November KOTM challenge

Phew! Just under the wire. I play every month, so I don't like to miss! Working 70 hours a week...I just don't have as much time as I would like to play! Check out all the entries HERE!

The background...was the bane of my existance. I was having a hard time figuring out how to layer the Spellbinders Impressabilities using a Big Shot. I finally got something working, but not sure if I did it right...

I also got to use a couple oldies! Like the making memories vellum tag..WOW those are old! :) The little chipboard "joy to the world" I think may be DCWV? The flower was made by my online friend Norine Borys! She spent her summer up in her cottage making 100's of flowers for her online friends at Love is in the Details! How sweet, eh? :)

Thanks for coming by! Have a good weekend!
~A

We Fish You a Merry...

Welcome Friends with Flair! I'm trying so hard to get in a Christmas mood, but I just feel like a grinch!! Anyone else get like that..? I always feel so rushed, like I'm not doing enough! Well...trying to get in the mood by revisiting some old cards. I used an Ippity set for this one. One of my faves! (Don't we say that about ALL our Unity? heeh) The saying is just one I made up on the computer.

Happy Weekend!
~A

It's been a while. :)

Well...leave it to me to get things done just under the wire. :/ I wish I had more time to craft...because I feel like I'm really forgetting how to do things. It results with me not being too happy with anything I make! It's hard because I work 70 hours a week. BOOO to work, right?

Anyways..here is my card for the Unity kit of the month stamp challenge! I keep playing...but really I have one more kit left I can purchase. I'm missing one from 2011. 2 or 3 from 2008 that I can't get now, anyways. I'm a pretty bad Unity addict! ;)
I used the sentiment from the KOM April 2009. The snowflake is from September 2008 KOM. The tag, I made using a paper bag from starbucks... yep I treated myself to a banana nut loaf slice..hehe. It's so moist, can you blame me..? I don't bake!

Have a great weekend!
~A

11/11/11

Today, is a special day. It's my little boy Alexander's 4th birthday. I'm short on words but my heart is full. Here are pictures of each of his birthdays over the years:

BIRTH DAY

1ST BIRTHDAY

2ND BIRTHDAY

3RD BIRTHDAY

4TH BIRTHDAY (today!)

Can't leave out the awesome cake I made for him. My husband helped with making the icing and decorating the outside. :D Alex's favourite colour is: rainbow. :)

Here is a divine slice. We're all just waking up from our diabetic comas. ;)

AND...if you're here with friends with flair, here is the card I have to share. Made for Alexander using the Simple Stories "life's short...eat cake!" set:

We had a wonderful day here, I hope you did too! Enjoy your weekend!

~A

A card and some photos!

This is a card I made for the Unity Challenge. The challenge was based on a fall poem. I actually like the way this card turned out! It's simple and me. I love those zing embossing powders, wow they sure pop! The stamps were from Unity's September 2008 kit of the month...wow! It's a line of 5 trees, but I stamped 3 of them individually onto pop dotted circles. My goal is to go back and use some older stamps. I have SO many unused stamps!

(click)

Here are some photos from Halloween! My 3 (4, on Friday!) year old son asked to be Luigi. Man, I thought it was going to be a challenge...but it came together SO easily. I loved it..he was adorable! People loved his costume!

My daughter went as a devil... I don't think you'd find a prettier little devil! :) On a side note...it's SOOO hard to find an appropriate costume for a little girl! My daughter is 8 and I was embarrased looking at costumes for her!

And here are our Angry Birds pumpkins. Angry pumpkins? hehe. We had so much fun with these. They looked awesome lit up. We didn't get a chance to take a pic of them with candles in.
Have a great day!

~A

1st Birthday

I have 5 or 6 layouts sitting on my desk that I haven't put into albums..they've kinda been sitting around waiting to get scanned since maybe May and June. EEK. I haven't really scrapped much since then...maybe a layout or two. So, I'll try and get some of these uploaded so I can put them into my albums!

This is my DD on her 1st birthday. She is 8 now. Holy smokes, where does the time go? Just a quick layout with some random pictures from the day.

(click to enlarge)

Have a great week! I even have a card ready to go for friends with flair on Friday! Yay!

~A

friends with flair!!

Just a quick post to join in on friends with flair over at Unity!! I used an Ippity set here. I paper pieced the stack of books on dictionary paper and it was embossed in black. The butterfly I used glossy accents and then covered it with doodlebug glitter! I love doing this even though not often. The green seam binding NEVER scans right..but it matches the lighter green in the polka dots!

(click to enlarge)

Thanks for looking and have a GREAT hop and a GREAT weekend!
~A

All Things Unity #42 BINGO

I tried taking a picture of my card this time..not sure I'm much happier with the results. BUT, I used my crummy cellphone camera. ;) I made this card for the challenge over at All Things Unity using a bingo card. I chose the last row down which was ribbon, sentiment, bling and free space. I chose rubons for that last space. The rubons I used were actually heidi swapp..from like 2005!! I could NOT believe they actually worked as well as they did (aside from the little paper sliding around so I didn't get a perfectly straight rubon!) considering they didn't work very good the FIRST time around!

Well, hope the pic is not too crummy. Still working on that! :D I'm also playing along with the HYCCT challenges at Splitcoast. So this one is for the 2nd challenge which was to use rhinestone bling.

Have a great week!

~A

Friends With Flair

I haven't done FWF with Unity in quite some time! So...I hope I'm doing this right! :) The set I used was What Matters Most by Ippity! I haven't used these particular stamps until now..and those butterflies are just so pretty! I had fun cutting them out and glitterizing! :)

This card is also a part of the Ippity Challenge to do one of the Hope You Can Cling To challenges over at Splitcoast Stampers. There's a new challenge everyday and the ladies are sending cards to a hospital in Texas I believe for Breast Cancer patients to use.

Anyways...busy day of work ahead. Have a wonderful weekend!

~A

Chick Challenge #2

Last day for the Chick Challenge #2 over here. Challenge was based on this sketch:

Here is my card in all it's crooked scanning glory. :) As usual, I have a real hard time with shape cards and I'm never happy with them...so I went rectangle. :) Funny thing about this card, is that I'm not even religious in any way! Although, I do love a lot of the beautiful messages! This card uses the Ippity set: What Matters Most.

Have a good day!
~A

Chick Challenge #1

Sorry for the crooked scan.. I'll never get good at that. ;) Definitely try and take pics more often! This card uses the Ippity set Authentic Man.

The girls over at Ippity (By Unity) have a new challenge blog! Check it out at: Chick Challenges {with Ippity}! This is the first sketch challenge and I'm excited as I can maybe start actually USING all these Ippity stamps I've hoarded! Short post today, I've been battling a cold all weekend...BOO! It's a long weekend too! Have a great week!

~A

Unity Sketch

Just a quick post to add my card that I had done DAYS ago. :) It's for the Unity Sketch Challenge. I used fewer "bars" and flipped it. I love the centre stamp. Sorry, as usual it scanned a bit wonky..time I learned to take photos! ;)

Happy Sunday!
~A

Buckle Up!

I used to belong to a kit club at a defunct place now. (Just Cre8). The kits were massive...and I still probably have a dozen. I'm very much an extreme shopper, slow crafter. ;) A few months ago I challenged myself to make as many projects as possible with a kit. The following layout is from a February kit and I think at last count I had 22 layouts and 8 or so cards made with it! That is impressive. It helps that I *loved* this kit. It was mainly Fancy Pants - Splendid.

In any case, as the supplies dwindled, the layouts got simpler. :) I really enjoyed this process. I only have a few scraps left that I'm going to try and NIL! Not enough for a layout but I'll add background paper..because I have a set of glitter alphas to use up. There's really not enough letters to spell anything!

Today, I just felt like sharing a layout. I don't blog stuff as soon as I make it, I'm not fast, I'm not regular. As my husband says... I'm consistently inconsistent! lol

(click to enlarge)

Thanks for coming by as I slowly add things to my blog. :)
~A

Falling Leaves

Another month, another Unity challenge. I totally need these, it's the only way I get my rubber inky!! I love that all the challenges get you using different stamps.

For this card, I stamped the leaves in versamark and then coloured them in with chalk. I *love* this technique! The "thankful" is embossed. I just love that stamp!

Have a great week!
~A

Sometimes...the smallest things...

take up the most room in your heart. ~Winnie the Pooh My little DD when she was several months old. It's kind of ironic because she's REALLY tall now.. she is the tallest 3rd grader in her class and she's a foot taller than a lot of the kids!

I used the Unity Sketch to make a layout. It's not easy to turn a card sketch into a layout. :) If you look at the flower I used the little heart pins stamps from the September 2009 kit of the month. Sorry, about the colours, my scanner did not like!! I tried to correct as much as possible but that's the best I could do!

Just need a place to park..

I have these Unity stamps for trade from the recent grab bag:

Unity August Challenge

You know what I love about the Unity challenges?? It gets me using my Unity stamps AND using up scraps! :) Just what I needed to get back into the swing of things!

I *struggled* with this card! This is the first time I did an actual stamped paper piecing. I've stamped on pp before but never really cut out small details. :) My fingers are just too chubby and I have no patience! lol

The theme was *Back to School* I used a schoolhouse and the quote from a previous KOTM. I'll be passing this card on to a friend of mine who is a single mom, 29 years old and going back to University full time for her education degree!!! So proud of her and this quote was PERFECT!

The little branch is from a sizzix die. My kids actually punched it out while they were playing with it and I never thought there'd be a use for an orange branch...but since I never actually used the die myself (blush) I thought it was too cute to throw out! Ahh..there's always a use for something, no?

~A

Banners, Tags & Flags!

Just a quickie! I've been trying to get 10 minutes today to get on upload this car before heading off to the lake..and things never do work out as planned, do they? lol Well.. this didn't turn out quite how I expected, but that's ok.. I still kind of like it! This is for the Ippity Challenge!

August Unity KOTM Sketch Challenge

Wow, I can't believe I've manage to participate in a 2nd monthly challenge! :) It's easy when the stamps you are using are so amazing! This is the sketch:

This is my card. It's not a great image of it, but I actually took it with my cellphone because it was way too thick to scan. I tried to hide the words in a circle with stickles...it's actually less obvious in person, but flash doesn't lie. ;) I didn't want the words to show because I just wanted it to be the number 5 for a 5th anniversary. I'm happy with how it turned out. It's hit and miss with me and cards!! lol

Stamps on this card are from the August Unity kit of the month. I just got them today! Yay! :)

Hello? Is this thing on...?

Just trying to creep back in here...I've been making a few things here and there. Yes, I'm shocked myself. I made this card for a Unity Stamp Co. challenge! Click here to see the challenge!

I made this using up an old Just Cre8 kit that featured the Fancy Pants Splendid line. The stamp is from the July 2010 Unity Kit of the Month. I love it! Next time, I'll have to stamp it on smooth cardstock to see the details a little better!

Also, my Martha Stewart punch seen on this card is on the fritz? How disappointing for something that isn't used very often. It will NOT punch through bazzill at all. It hardly punched through this flimsy white cardstock!

Stay Tuned for some other stuff! ;)