And the Chaos Ensues...

Life has been crazy for the last few months, but now the real chaos begins. After a ceremony on base this coming Wednesday (we think...the AirForce is holding true to form and keeping us on our toes as we head into another move *sigh*), we are heading out to Alabama to see DH's family for a couple of days. Two VERY LONG days driving and two quick days visiting and then it will be back here so that the packers can come in and disassemble our home on Monday. I will try to check in and am desperately trying to figure out how to get my pretty new red Palm to work as a modem for my laptop (David, I think that you are my last hope on this one...I'll be calling you SOON!) so that I will be able to stay in touch and maintain my sanity.

But for now, I need to share my latest Simply Scrapbook Challenge sketch from the Unity forum over at Splitcoast.

Here is the layout that I created from the sketch...

For this layout, I used the Small Elegance stamp kit (swirl on the edges and that darling dandelion.) I created the edge detail by simply stamping the swirl and reversing the direction every time I stamped it.



For the dandelion, I added a bit of detail work with my white sharpie and flat-backed gems in the centers. The words are all Unity stamps too. The little single words along the edges of the photos are from Birds of a Feather and the title, Simply Adorable, came out of Mix Up of Cuteness.


Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Small Elegance kit
*Unity Stamp Co. Mix Up of Cuteness kit
*Unity Stamp Co. Birds of a Feather kit
*Heidi Grace paper (dandelions and embellies)
*Scenic Route paper (grid)
*ColorBox inkpads
*MM button Brads
*flat-backed gems
*Martha Stewart border punch

smiles,
Christi

Shake Friday....TOGETHER!

Many of you that have followed my blog know about Shake Fridays. These are something that we started when DH went to Iraq. When he left, he started a new super-healthy lifestyle which included eating REALLY well...no junk. Except for on Friday's when he would allow himself to have a shake. We decided that it was something that we could do as a family...just long distance, but together in spirit (besides we like any excuse for shakes!) :o)

Well, his eating plan worked...he is incredibly fit and lost about 35-40 lbs when he was gone (which btw, was never his intention...he was just trying a more natural way to reduce his cholesterol...NO ONE would have guessed that he could even lose that much weight cause he certainly was never overweight) so I am a new convert to his eating plan. I just finished my first successful week of "no chocolate or junk"...I know, it sounds like torture doesn't it, but I really haven't even noticed...which is even more unbelievable. But we are going to continue Shake Friday's so that we have a fun treat to look forward to in those weak food moments. I finally remembered to take some photos when we went out to ColdStone Creamery today...

I think that I have mentioned before that Kat is a HUGE Shake Friday fan. The hard part anymore when we go out and get a fountain drink is convincing her that she doesn't want that coke because she always thinks that a paper cup with a straw is a shake.

It's so wonderful to be able to do things as a family again. I love seeing them all together again. So go out tonight and get a shake with your family!!! {Your kids will love you for it!}

smiles,

Christi

Are you ready for the new Unity releases?

I am so excited about the new kit releases that are happening tonight over at Unity Stamp Company...and not just because I am on the Design Team, but because these stamps are so darn cute!

So far, the Unity stamp line has been aimed a lot at scrapbookers with oversized {gorgeous} images. Well, with this release, Angela wanted to give a little love to us cardmakers out there and WOW! I just love them all. There are 11 kits and they are all foam mounted to work with the acrylic blocks. The style and prices are just phenomenal...I can't wait for you all to see them! Angela will be posting the images at the end of the release party that we are having over on Splitcoast (somewhere around 11 EST.) Be sure to come join in on the fun. The party is going to go from 9-11 EST and there are going to be prizes and maybe even some discounts...

But without further ado, let me share some more artwork to give you an idea of what is coming.

Patter had posted a pre-release card sketch and this card is based upon that sketch.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Becoming Butterfly (sentiment)

*Unity Stamp Co. Floral Fantastical (New release tonight!- butterfly)

*Cosmo Cricket papers

*Adirondack Archival Black inkpad

*watercolor pencils

*ribbon from a package

*Bazzill Scallop Cardstock

This card was a really fun one to put together. As you can tell, I have had fun this week getting to know my watercolor pencils again and this little watering can is just darling! Wouldn't this be a fun card to get when you weren't feeling well? ...so bright and cheery!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Floral Fantastical kit

*SEI Black Orchid papers

*ribbon

*black brads

*watercolor pencils

*circle punch

*Adirondack Archival black inkpad

This is another card based upon Patter's sketch. This is absolutely my favorite stamp kit from all the new releases tonight. It wasn't one of my DT assignments, but I just had to get one of these cute little birds inky!!!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Birds of Feather

*Little Yellow Bicycle scallop paper

*SEI paper (black/white)

*Making Memories lace trim

*Watercolor pencils

*circle punches

This is my final project for the night. One of my assigned kits was Cupcakes a'la Yummy and of course, you all know that I have to do layouts so I pulled out some of Kat's first birthday photos.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Cupcakes a'la Yummy

*Unity Stamp Co. Bliss and a Birdie- June kit (oval frame)

*Heidi Swapp paper

*Watercolor pencils

*StazOn Timber Brown inkpad

*brads

If you haven't seen them, there are a couple more samples in the post below using the a couple of the new kits. I hope to see you tonight at the release party!

smiles,

Christi

It's Unity's New Release Day!!!

Yay!! It's finally here...Unity's Release Party Day! The party is tonight from 9-11 over on the Splitcoaststampers Forum and there will be giveaways, discounts, and tons of fun as well as the full-reveal of ELEVEN FANTASTIC NEW KITS!!


I have a bunch of projects to share with you using the new stuff that I will be posting throughout the day, but for this morning, I will share just a couple of them. This first layout is the one that I showed the sneak of yesterday. This layout features the new kit, Floral Fantastical.




Where's Your Nose Layout

I used four of the stamps from this kit on this layout.
Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Floral Fantastical kit

*cardstock

*punches


*Black inkpad


*colored pencils


*making memories glimmer brads in black












My next project uses a cute little cupcake kit called, Cupcakes a la Yummy.

I am as guilty as the next stamper in having a really difficult time creating masculine cards. That's why cupcakes are perfect...not only are they incredibly yummy, but they are also gender neutral.

For this card, I stamped the cupcakes on the tan paper, colored the frosting in using my sharpie, and then paper pieced the cup using some Collage Press paper. I added a red flat-backed gem for the cherry.

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Company Cupcakes A la Yummy kit

*Heidi Swapp papers

*Collage Press papers

*Flat-backed gems

*Tim Holtz Grungeboard

*corner rounder.

I'll be back later with more eye-candy!!! I apologize for the wonky spacing on this post...blogger is being tempermental this morning.

smiles,

Christi

New Release Coming from Unity Stamp Co....

Hey everyone!! Unity is releasing 11 new kits tomorrow night and I have been given permission to give you a teeny tiny sneak peek...



But first a few details! The release party is tomorrow night over at the SplitcoastStamper forum. There are 11 new fantastically fun kits coming out. I can't wait for you all to see them. They are geared a bit more towards cardmakers in size, but they work fabulously for layouts today (the sneak that I am showing you today is, in fact, a layout.)



There are going to be giveaways tomorrow and I have also heard a rumor that there might be a fun discount (like 25% to the first 25 orders!?!?) And as always, shipping is $5 on every order. To keep you busy until then though, there is some fun stuff going on...

*Patter's sketch challenge (with prize)

*3 DT members are giving away blog candy (look for the posts from yesterday)

*ALL the DT members have sneak peeks up today so you can get glimpses of the fun stuff coming

Here's my sneak peek...I'll reveal the rest of this tomorrow, plus several other pieces! {BTW, a little hint for you...there are 3 different stamps shown here from one of the new kits!} :o)

Don't forget the new release party tomorrow night over on Splitcoast from 9-11 EST!!!

Smiles,

Christi

Fun Times!

I have tons of fun stuff to share today, but first and most important....HE'S HOME!!! And it's wonderful having him here. It's easy to forget how much joy and fun that DH brings to our daily lives. We have had a wonderful weekend just soaking in his presence back in our lives. I haven't taken a single photo and I know that I will regret that later, but for now I am just being selfish and wanting to enjoy the moment...not having to worry about focus and setting and what is a better photo.

He looks fantastic...he lost 30-40 lbs while he was gone which I was seriously worried about when he kept telling me how much weight he was losing because he was not a big guy before he left, but WOW! My husband is looking fit and hot!!! I guess that's what working out for 2 hours a day for 4 months will do! WOW!!! So today is shopping day because every piece of clothing that he owns is falling off his body or tied up by belts. I promise to get photos at some point this week to share!

And now onto Unity Stamp Co. happenings...there is tons of fun coming this week! There is a huge release coming this week of eleven new {Seriously Gorgeous} kits!!! I cannot wait for you all to see these...I LOVE THEM!!! I keep thinking that the Unity line can't get any better and then Angela and her artists Wow us again!!!

But there is going to be a huge release party Wednesday night over on the Splitcoast Forum.

You're Invited

What: Unity's Release Party

Why: Eleven New Kits

Where: SplitcoastStamper Unity Forum

When: Wednesday, June 25th

Time: 9-11 EST, 8-10 CST, 7-9 MST, 6-8 PST

I'll have more details tomorrow...just know, that you won't want to miss it!! A little hint **there are three sneak peeks out on 3 of the DT blogs today!**

Today is also my Monday Simply Scrapbook Challenge. Here is this week's sketch.

Here is the layout that I created from it:

I used a stamp kit that I haven't had much time to play with yet, Oh Happy Day!, and it was perfect for this outdoor themed layout. The butterflies, the polka-dots on the green square, and the Happiness sentiment are all from this kit...so cute and fun and I can't wait to play with it some more.

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Oh Happy Day!

*Unity Stamp Co. Teatime Toile background

*Unity Stamp Co. Worn PolkaDot Alphabet

*K& Company Amy Butler papers

*Bazzill cardstock

*StazOn timber brown inkpad

*Making Memories embellishments

*Marvy Uchida Scallop punches

I'll be back tomorrow with more about the release party, but now I am off to go clothes shopping with DH!

smiles,

Christi

Something must be done...

...about the state of my house. I know that I am moving and that requires some bit of chaos, but in the last hour I have kicked, stumbled over, or knocked over at least 1/2 a dozen things. It is getting ridiculous, but rather than do something to take care of it right now, I decided that blogging would be a better use of my time. :o) The sacrifices that I make for you, my blog-readers.

But first some photos! I haven't shown any pics lately of Little Miss and I have had the camera out the last couple of days. She is at such a transition point right now...starting to walk and talk...changes absolutely every day.

Yesterday we went out and sat on a blanket in the front yard for a while. She loved to explore the sticks and pine cones, but hates getting dirt on her hands. I taught her how to dust them off and she thought that was the funnest game.

This is how we spend most of our awake time these days. She's still not walking although she did take three tiny steps today by herself for the first time. But she loves to go for a "walk"...she holds my fingers and cruises around the room for as long as I will let her before my back gives out from bending over. At this point, I am really hoping that she will hold off until Ben gets home Saturday and Jacob will be crushed if he misses her walking while he is at camp this week.

She is also becoming a very proficient box-taper. She spent about 1/2 an hour this afternoon taping up this box for me. Think I should hire her out?

She hasn't quite gotten the hang of the packing paper, but she thought it was pretty comfy for a chair.

And just for cuteness, she gave me the cheesey smile.

She is such a little sweetheart. She is getting where she mimics absolutely everything. She's talking too...probably about 7-10 words including "thank you"...love that. She says momma, but has NO IDEA what it means. Nana means photos...that's what she says when she wants to look at pictures. I guess we spent a bit too much time looking at Nana's photos before we went to Texas...LOL! She says "Dadda" when she is looking at his photo...it will be interesting if she correlates the two when he gets here (although he's lost so much weight, I might not recognise him.) She says, "ba-ba" (bye-bye) and backward waves when she does it. She says "again" when she wants us to turn the Elmo chair back on and "see" when she wants to see something.

This is the perfect time for Ben to be coming home and catching all these changes and the news in that area is that he is officially out of Iraq and on his way home!!! Yippee!!! I heard from him a couple of hours ago...he should be home Saturday morning. And Rita, this week we are all doing Shake Friday together on Saturday...it's been planned! :o)

I made this card yesterday to send to Jacob at camp. It started out as the scrapbook sketch from the post below (just in card form), but I quickly started rearranging the elements and this is what I ended up with. It may not look anything like the original sketch, but it was definitely inspired by it and because of that, I made it easily in 15 minutes. And that's good because that's about all the time that I had to spare to work on it.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Lilypad Playland

*Unity Stamp Co. Small Elegance (journey)

*old CTMH stamp (boot)

*Scenic Route papers

*CTMH Cocoa inkpad

*brads

smiles,

Christi

Another Sketch to Share...

oops! I ran out of day yesterday before I ran out of things to do on my list. One of those things was to blog. Ben is coming home on Saturday *YAY* so I am on a mad-scramble trying to get everything done and have the house in some semblance of order when he arrives.

Here is yesterday's sketch for the Simply Scrapbook Challenge over on the SCS forum.

The title of this layout is Favorite Pastime and I am not sure if you can tell, but the photo is of Kat emptying all of my dvd's onto the floor. She loves this and does it every single day...she also does it with my cd's, the toys, whatever box I am packing, etc. She is a master unpacker...not exactly a good thing in my world right now as I am trying to get things packed, but maybe it will work for us on the other end of this move. LOL!

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Dotty Alpha

*Unity Stamp Co. Oh Happy Day!

*Unity Stamp Co. Small Elegance (circle to the right of the photo)

*SEI paper (background)

*MME paper

*Scenic Route paper (graph)

*CTMH Peach Whip inkpad and Colorbox Graphite

*Buttons

*Making Memories flowers

*Martha Stewart Scallop punch

I am really behind in life right now and owe several of you return emails. I am not ignoring you, I promise. It is on my list of things to do today or tomorrow.

smiles,

Christi

An Inspirational Challenge...

Shannan hosts inspirational challenges every Friday over on the SCS forum. A week ago she posted this photo as inspiration and I looked at it all week long.

When I first started debating about how to interpret this gorgeous photo (I believe it's from Martha Stewart Living.com), I was thinking about why it appeals to me and decided that it was the colors and the warm glow of it. So I sat down planning to only use the colors.

I also knew that I wanted to use one of the new mini sets from Unity so I pulled this set, Batch of Bitty Fun out and started playing with it.

I quickly realized that I was going to end up using the inspiration photo much more literally than I had originally planned. I absolutely never would have come up with this design on my own. I stamped the banner end-to-end for the "porch support" and the paisleys and star flowers randomly for the "foliage."

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Batch of Bitty Fun kit

*Daisy D's paper (gold)

*Fresh Paint paper (turquoise/teal paper)

*Prima bitty flowers

*brads

*corner rounder

*StazOn Jet Black inkpad

Don't forget that the Random Special #3 ends tonight at midnight CST. It's a fantastic deal so I don't want you to miss out!

I hope that you are having a fun weekend. Jacob leaves for Scout camp in the morning. We have to leave at 5:30 am to get him on his van to the mountains where the scout camp is located. UGH...it's just not right to start the summer off with an alarm clock?!?

smiles,

Christi

I do have other Stamp Loves...

I know that the blog here lately has been really slanted towards my love of Unity Stamps, but this post today is to let you know that I do try to share my love of stamping among all stamps. ;o)

A couple of months ago, I ordered quite a few sets from Banana Frog. I love my new sets, esp. my Shimelle-designed ones, but I haven't had much of a chance to get them inky. That changed this past weekend!!

The photos on these two layouts are some more of Kara's fabulous photography from when we were home. I am also usually not into papers that are this bright, but I have fallen in love with this Mira line from K&Company...it's gorgeous!!!

For this layout, I used the TakeNote set. These stamps are clear acrylic so it is very easy to create a decorative edge like the one that I did here around the Kraft paper and have it lined up perfectly. I LOVE that about clear acrylic!!

Supplies used:

*Banana Frog Take Note set

*K&Company Mira papers

*StazOn Jet Black inkpad

*Kraft cardstock

*buttons

*Heidi Swapp Chipboard letters

Isn't this photo just the cutest? I tried to stay with a very simple design for this layout.

Look at this gorgeous journaling stamp that is in this Take Note set. I just added brads on the ends to give it a bit of dimension. I also stamped a detail line from Circus Stories around the outside edge of the whole layout just to give it a bit more dimension.

For the butterflies, I stamped the swirl of the bracket on an orange paper and then strategically punched using my butterfly punch.

Supplies used:

*Banana Frog Take Note set

*Banana Frog Circus Stories set

*K&Company Mira papers

*Martha Stewart butterfly punch

*StazOn JetBlack inkpad

*CTMH Autumn Terracotta inkpad

*Colorbox Chalk inkpad

*brads

Finally the card...I love this, but only because I love these stamps so much!!! Look at those cute stamps from Shimelle...the set is called Greenwich Park. Everytime I stamp that little deer, it just makes me happy!

I just hand-wrote the "thanks" sentiment into the stamped oval.

Supplies Used:

*Banana Frog Greenwich Park

*Banana Frog Take Note

*K&Company Mira Papers

*StazOn black inkpad

*Fiskars Threading Water border punch

*ribbon

*white cardstock

I hope that you have fun plans for today. It's Jacob's first official day with no school so we are going out to lunch to celebrate!

smiles,

Christi