Unity Friends with Flair Friday!

I am back after a month long hiatus (which included lots of holiday festivities and travel) to bring you a card from Unity as part of the Friends with Flair blog hop.

If you just stumbled upon my blog, go to the Unity Blog to see the list of all of the FWF participants. One of the participants will have a blinkie on their blog and they will be giving away 25 random stamps to someone who comments.

My card uses the amazing set Eco Chic.



When I was stamping this I thought that I would colour the tree and/or the earth so I stamped them both in Timber Brown Stazon (the earth was stamped off once), but as I was putting the card together I really liked the look of the neutral, almost monochrome card with a pop of red. This card was really easy to put together, and I really like how it turned out.

Make sure you visit all of the blogs on the FWF list so you have a chance to win the free stamps, but feel free to leave comments here too :)

Raspberry Suite Colour Challange

I am totally *in love* with Dawn McVey's bright and unique colour combinations, and every week she posts her Raspberry Suite colour challenge, but this is the first time I have played along.



Dawn gave us this wonderful photo, and the colours above. And here is the card that I made.



I chose Pixie Pink as my bright pink, and Bravo Burgendy as my dark red.

It's hard to tell, with all the sponging, but the Bubble Gum Tree image is stamped on cream cardstock and the base is also made of cream cardstock.



I added Prima flowers, dew drops, and crystal effects to add dimension to the various parts of the tree. The tree trunk is sponged with burgundy, and the background is sponged with Certainly Celery.



The ribbons are a cream grosgrain from Stampin' Up, and a burgundy velvet ric rac from May Arts, purchased from one of Jody's previous ribbon sales.

Hip Hop Hangover

Today is my last day of Growing in Unity, and it's hip hop hangover.

I used the stamp Cheer Santa to get a start on my Christmas cards, and also because one of Jeanne's challenges yesterday was to use black and red, and that got me thinking about what stamps I had that would work for those colours.

I stamped the image on both white, and red, so that I could paper piece the snowsuit, pants and hat. I used fake glitter snow on the edges of the coat and hat. It adds a super great sparkle, and some great "poofy" dimension to the coat.



The beard, mustache and hair were done with opal liquid pearls. I love the shine it gives.

The boots were coloured with my black Spica glitter pen. It has sooo much shimmer to it.



I sketched in the floor to ground the image somewhat.

Thanks so much to everyone that stopped by during my week in Unity.

Congratulations to Anthonette who is the winner of the single "Be the Change". please contact Eryn to get this sent out!

First Scrapbook Page EVER

I have wanted to scrapbook ever since I started stamping about 2 years ago. I have always been too nervous to start because I didn't want my first page to be a big bust.



I am glad I finally just jumped right in, and am really pleased with the way this page turned out.



I started out by stamping the swirls on the side of the 12*12 textured cardstock in versamark, and embossing them with clear powder. I put down the first part of my title phrase using stickers, then sponged black acrylic paint over the top, and removed the stickers.



I wanted to make sure there was some journaling that would jog my memory about the event, and the great time we had.

"A few months ago Deron tuned me into last.fm, and more specifically, Joel Plaskett. We discovered he woul dbe playing in Regina at the Districkt. A few friends joined us and we had an absolutely FABULOUS time. The concert was great, but it was even better that Deron stopped Joel during the break and I was able to snap this great shot!"

The clear stars were punched from some plastic packaging that came with some other embelishments I recently bought. I love that I was able to use all of the purchase, including the packaging :)



The capital J and P are grungeboard letters that were first inked in diluted Old Olive ink, then once it was dry, I rubbed Only Orange ink lightly over the top to highlight the dots.



These are the Unity stamps that I used in this layout. Scalloped Details & Dates, You Rock from School Rock Star, and three swirls that I got in my grab box, and I can't find it on the Unity website.



Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to leave a comment on my post from Monday to be eligible to win your own copy of Be The Change. I will be announcing the winner on SCS during the blog hop.

Easy-Peasy bookmarks

I had hoped to have a scrapbook page ready for today, but my time got away from me, so instead, I have these really easy, but super cute bookmarks.

The stamp is a large rose from the same retired set that I used yesterday (more or less a larger version of little buggers with some differences in some of the images).

When I stamped it on the patterned paper omitting the leaves, it looked more like a lollipop, but I had already planned to put them in a small pot.



I used my Spica Atyou glitter pens to colour the edges and the centre swirl to add some additional colour, and glitter to the images.



I *hope* to have my scrapbook page ready for Hip Hop tomorrow, so come back to see my first ever scrapbook page.

Please add a comment to THIS POST for your chance to win a free Unity single.

Unity post - delayed

I am not quite finished with my Unity project for today, so it will go up later today.

To tide you over, here are a few projects I have made using Unity that you might have missed.

Mother's Day frame

Marvelous Cupcakes

Birthday Card for Angela

I'll be back soon with my new project :)

Sparkle Sparkle Everywhere

My Unity card today is all about the sparkle. I used glimmer paper from Paper Temptress, twinkling H2Os, and glitter.

I stamped the butterfly, from a set that must be retired because I can't find it, in versamark on velum cardstock, then embossed it with black EP.

I used twinkling H2Os to colour in the butterfly. I love the sparkle it gives. I don't think you can really see it, but it gives the image a really cool shimmer.



This image was cut out very close to the outside edge, and popped up with foam dots.

I also finally cracked open my glimmer cardstock for the card base, and for the sentiment. It also has a really great shimmer to it.



I stamped the sentiment from Spunky Princess in black Pallette ink, then punched it out with the scallop circle punch from SU.



I wanted to use stickles for the centres of these flowers, but I couldn't find my icicle stickles, so I used crystal effects, and dazzling diamonds to add just a little more bling.

Don't forget to comment on the post from yesterday for a chance to win your own Be the Change single. I will pick a winner from the comments on that post during Hip Hop on Thursday.

Growing in Unity

It's finally here!!!

All this week I will be showcasing Unity Stamps projects on my blog as part of the Growing in Unity project started by Ramsey and Michelle. This was started in October 2008, and we are still going strong with fabulous stampers that want to take their turn to showcase these wonderful stamps.

My first project is a fairly simple layer card using one of Unity's fabulous sentiments as the focal point. Angela loves quotes, and has some great stamps to show for that love. This is one of my favourites.



The sentiment was stamped in versamark on kraft cardstock and embossed with white embossing powder. The edges were wiped with a sponge that was lightly dipped in white acrylic paint to give a distressed edge.




I love the pop of colour provided by the buttons. The "thread" is actually a small sliver of kraft cardstock pushed through the button holes. It's a perfect way to finish the buttons in any coordinating colour you need.

As most of you probably know, Angela (the queen of Unity) is extremely generous, and is allowing me to give away a single of my choice on Thursday during Hip Hop. As this is one of my favourite Unity stamps, and one of the first I bought, Be The Change will be the single that is up for grabs this week.

On Thursday during Hip Hop, I will choose one person that has commented on this post to receive the free stamp. Please make sure you don't comment anonymously so that if you win I can contact you.

I hope to see you back here throughout the week as I continue to showcase Unity!

Sketch Challenge - Unity Style!

Welcome to my World Record Breaking Blog Hop post! Start your inspirational Blog Hop HERE!

It is also Lauren's Saturday sketch challenge rewind where we take any previous sketch and use that to make a card on the last Saturday of the month. This card uses the sketch from March 7.

Here is my card, using my BRAND NEW fabulous 1,2,3,4 Thousand Calorie Cupcakes stamp, and Marvelous from Unity of course.



The cupcakes have Liquid Applique for the frosting and crystal effects for the cherry. The cup is coloured with a silver marker to give the illusion of a metallic wrapper.



Before you go on to the next blog, the fabulous www.mamaolie.blogspot.com, be sure to check out my birthday blog candy in the post below.

And now, my favourite quote:

Well behaved women seldom make history.
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Hop on over to Mamaolie now!!

Hip Hop Hangover

First off, I must say that I am *trying* to work out some photography issues with my cards. I generally craft at night, and don't have natural light to work with, so I have been playing withe the white balance on my camera trying to get decent photos. I don't think I am there yet, but I will keep trying.

The first card is one that was created to fulfill the I {heart} Unity challenge that Jeanne posted during Hip Hop yesterday. This is the only love or heart stamp I have from unity.



I stamped the So & so loves stamp on watercolour paper using brown staz-on ink. Then I watercoloured the image using the watercolour wonder crayons from Stampin' Up! I wet my brush and picked up the colour from the crayons. This is my first ever attempt at watercolouring using the crayons, and I think it went okay.

The second challenge is a birthday card for Ms. Unity herself, the fabulous Angela!



This card uses the fantastic Cocktail Party set. The beverages are stamped with basic black ink, and coloured with SU markers. The "shadow" was created by colouring on a plastic case with a blue marker, then water colouring it on the image.



I rarely do anything inside my cards, but this seemed appropriate.

The lanterns at the top are stamped on velum, and embossed with black embossing powder. I then coloured them with SU markers, and used a wet brush to dilute the colour. They are cut out, and attached on pop dots.



You can kind of see the pop dots through the lanterns, but I don't mind it.

If you haven't already been there, make sure you visit Angela's blog to get the list of all of the Hip Hop Hangover participants.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow for my contribution to Lauren's sketch challenge.

Let me know what you think of these cards. I love to hear what's on your mind.

Hip Hop Hangover

Happy Hip Hop Hangover!

Didn't we all have a GREAT time looking at all of the amazing blogs during the Unity blog hop!?!?

I am soooo excited there is now a scrapbooking design team. I *really* want to start scrapbooking, and I am sure these amazing ladies will inspire me to take the plunge.

This card was made because of Jeanne's Unity Dazzle challenge, but I didn't get it done in time for the challenge, so it is my Friday hangover card.



This card was also inspired by the one that Sharon Harnist shared on the Classroom blog. I never reach for purple, but her card is GORGEOUS, so I decided to pull out some Plum cardstock for the card base.

The image was sitting on my stamp desk from last week when I made this card. It is coloured with chalks, and the wings are also covered using my clear spica glitter pen. So glittery in real life.



Along the edge of the card I used some old olive SU rub-ons. They don't show up too well, but the metal charm tied to the ribbon is about the same shape and size as the rub-ons, so it really seems to flow well.



Make sure you also check out the rest of the Hip Hop Hangover blogs by stopping by Angela's to get the whole list.

Cute as a Bug!

Lauren's sketch challenge this week is such an easy and versatile sketch.



I decided to pull out some much under-used Unity Stamps. Their stamps are HUGE, but this is one way to break them up and use them on a card.

I stamped the caterpillar from Buzzin Around, then punched out three sections of 1.25 inches to create the squares in the sketch. The background is was created with a flower stamp from the same set using versmark to create a watermark feel.



I coloured the sections of the caterpillar using a paint brush and the bashful blue ink. It was "pounced" on and gives kind of a sponged appearance, but with more control and the ability to get into smaller areas.

The antennae are made with some craft wire, and I love the whimsical feel of them.



I stamped the sentiment using a $1.50 set from Michael's. The "cute as a" is stamped off once, and the "bug" is at full strength to make it more prominent.

Please the new addition to the sketch challenge team for 2009, Kendra Wisenbaker. As well as the rest of the team.

Lauren Meader
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
Kim Gasper
MacKenzie Bruckler
Alicia Weimen