FWF ...Neutrals

So I've been drawn to the neutral papers and colors lately...

I was so excited to try black ink on a grey background

(I know I'm probably behind the times)

I made this first card to share with you all today

AND THEN...

I realized this was the same sentiment I used last week-OOPS!

So I made a bonus card to share too.

I really like the look of this first card especially the sparkly pops of pink!

I kinda like the plain feel of this next card.  It was going to be my entry for the sketch challenge

Until I remembered it had to be a KOTM stamp.

SERIOUSLY Erin

 get.it.together.

Sorta old timey vintage maybe? dunno but I like it. :)

Despite a few set backs this week, I have successfully made it

HALFWAY in my 100 card/layout challenge!!!

Lots have inquired about doing this challenge themselves and I must say

it's not for the weak minded.  I'm hurtin' over here.  Especially with all the new releases

from CHA. ugh. I just wanna buy 1 new itty bitty stamp, puhleeze?!

PS If one more person becomes a follower, I'll be at 60 and that's a nice round number

you should do it! Of Course more than 60 is great too!

One small stamp...

Just a quick tiny post today...

I'm still trying to use up more of my ever growing pile of scraps.

I've had these lovely Crate Paper Inc Restoration line scraps left over from when I first started blogging.

That was over 9 months ago!!! 

It used to be my favorite until their Emma Shoppe line came out.

Nothing really fancy here... just some edge distressing and a 'celebrate'

sentiment from Unity's Happy Everything set.

Daisies still remain my favorite flower...I even have a small tattoo on my right foot

{much to my mother's dismay}

Happy Thursday my blog friends!

A Matching Set (PDCC91)

I'm on a ROLL this weekend!

I really love when blogs can inspire me to create...

This is my first entry over at The Play Date Cafe

I made a whole set! How fun is that? 

I actually made the blue card first, (which is why the brad is different from the rest)

And then, I couldn't stop!  The flowers lead the way for color choice.

 The pink card has a Unity grab bag sentiment:

 The following three sentiments are from Unity's Happy Everything set:

Thanks for checking out my latest creations, please leave a comment and come again!

Circles, Circles, Circles

Now let me preface this by saying I rarely make circle cards.

I think I can count on one hand how many I've made in my lifetime.

I purchased a set of blank circle cards w/envelopes from a Close to My Heart party.

They've been sitting in a pile since then. 

Circles just don't inspire me I guess?

To be fair it is called a "challenge"!!!!

 So here it is, my entry for the challenge:

Clean, simple and sweet. 

I relied on the design paper (October Afternoon) to pull me through.

The butterfly is paper pieced and the sentiment is cut from a Suzi Blu stamp.

I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Waltnut Stain to cover up any uneven cutting marks.

Waltzingmouse Challenge #57

Although this is challenge #57, It's my first entry.

I knew my Cameo Creations stamps would be a perfect fit with my

Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe Collection.

Here's is the sketch provided:

I don't have any Waltzingmouse sentiment stamps so

I went with "Birthday Wishes" from the Eat Cake set.

 Here's a detail shot to show the dimension and the fussy cutting I did:

I love the vintage feel of this card!  The lace trim seems to pull it all together...

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to leave a comment.

Oh and you have until July 29th to enter!

Faithful Friends

So excited to share a recent layout I made with

the most GORGEOUS Crate Paper EVER!!!

{Emma's Shoppe}

In fact, I've been hoarding this paper to use for a special occasion.

i LOVE it. 

 Did I mention how much I adore this paper? hehe

 This photo is of my bestie Jen and I from a wedding last weekend.

Jen really defines faithful friend.  We've been friends for over 15 years!

She is beautiful inside and out; truly a special friend.

I am so blessed.

Of course I added some Unity to this page...

Where You Are

She Did it Anyway

Here's The Ticket

The pretty banner was made with a die-namic called Fishtail Banner

from My Favorite Things.

It's probably the best purchase I've ever made

(second to this fantastic paper)

FWF Bella Blvd

Thank God for Friday...I thought this week would NEVER end!!!

So happy to be apart of FWF, it always lifts my spirits

to see all the Unity projects and read your fabby comments.

I love Bella Blvd more than anything.  Their papers and Unity co-brand stamps

are just darling and always make me smile.

Today I have a bright and cheery card to share:

The paper is from Bella's Family Dynamix line.

The flower stamp is from Bella Fiori 

 The sentiment was a special stamp from the

Uniquely Unity workshop kit from Archiver's.

Here's a close up of the paper pieced flower:

I added the orange bling with my iRock tool

and finished off with 4 blue staples just for fun.  Hope you like it!

You Can Achieve it...

 

For this project I was inspired by Unity TV's Angie Blom's

most recent episode #20.  You can find it HERE.

I used Tim Holtz distress ink instead of the PITT markers she used.

I have had clear embossing powered for ummm maybe

THREE YEARS and I have NEVER used it!!!!!!

oops.

The vine and sentiment are from the Donna Downey set

Imagine It

Here's a close up to show the embossing:

It was actually pretty simple once I got to it...

I LOVE how distress ink slides right over

the clear embossed area and leaves such a crisp design!

Cameo Creations

I have become a big fan of Waltzingmouse Stamps!

Probably doesn't hurt that my first 2 sets were prizes from a FB drawing :)

I showed the first set on my previous post (Eat Cake)

Here is the second set, Cameo Creations.

I used October Afternoon paper and inked all the edges

with Tim Holtz Distress Ink Walnut Stain.

I also used his Antique Linen to distress the white where I stamped.

 I opted to not use a sentiment... 

Honestly, I couldn't decide where it would go or what this card is best used for.

Any suggestions?

Thank you or Birthday seemed the most logical but I still can't commit.

I'm starting to wonder if I even like this card at all!

Does that ever happen to you?! LOL

Must be the challenge getting to me.  Oh and I signed up for Scrapfest 2011 yesterday.

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!!

Celebrating year ONE

So today is our FIRST wedding anniversary.

I'm surprised at how excited I am to reach this milestone.

Not sure what I was expecting but I'll say, it feels really good!

We had a Buttercream wedding cake,

(you can't freeze them and enjoy on your anniversary)

so they include a gift card for a free one.

Buttercream cakes taste ah-mazing! Like no other, I'm serious!

So I thought I'd snap a pic and show you all what we're enjoying together...

Also, I thought this occasion deserved a special card.

I recently won a free set of Waltzingmouse Stamps on Facebook.

I chose two small sets and this card features Eat Cake.

Check out this yummy looking card I made with them:

Can't wait to see what year TWO brings us...

Have a LOVELY weekend everyone!

FWF Loves & Kisses

It's FRIDAY!!!

I can't tell you how much I LOVE my weekends...

This weekend is extra special as my husband and I are celebrating our

FIRST wedding anniversary.

July 16th <3

I'll post more about that tomorrow.

Here's a CAS Unity card to share:

I used the Echo Park co-brand set I Adore You.

I popped the frame so the twine could slide beneath it...

This will be a perfect card to enter in the

All Things Unity Wrap It Up Challenge #35.

Oh and I'm rockin' my 100 projects challenge-63 to go!

Unity's new releases are testing me but I haven't cheated ONCE.

I do spend an awful lot of time drooling though. 

Check them out:  Unity's summer CHA new releases

Florida Gators

Florida is a long way from Minnesota...

My sweet cousin Bethany lives there and asked me to make her some

U of F Gator cards to give to some football players she tutors.

This EASILY was the most difficult challenge for me!!!

I have very little sports themed stamps or embellishments.

But luck was with me, my Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge

had this adorable Gator!

Much to my surprise I have NO blue paper and very little orange!

Literally I had two sheets of blue: 8 1/2 x 11 and one scrap.  That was it!

HA!  I have no good explanation for this

 but I was able to pull together JUST enough to make her 6 cards.

Here they are:

 I hand cut the white around the green gator.

Initially he didn't pop like I wanted him to so this was an easy solution.

I hope they are okay Bethany! There are TWO of the last card pictured for a total of 6.

They are more simple than I planned but I didn't have much to work with.  Sometimes simple is good.

Oh and I couldn't resist some googly eyes... (: 

Using only scraps...

I made a few cards with just left over scraps.

I think cards, mini's and tags are the best way to use up that design paper you love.

This paper is from K & Company.

I used a left over embossed butterfly from the layout I posted a few days ago:

The brave definition stamp is from the Unity set She Did It Anyway

I love Unity's Itty Bitty's but this frame is on the favorite list for sure!

It's Jillibean Soup co-brand Just a Note and the sentiment is from Love Runs Deep

I don't make very many tags but again,

I'm just trying to use up my growing heap of scraps. 

This sentiment is from Undeniably You and the butterfly was a grab bag stamp...

Oh and I linked these to All Things Unity's Let's Fly Away Challenge #34
It's my second entry.

Thanks for stopping by...

Don't forget to leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

FWF Mix Up of Cuteness

Hello my favorite Unity friends!!!

I'm so happy to be joining FWF this week!

I used Unity's Mix Up of Cuteness set for this simple card.

I started with my Distressed Dots background stamp on kraft paper. 

Then, I colored that silly little whale with my B05 Process Blue Copic marker. 

I also added some glossy accents to the water splashes

 but they're so tiny they don't show well in the pic. *sorry*

Oh and I swear these little stamps are just begging to be cut out

and popped for some dimension so I obliged. :)

This seemed like a "summery" card so I'm going to enter it in the

Unity Challenge Sun and Fun.  I'm proud to say I haven't missed one challenge yet!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a relaxing and crafty weekend!

Bennett Turns One!

My chubby baby nephew turned ONE at the end of May.

My sister is actually the creative one on the family...

Check out the AH-DORABLE setting

she created for Ben to get his 12 month pictures taken!!!

A tie, hat and diaper cover from Etsy, matching balloons

 and a smash cake, SERIOUSLY CUTE! 

I wanted the pictures to stand out so I only used a simple

patterned Jilli Bean Soup paper for the background and

kept the theme of red, blue, white and brown.

And believe it or not I used only Close to My Heart Stamps.

Before my Unity addiction

I was a CTMH junky so I have a few sets laying around.

My 100 challenge is getting tough. 

The recent sunny weather has kept me from creating...

Unity tested me with a Garage sale last week, I survived.

Barely.

Lil' Cuties

Hi I'm back!

Made a layout to enter in All Things Unity Challenge #34

BUTTERFLIES!!!!

And they were right, Unity has a lot of butterflies to choose from!

I had yet to ink my Butterfly Beauty set so it was an easy choice.

Check out my ADORABLE niece and nephew:

I have many, many Unity stamps but above ALL other sets I would recommend

 these butterflies.  They embossed perfectly! 

For this perfectionist that is awesome...

Once again I have fallen in love with Unity.

*sigh*