Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy Hip Hop!!

Sorry for posting late!! 

I hope that you started all this fun at the Unity Blog 

so you haven't missed any special creations from the rest of the Unity or Ippity DT's.  

Hopefully you are coming to me by way of Karen Maldonado's blog!!!

I challenged you guys on Monday's Hippity Hop

to make a project that helps RING in the NEW YEAR!

Today I am sharing with you what I created for me to have as I head into 2011!

(But first I am going to get a little personal.. scroll down to skip that if you choose!)

Many of you who have been following me on my blog for some time now know that I have experienced some big changes in my life during the past year.  Namely, I became separated and eventually divorced after a very short marriage.  Since that time I have been struggling to find the real purpose in my life and I've been trying to find that inner peace within myself that helps me know that everything is going to be OK and that everything happens for a reason!  By nature I am not a very patient person and so it has been very frustrating for me to not know all the answers yet!  But that is what I am going to be working on in 2011!

I wanted to tell you guys that as I work on these things I have asked Angela if  I could take a little furlough from the Ippity DT to be able to put my focuses completely on where they need to be.  I need to sort some things out and put my uneasiness to rest!  So I will be temporarily off the DT and starting Melody Ross' "Soul Restoration" class beginning January 11th.  I am looking very forward to it.  I hope you guys understand!

Keep stopping by because I should be able to share some of my creations 

from the class here on my blog and I will be back as soon as I can... I promise!!

So, on to my project to help me 

"RING in the NEW YEAR!!"

Each New Year I try to think of ways to improve myself and I was so inspired by many of the quotes that our Ippity stamp sets have.  So I thought why not turn them into a little book and have them at my side for those moments when I feel down or alone (or whatever) and I just need a little jolt of happiness!!

So here is my book of inspiring Ippity quotes 

that will help me stay in the right frame of mind in 2011!!

It's an accordion style album that I have had in my stash for some time now! I think it was the perfect medium for this project!!  I love the stark colors and kept the stamping inside to a minimum because I really only want to focus on the meaning of the quotes anyway!

See what I called it???  "Quotes a la Happy!!"  LOL!!

I know after reading through these amazing quotes it will be very easy to get happy again!!

All of them are so uplifting and encouraging!

Here is a look at some of the accordion pages that are contained within my book!

Just let me know if you need to know which set any of these quotes come from!  I will be happy to share that with you!  But don't forget you can get any one of these quotes for yourself by finding an Ippity Chick near you to buy your stamps from!!

I promise not to be a stranger, but I hope when I come back I will be at more peace with myself and able to be the best DT member I can be.  I apologize for my lack of involvement lately and appreciate all of you who have stuck by my side as I have been going through these crazy changes in my life!

Next on the Hop please stop by the wonderfully talented and oh so sweet friend of mine,

Lisa Arana!!

I love you guys and wish you the best NEW YEAR you can have!!

Hugs and best wishes!

Hip Hop Ippity Gift Idea

Happy Hip Hop!!

I've missed you guys.  I've been a little busy these days trying to keep up with all the happenings going on at work and also preparing for the upcoming Christmas celebration!  My family LOVES Christmas and we like a lot of lights and we have two trees and even a Christmas Village that we put out!  So needless to say I have been trying to get it all done and it hasn't left me much time to blog or craft!  I hope you can understand!  :-)

Next on my list is to tackle my Christmas cards and some hand made gifts to give away this year.  And that's just what I have for you today!  We all need easy gift ideas for this time of year, don't we?  Well I have one to share with you that you can literally finish making in less than 30 minutes!!  Woohoo!!!

Maybe you have a co-worker or a neighbor that you'd like to give a gift to, but you don't have  a lot of money or time to spend.  Then why don't you make something like this beautiful candle cover made from vellum and a recycled jar!

I stamped Ippity's So This is Love winter trees stamp several times onto a length of vellum that  is long enough to wrap around the jar with a bit of extra overlap.  I used vellum tape to secure the ends together.  Ippity's Hybrid ink in the Burnt umber was the perfect color to stamp with and it dried well with just a bit of my heat gun applied to it.  (Take care not to burn the vellum or make it curl!)  To make the birds red I simply colored over the images with a Copics marker before stamping!

The snow was created first by tearing a plain white sheet of typing paper and applying it to the underside of the vellum.  Then I sprayed an adhesive using a mask cut to match the snowbanks and applied white cotton flocking powder on top of that!

Here is the candle lit up with a battery operated tea light illuminating it!  It has such wonderful glow and shows off these amazing tree silhouettes so nicely!!

Why don't you try one of these! I would love to see what you come up with if you do!

Here is the Ippity stamp set used to make today's project!

Do you need to get the Ippity stamp set that you see used here? 

 Please find an Ippity chick near you by clicking on the link below and order yours today!!

Next stop on today's Hip Hop is the talented Lisa Arana!!
Have fun!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with the light and love of this Christmas Season!