Exercise Your Creativity Week 9- Once Upon a Time....

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Inspiration....

Woodland Path in NC mountains
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King of His Castle print by etsy seller CafeBaudelaire
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The Tea Party print by etsy seller CafeBaudelaire
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Crown & Heart Altered Art Pendant by etsy seller TickleMePinkBoutique
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Vinyl Decal by etsy seller Humsandtiddelypoms
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Spring Princess Clips by etsy seller QTPA2T
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Make Life a Fairytale Tags by etsy seller psitsinthedetails
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Garden of Fireflies by Philippe Fernandez by etsy seller philippesarts

It's all About the JoY...this Hip-Hop Day!!!

Today we are celebrating JoY for Hip-Hop!!!

So what brings you JoY in your life?

For me, it is the little things:

*when Kat learns a new word...
this week it is "kiss" which she insists on having from anyone as it's time to go night-night...
such a sweet little word coming out of her precious little mouth

*coffee...
I know, sad but true as I sit here typing this up in the early morning...
I REALLY receive JoY from my coffee on a daily basis

*my husband...
he makes me laugh on a daily basis with his quirky sense of humor...
definite JoY in my life thanks to him

*books/blogs/magazines....
I LOVE to read and be transported to another place...
in my life I can find huge amounts of JoY just by reading

*creating...
I find such JoY in creating...
it makes me feel complete, accomplished, and whole. I love this craft!
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And now I just have one project for you today using the newest stamp...Feel the Joy. I think that this layout is complete, but I have to tell you all that I am itching to add to it. I was trying for a clean look on this and I think that I got it, but it just feels so flat and I am dying to messy it up some...LOL!

This is a photo that my SIL, Kara (Kara Bryant Photography), took of Kat last spring when we were home, so Kat is about 10 months old in this photo.

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Feel the Joy
*Unity Stamp Co. Fun with Four Inches! Little Borders
*Unity Stamp Co. Mystical Swirl
*Scenic Route paper (yellow)
*Bo Bunny paper (yellow with red flowers)
*corner rounder
*Martha Stewart border punch
*StazOn jet black inkpad
*Bazzill


Now you need to continue on the HoP by heading over to AnneMarie's beautiful blog...

Moxie Fab Monday...

I have talked on here before about the Moxie Fab blog...it's an awesome blog by Cath, PaperCrafts editor. The whole blog is dedicated to trends in the design world. I love to go over there and check out all the wonderful eye candy that she features each week. Well, this week, she is featuring Unity Stamp Company!!!

Well, it's no secret to me that Angela keeps Unity on top of the trends, but it is so awesome to see that recognized by one of the people in the "know" in the papercrafts world. You need to go check out the write-up...it's so fun and there are some stamps being giving away too, so make sure you comment when you visit the Moxie Fab blog.


I had to play with some of the latest trends to create this layout for today's post. I used my brand new SEI Bridgeport papers (full of all those purples and grays that are so hot right now.)

On the green paper, I stamped Sweet zzzzz's (the birdcage) and that cute little birdie from the Enjoy Your Story...Laugh kit.

The journaling says, "Summer, 2008- Kat is an animal lover- all types to include bugs. It never occurred to her that bugs were any different. A fly in the house was just as exciting as a puppy on TV...until this preying mantis showed up at our door. He was huge and for the first time ever, an "animal" made Kat nervous. She didn't know what to think about him..."

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Sweet zzzz's
*Unity Stamp Co. Enjoy Your Story...Laugh
*Unity Stamp Co. Love Birdies (birdhouse in the oval)
*SEI Bridgeport paper
*Prima bling
*WRMemory Keepers felt flowers
*buttons
*MM Chloe's Closet Journaling piece (I added the white detail work to it.)
*Marvy Uchida punches
*Martha Stewart border punch
*Bazzill

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and now this next little bit goes under the topic of "What the heck was I thinking?!?!"....

I have had lower back pain and neck cricks my ENTIRE life...it's just something that I have had to deal with and overall, I know how to handle them. Well, last summer when DH got back from Iraq so fit, I started his workout routine and was thrilled to say that I haven't had any issues with either of those two things since.

That changed this week as I got hit with BOTH neck and back pain at the same time (btw, I have never had them at the same time before.) At first, it was just a slight niggling of pain in both my neck and my back, but you know...right now we are in a Push month with our lifting so I felt like my neck (which is really the dead center of my way upper back) was probably more just sore muscles than an actual crick since the only time it actually felt like a crick was when I was trying to sleep at night. The lower back issues were similar since there are just times of the month when a woman is more prone to a bit of back pain so I didn't do anything to accomodate either issue.

Friday was the beginning of VSN and there is just something about spending hours hunched over my computer and work-table that is not very conducive to healing any kind of spinal issues. When I got up Saturday morning, I was really stiff and since it was a cardio (i.e. lots of jumping) workout day, I opted not to work out. We get to yesterday and I was still stiff, but again not feeling injured per se, but Kat was running a fever all day (she's getting her eye-teeth in so I think that was a teething issue) so I pretty much sat around with her on our furniture which is not so good for back issues. By last night, I was feeling pretty stiff so I took a hot bath to try and relax my muscles and went to bed.

That gets us to this morning when Ben got me up to go workout. Today is a weightlifting day and after a walk across our bedroom, I knew that I wasn't going to be lifting anything so I went back to bed. Fast-forward to 7:30 when everyone was finally out of the house except for Kat and me. I was feeling really guilty because I haven't worked out since Friday so I decided some yoga might be good to help stretch me out and limber me up and at first it did feel really good (although I tried not to worry about the fact that my back kept popping as I would stretch...from the sounds of it, I am seriously out of alignment right now.) After 15 minutes, it was clear that I was doing WAY MORE damage than helping...so now I feel ready for a bit of traction...or maybe a chiropractor. So I am trying to relax all muscles with Motrin right now, but if you don't hear from me for a few days, it is simply because I can't sit anywhere and work.

Silhouettes & VSN....

VSN was this weekend...22 hours of card-making challenges, but as we entered into the event Friday, I still hadn't done my Study in Silhouettes so I decided to use silhouettes on all of the cards that I made for the event.

I am not going to add any more detail to these cards then what I wrote in my gallery over on SCS because I have a sick little one that doesn't really want me on the computer. Hopefully, you can make some sense out of that...

~Missing You...Using New Supplies~

This is my card for using my New Loves. This paper is SEI and just came in yesterday. The stamps are from Unity (you may not recognize them because I colored in the images to create the silhouette effect) and I have just had them a few weeks..the bird has never even been inky!

It looks like DH will be deploying again so I am starting now to create a stockpile of Missing You cards. :o(

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Love Birdies
*SEI Mimosa Paper
*Zig Writer
*American Crafts brads
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~Girl's Night Out...Split Negative Technique~

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Ladies Night
*MM paper (white/black background)
*K&Co. paper (pink)
*StazOn white and black
*brads
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~Long Lost Shoe Stamp...Using an old forgotten stamp~

I bought this stamp 8 years ago when I was a CTMH demo...I NEVER bought anyone else's stamps, but I loved this one and had to have it. I think that I only used it once or twice...BUT I do still LOVE IT! Thanks for the reminder to dig it out of the corner of the drawer, Natalie!

Supplies used:
*Art Impressions Shoe stamp

*MME papers

*old dictionary paper
*lace trim
*buttons
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~My Friend...Using Inchie technique~

Supplies used:
*CHF Inchie Style
*Unity Little Buggers (sentiment)
*MME papers
*MM paperclip
*ribbon
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~Buttercup's Travels...A Card inspired by The Princess Bride~

Just about everything on here relates in some way to the Princess Bride. Because the heroine's name was Buttercup, the first thing that I knew that I would use would be some butter yellow paper. "As you wish" is such a famous quote from the Princess Bride, that I knew that I needed to use the Wish Sticks stamp (dandelions) from Unity Stamp Co. Finally, the travel quote (it says, "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.") relates to the overall story of the movie as they go on a great journey. I had fun with this one...thanks so much Christy...I am seriously digging out this movie today to watch while I stamp!

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Wish Sticks
*Unity Stamp Co. Enjoy Your Story...Laugh
*Basic Grey papers
*Martha Stewart border punch
*ribbon
*black brads
*StazOn

For the Love of Chocolate...

Hi, everyone! I meant to get this up last night, but it was a crazy night around here and add in a stiff neck, I just couldn't sit at the computer anymore. But here is my challenge that I hosted last night on Splitcoaststampers for their VSN event. (It's not too late to play with this challenge or any of the other challenges that are going to be posted all day today!!!)

Title: For the Love of Chocolate
Hostess: Christi (snowchris)
Keyword: FEB09VSNB
Day/Date: Friday, Feb. 20th
Time: 6:00pm EST

Do you love chocolate? If so, then you know there are many ways to get your chocolate fix, but there are really only three basic categories of chocolate: white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate. For today’s challenge, we are going to play with chocolates…the kind that will NOT go to your thighs!

For today’s challenge, you need to choose your favorite type of chocolate, look at the color schemes pictured below, and make a card based upon the color scheme for that type.

The color schemes are shown using Bazzill cardstocks (written in the parenthesis), but I have gone through my Stampin’ Up catalog and tried to match to the appropriate SU colors (I do not have the actual colors in hand though, so use your own judgment for a color close to the swatches.)

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White Chocolate ....... Very Vanilla (vanilla), Certainly Celery (celery), Rose Red (sweetheart), Handsome Hunter (bluegrass)

My sample....

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Lilypad Playland
*Unity Stamp Co. Jan KOM
*cuttlebug embossing- swiss dot
*Zig writers
*watercolor pencils
*Bazzill cardstock
*American Crafts ribbon
*Martha Stewart border punch
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*Milk Chocolate...Close to Cocoa (mocha), Real Red (maraschino), Almost Amethyst (lavender)

My sample...

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Floral Fantastical (butterfly)
*Unity Stamp Co.
*Bazzill Cardstock
*Fancy Pants paper (purple)
*Fresh Paint paper (red)
*Martha Stewart border punch
*watercolor pencils
*ribbon
*Zig Writer
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*Dark Chocolate...Chocolate chip (chocolate), Apricot Appeal (apricot), Cameo Coral (flamingo)

My sample...

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Label It!
*Bazzill cardstock
*DCWV paper
*Martha Stewart border punch
*cuttlebug embossing- swiss dot
*eyelet trim

FIND ALL OF THE CARDS FOR THIS CHALLENGE HERE

DON'T FORGET TO ADD a post to your card HERE to get the special VSN coupon code for Jacksonbelle Embellishments!

UPLOADING INSTRUCTIONS:
1. ALL VSN CREATIONS MUST BE UPLOADED BY 10:00 PM EST ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22nd
2. You have 45 minutes to complete the challenge.
3. Please remember to put in the correct keyword when uploading your image.
4. Copying and pasting the challenge keyword is recommended to avoid typos.
5. It is also highly recommended that you post a link to your creation in the chat thread just in case the gallery is being testy

Post #2 for Today...

If you are looking for this week's Exercise In Creativity, look at the post below this one...you don't want to miss it... because it is YUMMY!!

I have a quick card share with you this morning! Katie over at Paper MakeUp Stamps issued a color challenge this week...pink and gray. Wow, this was tougher than I thought it was going to be...I don't think that I have used this color combination since the 80's, but once I got going, I loved it!

I love this card, but it was really difficult to photograph. On my monitor, the bright pink piece behind that cute little fairy is looking very close to red, but it is DEFINITELY a bright pink...not red. The grey piece behind the fairy also has a shimmer that just doesn't come across in the photos. It does help to click on the pictures so that you can see them at actual size instead of the thumbnail.

For the fairy (Lauren in Love), I stamped her with Jet Black StazOn, then colored her with my watercolor pencils. Her ruffles, I colored white using my white marker (I think that it's the Signo one.) Then I used my glue pen and glitter to add some accent to her wings. I love that corner punch, but unfortunately, the company that made it is no longer around, but I accented the edges again with my white marker.


There is a pearl stick-pin in the knot of the eyelet...I just added the pink bead to help it tie in with the card better.

The butterfly is out of the Buggy Sayings set. I stamped it onto some K&Company bright pink paper and accented his body with a bit of diamond glaze and glitter. For his flight trail, I just hand-drew it onto the card and added bits of glitter along the way.

The "Life" came out of one of Katie's larger quotes (Art is Life), but I just wanted to stamp the Life so I used a waterbased marker to only color that part of the image for my card.

Supplies used:
*Paper Makeup Stamps Lauren in Love Fairy
*Paper Makeup Stamps Buggy Sayings
*Paper Makeup Stamps Art is Life
*Making Memories Journaling Book and Stickpin
*SEI patterned papers (greys)
*K&Company paper (butterfly)
*glitter
*glue pen
*watercolor pencils
*white signo marker
*zig writer
*2 grrrls corner punch
*eyelet trim
*pop dots

I will be back later this evening with Post #3 for today! :o)

Exercise Your Creativity Week 8- Chocolate

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Chocolate inspiration from the web...

Chocolate Script Floral artpiece by Gillian Fullard
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Pink & Brown Collage from etsy seller cupcakecutiees
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Bunny Rabbit Tag Sampler by etsy seller SunshineandRavioli
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Pocket Paris Journal by etsy seller eabdesigns
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Daisy Flapper Beanie by etsy seller pdxbeanies
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The Devil's BonBon by etsy seller sugarsmitten
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Chocolate Muse Bag by etsy seller PacoandLupe
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Wine and chocolate neck wrap by etsy seller boutiquepinkdesigns

Happy Hip-Hop Everyone!!!

Here we are...it's another
Hip-Hopping Thursday!!!


Good morning everyone! I hope that you have been having fun on the Unity Stamp Co. blog-hop so far! I have 3 things to share with you today.



The first is a layout of just some everyday photos of Kat...no story...basically, this is what she looks like at this point in her life which meant that I got to have fun with the embellishments (but you all know that I do that regardless of what type of layout it is, don't I?)


There are LOTS of stamps from different kits on this...I love how you can work all of these stamps together like this!

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Create Your Life
*Unity Stamp Co. Shine On
*Unity Stamp Co. Spunky Princess
*Unity Stamp Co. Enjoy Your Story....Laugh
*Unity Stamp Co. Just My Type alphabet
*Unity Stamp Co. Love Grows (i love you sentiment)
*October Afternoon paper
*KI Memories paper
*Scenic Route paper (background)
*MM paper (floral scallop and green polkadot)
*Marvy Uchida scallop punches
*Fiskars Threading Water border punch
*Prima flowers
*Stampin Up Tab punch
*MM button brads

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This second project is a card that is a combination of a couple of challenges.
The Unity Addicts this week had a gorgeous inspiration piece for their challenge...

...and I combined that with the Splitcoast sketch challenge for this week (#SC216) to come up with this card.

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Love Birdies
*Basic Grey paper
*copper brads
*watercolor pencils
*corner rounder

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I was lucky enough to get a Little Monkeys storage system to play with and try out. What I love about this system is that you can alter it to suit you and your style so I had a bit of a play with altering my system...

Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Co. Rain & Flowers
*Unity Stamp Co. Bliss & a Birdie (frame)
*Unity Stamp Co. Sentiments O' Simple (play)
*Anna Griffin papers
*Martha Stewart border punch
*Zig Writer

Now you need to head on over to Jen E's blog and see what fun she has to share with you today!