Stamps:
From Unity Stamp Company, So & So loves and sentiment from the December kit of the month

Copics:
E31, E55, E57 for trees
R20, R22, R24 for hearts
B12, B14, Yr04 for the birdie
B000, B00, B01 for the sky

Paper
Neenah Solar White classic crest
Chocolate Chip Cardstock

Tools & Accessories
Spellbinders Classic Circles (Large)
Paper ribbon from Daisy Bucket

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and now for...


Stamps:
UNity Stamp Company, October Kit of the Month

Inspiration: Mojo Monday Sketch, 117

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Its a Hip Hop Hangover friday for me! Sorry i didnt post yesterday. The boys have needed some "mama time" since i've been so busy! I took them to Monkey Joes (a big inflatable bounce place) and we played and played!

I was able to sneak in and out of Unity's Hip Hop yesterday. I adore Unity and have been a huge fan for over a year. I placed my first order with from for my birthday (but for my birthday) last year, and since i just hit that mark, i guess i had a birthday with them too!!! Sadly i havent used Unity as much lately. Still trying to find that balance between my own stamp co (which of course i love) but then the other stamp companies (like Unity) that i just love too!

Ok, enough of that though... let's get onto the card!


I wanted to make a card for my girl Christi to thank her for her friendship. This girl LOOOOOOVES cherries, so when the Unity Kit of the Month in June was released, i was ecstatic for the kit to have some cherries in it! What was even better was the sentiment used one of my very favorite fonts?! Recognize it? It's all over my blog! haha.

One of the Hip Hop challenges yesterday was to create a black and white background in any manner we wanted. Other colors were permitted for the rest of the card. So i stamped the cherries randomly over a black piece of cardstock with white daisy craft ink from Close To My Heart. The strip of cherries was stamped with memento ink and then colored with copics. For those that follow my copic tutorials or take my classes, i used the "leaving white space/like paint on a wall" technique. :) Basically, you draw out the space you want to leave the lightest shade and leave it white. You complete your shading and then go over the entire thing with your lightest color. Where it was left "white" or with no color at all, will be the lightest even when some of the color you are layering is the same as the marker you are using. Like paint on a wall, 1 coat, it's there, but it takes a 2nd coat to make it its true color. I have a tutorial (using UNity!) here if you are interested. The base of the leaf i used a simple "flick" method to add some extra shading in addition to the previously mentioned technique.

Quick closeup view...


Here's


Stamps:
All from June KOTM from Unity Stamp Company


Copics/Coloring
Cherries: R24, R27, R29, white gel pen
Stems/Leaves: YG21, YG23, YG25
Outline: T0

Paper:
Cardstock is Basic Black, Real Red, Kiwi Kiss all from Stampin Up; White is Solar White from Neenah

Tools and Accessories
Ocean ink from CTMH sponged onto edges
Red Bling from Studio G


Thanks for stopping by!!!!!

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Hey everyone!!! It's Hip Hop Thursday! I love my hip hop thursdays! I know i havent been posting as much unity stuff (well until this week!) Truth be told... i've ust had a lot on my plate (ya think?!). But since this week was my turn for the week in Unity i got to pour thru my pretty extensive collection of Unity Stamps (go check them out, they have so many cool stamps its redonculous!). I kinda fell in love all over again. THey have a very fun quirky style of stamps that have this sassy organic feel to them. Didnt think something could be sassy AND organic did ya? Check them out, you'll understand what i mean!

My mojo this week has been very pink. Kinda strange, i'm not usually this floral in my colors! Maybe it's the nice weather we've had this week making me think of spring! :)

Here's my card for today (little shameless plug, we'll be working on coloring this flower image tonight in my class at Funkie Munkie. If you cant make it tonight, no problemo, there is a repeat of this class later this month! You can always see my classes on my sidebar!)



Even though these arent my typical colors, i'm loving how this card turned out! I took a flower from Unity's august kit of the month and stamped it in a random patterned on some Georgia Pacific cardstock. I then colored in the petals with 2 different copic markers per shade. The colors used were BG13, BG15, RV21, RV23, BV00, BV02.
Then i took coordinating spica pens to outline each petal. The effect was perfect for what i was wanting. I stamped 1 extra flower image on a scrap piece of cardstock and colored it the same was as the others and then popped it up on the card.
The sentiment is from Unity's September kit of the month.

here's a picture of the whole card... it didnt capture the spica pens sparkle at all which is why i'm showing it 2nd! But i did want you to get the view of the whole card as well. :)



Now dont forget to leave your comments on the Unity cards. I will do a random drawing AFTER my class tonight and will post the winner on here and in the HIP HOP forum on splitcoast so it likely wont be posted until 9:30-10 EST. I was going to do it beforehand but then i thought that just gave some ladies less of a chance to WIN. We dont want that! :)

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OMG! I am SO sorry for everyone that came by yesterday only to read my babble with no card! I have no idea what happened. I know i was uploading it! But my internet has pretty much been on the fritz since saturday and then late last night it went out completely. I couldnt even sneak my neighbor's wireless to make my posts! ACK! So i had a few phone calls this morning about my boo boo and i couldnt even fix it! hahaha.

I PROMISE to make sure the card is uploaded this time!

Ok - today is day 3 for my week in Unity. If you have no idea what i'm taking about, scroll to the posts below where i explain it all. :) But most important to know if when you leave a comment, you get entered to win a free stamp from Unity! WOOT!

Here is my card for the day...



I had too much fun playing with some techniques for this card! First i stamped this Have a Heart Cupcake onto white cardstock 2 times. One of them i colored in with copics (ok, honestly i only colored the outer edges since i know you wouldnt see the middle) and i colored the base of that one as well. I was being a little quick about it since i was in a time crunch and *GASP* i didnt shade. :) It's just the copic b12 color.
On the other cupcake i took some pink liquid applique (given to me by my wonderful friend jacquie). And i suddenly realized it was gonna take a lot of my precious applique to cover thsi super sized cupcake. So i smooshed it around with my finger. Yes, thats a technical term. :D
So once the whole thing was covered (it took hardly any product since i was smoooooooshing it) i let it sit and took the kiddos out for the day. Then i came home and heated it up with my heat tool. FYI the manufacturers f liquid applique say to leave the product for 24 hours. i rarely leave it 2 minutes because i'm impatient. haha. In this case, because i didnt let it wait terribly long (about 6 hours) and because my smooshing wasnt at all even, there isnt a even level of puff. Which is think is perfect for a cupcake, so yippie me! I cut out the just the frosting part and then used foam to pop it up on top of the other stamped image. I wanted a smidgen something more so i added the pearls. I'm really pleased with the outcome, especially since i had no plans when i started the card! :D

Here is a close up view of the cupcake in all her 3D glory...


So thats pretty much it. The layout is simple enough because i wanted the cupcake as my focus. That and my house was full of mayhem (all mommies know the type) so i was pleased to even get the card done!

Ok, dont forget to check in tomorrow for another unity card (hopefully posted in the AM instead of the PM!) and then tomorrow night at HIP HOP (probably around 6 just before i leave to teach my color class) i'll announce the comment winner!!! :)

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ETA: I added the picture... i dont know what happened to it before! Stupid internet!!!!

Sorry this post is WAY late! We are still having some internet issues! That and we were out much longer than expected today. I thought after my "quick" errands this morning i'd have time to get this post up. Um... wrong.

Anyhoo - here is day 2 of my unity all week. If you dont know what unity all week is... each week there is a new unity gal and she posts a card everyday using unity stamps. Out of all the comments put on those cards, 1 is randomly chosen on thursday at hip hop to win a free Unity stamp. very fun. :)

Onto the card...


This card uses lots of images from the Bitty Boutique set. I just think this set is so fun and flirty! The images (which are all separate stamps, i just stamped them into a scene) were all inked with memento ink and colored with copic markers. I hate to break it to my copic fans... but i did this one super fast and i'm not even sure what i used! *GASP* that and i'm nursing a migraine so my eyes cants even focus! I do know the purples are in the BV0 family (i think BV00, BV02 and BV04) and all the browns are from E41, E43, E44 and E47 just used differently for different shading. Pink may be RV2 somethings? Like i said... brain not functioning well!

That patterened paper is actually from the packaging of a PTI stamp. I throw nothing away! Seriously! The name of the stamp set on the paper is just covered by my image.

The sentiment is from another unity set called "hey chick"

I know my flowers and rhinestones are a bit random. My 3 year old really wanted to help make the card so i let him put that part on for me. haha.

Ok, thats it for me tonight. Off to rest my eyes! The computer screen is way not helping!

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It's my turn ladies! Time for Unity All Week! What does that mean? That means there will be a new unity creation posted on my blog every day this week. You leave comments after these posts and then 1 lucky person will be drawn from the comments to win a free stamp from Unity during HIP HOP this week. Fun, huh?!

Now this past week was a busy one for me including this past weekend! I've really been missing my stamp time and I am very ready for the challenge of posting every single day! haha. Hopefully it will help me get back into the swing of blog life! :)

This card i made this morning for a friend of mine. She said last night she "couldn't always poop out rainbows and butterflies". I was dying laughing. But in reality, she was feeling some stress. So i made her this rainbow butterfly card with a sentiment to let her know i'm never too far away. :)



I used a butterfly from the July kit of the month and my sentiment is from the september kit of the month. The grass is from a set called flirty flowers

I stickled everything on this card. I mean glitter makes people happy, right? Each butterfly has the same color stickle on it. And then i decided to go all out and outline the butterfly with stickles too. Gotta love stickles, man!
Here's the best close up shot i could get so you could see all that yummy glitter.



So thats all for now! :) Check back in later!

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This was a gift i made for my mom for christmas. I made a card this with sentiment from Unity Stamp Company a bit back and put it in my etsy shop and my mom told me she was about to buy my card out of my etsy shop just because she loved the quote so much. I told her that was totally silly and she'd get something with a quote eventually. So for christmas i had to do something with it!

Now here's something about Unity's quote singles... they are HUGE! I mean, no joking! They are very very large stamps and for 6 bucks, you cant beat it! So they are fantastic on a lot of things... cards, scrapbook pages, altered items... it's really a fab deal.

Here's my altered wooden box...



I was so thrilled with how this turned out! Even moreso because i was doing it the night before we left for Indiana! Now i'm obsessed with making more of them (though i havent yet). I bought the wooden box at Hobby Lobby for 2.99. Not to mention that they have sales on stuff like that all the time! I went the other day (and they had 30% off) but they didnt have any of these boxes in stock. bummer.

Now i already did a little tutorial on how to use crackle paint about 2 weeks ago. If you missed it, you can see it here. I love love love crackle paint! It makes things look so stinkin' cool! You might notice here that the crackle looks different than it does in the link post. The cracks are much much smaller and closer together. The only thing i did different was i waited longer for the crackle to "dry" (note: you do NOT let the crackle dry completely!) Also, the thicker the coat of crackle is, the larger the cracks will be. So it may take some practice until you can judge the size of the cracks before you even apply the top coat, but the great thing about crackle is it always looks good!

I painted the entire wooden box with brown apple barrel paint. I actually painted 2 coats which i usually do for the bottom layer. Let that dry completely then add your crackle medium. And like i said, i waited longer this time for the crackle to dry because i wanted smaller detail in the cracks. Then i applied an off white ACRYLIC paint. The bottom coat isnt a huge deal (sometimes i spray paint, even though the crackle medium says to use acrylic) but i always use an acrylic paint for my top coat. Those cheapie americana paints at the craft store are acrylic. After that dried completely i sponged/rubbed antiquing glaze around all my edges. I just love the antiquing glaze with the crackle. they go together so nicely. I actually did NOT add any further coats. the smaller cracks arent really bothered by no top coat.

For my front, i used the unity quote and colored it in with markers so that the various words would be different colors. I put it on a chocolate cardstock mat and was done with it. Super easy and looks so cool. I cant wait to do one for my craft room!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by today on this Holiday and i hope everyone has a fantastic 2009!!! I know i have LOTS in store for 2009 so i cant wait!

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Phew! I'm home after a long 10.5 hour drive today! Let me just say my boys and dog are TROOPERS! It could have been a day of you know what but instead it was quit pleasant (other than the fact that it's a long drive from indiana to south carolina)

I have so much stuff to post to catch up on!!!! A coloring tutorial (which i'm entirely too tired to type out right now), some gifts i wasnt able to post before the holidays, some cards, a scrapbook layout and i'm sure much more. I have to go thru everything to see what hasnt been posted!

Tomorrow is makeup monday and i know 1 thing i want to talk about (which is actually in relation to hair not makeup, but thats ok). I'm too tired to take pictures now (plus i'm really not lookin' so hot) but hopefully i'll get to it in the morning so it's not too late of a post!

For right now, i'm going to post a scrapbook layout i put together quickly before i left for vacation. It was for the UNITY scrapbook design team call. I didnt make the team but i really wasnt expecting to. But a few of the ladies i was expecting to make it did! So go over to the unity blog and leave them some love!

Here's my simple layout...


I used a background of kraft cardstock. The set is beautiful life by unity. LOVE this set! After i stamped directly onto the kraft cardstock and matted the frames, there really wasnt room for much else! I did want to the the program from my wedding so i did put that on there. I also used a glitter pen to accent everything (it caught the light in the photo but just reflected it so it looks a little odd but it's pretty and sparkly in real life) and also some bling and flowers. I Love these pictures from my wedding. The lower picture is special to me because i was out on the dancefloor when someone snapped it and you might notice i'm holding my belly (i was pregnant at my wedding). It was just such a wonderful day all together. :) Now if only i could get the rest of my wedding scrapbook done! :)

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Ok, now i'm going to go ahead and post this because i'm pretty sure my sister doesnt read THIS blog, and only my other blog. man i hope i'm right! SISTER! If you are reading this - stop now! Do not keep reading or you'll see one of your christmas presents!!!!

(And so you know, i'm not hiding my sister's identity, we just call each other "sister". we always have. :) )

Anyhoo -

There was a challenge in the Hip Hop forum for Unity yesterday to not stress... but DISTRESS! I love distressing. :) Plus i already had some plans to make this gift for my sister, so it was perfect. Before i get into all the details... here is my finished gift... a recipe holder for her kitchen!



Now my sister loves to cook. But she has told me before how annoying it is with recipes when her hands are covered in goo and she's trying to hold up the recipe card to see what comes next. I've seen jumbo clothespins altered before and somewhere a bit back i read someone's idea of using it as a recipe holder. So thats what i went with, but you could easily just alter it to hold a photo like this picture....



This is just me turning the clip around but you could add some flowers or bling or buttons. Endless possibilities really!


Ok, here's how you start... get a jumbo clothes pin (they sell them at all the craft stores and they are really cheap.

Take it apart so it'll be easier to paint. It's super easy to put back together, dont worry.

I then painted mine a brown color. It doesnt really matter if your undercoat layer is dark or light, it just needs to contrast with your top coat. If you wanted to be really festive you could do a red undercoat with the green on top. Really again, its endless possibilities.

(sorry, no photo for this step) Paint crackle paint over the whole thing. You may need to do this in steps so that you arent laying a wet side down on the table. The crackle paint is clear and you can find it in the paint section of your craft store. Its also inexpesnive and gives such a cool look. I'm in LOVE with crackle! :)

Now you'll need to wait a bit before painting another layer. You dont want the crackle clear coat to dry completely though. The less time you wait, the bigger the "splits" will be. I usually wait about 20 minutes or so. Then paint on your constrasting color and the crackle will happen all on it's own!

i wanted to take the worn distress look on my clip 1 step further so i took an antiquing glaze (also in the paint section at craft stores, also cheap) and then took a sponge (i actually used a makeup sponge because thats what i have all over my house but any sponge will do. And then i just rubbed it around my edges. Antiquing glaze is really easy too because it's just a glaze. If you feel like you've got too much on, just wipe it off.

For my "marquee" i sketched it out on a piece of chipboard. This is important because if i had only used cardstock it could have easily gotten bent if it were to be knocked over. After cutting out the chipboard, i traced it over my cardstock so i'd have the same image and adhered it to the top. I chalk inked my edges in chestnut roan cat's eye chalk ink. I used my cricut to cut out the letters. After putting on my letters, i covered them with liquid glass (close to my heart) just to help them stand out.

Now here is when you can do whatever your heart desires for embellishing! Before adhering my letters to the block i created for them, i stamped Unity's distressed dots. If you dont have this background... you NEEEEEED it. Trust me. :) I also sponged my edges with antique linen distress ink and then chalked inked the very edges with dark moss cats eye chalk ink.

(No specific picture for this either) The whole front was sprayed with acrylic spray sealer in glossy. If this was just being used to hold a photo, i would have left it alone, but if my sister's kitchen is anything like my kitchen, it gets messy! I would hate for tomato sauce to get splattered on it and stain the paper. Now if anything gets on it, she can just wipe it clean!

Now dont just stop your hangover here! Go to this thread to see who else has posted some unity love today!

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It feels so strange to be crafting so much but posting so little! I've been busily trying to finish up some xmas gifts but being that the recipients read my blog... i cant post them! That plus the holiday madness has just kept me away. I hate it, but it's the way it goes. And this post has to be super fast because as i type, we should be heading out the door to a christmas party for Jack's playgroup. And here i sit in my pj's! Jack is nakie (he stripped his pj's but hasnt put anythng on yet). The only one who's ready is the baby!

Anyhoo - today it unity's addicts wednesday and it was quite nice to take a break from projects to create a quick card. I'm not even sure i like the card, but the break was nice. haha.

The challenge for today was from Amy (jazzyscrapper) and was to make a monochromatic card (any color we'd like to use). I for some odd reason chose yellow. I dont know why my brain went to yellow - it's so not a typical color for me!

Here's my card...



I used the angel from Unity's September kit of the month. She was a little smaller than i expected but perfect for a card. I inked her up in roch cocoa memento ink (i thought the black would be too harsh on my yellow card) and colored her with copic markers. I used a white pencil for my highlight. Interesting concept to use pencil over marker. Check out today's post from I Like Markers. I also did a lot of detail work with a stardust pen. Hard to see in the photo, but you can just a wee bit. I used the martha stewart zig zag border punch. some michael's acrylic dots and some random scrap of patterned paper. If you look super close, you'll see a snowflake stamped in the background too. It is also from the september kit of the month and i just stamped it in versamark ink so it's subtle, but there. My edges are all chalk inked with amber clay from colorbox.

ACK - and now i have to bolt out the door. Ok, i'll put clothes on us first. I have more fun news to share, but i dont have time right now. mean, i know! :)

OH - if you participate int he challenge don't forget to link up your cards in the Unity Addicts Challenge thread and use the keyword USC17!!!

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OK ok ok! I'm sorry i havent posted this week, ok?! And i'm even more sorry i missed Makeup Monday! I've been hazed by quite a few people! haha. I have been crafting some this week, not as much as i'd like. But after this past week and weekend i was just beat and spent many a night sitting on the couch with the fam instead of crafting. I needed the downtime for a coupla days. And some of the crafting i've done you just cant see yet. And some of it some certain readers of my blog cant see yet so it has to wait too. :) And even sadder, some things i just keep forgetting to post, but i also havent been online as much.

SO! I've got some stuff from Unity's HIP HOP yesterday. Yep, it's a hip hop hangover day!

And just to make up for my short comings this week, i'll post all my unity in 1 post for ya! :)

FIRST - the unity addicts challenge was to case a card from Jimmi, Jen or http://zanynotcrazy.blogspot.com/. WHY? Because they were all named coordinators of VSN (virtual stamp night) on Splitcoast! Way to go ladies!

here is my card...


I chose to case one of Jimmi's cards. As per splitcoast rules, to CASE a card is to Copy And Selectively Edit. You are to chalnge 2 things about a card when you case it. And they can be minor changes, or big changes, it's up to you. Mine were relatively minor. I did change the color scheme a bit adding in some red and a much deeper green. Making it more festive. My buttons are a different color as is my tree. I also changed the sentiment to Just Believe which is one of my favorite christmas time sentiments. As a whole, the word "believe" is my all time favorite word. So around christmas time i like to use it alot. :) I did alter the sketch the weensiest bit. But i dont think it was even enough to qualify as a change! haha.

Next we have the technique challenge over at Splitcoast. This week was to make a vellum wine glass shade. This thought had never even entered my mind! But it was so super easy! I'm going to make a set of them (one for fall, 1 for christmas and at least 1 more... havent decided yet) and they will be a christmas gift with the wine glass and some tea lights. So far i just have the one shade done. I'm debating on adding some beading. What do you think?

I used the snowflake from September's Kit of the Month but if you love... Unity just came out with a bigger size 1! Bonus it's on sale today for a buck until midnight if you place a $25 order!
The sentiment is a fav. It's singled out for the holidays, check it out! Inside each snowflake is a rhinestone for a little blingy bling. And everything is stamped with brilliance ink so it's shimmery!

ok, last but not least is one of jeanne's challenges. She always has these super simple challenges, but then her cards look anything but simple. She's so talented! anyhoo.. her challenge was to make a christmas card but it was only allowed to have 1 layer in addition to the card base. here's my card...

i told ya i have a thing for this sentiment! Love it! I kept my card über simple but i like it's simplicity. ok, used that word too many times in one sentence. anyhoo, i kept my base totally white and stamped the just believe at the bottom. My one layer is a scrap of bazzill bling cardstock (so it has some shimmer to it) and punched out snowflake shapes from a punch by creative memories (that i think i've owned for 2 years and just now got it out of the box! I have to admit, i really want to get a snowflake punch that actually punches snowflakes. i'd love the marvy one and to get the papertrey ink set that goes with it. But no such luck for me. I could get the martha stewart one and i've been debating but my xmas spending has hit it's curb. So i guess no snowflakes for me this year. *sigh* But this one still is very fun when you want to use it for negative space. :) The ribbon at the top balances everything out.

So thats what i created in my unity hip hop day! Now i have to go to bed. I have a wedding to do tomorrow (friday) that shouldnt take more than 3 hours but my kit is WRECKED from the weddings last weekend and i have to wash brushes all morning and reorganize the whole thing before i have to leave at 12:30!!!!

Have fun blog hopping!

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This week's Unity Hip Hop is on a wednesday since tomorrow is THANKSGIVING! I have so much i want to do today since my craft room is finally back in workable order! I'm so excited about it too. I know where things are! I've found things i forgot i had! More things are easy for me to get to instead of being obnoxious and me digging everytime only to end up leaving them out on my table and cluttering mmy workspace. And the biggest bonus of all, it's much easier and faster for me to clean up! There are still a few things i want to do (one being my hubby making me my ghetto rubbah rack) and some minor decorating. I still want to ditch the bed and get a futon. And of course when all that happens my room will probably be overhauled again, but for now, i'm stoked! But my crafting today will probably be cut short as today is my hubby and my anniversary! Now we dont have any special plans or anything and in fact i'm pretty sure we arent doing gifts. If he gets me something, i'm in trouble! haha. But i have some things i've wanted to make for him for a bit and i just havent had time with the room disarray and then being sick and just plain kiddos not lettig me do it! So hopefully i'll at least get to make 1 of them done while he's gone this morning!

But for now...
I have a card i created this am for my hubby using unity's Love is Toxic set. And as i read the color challenge for the week over at the splitcoast challenge thread i got really excited. It's a take on of my of very fav color combos - orange and grey. Most people thing i'm looney when i say 2 of my favorite colors are orange and grey. I love them just about as much as i love red and black! The coor challenge was really rust, basic grey and very vanilla. But i did decide i desparately need a warm grey ink pad. I've thought this so many time. I love the color gray, but i always hate the way grey ink stamps. But i think i just havent found the shade i want. I prefer warm tones to cool tones in general but i love a warm grey and it seems like every grey ink i've found stamps with either a green tone or a blue tone. Anyone have the perfect grey ink that want to convince me to buy??? Anyone? Anyone?!

Since i started this card last night when the baby did not want to go to sleep and i was beyond the mojo point, i had to find a sketch to play with too. And i've been wanting to do one of jen's sketches but havent been able to work it out so i finally got one done! Here's my card...



I was really pleased with the turnout and i think my hubby will like it. There are a few little details i'm not sure you can pick up in the photo. I stamped my gray piece (which is a grey from hobby lobby that i fell in love with, how could i not? it's a warm gray!) with hearts from the Love is Toxic kit. I have the craft spots in earth elements so the really rust shows up on the grey as it's true color which is nice. The edges are inked with Burnt Sienna chalk ink which is a very close match to the really rust. I dont like to ink my edges with anything but the chalk inks because the chalk ink dries so fast. I hate having to pay attention to where i lay down my cardstock if the ink is wet. My sentiment piece i used the really rust spot again but of course didnt have the grey ink i wanted but i DID have a Leplume marker in brown gray and it matched perfect. My skull i stamped in CTMH Colonial White (which is now a pigment ink like the craft!). I added the very vanilla grosgrain ribbon and some gray brads by spare parts.


Thanks for stopping by... i'm off to hip hop for a bit!

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Wow - i meant to post all of this yesterday and somehow i thought i did, but obviously i didnt! Woops!

First of all, i want to say that Becky Carafa or beccabatgirl on splitcoast ROCKS MY WORLD! We had been discussing a possible trade since she had a verve visual stamp set i really liked. I was having just a plain ROUGH day on monday. And i even commented that i needed some happy mail or something to brighten it up. Well, happy mail indeed! Becky mailed me the stamp set plus a super cute card, just for the heck of it! She wants nothing in return for it! So some fantastic karma needs to head her direction because she totally made my day, thats for sure. And it couldnt have come at a better time. So if you could do me a favor, visit her superb blog and leave her some love??

Ok - onto my card for the splitcoast inspiration challenge card for this week. This weeks challenge was to get some inspiration from the Felted Garden. I chose one of the throws as inspiration.

I used the embossing resist technique. I chose the lucid leaflet stamp from Unity's Gratitude=Joy set. I stamped in versamark on white daisy (ctmh) cardstock and then embossed with clear detail powder. I used the sponging technique i read the other day on Mel Stampz's blog. I'm getting into the idea of reinkers, so i'll need to be buying more! I used SU's soft sky and baja breeze. It's mostly soft sky, and then baja breeze mixed with soft sky for the outer edges and right around the leaves. I still think i have a lot ot learn when it comes to sponging techniques, but it's not stopping me from doing it. Eventually it wont take me forever to get 1 card done that way! My sentiment is from Unity's July Kit of the Month I chalked inked the edges of the cardstock with creamy brown cat's eye chalk ink and tied a satin brown ribbon for just something extra. It's all mounted on chocolate cardstock.

I actually did something to the inside of my card. I've decided i really like that and need to do it more often!

I used the same leaf that i did on the front onto i stamped it with soft sky ink. My sentiment is from the Simply Said
kit also by Unity.

This card will be put in my with Cause of the Month cards. Dont know about my cause of the month yet? Click on the button in my sidebar to learn about the organization.
If you want to donate some cards (they can be made previously) send any thank you cards plus envelopes to me and for each card you said, i will put you in my drawing. 1 lucky winner will get free shipping to Unity compliments of the wonderful angela!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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Well, another week has flown by! Splitcoast was not very nice to us hip hoppers yesterday. Slow and wonky! I still hung out even thought it was worse for wear. And though there is always a hip hop hangover on fridays, today's hangover proves to be a little more fun. Angela has said she's going to give out even more prizes this am! So grab your coffee, go to angela's blog and hop along the hangover threads. And when you are done, come to unity's hip hop forum and play with us this morning. And while you're at it, go to the Unity Website and shop a little. Angela is continuing on the Hip Hop specials until noon today!

Ok, now that i've done my sales pitch (for a company i dont work for even... hehehe) here is my hip hop hangover card (yes singular, i havent crafted in days and this morning i just had to, so i just made my card this am!)



Yesterday, Jeanne put out a "cut it out" challenge. So i stamped one of my giggle grove trees onto patterned paper and cut it out. It was layered on some other patterned paper (all the patterned paper on this card is from Around the Block, i've hoarded it forever and it was time for it to come out and play!). I stitched around the outer edge and around my tree for just a little emphasis. I stamped my sentiment from Unity's Sentiments O' Simple kit.
ALl of my edges have been chalk inked of course. :)

Now... Let me put a little plug out there for my CAUSE OF THE MONTH. Do you know about my cause of the month? You can read about it in full detail here but for those of you being lazy this morning.. i'll do a brief recap. Every month i am choosing a different cause or organization to do a little mission project for. This is my first month doing this, and i've chosen a local organization called "Let There Be Mom". This organization is AMAZING! It supports mom's who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. They then work with these women and their families to preserve their legacy. What they do varies from family to family depending on the wishes of the mom. Very often they help put together a scrapbook for the families to cherish after the mom passes. Quilts are sometimes made. Beautiful family portraits taken. And then on top of that, they help the family out with the normal household things (cooking, cleaning, etc) so that the mom's are just able to be mom's to their families! Spending that very precious time they have left with their loved ones and not keeping house. This entire organization is run by volunteers and donations from companies to provide the materials that might be required. Really, it's phenomenal. But you've got to think that such an organization would need to send out a lot of thank yous! That is where my mission project comes in this month. I have been busy making thank you cards (some simple, some elaborate) to give to Let There Be Mom at the end of the month. I would love it if you helped me out with my mission.

And now for a little incentive... Since this is a hip hop post, and many of the readers will be unity fans... for every card i receive to give to this company, i will put the makers name into a drawing. Then i will award 1 person (at random) with FREE SHIPPING on their next unity order. Now i dont know how i'm going to work this out yet. I'll have to talk to angela. haha. But even if i'm mailing you a $5 bill for you to use on your shipping... you will get free shipping. Depending on the number of entires i may select numerous winners.

Wont you help me on my project this month? Email me at makeupbykatie@yahoo.com for my address to mail the cards!

Thanks so much!

HIP HOP!

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It's Hip Hop Hangover! Which i'm actually NOT that hung over from hip hop because i was about to FALL OVER last night. So i went to bed a little early and feel much more rested. :) And Jack is still asleep (gabe of course has been awake for an hour and a half, he's my early bird). Still - i have some time to post my single lonely card from yesterday's hip hop. I did not have a cooperating family yesterday, so i just chatted mostly and didnt create all that much.

Jeanne challenged us to make a one layer card. That means, no mattes, no patterened paper, no layers... just your card base and some lovely stamping. Some one layered cards (OLC) are stunning! I think i may have some work to do before i get to stunning, but i do like my stamping. I just looks like it's missing something to me. :) I've seen some one layered cards with ribbon tied around the top. I think that would help. But i wasnt sure what was allowed for the challenge so i stuck to nothin but ink!




I used my giggle grove set from UNITY. LOVE this set. And i hadnt had a chance to get it inky yet. This was my splurge from a few hip hops ago. It was on sale (everything was 25% off, and you gotta love that). Rach was ordering... rach owed me some money... i had rach buy it for me so i wouldnt feel like i was spending anything. nice. :) But seeing as i rarely see that girl in person anymore (YEAH THATS RIGHT, I'M CALLING YOU OUT!) it took me a minute to get it. Hehe. Ok, dont think i'm totally dogging on one of my best friends. She's über preggo and not feeling that well so she stays home a lot. Can you blame her?

Ok, i have nothing else to say about my card seeing as it's 1 layer. Um... i colored it with copics? I'm sure you already knew that. haha.

Ok, go figure, Gabe just fell asleep and within the same minute Jack woke up. Do they do this on purpose? Ok, quickly 1 more thing... but i have a blog candy announcement for you!

Starving artist is giving away an über cute christmas set. it's $32 bucks worth of stamps. nice huh? Check out this post for some more details and to see the stamps. Oh are they cute or what?!?

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Ok, so i finally did my own challenge! Now i can enter myself into my own blog candy. haha. Ok, no i wont, that would be silly!
I put together this card in literally about 5 minutes. What the heck took me so long to get it done? Easy sketch already planned out.... and yet i hadnt done it until yesterday. Silly me. Now my bella lovin' sistah's right now are saying how the heck did i put together a bella card in 5 minutes?! I cheated. I like to color... a lot. So much that sometimes it's all i want to do. So i stamp out some bellas and color them in and then they go in a little file. It's nice because when i dont necessarily have the time to color but i want to use a fun image like that, i just pull on out of the colored file and a card takes minutes, literally! So thats what i did here. Yep, thats right, i'm making you go BACK to another post to see the card. Sneaky like that, i am! (wow i just sounded like yoda). But i want you to check out the post because i have some BLOG CANDY going on there!

Ok - and now onto important thursday matters... IT'S HIP HOP! Now you know i love to hip hop. If you dont know about hip hop... check out Unity's BLOG and meet us in the forum

Every wednesday Unity has a challenge. This week is was Lisa's turn to choose the challenge and she chose an inspiration challenge - (and a tough on at that!) We had to go off of this picture...
We could use this photo in any way we wanted for inspiration. I had 1 idea, but wanted to do something a little different. Thats when my bud Rachel said i should try to do all 4 plates somehow because no one had done that. So thats exactly what i did. Rach is my mojo. haha. I was hating how each piece was turning out (except for my red butterfly, i was fairly pleased with that one). So i chose the "he makes everything beautiful in its time" sentiment from something within because i was thinking... well this card can just be beautiful in it's own little way. However when i put all the pieces together, i decided i kinda liked it. hahaha.
So here's my card. I used a 2.5 inch square to represent each plate. The bird and swirls (that i used on each square to make it a little more cohesive) are from Growing in Unity. The butterfly is from Butterfly beauty and my dragonfly is from Trifle Sentiments. The leaves behind the dragonfly is from gratitude=joy. Now thats a lot of stamps! Each 2.5 square is matted on a square of blong paper by bazzill. Thats supposed to be the gold lining around the plate. :)

And thats my card! Now come join us in the HIP HOP!

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Ok... someone forgot to tell the baby that we got to set our clocks back an hour. This should have been the happiest morning i've had in awhile because i got an extra hour of sleep, but oh no... Baby woke up right at his normal time and as much as i tried to jsut lay in bed and put a pacifier in his mouth, he wasnt having it. He wanted up! *sigh* No rest for the weary. So we're up while the rest of my house slumbers on. The thing that really stinks is here in the next 20 minutes or so, Gabe will go back to sleep for an hour. But now i've been up for over an hour so i'm not going to be able to fall back asleep myself. Such is life.

But i figure since i'm up, i'll post a scrapbook layout i did a little over a week ago and just never posted on here yet. I was trying to decide whether to add something so i just didnt post it. I'd still like to add a picture of my hubby and i with the kiddos. But my printer hasnt been working. So anyway, here's the layout...



I used my Unity stamps that i WON from the stamp something challenge blog. Erin was so sweet and even made me a little card to congratulate me on my winnings. Teehee. Anyhoo - i won the two people in love kit. It's such a fabulous kit! I just love it. And i thought the sentiment would go so sweet with the pictures of my 2 babies! Besides the sentiment, i also used the argyle heart which i cut out and then popped up (twice) on the layout. I also used the "love" sentiment with my white daisy close to my heart pigment ink and stamped it right over my photo. :)

The blue box was reserved to put another photo but i may add it someplace else and journal in the box. I just havent decided yet! :) So many possibilities! In fact, i may even use this kit again with the same idea for something i have in mind for my entryway. Do you see the wheels in my head turning?

Other deets:
Patterned Paper by Daisy Bucket (LOVE this paper company)
Cardstock: Cajun (Bazzill), Parakeet (Bazzill), Soft Sky (SU)
Ink: Cranberry (CTMH), White Daisy (CTMH), Barn Red (CTMH)
Stamps: Unity Stamp Co two people in love

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No, i'm not THAT kind of hung over! It's HangOver Friday in the Unity forum. For those who havent discovered how fun the unity stamps are might be thinking... geez... can't this girl get enough? Well, no, i can't. haha. Actually, Hangover Friday started a couple of hip hops back. We all had so much fun chit chatting and game playing and if we could squeeze it in, making a card or 2, that it was darned near next to impossible to see everyone's cards! So thats what Hip Hop Friday is all about. A day to post what you did make during the hip hop. So in the morning, everyone can get their coffee and go hip hopping thru blogs (which are all posted on the Unity blog... so check that out today too.

Sadly, i only got 1 of the unity challenge's done yesterday. Well, technically i got 2 done, but i already posted one of them. :) But we had a halloween party in the am, and i was pooped most of the day. haha. (and i had to get my verve card done, which i posted yesterday). But i do have some unity goodness for you. :)

First, here is my Let them eat cake card. It was a pretty easy peasy card that doesnt take much explaining. So i'll let it explain itself!

The stamp is from Unity's Sentiments O Simple kit. Lots of fun stuff in that one! I made this card for the challenge to use something sweet. This sentiment about cake was all i had! But i hadnt even inked it up yet so it was due! The paper is by SEI and that big ol' flower is a vinyl decal by SU. :) It looks black as does the mat behind my sentiment but it's just the lighting. It's actually a dark chocolate brown color.

Ok, thats all for now. I'm hoping to post a pumpkin project i did a bit back a little later today in honor of halloween but we've got a halloween party this AM and i have to get out snack ready for that and then we'll just see how the rest of the day goes! Thanks for stopping by!

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