Fresh Idea Friends With Flair Friday!!

Did you see that title??  

Look at that alliteration!! That's a lot of "F"s there!!  LOL!!

Today I have combined my Fresh Idea post on the {ippity} Blog with my Friends with Flair post for the Unity hop today!  I hope you don't mind seeing a little more {ippity} today!! I know that I never get tired of seeing it!! ;-)

If you are like me you like to save a few dollars.  I am a sucker for the dollar bins at the large discount stores and craft stores and I am always picking up items that I think I can alter.  I love to make homemade gifts that look expensive but that don't really cost anything more than my time and love!!

I picked up a three pack of canvas frames that were 5" x 5" and had children's open line drawings on them.  The canvas was white originally, but with a little bit of acrylic paint I could cover the white and the drawings so that I had a clean slate to make my project with.

I found some great DP from Graphic 45 that I thought made a bold statement that goes perfectly with the verse I chose to use from Devoted.

I love this verse...

The Lord is my strength and my shield...my heart trusts in him and I am helped.  Psalm 28:7

So I stamped that verse from the Devoted set and added below it a border using one of the single fluer de lis stamps from the Regal Greetings set.  

The final touches were to add a ribbon around the frame and add acrylic baubles (dew drops) to accent the fleur de lis. 

To hang the picture I just added a black ribbon with a bow on top that I attached to both top corners from behind.  Excuse the glare on this shot but my wall that I hung it on has just a little sheen to it!  It was really hard to get  a great shot!!

Be sure to keep your eyes out for the hidden FLAIR BLINKIE on one of the hop blogs!

And to find the whole FWF blog list, just head over to the 

Unity blog  

And don't forget to visit the Unity Forum on SCS 

today too as the Unity 2nd Year Anniversary celebrations continue!!

By the way... 

I chose a winner 

from the comments on my blog post here yesterday.  

The lucky winner of the Because of You {ippity} stamp set is announced 

in my Fresh Idea post on the {ippity} blog post today!!

Click HERE to see who the lucky winner is!!

Have a great Friday and may your bucket overflow with the protection of the Lord from his strength and shield!

Happy Birthday Hip Hop!

Happy Hip Hop!!

And what a special Hip Hop it is today!!  

We are celebrating
Unity Stamp Company's 2nd Birthday 
all week this week!!  

Have you been having fun on the forums?  

Are you enjoying seeing all the wonderful New Releases coming out today that were shared by the Unity DT?

Did you see that Unity is now designing stamps for Cosmo Cricket? 

Three brand new Cosmo Cricket by Unity stamps are being released today...

Material Girl,

Material Girl Scrapping Kit

and 

Garden Variety

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  If you are coming to my blog from Karen's then you are at the right place, but to start the Hip Hop at the beginning, please head over to the Unity Blog.

Then when you are all through with the Hip Hop be sure to stop over at the 

Unity Forum at 10AM CST 

and join in all of the Anniversary Festivities.  

There will be challenges, games, prizes and lots of chatting! 

COSMO FEATURE AND GIVEAWAY ON MOXIE FAB

Unity DT TRIVIA Game 

GAME PRIZE: Unity Cosmo Prize Pack

Triple Play CHALLENGE: hosted by Jenn, Beate and Lori
PRIZE: SCS Fan Club Membership & Spellbinders Prize

We sure hope to see you there!!

We had the pleasure of having Beate Johns, Lori Craig and Jenn Balcer join us on our Hip Hop today and they have challenged us to use the following sketch, four different DP's and a button or bling on our project.  They call it the Triple Play!

I was able to create a card using their sketch and challenge and am sharing it with you here today!

I flipped the sentiment panel to the opposite side though!

My card is a CAS style card using four different DP's from the Thrift Shoppe Line by October Afternoon.  I also used an OA flower and strawberry sticker for my embellishment.  The {ippity} stamps I used are from the Just Wanted to Say set.  The felt flower and button is from MM.

To purchase the {ippity} stamp set that I used, please visit my sales blog HERE!

There is still more to see and now it is time to head over to Lisa Arana's blog for some fabulous creativity!  

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with enough extra money to buy some of the new Unity Releases!!  :-)

A TREE-mendous Challenge!!

It's time for another Whimsie Wednesday Challenge over at the Whimsie Doodles forum at Paper Craft Planet.  And yours truly is the hostess for this week's challenge.

In honor of Arbor Day which is coming up on Friday, I decided to make the challenge all about TREES!!  Isn't that a TREE-mendous idea??  So all you have to do to play along is create a card or project using Whimsie Doodles stamps and be sure to include a TREE on it.  The stamped image can be a WD stamp, or you can incorporate embellishments or paper that have trees on it.  Just make sure you have a Whimsie Doodles stamped image on it!

For a list of Whimsie Doodles stamps with trees in them, 

check out my blog post for today on the Whimsie Doodles Blog.

So here is the card that I created for the WWC29 challenge...

The WD stamped image that I used is the Digital stamp set called Sunny Day.  You can find the stamp for sale on the WD store site HERE.  The DP is from Bo Bunny's Roughin' It collection.  I colored the trees that I masked and stamped three times with Copic markers.  I added the rafia and a silk leaf for embellishments.  The sentiment is one I created myself using Power Point and the font called O Whoa DNA.  

I finally got around to working with another one of the older sketches on SCS because I am still SLOWLY working my way to using ALL of them!!  The sketch for this card uses SC36...

As you can see I altered it for my project by sliding down panel number three to the bottom half of the card!!  

I hope you have a great day and will try to get around to playing with me on this week's challenge.  May your bucket overflow with all things that are TREE-mendous to you!! :-)

An Honor and a Card Share!

So today got a little derailed for me!  I ended up being at work most of the night last night.  I am running on a total three hours of sleep in two separate segments. So be lenient on me and understand why this is late in going up and also understand why it will be short and sweet!!

First of all I received the sweetest honor of being Featured on the Artful Inkables blog as their first Friday's Featured Stamper last week and since I didn't blog over the weekend, I hadn't had the chance to share it with you yet!!

You can see the blog post that I was featured in by visiting their blog HERE.  I really appreciated Jackie contacting me and inviting me to be on their blog.  It gave me a great reason to pull out one of the AI stamps that I had never used before and actually and put it to good use!!  I hope you will take the time to look at their blog.  They have some amazing designers (some of whom like Alicia Ekerman who I have designed for before and now co-design with her for Whimsie Doodles!

Here is the new card that I created for this feature!

The stamp is from Artful Inkables and is called Daring Duo and comes with a frog and lily pads too.   I placed it on some adorable October Afternoon papers from last years line called Ducks in a Row.  I colored my image with Copic markers and added some fun ribbons.  The golden colored one was a recent find from my LSS that already had a stitch line down the center that when you pulled one of the threads it causes the ribbon to ruche up.  I love it, but unfortunately do not know who makes it because it was sold in precut 1 yard pieces with no tags on it!  The buttons are from Clear and Simple Stamps.

I know it might seem like a strange sentiment for a card, but I think it is so sweet looking.  I plan on sending it to a friend who might be struggling someday and I could put a sentiment inside that says something like "Feel like you are just treading water?"  "I am here to throw you a line!"  Or some type of encouragement during a  time of need!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and may your bucket overflow with the kind of friends that will help you if you felt like you were swimming in a no swimming zone!  :-)  I am sure thankful for those of mine that I have!


I will be back hopefully in the morning tomorrow with some more goodies to share!!  Have a great night!

April Showers Bring May Flowers!

But for today's post it looks like the May flowers are coming a little early!!  Today is Monday and that means that it is time for another {ippity} Hippity Hop!!  Our Hop hostess today is Lisa and she has challenged us this week with a new Hippity Hop challenge to add 3D Flowers to our project!

To start the hop at the beginning and to have a chance to visit all the blogs of talented {ippity} fans just Hop on over the {ippity} blog to find the complete list!!  We hope that you will join us in our challenge this week and create a card or project using 3D flowers that you have either purchased or made.  Upload them to the SCS Gallery using the keywords ippity and IHHC21.

The project that I made was actually for two challenges!  The first one was Lisa's Flower challenge, but then it also was for this weekend's Virtual Scrapbooking Night VSBN challenge that I hosted based on the Reality TV show called Extreme Makeover.  The idea was to use that show for the inspiration to create a BEFORE and AFTER type layout.  

To check out my challenge please visit my VSBN thread HERE.  There is still time to play along with a chance to win a free ippity stamp set!

Here is the layout that was optional for my VSBN challenge.  

And here is the layout that I created of my 2nd daughter Leah.  The Before was a picture of her as she received her acceptance letter for the University of Florida.  The After picture was taken on her graduation day after spending four years there!

Here is a closeup of one of the clusters of flowers that I added for Lisa's Hippity Hop challenge. I did some layering of the flowers and topped them off with rhinestones to add depth for the 3D effect.  Underneath the photo of my daughter I stamped the dotted background {ippity} stamp from the Love in Return set to help mat the photo.

And here is the next cluster of 3D flowers that I added to the layout.  The bottom corner has the verse from the Devoted {ippity} set that states " Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."  And as an accent coming from underneath the picture in the center, I used the swirl and flower stamp from the Love in Return Set.

The {ippity} stamp shown here is from the What Matters Most set.  You can read my journaling to see the joy that we had for Leah as we got her great news!  We are so proud of Leah and thankful that she is about to graduate with her Master's and will attending UF's Vet School in the Fall!!

Before you continue on the Hop, let me remind you that our sister company 

Unity Stamp Co. is celebrating it's 

2nd Year Anniversary all week long!! 

Head over to the Unity forum at SCS and the Unity blog 

to join in all the festivities that are happening today and all week long!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with the desires of your heart as promised by God!  :-)  Happy Monday!!

Friday Friends With Flair!!

Thank God It's Friday!!

I don't know about you, but it has been one of those weeks for me!!  I've been feeling like a salmon swimming upstream!!  Feeling like I am working really hard, but not sure I am getting where I am trying to get!!

Today is the special day that Unity Stamp Co. fans get to share our Unity creations with others!!  Be sure to head over to the Unity blog for the complete list of today's participants and hop from blog to blog and be ready to be inspired!!

Be sure to keep your eyes out for that hidden 

Flair blinkie for the chance to win 25 random Unity stamps!!

The card I have to share with you today is my CAS challenge card for this week's CAS challenge at SCS's.   The challenge this week is to be inspired by fellow DT member Alanna's card shown HERE!

And here is what I did with it...

Pairing Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl DP with Unity's spool of thread from the Super Sweet & Stuck on You Stampin' Store Kit, I created this thank you card.  The sentiment is actually slightly curved in the kit, but I was able to straighten it out on my acrylic block.

I stamped the image three times and colored the spools with Copic Markers and then wrapped each of the spools in coordinating colors of thread that matched the DP.

I stamped the image again three times so I could then color three of the hearts with red Copics.  Then I slipped them underneath a few of the pieces of thread on each spool.  I added paper piecing to the outer edge of the Kraft paper.

I have one other card that I shared earlier this week that I  hope you got to see...

This card was created for an Earth Day challenge that I hosted for the Dirty Dozen/ Dirty Dozen Alumni.  To read more about the details about this card, please visit my blog post from earlier this week 

HERE!

One last thing...

We hope that you will be joining the {ippity} chicks 

for the VSBN Weekend this weekend 

The fun begins on Friday at 4pm EST.  Eva, Lisa and I will all be hosting challenges this weekend with the help of Heather, Maria and Eryn!  Please come by and check out the challenges... it will give you guys a great chance to scrapbook with your Unity and Ippity scrapbooking stamps!!

Have a wonderful weekend and may your bucket overflow with plenty of time to play with paper  and ink!

Unity Hip Hop-- Invitation Style!

Welcome to this week's Hip Hop!

Today we have a really special hop for you!!

If you have reached my blog way of the talented and beautiful EVA, then you are in the right place!

To start the Hop from the beginning

CLICK HERE!

By the end of the Hop you are going to feel very welcome 

to attend the upcoming Celebration for 

Unity Stamp Company's 2nd Anniversary!!

Trust us when we say that 

YOU ARE INVITED!!!

(Have you gotten that hint yet??)  LOL!!

I used the adorable Where You Should Be stamp from the {ippity} stamp set of the same name!

  Click HERE if you are interested in purchasing this stamp set!

The DP used is from Cosmo Cricket! 

And have you heard that Unity stamps is now

 making stamps for Cosmo Cricket??  

Woot Woot!!  

This will be part of the Anniversary celebration...

Cosmo Cricket Stamps will be released on Thursday April 29th!!

Mark your calendars!! The fun will be lasting the whole week!! 

 It all starts April 26th and will end on the 1st of May!!  

Since May 1st is also National Scrapbooking Day, 

the DT's will have some fun celebrations planned to celebrate that day too!!

Make sure that you are in the right place!! 

The fun will start on the Unity Blog and include more 

fun time in the forums throughout the celebration!! 

More specifics about the fun planned will be announced!!

Here are the details for the celebration...

We sure hope to see you for the celebration!!  

Now to see the next blog on the list... please visit our new DT member Lisa Arana!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with wonderful plans for the week of April 26th through May 1st!  :-)

Another Earth Day Challenge!!

Welcome to another Whimsie Wednesday!

Thanh is the host over at Whimsie Doodle's Paper Craft Planet for this week's challenge.   April 22 is Earth Day and she has challenged us to create a project to promote saving the Earth.

What does Earth Day mean to you? 

How are you reducing your ecological foot print?

Things you could do are:

• use a recycled item on your project from around your house
• have a reduce, reuse, recycle message
• incorporate a save Earth message (using the WD stamp - see below)
• paint or stamp with household objects
• make a project with only scraps and as many scraps as you can using earthy stuff
• use earthy colors
• incorporate all of the above into one!

At Whimsie Doodles, we believe in reducing our ecological footprint hence why most of our images are digi! To help spread the message, we're going to be giving away our Save Earth digi for a limited time.

Please click HERE for your download.

For my challenge card today I used the above stamp and sentiment to create a card.  I enlarged the cupcake so it was roughly 4" x 5" and printed it so the the left side would overlap the fold and become the hinge for the card!

I used Copics to color my image and also paper pieced the cupcake wrapper using October Afternoon DP.  The heart and bow are layered and also colored with Copics.  The button is from Clear and Simple Stamps.

Here is the inside of the card!!  I thought I might offer this one to my son to bring to his girlfriend at school for Earth Day tomorrow along with a handful of chocolate kisses!!  If you decide to get this free image while it lasts, we sure would love to see what you do with it!  Head on over to the PCP Whimsie Doodles forum and play along with our challenge!  If you upload your creation to any online galleries, be sure to use the keywords whimsiedoodles and WWC28.

Have a wonderful, whimsical Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with ideas to help save our earth and minimize the footprint we leave on it!

An Earth Day Challenge

Hello everyone!! Happy Tuesday!!

 It is the 20th of the month which means that it is time for another Dirty Dozen/Dirty Dozen Alumni challenge over at SCS!!  And guess what??  Yours truly is the hostess for this month's challenge!!  I was so happy to get the opportunity to decide on this month's theme and I am super happy to have these challenges to participate in.  This is my first month not being an active Dirty Girl, so it is really nice to be able to stay connected with the girls from the Dirt Pile!

Earth Day is on the 22nd of this month.  So for my DD challenge, I decided to ask them to make a card with an earth theme to it, that has an earth on it, or involves nature!

REQUIRED ELEMENT:  Recycled item

RESTRICTED ELEMENT: Buttons  (none allowed!)

Search the Gallery using the keyword DCED410 (for Dirty Challenge Earth Day April 2010) to see the rest of the creations!

I used the Unity Stamp Co stamp set called Grow Yourself Extraordinary for my challenge card.  My recycled element was a piece of cardboard box that I tore the paper off one side and inked up with brown ink on the edges.  All the edges were distressed with the distressing tool  by MM.

This kit is only available from retail stores.  To find a store near you that sells Unity, please click HERE.

Did you know that Archiver's is now carrying Unity?  Yeah!!

I colored the image and highlighted some of the words on the sentiment using Copic Markers to coordinate with the Brook Collection by Crate Paper.  I added some extra leaves with additional colors of green Copics!


I hope that you are doing your part to conserve the resources that we have still in our world!  What are you going to do this year to reduce your footprints on the earth?

Don't you just love this sentiment?  I think it is a great statement to get our kids to understand while they are young.  How important for them to be leaders and not followers and learn how to create their own paths in life!  

Be sure to check out the special cards that some of the other Dirty Dozen and Dirty Dozen Alumni have made for this challenge!!  

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with new ideas to help conserve resources that will save our earth!

Hippity Hop Happy Birthday

Today the Ippity DT has hijacked the Hippity Hop

 to wish our very own Eva a Happy Birthday!!

Eva is the host of this week's Hippity Hop, but she doesn't know that we have taken it over!!  LOL!!  We are still following her challenge for today which is to use scallops on our cards, but we used scallops on our Birthday Cards that we have made in honor of her!  Head on over to the Ippity Blog to see all the details of Eva's challenge this week and also find the list of today's participants!

I consider Eva such a dear friend now and I am so thankful to have met her through Ippity.  We both had the honor of starting from the beginning of Ippity and have really built a strong bond through this connection.  Hardly a day goes by that we don't talk to each other and we are there to help each other out no matter what is going on!  You will never meet a more positive and encouraging person than Eva.  She spreads joy in everything she says and does.  She has the kind of beauty that is not only outside but just gleams from the inside too!!

Happy Birthday Eva!  

Sending lots of love to you for your special day!

The card that I made for Eva uses two Ippity stamps.  The first stamp that you can see clearly is the sentiment from the Just Wanted to Say set.  But if you look more closely you will see that I also used one of the stamps from the Regal Greetings set.  I stamped one of the single fleur de lis stamps repeatedly onto the base paper with Versamark.  Then to  make the images stand out a bit, I added a soft blue chalk to them. This gives a very subtle effect to the background paper!

Edited to Add: I forgot to mention that I used another sketch from the Master list of cards sketches on SCS for my card today!  It is sketch SC29 and can be found HERE!

Here is the picture of it...

The DP I used is from My Mind's Eye's Lush Collection.  Even the flower was created using the same DP and in fact was a make n take that I made while at CHA! I finally had the perfect reason to use it!  The base paper is from Bo Bunny and the script paper is October Afternoon.  The beautiful Kraft colored pearls and flowers are from Zva.  I needed to make a card with lots of frills for Eva because she is the queen of frills and details on cards! I hope I didn't disappoint!!

Eva's challenge for us this week is to use scallops.  The scallops on my card came in the from of a border punch by Martha Stewart which is double the scallops.  Many little scallops form larger scallops and make a beautiful border on a card.  The second way I added scallops is in the lace trim that I used.  We hope that you will play along with us for this week's challenge!!

Eva I hope you like your card!! It is in the mail to you now!!  Thanks for being my sweet friend and I hope you had a wonderful Birthday yesterday!!

To start the hop at the beginning, just go the 

Ippity blog 

to find the list of participants!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that your bucket is overflowing with wonderful friends like I have in Eva!  Have a great day!