Hippity Hop Happy Birthday to Maria

Happy Monday everyone  

and Hippity Hop!!

Wow!  What a great week it was this past week in Chicago for CHA!!  I have some fun pics to share with you today and then as soon as I can get them organized, I will have some more fun pictures to share with you too.  While it was great to be away, it was also wonderful to be home!!  I really missed having some time in my scrap room especially after seeing all the amazingly inspiring projects at CHA!

I had such a great time with my fellow Ippity DT Members Eva, Karen, Eryn and Maria while at CHA!!  We had lots of time to bond and build relationships that I know are going to last forever!

This is Eva, Angela, Michelle, Eryn, me and Karen

And this is me with Maria!  She arrived in time to help us with the Ippity Booth at the Supershow!

 It was also great that we got to celebrate Maria's birthday while we were together.  Her birthday is coming up on the 4th of August, but the last night we were in town, all the Unity and Ippity peeps went out to dinner at "Maria's" Mexican restaurant.

  

She shared a pitcher of Margaritas with Broman.

And then she was serenaded during dinner!!  It was a blast!!

She is beautiful inside and out and I am so happy to have met her in person!!

Now, to further celebrate her birthday, for our Hippity Hop today, all the DT members are honoring Maria for her birthday by making a birthday card just for her.  Be sure to check out all the DT members' blogs to see what everyone else has made for her.

Because I know how much Maria loves red, white and blue, I decided to use some of the October Afternoon paper from the Road Map line to make her card.  I also used some of the Webster's Pages flowers to add some femininity to the card.  

The Happy Birthday stamp is from the Ippity stamp set called Life's Little Moments.  It is a wonderful scrapbooking set that can be used for cards as well!!  I stamped it in SU's Blue Bayou.

The bottom scallop was made by stamping one of the scalloped strips from Ippity's  Sweet Thoughts of Spring set.  (Which happens to be on sale on my sales blog right now!!  Don't delay!  I only have two of them left in stock!)  I carefully cut out around the scallops and added rhinestones in between them.  I liked the way it turned out!  What do you think?

Then, to visit the rest of the blogs on today's Hippity Hop, just head over to the Ippity Blog to start at the top and to find the details of this week's Hippity Hop challenge which is Christmas in August!  Have fun on the Hop and enjoy your day!!

May your bucket overflow with the types of friendships that grow over the years and will last for a lifetime like the ones I am making with my fabulous Ippity chicks!!

Hip Hop! For Real!!

Hip Hop!!!

Sorry if you visited my blog earlier today when my card wasn't posted yet.  I went in to work Wednesday evening around 9pm and didn't make it home until 4 am.  It's one of the drawbacks to my job, but whatcha gonna do... right?

This will be short and sweet because I really need to get some sleep tonight.  The card I made for today's Hip Hop uses the following sketch that was one of Lisa H's cards.

I made a card for my daughter Michelle's boyfriend's Birthday.  His name is Matt and they were over last night to celebrate his birthday when I got called in to work!  Atleast we got to eat dinner first... but I did miss the cake!!  ;-(

I followed the sketch the best I could and still make this masculine.  Even Matt said that the bow I used was masculine enough!  LOL!!  I used stamps from Life's Little Moments (and masked out the center portion) and also the sentiments from the Fall For You sets by Ippity.

If you want some Ippity... please click HERE get some!

Short and sweet, but I hope it inspires you in some way!!  Have a wonderful day and please head now to the the wonderful Lisa Arana's blog to continue on the Hop!

And if you didn't start at the beginning, please head to the Unity Blog and you will be taken on the hop all the way to the Ippity blog where there will be a new tutorial for you!

Have a good day... but for me it's good night!!  ;-)

Hip

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!

Hip Hop!

Hello and Hip Hop!!

But before we get to that, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate my fellow {ippity} DT member 

Lisa Henke

for becoming a Dirty Girl at SCS!!!

and I can't leave out one of my other fellow DT member from Whimsie Doodles

Dawn Burnworth

for making the Dirt Pile too!!

Woohoo!! 

Congratulations Lisa and Dawn!  You both are so deserving!!

I can't wait to follow along with your Galleries for the next six months!!

Now on to the Hip Hop!!
If you have arrived here via Eva's blog then you are on the right track!

The Unity girls and {ippity} girls have all made a little something for you today that we are all sharing on our personal blogs.  The best way to start the Hip Hop is to start at Unity Blog where you will then be led to each of the Unity DT girls blogs.  From there you will be led through all the {ippity} girls blogs. And finally you will end up at the {ippity} blog where I have shared with you the tutorial on how to make the Money Holder that I made for Monday's Hippity Hop!

I created this card today using two stamps from the {ippity} scrapbooking set from the Fall collection called Life's Little Moments.  I stamped the main sentiment as the focal point and then also stamped one of the collage stamps onto the three little circles.  The DP is from Graphic 45's Botanicabella collection.  The black trim was a loose trim I purchased from my LSS, and the rust colored trim was purchased from Michael's.

For the layout of my card I used this week's Unity Hip Hop Sketch #3.  

This challenge will be posted on the Unity forum today.  We hope you will play along with us!!

I stamped the focal sentiment using black embossing powder.  The butterflies were from the Graphic 45 paper and were cut out and glued on with dimensionals.

The circles were cut using EK Success circle punches and Nestabilities!  All the edges were distressed with Jumbo Java ink!  Machine stitching was added to the outer background panel!

If you are interested in winning the set that I used here, 

please end the hop at the {ippity} blog and leave a comment 

at the end of the tutorial I have there for you!  

Heather will pick the winner on the ippity blog tomorrow!!  

Good Luck!!

I am also so happy to welcome our two newest {ippity} DT members

Karen Maldonado

and 

Lisa Arana!!

These girls are super talented and are such welcome additions to our team!!

To continue on the Hop, please click on the icon below
to our new Dirty Girl Lisa Henke's blog!!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with moments that take your breath away!

One With Nature

I am so happy to be scrapbooking again and I can't thank Unity enough for giving us weekly sketches to work with. It is a perfect match for the wonderful scrapbook stamps that they sell to now offer great sketches to use them with.  If you want to try using some of their sketches, just check out the Unity Forum at SCS for the latest sketch!

Here is the sketch for this week.  It is USCSSC02.

I had some pictures to use from about year ago when my husband and I took a weekend away for his birthday and went camping on the Homosassa River.  It was a very special time and some of our fondest memories as a couple.

The DP I used is from Bo Bunny's U Bug Me and Roughin' It lines.  The stamps I used are all Unity and include the Distressed Dots background stamp that I stamped twice to make a mat for the photo.  I also used the Relax it's your Day stamp from March's Stampin' Store Kit, called Adventures in Life.  And then the last Unity stamp I used was the bracket stamp from the latest Scrapbooking Kit called Favorite Things. I used four of them to create the border on the bottom of the layout.  I stamped them in SU's Pumpkin Pie ink onto cream CS and then trimmed close to the edge of the stamp.

The letter stickers are from the BB Roughin' It Combo Stickers sheet.  The Fishing sign and arrow were cut from some of the coordinating papers.  

The journaling lines are actually part of the journaling block from {ippity's} Life's Little Moments set.  (Which can be purchased from my {ippity} sales blog HERE!) I masked off the parts that I didn't want to use and just used the lines so my journaling would be straight.

The journaling says  "March 2009- We celebrated Tom's birthday camping on the Homosassa River.  We spent the day exploring by kayaks.  Tom got to do some fishing."

I am not sure who makes the fly fishing lure that I used because it was no longer in its original packaging!  Sorry!

I stamped the Relax stamp onto orange coordinating paper and placed it and the fishing sign onto a piece of slightly larger chipboard that I also stamped with the Distressed Dots.

Overall I am pretty happy with this, but find it just as hard to make a masculine layout as I do to make a masculine card! LOL!

Seeing Tom on his kayak makes me happy to know that we will be doing some kayaking on Easter Sunday with our family!! It should be fun... it's been a long time since we have had them in the water!

Have a wonderful Saturday and may your bucket overflow with time spent doing your favorite outdoor activities!  I probably won't be posting tomorrow, so please have a Blessed Easter too!!

A Clean and Simple Challenge

Can we pretend it is Tuesday still?

Where did my yesterday and end of Monday go?  I have been chomping at the bit to get to my craft desk and start the nearly one zillion projects that I have to make before the 15th, but time just keeps slipping past me!  Work is still crazy busy... much more than usual!  I am trying to cope with all of it, and just wish I could cut back and stay at home more!!  I think stamping is important don't you?  LOL!!

Anyway, I was SO HONORED this week when Jen (MissBoo on SCS,) chose my card to be CASED for the Clean and Simple Challenge (CAS52) on SCS this week!  Talk about making me feel good, especially because I don't consider myself naturally to be a CAS kind of girl.  But after hanging out on that forum a bit, I have learned so much about the CAS style and how important the balance, coloring and design are when doing those types of cards!

Here is the card that is being featured...

Thanks So Mush(room)

Stamps Used: {ippity}: Because of You, Just Wanted to Say

Ink: Stampin Up, DP: K & Co.

Jen is asking that we play along by using the sketch from the above card for our inspiration! I hope you will play along too and upload your card into the Gallery and include the keyword CAS52.

I wanted to play along too, but since I had the sketch down already, I decided to add an additional challenge for me and make it a MASCULINE card to boot!!  Now we all know how challenging those can be right?

The perfect masculine card to make was for my step son's birthday which is today!!  I used the number collage stamp from the Life's Little Moments set from {ippity} and stamped it three times on the Kraft cardstock using SU's Chocolate Chip ink.  

Next I used Basic Grey  number stickers (which didn't match so I colored them with my Copics!) and applied them to the accent circle to represent how old he is.  The strip of DP is from the BG Blush collection.  I also added the paper piercing and twine to add texture yet keep it masculine. 

And for the final touch I added the sentiment which is from {ippity's} Just Wanted to Say set. This came together really quickly and got the seal of approval from my DH too!!  Sometimes it is hard for me to keep masculine cards masculine!! LOL!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOMAS!!  

I love you and hope that you have a phenomenal day!  I know that this world holds so many opportunities for you to succeed and it is my prayer that you reach out, grasp them and hang on to them until you become the man that you always dreamt you would be!  I am looking forward to celebrating your birthday with you tonight!

Thomas and Jess (his girlfriend) in December

So since we pretended that today was Tuesday (for my post's sake), I will be back soon with my Whimsie Wednesday Post too!! Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with all the time in the world you desire to spend on your papercrafting!! 

I'm at Copics Certification Class!!

I have been waiting for this day for so long!!  You know how much I love my Copics, well I am so happy that there was enough space for me to get into the class being taught in Sarasota by Sally Lynn.

I am going to be Copics Certified!! Woohoo!!

I can't wait to learn some new tips and techniques and to get some practice on this involved type of coloring!

I will be sure to share some of the wonderful things I learn when I get back!!

So, I have a little something I made with {ippity} to share with you.  I made this for a magazine call...wish me luck.  I would be so happy to get some of my cards showcasing {ippity} published!

This is called Family...

It uses the word Family from the Life's Little Moments kit, and the house and sentiment (which I masked and paper pieced) from the Simply Home set.  Both sets are {ippity}I really like the colors.  I based them off the K & Co. DP mat pad that I used.  It came with the scalloped edges and all.

I used my Stamp-a-majig and masking with post-it-notes to break the sentiment up like you see it here. I wanted it to fit down the whole side of the image panel.  The flowers are from Prima.  The brads from Basic Grey and MM.

I "colored" the house in by using both Copic markers and some paper piecing with some coordinating paper from the same K & Co. Mat Pad.  I also used my Copics to highlight the words LOVE and HOME in the sentiment. I topped the whole thing off with this pretty velvet ribbon from MM that I gathered on my sewing machine and adhered by stitching the ends and securing it with some tacky tape.   I machine stitched the image panel and the top and bottom edges of the card too!

Well that is all I have for you today.  Should you be interested in buying either of the {ippity}sets you see used here, please contact me via email (sownsew25@verizon.net) or visit me at my {ippity} Sales Blog.

If you want to see my favorite {ippity} cards  from this 

week's SCS Gallery, go check out the {ippity} Blog! 

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with the kind of love that turns your house into a home!

Clean and Simple Masculine Card!

Super quick post today!  Sorry for neglecting the blog a little but I am happy to say that I am slowly but surely getting my Christmas projects and to-do list checked off!  I am starting to believe that I might actually be ready for Christmas by Christmas Eve, which is when we will be celebrating this year!

My Father-in-Law had a birthday this week and so I had to send out a card to him. Here  he is with his dog named Gator.  This picture was taken back on Father's Day this year.  It is Tom's step dad actually, but the man Tom considers his father since he raised him more than his biological father did.

I chose to follow along with a challenge on SCS and to use my {ippity} stamps for his card....

The challenge was this week's CAS Challenge CAS45 on SCS, which was to use curves on our card.  I used a masking technique and the numbers collage stamp from {ippity}'s Life's Little Moments kit to create the strip of numbers.  Then I added the sentiment from Just Wanted to Say.  I don't remember the brand of the DP since I found it in my scraps bin.  I kept the colors deep to make is seem more masculine, but then added a touch of red for accents.

I don't usually do masculine too well, but I did like how this one turned out. My husband doesn't quite get the CAS style and how it differs from my typical card style.  He asked me if I didn't want to add anything to the white space!  LOL!! I told him no... I  didn't!! The card was done!!

To purchase any of the stamps you see used in the card I made here, you can contact me through my {ippity} sales blog HERE.

Today and tomorrow I am off call and plan on making cookies and finishing my Christmas shopping.  I am down to the wire, but I have faith!!  I CAN do it!!  :-)

Have a wonderful Sunday and may your bucket overflow with the things you like to do to prepare for the holidays!!