We're Hipping and We're Hopping!

Welcome to the

Unity Thursday Hip-Hop!

Today, I have a layout to share with you using the November kit of the month, Enjoy Your Story...Laugh! I think that I set a new personal best record on this one for the most stamps used on one project...I used 8 (although it is actually 7 because one of the stamps, I cut apart and made it into 2 stamps...can you tell which one??? Tell me the answer in the comments and you will be entered into a random draw for the single, Beauty of Dreams) of the stamps out of this kit.

Once again, I used some watercolor pencils to color that cute little deer

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Enjoy Your Story...Laugh! (November kit of the month)

*Webster's Pages Beautiful Life Papers

*Making Memories papers (die cut pink circle and green mini-dot papers)

*Marvy uchida scallop punches

*Memories inkpad

*Webster's Pages lace trim

*buttons

*red brads

*pop dots

*watercolor pencils

Now you need to hop on over to Jennifer Buck's blog

and check out the gorgeousness that she has to share with you today!

Weigh-In Wednesday and other Fun!!!

Good morning! There are a group of us that are forming a support group for weight loss and Wednesday's will be our weigh in day on the blogs and I am thrilled to say that

I LOST 2 LBS this week!!!

This will also feature card challenges based upon supporting each other and all our goals. If you make a goal, then you get to issue the challenge for the week. Because we are just starting up, we are currently just making "skinny" cards. ;o) And as I sit here getting ready to upload my card, I just had a thought...does it count as a "skinny" card when you make it so that it sits wide??? *oops*

My card features the new Unity kit of the month for November, Enjoy Your Story...Laugh!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Enjoy Your Story...Laugh!

*Pink Paislee papers

*orange paper from Dream Street papers

*Martha Stewart border punch and flat backed gems

*watercolor pencils (of course)

*StazOn Jet black inkpad

*Making Memories ribbon

And now go check out the other girls' blogs and give them some support:

Amy

Gina

Heather

And if you want to join in our little support group, give a shout-out and we will add you into the mix. I think that so far, we are all following the weight watchers plan, but I am pretty sure that you can do your own thing if you want to.

And now just a couple of PSA's:

*Angela is scheming fun things again and a little birdie to me that you may want to drop by the Unity forums tonight for a bit of pre-hip-hop fun!!!

*Amy has been doing giveaways all week and I know that she still has a few more to go so go and check out her blog. {plus her first song on there is the Linkin Park song from Twilight *swoon*}

*My 12 days of Christmas Creating starts Saturday although my quality time with my Creative Muse was cut short yesterday as she obviously took off with my Cleaning Fairy and instead sent me the Cold Germ Guru. *ugh!* So there is the slight possibility that it will only be 1-1/2 days of Christmas Creating. LOL!

Sunday Update...

Hello from chilly Illinois! I am so not ready for coat weather yet, but I don't think that Mother Nature really cares what I want because it appears to be here whether I am ready or not. *brrrr!* She's ready for just about anything though except for when the yard transitions to the sidewalk and then she kisses the sidewalk with her face. I hate seeing her bruised cheek. :o(

Around here, I am in full Christmas prep-mode! I am in the midst of making about half a dozen Christmas presents. That includes putting together my parent's Christmas present for Kat yesterday. I really love flat-pack furniture...I swear it is Legos for adults (yes, I like putting legos together too!) But anyway, I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon putting this together...

Isn't it pretty?!?! It looks even better in her room than I thought it would. Thanks, Mom& Dad!!!! FYI, it's part of Target's Shabby Chic line and is MUCH BETTER quality than you would guess with the price!

And a random card share. I made this card for a magazine call a few months ago and never got it submitted or posted here on the blog.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Birds of a Feather

*MME papers (their Valentine line from last year)

*watercolor pencils

*MM metal embellishment and ribbon

*Fiskars Threading water border punch

In other news, I downloaded the new Twilight soundtrack this week...OMG!!! I LOVE IT! That Linkin Park song simply gives me chills. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE!!! ...and I seriously need to re-read the book.

I hope that you are having a fun weekend!

It's a Hip-Hopping Kind of Day!!!

Happy Unity Hip-Hop Day!!!

If you haven't come here from Laura's inspirational blog, then you need to head over to Angela's Unity blog to start off on your blog hop journey.

I have a couple of projects to share with you today. This first one is a card that I made using one of the new releases for this week, US-542A Wee Forest Shanty (I love the name as well as the stamp!!!) The card was designed using Amber's card sketch for this week.

For this stamped image, I used my watercolor pencils for the coloring and then just added a bit of white glitter to give it that frosty look. I think that this stamp is so adorable!!!

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Company Wee Forest Shanty

*watercolor pencils

*black StazOn inkpad

*K&Company paper and chipboard

*American Crafts ribbon

*brads

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For my layout, I took one of the photos that I took of Kat from the weekend and blew it up to 5x7. The design of the layout is based upon the Inspired Blueprints Sketch #3.

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Monarchical Flourish Frame

*Unity Stamp Co. Butterfly Beauty Kit (this kit is only ONE PENNY today with a $100 order...WOW!)

*Unity Stamp Co. Mix Up of Cuteness (simply adorable sentiment)

*SEI Chocolat kit

*Martha Stewart border punch

*watercolor pencils
*Memories brown inkpad

*buttons

*scallop circle punch by Marvy Uchida

If you missed it yesterday, I posted a quick tutorial using these butterflies on how to use watercolor pencils. Just scroll down to yesterday's blog post.

Now you need to head on over to Jeanne's blog. I know that she will have some incredible gorgeousness to share with you...

PS...A really quick reminder that my 12 Days of Christmas Creating will start November 15th.

Shading Techniques for the Poor...

But first a little story:

Once upon a time, there was a young girl who went off to college {Texas Tech...that awesome school that whooped Texas this past weekend... :o) } to study architecture. As an incoming Freshman in the architecture program, she was recommended to buy an art kit which included watercolor pencils. The young girl was never instructed on how to use these wondrous watercolor pencils so she simply used them as colored pencils (albeit very expensive ones for the time.)

Fast-forward 3 years to the young girl's Junior or Senior year of college (it's hard to remember which) and at midnight the young girl was desperately trying to figure out how to draw corduroy for her fashion design class (yes, there had been a slight degree change in the interim.) Suddenly inspiration struck and she decided to add a bit of water to her colored pencil image and magic was created (at least as much magic as there can be for an artistically challenged young lady whose main love is art.)

Fast forward another 15 (or so) years, and we come to the present time in our story when the once young girl (who has NEVER used her degree) is now a bit older and still dabbling on the fringes of art in the stamping world. The stamping world, though, has become obsessed with a wonderful new tool called Copics markers and, while they create an amazing effect, at $6/marker our girl just cannot stand to pay that kind of price when her wondrous watercolor pencils work just as well (and can be bought at Michael's with the 50% off coupon although this girl is still using the exact same set as she bought in college. Such a bargain!)
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Now are you ready to see how EASY it is to color and shade with watercolor pencils???

The basic tools:

*cardstock (I buy the cheap packages at Walmart or office supply stores and it does fine)

*watercolor pencils (Derwent is the brand that I use that I got in college although I have had to supplement with a few additional colors lately, but they are also Derwent from Michaels)

*waterbrush (I LOVE this tool and would NEVER exchange it for a real brush...it ROCKS!)

*permanent inkpads (I use these three exclusively for my watercoloring)

*stamps

My watercolor technique is incredibly basic, but it seems to work well and is super-easy so I see no reason to make it more difficult. LOL! Basically, I just scribble a bit of the color that I want in the corners/edges of my stamped image....

I then take my waterbrush (wet, but not dripping...almost just a damp brush) and pull the ink from the edges to the center. That sounds and looks more difficult than it is, but believe me, it couldn't be easier. The water and these wonderful pencils do all the work for you. Here you can see the bird's body is done, but not the tail.

The completed image and the colors that I used on the bird...

I used this particular bird to make a bookmark like the one here that I showed you a few week's ago.

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And here are a couple of butterflies that I watercolored too, although you won't see the full project reveal on them until tomorrow's Hip-Hop post.

Step 1: Color just along the edges/corners.

Step 2: Begin blending by using the waterbrush drawing the color into the white areas.

Step 3: Continue blending until you are happy with the look. Play with it and experiment with your colors. Both of these butterflies are shown with just their left wing done...the right sides haven't had water added to them yet.

Step 4: Voila! Gorgeous blending done in a snap (you didn't even have to color prettily to make it happen!)

A Couple of Fun Announcements...

First, the thing that I am most excited about...I told you all about the Creatively Yours Guest DT search earlier. I am thrilled to tell you that I was chosen to be one of their Guest designers for December and that Jacquie was chosen to be one of them for November. Yipppeee!!! How fun is it that we were both chosen?!?

Even more fun news is that they are looking for a new Design Team right now. The sketches are AMAZING so I really urge you to go check out the site, create using some of the sketches for inspiration, and maybe you will even be inspired to go out and try out for the team.

But here is the layout that I created for the layout portion of this contest....

This layout features a couple of photos of Kat and Amy playing (speaking of Amy, you must go check out her fun, new blog format...LOVE those monkeys!) You can see the Creatively Yours sketch that insired it here.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Amazing Me kit
*Unity Stamp Co. July Kom (available at the collector's price)

*Basic Grey papers

*Sassafras papers

*eyelet trim

*buttons

*Pink Paislee alpha stickers

*Marvy Uchida Circle punches

*flowers

*Martha Stewart gems (detail around big circle)

*white pen (the one you can get from Stampin Up...I can't think of the name right now)

The journaling says, "October, 2008- Amy & Kat. Fast friends, telling secrets, playing peek-a-boo and dress-up, and sharing giggles."

In other fun news, I am going to be doing a fun thing here on the blog...

The 12 Days of Christmas Creating

When: November 15-26th

Why: Help you with your holiday gift-giving

What: 12 different gift ideas that you can create yourself

Warning to my family...if you don't want to spoil your Christmas surprises, stay away from my blog during that time period! ;o)

And my promise to you...the VERY long-awaited watercolor tutorial will be up here tomorrow. I hope that it is worth the wait. LOL!

Catching up...

Wow! I just finished a week of having Mom here visiting. We have the best time together!!! I just have to say though, that it is a good thing that we don't live near each other or neither one of us would ever get anything done and we would both be the size of barns. But a week of Scrabble and eating does a soul good a few times a year.

And while it is absolutely wonderful to have her here, I feel a bit behind on life {and blogging} this afternoon so I will quickly try to catch you up here...

First, of course, I have to share some photos from the past week...

First, some Halloween photos. These were taken Halloween morning of my mom and Kat.

My sweet little Fairy Witch...

My teenage son showing some kick-butt attitude (the good, I am a serious soldier for Halloween kind!) LOL!

Sitting in the stroller waiting to go trick-or-treating...she made it to 2 houses before she was through.

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It's been absolutely perfect weather here, so yesterday we went out to the park to play and take some photos...

Nana and the kids on the merry-go-round...

The kids and me on the merry-go-round (with Nana around, we actually get some shots of me too)...

This teenager is getting too tall for my liking...I just barely have him beat in the height area and I think that he is just really getting going.

He's discovered football this year and yesterday he was celebrating an awesome game (notice his Texas Tech tee--Get Your Guns Up!!!) I love that he loves my alma mater!

And just an incredibly cute photo of Kat and Flopsy...

There are times when I look at photos of her, like this one, and think that she must have an old soul...She has such serious and contemplative eyes.

Unfortunately, we had to wave goodbye to Nana today (although she left on a plane, not a train.) It's always so sad and quiet after she leaves... We miss you, Nana!!! :o(

Tomorrow, I will have a layout and some fun news to share!