Thank You

Happy Last Friday in 2012 and last Friends With Flair for 2012!!!

Do you ever stamp something, color it up and then stall on how to finish the card?  That's what happened with this door image for me.  I think I stamped it back in April, colored and embossed it and added it to the tag and then was like Now What?  I have a little pile of these half projects on my desk and thankfully this one spoke to me a few weeks ago and I was able to give it a home on this Thank You card. 

Unity Stamps used:  March 2012 Kit of the Month (door), Circle Sentiments (thank you), and Up Against A Wall (light brick background on tag).
Other Supplies:  Tim Holtz embossing folders (woodgrain and brick), Tim Holtz Distress inks, Websters Pages (ribbon vine), Copics

Wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEARS AND AMAZING 2013!!!

CHEERS!

Happy December, I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted!?!  Life sure does get busy but isn't that a wonderful thing?  Here's a card I made for my husband for his birthday at the beginning of the month but never got around to posting.  Since it's Friday and Friends with Flair over at Unity I will link it up!

Supplies used:  Unity stamps Let's Uncork and Re-wine and November 2012 Kit of the Month for the sentiment.  PP is old Creative Imaginations, copics for coloring.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Years spent with the people you love!

Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow....

This is my all time favorite holiday song and I love snowmen so of course I had to make something with this cute Unity Itty Bitty One of  a Kind Winter! 

I happened to have a few stamps laying on my table that I hadn't put away yet and one was this big mitten stamp so I made it into a snow globe type Christmas tree ornament.  The heart flourish is from Unity's October 2012 Kit of the Month.
I am sharing it for Unity's Friends With Flair Friday where you can always go to find wonderful inspiration for your Unity stamps!
Enabler Alert:  Unity is having an AMAZING 50% off sale this weekend, coupon code 50THANKS

Unity, wine and chocolate

Happy Friday and FWF!!!  I have a cute little card to share with you today.  I don't go on Pinterest very often but I happened to be on a couple of days back when Angela was posting a lot of wine inspired pins which inspired me to make this card.  It just so happens that coincidentally there is a wine themed Unity stamp release this weekend!  How appropriate!

"A day without wine is like a day without chocolate...inconceivable!"  When I showed this card to my husband he said he'd heard that before...I was pretty sure I had made it up but I know it's a thought that probably goes through a lot of minds.  :)  We say inconceivable a lot in this house because we love The Princess Bride.  I think I should make a few more of these cards because I already have a few peeps I want to send it out to!

Unity stamps used:  Tell Me More itty bitty (speech bubble), March 2011 KOM (woman), Time for...Friends and Wine (wine bottle).

For the Record

Happy November!  October is probably my favorite month of the year so I'm a little sad to see it come to an end.  It sure was busy and mostly fun, fun, fun but I am actually looking forward to some slower and more relaxing days in November.
Hopefully all of you and your friends and family on the east coast made it through the storm safely.   We have family in NYC and Philly and were very relieved to hear from them afterwards.  Here in Michigan we had 50mph gusts of wind hitting our house and I can't even imagine how bad it was out on the coast.

Oh yeah, I do have cards to share today too!  Happy Friday and Friends with Flair!  I just love Unity Stamps and they have the most amazing background stamps.  Sadly mine don't get inked up as much as I'd like but I got to a few of them this week.  :)

On my first card I used NO patterned paper whatsoever!

For this one I used Poppy Chevron and Distressed Hearts.  The sentiment is from Love Survives Everything.  I masked it and stamped the distressed hearts over it.  The heart is popped up by 2 other folded hearts.  For the Record is from the Simple Pointers Itty Bitty.

For my next card  I used Unity's lovely Woodgrain Script background stamped in Worn Lipstick distress ink.  I was inspired by the design and colors of Corri Garza's Brave Girl card here and Karen Maldonado's acetate butterfly here.  The butterfly stamp is from Moment By Moment.  The sentiments are both from Unity's Empowered Words.  The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye.

Thank you for stopping by today and have a great weekend! 

Welcome Little Guy

Happy Friday and Unity Friends with Flair Day!!! I can't believe it's almost Halloween, where has this month gone!?!  We had an 80 degree day here in Michigan yesterday and in the 5 day forecast it's calling for snow.  Typical MI, guess I'll have to really bundle the kids up for Trick-or-Treating.  Oh yeah, and I have 2 winners from last Friday's giveaway to announce at the end of this post!

On to this weeks creation.  It has been another busy week this week and I was surprised last night to realize that it was already Thursday and I didn't have anything done for FWF, eek!  What's a girl to do when complete exhaustion sets in and there is no mojo to call on?  I was staring blankly at my stamps in a daze knowing I needed to get a baby card made ASAP when I remembered Mojo Monday sketches.  Between all of my awesome Unity stamps and the Mojo Monday sketch I was able to come up with this card fairly quickly.

Here is the sketch:








And here is my card for a special little guy who is 2 days new to the world:

I used Unity's Absolutely Priceless itty bitty and the bowtie, vest and little guy are from Unity's August 2012 Kit of the Month.  The papers are My Minds Eye.  I used Copics for coloring and distressed all of the edges. 

And now for the winners of last Friday's giveaway!  I just want to say thank you to all of my FWF peeps for always leaving such sweet comments on my posts every Friday, you all are so very sweet and I love looking through your Unity creations and sharing ideas/creativity with you all.  Thanks as well to all of my followers, I jumped from 45 to 55!  It's nice to be able to give back some of the extra Unity stamps I've accumulated from FWF over the past year or so.  The winners of the Unity Grab bags are....JULIE O and TAMEKO!  Congrats ladies!  If you could leave me your e-mail in a comment here I can get those stamps in the mail to you soon.

TGIF!!!

TGIF, FWF and Happy Birthday to me!!!  Seriously, what a crazy week.  But it's finally Friday and I've got some blog candy to give away!!!  Details at the end of this post.

Here are my final 3 cards for Unity's WCMD challenges.  Our basement flooded this week and my scrap space is at ground zero.  Thankfully all of my stuff was either in plastic bins or off of the floor but it was still too chaotic to get anything much done.  These were all quickly thrown together for the challenges.  :(  Hopefully we finally have the leaking foundation problem taken care of and can get everything cleaned and organized again soon before I go into craft withdrawl (this is a serious condition that requires much craft time and chocolate to cure).

The first card is for a very good friend who is getting married this weekend!  Can't wait to get out of town and head home to see friends and family!  It was for Challenge #2: Textures.  I think the ribbon and the metal charm count as 2 different textures.  I used The Love is ALL That Matters stamp from Unity's May 2012 Kit of the Month.  The photo doesn't really do the card justice, it's all shimmery with silver embossing.  The sentiment is popped up as well.  The ribbon charm is something I found in my stash from Making Memories from LONG ago.

 The next card is for Challenge #8: Color Challenge (pumpkin, olive, cream and brown).  The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye, the ribbon is from Webster's Pages.  The Grateful stamp is from Unity's A Moment in Time.  Letter stickers are Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type.

 The last card is for Unity's Challenge #5: Fall Theme.  I sprayed yellow, orange and red glimmer mist onto a white panel and then stamped happy fall, masked it and stamped the leaves across the panel to look like they're blowing across the page.  The stamps are both from Unity's August 2012 Kit of the Month.  I colored in the circles on the leaves with a white gel pen.  This was thrown together super quickly in the midst of a messy, soggy, smelly basement and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. 

I hope you've stuck with me through this long post because I've got some Unity Stamps to give away!  For a chance to win please become a follower of my blog (if you're not already) and leave a comment on any of my posts from the past week and a half (starting with So Many Thanks on Oct 8th).  The more posts you comment on the better your chances to win!  I have 2 grab bags (25 stamps each) of random Unity Stamps to give away so there will be TWO lucky winners!  I will announce the winners in next Friday's Friends with Flair post.  Have a wonderful weekend!

You're the Best

Unity Stamp Company has some challenges going on over at their blog for WCMD and here is my entry for their Stamp A Border Challenge #6.

This didn't quite turn out the way I had planned it in my head but when do they ever.  I used Tim Holtz distress markers because I didn't have some of the more masculine colors I wanted to use for this in my Copic collection and I think the darker colors kinda drown out the DAD in the arrow but because of the repetition you get the idea. 
Supplies used:  Dad arrow stamp (Unity June 2012 KOM), You're the best (Unity April 2012 KOM), Tim Holtz Distress Markers.

The Happiest I Have Ever Been

It's *almost* Friday, it's Friends with Flair and today I have my entry for Unity's WCMD Challenge #4 (sketch challenge) to share!

{you}
{me}
{together}
=
the happiest I have ever been
:)

It's been so fun playing along with the challenges over at Unity for World Card Making Day!  I still have 3 more to finish and can't wait to find some spare time to play with my stamps and get inky!

Supplies Used:  August 2012 SMAK (you, me, together, happiest I have ever been), Modern Chit Chat (heart bubble), Amy Tangerine Sketchbook papers, white gel pen and glossy accents to cover the heart bubble.

Dream Big

Three posts in one day!?!  That's right, I've got another card to share!  This is my entry for Unity's WCMD Challenge #7 (coloring).

On a white panel I stamped the text from Unity's Bloom & Simplify in a dark grey and then stamped the flower on top of that in Versamark ink and heat embossed in black.  I painted it in with Pearlescent Watercolors for a beautiful shimmery effect and when that was dry I sponged some Tumbled Glass distress ink around the edges.  I heat embossed the Dream Big itty bitty onto a cream panel and popped it up with some pop dots.
Now it's off to make some more cards to finish the rest of the challenges!
Supplies used:
Unity Stamps:  Bloom & Simplify and Dream Big
My Mind's Eye patterned paper

A picture is worth 1000 words

Playing along with Unity Stamp Co for their World Card Making Day challenges.  Here is my entry for challenge #1, shaped cards.

It's a camera-shaped card!  I love Unity's SMAK kits not only for their awesome stamps but because of the size of them!  This stamp is about 2 1/4 by 5 inches and it will make the perfect Thank You card for my friend who is taking our family photos this weekend.

Supplies used: 
Unity Stamps: Camera from Sept 2012 SMAK, A picture is worth 1000 words from Insta-Cute, Thank you from Ornate Artisan Stackers
Papers, DCWV stack from Michaels
Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type

So Many Thanks

World Card Making Day has come and gone and although I didn't get to play along on Saturday I got a few hours to myself on Sunday and decided to play along with the awesome WCMD challenges over on Unity Stamp Co's blog.  They have 8 challenges in all and you have until October 20th to link up and as always they have awesome prizes to give away!
Here is the card I created for Challenge #3 (embossing).

 I stamped the butterfly onto a white shimmer panel with watermark ink and clear embossed.  I sponged distress inks over the top and wiped away the excess from the butterfly.  I lightly sponged some Tumbled Glass distress ink onto the cream flower and tied a twine bow behind it.
Hopefully this week I can find some extra time to do all 8 of their challenges, I love inking up my Unity stamps!!!

Supplies Used:  Unity Stamps (butterfly from July SMAK, so many thanks from Happy Everything), My Mind's Eye patterned paper, Tim Holtz distress inks (Dusty Concord, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint), flower from Michaels, Watermark ink and clear embossing powder.

Hey Girlfriend

Happy Friday and Happy October everyone!  Today for FWF I'm sharing a card I made a while back but never got around to blogging.  I'm only remembering to blog it now because I actually pulled it out of my stash to use this past week as a birthday card for one of my daughter's friends.

Supplies used:
Unity stamps: Hey Girlfriend, The Best (leopard print banner used to "kiss" against one of the girls), and Undeniably You (put on your party dress)
Marvy Brush Markers, gems colored with copic marker, ribbon from Michaels

Oh, happy day!

Friday came quickly this week!  Two cards to share today for Friends with Flair.
The first uses A Cupcake on Every Doorstep itty bitty.  I decorated the inside for this as well because I just love that cupcake trio!  I've seen so many cute CAS cards with washi tape and I was trying to go for that look but I think I added too much to get the CAS I was hoping for.

 The second card is using the Good Day Sunshine itty bitty.  Such a great image and phrase, I was just playing around with different colors to see which I liked best and then decided to use all 3 on the same card for a different feel.  I used an alphabet stamp from SMAK to make a graphic background and tried to tie the odd design and colors together with some little ribbons on the side.

I can't believe how quickly September has flown by.  I put out our Halloween decorations yesterday, I love this time of year!  Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Preschool Days

I cannot believe I have a preschooler!  Seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital and now she's going off to school 3 mornings a week and asking to stay longer when I pick her up!?!  I am so proud of her, she's doing phenomenal for a 3 year old who has never been in day care or away from her mama aside from a very occasional overnight stay with grandparents.
Having a preschooler also means that this scrapbooker finally got a chance to do a back to school layout and play with all of my awesome school themed Unity stamps!!!
Here we go...

Inspired by the bright blues and pinks in my daughter's first day of school outfit I used some Amy Tangerine Sketchbook papers.  My favorite thing about using stamps in my projects is that instead of being limited by the school themed products on the market I can make my own embellishments to match my pictures with my stamps.  You can use stamps over and over and the possibilities are endless!
Here are some details:

 I made this layout to play along with the current Unity Challenge (banners) and had a ton of fun making this eclectic banner.  I am also playing along with Friends with Flair this week so leave a comment for a chance to win some Unity stamps.  Every Monday one lucky commenter from all of the Friends with Flair entries is chosen to receive a grab bag of Unity goodness!

Unity Stamps used: Smarty Pants (school days, smarty pants, MTWTF, and report card), ABC, 123 Washi (alphabet and numbers), Garden Variety (cute), Simple Pointers (noteworthy), Bitty Regards (proud of you), August SMAK (formula for success tab), September SMAK (date pencil), Champ (pennant banner), Love in Return (banner), Game Day Chili (small banner)

Supplies used:  Amy Tangerine Sketchbook papers and embellishments, EK Success notebook border punch, Smash washi tape, american crafts embossing powder.

Happy weekend and thanks for visiting!

Aren't YOU Super

I LOVE fall!  Oh, for so many reasons I just love this season but today my favorite reason is that I feel like I can finally craft again.  Things just slow down, the kids go to bed at a reasonable hour and I just get things done.  Must be something in the air.  :)
Here is a card I made this week for Andrea at Unity Stamp Co because her customer service just rocks and she is always amazing and super helpful.  Great stamps, awesome customer service, amazing peeps, I just LOVE Unity!!!

Supplies used:
Unity Stamps:  Wings of Hope (butterfly), The Best (#1, aren't you super), Love in Return (original)
Ranger Tim Holtz distress ink (Antique Linen) and distress markers (Pine Needles and Broken China)
Design and colors were inspired by a card by Betsy Veldman in Stamp It Cards Vol 9

If you haven't yet head on over to Unity's Friends with Flair post and play along by commenting on the blogs in the hop.  Every week Unity is generous enough to send free stamps to one participant and one commenter along the hop.  I was thrilled to see that I won last week and got my stamps yesterday! 
Thanks for visiting today and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Made with Love

Whoa, first of all let me just say that while I know it's been a wild and crazy summer I am a wee bit embarrassed to see that it's been over 2 months since my last post!  Yikes, I never meant for that to happen.  I haven't had time to participate with Friends with Flair and I've missed out on so many wonderful, crafty projects.  I MISS my Unity peeps and my Unity stamps have certainly been missing me!
I forced myself to get crafty today since when I went to my stash of cards for a Thank You earlier this week there were NONE and I was forced to go out and buy one (hangs head in shame).
I am not very pleased with this card but I know it's going to take time to get my Mojo back and I wanted to play along with the KOM Sketch Challenge at Unity as well as Friends with Flair.

The PP is from Webster's Pages.  I used Spellbinders dies and the stamp is from Unity's December 2011 KOM: Filled with Love.  I inked it with my Tim Holtz distress markers.

Thanks for stopping by today and I look forward to catching up with all of my crafty friends soon!

Hello Beautiful Sunshine

This was a fun layout to make!  I love playing with bright, vibrant colors and watercolors too.  And of course I love playing with my Unity Stamps and I used a lot of them on this layout because they are so perfect for scrapbooking!

Supplies used:
Stamps all by Unity Stamp Co.  Banner and We click from March 2010 Kit of the Month, Hello Sunshine and Camera from Echo Park's Playground, Love family memories happiness from January 2012 Kit of the Month, Clock from The Time is Now, The sunbeams from around the hello flower is actually a banner stamp from Create Your Day that I stamped several times and cut out and wrapped in a circle.
Patterned paper:  Fancy Pants: Floral Chic Appealing (quite old)
Patterned paper strips are American Crafts Amy Tangerine
Watercolor crayons and paper.
Washi tape
I am entering this layout into the Unity Summer Time Challenge.

Anniversary Wishes for the Mr & Mrs

Happy Friday and Friends with Flair!  Whew, summer is in full-swing here and it's a been a busy one so far.
Here's a quick card I made with some Unity and embossing powder.  Stamps used:  Everlasting Romance and sentiment from Happy Everything.  Aqua Zing embossing powder.

On the inside I embossed Anniversary Wishes from the August 2011 KOM.
Happy first weekend of summer!!!

Moonbeams and sunshine

Super quick post for Friends with Flair tonight.  The carnival is in town and my daughter and I just got back from a super fun and exhausting day of riding the carousel about a dozen times (her favorite), going on her first roller coaster and ferris wheel rides and having her first elephant ear!
Oh, yeah about my card...
My baby brother is going to be having his first baby very soon now and I went up north a few weeks back for their baby shower and made this super cute little card for them.

The patterned paper is some old Fancy Pants that I love.  The stamp is from Unity's The Right Words set which is filled with awesome sentiments.
Thanks for stopping by my blog, leave a comment for a chance to win a prize from the wonderful Unity Stamp Company and have an amazing weekend!

Snapshots of my Family

Yesterday morning my daughter created her first scrapbook page!  She has been art journaling for the last 4 months and is in love with crafting and yesterday she asked to scrapbook and so I helped her put this page together.
I gave her some limited choices (choices must be limited for a 3 year old or we'd never get anything done!) and she picked out all of the pictures, papers, embellishments and told me what to say on the page.  I gave her color choices on the alpha stickers and she picked out all of the correct letters (except for F which she couldn't find).  I picked the stamps to use and she helped me ink them and stamp them.

I had a bunch of Unity stamps upstairs on the kitchen table because I had been working on my Project Life album and I use them a lot in there and so we added some of the wonderful stamps from several different SMAK kits (Nov 11 and Jan 12 I believe).  The Snapshots is from an Itty Bitty and Family is from Simple Stories Generations.  The patterned paper and camera and flower embellishment are from Amy Tangerine.  She was very excited to add the stickers and put them exactly where she wanted them, she was very insistent that the flower sticker went next to her cherished puppy!

She now has a layout we can hang in her room and she can look at all of her favorite people!  She turns 3 in a couple of days and I am constantly in awe of her.  I can't wait to work on our next scrapbook collaboration!
Happy Friday to everyone and make sure to stop back at Unity's blog to see all of the other wonderful Unity art and inspiration!

Brave Adventurous Boy & Silly Mermaid Girl

I have 2 layouts to share this week for Friends with Flair!

The first one is of my sweet 14 month old boy.  We were goofing off the other day and I took some snapshots of him.  He's smiling and laughing in most of the other pics but there is just something I love about this one.  Even though he's got his hand in his mouth teething and it's slightly blurred on the edge I really just LOVE this picture of him and so of course I had to scrap it immediately!  Since I received my May KOM I've been itching to use that cute Polaroid frame and this picture almost begged for it.  The sentiment/poem/title was something I saw on Pinterest a while back and bookmarked it to use for maybe a sign for his door but scrapbooking is my thing and I don't know how to make signs so I turned it into a layout!

I don't even know how many different types of alpha stickers I used on here.  I also used some old rub-ons and several Unity stamps as well.

Supplies used:  My Minds Eye Wander paper, Unity Stamp Company stamps (polaroid frame, brave crown, live each moment banner from May 2012 KOM; adventurous from Nuts and Bolts; Imagine from Donna Downey Inspire Words; Dream Big Itty Bitty; boy from SMAK Nov 2011; Chicken Wire background)
Tim Holtz Distress markers, assorted alpha stickers mainly Echo Park, Authentique and Fundamentals.

The second layout I want to share this week is another princess layout of my daughter (you may recall the Cinderella layout from last week).  She is SO VERY princess obsessed right now but her absolute FAVORITE is The Little Mermaid, Ariel.
We were playing outside a couple of weeks ago in the 80+ degree May weather at the splash table and I guess it wasn't enough for Jasmine just to splash in the table, suddenly she was climbing in it and said "Look at me, Mom, I'm cooling off!  I'm just like The Little Mermaid!

I have always had a hard time leaving "white space" on layouts so I had to stop myself from adding too much here.  It was SO challenging for me to match colors with the mermaid!  Orangeish red hair, turquoise fin and purple top, I went through almost every paper in my collection to finally settle on this light green vellum.

Supplies used:  Sandylion paper, Cricut Dreams Come True cartridge (Ariel border), Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers, Unity Stamps (He, She, You Said, Boys Rule and Bitty Regards)

That's all for me today, happy June to you all!!!