A Topsy-Turvy Day

Well. Today is certainly turning out a lot different than it started. I woke up this morning with my back screaming. Anybody with degenerative disc disease will know exactly what I'm talking about. It's like sciatica on steroids, with pain shooting all the way down to my toes. Usually it's my left side, but the past week, it's been my right, and this morning it all went nuclear. So, instead of the IB flea market, I've been holed up with pain pills and a heating pad.

I finally came online late this afternoon after talking one of the kids into bringing me the laptop, and all of a sudden the clouds disappeared, the sun came out, and the birds started singing. Why, you may ask? Not only did I win one of my favourite challenges, (EtsyInspired - woohoo!!), but, holy Toledo Batman! I won the big 500 followers blog candy at Feline Playful!!

Thank you so very, very much to Karen at Feline Playful and to all the girls at EtsyInspired.

BTW, if you haven't checked out Feline Playful and you like challenges, go there now! Karen keeps a fantastic list of all the latest challenges, by day - and she even gives you a little bit about what the challenge is. I've been using her lists to hunt for sketch challenges and to remind myself about which challenges I want to play along with.

Also, I think everyone should be EtsyInspired every week.

GIU Has Friends With Flair

It's day 5 of Growing in Unity, and that means it's your last day to leave a comment in order to win some Unity goodness. I'll be drawing a name this weekend. It's also time for Friends With Flair, so there will be someone else hiding a blinkie out there for another chance to win! The Unity Blog has a list of every participating. Look hard to find that blinkie and check out all the eye candy while you're at it!

Today's card uses the sketch from HYCCT30, posted by flowergirl36 (aka Dawn B). It's also EtsyInspired, just by this week's shop overall, which is very whimsical and cartoony. BeiLeXian has the most adorable prints! The whole shop makes me smile.
I just love Unity's co-branded stamps! Ashley is using Material Girl today, also. The sentiment I used came from "Get Scrappy With" Material Girl, and of course the dp is Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl.

If you want to know which set the two of us are challenging each other to use tomorrow, you'll just have to come back and see. Have a great day.

And a little sidenote - RIP D2 Williams. WRNK
You will be missed.

Simply GIU

Hey there, party peeps! It's Day 4 of Growing in Unity!! I've had a few requests for ornament instructions. I will endeavour to get those up by Monday at the latest. I've got a flea market table to man that will benefit the high school's IB program on Saturday, so I'm not sure how my weekend is going to stack up just yet, but rest assured, I will not forget!

The Play Date Cafe has another set of lovely colours to work with, so I used them in my card for today, which is for another of the HYCCT challenge cards. This one (HYCCT29) is by Cathleen (aka Ctorina) and it is to use a sentiment as your only stamped item. No problemo! Both Unity and {ippity} have quite a few sentiments that are perfect as main images.

Ashley and I are both working with {ippity}'s Delightful Little Things today.
I'm also entering the card in the following challenges:
Gingerloft Challenge 5 - buttons
Clean & Simple Stamping 114 - sketch
2 Sisters Challenge 11 - no designer paper

I'll be back tomorrow for Friends With Flair - and Day 5 of Growing in Unity. See you then!!

GIU is Never Square

Whew! It has been busy so far, and it looks to be a fully busy week. Taking the boys to class, then 2 kids to the orthodontist on Tuesday, plus 2 homework assignments due, then a trip for the boys to the dentist today and another assignment due...and NaBloPoMo is just getting started!

I'm having fun with Growing in Unity and my little side challenge with Ashley. Her card from yesterday was gorgeous, wasn't it?? Today's set is Jolly Little Winter. I think these penguins are adorable!! I made a Christmas tree card for AJ's Don't Be a Square HYCCT challenge, using my Spellbinders Nested Pine Tree dies.
Speaking of dies, jmahugger asked about the die I used for the flower on my card from Monday. It's the MFT Die-namics Rolled Rose die.

I also made a little ornament for this week's Unity Addicts Challenge. I tried making it with the same snowflake stamp from Jolly Little Winter, but all I got was a big, smeary mess, so, after trying a couple other stamp/ink combinations, I ended up going with a little tiny snowflake stamp that seems to be retired. Thanks for the lovely comments you guys have left so far this week! They make my days so much brighter. Leave one each day of Growing in Unity (Mon-Fri) and you'll be in the running for some Unity goodness!

ETA: Because I didn't think it really worked, so I didn't, and then was told it did after all, ...EIC112 for the whimsy of the penguin card.

GIU - A Playdate with Some Mojo

Welcome to Day 2 of Growing in Unity! Thanks for the lovely comments yesterday. They do help keep me going, always.

Today I have another card that started out for Hope You Can Cling To, Challenge 10, this time, which was to be inspired by things you see as you walk outside. I don't walk nearly as often as I should, but whenever I do, I always notice the flowers and plants, so I chose the Donna Downey/Unity kit Insightful Meadows.

Those who follow my blog know I love challenges, so I chose to follow two others in order to finish off my card. I slightly tweaked Mojo Monday 163, and the colours for this week's Play Date Cafe just felt perfect.

Don't forget to leave a comment every day this week. At the end of the week, I'll get to choose a winner for some Unity goodness.

Back again tomorrow with something wintry to share. Have a great day!

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.

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?

Happy H{ippity} Hop!

Good morning Peeps! How is everybody doing today? I don't usually play along with the h{ippity} hop challenge, but this last one was to take any sketch you could find on SCS and make an {ippity} card with that.

WHAT???

Did Eryn create this challenge just for me??

Well, I had about a basquillion things to do this week, including that midterm and a unit test - both of which I did better than I expected in - Hurray!! - and getting asked at the last minute to come help with some card making for some of the local troops. I couldn't very well turn that down, now, could I? I mean, come on. The spousal unit has been serving for almost 24 years. 'Nuff said.

So tonight, after getting the things I could do done, I thought I'd knock out a quick card before bed, since tomorrow is a big, nasty dentist appointment and I won't be in any shape to do much of anything afterward. The only way I get through a dentist appt is valium. I wish I were kidding.

I picked SC148, in part because I'd never made a card with a single layer base. It also seemed like a good candidate for a stamped background layer. I pulled out two more {ippity} sets that hadn't been inked up yet, as I'm still on my quest to use every one of my stamps. I chose Quotes A 'La Happy for the sentiment and Bitty Pixie Paisley for the background, using both the small and large paisley stamps and Versamark ink for a subtle look. The paper is from the Prismatics line, the ribbon from Taylored Expressions and the ink is Ranger Distress Ink in Fired Brick.

That's it from me today. For a full list of participating peeps, check out the {ippity} blog. Have a fantastic day!

Birthday Chloe

Quick post to go with a little challenge card. She's for Operation Write Home's Birthday Bash. InStyle Stamps hosted a challenge specifically for them. I CASE'd Taylor Usry's card, because I thought it was so cute. No bling, because it makes it difficult to mail from overseas. I also changed the colours a bit and used some paper from Basic Grey's Cupcake collection, since it was so fitting.

Of course I can never resist playing along with Etsy Inspired. Challenge 107's shop is called indigotwin, where I found this cute little mouse carrying a present. Adorable little guy, isn't he?
Bday Chloe is a digistamp from InStyle Stamps. You'll be seeing more of those from me. I have printer ink again! Woohoo!! The birthday sentiment is from Paper Makeup Stamps' Birthday Cheer set, which was designed by the super awesome Shaela Odd. It's a really versatile set to have and stamps from PMS are very high quality. Service from both companies mentioned is tops!

That's all from me for now. I've got several cards I want to get done (and you might get to see them in a couple weeks...cross your fingers for me, 'kay?) plus more homework. So far, so good in that area. Best semester I've had in ages.

Catch you later peeps!

I Adore Friends With Flair

It's Friends with Flair Friday. Unity crashed Facebook yesterday. Well, I don't know for sure that it was the Unity peeps, but I do know that all of us fans of both Unity and {ippity} were not only chatting on Splitcoaststampers, but also on Facebook, as the official peeps were doing some big giveaways, and at one point, the whole thing went down for nearly an hour. Oops?

We had a good time chatting, as usual. We ended up talking a lot about the 80s. There's a scary thought for you! How many of us were teenagers during that particular decade? Yes, I had two-toned hair. I owned, and wore, a pair of parachute pants in junior high. Mostly, though, I was a band geek. Maybe someday I'll post some old pics and let you guys get a great big chuckle.

Back to business. For a full list of participants, check out the Unity blog. Someone will be hiding the blinkie. Find it and leave a comment. You might win some Unity rubber!

I'm working on trying to refine my style. We aren't discussing Tuesday's card, which I still think is way too busy, although I'm happy with the colouring. Let's just forget that one ever happened, shall we? I'm also working on trying to use stamps that haven't been getting any love. The two in this card are both from the first Stampin' Store kit, from Aug '09, 100% Happy. The Queen's Ink, which is my local shop, still has a few in stock.

There are a few challenges represented. First is the Clean & Simple Cards challenge from SCS. CAS85 is to use kraft, brown, vanilla & red. It was optional to use orange.

Next is Etsy Inspired. EIC106 is Pegasus Maiden. The swirl of the outer stamp reminds me of the shape of many of the headpieces in the shop, as do the feathery bits at the top.

The Friday Fun Challenge (Hi Kimme!) is to use flowers in your card. I've got little teeny flowers in there, which I highlighted with Spica markers to make them sparkle.

I don't think I forgot any, but I won't guarantee it. I'll double check my notes after my dr's appt. They're kinda buried under the mess on my desk. I always make a huge mess when I create - and then clean it up after.

Oh!! My midterm!! 131/150, or 87.33%. I was so afraid I was going to get a C and I came out with a high B. Thanks for the support!!

I knew there were a couple others. Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful Challenge #2 is Rustic Beauty. I don't have any Flourishes stamps (yet!) but I think this Unity flourish is pretty rustic, as well as gorgeous. I was totally going for an autumn feel - which is Creative Card Crew's challenge!

Hope you all have a great one! (btw, dr's appt was fine. It was just a check-up, plus I got a flu shot. Ow!)