DRUMROLL, PLEASE...

Good Morning All, Let's get to it and announce the winner of a free Unity Stamp Set!!!  Using Mr. Random.org...the winner is....Victoria!!

Victoria said...

Super cute! I just got this stamp too!! Same reaction!! Love it and what you did to it!! Pain in the backside cuttingbout at top of suit!! Lol!! Great job! Sweet mistake rescue!! Love those!!

Please email me at diana0810@yahoo.com with your address and your choice of Unity Stamps from the following sets:

Sending My Love
Bitty Backgrounds
Little Me
Bella Fiori
Homegrown
Hugs & Kittens
Handmade Holiday
Bella Trees
Imagine It

Thanks to everyone that visited my blog this week.  Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Growing in Unity - Day 5

Happy Friday Everyone!  I can't believe this is my last day as the GIU Gal.  It really has been fun sharing Unity projects with all of you.  And let me not forget to say a BIG THANK YOU for all your wonderful comments.  It is soooo appreciated!


In celebration of Friday, I created a very festive card.and it wouldn't be complete without the blender and margarita stamp from Unity's Margarita Moments set. 

click picture to enlarge

The patterned paper, die cuts and twine are all from Pink Paislee's Soiree collection.  I stamped the blender and glasses on white cardstock, colored them with Copic markers and cut out.  I really liked making what I will refer to as an 'awning'.  It reminds me of the outside of a candy store.  All cardstock is from Bazzill.


Well, tata for now.  Remember to leave a comment for your chance to win one of the following Unity sets:


Sending My Love
Bitty Backgrounds
Little Me
Bella Fiori
Homegrown
Hugs & Kittens
Handmade Holiday
Bella Trees
Imagine It


I will announce the winner on my blog on Saturday morning.  Thanks again for stopping by.  It's been such a great week!

Growing in Unity - Day 4

Hello Everyone, thanks for joining me again.  Today's card uses a stamp from the first Unity set I bought.   I'm using the bicycle from the Be Mine set co-branded with Echo Park.  I know some of my fellow GIU gals have used this stamp in their posts.  That just goes to show you how versatile the stamp is.  I haven't used the other stamps in the set just yet, but I have some ideas rolling around in my head.

(click to enlarge)

This patterned paper is just so cute.  It's from Colorbok.  Those little bicycles are darling and I thought it was perfect with this stamp.   I stamped the bicycle on a label from October Afternoon and the sentiment on kraft paper.  I matted both the label and sentiment with a 3" cardstock circle, added a little red twine, attached the panel with foam tape and it's ready to go.

Thanks for sharing a bit of your day with me.  Remember to leave your comment to win a Unity set of your own.  See you tomorrow.

Growing in Unity - Day 3

Hello my crafty friends.  Happy Wednesday!  Here we are at Day 3 of our Unity week together.  My project today uses another one my favorite stamps.  It's from the Itty Bitty collection and is co-branded with Cosmo Cricket.  This little fish just made me smile and I thought I could use it for a lot of different occasions. 

(click to enlarge)

 I randomly stamped the image on watercolor paper using watermark ink and embossed with clear powder.  Then I took Ranger's Dye Inks in Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass and applied the inks with the felt applicator.  To kind of soften the look of the ink and to remove the ink from the stamped fish, I took an old t-shirt and rubbed the paper in a circular motion.  It just blended the colors together so well.  To mimic seaweed, I applied the ink with the side edge of the felt applicator.  When the panel was dry, I matted it with blue Bazzill cardstock and attached it to the card base.  For the fishes, I stamped them on white cardstock, embossed them and used Prismacolor pencils to color them.  I cut out the fishes and attached them with foam tape over 2 of the embossed images.  I attached a few rhinestones for bubbles and off they swam!


The sentment that also comes with the set says "If Love Was Water, I'd Give You the Sea".  Ok...now isn't that a great sentiment??  I actually stamped the sentiment on the inside of the card, and just remembered I totally forgot to take a picture for you.  Sorry about that.  This would make such a great anniversary card, right?  Or how about a 'Stay in School' card, huh?  Get it...'school of fish'....I know...I know.  :)


That's it for now.  Thanks so much for visiting.  Remember to leave that comment for your chance to win some Unity goodies!  Have a wonderful day.

Growing in Unity - Day 2

Hey Everyone, here we are again. 


When I first saw this stamp on the Unity website, I HAD to have it.  It's a little retro which really catches my eye lately.  And it's perfect for paper-piecing.  So here's my little creation...

(click to enlarge)

The Unity stamp is from the co-brand, Jillibean Soup.  The patterned paper is from Authentique-Blissful Collection which I just love,  Echo Park's Summer Days collection and Cosmo Cricket's Upcycle collection.  Cardstock is from Bazzill Basics.


I stamped the bathing suit on the card base as well as the patterned papers; embossed and cut out.  I layered the pieces and added a little bling to the flower.  Ok, I'm going to confess...I really struggled where to put the sentiment.  So I thought, I'll just stamp it next to the bathing suit.  Wait...it's textured paper...it won't stamp well...I'm going to give it a try.   Um, no, didn't work.  So, I stamped on the smooth backside of my cardstock and layered it over my little mistake.  Ok...all better.


Thanks for stopping by.  Remember to leave a comment to win a Unity Stamp set.  Have a great day!!!

Growing in Unity-Day 1

Hello, Hello!  Well, the beginning of another work week and another fun week of sharing some Unity love with all of you.  Remember to stop by each day and leave a comment to win a Unity stamp set all your own!


August 1st-hard to believe.  August makes me think of birthdays (we have a few in the family this month...including mine!), the beach, bike riding, and summery cold drinks.  I'll be using that inspiration this week with some of the projects I'll be posting.  So on with the show....this is a layout of my god-daughter's first birthday which we celebrated in March.  Isn't she a doll??!!   And that's my proud niece and Jayla's mom holding her.

(click to enlarge)

I used the pendants and the journaling stamp from the Welcome Baby set for this layout.  This set is so cute! I stamped both on patterned paper and trimmed.  The pendants were attached with foam dots.  And this was my first time making those accordion flowers.  I must say, I was really frustrated when I first tried making them--my craft room is full of the remmants of my attempts.  But I kept trying and finally success!  So onto the rest of the products I used...cardstock is from Bazzill Basics, the patterned paper is from Imaginisce and Echo Park, pink chipboard letters are from The Girls' Paperie, the crown, hearts and wand stickers are from Echo Park.

Thanks for visiting today.  Remember to leave a comment before you leave.  A winner will be announced on Saturday, August 6th from all the comments left this week.  You'll have a choice of the following Unity Sets:

Sending My Love

Bitty Backgrounds

Little me

Bella Fiori

Homegrown

Hugs & Kittens

Handmade Holiday

Bella Trees

Imagine It

Have a great day, everyone!

Winner! Winner!

Congrats to Isla who has won the Scrapbooks, Etc July/August 2011 issue and other fun stuff!!! 

Isla--please email your mailing address to me at diana0810@yahoo.com.

Thanks!!!

Giveaway! Giveaway!

Let's celebrate the beginning of the weekend with a giveaway!  I happened across an extra copy of Scrapbooks, Etc August 2011 magazine and I would love for one of my fellow scrapbookers or cardmakers to win it.  And because I just can't stop at a 'one-item' giveaway, I'm throwing in some other goodies like felt borders and inspiration cards from Melody Ross; chipboard die-cut shapes from K&Company; chipboard frames, cardstock stickers and clear stickers from Little Yellow Bicycle; decorative clips from 7 Gypsies; clear stamps from Studio G; lace dimensional stickers from Jolee's; large flower brads from Michael's; and finally, Perfect Pen Journaling Cards from Fancy Pants.  

Whew!!...so leave a comment by 9:00pm (PST) Saturday, July 30th and I will choose a lucky winner at random and announce the winner on my blog Sunday, July 31st.  Good luck and thanks so much for visiting.  :)

Another PC Gallery Idol Entry

Good Morning all, Hope you had a great 4th of July!  It was a quiet day here at the homestead.  Watched fireworks off the pier-so beautiful!
I was able to get one more entry into the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol Competition.  I thought it appropriate to create a card with a sentiment we would all love to hear.  I used a set of Sandylion clear stamps I bought at the Scrapbook Expo.  I took the stamps and created a collage on a large grid stamping block.  Then I stamped onto white cardstock with watermark ink and embossed with clear powder.  I then took Ranger's Distress Inks and dabbed the colors over the stamped images to give it a tie-dye look. 

Supplies Used:  Cardstock & bottom trim-Avalanche from Bazzill, Patterned Paper from Life of the Party by Basic Grey, clear stamps by Sandylion, various distress inks and embossing powder from Ranger, twine from May Arts.

Although the competition is closed, you can still see all the beautiful creations by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!!

PC-Gallery Idol 2011

Hey all--It's been a while since my last post.  My computer has been 'sick' with viruses......12 viruses in the last 6 weeks!  I've been able to put a band-aid on the problems for the time being and I am expecting a new laptop in the next week or two...so there is light at the end of the tunnel as they say.

Are you familiar with Paper Crafts Gallery Idol 2011 competition?  If not, it's an annual competition where there are 5 rounds.  The open audition consists of creating and posting a 'Congratulations' card.  The PC editors will choose 20 designers (out of over 1300 submissions at last count!) to move onto the next round.  For the remaining rounds, the PC gals will announce the theme of the next round and so on until one lucky designer is chosen as the Gallery Idol.  Paper Crafts is giving away some really fantastic prizes throughout the competition.  Sooooooo, I'm throwing my hat in the ring.  Below is my first creation. 



Supplies used:  Cardstock-kraft from Bazzill,
Patterned paper from K & Co. & October Afternoon,
Specialty Paper from The Paper Co. (mirror paper),
Embellishments from October Afternoon & Joanns.

 This is suppose to be a clipboard sitting on a desk.  I drew the 'clip' part of the clipboard freehand and added eyelets-I think it turned out pretty good! :)  I printed the sentiment on scratch paper and held it in place with a paper clip, twine and a badge.  This really was a fun card to put together.

I encourage everyone to participate -- you can't win if you don't try. (click here for the details) So, I'm off to make another Congrats card to submit.  I'm going to try and stop at 2 cards, but who knows!

Thanks for stopping by.  Leave a comment if you are so inclined-I love to hear from you!

A Quick Mom's Day Gift

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!  Time was not on my side this week and I was really short on time to put something together for my mom.  I knew I wanted to make her a notecard set, so I pondered what I could put together rather quickly.  Here's what I came up with...

Supplies used:  Butterfly stamp-Hero Arts, Copic Markers, Black Pen-Sakura, various glitter glues-Ranger, Black Pigment Ink-Colorbox

My mom loves butterflies and loves to send little cards, so....perfect fit!  I tied these together with a ribbon and included them in a little bag of goodies I put together for her. 

So, ladies, enjoy your special day.  You certainly deserve it.  Thanks for stopping by...

How Many Flowers - The Results!

First off, thank you all for participating in this little guessing game.  Now on to the results....

The number of flowers in the jar was 323.  And I don't know how she did it but Cathy guessed 322!!!  So, Cathy, you are the winner!!!  Congrats!

Please email your name and address to me at diana0810@yahoo.com.  I'll send out your magazine right away. 

Thanks again to all who participated.  Have a great day.

Guess How Many & Win!

Hello fellow paper crafters!  I am fortunate enough to have an extra copy of the latest & greatest May/June edition of Paper Crafts magazine.  I would LOVE to pay it forward and send it to one of you for FREE.  Just guess how many Prima flowers are in this glass jar.....

The jar measures 7" tall by 4 1/4" on each side.  

Just post a comment below with your guess and check back here tomorrow (4/20/11) at 10:00am PST and I will announce the winner.  The person coming the closest without going over will win.  (In the event more than one person posts the correct guess, the first post will win).

Thanks for visiting my blog and good luck to all!!

It's a 'Good' Monday!

Well, to begin my Monday morning, I checked Facebook for my daily dose of what's going on and I spied a post by Paper Crafts that the winners of the Color Inspiration Challenge #3 were announced.  Wait for it.............yes!!!  I won!  This was the first time I've won a challenge.  I really am so excited and honored.
To see the post and my fellow winners, click here.

The second positive thing that happened was I picked up my new glasses.  Now, I know that new glasses are not the biggest thing in the world, but it had been 4 years since I had new glasses.  It's one of those things that I put on my 'To Do' list and just kept postponing it. 

I can see clearly now............

In My Beautiful Balloon-Moxie Fab Challenge

Hot air balloon prints are all the rage right now.  And it's easy to see why.  They evoke a feeling of being free; getting away from it all.  And we all need a little of that right now, huh?  When I saw this patterned paper, I thought 'it is a little on the dark side'.  But there was something mysterious about the look of this pattern and I loved that.  I fussy-cut one of the balloon images and layered it over the same image using foam tape and added rhinestones.  The button reminds me of the era and the intricacies of the balloon itself.  You can tell I put alot of thought into this :)  Anyway, here is my entry for the challenge.....

Supplies used: seafoam cardstock from The Paper Co., patterned paper from Graphic 45, ribbon from Michaels, button from BoBunny, rhinestones from Michaels and border punch from EK Success.

Enjoy your Saturday everyone and thanks for stopping by.

I'm mentioned on a blog!!

Well, Happy Friday everyone!  What a long week it's been.  It's suppose to rain here this weekend, although you would never know it by looking out the window.  The sun is shining and it's just beautiful.  I must confess that I would not mind a few showers; it's the perfect excuse for me to stay indoors and play with all my crafting goodies I've bought over the last few days.  With all the manufacturers coming out with such beautiful papers, embellishments, flowers, stamps, I just can't resist!
One of my favorite scrapbook stores is Paper Tales located here in San Diego.  It's a smaller store, but it is PACKED with all kinds of trinkets, ribbons, markers, paper, buttons...you name it!  Plus, the staff is just Super!  I visited the store a couple of weeks ago and they were kind enough to take my picture with my first cover.  And to my surprise, they posted it on their blog!  How cool is that?!  I am truly flattered.  Here's a link to their blog.  Just scroll down a bit and you'll see my face. :)
http://papertales.typepad.com/paper_tales/page/3/

If you're ever in the San Diego area, stop in to the store.  I promise you will love it as much as I do!

Until next time..................

It's Rejection Day!!!!

Well, the happy emails were all sent out for the Sept/Oct issue of Paper Crafts and unfortunately, I didn't make it in this one.  :(  But Ms. Amber is at it again with the Rejection Blog Hop.  (She had 2 projects picked up for the issue...so Yea! Amber!!).  It really is fun to share those projects that don't get picked up for publication.  So thank you Amber for giving us an outlet to drown our sorrows and share the projects we all work so hard on.  Here is one of favs. 

Supplies:  Bazzill cardstock, We R Memory Keepers patterned paper, letter stickers from American Crafts, googly eyes from Westrim Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by!!  Have a great day and Happy St. Pat's Day!

It's Happy Email Day!

If you're a paper-crafter, you may know what "Happy Email Day" is.  For those not in-the-know, it's the day you MAY receive an email from Paper Crafts Mag telling you that your card submission has been accepted for publication.  Now... I am very happy to say that I did receive one of those much anticipated emails and my card will be appearing in Go-to-Sketches for Cardmakers in August 2011.  Over 2700 cards were submitted for this call and only 288 spots to fill, so if you do the math, you know there are some lonely cards sitting in boxes somewhere waiting to go to good homes.  Well, one of my fellow crafters (Laura Pryor) came up with the idea to start a "Reject Blog Hop" and another fellow crafter put the plan into action--thank you Amber!  Here's Amber's blog to take a look at the really wonderful "rejects" .http://damasklove.blogspot.com/2011/03/rejection-is-sincerest-form-of.html?showComment=1299296810303#c4683035893203733756  So, it is my pleasure to introduce my contribution to the Reject Blog Hop.

Sketch #31

So, for now, this will be placed in my card bin waiting to find a home of it's own.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I can't let this day go by without posting a Valentine's Day card.  I made this one for my husband.  My original intention was to make and send cards to family and friends, but time just got away from me....so what else is new??!!  Anyway, here is my card and Happy Valentine's Day.  I hope your day is filled with hugs, kisses and of course, love.

Supplies used:  Patterned paper by Heidi Grace, ribbon from Michaels, sentiment from SRM stickers, dimensional glaze by Ranger, circle and scalloped circle punches by Marvy.

Yes...Another Moxie Challenge-Metallics Color Combo

Here is my final entry in the color challenge from Moxie Fab World.  This color combo just called for an elegant card and to me that means a wedding!!

I used origami paper for the first time with this card.  I saw the cherry blossom print at my LSS and fell in love with it.  It is thin and a little delicate.  I did try to use a border punch on this paper and because it's so thin, it jammed up my punch like crazy!  Needless to say, my border has a straight edge.  :)

(Supplies used:  Gold Leaf Metallic, Pinkini and Satin Wedding White cardstock from Bazzill, origami paper, clear stamp sentiment from Michaels, gold pigment ink from Colorbox, Gold Tinsel embossing powder, pink pearls from Queen & Co., white organza ribbon from Joanns, labels from Provo Craft, and pearl heart pins from Maya Road).



Another Moxie Fab Color Challenge-Monochromatics

Here's another entry to the Moxie Fab Color Challenge.  This one is the monochromatic color combo.  And how perfect for me; pink is my favorite color so this one spoke to me.  For this card, I really 'blinged' it up!!  I didn't have just the right embelllishment for the ribbon so I just made my own with a big top brad, a pink pearl and some rhinestones. 

(Supplies used:  Bubblegum, Precious and Pinkini cardstock from Bazzill, rhinestones from Michaels, pink marker from Copic, pink pearl from Queen & Co., pink ribbon from Michaels, brad from Making Memories, sentiment from Hampton Arts, Orchid Pigment Ink from Colorbox).
Join the fun...http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2011/01/color-inspiration-for-card-makers-week_14.html

Color Challenge-Moxie Fab-Jewel Tones

Yes, it's been awhile since I've updated my blog.  Just a lot going on.  However, I did have to find some time to participate in the Moxie Fab Color Challenge.  And Paper Craft's Color Inspiration mag provided some great inspiration!!  Here is the first of 3 color combos...

I picked up a new stamp and thought it the perfect one to use with this combo.  The sun rising over the ocean...aaahhh.

(Supplies used:  Bazzill's Sugar Cookie, Blue Calypso, Pansy and Sunshine cardstock, sentiment from Hampton Arts, Violet Ink from Color Box, Violet embossing powder from Joanns, glitter from Stampendous, rhinestones from Michaels and finally, my Cuttlebug for the Swiss Dots embossing.
Join in the fun.  Finally day to enter is today!!  Check out the Moxie Fab blog. http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2011/01/color-inspiration-for-card-makers-week_12.html