Christmas: A Season of Joy

Happy Thursday and Happy Hip Hop!!!

Hopefully you are coming to me from the wonderful Karen Maldonado's blog and are following along with us by hopping from one designer's blog to the next.  To start at the beginning, please head over to the Ippity blog!

I think that you are going to like this week's theme for Hip Hop!  I know that I do!  And I was motivated to get creating a little ahead of the holiday's for this one!

This week we are basing our projects after the December Daily type albums that you may have seen done by the famous scrapper Ali Edwards!  You can see her explanation of the project HERE!  But basically, the premise is that you document the days of December between the 1st and the 25th, sharing events that occur as you prepare for Christmas!

Both Maria Gurnsey and Angie Blom have done these albums for the past two years which you can see in the links below...

Maria's December Daily 2008

Maria's December Daily 2009

Angie's December Daily 2008

Angie's December Daily 2009

 I hope you had some time to peruse what these girls have created!  They are both so talented!!  And if you look closely you will see lots of Ippity stamps in their 2009 albums too!!  :-)

Christmas is my favorite holiday to celebrate!

 I do believe it is magical and I have always done my best to make it memorable and very special for my kids!!  I would love to create one of these albums to document what a typical month of December is like for us, but I knew realistically, I just wouldn't be able to keep up with 25 days of the crazy month of December.

Soooo, I decided to shorten my version of this

type of album, and create something that still captures

the specialness of Christmas to me and my family!

Here is the cover for my album called...

Merry Memories: 

Ten Things I (luv) about Christmas!

My front cover started as a frosted acrylic cover to a notebook that I removed and repurposed!  I cut it down to 6x6 inches.  Initially I stamped many of the snowflakes found in the Kissmas and Mistletoe and the Season's of Joy stamp sets by Ippity.  I used Ippity's black noir Hybrid ink. It was admittedly slow to dry, but after a bit of patting off excess ink and mildly heat setting them with the heating tool, I was able to keep the ink on the cover. The DP that I used is from Basic Grey's Jovial collection. 

I slightly altered the 10 Things I {luv} about You stamp set by masking over the word "You" and by adding a rub on for Christmas.  I also created the embellisment you see next to it by using a green star felt piece under a cut out snowflake from Ippity and adding the flowers from the DP and the number 10 Bingo number that I picked up at the last CHA at a make n take!

Here are the stamp sets that were used to creat the above cover...

Fram and snowflakes from Season of Joy

10 Things I {luv} About You words from

Love in Return set

And the snowflake from the

Kissmas and Mistletoe set.

Do you want to get some of these amazing Ippity Stamps?  They are perfect for completing your December Daily album.  To find a chick near you, just click on ther icon below...

Now to continue on the Hop, your next stop is the very talented Lisa Arana's blog!!  Just click on the button below to Hop over to her blog!

Be sure to stop back by soon when I have the chance to add to the pages of my album!! 

This is one project I am really excited about! 

I love the whole concept behind it and feel that Ippity Stamps

make the project even that much more fun to create!! 

Have a great day and we hope you see you on the SCS Forum for some chatting!!!

May your  bucket overflow with memories of your Christmases that bring a smile to your face!!

Hip Hop with a Sketch!

Hello Unity and Ippity friends!!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today and joining us for today's Hip Hop blog hop with the Unity and Ippity DT's.  If you have come to me by way of Karen Maldanado's blog, then you are on the right track, but if you aren't starting at the beginning, then please head to the Unity blog to start from the top of the list!!

Today we have a sketch challenge for you and some of the girls have decided to play along.  You are invited to play along with us and create your own sample using the sketch and just upload it to the SCS Gallery using the keywords Unity and HHSC16!  There is a prize in store this week so be sure to check out the details on the Unity forum at SCS!!

Here is the sketch we are working with...

And here is what I created using the sketch as my starting point...

I found these amazing papers made by the new company called Echo Park at my LSS and fell in love with them.  The line is called Sweet Summertime.  And something tells me that you are going to be seeing a lot more of Echo Park on my blog in the next few months... but I can't tell you why just yet!  But you Ippity fans will find out soon enough!!  ;-)

One of the flower images from the Now and Always set was stamped three times, twice in the red striped paper and once in the Green checked paper.  I cut out three layers and then placed them one on top of the other to create the dimensional flower.  The BG brad was added to the center.

The banner is from the Love in Return set by Ippity and the sentiment is also from the Now and Always set.  I used some of the Crinkle ribbon that Eva made for me to finish the project off.

So what do you think about the Echo Park paper.  They are looking for more fans on Facebook, so if you are interested in following them, you can click HERE to become a fan!  If you want to tell them that I sent you... I might get lucky and win a prize!!  :-)

Do you have these amazing Ippity stamps that I used today?  Well if you don't, be sure to get yourself an Ippity Chick to buy them from!!  You can find one by visiting the link HERE!

Next on your stop for the Hop will be the Oh-so-talented Lisa Arana!!  I know that she is sure to inspire!!

 Enjoy the rest of the Hop and please come by and visit us on the Unity forum for some chatting and prizes throughout the day!!

Today's Hippity Hop is Going Green!

Good Monday Morning and Happy Hippity Hop!!

For this week's Hippity Hop Challenge  

our wonderfully talented Lisa Henke has asked that we use 

Green and a Neutral color on our creations today!

It's the perfect color combo to celebrate the upcoming St. Patrick's Day, 

but it did have me scratching my head just a bit as I decided what to do!  LOL!

Thanks Maria for reminding me that this also fits last Tuesday's Trigger on the Moxie Fab Blog!

You can check it out here...

We hope you will play along with us this week!  We are up to Ippity HH Challenge fifteen today so use the keyword  IHHC15 when uploading to Galleries.  All the details are on the {ippity} Blog and that is where you will find the list of all of  today's fabulous blogs to visit too!  We have almost 50 wonderful blogs signed up today!!  That is just wonderful and will surely start my week off with the type of amazing inspiration that I need for a week filled with creating!!  :-)

Click HERE to visit the {ippity} Blog!

I ended up taking advantage of a cute patterned paper from DCWV's Crafty Stack to lead me to the finished product you see here...

The paper came with the subtle outline of the flowers and stems that you see here.  All I did was cut one extra set out to place on top of the base.  I used the Dots border stamp from Love in Return  by {ippity} to make the flowers have the dotted pattern and I also outlined the extra layer with an opaque white pen.

The sentiment and frame you see here are from the Just Wanted to Say {ippity}set.  I stamped it directly onto my GP  paper using SU's Wild Wasabi green ink!

A faint line of stitching was already present on the paper, but I decided to follow that line using my machine to give the card more texture.  I finished off the piece with two cute little flower centers from Doodlebug Designs!

My {ippity} BLOG CANDY giveaway 

is still going on HERE.

And so is the Sweet Sale I am doing for sponsoring the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog last week!

Don't miss out  on either of those things and have a great time finishing the hop today!!  May your bucket be overflowing with enough coffee to get you through today's blog hop full of wonderful {ippity} creations!

Have a great day!

My Baby Boy is Sixteen!

I really can't believe that this day has come!!  And without getting too sentimental on you, my baby boy is turning 16 years old today!  While he might be the last child of my four, preceded by three older sisters, Ricky is hardly a baby in stature!  He is pushing six feet tall and basically towers over his mommy!!

Here is a picture of us that I love from my wedding back in November of 2008...

And this is one of us from last August... I love that boy!!  What a sweetheart he is!! 

Ricky has a heart of gold.  He is loved by anyone who knows him and is passionate about animals and fishing.  He is definitely growing up too fast right now... he got his first girlfriend last month and will get his driver's license later this month!! Oh boy!!  Let the fun begin!!

Happy Birthday Ricky!

Today I was the hostess on the {ippity} Blog for this week's Hippity Hop Challenge.  And in honor of my sweet boy's birthday today I am challenging you to make a card or project using your {ippity} stamps for a BOY.  Enter your creations into the Gallery and label them ippity and IHHC13 for a chance to win. You have until next Sunday to submit!

Next Monday I will be drawing from the submissions in the SCS Gallery 

for one lucky person to win an {ippity} mug!

Here is the card that I created for today's BOY challenge!

To make this card I stamped the banners from the Winter 2010 Love in Return set onto the blue, green and orange papers.  Then I used rub-ons to spell HAPPY.  To make the Birthday I stamped the letters from the Alphabetically Adorable set from the Fall 2009 line and colored them in with Copics.  I placed a coordinating ribbon underneath the banner to make it appear like it is suspended.  All the colors were chosen to match the DP from Scenic Route.

Here is a closeup of the letters...

Need some {ippity} stamps to make your project for this week?  I have many of sets on hand and will be happy to sell some to you and get them in the mail right away!  I have two Alphabetically Adorable sets and three Love in Return sets in my possession for immediate release!

Visit my {ippity} sales blog for details!

Now, head on over to the {ippity}blog and use the list to hop to all the 

wonderful blogs signed up today to participate in our Hippity Hop!  

Have a wonderful  day and may your bucket overflow with joy for a boy in your life!!

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!