Inspirational Blog Hop with Unity!

Wowie!! Today's the day for the BIGGEST blog hop I've ever seen. I think there were 215 blogs at last count. That's a lot of people who love Unity and who decided to play along this morning. We've been gearing up, but even so, it still kind of snuck up on me. Where on earth has this month gone? Never mind - we're not going there today!

If you didn't start with Angela, go here first!

Okay, I'm supposed to keep this short and sweet, as there are so many blogs involved.

First - my quote. I've been using this as my email signature, and I really like it.

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

This card is for my god-daughter, Piper, who turns six this month. She is a tow-headed little cutie that I don't get to see nearly enough. Deets will be at the end of the post.

Deets:
All Stamps from the Unity Stamp Company:
inside cupcake and cherry - Sweet Yummy Cupcakes
Front cupcake - Big Polka Dot Cupcake
Sentiment - Love is in the Air
Paper: aMuse square notecard in Fairy Dust
Mountain Rose Glimmer and Cryogen White Iridescent Text-weight, both from Paper Temptress
Ink: Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid
Versamark
Etc: Embossing powder - clear and detail silver
Copic atyou Spica glitter pens - red and silver

Now hop on over to the most fabulous Erin McKinney and enjoy the rest of today's blog hop. I hope you find lots to be enspired by.

Birthday Blog Candy

**** Blog Candy is Over!! ****

So, for those who don't yet know, I have a big, major, milestone birthday coming up on April 6. I am going to be - gasp - FORTY!!! The utter horror of it all!

Okay, so it's not really that bad. I don't usually feel almost 40. It does feel a little strange to know that I have a child who will be 19 in July, however. I cannot possibly be old enough for that!

I thought I would take a page from those who have gone before me and celebrate my birthday by giving away some blog candy. I'm not completely sure this is all of it, but because it's my 40th, and it's kind of a big number (for me, anyway!), I thought it should be some special blog candy. Here's what we have to begin with:contents:

Paper: Basic Grey - Euphoria
Stamps: The Unity Company -
"My Cup of Tea" single
"Shine" single
several unmounted images
(wrapped package, Laugh, memories)
Etc:
green stickles
Yankee Candle Co - Clean Cotton

The rules: I will choose a random winner on April 6, 2009. For one entry, please leave a comment on this post. For an additional entry, post to your blog and link back here. For a third entry, follow my blog. Yes, I am vain enough to adore having followers and I will readily admit that!! If you already follow me, just note in the comments section and I'll put in an extra entry for you. I'll have Random.Child draw a winner after work.

It's likely that I will find something else to put in the blog candy. I will definitely be adding some real candy. Chocolate type candy. From work. Yes, folks, you will be entering for some fabulous Deloache Chocolate. Good luck everybody!

Hip Hop Hangover - are we sure it's not Friday the 13th??

This is probably a bit late, but I managed to pick up a trojan and I've been fighting with my computer all darned morning! Enough of that, though, how is everyone today? Are we all properly hungover??

Angela got us a pretty new banner. It's wonderful! Check it out right up top!

There are some pretty awesome specials going on over at Unity this weekend. You can get $15 off a past Kit of the Month if you sign up before the end of this month. My card for today uses this month's kit. They are gorgeous. You really don't want to miss these.

Check out this post for the other specials, including three bundle packs, which are a fantastic deal!

I needed to make a birthday card for a very dear friend's middle daughter. Katy is going to be 16 this weekend. I remember when she was five. She has grown into an amazing, beautiful young woman. This is what I came up with. Paper:
Basic Grey - Recess pack
Bazzill Basics
Core'dinations - The Chocolate Box

Deets: Unity KOTM - March {simple life}
Versamagic - Ocean Depth
Cuttlebug folder - Happy Birthday
Spellbinders Nestabilities - Long Rectangles
Cloud 9 Design Rain Dots

Please come back later this evening. I will be posting some blog candy for my upcoming birthday. I don't know yet what all I'm going to put in it, but there will definitely be some Unity goodness and a Basic Grey paper pad.

'til next time!

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged this morning in a Photo Tag by Shannon. You're supposed to open your My Pics folder, go to the 6th folder therein and choose the 6th photo inside. Well...my folders have folders, so I went one layer further. The only bad part about this is that my 6th folder is the one that has all my original files, straight off the camera - some of them quite large. This is the picture I came up with.

I love this photo I took of Drusie. She lets me get right up on top of her with the camera and a wide angle lens.

Okay, so here are the Official Rules to this tag.

•Open your photo folder on your computer

•Open the 6th folder of photos

•Select the 6th picture

•Post the picture on your blog with a description

•Invite six friends to join the challenge

•Link your six friends to your blog post

This is always the hardest part. Who do I pick??

Lee
Katy
Opal
Tanis
Jen E.
Amy

Okay ladies, let's see what you've got!!

HHH addendum

Airheaded me almost forgot! One of the most eggs-tra special things for this weekend is a HUGE 30% off sale at Unity! Do not pass go, do not collect $200 - well, unless you need it to spend on stamps! It's going to be eggs-cruciating to decide what I want without going completely overboard.

Okay, peanut gallery, you can quit laughing now!

All I can say for sure is that I'm getting another one of these babies - a wall-mounted Rubber Rack! These are made by one of the Unity men and they are beyond awesome. Heck, if I ever have a house built, I want an eggs-tra large version built for my clothes. They're gorgeous and very well made. Hmm...wonder if they could be talked into making smaller ones to store punches and other things?

Anyhoodle, I promised myself that I'd try to get caught up today, so what am I doing still sitting here? Photoshop, here I come!

An Egg-stra Special Hip Hop Hangover

Good morning everyone! Yesterday, Team Unity was egg-specially on the ball. They cooked up an eggs-citing challenge for all of us hoppers. We were to count the number of eggs in all of the posts and tally them up. Well, let me tell you, my head was spinning by the time I was done. I even went back and counted 'em again just so I could have an eggs-act count. Googly-eyed is what I was. I do not think I was alone either! But, I gotta admit, it was eggs-tremely fun!!

Okay, I'm done now. I think.

On Tuesday, a bunch of us were chatting away and someone - I'm not eggs-actly sure who the guilty party actually was - put out a challenge: in one hour, or less, create a card for the SCS colour challenge - but using Unity's Hey Chick! This weeks' colours were Riding Hood (or Real) Red, Summer Sun, and Kraft, with Black being optional.

I knew this wasn't going to be an easy challenge for me. Time is not my strong suit. Yes, I know you are all gasping in utter shock. This is what I came up with:
LuvLee's version is here. Dawn (dmk104), Ashley (HeartHugsDesigns), and Shannon (Mrs. Mac) also played along. I'm sure they'd all be happy if a little love was left. Shannon had speggs-cial dispensation, as she does not currently own Hey Chick!

Have an egg-stremely spegg-tacular day!!

MFT Idol

There's a contest going on at SCS called MFT Idol. One of my friends, Shannon, aka Mrs. Mac, is one of the top ten. Go here to vote. You can get a really good look at her entry on her blog, but there are also pics in her SCS gallery. One contestant will be eliminated at 10 pm Eastern.

Two quick notes: through swap-bot, I was introduced to a blog called Everything Uniquely Beautiful. It's well worth checking out.

Secondly, I have officially become a Stampin' Up! demo. You can access my SU! site here. I'm really excited.

Cancer is Evil

The entire Unity community has taken to a very darling, brave little girl named Taylor Jones. She has a form of leukemia. You can read her story here. She recently had a bone marrow transplant and, as of a couple days ago, is cancer free. This is amazing news. When I tell you that it does my heart good to see someone beat this horrible, nasty disease, it is a vast understatement.

I have a friend from Swap-bot who is dying. Her name is Cheryl. Her husband posts about what it's like to live with a terminal patient on his MySpace blog under the heading Cancer Sucks. Every time I get an email alert that there is a new post, I fear the worst. I know it's going to happen. I just hate it. I can't imagine what her family is going through, particularly her children.

Then there's Bill. I knew he had cancer. But. When we last spoke, he was in remission. I guess I expected him to beat it. Part of me thought he'd live forever. When I got the word on Monday that he'd passed away Sunday morning, it was like someone had taken all the air out of the room. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't cry. He probably would have hated knowing it, but he reminded me so much of my grandfather that I'd started to think of him as somewhat of a surrogate. Bill, I think, would much rather have been thought of as a Casanova. He had such a gruff exterior and a marshmallowy interior. I am really going to miss him.

Out in blogland, there is something you can do to help fight this evil disease. Wendi at Kaput Krafts has a nephew named Ryan. He asked her to offer blog candy - with a caveat. She has received donations from several large stamp companies. Ryan is participating in St. Baldrick's Foundation "Shaving his way to Conquer Children's Cancer." He is trying to raise $1500 for Children's Cancer research. I do not know if any of their prior research directly helped Princess Tay, but I certainly can't discount it. So, go here and read about how to participate.

Please donate. Every dollar counts.

Candy Links

Scrapinglori has hit 20,000 hits in less than a year. To celebrate, she's offering this blog candy. There are Bellas involved.

Another bit of blog candy comes from my friend Tonya. There are some Unity stamps in this one, people. You want this, I know that you do! Go here to enter and let's all help her celebrate.

I think it's time for me to put the blog candy in a permanent home. I like the idea of a candy jar, so I'm going to set one up on the sidebar on the right. All new candy links will go there.

Back to homework. I'm totally stuck for ideas. Yes, that's why I'm blog surfing.

It's Friday Again...

And you know what that means!! Yup, it's Hip Hop Hangover day.

I have two cards to post today. They were both made for Hip Hop challenges, but due to some, er, technical difficulties, did not get posted until very late yesterday evening. Not a biggie. I was just glad to actually get something made. I really needed it. It's been a very rough week. You know, I don't need any more of these rough weeks. How about this? I'm done with rough weeks. No more. From here on out, I'm having good weeks.

So to start off my good weeks, here is the card I made for the Tag! You're It!!! Challenge.
I started by using the rectangle Nestabilities on white card stock. I stamped the cherries from Unity's Mix Up of Cuteness in Memento Cottage Ivy while it was still in the Nestie. Yes, of course I heat embossed it. I stamped the same image onto red paper, using Memento Lady Bug (gotta love that name!) and heat embossed that as well. I paper pieced the cherries onto the main image. The while highlight is from a uni-ball Signo pen. The cherry stems are a yummy melon Spica pen. I love how it shimmers! The sentiment, also stamped in Lady Bug and heat embossed, came from the original version of Mix Up of Cuteness. The card itself is aMuse cardstock that I cut and folded after the card I was going to use didn't look right.

The other challenge was Hip Hop Rewind Too! It was to use a stamp that was not new. No problem! Except I had this paper that I really wanted to use. With big, red, bead shapes. In velvet. Problem.

I played around with a few things, and this is what I came up with. I'm actually pretty pleased with it. It's definitely not my usual style. I have no idea what either of the papers are. They came from the Cupcards {to go} Jan09 "With Frosting" add-on. The verse, which I heat embossed it with VersaMark and marcasite embossing powder from Stampendous, is a marvelous Eleanor Roosevelt quote from Unity. The stamp is called Beauty of Dreams.
She was a very wise woman. We would all do well to heed her words.

Blessings to all. Hope you have a wonderful day.

More Candy Alerts

Thank you to everyone for your kind words about Bill. I'm doing better. It's going to take a bit. He was an amazing gentleman. I'm not quite ready to write a tribute post just yet, but I will.

In the meantime, there's more blog candy out there.
Karin at Scrap Everything is heading towards 25,000 blog hits. Yes, that is twenty-five thousand. I can only dream of having that many people interested in what I have to say. Her blog candy is posted here. It closes on Tuesday, March 17.

Caz at A Load of Old Blogocks (that title just cracks me up) is having a birthday. She is generously giving away blog candy for her birthday. You have until 11:50, March 20 to enter here. Happy birthday, Caz! Hope it's a good one.

Another birthday girl is Heidi. She has a Tilda and some other yummy looking blog candy here. Be sure to head over and wish her a happy birthday by 9pm, March 14.

Don't forget Jana Mays' birthday candy here. I know I've mentioned it before, but she's got a milestone birthday in a few days, so I thought it was worth repeating. (Happy birthday Jana!!)

Michelle at Stamps, Paper, Scissors and Donkey Smiles is a year old. Um, well, her blog is. Her candy is here and open until March 14, which seems to be a very popular date.

And lastly, for now anyway, to win this one, you must be +/-7 from the actual number of kisses in the jar that Kerry of Three Clovers Designs has posted here.

Good luck to everyone.

Bill Wyatt

May he rest in peace.

TGIF!

It's been a really, really long week. Not only have I been sick, but so has DD#2. It's always worse when the kids are sick.

Hip hop was a little interrupted yesterday, thanks to Splitcoast Stampers deciding that it would be a good time to upgrade the system. Did they forget it was Thursday??? Bad, bad SCS!!

My brain is in slow motion, but I finally have a card to share. I made this one for my step-dad's mother, Kay. She knit some slipper socks that I wear all the time when I'm in the house and a few days ago, sent a beret for Hannah (dd#2.) So this is a little thank you for her. Kay's favourite colour is green, so the card is very, very green.

I've used the flower and one of the sentiments from Unity's Little Buggers kit. The ink is Versamagic Chalk in Key Lime, embossed with clear. I did use Nestabilities, which I finally got to emboss, as the embossing pad arrived this week.
The other thing that arrived actually came last Thursday, but I didn't get a chance to take a photo of it loaded. My new Rubber Rack. As you can see, it's really loaded. There isn't a bit of space left on it! It sure makes getting to the wood-mounted stamps a breeze and it looks great up on the wall. I think I'm going to need another one.

My Little Monkeys Store More Stamps system came today, so I'll be able to do something with the unmounted stamps to make them easier to keep track of. This should streamline things and, I hope, help me be more productive. I'll give an update on that once I move the stamps over. That's a project for after the next bit of homework.

More Blogs with Candy!

There are a lot of birthdays coming up, mine included. Jana is going to be forty. I guess we're both going to have to get used to that number. Her blog candy is here. Hop on over and wish her a great big Happy Birthday!!

My friend, Lisa, is offering some Unity blog candy here to celebrate her 100th post.

Deb has hit 60,000 hits. Yes, that is sixty thousand hits. That's a jaw-dropping number. She's offering blog candy here. Congratulate her - she's just made the Whimsy Stamps DT!

Blog Candy Alerts

The first one is from a sweetie who is about to celebrate her 13th birthday. Visit Georgia's blog candy here. I'll be entering on behalf of my 12yo, who is just starting to make her own cards. Happy birthday, Georgia!!

Jill at Jill's Scrappy Days is a busy woman, but not too busy to offer this blog candy. Go leave her some love and wish her luck at Uni.

Next up is from Katrina at Whimsical Wishes. She is an SU! demo and fellow Unity fan. This is her first blog candy and it looks yummy!!

And lastly, but far from least, is Zoe, who will be 9 on Sunday. Her blog candy, a Cheer Anya, is here. Happy birthday, Zoe!! Nine is a wonderful age to be.

By the way, I highly recommend exploring the blogs of the two girls. They may be young, but they're already showing a huge amount of talent. Their mums should be very, very proud of them.

Etsy-inspired Challenge Card

Well, the 12yo and I are both running fevers now. Mine is low-grade and I'm sure just part of this bug I've been fighting. I'm a little more concerned about Miss H. I've been dosing her with Tylenol and Ibuprofen all day. Her fever comes down for a little while and then goes right back up. At its worst, it was 102.7. It hasn't been below 99.8 all day. She's just miserable.

I only managed to get one card done for the Etsy-inspired blog hop from Saturday. Technically there are a couple hours left to complete and upload any cards from the various challenges, but I'm not moving fast today. I'm thinking sleep more than card-making. Or homework for that matter.

This is the card for Lindsay's challenge, which was to make a card using only plain paper or cardstock - in other words, no patterned or designer paper! Okay, so that's not as big of a deal for me as it would be for others. If she'd said "no embossing" I might have been in a bit of trouble, but fortunately that wasn't the challenge.The image is from Unity Stamp Co.'s kit Blessings from HIM.

Oh, the hardest part for me when it comes to these types of challenges is the time limit. I'm not a fast cardmaker, so time constraints are always challenging for me.

Just two things...

First off, I want to say thank you to Ashley, the Etsy-inspired Design Team, and all the sponsors who made Saturday's blog hop so much fun.

Second, Starving Artistamps has some new stamps out and they're offering blog candy to go along with the release. Check here to see. I don't have any of their stamps, yet, but they've got some that are pretty darned cute. Any stamp that says "It's Easter...where's the chocolate?" will certainly get my attention!

That's all from me today. I'm swamped with homework. Nothing worth posting at the moment - I finished a tutorial assignment in Illustrator earlier, but there should be something in the next few days.