Hippity Hop- A CAS card for a soldier!

It's a Hippity Hopping Memorial Day kind of Monday!!

Here in America we get to enjoy the festivities associated with Memorial Day.  It is like the official beginning of Summer and families and friends usually get together for picnics, boating and just having fun! But through all of these parties and celebrations, I hope that we remember the real meaning of Memorial Day.

It is a day to honor the fallen heroes who have lost their lives while serving in the American Armed Forces.  They are the real reason that we have the freedom and liberty to enjoy what we do as Americans. So let's remember and be thankful!!

The card that I have for you today serves two challenges!!

The first one is my LAST CAS DT assignment for my term!! I can't believe it has been three months already!! Boy has time just flown right by.  But Jen asked us to make a card to honor a HERO (CAS69)!  I can't think of anyone I consider a HERO more than the members of our branched services!!

The second challenge fits right in with the first one.  It is today's Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC26 which is called Operation Write Home.  I am today's hostess and have challenged you to make a card (or cards) for service men and women currently serving our country oversees who need handmade cards to send back to family and friends.  We are asking that you mail them in to Unity Stamp Company so that we can send them one big care package of cards all at once and show them that Unity/Ippity Stamp fans are also fans of our Military personnel!!

The Ippity stamps you see used here are the A Bit of Burlap from the new Spring 2010 collection and the sentiment is from Just Wanted to Say!  The card is clean and simple and plays on the stars and circles from the DP by Fancy Pants.  I did a little cutting out and popping up and added a few accents to give it some spunk.  I think a soldier will appreciate getting this for me and I will include a note of thanks and gratitude inside telling him/her how much I appreciate the sacrifices they make for my freedom!

To purchase any of the Ippity Stamps you see used here today, 

Click HERE

to find an Ippity Chick near you!

You can read all about the Challenge on the 

Ippity Blog 

and also have the list of all of today's 

Hippity Hop participants!!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!  And may your bucket overflow with thankfulness for the brave men and women who are defending our freedom everyday.  We must always remember!!

Blog Candy Winner and Life's a Beach!

Happy Sunday everyone!!

I hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend!! The kids and I have been busy rearranging furniture and swapping out bedrooms.  We are working on turning the old office into my son's room and then my son's room into a spare bedroom!


My daughter Leah will be home for almost a month in July before she starts Vet School and this will be her space!!  And a bonus for me is that I will use my current Bedspread in the new spare room which means I get to get a new one!!  Score!!  I think the change is good for all of us involved!!  :-)


So amidst all this housework, I never got back to my blog yesterday to post my winner for this week's Growing in Unity Blog Candy winner!!  Thank  you so much to all of you who took the time to leave me some  love this week!! I wish I could send something to all of you!!  You don't know how much you all mean to me each day!!  I truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

Congratulations Cathy!!

You just won all these  yummy goodies for leaving this comment here...

The mail is not going out on Monday, but if you email me your snail mail address I will get your package out to you on Tuesday!! Thank you so much for being such a faithful follower of my blog!  I am so happy that you won!!  My email addy is sownsew25@verizon.net

Really quickly I wanted to share with you my last week's CAS challenge card from Monday's challenge (CAS68).  The theme was summer.  And I had fun with this one!!  I mean really... Florida means SUMMER!!  :-)

The DP is Bo Bunny!!  I free hand drew the waves but was able to mimic some of the curves on the DP to make it happen!

The flip flop border is from a stamp I got at Michael's by Katie and Co. They are so cute!! I stamped them first on white CS then colored them with my Copics and then paper pieced them onto the yellow strip.

I created the sun by making a negative mask with a circle punch and sprayed Copics in yellow and orange using my air brush system.  The sentiment is from Seaside Stampin Ink.

The new DT call for the next CAS DT at SCS is underway.  Tomorrow's challenge card will be last submission for that DT.  It has been so fun for me to be on the team and I really thank Jen for allowing me the opportunity!  It was fun challenging myself in styles that don't come as naturally to me!!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!!  

I will be back tomorrow as the host for our next Hippity Hop!! 

Are you signed up to particpate yet?  

You can do so by visiting the Ippity forum HERE!!

Growing In Unity... 100% Happy

Welcome back to my blog for my final day of 

Growing in Unity 

and this week's 

Friends With Flair post!

I have been so happy to play with my Unity stamps more than usual this week and I strongly encourage you to sign up in the Unity Friends Forum at SCS for a turn at Growing in Unity!!  It is a lot of fun!  I can't thank you all enough for all the love you have shared with me this week!!  You guys are awesome!!

To start at the beginning of the FWF Blog Hop be sure to start at the beginning ... you will find the complete list of blogs to hop on the Unity blog.  And don't forget to look for the FWF blinkie for a chance to win some free stamps!  

I decided to make another scrapbook layout for my final post this week!

I had some pictures of my daughter and my great niece that were taken recently and were just begging to be scrapped.  Since there were strawberries on my great nieces bathing suit, I knew immediately what papers and stamps to use!!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Unity: 100% Happiness Stampin' Store Kit August 2009, Distressed Dots
DP: My Mind's Eye: Quite Contrary
Stickers: October Afternoon
Border Punch: Martha Stewart
Ink: Memento Black, Copic Markers
Brads: Basic Grey

I colored the strawberries and frame stamp with Copic markers and then stamped the 100% Happy stamp with Ruby Red ink from SU. To border the picture of my niece, I stamped the Distressed Dots Unity stamp underneath the picture on the left upper corner.

The journaling says...

Tiffany and her second cousin Ava Marie spend some time together bonding at a family gathering.  They are so "berry" cute together!

Looking at that sweet baby face makes me 100% Happy... that's for sure!!

Now, to make you 100% Happy, how about some BLOG CANDY??

Tomorrow I will draw one lucky winner to receive the BLOG CANDY below.  To qualify to win, leave a comment on all of my blog posts for my week of Growing in Unity and you can have up to five chances to win the BLOG CANDY!!  

Good Luck!!

Thank you so much for all your loving support and encouragement  this week. It means so much to me to have so many crafting people that I can truly call my freinds!!  Have a wonderful weekend and may your bucket overflow with tons of Unity inspiration for the coming week!!

For more  blogs to hop to, visit the 

Unity Blog!!

Growing In Unity... Hip Hop Style!

Happy Hip Hop!!

And welcome back Day 4 of Growing in Unity with me!!

To start the Hop at the beginning and see lots of eye candy from the Unity and Ippity DT girls, then please visit the Unity blog to get started. And if you are already in the middle of the Hop and coming to me by way of Karen's blog then you are on the right track!!

My inspiration for today's card came from looking through my paper pack from Pink Paislee's Bayberry Cottage collection.  I just love the graphic prints and bold colors of this collection and decided to go with a color blocking type design on my card using the lime green and black prints contained in the collection.  And by adding a couple graphics of my own using Ippity stamps!

I used the Happy Birthday stamp from the Life's Little Moments set.  And also I added stamps to the last two strips on the card!

Two rhinestones added the perfect touch to the card sentiment.  And I topped it off with a black and white checkered ribbon with a rhinestone center.  (Do you like that Maria??)  :-)

The green panel has the flower strip from the A Moment in Time set.  I added some rhinestones to each of the flower centers.  The bottom strip uses the houndstooth rectangle stamped side by side three times.  It is also from the A Moment in Time set!

Need to get some of these Ippity stamps?  Be sure to click on the Ippity Chick Locator button from the Ippity blog to find a retailer near you!

This maybe isn't my normal style, but I love the clean lines and graphic elements of this card!!  

So have you been leaving a comment on all my blog posts for this week?  Remember, there is BLOG CANDY to be given away on Saturday.  For every comment you leave (one per day please) for my Growing In Unity posts, you will be given a chance to win the candy!

Want to see what you could win??

One lucky winner will receive everything pictured above!  The BLOG CANDY contains...

Fishy Philosophy by Ippity

Regal Greetings by Ippity

Just Wanted to Say by Ippity

Christmas Bough by Unity

Card Creations Volume 8 (contains the first card I ever had published!)  :-)

Crate Paper Paper Dolls sample pack (from CHA Winter)

Just Rite Stampers oval wood block

3 Basic Grey 6 x 6 paper packs (Sugar Rush, Origins, Nook and Pantry

Sugar Rush Glazed Brads

One Winter and one Fall Ippity 12 x 12 paper packs

Leave a comment each day this week to increase your chances of winning!!

Now to continue on the hop, head on over to Lisa Arana's blog!

Growing in Unity...Life is Full of Beauty!

Well if you are still coming back to follow me this week for my time for Growing in Unity then I thank you!!  I have had such a great time inking up some of my otherwise neglected Unity stamps.  As things settle down in life just a bit more I am hoping to get back to the daily challenges I used to do and also to playing more regularly with my Unity (and Ippity) stamps!!


My card for today was made for two challenges going on at SCS!!  The first one was yesterday's Color Challenge (CC272) given by Betty Wright.  We were to use Bermuda Bay, Real Red and Kraft for our creations.


The second challenge is from this week's Unity Addicts Challenge which has recently been reactivated for us to play along with.  Maria has been so wonderful in keeping these coming and I hope that you will play along with us!!  This week's challenge (UAC2) is to incorporate STAPLES on our projects!!


And here's my card...

I love how this came out!!  The red and blue with the Kraft looks great!!  I love the way everything pops off the Kraft!!  The Unity stamps used here are from the Moments in Bloom and Naturally You May Stampin Store Kit!  I LOVE this kit.  But remember that they are only available from a Retail store so you can CLICK HERE to find a store near you, or an online store!

 I used SU inks to stamp with... Real Red, Taken with Teal and Blue Bayou.  The DP is from Kaiser Kraft.  It worked for the color challenge because I don't have Bermuda Bay and it was a nearly perfect match.  

Did you see the amazing crinkle ribbon I have on my card?  My fabulous friend and Ippity partner in crime, Eva,  sent me a sweet care package that contained a sampling of the crinkle ribbon she recently made!  They are amazing. Love you Eva!! Thank you sooooo much!! Check out her blog post HERE about how she made it!!

For the Unity Addicts Challenge I used some red staples that I had in my stash.  I thought they added a nice element to the card!  If you can notice the slight shimmer on the red flower... it's because I added some Sakura Gelly Roll pen to the outer edges of the stamped image!  It adds a nice sparkle!!

No matter what is going on in your life, be sure to take the time to notice all the beauty around you. It is everpresent and presents itself in so many ways!  The gorgeous flowers, the beautiful sunsets, the adorable children of yours... remember that life is full of beauty!!  Enjoy it and rejoice!!

Growing in Unity... Life is Sweeter!

Wow!! I can't tell you how much I appreciated the outpouring of love, concern and support that I received from you all after I shared my personal story with you yesterday!!  "Thank you" seems too small of a thing to say to match the happiness that you have given me.  Despite the fact that I haven't met many of you... I still consider you my friend and I really appreciate your support and  friendship!

Everyday this week I am Growing in Unity!! 

I absolutely adore Unity, their stamps and the people that work there!  Having had the opportunity to meet many of the key players from that Company, I am here to tell you that they really ROCK!!!  Not only do they produce the best and most trendy stamps out there... they also CARE so much for each and every one of you!!  Angela is a dream!  And she is one of the most inspiring women I have ever met!!  It is such a pleasure for me to be involved with such a fantastic company.  I am so blessed to have been asked to be one of the DT members for Ippity.  And I am super excited to have a good reason to play more with my Unity stamps this week!!  ;-)

So today's card is dedicated to all of you who so lovingly commented on my blog post from yesterday!  Remember that for each comment you leave this week, you will have another chance at winning my blog candy on Saturday!!  I will try and take a picture of the blog candy by tomorrow's post!!  :-)

My life is definitely sweeter... and the inside says with a friend like you!

My card was inspired by Saturday's Inspiration challenge (IC233) at SCS.  Steph sent us to the most incredible and inspiring site called Amy Atlas Events.  My inspiration came from page 11 from her site.  But there are many more inspiring photos throughout her site!

I used October Afternoon papers for my card and tried to recreate the feel of an old fashioned candy store.  I love those banner stickers that come with the OA set.  I used Copic markers to color the candy shelf image which is from the August 2008 Unity KOM!    The sentiment is from the March 2010 KOM.  

Thanks again for coming to my blog!! I will be back again tomorrow with another Growing in Unity post!  I also invite you stop by the Ippity blog today to see a tip that I have to share with all of you!

Be sure to leave a comment for another chance to win some BLOG CANDY!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with the kind of friends that make your life sweeter!!

I Am Becoming Me!

Welcome to my blog on this Monday where you are getting two posts in one!! 

 Today I have a a combination post including 

 my Hippity Hop 

and my

 my Growing in Unity post!

I invite you back every day this week where I will be sharing some Unity (and even Ippity) creations all week long!  I hope you will come back and leave a sweet comment because there will be 

BLOG CANDY 

drawn on Saturday from people who leave comments each day!

I will show you as soon as I get it all together what the BLOG CANDY is, 

but trust me you won't be disappointed!!

So Eryn is our fabulous hostess for our Hippity Hop this week and she has challenged us for this week's HH Challenge (IHHC25) to make something Faux!  How fun is that!!  We hope that you will play along with us for this week's challenge and upload your creation using Ippity stamps and something faux to the SCS Gallery.  You can win a prize randomly just for entering. More details are on the Ippity Blog.  

For the complete list of Hippity Hop Blogs to hop on today, please visit the Ippity blog HERE!!

FAIR WARNING!

From here on down things are going to get personal, so if you prefer not to get into that than just scroll down and glance at my project and hop over to the next blog.  But if you care to learn more about what I have been hinting at lately that has been going on in my life, then read on for some insight into my life these days!

About five weeks ago I had to ask my husband of only one and a half years to move out of my home.  We have been separated since that time and will be getting a divorce in the very near future.  Without getting into the gory details of our break up, suffice it to say that my husband was making some choices that could jeopardize everything that I have worked for and it could have put us in a very bad situation financially and certainly emotionally.  I know that many of you don't believe in divorce and I like to think that I went into this marriage not expecting to get one either, but my husband changed.  He is not the same man that I met five years ago.  And ever since he lost his job he has chosen the wrong way to cope with it.  I saw warning signs shortly after we were married, and I have given him multiple chances to get himself straightened out, but for whatever reasons, he just didn't do it.

I felt that my hands were tied and that all I had left to do was to protect me and my children from the consequences of his actions.  So here I am, single again and wondering how and why these things keep happening to me!  I feel like I am a nice person and that I deserve to have a loving and giving relationship but for some reason Mr. Right keeps alluding me!  I am a fighter and I won't give up, but I do feel that a little introspection into why I keep choosing men that don't work out for me is in order!  So I plan on taking things slowly and working on myself.  

I have learned that if people in a relationship don't make each other better people, then they probably aren't right for each other.  Well, neither Tom nor I were the best we could be in our marriage. I had gotten lazy with my own body, with household things and even with my kids.  I learned that my paper crafting was an escape for me because it always brought me happiness.  Now I know that I need to work on balance and moderation.  Those are the things my obsessive compulsive behavior always struggles with!  

I have decided to step down from the Whimsie Doodles DT a little early and my term with the SCS Clean and Simple DT is almost over too.  So all I will be left with will be my Ippity DT responsibilities.  And I am super excited about being able to give all my crafting energies to Ippity and to trying to get published more.  I have had to take on more of the household responsibilities with Tom's absence, so having a little extra time to do these things is going to be much easier.  

My apologies for the past five weeks or so as you may have noticed my distance. I used to try to make comments in the Galleries, and I was much better at visiting and commenting on all the blogs for our blog hops too.  I plan to be doing that again!  It is something that I enjoy doing and don't look at as a chore or a DT responsibility, but a way to stay connected to my Ippity and Unity buddies!  I really appreciate all of you and I wouldn't have shared all of this with you if I thought you wouldn't have a supportive comment or a shoulder for me to cry on.  I am always amazed at the loving friendships you can have with people that you may never meet in person.  I truly value each and every one of you and thank you for listening to my story.  I would so appreciate your prayers and concern as me and my family push through this and find our happy ending!!  

As part of my healing process I decided to make a layout about my current circumstances...  I used both Ippity and Unity stamps to complete the page!

Supplies Used:

Ippity Stamps:  Flourish and Butterfly (Now and Always); Polka dot tab (to created dots on "button" and butterfly) (A Moment in Time); Picture Mat (A Bit of Burlap)

Unity Stamps: Sentiments and Title (Brave Girls Melody Ross collection); Large flourish (Where You Are Donna Downey collection)

Ink: Stampin' Up: Really Rust, Bordering Blue, Creamy Caramel

DP: Bo Bunny (Mama-Razzi collection)

Flowers: Bo Bunny (Mama-Razzi) 

Brads: Basic Grey

Markers: Copics

Can you guess what item on my layout is for this week's Faux challenge??  If you guessed the button that is in the center of larger flower cluster then you are right!!  I used chipboard and covered it with paper that I stamped with the polka dots and then pierced two holes in it and then covered the top of the "button" except for the holes with Glossy Accents by Ranger!

Here is a closeup of the butterfly colored with copics and the flower that I placed over one of the stamped Ippity flourishes.

The journaling reads...

At 46 and after 3 failed marriages I AM FINDING that my life has Not turned out exactly as I had expected when I was younger.  As far as motherhood, I have NO DISAPPOINTMENTS. I always dreamed of being a mother even more than I dreamed of being a wife, and I LOVE it!  I am also happy by my choice of career.  My job fulfills me and has always been a means for me to support me and my children whether I was married or not.  For these things I am so thankful. But with the recent demise of my present marriage, I am forced to address why the poor track record. What needs fixing?

I AM LEARNING  as I get older that there are small things and BIG things Things you can compromise on and things that you can't!  With each relationship my list of things I won't tolerate, and my list of things that I definitely expect, keeps getting longer and longer.  So now, I AM SEEKING to learn more about WHO I am and WHAT I need and want in a relationship to ensure success and happiness (should I ever try marriage again!)

There you have it!  Just the beginning of a lot of healing and questioning I have to do!  It will be interesting to see how everything works out and what my future holds for me!  :-)

So sorry for the lengthy post!! Don't be afraid to come back tomorrow... I promise it will be shorter!!  Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win blog candy later this week.  You can leave a new comment every day for a better chance at winning!!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with the joy of knowing you have friends that will love and support you through all the trials and troubles of life! My bucket sure overflows with that! :-)

My First Publication!!!

Well I am so happy to announce that I finally have a card that has been published in a paper crafting Magazine!  I can't say that I submit as much as I should, but I am going to be making that more of a focus for this coming year.

If you haven't gotten this issue of Card Creations 8 yet by PaperCrafts Magazine, I totally recommend it.  It is filled front to back with lots of very inspiring cards!!

Here is the card of mine that they chose to use.  It uses the adorable PEAS on Earth image from Whimsie Doodles.  You can find it on page 99 of the magazine!  It was so exciting to see my name in print!!  I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I heard too!!  

I paper pieced the word EARTH and then colored the Peas in with my Copic markers!  The DP is some DCWV that I had on hand that could easily be replaced with similar dotted or striped papers!  The ribbon is from American Crafts!

While I am sharing a WD creation with you, I guess it is a good time to mention that I have resigned a little early from the Whimsie Doodles DT. Melyssa was gracious enough to let me end my term a month or so early so I could deal with everything going on right now.  I really appreciate her understanding and can't thank her enough for being one of the first Stamp Companies to trust me and allow me to represent them!  I just love WD images and will still be using them a lot.  So just because I am not on the DT anymore, you can still be sure that you will see more WD creations on my blog and in the galleries!!

I hope the rest of your weekend is relaxing and enjoyable! I have a little more scrap room organizing to go and then I plan to mess it all up again by making some more card creations today!!  Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with health and happiness!!

Hello There!!

I feel like that is what I should be saying to all of you because I have been so out of it this week!!  Let's suffice it to say that my life is going through a process... things are getting worked out, but I am definitely not in my normal routine quite yet!!  My life is going through an adjustment right now and it will all be good in the end, but nonetheless it has left me a little out of sorts lately.  

For those of you who keep coming by to see if I have anything new, you won't be disappointed this week because I am the Growing in Unity girl all week this week starting on Monday!  I will finally be sharing with you all some of what I am going through.  So I hope to see you on Monday!!

I was supposed to share this card with you guys yesterday for my Friends with Flair post and I even had it done on time but then the power cord on my router broke on Thursday night and I had to get it replaced.  So I was without internet for a whole day and could hardly stand it!  I felt so out of the loop and disconnected!!  Ugh!!

It was time for the Dirty Dozen Alumni Challenge (DCB510, click HERE to see the other DG's cards) this month.  And Bev Rousch decided to go opposite of the challenge I gave last month which was to use NO buttons on our cards.  So her challenge is called Cute as a Button and she wanted us to use as many buttons as we could (she used 29!) and we were restricted from using BLACK!!  Yikes!!!  These DG's really know how to make a challenge!!  LOL!!

I also needed to make my card for Maria's inspiration challenge (IHHC24) from Monday's Hippity Hop.  So I decided to incorporate the two together.  Above is the photo that Maria inspired us with!  I thought that the Paper Doll Collection from Crate Paper had all the right colors to match the photo that I went with that line for my paper selection!

I used the Ippity caterpillar and tree stamp from the A Little Buggy set and covered each of the caterpillar's segments with buttons.  I was able to get 8 buttons in all incorporated on the card!  I paper pieced the circles on the tree.  The sentiment and clouds are from the Sweet Thoughts of Spring Ippity set.

I think it is a fun and uplifting way to say hi to an old friend or give someone a boost by letting them know you are thinking of them!  

I am heading back to my craft space where I am in the middle of a major overhaul.  I had let lots of things get out of hand and now I am trying to get everything back into their homes so I can stay more organized.  I feel out of control when my space around me gets too cluttered!!  Wish me luck! 

And I will see you on Monday for Hippity Hop and my first day of Growing in Unity!!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog... I can' t tell you how thankful I am for each and every one of you!

Anything is Possible

Happy Hip Hop!!

I love this quote!!  It is so true!!

Have you missed me?  I have been a little absent this week!!  I am in the middle of trying to get my scrap area back in order again.  I have been making one mess after another and having a hard time getting things put away from one project to another and I had a lot of new stamps that needed labeling and organizing too!  It feels good to get some order in my room again!!  I love to be organized and have some control in my life!

So it is Thursday which means that we are Hip Hopping through all the Unity and Ippity DT girls' blogs.  And today was extra special because one of our Ippity Chicks, JenMarie Taylor won the opportunity to hop along with us! Aren't her creations fabulous?  I love her and her sweet spirit and her love for Ippity too!! Thanks JenMarie for joining us today and thanks for always being so inspiring!

Our very own Maria is so talented in the sketch department and has made another sketch for us to use for this week's Hip Hop.  If you choose to use it with us, just enter the keyword HHSC08 when you upload your creation to SCS.

I have a friend who is getting ready to make some big changes in her life and she sometimes lacks the confidence to know and truly believe that she will succeed.  This card is for her to remind her that she just needs to believe in herself and everything will work out just fine! And if you must know, this is something I need to keep reminding myself too!

The sentiment is from the Delightful Little Things set by Ippity.  I masked and stamped the sentiment in two different colors to coordinate with the October Afternoon papers I used.  I also used some of the stickers and die cuts from coordinating sets of OA to add some extra elements to the card.

Do you believe that everything is possible for those that believe?  It is a promise... and we can claim it!!  I find that so encouraging and comforting!!

Have a fun time hopping around the rest of the DT blogs.  If you didn't start at the beginning of the Hop at the Unity Blog then you can head there now by clicking HERE.  If you came to me by way of Karen's blog then you are right on track!  And if so... you will now be heading to the wonderfully talented blog of Lisa Arana!

I will see you tomorrow with some Unity for my Friends with Flair Hop tomorrow!!  Have a fabulous day and may your bucket overflow with the faith to believe the promises made to us!