Lazy Sunday...

Around here, we are all in pj's...

watching some football (the Rams were so close)...

watching some racing...

doing some stamping...

Just generally having a lazy Sunday.

I have a couple of cards to share that I made earlier in the week. These cards were heavily inspired by this card by Dawn McVey... HERE (and obviously I am not the only one who liked it since it has been removed for publication.)

I really like how these turned out. Simple, but with a lot of visual punch.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Giving it all Meaning

*Unity Stamp Co. Believe in Fairytales

*InkyAntics Thanks

*Scenic Route patterned paper

*October Afternoon patterned paper

*button

*jute twine

*Fiskars border punch

*Bazzill Kraft cardstock

*CTMH Desert Sand inkpad

*Pallette Burnt Umber inkpad

*Marvy Uchida scallop square punch

*Unity Stamp Co. Giving it all Meaning

*Unity Stamp Co. Believe in Fairytales

*Paper Makeup Stamps sentiment

*October Afternoon paper collection

*Fiskars border punch

*Bazzill Kraft cardstock

*CTMH Desert Sand inkpad

*Pallette Burnt Umber inkpad

*Marvy Uchida scallop square punch

*button

*jute twine

I hope that you are having a fun lazy weekend!

We're doing the Hop---a Store Kit Hop!

I know that I say it every month, but...

OMG! LOOK AT HOW CUTE THIS KIT IS!!!

Every single image is pure perfection!!!

This is the new November Store KOM, Believe in Fairytales.

This month, this is most definitely my go-to kit.

There is something in here that will work for every single occasion.

My first project to share with you today is this card. I know that we have a lot of owls, but there is just something about these two that pull at my heart strings. And have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE silhouette stamps...makes for such easy, quick stamping.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Believe in Fairytales

*Cosmo Cricket Earth Love

*Pallette Burnt Umber inkpad

*ribbon

*Marvy Uchida punches

********

For my second project, I chose to do a layout.

This layout was created using a PageMaps sketch. The photo is from Jacob's first football gameday.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Believe in Fairytales

*BasicGrey paper collection

*CTMH Pansy Purple inkpad

*American Crafts alphabet stickers

*May Arts velvet rickrack

*Bazzill Kraft cardstock

Be sure to go check out what the rest of the DT did with these fabulous stamps. You can use the links on my sidebar or Angela will have them all linked up on the Unity blog.

AND don't forget...

UNITY has 30% off the ENTIRE STORE this weekend!!!

sale code: SALE30

Fabulous Friday Fun!

Welcome to Friday and the Friday Fun Challenge and Friends with Flair!

Fridays are Fabulous!

;o)

Today for our Friday Fun Challenge we are challenging you to make place-cards. With all the holidays coming up, this seemed like a great way to get one of those little jobs done that make things a bit more special for any dinner.

Being military, it's been a LONG time since we were close enough to include any extended family in our holiday traditions so it's always just been the 4 of us.

This year, it's just the three of us for the holidays. We traditionally eat Thanksgiving dinner at the club on base and already have our reservations, but Christmas will just be the kids and me. As a result, I am trying to come up with ways to make the day/s extra special so they aren't as sad about Dad not being here this year (this is the first time in 17 years of marriage in the military that he has missed Christmas so we are definitely not complaining.)

I thought that an extra little present with Christmas dinner might be a fun special treat and made little boxes into our place-cards for dinner. The boxes came from Emma's Paperie and I will probably put some sort of special little candy in them.

These literally only take 5-10 minutes each to put together so it would be super easy to re-create them for a large dinner party.

I like the idea that your place-cards can also be a party gift and the boxes are super cheap ($1.49/4) so it won't cost you an arm and a leg either.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co Believe in Fairytales

*Unity Stamp Co. Frame this Alpha

*Boxes from Emma's Paperie

*Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper collection

*Colorbox Red inkpad

*Clear embossing powder

*Nestabilities Labels 4 diecut

*1/4" red gingham ribbon

Be sure to check out the other Friday Fun Girls blogs for more inspiration(Jimmi is out of town this week.)

Jimmi

Sherry

Kimme

Sara

We would love for you to play with us- just use keyword FFC57 when uploading to your SCS gallery.

Its a Unity Thursday!!!

{this is post #2 for today. If you are looking for my Limelight Papercrafts post, it is below this one.}

And Unity is celebrating today with the release

of this gorgeous new stamp kit by Donna Downey, The Artist in You.

I created a couple of projects using this kit. This first is a card that was inspired by the SCS sketch yesterday although it quickly took a life of its own as I was creating...

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. The Artist in You

*Pink Paislee paper (background)

*7gypsies paper (stripe)

*Marvy Uchida scallop square punch

*button

*ribbon

*Pallette black inkpad

*CTMH Ocean inkpad

*corner rounder

*******

For my second project, I created a layout using one of my autumnal photos of Jacob. It's rather simple, but I like it that way. It keeps the focus on the photo and that tree stamp is perfect as a border.

(this layout looks better if you click on it to see it bigger)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. The Artist in You

*Unity Stamp Co. Nov Scrapbooking kit- Capture Life (journaling block)

*MME papers

*MM ribbon

*Pallette Burnt Umber inkpad

*button

*jute thread

Go check out what the rest of the team did with this incredible stamp kit (links on the Unity blog or you can also find them on my sidebar.) I know that I can't wait to see what all they did!

I'm a Limelight Girl!!!

I am so excited to be able to share...

Mandy chose me to join the Limelight PaperCrafts DT!!!

I am so excited to join this talented group and every couple of weeks, the Limelight team has a challenge that you can play in too. This week's challenge is to use this sketch and add some chipboard somewhere on the project...

The Deets of the Challenge:
**Use the sketch above and try to incorporate your favorite CHIPBOARD!!
**Key word for SCS upload is LLPC034.
**Post a comment with a link to your card on Mandy's blog on the challenge post by Sunday, November 15, at midnight (or before winner is drawn Monday a.m.).
**PRIZE ~ One lucky winner will receive any one chipboard item in the Limelight Papercrafts store! Winner's choice!

And here is what I created for the challenge...

I know that this is not along the lines of my usual style and believe me when I say that it turned out NOTHING like how I imagined it, but I like it. I think that it has a Mexican-worn-tile kind of style to it.

The background is simply a recycled lightweight paper bag (my stamps from Unity come in these a lot of the time) that I crinkled up and attached to my card base.

The four squares are simply cardstock that I stamped using the swirl and border detail from the Unity Store kom for November, Believe in Fairytales, in black and then added just a few dots of white pen detail.

I colored that same border for a detail piece across the bottom of the card to accent the chipboard sentiment which I placed on a couple of punched circles (again accented with a tiny bit of white pen work.)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Believe in Fairytales

*Pink Paislee Expressions Glitter Alphabet Chipboard

*watercolor pencils

*Med. Black brads

*old paper sack

*scraps colored cardstock

*white paint pen

*Marvy Uchida circle punches

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Limelight team has done with this challenge:

Limelight Papercrafts Blog- Mandy

Caffeinated Cropper- Amy

Dahlhouse Designs- Lisa

My Little Creative Escape- Lisa

Ryann Marin Designs- Ryann

Taylor-Made by JenMarie- JenMarie

And our November Guest- Kerry

BTW, this is Post #1 of 2 posts for today...

Paper Makeup Stamps Challenges

Paper Makeup Stamps (PMS) just had their November release party and as part of their release, they have challenges. I needed a good excuse to get some of these gorgeous stamps inky so I decided to play along...

Their first challenge was to CASE a PMS card from the SCS gallery (how about a few too many acronyms in one sentence...hehe!) I was exploring the gallery and realized that I kept getting drawn to one particular stamper, Kim Stewart, so I decided to CASE her card HERE.

This is one of PMS' new line, Moody Girls- Moody for Art.

{click on the images for better detail}

I love these stamps so much. They look difficult to color, but the way that they are drawn makes it so easy. You are going to be seeing a LOT of the Moody Girls around here (mainly because I simply love to color them...it's cheap therapy!!)

Supplies used:

*Paper Makeup Stamps- Moody for Art

*Paper Makeup Stamps- Art is Life

*Basic Grey paper collection

*Bazzill scallop cardstock

*Nestabilities labels 4 diecut

*PTI ribbon

*watercolor pencils

*Pallette Burnt Umber inkpad

******

The second challenge is a bit more detailed.

It is based on the basics of makeup application:

foundation: use textured cardstock (prism, bazzill, or embossed);
blush: use the color pink;
eyes: use the color black (like mascara);
lips: use something shimmery/shiney (like lip gloss).

Supplies used:

*Paper Makeup Stamps- Emma

*Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder

*MM Jessica paper collection

*Fiskars border punch

*Nestabilities Labels 4 die cut

*buttons

*watercolor pencils

*Pallette black inkpad

I have blog posts planned for every day throughout the weekend, so be sure to drop by often this week! ;o)

A Clean & Simple Christmas...

You all have watched my artwork...you know, I am NOT a clean & simple girl! LOL!

But when it comes to my Christmas cards, that is what I need. I make 75-100 Christmas cards each year (at least the years that I actually get it done) so I need fast AND inexpensive to mail (i.e. they can't have any dimension to them because that requires extra postage and extra money that I would rather spend on other things during the holidays rather than supporting the Post Office.)

Needless to say, this is not the easiest thing for me to accomplish so that is where I scraplift (warning...I am scraplifting a LOT this week in my blog post artwork... but don't worry, I always give credit to the original ideas.)

In my eyes, the Queen of Clean&Simple is Nichole Heady. She has an incredible style that I absolutely adore and wish that I could pull off, so I settle for copying her ideas. ;o) These Christmas cards are a complete scraplift (just using Unity stamps) from this gorgeous Christmas card of hers...HERE.

I created the card in three different color schemes just to play with the looks of it.

Quite honestly, I can't determine which color scheme is my favorite so I will probably do some of each this year for my Christmas cards. That also helps to break up the monotony of stamping 75-100 of the same card.

The most brilliant thing about these cards...simply white and black cardstock so they are ultra-inexpensive to make... another huge plus when making 75-100 cards.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Embellished Season

*Pallette black inkpad

*CTMH inkpads (all of the colored inks are old CTMH)

*Zig Writer in black

*glue pen

*ultrafine glitter

*white and black cardstock

Happy Weekend Everyone!!

It is a glorious weekend here! Just absolutely GORGEOUS!

I was actually inspired to do a bit of yardwork and that NEVER happens around here. LOL!

It is just so darn pretty outside!

I am still working on my requested stamping projects around here. Sherry had requested me to use my very first Unity stamp in a project.

Well, I have been with Unity from the VERY BEGINNING...

They started selling in May of 2008, but I joined the DT a few months before that in January of 2008.

I made this project while my mom was here and she was shocked when I pulled out those first stamps because they are on full wood blocks. That was even before the manufacturing process for the block system had been worked out so our stamps came with the old-fashioned wood blocks (which Unity has made for years for the stamp industry...that was their original product line for the stamp industry.)

Angela sent us out stamps of her choice for those first few shipments to the DT and my first shipment had 4 kits (the wood-mounted stamps were originally sold as kits, but are now sold as singles)...Wish Sticks, Oh What a Beautiful Morning, Worn Polka Dot Alpha, and a Christmas kit that included Randy Reindeer (but I can't even remember what that kit was called back then.

So I had a lot to choose from for this project, but you know...Wish Sticks has always been one of my favorite Unity stamps and still is a favorite that I don't pull out as often as I would like so I took this time to take advantage of that (PLUS Angela says that this was the FIRST OFFICIAL Unity stamp in the line!)

This is a box using one of the PTI templates, AllBoxedUp. Someday I will get coordinating cards made to go inside of it, but I wasn't sure how exactly I wanted to use it, so that part of the project will wait for another day.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Wish Sticks

*Unity Stamp Co. Le Chic Vintage(quote)

*K&Company Amy Butler paper collection

*Unity Burnt Umber inkpad

*ribbon

*flat-backed gems

*Nestabilities Labels diecut

*Bazzill kraft cardstock

I still have two projects to make from the original request list using:

*Plant a Tree (which I got in the mail yesterday!)

*Peacock from Sept KOM

If you have a particular Unity stamp you want to see made into a project, leave me a message and I will add it to the list!

Friday Fun #56 & Friends With Flair

It's time for the Friday Fun challenge!

This week our challenge was to create a card using a "woodland creature"...

I'll be quite honest with you. I have had a stressful week and my creative muse isn't liking that too much so this card is definitely not one of my favorites. I was trying to go for an elegant Snowy Owl look on a Christmas card. I don't think that I quite got the look that I was going for...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Perfect In Every Way (owl)

*Unity Stamp Co. Christmas Bough (sentiment)

*white embossing powder

*SEI Christmas collection

*red velvet ribbon

*button

*Nestabilities Labels 3

*Fiskars border punch

*Sizzix embossing folder

*corner rounder

Be sure to check out the other Friday Fun Girls blogs for more inspiration. We would love for you to play with us- just use keyword FFC56 when uploading to your SCS gallery.

Jimmi

Sherry

Kimme

Sara

Shhhhh, don't tell....

...I am supposed to be using Unity's KOM for today's post, but I'll tell you a little secret...

I never got my Christmas cards finished and sent last year so I am in a bit of a panic about getting it done this year. So even though the KOM is amazing, the Christmas stamps keep luring me to pick them up in search of the perfect Christmas card design for this year.

Here is this week's attempt...

I used the Christmas Bough stamp and stamped it on it's side so that I could add the "JOY" letters into the sign piece using Frame This Alpha.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Christmas Bough

*Unity Stamp Co. Frame This Alpha

*Webster's Pages paper collection

*watercolor pencils

*Unity Stamp Co. Burnt Umber inkpad

*CTMH cranberry inkpad

*buttons

*white string

*popdots

*scallop deco scissors

It's November 1st...

...and that means that Unity has new KOM's out!!!

I love the first day of the month...

so much excitement with the release of these new kits.

And that excitement is well-deserved

because these kits are GORGEOUS!!!

Here is this month's KOM, Simply Magical...

AND OMG, go check out the incentive kit this month, LOVE BUG (shown in the middle of the page!) I love it and you can get it FREE if you sign up to get the KOM!!!

*******

And here is this month's Scrapbooking/Collage kom, Capture Life...

Such gorgeousness all the way around! I love the first of the month when I can start playing with these kits and showing them off!!!

********

But before I share, I just had to share this little piece of gorgeousness from last night. Here is my little princess Kat twirling in the yard right before trick or treating last night....

******

And now to my project share for today. Another picture where Kat was dressed up, but this was from about a year ago and was just a normal morning around the Snow household. The best thing about little girls is that you can play dress-up any ole time you want. hehe!

This is just a very simply layout with simply straight stamping. There is a tiny bit of color added on the stamps, but overall it is simply black stamped images on white cardstock...it doesn't get much easier or faster than that!

I used the normal Unity KOM, Simply Magical.

Everything in black on this layout is a stamp from the kit except for Kat's name which was done with Frame this Alpha. So that makes for a total of 6 stamps used (there are 7 images though because I used one of the ticket stamps twice) on this layout.

When you have stamps, you don't have to invest in all those expensive embellishments that you can use on only one project. I love the economy of stamping!!!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Simply Magical

*Unity Stamp Co. Frame this Alpha

*Making Memories Giggle Kids paper collection

*Rhonna Farrer ribbon

*buttons

*corner rounder

*Pallette black inkpad

*watercolor pencils

Getting back into the swing of things around here...

...which this morning translates into catching up on all of the Facebook games. LOL! I NEVER should have ever started on Facebook... ;o)

Mom has gone home so for now, we are back to our boring little family of 3...

But boring is good as any military wife can tell you. When the other half is deployed, boring is VERY GOOD so I'll take it (life/appliances/cars tend to fall apart as soon as they leave!)

I just have a couple of items to share with you today. The first is another layout using Unity's Collage/Scrapbooking kit from October, UR {...etcetera}. This layout was done using a sketch as inspiration (I think the sketch was one by Julie Bonner, but I can't find the sketch now to be sure...)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Collage/Scrapbooking Kit- UR {...etcetera} (papers, ink, and stamps)

*Unity Stamp Co. Crazy For Daisies

*Unity Stamp Co. Polka Dot Girl

*Fiskars Border punch

*ribbon

*Marvy Uchida scallop circle punch

******

We had a fantastic time when my mom was here visiting even though it rained almost the entire two weeks that she was here. We did have a couple of days where we were able to go out and take photos of the incredible autumnal foliage...

Kat with her "Mascoutah colored flower". Mascoutah is Jacob's High School and their colors are purple and white so anytime she sees anything purple, she has to have it...

These pictures were actually taken after Jacob's final game which was on a Saturday morning and explains why Kat is in "Mascoutah colors" from head to toe. ;o)

Nana & Kat playing in the leaves...I do believe that this was a leaf war...

******

The rest of these photos were taken the next day when we took a road trip to St. Charles, MO. It's no secret that this is one of our favorite places to go wander around. I hoped that it would be pretty with the changing leaves and it did not disappoint. We went on Sunday morning before the downtown was open so we were able to get some pretty photos without many other people or cars around.

Nana & Jacob

I love taking photos of doors and was taking one of this gorgeous beauty and I think that I kind of confused Kat with what I was doing. She just kept looking at it. LOL!

Friday Fun News and some Friends with Flair!!!

OMG! I am so excited to share today's news!

The Friday Fun girls have asked me to join in on their Friday challenges. Yippeeee!!!

This week's challenge was to use the Halloween colors purple, orange, green, and brown on a Halloween OR non-Halloween card. I decided to make a thanksgiving card and used a kit that I bought last year from Unity, but has barely been inky, Fall Festival (and yay, this kit is 31% off all weekend long as well as most of the other fall holiday stamps from Unity!)...

For the layout of the card, I used the MojoMonday sketch from this week (#110), just turned everything on angle for a more fun look.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Fall Festival

*MM paper (orange)

*DCWV paper (purple and green)

*watercolor pencils

*Marvy Uchida circle punches

*ribbon

*Unity Stamp Co. Burnt Umber inkpad

Now go check out what the other girls did for this challenge:

Jimmi

Kimme

Sara

Sherry

If you decide to play along with the challenge, upload your project using the keyword FFC55 to the SCS gallery so that we can find it. We hope that you will play along!!!

And go check out Angela's Unity blog for the list of all the Friends with Flair participants.

Tons of inspiration all around!

Unity Scary Halloween "31" Sale!

STOP, RIGHT THERE!!

Before you progress any further into this post,

you NEED to go to Angela's Unity Blog

and check out the Scary Halloween Sale!

OMG, offering NEW RELEASES for $3.10...

who does that?!?!

GO CHECK IT OUT NOW

and then you can come back and check out my pretties...

**********

I adore the new releases this week and when it came time to sit down and use them, my ideas immediately went to gifts.

Of course, for the kitchen kit, Kitchen Logic, what else would you do except for fun kitchen cooking gifts. I created a cookie mix in a jar and added the "baked fresh" tag simply tied around the middle of it.

The smooth Ball jar came from Hobby Lobby.

I also created a coordinating card and tag/card where you could write the recipe of the cookies (on the back.)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Kitchen Logic

*October Afternoon patterned paper collection

*watercolor pencils

*Marvy Uchida scalloped oval punches

*Fiskars border punch

*ribbon

*brads

*smooth canning jar from Hobby Lobby

*********

I just loved this little Earth stamp kit, Grow Yourself Extraordinary, and of course immediately thought about gifts for gardeners. I found this little tin in the Target $1 spot a few months ago and thought that it would be perfect for a few seed packets to create a gardening gift basket. I didn't find any seed packets, but I did find some Spring bulbs. It's too late in most places to plant bulbs, but what a great gift for indoor planting this year for some Winter/Spring fragrance and color inside the house!

{the earth circle that I cut out and put on the packaging

is to cover the price. ;o) }

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Grow Yourself Extraordinary

*watercolor pencils

*Nestabilities Labels diecuts

*ribbon

*tin from Target

*******

I didn't have time to search out some of those fun little plastic margarita glasses, but wouldn't that be a fun gift...the margarita glasses, a pitcher full of limes, some margarita mix, tequila, and rim salt. All that would be lacking would be an invite for a party night with friends which you could include inside this card....

I added the salt around the rim of my glass on the stamped image with a glue pen and just a touch of glitter....

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp co. Margarita Moments

*Quickuts embossing folder

*watercolor pencils

*KaiserCraft flat-backed gems

*buttons

*string

See, now you have the perfect excuse to buy these cute kits for YOU! You NEED them so that you can make all your Christmas gifts this year...hehe! So go shop, totally guilt-free!

Be sure to drop back by tomorrow. I have some FUN news to share with my Friends with Flair post...

Crazy For Daisies!!!

Have you seen this month's Unity KOM Incentive Set, Crazy for Daisies?

This kit is so perfect for adding a final little touch to projects. I just love it.

I have two projects to share with you today using this kit (click on them to see them better)...

For the graphic look of these flowers, I thought that a Mary Engelbreit look (black & white with pops of bright color) would really set them off. I don't think that I quite pulled off her look, but I like the overall effect...

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Crazy For Daisies

*Unity Stamp Co. Create Your Life

*Unity Stamp Co. Vintage Le Chic

*Scenic Route Garden Grove papers

*Prima leaf bling & packaging (I used the packaging from these on the layout. It coordinated perfectly and had these gorgeous little scalloped edges. It's the green piece layered under the photo.)

********

And while I had the papers out, I used the same papers to create a matching card....

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Crazy for Daisies

*Unity Stamp Co. UR {...etcetera}

*Scenic Route Garden Grove paper collection

*Bazzill kraft paper

*Martha Stewart border punch

*ribbon

*Marvy Uchida Circle punches

*button

*twine

You don't want to miss out on these fun daisies. I have another layout to share using them that will probably be posted sometime this weekend...

A bunch of little things going on...

But first a card to share. I am still working on my stamp request list. This particular stamp (which I LOVE), from the October Store Exclusive KOM, was requested by Lindsay who I am pretty sure is the talented artist who actually drew up this stamp design. Isn't it gorgeous!?! I love dress forms!

This was such a simple card to put together...just basic stamping with a bit of paper piecing on that ribbon belt. I even used last week's CPS sketch for fast, quick assembly.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Oct Store kom- Wonderful You

*October Afternoon papers

*corner rounder

*ribbon

*Unity Stamp Co. Burnt Umber inkpad

********

Have you seen the fun happenings over on the Unity blog??? Angela has been posting some sneak peeks of the INCREDIBLE November KOM!! (OMG, I cannot wait to start stamping with this kit... I think that it's my most favorite yet and that is saying a LOT!)

And there is also a REALLY GOOD sale going on this weekend, but it ends today so you need to head over there quick and check it out (because you really don't want to miss it!)

******

My mom is here visiting and we have spent the last two days out playing with our cameras in the leaves. I'll leave you with just a small peek of what we've been up to, but know that I will definitely be posting more autumnal photos all week long (just today I took 190 photos!)

Friday Flair with a bit of Patterned Flower...

I am still posting the cards that I made last weekend using your stamping requests. This was next request from that list from Lindsay to use the patterned flower from the Oct. Store kom, Wonderful...you. I loved this request as this was a stamp that I loved (out of the many that I loved) from this kit and hadn't had a chance to get it inky yet...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Wonderful... You

*Making Memories Flea Market papers and chipboard(from Target)

*Fiskars border punch

*Nestabilities labels punch

*watercolor pencils

*ribbon

I still have more cards to share from that original request list... Remember I can add to it if there is something that you want to see. Just let me know. Here is where the list stands right now...

5. dress form from Oct store kit (artwork done )

6. First Unity stamp I ever got...next on my list to create!

7. Peacock stamp from Sept. kom

Thursdays with Unity are the Best Days!!!

And today promises to be another great one. There is fun, chatting, and a bit of inspirational bingo taking place in the forum today, so once you are through with the blog hop, head over there and hang out for a bit.

I did a couple of really quick, easy cards today using the Unity October kit of the Month, Wherever You Go. I paired them up with some of the Teresa Collins papers...

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Wherever You Go

*Teresa Collins Friendship paper collection

*ribbons

*Marvy Uchida oval punches

My Mom is coming TODAY!!!

I am so excited... My mom arrives this morning at 10:00 from Texas (barring any weather delays!!) I cannot wait. Not only do we always have WAY too much fun together, but it will be so wonderful to have another adult in the house. I miss that! My kids miss that too...having Nana here will help Mom chill a bit. ;o)

So this blog post needs to be fast because I still need to finish my cleaning before we leave to go pick her up in ONLY 3 HOURS!!!

This is one of the cards that I did over the weekend using the requested Unity stamps. Natalie had recommended that I use one of the quotes so I pulled out the Sept Store KOM, Everything Extraordinary, and used this fabulous quote and frame stamp from it.

For the layout of this card, I used this weeks CPS Sketch (#138.)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Everything Extraordinary

*Cosmo Cricket papers

*watercolor pencils

*Nestabilities Labels die cut

*Pallette black inkpad

*ribbon

*Bazzill kraft

Have a great hump day everyone! And be sure to come back tomorrow because tomorrow is Thursday and you KNOW that means fun times for those of us with Unity Stamp Co!! ;o)

I almost forgot to blog...

My wonderful Mom is coming for a visit tomorrow for almost 2 full weeks and I am knee deep in cleaning to try to get my house presentable (being the only adult around, I have let things slide a bit *eek*) So I totally forgot that I had a blog post all planned for today.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had several Unity customers request me to use specific stamps on my projects that I was working on over the weekend (I had put the plea out there to inspire me and it worked.) Ky was my first responder and she requested that I use this stamp from the first Unity Store kom (100% Happy... you can still find it for sale HERE!)

Like Ky, this stamp totally reminds me of the State Fair as does this gorgeous balloon paper from Webster's Pages so I decided to put them together.

The difficult part of this project was getting the style of that modern ferris wheel to match the style of the old looking paper. I did that (I think) by layering several other stamps in the background of the ferris wheel (vintage postcard, the swirl from 100% Happy, and Grandma's Button) and lots of inking.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. 100% Happy

*Unity Stamp Co. Vintage Postcard

*Unity Stamp Co. Grandma's Button

*Webster's Pages paper (balloons and cream swirl)

*MME paper (red)

*Nestabilities Labels

*ribbon

*watercolor pencils

I'll be back tomorrow with another piece from the list...

1. Plant a Tree (I need to get this stamp!)

2. Ferris Wheel from 100% Happy (artwork done )

3. quote (artwork done )

4. patterned flower from Oct store kit (artwork done)

5. dress form from Oct store kit (artwork done )

6. First Unity stamp I ever got...next on my list to create!

So, if there is something you want to see stamped up, let me know! You can leave me a comment here or drop me an email... snowchris_01@yahoo.com

Feeling the Mojo!!

Hey everyone! It's Monday morning and I have been given a reprieve from my to-do list today. I had it in my mind that my mom was arriving tomorrow (and my house is a total train wreck,) but I talked to her this morning and found out that she's coming Wednesday. Thank goodness, we covered that topic or else I totally would have been at the airport tomorrow. hehe!

So now all that cleaning that I didn't get done yesterday, can still be pushed off until tomorrow. ;o) You see how I work, don't you? No wonder my house is a train wreck...LOL! But I have a good excuse for yesterday...my creative muse was hopping! I love that! I just took photos of 7 different projects that I have to share with you this week and next week...

But this first project is a VERY special one because today is little Miss Mia's 4th birthday!! Happy Birthday Mia!!!

This card as well as the present should be going out in today's mail

(Procrastination Auntie {not to be confused with Malibu Barbi} strikes again...)

I love these little PMS Fairies and my nieces' birthdays are the perfect occasion to pull them out and play! I used the MojoMonday sketch (#108) for the layout of this card.

Supplies used:

*PaperMakeupStamps Shaela stamp

*K&Company patterned papers

*watercolor pencils

*MM glitter chipboard

*prisma glitter

*StazOn jet black inkpad

*Marvy Uchida punches

*corner rounder

*ribbon

Yesterday on Facebook, I issued a plea for help in choosing which Unity stamp to create with yesterday. I had several people put in requests which was amazing for my creative muse. With that in mind, I wanted to put this out there. If there is a specific Unity stamp that you want to see artwork done with, drop me a line and I will create a running list to work from. Here is the list so far:

1. Plant a Tree (I need to get this stamp!)

2. Ferris Wheel from 100% Happy (artwork done and will be blogged tomorrow)

3. quote (artwork done and will be blogged soon)

4. patterned flower from Oct store kit (artwork done and will be blogged soon)

5. dress form from Oct store kit (artwork done and will be blogged soon)

6. First Unity stamp I ever got...next on my list to create!

So, if there is something you want to see stamped up, let me know! You can leave me a comment here or drop me an email... snowchris_01@yahoo.com

It's Thursday... That Means Unity FUN!!!

It's Unity Thursday and Oh my goodness...

Unity Stamp Co. has rolled out the savings for today!!!

FIRST 50 orders over $25 get

THIS IS THE TIME {mini} FOR FREE!

Great Christmas Gift

30% off EVERYTHING.

EVERY SINGLE ORDER gets 5 FREE STAMPS

{Random Stamps}

EVERY $25 spent gets the OPTION of purchasing a set for $2.

Choices:

Jolly Winter

Little Me

Folk Inspired

GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFTS!

********

I have a quick and easy layout to share with you today. Everything used on it except the ribbon and border punch is completely included in this month's Scrapbooking/Collage Collection (stamps, inkpad, and papers!!!)- UR {...etcetera}

One thing that happens when Ben is gone is that I catch up on all my scrapbooking about him because he is on my mind so it's a natural therapy for me.

This is a photo of the two of us that Jacob took this last spring break while we were visiting HaHaTonka in Missouri.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Collage/Scrapbooking Collection- UR {...etcetera}

*Fiskars border punch

*Basic Grey ribbon

Hint: there are a couple of patterned papers in this collection which are printed onto kraft paper. For the calendar stamp on this layout, I simply stamped the image onto the backside of that patterned paper. It's a great technique if you are running low on some of your basic supplies and working with a kit (and I always seem to be running low on kraft...hmmm!)

Have fun shopping today and enjoy the rest of the hop!!!

Stamping some Stylin Stars...

A little birdie told me that there just might be a sale happening today over on the Unity blog.

And that same little birdie mentioned that there just might be some Stylin Stars on sale at a rockin price.

I'm just saying...

and in that vein, how about a layout using those same Stylin Stars?

I knew when I started this layout that I wanted to use the stars on a layout about Jacob, but I wasn't sure how and as I started going through my photos, I realized that pretty much every photo I had of Jacob from the past year has some sort of football theme to it.

2009-it's all about the FOOTBALL!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Stylin Stars

*Unity Stamp Co. Love Etc. (2009)

*Unity Stamp Co. Oct. Store kom Wonderful You (swirl)

*Basic Grey papers

*Bazzill kraft cardstock

*Marvy Uchida circle punches

*Fiskars border punch

*CTMH pansy Purple inkpad

Little Autumnal Creatures...

There seems to be much debate across the web this morning as to whether we are still in Fall or not. I am so sorry for those of you that have had the snow over the weekend, but can you do me a favor? Just keep it okay. I don't want that white, slippery stuff yet! LOL! We did have frost here over the weekend, but thankfully no snow!

And in honor of Fall, I have an Autumn Pals card to share with you today. This was a card that I created using one of the Mojo Monday sketches (#106 I think it was) from a couple of weeks ago...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Autumn Pals

*Cosmo Cricket Earth Love

*Nestabilities labels 4

*watercolor pencils

*Unity Stamp Co. Burnt Umber inkpad

*button

*twine jute

*corner rounder

I hope that you are having a fabulous Monday. Around here, we are hoping that the third time is the charm. Our football game from last week has been rescheduled a couple of times and we are supposed to try it again today...we'll see! It's another rainy day so I am thinking that it will definitely be a go...LOL!

A Sunday Share...

Yesterday afternoon, the kids went outside.

I was thrilled,

poured myself a glass of wine

and decided to take advantage of the momentary peace

(with this whole single parenthood thing, you don't get much of that,)

but then I looked out the window

and they were having so much fun

that I had to put down the wine

and grab the camera and go capture their fun.

When I first got out there, I had no idea what they were doing. I just knew that Kat was almost hysterical because she was laughing so much...

Jacob would let her crawl up on his neck.

Then he would slowly start to raise up...

and then he would fling her back.

(looking at this photo today, it looks much more dangerous than it did in person yesterday.)

They were having the best time.

I never truly imagined when we had our kids 12 years apart that they would have this much fun and interact together as much as they do.

And yes, she can totally beat him up. LOL!

She slayed the dragon.

****

Reflecting over her victory...

*****

And I decided to stay outside to play some football with them so we all ran around for a while.

****

She has her battle face on here...full intent on stripping the ball from Jacob.

******

He's getting so big. Every single time I stand by him anymore, I am getting shorter and shorter.

But not too big to go out and teach his little sister to hang tough with the big boys. He's such a fantastic big brother and a HUGE help to me.

I love these kids!

*****

And here is the card that I didn't quite get finished yesterday. Very clean and simple design to it which makes it a super easy design. I think that you could do a variation on this for a wedding design...wouldn't that be pretty?

The layout of the card is from this week's SCS sketch (#249...turned on its side.)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Oct Stamp Store Kit- Wonderful You

*Basic Grey paper

*brads

*pop dots

*MM trim

*corner rounder

*marvy uchida oval scallop punch

Playing with the Unity Stamp Store KOM for October...

I am LOVING this new kit of the month from Unity that is the stamp store exclusive kit! Every single image in it is so use-able. I LOVE IT!!!

I have another card sitting up on my desk that is 75% done, but since we have an early-morning football game this morning, I won't have it done until this afternoon. I will try to get it up on the blog for tomorrow. But in the meantime, I do have two cards already done using this kit...

These birds can be used for so many different things, but I love the idea of using them as doves on a Christmas card so I paired them up with the new SEI Christmas line.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Store KOM- Wonderful You

*SEI patterned paper

*Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

*deco scissors

*velvet ribbon

*button

*Fiskars border punch

*pop dots

*******

This is a card that I did for one of the challenges for last weekend's WCMD on SCS. I just haven't had a chance to get it uploaded on the blog yet. I am pretty sure that this was one of the sketch challenges, but don't quote me on that (I will look it up later when I have more time.)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Store KOM for Oct, Wonderful You

*Cosmo Cricket paper

*Jillibean Soup paper

*Nestabilities Labels 4

*ribbon

*Unity Stamp Co. Burnt Umber inkpad

*brads

*corner rounder

I can't wait to go see what the other girls have done with this kit. I love it (oh wait, I've already said that haven't I? LOL! But I really, really do!!!) Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Some of my favorite things... for Friends with Flair!

...red, white, and black color combo mixed with a coffee theme!

It doesn't get much better than that when it comes to me and my favorite things...LOL!

This is a fairly quick and easy card using one of my favorite images from the Store KOM for October (see HERE for a list of retailers.) I love this kit!!! Every image in it is so PERFECT and there is LOTS more to come using it. Be sure to watch the Unity blog tomorrow and you will definitely see more inspiration for this wonderful kit!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Store Kit for Oct, Wonderful You

*SEI patterned paper (black&white)

*Anna Griffin paper (red&pink floral)

*watercolor pencils

*StazOn Jet black inkpad

*corner rounder

*ribbon

Have a great Friends with Flair Friday!!!

U R... my everything!

Did you all see that gorgeous new scrapbooking/collage kit from Unity, UR... {etcetera}? I love it! I sat down to play with it all last night and was going to do a layout about DS and then this layout just happened... I am really missing this guy.

I can already see that I will be using this kit over and over again...so absolutely perfect!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. U.R. {...etcetera)

*ribbon

*the circle is an end off a ribbon spool...it matched this Pink Paislee paper from the kit perfectly

*Everything else is from the scrapbooking/collage kit (papers/ink/stamps)

Witches Night

Here's another card that I created from WCMD. This was a dimensional challenge from Crafty Secrets. I love the Crafty Secrets stamps, but I only have one set... this halloween one. I just LOVE their vintage images.

I started with an ATC sized piece of Bazzill Kraft paper and simply created from there.

The dimensional part of the card came from the ruffled ribbon (I love this effect on cards/papercrafts), the buttons, and the main image which I mounted on pop dots.

Supplies used:

*Crafty Secrets Halloween stamps

*Making Memories Spooky patterned paper collection

*Nestabilities labels 5

*ribbon

*buttons

*watercolor pencils

*StazOn jet black inkpad

I hope that you are having a great Monday. I am still sitting here in my fluffy robe enjoying the briskness in the air (we actually had to turn on the heater here this weekend!)