February's First FWF

Wow. I think yesterday was the absolute slowest/least attended Hip Hop I've ever seen. I think a lot of peeps are either still traveling back from CHA or just haven't yet recovered from all the excitement and exhaustion, not to mention catching up with the lives they put on hold while they were in LA having fun while the rest of us were wishing we were there, too! I know we will all reap the benefits in the coming months, so I'm working on my patience.

In the mean time, there's a new Hip Hop Sketch Challenge (#43) and since I'm still working on Rachel's unofficial Neglected Unity Challenge, I've used one more stamp from the January '09 KOTM, Love, Etc. The heart stems come from the Sept. '09 KOTM, Go Ahead Wish. I may use it for my next "neglected" kit, particularly as these are the first stamps I've used from it! Three down, 18 to go...
Other than the two mentioned, I'm only entering this one in two other challenges - both Flourishes Timeless Tuesday (#103) and Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge (#40) have asked for a Valentine this week.

I tried Patter Cross's (ex-Unity DT) method of tying ribbons (shown here), just to see if I liked it better than my normal way. I think I will need to give it a few more tries before I make a decision. I had a little bit of a hard time making the bow lie straight, but that may just be because I need more practice. In theory, it should make things much easier, so for now I'm going with user error. In the end, I think the bow came out pretty well.

Head on over to the Unity blog to see who is hopping today. I'm sure the rest of the peeps are not as wordy as I. Good luck at finding the blinkie!

My First Flourishes

Yes, I know this isn't Tuesday, but today is the day Flourishes has set for everyone to upload their projects. The hop lasts from today (Friday) through Monday night at 6pm (Eastern, I think?)

Flourishes 100th Challenge is All About Favourites. I used a few of my favourite things in this card. First off, I used a sketch challenge! This one is Get Sketchy #70. I adore sketch challenges!! I used Kraft cardstock for one of my layers. It's all AJ's fault that I am now addicted to Kraft. I love to use metal dies, so I used two to make the rolled flowers. The patterned paper is Basic Grey, which the flowers are also made out of. The Smooch Spritz went on heavier than I'd intended, so you can't see the two different patterns I used for them, but Basic Grey was my first favourite paper company and Wassail is still one of my very favourite lines. Lastly, I used a stamp from my favourite Flourishes stamp set. Okay, so it's my only Flourishes stamp set...but it will not be the last! Oh! And I used my favourite technique on the sentiment. Heat embossing!
Speaking of this set, Our Gift to You was the one I got from Flourishes for winning the Spellbinders Holiday Hoppin' Blog Hop, so I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank the lovely people at Flourishes for their generosity.

Enjoy the hop! At last count, there were 40 participants, and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has made!

Other challenges this card is for are:
ABC Christmas: A for Anything Christmas
Basic Grey #35: Spots & Dots - the rolled rose dp is dotted (from Wassail) and there are holly dots on the dp that shows
Gingersnap Creations: GC#84 - colour challenge: snow, pine & mahogany