Candy Time!

For any of you who read my last post you know that this post should have appeared on Friday.  Unfortunately work and life got in the way and I haven't had much quality time with my computer.  The card from the last post used stamps from Unity Stamp Company's August Kit of the Month.  Thanks to Emily I have become a huge fan of Unity stamps. Their stamps are fantastic quality, deeply etched red rubber and they have a huge range of images and sentiments.  As well as their own fabulous team of in-house designers, Unity co-brands with a number of other companies (such as Echo Park, Jillibean Soup, Bella Blvd and Cosmo Cricket) which brings even more diversity to the company.  I subscribe to their Kit of the Month program and have yet to receive a set that doesn't have at least one stamp that appeals to me.  There are regularly fantastic deals to be found in the Unity store and their customer service is outstanding.  If you've never checked out Unity before then today is the day to do it!  

So here's the candy part!  I recently ended up with 2 sets of Unity's August Kit of the Month and I thought that it would be great to share some Unity with my bloggy friends.  Also, this morning I was thrilled to discover my 50th follower!  So as well as just sharing the Unity love I want to celebrate that milestone with my first ever blog candy - Unity's August KOM. I am so grateful for everyone who has visited and supported me as I've learned more and more about this fabulous craft of ours.  This really is an amazing community of people that I'm thrilled to be a part of.  So, in order to receive this fabulous kit leave me a comment by midnight on Sunday and tell me about a company or product that you've been excited about recently ('cause we can never have too much on our wish lists right?).  I'll announce the winner next Monday - I promise!  :) 

Fun Fun Fun!

Last week ColourQ celebrated it's 100th challenge and this week Just Us Girls has also reached the 100th challenge milestone!  They've brought out their inaugural sketch from October 2009 for their 100th which I think is a cute idea.  It was fun to look back at the first DT entries and then see what they're doing now.  I'm not so great with sketches but as with ColourQ I couldn't miss out on the 100th challenge so I sucked it up!  For my card I turned the sketch sideways.  I used stamps from Unity's August Kit of the Month and an old ColourQ colour combo.  I love this ferris wheel image and if you come back and visit tomorrow you too could have some Fun Fun Fun with it!

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill Basics, (Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry) Stampin' Up, (Green) Craft Supply
Stamps:  (Polka dots from Polka Dot Basics II) PTI, (All others from What I Know - August 2011 KOM) Unity Stamp Co

Ink:   (Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry) Stampin' Up, (VersaMark) Tsukineko

Impression Plate:  (Linen & Canvas) PTI

Embossing Powder:  (Seafoam White) Ranger

Dies:  (Nestabilities Standerd Ovals Large) Spellbinders, (Stacking Stars) Die-Namics

Punch:  (1/2" Circle) Marvy Uchida

Other:  (Glossy Accents) Ranger

  

Literary Card

I had to play along with CAS-ual Fridays this week as the challenge was to create a card using black, white and red that is inspired by a book.  Brilliant! The only thing that makes my craft stash look paltry is my book collection!  :)  I have been a lifelong book lover and never go anywhere without one in my bag - just in case!  Anyway the inspiration for my card come from the fabulous kid's book "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls.  My inspiration is pretty literal as you can see using both stamped and punched ferns and one of the gorgeous sentiments from PTI's Botanical Silhouettes collection.  (I love the mixed fonts).


Hurricane Katia is moving past us today.  Thankfully she's about 330 miles away from us so while it's windy and grey and the south shore beaches are closed, that seems to be the worst we're going to get from her.  Now we just have to keep an eye on Tropical Storm Maria who seems to be on a similar track to Katia.  The last two times we got clobbered really badly (by Emily in 1987 and  by Fabian in 2003) were both in September so it's a tense month for us.  We got really lucky last year when Igor came through.  It was up to a Category 5 at one point but by the time he got to us he'd miraculously downgraded to a Category 1.  Whew!  Let's hope the luck holds out this year...

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill Basics, (Basic Black & Cherry Cobbler) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Ferns from Turning a New Leaf & sentiment from Botanical Silhouettes) PTI

Ink:   (Cherry Cobbler) Stampin' Up, (Onyx Black) VersaFine

Impression Plate:  (Linen & Canvas) PTI

Ribbon:  Stampin' Up

Punches: Woodware Craft Collection

Great Way To Start The Week!

No cards today but some fun and happy little tidbits.  


First of all this morning I discovered that not only did I have a new follower, Kirsty from New Zealand, but she came across a card of mine from April, added it to her Pinterest collection (or board or whatever it's called) and CASEd it!  Kirsty has set herself a challenge "to attempt one of the beautiful recipes, crafts, or diy projects found on pinterest each day for 365 days."  She's been a busy lady and my card marked Day 89.  There's all sorts of fun stuff on her blog so check it out.  

Back in July while I was away I received the Leibster blog award from Jenny of Crafting in the Country.  Jenny reminded me about it a couple of weeks later and I still managed to lose it in the jumble that passes for my brain!  I'm finally getting around to acknowledging it and passing it on.  The conditions of this award are....
1) Create a post on your blog and post the award.
2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.

3) Choose 3-5 of your favorite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have won the award.

As the aim of this award is to bring unknown good blogs to light, please don't tag somebody with 3000 

followers!

Cheers for the award, Jenny, and I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to thank you!  If you haven't checked out Jenny's blog before then head on over to it right now and check out her card collection.  She regularly makes my jaw drop.  

I'd like to pass the award on to the following bloggers:

Kirsty of 365 Days of Pinterest Creations - How could I not love someone who CASEd my card! 
Jocelyn of Red Balloon Cards - Her cards are bright and fun and she's a fantastic blog buddy!
Therese of Lost in Paper - I don't know how many followers Therese has since she's on Wordpress but I do know that she has a fun playful style that never fails to bring a smile to my face.


On top of that coolness I also sold $60 worth of cards while getting my hair cut today and then came home to find that I'd won blog candy from Lynn!  Whoop whoop!  Here's hoping my good luck holds out for the week and that Hurricane Katia continues to give us a wide berth.  Have a good evening all!  :) 

Wag Wag

I love this cute Unity dog stamp and I often pair it with this sentiment from Hero Arts.  I decided to use them for ColourQ's 100th challenge.  They've paired up with the Clean and Simple Stamping challenge this week.  We were give a CAS sketch and could choose any past colour combo from ColourQ to use with it.  Talk about overwhelmed by choice!!  I spent ages perusing the past colour palettes but finally settled on CQC #88 which I thought would go nicely with the pooch.  My awesome Stampin' Up demonstrator, Selene, recently sent me the new catalog/idea book and included with it some gorgeous cards and a selection of ribbons and buttons.  So sweet of her!  There was some Cherry Cobbler ribbon in there (which Lynn has raved about more then once!) which was perfect for my card and I see more of it in my future - once the shopping ban ends.  :(  

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (Kraft) PTI, (Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Dog) Unity, (Sentiment) Hero Arts, (Large paw print) All Night Media, (Small paw print) Bouji

Ink:   (Tuxedo Black) Memento, (Early Espresso) Stampin' Up
Copics:  Y28, R37

Impression Plate:  (Linen & Canvas) PTI

Ribbon:  Stampin' Up

Dies:  Spellbinders Nesabilities Large Standard Circles

Punches:  (1" circle) EK Success, (3/4" circle) Marvy Uchida, (bone) Craft Supply

Dotty Birthday

Popping in with an entry for two challenges - this week's Inkspirations colour challenge and the Moxie Fab Vertical Sketch challenge.  I paired some Papertrey polka dots with some Purple Onion presents and did some paper piecing.  (How's that for some alliteration!)  I also finally got myself some seam binding so I coloured it with a Copic to match the Concord Crush.  Pretty handy stuff!  Have a good one!

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Gina K Designs, (Concord Crush, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Presents) Purple Onion Designs, (Sentiment) Paper Smooches, (Polka dots) Papertrey Ink

Ink:  (Onyx Black) VersaFine, (Tuxedo Black) Memento, (Tangerine Tango) Stampin' Up
Seam Binding:  Stampin' Up

Copics:  YR07, Y15, BV08

Die:  Papertrey Ink

Other:  Glossy Accents

Stuck on You

We are short staffed at work this week so I've been doing a few extra shifts.  Good for the pocketbook but not for the crafting!  Anyway I managed to squeeze in a last minute entry for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use stickers.  I found some cute Doodlebug Design stickers in my stash including this awesome car!  Paired it up with some Doodlebug paper and buttons and a sentiment from Papertrey and it's ready to roll!   




Supplies Used:
Cardstock: (Kraft) PTI
Patterned Paper:  Doodlebug 
Stamps: (Sentiment from Signature Greetings) PTI
Ink: (Royal Blue) ColorBox
Sticker:  Doodlebug
Buttons:  Doodlebug