One More...

Can you believe that tomorrow is the first day of October? I am not believing it myself! Time really does fly!

Well, since it's the last day of September I thought I would share one last card with the September Kit of the Month from Unity. Yeah, I know, chances are I will use it again. I cannot turn my back on perfectly good stamps! ;) But officially it is gone! What a bummer!

This is one I put together Sunday in the middle of my stamping fest....

Here's the deets: Kraft, kiwi kiss, white, ruby red card stock. October Afternoon dsp. The ribbon is from my LSS. The buttons...ok...can't remember where I got them from. The stamps are Unity...they're from the September KOTM. I colored the butterfly with my copic markers. the ink is black and ruby red.

That's it for me. I am off to watch House. I LOVE that show! ...and I am going to stamp a little. I will be back in a bit with more!

Hope you all have a great night! :)

Taking It Literally

Well it's one of my favorite times of the week. Time for another inspiration challenge from Beate...if you play along and upload to SCS be sure and use the keyword BIC25. How's this for a BEAUTIFUL piece to work with....

This piece speaks to me! I LOVE it. Everything about it in fact! So much so, that I just ran with it. I took it literally. Here's the card I created without changing much of anything about the original....

The stamps: SU's Eastern Blooms and Unity's KOTM. The paper is Kraft, Basic Grey, Sweet Blush, Kiwi Kiss, and Vanilla. The ink is black. The ribbon is an organdy silver. I also used liquid pearls for the centers of the flowers. EPLS...well, once you cut all of the paper pieces and stick 'em on!

Be sure and check out the rest of the team to see their take on the inspiration piece.

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

I'm off to get busy with the things of the day! Hope you are all having a good one! I will post you all soon! :)

10 Minutes Or Less!

Can you do it? Can I! That's the question! This weeks challenge is to create a card in under 10 minutes. Quickie! Are you game?


Mine is super simple...you could probably make it in 5 minutes! I used my KOTM from Unity for this one. Here's my card....

The yummy paper is from Crate Paper....one of my favorite brands! The ribbon is PTI...another favorite...the flowers are SU. A card of favorites! :)

Now be sure and head over to see the other gals cards....AJ Otto, Amber Height, and Maren Benedict.

Hope you are all having a great Monday! I am off to finish up with catching up! That's the never ending task! Why can't there be a '10 minute' version of that! :)

Post you soon!

Say It Ain't So!

I cannot believe it's actually been six months! Time really does fly!

Six months ago I had the great pleasure of joining the Page Plans design team. I absolutely LOVE challenges so I was so excited to apply and actually get a spot on the team! Weekly sketches! Sign me up! Now, it's time to pass the torch to a new group of designers. I look forward to all of their beautiful work and more exciting new sketches from the the team!

I just want to take a quick moment to thank Chris and Lesli for giving me the opportunity to take part on their team. I have truly enjoyed participating in their weekly sketches. It's been so much fun to make new friends and share what I love! Thanks you guys! I have had a blast!

Well, there is this one last sketch for me. It seems so strange to not have next months sketches sitting in my in-box! Here's my final sketch brought to you by Chris herself....

This is such a fun one! I pulled out my new Kit of the Month from Unity for this one. The paper is October Afternoon. Here's my card....
Fun! Love this paper! Of course, I haven't met an October Afternoon design that I don't love! I colored this with my copic markers. The ribbon is from Papertrey Ink. The gems are glitz. Hmm...think that about covers it!

Thank you again, Chris and Lesli! This has been so much fun! I have really enjoyed being part of your team! I will be back to play! Your sketches are fabulous!

Hope you all get a chance to play with this one. Be sure and link your cards over at the Page Plans site if you do.

Off to get busy with the things of today! I will post you all soon!

Janine!

I so adore Janine! She is such a sweetie! It's her time in the spotlight with Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge. Yup, this week we need to be inspired by Janine's sleek, crisp designs. How fun is that!

I chose to case one of Janine's cards this week. You can find the card I cased here. I actually think I could have just re-created this card! I had all the supplies! How often does that happen! ;) I LOVE the green and brown so I decided to keep it and go with a different stamp set. Here's my card....

I used Unity's September KOTM for this one. This little tree is one of my favorites. The paper is SU as is the ribbon. The pearls are from my LSS.

Be sure and check out the rest of the Stamp Simply team as well as Sharon's blog for better directions....
Becky Oehlers
Dee Jackson
Janine Orchard
Julie Koerber
Tammy Hershberger

Sorry for the quickie post. It's been such a long day! I must say...I am looking forward to sleep!

Hope you are all doing well and I will post you all soon!

It's Another Hip Hop Day!

Happy Hip HOP Thursday! So what does Angela have in store for us this week? Well, you know it's lots of fun and lots of rubbah! :) Be sure and check out her Unity blog for all of the details and to start the hop if you aren't coming here from there.

Well, I'm going to share a couple of cards with you today. Here's my first one using Humble Bloom. This is one of my favorite sets. I used some of my October Afternoon paper for this one. LOVE this paper.

Card number two also uses October Afternoon paper. The stamp is from the Kit of the Month. LOVE getting my KOTM! They are always so cute!

Well that's all I have for now. I hope to have a chance to catch up with all of you over at the Unity forum today...although it will be a bit later for me...it's a crazy one for us! Be sure and head over to Wendy Chang's blog to see what she has in store for you....and to continue the hop.

...hop till you drop! ;)

Post you all soon! Have a wonderful day! :)

A Sizzix Candy Box

Happy Wednesday!

A few weeks ago I promised a tutorial on a 'card' I made for the Stampin Up! Artisan showcase. Here's the card that I am talking about....

Well, I made one tiny little change so that this tutorial will in fact be for a 'box' but the end product is basically the same....only better.

Here's a list of supplies you will need:
1.) SU 1 3/8" circle punch
2.) SU scallop circle punch
3.) SU 1 3/4" circle punch
4.) 1 piece of plain card stock...directions for cutting to follow...I used black for the project I am going to share.
5.) 4 pieces of dsp cut 8 1/2 X 5 scored at 4 1/4 on the long side....I used SU's Ghostly Greetings for this...one piece is the orange skulls the rest are the black skulls
6.) 4 pieces of card stock cut to 8 1/2 X 5 scored at 4 1/4 on the long side...I used black for this
7.) Sizzix big mouth
8.) SU Sizzix Pennant die
9.) Crop-a-dile
10.) Ribbon
11.) sand paper/sand block

The first step would be to take your dsp paper (*supply #5 above) and fold it along your score lines. You will line this up with the small pennant on the sizzix die and run this through your machine. Sorry...this was almost impossible to photograph with only one set of hands! ;) When you have these punched out, tear along the perforated portion of the paper and then sand the edges to smooth.

Second, take the card stock (*supply #6 above) and fold it along your score lines and run throught the sizzix with the small pennant die. Do not tear the perforated lines. Put these aside.

Now take your sheet of card stock (I am using black) and score it 1/2" from any edge....

...pay no attention to the way-ward train! ;)

Now flip the sheet and line the score mark at 5 3/4"......

Score.....then line this mark up at 1/2" and cut....
Now repeat this process on the other 'side' of the paper....you will have 1/2" score lines all around your square....
Then cut the corner squares out...leaving this....

Now adhere your dsp triangles to the black scallop triangles and then glue these to the scored strips on your square above. You will then have this....


I then folded up the black triangles and glued them together. I pull the sides in first and glue...then the bottom. You will need to trim a tiny bit from one of the sides before glueing the bottom in place. This is something I 'eyeball' before applying my adhesive. Here's the box once the sides are glued....


Punch holes in the upper sides of the box and tie a ribbon through these holes and embellish/decorate to your liking. Here is my finished project....

Now had my candy gremlins not gotten into the licorice you would see how cute this is with it inside! I have none left! Did they really think I wouldn't notice they had been 'sneaking up on it' by leaving the empty bag? 'Sneaking up on it' is the way they describe this by the way. Evan was 'sneaking up on' the cookies for instance! Of course since Hayden is the youngest and still not really able to say much of anything...or even get the need for defending himself!...he's usually the one that gets blamed.


...You get this gist. Please let me know if you have any questions. If you get a chance to make one, link me up! I would love to see what you would do with it.

The stamp I used for this is from Papertrey. It's Spooky Sweets.

Hope you are all having a fabulous Wednesday! I am off to read a bit and enjoy...what I hope will be a quiet nap from Hayden!

Post you soon!

Inspiration Time!

It's time for another fun inspiration challenge brought to you by the ever so fabulous Beate! This weeks inspiration piece reminded me of fall. I think it's the colors and the leaves on the glasses. Check this out....

I was in luck because I had the perfect stamp for the fall feeling I was going for. This is from Unity. It's called Autumn Blessings. The paper is SU.

Be sure and check out the rest of the BIC team:

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

That's it for me. Today will be spent trying to catch up around the house. It's in total chaos! Tonight I stamp! Somehow it feels like I haven't done much of that lately. How crazy does that sound! Everything has been so rushed in the last few days. I think that's why I feel that way.

I hope you all have a wonderful day! I look forward to posting you soon! :)

A Sewing Challenge

....and an EPLS for it! Today is my Monday challenge day with AJ, Amber, and Maren. Mine is super straightforward. I just got my new Kit of the Month from Unity. Woohoo! It's adorable! I wanted to use it and I guess I was in a darker mood...color wise that is! ;) So I created this....

The background is Basic Gray which I embossed with clear powder after stamping the snowflakes in silver ink. Then I stitched around the outside. The red is Riding Hood Red and then a mat with the sentiment and part of a snowflake in silver embossed. EPLS! Love that! I think I could make a ton of these!

Be sure and check out AJ's, Maren's, and Amber's. I am off to finish up my project for Stampin Up. I have to ship it off like yesterday! Can't wait to share it with you!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Page Plans Time!

It's time for another Page Plans sketch! This weeks sketch comes to us from Renee Morris-Dezember. Here's the sketch....

My card for this week is EPLS! I'm on a roll with these quickies! ........

All of the stamps are from Unity. All of the supplies are from Stampin Up. I love that they have the new Flower Fusion 2 set! Love the chocolate, pink and blue flowers!

Quickie card...quickie post! lol! Sorry, I need to dash! I have my Monday challenge card set to come up in just a few and I am off to finish my SU project!

Have a good one!

My First Dirty Challenge!

How fun! I just uploaded my first card for a DD/DDA challenge! The rules of this challenge had me stumped just a bit. Not only could you NOT use layers, you couldn't use any pink. What, NO PINK!??! lol!

After a little bit of thinking I decided to create this....

First I took a standard white card and created a 'grid' with my pencil. Then I randomly sponges some of the squares with either pumpkin or black ink. I stamped a few of the images and the sentiment...added a few gems and a ribbon...those were allowed...and viola! A card is born!

I would say an EPLS was born but masking is a bear! Easy, yes, but a pain!

The stamp is from Unity. It's Trick or Treat Peeps. I used pumpkin and black ink and my copics. The ribbon is from Flower Factory.

Hope you are all having a great morning! I am off to catch up on all that I missed yesterday. Crazy, CRAZY day!

Post you all soon!

Just EPLS!

Well, it's time to Stamp Simply. I always enjoy Sharon's challenges. They are so much fun. The last few weeks have been especially fun! Last weeks week long celebration...FUN, ...casing Julie, Dee, and Tammy....FUN, FUN, FUN!

I'm up this week. Yup, you're supposed to case me! ;) To say I have felt pretty special this week is a HUGE understatement! Starting with the Dirty Dozen and my guest spot over at Gina K on Monday...Angela from Unity hosting a case Jennifer challenge... and I'm up this week with Sharon. Hey, I would be lying if I didn't say a girl could get used to this!

Don't worry, though, my head really isn't so big. Today was spent changing dirty diapers with messed up hair and no makeup....cleaning house, doing laundry....cooking dinner....trust me...it's all in perspective! It has been so much fun and I really can't thank you all enough! I really, TRULY, enjoy creating and sharing with all of you! In between all of the stuff that I love during the day...yeah, it's a blessing that I am here and I do cherish even the hard stuff....but no matter what I thank God each day for all that I have and I am so grateful for all of the opportunities that have come my way.

...sorry if I am getting to deep. I can't really help it, I am overwhelmed! Seriously, overwhelmed!

Well, ok...casing myself...guess I do that every day...LOL...yeah, yeah...at least I crack myself up! ;) I decided to somewhat channel Sharon for this one. Well, at least use a set that reminds me of her...in honor of her and her sweet self! She is truly one of the nicest people EVER! I am so happy to have met her and to call her a friend. I know, you're thinking Flourishes. Yeah, I think of Sharon when I think of Flourishes as well...and I think that Flourishes stamps are BEAUTIFUL! But I also think that the Just Rite Stamper screams Sharon! She ROCKS this one regularly! So....

This is just about the easiest thing evah! Soft sky card stock standard size....red satin ribbon straight up the middle....I used my SU circle punch 1 3/4 inches after stamping in white and heat embossing with white embossing powder. How easy is that! I actually wrapped the ribbon around a dimensional then added one to the back and pulled the sides out and stuck it on....it's not really tied. That's it.

I get so inspired by Sharon and all of her fabulous Just Rite projects so that's what inspired me....and I added my two favorite colors ever!

Thanks so much, Sharon! You are such an amazing person and thank you so much for making me feel so special! It is such an honor to be part of your team and to be your friend!

Ok...sorry for being so sappy...and for such a long post! Thanks for coming by every day! I love sharing with all of you! Thanks for giving me feedback....it's really nice knowing what you think and learning about you!

Now...if you get step out of all of gooey-ness... lol...head on over to the rest of Sharon's team....
Becky Oehlers
Dee Jackson
Janine Orchard
Julie Koerber
Tammy Hershberger

I am off...to bed! I am so tired and I have an early morning tomorrow! Post you all soon!

Hip HOP...New Stamps!

Happy Hip HOP day! :) One of my favorite days of the week! I sooo love this day! ...And, I have new stamps! AH! Unity is releasing a set, Bible Verses! I just so happen to have this wonderful little kit! I made this with it last night....

I used some of my new crackle paint. I was drooling over this at CHA every time I went past the Tim Holtz booth. This stuff is sooo cool! This is one of my favorite verses ever! I am really so excited about this kit! It's absolutely wonderful!

Next, something fun and, well, Halloween! Sorry, can't get it off of my mind! I used the new Trick or Treat Peeps for this one and SCS sketch from yesterday....

LOL...I love this sentiment! This is one of my favorite Halloween sets! Ok...so did you start here? If so, head over to Angela's blog for the start of the blog hop. There you will find all of todays specials.

From here you need to go to Cyndi's blog because, alas, I have no candy! :( lol! Then be sure and head over to the Unity forum at SCS for all sorts of challenges and games to win more goodies! Good luck! I hope you guys are big winners today!

Have a good one! :)

Day 3 With Gina K

Awe! Can you believe it's time to say goodbye! *insert sad face here! ;) you know it's not a real goodbye! I am such a fan of Gina's! She can't get rid of me that easy! ;)

Today is, however, the last day of my guest design spot. I have truly had so much fun with this! What a fantastic week this has been! :)

I have two to share with you today. One Christmas and one Halloween. Here's my little Halloween card. This one uses Happy Haunting.

How fun are these little trick or treaters! LOVE them! I made this little fancy lable on black card stock to look somewhat like a chalk board. Then stamped the sentiment in white craft ink and went back with my sponge to add some more white. I love this giant orange ric rac. It's my fav and I am bummed that I am almost out! I need more! lol! I watercolored the little trick or treaters. They are so adorable! :)

Here's my next one. I didn't put a sentiment on the front of the card. I was thinking you could go in so many directions with this one. I am thinking that the inside should say naughty or nice! lol! Ok...sorry...it would be cute! You could give it to your hubby! Whoever you give it to and whatever the occasion you use it for it's one of my favs! I really love this little dress! I couldn't find my liquid applique so I opted for liquid pearls and then covered that with glitter. The ribbon is my new fav from Target.

That's it for me! I cannot believe that my three days are up! :( It's all good! I have so many Gina K's! I love her stuff! ;) You will see more from me! :)

Thank you again, Gina! I have truly had so much fun doing this! It has been my pleasure and honor to create samples for you! Thanks for being you and for all you do! You're amazing! :)

Catching Up!

In an effort to finish filling up my part of the fan club gallery for this month, I completely missed posting Page Plans sketch of the week! Ah! I'm so sorry! I am all caught up...at least on this front...good thing you guys can't see my desk! lol! Anyway, I have got to share this sketch with you and the EPLS card I made for it!



This weeks sketch comes to you from Chris Ross. It's really cool...check it out....

Ok...so I needed to finish this one in a flash so I needed EPLS...that's easy peasy lemon squeezy in our house! ;)...So I pulled out one of my SU scrappin kits and put this little number together....
How easy is this! All of the images are stickers from the scrappin kit. The ribbon is from Target. and then I added a little pearl to the center of the circle. How easy is this! Sometimes you need simple and you need it fast!

Ok...update. I am working on putting a little instruction thread about the little envelope card I made for SU. I apologize for taking so long. I have spent a ton of time with the boys since I spent soooooo much time stamping this weekend! I know you guys understand. I have most of it ready I need to photo and finish up the last details and I will get it up.


Tomorrow is my last day with Gina K. I will have that in the morning and hopefully the afternoon will be the envelope card.


I hope you all have a wonderful night! I will post you all soon! :)

A Little Unity For A Little Inspiration

Inspiration challenge are my FAVORITE! I know I've said this before but...sorry...I'm going to say it again!...you cannot make a mistake with an inspiration piece! Anything from the piece can inspire. Anything! Color, layout, over all theme...anything! I really love when I can just run with something and go wherever my 'mood' takes me.

...ooo...that's a little scary! LOL....

Todays inspiration piece from Beate for this BIC23, is so clean and crisp but with a touch of whimsy to me. Here's the piece.....

I love the 'white' space and the circles on the rug...the colors...the little tree in the background...so as I was looking at it, I remembered that I had this new little something from Unity...I ordered it a couple of weeks ago but hadn't had a chance to ink it up. I added a little sentiment...some fun ribbon and here you go.....

Simple, right??? Here's the deets....The stamps are both from Unity. The sentiment is from Gratitude = Joy, the circles in the bottom corner is a single called Hullabaloo. I stamped the image in Basic Gray and colored them with my Copic markers. Since I didn't have a lot of coloring I didn't have a problem with 'bleeding' from the markers. This is so not the 'right' ink to use for these markers! :) Then I cut a sheet of vellum to the same size as the card and glued it down with my vellum tape...that stuff really works! I used my ribbon from SU...it's Kiwi Kiss.

That's it! EPLS! I so love EPLS! Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team...

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Hope you are all having a great morning! I'm off to check out the rest of the team and then just try and clean up around here! What a mess my house is!

Have a wonderful day! :)

Day 2 With Gina K

Today is day two of my guest design spot with Gina K. I have really enjoyed working with Gina and her amazing stamps. This has truly been such an honor and I have had so much fun! I just have to say, these last couple of days have been beyond amazing. Thank you so very much for all of your kind words and well wishes. I feel so very lucky to be doing what I love. That there are so many wonderful friends out there just makes this even more amazing! Thank you! Thanks for being so kind and supportive! I really love sharing with you.


So how about I share my day two project? Asela Hopkins is one of the stamp designers over at Gina K. She's such an amazing talent. I really love her work and am so happy that she does what she does! I used Botanical Dreams for this one. This is such a fun set. I see so many possibilities with it. I love that! If I can pull lots of different occassions out of one set I am THRILLED! I used this set for Christmas.

The paper is retired from SU. I have a sad face even as I type that! This was one of my favorite Christmas packs. I hoarded it! ...which explains why I have any left at all! I picked this ribbon up at Target. Love when I find stuff like this. I got this HUGE roll for not a lot of money! It was in the 'wedding' stationary section. I picked up the roll of red which matches Real Red and the brown which matches Chocolate chip. Two of my favorite colors!

I colored the leaves with my copic markers and then went back with my red liquid pearls and just added some dots for berries. The ribbon isn't really tied all the way around. I glued a strip down and then used my two hole punch and punched a spot at the base of the leaves and tied a small strip there...just to look like it was tied through. I'm guessing that's about as clear as mud! Sorry about that.

Well, I am off to get the boys some breakfast and send them off to school. I will be back in a bit with todays BIC challenge. FUN one! Just want to say thank you again! I cannot promise I won't keep getting all mushy on you guys! This really has been such an amazing week and I am just feeling so blessed to be right here right now!

Post you all soon!