Etsy Inspired Challenge Card

Each week Ashley over at Heart Hugs Designs posts an Etsy Inspired Challenge where she features one of the shops on Etsy and you can look around the shop for some inspiration for your card/project. For the past month, I have been enjoying exploring the shops that Ashley posts about but this is the first week that I have actually had a chance to play along.
This week the featured Etsy shop is Morgan Street which specializes in handmade bath products. They carry some really unique delicacies like Fresh Brewed Coffee Bundt Cake Soap (I don't even like coffee but this soap looks good enough to eat!) and Black Raspberry Vanilla Fizzy Bath Bomb, which I just might have to try. There are lots of great items to give as gifts and they are having a 15% off sale this week too.
For my card, I was inspired by this Lip Balm and all the natural, handmade products. So I created this tall and slender eco chic card, on Stampin' Up's Naturals ivory cardstock, with the flourishes along the edge. I used colors similar to the Chocolate Cake, Mango Sorbet, and Peppermint Lip Balms. It felt a little plain with just the stamped images so I added the button with some gold cord tied through it in a bow.

All the stamps I used are from Unity...for the flourishes I actually used part of the dream tree (Growing in Unity set). The leaf image is from the Gratitude=Joy set and the sentiment is from the Eco Chic set. The ink I used was Brilliance archival gold, SU sage shadow, and Colorbox dark brown.

Thanks for visiting! If you get the chance, go visit Morgan Street for a little inspiration of your own (and maybe a few bath goodies too) and play along with Ashley's Etsy Inspired Challenge.

Happy Saturday!

So, were you out shopping the deals yesterday? As much as I wanted to head out early to shop ALL the fabulous sales, I did have both my boys (hubby was working) so I went out after they woke up (around 6:30) and we just went to Fred Meyer and Joanns. Neither were too busy and I got some great deals...everything I bought was at least 50% off, so it was definitely a successful shopping trip and the boys did well since we were only out for a little bit. Later in the day they both took a nap...at the same time! An extremely rare event in our house so I took advantage of my 'Mommy time' to do a little stamping.
Limelight posted a sketch challenge that encouraged the use of black (for black friday) and the Ways to Use it challenge over on SCS was to make a Thank you card. So, I combined them both and used my Unity stamps to create this card.

Pretty simple card so I won't go into all the details but in case you can't tell in the picture the middle leaf is popped up on foam squares. I had fun with the buttons, one of my black Friday purchases from Joanns! I used archival Brilliance galaxy gold ink for the two leaves. And if you are still looking for some good deals this weekend, Limelight's sale is going on through Sunday. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I'm stuffed!!!

Well, yesterday we had a great Thanksgiving with my family and lots of wonderful food. I am still full! :) I hope you all had a wonderful day too! Because of Thanksgiving, Unity had their Hip Hop on Wednesday which was perfect for me since hubby was home to help out with the kiddos while I chatted and worked on the challenges. One of the challenges Jeanne gave us was the 'Get Stuffed' challenge which needed to incorporate food and Unity stamps into our card/project. So, I have been working on this recipe tin for my aunt...

and the challenge inspired me to make a recipe card that matched. I think I might put a few more recipes in the tin that coordinate too.
The recipe is from a cookbook titled Best Loved Holiday Recipes. First I stamped Unity's distressed dots onto some printer paper. Then I flipped it over to print my recipe out so you would be able to read the recipe clearly but still get the effect of the dots. The sweet treat sentiment is actually two separate stamps from the Bitty Christmas Tags set and I masked the s at the end of each when stamping. The other products I used for the tin and recipe card were BoBunny paper, Creative Cafe felt ribbon, Doodlebug buttons, and American Crafts Thickers. I found the tin at Borders for just $5 and it is actually already full of recipes by Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade. But there are a lot of extra recipe cards too. I thought it would be fun to dress up the tin and even though I used Christmas colors I think it is cute enough to have out on your kitchen counter all year round, don't you think?!

I was loving the red and green polka dot paper so much that I decided to make another tag for my aunt too. And I am so glad I did because I think this tag is my favorite so far. I paper pieced the snow globe and added twinkling H2Os for the star and crystal ice Stickles for a little sparkle. Then I just added a little coordinating paper and felt ribbon. I just can't seem to get enough of my Unity Bitty Christmas Tags set lately! :)


And here is the tin that I found at Michaels for just $1 that I am going to put all of the tags in. Have a great weekend...and for all you Friday shoppers, I hope you get lots of fabulous deals!
Check out the Unity forum or Unity website for more Unity fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who visit me here. I hope you have a wonderful day filled with many blessings, family, and good food! I will be posting some new projects tomorrow so come back and see what I have been up to.

A Time to Give Thanks

With Thanksgiving fast approaching I thought I would share a simple thank you card.
Using Stampin' Up's Think Happy Thoughts set I randomly stamped the circles and flowers on the cardstock. Then I just wrapped a piece of black ribbon around the card and popped the circle up on a foam square. It doesn't get much easier than this but I think the black and white with a splash of red makes for a classic card. I love this time of year...the season, the holidays, spending time with family. I am so blessed with wonderful family and friends, my husband has a job, I have two healthy and happy boys...just a few of the things I am thankful for. Hope you have a wonderful week filled with friends, family, and many blessings!

A Little Note

Good morning! Just a quick post today to share a fun and bright little card I made awhile back. I'm not usually much of a yellow/orange kind of gal but I really like how this card came together, especially with the pops of white.
I got a set of these cute felt flowers from JoAnns for just $1. And the sentiment stamp is from Michaels $1 bin...such a deal! I think this would be a great card to send someone who is in need of a little cheering up. I hope this brightened your day a little!

It's Finally Friday...

And I finally have something to share with you this week! Do you reuse gift bags? I definitely do (unless of course they are totally trashed) and my aunt is the queen of reusing gift wrap, bows, and bags. So, I thought it would be a great gift idea to give her a set of Christmas tags that she could use when recycling gift bags. Here are 4 of the tags I have made using my Unity Bitty Christmas Tags set:
I love this snowman from My Mind's Eye paper (Be Merry collection).
What's great about the Bitty Christmas tags set is that several of the words could be used for any kind of tag. That's all for me today! However, there are a lot of Unity lovers posting on their blogs today too...check out Angela's blog for the links. Thanks for visiting today! Hope you have a great weekend!

I'm Still Here!

Sorry I have been MIA this week. My oldest son and I came down with a little flu bug over the weekend but are feeling much better now. So, nothing to post today but I will be posting tomorrow and hopefully over the weekend too (we have a lot going on but my goal is to find time to do some stamping!). If you have time today make sure to stop by the Unity blog and forum...it's Hip Hop Thursday!!!

A little inspiration and a few of my favorite things

So, this card was created for two challenges. First is Limelight's sketch challenge, which also asked that we use some of our favorite products. Second, is today's SCS inspiration challenge...The Felted Garden.

Here is the scarf I was inspired by. When I saw it, I knew I had the perfect paper...October Afternoon (one of my favorites right now). I used my SU naturals ivory to capture the softness from the scarf, along with some velvety ribbon from Michaels. I love all kinds of ribbon and I simply don't have enough of it! :) Then, of course, I had to use my Unity stamps since they are the best stamps EVER! I thought Eco Chic was a great fit for this card...The Felted Garden scarves have such an earthy feel to them.

Well, I couldn't fit all of my favorite things on this card so here are a few more products I love: Stickles, Kaisercraft Rhinestones & Pearls, Colorbox ink, Bazzill Basics Card Stock, Tombo Mono Multi Glue, and all kinds of buttons & brads. All of which you can find at Limelight Papercrafts!

Thanks for visiting today! I hope you have a good weekend! It is a beautiful day here in the Pacific Northwest...unfortunately my oldest son doesn't seem to be feeling too well this morning.

Another fabulous Friday filled with Unity!

Hello! Today I have two more cards to share with you. First, to get you in the holiday mood... a Christmas card.
I created this card using Amber's sketch, which you can view HERE. I used my Unity cheer ornament that I won a few weeks ago during Hip Hop. I just stamped it in Versafine black ink and then used my SU blender pen and Archival Brilliance galaxy gold ink to add the little touches of gold. I am really loving this holiday trim ribbon that I got at Michaels on sale for just $1.50. It is a big spool with red, silver, and gold cord. I tied it through my translucent buttons for added interest and wrapped the red and gold around the center panel along with a bow that sits just above the joy sentiment (from Bitty Christmas tags set). It's kind of hard to tell in this picture but the ornament panel is popped up on 3D foam squares. Anyway, enough about this card, on to the next one...
















Don't you just love double-sided designer paper?! It makes coordinating your colors/patterns so much easier! This great paper is from My Mind's Eye and I thought it was perfect for this Unity blossom single. I used this Wednesday's SCS sketch challenge for the layout of this card. The quote panel is popped up on 3D foam squares and the metal flower tab is from Making Memories. The ink is SU pumpkin pie...speaking of which, can you believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner?!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have a great weekend! We will be celebrating my husband's birthday with family and friends as well as taking the boys to swim lessons!

Christmas with Unity

Happy Thursday everyone! It is Unity Hip Hop day and if you don't know what that is yet, head over to Angela's blog or the Unity forum on SCS to check it out! I have two cards to share today that I created with Unity's Bitty Christmas tags set.
This card was for the SCS limited supplies challenge. I had to use a circle and a rectangle with the only embellishment being ribbon. I love this paper from Imaginisce...so pretty! I actually got the matching stamp too but I much prefer my Unity poinsettia stamp because I can color it in, which I did using twinkling H2Os. I also added a little sparkle with some Stickles. The scalloped circle and rectangle panel are popped up on 3D foam squares.

For my second card I got a little inspiration from the Boden USA website and their adorable children's clothing. Here is the shirt I was inspired by

And here is my card...

Thanks for stopping by today. I will for sure be posting again tomorrow morning...two more Unity cards for you! Have a great day!

More Gifts for the Teacher!

Yesterday I worked on a set of thank you cards to include in the teacher gift bag. Here is what they look like:
The layered scallop circle/flower is popped up on 3D foam squares. I actually stamped the many thanks sentiment on the inside of the card and then trimmed the front of the card with scalloped scissors so that you would see the sentiment even when the card was closed. I am still deciding what else to include in this teacher gift...maybe an ornament? or a notepad/journal? All of the paper is Stampin' Up. I just got this Autumn Vines DP and I love it! The sentiment is from Hero Arts. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! I think we are going to go do a little window shopping and I am hoping to get a few good ideas for what to get my hubby for Christmas!

Notecards for the Teacher

If you stopped by yesterday you know that I am working on a gift for my son's teacher. Today I wanted to share another one of the items that I will be including in her gift bag...a set of note cards.
I have made 4 of these little note cards so far but I am thinking a set of 10 might be nice...any thoughts? I had fun making the pencil frame with my Unity stamps (School Rock Star set). The paper is Stampin' Up and the sentiment stamp is actually one I found at Michaels in the $1 bin. I thought a teacher could use these cards to send a little note home to parents or even to a fellow teacher. Stay tuned this weekend for more glimpses at this teacher gift! Have a great day!

Another Fabulous Friday

Happy Friday! First, I want to apologize for not posting all week! I was low on inspiration and motivation but I did the Unity blog hop yesterday and was instantly revitalized and ready to stamp. Those ladies have such fabulous cards and projects! So, I am trying to start thinking about Christmas gifts and I came up with this cute little bag for my son's teacher.

I used Unity's School Rock Star set and the happy holidays sentiment is from Bitty Christmas Tags. All of the paper is Stampin' Up.
The ink is Colorbox fluid chalk, dark brown, and the silver brads are Making Memories.

I used SU's scallop circle punch for the tag and paper pierced around the edge. Can you tell from the picture that around the circle it says School is Cool? When I bought this Unity set, I knew it would be
great for teacher gifts and scrapbooking.

So, now onto one of the little goodies that I am going to include in this bag...bookmarks.








My son's teacher has 4 kids so I thought she could give each of them a bookmark or use them for her students. Two of her kids are young so I didn't want to put any embellishments on them. What do you think?

Be sure to come back and visit over the weekend to see more of the crafting goodies that I am including in this teacher gift bag!

In other news...one of my projects was featured on Paper Crafts Magazine's blog this week!!! How awesome is that?! The project that they featured was my Halloween treat box that I shared with you all a few weeks ago. Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my excitement with you!