Boo 2 U!

Happy Thursday! :) It's time for hip HOP! I'm so excited to be back with the hop this week. Lots of fun things happening here and at such a wonderful time! :) {More to come.}

This week I used the new Halloween release from Unity Stamp Co. If you are a regular blog reader here you know that I am kind of a freak for Halloween. I've already started working on decorating and was happy to take a moment from making my home look a bit 'haunted' to create a card to send to someone for my second favorite holiday. ;) Here's what I came up with.....

I love, LOVE, love those little bats! They are so super cute! I stamped mine to create a little border to go across the card. You can see the rest of this at the Unity site...along with soooo many CUTE goodies! :)

Now it's time to head on over to Jimmi's blog for more of this weeks hop.

Thanks for stopping by! I will post you soon with a little of this {and a whole lot of Halloween ideas!}

Have a good one!

Hip Hop Halloween!

Happy Hip Hop Thursday! :) I am so excited about this weeks release! Y'all know how much I love creating projects for holidays and Halloween is one of my favs! I LOVE the colors! When else can you get away with combining any combination of black, orange, purple and green! LOVE it!

I love all of Unity's Halloween stamp kits and this weeks release is definitely being added to my list of favs! It's super cute! I went Clean & Simple with my creation today. Here's what I came up with.....

What can I say....clean lines really speak to me and something about this image just really makes it seem perfect for that!

Now head on over to my sweet friend ***Kimber McGray*** to continue with this weeks hop.

Catch you all in the hip hop forum! Have a good one! :)

One Of My Favorites

Happy Monday funday! :) Todays Monday challenge is to create a card using your favorite holiday. I quite frankly don't think I've ever met a holiday I don't like! Hey...it's Presidents day...I LOVE that one! At the time this posts I will be heading over to the donut shop with the boys to start our day 'off'. You know, part of what makes a holiday fun is the time off of school! I love just hanging out with them and playing!

My card for today is inspired more by what I came across while organizing yesterday than anything else! I am still so far out from being finished with that but I couldn't believe some of the paper I came across. Take a peek....

OMHeck! I LOVED this paper when it was released a couple of years ago! I honestly didn't realize I still had any left! Wowzers! I knew I just had to pull out one of my favorite Halloween stamps from Unity to finish the job! FUN!

Now check out the rest of the gals....AJ Otto, Amber Height, Brooke Lien, Jeanne Streiff, Maren Benedict.

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

Simple Boo

Happy Halloween! :)

Well, you know I couldn't post today without it being a Halloween card! You would have had to check my temperature if I had done that! ;) So today's had to use a button....you know for Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge. This week is 'Button up for ....fall....Winter!'

Hmmm....buttons..........................................................

I opted to use mine on my tag...because I am somewhat button challenged!

Here's my Mummy card....


The deets: My Minds Eye dsp, Very Vanilla cs SU for the mummy...which I just cut into strips and then distressed with black ink...it was actually pretty simple...although definitely not a 10 minute card...or maybe that was just because I was watching TV while making it!...., purple ribbon Martha Stewart...and I picked it up in the clearance section for $1.99! LOVE a bargain!....'Boo' sentiment PTI, jiggle eyes...

jiggle eyes! OHMYHECK! They are FABULOUS! Look at this.....

They're from Jeepers Creepers and how stinkin cute are they! I'm in love! LOL...yes, I realize how sad and pathetic that really is! :)

Ok...time to check out the rest of the team....
Check out Darlene Pavlick’s sample here.
Check out Julie Koerber’s sample here.
Check out Dee Jackson’s sample here.
Check out Jennifer Buck’s sample here.
Check out Janine Orchard’s sample here.
Check out Tammy Hershberger’s sample here.
Check out Becky Oehlers’ sample here.

If you are uploading to SCS remember to use the keyword ssnotime59.

That's it for me. I'm actually off to bed! :) Carter is sick again. Poor little guy. It's probably more like still sick but he seemed ok today and yesterday. I'm hoping he is better by Halloween night....I would feel so bad for him if he missed anything!

Post you soon! Have a wonderful and safe Halloween! :)

Unity & CPS

This week Unity is sponsoring Card Positioning Systems. Take a look at this weeks super fun sketch....

Love the sketch. Of course, as is often the case with me and sketches...I've changed it slightly. Sometimes you just sort of have to follow your card...or start over...and today did not leave any time for starting over! LOL! It's been one of those days!

So here's my take on this fun sketch....

Be sure and head over to CPS and check out their team. I can't wait to see what they did with this sketch and with Unity!

The deets on this card: Unity's Unlucky 13, SU dsp, ribbon from Flower Factory, misc brads...which means I can no longer remember the manufacturer!

Have a wonderful night! I am off to help the boys get ready for bed and then catch up on some stamping. I am so hoping to get a few things finished tonight....Evan has been complaining of feeling bad all day! I want to be ahead of the game just in case!

Post you soon!

A Hippity Hop!

Can you believe this is the 10th week of Hip Hop! How much do you love hopping through your Thursday!? I LOVE hip HOP Thursday! So if you are just starting your hop here be sure and head over to Angela's blog. There you will find a list of all of today's Unity specials.


I pulled out a couple of my favorites for today. First, one from Simple Pleasures. This is one of my favorite cakes ever!

I made this one for a couple of challenges over at SCS...this weeks color challenge and this weeks sketch challenge.


Now for another favorite of mine...the Growing in Unity tree. Cool note...you can now buy this tree all on it's own...I'm partial to the kit but, hey, it's an option...gotta love options! :)


A quick blast from the past....remember when I did this one.....

Not sure what my deal is with this tree! I DO totally see that this could be such a romantic tree. The kit is TOTALLY romantic! Great for anniversaries and whatnot. For some reason I also see the 'spooky' side of this tree and can't help but go with it! lol! So here's the latest.....

For this one I took a piece of glossy card stock and then painted it with watered down black acrylic paint. Then I stamped it with my tree and dried it with my heat tool...because I am toooooo impatient to wait! Then I sanded it a bit. It's pretty easy actually.

That's it for me! Now it's time to head over to Sarah Martinez. Have fun with the rest of the hop!

Post you soon! :)

Beate's BIC #28

It's that time of week! Time to be inspired and Beate has the coolest piece for us! For this, BIC28, we have this.....


...for some reason this screamed Halloween to me! LOL! I am not sure if it's the colors or just the time of year. Anyway, this is what I did.....


This is seriously the quickest card ever! I made the circles with my Nesties....just took a piece of black card stock and 'nested' them on it and cut...EPLS. The paper is My Minds Eye. The stamp is from Unity's Unlucky 13...one of my current favs... I put this one together in about 15 minutes while getting the boys ready for school. Last night was a late one. Evan had the championship game for his football team. I am happy to report that his team won! Woohoo! We were out so late...for us! ;) I will have to share a photo later as I am barely getting this one up!


That's it for me. Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team...
Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow


I hope you are all having a great day! I will post you soon! :)

Gotta Love the Dollar Spot!

Do you ever shop in the dollar spot at Target? It's most definitely an addiction of mine! I cannot even attempt to walk through the store without stopping there first! There are so many great finds! On one of my recent shopping visits I picked up the cutest little pails! They were packaged in twos with either silver & black or silver & orange. CUTE! I decided to slap some rub ons on them and.....

I think they would make great party favors for little kids. The rub ons are from Stampin Up. These are from the Chills & Thrills package.

That's it for me! We are off to 'boo' the neighbors! I cannot tell you how much my kids look forward to that! Evan has been talking about it non-stop!

Hope you all have a wonderful night! I will post you tomorrow!

Beate's WSC...

...that actually means 'weekend' sketch challenge...but it kinda works with 'Wednesday' sketch challenge today! lol! It's been a crazy weekend here so last night was the first time I had a chance to play with this one. It was actually the perfect little something to get going with since I was hard at it with my last few DD projects yesterday. Relief they are all uploaded and you can view them along with all the fab DD projects in the fan club gallery at SCS here. I think this is my most favorite month so far...I know...this is only the second of my six months....but I really loved the theme and everyone's projects are amazing!

Anyhoo...on to todays card.....

I used Unity's the Boo Crew for this one. LOVE this little set. The paper is My Minds Eye. The ribbon is Papertrey Ink.

Well, I need to dash...sorry for the super quick post but I have got to get caught up around my house. I will be back tomorrow with some hip HOP stuff....new releases tomorrow! LOVE that!

Hope you are all doing well and that you have a great day!

Monday Throwdown!

Yeah...I love them...I just really love typing that! heehee!

It's Monday and that means another 'throwdown' :) This week AJ emailed this AWESOME sketch she came across...Do I have it to add...NO! Issues! I am hoping she will have it on her blog so that you can see it.

Anyhoo...I created this.....

The deets...Making Memories paper and ribbon. Unity Stamp Co. Unlucky 13 stamp kit. I also used this little something I picked up this weekend during a trip to Archivers...it's a little label maker from Around the Block. LOVE this little tool! Did you have one of these when you were little? I totally did...or at least my big sister did! I stole it ALL the time! It was awesome...hmm...till it broke!

Ok...moving on! ;) Be sure and check out Maren Benedict, Amber Height, and AJ Otto. They rock! I can't wait to see what they did with this one.

Off! I have a planning meeting this morning. I will be back in a bit. Hope you are all having a great day! :)

Post you soon!

Post Two...A Sketch From Beate!

How fun are Beate's sketches! I LOVE them! I couldn't wait to play with this weeks and I just got some new Unity so it was perfect!

Here's my card....


The paper is Stampin Up. The stamp is Unity...it's called Tis Near Halloween. Love the jiggle eyes and giant ric-rac...both are from my LSS.

Ok...that's it for me for now. I am off to finish up some things around here. Hope you all get a chance to play!

Post you all soon!

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!

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! :)

How Exciting!

Wowza! I have some really fun stuff to share with you guystoday! I don't even know where to begin! Hmmm.....

How about last February when I had the most amazing conversation with one of my stamping idols the one and only Gina K! Holy heck batman! She actually asked if I would like to be a Guest designer for her in September! OHMYGOSH!

Now you have to understand that back then I was doing not a whole lot other than challenges. I LOVE challenges! I was completley blown away that she even knew who I was! I was such a huge fan of hers and totally in love with her stamps! Guest designer! Are you kidding! Yes, yes, YES!

Well a secret lover I am not! Do you have any idea how hard it has been keeping this secret for this many months! Ugh! This is the kind of secret you like to have but I was ready to shout it from the roof tops! Happy that I finally can! You guys know that I met Gina when I was at CHA....

Isn't she just the cutest thing! Love her! And she's is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet!

Well, I have been working with some super cute stamps from Gina and over the next three days will be able to share those projects with you! The first is one of my favs. This is from Gina's Happy Haunting set. I so LOVE this set. It's got trick or treaters and this...the spookiest silhouette house ever! Getting this picture was quite a challenge! Not only because the lighting was so hard to try and figure out! (Thank you, Gina, for helping me out!) ...but also because my jelly beans kept mysteriously disappearing! I must have a house full of jelly belly gremlins! They're the cutest little gremlins you ever saw! Of course, being their mom makes me just a little biased!

Thanks for stopping by you guys! And a super big thanks to Gina! This was truly such an honor! I am so excited to have had the opportunity to work with you!

Post you all soon!

A Hip HOP...And A Boo To You!

Woohoo! It's hip HOP Thursday! This is definitely one of my favorite times of the week! Ok...the skinny on this weeks specials....

****The one penny stamp of the week is.....Trifle Sentiments with any order over $20 before shipping. This is one of my personal favs. Here's one I made with this set back in July. LOVE this set!

****Here's a list of this week's singles....1.) 'Wow' present from It's A Party, 2.) Dazzling Departure Butterfly from Butterfly Beauty, 3.) Cheery Santa from Holiday Cheer, 4.) Vintage Emblems from Vintage Blue Bells, 5.) Slim Vase from Bouquet of Blessings

****New release from Jessica Rose! This one is called Sweet ZZZZ's

****....And if this is your first Unity order ever, you get a free So & So Loves!

****As if all of this weren't enough....every order will have a mystery surprise stamp! Holy moly! I don't know what it is, but I know it will be soooo cute! Hey, it's from UNITY! :)

So moving on to a little hip HOPPING! Are you hopping yet? I am! Ok...that may just be because Hayden is grabbing my leg and trying to move me out the door! He's actually saying 'do'. That's his way of saying 'Hey you! Get me outta here!'. That's at least what his facial expression looks like!

Well, by now you guys all know that I love Halloween. It's such a fun time. One of the favorite things we do here is 'Boo' our neighbors. My boys LOVE this! Evan is still talking about how he booed the hardest house last year. See, we have a friend who was bragging that nobody would be able to sneak up on them. She had installed one of those motion animatronic thingys right by her front stoop. You know, the thought being that as soon as someone walked up, the thing would scream and the jig would be up!

Well, my son knew was very sneaky last year! I must confess I was quite impressed with him! He was only seven! He slowly walked to the front stoop and saw the thing and then walked quietly around the side and through her bushes and was able to put the bag on the door and ring the bell and run like the WIND before anyone even made it to the door! Kudos to him! He LOVES telling that story!

Wowza! Are you guys still reading??? Well, hopefully this won't disappoint....

I decided to make a 'Boo' basket this week. Here's what I came up with. I used Unity's Little Monsters set for this. Here is the entire basket....

Of course I took closeups of everything!.......

The poem.....

My little Franky candle.....

And what boo basket would be complete without CANDY! ...

Chocolate bars!!!!!.....

Supplies used: Little monsters & Worn Polka Dot Alpha, Kiwi Kiss card stock, Pumpkin Pie card stock, White card stock Papertrey, Basic Black card stock, Copic markers, Crystal effects, candel from Michaels, recycled wicker basket,...and yes that black and orange ribbon!

The only trouble with using this...there is NO WAY POSSIBLE that my neighbors won't know who it came from! When the boys saw it this morning they were ready to use it! Evan was already planning this years 'attack'! ...and five seconds after he makes it home the phone will be ringing with the neighbor calling to say 'GOT YA'!!!!

Now it's time to hop along!.....No blog candy here this week....to hop on over to....Patter Cross.

Good luck you guys! I will post you soon!

Not Again!

...ok...by that I am not talking about the fact that it's time for another fantabulous Page Plans sketch. I love my weekly sketches. Here's this weeks sketch in fact...

Ok...here's where you can all say....'NOT AGAIN!'...by that I mean, yet another Halloween card, yet another pumpkin pie and basic black card, and yet another card with that orange and black ribbon! Ahh! Someone stop her now!

...heehee...

I told you guys I love Halloween! Just wait, in a few weeks I will be sharing pictures of the Buck house decked out to it's spookiest! I did share about the annual challenge didn't I? You know I love a good challenge! Well, one of my neighbors made the mistake of challenging me to see who could be the spookiest. I'm game! So every year we get crazy with it! Halloween is so much fun! I already have so many ideas for this year! I cannot wait! Although, with Hayden now old enough to be scared, I will have to tone it down somewhat. Donna and Heads Up Harry may stay in the storage room until Halloween night when Hayden is asleep! Poor little guy got scared when we walked through Michaels the other day! Hey, I don't want to be responsible for that therapy bill!
Oh...on to the card....


Yeah, there are so many great Halloween colors out there but I only have this ribbon in orange and black. I picked this up from Flower Factory last year. I'm not sure if you guys have one of these stores where you live but if you do you should check it out! Now the ribbon is sort of hit or miss...but when it's hit you get stuff like this! 30 yards of really amazing ribbon that ties beautifully for a mere 3.17 per roll! That's barely 10 cents a yard! Can you even imagine! OHMYGOODNESS you gotta love a good bargain!

...unless you are my blog viewers and get stuck with looking at the same ribbon every day of the week! Ok...not every day but I do realize that's it's my second one in a row for Page Plans. I did just get this stamps set. LOVE the new Spooky Treats II from Papertrey! It got here Friday so it was perfect timing for this sketch. I love the witch up in the corner.

So now it's off to watch to fireworks. Sorry...I am getting this one ready Saturday night and there is a fireworks show going on outside in just a couple of minutes. I will post you all soon! Hope you can all forgive for the overuse of a fabulous ribbon! ;)

Have a great day! :)