Bling it On with All Things Unity!

Hey guys....four days in a row! I'm still not at 100%, but I'm definitely getting there!

All Things Unity has a brand new challenge today!
It's time to
Bling It On!!!

That means gems, rhinestones, glitter, pearls...stickles...use any or all of those! Well, and of course a Unity or {ippity} image!

I went with a sentiment from a past KOTM (September 2008 - "Love. Friendship. Miracles.") The same sentiment is now available on its own, called Almighty God, but it's about twice as large!

Deets:
Stamps: Unity
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey
Sketch: Mojo Monday 182

Since there were a few entries this past time that did not follow the rules, I thought I'd post them again just to be fully clear.

• First of all, have fun!!
• Second, please create something new for the challenge.
  
• Please use ONLY Unity or {ippity} stamps on your creations.
• Link back to All Things Unity and use our challenge photo (when one is provided).
• When uploading to online gallery, please use ATU##. (This week is ATU27)
• Please link to your specific post--not your entire blog.
• OPTIONAL - Please display our NEW ATU badge on your sidebar and in your posts. You don't have to, but it'd make us really, really happy if you did!!

Eligibility for MONTHLY prize::
All entries must be linked before 11:59pm EST the Saturday completing our 2 week challenge. You can link as many creations as you want (the more you link/create--the more chances to win). On the first of every month, we will post a winner of the prize package.

If you do not follow the above rules and guidelines, your creation will be ineligible and thus deleted.

NEW CHALLENGES are posted at 12:01am EST every 2 weeks on Sunday.

Eligibility for Challenge Blinkie::
One or two players will be featured on the Wednesday following the challenge end. The playersʼ creations, along with a link to their blogs, will be included in this post. These players will get to display this blinkie on their blog.

**NOTE** :: Receiving this blinkie does not mean you won the monthly prize.

There, now that all of that is out of the way, check out what the rest of the team has made - and when you're done, hit All Things Unity to enter your own new Unity or {ippity} creation! To be eligible for Challenge #27 - Bling It On!!, you need to link your creation no later than 11:59 on April 2.

Cathy
Sara
Savannah

FWF - March 18, 2011

Hey peeps! What's up with no Hip Hop chat yesterday?? Anybody else as bummed as I was? Oh well. Maybe next week?

So today I've got a quick card I made using the CPS sketch for this week (#209). It's my last one for All Things Unity's Birthday/Celebration challenge - which you still have time to enter...you have until tomorrow night, 11:59pm Eastern. Of course, this is also one more card in my own personal challenge of 40 cards in 40 days for Lent. I'll be sending them to Operation Write Home when I'm done.

Deets:
Cardstock - Kraft
Paper: Girls Paperie
Stamps: Unity Encompassed Grace
Ink: Versamark
Etc: Stampendous EP Claret, Mini pop dots

Head on over to the Unity blog to see who all is participating today. You may get lucky if you find that elusive blinkie! Good luck and I'll see you back here tomorrow with a new challenge from EtsyInspired!

Friends with Birthday Flair

Good morning! I think. Well, actually, let me rephrase. It's morning. I'm up but I'm a little worried about some people on the other side of the world (hi Opal!)

My heart goes out to everyone affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan and elsewhere.

It's time for Friends With Flair and I have another card for All Things Unity's Birthday Challenge. I'm using this week's Hip Hop Sketch Challenge (HHSC48) and the color combo from the Play Date Cafe (PDCC72.)










The stamp set is {ippity} Party Hat Wishes. I have one kit currently in stock.
For Unity stamps, head over to my favourite retailer, Paper Maniac! She has all ribbon on sale (35% off!!) for the month of March.

Check out the Unity blog for a full list of FWF participants.

All Things Unity Celebrates Birthdays

Good morning! If you haven't hit the bunny trail and hopped along with OWH yet, I hope that you will! There are a lot of posts to see this weekend - and some amazing projects along the way.

Graphic Courtesy of Lettering Delights

This morning, it's time for All Things Unity Challenge #26 - and we want to see Birthday or Celebration cards (or projects!!) I pulled out two older sets, Sweet Yummy Cupcakes and Birthday Chic, to make this card for my goddaughter's impending birthday.

Deets:
Cardstock: Stampin Up
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey Euphoria "Cool", Sugared "Delectable", Urban Prarie "Straw"
Ink: Versamark, Versacolor Wild Berries
Embossing Powder: Ranger Clear, Adirondack Eggplant, Stampendous Claret
Challenges: SCS CC311, Sketchy Sunday TG009

Now it's your turn!! Choose YOUR favourite Unity or {ippity} stamp and create something. Link it up to the ATU blog no later than 11:59pm on Saturday, March 19, and you'll be eligible to win this month's prize/and or the challenge blinkie.

Speaking of this month's prize...it's this set of fabulous Jillibean Soup papers and cardstock stickers!! Nice!!
Check out the rest of the team and see what they have to share with you today. We've got a brand new Guest Designer, the amazingly talented Megan Lock joining us as a second guest DT for the month of March!! Please help us make her feel welcome!

Cathy
Megan (March Guest DT)
Sara
Savannah

Here's hoping you have a great day!!

Altering All Things Unity

Wowie, I did not think I was going to get to post this today! Well, at least not from home, anyway. We lost our electricity at 11:19 this morning (Saturday, as I write). BGE (Baltimore Gas & Electric) had a recording that stated "the vast majority of customers" to have service reestablished by late Sunday evening. Sunday evening!?!?!? YIKES!! Well, we were exceedingly fortunate and ours was restored just before 5pm on Saturday. Whew!I hope everyone is as excited as I am about our newest challenge at All Things Unity! I very, very seldom alter anything. I don't know why I don't. I guess I just get nervous about it, but you know what? I think I was making it a heck of a lot harder than it really is!

In any case, I started out working on a journal for DD#2, Hannah - but she took the innards with her to a sleepover, so I couldn't put it back together for a photograph. I set it aside first thing this morning (after texting her to see what she'd done with it and discovering that yes, she did have it with her), and pulled out my own spiral notebook, which I use as a combination "list of things to do"/notebook/idea-book/journal. I got it out of the dollar bin at Michael's. If I'd thought to do it, I would've gotten a before picture, because it's a pretty big transformation.

I used a combination of Unity/Melody Ross co-branded stamps. This is the front.

And here is the back. Full supply and other challenge deets will be at the end of the post.

Now it's your turn!! Choose YOUR favourite Unity or {ippity} stamp and create something. Link it up to the ATU blog no later than 11:59pm on Saturday, March 5, and you'll be eligible to win this month's prize/and or the challenge blinkie.Remember, the prize for February is a February KOTM straight from Unity !!

Check out what the rest of the fabulous DT has to share!

Ashley (February Guest DT)
Cathy
Lynn
Sara (on hiatus)
Savannah

Card deets:
Stamps: Unity - Brave Girl Boots, All Worth It..., Love Life, Just Be You, She Sprouted Wings, She did it Anyway
Paper: Basic Grey - Sultry, Wisteria, Urban Prarie
Ink: Distress Ink - Pine Needles, Fired Brick, Victorian Velvet, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo; Palette - Moulin Rouge
Spellbinders: Fancy Tags, Heartfelt Creations
Etc: Stickles, Copic Spica, clear embossing powder

Challenges:
Crazy for Challenges: C4C75 - use dies
The Stamp Man #16: Hearts
Res-Q-Challenge #71: RESQ71 - use something that makes you happy. Things I used that make me happy: Unity/Melody Ross stamps, PINK!!!, Basic Grey, Spellbinders dies, Distress Inks, embossing powder, hearts
CRAFT #90: Not a card
PaperCrafting Journey #4: Anything Goes (ooh, a new challenge site for me!)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #105: Patterns! - the birdcage is stamped onto BG Wisteria and Free Spirit was stamped onto Urban Prarie
...Wee Memories #44: Source of Inspiration - Melody Ross, whom I think is just amazing.
Unity Challenge #1: Hearts!

Braving FWF

Hey everyone. I'm sorry I'm so late today. I'm still pretty sick, but I really didn't want to miss a FWF Friday. I had these made in my head yesterday, but couldn't get across to anyone all the stuff I needed in order to make them - or rather, exactly where the supplies were. That's the problem with having no voice and with running out of air when you try to do anything yourself. Oh well. It'll get better.

So, All Things Unity is finishing up the "Use your favourite stamp(s)" challenge. I just love the Brave Girl Boots set, and the boots are my favourite stamp from the set, so I knew I needed to use them. I needed to go easy, due to circumstances, and I had this thought of an ATC. I wanted to do some emboss resist with Distress Inks. It just seemed fitting.
Supplies used:
Distress Inks: Black Soot, Fired Brick, Faded Jeans, Vintage Photo, Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage, Aged Mahogany, Embossing Ink
Stamps: Unity Brave Girl Boots, Just My Type
Etc: October Afternoon alphabet stickers, Ink blending tool, Taylored Expressions Choice Snow White

ATU Asks The Serious Question...

Yes, that's right. All Things Unity wants to know

- What is your favourite Unity Stamp? That's the challenge Savannah posed to the team. We had to figure it out and use our favourite stamp. This was perhaps the most difficult challenge I have ever faced! Pick a favourite? Are you kidding me? This is the stuff of nightmares! Oh, the dreams I had as I suffered, trying to narrow down my options. What was I to do???

Unity has released so many fabulous stamps lately. Some I have yet to use, some I don't yet own...and then there are the {ippity
} kits...how was I to choose??? Inspiration struck with Rachel Bogner's Neglected Unity Challenge. When I first saw the January 2009 KOTM, I immediately fell in love with the peacock. I absolutely went nuts over him! Yes, it is a him. According to the designer who drew him (Lindsay Spencer), he even has a name. In any case, once I saw Petey again, I knew my quest was over and I'd found my all time favourite Unity stamp.

I used this week's Sketch Spotlight from StampTV (STVSKSP11) and colourQchallenge #70 (poppy, coral, blush, vanilla & espresso) to create my card, which decided about half-way through that it wanted to be distressed. I think it was the Tim Holtz Texture Fadez rubbing off on the rest of the card. What can you do but just go with it!
Now it's your turn!! Choose YOUR favourite Unity or {ippity} stamp and create something. Link it up to the ATU blog no later than 11:59pm on Saturday, Feb. 19, and you'll be eligible to win this month's prize/and or the challenge blinkie.

BTW, this month's prize is a doozy!! There is a February KOTM straight from Unity on the line!! Some lucky winner is going to be very, very happy!! Will it be YOU??
Check out the rest of the team and see what awe-inspiring goodies they have to share with you today. We're SUPER thrilled to have the utterly fantabulous Ashley joining us as a second guest DT for the month of February!!

Ashley (February Guest DT)
Cathy
Lynn
Sara (on hiatus)
Savannah

BTW, I still have 8 stamps left to use from Jan '09. I'm not quite sure I'll be able to fully accomplish that one, as 2 of the stamps are New Years' - and one is specific to 2009. I guess maybe I'll have to do a layout!

FWF - Jan 28, 2011

Morning! Ever have one of those days when you have a card in your head and you can't quite seem to get it to come out right? Yeah...that's the card I've been working on. You'd laugh at me if you'd seen how many times I stamped the main image until I got the green I wanted. I honestly lost count. What finally worked? An old Colorbox cat's eye.

I'm just glad to be stamping and blogging again, after nearly a week's hiatus. Sometimes my back sure makes life difficult!! I'm still using stamps from the January 2009 KOTM, Love, Etc. I still have a few more stamps from this kit that I haven't yet used, but I'm getting a lot closer to using the entire kit. Thanks for the push, Rachel!!

I made an easel card for All Things Unity Challenge #23. You have until Saturday, February 5, to play along. For full challenge deets, check out this post on the ATU blog.

Okay, that's enough from me. Make sure you head over to the Unity blog to see who's participating in FWF today. Back tomorrow with some EtsyInspired fabulosity!

Honey, We Shrunk ATU

Yup, we shrunk All Things Unity this week and made 3x3 - or smaller!! - cards.I went super crazy and made a set of 9 notecards! I just couldn't stop!! All of them use {ippity}'s Just Wanted to Say (available via my {ippity} blog) and I think they're perfect for when you want to add just that little extra touch without going overboard.
I used the same layout and the same basic papers for each card, just varying the ribbons and switching off between 3 sentiments, so that the person who will be receiving the set will have a few options.

We've had a few rule changes for the All Things Unity challenge. They're not really serious changes - more like clarifications.

• First of all, have fun!!
• Second, please create something new for the challenge.
  
• Please use only Unity or {ippity} stamps on your creations.
• Link back to All Things Unity and use our challenge photo (when one is provided).
• When uploading to online gallery, please use ATU##. (This week is ATU22)
• Please link to your specific post--not your entire blog.
• OPTIONAL - Please display our NEW ATU badge on your sidebar and in your posts. You don't have to, but it'd make us really, really happy if you did!!

Eligibility for MONTHLY prize::
All entries must be linked before 11:59pm EST the Saturday completing our 2 week challenge. You can link as many creations as you want (the more you link/create--the more chances to win). On the first of every month, we will post a winner of the prize package.

If you do not follow the above rules and guidelines, your creation will be ineligible and thus deleted.

NEW CHALLENGES are posted at 12:01am EST every 2 weeks on Sunday.

Eligibility for Challenge Blinkie::
One or two players will be featured on the Wednesday following the challenge end. The playersʼ creations, along with a link to their blogs, will be included in this post. These players will get to display this blinkie on their blog.

**NOTE** :: Receiving this blinkie does not mean you won the monthly prize.

There, now that all of that is out of the way, check out what the rest of the team has made - and when you're done, hit All Things Unity to enter your own new Unity or {ippity} creation!

Cathy
Lynn
Sara (on hiatus)
Savannah

Taking Joy in All Things Unity

Hey there peeps. I'm back online after a few days taking care of my eldest daughter, Meagan. She had some pretty massive oral surgery on Thursday. It's not often that a 16yo needs her mother. Heck, with my own medical garbage, she often takes care of me, so you can bet that I was going to do anything and everything in my power for her.

Anyway, it's time for a brand new challenge at All Things Unity! For Challenge #21, we're looking towards Christmas and we'd like you to design anything but a card.

I made a little flap-lid gift box, decorated with some Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses dp and stamps from the Unity/Jillibean Soup kit 'Tis the Season for Joy. I used Copic atyou Spica markers to colour in the Joy stamp and make it sparkle. Somebody in my family will be receiving a little giftie in this for Christmas and I'm not saying who!!
Now go check out what the rest of the team has made - and when you're done, hit All Things Unity to enter your own new Unity or {ippity} creation! You have two weeks, until December 25, to enter!

Cathy
Lynn
Sara (on break)
Savannah

My project is also for Allsorts week 82, last minute Christmas.

ATU Leaves Me in Stitches

For the OWH Valentine's blog hop, please scroll down.

This is my second challenge as guest DT for All Things Unity and this time around, it's a colour challenge. Red, brown and orange are required, with yellow being optional. Basically, it's a nice fall colour palette, perfect for this time of the year.

I've been one of the hostesses for this round of VSN, so I've been trying to participate in some of the other challenges. One that jumped out at me was Jimmi's. She challenged us to make a card about another activity that puts us on Cloud 9. I've been sewing ever since I finally talked my grandmother into teaching me how. I even wore out my first sewing machine!!
The Unity/Cosmo Cricket co-branded stamp set Material Girl was perfect for this. I overstamped the orange die-cut layer in Burnt Umber with the {ippity} stamp A Bit of Burlap to tone it down just a hair. The layout is Mojo Monday 164.

I hope you can all play along with us at All Things Unity! You have until Midnight EST on November 27, 2010.

Growing with an {ippity} Hop

Happy November!! It's the start of NaBloPoMo - and my week for Growing In Unity!! Not only that, but OMG!!! I'm the Guest DT over at All Things Unity for the next 2 months!!! So I am super-duper excited today!! Oh, and of course it's H{ippity} Hop day! It's just all kinds of fun around here!!

The first official challenge that I get to participate in as guest DT is ATU18 - and it's to make a monochromatic project. I've been working on the challenges for Hope You Can Cling To (and yes, you'll be seeing more of those this week), so I went pink for this one. Sara doesn't know yet that this card was for her HYCCT challenge - something old and something new. The pink speckled dp and the dp I used to paper piece the leaves is some mystery paper I've had in my stash forever and a day. I couldn't tell you what it is or where it came from! My "new" item is my brand new rolled-rose die! It just arrived in the mail a few days ago.The sketch is Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #97. The floral dp is Basic Grey Olivia. The lovely {ippity} set is Where You Should Be, which is wonderful for just about any occasion. I hope this card cheers up whomever receives it at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Check out the {ippity} blog to find out who is playing along today...including the oh-so-talented {ippity} design team.

Now, for All Things Unity, you have until November 13 to create and upload a monochromatic project. That's plenty of time and we'd all love to see what you come up with. In the meantime, there's more eye candy to see:

Sara
Lynn
Savannah
Cathy

Lastly, one quick little note. My friend, Ashley (she of EtsyInspired fame), and I have challenged each other to see what we can do using the same stamp sets for the next 7 days. Should be interesting...I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with. Heck, I can hardly wait to see what I come up with!

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.

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.

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.

A Whole Latte Coffee

Hey everyone! My desktop is still down for the count. I'm still not exactly sure what happened, but I may have run into a malicious website, since it seems to be fine - unless I try to open up Firefox. As soon as Firefox tries to restore the previous session, everything locks up. I've tried reinstalling over the old version, uninstalling and reinstalling...and now I've completely removed all evidence of Firefox from my system. Yes, the spousal unit made me do it myself, while standing over my shoulder and telling me what to type in, since when it comes to registry information, I'm fairly clueless.

Anyway, I took a little time to play around with a few challenges. First off is this week's Color Throwdown #108- Kraft, So Saffron, and Chocolate Chip. Next, I thought I'd check out a couple of the Splitcoaststampers challenges. The first one was one I've not done before. It's called the Featured Stamper Challenge. A stamper is chosen each week and the challenge is to CASE one of his or her cards. This week it is BobbiesGirl, whose name happens to be Carol. I chose this card of hers to CASE. I went close enough to her card to also do CAS82 - to be inspired by the word "delicious."
And of course, I had to go with my absolute favourite challenge. Anyone wanna guess? You get three chances and the first 2 don't count, because of course it's Etsy Inspired! This week, the shop is Glamasaurus - and let me tell you, this is one shop I do not dare
share with my daughters, particularly the younger two. They would want half the shop! I took my final inspiration from this plate of cookies. How did I get my card from a plate of cookies? Well, in part, the colours. I can see Kraft and...er, chocolate chip... there. But also, when I see cookies, I don't want a big glass of milk. I want a triple venti skim caramel macchiato!!

Other challenges this card is for:
The Shabby Tea Room #25 - Old Meets New: The sentiment is from my one of my very first GinaK sets, bought app 18 months ago. The Starbucks stamp is a brand new gift from my friend Jen!
A Crafty Little Place #54 - Anything Goes
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #99 - Clean & Simple
All Things Unity - What's Your Flavour: um, am I getting closer? still simple and I think it's kinda cute...and well, heck. Coffee is ALWAYS my flavour!!!

It's a Pink Friday

Hey everyone! It's Friends with Flair Friday and I'm feeling very pink today. As usual, check out the Unity blog for a full list of participants. Someone is hiding a blinkie that could net you 25 random Unity stamps.

Now, before we get to my card, I have a quick announcement. This weekend, starting tonight at 6pm, is VSN over at Splitcoaststampers! That is Virtual Stamp Night - a big gathering of people with challenges, chat and fun. There are prizes to be won for each challenge. You don't have to be present to win, but you do have to post your project no later than 10pm EST on Monday, Aug. 30 in order to be eligible. I will be there during most of the event, but my challenge time slot is 2pm on Saturday, so I will be at the keyboard, chatting away and answering any questions you may have during that hour. I hope to see you there!!

My card today uses another stamp set I hadn't gotten inky yet. It was one that had gotten packed away before our move. The box was unearthed last week (and the knights rejoiced!), much to my pleasure. I've rotated Jen del Muro's Sketch For You To Try and cracked open my Basic Grey Olivia paper. I just love this Donna Downey quote.I'm also entering this in the current All Things Unity challenge, to show your style. The only problem, really, is that my style changes as often as my mood. Isn't that a woman's prerogative??

{ippity} Do Dah

Good morning everybody! Guess what! Several weeks ago, I added my blog to the Stamping Top 50. It was sort of a lark, but I did kind of want to see how I rated. My first ranking was #773! As of the time I write, I am now at #496! I have broken the barrier into the ranks of those who are actually listed by blog name! Thank you to all who read and who comment, as it is because of you. I do treasure every comment I receive.

Okay, now that I'm done gushing for the day, it's H{ippity} Hop time! A full list of participants is listed on the {ippity} blog. The Design Team will have some previews of the new releases, which will go live on Thursday, August 12. I've seen them and you guys are gonna love 'em! Yes, I will have them all available to purchase, and I will have some specials going up on my {ippity} blog as soon as the new goodies arrive.

For now, I have a card with a stamp from the last release. It's called Books a'Flutter. When I saw this one, I just knew it would be a favourite! The ribbon and white butterfly are from the Caffinated Cropper kit With a Cherry on Top. Other supplies used are Neenah Classic Crest, Script & Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folders, Copic Markers, Weathered Wood Distress Ink, Nesties Labels 8 and Frosted Lace Stickles.Enjoy the rest of the hop and have a marvelous week.

Challenges this card is for:
Etsy Inspired #100: Inspired by this butterfly journal
All Things Unity #12: Back to School (we just bought college textbooks. OUCH!!)
This week's Sketch For You to Try (and Ashley is this month's guest DT!!)
Oh Alice, Chapter 25: make an all white card (with the exception of the main image)

TGIF and FWF

TGIF and that means it's time for Friends With Flair! You all know what that means, right? Yup, it means it's time to check out the Unity blog for a full list of participants and, as usual, someone is hiding that ever-elusive blinkie. Leave a comment on the blog where you find it and you'll be in the running to win some Unity rubber!

I think I've overdone it a little, between chatting on Hip Hop, stalking the Dare to Get Dirty Challenge Queen threads over at SCS, and all of the paperwork for getting myself and my two sons registered for the fall semester. It's weeks like this when I really wish they'd been diagnosed much sooner than they were so they'd had the benefits of early intervention. It just means we have to work that much harder now to deal with the Asperger's Syndrome they both have. The worst part, at least for Cody, is that I started asking doctors to help me figure out how to help him before he was 6 years old. He was not given a full diagnosis until he was 12.5, and even then, we were not given much help by way of treatment.

Anyway, I digress. I'm playing with challenges again this week. Surprise! The first challenge I worked with was All Things Unity, which was a sketch challenge this time. They have a great team over there and I need to remember to play along more often. Secondly, it's Etsy Inspired's 99th challenge. I chose this bingo hat at Becky Kazana's shop. I'm not entirely sure if this counts for the Play Date Cafe's Challenge this week. Does navy blue count as a neutral in cardmaking like it does in fashion? I just don't know.

The stamps I used (the bingo card and FUN) came from the very first Stampin' Store kit, 100% Happy. A few places may still have them in stock, including my LSS, but you might have to hunt for them. It's one of my most used kits.

I hope you like my card for today. I had fun putting it together. Oh, and remember what I said about that elusive blinkie? Guess what!

It's been hiding here all along. Leave a comment and I'll let random.org pick a winner. You have until I get up tomorrow (Saturday) to do it and be in the running, at which time I'll post the winner. Don't forget to check back to see if it's you!

Avoiding Unpacking

I'm avoiding unpacking today. Yesterday, Alice's urn was delivered and her ashes were returned home. I spent the evening with Barry and a couple other friends just having dinner and talking about some of the things she used to do. It was a really good evening and we had a lot of laughs.

For those who might be wondering, before she was cremated, Barry had some of her brain tissue donated to CJD research in hopes that her death will serve a greater purpose. Alice would definitely have approved.

So, since I don't want to be completely useless, and since I finished the book I was reading, I decided to get a head start on this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge, as well as squeaking in under the wire for the All Things Unity challenge, which I've missed for several weeks running. EIC98's shop is called EmenGee Designs. In addition to these earrings, I was also inspired by several other yellow items in the shop. All Things Unity just asked for anything but a card.

A while back, I had started a series of ATCs. When we were packing, I found a spare blank that I'd apparently intended to have been a part of the series. Most of that series had had birds on it. I have some new Unity birds, so I pulled out the Samantha Walker kit, What a Hoot (available at your local or online stamp shop), and some of my trusty Distress Ink.
I did emboss both the owl and the sentiment, just to make cutting them out a little easier, as it's still kind of hard for me to do it myself, though my finger is probably only a week or two from being fully healed. I used Copic markers to add a little colour to the owl, who is stamped on Neenah Classic Crest. The background is Unity's Worn Music and the patterned paper is just some scrap origami paper I had lying around.

I've got a bazillion and one things to do tomorrow. If anybody has any clue where I've lost my embroidery, can you let me know? I'd really rather not start all over again...