FWF Fleeting Moments

Hello Friends!

Rather, Hello my Friends with Flair!  LOL!!

I hope your week has been a fabulous one!!  Mine has been nice enough!  Quite busy at work until after Yesterday morning.  Now I just have today to get through and then I have the whole day off tomorrow!!  Woot woot!!  I hope to do some more yard work and then get together with my family for a cook out Saturday night.

   

So here's the deal... Approximately 50 of our closest Unity friends have signed up to participate in today's Hop.  It starts at the Unity Blog where you will find a list of all the participants with links to their blogs.  

One cool blog on the list will have the hidden flair blinkie! 

 Leave a comment on that blog for a chance to win 

25 random Unity stamps! 

Got it?  

The card I made for today's Hop is made from two of this week's challenges on SCS.  The first one was Wedndesday's Sketch challenge SC284 and the second one was yesterday's Ways to Use It challenge WT274 which was to use butterflies on our card.  I chose to use this sweet DP called Flower Patch from MM.  

The butterfly and sentiment are from Unity's Life is Fabulous Stampin' Store Kit that came out this past February.  SSK's are available from retailers only.  To find a Retailer near you visit the Unity website. The butterfly was colored with Copic Markers and the sentiment was stamped in SU's Wild Wasabi green ink.

Enjoy the rest of the Hop and have a wonderful weekend!!  Don't forget to sign up for Ippity's Hippity Hop for this coming Monday!  The sign up will be posted on Ippity's SCS Forum today!

May your bucket overflow with moments that you cherish in your life!

Ippity Spring Release Hip Hop

Welcome to this week's Unity and Ippity DT Hip Hop.

Today is a very special day.  Not only will you get to see some more of the Ippity DT's projects using the new stamps, plus a lot of amazing Unity stuff from the Unity DT girls, but you will also get to see what some of the Ippity Chicks have also created with the new sets for the release!

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

The Ippity Spring 2010 Collection is HERE!!

Woohoo!!!  

Isn't it amazing!!!

Now all you have to do is find your Ippity Chick and order yours today!! 

 Be sure to do it quickly so you can ensure that you get your sets while your chick still has stamps in stock.

Need an Ippity Chick to buy from?

Then just click HERE to locate one near you!

I have a couple of cards to share with you today.  The first one uses this week's Hip Hop Sketch for this week's challenge.  Our very own Maria designed the sketch for us.  You can play along with us and upload it to the SCS Gallery using the keywords Unity and HHSC07.

I love this sketch and I chose to use the flower stamp and flourish from the Now and Always set and the sentiments from the Fall For You set.  The DP is from October Afternoon.

The extra details I added were buttons from Clear and Simple stamps.  The border punch from Martha Stewart and some machine stitching!  I paper pieced the flower stamp in two different colors and layered them on top of each other.

My second card is for one of the challenges that will be posted on the Ippity Forum for our New Release Celebration.  Lisa A is the hostess for this challenge and she has made it a color challenge.  We are to use the following colors...

This was truly a challenge for me because I didn't have any DP on hand that had all of these colors in it.  So, I had to kind of put some separates together.  What do you think?

The flower and sentiment stamps come from the A Little Buggy collection.  And I also used the A Bit of Burlap stamp with a window masked out of it to stamp the flowers into.  The stamps from the Little Buggy set are all so fun and whimsical.  It was a joy to create a sweet and happy card like this!

To create this card, I used this week's sketch from the challenge on SCS.  It is SC280.

Instead of stamping the center flower bud, I chose to replace it with a button!  I added two paper strips and folded them to look like ribbon tabs.  The Happy sentiment was popped up with pop dots for added dimension.  I went into my DP archives for this paper.  It comes from the DCWV Nursery for Boys collection.  The flowers are from Prima.

Our big New Release Party is on the SCS forums 

today at 10am CST.  

Be sure to join us... it is going to be a lot of fun!!

Now head over to Lisa Arana's blog to see what special treats she has in store for you!

Ippity Spring 2010 Release- Sneak Peek Day 4

Oh my goodness!!  We are almost there!!!

Tomorrow is finally the day we have been waiting for!!

The New Ippity Spring Release stamp sets 

will go on sale at Midnight tonight!!

But we still have some more to show you before that!!

And did you read Michelle O's post about what is special with this release?

This release has 10 sets instead of 8!!

Instead of the 8th full set of stamps, they have designed two smaller sets and one single.  

This is perfect for the shopper with a limited budget or for someone who wants to give Ippity a try without spending too much money to buy large sets!  I think this is genius!!

Start at the Ippity Blog to begin the Hop at the beginning.

If you are coming to me from Karen's blog then you are on the right track!

Click HERE to go to the Ippity Blog!

I am so short on time today as I have been super busy dealing with New Release Party Plans and other things that have come up, so I have just one sample to share with you today.  But, it does combine two of our new sets...Faith Blooms and A Bit of Burlap.

I used some adorable October Afternoon paper and the Labels 12 die from Nestabilities to create the shape of my card and panels.  I had to use my stamp-a-majig to set up the sentiment that way.  In the original stamp, the word Faith is actually placed about the words "is when you close your eyes," and then on a separate stamp is the "and open your heart" sentiment.  I love this phrase!!  Not sure who made that ruching ribbon because I got it from my LSS and it was precut into a strip with no labels!  Sorry!

I used SCS Sketch SC36 for the layout of my card!!  I added the little panel under the flower because I thought it needed to be grounded a little better!!  

I used the A Bit of Burlap (our new single stamp) to create the background that I stamped the flower onto.  I paper pieced the flower and added the little pearls that I colored to match.  All coloring was done with my copics or ink from SU and Memento.

Are you ready for a PARTAY???

Be sure to join us in the SCS Forums tomorrow for all the New Release Celebrations!

It is going to be one heck of a time!!

More details will be posted on the Ippity Forum today!!  

Then anytime after midnight tonight you can contact your Ippity Chick to order the sets you desire!!

Now, hop on over to Lisa Arana's blog for some more crafty goodies!

Just an FYI, I have decided against selling Ippity Stamps for now.  You know I adore them, but my first passion is in playing with them so I would rather focus more on promoting these stamps to others as part of the DT!  Because I have a full time job (plus some) I just can't devote enough time to sell them, so I would rather let others have the opportunity to do that!  I will be contacting my customers personally and will be updating my sales blog with some clearance sales as soon as time allows.  

Until tomorrow....may your bucket overflow with the positivity you get by being good to others and by displaying a sweet spirit.  Not much else is needed beyond being sweet and kind to others!  Have a wonderful day and Happy Stamping!!

Let's Hear it for the Boys!!

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday to you!!

I hope you all had a chance to check out (and even purchase) some of the new Whimsie Doodle stamps that were released yesterday!!  And today I have another sample to share with you that uses one of them.

The card I made today is for this week's Whimsie Wednesday Challenge #26 called Let's Hear it for the Boys.  Nicole is our hostess this week and since two of her boys have birthdays this week she thought that it would be wise to challenge us to make a card for a guy!!

Thankfully Melyssa released the perfect image yesterday to work with so this is what I came up with!

This was a really fun card to make!!  Swing Koale takes center stage on his rope swing which is attached to the tree from the Sunny Day set at Whimsie Doodles that was released last year.  I enlarged it quite a bit and originally was going to cut it off at the cord borders even with the card on top, but decided to leave it extending over the edge instead.  The finished card is 5 x 6.5 when closed!

I started with the SCS Sketch SC17 for the bones of the card and then I went a little crazy with adding things that you probably don't see on the sketch!  But heck... we do get some creative license while designing right??

See the resemblance??  The number 2 panel is the grass that I made by piecing some MME paper, trimming the edge to make it appear to have blades of grass and then shading it and adding grass sprigs with various green colored Copics.

Koale was colored in using my Copics. I chose orange for his shirt because I thought it was a complementary color for the greens and blues that were in the MME papers.  The tree top is from the Quite Contrary collection.  The sentiment is from one of the Changito sets by Stampendous.  The inside says "Hi!"

My friend Vianna shared a link to Sherrie Siemen's blog who is a Regional Copics Certified Instructor.  She has a video HERE that you can watch to learn how to shade around images to give better depth to your designs.  I knew about shading before but not to this extent.  So I gave it a try and will definitely be practicing this more.  When you look at it from a slight distance you can appreciate the effect better!  But this is a great technique to have in my Copic's repertoire of tricks!!  Thanks Vianna!!  

That's all I have for you today!!  Be sure to visit Whimsie Doodles 

and get your New Releases if you haven't already!!  

Then come back tomorrow for another Hip Hop with Unity and Ippity DT members!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with the happiness you get when a friend swings by to say hi to you!!  :-)

We Have some New Whimsie Doodles for You!

Can you believe it has been a month since the last Whimsie Doodles release?  

Well it's now April (wow!) and that means it is time for a new set of stamps from WD!

 Yeah!!

Whimsie Doodles is ready to "swing" into Spring with some adorable new images!  All of these images are available starting today in the Whimsie Doodles store. Melyssa  has come up with some wonderful stamps that you are going to love!! Not only are they amazing designs, but her pricing is wonderful too!

I have a card to showcase for you that shows off her new stamp called 

Flowers From Leah

Isn't she just adorable?  I decided she looked like a sweet little girl who has some flowers to give to her Mommy for Mother's Day!  I used a sentiment stamp from SU to pair with this image.  The sketch is one of the SCS card sketches SC16.

Leah was colored in using Copic markers in colors to match the DP from Bo Bunny's Jazmyne line of papers. The image panel and card base are matted in Bazzill cardstock to match.  

This stamp is so versatile.  You could use it for a thank you card, an apology card, a congratulatory statement,  a thinking of you, missing you... and the list goes on!!  What a sweetie she is!!

Here are the rest of the New Releases coming out today!

Sow Leah

Swing Leah

Swing Koale

Hot Mama

Visit my blog regularly and you will see some samples made with these other new releases too!!  I can't wait to play with them all!!

Like what you see?

Head on over to the Whimsie Doodles site to get your new stamps now!!  

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Technically yesterday was my oldest daughter Michelle's birthday but today is the day I am going to celebrate it on my blog!! LOL!   Twenty five  years ago I became a mother for the first time and I will never forget that wonderful feeling and the overwhelming amount of love you can feel for a human being.  It is such a special feeling and one that hasn't diminished over time.  Michelle is such a wonderful daughter and is turning into a beautiful woman.  I am so proud of where she is in her life right now and hope and pray for her continued happiness and growth in life!!  I love you Michelle and hope you had a wonderful birthday!!

She and her boyfriend Matt left yesterday on a cruise to Mexico so we celebrated her birthday on Friday of last week.  We went out to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and had the salad bar and sliders. Here is a picture of Matt and Michelle while we were at lunch!

I made a birthday card for her using some October Afternoon paper and the adorable Unity stamp kit called It's Your Day.  You can purchase this stamp from retailers near you and to find out who is selling it, just click HERE to get the list.

I love the cute and whimsical look that this set gives.  It is so versatile and comes with numbers too!! I used SCS card sketch SC15 for this card.  It was fun to do a shape other than an A2 card for a change! :-)

I stamped the cake once on plain white cardstock and colored it in with Copic Markers.  Then I stamped it again onto the text background paper.  I cute the cake and candles out excluding the flames and glued it to the stamped image on the background.  Then I just colored in the flames and it looks like it is all together again!!

For the word CAKE, I stamped it on plain cardstock and colored it in with Copics too.  Then I paper pieced it onto the stamped image on the card base.  I think the ribbon is from an older MM set I had!  I love the way it came out.  It is fun and festive and girl enough for my feminine daughter!!

I finally decided to give scrapbooking a try again.  It has been way too long and I really do have a lot of photos to scrap!

Unity Stamp Co. has started issuing weekly scrap sketch challenges

 that they call Simple Scrapbook Sketches.  

They are given out on Sundays.  You can see the thread on their forum HERE!

Here is the first sketch that Latisha Yoast designed...

And here is my take on that sketch...

This is also of my daughter Michelle.  She made me promise that I would make a layout of her because she swears that she doesn't have as many as the other kids do!  LOL!! So I had the perfect number of photos to go with this sketch and I just love the candid shots of her.  I chose the DP from the colors that you can see in her bathing suit.  It is from Black Market Paper Society.  You just have to ignore the bright yellow and black life jacket she was wearing while playing water sports!!  LOL!

It might look to someone who doesn't know her that she is angry or upset, but I actually caught her just looking out over the lake with a bit of a squint in her eyes because of the sun.  I think she is just beautiful!!  The title stamp "Fun in the Sun" is from Unity Stamp Co's Beach Days and Sun Rays set.  The text strip below the larger picture of her says "Good Times-Unforgettable Moments-Special Memories-Priceless-Cherish" and it is from Scrapbooking kit called SBC-104 called Unforgettable Moments (also only available from retailers).

The journaling block is made to look like strips of paper which is so fun... and it is from Unity's very first Scrapbooking kit SBC-100 called Le Chic Vintage.  I used the embossing lines on my Crafter's Companion to make the waves.  I embossed and then cut close to the embossed line three times.  Twice with the light blue CoreDinations paper and once from the coordinating dark blue side and then I layered them to make them look like rough water!

Finally I stamped Summertime across the bottom of the page to finish off the border strip.  It is also in the Beach Days and Sun Rays set from Unity.  The flowers were cut from the DP and then placed on top of the matching twill tape from Joann's.

I had so much fun scrapping again.  I will be trying to do these scrapbook sketches each week!! And what I love about Unity and {ippity}  is that they make stamps that are perfect for scrapbooking!!

To see the scrapbooking kits from Ippity, please visit my sales blog HERE.

If you made it through my very long post today then THANK YOU!!  Please have a wonderful day and may  your bucket overflow with the warmth of a summer day on the lake!

TGIF!!

Thank God it's Friday!!

Not only because it is Unity's FWF Friday, 

but because I am finally off call after a nine day stretch on!!  

Woohoo!!  

I have a couple cards to share with you today.  The first one is one of the CAS DT cards I made for a recent challenge.  It is challenge CAS58 from the 15th where we were to be inspired by the colors of chocloate mint chip ice cream (Miss Boo's favorite!)

Here is what I made...

I used Unity's set called Leap For Life which can only be purchased from a retailer.  Keeping it clean and simple I stamped the cattails on the cream card base with Close to Cocoa SU ink.  Added a strip of BG Origins paper that I border punched and then paper pieced the frog on the lily pad and set him on top.  The sentiment was stamped with SU's Old Olive.

Here is a closeup of that cute little froggie...

You can click HERE to find a list of retailers in your area.  

And did you hear the fabulous news that Unity 

is now being sold at Archivers's? 

  

Isn't that amazing?  I just wish I had one in my area!  Sniff, sniff!! LOL!

I have two more cards to show you, but they are the same!  Remember about a month ago that Taylor VanBruggen held a drive to collect Dragonfly sympathy cards for parents who have lossed babies during pregnancy or infancy?  Well I made the girl cards and shared them HERE. But I had never finished the boy cards.  So I finally did.  

Using Unity's dragonfly from the Oct 09 Stamping Store Kit (only available at retailers)

and the sentiment from the Nov 08 KOM I created these two boy cards to send in...

The baby footprints are from a Paper Trey Ink's sympathy set.  I used DP from DCWV Baby boy Nursery and added lots of machine stitching.

The sketch I used is from SCS Sketch Challenge Master list.  It is SC20. 

I did take the liberty to add an additional layer of matting and also the vertical ribbon from Martha Stewart.  But I think it totally still looks like the sketch!

Here is a closeup of the dragonfly.  I just love this! I think my friend Kelli Caslow designed it too!  I let my Copics go outside of the lines for this image because I was going for a soft staining of the paper almost like a watercoloring.  I was simply trying to accent the images.  I also added a fine line of stardust Gelly roll ink to the edges and body of the dragonfly to make it sparkle.  You can see the shine from the angle above the best!!

So to start at the beginning of the hop and not miss one bit of inspiration, 

CLICK HERE 

to find the complete list of today's participants!!

Don't forget to be on the lookout for  the flair blinkie too

and a chance to win 25 random Unity Stamps!

Have a wonderful Friday and may your bucket overflow with lots of time to sit back and relax this weekend!!