I'm a guest designer today on 3 Girl JAM!!

Welcome!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog today. And a huge thanks to Rebecca Daniels and Julie K. for inviting me to be a guest designer for 3 Girl JAM. I was totally inspired when I saw these two ribbons together, Merlot (from the wine and jewels bundle) and antique white (from the pink & white bundle).  The two colors spoke of winter to me, so that's the direction I went.  Here's what I created with the beautiful crinkle ribbons:

Supplies used for this project were:  Echo Park Winter Wishes 6x6 paper, Close To My Heart Chipboard album shapes, CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge (used to cut the paper in the same shape as the chipboard album pieces), Cricut Classic Font -- letters cut at 3 inches, and cut with the shadow feature also), Tim Holtz Distress stains in Faded Jeans & Dusty Concord to ink the edges of the chipboard shapes, white American Crafts cardstock (letters), CTMH smoky plum cardstock (letters), CTMH jump rings, CTMH jewels bling, Spellbinders scalloped oval die, Pioneer glue stick, Zig 2-way glue, Crop-a-dile II to punch additional holes in the chipboard, watercolor paper -Strathmore coldpress 90 lb (from my friend, Rebecca!), Sparkling Waters paints, Jillibean Soup baker's twine, and a Unity Stamp Company Itty Bitty called, "You Melt My Heart" (IB-MLS-214). And, of course, the 3 Girl JAM ribbons.

Here's a close up of the watercolored snowman so you can see if I stayed in the lines or not ;)

And, there you have it, my winter banner, all decked out in beautiful antique white and merlot 3 Girl JAM ribbons.  Thanks again to Rebecca and Julie for the wonderful opportunity to create with their fantastic ribbon.  I had snow much fun!

Growing in Unity Winner!

First, I want to say how much fun I had with the Growing In Unity week.  All your sweet comments meant so much to me.  Thanks to everyone who visited my blog and left me some love. 

Before I tell you the winner of the two Itty Bitties, I thought I'd post one last card.  I made this one this afternoon for a challenge on the cropchocolate.com site.  The challenge this week is to use the colors blue, green, and white.  And, of course, I had to use Unity stamps!

It's been snowing here all day, so these tulips make me think of Spring.  It's coming, right?  My fellow co-workers and I are sending a care package to the co-worker that had a knee replaced.  I made this card to send with the goodies.  It used Echo Park For the Record 2 Documented 12x12 papers, Carta Bella white card stock, Unity Stamp Co Tulips and Daisies stamp set, Memento black ink, Strathmore 90# cold press watercolor paper, watercolor paints that I picked up at Michael's -- a starter set for students -- super cheap, and some white ribbon from my stash. I'm going to enter this in Creative Inspiration Paints 'Anything Goes' challenge.

And now, for the reason you are visiting my blog -- to find out whether or not you get to go shopping at Unity!

I used Random.org twice. The first time, I had it pick the day (from 1-5).  It picked 2.  Then, I entered in the number of comments on my blog from day 2.  There were 46 comments, and random.org chose #45.  That is Brit K.  Congrats, Brit!  You are lucky on my blog, girl!  I sent you some blog candy not too long ago!  Contact me with the 2 Itty Bitties that you would like. 

I am a guest designer on Wednesday, Jan. 30, on the 3 Girl Jam blog.  Please stop back here on Wednesday, and/or the  3 Girl Jam blog to see the project I made.

Have a great week, everyone!

Let it Snow! Growing in Unity, Day 5 and FWF

Day 5 of my Growing in Unity week already!  I'm sorry to see it end.  Thanks to all of you who visited my blog each day this week.  If it's your first day here, go back and check out my cards for the week, leave a comment, and you might win Unity rubber!  One commenter will be randomly chosen to pick two Itty Bitty stamps of their choice from Unity.  I'll choose the winner over the weekend.  Good luck!

It's winter in Wisconsin.  The windchill is projected to be -25 degrees when I get up tomorrow morning.  It's cold, but we have very little snow.  If it's going to be cold, I think we might as well have snow.  So, I made a couple cards to celebrate that theme.

 This one uses a Unity stamp of the week, Bernie the Owl.  You gotta love that guy.  The first time I saw him, I knew he needed a speech bubble and some kind of saying.  This seemed appropriate given his snowy perch.  The speech bubble is from Lawn Fawn. The sentiment is Unity's "One of a Kind Winter".  Papers are Fancy Pants Blissful Blizzard 12x12 collection.  I used some Tim Holtz tarnished brass stain on the corregated paper, but it's a little hard to see in the picture.  The twine is from My Minds Eye.  I colored Bernie with Copic markers.  I used some Liquid Pearls on the snow and Icicle Stickles on the pom poms on his hat.

The card base is Echo Park's Wintertime cardstock.  I used Close To My Heart white ink and the Unity stamp set, "Snowflake Kisses" for the background. The bling is from my stash. The snowman stamp is Unity's "One of a Kind Winter" (Susan K. Weckesser). The speech bubble is once again Lawn Fawn. I used some new watercolor paints my husband gave me for Christmas to color the snowman called Twinkling Waters.  I thought to myself, "way to go out on a limb there, Julie, coloring a snowman."  Oh well, you gotta start somewhere!  I used some new watercolor paper from Ellen Hutson for the snowman (also from my DH for Christmas).

I'm entering these cards in Ribbon Carousel's Winter Spirit challenge, and Oozak's challenge #10, Anything Goes plus Pink and Bling, and Creative Inspirations Paints' Favorite Stamp Challenge.

Thanks for a great week!  Have a super weekend.  I'll pick the winner of the 2 Unity Itty Bitty stamps very soon!

Ice! Growing in Unity, Day 4

This layout is on "The Crop" today -- cropchocolate.com's blog.  I thought I'd use it for day 4 of my Growing In Unity week, too.  If this is your first time to my blog this week, check out the previous 3 posts, too.  Leave a comment for a chance to win two Unity Itty Bitties, decided this weekend.

So, here it is, my ice project.  Ice is the theme the CropChocolate.com design team is using for January.  One of my favorite places to visit in all of Wisconsin is the Lake Superior ice caves.  We kayak to them in the summer, but in the winter, if conditions are right and Lake Superior freezes, you can walk to them.  Every time we see them, they are different.  The ice freezes differently, and depending on the light that day and the time of day we visit, they are always changing.

Lake Superior hasn't actually frozen over for the last several years, so I used pictures from 2009. 

This is me inside one of the ice caves. I used one 12x12 piece of cardstock on this layout (Carta Bella Kraft), and everything else was 6x6 papers.  It's nice when those "cardmaking" papers work for layouts, too!  I loved the smalled prints on the circles!  The DP is Echo Park Winter Wishes 6x6.  Circles were cut with various sized Lifestyle Crafts circle dies. The photos are 3 inch circles. The title, "ICE", is made with Close To My Heart dimensional Classic alphabets, glued down with Glossy Accents.  Supplies for this project were purchased at cropchocolate.com, an awesome site for finding great deals and making even greater friendships.

I used 2 Unity stamp sets on this layout:  Snowflake Kisses and Mitten Background.  I added some lavendar  and waterfall Stickles to the stamped snowflakes and mittens.

And, a close up of the mitten journaling box:

There you have it -- a layout about one of my favorite places ever.  Tell me about your favorite places to visit!

Growing in Unity, day 3

Welcome, welcome!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog!  I am having so much fun being the Growing in Unity girl this week.  This is a hoot, playing with my Unity stamps "cause I have to" Ha Ha!!

Last week, I needed a couple of 'get well' cards.  A good friend of mine put out a plea for people to send cards to her great niece who was badly burned in a house fire, so I needed a card to send to her.  The other was for a co-worker who had a knee replaced.  I wanted both cards to be elegant and beautiful, so they would look at them and instantly feel better (can a card do that?  I hope so).

Those of you who follow my blog know I often make my cards 2 at a time, with only slight variations.  That's what I did here.  I love to use Echo Park cardstock for my card bases as each side is a different color.  These cards are both made by the same piece of EP cardstock (Little Boy).  I used a Silhouette card file to get me started on the "elegant" look I was trying to achieve.

The stamps are from the Dec 2012 Unity Kit of the Month, colored with Copic markers. There's a piece of Bazzill Basics Vintage Marketplace 12x12 paper (Market Dots) and some Crate Paper Pretty Party 12x12 (Party Guest).  The butterflies are from Making Memories, the wood buttons are Close To My Heart, and the crinkle ribbons are from 3 Girl JAM.

That's it for today!  Please come back tomorrow.  I have a layout to share with you tomorrow.  An icy one.  After all, it's winter in Wisconsin!

Growing in Unity, day 2 -- Pinterest inspired

Thanks for stopping by today!  Make sure to leave a comment today, and each day this week.  One lucky person will win 2 Unity Itty Bitty stamps from Unity just for commenting.  How great is that?

Do you spend time on Pinterest?  Do you spend more time pinning than using what you've pinned?  I DO!  I was determined to make SOMETHING in 2013 that I actually pinned, so that's what I did with this card.  I'm going to show you the Pinterest version first:

I don't know why it looks so washed out!  It was prettier on the site I pinned it from (paperwishes.com).  Anyway, I purchased the Spellbinders Marvelous Squares and found this card using them, so I pinned it.

Here's my version of the card:

There's lots of diecutting on here, but not much stamping, but I still thought it would be a fun card to share.  The sentiment was part of a Unity grab bag (love them, they're so fun!).  Papers are Echo Park For the Record Tailored 6x6 pad. 


Thanks for visiting my blog today and please come back tomorrow!

Growing in Unity - day 1 with Phyllis Harris

I'm very excited to be the Growing In Unity girl this week!  I love Unity stamps, so any excuse to play with them is great!  I've got some projects I'm proud of to show you this week, so please visit my blog each day.  At the end of the week, one person will be randomly chosen to win two Itty Bitty stamps from Unity.

I have 3 Golden Retrievers in my house.  They are part of what makes it home, so I'm very partial to the Phyllis Harris stamps.  I use this one often, and showed a variation of this card at last Fridays FWF, so it may look familiar. It also uses a Susan K Weckesser stamp, A Little Grunge Love.

Supplies used:  Paper Crate Fourteen 6x6 paper, Unity stamp set, "Constant Companions" (Phyllis Harris), Unity stamp set "A Little Grunge Love" (Susan K. Weckesser), Copic markers, glitter pen, 3 Girl Jam holly berry ribbon, Spellbinders die, corner rounder.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  Come back tomorrow and everyday this week for more Unity goodness.