Unity - October Be Inspired Challenge Hop

Good evening!!! Welcome another hop with Unity Stamps! Tonight we are celebrating the new {be inspired} Challenge - and the new sentiment kit - super fun for planning ahead for Valentine's Day, weddings, anniversaries, or just to let someone know how much they are loved! I used the color and sketch challenge to make a couple cards with the new kit - first up this wedding card:

Here is the color challenge - so vibrant and pretty!

LOVE how this one came out! I think the colors work so well for a wedding card!

Next up - I have this one - I great "just because" card!

Here is the sketch I followed for this one:

A touch of Glossy Accents to highlight the bird and hearts.

This weeks sales will be starting tomorrow, so feel free to hop and play along with the challenge for tonight!

There is also a gift certificate up for grabs, for comments left along the hop - or if you link up your project and hop along with us!

Here is the rest of the links for the Design Team - make sure and visit everyone to see the new stamps in action - and leave some love for a chance to win this weeks giveaway! Then, go link up and play along with us! :)

Pastor Appreciation Thank You Cards

Good morning! In case you didn't know, October is Pastor Appreciation month, and I was asked to make a couple extra large cards for the occasion. I took a piece of 8 1/2 by 11 white cardstock, cut it in half to make two pieces 5 1/2 by 8 1/2, scored a half inch row at the top of the front one, then used that to adhere it to the back piece. I didn't have any large enough envelops for them, but they were certainly large! Here is the first one: 

I used Winnie and Walter's The Big, the Bold, and the You Cutaways to make a negative cut, and backed it with some pretty paper. Added the rest of the sentiment from The Big, the Bold, and the You stamp set on a strip of cardstock. Pattern paper is by Crate Paper, and I added some washi tape, a tiny paper clip, a doily, a bit of Mister Huey's mist, and a few Pretty Pink Posh Sunshine Glow iridescent sequins. A little row of machine stitching finishes it off!

And here is the second one:

For this one, I used the positive cut from the card above, stamped the same sentiment only in black, then added a doily, some jute twine, thread and button, and a bit of black self adhesive bling.

Thanks for dropping by! Have a wonderful day!!!

PS SPARKS - Thanks a Super Lot

Good morning! Playing along again with the rest of the DT at Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge - today is the start of a the always popular Anything Goes Challenge!

Here is what I made for this week:

I had fun with a bunch of my Paper Smooches dies for this card - and also put my sewing machine to good use! I started off with some hearts die cut with Hearts Dies from some pretty pattern paper, and attached those with a couple zig zag stitches. I added the big word, die cut with Thanks Word Die, and added the rest of the sentiment with Many Thanks Stamp Set. Finished off by trimming some borders using Waves Dies, and adding some wonky machine stitching, before attaching with a layer of foam over my card base with a bit of pattern paper tucked under the top - then a few flicks of white Mister Huey's Mist.

Make sure and check out what the rest of the Design Team has created to inspire you - and play along for a chance to win a gift certificate to Paper Smooches! 

Audrey Tokach

Lisa Arana

Erin Taylor

Heather Hoffman

Savannah O'Gwynn

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

PS SPARKS - Joyful Spirit

Good morning! Excited to be playing along again with the Paper Smooches SPARKS Design Team - today is the start of a Picture Perfect Challenge!

Here is the fun inspiration for this week:

I couldn't help but think of rainbow colors with this inspiration photo - and loved the shapes with the windows going through. Not to mention the tiny bow of white string! Here is my interpretation of it:

I created a simple watercolor background with Gansai Tambi watercolors, then die cut my white frame using Frame 3 die from white paper, backed it with vellum on which I heat embossed my sentiment from Spiritual Sampler, tied some jute twine around, and then mounted that with foam adhesive.

Make sure and check out what the rest of the Design Team has created to inspire you - and play along for a chance to win a gift certificate to Paper Smooches! 

Audrey Tokach

Lisa Arana

Erin Taylor

Heather Hoffman

Savannah O'Gwynn

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

PS SPARKS - Happy Birthday Flowers

Good morning! Excited to be playing along again with the Paper Smooches SPARKS Design Team - today is the start of a Picture Perfect Challenge!

Here is the fun inspiration for this week:

I changed the birds to flowers, and sort of used the inspiration as a sketch for my card:

I started off with Borders 1 Dies to pencil in the line of the grass, then stamped the flowers and stems from Blossoming Buds. I used my Zig Clean Color Watercolor pens and a waterbrush to color in the scene, stamped my sentiment using Happy Birthday in addition to Blossoming Buds Added a torn edge, then mounted on a soft gray cardbase, adhering along the top, and letting it hang free on the bottom for a whimsical effect.

Make sure and check out what the rest of the Design Team has created to inspire you - and play along for a chance to win a gift certificate to Paper Smooches! 

Audrey Tokach

Lisa Arana

Erin Taylor

Heather Hoffman

Savannah O'Gwynn

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Gold Rose Mother's Day Card

Good morning everyone! I'm posting again this morning on the Butterfly Reflections Blog sharing a card for a fast approaching holiday - Mother's Day! If you are like me, it might have slipped your mind, but will be here in only a few short days! We will actually be in Hawaii on Mother's Day (so I will be getting well pampered!) - but we will make sure and celebrate with both our mom's before we leave! So I pulled out some of my many lovely goodies from Butterfly Reflections Ink, and went to work! 

I started off with some pattern paper from Pebble's Cottage Living 6x6 paper pad, and then die cut the front panel using Wplus9 Sunshine Layers Die. I used a little stencil I had cut from cardstock with my Silhouette Cameo quite some time ago and never used, to add a few random hearts with White Embossing Paste in a random area, then die cut a rose and a couple leaves using Paper Smooches Rose Die from gold foil paper. Finally, I stamped my sentiment from Wplus9's Strictly Sentiments 4 in VersaMark Ink, then heat embossed it with Gold Embossing Powder.

This is another nice one layer card that would be super easy to mail, but still has lots of nice dimension still! Thanks for stopping by today - and Happy Mother's Day (a couple days early!) to all!

Hello Frames Card

Good afternoon! Dropping by to share a card I finished a couple days ago for a couple different challenges, and didn't have time to photograph until today!

First up - this weeks Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge - see that photo on the top left? I was drawn to that pattern, as well as the gray tones, and the way the letters pop off the wall with so much texture:

Next up, the neutral grays and pops of bright color for this weeks Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge (I also spotted the zebra in this weeks photo again, and almost went for that again!):

I used Paper Smooches Duo Die 1 to cut out several frames - mounting the center one with foam adhesive for lots of dimension. I also used Hello Word Dies to cut out the little hello several times, then glued them together to make a nice, thick, dimensional embellishment. You can see the dimension pretty well in this photo:

It just felt like it needed a little something extra - so I cut a few heart borders using the Hearts Dies out of shiny gold cardstock, then bent them a bit so they looked more like banners, and glued them on the top of the card.

Sometimes it's fun to make a card with just dies and no stamps! Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

Floral Thanks

Hello one last time for the day (I think!) - with one final card for a challenge that ends today:

Made this one for the Paper Smooches SPARKS Picture Perfect Challenge:

It also somehow evolved into a shaker card by the time I was done - so also linking this one up with Virginia's View Challenge:

I was inspired by the flowers and gold in the photo - so I used some beautiful pattern paper from an American Crafts paper pad, and cut a scallop window using Paper Smooches Scallop Frames Dies. The "thanks" was cut using Thanks Word die out of shiny gold paper, and attached with machine stitching to a hand trimmed vellum banner. Filled my shaker with some sequins and gold confetti from Pretty Pink Posh, and added some zig-zag machine stitching around the entire pattern paper base.

And with that - I will say again, THANKS for stopping by today, and putting up with my many posts! Have a wonderful day!!!

Love Machine

Hello again! Happy Valentine's Day! Thought I would pop in with a cute little Valentine's Card today - especially since it happens to be Valentine's Day! 

I actually made this just an hour or so ago - wanted to play along with the fun challenge to post a love theme card at Paper Smooches - and also break out a cute stamp set I have been wanting to play along with! There's a gift certificate up for grabs too!

I also thought it would make a fun shaker card - so thought I would play along with Virginia's View Challenge again as well:

I used the darling Squeaky Clean set from Paper Smooches, as well as Ovals 1 Dies to make my center cut out. I added some tiny clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and some tinsel glitter - LOVE how it almost looks soapy! Somehow, one tiny gold confetti managed to sneak in there - oops! 

My pattern paper is from American Crafts, and I also added some red baker's twine - as well as an outline with a black pen.

I'll be back one more time! Thanks for stopping by!

Blessed with Friends

Good morning! I don't know about you - but I have definitely been blessed with some amazing friends in my life! This card expresses it exactly:

Now, I don't normally combine two different challenges with separate inspiration photos - but both of these challenges complimented each other so well! So I went with it!

The first one is the current Cure for the Monday Blues - loved the gold, the dots, the touch of black - such an elegant and pretty picture:

Next up, the Paper Smooches SPARKS Picture Perfect Challenge - on this one I loved the cluster of elements in the middle, the sparkle, the bit of woodgrain, and all that glorious white space! 

I started off by cutting Paper Smooches Deco Bag die from vellum, then heat embossed the first part of the sentiment from Spiritual Sampler in white on the front of it. Die cut the Friend Word Die from glimmery gold cardstock and glued that on the front as well. Put in a bunch of gold confetti from Pretty Pink Posh (LOVE!) and sewed it close with a few messy machine stitched lines. Die cut some black cardstock and that pretty gold dot paper from MME with a couple of Lil' Inker's Dies, and layered a cardbase I made with Avery Elle's white woodgrain cardstock. Finished off with a tiny Tim Holtz paper clip, some sparkly gold thread, and a tiny enamel dot!

Thanks for dropping by today! Have a wonderful day!