Celebrating my Birthday with Ippity!!!

It's time for Hippity Hop!!

And it's also my Birthday!!! 

Today I am celebrating my 47th birthday!  And I am so thankful to say that it is a good day and I expect an even better year ahead of me!!  The past year was full of many changes in my life, but in retrospect they have all been good ones that I am thankful to have experienced all of them!! 

I have the most wonderful and loving family who came over yesterday to celebrate with me and their love and support has gotten me through so much!! I am truly blessed.  I love my job and have the most amazing co-workers and friends at both the hospitals I work at.  And I can't fail to mention my fabulous friends who make every day so special in one way or another!! 

This is the beautiful arrangement my mom made for me!!

Thank you so much to all of you Ippity Chicks, fans and DT members!! You guys are like family and friends all in one!!  I was so blessed yesterday by the outpouring of love from the DT when they all gave me a bouquet of handmade flowers!!  They are so talented and so giving.... it made me cry tears of joy!!  I love you guys so much!!!

I am hostessing today's Hippity Hop and in honor of it being my Birthday, I am challenging you this week to create a BIRTHDAY CARD!!

Here is the one that I created for today.  I am also following the Unity Addicts Challenge UAC23 from Wednesday which was to create a monochromatic card with a pop of one other color.  I used these great oranges from some Kaiser Craft paper and layered the flowers that I cut directly from the DP.

The Ippity stamp set that I used is called Just Wanted to Say

For IHHC47 please create a BIRTHDAY CARD

Upload it to SCS Ippity Forum using the keywords

Ippity, Unity and IHHC47

Next Monday, one lucky participant will receive

Delightful Little Things as their prize!!

Good luck!!

To purchase any of the Ippity Stamps please click

HERE!!

And now for more Ippity fun, head over to the

Ippity Blog

where you can find the list of all of today's Hippity Hop participants!! 

 Leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win a stamp set! 

 It's a new Prize contest we will be having each Hippity Hop!!

Have a great day!! And thanks for stopping by!!!

Growing in Unity...Life is Full of Beauty!

Well if you are still coming back to follow me this week for my time for Growing in Unity then I thank you!!  I have had such a great time inking up some of my otherwise neglected Unity stamps.  As things settle down in life just a bit more I am hoping to get back to the daily challenges I used to do and also to playing more regularly with my Unity (and Ippity) stamps!!


My card for today was made for two challenges going on at SCS!!  The first one was yesterday's Color Challenge (CC272) given by Betty Wright.  We were to use Bermuda Bay, Real Red and Kraft for our creations.


The second challenge is from this week's Unity Addicts Challenge which has recently been reactivated for us to play along with.  Maria has been so wonderful in keeping these coming and I hope that you will play along with us!!  This week's challenge (UAC2) is to incorporate STAPLES on our projects!!


And here's my card...

I love how this came out!!  The red and blue with the Kraft looks great!!  I love the way everything pops off the Kraft!!  The Unity stamps used here are from the Moments in Bloom and Naturally You May Stampin Store Kit!  I LOVE this kit.  But remember that they are only available from a Retail store so you can CLICK HERE to find a store near you, or an online store!

 I used SU inks to stamp with... Real Red, Taken with Teal and Blue Bayou.  The DP is from Kaiser Kraft.  It worked for the color challenge because I don't have Bermuda Bay and it was a nearly perfect match.  

Did you see the amazing crinkle ribbon I have on my card?  My fabulous friend and Ippity partner in crime, Eva,  sent me a sweet care package that contained a sampling of the crinkle ribbon she recently made!  They are amazing. Love you Eva!! Thank you sooooo much!! Check out her blog post HERE about how she made it!!

For the Unity Addicts Challenge I used some red staples that I had in my stash.  I thought they added a nice element to the card!  If you can notice the slight shimmer on the red flower... it's because I added some Sakura Gelly Roll pen to the outer edges of the stamped image!  It adds a nice sparkle!!

No matter what is going on in your life, be sure to take the time to notice all the beauty around you. It is everpresent and presents itself in so many ways!  The gorgeous flowers, the beautiful sunsets, the adorable children of yours... remember that life is full of beauty!!  Enjoy it and rejoice!!

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!!

Hip Hop Hangover Day!!

Happy Thursday!! It's Hip Hop Hangover (HHH) Day!!

You might be asking yourself "What is Hip Hop Hangover?" That's easy...it is the day after Unity's Hip Hop Blog Hop where their customers instead of their DT get to share creations they made!

I love to participate, but don't always get a chance to! I was able to make three new Unity cards over the last couple of days, but the best news is that I was combining challenges again and also made them so that they qualify to be entered into the challenges over at Stampin Out Alzheimer's too!

Here is the card that I made for the HHH today. It came from the Unity Addicts Challenge this week which was to make a collage card! This was really tough for me!! Collage falls into that artsy kind of category and I don't think I do. LOL!! The color combo is from the Color Throwdown blog.

Here are the deets:


Stamps: All Unity of Course: Butterflies and Friends for Life (Aug KOM), Flowers and Leaves (Gratitude = Joy), Corner Embellishment (May KOM), The Road to a Friends House...(Sept KOM)
DP: Botanical Collage Flat Paper (K&Co)
CS: Bordering Blue, Elegant Eggplant and Barely Banana (Stampin Up!).
Ink: Stampin Up! (Chocolate Chip)
Embossing: Ink: Top Boss, Powder: Custer's Last Stamp (Detailed Gold)
Embellishments: Ribbon: Joann's, Buttons: unknown, Gold Gems (Joann's)

Ready for a little more Unity?? Here are the two other cards I made for the Hip Hop Challenges.

This first one was for the "Always New at Unity" challenge where we were to use our newest stamp set from Unity. I used the Rain & Flowers set that I just got. This card also uses Julee's MojoMonday sketch #88 and the SCS color challenge (CC220) to use Bashful Blue, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie.


The rubber boots DP is from American Crafts and the flowers are Prima. The ribbon comes from Basic Grey.



This last one was for the "Unity's Knot Any Old Stamp Company" challenge. In this one we had to use knots on our card! I decided to stamp the flower from the Everyday Adorable set (which is on sale right now through the weekend at Unity) onto some fabric with Stazon and then I tied many french knots using embroidery thread. (I will share some details about how I did this in a later post!)

The DP is Basic Grey, the ribbon is unknown and the Flowers are from Prima. I used my oval and scalloped nesties to make the frame and the base for the sentiment which is a Stampin Up! stamp from the set called "It's Your Birthday." The brads are Basic Grey.


I have also entered these last two cards into challenges that are occurring over at the Stampin Out Alzheimer's site. Have you signed up yet? For just a minimum donation of $5 you can gain access to the site to participate in all the contest going on. There are tons of prizes being given away! Remember it is for a wonderful cause!! Please join!!

I'm an Addict!!

A Unity Addict that is!!!

I know I have told you before and I am sure that I will tell you again... but I LOVE Unity Stamps!!


Every Wednesday in the Unity Forum, there is a new challenge posted called the Unity Addicts Challenge. Last week was the first time that I participated in it! It is something I plan to do again though! There are no prizes awarded, but if I can have an excuse to use some of my Unity Stamps on a project, then I am there!!

The challenge last week was a color and theme challenge.

We were to use the colors depicted in the photo here and make a summer themed card from it!

So the colors we were to use were...

Tangerine, Turquoise, Yellow, and LOTS of White!









And here is what I came up with...



I was very happy with how it turned out if I don't say so myself!! Hehe!! I started off with the wonderful Clear Card Sheets that you can get from the ShorCuts website HERE. ShortCuts is the sister website to SheetLoad of Cards. I have been missing out all this time and I am so thankful for the finding out about this website because they really have a lot of wonderful products that make card making easier and even more stunning. These clear based cards are so much fun to work with!!

The patterned paper is an adorable collection that I picked up on sale from my local Michael's made by Sassafras. The collection is called Hog Heaven! Great colors that are really fun to work with!! To make the waves I simply staggered two layers of the cardstock that were already scalloped for me. EPLS! (Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!!) I also used more of the paper to piece the boat and the sun!

The stamps all came from Unity's Beach Days and Sun Rays collection! I LOVE this kit!! It is full of lots of images that will definitely make it into ink and onto paper! As a Florida girl, this kit has it all!!

I sponged some So Saffron SU ink into the negative space of a nestability circle to make the sun have the yellow circle around it. Then I also sponged the sky using SU's soft sky. I tried to leave as much white space as possible, but you know that that is always a challenge for me!!

Maybe you would like to try your hand at this week's challenge... it is posted HERE. This one is going to be a challenge for me (hence the name I'm sure!) But I already have some ideas coming together. If all goes well, you can check back on Friday where I will probably post the card I create in the Hip Hop Hangover for Unity!

Have a happy Wednesday and may your bucket overflow with Beach Days and Sun Rays too!!