Unity GIU Hop - Get Ready for Fall!

Hi, folks! Thanks for hopping along with the May/June GIU gals today! The fun starts at Dawn's blog so this should be your second stop. If not, please step back to Dawn's so you don't miss a thing!

Dawn

Miwa ----- you are here!

Paula

Jennifer

Amber

Amy

For this hop, we are showcasing this week's stamp of the week, Pumpkin Greetings.

If you're not already a SOTW member, you really should consider it - I've loved every one that I've received, since I've joined. It's like getting a little surprise in the mail every week! You can read more about the program here. Plus, you can get all previous SOTW kits for only $3.29 each!


Every once in awhile, I like to challenge myself to do something unfamiliar - this week, I chose to watercolor and stamp on vellum.

One of my favorite things about fall are the rich hues of orange. Well, I'll be honest - it's really hard to see it in southern California, but when I lived in western Massachusetts (Amherst) for a few years, I absolutely loved hiking the hills in the autumn. So, the background watercolors reminded me of fall on the east coast.

 Of course I had to use some sketches from Pinterest! This one is from the Deconstructed Sketch (#6). Her sketches really rock and even better, you can download a pdf with 92 sketches on her blog!

Here's my take on her sketch... love the look of stamping on vellum! Both the image and sentiment are heat embossed here.

 This sketch from Sunday Sketch is one of my favorites (I modified it slightly here). It's so versatile!

Who doesn't love pumpkins? I always think of Halloween, so that's why I naturally gravitated towards black and orange. 

Last but not least, I heat embossed white AC Zing! powder on orange vellum, layering it over some old Making Memories paper. I liked how the orange vellum made the white embossing *pop* but it also muted down the busy patterned paper, too.

Next on the hop is Paula! She has an amazing project and card to share - I'm in awe! Thanks for visiting my blog and see you on Friday at Unity's Friends with Flair hop! Don't forget to check out and shop at Unity's Tag Sale, too - and there's a $4.95 shipping special, too!

The "Dirty Dog" - FWF #29

 Hi, folks! It's Friday and time for another "Friends With Flair" at Unity Stamp Company's blog. I didn't have a lot of time this week, but I made it a goal to watercolor.

 

 

I used Unity's kits Gina & Me and Loved with a Love. I used some watercolors I purchased a few years back from Hero Arts (I'm waiting for my ones from Amazon to arrive!) and used some water brushes to apply the colors. Rhinestones are from MME, patterned paper is from Fancy Pants.

 

 

Two more days of softball for Marika! It's been an intense All Star season and wow, have they had a great season! They are 17-1, racking a total of 235 runs and only allowing 11 runs against them.

 

 

But, we did carve out some time this week to go raspberry picking in Oak Glen. Yummy! It's hard to beat raspberries straight off the vine!

 



And here's Bo. I guess he decided to dig a hole while the sprinklers were on. He really is a dirty dog! I laughed and took a picture. DaddyDude was NOT amused.

 

Thanks for visiting my blog! Be sure to shop at Unity and hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Is It Really Summer??? FWF #28

Hello again! It's Friday and time for another Unity Stamp Co "Friends with Flair" hop! It's been interesting how crazy the weather has been across the country - flooding in certain areas, massive storming in others... over here, we're in the balmy 80's but due for 100+ temps next week. Well, if you're indoors hiding from the weather, be sure to check out Unity's clearance sale here - sure can't beat free shipping over $25!

I surfed Pinterest for another couple of "cool sketches" and found this one from Sunday Stamps...

 

 

 Love its simplicity! It seemed like a great way to showcase a sentiment from Unity's new August sentiment kit - Wish With Your Heart. Since I wanted to use white paper, I chose to make the sentiment and images *pop* a little with some heat embossing (AC Zing!). "As You Wish" always makes me think of The Princess Bride, one of my favorite movies of all time. :) There were some great lines in that movie!!!

 

And this one from Seize the Sketch...

I don't know about the rest of my Cropchocolate peeps, I have so much of this particular MME paper, it's not even funny! For this car, I chose to showcase one of Unity's new stamps, Loved with a Love, along with some chippies from UmWowStudio (love that stuff!!!).

 

Well, it's been a quiet week, but I'll take that any day over any unwanted excitement! Hope you're all well and have a fabulous weekend! Happy crafting and thanks for visiting my blog! :)

 

 

SAFE!!! Gotta love it! :)

Getting Sketchy - FWF #27

Hi, folks! It's Friday and time for another "Friends with Flair" hop with Unity Stamp Co! Don't forget to go shopping... they've got free itty-bitties with certain dollar amount purchases and a great inventory reduction sale. Woohoo!

My "Stamp of the Week" (Gladness Touch Your Life) arrived yesterday so I decided to break it out right away. Of course, that gave me a reason to surf Pinterest and look for cool card sketches. :) Both cards are modeled on Viva La Verve sketches - the first one is this week's current challenge (July 2014 Week 1) while the second one is from a year ago (July 2013 Week 1). If you'd like to scope out more of their awesome sketches, check them out on Pinterest here.

 

I didn't even know Viva La Verve sold their own stamps until yesterday - I love stamps! On the bright side, their challenges are flexible enough that you don't *have* to use Verve stamps, which I really appreciate. You also have the option of combining it with a particular color scheme.

 

So, here's my take on their sketch and color challenge (stamp from Unity Stamp Co while patterned papers are from MME, including the journaling blocks). 

 

 

And here's the second sketch... (I don't have a good link, I'm sorry...)

 

And my take.. with more patterned papers from MME that my Cropchocolate.com friends will most certainly recognize... :) [will I ever use up my paper before I died? Probably not!]

 

 

Last but not least, it's been a long while since I've posted a picture of Bo (now 10.5 months old) - he doesn't particularly like posing, so DaddyDude squished him during a moment of male bonding. Those boys have to stick together in a household full of girls! Having him in our lives has brought immense joy and happiness to our girls. I'll love him forever for that!



Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend! It's another weekend full of softball for us..

Happy July 4th! Celebrating the Red, White, and Blue {FWF #26}

Happy July 4th, everybody! Hope everyone had a relaxing holiday, but let's remember to honor our men and women who sacrifice for our freedom!

The girls had a lighter week of practices this week and with DaddyDude home, I was able to craft a little more. I made two cards, both based off some nice sketches I found on Pinterest...

Sketch #33 from Crazy 4 Challenges (I'd never heard of this site before, but this sketch totally rocks!)

 Yes, I'm into using kraft paper as the background, so things *pop*. Patterned paper and journaling block from MME (cropchocolate folks probably recognize these!). Stamps are from Unity Stamp Co (of course) - "Thank you" sentiment is from the Hello Thank You kit while the hashtag sentiment is from their new Hashtag kit.

 

This sketch is from the Studio Calico site. I didn't know they offered sketches there!

 I thought it was a great time to showcase the butterflies from the Hashtag kit as well (sentiment from the Hello Thank You kit). Yes, it was quite a bit of fussy cutting, but I have been watching a lot of "Love It or List It" on HGTV, to be inspired to unclutter the house more. So, it passes the time pretty productively. :) Patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye, the "All Spice" collection of 6x6 papers while the "Thinking of You" sentiment is heat embossed with white to help it stand out.

And last but not least, Unity announced a "Red-White-and-Blue" challenge on their Unity "Show and Tell" facebook page. I hadn't made a layout in a long time, so I figured it was time! I used the Unity {Be Inspired} monthly challenge sketch for the layout...


I chose to showcase one of Marika's All Stars pictures, because their team colors are red, white, and blue. She's enjoying her second year of 8U All Star softball, but I haven't had a chance to get this year's pictures developed. But fortunately, I had plenty from last year, still on hand. Apparently, I was still in the mood to fussy cut... A LOT of little flowers!

Patterned papers (Fancy Pants "My Family), stamps from Unity Stamp Co (This Right Here - June 2014 SMAK kit, Do More Awesome, All Star sentiment, "2013" from Going Places - February 2013 SMAK kit). And in case you're wondering why all of the numbers are "5", it's because that was her jersey number last year. :)

Thanks for visiting my blog! Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend! :)