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