Thursday, April 30, 2009

Unity Addicts Challenge 04/29/09

This was my first time participating in the Unity Addicts Challenge. Unity now has a gathering place for all things Unity. I hate to call myself a "Unity Addict" but if the shoe fits....

Here's the sketch we were given for this challenge. Unity is celebrating their 1st birthday!!!! It seems like they have been in business for much more than a year with all of the great products they have to offer and the great community they have established. I am so happy that my friend Michelle turned me on to them. Thank you Michelle :).





I had a lot of fun making this card. I was finally able to make out the Grandma's Kitchen collection from We R Memory Keepers. I used Always Artichoke CS and both stamps are from Unity's April KOTM. I finished off the card with Always Artichoke ribbon, this beautiful flower (brand unknown) and a flower brad from SU. Happy Birthday Unity!!!!



Monday, April 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Card for TJ

Remember those cute animal alphabet stamps I got from K&Company? Well, I broke them out again, along with some more adorable accessories (patterned paper, rub-ons) and made a birthday card for TJ. His birthday is not until June, but I'm giving all the kids their birthday cards while I'm in Virginia May 9-16. I think these little alphabet stamps are THE cutest stamps I have ever seen. Not only do they come with animals for each letter of the alphabet, but they have some additional stamps in the set (like this cute frog complete with flies). I'm having a blast with all of these kid-friendly goodies I've been finding at Michael's lately. I can finally make really cute, fun cards for little ones that they can really enjoy.


Sunday, April 26, 2009

Bunco Going Away Party

Friday night was my final Bunco before the move. I was scheduled to host in May, but I am not sure I'm even going to make it at all, so I let my Bunco pals know that April might be my last chance to see them and play with them. One of the ladies in our group Paulette is getting married on May 3rd, so we planned a little bachelorette party for her and to my surprise, they combined her party with a little going away for me. They presented me with a beautiful card and gift (a Bunco set so that I can hopefully start my own group once I move and make some friends) and ordered a cake for us. I wish I had taken more photos, but this month for some reason we only had about half of our usual players and I got so wrapped up in the game that I neglected to take photos. I must get better at this! I guess I am just going to have to find a way to make it in May after all.
Our Cake

Susan and I

Michele, Paulette and Jane

Paulette Opening all the Gifts in her Basket

Color Inspiration #50

In honor of her 50th Color Inspiration Challenge, Kristina Werner gave us an especially challenging color combination and is offering a whole slew of wonderful prizes. Honestly, she doesn't have to offer any gifts, her color inspirations and Make a Card Monday and Finally Friday videos are gift enough. Kristina, thank you for the gift of your blog, for inspiring us, and generously giving us tips and showing us techniques and new products and expecting nothing in return.

I have been participating in Kristina's challenges since Color Inspiration #37. I haven't been able to participate every week, simply because I am still fairly new to card making (18 months) and am still building up my collection of supplies, so I don't always have the right colors to participate.

I knew I just had to participate in this very special color challenge. This card involved some trial and error, but I am happy with the outcome. My husband actually had the idea of brown ground, a turqoise sky, a yellow sun and a house. I took his idea and took off with it....I did a lot of paper piecing and layered the top panel and used some dimensionals for an awning effect. I also used my Swiss Dots embossing folder for my Cuttlebug to give the ground a little more texture. I am not going to tell you how many times I had to redo the top of the card until I came up with an idea that I liked, that information is just not important ;). I hope you enjoy!



Thursday, April 23, 2009

Aren't You Sweet

With my new order from SU I finally got this great scalloped square punch that I have been drooling over every since it came out. I just can't seem to get enough punches! I also got this adorable Washington Apple DSP. I love the colors in this paper! All of the stamps in this card are from Unity. The sentiment and ornamental design from the top are from March & October KOTM kits. I had fun making this card, I didn't realize that the Bashful Blue and Riding Hood Red looked so great together! Bold and subtle.....kind of like salty and sweet!

True Friend

I just got my SU order in the mail (I love that I can order online now) and to mostly Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery. I had the DSP from the Sale-A-Bration and found that I didn't have any ink, ribbon or CS to go with it so I had to place an order to stock up. I am not sure how I feel about this card. At first I didn't like it, then it grew on me and now I'm not so sure again. The distressed dots are from Unity and the rest of the stamps are from SU. I definitely love the color combination, but I wasn't feeling exceptionally inspired when I sat down to make this card. I guess I should have waited until 11:00 at night! For some reason, inspiration hits at the same time my eyelids get heavy. Why is that?

Nostalgic

I was so excited to get the new April Unity KOTM. They had previews on the Unity blog all throughout the month of March to show what's coming up and when I saw this stamp I just could not wait to get my kit and it was the first stamp I used. I have been rather nostalgic lately and this stamp makes me think back to when my grandfather was a furrier and we would visit his shop and all of the ladies would be sewing and all the gorgeous furs would be on display. That was of course before Peta and back when furs = Hollywood glamour.
I used some Tim Holtz Distress ink and this gorgeous floral DSP from SU that I thought went really well with the vintage look of the card. I added some "pearls" and a patterned sash, a couple of punched flowers and buttons and a sentiment from the same KOTM and voila!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sketch Challenge 04/11/09

Jen's sketch challenge this week was really intriguing for me. I had no idea what I was going to do when I sat down to get started. I decided to use these adorable honey bee stamps that I had sitting in my drawer for years and years (they are a retired 1996 SU set). A friend gave them to me many years ago, before I was even into stamping. At the time, I was starting to explore scrapbooking a little bit, but didn't do anything with rubber stamps. So, they sat and sat and sat and then about a year and a half ago, when I discovered card making, I already had a small supply of rubber stamps. This was actually the first time I pulled out the honey pot and the bee hive. Aren't they so cute? I absolutely loved this challenge. I never would have thought of this layout and it's fun to be stretched creatively and think about different possibilities. We all tend to get "stuck in a rut" at times and it's so nice to share ideas with others and learn from each other.

Thanks for another GREAT sketch Jen!




Saturday, April 11, 2009

Basic Butterflies

As I mentioned, I was feeling inspired last night. As most of you know, I love all things butterflies. I have butterfly jewelry, butterfly candle holders, a butterfly sticker on my rear windshield, butterfly tops, butterfly candle holders, and more butterfly stamps than any others in my collection. Butterflies remind me of what is possible and what God has done in my life. Well, he continues to do in my life. I feel like he transformed me from a caterpillar who was somewhat crippled and had a difficult time getting around into this beautiful, free creature that glides through the air. I sometimes take things into my own hands and end up like a caterpillar again and when I let go and let Him, I am once again free to fly. I think butterflies are beautiful, but I think the reason why is because they remind me of what is possible. We all need hope!

Sorry, I ranted on a bit there.....anyway, I found this beautiful butterfly paper from Basic Grey and fell in love with it instantly. I really love the colors in this paper and wanted to bring out that pretty grey so I used Basic Grey and Basic Black CS from SU and this pretty, bright orange ribbon from the $1 bin at Michael's. I didn't want to use any butterfly stamps because I didn't want to take anythiing away from that gorgeous paper, so I used my Unity March KOTM sentiment and surrounded it with a border stamp from Unity's December KOTM. I finished it off with some black butterflies that I cut out using my Martha Stewart butterfly punch. It's a very simple card, but I love the way the colors pop off of the black CS and that paper....oh my! Just love it.

Pretty Little Monkey

In my last post, I mentioned all of the adorable safari products I have been finding at Michael's, using my 50% off coupons. Last night I found some super cute brads to add to my collection and was having one of my exceptionally inspirational nights. Don't you just love it when the creativity is flowing? I am definitely more creative at night for some reason. That is just my make-up. In the morning I am better at being productive. I clean better in the morning, am better at getting organized, paying bills, anything using activity or the logical part of my brain. At night (usually after 9:00 is when it really kicks in) I am more creative. Kendall is with her mom in Kansas for Spring Break right now, so it's just Jay and I. He was in the office cleaning out his filing cabinet and playing online poker last night, so I plopped down in my craft corner and watched Jerry Maguire and made this adorable card for my niece's birthday. I am definitely not one to brag or to toot my own horn, but I really love this card. I give credit where credit is due - these products are AMAZING, but I am really pleased with the way that it turned out. It's fun and I just love the animal prints. I really hope she likes it. I will list the products on SCS in my gallery.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Safari Card

Michael's has been giving out these 50% coupons for the last couple of weeks and you can only use one at a time, so I find myself going in every couple of days (which is quite dangerous). They have THE most adorable safari themed paper, rub-ons, stamps and other lovely embellishments and I have had such a hard time finding cute goodies to make cards for little boys (I have 3 nephews) that I am beyond excited! I am using my 50% off coupons to build up my collection. My absolute favorite are these adorable animal alphabet stamps from K&Co. You can do so much with them! I pulled them out for the first time tonight and made this fun card for my nephew Sam. Sam's birthday is in May and his little brother TJ's birthday is in June and my niece Chrissi's birthday is in July. I'm going to Virginia next month for a visit and we're going to celebrate all of their birthdays while I'm there so I'm making their cards early this year.




On this card I used some DP from DCWV, along with these adorable rub-on jeeps, and of course the wonderful alphabet stamps. Sam is completely into Star Wars, but I hope he likes the card anyway. If not, I just might have to keep it for myself :)

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Jay's Birthday 2009

Yesterday was Jay's birthday. Unfortunately, this was his UTA (Unit Training Assignment) and he had to work both Saturday and Sunday. His boss let him leave a little bit early last night, so after Kendall and I cleaned the house all day I hopped in the shower and made myself beautiful and Jay came home and changed and we all went to Yanagi for dinner. Yanagi is a Teppan restaurant her in Santa Maria. There is another location in Pismo Beach, which was there first, but they opened one here about a year ago. We thought it would be a good place for us to go and celebrate this special occasion. We had a wonderful chef at our table that was extremely entertaining and made us some delicious food! We also sat next to a really sweet family who had a son, whose name was Matthew that became my friend the minute we sat down. Matthew said hello as we sat down and then proceeded to tell me, "I have root beer!" I replied, "I love root beer!" So, he offered me some and I told him, "Thank you so much for the offer, but I will get my own drink." Apparently, Matthew and his family frequent Yanagi quite often and he instructed our chef the entire time. He wanted him to put on the strobe light, asked for more "fire!" and had some food tossing exchanges with him. At the end of our meal, Matthew turned to me and asked, "Do you believe in Jesus?" I said, "Yes, I believe in Jesus, do you believe in Jesus?" He replied, "Yes, I LOVE Jesus!" We talked about Easter and its meaning and he told me what church he goes to and that he likes to sing songs. His mother told us she thinks he is going to be a missionary because he talks about Jesus to everyone he meets. Matthew was so sweet and very, very funny! He was just as entertaining as our chef, if not more. More important than the food we ate or the entertainment we shared, we got to celebrate a very, very special life. We're so proud of Jay and thank God for him every, single day.

Double Challenge

Yesterday was Jay's birthday and unfortunately, he had to work. So that he didn't feel like he was missing out on any fun, Kendall and I spent the entire day cleaning the house. The house looks great!!!! As a result, I lost a day and didn't get time to do my usual color inspiration and sketch for you to try challenges. Since I love participating in both challenges, I decided to make one card using both Kristina Werner's Color Challenge and Jen del Muro's Sketch for You to Try. The colors this week are Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze and Whisper White. I didn't have any Kiwi Kiss CS so I substituted Old Olive instead. I loved this week's sketch! I decided to use the scalloped circle punch from SU instead of squares for the panels on the left and I used a very old retired birthday stamp set from SU for the images on the circles. The sentiment is from Unity's March KOTM. I added a little bling and sponged the edge of the WW CS with Chocolate Chip to give it a little more depth.







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