Welcome! You have arrived at the 21st stop on the fourth and final VC_Rocks blog hop for 2010. If you're hopping along in order, you arrived from Stace's blog. You can find a list of links to all 32 blogs in this hop here. The card below was made using the emboss resist technique. The flower image from the Upsy Daisy stamp set was stamped on Glossy White card stock using Whisper White craft ink and white embossing powder. Marina Mist classic ink was sponged over the embossed image and the rest of the piece of card stock. The sentiment from In a Word was stamped on the upper right corner with Crumb Cake classic ink and matted on Crumb Cake and Whisper White card stock. Polka dots were embossed on a 1/2 inch strip of Crumb Cake card stock then adhered to the piece of Marina Mist card stock and attached to the Whisper White card base. The design was CASEd from one posted to SCS by Inkerzaway. The next stop is the blog of Tina Taves where she has a spooky project featuring Build a Bears!

Once a month I get to stamp with Joyce Pacer, my SU upline, mentor, and friend. Since UPS had just delivered the items she pre-ordered from the holiday mini catalog Thursday evening, we spent the afternoon playing and experimenting with some of them. One of the first things we tried was the Northern Frost Decorative Strip. It cuts 8 unique snowflakes in the Big Shot. First we cut them out of white card stock shown here on Night of Navy card stock. We cut the next ones from ivory card stock. I tried adding a little shimmer to these with the gold Smooch Spritz. Seeing them on the Cherry Cobbler card stock, I think they would be awesome on a vintage style card or scrapbook page.

We were having such fun cutting out snowflakes that we decided to try the Textured Impressions embossing folder, Northern Flurry, shown here on Cherry Cobbler card stock.

Next we tried the Bigz XL die, Tasteful Trims. It cuts 4 different trim and border shapes and because it works with your Big Shot, you can cut a wide variety of materials. We used a piece of Tempting Turquoise card stock and found that each piece is 12 inches long - perfect for a 12" x 12" scrapbook page! The large "rick rack" piece would make great waves on a beach layout or layer 2 of them together to create a mountain range. Can't you just see them cut from patterned paper on Halloween or Christmas pages?

We also experimented with a Christmas collage background stamp, some Glass Glitter, and the new Waffle paper. There are over 40 pages of gorgeous things to create holiday cards, ornaments, gifts, scrapbook pages, and more available for purchase on September 1!

Leave a comment with your ideas of how you would use some of the new products and be entered in a drawing for blog candy! One name will be drawn at random on Monday, August 23! Be sure to check back to see if you're the winner!

Birthday card for my brother-in-law. He has actually been bear hunting! This card was created with lots of retired items. Stamp is from the retired set Wildlife Reserve. Card stock is Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Always Artichoke, and Very Vanilla. Used my Coluzzle to cut the circles and linen thread was tied around card stock.

This card was made with A Flower for All Seasons stamp set and embossing folders. The image was colored with new SU markers - Cajun Craze, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, and Pear Pizzazz. I used Whisper White, More Mustard, and So Saffron card stock and one of the new colors, Cajun Craze, for the card base and to mat the image.

More birthday cards today. These are made with the shave cream technique and the Animal Stories stamp set. If you haven't tried the shave cream technique, it is so much fun. Messy but fun. The colors in this one are Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede. The elephant was stamped in Crumb cake.

Colors used on this one are Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, and Basic Gray.

This card was inspired by Lynda Lee's card made with the Black Magic technique and the new Awash with Flowers stamp set. The image is stamped on black card stock with white craft ink, colored with SU's retired metallic pencils and a white gel pen was used to outline the images. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Two women in my office at work and eight family members have birthdays in August. Needless to say, I've been working on birthday cards lately! Here's one I made a while back that's good for masculine birthdays. Stamp sets used were the grass from Inspired by Nature and Upsy Daisy for the sentiment. The ends of the cattails are Chocolate Chip card stock punched with the horizontal slot punch. Punch a circle for the sun and then sponge ink around it to create the sky on Very Vanilla card stock. Card base is Chocolate Chip card stock. Not sure who I "borrowed" this idea from but since much of my inspiration comes from SCS, it was probably someone who posts there.