Pink Cat Studio ~ Mar 31st Digi Release!

Welcome to another Pink Cat Studio digi release! Six new and incredibly cute Easter digis are now available at the Pink Cat Studio Digi Store. If you haven't already started your Easter cards, then you'll want to scoop up one or all of these digis today to take advantage of the free bunny with purchase! ;)

I picked three digis to feature today and the first one is Kiddie in Bunny Costume.

How cute would this be for someone having a baby in April or as a Halloween card later in the fall?

You could imagine this next card featuring Itty Bitty Betty piggybacking her bunny with practically any sentiment.

I think this sweet digi would make great birthday, back-to-school, every day encouragement, love and even get well cards for any little girl.

I saved my favourite digi of this week for last. It's Sweet Pea with an Easter Basket on his head! This reminds me of something my son did this past week. I recycle makeup cases from department store cosmetics companies when they offer gifts with purchases and I use them to store a lot of things, including art supplies for my son. He decided to empty an opaque purple one and wear it on his head like a hat... all day long. Then he wanted to wear it out! Um, no. LOL

I really enjoyed colouring these digis and I hope you can see how much fun I had creating the little springtime scenes for these cuties! The top layer of the grass is popped but only the top section of each Pink Cat Studio digi is popped so that the bottom sits in between the two layers of grass. It's a shame I had to hide a bit of each image in the grass but they just looked so cute and much better than they did when they were in front of the grass.

I just love Melissa's Easter digis! Every single one is adorable. You can find all of today's new digis as well as last year's Easter digis HERE. There are only three short weeks 'til Easter! ;)

Thank you for stopping by to enjoy today's Pink Cat Studio release! More inspiration can be found on the PCS Blog as well as the design team links on my sidebar. Have a wonderful day!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi & Whisper White cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Kiddie in Bunny Costume, Itty Bitty Betty: Bunny Piggyback and Sweet Pea & Easter Basket; Hero Arts Clouds; Hero Arts Typewriter Letters; SU Bashful Blue ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; MFT Fresh Cut Grass die; QuicKutz Epic Six; Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Happy Birthday, Melissa!!! MacKenzie corralled a few of the current and past Pink Cat Studio design team members to do a little blog hop in your honour. We hope your special day surrounded by loved ones and great food is ultra fabulous! I sure wish I could be celebrating with you in Vancouver. ;) Here's the blog hop order:

MacKenzie Bruckler
Lysa Rohrer
Emily Leiphart
Patty Tanúz
Vicki Garrett
Maria Bell

I thought it would make a great party if all these adorable little Fairy Friends came out together to wish Melissa a very magical birthday. ;) I also have a cute little story to go along with the making of this card.

After I had all these little animals coloured, cut out and embellished, I randomly placed them on the card base to see how it would look. At first, the little dog was in the top position where the owl ended up. My son peered over the table, pointed at it and said, "What wo-wo do, Mommy?" Then he looked again and said, "Want stamp wo-wo!" So I set everything up for him, he chooses the ink colours and this is what he came up with.

While he's stamping the dogs, he asks me, "Why wo-wo fly up air?" Of course this makes me laugh and I tell him that it's a fairy dog who grants wishes. "He has a bone wand!" I find it amusing how he loves to double- and triple-stamp all his images. I'm also amazed at how well he can colour within the lines. Look at the yellow bits!

I continue to work on my card and I tell him that my orange kitty cat doesn't work with the other colours so give it to him. Then he asks if he can stamp kitty cats. He decides he's going to use an orange pencil crayon and colour in his cat just like mine. Isn't that the cutest? At this rate, his colouring will be better than mine by the time he's five!

After I decide on the final spots for the animals, I ask him if he likes it and he does not. He throws his arms up in the air and exlaims, "WHY wo-wo not at top?! Why OWL on top?!" This is when I tell him that the animals fit together the best in this order, like his puzzles. He furrowed his brows and went back to colouring. :)

See you tomorrow for an incredibly adorable Pink Cat Studio Easter Release!!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Fairy Friends; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Ranger Diamond & Black Diamond Stickles; SU Crystal Effects; Stampin' Dimensionals

Boys Will Be Boys

I'm excited that I finally get to post this card! About a week ago, Unity Stamp Company had a Facebook request for cards made with the stamp set Boys Will Be Boys. I was lucky enough to own this set and only one of the sentiments had seen ink so I was happy for a reason to use it.

Using the colours from the Embellish Masculine Color Trends Challenge, I stamped a background with the polka dot beetle/bug. After choosing a sentiment, I cut a vertical strip of gray cardstock to provide a nice contrast to the sentiment. I added some charcoal twine from The Twinery, then adhered the double-layered sentiment with foam tape.

Normally, masculine cards are really hard for me to make but this one turned out to be extremely easy and fun. I have a few little boy birthday cards to make so this set will be getting a lot of use. I already have some ideas about how to work the rest of the stamps in this set so maybe easy masculine cards has more to do with having the right stamps than anything. ;)

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Basic Gray cardstock; Unity+Echo Park Boys Will Be Boys; SU Wild Wasabi, Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red & Basic Gray inks; SU paper piercer; Anchor cross stitch needle; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; The Twinery Charcoal baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals

Bring on the Cake

Hello, I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! My son went for four bike rides of 1.5 hours each in -8°C (17°F) weather. He's always asking to go out, no matter the weather, and I love that he's so active and outdoorsy. My husband was sweet enough to endure the cold so I could have time to craft. I have quite a few birthday cards to make in the next month so I hope you won't be bored with that theme. :) Today's card is for the Hero Arts March Contest in the theme of... you guessed it... birthdays!

Even though I have a few uninked Hero Arts sets, I find myself coming back to Friendly Flags. I just love looking at this set, let alone using it. I wanted to get more mileage out of these flags than just making banners with them. I looked at the sentiments in one of my new sets, Essential Messages, and came up with the idea of making a giant stacked cake with the flags.

After some puzzle-building and several colour combinations later, I came up with this pyramidal cake. The flags that are pointing upward are adhered directly on to the card base and the ones that are pointing down are popped with foam tape. The popped flags also have twine attached to them. The pink sorbet bows are tied around each flag and the honeydew twine represents the candles at the top of the cake! This is going to one of my besties in San Diego and she'll need about 3.5 times more candles on her actual cake but I'm sure she won't mind having only ten on this one. ;)

I'm still not very confident photographing cards that open on the right. This card in particular was troublesome to photograph because I couldn't find a good angle and that's why I included two full shots in this post. Which one do you like better? Or do you prefer that I include two different views?

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Hero Arts Friendly Flags & Essential Messages; SU Old Olive & Rose Red inks; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Ranger Antique Linen & Walnut Stain Distress Inks; The Twinery Honeydew & Pink Sorbet baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals; Ranger Blending Tool; SU Basic Rhinestones

Take Two & Growing in Unity Winners

WINNERS!!!

As promised, here are the winners:

Take Two, Day 1: Cuppy Cakes

Take Two, Day 2: My Dear Take Two, Day 3: Birdie Duet Take Two, Day 4: Bella Fiori Take Two, Day 5: The Best is Yet To Be*Don't forget that My Dear, Bella Fiori and a lot of other Unity stamps are on sale right now. Click HERE to shop at the Unity Store!
Sunghee, Roslyn, Marilyn, Anne T. and Jing-Jing, please email Emily with your full name and mailing address to redeem your prize.
Growing in Unity: Choose from Along for the Ride, Berry Good Life, Grow Yourself Extraordinary or Margarita Moments
Toni, please email Andrea at andrea (at) unitystampco (dot) com to claim your prize. Let her know which of the four sets you've chosen as your GIU prize for my GIU week.
Dahlhouse Designs Watermark
Dahlhouse Designs Watermark Rachel and MC, please email Lisa at dahlhousedesigns (at) yahoo (d0t) com to claim your prize.

Congratulations to all the winners! Winners for the Take Two kits were chosen from either Lisa's blog or my blog on the day the kit was featured. Winners for the remaining prizes were chosen from all of the comments on Lisa's blog or my blog. To those of you who won Take Two kits, I will send them out as soon as they arrive. I'll try to remember to let you know when I send them out but it probably won't be 'til the first or second week of April. If you are ever on the SCS Unity Forum, please say hello to Angela Magnuson and send her a huge thanks for supporting this event!

Thank you, Lisa, for all your hard work this week and in the months prior to Take Two. You did an amazing job with your cards and with the badges and blinkies!! I couldn't have done this without your support, encouragement and inspiration. You are so wonderful!

Thank you all so much for being a part of Take Two and Growing in Unity with me and Lisa! All of you who came by to leave comments on both our blogs throughout the week made it a huge success and we can't thank you enough!! We are thrilled that there are so many of you who asked that we do this again. ;) Thank you for enjoying our creations and Unity!

We hope you'll be back to visit us often. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Ahoy, Little Lady

I used this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge #74 colours to make this birthday card for Lexy's youngest daughter who recently turned three. She's currently big on pirates and I thought the little pirate image from Papertrey Ink's Tiny Treats: Birthday would be perfect. I took the pigtails from the princess image and adhered them to the boy pirate, thus turning him into a girl pirate. So cute! I used the 'ahoy' from 'ahoy, birthday boy' with 'little lady' from 'hey, little lady' to create the perfect sentiment. I wrapped some lilac twine in a pattern across the frame which I cut by hand since I don't have the coordinating die. The twine represents rope that is used by pirates and on boats. The larger birthday sentiment 'bring on the happy' is from Big Birthday Wishes. I added the boat from Tiny Treats: Valentine and slightly shaded it with Copic markers to bring balance to the card. I love the subtlety of the boat since it's not the focus of the card but still ties into the whole pirate theme.

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Papertrey Ink Tiny Treats: Birthday, Tiny Treats: Valentine & Big Birthday Wishes; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Lavender Lace & Tempting Turquoise inks; Copics; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; QuicKutz Epic Six; The Twinery Lilac baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals

Music Saves My Soul Saturday {Please Don't Stop the Rain}

I missed Marcea's Music Saves My Soul Saturday last week and I felt the need to share another hot British talent with you today. ;) I just love James Morrison's voice and "Please Don't Stop the Rain" is my favourite song from his album Songs for You, Truths for Me. He wrote this song with none other than Ryan Tedder of One Republic. It is just amazing. You can also watch the video version here. Some of you may be familiar with "Broken Strings", James Morrison's duet with Canadian Nelly Furtado which is another one of my favourite songs from the same album. I also love this video for "You Give Me Something" which is super cute and reminds me of my Jump Rope for Heart days in high school when we had teams that jumped for 24 hours to raise money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Enjoy!

Take Two, Growing in Unity & Friends With Flair {Friday}

Happy Friday!!! I hope you're comfortable because this is going to be a looong post! Are you ready? :D

Well, I told you we'd end Take Two Week with a bang and a couple of surprises. The first one is that we're featuring the February 2011 Kit of the Month - The Best is Yet To Be which means we're giving away one of these kits to one lucky winner! The other surprise is that Lisa and I have made three cards each to showcase this amazing set. I love this set!! As you all know, I've mentioned many times that the July 2010 Kit - Happily Ever After has been my most coveted set and then the January 2011 Kit - To the Moon & Back came along. However, after I played with The Best is Yet To Be, I think it deserves a spot in my stamping arsenal as the ultimate Unity set. Still, I love all my Unity for many different reasons! ;)

For this card, I applied the same technique shown in this video tutorial on the card base, most of the sentiment and the punched bird. I stamped the floral text border from To the Moon & Back before applying the ink pads directly to the cardstock. Then I stamped the bird image twice, die cut the left edge using a notebook edge and trimmed the edges. I also thought it was fitting to use my bird punch, which I've had for months, for the very first time here. The bird is 'becoming' and therefore 'growing' as a literal translation for the sentiment. I masked the text in the 'sky' part of the image using Giving It All Meaning and stamped Ippity's A Bit of Burlap on the wing.

Sometimes I just have to make a one-layer card! This bike stamp is just so amazing, I couldn't help but show it off on this beautiful lavender cardstock that I just got in the mail this week.

I centred both the sentiment and image on the card base, then created two masks for the balloons. I cut four balloons out of the first one and three out of the second. I stamped the corner of the blanket frame from The Best is Yet To Be on two of the ballons and used the tiny text from the floral text border from To the Moon & Back on two other balloons. The final three balloons were stamped with Ippity's A Bit of Burlap. Then I added some glitter to the edges of the balloons. Simple but intricate. ;)

My final Take Two card features the bee with text! Bees and 'you' seem to be a popular couple these days but I decided to put my own spin on it by combining 'Be you' with part of a sentiment from One of a Kind with an alphabet I received when I joined the Kit Club. I'm not sure why I never inked up these alphabets before but I absolutely love them! You'll probably be seeing them a lot more of them from here on in. Unfortunately, I don't know what set they came from but I'd appreciate you letting me know if you do.

To make this card, I used both parts of a frame mask to ink up the centre of the card base with Tea Time Toile and the outer edge with Giving It All Meaning. Then I cut out a black frame from cardstock and adhered that to the card. I stamped the bee in olive and the text in black, trimmed and mounted it with foam tape. As mentioned above, I created my own sentiment from three different stamps and finished the card with a little rhinestone coloured with an olive Copic marker.

I seriously cannot believe this fun week has come to an end already! I really hope that Lisa and I have inspired all of you to use your Unity stamps in many different ways. Here's a recap of the stamp sets we showcased this week and the eight prizes everyone is eligible to win:

Take Two, Day 1: Cuppy Cakes
Take Two, Day 2: My Dear*
Take Two, Day 3: Birdie Duet
Take Two, Day 4: Bella Fiori*
Take Two, Day 5: The Best is Yet To Be
Growing in Unity: Choose from Along for the Ride, Berry Good Life, Grow Yourself Extraordinary or Margarita Moments
Dahlhouse Designs Watermark
Dahlhouse Designs Watermark
*If you don't want to hedge your bets on winning these sets, grab them now while they're on sale! ;)

Thank you, Lisa, for organizing Take Two with me and for all your creative efforts! Lisa, you are such a pleasure to work with and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Okay, maybe not for several months because this was a lot of work but you know I would love to work with you again! LOL We owe a huge thanks to the amazing Angela Magnuson for this incredible giveaway, as well as Lisa for offering her fabulous watermarks!! Remember, the cut-off times for prize-eligible comments this week will be tonight 11:59 p.m. PST (Saturday 2:59 a.m. EST). Lisa and I will be choosing all the winners from both our blogs on Saturday and the winners will be announced together on both our blogs on Sunday. Best of luck to everyone and thank you all so much for making Take Two Week such a huge success!!

Lisa's blog awaits with her takes on these same three pairings from The Best is Yet To Be!!!

For the FWF Blog Hop, head on over to Cindy's blog!

Sources for The Best is Yet To Be: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Unity February 2011 Kit of the Month - The Best is Yet To Be; Unity January 2011 Kit of the Month - To the Moon & Back; Unity Giving It All Meaning; Ippity A Bit of Burlap; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Summer Sun, Tangerine Tango, Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise & Lavender Lace inks; SU Two-Step Bird punch; SU 3/4" circle punch; MFT Notebook Edge die; QuicKutz Epic Six; The Twinery Lilac baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for Bicycle Balloons: Gina K Designs pure luxury Lovely Lavender cardstock; Unity February 2011 Kit of the Month - The Best is Yet To Be; Unity January 2011 Kit of the Month - To the Moon & Back; Ippity A Bit of Burlap; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Lavender Lace ink; Ranger Diamond Stickles; We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Sources for You are 'Be You'-tiful: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft, Black Onyx & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Unity February 2011 Kit of the Month - The Best is Yet To Be; Unity Tea Time Toile; Unity Giving It All Meaning; Unity+Melody Ross One of a Kind; Unity Alphabet; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Old Olive ink; SU 3/4" circle punch; Stampin' Dimensionals; SU Basic Rhinestone; Copic marker

Take Two & Growing in Unity {Thursday}

Welcome to Day Four of Take Two and Growing in Unity! I hope everyone is having a great week so far. So much excitement in one week is almost too much for me. LOL At least it's half over! Only half over, you say? But it's Thursday! Well, we've got a few surprises planned for tomorrow and not like the big snowstorm we had yesterday. ;) I hope the snow melts away quickly so the outdoors can start looking like my card!

Any guesses as to what set Lisa and I are featuring today? It's Bella Fiori! This set is actually half price right now for only $10 and even less if you're a Kit Club member. Of course, one of you is going to win this set but I think it's too great of a deal to pass up! Yesterday, I told you I rarely use patterned paper so I thought I would surprise you today. LOL I just couldn't resist using Bella BLVD paper to paper piece one of the flowers, cut out some clouds and put everything on a texty background. I can't live without this frame from With Love and I'll pretty much always use it like this, fussy cut and mounted with foam tape. I did angle it on purpose. ;) The sentiment is from Favorite Things/Rockin' It Unity Style.

I hope you're loving Lisa's cards this week 'cause I sure am! She has such a great eye for colour and works magic with patterned paper. In fact, you should head over to her blog right now to see her take with Bella Fiori!

See you tomorrow for the big finale of Take Two and Growing in Unity!!

An Italian grammar lesson: For those of you who are interested, the phrase bella fiori is supposed to mean beautiful flowers but it's grammatically incorrect. In Italian, the phrase should read bei fiori (pronounced bay'-ee fee-or'-ee). {Hubby corrected me this morning. :)}

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Bella BLVD Bookin' on the Beach, Creamsicle Clouds, Love is in the Air, Magic in the Sky & Stardust paper coordinates; Unity+Bella BLVD Bella Fiori; Unity+Echo Park With Love; Unity March 2010 Kit of the Month - Favorite Things/Rockin' It Unity Style; Memento Rich Cocoa & Tuxedo Black inks; Stampin' Dimensionals

Take Two & Growing in Unity {Wednesday}

Welcome to Day Three of Take Two and Growing in Unity! Lisa and I are delighted with the amazing response to this event and our individual projects. We can't thank you all enough! It's great to see both old friends and new ones. If you are new to my blog, I thought you might like to know a few things about my crafting style. My cards are mostly clean and simple but occasionally I will get fancy. I love to cut out images and pop them with foam tape. I rarely use designer paper but I love to create my own backgrounds using stamps. I'm also featured on the Unity Blog today so hop over there a bit later for more about me and how I craft with Unity!

Today's card uses Birdie Duet! Lisa and I both purchased this set ages ago and never inked it up. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally use it. I was drawn to this set mainly because of the musical notes. Bicycles may be my greatest weakness but music notes are my second. Throw in the stunning bird cage, plus the wonderful fonts of the sentiments, and I was sold. I had no clue how I would use this set but I just had to buy it! Now that I've finally inked it up, I have quite a few more ideas.

This card is very simple but with several layers of overlapped stamping. First, I stamped the entire image in light blue on white cardstock. Then I stamped the image again with green ink and cut out just the birdcage and one of the birds. Using a grid line acrylic block, I stamped the sentiment on the white base and then again on the cut out birdcage, ensuring they would line up. I punched a hole at the top of the birdcage and looped two strands of honeydew baker's twine. I popped the birdcage with foam tape and, after twisting all four strands together, attached the twine to the back of the white mat which is also popped with foam tape. I added clear rhinestones and coloured them with a light blue Copic marker.

Since it's the middle of the week, here's a quick recap of the prizes that have been revealed thus far:

Take Two, Day 1: Cuppy Cakes
Take Two, Day 2: My Dear*
Take Two, Day 3: Birdie Duet
*If you don't want to hedge your bets on winning this set, grab it now while it's on sale! ;)

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog to see her take on Birdie Duet, as well as the Unity Blog to see another card of mine using Birdie Duet but in a completely different style!

See you tomorrow for Take Two and Growing in Unity, Day Four!

Sources for The Odds: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Bashful Blue & Chocolate Chip cardstock; Unity Birdie Duet; SU Bashful Blue & Old Olive inks; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; The Twinery Honeydew baker's twine; SU Basic Rhinestones coloured with Copic marker; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for Two Birds (shown on the Unity Blog): SU Naturals Ivory, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Wild Wasabi & Early Espresso cardstock; Unity Birdie Duet; Unity October 2011 Kit of the Month - Take Time To Laugh; Unity November 2011 Kit of the Month - Picture Perfect; SU Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise & Wild Wasabi inks; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; The Twinery Pink Sorbet baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals

Take Two & Growing in Unity {Tuesday}

Welcome to Take Two and Growing in Unity, Day Two! Lisa and I were thrilled with your response to the first day of Take Two. Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments! We hope to keep the excitement and momentum going as the week rolls along. ;) Again, many, many thanks to sweet and beautiful Angela Magnuson and Unity Stamp Company for the fabulous prizes!!

This is my first attempt at a Warhol-style card. I thought it would be fun to use vintage-style stamps and put a modern spin on them. I used every single stamp in the Iron Orchid Designs set My Dear on this card, plus a sentiment from To the Moon & Back. Yup, today's prize set is My Dear!! (This set is currently on sale for $18, or less if you're a Kit Club member!) I can't resist any stamp set that has a bicycle. Those of you who know me well knew I would buy this set as soon as it came out!

To make this card, I measured the bicycle image to determine the size of the squares and cut them out. Then I chose the colour pairs and stamped a bike on each square with the darker of the two colours. I created complementary backgrounds with the lighter colours and moved the squares around to determine their final spots.

I decided that rounding all the corners in one direction would draw the eye around the card and back. I chose a simple yet bold sentiment from To the Moon & Back to add to two of the squares. When I started adhering the squares to the black mat, I decided that I would pop the two squares without a sentiment and directly adhere the ones that had the sentiment. This gives added dimension and visual interest to the card.

Now, head on over to Lisa's blog to see her take using My Dear!!

See you tomorrow for Take Two and Growing in Unity, Day Three!!!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury black onyx, kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Unity+Iron Orchid Designs My Dear; Unity January 2011 Kit of the Month - To the Moon & Back; SU Crumb Cake, Elegant Eggplant, Bashful Blue, Tangerine Tango, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Summer Sun & Old Olive inks; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper; Stampin' Dimensionals