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!

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!

Happy Spring!

Hi Everyone!  

Did you know that today is the first day of Spring?  

I wish I could believe it from a weather standpoint here in FL! I hope that this may finally mean that warm weather and flowers and green grass will be coming our way soon!

Fitting for the First Day of Spring, Joanne Basile, one of the Dirty Dozen Alumni has challenged all past and present Dirty Girls to make a card with spring in mind!  We were to use either Birds or Bees on our cards, and we were restricted from using a border punch!!  What?  No border punch!!  That's horrible!!  LOL!!  But somehow I managed...

 

 I knew immediately that I wanted to use this momma bird feeding her baby birdies image from Unity's Spring Unity set.  I just think it is so adorable.  Plus, it was created by my good buddie Heather Rolin who designs many stamp sets for Unity and Ippity and is also the Guest Designer for Ippity stamps for the Winter Release term.  The cloud and sentiment are from the Sweet Thoughts of Spring Ippity stamp set

The colors from this sweet Bo Bunny paper that I bought while on my excursion with my Stamp TV Buddies were perfect to fit the bill for this springy card.  I just love the oranges, blues and browns in this set!  I cut away one of the floral branches and attached it to the image panel so it looked like the bird and its' nest was resting on it.  The images of the birds were colored with Copics, and the bird nest was paper pieced.  For a final touch I also machine stitched the base layers.

If you want to see what some of the other DD Alumni did with this challenge, just click on the link below and go to the SCS Gallery.  The keyword for this challenge was DCBB310.

Birds and Bees Dirty Girl Challenge Gallery 

Changing gears really quickly, I wanted to make you aware of a wonderful charity event going on involving Stamping and Whimsie Doodles stamps...

Join Whimsie Doodles and Paper Craft Planet for the 

'Paws I Care' challenge

Saturday, March 20th through Saturday, March 27th, 2010.

To play along you must create a card using this sketch:

The card must contain an animal, any animal from any company.

If you don’t have any pet images Whimsie Doodles has a brand new digi set called “Paws I Care”. 

All proceeds from the sale of this set will go directly to a local SPCA, and it is absolutely adorable!

Upload your card to the PCP gallery {HERE} using the tag sk032010, for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate from Whimsie Doodles Stamps.  A winner will be chosen next Saturday, March. 27.

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a sample of my card using the adorable stamps and the sketch above!! I really appreciate Melyssa making this event as rescuing animals is near and dear to my heart!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with Sweet Thoughts of Spring and fur babies too!!

A Cause and a Challenge!

Yesterday I was fortunate to NOT get called in to work so it gave me a lot of time in my scraproom.  I started by putting all my leftover supplies away that I had used recently.  Then, with a cleared desk there was nothing else to do but make it dirty again!!  LOL!

While blurfing around yesterday I ran across Lori Craig's post HERE, who referenced Taylor VanBruggen's post HERE about this card drive that is going on for a wonderful cause that is close to my heart.  Many of you know that I work with babies!  Well my official title is a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.  What that means is that I am an advanced practice nurse who takes care of sick babies.  I know all too well about the struggles of parents as they deal with the loss of a baby.  Thankfully I don't work in the NICU right now, so I don't see as many losses as I used to, but you never forget the grief of a parent once you have seen it.

So when I heard that they were having a Dragonfly Card Drive to collect cards to give to bereaved parents who have suffered a loss of a pregnancy or a baby, I knew that I wanted to help out!  

I made three "girl" cards yesterday and will work on some "boy" ones today!  The cards are supposed to have a Dragonfly on them because that is their symbol of hope for the parents who have suffered a loss.

I took the opportunity to continue using more SCS sketches as I continue on in my journey to use ALL the sketches from the Master List at SCS!  I really love sketch challenges and it is great to have a card idea already laid out so all I have to do is play around with the elements!  :-)

I made two of the same card that came from Sketch number SC11...

Here are the cards following that sketch...

The Dragonflies are from a border stamp by Katie & Co.  The Sentiment and Footprints stamp are from PaperTrey Ink's With Sympathy: Loss of Child set.  The DP is from MM and is actually scraps from a previous project that I thought looked sweet and soft for a baby.  The border punch is called Loops from MS.

To make the footprints become the soft pink like that, I stamped them with my Versamark watermark  ink and then rubbed pink Inkadinkadoo chalk over the top of it.  It allows the image to be colored in a soft pastel, but still lets the words read through beautifully.  I also chalked the edges of the sentiment panel.

The next card I made uses SC06...

I designed this card so that the tag could be removed to show the baby's information on the back.  The Dragonfly and flower silhouettes are from Unity's May09 KOM.

This sentiment is from the same PTI set called With Sympathy: Loss of Child.  One confession I have to make is that the subtle stamping of the words and the silhouettes below the sentiment is NOT intentional.  I had the whole card done when I finally stamped the sentiment on this layer and of course I DROPPED my inky stamp right onto my project and it bounced twice.  It left a subtle stamping of the sentiment.  I wanted to cry because that was the last of the striped DP and it was otherwise ruined.  So instead of tossing the whole thing, I decided to [try and] make it looks like it was on PURPOSE!!  And above is the result of the finished product.  While not perfect, I think I was able to salvage it!

This is what the front of the tag looks like in full view showing off the two gorgeous Unity stamps!

And on the back of the tag I used this Amuse Baby Announcement tag so the parents could fill out the information about their baby and keep this tag as a keepsake and reminder.  Having been with many parents after a loss, I know that they truly enjoy the mementos they can have of their babies.  Where I work we always provide a picture (if they want one) of their baby all wrapped up and "resting" peacefully.  After many years in the field, it doesn't get easier and I end up crying right along with the saddened parents and family members.

I hope that many of you will be inspired to participate in this card drive.  If you are interested, please check out Taylor's post about it HERE.

Now how about a quick attempt at comicsl relief after the deep topic we discussed above?

On the 20th of each month the Dirty Dozen Girls and DD Alumni are challenged to make a card.  This month our hostess was none other than Jeanne Streiff  who gave us a challenge called Funny Thing is... We were to make a card using our sense of humor and we were restricted from using any sparkles, glitter or the like!

Again I used a SCS sketch!  This time SC23...

And here is my funny card...

The funny thing is really all contained within the sentiment that comes from this SU set called Sassy Suzie.  I am in love with the red and yellow color combos that I keep seeing around the galleries and so I decided to do a card using those colors predominantly.  This K & Co. paper was just the perfect find.  I colored in my image using Copics.  And added a dollar spot ribbon that I found at Target.  The brads come from BG.

Can you read the sentiment from this closeup?  It's a real hoot!!  (Notice I didn't say Hooters!! LOL!!)  The inside of the card says Happy Birthday!! It was a fun challenge that was relaxing to work on because I got to color!!  :-)

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to get you guys all caught up with my creations.  I hope to work on the boy Dragonfly cards today!

Have a great weekend and may your bucket be overflowing with family time and fun while making happy memories to scrapbook later!