The Ippity Chick Challenge was a Challenge! And Block Party Card

I'm going to use this card for the Ippity Chick Challenge this week, and I'm going to use the Monday Ippity linky.  Wow, did I struggle to get this card completed.  The idea came quickly.  Making it happen took most of my Sunday afternoon.  I used many different Unity stamp sets, and 1 Ippity stamp set to stamp the various hearts to add texture and variety.  The sentiment is a little hard to read in the photo, but it says, "Forever thankful for YOU".  This card is going to my BFF!

Unity stamp sets used were:  Blossom Soup, Butterfly Garden, Bitty Backgrounds, Urban Chevron, and a woodgrain background.  The Ippity stamp set I used is Thankful for You (thanks Ippity Chick, Maria Levine!)  I used a Creative Memories heart punch, and a Spellbinders Fancy Tags die.  The brad is by Making Memories.  The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

The second card in this post is for the Market Street Block Party.  It uses one of my all-time favorite stamps -- the doily.  I love how crisp and clean this image stamps.  I also used Studio Calico's Memoir 6x6 pad.  This is the second one of these cards I've made.  I gave one away awhile ago as part of a card exchange.  I liked it so much I made another one for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.

And there you have it.  Two cards made on a windy, cloudy Sunday afternoon.

Friends With Flair -- lots of Unity this Week!

Hello Unity friends!  I so look forward to Fridays when my blog gets some traffic!  Please scroll through the past several posts, as I used Unity stamps quite a bit this week and have some other cards there to show you to.  And, of course, I LOVE your kind comments!

I used this particular stamp on this card for 2 reasons:

1.  On Monday, the 25 random stamps I won from a previous Friends With Flair hop arrived.  I decided then to use one of them for this week's hop.

2.  A friend of mine, Brittany, purchased Smooch Inks recently and was wondering how to use them.  I wanted a stamp image that was very detailed so I could display just how fine detailed you can get with Smooch inks.  I love to "paint" with them.  They make me feel like an artist!  And trust me, I am not!
So, this card is for Brittany.  It is spring here in Northwest Wisconsin, and this little girl flying her kite seemed the perfect image for this Friday's FWF.

I used paper from Echo Park's Springtime collection, and several different Spellbinders, plus, of course, a variety of Smooch inks.  The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. It matched so beautifully.  If only I could tie a bow.  I used the Perfect bow maker.  Maybe it's because I'm left handed that I still failed at bow making 101? There's also a little twine from RRR.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the card.

1 card, 3 challenges

I'm entering this card in an Ippity challenge that calls for bling, a Unity challenge (must use green, pink, and off white), and this week's CropChocolate challenge.

The CC challenge rules read: Create a project using the following recipe: Spring themed. Must contain 3 folds somewhere. Use 2 DIFFERENT paper lines.  I used the pretty poppy stamp from the April Unity stamp of the month kit, colored it with 3 different inks and a blending pen.  The paper lines I used are all by My Mind's Eye.  They are Quite Contrary, Lost and Found - Market Street 6x6 pad, and Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink.  For the folds, I used folded and stitched ribbon.  The bling is from my stash.   I cut the large frame shape using the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge, and cut the small intricate shape with Spellbinders.  The sentiment is a CTMH stamp.  I hope you enjoy my card.

An entry for Chick Challenges {with Ippity}

I made a card for this challenge last evening while scrapping with a friend.  I had looked at the sketch while at work yesterday.  Here's the sketch we were to use:

And here's my take on the sketch:

As you can see, I didn't remember the sketch all that well!  The sentiment isn't with the other elements.  But oh well, sketches are meant to be interpreted.  And interpret, I did!  I hope you like the card.  I am sending it to a friend who loves to ride bicycle.



Friends With Flair Friday -- already!

This week seemed like it went really fast, but I have a couple different projects I've been working on using Unity stamps.  I made this card for my sister-in-law and sent it to her for her birthday.  I got my April Unity Kit of the Month stamps and dove into them to create this beauty:

I used Close To My Heart Lucy paper for all the patterned paper in the card.  The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.  I used several Spellbinders shapes on this, and colored the flower with CTMH markers and a blending pen and water brush.  The poppy stamp is from Unity, the birthday sentiment stamp is CTMH.



This card uses all Unity stamps and Spellbinder dies.  I love how that butterfly stamped.

Spring action cards

A friend on the Cropchocolate.com site asked the question, how do you use those spring things in a card?  So, I made a couple of them to demonstrate how easy they are to use.  The spring mechanism, stamp set and paper is all from Close To My Heart.  If you are interested in ordering any of it, follow the link to my website to order (julieodil.ctmh.com)

I used window cards, cut with my Cricut and the Close to my Heart Art Philosophy cartridge to show the spring mechanism to the fullest extent.  You can also use these springs in the inside of a regular card so it pops open when the reciver turns to the inside of the card.  Here are a couple close ups of the first card.

And, here's three pictures of the second, very similar card I made.  Only the owl is different.

If you need more specifics on how to make these, or help in getting the supplies, please leave me a comment. 



New Ippity challenge

Yesterday was my luckiest day ever in my scrappy life.  This blog has opened up world's I never would have imagined.  In an early morning email, I found out I have been chosen to be published in an online magazine.  I've been sworn to secrecy until the mag is released, so no more on that subject.  Then, later in the day, my scrappy friend's informed me I had won the Ippity Chick Challenge.  Free stamps heading my way!  Woohoo!  While reading emails, Scrapbooksteals.com informed me they had been on my blog over the weekend and want me to participate in an upcoming blog hop they are sponsoring.  Free goods to create with coming my way!  Yes!  Then, this morning, I read an email that was actually delivered to my inbox last evening.  I won the Unity Friends With Flair challenge and they are sending me 25 random stamps.  Wow!  More goodness to create with!  So, now my creative mojo is in high gear. Here's the sketch I used to create my newest card:

And here's the card I created from the sketch.  I used 2 different Unity stamp sets to creat the card: Key to Joy (butterfly image and zigzag border under the butterfly) and Quote Bundle Pack for the sentiment.

And here are a couple of closeups of the card to show some details.  I hope you enjoy it!

Crop Chocolate masking challenge from sketch

If you are looking for the Unity Friends with Flair blog hop, please look at the post below.

This week's challenge on the cropchocolate.com site is 2-fold.  We're to use a sketch by Dee Dee Catron, and we're to use a masking technique.  Masking is not new to me, but it's just been the past few months that I've been diving into the world of sketches.  At first, I followed the sketches quite literally.  As I get more comfortable using them, I find myself deviating from them quite a bit, using just some of the sketch as my starting point and seeing where it takes me. 

Here's Dee Dee's sketch

And, here's my take on it.  I chose to use the circle idea, substituting butterflies instead.  And, I stuck with one picture as the sketch did.  It was a rainy day when I took the pictures, so it's hard to see here, but there is a doily behind the year and floral clump.  That is how I chose to interpret the right side of Dee Dee's sketch.  I used Echo Park This and That Charming, Echo Park Note to Self and the masked butterflies are on a piece of Close To My Heart script paper form the Lucy collection.  Flowers were cut from the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge at 2 and 2 1/2 inches.  Leaves are a Spellbinders die.  Butterflies and spray ink are Studio Calico.  The "spring" letters are white Thickers that I inked.  The year are stickers from the This and That Charming 12x12 paper pack. The 2 border pieces were cut from the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge.

This is a close up of the masking.  I used the chipboard butterflies as my masks.  I first used Mister Hueys spray ink.  I didn't think they were quite distinctive enough after the mist dried, so I then added several shades of Tim Holtz distress ink  around the butterflies to give them some more definition.

This is a closeup of the floral cluster and a butterfly that is inked.

Hope you like it.  I sure had fun getting inky making it!

Unity Friends With Flair blog hop

It's Friday again, and here's this week's post.  The Unity stamps aren't immediately apparent, but they are there.  I cut this card out on my Cricut, cut out a flower with several layers, then stamped each layer with various Unity stamps.  I used my new SMAK kit, and a Bitty Backgrounds set to add some texture to the petals.  I then bent the petals to make them look a little more realistic, inked the edges, sprayed them with Studio Calico Mister Huey gold, and assembled them using a hot glue gun.

I also have a close up of the flower so you can see the Unity stamps I used a little better. You can see the various layers of the flower and the gold Mister Huey shimmer shows a little.

Sammy, being my assistant, felt that the card wasn't arranged quite right.  He wasn't pleased with the lighting, so he made some adjustments.  Here he is, earning his assistant status. Good boy!

Cricut Circle Magazine and Ippity Chick Challenge

Starting a blog has opened up the world of challenges to me.  I didn't enter many in the past because I didn't have a way to display my projects for viewing.  Now, with the blog, it is easy to link my entries to the contests and I am going strong.  This card uses two Cricut cartridges -- Letter Envy, and CTMH Art Philosophy.  I cut the 'Hello' and 'Hello' shadow at 1.5 inches.  The rest of the cuts are from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The card was cut at 5.25.  The decorative square was cut at 3.5  The flower was cut at various sizes, with 2.5 being the largest and getting progressively smaller.  I stamped the flower petals with background stamps from Unity.  I used my new Unity SMAK kit for the petals on the largest flower, then the other flowers were stamped with images from Bitty Backgrounds.  I used a Viva Decor cream pearl pen to add some definition to the 'Hello'.  The hemp is CTMH.  the flower brad is from Creative Imaginations.  All the patterned paper and cardstock is Close to My Heart.  You can shop my website using the link on this blog.

Here's a close up of the flower.  You can see the stamping better.

 

Sammy likes to help with the photographing of the cards.  He is my toughest critic!

Happy Easter everyone!

Just a short post to display my husband, Shaun's, Easter card.  I used my all-time favorite Cricut cartridge:  Close To My Heart Art Philosophy. I cut the card at 5.5 inches, then 2 layers at 5.25. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Sassafras Lass Wee Bundle 6x6 paper, and another favorite -- a Viva Decor cream pearl pen to bling up the butterflies.  I outlined the flower with a black pen from my stash.  I hope you enjoy it.

Friends with Flair -- Unity fun on Friday

I made this card originally to use with the Kit of the Month sketch shown in myh previous post.  But, being the uncertain artist that I am, I thought maybe I had taken too much artistic license with it.  I turned the sketch upside down, & used a pocket instead of the scalloped border.  I'm new enough at this that I don't yet know what's acceptable and what isn't.  I would LOVE it if you would leave me feedback, explaining if there is a limit to how much you can "interpret" a sketch before you really aren't using the sketch at all anymore. 

So, instead of using this card for my KOTM challenge, I'll enter it in this week's Friends with Flair fun.  I used stamps exclusively from the July 2009 KOTM.  I hope you enjoy this simple but heartfelt card.

Crop Chocolate song Title Challenge & Unity KOTM

Here's the sketch for this month's Kit of the Month challenge on the Unity blog.  And, below, is how I interpreted the sketch.

I used the July, 2009 Unity Kit of the Month to stamp this card.  Paper was purchased from Cropchocolate.com.  It is Echo Park paper -- part of a 50 sheet random pack I purchased.  Ink is CTMH and Tim Holtz Distress.  The bling is from Hot Chocolate (kind of a grab bag type deal on CC).  I am also entering this card in a CC Challenge.  This week's challenge is using a song title.  Since I sing this song many times a week at the nursing home where I work, it seemed like a good title to work with.