Blog Candy at Crafting & Living in Japan

Good news, Campers! Michelle at Crafting & Living in Japan has some blog candy to give away!! She's got two gorgeous stamps and 5, that's right, count 'em, F-I-V-E Copic Markers!! Click here for the post. She'll be having her daughter draw a name from all who enter on January 31. That's tomorrow, folks.

Hey, and while you're there, check out some of her projects and leave her some love! She's another Air Force wife and she's been doing Project 365.

Eyelets 1, Carole 0

Good morning everyone. Happy Hip Hop Hangover!

I do not know what was wrong with me yesterday, but I worked on this one card all darned day! I just could not get it right to save my life. I was working on two challenges at once, so maybe that was my problem. First was the Unity Addicts Challenge from Wednesday. Lisa challenged us to make a card using blue, red, pink and yellow. Oh, and to make it all about love. Okay, says I. I can do that. No problem.

Well, then I saw Amber's sketch challenge for this week. I thought, why not combine the two. That's where I ran into trouble. My first problem was in trying to decide if a DP was okay to use if it had a little touch of green in it. I decided that would be cheating, so that was out. Then, which card to use as the background? I finally settled on yellow. Okay, which yellow?? Come back to that. Let's work on the main parts first.

Okay, then...we have our hearts stamped. Do we mount them on anything? I'm wishing I had Nesties about this point. I cut the cherry heart into an oval. WAAAAY too much white. Okay, so we'll fussy cut it. By this point, I'd chosen the card. The hearts changed it. They looked too stark against the original choice. Good thing I hadn't glued anything down yet! Change card, glue stuff down. Ooooh, I need to add a little something to that heart. So I stamped it on the patterned paper (from the Basic Grey Euphoria line, btw) and popped up the little bitty heart. Much better.

So, brads or eyelets. I don't have red brads, so eyelets it is. Remember, I'm trying to follow the sketch and it asks for 3 "somethings" down either side. I totally bungled the eyelets. I mean they looked awful. It's only the second time I've used the cropadile and my hands are shaking and I can't hold anything steady. Marks on the card? They no longer matter when the card slips. I put them all in just in case and try to figure out just how I'm going to compensate for that extra hole I've now got.

Well, yeah. I did say extra hole. I should've taken a "before" picture. I covered it all up with Prima flowers. Three on each side, so it stuck with the sketch. And it brought in more of the yellow. Yes, you can see a peek of one of the eyelets in the photo, but I've adjusted the petals and used glossy accents to glue them in place so none can be seen. I may go back and add a little bling to the centres of the top-most flowers.

So that's my little adventure. Hope I made at least one person smile. Have a great weekend everybody!

So, the Craft and Hobby Association is having a show this week out in California. Everyone in the industry is there. No CHA for me of course...big bummer that is! Some day I would dearly love to go. Making Memories is doing a giveaway sometime in the next half hour. They seem to be doing a whole bunch of them during CHA. I'm not sure how many each day, but it sure looks like it would be worth keeping an eye on their blog for the next few days. They're also giving peeks of the show and previews of some of their new offerings. Definitely something to see! So go! What are you waiting for??

Happy Hip Hop Hangover

I've been lax this week. Bad Carole!

The Unity team is off to CHA this week. I admit it. I'm seriously jealous. I really wish I were going, too. I know they'll have a lot of fun, even though they'll be working their hind ends off. I can hardly wait to see what new things they will be unveiling when they return.

The first card for today was done for one of yesterday's challenges. The marvelous Jeanne challenged everyone to use unusual ribbon, trim or lace. Okay. That took me a while, but during Hip Hop, we started talking about chocolate. That was what finally flipped the light switch in my head. Of course!! I had some cut offs from the ribbon we use at work for packaging. Chocolate ribbon and the Kiss stamp from the November KOTM "enjoy YOUR STORY...laugh" - perfect!

I used a cocoa brown chalk ink, which I then heat embossed with clear embossing powder, for the Kiss. I wanted it to really feel like chocolate. The background is another Unity stamp, Deco Hound, which I inked up diagonally with several different shades of pink chalk Colorbox Chalk Ink.
My other upload today is a layout I did back in December. I was talked into posting it on SCS last night after admitting that I'd chickened out on applying for the Unity Scrapbooking DT.
The photo is of my younger son on his first Christmas. He was trying to eat the mallet from a xylophone my Grandmother had sent the boys. The background is brayered Distress Ink, using a technique from Tim Holtz's blog and the Worn Grid background stamp. I stamped the sleigh twice. Three times, actually. The first time was directly on the patterned paper, but it looked bad, so I decided to pop it up. The copics did not look very bright on the dark coloured paper, so I stamped it again on white and then paper-pieced the coloured bits onto the stamped and embossed sleigh. The stocking was also stamped twice. I embossed only the upper portion (the bow, really) on the background, and the full stocking on the white. I then used a red copic and gold and clear spica markers to make it all nice and sparkly. Both of those stamps come from the set Christmas Elegance.
That's all from me for now. I'm off to join the HHH chat on the Unity Forum at Split Coast Stampers. If you haven't been, please do come join us. It's a lot of fun!

Hip Hop Hangover

Goooood morning everybody! At least, I think it's still morning. It is, right? Hip Hop was great fun yesterday, as usual. I think the spousal unit is finally starting to understand that it's a regular occurrence and not just a one-time thing.

I haven't gotten any new cards made, but I did get three new ATCs done. Two are the same and are for a Swap-bot Snowman ATC swap. I used Snow-one Like You from Unity Stamp Company. The main differences are from the different areas of the patterened paper I used for the background. The snow ground was done with Stickles.


The other one I did was for the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer ATC swap. I used All Santa's Reindeer for this one and I'm really pleased with how it came out. The background is Twinkling H2Os and the reindeer is heat embossed, then coloured with Copic Markers. He wouldn't be Rudolph without the bling for his bright red nose.
That's pretty much it from me today. I hope to have a few more goodies to upload in the next few days. I'm off to go create - after a nice, hot cup of coffee! My hands are still frozen from the house being 62 degrees this morning. Hope everybody has a good one!

New Blog Candy Op

Good morning everybody!

Yeah, okay, so it's 4pm. Give me a break. I always say "good morning" no matter what time of day it is.

So anyway, Melissa over at Creating From the Heart! is having a birthday and to celebrate, she's giving away some blog candy. She's including some Shimmerz, which I've been wanting to try out, and 3 Copic markers. If I am fortunate enough to win, I'll be passing along the Copics in some blog candy of my own, since I already have a set of Copics - and I've got a couple things here that I'm holding onto for future candy. Nope, I'm not gonna say what they are just yet. It's a surprise. I bet, though, that if you have been reading my blog, you can get a really good idea of what might be included.

I'll have more pics to post in a day or two. Still dealing with sick kids. At this point I'm beginning to think it's never going to end. At least I've got my voice back. Still coughing, but it's at a level I can deal with. Work is starting to be worrisome. We only worked about 8.5 hours last week. This is exceedingly bad for the paycheck.

Lastly, if you could wave pointy objects or send good thoughts in the direction of the spousal unit - he spent some time in the ER today and is having to schedule some tests. Most likely everything is okay, but he's in some pain and I'm kinda concerned. Thanks.

Hip Hop Hangover

And boy am I hungover!! No, I haven't had a thing to drink, except some fake coffee - you know, that instant cappuccino stuff. It's definitely not the real thing! I'm just plain exhausted today.

In any case, I am SOOO glad that Hip Hop is back! I really missed everyone. This was the first time I actually managed to complete any of the challenges. One of them was a hair too late to count, thanks to an uncooperative computer, but that's okay. It was the first time I'd ever used the Cuttlebug I bought from another SCSer, so I'm particularly pleased with it. I'm not positive on the sentiment. I think I might remove it and stamp directly on the card with plain purple ink. What do you guys think?


I also made 2 more Prince of Peace Christmas cards and 3 ATCs. Two are using one of Lisa's snowmen and one is Rudolph from Bitty Christmas Tags. I think the snowman ATCs need clear stickles, so I'm not posting a picture of them at this time.
Now for the big coolness. Angela has made a few changes over at Unity Stamp Co. This is a good thing! There are new kits (uh oh...the spousal unit is going to faint), new specials and free shipping until midnight tonight! Click on the pic below and it will take you to all the deets.
Well, that's it for me for now. Have a great one!

Copic Candy

More blog candy, peeps. This one is big, big, BIG!! It's Copic markers. Yeah, how's that for big?? So head over here to Melanie Muenchinger's blog, Hands, Head & Heart for a chance to win a set of 36 Copic Ciaos. Trust me, you want to do this. They're fabulous markers. If you already own some, go check out her blog anyway. She's got a great tutorial posted.

Good luck to all!

QKD release party

Queen Kat Designs is offering blog candy, folks. You need to head over there and comment on this post between Jan. 6 and Jan. 15, plus be a follower of her blog and post to your own blog about the blog candy in order to be eligible to win. It's all for her release party, which is today and it looks like a lot of fun will be had with sneak peaks and challenges.

I don't have any QKD stamps yet, so I'll be using either Unity or Lockhart stamps for any challenges, since those are mostly what I have. Come play along. Challenges are a great way to stretch yourself.

Pumpkin Card

Just putting up one of the very first cards I made. The stamp is Karen Lockhart's Pumpkins in a Wheelbarrow. She doesn't sell directly to the public, so either check your local stamp shop, or the link I've provided goes to Ellen Hutson, LLC, which does carry Karen's entire line, as well as a wide variety of other paper crafting supplies. I'm thinking she should carry Unity Stamps, but that's me. The card was done during a class I took at the Queen's Ink - from none other than Karen Lockhart. It was a class on coloured pencil techniques and was a lot of fun, as well as being quite informational. Karen is a lovely woman. I hope she comes back again this year. If she does, I'll definitely be taking any classes she teaches.

Unity Explosion

I mentioned to Eryn, who is sadly blogless, that there had been a Unity explosion in my house. I've mentioned before that I've only been stamping in earnest since August of last year. I bought my first Unity stamps on August 13.

I took a class at The Queen's Ink in Savage Mill and the instructor was teaching us about all the different types of inks and the types of stamps. Then she told us about this new company she'd discovered, which combined the best parts of both wood-mounted and unmounted stamps. Colour me curious, but I wanted to know more. It took me a couple days to get around to hitting Google. The day I did, I bought Love is Toxic, Lovin' From the Oven, Together Forever (no longer available as a kit, but all parts are available as wood-mounted singles), and Angela's "Random Background Special", which was 6 of Unity's fabulous background stamps for $24 instead of $48. Yes, I found Unity online just in time to walk into a fantastic sale.

The thing is, Unity has a fantastic sale of some kind or another every week! Angela, the owner of Unity, always comes up with something wonderful for Hip Hop Thursdays. Often there are new releases, sometimes in bundles only for that day. She really spoils her customers. She and her Design Team give away some $300 in stamps during every Hip Hop, which is held on the Unity Forum at Split Coast Stampers. It's a huge amount of fun, though hard to keep up with at first. I've given up trying to get anything actually accomplished while chatting, even though there are stamping challenges to participate in.

If you go read her blog, she highlights different stampers almost daily. She also posts inspirational quotes. I love to read Angela's blog. It just makes me smile.

So anyway, that was a really long-winded way to get around to the purpose of this particular post. You see, a while back, I acquired a rather large amount of Copic markers. Insane amount is probably closer to the truth. I was hoping to sell some of them, because there were more than I could use, so I put the word out. Long story short, the Copics went to Minnesota and I now have a lot of new Unity stamps...in addition to all the stamps I've bought (and won!) in the interim. I've had a Unity explosion occur in my house. So I took a photograph of them all. I tried to contain them. I was only partially successful.

So here they are, in all their glory - minus the B handle, which was on my stamping table (aka the dining table.) Yes, that's Xander being nosy. He's up to 3.9 lbs now.
For the terminally curious, here is the mess I made getting some ATCs and Christmas cards done. It also shows some of the goodies I got from my Secret Santa...a big shout out to Stephydoodles!! Thank you chica!

Sister Spindle

Just a quick post to show a photo of a beautiful spindle that I got as a gift last year at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival from my friend, Shelly. She has a matching spindle, except her roses are in red and pink. Both were made by Tom Golding of Golding Fiber Tools. I'm spinning some blue silk on mine, also shown in the photograph. I bought it from Flock Bransonas. I'd link a website, but theirs seems to have disappeared. They have attended MDSW each year that I can remember, however.
As you can see, it's a truly beautiful spindle. It's one of my heavier spindles, but it spins like mad. I totally love it! Thank you again, Shelly. I still can't believe it's mine.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope it finds you well and happy.

First things first. There is some AWESOME blog candy over at Papercrafts by Rach. Deadline is Jan. 9, 2009 at 9pm GMT. Of course, if you guys don't post comments on her blog, maybe I'll win??

I'm slowly catching up on everything I need to get accomplished. I've sent out several owed swaps over the past couple days, so that makes me feel better. I'm still behind. I think that's a perpetual state of being for me.

The next project will be a couple snowmen ATCs. The great news is that I got some Unity love in the mail yesterday! I've been waiting for this box for a while, but it was kinda my fault it took so long to get here. I made a massive trade on a large set of Copics that I had for some stamps. It took me a while to decide exactly which stamps I wanted. It was really hard to decide! The problem? I want 'em ALL!! And every time I thought I had it down, they'd release something new! Plus I was trying to maximize the available funds, so to speak. I knew I wanted to use the Snow-one Like You set, which was designed by my friend, Lisa Hetrick. They're here now!

I've also got to finish a watercolour card that I started before Christmas. The painting is done, but it needs to be made into a card. I will, of course, post pictures once they are completed.

I have pics of some of the things I just sent out, but they've not been edited for size yet, so I'll have to post them later as well.

For now, I'm going to go cough, stamp and paint at the table and have a Red Bull while I'm at it.