A Little Bit of Flair

Good morning! Happy Friday!! I've got a busy, busy weekend ahead of me - not only do I have my normal homework/test cycle, but Monday starts my week for Growing in Unity and it's the first day of NaBloPoMo. I'm not up for NaNoWriMo - there's no way I could write 50,000 words in a month - but I think I can manage a blog post a day for 30 days. Anybody else up for the challenge?

So of course, being Friday, it's time for Friends With Flair! For a full list of participating peeps, check out the Unity blog - and don't forget...someone is hiding that blinkie. I'm still hoping I win those 25 stamps one of these weeks!

And speaking of stamps, did you guys SEE the new stamps?? Unity and Jillibean Soup! Now there's a cool combo!! I'm trying to figure out if I can maybe, just maybe, find a way to justify buying some of them.

So, my flair card today fulfills several challenges. I said it was a little bit, though, because it's only 4" square! First of all, it's for All Things Unity's paper piecing challenge. It's also my 2nd Hope You Can Cling To challenge card. Lori Craig's challenge was to "bring in the brown" - use brown with the pink for breast cancer. Done and done.

The Etsy Inspired Challenge shop this week is just downright gorgeous. Drool-worthy even. I already knew I was going to make a pink and brown card because of the challenge from HYCCT. But the style from the prints in Stelettoheights, and The Dream Thief in particular, lead me directly to some old Sugardrop paper from Memory Box. Yum!!

And lastly (I think...it's late and my brain is getting pretty fuzzy) it's Mojo Monday 162.So that's it for me. Enjoy the hop and have an awesome weekend! I should have pics to share next week of my youngest two all dressed up for Halloween. Then {ippity} on Monday and who knows how the rest of the week will go. You'll just have to come back and be surprised.

Green With Flair

Morning, Party Peeps!

If you're looking for my Taylored Expressions BFTP hop post, either scroll down to the next post or click here.

It's Friday and that means it's time for Friends with Flair. A full list of participants is at the Unity Blog. As always, somebody will be hiding a blinkie that will be worth 25 pieces of deeply-etched red Unity rubber to some lucky commenter.

If your name is Donnamarie and you're having a birthday on the 24th, don't look further unless you don't want to be surprised when you check your mail. Yes, this one is for you, my dear friend.

Today I'm following Unity Addicts Challenge #23 - monochromatic, with a teeny splash of some other bright colour. I think I managed. Not only that, but I'm pretty darned pleased with myself today! Because I'm not worried about winning the challenge (I have the set, so I don't want to put myself in the running to win), I'm doing Etsy Inspired, too. This week, the shop belongs to EICDT member, Kerry! It's called Capturing Creativity, and I'm sure it won't surprise anyone to know that I was inspired by this batch of green buttons.

Have a good one, everybody!!

Blasting from the Past - Christmas Style

I am *SOOOO* sorry! I somehow got it into my head that the 22nd was tomorrow. Saturday. I don't know how or why, but sometimes I am just that braindead. So as soon as I realized my error, which was less than an hour ago, I ran off to make a quick card. And stepped in the coffee I spilt this morning, which still hadn't fully dried (Resolve on the carpet to resist staining. I cleaned the desk, Cody cleaned the carpet. Wet socks are so nasty!)

Anyway! When I say quick, I mean quick. I made these two as part of a set to use as gift enclosures or for when you need a last minute Christmas card. Super simple!

Stamps Used: Christmas Blessings

I hope you like them. I will get it right next month. Sheesh!

H{ippity} H{op} Monday

I've got the Monday morning blahs today. No idea why. I think my mojo took a vacation.

I've got a quick little card that I made for All Things Unity's paper piecing challenge and for Tanis' Colors of Hope Challenge - it's one of the Hope You Can Cling To challenges to benefit UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.For a full list of hopping peeps, check out the {ippity} blog.

Sweet Friends With Flair

There is a story behind my card for today. Fairly late during Hip Hop yesterday, Julie came in to do her giveaway (go Rachel!!) and those of us who were left got to talking about Halloween cards. Well...Lisa and I had never made any before. The conclusion was that, obviously, Lisa and I needed to rectify that little situation. I hadn't decided what to do for FWF yet...so a Halloween card was in order! I'm trying to get done some of the WCMD challenges now that my crazy school week is over (I got an A for my class! WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!) so I pulled out the biggest of my Nestabilities Labels 8 to make it a shaped card. I went with the little candy corn tree as a nod to this week's Etsy Inspired shop, Lemon Kissed, which has really cute leaf earrings and this tree necklace.

That's all from me for now. Check out the Unity blog for a full list of Friends with Flair. I'm going to be working on challenge cards today - and then heading over to Splitcoaststampers Virtual Stamp Night forum at 6pm Eastern for the On Cloud 9 VSN mini! I hope to see you there!!

Exams Make Me Crazy!

When you take an accelerated course, you end up taking a final exam at the same time as a midterm. It's making me feel a little crazier than usual, that's for sure! Throw in a little stomach virus and things have gotten even more fun. Yes, I'm stretching the definition of "fun" today.

I made these two cards a little bit ago. They were both for challenges. The first one, I linked up via SCS. It was last week's Etsy Inspired, plus CAS75, which was to use dry embossing. All images on both cards are from Lizzie Anne Designs.
The second one, for LAD's weekly sketch challenge #144, I just totally spaced on. Oops. That's okay. I still like the card. I had a lot of fun with the distress ink technique I used for the background and I got to play with some of the crinkle ribbon that I hand-dyed.

Mom, if you're reading today, pretend to be surprised when this arrives in the mail!

Imagine All The People...

It just seems fitting to post this photo today, on what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. Yes, that's me in the middle, along with my friends Eve Ng and Cheryl Kellman. It was taken in May 2000.

Happy birthday John.

Peace.

One Layer FWF

Morning Peeps. Hope you've all had a good week. Things are crazy here, but with 5 kids, that's pretty much status quo. I have a final exam coming up early next week. I'm sure I'll be fine, but I always get nervous about such things.

Today I've got a one layer card for you. It's super simple. The only thing I'm not happy about is that I really thought I had some silver cording. I found some gold, but that...um...no. Not gonna work. Instead, I used a very thin ribbon. I may pick up some silver cording this weekend and change it out.

I noticed that All Things Unity has teamed up with Jennifer McQuire to do Cards for Kids, so I was on the lookout for card idea. I'd wanted to do a one-layer card for today's post, and for Kelly Mahany's WCMD challenge, so I was thinking up ideas on that when I came across the One-Layer Wednesday challenge. Uh oh...a new-to-me challenge. This week's is to add a metallic element to your card. As soon as I read that, everything came together.

I used the bicycle stamp and Smile sentiment from Everyday Adorable and embossed them with silver detail embossing powder. I still wish I'd had silver cording! I think it would have set the card off perfectly.

That's it for me today. Check out the full list of Friends With Flair on the Unity blog. I wonder who's hiding the blinkie this week.

H{ippity} Hop

Wowie, what a weekend! Surprise...it didn't go as planned. Whatever bug the girls so graciously shared with me knocked me for a loop and I ended up sleeping most of the time. I did get all of my homework done, including a quiz and a unit test - whew!

When I mentioned on Saturday that there were going to be a ton of challenges, I wasn't kidding! Unity and {ippity} have a whopping 23!! How's that for a bunch of potential prizes?? I thought I'd start off nice and easy with Maria's No Patterned Paper challenge.

Earlier, I was checking out the SCS Featured Stamper Challenge. Alimarbles is also a Gingersnapper, which is a really talented group of peeps, so I was particularly interested in playing along this week. As I was checking out her SCS gallery, I found the perfect card to CASE for Maria's challenge!

My card is also Etsy Inspired. The store for challenge #108 is Two Eggplants and these little soaps reminded me of the flower from the kit Now & Always.The changes I made for the CASE are colours, stamps and a slight layout change.

For a full list of H{ippity} Hop participants, check out the {ippity} blog. Have a great week!!

World Card Making Day

Hey there everyone out in Blogland! It's World Card Making Day and boy, is it a big celebration!! There are tons of card challenges and prizes to be won all over. I'm going to be doing my darnedest to participate in as many as possible. I'm also hoping that I can send as many of the cards I make as possible to either Operation Write Home or to the UT MD Cancer Center.

So get out there and have fun. Make lots of cards. Challenge yourself to try something new. Use those stamps you bought because you loved them, but have never touched. Use that patterned paper you've been hoarding. You'll be glad you did.

Friends with Ah-Ah-Achoo, I Mean Flair

TGIF. And TGI isn't raining any more! It was pretty intense around here yesterday! I've got a house full of sickies, myself included - probably just colds, but we're all kinda miserable. The girls will be off to the doctor this afternoon to make sure, and to get notes for missing school.

It's time for Friends With Flair....all participating peeps are listed on the Unity blog. Somebody will be hiding a blinkie that could be worth 25 random Unity stamps to you if you find it.

I have a little project I made a while back and totally forgot to blog! It's meant to hang on the wall at Christmas.

The star of this show is Christmas List, which is one of my oldest Unity stamps. I want to find some sort of chain to hang it with, after putting holes into the top corners. I've been assured that I will not crack the old cuttlebug plate I used as a backing if I use a crop-a-dile to punch through it. I'm just being a chicken about it.

Have a great weekend. Tomorrow is National Cardmaking Day, so there are all kinds of big happenings on SCS and all over the place. I'll be participating. Will you?