New Stamping Fun!!!

I am so excited...my muse is coming back AND there is a

New Release stamp party over at the Unity forum

tonight at 8:00 CST!!

Now if you have never made it to a new release party before, well it's definitely worth your while to check it out...there are games, prizes, and usually some great specials too...AS WELL as the reveal of the

5 new kits coming out tonight!!!

I was lucky enough to receive two of the new kits to play with...one of which has become my favorite Unity kit ever!!! I love this kit...Growing in Unity...

Just wait until you see the entire kit reveal...there is not a stamp in this kit which I don't just absolutely love...they are ALL GORGEOUS!

The second kit that I received was Bitty Christmas Tags. This is such a cute kit! They are small stamps so they work wonderfully for little simple designs.

I made up this grouping of 3x6 cards. Using this size, you could use them as either gift tags or just your normal Christmas Cards...I love making cards this size!

For the images on these, I colored them using my watercolor pencils.

I hope to see you over at the Unity party tonight! I am feeling inspired so I may even go see if I can get a couple more projects done before the festivities begin tonight...

smiles,

Christi

Trying to be Productive...

We have been in the house now for 2 weeks, but I am still having issues getting my creative muse to work for me. I have my room completely unpacked, but it is definitely NOT in a functioning state yet. I still need to work on having my essentials within arm's reach and even finding some of them (like my pop-dots...I cannot figure out where the heck I put those!?!)

But life does go on, whether I am ready for creating or not, so I have been working a bit on some Unity creations. Tomorrow night at 8:00pm CST, Unity is hosting another release party over in the Splitcoast forum. This time they are releasing 5 new kits and one of them happens to be my favorite new stamp kit (which makes my creative muse's disappearance all the more frustrating!)

Tonight I have just a couple of sneak peeks for you, but you will have to check in tomorrow to see the full reveals plus a couple more...

smiles,

Christi

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

...I just got buried in boxes and packing paper for a bit there. But we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and are starting to think about doing things other than unpacking...like blogging and even a bit of sight-seeing!

But first a bit about the house...I don't know if you all remember how stressed I was back in the March/April timeframe...a lot of that was because we were trying to rent a house online (without actually seeing it in person) and doing a LOT of long-distance emails between North Carolina (where I was), Iraq (where DH was), and Illinois (where all prospective houses were.) It was a bit crazy and really harried/stressful. But it all came to fruition when we walked into our house...we LOVE it!!! It could not be a better house for us...the floorplan just fits our needs perfectly! We really love the way that it is laid out and are thinking about rebuilding it again later for our retirement. How lucky is that considering we were just working/renting from photos? We feel VERY blessed.

But unfortunately, the move did not come without a cost...my PC died so we are temporarily working with the laptop as our main computer. My gorgeous red 12-cup coffeemaker also appears to be on its last legs. If you know me, you know that these 2 items are my life-blood to my daily life so I am mourning them a bit and resisting the need to replace them right now...denial is a good thing.

This is the view into our new office (it's supposed to be a formal dining room, but we prefer another room for storing books!) And that in the corner is DH's new recliner....it's soooo comfortable. We are supposed to be finding a more feminine version for me in the other corner, but so far we haven't found anything that seems just right to complement this one so we are still looking.

And here is a quick view of one of the vignette's of my stamp room. It is finally completely unpacked and I am anxious to get in there and get stamping. It has been several weeks so I hope that my muse cooperates with me.

DH actually goes back to work Monday. He hasn't done anything but move and travel since getting back from Iraq so we took a couple of days in the last week to do a bit of the tourist/relaxing thing around the St. Louis area. Of course, we had to go see the arch.

It's so good to have him home and to be having fun with him and as a family again.

The kids were watching a group of ducks by the pond in the park at the base of the Arch.

We found some new hats this week for $1...she looks so cute in them and knows it. She will pose for you as soon as you put it on her head. LOL!

Then yesterday we took the day to go visit an old pre-Revolutionary era fort located on the Mississippi, Fort De Chartres. The architecture and stone reminded us so much of many of the buildings in England and France. It was gorgeous!

At the entry into the fort...

The guys going up the tower at the entry...

Another cute new hat.... She really started walking the first day that the packers arrived at the house. Unfortunately, from that point on, she has been held more than anything so she is just now getting back to where she was developmentally with walking a month ago now that the boxes are out of her way. She is loving the stairs in this 3-story house and scaring momma to death.

Love this teen who will still humor me and pose every once in a while....

I should be around more from here on out...

smiles,

Christi

We have made it to Illinois!

Well, after a VERY long week, we are finally in Illinois (still in a hotel, but here nonetheless.) We have seen our new house (that we rented without seeing it over the internet), but it was locked up tight so we are anxious to get the keys for it in the morning to see what it really looks like.




Surprisingly enough, we are actually supposed to be getting all of our household goods tomorrow morning too. They are supposed to arrive within an hour of us getting the keys so it is going to be another crazy week as we try to get settled and unpacked. I am hoping to have our internet up and running by Tuesday evening so hopefully within a few days here life will get a bit closer to normal and I will be around here a bit more. :o) {I miss you all!}


But the Simply Scrapbook Sketch Challenges for Unity go on so I have a new sketch to share with you tonight...









This is the layout that I created from the sketch:








This is a photo I took when I was home in Texas over Spring Break. I love it's misty look, but had no idea how to show it off on a layout. I liked the overall simplicity of the layout of this sketch to show it off.


Since I took the photo during Spring Break, I felt that the spring color pallette was a good choice and used a few of the papers from the Scenic Route Lynden paper collection as well as coordinating-colored cardstocks.


I love the variety of stamps in the Unity mini-kits and used Small Elegance for this layout. The interesting {and wonderful} thing about these stamps is that for Unity's norm, they are mini's, but compared to any other stamp companies stamps, they are still really substantial and great for scrapbooking.


Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Small Elegance
*Scenic Route Lynden Collection
*various cardstocks
*MM metal embellishments and blossoms
*Prima flowers
*white sharpie
*Zig Writer
*Heidi Swapp bling and chipboard
*Diamond Glaze

smiles,
Christi

Checking In...

Hi, everyone! I am still here. We just returned from a whirlwind trip to Alabama and now are frantically trying to get everything ready for the packers that are coming tomorrow to pack us up for our move to Illinois. It's crazy around here, but it's a good crazy. We are having lots of fun just all being together again even in the chaos.

But I quickly wanted to share with you this week's sketch for the Unity Simply Scrapbook Challenge.

With the upcoming move, I created a whole bunch of my sketches, but did not have time to create using them to make sure that they really work so they probably will all have a few modifications on the final layout...even on my versions. :o)

I wanted to do a layout about just where Kat is and her interests at age "1" and this is what I came up with. For the stamping on this, I used 2 kits: Amazing Me (the journaling tags and the number 1) and Little Labels 2 (the detail around the edge of the large circle and the band that goes across the page). The band was colored in using colored pencils.

Supplies Used:

*Unity Little Labels 2

*Unity Amazing Me

*MM Noteworthy 2 Collection

*K&Co. Amy Butler paper

smiles,

Christi

Fun Stuff!!!

I love the first day of the month over at Unity because it always brings such fun stuff!!! First, you all have got to take a look at this, the July Kit of the Month...

Is that not just the cutest kit ever?!?! I REALLY love it!!! If you love it too, you have until the 15th of the month to order it because that is when they are mailed out. There is more info about all that HERE.

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The other big news for the 1st of the month over at Unity is that Elizebeth Neuman is our Guest Designer! I love her work and can't wait to see more of it!!! Congratulations Elizebeth!!!

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We are about to head out of town for a couple of days (if I ever manage to actually get packed...LOL!) But I promise to check back in before the packers arrive on Monday. Crazy weeks ahead!!!

smiles,

Christi