Unity Thursday

Happy New Years! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season! I'm so sorry for the quick post but I am on 'gaming' duty with the kiddos today. I really love this time of year but with them off from school for so long I feel like my days are all about Mario, Madden '10, Monopoly....the list goes on and on! I did take a bit of a break yesterday to squeeze in some creating time. :) Here's what I have for you today....

This little layout of my youngest. I used the scrapbook KOTM for this one....

I posted this little card on the Unity blog Tuesday so you may have already seen this.

That's it for me. Be sure to check out the Unity blog to see all of todays fun goodies! :)

...and Happy New Year! I hope you all have a wonderful and safe one!

Big hugs!

A Simple Gift

It's time to Stamp Simply and what perfect timing here! I am trying to finish up all my last minute Christmas gift giving so this weeks challenge is perfect! The one catch with this weeks challenge is to use 'snow' in our projects. Here's what I came up with....

I've spent the entire day baking. I have a huge plate ready to go for my hubby to take to work tomorrow, lots of plates for friends and about a dozen little boxes (as pictured above) for my children to take to school tomorrow for their teachers and the school staff. Phew! What a day!

These little goodie boxes are holding my homemade turtles. These are sooooo EPLS to make. All you need are caramel, milk chocolate, and pecans. Layer a baking sheet with pecans, cover with caramel. Bake in an oven pre-set to 200 degrees for around 5 minutes and then dip in melted chocolate. So easy but boy do they taste so GOOD!

The little boxes are from Michaels. I used the snowflake Martha Stewart punch for the border of the red card stock. The patterned paper also had glittery snowflakes but the picture doesn't quite show that off. The stamp is from Papertrey Inc.

Be sure and check out the rest of the team.....

Michelle Woerner, December Guest Designer
Janine Orchard
Julie Koerber
AJ Otto - will post mid-day on Friday
Tammy Hershberger
Deb Saaranen
Barbara Anders
Jenny Gropp
Barb Schram

And don't forget our fearless leader, Sharon Johnson.

Hope you get a chance to play. If you do, be sure and upload your creations to SCS using the keyword ssnotime118.

Post you all soon. I'm off to watch the rest of the Colts game and then off to bed! ....if I can actually stay awake long enough to see the whole game! ;)

Have a good one! :)

Unity Thursday

Hey Peeps! It's time for more Unity Stamps! :) Don't you love them! I've got a quickie card today using one of my favs from this months Kit of the Month. Take a peek.....

I really love this stamp! It's one of my favs! This is such a great set. You can view the whole thing at the Unity site.

Sorry this one is so quick. I'm off to start Christmas cookies. Post you all soon! :)

Love Bug

It's Unity Thursday time again. I love this time of week! :) I'm using the new Kit of the Month add on this week. I fell in love the minute I saw it! Take a peek....

The paper for this is Cosmo Cricket and the alpha is from Jillibean Soup. I colored the cute little bug with my Copic markers.

That's it for me. Be sure and check out all of this weeks specials over at the Unity blog and you can find more information about this add on kit at the Unity store.

Have a wonderful day! :)

Stamp Simply

It's time for this weeks Stamp Simply challenge. This weeks challenge is to make a 'tag'. All of the specifics can be found at Sharon's blog. This one is ssnotime116 for uploads to Splitcoast. When you get there and read the specific instructions you will see that I have sort of strayed off task just a wee bit. Here's the deal. I pulled out some new BoBunny for this project. Everything is from the A Gift Of Love line. It's ADORABLE! I LOVE this line! Well, one of the stickers said 'Dear Santa, I can explain everything'. Instantly I knew I had to use this sticker. We've had a bit of a rough morning. Everyone is home today and the older two were having a 'moment'. (that sounds much better than fighting...denial...I live there) Anyhoo, I figured I would make a tag to include with our cookies for Santa. We are gonna need it this year. So on my way to a tag I ended up with a mini 'tag' book.

Here's the cover:

While I was trying to decide how to put everything together. You know, the cookies and such, I remembered a little glitter incident that took place here just a couple of days ago. Actually, I remembered it because I still havent' gotten all of the glitter out of the carpet down here. Then I remembered walking downstairs only to find the fish tank full of toys and cookies. Holy smoke I know a little boy that really needs to make his own explanation book! So here you go.....

The glitter. I have a couple of small drawers that are filled with glitter containers of various sizes. Hey, I'm a glitter nut! I guess he decided it was really fun to play with and he said when I caught him...'Mommy, it's just like sand'. Honestly! Lost are about a dozen bottles of glitter. Some of those were the really big Martha Stewart containers.

Ok....the next picture is not for the faint of heart. I didn't take the picture until after we got the toys out. My older two boys were really upset as they thought the fish were all crushed. The entire tank was filled with train tracks, cars, stuffed animals, and cookies. I think he may have sprinkled a little bit of glitter in there as well. All I know is that the cookies feel apart when I tried to get them out and the toys all went in the trash. YUCK!

***Remarkably, NO fish were killed in this incident. How that is possible I do NOT know! And that is what our fishtank looked like after all of the toys were removed. It's still not perfectly clear. I'm afraid I will kill the fish if I changed to much water at once but we are working on it.

Do you love this face? Holy smoke! This is the look that he gives everyone this year! Everywhere we go he is scrunching his entire face up. No matter what the situation or who he is looking at. And there I am, just shaking my head.

This is the epitome of Hayden. Crumbs on his lips, hat on backwards, sweaty....what more needs to be said.

Then you have those really sweet moments when you just want to squeeze his little cheeks. For as mischevous as he can be he is a zillion times sweeter. He's a sweetie. Yeah, I know, he really doesn't need this book to help him out with 'santa'. But she is really going to love looking back on it in the future!

Hope you all enjoy! Check out the rest of the team.....

Michelle Woerner, December Guest Designer
Jennifer Buck
Janine Orchard
Julie Koerber
AJ Otto
Tammy Hershberger
Deb Saaranen
Barbara Anders
Jenny Gropp
Barb Schram

I will post you all soon! :)

Unity Thursday

I'm so excited to share my first samples with this months Unity Kit of the Month. This months kit is AMAZING! I really love it. You can see the whole kit at the Unity store. Here are my samples....

Love this balloon. It's beautiful. The sentiments in the kit fit nicely over it as well.

Next up an EPLS one with an AMAZING sentiment. I used some Basic Grey for this one.....

That's it for me. Be sure to check out the Unity blog for all of the specials for today. Enjoy!

{Post #2} The Stamps Of Life

Back again. It's time for a new release from The Stamps of Life. This months release is WONDERFUL! You will love it! My first card of the month is all digi. I really love the flexibility of digital images. I also love to create a (somewhat in this instance) one layer card with them. Here's what I came up with this month.....

I did mat the main layer and add a ribbon but otherwise it's all one. I layered the images in Photoshop and changed the colors as well.

You can see the whole kit at the Stamps of Life site.

Post you all soon!

Another Flower Soft Challenge

Hello to you all! I'm so happy to be back home. We took a quick trip to Texas for Thanksgiving. What a fun time! It has been so long since I've been back home and can't believe how much things have changed! I actually got lost on my way home! That's how much things have grown. The boys had so much fun playing near the creek that I once spent time playing around. Of course now there is a huge park nearby so they had a great time playing there as well. They got to 'hunt' for arrowheads. Remarkably some were found....hmmmmm....thanks Grandaddy! ;) I was so happy to be able to meet some of my favorite stamping friends for lunch at my favorite (FAVORITE) restaurant, Chuy's. Have you ever heard of this place? Man is it GOOD! I'm dreaming of queso and this really yummy cake (thanks, Jenn! ;)...it's a new addiction and I so want to learn to make it!) Such a great time!

Now we are back home and putting up the Christmas decorations and I am ready to get to stamping. Perfect timing as I came home to a few 'Christmas' gifts waiting for me. Sometimes a girl has to do a little shopping for herself. ;) I can't wait to ink up all of that rubbah!

It's also just in time for this months Flower Soft challenge. This months challenge is to create a holiday something....card, gift...whatevah. I opted to make a little ornament using some of my favorite toppers. You can find the whole set here at the Flower Soft site. I love how EPLS (easy peasy lemon squeezy) this set is to use. Simply cut and glue and you are done! LOVE that!

There is also a new CD rom that will be available that will allow you to print the same images from your own computer along with other papers to use for anything you can imagine! LOVE that!

Here's my project along with a shot of the CD set....

A closeup of the actual ornament.....

My little one has been shaking this thing up! ;) He loves watching the 'snow' move around. It's not spending a whole lot of time on the tree!

Be sure and check out what the rest of the team has in store for you.....

AJ Otto
Barb Schram
Charmaine Ikach
Deb Saaranen
Jeanne Streiff
Sharon Johnson

And the Flower Soft blog for a project from Charmaine. This is her last month and we will all miss her beautiful Flower Soft projects. She is so talented!

Hope you are all doing well and that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :)

Big hugs!

A Two-fer...

Back again! :) I'm really excited about my post for today. My project is not only for Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge but for the sweet Taylor Van Bruggen's store. Both challenges worked perfectly for me today. For Taylor's challenge it's to alter one of her fabulous Perfect Package Card Boxes. These are AMAZING! I really LOVE them and they have so many uses. Since Sharon's challenge is to create a 'quickie' Christmas card or one that can be mass produced I opted to use my Card Box for Christmas cards.

Here is a picture of the whole enchilada....and I say that because as I am typing we are just getting back from my favorite Mexican restaurant, Chuy's. YUM!....

Notice the little gems on the sentiments......

These little cuties are from Taylor's store as well. You can find them here. I really love these. They come with tons of different colors and are easy to apply to any project. I used some of my new Crate Paper for the package and cards. To keep the cards EPLS (easy, peasy, lemon squeezy) I used the stickers that came in the package.

Check out Taylor's blog for more ideas on the Perfect Package Card Boxes and lots of fun Black Friday deals.

Check out the rest of Sharon's team and Sharon's blog for more quick Christmas card ideas.

• Bethany, November Guest Designer
• Janine
• Julie
• AJ
• Tammy
• Deb
• Barbara
• Jenny
• Barb Schram

Hope you are all doing well and that you have a great day! I will post you soon! :)

Unity Thursday!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the states!

I hope that everyone is enjoying this day. I feel so very blessed to be sharing this wonderful day with my family. There are truly so many things for us to be thankful for!

This weeks Unity project for me is a layout using the Scrapbook kit. This is such a beautiful kit! I really love the versatility and the size of the stamps. These stamps are perfect for layouts! I used a favorite snapshot of my oldest for this one.

I really love this shot. He looks so very serious as he 'studies' the ball prior to the kick. ;) Football was really fun this year and he had such great coaches that taught him so much about the game. He is really developing such a love for the game.

Be sure and check out the rest of the team and the Unity site for all of this weeks goodies. I'm off for a bit more dressing and another piece of pie. Yum!

Have a good one! :)

Wrap It Simply

Back again for this weeks Stamp Simply challenge. I popped back in just in time for some super fun holiday challenges. Sharon always has such great challenges that really help to get us ready for the holidays. I really love that! For more on the challenge and a super BEAUTIFUL sample from our fearless leader you can check out Sharon's blog.

This weeks challenge is 'All Wrapped Up'. Create a little 'somethin', somethin'' that's wrapped. Love it! To keep it simple I pulled out a window bag and filled it with some yummy brownies. Then I created a hand made ornament for the bag tap that can easily be removed and then hung on a Christmas tree. Take a peek.....

Here's a closeup of the tag on the ornament....

The stamp is from The Stamps of Life. This is the November release set. This set is one of my favorites. The glitter is from Martha Stewart. This is the tinsel glitter. I feel in love at first site. How fun is that sparkle!

Be sure and check out the rest of the Stamp Simply team:

Bethany, November Guest Designer
Janine
Julie
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
Barb Schram

Hope you all have a great weekend! I will post you all soon! :)

A Bit Rusty

Happy, happy Thursday! Remember me? It's been such a long time since I've posted I will totally understand if you don't! ;) First, I want to apologize for my abrupt and lengthy absence. Things have been so totally crazy here. Thank you so much for all of your kind words and well wishes. I'm so very sorry for not responding to everyone. I will confess to not actually checking my email until this week. I've been trying to wade through the thousands of emails...seriously, is that even possible? Most is junk mail. But, man, there is a TON!.... Thank you so much! You all do not have any idea just how special you are to me. This has been a really crazy time for us and it's been wonderful reading all of your uplifting words and messages. I really am so very lucky to have such wonderful, caring friends. :) Thank you!

On to a bit of Unity! It's been a really long time since I've stamped so I was really feeling rusty when I sat down at my desk to start working. I wasn't even sure where to start. So I pulled out one of my favorite pictures and decided to put together a quickie layout with this months KOTM. You can see the whole kit at Unity. Here's my layout.....



Sorry, this is just a wee bit crooked. It's been rainy and overcast the last few days here...it's that time of year in Indy! We may not see the sun for another six more months! Yikes! I have issues trying to photograph these in my light tent....but you get the idea. I really, really love the block stamps with the sentiments and so was inspired by them for this layout. 'Simply*be*who*you*are'. Perfect!


Thanks for stopping by! It's really good to be back to creating. I will catch up with you all soon!

Flower Soft & The Stamps Of Life {Post 2}

Back again! I wanted to share one more with you today. Today is the release of the new TSOL {The Stamps Of Life} kit and our Flower Soft challenge. I combined my card for this one. I couldn't resist. The stamps fit perfectly with our challenge!

The challenge: create a Halloween project using Flower Soft. You know how much I LOVE Flower Soft! The stuff is AMAZING! I couldn't wait to get to work for this one! When I was at CHA this past season, Noreen, one of the talented gals 'across the pond' with Flower Soft shared a card that she made with Flower Soft. She created a spider with the wires for this one. I had to make a version of my own.

Ok...where to begin! LOVE this new stamp kit! LOVE that you can get a digital version and resize, recolor, re...whatever...with the images! LOVE fest! Total LOVE fest!

The spider is so much fun!

I created him using some rubber bumpers {these little 1/2" stickers that I got from Canvas Corp} I layered each bumer with a couple of Flower Soft wires and then added the Flower Soft glue to the whole thing, added the black FS and some jiggle eyes. How fun is he!

Be sure and check out the rest of the Flower Soft team to see there fabulous creations:

Deb Saaranen
Charmaine Ikach
Niki Estes
Carole Burrage
AJ Otto
Sharon Johnson

and our October guest designer: Jeanne Streiff

And check out the rest of The Stamps Of Life team:

Julie Griffith

Wendy Hansen

Beverly Sizemore

Joana Studer

Vicki Garrett

Jeanne Streiff

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

Unity KOTM! {Post #1}

Happy 1st! It's time, it's time, it's time!!!! ;) Time for the new Unity KOTM! :) I really love this months kit and am so excited to have my very own copy in my hot little hands to play with! You guys are gonna LOVE this one!

I always love the sayings that Angela chooses for our kits. They are always so motivating and uplifting. This is one of my favorites!

This paper and the embelli's are from Eclectic Paperie LOVE this stuff. It was perfect for this stamp.

Be sure and check out the rest of the team for more Unity goodness!

• AJ Otto
• Amber Height
• Brooke Lien
• Christi Snow
• Jeanne Streiff
• Jennifer Buck
• Jimmi Mayo
• Julie Campbell
• Kimber McGray
• Laura Williams
• Maren Benedict
• Natalie Dever
• Robyn Weatherspoon
• Wendy Chang
• Hope you are all doing well and that you have a wonderful Thursday! Back in a bit for more! :)

Simply Step Away From the Kraft

It's time to Stamp Simply! This challenge is super fun and so Simple. ;) Sorry...couldn't resist. This week we need to create a card with a leaf image but you also have to sponge as well. You can get all of the deets overe at Sharon's fantabulous blog while you are checking out her amazing sample.



Get the kraft out! ;)



Seriously! I realized as I was snapping a shot of this weeks card that I have been OD'ing on the stuff lately! EPLS...CAS (clean & simple)....and kraft. Lately I am just loving it and just can't seem to pull myself away! I think I need a mini challenge for myself. You know, to create something bright and a wee bit wild! ;) I will work on that this weekend. lol.



Ok...back to this FUN challenge! Here's what I came up with.....

LOVE this leaf! This is from Unity Stamp Co. I used a sentiment from PTI. Uh, yeah....just used this one. It was still sitting on my acrylic block and looked perfect for this one. I sponged the leaf first with ink then covered it with a little glossy accents. It needed to shine a bit. Added a few holes and a bit of stitching...easy.

Be sure and check out the rest of the team....

Charlene, September Guest Designer

Janine

Julie

AJ

Tammy

Deb

Barbara

Jenny

Hope you all get the chance to play. Be sure and upload your creations to SCS using the keyword ssnotime106.

Post you all soon! :)

A Paper Posies Challenge...Finally Home

Hey Peeps!

So sorry for the delay. I was fortunate enough to head down to Miami this past weekend for the Colts game. FUN! I had the best time at the game. What a blast! Those Miami fans know how to have a good time! I LOVED all of the music...the game was EXCITING! Super fun stuff! Thankfully, Michele from Paper Posies posted the challenge I am hosting for this week. Phew! Thank you so much, Michele!

Now on to this weeks Paper Posies challenge.....

This weeks challenge will be a 'limited supply' challenge of sorts with one restriction....jewels. You must use jewels. I was so inspired by the beautiful jewel Basic Grey flower from this months kit that I just had to incorporate that somehow!

Soooo.....please create a project using....

1.) ....one, and only one patterned paper. Yup, if you were to get really creative and it was one of this months double sided sheets you could use both sides on your project.

2.) ....two sheets of card stock. You may use two different colored pieces but only two.

3.) ....gems, jewels! ...It's gotta have BLING!

4.) .....NO ribbon! Yikes! You know I LOVE ribbon but not today! Today we are leaving the ribbon on the spool and working without it!

Here is my creation for todays challenge.....

EPLS baby. ;) Now it's your turn. Please be sure and link you beautiful creations here.

Hope you all get a chance to play! I will post you all soon!

Happy Friday! Are you enjoying this fabulous Just Rite blog hop? I absolutely LOVE this product and how versatile it is. This is day two of this fabulous fun time. This hop is dedicated to the fabulous monograms.

I decided to get a jump on my Christmas cards by creating one using my Just Rite fonts. Take a look....

The paper is Making Memories. I used the Special Occassions and Brayton Fonts for this one.

Be sure and check out the rest of the fabulous projects for todays portion of the hop....

Debbie Olson http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com
Jerri Kay Jimenez http://jerrikay.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com
Taylor Van Bruggen http://tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com
Holly Simoni http://www.hollysimoni.typepad.com/
Barb Schram http://barbschram.blogspot.com
Terre Frye http://terresscraptherapy.blogspot.com/
Michelle Kovack http://chelemom.blogspot.com
Kim Moreno www.livingthecircuslife.blogspot.com
Catherine Doucette www.thedancingpear.blogspot.com
Kellie Fortin http://www.murdocks.typepad.com
Kimberly Crawford http://www.kimberly-crawford.blogspot.com/
Kathy Jones http://inspiredtostamp.blogspot.com
Michelle Giraud www.twisted-chick.blogspot.com
Angela Barkhouse http://snippetsofpaper.blogspot.com
Heather Pulvirenti http://heatherpulvirenti.blogspot.com
Tami Mayberry http://tamimayberry.blogspot.com
Jennifer Buck http://thebuckstampshere.blogspot.com {that's me...you are here} ;)
Keri Lee Sereika http://pinklemonade.typepad.com
Jami Bova http://www.sgtstamper.com/blog/
Laura Davis http://resumeofthepaperpoppy.blogspot.com/
Stacey Kingman http://staceykingman.blogspot.com/
Bonnie Sharp http://theluckyclucker.blogspot.com
Stephanie Severin http://ingeniousinkling.typepad.com/
Janine Rich http://2bkrafty.blogspot.com/
Debbie Seyer http://www.debbieseyer.com/
Margie Higuchi http://margieh.blogspot.com/
Lauren Bergold http://llaurenb.blogspot.com/
Anja Curvers http://www.scrappietoo.blogspot.com
AJ Otto http://thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/

Have a wonderful day! :)

A CAS Stamp Simply Challenge

Today will be a busy one for me. It's Thursday night which means it's Stamp Simply time and in just a bit marks another Just Rite blog hop. I so love a good challenge so you know it's been a fun week of stamping here!



This week Sharon's challenge is to create not only a Clean and Simple card but to only use black or brown ink. I pulled this one out for this weeks challenge....

Now head on over to the rest of the Stamp Simply team and be sure and check out Sharon's fantabulous sample! :)

Charlene, September Guest Designer
Janine
Julie
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny

Post you soon! :)

Who Does That?

...why Unity of course! ;)

I love how Angela is always changing things to make everything 'fresh'. There is always something fun, new, and exciting! This week marks our first new blog hop, 'Who Does That?'. There are so many new stamps. There are so many beautiful samples. So much to do and see! You can find all of the news at the Unity blog.

I'm using one of my favorite new releases for today. I had such a hard time choosing which one to show you today! I opted for a layout that I created using Simple Blessings. Take a look....

That's my youngest from last Halloween. The force was with us that year. We had Anikan, Obi-Won (sp), and Yoda. Obviously Hayden was Yoda. He really wasn't loving the hat. This is one of the few pictures I have of him with a smile while wearing it. He wanted that thing off pronto! We are now trying to choose costumes for this year. Unfortunately for me the Grim Reaper is high on one of my boys lists. Yikes! I'm guessing my next Halloween layouts won't be so much fun! ;)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your hop! Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day! :)