A couple of challenges

Good monday morning everyone :)  I got quite a bit of crafty time this weekend, and finished up cards for a couple of challenges.  The one below I entered in the Unity Brandy & Emma colouring contest, see details here and I'm also using it as an entry to the Hazard County Card Challenge to use a stamp set we hadn't inked up yet.

TGIF - FWF Friday!!!

Whoo hoo !!! it's Friday.  My card for today I created for my son's grade 2 teacher, as we had a meeting with her last week, and she was very honest about how he was doing and I know it was hard for her to have the conversation.  The definition is from the Unity / Donna Downey co-brand set Advent! and the Merci is from one of the past kits of the month.  With our son being in French Immersion, this stamp gets alot of use.
Sorry for the blurry picture, my camera didn't want to focus properly.

Unity KOM Sketch Challenge

Good Monday morning everyone!  I got a bit of time to get crafty this weekend, so I decided to take part in the Unity KOM Sketch Challenge.  The card below is made with a few Unity kits;  the sentiment is from the Feb'11 KOM 'the best is yet to be' and hearts down the middle of the tag are from the June'10 KOM 'Fly....Free'.  I also used a Store Kit (but I can't remember the name, it has to do with Family and Generations) for the circle journalling background and the other stamp on the tag. 

Friends with Flair Friday

Good morning all!  TGIF!  I made this card awhile back using a great kit from Unity that was on sale during their warehouse sale.  To be honest, I bought a couple at that price to give to friends - love to spread the Unity around.  Good news ~ it's on sale again if you're interested for only $2!!!!.  Check it out here.  This was a quick card I created while playing around with ideas for Christmas cards this year.  It was so quick and easy, I may make a stash of them.

Giveaway on Dear Lizzy blog...

Elizabeth Kartchner is doing a giveaway on her blog... a December Daily Studio Calico & Ali Edwards kit.  I tried to do the December Daily last year, took all my pictures, pre-cut all my pages and still have yet to assemble... maybe I can get it done before December.  And if I win the giveaway, this kit would make it so much easier to do.  Crossing my fingers :)  Go check it out here.

Entry for Unity Challenge

This month's Unity Stamp Co challenge is to be inspired by the poem, Autumn Harvest, which talks about the leaves falling to the ground.  That is my favourite part of Fall, the leaves changing colour and covering the ground with a multitude of warm inviting colours.  The set I used is a Stamping Store Kit, which I had been admiring for awhile. 

HCCC Challenge September - a little late

So the September challenge for the Hazzard County Card Challenge was to create a gate fold card inspired by autumn.  I actually created this card right away, however, it's taken me forever to take a picture and post it.  The stamp is from Lizzie Anne Designs and the paper is some retired Stampin 'Up patterned paper.

Hope you have a good week!

TGIF - FWF Friday!!!

Yay!  It's Friday, yippeee!!! Today I'm posting something slightly different.  I have been following Donna Downey's blog, and been really inspired by her art journals.  I bought this book awhile ago, intending to use it as a mini album for a friend, but realized it had way too many pages for a mini album, and with it's thick, water-colour like paper, thought it would be perfect for an art journal.  I finally got my hands on some Faber Castell gelatos, and have been wanting to play with them, so I used those, and some Unity/Donna Downey co-brand stamps to create my first page.  I hope to play in this journal often, especially trying out new techniques and mediums.

TGIF - FWF Friday!!

Yay!! It's Friday, and it's been a busy week, so I'm so glad it's almost over.  Back on the 6th was mine and my husband's 14th Anniversary.  I used the July 2011 KOM for this, as I thought the bees were so cute.  I added some smooch on the wings and some diamond glaze to the hearts.  I cannot get this photo to rotate, so my apologies for having to turn your head on the side to see it.
Hope you all have a great weekend, looking forward to trying to get some family photos.

Happy 3rd Birthday Taylored Expressions!

and Happy 4th Birthday to my son :)  We went to a farm for his birthday celebrations and for the Thank you cards, I made great use of the Green Acres set I had won from Taylored Expressions.  I had a lot of fun colouring the barn and the rooster and chicks.

Also below, is a group photo of the boys and a couple friends at the farm.

Have a great day everyone!

A Technique Tuesday card ...

on a Tuesday!!  I have been wanting this set, Monsters Ink from Technique Tuesday for awhile as I had seen some really cute cards being created with it.  Technique Tuesday now allows Studio AE members to add additional items to their monthly set with no additional shipping charges, so I took advantage of this last month.  I created this card for a birthday party my 4 year old son is going to.  I couldn't resist adding the googly eyes.

FWF Friday and Unity KOM Sketch Challenge July

Good morning everyone!  The weather has been hot and sunny here and we're loving it! especially since we just put a pool in this summer :)  Today's card was made using the February 2011 KOM the best is yet to be.  I coloured the balloons and then added Crystal Effects over top to give them dimension.  I think this card will be going to my FIL for his birthday next month and I'm thinking of sending a couple of balloons in the card, just for fun.  Enjoy your day and have a great weekend.

TGIF - FWF Friday and PDCC90

Below is a card I made for a friend's birthday using the May KOM, think HAPPY thoughts.  I paper pierced the cake and embossed the 'Party Party Party' sentiment. 
Have a great Friday and a terrific weekend.
I had some amazing feedback on this card from the FWF post, one who suggested it matched the Play Date Cafe Colour challenge currently on, so I'm linking up to that challenge too... and adding it to my blogs that I follow :)

HCCC July Festive challenge

This month, Marnie challenged us to make a Christmas card using the colours green, orange and yellow.  Not the first colours to pop into your head when you think Christmas.  If you want to read more, visit the blog here.  Since I failed to come up with an entry for June (something borrowed) I thought I would give this a try.  I recently acquired a cute set from Technique Tuesday, Season's Greetings and thought the little light bulb was really cute.   So I stamped it repeatedly over the top of the card and coloured it with green, yellow and orange markers.  I coloured the base with silver gel pen and then added Crystal Effects over top to make them look more 3 dimensional.  I added a tag with embossed sentiment and a little bit of ribbon and matted it on both orange and green cardstock.  I think the result is cute and simple.  Hope you like it too.

FWF Friday!

TGIF!!! My son had a birthday party to go to for two twin boys turning 8.  To find some inspiration I started looking through 'The Best of Card Creations' that I picked up at the CKC-Buffalo Convention, and found inspiration on page 82 with a wonderful "How Old" card created by Maren Benedict.  I instantly recognized the stamp set as a Unity one that I owned, It's Your Day (which by the way is on sale at Unity right now!)  I kept the design the same for each card, just changing out the colours and highlighted their age.

 Hope you have a fabulous weekend.

Another entry for the Moxie Fab challenge

When I attended the CK Convention in Buffalo, I was lucky to win some freebies at some of the classes.  My final class was learning how to use mists, sponsored by Studio Calico.  At the end of this class, I won a stamp set that was the same we used in class.  I finally got the chance to ink it up, and thought that this card could also work for the Moxie Fab World Stamp It Cards week challenge as I think the focus is definately on the stamping.  Go check it out and play along!  One winner will actually have their card featured in the January/February 2012 edition of Paper Crafts Magazine!! Wow - wouldn't that be amazing.

Unity "Summer" Challenge

I've been wanting to use the cute stamps from the June 2011 KOM for this challenge, however, due to the postal strike, I just finally received my KOM yesterday.  Well, I wasted no time inking it up :)  When we were on our cruise in January, I scooped up some sand from a couple of the beaches we were at with the intention of putting it in a glass jar and labelling it for a keepsake.  I found these cute square jars at the dollar store that worked perfectly.  When I flipped through all my Unity KOM, I discovered there were actually a few 'summer' type stamps, so I created a different label for each jar.

Please excuse the quality of the photo's as I was hoping to use the natural sunlight, but it also caused a shadow.  KOM used are as follows:
The Beach - June 2011 KOM  all smiles
SUN - June 2010 KOM   fly....free
Sunshine - Oct 2009 KOM  where ever you go

The tags on the front were made using the Feb 2010 KOM  nothing but blue skies

I also added a little embellishment to each tag, as well as some stickles on both the suns as well as some distress stickles on the sand.  I wrapped ribbon around each lid, as well as string around each jar.

Have a great day.

Happy 4th of July :)

Today's card was made for a friend to give away.  She had asked me for a thank you card and this is what I came up with.  I started with the patterned paper, and pulled the colours from there, using Stampin' Up inks.  The sentiment is also from Stampin' Up from the Life Defined set and the little flowers are from a set from Verve.  The ribbon loops are from a Martha Stewart border punch, that I love so much :)  I was actually shopping with a friend who is into card making as well, and she picked up this border set and I picked up a bubble type one, thinking I would just borrow hers when I needed it.  Well, I saw it on sale one day and decided I would love to have my own so I could use it whenever I wanted.  So glad I did, as it seems to be my 'go-to' border punch these days.  Hope you all had a wonderful Canada Day Weekend.

Stamp It! Cards Week Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

To celebrate the release of the new issue of Stamp It! Cards, Moxie Fab World issued a challenge to create a card where stamping is the predominant element.  If you want to know more, and play along, go to Moxie Fab World Stamp It! Cards challenge.  
A little while back I was lucky enough to win some of the new Faber Castel Mixed media kits from Christi's blog, Alteredambitions and I have been dying to try them out.  So I drew all over an acrylic block with the gelatos and then sprayed it with water, and stamped it on watercolour paper to make my background.  The sentiment is from the Technique Tuesday Studio AE kit from March, Cake and Candles.  I simply matted the stamped paper on some pink cardstock, and I think the result was a simple, pretty card. 
I can't wait to play more with these gelatos!

Simple Thank You's

I have worked on the Parent Council for my son's school for the last few years, and this past year, our two co-chairs were extremely dedicated and put in ALOT of extra hours.  I wanted to give them each a Thank You card to let them know they were appreciated.  All the products (other than the white embossing Powder are from Stampin' Up).

Friends with Flair Friday

Good morning everyone.  Below is a card I created for a friend's 30th birthday.  She is counting down the days, and seems to be very concerned that her 20's are ending.  I've had the 'She Said' stamp set for awhile and have been itching to ink it up, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity.

Unity KOM Sketch Challenge

I'm very proud of myself, as I have all my Father's Day cards made already.  I used the Unity KOM sketch challenge for the layout and used the same paper/colours as my encouragement card I posted for FWF last Friday.  I had actually pulled out the paper for the Father's Day cards, but ended up making the encouragement card first, and the paper and colours worked really well with the stamp set I had choosen.  The sentiment is from the May 2011 KOM and I created two cards, one for my father-in-law and one for my husband from our two sons.  I also created one for my Dad using the same sketch, but different papers and stamps. I am really loving sketch challenges, as I normally have no problem picking out my stamps or colour schemes, but usually spend alot of time trying to figure how how to lay everything out.  Using sketches has really sped up my card making process.

The card for my dad uses one of the Unity/Samantha Walker co-branded sets, Retro Road Trip.

Have a terrific Tuesday.

Michele

ATU #32

I recently discovered the All Things Unity Blog and wow, what a feast of inspiration!  They run challenges, and the current challenge is to use food inspired stamps.  Well, I never have to go further than my binders that hold my Unity KOM to find any sort of stamp I need.  I created this card for my son's teacher ~ I can't believe I am actually ahead of schedule on making this since the last day of school isn't until June 30th.  The apple image is from the Oct 2010 KOM, Take time to Laugh, and the Merci sentiment is from the Sept 2010 KOM, When I am with you.  My son attends French Immersion, so I'm thrilled to have a 'merci' stamp in my stash.

FWF Friday

Good morning!  It's a beautiful Friday morning here in Ontario.  I made this card last night for a friend who is going in for surgery next week.  I used a Unity co-branded Melody Ross kit - Brave Girl Boots.  I had some distress embossing powder that I hadn't tried out yet, so I put it on the boots for some added texture. 

Simple Sympathy

This is a sympathy card I made for a co-worker who had to put their cat down.  The sentiment is from a Unity KOM and the little paw hearts are from a set (Fiskars I believe) that has a bunch of dog sentiments in it.   The bow turned our perfect on the first attempt!  Unfortunately, I've been making a lot of sympathy cards lately for friends who have lost their cherished pets.  I'm thinking I should replicate this one so I have a few on hand.

HCCC Challenge May & FWF Friday at Unity

I've been involved in a 'stamp club' hosted by a Stampin' Up consultant for the last couple of years.  Although they are not in the club right now, there were two amazing women, Angela & Marnie that were so much fun and so creative.  Well, in keeping up with their blogs, I noticed they are part of http://dukedesigndivas.blogspot.com/ and they do monthly challenges.  The challenge this month was to be inspired by gladiolas, so below is my take on the challenge, hope they like it.  I used a stamp from one of my Unity KOM's for the sentiment, so I'm linking it up for the FWF Friday blog hop too :)

Unity Challenge 'Tooty Fruity'

The new Unity Challenge was to incorporate Fruit into a project.  So I dug out my April 2010 KOM - Together we Bloom, and finally inked up the Strawberry stamp and sentiment.  I also used the background stamp from this kit.

 After I initially stamped the image, it felt like something was missing, so I coloured it with watercolour pencils and then added crystal effects to give it a nice glaze (although it might be hard to see it in the picture) I also added some green flock to the leaves to give them some dimension too. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Birthday card

The other night I had four cards to make - 3 birthdays (one for niece which I used the Unity KOM sketch challenge for, one for my nephew, and one for my dad) and a sympathy card for a co-worker who lost their cat.  My husband jokes that it takes me 2 hours to make a card, so I was very impressed with myself that I completed 4 cards in just over 2 hours.  The one I made for my dad, below, I had the idea for the layout in my head for awhile.  I had ordered the owl punch from Stampin' Up and had the Tim Holtz tree embossing folder, and thought it may be fun to put them together.  I also finally tried inking an embossed image and like how it turned out, but may try next time using the same ink as the paper (crumb cake) to give it a more subtle look.

Unity KOM Sketch Challenge

The May 2011 Unity KOM Sketch challenge was based on this sketch:

Here is my creation using the April 2011 KOM, Small things Matter:

 The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety, which I originally purchased to use with the co-branded stamp set of the same name from Unity and while I was putting it together I looked at my ribbon rack and noticed this cute "chick" ribbon which I believe is American Crafts.

Another Unity Challenge

So for National Scrapbooking Day, the amazing Unity team created layouts based on their favourite recipes, and the challenge was for us to do the same.  I was only able to read about the challenge this morning, and the deadline was midnight tonight.... hmmm.... well I know what my recipe is for my busy Monday nights (my oldest son has to leave for Beavers within an hour of when I leave work) - PIZZA!  So I decided to document that as my recipe for a busy Monday night.

I used a stamp from a Unity KOM - delightful moments December 2009, to symbolize the rush of the evening.  And look, I found a use for that corrugated cardboard that I saved from our new dresser (which my husband thought I was pretty crazy for stashing in my craft room).

I won, I won, I won!!! Yippee!!!

Faber-Castell has come out with some new mediums for colouring, which many talented (and lucky) designers have been showcasing on their blogs.  I've been following a few of them and drooling over the creations, hoping to get my hands on some.  Christi Snow had been showing off various ways of using the mediums on her blog; www.alteredambitions.blogspot.com and she was giving away a set to one of the comments! Yep, you guessed it, I won!!  so excited!!!

Mother's Day presents

Well, after taking a Coaster making class, I decided I would try my hand at it.  I had quite a few tea/coffee stamps in my various Unity KOM's so I used them.  I also made 'pizza' boxes using cardstock and retired designer paper from Stampin' Up!  The stamps for the tags were from a Verve Stamp set, 'Because of You' (I think).

Unity monthly challenge for April

Well, here it is, my first really official blog post.  The April Unity Stamp Company challenge is "Tweet, Tweet", so I knew I could easily find some stamps to use in my KOM's.  For this card, I actually used three different KOMs; October 2010 take time to laugh, June 2010 fly....free, and March 2011 just you.  I love working with their stamps, and the KOM's are amazing, there is always such a great selection of stamps.

Wish me luck.