Hippity Hop and Homework!!

Hello there!!  

I hope you had a great weekend!!  I had one that kept me busy, but busy is good!!  

It's Monday which means that it is time for another Hippity Hop! 

Be sure to stop by the Ippity blog 

to hear more about today's Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC39 

and to get the list of today's blog participants for our Hop!

For some of you, it may still be summertime and your kids are not Back to School yet, but for the kids in my area, summer is over and school is back in session!  (And did I mention how happy I am about that?  LOL!)

For today's Hippity  Hop Theme, 

I am challenging all you Ippity fans to create a project using Ippity stamps

in a Back to School Theme!! 

(Check it out!  There is a prize awarded each week to the winner!!) 

Have you heard of a Rebus before?  I made a Rebus for my project today.  According to Wikipedia, a rebus is a kind of word puzzle that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words.

Can you make out the rebus that I used below?

(My kid's couldn't guess it without some guidance!!) So, I hope you can!!

It's HOMEWORK!!!

In my rebus, I used a picture of a HOME, and paired it with the word WORK, 

to create the word HOMEWORK when you put it all together!!

And here is my finished project!  I decorated a notebook to be used to keep track of daily homework assignments.  I used one of the houses in the House a Home Ippity stamp set and the cross-stitch faux stitching from Quotes a la Happy to make this little notepad!

The dotted paper is from Jenni Bowlin and all the words you see were taken directly from the school themed DP I had from Bo Bunny.  The black gingham was originally black and white, but I colored the white portion with my Copics marker E43 to make it match the Kraft coloring of the notebook base.  The house was also colored using my Copics.

Believe it or not, but this is how the notebook started out before I transformed it into my project for today. I purchased this from the Dollar Bin at Michael's.  I love how it has a little holder to carry the pen!!  

The best news of all is that when I borrowed my 16 year old son's Algebra book to take the picture of this project, and he saw what I created, he actually asked me if he could have the Homework Notebook.  I was so happy!  Not only because he was actually willing to take something that I made for him to school, but also because he actually wants to keep track of his homework!!  LOL!!  I am one proud momma right now!!  :-)  

If you are in the market for some new Ippity, please visit the Ippity blog to find an Ippity Chick near you that you can purchase your stamp sets from !!

B e sure to head over to the Ippity blog and follow the list of all the blogs participating in today's Hop.  There is sure to be a lot of wonderful Ippity inspiration when you do!!

Have a wonderful Monday and a great week as well!!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Spook for You!

H appy Friday everyone!!

If you have already stopped by the Ippity Blog this morning, you may have seen the card that I am sharing with you today from my Fresh Idea Friday post.  But here on my blog I am going to give you some extra details on how I made that cute jack-o-lantern from the plain pumpkin in Ippity's That's Creepy stamp set.

As you can see from the kit image above, the face of the pumpkin is plain and just has the cute swirled embellishments coming off the sides.  But I decided to turn that pumpkin into this jack-o-lantern...

You might be surprised at how I created some of the details!

• First I stamped the image onto orange cardstock and cut around just the pumpkin, very close to the lines so that I could place it inside the pumpkin that I also stamped onto the front of the card.  

• Then to add dimension to the pumpkin and give it ridges, I used an embossing tool and drew three curved lines from the top to the bottom of the pumpkin.  I dry embossed the top of the pumpkin so that it would make the curves round out and the lines be the valley.  KWIM?

• Next, to add further depth and dimension I colored with my Copics orange marker YR04 right over the embossed lines.  (I chose that color because it closely matched the color of my cardstock.)  And then in a wider pattern than with the orange color I added Cool Gray C00 also to each embossed line and also to the perimeter of the pumpkin.  This provides the shadowing necessary to make it look more realistic.

• Next I decorated the face of the pumpkin.  Any guesses on how I stamped the triangles for the eyes and nose??  Why I used the tip of the witch's hat of course!!  Using a stamp a majig, I determined where I wanted the eyes and nose to be and then stuck a post-it note down to prevent any more than the top tip of the hat to be stamped!

• And then for the mouth... I am most proud of this discovery!  Believe it or not, but the mouth is cut out from part of the spider web border punch by Martha Stewart!!  YES!!!  It really is!!  LOL!! I love that!!  Take a  peek at the pictures below to help see how and where I cut it from ...

Here is what the spider web border punch looks like after punching.  The orange one is three consecutive punches (trimmed) and the black one is one punch.  To make the mouth you only need one punch, but I want to show you where I cut it out from by using both of these colors shown.

This shot shows you where I had to cut away to leave the part of the spider web that can become the mouth of the Jack-O-Lantern!  Isn't that fun??

• Finally for the crowning glory, I embossed the witch's hat with black embossing powder onto cream cardstock.  Then after cutting it out I added it to the top of my now Jack-O-Lantern!  And we are ready for Trick or Treating!!  :-)

Here is my finished sample...

Final Details:  Using the stamp-a-majig, I stamped the pumpkin with swirls onto both the card base and the Bingo Card (Jenni Bowlin) using black ink and then applied orange Stickles right over the black to give a little colorful shimmer!  I finished it off by adding the spider web border in black to the bottom of the card and adding the Halloween trim (source unsure of) and the orange pom poms (Joann's) on top of that.  I also stamped the word October from the journaling stamp and made a tab to add to the upper right corner!

It might also be hard to believe that the dotted yellow paper (Pebbles) is the same paper that was in yesterday's card HERE.  What a difference a different color palette can make on the same paper huh?

I know you are going to NEED this adorable That's Creepy stamp set designed by Lisa Hetrick, so be sure to find an Ippity Chick near you and get yours order right away so you will have plenty of time to make a batch of Halloween cards for yourself!!

Have a great weekend that is anything but Creepy!!  Enjoy your day!!

You Deserve the Best!

Today is one of my favorite days of the week!! 

It's Thursday which is the day we get to Hip Hop!!

Join the Unity and Ippity DT girls as we share with you some projects using the best stamps out there!!

Start the Hop from the beginning at the Unity Blog!!

If you are coming here from Karen Maldonado's blog then you are doing great!!

You Deserve the Best!!

In all avenues of your life that statement is true!  But when talking about stamps, I am here to tell you that if you are using Unity or Ippity stamps to create with then you have the best stamps available!  Unity stamps are high quality, deeply etched red rubber stamps that come pre-mounted on cling foam and also precut.  They have the best stamp designers that provide us with such cute and trendy stamps with each release!

You deserve the best, so if you haven't already tried these stamps then I hope that you will give them a try!!  If you are looking for a place to buy Ippity stamps from, simply find an Ippity Chick near you using the locator link below and place your order.

To buy Unity stamps, you can purchase them from the Unity website, or to get the ones only offered through retailers, click HERE!!

We have a new sketch for you this week from this week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge that you can find on the Challenge Forum at SCS.  We are up to HHSC22 which is based off a sketch made by Christi.  Who by the way has suffered a pull in her back leaving her a bit limited this week, so please say a prayer for her!

For my card I flipped the sketch to a landscape orientation and had some fun with this adorable paper from the Pebbles May Bouquet collection.  I just love the bright and spring like colors in this set!

The Ippity stamps sets I used are:

 

I started by stamping Book It as my background onto white cardstock using Bordering Blue SU ink.  The I added some of the flowers from You Deserve on top of that using SU's Summer Sun.  The sentiment was stamped in Brocade Blue by SU.

For the accent flowers that I used as my embellishments, I stamped the flowers onto the dotted Pebbles patter with embossing ink and then applied detail white embossing powder to it.  I cut them out and popped them up with pop dots and added a some beads for the centers!  A MS border punch and some machine stitching provided the final touches for my creation.

I love how this card came out!!  It is a recent favorite of mine!!  Don't you love it when you really love how your cards turn out!!  That's always a bonus!!  :-)

For your next stop on the Hop, 

click on the icon below to visit Lisa Arana's blog!  

Have a wonderful day!!

Painting the Town Blue???

Welcome to today's Ippity Hippity Hop!!

Did you guys have a great weekend?  I had a pretty quiet one, and am starting to think it might be time to see what all is out there in the rest of the world!!  Maybe it's time to think about joining the dating world again!  We will have to see about that!  It scares me and excites me at the same time!!  I will keep you posted.  So far, no one is banging down the doors to ask me out though!  LOL!!

On a really positive note, this morning was the first training session to get back into doing Triathlons.  Some of you may know that two years ago I started training for my first one and then on my 45th birthday I completed my second one.  

I fell off the training wagon after that and have decided it is past time to get back into it!  So... wish me luck as I pursue this goal of mine again.  One of the things on my Bucket List is to compete in an Olympic Distance Triathlon.  For those that don't know what that is, it is combining swimming, biking and running into one race.  It starts with a 1.5 km swim (.93 mile), then has a 40 km ride (24.8 miles), and finishes with a 10 km (6.2 mile) run.  My first part of reaching this goal will be to compete in a much smaller race in October.  Then we will see how I progress from there!!

OK... enough about me!!  I guess I am a bit chatty today!! LOL!!

But now it's Hippity Hop Time!!

So you know the drill right??  The Ippity DT and many Ippity chicks and fans have prepared some fun and creative stuff for you to enjoy today. To see it all, it is best if you head to the Ippity Blog to find a list of all the participants' blogs!!  Then one by one visit their blogs and please leave some love if you have some time to do so!!

Our new Ippity Hippity Hop Challenge (IHHC38) for today is given to us by Karen Maldonado.  She has asked us to use paint on our projects!!

I was in the mood for some bright and funky colors so I found this fun paper from We R Memory Keepers that I paired with the cute felt flower from American Crafts and my Ippity stamps.  The sentiment is from the Spring Release set called Quotes a la Happy.  And I also used the Dots for Sure stamp to create the background for my flower.

Need some Ippity... Need an Ippity Chick?  

Click below to find one!

It might be hard to tell, but I used paint to stamp the dots background. There are a couple of options on how to do this.  One way is to use a paint brush and dab paint onto your stamp then stamp it like you normally would.  But what I did was spread a thick-ish layer of paint on a piece of scrap cardstock and then used that paper as my "stamp pad."  I pressed my stamp onto the wet paint very firmly and moved quickly since the acrylic paint dries super fast.  Then I just stamped the dots onto the piece of paper I was using.  You can see that sometimes the coverage is not as clean as when you use ink, but I think it makes for a fun and funky effect when you want it to be that way.  Your stamped images might also appear distressed when you stamp with paint.  

We hope you will give it a try.  And if you do, be sure to upload your projects into the SCS Gallery using the keywords Ippity, Unity and IHHC38 so we can find them!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will see you out in blog land!!  TTFN!!

So This is Love

It's Thursday again which means it is time for another Hip Hop including the DT members from both the Unity and Ippity Design Teams.

But today is extra special because we have a very special Guest participating with us today.

We would like to welcome 

Lynn Miller 

as our Guest to the Hip Hop today!

Lynn was the lucky winner of our New Release Challenge to be 

Guest Designer for the Day 

when her card (HERE) was chosen as the winner. 

To see all the great creations from all of today's participants, please start at the Unity blog and then make your way through the hop by clicking on the next blog icons.  You will end up at the Ippity blog!!

The card I created for today incorporates this week's Ippity Hip Hop Challenge ( IHHC37) that Lisa gave us this week which was to incorporate "string" on our projects.  And it also uses this week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge sketch (HHSC21).

And here is my card using this sketch with some slight alterations...

Ippity Stamp sets used:

Dots for Sure (Background)

House a Home (Hearts banner, made by stamping two of them side by side)

So This is Love (sentiment)

Are you looking for an Ippity Chick to purchase your Ippity stamps from?

Click Here!!

Here's a little closer view of the main section.  I love these colors on this October Afternoon striped paper that I used.  The string is Martha Stewart's bakers string.

Now if anyone can tell me exactly just "what" love is, I would be very happy to find out!!!  LOL!!  No, actually I have a life full of love for my family and friends.  And I know that the special love I get to share with someone else will come to me again one day.  I just have to be patient!!  :-)

Next up on the Hop is the talented Lisa Arana!!  Enjoy seeing the rest of the Hop!! And have a great day!!

A New Release Hip Hop Makes Me Totally Happy!!

We made it!!  Are you as Totally Happy as I am today!! 

 I just want to shout with excitement!  

I love this time every three months when we get to have some new Ippity!!  

It's New Release Day for Ippity!!

Woohoo!!

The day has finally come to get to show off all the wonderful new stamps that 

are being released in the Ippity Stamps Summer 2010 Collection!

There are nine new sets and three new singles, a new paper pack and new Hybrid ink color.  

If you follow along on the Hop that starts at the Unity blog, and go through all the Ippity and then Unity DT girls' blogs, you will be taken to the Ippity Blog at the end where you will get to see all the sets and hear all the details about today's releases.  And starting NOW, you can purchase them and get them on their way to you!

We are celebrating the New Release Hip Hop by chatting it up on the Unity forum from 

10am - 1pm and from 5pm - 8pm CST.  

So please join us there for lots of fun and prize give aways!!

There are three New Release Challenges to play along with that need to be completed by tonight.  

For full details, please visit the Ippity forum at SCS!

INRC1SUM10- Rainbow color challenge

INRC2SUM10- Shaped card challenge

INRC3SUM10- Photo Inspiration challenge

And as always, we have our weekly Hippity Hop Challenge IHHC36 called Dog Days of Summer!
But for this week there is a special prize.  One lucky participant in this challenge will win the chance to be our Guest Designer for a week for next week's Hip Hop on August 19th and will also receive an engraved Ippity Handle.  You have until Sunday to complete this challenge.

Also check the Ippity Forum at SCS for the list of winners from each blogs comments this week!  We are giving away one of each of the newly released stamps!!

So, on to my card that makes me so Totally Happy!!

I am using stamps from the Quotes A La Happy and Totally Happy sets and I also made this for Maria's Rainbow challenge INRC1SUM10, and Lisa's Dog Days of Summer Challenge!

The stamps used to create this card are the cross-stitch border that I stamped in the red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple colors to match the rainbow.  I used SU inks.  And I also stamped the sun (to make it summery for Lisa's challenge) and then added the sentiment from Totally Happy

The chipboard dots came from a chipboard sticker set from Bo Bunny's Sun Kissed line.  I am not sure what they are supposed to represent, but I liked the funkiness they brought to the card!! And I finished it off with a perfect black and white gingham ribbon.  (Yesterday I was channeling Eryn and today with the gingham I am channeling Maria!!  ;-)

Have you got an Ippity Chick to buy your new stamps from?

To see more creations from the Ippity DT using the new releases, your next stop on the Hop is Lisa A.

Have a great Hop and we will see you on the forums a little later today!!  Have fun and thanks for visiting and leaving such sweet comments on my blog this week!!  I wish you all luck in winning the free stamp sets or challenge contests!! :-)

Ippity Summer 2010 Release- Sneak Peek Day 4

It's Day 4 of the Ippity Sneak Peeks!!

And I don't want them to stop, but then we couldn't move on to our New Releases, so I guess it is OK if we keep progressing!!

So have you been following along for all the sneaks so far?  Are you leaving comments on all the DT members' blogs?  If so, you will have a chance to win one of the newly released sets each day of the Sneak peeks!!  Good luck!! We will announce the winners from the random DT blogs on Thursday!!  We will close the comments at 8pm CST on today!!

Have you picked your favorite stamp sets yet?  Well, be thinking about it and make contact with an Ippity Chick who can sell these stamps to you starting on Thursday!

Need to find a chick near you?  Just click below!

Please start our Hop over at the Ippity blog 

and follow along the Hop by clicking on the 

Next Blog Icon's on each of the DT members' blogs!

My card for you today is from the Sneak Peek set today called 

Bitty Pixie Paisley. 

This is a great set that you will find many uses for.  And I didnt' even use the actual paisley stamps that come with it!!  Wait til you see the whole set! You will love it!!

I think I was channeling with Eryn when I created this card because I used her favorite color combination of yellow and turquoise.  I was inspired by the DP from October Afternoon and fashioned my card after those sweet little flowers.  I colored the flower strip from the Bitty Pixie Paisley stamp set with my Copic markers.

That sweet sentiment also comes with the Bitty Pixie Paisley set and will be perfect for many cards!!  I love the fonts used in this one!!  I finished the card off with a little machine stitching and also a big bunch of flowers from Prima and Making Memories!  Then I added just a touch of bling to flower centers to add the right amount of punch to the card!!

If you aren't arriving at my blog from Karen Maldanado's blog, 

then please head to the Ippity blog to start at the beginning of the Hop.

And if you are following along the Hop, then your next stop is Lisa Arana's blog!!  I just love getting to see all the creations my fellow DT members make, because they so inspire me each and every day!!

Please mark your calendars and join us for our big New Release Day Party tomorrow!

S ee you tomorrow!! Be there or be square!!  LOL!!

Ippity Summer 2010 Release- Sneak Peek Day 3

Yay!! 

It's Day 3 of our Ippity Sneak Peeks!!

Are you leaving comments on all the DT members' blogs everyday  for a chance to win some stamps?

Have you chosen your favorite sets so far?

Got an Ippity Chick picked out to buy your stamps from?

Only two more days and these new 

Ippity stamps are available for purchase!! 

 Woot Woot!!

But first, the whole Ippity DT has some more Sneaks to show you!

The card I have made for today showcases two of the sets/singles being shown today!

The first one is a fabulous Halloween set called That's Creepy.  The second one is a single (with a great lower price point!) called Dots for Sure.  I know that the dots are going to get a lot of use in my stamp room!

I am not sure why but I really love to make Halloween cards, so when I saw the That's Creepy set, I knew I wanted to show it off.  I chose to keep this one Clean and Simple.  The argyle paper is from Lil Yellow Bicycle.  I stamped the pumpkin image twice and cut one of them out, ran it through the argyle embossing folder and raised it up above the base pumpkin.  The sentiment was stamped on white and then cut out with a circle punch.  I used the Dots for Sure stamp to create the upper and lower borders around the argyle print.

So what do you think?  Are you liking what you have been seeing so far?

Well be sure to come back tomorrow for another day of sneaks, 

then on Thursday, it is New Release Party Time!

So please start the Hop at the Ippity Blog to see more of the sneaks and then follow along the Hop to visit each of the DT members' blogs.  If you started at the beginning, you should have come to me by way of Karen's blog.  But next on the Hop is miss Lisa Arana's blog!!  Get ready for some more inspiration!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with lots of inspiration!