Growing in Unity - Day Two

Hi there out in blogland! Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes.

Today is my eldest daughter's birthday. She is now fifteen. I'll have a layout for you later this week, but today I have her birthday card. This child is truly the light of my life. She is one amazing young lady and I'm very lucky to have her as my daughter.

I've used Unity's Shine On! kit, another one designed by the very talented Lisa Hetrick. I seem to use a lot of her designs. Almost every one of my favourite Unity stamps was designed either by Lisa or by Lindsay Spencer (think peacock, people.)This is the inside of Meg's card. I do believe she shines wherever she goes.

Happy Birthday, Meagan!!
Shine On.

Blog Candy Winner!!

With the help of Random.Meagan, we have a winner!

Tanya said...
Happy early birthday (mine's coming up too- it's a good year to turn 40!)I'm now a follower.

Congrats to Tanya at The Adventures of Us!! Contact me with your details and I'll get the package out to you.

Thank you to everyone for the lovely birthday wishes. I wish I had enough to send something to everyone.

Don't forget that I'll have Unity candy to give away at Hip Hop on Thursday on the Unity forum at Splitcoast Stampers. It's where all the cool kids hang out.

Growing in Unity

Good morning everyone! It's my week to host Growing in Unity. Each week one of the Unity Addicts (addict?? Who? me???) features projects completed with Unity stamps. Yeah, I know. That's a real stretch for me.

Who's that laughing in the peanut gallery? Didn't I tell you last time that I didn't want to hear any of that?? Hmmm??

Now where was I? Back in October, Ramsey got the idea to trade off posting, Monday through Friday. She was going to assign weeks, but had so many volunteers it was unnecessary. Angela gave her blessing - and now every week has been spoken for through August 23! That's 10 months of Growing in Unity, folks!! I'd say that's a pretty good testament to what a wonderful company it is and what great people Angela and her crew are.

Oh yes, and of course I'll have a Unity single to give away during Hip Hop on Thursday out of those who leave comments on my posts this week.

Today I have two cards. I wanted to make them similar, but different, just to show how versatile these stamps are and how you can take sketches and use similar colours and get completely different looks.

The first card uses sketch CPS109 from Card Positioning Systems. This is the first time I've used one of theirs and it was an easy one. I also decided to distress the edges, which I've never really done before, except to test out the distress tool. Chelsea definitely does it better! This card will be winging its way to someone today - I hope she doesn't mind that it'll be a few days late.

Edit: I'd thought I was using CAS08 from Splitcoast Stampers, but I had the wrong sketch. I can't find a sketch anywhere that looks like mine. I'm sure I saw it somewhere, but am starting to wonder if I dreamt it. If anyone knows, I'd be very grateful if you'd let me know where it came from! FJ - 4.7.09

I removed the orange, as the recipient of this card does not like orange. I hope the green isn't too muddy for her in person. This one is actually going to be early! Well, depending on the post office, the Royal Post and customs.
Both cards use the same two stamps from Love is in the Air, the same card base (ballet blue), the same mint green accent paper (Remember When, from my lss), and the same set of oval Nestabilities - but they are two very different cards.

I'll be back later today to announce the winner of the birthday blog candy and again tomorrow with my next Growing in Unity project.

Hugs to all and thank you SO much for all the birthday wishes.

Candy Alerts

There is some excellent blog candy out there in Blogland.

Danielle is offering another (another???) Bind-it-all. Yes, I'm drooling and I hope I don't short out my keyboard. Link is in the candy jar. She is also offering a chance to win a really darling cupcake apron here for Triple the Sketch's one year anniversary.

It's a Hip Hop Hangover!

Good morning out there in Blogland! How are we all today? Seems there were a few of us needing some extra love on Hip Hop yesterday, so I want to send out some big hugs to Ashley, Jacquie, Shemaine, Tonya, and Kristen. Also to Robyn, Valerie and Christi, whose husbands are now, or have been deployed. And one to Ky - just because.

It's Baby week at Unity and there are some new stamps from designer Lisa Hetrick. This is one awesome chica. She's responsible for some of my favourite stamps, including the gigantoid cupcake from Piper's card last week. The new stamps plus the specials are listed on the Unity blog here. Angela's put up some more bundle packages and is offering free shipping through Sunday. Can't beat that with a stick!

My card for today is very clean and simple. The challenge was 3+3. No more than 3 colours, not including neutrals, and no more than 3 layers, including your base. Since I tend to go for the CAS (clean & simple) look most of the time, this challenge was right up my alley. I combined it with the sketch from SplitcoastStampers challenge CAS08.Deets:
Paper - Pink Pirouette, Whisper White (SU!)
Accent - adhesive die cut (SU!)
Ink - Kiwi Kiss (SU!), Rich Cocoa (Memento)
Etc - clear embossing powder, Copic markers

That's all from me today. Starting Monday it'll be my turn for Growing in Unity, so I'll have something to share with you every day next week, plus the drawing for Birthday Blog Candy!

Blog Candy Additions

I can't believe how many people have entered to win my birthday blog candy! I've decided to add a few things to the pile.

A few weeks ago, the lovely Lisa sent me a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. She was right - it is definitely a must have. I agree with her so much that I've acquired a second one to add to the birthday candy!

I am also adding in a StazOn ink pad and Unity's Wavy Solid Mocha wood-mounted background stamp.

Photo to follow.

Remember, to enter, see this post.

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.

Etsy Inspired Blog Hop Plus...

Just a quick note -

Somehow I missed this until last night, but there's going to be a big event tomorrow called Hop with the Etsy Inspired Eight over at PaperCraft Planet. Read about it on Ashley's blog here.

It sounds like it'll be a blast and since a lot of the peeps involved are fellow Unity addicts, I'm guessing there will be some Unity projects showing up. There will be challenges and prizes. Definitely check it out. I know I'll be there, even though I'll be working on homework and Swap-bot stuff while trying to chat, so I might be AFK a lot.

Amazing Hip Hop!!

Yesterday was the most amazing Hip Hop for me. Apparently it was my lucky day. It started off right at noon when the doorbell rang. It was the postman bringing my order from a couple weeks ago and my Rubber Rack!! Woohoo!! It is awesome. So was the new rubbah to ink up and play with.

Then I won two post number giveaways: Whateva! from Christi for post #1550 and Big Boy from Maren for post #3808. That was fabulous enough, but just before I was about to head off for bed, Jimmi came back on. She'd forgotten to announce the last challenge winner. It was ME!!!! Once I was done squealing and bouncing off the walls, I think you could've knocked me over with a feather. I won the This is the Time miniature set.

This is the card that won. I completed it for last weekend's VSN Sketch a Little Love challenge. It's the first time any of my cards have won, so I'm beyond thrilled.

The other card I have to post today is one that I had a ton of fun making. Among the stamps that arrived yesterday was January's Kit of the Month "love, etc." Yup, I finally got my hands on Petey, the peacock! This little gem was designed by the wonderful Lindsay Spencer. One of yesterday's challenges was called Blue Skies are Shining at Unity and it was to "Make a card or project using Unity stamps using the color Light Blue."


I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I totally adore this stamp. It was fun working with the Nestabilities, too. I just need to get an embossing pad so I can get that part right.

New blog for school stuff

I don't know how many people know, but I'm attending college. Yup, I'm just that crazy. I'm only taking two classes this semester, but both are pretty intensive. For one of them, we were given the assignment to create and maintain a blog. Unfortunately, current blogs didn't count, so I put up another entitled "What do you mean I have homework???" You can find it here. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be posting there, other than assignments for CAT 111 - Digital Design Foundation. I may keep it up and running once the semester ends to use specifically for anything else college related.

My other class is CAT 113 - Intro to Graphic Arts, so I'll likely have a few projects to post from that class, as well as some of last semester's Drawing 1 and Colour projects. It's always helpful to get some outside feedback.

No pics today, but I do have a link for a great blog here: Handstamped by Lacey. She's celebrating 50,000 web hits with some blog candy. Check out her blog. She's got some really nice projects with great close-up photographs and details of what supplies she used where. I've subscribed to her feed so I can keep up with her.

Yup, It's That Time Again....

Happy Hip Hop Hangover!!!!! Wowie, did we have fun again yesterday! My computer kept glitching out on me, so I missed a lot, but while I was there, it was a blast.

Before I forget, there's a new blinkie on the right side of my blog. Unity Stamp Company is hosting a World Record Blog Hop on March 28. Info is linked both here and in the blinkie. Be there or be square.

There was only one new release yesterday, but it was a doozie! Ladies and gents, by the one and only Tanis Giesbrechts, it's You're a Star!!!!!
DD#2 was having a crisis, so I managed but one card. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. I have no idea what the pretty patterned paper is, as it was from another SCS'er, Jan(aka tweetybugshouse), but I used it for the scalloped circle and the paper piecing on the flower, which is also stamped and embossed. I think it went really well with the big Scrappy Flower. The stem is coloured with Copic markers. The circle and scalloped circle were both cut with Spellbinder nestibilities. I did ink the edge of the circle with Lime Pastel Colorbox Chalk ink.
As for DD#2's crisis, she's 12. There is always a crisis of some sort when you're twelve years old. That child is going to be the death of me. It's a darned good thing I love her. chuckle

She really is a good kid. I have to take a moment for a mommy-brag. For the 7th straight nine-week period (actually, it may be more than that, but my memory lags and I can only remember back to the beginning of 6th grade for sure...too many report cards with 5 kids and my own to keep track of, particularly when 2 of the kids are having trouble - but back to Miss HL)...my darling sweetheart of a child has gotten straight As. She's in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, so she works for these As. I am very, very proud of her.

5 Reasons to Get Rid of Your Skinny Jeans

I read the following article on Spark People. It really kind of hit home, particularly after reading this post on the blog Kataroo's Kitchen. For anyone who has ever had body issues, it's a must read.

5 Reasons to Get Rid of Your Skinny Jeans

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The Duff Cake

I've mentioned to a couple people about the interesting thing that happened at our house about a week ago. The spousal unit got home and called me into the kitchen. He had something to show me.

He is currently the Superintendent Commander Support Staff - don't ask me why there are no prepositions in that title. In any case, as such, he had attended a promotion ceremony. One of the guys was promoted from captain to lieutenant colonel. That's a fairly big deal.

There was a party. Somebody splurged big time. I don't know who bought it, but the recipient was going to throw the rest away!! WHAT?????

So the spousal unit got to bring home a little surprise for us. When I went into the kitchen, there was a huge display platter with most of a three-layer bottom tier sitting on it. My jaw nearly dropped through the floor. Hannah was the first of the kids to realize what it was. She was giddy! We, of course, are huge fans of the show, and she just shouted "Ace of Cakes!!!"

Yes, Hannah, there is a Santa Claus Chef Duff, and we have one of his cakes. Okay, part of one of his cakes, but I'll take it!! I've missed him every time he's been at HCAT (the culinary school I was attending) so this is particularly awesome for me.

Now, without further ado, the pictures. It was originally in the shape of a full military helmet.

Oh, and yes, as the following picture will attest, it was flat out delicious. Moist and chocolaty and just plain GOOD. Even the fondant was good. It tasted somewhat like marshmallows.

Hippity Hoppity, I've got a Hangover!

Wowie did we have fun yesterday!! Angela was back on Hip Hop! She has some great specials running through today at the Unity Stamp Company. They're listed on her blog, so go check 'em out! You won't be sorry.

I've only got one little ATC to show so far today. I have a couple backlogged Swap-bot items that I absolutely MUST finish and they're to be painted. Once I'm happy with them, I'll blog about them, but right now, I'm still not thrilled, so they shall have to wait.

This one is kinda cute, though, I think. This week's Unity Addicts Challenge was to come up with a tiny Valentine with the following description: "one image, bright and colorful, Valentine-ish sentiment." I forgot the bright and colourful part. Oops?

Both the trees and the sentiment are from the September Kit of the Month: Friendship. Love. Miracles. The DP is from Memory Box's Sugardrop line. I used Brilliance ink in Pearlescent Orchid, Rocket Red and Pearlescent Rust. I also used Copic markers and Judikins Clear Detail embossing powder. In retrospect, I should have used the Rocket Red for the sentiment and left out the Orchid altogether.

That's all from me for now. Come back tomorrow and I'll have pics of the Chef Duff cake...

Valentine's Blog Candy at Scrap-Creations

Another blog candy opportunity! Kristen at Scrap-Creations is giving away some Basic Grey paper, a Martha Stewart punch and some cupcake stamps here. She will announce the winner on Valentine's Day.

Hmm...I don't see any Unity on her blog so far. Methinks she should be introduced!

I woke up this morning with a screaming headache. Instead of getting up early and posting here, bed and massive amounts of ibuprofen were the order of the day. The headache is subsiding somewhat, but I think another dose will be following as soon as it is safe to do so.

There was a discussion last night about gift card holders. I mentioned that I'd recently made one, but hadn't gotten a photo. That wasn't quite right. I forgot to take a photo before leaving the house. The spousal unit came to the rescue and took two photos, one of the inside and one of the out, while we were picking up a couple things on the way to the post office. He used his cell phone, hence the quality, or lack thereof, of the photographs. I am not complaining! I'm glad he was able to get them for me.

So, I don't remember where I found the link originally, but the tutorial for the gift card is here on the Hero Club blog.

The peeking snowman stamp I used on the front is from Impression Obsession. He came from a class I took at my local stamp shop, and is painted with Twinkling H2Os. The background of the card is Unity Stamp Company's Royal Day stamped with a green cat's eye chalk ink, so that the effect would be subtle. Unfortunately, due to the quality of the photo, you can't really see it at all.
Inside the card, I stamped the cute little mittens from Unity's December Kit of the Month with Ranger Distress Ink in Fired Brick. I slid in a gift card to Starbucks and I had the perfect little gift! I will be making many more of these throughout the year. They're really very easy and I think they're darling. Now that I have my first Nesties, I can emboss the circle or oval in the centre, too.

Blog Exposure Swap

Hi Everyone. I've mentioned Swap-bot a couple times before. Well, today I'm taking part in a Blog Exposure swap. Each of us has five partners to whom we send the link to our blogs. The intent is to gain each of us new readers and, more importantly in my opinion, to give each of us something new to read.

For the record, we do not necessarily send to the same people we receive links from. These are the links I received and some random impressions.

http://puddlebugskidstuff.com/blog/ - There doesn't seem to be a lot written yet, but what there is, I've quite enjoyed.

http://maistyle.livejournal.com/ - So far I'm giggling at her Random Facts. The poor dear just broke her first bone (her nose!) and I feel so bad! I've never officially broken anything, though there have been two instances where it has been questionable. But her poor nose! All I can think is "OUCH!!"

The next one I visited was http://afrogladycreation.blogspot.com. OMG, it's a stamping blog! With blog candy, no less!! How have I missed this one before? She also has a more general blog here.

The last one I've received so far is http://craftytammie.blogspot.com. I found a cookie recipe there. I'm a happy girl.

My last partner has not sent yet, but I'm sure I will get that link soon. I am looking forward to seeing what it may be. Now it is my turn to pass along my blog link to the people I am to send to. I wanted to write this first in case anyone wanted to check out my other partners' blogs too. Little warning, though - you might just get sucked into reading for a couple hours. But that's the point, isn't it?

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.