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!

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!

Ippity Sneak Peek #3- Winter 2010

Well Hello and Welcome to Day3 

of the Ippity Winter Release Sneak Peeks!!

We are having so much fun providing our projects to you and we appreciate you coming back to check out all the new sets.

Head to the {ippity} blog to see the snippets for today's two sets and then be sure to visit all the DT girls' blogs to see how they used the stamps from that set!  It will surely be a treat!!

For my first project I am going to show you the inside of the CD Case that I showed you yesterday.  Remember?  It looked like this...

The inside is where I could give it a very personal touch so that my husband would know how much I love him.  I used the new set called Love in Return and even a little more Music of My Heart also to complete the job.

 On the inside left of the CD case from the Love in Return set I stamped the bottom with the distressed dots border stamp and used the 10 Things I {luv} about You stamp.  I listed some of my husband's attributes that are my favorites!  I embellished the corners by masking the ornate frame and also added the swirly heart again from the Music of My Heart set.

On the inside left of the case I continued the Distressed Dots border stamp across the bottom for continuity and added the Life is a Song sentiment from Music of My Heart.  Below you can see the tags that go in the pocket shown here.

 There are three tags that fit in the pocket of the CD case that can be taken out and held for easier reading.

 Using the musical score backgrounder from the Music of My Heart and the notepage from Unity's Le Chic Vintage Scrapper's kit, I listed the songs that are contained on his CD.  I picked some special ones that send him the message I want him to hear which is that I LOVE HIM very much!

This is a picture of us dancing at our wedding.  The Life is not Measured... sentiment was perfect for this tag!  This sentiment can be found in the Love in Return set. This is one moment in my life that  I will never forget... the whole wedding day and honeymoon too were breathtaking!

 I wrote Tom a little "story" that kind of ties the theme of the CD Case and CD together for him.  I used the stamps The Story, the flourish and The End all from the Love in Return set.  

Here is what I wrote...

Songs have been an important representation in our relationship 

since the day we chose the Broken Road as our song!

It was fun picking songs for our wedding day too.

Sometimes I may not know all the words to our songs,

or even feel like singing along.

But know that your love for me makes me 

want to sing out loud!  I love you, Kelly.

Using a CD label maker program, I was able to put the picture of the front of the CD Case onto the CD so he will always be able to remember when he got it!

I hope he likes it and doesn't think all the love songs are too sappy!!  LOL!

Are you ready to see something a little lighter??

 The next project comes from the new set called   Where You Should Be...

I created this card to give to a very special person in my life.  Someone I think is fabulous!!  I used BG papers from the Sugar Rush collection and stamped the card using the open style leaves and the You are Fabulous sentiment from Where You Should Be.

I followed another sketch for this card that I got from the Master Sketches list at SCS.  This card follows SC09 as shown below...

I am having so much fun working my way through all the sketches.  I would have to say that sketch challenges are my favorites!

Here is the closeup of the embellishment grouping I created with the leaves stamp that I paper pieced using coordinating DP from the BG Sugar Rush set.  I also stamped off  before stamping the same leaves onto the sentiment panel to give it a shadowy effect.  The buttons were in my collection and I stitched them on using cream colored embroidery floss!

 

 Here is a closeup of the darling sentiment!  I can see that being used over and over again!  Love that!  The purple photo corner is made of metal and comes from American Crafts.

And here is one last look at the whole thing!  I love how the lace trim came out after I cross-stitched some orange x's into the holes that were there!!  Super cute!! I really loved that!

Thank you so much for bearing with me through these long posts and descriptions.  Unfortunately I am very detail oriented so I hate to leave out anything that I can share with you!!  I totally understand if you just zip through and look at all the pictures!!

But please make the time to go and see what the rest of the DT members have to share with you today!  We are blessed again by having two more of the Unity DT girls joining us with their awesome creations so be sure to send them all your love when you stop by!!

Here is a list of more blogs to visit...

Eryn Hagen

Eva Dobilas

Heather Rolin (Guest)

Lisa Henke

Maria Gurnsey

Michelle Woerner

Unity Girls...

AJ Otto

Jen Erickson

Thanks so much for helping us out AJ and Jen!! We really appreciate it!  :-)

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with people in your life who are truly fabulous!

Squirrels Make me Smile!

Today is the first day that I posted a project over at the Sweet N Sassy Stamps blog. I am so excited about being their Guest Designer and I think you guys will be thrilled to see more of their stamps being shown on my blog too! If you want to take a quick peek at my first post, just visit the SNSS blog HERE! I will be posting over there on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays but I will still be posting here as well! Be sure to visit on the other days of the week though too because you won't want to miss Betty Wright's posts... that girl has some real talent!!

Now, onto what I have made for SNSS today!

I chose to use the latest sketch released at the Sweet Stop Sketch blog on Saturday...

And this is the card that I made...

You might remember me telling you about how my daughter Leah enjoys raising squirrels. In fact, she is in the process of raising one right now that she will be releasing into the wild soon. I even made her a mini album as a tribute to the first squirrel that she ever raised. (To see the album click on the mini album link above and then "next" in the upper right hand corner to see the rest of the pages.) So, of course, I am like the "Granny" to these little creatures when she comes home from school for the weekend, and subsequently I have grown very fond of squirrels too! Squirrels make me smile!! :-)

When Sandy (the DT coordinator for SNSS) sent me this digistamp to use this month, I thought I would flip!! I had been eyeing it all along in the store and it was like an answered prayer that she actually sent it to me!! I love this little guy. He is called Sunny Squirrel and can be purchased at the SNSS store.

The Sunny Squirrel set comes with three sentiments designed to encourage others and they are sure to bring a smile to the recipient's face! The DP's I used for this project come from The Greeting Farm paper pack called Sunny Glen. I also used some Bazzill Kraft paper. I colored the image using my Copic markers. Machine stitching was added around the main panel and the sentiment panel. The grosgrain ribbon was purchased on Ebay in a collection of SU colors. The brads are from Basic Grey.

I have a tip that I want to share with you concerning how I made this card.

Did you notice that the sunflower portion of the main image extends beyond the base that was cut with a nestie? This is not something original that I created, but it is a really cool effect that I am sure you have seen elsewhere. My friend Vianna recently shared with me a link showing how to do this trick and I wanted to share it with you, but unfortunately, I can't find it right now! I will try and find it so I can give her the credit, but in the meantime I have created a tutorial for you!

Tutorial: Extending a Cut Beyond the Borders of a Nestie

For starters, print your image onto your cardstock. Do not color it yet since you want to make sure the cutting comes out perfectly before you spend the time coloring it.

Choose the Nestie that you are going to use and place it die side down over the image. Center it as you choose leaving a portion of your stamped image extending beyond the edges of the Nestie. Mark your corners for ease of replacing the die later.

This is what it will look like when you remove the Nestie revealing the reference marks in the corners. Keep in mind that these marks aren't the cutting lines. The cutting lines are a little further in.

With a pencil, make a mark where you believe the Nestie will cut. I have made a pencil mark denoting this. The red lines indicate where you will be cutting next to the image.

Cut away at the red marks and up to and then slightly beyond the pencil marks you made. You must cut beyond the marks so that the Nestie can fit back into this slot.

Replace your Nestie with the die side DOWN. Position it so that it lines up with your corner reference marks. Be sure that the piece you just cut away is ON TOP of the Nestie so it won't get cut when you run it through the die cut machine. Tape it to keep it securely in place.

This is what the back view looks like if you have placed the Nestie properly. The exposed die means that it won't be cutting any paper at the point.

Run the image and Nestie through your die cutting machine. Emboss it also if desired.

This is the finished product ready for coloring!! Easy peezy! Now how about you try it!

Welcome to any of the new SNSS bloggers that have visited my blog today. I hope that you will become a Follower of this blog too and be back for more SNSS projects for the month of October!

My World Card Making Day cards and ornament were posted late last night so if you want to take a look at them scroll down to the previous post!! I hope you had a fun celebration for WCMD! Did you get lots of cards made this weekend??

I hope you have a great Monday and may your bucket overflow with things that make you smile!

Bee-Lieve!!

Bee-Lieve me when I say that this is going to be a really quick post! I have been up since 6 am Friday morning and it is now 2:45 Saturday morning. My job was crazy today. Six babies were born in that time period and kept me from my craft room today. I need to get some sleep.... but call me crazy... I couldn't go to bed until I made my card for Friday's Sketchfest!! LOL!

Check out the Caardvarks blog for more details! Here is the sketch that we were given to use from Heidi Van Laar...

And here is my take on it...

All of the stamps on this card come from Unity. The notebook paper is from the LeChic Vintage Scrapbook kit, and the bee-lieve sentiments and the Bee are from the Everyday Adorable collection. I hand drew and cut out the check marks.

The bee is colored with Copics. The border punch is called "loops" from MS. I like the way it turned out and think it will a great inspirational card for someone who needs it!

Have a great day! May your bucket overflow with lots of fun and exciting things to do this weekend!

HHH with Hodge Podge of Happiness!!

Yeah for Friday's and Hip Hop Hangovers!! Yesterday's Hip Hop was so inspiring (well of course it always is!) But I am in love with the new set that WE the customers of Unity hand picked! Didn't we do an awesome job?? If you don't know what I am talking about, a while back, Angela gave us a choice of three stamps all designed by the same designer and the Unity Forum voted on which of the stamps to include in the collection. She kept giving us more choices until we had filled a complete collection. It was so cool to see the set come together!

The Hodge Podge of Happiness was available for purchase (if you didn't preorder it) yesterday. Those of us who preordered it received them this week in our mail boxes!! Woot Woot!!

Take a look at this awesome kit!!!

Once mine arrived, I couldn't put it down and put together three cards, all using the Hodge Podge of Happiness!

And here are the cards that I made...

Wedding Wishes

This card follows the color challenge from SCS CC227. The DP is from MM Black Tie collection, the lavender CS is from SU. Using my Copics, I just subtly added some color to the cake to make it look like the frosting was lightly airbrushed. I added a silver pen to the cake rack to make it look metallic.

Sending Happy Thoughts

Recognize these colors and patterns? You might have seen the bed set that is the latest inspiration for Unity's Addict Challenge USC42. All the little dots of flowers in the flower pot were hand cut and paper pieced. The DP's are from MM and DCWV.

And for my last one...

Little Cup of Happy

This little card is whimsical and light because of that cute stamped image being paired with the adorable Cosmo Cricket papers. The cup was colored onto plain white CS and then paper pieced onto the plaid background paper. I had to color the felt button with my Copic marker to make it match the card!! :-) The sketch for this card is the SCS Sketch Challenge, SC237.

Well, that does it for now! I hope you have a wonderful day of Hip Hopping the Hangover! To see all the blogs that are posting Unity today, please visit the Unity Blog or you can jump to the blogs from THIS forum Post too!

Don't Forget.... Only 2 More days for your chance to win BLOG CANDY!!!

Have a great day and here's hoping that your bucket overflows with a Hodge Podge of Happiness!!