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!

A little birdie told me...

It's Friday and Friends with Flair!!!  I missed last week for the first time in a long time, what can I say but sometimes life gets hectic.
Today I have a card to share that I made for my daughter this week.  She will be 3 next month and she's such a little girl all of a sudden!  Last month she painted a beautiful bird feeder and had so much fun watching the birds eating out of it until a giant mutant squirrel came along and demolished it after only having it up for a week or so.  :(  We got her another feeder but it's not the same as the one she painted herself and even the birds don't seem to like it as much.  We had to get a squirrel proof one so maybe that has something to do with it.  I made her this card to cheer her up.

I made this with the Unity color challenge in mind using greens, pinks and off white.  The inspiration for the design came from a cover card from the March/April issue of Paper Crafts designed by Kalyn Kepner.
Supplies used:  Kraft cardstock.  Unity stamps (One of a Kind and My Dear), My Minds Eye Howdy Doody PP, Spellbinders Die, EK Success border punch, Copic markers.

Friends with Flair Mojo

Happy Friday y'all!
I've been busy crafting this week but my mojo was on vacation for the first half of the week.  When I have both time and a compulsion to craft but no mojo where do I turn:  usually to past FWF posts and my latest Paper Crafts mag! 
Here are a couple of cards I made this week while trying to get my mojo back.  Usually I will use a card as a jumping off point and when I'm done only I can tell where the original inspiration came from.  Sometimes when the mojo is really gone it looks much more like a scraplift.  Eventually after a few near scraplifts the mojo will make it's way back home. :) 

I got the inspiration for this card from the May/June 2012 issue of Paper Crafts, designed by the talented Sarah Jay.  I made it my own by switching up the papers and using some fabulous Unity stamps in place of die cut flowers and embossing the cardstock.
Supplies used:  Unity Stamps{Fabulous Girl Itty Bitty, You Did It Itty Bitty, Better With Love}, Silhouette was cut from A Child's Year (Cricut), Crate Paper, Copics, Cuttlebug embossing folder.

This next card is also inspired by a design from Michelle Woerner in the May/June issue of Paper Crafts. 

Supplies:  Unity Stamp{Thoughts of the Heart}, Tim Holtz die cut flower, Spellbinders Scalloped circle, PP, Authentique and My Mind's Eye.  I am entering this one in the March Unity Challenge: Doors and Windows.

This last card is something that took on a life of it's own when my mojo started coming back!

Supplies used: Unity stamps{sentiment from March 2012 KOM, star from We Treasure You}, paper is American Crafts, Cuttlebug embossing folder and stars die cut from Cricut's A Child's Year.

I do have more cards to share, some inspired from the talented ladies who link up with Friends With Flair every Friday but I ran out of time on this post since the little one just woke up from a nap.  I look forward to Fridays every week because of the talented Unity and Ippity chicks and friends of Unity who post amazingly talented projects using their Unity stash of stamps.  It is such a great community and so much fun to browse through the pretty projects and leave some love in the form of comments and a chance to win great prizes from the generous peeps at Unity!

Beauty

Here is my 2nd attempt at the Unity Kit of the Month Sketch Challenge.  See post below for my first attempt where I forgot to use KOM!  Sketches for me are always a jumping off point and I almost always flip or skew them in some way.  This one is just flipped upside down.

Here is my card made using the sketch and some fantastic Unity stamps!

I used Marvy brush markers to color in this great image from the June 2011 KOM.  When I had it finished I still thought it was missing something at the top and after playing around with a few different things I finally decided on this floral border stamp from the January 2011 KOM inked in a dark grey.  Patterned Paper is from My Mind's Eye. 
Here are a couple of close ups:

I just LOVE my Unity kit of the months, they are so versatile and always have the perfect stamps for so many occasions and the funnest images!

Lovely from head to soul

Quick post today for FWF.  Running on fumes here, my little guy is NOT a happy teether and has been awake every hour of the night for the past week.

Supplies:  Unity Stamp Co March Kit of the Month, Echo Park Paper, Copic markers, Spellbinders die

For the list of all of the wonderful ladies participating in Friends With Flair this week check out Unity's blog every Friday for some great inspiration!

Consider Yourself Vintage

I have a birthday card to share for today's Friends With Flair.  It's a 6x6 card which I rarely make but this paper was just too cute to cut up!  Course it was also too heavy to stand on it's own which is why that ribbon is stapled to keep it up but I wasn't thinking and then couldn't open the card to write inside.  It's a little goofy but that's okay, it just has character!
I really liked the colors on the PP so I tried to bring them all together in my cardstock choices.  The grey didn't look right at first so I distressed the edges and used some T.H. Antique Linen distress ink which gave it just the color I wanted.

Supplies used:
Patterned paper: My Minds Eye (Dilly Dally), Cardstock: Bazzill, Stamps: Unity Stamp Co (February KOM, Blossom Stackers, June 2011 KOM), Spellbinders label die.

Love is the thread

A quick card I threw together tonight using Unity's December 2011 Kit of the Month for their KOM sketch challenge.  I got a little liberal with the sketch this month but I love how the card turned out!

Here is the sketch:


The patterned papers are from Echo Park's For the Record and I used red embossing powder for the images and sentiment.  The label is a spellbinders die cut.  I distressed the edges of the PP as well.  Thanks for stopping by my blog!  Hope everyone's New Year is off to a fantastic start!

And a partridge in a pear tree.

A few more relatively quick Christmas cards I made yesterday.  I tried a couple of different inks out here.  The one on the right was my first attempt and was done using a ivy colored Brilliance ink so it has a nice shimmer to it.  The card on the left I used two different shades of green brush marker.  I think I prefer the brighter colors of that one.  The tree stamp and embossing folder are a Hero Arts/Sizzix combination.  The sentiment is from an old Kit of the Month from Unity Stamp Co.  I used a Spellbinders die around the sentiment and popped it up.  Finished with twine and a sparkly red brad.

I'm going to enter this into Unity Stamp Co's Let it Snow monthly challenge.

Crayon Resist

A couple of weeks ago while trying to keep my toddler entertained I had an idea to try crayon resist painting with her.  I also thought that I could make a card or two at the kitchen table while she was busy.  That didn't happen by the way but I got my cards done later and she had a lot of fun coloring with white crayon on the images I had stamped for her and then painting them and herself too!

Here she is very intently painting...

And having even more fun painting herself!

I made this pretty patterned paper by stamping leaves (Stampendous) over and over onto white cardstock, coloring around the leaves with white crayon and then using Tim Holtz distress inks to sponge over the paper.  I was going to cut it up into smaller squares to use on cards but then it was so pretty I didn't want to cut it, ever have that problem with a paper!?!

I did manage to actually make a few cards using this technique as well.

Distress inks used: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint and Fired Brick.  No clue who makes the pumpkin background stamp, it's a wood block stamp that I've had forever with no identifying marks on it.  The banner die is Spellbinders.  I really had fun with this technique but wow were my hands messy after sponging all of that ink on!

Early 2011 cards

My attempt at putting all of my photographed creations in one location.  Before my blog I used to upload creations to a couple of different online craft galleries but since I haven't been on those in months I thought I'd simplify (which is turning out to be not simple at all) and put them all in one location and delete my online galleries. 

McGill Paper Blossom Punch, Hero Arts Doily stamp.

McGill Flower Punch.

Unity Stamps, Martha Stewart butterfly punches.

Tim Holtz sentiment and crackle paint, chunky glitter.

Bicycle stamp-Unity

  

For baby girl Rem

Embossed the letters with T.H. distress inks (broken china, faded jeans, peeled paint), Cosmo Cricket paper and tiny type.  For baby boy Rowdy.

Unity Stamps, Spellbinders scalloped die.

Sizzix embossing folder, Core'dinations cardstock, Darcie Stamps, black embossing powder, spellbinders die, gems.

Unity Stamps and Pink Paislee papers

Unity Stamp

Frame and trees are Unity Stamps colored with Copics

Stamps are Unity, papers are Basic Grey

Frog from Stamping Up, Spellbinders dies

Papers are Graphic 45, stamp is Unity, used Rock Candy crackle paint and chunky glitter on the butterflies.