And 6 hours later....

My goal on Friday's is to have my Friday Fun Challenge up by 10:00 am.

BUT...

Thursday are Unity Hip Hop days

 and 

JV Football nights for Jacob 

which means I usually don't have ANY stamping time on the night before.

That's usually okay.

I work fast.

normally.

NOT TODAY.

*ugh*

This was so NOT a hard challenge...chocolate. 

Seriously?!? 

I love both the color and the candy...use them both consistently. 

EVERY.

SINGLE.

DAY.

Today, my creative muse was not feeling the love.

There are days like that.

So, forgive my lateness with today's post.

(you know, this has been a serious trend for me this month...BAD!) 

So, back to the challenge...

Oct. 29:

This month is all about candy and you know that the best houses always gave out chocolate on halloween. That needs to be the focus of your project today...either chocolate the candy or you can create a project with the color chocolate as the main color to it.

This is also the challenge for this week's Paper Makeup Stamps M4TW challenge (#48) so you get 2 challenges for the price of one! ;o)

The Treat: make a project using colors of Chocolate (you can use other colors too, just make sure chocolate is in the color palette)- the TRICK is, it needs to be a Treat Holder or Box of some kind.

You could qualify to win some free Paper Makeup Stamps rubber if you play along using PMS...so go check out all the details (because we ALL love free rubber!)

Also, be sure to go check out what the rest of the FFC girls created for today's challenge:

Jimmi

 Kim

Kimme 

Sara

Sherry 

Supplies used:

*Paper Makeup Stamps Dream Big kit

*Paper Makeup Stamps Happy Halloween sentiment (from Oct card kit)

*Pink Paislee paper collection

*Spellbinders Halloween Diecuts

*shipping tag

*Palette burnt umber ink pad

*Martha Stewart border punches

*Marvy Uchida scallop circle punch

*button

*ribbon

*Making Memories garment pins

We are Flip-Flopping it for Breast Cancer Awareness

We had so much fun last month doing our Unity/Ippity design team flip-flop 

that we have decided to do it EVERY MONTH!!! 

How fun is that?!?!

AND...

add to that today's theme... encouragement/breast cancer awareness projects. 

It's simply a fabulous combination for a fantastic HIP HOP!!!

*************

This is kind of a card...hehe! How about that for definite?!  The base for this pseudo-card was a file folder that I bought off the Target $ spot. I trimmed the folder so that it would be more the width of a card, but left it at full folder length so that I could crease and fold up the bottom to form pockets inside.

 I envision this project going to someone who is going through some medical treatments and would probably tuck hot cocoa/tea bags inside as well as a bookmark to help on days when they were feeling a little "off" from treatments.

I used two different Ippity kits for this project and a whole LOT of punches/diecuts.

Supplies used:

*Ippity Because of You (flower)

*Ippity Just Wanted to Say (frame and sentiment)

*Breast Cancer awareness file folder from Target

*Making Memories paper collection

*Nestabilities Lacey Circles and Labels die cuts

*watercolor pencils

*Martha Stewart border punch

*ribbon

*StazOn Jet black inked

*flatback gems

******************

And yes, it is Ippity day on the blog here, but OMG...did you see????

Jillibean Soup and Unity are pairing up for some new co-branded stamps!!!! LOVE!

So I simply had to play a little bit with the stamps...

For this card, I combined two of the new kits, Jolly Good Fun (snowman circle and sentiment) and Countdown to Christmas (large circle.)

Super easy...just a touch of watercolor pencil highlights on the snowman and some circle punching/cutting and it's a MUCH simpler Christmas card than it appears (that is my FAVORITE kind of card to send out...the ones that look like I spent way more time on them than I actually did! shhhh, don't tell my recipients!)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. - Jillibean Soup: Jolly Good Fun

*Unity Stamp Co. - Jillibean Soup: Countdown to Christmas

*K&Company Christmas Collection

*various circle punch/die cutting methods

*Martha Stewart border punch

*buttons

*eyelet trim

*twine from The Twinery

*watercolor pencils

Now you need to continue along the Flip Flop Hip Hop by heading over to 

****Julie's Fabulous Blog***

I am in the Spotlight...

Good morning everyone!

I am in the artist spotlight over on the Paper Makeup Stamps blog today so I thought that I would share my latest project with you....another bookmark.

(and as I look at this and the 2 projects over there, I am thinking that I should have answered that my favorite color combo was orange and blue....hehe!)

You all know that I am a huge reader and while I have TONS of bookmarks laying around, I have a few favorites (which just happen to be my PMS Moody Girls ones) so I thought that it was time for a new autumnal bookmark.

Don't you just adore that sentiment? LOVE!

I used Moody for Fall, colored her with watercolor pencils, diecut her with a Labels die, and then highlighted the edge with some stickles.

Supplies used:

*Paper Makeup Stamps Moody for Fall

*Paper Makeup Stamps Simplicity Sentiment

*Nestabilities Labels diecut

*Sizzix Labels diecut

*watercolor pencils

*Palette burnt umber ink pad

*Martha Stewart border punch

*Making Memories paper collection

*Stickles

*seam binding ribbon

*button

*bookmark plastic sleeve

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Unity's Playing with the Playdate Cafe!

Play Date Cafe is one of my new favorite challenges to play along with... You may have noticed that lately. Well all this week they are celebrating their one year anniversary and asked the Unity design team to play along with their color challenge...Yippee!

I was so inspired by this week's color challenge, that I created 2 projects...

First, my card using this months Unity Stamp Co. kit of the month, Take Time to Laugh.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Take Time to Laugh (flowers and sentiment)

*Chatterbox paper (orange)

*Making Memories paper (paisley and pink damask)

*Martha Stewart border punches

*Nestabilities Labels die

*Recollections flat back gems

***hint: color challenges are a GREAT way to use up those really old patterned papers that you have hanging around like those that I used on here....those MM papers are at least 5-7 years old***

********************

I also made a layout about Kat's transition to her big girl bed (I think that you can click on the layout and be able to read the journaling)...

For this layout, I used this month's Stamping Store kit, Throughout the Generations:

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Throughout the Generations

*Crate Paper collection 

*Scenic Route ledger paper

*Marvy Uchida circle punches

*Martha Stewart border punch

*Creative imaginations paper (pink text paper)

*Fiskars border punch

*American Crafts brad

Be sure to head on over to the PlayDate Cafe to play along this week. There is some beautiful inspiration there everyday this week by both the Unity Design Team and their design team. They are also in the middle of a dt search so it would DEFINITELY be worth your time to check it all out!

Have a fantastic Monday!

Playing with Circles- FFC

It's Friday and that means that it's time for another Friday Fun Challenge. 

Today's challenge:

Oct. 22:

It's a full moon tonight. 

Create a round card or tag.

I have to tell you that this month's challenge hostess really SUCKS...

these have been HARD challenges!!!

Unfortunately, I have no one to blame but myself since I am the challenge hostess this month...haha! 

I guess there is a GOOD reason why I never make shaped cards. ;o)

I chose my color scheme from another challenge from this week....

Act 52 of the Curtain Call Color Challenge....

Making a card that is an unusual shape is also this week's M4TW (#47) challenge for Paper Makeup Stamps so I had to give some love to a couple of my favorites from the latest PMS releases that I hadn't gotten inky yet....

Don't you just love that sentiment?!?! LOVE!

Supplies used:

*Paper Makeup Stamps Moody for Computers

*Paper Makeup Stamps Computer sentiment

*Palette burnt umber ink pad

*Nestabilities lacey circle and butterfly dies

*Martha Stewart butterfly punch

*Chatterbox paper (dark orange)

*MME paper (smaller circles)

*KaiserCraft flat-back pearls

*circle cutter

*corner rounder

*stick pins

*watercolor pencils

Be sure to go check out what the rest of the FFC girls created for today's challenge:

Jimmi

 Kim

Kimme 

Sara

Sherry 

Grateful Everyday- Unity Hip Hop

Okay, bad night here. I actually had my project done early...like TUESDAY so I just went to bed (i.e. Wednesday night) and was drifting off to sleep when I realized that I forgot to finish writing and scheduling my HIP HOP POST!?!?! *yikes*

So today we are focusing on gratitude... and this is my project... a gratitude journal.

This is the journal in it's original state as it was when I bought it from Target....

I used the layout from this week's Hip Hop Sketch.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Be Bold- Donna Downey stamp (big flower)

*{Ippity} A Moment in Time  (grateful)

*Crate Paper Restoration line

*Making Memories tiny alpha stickers

*flat back gems

In my rush to post, I forgot to post my WCMD challenge winner...

Congratulations to WhatSheLoves 

for creating this card for my challenge.

email jimmi.mayo@gmail.com and she will get your new Unity Itty Bitty stamp out to you.

Now you need to hop on over to Julie's blog....

Fairy Witch...

I don't know if you are aware of it, but for the last few months, Paper Makeup Stamps has been offering card kits. This month's is absolutely my favorite of the bunch! The October Kit is so beautiful with that cute little Fairy Witch and the awesome selection of papers...

For the layout of my card, I used yesterday's Sweet Sunday Sketch (#SSSC89)....

I colored my fairy witch with watercolor pencils and then added the glitter to her wings and a bit of orange glitter to highlight her hair. hmmmm, I wonder if I could figure out how to add glitter to my hair for Halloween...

The Happy Halloween sentiment is also part of this wonderful kit! I love that font!

Supplies used:

*Paper Makeup Stamps October Makeup kit

*Martha Stewart border punches

*corner rounder

*watercolor pencils

*glitter

*white & black cardstock

Five layers...Friday Fun Challenge!

This post today could be retitled: 

"All the things that are making me stampy happy today...except for the five layers." 

LOL! 

So today I am here to share with you my Friday Fun Challenge.

I am the challenge hostess for October and this is what the challenge entailed:

Oct. 15:

Tomorrow is my niece's 5th birthday party. 

Create a card with 5 paper layers NOT counting the base card.

And here is what I just created....

I know that this may come as a shock to some of you that haven't been around here long, but there was a time when I had other stamp obsessions besides Unity Stamp Co. and Paper Makeup Stamps. Quite honestly, I am an equal-opportunity-stamp-obsessor and have quite a LARGE stash of other companies' stamps in my stamp room....shhhh, don't tell my husband!

Today I felt the need to love on some of my winter favorites for a bit of Winter Wonderland happiness....

That great Winter Sleigh Rides sign stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. Unfortunately, they recently went out of business, but that set is one of my favorite winter sets.

All the other stamps on here are from Purple Onion Designs...the Happy Holidays placard, the calendar stamp, and the snowflake stamp that was randomly stamped all over the base of the card.

Supplies used:

*Cornish Heritage Farms Sleigh Ride stamp

*Purple Onion Designs stamps (all other)

*Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather 6x6 collection

*CTMH Hydrangea and Lavender ink pad

*Palette Burnt umber inkpads

*martha stewart border punches

*corner rounder

*flat backed gems

Be sure to go check out what the rest of the FFC girls created for today's challenge:

Jimmi

 Kim

Kimme 

Sara

Sherry 

Hip Hop Halloween Tree...

Hello my Hip-Hopping Unity Peeps!!

Are you getting into the Halloween spirit today?

My mom gave me this awesome tree last year for Christmas so when I heard that we were doing Halloween projects today, I knew that I wanted to decorate it for Hip Hop.

All of my projects on here are very, VERY simple so it would be easy to put this whole thing together in an afternoon.

The little ornament below was using the Unlucky 13 circle from Unity. I simply stamped 3 of them, mounted them on circles, folded them each in half and then glued them together for more of a 3-d effect.

For the ornament below, I stamped that awesome sentiment stamp, trimmed it, and then mounted it to one of the damask pieces cut out of last year's halloween paper from Making Memories.

I created a couple of banner streamers using the scrapbooking banner stamps. For the one below, I simply mounted the "boo" letters from the Pink Paislee chipboard alphabet.

The ornament below is the size of an ATC. I used this week's hip hop sketch for the layout and then simply stamped that great haunted house stamp to finish it off perfectly.

Below is another one of the banners created from the pennant stamps and then the moon/spider added to the witches tag from Making Memories and finished it all off with some flat-backed gems.

I hope that you enjoyed my spooky Halloween tree! 

I will go back and add links after the new website has all the stamps loaded.

Now you need to hop on over to ***Julie's Amazing blog***

FINALLY ...my FFC post!

I am the challenge hostess this month for the Friday Fun Challenges. Last Friday my challenge was this:

Oct. 8:

It's already October and that has us gearing up for the holiday season which is a time when we tend to focus on other. For today, it's all about you. Create a project that is just for you and your enjoyment.

While the girls were great and did their challenges on Friday, I am a bad hostess and just got my project done and posted today...Tuesday. I know, I know... I will try to do better this week!

So, for my project, you all should have been able to predict what I would make when given permission to simply make something for me...it's a bookmark!

I have had this idea for a bookmark for a little while to create ruffles at the top and the bottom so that the book looks dressed up when your bookmark is in it. I used crepe paper streamers to create the ruffles and customized the size so that they would hang out perfectly on a paperback book.

I used an {Ippity} stamp for the focal point of my bookmark...I ADORE that stamp with the butterfly from Books a Flutter.

Supplies used:

*{Ippity} Books a Flutter

*Anna Griffin paper (red/pink)

*PTI paper (black & white polka)

*file folder (black & white floral)

*StazOn jet black inked

*crepe paper streamer

*MM trim

*Martha Stewart border punch

*AC brads

*watercolor pencils

BTW, if you like fun and fabulous chick lit, check out Kristan Higgins. I have just discovered her and have read all of her books that I could find (still searching for one.) She has a wonderful sense of humor that has you laughing out loud throughout her books, but I have also cried real tears in several of them because her characters are so real and life-like. Fabulous reads!!!! Easily a new favorite author for my list!!

And don't forget to go check out what the other FFC girls created (although their posts will have been posted on Friday!)

Jimmi

 Kim

Kimme 

Sara

Sherry