Hip Hop Halloween

Do you send a lot of Halloween cards??? I don't. Yep, love to make them, but never seem to get them out to anyone. I think this year, I'm making a pack with myself....send out those cards! I've got enough neices and nephews, plus my own kids that I'm sure there are enough cards to share the wealth. How about you??? Wanna join me? Send out those Halloween cards, or include them in the neighborhood Boo Basket.

Thanks to some new SU dp, Wicked Fun, I recently bought, I was inspried by the dots to make this card. Loooove that some of the giant black polka dots are flocked!

I used another one of my tags from Michelle Wooderson. I inked up part of the flourish from the pumpkin and stamped it randomly around the edge of the tag, then I added the Dots for Sure background stamp in Dusty Durango. I stamped the full pumkin twice-once on the tag in black then again in durango ink on a scrap piece of durango cs. I then added the Trick or Treat sentiment to the middle of the durango pumkin and cut out the full pumpkin. I added that to the tag with a dimensional and DONE! That's Creepy is the perfect Halloween/Fall set....a little bit of both and so fun to work with.

Maria is up next. Thanks for stopping by! Keep an out, I've got some BLOG CANDY coming up in the next few days!! I think you'll like it!

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MFT Digi Day!

Did you know that MFT has quite a selection of digi downloads??? Check it out, you might be surprised at what you find....there are digi stamps, digi paper, templates, calenders, and much more. Sometimes I think this part of the boutique gets overlooked. If you're like me you get lost between the fabulous stamps and amazing die-namics. Today some of the DT is sharing what we've been doing with different Digi Downloads.

Plus today Kim is releasing 3 new templates and a new pack of digi paper! How cool is that. You know what the best part about digi images....INSTANT USAGE! Yep, no waiting. Put them in your cart, pay for them, and start playing!

Today I used one of the new templates called Full Circle Treat Box.

shhhh, part of the reason I bought my new Silhouette when I did was so I could cut out these fun and fabulous templates. I can't wait to try the birdhouse. You don't need a fancy cutting machine to use these. There are PDF. Print & Cut files, too and I've used those up until now. They are just as easy to work with, they just take a bit more time.

Instead of treats, I thought it would be fun to make a little Wish Box for one of my friend's daughters. She's really into fairies and I thought it would be sweet to make a little box for her to put her wishes into. So I inked up the FairyGirl PI and used the sentiment from Fairy Sweet Jolinne.

I loved that this sweet little round, scalloped box comes with a little hinge. The top opens and closes, really nicely.

Kim's got the full line up of MFT DT members joining me to day with lots of DIGI designs at 11 am EST. Kim's Blog I can't wait to see what they've done.

TCP Tuesday....last week's challenge

Looooove this color combo.

I'm on a mission to play along with each of the TCP's Tuesday challenges. I love that you have to whole month to get your cards made and uploaded. Sometimes I just can't get to a challenge for a few days, even weeks after it's posted.

I pulled out my Joyride set and had some fun making this card. I have a secret.....I got a new toy and I'm soooo excited to show you the first thing I made with it. This little gem showed up at my door last week!This was a HUGE purchase for me and one I didn't take lightly, nor was it an impluse buy. I've been thinking and shopping, and almost buying it for months now.....saving my crafting dollars for it. I am a $40 here and $20 there type of shopper, at least with my crafty purchases, so like I said THIS was HUGE!!!! I'm still learning it, and I am starting to LOVE it. I was seriously a giddy school girl when I made my first cut. This card is the first cut piece I've put to work. It's a simple start, but look how fun those scallops are. I stamped my own back ground on the cut piece in egg plant ink and then stamped, colored with Copics, and cut out my sweet moped bunny! Thanks for stopping by. I've got another fun Silhouette project to share tomorrow. It's a MFT surprise....stay tuned!

Ahhhh...Happy Monday Morning

What a fabulous weekend. My boys were off school on Friday, my parents were in town, and the FALL weather has finally arrived. We had good eats, good friends, GREAT soccer, fun times and I got some new boots and my first pair of skinny jeans! I decdied that I just needed the right shoes to make the skinny jeans work, so I bought BOTH-HA! Let's just say, I looked HOT on Saturday for our date night, lol! No crafty time, but the break was much needed and my space is clean. I'm ready to get krafty today and am glad I worked ahead last week.....that means I have a little something for you on this H{ippity} hop Monday!

Our challenge this week is to use METAL on your creation. Here's how to play:

1. Simply "ADD METAL" to your {ippity} project.
2. Upload your project to your SCS gallery by
midnight on Sunday, October 3rd, 2010 with keyword: IHHC43
3. I will randomly choose a winner next Monday, October 4th
and I will post who the lucky winner is in a thread in the {ippity} forum

I used last weeks Unity Hip Hop sketch for my layout and some gorgeous new paper by Crate Paper. I am in loooove! The Restoration pack is stunning! I inked up those sweet houses from House a Home in Crumb Cake (I hate that SU changed the name of Kraft, don't know why but it really bugs me and I cringe everytime I have to type it up!) Then did the sentiment right overtop. My 7Gypsies key was the whole inspiration for this card. I can't wait to send it off to a dear friend of mine once she finally moves into her new home.

Need some {ippity} I'd be soooo happy to send out what I have to you! Email me with your order!
Check out the {ippity} blog for this weeks inspiration. Have a great Monday!

Crisp Apples

I played along with this week's CAS challenge over on SCS. It was a color challenge-kraft, vanilla, red and brown. I used my new Technique Tuesday stamp, Autumn Afternoon. See my wood grain on the kraft???? It's a new new technique I tried-letter press. Heather Nichol's has a great tutorial on her blog. It's really easy and gives great results, not to mention it gives you "more bang for you buck" with your impression plates. So the image is embossed and inked all at the same time. I inked up my stamp with my good 'ol SU markers. Stamped it on a piece of Basic Grey Manilla Basics dp that was cut with my notebook edge die-namics. Of course I couldn't help but add some bakers twine and a pleated piece of Jillibean Soup dp that was sitting on my desk. I also love that I didn't add a sentiment, that way I can use this card for any occasion. It's good to have a few of these in your stash! Have a great weekend!

Hip Hop Flip Flop

Are you ready for some fun???? The {ippity} and Unity DT's have eagerly been awaiting this day. You'll notice a little something different today....our teams have done a flip flop. Unity will be using {ippit} and {ippty} will be using Unity. This was a brain child of Karen, I believe, during summer CHA! We all thought is was a brilliant idea and had some fun with these great stamps.







I was super excited to get my hands on one of the Melody Ross kits. I chose the newest scrapbook kit, One Precious Life... and instead of using it for scrapping, I decided to do a little home decor piece. I was sooo inspired by the amazing Leslie Langdon (everything that girl does is gorgeous!) and her use of glimmer mist. I finally got my hands on some and also decided to finally work with canvas. I picked up a few of these 5x5 canvas squares at Micheal's and altered one.





It was really easy and a fairly quick project, aside from waiting for different steps to DRY! It's the one thing I hate about altered projects-waiting for things to dry! LOL! The end result is always worth the wait, and it is the best advice I can give when doing projects like this... Don't rush to end product. Plan ahead and give yourself time to work step by step-letting things DRY.

First step was to spray my canvas piece and my tag with glimmer mist. Set this aside (I let it go over night) and come back to it, to then stamp. I used some Tim Holtz Distress ink (the ink will run if you stamp first and then mist-at least if it is not fully dried...so again...have some patience!) and the green ink was a hybrid ink-ripe avocado. I attached the twill (which was also spritzed with glimmer mist-such a cool effect) with scor-tape and covered each of the cs pieces with Modge Podge (any multi-media adhesive will work). I used it both as an adhesive and as a protective cover for my cardstock.

I love that this has a vintage, distressed look-helps make it so everything doesn't have to be so neat and perfect. A smudge here or there with ink, actually adds more character to the piece. I just love this and can't wait to hang it on my wall. That quote is sooo inspirational!
Maria is up next. If you get lost along the way head on back to the Unity blog.

Warm you with Plaid

I've been one lucky duck this last week! Tim was working during the Cat's Pajama's release party, and I was actually awake to join the fun. Good thing, cuz lucky me won 2 new stamps sets! wooohooo! Thanks Alma! annnnd you know what??? Super Speedy shipping means I had my new dies and stamps in hand on Friday. I got this handsome little Sheepish Ewe inky and paired him with some cool new Plaid (cosmo cricket-mitten weather). Last week's challenge was Mad for Plaid. Here are two cards I made for it. This first one uses last week's Mercy's Tuesday Sketch 91. I used had to add some MFT felt cut with my new inside pinking CutUps (I also got the BIG pinking border-great for boy/man cards, when scallops just don't cut it! ha, no pun intended. lol.) Tied on some divine twine and added some embossed snowflakes.

I often struggle with white images and panic, thinking, how in the heck can I make this stand out. Then I remember, that I actually really like to color these images, cuz it really doesn't take a whole lot. I use a real light, light grey like C1, my B000 (this is my FAVE copic marker, btw), and here for the face even my R11. I then just give a quick outline, on the inside of the image and fade out my line with the blending pen. It's quick and easy and really helps a white image (sheep, bunnies, snowmen, ect.) really pop off the page and still have a white, natural appearance. Wow! I'm proud of myself, I gave some coloring tips.

Here's card no. 2 for the challenge. This time I had fun with circles (the kraft and plaid circles here, were actually cast off's from my first card-I couldn't make the sizes work). Pulled out these humongous felt snowflakes I have left from an old SU pack. Both cards are pretty cute, if I don't say so myself. Thanks for stopping by. More goodies coming tomorrow!

Be a VIP!

It is so fun to get new stamps and to get them 2 weeks early, before they are actually released is even better! Today is My Favorite Things VIP day. You have 1 day to order the VIP kit at and at a great price AND have some new goodies to play with before they are released during October. Super Cool, huh? You should have just come from Christina's fabulous blog, but if not hop on back to Kim's for all the VIP details. You don't want to miss any of the fun!

September 21st (at 10 PM EST), the MFT VIP will be released. It is a ONE DAY ONLY product (will be available through September 22nd at 11:59 PM EST), that gives you the opportunity to purchase the WTG set TWO WEEKS early.

Here's what you get with the Winter in the City VIP $39.85:

Winter in the City WTG
Glitter
Let it Snowflake Die-namics die
Pleated Ribbon 4 yards of luxurious, satin pleated ribbon. (2 yards white, 2 yards silver)
Noel sentiments mini set FREE - $9 value (EXCLUSIVE to VIP. Will not be offered again!)

Also available tonight:

à la modes release on Sept 21st: (Sept 21st at 10 PM EST)
Candy Cane Kisses
Miss You a Latte

I've got a pretty purple snowflake treat for you tonight. did you know purple is my favorite color. My brides maids wore a deep, plum purple dress in my wedding. Love it, but I don't use too, too often with my crafting. When I do.....ahhhh, it makes me happy. This new Winter Mitten dp by Cosmo cricket just made me giddy.

So, you might think this is just a regular ol' square card, but wait. Check it out, I made an easle card. They are soooo fun and really easy. Here's the sweet city lady with the full effect. So, the set is beyond cute. WTG, is so sassy in her sweet boots, but that little pup is just the cutest. I had to give him a matching sweater. I added some glitter to the snow and check out those snow flakes! I made my own felt snowflakes and I glitterfied them (are you proud of me Joanne?). You are all gonna LOVE this die. You can get it tonight with the VIP kit, otherwise you have to wait until Oct. when it is officially released! You get 3 different snowflake designs with this 1 die, it's way cool. I added a few more snowflakes to the very inside of the easel card. You might say I got carried away with my glitter and snowflakes, but I couldn't help myself. So off you go, sweet, talented Cindy is up next!

à la modes-day 2 sneak peek

It will be a two post Tuesday thanks to our My Favorite Things VIP blog hop tonight. Don't miss the fun. Be back at 10pm for more MFT yummies!

For now, I get to share another à la mode. I think this one may be my favorite one to date. Love them all, but I reeeeallly love this one. She's called Miss You a Latte. I'm a coffee lover. I think I've said it here on my blog before. I love everything about coffee, the warmth of it, the smell of it, the taste of it, sharing a cup with a good friend. I spend every morning here on my computer drinking two cups from my Keurig. I would sooooo ♥ one of these giant cups of Latte! I had some fun with Jillibean soup dp and finished up the card with some MFT twill, the small scalloped die-namics, and an earth girl button. Check out the inside, that's where I decided to add the sentiment. I used the same designer papers and the small scallop border die-namics die. Super sweet and sooo easy to do.

Here are a few tid bits about the new à la modes:

• a la modes will be available only in rubber


• Each set is produced in the USA using the higest quality rubber, with the deepest etch possible.


• Each image and sentiment is backed on cling foam and scroll cut, making it ready for stamping right out of the bag!


• Packaged in a clear hang bag, we've also provided the ideal storage solution by including a thick laminated header card in each set that can be used to store the stamp set, in its entirety after purchase.


• $10.95 for the 3 x 4" set.
  

Check out Kim's blog for the full list of à la mode teasers! And be back here tonight at 10pm for this month's VIP hop!

à la modes-sneak peek time!

Where do the week's go??? Seriously, I don't care when I get to share such amazing images with you. It's almost My Favorite Things VIP time (mark your calenders-Tuesday is the day!) and that means we also have 2 more of the à la mode cuties to share. I just think these stamps are too cute, Fresh, and Fun!

• a la modes will be available only in rubber
• Each set is produced in the USA using the higest quality rubber, with the deepest etch possible.
• Each image and sentiment is backed on cling foam and scroll cut, making it ready for stamping right out of the bag!
• Packaged in a clear hang bag, we've also provided the ideal storage solution by including a thick laminated header card in each set that can be used to store the stamp set, in its entirety after purchase.
• $10.95 for the 3 x 4" set.

First up is the Candy Cane Kisses set. I was thinking the other day how I wasn't quite ready for Christmas stamping and projects, yeah, well, this release has changed that! I've had a blast pulling out my Holiday paper and purchasing some new stuff...shhhhh!
Iused some Oct. Afternoon Very Merry dp here and added some warmth to the card with an open scalloped die-namics die (currently out of stock-keep checking it'll be there soon!) cut felt piece. Have you seen the MFT felt collection??? It's yummy! I finished her off with some glittered garnishes.
We'll have another à la mode cutie tomorrow, topped off with the VIP blog hop at 10 pm tomorrow night. As for now, hop along to Kim's blog to see the sneak peek line up for Candy Cane Kisses!

New stamps, products, a little Text Leaf! and an old man dog!

Discovering new stamps is sooo fun, but sooooo dangerous on the ol' pocketbook. Does anyone call it a pocketbook anymore? lol! I did some searching around SCS member companies last week and found my way into 2 new-to-me stamp companies. One was Flourishes and the other was Technique Tuesday! Oh, my werd!!!! there are some beautiful stamps in those stores. I placed a weeeee little order with Technique Tuesday and WOW! BANG! Boom! Lightning fast they arrived. I'm am in loooooove ♥ with the Ali Edward's stamps. Her font is gorgeous! This set is Autumn Afternoons. I made this quick little card and even used some new Stampin' Up! products on it, too (trying to get into the IN Colors). OH, yeah, and some fun tags sprayed with Glimmer Mist (yeah, just discovered this fun product, too! purty cool, schtuff!). Isn't that text-style leaf just the cutest???!!!! I created this for the Papercrafts Sept. Gallery contest-use text in a fun way.

And just because he is so sweet and he's getting old. Wow! my 10yr. old golden looks so old in this picture. My littest guy (he's 3, remember) likes to take random pictures while I am on the computer. I let him snap, snap away and end up deleting most of what he does. This one, I'm keeping. I think it's a pretty good picture of Boomer Loomer! Look at that white moosh!

Monster Fun!

You may have spied this card last week. I added it to my SCS gallery and Lydia ended up sharing it on FB. I was quite honored.

I love when you make a card and just have fun doing it. I created this one for the CAS challenge last week, and the paper (Monster Stew) was my inspiration. It was new to me by Jillibean Soup and it really just makes me smile! The monsters are A-dorable, but I also love the great colors and it's double sided, so the flip side always has a fun graphic print that works for any occasion. I got mine at Limelight and I will be using lots of it over the next few weeks, I'm sure.

The paper also made me pull out one of my fun MFT sets, Monsters Ink. This set was a total impulse buy last year. I squealed when it was being peeked during release week and I just had to have it! I've used it a ton, too.

Oh, I almost forgot, the star is also by Jillibean Soup. I just ♥ those corrugated pieces and alphabets they make. Thanks for another great week!

Hip Hop full of Love

Happy Thursday. We are spreading the love today as we say good-bye to one of our dear and fearless leaders, Michelle. She was a HUGE part of {ippity}, and one of the driving forces behind out Design Team. We were all very sad when we heard the news that she was leaving. Soooo today, we wanted to say Thank-you and Wish her well as she moves on. I know whatever venture she is about to take on will be great. Michelle, you're a ray of sunshine-shine on, girl!!! This card is for you!
I used what seems to be my new go-to {ippity} set, Quotes à la Happy. This is also my take on this week's Hip Hop Sketch (HHSC25). Be sure to check out the challenge in the Unity Challenge Forum. We'll also be over HERE chit chatting it up today with laughter and prizes!

annnnnd Moving on.......as Angela shared with us, since Michelle is leaving, that means {ippity} and Unity has found someone new to step in and take the reigns. So this post also is my chance to say a big HELLO and WELCOME to Amy Tillmans. I look forward to working with you and getting to know you. If you haven't already, please help us give her a warm welcome HERE, over in the Unity forum.
I'll leave you now and send you off to Maria's blog. I can't wait to see what she has for today. It's her week for the tutorial on the {ippity} blog and last time, she blew me away with her creativeness!
Click the link and off you go!

A HUGE Thank-you!

This card is a little over due, but hey, late is better than never. I made this card for the wonderfully, sweet, talented, and fabulous Jessica. She's THE force behind There She Goes stamps and I was sooo honored to work with her and the amazing Trendsetters last term. The end of August was the completion of my term. I sent this card off to Jessica the other day. I loooove this sentiment! Seriously, great words to live by. It's from the Sept. release and it's called Dream a New Dream. Working with Jessica, her stamps, and her team, well.....it was a great thing for me. Thanks girlie, for the wonderful experience, this one's for you!

AND speaking of Thank-you's! I need to also tell you all how grateful I am for your support, love, and ALL the amazing kind words you left in my gallery over on SCS! The fastest 6 months of my life, just fly by! I can't believe my stint as a Dirty Girl is over. Wow! It was wonderful, fun, challenging, and A LOT of stressful crafting, but I wouldn't trade it for anything! I have been blessed to have worked with such a fabulous group of women during my term. I was lucky to meet one of my crafty-soul-sisters, Dawn! We've shared a lot and chatted a TON over these last 6 months. She's a gem and I'm proud to know her. Oh, and if you want to see someone who can color....DAWN can COLOR!

Lydia has done a wonderful job since she took over and I'm over the moon, still, that she picked me! This month's gallery is now open. It's all Totally Trendy. Go Check it out! Not a fan club member??? What are you waiting for? It's the best spent crafting dollars out there!

Have a great day!

Embellish and MFT

So a few weeks back I created this card. I embossed the white polka dots with clear embossing powder, and then sponged on the Marigold, spring moss, and ripe avocado inks with the emboss resist technique. I added the great new Perfect Bracket and Framed Greetings die-namics dies. Pretty, easy, and fairly straight forward. and then last week, I found this great challenge from the online magazine, Embellish. Wellll, you know my love affair with kraft, so I had to jump in with this one. Since both cards used the same color scheme, I thought I'd post them both for you today. Plus I noticed that MFT is the sponsor of this challenge, so I figured it would be a great way to help spread the news!

Sooooo, I had this card almost complete with all felt flowers, but then I re-read the challenge and saw that I had to include some paper piecing. Normally, this is NOT a problem, I love to paper piece, but it threw me for a loop since I had a different plan for those flowers. I did do the small flower in felt and pieced up the other one with some sweet, Delovely dp. I added lots of felt grass, thanks to the fun Fresh Cut Grass die-namics die. Stamps are from the really cute set, How Does Your Garden Grow. The cool thing about this set is the flowers have dies to match! So don't forget the Flower & Leaf Trio die-namics!

Have a super day! See you back tomorrow!