Paper Maniac Magical Mystery Blog Hop

Welcome!! If you arrived here from Christine’s blog, you are on the right track. If not, go back to the Paper Maniac Store blog.  I am super excited to be participating.  This is a very fun online store with GREAT customer service!! They carry my favorite UNITY stamps and so much more!! They also started some fun challenges and guess what - I won the last challenge with this card - how fun is that.  For the hop we were challenged to find a Beatles song and use it for inspiration for our cards.  I chose "Something" it was released in 1969 which is the year I was born!! It is a timeless love song - I'm sure you have all heard it!  This song was on the album Abbey Road - and when I realized that I got so excited and thought I have some of that paper!  (oops - that would be AMBER ROAD - LOL)  anyway still pretty fun and I went ahead and used my Amber Road paper which you can find in the store here.  I used stamps from both the December Store Kit and the October Store Kit.  If you haven't gotten this December kit yet you definitely should do that TODAY.  It is my FAVORITE!!  I felt that this first card was a pretty love card inspired by Something. 

For my second card - I saw this design a while back and wanted to try it with these fun stamps also from the December Store Kit. Cute and Easy Peasy!! 

AND speaking of Easy Peasy how about a shot at a great prize or maybe 2!!!

Prize Number 1: One random blog hopper will win a deluxe prize package that includes one mini-deck of all three new Cosmo Cricket papers, a package of American Crafts pearl brads, and the new Flourishes clouds background stamp.  All you have to do to win this prize is leave a comment on each of the participating blogs.


Prize #2: if you are not a registered customer, Sign up in the store now! One new customer registering on January 30-31 will be randomly selected to win a $20.00 gift certificate

So let the fun continue!! Hop on to AMY

FWF + a Snow Day = FUN

ok so I am scheduling this post and hoping for a snow day!   I also hope our electricity doesn't go out - I would hate to miss a hop!  *edited: No snow day and not enough snow YET to go sled riding - maybe tomorrow. This card woke me up the other morning!  Anybody else dream about their Unity stamps?  I wish you could see the pretty glimmer.  I used Kakhi Glimmer Mist, the distressed dots was stamped with creamy brown fluid chalk ink.  I used one of my favorite Ippity stamps (the bracket) and the small polka dots from this month's Unity KOM.  The flowers were from the June KOM and the sentiment is from the simply said.  I liked this one so much I made 3!!  I should do that more often since it doesn't take much more time and I could always use a few more to send!

My second card uses my new cuttlebug embossing folder!  This was my first try and I'm not too crazy about it.  I do love this paper and this new stamp from the KOM.  I'll be excited to see what everyone else is doing with these.

Check out the Unity Blog for a list of everyone else who is showing off their stuff today!  I'll be back with more Unity goodness tomorrow for the Paper Maniac Magical Mystery Blog Hop!

Love Cards - H{ippity} Hop Monday

For the first card I attempted the color challenge for this week.  Black, Neutral (brown) and one other color.  My green is actually a really pretty green but it sorta looks yellowy here.  I thought I was getting a much better picture than this!  The pretty background stamp didn't show up here too well either.  Anyway in person the brown and black work well together.  The card itself is Core'dinations black with green on the inside.  The stitching is brown.  The Love background stamp is from the May KOM and is stamped in creamy brown chalk ink (as well as around the edges).  The Love Birds (Ippity Because of You) are stamped with black Unity ink on the green card (MM 6 x 6 pad) then again on white and cut out.  The flowers are bazzill.  The black heart brad is doodlebug and it is fuzzy!! (love it)  I threw this second little quicky card in - it will be going to the St. Jude's card drive (along with several others that I have made and/or still want to make)  you can get more information on that on Julie Campbell's fabulous blog or by clicking here. I cut the alligator with the cricut (I thought it looked like he was smiling!)  It's really harder than I thought to do a Valentine for a child that I do not know and is for either boy or girl!!  The heart is Ippity the sentiment is Unity (I think the December store kit - but I may be wrong on that one.

I wanted to thank you all for the well wishes - the card class for our women's retreat went very well.  They all loved it!!

FWF - Be WHO you are

Isn't that a great sentiment!  It is from the January KOM which is super awesome!!  The flower is from Everyday Adorable and I hadn't used it yet {gasp}!  Anyone else order faster than they can stamp sometimes?  I know that will be the case after CHA too - wow there are some great kits being released!! OK back to the card.  I colored in my flowers with twinkling H2O's and it really shimmers in real life :)  I used some Basic Grey platinum pearls which matched so pretty with this Basic Grey Sugar Rush paper.  The yellow is DCWV.  The card base is Core'dinations with the purple in the center of the card.  I love that paper because you can have the black on the outside and the lighter shade on the inside for stamping and writing.  I used my spellbinders die to cut and then just traced with a precision pen for a different touch.  Probably too much going on with this card but it is growing on me.  Have a great weekend!

H{Ippity} Hop Holiday

Well actually I am at work today.  We are closed but I am here while they put together our new office furniture. I should be finished with all the work I have to do today by 11:00 or so and then will have the rest of the day to hop.  I sure am glad a lot of the Ippity friends signed up today!!  The two cards I am sharing today are ones that I will be teaching next Saturday for our women's retreat at church.  I had to have designs that were simple enough to teach 35 beginners!!  I wanted something that would keep everyone busy even while they are waiting to share the stamps (since I don't have one for each). And something that they would all be able to send easily (nothing lumpy that will cost extra at the post office).  So here is what I came up with - I was inspired by Michelle Stancil's beautiful card for this first one.  I used some A2Z paper I already had and my beautiful Devoted set.  The second card you will probably recognize because I was asking for advise on it.  I ended up just adding another strip of the dark gray which I already embossed (and I will have my embosser there so they see how it works.)  Then all they will have to do is just sand it a bit, do the stamping and glue it all together.  I think the purple and gray will work for a valentine for a man and the pink of course is more girly.  Thanks so much for all the advice.  Have a great week!

FWF - NEW

Don't you just LOVE NEW!!! Last night after work I headed over to Kohls (I had my 30% off coupon in hand which I am only lucky enough to get every once in a great while) and wow all I needed were new pillows but I found some great bargains - the receipt says I saved $529.75!! How fun is that!!  Then when I got home my NEW Sugar Rush paper and some fun new bling was in the mail!!  Makes for a fun day!!  Anyway I cut right into that sugar rush (I also got a MM 6 x 6 paper pad and I used that to stamp the image on)  This little birdie from Spring Unity is the absolute cutest isn't it?!!  I was "feeling" this message which is from simply said and I also added a couple of little branches from Birdie Inspiration which may be a little too much sometimes I just get carried away!! And if you would have seen the back of my car after the Kohl's adventure you would totally know that I am not exaggerating! Have a great weekend especially those of you enjoying a long weekend!! I will be working for comp time that I will get to enjoy this summer :)

Paper Maniac Challenge

Paper Maniac (which is a great online store that carries my favorites including UNITY!!) is starting challenges!!  This week's challenge was a sketch and I LOVE sketches so I wanted to play along.  This was my first attempt... I couldn't find my oval coluzzle so I decided to just go with a circle - I stamped this adorable image from last months Unity Store Kit - then I remembered I had gotten this fabulous wood grain stamp from Paper Maniac (ooooh these are both on sale right now too - check it out!!) I hadn't used it yet so I got it ready - then I decided I still needed some other type of printed paper and found this fun BoBunny print and well the finished card now looks nothing like the sketch!  But I really like the card so I wanted to post it anyway!! LOL

So for my second attempt I was determined to stay a little closer to the sketch!! Still no oval and I flipped the sketch on it's side but I thought the spellbinders label die was at least a little closer.  I used another gorgeous stamp from the December store kit and I also used this Amber Road paper.  My thinking when I choose this paper was that it might look a little more masculine (LOL - I really can't do masculine!!) The stamping on the corners is all the same heart just stamped off the edges and then I cut out some little flowers from the same printed paper that I used to stamp the heart on.  I added a few little pearls to the centers of the flowers and to accent the side of the heart.  I think this one may actually qualify as an entry :) 

Sketchy Thursday

I found this fun site while I was H{ippity} hopping and HAD to try out the sketch! Heidi is one of the "friends" I met on the Unity forum and she designed this sketch. I love it!! This card is for my sister's birthday. I love these cute little owls from the new set Lollipop Tree You and Me the treasure sentiment is also new from Unity Treasure to Me.  The papers are My Minds Eye.  I am so happy to see the sun today - when I took my picture there was so much sun coming through the window that the pink of the base card almost looks like it is glowing!!  I am not going to complain.  I will definitely be checking out these sketches again. Thanks for looking.

H{Ippity} hop

okay all my Ippity friends - I need some help!!  I am working on putting together a couple of notecards to teach for our women's retreat.  I don't think I like this one. So what could I do differently?  I think I'm just not happy with this paper (which I used because I have enough of it for all 35 women who are signed up)? not sure... what do you think?

Get Sketchy Card Challenge

I have some fun new Unity stamps and a great sketch from Get Sketchy. You can see it here. I had a lot of fun with it and some BoBunny paper which is also the sponsor for this challenge.

FWF = Freezing Winter Friends?

What is it about winter that just makes you want to curl up with a blanket and movie? I wanted to make another card tonight but just couldn't bring myself to get out of the recliner!  This card is similar to the one I made for the Ippity Challenge - these My Minds Eye papers just felt so perfect for collage!  The ribbon is from May Arts and the flower is Fancy Pants.  I used some little Kaiser pearls - have you seen the sneak peeks for the prima say it in pearls with the little roses? Adorable. I love this beautiful December KOM background stamp and the Ippity stamps are so versitile!!  I should have some new stamps this weekend (and hopefully some time for stamping!) so check back next week for more Unity inspiration!!  Have a stampy great weekend! LOL {ok that was a little lame}

h{Ippity} hopping into 2010

So sorry for the horrible picture - I am going to try to replace this before anyone sees it!!  Aren't Monday's more fun with Ippity?!  I am heading back to work today after a nice long holiday.  I am happy to have spent some great time with family and some productive time cleaning my basement!

For this card I used my favorite devoted set along with some fun paper from BoBunny Love Bandit!  The adorable tree image from the December Unity Store kit is so perfect with this paper!  The little squirrel (rub-on) holding the nut with the heart on it reminded me of this scripture LOL!! I googled this verse and found some great commentaries on what this verse is all about!  My goal for 2010 (as it has been for many years) is to try harder to seek God's will for my life each and every day!!  I had some victories in 2009 but I also know that I have fallen way short of where I should be a lot of the time.

For all my Ippity customers - have you checked out the Ippity challenge here?  This week the challenge was to try something new.  This card is something new for me (new paper and making the scene with the trees, grass, etc. is something new for me.)  Each Monday there is a new challenge and Prize!! It's fun so give it a try!
Have a great week!

Addicted to LOVE {Unity Love}

Happy New Year!! Hope nobody got up too early - I am posting later than normal! I had to wait for the sun to come up to get a picture.  I finished this page last night after enjoying a great movie with my hubby!  This is a 2 page layout of some great pictures we took after my daughter's best friend's wedding.  Mindi was a beautiful bride!! I wasn't really ready for all of this but as I look at this picture of my daughter's boyfriend looking at her I know that I might as well get ready because it may be happening sooner than later!  And I might be okay with that in 2112 :) 

For the layout I used BoBunny papers, my Cricut Lyrical Letters and Caligraphy cartridges and lots of Unity/Ippity stamps!! Can you see the Ippity Love background?  It is very subtle because I used a pink ink that matched very closely with the background paper inside the blue heart!!  I can't seem to stop using that stamp it is on everything I do lately!!  Please click on the photos to see them better.

My second project is a fun little card that I made using a bunch of old tags I found in the bottom of a box as I was cleaning and purging in the basement!!  The blue cardstock was at least 11 years old!!  It was from an old Provo Craft Nature's Palette pack - anyone remember those?  They were colored on the outside and white on the inside perfect for cards! I even found the brackets sizzix die that I got free at CHA no telling how long ago and at the time didn't have a way to use it but it worked perfectly in my cuttlebug!!  The ribbon was also scraps! I hope to do lots more cards like this and use up the scraps I have accumulated on my scrapbook table!  I'm finished with the basement and the scrapbook room is next!! Sorry for getting so wordy today!! Enjoy the Hop.  I'm sure Angela has the list at the Unity Blog by now.