Down to the wire....

If you are here because Angela linked you up from the Unity blog, then the post below this one is for you (although there is a tiny bit of Unity eye-candy here too...you know I have to have my Unity stamps touch almost everything that I do...LOL!)

This post is for Create My Keepsake's Design Team Call. Lisa came up with a challenge for this call that I just couldn't ignore...create your own kit and then create 2-3 projects using it. I had so much fun with this!

Here is my kit...

Cardstock:
*Bazzill Kraft
*Bazzill Tangelo
*Bazzill Wildberry

Patterned Papers:
*Dream Street- The Menagerie- Foliage
*Basic Grey- Offbeat- Novel
*Making Memories- Love Story 12x12 Postcard
*Pink Paislee- Sweet Cakes- Sugar Pie
*Crate Paper- Mia- Hooked
*Crate Paper- Mia- Sparkle

Embellishments:
* Pink Paislee Pop Fashion Icons Black
*American Crafts Thickers- Lax- Glitter Letter Stickers
*Webster's Pages- 2 yards of trim
*Prima blossoms
*Prima Say it In Crystals
*Unity Stamp Co. Monarchical Flourish Frame stamp
*10 copper brads
*buttons
*Anna Griffin post-its
*old dictionary paper

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Layout #1: Doors Opening (12x12)

Journaling says: "This is my year. I'm going to diligently work toward my goals. Open new doors for myself. Put myself out there with effort and persistence. Open doors!

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Layout #2: Chic Little Miss (12x12)

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Project #3: A Friendly Hi (5x7)

It's my Unity DT day on the Unity blog...

Good morning, everyone!!! Today, I am the DT member on the Unity blog. Yipppeee!!! There are a couple of different projects for you to see over there when the post comes up (it's liable to be very late today as Angela is crazy busy right now, but that is GOOD news for Unity!!!)

Before I share my other projects on here, I wanted to share a few quotes that I found yesterday that I love to start out the New Year...

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Helen Keller

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, It is a thing to be acheived.
William Jennings Bryan

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And now for the projects. I have two to share with you here today. The first is a layout that I did based upon a sketch that was posted over on SCS (SBSC170).

I turned the sketch to the side to make it work for the orientation of my photo and embellishments.

This is a self-portrait that I took of Kat and me just a couple of days before Christmas. Click on the layout to see it larger.

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Fact of Love
*Melissa Frances paper
*October Afternoon paper
*Primas
*MM Journaling Paper
*Creative Imaginations Chipboard Alpha
*bit of MM flower lace
*brads

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This second project is a card that was also based upon a sketch (hmmm, I didn't realize that these were both sketch projects until I started this blog post....LOL!) Amber created this sketch for Unity (USCSC8.) I just turned it on it's side and used my favorite stamp from the Unity Dec. kom ( http://www.unitystampco.com/kit_club )

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. December kom... Little Reminders (available for only a couple more days at that awesome kit price of $24 for 14 stamps!)

*Memories brown inkpad
*SEI Dill papers
*Bazzill scalloped card
*MM brads
*ribbon
*Marvy Uchida Scallop punches

Come back tomorrow. I am planning to share some prep ideas for creating a notebook for the Exercise Your Creativity challenges which start officially Friday. Yippeee!!

Sunday Ramblings....

I am still trying to find my way around the new camera, but I did manage to download some photos off of it yesterday so that I can share about our Christmas. We were all up at 4:30 am except for Kat (remember, we always get up at 4:00 to workout so this was not that early for us and no, we didn't work out...we took the week off although the workouts start back tomorrow morning...ugh!)

Jacob got a new bike from Santa...


While we were waiting for Kat to wake up (finally she did at 6:30), Ben made us Chocolate Babka....seriously YUMMY! I love the holidays when he gets to doing his bread-making. The rolls that he made us for Christmas dinner were amazing too!

Kat got a baby doll and stroller from Santa...

When you have an older brother who is seriously into football, everyone gets them for Christmas. We bought him one, he bought her one. :o)

Kat in all of her Christmas finery, or "pretties" as she calls them. Notice the bits of chocolate babka in the corners of her mouth...yes, she liked it too!

It was a VERY good Christmas!

I have also found a bit of time over the weekend to work on some SCS challenges. This first one is a layout based upon a sketch that Amy created.

These were photos that I took of Kat when I made my Eco Chic bags for my blog. They were so cute that I had to scrapbook them too!

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Eco Chic

*Unity Stamp Co. Girl

*Webster's Pages Raspberry Truffle papers

*MME paper (pink paisley)

*Amer. Crafts ribbon

*pop dots

*corner rounder

*watercolor pencils

*Marvy Uchida scallop punches

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This second challenge was one posted by Maren for the Holiday extravaganza challenge over on SCS. She posted this inspiration piece and we were supposed to create something based upon it.

I really LOVED this inspiration piece and this is the card that I created from it. It was really hard to get a good picture that showed all the glimmer and dimension to the card, but if you click on this one to make it bigger, it comes close to what it looks like in real life.

That back layer of pp is shimmery and there is lots of overall shimmer and shine to the card. I stamped the Princess Floweret (unity) in brown chalk ink and then embossed it using Silver Pearl. I used watercolor pencils on all the flowers with a pearl in their centers. Then for my butterfly (Butterfly Beauty from Unity), I stamped her in brown, used watercolor pencils for her coloring, and a bit of glitter to make her shine.

Supplies used:

*Unity Princess Floweret

*Unity Butterfly Beauty

*SEI Chocolat

*Pearl flat backed gems

*silver pearl embossing powder

*watercolor pencils

*little circle punch

New Year= New Ventures

Happy Boxing Day!

I hope that you had a fabulous Christmas Day. We definitely did around here...I got extra spoiled! See my new toy (photo taken with my old toy! LOL!) I still have no idea what I am doing with it and haven't figured out how to download it t0 my computer yet so I may need a few days before I post all the Christmas details.

(Canon Rebel XSI)

But until I get all that figured out, I wanted to share a new creative venture that I am planning for the blog here. The document below explains most of it I think. Just click on it to make it large enough to read. You can also right click and save or copy for printing purposes (this will be more important later on as each week's document will look similar to this one... ie: a jpeg.)

Merry Christmas Eve...

Merry Christmas!
I hope that your holiday is filled with blessings and joy!

It happened...

As of the measurement on the wall yesterday, Jacob is now officially taller than me. I was thinking that he had probably passed me so I measured him last night and was shocked to see that he has grown almost 3/4" since Nov. 19th when he reached 5'6" (my height.) It won't be long before he is literally looking down on top of my head {and probably pointing out all the gray hairs}...and he is only 13!!!

I have been playing with a couple of challenges the last couple of days. This first card is based upon Amber's Unity sketch that she posts on Mondays. I just got in this kit, Spunky Princess and was dying to get it inky...it inks up so cute!

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Spunky Princess
*Rhonna Farrer papers
*glitter
*ribbon
*brads
*glue pen
*watercolor pencils

The other challenge that I worked on yesterday was Tanis' Holiday Extravaganza challenge from Splitcoast. These are called scraplings and they measure 1 1/4" x 4 1/4". Aren't they the cutest little things? Perfect for bookmarks or a quick little thinking of you card to slide into someone's shoe or lunchbox. I think that you will probably be seeing more of these from me in the future.

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Bitty Christmas Tags
*K&Company Christmas papers and stickers
*Martha Stewart border punches
*glue pen
*glitter
*pop-dots
*watercolor pencils
*Bazzill Kraft

The Countdown Continues....

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.

~Mary Engelbreit

{Angela posted this quote on the Unity blog last week and I just love it!}

I keep thinking that I am catching up on my to-do list and then I write down the day's list and it seems really long! Today's list:
1. blog :o) {done}
2. upload Christmas photo shoot photos to computer {done}
3. print photos to include in cards {done}
4. decide what photos to put in cards {should probably be #3, not #4} {done}
5. apple basket to neighbors
6. make a card for Amber's sketch challenge
7. make scraplings for Tanis' holiday challenge
8. work on CMK DT entry
9. vacuum
10. dust
11. make candies for Scout party {done}
12. address the 10 Christmas cards that are done
13. mail those cards
14. make more Christmas cards

And now to tell you a bit about the photo shoot that I did with the kids over the weekend...it was bad! LOL! I got Kat in her outfit and was going to take some photos of her while Jacob was getting changed. The minute I grabbed the camera she started crying and clinging to me...it just wasn't going to happen, so here are the best of the photos such as they are...

My camera really sucks big time when it comes to indoor photography so I was trying for the best light possible which means that all of these photos are taken on our staircase.

The best one of the boy. I am so proud of this kid! Friday he got a big award at school...student of the month for his team (there are 2 teams per grade in the junior high.) His team of teachers choose which student will receive it based upon attitude, work ethic, relationship with teachers and students, willingness to participate, enthusiasm, etc. and there are only 80 students out of the almost 700 students in the school that get it all year so it's a HUGE honor. And the fun thing is that the kids never know that they are getting it until their name is called in front of all the school at the assembly and their parents walk out...so much fun! And the horrible mother that I am, I totally forgot to take my camera. *doh!*

This is the best photo of the two of them together and I think that it's the ONLY one where they are both looking at the camera...

And the best one of the little gal...I was trying to let her do her thing so she wouldn't get mad at me and cry. As a result, this photo is taken in front of the bookcase at the top of the stairs. One of her favorite pastimes is to unload the books from there.

And a self-portrait of Kat and I...

And the photo taken 3 months ago that will actually go in the Christmas cards. *sigh*

And here is a quick layout that I worked on over the weekend. Ben gave me a good 2-3 hour break from Kat on Saturday so I could play in my stamp room. I tried to take full advantage of it as it doesn't happen very often.

This layout is based upon the Inspired Blueprints sketch #6. I just love the sketches that these girls post...so easy and fun to work with.

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Wish
*Unity Stamp Co. This is the Time (this was the set designed by Angela and this is a prototype kit...the ones going out to customers will be bigger!)
*Unity Stamp Co. Batch of Bitty Fun
*Basic Grey paper collection
*MM velvet ribbon
*Martha Stewart butterfly punch and flat-backed gems

I'll be back tomorrow with more to share!