Sunday Suckers

Hello, friends! Today's post is a quick one.  :)

I used the {ippity} itty bitty "sucks getting old" and got my inspiration from Tracy's card. I actually stamped, colored and cut out the candies right after I got the set, but never got around to putting them on a card that I had in mind. When I saw Tracy's card, though, I decided that I wanted to use these candies here. I'm glad I did, because I think I like this better than the original idea I had!

Remember that Unity has another rockin' sale going on. If you want to add this or other {ippity} stamps to your order, just click my photo below to go shopping.

Have a very relaxing and blessed Sunday!

Click here to shop at Unity!

Birthday fun with AiFactory

It's time for another AiF challenge, and this week it's BIRTHDAYS! I can never have too many birthday cards, so I'm loving this challenge! I decided to keep it simple and versatile enough for a man or a woman, and this card went together QUICK! First, take a look at the set I used:

I LOVE the clean and simple lines! These kinds of images are great for coloring, paper piecing or simply cutting out, like I did in my card this week. Just two layers and some ribbon make this card a fast one. I did take time to add a little sparkle with my Stardust pen, but that didn't take very long. And the clouds are popped up on some pop dots.

supplies ~ cardstock: Prism, dsp: DCWV Holiday Stack, ribbon: Pebbles, sentiment: Joann's rub on, image: AiFactory

Would you like to play along? Just make a birthday card - AiF images are not required - then link it up on the AiF Challenge Blog by 10 pm EST on Wednesday, April 21. If you use any galleries, please use the tag AiF032. What can you win? Your choice of one of these gorgeous stamp sets!

Okay - thanks for stopping by today! Off you go the the rest of the design team to get more inspiration!

Carole * Kerry * Angie * Erin * Monica

Fink * Carlie * Michelle * Lola

Quick card for PTI

It's late, so I've got to run, but I was able to make a quick card tonight for the PTI challenge from yesterday. It called for a sketch using particular colors. I have to say, the card turned out differently than I envisioned it originally. But I really like it!

supplies ~ kraft: Bazzill, cardstock: DCWV Indian Summer (dark blue) & The Paper Company (light blue), ribbon: American Crafts, flowers & button: Making Memories Poolside, sentiment: Unity January Stampin' Store Kit (Livin' and Lovin' Life}

Thanks for coming to visit! Have a blessed day!

PS ~ Do you love {ippity} stamps? You can buy them from me at my {ippity} my blog!

Growing in Unity Day 1...with blog candy!

**SECOND POST FOR TODAY - SCROLL DOWN FOR THE WHIMSY CHALLENGE POST!**

Welcome to the first day of Growing in Unity on my blog! For those of you who are new to Unity, I will be sharing a Unity project every day on my blog. It may be a card, an altered item...who knows? =D

Make sure you leave a comment each day to be entered for a chance to win a Unity single OF YOUR CHOICE - yippee! You can see all the wonderful Unity goodness HERE.

Today, I'm sharing with you a card I made for one of my cousins, Sandi. She's the one cousin I get to see or talk to on most of my visits home, and is the closest to me in age. It's been a while since I've written her, so I thought a card on her birthday would be fun.

I also decided to enter this one in Ashley's Etsy Inspired Challenge this week. I've wanted to try it out for a while, but just never seem to have time. The store we were asked to visit is called Red Crow Arts, and I found this mosaic mirror. I like the simple, clean layout, and the color of the mosaic fragments felt so earthy.



I used the bingo card and one of the sentiments from the August Stampin' Store Kit. It has a distressed feel to it already, so I decided to bang up my card in keeping with the stamp. First I crumpled up the cardstock I was stamping on, then smoothed it out a bit and used some Ranger distress ink to add color to the bumpy parts. Then I smoothed it out some more, stamped the card and "LUCKY" sentiment over that in black ink, and cut out the image. I used my scissors and fingernails to rough up the edges of each layer, then adhered it all to the card front.

I usually glue close to the edge or in corners to keep the card flat. This time, though, I glued about an inch away from the edges to let them pull away a bit for a little more texture and character.

The inside of the card reads: "I'm sure you're not as old as this card, and you certainly look better than it does! Have a happy birthday!"

supplies ~ cream cardstock: stash, dsp: DCWV Old World Stack, image: Unity August Stampin' Store kit {100% happy}

That's about it for me today, but be sure to comment to enter for the Unity single of your choice. I'll pick a winner on Friday after 5:00 pm AKDT. Good luck, and thanks for visiting!

High Hopes challenge #36 + a Verve sketch

This week, Jeanne over at High Hopes challenged us to use our scraps. FUN! I deliberately have a rather thin tray for my paper scraps, and another very thin tray for cardstock scraps. It helps me remember to use 'em up instead of letting them sit indefinitely. I still have some Bo Bunny scraps in my tray that I LOVE, so I decided to use Gavin the Givin' Dragon with them.

I had a piece of red cardstock left from another card, so I started with that as my base. The sketch I used is one from the June Release Week Challenges issued by Verve. The dsp you see are the scraps, as well as the red mat under the Gavin image. I colored Gavin with my Prismas & OMS, and used some fun polka dot ribbon to finish it off. The inside of the card is lined with more of the scrap Bo Bunny.

supplies ~ cardstock: Fiskars, dsp: Bo Bunny It's My Party, ribbon: Anita's, image: High Hopes Gavin the Givin' Dragon

Thanks for coming by to visit - I appreciate it!

Happy Birthday, Hun!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, sweet Bill! Happy Birthday to you!

It's my husband's birthday on Saturday, so I made this card for him. I love the bright primary colors of Bo Bunny's "It's My Party" line of papers! I also made this card for a Unity challenge. Last week there was a huge party celebrating Unity's first birthday. I made some other cards, too, but I'll share those on Mother's Day. This one uses this week's CPS sketch (#114) and Unity's anniversary challenge to use a cake for inspiration (this was my inspiration). I was more inspired by the layout of the cake's design than the colors.

I decided that since this card was for a man (MY man!), I wanted to avoid flowers and girlie colors (he'd think I was mocking him - lol). I won these papers in a giveaway a few months ago - so bright and fun! I thought they'd be perfect. Taking my cue from the papers, I colored the party hat with my Prismacolor pencils in matching colors and matted on black. Using a black card base, I adhered the stripe and solid papers. Then I adhered the image to the card front and embellished with buttons. For the inside, I glued a yellow mostly-solid paper from the same pack with more of the stripes on the bottom since this card has a black base. Gotta have somewhere to write a message to my birthday boy!

supplies ~ black cs: Fiskars, dsp: Bo Bunny It's My Party, image: Unity Party Brim, buttons: Blumenthal Lansing Co.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit! Have a terrific day!

The first Whimsy Challenge blog challenge!

Today marks the first challenge issued by Whimsy Stamps Challenges! Challenges will be issued every two weeks, and there may be prizes involved! You can see the current challenge and all the design team samples by clicking here.

This first challenge was to create a Celebration card. How appropriate for the very first challenge! One of my favorite images from Whimsy is the Polar Bear, but today he is a BROWN bear!

I used last week's sketch from Friday Sketchers for this card, but I rotated it. I really wanted to make a card suitable for a man or boy, so I turned to my Basic Grey stash. I started with a 5 1/2 inch square kraft base, then used papers from Basic Grey's Boxer collection to adhere the layers with UHU Stic glue. The blue paper on the first layer is 5 1/4 inches, the beige measures 4 3/4 inches, the swirly multicolor paper is 3 x 5 inches, and the blue for matting the bear is 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. I used two different stamps for the sentiment: the brackets are from Studio G series 25, and the "celebrate!" is from Inkadinkado's Chelsea Sentiments. For added interest I decided to cut out the sentiment. I love to use pop dots in my cards, but this card has a whopping 7 layers, so I left them off this time.

Be sure to visit the other gals' blogs for deets on their cards!

Crystal Boling
Boni Boutelle-Jones
Enfys Cashmore
Jacilynn Cox
Debbie Eastman
Lisa Foust
Alexandra Hobson
Stef Hughes
Jana Mays

Thanks for stopping by to look today - have a great week!

supplies ~ kraft cardstock: Bazzill, dsp: Basic Grey Boxer, stamps: Inkadinkado & Studio G, bear image: Whimsy Stamps

Birthday wishes...with bling!

Today's card was FUN! I've had some jars of Shimmerz and a new stamp set sitting in my craft room waiting to be used, and I finally got to play with them! I used a sketch from i{heart}2stamp and a challenge from Flourishes to make the sentiment the focal point. I'm also trying out the Created by Courtney challenge for the first time; she wanted us to let nature inspire us. I guess flowers are part of nature, and all I can think about right now is SPRING! =D There's also a big birthday party bash going over at the Paper Garden Projects blog for week 2 and at Paper Craft Planet, so I've entered this card along with this one and this one, too.



The papers were from my scrap tray, but I think they are Paper Pizazz sarapapers over a DCWV cardstock base. I used stamps from my new Inkadinkado set, Chelsea Sentiments stamped in ColorBox Royal Blue ink.

Check out those flowers - aren't they stunning? I love what Shimmerz does for just about everything. I used two white Bazzill paper flowers and painted them with Shimmerz. The December Sky blingz was perfect for this card, but I didn't have pink. Never fear - ROY G. BIV is here! I mixed Royal Red with Angel Wings until I got the shade of pink I wanted. I probably could have gone lighter, but there's a bit of deep pink in the floral background paper that I was trying to pull out with the second flower. To finish off the flower, I popped in a bead cap and a brad.

supplies ~ cardstock: DCWV, dsp: Paper Pizazz (??), flowers: Bazzill, paint: Shimmerz, bead cap & brad: stash, sentiment: Inkadinkado Chelsea Sentiments set.

Thanks for stopping by to look!

It's Your Day men's b-day card

I finally got Ace to help me wish a special guy a happy birthday! I've had him for a few months and stamped out a bunch of images for myself and others, but never got around to coloring him and getting him into a card until last night. I'm sick again :::sigh:::, slept too much yesterday :::deeper sigh::: and couldn't sleep last night, so I made a card. Well, if life hands you lemons...

Anyway, I also got to play with some Urban Rhapsody papers I won from Laura Canale's blog candy a couple of months back (you should visit her - she does great work!) Since I haven't made as many cards as I would like (grrr...hate being sick), I decided to enter this one in multiple challenges. I'm feeling better today, so I'll try to resume my card-a-day goal this week. So the challenges I've entered are: High Hopes (zigs & zags), Paper Garden Projects birthday bash for week 1, Viva la Verve (sketch + a twist of pink, red & green), Stamp TV Wednesday technique challenge (pencils & OMS), and Stamp Something (your favorite something - my fave stamp company at the moment). Whoa - thasallotta challenges!

You can click the pic to get a larger view, but the zig zag paper has different shades of each color, so there IS some pink on this men's card! I also decided to continue the distressed theme throughout the card, so I sanded the cardstock base and inked the edges of the white cardstock. I also inked the edges of the white panel on the inside of the card (which is the first time I've decorated an inside more than just adding a liner). Ace was colored with Prismas & OMS, and I finished off the card with some dew drops.
supplies ~ cardstock: DCWV, dsp: K & Co., dragon stamp: High Hopes, sentiment: Studio G, dew drops: Robin's Nest.

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On another note, remember that my Spring Break Giveaway Day 3 is open until the 150th comment. I've been happy to see a variety of folks come visit, as well as some regulars. Spread the word about my giveaways, there are 5 more after today's! I didn't have as many challengers yesterday as I would have liked, but this is a small blog and I made the mistake of posting that one on a weekday. So maybe another challenge is in order, but toward the end of the giveaways when it will be a weekend. Sound good?

Thanks for stopping by to look!

Simple "purr-thday" card

I've had this stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy for a few months now, but finally inked it up today. The image & sentiment are from the "Purr-fect Day" set. I stamped them out on gray DCWV cardstock, glued them down with UHU Stic, and popped the kitty's tail up with pop dots over "Pet Paws" cardstock from around the block. A few buttons from Wal-Mart, and the card is done! I used the sketch from Verve's Viva la Verve Week 1 challenge to use buttons with their sketch.

I've never used UHU Stic before, but have used other glue sticks. I like the UHU Stic for two reasons: it goes on purple but dries clear & it has a screw-on cap (not just pop-on). Like the last UHU product I tried, the kitty was starting to pull away from the card right after I applied the glue, but with a minute or so of pressing down, the glue started setting up and the kitty stayed down for good. Sometimes I wish the glue would dry faster, but any faster drying might mean I can't get the pieces glued together fast enough.

Thanks for stopping by to look!

Nine daisies and a dragon

I finished all four of the Jacksonbelle New Year's Eve challenges! I don't think I've made four cards in two days ever in my life! I also combined some challenges, so here they are:

The first one I CASEd from Becky Oehlers over at Hemidemisemiquaver Designs. So simple, but so nice! It was also for the Jacksonbelle challenge to make a card that reflects our New Year resolution(s) and the Hero Club Blog challenge to use a Hero Arts stamp in a thank you card with bonus points if you use a holiday stamp. I don't really make resolutions, but I do know I want to spend more time in 2009 being creative than I was in 2008. And the Hero Club Blog helped me see that my holiday stamps can be used creatively for something besides holiday cards! Can you see the holiday stamp? It's in the background. I used my Inkadinkado Christmas Silhouettes set to create a background before adhering the cardstock strips. I almost can't tell that it's holly leaves and berries! The photo didn't pick up the color right, but I used a shade of green a bit lighter than the green flowers, and the bottom panel of cardstock is pastel purple. The flower circles are a Hero Arts Daisy Border stamp that I colored and cut out then adhered with pop dots. Simple!


The second card with a little more labor intesive - I played with another one of my new High Hopes stamps, Lenny's Love Me Nots. I'm still not feeling great, so I decide to just use my ZIG ColorTwin markers instead of trying to watercolor again. I managed a bit of shading by using the same color in shaded areas, but going over it repeatedly to lay down more color. This one is for the Jacksonbelle challenge to make a birthday card. I also used a sketch I found on The Sketch Lover. I really liked the simplicity of it. After coloring the image, I matted it using some coordinating sarapapers from Hot Off The Press. I just love sarapapers! The camera didn't pick it up, but the darker purple paper has a shimmer to it that gives the card a little extra shine. The flowers were made from the same papers in two different size Paper Shapers flower punches with a little gemstone in the middle. The sentiment is a rub-on.


Thanks for stopping by today. I hope your New Year is off to a great start!

supplies for Nine Daisies ~ cardstock base: stash, colored cardstock: DCWV, daisy image: Hero Arts, background stamping: Inkadinkado Christmas Silhouettes.

supplies for have a great day ~ cardstock base: DCWV, floral and purple papers: Hot Off The Press sarapapers, dragon image: High Hopes, gemstones: Darice, rub-on: Joann's

A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge 25 ~ A child's card entry

This card is my entry for the Spoon Full of Sugar challenge to make a child's card and the Friday Sketcher's sketch #27 challenge. I suppose it could also be given to an adult, but it just feels more like a teen's card than an adult's. At one point while making this card, I almost scrapped it because I wasn't thrilled with the color combo. But as I pieced together more elements, it seemed to finally come together.

The inspiration for this card actually started with the paper next to bottom - it is glittery paper with yellow, purple, green, blue, orange and pink on a background of yellow. It's from the Glitter Collection Paper Pack by Stickerking. Most of it can't be seen, though because of all the layers on top. There's just enough peeking out to give the card some pop, but it's hard to see in this photo.

I started with a 4.5" x 5" blank card and covered it with a light pink linen-look paper (don't remember who produces it - got it from Wal-Mart ages ago). Then I inked the edges with a black Ink Dot (I think it was from an Inkadinkado kit). Then I glued some of that funky paper to the corners of the card. Next I cut a narrow strip of orange paper (again, from Wal-Mart) to span nearly the width of the card & inked the edges. Over that I glued an orange rectangle that was cut slightly bigger than the image I stamped onto white cardstock (both also inked on the edges). I colored the image with colored pencils. The sentiment was stamped in black from a really cute little stamp set from Studio G, as was the flower in the lower right corner. I colored in the flower, too. The final flourish was the layered flowers affixed with an antiqued snap, both from Making Memories.

Thanks for stopping by!