My favorite challenge is back!

Hehe! More tags from me today! Tracey's Tag You're It Challenge is back this month and I'm excited to participate! The theme is "Love is in the Air" and I made two tags using the Close To My Heart True Love stamp set.

This first tag is most appropriate for the theme since it includes balloons floating in the air. Nothing special here other than the stamps, kraft cardstock and Copic marker coloring of the image.

The second tag uses the little girl from the same stamp set and I also used some old-school chalk to color the background a bit. The Valentine's Day sentiment is from a different stamp set but it's been around for a long time and I'm not sure who made it any more!

Holiday Tags: Elegant Wreath

Here's another tag I made for Tracy McNeely's 25 Days of Tags. This one is based on Tracy Freeman's Day 9 Tag.

Instead using a diecut, I decided to use a stamp and curve it into a wreath shape then heat emboss the image. The branch shape is from Kerri Bradford's Deck the Halls stamp set. The pattern paper is from Carta Bella Rock-a-Bye Baby Boy collection. I also used Hero Arts white embossing powder.

Holiday Tags!

I'm back after years of ignoring my blog! The reason is that I've really been enjoying Tracy McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags and decided to participate in the challenge. So, I've been focusing my craft time, which is severely limited these days, on making tags inspired by Tracy and her guest designers. This first tag is from Day 2, and is inspired by Svitlana Shayevich's tag.

The wreath stamp is a very old Studio G stamp and the sentiment is Lawn Fawn Tiny Tag Sayings. I used Prismacolor pencils to color the holly leaves and red rhinestone gems from a Target dollar spot pack.

Baby girl!

Thought I'd participate in this week's Unity Friends with Flair and share this adorable baby girl card I made! I used the Hello Little One kit and lots of old pink scraps of paper. I also took the opportunity to use my new Wink of Stella glitter pen. So fun to add a little bit of sparkle!

This is for a friend who just had a baby girl after having two boys. So excited for her to experience the world of little girls now too!

Six months later...

Apparently I'm just not going to post on here much! Checking in today to share the Christmas cards I made for my kids' teachers, and enter them into Unity's FWF.

This first one is simply made on a printed kraft cardstock using the adorable stamp from Unity's Magic of Christmas kit. The Christmas sentiments in this kit are so cute! The fun polka dot stripes at the top are from a really old Close to My Heart stamp that I adore! (Sorry about the shadow on the right...I should have reviewed my pics before sealing these cards into an envelope!)

I also made this fun little card using some 6ish year old CTMH patterned paper along with two of the stamps from the awesome Unity Tags, Glorious Tags kit that was sold around Christmas time last year. I love this kit! It has a lot of holiday stamps but some are also versatile to use all year round. 

Finally, I've got a super simple card combining paper from the CTMH set and the same Christmas stamp from the Unity Magic of Christmas kit. Simple but still a lovely card to give with a small gift for my son's teacher! 

Merry Christmas!

One Friday this summer

I'm  not much of a blogger apparently. I read lots of blogs. But preparing and writing posts myself...not much at all! This week I bumped into a new challenge blog as well as the fact that it's FWF at Unity and I've been sufficiently motivated to post a little something myself.  But it's been a busy day!

First we finished up a week of soccer camp:

Then we got our free slurpees at 7Eleven:

Now the kids are chilled out after a tiring week and I was able to finish my tag that was inspired by the inaugural Tag You're It challenge! Here's the inspiration photo.

And here is my tag! I mostly used the colors and tag shape.

 The tag base is from the latest Unity SMAK kit, All in the Numbers. The papers are old scraps - CTMH and MME I think. The little birdie is Colorbox and the sentiment is CTMH. 

It's a wonderful summer weekend now. Enjoy!

A little late...Happy Holidays card

You might have thought that you had seen the end of Christmas cards. Not if you are reading my blog! I actually ended up making this card for a teacher after the holidays were over because my kids had a snow day on the last day of school and so I had time to actually make cards to send in with their holiday gifts when school started back up!

I could say this card was inspired...but the truth is that it's pretty much a copy of the card that Kristina Werner made on Day 18 of her Holiday Card Series posts. I love the combination of bright Christmas red on the kraft card. It just sings to me. I used my very fun Unity Stamp Co. Tags, Glorious Tags holiday set for both the framed image and the sentiment. I also used some "twine" that I purchased from Pick your Plum and discovered that it's pretty much cotton string rather than baker's twine. Much thicker than the more high quality twine you can buy - but it works and I really like the final product!

On the inside of the card I added some candy cane striped washi tape to the top and bottom to give it a little pizazz, but I'm not including a picture of that because it's not really that interesting!

Ok. With any luck I will be moving onto Valentine's Day cards before the holiday actually arrives! Stay tuned for that post any day now...

Holiday Tags

I like making tags, but my very favorite are definitely Christmas tags! A month or so ago I bought a new Unity Stamp kit called "Tags, Glorious Tags!". Just perfect for me! Here are my first two tag creations with it...

I used the Tags set and also one Close to My Heart stamp that I already had in my stash. Papers are from an older DCWV holiday pack.

Thanks for taking a look...and an early Merry Christmas to you!

Birthday Tag!

We seem to have hit another rash of birthdays in our boys' classes and we've got parties to go to with presents to give! The one great thing I love about that is it gives me a valid reason to spend a little time creating with my stamps and paper! :)  Here's something I pulled together today. A little more complex than what I usually make for an 8 year old boy's gift, but it sure was fun making it!

Products used: Hero Arts - Zig Zag, Crate Paper - Party Day, Unity Stamp Co. - Sweet & Sour Soup, SMAK 4/13 Celebrate the Good Times and some very old My Minds Eye paper and a Creative Memories tag punch. 

Wishing you a fun fall weekend!

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween!

Here's a fun card I made using Unity Stamp Co.'s Bones About Halloween. I had no idea the skeleton was going to be so huge when I ordered this stamp set! I still think the kids will have fun with it when I let them have a chance to stamp with it though. I'm using one of their favorite jokes for this time of the year...

The front

And the inside!

I also used one of my favorite alpha stamp sets from Close to My Heart and used my Silhouette cutter for the banner and frame on the inside. Happy Fall everyone!

Another day...another tag!

There are always more birthday parties for my kids to attend, and for some reason the tag format is so easy for me to throw something together when I want to try out a new stamp. I love this number collage from Unity's May 2013 SMAK set. Perfect for a birthday card or tag, I think! I inked it up and stamped it a few different ways last weekend. Went back and actually made something out of it today. A fun 8th birthday gift tag!

In addition to the number collage, I also used Unity stamps for the sentiment flag - the flag itself is from You Did It itty bitty, and the Happy Birthday fun sentiment is from last year's May SMAK set. The tag and washi were purchased from Pick Your Plum.

Thanks for looking!

Friday!

Friday is here again and I thought I'd post a card I made last week for a friend's birthday on the Friends with Flair board. The sentiment and frame are by Unity Stamp Co. The big flower stamp is by Close to my Heart. The papers are pretty old My Minds Eye (I think.) Thanks for taking a look!

I'm a globetrotter this month!

What a busy month I've had! The kids have kept me on my toes with many practices and performances, including all three being in their "All School Play", which of course in an elementary school is reliant upon the parents doing a lot of volunteer work. I made a bunch of Viking and Celt costumes. Then, my big trip, hitting one of my bucket list items was a visit to Australia! My husband had a business trip down under and of course I HAD to make a vacation out of it. We've been wanting to go there since we were a young, freshly married couple. It's not like you can experience all of Australia in a short week though. It's as big and diverse as the United States actually. We were able to visit both Melbourne and Sydney, which isn't outback-y at all. But still beautiful and loads of fun.

Now this isn't a vacation post, but it is related to Australia...this is an entry in the Helmar Make-A-Tag Challenge! Helmar is an awesome craft and art adhesives company out of Australia. They provided a little tag sketch challenge this month and I seem to have a passion for tags. I just love adding them to handmade cards and scrapbook pages. So I think this one will fit great on some of my vacation scrap pages...

I used the Helmar Scrap Dots to elevate the fun circles over the tag and tape. All the stamps are from Unity Stamp Co, February SMAK kit "Going Places". Just perfect! I also had the opportunity to use my new washi tapes from Pick your Plum (not sure if they design these tapes, or just sell them). It sure is fun to use a whole bunch of fresh scrapbooking supplies! :) Thanks for the inspiration, Helmar!

Also entering this tag in the Moxie Fab Washi Tape Challenge with thanks to another Helmar entry that mentioned it! And of course I'll be sharing it at Unity for FWF next week too!

Valentine

Here's quick post of a simple little stamped valentine's tag I made today. A cute play on words, don't you think?

 The whale stamp is by Unity Stamp Co. and the fun sentiment is pulled together with my own writing and a couple stamps by Stampendous. Happy Valentine's Day!

Best Wishes card

I loved the inspiration picture for the new stamp company, Avery Elle's, January challenge so even though I don't have any of their adorable stamps yet, I decided to go ahead and use the digi stamp they provided to pull together a card.

The inspiration picture they provided is this print sold on Etsy.

Here's the card I made.

I love the deep red umbrella in the inspiration picture, so it's likeness is the focus of my card. I recolored and printed the starburst image from Bella Gypsy (it's in their Bang Boom Kapow kit, which I think has been retired). The sentiment is the digital stamp provided by Avery Elle. Love the pattern. Not sure what occasion to use this card for, but I'll figure something out!

Thanks for taking a look. :)

Bzzzzz! A Recipe Review and Product Recommendation!

A few years ago I got really hooked on coupons and saving money and most of all getting free stuff! Social marketing is so big these days and one of the marketing things I got into was BzzAgent. Fun stuff! It's a model based on word of mouth marketing - when you get into one of their campaigns, you usually get a free product and then you are tasked with trying it out and sharing your opinions with people that you interact with. So, here's my first BzzAgent post on my blog!

Recently I was picked for the Progresso Recipe Starters campaign and I'm really glad!

 I probably would not have tried the Recipe Starters out unless I heard a lot of good things about them from friends. But since I got a can of the Creamy Portabella Mushroom Recipe Starter in the mail I had no excuses! After perusing the Progresso website for recipes, I decided upon the Mushroom Swiss Burgers.

Source: Progresso.com

When you follow the very quick and easy recipe, the burger patties come out pretty runny, and we had a bit of trouble keeping them together once on the grill. However, most of the burgers survived and wow, these were delicious! My husband and I thought they were so flavorful and my daughter gobbled her's down, completely oblivious of the bits of mushroom inside (haha!). This is definitely a recipe we will be repeating, probably tweaking it by adding something to bind the burger better. But the Creamy Portabella Mushroom starter was flavored really well - I used the leftovers on baked potato like a gravy - and I think I will try some of their other recipes too. But why stop there, I liked this so much that I'll be trying some of those other Recipe Starters flavors too!

It's a beautiful life!

Sadly, a childhood friend of mine is currently in the final stage of losing her mom to cancer. The diagnosis is only about a month old and it was too late for treatment. Her family and mom were a big part of my life as I was growing up through elementary school and junior high. Even though I haven't seen any of them for more than 15 years, I feel a real bond with them. For sure, this is a family that embraces all the fun, togetherness and joy in life. So even though right now life is as horrible and painful as it has ever been for them, I know my friend's mom would agree with the sentiment of this card.

Credits: Stamps: Sunny Happy Skies, Tiny Vintage Banners, SMAK 12/11 Make Every Day Count all by Unity Stamp Co.; 
Inks: Close To My Heart; Papers: My Minds Eye

I didn't realize it until I stamped it out, but I LOVE that sentiment! Its part of a stamp that is kind of like a journaling space, part of last December's SMAK kit. I masked off the accounting paper style lines that were next to these words. That balloon is so fun too...I'll have to remember to use it more!

All the stamps are from Unity Stamp Co, and I'm entering it in the current Ippity Chick Challenge, and also sharing it on this weeks Friends With Flair!

How I love summer!

I'm in love with this picture of my boy. He's dirty, it's sunny and warm, and he's showing me the worm he's holding. Perfection!

The boys are about to turn 6. How does it all go by so fast? I just want to bottle all this adorableness up and keep it forever!

Getting crafty with a Stamping Class

Wow! Long time, no blogging! I'm not sure why, but posting just seems like a hassle and I never get around to it, although I think of doing it often. I think I will make up for that with a big long post now! :)

So, my most recent creations to blog about are from an online card making class that I took the last two weeks called Stretch your Stamps. Wow! It was full of great ideas, lots of videos demo-ing the different techniques, etc. It was focused on cards but I've been thinking of all the ways I want to use those ideas in my scrapbooking pages too. I really enjoyed the daily dose of craftiness and I've already got my eye on another class they offer that will help me use my Silhouette die cutting machine a lot more.

Day 1 was all about background stamps. The class had a big supplies list, giving me an opportunity to buy all  the stamps they were using before hand, but I have a lot of stamps that don't get too much use so I figured I could get by with what's on hand. I found a relatively new (to me anyway!) Unity Stamp Co. number background that works perfectly for birthday cards.

 

Credits: Stamps (numbers, arrows, sentiment) Unity Stamp Co.

Everything else - Close To My Heart
Card design based on a card by Dawn McVey (shown in the SYS class, not her blog)

I also made these fun birthday tags using some older background stamps from Close to My Heart. These came out super cute and are perfect for the many birthday parties my kids go to. Can't have enough little cards around for them to use!

Credit: All materials but the twine is from CTMH.

Twine is natural hemp from the hardware store.

Punches (circle, scallop, corner rounder) from EK Success, Tag punch by Creative Memories

Day 3 was using alphabet stamps and they had some really fun ideas. One idea was to use them boldly on envelopes. I used one of my favorite alphabets of all time - Rustic Alpha by CTMH. I'm not too thrilled with the other two stamps on it, but wouldn't you love to get a fun envelope like that in the mail?

I've got two very different uses for the Day 4 graphic stamps I found in my stash. The first one is a card using bug stamps, which I love, but haven't used much. One of my boys has bug pajamas that say "Don't bug me" on the front and he just adores them. So I made this card and will give it to him at some point. The bugs are big and graphic and I used the masking technique that was shown in SYS. 

Credits: Stamps (bugs) and inks by CTMH, stamps (flag and background) by Unity Stamp Co.

Alpha stamps by Wordsworth

My other graphic stamp item is another birthday tag. I used two circle stamps and three colors of ink to make a nice background. Layered it with a trendy ticket to say Happy Birthday! The other cool thing about this tag is that I used Helmar scrap dots (which is actually tube glue, not dots!) to both attach the many pieces of ribbon and raise up the tag. Cool product.

Credits: Stamps (circles and sentiment) by CTMH, 

Stamp (ticket) by Unity Stamp Co., cardstock and inks by CTMH

Skipping all the way to Day 10 and border stamps, I loved the demonstration of a simple border and sentiment card, so I got right to work on making my own little 3x3 card. Perfect for a lunchbox note, isn't it? I'll definitely be making some more fun little cards like this!

Credits: Border and heart stamps by Martha Stewart, Alpha stamps by Scraptrends

Pink Inks by CTMH, Brown ink by Martha Stewart

So that's all I've made so far. There were a lot of other ideas that I hope to get to using one day! I'm really looking forward to using label stamps in decorative ways and also there were some stunning cards using colored pencils, so I'll definitely be giving that a try. Stay tuned!

Friday...a few cards I made

Every Friday one of my favorite stamp companies has a sharing event called Friends with Flair. While I'm partial to clear acrylic stamps, I have recently become infatuated with Unity Stamps, which still stick to my stamping blocks, but they are made of traditional red rubber and foam. Last weekend my friend Karla and I finally got a chance to spend some girl time together stamping and creating. I wasn't in the scrapbooking mood, so I made a few cards instead.

First are the little mini cards I made with Unity stamps and scraps of paper and stamps I had around. The kids are always needing little tags and cards for the many birthday parties they go to, so I decided to get ahead of the curve a bit and have some on hand.

So here's my first Unity share! The diamond background on the pink cards is made with Unity's All you need Aug 2010 KOM. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Unity's Favorite Sentiments set. On the blue tag, I used another part of a stamp from the Favorite Sentiments. I'll probably punch a hole in that one and add a ribbon or string when we use it.

I also made a more regular sized card using some Sassafras paper and a Close to my Heart stamp. The card design is from a Two Peas in a Bucket challenge. I always love being able to use up a bunch of scraps on a card. Those layered banners came out cute!