters with Stickles.

Hope this card makes you smile as well. Have a great Wednesday everyone. Hugs, Vera.

Reflection time

Hi peeps. My birthday is coming up at the end of this month. And as usual with any of my birthday, it's time for some reflection. One thing that I learned from my parents is to always be grateful. Not only for the big thing but for the small things as well. Because most often, what make life beautiful are the millions of little things that make us happy. We experience more joy when we can be grateful.

Through out this month posts I want to acknowledge things that I am grateful for from little to big. Just random thoughts about ,y life and also acknowledge some people that make a huge difference in my life. Hope, I won't make you bored, but sometime I just feel the need to write. :)

Let's start in the lighter side. My girlfriend, Deb and I used to start our morning by sending email to each other of 10 things we're grateful for. In honor of that tradition here are 10 random things that I am grateful for that makes me happy:

1. Without saying I am very grateful for my family. I have the best family that I could ever ask for. This is the most important and the best blessing of all time. 

2. My doggies. I love it when snuggle by me and have their paw hugging me. They're my kids. 

3. Girl's time with my girlfriends. They're the best of friends that I know we'll be there for me & vice versa.

4. Baskin Robbins cappucino blast. They're the best!

5. My scrapbook room and all the stuff in it.

6. Cheesecake. I loveee cheesecake. I sometime have it for dinner when I don't have appetite for real food. :) Like my MIL said, make sure we have room for the good stuff. So, I make sure I can have dessert. LOL.

7. Chatting on the phone with my mom. Living far away from my family is one of the hardest thing I ever do.

8. Books. I love reading. You can never read too many books.

9. My camera. I love capturing life and the beauty of life through the lens.

10. My blog. Through my blog I have met many wonderful people that I wouldn't have met otherwise. 

Okay, if you survive reading that, thank you! LOL. It isn't so bad, is it? Here'a treat for you. A cute card! I love this owls. I got it from Stamping Bella of 4 owls on a branch. I just stamped it 3 times on 3 different pp. The idea for the card come from CPS170 and from Anne's challenge of using little stamps.

What do you think of my owls? I love that they have such a cookie look. :) Okie dokie, that's all I have for today's post. Hope you all have a great week. Hugs, Vera.

Paper Crafts Gallery Idol Round 1

Hi peeps! Finally, the moment we all been waiting for is here! The first round of Gallery Idol starts today.

This past week been such an exciting moment for me. From excited-oh-my-gosh to the nauseous-oh-my-gosh moment. LOL. All the girls are so talented and I can't say enough good things about each of them. Actually, today blogger decided to act up on some of us and Tiffany, one of the finalist, help me with my post today. Thank you, Tiff!! :)

The theme for the 1st round is Creativity Heals. I chose to do I miss you card. With my whole family live on the other side of the world (literally), I miss my family all the time. So, I am making this card with my mom in mind.

As soon as I saw this swing, I know I want to use it. I have an old picture of me and my brother on a swing and I think the empty swing is perfectly symbolize how much I wish I have my family here with me.

I cut the swing, birds, and the letters using my Silhouette. Love that machine! Did stitching around the borders, layered the swing and the birds, and add glitters to the sentiment. The pp is from Bo Bunny dots and the wood pp is from Andrea Victoria Faux Bois digital kit.

Please make sure you stop by the Paper Crafts gallery here to vote. You will need to register & confirm your registration to vote, but registration is free. Please take the time to look at everyone's creation. If you like my card, please vote for my card. I would love to make to the next round and would really appreciate your vote and support.

All I can say, I am so honored to have my card display along side all these super talented ladies. Getting to know these ladies has been such an awesome bonus. Good luck to everyone and thank you all for stopping by here. Hugs, Vera.

Nervous

Hi y'all! How are you all doing? I am as nervous as can be. LOL. As much as I enjoy the whole process of making cards and all for the Gallery Idol, I am very nervous about the whole thing. This is my first time experiencing anything like this.

I mean, I still have to pinch myself that I am going through this whole experience along with some awesome card makers that I've admired and actually have followed for awhile. So, to be competing with them is very, very nerve wrecking for me. I have to submit my card by tomorrow. I hope I can go to the next round, but if I don't, I sure will treasure this whole experience. :)

I am so nervous, I've been munching like crazy. Yes, when I am nervous, I snack a lot. LOL. I am sure some of the sugar probably don't help.

To take my mind of things, I decided to play on some challenges. I made this cheerful, bright card for The Pink Elephant challenge 69, Paper Play challenge, and Taylored Expression Sketch Challenge 116.

I simply love this Hero Arts Poppy stamp. And, did you see the background behind the poppy? I found this graph stamp from Stampabilities and totally love playing with it. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Here's up-close view of the flowers. It has plenty of yummy sparkles. :)

            

Okay peeps, that's it for tonight's post. Hope you all have a great evening. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Hugs, Vera. 

Happy Friday...

Hi peeps. This week seems to flew by pretty fast. Just so happy it's already Friday. I wasn't feeling too good last nigth, but I did squeeze in time to make a quick, simple card. Not my typical card as usually I love colors on my card.

I made this card for CAS-tastic challenge that focus on sentiments and Our Creative Corner challenge that challenge us to make black and white card with lots of texture. Of course, since I discovered the beauty of of Perfect Pearls, I have to mist the whole card with it. The whole thing has a soft glimmer to it.

I just want to give a quick shout out to Trinh, who's been so kind to me. Trinh, thank you for all your kindness and thoughtfulness. I so appreciate it. Big hugs to everybody and may your weekend be a super duper great one. Try not to melt, it's so hot here in Texas. With heat index they say today's high gonna feel like 105-107F. Yikes....

Hero Arts & DDSB Challenge 10

Goodness, yesterday I found out that I won Hero Arts (HA) $100 Shopping Spree. The funny thing was, in the morning I read their blog, but it didn't click with me at all. This is the first time I won that big of an amount. It truly is a complete surprise.

When one of the girl, Pia said congratulations on one of my card that she left comment for, I almost wrote back, does she know something that I don't or does she get me mix up with the other Vera on the HA flickr group. I head back to HA blog and still didn't see it, then I read it again! LOL. After that I was busy jumping up & down. On top of that, HA finally noticed my card! They tweeted about my card!

I am  so, so very thankful for all my blessings that I have received. This blessing come just in time of HA new releases. Perfect timing!! I am a firm believer of sharing my blessing. Keep checking back, later on this month I'll be doing a giveaway. :)

Let's move on to today's card. Digi Doodle Shop's Best has new challenge. All you need to do is to use button on your creation. Easy peasy. Head to DDSB challenge blog for detail.

For my card, I use this beautiful blue jay. Blue jay is one of my favorite bird. Just love the colors. Judy and her mom has been working hard on lots of new images. Please check out the store when you have a chance. They have special going on, all Father's Day and vintage stamps are 15% off. And with any $5 purhcase you'll get freebies. This is great to build up your digi stamp collection. You don't want to miss it!

Okie dokie, that's it for today. Hope you can join us on the challenge. Thank you all for stopping by and I wish you a very happy Thursday. Hugs, Vera.

Layers of colors

Hi there. Happy Wednesday. I wasn't sure what kind of card I was going to make last night. Then I saw the new Hero Arts challenge for this month. Which is layers of colors. Hmm... the wheel start turning. :)

I pulled out my beautiful poppy stamps and it never fails, this stamp inspires me. This whole card pretty much one layer, except for the butterfly.

I first stamped the antique writing background and mist it with the perfect pearl (I can't believe I just now started using it). In person, this card has really pretty shimmer to it. Then I just stamped the poppies in rose romance, mellow moss, and almost amethyst colors. Colored the inside with my chalks to create soft hue and finished with a nice greeting.

I am very happy with the result. I was practically jumped from my chair to grab some q-tip from the bathroom when the idea hit me. yeah..., I am known to be a bit over excited sometime when an idea hit me. LOL. My husband thought something wrong when I just jumped out and dash to the bathroom. Hee... So, what do you think of my over excited result? You likey?

Any of you watch America's Got Talent? I don't watch reality show, but that's one show I do watch. It's refreshing to see so many different talent and the stories behind these people. One that touched me was the New Direction choir group, which all the members are used to be homeless veterans. They said sometime warriors have to ask for help and it's okay and they show that there's always hope and things can always change. They are so inspiring. And they have beautiful voices. I am glad they make it to the next round.

Okie dokie, enough rambling. Thank you all so  much for stopping by. Hugs, Vera.

OWH Blog Hop Winner

Hi peeps. How was your long weekend? Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I want to thank everyone that joined us at the OWH Blog Hop. So many of you joined us and make this blog hop a huge success.

I have a winner to pick for my goodies.

Congratulations Cassie_lu! Please email me your address, so I can mail your goodies. Thank you all for playing. Hint, hint... this month is my birthday month. June 28 to be exact. To celebrate I will do another giveaway. Keep checking here to join. :)

I don't have card for my post today as I am currently working on cards for the Gallery Idol first round. I am waiting for the rules. I don't know whether I can post the card I made for the round here on my blog or whether I can only post it to their forum. Meanwhile, I am hoping that tonight I can make some random card to be posted here.

Thank you all for the well wishes. Some of you sent me personal email with encouraging words and I just want to let you know that I appreciated it very much. This whole experience is so nerve wrecking. I mean, some of the girls are the ones whose works I've been admiring. To be among them just crazy, exciting, and I am so honored!! Okay peeps, don't want to bore you with long rambles. You all have a super duper great Tuesday!! Big hugs, Vera.

OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop

Hi peeps, happy Memorial Day weekend and welcome to my stop on Operation Write Home blog hop. This is my first time joining the hop and so glad that I get to take part of honoring all men and women in our troops! If you come here from Melissa's blog you're on the right track. :) To start from the very beginning of the hop please go to OWH Stars and Stripes.

To all the member of the troops, I want to thank you all for all your sacrifice and for your bravery. Because of what you do, we have the freedom that we're so often take for granted. From the bottom of my heart thank you for everything.

For my card, I tried to do some stitching. As I mentioned previously, I am really new at this whole stitching stuff. I couldn't get it straight at all. Well, actually I meant it to look like that. Heh... :)

The second card is simple card. I love simple card. This one again using the "Tweet Retreat" from Kathy Martin's collection.

That's all the cards that I have for today. I am finally stop shaking from my shock of  yesterday's announcement from Paper Crafts here. Pretty much spent the whole day being nauseous, because I was so excited, yet very nervous, too. So, besides blog hopping, I am planning on working on some cards this weekend. Keeping my finger cross!

OK, your next hop is to Dawn's blog!

Update: I decided to do some giveaway, I have so many things to be thankful for lately and I would love to share my  blessings. Below is what I am giving away. Just a mix match of stuff. To enter please leave comments and I'd love for you to become follower of my blogs. Following my blog is not mandatory though. I'd love for you to follow my  blog if you feel my blog can inspire you.

Thank you for stopping by here and have a great and safe Memorial Day weekend! Hugs, Vera.

Mami Doodle & Paper Play Challenge

Update: Just found out that I made the Gallery Idol Top 20!!! 262 designers, 901 card and my simple card made it. Oh my gosh, I am shaking with excitement and yes, a bit nervous. The other girls are soooo good. I don't know whether to do happy dance or go to the bathroom and throw up. You'll get to vote whether I can go to the next round or not. Just like American Idol. That's it... I need to stop shaking. :)

Below  my original post:

It's Friday!! Yay... can't wait for the long weekend. I LOVED long weekend. Hoping to get lots of things done on top of having movie day as well. I want to see Prince of Persia! The preview looks so cool. Hoping the movie will be as good as I am hoping.

Today, I have new challenge for you. This time Mami Doodles is teaming up with Paper Play Week 21 Challenge, together we have this challenge "Up In The Air". For my card I used the owl from Mami Doodles' The Owl Family set. You'll get 2 images on this set.

This is the card that I mentioned on my post yesterday. My very first card that have real stitching! Nice pat on the back for me. LOL.

And yes, I know it's not super straight. I am usually pretty strict to have things super straight, but considering my sewing skills, I cut myself some slack. I am not pushing my luck on this. I am happy that I didn't mess up the papers. :)

This card works great for me as I can enter it for several challenge. So happy when it can works like that. :) I am entering this card for:

Wee Memories Challenge 7 - Sky's The Limit.

2S4Y sketch 53 

Simon Says Stamp challenge - Blue/pink with green and brown

CAStastic CWC005 - A touch of green

So, you get anything plan this weekend? I have list going on. Hubby is working on renovating the master shower (I supervised, LOL), Operation Write Home blog hop, reading Fable Heaven last book, clean the house, clean my scrapbook room (hopeless...), finalizing our vacation reservation, and some more other stuff. Hope you all have a super duper great weekend and if you take a trip, be safe! Happy Memorial day weekend. Hugs, Vera.