FWF Sympathy Circles

Hey ya'll! So sorry I've been a bit quite over here- just been catching up with friends and family. But, I'm back! DH and I had a great time visiting the Chesapeake Bay Retriever breeder, where we'll be getting our puppy from in November/December!! We got to meet all the girls that are being bred in the next few months and pick whose litter we'd like a puppy from- it was a great relaxing weekend! We spent time swimming in the lake with the breeder and her dogs, getting to know all the dogs and the breeder herself.

So, now onto the card- Happy Friends with Flair Friday!! I grabbed the colors from ColourQ #95, inked up my May KOM "think HAPPY thoughts," and focused on using lots of circles to play along over at Unity Challenge this month! And here ya go- CAS sympathy card. I don't know about you, but I don't particularly like making sympathy cards- too sad :(

Anyhoo, gotta end the post on a positive note- our deposit has been made, and we'll be getting a puppy late fall/early winter!! hehe- so so excited- they're such fabulous dogs! have a fantastic weekend, ya'll :D

ye old Christmas tree

And here's the last sub-lication reject! Yet again, another card I really like and will make some sets from for this Christmas. Although the sting of being rejected for publication is, well, a ding to the crafting-ego, I find that it does often produce some of my best work :) So, even though the world may not see my cards in a magazine (yet! hehe), at least I got some cards out of it that I'm really happy with! This is some more Unity love, this time it's a Webster's Pages co-brand, Merry Christmas Home.

PS. I'll be back later today with some news on the puppy breeder visit!

winter mittens

Still away visiting *hopefully* future puppies... but here's another sub-blicated reject. Another card I really like though!! Again, I'll probably make a set or two of these to sell around Christmas this year. More lovin for my Unity/Jillibean stamps- Jolly Good Fun.

wishing you blessings

Well, like I said yesterday, I really liked this layout! Here's a card I sub-licated at the beginning of the month. No word yet, so I'm presuming it was a reject. That's ok, because I really like it!! Lovin some of my Unity/Jillibean stamps here- Snowflakes Fall From Heaven. I'll probably make a set or two of these to sell around Christmas. Our last Army post had a huge craft sale in early November, so I'm hoping this post does too! Time will tell.

Anyhoo, this is actually an auto post, because I'm currently on the way to see a breeder about some Chesapeake Bay Retriever future puppies!! We're meeting the adult dogs, seeing if we like them, and hopefully getting one of their future pups :) I'll let ya know how it goes on Monday!!

just a FWF note

Just droppin in to say happy Friends with Flair Friday!! I used this LO a few weeks ago on a card I sublicated (submitted for publication)... since the deadline was about 2-3 weeks ago, I'm pretty sure it was rejected, so I'll show the original card to ya soon! Anyhoo, I loved the LO, so I decided to use it again here!

I used the colors from CR84FN #34. The stamps are, of course, Unity! The sentiment is from Jan's KOM "to the moon and back," a kit I go to over and over again, hehe. The images are from Treasure to Me- it has two vases and three flower images, so you get to build your own flower vase :)

And let's not forget All Things Unity's challenge #35- wrap it up, use ribbon or twine! Love my The Twinery twine- this is pink sorbet :)

fourth of july tags

Although the 4th of July has passed, I wanted to share a set of tags I had made for the occasion :) Sorry I've been a bit absent here- things have been a bit eventful around here, including a weekend trip to the beach last weekend! And this weekend we're going to a breeder to see about puppies :) We've been wanting a furry friend for our home and now might just be the time! Anyhoo, hopefully I'll be back posting soon!!

you rock

So it's not the most beautiful card, but the other day I got a new order of PTI and really wanted to use the stamps before I headed to bed that day, hehe... so DH had a presentation the next morning and I whipped together a mini card for him {literally whipped together, right before bed, this took I think a grand total of 3 minutes... it might have taken longer to photograph it than to make it!). Super simple- just some stamps, folded paper, and a bit of twine. You can't see it really well, but that paper is shimmery gold. I went with black and gold stuff (Army colors!). hehe

love.

Does anyone else ever go to sleep thinking about card layouts and designs....? Well, when I'm in my crafting zone, I know I definitely do ;) hehe... this layout came to me while I was falling asleep the other night. Super CAS (which I love)- just two Unity stamps, a few inks, and a gem. Done. Yay :)

This is my last entry for the Stamp It! Cards Week Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, I promise, hehe! Three kinda different styles of cards that I submitted. Always love the Moxie Fab challenges!!

I grabbed the colors from this week's CR84FN #33!

Christmas day

So here's another card that I created for Stamp It! CardsWeek Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. There may or may not be one card coming for this challenge... I do, after all, love my stamps! So for this card I whipped out my "25 days" stamp set by Unity. I got it after Christmas last year, so this is actually the first time I'm using it!! It's almost like a scrapbook layout, turned card really... I might actually use this as a layout, if I stay on top of doing my Daily December album this year! Anyhoo... I added some dimensional variation by popping up the sentiments on 3 different levels. fun fun :)

flowery thanks

It's another CASE Study Challenge! To the left (<----) you'll find the inspiration card by Dawn. And above and below are my card :) I recently re-discovered this Gina K flower stamp and really wanted to use it again (I used it the other day on the "gracias flores" card!). If it's not already obvious, I'll tell ya what I drew from her card...

- the flowers, pink and yellow

- the butterflies

- the black background framing the white card

- the dual-layer sentiment area with vellum

snowflake gradient

I made a two cards for the Stamp It! Cards Week Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, and here's the first one! I wanted to do a gradient, so I used three PTI snowflakes and a variety of inks/markers to achieve the general look I was going for... Then I popped the sentiment on (also PTI), glued it to the dark blue background, and voila! And it actually turned out like I'd imagined it! Love it when that happens ;) hehe!

sending border love

So today is the last day of the Beautiful Borders Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. Again, I do love waiting until the last minute ;) This challenge definitely had me stumped for a bit... then I remember I had these Making Memories border strips- and this one reminded me of a postage stamp! So I paired it with last month's Unity KOM, and here's what I came up with :)

I'll be in the craft room the rest of the day... so don't be surprised if you see a few more posts today ;)

gracias flores

Nothing like the last minute... hehe, but here's a card inspired by the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger (<--- see photo to the left)

I started out by using a foreign language, but keeping with the "thank-you" theme! I used orange for flowers, just like in the Trigger. I chose the light blue gems to pull in the color from the blue paper strip at the bottom of the Trigger inspiration card. Super simple, since it's super late :) Oh, and because I love CAS too ;) And because the Trigger inspiration card is super CAS. Hehe... and on that note... Nighty night, friends!!

good luck

Here's a card from a little late nite crafting session :) It's been another leisurely day for me- church, lunch date with DH, reading, and crafting... "that's what I love about Sunday..." {a lil Craig Morgan reference for all you country fans, hehe}

Anyhoo, this mini-card is for DH who's been spending most of his day finishing up a presentation for work- it's been a doozy for him :-/ So I thought I'd make him a little card for him to wake up to in the morning! I used the colors from ColourQ 92 {missed the deadline- rats!} and shaped the card to play along with CAS-ual Fridays 10!

all who are weary

And here's the second card of the day. Super CAS, which is the name of the game over atStampin' Sisters in Christ this week, focusing on Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” I knew I wanted to use this verse stamp by Verve, but I was a little stumped after that. So I grabbed the color combo from The Play Date Cafe, and then it started to come together. I realized that I need more colors of ink, because I really wanted to do the dots in buttercream or mint, but I didn't quite have the right shade. A girl can never have enough stamp ink though, right? ;)

wonder

Today is a two-card kinda day :) I finished a deliverable for my master's thesis, so I get to unwind a bit this weekend before gearing up for the next deliverable. So it was a leisurely sort of day... sleep in, enjoy a cuppa tea, have some breakfast, meander into the craft room for a while... love these kinda days :) We're hoping that a big thunderstorm rolls through soon- it's been threatening to all day! Love these southern storms!!

This card is for All Things Unity's- Let's Fly Away theme of butterflies :) The image is from last month's KOM "all smiles," and the sentiment is from 2009's Store Kit "100% happy."

fwf fun in the sun

It's another Friends With Flair Friday at Unity!! Woohoo! I've been wrapped up in Master's Thesis and card order business, but I took a break this morning to make a card. Didn't quite turn out how I'd imagined, but it's a fun in the sun kinda card :) Which is why I'm linking up to Unity's Challenge: Sun & Fun :D

Sorry for the poor lighting- I'm on my way out the door to a meeting, hehe. *huggs* have a fabulous Friday, friends!!

so fabulous birthday

Here's a card I made a little while ago, but never shared here- it's a birthday card for my cousin :) She's a real classy, fashion-savvy girl, so I knew I wanted to use the shoe trio image from Unity :) I stamped a few rows to make my own border paper, then added a few embellies and a Verve stamp sentiment and there ya go! I'm not a shoe girl, but I really like that background! And the layout, so you might see it again ;)

The inside says "hope you have a fabulous birthday," by the way :)

dine with Shamu LO

Here's another scrapbook page I did recently! I did it for CK's 40K Fan celebration on Facebook. That's when I created the left-page. The challenge was to use border strips on your page. After the challenge was over, I expanded it to a 2-page spread and tried to mimic the same elements on the right-hand page :) I actually pretty much like how this turned out!
The pictures are from "Dine with Shamu" (which they unfortunately no longer do) at Sea World Orlando, during our honeymoon two years ago! It was such a neat experience- I didn't use the zoom for most of these pictures- you got to eat right along side the pool while the trainers told you all about the animals and did a few training bits.

Disney sweet treats

So lately I've started getting back into scrapbooking. Our honeymoon photos have been sitting around for nearly 2 years now, so I figure it's time to get a move on and get them in an album! I'm one of those people who loves to save EveRyThing to scrapbook {see attached napkins, hehe}. I'm still trying to figure out what my scrapping style is, but using sketches definitely helps me- this layout is based on Tiff's Sketchy Sunday 23.
I pulled the colors from the cupcake topper that I made a long time ago. There's a "tag" element in the sketch, and I knew I wasn't going to do much journaling for this sketch, and I remembered this topper and dug it out of my stash :)
I don't really know how to photograph layouts well- anyone have any tips?? :)

viva la verve june- part 2

Here's two of the cards that I made- once again with Verve's American Hero stamp set- for Verve's June Viva La Verve challenge! I'm sharing close ups of this set throughout the weekend :)

Happy Independence Day, to my fellow Americans! :D

Let us not forgot those who lay their lives on the line everyday for our freedom, especially those who have paid the ultimate price protecting our freedom.

God bless our troops & God bless America!

viva la verve june- part 1

Here's two of the cards that I made- once again with Verve's American Hero stamp set- for Verve's June Viva La Verve challenge! I'm sharing close ups of this set throughout the weekend :)

Happy Independence Day weekend, to my fellow Americans! :D

viva la verve june

Wow! It's been a long time since I've played along with Verve's Viva La Verve month long challenge. Here's the set of cards that I made- once again with Verve's American Hero stamp set! I'll share close ups of this set throughout the weekend :)

Happy Independence Day weekend, to my fellow Americans! :D