Some challenges on a Tuesday

Here is a card I made a week and a half ago, that I haven't shared with you all yet. Have a great weekend!! Check out other great projects at the Unity Blog I made this card today for two challenges. I used the colors for The Play Date Cafe. They were so bright and delicious, reminds me of tasty fruit!

I also used the Unity card sketch.

Have a GREAT day!

My GIU winner is listed here. Please check to see if it is you.

Growing in Unity Winner!!!

And the winner of 2 itty bittys from Unity is..................*insert drum roll*







JEAN BULLOCK with this comment:
Jean Bullock June 19, 2013 at 2:07 PM Darling cards. Love the idea of the tags in the pockets.

Jean, please contact me at emerald@tds.net with your address and the two itty bittys you choose! Thanks, all again for a great week!

Growing in Unity Day 5

Wow! This week has gone fast! I have had a lot of fun sharing my projects with you and appreciate all of your comments. Thank you for visiting me!! I will choose a winner from all of the comments on Sunday evening after 5:30 p.m. If you haven't commented on my other posts this week, you still have time. I will choose one winner from all of the comments to choose 2 itty bittys. Today, I made something I have wanted to try for quite some time. They are very easy to make and are super cute (or elegant or cool) :) They would make great gifts and are not very expensive. DIY stamped coasters.

For this project, I used tiles, Stazon Ink, Stamps, felt pads, and Acrylic Sealer. I stamped the images on the tiles and let them dry in the sun for a few hours. I then sprayed three coats of acrylic sealer on the tiles waiting 10 minutes or so between each coat. On the bottom of the coasters you can put felt pieces or cork pieces to keep them from damaging tables.

Another project I did today was a calm down jar.

I used an old peanut butter container. I heated some water, added about 1/3 bottle of Elmer's purple glitter glue, some extra glitter. I stirred all of this up adding a couple of Tablespoons clear Elmer's school glue. I had my daughter decorate some stamped images on Shrinky Dink plastic (which my oven does not like - maybe because it is a gas oven?) which I finally used a heat gun on.

They were then placed in the calm down jar with the glitter. What is a calm down jar? When your child is upset, screaming, grumpy, NEEDS to calm down, you give him/her the jar and have him/her shake it up. Your child should watch the glitter quietly until the glitter settles at the bottom of the jar. I haven't tried hers, yet. I hope she likes it better than a regular timeout. I think I may have to use it , too at times.

Today is Friday and Friends with Flair at the Unity Blog. I hope you will take the time to look at projects by all of the great Unity stampers. There are always such great projects. Thanks again for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Growing in Unity Day 4

Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting me this week! Today I have a layout to share with you. I have noticed this week that I like to use rhinestones on my projects. I even used some on my layout. I also love washi tape. When I first started papercrafting, I made scrapbook pages. I now make more cards than layouts, but love it when I get a layout done. One thing I have to remind myself is.....that one page layouts are fine. When I started, I was making two page layouts, learning how to do two page layouts at the local scrapbook store and always made 2 page layouts. I like how this one turned out and am happy to say that I don't think it NEEDS another page.

My page is of my two children at what we call the Ducky Pool. It was the first time that my 3 year old had ever been to the pool and she LOVED it! We drive by the pool on the way to daycare and since the day I told her the pool would be opening soon to the day we actually were able to go, she would scream happily when she saw the duck out of the corner of her eye. She was so excited to go that day, had a blast, and she can't wait to go back.

I used the Unity {be inspired} layout sketch for my inspiration.

I chose yellow and blue because of the water and the duck. Some close ups:

Using this month's Kit of the Month

Using itty bitty Good Day Sunshine

Using past Kit of the Month fly free from 6/10 (Summer Time) and Sophisticates Notes (June 2013)

Using Quotes a'la Happy

Leave a comment for your chance to win 2 itty bittys from Unity. Also check out the Unity Blog for the Thursday blog hop (comment on each blog in the hop for a chance to win 1 of 3 gift certificates) and check out the great sales that Angela has each Thursday - Monday at Unity. Hope to see you again tomorrow!

Growing in Unity ~ Day Three

Hi again, everyone. Hope you are having a marvelous day! I am having so much fun this week sharing my cards with you. Today I am sharing three cards I made using one of my very favorite Unity stamps. That is saying A LOT since I love all of the ones I own! Anyone else a Unity addict? Those Thursday sales kill me :) This stamp is from a 2009 Kit of the Month, A Pocket Full of... It is listed on the site, but I'm not sure if it is still available. Unity has another pocket stamp too. I love to use the sentiment a pocket full of and add to the end with different words. I have used thanks a lot. This first card uses a pocket full of wishes on the inside and was made for one of the teachers who retired this year. In the pocket there are little sayings that can be pulled out ~ celebrate, life is good, and sending you a little happy.

My second card uses a pocket full of thanks and I filled the pocket with three strips of paper that say thanks. Didn't I tell you that I love to rip paper? Here it is again :)

My third card today uses a pocket full of LOVE. It say this on the inside of the card. I used some Webster's Pages double sided paper and one side looked like this:

I cut some of the words out and placed them inside.

Remember to comment on this post and my other two posts so far this week for a chance to win 2 itty bittys of your choice. There are close to 500 of them to choose from. Have a great day!

Growing in Unity Day 2

Thanks to those of you who visited me yesterday. If you didn't, feel free to scroll back to yesterday's post to see what I made. The more comments you post, the better your chance to win 2 Itty Bittys of your choice from Unity Stamp Company. This week I am sharing some of my favorite techniques and things I love to create. Today, I would like to share some cards using my own designed paper. The first card uses the streaking method. I have shared this method before on my blog. I like to use makeup triangles, dip them in rubbing alcohol, put a drop of a few different re inkers, color wash, dylusion sprays on the end and then run the makeup triangle across everyday photo paper. You can make great plaids, stripes, even waves or circles with this technique. Here is the card I will also be entering for Unity's {be inspired} color challenge which runs each month. There is also a card sketch and layout sketch you can enter for.

My second and third cards use the shaving cream method. Start with a plate full of shaving cream,

spray or drip different colors onto the shaving cream,

run a straw (or skewer, end of a paintbrush etc.) through the shaving cream to swirl the colors,

place the photo paper on shaving cream,

gently take off shaving cream with an old gift card, sturdy clothing tag etc, wipe remainder off with paper towel and voila.

Let dry a bit and you can use your beautifully designed paper however you wish. You will never end up with the same pattern twice.

I hope you enjoyed my cards today and I hope you will try these methods. The shaving cream method is so much fun, but wear gloves if you don't want to get ink on your hands! Have a GREAT day!


Unity stamps used on these cards: SOTW Cassette Tape Tunes, Direction of Happy (Authentique Itty Bitty, Simply Fabulous Peacock

I'm so excited!!! Growing in Unity Day 1

It's finally here ~ my Growing in Unity week. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!! Can you tell? This week I want to share a few of my favorite techniques/my styles with you. Most of my projects will be cards ~ you can never have too many ready to send, can you? I hope to share a layout, too. We will see what the week brings. One of the things I really like to use on my cards, is ripped paper. I like the look and I love to distress the edges. Another way I love to use ripped edges is to mask off most of the card except for a wide strip down the middle. I use distress ink and a sponge tool to add the color and them I stamp images in the colored space without removing the mask. I have a few examples to show you today.

After removing the mask, I stamp a sentiment in the white space. Easy to make, so versatile, and very elegant, I think. Sometimes, I will create the card leaving a sentiment off until I need the card. I will then add what I need. Leave a comment today and each day this week for a chance to win two itty bittys of your choice from Unity. I hope you all have a great day!

Unity {be inspired} challenge - card sketch

A quick post tonight ~ I have to get grades posted by 7 a.m. tomorrow and have one more set of papers to grade. We had a few teachers at our high school retire this year and this is a card I made for one of them based on this month's sketch at Unity Stamp Company's blog.

Have a great night/day/morning! See ya later!