My Bucket Overfloweth!

Happy New Year!

2010-12-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

Hello and Happy Hip Hop!!

Sorry for posting late!!

I hope that you started all this fun at the Unity Blog

so you haven't missed any special creations from the rest of the Unity or Ippity DT's.

Hopefully you are coming to me by way of Karen Maldonado's blog!!!

I challenged you guys on Monday's Hippity Hop

to make a project that helps RING in the NEW YEAR!

Today I am sharing with you what I created for me to have as I head into 2011!

(But first I am going to get a little personal.. scroll down to skip that if you choose!)

Many of you who have been following me on my blog for some time now know that I have experienced some big changes in my life during the past year. Namely, I became separated and eventually divorced after a very short marriage. Since that time I have been struggling to find the real purpose in my life and I've been trying to find that inner peace within myself that helps me know that everything is going to be OK and that everything happens for a reason! By nature I am not a very patient person and so it has been very frustrating for me to not know all the answers yet! But that is what I am going to be working on in 2011!

I wanted to tell you guys that as I work on these things I have asked Angela if I could take a little furlough from the Ippity DT to be able to put my focuses completely on where they need to be. I need to sort some things out and put my uneasiness to rest! So I will be temporarily off the DT and starting Melody Ross' "Soul Restoration" class beginning January 11th. I am looking very forward to it. I hope you guys understand!

Keep stopping by because I should be able to share some of my creations

from the class here on my blog and I will be back as soon as I can... I promise!!

So, on to my project to help me

"RING in the NEW YEAR!!"

Each New Year I try to think of ways to improve myself and I was so inspired by many of the quotes that our Ippity stamp sets have. So I thought why not turn them into a little book and have them at my side for those moments when I feel down or alone (or whatever) and I just need a little jolt of happiness!!

So here is my book of inspiring Ippity quotes

that will help me stay in the right frame of mind in 2011!!

It's an accordion style album that I have had in my stash for some time now! I think it was the perfect medium for this project!! I love the stark colors and kept the stamping inside to a minimum because I really only want to focus on the meaning of the quotes anyway!

See what I called it??? "Quotes a la Happy!!" LOL!!

I know after reading through these amazing quotes it will be very easy to get happy again!!

All of them are so uplifting and encouraging!

Here is a look at some of the accordion pages that are contained within my book!

Just let me know if you need to know which set any of these quotes come from! I will be happy to share that with you! But don't forget you can get any one of these quotes for yourself by finding an Ippity Chick near you to buy your stamps from!!

I promise not to be a stranger, but I hope when I come back I will be at more peace with myself and able to be the best DT member I can be. I apologize for my lack of involvement lately and appreciate all of you who have stuck by my side as I have been going through these crazy changes in my life!

Next on the Hop please stop by the wonderfully talented and oh so sweet friend of mine,

Lisa Arana!!

I love you guys and wish you the best NEW YEAR you can have!!

Hugs and best wishes!

Hip Hop Ippity Gift Idea

2010-12-09T01:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Hip Hop!!

I've missed you guys. I've been a little busy these days trying to keep up with all the happenings going on at work and also preparing for the upcoming Christmas celebration! My family LOVES Christmas and we like a lot of lights and we have two trees and even a Christmas Village that we put out! So needless to say I have been trying to get it all done and it hasn't left me much time to blog or craft! I hope you can understand! :-)

Next on my list is to tackle my Christmas cards and some hand made gifts to give away this year. And that's just what I have for you today! We all need easy gift ideas for this time of year, don't we? Well I have one to share with you that you can literally finish making in less than 30 minutes!! Woohoo!!!

Maybe you have a co-worker or a neighbor that you'd like to give a gift to, but you don't have a lot of money or time to spend. Then why don't you make something like this beautiful candle cover made from vellum and a recycled jar!

I stamped Ippity's So This is Love winter trees stamp several times onto a length of vellum that is long enough to wrap around the jar with a bit of extra overlap. I used vellum tape to secure the ends together. Ippity's Hybrid ink in the Burnt umber was the perfect color to stamp with and it dried well with just a bit of my heat gun applied to it. (Take care not to burn the vellum or make it curl!) To make the birds red I simply colored over the images with a Copics marker before stamping!

The snow was created first by tearing a plain white sheet of typing paper and applying it to the underside of the vellum. Then I sprayed an adhesive using a mask cut to match the snowbanks and applied white cotton flocking powder on top of that!

Here is the candle lit up with a battery operated tea light illuminating it! It has such wonderful glow and shows off these amazing tree silhouettes so nicely!!

Why don't you try one of these! I would love to see what you come up with if you do!

Here is the Ippity stamp set used to make today's project!

Do you need to get the Ippity stamp set that you see used here?

Please find an Ippity chick near you by clicking on the link below and order yours today!!

Next stop on today's Hip Hop is the talented Lisa Arana!!
Have fun!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with the light and love of this Christmas Season!

Have your Cake and Eat it too!!

2010-11-29T10:29:00.000-05:00

Happy Hippity Hop!!

I hope you stateside friends enjoyed your Thanksgiving Holiday!! It was wonderful for me and I am sorry that we have to get back to the weekly routine! However, since Christmas time is my favorite time of the year, I guess I can't complain that we are getting closer to that now!!

Eva is today's host for our Hippity Hop Challenge. And she has given us a site full of inspiration to find some creative mojo from. Her challenge is IHHC52 and she would like us to be inspired by one of the cakes at the website called Cakes for Occasions.

Boy was I getting hungry looking through this site!! LOL!

But I finally landed on THIS CAKE as my inspiration and here is what I created from that inspiration...

Ordinarily I wouldn't have chosen to put the garnet and goldish yellow colors together (mostly because I am a Florida Gator fan and not a Florida State fan,) but I have to admit this combo has a nice elegance to it! I decide to use the "wishing you" sentiment from the So This is Love Ippity stamp set and create an anniversary or wedding card. The inside sentiment (not shown) says "love and laughter."

Here are the three Ippity stamp sets I used to create this card...

And here is a closeup of the front...

I have to thank Eva again for this fabulous ribbon!! She sent this satin ribbon to me as well and I love the size and feel of it!! It forms wonderful bows!! And it was the perfect touch to finish off my card!! Thanks Eva!! ♥

That's all I have for you today, but be sure to start the Hop at the

Ippity Blog

where you will find the list of today's Hop participants

and be sent around cyberspace to find some amazing Ippity inspiration!!

Enjoy your day and be sure to check out your

Ippity Chicks and the Unity Blog/website

where you are likely to find some fabulous CyberMonday specials!!!

May your bucket overflow with Love and Laughter!

Hip Hopping Down Bella Blvd!!

2010-11-24T01:13:00.001-05:00

Hip Hop!!!

So by now if you started the Hip Hop at Unity's Blog

you have heard the amazing news that Unity Stamp Company

is now co-branding with Bella Blvd!!

Isn't that amazing??

Today we are also having a Flip Flop Hip Hop so the Ippity girls get to play with their Unity stamps!! And I have chosen the new Bella Blvd Stamp collection called Bella Trees!!

I love this set because it has so much versatility!!!

And I decided to use the trees just a little bit out of the box to show you some of that versatility!!

The DT members have been challenged this week to BAG it and TAG it!!! So I have created this fun gift tag for a wine bottle bag using the Bella Trees stamps a little bit out of the box!!

Here is the full view of my tag on the wine gift bag! I got these cute little felt bags from the 1$ spot at Target. They are so cute!! And to add a tag is the perfect finishing touch.

Here is a closeup of my project! Were you wondering where the TREES are???

Well, I used two different tree shapes to create the petals of the Pointsettia on the tag. The larger petals were created using the tall tree in the collection, but first I stamped the base paper with the ippity stamp called Thoughts from the Past and then I cut the tree shapes out.

Next I stamped the smaller solid leaf onto white paper using red ink to create the smaller petals for the flower. I layered them all together and kept them held with a brad from a Making Memories kit that I had on hand.

The Merry Kissmas stamp is from Ippity's Kissmas and Mistletoe set!

Next you are heading to the talented Lisa Arana's blog for some more Bella Blvd Beauties!!

Have fun and be sure to have a very

Happy Thanksgiving as well!!

New Ippity Stamps are now for sale!!!!

2010-11-18T01:01:00.000-05:00

The three month wait for new Ippity stamps is over!!

Are you ready to put your Party Hat on and celebrate???

The FALL 2010 Ippity Stamp sets are now available for purchase

from an Ippity Chick near you!!!

Woohoo!! Finally!!!

We hope that you have been wowed with all the DT samples that we have been sharing with you since last Sunday and that you have picked out your favorite stamps sets to buy. But if you are like me, you wouldn't be able to choose just some of them and you would just want them all!! LOL!!

Can I get a Hip Hop too???

It's Thursday which means that we are having our weekly Hip Hop with the Unity DT girls too. But for Ippity's special day, all the Hip Hop fun is going to start at the Unity Blog as usual, but then make it's way through the Ippity DT girls' blogs first.

But it's easy for you because all you have to do is look for the

"NEXT BLOG" icon

and click on it to be taken to the next blog on the hop!!

We also have some amazing blogs that you will want to visit from the Ippity Blog at the end of the Hop and that is the blogs of some of our amazing Ippity Chicks!! If you need one to purchase your stamps from, please visit the link below to locate one near you!!

The card I have made for you today uses the following NEW stamps sets...

Party Hat

What you Doin

Gurnsey Gingham

I started by stamping the Gurnsey Gingham as my background using Real Red SU ink. Then I stitched around it haphazardly to create a messy border. Next I applied the cake bingo card and a strip of paper from We R Memory Keepers. Then I added the cupcake from the Party Hat set as an embellishment that I popped up. And then I finished it off with the "happy birthday" sentiment from the What You Doin set.

The cupcake was colored with Copic markers and then I added Distressed clear Rock Candy Stickles to the frosting for dimension and some glaze.

I love these sets... I know they are going to be seeing a lot of ink in my house!!

Please come by the Splitcoaststampers Unity forum for a full day of fun today! Also be sure to check out all the challenges that we have in store for you to help us celebrate our New Release!! It is going to be a day packed full of fun!!! We promise!!

The winners from our comment contest will be revealed on the Ippity forum too! So be sure to check it out!!

Next on your way to seeing some more Ippity and Unity goodness

is the oh so talented blog of Lisa Arana's!!

Have fun!!

And thanks so much for stopping by and celebrating our New Releases today!!

Ippity New Release Sneaks Day 4

2010-11-17T11:03:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day of our Sneaks!!

Are you as blown away as I am with all these amazing new Ippity stamp sets???

You know you are going to want them all!!

And the best news is that

TOMORROW

you can have them!!!

And speaking of BEST NEWS... we have something exciting to share with you all today!

We enjoyed having Angie Blom as our Guest Designer sooo much that we have asked her to stay on board for another three month term!! She is so amazing and her talents are so inspirational that we just weren't ready to see her go just yet!! But we will be inviting a new guest for the Winter Release Term, so be sure to keep uploading your Ippity Creations into the SCS Gallery and participating in our Hops so we can see your talents. You never know who will be our next Guest after Angie's next term is over!!

We love you Angie... thanks for staying on with us for another Guest term!!

Our NEW RELEASE PARTY is tomorrow!!!

Please come to SCS's and join us for the celebration!!

To see the last two sets we are revealing today

and to start deciding which sets you are going to get,

please start at the Ippity Blog!!

Then follow along the "Next Blog" icons to make it through all the DT girls' blogs for some more stampy inspiration with today's showcased stamps!!

The project I have for you today is a scrapbook layout! (I know!! I scrapbooked!!! LOL!)

It uses the new Ippity Stamp set called

Here and Now

I chose to use the Sweet Moment Title/Journaling block stamp. I stamped it in SU's Chocolate Chip ink to coordinate with the brown tones of the Bo Bunny Sophie collection papers. It is hard to see it in this picture, but I added machine stitching to the layout as well.

Here is a closer shot of that cute stamp. I love that you can personalize the date by adding in the month and circling the day! I stamped it twice to allow myself a little extra room for journaling and to match the sketch that I was using.

Here is the Page Maps sketch that I created my layout from...

And because I added the scalloped border that is shown above, my layout also qualifies as a submission for Eva's "SCALLOPS" New Release Challenge! (INRC2Fall2010)

You can see all the challenges for our New Release right

HERE!

We sure hope you will play along with us!!

Of course there are prizes to random winners!!! :-)

I also should note that I stamped the corner embellishment from the Cherish Your Dreams set that we showcased yesterday. I know I will be using that stamp A LOT!! I love it!!!

So hop on over to Lisa's blog to complete your journey and be sure to be leaving comments along the way because we will be picking our comment winners tomorrow! Each DT member will randomly choose one winner from all their comments during the Sneak Peeks!! Good luck!!

Ippity New Release Sneaks Day 3

2010-11-16T11:00:00.004-05:00

Okeedokee!!!

Are you ready for some more???

Now you have seen 4 of the 8 Ippity stamp sets

being released on Thursday

and today you get to see two more!!!

Start HERE to see them!!!

Then follow the blog hop icons to go through all the DT's blogs!

Today's sets are so wonderful!!!

You are going to LOVE them!!!

The one that I am showcasing for you today is called

Cherish Your Dreams

While the stamps in this set look very ornate and elegant, I decided to use two of them a little out of the box and give my card a masculine touch. Once again it shows the versatility of these AMAZING Ippity stamps!!

The word happy and the oval frame are both in the Cherish Your Dreams set. The word birthday comes from the Fall For You set. I needed to make a masculine birthday card for a friend and I still had my October Afternoon sample packs sitting next to me so they were easy to grab and go. I think the blocking and the colors and patterns lend themselves to make a card that a guy could even like!

The oval frame was stamped with SU's Not Quite Navy, the happy was stamped in Real Red and the birthday was stamped in Wild Wasabi!

The ribbon actually had a pink stripe through the middle but with a trusty red Copic marker, I was able to make it match the red on the card!! LOL!

Next stop on the Hop today is Lisa Arana's Blog!!!

ENJOY!!!

Only two days until our NEW RELEASE PARTY!!!

I hope you will be there!!! Lot's of challenges, prizes, chatting and of course
NEW RUBBER for sale!!!!!

Thanks again for your sweet comments!!

Keep 'em coming each day for a chance to win a FREE stamp set.
Each DT member will be choosing one to give away from all of the comments during our Sneaks!

Ippity New Release Sneaks Day 2

2010-11-15T11:04:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Day 2 of the New Release Sneaks

for Ippity's Fall Collection going on sale this Thursday!!

Wow!!

How about those first two sets Ippity showed off yesterday!!

Aren't they amazing!!!

I am so glad that you came back today to see some more. We have two more sets to show you today too. So be sure to start at the Ippity Blog so you can see the whole sets being released on Thursday, and then follow the "next blog" icons to see all the wonderful creations the Ippity DT made for you today!!

And DON'T FORGET!!

The HUGE NEW RELEASE PARTY is Thursday!!! Please come celebrate with us!!!

Today is also HIPPITY HOP!!!

Woohoo!!!

And Eryn is our challenge host for today and her challenge (IHHC50)

is to create a mini card!!! How fun is that!!!

So, I have used one of the sets we are showcasing today to create some mini card sets! This new set is going to be a major "GO to" type of set for all us!! You HAVE to get this one!! It is packed full of cute sentiments and little embellishment type stamps that are the cardmaker's dream come true!!!

The set I am using is called

How You Doin

I had so much fun creating these little jewels. The finished sizes are 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches and I used the sample packs of October Afternoon paper that I got from CHA this past summer. Two little samples were enough to finish two of these cards and have them coordinate together perfectly.

I think these are the perfect size to give away when you need a card to go inside a gift bag or want to attach a note to some baked goodies you are sharing at the holidays.

Here are some closeups for you...

These two also use the Party Hat from yesterday's set we showcased called

Party Hat!

Do you see how versatile these stamps are??

I know that they are going to see a lot of use in my stamproom!!!

So next you are heading off to the wonderful Lisa Arana's blog!!

Have fun and we hope to see you tomorrow!!

Thank you for all the love you left on my blog yesterday!! I really appreciate it!!

And....keep leaving comments because each DT member will be giving away a free newly released set on Thursday and we will be choosing one random winner from the list of people who left comments on our blogs throughout the sneaks!!

Good luck!!!

Ippity New Release Sneaks Day 1

2010-11-14T11:00:00.001-05:00

Hello and welcome to my blog!!

Today where I am soooo honored

to be able to show you the first of our many new

Ippity Stamps

that will be available for purchase from an

Ippity Chick

beginning this Thursday!

And you ALL are invited to the NEW RELEASE!! It's going to be one great party!!!!

Can you believe that we have had Ippity Stamps for ONE YEAR already???

What a joyful year it has been for me to be able to represent the best stamp company out there!!

I LOVE Ippity and Unity and all the fabulous stamp designers

that keep coming up with these amazing stamps for us to use!!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

So check out one of the first stamp sets being released on Thursday!!

The set I am using is called Sing a New Song. And it is one that is so sweet that you can't help but want to sing when you see it!!! :-)

Here is my sample made with the bird and one of the sentiments in the set...

The papers are used are from Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 line. I stamped the bird onto PP using Memento black ink and added a bit of shading to the birds belly with my versamagic Jumbo Java ink pad.

Then I nested the sweet bird atop of some ribbon and a huge button embellished with a Prima flower. This card won't fit inside a standard envelope, trust me!! LOL!! The crinkle ribbon is some of the gorgeous stuff that Eva made and sent to me in a care package!! I LOVE it!!! Thanks again Eva!!! ♥

I ♥ that sentiment!! "Today I will have a song in my heart!"

And that has been my theme over the past couple of weeks!! Life seems to be starting to make a little more sense to me these days and just when I thought it might not be OK, it suddenly comes around and starts to look a lot better! So for me, I do have a song in my heart and want to keep it that way!!!

So now if you want to see all the samples that the DT has created for you today, please start at the

Ippity Blog!

Then follow along all the Hop Buttons to go through each members' blogs. I have seen some of the fabulous creations these ladies have made for us today and trust me when I say you will NOT be disappointed!!

Ippity Stamps

plus a bunch of talented and creative women

makes for some wonderful

INSPIRATION!!

So click below for your next stop on today's New Release Hop!

Have fun and enjoy your journey!!

Thank so much for your comments!! They are greatly appreciated!! :-)

Christmas: A Season of Joy

2010-11-11T01:00:00.003-05:00

Happy Thursday and Happy Hip Hop!!!

Hopefully you are coming to me from the wonderful Karen Maldonado's blog and are following along with us by hopping from one designer's blog to the next. To start at the beginning, please head over to the Ippity blog!

I think that you are going to like this week's theme for Hip Hop! I know that I do! And I was motivated to get creating a little ahead of the holiday's for this one!

This week we are basing our projects after the December Daily type albums that you may have seen done by the famous scrapper Ali Edwards! You can see her explanation of the project HERE! But basically, the premise is that you document the days of December between the 1st and the 25th, sharing events that occur as you prepare for Christmas!

Both Maria Gurnsey and Angie Blom have done these albums for the past two years which you can see in the links below...

Maria's December Daily 2008

Maria's December Daily 2009

Angie's December Daily 2008

Angie's December Daily 2009

I hope you had some time to peruse what these girls have created! They are both so talented!! And if you look closely you will see lots of Ippity stamps in their 2009 albums too!! :-)

Christmas is my favorite holiday to celebrate!

I do believe it is magical and I have always done my best to make it memorable and very special for my kids!! I would love to create one of these albums to document what a typical month of December is like for us, but I knew realistically, I just wouldn't be able to keep up with 25 days of the crazy month of December.

Soooo, I decided to shorten my version of this

type of album, and create something that still captures

the specialness of Christmas to me and my family!

Here is the cover for my album called...

Merry Memories:

Ten Things I (luv) about Christmas!

My front cover started as a frosted acrylic cover to a notebook that I removed and repurposed! I cut it down to 6x6 inches. Initially I stamped many of the snowflakes found in the Kissmas and Mistletoe and the Season's of Joy stamp sets by Ippity. I used Ippity's black noir Hybrid ink. It was admittedly slow to dry, but after a bit of patting off excess ink and mildly heat setting them with the heating tool, I was able to keep the ink on the cover. The DP that I used is from Basic Grey's Jovial collection.

I slightly altered the 10 Things I {luv} about You stamp set by masking over the word "You" and by adding a rub on for Christmas. I also created the embellisment you see next to it by using a green star felt piece under a cut out snowflake from Ippity and adding the flowers from the DP and the number 10 Bingo number that I picked up at the last CHA at a make n take!

Here are the stamp sets that were used to creat the above cover...

Fram and snowflakes from Season of Joy

10 Things I {luv} About You words from

Love in Return set

And the snowflake from the

Kissmas and Mistletoe set.

Do you want to get some of these amazing Ippity Stamps? They are perfect for completing your December Daily album. To find a chick near you, just click on ther icon below...

Now to continue on the Hop, your next stop is the very talented Lisa Arana's blog!! Just click on the button below to Hop over to her blog!

Be sure to stop back by soon when I have the chance to add to the pages of my album!!

This is one project I am really excited about!

I love the whole concept behind it and feel that Ippity Stamps

make the project even that much more fun to create!!

Have a great day and we hope you see you on the SCS Forum for some chatting!!!

May your bucket overflow with memories of your Christmases that bring a smile to your face!!

Giving Thanks!

2010-11-04T01:00:00.001-04:00

It's Hip Hop time!

And today the Ippity and Unity DT members are showing off some

projects that can be used for Thanksgiving Table Decor.

My family is rich in tradition and each year on Thanksgiving we all write down what we are thankful for and share it with each other before we have our Thanksgiving blessing. It is always fun to hear what each member of my family is thankful for and I especially love to hear what the kids have to say. It usually evokes tears in me... I am kind of sappy that way!

What I decided to make for today's Hip Hop may not be actual table decor, but at our Thanksgiving table this year you will find one of these in front of each person's plate.

I created a "Thanks For" card for each person to use to write down what they are thankful for.

I used the leaf, the journaling stamp (turned upside down) and the word "for" from the Fall For You stamp set and the word "Thanks" from The Simple Things stamp set. The DP is from Recollections.

Here are the sets used to create my project...

I colored the leaf in with Copic Markers and used my Gelly Roller to hightlight the veins and edges. The words were stamped with SU's Really Rust ink to coordinate with the DP. Three small rhinestones were added to the the little flowers on the journaling block.

It's not official yet, but it looks like I am hostessing Thanksgiving dinner for my family this year, so I better get busy making a bunch more of these!!

But now for you, please head on to the next Ippity Blog to complete the Hip Hop!

Your next stop is Lisa Arana's blog!

And make sure that to see the whole Hop that you start at the beginning at the Unity Blog!

Looking for an Ippity Chick to get your Ippity stamps from?

Just click below!!

Hope you have a great day and may your bucket overflow with many things you are thankful for!

A "Challenging" Hippity Hop!!!

2010-11-01T09:18:00.000-04:00

Good Monday Morning!!

Can you believe it is November 1st already???

WOW!! How does time fly by so quickly? I had a great weekend, in fact I didn't get called in to work at all on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and now I am off today, so it's kind of like I had a four day weekend. And oh how I needed some down time from work! It's been so busy lately that this break was very welcomed!!

It's Hippity Hop time!!!

Can't think of a more fun way to spend Mondays!!!

Angie is our hostess on the Ippity Blog today, so be sure to start the Hop there and then keep returning there to follow along the list of today's Hop participants. I promise, you won't be disappointed seeing all the Ippity goodness out there!!

The Ippity creation I am sharing with you today

combines a few challenges!

Angie has challenged us to use FIBERS for this week's Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC48

It also uses last week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge HHSC31

AND, it follows last Wednesday's Unity Addicts Challenge UAC24 which was a complicated recipe using our initials. I was to use black, white and one other color (I chose turquoise), use three layers, and add fibers!

And here is my CHALLENGING Hippity Hop creation!!!

For today's card I used some black and white paper from Creative Imaginations and Scenic Route. Then I added the teal CS for my background and base.

The bird is an electronic cutting file that my BFF and I created way back when we had our online Die Cutting Store called the Wishblading Well. If you are interested in having this cutting file, just email me and I will happily give it to you for FREE!!!

The Ippity stamps I used on my card are the scallop border from the Sweet Thoughts of Spring set and the word "YOU" from the You Deserve set.

Want some of these great Ippity sets for yourself??

Just click on the link below!!

Have your heard the news????

The next Ippity Release Party day is scheduled for

November 18th!!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!

Be sure to join us all week long for special projects and sneak peeks in preparation for the big day!!

It's going to be awesome!!!

Hip Hop for Breast Cancer Awareness!

2010-10-28T01:00:00.000-04:00

It's a FLIP FLOP HIP HOP!!!

(But I must confess that I used Ippity stamps instead of Unity!

The project I made for today's theme worked perfectly with a certain Ippity stamp!) Sorry!!!

I hope that you started at the Unity Blog to begin today's Hop and if you follow along all the links, you should be getting to me by way of Karen Maldonado's blog.

Today's HIP HOP theme is

ENCOURGEMENT!

Specifically we are honoring those afflicted with Breast Cancer in honor of

Breast Cancer Awareness being thing month!!

Here is the project that I made for today!

I decoupaged a glass plate with tissue paper and added the sentiment

you see from the Ippity Stamp Set called

Delightful Little Things!

To learn how I decoupaged the glass plate, please check out my Tutorial

on Ippity Blog at the end of this HOP!!

But before you get there, you have a few more blogs to visit.

For starters, your next stop will be at the talented Lisa Arana's blog!!

Be sure to stop by the SCS Unity Forum for some wonderful chatting and bonding time with the DT members and all the Unity/Ippity fans!!!

ALSO... Unity is announcing their new co-branding with Jillibean!! The new stamps are amazing!! Many of the Ippity DT members are showing them off today!! Don't miss any of the DT members' blogs!!! AND... be sure not to miss the HUGE SALE going on today!!!

Have a great day!!!

Looking for some Ippity Stamps? Click below!!

Celebrating my Birthday with Ippity!!!

2010-10-25T08:55:00.000-04:00

It's time for Hippity Hop!!

And it's also my Birthday!!!

Today I am celebrating my 47th birthday! And I am so thankful to say that it is a good day and I expect an even better year ahead of me!! The past year was full of many changes in my life, but in retrospect they have all been good ones that I am thankful to have experienced all of them!!

I have the most wonderful and loving family who came over yesterday to celebrate with me and their love and support has gotten me through so much!! I am truly blessed. I love my job and have the most amazing co-workers and friends at both the hospitals I work at. And I can't fail to mention my fabulous friends who make every day so special in one way or another!!

This is the beautiful arrangement my mom made for me!!

Thank you so much to all of you Ippity Chicks, fans and DT members!! You guys are like family and friends all in one!! I was so blessed yesterday by the outpouring of love from the DT when they all gave me a bouquet of handmade flowers!! They are so talented and so giving.... it made me cry tears of joy!! I love you guys so much!!!

I am hostessing today's Hippity Hop and in honor of it being my Birthday, I am challenging you this week to create a BIRTHDAY CARD!!

Here is the one that I created for today. I am also following the Unity Addicts Challenge UAC23 from Wednesday which was to create a monochromatic card with a pop of one other color. I used these great oranges from some Kaiser Craft paper and layered the flowers that I cut directly from the DP.

The Ippity stamp set that I used is called Just Wanted to Say

For IHHC47 please create a BIRTHDAY CARD

Upload it to SCS Ippity Forum using the keywords

Ippity, Unity and IHHC47

Next Monday, one lucky participant will receive

Delightful Little Things as their prize!!

Good luck!!

To purchase any of the Ippity Stamps please click

HERE!!

And now for more Ippity fun, head over to the

Ippity Blog

where you can find the list of all of today's Hippity Hop participants!!

Leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win a stamp set!

It's a new Prize contest we will be having each Hippity Hop!!

Have a great day!! And thanks for stopping by!!!

A Thankful Hip Hop!

2010-10-21T01:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Hip Hop Everyone!!!

Today is special because we are announcing all the winners from our

World Card Making Day Challenges.

My Challenge was USCWCMD21 which was to make a One Layer Card!

Thank you soooo much for all of you who participated. I went through the Gallery and left you all some love. It really means a lot to me that you participated in any of our challenges!! Thank you soo much!!!

Without further adieu, the winner of my challenge is Katylynn with this gorgeous one layer card...

Thank you so much Katylynn!! Your card is so beautiful and such an inspiration for me!! Please email Jimmi at Jimmi.mayo@gmail.com to claim your prize! You have won the wonderful Ippity stamp set called

Faith Blooms

So to start off the Hip Hop today, please head over to the Unity Blog to get started!

Our theme for today's Hop is Giving Thanks or Being Thankful!!

I needed to make a "Thank You" card for a dear friend who recently gave me a gift, and so it was a perfect opportunity to pull some amazing Ippity Stamps!!

For my card today I used a Bit of Burlap and the "Many Thanks" sentiment from Bitty Pixie Paisley.

The DP is from BG's Pyrus collection. It is perfect for this time of year with those deep fall colors.

I used SU's ink in the Really Rust and Chocolate Chip colors.

Your next stop on the Hip Hop today is Lisa Arana's blog!! Click below to visit it!!

Don't forget to visit the Unity Stamp Co. page at SCS for some chatting and prizes!!

We will see you there!!!

A Halloween Hip Hop!!

2010-10-14T01:00:00.002-04:00

Today we have a Halloween themed Hip Hop for you!!

So start over at the Unity Blog to find the blog hop button to get you started on the Hop.

You will head to the blogs of all the Unity and Ippity DT members. You are on the right track if you are heading to me from Karen Maldonado's blog!!

For my project today, I made a candy treat holder that is very easy to create!! The idea and directions came from this blog! It's the template for the Peek a Boo Box.

The DP is from My Mind's Eye Boo to You series. The Ippity pumpkin stamp from the That's Creepy set was embossed in black (excuse the spill over... I couldn't find my embossing buddy!) and then I cut out the center to allow the candy corn to show through the window! I added some trim and ribbon to complete the festive Halloween look!

You should give one of these Peek a Boo boxes a try!! It was fun and easy and could be very versatile depending on the stamp you choose to use!!

Need to order your Halloween stamp set from Ippity?

Click HERE to find an Ippity Chick near you!!

Now to continue on the blog hop, your next stop will be at the talented Lisa Arana's blog! Have fun!!

Did you hear the great news today??? Unity has their new website up and running!! Make sure you check it out!! We have been waiting for this for a long time!! I am so happy for Angela and the Unity Gang!!

UNITY's NEW WEBSITE (click here!)

Please come by the Unity Forum at SCS for some chatting today too!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

It's a Banner Day!!

2010-10-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Hippity Hop!!

Welcome to this week's edition of some of the best blog hopping there is to be had with some of the most amazing stamps out there! We are talking about Ippity stamps!! Want some of your own???

Click HERE and find an Ippity Chick near you to buy them from!!

You won't be disappointed!!

To start our Hippity Blog Hop at the beginning, please head over to the Ippity Blog!! Then follow down the list of all of today's participants!! Have fun and be prepared to be inspired!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERYN!!!

Yesterday was Eryn's Birthday and Eva hijacked the Sunday Faves post to celebrate her birthday!

You may have seen my card there yesterday, but I wanted to share it with you here too!!

I knew I wanted to use Turquoise and Yellow as my main colors because those are two of Eryn's favorite! We were challenged as a DT to incorporate a banner on our projects for her.

So I decided to use the banner stamp from the

Love in Return set!

I simply stamped the image on many different October Afternoon papers and alternated them yellow and turquoise to fit across the card. I added the sticker letters from OA also. And stitched the tops of the banners with embroidery floss.

I used some of the amazing crinkle ribbon that Eva gave to me and added some felt embellishments to the ribbon for its' center!

I hope Eryn likes it!! Sorry Eryn but it is running late! I will have to mail it out to you ASAP!! Hope you had a wonderful birthday yesterday! I was thinking of you!! :-)

So now you just have to head back over to the

Ippity Blog

to find who's next in the lineup!!

Enjoy your day!!

Seasons of Joy!

2010-10-07T01:00:00.001-04:00

Well hello there and Happy Hip Hop!!

It's Thursday again and that means that it is time to head over to the

Unity Blog

where you can start hopping around to all the DT member's

blogs from Unity and Ippity!! Don't forget to also hook up with us

throughout the day for some chatting on the SCS Unity Forum.

For today's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge, we have a really awesome one that was made by our wonderful guest Designer Angie Blom.

Do you ever see a sketch and almost instantaneously know what you want to do with it? Well that is what happened with me to day and I must say that I love how it all turned out!

Here is the sketch (HHSC28) for us today!

Mine might have taken just a little bit of liberty with the placement of my images,

but hopefully you can see the similarity! What do you think??

The base of the card is made from Basic Grey's Jovial line.

Then I stamped my snowflake image from Ippity's Seasons of Joy

with Ruby Red SU ink and cut them out and placed them on the card.

The word Joy was stamped in Bravo Burgandy and then cut out

and popped up above the snowflakes.

Can you see where I dry embossed one of the Spellbinders snowflakes onto the card base and then added sparkles with my Gelly Roller to help emphasize it? If it weren't for all the fancy cutting on this one, I would have considered sending this out as my Christmas card this year!! Oh well, back to the drawing board for that! LOL!

To continue on the Hip Hop, please let me direct you the ever-so-talented

Lisa Arana where you are sure to be impressed with her post for today!

We hope to see you around on the forums and thanks so much for stopping by!!

World Card Making Day Challenge Hippity Hop Style!

2010-10-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Hippity Hop!!

Not only is today special because it is a Hippity Hop Monday, it is also special because it is my turn to host a challenge for SCS's Hope You Can Cling to Challenge!!

All month long, SCS is hosting challenges for Breast Cancer awareness!! We hope you will participate each day in all the challenges!! It is going to be so much fun!!!

I have combined two challenges for my card today.

The first one is Lisa Henke's

Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC44

called OCT.

She wants us to use something "old", "crinkled" and some "twine!"

But it also qualifies for my challenge for the

Hope You Can Cling To Challenge

HYCCT04

Since my challenge falls on the fourth of the month, and is the fourth challenge, I am challenging you to use four layers of paper on your card AND to use four different embellishments as well!!

Here is my sample card...

Here is how I met each of the challenge requirements for this card...

OCT: IHHC44
Old; I used the "Thoughts from the Past stamp set
Crinkled: I crinkled the Kraft paper that I used an emphasized the crinkled areas with ink!
Twine: I added some dark brown twine from Jillibean

HYCCT04 Hope You Can Cling to- Four by Four

Four layers: cream card base,Kraft cardstock, PP, and stamped image of the post card

The Ippity stamp sets used for this card are the following....

N eed some Ippity Stamps? Just click HERE and you can get some very soon!

To continue the Hippity Hop Blog Hop with all of this weeks Ippity fans, be sure to head over to the blog for today's complete list!

AND...don't forget to check out the SCS challenge forum to play along with this and all this month's Hope you Can Cling to Challenge!

Happy World Card Making Day!!

2010-10-02T00:22:00.000-04:00

How exciting that we card maker's have our own day to shine!!

Today is World Card Making Day and do we have some fun planned for you!!

Many of the Unity and Ippity DT members have created challenges for you so you can participate in this fun event. Just head over to the Unity Challenge Forum to look for all the WCMD challenges that have been created for you. You will have two weeks to participate and one lucky participant in my challenge (USCWCMD21) will win the Faith Blooms stamp set for participating! Have fun!!

My challenge for you is to create a ONE LAYER CARD!

SCS Keyword: USCWCMD21

you have two weeks to complete this challenge and upload it

to the SCS Gallery using the key word above.

It's OK if you add an embellishment to your layer, but ONLY have ONE layer of paper!!

Here is the card that I created for this challenge!!

To make my card I used the Ippity Stamp set called Quotes A La Happy which is one of my favorites from the Summer Release! Do you want and Ippity stamp set??? Just click HERE to find an Ippity Chick selling Ippity stamps near you!!

To enhance a ONE LAYER CARD, you might consider doing things like I did above. I used my Scor-Pal to make an embossed frame around the sun and I also added some paper piercing. Then below my sentiment I added an organza ribbon!

I colored in my sun image with Copic markers and love how the bright and sunny colors just pop off the page and give more dimension despite the fact that the image is only one dimensional!

And isn't this sentiment just the bomb??? What a wonderful statement to live by. This world is negative enough, so I hope that this can inspire all of us to bring a little sunshine into it!!

So, to celebrate WCMD, please go to both the PaperCrafts blog

HERE

to see many more blogs on today's HOP that have some special creations to share with you,

AND

Don't forget to stop by the Unity Forum's Challenge blog to participate in all the

WCMD challenges for many chances to win!!

There are lots of prizes up for grabs if you participate in all the Unity/Ippity Challenges!!

Have a great day and enjoy making cards for this special occasion!!

2010-09-30T01:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Hip Hop!!

Thursday's Hip Hop days are one of my two favorite days of the week,

ied with Monday's for Hippity Hop!

You should have started at the Unity blog by now and worked your way through all the

Unity DT members and you should be coming to me from Karen Maldonado's blog...

to start at the beginning... click HERE!!

I made a card today following the Hip Hop Sketch Challenge HHSC 27 which was made by our ever so talented Ippity Guest Designer Angie Blom!! (You know her talents don't end with just amazing cardmaking... she is a great sketch designer (like Maria) too!)

Anyway, I got home from work yesterday, wishing I wasn't the procrastinator I am, because I really needed to go straight to bed and catch up on some overdue rest. But, alas, I had to finish my card for today's post!

I am nearly "drowning" in my responsibilities these days!! I am going through my divorce which means that all the household responsibilities that my husband used to assume are now falling on me (currently a broken disposal tops the list) in addition to all the day to day responsibilities that I continue to have. But to make matters worse, something horrible happened nine months ago causing a baby boom in my area that I just don't understand!! We are slamming at both the hospitals I work for!! I have been on call for 26 of the 30 days in September and am doing my best to train for my triathlon in October too! I am simply exhausted!!!

I put a post on Facebook (you can friend me BTW by searching for Kelly Mahany) stating how exhausted I am and how something needs to give. But I love everything that is on my plate, so I can't imagine giving up any of it!! My wise BIL Claude says "just keep juggling!!" And truly, he is so right!! :-)

But to put it in stamp terms... I need to "just keep swimming!"

What a fitting sentiment for someone who feels like they are drowning on a daily basis and also for the person (like myself) training for a triathlon who needs to remember to stay strong during the swim portion of my race and just keep swimming!!

I think I need to send this card to myself!!!

LOL!

I used the Ippity stamp set called Fishy Philosophy to create this card.

If you are looking for this or any other Ippity stamp set to purchase,

please Click HERE to find a chick near you!

And the DP is from My Mind's Eye. I used two of the square scallops from Nestabilities to create the scalloped frame and then stamped the fish and background seaweed in SU ink. I colored in the fish (aka ME!!) with Copics and added a Gelly Roller for sparkle on the fishes' fins!!

Here's to hanging in there when it gets really, really tough out there!! I know I can keep it up... my whole life I have been in training for this specific time!! I am trying to patiently wait to see what happens next to help my life find some peace again, but in the meantime, I am just going to keep on swimming!! It really is what I do best!!

Thanks for letting me vent!!

Now to continue on the Hip Hop today,

please head over to Lisa Arana's blog for your next Ippity inspiration!!!

Have a great day and until next time.... just keep swimming!! :-)

P.S. Mark you calendars for World Card Making Day beginning Oct 2nd for fun filled activities all day long!

Heavy Metal Hippity Hop!!

2010-09-27T08:00:00.005-04:00

Good Monday Morning Ippity Peeps!!

Hippity Hop!!!

Hope you had a great weekend!! I had been nursing a pretty mean cold/virus all week long and was so thankful to have gotten most of my strength back by Friday and Saturday. I got a lot of neglected housework done over this weekend and even found some time to clean and reorganize my scrap area too! Things are looking good and it really helps me feel more creative when my scrap area is organized!

Our lovely Eva is our Hippity Hop Hostess for this week and she has challenged us to use metal (IHHC43) on our creations this week!! Be sure to stop by the DT members' blogs (the links are HERE!) to see what we have done with this challenge. And then head back to the Ippity Blog for the complete list of today's Hippity Hop participants!! You can have a chance to win a prize just by playing along with our challenge so be sure to visit SCS's Ippity Forum to read more about this week's metal challenge contest!

Here is what I created for today's challenge...

The metal I chose to use on my project today comes in the form of a metal stick pin by Karen Foster Designs and also a row of metal dots. I used the pretty, feminine paper from The Girls Paperie Paper Girl collection. I added the row of pink piping for trim and also rolled a flower from it too!!

The Ippity stamps I used on today's card are the frame and Birthday sentiment from the Just Wanted to Say set and the leaves from the Now & Always set.

Are you in need of some Ippity stamps like you see here today? Then just click on the link below to find an Ippity Chick near you to purchase them from! As soon as you get some of your own, we sure hope you will sign up and join us each week for our Hippity Hop Blog hop!!

Have a wonderful Monday and thanks so much for stopping by!!

Hugs!

It's a Flip Flop Hip Hop!!

2010-09-23T01:00:00.001-04:00

What a fun Hip Hop we are having today!

It's a FLIP FLOP HIP HOP!!

The Unity girls are playing with Ippity Stamps and the Ippity girls are playing with Unity stamps!!

To start at the beginning, click HERE!!

You will be directed to all the DT members by clicking on the "Next Blog" icons from each blog. Hopefully you are arriving to my blog from Karen's. And next I will be sending you off to Lisa A's blog!

My project was based on this week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge HHSC26

The Unity stamp set that I chose to work with is the Donna Downey set called She! (Available only in stores. To find a store near you, please click HERE!) I love this set and intend to make a complete album using the whole collection. My album will be a sort of autobiography taking me from young womanhood til now and talking about the accomplishments, challenges and dreams that I have experienced in my life.

I made the cover for my album for today's project using the sketch above.

The DP is from Basic Grey's Pyrus collection. I cut strips at various lengths and widths and staggered them onto the background paper that I spritzed with Glimmer Mists. The edges of the cover were distressed with Jumbo Java ink and it was adhered to a chipboard album cover by Zutter. I also added a piece of lace to add more texture, dimension and femininity to the cover.

I colored the faceless lady with Copic Markers and used only the word "She"as my album's title. "She" will be defined by my stories that will follow in the future.

For some more Unity goodness by one of our Ippity girls, please head over to Lisa Arana's blog!

Have a great day and we sure hope you enjoyed us flipping this around a bit today! We enjoyed the chance to play with some of our other favorite stamps!! Please stop by the SCS Unity Forum today for some chit chatting and prize give aways!!

Hip Hop and a Farewell!

2010-09-16T01:00:00.007-04:00

Hip Hop!!

Thank for stopping by my blog today! If you started at the beginning of today's Unity and Ippity DT Hip Hop blog hop then you have made it through all the Unity DT girls' blogs and should have just left Karen's Ippity blog on your way to getting through the Ippity DT girls' blogs. I hope you are finding lots of inspiration!

CLICK HERE!

To start at the beginning!!

And follow the icons to each of the next blogs!

Many of you know Michelle Ogdahl as the previous Manager of Ippity. She was kind of like the team mom for the DT too! But most importantly from the minute I started working with her and especially upon meeting her in person for the first time at CHA Winter in Anaheim, she has been my friend!

She has decided, with the blessings of all of her Unity and Ippity friends to move on in a new direction in her life and the card that I have made for today will be sent to her to show her my love and support in all that she does and has done for us! I love her to death and hope for continued success and happiness in her new life's travels!! We will miss her for sure, but you never want to hold someone back from knowing when it is their time to make a change!!

Thanks for all you have done Michelle

and I wish you the best in your New Beginning!! ♥

The card I made is based on this week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge which is pictured below!

HHSC25

I used DP from Pebbles May Bouquet Collection, Nesties Label 10 and the following Ippity Stamp sets...

To purchase either of these or any Ippity stamp sets, please click HERE!!

To create the flower image in the centerpiece, I stamped it four times total. First in green, then in golden yellow and cut out the whole flower, then again in orange and cut out the top layer of the flower and a fourth time onto scratch paper and cut it out for a mask. Next, I placed the mask over the my flower and used my Copics' air brush system to spray the blue around the flower for the sky background. I purposely left a little of the green flower showing underneath at the bottom to create a shadow! I also added some stickles to the flower center and below the sentiment!

As we bid farewell to Michelle, we are also welcoming Amy as her replacement, (see the blog post about it here!) so all will be wonderful as always in the Unity and Ippity worlds!! Hope you guys have a great day and enjoy the rest of the Hop.

Your next stop is Lisa A's blog!! Enjoy!!

Happy Early Birthday Stephanie!

2010-09-13T09:16:00.000-04:00

It's Monday and I am looking forward to a wonderful week?

I hope you are too!!

To get things started off in that great direction,

let's celebrate with a little

Hippity Hop!!

Today there are lots of bloggers and the Ippity DT ready to participate in our weekly Hop.

Just start at the Ippity blog for the complete list of blogs and hop along with us!

Stephanie Muzzulin, a dear and sweet friend of mine (who I CAN"T WAIT to meet someday) was the Ippity Guest Designer for our last release and she is currently the Unity Guest Designer for August and September. Well, tomorrow is her birthday and the Ippity DT wanted to do a little something special for her! So the DT has dedicated the cards that we made today to Stephanie in honor of her birthday!! When you are done with the Hop, you can head over the Unity blog where you can see Stephanie's post for today and leave her some birthday wishes in the comments section!

Here is the card I made for her. ( It is going to go postal today Steph!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!!!

Maria is our hostess for today and she has challenged us to use the colors RED, GREEN, and YELLOW on our cards. It is Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC41. We hope that you will play along with us this week as one lucky challenge participant will win a free stamp set. If you play along be sure to upload your card to the SCS Gallery and use the keywords, Ippity, Unity and IHHC41.

For my card today I used the following Ippity sets...

The designer papers I used are from Cosmo Cricket and I paper pieced the butterflies from Now and Always after stamping three of them on both the yellow floral paper and the green paper. I also added a rhinestone to the head of the body on the butterfly!

The sentiment stamp from Just Wanted to Say stamped perfectly onto the pre-made journaling block from Cosmo Cricket. At first I wasn't sure I would like working with these colors, but when all was said and done I was quite happy with my finished product. Now I just hope that Stephanie is! LOL!!

Many of the other Ippity Chicks have a special blog post honoring Michelle Ogdahl, our Ippity Manager who will be leaving us for a new venture soon. So enjoy the hop and be ready for some wonderful Ippity Inspiration along the way!

To get some Ippity stamps of your own, please visit the link below to contact an Ippity Chick near you or select one as you hop along the blogs today!! Have fun!!

Hippity Hop into Fall!

2010-09-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

Hippity Hop and Happy Labor Day!!

And can someone please tell these pregnant women around here that Labor Day has NOTHING to do with having babies?? LOL!! I have been on all weekend and it hasn't been too bad, but I really hope to make it through today without having any more deliveries to attend!!

So today, you know the drill!! We are first visiting the blogs of the Ippity DT members (the list is on the Ippity blog) and then we will send you back to the Ippity blog again for the complete list of Hippity Hop participants' blogs to visit.

To get to the Ippity Blog, Click HERE!!

Angie is our hostess for today's challenge and she would like our projects to use a Fall theme! So here is what I made for today's challenge. It's IHHC40.

I started with the base of Kraft paper that I crinkled up and inked the wrinkles and edges with Jumbo Java ink from Versamagic. Then I added a strip of fall colored paper by K& Co.

I stamped three leaves from the Fall For You stamp set

and added some Copics for depth and shading.

Here is a closeup of the leaves and sentiment!

The frame is from the Love in Return set and the sentiment is also from Fall For You. I added a rafia ribbon and bow that was completed with a Recollections fabric brad that coordinated with my projects colors to finish the project off! Unfortunately this is as close as I will get to see any leaves with changing colors. In Florida it is still in the 80's and 90's everyday and we really don't get to see the leaves change color too well!!

I hope you enjoy the Hop today!! Have a great rest of the holiday and enjoy your day!!

Be sure to stop by the Ippity Blog later today

where I will be announcing the winner of last week's

Hippity Hop Back to School Challenge!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

A Note-worthy Hip Hop!!

2010-09-02T01:00:00.008-04:00

Welcome to my Blog!
I hope you are having a great time!!

You are on the Unity and Ippity DT Hip Hop and if you came to me from Karen Maldonado's blog then you are "right where you should be"!

If you want to start at the beginning just head over to the Unity Blog and then folllow all the Next Blog icons til you reach the end of the Hop at the Ippity Blog. I have a special tutorial there for you today, so stick it out til the end and leave some love along the way!!

If you visited my blog on Monday's Hippity Hop, then you saw my Notepad Holder HERE! It was my sample for this week's Back to School Hippity Hop challenge for the week!

I decided to learn to make my own Notepad Holder and I have shared the tutorial on how to do it for you on the Ippity Blog. I decorated this one up very femininely for my sweet neighbor and friend Lisa! What do you think???

The finished size of this is 3.5 x 5.125 inches. I used the Life is Good line of Echo Park paper that is the paper for the Ippity Summer collection.

The Ippity stamp set used is from the Just Wanted to Say stamp set. I first stamped the frame on The Echo Park flowered paper with our Burnt Umber Hybrid Ink. Then I stamped it again on Kraft and cut away the outer frame leaving only the inner portion. Next I stamped the Just a Note sentiment! I added the row of rhinestones to enhance the label!

For all the details on how to create this Notepad holder, please finish the Hop and end up at the Ippity blog for my picture tutorial. It's a really fun and easy project to make!! I hope you will give one a try too!!

To continue on the Hop, please head to Lisa Arana's blog for your next amazingly inspired project!!

Have a wonderful day!!

Hippity Hop and Homework!!

2010-08-30T11:00:00.001-04:00

Hello there!!

I hope you had a great weekend!! I had one that kept me busy, but busy is good!!

It's Monday which means that it is time for another Hippity Hop!

Be sure to stop by the Ippity blog

to hear more about today's Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC39

and to get the list of today's blog participants for our Hop!

For some of you, it may still be summertime and your kids are not Back to School yet, but for the kids in my area, summer is over and school is back in session! (And did I mention how happy I am about that? LOL!)

For today's Hippity Hop Theme,

I am challenging all you Ippity fans to create a project using Ippity stamps

in a Back to School Theme!!

(Check it out! There is a prize awarded each week to the winner!!)

Have you heard of a Rebus before? I made a Rebus for my project today. According to Wikipedia, a rebus is a kind of word puzzle that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words.

Can you make out the rebus that I used below?

(My kid's couldn't guess it without some guidance!!) So, I hope you can!!

It's HOMEWORK!!!

In my rebus, I used a picture of a HOME, and paired it with the word WORK,

to create the word HOMEWORK when you put it all together!!

And here is my finished project! I decorated a notebook to be used to keep track of daily homework assignments. I used one of the houses in the House a Home Ippity stamp set and the cross-stitch faux stitching from Quotes a la Happy to make this little notepad!

The dotted paper is from Jenni Bowlin and all the words you see were taken directly from the school themed DP I had from Bo Bunny. The black gingham was originally black and white, but I colored the white portion with my Copics marker E43 to make it match the Kraft coloring of the notebook base. The house was also colored using my Copics.

Believe it or not, but this is how the notebook started out before I transformed it into my project for today. I purchased this from the Dollar Bin at Michael's. I love how it has a little holder to carry the pen!!

The best news of all is that when I borrowed my 16 year old son's Algebra book to take the picture of this project, and he saw what I created, he actually asked me if he could have the Homework Notebook. I was so happy! Not only because he was actually willing to take something that I made for him to school, but also because he actually wants to keep track of his homework!! LOL!! I am one proud momma right now!! :-)

If you are in the market for some new Ippity, please visit the Ippity blog to find an Ippity Chick near you that you can purchase your stamp sets from !!

B e sure to head over to the Ippity blog and follow the list of all the blogs participating in today's Hop. There is sure to be a lot of wonderful Ippity inspiration when you do!!

Have a wonderful Monday and a great week as well!!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Spook for You!

2010-08-27T11:01:00.000-04:00

H appy Friday everyone!!

If you have already stopped by the Ippity Blog this morning, you may have seen the card that I am sharing with you today from my Fresh Idea Friday post. But here on my blog I am going to give you some extra details on how I made that cute jack-o-lantern from the plain pumpkin in Ippity's That's Creepy stamp set.

As you can see from the kit image above, the face of the pumpkin is plain and just has the cute swirled embellishments coming off the sides. But I decided to turn that pumpkin into this jack-o-lantern...

You might be surprised at how I created some of the details!

First I stamped the image onto orange cardstock and cut around just the pumpkin, very close to the lines so that I could place it inside the pumpkin that I also stamped onto the front of the card.

Then to add dimension to the pumpkin and give it ridges, I used an embossing tool and drew three curved lines from the top to the bottom of the pumpkin. I dry embossed the top of the pumpkin so that it would make the curves round out and the lines be the valley. KWIM?

Next, to add further depth and dimension I colored with my Copics orange marker YR04 right over the embossed lines. (I chose that color because it closely matched the color of my cardstock.) And then in a wider pattern than with the orange color I added Cool Gray C00 also to each embossed line and also to the perimeter of the pumpkin. This provides the shadowing necessary to make it look more realistic.

Next I decorated the face of the pumpkin. Any guesses on how I stamped the triangles for the eyes and nose?? Why I used the tip of the witch's hat of course!! Using a stamp a majig, I determined where I wanted the eyes and nose to be and then stuck a post-it note down to prevent any more than the top tip of the hat to be stamped!

And then for the mouth... I am most proud of this discovery! Believe it or not, but the mouth is cut out from part of the spider web border punch by Martha Stewart!! YES!!! It really is!! LOL!! I love that!! Take a peek at the pictures below to help see how and where I cut it from ...

Here is what the spider web border punch looks like after punching. The orange one is three consecutive punches (trimmed) and the black one is one punch. To make the mouth you only need one punch, but I want to show you where I cut it out from by using both of these colors shown.

This shot shows you where I had to cut away to leave the part of the spider web that can become the mouth of the Jack-O-Lantern! Isn't that fun??

Finally for the crowning glory, I embossed the witch's hat with black embossing powder onto cream cardstock. Then after cutting it out I added it to the top of my now Jack-O-Lantern! And we are ready for Trick or Treating!! :-)

Here is my finished sample...

Final Details: Using the stamp-a-majig, I stamped the pumpkin with swirls onto both the card base and the Bingo Card (Jenni Bowlin) using black ink and then applied orange Stickles right over the black to give a little colorful shimmer! I finished it off by adding the spider web border in black to the bottom of the card and adding the Halloween trim (source unsure of) and the orange pom poms (Joann's) on top of that. I also stamped the word October from the journaling stamp and made a tab to add to the upper right corner!

It might also be hard to believe that the dotted yellow paper (Pebbles) is the same paper that was in yesterday's card HERE. What a difference a different color palette can make on the same paper huh?

I know you are going to NEED this adorable That's Creepy stamp set designed by Lisa Hetrick, so be sure to find an Ippity Chick near you and get yours order right away so you will have plenty of time to make a batch of Halloween cards for yourself!!

Have a great weekend that is anything but Creepy!! Enjoy your day!!

You Deserve the Best!

2010-08-26T01:00:00.004-04:00

Today is one of my favorite days of the week!!

It's Thursday which is the day we get to Hip Hop!!

Join the Unity and Ippity DT girls as we share with you some projects using the best stamps out there!!

Start the Hop from the beginning at the Unity Blog!!

If you are coming here from Karen Maldonado's blog then you are doing great!!

You Deserve the Best!!

In all avenues of your life that statement is true! But when talking about stamps, I am here to tell you that if you are using Unity or Ippity stamps to create with then you have the best stamps available! Unity stamps are high quality, deeply etched red rubber stamps that come pre-mounted on cling foam and also precut. They have the best stamp designers that provide us with such cute and trendy stamps with each release!

You deserve the best, so if you haven't already tried these stamps then I hope that you will give them a try!! If you are looking for a place to buy Ippity stamps from, simply find an Ippity Chick near you using the locator link below and place your order.

To buy Unity stamps, you can purchase them from the Unity website, or to get the ones only offered through retailers, click HERE!!

We have a new sketch for you this week from this week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge that you can find on the Challenge Forum at SCS. We are up to HHSC22 which is based off a sketch made by Christi. Who by the way has suffered a pull in her back leaving her a bit limited this week, so please say a prayer for her!

For my card I flipped the sketch to a landscape orientation and had some fun with this adorable paper from the Pebbles May Bouquet collection. I just love the bright and spring like colors in this set!

The Ippity stamps sets I used are:

I started by stamping Book It as my background onto white cardstock using Bordering Blue SU ink. The I added some of the flowers from You Deserve on top of that using SU's Summer Sun. The sentiment was stamped in Brocade Blue by SU.

For the accent flowers that I used as my embellishments, I stamped the flowers onto the dotted Pebbles patter with embossing ink and then applied detail white embossing powder to it. I cut them out and popped them up with pop dots and added a some beads for the centers! A MS border punch and some machine stitching provided the final touches for my creation.

I love how this card came out!! It is a recent favorite of mine!! Don't you love it when you really love how your cards turn out!! That's always a bonus!! :-)

For your next stop on the Hop,

click on the icon below to visit Lisa Arana's blog!

Have a wonderful day!!

Painting the Town Blue???

2010-08-23T09:00:00.021-04:00

Welcome to today's Ippity Hippity Hop!!

Did you guys have a great weekend? I had a pretty quiet one, and am starting to think it might be time to see what all is out there in the rest of the world!! Maybe it's time to think about joining the dating world again! We will have to see about that! It scares me and excites me at the same time!! I will keep you posted. So far, no one is banging down the doors to ask me out though! LOL!!

On a really positive note, this morning was the first training session to get back into doing Triathlons. Some of you may know that two years ago I started training for my first one and then on my 45th birthday I completed my second one.

I fell off the training wagon after that and have decided it is past time to get back into it! So... wish me luck as I pursue this goal of mine again. One of the things on my Bucket List is to compete in an Olympic Distance Triathlon. For those that don't know what that is, it is combining swimming, biking and running into one race. It starts with a 1.5 km swim (.93 mile), then has a 40 km ride (24.8 miles), and finishes with a 10 km (6.2 mile) run. My first part of reaching this goal will be to compete in a much smaller race in October. Then we will see how I progress from there!!

OK... enough about me!! I guess I am a bit chatty today!! LOL!!

But now it's Hippity Hop Time!!

So you know the drill right?? The Ippity DT and many Ippity chicks and fans have prepared some fun and creative stuff for you to enjoy today. To see it all, it is best if you head to the Ippity Blog to find a list of all the participants' blogs!! Then one by one visit their blogs and please leave some love if you have some time to do so!!

Our new Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge (IHHC38) for today is given to us by Karen Maldonado. She has asked us to use paint on our projects!!

I was in the mood for some bright and funky colors so I found this fun paper from We R Memory Keepers that I paired with the cute felt flower from American Crafts and my Ippity stamps. The sentiment is from the Spring Release set called Quotes a la Happy. And I also used the Dots for Sure stamp to create the background for my flower.

Need some Ippity... Need an Ippity Chick?

Click below to find one!

It might be hard to tell, but I used paint to stamp the dots background. There are a couple of options on how to do this. One way is to use a paint brush and dab paint onto your stamp then stamp it like you normally would. But what I did was spread a thick-ish layer of paint on a piece of scrap cardstock and then used that paper as my "stamp pad." I pressed my stamp onto the wet paint very firmly and moved quickly since the acrylic paint dries super fast. Then I just stamped the dots onto the piece of paper I was using. You can see that sometimes the coverage is not as clean as when you use ink, but I think it makes for a fun and funky effect when you want it to be that way. Your stamped images might also appear distressed when you stamp with paint.

We hope you will give it a try. And if you do, be sure to upload your projects into the SCS Gallery using the keywords Ippity, Unity and IHHC38 so we can find them!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will see you out in blog land!! TTFN!!

So This is Love

2010-08-19T01:01:00.000-04:00

It's Thursday again which means it is time for another Hip Hop including the DT members from both the Unity and Ippity Design Teams.

But today is extra special because we have a very special Guest participating with us today.

We would like to welcome

Lynn Miller

as our Guest to the Hip Hop today!

Lynn was the lucky winner of our New Release Challenge to be

Guest Designer for the Day

when her card (HERE) was chosen as the winner.

To see all the great creations from all of today's participants, please start at the Unity blog and then make your way through the hop by clicking on the next blog icons. You will end up at the Ippity blog!!

The card I created for today incorporates this week's Ippity Hip Hop Challenge ( IHHC37) that Lisa gave us this week which was to incorporate "string" on our projects. And it also uses this week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge sketch (HHSC21).

And here is my card using this sketch with some slight alterations...

Ippity Stamp sets used:

Dots for Sure (Background)

House a Home (Hearts banner, made by stamping two of them side by side)

So This is Love (sentiment)

Are you looking for an Ippity Chick to purchase your Ippity stamps from?

Click Here!!

Here's a little closer view of the main section. I love these colors on this October Afternoon striped paper that I used. The string is Martha Stewart's bakers string.

Now if anyone can tell me exactly just "what" love is, I would be very happy to find out!!! LOL!! No, actually I have a life full of love for my family and friends. And I know that the special love I get to share with someone else will come to me again one day. I just have to be patient!! :-)

Next up on the Hop is the talented Lisa Arana!! Enjoy seeing the rest of the Hop!! And have a great day!!

A New Release Hip Hop Makes Me Totally Happy!!

2010-08-12T01:12:00.000-04:00

We made it!! Are you as Totally Happy as I am today!!

I just want to shout with excitement!

I love this time every three months when we get to have some new Ippity!!

It's New Release Day for Ippity!!

Woohoo!!

The day has finally come to get to show off all the wonderful new stamps that

are being released in the Ippity Stamps Summer 2010 Collection!

There are nine new sets and three new singles, a new paper pack and new Hybrid ink color.

If you follow along on the Hop that starts at the Unity blog, and go through all the Ippity and then Unity DT girls' blogs, you will be taken to the Ippity Blog at the end where you will get to see all the sets and hear all the details about today's releases. And starting NOW, you can purchase them and get them on their way to you!

We are celebrating the New Release Hip Hop by chatting it up on the Unity forum from

10am - 1pm and from 5pm - 8pm CST.

So please join us there for lots of fun and prize give aways!!

There are three New Release Challenges to play along with that need to be completed by tonight.

For full details, please visit the Ippity forum at SCS!

INRC1SUM10- Rainbow color challenge

INRC2SUM10- Shaped card challenge

INRC3SUM10- Photo Inspiration challenge

And as always, we have our weekly Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC36 called Dog Days of Summer!
But for this week there is a special prize. One lucky participant in this challenge will win the chance to be our Guest Designer for a week for next week's Hip Hop on August 19th and will also receive an engraved Ippity Handle. You have until Sunday to complete this challenge.

Also check the Ippity Forum at SCS for the list of winners from each blogs comments this week! We are giving away one of each of the newly released stamps!!

So, on to my card that makes me so Totally Happy!!

I am using stamps from the Quotes A La Happy and Totally Happy sets and I also made this for Maria's Rainbow challenge INRC1SUM10, and Lisa's Dog Days of Summer Challenge!

The stamps used to create this card are the cross-stitch border that I stamped in the red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple colors to match the rainbow. I used SU inks. And I also stamped the sun (to make it summery for Lisa's challenge) and then added the sentiment from Totally Happy

The chipboard dots came from a chipboard sticker set from Bo Bunny's Sun Kissed line. I am not sure what they are supposed to represent, but I liked the funkiness they brought to the card!! And I finished it off with a perfect black and white gingham ribbon. (Yesterday I was channeling Eryn and today with the gingham I am channeling Maria!! ;-)

Have you got an Ippity Chick to buy your new stamps from?

To see more creations from the Ippity DT using the new releases, your next stop on the Hop is Lisa A.

Have a great Hop and we will see you on the forums a little later today!! Have fun and thanks for visiting and leaving such sweet comments on my blog this week!! I wish you all luck in winning the free stamp sets or challenge contests!! :-)

Ippity Summer 2010 Release- Sneak Peek Day 4

2010-08-11T11:00:00.000-04:00

It's Day 4 of the Ippity Sneak Peeks!!

And I don't want them to stop, but then we couldn't move on to our New Releases, so I guess it is OK if we keep progressing!!

So have you been following along for all the sneaks so far? Are you leaving comments on all the DT members' blogs? If so, you will have a chance to win one of the newly released sets each day of the Sneak peeks!! Good luck!! We will announce the winners from the random DT blogs on Thursday!! We will close the comments at 8pm CST on today!!

Have you picked your favorite stamp sets yet? Well, be thinking about it and make contact with an Ippity Chick who can sell these stamps to you starting on Thursday!

Need to find a chick near you? Just click below!

Please start our Hop over at the Ippity blog

and follow along the Hop by clicking on the

Next Blog Icon's on each of the DT members' blogs!

My card for you today is from the Sneak Peek set today called

Bitty Pixie Paisley.

This is a great set that you will find many uses for. And I didnt' even use the actual paisley stamps that come with it!! Wait til you see the whole set! You will love it!!

I think I was channeling with Eryn when I created this card because I used her favorite color combination of yellow and turquoise. I was inspired by the DP from October Afternoon and fashioned my card after those sweet little flowers. I colored the flower strip from the Bitty Pixie Paisley stamp set with my Copic markers.

That sweet sentiment also comes with the Bitty Pixie Paisley set and will be perfect for many cards!! I love the fonts used in this one!! I finished the card off with a little machine stitching and also a big bunch of flowers from Prima and Making Memories! Then I added just a touch of bling to flower centers to add the right amount of punch to the card!!

If you aren't arriving at my blog from Karen Maldanado's blog,

then please head to the Ippity blog to start at the beginning of the Hop.

And if you are following along the Hop, then your next stop is Lisa Arana's blog!! I just love getting to see all the creations my fellow DT members make, because they so inspire me each and every day!!

Please mark your calendars and join us for our big New Release Day Party tomorrow!

S ee you tomorrow!! Be there or be square!! LOL!!

Ippity Summer 2010 Release- Sneak Peek Day 3

2010-08-10T11:00:00.000-04:00

Yay!!

It's Day 3 of our Ippity Sneak Peeks!!

Are you leaving comments on all the DT members' blogs everyday for a chance to win some stamps?

Have you chosen your favorite sets so far?

Got an Ippity Chick picked out to buy your stamps from?

Only two more days and these new

Ippity stamps are available for purchase!!

Woot Woot!!

But first, the whole Ippity DT has some more Sneaks to show you!

The card I have made for today showcases two of the sets/singles being shown today!

The first one is a fabulous Halloween set called That's Creepy. The second one is a single (with a great lower price point!) called Dots for Sure. I know that the dots are going to get a lot of use in my stamp room!

I am not sure why but I really love to make Halloween cards, so when I saw the That's Creepy set, I knew I wanted to show it off. I chose to keep this one Clean and Simple. The argyle paper is from Lil Yellow Bicycle. I stamped the pumpkin image twice and cut one of them out, ran it through the argyle embossing folder and raised it up above the base pumpkin. The sentiment was stamped on white and then cut out with a circle punch. I used the Dots for Sure stamp to create the upper and lower borders around the argyle print.

So what do you think? Are you liking what you have been seeing so far?

Well be sure to come back tomorrow for another day of sneaks,

then on Thursday, it is New Release Party Time!

So please start the Hop at the Ippity Blog to see more of the sneaks and then follow along the Hop to visit each of the DT members' blogs. If you started at the beginning, you should have come to me by way of Karen's blog. But next on the Hop is miss Lisa Arana's blog!! Get ready for some more inspiration!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with lots of inspiration!

Ippity Summer 2010 Release- Sneak Peek Day 2

2010-08-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Hippity Hop!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Sneak Peeks of the

New Summer 2010 Release of Ippity Stamps!

By the comments left on our blogs yesterday, we are getting the impression that you are liking the new stamps as much as we do so far!! Well today you won't be disappointed! One of my favorite sets from the whole new Summer Release is being showcased today and I am happy to tell you that it contains masculine stamps!! Woot woot!!! It is always hard to find good masculine stamps!

Each DT member today has some goodness to share on their blogs, but we want you to start at the Ippity blog where you can see all the new sneaks and then be sent off to hop from blog to blog.

To go to the Ippity blog, click HERE!!

If you have come to me by way of Karen's blog

then keep on hopping, you are on the right path!!

Did you see the challenges that Maria posted on the Ippity blog yesterday? We have three of them that you can get started on early this week if you choose to, just be sure (Ippity Chicks) not to show any creations you may make with the new stamps until Thursday when our stamps are officially released! Each challenge participant will have a chance at winning a prize on Thursday night!

I am the host of one of the challenges, and the card I made today uses an inspiration photo that I took at CHA, The picture below is from the landing just off the elevator as you got off on our floor in the hotel we were staying at for CHA. I just love the colors and all the graphics and swirls. I thought it was perfect for the masculine card I needed to make! The keyword for this challenge is INRC3SUM10

And here is the card I made based after that photo and using the new stamp set called

Authentic Man

It is filled with some amazing images and sentiments that are perfect for all the men in your life!!

I used the swirls embossing plate with my Cuttlebug to mimic the swirls on the carpet. And also chose the same color palette. The Road Sign die cut is from October Afternoon's Road Map collection.

I really love the sentiment on this card!

I colored the car with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol and fun using them. They have been quite neglected for a while now! The black strip of paper that is near the bottom is pleated and then sewn together.

Please leave a comment here and on every DT members blogs each day for a chance to win a free Ippity stamp set. I really appreciate all the sweet comments left yesterday!

To continue on the Hop, please head on over to the talented Lisa Arana's blog!

Enjoy the rest of the Hop and please come back tomorrow for more sneaks!!

Ippity Summer 2010 Release- Sneak Peek Day 1

2010-08-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

Today is such a wonderful day!!

It is the first day of our Sneak peeks for our newest Ippity release!!

Are you ready to see the
Summer 2010 Ippity stamps??

Beginning today and for the next three days the Ippity DT will be sharing with you some projects made with our new stamps! If you head over to the Ippity blog you will get to see sneak peek images of three new sets that will be for sale on Thursday August 12th! From our blog you will be directed to the blogs of the Ippity DT members where you will get to see some samples from today's sneak peek sets!

If you have come to me by way of Karen's blog then you are on the right track!

Today I have a card to share with you that uses stamps from our new Ippity stamp set called

House a Home

This stamp set couldn't have come at a better time. Just this week we had two homes sell on our street giving us two new sets of neighbors. I felt that a "welcome to the neighborhood" card was a very fitting greeting to give to each of them.

The row of houses all come as separate stamps in this new collection. They are all adorable and work well with paper piecing as I did here. Take a look at the paper you see here. Are you liking it? Well it is part of the new paper line that Ippity will be using for this release. This paper is from Echo Park's new line called Life is Good. I love it!!

The House a Home stamp set gives you lots of options for sentiments!! You will love the versatility of it! Have you located an Ippity Chick to begin pre-ordering your stamps from? If you need an Ippity Chick, just click below to find one!

We have a very exciting week planned for you!!

There are lots of challenges,
prizes and fun to be had!!

For starters, please leave a comment on each DT members blog post for each day this week through Thursday for a chance to win a prize. Details of the prizes will be revealed throughout the week!

Next stop on the Ippity Sneak Peek Blog Hop is
Lisa Arana's blog

Reminder!! Ippity Sneaks begin tomorrow!!

2010-08-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

Starting tomorrow and and everyday until Thursday you can see the samples made by the Ippity DT using the new Summer Release stamps!! This is a great release that you will be anxious to see, so please come back tomorrow!!

It is going to be a great week at Ippity!!! :-)

It all starts at the Ippity blog tomorrow morning at 10am CST!!

Please join us!!!

Ippity Sneak Peeks Begin Sunday!

2010-08-06T11:16:00.000-04:00

Mark your Calendars and plan on joining us from Sunday August 8th through Thursday August 12th to see all th new amazing Ippity stamps being released for Summer 2010!!

You won't be disappointed!!

Today I am heading to Gainesville, FL for my daughter's Master's Graduation tomorrow morning at 10am. My heart is filled with pride and love for Leah! She has worked so hard through high school and her undergraduate and graduate programs at UF. She will be starting Vet School at UF this month!! :-)

Have a great day and remember.... TGIF!!!

A Christmas in August Hip Hop!!

2010-08-05T01:12:00.000-04:00

Welcome to this week's Unity/Ippity Hip Hop!

Today is the day that all the members from each DT share some projects with you. To start at the beginning, please visit the Unity blog. If you are coming to my blog from Karen Maldanado's blog then you are on the right track! Just keep clicking on the Next Blog icons at the bottom of each post to continue on the Hop!!

On Monday the Ippity DT members hijacked the blog hop to help celebrate Maria's birthday by showing off the cards we made for her. So today I wanted to play along with this week's Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge that Eva gave us this week which was to celebrate Christmas in August! I need to thank Eva because it is actually helping me get a head start on my Christmas cards! (Thanks Eva!!)

I also combined the Hippity Hop challenge this week with the Hip Hop Sketch Challenge that Jimmi is posting today on the Unity Challenge forum. We are now up to HHSC19 which was also based after a card that I made. You can see my original card HERE!

Here is this week's sketch...

Here is my new card using this sketch...

Basically I just changed the color palette to be Christmas colors and then changed my stamps to be Christmas ones too. The fabulous Seasons of Joy stamp set from Ippity was the perfect choice!!

I stamped the label stamp in green and added the sentiment in red ink and then colored in the holly leaves for the corner adornment on the label. I cut around the label stamp and then added a border in red. (I couldn't find my matching nestie and so I had to do it by hand! )

On the red strip of paper I embossed in white a row of the snowflakes from the same set!!

If you are looking for any of these great stamps, you can purchase them by finding an Ippity chick near you. Simply click on the Ippity Chick Locator icon from the Ippity blog and find a rep selling them in your area! Then just contact that chick to place your order!! Your stamps will be sent directly to you!!

For more great inspiration, please continue the Hip Hop blog hop by heading over to Lisa Arana's blog!

Have a great Thursday and enjoy the rest of the Hop!!

Hippity Hop Happy Birthday to Maria

2010-08-02T02:41:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday everyone

and Hippity Hop!!

Wow! What a great week it was this past week in Chicago for CHA!! I have some fun pics to share with you today and then as soon as I can get them organized, I will have some more fun pictures to share with you too. While it was great to be away, it was also wonderful to be home!! I really missed having some time in my scrap room especially after seeing all the amazingly inspiring projects at CHA!

I had such a great time with my fellow Ippity DT Members Eva, Karen, Eryn and Maria while at CHA!! We had lots of time to bond and build relationships that I know are going to last forever!

This is Eva, Angela, Michelle, Eryn, me and Karen

And this is me with Maria! She arrived in time to help us with the Ippity Booth at the Supershow!

It was also great that we got to celebrate Maria's birthday while we were together. Her birthday is coming up on the 4th of August, but the last night we were in town, all the Unity and Ippity peeps went out to dinner at "Maria's" Mexican restaurant.

She shared a pitcher of Margaritas with Broman.

And then she was serenaded during dinner!! It was a blast!!

She is beautiful inside and out and I am so happy to have met her in person!!

Now, to further celebrate her birthday, for our Hippity Hop today, all the DT members are honoring Maria for her birthday by making a birthday card just for her. Be sure to check out all the DT members' blogs to see what everyone else has made for her.

Because I know how much Maria loves red, white and blue, I decided to use some of the October Afternoon paper from the Road Map line to make her card. I also used some of the Webster's Pages flowers to add some femininity to the card.

The Happy Birthday stamp is from the Ippity stamp set called Life's Little Moments. It is a wonderful scrapbooking set that can be used for cards as well!! I stamped it in SU's Blue Bayou.

The bottom scallop was made by stamping one of the scalloped strips from Ippity's Sweet Thoughts of Spring set. (Which happens to be on sale on my sales blog right now!! Don't delay! I only have two of them left in stock!) I carefully cut out around the scallops and added rhinestones in between them. I liked the way it turned out! What do you think?

Then, to visit the rest of the blogs on today's Hippity Hop, just head over to the Ippity Blog to start at the top and to find the details of this week's Hippity Hop challenge which is Christmas in August! Have fun on the Hop and enjoy your day!!

May your bucket overflow with the types of friendships that grow over the years and will last for a lifetime like the ones I am making with my fabulous Ippity chicks!!

Hip Hop!!

2010-07-29T00:01:00.007-04:00

I am posting to you from Chicago as I am attending the CHA convention!! What a blast I am having!! I so love my wonderful hobby and am so thankful to have hooked up with Unity Stamps. All the people that work with them are so inspiring!! I never want this week to end!!

I didn't get a new sample for today's hop made before I left for Chicago, but coincidentally, the sketch for today's Hip Hop challenge was based after one of my cards!

So please bear with me as I share with you the card that I had previously made...

Here is the sketch based after my card!

The stamp set that I used for this set is called Moon Beams and Heart Strings. If you need to purchase this set, just pick out an Ippity Chick from the Ippity Blog to find some one near you to buy them from!

I hope that you will play along with us this week!! Just mention keyword HHSC18 when you upload your creations to SCS and you will have a chande to win a prize for this week's challenge!!

Wish us luck tomorrow as we will have the Ippity Booth going at the CHA Show. We will have make n takes and lots of wonderful product for you to look at.

If you are coming to CHA, please look me up!! Can't wait to meet you!!

Chiczgo Bound for CHA!!

2010-07-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Monday everyone!!

Sorry I don't have a post for Hippity Hop today but I have been swamped trying to get ready for my trip to CHA!!

I will do my best to post from CHA to share with you some goodies that are happening at the Craft Hobby Association Convention!! I am leaving this morning and returning Sunday!

Stephanie is hosting the Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge today which is a real fun one!! She is asking us to do a 1-2-3 Challenge where you get to choose the combination. You can do one DP, two embellishments and three colors.... or whatever your heart desires. Have fun with it and be sure to upload it to the SCS Gallery for a chance to win a prize!!

Check out Stephanie's blog to see her 1-2-3 Sample for today's Hop, and then go to the Ippity Blog for today's list of Hippity Hop participants!

My next post will be from Chicago!! Enjoy your week!! :-)

Patterned Paper Play!!

2010-07-23T07:30:00.002-04:00

Hello my Friends with Flair and fellow Unity Stamp Co. fans!! I am going to make this post short and sweet and with very minimal verbiage!!

I am sharing with you today the four cards that were created for the stamp class that I taught at Priceless Scrapbooks last weekend in Ocala, FL using Unity Stamps. I am so happy that Tricia decided to start carrying Unity stamps and I can't wait to go there and teach another class!! The ladies were a lot of fun!!

The stamp set we used is Could I Be Any Cuter by Unity, and the DP was from the SunKissed line by Bo Bunny!! Besides letting the ladies know how wonderful Unity stamps are, the point of my class was teach the them how to make their patterned paper work for them!!

Here is a closeup of the cards we created...

To start at the beginning of today's FWF Hop, please visit the Unity Blog.

Don't forget to be on the lookout for that FWF blinkie that is hidden on someone's blog today!! It is your chance to win a free prize from Unity!! Good Luck!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with patterned paper that you enjoy playing with!! Oh and OMG... My CHA trip is only three days away!! Eeeekk!!!!:-) So much to do... so little time!! LOL!!

Dare to Get Dirty with Unity and Ippity Stamps!

2010-07-22T01:00:00.002-04:00

Hip Hop!!

Be sure to start at the Unity blog to begin at that start, and work your way around to all the DT members of Unity and Ippity. If you are coming to me from Karen Maldonado's blog, then you are right where you are supposed to be!! (LOL!! I love that sentiment!)

I have a sweet card to share with you today for our Hip Hop. Jimmi has made an incredible sketch for us to use that made me be able to whip my card out in no time!! Sometimes the no frills style of sketches are exactly what I need!! And this one just spoke to me. The sketch challenge will be posted in the Unity Challenges Forum on SCS where you will be able to find out all the details!! We hope that you will play along for a chance to win something!!

But for now, here is the sketch (HHSC17) that you can play with this week...

And here is what I did with this sketch....

This card uses several of the stamps from the Fall For You set of Ippity's. I think it is just the cutest little stamp set!! Isn't that plump bird adorable? The DP is from October Afternoon's Fly a Kite paper collection. I just love the way that the browns and greens work so well together!!

Here is a closeup for you showing the paper piecing of the belly on the bird and also the coloring I did with my Copic markers.

Ordinarily I would stop here, but today I have something else to share with you!!

I hope that you are a Fan Club Member over at SCS and that you have been taking advantage of all the wonderful Dare To Get Dirty challenges on the Fan Club Forum. Well today I am happy to announce that I am hosting one of the challenges! The whole challenge is explained over on SCS, so please become a Fan Club member if you are not already one and head over to the forum to check it out!!

Here is my card for the challenge that I am hosting....

This card uses the Best Wishes and Blooms stamp set by Unity and the Spring Card technique that you can find over at SCS.

The DP I used is from Bo Bunny's Peacock Lane collection. This is one of the cards I made to teach in my class this past weekend!! We had a lot of fun playing with the patterned paper to create the card design you see here!!

So I am going to leave you with some assignments today...

Complete the Hip Hop blog hop today by beginning at the Unity blog. Your next stop is Lisa A's blog.

Head over to SCS's Fan Club Forum and participate in the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges going on right now!!
Find an Ippity Chick near you to purchase your Ippity stamps through.

Have a wonderful rest of your Thursday!!

One Week to Go!!

2010-07-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

Oh I am getting soooo excited because in only one week I am leaving to Chicago for CHA!! Woohoo!!

I can't wait to reunite with many of my stamp buddies and all the Unity and Ippity peeps that will be going! It is always so inspiring and tons of fun and a real treat to see the new merchandise coming out. But by far, my favorite part of it is bonding and building friendships with other people who share my passion of stamping with me!

I first met Eryn at last CHA in January and I can't wait to see her again. She has the biggest sweetest smile and is such a doll!! I'll see you really soon Eryn!! I can't wait!!

Eryn is our hostess for today's Ippity Hippity Hop! She has issued a new challenge to us which is to use her favorite color combo on our project today. This is IHHC33 and she has asked us to use

Turquoise

Yellow

and any Accent Color

I have chosen Cream for mine!

Using some awesome October Afternoon papers from the Thrift Shop and Fly a Kite lines, I have created the card you see here...

I stamped the word "happy" from the A Little Buggy Ippity stamp set three times using two shades of turquoise ink from SU. Then I also stamped the sentiment "birthday wishes" which is in the Just Wanted to Say collection onto a small tag and attached it to one of the flowers as if it were dangling from it!

To make the accents, I cut around the circles and stacked them on each other and lined them up to form a border and then placed some small Prima roses in the center of each of them! I can see why these are Eryn's favorite colors to play with... they are fun to work with and definitely made me feel happy while working with them!

To start the Hippity Hop at the beginning please visit the Ippity Blog for the full list of today's participants and be sure to read all the details of Eryn's challenge. We sure hope you will play along with us!!

If you need some Ippity stamps of your own, you can check out my sales blog HERE or you can find an Ippity Chick near you by visiting the Ippity Chick Locator page HERE!!

Enjoy the rest of your Monday... I am ready for a good week of spending time with my daughter Leah who is home for almost a month visiting with us until her Vet program starts in August!! We have a lot of crafting planned for this week!! :-)

Have a great Hippity Hop and may your bucket overflow with the same warmth that the colors Turquoise and Yellow evoke!

Hip Hop with a Sketch!

2010-07-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hello Unity and Ippity friends!!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today and joining us for today's Hip Hop blog hop with the Unity and Ippity DT's. If you have come to me by way of Karen Maldanado's blog, then you are on the right track, but if you aren't starting at the beginning, then please head to the Unity blog to start from the top of the list!!

Today we have a sketch challenge for you and some of the girls have decided to play along. You are invited to play along with us and create your own sample using the sketch and just upload it to the SCS Gallery using the keywords Unity and HHSC16! There is a prize in store this week so be sure to check out the details on the Unity forum at SCS!!

Here is the sketch we are working with...

And here is what I created using the sketch as my starting point...

I found these amazing papers made by the new company called Echo Park at my LSS and fell in love with them. The line is called Sweet Summertime. And something tells me that you are going to be seeing a lot more of Echo Park on my blog in the next few months... but I can't tell you why just yet! But you Ippity fans will find out soon enough!! ;-)

One of the flower images from the Now and Always set was stamped three times, twice in the red striped paper and once in the Green checked paper. I cut out three layers and then placed them one on top of the other to create the dimensional flower. The BG brad was added to the center.

The banner is from the Love in Return set by Ippity and the sentiment is also from the Now and Always set. I used some of the Crinkle ribbon that Eva made for me to finish the project off.

So what do you think about the Echo Park paper. They are looking for more fans on Facebook, so if you are interested in following them, you can click HERE to become a fan! If you want to tell them that I sent you... I might get lucky and win a prize!! :-)

Do you have these amazing Ippity stamps that I used today? Well if you don't, be sure to get yourself an Ippity Chick to buy them from!! You can find one by visiting the link HERE!

Next on your stop for the Hop will be the Oh-so-talented Lisa Arana!! I know that she is sure to inspire!!

Enjoy the rest of the Hop and please come by and visit us on the Unity forum for some chatting and prizes throughout the day!!