I'm Back But Still Recovering!

Talk about Jet Lag and being thrown from the fire into the frying pan!!  I am still recuperating from my week long trip to California for CHA!!  And, as soon as I returned home, I went right back on call for work.  I guess they missed me, because they have hardly given me a moments rest!  LOL!!  I got home Wednesday night and I am STILL not unpacked!!!  

I had a wonderful time and met some amazing people who will be friends of mine for a very long time!  Crafters have such warm hearts and it was such a joy to get to know some of them better!!  I can't thank Angela and Christian over at Unity for letting this trip happen for me!!  I am overwhelmed and overjoyed from the experience. 

I have a lot of pictures up on Facebook so if you haven't friended me there yet, please do and go check them out!

From left to right: Heather Rolin, Eva Dobilas, Angela Magnuson, 

Christian Magnuson, Michelle Ogdahl, Ryan Broman

But do you want to see some of the new things I saw at the Tradeshow?  I am going to show you some of the favorite paper lines of mine that will be coming out!

My most favorite is the stuff from the Quite Contrary line of My Minds Eye!  (MME)

You can see the prints up close and personal at the MME website HERE!

I also love all the Cosmo Cricket lines coming out...

Check out their site to see more...HERE!

The new Basic Grey lines are some that I am anxious to get my hands on to

See more HERE!

See more HERE!

See more HERE!

See more HERE!

And then check out their new line called the Basics! It is amazing !  It will be great for base layouts and cards!

See more of this one HERE!

That's all the product I am going to share today, I have a house that desperately needs my attention and some bags that need to be unpacked!  I hope to play in my craft room really soon, because after being so inspired by seeing all the wonderful things at CHA, I am really in the mood to craft! I  will be back more regularly now and thanks for hanging for me until I got back home and in the groove again!

Here are some of the wonderful ladies that I bonded with at CHA!  Eva was here too, but didn't make the picture!  I love these ladies!!  What amazing women!! Back Row, Left to right: Ashley Nguyen Newell, Jessica Diedrich, Kyra Sandstone, Me, Sara Henton and Michelle Woerner in front!

Have a wonderful weekend and a great day!  May your bucket overflow with  fun times and good memories!

Hippity Hop!!

Happy Monday everyone!!

It's time for another H{ippity} Hop!  Today we visit each other's blogs and show off the {ippity} creations that we have to share.  To start at the beginning of the hop, please visit the {ippity} blog for the list of participating blogs.

As you read this I am still over in California enjoying the Craft Hobby Association TradeShow.  Hopefully I have been able to check in on my blog, the forums or even FaceBook to give you some updates!  I have something fun planned to pick the winner of last week's challenge, so be sure to check in on the {ippity} forums a little later today!

Each Monday coinciding with our H{ippity} Hops, we challenge our {ippity} peeps to participate in a challenge.  And this week DT member Maria was up to assign the challenge and she has asked that we make a shaped card (other than a square or rectangle!)  To find out all the details of participating in this challenge (IHHC8), please visit the {ippity} forum.

The {ippity} DT members have some samples on their blogs showing shaped cards for today's challenge...

Here is mine...

I made a card shaped like a house and decorated it with the {ippity} house from the Devoted set and the paper pack from the Fall 2009 {ippity} collection.

The house was colored in using Copic Markers.  I cut out around it and then layered it onto the base papers.  The sentiment for the card comes from the {ippity} Simply Home stamp set.  I replaced the letter "o" with one of the hearts coming out of the chimney from the house stamp.

I made the grass for the card by cutting a strip of green coordinating paper and making multiple cuts part way down the strip to represent the individual blades of grass. I distressed the edges of the card using Versamagic Jumbo Java chalk ink.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the {ippity} stamps you see featured here today, please visit my sales blog HERE.  Keep in mind that I am away at CHA until Wednesday and will not be able to ship any orders until I return.  But feel free to email me with your interest! 

Come back on Thursday to the {ippity} blog where I will show you how I created the shaped card in the same shape of the house stamp but bigger! 

Thanks for taking a look and have fun hopping around the rest of the blogs!  Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with lots of inspiration from the blogs you will visit full of {ippity}

Halloween Treat Box

Hello from gray and rainy California! It is ironic that I leave FL where we have had such unseasonably cold weather and go to one of the dryest states in the country only to have it be raining and cold!!

But none of that matters because CHA is amazing!! I am having a wonderful time, am exhausted but loving every minute of the SuperShow!  Yesterday Eva, the Unity Boyz, Angela, Chris and I all spent some time helping our booth visitors complete some cute Make-n-Takes using some of the {ippity} new releases! 

Have you signed up to get the new {ippity} releases yet?  Head on over to the {ippity} blog to find out all about it!

Today I want to show you some pictures of another project I made for the Dirty Dozen Gallery back in October.  Sorry that Halloween has passed, but really this project could be made to celebrate any holiday!  Think /Easter and St. Patty's day!!

The only stamping I really did on this was to use one of the first stamp sets that The Stamps of Life made.  They are really cute stamps that you should totally check out if you haven't already!

Isn't this the cutest little set that was made by covering some unfinished boxes from

 Michael's the cute DP from Recollections.

A little Modge Podge and some creative cutting of DP is all it takes to recover the box.  This paper was so cute and easy to use!

Not a lot of  details this morning for the blog, but if you have any questions on my project, please let me know! 

We are heading back to the show this morning for one more day of Make N Takes for {ippity}  I hope I will get to see some of you there!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with excitement for what is in store for you this weekend!  Have a wonderful Saturday.

Enjoy your [Friends With Flair Fri] Day!

Happy Friends With Flair Friday!! 

I hope you Enjoy Your Day!!

I have pre-scheduled this post for this week's FWF Friday because I am currently in California at the CHA Expo!  Today is the first day of the SuperShow  that is open to the public and I am working the {ippity} booth with Unity!  I have waited for this day for a long time and am so excited it is finally here!

To start the FWF Hop at the beginning, be sure to start with at the Unity Blog for the complete list! 

The project I have to share with you is one that I made for my first Dirty Dozen Gallery back in October.  Some of you Fan Club members may have seen it before, but since probably not all of you have, I figured it would be a good thing to post while I was away!

The theme for the DD Gallery back in October was Treats All Around.  So I decided to make a gift basket out of this cute, round Bamboo container that I found at Target.  I added to it many spa products that I found in the Dollar store.

I used colors that were bright and cheerful and added some fun embellishments and DP's from BG to make the whole set tie together!

For the card that goes with the set, I stamped the Floral Journaling stamp from Unity's  Aug 09 KOM onto white cardstock and then cut away the inner portion to reveal the sentiment stamped on the inside of the card.  The sentiment is from Unity's  May 09 KOM.  I colored the leaves and flowers in with Copic markers and added small flowers to the stems as embellishments!  The ribbon is from Martha Stewart.

Here is a picture of everything all tucked into the Bamboo container....

...and here is all of it out of the packaging revealing the pretty labels I made for the products.  I used my nesties to cut out the labels and embellished them with coordinating ribbons and flowers!!

I will try and do my best to be uploading some pictures from CHA for all of you to see, so keep checking in on occasion!  And most importantly... Enjoy Your Day!

May your bucket overflow with the relaxing feeling you get after spending the day at the spa, even if it's a spa treatment you get at home!  :-)

Circle of Friends

Hello there my blog friends! I hope you are having a great Tuesday!  I have a project to share with you today that was one of the projects I submitted for my first Dirty Dozen/Fan Club Gallery.  Now that three months have passed, we have permission to share them on our personal blogs too.

In just a couple of days I will be on my way to CHA and so I decided throughout the next week, since I won't have something new to share with you every day, that it would be the perfect time to share the projects from my DD Gallery back in October.  I am working on getting all my blog posts pre-scheduled so that they will still appear every day while I am away.  But,  I also hope to add some extra posts during the week that will share with you some highlights from CHA!  I am hoping that my limited technology skills won't hinder that goal!

Anyway let's talk about our friends... Do you have a Circle of Friends?

Have you thought about how we have many different types of friends in our lives?  I feel so blessed with many friends and I am very thankful to have them all!  Some of my friends, like you special blog friends, I haven't even met before.  I am excited though, because while I am at CHA, I hope to meet some of you. :-)

Other friends we have while we are at work.  We may not socialize with them while away from the office, but while at work you know you can count on them to go on break with you, have lunch with you or just share in camaraderie with you at work.  Still other friends are the lifelong types that we have built and nurtured for years.  We may not get to see these friends as often as we like, but we know that the friendship is rekindled and right where we left it with just a phone call or a visit.

Then there are those friends in our lives that are important to us on a day to day or week to week basis. You know the kind, they are the ones that are there through thick and thin and stand by you during all of life's tribulations!  I made a picture to hang up in my scraproom that reminds me of these special friends that grace my life. And I thank God for all of them!

Here is my Circle Friends...

From left to right and top to bottom, here are my friends that play a special role in my life!  Melissa, my sister Michelle, my BFF Tiffani, my mom Sharon, Michelle, Lori and Lisa.  Each of these ladies has been strategically placed in my life to provide for me what I needed at a special time in my life and I couldn't have made it without them.  I am so thankful for each one of the these women and feel blessed and honored to call them my friends.

I can see this picture from where I sit in my craft room on my computer and it is a wonderful reminder of the love I have for these ladies. Now let me tell you how I made this picture frame...

The inspiration piece for this project came from the inspiration poster we were given for the Gallery's theme for October called "Treats All Around."  This piece focuses on the circle grid that can be found HERE. I chose colors that went with the decor of my room and covered the background and chipboard grid with the beautifully coordinating Fleur De Lis patterns.  And if you are going to use these types of patterns on your papers, then it only makes sense to go to Damask Designs from Paper Trey Ink. to find coordinating stamped images.  That is exactly what I did and added a row of damask designs to the bottom of the picture where I printed and matted the title.  In alternating grids I added Prima flowers decorated with tiny pearls in the middle.  I think it came out as beautifully as each of these women represented here are on both the inside and the outside!  I hope you like it too!

Here is a list of the supplies I used...

Stamps: PaperTrey Ink: Damask Designs

Paper: DP: Little Yellow Bicycle, Black CS: Recollections

Ink: Amuse: Black; Computer printed Title

Accessories: Chipboard Grid: Fancy Pants; Flowers: Prima; Pearl Accents: Studio 18; Ribbon: Dollar Store;

Techniques: Power Point Word Art (title)

I will be back tomorrow with a new design to share with you from Whimsie Doodles!  Have you remembered the coupon code I gave you that gets you 20% off your total order?  Well head on over there and use it now! All the new releases are there, plus she snuck in some extra new Valentine images that you will definitely want to add to your collection! 

Here is the link to the store

Enter the coupon code KELLY20 for your discount!

Have a wonderful Tuesday and may your bucket overflow with a wonderful bunch of ladies that you can call your friends!

It's Time to Hippity Hop!!

Happy Monday! 

Many of you might be enjoying the fact that today is a holiday for many schools and businesses.  Or you might be disappointed that your otherwise quiet house on a Monday is now filled with people that aren't usually there!  LOL! But whichever best fits your scenario, rest assured that with {ippity} there is something fun to do that will make any day better than it would have been!

Today we are having our weekly H{ippity} Hop!  

To start at the beginning of the blog roll, just visit the {ippity} blog HERE and follow down the list.  We have the DT blogs plus 30 wonderful blogs all lined up with great (ippity} creations for your enjoyment!

I have the pleasure of hosting today's blog hop and with that I am offering a challenge to all of you.  My challenge for this week (IHHC7) is to create a project using your {ippity} stamps and the following colors...

BLACK

A NEUTRAL

AND ONE OTHER COLOR!

You can check out all the details on the {ippity} forum, but you have a week to create your project and you can be eligible to win a FREE Unity stamp handle if you do!!  So have fun and I hope you will play along!

So, here is what I made using the colors black, cream and pink!

Isn't that pretty and girly!!  I had so much fun making this one because I just kept adding fun embellishments to an already beautiful paper line by Karen Foster.  One thing you may notice is that the {ippity} stamp I used which comes from the Just Wanted to Say set doesn't overpower the card.  What I like about that is that with {ippity} stamps, you can make the stamped image be the center of attention on a card, or in this case just the sentiment that you are trying to express and let the other parts take center stage.  Now the {ippity} sentiment is framed rather nicely in the center, but it doesn't overpower, but just nicely suggest sthe meaning of the card!

The whole card is made on acetate (which is a photographic nightmare!)  The sentiment is actually on the inside of the card and all the embellies you see are on the outside.  The flowers are from Prima, the Velvet ribbon and rhinestone buckle are from MM, The black chipboard accents are Thickers from American Crafts and I also used an embossing folder in my Cuttlebug.

I really loved how this turned out and am so happy to have my Just Wanted to Say stamp set from {ippity} so I can use it to create the perfect sentiment for all my cards!!  If you are interested in purchasing this stamp set, please visit "There's {ippity} in My Bucket" which is my {ippity} sales blog for details.

So be sure to stop by and see all the DT creations using this challenge and then also stop by and visit all the blogs on today's hop!  What a great way to start the week huh??

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with {ippity}!

I played Hooky!!

I didn't plan it this way yesterday, but after completing the Dirty Dozen Gallery late Thursday night, I was pretty well spent from a creative standpoint.  Not to mention that spending lots of time in my craftroom and keeping out of the freezing weather we have recently had has made me kind of stir crazy!!

So it was a beautiful day yesterday and I decided NOT to spend it on my computer.  I went to work twice yesterday morning, but I was done with that by around 12:30.  On a whim, my best friend Tiffani and I got together for lunch, then went shopping, and then we hung out at her house for the whole evening.  She let me raid her closet for some clothes to bring to CHA with me and we just talked and laughed and had a good time.  I so love her and was happy to have a day to spend with her. It just doesn't happen often enough anymore!!

So what I would have told you yesterday if I had blogged was that the January Dirty Dozen/ Fan Club Gallery is now OPEN!!

It is such a fun theme this month and I am sure you will want to go and check it out and also play along with us.  Think FLORAL, FEMININE and FLIRTY and prepared for a frilly, girly gallery that is full of yummy creations made by the Dirty Dozen!

Here is a collection of some snippets from my submissions!!

Below are the links to my projects in this month's Gallery...

(To view them you have to be a Fan Club Member at SCS.  To learn how to become one, click HERE!)

Audrey Hepburn inspired shoe

Audry Hepburn inspired card

Tiffany's inspired color challenge

Flowery Friends Mini Album cover, page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4

Magnolia Valentine

More is More (Less) card  (includes some ippity)

More is More (More) card   (includes some ippity)

To view the whole Gallery for this month please click HERE!

And one last thing!! How about a sale??

A special discount code has been issued to me so I can offer you  

20% off your Whimsie Doodles stamps purchase!!

And did I mention that Melyssa now also has red rubber stamps for sale too?  So there are no excuses not to buy these adorable stamps.  Whether you are a traditional red rubber stamper, digistamper or hybrid stamper, Whimsie Doodles are for you!!

Click HERE to visit the Whimsie Doodles store

When you make your purchase, use the coupon code 

KELLY20

(all caps)

to get 20% off your total purchase!!

Offer expires February 4th at midnight so don't delay!

We are having a little contest between the DT members, so I hope that you will help out a girl and go ahead and buy those Whimsies now!!  Thanks!! 

Have a wonderful weekend!!  I am off call today and have lots of plans for the day! I have to get my hair cut, get a pedicure, finish shopping for CHA, clean my scraproom and have a wonderful date night with Tom!!  It should be a great day!!  

May your bucket be filled with activities you like to do on the weekend!!  Talk to you tomorrow!!

It's Whimsie Wednesday

It's Whimsie Wednesday!

Every Wednesday on the Whimsie Doodles Forum at PaperCraft Planet, a new challenge using Whimsie Doodles is posted!  One of our newest DT members, Alicia (who is no stranger to we SheetLoad fans)  has given us the challenge this week called Outside Looking In (WWC14) She wants us to make a Window Card!  Everyone is invited to play along!  And while you are there checking out the challenge, be sure to get the free digital file designed by Melyssa for anyone who joins or is already a member of  the group.  For every 100 members that join, Melyssa releases a new image for FREE.  Click HERE to visit the PCP Whimsie Doodles group.

For my window card I used another old sketch from the SCS Sketch Challenge Forum in my quest to work my way through the over 250 sketches that are there.  I skipped sketch SC04 because I didn't think it would work well for a window card, but I will eventually use it too.  Instead, I used SC05 for my sketch.  But I turned my sample upright to portrait!

This card also was inspired by this past Saturday's Inspiration Challenge IC214 on SCS which was to be inspired by an image found on the website called  Groovy Inclinations. The piece that inspired my card can be seen HERE  it is called the Pair of Pears!

Here is my Outside Looking In challenge card...

Window cards are difficult to photograph without getting a lot of shadowing, so I had to close it really well before getting the shot.  When you open it, you can appreciate that the pears are actually on the inside of the card!

This is the view of the inside of the card revealing the sentiment as well. I used the Whimsie Doodles digistamp set called Mini Valentines that can be purchased from the Whimsie Doodles Store.  I used BG for the background and Cosmo Cricket for the striped paper.  I added a border with Bazzill paper using a MS punch.  The square frame for the pears and all the openings on my card were made with my Square Nestie dies!

Here is a picture of the whole Mini Valentines set...

Here is a closeup of the pears.  I colored them in with Copic Markers and added some sparkle to the outer portions with my Sakura Gelly Roller.  The pears are also popped up on foam dots to make them show through the window I created. Instead of using this card for a Valentine, I am planning on giving it to a couple for their anniversary or engagement!

I also am excited to inform you that Melyssa has now started carrying some of her images on

RED RUBBER!!!

You can see them by clicking HERE.  I am so happy for her that the business is doing great and she is growing and progressing as she one day dreamed she would!  Congratulations Melyssa!!

Hope you are having a great week... It is hump day already and can I just say that I am so excited because I am leaving for CHA in just over a week!! Woohoo!!

I hope you have a great Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with happy things to look forward to in your life!

 

I learned to Color!!

 
So Sunday was a really exciting day for me because I got to spend the whole day learning how to color!  I took the Copic's Certification class that was taught by Sally Lynn MacDonald and am now a certified teacher for Copic Markers.  I am proudly displaying my badge to the left! Heehee!!

If you know anything about Copic Markers, you know that they can cost a little money, that they can be intimidating but that when mastered, they can help you to create some of the most beautifully colored projects!!  Over time I have been gradually increasing my stash of Copics! I signed up for Gina K's Copic club and bought six new markers every month until I had three of the 36 marker sets in my collection.  Then, I realized that I just had to have the rest of them and went out and purchased the last set of Copics in the Ciao version.

Here is a picture  of all my Copics!  I store them in Ikea buckets that hang from a rod at arms reach.  They are directly in front of me as I sit at my workspace.  I love having them accessible like that!  I own all the Ciao markers for a total of 144 markers, plus I have recently purchased the set of 12 Quad Zeros to use with my Air Brush system for backgrounds and such.  Dare I say that may not be enough!  Now that I understand their coloring system a little better, I will probably go through my collection and decide which Sketch markers I should add to my family for the proper blending and shading!

I have a lot of theories for using Copics that I will share with you over time.  I may start doing some teaching for a LSS named Whim so Doodle.  That was a great lead I got from attending this class. 

Here are a few of the notes I took from class.  First we listened to her teach and then we got to play after every segment.  I really learned so much but still need to practice, practice, practice!!!

One of the best parts of the day was getting to hang with my peeps from Stamp TV's Florida Group!  I sat next to Sue Morris of Sue's Sentiments and Cathy Clark (blog coming by March 1st, LOL!!)  They are fabulous ladies and we had a lot of fun together!  Thanks gals for making the day so special!

Here is a shot of us right after we got our certificates.  Sally Lynn (the instructor) is in the front, then from Left to Right in the back is me, Sue and Cathy!

I also got to meet a great gal named Naomi Chokr who turns out was already a Follower of my blog.  We laughed about that!!  She is a little sweetheart full of energy and passion for our craft.  She also has an amazing blog called Naomi Space that you should definitely check out.  In a recent post she has spent a lot of time compiling some of the new releases coming out for many of our favorite companies at CHA!  Hugs to you Naomi... it was so fun getting to meet you!

Well I can't leave you without a project for today, so I will share with you a card I whipped out for yesterday's Clean and Simple Challenge CAS49 called Cut it Out.  We had to add something that we cut out to our card.  I couldn't resist using one of the ten new pre-released Unity stamp sets coming out at CHA this month.  It is called Along for the Ride and was designed by new friend Heather Rolin!  It is so cute and is the perfect size for cards or layouts!!

In following through with my journey to do all the sketches in the SCS Sketch Challenge Forum, this card uses SC03.  I like how it came out!!

I cut out two cars and the arrow pointing to the right to meet the requirements of the challenge.  Kind of cute, huh?  I think I will try and scrapbook with this one sometime!  I love it!

Of course I colored with my Copics, but don't look too closely I still have a lot of practicing to do. It is just really nice knowing what the techniques are to improve on my coloring!

The DP is from Cosmo Cricket's The Boyfriend line.  It was all such a fun, fun, fun card to make!!

If you stuck with me all the way to the end of this long post, then Thank You!!  Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with lots of color!