All Things Unity Challenge #43

I'm back with my final guest designer post for All Things Unity, this time for ATU43 which is to use a bug on your card! That's easy because there are very few Unity Kits of the Month that don't have a bug (or some kind of winged creature) in it. What's not easy is how to explain what goes on inside my head. Yes, this card is ultra weird but not if you're already laughing or if I tell you that I combined it with HYCCT1109: Things are Looking Up and used the PDCC105 colours! I meant to make this for HYCCT1127: Pickled Tink but I forgot about the splash of pink. Then it wouldn't have suited the PDCC105 colours anyway. Maybe I'll make another. I'm sure I can come up with another weird, er, humorous card. At least I'll crack myself up, if no one else. ;Þ

The frightened or amused girl is a retired Suzi Blu called Pretty Girl, the bees are from Better Together and the sentiment is from The Best is Yet To Be. All have never been inked before so they are happy now! I hope you'll play along with your Unity and Ippity stamps!! :)p>

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Unity+Suzi Blu Pretty Girl; Unity July 2011 Kit of the Month: Better Together & February 2011 Kit of the Month: The Best is Yet To Be; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics

My Memories Suite + 400 Followers Giveaway: Part 2

Hello friends, followers and inspirational crafty people! :) I mentioned on Tuesday that I was having another exciting giveaway to celebrate the milestone of reaching 400 Followers on my blog. Well, here it is! At the beginning of October, I was contacted by Liz Gardner of My Memories asking if I'd be interested in doing a review of the best scrapbooking software in the industry which would, in exchange, allow me to give away a free copy of it. My first thought was, "Me? Scrapbooking?" Yes, I've wanted to get into it more seriously for some time now and this was the perfect opportunity to give me that push. Then I realized, "I'm designing for eight companies this month. How will I ever find the time?" I thought I could do manage to do this quickly. That is, until I my whole family got sick one after the other. Here it is, the end of October and I finally got a chance to try out this fabulous software. Yes, I said fabulous. Why? Because it's easy as 1-2-3. Literally. Take a look!

In three easy steps, I made this layout of my son at three-months-old doing one of the things bouncy-chair munchkins do best. Be silly! I downloaded the free Comic Hero Quick Page, added it to my album as a background, inserted the bib-pulling photo of my son and typed in a little journaling. It was a simple as that! I love that the background appears to have so much dimension even though it's flat.

This next layout of my son's first birthday was done in four easy steps. I downloaded the free Boy's Birthday Frame, added two photos (learned to tilt them) and a bit of journaling to explain the seriousness of the situation. ;) As you can see, I kept both layouts clean and simple just like my cards.

You could easily avoid downloads and use the hundreds of backgrounds (including colours and textures) and embellishments included with the My Memories Suite program! Avoiding downloads is not likely to happen with all the fabulous freebies My Memories offers. Plus their Digital Scrapbooking Kits are priced so affordably, I have a feeling I'll be purchasing quite a few of them to play with. With more time and experience, I will figure out how to manipulate my photos to work with the shapes of the layouts. There's still so much to learn. So two quick layouts later, I think I'm full addicted to digital scrapbooking! I even have the bug to put together a physical scrapbook page. :O Thank you, Liz, and thank you My Memories Suite! Now if only someone would give me the gift of time. LOL

Here's the clincher! I am giving away one free copy of the My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software!! There are a few things you need to do:

1. Follow my blog. You already do, right? ;)
2. Visit My Memories and leave a comment here, in this post, to let me know which Digital Scrapbooking Kit you love best.
3. If you share this giveaway on your blog or Facebook, just come back here and leave another comment for an extra chance to win.

This giveaway will run until Saturday, November 12th 11:59 p.m. EST and the winner will be announced on Monday, November 14th. If you like what you've seen and read, but can't wait to find out if you win, you can purchase My Memories Suite now for $10 off the regular price by using code STMMMS28 at checkout! This code will be valid indefinitely so please feel free to use it at any time.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Please feel free to spread the word about My Memories Suite and this wonderful giveaway!!

Jane's Doodles {Hope Set}

I made a set of encouragement and hope cards for HYCCT1126: Send a Little Sunshine. These use three Jane's Doodles stamp sets: Little Miss Mia, Big Sentiments and Pretty Peonies. I left the image plain except for a little rhinestone to keep the focus on the beautiful Echo Park papers.

These cards are so easy to make with sweet Little Miss Mia and the variety of large sentiments offered in Big Sentiments. The single sentiment from Pretty Peonies works wonderfully with the floral paper. Leaving the images uncoloured on white allows them to complement the papers rather than compete for attention. A little rhinestone in the centre of the flower finishes them nicely.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I have a lot to catch up on. :)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Life is Good Collection; Echo Park Dots & Stripes Candy Shoppe paper pad; Jane's Doodles Little Miss Mia, Big Sentiments and Pretty Peonies; Tim Holtz for Ranger Walnut Stain distress ink; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; Papertrey Ink Double-Ended Banners die; SU Basic Rhinestones; Stampin' Dimensionals

A Very Merry Christmas

Late last night, I realized that the Hero Arts October Contest deadline was looming so I quickly threw together this simple and easy-to-mail card using some goodies I haven't played with yet. I like the modern look of the couple from Three People paired with the elegant and fancy flourish of the sentiment from Very Merry Christmas. This card could be easily reproduced in bulk and even on a single layer using the same two sets but changing the people and sentiments!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white & black cardstock; Hero Arts Three People & Very Merry Christmas; SU Riding Hood Red & Garden Green inks; Memories black ink

Paper Smooches Guest Designer {Week 4} + Video Tutorial

I can't believe it's my last week as a Guest Designer for Paper Smooches! It seems like it was just yesterday when I made that Rubik's cube card. :) Thank you, Kim, for this incredible opportunity! This week, I couldn't wait to play with one of my newest Paper Smooches stamp sets, Hope. With all the Hope You Can Cling To Challenges going on at Splitcoaststampers, I just had to play along. If I didn't combine them with my design team obligations, there's no way I'd have time to play this month. I've known too many people affected by breast cancer, including my maternal grandmother, so I just had to contribute.

In this card for HYCCT1106: Looking in on You Challenge, I create a 'window' for the adorable pink sneakers which I stamped, fussy cut and coloured with a white gel pen. I flipped one of them to make it look like a pair of shoes instead of two right shoes. (You could easily make it a left shoe by reverse stamping.) For the sentiment, I stamped the beautiful scripted hope sentiment and added the 'kick' sentiment on top. I love how that looks! All stamps used on this card are from Hope. I added twine in Blossom and Charcoal to give the design strength, something we want to give to the patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

This second card uses green, yellow and brown for the HYCCT1107: Colors of Hope Challenge. I find the colours quite masculine so this would be a great card for a male patient or a card that a male friend or relative could give to their loved one. I'm not always comfortable making masculine cards but I love how this one turned out.

The telephone is from Perpetual Bliss, the large sentiment is from Chit Chat and the repeating border is from Hope. I added Honeydew twine at the top of the second layer to balance out the other two colours.

For my third project, I made a set of holiday gift tags that double as tree ornaments and I have a video tutorial to show you exactly how I tied the twine to these tags! I paper pieced the adorable images from Santa Paws and Swanky Snowdudes and stamped coordinating sentiments on to papers from Echo Park's For the Record Collection. These tag ornaments are complete with The Twinery's baker's twine in Charcoal and Honeydew.

It's been a while since I made a video tutorial and I've been itching to make one! This is the first one in my new studio so the camera angle and lighting is distinctly different from my previous videos. I'm just getting over a cold so please excuse the raspy voice. ;)

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Last week's winner of Perpetual Bliss is...

Congratulations, Angela! Please email me with your mailing address and I'll get this out to you right away.

Thank you so much for being here to support me and Paper Smooches! It's been a whirlwind of a month and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to work with Kim. I'd be super sad if it weren't for the fact that I'm continuing as part of the Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge design team. Even if I wasn't, there's no way I'd stop using Kim's stamps! I'm not even going to admit how many Paper Smooches stamp sets I own. LOL They are fabulous! If you own them, you know, and if you've yet to purchase them, you shouldn't wait. ;) I'll be back with more Paper Smooches creations soon!

Sources for Hope: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Basic Grey Out of Print paper pad; Paper Smooches Hope; Memories Black ink; SU Pink Pirouette ink; Papertrey Ink Limitless Layers 1 3/4" Circle Collection; The Twinery baker's twine in Blossom & Charcoal; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for I Care: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; SU Early Espresso cardstock; Basic Grey Out of Print paper pad; Paper Smooches Perpetual Bliss, Chit Chat & Hope; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Mustard Seed distress ink; The Twinery baker's twine in Honeydew; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for Tag Ornament Set: Gina K Designs pure luxury red cardstock; Echo Park For the Record paper pad; Paper Smooches Santa Paws & Swanky Snowdudes; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Shabby Shutters distress ink; Uniball Signo Broad white gel pen; Copics; Papertrey Ink Tag Sale #4 die; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; The Twinery baker's twine in Charcoal & Honeydew; Stampin' Dimensionals

Cards from Friends + 400 Followers Giveaway: Part 1

Hello! I meant to acknowledge the fact that my blog reached 400 Followers last week but it has been a crazy month and I don't want to put it off any longer so I'm having a little giveaway as my way of thanking all 407 of you for going on this creative journey with me! It may sound cheesy to say this but when I see my Follower numbers increase my heart leaps a little. That must make you happy, too, right? :) I always try to go back and follow those who follow me so, if I've missed you, please be sure to let me know and I will stop by to see what you've made and add myself to your Follower list, too. I appreciate you all!

Okay, so what I'm giving away to celebrate this milestone is a coordinating tag die and stamp from Verve Stamps! Specifically, I'm giving away the Sweet Scallop Tag die and Sweet Scallop Tag stamp. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what you saw on my blog that made you want to follow me. Easy, right? This giveaway is open only to my Followers until Halloween night, 11:59 p.m. EST and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, November 2nd. Good luck to everyone!

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I also want to share four cards I received recently from some wonderful crafty friends around the world. I consider myself so lucky to have my home filled with these beauties. Thank you for thinking of me, ladies!

What an incredible amount of detail on this beauty by Lai Yoke! I love the little drapes she made on the window and the white-on-white embossed woodgrain is just stunning.

This very tall card from Angela is on Calypso Coral cardstock, one of my favourite colours of the moment! As you can tell from the shadows in the background, the size of it made it difficult to photograph. I just love all those bicycles (she knows me well) and now I find myself wanting those coordinating dies!

This clean and simple beauty came from Meg with the Silhouette die cuts I requested. I'm loving her use of background stamps on this card and of course those gorgeous leaves. How long will it be before a Silhouette lives in my home? ;)

And look at all the detail on this amazing card from Kary! I love the colours, dimension and sparkle. I must get my hands on that wreath and its coordinating die. I need details!

Last but not least, my 400 Follower Giveaway: Part 2 is an incredible sponsored giveaway from My Memories. This is coming soon so stay tuned. ;) As always, thank you so much for stopping by to say hi!

Hambo Stamps Guest Designer

I am honoured to be one of two guest designers for Hambo Stamps this October! I was thrilled when Monica Hunter and Libby Hickson asked me to make a card for Hambo Stamps this month. Hambo Stamps carries the cutest and funniest stamps and they are of the highest quality. Given what some of you know about me, you won't be surprised to see that I chose the new Otter stamp and one of its coordinating sentiments. He is so cute and the sentiment cracks me up.

That would be a smart otter with the math background and notebook floor boards! ;) This combination is sure to give its recipient a smile, right? In fact, there are two other hilarious sentiments you can purchase with this otter. I paper pieced him with Basic Grey's Oxford Collection and embellished with Charcoal twine for a simple and easy card suitable for any occasion.

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Since Hambo Stamps is a proud sponsor of Splitcoaststampers' Hope You Can Cling To Challenges this month, I thought I'd use this same stamp and sentiment to make a second card for the HYCCT1121: Big or Small Challenge, to use two sizes of the same shape which, on my card, are the Reverse Wonky Rectangles. I masked off the fish this time and used Blossom twine to make a Hope ribbon for the otter to wear. Both of the otter's arms are well-positioned so you could make him hold a variety of things. Imagine all the possibilities!

If you're interested in purchasing these cute stamps, it happens to be HOGtoberfest over at Hambo Stamps! All regular-priced stamps are 30% off until 11:59 p.m. EST Wednesday, October 26th. There's no better time to stock up on cute stamps and punny sentiments! CLICK HERE to shop. :)

Sources for Card 1: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Basic Grey Oxford paper pad; Hambo Stamps Otter 4521 & Otter Send 4515; Memories Black ink; The Twinery baker's twine in Charcoal; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for Card 2: SU Whisper White cardstock; Basic Grey Out of Print paper pad; Hambo Stamps Otter 4521 & Otter Send 4515; Memories Black ink; Spellbinders Nestabilities Reverse Wonky Rectangles & Labels Four; The Twinery baker's twine in Blossom; Stampin' Dimensionals

The Twinery + The Greeting Farm Blog Hop

Welcome to today's blog hop with two fantastic companies, The Twinery and The Greeting Farm! If you came from Jessica Diedrich's blog, you are on the right track. If you would like to start from the beginning, head over to The Twinery Blog for a full list of participants. We're excited to bring you loads of inspiration featuring The Greeting Farm's fresh stamps fused with The Twinery's baker's twine the world has come to love!

The Greeting Farm first sprouted into the stamping world in 2008 as a small dream and has cultivated into something wonderful because of wonderful customers like you! With three years of farm-fresh images under their belt, TGF is going strong and love brings you fun-loving, animated characters, including the best-selling "Anya" line. The Greeting Farm brings you cute, charismatic images that are loads of fun to color! There is truly something for everyone on the Farm and we are so glad to be teaming up with the Twinery today!

The Twinery's baker's twine is made from 100% cotton, it's eco-friendly and made in the USA. Whether you're gift wrapping, crafting or tying up baked goods to give to a friend, this top quality baker's twine adds a fresh, yet nostalgic look to any project at hand! The Twinery twine comes in 14 delicious colors and is uniquely twisted against a bright white hue, creating an eye-popping burst of color and a creative embellishment! It has lots of color which lends to a fun, candy-striped look.

For this hop, The Greeting Farm sent me Blush Babette to work with. For days, I thought about colouring her but then it dawned on me that I didn't have to colour her if I inked her like I did here. I wanted both the image and twine to stand out equally and I think I found the right balance. This is the first time I've ever worked with a stamp from The Greeting Farm and the quality is amazing. You can see in the close up photos how clear the tiniest lines pick up and transfer ink.

Blush Babette has a bow detail on the waist of her dress so I chose to highlight that with a gem and my knotted twine loops (technique shown HERE). This is also the first time I've ever stamped a sentiment on vellum and I quite like how it turned out. After all, I didn't want a solid strip of paper hiding the lovely girls. Since this card has bling, I'm going to link it up to the Hope You Can Cling To Bling the Cling Challenge and put it in my pile of cards to mail to the MD Anderson Cancer Center. :)

Thank you so much for hopping with The Twinery and The Greeting Farm! You have until Sunday, October 23rd 11:59 CST to comment on all the blogs for your chance to win one of two fabulous prizes:

The Greeting Farm is giving away their entire November release early to one lucky winner - that is four stamps in all!

The Twinery is giving away one “COLORFUL BUNCH” sampler pack!

Now it's time to head on over to Lori Craig's blog!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Bazzill Basics textured black cardstock; SU vellum cardstock; The Greeting Farm Blush Babette; SU Pink Passion, Tangerine Tango & Riding Hood Red inks; Staz-On Jet Black ink; SU Basic Rhinestones; The Twinery baker's twine in Pink Sorbet, Mandarin & Maraschino

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge {Oct 20th - Nov 2nd}

This is my second post of the day. If you're looking for the Pink Cat Studio Oct 20th Digi Release + Farewell, please CLICK HERE.

Today is the Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge design team debut and it's also the start of a brand new SPARKS Challenge! Check out the fun photo Kim sent us for inspiration. I think it inspires so much! I went to work on my card thinking about the scene itself - the tree, the VW bus, the road and the fences - and here's what I came up with:

I used the juke box from Perpetual Bliss for the arch that forms the tunnel through the tree. I had left the inspiration photo on the computer while I was making my card. Hubby furrowed his brows and suggested that the penguin from My Peeps is the exact same shape as the bus. (Only his experience designing race cars, bicycles and wheelchairs would allow him to see that, right?!) I was going to put animals in the tunnel but his idea was better. Let it be known, I felt really bad cutting up the penguin like I did! :) The tires were made using the microphone from Perpetual Bliss, the headlights are a circle punched from Sugar Rush and I drew in the windshield wiper using Copic Multi-Liners and a ruler. The leaves are from Hang Ups and the sentiment is from Perpetual Bliss. I had so much fun making my card!

I hope you'll play along with this Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge which runs until November 2nd! You can find all the details HERE.

Sources: SU Old Olive & Basic Gray cardstock; Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & white cardstock; Paper Smooches Perpetual Bliss, My Peeps, Hang Ups & Sugar Rush; Memories Black ink; SU Tangerine Tango, Old Olive & Basic Gray inks; Tim Holtz for Ranger Antique Linen & Walnut Stain distress inks; standard hole punch; Copic Multi-Liners in 0.3mm & 0.5mm; Papertrey Ink Woodgrain impression plate; Martha Stewart Scary Fence edge punch; Stampin' Dimensionals

Updated Supply List:

Pink Cat Studio ~ Oct 20th Holiday Digi Release + A Farewell

Welcome to Pink Cat Studio's October 20th Digi Release! Melissa has drawn four adorable holiday digis so you can get an early start on your Christmas cards. My card features Cool Santa on Skateboard. Isn't he hilarious? Who says Christmas can't be sunny and fun, right?

Meg sent me the perfect background stamp for this card and I inked up a sentiment that goes with the image perfectly. I die cut the front and back of the card in white, the frame in blue and adhered them together. This card was easily finished by popping Santa on with foam tape and tying some Charcoal baker's twine around the base.

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Farewell to Pink Cat Studio

It makes me sad to announce that is my last post as a Pink Cat Studio design team member. I am literally heartbroken over my decision to leave the team but I have a lot going on right now and need to make room for other things. Just over two years ago, it was a dream come true when Melissa asked me to join her team. Pink Cat Studio was my very first design team and it will forever hold a special place in my heart. Being on this design team opened so many doors for me and I'm sure the ripples of this first opportunity will continue long after I leave.

Melissa, I will never forget what you've done for me! We've become such great friends over the years and I know this is not really a goodbye but a new stage in the creative journey for both of us. A huge thank you to my friends and Pink Cat Studio fans who have been with me since the beginning. If you've become a follower recently, I hope you will continue to follow the Pink Cat Studio Blog for fun and smiles!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; SU Bashful Blue cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Cool Santa on Skateboard; Market Street Stamps Here Comes the Sun; Hero Arts What a Life; SU Bashful Blue ink; Memories Black ink; Copics; Spellbinders Nestabilities Reverse Wonky Rectangles; The Twinery Charcoal baker's twine; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; Stampin' Dimensionals

Paper Smooches Guest Designer {Week 3}

This is my second post of the day. If you're looking for The Twinery + Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop, please CLICK HERE or scroll down.

Wow, this month is flying by! This is my third week posting as the October Guest Designer for Paper Smooches and I have two cards to share with you today. Both cards are holiday-inspired. The first one is for Halloween even though, originally, I was going to use the sentiment 'Feel Better Soon' from Chit Chat. LOL I was going to give it to my son who's been sick but I decided to save it for Halloween since we've been having so much fun watching the ever busy squirrels in the yard. My squirrel is up to no good. I mean, just look at the expression on his face! I wonder what he's boiling in that cauldron. Doesn't the spider look petrified at the thought of being thrown in there? I just love creating little stories in a card.

The spider, web, sentiment and potion bottle are from Halloweenies. I masked both the spider and potion bottle into the squirrel's hand. The spider's legs were too difficult to cut around so I cut it off completely and stamped it separately on to the background. I hope it still looks like the squirrel's holding the spider! Since the squirrel's hind legs are showing, I made him a chair with the top of the telephone poles from Hang Ups. The bubbling cauldron is made from paper piecing one of the cups from Hot Concoctions.

Next I made a winter holiday card. I stamped a little penguin couple using the penguin from My Peeps. Aren't they adorable? I borrowed the hat and scarf from Swanky Snowdudes. I shortened the scarf to fit the penguin. The sentiment is a combination of 'Season's Greetings' from Swanky Snowdudes and 'How Tweet of You' from My Peeps. I really like this card and I think it may be the design for my Christmas cards!

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Last week's winner of Sunny Side Up is...

Congratulations, Wendy! Please email me with your mailing address and I'll get this out to you right away.

This week's giveaway is Perpetual Bliss!

The rules are the same as last week. Just leave a comment in this post for your chance to win this incredible Paper Smooches stamp set. You have until Monday, October 24th 11:59 p.m. EST. I will draw the winner via Random.org on Tuesday and announce the winner in my {Week 4} post on Wednesday, October 26th.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I will see you again tomorrow when the next Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge begins. :D

Sources for Happy Halloween: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Apothecary Emporium Collection; Paper Smooches Halloweenies, Hang Ups & Hot Concoctions; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for Season's Tweetings: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Paper Smooches My Peeps & Swanky Snowdudes; Memories Black ink; SU Riding Hood Red & Garden Green inks