SheetLoad Sneak Peek! And Final showing of May's Sketch

Wow! The month of May sure has slipped by rather quickly!! I can't believe that it is June 1st already tomorrow! We are already in "summer mode" in my household. Both of my kids exempted their final exams, so their last day of school was on Friday! Tiffany will walk with her class on Wednesday for her Graduation!

With the new month before us, it means it is time for a sneak peek at my submission for SheetLoad's new eZine being released tomorrow. I am not one of the featured designers for this month's release, but I am playing along with the other DT members.

Here is a snippet of the card I created using June's sketch! Be sure to visit tomorrow and I will show you the whole thing!!

Be sure and visit SheetLoad of Cards tomorrow for the release of the June eZine issue. And today you can visit there and see some more sneak peeks!! Click HERE to get some more previews of what's to come on June 1st!

I have one more order of business for SheetLoad. I am afraid that I won't be able to share with you the complete set of cards (nine 4.25 x 4.25 square cards and nine scraplings) that I made using May's SheetLoad sketch because two of my green Copic markers ran out of ink right in the middle of coloring my images. But I did get the second sample done. I made three of each of these too.

So here is sample two of my take on May's SheetLoad sketch with the scrapling! The DP is from Junkitz; the flower stamps (in two sizes) are from Unity's August KOM; and the sentiment is from the Essential Sayings set from MFT (which happens to be on sale right now!)

I have to order some Copic refills today!! Do you know how often you need YG03 and YG11 when coloring your stamped images? I have been paralyzed for a little while now!!

And finally, I have one other thing to share with you today...

We have exciting news in our Family!!

My baby sister is getting married {again!} This is a picture of my sister Michelle (I named my daughter after her) and her fiancee Claude! They have been dating for over a year now and are the sweetest most "in-love" couple I have ever seen!

Claude popped the question last week and they are planning a wedding in January!!

Aren't they a cute couple??








So of course big sis had to make a congratulatory card for the happy couple!



Here is the Clean and Simple card I made for them....

I barely stamped on it! I just used the sentiment stamp from SU's A Little Birdie Told Me set. I let the DP from PaperTrey Ink and the embellishments steal the show on this one! I used my Martha Stewart border punch to make the black lacy edging.

I couldn't be happier for them... Claude and his two daughter's are going to be a wonderful addition to our family!!

That's all for now! Have a great Sunday and be sure to visit tomorrow when I will have my June SheetLoad sketch to show you!

May your bucket always overflow with good news in your family too!

SOA Challenge Cards

There are so many challenges going on this week over at the Stampin Out Alzheimer's site!

Have you had a chance to go over there yet and sign up?? You won't be sorry that you did. First of all, for a minimum donation of $5, you can gain access to all the activities. The money...100% of it... is going to help fight Alzheimer's!! Most people in this world will be affected by someone they know or love who is afflicted with the terrible disease. As I told you in a previous post, my dear MIL has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is slipping away from us before our eyes. It is my prayer that people with an interest in preserving our memories into scrapbooks will also care enough to donate some money to help preserve some memories into the minds of those afflicted with Alzheimer's.

You can click on the gadget on the right side of my blog and donate to this wonderful cause! Jen and Susanna have already reached their goal, but wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to surpass it by leaps and bounds?

I have three challenge cards to share with you today.

Here is the first one...

Kate from I {heart} papers is donating a $30 assortment of Flower Soft to the winner of this challenge which was to use Flower Soft on our project.

For this card, I used Basic Grey DP, and the stamped image and sentiment stamps are from Stampin Up! called Friendships Grow. I colored the image with Copics and then added the Flower Soft to the background flowers in the stamped image and also to the accent Prima flower on the ribbon. I used my Nestabilities to cut the mat for the image and the sentiment.

Here is my second card called Nuts for Buttons...

This challenge was called "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?" We were to use at least three buttons on our card. The winner of this challenge will two Vintage button collections from PTI!

Since PaperTrey was the sponsor of this challenge, I chose to use their stamp set called My Punny Valentine. The squirrel and the sentiment comes from that set. The tree is from Unity and is called the Burberry Tree. The grass stamp is from SU!

I was going for the Clean and Simple look for this card. The DP is from Sassafras, the Hog Heaven collection and the ink used is from SU! The ribbon is from Michael's. I am not sure about the buttons... they were in my big canister full of buttons!

Finally, here is my last card submitted to the challenges at SOA...

I called this card Grunge Birthday! The sketch was the required element for this challenge from Taylored Expressions. The winner of this challenge will win a $25 gift certificate to the TE store! The colors I used came from K Werner's Designs recent color challenge #53.

Closeup of the Unity stamp!

This card originally started off very elementary looking and even feminine (so my husband says); but with the help of distressing tools, staples, black ink smudging and the awesome stamp in Unity's This is the Time stamp set, I was able to transform it into the masculine grungy birthday card I needed for a teen boy in my family.

Here's the inside!

I hope to have some more SOA challenge cards to show you this weekend. We only have through the 31st to get our cards submitted to enter into the contests!

Tomorrow I will have a Sneak Peek for you of the card I created using the new June Sketch at SheetLoad! The new eZine will be available on the 1st!

Have a great Saturday and may your bucket be overflowing with wonderful memories that will never fade!

Hip Hop Hangover Day!!

Happy Thursday!! It's Hip Hop Hangover (HHH) Day!!

You might be asking yourself "What is Hip Hop Hangover?" That's easy...it is the day after Unity's Hip Hop Blog Hop where their customers instead of their DT get to share creations they made!

I love to participate, but don't always get a chance to! I was able to make three new Unity cards over the last couple of days, but the best news is that I was combining challenges again and also made them so that they qualify to be entered into the challenges over at Stampin Out Alzheimer's too!

Here is the card that I made for the HHH today. It came from the Unity Addicts Challenge this week which was to make a collage card! This was really tough for me!! Collage falls into that artsy kind of category and I don't think I do. LOL!! The color combo is from the Color Throwdown blog.

Here are the deets:


Stamps: All Unity of Course: Butterflies and Friends for Life (Aug KOM), Flowers and Leaves (Gratitude = Joy), Corner Embellishment (May KOM), The Road to a Friends House...(Sept KOM)
DP: Botanical Collage Flat Paper (K&Co)
CS: Bordering Blue, Elegant Eggplant and Barely Banana (Stampin Up!).
Ink: Stampin Up! (Chocolate Chip)
Embossing: Ink: Top Boss, Powder: Custer's Last Stamp (Detailed Gold)
Embellishments: Ribbon: Joann's, Buttons: unknown, Gold Gems (Joann's)

Ready for a little more Unity?? Here are the two other cards I made for the Hip Hop Challenges.

This first one was for the "Always New at Unity" challenge where we were to use our newest stamp set from Unity. I used the Rain & Flowers set that I just got. This card also uses Julee's MojoMonday sketch #88 and the SCS color challenge (CC220) to use Bashful Blue, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie.


The rubber boots DP is from American Crafts and the flowers are Prima. The ribbon comes from Basic Grey.



This last one was for the "Unity's Knot Any Old Stamp Company" challenge. In this one we had to use knots on our card! I decided to stamp the flower from the Everyday Adorable set (which is on sale right now through the weekend at Unity) onto some fabric with Stazon and then I tied many french knots using embroidery thread. (I will share some details about how I did this in a later post!)

The DP is Basic Grey, the ribbon is unknown and the Flowers are from Prima. I used my oval and scalloped nesties to make the frame and the base for the sentiment which is a Stampin Up! stamp from the set called "It's Your Birthday." The brads are Basic Grey.


I have also entered these last two cards into challenges that are occurring over at the Stampin Out Alzheimer's site. Have you signed up yet? For just a minimum donation of $5 you can gain access to the site to participate in all the contest going on. There are tons of prizes being given away! Remember it is for a wonderful cause!! Please join!!

I'm an Addict!!

A Unity Addict that is!!!

I know I have told you before and I am sure that I will tell you again... but I LOVE Unity Stamps!!


Every Wednesday in the Unity Forum, there is a new challenge posted called the Unity Addicts Challenge. Last week was the first time that I participated in it! It is something I plan to do again though! There are no prizes awarded, but if I can have an excuse to use some of my Unity Stamps on a project, then I am there!!

The challenge last week was a color and theme challenge.

We were to use the colors depicted in the photo here and make a summer themed card from it!

So the colors we were to use were...

Tangerine, Turquoise, Yellow, and LOTS of White!









And here is what I came up with...



I was very happy with how it turned out if I don't say so myself!! Hehe!! I started off with the wonderful Clear Card Sheets that you can get from the ShorCuts website HERE. ShortCuts is the sister website to SheetLoad of Cards. I have been missing out all this time and I am so thankful for the finding out about this website because they really have a lot of wonderful products that make card making easier and even more stunning. These clear based cards are so much fun to work with!!

The patterned paper is an adorable collection that I picked up on sale from my local Michael's made by Sassafras. The collection is called Hog Heaven! Great colors that are really fun to work with!! To make the waves I simply staggered two layers of the cardstock that were already scalloped for me. EPLS! (Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!!) I also used more of the paper to piece the boat and the sun!

The stamps all came from Unity's Beach Days and Sun Rays collection! I LOVE this kit!! It is full of lots of images that will definitely make it into ink and onto paper! As a Florida girl, this kit has it all!!

I sponged some So Saffron SU ink into the negative space of a nestability circle to make the sun have the yellow circle around it. Then I also sponged the sky using SU's soft sky. I tried to leave as much white space as possible, but you know that that is always a challenge for me!!

Maybe you would like to try your hand at this week's challenge... it is posted HERE. This one is going to be a challenge for me (hence the name I'm sure!) But I already have some ideas coming together. If all goes well, you can check back on Friday where I will probably post the card I create in the Hip Hop Hangover for Unity!

Have a happy Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with Beach Days and Sun Rays too!!

SOA Challenge Card and SheetLoad Reminder!

Thanks so much for the sweet comments that some of you left on yesterday's blog post. I am pleased to announce that my dear MIL was discharged from the hospital today and got to spend some time with my husband and his sister who came down from Georgia when she heard the news about her heart attack! Thank God for miracles!

Don't forget to check out the Stampin Out Alzheimer's (SOA) website and enjoy a full week of challenges and contests with lots of chances to win wonderful prizes. It only takes a small donation to be eligible to enter the site! 100% of the proceeds is going directly to the Alzheimer's Association!

To go along with my I Do Believe in Miracles blog post yesterday. I decided to make my first challenge card to fit that theme...and here it is...

The sketch was provided by the Little Paper Shop at the SOA site. The stamps come from the new Unity stamp set called Everyday Adorable that I recently ordered. The DP is from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie collection!

Switching Gears to SheetLoad!

The month of May is nearing its' end, but there is still time to participate in some of the contests at SheetLoad!

Visit the SheetLoad blog to see what contests you still have time to enter! Don't forget that there are prizes involved! You could be a lucky winner!! But you're never a loser because you will at least have a lot of great cards to use!

Here is the cover of May's e-Zine...

By using this month's sketch and following the measurements provided, you can end up with 18 cards altogether! Nine 4.25 x 4.25 square cards and nine scraplings!

I used the sketch and varied my cards by changing up the way I placed the DP and by changing the color of my card stock.

Here is the first sample I have to show you. I made three of these cards that are identical except that I changed the background paper on them. They make a cute coordinating set I think! Don't you just love those scraplings? They are 1.25 x 4.25 and are perfect for little tags or quick notes for that someone special!

The stamps you see used here are from Unity. The stack of birds and the sentiment below them are from the August '08 KOM and the "for you" sentiment on the scrapling is from the May '09 KOM. The DP is this bright and adorable paper from Junkitz called Flower-ful.

I'll share more of the cards I made using this sketch at a later time! Thanks for looking and be sure to make some SheetLoad cards using May's issue and enter them into the contests for this month!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with pretty papers and stamps!!

I Do Believe in Miracles

I know I have been missing from blogland for the last few days, but when I tell you what has happened over the past few days, I know you will understand!

I Do Believe in Miracles

Today's post title reflects what I feel today and reminds me that there is hope for tomorrow too! I know that miracles have happened in the past and I trust that they can happen in the future too!

Saturday morning we were woken by a phone call from Tom's dad telling us that his mother had suffered a heart attack in the early morning hours. She had to have stints placed emergently to unclog two of the completely blocked arteries that were feeding her heart.

I Do Believe in Miracles! And I am so thankful to say that she is doing OK!! They were able to unclog her arteries and improve the blood flow to her heart. You can't imagine our relief at finding her a mere 10 hours later sitting up in bed eating her lunch and acting much like the lady we truly love.

My beautiful MIL!

The doctors said that she was a very lucky lady. We believe a miracle occured that night and my Dear MIL's life was spared. I was able to see her on Saturday and Sunday and am happy to report that she has been transferred from the ICU to the cardiac step down unit with plans of being discharged sometime today. I Do Believe in Miracles!!

Today is Memorial Day and some of you may have already heard about a wonderful fundraising benefit that is going on today! I have decided to join in on the Stampin Out Alzheimers fundraising efforts of Jen Tapler and Susanna Boyd because I Do Believe in Miracles!

I believe that through continued efforts in research we will be able to come up with a cure for Alzheimers. Please go to the Stampin Out Alzheimer's website and participate in the activities of this week. There are many opportunities there to enter contests and challenges, but more importantly there is an opportunity to help another miracle to occur by donating money to the great cause of researching Alzheimer's.

My family is affected by the horrible disease of Alzheimer's and here is our story...

The people in the picture above are my husband Tom and his mom Geri (who just had the heart attack I mentioned above). This picture was taken back in November when they were dancing at our wedding reception. Tom's mom has Alzheimer's. She was diagnosed with it about two years ago. Despite taking medications to slow the progress, we see her deteriorating right before our eyes.

In my mind when I look at the picture of the two of them dancing, the song that comes to mind is "Unforgettable" by Natalie Cole.

Here are the lyrics to that song...

Unforgettable, that's what you are.

Unforgettable, though near or far.

Like a song of love that clings to me,

How the thought of you does things to me.

Never before has someone been more

Unforgettable, in every way.

And forever more, that's how you'll stay.

That's why, darling, it's incredible,

That someone so unforgettable

Thinks that I am unforgettable too.

I Do Believe in Miracles! I believe that a cure can be found for Alzheimers; I believe that Tom's mom will have the chance to enjoy the retired life that she worked so hard to achieve; I believe that she will be able to remember conversations that she had with us just moments earlier; I believe that the world of hers that has shrunk in size will be able to expand again one day to provide her with opportunities for socialization; I believe that she will be able to remember and enjoy the time she spends with her loving family; And I believe that we will be "unforgettable" to her someday! Because I Do Believe in Miracles!

I know that these Miracles can happen but I also realize that we can make them happen faster by donating to research efforts for Alzheimers. Here are some facts about Alzheimers taken directly from the Alzheimers Organization's national site:

• As many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s.

• Alzheimer's and dementia triple healthcare costs for Americans age 65 and older.

• Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s.

• Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death.

Please donate to this wonderful cause. You can click on the Stampin Out Alzheimers Donate widget on the right hand side of my blog. By donating any amount you can be entered to participate in the activities going on at the Stampin Out Alzheimers Social Network all week long.

I hope that you will join me in donating and come over and participate in the fundraising fun!! Jen and Susanna sure know how to put the FUN in FUNDRAISING!!

I Do Believe in Miracles!

Have a Happy Memorial Day! I hope to spend mine in my scraproom making cards and organizing! Have a wonderful holiday and may your bucket overflow with the belief that Miracles can happen!

It's a Happy Hip Hop Thursday!

Even the continuous down pouring of rain today can't dampen my spirits! I have finally had a decent enough day at work on a Thursday to allow me enough time to play along with today's Hip Hop Festivities over at the Unity Blog!

If you want to be inspired by some great DT gals, just start over at the Unity Blog and hop your way around. Today's theme is Heroes! You won't be disappointed!

Today I have gotten two projects completed for the Hip Hop Challenges!

The first challenge is called Oh My Word!

We were supposed to make the sentiment on our project be the highlight.

This is a luggage tag! I found the faux leather tags in the Dollar Bin at Michael's. The Unity stamps I used were the "Happiness is a way of travel" quote from the August 08 KOM. It is the perfect sentiment to go along with a travel item!

I really like how it came out... I made two of them to go with the wonderful luggage that my best friend Tiffani gave me for my birthday last year. This is the luggage that I honeymooned with. Having these tags on my luggage is going to make it easy to spot it on the luggage carousel at the airport.

Here they are on my actual luggage pieces...

The second challenge is called Oh My Stars!!

The outside says Shine... then the inside says... Like the Star that You Are!

For this project we had to make something using Unity images and it had to have a star on it. The Distressed Star from the Jan 09 KOM is the only Unity star image I had. I paired it with the Shine sentiment from the April 09 KOM. I also added some little background stars that are from the Little Sprout set.

The sketch for this card is from SCS Sketch Challenge from yesterday (SC229). I hope that you can see the glimmer that it has. Here is a closeup of the stars that I embossed in glitter embossing powder.

Well that will do it for today! I hope to have another Unity post tomorrow to share with you for the Hip Hop Hangover!! Don't forget to go Hip Hopping with Unity today and also if you like the Unity stamps you have been seeing me use, you might want to take advantage of the 30% off sale they are having right now on the Unity website!

Have a great night and may your bucket overflow with dry clothes and umbrellas!!

It's Graduation Time!

As May nears June it seems that school's are letting out and kids everywhere are graduating! You may remember that earlier this month my daughter Leah graduated from the University of FL. Well, in early June my youngest daughter Tiffany will be graduating from High School.

I have had the task of completing Tiffany's graduation announcements hanging over my head for a while now and I am happy to say that with a lot of help from Tiffany, we finally got them finished! Her school colors are Maroon and White, and her mascot is a Sponger! I know that is a little unusual, but the little town we live in is considered the Sponge Diving capital of the US and has close ties to Greece!

Unity Stamps came to my rescue again and offered the perfect stamp collection to help personalize and feminize the otherwise masculine school colors and logo!

Here is a picture of Tiffany's Graduation announcement...

The front picture shows the flourish stamp from Unity's January KOM called Love Etc. that I stamped in Amuse Black and also in Ranger Aged Mahogany. The flecked cardstock is from SU and the black cardstock comes from Recollections and the Maroon cardstock is from The Paper Co.

Here is a picture that shows the inside and the outside together...

On the top half of the inside I used the "2009" stamp from Unity's January KOM. The verbiage was typed on the computer using a font called Biondi.

We are very proud of Tiffany! She has plans to become a police officer some day and has been very active with Crime Watch at her school. She has been hired by a local Police Department in the Americorps Department where she will work along with officers as a community resource. In the fall she will begin her studies in pursuit of a degree in Law Enforcement.

Here is a recent picture of Tiffany at her Senior Prom! She is pictured here with two of the local Police Officers that she has worked with at school and in our community. They were on patrol the night of the Prom to keep the kids in check!

I have one more Graduation Card to share with you for now!

Our best friends Chad and Tiffani have a son Trevor who is graduating from Pre-K tomorrow. I didn't want to forget his great accomplishment, so I decided to make him a special card. He has waited a long time to be able to ride the big yellow bus to school like his big brother Tyler!

The card I made uses the Clean and Simple challenge CAS15 from Monday at SCS which was to use Black and White and one of the Bold Brights! I chose to use Real Red as my bold bright since Trevor's school color is red!

Here is the card that I made for Trevor...

The Fine Print: CS: SU (Real Red), GP (White), Recollections (Black); Stamps: SU (Shooting Stars, 2000), Congratulations Graduate (Not stated); Ink: SU (Real Red), Amuse (Black).

Have a wonderful evening and may our bucket be overflowing with endings and beginnings as is fitting for this time of year!

Do You Like Lemonade?

I love lemonade! And I really love that my new stamping acquaintance and friend Sue was so sweet to nominate me for the Lemonade Stand Award! This blog award is given to a blog that the nominee feels shows great attitude and gratitude. It is truly an honor to have received it!

I can totally see why Sue was given this award! She is a very encouraging and talented person. She frequently leaves comments for me on my blog and I just hope she knows how much it means to me! Please visit her blog called "Sue's Sentiments" and be prepared to be inspired!



The rules of this award are as follows...

*comment on this blog

*cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog

*nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude

*link to your nominees within your blog post

*comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award

*link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation

While I frequent many blogs that truly inspire me every day, here are the five blogs that I have chosen to nominate for this award...

Sonia http://www.scraps4fun.com/

Ky http://bunnynest.blogspot.com/

Nikki http://smellslikehomemade.blogspot.com/


Bonnie Rose http://alifeunrehearsed2.blogspot.com/

Ann http://adayinthelifetoo.blogspot.com/

I appreciate these ladies, their spirits and all the inspiration they provide on their blogs. I hope you will take the time to visit them too!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with cool freshness like a tall glass of lemonade on a hot summer day!

Thanks and a Link to share!

I wanted to take a minute to say thank you to all of the wonderful people who visited my blog during the Unity Kit of the Month Blog Hop!! It was such fun going from blog to blog and getting inspired by all the talented Unity stampers out there. As if I need any encouragement to use my Unity stamps!! Then to top it off I got my May KOM in the mail today and I am really antsy to get some ink on those images. As you know I just love Unity stamps!!

I appreciate all the wonderful and encouraging comments that you all have left for me. It really is a treat to know that you like what you see and take the time to tell me so. I appreciate your kindness!!

Many of you were asking for the directions on how to make the Tri Shutter Card that I made for the blog hop this weekend. Well SCS beat me to it!!! Coincidentally, the Try a New Technique forum today is using the exact same example as I did for their inspiration for this week's challenge.

HERE is the link to the blog that I got my original inspiration from.

HERE is the link to this week's challenge on SCS.

HERE is the SCS Gallery with many more examples of this card for you to be inspired by.

I started a bunch of cards last night using this month's SheetLoad sketch, but I haven't gotten them ready to share yet. Any luck I will get them done and a couple other things at least started tonight! Lots of stuff on my To-Do List that needs doing!

Have a great night and I hope to post more cards tomorrow morning! I would love to see you try and create this card and add it to the SCS Gallery for all of us to share!

May your bucket overflow with lots of inspiration to make your own Tri Shutter card!

Unity Kit of the Month Blog Hop!!

If you are one of my followers, I interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to provide you with an opportunity to be inspired!!

You have stumbled upon a weekend full of Blog Hopping provided by friends of Unity who are showing you creations made with various Unity Kits of the Month!!



If you came to me by way of the Blog Hop then congratulations you have made it to post # 99!!! You are almost done!!

Welcome to the Unity KOM Blog Hop!!

To start at the beginning... Click HERE!

The project that I made uses a total of eleven stamps all coming from various Kits of the Month! I designed a birthday card for my best friend Tiffani that is dimensional and can be left out on her desk as a reminder of our friendship. (I will provide more info about this card later!)

Here is the card I made her in the closed position...

Here it is opened up...

The Fine Print: DP: Cloud 9 Design (Cinnamon Stick); CS: GP; Stamps: See Key Below; Ribbon: Making Memories (Grosgrain), Joann's (Gold Organza), Michael's (Plaid); Computer generated Font: Kayleigh, Comic Sans; Flowers: Cloud 9 Designs, Petaloo, Prima, Doodlebug Designs; Rhinestones: Studio 18, Darice; Ink: Amuse (Black), Stampin Up: (Sage Shadow, Really Rust), Versamagic (Jumbo Java); Markers: Copics (E00, E04, E08, E37, G21, BG10, BG93, R59, YR20)

See the key below to know which Kits of the Month were used in the making of this card.

1. January KOM, 2. April KOM, 3. August KOM, 4. January KOM, 5. April KOM, 6. April KOM, 7. April KOM, 8. March KOM 9. April KOM, 10. August KOM, 11. August KOM

Happy Birthday Tiffani!! I Love you!!

Thanks for looking! Have fun on the Blog Hop! For your next stop please visit the talented

Morissa!

Making Your Stamps Work For You!

Happy Thursday Everyone!!

I am excited for a lot of reasons today!! First is because I am still off from work!! Woo Hoo!! Second is because it is Hip Hop Thursday over at the Unity Blog and I hope to be inspired by all the talent that gushes out of those DT members! And third is because I get to spend the day with my best friend in the whole wide world... my friend Tiffani!! Tomorrow is her birthday and since I am heading out of town for the weekend, we decided to celebrate her birthday today!

What better way to celebrate a person's birthday then to shop at IKEA, have lunch out, pick out the Nestabilities I am going to give to her for her birthday and spend some time doing some crafting??

It sounds like a perfect day to me! But any day I spend with Tiff is a great day!! The card I made for her is going to be posted on my blog starting tomorrow. It will be up for the whole weekend as part of Unity's Kit of the Month Blog Hop from May 15th through the 17th! Be sure to check it out! I will give you the links tomorrow so that you can participate!

I don't have a new card to share today, but I did want to share with you a little tip on how to make your stamps go farther for you.

Remember this card that I made earlier this week?

Well I knew that I needed a branch for my Owl (by Kim Hughes from Cornish Heritage Farms) to be perched on, but I didn't have a branch stamp that was big enough to work. So after mulling it around in my head, and looking through some of my stamp sets, I realized that the Tree stamp from Unity's Eco Chic stamp set actually could be altered to look like a branch!

Here is how I made my stamp work for me...

Gather your stamp, ink and paper.

Stamp your image.

It looks just like a tree facing upright doesn't it?

But see how by turning it on it's side it looks more like a branch?

Color just the portion of the stamped image that you need to use.

Cut out the image. Close the opening from the piece you cut off using a fine black pen.

Walah!! You have a branch instead of a tree!! You are ready to add your image to your project!

Keep this in mind with your stamps and I think you will see that there are more uses for our stamps than we think!!

Now head on over to Unity's Blog and start Hip Hopping!

It's Hip Hop Thursday at Unity!!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with new ideas on how to make the most out of your stamps!

A Quick Card Post!

I survived my last day on call and am enjoying the first of five days that I have off from work. Since I do my full time job on call plus half of another person's call days each month, it is rare for me to get a stretch of time off like this. I soooo need it and am excited to have some uninterupted time in my stamp room to play and get caught up on some cards and projects I need to finish!

The card I am going to show you today was made on Monday between attending deliveries, but I couldn't get it posted until today. It is a challenge card from the SCS Clean and Simple Forum.

The challenge was to use the Rock and Roll technique on your card which is something that I hadn't ever tried before and I kind of liked it. The stamp I chose may have been a little too narrow to make it work the best, but I still like the varied coloration that the technique provided for the bamboo stamp that I used.

Here is the Clean and Simple card that I made...

The stamp is from Unity and is one of the silhouettes in the Gratitude = Joy stamp set. The sentiment is and oriental Happy Birthday stamp from Custer's Last Stamp. The DP is Basic Grey from one of their older lines called Perhaps (Fierbird). The colors of the paper matched really closely to the SU ink colors I used So Saffron and Creamy Caramel. The green ink was also SU, Certainly Celery and Old Olive. The band of Asian paper is a DP by Zsiage called Confucious Say What? (Dream Borders).

Here is a little better view of how the Rock and Roll Technique came out. See how the edges are darker? I think it offers a more realistic look . Colors in nature aren't solid, they have depth and dimension.

To stamp this image it took a lot of masking and overstamping, but all in all I like how it turned out. I think it could be either masculine or feminine because of the the touch of black and the simplicity of it!

Thanks for looking and I hope to be back more with some projects I get done today and tomorrow!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with time to spend in your stamp room creating to heart's desire!

Thanks For Your Support!

The poll for the Grand Prize has been closed and the winner has been determined. Unfortunately I didn't win the Grand Prize but I did pull up to third place because of your votes!! I can't thank everyone enough for showing your support for me and tossing some votes my way!

Ashley truly deserved to win, and I am not upset about it! She made THIS incredible creation and won by a land slide!!

You guys really rock and truly mean a lot to me!! Thanks for helping me out!!

It is late here and I still have to go back in to work, so the card I made today will have to go up tomorrow! I am starting a five day stretch off tomorrow morning and hope to get lots of stamping done!! Yippee!! I can't wait for tomorrow morning at 7am!!

Good night and may your bucket overflow with sweet dreams!!

I Have a Favor to Ask!

I was so honored to learn that this card that I made was chosen by Unity as the winner of the One Layer Birthday Card contest that was held during their Anniversary celebration last week.

Well, by winning that contest, my card has been put into a Grand Prize contest against 4 other projects that were submitted and won in four different categories.

One lucky winner of the Grand Prize contest is going to win the

Unity Kit of the Month FREE for a whole year!

I would really love to win that!!! You all know how much I adore Unity stamps. I could use my extra savings to buy even more Unity stamps!!

I need your help to win though... according to the poll results, my card is currently in last place. I think it is because I have a disadvantage in that my card was only allowed to use one layer (contest rules) so when you compare my card to some of the others, it just doesn't shine quite as much.

So if you are a member at SplitCoastStampers and wouldn't mind casting a vote my way,

please click HERE to cast your vote.

To vote for me you need to choose the submission called

Unity's One Layer Birthday Card Challenge

The Poll closes at 6pm CST on Tuesday May 12th, so please vote ASAP!!

The other submissions are amazing, so if you would rather vote for them then that is OK too! I just appreciate you considering voting for me!

Thank You!!

Scroll down for my last post including four new masculine birthday cards!

Whoooo Wants to See Some Masculine Birthday Cards??

Bear with me while I am still trying to find my footing back on solid ground after stepping off of the Cloud Nine that I have been flying on since I found out about being accepted onto the SheetLoad DT!! I wish it were August right away! Thankfully though, we are allowed to participate in some of the upcoming challenges that they have going on, so be on the lookout for a lot more SheetLoad stuff in the future!!

I have added the links to all my fellow DT members on the right side of my blog. I would encourage you to visit them... you will find lots of inspiration and talent flowing freely on these ladies' blogs!!

And for a chance to win some blog candy, SheetLoad is offering a chance to win some "fan blog candy" just by becoming a Follower of their blog! Click here to get to their blog and then look for the "Follow" link to sign up!

On to today's cards...

With two masculine birthday cards needing to go out in the mail this week (and also thinking about how smart SheetLoad is to have designed sketches that help you make multiple cards at a time,) I decided to create four similar cards all at once. I will send two of these cards out this week and yet still have two more in my stash for any upcoming guy birthdays! I don't know about you, but the masculine ones are not the ones that come the easiest to me! I have always been a feminine girly girl and love the embellishments that female cards allow options for.

For today's cards, I visited the fabulous gallery of Debbie's Doodles who was the Featured Stamper on SCS yesterday! Here is the card that I chose to case!

And here are the cards that I made using her sketch!

This set uses paper from the Paper Salon 8x8 card pack. My favorite is the one on the left because I think that the contrasting papers work best together.

I have always loved this Owl from Cornish Heritage Farms, but this is the first time I have used it!

This set uses paper from My Mind's Eye, the "My Little Buddy" collection. I have some information to share with you in the future on how to help darker images on dark paper pop on your cards. I learned this the hard way today!! I will share this information with you soon!

Here are some closer views of today's cards...

They all have slight differences in coloration and embellishments, but follow the same sketch and theme!

The Fine Print: DP for the top two: Paper Salon, for the bottom two: MME, CS: SU; Stamps: Owl: Cornish Heritage Farms, Branch: Altered Tree from Unity (Eco Chic), Sentiment: Inky Antics; Ink: Amuse (Black), Versa Magic (Jumbo Java); Markers: Copics, Signo Uniball white opaque marker. Brads: Basic Grey; Asstd Ribbons: Joann's and Michael's; Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Spots and Dots).

Have a great night from "Owl" of us at the Lander's household! (Couldn't resist continuing with the owl theme!)

May your bucket be overflowing with wonderful memories of the weekend to help you get through the new week!